DIRECTIONS AND PERSWASIONS TO A Sound CONVERSION For Prevention of that Deceit and Damnation of Souls and of those Scandals Heresies and desperate Apostasies that are the Consequents of a Counterfeit or Superficial Change By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by A. M. for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by N. Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard 1658. The Preface IT is weight so unconceivable that dependeth on the soundness of our Conversion and Sanctification that our care and diligence cannot be too great to make it sure As the professed Atheist Heathens and Infidels without so the self-deceiving Hypocrites within the Church do wilfully cast away themselves for ever by neglecting such a business of everlasting consequence when they have time and warnings and assistance to dispatch it Multitudes live like bruits or Atheists forgetting that they are born in sinne and misery and setled in it by wilfull custom and must be Converted or Condemned These know not many of them what need they have of a Conversion nor what Conversion or Sanctification is And some that have been Preachers of the Gospel have been so lamentably ignorant in so great a matter that they have perswaded the poor deluded people that it is only the gross and haynous sinners that need Conversion branding them with the name of Puritans that will not take a dead Profession joyned with Civility for true Sanctification and promise Salvation to those that Christ hath with many asseverations professed shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Others that confess that a through Sanctification is a necessary thing do delude their souls with something that is like it Hence is the misery and dishonour of the Church Holiness it self is disgraced by the sins of them that are unholy because they pretend to that which they have not Hence it is that we have thousands that call themselves Christians that live a worldly fleshly life and some of them hating the way of Godliness and yet think they are Converted because they are sorry when they have sinned and wish when it is past that they had not done it and cry God mercy for it and confess that they are sinners and this they take for true Repentance When sinne was never mortified in their souls nor their hearts ever brought to hate it and forsake it But when they have had the profit and pleasure of sinne they are sorry for the danger but never regenerate and made New Creatures by the Spirit of Christ. Hence also it is that we have such abundance of meer Opinionists that take themselves for Religious people Because they have changed their Opinions and their parties and can prate contentiously against those that are not of their mind and joyn themselves with those that seem to be the strictest they take themselves to be truly Sanctified And this makes such gadding from one opinion to another and such censuring reviling and divisions upon that account because their Religion is most in their Opinions and hath not mortified their carnal selfish inclinations and Passions nor brought them to a holy heavenly mind Hence also it is that we have so many sensual scandalous Professours that seem to be Religious but bridle not their tongues their appetites or their lusts but are railers or backbiters or tipplers or gluttons or filthy and lascivious or some way scandalous to their holy Profession because they are strangers to a through-Conversion but take up with the counterfeit of a superficial change Hence also we have so many worldlings that think themselves Religious men that make Christ but a servant to their worldly interest and seek Heaven but for a reserve when Earth forsakes them and have something in this world that is so dear to them that they cannot forsake it for the hopes of Glory but give up themselves to Christ with secret exceptions and reserves for their prosperity in the world And all because they never knew a sound Conversion which should have rooted out of their Hearts this worldly interest and delivered them up entirely and absolutely to Christ. Hence also it is that we have so few Professours that can lay by their Pride and bear disesteem or injury and love their enemies and bless them that curse them yea or love their godly friends that cross them or dishonour them And so few that can deny themselves in their honour or any considerable thing for the sake of Christ and in obedience and conformity to his will And all because they never had that saving change that takes down Self and sets up Christ as Soveraigne in the soul. And hence also it is that we have in this age so many dreadful instances of Apostasie So many reproaching the Scripture that once they thought had Converted them and the way of Holiness that once they did profess and denying the Lord himself that bought them and all because they formerly took up with a superficial counterfeit Conversion O how commonly and how lamentably doth this misery appear among Professours in their unsavoury discourse their strife and envy on Religious pretenses their dead formality their passionate divisions or their selfish Proud and earthly minds A through Conversion would have cured all this at least as to the dominion of it Having therefore in my call to the unconverted endeavoured to awaken careless souls and perswade the obstinate to Turn and Live I have here spoken to them that seem to be about the work and given them some Directions and Perswasions to prevent their perishing in the birth and so to prevent that Hypocrisie which else they are like to be formed into and the deceit of their hearts the Errour of their Lives and the Misery at their Death which is like to follow That they live not as those that flatter God with their mouth and lie unto him with their tongues because their heart is not right with him neither are they stedfast in his Covenant Psal. 78. 36 37 Lest denying deep entertainment and rooting to the seed of Life or choaking it by the radicated predominant Love and cares of the world they wither when the heat of persecution shall break forth Matth. 13. 20 21 22. And lest building on the sands they fall when the winds and storms arise and their fall be great Matth. 7. 26 27. And so they go out from us that they may be made manifest that they were not of us For if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 Joh. 2. 19. Look therefore to this great important business and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. And trust not your hearts too easily or too confidently But turn to the Lord with all your hearts Joel 2. 12. Cleave to him Resolvedly or with Purpose of heart Acts 11. 23. And see that you sell all and buy the Pearl Matth. 13. 46. And stick not at the price but absolutely resign
