of men that will quench Hell-fire or make him a saver that loseth his soul. O if you had heard what I believe if you had seen what I believe and that on the credit of the word of God you would say there can be no reason to warrant a man to damn his soul You durst not sleep quietly another night before you had resolved to Turn and Live If you see a man put his hand into the fire till it burn off you 'l marvail at it but this is a thing that a man may have Reason for as Bishop Cranmer had when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to Popery If you see a man cut off a leg or an arm it s a sad sight but this is a thing that a man may have good reason for as many a man doth it to save his life If you see a man give his body to be burnt to ashes and to be tormented with strappado's and racks and refuse deliverance when it is offered this is a hard case to flesh and blood But this a man may have good reason for as you may see in Heb. 11.33 34 35 36. and as many an hundred Martyrs have done But for a man to forsake the Lord that made him and for a man to run into the fire of Hell when he is told of it and intreated to Turn that he may be saved this is a thing that can have no Reason in the world that is Reason indeed to justifie or excuse it For Heaven will pay for the loss of any thing that we can lose to get it or for any labour which we bestow for it But nothing can pay for the loss of Heaven I beseech you now let this word come nearer to your hearts As you are convinced that you have no Reason to destroy your selves so tell me what Reason have you to refuse to Turn and live to God What Reason hath the veriest worldling or drunkard or ignorant careless sinner of you all why you should not be as holy as any you know and be as carefull for your souls as any other Will not hell be as hot to you as to others Should not your own souls be as dear to you as theirs to them Hath not God as much authority over you Why then will you not become a sanctified people as well as they O Sirs when God bringeth the matter down to the very Principles of nature and shews you that you have no more reason to be undgodly then you have to damn your own souls if yet you will not understand and Turn it seems a Desperate case that you are in And now either you have Reason for what you do or you have not If not will you go on against Reason it self Will you do that which you have no Reason for But if you think you have produce them and make the best of your matter Reason the case a little with me your fellow-creature which is far easier then to reason the case with God Tell me man here before the Lord as if thou wert to die this hour Why shouldst thou not resolve to Turn this day before thou stir from the place thou standest in What Reason hast thou to deny or to delay Hast thou any Reason that satisfieth thine own conscience for it Or any that thou darest own and plead at the barr of God If thou hast let us hear them bring them forth and make them good But alas what poor stuff what nonsense instead of reason do we daily hear from ungodly men But for their necessity I should be ashamed to name them 1. One saith If none shall be saved but such Converted and Sanctified ones as you talk of then heaven would be but empty then God help a great many Answ. What! it seems you think that God doth not know or else that he is not to be believed Measure not all by your selves God hath thousands and millions of his sanctified ones but yet they are few in comparison of the world as Christ himself hath told us Matthew 7.13 14. Luke 12.32 It better beseems you to make that use of this truth which Christ teacheth you Strive to enter in at the strait gate for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many they be that go in thereat Luke 13.22 23 24. Fear not little flock saith Christ to his sanctified ones for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luke 12 32. Object 2. I am sure if such as I go to Hell we shall have store of company Answ. And will that be any ease or comfort to you Or do you think you may not have company enough in Heaven Will you be undone for company Or will you not believe that God will execute his threatnings because they be so many that are guilty All these are silly unreasonable conceits Object 3. But are not all men sinners even the best of you all Answ. But all are not unconverted sinners The godly live not in gross sin and their very infirmities are their grief and burden which they daily long and pray and strive to be rid of Sin hath not dominion over them Object 4. I do not see that Professors are any better then other men They will over-reach and oppress and are as Covetous as any Answ. Whatever hypocrites are it s not so with those that are sanctified God hath thousands and thousands that are otherwise Though the malicious world doth accuse them of what they can never prove and of that which never entred into their hearts And commonly they charge them with heart-sins which none can see but God because they can charge them with no such wickedness in their lives as they are guilty of themselves Object 5. But I am no whoremonger nor drunkard nor oppressor and therefore why should you call upon me to be Converted Answ. As if you were not born after the flesh and had not lived after the flesh as well as otherâ— Is it not as great a sin as any of these for a man to have an earthly mind and to love the world above God and to have an unbelieving unhumbled heart Nay let me tell you more that many persons that avoid disgraceful sins are as fast glued to the world and as much slaves to the flesh and as strange to God and a verse to heaven in their more civil course as others are in their more shameful notorious sins Object 6. But I mean nobody any harm nor do no harm and why then should God condemn me Answ. Is it no harm to neglect the Lord that made thee and the work for which thou camest into the world and to prefer the creature before the Creator and to neglect the grace that is daily offered there It is the depth of thy sinfulness to be so insensible of it The dead feel
