A WORD to an
UNHAPPY WOMAN.
1.WHITHER are you going? To heaven or hell? Do you not know? Do you never think about it? Why do you not? Are you never to die? Nay, it is appointed for all men to die. And what comes after? Only heaven or hell.——Will the not thinking of death, put it farther off? No; not a day: not one hour. Or will your not thinking of hell, save you from it? O no: you know better. And you know that every moment you are nearer hell, whether you are thinking of it or no: that is, if you are not nearer heaven. You must be nearer one or the other.
2. I intreat you, think a little on that plain question, Are you going toward heaven or hell? To which of the two does this way lead? Is it possible you should be ignorant? Did you never hear, that neither adulterers nor fornicators, shall inherit the kingdom? That fornicators and adulterers God will judge? And how dreadful will be their sentence, “Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!”
3. Surely you do not mock at the word of God! You are not yet sunk so low as this. Consider then that awful word, know ye not, that ye are the temples of God? Was not you designed for the Spirit of God to dwell in? Was not you devoted to God in baptism? But if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. O do not provoke him to it any longer. Tremble before the great, the holy God!
4. Know you not, that your body is, or ought to be, the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Know you not, that you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. And, O how great a price! You are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. O when will you glorify God, with your body and your spirit, which are God’s!
5. Ah poor wretch! How far are you from this? How low are you fallen? You yourself are ashamed of what you do. Are you not? Conscience, speak in the sight of God? Does not your own heart condemn you at this very hour? Do not you shudder at the condition you are in?——Dare, for once, to lay your hand upon your breast, and ask, “What am I doing? And what must the end of these things be?” Destruction both of body and soul.
6. Destruction of body as well as of soul! Can it be otherwise? Are you not plunging into misery in this world, as well as in the world to come? What have you brought upon yourself already! What infamy? What contempt? How could you now appear, among those relations or friends, that were once so loved, and so loving to you? What pangs have you given them? How do some of them still weep for you in secret places? And will you not weep for yourself? When you see nothing before you, but want, pain, diseases, death? O spare yourself! Have pity upon your body, if not your soul. Stop! Before you rot above ground and perish!
7. Do you ask, what shall I do? First, Sin no more. First of all, secure this point. Now, this instant now, escape for your life. Stay not. Look not behind you. Whatever you do, sin no more: starve, die, rather than sin. Be more careful for your soul than your body. Take care of that too: but of your poor soul first.
8. “But you have no friend: none, at least, that is able to help you.” Indeed you have: one that is a present help in time of trouble. You have a friend that has all power in heaven and earth, even Jesus Christ the righteous. He loved sinners of old: and he does so still. He then suffered the publicans and harlots to come unto him. And one of them washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. I would to God you were in her place! Say, Amen! Lift up your heart, and it shall be done. How soon will he say, “Woman be of good chear! Thy sins which are many, are forgiven thee.—Go in peace. Sin no more. Love much; for thou hast much forgiven.”