of men that will quench Hell-fire or make him a saver that loseth his soul. O if you had heard what I believe if you had seen what I believe and that on the credit of the word of God you would say there can be no reason to warrant a man to damn his soul You durst not sleep quietly another night before you had resolved to Turn and Live If you see a man put his hand into the fire till it burn off you 'l marvail at it but this is a thing that a man may have Reason for as Bishop Cranmer had when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to Popery If you see a man cut off a leg or an arm it s a sad sight but this is a thing that a man may have good reason for as many a man doth it to save his life If you see a man give his body to be burnt to ashes and to be tormented with strappado's and racks and refuse deliverance when it is offered this is a hard case to flesh and blood But this a man may have good reason for as you may see in Heb. 11.33 34 35 36. and as many an hundred Martyrs have done But for a man to forsake the Lord that made him and for a man to run into the fire of Hell when he is told of it and intreated to Turn that he may be saved this is a thing that can have no Reason in the world that is Reason indeed to justifie or excuse it For Heaven will pay for the loss of any thing that we can lose to get it or for any labour which we bestow for it But nothing can pay for the loss of Heaven I beseech you now let this word come nearer to your hearts As you are convinced that you have no Reason to destroy your selves so tell me what Reason have you to refuse to Turn and live to God What Reason hath the veriest worldling or drunkard or ignorant careless sinner of you all why you should not be as holy as any you know and be as carefull for your souls as any other Will not hell be as hot to you as to others Should not your own souls be as dear to you as theirs to them Hath not God as much authority over you Why then will you not become a sanctified people as well as they O Sirs when God bringeth the matter down to the very Principles of nature and shews you that you have no more reason to be undgodly then you have to damn your own souls if yet you will not understand and Turn it seems a Desperate case that you are in And now either you have Reason for what you do or you have not If not will you go on against Reason it self Will you do that which you have no Reason for But if you think you have produce them and make the best of your matter Reason the case a little with me your fellow-creature which is far easier then to reason the case with God Tell me man here before the Lord as if thou wert to die this hour Why shouldst thou not resolve to Turn this day before thou stir from the place thou standest in What Reason hast thou to deny or to delay Hast thou any Reason that satisfieth thine own conscience for it Or any that thou darest own and plead at the barr of God If thou hast let us hear them bring them forth and make them good But alas what poor stuff what nonsense instead of reason do we daily hear from ungodly men But for their necessity I should be ashamed to name them 1. One saith If none shall be saved but such Converted and Sanctified ones as you talk of then heaven would be but empty then God help a great many Answ. What! it seems you think that God doth not know or else that he is not to be believed Measure not all by your selves God hath thousands and millions of his sanctified ones but yet they are few in comparison of the world as Christ himself hath told us Matthew 7.13 14. Luke 12.32 It better beseems you to make that use of this truth which Christ teacheth you Strive to enter in at the strait gate for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many they be that go in thereat Luke 13.22 23 24. Fear not little flock saith Christ to his sanctified ones for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luke 12 32. Object 2. I am sure if such as I go to Hell we shall have store of company Answ. And will that be any ease or comfort to you Or do you think you may not have company enough in Heaven Will you be undone for company Or will you not believe that God will execute his threatnings because they be so many that are guilty All these are silly unreasonable conceits Object 3. But are not all men sinners even the best of you all Answ. But all are not unconverted sinners The godly live not in gross sin and their very infirmities are their grief and burden which they daily long and pray and strive to be rid of Sin hath not dominion over them Object 4. I do not see that Professors are any better then other men They will over-reach and oppress and are as Covetous as any Answ. Whatever hypocrites are it s not so with those that are sanctified God hath thousands and thousands that are otherwise Though the malicious world doth accuse them of what they can never prove and of that which never entred into their hearts And commonly they charge them with heart-sins which none can see but God because they can charge them with no such wickedness in their lives as they are guilty of themselves Object 5. But I am no whoremonger nor drunkard nor oppressor and therefore why should you call upon me to be Converted Answ. As if you were not born after the flesh and had not lived after the flesh as well as otherâ— Is it not as great a sin as any of these for a man to have an earthly mind and to love the world above God and to have an unbelieving unhumbled heart Nay let me tell you more that many persons that avoid disgraceful sins are as fast glued to the world and as much slaves to the flesh and as strange to God and a verse to heaven in their more civil course as others are in their more shameful notorious sins Object 6. But I mean nobody any harm nor do no harm and why then should God condemn me Answ. Is it no harm to neglect the Lord that made thee and the work for which thou camest into the world and to prefer the creature before the Creator and to neglect the grace that is daily offered there It is the depth of thy sinfulness to be so insensible of it The dead feel
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
