A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live,

And accept of MERCY, while MERCY may be had;
as ever they will find MERCY, in the Day of their EXTREMITY
from the Living God.

Part 1

by Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

"Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.  Turn, Turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel ."  Ezekiel 33:11

 

Table of Contents

A Short Account About the Author

Preface by the Author

Sermon 1: The Certainty of Judgment Apart from Repentance

Sermon 2: The Earnestness of God's Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 3:  God’s Condescension in His Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 4:  Man’s Willfulness in His Own Damnation

 

Sermon 4
Man’s Willfulness in His Own Damnation

Ezekiel 33:11.  "Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’"

I HAVE now shown you the reasonableness of God’s commands, and the unreasonableness of wicked man’s disobedience. If nothing will serve their turn, but people will still refuse to turn, we will next consider who is to blame if they are damned. This brings me to the last doctrine; which is,

Doct. 7. That if, after all, these souls will not turn, it is not God's fault that they are condemned, but their own.  They die because they will die, that is, because they will not turn.

If you will go to hell, what remedy? God here acquits Himself of your blood; it will not lie on Him if you are lost. A negligent minister may incur some blame on himself; and those that encourage you, or hinder you not in sin, may bring some on themselves; but be sure of it, it shall not lie upon God.  The Lord says, concerning His unprofitable vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-4, "Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.  What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it?" When he had planted it in a fruitful soil, and fenced it, and gathered out the stones, and planted it with the choicest vines” what should he have done more to it? He has made you a human soul, and endowed you with reason; He has furnished you with all external necessities, He has given you a righteous perfect law.  When you had broken it, and undone yourselves, He had pity on you, and sent His Son by a miracle of condescending mercy to die for you, and be a sacrifice for your sins, and thus He “was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”  The Lord Jesus made you a deed to the gift of Himself, and eternal life with Him, on the condition you would merely but receive it and return.

He has, on this reasonable condition, offered you the free pardon of all your sins; He has written this in His word, and sealed it by His Spirit, and sent it by His ministers; they have often made the offer to you and called you to accept it, and to turn to God. They have in His name pleaded with you, and reasoned the case with you, and answered all your frivolous objections. He has long and patiently waited on you and allowed you to abuse Him to His face. He has mercifully sustained you in the midst of your sins; he has surrounded you with all sorts of mercies. He has also sent afflictions to remind you of your folly, and call you to your wits; and His Spirit has been often striving with your hearts, and saying within them, “Turn, sinner, turn to Him who calls you.  Where are you going? What are you doing? Do you know what will be the consequences? How long will you hate your friends, and love your enemies? When will you let go of all, and turn, and deliver yourself to God, and give your Redeemer the possession of your soul? When shall it finally be?”

These pleadings have been used with you, and when you have delayed, you have been urged to not delay, for God has called to you, “While it is called today, do not harden your heart" (Hebrews 3:13-15). Why not now without any more delay?” Life has been set before you, the joys of heaven have been opened to you in the gospel; the certainty of them has been shown to you, and the certainty of the everlasting torments of the damned have been declared to you. Unless you had been shown a sight of heaven and hell, what more could you ask? Christ has been, as it were, "set forth crucified before your eyes" (Galatians 3:1).  You have been told a hundred times that you are nothing but lost souls until you come to Him.  And just as often you have been told of the evil of sin, of the vanity of the world, and all the pleasures and wealth it can afford, of the shortness and uncertainty of your lives, and of the endless duration of either the joy or torment of the life to come. All this and more you have been told, and told again, until you were weary of hearing it, and even made light of it because you had so often heard it.  You have been like the blacksmith's dog, that is so accustomed to sleep under the noise of the hammers and see the sparks flying about his ears that he barely notices.  And you, though all this has not converted you, yet still you are alive, and might have mercy to this day, if you only had the heart to consider it. And, now let reason itself be the judge, whether it is the fault of God or you, if after this you will be unconverted and be damned? If you die now, it is because you will die.

What more should be said to you?  What course should be taken that is more likely to prevail with you? Are you able to say, in all honesty, “I wanted to have been converted, and become new a creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), but I could not; I wanted to have forsaken my sins, but could not; I wanted to change my company, and my thoughts, and my discourse, but I could not.”  Why could you not, if you wanted to? What hindered you, but the wickedness of your own heart? Who forced you to sin, or who held you back from duty?  Did you not have the same teaching, and time, and liberty to be godly, as your godly acquaintances had? Why then could you not have been godly as well as they? Were the church-doors shut against you, or did you keep yourself away, or sit there and sleep, and hear as if you did not hear? Did God put in any exceptions against you in His Word, when He invited sinners to turn, and when He promised mercy to those that do turn? Did He say, “I will pardon all who repent except you?” Did He shut you out from the liberty of His holy worship? Did He forbid you to pray to Him any more than He did others? You know He did not.

God did not drive you away from Him, but you forsook Him, and ran away yourself. And when He called you to Him, you would not come.  If God had excluded you from His general promise and offer of mercy, or had said to you, “Stand off! I will have nothing to do with one such as you; do not pray not to me, for I will not hear you, no matter how much you repent and cry for mercy,” you would have some case against Him.  If God had left you nothing to trust in but desperation, then you would have had a fair excuse. You might have said, “To what purpose do I repent and turn, when it will do no good?” But this was not your case. You might have had Christ to be your Lord and Savior as well as others, but you would not, because you did not feel yourself sick enough for the Physician, and because you would not give up your disease.  In your heart you said, as those rebels in Luke 19:14, “We will not have this man to reign over us.”  Christ would have gathered you under the wings of his salvation, "but you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37). 