A CALL TO THE Unconverted TO Turn and Live AND Accept of Mercy while Mercy may be had as ever they would find Mercy in the day of their extremity From the Living God By his unworthy Servant RICHARD BAXTER To be Read in Families where any are Unconverted London Printed by R. W. for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-Yard 1658. The Reason of this Work IN that short acquaintance I had with that Reverend Learned servant of Christ Bishop Vsher he was oft from first to last importuning me to write a directory for the several ranks of Professed Christians which might distinctly give each one their portion beginning with the Unconverted and then proceeding to the babes in Christ and then to the strong and mixing some special helps against the several sins that they are addicted to By the suddenness of his motion at our first congress I perceived it was in his mind before And I told him both that it is abundantly done by many already and that his unacquaintedness with my weakness might make him think me fitter for it then I was But this did not satisfie him but still he made it his request I confess I was not moved by his Reasons nor did I apprehend any great need of doing more then is done in that way nor that I was likely to do more And therefore I parted from him without the least purpose to answer his desire But since his death his words oft came into my mind and the great Reverence I bore to him did the more incline me to think with some complacency of his motion And having of late intended to write a Family Directory I began to apprehend how congruously the forementioned work should lead the way and the several conditions of mens souls be spoken of before we come to the several Relations Hereupon I resolved by Gods assistance to proceed in the order following First to speak to the impenitent Unconverted sinners who are not yet so much as purposing to Turn or at least are not setting about the work And with these I thought a wakening Perswasive was a more necessary means then meer Directions For Directions suppose men willing to obey them but the persons that we have first to deal with are wilful and asleep in sin and as men that are past feeling having given themselves over to sin with greediness Ephes. 4.19 My next work must be for those that have some purposes to Turn and are about the work to Direct them for a through and true Conversion that they miscarry not in the birth The third part must be Directions for the younger and weaker sort of Christians that they may be stablished built up and persevere The fourth part Directions for lapsed and back-sliding Christians for their safe recovery Besides these there is intended some short Perswasives and Directions against some specâ—al errours of the times and against some common killing sins As for Directions to Doubting troubled Consciences that is done already And the strong I shall not write Directions for because they are so much taught of God already And then the last part is intended more specially for Families as such Directing the several Relations in their Duties Some of these are already written whether I shall have life and leisure for the rest God only knoweth And therefore I shall publish the several parts by themselves as I write them and the rather because they are intended for men of different states and because I would not deter them by the bulk or price from reading what is written for their benefit The use that this part is published for is 1. For Masters and Parents to read often in their Families if they have servants or children that are yet unconverted 2. For all such Unconverted persons to read and consider of themselves 3. For the richer sort that have any pitty on such miserable souls to give to the unsanctified that need them if they have not fitter at hand to use and give The Lord awake us to work while it is day for the saving of our own and others souls in subserviency to the Blessed God the Maker the Redeemer and the Sanctifier of souls Rich. Baxter Decemb. 10. 