and to tell you what greater and better things you might certainly have if you would hearken to his Call Isaiah 55 1 2.3 We believe and obey the voice of God and come to you daily on his message who hath charged us to preach and be instant with you in season and out of season and to lift up our voice like a Trumpet and shew you your transgressions and your sins Isa. 58.1 2 Tim. 4.1 2. But wo and alas to the grief of our souls and your own undoing you stop your ears you stiffen your necks you harden your hearts and break our hearts and send us back to God with groans to tell him that we have done his message but can do no good on you nor scarcely get a sober hearing O that our eyes were as a fountain of tears that we might lament our ignorant careless people that have Christ before them and pardon and life and heaven before them and have not hearts to know and value them that might have Christ and grace and glory as well as others if it were not for their wilful negligence and contempt O that the Lord would fill our hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls that we might cast our selves even at their feet and follow them to their houses and speak to them with our bitter tears For long have we preached to many of them as in vain we study plainness to make them understand and many of them will not understand us We study serious piercing words to make them feel but they will not feel If the Greatest mattter would work with them we should awake them If the sweetest things would work we should entice them and win their hearts if the most dreadful things would work we should at least affright them from their wickedness if Truth and Certainty would take with them we should soon convince them if the God that made them and the Christ that bought them might be heard the ease would soon be altered with them if Scripture might be heard we should soon prevail if Reason even the best and strongest Reason might be heard we should not doubt but we should speedily convince them if experience might be heard even their own experience and the experience of all the world the matter would be mended Yea if the Conscience within them might be heard the case would be better with them then it is But if nothing can be heard wâ—at then shall we do for them If the dreadfull God of Heaven be slighted who then shall be regarded If the inestimable Love and blood of a Redeemer be made light of what then shall be valued If Heaven have no desiderable Glory with them and everlasting Ioys be nothing worth If they can jest at Hell and dance about the bottomless pit and play with the consuming fire and that when God and man do warn them of it What shall we do for such souls as these Once more in the name of the God of Heaven I shall do the Mâ—ssage to you which he had commanded us and leave it in these standing lines to convert your or condemn you to change you or to rise up in Iudgement against you and to be a witness to your faces that once you had a serious Call to Turn Hear all you that are the drudges of the world and the servants of the flesh and Satan That spend your daies in looking after prosperity on earth and drowâ— your consciences in drinking and gluttony and idleness and foolish sports and know you sin and yet will sin as if you set God at defiance and bid him do his worst and spare not Hearken all you that mind not God and have no heart to holy things and feel no savour in the Word or Worship of the Lord or in the thoughts or mention of eternal life that are careless of your immortal souls and never bestowed one hour in enquiring whaâ— case they are in whether sanctified or unsanctified and whether you are ready to appear before the Lord Hearken all you that by sinning in the light have sinned your selves into Atheism and Infidelity and do not believe the Word of God He that hath an ear to hear let him hear the Gratious and yet Dreadful Call of God! His eye is all this while upon you Your sins are registred and you shall surely hear of them all again God keepeth the Book now and he will write it all out upon your Consciences with his terrors and then you also shall keep it your selves O Sinners that you knew but what you are doing and who you are all this while offending The Sun it self is darkness before the glory of that Majesty which you daily abuse and carelesly provoke The sinning Angels were not able to stand before him but were cast down to be tormented Devils And dare such silly worms as you so fearlesly offend and set your selves against your Maker O that you did but a little know what a case that wretched soul is in that hath engaged the Living God against him The word of his mouth that made thee can unmake thee the frown of his face will cut thee off and cast thee out into utter darkness How eager are the Devils to be doing with thee that have tempted thee and do but wait for thâ— word from God to take and use thee as their own and then in a moment thou wilt be in Hell If God be against thee all things are against thee this world is but thy prison for all that thou so lovest it thou art but reserved in it to the day of wrath Job 21.30 Thy Iudge is coming thy soul is even going Yet a little while and thy friends shall say of thee He is dead and thou shalt see the things that now thou didst despise and feel that which now thou wilt not believe Death will bring such an Argument as thou canst not answer An Argument that shall effectually confute thy Cavils against the word and ways of God and all thy self-conceited dotages And then how soon will thy mind be changed Then be an unbeliever if thou canst stand then to all thy former words which thou wast wont to utter against the Scriptures or against a holy and a heavenly life Make good that cause then before the Lord which thou wast wont to plead against thy Teachers and against the people that feared God Then stand to thy old opinions and contemptuous thoughts of the diligence of the Saints Make ready now thy strongest Reasons and stand up then before the Iudge and plead like a man for thy fleshly thy unworldly and ungodly life But know that thou must have one to plead with that will not be outfaced by thee nor so easily put off as we thy fellow Creatuâ—es O poor deceived wretched soul there is nothing but a slender vail of flesh betwixt thee and that amazing sight which will quickly silence thee and turn thy tune and make thee of another mind As soon as
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
