tians, may put to their ear, and hearken to men in their retiring
places, but who repents in dust and ashes, and says, "What have I done?"
Jer. viii. 6. But every man goes on in his course without stop. The word
ye hear on the Sabbath day against your drunkenness, your oppressions,
your covetousness, your formality, &c., it doth not lay any bands on you
to keep you from these things. Long may we hearken to you in secret, ere
we hear many of you mourn for these things, or turn from them. Where is he
that is afraid of the wrath of God, though it be often denounced against
him? Do not men sleep over their time, and dream of escaping from it?
Every man hath a refuge of lies he trusts in, and will not forsake his
sins.

Again, on the other hand, whose heart rejoices within them to hear the
joyful sound? Because men do not receive the law, and mourn when he
laments, they cannot receive the gospel. It cannot be glad news to any but
the soul that receives sad tidings, the sentence of death in its bosom.
Therefore Christ Jesus is daily offered and as often despised, as a thing
of nought, and of no value. Ye hear every day of deliverance from eternal
wrath, and a kingdom purchased unto you, and ye are no more affected, than
if we came and told you stories of some Spanish conquest, that belonged
not unto you. Would not the ears and hearts of some men be more tickled
with idle and unprofitable tales, that are for no purpose but driving away
the present time, than they are with this everlasting salvation? Some men
have more pleasure to read an idle book, than to search the holy
scriptures, though in them this inestimable jewel of eternal life be hid.
The vain things of this present world have a voice unto you of pleasure,
and profit, and credit. They will pipe unto you, and ye will listen unto
their sound, but ye know not that the dead are there, and that it is the
way to the chambers of hell. These indeed are Sirens(457) that entice
passengers by the way with their sweet songs, and having allured them to
follow, lead them to perishing. Here is the voice that is come down from
heaven, the "Word that was with God," and he is "the way, the truth, and
the life." He is gone before you, and undertakes to guide you. He comes
and calls upon simple men. The Father's Wisdom calls the simple ones to
understand wisdom, to find life and peace. Will ye then so far wrong your
own souls as to refuse it? And yet the most part are so busied with this