Well, if these, and such as these, be all you have to say against conversion, and an holy life, your all is nothing, and worse than nothing: and if these, and such as these seem reasons sufficient to persuade you to forsake God, and cast yourselves into hell, the Lord deliver you from such reasons, and from such blind understandings, and from such senseless hardened hearts. Dare you stand to every one of these reasons at the bar of God? Do you think it will then serve your turn, to-say, "Lord, I did not turn, because I had so much ado in the world, or because I did not like the lives of some professors, or because I saw men of so many minds." O how easily will the light of that day confound and shame such reasonings as these! Had you the world to look after? Let the ⟨p. 90⟩world which you served now pay you your wages, and save you if it can. Had you not a better world to look after first, and were ye not commanded to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, and promised that other things should be added to you, Matth. vi. 33. And were ye not told, that godliness was profitable to all things, having the promise of this life, and of that which is to come? 1 Tim. iv. 8. Did the sins of professors hinder you? You should rather have been the more heedful, and learned by their falls, to beware, and have been the more careful, and not to be more careless; it was the scripture, and not their lives, that was your rule. Did the many opinions of the world hinder you? Why, the scripture, that was your rule, did teach you but one way, and that was the right way. If you had followed that, even in so much as was plain and easy, you should never have miscarried. Will not such answers as these confound and silence you? If these will not, God hath those that will. When he asked the man, Matth. xxii. 12. 'Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment?' that is, what doest thou in my Church, among professed christians, without an holy heart and life; what answer did he make? Why the text saith, he was speechless; he had nothing to say. The clearness of the case, and the majesty of God, will then easily stop the mouths of the most confident of you, though you will not be put down by any thing we can say to you now, but will make good your cause, be it never so bad.
Well, if these, and such as these, be all you have to say against conversion, and an holy life, your all is nothing, and worse than nothing: and if these, and such as these seem reasons sufficient to persuade you to forsake God, and cast yourseives into hell, the Lord deliver you from such reasons, and from such blind understandings, and from such senseless hardened hearts. Dare you stand to every one of these reasons at the bar of God? Do you think it will then serve your turn, to-say, "Lord, I did not turn, because I had so much ado in the world, or because I did not like the lives of some professors, or because I saw men of so many minds." O how easily will the light of that day con•ound and shame such reasonings as these! Had you the world to look after? Let the ⟨p. 90⟩world which you served now pay you your wages, and save you if it can. Had you not a better world to look after first, and were ye not commanded to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, and promised that other things should be added to you, Matth. vi. 33. And were ye not told, that godliness was profitable to all things, having the promise of this life, and of that which is to come? 1 Tim. iv. 8. Did the sins of professors hinder you? You should rather have been the more heedful, and learned by their falls, to beware, and have been the more careful, and not to be more careless; it was the scripture, and not their lives, that was your rule. Did the many opinions of the world hinder you? Why, the scripture, that was your rule, did teach you but one way, and that was the right way. If you had followed that, even in so much as was plain and easy, you should never have miscarried. Will not such answers as these confound and silence you? If these will not, God hath those that will. When he asked the man, Matth. xxii. 12. 'Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment?' that is, what doest thou in my Church, among professed christians, without an holy heart and life; what answer did he make? Why the text saith, he was speechless; he had nothing to say. The clearness of the case, and the majesty of God, will then easily stop the mouths of the most confident of you, though you will not be put down by any thing we can say to you now, but will make good your cause, be it never so bad.
