sure of earth he would let go heaven and had rather stay here then be removed thither A life of perfect holiness in the sight of God and in his love and praises for ever in heaven doth not find such liking with his heart as a life of health and wealth and honour here upon earth And though he falsly profess that he loveth God above all yet indeed he never felt the power of Divine Love within him but his mind is more set on the world or fleshly pleasures then on God In a word whoever Loveth earth above heaven and fleshly prosperity more than God is a wicked unconverted man On the other side a Converted man is illuminated to discern the Loveliness of God and so far believeth the Glory that is to be had with God that his heart is taken up to it and set more upon it then on any thing in this world He had rather see the face of God and live in his everlasting love and praises then have all the wealth or pleasure of this world He seeth that all things else are vanity and nothing but God can fill the soul and therefore let the world go which way it will he layeth up his treasure and hopes in heaven and for that he is resolved to let go all As the fire doth mount upward and the Needle that is touched with the load-stone still turneth to the North so the Converted soul is enclined unto God Nothing else can satisfie him nor can he find any Content and Rest but in his Love In a word All that are Converted do Esteem and Love God beetter then all the world and the Heavenly felicity is dearer to them then their fleshly prosperity The proof of what I have said you may find in these places of Scripture Phil. 3.18 21. Mat. 6.19 20 21. Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Rom. 8.5 6 7 8 9 18 23. Psal. 73.25 26. Secondly a wicked man is one that maketh it the principal business of his life to prosper in the world and attain his fleshly ends And though he may read and hear and do much in the outward duties of Religion and forbear disgraceful sins yet this is all but upon the by and he never makes it the trade and principal business of his life to Please God and attain everlasting glory but puts off God with the leavings of the world and gives him no more service then the flesh can spare for he will not part with all for heaven On the contrary a Converted man is one that makes it the principal care and business of his life to Please God and to be saved and takes all the blessings of this life but as accommodations in his journey towards another life and useth the creature in subordination unto God he loveth an holy life and longeth to be more holy he hath no sin but what he hateth and longeth and prayeth and striveth to be rid of The drift and bent of his life is for God and if he sin it is contrary to the very bent of his heart and life and therefore he riseth again and lamenteth it and dare not wilfully live in any known sin There is nothing in this world so dear to him but he can give it up to God and forsake it for him and the hopes of glory All this you may see in Col. 3.1 2 3 4 5. Mat. 6.33 20. Luk. 18.22 23 29. Luk. 14.18 24 26 27. Rom. 8.13 Gal. 5.24 Luk. 12.21 c. Thirdly the soul of a wicked man did never truly discern and relish the mystery of Redemption nor thankfully entertain an offered Saviour nor is he taken up with the love of the Redeemer not willing to be ruled by him as the Physitian of his soul that he may be saved from the guilt and power of his sins and recovered unto God but his heart is insensible of this unspeakable benefit and is quite against the healing means by which he should be recovered Though he may be willing to be carnally Religious yet he never resigneth up his soul to Christ and to the motions and conduct of his Word and Spirit On the contrary the Converted soul having felt himself undone by sin and perceiving that he hath lost his peace with God and hopes of heaven and is in danger of everlasting misery doth thankfully entertain the tidings of Redemption and believing in the Lord Jesus as his only Saviour resigneth up himself to him for wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption He taketh Christ as the Life of his soul and liveth by him and useth him as his salve for every sore admiring the wisdom and Love of God in this wonderful work of mans Redemption In a word Christ doth even dwell in his heart by faith and the life that he now liveth is by the Faith of the Son of God that hath loved him and gave himself for him Yea it is not so much he that liveth as Christ in him For these see Iohn 1.11 12. 3.19 20. Rom. 8.9 Phil. 3.7 8 9 10. Gal. 2.20 Ioh. 15 2 3.4 1 Cor. 1.20 2.2 YOU see now in plain terms from the Word of God who are the wicked and who are the Converted Ignorant people think that if a man be no swearer not curser nor rayler nor drunkard nor fornicator nor extortioner nor wrong any body in their dealings and if they come to Church and say their prayers these cannot be wicked men Or if a man that hath been guilty of drunkenness or swearing or gameing or the like vices do but forbear them for the time to come they think that this is a Converted man Others think if a man that hath been an enemy and scorner at godliness do but approve it and joyn himself with those that are godly and be hated for it by the wicked as the godly are that this must needs be a Converted man And some are so foolish as to think they are Converted by taking up some new and false opinion and falling into some dividing party as Anabaptists Quakers Papists or such like And some think if they have but been affrighted by the fears of Hell and had Convictions and Gripes of Conscience and thereupon have purposed and promised amendment and taken up a life of Civil behavour and outward Religion that this must needs be true Conversion And these are the poor deluded souls that are like to lose the benefit of all our perswasions and when they hear that the wicked must Turn or Die they think that this is not spoken to them for they are not wicked but are Turned already And therefore it is that Christ told some of the Rulers of the Jews who were graver and civiler then the common people that Publicans and Harlots do go into the Kingdom of God before them Mat. 21.31 Not that an harlot or gross sinner can be saved without Conversion but because it was easier to make these gross sinners perceive their sin and misery and the necessity of a change
your souls for the Love of God is the Fountain of this offer Iohn 3.16 and the blood of the Son of God hath purchased it the faithfulness and truth of God is engaged to make the promise good Miracles have sealed up the truth of it Preachers are sent through the world to proclaim it the Sacraments are instituted and used for the solemn Delivery of the mercy offered to them that will accept it and the Spirit doth open the heart to entertain it and is it self the earnest of the full possession So that the truth of it is past controversie that the worst of you all and every one of you if you will but be Converted may be Saved Indeed if you will needs believe that you shall be saved without Conversion then you believe a falshood and if I should preach that to you I should preach a lie this were not to believe God but the Devil and your own deceitful hearts God hath his promise of Life and the Devil hath his promise of Life Gods promise is Return and Live The Devils promise is you shall live whether you turn or not The word of God is as I have shewed you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 18.3 Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3.3 5. Without holiness none shall see God Hebrews 12.14 The Devils word is You may be saved without being born again and Converted you may do well enough without being holy God doth but frighten you he is more merciful then to do as he saith he will be better to you then his word And alas the greatest part of the world believe this word of the Devil before the word of God just as our first sin and misery came into the world God said to our first parents If ye eat ye shall Die And the Devil contradicteth him and saith Ye shall not Die and the woman believed the Devil before God So now the Lord saith Turn or Die. And the Devil saith You shall not die if you do but cry God mercy at last and give over the acts of sin when you can practise it no longer And this is the word that the world believes O hainous wickedness to believe the Devil before God! And yet that is not the worst but blasphemously they call this a Believing and Trusting God when they put him in the shape of Satan who was a lyar from the beginning and when they believe that the word of God is a lye they call this a Trusting God and say they Believe in him and Trust on him for salvation Where did ever God say that the unregenerate unconverted unsanctified shall be saved Shew such a word in Scripture I challenge you if you can Why this is the Devils word and to believe it is to believe the Devil and the sin that is commonly called Presumption and do you call this a believing and trusting God There is enough in the Word of God to comfort and strengthen the hearts of the sanctified but not a word to strengthen the hands of wickedness nor to give men the least hope of being saved though they be never sanctified But if you will Turn and come into the way of Mercy the Mercy of the Lord is ready to entertain you Then Trust God for salvation boldly and confidently for he is engaged by his word to save you He will be a Father to none but his children and he will save none but those that forsake the world the Devil and the flesh and come in to his family to be members of his Son and have Communion with his Saints But if they will not come in it is long of themselves His doors are open He keeps none back He never sent such a message as this to any of you Its now too late I will not receive thee though thou be Converted He might have done so and done you no wrong but he did not he doth not to this day He is still ready to receive you if you were but ready unfeignedly and with all your hearts to Turn And the fulness of this truth will yet more appear in the two following Doctrines which I shall therefore next proceed to before I make any further application of this Doct. 3. GOD taketh Pleasure in mens Conversion and Salvation but not in their Death or Damnation he had