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
Heb. 1. 6. And what are they all but Ministring spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And therefore sent forth by Jesus Christ the Lord of Saints Which makes some think that the title of Angels was never given to any of these Spirits till the Mediators undertaking and that it was only as they were his deputed messengers or servants for the Ends of that undertaking Sure we are they attended his birth with their acclamations and his life and sufferings as far as was meet with their service and that they are deputed to bear his servants in their hands that they dash not their foot against a stone that they are ascending and descending and are present with the Churches in their Holy Worship and that they rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and that the least of Christ's servants have their Angels beholding the face of God and that the Law was given by their disposition or ordination and they attend the departing Souls of Believers and that they contend against evill spirits for our good and are encamped about us and that they shall attend the Lord at his coming to Judgment and be his glorious retinue and Instruments in the work and that they are numbred with us as members of the same Heavenly Jerusalem and that we shall be like or equall to them Luke 2. 14 15. Marke 4. 11. Luke 22. 43. Acts 10. 6 7 22. Psal. 34. 7. 91. 11. Matth. 13. 39 41. 16. 27. 24. 31. 25. 31. 26. 53. Luke 16. 22. Matth. 18. 10. 2 Thes. 1. 7. Luke 20. 36. Marke 12. 25. Acts 7. 65. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 12. 22. 2 Pet. 2. 11. Luke 15. 10. Joh. 1. 51. Yea men must be either confessed or denied owned or disowned before the Angels Luke 12. 8 9. See Rev. 19. 18. Rev. 3. 5. But if all this seem not sufficient to perswade you that the Angels are so far interessed in the affaires of God about the Redeemed as to behold and admire him in this blessed work take notice of the express affirmations of the Scriptures 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which things the Angels desire to look into And why but to see and admire the Wisdom and Power and Goodness and Mercy and Justice of God shining forth in the Redeemer If this be not plain enough mark well those words Ephes. 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God You see here that the Church of the Redeemed is that admirable looking glass which God hath set up to this very intent that his Angels may in it or by it behold the manifold Wisdom of God Yea and that upon the full revelation of Christ by the Gospel they saw that which did more fully inform and illuminate them No doubt but the very work of Creation yea of this inferior world that are made for the habitation and use of man are far better known to Angels then to man for we know but little of what we daily see and use And consequently it is by Angels more then by men that God is beheld admired and glorified in them And if it be so in these works of Creation we may well say it is so in the works of Redemption 3. But when we are perfected in Glory then we our selves shall clearly see the Glory of this Mystery and of God therein As it is not till we come to Heaven that we shall have the fullest benefits of Redemption so it is not till then that we shall have the fullest understanding of it and God have his fullest praises for it As we are here but sowing the seed of our own Glory which we must reap in the everlasting fruition of God so God is here but sowing those seeds of his Praise and Glory which he will eternally reap by this blessed work Do not therefore judg of the ends and fruits of Christ's undertakings by what you see him attain on Earth but by what he shall attain in Heaven when he hath fully seen the travail of his Soul to his satisfaction and hath presented the whole Church without spot unto God and when the glorious manage of the Lamb with the Heavenly Jerusalem is solemnized and the Kingdom delivered up to the Father Isa. 53. 11. Ephes. 5. 27. Rev. 19. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 24. It will be another manner of conceiving which we shall have in Heaven of this blessed work when we see the face of our Glorified Lord and fully possess the fruits of his Redemption then this is that we have now by our weak believing We shall then have another manner of sight of the Wisdom and Power and Love and Justice that appear to man in the face of Christ then now we have 4. Yea the tormenting discoveries of the Glory of Redemption to the condemned rejecters of it shall also contribute to the Glory of God You see then that this work hath most Glorious Ends which I have mentioned the more largely both to remove their temptations that are apt to think that it was an unnecessary thing and therefore the less regardable and to teach men the true value of it by shewing them the true Ends. For the former I say There was no necessity that God should make the world and reveale his Power and Wisdom and Goodness in this excellent frame but what did suppose the free Will of God the Original Cause Will you therefore say that the Creation is vaine and undervalue Gods admirable works in which he thus revealeth himself to the intellectuall Creatures So here we confess that there could be no necessity of Redemption but what was Originally derived from the Will of God though a necessity ad finem there was from the constitution of things upon supposition of what went before the undertaking But yet shall we undervalue so glorious a work in which the Divine perfections do so fully reveale themselves to the world And I say the more of this because I do observe that its the not apprehending the high and excellent Ends of Redemption that makes it so much slighted and consequently tempteth many to infidelity For the Ends and Uses do set the value on the means That is of little worth that is to little purpose and doth but little good If men understood more the Ends of Redemption and how much of God doth shine forth in the world in the Person and Life and Laws and Works of the Sonne of God they would then live in the admiration of it and be alwaies searching and prying into it and desire to know nothing but God in Christ Crucified and account all things else but as loss and dung for this excellent knowledg But alas the most do sâ—arce discern any higher Ends of Christ or other use of him then to save themselves from Hell and for want of Faith and through Humiliation they have but little sense
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
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
tell the Parents with the Anabaptists It is too soon to be dedicated to God and entred into his Covenant when they come to their childhood and youthfull state he will then perswade them that it is yet too soon and when he can no longer perswade them that it is yet too soon he will then perswade them that it is too late O what a happy thing it is to come unto God betimes and with the first What advantage hath youth They have the vigour of wit and of body They be not rooted and hardned in sinne nor filled with prejudice and obstinacy against Godliness as others be Besides the capacity of serving God of which anon 12. You have such times of advantage and encouragement as few ages of the world have ever seen and few Nations on Earth do enjoy at this day What plain and plentifull teaching have you What abundance of good examples and the society of the godly private and publique helpes are common Godliness is under as little suffering as ever you can expect to see it yea it is grown into repuâ—ation among us so that it is an honour to serve God and a dishonour to neglect it as well it may Our Rulers countenance the Practises of Godliness they proclaim themselves the forward Professors and Patrons of it and take this as their Glory And this is not ordinary in the world Seldome hath the Church seen such daies on Earth And yet is not the way to Heaven fair enough for you Yet are you not ready to turn to God When should men make Hay but when the Sun shines Will you delay till this Harvest time be over and the Winter of persecution come again Can you better turn to God when a godly life is the common scorn of the Countrey as it was a while agoe and when every one will be deriding and railing at you Or when it may possibly cost you your lives Have you Sun and winde and tide to serve you and will you stay to set out in stormes and darkness 13 Moreover Your delâ—y doth cast your Conversion and Salvation upon hazard yea upon many and grievous hazzards And is your Everlasting happiness a matter to be wilâ—ully hazarded by causeless and unreasonable delays 1. If you delay to