you were undone; how will you
then make light of the fury of the Lord, which will burn against the
contemners of His grace! Doth it not behoove you beforehand to think
of these things?

Dearly beloved in the Lord, I have now done that work which I came
upon; what effect it hath, or will have, upon your hearts, I know not,
nor is it any further in my power to accomplish that which my soul
desireth for you. Were it the Lord's will that I might have my wish
herein, the words that you have this day heard should so stick by you
that the secure should be awakened by them, and none of you should
perish by the slighting of your salvation. I can not follow you
to your several habitations to apply this word to your particular
necessities; but oh, that I could make every man's conscience a
preacher to himself that it might do it, which is ever with you!
That the next time you go prayerless to bed, or about your business,
conscience might cry out, Dost thou set no more by Christ and thy
salvation? That the next time you are tempted to think hardly of a
holy and diligent life (I will not say to deride it as more ado than
needs), conscience might cry out to thee, Dost thou set so light by
Christ and thy salvation? That the next time you are ready to rush
upon unknown sin, and to please your fleshly desires against the
command of God, conscience might cry out, Is Christ and salvation no
more worth than to cast them away, or venture them for thy lust?
That when you are following the world with your most eager desires,
forgetting the world to come, and the change that is a little before
you, conscience might cry out to you, Is Christ and salvation no more
worth than so? That when you are next spending the Lord's day in
idleness or vain sports, conscience might tell you what you are doing.
In a word, that in all your neglects of duty, your sticking at the
supposed labor or cost of a godly life, yea, in all your cold and lazy
prayers and performances, conscience might tell you how unsuitable
such endeavors are to the reward; and that Christ and salvation should
not be so slighted. I will say no more but this at this time, it is a
thousand pities that when God hath provided a Savior for the world,
and when Christ hath suffered so much for their sins, and made so full
a satisfaction to justice, and purchased so glorious a kingdom for
His saints, and all this is offered so freely to sinners, to lost,
unworthy sinners, even for nothing, tha