1657. To all unsanctified persons that shall read this Book Especially of my Hearers in the Burrough and Parish of Kederminster Men and Brethren THE Eternal God that made you for a life Everlasting and hath Redeemed you by his only Son when you had lost it and your-selves being mindful of you in your sin and misery hath indited the Gospel and sealed it by his Spirit and commanded his Ministers to preach it to the world that pardon being 〈◊〉 offered you and Heaven bâ—ing â—ot before you he might call you off from your fleshly pleasures and from following after this deceitfull world and acquaint you with the life that you were Created and Redeemed for before you are dead and past remedy He sendeth not you Prophets or Apostles tâ—at receive their message by immediate Revelation but yet he calleth you by his ordinary Ministers who are Commissioned by him to preach the same Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first delivered The Lord standeth over you and seeth how you forget him and your latter end and how light you make of Everlasting things as men that understand not what they have to do or suffer He seeth how bold you are in sin and how fearless of his threatnings and how careless of your souls and how the works of Infidels are in your lives while the belief of Christians is in your mouths He seeth the dreadful day at hand when your sorrows will begin and you must lament all this with fruitless cries in torment and desperation and when the remembrance of your folly will tear your hearts if true Conversion now prevent it not in comparison of your sinful miserable souls the Lord that better knows your case then you can know it hath made it our duty to speak to you in his name 2 Corinth 5.19 and to tell yâ—u plainly of your sin and misery and what will be your end and how sad a change you 'l shortly see if yet you go on a little longer Having bought you at so dear a rate as the blood of his Son Iesus Christ and made you so free and general a promise of pardon and grace and everlasting glory he commandeth as to tender all this to you as the gift of God and to intreate you to consider of the necessity and worth of what he offereth He seeth and pittieth you while you are drowned in worldly cares and pleasures and eagerly following childish toyes and wasting that short and precious time for a thing of nought in which you should make ready for an everlasting life and therefore he hath commanded us to Call after you and tell you how you lose your labour and are about to lose your souls
say they are all mine If upon the curse you may say From this I am delivered When you read the Law you may see what you are saved from when you read the Gospel you may see him that Redeemed you and see the course of his Love and holy Life and sufferings and trace him in his temptations tears and blood in the work of your salvation You may see death conquered and Heaven opened and your Resurrection and Glorification provided for in the Resurrection and Glorification of your Lord. If you look on the Saints you may say They are my Brethren and Companions If on the unsanctified you may rejoyce to think that you are saved from that state If you look upon the heavens the Sun and Moon and Stars innumerable you may think and say My Fathers face is infinitely more glorious It s higher matters that he hath prepared for his Saints Yonder is but the outward Court of Heaven The blessedness that he hath promised me is so much higher that flesh and blood cannot behold it If you think of the grave you may remember that the Glorified Spirit a Living Head and a Loving Father have all so near Relation to your dust that it cannot be forgotten or neglected but will more certainly revive then the plants and flowers in the spring because that the soul is still alive that is the Root of the Body and Christ is alive that is the Root of both Even death which is the King of fears may be remembred and entertained with joy as being the day of your deliverance from the remnants of sin and sorrow and the day which you believed and hoped and waâ—ted for when you shall see the blessed things which you had heard of and shall find by present joyful experience what it was to choose the better part and to be a sincere believing Saint What say you sirs is not this a more delightfull life to be assured of Salvation and ready to die then to live as the ungodly that have their hearts overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day comes upon them unawares Luke 21.34 â—6 Might you not live a comfortable life if once you were made the Heirs of Heaven and sure to be saved when you leave the world O look about you then and think what you do and cast not away such hopes as these for very nothing The flesh and world can give you no such Hopes or Comforts And besides all the misery that you bring upon your selves you are the troublers of others as long as you are Vnconverted You trouble Magistrates to rule you by their Laws You trouble Ministers by resisting the light and guidance which they offer you Your sin and misery is the greatest grief and trouble to them in the world You trouble the Common-wealth and draw the Iudgements of God upon us It s you that most disturb the holy peace and order of the Churches and hinder our Vnion and Reformation and are the shame and trouble of the Churches where you intrude and of the places where you are Ah Lord How heavy and sad a case is this that even in England where the Gospel doth abound above any other Nation in the world where Teaching is so plain and common and all the helps we can desire are at hand when the sword hath been hewing us and Iudgement hath run as a fire through the Land when deliverances have relieved us and so many admirable mercies have engaged us to God