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The Folly Of Looking Back In Fleeing Out Of Sodom
by Jonathan Edwards
Dated May, 1735
Luke 17:32, "Remember
Lot’s wife."
CHRIST here foretells his coming in his kingdom, in answer to the
question which the Pharisees asked him, viz. When the kingdom of God
should come. And in what he says of his coming, he, evidently has
respect to two things; his coming at the destruction of Jerusalem, and
his coming at the end of the world. He compares his coming at those
times to the coming of God in two remarkable judgments that were past.
First, [he compares] to that in the time of the flood; “and as it was in
the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.”
Next, he compares it to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; “likewise
also, as it was in the days of Lot, even thus shall it be in the day
when the Son of man is revealed.”
Then he immediately proceeds to direct his people how they should behave
themselves at the appearance of the signal of that day’s approach,
referring especially to the destruction of Jerusalem. “In that day, he
which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him
not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him
likewise not return back.” In which words Christ shows that they should
make the utmost haste to flee and get out of the city to the mountains,
as he commands. Mat. 24:15, etc. “When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the
holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains; let
him which is in the housetop not come down to take anything out of the
house, neither let him which is in the field turn back to take his
clothes.”
Jerusalem was like Sodom, in that it was devoted to destruction by
special divine wrath; and indeed to a more terrible destruction than
that of Sodom. Therefore the like direction is given concerning fleeing
out of it with the utmost haste, without looking behind, as the angel
gave to Lot, when he bid him flee out of Sodom. Gen. 19:17, “Escape for
thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain.” And
in the text, Christ enforces his counsel by the instance of Lot’s wife.
He bids them remember her, and take warning by her, who looked back as
she was fleeing out of Sodom, and became a pillar of salt.
If it be inquired why Christ gave this direction to his people to flee
out of Jerusalem, in such exceeding haste, at the first notice of the
signal of her approaching destruction; I answer, it seems to be, because
fleeing out of Jerusalem was a type of fleeing out of a state of sin.
Escaping out of that unbelieving city typified an escape out of a state
of unbelief. Therefore they were directed to flee without staying to
take anything out of their houses, to signify with what haste and
concern we should flee out of a natural condition, that no respect to
any worldly enjoyment should prevent us one moment, and that we should
flee to Jesus Christ, the refuge of souls, our strong rock, and the
mount of our defense, so as, in fleeing to him, to leave and forsake
heartily all earthly things.
This seems to be the chief reason also why Lot was directed to make such
haste, and not to look behind. Because his fleeing out of Sodom was
designed on purpose to be a type of our fleeing from that state of sin
and misery in which we naturally are.
DOCTRINE
We ought not to look back when we are fleeing out of Sodom. The
following reasons may be sufficient to support this doctrine:
I. That Sodom is a city full of filthiness and abominations. It is full
of those impurities that ought to be had in the utmost abhorrence and
detestation by all. The inhabitants of it are a polluted company. They
are all under the power and dominion of hateful lusts. All their
faculties and affections are polluted with those wile dispositions that
are unworthy of the human nature, that greatly debase it, that are
exceedingly hateful to God, and that dreadfully incense his anger. Every
kind of spiritual abomination abounds in it. There is nothing so hateful
and abominable but that there it is to be found, and there it abounds.
Sodom is a city full of devils and all unclean spirits. There they have
their rendezvous, and there they have their dominion. There they sport,
and wallow in filthiness, as it is said of mystical Babylon, Rev. 18:2.
Babylon is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul
spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. — Who would be
of such a society? Who would not flee from such a city with the utmost
haste, and never look back upon it, and never have the least inclination
of returning?
Some in Sodom may seem to carry a fair face, and make a fair outward
show. But if we could look into their hearts, they are everyone
altogether filthy and abominable. We ought to flee from such a city,
with the utmost abhorrence of the place and society, with no desires to
dwell longer there, and never to discover the least inclination to
return to it. But [we] should be desirous to get to the greatest
possible distance from it, that we might in no wise be partakers in her
abominations.
II. We ought not to look back when fleeing out of Sodom, because Sodom
is a city appointed to destruction. The cry of the city hath reached up
to heaven. The earth cannot bear such a burden as her inhabitants are.