rather they would Return and Live then go on and die I shall first teach you how to understand this and then clear up the truth of it to you And for the first you must observe these following things 1. A simple willingness or complacency is the first act of the will following the simple apprehension of the understanding before it proceedeth to compare things together But the choosing act of the will is a following act and supposeth the comparing practical act of the understanding and these two acts may often be carried to contrary objects without any fault at all in the person 2. An unfeigned willingness may have divers degrees Some things I am so far willing of as that I will do all that lieth in my power to accomplish it and some things I am truly willing another should do when yet I will not do all that ever I am able to procure it having many Reasons to disswade me there from though yet I will do all that belongs to me to do 3. The will of a Ruler as such is manifested in making and executing Laws but the will of a man in his simple natural capacity or as absolute Lord of his own is manifested in desiring or resolving of events 4. A Rulers will as Law-giver is first and principally that his Laws be obeyed and not at all that the penalty be executed on any but only on supposition that they will not obey his precepts But a Rulers will as Iudge supposeth the Law already either kept or broken and therefore he resolveth on rewards or punishments accordingly Having given you these necessary Distinctions I shall next apply them to the case in hand in these following Propositions 1. It is in the glass of the word aâ—d creatures that in this life we must know God and so according to the nature of man we ascribe to him Vnderstanding and will removing all the imperfections that we can because we are capable of no higher Positive conceptions of him 2. And on the same grounds we do with the Scripture distinguish between the acts of Gods will as diversified from the respects of the objects though as to Gods essence they are all one 3. And the boldlyer because that when we speak of Christ we have the more ground for it from his humane nature 4. And thus we say that the simple Complacency Will or Love of God is to all that is Naturally or Morally good according to the nature and degree of its goodness And so he hath pleasure in the Conversion and Salvation
whom thou didst despise in thy presumption How easily can he lay that flesh under gripes and groans and make it too weak to hold thy soul and make it more loathsom then the dung of the earth That flesh which now must have what it loves and must not be displeased though God be displeased but must be humoured in meats and drink and cloaths whatever God say to the contrary how quickly would the frowns of God consume it When thou wast passionately defending thy sin and quarrelling with them that would have drawn thee from it and shewing thy spleen against the reprover and pleading for the works of darkness how easily could God have snatcht thee away in a moment and set thee before his dreadful Majesty where thou shouldst see ten thousand times ten thousand of glorious Angels waiting on his throne and have called thee there to plead thy cause and asked thee What hast thou now to say against thy Creator his Truth his Servants or his holy waies Now plead thy cause and make the best of it that thou canst Now what canst thou say in excuse of thy sin Now give account of thy worldliness and fleshly life of thy time of all the mercies thou hast had O how thy stubborn heart would have melted and thy proud looks be taken down and thy countenance be appaled and thy stout words turned into speechless silence or dreadful cries if God had but set thee thus at his Bar and pleaded his own cause with thee which thou hast here so maliciously pleaded against How easily can he at any time say to thy guilty soul Come away and live in that flesh no more till the resurrection and it cannot resist A word of his mouth would take off the poise of thy present life and then all thy parts and powers would stand still and if he say unto thee Live no longer or live in Hell thou couldst not disobey But God hath yet done none of this but hath patiently forborn thee and mercifully upheld thee and given thee that breath which thou didst breath out against him and given those Mercies which thou didst sacrifice to thy flesh and afforded thee that provision which thou spentest to satisfie thy greedy throat he gave thee every minute of that time which thou didst waste in idleness or drunkenness or worldliness and doth not all this Patience and Mercy shew that he desired not thy damnation Can the candle burn without the oyl Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them As well as you can live an hour without the support of God And why did he so long support thy life but to see when thou wouldst bethink thee of the folly of thy waies and return and live Will any man purposely put arms into his enemies hands to resist him or hold the Candle to a Murderer that is killing his children or to an idle servant that Plaies or sleeps the while Surely it is to see whether thou wilt at last Return and Live that God hath so long waited on thee 5. It is further proved by the sufferings of his Son that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked would he have ransomed them from death at so dear a rate Would he have astonished Angels and men by his condescension Would God have dwelt in flesh and have come in the form of a servant and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead and would Christ have lived a life of suffering and dyed a cursed death for sinners if he had rather taken pleasure in their death Suppose you saw him but so busie in preaching and healing them as you find him in Mark 3.21 or so long in fasting as in Mat. 4. or all night in prayer as in Luk. 6.12 or praying with thâ— drops of blood trickling from him instead of sweat as Luke 22.44 or suffering a cursed death upon the Cross and pouring out his soul as a sacrifice for our sins Would you have thought these the signs of one that delighted in the death of the wicked And think not to extenuate it by saying that this was only for his Elect. For it was thy sin and the sin of all the world that lay upon our Redeemer and his sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as another but it is true that it was never the intent of his mind to pardon and save any that would not by faith and repentance be Converted If you had seen and heard him weeping and bemoaning the state of a disobedient impenitent people Luke 19.41 42. or complaining of their stubborness as Mat. 23.37 Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy chilâ—ren together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Or if you had seen and heard him on the Cross praying for his persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do would you have suspected that he had delighted in the death of the wicked even of those that perish by their wilfull unbelief When God hath so loved not only loved but so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him by an effectual faith should not perish but have everlasting life I think he hath hereby proved against the malice of men and devils that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but had rather that they would Turn and Live 6. Lastly if all this will not yet satisfie you take his own word that knoweth best his own mind or at least believe his oath but this leadeth me up to the fourth Doctrine Doct. 4. THE Lord hath confirmed it to us by his Oath that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he Turn and Live that he may leave man no pretence to question the truth of it If you dare question his word I hope you dare not question his oath As Christ hath solemnly protested that the unregenerate and Unconverted cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 Iohn 3.3 So God hath sworn that his pleasure is not in their death but in their Conversion and Life And as the Apostle saith Heb. 6.13 16 17 18. Because he can swear by no greater then himself he saith As I live c. For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of Promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by on oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us which we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast If there be any man that cannot reconcile this truth with the Doctrine of Predestination or the actual damnation of the wicked that 's his own ignorance he
and judgement and of the certainty and excellency of the Joys of Heaven and of the certainty and terrour of the torments of Hell and the Eternity of both and of the necessity of Conversion and an holy life Steep your hearts in such Considerations as these DIRECTION III. IF you will be Converted and Saved attend upon the word of God which is the ordinary means Read the Scripture or hear it read and other holy writings that do apply it constantly attend on the publike preaching of the Word As God will lighten the world by the Sun and not by himself alone without it So will he Convert and save men by his Ministers who are the Lights of the world Acts 26.17 18. Mat. 5.14 When he hath miraculously humbled Paul he sendeth him to Ananias Acts 9.10 and when he haâ—h sent an Angel to â—oâ—nelius it is but to bid him send for Peter who must tell him what he is to believe and do DIRECTION IV. BEtake your self to God in a course of earnest constaâ—t Prayer Confess and lament your former lives and beg his grace to illuminate and Convert you Beseech him to pardon what is past and to give you his Spirit and change your hearts and lives and lead you in his waies and save you from temptations And ply this work daily and be not weary of it DIRECTION V. PResently give over your known and wilâ—ul sins Make a stâ—nd and go that way no further Be drunk no more but avoid the place and occasion of it Cast away your lusts and sinful pleasures with detestation Curse and swear and rail no more and if you have wronged any restore as Zacheus did If you will commit again your old sins what blessing can you expect on the means for your Conversion DIRECTION VI. PResently if possible change your Company if it have hitherto been bad Not by forsaking your