Sermon 4

(Mark 16:15-16) And he said to them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that does not believe shall be damned.

I am persuaded I need not inform this auditory, that when ambassadors are sent to a prince, or when judges go their respective circuits, it is always customary for them to show their credentials, to open and read their commissions, by which they act in his Majesty's name. The same is absolutely necessary for those who are ambassadors of the Son of God, as they would be faithful to their Lord; since they are to sit with him on the throne, when he shall come the second time to judge both evil angels and men. If any should ask me, where is [reconstructed: their] commission? it has been just now read to you. Here it is in my hand, it is written with the King's own hand, by the finger of the ever-blessed God, and sealed with the signet of his eternal Spirit, with his broad seal annexed to it. The commission is short, but very extensive; and it is remarkable, it was given out just before the Redeemer went to heaven; he reserved it in infinite wisdom for his last blessing, to appoint and employ vicegerents to carry on his work on earth. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Son of God says to a company of poor fishermen. There was not one scholar among them all. What does he say; Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Let us pause a while, and before we go further let us see what mercy, what love, and yet withal, what equal majesty are blended in this expression or commission. Go you, you poor fishermen, you that the letter-learned doctors will look upon as illiterate men; Go you, that have hitherto been dreaming of temporal preferments, quarrelling who should sit on my right hand and on my left hand in my kingdom: Go you, not stay till the people come to you, but imitate the conduct of your Master; Go you, remembering that the devil will not permit souls to be fond of hearing you: Go therefore; where? Into all the world: there is a commission for you; there never was such a commission on the earth; there never was any like this; Go into all the world, that is, into the Gentile as well as the Jewish world. Hitherto my gospel has been confined to the Jews; I once told you, you must not go to the Gentiles; I once told a poor woman that came to me, it is not meet to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs: but the partition wall being now broke down, the veil of the temple being now rent in two, he gave them a universal commission; Go you, therefore, into all the world; how! What go into other ministers' parishes? For there was not a district then but what was settled with shepherds, such as they were; yes, yes, Go into all the world: and though I will not pretend to say, that this enjoins ministers to go into every part of the world; yet I insist upon it, and by the grace of God, if I was to die for it, I will say, that no power on earth has power to restrain ministers from preaching where a company of people are willing to hear; and if ministers were of a right temper, they would say as a minister did at Oxford, that used to visit the prisoners there; I remember once I went to ask him whether I might go and visit some of his parish, whether he was offended at our going to visit the prisoners? No, no, says he, I am glad I have any such young curates as you. And if ministers were of such a temper now, O dear the devil would [reconstructed: fly] before us. As good Mr. Philip Henry said to the minister of Broad Oaks, from where he was ejected, but preached afterwards in a barn, and meeting the minister after sermon was over; Sir, says Mr. Henry, I have been making bold to throw a handful of seed into your ground. Thank you, sir, says he, God bless it, there is work enough for us both. We may talk of what we will, search into the bottom, it is not for want of light, but of more zeal and love to the Son of God: if we were as warm, and full of the love of God as we ought to be, these pretty excuses we urge to save our bones, would not be so much as mentioned; we should go out and leave these carcases to the grace of God. I don't see how we can act as priests of the church of England without doing it. Be so kind as to read the Ordination Service as soon as you go home; for the office of ordination and consecration of bishops, priests, and deacons, is left out of most of the common prayer-books, so that people are as ignorant of it as if it was not. The office of a priest is this: he is not to confine himself to his place, no; what then? Why he is to go forth, and seek after the children of God that are dispersed in this naughty world; these are the very words that the bishop speaks to us when we are ordained; but if we are confined to one particular place, and are to be shut up in one corner, pray how do we seek the children of God that are dispersed in this naughty world? Parishes and settled ministers there must be, but we are not, I insist on it, to be hindered from preaching Christ any where, because he bids us go into all the world; here is our license. I acknowledge the Chapel is licensed; here is my license, and wherever I go I will produce my license; where? Why out of the 16th of Mark; Go you and preach the gospel to all the world: there is the license, and the Spirit of Christ helping us to preach by that license, will make all the devil's children cowards before us. We have tried them these thirty years, would to God we set about it now; if I had strength I would set about it to-morrow; I only grieve that my body will not hold out for field-preaching, else Kennington-Common