Sirs I see now that which I never saw before I wonder how I could venture so madly upon sinne and how I could make light of God of Christ of death of Judgment and Everlasting life I have been hitherto your Companion in sinne but I would not take the same course again for all the world I see now there is a better portion hereafter to be obtained which I was mindless of I see now we were all this while making merry at the brink of Hell and there was but a step between us and death Now I see that the course that we have taken is wicked and deceitfull and will not serve turn If I serve the flesh it will reward me but with rottonness I will therefore hereafter serve that God that will certainly reward me with Evorlasting life I beseech you Sirs come away with me and see and try what I have seen and tryed I have lived with you in sinne O now let us joyn together in Repentance and a Holy life I shall be glad of your company to Heaven but if you will not do it take your course For my part I am Resolved by the Grace of God I am fully Resolved to be from this day forward a New man and never to joyn with you more in a fleshly and ungodly life Never tempt me or perswade me to it for I am Resolved Thus if you will declare your Resolutions to others and seek to win them you may possibly do them good but however you will be the deeper engaged to God your selves Yea though I would have no ostentation of Conversion nothing done rashly in publike nor without the advice of a faithfull Minister beforehand yet with these Cautions I must say that it 's a shame that we hear no more in publike of the Conversion of sinners As Baptism is to be in publike that the Congregation may witness your engagement and pray for you and rejoice at the receiving of a member So the solemn renewing of the same Covenant by Repentance after a wicked life should ordinarily be in publike to give warning to others to avoid the sinne and to give God the honour and to have the Prayers of the Church and to satisfy them of our Repentance that they may have Communion with us The Papists do more offend of the two in so much confining Confession and Penitence to the Priests eare in secret and not bringing it before the Church then they do in making a Sacrament of it I wonder that people should every day thrust into our hands their requests to pray for them when they are sick and that it is so rare a matter to have any desire our Prayers for the pardon of all the sinnes of their natural unconverted state I would here seriously advise all those that it concerneth that when God hath shewed them so great a Mercy as to Convert them and make them New Creatures they would go to their faithfull Minister and by his advice put up such a bill as this Such a man of this parish having long lived in blindness and deadness and ungodliness and name the particular sinnes if they were publickly known and being by the great Mercy of God convinced of his sinne and misery and sustained with some hopes of Mercy by the Blood and Merits of Jesus Christ and being now Resolved by the Grace of God to forsake this fleshly worldly life and to give up himself to Christ and Holiness doth earnestly intreat the Church to pray for him that his many and hainous sins may be all forgiven and that God would againe receive him into Mercy and that he may hold on in Faith and Holiness to the last and never turn again to the course of his iniquity And if the Minister think it meet refuse not to make your selves an open Confession of your former life of sinne and misery and to Profess openly your Resolution to walk with God for the time to come This course should be more ordinary with us and if Conversâ—ion it self were not so rare or else so defective that it doth too little quicken men to a sence of duty and sinne and Mercy or so doubtfull and by slow degrees that it is scarce discerned by many that have it were it not for some of these more ordinary would it be to the great rejoycing and benefit of the Church The Conclusion And now I have given you Directions in the most great and necessary business in this world They are such as I received of God and if Faithfully practised will put your Salvation past all hazard But what they have done or what they will do I cannot tell but must leave the Issue to God and you It s pitty eternall Glory should be lost for want of yielding to so holy and sweet and reasonable a course It is lamentable to observe what ignorant base unworthy thoughts the most have of the very Office of the holy Ghost who is the sanctifier of all that God will save The very name of Regeneration and Sanctification is not understood by some and is but matter of derision to others and the most think that it is another kind of matter then indeed it is To be baptized and come to Church and to say some cold and heartless Prayers and to forbeare some gross disgracefull sins is all the Sanctification that most are acquainted with and all have not this And thus they debase the work of the holy Ghost If a Prince have built a sumptuous Pallace and you will shew men a Swine-stie and say This is the Pallace that the Prince hath bin so long a building were not this to abuse him by contempt