they would have been if they had been judged only by the first Law When they see Christ and Heaven that was offered them and remember their wilfull and obstinate contempt of them their own Consciences and tongues shall justifie God and confess that he is Righteous in the dreadfulest of his Judgments If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall they escape that neglect of great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and then was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. 2. 3 4. And if they escaped not that refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not they escape that turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven For our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 25 29. So much of the Ends of Christ's undertaking in our Redemption In which you may see that there are divers things which Demonstrate the Glory of the forementioned Attributes of God in this Gospel Dispensation 1. It shineth forth in the Person of the Redeemer as he was on Earth in his Nature and wonderfull conception and his perfections 2. And it also shineth forth in the Actions of his life overcoming the world and the Devil and perfefectly fullfilling the Law of God So that the Image of his Father did shine forth in his Conversation 3. And also in his Death and Sufferings was the Father glorified as I shewed before 4. And also in the most Wise and Holy frame of those Laws by which the grace of the Mediator is conveyed and the Church governed 5. And by the Image of God by the impress of those Laws on the Souls of his Saints and by the holiness of their lives the Glory of God is also demonstrated 6. As also by the Justifying sentence of the Judge and the glorious Reward bestowed on the Faithfull 7. And by the Condemning sentence and execution on the ungodly in whom Vindictive Justice will be honoured 8. And in the perfection of the Individual Saints and their perfect Love and Praise 9. And in the Saints as imbodyed in the Heavenly Jerusalem the Glory of which will be the Glory of God 10. And pricipally in the Blessed Person and Work of the Redeemer In all these will Gods Glory shine forth for ever Quest. But to whom is it that God doth thus Demosntrate his Glory Answ. 1. To the Saints in this life in that degree as is suited to a state of Grace and the condition of a travailer that lives by Faith We are apt to look upward and long after fuller revelations of the Heavenly Kingdom and mystery and marvail that God will not shew himself more fully to his Saints on Earth Fain we would know more of God and Christ and the life to come and it is oft matter of some temptation to us that God doth not satifie these desires but leaveth them in so much darkness that are willing of his light But this is because we do not consider how much of Glory consisteth in the light and that Grace is more in the Disires of it then in the possession and if we should have as much of it as we desire it were but to bring down Heaven to Earth Means must be suited to their ends God will discover to us so much of his Glory as may quicken our desires and keep alive our hope and patience and endeavours but not so much as shall satisfie us and answer our expectations For Heaven is not here We must not carry our Home about with us but travail towards it that we may reach it at the last 2. God doth even now Demonstrate the Glory of his forementioned Attributes in the work of Redemption not only to his Saints but to the Angels of Heaven The consideration of this hath often satisfied me when I have been tempted to wonder at the work of Redemption that God should so far condescend as to be incarnate and make such glorious discoveries of himself and yet that so few in the world should take notice of it and be should have from men so little of the honour that he seemeth by his preparations to expect But the most part of the world did never once see the Glory that shineth to them in the Redeemer But God hath another world besides this and other Creatures besides man in all likelyhood incomparably more numerous perhaps thousands for one and certainly more excellent And though Christ did assume the Nature of Angels and came not to Redeem them that needed no Redeemer yet may the lustre of this work of Redemption appear to the Angels more clearly then to man and God may have a thousand-fold more Glory from them that are but the spectators and admirers then from us in our present darkness that are yet possessors As we that are here on Earth do look upon and admire the Glory of the Sunne which is as it were in another world and out of our reach so the Angels much more may gaze upon the Glory of the Sonne of God and admire the Lord in the work of our Redemption though they were not the Redeemed ones So that unto them doth God shine forth by it in his excellencies Perhaps you 'l say that cannot be because this is but seeing him in a glass when the Angels see him face to face and immediately behold his blessed Essence or else how can the Saints expect that beatificall Vision To which I answer First that I am uncertain whether seeing face to face bean immediate intuition of the Essence of God or only such a sight of his Glory in those emanations that are as appropriated to the place or state of Bliss Gods Essence is every where but that Glory is not every where And so I know not whether our present knowledg be not called Enigmaticall and as in a glass comparatively to that Glory prepared for the Saints But secondly I answer that certain I am that God is Demonstrated to his Angels in the Redeemer yea in the Church it self which is the Subject of his Grace and that they are both Affected and Imployed about us accordingly He that spoiled Principalities and Powers and openly triumphed over them and by death overcame him that had the power of death Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. And had so much to do against the evill Angels as Enemies no doubt is joyfully observed by the good Angels And he that is set so far above Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Ephes. 1. 21. And is gone in to Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3. 22. no doubt is honoured and admired by Angels And indeed it is expresly said Let all the Angels of God worship him
DIRECTIONS AND PERSWASIONS TO A Sound CONVERSION For Prevention of that Deceit and Damnation of Souls and of those Scandals Heresies and desperate Apostasies that are the Consequents of a Counterfeit or Superficial Change By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by A. M. for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by N. Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard 1658. The Preface IT is weight so unconceivable that dependeth on the soundness of our Conversion and Sanctification that our care and diligence cannot be too great to make it sure As the professed Atheist Heathens and Infidels without so the self-deceiving Hypocrites within the Church do wilfully cast away themselves for ever by neglecting such a business of everlasting consequence when they have time and warnings and assistance to dispatch it Multitudes live like bruits or Atheists forgetting that they are born in sinne and misery and setled in it by wilfull custom and must be Converted or Condemned These know not many of them what need they have of a Conversion nor what Conversion or Sanctification is And some that have been Preachers of the Gospel have been so lamentably ignorant in so great a matter that they have perswaded the poor deluded people that it is only the gross and haynous sinners that need Conversion branding them with the name of Puritans that will not take a dead Profession joyned with Civility for true Sanctification and promise Salvation to those that Christ hath with many asseverations professed shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Others that confess that a through Sanctification is a necessary thing do delude their souls with something that is like it Hence is the misery and dishonour of the Church Holiness it self is disgraced by the sins of them that are unholy because they pretend to that which they have not Hence it is that we have thousands that call themselves Christians that live a worldly fleshly life and some of them hating the way of Godliness and yet think they are Converted because they are sorry when they have sinned and wish when it is past that they had not done it and cry God mercy for it and confess that they are sinners and this they take for true Repentance When sinne was never mortified in their souls nor their hearts ever brought to hate it and forsake it But when they have had the profit and pleasure of sinne they are sorry for the danger but never regenerate and made New Creatures by the Spirit of Christ. Hence also it is that we have such abundance of meer Opinionists that take themselves for Religious people Because they have changed their Opinions and their parties and can prate contentiously against those that are not of their mind and joyn themselves with those that seem to be the strictest they take themselves to be truly Sanctified And this makes such gadding from one opinion to another and such censuring reviling and divisions upon that account because their Religion is most in their Opinions and hath not mortified their carnal selfish inclinations and Passions nor brought them to a holy heavenly mind Hence also it is that we have so many sensual scandalous Professours that seem to be Religious but bridle not their tongues their appetites or their lusts but are railers or backbiters or tipplers or gluttons or filthy and lascivious or some way scandalous to their holy Profession because they are strangers to a through-Conversion but take up with the counterfeit of a superficial change Hence also we have so many worldlings that think themselves Religious men that make Christ but a servant to their worldly interest and seek Heaven but for a reserve when Earth forsakes them and have something in this world that is so dear to them that they cannot forsake it for the hopes of Glory but give up themselves to Christ with secret exceptions and reserves for their prosperity in the world And all because they never knew a sound Conversion which should have rooted out of their Hearts this worldly interest and delivered them up entirely and absolutely to Christ. Hence also it is that we have so few Professours that can lay by their Pride and bear disesteem or injury and love their enemies and bless them that curse them yea or love their godly friends that cross them or dishonour them And so few that can deny themselves in their honour or any considerable thing for the sake of Christ and in obedience and conformity to his will And all because they never had that saving change that takes down Self and sets up Christ as Soveraigne in the soul. And hence also it is that we have in this age so many dreadful instances of Apostasie So many reproaching the Scripture that once they thought had Converted them and the way of Holiness that once they did profess and denying the Lord himself that bought them and all because they formerly took up with a superficial counterfeit Conversion O how commonly and how lamentably doth this misery appear among Professours in their unsavoury discourse their strife and envy on Religious pretenses their dead formality their passionate divisions or their selfish Proud and earthly minds A through Conversion would have cured all this at least as to the dominion of it Having therefore in my call to the unconverted endeavoured to awaken careless souls and perswade the obstinate to Turn and Live I have here spoken to them that seem to be about the work and given them some Directions and Perswasions to prevent their perishing in the birth and so to prevent that Hypocrisie which else they are like to be formed into and the deceit of their hearts the Errour of their Lives and the Misery at their Death which is like to follow That they live not as those that flatter God with their mouth and lie unto him with their tongues because their heart is not right with him neither are they stedfast in his Covenant Psal. 78. 36 37 Lest denying deep entertainment and rooting to the seed of Life or choaking it by the radicated predominant Love and cares of the world they wither when the heat of persecution shall break forth Matth. 13. 20 21 22. And lest building on the sands they fall when the winds and storms arise and their fall be great Matth. 7. 26 27. And so they go out from us that they may be made manifest that they were not of us For if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 Joh. 2. 19. Look therefore to this great important business and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. And trust not your hearts too easily or too confidently But turn to the Lord with all your hearts Joel 2. 12. Cleave to him Resolvedly or with Purpose of heart Acts 11. 23. And see that you sell all and buy the Pearl Matth. 13. 46. And stick not at the price but absolutely resign
Creature who was the Subject The Wisdom and Love and Mercy of God would not give way to this that the world should be destroyed so soon after it was made and man left remediless in everlasting Misery Satisfaction therefore must be the Remedy This must be such as might be as fit to procure the Ends of the Law as if the Law it self had been executed that is as if the offendors had all dyed the death that it did threaten It must therefore be a publik Demonstration of Justice and of the odiousness of Sinne to the terrour and warning of sinners for the future And this was done by Jesus Christ when none else in Heaven or Earth could do it For it did as fully demonstrate this Justice of God and preserved his honour and the usefullness of his Law and government that a Person so high and Glorious and so dear to him should suffer so much for sinne as if all the world had suffered for themselves And thus God made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. And thus Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Hereby also God Demonstrated the Holiness of his Nature How much he hateth sinne and how unreconcilable he is to it as light to darkness As the Law and Judgments of God do proceed from his Perfect Nature and Will so do they bear the Image of that perfection and demonstrate it to the world This therefore is the nobler End and work of Christ in our redemption to declare the Holiness and Perfection of God in his Nature and Will though the former the declaring of his Governing Justice be the neerer End If the death of Aarons two sonnes were such a Declaratition that God will be sanctified in all that draw neer him Lev. 10. 2 3 If his Laws and present Judgments do declare him to be a Holy and Jealous God that will not forgive sinne without a valuable consideration or satisfaction Jos. 24. 19. how much more evidently is this declared in the death of Christ If the Bethshemites cry out who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 20. Upon the death of 50070 men how much more may the guilty Soul say so when he thinks on the Crucified Sonne of God As it is the End of Gods execution on transgressors that the Lord may be exalted in Judgment and God that is Holy may be Sanctified in Righteousness Isa. 5. 16. So was it his End in the Sacrifice of his Sonne 3. Another End of our Redemption by Christ is the Demonstration of the Infinite Wisdom of God His Wisdom in the preventing the ruin of the late-created world that it might not be said that sin and Satan had frustrated him of the Glory of his Creation and destroyed it almost as soon as he had made it Yea in getting an advantage by the malice of his enemies for the more admirable attainment of the Ends of his Law and the Glorifying of all his Governing Attributes He would not have made man a free Agent and left him in the hand of his own will and suffered him to sinne if his Wisdom had not known how to secure his own Intrest and Honour to the full And so also in the oeconomy and admirable frame of his Gracious Sapiential Government by Christ the manifold Wisdom of God doth shine forth Ephes. 3. 9 10. As the wonderfull structure of Heaven and Earth and every part of this Natural frame doth gloriously reveale the Wisdom of the Creator so the wonderfull Contrivance of our Redemption by Christ and the Reparation of the world by him and the Moral frame of this Evangelical dispensation doth wonderfully demonstrate the Wisdom of the Redeemer And as the observation of our Natures may give us Cause to say with David Psal. 139. 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made So the observation of our new Natures and condition may well cause us to say I will praise thee for I am graciously and wonderfully Redeemed marvelous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well As Nature may teach us to admire the frame of Nature so Grace will teach us to admire the frame of Grace and to see the beauty of its several parts and much more of the whole where all the parts are orderly composed 4. Yea the very Power of God is demonstrated in Christ. And therefore he is called 1 Cor. 1. 24. The Power of God and the Wisdom of God not only formally because Christ himself is the Wise and Powerfull God nor only Efficiently because God doth exercise his Power and Wisdom by his Sonne in Creation Redemption and Government but also Effectually and Objectively as Christ is the great and most admirable Demonstration of the Power and Wisdom of God in the world What work transcendeth the incomprehensible Miracle of the Incarnation That God should assume the Nature of man into personal Union The Creation of the Sunne is no greater a work of Power then the Incarnation and sending of the Sonne of God the Intellectual Sunne the Light of the world That living Light that lightneth every one that cometh into the world though yet the darkness comprehendeth not his light Joh. 1. 4 6 9. What was he but the living visable Power of God when he healed all diseases cast out Devils raised the dead and rose from the dead himself and ascended into Glory and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Church enduing them with Power from on high Acts 1. 8. Luke 24. 49. when he was on Earth he was Anointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power and went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil Acts 10. 