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THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,

56, PATERNOSTER ROw; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD,

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LONDON:

PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,

MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.

In this edition some obsolete words are altered, and a few

passages omitted.-The Author's Six Questions to the Unconverted, and Counsels for the Converted, are added.

INTRODUCTION.

AN EARNEST INVITATION TO SINNERS TO TURN TO GOD, IN ORDER TO THEIR ETERNAL SALVATION.

DEARLY beloved, I gladly acknowledge myself a debtor to you all, and am concerned, as I would be found a good steward to the household of God, to give to every one his portion. But the physician is most solicitous for those patients whose case is most doubtful and hazardous; and the father's pity is especially turned towards his dying child. The numbers of unconverted souls among you call for the most earnest compassion and prompt diligence, to pluck them out of the burning,' and therefore to them first I shall apply myself in these lines.

But whence shall I fetch my argument? Wherewith shall I win them? O that I could but tell! I would write unto them in tears, I would weep out every argument, I would empty my veins for ink, I would petition them on my knees. O how thankful should I be, if they would be prevailed with to repent and turn! How long have I laboured for you! How frequently have I made suit to you! How often would I have gathered you! This is what I have prayed for and studied for, these many years, that I might bring you to God. O that I might but do it! Will you yet be

entreated?

But, Lord, how insufficient am I for this work! Alas! wherewith shall I pierce the scales of Leviathan, or make the heart to feel, that is hard as stone, hard as a piece of the nether mill-stone? Shall I go and lay my mouth

1 Jude 23.

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