their worldly business and little trouble their minds with such thoughts And if they be but restrained from scandalous sins and can say I am no whore-monger nor thief nor curser nor swearer nor tipler nor exâ—ortioner I go to Church and say my prayers they think that this is true Conversion and they shall be saved as well as any Alas this is foolish cheating of your selves This is too much contempt of an endless glory and too gross neglect of your immortal souls Can you make so light of Heaven and Hell Your corpses will shortly all lye in the dust and Angels or Devils will presently seize upon your souls and every man and woman of you all will shortly be among other company and in another case then now you are you will dwell in those houses but a little longer you will work in your shops and fields but a little longer you will sit in those seats and dwell on this earth but a little longer you will see with those eyes and hear with those ears and speak with those tongues but a little longer till the Resurrection day and can you make shift to forget this O what a place will you be shortly in of Joy or Torment O what a sight will you shortly see in Heaven or Hell O what thoughts will shortly fill your hearts with unspeakable Delight or Horrour What work will you be employed in to Praise the Lord with Saints and Angels or to cry out in fire unquenchable with Devils And should all this be forgotten And all this will be endless and sealed up by an unchangeable decree Eternity Eternity will be the measure of your Joyes or sorrows and can this be forgotten And all this is true Sirs most certain true when you have gone up and down a little longer and slept and awak't a few tunes more you 'l be dead and gone and find all true that now I tell you and yet can you now so much forget it You shall then remember that you heard this Sermon and that this day from this place you were remembered of these things and perceive them matters a thousand times greater then either you or I could here conceive and yet shall they be now so much forgotten Beloved friends if the Lord had not awakened me to believe and lay to heart these things my self I should have remained in the dark and selfish state and have perished for ever but if he have truly made me sensible of them it will constrain me to compassionate you as well as my self If your eyes were so far opened as to see Hell and you saw your neighbours that were Unconverted dragg'd thither with hideous cries though they were such as you accounted honest people on earth and feared no such matter by themselves such a sight would make you go home and think of it and think again and make you warn all about you as the damned worldling in Luke 16.28 would have had his Brethen warned lest they come to that place of torment Why faith is a kind of sight it is the eye of the soul the Evidence of things aot seen If I believe God it is next to seeing And therefore I beseech you excuse me if I be half as earnest with you about these matters as if I had seen them If I must die to morrow and it were in my power to come again from another world and tell you what I had seen would you not be willing to hear me and would you not believe and regard what I should tell you If I might preach one Sermon to you after I am dead and have seen what is done in the world to come would you not have me plainly speak the truth and would you not crowd to hear me and would you not lay it to heart but this must not be God hath his appointed way of teaching you by Scripture and Ministers and he will not humour Unbelievers so far as to send men from the dead to them and to alter his establisht way if any man quarrel with the Sun God will not humour him so far as to set him up a clearer light Friends I beseech you regard me now as you would do if I should come from the dead to you for I can give you as full assurance of the truth of what I say to you as if I had been there and seen it with my eyes For its possible for one from the dead to deceive you but Jesus Christ can never deceive you the Word of God delivered in Scripture and sealed up by the Miracles and holy workings of the Spirit can never deceive you Believe this or believe nothing Believe and obey this or you are undone Now as ever you believe the Word of God and as ever you care for the salvation of your souls let me beg of you this reasonable request and I beseech you deny me not that you would without any more delay when you are gone from hence remember what you heard and enter into an earnest search of your hearts and say to your selves Is it so indeed must I Turn or Die Must I be Converted or Condemned It s time for me then to look about me before it be too lâ—te Oh why did I not look after this till now Why did I venturously poste off or flubber over so great a business Was I awake or in my wits Oh blessed God what a mercy is it that thou didst not cut off my life all this while before I had any certain hope of eternal life Well God forbid that I should neglect this work any longer What state is my soul in Am I Câ—nverted or am I not Was ever such a change or work done upon my soul Have I been illuminated by the Word and Spirit of the Lord to see the odiousness of sin the need of a Saviour the Love of Christ and the Excellencies of God and Glory Is my heart broken or humbled within me for my former life Have I thankfully entertained my Saviour and Lord that offered himself with pardon and life to my soul Do I hate my former sinful life and the remnant of every sin that is in me Do I flie from them as my deadly enemies Do I give up my self to a life of Holiness and Obedience to God Do I love it and delight in it Can I truly say that I am dead to the world and carnal self and that I live for God and the Glory which he hath promised Haâ—h Heaven more of my Estimation and Resolution then Earth And is God the dearest and the Highest in my soul Once I am sure I lived principally to the world and flâ—sh and God had nothing but some heartless services which the world could spare and which were the leavings of the flesh Is my heart now turned another way Have I a new design and a new end and a new train of holy affectâ—ons Have I set my hopes and heart in heaven And is it now the scope and design
and bent of my heart and life to get well to heaven and see the glorious face of God and live in his everlasting Love and Praise And when I sin is it against the very habitual bent and design of my heart And do I conquer all gross sins and am I weary and willing to be rid of mine infirmities This is the state of a Converted soul. And thus must tâ— be with me or I must perish Is it thus indeed with me or is it not It s time to get this doubt resolved before the dreadful Iudge resolve it I am not such a stranger to my own heart and life but I may somewhat perceive whether I am thus Converted or not if I be not it will do me no good to flatter my soul with false conceits and hopes I am resolved no more to deceive my self but to endeavour to know truly off or on whether I be Converted yea or no that If I be I may rejoyce in it and glorifie my gracious Lord and comfortably go on till I reach the Crown and if I am not I may set my self to beg and seek after the Grace that should convert me and may turn without any more delay For if I find in time that I am out of the way by the help of Christ I may turn and be recovered but if I stay till either my heart be forsaken of God in blindness and hardness or till I be catcht away by death it s then too late There is no place for Repentance and Conversion then I know it must be now or never Sirs this is my request to you that you will but take your hearts to task and thus examine them till you see if it may be whether you are Converted or not and if you cannot find it out by your own endeavours go to your Ministers if they be faithful and experienced men and desire their assistance The matter is great let not bashfulness nor carelesness hinder you They are set over you to advise you for the saving of your souls as Physitians advise you for the curing of your bodies It undoes many thousands that they think they are in the way to salvation when they are not and think that they are Converted when it is no such thing And then when we call to them daily to Turn they go away as they came and think that this concerns not them for they are turned already and hope they shall do well enough in the way that they are in at least if they do pick the fairest path and avoid some of the foulest steps when alas all this while they live but to the world and flesh and are strangers to God and Eternal life and are quite out of the way to Heaven And all this is much because we cannot perswade them to a few serious thoughts of their Condition and to spend a few hours in the examining of their states Is there not many a self-deceiving wretch that heareth me this day that never bestowed one hour or quarter of an hour in all their lives to examine their souls and try whether they are truly Converted or not O merciful God that will care for such wretches that care no more for themselves and that will do so much to save them from Hell and help them to Heaven who will do so little for it themselves If all that are in the way to Hell and in a state of damnation did but know it they durst not continue in it The greatest hope that the Devil hath of bringing you to damnation without a rescue is by keeping you blindfold and ignorant of your state and making you believe that you may do well enough in the way that you are in If you knew that you are out of the way to heaven and were lost for ever if you should die as you are durst you sleep another night in the state that you are in durst you live another day in it Could you heartily laugh or be merry in such a state What! And not know but you may be snatcht away to hell in an hour Sure it would constrain you to forsake your former company and courses and to betake your selves to the waies of Holiness and the Communion of the Saints Sure it would drive you to cry to God for a new heart and to seek help of those that are fit to counsel you There 's none of you sure that cares not for being damned Well then I beseech you presently make enquiry into your hearts and give them no rest till you find out your condition that if it be good you may rejoyce in it and go on and if it be bad you may presently look about you for recovery as men that believe they must Turn or Die What say you Sirs Will you resolve and promise to be at this much labour for your own souls Will you fall upon this self examination when you come home Is my request unreasonable Your consciences know it is not Resolve on it then before you stir Knowing how much it concerneth your souls I beseech you for the sake of that God that doth command you at whose Bar you will shortly all appear that you will not deny me this reasonable request For the sake of those souls that must turn or dye I beseech you deny me not even but to make it your business to understand your own Conditions and build upon sure ground and know off or on whether you are Converted or no and venture not your souls on negligent security But perhaps you 'l say What if we should find our selves yet unconverted what shall we do then This question leadeth me to my second Doctrine which will do much to the answering of it to which I shall now proceed Doct. 2. IT is the Promise of God that the wicked shall Live if they will but Turn Vnfeignedly and throughly Turn The Lord here professeth that this is it that he takes pleasure in that the wicked Turn and Live Heaven is made as sure to the Converted as Hell is to the Unconverted Turn and Live is as certain a truth as Turn or Dye God was not bound to provide us a Saviour nor open to us a door of hope nor call us to Repent and Turn when once we had cast our selves away by sin But he hath freely done it to magnifie his Mercy Sinners there 's none of you shall have cause to go home and say I preach desperation to you Do we use to shut up the door of Mercy against you O that you would not shut it up against your selves Do we use to tell you that God will have no mercy on you though you Turn and be Sanctified When did you ever hear a Preacher say such a word You that bark at the Preachers of the Gospel for desiring to keep you out of Hell and say that they Preach Desperation tell me if you can when did you ever hear any sober man say that there is no hope for you
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