day you are utterly uncertain of living till to morrow If you put by this one motion you know not whether ever you shall have another Alas that ever the heart of man should be so sensless as to delay when they know not but it may prove their damnation and when Heaven or Hell must certainly follow that they dare put off a day or hour when they know not whether ever they shall see another 2. And as your life is uncertain so are the means uncertain by which God useth to do the work He may remove your Teachers and other helps and then you will be further off then before 3. And if both should continue yet Grace it self is uncertain You know not whether ever the Spirit of God will put another thought of turning into your hearts Or at least whether he will give you hearts to turn 14. Moreover The delay of Conversion continueth your sinne and so you will daily increase the number and increase your guilt and make your souls more abundantly miserable Are you not deep enough in debt to God already and have you not yet sinnes enough to answer for upon your Souls Would you fain have one years sinnes more or one daies sinnes more to be charged upon you O if you did but know what sinne is it would amaze you to think what a mountain lyeth already upon your Consciences One sinne unpardonned will sink the stoutest sinner into Hell And you have many a thousand upon your Souls already and would you yet have more Me thinks you should rather look about you and bethink you how you may get a pardon for all that 's past 15. And as sinne increaseth daily by delay so consequently the Wrath of God increaseth you will run further into his displeasure and possibly you may cut down the bough that you stand upon and hasten even bodily destruction to your selves When you live daily upon God and are kept out of Hell by a miracle of his mercy me thinks you should not desire yet longer to provoke him least he withdraw his Mercy and let you fall into misery 16. And do but consider what will become of you if you be found in these delaies You are then lost body and Soul for ever Now if you had but hearts to know what is good for you the worst of you might be converted and saved for God doth freely offer you his Grace But if you die in your delaies in the twink of an eye you will find your selves utterly undone for ever Now there is hope of a change but when delays have brought you to Hell there is no more change nor no more hope 17. Consider that your very time which you lose by these delaies is an unconceivable loss When time is gone what would you then give for one of those years or daies or hours which now you foolishly trifle away O wretched sinners are their so many thousand Sous in Hell that would give a world if they had it for one of your daies and yet can you afford to throw them away in worldliness and sensuality and loitering delaies I tell you Time is better worth then all the wealth and honours of the world The day is coming when you will set by time When it is gone you will know what a blessing you made light of But then all the world cannot call back one day or hour of this precious time which you can sacrifice now to the service of your flesh and cast away on unprofitable sinning 18. Consider also that God hath given you no time to spare He hath not lent you one day or hour more then is needfull for the work that you have to do and therefore you have no reason to lose any by your delaies Do you imagine that God would give a man an hours time for nothing much less for to abuse him and serve his enimy No let me tell you that if you make your best of every hour if you should never lose a minute of your lives you would find all little enough for the work you have to do I know not how others think of time but for my part I am forced daily to say How swift how short is time and how great is our work and when we have done our best how slowly goeth it on O precious time â— what hearts have they what lives do those men lead that think time long that have time to spare and pass in idleness 19. To convince you more consider I beseech you the exceeding greatness of the work you have to do and tell me then whether it be time for you to delay Especially you that are yet unconverted and strangers to the heavenly nature of the
him What say you now will you yet obey So will God do by you if he love you and mean to save you When he hath taken away your wealth your friends your children will you then hearken to him or will you not When you lie groaning on your couch and all your parts are overwhelmed with paines and death begins to lay hands upon you and bids you now come and answer for your rebellions and delayes before the living God What will you do then Will you turn or not O the lamentable folly of sinners that put themselves to so much sorrow and create calamity for themselves When sickness comes and death draws near you beg and cry and groan and promise When you feele the rod what Christians will you then be And why not without so much adoe You then think God deales somewhat hardly with you And why will you not turn then by gentler means You might spare your selves much of this misery if you would and you will not Is it a seemly thing for a man to be driven to Heaven by scourges Is God so bad a Master and Heaven so bad a place that you will not turn to them and mind them and seek them till there be no remedy and you are as it were driven to it against your wills Is the world such an Inheritance and sinne so good a thing and the flesh or devil so good a Master that you will not leave them till you are whipt away What a shamefull unreasonable course is this Well sirs the case is plain before you Turn you must at one time or other or be the firebrands of Hell And seeing it is a thing that must be done were it not best for you to take the easiest and the surest way to do it Why this is the easiest and the surest way even to strike while the iron is hot before it coole again and to go through with it when God doth move you and perswade you If you love your flesh it self do not put him to take up the rod and fetch you home by stripes and terrours But that 's not the worst For it will sorely hazard the work it self and consequently your salvation if you do not go through with it at the first attempt I know there is many a one that hath been converted and saved after many purposes and promises and half-conversions But yet I must tell you that this is a very dangerous course For you do not know when you grieve the Spirit of grace and set so light by mercy when it is offered you whether that Spirit may not utterly forsake you and leave you to your own ungodly wills and let you take your lusts and pleasures and say Let this wretch be filthy still let him keep his drunkenness his companions his worldliness and the curse of God with them till he have tried what it is that they will do for him Let him follow his own conceits and the pride and obstinacy of his own heart till he find whether they will bring him Let him serve the flesh and the world till he understand whether God or they be the better master Seeing he will not be wise on earth let him learn in hell and let torments teach him seeing mercy might not teach him O poor soul what a case art thou in if this should once be the resolution of God Moreover you may easily know that the longer you stay the more leasure you give the devil to assault you and to try one way when he cannot prevail by another and to strengthen his temptations Like a foolish Souldier that will stand still to be shot at rather then assault the enemy And the longer you delay the more your sin gets strength and rooting If you cannot bend a twig how wil you be able to bend it when it is a Tree If you cannot pluck up a tender plant are you likely to pluck up a sturdy Oak Custom gives strength and root to vices A Blackmoor may as well change his skin or a Leopard his spots as those that are accustomed to do evil can learn to do well Jer. 13. 