years Ps 9. 10. Also before your time which probably you had lotted on and which men too often do promise themselvs Such as upon any awakenings of Conscience and Calls to Repentance delay put it off while in their Youth it is upon a promise of repenting when they are old and how many in that sense die before their time And here for your further awakning observe the Lord in his Providence making good another dreadful word upon you viz. that bloudy and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes Psal 55. 23. Thus you are a son of Death God and man have said to thee Oh wicked man thou shalt surely dye 4. Your time is numbred and almost finished Indeed God has numbred all our times Yearâ— and the number of our months is with him Job 1â— 5. But the number of your I cannot say monthâ— but dayes is with your self you your self may number your own dayes The Lord teach you to apply your heart unto wisdom while numbering them Psal 90. 12. You are just now upon the very brink of the Pit the Grave is ready for you upon the very Edge of Eternity are you I say eminently you now walking will be within the line of it very speedily Job could say when a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return Cap. 16. 22. But you may say Before 4 dayes are come gone I shall be gone to the place from whence I shall not return till the very heavens be no more It made Belshazzar's Countenance to be changed the joints of his loins to be loosed and his knees to knock one against another to see the Hand-Writing upon the wall Dan. 5. 6. and we may imagine or at least one would think you whose very case it is may imagine how his thoughts within him were troubled when the Interpretation laid that dreadful doom upon himself that his Kingdom was numbred finished by God and it was meant of his life All which was lost that night v. 27. 30. It 's true we have none of us any lease of our lives we cannot say what may befal us this night and yet O amazing Madness Folly how apt are we if not to boast of yet to lot upon tomorrow How ready to promise to our selvs many years as the Fool in the Gospel did Luc. 12. 20. who well deserved the name of Fool had it been for that one evidence of it only But for your part you have your bounds set told you beyond which you cannot pass you know at the utmost the Date of your life and Day of your Death you may die sonner but you must not live longer your end is in your view you have but a few steps thither and had not need take any vain unprofitable or false ones You seem to bewail your sin of Sabbath-breaking well know that you shall never have another Sabbath to break The Lord help you to keep this as you ought I cannot pass this particular without once more commending it to your serious Consideration O chew upon it dwell upon it that a few hours hence you shall cirtainly dye It 's a very awful thing to us to look upon you a person in your Youth Health and Strength Breasts full of milk and Bones moisâ—ned with marrow and then to think that within so many daies this man tho' in his full Strength must dy and methinks it should be much more awful to you 5. Your Death will not expiâ—te your Offence in the sight of God nor cause the Turning away of His Anger from you It s true the shedding of your bloud will take away the Sin from the Land that it shall noâ— ly there else innocent bloud should be imputed to the Land but this doeâ— nothing towards the Satisfaction of Gods Justicâ— in order to the Removal of his wrath from the Murderer Punishment makes no amends for Sin unless it be that which was inflicted upon Christ as he stood in the capacity of a Surety in behalf of the Elect and so bare both their sin and their punishment but otherwise Hâ—ll torments don't satisfy God's Justâ—ce nor quench the fire of his wrath muchless can any bodily suffering do it tho it be the highest even death it self Do not then deceive your self Say not I have sinned its true but am now to suffer the Law and that being undergone I shall then be quitt It is so indeed as to any thing that men can do to thee but thy death does not at all deliver thee out of the hands of Divine Justice Nay rather Sixthly If you get not this Sin and all the rest of your sins done away and so the Anger of God removed your approaching Death will be but the beginning of Sorrows to you However sensually or like a Beast or worse you have lived you shall not dye as Beasts dye so as that there shall be an end of you and all your sufferings together No no such matter Your precious immortal soul must live forever and if you get not the fire of God's Anger put out Know that there is a Fire kindled in his anger that shall burn to the lowest Hell. Without Repentance â—â—to life which is the gift of Christ and for your Comfort I tell you in the midst of all these bitter things I have been speaking to you he is freely willing to give it even to you Oh look up to Him heartily for the same I say unless you get this Repentance unto life your death is but an In-let to the Second death No sooner shall your guilty soul be forced out of your wretched body but it shall appear before God that gave it there to receive another manner of Sentence of Condemnation than what you have already heard from man by which you were condemned to dye but there was room for a Lord have Mercy on your soul to be annexed whereas in that Sentence there will be no mercy upon your soul for your soul is the principal subject of the 2nd death Separating your soul and body asunder was the aim and will be the â—ssue of this Sentence but the death everlasting utter loss of your soul for which nothing can be given to God in Exchange Mat. 16. 