And wilt thou judge him that doth thus? Art thou almost like Elymas the sorcerer, that sought to turn the deputy from the faith? Thou seek to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Take heed lest some heavy judgment overtakes thee (Acts 13:8-13). What! teach men to quench convictions; take them off from serious consideration of the evil of sin, the terrors of the world to come, and how they shall escape the same? What! teach men to put God and his Word out of their minds, by running to merry company, running to the world, and gossiping? &c. This is as much as to bid them to say to God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” or, “What is the Almighty that we should serve him? Or what profit have we if we keep his ways?” Here is a devil in grain! What! bid man walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).
Two objections answered.
Object. 1. But we do not know that such are coming to Jesus Christ; truly we wonder at them, and think they are fools.
Answ. Do you not know that they are coming to Jesus Christ? then they may be coming to him, for aught you know; and why will ye be worse than the brute, to speak evil of the things you know not? What! Are ye made to be taken and destroyed? Must ye utterly perish in your own corruptions? (2 Peter 2:12). Do you not know them? Let them alone then. If you cannot speak good of them, speak not bad. “Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God” (Acts 5:38,39). But why do you wonder at a work of conviction and conversion? Know you not that this is the judgment of God upon you, “ye despisers, to behold, and wonder, and perish?” (Acts 13:40,41). But why wonder, and think they are fools? Is the way of the just an abomination to you? See that passage, and be ashamed, “He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked” (Prov 29:27). Your wondering at them argues that you are strangers to yourselves, to conviction for sin, and to hearty desires to be saved; as also to coming to Jesus Christ.
Answ. Who can make them see that Christ has made them blind? (John 2:8,9). Nevertheless, because I endeavor thy conviction, conversion, and salvation, consider: Do they cry out of sin, being burthened with it, as of an exceeding bitter thing? Do they fly from it, as from the face of a deadly serpent? Do they cry out of the insufficiency of their own righteousness, as to justification in the sight of God? Do they cry out after the Lord Jesus, to save them? Do they see more worth and merit in one drop of Christ’s blood to save them, than in all the sins of the world to damn them? Are they tender to sinning against Jesus Christ? Is his name, person, and undertakings, more precious to them, than is the glory of the world? Is this word more dear unto them? Is faith in Christ (of which they are convinced by God’s Spirit of the want of, and that without it they can never close with Christ) precious to them? Do they savor Christ in his Word and leave all the world for his sake? And are they willing, God helping them, to run hazards for his name, for the love they bear to him? Are his saints precious to them? If these things be so, whether thou sees them or not, these men are coming to Jesus Christ (Rom 7:914; Psa. 38:3-8; Heb 6:18-20; Isa 64:6; Phil 3:7,8; Psa. 54:1; 109:26; Acts 16:30; Psa. 51:7,8; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Rom 7:24; 2 Cor 5:2; Acts 5:41; James 2:7; Song 5:10-16; Psa. 119; John 13:35; 1 John 4:7; 3:14; John 16:9; Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6; Psa. 19:10,11; Jer 15:16; Heb 11:24-27; Acts 20:22-24; 21:13; Titus 3:15; 2 John 1; Eph 4:16; Phile 7; 1 Cor 16:24).
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