23. If you stick at Conversion as a difficult matter to day it will be more difficult to morrow or the next moneth and the next year then it is now Yea the very resistance of the Spirit doth harden the heart and the delayes and triflings of the soul do bring it to an insensibility and boldness in sinne and drive away the fear of God from the heart Now it may be you are somewhat awakened and begin to see that you must turn or die but if you trifle and delay this light may be gone and leave you in greater darkness then before and the voice that now awakeneth you may be silent and leave you to fall asleep again Moreover you know that you are uncertain of the continuance of the Gospel You know not whether you shall have such lively serious Preachers as you have now Nor you know not whether you shall have such godly neighbours and company to encourage you and help you in the work God will remove them one after another to himself and then you will have fewer Prayers for you and fewer warnings and good examples and perhaps be left wholly to the company of deceived ungodly fools that will do nothing but hinder and discourage you from Conversion And you are not sure that Religion will continue in that reputation as now it is in The Times may turn before you turn and godliness may become a scorn again and it may be a matter of suffering and may cost you your lives to live as the servants of Christ must do And therefore if you stop at it now as a difficult thing when you have all the helps and encouragements that you can expect and the way to Heaven is made so fair and when Magistrates and Ministers and Neighbours are ready to encourage and help you what will you do in times of persecutions and discouragement If you cannot turn when you have all these helps and means what will you do when they are taken from you If you cannot row with the stream how will you row against it If you dare not set to Sea when you have wind and tide and sunshine what will you do in stormes and tempests when all is against you O what would some of your forefathers have given to have seen the daies that you see How glad would many a thousand in other Countries of the world be to have but the helps to Heaven that you have Never look to have the way fairer and easier while you live If you think Heaven is offered you at too deer a rate now you may even let it go and try whether Hell be better for the next offer is like to be upon harder termes rather then easier If you cannot now find in your hearts to turn and live a holy life What would you have done in the daies of the Apostles or antient
Christians and What would you have done in Spain or Italy where it would cost you your lives He that will not be Converted now but thinks the termes of grace too hard is so impious a despiser of Christ and Heaven that it is no wonder if God resolve that he shall never taste of the salvation that was offered him Luk 14. 24. Moreover you know upon what uncertainties you hold your lives you have no assurance of them for an hour but you are sure that they are passing away while you delay And will you trifle then in a work that must be done What a case are you in if death find you unconverted The heart of man is not able now to conceive the misery of your case How dare you venture to live another day in an unconverted state least death should find you so Are you not afraid when you lie down at night and afraid when you go out of your doors in the morning least death surprize you before you are converted If you be not it 's long of your deadness and presumption And I would fain hear what it is that should thus stop you What are you afraid of Is God an Enemy that you are loath to come to him Is the devil a Friend that you are so loath to leave him Is sinne a Paradise Is Holiness a Misery Is it pleasanter life to love your money or your lands or your meat and drink and lusts then to love the most blessed God the Creatour of the World the life of our Souls and our Eternal Felicity Is it better to pamper a carcass that must shortly stink as the dung then to provide for a living immortall soul Whether do you think that Earth or Heaven will be the more glorious and durable felicity What is it sirs that you stick at that you make so many delayes before you 'l turn Is there any difficulty in the point Do you think it a hard question whether you should turn or not Why how can you be so blind Do you stand pausing upon the business as it were a doubt whether God or the world were better and whether sinne or holiness Christ or death Heaven or Hell were to be preferred I pray you Consider Can you reasonably think that Conversion will do you any harm Can it bring you into a worse condition then you are in Sure you cannot fear such a thing You are in your blood you are dead in sinne you are children of wrath while you are unconverted you are under the curse of the Law of God you are the slaves of the devil you are the heirs of hell and under the guilt of all your sinnes your life is a continued rebellion against God you are employed every day in the destroying of your selves in kindling the flames that must everlastingly torment you and laying in fewell for the perpetuating of your misery and fighting against your friends that would deliver you and unthankfully abusing Christ and grace and Ministers and Friends that would save your souls This is the condition that every one of you is in till you are converted And can you fear least Conversion would bring you into a worse condition then this Sirs these Truths are sure and plain and if yet you stick at it your errour is so palpably gross that unless you are mad men I may be bold to say it is a wilfull errour And if you love to be deceived and wilfully choose a lie you must take that you get by it 3. Consider further That half-Conversions do often prove an occasion of deluding mens souls and making them quiet in a miserable state and so of keeping them from being converted to the last If you had never done any thing in it you would more easily be perswaded that your case is bad and that there is still a necessity of your change But when you have had some convictions and troubles of mind and fears and sorrows and so have fallen into an outside partiall reformation and now are perswaded that you are truly converted when it is no such matter What a dangerous impediment to your Conversion may this prove And all because you slubber over the work and cut it off before it reacheth to sincerity and strive against the workings of the Spirit and break away from your Physicâ—in before he hath done the cure and would not follow it on to the end I know that a half-Conversion if it be known to be no more is much better then none and doth often prepare men for a saving work But when this half-Conversion is taken to be a true and saving change as â—oo commonly it is it proves one of the greatest impediments of salvation When ever Christ shall afterwards knock at your door you will not know him as thinking that he dwells with you already If you read any Books that call on you to be converted or hear any Preachers that call on you to turn you have this at hand to cousen your selves with aud frustrate all You 'l think This is not spoken to me For I am Converted already O how quietly do such poor deluded sinners daily read and hear their own doom and misery and never once dream that they are the men that are meant and therefore are never dismayed at the matter This formeth you into a state of hypocrisie and makes the course of your duties and your lives to be hypocriticall If another man that knows himself to be still unconverted do but read the threatnings of the Word against such or hear of the terrours of the Lord from a Minister he may be brought to confess that this is his own case and so to perceive the misery of his condition But when such as you do read and hear these things they never trouble you for you think that they do not touch you You are Scripture-proof and Sermon-proof and all by the delusion of your half-Conversion O how zealously will such a man cry out against the sinnes of others and tell them of their misery and perswade them to turn and shew them the danger that is near them if they do not and in the mean time little thinks that this is his own case and that he speaks all this against his own soul. How will such men applaud a Sermon that drives at the Conversion of a sinner and that tels them their misery while they are unconverted O thinks he this touched such and such I am glad that such a man and such a man heard it And he little thinks that it as nearly touched himself How smooâ—hly will he go on in any discourse agaâ—nst wicked unregenerate men as David heard the Parable of Nathan and it never once entreth into their thoughts that they speak all this against themselves till the Judge shall tell them when it is too late Thou art the man It will turn not only the stream of your thoughts into hypocrisie and self-deceit but also the stream of your speeches to others