should be my pulpit, for any place is consecrated where Christ is present. Well, what must we go forth to do? Go you into all the world, and preach; preach! What is that? Why the original word for preach is to speak out, as a crier does that cries goods that are lost; proclaim it. And Isaiah would be reckoned a dreadful enthusiast if now alive. How does he preach? He preaches in the King's chapels such language and eloquence as would carry all before it; and yet how does he preach? Ho, every one that thirsts. O, he lifts up his voice like a trumpet. And the word preach signifies to proclaim; to cry aloud, and spare not. How do you like one that cries your lost goods if he only whispers? Would you choose to employ a man that you could not hear two yards? O, say you, I shall never find my goods: and if persons have what qualifications they may, if they cannot be heard at all; they need not preach at all. I know a prebend in the cathedral of York, who spoke so very low nobody heard him; somebody said, they never heard such a moving sermon in all their lives in that cathedral, for it made all the people move out, because they could not hear. The matter of the ministry of the gospel is of infinite importance: unless, my brethren, we could be heard, what do we preach for? It implies earnestness in the preaching, and the preacher. You expect a person, like one that is crying your goods, to be in earnest; and if we preach, and make the King's proclamation, we should be in earnest. It is said, Christ opened his mouth and taught. Now a modern critic would laugh at that; open his mouth, say they, how could he speak without opening his mouth? Would it not be better to say, he taught them? No, no, there is no idle word in God's book. It is said, the Lord Jesus opened his mouth: what for? Why, to get in breath that he might speak loud to the people, when the heavens were his sounding board; then did he open his mouth, and taught them in earnest, powerfully; and therefore the people make this observation when he had done speaking, that he spoke as one having authority, and not as the Scribes. There is no dispensation from preaching, but sickness or want of abilities, to those that are ordained to preach; and therefore it was a proverb in the primitive church, that it becomes a bishop to die preaching. Bishop Jewell, that blessed minister of the church of England, gave that answer to a person that met his lordship walking on foot in the dirt, going to preach to a few people. Why does your lordship, weak as you are, expose yourself thus? Says he, it becomes a bishop to die preaching. Lord send all the world that have bishops such jewels as he was! Pray what are they to preach? Not themselves. What are they to preach? Why they are to preach not morality: not morality! Come, don't be frightened, any of you that are afraid of good works don't be frightened this morning: I say not morality; that is, morality is not to be the grand point of their preaching; they are not to preach as a heathen philosopher would. A late bishop of Lincoln, who has not been dead a long while, said to his chaplain, You are not a minister of Cicero, or any of the heathen philosophers; you are not to entertain your people with dry morality, but remember you are a minister of Christ; you are, therefore, to preach the gospel; and if you will not preach the gospel in the church, you must not be angry for the poor people's going out into the fields where they hear the gospel; that is to be your grand theme, Go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Now the gospel signifies good news, glad tidings: Behold I bring you, said the angel, glad tidings of great joy. Mean and contemptible as the office of a preacher may be thought now, the angels were glad of the commission to preach this gospel: and Doctor Goodwin, that learned pious soul, says in his familiar way, and that is the best way of writing, God had but one Son, and he made a minister of him; and I add, he made an itinerant minister of him too. Well, and some say, you must not preach the law; you cannot preach the gospel without preaching the law; for you shall find by and by, we are to preach something that the people must be saved by: it is impossible to tell them how they are to be saved, unless we tell them what they are to be saved from. The way the Spirit of God takes, is like that we take in preparing the ground: do you think any farmer would have a crop of corn next year unless they plough now; and you may as well expect a crop of corn on unploughed ground, as a crop of grace, until the soul is convinced of its being undone without a Saviour. That is the reason we have so many mushroom converts, so many persons that are always happy! happy! happy! and never were miserable; why? because their stony ground is not ploughed up; they have not got a conviction of the law; they are stony ground hearers: they hear the word with joy, and in a time of temptation, which will soon come after a seeming or real conversion, they fall away. They serve Christ as the young man served the Jews that laid hold of him, who, when he found he was like to be a prisoner for following Christ, left his garments; and so some people leave their profession. That makes me so cautious now, which I was not thirty years ago, of dubbing people converts so soon. I love now to wait a little, and see if people bring forth fruit; for there are so many blossoms which March winds you know blow away, that I cannot believe they are converts till I see fruit brought forth. It will do converts no harm to keep them a little back; it will never do a sincere soul any harm.