38. Being dead he was declared to be the Sonne of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Yea he filled his servants with power Act. 6. 8. Even such as was admired and desired by the ungodly Act. 8. 19. He being the brightness of Gods Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our sinnes he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name then they Heb. 1. 3 4. As Christ therefore in his glorified Humanity united to the Godhead is far more excellent then the Angels of God and more glorious then the Sunne so is the Power of God more abundantly demonstrated in him than in the Sunne or the Angels or any other Creature The Illuminated do know this and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his own right hand in the Celestials farre above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and given him to be Head over all things to the Church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all Ephes. 1. 19. 20 21 22 23. Besides this even in the Works of Christ for his Church his Calling and Sanctifying and Ruling and Preserving them his subduing their Enemies and raising them from the dead and Glorifying them with himself how glorious is the very Power of God by his Sonne 2 Thes. 1. 11. Phil. 3. 10. Ephes. 3. 7 20. 2 Pet. 1. 3 16. 1 Cor. 4. 20. Ephes. 6. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 43. 1 Pet. 1. 5. And therefore his Gospel may well be called The Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1. 16. Which hath been the Instrument of his Power in doing such wonderful works in the world 1 Cor. 1. 18. 2. 5. 2 Cor. 6. 7. 2. Cor. 13. 3 4. 5. But the most sweet and conspicuous End of our Redemption was the Demonstration of Gods Love and Mercy to man-kind and that he might make known the Riches of his Glory on the vessels of Mercy prepared unto Glory Rom. 9. 23. Of all Gods Attributes there is none shineth more illustrously in the work of our Redemption than Love and Mercy Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3. 16. By the Creation and Sustentation of us we perceive the Love of God but more abundantly by our Redemption In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Sonne into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4. 9. O wonderfull Love which condescendeth to such Rebels and embraceth such unworthy and polluted sinners and pittyeth them even in their blood Even after we had sold our selves to Satan and cast away the Mercies of our Creation and had all come short of the Glory of God and were sentenced to death and ready for the Execution then did this wonderful Love step in and rescue and recover us Not staying till we Repented and cryed for Mercy and cast our selves at his feet but seeking us in the Wilderness and finding us before we felt that we were lost and being found of us before we sought him and beging to us in the depth of our Misery Herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he Loved us and sent his Sonne to be the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Joh. 4. 10. Though God Love us not in our sinne and misery before our Conversion so far as in that state to Justifie us and Adopt us and take pleasure in us or have Communion with us in the spirit yet doth he so far Love us in that state as to Redeem us by the Blood of Christ and tender us his Salvation and to bring in his chosen effectually to entertain his offer And thus the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly And God commended his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5. 6 8. Greater Love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15. 13. What was the Sonne of God but Love Incarnate Love borne of a Virgin Love coming down from Heaven to Earth and walking in flesh among the miserable seeking and saving that which was lost Was it not Love that spoke those words of life those comfortable promises those necessary precepts those gracious encouragements which the Gospel doth abound with Was it not Love it self that went preaching Salvation to the Sonnes of death and deliverance to the Captives and offered to bind up the broken hearts Luke 4. 18 Was it not Love that invited the weary and heavy laden Matth. 11. 28 And that sent even to the high-waies and the hedges to compel men to come in that his house might be filled Matth. 22. 9 10. Luke 14. 23. Was it not Love it self that went up and down healing and doing good that suffered them for whom he suffered to scorn him and spit upon him and buffet him and condemn him that being reviled reviled not again that gave his life an offering for sinne and dyed and prayed for them that murdered him No wonder if the Gospel be it that teacheth us to call God by the name of Love it self 1 Joh. 4. 8 For it is the Gospel that hath most fully revealed him to be so No wonder if the Gospel do so frequently and importunatly require us to Love one another and even to lay down your lives for Christ and for one another when it hath given us such a ground and motive and president for our Love He that seeth the true face of Redemption and understandeth and savoureth the Gospel and the Grace of Christ must needs see most cogent Reasons for such dutyes 1 Joh. 4. 7 8 9 10 11 12. Beloved let us Love one another for Love is of God and every one that Loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that Loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love If God so Loved us we ought also to Love one another If we Love one another God dwelleth in us So 1 Joh. 3. 10 11 14 16 17 18. No wonder if by this Love we know that we are translated from death to life and if by it the Children of God be known from the Children of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 10 11 14. For Love is the very Nature and Image of our Father No wonder if this be the New Commandment which had newly such a powerfull motive and president And no wonder if it be the great distinguishing Caracter by which all men shall know that we are the Disciples of Christ Joh. 13. 35. When he had set us such a Copie and taught us this lesson by such effectual means writing it out for us in lines of blood even of his own most pretious Blood and shedding it abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost But if we should come down to the particular benefits of Christ's death and see what Love is manifested in them even in our Calling our Justification our Adoption or Sanctification our Preservation and our everlasting Glorification we should find our selves in an Ocean that hath neither banks nor bottom and when we have fathomed as far as we can we must be contented to stand and admire it and to say with the Beloved Apostle Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Joh. 3. 1. And this is the blessed imployment of the Saints which they are called to by the Gospel to live in the participation and
himself a Peculiar People zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. To which he createth us that we should walk in them Ephes. 2. 10. And with such Sacrifice God is well-pleased Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. The blood of the Covenant was therefore shed to make us perfect in every good work to do his will who worketh in us that which is wel-pleasing in his sight Heb. 13. 20 21. And this must be our care to walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing being fruitfull in every good work Col. 1. 10. And then whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we keep his Commandement and do those things that are Pleasing in his sight 1 Joh. 3. 22. see 1 Thes. 4. 1. Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 8. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 4. 1 Cor. 7. 32. Heb. 11. 5. But principally when we are Glorified and fitted by our perfection for the Perfect Love and Promises of God then will God perfectly take Pleasure in us and in our Love and Praise The Glory of the new Jerusalem and the Harmony of everlasting Praise and Thanksgiving will be his delight He will Rejoyce over us with Joy he will Rest in his Love he will joy over us with singing Zeph. 3. 17. 8. Another End of Christ's undertaking this blessed work is the Everlasting Glory of God which shall shine forth in the Glorified Manhood of the Redeemer and the everlasting complacency that God will have in him for his own perfection and the work that he hath wrought Though Christ had no need to suffer for any sinne or want of his own yet was it his personal dignity dominion and Everlasting Glory as well as our Salvation that was intended by him and by the Father in this work and which he was to receive as the Reward of his performances Rom. 14. 7. Phil. 2. 8 9 10. Matth. 28. 18 19 Heb. 1. 3 4 6. Ephes. 12. 22. Nay if we may make comparisons this seemeth the highest part of Gods End in the sending of his Sonne As there is no part of all the Works of God to be compared to the Person of the Redeemer so consequently there is none in which the Glory of God will shine forth so admirably and illustriously as in Christ. If on Earth the Heavenly voice bare witness that it was in him that the Father was well-pleased Matth. 3. 17. 17. 5. 12. 18. Which was uttered both at his Baptism and his Transfiguration when his Disciples saw a glympse of his glory and he was the chosen Servant of God in whom his Soul delighted Isa. 42. 1. Much more is it apparent that in his Heaveny Glory he will be the Fathers Everlasting Pleasure and delight and in him and by him and for the work that he hath wrought the Redeemed in glory will honour him for ever Rev. 5. 9. He is the Head of the body the Church the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence For it Pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell Col. 1. 17 18 19. And therefore in him the Glory of God will shine in fullness and he shall have the preheminence in the Fathers Everlasting Love When Christ prayed Joh. 12. 28. Father Glorifie thy Name He was answered by a Voice from Heaven I have Glorified it and will Glorifie it again Even in the Sonne that thus desired it He hath done it on Earth and he will do it again more perfectly in Heaven He hath glorified the Sonne that the Sonne also may glorifie him Joh. 17. 1. As he glorified his Father on Earth and finished the work which he gave him to do so the Father hath now glorified him with himself that in his Glory he may be yet more glorified Joh. 17. 4 5 6. In his Transfiguration his Face did shine as the Sunne Joh. 17. 2. And in his appearance to Paul his shining light did cast him blindfold and trembling on the Earth Acts 9. 4 6. It was Stephen's encouragment to the suffering of his Martyrdom to see the Glory of God and Jesus standing on Gods right-hand Acts 7. 55 56. When John saw him on the Lords Day in the spirit he beheld his eyes as a flame of fire and his feet like burning brass in the furnace and his voice was as the sound of many waters and in his right-hand were the starres and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was as the Sunne that shineth in his strength Rev. 1. 14 15 16. His voice also did proclaim his Glory I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keys of Hell and of death vers 17 18. It was the Lord of Glory that was crucified 1 Cor. 2. 8. God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. Where he is Glorified with the Father in the praises of the Saints Rev. 5. 12 13. The Glory in the Holy Mount was great at the giving of the Law But it was no Glory to that of the Gospel administration 2 Cor. 3. 7 10 Much more to that purpose of the Glorified Redeemer who hath overcome and is set down with the Father in his throne Rev. 3. 21. Yea the Glory that will be given to God for ever will be through Jesus Christ Rom. 16. 17. And indeed it is a very great Question whether we shall immediately see the Essence of God in Heaven or only see him in the glorified Redeemer and whether Christ will not then be the Mediator of our Fruition as he was here the Mediator of Acquisition But certain we are that God will be everlastingly pleased and glorified in the Person of the Redeemer as well as in the Church which is his body 9. And reductively it may be said to be Gods End in this blessed work that he may more fully demonstrate his Vindictive Justice according to the Gospel or Law of the Redeemer upon them that finally reject his grace then it would have been manifested on the terms of the Law of Creation on Adam and his off-spring Though Christ came not into the world primarily to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved yet was it his purpose that unbelievers that love darkness rather then light sâ—ould fall under the special condemnation Joh. 3. 18 19. And that they should not see life but the Wrath of God should abide upon them vers 36. God would not so much as permit them to reject his Salvation but that he knows how he may be no loser by them He suffereth with much patience the vessels of wrath to make his Wrath and Power known Rom. 9. 22. The mouths of the condemned will be utterly stopped and they will be left speechles when they are judged on terms of Grace much more then
of that And therefore no wonder if the Redeemer be neglected and God denied the honour of the work So much of this second point the Reasons and Ends of Christ's undertaking I shall purposely be shorter on the rest 3. The third point to be understood concerning our Redeemer is What he hath done and suffered for mankind and wherein his Redeeming work consisted both as to the General and the special part Should I stand on these at large I must needs be voluminous and therefore I shall but briefly reciet them for your remembrance I. The first thing that Christ did for the saving of the world was his Interposing between offending man and the wrath of God and so preserving the world from the destruction which the execution of the violated Law would have procured Undertaking then to become the Seed of the woman and so to break the Serpents head and revealing this Grace by slow degrees till the time of his coming And then when the fullness of time was come he was made man being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary and so the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men who beheld his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Thus God was manifested to men in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. 3. And as he was perfectly Holy in his Nature without any stain or guilt of Original sinne so was he perfectly Holy in his Life and never broke the least Command of God in thought word or deed Never could any convince him of sinne Joh. 8. 46. He fulfilled the Law of Nature which all the world was under and the Mosaical Law which the Jews were under and the special Law that was given to himself as Mediator and was common to no other Creature in the world And thus he performed these excellent works I. By the fullfilling of all Righteousness he pleased the Father alwaies accomplishing his Will and so did much of the work of a Saviour in Meriting for for us Matth. 3. 15. 5. 17. Joh. 8. 29. Matth. 12. 18. 17. 5. Rom. 5. 19. For such an High-priest became us who is Holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. 2. He hath conquered the Tempter that conquered us And therefore did he purposely yield himself to such sore temptations Matth. 4. That his Victory might be glorious and the Second Adam might overcome him that had overcome the first And thus he hath done much to the rescue of the Captivated 3. Hereby also he hath overcome the world which overcame the first Adam and his posterity He trampled upon its seeming glory he neglected and despised its baits and allurements he went through all its cruel persecutions and oppositions So that the world now as well as the Devil are conquered things By which he hath made way for the Victory of his followers and given them ground of great encouragment Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the world Yea I may say in a sort he hath overcome the flesh also For though Christ had no corrupt flesh as we have to contend with yet had he a natural and sensitive appetite which the Command of God did forbid him to fulfill And therefore when innocent Nature diâ—â—red that the Cup might pass from him and abhor death by a simple Aversness yet perfect Holiness permitted not this to proceed to a Refusal by the comparing Intellect and Choosing or Refusing Will but saith Not my will but thine be done And when Christ was hungry and weary the desire of food and rest by the sensitive appetite was no sinne But when the Work of God forbad the fullfilling of such desires he still denyed them 4. Hereby also he hath set us a perfect copy and patern of obedience and is become our Example whom we must endeavour to imitate For he knew that it is the most effectual teaching to do it by words and deeds together It is a great help to us when we do not only heare his voice but see also which way he hath gone before us When he saith Learn of me he directs us not only to his words but to himself who was meeke and lowly Matth. 11. 28. 5. Moreover Christ received of the Father fullness of the Spirit and Power for the benefit of the Redeemed that he might be meet to be the Head and the Treasury of the Church and to shower down the streams of Grace upon his Members and when all Power was given him in Heaven and Earth he might be fitted to the following application of his benefits and to rule and support and defend his people 6. Moreover he was pleased himself to become a Preacher of the Gospel of Salvation not to all the world but principally as a Minister of the Circumcision that is the Jews Rom. 15. 8. He that purchased Salvation condescended also to proclaime it The preaching of the Gospel is a work that Christ thought not himself too good for Sometimes to many sometimes to one or two as he had opportunity often with tears and alwaies with earnestness and compassion did he go about doing good and seeking the lost and healing the diseased and calling men to Faith and Repentance and offering them the Grace and Life which he purchased 7. And he was pleased also to seale up his Doctrine by his Works casting out Devils healing all diseases raising the the dead and working divers other Miracles to assure them that he came from God and did his Work and revealed his Will that so the world might have no excuse for their unbelife but that they that would not believe upon any other account might yet believe him for the sake of his works Joh. 3. 2. Acts 2. 22. Heb. 2. 4. Joh. 5. 36. 10. 25 38. 14. 11 12. 15. 24. 8. Besides all this he gave up himself to a life of suffering being despised by his Creatures whom he came to Redeeme and destitute voluntarily of fleshly pleasures and of that riches and worldly provision that might procure it He was a man of sorrows afflicted from his youth persecuted from the Cradle he gave his Cheeks to the smiters and his Person to be made the scorn of fools He was crowned with thornes spit upon and buffited and having sweat water and blood in his Agonie in the garden he was hanged on a Cross where thieves were both his companions and revilers where they gave him gall and vineger to drink pierced his blessed Body with a spear and put him to a shamfull cursed death But he endured the Cross despising the shame and gave up himself thus a Sacrifice for sinne and bore our transgressions that we might be healed by his stripes and having ransomed us by his Blood he was buried as an offender continuing for a time in the Power of the grave Isa. 53. throughout Matth. 26 27. Heb. 12. 2. All this he consented to undergo