26. will be the meaning of this Sentence Theâ— shall your soul be committed into left in the hands of the Devil your master whom you have served that great Murderer Lyar who was so from the beginning and is the father lord of such to be dragged down by him into the place where your fellow-Murderers and fellow-Lyars and fellow-Drunkards are viz. into the lake that burns with fire brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 8. there to be tormented with the Devil his angels where the Worm never dyeth and the fire never shall be quenched Marc. 9. 43. 44. You have a scareing vision Rev. 6. 8. of one whose name was Death
for being wicked over much There is hardly any sort of Wickedness which you have not wallowed in-That sin particularly which you are now to die for is a most monstrous Crime I can't possibly describe or declare the sins whereby you have made your self an astonishing Example of Impiety punishment Mor. O Sir I have bin a most hellish sinner I am sorry for what I have bin Min. Sorry you say well tell me which of all your sins you are now most sorry for which lyes most heavy Mor. I hope I am sorry for all my sins but I must especially bewail my neglect of the means of grace On Sabbath dayes I us'd to lye at home or be ill imploy'd elsewhere when I should have bin at Church This has undone me Min. And let me seriously tell you Your Despiseing of Christ is a most dreadful sin indeed You have for whole years together had the Call of Jesus Christ to seek an Interest in him you would now give all the world for that interest but you would take no notice of him The Jews of Old put him to a worse death than yours will be this afternoon and by your contempt of Christ you have said the Jews did well to do so How justly might he now Laugh at your Calamity And for these sins of yours besides the direful woes plagues that have already come upon you you are now expos'd unto the Vengeance of eternal fire You are in danger of being now quickly cast into those exquisite amazing Torments in comparison of which the anguishes which your body ever did feel or shall feel before night or can ever feel are just nothing at all and these dolorous torments are such as never have an End as many sands as could lie between this earth the Stars in Heaven would not be near so many as the Ages the end-less Ages of these Torments Mor. But is there not Mercy for me in Christ Min. Yes and its a wonderful thing that I have now further to tell you Mind I entreat you The SON of GOD is become the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ is both God man in one Person he is both sufficiently able willing also to be your Saviour He lived a most righteous life and this was that such as you I might be able to say before God Lord accept of me as if I had liv'd righteously He died at length a most cursed death and this was that we might be able to say unto God Lord let not me die for sin since thy Son has died in my room This glorious Redeemer is now in the highest heaven pleading with God for the Salvation of His chosen ones And He pours out his Spirit continually upon them that do believe on him might you then be enabled by his grace to carry your poor guilty condemned enslaved ignorant soul unto Jesus Christ and humbly put your trust in him for deliverance from the whole bad state which you are brought into Oh then his voice is to you the same that was to the penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Mor. Oh that I might be so Sir I would hear more of these things I think I can't better fit my self for my death than by hearkning to these things Min. Attend then The never-dying spirit that lodges within you must now within a few minutes appear before the Tribunal of the Great GOD in what or in whose Righteousness will you then appear will you have this to be your Plea Lord I experienced many good Motions Desires in my soul many Sorrows for my sin before I dy'd or will you expect to have no other Plea but This Lord I am vile but thy Son is a Surety for the worst of sinners that believe in him for his sake alone have MERCY on me Morg. I thank God for what He has wrought in my Soul Min. But be very careful about this matter if you build on your own good Affections instead of Jesus Christ the only Rock if you think they shall recommend you to God He that made you will not have mercy on you Mor. I would be clothed with the Righteousness of JESUS CHRIST Min But you can't sincerely desire that Christ should justify you if you don 't also desire that He should sanctify you those 2 alwaies go together Is evry lust that has hitherto had possession of your heart become so loathsom to you that it would fill your soul with joy to hear Jesus Christ say I will subdue those