We are to preach the gospel: to whom? to every creature: here is the commission, every creature. I suppose the apostles were not to see every creature; they did not go into all nations; they had particular districts; but wherever they did go, they preached. Did you ever hear Paul, or any of the apostles, sent away a congregation without a sermon? No, no: when turned out of the temple they preached in the highways, hedges, streets and lanes of the city: they went to the waterside; there Lydia was caught. My brethren, we have got a commission here from Christ; and not only a commission, but we have a command to preach to every creature; all that are willing to hear. He that has an ear to hear let him hear; and if some shall say, they will not come if we do preach, would to God we tried them: where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together. We are to preach glad tidings of salvation; to tell a poor benighted world, lying in the wicked one the devil, their state and condition: we are to tell them, God is love; to tell them, that God loves them better than they do themselves. We must preach the law, but not leave the people there. We must tell them how Moses brings them to the borders of Canaan, and then tell them of a glorious Joshua that will carry them over Jordan; first, to show them their wants; and then point out to them a Jesus that can supply, and more than supply, all their wants. This we are to tell every creature; and it is for this that people stone gospel preachers. I don't think the prisoners would be angry with us if we were to tell them, the king commissions us to declare to them that they might come out of their prison, that their chains may be knocked off. If you were to go to one of them and say, Here you have your chains; and he was to say, I have no chains on at all, you would think that man's brains turned; and so are every man's that does not see himself to be in the chains of sin and deceit. We are to preach liberty to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord; sound the jubilee trumpet, and tell them the year of release is come; that Jesus can make them happy.

But, pray, if we are to preach, what are the creatures to do that see the need of this salvation? I will tell you; they are to believe. He that believes, and is baptized, etc. The grand topics Christ's ministers are to preach, are repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The men of the world fancy they have believed already, and some of them lift up their heads and say, Thank God, we have believed ever since we were born; and in one sense may people believe, but in what sense? Just as the devil believes; they believe, and still continue devils in their carnal state; that is, they assent to the gospel, they assent to it as a thing that is credible. This is our school definition of faith; and I believe there are thousands that call themselves Christians, that don't believe a thousandth part of what the devil does. The devil believes more than an Arian, for he does not believe Christ to be God; the devil says, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. The devil will rise up in judgment against him. He believes more than a Socinian, who believes Jesus Christ to be no more than an extraordinary man; and he believes more of Jesus Christ than thousands of professors do, who are neither Arians nor Socinians. There are a thousand things in this book that many people if you come to close quarters with them, will say they do not believe, though they are ashamed to own it. The furthest that they go, is to assent to the creed, to the Lord's prayer, and Ten Commandments; and if a person can say these in their mother tongue and have been baptized by the priest, and confirmed by the bishop, and go to church once a week, and now and then on holidays, they think they are not only believers, but strong believers. I am not against going to church, nor against the Creed, the Lord's prayer, and the Commandments; I love and honor them, and I pray God we may always have them; and I would not have our liturgy or articles departed from for ten thousand worlds. Many would have them altered, because there are some faults in them; but if our modern people were to alter them, they would make them ten thousand times worse than they are. But believing something more; it is a coming to Jesus Christ, receiving Jesus, rolling ourselves on Jesus; it is a trusting in the Lord Jesus. I do not know any one single thing more variously expressed in the Scriptures than believing; why? Because it is the marrow of the gospel. Without faith we cannot be justified, either in our persons or performances; and therefore the Holy Ghost has variously expressed it, to let us see the importance of the point. It is expressed by a coming, trusting, receiving, and relying, (all which amounts to the same thing) under a felt conviction that we are lost, undone, condemned without him: for, as a good old Puritan observes, Christ is beholden to none of us for our hearts; we never should come to Jesus Christ, the sinner's last shift, till we feel we cannot do without him. We are like the woman with the bloody issue; she spent a great deal of money upon physicians; if she had the sum of one half guinea more, till that was gone she never would have come to Christ; but having spent all, and then hearing that Jesus was to come that way, a sense of her need, a feeling sense of her importance, and insufficiency of all other applications, made her come to Christ; saying in her heart, If I could but touch the hem of his garment I should be whole; Jesus the son of David, would have mercy on me; or words to that purpose. She did not go about and say, pray lend