400 DIRECTIONS AND PERSUASIONS and mind them, and seek them, till there be no reme- dy, and you are as it were driven to it against your will? Is the world such an inheritance, and sin so good a thing, and the flesh or devil so good a master, that you will not leave them till you are whipt away? What a shameful unreasonable course is this ! Well, sirs, the case is plain before you. Turn you must at one time or other, or be the fire brands of hell. And seeing it is a thing that must be done, were it not best for you to take the easiest and the surest way to do it; even to strike when the iron is hot, before it cool again ; and to go through with it when God doth move you and persuade you. If you love your flesh itself, do not put him to take up the rod, and fetch you home by stripes and terrors. But that is not the worst : for it will sorely hazard the work itself, and consequently your salvation, if you do not go through with it at the first attempt. I know there is many a one that bath been converted and saved after many purposes, and promises, and half - conversions. But yet I must tell you, that this is a very dangerous course. For you do not know, when you grieve that Spirit of grace, and set so light by mercy when it is offered you, whether that Spirit may not utterly forsake you, and leave you to your own ungodly wills, and let you take your lusts and pleasures, and say, Let this wretch be filthy still : Let him keep his drunkenness, his companions, his world- liness, and the curse of God with them, till he have tried what it is that they will do for him : Let him follow his own conceits, and the pride and obstinacy of his own heart, till he find whither they will bring him Let him serve the flesh and the world, till he under- stand whether God or they be the better master. See- ing he will not be wise on earth, let him learn in hell ; and let torments teach him, seeing mercy might not teach him. O poor soul! what a case art thou in, if this should once be the resolution of God ! Moreover, you may easily know that the longer you. stay, the more leisure you give the devil to assault you
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=