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
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
would kill him This is your case As far as you are gone in sin do but now Turn and Come to Christ and take his Remedies and your souls shall live Cast up your deadly sins by Repentance and return not to the poysonous vomit any more and you shall do well But yet if it were your bodies that we had to deal with we might partly know what to do for you though you would not consent You might be held or bound while the medicine were poured down your throats and hurtful things might be kept from you But about your souls it cannot so so we cannot Convert you against your wills There is no carrying mad men to Heaven in fetters You may be Condemned against your wills because you sinned with your wills but you cannot be saved against your wills The wisdom of God hath thought meet to lay mens salvation or destruction exceeding much upon the choice of their own wills that no man shall come to heaven that chose not the way to heaven and no man shall come to hell but shall be forced to say I have the thing I chose my own will did bring me hither Now if I could but get you to be willing to be throughly and resolvedly and Habitually willing the work were more then half done And alas must we lose our friends and must they lose their God their happiness their souls for want of this O God forbid It is a strange thing to me that men are so inhumanâ— and stupid in the greatest matters that in lesser things are very civil and courteous and good neighbours For ought I know I havâ— the Love of all or almost all my neighbours so far that if I should send to ever a man in the Town or Parish or Country and request a reasonable courtesie of them they would grant it me And yet when I come to request of them the greatest matter in the world for themselves and not for me I can have nothing of many of them but a patient hearing I know not whether people think a man in the pulpit is in good sadness or not and means as he speaks For I think I have few neighbour but if I were sitting familiarly with them and telling them of what I have seen or done or known in â—he world they would believe me and regard what I say But when I tell thee from the infallible word of God what they themâ—elves shall see and know in the world to come they shew by their â—â—â—ves that they do either not beleve it or not much regard it If I met ever an one of them on the way and told them Yonder is 〈◊〉 Cole pit or there 's a quick-sand or there are thieves lie in wait for you I could perswade them to turn by But when I tell them that Satan lyeth in wait for them and that sin is poison to them and that Hell is not a matter to be jested with they go on as if they did not hear me Truly neighbours I am in as good earnest with you in the Pulpit as I am in any familiar discourse and if ever you will regard me I beseech you let it be here I think there is never a man of you all but if my own soul lay at your wills you would be willing to save it though â— cannot promise that you would leave your sin for it Tell me thou Drunkard that art so crueâ— to me that speaks to thee that thou wouldst not forbear a few cups of drink if thou knewest it would save my soul from Hell Hadst thou rather I did burn there for ever then thou shouldst live soberly as other men do If so may I not say thou art an unmerciful monster and not a man If I came hungry or naked to one of your doors would you not part with more then a cup of drink to relieve me I am confident you would If it were to save my life I know you would some of you hazzard your own And yet will you not be entreated to part with your sensual pleasures for your own salvation Wouldst thou forbear an hundred cups of drink man to save my life if it were in thy power and wilt thou not do it to save thy own soul I profess to you Sirs I am as hearty a beggar with you this day for the saving of your own souls as I would be for my own supply if I were forced to come a begging to your doors And therefore if you would hear me then hear me now If you would pitty me then be intreated now to pitty your selves I do again beseech you as if it were on my bended knees that you would hearken to your Redeemer and turn that you may live All you that have lived in ignorance and carelesness and presumption to this day All you that have been drowned in the cares of the world and have no mind of God and eternal Glory all you that are enslaved to your fleshly desires of meats and drinks and sports and lusts and all you that know not the necessity of holiness and never were acquainted with the Sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost upon your souls that never embraced your blessed Redeemer by a lively faith and admiring and thankfuâ— apprehensions of his love and that never felt an higher estimation of God and Heaven and an hearâ—ier Love to them then to your fleshly prosperity and the things below I earnestly beseech you not only for my sake but for the Lords sake and for your souls sakes that you go not on one day longer in your former condition but look about you and cry to God for converting grace that you may be made new creatures and may escape the plagues that are a little before you And if ever you will do any thing for me grant me this request to Turn from your evil waies and live Deny me any thing that ever I shall ask you for my self if you will but grant me this And if you deny me this I care not for any thing else that you would grant me Nay as ever you will do any thing at the request of the Lord that made you and redeemed you deny him not this For if you deny him this he cares for nothing that you shall grant him As ever you would have him hear your prayers and grant your requests and do for you at the hour of death and day of judgement or in any of your extremities deny not his request now in the day of your prosperity Oh Sirs believe it Death and Judgement and Heaven and Hell are other matters when you come near them then they seem to carnal eyes afar off Then you would hear such a message as I bring you with more awakened regardful hearts WELL though I cannot hope so well of all will hope that some of you are by this time purposing to Turn and Live and that you are ready to ask me as the Jews did Peter Acts 2.37 when they were pricked