me a common prayer book; it was not in print then. Where must she borrow one; her heart, touched by God, was the best common prayer; and a few words uttered from a sense of her weakness and misery, was more rhetoric, was more music in the ears of God, than an extempore prayer by a gifted man, admiring himself for an hour and a half. As a person told me but yesterday, of a poor outlandish Papist that was condemned to die, held out for a long while; he would not speak to a Protestant minister, but a night or two before he suffered, comes out to him, and says, [illegible] now see the necessity of a greater absolution than a priest can give me; and then, in his broken language, cries out, Dear Lord Jesus, show your charity to your poor sinner! There is language! There is rhetoric for you! And we ourselves like such language. You don't like fawning people that come into your room, and by their very manner of coming prove they are not sincere; but a poor creature that comes to pour out two or three words you see is honest, you will not say to such a one, Why do you come to me, and not speak blank verse? Why do you come to me, and not speak fine language? No; sincerity is the thing; sincerity is all in all. When we are once convinced of our need and helplessness, and of Jesus's being a Redeemer, that is mighty and willing to save, a poor soul then throws himself upon this Jesus, receives this Jesus, ventures upon this Jesus, believes the word, and by thus venturing on the promise, receives from Jesus the thing promised. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But then where there is true faith, that will, my dear hearers, be attended with what? Why, with salvation. He that believes, and is baptized, says our Lord, shall be saved: saved from what? Why, from everything that he wants to be saved from, and receives everything God can give to complete his whole salvation. What is it a poor sinner wants to be saved from? O, sin, sin, the guilt of sin. The first conviction brings the creatures to God by force: there are very few that are drawn by love entirely: and I seldom find any of those that have been drawn by love, but have had dreadful conflicts afterwards: for either before or after conversion, our hearts must be plowed up, or we shall never be prepared for the kingdom of heaven.

You shall be saved from the painful guilt of sin: what is that? why, the common-prayer book will tell you, in the communion office; the remembrance of our sins is grievous to us, and the burden of them is intolerable. There is methodistical language. Cranmer, Latimer, or Hooper, were, my brethren, what? why, they were Methodist preachers; and they used to preach in Paul's-Cross, a pulpit said to be made in the shape of a cross, near St. Paul's church; and a salary given for that very purpose, I believe to this day. No matter where we preach, so that sinner's feel Christ's power in delivering them from this, which certainly implies a consciousness of pardon. I don't think the poor creature that was respited the other day, would have believed it, had he not seen the king's warrant just before the others were carried out. Why, say they, here is his majesty's pardon; he takes and receives it with joy, and is now freed from the gallows. And if persons can give this credence to an earthly king, why cannot a believer have a sense of the pardon of his sins from God? If a person's reading this to me, telling me the king has pardoned me, has such an effect, why may not God's word, backed by his spirit, be brought home with such power on my heart, that I may be assured God has pardoned me, as well as a criminal that his king has saved? If this is gospel away with it, say some, who think we are not to be justified till we come to judgment. O blessed creatures! this is modern divinity! our reformers knew nothing about it. We are to be declared, if you please, justified, in the day of Jesus Christ, who will pronounce it before all mankind. But, my brethren, we are to be married to Jesus Christ in this world, and the marriage is to be declared in another; and I will insist upon it, though I will not pretend to say that all that have not full assurance are not christians, yet I will say, that assurance is necessary for the well-being of a christian; the comfortable being, though not for his very existence: and I will venture to say, that a soul was never brought to Christ, but what had some ground of assurance of pardon; though, for want of knowing better, he put it by, and did not know the gift of God when it came. But, my brethren, we shall be saved from all our sins. Here is glad tidings of great joy now come: satan may hear that; and any of you here that are coming into the Chapel as you pass along. I am glad to see poor creatures come, that I may tell them, God is love. Believers, you shall be saved from all your sins, every one of them; they shall all be blotted out. Generally, when persons are convinced, the devil preaches despair; some great sin lies upon them; and says, the poor sinner, I shall be saved from all but that; had I not been guilty of such a crime I might have hope, but I am guilty of such a sin, which is so awful, with such dreadful aggravations, I am afraid I shall never be pardoned. But, my dear souls, Christ is love; and when he loves to forgive, he forgives like a God; I will blot out your iniquities, transgressions, and sins. Come now, says the Lord, let us reason together: though your sins are as scarlet, yet they shall be as white as snow. I am so far from being unwilling to save or pardon, that the angels, every time the gospel is preached, are ready to tune their harps, and long to sing an anthem to some poor sinner's conversion.