If he build a Navy and you shew a man two or three pig-troughs and say These are the Kings ships would he not take it for a scorn Take heed of such dealing with the holy Ghost Remember what it is to believe in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and remember that you were Baptized into the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost And do you not yet know why nor know the meaning of your Baptismall Covenant It is not only to believe that there are three Persons in the Trinity but to consent to the Relations and duty to them in respect to their several Relations and works If the Father had not Created you how could you have been men The Lord of nature must be acknowledged as the End and the governour of nature and accordingly obeyed And this is to believe and be Baptized into the Name of God the Father If the Son had not Redeemed you you had bin as the Divels were forsaken and given over to dispaire The Purchaser Procurer and Author of Grace of Pardon and Salvation must be acknoledged to be such and himself and his Salvation accordingly accepted and his terms submitted to And this is to believe in the name of the Son and in baptisme we make profession hereof And certainly the work of the holy
sinne and Judgments are most eminent sorrow must be thâ—n predominant as being a necessary means to solid Joy And therefore ordinarily a sinner that is but in the work of Conversion and newly coming to God from a rebellious state must entertain more sorrow and let out himself more to groanes and tears then afterward when he is brought to Reconciliation with God and walketh in integrity Quest. But when is it that my sorrow is too short and I should labour to increase it Answ. 1. When there is no apparent danger of the last-mentioned evils that is Of destroying your bodies distracting your brains discomomposing your minds and drowning other Graces and duties and the rest then you have little cause to be afraid of an excess 2. When you have not smart enough to cause you to value the Love of Christ and highly prise his blood and the effects of it and hunger and thirst after him and his righteousness and earnestly beg for the pardon of your sinne you have cause to desire the more sorrow If you feel no great need of Christ but pass by him as lightly as the full stomack by his food as if you could do well enough without him you may be sure then you have need to be broken more If you set not so much by the Love of God that you would part with any thing in the world to enjoy it and would think no terms too dear for Heaven You have need to lie under the sence of your sinne and misery a little longer and to beseech the Lord to save you from that heart of stone When you can hear of the Love and sufferings of your Redeemer without any warmth of Love to him again and can read or hear the promises of Grace and offers of Christ and Eternall life without any considerable Joy or Thankfullness it 's time for you then to beg of God a tender heart 3. When you make many pawses in the work of your Conversion and are sometime in a good mind and then again at a stand as if you were yet unresolved whether to turn or no When you stick at Christ terms of denying your selves and crucifying the flesh and forsaking all for the hopes of Glory and think these sayings somewhat hard and are considering of the matter whether you should yield to them or not or are secretly Reserving somewhat to your selves this certainly shews that you are not yet sufficiently humbled or else you would never stand trifling thus with God He must yet set your sinnes in order before you and hold you a while over the fire of Hell and ring your Consciences such a peal as shall make you yield and resolve your doubts and â—each you not to dally with your maker If Pharaoh himself be off and on with God and sometime he will let Israel goe and then again he will not God will follow him with plague after plague till he make him yield and glad to drive or hasten them away And even where he deals in waies of Grace he maketh so much use of sorrows as to make men yield the sooner to his terms and glad to have Mercy on such terms if they were harder 4. When you are heartless and dull under the Ordinances of God and Scripture hath little life or sweetness to you and you are almost indifferent whether you call upon God in secret or no and whether you go to the Congregation and heare the Word and joyn in Gods Praises and the Communion of the Saints and you have no great relish in holy Conference or any Ordinance but do them almost meerly for custom or to please your Consciences and not for any great need you feel of them or good you find by them this shews for certain you want some more of the rod and spurre your hearts be not wakened and broken sufficiently but God must take you in hand again 5. When you can be mindless of God and of the life to come and forget both your sinne and Saviours Blood and let out your thoughts almost continually upon worldly vanities or common things as if you were over-grown the need of Christ this shews that the stone is yet in your hearts and that God must keep you to a harder dyet to mend your appetites and make you feel you sinne and misery till it call off your thoughts from things that less concern you and teach you to mind your Everlasting state If you begin to forget your selves and him â—t's time for you to have a remembrancer 6. When you begin to tast more sweetness in the creature and be more tickled with applause and honour and pleased more with a full estate and more impatient with poverty or wants or wrongs from men and crosses in the world and when you are set upon a thriving course and are eager to grow rich and fall in love with money when you drown your selves in worldly cares and busines and are combred about many things through your own choice this shews indeed that you are dangerously unhumbled and if God have Mercy for you he will bring you low and make your riches gall and wormwood to you and abate your appetite and teach you to know that one thing is needfull and so be more eager after the food that perisheth not and hereafter to choose the better part Luke 10. 