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when he commands you to "take it up ;" (Matt. xvi. 24.) and so must be faithful even unto death, expecting "the crown of life." (Rev. ii. 10.)

This, so far as I have been able to learn from the word of God, is the way to safety and glory; the surest, the only way you can take. It is the way which every faithful minister of Christ has trod, and is treading; and the way to which, as he tenders the salvation of his own soul, he must direct others. We cannot, we would not alter it, in favour of ourselves, or of our dearest friends. It is the way in which alone, so far as we can judge, it becomes the blessed God to save his apostate creatures. And therefore, reader, I beseech and intreat you seriously to consider it; and let your own conscience answer, as in the presence of God, whether you are willing to acquiesce in it, or not. But know, that to reject it, is thine eternal death. For as "there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved," (Acts iv. 12.) but this of Jesus of Nazareth, so there is no other method but this, in which Jesus himself will save us.

The Sinner deliberating on the Expediency of falling in with this Method of Salvation.

"CONSIDER, O my soul, what answer thou wilt return to such proposals as these: surely if I were to speak the first dictate of this corrupt and degenerate heart, it would be, "This is a hard saying, and who can hear it;" (John vi. 60.) to be thus humbled, thus mortified, thus subjected! To take such a yoke upon me, and to carry it as long as I live! To give up every darling lust, though dear to me as a right eye, and seemingly necessary as a right hand! To submit not only my life, but my heart, to the command and discipline of another! To have a master there, and such a master, as will control many of its favourite affections, and direct them quite into another channel! A master, who himself represents his commands, by taking up the cross and following him! To adhere to the strictest rules of godliness and sobriety, of righteousness and truth; not deparung from them, in any allowed instance, great or small, upon any temptation,

for any advantage, to escape any inconvenience and evil, no, not even for the preservation of life itself; but, upon a proper call of Providence, to act as if I hated even my own life!" (Luke xiv. 26.) Lord, it is hard to flesh and blood and yet I perceive and feel, there is one demand yet harder than this.

"With all these precautions, with all these mortifications, the pride of my nature would find some inward resource of pleasure, might I but secretly think that I had been my own saviour; that my own wisdom, and my own resolution, had broken the bands and chains of the enemy; and that I had drawn out of my own treasures, the price with which my redemption was purchased. But must I lie down before another, as guilty and condemned, as weak and helpless; and must the obligation be multiplied, and must a Mediator have his share too? Must I go to the cross for my salvation, and seek my glory from the infamy of that? Must I be stripped of every pleasing pretence to righteousness, and stand in this respect upon a level with the vilest of men? stand at the bar amongst the greatest criminals, pleading guilty with them, and seeking deliverance by that very act of grace whereby they have obtained it?

"I dare not deliberately say, this method is unreasonable. My conscience testifies, that I have sinned, and cannot be justified before God as an innocent and obedient creature. My conscience tells me, that all these humbling circumstances are fit; that it is fit, a convicted criminal should be brought upon his knees; that a captive rebel should give up the weapons of his rebellion, and bow before his Sovereign, if he expect his life. Yea, my reason as well as my conscience tells me, that it is fit and necessary, that if I am saved at all, I should be saved from the power and love of sin, as well as from the condemnation of it; and that if sovereign mercy gives me a new life, after having deserved eternal death, it is most fit I should "yield myself to God as alive from the dead." (Rom. vi 13.) But "O wretched man that I am, I feel a law in my members that wars against the law of my mind," (Rom. vii. 23, 24.) and

opposes the conviction of my reason and conscience. Who shall deliver me from this bondage? who shall make me willing to do that which I know in my own soul to be the most expedient? O Lord, subdue my heart, and let it not be drawn so strongly one way, while the nobler powers of my mind would direct it another; conquer every licentious principle within, that it may be my joy to be so wisely governed and

restrained.

Especially subdue my pride, that lordly corruption, which so ill suits an impoverished and a condemned creature; that thy way of salvation be made amiable to me, in proportion to the degree in which it is humbling. I feel a disposition to linger in Sodom, but "O be merciful to me, and pull me out of it," (Gen. xix. 16.) before the storm of thy flaming vengeance fall, and there be no more escaping !"

CHAPTER X.

THE SINNER SERIOUSLY URGED AND ENTREATED TO ACCEPT OF SALVATION IN THIS WAY.

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. iii. 13.) till they seem to have been utterly "destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. xxix. 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

from 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. v. 20.) and that you 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.

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 would 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 honour to be charged: let me entreat you to be reconciled to God, and to accept of pardon and salvation m the way in which it is so freely offered to you.

I entreat you, by the majesty of that God, in whose name I come, whose voice fills all heaven with reve rence 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. O 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. xxxi. 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 hath just called his sons and his daughters) " shall be kindled in his anger, which shall burn unto the lowest hell." (Deut. xxxii. 19, 22.)

a fire

I beseech you further, by the name and love of our dying Saviour. 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. viii. 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, and the honeycomb." (Psalm xix. 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 xxii. 44.) I beseech you by all that tender distress which he felt, when his dearest friends "forsook him and fled," (Matt. xxvi. 56.) and his bloodthirsty 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." (Isaiah 1. 6.) I beseech you, by the purple robe, the sceptre of reed, and the crown of thorns, which this King of glory wore, that he might "set us among the princes" of heaven. (Psalm cxiii. 8.). I beseech you, by the heavy burden of the cross, under which he panted, and toiled, and fainted, in the painful way to 66 Golgotha," (John xix. 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

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