Evidences might raise you from Opinion to a working saving Faith 6. Lastly take heed lest any thing be suffered to keep possession of your Hearts and so to confine the truth to your braine When the world is kept up in life and power and is nearest the heart there is no room for the Word there but it must float upon the top and swim in your Opinion because it can go no deeper your lusts and profits having possession before it The Word can never go to the heart with unmortified men but by casting your Idols out of your hearts nor will it take rooting in you but by rooting out the world O Sirs if you knew the misery of a meer Opinionist you would sure be perswaded now to practise these Directions that may raise you higher An Opinionist is a deceiver of himself and oft of others a troubler of the Church 〈◊〉 he have any Zeal for Opinions and hit as usually he doth on the wrong And when his Religion is right he is wrong himself being out of the way even when he is in the right way because he is not right in that right way For he doth but sit down in it when he should travaile it A runner shall not win the prize by being in the right way only unless he make hast The knowledg of the Opinionist doth but serve to aggravate his sinne and cause him to be beaten with many stripes but is not of force to Sanctifie his heart and life and to save him Jam. 2. fully shews Stick not therefore in an Opinionative Religiousness DIRECT IX My next Direction that your Conversion may prove sound is this Acquaint your Souls by Faith with the Glory of the Everlasting Kingdom and see that you make it your Portion and your End and from thence let the rest of your endeavours be animated No man can be a sound Christian that knoweth not the Ends and Portion of a Christian. There is a great deal of difference between the desires of Heaven in a Sanctified man and an unsanctified The Believer prizeth it above earth and had rather be with God then here Though death that stands in the way may possibly have harder thoughts from him But to the ungodly there is nothing seemeth more desirable then this world and therefore he only chooseth Heaven before Hell but not before earth and therefore shall not have it upon such a choice We heare of Gold and Silver mines in the Indies If you offer a Golden mountaine there to an English man that hath an estate and family here that are deare to him perhaps hee 'l say I am uncertain whether their Golden mountains be not meer fictions to deceive men and if it be true that there are such things yet it is a great way thither and the seas are perilous and I am well enough already where I am and therefore let who will go thither for me I will stay at home as long as I can But if this man must needs be banished out of England and had his choise whether he would go to the Golden Ilands or to dig in a colepit or live in a wilderness he would rather choose the better then the worse So is it with an ungodly mans desires in respect to this world and that to come If he could stay here in fleshly pleasure for ever he would because he looks at Heaven as uncertain and a great way off and the passage seemeth to him more troublesom and dangerous then it is and he is where he would be already But when he sees that there is no staying here for ever but death will have him away he had rather go to Heaven then to Hell and therefore will be Religious as far as the flesh and the world will give him leave left he should be cast into Hell when he is taken from the Earth But take an English man that is in poverty and reproach and hath neither house nor land nor friend to comfort him and let him have the offer of a Golden Iland and a person of unquestionable skilfullness and fidelity that will promise in short time to bring him safe thither if he believe this person and can put his trust in him doubtless he will be gone and follow him over sea and land and though the passage may somewhat daunt him yet the promised possession will carry him through all So is it with the true Christian He is dead to this world and sees nothing here in which he can be happy he is burdened and wearied with sinne and suffering he is firmly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel and seeth by Faith the world that is to flesh invisible and believeth in Jesus Christ who hath promised to convey him safely thither and therefore he would away and though he love not death the stormy passage yet he will submit to it having so sure a Pilot because he loves the life which through death he must pass into and had rather be there then here Such as a mans principall End is such is the man and such is the course of his life He that takes this world for his Portion and makes the felicity of it his end is a carnall worldy unsanctified man whatever good and godly actions may come in upon the by It is he and only he that is a sanctified Believer who looks on Heaven as his only Portion and is sailing through the troublesome Seas of this world of purpose to come to that desired harbour not loving these seas better then the Land of Rest which he is sailing to but patiently and painfully passing through them because there is no other way to Glory As it is the desire of the Land to which he is sailing that moveth the Marriner or Passenger to do all that he doth in his Voyage and the desire of his home or journeys End that moveth the travailer all the way and the desire of seeing a perfect Building that moveth the Builder in every stroke of his Work so it must be the love of God and the desire after Everlasting blessedness that must be the very Engine to move the rest of the affections and endeavours of the Saints and must make men resolve on the necessary labour and patience of Believers Take off this weight and all the motions of Christianity will cease No man will be at labour and sufferings for nothing if he can avoid them It is a life of Labour though sweet to the Spirit yet tedious to the flesh which Christianity doth engage us in and there is much suffering to be undergone and this to the very last and to the denyall of our selves and if God require it to the loss of all the comforts of the world For no less then forsaking all that we have will serve to make us Christs Disciples And will any man do this for he knows not what Will any man forsake all that he hath unless it be for something better which may be as sure
for want of Resolution and Regeneration 〈◊〉 Do you think that Judas himself had not some good Desires that followed Christ so long and preached the Gospel Do you think that Herod had not some good Desires that heard John gladly and did many things accordingly Agrippa had some good Desires when he was almost perswaded to be a Christian. They that for a time believe have sure some good Desires and more Matth. 13. 20. And so had the young man that went away sorrowfull from Christ when he could not be his Disciple unless he would part with all that he had Luke 18. 23. Matth. 19. 22. And doubtless those had more then good Desires that had known the way of Righteousness and had escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. And so had those Heb. 10. 26 29. That had received the knowledg of the Truth and were Sanctified by the blood of the Covenant And those Heb. 6. 4 5 6. That were once inlightened and tafted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come And sure Ananias and Saphira had more then some good Desires when they sold all and brought half the price to the Apostles Believe it Sirs there are none of your Desires or Endeavours that will serve turn to prove you in a state of Grace unless they be accompanied with firm Resolution Be it known to you that you are unconverted if you are not habitually Resolved And therefore I must here intreat you all to put the question close to your hearts Are you Resolved firmly Resolved to give up your selves and all to Christ and to be wholly his and follow his conduct or are you not The question is not what good meanings or wishes or purposes you may have but whether you are Resolved and firmly Resolved Take heed Sirs what you venture your Souls upon God will not be dallied with nor be deceived He will have no unresolved false-hearted servants Before I proceed to urge you further I shall here tell you what kind of Resolution it must be that will prove a man converted and then I shall give you such Motives as should perswade you to it It is not all kind of Resolution that will serve turn but it is only that which hath these following properties that will evidence a state of Grace 1. As to the Matter it must be the whole Essence of Christianity that must be Resolved on It must be no less then a closing with God as your chiefest happiness to be Loved above all and as your chiefest Lord to be obeyed before all and a closing with Jesus Christ as your only Saviour your Teacher and your Lord to bring your hearts again to God and reconcile you to him and a closing with the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier to make you a holy people and clense you from all your sinne of heart and life and guide you by the Ministery Word and Ordinances to Everlasting life Thus must you Resolve to deliver up your selves to God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost to be made a peculiar people zealous of good works Should you be never so Resolute in some point of Religion and as Ananias to give God Half and to become half Religious and half Holy and half Heavenly this is but to be half Christians and will not bring you half way to Heaven It 's entire Christianity that must be Resolved on 2. You must also be Resolved for present obedience and to turn without any more delay and not only Resolve to turn to morrow or sometime hereafter No Resolution is sincere in this case if it be but for the future If you had rather stay but one day or hour longer in the state of sinne and service of the flesh you are no true Disciples of Christ though you should be Resolved to turn to morrow 3. And your Resolution must be Absolute and peremptory not only without any secret Reserves but Positively against any such Reserves Here it is that Hypocrites commonly fall short They see they must mend and they are convinced that a holy life is necessary and they Resolve hereupon to change their course and turn religious but either it is with this secret Reserve Provided alwaies that I look to my credit or estate or life what ever I do and provided that I go no further in Religion then will stand with these provided that godliness be not my undoing in the world Or else if he have not actually such thougths he hath them alwaies virtually and habitually He is not Resolved against such Reserves He hath not considered that Christ will have no Disciples that cannot and will not part with all and that if he hope for Heaven he must not look for a treasure on earth but only pass through the world as a travailer or labour in it as the harvest of the Lord in expectation of a Reward and Rest hereafter and so Resolved to take Christ on these self denying terms But he that will be saved must be thus resolved Even to sell all to buy the unvaluable pearl Matth. 13. 46 47. To make sure of Heaven though he lose all on Earth by it to lay up his hopes in the life to come and venture and let go all rather then those hopes to take Christ absolutely upon his own terms for better and worse as being certain that there is no other way to life and that there is no danger of losing by him The Hypocrite is like a man that when he delivereth up the possession of his house will make his bargain that he will keep this room or that room to himself for his own use Or like a servant that will not be hired but on Condition that his Master shall not set him to such or such work that he loves not But Christ will have no such servants You must deliver up all to him or he will accept of none You must give him leave to make his Conditions for you and tell you on what terms you must serve him and wholly referre the matter to him even for life it self and not offer to put Conditions upon him and think to bring him to any terms of yours It is not true Resolution unless it be Absolute and unreserved and against all reserves Yea and that also as to perseverance that you Resolve to give up your selves finally as well as totally not only without any Reserve of a Revocation but against any such Revocation It must not be a coming to Christ upon essay or meer tryal that if you do not like you may leave again But you must make an unchangable everlasting Covenant It must be part of your Covenant that you will never revoke it 4. Moreover your Resolution must be well grounded You must know what the Essentials are of that Religion which you Resolve on and you must
your Cross and follow him You must be hated of all men for his sake and the Gospels and you must prepare for prison and fire and sword There 's no hope of being saved while you purpose to save your pleasures riches liberties or lives Matth. 16. 25. Marke 8. 35. Luke 9. 24. And will a man that is unresolved forsake his friends estate and life for the sake of Christ and the hopes of Glory He cannot do it I know that a carnal ungrounded Resolution may decive a man in the day of tryal when the self-suspecting fearfull Christian may hold out But yet without a humble self-denying Resolution joyned with an adherence to Christ for strength there 's no man will hold out If thou be a wavering minded man thou wilt be unstedfast in all thy waies Jam. 1. 8. If thou be not Resolved the words of a mans mouth will turn thee out of the way the very mocks and scorns of a drunkard or a fool that hath no understanding in the matters of Salvation will make thee shrink and hide thy profession and be ashamed of Christ in whom alone thou hast cause to Glory If thou be not a Resolved man what better can be expected but that thou turn as the weather-cock with every wind and fit thy Religion to thy worldly ends and as another Judas sell thy Lord for a little money If thou fall not away it will be but for want of a tryal to procure it and therefore in Gods account thou art gone already because thy Resolution was never with him When you turn to God there will remain within you the remnants of your corruption a body of death a rebelling flesh and this will be still tempting you and drawing you from God And O how strong do these temptations seem to the Soul that is unresolved Yea without a firm habituate Resolution it is impossible to overcome them Your whole way to Heaven is a continual warfare You have enemies that will dispute every foot of the way with you There 's no going a step forward but as the ship doth in the Sea by cutting its way through the waves and billows and as the plow doth in the earth by cutting through the resisting soil There is self which is your principal enemy and there is Satan and the world and almost all that you meet with in it will prove your hinderers And you must make your way by valour and Holy Violence through all And will an unresolved man do this You will scarce ever how your knee to God in secret prayer nor set your selves upon serious Meditations but the flesh and the Devil will be drawing you off You will never attempt a faithfull reproof a liberal work of Charity a hazardous confession of Christ or any dangerous or costly duty but the flesh and the Devil will plead against it and put you to it And in these and many such cases of your lives you will never break through nor do any good on it without Resolution Do I need to tell you how hard the way of Salvation is that fly from it on mistake because you think it harder then it is Do I need to tell you how false you will prove to Christ if you have not Resolution that know it by your ordinary miserable experience that a poor temptation will make you sinne against your knowledg How many good wishes and purposes have you had already in sickness or at a lively Sermon that are all come to nothing for want of a firm Habituate Resolution What abundance of time-servers and of chaffie professours are lately fallen off to the way of rising and riches in the world or to the pride and giddy levity of dividers that oppose the Truth of God and their Teachers and trouble the Church and all because they were never well rooted by a sound Resolution They that take Christ but upon liking do usually mislike him when he calls them to self-denial For they had never that connatural principle that should effectually dispose their Souls to like him nor had they ever the inward experiences of power and sweetness which are proper to the sincere and should increase their liking of him Either Resolve therefore or stand by and perish 10. I beseech you consider also what abundance of clear undeniable Reasons doth God give in to thee to turn the Scales and cause thee to Resolve He fetcheth Reasons from his own Dominion and Soveraignty Should not a creature obey the Lord that made him He reasoneth with you from his daily preservations Do you live upon him and should you not obey him He reasoneth with you from his Almightiness You are all at his Mercy and wholly in his hands and yet dare you disobey him He reasoneth with you from his Love and Goodness Never did evil come from him nor did he ever do any wrong Never was there man or Angel that was a loser by him it is not possible to have so good a master and yet will you not obey him He fetcheth reasons from all his Mercies Every bit of bread is from him and should be an Argument with thee to obey him Every daies health and strength and comforts and every nights rest and ease thy Mercies at home and thy Mercies abroad in private and in publike all should be so many Arguments with thee to Resolve You cannot look upon a plant or a flower under your feet upon the Sun or a Starre that 's over your heads or upon any creature but you may see so many Reasons that should move you to Resolve If all these will not serve he fetcheth yet stronger Reasons from the Incarnation example and blood of the Sonne of God Canst thou look on God incarnate for sinne combating with Satan and conquering for thee and dying and bleeding and buried for thy sinne and yet be unresolved to leave that sinne and turn to him that hath bought thee by his blood If all this will not serve he Reasoneth with thee from thy own benefit If thou care not for God dost thou care for thy self Dost thou regard thy own Soul If thou do it 's high time to Resolve He reasoneth with thee from Everlasting Glory Is a certain Kingdom an Everlasting glorious Kingdom nothing to thee Art thou content to be thrust out of that Eternal Inheritance Is the filthy pleasure of the flesh for a few hours better then the endless joys of the Saints He pleads also with thee from the danger that thou art near Poor Soul thou little seest what others see that are dead before thee Thou little knowest what they feel that died before they were Resolv'd for God He fetcheth his Reasons from the certaine everlasting flames of Hell and is there not force enough in these for to Resolve thee Good Lord what a thing is a senseless sinner Dost thou believe Heaven and Hell as thou takest on thee to do If thou do believe them is it possible for thee believingly to think of