necessary Relations but your unnecessary sinful companions and joyn your selves with those that fear the Lord and enquire of them the way to heaven Acts 9.19 26. Psal. 15.4 DIRECTION VII DEliver up your selves to the Lord Iesus as the Physitian of your souls that he may pardon you by his blood and sanctifie you by his Spirit by his word and Ministers the instruments of the Spirit He is the way the truth and the life there is no coming to the Father but by him Iohn 14.6 Nor is there any other name under heaven by which you can be saved Acts 4.12 Study therefore his Person and Natures and what he hath done and suffered for you and what he is to you and what he will be and how he is fitted to the full supply of all your necessities DIRECTION VIII IF you mean indeed to Turn and Live Do it speedily without delay If you be not willing to Turn to day you be not willing to do it at all Remember you are all this while in your blood under the guilt of many thousand sins and under Gods wrath and you stand at the very brink of hell there is but a step between you and death And this is not a case for a man that is well in his wits to be quiet in Up therefore presently and fly as for your lives as you would be gone out of your house if it were all on fire over your head O if you did but know what continual danger you live in and what daily unspeakable loss you do sustain and whaâ— a safer and sweeter life you might live you would not stand trâ—flâ—ng but presently turn Multitudes miscarry that wilfulâ—y deâ—ay when they are convinced that it must be done Your lives are short and uncertain and what a case are you in if you die before you throuâ—hly turn You have staid too long already and wronged God too long sin getteth strength and rooting while you delay Your Conversion will grow more hard and doubtful You have much to do and therefore put not all off to the last lest God forsake you and give you up to your selves and then you are undone for ever DIRECTION IX IF you will Turn and Live do it unreservedly absolutely and universally Think not to capitulate with Christ and devide your heart betwixt him and the world and to part with some sins and keep the rest and to let go that which your flesh can spare This is but self-deluding you must in heart and resolution forsake all that you have or else you cannot be his Disciples Luke 14.26 33. If you will not take God and Heaven for your portion and lay all below at the feet of Christ but you must needs also have your good things here and have an earthly portion and God and Glory is not enough for you it is in vain to dream of salvation on these terms For it will not be If you seem never so Religious if yet it be but a Carnâ—l Religiousness and the fleshes prosperity or pleasure or safety be still exâ—epted in your devotedness to God this is as certain a way to death as open prophaness though it be more plausible DIRECTION X. IF you will Turn and Live do it Resolvedly and stand not still deliberating as if it were a doubtful case Stand not wavering as if you were yet uncertain whether God or the flesh be the better Master or whether Heaven or Hell be the better End or whether sin or holiness be the better way But away with your former lusts and presently habitually fixedly Resolve Be not one day of one mind and the next of another but be at a point with all the world and Resolvedly give up your selves and all you have to God Now while you are reading or hearing this Resolve Before you sleep another night Resolve Before you stir from the place Resolve Before Satan have time to take you off Resolve You never Turn indeed till you do Resolve and that with a firm unchangeable Resolution So much for the Directions AND now I have done my part in this work that you may Turn at the Call of God and Live What will become of it I cannot tell I have cast the seed at Gods command but it is not in my power to give the increase I can go no further with my message I cannot bring it to your hearts not make it work I cannot do your parts for your to entertain it and consider of it Nor I cannot do Gods part by opening your heartâ— to cause you to entertain it Nor can I shew you Heaven or Hell to your eye-sight nor give you new and tender hearts If I knew what more to do for your Conversion I hope I should do it But 〈◊〉 thou that art the gracious Father of Spirits that hast sworn thâ—n delightest not in the death of the wicked but rather that they Turn and Live deny not thy blessiâ—g to theâ—e Perswasions and Directions and suffer not thine enemies to triumph in thy sight and the great deceiver of souls to prevail against the Son thy Spirit and thy Word O pitty poor Vnconverted sinners that have not hearts to pitty or help themselves Command the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the dead to live and let not sin and death be able to resist thee Awaken the secure Resolve the uâ—resolved Confirm the wavering and let the eyes of sinners that read these lines be next employed in weeping over their sins and bring them to themselves and to thy Son before their sin have brought them to perdition If thâ—u say but the word these poor endeavours shall prosper to the winning of many a soul to their everlasting Ioy and thine everlasting glory Amen Finitur 1656. Decemb. 31. Mr. R. Rowly of Sâ—rew bury upon Aâ—ham-bridge
Death hath draw this curtain thou shalt see that which will quickly leave thee speechless And how quickly will that day and hour come When thou hast had but a few more merry hours and but a few more pleasant draughts and morsels and a little more of the honours or riches of the world thy portion will be spent and thy pleasures ended and all is then gone that thou settest thy heart upon of all that thou soldst thy Saviour and Salvation for there 's nothing left but the heavy reckoning As a thief that sits merrily drinking the money in an Ale-house which he hath stoln when men are riding in post haste to apprehend him so is it with you While you are drowned in cares or fleshly pleasures and making merry with your own shame death is coming in post haste to seize upon you and carry your souls to such a place and state as now you little know or think of Suppose when you are hold and busie in your sin that a messenger were but coming post from London to apprehend you and take away your lives though you saw him not yet if you knew that he was coming it would marr your mirth and you would be thinking of the haste he makes and hearkning when he knocked as your door O that you could but see what haste death makes though yet it have not overtaken you No post so swift No messenger more sure As sure as the Sun will be with you in the morning though it hath many thousands and hundred thousand miles to go in the night so sure will death be quickly with you and then where is your sport and pleasure then will you jest and brave it out Then will you jear at them that warned you Then is it better to be a Believing Saint or a sensual Worldling And then whose shall all those things be that you have gathered Luke 12.19 20 21. Do you not observe that dayes and weeks are quickly gone and nights and mornings come apace and speedâ—ly succeed each other You sleep but your damnation slumbereth not You linger but your judgment this long time lingreth not 2 Pet. 2.3 4 5. to which you are reserved for punishment 2 Pet. 2.8 9. O that you were wise to understand this and that you did consider your latter end Deut. 32.29 He that hath an ear to hear let him hear the Call of God in this day of his salvation O careless sinners that you did but know the Love that you unthankfully neglect and the preciousness of the blood of Christ which you despise O that you did but know the Riches of the Gospel Oh that you did but know a little know the certainty and the glory and blessedness of that everlasting life which now you will not set your hearts upon nor be perswaded first and diligently to seek Heb. 11.6 12.28 Matth. 6.33 Did you but know the endless Life with God which you now neglect how quickly would you cast away your sin how quickly would you change your mind and life your course and company and turn the stream of your affections and lay out your care another way How resolutely would you scorn to yield to such temptations as now deceive you and carry you away How zealously would you bestir your selves for that most blessed life How earnest would you be with God in Prayer How diligent in hearing and learning and enquiring How serious in meditating on the Laws of God Psal. 1.2 How fearful of sinning in thought word or deed and how careful to please God and grow in Holiness O what a changed people you would be And why should not the certain Word of God be believed by you and prevail with you which openeth to you these glorious and eternal things Yea let me tell you that even here on earth you little know the difference between the Life which you refuse and the Life which you choose The Sanctified are conversing with God when you dare scarce think of him and when you are conversing but with earth and flesh Their Conversation is in heaven when you are utter strangers to it and your belly is your God and you are minding earthly things Phil. 3.18 19.20 They are seeking after the face of God when you seek for nothing higher then this world They are busily laying out for an endless life where they shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20.36 when you take up with a shadow and a transitory thing of nought How low and base is your earthly fleshly sinful life in comparison of the noble spiritual life of true Believers Many a time have I looked on such men with grief and pitty to see them trudge about the world and spend their lives and care and labour for nothing but a little food and rayment or a little fading pelf or fleshly pleasure or aiery honours as if they had no higher things to mind What difference is there between the lives of these men and of the beasts that perish that spend their time in working and eating and living but that they may live You taste not of the inward heavenly pleasures which Believers taste and live upon I had rather have a little of their comforts which the fore-thoughts of their Heavenly inheritance doth afford them though I had all their Scorns and Sufferings with it then to have all your pleasures and treacherous Prosperity I would not have one of your secret gripes and pangs of conscience and dark and dreadfull thoughts of death and the Life to come for all that ever the world hath done for you or all â—hat you can reasonably hope that it should do If I were in your Vnconverted Carnal state and knew but what I know and believed but what I now believe methinks my life would be a foretaste of Hell How oft should I be thinking of the Terrours of the Lord and of the dismal day that 's hasting on Sure Death and Hell would be still before me I should think of them by day and dream of them by night I should lie down in fear and rise in fear and live in fear lest death should come before I were Converted I should have small felicity in any thing that I possessed and little pleasure in any company and a little joy in any thing in the world as long as I knew my seâ—f to be under the Curse and wrath of God I should be still afraid of hearing that voice Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee And that fearfull sentence would be written upon my conscience Isa. 48.22 and 57.21 There is no Peace saith my God to the wicked O poor sinners it is a joyfuller life then this that you might live if you were but willing but truly willing to hearken to Christ and come home to God You might then draw near to God with boldness and call him your Father and comfortably trust him with your souls and bodies If you look upon Promises you may