41 42. Joh. 6. 27. 7. When you can return to play with the occasions of sinne or look upon it with a reconcileable mind as if you had yet some mind on it and could almost find in your heart to be doing with it again when you begin to have a mind of your old company and courses or begin to draw as neare it as you dare and are gazing upon the bair and tasting of the forbidden thing and can scarce tell how to deny your fancies your appetites your senses their desires this shews that you want some wakening work God must yet read you another lecture in the black book and set you to spell those lines of blood which it seems you have forgotten and kindle a little of that fire in your Consciences which else you would runne into till you feel and understand whether it be good playing with sinne and the Wrath of God and the Everlasting fire 8. When you begin to be indifferent as to your Communion with God and think not much whether he accept you and manifest his love to you or not but can huddle up your prayers and look no more after them or what becomes of them and use Ordinances and seldom enquire of the success When you can spare the Spiritual Consolations of the Saints and fetch little of your comfort from Christ or Heaven but from your friends and health and prosperity and accomodations and perhaps can be as merry in carnal company when you say and do as they as if you were considering of the Love of Christ this shews that the threatnings went not deep enough Sorrow hath yet another part to
consideration and admiration of this wonderous Love that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith and so being rooted and grounded in Love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg and be filled with all the fullness of God Ephes. 3. 17 18 19. And withall to be followers of God as dear Children and walk in Love as Christ hath Loved us and given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5. 1 2. And to love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9 10. Even from a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1. 22. That we love as brethren being compassionate pittifull and courteous not rendring evill forevill but contrariwise blessing knowing that we are thereunto called that that we should inherit a blessing 1 Pet. 3. 8 9 And that we keep our selves in the Love of God Jud. 21. that nothing may be able to seperate us from it Rom. 8. 35 36 37. And if we thus imitate our Heavenly pattern the God of Love and Peace will be with us 2 Cor. 13. 11. And thus I have shewed you the principall Ends of the undertaking of Christ in the work of our Redemption especially as they are attained directly by his Cross and Resurrection 6. Another End also is apparent in the Scripture which is the Glorifying of Gods Rewarding Justice together with his Mercy in the Salvation of his Elect. This End he hath partly attaineth here for God hath his Ends continually In this life his Servants have much of his Mercy and the beginnings of their Reward in the beginning of their Salvation But the fullness is hereafter in their Glorification All his promises he performeth in their seasons Even in the present pardon of our sinnes he honoureth his Faithfullness and Justice 1 Joh. 1. 9. His Faithfullness in making good his promise and his Justice in Rewarding the performers of the condition and giving what his promise had made their due that so men may even here in part discern between the Righteous and the Wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not while they see God esteem of his people as his jewels and spaâ—e them as a man spareth his sonne that serveth him Mal. 3. 17 18. The King of Zion is just having Salvation Zach. 9. 9. The Righâ—â—ousness of God is manifested in our Justification Rom. 3. 21 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God being Justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3. 25 26. But it is most eminently at Judgment and in the world to come that this Remunerative Justice with Mercy will be Glorified When Christ shall come purposely to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe not only in himself but in them and that because they were believers 2 Thes. 1. 10. When we have fought the good fight and finished our Course and kept the Faith we shall find that there is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give us and all that love his appearing at that day â— 2 Tim. 4. 8. He will justifie and applaud them before all the world yea and adjudge them to everlasting Life with a Well done Good and Faithfull sevant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord I will make thee Ruler over many things even Because they had been faithfull in a little Luke 19 17. Matth. 25. 21 23. Because they shewed their love to him in his members he will say to them Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 25. 34 35 36. He that now commandeth us to say to the Righteous It shall be well with him Isa. 3. 10. Will in Righteousness Cause it then to be well with him Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13. 43 And the Righteousness and Mercy of their Father shall as conspicuously and gloriously shine in them For it is a day appointed for the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2. 5 6. The present Faith and Patience of the Saints in all the Persecutions and Tribulations which they endure is a manifest token of the Righteâ—us Judgment of God that they may be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which they suffer It being a Righteous thing with God to Recompence Tribulation to them that trouble us and to us that are troubled Rest with the Saints 2 Thes. 1. 5 6 7. For the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal. 11. 7. and in Righteousness will he Judge the world Acts 17. 