Yet I cannot but call after them. Hearken unto me, O ye children. How long will ye love vanity, and trust in lying words? As the Lord liveth, you are lost, except you turn: wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. Ah how mercy wooeth you! How it waiteth to be gracious? Hear, O sinners, hear. See you not how the merciful Saviour of the world stretcheth forth his hands all the day long, and spreadeth forth his wings, and calleth you as a hen doth her chickens! Hear you not the sounding of his bowels? He hath no need of you: Yet how do his compassions melt over perishing sinners? His heart is turned within him, and shall not this turn your hearts? His repentings are kindled together, and shall not this lead you to repentance? Behold, he standeth at the door and knocketh. O man, wilt thou keep Jesus at the door, and lodge Barabbas in thy bosom? Oh his melting love to sinners! He calleth after them, he weepeth over them, he crieth to them. How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity? Will you not be made clean? When shall it once be? Why will you die? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you. Sinner, art thou not yet melted? Oh come in at his loving calls. Come out from thy sins: touch the scepter of grace and live: Why shouldst thou be dashed in pieces by his iron rod? Kiss the Son: Why shouldst thou perish in the way? Set up Jesus as thy king, lest he count thee for his enemy, because thou would not that he should reign over thee, and so thou be called forth and slain before him. Oh how dreadful will this case be, to die by the hand of a Saviour! Oh double hell, to have thy Redeemer become thy executioner! And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee, to be now stretched forth to slay thee! And the merciful heart of Christ himself hardened against thee, so that he should call thee forth, and hew thee in pieces, as Samuel did Agag before the Lord.
*Beloved, I despair of ever bringing you to salvation, without sanctification: or possessing you with happiness without persuading you to holiness. God knows I have not the least hope ever to see one of your faces in heaven, except you be sanctified, and exercise yourselves unto godliness. This is that I drive at, I beseech you study to further personal godliness, and family godliness.
*1. Personal godliness. Let it be your first care to set up Christ in your hearts. See that you make all your worldly interests stoop to him, that you be entirely and unreservedly devoted to him. If you deliberately and ordinarily harbour any sin, you are undone. See that you unfeignedly take the laws of Christ, as the rule of your words, thoughts and actions; and subject your whole man, faithfully to him. If you have a true respect unto all God’s commandments, you are sound at heart. O study to get the image and impress of Christ upon you within. Begin with your hearts, else you build without a foundation. Labour to get a saving change within, or else all external performances will be to no purpose. And then study to shew forth the power of godliness in your life. Let piety be your business. ’Tis the highest point of justice, to give God his due. Beware that none of you be a prayerless person: for that is a certain discovery of a Christless, and a graceless person. Suffer not your bibles to gather dust. See that you converse daily with the word. That man can never lay claim to blessedness, whose delight is not in the law of the Lord. Let meditation and self-examination be your daily exercise, else the Papists, yea the Pagans will condemn us. If ever you come to any growth in holiness, without the constant use of this practice, I am grossly deceived. And therefore I beseech, yea even charge you by the Lord, that you would daily examine yourselves.
But piety without charity is but the half of Christianity, or rather impious hypocrisy. See therefore that you do justly, and love mercy, and let equity, and charity run like an even thread, through all your dealings. Be you temperate in all things, and let chastity and sobriety be your undivided companions. Let truth and purity, seriousness and modesty, heavenliness and gravity, be the constant ornaments of your speech. Let patience and humility, simplicity and sincerity shine in all parts of your conversation. See that you forget and forgive wrongs, and requite them with kindness. Be merciful in your censures, and put the most favourable construction upon your brethren’s carriage. Be slow in promising, punctual in fulfilling. Let meekness, innocency, affableness, yieldingness, and courtesy, commend your conversation to all men. Let none of your relations want that love and loyalty, that reverence and duty, that tenderness, care, and vigilancy, which their several places and capacities call for. This is true godliness. I charge you before the most high God, that none of you be found a swearer, or a liar, a lover of evil company, or a scoffer, or malicious, or covetous, or a drunkard, or a glutton, unrighteous in his dealing, unclean in his living, or a quarreller, or a thief, or backbiter, or a railer: for I denounce unto you from the living God, that damnation is the end of all such.
2. Family godliness. He that hath set up Christ in his heart, will be sure to study to set him up in his house. Let every family with you be a Christian church; every house a house of prayer; every houshold a houshold of faith. Let every housholder say, with Joshua, I, with my house, will serve the Lord, and with David, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
First, Let religion be in your families, not as a matter by the by, but the standing business of the house. Let them have your prayers as duly as their meals. Is there any of your families, but have time for their taking food? *Wretched man! Canst thou find time to eat, and not time to pray?
*Secondly, Settle it upon your hearts, that your souls are bound up in the souls of your family. They are committed to you, and (if they be lost through your neglect) will be required at your hands: Sirs, if you do not, you shall know that the charge of souls is a heavy charge, and that the blood of souls is a heavy guilt. O man, hast thou a charge of souls to answer for, and dost thou not yet bestir thyself for them, that their blood may not be found in thy skirts? Wilt thou do no more for immortal souls, than thou wilt do for the beasts that perish? What dost thou do for thy children, and servants? Thou providest meat and drink for them, and dost thou not the same for thy beasts? Thou givest them medicines, and cherishest them when they are sick, and dost thou not so much for thy swine? More particularly.
1. Let the solemn reading of the word, and singing of psalms, be your family exercises. See Christ singing with his family, his disciples, Matthew xxvi. 30. Luke ix. 18.
2. Let every person in your family be duly called to an account of their profiting by the word heard or read, as they are about doing your own business. This is a duty of consequence unspeakable, and would be a means to bring those under your charge to remember and profit by what they receive.
3. Often take account of the souls under your care, concerning their spiritual estates. Make enquiry into their conditions, insist much upon the sinfulness and misery of their natural estate, and upon the necessity of regeneration, in order to their salvation. Admonish them gravely of their sins; encourage beginnings. Follow them earnestly, and let them have no quiet for you, till you see in them a saving change. This is a duty of high consequence, but fearfully neglected by some. Doth not conscience say, Thou art the man?