say they are all mine If upon the curse you may say From this I am delivered When you read the Law you may see what you are saved from when you read the Gospel you may see him that Redeemed you and see the course of his Love and holy Life and sufferings and trace him in his temptations tears and blood in the work of your salvation You may see death conquered and Heaven opened and your Resurrection and Glorification provided for in the Resurrection and Glorification of your Lord. If you look on the Saints you may say They are my Brethren and Companions If on the unsanctified you may rejoyce to think that you are saved from that state If you look upon the heavens the Sun and Moon and Stars innumerable you may think and say My Fathers face is infinitely more glorious It s higher matters that he hath prepared for his Saints Yonder is but the outward Court of Heaven The blessedness that he hath promised me is so much higher that flesh and blood cannot behold it If you think of the grave you may remember that the Glorified Spirit a Living Head and a Loving Father have all so near Relation to your dust that it cannot be forgotten or neglected but will more certainly revive then the plants and flowers in the spring because that the soul is still alive that is the Root of the Body and Christ is alive that is the Root of both Even death which is the King of fears may be remembred and entertained with joy as being the day of your deliverance from the remnants of sin and sorrow and the day which you believed and hoped and waâ—ted for when you shall see the blessed things which you had heard of and shall find by present joyful experience what it was to choose the better part and to be a sincere believing Saint What say you sirs is not this a more delightfull life to be assured of Salvation and ready to die then to live as the ungodly that have their hearts overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day comes upon them unawares Luke 21.34 â—6 Might you not live a comfortable life if once you were made the Heirs of Heaven and sure to be saved when you leave the world O look about you then and think what you do and cast not away such hopes as these for very nothing The flesh and world can give you no such Hopes or Comforts And besides all the misery that you bring upon your selves you are the troublers of others as long as you are Vnconverted You trouble Magistrates to rule you by their Laws You trouble Ministers by resisting the light and guidance which they offer you Your sin and misery is the greatest grief and trouble to them in the world You trouble the Common-wealth and draw the Iudgements of God upon us It s you that most disturb the holy peace and order of the Churches and hinder our Vnion and Reformation and are the shame and trouble of the Churches where you intrude and of the places where you are Ah Lord How heavy and sad a case is this that even in England where the Gospel doth abound above any other Nation in the world where Teaching is so plain and common and all the helps we can desire are at hand when the sword hath been hewing us and Iudgement hath run as a fire through the Land when deliverances have relieved us and so many admirable mercies have engaged us to God and to the Gospel and an holy life that yet after all this our Cities and Towns and Countries should abound with multitudes of unsanctified men and swarm with so much sensuality as everywhere to our grief we see One would have thought that after all this Light and all this experience and all these Iudgements and Mercies of God the people of this Nation should have joyned together as one man to Turn to the Lord and should have come to their godly Teachers and lamented all their former sin and desired him to joyn with them in publike Humiliation to confess them openly and beg pardon of them from the Lord and should have craved his Instruction for the time to come and be glad to be Ruled by the Spirit within and the Ministers of Christ without according to the Word of God One would think that after such Reason and Scripture evidence as they hear and after all these means and mercies there should not be an ungodly persoâ— lest among us nor a worldling oâ— a drunkard or a hater of Reformation or an enemy to holiness be found in all our Towns or Countreys If we be not all agreed about some Ceremoâ—ies or Forms of Government one would think that before this We should have been all agreed to live a holy and heavenly lâ—fe in obedience to God his word and Ministers and in Love and Peace with one another But alas how far are our people from this course most of them in most places do set their hearts on earthly things and seek not first the Kingdom of God and the righteouâ—neâ—s hereof but look at holinesâ— as a needless thing Their Families are prayerless or else a few heaâ—tlâ—ss lâ—feless words must serve instead of hearty fervent daily prayers their children are not taught the knowledge of Christ and the Covenant of Grace nor brought up in the nurture of the Lord though they faâ—sly promised all this in their Baptism They instruct not their servants in the matters of salvation but so their work be done they care not There are more oaths and â—nâ—ses and ribbald or railing speeches in their families then gracious words that tend to edification How few are the Families that fear the Lord and enquire at his Word and Ministers how they should live and what they should do and are willing to be taught and ruled and that heartily look after everlasting Life And those few that God hath made so happy are commonly the by-word of their neighbours when we see some live in drunkenness and some in pride and worldliness and most of them have little care of their salvation though the cause be gross and past all controversie yet will they hardly be convinced of their misery and more hardly recovered and reformed But when we have done all that we are able to save them from their sins we leave the most of them as we find them And if according to the Law of God we cast them out of the Communion of the Church when they have obstinately rejected all our admonitions they rage at us as if we were their enemies and their hearts are filled with malice against us and they will sooner set themselves against the Lord and his Laws and Church and Ministers then against their deadly siâ—s This is the dolefull case of England We have Magistrates that countenance the ways of Godliness and a happy opportunity for Vnity and Reformation is before us and faithfull Ministers long to
lie and yet dare you give the lie to God But if you tell God plainly you will not believe him blame him not if he never warn you more or if he forsake you and give you up as hopeless For to what purpose should he warn you if you will not believe him should he send an Angel from heaven to you its seems you would not believe For an Angel can speak but the Word of God and if an Angel should bring you another Gospel you are not to receive it but to hold him accursed Gal. 1.8 9. And surely there is no Angel to be believed before the Son of God who came from the Father to bring us this Doctrine If he be not to be believed then all the Angels in heaven are not to be believed And if you stand on these terms with God I shall leave you till he deal with you in a more convincing way God hath a voice that will make you hear Though he intreat you to hear the voice of his Gospel he will make you hear the voice of his condemning Sentence without intreaty We cannot make you believe against your wills but God will make you feelâ—gainst â—gainst your wills But let us hear what reason you have why you will not believe this word of God which tells us that the wicked must be Converted or condemned I know your reason it is because that you judge it unlikely that God should be so unmerciful you think it cruelty to damn men everlastingly for so small a thing as a sinful life And this leads us up to the second thing which is to justifie the Equity of God in his Laws and Judgements And first I think you will not deny but that it is most sutable to an immortal soul to be ruled by Laws that promise an immortal reward and threaten an endless punishment Otherwise the Law should not be suited to the nature of â—he subject who will not be fully ruled by any lower means then the Hopes or Fears of everlasting things As it is in case of temporal punishment if a Law were now made that the most hainous crimes shall be punished with an hundred years captivity this might be of some efficacy as being equal to our lives But if there had been no other penalties before the flood when men lived eight or nine hundred years it would not have been sufficient because men would know that they might have so many hundred years impunity afterward So is it in our present case 2. I suppose you will confess that the promise of