and to the Gospel and an holy life that yet after all this our Cities and Towns and Countries should abound with multitudes of unsanctified men and swarm with so much sensuality as everywhere to our grief we see One would have thought that after all this Light and all this experience and all these Iudgements and Mercies of God the people of this Nation should have joyned together as one man to Turn to the Lord and should have come to their godly Teachers and lamented all their former sin and desired him to joyn with them in publike Humiliation to confess them openly and beg pardon of them from the Lord and should have craved his Instruction for the time to come and be glad to be Ruled by the Spirit within and the Ministers of Christ without according to the Word of God One would think that after such Reason and Scripture evidence as they hear and after all these means and mercies there should not be an ungodly persoâ— lest among us nor a worldling oâ— a drunkard or a hater of Reformation or an enemy to holiness be found in all our Towns or Countreys If we be not all agreed about some Ceremoâ—ies or Forms of Government one would think that before this We should have been all agreed to live a holy and heavenly lâ—fe in obedience to God his word and Ministers and in Love and Peace with one another But alas how far are our people from this course most of them in most places do set their hearts on earthly things and seek not first the Kingdom of God and the righteouâ—neâ—s hereof but look at holinesâ— as a needless thing Their Families are prayerless or else a few heaâ—tlâ—ss lâ—feless words must serve instead of hearty fervent daily prayers their children are not taught the knowledge of Christ and the Covenant of Grace nor brought up in the nurture of the Lord though they faâ—sly promised all this in their Baptism They instruct not their servants in the matters of salvation but so their work be done they care not There are more oaths and â—nâ—ses and ribbald or railing speeches in their families then gracious words that tend to edification How few are the Families that fear the Lord and enquire at his Word and Ministers how they should live and what they should do and are willing to be taught and ruled and that heartily look after everlasting Life And those few that God hath made so happy are commonly the by-word of their neighbours when we see some live in drunkenness and some in pride and worldliness and most of them have little care of their salvation though the cause be gross and past all controversie yet will they hardly be convinced of their misery and more hardly recovered and reformed But when we have done all that we are able to save them from their sins we leave the most of them as we find them And if according to the Law of God we cast them out of the Communion of the Church when they have obstinately rejected all our admonitions they rage at us as if we were their enemies and their hearts are filled with malice against us and they will sooner set themselves against the Lord and his Laws and Church and Ministers then against their deadly siâ—s This is the dolefull case of England We have Magistrates that countenance the ways of Godliness and a happy opportunity for Vnity and Reformation is before us and faithfull Ministers long to
all that love your souls that instead of quarrelling with God and with his Word you will presently stoop to it and use it for your good All you that are yet unconverted in this Assembly take this as the undoubted truth of God You must ere long be converted or condemned There is no other way but Turn or Dye When God that cannot lye hath told you this When you hear it from the Maker and Judge of the world its time for him that hath ears to hear By this time you may see what you have to trust to You are but dead and damned men except you will be converted Should I tell you otherwise I should deceive you with a lye Should I hide this from you I should undoe you and be guilty of your blood as the verses before my Text assure me Ver. 8. When I say to the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely dye if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand You see then though this be a rough unwelcome Doctrine it s such as we must preach and you must hear It is easier to hear of Hell then feel it If your necessities did not require it we would not gall your tender ears with truths that seem so harsh and grievous Hell would not be so full if people were but willing to know their case and to hear and think of it The reason why so few escape it is because they strive not to enter in at the strait gate of Conversion and to go the narrow way of holinesâ— while they have time and they strive not because they be not wakened to a lively feeling of the danger they are in and they be not wakened because they are doth to hear or think of it and that is partly through foolish tenderness and carnal self-love and partly because they do not well believe the Word that threatneth it If you will but throughly believe this truth me thinks the weight of it should force you to remember it and it should follow you and give you no rest till you are converted If you had but once heard this word by the voice of an Angel Thou must be Converted or Condemned Turn or Die would it not