What desire for your welfare did the Lord express in His holy word! With what compassion did He stand over you, and say, "Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That they would walk in My ways!" (Psalm 81:13).  "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" (Deuteronomy 5:29).  "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deuteronomy 32:29). He would have been your God, and done all for you that your souls could well desire; but you loved the world and your flesh above Him, and therefore you would not hearken to Him.  Though you complimented Him, and gave Him high titles; yet, when it came to the closing, “you would have nothing of him” (Psalm 81:11-12).  No marvel, then, if He gave you up to your own lusts, and you walked in your own counsels. 

Now, He condescends to reason, and pleads the case with you, and asks you, “What is there in me or my service, that you would be so much against me? What harm have I done you, sinner? Have I deserved this unkind dealing from you? Many mercies I have shown you; for which of them do you thus despise me?  Is it I or is it Satan who is your enemy? Is it I or is it your carnal self that wants to destroy you? Is it a holy life, or a life of sin that you have good cause to flee from? If you are undone, you bring this on yourself, by forsaking me, the Lord, who would have saved you.  "Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you"  (Jeremiah 2:19); "What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?" (Jeremiah 2:5-6).

He calls out, as it were, to the lower creation, to hear the controversy he has against you. "Hear, O you mountains, the LORD’S complaint, And you strong foundations of the earth; For the LORD has a complaint against His people, And He will contend with Israel.  O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me.  For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you" (Micah 6:3-5).  "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.  Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers" (Isaiah 1:2-4).  “Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?” (Deuteronomy 32:6). When he saw that you forsook Him for nothing, and turned away from your Lord and life, to hunt after the chaff and feathers of the world, He told you of your folly, and called you to a more profitable employment:  "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.  Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David…Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-7).  And, when you would not hear, how solemn the complaints He brought against you, charging you with willfulness and stubbournness:  “Be astonished: O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid!—For, my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). 

How often He has proclaimed that free invitation to you! "Let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17).  But you force Him to lament after all His offers, “They will not come to me, that they may have life” (John 5:40).  He has invited you to feast with Him in the kingdom of His grace, and you have made excuses on account of your lands, your cattle, and your worldly business; and when you would not come, you have said you could not; and consequently, you provoked him to resolve that you should never taste of his supper (Luke 14:15,24).  And who is to blame now but yourselves?  What can we say is the chief cause of your damnation, but your own wills? You will be damned. The whole case is laid open by Christ himself in Proverbs chapter 1, verses 20th to the end:

Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares.  She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words:  "How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.  Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.  Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.  Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD.  They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.  Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.  For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil."

I thought best to recite the whole text at large to you, because it so fully shows the cause of the destruction of the wicked. It is not because God would not teach them, but because they would not learn. It is not because God would not call them, but because they would not turn at His reproof. Their willfulness is their undoing.

Application

From what has been said, you may further learn these following things:

1. From this you may see not only what blasphemy and impiety it is to lay the blame of man’s destruction upon God, but also how unfit these wicked wretches are to bring in such a charge against their Maker. They cry out upon God, and say He does not give them grace, and His threatenings are severe, and God forbid that all who are not converted and sanctified should be damned! They think it is harsh punishment for a short sin to have an endless suffering; and if they are damned they say they cannot help it. In the mean time, they are busy working out their own destruction, even cutting the throat of their own souls, and will not be persuaded to stop their hands. They think God would be cruel to damn them, and yet they are so cruel to themselves that they will run into the fires of hell.  Even when God has told them it is soon before them, neither entreaties, nor threatenings, nor anything that can be said will stop them. We see them almost undone; their careless, worldly, fleshly lives tell us they are in the power of the devil; and we know if they die before they are converted, all the world cannot save them.  Indeed, knowing the uncertainty of their lives, we are afraid every day lest they drop into the fire. And therefore, we plead with them to at least pity their own souls, and not to undo themselves when mercy is at hand, and still they will not hear us. We beg them to cast away their sin and come to Christ without delay, and to have some mercy on themselves, but they will have none of it. And yet they think that God must be cruel if he condemns them.

O willful, miserable sinners! It is not God who is cruel to you; it is you who are cruel to yourselves. You are told that you must turn or burn, yet you do not turn. You are told that if you insist on keeping your sins, you shall keep the curse of God with them, and yet you choose to keep them. You are told that there is no way to happiness but by holiness; and yet you will not be holy. What more would you have God say to you? What would you have Him do with his mercy? He offers it to you, and you will not have it. You are in the ditch of sin and misery, and He wants to give you His hand to help you out, but you refuse His help.  He would cleanse you of your sins, and you would rather keep them. You love your lust, and your gluttony, and sports, and drunkenness, and will not let them go. Would you have Him bring you to heaven whether you are willing or not?

Or would you have Him bring you and your sins to heaven together? Why, that is an impossibility – you may as well expect Him to turn the sun into darkness. What?  An unsanctified, fleshly heart to be in heaven! It cannot be, "for there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles" (Revelation 21:27); for "what communion has light with darkness?  And what accord has Christ with Belial?" (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).  "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people" (Romans 10:21). 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 hand, and tell him there is poison in it, and desire him to have mercy on his soul and hold back His judgment, and yet the drunkard will not hear: drink it he must and will; he loves it; and therefore, though hell come next, he says he cannot help it. What should one say to such people as these?