They shall be saved from the power of sin. Don't you remember that when Joshua was going on with his conquests, that there were some kings in a cave; and when he returned, he ordered them to bring the kings out for God's people to tread upon them. When I read that passage, I used to think these kings were like our corruptions hid in the cave of our hearts, and the stone of unbelief rolled to keep them in: but when we receive Christ by faith, and have pardon in him, our great Joshua takes away the stone, and says, bring out these kings, these corruptions, that have reigned over my people, and by faith let them tread on the necks of them. Our great Master, when he gave the command in the text, says, these signs shall follow them that believe, in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them. These were things peculiar, in one sense, to the apostles; but in the power of faith, and as brought home to every believer, he casts out devilish lusts; and if they had drank any deadly thing, as God knows we have, they may do by them as Paul did by the viper, through the power of faith cast them off, and by this mean prove that Christ is God.

This is, my dear hearers, a present salvation. The wickedest wretch in the world will cry, I hope to be saved, though they have no notion of being saved but after their death; as a woman in Virginia told me once, when I said she must be born again; I believe you, sir, but that must be after I am dead. And by peoples living as they do, one would suppose that they think they are not to be saved till they die, because they live so. But as I have told you, I tell you again, Christ's salvation is a great salvation; and all that Christ does for his people on earth, is but an earnest of good things to come, an anticipation of what he is to do for them in heaven. Our Lord says, the kingdom of God is within you; the kingdom is come near to you. You must not only believe on Christ, but believe in him: we are not only to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but we are to be baptized into the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; this is the baptism of the Spirit, and this is that salvation which God grant we may all partake of.

We are to be saved, my brethren, from what? Why, from the fear of death. He came to deliver them who, through the fear of death were all their lifetime subjected to bondage. What are there no children of God but those that have full assurance? You never heard me say so; yet I am apt to speak a little fast, but at the same time I would choose not to speak so fast as to speak contrary to the word of God. There are a great many good souls, that at times may doubt of the reality of this work upon their souls: a relaxed habit of body, a nervous disorder, you may say what you please, will make a weak child of God doubt of what God has done in them, and that hurts the mind as it has such a close connection with the body; but then a believer is low: God's people are low persons: as the greatest geniuses are most liable to lowness of spirit, for the scabbard is not strong enough for the sword, and persons that talk much must wear out in time; but this I stand to, it is our privilege to live above the fears of death. We do not live up to our dignity till every day we are waiting for the coming of our Lord from heaven; and I am persuaded of this, though I believe there may be some exceptions, that the reason why we do not live more above the fear of death is, because we keep in so much with these nasty earthly things. You may have the best eyes in the world, and only put your hands before them, you will find the sun hid from you; and so you may have a large fire, but throw some earth upon the fire that is in your parlor, or drawing rooms, and you will find the fire damped. And how can people have much of God or heaven, when they have so much of the earth in their hearts? It is our privilege to live above the fear of death, though we are not to be saved from dying; and I am sure a believer would not be saved from dying for a million of worlds; it would be death to him not to die; but a soul touched with the love of God, even in sickness, in the midst of a burning fever, in the midst of a fire that will burn a thousand bodies up, convulsed with tortures and pains in every limb; a believer is enabled sometimes to say, O my God, O my God, you are love; I am ready to come to you in the midst of all. Blessed be God, I need not go far for example; yonder, under the gallery, lies the remains, the carcass of a dear saint, who was for twenty-five days together, burned with a fever, enough to scorch any creature up; yet, one filled with love and power divine, blessed the Lord Jesus; though she cried out, If I was not supported, the agony of my body would make me impatient; yet never said a murmuring word, but in the midst of all cried out to those about her, God is love! O my joys! O the comforts that I feel! And in her very last moments cried out, I am a coming; dear Lord, I am a coming; and so sweetly slept in Jesus. If this is enthusiasm, God give us a good share of it when we come to die! These are dying and yet living witnesses that God is love! She was in raptures when Mr. Sheppard went to visit her: she desired me to tell you, that God is love: desired me to tell you in the Chapel pulpit, that she was called about four years ago. I think Mr. Lee was the instrument of her conversion. Now her body is to be put to bed at noon; but her soul is crying, O the joys! The joys! The joys of being saved by a blessed Emmanuel! Now will any one dare to deny this evidence? Do you see worldly people work themselves up into that frame when they die? Visit them when they are near death: ah dear! They are in the vapors; they are so afraid of dying, that the doctor will not suffer us to come near them; no, not common clergymen, for fear we should damp their