THE SINNER SERIOUSLY URGED AND ENTREATED TO ACCEPT OF SALVATION IN THIS WAY.
1. Since many who have been impressed with these things suffer the impression to wear off.--2. Strongly as the ease speaks for itself, sinners are to be entreated to accept this salvation.--3. Accordingly the reader is entreated--by the majesty and mercy of God.--4. By the dying love of our Lord Jesus Christ.--5. By the regard due to our fellow-creatures.--6. By the worth of his own immortal soul.--7. The matter is solemnly left with the reader, as before God. The sinner yielding to these entreaties, and declaring his acceptance of salvation by Christ.
1. Thus far have I often known convictions and impressions to arise, (if I
might judge by the strongest appearances) which after all have worn off again.
Some unhappy circumstance of external temptation, ever joined by the inward
reluctance of an unsanctified heart to this holy and humbling scheme of
redemption, has been the ruin of multitudes. And, "through the deceitfulness of
sin, they have been hardened," (Heb. 3:25) till they seem to have been "utterly
destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. 29:1) And therefore, O thou
immortal creature who art now reading these lines, I beseech thee, that, while
affairs are in this critical situation, while there are these balancings of
mind between accepting and rejecting that glorious Gospel, which, in the
integrity of my heart, I have now been laying before you, you would once more
give me an attentive audience while I plead, in God's behalf shall I say? or
rather in your own; while, "as an ambassador for Christ, and as though God did
beseech you by me, I pray you in Christ's stead that you would be reconciled to
God," (2 Cor. 5:20) and would not, after these awakenings and these inquiries,
by a madness which it will surely be the doleful business of a miserable
eternity to lament, reject this compassionate counsel of God towards you.
2. One would indeed imagine there should be
no need of importunity here. One would conclude, that as soon as perishing
sinners are told that an offended God is ready to be reconciled, that he offers
them a full pardon for all their aggravated sins, yea, that he is willing to
adopt them into his family now, that he may at length admit them to his
heavenly presence; all should, with the utmost readiness and pleasure, embrace
so kind a message, and fall at his feet in speechless transports of
astonishment. gratitude, and joy. But, alas! we find it much otherwise. We see
multitudes quite unmoved, and the impressions which are made on many more are
feeble and transient. Lest it should be thus with you, O reader! let me urge
the message with which I have the honor to be charged; let me entreat you to be
reconciled to God, and to accept of pardon and salvation in the way in which it
is so freely offered to you.
3. I entreat you, "by the majesty of that God in
whose name I come," whose voice fills all heaven with reverence and obedience.
He speaks not in vain to legions of angels; but if there could be any
contention among those blessed spirits, it would be, who should be first to
execute his commands. Oh! let him not speak in vain to a wretched mortal I
entreat you, "by the terrors of his wrath," who could speak to you in thunder;
who could, by one single act of his will, cut off this precarious life of
yours, and send you down to hell. I beseech you by his mercies, by his tender
mercies, by the bowels of his compassion, which still yearn over you as those
of a parent over "a dear son," over a tender child, whom, notwithstanding his
former ungrateful rebellion, "he earnestly remembers still." (Jer. 31:20) I
beseech and entreat you, "by all this paternal goodness," that you do not, as
it were, compel him to lose the character of the gentle Parent in that of the
righteous Judge; so that, as he threatens with regard to those whom he had just
called his sons and his daughters, "a fire shall be kindled in his anger, which
shall burn unto the lowest hell." (Deut 32:19,22)
4. I beseech you further, "by the name and love
of your dying Savior." I beseech you by all the condescension of his
incarnation, by that poverty to which he voluntarily submitted, "that you might
be enriched" with eternal treasures; (2 Cor. 8:9) by all the gracious
invitations which he gave, which still sound in his word, and still coming, as
it were, warm from his heart, are "sweeter than honey, or the honey-comb."
(Psa. 19:10) I beseech you by all his glorious works of power and of wonder,
which were also works of love. I beseech you by the memory of the most
benevolent person and the most generous friend. I beseech you by the memory of
what he suffered, as well as of what he said and did; by the agony which he
endured in the garden when his body was covered "with a dew of blood." (Luke,
22:44) I beseech you by all that tender distress which he felt when his dearest
friends "forsook hint and fled," (Matt. 26:56) and his blood-thirsty enemies
dragged him away like the meanest of slaves, and like the vilest of criminals.
I beseech you by the blows and bruises, by the stripes and lashes which this
injured Sovereign endured while in their rebellious hands; by the shame of
spitting, from which he hid not that kind and venerable countenance. (Isa.