lay the blame on God because he doth not give it you and say We cannot convert our selves But would you have the Spirit come in while you hold the dore against him He knocks and desireth you to open and let him in and you wish him to come in but you bolt the dore and no intreaty will procure you to open it It is Consideration of the saving doctrine of the Gospell that openeth the heart and giveth it entertainment Set you selves therefore on purpose to this work open the doores of your heart which are now shut and let the King of Glory come in Who will believe that you love the Light when you shut the windows and draw the curtains If you will set your selves to consider of the Truth the windows of your Soul will be set open and then the light will certainly come in Now you read over whole Chapters and hear Sermon after Sermon and either they never stir you or at least it 's but a little for a fit like a man that hath a little warmd him at the fire in the winter and when he goes from it is colder then before But if you would but set your selves to consider of what you hear or read one line of a Chapter or one sentence of a Sermon would say you in tears or make you groane or at least do more then now is done Satan hath garrisond the heart of every carnall man And consideration is the principall means to cast him out If by considering of the terrible threatnings of the word you would discharge these Canons of God against them what a battery would it make in the corruptions of your Souls Our God is a consuming fire and the fire of hell is threatned in his Law as the wages of sin By serious Consideration you may as it were fetch fire from God and from his word and set to the very gates of Satans garrison and fire him out of many of his holds But because this is so needfull a point I shall be so large upon it as 1º to tell you some of those things that you should consider of 2o. to tell you in what manner you should do it and 3o. to give you some Motives to put you on I. The first thing that I would have you oft to think on is The Nature of that God with whom you have to do Consider that if he be the most wise it is all the reason in the world that he should rule you If he be Good and infinitely Good there is all the reason in the world that you should Love him and there is no shew of reason that you should love the world or sin before him If he be faithfull and true his threatnings must be feared and his promises must not be distrusted and there is no reason that you should make any question of his Word If he be Holy then Holiness must needs be most excellent and those that are the Holiest must needs be the best because they are most like to God And then he must be an enemy to sin and to all that are unholy because they are contrary to his nature Consider that he is Almighty and there is no resisting him or standing out against him In the twink of an eye can he snatch thy guilty Soul from thy body and cast it where sin is better known A word of his Mouth can set all the world against thee and set thine own conscience against thee too A frown of his face can turn thee into Hell And if he be thine enemy it is no matter who is thy friend For all the world cannot save thee if he do but condemne thee They are blessed whom he blesseth and they are cursed indeed whom he curseth He was from Eternity and thou art but as it were of yesterday Thy being is from him thy life is alwaies in his hands Thou canst not live an hour without him thou canst not fetch a breath without him nor think a thought nor speak a word nor stir a foot or hand without him Thou mayst better live without bread or drink or fire or aire or earth or water then without him All the world is before him but as the drop of a bucket or a little sand of dust that should be laid in ballance with all the earth Hadst thou but compassed about this lower world and seen all the Nations of it and its wonderfull furniture and seen the great deeps of of the mighty Ocean and the abundance of Creatures that be in all O what thoughts then wouldst thou have of God! But if thou hadst been above the Starres and seen the Sun in all its glory and seen the frame and course of those higher Orbes and seen the blessed glorious Angels and all the inhabitants of the higher world O then what thoughts of God wouldst thou entertaine O but if it were possible that thou hadst seen his Glory or seen but his back-parts as Moses did or seen him in Christ the now glofied Redeemer what apprehensions wouldst thou have of him then Then how wouldst thou abhor the name of sin and how weary wouldst thou be of the pleasantest life that sensuality could afford thee Then thou wouldst quickly know that no Love can be great enough and no praises can be high enough and no service can be holy and good enough for such a God Then you wouldst soon know that this is not a God to be neglected or dallyed with nor a God to be resisted nor provoked by the wilfull breaking of his Laws It is Eternal Life to know this God Joh. 17. 3. and for want of knowing him it is that sin aboundeth in the world This maketh Holyness so scarce and leane Men worship they care not how because they worship they know not whom O therefore dwell on the Meditations of the Almighty So far as he doth possess thy mind there will be no place for sin and vanity One would think if I should set you no further task and tell you of no other matter for your Meditation this one should be enough For this one is in a manner all What will not the due knowledge of God do upon the Soul That 's the best Christian and the most happy man that knoweth most of him And that 's the most vile and miserable wretch that is furthest from him and strangest to him It is the Character of the foole of fooles to have a heart whose disposition and practice saith There is no God Psal 14. 1. That is To be so affected and employed in their hearts as if there were no God and when God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 4. It was better with man when he had less knowledge for himself and fewer thoughts for himself and more of God And there is no way to restore us to sound understanding and to perfect our knowledge but to turn our eye upon God again For in knowing him we know all that 's worth the knowing Take
were but possessed lively sensible of all that is contained in this leafe or two you would not envy the greatest Prince on earth his glory nor change states with any man that were a stranger to these things Did you but use to consider of the state of the Saints how could you keep off and stay with sinne and make so many delaies in turning unto God! Sure this consideration might turne the scales 6o. The next part of your Meditation should be Of the gracious and wonderfull work of our Redemption and the means and remedies which are provided for your Souls and the terms on which Salvation may be obtained For all the sins that you have committed you are not given over to despaire the Lord hath not left you without a reremedie Your Conversion and Salvation is not a thing impossible Nay so much is done by Christ already that it is brought upon reasonable terms even to your hands A new and living way is consecrated for us by Christ through the veile of his flesh and by his blood we may have boldness to enter into the Holiest Heb. 10. 19 20. He hath borne your burden and offereâ—h you in stead of it his burden which is light Matth. 11. 28. He hath removed the Impossibility and nailed to his Cross the hand writing that was against you Col 2. 14 15. And in stead of it offereth you his easie yoak He hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers that had captivated you and openly triumphed over them on the Cross. You are not left under the care of making satisfaction to God for your own sinnes but only of accepting the Redeemer that hath satisfied This much I dare confidently say to you all without extending his benefits too farre It will be for want of faith in you and not for want of satisfaction by the Redeemer if any of you perish And how free are his offers How full are his promises you are conditionally all pardoned and justified already as is legible under the hand of God And the Condition which is imposed on you is not some meritorious or mercenary work but the Accepting of the benefit freely given according to its nature use and ends This is the Faith by which you must be justified These are the terms on which you may be saved And which is more the Lord hath provided means even excellent and plentifull and powerfull means for the furthering of your Souls in the performance of this Condition and helping you to Believe and Repent that you may live And if the Spirit make not these Means effectuall adjoyn not his speciall grace after this you remaine unconverted it will not be long of him but of your selvs So that you may perceive how hopefull acase you are yet in by the blood of your Redeemer if you destroy not your own hopes and make not your case desperate by wilfull Impenitency and refusall of free grace How faire are you yet for Heaven and what happy advantages have you for Salvation It 's brought even to your doors It 's thrust as it were into your hands The Redeemer hath done so much for you all as to bring your Salvation to the choice of you own wills and if you be his chosen ones he will also make you willing You have precepts to Believe you are threatned if you will not Believe you have promise upon promise and Christ himself offered you pardon and life and Salvation with him if you are but truly and heartily willing You have God himself condescending to beseech you to accept them and Embassadours intreating you in his name and stead 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. You have Ordinances fitted to your necessities both Reading and Preaching and Sacraments and Prayer You have store of plaine and powerfull Books you have the Godly about you most desirous to assist you that would be glad to see or heare of your Conversion You have the sight of the wicked that are wallowing in their own dung and the dirt of the world to make you hate such beastly waies You have Reason and Conscience within you to consider of these matters and set them home and apply them to your selves You have time and strength to do all this if you will not abuse it and provoak God to take it from you for your negligence You have Mercies of many sorts outward and inward to win upon you and encourage you in the work And sometime Afflictions to remember you and awaken you and spur you on The Devil and all your Enemies are so far disabled that they cannot destroy you against your wills nor keep you from Christ but by your own Consents The Angels of Heaven are ready to helpe you and would even rejoice at your Conversion This is your case and these are your helps and encouragements You are not shut up under desperation God never told you It is in vaine to think of Conversion It is too late If any have told you so it was the Devil and not God And one would think that such Considerations as these should drive the nayle to the head and be effectuall to move you to Resolve and Turne 7o. The last thing that I would set before you to be Considered is What 's like to be the end of it if after all this you should die unconverted O sirs your hearts are not able now to conceive of it nor the tongue of any mortal man to utter it But so much of it we can certainly utter as one would think should make your hearts to tremble You have seen it may be a dying man in what pangs and agonies he parteth with his Soul and you have seen it's like the corps that was left there behind and seen it laid in the common Earth But you see not what became of the Soul nor what an appearance it made in another world nor what companiâ— did attend it nor what a place or state it past into O sirs when the hour is at hand that this must be your own case it will awaken you to other kind of affections then you have or can have at the reading of these words It 's wonderfull that a little distance should make us so insensible of that change which we are all certaine will come to pass And yet through the folly and deadness of our hearts it is so But they are other kind of thoughts of these weighty matters which we shall have the next hour after death then the liveliest affections beforehand can afford us The misery was great that the Redeemer did find you in and which you deserved by your sinne against the Law of the Creator But if you be found unconverted at last your punishment will be much sorer and your case far worss then it was before The Redeemers Law or Gospel hath it's peculiar Threatning which differeth from the Law of the meere Creator in severall respects Even 1o. in the nature of the punishment which will be torments of Conscience for
though he consented not to the sinne of them that did inflict it For he laid down his Life it was not taken from him against his Will Joh. 10. 17 18. 9. Having thus paid the price of our Reconciliation to God the third day he Rose again from the dead Though Soldiours watcht his grave because he had foretold them that he would rise the third day yet were they soon daunted by the glory of an Angel that came and roled away the stone And so Christ made known his Divine Power and Victory and the finishing of his work And as by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 3 14. So by his Resurrection he triumphed over death it self For how should the grave detain the innocent and death overcome the Lord of Life This was the glorious day of triumph In remembrance of this he appointed the Lords Day to be observed by the Church The Resurrection of Christ was the confusion of all the powers of darkness the great Argument to confirm the truth of his Doctrine and prove his Godhead to the unbelieving world 10. Being risen he more fully revealed his Gospel and sent forth his Apostles and Disciples to proclaim the offers of Life to the world and settle the Churches in a Holy order when they had gathered them and to ordaine such Ministers to succeed them as might carry on his work to the end of the world Matth. 28. 19 20. And thus he is the faithfull Law-giver to the Church 11. When he had abode thus forty daies on Earth he ascended up into Heaven while his Disciples stood by and gazed after him Acts 1. 9 10. And there hath taken possession in our Nature advancing it to the Fathers right hand in Glory which was by sinne deprest so low in misery And so he is gone to prepare a place for us leaving us a certain word of promise that he will come again and take us to himself that where he is there we may be also Joh. 14. 2 3. And as our life now is hid there with Christ in God so when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. 12. Being ascended he manifested his Power and his Truth in sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to do such works as he had done and such as were necessary to convince the unbelieving world and to conquer the opposing wisdom and power of the flesh Enabling them to speak in variety of Languages which they had never before learnt as also to understand and powerfully preach the mysteries of the Gospel to confirm their Doctrine by Miracles healing the lame the blind the sick casting out Devils raising the dead and conquering the resistance of Principalities and Powers in seeming weakness and in a contemptible garbe Not to speak now of the Sanctifying Work of the same Spirit on them and on the rest of the Church 13. Lastly in this Glory Christ Intercedeth for us and is our High-priest in the Heavens with God living for ever procuring and conveying to us the Mercies which we need upon the account of his Sacrifice Ruling his Church and preserving them succeeding his Cause and Servants restraining and subduing his Enemies and ours and will perfect his work at the day of his Coming to Judgment So much of the works of Christ. 