So unspeakably dreadful is the case of every unconverted soul, that I have sometimes thought if I could but convince men that they are yet unregenerate, the work were more than half done. But I find by sad experience that such a spirit of sloth and slumber possesses the unsanctified, that, though they be convinced that they are yet unconverted, they ofttimes carelessly sit still; and through. the love of sensual pleasure, or the hurry of worldly business, or the noise and clamor of earthly cares “and lusts and affections, the voice of conscience is drowned, and men go no farther than some cold wishes and general purposes of repenting and amending. ”
It is therefore of high necessity that I not only convince men that they are unconverted, but that I also endeavor to bring them to a sense of the fearful misery of this state.
But here I find myself aground at first setting off. What tongue can tell the heirs of hell sufficiently of their misery, unless it were Dives in that flame? Luke 16: 24. Where is the ready writer whose pen can depict their misery who are without God in ~ the world? This cannot fully be done, unless we know the infinite ocean of bliss which is in perfection in God, and from which a state of sin doth exclude men. “Who knoweth,” saith Moses, “the power of thine anger?” And how shall I tell men that which I donot know? Yet so much we know, as one would think would shake the heart of that man that had the least degree of spiritual life and “sense.
But this is yet the more perplexing difficulty, that I am to speak to them that are without spiritual sense. Alas, this is not the least part of man’s misery, that he is dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Could I bring paradise into view, or represent the kingdom of heaven to as much advantage as the. tempter did the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory thereof, to our Saviour; or could I uncover the face of the deep and devouring gulf of Tophet in all its terrors, and open the gates of the infernal furnace; alas, he hath no eyes to see it. Could I paint the beauties of holiness or the glory of the Gospel; or could I expose to view the more than diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin: he can no more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one, and the filthiness and hatefulness of the other, than a blind man of colors. He is alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in him be-. cause of the blindness of his heart. He neither doth nor can know the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. His eyes cannot be savingly opened but by converting grace. He is a child of darkness, and walks in darkness. Yea, the light in him is darkness.. Shall I ring his knell, or read his sentence, or sound in his ear the terrible trump of God’s judgments, that one would think should make both his ears to tingle, and strike him into Belshazzar’s fit, even to change his countenance, and to loose his joints, and make his knees smite one against another? Alas, he perceives me not; he hath no ears to hear. Or shall I call up the daughters of music, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Yet he will not be stirred. Shall I allure him with the joyful sound, and lovely song, and glad tidings of the Gospel; with the most sweet and inviting calls, comforts, and cordials of the divine promises so exceedingly great and precious? It will not affect him savingly, unless I could find him ears as well as tell him the news. ‘
What then shall I do? Shall I uncover to him the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; or shall I open the box of spikenard, very precious, that filleth the whole house of the universe with its perfume, and hope that the savor of Christ’s ointments and the smell of his garments will attract him? Alas, dead sinners are like the dumb idols: they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have -. they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They are destitute of spiritual sense and motion, ) But let me try the sense that doth last leave us, and draw the sword of the word; yet, though I choose mine arrows out of God’s quiver, and direct them to the heart, nevertheless he feeleth it not; for how should he, being past feeling? So that, though the wrath of God abideth on him,” and the mountainous weight, of so many thousand sins, yet he goes up and down as light as if nothing ailed him. In a word, he carries a dead sou] in a living - body, and his flesh is but the walking coffin of a corrupt mind that is twice dead. Jude 12.
Which way then shall.I come at the miserable objects that I have to deal with? Who shall make the heart of stone relent, or the lifeless carcass to feel and move? That God who is able of “stones to raise up children unto Abraham;” that raiseth the dead,” “and melteth the mountains,” and “striketh water out of the flint; that loves to work like himself, beyond the hopes and belief of man; that peopleth his church with dry bones; he is able to do this. Therefore “I bow my knee to the most high God;”’ and as our Saviour prayed at the sepulchre of Lazarus, and the Shunamite ran to the man of God for her dead child, so doth your mourning minister carry you in the arms of prayer to that God in whom your help is found.