abbath, and
other solemn days? I pray you ask at your own hearts, what your purpose
is. Wherefore do ye come together so often? Men are rational in their
business. They do nothing but for some purpose. They labour, and plough,
and sow, in order to reap. They buy and sell to get gain. They have many
projects and designs they still seek to accomplish. And shall we be only
in matters of salvation and damnation so irrational? Shall we in the
greatest thing of the greatest moment, because of eternal concernment be
as perishing brutish beasts, that know not what we aim at? Christ will in
the end ask you, what went ye out of your own houses so often to hear?
What went you out to see? I pray you what will ye answer? If ye say, we
went to hear the word of the Lord, then he shall answer you, and why did
not ye obey it? Then why did ye not hear it as my word, and regard it
more? If ye shall say, we went to hear a man speak some good words unto us
for an hour or two, then is Christ also engaged against you, because he
sent him, and ye despise him, for he says, "He that despises me, despises
him that sent me," so ye shall be catched both the ways. If ye think this
to be God's word, I wonder why ye do not receive it, with the stamp of his
authority in your hearts. Why do ye not bow your hearts to it, for it
shall endure for ever, and judge you? Why do you sit(452) so many fair
offers, so many sad warnings? Are not the drunkards warned every day by
this word, that the curse of the Lord shall come upon them? Is not every
one of you, according to your several stations and circumstances, warned
to forsake your wicked ways, and your evil thoughts, to flee from the
wrath to come, before the decree of the Lord pass forth, and before his
fury burn as an oven? And if ye think these to be the true words of the
eternal God, and the sayings of the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
and the truth itself, if ye believe it as ye profess to do, why do ye not
get out of the way of that wrath, which continues upon these sinners
daily? Shall ye escape the judgment of God? Shall not his word overtake
you though ministers that speak unto you will not live for ever? But these
words they speak will surely take hold of you, as they did your fathers,
so that ye shall say, "Like as the Lord of hosts hath said he will do unto
us, so hath he done," Zech. i. 6. If ye do not think this is God's word, I
beseech you, why do you come hither so oft? What do ye come to