The unbelievers preparing for Christ. By T.HThe vnbeleevers preparing for Christ. By T.H

The Lord doth wait and stay in long patience & suffering,¹ to see if at any time a sinner will turn unto him: our Saviour follows poor sinners from Alehouse to Alehouse, and says, I beseech you, you drunkards take mercy, and have your sins pardoned; the Lord tyres himself so, and wearieth himself with waiting one day after another, and one week after another; it may be this day, this week, this Sabbath, this Sermon a sinner will turn unto me, what will it never be, why are you not ashamed that the Lord Jesus should thus wait your leisure, and follow you from house to house, and into the field, nay that Christ should every morning appear unto your understanding, and every night come to your bed-side and say, let this be the last night of sinning, and the next day the first day of your repenting; oh when will you be humbled, when will you receive mercy that it may go well with you and yours for ever; why for shame if none of all the other will move you, yet let this cord draw you unto the Lord: this is the last cord of Gods mercy, he stayeth our leisure; the Lord will not wait always, but he waiteth a long time for our amendment; he stayed above a hundred years for the old world: Jer. 13.27. there God taketh upon him the person of a travelling woman, oh Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean, oh when will it once be? a woman that is in travel, and oppressed with pain, oh how she expects and longs for her delivery, when the thro• comes, then she cries, ⟨p. 39⟩when will deliverance come, and then the throb comes the second time, and then she cries, would death would come so deliverance would come, and thus her heart breaks almost with waiting in this kind, for the birth of the child which is to be delivered; God the father doth take upon him, the person of a travelling woman, he is travelling even unto death, until he can bring forth his first borne, until some soul be converted and brought home unto him; oh Jerusalem wilt thou not be clean, oh when will it once be? I have waited one year, ten year, twenty year, forty year, why when will it once be? if a woman should be in travel forty years, she would be accounted the wonder of the world, nay it were impossible she should endure so long, but the Lord hath travelled twenty years, yea forty for the birth of poor sinners;