of his own free-will For the second God did that which belonged to him that is he gave man a perfect Law requiring him to continue in the Love of God and perfectly to obey him By the wilful breach of this Law man did not only forfeit his hopes of everlasting life but also turned his heart from God and fixed it on these lower fleshly things and hereby did blot out the spiritual Image of God from his soul. So that man did both fall short of the Glory of God which was his End and put himself out of the Way by which he should have attained it and this both as to the frame of his heart and of his life The holy Inclination and Love of his soul to God he lost and instead of it he contracted an Inclination and Love to the pleasing of his flesh or carnal-self by earthly things growing strange to God and acquainted with the creature And the course of his life was suited to the Bent and Inclination of his heart he lived to his carnal self and not to God he sought the creature for the pleasing of his flesh instead of seeking to please the Lord. With this Nature or Corrupt inclination we are all now born into the world For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Iob 14.4 As a Lyon hath a fierce and cruel nature before he doth devour and as an Adder hath a venemous nature before he sting so in our very infancy we have those sinful Natures or Inclinations before we think or speak or do amiss And hence springeth all the sin of our lives And not only so but when God hath of his mercy provided us a Remedy even the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of our souls and bring us back to God again we naturally love our present state and are â—oth to be brought out of it and therefore are set against the means of our Recovery and though custom have taught us to thank Christ for his good will yet carnal self perswadeth us to refuse his Remedies and to desire to be excused when we are commanded to take the Medicines which he offereth and are called to forsake all and follow him to God and Glory I pray you read over this leaf again and mark it for in these few words you have a true Description of our natural state and consequently of a wicked man For every man that is in this state of corrupted nature is a wicked man and in a state of death By this also you are prepared to understand what it is to be Converted to which end you must further know That the mercy of God not willing that man should perish in his sin provided a Remedy by causing his Son to take our Nature and being in one person God and man to become a Mediator between God and man and by dying for our sins on the Cross to ransom us from the curse of God and the power of the Devil and having thus Redeemed us the Father hath delivered us into his hands as his own Hereupon the Father and the Mediator do make a New Law and Covenant for man not like the first which gave life to none but the perfectly obedient and condemned man for every sin but Christ hath made a Law of Grace or a Promise of Pardon and Everlasting life to all that by true Repentance and by Faith in Christ are Converted unto God Like an Act of Oblivion which is made by a Prince to a company of Rebels on condition they will lay down arms and come in and be loyal subjects for the time to come But because the Lord knoweth that the heart of man is grown so wicked that for all this men will not accept of the Remedy if they be left to themselves therefore the Holy Ghost hath undertaken it as his office to inspire the Apostles and seal up the Scripture by Miracles and Wonders and to illuminate and convert the souls of the Elect. So that by this much you see that as there are three persons in the Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost so each of these persons have their several works which are eminently ascribed to them The Fathers works were to Create us to Rule us 〈◊〉 his â—ational creatures by the Law of Nature and Judge us thereby And in mercy to provide us a Redeemer when we were lost and to send his Son and accept his Ransom The works of the Son for us were these To Ransom and Redeem us by his Sufferings and Righteousness to give out the Promise or Law of Grace and Rule and Judge the world as their Redeemer on terms of Grace and to make intercession for us that the benefits of his death may be communicated and to send the Holy Ghost which the Father also doth by the Son The works of the Holy Ghost for us are these to indite the Holy Scriptures by inspiring and guiding the Prophets and Apostles and sealing the Word by his Miraculous gifts and works and the illuminating and exciting the ordinary Ministers of the Gospel and so enabling them and helping them to publish that Word and by the same word Illuminating and Converting the souls of men So that as you could not have been reasonable creatures if the Father had not Created you nor have had any access to God if the Son had not Redeemed you so neither can you have a part in Christ or be saved except the Holy Ghost do sanctifie you So that by this time you may see the several causes of this work The Father sendeth the Son the Son Redeemeth us and maketh the Promise of Grace the Holy Ghost inditeth and sealeth this Gospel the Apostles are the Secretaries of the Spirit to write it the Preachers of the Gospel do proclaim it and perswade men to obey it And the Holy Ghost doth make their preaching effectual by opening the hearts of men to entertain it And all this to repair the image of God upon the soul and to set the heart upon God again and take it off the creature and carnal self to which it is revolted and so to turn the current of the life into an heavenly course which before was earthly and all this by the entertainment of Christ by Faith who is the Physitian of the soul. By this which I have said you may see what it is to be Wicked and what it is to be Converted Which I think will be yet plainer to you if I describe them as consisting of their several parts and for the first a wicked man may be known by these three things First he is one who placeth his chief content on earth and loveth the creature more then God and his fleshly prosperity above the heavenly felicity He savoureth the things of the flesh but neither discerneth nor savoureth the things of the Spirit though he will say that Heaven is better then earth yet doth he not really so esteem it to himself If he might be