an endless and unconceivable glory is not unsuitable to the wisdom of God or the case of man And why then should you not think so of the Threatning of an endless and unspeakable misery 3. When you find it in the Word of God that so it is and so it will be do you think your selves fit to contradict this Word Will you call your Maker to the Barr and examine his Word upon the accusation of falshood will you sit upon him and judge him by the Law of your Conceits Are you wiser and better and righteouser then he Must the God of heaven come to School to you to learn wisdom Must infinite wisdom learn of folly and infinite Goodness be corrected by a swinish sinner that cannot keep himself an hour clean Must the Almighty stand at the Bar of a worm Oh horrid arrogancy of sensless dust Shall every mole or cold or dung-hill accuse the Sun of darkness and undertake to illuminate the world Where were you when the Almighty made these Laws that he did not call you to his counsel Surely he made them before you were born without desiring your advice and you come into the world too late for to reverse them if you could have done so great a work you should have stept out of your Nothingness and have contradicted Christ when he was on earth or Moses before him or have saved Aâ—am and his sinful progeny from the threatned death that so there might have been no need of Christ And what if God withdraw his patience aud sustentation and let you drop into Hell while you are quarrelling with his Word will you then believe that there is a Hell 4. If 〈◊〉 such an evil that it requireth the death of Christ for its expiation no wonder if it deserve our everlasting misery 5. And if the sin of the Devils deserved an endless torment why not also the sin of man 6. And me thinks you should perceive that it is not possible for the best of men much less for the wicked to be competent Judges of the desert of sin Alas we are all both blind and partial You can never know fully the desert of sin till you fully know the evil of sin and you can never fully know the evil of sin till you fully know 1. The Excellency of the soul which it deformeth 2. And the excellency of holiness which it doth obliterate 3. And the reason and excellency of the Law which it violateth And 4. the excellency of the Glory which it doth despise And 5. the excellency and office of Reason which it treadeth down 6. No nor till you know the infinite Excellency Almightiness and Holiness of that God against whom it is committed When you fully know all these you shall fully know the desert of sin Besides you know that the offendor is too partial to judge the Law or the proceedings of his Judge We judge by feeling which blinds our reason We see in common worldly things that most men think the cause is right which is their own and that all is wrong that 's done against them and let the most wise or just impartial friends perswade them to the contrary and its all in vain There 's few children but think the Father is unmerciful or dealeth hardly with them if he whip them There 's scarce the vilest swinish wretch but thinketh the Church doth wrong him if they excommunicate him Nor scarce a Thief or Murderer that is hanged but would accuse the Law and Judge of cruelty if that would serve turn 7. Can you think that an unholy soul is fit for heaven Alas they cannot love God here nor do him any service which he can accept They are contrary to God they loath that which he most loveth and love that which he abhorreth They are uncapable of that imperfect Communion with him which his Saints do here partake of How then can they live in that perfect love of him and full delights and Communion with him which is the blessedness of heaven You do not accuse your selves of unmercifulness if you make not your enemy your bosom Counseller or if you take not your swine to bed and board with you no nor if you take away his life though he never sinned And yet will you blame the absolute Lord the most wise and gracious Soveraign of the world if he condemn the Unconverterted to perpetual misery Vse I Beseech you now
though you Repent and be Converted No it is the clean contrary that we daily proclaim from the Lord and whoever is born again and by Faith and Repentance doth become a new creature shall certainly be saved and so far are we from perswading you to despair of this that we perswade you not to make any doubt of it It is Life and not Death that is the first part of our Message to you our Commission is to offer salvation certain salvation a speedy glorious everlasting salvation to every one of you to the poorest beggar as well as the greatest Lords to the worst of you even to drunkards swearers worldlings thieves yea to the despisers and reproachers of the holy way of salvation We are commanded by the Lord our Master to offer you a pardon for all that 's past if you will but now at last Return and Live we are commanded to beseech and intreate you to accept the offer and Return to tell you what preparation is made by Christ what Mercy stayes for you what Patience waiteth on you what Thoughts of kindness God hath towards you and how happy how certainly and unspeakably happy you may be if you will We have indeed also a Message of wrath and death yea of a twofold wrath and death but neither of them is our principal Message we must tell you of the wrath that is on you already and the death that you are born under for the breach of the Law of works but this is but to shew you the need of Mercy and provoke you to esteem the grace of the Redeemer And we tell you nothing but the truth which you must know for who will seek out for Physick that knows not that he is sick Our telling you of your misery is not it that makes you miserable but driveth you out to seek for mercy It is you that have brought this death upon your selves We tell you also of another death even remediless and much greater torment that will fall on those that will not be Converted But as this is true and must be told you so it is but the last and saddest part of our Message We are first to offer you Mercy if you will Turn and it is only those that will not Turn nor hear the voice of Mercy that we must fore-tell damnation to Will you but cast away your transgressions delay no longer but come away at the Call of Christ and be Converted and become new creatures and we have not a word of damning wrath or death to speak against you I do here in the name of the Lord of Life proclaim to you all that hear me this day to the worst of you to the greatest to the oldest sinner that you may have mercy and salvation if you will but Turn There is mercy in God there is sufficiency in the satisfaction of Christ the promise is free and full and universal you may have Life if you will but Turn But then as you love your souls Remember what Turning it is that the Scripture speaks of It is not to mend the old house but to pull down all and build anew on Christ the Rock and sure foundation It is not to mend somewhat in a Carnal course of life but to mortifie the flesh and live after the Spirit It is not to serve the flesh and the world in a more reformed way without any scandalous disgraceful sins and with a certain kind of Religiousness But it is to change your Master and your Work and End and set your face the contrary way and do all for the life that you never saw and Dedicate your selves and all you have to God This is the change that must be made if you will live Your selves are witnesses now that it is Salvation and not Damnation that is the great Doctrine I preach to you and the first part of my message to you Accept of this and we shall go no further with you for we would not so much as affright or trouble you with the name of damnation without necessity But if you will not be saved there 's no remedy but Damnation must take place For there is no middle place between the two You must have either Life or Death And we are not only to offer you Life but to shew you the Grounds on which we do it and call you to believe that God doth mean indeed as he speaks that the Promise is true and extendeth Conditionally to you as well as others and that Heaven is no fancy but a true felicity If you ask where is our Commission for this offer among an hundred Texts of Scripture I will shew it you in these few First you see it here in my Text and the following verses and in the 18. of Ezek. as plain as can be spoken And in 2 Cor. 5.17 18 19 20 21. you have the very sum of our Commission If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away â—ehold all things are become new And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministry of Reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ Reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed unto us the word of Reconciliation now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin thaâ— we might be made the Righteousnes of God in him So Mark 1â— 15 16. Go ye into all the word and preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth that 〈◊〉 with such a Converting faith as â— expressed and is baptized shall 〈◊〉 saved and he that believeth 〈◊〉 shall be damned And Luke 2â— 46 47. Thus it behoved Chriâ—â— to suffer and to rise from the deâ—â— the third day and that Repentanâ—â— which is Conversion and Remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations And Acts 5.30.31 The God of our Fathers raised up Iesus whom ye flew and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And lest you think this offer is restrained to the Jews see Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And Luke 14.17 Come for all things are now ready and ver 23 24. You see by this time that we are commanded to offer Life to you all and to tell you from God that if you will Turn you may Live Here you may safely trust
