360 DIRECTIONS AND PERSUASIONS thou mayest be welcome if thou wilt come. And yet art thou not ready ? A pardon is already expressly granted, and offered thee in the gospel. And yet thou art not ready? The ministers of the gospel are ready to assist thee, to instruct thee, and pronounce peace to thy soul;, they are ready to pray for thee, and to seal thy pardon by the administration of the holy sacrament. And vet art thou not ready ? Yea, heaven itself is ready i the Lord will receive thee into the glory of the saints, as vile a beast as thou hast been, if thou wilt be but cleansed : thou mayest have a place before his throne, his angels will be ready to guard thy soul to the place of joy, if thou do but unfeignedly come in. And is God ready, the sacri- fice of Christ ready, and pardon ready ? Are minis- ters ready, and heaven itself ready, and angels ready, and all these waiting for thy conversion ; and yet art thou not ready? What ! not ready to live, when thou hast been dead so long? Not ready to come to thy right understanding, when thou hast been beside thy- self so long? Art thou not ready to lay hold on Christ, who would deliver thee, when thou art even ready to drown, and sink into damnation ? Art thou not ready to be saved from hell, when thou art ready to be cast into it ? Alas, man ! dost thou not know what thou doest ? If thou die unconverted, there is no doubt to be made of thy damnation ; and thou art not sure to live an hour : and yet thou art not ready to turn, and to come in? O miserable wretch ! hast thou not served the flesh and the devil long enough ? I-last thou not yet enough of sin ? Is it so good to thee, or so profitable for thee ? Dost thou know what it is, that thou wouldst yet have more of it? Hast thou had so many calls, and so many mercies, and so many blows, and so many examples ; hast thou seen so many laid in the grave ; and yet art thou not ready to let go thy sins, and come to Christ? What ! after so many convictions and gripes of con - science, after so many purposes and promises, art
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