spirits: till they find they are just gone, and then they give us leave to say the farewell prayer to them: but they that are born from above, that are made new creatures in Christ, feel something that smiles upon them in death. She told them, she believed God would let her go over Jordan dry shod; that was her expression. If this is salvation on earth, what must it be in heaven? If in the midst of the tortures of a burning fever a raptured soul can cry, O the joys! O the comforts! Lord, I am coming! I am coming! What must that be when enclosed in a Redeemer's arms? In order to which, the glorious angels stand at the top of the ladder to take a poor wearied pilgrim home. Lord, give us not only such a frame when we are dying, but while we are living; for if it is comfortable to die in such a frame, why not to live in it? To live in heaven on earth. O, say you, I thank God I walk by faith; I have got the promise. Well, thank God you have the promise; but with the promise, learn to walk by that faith which is the evidence of things not seen, which brings God down, brings heaven near, and gives the soul a heart-felt experience, that God is love. Here is a salvation worthy of a God! Here is a salvation worthy of the Mediator's blood! For this he groaned, for this he bled, for this he died, for this he arose, for this he ascended, for this he sent the Holy Ghost, and for this purpose he now sends him into the hearts of his people. My brethren, what say you to this? I hope it is enough to make you cry out, Lord, let my latter end be like hers. This may comfort you that are mourners about her corpse, this may comfort a fond husband, whose beloved is now taken away by a stroke. What a mercy is it, sir, that you was instrumental to bring her under the word? She was once averse to coming here: what, leave my parish church! Said she; what, go to a conventicle, to a tabernacle of Methodists! He advised her again and again to come: at last, one day as they were going to St. Giles's, she says, Well, come put up your walking-stick, if it falls towards St. Giles's I will go there; if to the Chapel, I will go there; the stick fell towards the Chapel, she came, and was converted to God. O with what joy must her husband meet her again in the kingdom of heaven! And O happy day, in which she was encouraged to seek after God. Last week, another was buried in the like circumstances; and blessed be God, in yonder burying-ground are the remains of many precious souls, that in the day of judgment will let the world know whether this Chapel was built for God or not.

O what an awful word is that in the latter clause of the text, he that believes not shall be damned. Pause — I will give you time to think a little; if you would have Christ as good as his word of promise, remember he will be as good as his word of threatening. You hear the necessity of preaching the gospel, because upon believing or non-believing, our salvation or damnation will turn. What, will you laugh at the minister that cries out, Lord help you to come; come, come, do you think that we have nothing else to say, and are at a loss for words, when we cry come, come, come, to fill up our sermons? No, it is part of our commission; it is one great part. And, my fellow-sinners, we have come to tell you, that our Master has a two-edged sword as well as a golden scepter; and if you will not come under the sound of the word, and do not feel the converting power of it, you must feel the confounding weight of it. I repeat it again to you he that believes not shall be damned: the very word is terrible, God grant you may never know how terrible it is. You are condemned already; he that believes not is so (John 3:18). Why? Because he has not believed on the name of the Son of God. It is not his being a whoremonger or adulterer that will damn him, but his unbelief is the damning sin; for this he will be condemned; forever banished from the presence of the ever-blessed God: and how will you rave, how will you tear, and how will you wring your hands, when you see your relations, your friends, those whom you despised, and were glad they were dead out of your way, see them in Abraham's bosom, and yourselves lifting up your eyes in torment! O my dear hearers, do let me plead, let me entreat you; if that would do, I would down on my knees; if that would do, I would come down from the pulpit, I would hang on your necks, I would not let you go, I would offer myself to be trodden under your feet; I have known what it is to be trodden under the foot of men thirty years ago, and I am of the same temper still: use me as you will, I am a poor sinner; and if I was to be killed a thousand ways, I suffer no more than my reward as an unprofitable servant of God: but don't trample the dear Jesus under foot; what has he done to you? Was it any harm to leave his father's bosom, come down and die, and plead for sinners? See him yonder hang on the tree! Behold him with his arm stretched out! See him all of a bloody gore, and in his last agony preaching love! Would you give him a fresh stab? Are there any of you here that think the sword did not pierce him enough; that they did not knock the briers and thorns into his head deep enough? And will you give him the other slash; the other thorns? And will you pierce him afresh, and go away without believing he is love? I cannot help it; I am free from the blood of you all. Oh that you may not damn your own souls! Don't be murderers; nor, like Esau, sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. God convince you; God convert you; God help those that have believed to believe more; that they may experience more and more this salvation, till faith is turned into vision, and hope into fruition; till we have all, with yonder saint, and all that have gone before us, experienced complete salvation in the kingdom of heaven: even so, Lord Jesus. Amen, and Amen.