Iniquities of thine I will make a holy heavenly a spiritually minded person of thee Mor. I would sin against God no more Min. But I must deal plainly with you You have made it sadly suspicious that your repentance is not yet as it ought to be when men truly throughly repent of sin they use to be in a special manner watchful against that Sin which has bin their chief Sin one of your principal sins which has indeed brought you to the Death of a Murderer is Passion unmortifi'd outragious Passionateness Now I have been this day informed that no longer since than the last night upon some Dissatisfaction about the place which the Authority hath ordered you by and by to be buried in you did express your self with a most unruly Passionateness Mor. Sir I confess it and I was quickly sorry for it tho' for the present I was too much disturbed 'T was my folly to be so careful about the place where my body should be laid when my precious SOUL was in such a Condition Min. Truly you have cause to mourn for it Secure the welfarre of your soul and this now pinion'd hang'd vile body of yours will shortly be raised unto glory glory forevermore And let me put you in mind of one thing more I doubt you han't yet laid aside your unjust Grudges against the Persons concerned in your Conviction Condemnation You have no cause to complain of them and you are not fit to pray much less are you fit to dye till you heartily wish them as well as your own soul if you die malicious you die miserable Mor. I heartily wish them all well I bear Ill-will to none What a lamentable thing is this Ah this is that which has brought me hither Min. What do you mean Mor. I over-heard a man mocking scoffing at me when I stumbled just now he does very ill I have done so my self I have mock'd scoff'd like that man and see what it hath brought me to he may come to the like Min. The Lord forgive that foolish hard-hearted creature But be not too much disturbed Mor. Yonder I am now come in sight of the place where I must immediately end my dayes Oh what a huge Multitude of people is come together on this occasion O Lord O Lord I pray thee to make my Death profitable to all this Multitude of People that they may not sin
like that of Despising the Word of God. For this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the world and men love Darkness rather than Light. And How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation They that shall be found guilty of neglecting the great Salvation offered in the Gospel cannot escape the wrath of God to the utmost of it And this is true not only concerning such as have lived under the constant Preaching of the Gospel and yet remain and live dye in a natural unconverted estate but of them also that might hear the Word of God but will not concerning Such Christ saith It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment than for them Mat. 10. 15. This dying man now that his Conscience is awaken d saith It is a terrour to him to think I might have heard the Word of God preached many a time but refused it He neglected to hear Sermons not only on Lecture dayes but on Lords-Dayes too when he was a Servant he was wont as himself saith on Sabbath-Days to go out into the Fields and there to profane the Lords Dayes at the very time when he might and ought to have bin hearing the Word of God and since he had a Family his custom was to keep at home when others were attending the publick Worship of God. And he told me that he did foolishly please himself in thinking that he had sufficient reason to stay at home because he had not clothes good enough to appear publickly in whenas the mony that he mis-spent in drink would have procur'd him Cloatheing Let others then by his Example be warned against this evil lest they provoke God and feel sorrow for it as he has done I doubt there are very many in this great Town guilty of his sin in this particular perhaps some that are professors of Religion which is dreadful to think on I hear some say that there are many Hundreds nay some Thousands in this place that seldom hear a Sermon preached from one end of the year to the other if that be so it is very lamentable What is like to become of the souls of such profane persons If they that are in place of power be they Superior or Inferior Officers can possibly redress this evil they will certainly do a Service acceptable to GOD and to our Lord JESUS CHRIST But I proceed to the Second Exhortation If Murder be such a Crime as has bin declared then Let whoever has been guilty of this Sin be humbled for it and repent of it As for Interpretative Murder many are guilty of that O how many have by Debauchery Intemperance shortened the lives of themselvs or others let such repent and turn from their sins unto God. But I hope there is none in this vast Assembly that has bin guilty of that Murder which is by the Law of God and of the Land a Capital Crime excepting one man and one such person there is here present unto whom I shall now particularly apply my self Do you then hear that your soul may live This is the Last Sermon that ever you shall hear Time was when you might have heard Sermons but would not and now you shall not hear them tho' you