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are we unwilling to die, that we may be glorified? Methinks, if a prince were<br />
willing to make you his heir, you would scarce be unwilling to accept it; the<br />
refusing such a kindness would discover ingratitude and unworthiness. As<br />
God hath resolved against them who make excuses when they should come<br />
to Christ, "None of those men, who were bidden, shall taste of my supper;"<br />
so it is just with him to resolve against us, who frame excuses when we<br />
should come to glory.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lord Jesus Christ was willing to come from heaven to earth for us,<br />
and shall we be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for ourselves and<br />
him! He might have said, "What is it to me if these sinners suffer? If they<br />
value their flesh above their spirits, and their lusts above my Father's love; if<br />
they will sell their souls for naught, who is it fit should be the loser? Should<br />
I, whom they have wronged? Must they wilfully transgress my law, and I<br />
undergo their deserved pain? Must I come down from heaven to earth, and<br />
clothe myself with human flesh, be spit upon, and scorned by man, and fast,<br />
and weep, and sweat, and suffer, and bleed, and die a cursed death; and all<br />
this for wretched worms who would rather hazard their souls than forbear<br />
one forbidden morsel? Do they cast away themselves so slightly, and must I<br />
redeem them so dearly?" Thus we see Christ had reason enough to have<br />
made him unwilling; and yet did he voluntarily condescend. But we have no<br />
reason against our coming to him; except we will reason against our hopes,<br />
and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities. Christ came down to raise<br />
us up; and would we have him lose his blood and labor and go again without<br />
us? Hath he bought our rest at so dear a rate? Is our inheritance "purchased<br />
with his blood?" And are we, after all this, loth to enter? Ah, sirs! it was<br />
Christ, and not we, that had cause to be loth. May the Lord forgive and heal<br />
this foolish ingratitude!<br />
Do we not combine with our most cruel foes in their most malicious<br />
designs, while we are loth to die and go to heaven? What is the devil's daily<br />
business? Is it not to keep our souls from God? And shall we be content with<br />
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