in their hearts said Men and Brethren what shall we do How might we come to be truly converted We are willing if we did but know our duty God forbid that we should choose destruction by refusing conversion as hitherto we have done If these be the thoughts and purposes of your hearts I say of you as God did of a promising people Deut. 5.28 29. They have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandements alwaies Your Purposes are good O that there be but an heart in you to perform these purposes And in hope hereof I shall gladly give you direction what to do and that but briefly that you may the easier Remember it for your Practice DIRECTION I. IF you would be converted and saved labour to understand the necessity and true Nature of Conversion For what and from what and to what and by what it is that you must Turn Consider in what a lamentable condition you are till the hour of your conversion that you may see it is not a state to be rested in You are under the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed and under the wrath of God and the curse of his Law you are bondslaves to the Devil and daily imployed in his work against the Lord your selves and others you are spiritually dead and deformed as being void of the holy life and nature and image of the Lord. You are unfit for any holy work and do nothing that is truly pleasing unto God You are without any promise or assurance of his pâ—otection and live in continual danger of his Justice not knowing what hour you may be snatcht away to Hell and most certain to be damned if you die in that condition And nothing short of Conversion can prevent it What ever civilities or amendments or vertues are short of true conversion will never procure the saving of your souls Keep the true sense of this natural misery and so of the necessity of Conversion on your hearts And then you must understand what it is to be converted It is to have a New Heart or Disposition and a New Conversation Quest. 1. For what must you Turn Answ. For these ends following which you may attain 1. You shall immediately be made living Members of Christ and have interest in him and be renewed aâ—ter the Image of God and be adorned with all his graces and quickned with a new and heavenly life and lived from the tyrannie of Satan and the dominion of sin and be justified from the curse of the Law and have the pardon of all the sins of your whole lives and be accepted of God and made his Sons and have liberty with boldness to call him Father and go to him by prayer in all your needs with a promise of acceptance you shall have the Holy Ghost to dwell in you to sâ—nctifie and guide you you shall have part in the brother-hood communion and prayers of the Saints You shall be fitted for Gods service and be freed from the Dominion of sin and be usefull and a blessing to the place where you live and shall have the promise of this life and that which is to come You shall want nothing that is truly good for you and your necessary afflictions you shall be enabled to bear you may have some taste of communion with God in the Spirit especially in all holy Ordinances where God prepareth a feast for your souls shall be heirs of heaven while you live on earth and may for-see by faith the everlasting glory and so may live and die in peace and you will never be so low but your happiness will be incomparably greater then your misery How precious is every one of these blessings which I do but briefly name and which in this life you may receive And then 2. at death your souls shall go to Christ and at the day of judgement both soul and body shall be Justifyed and Glorified and enter into your Masters Joy where your happiness will consist in these particulars 1. You shall be perfected your selves your mortal bodies shall be made immortal and the corruptible shall put on incorruption you shall no more be hungry or thirsty or weary or sick nor shall you need to fear either shame or sorrow or death or hell Your souls shall be perfectly freed from sin and perfectly fitted for the knowledge and love and praises of the Lord. 2. Your imployment shall be to behold your glorified Redeemer with all your holy fellow Citizens of Heaven and to see the Glory of the most blessed God and to Love him perfectly and be beloved by him and to praise him everlastingly 3. Your glory will contribute to the glory of the new Jerusalem the City of the Living God which is more then to have a private felicity to your selves 4. Your Glory will contribute to the Glorifying of your Redeemer who will everlastingly be magnified and pleased in you that are the travail of his soul and this is more then the Glorifying of your selves 5. And the eternal Majesty the living God will be glorified in your Glory both as he is magnified by your praises and as he communicateth of his glory and goodness to you and as he is pleaâ—ed in you and in the accomplishment of his glorious works in the glory of the â—ew Jerusalem and of his Son All this the pooâ—est beggar of you that is Converted shall Certainly and Eâ—â—lâ—sly enjoy 2. You see For what you must Turn Next you must understand From what you must Turn Aâ—d that is in a word From your Carnal Self which is the End of all the Unconverted Fâ—om the flesh that would be pleased before God and would still be enticing you thereto From the world that is the bait And from the Devil that is the Angler for souls and the deceiver And so from all known and wilfull sin 3. Next you must know To what you must Turn And that is To God as your End To Christ as the way to the Father To Holiness as the way appointed you by Christ And so to the use of all the helps and means of grace afforded you by the Lord. 4. Lastly you must know By what you must Turn And that is by Christ as the only Redeemer and Intercessor And by the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier And by the Word as his Instrument or Means And by Faith and Repentance as the means and duties on your part to be performed All this is of necessity DIRECTION II. IF you will be Converted and Saved be much in secret serious Consideration Inconsiderateness undoes the world Withdraw your selves oft into retired secrecy and there bethink you of the end why you were made of the life you have lived the time you have lost the sin you have committed of the love and sufferings and fulness of Christ of the danger you are in of the nearness of death