382 DIRECTIONS AND PERSUASIONS together ? Why, that is an impossibility ; you may as well expect that he should turn the sun into dark- ness. What ! an unsanctified heart to be in heaven ! It cannot be : There nothing entereth that is unclean. All the day long hath he stretched out his hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people. What will you do now ? Will you cry to God for mercy ? Why, God calls upon you to have mercy upon yourselves, and you will not. Ministers see the poisoned cup in the drunkard's hands, and tell him, There is poison in it, and desire him to have mercy on his soul, and forbear; and he will not hear us : drink it he must and will, he loves it : and therefore, though hell comes next, he says he cannot help it. What should one say to such men as these? We tell the ungedly, "It is not such a life that will serve the turn, or ever bring you to heaven. If a bear was at your hack, you would mend your pace; and when the curse of God is at your back, and Satan and hell are at your back, will you not stir, but ask, what needs all this ado? Is an immortal soul of no more worth ? O have mercy upon yourselves !" But they will have no mercy on themselves. We tell them, the end will be bitter "Who can dwell with everlasting fire ?" And yet they will have no mercy upon themselves. And will these shameless wretches say, that God is more mer- ciful then to condemn them, when it is themselves that cruelly run upon condemnation, and we cannot stop them ? If we fall down on our knees to them we cannot stop them : but to hell they will go, and yet will not believe that they are going thither. If we beg of them, for the sake of God that made them, and preserves them ; for the sake of Christ who died for them; for the sake of their own poor souls, to pity themselves, and to go no further in the way to hell, hut come to Christ while his arms are Open, and enter' into the state of life while the door stands open, and now take mercy, while mercy may be had; they will not he persuaded. And yet they say, I hope God Will be merciful. Did you never consider what he says, It is a people of no understanding: therefòre he
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