Psal. 51. 17. Luke 4. 18. Mat. 11. 28. Do you think a man can be the Servant of God that liveth a fleshly life will keep his sin Try by Rom. 8. 13. Joh. 3. 19. Ephes. 5. 5 6. 1 Joh. 3. 9 10. Do you doubt whether it be necessary to make so much adoe to be saved and to be so strict and make Religion our cheifest business Try by Psal. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Pet. 4. 18. Heb. 12. 14. Luke 10. 42. Luke 13. 24. Ephes. 5. 15 16. Do you think a man can be saved that is a worldling whose heart is more on Earth then heaven Try by 1 Joh. 2 15. Phil. 3. 19. Col. 3. 1. Luke 14. 26 33. Do you doubt whether you should serve God with your families and instruct them and pray with them Try by Jos. 24. 15. Deut. 6. 6 7. Dan. 6. 10. 11. Exod. 20. 10. Thus if you will in all these weighty matters but goe to the Scriptures and see whether it say as your Teachers say you might soone be resolved and that by the surest authority in the world If you think that your Ministers may be deceived I hope you will confess that God cannot be deceived If you think that your Ministers are passionate or felf-conceited or speak out of ill will to you I hope you dare not say so by the Lord he owes you no ill will nor speaks a word but what is most sure If you think us partiall sure God is impartiall what better judge can you have now then he that is infallible and must judge you all at the last If any Papist put it into your head to ask who shall be judge of the sence of Scripture I answer who shall be judge of the judge of all the world The Law is made to judge you and not to be judged by you None can be the proper judges of the sence of a Law but the maker of it Though others must judge their cases by the Law Your work is to discern it and understand and obey it and your work is to help you to understand it but it 's neither our work nor yours to be the proper or absolute judges of it At least where it speaks plaine it needs no judge Come then to the word in meekness and humility with a teachable frame of Spirit and a willingness to know the truth and a resolution to stand to it and yield to what shall be revealed to you and beg of God to shew you his will and lead you into the truth and you will find that he will be found of them that seeke him DIRECT III. If you would not have the work of your Conversion miscarry my next advice is this See that you be much in the serious Consideration of the Truths which you understand betwixt God and you in secret I have often spoken of this heretofore But because I apprehend it to be a point of exceeding great concernment I shall be longer on it againe then on the rest The greatest matters in the world will not work much upon him that will not think of them Consideration opens the eare that was stopt and the heart that was shut up It sets the powers of the Soul awork and wakeneth it from the sleep of incogitancy and security The Thoughts are the first actings of the Soul that set a work the rest Thinking on the matters that must make us wise do the work of God on the heart is that which lieth on us to do in order to our Conversion By Consideration a sinner makes use of the Truth which before lay by and therefore could do nothing By Consideration he taketh in the Medicine to his Soul which before stood by and could not work By Consideration a man makes use of his Reason which before was laid asleep and therefore could not do it's work When the Master 's from home the Schollars will be at play When the Coach-man is asleep the Horses may miss the way and possibly break his neck and their owne If the plowman go his way the Oxen will stand still or make but bad unhandsome work So when Reason is laid asleep and out of the way what may not the Appetite do and what may not the Passions do and what may not Temptations do with the Soul A wise man when he is asleep hath as little use of his wisdome as a foole A Learned man when he is asleep can hardly dispute with an unlearnd man that is awake A strong man that 's never so skillfull at his weapons is scarce able in his sleep to deale with the weakest child that is awake Why all the powers of your Soul are as it were asleep till Consideration awake them and set them on work And what the better are you for being men and having Reason if you have not the Vse of your Reason when you need it As men are Inconsiderate because they are wicked so they are the more wicked because they are inconsiderate The keenest sword the greatest Cannon will do no execution against an enemie while they lie by and are not used There is a mighty power in the Word of God and the example of Christ to pull down strong holds and conquer the strongest lusts and corruptions But they will not do this while they are forgotten and neglected Will Heaven intice the man that thinks not of it Will Hell deterre the man that thinks not of it Why is it that all the reasoning in the world will do no more good on a man that is deaf then if you said nothing But because the passage to his Thoughts and understanding is stopt up And if you have eyes and see not and eares and heare not and willfully cast it out of your thoughts what good can any thing do to you that is spoken It is not holding your meat in your mouth that will nourish you if you will not let it down nor taking it into your stomack if you will not keep it but presently cast it up again But it must be kept till it be disgested and distributed So it is not the most excellent Truths in the world that will change your hearts if you let them not down to your hearts and keep them not there by Meditation till they are digested and turned into sprituall life The plaister must be laid upon the sore if you would be cured The wound and sickness is at your Heart and if you will not take in the word to your heart where the sickness is I know not how you should expect a cure The Soul will not be charmed into Holiness by the bare hearing or saying over a few good words as wizzards use to cure diseases or seeme to cure them It must be Truth at the Heart that must change the Heart And if you will not Think on it and think on it againe how can you expect it should come at your Hearts You say you would gladly have Christ and grace and are ready to
in good sadness how to make sure of a life of endless Joy and Glory and how to scape the flames of Hell This is not an equall distribution of thy Thoughts As thou wilt confess at last in the horror of thy Soul 8. It is the end of your present Time and warnings that you may Consider and prepare for your Everlasting state What have you to do on Earth but to Consider how to get well to Heaven O that you did but know what a Mercy it is before you enter upon an Endless Life to have but Time to bethink you of it and to make your Election sure If you were to be called away suddenly this night and the Angel of the Lord should say to any of you Prepare for within this hour thou must die and appear before the living God Then would you not cry-out O not so suddenly Lord Let me have a little more time to Consider of my Condition Let me have one month longer to bethink me of the case of my Soul and to make sure that I am Justified from the guilt of my sins Let me have one day more at least to prepare for my Everlasting state for alas I am yet unready Would not these be your cries if God should call you presently away And yet now you have time you will not Consider of these matters and prepare 9. Moreover is it not time for you to Consider your waies when God doth Consider them If he would forget them or did not regard them you might regard them the less your selves But be sure of it he doth observe them whether you do or not and he Remembreth them though you forget them Dost thou not know that all the sins of thy life are still on record before the Lord saith Job 14. 16 17. Thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch over my sinne My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity Do you think that God forgets your sins as you forget them saith the Lord by the Prophet Hosea 7. 2. They Consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness Now their doings have beset them about they are before my face But you 'l say what if God do Consider our waies why surely then it is not for nothing but evil is near if nor prevented As the Lord saith in Deut. 32. 34 35. Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my Treasures To me belongeth vengeance and recompence their foot shall slide in due time For the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make hast If God be registring up thy sins thou hast cause to tremble to think what that pretends For in this hardness and impenitency of thy heart thou art treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgments of God Rom. 2. 5. As Grace is the seed of Glory so sinne is the seed of shame and trouble and everlasting Torment and though it may seeme long before the Harvest you will tast the bitter fruit at last and whatsoever you have sowed that shall you reap 10. Moreover if any thing ail'd you you look that God should presently Consider you Or if you want any thing you think he should Consider your wants And yet will you not Consider of him and of your own wants When you are in trouble you 'l cry to God Have Mercy upon me O Lord Consider my Trouble Psal. 9 33. Consider and heare me O God Psal. 13. 