of all which yet will never come to pass 5. And God as Ruler and Law-giver of the world hath so far a Practical Will for their salvation as to make them a free Deed of Gift of Christ and Life and an act of Oblivion for all their sins so be it they will not unthankfully reject it and to command his Messengers to offer this Gift to all the world and perswade them to accept it And so he doth all that as Law-giver or Promiser belongs to him to do for their salvation 6. But yet he resolveth as Law-giver that they that will not turn shall dye And as Iudge when their day of grace is past he will execute that Decree 7. So that he thus unfeignedly willeth the Conversion of those that never will be Converted but not as Absolute Lord with the fullest efficacious Resolution nor as a thing which he resolveth shall undoubtedly come to pass or would engage all his power to accomplish It is in the power of a Prince to set a guard upon a Murderer to see that he shall not murder and be hanged But if upon good reason he forbear this and do but send to his subjects and warn and intreate them not to be murderers I hope he may well say that he would not have them murder and be hanged he takes no pleasure in it but rather that they forbear and live And if he do more for some upon some special reason he is not bound to do so by all The King may well say to all the Murderers and Felons in the Land I have no pleasure in your death but rather that you would obey my Laws and live but If you will not I am resolved for all this that you shall die The Judge may truly say to the Thief or Murderer Alas man I have no delight in thy death I had rather thou hadst kept the Law and saved thy life but seeing thou wilt not I must condemn thee or else I should be unjust So though God have no Pleasure in your damnation and therefore calls upon you to Return and Live yet he hath Pleasure in the demonstration of his own Iustice and the executing his Laws and therefore he is for all this fully resolved that if you will not be Converted you shall be Condemned If God were so much against the death of the wicked as that he were resolved to do all that he can to hinder it then no man should be Condemned whereas Christ telleth you that few will be saved But so far God is against your damnation as that he will teach you and warn you and set before you life and death and offer you your choice and command his Ministers to intreate you not to damn your selves but accept his Mercy and so to leave you without excuse but if this will not do and if still you be Unconverted he professeth to you he is resolved of your damnation and hath commanded us to say to you in his name Verse 8. O wicked man thou shalt surely die And Christ hath little less then sworn it over and over with a Verily verily except ye be Converted and born again ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 18.3 Iohn 3.3 Mark that he saith You cannot It is in vain to hope for it and in vain to dream that God is willing of it for it is a thing that cannot be In a word you see then the meaning of the Text that God the great Law-giver of the world doth take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that they Turn and Live though yet he be resolved that none shall Live but those that Turn and as Iudge even delighteth in Justice and manifesting his hatred of sin though not in their misery which they have brought upon themselves in it self considered 2. And for the proofs of the point I shall be very brief in them because I suppose you easily believe it already 1. The very gracious nature of God proclaimed Exod. 34.6 20.6 and frequently elsewhere may assure you of this that he hath no Pleasure in your death 2. If God had more pleasure in thy Death then in thy Conversion and Life he would not have so frequently commanded thee in his word to Turn he would not have made thee such promises of Life if thou wilt but Turn he would not have perswaded thee to it by so many Reasons The tenour of his Gospel proveth the point 3. And his Commission that he hath given to the Ministers of the Gospel doth fully prove it If God had taken more pleasure in thy damnation then in thy Conversion and Salvation he would never have charged us to offer you Mercy and to teach you the Way of Life both publikely and privately and to intreate and beseech you to turn and live to acquaint you with your sins and foretell you of your danger and to do all that possibly we can for your Conversion and to continue patiently so doing though you should hate us or abuse us for our pains Would God have done this and appointed his Ordinances for your good if he had taken Pleasure in your death 4. It is proved also by the course of his providences If God had rather you were damned then Converted and Saved he would not second his word with his works and entice you by his daily kindness to himself and give you all the mercies of this life which are his means to lead you to Repentance Rom. 2.4 and bring you so often under his rod to force you into your wits he would not set so many examples before your eyes no nor wait on you so patiently as he doth from day to day and year to year These be not signs of one that taketh pleasure in your death If this had been his delight how easily could he have had thee long ago in Hell How oft before this could he have catcht thee away in the midst of thy sins with a curse or oath or lye in thy mouth in thy ignorance and pride and sensuality when thou wast last in thy drunkenness or last deriding the waies of God how easily could he have stopt thy breath and tamed thee with his Plagues and made thee sober in another world Alas how small a matter is it for the Lord Almighty to rule the tongue of the prophanest railer and tye the hands of the most malicious persecutor or calm the fury of the bitterest of his enemies and make them know that they are but worms If he should but frown upon thee thou wouldst drop into thy grave If he gave Commission to one of his Angels to go and destroy ten thousand sinners how quickly would it be done How easily can he lay thee on thy bed of languishing and make thee lie roaring there in pain and make thee eat the words of reproach which thou hast spoken against his Servants his Word his Worship and his holy Waies And make thee send to beg their prayers
hath no pretence left to deny or question therefore the truth of the point in hand For this is confirmed by the Oath of God and therefore must not be distorted to reduce it to other points but doubtful points must rather be reduced to it and certain truths must be believed to agree with it though our shallow brains do hardly discern the agreeement Vse I Do now intreate thee if thou be an Unconverted sinner that hearest these words that thou wouldst ponder a little upon the forementioned Doctrines and bethink thy self awhile who it is that takes pleasure in thy sin and damnation Certainly it is not God he hath sworn for his part that he takes no pleasure in it And I know it is not the pleasing of him that you intend in it You dare not say that you drink and swear and neglect holy duties and quench the motions of the Spirit to please God That were as if you shouâ—d reproach the Prince and break his Laws and seek his death and say you did all this to please him Who is it then that takes Pleasure in your sin and death Not any that bear the image of God for they must be like-manded to him God knows its small pleasure to your faithful Teachers to see you serve your deadly enemy and madly venture your eternal state and wilfully run into the flames of Hell It s small pleasure to them to see upon your souls in the sad effects such blindness and hard-heartedness and carelesness and presumption such wilfulness in evil and such unteachableness and stifness against the waies of life and peace they know these are marks of death and of the wrath of God and they know from the word of God what 's like to be the end of them And therefore it is no more Pleasure to them then to a tender Physitian to see the Plague-marks break out upon his Patient Alas to foresee your everlasting Torments and know not how to prevent them To see how near you are to hell and we cannot make you believe it and consider it To see how easily how certainly you might scape if we knew but how to make you willing How fair you are for everlasting salvation if you would but Turn and do your best and make it the care and business of your lives but you will not do it If our lives lay on it we cannot perswade you to it We study day and night what to say to you that may convince you and perswade you and yet it is undone we lay before you the word of God and shew you the very Chapter and verse where it is written that you cannot be Saved except you be Converted and yet we leave the most of you as we find you We hope you will believe the word of God though you believe not us and that you will regard it when we shew you the plain Scripture for it but we hope in vain and labour in vain as to any saving change upon your hearts And do you think that this is a pleasant thing to us Many a time in secret prayer we are fain to complain to God with sad hearts Alas Lord we have spoken to them in thy name but they little regard us we have told them what thou bidst us tell them concerning the danger of an unconverted state but they do not believe us We have told them that thou hast protested that there is no peace to the wicked Isaiah 48.22 and 57.21 but the worst of them all will scarce believe that they are wicked we have shewed them thy word where thâ—u hast said that if thâ—y live after the flesh they shall die Rom. 8.13 but they say they will believe in thee when they will not believe thee and that they will trust in thee when they give no credit to thy word and when they hope that the threatnings of thy word are false they will yet call this a hoping in God and though we shew them where thou hast said that when a wicked man dyeth all his hopes perish yet cannot we perswade them from their deceitful hopes Prov. 11.7 We tell them what a base unprofitable thing sin is but they love it and therefore will not leave it We tell them how dear they buy this pleasure and what they must pay for it in everlasting torment and they bless themselves and will not believe it but will do as the most do and because God is merciful they will not believe him but will venture their souls come on it what will we telâ— them how ready the Lord is to receive them and this doth but make them delay their repentance and be bolder in their sin Some of them say they purpose to repent but they are still the same and some say they do repent already when yet they are not Converted from their sins We exhort them we intreat them we offer them our help but we cannot prevail with them but they that were drunkards are drunkards still and they