Sermons preached

1. Suffer us to discharge our Duty in this kind. Heb. 13. 22. I beseech you Brethren, suffer the Word of Exhortation. It is but a small request we have to you, that you will but suffer us to take pains to save your Souls: it is irksome to carnal Men to have their sluggishness stirred up: But what is there that should make it grievous and distasteful? Many can endure us when we treat of the Joys of Heaven, but when we come to flash Hell Terrors in the Face of obstinate Sinners, and tell them of Damnation and Wrath to come, they think us harsh and severe, and say as Ahab of Micaiah, He prophesieth nothing but evil to me. I, but we must set both before you, both Life and Death; and it is better to hear of Hell than to feel it. That is a cowardly Confidence that cannot endure the mention of our Danger. There are others that like the offer ⟨p. 340⟩of Heaven, but would sever those things that are so aptly joined, Life and Good, Death and Evil, that cannot endure this Doctrine in this Sense; they say with those carnal Hearers, Evermore give us the Bread of Life, Joh. 6. 35. But they mistake the Terms upon which it may be had. Oh! but we are not in the place of God, and cannot make the way to Heaven easier than it is, but we propound God's Covenant as we find it, Life and Good, the Conditions as well as the Offer. Would you have us compound with you, and deceive your Souls with a false hope, which will leave you ashamed when you most need the comfort of it? Men would live with the Carnal, die with the Sincere; therefore suffer us to be earnest with you.