1. That your soul is as precious as theirs. It is immortal as theirs is;
and stands in as much need of happiness, and can as ill bear eternal
misery. You were born in the same miserable condition that they were,
having the same wrath of God abiding on you. You must stand before the
same Judge; who will be as strict in judgment with you as with them; and
your own righteousness will stand you in no more stead before him than
theirs; and therefore you stand in as absolute necessity of a Saviour as
they. Carnal confidences can no more answer your end than theirs; nor can
this world or its enjoyments serve to make you happy without God and
Christ more than them. When the bridegroom comes, the foolish virgins
stand in as much need of oil as the wise, Matt. xxv. at the beginning.
2. Unless you follow them in their turning to God, their conversion will
be a foundation of an eternal separation between you and them. You will be
in different interests and in exceeding different states, as long as you
live; they the children of God, and you the children of Satan; and you
will be parted in another world; when you come to die, there will be a
vast separation made between you: Luke xvi. 26, "And besides all this,
between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would
pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would
come from thence." And you will be parted at the day of judgment. You will
be parted at Christ's first appearance in the clouds of heaven. While they
are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, to be ever with
the Lord, you will remain below, confined to this cursed ground, that is
kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. You will appear separated from them while you
stand before the great judgment-seat, they being at the right hand, while
you are set at the left: Matt. xxv. 32, 33, "And before him shall be
gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left." And you shall then appear in
exceeding different circumstances. While you stand with devils, in the
image and deformity of devils, and in ineffable horror and amazement, they
shall appear in glory, sitting upon thrones, as assessors with Christ, and
as such passing judgment upon you, 1 Cor. vi. 2. And what shame and
confusion will then cover you, when so many of your contemporaries, your
equals, your neighbors, relations and companions, shall be honored, and
openly acknowledged and confessed by the glorious Judge of the universe
and Redeemer of saints, and shall be seen by you sitting with him in such
glory, and you shall appear to have neglected your salvation, and not to
have improved your opportunities, and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, the
same person that will then appear as your great Judge, and you shall be
the subjects of wrath, and, as it were, trodden down in eternal contempt
and disgrace! Dan. xii. 2, "Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt." And what a wide separation will the
sentence then passed and executed make between you and them! When you
shall be sent away out of the presence of the Judge with indignation and
abhorrence, as cursed and loathsome creatures, and they shall be sweetly
accosted and invited into his glory as his dear friends and the blessed of
his Father! When you, with all that vast throng of wicked and accursed men
and devils, shall descend with loud lamentings and horrid shrieks into
that dreadful gulf of fire and brimstone, and shall be swallowed up in
that great and everlasting furnace, while they shall joyfully, and with
sweet songs of glory and praise, ascend with Christ, and all that
beauteous and blessed company of saints and angels, into eternal felicity,
in the glorious presence of God, and the sweet embraces of his love; and
you and they shall spend eternity in such a separation and immensely
different circumstances! And that however you have been intimately
acquainted and nearly related, closely united and mutually conversant here
in this world; and how much soever you have taken delight in each other's
company! Shall it be so after you have been together a great while, each
of you in undoing yourselves, enhancing your guilt, and heaping up wrath,
that their so wisely changing their minds and their course, and choosing
such happiness for themselves, should now at length be the beginning of
such an exceeding and everlasting separation between you and them? How
awful will it be to be parted so!
3. Consider the great encouragement that God gives you, earnestly to
strive for the same blessing that others have obtained. There is great
encouragement in the word of God to sinners to seek salvation, in the
revelation we have of the abundant provision made for the salvation even
of the chief of sinners, and in the appointment of so many means to be
used with and by sinners, in order to their salvation; and by the blessing
which God in his word connects with the means of his appointment. There is
hence great encouragement for all, at all times, that will be thorough in
using of these means. But now God gives extraordinary encouragement in his
providence, by pouring out his Spirit so remarkably amongst us, and
bringing savingly home to himself all sorts, young and old, rich and poor,
wise and unwise, sober and vicious, old self-righteous seekers and
profligate livers: no sort are exempt. There is now at this day amongst us
the loudest call and the greatest encouragement and the widest door open
to sinners, to escape out of a state of sin and condemnation that perhaps
God ever granted in New England. Who is there that has an immortal soul so
sottish as not to improve such an opportunity, and that won't bestir
himself with all his might now? How unreasonable is negligence, and how
exceeding unseasonable is discouragement, at such a day as this! Will you
be so stupid as to neglect your soul now? Will any mortal amongst us be so
unreasonable as to lag behind, or look back in discouragement when God
opens such a door? Let every single person be thoroughly awake! Let every
one encourage himself now to press forward, and fly for his life!