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
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
perswade them to it if we would beg it of them with tears we cannot perswade them and what more can we do These are the secret complaints and moans that many a poor Minister is fain to make And do you think that he hath any Pleasure in this Is it a Pleasure to him to see you go on in sin and cannot stop you to see you so miserable and cannot so much as make you sensible of it to see you merry when you are not sure to be an hour out of Hell to think what you must for ever suffer because you will not Turn and to think what an everlasting life of Glory you wilfully despise and cast away What sadder thing can you bring to their hearts and how can you devise to grieve them more Who is it then that you Pleasure by your sin and death It is none of your understanding godly friends Alas it is the grief of their souls to see your misery and they lament you many a time when you give them little thanks for it and when you have not hearts to lament your selves Who is it then that takes Pleasure in your sin It is none but the three great enemies of God whom you renouâ—ced in your Baptism and now are turned falsly to serve 1. The Devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and death For this is the very end of all his temptations For this he watcheth night and day You cannot devise to please him better then to go on in sin How glad is he when he sees thee going to the Ale-house or other sin and when he heareth thee curse or swear or rail How glad is he when he heareâ—h thee revile the Minister that would draw thee from thy sin and help to save thee These are his delight 2. The wicked also are delighted in it For it is agreeable to their nature 3. But I know for all this that it is not the pleasing of the Devil that you intend even when you please him but it is your own flesh the greatest and most dangerous enemy that you intend to please It is the flesh that would be pampered that would be pleased in meat and drink and cloathing that would be pleased in your company and pleased in applause and credit with the world and pleased in sports and lost and idleness this is the gulf that devoureth all This is the very god that you serve for the Scripture saith of such that their bellies are thâ—ir gods Phil. 3.18 But I beseech you stay a little and consider the business 1. Quest. Should your flesh be pleased before your Maker Will you displease the Lord and displease your Teachers and your godly friends and all to please your brutish appetites or sensual desires Is not God worthy to be the Ruler of your flesh If he shall not Rule it he will not save it you cannot in reason expect that he should 2. Qu. Your flesh is pleased with your sin but is your conscience pleased Doth not it grudge within you and tell you sometimes that all is not well and that your case is not so safe as you make it to be and should not your soul and conscience be pleased before that corruptible flesh 3. Quest. But is not your flesh preparing for its own displeasure also it loves the bait but doth it love the hook It loves the strong drink and sweet morsels it loves its case and sports and merriment it loves to be rich and well spoken of by men and to be some body in the world but doth it love the curse of God Doth it love to stand trembling before his Bar and to be judged to everlasting fire Doth it love to be tormented with the Devils for ever Take all together for there is no separating sin and hell but only by faith and true Conversion if you will keep one you must have the other If Death and Hell be pleasant to you no wonder then if you go on in sin but if they be not as I am sure they be not then what if sin were never so pleasant is it worth the loss of Life Eternal Is a little drink or meat or ease is the good words of sinners is the riches of this world to be valued above the Joyes of heaven Or are they worth the suffering of Eternal fire Sirs these questions should be considered before you go any further by every man that hath Reason to consider and that believes he hath a soul to save or lose Well the Lord here sweareth that he hath no Pleasure in your Death but rather that you would Turn and Live if yet you will go on and Dye rather then Turn remember it was not to Please God that you did it it was to Please the world and to please your selves And if men will damn themselves to please themselves and run into endless Torments for Delight and have not the wit the hearts the grace to hearken to God or man that would reclaim them what remedy but they must take what they get by it and repent it in another manner when it is too late Before I proceed any further in the Application I shall come to the next Doctrine which giveth me a fuller ground for it Doct. 5. SO earnest is God for the Conversion of sinners that he doubleth his commands and exhortations with vehemency Turn ye Turn ye Why will ye Dye This Doctrine is the Application of the former as by a Use of Exhortation and accordingly I shall handle it Is there ever an Unconverted sinner that heareth these vehement words of God Is there ever a man or woman in this Assembly that is yet a stranger to the renewing sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost It is an happy Assembly if it be not so with the most Hearken then to the voice of your maker and Turn to him by Christ without delay Would you know the will of God Why this is his will that you presently Turn Shall the living God send so earnest a Message to his creatures and should they not obey Hearken then all you that live after the flesh the Lord that gave thee thy breath and being hath sent a message to thee from heaven and this is his Message Turn ye Turn ye why will you die He that hath ears to hear let him hear Shall the voice of the Eternal Majesty be neglected If he do but terribly thunder thou art afraid O but this voice doth more nearly concern thee If he did but tell thee thou shalt die to morrow thou wouldst not make light of it O but this word concerneth thy life or death everlasting It is both a Command and an Exhortation As if he had said to thee I charge thee upon the allegiance that thou owest to me thy Creator and Redeemer that thou renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and Turn to me that thou maist Live I condescend to intreate thee as thou either lovest or fearest him that made thee as thou