She will therefore disburden herself of them, and spew them out. God
will not suffer such a city to stand; he will consume it. God is holy,
and his nature is infinitely opposite to all such uncleanness. He will
therefore be a consuming fire to it. The holiness of God will not suffer
it to stand, and the majesty and justice of God require that the
inhabitants of that city who thus offend and provoke him be destroyed.
And God will surely destroy them. It is the immutable and irreversible
decree of God. — He hath said it, and he will do it. The decree is gone
forth, and so sure as there is a God, and he is almighty, and able to
fulfill his decrees and threatenings, so surely will he destroy Sodom.
Gen. 19:12, 13, “Whatsoever thou hast in this city, bring them out of
this place; for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is
waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to
destroy it.” And in verse 14, “Up, get ye out of this place, or the Lord
will destroy this city.”
This city is an accursed city; it is destined to ruin. — Therefore, as
we would not be partakers of her curse, and would not be destroyed, we
should flee out of it, and not look behind us. Rev. 18:4, “Come out of
her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not her plagues.”
III. We ought not to look back when fleeing out of Sodom, because the
destruction to which it is appointed is exceedingly dreadful; it is
appointed to utter destruction, to be wholly and entirely consumed. It
is appointed to suffer the wrath of the great God, which is to be poured
down from God upon it, like a dreadful storm of fire and brimstone. This
city is to be filled full of the wrath of God. Everyone that remains in
it shall have the fire of God’s wrath come down on his head and into his
soul. He shall be full of fire and full of the wrath of the Almighty. He
shall be encompassed with fire without and full of fire within. His
head, his heart, his bowels, and all his limbs shall be full of fire,
and not a drop of water to cool him.
Nor shall he have any place to flee to for relief. Go where he will,
there is the fire of God’s wrath. His destruction and torment will be
inevitable. — He shall be destroyed without any pity. He shall cry
aloud, but there shall be none to help, there shall be none to regard
his lamentations, or to afford relief. The decree is gone forth, and the
days come when Sodom shall burn as an oven, and all the inhabitants
thereof shall be as stubble. As it was in the literal Sodom, the whole
city was full of fire. In their houses there was no safety, for they
were all on fire. And if they fled out into the streets, they also were
full of fire. Fire continually came down out of heaven everywhere. —
That was a dismal time. What a cry was there then in that city, in every
part of it! But there was none to help. They had no where to go where
they could hide their heads from fire. They had none to pity or relieve
them. If they fled to their friends, they could not help them.
Now, with what haste should we flee from a city appointed to such a
destruction! And how should we flee without looking behind us! How
should it be our whole intent to get at the greatest distance from a
city in such circumstances! How far should we be from thinking at all of
returning to a city which has such wrath hanging over it!
IV. The destruction to which Sodom is appointed is an universal
destruction. None that stay in it shall escape. None will have the good
fortune to be in any by-corner, where the fire will not search them out.
All sorts, old and young, great and small, shall be destroyed. There
shall be no exception of any age, or any sex, or any condition, but all
shall perish together. Gen. 19:24, 25, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and he
overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the
cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” We therefore must not
delay or look behind us; for there is no place of safety in Sodom, nor
in all the plain on which Sodom is built. The mountain of safety is
before us, and not behind us.
V. The destruction to which Sodom is appointed is an everlasting
destruction. This is said of the literal Sodom, that it suffered the
vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the
cities about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to
fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” The destruction that
Sodom and Gomorrah suffered was an eternal destruction. Those cities
were destroyed, and have never been built since, and are not capable of
being rebuilt; for the land on which they stood at the time of their
destruction sunk, and has ever since been covered with the lake of Sodom
or the Dead sea, or as it is called in Scripture, the Salt sea. This
seems to have been thus ordered on purpose to be a type of the eternal
destruction of ungodly men. So that fire by which they were destroyed is
called eternal fire, because it was so typically, it was a type of the
eternal destruction of ungodly men; which may be in part what is
intended, when it is said in that text in Jude, that they were set forth
for an example, or for a type or representation of the eternal fire in
which all the ungodly are to be consumed.