We tell the careless, ungodly worldling that it is not such a life that will ever bring you to heaven. If a bear were at your back, you would change 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 only ask, "What is all this fuss about religion?"  Is an immortal soul of no more worth? Oh! Have mercy upon yourselves! But they will have no mercy on themselves, nor once regard us. We tell them the end will be bitter, for "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings" (Isaiah 33:14)? And yet they will have no mercy on themselves. And yet will these poor wretches say that God is too merciful to condemn them, when it is they who cruelly and unmercifully condemn themselves; and if we should go to them, and plead with them, we cannot stop them. If we should fall on our knees to them, we cannot stop them; but to hell they will go, and yet will not believe they are going there. If we beg of them for the sake of God who 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 go no farther on the way to hell, but rather come to Christ while his arms are open, and enter into the way of life while the door stands open, and take mercy now while mercy may be had; they will not be persuaded.
If we should die for it, we cannot so much as get them even now and then to consider the matter within themselves, and turn. And yet they can say, “I hope God will be merciful.” Did you never consider what he says in Isaiah 27:11: "It is a people of no understanding; Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them, And He who formed them will show them no favor"? If another person will not clothe you when you are naked, and feed you when you are hungry, you will say he is unmerciful. If he should cast you into prison, or beat and torment you, you would say he is unmerciful. And yet you will do a thousand times more against yourselves, even cast away both soul and body for ever, and never complain of your own unmercifulness! And to make matters worse, God, who waited on you all the while with His mercy, must be taken to be unmerciful, if He punishes you after all this!  Indeed, it seems that unless the Holy God of heaven will give these wretches the ability to trample upon his Son’s blood, and, as the Jews of old, to spit again in his face, and to have spite against the spirit of grace, and to make a joke of sin and a mock at holiness, and then after all this save them by the mercy which they cast away, God Himself must be called unmerciful by them!  But the Scriptures say He will be justified when he judges, and He will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm. 

I know there are many particular objections that are brought by these people against the Lord, but I will not here answer them all now, having done it already in my Treatise of Judgment, to which I shall refer them. Suffice it to say that if the disputing part of the world had been as careful to avoid sin and destruction as they have been to find ways to blame them on God, they might have exercised their wits more profitably, and have less wronged God, and better served themselves. When so ugly a monster as sin is within us, and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us, and so dreadful a thing as hell is before us, one would think it an easy question as to to who is at fault, whether God or man.  Some people are such favorable judges of themselves, that they find it easier to accuse the Infinite Perfection and Goodness Himself than their own hearts, and as such they imitate their first parents who said, “The serpent tempted me, and the woman whom you gave me gave to me, and I ate” — secretly implying that God was the cause. Thus they are saying, “the understanding that you gave me was unable to discern; the will that you gave me was unable to make a better choice; the objects which you set before me enticed me; the temptation which you permitted to assault me prevailed against me.”

Some do not like to think God can make a self-determinate creature, and so they dare not deny Him His prerogative to be the determiner of the will in every sin; and many such people could excuse God from being the cause of evil if they could only reconcile it with His being the chief cause of good.  It is as if truths are only truths if we are able to see them in their perfect order and coherence, but because our tangled wits cannot see them properly together, or assign each truth its proper place, we conclude that some must be cast away! This is presumption, and is the fruit of proud self-conceitedness, when man will not obey God’s truth in a holy submission to the omniscience of our Teacher, but only as judges who are too wise to learn.  But let us consider some objections that are made along these lines:

Objection.  But we cannot convert ourselves until God converts us, for we can do nothing without His grace:  "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Romans 9:16).

Answer.  God has two degrees of mercy to show: the mercy of conversion first, and the mercy of salvation last.  The latter He will give to no one but those who do "will" and "run," and He has promised it to them only. Thus, conversion is to make willing those who are unwilling; and though your own willingness and endeavors do not deserve His grace, yet your willful refusal deserves that it should be denied to you. Your disability is your very unwillingness itself, which does not excuse your sin, but makes it greater. You could turn if you were but truly willing; and, if your wills themselves are so corrupted that nothing but effectual grace will move them, you have the more cause to seek for that grace and yield to it, and use the means God has provided to encourage you to seek conversion, and not neglect it or set yourself against it. Do what you are able first, and then complain to God for denying you grace, if you have a reason left to stand on.

Objection.  But you seem to imply throughout this message that man has free will.

Answer.  The dispute about free will is beyond your capacity; therefore, I will trouble you with no more about it except to say this: Your will is naturally free, that is, it is a self-determining faculty, but it is viciously inclined, and opposed to doing good.  Therefore we see, by sad experience, that it does not have a virtuous moral freedom, and that it is the wickedness of it which deserves the punishment. And I ask you to let us not fool ourselves with opinions; let the case be your own. If you had an enemy so malicious that he fell upon you, and beat you every time he met you, and took away the lives of your children, would you excuse him because he said, “I do not have a free-will; it is my nature, and I cannot choose unless God gives me grace”?  If you have an employee who robs you, will you take such an answer from him? Might not every thief and murderer, who is brought before the law, give such an answer? “I have no free will; I cannot change my own heart! What can I do without God’s grace?” And will they therefore be acquitted with such a defense?  If not, why then do you think you will be acquitted for a course of sin against the Lord?