lovest thine own life even thine everlasting Life Turn and Live as ever thou wouldst escape eternal misery Turn Turn for why wilt thou die And is there a heart in man in a reasonable creature that can once refuse such a Message such a Command such an Exhortation as this O what a thing then is the heart of man Hearken then all that love themselves and all that regard your own salvation Here is the joyfullest Message that ever was sent to the ears of man Turn ye Turn ye why will you die You are not yet shut up under desperstion Here is mercy offered you Turn and you shall have it O Sirs with what glad and Joyful hearts should you receive this tidings I know this is not the first time that you have heard it but how have you regarded it or how do you regard it now Hear all you ignorant careless sinners the word of the Lord Hear all you worldlings you sensual flesh-pleasers you gluttons and drunkards and whore-mongers and swearers you railers and backbiters slanderers and lyars Turn ye Turn ye why will you die Hear all you cold and out-side professors and all that are strangers to the life of Christ and never knew the power of his Cross and Resurrection and never felt your hearts warmed with his Love and live not on him as the strength of your souls Turn ye Turn ye why will you die Hear all that are void of the Love of God whose hearts are not toward him nor taken up with the Hopes of glory but set more by your earthly prosperity and delights then by the Joyes of Heaven all you that are Religious but a little on the by and give God no more then your flesh can spare that have not denyed your carnal selves and forsaken all that you have for Christ in the estimation and grounded resolution of your souls but have any one thing in the world so dear to you that you cannot spare it for Christ if he require it but will rather venture on his displeasure then forsake it Turn ye Turn ye Why will you die If you never heard it or observed it before remember that you were told from the Word of God this day that if you will but Turn you may Live and if you will not Turn you shall surely die What now will you do Sirs What is your resolution Will you Turn or will you not Halt not any longer between two opinions if the Lord he God follow him if your flesh be God then serve it still If Heaven be better then earth and fleshly pleasures come away then and seek a better Country and lay up your treasure where rust and motheâ— do not corrupt and thieves cannot break through and steal and be awakened at last with all your might to seek the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12.28 and to employ your lives on an higher design and turn the stream of your cares and labours another way then formerly you have done But if earth be better then heaven or will do more for you or last you longer then keep it and make your best of it and follow it still Sirs are you resolved what to do if you be not I will set a few more moving Considerations before you to see if Reason will make you resolve Consider first What preparations Mercy hath made for your salvation and what pitty it is that any man should be damned after all this The time was when the flaming sword was in the way and the curse of Gods Law would have kept thee back if thou hadst been never so willing to turn to God The time was when thy self and all the friends that thou hast in the world could never have procured thee the pardon of thy sins past though thou hadst never so much lamented and reformed them But Christ hath removed this impediment by the ransom of his blood The time was that God was wholly unreconciled as being not satisfied for the violation of his Law But now he is so far satisfied and reconciled as that he hath made thee a free Act of Oblivion and a free deed of Gift of Christ and Life and offereth it to thee and intreateth thee to accept it and it may be thine if thou wilt For he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and hath committed to us the word of actual reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Sinners we are commanded to do this Message to you all as from the Lord Come for all things are ready Luke 14.17 Are all things ready and are you unready God is Ready to entertain you and pardon all that you have done against him if you will but come As long as you have sinned as wilfully as you have sinned as hainously as you have sinned he is ready to cast all behind his back if you will but come Though you have been Prodigals and run away from God and have staid so long he is ready even to meet you and embrace you in his arms and rejoyce in your Conversion if you will but Turn Even the earthly worldling the swinish drunkard may find God ready to bid them welcome if they will but come Doth not this turn thy heart within thee O sinner if thou have an heart of flesh and not of stone in thee methinks this should melt it Shall the dreadful infinite Majesty of heaven even wait for thy returning and be ready to receive thee who hast abused him and forgotten him so long Shall he delight in thy Conversion that might at any time glorifie his Justice in thy damnation and yet doth it not melt thy heart within thee and art thou not yet ready to come in Hast thou not as much reason to be ready to come as God hath to invite thee and bid thee welcome But that 's not all Christ hath done his part on the Cross and made such way for thee to the Father that on his account thou maist be welcome if thou wilt come And yet art thou not Ready A Pardon is Ready expresly granted and offered thee in the Gospel And yet art thou unready The Ministers of the Gospel are Ready to assist thee to instruct thee and pronounce the absolving words of peace to thy soul they are Ready to pray for thee and to seal up thy pardon by the administration of the holy Sacrament And yet art thou not ready Aâ—l that fear God about thee are Ready to rejoyce in thy Conversion and to receive thee into the Communion of Saints and to give thee the right hand of fellowship yea though thou hadst been one that had been cast out of their society they dare not but forgive where God forgiveth when it is manifest to them by thy confession and amendment they dare not so much as hit thee in the teeth with thy former sins because they know that God will not upbraid thee with them If thou hadst been never so scandalous if thou wouldst but heartily be Converted and come in