Sodom has in all ages since been covered with a lake which was first
brought on it by fire and brimstone, to be a type of the lake of fire
and brimstone in which ungodly men shall have their part forever and
ever, as we read Rev. 20:15, and elsewhere. — We ought not therefore to
look back when fleeing out of Sodom, seeing that the destruction to
which it is appointed is an eternal destruction; for this renders the
destruction infinitely dreadful.
VI. Sodom is a city appointed to swift and sudden destruction. The
destruction is not only certain and inevitable, and infinitely dreadful,
but it will come speedily. “Their judgment lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not;” 2 Pet. 2:3. And so Deu. 32:35, “The day of
their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make
haste.” — The storm of wrath, the black clouds of divine vengeance, even
now every moment hang over them, just ready to break forth and come down
in a dreadful manner upon them. God hath already whet his sword and bent
his bow, and made ready his arrow on the string, Psa. 7:12. Therefore we
should make haste, and not look behind us. For if we linger and stop to
look back, and flee not for our lives, there is great danger that we
shall be involved in the common ruin.
The destruction of Sodom is not only swift, but will come suddenly and
unexpectedly. — It seems to have been a fair morning in Sodom before it
was destroyed, Gen. 19:23. It seems that there were no clouds to be
seen, no appearance of any storm at all, much less of a storm of fire
and brimstone. The inhabitants of Sodom expected no such thing. Even
when Lot told his sons-in-law of it, they would not believe it, Gen.
19:14. — They were making merry. Their hearts were at ease, they though
nothing of such a calamity at hand. But it came at once, as travail upon
a woman with child, and there was no escaping. As verse 28, 29 [says],
“They did eat, they drank; they bought, they sold; they planted, they
builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
So it is with wicked men. Psa. 73:19, “How are they brought into
desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.” — If
therefore we linger and look back, we may be suddenly overtaken and
seized with destruction.
VII. There is nothing in Sodom that is worth looking back upon. All the
enjoyments of Sodom will soon perish in the common destruction; all will
be burnt up. And surely it is not worth the while to look back on things
that are perishing and consuming in the flames, as it is with all the
enjoyments of sin. They are all appointed to the fire. Therefore it is
foolish for any who are fleeing out of Sodom to hanker any more after
them. For when they are burnt up, what good can they do? And is it worth
the while for us to return back for the sake of a moment’s enjoyment of
them, before they are burnt, and so expose ourselves to be burnt up with
them?
Lot’s wife looked back, because she remembered the pleasant things that
she left in Sodom. She hankered after them. She could not but look back
with a wishful eye upon the city, where she had lived in such ease and
pleasure. Sodom was a place of great outward plenty. They ate the fat,
and drank the sweet. The soil about Sodom was exceedingly fruitful. It
is said to be as the garden of God, Gen. 13:10. And fullness of bread
was one of the sins of the place, Eze. 16:49.
Here Lot and his wife lived plentifully; and it was a place where the
inhabitants wallowed in carnal pleasures and delights. But however much
it abounded in these things, what were they worth now, when the city was
burning? Lot’s wife was very foolish in lingering in her escape, for the
sake of things which were all on fire. — So the enjoyments, the profits,
and pleasures of sin, have the wrath and curse of God on them. Brimstone
is scattered on them. Hell-fire is ready to kindle on them. It is not
therefore worth while for any person to look back after such things.
VIII. We are warned by messengers sent to us from God to make haste in
our flight from Sodom, and not to look behind us. God sends to us his
ministers, the angels of the churches, on this grand errand, as he sent
the angels to warn Lot and his wife to flee for their lives, Gen. 19:15,
16. — If we delay or look back, now that we have had such fair warning,
we shall be exceedingly inexcusable and monstrously foolish.
APPLICATION
The use that I would make of this doctrine, is to warn those who are in
a natural condition to flee out of it, and by no means to look back.