50:6) I beseech you by the purple robe, the scepter of reed, and the crown of
thorns which this King of Glory wore that he might set us among the princes of
heaven. (Psa. 113:8) I beseech you by the heavy burden of "the cross," under
which he panted, and toiled, and fainted in the painful way "to Golgotha,"
(John 19:17) that he might free us from the burden of our sins. I beseech you
by the remembrance of those rude nails that tore the veins and arteries, the
nerves and tendons of his sacred hands and feet; and by that invincible, that
triumphant goodness, which, while the iron pierced his flesh, engaged him to
cry out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke, 23:34)
I beseech you by that unutterable anguish which he bore when lifted up upon the
cross, and extended there, as on a rack, for six painful hours, that you open
your heart to those attractive influences which have "drawn to him thousands
and ten thousands." (John 12; 32) I beseech you by all that insult and derision
which the "Lord of Glory bore there;" (Matt. 27:29-44) by that parching thirst
which could hardly obtain the relief of "vinegar," (John 19:28,29) by that
doleful cry so astonishing in the mouth of the only begotten of the Father, "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46) I beseech you by that
grace that subdued and pardoned "a dying malefactor;" (Luke, 23:42,43) by that
compassion for sinners, by that compassion for you, which wrought in his heart,
long as its vital motion continued, and which ended not when "he bowed his
head, saying, It is finished, and gave up the ghost." (John 19:30) I beseech
you by the triumphs of that resurrection by which he was "declared to be the
Son of God with power;" by the spirit of holiness which wrought to accomplish
it, (Rom. 1:4) by that gracious tenderness which attempered all those triumphs,
when he said to her out of whom he had cast seven devils, concerning his
disciples who had treated him so basely, "Go, tell my brethren, I ascend unto
my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God." (John 20:17) I beseech
you by that condescension with which he said to Thomas, when his unbelief had
made such an unreasonable demand, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold mine
hands, and reach hither thine hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not
faithless, but believing." (John 20:27) I beseech you by that generous and
faithful care of his people which he carried up with him to the regions of
glory, and which engaged him to send down "his Spirit," in that rich profusion
of miraculous gifts, to spread the progress of his saving word. (Acts 2:33) I
beseech you by that voice of sympathy and power with which he said to Saul,
while injuring his church, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4) by
that generous goodness which spared that prostrate enemy when he lay trembling
at his feet, and raised him to so high a dignity as to be "not inferior to the
very chiefest apostles." (2 Cor. 12:11) I beseech you by the memory of all that
Christ hath already done; by the expectation of all he will farther do for his
people. I beseech you, at once, by the scepter of his grace, and by that sword
of his justice with which all his incorrigible "enemies" shall be "slain before
him," (Luke 19:20) that you do not trifle away these precious moments while his
Spirit is this breathing upon you; that you do not lose an opportunity which
may never return, and on the improvement of which your eternity depends.
5. I beseech you "by all the bowels of compassion
which you owe to the faithful ministers of Christ," who are studying and
laboring, preaching and praying, wearing out their time, exhausting their
strength, and very probably shortening their lives, for the salvation of your
soul, and of souls like yours. I beseech you by the affection with which all
that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity long to see you brought back to
him. I beseech you by the friendship of the living, and by the memory of the
dead, by the ruin of those who have trifled away their days and perished in
their sins, and by the happiness of those who have embraced the Gospel, and are
saved by it. I beseech you by the great expectation of that important "day,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven;" (2 Thess. 1:7) by "the
terrors of a dissolving world;" (2 Pet. 3:10) by the "sound of the archangel's
trumpet," (1 Thess. 4:16) and of that infinitely more awful sentence, "Come, ye
blessed," and "Depart, ye cursed," with which that grand solemnity shall close.
(Matt. 25:34,41)
6. I beseech you, finally, by your own precious
and immortal soul; by the sure prospect of a dying bed, or of a sudden surprise
into the invisible state and as you would feel one spark of comfort in your
departing spirit, when your flesh and your heart are failing. I beseech you, by
your own personal appearance before the tribunal of Christ, (for a personal
appearance it must be, even to them who now sit on thrones of their own;) by
all the transports of the blessed, and by all the agonies of the damned, then
one or the other of which must be your everlasting portion. I affectionately
entreat and beseech you, in the strength of all these united considerations, as
you will answer it to me who may in that day be summoned to testify against
you, and, which is unspeakably more, as you will answer it to your conscience,
as you will answer it to the eternal Judge that you dismiss not these thoughts,
these meditations, and these cares, till your have brought matters to a happy
issue; till you have made resolute choice of Christ, and his appointed way of
salvation; and till you have solemnly devoted yourself to God in the, bonds of
an everlasting covenant.
7. And thus I leave the matter before you, and
before the Lord. I have told you my errand; I have discharged embassy. Stronger
arguments I cannot use; more endearing and mores awful considerations I cannot
suggest. Choose, therefore, whether you will go out, as it were clothed in
sackcloth, to cast yourself at the feet of him who now sends you these
equitable and gracious terms of peace and pardon; or whether you will hold it
out till he appears sword in hand to reckon with you for your treasons and your
crimes, and for this neglected embassy among the rest of them. Fain would I
hope the best; nor can I believe that this labor of love shall be so entirely
unsuccessful, that not one soul shall be brought to the foot of Christ in
cordial submission and humble faith. "Take with you," therefore, "words, and
turn unto the Lord;" (Hos. 14:2) and O that those which follow might, in effect
at least, be the genuine language of every one that reads them.
Sinner yielding to these Entreaties, and declaring acceptance of Salvation by Christ.