2. From this also you may observe these three things together: (1) What a subtle tempter Satan is;  (2) What a deceitful thing sin is; and (3) What a foolish creature corrupted man is.  A subtle tempter is Satan indeed, who can persuade the greater part of the world to go willfully into everlasting fire when they have as many warnings as they have. A deceitful thing is sin indeed, that can bewitch so many thousands to part with everlasting life, for a thing so base and utterly unworthy! A foolish creature is man indeed, who will allow himself to be cheated of his salvation for nothing, in fact for a known nothing, and that by an enemy, even a known enemy! You would think it impossible that any man in his wits would be persuaded, for a trifle, to cast himself into the fire, or water, or into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his life; and yet people will be enticed to cast themselves into hell. If your natural lives were in your own hands, so that you would not die until you kill yourselves, how long would most of you live? And yet, when your everlasting life is so far in your own hands, under God, so that you cannot be undone until you undo yourselves, how few of you will prevent your own undoing? Ah! what a silly thing is man! And what a bewitching and befooling thing is sin!

3. From these things we may learn that it is no great wonder if the wicked are hinderers of others on the way to heaven, and seek to draw others into sin and keep them in it, and to have as many unconverted as they can! Can you expect that they who have no mercy upon themselves, would have mercy on others?  Or that those who are not troubled by destroying themselves would be troubled at the destruction of others? Indeed, they do no worse by others than they do by themselves.

4. Lastly, we have learned that the greatest enemy to man is himself, and that the greatest judgment in this life that can befall him is to be left to himself;  Thus, the great work that grace has to do is to save us from ourselves.  Likewise, the greatest accusations and complaints of men should be against themselves; the greatest work we ourselves have to do is to resist ourselves; and the greatest enemy that we should daily pray about, and watch and strive against, is our own carnal hearts and wills.  Therefore, the greatest part of your work, if you will do good to others and help them to heaven, is to save them from themselves, even from their blind understandings, corrupted wills, perverse affections, violent passions, and unruly senses. I only name all these for brevity sake; and leave them to your further consideration.

Concluding Thoughts

WELL, friends, now that we have much evidence that the great murderer of man's souls is himself, even his own will, what remains but that you judge according to the evidence, and confess this great iniquity before the Lord, and be humbled for it, and do so no more?  I will conclude with a few more thoughts in order (1) to further to convince you; (2) to humble you; and (3) to reform you, if there still remains any hope.

First, I will add a few more words which I hope will convince you of my arguments.

1. We know so much of the wonderful gracious nature or God, who is so willing to do good, and delights to show mercy, that we have no reason to call Him cruel or to suspect Him of being at fault for our death.  He has made all good, and He preserves and maintains everything.  The eyes of all things wait upon Him, and He provides for all their needs in due season.  He opens His hand, and satisfies the desires of all the living, Psalm 145:15-16.  He is not only “righteous in all His ways" (and therefore will deal justly) and "holy in all His works" (and therefore not the author of sin) but He is "good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9). 

But as for man, we know his mind is dark, his will perverse, his affections carry him so much in the direction of hell, that he is fitted by his folly and corruption for even such a terrible work as the destruction of himself. If you saw a lamb lying dead in the way, would you sooner suspect the sheep, or the wolf to be the author of it, if each one stands nearby? Or, if you see a house broken into, and the people murdered, would you sooner suspect a judge or an officer of the law, who is wise and just and had no need to do such a thing; or a known thief or murderer? I say therefore with James, “Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:13-15).  You see here that sin is the offspring of your own lust, and God is not to be made the Father of it; and that death is the offspring of your own sin, and the fruit which it will yield to you as soon as it is ripe. You have a treasure of evil in yourselves, as a spider has of poison, and from it you are bringing forth hurt to yourselves, and spinning such webs as to entangle your own souls.

2. It is evident that you are your own destroyers, in that you are so ready to entertain almost any temptation that is offered you. Satan is always ready move you to any evil, and you are always ready to hear and to do as he would have you. If he would tempt your understanding to error and prejudice, you yield. If he would hinder you from good resolutions, it is soon done. If he would cool any good desires or affections, it is as good as done. If he would kindle any lust or vile affections in you, it is soon done. If he will put you on to evil thoughts, or deeds, he needs not a rod or spur to accomplish it. If he would keep you from holy thoughts, words and ways, you need little encouragement to obey him. You rarely examine his suggestions, or resist them with any resolution, or cast them out as he casts them in, or quench the sparks which he endeavors to kindle; but you set in with him, and meet him half-way, and embrace his notions, and tempt him to tempt you. And it is so easy for him to catch such greedy fish that are ranging for a bait, that he needs little more than a bare hook.

3. It is also evident that you are your own destroyers in that you resist all who would help to save you and do you good, or hinder you from undoing yourselves. God would help and save you by His word, but you resist it because it is too strict for you. He would sanctify you by His Spirit, yet you resist and quench it. If anyone reproves you for your sin, you fly in his face with evil words; and if he tries to tell you of your present danger and draw you to a holy life, you give him little thanks, but tell him to mind his own business, and will not turn when you are persuaded. If ministers offer to privately instruct and help you, you will not come to them, for your un-humbled souls feel little need of their help; if they would train you in the doctrines of the faith, you consider yourselves too old, though you are not too old to be ignorant and unholy. Whatever they can say to you for your own good, you are so conceited and wise in your own eyes, even in the depth of ignorance, that you will regard nothing that does not agree with your present opinions, but you will contradict your teachers, as if you were wiser than they.  You resist all they can say to you, by your ignorance, unwilfulness, and foolish arguments, and shifting evasions, and unthankful rejections, so that no good that is offered can find any welcome acceptance with you.