that were voluptuous flesh pleasing wretches are such still and they that were worldlings are wordlings still and they that were ignorant and proud and self-conceited are so still Few of them will see and confess their sin and fewer will forsake it but comfort themselves that all men are sinners as if there were no difference between a Converted sinner and an Vnconverted Some of them will not come near us when we are willing to instruct them but think they know enough already and need not our instruction and some of them will give us the hearing and do what their list and most of them are like dead men that cannot feâ—l so that when we tell them of the matters of everlasting consequence we cannot get a word of it to their hearts If we do not obey them and humour them in baptizing the children of the most obstinately wicked and giving them the Lords Supper and doing all that they would have us though never so much against the word of God they will hate us and rail at us but if we beseech them but to confess and forsake their sins and save their souls they will not do it We tell them if they will but Turn we will deny them none of the Ordinances of God neither Baptism to their children nor the Lords Supper to themselves but they will not hear us they would have us to disobey God and damn our own souls to please them and yet they will not turn and save their own souls to please God They are wiser in their own eyes then all their Teachers they rage and are confident in their own way and if we would never so fain we cannot change them Lord this is the case of our miserable neighbours and we cannot help it we see them ready to drop into hell and we cannot help it we know if they would unfeignedly turn they might be saved but we cannot perswade them if we would beg it of them on our knees we cannot
not that they are dead If once thou wert made alive thou wouldst see more amiss in thy self and marvell at thy self for making so light of it Object 7. I think you would make men mad under pretence of Converting them It is enough to rack the brains of simple people to muse so much on matters too high for them Answ. 1. Can you be madder then you are already or at least can there be a more dangerous madness then to neglect your everlasting welfare and wilfully undo your selves 2. A man is never well in his wits till he be converted He never knows God nor knows sin nor knows Christ nor knows the world nor himself nor what his business is on earth so as to set himself about it till he be converted The Scripture saith that the wicked are unreasonable men 2 Thes. 3.2 and that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1.20 and Luke 15.17 it s said of the Prodigal that when he came to himself he resolved to Return It s a wise world when men will disobey God and run to Hell for fear of being out of their wits 2. What is there in the work that Christ calls you to that should drive a man out of his wits Is it the Loving of God and calling upon him and comfortable thinking of the glory to come and the forsaking of our sins and loving one another and delighting our selves in the service of God are these such things as should make men mad 3. And whereas you say that these matters are too high for us you accuse God himself for making this our work and giving us his word and commanding all that will be blessed to meditate in it day and night Are the matters which we were made for and which we live for too high for us to meddle with This is plainly to unman us and to make beasts of us as if we were like them that must meddle with no higher matters then what belongs to flesh and earth If heaven be too high for you to think on and provide for it will be too high for you ever to possess 4. If God should sometimes suffer any weak-headed person to be distracted by thinking of eternal things this is because they misunderstand them and run without a guide and of the two I had rather be in the case of such a one then of the mad unconverted world that take their distraction to be their wisdom Object 8. I do not thâ—nk that God cares so much what men think or speak or do as to make so great a matter of it Answ. It seems then you take the word of God to be false and then what will you believe But your own reason might teach you better if you believe not the Scriptures For you see God set not so light by us but that he vouchsafed to make us and still preserveth us and daily upholdeth us and provideth for us And will any wise man make a curious frame for nothing will you make or buy a Clock or Watch and daily look to it and not care whether it go true or false Surely if you believe not a particular eye of providence observing your hearts and lives you cannot believe or expect any paricular providence to observe your wants and trouble to relieve You. And if God had so little cared for you as you imagine you would never have lived till now An hundred diseases would have striven which should first destroy you Yea the Devils would have haunted you and fetcht you away alive as the great fishes devour the less and as Ravenous birds and beasts devour others You cannot think that God made man for no end or use And if he made him for any it was sure for himself And can you think he cares not whether his ends be accomplished and whether we do the work that we are made for Yea by this Atheistical objection you make God to have made and upheld all the world in vain For what are all other lower Creatures for but for man What doth the earth but bear us and nourish us and the beasts do serve us with their labours and lives and so of the rest And hath God made so glorious a habitation and set man to dwell in it and made all his servants and now doth he look for nothing at his hands nor care how he thinks or speaks or lives This is most unreasonable Object 9. It was a better world when men did not make so much ado in Religion Answ. It hath ever been the custom to praise the times past That world that you speak of was wont to say it was a better world in their fore-fathers dayes and so did they of their fore-fathers This is but an old custom because we all feel the evil of our own times but we see not that which was before us 3. Perhaps you speak as you think Worldlings think the world is at the best when it is agreeable to their minds and when they have most mirth and worldly pleasure And I doubt not but the Devil as well as you would say that then it was a better world for then he had more service and less disturbance But the world is at the best when God is most loved regarded and obeyed And how else will you know when the world is good or bad but by this Object 10. There are so many waies and Religions that we know not which to be of and therefore we will be even as we are Answ. Because there are many will you be of that way that you may be sure is wrong None are further out of the way then worldly fleshly Unconverted sinners For they do not only err in this or that opinion as many sects do but in the very scope and drift of their lives If you were going a journey that your life lay on would you stop or turn again because you met with some cross waies or because you saw some travellers go the horse way and some the foot way and some perhaps break over the hedge yea and some miss the way or would you not rather be the more careful to enquire the way If you have some servants that know not how to do your work right and some that are unfaithful would you take it well at any of the rest that would therefore be idle and do you no service because they see the rest so bad Object 11. I do not see that it goes any better with those that are so godly then with other men They are as poor and in as much trouble as others Answ. And perhaps in much more when God sees it meet They take not earthly prosperity for their wages They have laid up their treasure and hopes in another world or else they are not Christians indeed The less they have the more is behind and they are content to wait till then Object 12. When you have said all that you can I am resolved tohope well and trust in
God and do as well as I can and not make so much ado Answ. 1. Is that doing as well as you can when you will not Turn to God but your heart is against his holy and diligent service It is as well as you will indeed but that 's your misery 2. My desire is that you should Hope and Trust in God But for what is it that you will Hope Is it to be saved if you turn and be sanctified For this you have Gods promise and therefore hope for it and spare not But if you Hope to be saved without Conversion and an Holy Life this is not to Hope in God but in Satan or your selves For God hath given you no such promise but told you the contrary but its Satan and self-love that made you such promises and raised you to such Hopes Well If these and such as these be all you have to say against Conversion and an Holy Life your All is Nothng and worse then Nothing And if these and such as these seem Reasons sufficient to perswade you to forsake God and cast your selves into Hell the Lord deliver us from such Reasons and from such blind understandings and from such sensless hardened hearts Dare you stand to ever an one of these Reasons at the Barr of God Do you think it will then serve your turn to say Lord I did not Turn because I had so much to do in the world or because I did not like the lives of some professors or because I saw men of so many minds O how easily will the light of that day confound and shame such reasonings as these Had you the world to look after Let the world which you served now pay your wages and save you if it can Had you not a better world to look after first And were you not commanded to seek first Gods Kingdom and Righteousness and promised that other things should be added to you Mat. 6.33 And were you not told that godliness was profitable to all things having the promise of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Did the sins of professors hinder you you should rather have been the more heedful and learned by their falls to beware and have been the more careful and not the more careless It was the Scripture and not their lives that was your Rule Did the many opinions of the world hinder you Why the Scripture that was your Rule did teach you but one way and that was the right way If you