3. When you lie in pain and sickness you 'l then cry to God Consider mine affliction and deliver me Psal. 119. 153. If you be oppressed or abused you 'l groan as the Israelites under their Task-masters and perhaps cry to God as the captived people Lam. 1. 11. See O Lord and Consider for I am become vile Remember O Lord what is come upon us Consider and behold our reproach ch 5. 1. 2. 20. And must God Consider of you that will not Consider of him or your own Souls Or may you not rather expect that dreadfull answer which he gives to such regardless sinners Prov. 1. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30. And heare your cries as you heare his Counsell and think of you as you thought of him Nay more then so even while you forget him the Lord doth daily Consider you and supply your wants and save you from dangers and should you then cast him out of your Thought If he did not think on you you would quickly feel it to your cost and sorrow 11. Moreover the Nature of the Matter is such as one would think should forâ—e a Reasonable creature to consider of it and often and earnestly to consider When all these things concurre in the matter he must be a block or a mad man that will not Consider 1. When they are the most excellent or the greatest things in all the world 2. When they are our own matters or neerly concerne us 3. When they are the most necessary and profitable and delightfull things And 4. When there is much difficulty in getting them and danger of losing them And all these go together in the matter of your Salvation 1. If you will not think of God and your Souls of Heaven and Hell what then will you think of All other things in the world are but toyes and jesting matters to these Crowns and Kingdoms Lands and Lordships are but chaff and bawbles dirt and dung to these Everlasting things The acts of renowned Kings and Conquerors are but as Popet-plaies in Comparison of the working out of your Salvation And yet will you not be drawn to the Consideration of such astonishing things as these One would think that the exceeding Greatness of the matter should force you to Consider it whether you will or no when smaller Objects affect not the Sences yet Greater will even force their way He that hath so hard a skin that he cannot feel a feather methinks should feel the weight of a mil-stone And if he feel not the prick of a pin methinks he should feel a dagger He that cannot hear one whisper methinks should hear a Cannon or a clap of Thunder if he have any such thing as hearing left him He hath bad eyes that cannot see the Sun One would think that so Glorious an Object as God should so entice the eyes of men that they should not look off him One would think that such matters as Heaven and Hell should follow thy thoughts which way ever thou goest so that thou shouldest not be able to look besides them or to think almost of any thing else unless with great neglect and disesteem O what a thing is a stony heart that can forget not only the God that he liveth by but also the place where he must live for ever Yea that will not be perswaded to the Sober Consideration of it for one hour 2. And as these are the Greatest
consideration and admiration of this wonderous Love that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith and so being rooted and grounded in Love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg and be filled with all the fullness of God Ephes. 3. 17 18 19. And withall to be followers of God as dear Children and walk in Love as Christ hath Loved us and given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5. 1 2. And to love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9 10. Even from a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1. 22. That we love as brethren being compassionate pittifull and courteous not rendring evill forevill but contrariwise blessing knowing that we are thereunto called that that we should inherit a blessing 1 Pet. 3. 8 9 And that we keep our selves in the Love of God Jud. 21. that nothing may be able to seperate us from it Rom. 8. 35 36 37. And if we thus imitate our Heavenly pattern the God of Love and Peace will be with us 2 Cor. 13. 11. And thus I have shewed you the principall Ends of the undertaking of Christ in the work of our Redemption especially as they are attained directly by his Cross and Resurrection 6. Another End also is apparent in the Scripture which is the Glorifying of Gods Rewarding Justice together with his Mercy in the Salvation of his Elect. This End he hath partly attaineth here for God hath his Ends continually In this life his Servants have much of his Mercy and the beginnings of their Reward in the beginning of their Salvation But the fullness is hereafter in their Glorification All his promises he performeth in their seasons Even in the present pardon of our sinnes he honoureth his Faithfullness and Justice 1 Joh. 1. 9. His Faithfullness in making good his promise and his Justice in Rewarding the performers of the condition and giving what his promise had made their due that so men may even here in part discern between the Righteous and the Wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not while they see God esteem of his people as his jewels and spaâ—e them as a man spareth his sonne that serveth him Mal. 3. 17 18. The King of Zion is just having Salvation Zach. 9. 9. The Righâ—â—ousness of God is manifested in our Justification Rom. 3. 21 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God being Justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3. 25 26. But it is most eminently at Judgment and in the world to come that this Remunerative Justice with Mercy will be Glorified When Christ shall come purposely to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe not only in himself but in them and that because they were believers 2 Thes. 1. 10. When we have fought the good fight and finished our Course and kept the Faith we shall find that there is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give us and all that love his appearing at that day â— 2 Tim. 4. 8. He will justifie and applaud them before all the world yea and adjudge them to everlasting Life with a Well done Good and Faithfull sevant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord I will make thee Ruler over many things even Because they had been faithfull in a little Luke 19 17. Matth. 25. 21 23. Because they shewed their love to him in his members he will say to them Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 25. 34 35 36. He that now commandeth us to say to the Righteous It shall be well with him Isa. 3. 10. Will in Righteousness Cause it then to be well with him Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13. 43 And the Righteousness and Mercy of their Father shall as conspicuously and gloriously shine in them For it is a day appointed for the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2. 5 6. The present Faith and Patience of the Saints in all the Persecutions and Tribulations which they endure is a manifest token of the Righteâ—us Judgment of God that they may be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which they suffer It being a Righteous thing with God to Recompence Tribulation to them that trouble us and to us that are troubled Rest with the Saints 2 Thes. 1. 5 6 7. For the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal. 11. 7. and in Righteousness will he Judge the world Acts 17. 31. Rev. 19. 11. And therefore in the keeping of his Word there is great Reward Psal. 19 11. Yea a cup of water given in Love to him shall not be unrewarded Matth. 10. 41 42. To him that soweth Righteousness shall be a sure Reward Prov. 11. 18. If in this life men are forst to say Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Verily there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth Psal. 58. 11. Much more when we receive the Reward of the Inheritance Col. 3. 24. This causeth the Saints to forsake the pleasures of sinne because they have respect to the Recompence of Reward Heb. 11. 26. This is it that maketh them Rejoyce and be exceeding glad in their Persecutions because that great is their Reward in Heaven and therefore it is that they Cast not away their confidence because it hath great Recompence of Reward Heb. 10. 25. If we let no man beguil us of our Reward Col. 2. 18. And if we Look to our selves that we lose not those things that we have wrought we shall receive a full Reward 2 Joh. 8. For the Lord hath said Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. 7. Another End of Christ's undertaking in this blessed work is The Complacency and Glory of God in the Love and Praise and Service of his Redeemed ones in some measure here but in perfection when they are perfected Sinne had made us unserviceable to God And Christ bringeth us back into a fitness for his service He disposeth us Godward by Faith and Love and he hath Redeemed us from our iniquity and purifieth to