4. Consider how earnestly desirous they that have obtained are that you
should follow them, and that their people should be your people, and their
God your God. They desire that you should partake of that great good that
God has given them, and that unspeakable and eternal blessedness that he
has promised them. They wish and long for it. If you do not go with them,
and are not still of their company, it won't be for want of their
willingness, but your own. That of Moses to Hobab is the language of every
true saint of your acquaintance to you, Numb. x. 29, "We are journeying
unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with
us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning
Israel." As Moses, when on his journey through the wilderness, following
the pillar of cloud and fire, invited Hobab, that he had been acquainted
with and nearly allied to out of the land of Midian, where Moses had
formerly dwelt with him, to go with him and his people to Canaan, to
partake with them in the good that God had promised them; so do those of
your friends and acquaintance invite you, out of a land of darkness and
wickedness, where they have formerly been with you, to go with them to the
heavenly Canaan. The company of saints, the true church of Christ, invite
you. The lovely bride calls you to the marriage supper. She hath authority
to invite guests to her own wedding; and you ought to look on her
invitation and desire as the call of Christ the bridegroom; for it is the
voice of his Spirit in her: Rev. xxii. 17, "The Spirit and the bride say,
Come." Where seems to be a reference to what had been said, chap. xix.
7-9, "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he
saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage
supper of the Lamb." 'Tis with respect to this her marriage supper that
she, from the motion of the Spirit of the Lamb in her, says, Come. So that
you are invited on all hands; all conspire to call you. God the Father
invites you: this is the King that has made a marriage for his Son; and he
sends forth his servants, the ministers of the gospel, to invite the
guests. And the Son himself invites you: 'tis he that speaks, Rev. xvii.
17, "And let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst,
come; and whosoever will, let him come." He tells us who he is in the
foregoing verse, "I Jesus, the root and offspring of David, the bright and
morning star." And God's ministers invite you, and all the church invites
you; and there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God that hour
that you accept the invitation.
5. Consider what a doleful company that will be that be left after this
extraordinary time of mercy is over. We have reason to think that there
will be a number left. We read that when Ezekiel's healing waters
increased so abundantly, and the healing effect of them was so very
general; yet there were certain places, where the water came, that never
were healed: Ezek. xlvii. 9-11, "And it shall come to pass, that every
thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come,
shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because
these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing
shall live whither the river cometh. And it shall come to pass, that the
fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall
be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their
kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. But the miry places
thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given
to salt." And even in the apostles' times, when there was such wonderful
success of the gospel, yet wherever they came, there were some that did
not believe: Acts xiii. 48, "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to
eternal life, believed." And chap. xxviii. 24, "And some believed, and
some believed not." So we have no reason to expect but there will be some
left amongst us. 'Tis to be hoped it will be a small company. But what a
doleful company will it be! How darkly and awfully will it look upon them!
If you shall be of that company, how well may your friends and relations
lament over you, and bemoan your dark and dangerous circumstances! If you
would not be one of them, make haste, delay not and look not behind you.
Shall all sorts obtain, shall every one press into the kingdom of God,
while you stay loitering behind in a doleful undone condition? Shall every
one take heaven, while you remain with no other portion but this world?
Now take up that resolution, that if it be possible you will cleave to
them that have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them.
Count the cost of a thorough, violent, and perpetual pursuit of salvation,
and forsake all, as Ruth forsook her own country and all her pleasant
enjoyments in it. Don't do as Orpah did; who set out, and then was
discouraged, and went back: but hold out with Ruth through all
discouragement and opposition. When you consider others that have chosen
the better part, let that resolution be ever firm with you: "Where thou
goest, I will go; where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God."