The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

1. You are yet in the place where there is room for repentance and forgiveness. You are not in the pit from which there is no Redemption; if you were there, you were gone for ever; but you are alive still, and within the compass of a treaty; you are there where proclamation is made, that it you seek God with all your heart, you shall find him. God hath no where said that he will not give you the grace to seek him, or that you shall not find him if you so do. Secret things belong to God; but the offer of this Grace is to be made to you; and though it be admirable, yet God hath bidden such a proclamation to be published, Jer. 3. 1. And I am sure that he can break your hard hearts, and give you repentance; and if he do, there is no doubt of the good success of it.

2. You are yet striven with, and called upon. God indeed speaks of a cessation of his Spirit striving with obstinate Sinners, Gen. 6. 3. And there are the awful instances of it; but the case is otherwise with you. If the means of grace are influenced so as to rouse and awaken you out of your security, and make you feel your misery, and be afraid by reason of it: if he presents your sins to you i• their aggravations, and makes them evil and bitte• to you, this is a wo•k of his Spirit, and saith tha• he strives still; and whiles he strives, there is hop• that he may be found.

2. You are yet striven with, and called upon. God indeed speaks of a cessation of his Spirit striving with obstinate Sinners, Gen. 6. 3. And there are the awful instances of it; but the case is otherwise with you. If the means of grace are influenced so as to rouse and awaken you out of your security, and make you feel your mifery, and be asraid by reason of it: if he presents your sins to you i their aggravations, and makes them evil and bitte to vou, this is a wok of his Spirit, and saith tha he stives still; and whiles he strives, there is hop that he may be found.