31. Rev. 19. 11. And therefore in the keeping of his Word there is great Reward Psal. 19 11. Yea a cup of water given in Love to him shall not be unrewarded Matth. 10. 41 42. To him that soweth Righteousness shall be a sure Reward Prov. 11. 18. If in this life men are forst to say Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Verily there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth Psal. 58. 11. Much more when we receive the Reward of the Inheritance Col. 3. 24. This causeth the Saints to forsake the pleasures of sinne because they have respect to the Recompence of Reward Heb. 11. 26. This is it that maketh them Rejoyce and be exceeding glad in their Persecutions because that great is their Reward in Heaven and therefore it is that they Cast not away their confidence because it hath great Recompence of Reward Heb. 10. 25. If we let no man beguil us of our Reward Col. 2. 18. And if we Look to our selves that we lose not those things that we have wrought we shall receive a full Reward 2 Joh. 8. For the Lord hath said Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. 7. Another End of Christ's undertaking in this blessed work is The Complacency and Glory of God in the Love and Praise and Service of his Redeemed ones in some measure here but in perfection when they are perfected Sinne had made us unserviceable to God And Christ bringeth us back into a fitness for his service He disposeth us Godward by Faith and Love and he hath Redeemed us from our iniquity and purifieth to
him to them gave he Power to become the Sonnes of God even to them that believe in his Name Joh. 1. 12. This is the wonderfull Love that the Father hath bestowed on those that were his Enemies that they should not only be reconciled to him by the death of his Sonne but also be called the Sonnes of God Rom 5. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 1. For he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be Holy and without blame before him in love having predestiuated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephes. 1. 4 5. 6. O what an unspeakable Mercy is it to have the blessed God whom we had so oft offended to become our Reconciled Father in Christ. For it is not an empty title that he assumeth but he hath more abundant love to us and tenderness of our welfare then any title can make us understand 5. And hereupon it doth immediatly follow that we have a right to the blessed Inheritance of his Sonnes and are certain Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom Col. 1. 12. For if Sonnes then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Being saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and justified by Grace through Christ we are made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3. 5 6 7. Being begotten againe to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. 6. With all the Holy Ghost is given to us not only to close us at first with Christ but to take up his abode in us as his temples and to be the Agent and Life of Christ within us and to do his work and maintain his Interest and clense us of all filthiness of flesh and Spirit and Sanctifie us throughout and to strive against and conquer the flesh and to keep us by Divine Power through Faith unto Salvation 1 Cor. 6. 19. Gal. 5. 17 22. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 5. For because we are Sonnes God seudeth forth the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. This Spirit of Adopton which we receive doth bear witness with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God Rom. 8. 15 16. For if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. By this Spirit is the spirit of the world cast out of us the spirit of pride and of blindness and of delusion and hard-heartedness and of sensuality and malice and hypocrisie are cast out By this is Gods Image imprinted on our Souls we are conformed to his blessed Will we are made partakers of the Divine Nature being Holy as God is Holy Col. 3. 10. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 16. Hereby we are delivered from the thraldom of sinne and the slavery of the Devil and the seduction of the world and our treacherous Flesh. Hereby also we are fitted for the Service of God to which before we were undisposed and unfit O what an ease is it to the Soul to be free from so much of the burden of sinne What an honour is it to have the Spirit of God within us and to have a Nature so truly Heavenly and Divine How can it go ill with him that hath God dwelling in him and that dwells in God 1 Joh. 4. 15. 7. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that we shall be actually imployed in the special and neerest Service of God that on Earth is to be performed Let diseased Souls desire idlenes and swinish sinners take pleasure in the mire and feed like ravenous beasts on carrion or as dogs on dung but the Saints will ever rejoice in God and take it for the most blessed life on Earth when they can but do him the greatest Service Let his Enemies that hate his Service be weary of it as if it were a toile or drudgery but his Children will desire no sweeter work They never think themselves so well as when they are most serviceable to their blessed Lord though at the greatest cost and labour to the flesh So sweet is Gods Service that the more of it we can do the more is our pleasure and honour and content Other work spendeth strength but this increaseth it Other work must have râ—creation intermixt but this is it self the most delightfull recreation Other service is undertaken for the love of the wages but this is undertaken for the Love of the Master and the work and is wages it self to them that go through with it For other service is but a means and that to some inferior end but this is a means to the Everlasting perfection and blessedness of the Soul and such a means as containeth or Presently procureth somewhat of the end All the Saints are even here