4. The fourth point to be understood concerning our Redemption is The Nature and worth of the Benefits that are procured for us Which though you may gather much from what is said and the full handling of them would be a larger work then is suitable to my present Ends yet such a brief recital I shall here give you as my Ends require In General we have All from Jesus the Mediator that is worth the having even all the blessings of this present life and of the life to come As we lost our Right to all by sinne so we have our restored Right by Christ alone who came to destroy sinne and its effects Had not he interposed we might have had materially life and natural faculties and other things which now are Mercies but not as Mercies but as the requisites to our deserved punishment Even as the Devils have their Being and natural perfections to sustain them in their sufferings Nature it self so far as Good and all Natural blessings are now of Grace And that not only of such Grace as they were to Adam which was Mercy without proper Merit but of Gospel Grace procured by Christ which is Mercy contray to Merit It is no sounder Doctrine to say that God doth without the Merit of his Sonne bestow our common forfeited Mercies either on the Elect or others then that he giveth us his Saving grace without it As all things are delivered into the hands of Christ Joh. 13. 3. So none can receive any good but from his hands To give Mercies to men that forfeit them and descern misery is so far to pardon their sinne for to remit the sinne is to remit the punishment But the Scripture is not acquainted with any pardon of sinne but what is on the account of the Merits of Christ. They that deny this Mercy of God in giving even to the ungodly such a measure of forgiveness do speak against the daily and hourly experience of all the world and therefore need no other confutation More particularly 1. Christ having taken the Humane Nature into Union with the Divine our nature is thereby unconceivably advanced and brought nigh to God 2. Having fulfilled the Law and offered himself a Sacrifice for sinne Gods Justice and Wisdom and Holiness and Goodness is admirably Demonstrated And this Sacrifice is both Satisfactory and meritorious on our behalf Heb. 1. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Heb. 9. 26. and 10 12. 3. The world and the Devil and Death and the Grave are conquered by him in preparation to our conquest 4. The Lord Jesus himself being risen and Justified hath received all Power in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 19. and is enabled to do all things that are necessary for his further ends As the Redeemer he is become Lord of our selves and of all we have and he is made the Soveraigne Ruler of all having full Power to relax the Law that cursed us and to deal with the world on terms of Grace 5. Accordingly he hath kept off the stroke of the rigorus Justice of God and hindered the strict execution of the Law of works and giveth still abundance of forfeited Mercies to the sinfull world keeping them from deserved torments while he is treating with them on terms of life 6. He hath made an Universal deed of gift of Christ and Life to all the world on Condition that they will but Accept the offer 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. In this Testament or Promise or Act of Oblivion the sinnes of all the world are conditionally pardoned and they are conditionally
not have the principal part of thy life If Christ have thy Heart it will be heard much in thy conference it will be seen in thy labours For that which hath a mans Heart will hardly be hid unless he purposely hide it which a Christian neither can nor ought to do It would make a man wonder to hear some wretches that will runne from God as fast as they can and yet face you down that God hath their hearts that have no mind so much as to meditate or talk of Christ or his precious Blood or mysterious Redemption or the glorious Kingdom purchased by him that will be at neither cost nor labour in his Service and yet profess that Christ hath their hearts that will refuse a Holy Heavenly life and perhaps make a scorn of it and maliciously prate against the Sanctified and yet will stand to it that the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier of the Elect hath their hearts No wonder if those hearts are ill managed and in a miserable deceived state that are so unacquainted with themselves Faith entreth at the Understanding but it hath not all its essential parts and is not the Gospel Faith indeed till it have possessed the will The heart of Faith is wanting till Faith hath taken possession of the heart For by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Heart Ephes. 3. 17. And if he dwell not in the heart he dwells not in the Man in a saving sort He had some interest in Judas Simon Magus Ananias and Saphira as to the head and perhaps somewhat more in a superficial sort But Satan entred into the heart of one and filled the heart of another of them with a lie and the heart of the third was not right in the sight of God and therefore he had no part or lot in Christ but was still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and all because Christ was not heartily entertained Acts 5. 3 8. 22 23. It is in the heart that the word must have its rooting or else it will wither in time of tryal It is seeking with the whole heart that is the evidence of the blessed Psal. 119 2. And it is a feigned turning when men turn not to God with the whole heart Jer. 3. 10. This is Gods promise concerning his Elect I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24. 7. See then that the heart be unfeignedly delivered up to Christ For if Christ have it not the flesh the world and the Devil will have it Your Hearts must be a dwelling for one of these Masters choose you whether It is the damnation of most professed Christians that they have nothing for Christ but a good opinion or a few good words or outside services or some sleight Religiousness on the by when the flesh and the world go away with their hearts and yet they will not know it nor confess it Christ will not be an underling or servant to your flesh Your Hearts he hath bought and your Hearts he will have or you are none of his If he shall have nothing from you but a name you shall have nothing but the name of his purchased Salvation III. The last part of the Direction yet remains viz. that you must clâ—se with Christ entirely as well as Vnderstandingly and Heartily It is whole Christ that must be received with the whole heart For the understanding of this it must be known both How and Why Christ is offered to us As he came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8 and to seek and save that which was lost Luke 19. 19 And by his Mediation to reconcile us to God and bring us up to Glory so two things were to be done for the accomplishment of this First he was himself to Merit our Salvation and pay the price of our Redemption on the Cross and in his own Person to conquer the world the Devil and death and the grave And then he was by his Intercession in the Heavens to make application of this and bestow the benefits thus purchased by him And because it was he and not we that made the purchase it therefore pleased the Father that the purchased treasure should be put into his hands and not immediately put into ours He is become our Treasury and authorized to be our Head All Power is given him in Heaven and Earth We have so fouly miscarryed already that he will no more trust his honour in our hands as at first he did We shall have nothing of Pardon or Grace or Glory but what we have in and from the Sonne God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Sonne He that hath the Sonne hath Life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not Life 1 Joh. 11. 12. It is not only the Nature and Person of Christ that is to be believed in but it is the Person as impowred to certain ends and clothed with his Office yet we must now entertain Now the Office of Christ being for our Salvation and the Glory of God is suited to these happy ends And our Necessities are principally in these three points 1. We have the Guilt of sinne upon us to be pardoned and the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law and the punishment of sinne to be removed 2. We have the Corruption of our Nature to be healed the power of sinne to be destroyed the Image of God repaired on us and our hearts and lives to be acted and ordered according to the Will of God and to these ends Temptations to be conquered and our Souls directed strengthned and preserved to the end 3. We must be raised from the Grave at the last day we must be Justified in Judgment and possessed of that Glory which is the End of our Faith To this Justification Sanctification and Glorification may the rest be reduced Now the Office of Christ is suited to these Necessities of ours and as we cannot possibly be saved unless all these Necessities be supplied and these works done for us so we cannot possibly have these things done but by Accepting of Christ as Authorized and impowred by his Office and Perfections to do them The Glory that God will have by this work I have before expressed to you at large He will have his Justice Wisdom and Power and Holiness and Mercy to be demonstrated and honoured by Christ. And therefore Christ hath resolved to give out none of his benefits but in such manner and waies as may best attain these highest Ends. These several points therefore I must intreate you here to note distinctly 1. That you must be brought into a special Relation to the Person of Christ as cloathed with his Office before you can lay claim to his Saving Benefits He is the Head and you must become his Members He is
a thought of your hearts if a word of your mouths have not some relation to Christ to suspect it yea reject it Call it not a Sermon or a Prayer nor a duty that hath nothing of Christ in it Though the pure God-head be your principal End yet there is no way to this End but by Christ and though Love which is exercised on that End must animate all your graces and duties as they are Means to that End yet Faith hath Love in it or else it is not the Christian Faith and Christ is the Object of your Faith and Love and your perfect Everlasting Love will be animated by Christ For your Love and Praise will be to him that was slain and Redeemed us to God by his Blood out of every Kindred Tongue and Nation and made us Kings and Priests to God So much for the fifth Direction DIRECT VI. The next Direction which I would give you for a through Conversion is this See that the flesh be throughly mortified and your hearts be throughly taken off the world and all its pleasures and profits and honours and that the Roote of your fleshly Interest prevaile not at the heart and that you think not of reconciling God and the world as if you might secure your Interest in both This is a very common cause of the deceit and destruction of such as verily think they are converted It is the very Nature and business of true Conversion to turn mens hearts from the flesh and from the world to God and from an earthly and seeming happiness to a Heavenly Real Everlasting Happiness And when men are affrighted into som kind of Religiousness and yet never learnt to deny themselves and never mortified their fleshly mind but the love of this world is still the chiefest principle at their hearts and so go on in Profession of godliness with a secret reserve that they will look as well as they can to their outward prosperity whatever become of their Religion and they will have no more to do with the matters of another world then may stand with their bodily safety in this world these are the miserable deluded Hypocrites whose hopes will prove as the giving up of the ghost whom Christ will disown in their greatest extremities after all their seeming Religiousness O Sirs look to this as ever you would be happy It s an easie it s a common it s a most dangerous thing to set upon a course of outward Piety and yet keep the world next your hearts and take it still as a great part of your felicity and secretly to love your former lusts while you seem to be converted The heart is so deceitfull that you have great cause to watch it narrowly in this point It will closely cherish the love of the world and your fleshly pleasures when it seems to renounce them and when your tongue can speak contemptuously of them It was not for nothing that Christ would have the first fruits of his Gospel-Church who were to be the Example of their successours to sell all and lay it down at the feet of his Apostles And it is his standing Rule that Whoever he be that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be his Disciple Luke 14. 33. In estimation affection and resolution it must be forsaken by all that will be saved and also in practice when ever God calls us to it You can have but one Happiness If you will needs have it in this world in the contenting of your flesh there is no hope of having it also in another world in the fruition of God If you think not God and Heaven enough for you and cannot let go the Prosperity of the flesh for them you must let go all your hopes of them God will not halve it with the world in your hearts nor part stakes with the flesh much less will he be below them and take their leavings Heaven will not be theirs that set not by it more then Earth God will not call that Love to him Sincere which is not a Superlative Love and able to make you even hate all those things that would draw away your affections and obedience from him Luke 14. 26 27. There 's no talk of serving God and Mammon and compounding you a Happiness of Earth and Heaven Do therefore as Christ bids you Luke 14. 28 29 30. Sit down and count what it must cost you if you will be saved and on what rates it is that you must follow Christ. Can you voluntarily for the love of him and the hope of Glory take up your Cross and follow him in poverty in losses in reproaches though scornes and scourgings and prisons and death Do you value his loving kindness better then life Psal. 63. 3 Can you deny your eyes and your appetites their desires Can you consent to be vile in the eyes of men and to tame your own flesh and keep it in subjection and live a flesh-displeasing life that hâ—ving suffered with Christ you may also be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. If you cannot consent to these terms you cannot be Christians nor you cannot be Saved If you must needs be rich or must be honourable yea if you must needs save your estates or liberties or lives it 's past all question you must needs let go Christ and Glory If you must needs have the world you must needs lose your Souls If you must have your good things here you must not have them hereafter too but be tormented when Christ's sufferers are comforted Luke 16. 25. These hopes of purveying for the flesh as long as they can and then of being saved when they can stay here no longer is it that hath deceived many a thousand to their undoing It 's a strang thing to see how the world doth blind very knowing men and how unacquainted these Hypocrites are with their own hearts What a confident profession of down-right godliness many of them will make yea of some extraordinary height in Religion when nothing is so dear to to them as their present prosperity and God hath not neer so much interest in them as the flesh What contrivances some of them make for riches or rising in the world And how tender others are of their honour with men and how tenacious they are of their Mammon of unrighteousness and how much money and great men can do with them And most of them pamper their flesh and serve it in a cleanlier way of Religiousness even as much though not so disgracefully and grossly as drunkards and whoremongers do in a more discernable sensuality If the times do but change and countenance any errour how smal an Argument will make their judgments bend with the times If truth or duty must cost them deer O how they will shift and stretch and wriggle to prove Truth to be no Truth and duty to be no duty and no Argument is strong enough to satisfie them when the flesh doth but say It s
