Where, if not in Christ, is the Power that can persuade a Sinner to
return, that can _bring home a heart to God_?
Common mercies of God, though they have a leading faculty to
repentance, (Rom. ii. 4.) yet, the rebellious heart will not be led by
them. The judgments of God, public or personal, though they ought to
drive us to God, yet the heart, unchanged, runs the further from God.
Do we not see it by ourselves and other sinners about us? They look
not at all towards Him who smites, much less do they return; or if any
more serious thoughts of returning arise upon the surprise of an
affliction, how soon vanish they, either the stroke abating, or the
heart, by time, growing hard and senseless under it! Leave Christ out,
I say, and all other means work not this way; neither the works nor
the word of God sounding daily in his ear, _Return return_. Let the
noise of the rod speak it too, and both join together to make the cry
the louder, _yet the wicked will do wickedly_: Dan. xii. 10.