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
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
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
knew where you are you would sit as upon thornes as long as you are unconverted you would be as a man that stood up to the knees in the Sea and saw the tide coming towards him who certainly would think that there 's no standing still in such a place Read what I have said of the state of the unconverted in my first Treatise of Conversion In a word you are the drudges of sinne the slaves of the Devil the enemies of God the abusers of his Grace and Spirit the despisers of Christ the heirs of Hell And is this a state to stay in an hour You have all your sin unpardoned you are under the Curse of the Law the Wrath of God is upon you and the fulness of it hangs over your heads Judgment is coming to pass upon you the dreadfull doom the Lord is at hand death is at the door and waits but for the Word from the mouth of God that it may arrest you and bring you to Everlasting misery And is this a state for a man to stay in 6. Moreover Your Delaying giveth great advantage to the Tempter If you would presently turn and forsake your sinnes and enter a faithfull Covenant with God the Devil would be almost out of hope and the very heart of his temptations would be broken He would see that now it is too late there 's no getting you out of the arms of Christ. But as long as you delay you keep him still in heart and hope He hath time to strengthen his prison and fetters and to renew his snares and if one temptation serve not he hath time to try another and another As if you would stand as a mark for Satan to shoot at as long as he please What likelihood is there that ever so foolish a sinner should be recovered and saved from his sinne 7. Moreover Your Delaying is a vile abuse of Christ and the holy Ghost and may so farre provoke him as to leave you to your self and then you are past help If you delight so to trample on your crucified Lord and will so long put him to it by your refusing his Grace and grieving his Spirit What can you expect but that he should turn away in wrath and utterly forsake you and say Let him keep his sinne seeing he had rather have it then my Grace Let him continue ungodly seeing he is so loath to be sanctified let him take his own course and die in his sinne and repent in Hell seeing he would not repent on Earth You provoke Christ thus to give you up 8. Consider also I beseech you if you ever mean to turn what it iâ— that you stay for Do you think to bring down Christ and Heaven to lower rates and to be saved hereafter with less adoe Sure you cannot be so foolish For God will be still the same and Christ the same and his Promise hath still the same Condition which he will never Change and Godliness will be the same and as much against your carnall interest hereafter as it is now When you have lookt about you never so long you 'l never find a fairer or nearer way but this same way you must go or perish If you cannot leave sinne now how should you leave it then It will be still as sweet to your flesh as now Or if one sinne grow stale by the decay of nature another that 's worse will spring up in its stead and though the acts abate they will all live still at the root for sinne was never mortified by age So that if ever you will turn you may best turn now 9. Yea more then that The longer you stay the harder it will be If it be hard to day it is like to be harder to morrow For as the Spirit of Christ is like to forsake you for your wilfull delayes so custom will strengthen sinne and custom in sinning will harden your hearts and make you as past feeling to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Cannot you crush this Serpent when it is but in the Spawne and can you encounter it in its Serpentine strength Cannot you pluck up a tender Plant and can you pluck up an Oak or Cedar O sinners what do you do to make your recovery so difficult by delay You are never like to be fairer for Heaven and to find Conversion an easier work then now you may do Will you stay till the work be ten times harder and yet do you think it so hard already 10. Consider also That fin gets daily Victories by your delay We lay our batterâ—es against it and preach and exhort and pray against it and it gets a kind of victory over all as long as we prevail not with you to turn It conquereth our perswasions and advice It conquereth all the stirrings of your Consciences It conquereth all your heartless purposes and deceitfull Promises And these frequent Conquests do strengthen your sinne and weaken your resistance and leave the matter almost hopeless Before a Physician hath used remedies he hath more hope of a cure then when he hath tried all means and finds that the best Medicines do no good but the man is still as bad or worse So when all meanes have been tried with you and yet you are unconverted the case draws towards desparation it self The very means are disabled more then before that is your hearts are unapter to be wrought upon by them When you have long been under Sermons and Reading and among good examples and yet you are unconverted these Ordinances lose much of their force with you Custom will make you slight them and be dead-hearted under them And it is these very same Means and Truths that you have frustrated that must do the work or it will never be done The same Plaister must heal you that you have thrown off so oft And what a sad case is this that there is no hope left but in the very same Medicine which you have taken so oft in vain 11. Moreover Age it self hath many inconveniences and youth hath many great advantages and therefore it is folly to delay In age the understanding and memory grows dull and people grow uncapable and almost unchangeable We see by our every daies experience that men think they should not change when they are old that opinion or practice that they have been brought up in they think that they should not then forsake To learn when they are old and to turn when they are old you see how much they are against it Besides how unfit is age to be at that paines that youth can undergo How unfit to begin the holy Warfare against the flesh the world and Devil Gods way is to list his Souldiers as soon as may be Even in their infancy which they must own as soon as ever they come to age And the Devil would not have it done at all and therefore he would have it put off as long as may be In infancy he will
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
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
men to move him to forsake his duty he saith Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye If he heare seducers he is rooted in the Spirit and the infallible Word and is not shaken by every wind If he see never so many fall off by backsliding he saith It was not only for their company that I chose the holy way God is still the same and Heaven is the same and Scripture is the same and therefore I am Resolved to be the same If God afflict him by poverty sickness or other tryals he saith I did not become a Christian to scape affliction but to scape damnation If he kill me yet will I trust in him Shall I receive good at the hands of God and not evill Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked must I return to dust the Lord giveth the Lord taketh away blessed be his name If oppressing enemies insult over him he can say as Mic. 7. 8 9. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light to me I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and execute Judgment for me He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousness If the wicked cast in his teeth his profession and the name of his God he rejoiceth that he is counted worthy to suffer for that Name and yet he will hope to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living And if he must go to Heaven through poverty and a mean estate he hath learned to want as well as to abound and in what estate soever he be therewith to be contented And so in the work of Conversion it self for want of Resolution many stick long in the birth and they are hanging so long between Heaven and Hell that it 's a wonder of Mercy that God doth not cut them off and let them perish But the well Resolved Soul doth deal more faithfully with the light that is revealed to him and doth not stand strugling so long against it nor hold Christ and his Spirit so long in hand but is glad to make sure work in so great a business and take so good a match while it is offered And being engaged once he is firm as Mount Zion that cannot be moved Resolve therefore that your work may be the more easy and successfull and conquer by Resolving 18. I suppose you dare not Resolve against Conversion and a Heavenly life And why then will you not Resolve for it What purpose you to do for the time to come Is it your Resolution to live and die as you are Have you not purposes in your mind to Repent hereafter Dare you say I am Resolved never to be Converted Some may be so desperate but I think it is but few even of the ungodly Why this shews that there is a secret conviction in your consciences O do not stifle it Neutrality never saved Soul Seing you dare not Resolve against it Resolve for it 19. Consider I beseech you how much it doth concern your selves to have this question well and speedily Resolved God asketh you whether you will be Converted and Sanctisied or not Resolve this question and you Resolve your selves of a great many more that depend upon it The answer to this must be the answer to the rest If the question were whether you will be pardoned or no Whether you will live in Heaven or Hell for ever Whether you will dwell with God and Angels or with Devils You would not be long in answering this You would Resolve without an hours delay Why this is the question Sirs but the answer to it must be the answer to the first question For without Sanctification there is no Salvation If you will not be Converted you shall be condemned whether you will or no For God hath Resolved of this already and there is no resisting the Resolution of God The true state of the question is Whether you will Turn or burn choose you whether for it must be one O therefore if you will but Resolve Christ and us this one question that you will be Converted Christ will Resolve you the principal questions that concern you in the world even whether you shall be pardoned or saved and where and with whom you must live for ever 20. Lastly consider that if you stay till you receive the sentence of death it 's two to one but that will force you to Resolve But a forced Resolution will not serve turn and then it will be very hard for you to discern whether it be any better then meerly from your fears You put off all till sickness come and you see once that you must die there 's no Remedy and then you will cry O if the Lord would but recover me and try me once againe with life I would delay no longer but I would become a new man and live a Holy and Heavenly life I am resolved of it by the Grace of God Yea but who knows whether these last Resolutions be sincere We heare abundance speak this in their sickness that â—â—ver turn when they come to health but forget all and live in a manner as they did before Is it not most likely to be only the fear of death that makes you take up these Resolutions If it be so they will never save you if you die nor hold you to your promises if you live For it is not bare Fear that is true Conversion but it 's a changed heart that is fallen in Love with God and Holiness and into a setled hatred of former sins No late Repentance and Resolutions but these will be any thing worth as to the saving of your Souls And therefore if you should have true Resolutions at the last which is too rare you cannot choose but be much in doubt of them when you find so much of fear upon your spirit and consider that you never would Resolve till then And therefore if you would have a Comfortable change Resolve now in your prosperity before the face of death affright you to it and those feares and the lateness do make you question the truth and soundness of it and so deprive you of the comfort which you have so much need of at a dying hour And thus I have given you twenty Considerations to perswade you if it may be presently to Resolve I am sure there is truth and reason and weight in them but what good they will do you I am not sure because I know not how you will receive them IV. And now I come to the last part of my task which is to Direct you how to perform the work that I have perswaded you to But because it is meerly the Determination of the Will it is presuasion that must do more to the work then Direction And therefore I shall only desire you to look back
Causes of mens Condemnation though Faith and Repentance be not Proper Causes of their Salvation These Promises being Conditional we cannot be assured of our part in the benefits but by being assured that we perform the Condition By this you may see the Nature of presumption When men say they believe that which never was promised or believe that they have right to the Blessings that are promised to others and not to them or believe that they shall have the benefits promised when they perform not the Conditions all this is presuming and not true believing If men believe that God is reconciled to them and will Pardon them and Justifie them and save them when they are unconverted impenitent unregenerate men this is not indeed a believing of God that hath never made them any such promise nor ever told them any such matter but the contrary But it is a believing the false delusions of the Devil and their own hearts He that will claim any title to Christ and Pardon and Salvation must have something to shew for it yea and something more then the most of the world have to shew For the most shall be shut out Every man therefore that regardeth his Salvation must seriously ask his Soul this question What have I to shew for my title to Salvation more then the most of the world can shew It is not saying I hope to be saved that will serve the turn ' except I can give a Reason of my hopes ' Thousands that lay claim to Salvation shall miss of it because they have no title to it And that which you must have to shew is this A Promise or Deed of Gift on Gods part and the fullfilling of the Condition on your part God saith to all men who ever Repenteth Believeth or is converted shall be saved When you have found that you Repent of all your sinnes and truly believe and are converted to God then and not till then you may conclude that you shall be saved 6. The sixth Point to be understood or believed concerning these Benefits of Christ is the infallible Certainty of them While men look on the promised Glory to come as on an uncertain thing they will hardly be drawn to venture and let go the porfits and pleasures of the world to attaine it much less to part with life it self The life of all our Christian motion is the unfeigned belief of the Truth of Gods Word and specially of the unseen things of the world to come Such as mens belief of Heaven and Hell is such will be the bent of their hearts and the course of their lives and such they will be in yielding to sinne or in resisting it and in all the service they do for God As all men would take another course if they did but see Heaven and Hell with their eyes so all men would presently throw away their worldly fleshly pleasures and turn to God and a holy life if they did but as throughly believe the Joyes and torments to come as if they saw them Flesh and blood can hardly judg of things without the help of sense and fleshly men take all things to be fantasmes or nothings that are not within the judgment of their senses They must see it or feel it or tast it or hear it and Believing is a way that hardly satisfies them though it be God himself that they are to believe Believing is trusting the Credit of an other and we are naturally loth to trust to any but our eyes or other senses We are so false our selves that we are ready to measure God by our selves and to think that he is a deceiver because that we are such And hence it is that the world is so ungodly that they venture on sinne and will not be at the cost and labour of a Heavenly life because they take the matters of the life to come to be but uncertainties and have not so true a belief of them as might possess them with a deep apprehension of their reallity How should the Word profit them that mixe it not with Faith Heb. 4. 