will themselves forsake them and take up another way and be as consident in that and take no warning by the experience of their former deceit And thus they go oft from one Opinion to another till at last finding themselves deceived so oft some of them cast off all Religion and think there is no certainty to be found in any Suspecting Religion when they should have suspected their false hearts And all this comes to pass because they never received the Truth in the love of it that they might be Sanctified and Saved by it 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Nor ever gave it deep entertainment in their hearts that it might throughly Convert them but took it as a bare Opinion into the brain to polish their tongues and outsides and deceive themselves as much as others And thus I have shewed you the difference between a sound Convert and an Opinionist or one that hath but a overly superficial Change that you may see which of these is your own condition To return now to my Advice and Exhortation I intreat every person that readeth or heareth these words to see that they stick not in an Opinionative Conversion To which End I further desire you 1. To consider that it is a higher matter that Christ came into the world for then to change mens bare Opinions and it is a higher matter that the Gospel is intended for and that Ministers are sent to you for For it is more then a corruption of mens Opinions that siane hath brought upon you and therefore it is a deeper disease that must be cured The Work of Christ by his Gospel is no less then to fetch you off all that which flesh and blood accounts your Happiness and to unite you to himself and make you Holy as God is Holy and to give you a new Nature and make you as the dwellers or Citizens of Heaven while you walk on Earth Phil. 3. 20 21. And these are greater matters then the changing of a Party or Opinion The Holy Ghost himself must dwell in you and work in you and imploy your Soul and life for God that you may study him and love him and live to him here and live with him for ever Do but think well of the Ends and meaning of the Gospel and how much greater matters it drives at and then you will see that there 's no taking up with an Opinionative Religiousness 2. Keep company if it be possible with the most Sober Spiritual and Heavenly professours that will be drawing you to the observation of your own heart and life and opening to you the riches of the Love of Christ and winning up your affections to God and Heaven And be not the companions of unexperienced wranglers that have no other Religion but a Zeal for their Opinions and will endeavour rather to make you like Satan then like God by possessing your minds with malice and bitter thoughts of your brethren and employing your tongues in reproaches and vaine strivings and making you fire-brands in the places where you live Neither be companions of them that hold the Truth no deeper then Opinion For though some such may be usefull to you in their places yet if you have not more edifying familiars your danger will be very great lest you should let go the life of Religion and take up with meer notions and formalities as they 3. When you have considered that every Truth of God is a Message to your Hearts as well as to your Heads and hath a work of God to do upon them look after that work and when you have heard or read a Truth go down into your Hearts and see what it hath done there And if you find not in your Will and Resolutions and Affections the Image and fruits of the Truth you have heard fetch it up again and ruminate upon it and do not think you have received it or done with it till this be done yea take it but as lost and sinfully rejected if it have not done you some good at the very Heart 4. Also be sure that you Practise all practical Truths upon the first opportunity as soon as you have heard them Imprison them not in unrighteousness Cast them not out in forgetfulness use not a Lecture of Divinity as if it were a lesson of Musick or a meer Philosophical or Historical discourse Read not the Doctrine of Salvation and the Promises of Heaven and the forewarnings of everlasting misery as you read a common story or a groundless conjecture in an Almanack But as a Message from God which tells you where you must dwell for ever and as a Direction sent from Heaven to teach you the way thither Fall to work then and practise what you know if you would be Christians indeed Be yee doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves For the Opinionative hearer seeth but a slight appearance of the Truth as a man that lookes on his face in a glass which he quickly forgets But he that is a Sound Believer and practiser and not only an Opinionative forgetful hearer is the man that shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1. 22 23 24 25. Opinion without Practise is building on the Sand but hearing and sound Believing and doing is building upon the Rock where the building will stand after all assaults Matth. 7. 26 27 28. An Opinionist doth but seem to be Religious while he keeps his reigning sinnes and therefore his Religion is in vain but the Practical Religion is the pure and undefiled Religion Jam. 1. 26 27. Hearty obedience will not only shew that your Religion is deeper then meer Opinion but it will also advance it to a greater purity and root it more deeply then it was before A man that hath studied the Art of Navigation in his closet may talk of it almost as well as he that hath been at sea but when he comes to practise it he will find that he is far to seek But let this man go to sea and joyn practise and experience to his Theory and then he may have a knowledg of the right kind So if a man that hath only read over Military Books would be a true Soldier or a man that hath only studied Physick would be a true Physician what better way is there then to fall to Practise And so must you if you would have a Religion that shall save your Souls and not only a Religion that will furnish you with good Opinions and expressions 5. Moreover if you would get above Opinion be still searching more and more after the Evidences of the ancient fundamental Truths that you have received and lay open your hearts to the power of them Think it not enough that you take the Christian Religion for true but labour after a clearer sight ot its truth For you may possibly upon some conjecture take it for a Truth by bare Opinion whenas the sight of fuller Evidences and a full sight of those
Earth and all things into nothing for he doth more in giving them their being and continuance Of such Wisdom that was never guilty of mistake and therefore will not mislead you nor draw you to any thing that is not for the best Of such Goodness as that evil cannot stand in his sight and nothing but your evil could make him displeased with you and it is from nothing but evil that he calleth you to Turn It is not to a malitious Enemy that would do you a mischief but it is to a gracious God that is Love it self Not to an implacable Justice but to a reconciled Father not to revenging Indignation but to the embracement of those Arms and the Mercy of that compassionate Lord that is enough to melt the hardest heart when you find your self as the poor returning Prodigall Luk. 25. 20. in his bosome when you deserved to have been under his feet And will the great and blessed God invite thee to his favour and wilt thou delay and demurre upon the Return The greatest of the Angels of Heaven are glad of his favour and value no Happiness but the light of his countenance Heaven and Earth are supdorted by him and nothing can stand without him How glad would those very Devils be of his favour that tempt thee to neglect his favour And wilt thou delay to turn to such a God Why man thou art every minute at his mercy If thou turn not he can throw thee into Hell when he will more easily then I can throw this Book to the ground And yet dost thou delay There are all things imaginable in him to draw thee There is nothing that is good for thee but it is perfectly in him where thou maist have it certain and perpetuated There is nothing in him to give the least discouragement Let all the Devils in Hell and all the Enemies of God on Earth say the worst they can against his Majesty and they are not able to find the smallest blemish in his absolute Holiness and Wisdom and Goodness And yet wilt thou delay to Turn 2. Consider also as to Whom so to what it is that thou must Turn Not to uncleanness but unto Holiness not to the sensual life of a Beast but to the Noble rationall life of a man and the more Noble Heavenly life of a Believer Not to an unprofitable worldly toyl but to the gainfullest Employment that ever the Sonnes of men were acquainted with Not to the deceitfull drudgery of sinne but to that Godliness which is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Sirs Do you know what a life of Holiness is You do not know it if you turn away from it I am sure if you knew it you would never fly from it no nor endure to live without it Why a life of Holiness is nothing but a living unto God to be conversant with him as the wicked are with the world and to be devoted to his Service as sensualists are to the flesh It is to live in the Love of God and our Redeemer and in the foretasts of his Everlasting Glory and of his Love and in the sweet fore-thoughts of that blessed life that shall never end and in the honest self-denying course that leadeth to that blessedness A godly life is nothing else but a sowing the Seed of Heaven on Earth and a learning in the School of Christ the Songs of praise which we must use before the Throne of God and by suffering a learning how to Triumph and reign with Christ. And is there any thing in this life which you have cause to be afraid of The sinnes and weaknesses of the godly are contrary to Godliness and therefore Godliness is no more dishonoured by them then health and life is dishonoured by your sicknesses As health is never the worse to be liked but the better because of the painfull grievousness of sickness so Godliness is to be liked the better because the very failings of the Saints are so grievous If a true Believer do but step out of the way of God he is wounded he is out of â—oynt he is as undone till he come in again though it was but in one particular And can you endure to continue strangers to it altogether so long I know you may find faults in the godly till they are perfect but let the most malicious Enemy of Christ on Earth find any fault in Godliness if he can Can you delay to come into your Fathers Family into the Vineyard of the Lord into the Kingdom of God on Earth to be fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the Houshould of God to have the Pardon of all your sinnes and the sealed Promise of Everlasting Glory Why Sirs when you are called on to Turn you are called to the Porch of Heaven into the beginning of Salvation And will you delay to accept Everlasting life 3. Consider also from what you are called to Turn and then judg whether there be any reason of delay It is from the Devil your Enemy from the love of a deceitfull world from the seducement of corrupted bruitish flesh It is from sinne the greatest evil What is there in sinne that you should delay to part with it Is there any good in it Or what hath it ever done for you that you should love it Did it ever do you good Or did it ever do any man good It is the deadly enemy of Christ and you that caused his death and will cause yours and is working for your damnation if converting and pardoning Grace prevent it not And are you loath to leave it It is the cause of all the miseries of the world of all the sorrow that ever did befall you and the cause of the damnation of them that perish And do you delay to part with it 4. Your Delaying shews that you Love not God and that you preferre your sinne before him and that you would never part with it if you might have your will For if you loved God you would long to be restored to his favour and to be near him and employed in his service and his Family Love is quick and diligent and will not draw back And it is a sign also that you are in love with sinne For else why should you be so loath to leave it He that would not leave his sinne and turn to God till the next week or the next Moneth or year would never turn if he might have his desire For that which makes you desirous to stay a day or week longer doth indeed make you loath to turn at all And therefore it is but hypocrisie to take on you that you are willing to turn hereafter if you be not willing to do it now without delay 5. Consider but what a Case you are in while you thus delay Do you think you stand on drie ground or in a safe condition If you
God then else can be expected For knowledg will not be had but by time and study You may also have time to get strength of Grace when young beginners can expect no more then an infant strength You may grow to be men of parts and abilities to be usefull in the Church and profitable to those about you when others cannot go or stand unless they lean on the stronger for support If you come in betime you may do God a great deale of service which in the evening of the day you will neither have strength nor time to do You may have time to get Assurance of Salvation and to be ready with comfort when death shall call When a weakling is like to be perplexed with doubts and fears and death is like to be terrible because of their unreadiness 26. And did you ever consider who and how many do stay for you while you delay Do you know who it is that you make to waite your leisure God himself stands over you with the offers of his Mercy as if he thought it long till you return saying O that there were such a heart in them and when will it once be How long ye simple will you love simplicity and scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledg Turn you at my reproof Deut. 5 29. Jer. 13. 17. Prov. 1. 22. And do you think it wise or safe or mannerly for you to make the God of Heaven to wait on you while you are serving his Enimy Can you offer God a baser indignity then to expect that he should support your lives and feed you and preserve you and patiently forbeare you while you abuse him to his face and drudg for the flesh the world and the Devil Should a worm thus use the Lord that made him You will not your selves hold a candle in your hands while it burns your own fingers nor will you hold a nettle or a wasp in your hand to sting you nor will you keep a dog in your house that is good for nothing but to snarl at you and bite your Children or worry your sheep And yet God hath long held up your lives while in stead of Light you have yielded nothing but a stinking snuff and in stead of graps you have brought forth nothing but thorns and thistles and while you have snarled at his Children and his Flock and done the worst you could against him And would you indeed put God to wait on you thus while you serve the Devil yet one day more Must God as it were hold the drunkard the candle while he reeles and spues Must he draw the curtain while the filthy wretch doth once more please his fleshly lusts Marvaile not if he withdraw his supporting Mercy and let such wretches drop into Hell And it is not God only but his Servants and Creatures and Ordinances that all are waiting on you The Angels stay for the joy that is due to them upon your Conversion Ministers are studying and preaching and praying for you Godly neighbours are praying and longing for your change The Springs and rivers are flowing for you The winds blow for you The Sunne shines for you The clouds raine for you The Earth bears fruit for you The beasts must labour and suffer and die for you All things are doing and would you stand still or else do worse What hast makes the Sunne about the world to return in its time to give you light What hast make other Creatures in your service And yet must you delay Must God stay and Christ and the Spirit stay Must Angels stay must Ministers stay must the Godly stay and the Ordinances stay and all the Creatures stay your leasure while you are abusing God and your Souls and others and while you delay as if it were too soon to turn 27. Consider that when you were lost the Sonne of God did not delay the work of your Redemption He presently undertook it and turned by the stroak of damning Justice In the fulness of time he came and performed what he undertook he failed not one day of his appointed time And will you now Delay to accept the benefit and turn to him Must he make such hast to save you at so dear a rate and now will you delay to be saved 28. Moreover God doth not delay to do you good You have the day and night in their proper seasons The Sunne doth not faile to rise upon you at the appointed time You have the Spring and Harvest in their meetest seasons the former and later raine in season When you are in want you have seasonable supplies and when your are in danger you have seasonable deliverance And is it meet or equal that you should refuse to bring forth seasonable fruit but still be putting off God with your delaies 29. Moreover When you are in trouble and necessity you are then in hast for deliverance and relief Then you think every day a week till your danger or suffering be past If you be under the pain of a disease or in danger of death or under poverty or oppression or disgrace you would have God relieve you without delay And yet you will not turn to him without delay Then you are ready to cry out How long Lord how long till deliverance come but you will not hear God when he cryeth to you in your sinnes How long will it be ere you turn from your transgressions when shall it once be When you are to receive any outward deliverance you care not how soon the sooner the better but when you are to turn to God and receive his Grace and title to Glory then you care not how late as if you had no mind of it Can you for shame beg of God to hasten your deliverances when you remember your delaies and still continue to trifle with him and draw back 30. Your present prosperity and worldly delights are posting away without Delay and should you delay to make sure of better in their stead Time is going and health is going youth is going yea life is going your riches are taking wing your fleshly pleasures do perish in the very using Your meat and drink is sweet to you little longer then it is in your throat Shortly you must part with house and lands with goods and friends and all your mirth and earthly business will be done All this you know and yet will you delay to lay up a durable treasure which you may trust upon and to provide you a better tenement before you be turned out of this What will you do for a habitation for pleasures and contents when all that you have now is spent and gone and Earth will afford you nothing but a grave If you could but keep that you have I should not much wonder that knowing so little of God and another world you look not much after it But when you perceive death knocking at your doores and see that all your worldly comforts are packing up and
