The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behaviour of a man…The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man…

4. If yet all this prevail nothing at all, the Lord will then wait, and stay in long patience and suffering, to see if any time a sinner will turn unto him. Our Saviour follows poor sinners from Alehouse to Alehouse, and says, I beseech you, Drunkards, take mercy, and have your sins pardoned: The Lord (as we may say) tires himself, and wearieth himself with waiting one day after another, and one week after another: It may be (saith Christ) this week, this Sabbath, this Sermon a sinner will turn unto me; what, will it never be? Are you not ashamed (my friends) that the Lord Jesus should thus wait your leisure, and follow you from house to house, and from place to place; nay, that Christ should every morning appear to your understanding, and every night come to your bed-side, saying, Let this be the last night of sinning, and the next day the first day of your repentance: O when will you be humbled? when will you receive mercy, that it may go well with you, and with yours for ever! If none of the other will move you, yet for shame let this cord draw you to the Lord: Hear, hear his doleful pangs, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? O when will it once be? A ¹woman that is in travel, O how she expects and longs for her delivery I now a throb comes, and then she cries; anon comes a second throb, and then she cries again, O when comes deliverance? Thus God the Father takes on him the person of a travelling woman; he travels and travels until he bring forth a son, until some soul be converted, and brought home unto him, O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when will it once be? I have waited one, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years long have I waited on this generation; when will it once be? The Lord thus travels in patience, looking when we will receive mercy, will never our proud hearts be humbled? will never our stubborn hearts be softened? will never our profane hearts be sanctified? ⟨p. 13⟩when will it once be? Christ hath waited this day, this week, this month, this quarter, this year, these ten, twenty, thirty, forty years on us: You old sinners, that are grey-headed in your wickedness, how long hath the Lord waited on you? O for shame let him wait no longer, but turn, turn ye unto him, that ye may receive mercy from him.

4. If yet all this prevail nothing at all, the Lord will then wait, and stay in long patience and suffering, to see if any time a sinner will turn unto him. Our Savior follows poor sinners from Alehouse to Alehouse, and says, I beseech you, Drunkards, take mercy, and have your sins pardoned: The Lord (as we may say) tires himself, and wearieth himself with waiting one day after another, and one week after another: It may be (saith Christ) this week, this Sabbath, this Sermon a sinner will turn unto me; what, will it never be? Are you not ashamed (my friends) that the Lord Jesus should thus wait your leisure, and follow you from house to house, and from place to place; nay, that Christ should every morning appear to your understanding, and every night come to your bed-side, saying, Let this be the last night of sinning, and the next day the first day of your repentance: O when will you be humbled? when will you receive mercy, that it may go well with you, and with yours for ever! If none of the other will move you, yet for shame let this cord draw you to the Lord: Hear, hear his doleful pangs, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? O when will it once be? A