would For as God said to him This night thy soul shall be required of thee so I say to you in His Name This night thy soul shall be taken from thee This night your soul shall be in Heaven or Hell for ever You are appointed to dye this day and after death commeth the Judgment As soon as your Body is dead your immortal soul must appear before the great GOD and Judg of all and a Sentence of everlasting Life or Everlasting Death shall be passed upon you Are you willing when those Chains which are about you shall be taken off that your immortal soul should be hang'd in everlasting Chains Are you willing that when your Body is removed from the Prison your Soul should go to the Spirits that are in prison You have complain'd that you have bin in a Dungeon and had little light there but are you willing to go where you shall never see light Are you willing that when your Body is delivered from this Dungeon your Soul should go into that Dungeon where is Blackness of darkness for ever If not I charge you in the Name of God to hear and obey his Word yea that Word which you have many a time despised I have spoken so often to you in private since your being Apprehended that I shall not need to say much now only a few words 1. Consider what a sinner you have bin The Sin which you are to die for is as red as Scarlet and many other sins hath your wicked life been filled with You have been a stranger to me I never saw you I never heard of you till you had committed the Murder for which you must dye this day but I hear by others that have known you how wicked you have been and you have your self confessed to the world that you have been guilty of Drunkenness guilty of Cursing Swearing guilty of Sabbath-breaking guilty of Lying guilty of secret Uncleanness as Solomon said to Shimei Thou knowest the wickedness which thine own heart is privy unto so I say to you And that which aggravates your Guiltiness not a little is That since you have been in Prison you have done wickedly you have made your self drunk several times since your Imprisonment yea and you have bin guilty of Lying since your Condemnation It was said to a dying man Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art under Condemnation Oh what a sinner have you bin for since you have bin under Condemnation you have not feared God. And how have you sinned against the Gospel What Unbelief what Impenitency have you bin guilty of Consider 2. What Misery you have brought upon your self on your Body that must dye an 〈◊〉 ed death you must hang between Heaven and Earth as it were forsaken of both and unworthy to be in either And what Misery have you brought upon your poor Children you have brought an everlasting Reproach upon them How great will their Shame be when it shall be said to them that their Father was hang'd not for his goodness as many in the world have bin but for his wickedness not as a Martyr but as a Malefactor truly so But that which is Ten Thousand Thousand times worse than all this is That you have without Repentance brought undoing Misery upon your poor yet precious Soul not only Death on your Body but a Second Death on your never-dying Soul. It is said in the Scripture That Murderers shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the Second Death Rev. 21. 8. O tremble at that I remember a Man that was condemned and Executed in this place some years ago that had been a Souldier and as stout a spirited
I have â—in partly ruind by But here I am and know not what will become of my poor soul which is within a few moments of eternity I have murder'd a poor man who â—â—d but little time to repent and I know not what is become of his poor soul O that I may make use of this opportunity that I have O that I may make improvement of this little little time before I go hence and be no more O let all mind what I am a saying now I 'm going out of this world O take warning by me and beg of God to keep you from this sin which has bin my ruine His last words were O Lord receive my spirit I come unto thee O Lord I come unto thee O Lord I come I come I come THE CALL OF THE GOSPEL APPLYED Unto All men in general and Vnto a Condemned Malefacto in particular In a SERMON Preached on the 7th Day of March. 1686. At the Request and in the Hearing of a man under a just Sentence of Death for the horrid SIN of MVRDER By COTTON MATHER Pastor to a Church at Boston in N. E. The SECOND EDITION Psal 89. 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy Faithfulness to all generations Nulla species Peccati tanta est qua non sit Superior JESUS Orig. Printed at Boston by Richard Pierce 1687. To the Reader ALtho' my Consent to the Publication of the ensuing Sermon had no small Objections to Encounter with for First The short time allow d me for Preparation after I was by the littleexpected dying Desire of a poor man diverted from my spending the whole of the Sabbath with a bereaved Congregation to which my help was promised and Next the Regard to be had unto the Administration of the Lords Supper which now in the Absence of an Honoured Relation that kindly answered my Engagement elsewhere I was to keep some Eye unto both necessitated me to want in this Discourse that Accuracy