And consider that death is not the only punishment due to murderers; for they are threatened to have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, (Rev. 21:8) See Chap. 22. 15. Words which carry that terror with them, that considering your circumstances and your guilt, surely the sound of them must make you tremble; for who can dwell with everlasting burnings? Chap. 33. 14.
As the testimony of your conscience must convince you of the great and many evils you have committed, by which you have highly offended God, and provoked most justly his wrath and indignation against you, so I suppose I need not tell you that the only way of obtaining pardon and remission of your sins from God, is by a true and unfeigned repentance and faith in Christ, by whose meritorious death and passion, you can only hope for salvation.
You being a gentleman that have had the advantage of a liberal education, and being generally esteemed a man of letters, I believe it will be needless for me to explain to you the nature of repentance and faith in Christ, they being so fully and so often mentioned in the scriptures, that you cannot but know them. And therefore, perhaps, for that reason it might be thought by some improper for me to have said so much to you, as I have already upon this occasion; neither should I have done it, but that considering the course of your life and actions, I have just reason to fear, that the principles of religion that had been instilled into you by your education, have been at least corrupted, if not entirely defaced, by the scepticism and infidelity of this wicked age; and that what time you allowed for study, was rather applied to the polite literature, and the vain philosophy of the times, than a serious search after the law and will of God, as revealed unto us in the Holy Scriptures: for had your delight been in the law of the Lord, and that you had meditated therein day and night, (Psal. 1:2) you would then have found that God’s word was a lamp unto your feet, and a light to your path, (Ps. 119:105) and that you would account all other knowledge but loss, in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, (Phil. 3:8) who to them that are called is the power of God, and the wisdom of God, (1 Cor. 1:24) even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world, Chap. 2. 7.
You would then have esteemed the scriptures as the great charter of Heaven, and which delivered to us not only the most perfect laws and rules of life, but also discovered to us the acts of pardon from God, wherein they have offended those righteous laws: for in them only is to be found the great mystery of fallen man’s redemption, which the angels desire to look into, (1 Pet. 1:12).
And they would have taught you that sin is the debasing of human nature, as being a derivation from that purity, rectitude, and holiness, in which God created us, and that virtue and religion, and walking by the laws of God, were altogether preferable to the ways of sin and Satan; for that the ways of virtue are ways of pleasantness, and all their paths are peace, (Prov. 3:17).
But what you could not learn from God’s word, by reason of your carelessly, or but superficially considering the same, I hope the course of his providence, and the present afflictions that he hath laid upon you, hath now convinced you of the same: for however in your seeming prosperity you might make a mock at your sins (Prov. 3:17) yet now that you see that God’s hand hath reached you, and brought you to public justice, I hope your present unhappy circumstances hath made you seriously reflect upon your past actions and course of life; and that you are now sensible of the greatness of your sins, and that you find the burden of them is intolerable.
And that therefore being thus labouring, and heavy laden with sin, (Mat. 11:28) you will esteem that as the most valuable knowledge, that can show you how you can be reconciled to that supreme God that you have so highly offended; and that can reveal to you him who is not only the powerful advocate with the father for you, (1 John 2:1) but also who hath paid that debt that is due for your sins by his own death upon the cross for you; and thereby made full satisfaction for the justice of God. And this is to be found nowhere but in God’s word, which discovers to us that Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world, (John 1:29) which is Christ the son of God: for this know, and be assured, that there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, (Acts 4:12) but only by the name of the Lord Jesus.
But then consider how he invites all sinners to come unto him, and, that he will give them rest, (Matt. 11:28) for he assures us, that he came to seek and to save that which was lost, (Luke 19:10), (Math. 18:11) and hath promised, that he that cometh unto him, he will in nowise cast out, (John 6:37).
So that if now you will sincerely turn to him, though late, even at the eleventh hour, (Matt. 20:6,9) he will receive you.
But surely I need not tell you, that the terms of his mercy is faith and repentance.
And do not mistake the nature of