While you are out of Christ you are in Sodom. The whole history of the
destruction of Sodom, with all its circumstances, seems to be inserted
in the Scriptures for our warning, and is set forth for an example, as
the apostle Jude says; It in a lively manner typifies the case of
natural men, the destruction of those that continue in a natural state,
and the manner of their escape who flee to Christ. The psalmist, when
speaking of the appointed punishment of ungodly men, seems evidently to
refer to the destruction of Sodom. Psa. 11:6, “Upon the wicked God shall
rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: This shall be
the portion of their cup.”
Consider therefore, you that are seeking an interest in Christ, you are
to flee out of Sodom. Sodom is the place of your nativity, and the place
where you have spent your lives. You are citizens of that city which is
full of filthiness and abomination before God, that polluted and
accursed city. You belong to that impure society. You not only live
among them, but you are of them, you have committed those abominations,
and have so provoked God as you have heard. It is you that I have all
this while been speaking of under this doctrine. You are the inhabitants
of Sodom. Perhaps you may look on your circumstances as not very
dreadful; but you dwell in Sodom. — Though you may be reformed, and
appear with a clean outside, and a smooth face to the world; yet as long
as you are in a natural condition, you are impure inhabitants of Sodom.
The world of mankind is divided into two companies, or, as I may say,
into two cities. There is the city of Zion, the church of God, the holy
and the beloved city. And there is Sodom, that polluted and accursed
city, which is appointed to destruction. You belong to the latter of
these. How much soever you may look upon yourselves as better than some
others, you are of the same city; the same company with fornicators, and
drunkards, and adulterers, and common swearers, and highwaymen, and
pirates, and Sodomites. How much soever you may think yourselves
distinguished, as long as you are out of Christ, you belong to the very
same society. You are of the company, you join with them, and are no
better than they, any otherwise than as you have greater restraints. You
are considered in the sight of God as fit to be ranked with them. You
and they are altogether the objects of loathing and abhorrence, and have
the wrath of God abiding on you. You will go with them and be destroyed
with them, if you do not escape from your present state. Yea, you are of
the same society and the same company with the devils, for Sodom is not
only the city of wicked men, but it is the hold of every foul spirit.
You belong to that city which is appointed to an awful, inevitable,
universal, swift, and sudden destruction; a city that hath a storm of
fire and wrath hanging over it. Many of you are convinced of the awful
state you are in while in Sodom, and are making some attempts to escape
from the wrath which hangs over it. Let such be warned by what has been
said, to escape for their lives, and not to look back. Look not back,
unless you choose to have a share in the burning tempest that is coming
down on that city. — Look not back in remembrance of the enjoyments
which you have had in Sodom, as hankering after the pleasant things
which you have had there, after the ease, the security, and the pleasure
which you have there enjoyed.
Remember Lot’s wife, for she looked back, as being loth utterly and
forever to leave the ease, the pleasure, and plenty which she enjoyed in
Sodom, and as having a mind to return to them again; remember what
became of her. — Remember the children of Israel in the wilderness, who
were desirous of going back again into Egypt. Num. 11:5, “We remember
the flesh which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the
melons, and the leeks and onions, and the garlick.” Remember what was
the issue. You must be willing forever to leave all the ease, and
pleasure, and profit of sin, to forsake all the salvation, as Lot
forsook all, and left all he had, to escape out of Sodom.
And further to enforce this warning, let me entreat all you who are in
this state to consider the several things which I shall now mention.
I. The destruction of which you are in danger is infinitely more
dreadful than that destruction of the literal Sodom from which Lot fled.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in a storm of fire and brimstone
was but a shadow of the destruction of ungodly men in hell, and is no
more to it than a shadow or a picture is to a reality, or than painted
fire is to real fire. The misery of hell is set forth by various shadows
and images in Scripture, as blackness of darkness, a never-dying worm, a
furnace of fire, a lake of fire and brimstone, the torments of the
valley of the son of Hinnom, a storm of fire and brimstone. The reason
why so many similitudes are used is because none of them are sufficient.
Anyone does but partly and very imperfectly represent the truth, and
therefore God makes use of many.
You have therefore much more need to make haste in your escape, and not
look behind you, than Lot and his wife had when they fled out of Sodom.
For you are every day and every moment in danger of a thousand times
more dreadful storm coming on your heads, than that which came on Sodom,
when the Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven upon
them. So that it will be vastly more sottish in you to look back than it
was in Lot’s wife.