stick in your mind and haunt you night and day so that in your sinning you would remember it and at your labour you would remember it as if the voice were still in your ears Turn or Die O happy were your souls if it might thus work with you and never be forgotten or let you alone till it have driven home your hearts to God But if you will cast it out by forgetfulness or unbelief how can it work to your Conversion and Salvation But take this with you to yoâ—r sorrow though you may put this out of your minds you cannot put it out of the Bible but there it will stand as a sealed truth which you shall experimentally know for ever that there is no other way but Turn or Die O what 's the matter then that the hearts of sinners be not pierced with such a weighty truth A man would think now that every Unconverted soul that hears these words should be pricked to the heart and think with themselves This is my own case and never be quiet till they found themselves converted Believe it Sirs this drowsie careless temper will not last long Conversion and Condemnation are both of them awakening things and one of them will make you feel ere long I can foretel it as truly as if I saw it with my eyes that either Grace or Hell will shortly bring these matters to the quick and make you say What have I done What a foolâ—â—â— wicked course have I taken The scornful and the stupid state of sinners will last but a little while As soon as they either Turn or Die the presumptuous dream will be at an end and then their wits and feeling will return BUT I foresee there are two things that are like to harden the unconverted and make me lose all my labour except they can be taken out of the way and that is the misunderstanding of these two words The Wicked and Turn Some will think with themselves It s true the wicked must Turn or Die but whâ—â—'s that to me I am not wicked though I am a sinner as all men be Others will think It s true thaâ— we maâ— Turn from our evil waies but I am Turned long ago I hope this is not now to do And thus while wicked men think they are not wicked but are already Converted we lose all our labour in perswading them to Turn I shall therefore before I go any further tell you here who are meant by the wicked and who they be that must turn or die and also what is meant by Turning and who they be that are truly converted And this I have purposely reserved for this place preferring the Method that fits my end And here you must observe that in the sense of the Text a wicked man and a converted man are contraries No man is a wicked man that is converted and no man is a converted man that is wicked So that to be a wicked man and to be an unconverted man is all one And therefore in opening one we shall open both Before I can tell you what either Wickedness or Conversion is I must go to the bottom and fetch up the matter from the beginning It pleased the great Creator of the world to make three sorts of living creatures Angels he made pure Spirits without flesh and therefore he made them only for Heaven and not for to dwell on earth Bruits were made flesh without immortal souls and therefore they were made only for earth and not for Heaven Man is of a middle nature between both as partaking of both flesh and Spirit and therefore he was made both for Earth and Heaven But as his flesh is made to be but a servant to his Spirit so is he made for earth but as his passage or way to Heaven and not that this should be his home or happiness The blessed state that man was made for was to behold the Glorious Majesty of the Lord and to praise him among his holy Angels and to love him and be filled with his Love for ever And as this was the End that man was made for so God did give him means that were fitted to the attaining of it These means were principally two First the right Inclination and Disposition of the mind of man Secondly the right ordering of his life and practice For the first God suited the Disposition of man unto his End giving him such knowledge of God as was fit for his present state and an Heart Disposed and Inclined to God in holy Love But yet he did not fix or confirm him in this condition but having made him a free agent he left him in the hands
everlasting fire And yet they will have no mercy upon themselves And yet will these shameless wretches say that God is more merciful then to condemn them when it is themselves that cruelly and unmercifully run upon Condemnation and if we should go to them with our hats in our hands and intreate them we cannot stop them If we should fall down on our knees to them we cannot stop them but to Hell they will and yet will not believe that they are going thither If we beg of them for the sake of God that made them and preserveth them for the sake of Christ that dyed for them for the sake of their own poor souls to pitty themselves and go no further in the way to Hell but come to Christ while his arms are open and enter into a state of life while the door stands open and now take mercy while mercy may be had they will not be perswaded If we should die for it we cannot get them so much as now and then to consider with themselves of the matter and to Turn And yet they can say I hope God will be merciful Did you ever consider what he saith Isa. 