that full pertinency which might recommend iâ— unto the Iudicious Nevertheless so long as among all the Faults in it I found not this That it was not dâ—signed to do good and so long as among all the Pleas which in a curious captious age my love to my own râ—pose brought against â—he omitting of it I never met with this That It was impossible any good should be done by it I have at the urgent Importunity of others ventur'd to deliver it into the Hands of as many as shall think themselves concerned to peruse it Praying that it may reach touch the hearts of them to whom a Christ should be a Pearl of great Price till they LOOK unto HIM and be SAVED Cotton Mather The CALL of the GOSPEL unto All the Ends of the Earth Apply'd especially unto a poor man under the just Sentence of Death for the Crying Sin of MVRDER Isai XLV 22. LOOK unto Mâ— and be ye SAVED all the Ends of the Earth THESE Words give unto us the most Joyful Sound that ever the Children of Death had the favour of Some of us doubâ—less can with a most Distinguishing and Experimental Relish profess concerning this Oracle of God as some other persons have concerning some other Passages in the Sacred Pages â—â—e would not have had this Sentence left out of our Bibles for the riches of both the India's Yea who among us all at the reading of these glad â—ydings unto us can forbear joyning with the Rapturous shouts of Heaven with that Angelical and Evangelical Out-cry in Luc. 2. 14. Glory to God in the â—â—gâ—est on earth peace Good-will towards men Behold the Saviour of the world is this day speaking unto you ye Congregation of the Lord Arrayed in His white garments He looks thro the Windows of His bright Ivory Palace and â—tereth an Invitation to you which Blessed are your ears that hear this day This 45 th Chapter of that which we may not ineptly â—â—st the Gospel according to Isaiah seems the Close of a Sermon begun at the 40 th chapter of that admirable Book whose Gospel-strains are so abundant that in the New-Testament some have counted perhaps about threescore Quotations from it and good old Ambrose hence advised Austin unto a peculiar frequency in the Reading of it Isaiah signifies the Salvation of God now that very thing especially in the more promissory Conclusion of his Prophecy is very much the Subject of his Ministry The Princely Prophet is predicting perhaps about 200 years before the Accomplishment thereof the Reduction and Redemption of the captiv'd Jews from Babylon together with the very name of the Persian Emperor Cyrus who should be the â—â—â—â—rument thereof and thereupon he assigns the several reasons of this stupendions Dispensation One ground thereof laid down is that the Nations of the world far and near might be brought to abandon their Lying vanities and to acknowledge the Only true GOD with Jesus Christ whom He hath sent At the mention of this there immediately falls in the gracious invitation to those Nations which we have now to insist upon wherein we may observe 1. The Subjects which are call'd upon These are all the ends of the earth even the Gentiles in all quarters of the world whose Vocation is here foretold The poor souls whose natural Distanse from the Church of God and whose moral Distance from the Love of God was exceeding deplorable 2. The Object propounded for these to converse withal This by that Expression Me is determined to be the Lord Himself But who Truly it is God the Saviour it is the Lord Jesus Christ a Devotion to whom should come instead of the Homage which men had bin wont to yeild unto their other Images of God and Deliverance by whom is the Antitype of what the Lords people had of old by other â—â—viours To confirm this Interpretation I find the Chaldee Paraphrase rendring this Me by My Word using the Term of Meemar which belongs to the 2nd Person in the adorable Trinity 3. The Act to be applyed hereunto This is to Look namely with an Eye of faith of repentance In this Clause there seems to be an Allusion to the Looks that the ancient Israelites had bin wont to give unto the Brazen Serpent which if that great Reformer Hezekiah had not made meer brass of it might for ought I know be still abus'd to vain vile Superstitions among ' em 4. The End of the Whole T is said Be ye saved and the intent of that is Double it is both be desireous that ye may be saved it is be assured that ye shall be saved The two fold End both finis Operis and finis Operantis both the Design the Event is to be Salvation Salvation SALVATION but what a Word is That It is a word that does contain more than any man can conceive From hence then This Doctrin of GOD your Saviour does challeng