4. Furthermore, it is evident that you are self-destroyers in that you manage to blame your sin and destruction even on the blessed God himself. You don't like His justice, but take it for cruelty; you don't like His holiness, but are ready to think He is like yourselves; you don't like His truth, but would try to prove His threatnings to be false. His goodness, which your words seem most highly to approve, not only do you resist, lest it lead you to repentance, but you abuse even to the strengthening of your sin, as if you might sin freely because God is merciful, and because His grace so much abounds.

5.  Alas, you seek destruction from the blessed Redeemer, and death from the Lord of life Himself! And nothing more emboldens you in sin than the belief that Christ has died for you, as if now the danger of death were over, and you can boldly venture forth in it as if Christ were servant to Satan and your sins, and must wait upon you while you are abusing Him.  And because He has become the physician of man's souls, and is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him, you think He must allow you to refuse His help, and throw away His medicines, and that He must save you whether you will come to God by him or not. By this thinking, a great part of your sins are occasioned by your bold presumption upon the death of Christ; not considering that He came to redeem his people from their sins, and to sanctify them a peculiar people to Himself, and to confirm them in holiness to the image of their heavenly Father, and to their living Head (Matthew 1:21; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:15-16; Colossians 3:10-11; Philippians 3:9-10).

6. You also obtain your own destruction from all the providences and works of God. When you think of His eternal foreknowledge and decrees, it serves only to harden you in your sin, or possess your minds with quarrelling thoughts, as if his decrees might spare you the labor of repentance and a holy life, or were the cause of sin and death. If He afflicts you, you complain, but if He prospers you, you forget Him even more, and have even fewer thoughts of the afterlife to come. If wicked people prosper, you forget the final end that will set all reckonings straight, and are ready to think it is as good to be wicked as godly; and thus you draw your death from all.

7. And likewise you do from all the creatures and mercies of God to you. He gives them to you as the tokens of His love, and abilities for His service, but you turn them against Him to the pleasing of your flesh. You eat and drink to please your appetite, and not for the glory of God, or to enable you to perform His work. Your riches draw your hearts from heaven (Philippians 3:18). Honors and applause puff you up, and if you have wealth and strength, it makes you more secure, and causes you to forget your final end. You abuse others' mercies also, to your own destruction. If you see their honors and dignity, you are provoked to envy them. If you see their riches, you are ready to covet them. If you look upon their beauty, you are stirred up to lust. Even godliness itself is an eyesore to you.

8. The very gifts that God bestows on you, and the ordinances of grace which He has instituted for His church, you turn into sin.  If you have better gifts than others, you grow proud and self-conceited. If you have only common gifts, you take them for special grace. You consider the basic essentials of your duty to God as principles so lofty that you excuse yourselves for not obeying them. Your prayers are turned into sin, because you regard iniquity in your hearts (Psalm 66:18). Your prayers are abominable, because you turn away your ear from hearing the law (Proverbs 28:9), and you are more ready to "offer the sacrifice of fools," thinking you do God some special service, than to hear His word and obey it (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

9. The people you converse with, and all their actions, you also make the occasions of your sin and destruction. If they live in the fear of God, you hate them.  If they live ungodly, you imitate them. If there are many wicked, you think you may more boldly follow them. If the godly are few, you are the more emboldened to despise them. If they walk carefully, you think they are too precise: if one of them falls in a particular temptation, you stumble over them, and turn away from holiness because you say that others are imperfectly holy.  If a hypocrite is exposed, you say they are all alike, and think yourselves as honest by comparison.  It seems that a professing Christian can scarcely slip into even the slightest sin but that, because he cuts his finger, you think you may boldly cut your throats.

If ministers deal plainly with you, you say they are ranting.  If they speak gently or coldly, you either sleep under them, or are little more affected than the seats you sit upon. And you will not hear, or at least not obey, the unquestionable doctrine of any of those who are not compatible with your conceits. One will not hear a minister because he says the Lord’s prayer; and another will not hear him because he does not use it. One will not hear those who are for episcopal church government, and another will not hear those that are against it. If ministers of the gospel have their differences, you will denounce all and thus fetch your own death from it. And I could show you many similar examples of how you turn everyone who comes near you to your own destruction.  How clear it is that the ungodly are self-destroyers, and that their perdition is of themselves!

Second, it seems now, considering what has been said and upon an examination of your own ways, that you should judge what you have done, and be ashamed and deeply humbled by it.  If you are not, I pray that you will consider the following truths:

1. To be your own destroyers is to sin against the most basic drive of our natures, that of self-preservation, by which everything naturally inclines to its own happiness, welfare, or perfection. And will you set yourselves to your own destruction?  Even Jesus, when He commanded you to love your neighbors as yourselves, supposed that you naturally love yourselves. But if you love your neighbors no better than yourselves, it seems you would have the whole world to be damned.

2. How severely do you cross your own intentions! I know you do not intend your own damnation, even when you are in the process of procuring it. You think you are merely doing good to yourselves by gratifying the desires of your flesh: but, alas, it is as the scratching of an itching wild-fire, which only increases the problem. If indeed you would have pleasure, or profit, or honor, seek them where they are to be found, and don't hunt after them along the way to hell!

3. What a pity it is that you would do that against yourselves which none else on earth or in hell can do! If all the world were combined against you, or all the demons in hell were combined against you, they could not destroy you without your own consent, nor could they make you sin against your own consent. And will you be worse than demons to yourselves, when you run into sin, and run from godliness, and refuse to turn at the call of God, and thus do more against your own souls than men or devils could do besides? If you were to determine within yourselves and bend your wits to do yourselves the greatest mischief, you could not devise to do greater.

