and therefore he hath commanded us to Call after you, and tell you, how you lose your labour, and are about to lose your souls, and to tell you what greater and better things you might certainly have, if you would hearken to his Call, (Isaiah 55 1, 2.3.) We believe and obey the voice of God; and come to you daily on his message, who hath charged us to preach and be instant with you in season and out of season, and to lift up our voice like a Trumpet, and show you your transgressions and your sins, Isa. 58.1. 2 Tim. 4.1, 2. But, woe and alas! to the grief of ⟨image 10⟩our souls, and your own undoing, you stop your ears, you stiffen your necks, you harden your hearts, and break our hearts, and send us back to God with groans to tell him that we have done his message, but can do no good on you, nor scarcely get a sober hearing. O that our eyes were as a fountain of tears, that we might lament our ignorant careless people; that have Christ before them, and pardon, and life, and heaven before them, and have not hearts to know and value them! that might have Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others, if it were not for their wilful negligence and contempt! O that the Lord would fill our hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls, that we might cast our selves even at their feet, and follow them to their houses, and speak to them with our bitter tears: For long have we preached to many of them as in vain; we study ⟨image 11⟩plainness to make them understand; and many of them will not understand us. We study serious piercing words, to make them feel, but they will not feel. If the Greatest matter would work with them, we should awake them: If the sweetest things would work, we should entice them and win their hearts: if the most dreadful things would work, we should at least affright them from their wickedness; if Truth and Certainty would take with them, we should soon convince them: if the God that made them, and the Christ that bought them might be heard, the ease would soon be altered with them: if Scripture might be heard, we should soon prevail: if Reason, even the best and strongest Reason might be heard, we should not doubt but we should speedily convince them: if experience might be heard, even their own experience, and the experience ⟨image 11⟩of all the world, the matter would be mended.
and therefore he hath commanded us to Call after you, and tell you, how you lose your labour, and are about to lose your souls, and to tell you what greater and better things you might certainly have, if you would hearken to his Call, (Isaiah 55 1, 2.3.) We believe and obey the voice of God; and come to you daily on his message, who hath charged us to preach and be instant with you in season and out of season, and to lift up our voice like a Trumpet, and shew you your transgressions and your sins, Isa. 58.1. 2 Tim. 4.1, 2. But, wo and alas! to the grief of ⟨image 10⟩our souls, and your own undoing, you stop your ears, you stiffen your necks, you harden your hearts, and break our hearts, and send us back to God with groans to tell him that we have done his message, but can do no good on you, nor scarcely get a sober hearing. O that our eyes were as a fountain of tears, that we might lament our ignorant careless people; that have Christ before them, and pardon, and life, and heaven before them, and have not hearts to know and value them! that might have Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others, if it were not for their wilful negligence and contempt! O that the Lord would fill our hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls, that we might cast our selves even at their feet, and follow them to their houses, and speak to them with our bitter tears: For long have we preached to many of them as in vain; we study ⟨image 11⟩plainness to make them understand; and many of them will not understand us. We study serious piercing words, to make them feel, but they will not feel. If the Greatest mattter would work with them, we should awake them: If the sweetest things would work, we should entice them and win their hearts: if the most dreadful things would work, we should at least affright them from their wickedness; if Truth and Certainty would take with them, we should soon convince them: if the God that made them, and the Christ that bought them might be heard, the ease would soon be altered with them: if Scripture might be heard, we should soon prevail: if Reason, even the best and strongest Reason might be heard, we should not doubt but we should speedily convince them: if experience might be heard, even their own experience, and the experience ⟨image 11⟩of all the world, the matter would be mended.