your serious Attention Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ in His Gospel graciously earnestly inviteth all the Children of men to Look unto Him by Faith upon Him for SALVATION When the no less unexpected than un deniable Request of the dying man who now stands in in this Assembly that I would allow him this Morning a Discourse proper for his uncomfortable Circumstances was yesterday brought unto me I cold not suddenly think on any thing more accommodated unto all the Persons Services which are before me than that which I have now pitch'd upon The Body of this Congregation can't hear of a more important thing than this of Looking unto Jesus Christ for Salvation Men and Brethren This is the One thing needful The little flock of Communicants unto whom I am by by to administer the Holy Supper cannot be excited unto a fitter work than this of Looking unto Jesus Christ for Salvation Christians this is our Errand hither The poor condemned Malefactor who is here listening to one of the three last Sermons that ever he is like to fit under before his Encounter with the King of Terrors cannot be put in mind of any thing that will more tend to prepare him for his near approaching death than this of Looking unto the Lord of Life for Salvation Life Poor man do you hearken I 'll study to make this whole hour very particularly suitable serviceable to you and methinks a man that knows himself about to take an eternal Farewel of all Sermons should endeavour to hear with most earnest heed The God of Heaven grant that Faith may come unto you by your Hearing It is a very pretious Repast which is thus brought unto you O immortal Souls It comes from the Land flowing with milk honey The ensuing Propositions may carve it out unto you The 1st Proposition that arrests our thoughts is 1. That to Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to Look unto Him for Salvation These blessed things are equivalent each to the other and herein we have both the Act of Faith and the End of Faith. fairly suggested unto us ¶ As for the Act of Faith that is a Looking The Faith of God's Elect hath in the Scripture several Bodily Actions used as the Metaphors Shadows of it There is the Action of the Hand for the sake of which in Joh. 1. 12. Faith is said to be a Receiving of Jesus Christ There is the Action of the Mouth in Resemblance of which in Joh. 6. 54. Faith is said to Fat the Flesh of Jesus Christ There is the Action of the Foot in regard of which Joh. 6. 35. Faith is said to be a Coming unto Jesus Christ Thus likewise the Action of the Eye is here improved to denote the Christ-ward motions of soul which the Believer hath There is indeed a 3 fold Look which the beleeving Soul in its Agonies does give towards the Lord Jesus Christ There is a Look of Desire a Look with a Wish yea with a Groan a Look with a Lord help me Such a Look as the hoarse Lâ—per gave in Marc. 1. 40. when he came to Jesus Christ beseeching Him kneeling down unto Him. There is also a Look of Dependance a Trusting a Rolling a Relying Look a Look accompanied with the Language of the Psalmist in Psal 25. 2. O my God I trust in thee And there is a Look of Acknowledment producing both of these Many things doth the Believer dâ—scern confess to be in that Jesus whose Name is Wonderful Counsellor The mighty God the Everlasting Eather the Prince of Peace But these 2 things especially One thing of which he is sensible is that Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour owning that in Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Another thing whereof he is not unsensible is that Jesus Christ is a Merciful Saviour owning that in Joh. 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out After this manner does the Believer look to the Saviour upon the everlasting Hills from whence comes all his help But upon what Motive for What ¶ As for the End of Faith that is SALVATION This the Apostle grants in 1. Pet. 1. 9. where he speaks to Christians about the end of their Faith the Salvation of their souls That which the Believer doth purpose to himself by his Addresses to Jesus Christ is that he may be rescued from all the Calamities which his Fall from God hath brought upon him and that he may be made partaker of Benefits contrary thereunto by the means of an All-sufficient a Compassionate Jesus the Mediator There are indeed especially three things which the Believer does look unto the Lord Jesus for His first Look is with that glance in Psal 119. 122. Lord Be surely for thy servant for good He would behold Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God appearing before divine Justice in his room adding unto this Cast of his Eye this Throb of his heart Oh let Jesus Christ take away all my Sins with all the wants woes which thereby I become obnoxious unto He would have Jesus Christ to remove all the guilt that lies upon him to enstate him in the Favour and Fellowship of God and to procure for him all Blessings whatsoever especially spiritual Blessings the Blessings of the upper springs the sure Mercies of the Covenant by His own Obedience Intercession His Next Look is with thatsigh in Plal. 25. 4. Shew â—e thy wayes O Lord Teach me thy paths There is an Eye-salve which he petitions unto this Lord our healer for He flyes cryes unto Jesus Christ as that son of sorrow did of old Lord that I may receive my sight He would have Christ to remove all the blindness of his mind to reveal unto him the happiness which is not seen and which is eternal and to discover unto him all that he must know do in order to his obtaining of it His Look is with that Aim in Psal 119. 5. Oh that my mayes were Directed to Keep thy statutes O God! He submits unto the ruling Will of God while he Emplores the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ He reckons that the Most High by saying I have â—â—â—t my Son to bless you by turning you away from your Iniquities hath told him of a Blessedness a Loving kindness which he hath infinite cause to say Amen unto He would have Jesus Christ to remove all the Disorder of his Will to incline him so that he may refuse the evil choose the good and to shield him against all the ruining attempts of the World the Flesh and the Devil for evermore This all of this Faith is beck'nned for in this one word Look unto Me. And these are the Christward Looks which must be given by you whose eyes will be within a few dayes clos'd by the cold hands of grim Death if you would not roar in outer worseâ—han