4. You are false to the trust that God has given you. He has entrusted you to not neglect your own salvation, and commanded you to "guard your hearts with all diligence" (Proverbs 4:23), and can you say that you have done these?

5. You even forbid all others to pity you when you will have no pity on yourselves.  If you cry to God in the day of your distress for mercy, mercy, can you expect anything other than that he should thrust you away, and say, “No, you would not have mercy on yourselves.  Now, who brought this upon you but your own willfulness?” And if your brethren see you in everlasting misery, how should they pity you who were your own destroyers, and would not be persuaded from it?

6. It will forever make you your own tormentors in hell to think that you brought yourselves willfully to that misery. O what a torturing thought it will be forever to think within yourselves that this was your own doing – that you were warned of this day, and warned again, but you willfully sinned, and willfully turned away from God! That you had time as well as others, but you abused it! That you had teachers as well as others, but you refused their instructions!  That you had holy examples, but you would not imitate them. That you were offered Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others; but you had more thought for your fleshly pleasure. That you had in your hands the purchase price for wisdom, but you did not have the heart to pay the price (Proverbs 17:16).  O that your eyes were open to see what you have done in the willful wronging of your own souls, and that you could better understood the words of the Lord in Proverbs 8:33-36:  "Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it.  Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.  For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the LORD;  But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death."

And now as I am come to the conclusion of this work, my heart is troubled to think how I shall leave, lest after this your flesh should still deceive you, and the world and the devil should keep you asleep, and I should leave you as I found you, until you awake in hell.  Though in care of your poor souls, I am afraid of this, knowing the obstinacy of a carnal heart, yet I can say with the prophet Jeremiah, “I have not desired the woeful day, the Lord knows” (Jeremiah 17:16).  I have not, with James and John, desired that “fire might come from heaven” to consume them that refused Jesus Christ (Luke 9:54), but only the preventing of the eternal fire.  O, if only it had been a needless work, that God and my conscience might have been as willing to spare me this labor as some of you could have been! 

Dear friends! I am so fearful that you should die in everlasting fire, and be shut out of heaven, that if it be possible to prevent it, I shall once more ask you what will you now resolve to do? Will you turn, or die? I look upon you as a physician looks on his patient who has symptoms of a dangerous disease, and says to him, “Though you are far gone, if you will only take this medicine, and avoid these few things that are hurtful to you, I have great hope that you will live; but if you will not do this, you are a dead man.”  What would you think of such a person, if the physician and all his friends cannot persuade him to take the medicine to save his life, or to abstain from one or two poisonous things that would kill him? 

For many of you, this is your case. As far as you are gone into sin, just turn now and come to Christ, and take his remedies, and your sou1s shall live: Cast up your deadly sins by repentance, and turn not to the poisonous vomit any more, and you shall do well. If it were merely your bodies that we had to deal with, though you would not consent, you might be held or bound while the medicine were poured down your throats, and hurtful things might be kept from you: But about your souls it cannot be so; we cannot convert you against your wills: There is no carrying madmen to heaven in fetters; you may be condemned against your wills, because you sinned with your wills; but you cannot be saved against your wills. The wisdom of God has seen fit to lay men’s salvation or destruction much upon the choice of their own wills, so that no one shall come to heaven who did not choose the way to heaven, and no one shall come to hell but those who will be forced to say, “I have the thing I chose, for my own will brought me here.” 

Now, if I could only get you to be willing, to be thoroughly, and resolvedly, and habitually willing, the work would be more than half done.  And alas! must we lose our friends, and must they lose their God, their happiness, their souls, for lack of this? O God forbid! It is a strange thing to me, that those who in less important things are very civil and courteous, and good neighbors, are so inhuman and dull in the greater matters of heaven and hell. I believe that I have the respect of all or at least most of my neighbors, to the extent that if I were to send and request a reasonable courtesy of them, they would grant it to me.  But when I come to request of them the greatest matter in the world, for themselves and not even for me, I get nothing of many of them but a patient hearing.  If I were merely telling them what I have seen, or done, or known in the world, they would believe me, and regard what I say: but when I tell them, from the infallible Word of God, what they themselves shall see and know in the world to come, they show by their lives that they either do not believe it, or do not much regard it. If I met one of them on the way, and told them, over there is a coal-pit, or there is a quicksand, or there are thieves who lie in wait for you, I could persuade them to turn by: But when I tell them that Satan lies in wait for them, and that sin is poison to them, and that hell is not a matter to be jested with, they go on as if they did not hear me.  Truly, neighbors, I am in as good earnest with you in the pulpit as I am in any familiar discourse, and, if ever you will regard me, I beg of you, let it be here.

I think there is not one of you, if my own soul was within the power of your will to save it, you would be willing (though I am not confident that you would be willing to leave your sins for it).  If I come hungry or naked to one of your doors, would you not part with what I needed to relieve me? I am confident you would, and if it were to save my life, I know at least some of you would hazard your own. And yet will you not be entreated to part with your sensual pleasures for your own salvation? I profess to you, friends, I am as earnest a beggar with you today for the saving of your own souls, as I would be for my own supply, if I were forced to come begging to your own doors. And, therefore, if you would hear me then, hear me now: if you would pity me then, be entreated to pity yourselves now. I do again beseech you, as if it were on my bended knees, that you would hearken to your Redeemer, and turn, that you may live.