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he hath formed them will show them no favour If another man will not cloath you when you are naked and feed you when you are hungry you will say he is unmerciful If he should cast you into prison or beat and torment you you would say he is unmerciful And yet you will do a thousand times more against your selves even cast away both soul and body for ever and never complain of your own unmercifulness Yea and God that waited upon you all the while with his mercy must be taken to be unmerciful if he punish you after all this Unless the holy God of Heaven will give these wretches leave to trample upon his Sons blood and with the Jews as it were again to spit in his face and do despight to the Spirit of grace and make a jest of sin and a mock at holiness and set more light by saving mercy then by the filth of their fleshly pleasures and unless after all this he will save them by the mercy which they cast away and would none of God himself must be called unmerciful by them But he will be justified when he Judgeth and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm I know there are many particular cavils that are brought by them against the Lord but I shall not here stay to answer them particularly having done it already in in my Treatise of Iudgement to which I shall refer them Had the disputing part of the world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction as they have been busie in searching after the cause of them and forward indirectly to impute it to God they might have exercised their wits more profitably and have less wronged God and sped better themselves When so ugly a monster as sin is within us and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us and so dreadful a thing as Hell is before us one would think it should be an easie question who is in the fault and whether God or man be the principal or culpable cause Some men are such favourable Judges of themselves that they are proner to accuse the Infinite Perfection and Goodness it self then their own hearts and imitate their first parents that said The Serpent tempted me and the woman that thou gavest me gave unto me and I did eat secretly implying that God was the cause So say they The understanding that thou gavest me was unable to discern the will that thou gavest me was unable to make a better choice the objects which thou diast set before me did entice me the temptation which thou didst permit to assault me prevailed against me And some are so loth to think that God can make a self-determining creature that they dare not deny him that which they take to be his prerogative to be the determiner of the will in every sin as the first efficient immediate physical cause And many could be content to acquit God from so much causing of evil if they could but reconcile it with his being the chief cause of good as if truths must be no longer truths then we are able to see them in their perfect order and coherence because our râ—velled wits cannot set them right together nor assign each truth its proper place we presume to conclude that some must be cast away This is the fruit of proud self-conceitedness when men receive not Gods truths as a child his lesson in an holy submission to the omniscience of our Teacher but as Censurers that are too wise to learn Object But we cannot Convert our selves till God Convert us we can do nothing without his grace It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy Answ. 1. God hath two degrees of mercy to shew the mercy of Conversion first and the mercy of Salvation list the latter he will give to none but those that will and run and hath promised it to them only The former is to make them willing that were unwilling and though your own willing and endeavours deserve not this grace yet your wilfull refusal deserveth that it should be denyed to you Your disabily is your very unwillingness it self which excuseth not your sin but maketh it the greater You could Turn if you were but truly willing and if your wills themselves are so corrupted that nothing but effectual grace will move them you have the more cause to seek for that grace and yield to it and do what you can in the use of means and not neglect it or set against it Do what you are able first and then complain of God for denying you grace if you have cause Object But you seem to intimate all this while that man hath free will Answer The dispute about free-will is beyond your capacity I shall therefore now trouble you with no more but this about it Your will is naturally a free that is a self-determining faculty but it is vitiously inclined and backward to good and therefore we see by sad experience that it hath not a vertuous moral freedom But that is the wickedness of it which deserveth the punishment And I pray you let us not befool our selves with opinions Let the case be your own If you have an enemy so malicious that he falls upon you and beats you every time he meets you and takes away the lives of your children will you excuse him because he saith I have not free will it is my nature I cannot choose unless God give me grace If you have a servant that robbeth you will you take such an answer from him Might not every Thief and Murderer that is hanged it the Assize give such an answer I have not free-will