way to leave men to undo themselves thereby to prevent their being everlastingly undone But doubtless there have been such Examples in the world of men that have been thus saved and who can tell but thou mayst make one more 5. Heartily bless God and wonder at His Kindness therein that He did not suddenly take thee away with His stroke as He has done many such a sinner as thou hast been Many a Drunkard has staggered and reeled into the Pit has dropt into Hell in a moment and gone full of Drink into the place where there is not a drop of water to cool his tongue Bless Him that he did not choak thee with a Lye in thy mouth or make thee fall down dead as soon as ever thou hast vented it So were Ananias and Sapphiraâ— serv'd Act. 5. 5 10. Bless him that He did not stop thy breath just when some execrable Curse or Oath was out of the evil Treasury of thy filtthy rotten heart crawling up that open Sepulchre of thy throat Bless him that he did not strike thee dead in the place when thou wert profaning of His Sabbaths and for not sanctifying that holy Rest unto God that He did not in the twinkling of an eye send thee to the place where thou should have no rest night nor day O bless him for this time of Patience and Forbearance for a space to repent that Divine Long-suffering has afforded thee Bless Him that He has given thee a longer time of Consideration Preparation for a latter end that that poor wretch had who was by thy cruel hand hurried away into Eternity in a little time When thou gavest him his death's wound Vengeance might have given thee a fatal stroak and sent thee to thy own place before him But he is gone and thou art left and forborn a little tho' but for a very little longer let the Goodness of God lead thee to Repentance 6. See that of thy self thou hast no way left to satisfy Justice or pacify divine Anger Say within thy self Wherewith shall I come before the Lord before whose dreadful Tribunal I must appear within a few hours And then say to thy self I have no thousands of rams nor 10 thousands of rivers of oyl and if thou hadst hear the Lord saying to thee that they would avail nothing no nor would the first-born of thy Body be an expiation for the sin of thy soul All thy confessions prayers tears will not answer for the least of a Thousand of those sins under the guilt of which thy soul is now lying Shouldest thou spend every precious moment of thy short time in Confessing Praying fighing groaning weeping all that would not doe No no Here thou standest a guilty Creature condemned of God man and canst not strike one stroke toward thy own Salvation nor deserve that God should do it for thee God has judged thee and men have judged thee worthy of Death and do thou judge thy self worthy of Damnation too A self-judging and self-condemning frame is a suitable frame for thee to be in this day 7. Humbly heartily like a poor laborious heavy laden perishing shiftless Creature cast thy self down at the Footstool of the Throne of Grace crying and looking for the Mercy of God through the Merits of Christ unto thy Pardon Acceptance And Oh the height and depth and length and breadth of the Grace of God in Christ There 's room for a Curser Swearer Lyar Drunkard yea and a Murderer too to ly at that Footstool with hope Then fly for refuge to lay hold on that hope that is set before thee Heb. 6. 18. Flee away to the City of Refuge and I do assure thee from God that the Door stands ready to receive thee and Oh make haste for the Avenger of blood is at thy very heels The City of Refuge under the Old Testament was only to entertain the Man-slayer not the Murderer him that killed a man unwittingly and unwillingly while the wilful Murderer was by express Command from God to be deliver'd up But herein as in all other things does the Antitype out doe the Type Jesus Christ who was and is the Substance of that shaddow invites Murderer as well as Man-slayer and has declared it to be the Father's Will and his own Resolution that whosoever comes to Him He will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. The same Advice which was given to the Murderers of Christ as has been hinted to thee Act. 3. 