All you who have lived in ignorance, carelessness, and presumption to this day; all you who have been drowned in the cares of the world, and have no mind for God and eternal glory; all you who are enslaved to your fleshly desires of food and drink, sports and lusts; and all you who do not know not the necessity of holiness, and never were acquainted with the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost upon your souls; who never embraced your blessed Redeemer by a living faith, and with an admiring and thankful experience of his love; and who never felt a higher estimation or a heartier love of God and heaven than your fleshly prosperity, and the things below: to all of you, I earnestly beseech you, not only for my sake, but for the Lord’s sake, and for your souls’ sake, that you do not go one day longer in your former condition, but look around you, and cry to God for converting grace, that you may be made new creatures, and may escape the plagues that are just a little in front of you.

And if you will ever do anything for me, grant me this request, to turn from your evil ways and live. Deny me anything that I ever shall ask you for myself, if you will only grant me this. And if you deny me this, I don't care for any thing else that you would grant me. No, if ever you will do any thing at the request of the Lord who made you and redeemed you, do not deny Him this, for if you deny him this, he cares for nothing else that you would grant him. If ever you would have Him hear your prayers, and grant your requests, and do for you at the hour of death and the day of judgment, or in any of your times of affliction, do not deny His request now in the day of your prosperity. O believe it, death and judgment, and heaven and hell, are other matters when you come near to them than they seem to carnal eyes afar off. 

Well, though I cannot hope so well of all of you, I do hope that some of you are by this time purposing to turn and live, and that you are ready to say, “God forbid that we should choose destruction by refusing conversion, as we have done until this time.”  If these be the thoughts and purposes of your hearts, I will gladly offer my advice and direction, only briefly, that you may easily remember it to put it to practice.

Direction 1.  If you will be converted and saved, labor to understand the necessity and true nature of conversion:  consider for what, and from what, and to what, and by what you must turn. Consider in what a lamentable condition you are in until the hour of your conversion, and that it is not a state to be rested in. You are under the guilt of all the sins that you ever committed, and under the wrath of God, and the curse of His law.  You are bond-slaves to the devil, and employed daily in his work against the Lord, against yourselves, and against others.  You are spiritually dead and deformed, devoid of the holy life, and of the nature and image of the Lord. You are unfit for any holy work, and do nothing that is truly pleasing unto God. You are without any promise or assurance of His protection, and live in continual danger of His justice, not knowing what hour you may be snatched away to hell, and most certain to be damned if you die in that condition. And nothing short of conversion can prevent it. Whatever civilities, or reforms, or virtues, are short of true conversion will never procure the saving of your souls. Keep the true sense of this natural misery, and so of the necessity of conversion on your hearts.  And then you must understand what it is to be converted: it is to have a new heart or disposition, and a new conversation.

Question 1.  For what must we turn?  For these ends, which you may attain:

1.  In this life, you shall immediately be made living members of Christ, and have an interest in Him, and be renewed after the image of God, and adorned with all His graces, and made alive with a new and heavenly life, and saved from the tyranny of Satan and the dominion of sin, and be justified from the curse of the law, and have the pardon of all the sins of your whole lives, and be accepted of God, and made His sons, and have liberty to call Him Father, and go to him by prayer, in all your needs, with a promise of acceptance.   You shall have the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, to sanctify and guide you; you shall have part in the brotherhood, communion, and prayers of the saints; you shall be fitted for God’s service, and be freed from the dominion of sin, and be useful and a blessing to the place where you live, and shall have the promise of this life, and that which is to come. You shall want nothing that is truly good for you, and your necessary afflictions you will be enabled to bear.  You may have some taste of communion with God in the Spirit, especially in all holy ordinances, where God prepares a feast for your souls.  You shall be heirs of heaven while you live on earth, and may foresee by faith the everlasting glory, and so may live and die in peace.  And you shall never be so low but that your happiness will be incomparably greater than your misery.  How precious is every one of these blessings, which I do but briefly name, and which in this life you may receive.

2.  At death, your souls shall go to Christ, and at the judgment day both soul and body shall be justified and glorified, and enter into your Master’s joy, where your happiness will consist in these particulars:

Question 2.  From what must we turn?  From your carnal self, which is the end of all the unconverted. From the flesh that would be pleased before God, and desires still to entice you; from the world that is the bait, and from the devil, that is the angler for souls, and the deceiver. And so from all known and willful sins.

Question 3.   To what end must we turn?  To God as your end, to Christ as the way to the Father; to holiness, as the way appointed you by Christ; and to the use of all the helps and means of grace afforded you by the Lord.

Question 4.  By what must we turn?  By Christ, as the only Redeemer and Intercessor; and by the Holy Ghost, as the sanctifier; and by the Word, as His instrument or means; and by faith and repentance, as the means and duties on your part to be performed. All this is necessary if you would be converted.

Direction 2. If you will be converted and saved, be much in secret serious consideration. The world is undone by its inconsiderateness! Withdraw yourselves often into a private place, and there think about why you were made; of the life you have lived; the time you have lost; the sin you have committed; of the love and sufferings, and fullness of Christ; of the danger you are in; of the nearness of death and judgment; of the certainty and excellence of the joys of heaven; of the certainty and terror of the torments of hell; of the eternity of both, and of the necessity of conversion and a holy life. Open your hearts to such considerations as these.