hasting away me thinks if you have your wits and sense about you you should presently turn and make sure of Heaven without any more delay 31. Consider also whether it be equal that you should delay your Conversion when you can seasonably dispatch your worldly business and when your flesh would be provided for you can hearken to it without Delay You have wit enough to sow your seed in season and will not delay it till the time of harvest You will reap your corn when it is ripe and gather your fruit when it is ripe without delay You observe the seasons in the course of your labours day by day and year by year You will not lie in bed when you should be at your work nor delay all night to go to your rest nor suffer your servants to delay your business You will know your dinner time and supper time day by day If you be sick you will seek help without delay lest your disease should grow to be uncurable And yet will you delay your Conversion and the making sure of Heaven Why Sirs shall these trifles be done without delay and shall your Salvation be put off In the Name of God Sirs what do you think of Do you imagine that you can better suffer Hell-fâ—re then hunger or nakedness Or that you can better bear the loss of Everlasting Joyes then the loss of your commodities and provisions in the world Sure if you believe the life to come you cannot think so And can you have while for every thing except that one thing which all the rest are meerly to promote and in comparison of which they are all but dreams Can you have while to work to plow and sow and reap and cannot you have while to prepare for Eternal Life Why Sirs if you cannot find time yet to search your hearts and turn to God and prepare for death give over eating and drinking and sleeping and say you cannot have time for these You may as wisely say so for these smaller matters as the greater 32. Moreover if men offer you courtesies and commodities for your bodies you will not stand Delaying and need so many perswasions to accept them If your Landlord would for nothing renew your lease if any man would give you houses or lands would you delay so long before you would accept them A beggar at your doore will not only thankfully take your almes without your intreaty and importunity but will beg for it and be importunate with you to give it And yet will you Delay to accept the blessed offers of Grace which is a greater thing 33. Ye Consider that it is God that is the Giver and you that are the miserable beggars and receivers And therefore it is fitter that you should wait on God and call on him for his Grace when he seemeth to delay and not that he should waite on you He can live without your receiving but you cannot live without his giving The beggar must be glad of an alms at any time and the condemned person of a pardon at any time but the giver may well expect that his gift be received without delay or else he may let them go without it 34. And me thinks you should not deal worse with God when he comes to you as a Physician to save your own Souls then you would do with a neighbour or a friend when it is not for your own good but for theirs If your neighbour lay a dying you would go and visit him without delay If he fell down in a swoon you would catch him up without delay If he fell into the fire or water you would pluck him out without delay Yea you would do thus much by a very beast And yet will you delay when it is not another but your selves that are sinking and drowning and within a step of death and desparation If a woman be but in travaile her neighbours will come to her without delay And yet when their own Souls are in bondage to sinne and Satan and a state of death they will let them lie there year after year and when we desire them to be Converted here 's nothing but delaies 35. If yet you perceive not how unreasonably you deale with God and your Souls I beseech you consider whether you do not deal worse with him then you do with the Devil himself If Satan or his servants perswade you to sinne you delay not so long but you are presently at it You are ready to follow every tipling companion or gamester that puts up the finger You are as ready to go as they to invite you The very sight of the cup doth presently prevaile with the drunkard and the sight of his filthy mate prevaileth with the fornicatour and sinne can be presently entertained without delay But when God comes when Christ calls when the Spirit moveth when the minister perswadeth when Conscience is convinced we can have nothing after all but wishes and purposes and promises with Delaies O what a stomack hath that man or what a brain that will snatch at poyson and swallow dung and dirt with greediness without any chewing and when you offer him meat stands sighing and looking on it and hardly will be perswaded to put it in his mouth and if he do he is chewing it so long that at last he even spits it out againe and cannot get it down Thus deal ungodly wretches between their poisonous sins and the saving means and Grace of Christ. Nay more then this so eager are they on their sinne that we are not able to intreat them to delay it When the passionate man is but provoked we cannot perswade him to delay his rayling language so long as to consider first of the issue We cannot intreat the drunkard to put off his drunkenness but for one twelve-month while he tryeth another course All the ministers in the Country cannot perswade the worldling to forbear his worldliness and the proud persons their pride and the ungodly person his ungodliness for the space of one moneth or week or day And yet when God hath a command and a request to them to Turn to him and be saved here they can Delay without our intreaty 36. Consider also that it is not possible for you to turn too soon nor will you ever have cause to repent of your speediness Delay may undoe you but speedy turning can do you no harm I wonder what hurt you think it can do you to be quickly reconciled to God And why then should there be any Delay where it is not possible to be too hasty Do you think that there is ever a Saint in Heaven yea or on Earth either that is sorry that he stayed not longer unconverted No you shall never hear of such a repentance from the mouth of any that is indeed converted 37. But I must tell you on the contrary side that if ever you be so hapy as to be Converted you will Repent it and an hundred
I have been preaching so many yeares to you for Conversion and for an Holy Heavenly life even since I first knew you and that yet so many of you are drown'd in sinne and ignorance and are unconverted when I think your very Consciences tell you that it is a thing that must be done I tell you all these years do seem to me a long time to wait on you in vain Blessed be the Lord that it hath not been in vaine with some or else I would scarce preach any more then one other Sermon to you even to bid you farewel I pray you deal but fairly with us and tell us whether ever you will turn or not If you will not but are resolved for sinne and Hell say so that we may know the worst speak out your minds that we may know what to trust to For if we once knew you would not turn we would soon have done with you and leave you to the Justice of God But if still you say you will turn when will you do it You will do it and you hope you shall but when How long would you have us wait yet Have you not abused us enough Nay I must tell you that you even weary God himself It is his own expression Mal. 2. 17. Isa. 43. 24. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Isa. 1. 14. And I must say to you as the Prophet Isa. 7. 13. Is it a small thing for you to weary men but you will weary my God also Consider what it is that you do 46. Consider also that you are at a constant unspeakable loss every day and hour that you Delay your Conversion O little do you know what you deprive your selves of every day If a slave in the Gallies or prison might live at Court as a favourite of the Prince in honour and delight and ease would he delay either years or hours Or would he not rather think with himself Is it not better to be at ease and in honour then to be here As the Prodigal said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger All this while I might be in plenty and delight All the while that you live in sinne you might be in the favour of God in the high and Heavenly employments of the Sants you might have the comforts of daily Communion with Christ and with the Saints you might be laying up for another world and might look death in the face with Faith and confidence as one that cannot be conquered by it you might live as the Heirs of Heaven on Earth All this and more then this you lose by your delaies All the Mercies of God are lost upon you Your food and rayment you health and wealth which you set so much by all is but lost and worse then lost for they turn to your greater hurt All our pains with you and all the Ordinances of God which you possess and all your time is lost and worss And do you think it indeed a wise mans part to live any longer at such a loss as this and that wilfully and for nothing If you knew your loss you would not think so 47. Nay more you are all this while doing that which must be undone againe or you will be undone for ever You are running from God but you must come back again or perish when all is done You are learning an hundred carnal lessons and false conceits that must be all unlearnt again You are shutting up your eies in wilful ignorance which must be opened again You must lean the Doctrine of Christ the great Teacher of the Church if you stay never so long or else you shall be cut of from his people Acts 3. 22. 7. 37. When you have been long accustoming your selves to sinne you must unlearn and break all those customes again You are hardning your hearts daily and they must again be softned And I must tell you that though a little time and labour may serve to do mischief yet it is not quickly undone again You may sooner set your house on fire than quench it when you have done You may sooner cut and wound your bodies then heal them again And sooner catch a cold or a disease then cure it You may quickly do that which must be longer a undoing Besides the cure is accompanied with paine You must take many a bitter draught in groanes or tears of godly sorrow for these delaies The wounds that you are now giving your Souls must smart and smart again before they are searcht and healed to the bottom And what man of wisdom would make himself such work and sorrow Who would travail on an hour longer that knowes he is out of his way and must come back again Would you not think him a mad man that would say I will go on a little further and then I will turn back I know Mr. Bilney the Martyr was offended with this comparison because he thought it was against Free Grace But comparisons extend not to every respect There are two things in your sins to be undone the one is the Guilt and the other is the Habit and power of sin the first indeed is done away when you are Converted but at the cost of Christ which should not be made light of And yet some scarres may be left behind and such twigs of Gods Rod may fall upon you as shall make you wish you had come sooner in And for the habit of sinne though Conversion break the heart of it yet will it live and trouble you while you live and those sinnes that now you are strengthning by your delaies will be thorns in your sides and rebels in your Country and find you work as long as you live And thus I may well say that you are doing that while you delay that must be long in undoing and will not be undone so easily as it is done and you are going on that way that must be all trod backward 48. And me thinks if it were but this it should terrifie you from your Delaies that it is likely to make your Conversion more grievous if you should have so great Mercy from God as after all to be Converted There is very few scape that are so exceeding long in travaile but if you come to the birth it 's like to be with double paine For God must send either some grievous affliction to fire and frighten you out of your sinnes or else some terrible gripes of Conscience that shall make you groane and groane againe in the feeling of your folly The pangs and throws of Conscience in the work of Conversion are far more grievous in some then in others Some are even on the wrack and almost brought besides their wits and the next step to desperation with horror of Soul and the sense of the Wrath of God so that they lie in doubts and complaints many a year together and think that they are even forsaken
at least a more piercing convincing deep and savoury apprehension of the essentials of Christianity then he ever had before Where note of this special Heavenly light 1. The being usually the Consequent of a more common knowledg therefore most ordinarily the sum of Christian Doctrine is in some manner known before 2. That it doth not reveal only some one point of Faith alone and then another and so on as if we savingly knew one essential point of Faith when we have no saving Knowledg of the rest For that is a Contradiction But finding all these Truths received in the mind before by a common Knowledg the special Light comes in upon them all at once and so shews us the Anatomy of Christianity or the parts of Gods Image in one frame as to the essentials 3. For the understanding of which you must further know that there is such an inseparable connection of these Truths and such a dependance of one upon another that it is not possible to know one of them truly and not know all For example Believing in Jesus Christ is an act so inseparable from the rest that if the essentials of Christianity be not essential to it certainly you cannot do this without them For to Believe in Christ is essentially to believe in him as God and man two Natures in one Person by Office the Mediator our Redeemer and Saviour to save us from guilt and sinne from punishment and pollution and to give us by the Holy Ghost a Holy nature and life and to give us the forgiveness of sinne and Everlasting life and so to restore us to the mutual Love of God here and fruition of him hereafter and all this as merited and procured by his Death Obedience Resurrection Ascension and Intercession for his Church Whether here be all that is Essential to Christianity and absolutely necessary to Salvation to be believed I leave to consideration but sure I am that all this is Essential to saving Justifying Faith And Christ is not taken as Christ if he be not thus taken For the Ends thus enter the definition of his Relation as the Redeemer and Saviour and Lord. So that the Love of God as our felicity and End and the belief in Christ as the way are both together in the same minute of time which soever of them be first in order of nature which is a question that I dare not here so unseasonably handle 2. Upon this special Illumination of the Soul and the special Consideration with which it doth concurre the Deliberating Soul is presently Resolved And in these two Acts which alwaies go together consisteth the special Sanctifying Work Even in the Illumination and Estimation of the Understanding and in the true Resolution of the Will 2. The Determination of the Will is its own free act performed by its natural self determining power procured by the special Grace of God I mean in this special case It followeth Deliberation While we are unresolved we Deliberate what to Resolve upon that is we are considering which is best and most eligible and which not and as we practically judg we use to Determine and to choose And when this choice after Deliberation is peremtory and full it 's called Resolution So that my meaning is to let you understand that when the Matter of our Faith is set open to the Soul it is not a wavering fickle purpose that is a saving closure with it but it must be a firm Resolution Much less will it ever bring a man to Heaven to be thinking and deliberating what to do as long as he is unresolved And now I shall prove the Necessity of this II. Till you are Resolved you are not Converted and that appeareth by these Evidences 1. If you are not firmly Resolved it is certain that you do not firmly believe For such as your Belief is such will be the effects of it upon the Will An unsound Opinionative belief will produce but tottering languishing purposes but a firm belief will cause a firm Resolution of the Will And if your belief be unsound you must confess you are unconverted 2. Moreover if you do not esteem God above all Creatures and Heaven above Earth and Christ and Grace above sinne you are certainly unconverted But if you have such a true estimation you will certainly have a firm Resolution For you will Resolve for that which you highly esteem 3. If God have not your firm Resolution he hath not indeed your Heart and Will For to give God your Hearts and Wills is principally by firm Resolving for him And if God have not your Hearts you are sure unconverted 4. Moreover if you are not firmly Resolved your Affections will not be sincere and stedfast For all the Affections are such as to their sincerity as the Will is which doth excite or command them And nothing is more mutable then the Affections in themselves considered They will be hot to day and cold to morrow if they be not rooted in the firm Resolution of the Will which is the life of them 5. Lastly Without a firm Resolution there can be no faithfull obedience and execution of the Will of God For if men be not Resolved they will heavily go on and lazilie proceed and easily come off For their hands go to work without their hearts It is the greatest work in all the world that God calls you to and none but the Resolved are able to go through with it Of which we shall give you a fuller account anon III. In the next place let me intreat you in the feare of God to look after this great and Necessary part of your Conversion There are many degrees of good motions in the mind but all that falls short of Resolution is unâ—ound Many are brought to Doubt whether all be well with them and to have some fears thereupon that yet will not be brought so far as to consider soberly of the matter and deliberate what is best to be done and to advise with their Ministers for the furthering of their Salvation Many that are perswaded so far as to consider and deliberate and take advice yet go no further then some cold wishes or purposes which are all overcome by the love of the world and the power of their sinnes Many that do proceed to some kind of Practice do only take a tast or an essay of Religion to try how they can like it and begin some kind of outward Reformation without any firm Resolution to go through with it Or if their purposes seem strong it is but occasioned by something without and not from a setled habit within All these are short of a state of special Saving Grace and must be numbred with the unconverted It is a common and very dangerous mistake that many are undone by to think that every good Desire is a certain sign of Saving Grace Whereas you may have more then bare Desires even purposes and promises and some performances and yet perish