II. The destruction of which you are in danger is not only greater than
the temporal destruction of Sodom, but greater than the eternal
destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom. For however well you may think
you have behaved yourselves, you who have continued impenitent under the
glorious gospel, have sinned more, and provoked God far more, and have
greater guilt upon you, than the inhabitants of Sodom; although you may
seem to yourselves, and perhaps to others, to be very harmless
creatures. Mat. 10:15, “Verily I say unto you, it shall be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that
city.”
III. Multitudes, while they have been looking back, have been suddenly
overtaken and seized by the storm of wrath. The wrath of God hath not
delayed, while they have delayed; it has not waited at all for them to
turn about and flee; but has presently seized them, and they have been
past hope. When Lot’s wife looked back, she was immediately destroyed.
God had exercised patience toward her before. When she lingered at the
setting out, the angels pressed her, and her husband and children, to
make haste. Not only so, but when they yet delayed, they brought her
forth, and set her without the city, the Lord being merciful to her. But
now when, notwithstanding this mercy, and the warnings which had been
given her, she looked back, God exercised no more patience towards her,
but proceeded immediately to put her to death.
Now God has in like manner been merciful to you. You in time past have
been lingering; you have been warned by the angel of your danger, and
pressed to make haste and flee; yet you have delayed. And now at length
God hath as it were laid hold on you, by the convictions of his spirit,
to draw you out of Sodom; and therefore remember Lot’s wife. If now,
after all, you should look back, when God hath been so merciful to you,
you will have reason to fear, that God will suddenly destroy you.
Multitudes, when they have been looking back, and putting off to another
time, have never had another opportunity; they have been suddenly
destroyed, and that without remedy.
IV. If you look back, and live long after it, there will be great danger
that you will never get any further. The only way to seek salvation is
to press forward with all your might, and still to look and press
forward, never to stand still or slacken your pace. When Lot’s wife
stopped in her flight and stood still in order that she might look, her
punishment was, that there she was to stand forever; she never got any
further; she never got beyond that place. But there she stood as a
pillar of salt, a durable pillar and monument of wrath, for her folly
and wickedness.
So it was very often with backsliders, though they may live a
considerable time after. When they look back, after they have been
taking pains for their salvation, they lose all, they put themselves
under vast disadvantages. By quenching the Spirit of God, and losing
their convictions, they dreadfully harden their own hearts, and stupefy
their souls. They make way for discouragements, dreadfully strengthen
and establish the interest of sin in their hearts, many ways give Satan
great advantages to ruin them, and provoke God oftentimes utterly to
leave them to hardness of heart. When they come to look back, their
souls presently become dead and hard like the body of Lot’s wife. And
though they live long after, they never get any further. It is worse for
them than if they were immediately damned. When persons in fleeing out
of Sodom look back, their last case is far worse than the first; Mat.
12:43, 44, 45. And experience confirms, that none ordinarily are so hard
to be brought to penance as backsliders.
V. It may well stir you up to flee for your lives, and not to look
behind you, when you consider how many have lately fled to the
mountains, while you yet remain in Sodom. To what multitudes hath God
given the wisdom to flee to Christ, the mountain of safety! They have
fled to the little city Zoar, which God will spare and never destroy.
How many have you seen of all sorts resorting out of Sodom thither, as
believing the Word of God by the angels, that God would surely destroy
that place. They are in a safe condition. They are got out of the reach
of the storm. The fire and brimstone can do them no hurt there.
But you yet remain in that cursed city among that accursed company. You
are yet in Sodom, which God is about so terribly to destroy, where you
are in danger every minute of having snares, fire, and brimstone, come
down on your head. — Though so many have obtained, yet you have not
obtained deliverance. Good has come but you have seen none of it. Others
are happy, but no man knows what will become of you. You have no part
nor lot in the glorious salvation of souls, which has lately been among
us. — The consideration of this should stir you up effectually to
escape, and in your escape to press forward — still to press forward —
and to resolve to press forward forever, let what will be in the way, to
hearken to no temptation, and never to look back, or in any wise slacken
or abate your endeavors as long as you live, but if possible to increase
in them more and more.