Direction 3.  If you will be converted and saved, give attention to the Word of God, which is God's ordinary means to bring about the conversion of souls. Read the Scriptures and other holy writings that apply it, and regularly attend on the public preaching of the Word. As God will lighten the world by the sun, and not by Himself alone without it, so will he convert and save men by his ministers, who are the lights of the world (Acts 26:17-18, Matthew 5:14). When he had miraculously humbled Paul, he sent him to Ananias (Acts 9:10). And when he had sent an angel to Cornelius, it was to tell him to send for Peter, who was to tell him what to believe and do.

Direction 4.  Present yourselves to God in a course of earnest, constant prayer. Confess and lament your former lives, and beg His grace to illuminate and convert you. Plead with Him to pardon what is past, and to give you His Spirit to change your hearts and lives, and lead you in his ways, and save you from temptations.  Do this work daily, and be not weary of it.

Direction 5.  Immediately give over your known and willful sins. Make a stand, and go that way no farther.  Be drunk no more, and even avoid the place and occasion of it. Cast away your lusts and sinful pleasures, and abuse others no more; and, if you have wronged any, restore to them as Zacchaeus did. If you will commit again your old sins, what blessings can you expect on the means for conversion?

Direction 6.   Immediately, if possible, change your company if it has been evil. By this I mean not your necessary relations, but your unnecessary sinful companions, and join yourselves with those that fear the Lord, and speak to them of the way to heaven (Acts 9:19, 26, Psalm 15:4).

Direction 7.   Give yourselves up to the Lord Jesus as the physician of your souls,” that He may pardon you by His blood, and sanctify you by His Spirit, by His Word and ministers, the instruments of the Spirit. He is the way, the truth, and the life; there is no coming to the Father but by Him (John 14:6).  “There is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved” (Acts 4:12). Study therefore His person and nature, and what He has done and suffered for you, and what He is to you, and what He will be, and how He is fitted to the full supply of all your necessities.

Direction 8.  If you mean indeed to turn and live, do it speedily and without delay. If you are not willing to turn today, you are not willing to do it at all.  Remember that you are all this while under the guilt of many thousand sins, and under God’s wrath, and you stand at the very brink of hell; there is a mere step between you and death. And this is not a case for a man in his wits to be quiet in. Rise up therefore immediately, and flee as for your lives, as though your house were on fire over your heads.  O if you only knew what continual danger you live in, and what daily unspeakable loss you sustain, and what a safer and sweeter life you might live, you would not stand trifling, but turn now. Multitudes who willfully delay are undone, even when they are convinced that it must be done. Your lives are short and uncertain, and what a case are you in if you die before you thoroughly turn! You have stayed too long already, and wronged God too long; sin gains strength and rooting while you delay. Your conversion will grow harder and more doubtful. You have much to do, and therefore do not put it off to the last, lest God forsake you, and give you up to yourselves, and then you are undone for ever!

Direction 9.  If you will turn and live, do it unreservedly, absolutely, and universally.  Do not think to merely give in to Christ, and divide your heart between Him and the world, and to part with some sins, and keep the rest; to let go only those which your flesh can spare. This is nothing but self-delusion; you must in heart and resolution forsake all that you have, or else you cannot be his disciples (Luke 14:26, 33). If you will not take God and heaven for your portion, and lay all below at the feet of Christ, but you must also have your good things here, and have an earthly portion, and God and glory are not enough for you, it is in vain to dream of salvation on these terms, for it will not be. Even if you seem ever so religious, if it is only a carnal righteousness, and the flesh’s prosperity, pleasure, and safety are still favored over your devotedness to God, this is as certain a way to death as open profaneness!

Direction 10.  If you will turn and live, do it resolvedly, and do not stand still deliberating, as if it were a doubtful case. Do not stand wavering, as if you were yet uncertain whether God or the flesh is the better master; or whether heaven or hell is the better end; or whether sin or holiness is the better way.  Be not one day of one mind, and the next day of another; but resolvedly give up yourselves, and all you have to God.  Now, even while you are reading or hearing this, resolve. Before you sleep another night, resolve. Before you stir from the place you are in, resolve. Before Satan has time to take you off, resolve. You never turn indeed until you do resolve, and that with a firm unchangeable resolution.

And now I have done my part in this work, that you may turn to the call of God, and live.  What will become of it, I cannot tell: I have cast the seed at God’s command, but it is not in my power to give the increase. I can go no further with my message: I cannot bring it to your hearts, nor make it work; I cannot do your parts for you to entertain it and consider it; I cannot do God’s part, by opening your heart to cause you to entertain it; nor can I show heaven or hell to your eyes, nor give you new and tender hearts. If I knew what more to do for your conversion, I hope I would do it.

But O thou, that art the gracious Father of spirits, thou hast sworn thou delightest not in the death of the wicked, but rather that they may turn and live; deny not thy blessing to those persuasions and directions, and suffer not thine enemies to triumph in thy sight; and the great deceiver of souls to prevail against thy Son, thy Spirit, and thy Word! O pity poor unconverted sinners, that have no hearts to pity themselves: Command the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and the dead to live, and let not sin and death be able to resist thee.—Awaken the secure, resolve the unresolved, confirm the wavering, and let the eyes of sinners, that read these lines, be next employed in weeping over their sins; and bring them to themselves and to thy Son, before their sins have brought them to perdition. If thou sayst but the word, these poor endeavors shall prosper to the winning of many a soul, to their everlasting joy, and everlasting glory. Amen.

THE END

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