salvation at any time, doth occasion men to make light of them. It is true, that grace is free, and the offer is universal, according to the extent of the preaching of the Gospel; and it is true, that men may have Christ when they will; that is, when they are willing to have him on his terms; but He that hath promised thee Christ, if thou be willing, hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now, how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter? If thou canst make thine own heart willing, why is it not done now? Can you do it better when sin hath more hardened it, and God may have given thee over to thyself? O sinners! you might do much, though you are not able of yourselves to come in, if you would now subject yourselves to the working of the Spirit, and set in while the gales of grace continue but did you know what a hard and impossible thing it is to be so much as willing to have Christ and grace, when the heart is given over to itself, and the Spirit hath withdrawn its former invitations, you would not be so confident of your own strength to believe and repent; nor would you make light of Christ upon such foolish confidence. If, indeed, it be so easy a matter as you imagine, for a sinner to believe and repent at any time, how comes it to pass that it is done by so few; but most of the world do perish in their impenitency, when they have all the helps and means that we can afford them? It is true, the thing is very reasonable and easy in itself to a pure nature; but, while man is blind and dead, these things are in a way impossible to him, which are never so easy to others. It is the easiest and sweetest life in the world to a gracious soul to

live in the love of God, and the delightful thoughts of the life to come, where all their hope and happiness lieth: but to a worldly, carnal heart, it is as easy to remove a mountain as to bring them to this. However, these men are their own condemners; for, if they think it so easy a matter to repent and believe, and so to have Christ, and right to salvation, then have they no excuse for neglecting this which they thought so easy. O wretched, impenitent soul! what mean you to say when God shall ask you, Why did you not repent, and love your Redeemer above the world, when you thought it so easy that you could do it at any time!

IV. Use 1. We come now to the application: and hence, you may be informed of the blindness and folly of all carnal men. How contemptible are their judgments that think Christ and salvation contemptible! And how little reason there is why any should be moved by them, or discouraged by any of their scorns and contradictions!

How shall we sooner know 25 know a man to be a fool, than if he know no difference between dung and gold? Is there such a thing as madness in the world, if that man be not mad that sets light by Christ, and his own salvation, while he daily toils for the dung of the earth? And yet, what pity is it to see that a company of poor, ignorant souls will be ashamed of godliness, if such men as these do but deride them! Or, will think hardly of a holy life, if such as these do speak against it! Hearers, if you see any set light by Christ and salvation, do you set light by that man's wit, and by his words; and hear the reproaches of a holy life, as you

would

hear the words of a madman-not with regard, but with a compassion of his misery.

Use 2. What wonder if we and our preaching be despised, and the best ministers complain of ill success, when the ministry of the apostles themselves did succeed no better! What wonder, if for all that we can say or do, our hearers still set light by Christ and their own salvation, when the apostles' hearers did the same! They that did second their doctrine by miracles: if any men could have shaken and torn in pieces the hearts of sinners, they could have done it. If any man could have laid them at their feet, and made them all cry out as some, "What shall we do?" it would have been they. You may see then, that it is not merely for want of good preachers that men make light of Christ and salvation. The first news of such a thing as the pardon of sin, and the hopes of glory, and the danger of everlasting misery, would turn the hearts of men within them, if they were as tractable in spiritual matters as in temporal: but, alas! it is far otherwise. It must not seem any strange thing, nor must it too much discourage the preachers of the Gospel, if, when they have said all that they can devise to say, to win the hearts of men to Christ; the most do still slight him, and while they bow the knee to him, and honour him with their lips, do yet set so light by him in their hearts, as to prefer every fleshly pleasure or convenience before him. It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with all.

Use 3. But for closer application, seeing this is the great condemning sin, before we inquire after it into the hearts of our hearers, it beseems us to begin

at home, and see that we, who are preachers of the Gospel, be not guilty of it ourselves. The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred office of revealing the excellencies of Christ to the world, should make light of him themselves, and slight that salvation which they daily preach. The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our estimation of Christ, and do this great work so negligently, that we have cause to be ashamed of our best sermons; but should this sin prevail in us, we were the most miserable of all men, O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and salvation are made light of by the preachers of it! But, 1. Do not the negligent studies of some speak it out? 2. Doth not their dead and drowsy preaching declare it? Do not they make light of the doctrine they preach, that do it as if they were half asleep, and feel not what they speak themselves? 3. Doth not the carelessness of some men's private endeavours discover it? what do they for souls? how slightly do they reprove sin? How little do they when they are out of the pulpit for the saving of men's souls! Doth not the continued neglect of those things, wherein the interest of Christ consisteth, discover it? 1st, The church's purity and reformation. 2d, Its unity. 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly lives of too many discover it, losing advantages for men's souls, for a little gain to themselves? And most of this is because men are preachers before they are Christians, and tell men of that which they never felt themselves. Of all men on earth, there are few that are in so sad a condition as such ministers; and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which

4.

they preach, methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it.

Use 4. Beloved hearers, the office that God hath called us to, is by declaring the glory of his grace, to help, under Christ, to the saving of men's souls. I hope you think not that I come hither to-day, on any other errand. The Lord knows, I had not set a foot out of doors, but in hope to succeed in this work for your souls. I have considered, and often considered, What is the matter, that so many thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their salvation; and I find this that is mentioned in my text is the cause. It

is one of the wonders of the world, that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son, and Christ hath made a satisfaction, by his death, sufficient for them all, and offereth the benefits of it so freely to them, even without money or price, that yet the most of the world should perish; yea, the most of those that are thus called by his word! Why, here is the reason, when Christ hath done all this, men make light of it. God hath showed that he is not unwilling; and Christ hath showed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to God's favour, and be saved; but men are actually unwilling themselves. God takes not pleasure in the death of sinners, but rather that they return and live. But men take such pleasure in sin, that they will die before they will return. The Lord Jesus was content to be their physician, and hath provided them a sufficient remedy in his own blood; but if men make light of it, and will not apply it, what wonder if they perish after all!

This Scripture