Worldlings they are and Worldlings they will be though God hath told them that the Love of the world is enmity to God and that if any man love the world in that measure the love of the Father is not in him James 4.4 1 John 2.15 so that consequentially these men are willing to be damned though not directly They are willing of the way to Hell and Love the certain cause of their torment though they be not willing of Hell it self and do not love the pain which they must endure Is not this the Truth of your case Sirs You would not burn in Hell But you will kindle the fire by your sin and cast your selves into it you would not be tormented with Devils for ever But you will do that which will certainly procure it in despite of all that can be said against it It is just as if you would say I will drink this rats-bane or other poison but yet I will not die I will cast my self headlong from the top of a steeple but yet I will not kill my self I will thrust this knife into my heart but yet I will not take away my life I will put this fire into the thatch of my house but yet I will not burn it Just so it is with wicked men they will be wicked and they will live after the flesh and the world and yet they would not be damned But do you not know that the means do lead unto the end and that God hath by his righteous Law concluded that you must repent or perish He that will take poyson may as well say plainly I will kill my self for it will prove no better in the end Though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the Sugar that was mixt with it and would not be perswaded that it was poyson but that he might take it and do well enough But it is not his conceits and confidence that will save his life So if you will be Drunkards or Fornicators or worldlings or live after the flesh you may as well say plainly we will be damned For so you shall be unless you Turn would you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer that would say I will steall and kill but I will not be hanged when he knows that if he do the one the Judge in justice will see that the other be done If he say I will steal and murder he may as well say plainly I will be hanged So if you will go on in a carnal life you may as well say plainly we will go to Hell 2. Moreover The wicked will not use those means without which there is no hope of their Salvation He that will not eat may as well say plainly he will not live unless he can tell how to live without meat He that will not go his journey may as well say plainly he will not come to the end He that falls into the water and will not come out nor suffer another to help him out may as well say plainly he will be drowned So if you be carnal and ungodly and will not be converted nor use the means by which you should be converted but think it more ado then needs you may as well say plainly you will be damned For if you have found out a way to be saved without Conversion you have done that which never was done before 3. Yea this is not all but the wicked are unwilling even of salvation it self Though they may desire somewhat which they call by the name of Heaven yet Heaven it self considered in the true nature of the felicity they desire not Yea their hearts are quite against it Heaven is a state of perfect holiness and of continual Love and Praise to God And the wicked have no heart to this The imperfect Love and Praise and holiness which is here to be attained they have no mind of Much less of that which is so much greater The joyes of Heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot truly desire them So that by this time you may see on what ground it is that God supposeth that the wicked are willing of their own destruction They will not turn though they must Turn or die they will rather venture on certain misery then be converted and then to quiet themselves in their sin they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape 2. And as the Controversie is matter of wonder that ever men should be such enemies to themselves as wilfully to cast away their souls so are the Disputants too That God should stoop so low as thus to plead the case with man and that man should be so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all this in so plain a case yea and to resist all this when their own salvation lieth upon the issue No wonder if they will not hear us that are men when they will not hear the Lord himself As God saith Ezek. 3.7 when he sent the Prophet to the Israelites The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee For they will not hearken unto me For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted No wonder if they can plead against a Minister or a godly Neighbour when they will plead against the Lord himself even against the plainest passages of his word and think that they have Reason on their side When they weary the Lord with their words they say wherein have we wearied him Mal. 2.17 The Priests that despised his name durst ask Wherein have we despised thy name And when they polluted his Altar and made the Table of the Lord contempâ—ible they durst say Wherein have we polluted thee Mal. 1.6 7. But Wo unto him saith the Lord that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsheards strive with the Potsheards of the earth Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Isa. 45.9 Quest. But why is it that God will reason the Cause with man Answ. 1. Because that man being a reasonable creature is accordingly to be dealt with and by Reason to be perswaded and overcome God hath therefore endued them with Reason that they might use it for him One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and greatest Reason in the world when it is set before him 2. At least men shall see that God did require nothing of them that was unreasonable but that whatever he commandeth them and whatever he forbiddeth them he hath all the right Reason in the world on his side and they have good Reason to obey him but none to disobey And thus even the damned shall be forced to justifie God and confess that it was but Reason that they should have turned to him and they shall be forced to condemn themselves and confess that they had little reason to cast away themselves by the neglecting of his Grace in the day of their visitation Vse LOOK up your best and strongest Reasons