had followed that even in so much as was plain and easie you should never have miscarried Will not such Answers as these confound and silence you If these will not God hath those that will when he asketh the man Mat. 22.12 Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment that is What dost thou in my Church among professed Christians without an holy heart and life What answer did he make Why the text saith He was speechless he had nothing to say The clearness of the case and the Majesty of God will then easily stop the mouths of the most confident of you though you will not be put down by any thing that we can say to you now but will make good your cause be it never so bad I know already that never a Reason that now you can give will do you any good at last when your case must be opened before the Lord and all the world Nay I scarce think that your own Consciences are well satisfied with your Reasons For if they are it seems then you have not so much as a Purpose to Repent But if you do purpose to Repent it seems you do not put much confidence in your Reasons which you bring against it What say you yet Unconverted sinners Have you any good Reason to give why you should not Turn and presently Turn with all your hearts Or will you go to Hell in despight of Reason it self Bethink you what you do in time for it will shortly be too late to bethink you Can you find any fault with God or his work or wages Is he a bad Master Is the Devil whom you serve a better or is the flesh a better Is there any harm in an holy life is a life of worldliness and ungodliness better Do you think in your Consciences that it would do you any harm to be Converted and live an holy life What harm can it do you Is it harm to you to have the Spirit of Christ within you and to have a cleansed purified heart If it be bad to be Holy why doth God say Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Leviticus 20.7 Is it evil to be like God Is it not said that God made man in his image Why this Holiness is his Image This Adam lost and this Christ by his Word and Spirit would restore to you as he doth to all that he will save Why were you Baptized into the Holy Ghost and why do you Baptize your children into the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier if you will not be sanctified by him but think it an hurt to you to be sanctified Tell me truly as before the Lord Though you are loath to live an Holy life had you not rather die in the case of those that do so then of others If you were to die this day had you not rather die in the case of a Conveted man then of the Unconverted of an holy and heavenly man then of a carnal earthly man and would you not say as Balaam Numb 23.10 Let me die the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his And why will you not now be of the mind that you will be of then First or last you must come to this either to be Converted or wish you had been when it is to late But what is it that you are afraid of losing if you Turn Is it your friends you will but change them God will be your friend and Christ and the Spirit will be your friend and every Christian will be your friend You will get one friend that will stand you in more stead then all the friends in the world could have done The friends you lose would but have ticed you to hell but could not have delivered you But the friend you get will save you from hell and bring you to his own eternal Rest. Is it your pleasures that you are afraid of losing You think you shall never have a merry day again if once you be Converted Alas that you should think it a greater pleasure to live in foolish sports and merriments and please your flesh then to live in the Believing thoughts of glory and in the love of God and in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in which the state of grace consisteth Romans 14.17 If it be a greater pleasure to you to think of your Lands and inheritance if you were Lords of all the Country
much daunt them because they see not whither they are gone poor wretches they hold on in their ungodliness for all this for they little know that their companions are now lamenting it in torments In Luke 16. the rich man in hell would fain have had one to warn his five Brethren left they should come to that place of torment It s like he knew their minds and lives and knew that they were hasting thither and little dreamt that he was there yea and would little have believed one that would have told them so I remember a passage that a Gentleman yet living told me he saw upon a bridge over Severn A man was driving a flock of fat lambs and something meeting them and hindring their passage one of the Lambs leapt upon the wall of the bridge and his legs slipping from under him he fell into the stream the rest seeing him did one after one leap over the bridge into the stream and were all or almost all drowned Those that were behind did little know what was become of them that were gone before but thought they might venture to follow their companions but as soon as ever they were over the wall and falling headlong the case was altered Even so it is with Unconverted Carnal men One dyeth by them and drops into hell and another follows the same way and yet they will go after them because they think not whether they are gone Oh but when death hath once opened their eyes and they see what 's on the other side of the wall even in another world then what would they give to be where they were 6. Moreover they have a subtile malicious enemy that is unseen of them and playes his game in the dark and it is his principal business to hinder their Conversion and therefore to keep them where they are by perswading them not to believe the Scriptures or not to trouble their minds with these matters or by perswading them to think ill of a godly life or to think that it s more ado then needs and that they may be saved without Conversion and without all this stir and that God is so merciful that he will not damn any such as they or at least that they may stay a little longer and take their pleasure and follow the world a little longer yet and then let it go and repent hereafter And by such jugling deluding cheats as these the Devil keeps the most in his captivity and leadeth them to his misery These and such like impediments as these do keep so many thousands Unconverted when God hath done so much and Christ hath suffered so much and Ministers have said so much for their Conversion when their Reasons are silenced and they are not able to answer the Lord that calls after them Turn ye Turn ye Why will you die yet all comes to nothing with the greatest part of them and they leave us no more to do after all but to sit down and lament their wilful misery I Have now shewed you the Reasonableness of Gods commands and the unreasonableness of wicked mens disobedience If nothing will serve turn but men will yet refuse to Turn we are next to consider who it is long of if they be damned And this brings me up to the last Doctrine which is Doct. 7. THAT if after all this men will not Turn it is not long of God that they are condemned but of themselves even their own wilfulness They die because they will die that is because they will not Turn If you will go to hell what remedy God here acquits himself of your blood it shall not lie on him if you be lost A negligent Minister may draw it upon him and those that encourage you or hinder you not in sin may draw it upon them but be sure of it it shall not lie upon God Saith the Lord concerning his unprofitable Vineyard Isaiah 5.1 2 3 4. Iudge I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it When he had planted it in a fruitful soil and fenced it and gathered out the stones and planted it with the choicest Vine What should he have done more to it He hath made you men and endued you with Reason he hath furnished you with all external necessaries all creatures are at your service He hath given you a righteous perfect Law When you had broke it and undone your selves he had pitty on you and sent his Son by a miracle of condescending mercy to die for you and be a sacrifice for your sins and he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself The Lord Jesus hath made you a deed of gift of himself and eternal life with him on the condition you will but accept it and return He hath on this reasonable condition offered you the free pardon of all your sins he hath written this in his Word and sealed it by his Spirit and sent it you by his Ministers they have made the offer to you an hundred and an hundred times and called you to accept it and to turn to God They have in his name entreated you and reasoned the case with you and answered all your frivolous objections He hath long waited on you and slaid your leisure and suffered you to abuse him to his face He hath mercifully sustained you in the midst of your sin he hath compassed you about with all sorts of mercies He hath also intermixt afflictions to mind you of you folly and call you to your wits And his spirit hath been often striving with your hearts and saying there Turn sinner Turn to him that calleth thee Whither art thou going What art thou doing Dost thou know what will be the end How long wilt thou hate thy friends and love thine enemies when wilt thou let go all and Turn and deliver up thy self to God and give thy Redeemer the possession of thy soul When shall it once be These pleadings have been used with thee And when thou hast delayed thou hast been urged to make hast and God hath called to thee To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart Why not now without any more delay Life hath been set before you The Joyes of Heaven have been opened to you in the Gospel The Certainty of them hath been manifested The certainty of the everlasting Torments of the damned hath been declared to you Unless you would have had a sight of Heaven and Hell what could you desiâ—â— more Christ hath been as it were set forth crucified before your eyes Gal. 3.1 You have been an hundred times told that you are but lost men till you come unto him As oft have you been told of the evil of sin of the vanity of sin the world and all the pleasures and wealth it can afford of the shortness and uncertainty of your lives and the endless duration of the Joy or Torment of the life