Therefore thou
mayest come. And take heed that thou shut not that door against thy
soul by unbelief, which God has opened by his grace.
2. Nay, the text is so far from excepting against thy coming, that
it strongly suggesteth that thou art one of the souls intended, O
thou coming backslider; else why need that clause have been so
inserted, "I will in no wise cast out?" as if he should say, "Though
those that come now are such as have formerly backslidden, I will in
no wise cast away the fornicator, the covetous, the railer, the
drunkard, or other common sinners, nor yet the backslider neither."
If thou yet, instead of repenting and doing thy first works, dost
remain a backslider,
1. Then remember that thou must die; and remember also, that when
the terrors of God, of death, and a back-slidden heart meet
together, there will be sad work in that soul: this is the man that
hangeth tilting over the mouth of hell, while death is cutting the
thread of his life.
2. Remember, that though God doth sometimes, yea, often, receive
backsliders, yet it is not always so. Some draw back unto perdition;
for, because they have flung up God and would none of him, he in
justice flings up them and their souls for ever. Prov. I: 24-28.
XIII.
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