then it is to a child to play for pins why should it not be a greater Joy to you to think of the Kingdom of Heaven being yours then of all the riches or pleasure of the world As it is but foolish childishness that makes children so delight in gawds that they would not leave them for all your Lands so it is but foolish worldliness and fleshliness and wickedness that makes you so much delight in your houses and lands and meat and drink and ease and honour as that you would not part with them for the heavenly delights But what will you do for pleasure when these are gone Do you not think of that When your pleasures end in horrour and go out with a stinking snuff the Pleasures of the Saints are then at the best I have had my self but a little taste of the heavenly pleasures in the fore-thoughts of the blessed approaching day and in the present perswasions of the Love of God in Christ but I have taken too deep a draught of earthly pleasures so that you may see if I be partial it is on your side and yet I must profess from that little experience that there is no comparison there is more joy to be had in a day if the Sun of life shine clear upon us in the state of Holiness then in an whole life of sinful pleasures I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Psalm 84.10 A day in his Courts is better then a thousand anywhere else Psal. 84.10 The mirth of the wicked is like the laughter of a mad man that knows not his own misery and therefore Solomon faith of such laughter It is mad and of mirth What doth it Eccles. 2.2 And Eccles. 7.2 3 4 5 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise then to hear the song of fools For as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool All the pleasures of fleshly things is but like the scratching of a man that hath the itch It is his disease that makes him desire it and a wise man had rather be without his pleasure and be troubled with his itch Your loudest laughter is but like that of a man that is tickled he laughs when he hath no cause of joy And it is a wiser thing for a man to give all his estate and his life to be tickled to make him laugh then for you to part with the Love of God and the comforts of Holiness and the Hopes of Heaven and to cast your selves into damnation that you may have your flesh tickled with the pleasures of sin for a little while Judge as you are men whether this be a wise mans part It is but your carnal unsanctified nature that makes an holy life seem grievous to you and a course of sensuality seem more delightful If you will but Turn the Holy Ghost will give you another nature and inclination and then it will be more plesant to you to be rid of your sin then now it is to keep it and you will then say that you know not what a comfortable life was till now and that it was never well with you till God and Holiness were your delight Quest. BVT how cometh it to pass that men should be so unreasonable in the matters of their salvation they have wit enough in other matters What makes them so loth to be Converted that there should need so many words in so plain a case and all will not do but the most will live and de Vnconverted Answ. To name them only in a few words the causes are these 1. Men are naturally in Love with earth and flesh They are born sinners and their nature hath an enmity to God and godliness as the Nature of the Serpent hath to a man And when all that we can say goes against an habitual inclination of their natures no marvail if it little prevail 2. They are in Darkness and know not the very things which they hear Like a man that was born blind and hears an high commendation of the light but what will bearing do unless he see it They know not what God is nor what is the power of the Cross of Christ nor what the Spirit of holiness is nor what it is to live in love by faith They know not the certainty and suitableness and excellency of the heavenly inheritance They know not what Conversion and an holy mind and Conversation is even when they hear of it They are in a mist of ignorance They are lost and bewildred in sin like a man that hath lost himself in the night and knows not where he is nor how to come to himself again till the day-light do recover him 3. They are wilfully confident that they need no Conversion but some partial amendment but that they are in the way to heaven already and are Converted when they are not And if you meet a man that is quite out of his way you may long enough call on him to turn back again if he will not believe you that he is out of his way 4. They are become slaves to their flesh and drowned in the world to make provision for it Their lusts and passions and appetites have distracted them and got such an hand over them that they cannot tell how to deny them nor how to mind any thing else So that the drunkard saith I love a cup of good dâ—ink and I cannot forbear it The glutton saith I love good â—hear and I cannot forbear The fornicator saith I love to have my lust fulfilled and I cannot forbear And the gamester loves to have his sports and he cannot forbear So that they are become even captivated slayes to their flesh and their 〈◊〉 wilfulness is become an impotency and what they would not do they say they cannot And the worldling is so taken up with earthly things that he hath neither heart nor mind nor time for heavenly but as in Pharaâ—â—s dâ—eam Gen. 41.4 the lean kine did eat up the fat ones so this lean and barren earth doth eat up all the thoughts of heaven 5. Some are so carried away by the stream of evil company that they are possessed with hard thoughts of a godly life by hearing them speak against it or at least they think they may venture to do as they see most do and so they hold on in their sinful waies and when one is cut off and cast into Hell and another snatcht away from among them to the same condemnation it doth not
or six or seven hundred years custom you are as much offended with a motion for Reformation as if you were to lose you lives by it and hold fast old errors while you cry out against new ones Scarce a difference can arise among the ministers of the Gospel but you will fetch your own death from it And you will not hear or at least not obey the unquestionable Doctrine of any thing that jumps not with your conceits One will not hear a Minister because he readeth his Sermon and another will not hear him because he doth not read them One will not hear him because he saith the Lords prayer and another will not hear him because he doth not use it One will not hear them that are for Episcopacy and another will not hear them that are against it And thus I might shew it you in many other cases how you turn all that comes near you to your own destruction so clear is it that the ungodly are self-destroyers and that their perdition is of themselves ME thinks now upon the consideration of what is said and the review of your own waies you should bethink you what you have done and be ashamed and deeply humbled to remember it If you be not I pray you consider these following truths 1. To be your own destroyers is to sin against the deepest principle in your Natures even the principle of self preservation Every thing naturally desireth or inclineth to its own felicity well-fare or perfection And will you set your selves to your own destruction When you are commanded to love your neighbours as your selves it is supposed that you naturally love your selves But if you love your neighbours no better then your selves it seems you would have all the world be damned 2. How extreamly do you cross your own intentions I know you intend not your own damnation even when you are procuring it you think you are but doing good to your selves by gratifying the desires of your flesh But alas it is but as a draught of cold water in a burning feaver or as the scratching of an itching wild-fire which increaseth the disease and pain If indeed you would have pleasure or profit or honour seek them where they are to be found and do not hunt after them in the way to hell 3. What pitty is it that you should do that against your selves which none else in earth or hell can do If all the world were combined against you or all the Devils in Hell were combined against you they could not destroy you without your selves nor make you sin but by your own consent And will you do that against your selves which no one else can do you have hateful thoughts of the Devil because he is your enemy and endeavoureth your destruction And will you be worse then Devils to your selves Why thus it is with you if you had hearts to understand it when you run into sin and run from godliness and refuse to turn at the Call of God you do more against your own souls then men or devils could do besides And if you should set your selves and bend your wits to do your selves the greatest mischief you could not devise to do a greater 4. You are false to the trust that God hath reposed in you He hath much entrusted you with your own salvation and will you betray your trust He hath set you with all diligence to keep your hearts and is this the keeping of them Prov. 4.23 5. You do even forbid all others to pitty you when you will have no pitty on your selves if you cry to God in the time of your calamity for Mercy Mercy what can you expect but that he should thrust you away and say Nay thou wouldst not have mercy on thy self who brought this upon thee but thy own wilfulness And if your Brethren see you everlastingly in misery how shall they pitty you that were your own destroyers and would not be disswaded 6. It will everlastingly make you your own Tormenters in Hell to think on it that you brought your selves wilfully to that misery O what a griping thought it will be for ever to think with your selves That this was your own doing That you were warned of this day and warned again but it would not do That you wilfully sinned and wilfully turned away from God That you had time as well as others but you abused it You had Teachers as well as others but you refused their instructions You had holy examples but you did not imitate them You were offered Christ and Grace and Glory as well as others but you had more mind of your fleshly pleasures You had a price in your hands but you had not an heart to lay it out Proverbs 17.16 Can it choose but torment you to think of this your present folly O that your eyes were opened to see what you have done in the wilful wronging of your own souls and that you better understood those words of God Pro. 8 33 34 35 36. Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors For who so findeth me findeth life and shall obtain the favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul All they that hate me love death AND now I am come to the Conclusion of this work my heart is troubled to think how I shall leave you lest after this the flesh should still deceive you and the world and the Devil should keep you asleep and I should leave you as I find you till you awake in Hell Though in care of your poor souls I am affraid of this as knowing the obstinacy of a carnal heart yet I can say with the Prophet Ieremy 17.16 I have not desired the woful day the Lord knoweth I have not with Iames and Iohn desired that fire might come from heaven to consume them that refused Jesus Christ Luke 9.54 But it is the preventing of the eternal fire that I have been all this while endeavouring and O that it had been a needless work That God and conscience might have been as willing to spare me this labour as some of you could have been Dear friends I am so loth you should lie in everlasting fire and be shut out of Heaven if it be possible to prevent it that I shall once more ask you What do you now resolve Will you Turn or Die I look upon you as a Physitian on his Patient in a dangerous disease that saith to him Though you are far gone take this medicine and forbear but these few things that are hurtful to you and I dare warrant your life but if you will not do this you are but a dead man What would you think of such a man if the Physitian and all the friends he hath cannot perswade him to take one medicine to save his life or to forbear one or two poysonous things that
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