VI. Backsliding after such a time as this, *1* will have a vastly
greater tendency to seal a man’s damnation than at another time. The
greater means men have, the louder calls and the greater advantages they
are under, the more dangerous is backsliding, the more it has a tendency
to enhance guilt, to provoke God, and to harden the heart.
We, in this land of light, have long enjoyed greater advantages than
most of the world. But the advantages which persons are under now for
their salvation, are perhaps tenfold what they have been at such times
as we have ordinarily lived in. And backsliding will be proportionably
the greater sin, and the more dangerous to the soul. You have seen God’s
glory and his wonders amongst us, in a most marvelous manner. — If
therefore you look back after this, there will be great danger that God
will swear in his wrath, that you shall never enter into his rest; as
God sware concerning them that were for going back into Egypt, after
they had seen the wonders which God wrought for Israel. Num. 14:22, 23,
“Because all those men that have seen my glory and my miracles that I
did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten
times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the
land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that
provoked me see it.” — The wonders that we have seen among us of late,
have been of a more glorious nature than those that the children of
Israel saw in Egypt and in the wilderness.
VII. We know not but that great part of the wicked world are, at this
day, in Sodom’s circumstances, when Lot fled out of it; having some
outward, temporal destruction hanging over it. It looks as if some great
thing were coming; the state of things in the world seems to be ripe for
some great revolution. The world has got to such a terrible degree of
wickedness, that it is probable the cry of it has reached up to heaven.
And it is hardly probable that God will suffer things to go on, as they
now do, much longer. It is likely that God will ere long appear in awful
majesty to vindicate his own cause. And then none will be safe that are
out of Christ. Now therefore everyone should flee for his life, and
escape to the mountain, lest he be consumed. We cannot certainly tell
what God is about to do, but this we may know, that those who are out of
Christ are in a most unsafe state.
VIII. To enforce this warning against looking back, let me beseech you
to consider the exceeding proneness to it there is in the heart. The
heart of man is a backsliding heart. There is in the heart a great love
and hankering desire after the ease, pleasure, and enjoyments of Sodom,
as there was in Lot’s wife, by which persons are continually liable to
temptations to look back. The heart is so much towards Sodom, that it is
a difficult thing to keep the eye from turning that way, and the feet
from tending thither. When men under convictions are put upon fleeing,
it is a mere force. It is because God lays hold on their hands, as he
did on Lot’s and his wife’s, and drags them so far. But the tendency of
the heart is to go back to Sodom.
Persons are very prone to backsliding also through discouragement. The
heart is unsteady, soon tired, and apt to listen to discouraging
temptations. A little difficulty and delay soon overcome its feeble
resolutions. And discouragement tends to backsliding. It weakens
persons’ hands, lies as a dead weight on their hearts, and makes them
drag heavily; and if it continue long, it very often issues insecurity
and senselessness. Convictions are often shaken off that way. They begin
first to go off with discouragement.
Backsliding is a disease that is exceeding secret in its way of working.
It is a flattering distemper. It works like a consumption, wherein
persons often flatter themselves that they are not worse, but something
better, and in a hopeful way to recover, till a few days before they
die. So backsliding commonly comes on gradually, and steals on men
insensibly, and they still flatter themselves that they are not
backslidden. — They plead that they are seeking yet, and they hope they
have not lost their convictions. And by the time they find it out, and
cannot pretend so any longer, they are commonly so far gone, that they
care not much if they have lost their convictions. And when it is come
to that, it is commonly a gone case as to those convictions. Thus they
blind themselves, and keep themselves insensible of their own disease,
and so are not terrified with it, nor awakened to use means for relief,
till it is past cure.
Thus it is that backsliding commonly comes upon persons that have for
some time been under any considerable convictions, and afterwards lose
them. Let the consideration of this your danger excite you to the
greatest care and diligence to keep your hearts, and to watchfulness and
constant prayer against backsliding. And let it put you upon endeavors
to strengthen your resolutions of guarding against everything that tends
to the contrary, that you may indeed hold out to the end, for then shall
you know, if you follow on to know the Lord.
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