be moved to it by right and weighty Considerations and go upon reasons that will hold up your Resolution For should you Resolve on the most necessary work as this is upon mistakes and wrong or insufficient Reasons as the will of man the custom of the country the reputation of Christianity or only such like there is no likelyhood that your Resolution should endure and it is not sincere while it doth endure 5. Your Resolution must be accompanied with a sense of your own insufficiency to stand to it immutably and execute it faithfully by your own strength as knowing the corruption and deceitfullness of our own heart And it must be strengthned and supported by a confidence or dependance on the sufficiency of Christ. on whose Grace and Spirit you must rely both for the continuing and the performing of your Resolutions as knowing that without him you can do nothing but that you can do all things necessary through Christ strengthning you 6. Lastly Your Resolution is not Savingly sincere unless it be habitually It is a very hard question how far some moving exhortation or the approach of death in sicknes may prevaile with the unsanctified for an Actual Resolution Undoubtedly very farre But that 's a mans mind and will which is Habitually his mind and will When the very Inclination and bent of your will is Right then only is your heart right A bowle may by a rub or banck be turned contrary to the byas but when it is over the rub it will follow the byas againe in its ordinary course The flame may be hindred from assending a little while but when it is got over the stop it will be mounting upward A stone will move upwards against its Nature while it is followed by the strength of the hand that cast it but when the strength is spent it will quickly fall again It is not an extraordinary act that you can try your selves by but such a free course and tenor of your lives as will prove that you have a new Nature or a heart Inclined and Habituated to God The main business therefore is to prove that you are Habituallly Resolved Set all these together now and you may see what Resolution it is that must prove you to be Converted 1. It must be a Resolution for all the Essence of Christianity and not only some part 2. It must be a Resolution for present Obedience and not only for some distant time to come 3. It must be an Absolute peremptory Resolution without and against Reserves for the flesh both Total and final without and against any Revocation 4. It must be soundly grounded and moved by right Principles 5. It must be joyned with a humble sence of your insufficiency and a dependance on Christ for continuing and performing it And 6. It must be Habitual and such as sets right the bent and drift of heart and life All this is of Necessity Well Sirs you see now what you must do the next question then is what you will do A great many of motions God hath made to you to let go your worldliness and wickedness and become New Creatures and live to God and never could you be got to Resolve and obey them Many thoughts you have had of it I suppose and long you have been purposing that Turn you would but all have come to little or nothing because you were never fully Resolved I am once more sent to you on this message from God to see whether yet you will Resolve Whether after all you trifling delaies and after all your wilfull sinning and abuse of Gods Patience against your own knowledg and Consciences you will yet Resolve What say you Shall God be your Master indeed and shall Christ be your Saviour Lord Shall Heaven be your happiness and have your hearts indeed Shall Holiness be your business indeed and shall sinne be your hatred and the flesh and the world be your enemies indeed and used accordingly from this day forward without any more ado I beseech you Sirs Resolve and fully Resolve And because I know if we prevaile not with you in this you are undone for ever and therefore I am loath to let you go before we have brought you if it may be to Resolve I will give you here some Considerations to turn the scales and if you will but read them and soberly consider of them I shall have great hope to prevail with you yet after all One would think that the fifty Considerations under the last Direction might suffice But lest all should be too little I will add these following 1. Consider I beseech you what leisure you have had to think of the matter You have lived many years in the world already and you have had nothing to do in it but to seek after true Happiness Even your worldly labours ought to have been all but in order to this And yet are you unresolved Alas Sirs have you lived some twenty some thirty years and more in the world and yet are you not Resolved what you came hither for or what you have to do here Is it twenty or thirty or fourty years since you set out and should by this time have been farre on your journey and are you yet unresolved whither to go or which way to go As if you were newly entering the world or as if you had never heard of your business I think so many years are a faire time of Consideration and it's time to be Resolved if you will Resolve at all 2. And I pray you consider what Helps you have had to have Resolved you before this If you did not know what you had to look after and which way to take you should have enquired You had the Word of God to advise with and you had your Teachers to advise with and many experienced Christians to advise with You wanted not for the wisest faithfulest Counsailers if you had been but willing and diligent certainly you might have been Resolved long ago 3 And consider I beseech you what a case it is that you are unresolved in Is it so hard a question that all this time and all these helps cannot Resolve you What whether God or the flesh should be first obeyed and loved Whether Heaven or Earth Eternal Glory or the transitory pleasures of sinne should be preferred Whether you should care and labour more to be saved from sinne and Hell or from poverty and worldly crosses and reproaches These and such like are the questions to be Resolved And are these so hard that all your wit and all the advise you can have from Scripture and Ministers would not serve turn to help you to a Resolution no not in twenty or thirty years time O wonderful that ever the Devil should be able so to befool men That Reasonable Creatures should be so phrenetâ—ck that they cannot be resolved whether it be better be saved or be damned or whether sinne with Hell after it be better than
they will not deliberate upon it till the market be past If they have their land to plow or their â—orn to sow or reap or mow they will not take a twelve months time to pause upon it They can quicky Resolve upon their every-daies business their travails their labours and all their ordinary affaires And yet these same men cannot Resolve in seaven years time and seaven to that whether Heaven or Earth should be more loved and laboured for Or whether a corruptible flesh a wicked fancie a greedy throat should be pleased before the God of Heaven though the pleasing of it cost them the loss of their Salvation Why Sirs a man that is well in his wits would think that these matters should be more out of doubt then the former and speedilier resolved on One would think it should be an easier question whether you should turn to God and a Holy life for the saving of your immortal Souls then whether you should eate or drink or sleep for the preservation of your bodies For I can in many cases bring some reason that should perswade you to forbeare eating or drinking or sleeping for a considerable time but no man breathing can speak a word of reason except mens folly should be called Reason that should perswade you to forbear your Conversion for a minute And if you mistake about these bodily matters the loss may be repaired at least in the world to come but if you die before you are Resolved and firmly Resolved to give up your Soul and body to Christ and live a Holy Heavenly life you are undone body and Soul for ever and all the world can never save you Oh what a strange and horrible thing is it that a man that hath the wit to mannage his affaires as plausibly as any of his neighbours that can overwit others in the matters of the world that can govern Towns and Countries that is learned in his Profession in Law in Physick in Merchandize in Navigation or any the like I say that a man of so deep a reach so plodding and active a wit as this should yet be unresolved yea at 30 or 40 years old be unresolved whether to be Sanctified or unsanctified whether to be Holy and be Saved or to be unholy though God hath professed expresly that such shall not see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. These are our wise men these are too many besides the ignorant country men of our Gentlemen our Worshipfull and Honourable men our great Schollars and men of noble or reverend esteem that yet are unresolved whether to be saved or to be damned Though God hath written a Bible to Resolve them and a thousand books are written to Resolve them and Preachers are studying and preaching to Resolve them and a thousand mercies are cast into the scales that one would think should help to turn them and some sharp afflictions are helping to Resolve them and twenty or fourty years certain experience of the vanity of this world the deceitfullness of riches and honour and pleasure and the unprofitableness of sinne one would think should Resolve them yet after all this they are unresolved whether they should presently let go their sinne and whether God or the flesh should be pleased or displeased If this be the wisdom of these men the Lord bless me and all his chosen from such wisdom 6. Nay consider further of your unreasonable wickedness Are not many of your Judgments Resolved when yet your hearts and wils are unresolved I am confident nay I am certain it is so You are at once both Resolved and unresolved What a confusion and warre do you thus make in your own Souls The Judgment is for one thing and the Will and Affections are for another thing What are you not led by Reason Will you let out your Affections and lead your lives quite contrary to your knowledg Would not most of you give it me as your Judgments under your hands that it 's a thousand times better to cast away your drunkenness your filthiness your worldliness and other known sinnes then to keep them any longer What say you are you not Convinced that it were your wisest course to part with them this very day and hour Undoubtedly many of you are And yet for all this will you not Resolve to do it Are you not perswaded in your Consciences that it 's better to dye in a Holy and Heavenly state then in a loose and careles worldly state And that it were your safest and wisest course to become New men and lead a Holy Heavenly life without delay Dare you deny this Is it not your Judgment And yet will you not do it Are you Resolved that it should be done and must be done and yet will you not Resolve to do it Why what is this but to be condemners of your selves to carry a Judge about with you in your own brests that is still passing sentence against you Happy is he saith the Spirit of God Rom. 14. 22. that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth If your Judgments be Resolved let your Wills Resolve or else you are wilfull adersaries of the light and fight against Reason and unman your selves and sinning wilfully against your Knowledg shall be beaten with many stripes 7. Me thinks also it should somewhat quicken you to Resolve when you consider what a case you had now been in if death had found you unresolved For if you are unresolved you are unsanctified and if not Sanctified you are not pardoned or justified and therefore undoubtedly you had been past all help in endless misery if you had died all this while before you were firmly Rosolved for God O what a dangerous ticklish condition have you stood in all this while What wise man would live an hour in such a case for all the world For feare lest that hour should be his last And yet would you stay longer in it and still are you unresolved 8. Believe it Christ will not own you as his servants nor trust you what ever promises you may make him as long as you are unresolved Who will take a servant that is not resolved to do any service Who will take an unresolved person if he knows it as a wife or friend into his intimate love And indeed you are not truly Christians till you are Resolved to take Christ for better and worse What ever state is short of this is also short of true Sanctification and will fall short of Heaven Christ is Resolved to stick to his servants and he will have no servants that be not resolved to stick to him 9. And indeed if you be unresolved as you are falshearted at the first setting out so it is certain that you wll never go well on nor endure to the end in case of tryall nor can you do the business of a Christian life without Resolution If you will be Christ's Disciples you must reckon upon persecutions You must take up
base and treacherous abuse of God to make any question of this which you are so long unresolved of I confess when a blind mind haith raised such a question it is lawfull for a reasonable man to answer it But in him that makes a doubt of such a thing as its a shame to himself so it is a hainous indignity to God If you had a chast and modest woman to your wife I think shee would take it for an injury if you should but make a question of it whether shee or a common whore be the honester woman If your wife or children should bring before you a Hobby-horse or an Ass and make a great question of it whether you or the Ass be the comlier or the wiser How would you take this of them If you should bring an ideot or a mad man before your Prince and make a question whether he or they be the wiser man or if you set a Rebel before him and make a question which of them hath the better title to the Crown what entertainment might you expect I tell you it is ten thousand thousand times a baser affront and wrong to God to set the pleasure of sinne before him and make a question which of them is the better and to set your riches and your sports and your drunkenness and gluttonny and your whoredom and your revenge in competition with your Redeemer and Everlasting Glory and to make a question which of them is to be preferred To make once a question whether God or flesh should be pleased whether Christ or the world should be loved and followed Whether the Holy Ghost or the Devil should dwell in us and guide us Whether the Saints of God or the servants of the Devil should be our chosen company Whether the Word and Minsiters of Christ or the examples and words of wicked men should more prevail with us Whether Heaven or Earth should be more carefully sought after Whether a Holy or a careless wicked life be more to be desired Or whether it be better to turn to God or not I say to make such a question as this or one of these is little better then to put a scorn upon the God of Heaven and savoureth of such malice as is more like a Devil then a reasonable man or else of such folly as is below the Devil and as none of you would be guilty of in the matters of this world If one should but make a comparison between you and some deformed monster or between your house and a swine-stie though he gave you the better I think you would take it as a scorn that he should make such a comparison or question Much more may God so take it when you make a question betwixt sinne and him There is but one Infinite unconceivable perfect Good and shall he be abased by such a question There is but one thing that is contrary to God in all the world that is worse then the Devil himself and that is sinne and shall this be put in question or comparison with God There is but One that hath Loved us to the death with a matchless unconceivable saving Love and that is Jesus Christ And there is but one thing that is a deadly enemy to us and him and that would damn us when he is endeavouring to save us and that is sinne And must there be a question or comparison between these There is One Sanctifying Spirit that would clense and heal and save us and there is a malicious spirit that would deceive us defile us and destroy us And must there be any question or comparison made between these There is but one Eternal Happiness and One Holy way to it and there is but One everlasting misery and a fleshly filthy sinfull way to it And must there be made any question which of these should be preferred Consider I beseech you what you do And if it be so vile a thing to make any question of it what is it then to be still unresolved Yea and to choose the worser part and stick to it in your heart and life 12. Consider also that Present Resolution would put an end to a great many fruitles troublesome deliberatiens and delaies If a man had but a weighty business of the world upon his hand that his estate or life lieth on it is a perplexity to him as long as he is unresolved what course he should take It will be troubling him when he should rest and break his sleep it will fill him with musings and disturb and distract his mind and even make him Melancholy And how can it choose but be a troublesome distracting thing to your mind to be unresolved what course to take for your Everlasting state I know some hearts are so desperately hardened and past feeling Epes 4. 19. and some mens Consciences so seared as with an hot iron 1 Tim. 4. 2. that they can throw away all thoughts of Resolution and never be much troubled But I hope that many are not so desperate It is not thus with all that are unconverted How long have some of your minds been troubled whether to turn or not Resolve man if thou love thy Soul and put an end to such troubles 13. Consider also that Resolving will put an end to a great many of troublesome Temptations that do assault you and will break the heart of Satans hopes As long as you are unresolved he hath still possession of you and is still in hopes to keep possession And as long as he hath any hope he will never give over but will be repairing his Garrison and making up all the breaches that the Ordinances of God had made When one temptation takes not he will be offering you another and will be following and disquieting you day and night But if once he see you firmly Resolved his hopes will faile him and you may be much freer from his temptations then you were before I do not say he will give over For even when you are broken away from him he will make after you again But it is a greater advantage to you to fight against him in the open field under such a Captaine as Jesus Christ that will assure you of the victory then to be in his own prison with his fetters on your heels You know the way to be troubled with an unwelcome suiter is to delay your answer and take time to consider of it and the way to be eased of him is to give him a peremptory Resolute answer And when he seeth you Resolved he will cease 14. Moreover till you are Resolved of your Conversion you cannot Rationally Resolve of any one word or action of your lives Nay till they are all misemployed to your hurt For no man can Resolve of the Means till he is Resolved of the End You must Resolve whither to go before you can Resolve which way to go Before Conversion mens End is wrong Their Intention and business is to please