2. Unless by begetting Faith it self O what a change would a sound belief of the Scriptures make in the world But having spoken so oft of this in other writings I shall say no more of it now So much of the Knowledg of Christ. II. I have shewed you the first part of this Direction How Christ must be Received understandingly I now come to the second which is that He must be Received heartily As God must be loved so Christ must be believed in with all the heart and Soul and strength If not with All in a Perfect degree for that will not be till we come to Heaven yet with All in a predominant prevalent degree There are many convictions and good meanings and wishes and purposes which may proceed from common Grace and be found in those that never shall be saved These may be called analogically Faith and Love and Desire as those are that are found in the truly Regenerate and yet the persons in whom they are found may not fitly be called Believers or Lovers of God because a man is to be denominated from that in him which is predominant and hath the chief power on his heart The Soul of man is not so simple as to move but one way Its state in this life is to stand between two differing Competitours God and the world Spirit and flesh and there is no man that is Totally given up to either of them No man is so good and spiritual that hath not something in him that is bad and carnal And no man is so fully addicted to God but the Creature hath too much interest in his heart Nor is there any man so given up to the Creature in whom God hath no manner of interest at all in his Estimation and Affections if he indeed believe that there is a God At least it is not so with all that are unconverted Otherwise 1. What is it that common Grace doth if it no whit dispose them towards God Certainly it would not else be Grace 2. And if this were not so then we must say that no unregenerate man hath any Good in him that is truly Moral For if there be no interest of God in his mind or will there can be no Good in him But this is contrary to Scripture and experience It was undoubtedly some Moral Good which Christ loved the man for in Marke 10. 21. Who was not far from the Kingdom of God 3. Otherwise all men must be equally departed from God which is contrary to experience 4. Yea all men must be as bad on Earth privatively as in Hell which certainly is false I may well say that on Earth there is some Good in the worst much more in those that are almost perswaded to be converted Christians Many a thought of the Goodness of God and the necessity of a Saviour and of the Love of Christ and of
the Joyes of Heaven may be stirring and working in the minds of the unsanctified but if they take not up the Heart for Christ the person is not a true Believer As the Gospel must be Believed to be True so Christ that is offered us in the Gospel as Good must be Heartily and Thankfully accepted accordingly And the Glory the Justification Reconciliation with God and other benefits procured by him and offered with him must be valued and desired above all earthly fleshly things If you are convinced that sinne is evill as contrary to God and hurtfull to you and hereupon have some mind to let it go and some wishes that Christ would save you from it and yet still have a Love to it that is greater then your dislike and the bent of your heart is more for it then against it and your habituate desires are rather to keep then to leave it this is not Sanctification nor a saving consent to be saved by Christ. If you have some convictions that Holiness is good as being the Image of God and pleasing to him and necessary to your Salvation and so should have some mind of Holyness on these grounds yet if you have on the other side a greater aversness to it because it would deprive you of the pleasures of your sinne and the Habitual inclination of your will is more against it then for it certainly this will not stand with true Sanctification of Faith in Christ to save you from the power of sinne by his Spirit Thousands deceive themselves by misunderstanding some common passages that are spoken to comfort afflicted Consciences viz. That the least true desires after Grace do prove the Soul to be Gracious This is true if you speak of the least Desires which are Predominant in the Soul when our Desire is more habitually then our unwillingness and we thus preferre Christ before all the world the least of this is an Evidence of Saving Grace But such Desires as are subdued by the contrary Desires and such a will as is accompanyed with a greater unwillingness habitually and such a Faith as is drowned in greater unbelief these are not Evidences of a saving change nor can you justly gather any special comfort from them He that hath more unbelief then Belief is not to be called a Believer but an unbeliever And he that hath more hatred or dislike of God and Holiness then Love to them is not to be called Godly but ungodly nor a Lover of God but a hater of him I am easily perswaded that many of you that are ungodly could be contented that God be Glorified if his Glory do not cross your carnal interest and so you desire Gods Glory even for it self as that which is absolutely Good in it self But if your fleshly interest be so dear to you that you will sacrifice Gods Glory to it and had rather God were dishonoured then your fleshly interest contradicted it is your flesh then that is made your God and your chief End It is not every wish or mind of Christ no not to save you from sinne as sinne that will prove you true Belielievers Nor is it every minding of God or love to him no not as one apprehended by you to be the chiefest Good and desirable for himself as your End that will prove indeed that you savingly love him as long as the contrary mind and will is Habitually predominant in you Such as the very habit and bent of a mans heart is such indeed is the man It s possible for a man even a good man to have two contrary ends and intentions yea ultimate ends as that which is desired for it self and referred to nothing else is called Vltimaâ—e but it is not possible for him to have two principall predominant Ends. So far as we are carnal still we make the pleasing of our flesh our ultimate End For doubtless we do not sinne only by pleasing the flesh as a means to Gods Glory nor only in the mischoosing of other means But yet this is none of our Principal End so far as men are truly Sanctified And because that is called a mans mind or will which is the chiefest and highest in his mind and will therefore we use to denominate men from that only which beareth rule in them And thus we may say with Paul It is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me For a disowned act that proceedeth from us against the bent and habit of our wills and the course of our lives from the remnants of a carnal misguided will is not it that must denominate the person nor is so fully ours as the contrary act And therefore though indeed we sinfully participate of it yet when the question is whether Believing or unbeliefe sinning or obeying be my work it is not Comparatively to be called mine which I am much more against then for So on the other side if the unsanctified have some transient superficial uneffectual acts of Desire or Faith or Love to God which are contrary to the bent and habit of their hearts this is not theirs nor imputable to them so far as hence to give them their Denomination It is not they that do it but the common workings of the Spirit upon them If ever then you would be assured that your are Christians look to the Habitual bent of your hearts and see that you do not only talk of Scripture and slâ—ghtly believe it and speak well of Christ with some good wishes and meanings and purposes but as you love your Souls see that Christ be Received as your dearest Saviour with Thankfullness and greatest Love and as your Soveraign Lord with true subjection and that he have your Superlative estimation and Affections and all things in the world be put under him in your Souls This must be so if you will have the portion of Believers No Faith that is short of this will prove you Christ's Disciples indeed or Heirs of the Promises made to Believers The voice of Christ that calls to you in the Gospel is My sonne give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Do what thou wilt in waies of duty and think as highly as thou wilt of thy self thou art no true Believer in Christ's account till thou hast given him thy heart If he have thy tongue if he have thy good opinion nay if thy body were burnt in his Cause if he had not thy Love thy Heart it were as nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. For thy works and sufferings are so far acceptable through Christ as they are testimonies of this that Christ hath thy heart If he have not thy heart he takes it as if he had nothing And if he have this he takes it as if he had all For this is not only preferred by him before all but also he knows that this commandeth all If Christ have thy Heart the Devil will not have thy tongue and life the Ale-house or a Harlot will not have thy body nor the world will