20. I do now in the name of the Lord give to thee Repent and receive Christ and thou shalt be saved Thou hast sorely angered God already by all that Course of sin that thou hast lived in and principally by this last great sin that thou art condemned for now do not anger Him yet more by neglecting to embrace his Son. Thou hast done all these Wickednesses now don't add to all the rest that which will be unspeakably more than all the rest the rejectof a Saviour yea of a Saviour thus openly freely heartily offering himself to thee even to thee in particular in this solemn Ordinance and that as verily as really as if He should by an audible voice call to thee by name from Heaven and invite thee to come Set thy heart to these things that from the Lord I am Testifying to thee this day for they are thy life Hearken then as for thy life as for thy last or at least that which is next to thy last And that which I have to say to thee is this Behold Jesus Christ is for thy sake come into this place this day this Sabbath this thy last Sabbath which should therefore be a great Day to thee and here He stands cries to thee that if thy guilty soul be heated scorcht by God's Anger and made thirsty after Righteousness which may put out that flame allay that heat and in which thou mayst be found in that day Lo here it is for thee Open thy mouth wide and He will abundantly satisfy thee Hear Christ saying to thee Thou condemned Malefactor I pitty thy case my bowels do yern over thee and tho' dye thou must by a violent death as to the taking away thy bodily life yet I profess I have no delight in thy destruction I have no pleasure in thy death and tho thou dye Temporally I would have thee live Eternally Again hear the same Lord Jesus asking thee expostulating the case about thy soul What doest thou mean to do with thy soul whither shall it got when it leaves thy body what care hast thou taken about it I 'm afraid but little hitherto Hast thou provided a place of rest for it Why if thou be at a loTs and it is a good step to thy being found if thou dost feel thy self lost if thou art afraid lest the devil should get it at last whose slave thou hast too much bin all thy days and art willing to be effectually eased of
against thee as I have done Min. Amen Amen ten thousand times the Lord GOD Allmighty say Amen to this Prayer of yours It would indeed be an excellent thing if you could now come to receive your death with some Satisfaction of soul in this thought That Much Glory is like to come to God by it I am verily perswaded God intends to do good to many souls by means of your Execution This is a greater honour than you are worthy of After the Discourse had been intermitted about a minute or two by reason of the miery way Mor. I beseech you Sir speak to me Do me all the good you can my time grows very short your discourse fits me for my Death more than any thing Min. I 'm sorry so small a thing as a plashy Street should make me loose one minute of this more-than-ordinary precious time a few paces more bring you to the place which you have now in your eye from whence you shall not come back alive Do you find your self afraid to dy there Mor. Sir If it were not for the Condition that my SOUL must by by be in I should not fear my death at all but I have a little comfort from some of Gods promises about that Min. And what shall I now say These are among the last words that I can have liberty to leave with you Poor man thou art now going to knock at the door of Heaven and to beg cry Lord Lord open to me The only way for thee to speed is to open the door of thy own soul now unto the Lord Jesus Christ Do this and thou shalt undoubtedly be admitted into the gloryes of His heavenly Kingdom You shall fare as well as Manasseh did before you leave this undone and there 's nothing remains for you but the Worm which dyeth not and the fire which shall not be quenched Mor. Sir show me then again what I have to do Min. The voice the sweet voice of the Lord Jesus Christ who was once hanged on a tree to take away the Sting and Curfe of even such a Death as yours unto all that close with him His heavenly voice now is Oh that I my Saving work might be entertained kindly entreated in that poor perishing soul of thine Are you willing Morg. I hope I am Min. His Voice further is If I am lodged in thy soul I 'll sprinkle my blood upon it and on my account thou shalt find Favour with GOD. Do you consent to this Mor. This I want Min. But this is not all that he saith His Voice further is If I come into thy soul I will chang it I will make all sin bitter to it I will make it an holy heavenly soul Do you value this above the proffers of all the World Mor. I think I doe and now Sir I must go no further Look here what a solemn sight is this Here lyes the Coffin which this Body of mine must presently be laid in I thank you dear Sir for what you have already done for me Min. When you are gone up this Ladder my last service for you before you are gone off will be to pray with you But I would here take my leave of you Oh that I might meet you at the right Hand of the LORD JESVS in the last Day Farewel poor heart Fare thee well The everlasting Armes receive thee The Lord JESUS the merciful SAVIOUR of Souls take possession of thy Spirit for himself The Great GOD who is a great Forgiver grant thee Repentance unto Life and glorify himself in the Salvation of such a wounded soul as thine forever With HIM and with His free rich marvellous infinite Grace I leave you Farewell FINIS