A call to the unconverted, to turn and live

2. Moreover, the wicked will not use these means, without which there is no hope of their salvation: He that will not eat, may as well say plainly, he will not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat: He that will not go his journey, may as well say plainly, he will not come to the end: He that falls into the water, and will not come out, nor suffer another to help him out, may as well say plainly, he will be drowned. So if you be carnal and ungodly, and will not be converted, nor use the means by which you should be converted, but think it more ado than needs, you may as well say plainly, you will be damned; for if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before.

3. Yea, this is not all, but the wicked are unwilling, even of salvation itself, tho' they may desire somewhat which they call by the name of Heaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the true nature of the felicity, they desire not; yea, their hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state of ⟨p. 74⟩perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love and praise, and holiness which is here to be attained, they have no mind of; much less of that which is so much greater; the joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature, that the heart of the wicked cannot truly desire them.

So that by this time you may see, upon what ground it is that God supposeth, that the wicked are willing of their own destruction: They will not turn, tho' they must turn or die; they will rather venture on certain misery, than be converted, and then, to quit themselves in their sins, they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape.