NOW OR NEVER The Holy Serious Diligent Believer Justified Encouraged Excited and Directed And the Opposers and Neglecters Convinced by the Light of Scripture and Reason By Richard Baxter To be Communicated by such as want ability or opportunity themselves to plead the Cause of Serious Holiness for mens Conviction Luk. 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children Nihil est ad defendendum Puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum Veritate facilius Ambros LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The Contents IN the Preface the Question resolved Whether a Man may be saved in any Religion that is serious in practising it No Religion will save a man that is not true to it serious diligent in practising it Why the Author rather publisheth such common necessary things than confutation of the many calumnies publisht against himself His expectations from men And answer with Tertullian about sufferings An Advertisement about a passage cited out of the Homilies His Justification for opposing scorners enemies of Holiness out of the Church Homilies A Passage about Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians The Text opened Doct. 1. The work of this life cannot be done when this life is ended Doct. 2. Therefore while we have time we must do the work of this present life with vigour and diligenee 1. Time cannot be recalled 2. Life shall never be here restored 3. There is no doing this work in the life to come What it is to do it with our Might some cautions Instances of the work to be done with our might Obj. What Might have we Answered How to rouse up our selves to seriousness What to think of them that oppose a holy serious diligence in the service of God The greatness of the sin Especially if they are Preachers What it is in Religion that Hypocrites hate Seneca's testimony for seriousness A terrible passage in our Homilies against Scorners at godliness The greatness of their sin Obj It is not Godliness but humour faction disobedience hypocrisie c. Answered Advice to the flocks Obj. Be not righteous overmuch Answered Exhortation to serious diligence Obj. 1. I have lost my Time Answered Obj. 2. I have opposition and hinderances Obj. 3. I am dull and cold Directions and Cautions Reasons for pleading this cause with Ministers The Exhortation re-inforced The Devils designe to make use of Differences in smaller matters against Christianity and Godliness it self Such differences sects divisions shall be no excuse to the ungodly but aggravate their sin as being against that which all Sects and Parties were agreed in What that Religion is that we call men to be serious and diligent in 1. To live according to the Principles of Faith that among Christians are past controversie Ten named 2. To do that Materially that all are agreed of Ten duties named 3. To do that in the very Manner of Gods service that all are agreed in Ten particulars mentioned Obj. I will never believe that God delights in long and earnest prayers or is moved by the words of man Answered Obj. Is not your strict observation of the Lords Day a Controversie Answered The Conclusion exhortatory The Preface IT is a question more boldly than accurately debated by many Whether a man may not be saved in any Religion that is faithful to the principles of it by serious diligent practice The true Solution is this Religion is that which men hold and do to serve and please God 1. If men make themselves a Religion of serving Idols or Devils instead of God 2. Or if they place their service to God himself in things that are evil as what evil is there that some men have not brought into their Religion and fathered upon God the more diligent such men are in their Religion the more they sin 3. Or if they make themselves a Religion of irrational ludicrous ceremonies their greatest diligence in this will not save them 4. Or if they hold all the Essentials of the true Religion except some one it cannot save them while one thing is wanting which is Essential to that Religion and so necessary to salvation which is the case of real Hereticks For they are not indeed of that Religion if they want that which is Essential to it 5. Or if they hold all that is Essential to the true Religion only Notionally and hold any thing with it practically which is contradictory and inconsistent with it the soundness of their Notional belief will not save them from the mortal poison of their practical Heresie or Error But 1. Whosoever holdeth all that is necessary to salvation and is serious and diligent in living according thereunto shall be saved whatever error he holdeth with it For if he be serious and diligent in the Practice of all things necessary to salvation he hath all that is necessary to salvation viz. in Belief and Practice And it must needs follow that his Errors are either not concontradictory to the things necessary which he holdeth and practiseth or that he holdeth not those Errors practically but notionally as an opinion or uneffectual cogitation in a dream which provokes not to action and in such a case the error keeps no man from salvation What is necessary to be believed by them that never hear the Gospel it so little concerneth us to know that God hath not thought meet to make it so plain to us as things that more concern our selves But as it is certain that without the Atonements Satisfaction and Reconciliation made by Christ and without new terms of Grace to be judged by and without his Grace for the performance of their part no man can be saved that hath the use of reason so there is so much knowledge necessary to salvation as is necessary to engage the heart to love God above all and sincerely to obey his revealed will and to prefer the life to come before the transitory pleasures of this life Now if any man can prove to me that those that never heard the Gospel can thus love God and the life to come and obey sincerely without the knowledge of the person life death resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Declaration of the attractive Love and Goodness of God in him and in the work of our Redemption then I should believe that such Negative Infidels may be saved For God cannot damn a sanctified soul that sincerely loveth him But if the discovery of the Love of God in our Redemption be so necessary a moral means to ingage the heart now corrupted by sin and creature-love to the true Love of God that this cannot be wrought without it or if Christ give not his Spirit to produce the love of God in any but those that hear the Gospel and believe in him then no such persons can be saved by their Religion For Christ is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him and and the Love of God is absolutely and of its self necessary to salvation
be preferred in your estimation love and service and all that is done for man must be done for his sake You must not set up duties of Piety against duties of Justice Charity and Sobriety It is not true Piety that will not bring forth these God must be loved above all and our neighbours as our selves and these two sorts of love are inseparable Do all the good you can to all while you have opportunity especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. What good you would hear of in the day of your accounts that do now speedily diligently and sincerely according to your power Say not I may come to want my self but cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. and whether all may not quickly be taken from thee and then thou wilt wish thou hadst done good with it whilst thou hadst it and lent it to the Lord and trusted him with thy remainder who entrusted thee with his blessings and hadst made thee friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when all fail they might receive thee into the everlasting habitations Drop not now and then a scant and grudging alms as if thou were a loser by it and God must be be beholden to thee but believe that the greatest gain is to thy self and look after such bargains and do good as readily and gladly liberally as one that verily expecteth a ful reward in Heaven This is part of the service of God that we exhort you to even to visit and relieve and love Christ in his members and brethren Mat. 25. and is there any thing of doubt or controversie in all this 8. Moreover God will be served with Love and willingness and delight It is the most gainful honourable blessed and pleasant work in the world which he hath appointed you and not a toilsome task or slavery And therefore it is not a Melancholy pining troublesom course of life that we perswade you to under the name of Godliness but it is to rejoyce in the Lord and to live in the joyful expectations of Eternal Life and in the sense and assurance of the Love of God If you could shew us any probability of a more pleasant and joyful life on Earth then that which serious Holiness doth afford I should be glad with all my heart to hearken to you I am ready to tell you what is the ground of our comforts which faith revealeth If you will come and soberly debate the case and shew us the matter and ground of your comforts which you have or hope for in any other way if yours prove greater and better and surer then the joys of faith we will hearken to you and be of your mind and side The matter of the joyes of a Believer is that all his sins are pardoned that God is reconciled to him in Christ that he hath the promise of God that all things even the greatest sufferings shall work together for his good that he is always in the love and care and hands of God that he hath leave to draw near him by holy prayer and open his heart to him in all his straits and wants that he may solace himself in his Praises and Thanksgiving and in other parts of holy worship that he may read and hear his holy Word the sure discovery of the will of God and revelation of the things unseen and the Charter of his Inheritance that he may exercise his soul in the serious believing thoughts of the Love of God revealed in the wonderful work of our Redemption and of the person and office and grace of Jesus Christ our Redeemer and that he may love that God that hath so wonderfully loved him that he hath the Spirit of God to quicken and actuate his soul to supply his spiritual defects and kill his sins and help him to Believe to Love to Rejoyce to Pray that this Spirit is Gods Seal upon him and the earnest of everlasting life that Death shall not kill his hopes nor end his happiness but that his felicity and fullest joy beginneth when that of worldlings hath an end and their endless misery begins that he is delivered from everlasting torment by the redemption of Christ and the sanctification of the spirit that Angels will attend his departing soul into the presence of his Father that he shall be with his glorified Redeemer and behold his Glory that his body shall be raised to everlasting life that he shall be justified by Christ from all the accusations of the Devil and all the slanders of the malicious world that he shall live with God in endless Glory and see and enjoy the Glory of his Creator and shall never more be troubled with enemies with sin or sorrow but among his holy ones shall perfectly and most joyfully love and praise the Lord for ever These are the matter of a Believers joy These purchased by Christ revealed in his Word sealed by his Miracles his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit are our comfort This is the Religion the labour that we invite you to It is not to despair nor to some dry unprofitable toil nor to self-troubling grieving miserable melancholy nor to costly Sacrifices or idle Ceremonies or irrational Service such as the Heathens offered to their Idols it is not to cast away all mirth and comfort and to turn unsociable and morose and sower but it is to the greatest joys that the world alloweth and nature is here capable of and reason can discern and own It is to begin a truly merry sociable life It is to fly from fear sorrow in flying from sin and Hell and from the consuming wrath of God It is to the foretastes of everlasting joys and to the beginnings of eternal life This the labour the Religion which we would have you follow with all your might If you have better things to seek and follow and find let us see them that we may be as wise as you If you have not for your souls sake make not choice of vanity which will deceive you in the day of your necessity But you must not think to make us believe that a great house or a horse or a whore or a feast or a flatterer or fine cloaths or any childish toys or brutish filthiness are more comfortable things then Christ and Everlasting Life or that it is sweeter and better to love a harlot or lands or mony then to love God and Grace and Glory nor that any thing that will go no further then the Grave with you is as good as that which will endure to Eternity nor that any pleasure which a dog or swine hath is equal to the delights of the Angels of Heaven If you would have us of your mind you must not be of this mind nor perswade us to such horrible things as
and Faith in Christ is so far necessary to salvation as it is necessary to bring men to the love of God as pardoning sin and reconciled to them But if any should never so confidently conclude that some that hear not of Christ may be saved yet he must needs confess that the want of this clear and great discovery of the love and goodness of God in his pardoning grace and of the glorious life which he hath prepared for us must needs make the love of God a very rare and difficult thing and consequently their salvation rare and difficult in comparison of ours The Christian Faith is The believing an everlasting life of happiness to be given by God with the pardon of all sin as procured by the sufferings and merits of Jesus Christ to all that are sanctified by the Holy Ghost and do persevere in love to God and to each other and in a holy and heavenly conversation This is saving Faith and Christianity if we Consent as well as Assent All that was necessary to salvation to be believed was formerly thought to be contained in the Creed and that was the test or symbol of the Christian Faith and Christian Religion is the same and hath the same rule and test symbol in all Ages But since Faction and Tyranny Pride Covetousness became the masters of the Religion of too many vice and selfish interest hath commanded them to change the Rule of Faith by their additions to make so much necessary to salvation as is necessary to their affected Vniversal Dominion and to their Commodity and carnal ends And since Faction entred and hath torn the Church into many Sects the Greek the Roman the Armenian the Jacobites the Abassine and many more it seemeth meet to the more tyrannical Sect to call these several Religions and to say that every man that differeth from them in any of their opinions or additions which they please to call Articles of Faith is of another Religion And yet when they have divided the Church and damned the greatest part of Christians and raged with fire and sword against their brethren they confess themselves that it is no point of faith at all that it is of Divine right that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters Successor and not only of humane right And must the Church be divided and most be damned for not believing or submitting to a humane Ordinance If we be of many Religions is not Popery then a humane Religion The very words of Smith Bishop of Chalcedon the chiefest of the English Popish Clergy are these Survey c. 5. To us it sufficeth that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters Successor and this all the Fathers testifie and all the Catholick Church believeth but whether it be jure divino or humano is no point of faith And how do their Laicks here know what is a point of faith but by the testimony of their Priests He is the true Catholick Christian that hath but One even the Christian Religion And this is the case of the Protestants who casting off the additions of Popery adhere to the Primitive simplicity unity If Papists or any others corrupt this Religion with humane additions and innovations the great danger of these Corruptions is lest they draw them from the sound belief and serious practice of that antient Christianity which we are all agreed in And among Papists or any other Sect where their corruptions do not thus corrupt their Faith and Practice in the true Essentials it is certain that those corruptions shall not damn them For he that truly believeth all things that are essential to Christianity and liveth accordingly with serious diligence hath the promise of salvation And it is certain that what error that man holdeth it is either not inconsistent with true Christianity or not practically but notionally held and so not inconsistent as held by him For how can that he inconsistent which actually doth consist with it If a Papist or any other Sectaâ—y do seriously love God and his Brother and set his heart upon the life to come and give up himself to the merits and Grace of Jesus Christ and the sanctification of the holy Spirit to be fitted for that glory and liveth by faith above the world and mortifieth the desires of the flesh and liveth wilfully in no known sin but presseth after further degrees of holiness I doubt not of the salvation of that person No more then of the life of him that hath taken poison but into his mouth and spit it out again or let down so little as nature and antidotes do expel But I will not therefore plead for poison nor take it because men may live that thus take it Having answered this great Question Reader I am now come up to the subject of my following discourse and to tell thee that though it be a great question whether serious diligence in a corrupt Religion will save a man it is past all question and agreed on by all sides that no Religion will save a man that is not serious sincere and diligent in it If thou be of the truest Religion in the world and art not true thy self to that Religion the Religion is good but it is none of thine Objectively thou art of a true and good Religion the things in themselves are true and good but subjectively thou art sincerely of no Religion at all for if thou art not serious hearty and diligent in it it is certain that thou dost not truly entertain it and make it thine but it is thy Books that have the true Religion or thy tongue or fantasie or brain but not thy heart and the best meat on thy table or that goeth no further then thy mouth will never feed thee or preserve thy life So certain is the salvation of every holy mortified Christian and so certain the damnation of every ungodly worldly fleshly sensualist that I had a thousand fold rather have my soul in the case of a godly Anabaptist yea or a Monk or Fryar among the Papists that liveth a truly heavenly life in the love of God and man and in a serious diligent obedience to God according to his knowledge then in the case of a Protestant or whomsoever you can imagine to be rightest in his opinions that is worldly and sensual and a stranger if not an enemy to the power and serious practice of his own profest Religion and void of a Holy and Heavenly heart and life If ever such a man be saved the principles of all Religion do deceive us And certainly such mens hypocrisie doth aggravate their sin and will encrease their misery So many as there be in the world that profess themselves Christians and yet are not serious and diligent in their Religion but are ungodly neglecters or enemies of a holy life so many Hypocrites are in the world And I wonder that their consciences call them not Hypocrites when they stand up at the
them that entertained him that you were called on and warn'd as well as they but obstinately despised and neglected all That Life and Death were set before you and the everlasting joyes were offered to your choice against the charms of sinful Pleasures and you might have freely had them if you would and were told that Holiness was the only way and that it must be Now or Never and yet that you chose your own destruction These thoughts will be part of Hell to the ungodly They will wonder that Reason could be so unreasonable and they that had the common wit of man in other matters should be so far beside themselves in that which is the only thing that its commendable to be wise for that such sottish Reasonings should prevail with them against the clearest light and nothing should be preferred before all things and arguments fetcht from chaff and dung should conquer those that were fetcht from Heaâ—en O what heart-renting thoughts will these be when Eternity shall afford them leisure for an impartial review Yea that they should deceive others also with such a gross deceit and scorn at all that would not be as mad as they that being drunken with the worlds delusion they should abuse all that were truly sober that the one thing needfull should seem to them a needless thing That their tongues should plead for these delusions of their wicked hearts and they should be enemies to those that would not be enemies to God and to themselves and cast away their Time and Souls as they did They will wonder with self-indignation what could bewitch them into so great unreasonableness below a man against the light of nature as well as of supernatural revelation Honourable and beloved Hearers I beseech you do not take it ill that I speak so much of these matters that are so unpleasant and unwelcome to unbelieving careless carnal hearts It is that I may prevent all this in time by the awakenings of true Repentance And O that this might be the success That I might hear by your penitent Confessions and see by your universal speedy reformation that God hath so great Mercy for you that these perswasions might be the means of so much Happinesse to you and comfort unto me However this Assembly shall be witnesses that you were warned and Conscience shall be witness that if you wast the rest of your dayes in the pleasures and vanities of this deceitful world it was not because you could have no better and were not called to higher things That if you yet stand idle it is not because you could not be hired For in the name of Christ I have called you into his vineyard and told you of your work and wages and ashamed your excuses and objections this day Come away then speedily from the snares of sinners and the Company of deceived hardened men and cast away the works of darknesse Heaven is before you Death is at hand The Eternal God hath sent to call you Mercy doth yet stretch forth its arms You have staid too long and abused Patience too much already Stay no longer O now please God and comfort us and save your selves by Resolving that this shall be the Day and faithfully performing of this your Resolution Vp and be doing Believe Repent Desire Obey and do all this with all your Might Love him that you must Love for ever and Love him with all your Soul and Might seek that which is truly worth the seeking and it will pay for all your cost and pains And seek it first with all your Might Remembring still it must be Now or Never BEfore I conclude I have two messages yet to deliver to the servants of the Lord The One is of Encouragement The Other of Direction I know that many of you have a threefold trouble which requireth a threefold comfort and encouragement One is that you have done so little of your work but lost so much of your time already Another is that you are so opposed and hindred And the greatest of all is that you are yet so dull and slow The cure of which must be the matter of my Directions 1. For the first That you have lost your Time must be the matter of your Humiliation But that all is not lost before you see your sin and duty but yet the patience and mercy of the Lord are attending you and continuing your hope this is the matter of your comfort and encouragement Repent therefore that you came no sooner home But rejoyce that you are come home at last and now be more diligent in redeeming your time in remembrance of the time already lost And though it must be your grief that your Master hath been deprived of so much as his service and others of so much good which you should have done them and that time is lost that cannot be recalled yet it is your comfort that your own Reward may be equal with them that have born the burthen and heat of the day For many that are last in the time of their coming in shall be first in receiving their reward This is the meaning of that Parable in Mat. 20. which was spoken to encourage them that had stood out too long and to rebuke the envie and high expectations of them that came in sooner and it is no whit contradictory to those passages in Matth. 25. which intimate a different degree of glory to be given to them that have different degrees of Grace upon their industrious improvement The one Parable Matth. 20. shews that men shall not be rewarded differently for their longer or shorter continuance in the work but that those that came in late and yet are found with equal holiness shall be rewarded equally with the first And more if their holiness be more which the second Parable expresseth declaring Gods purpose to give them the greatest Glory that have improved their Holiness to the greatest Measure O therefore that the sense of your former unkindness might provoke you the more resolvedly to give up your selves in fervent love and full obedience and then you will find that your Time is Redeemed though it cannot be recalled and that Mercy hath secured your full reward O what an unspeakable Mercy is this that if yet you will devote your selves entirely to Christ and serve him with your might the little time that yet remains he will take it as if you had come in at the first hour of the day 2. And as for the Opposition and hinderances in your way they are no other then what your Lord foretold He hath gone before you and conquered much more then ever you will encounter from without though he had not a body of sin to conquer and in that respect the conquest of his Spirit in his members hath the preheminence of his personal conquest He hath bid you Be of good chear because he hath overcome the World If you will not take up your cross and follow him you
much of the labour of our lives And if all others did as some do by us alas how sad an employment should we have and how little would it trouble us to be silenced and laid aside If we were sick of the ambitious or covetous thirst we should then say that it is they that deny us wealth and honour that disappoint us But if we are Christians this is not our case but it is the thirst after your conversion and salvation which affecteth us and therefore it is you even you that linger in your sins and delay repentance and forget your home and neglect your souls it is you that disappoint us and you that are our afflicters and as much as you think you befriend us when you plead our cause against men of violence and rage it is you that shall answer for the loss of our time and labour and hope and for the grieving of your Teachers hearts Sinners what ever the Devil and raging passion may say against a holy life God and your own consciences shall be our witnesses that we desired nothing unreasonable or unnecessary at your hands I know it is the master-piece of the Devils craft when he cannot keep all Religion in contempt to raise up a dust of controversie in the world about names and forms and circumstances in Religion that he may keep men busily striving about these while Religion it self is neglected or unknown and that he may make men believe that they have some Religion because they are for one side or other in these controversies and especially that he may entice men to number the substantials of Religion it self among these lesser doubtful points and make sinners believe that it is but the precise opinion of one party that they reject while they reject the serious practice of all true Religion And so the Devil gets more by these petty quarrels and controversies occasioned by contentious empty men then he could have done by the open opposition of Infidels Heathens or the prophane So that neither I nor any man that opinionative men have a mind to quarrel with can tell how to exhort you to the very practice of Christianity it self but you are presently casting your thoughts upon some points wherein we are reported to differ from you or remembring some clamours of malicious men that prejudice against the person of the speaker make keep your souls from profiting to salvation by the doctrine which even your selvs profess If this be the case of any one of you I do not mean your consciences shall so scape the power or evidence of the truth Dost thou talk of our differences about Forms and Ceremonies Alas man what 's that to the message which we come about to thee what is that to the business that we are preaching of The question that I am putting to you is not whether you will be for this form of Church-Government or for that for a Ceremony or against it but it is whether you will hearken in time to God and conscience and be as busie to provide for Heaven as ever you have been to provide for Earth and whether you will set your selves to do the work that you are Created and Redeemed for This is the business that I am sent to call you to what say you will you do it and do it seriously without delay You shall not be able to say that I called you to a party a faction or some opinion of my own or laid your salvation upon some doubtful controversie No sinner thy conscience shall have no such shift for its deceit It is godlinesse serious and practical godliness that thou art called to It is nothing but what all christians in the world both Papists Greeks Protestants and all the parties among those that are true christians are agreed in the profession of That I may not leave thee in any darkness which I can deliver thee from I le tell thee distinctly though succinctly what it is that thou art thus importuned to and tell me then whether it be that which any christian can make doubt of 1. That which I intreat of thee is but to live as one that verily believeth there is a God and that this God is the Creator the Lord and Ruler of the world and that it is incomparably more of our business to understand and obey his Laws and as faithful Subjects to be conformed to them then to observe or be conformed to the Laws of Man And to live as men that do believe that this God is Almighty and the greatest of men are less then crawling worms to him and that he is infinitely wise and the wisdom of man is foolishness to him and that he is infinitely good and amiable and the best of creatures is dung and filth in comparison of him and that his love is the only felicity of man and that none are happy but those that do enjoy it and none that do enjoy it can be miserable and that riches and honors and fleshly delights are brutish vanities in comparison of the eternal love of God Live but as men that heartily believeth all this and I have that I come for And is any of this a matter of controversie or doubt not among Christians I am sure not among wise men It is no doubt to those in heaven nor to those in hell not to those that have not lost understanding upon earth they Live then according to these truths 2. Live as men that verily believe that Mankind is fallen into sinne and misery and that all men are corrupted and under the condemnation of the Law of God till they are delivered pardoned reconciled to God and made new creatures by a renewing restoring sanctifying change Live but as men that believe that this cure must be wrought and this great restoring change must be made upon your selves if it be not done already Live as men that have so great a work to look after And is this a matter of any doubt or controversie sure it is not to a Christian and me-thinks it should not be to any man else that knoweth himself any more then to a man in a dropsy whether he be diseased when he feels the thirst and sees the swelling Did you but know what cures and changes are necessarily to be made upon your diseased miserable souls if you care what becomes of them you would soon see cause to look about you 3. Live but as men that verily believe that you are Redeemed by the Son of God who hath suffered for your sins and brought you the tidings of pardon salvation which you may have if you will give up your selves to him who is the physitian of souls to be healed by him Live as men that believe that the infinite love of God revealed to lost mankind in the Redeemer doth bind us to love him with all our hearts and serve him with all our restored faculties and to work as those that have the greatest
it then to hear and think that you lost wilfully lost such an opportunity Look about you then and see what is to be done Are there not Ale-houses to be supprest and drunkards riotous persons to be restrained Preaching and Piety to be promoted Do it with your might For it must be Now or Never 6. To come yet a little nearer you and speak of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls Are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature born only of the flesh and not of the Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. minding the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 5 7 9 13. consequently yet in the power of Satan taken captive by him at his will Act. 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Vp and be doing if thou love thy soul If thou care whether thou be in Joy or misery for ever bewail thy sin and spiritual distress Make out to Christ cry mightily to him for his renewing and reconciling pardoning grace plead his sactisfaction his merits his promises Away with thy rebellion thy beloved sin Deliver up thy soul entirely to Christ to be sanctified governed and saved by him Make no more demurs about it it is not a matter to be questioned or trifled in Let the earth be acquainted with thy bended knees and the air with thy complaints and cries men with thy confessions and enquiries after the way of life and heaven with thy sorrows desires and resolutions till thy soul be acquainted with the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and with the new the holy and heavenly nature and thy heart have received the transcript of Gods Law the impress of the Gospel and so the Image of thy Creator and Redeemer Ply this work with all thy might For there is no Conversion Renovation or Repentance unto life in the grace whither thou goest It must be Now or Never And Never saved if Never sanctified Heb. 12. 14. 7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortifie that either reigneth in thee or woundeth thee and keepeth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with God Assault it resolutely Reject it speedily Abhor the motions of it Turn away from the persons or things that would entice thee Hate the doors of the Harlot and of the Alehouse or the gaming house and go not as the Ox to the slaughter and as a bird to the fowlers snare and as a fool to the correction of the stocks as if thou knewest not that it is for thy life Prov. 7. 22 23. Why thou befooled stupid soul wilt thou be tasting of the poysoned cup wilt thou be glutting thee with the bait Hast thou no where to walk or play thee but at the brink of Hell Must not the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Must it not be tamed and mortified or thy soul condemned Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Run not therefore as at uncertainty fight not as one that beats the air ver 26. seeing this must be done or thou art undone delay and dally with sin no longer Let this be the day resolve and resist it with thy might It must be Now or Never when death comes it is too late It will be then no reward to leave thy sinne which thou canst keep no longer No part of Holiness or happiness that thou art not drunk or proud or lustful in the grave or hell As thou art wise therefore know and take thy Time 8. Art thou in a declined lapsed state decayed in grace Hast thou lost thy first desires and love do thy first works and do them with thy might Delay not but remember from whence thou art fallen and what thou hast lost by it and into how sad a case thy folly and negligence hath brought thee say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hos 2. 7. Cry out with Job 29. 2 3. 4 5. O that I were as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was on my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me Return while thou hast day lest the night surprize thee Loyter and delay no more thou hast lost by it already thou art far behind hand Bestir thee therefore with all thy Might 9. Art thou in the darknesse of uncertainty concerning thy conversion and thy everlasting state Dost thou not know whether thou be in a state of life or death and what should become of thee if this were the day or hour of thy change If thou art careful about it and enquirest and usest the means that God hath appointed thee for assurance I have then no more to say to thee now but wait on God and thou shalt not be disappointed or ashamed Thou shalt have assurance in due time or be saved before thou wouldst believe thou should be saved Be patient and obedient and the light of Christ will shine upon thee and yet thou shalt see the days of peace But if thou art careless in thy uncertainty and mindest not so great a business be awakened and call thy soul to its account Search and examine thy heart and life Read and consider and take advice of faithful Guides Canst thou carelesly sleep and laugh and sport and follow thy lesser business as if thy Salvation were made sure when thou knowest not where thou must dwell for ever Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you are reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Give all diligence in time to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. In the Grave and Hell there is no making sure of Heaven you are then past enquiries and self-examinations in order to any recovery or hope Another kind of tryal will finally resolve you Up therefore and diligently ply the work it must be Now or Never 10. In all the duties of thy Profession of Piety Justice or Charity to God thy self or others up and be doing with thy might Art thou seeking to inflame thy soul with love to God plunge thy self in the Ocean of his love admire his mercies gaze upon the representations of his transcendent goodness O taste and see that the Lord is gracious Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart and soul and might canst thou pour out thy love upon a creature and give but a few barren drops to God When thou art Fearing him let his Fear command thy soul and conquer all the fear of man When thou art Trusting him do it without distrust and cast all thy care and thy self upon him Trust him as a creature should trust his God and the members of Christ should trust their Head and dear Redeemer When thou
so much to do know all that is now left undone must be undone for ever Alas sirs how many questions of exceeding weight have you yet to be resolved in whether you are truly sanctified whether your sins be pardoned whether you shall be saved when you die whether you are ready to leave this world and enter upon another I tell you the answering of these and many more such questions is a matter of no small difficulty or concernment And all these must be done in this little and uncertain time It must be Now or Never Live but as men that believe and consider these certain unquestionable things 10. Lastly Will you but live as men that believe that the world and the flesh are the deadly enemies of your Salvation and that believe that if any man love the world so far the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. And as men that believe that if ye live after flesh ye shall die but if by the spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the bodie ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. and that those that are in Christ Jesus and are freed from condemnation are such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. And that we must make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the will or lusts thereof Rom. 13. 10. and must not walk in gluttonie drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying v. 13. but must have our hearts where our treasure is Mat. 6. 21. and converse in Heaven Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and being risen with Christ must seek the things that are above and set our affections on them and not on the things that are on earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Sirs will you say that any of this is our singular opinion or matter of controversie doubt Are not all Christians agreed in it Do you not your selves profess that you believe it Live then but as those that do believe it condemn not your selves in the things that you confess I tell thee if now thou wilt refuse to live according to these common acknowledged truths thou shalt never be able to say before the Lord that mens controversie about a Ceremony or Church-Government of the manner or worship were the things that hindred thee but all sorts sects shall be witnesses against thee and condemn thee for they all agreed in these things even the bloodiest sect that imprison and torment and kill others for their differences in smaller matters are yet agreed with those that they persecute and murder about these things Papists are agreed in them and Protestants are agreed in them All the sects that are now quarrelling among us in the world are agreed in them who are but meet for the name of Christians All these will be ready to bear witness against the prophane the sensual the sloathful neglecter of God and his Salvation and to say we all confessed notwithstanding our other differences that all these things were certain truths and that mens lives should be ordered according unto these But if yet you pretend controversie to cover your malignity or ungodliness I will go a little further and tell you that in the matter as well as in the principles it is things that we are all agreed in which I call you to and which the ungodly do refuse I le briefly name them 1. One part of your work which we urge you to do with all your might is seriously soberly to consider often of all these truths before mentioned which you say you do believe And is it any controversie with reasonable men whether they should use their reason or with believers whether they should consider and lay to heart the weight use of the things which they believe 2. Another part of your work is to love God with all your soul might and to make him your delight to seek first his Kingdom and the rightousness thereof and to set your affections on things above and to live on earth as the heirs of heaven And is there any controversie among Protestants Papists or any about this 3. Another part of your work is to see the honouring of God in the world the promoting of his Kingdom and Government in your selves and others the doing of his will and obeying of his Laws And is there any controversie in this 4. Another part of your work is to to mortifie the flesh to reject its conceits and desires and lusts which resist the foresaid obedience to God and to cast out the inordinate love and care of worldly things to refuse the counsels the commands the will the enticements and perswasions of man which contradict the commands will of God to forsake all that you have in the world rather then forsake your dear Redeemer and hazard your salvation by any wilful sin To take up your Cross and follow Christ through a life of suffering to glory I know there is difficulty enough in all this and that flesh will repine against it and abhor it But is there any controversie about it among any true believers Is not all this the express Command of God and necessary to salvation 5. Another part of your work is to avoid temptations and fly from the occasions and appearances of evil and not only to avoid that which is directly evil it self but that also which would draw you into evil as far as you can and to keep as far as may be from the brink of hell and danger to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknes nor be companions with them but reprove them and mourn for the unclean and wicked conversation of the world This is it that we intreat of you is there any matter of controversie in all this 6. Another part of the work which we call you to is to redeem this little Time that is allotted you To make the best of it and improve it to the greatest furtherance of your salvation To lose none of it upon unprofitable things to spend it in those works which will comfort you most when time is gone If it will be more comfortable to you in the day of Judgment that you have spent your Time in playes sports and idleness worldly cares pleasures then in serving God preparing for another life then hold on and do so to the end But if it will not then do what you would hear of seeing you must hear of it spend none of your time in idleness unfruitful things till you have no better and more necessary things to spend it in till you have Time to spare from more important work This is our request to you that you would not lose one hour of your pretious Time but spend it as those that have lost too much and have but a little more to spend in preparation for eternity And is this any Schismatical or factious motion Is there any thing controvertible
these But we profess to you and all the world that we are not so in love with sorrows or sowrness nor so fallen out with joy and pleasures as co choose a life of miserable sadness or refuse a life of true delight If we could hear from any man or find by the most diligent inquiry that there is a more full and sweet and rational and satisfactory and durable delight to be had in any other way then that of serious faith and holinesse which Christ in Scripture hath revealed to us we were like enough to hearken after it But can the distracted sensual world believe that its sweeter and happier to ruffle it out in fleshly gallantry and sport and to rage against the godly for a while till the vengeance of God lay hold upon them and give them their reward then to live in the love of God and wait in patience for the performance of Gods promise of everlasting joy Oh what a thing is fleshly passion and raging sensuality and blind unbelief The Lord have mercy upon poor deluded sinners the Devils business is to turn the world into a Bedlam and alas how strangely hath he prevail'd That so many men can take their greatest misery for their happiness and the only happiness for an intollerable life Yea and be so angry with all that are not of their mind and will not set as much by filth and foolery and as little by God and Glory as they Like the Noble man that was Lunatick or mad by fits and when ever he was mad he would swear all were mad that said not as he said and would make all his servants be sent to Bedlam that would not immitate him and there they must lie as mad men till their Lord was recovered from his madness So are Gods servants used and talkt of in the world as if they were beside themselves as long as the world is uncured of its madness As the Man is so is his judgement and such is his relish and desire and delight When I was a child I had far more desire to fill my pin-box then now I have to fill my purse and accounted it a greater treasure and had much more delight and contentment in it And alas we may remember since we were strangers to the relish of Heavenly things that we found more pleasure in that of which we are now ashamed then we did in the most high and excellent things Let us therefore pitty and pray for those that are distempered with the same disease I have been longer on this then I thought to have been because men think that we call them from all Mirth Joy pleasure to a sowre heavy melancholy life when we call them to serious diligence for their salvation As if levity folly were the only freinds to Pleasure and it were only to be found in childish worthless transitory things And as if the greatest everlasting Happiness were no matter of true Delight nor Seriousness or Diligence of a friend to Joy 9. Moreover as to the manner God will be served with absolute self-resignation without Exceptions Limitations or Reserves Not with the leavings of the flesh nor with a Proviso that you may not suffer by your Religion or be poor or despised or abused by the world But with self-denyal you must lay down all the fleshes interest at his feet and you must take up your Cross and follow a suffering Christ to Glory You must serve him as those that are wholly His and not your own and have nothing but what is his and therefore nothing to be excepted reserved or saved from him but must be content that you and all your interest be in his hands and saved by him if saved at all I know these tearms seem hard to flesh and blood and should Heaven be the Crown and reward to them that have undergone no tryal for it But here is nothing but what is past all controversy and all Christians do confess is the Word of Christ 10. Lastly God will be served resolvedly and constantly If you will raign you must conquer and endure to the end Opposition you must expect and overcome it if you would not be overcome It is not good beginnings that will serve turn unlesse you also persevere and fight out the good fight of faith and finish your course and patiently wait to the last breath for the Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous Judge will give the Conquerours when the unbelieving world shall say of all their Delight and Hope Its past and gone we shall never see or tast it more but must now tast of that endlesse wrath of God which we were treasuring up when we should have workt out our salvation Well sirs I have all this while been describing to you both as to the Principles the Matter and the Manner what that Religion and Service of God is in which you must labour with all your might that you may see that it is no factious or private opinions or practices that we call you to and that your consciences may no longer be deluded with the pretences of mens different opinions in Religion and that the names of Prelatical Presbyterian Puritan Papist nor any other sounding in your ears may not so distract and doat you as to make you forget the name of Christian which you have all undertaken nor what the Christian Religion is You see now that it is nothing no not a syllable or tittle which all sober Christians are not agreed in that we perswade you to do as the work of your Religion And therefore I tell you again here before that God that shall be your Judge and that Conscience that shall be as a thousand witnesses that if you will go on in ungodly worldly lives and refuse the serious diligence of Christians in this Religion which your selves profess it shall be so far from being any excuse or ease to you that there were Hypocrites or Hereticks or Schismaticks or different opinions in Religion in the world that this very thing shall aggravate your sin and condemnation that all these Hypocrites Schismaticks or diffeing parties in the Church did agree in the confession of all these things and yet for all that you would not practice them no nor practice what your selves confessed All these Parties or Sects shall rise up against the sensual and prophane ungodly sinner and say Though we were ignorant or doubtful of many other things yet we are all agreed in these we gave our concurrent testimony for them we tempted no man to doubt of these or to deny them If you will erre more then an Hypocrite or a Schismatick and be far worse then those that are such or you account such and think to excuse it because they erred in lesser things it is as if the devil should excuse his sin by saying Lord thy Saints did none of them love thee as they should and Hypocrites did but seem to love thee and therefore I thought