Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Evid. 2. How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith (such as it was) in time of temptation and trial! See how they fall, like stars from heaven, when Antichrist prevails, 2 Thess. ii 11, 12. God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth. They fall into damning delusions: because they never really believed the truth, tho' they themselves and others too thought they did believe it. That house is built upon the sand, and that faith is but ill-founded, that cannot bear out, but is quite overthrown, when the storm •omes.

Evid. 3. Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives, with the principles of religion which they profess; ye may as soon bring east and west together, as their principles and practice. Men believe that fire will burn them, and therefore they will not throw themselves into it: but the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scare-crow. If ye believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that ye are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the LORD? How is it that you are so ⟨p. 56⟩little concerned with that weighty point, whether ye be born again or not? Many live as they were born, and are like to die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe they are children of wrath? Do they believe there is no salvation without regeneration? and no regeneration but what makes man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not embrace them, and labour to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not dig for a hid treasure, if he really believed he might so obtain it? Men will work and sweat for a maintenance; because they believe that by so doing they will get it: yet they will be at no tolerable pains for the eternal weight of glory: why, but because they do not believe the word of promise? Heb. iv. 1, 2