a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light They are an holy Priesthood to offer up a Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Their very bodies are a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God in their reasonable service What a sweet work is it to live in the daily Love of God in his Praises in the hopes and sweet fore-thoughts of Everlasting Joyes The world affordeth not such a Master nor such a work 8. Another of the precious benefits by Christ is The liberty of accesse in all our wants to God by Prayer with a promise to be heard The flaming sword did keep the way to the tree of life till Christ had taken it down and consecrated for us a new and living way through the Vaile which is his flesh and now we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and therefore may draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 19 20 22. When worldlings may cry to their Baal in vaine the Righteous cry and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their hurtfull troubles O what a Mercy is it in our falls in our distresses in our dangers in our wants to have a God a faithfull mercifull Father to go to and make our moane to for relief What a Mercy is it when our flesh and our hearts do faile us when friends and worldly things all fail us to have God for the Rock of our hearts and our Portion Psal. 73. 26. When sickness begins to break these bodies and earthly delights do all forsake us and death calls us to come to our endless state then to have a Reconciled Father to go to and crave his ayd upon
both naturally and graciously perfected both in their faculties and qualities We shall be brought nigh to God We shall be numbered with the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem and be members of that blessed Society and be companions and equal with the Angels of God we shall for ever behold our Glorified Redeemer and see our own Nature united to the Godhead and we shall have the greatest and neerest intuition and fruition of God thefullest Love to him and the swetest Rest content and delight in him that our created Natures are capable of We shall everlastingly be imployed in this Love and delight and in his Praises with all the Heavenly Host And the Glory of God will shine forth in our Glory and the abundance of his Goodness will be communicated to us and he will be well pleased with us with our praises with all that blessed Society and with our Head And this will endure to all Eternity Christians I have now named in a few words those Benefits by Christ which the heart of man is not able to value in any proportion to their unexpressible worth I have named that in an hour which you must enjoy for ever So much of our Benefits by Christ. 5. The fifth point to be understood in the right Knowledg of Christ is The terms on which he conveyeth his Benefits to men and how we must be made partakers of them And these Mercies are of two sorts 1. Common 2. Proper to them that are Heirs of Salvation The Common are 1. Those discoveries of Grace that are made even to Heathens in the Creatures and the mercifull Providences of God These are Absolutely and freely bestowed stowed in some measure on all but in a greater measure upon some as please the Giver 2. The Supernatural or Instituted means of Revealing Christ and Life to the world and drawing them to a saving consent of Faith These are the Gospel written and preached with other concomitant helps The Commission Christ hath given to his Embassadors is to preach this Gospel to all the world even to every reasonable Creature without exception or restriction And it is Absolutely and freely given where it is given But as to the providential disposal of the event God causeth it not to be sent to all but to whom he seeth meet 2. The Proper or Special Mercies are of two sorts 1. Some are Physical inherent qualities or performed acts 2. And some are adherent Rights or Relations Of the former inherent sort there are these three Degees 1. There is the first special work of Vocation Conversion or Regeneration causing the sinner to Repent and Believe and giving him the Principle of Spiritual Life 2. There is the bestowing of the In-dwelling Spirit of God and progressive Santification of heart and life and perseverance with Victory 3. There is the perfecting of all this in our Glorious Perfection in the life to come For the first of these God hath not promised it Conditionally or Absolutely to any individual person that hath it not He hath bound all to Repent and Believe but hath not promised to make them do it only he hath revealed that there are certain persons so given to Christ as that they shall be infallibly drawn to believe But he hath appointed certain means for the ungodly which they are bound to use in order to their Conversion and if they will not use them they are without excuse If they will they have very much encouragement from God Both 1. In the Nature of the means which are fitted to their ends and are mighty to bring down all oppositions and 2. In the Commands and Institution of God whose Wisdom and Goodness may easily resolve us that he will not appoint us means in vaine nor set his Creatures on fruitless labours And 3. Also from the Issue for no man can stand forth and say such a one did his best in the Use of means and yet could not attain the End but fell short of the Grace and Glory of God The diseases of mens Souls are wilfullness and blindness The means of Cure are the Perswasions with the Revelations of the Gospel Men have the Natural Powers of Understanding and Willing but they want that right disposition which we call the Habit or Moral Power which is no more then to say They are Habitually Blind and Wilfull It is so far from being unreasonable to teach and perswade men that are under such an Impotency as this that there is nothing in the world that doth more bespeak our teaching and perswasions For this is the Natural and Instituted way to cure them and give them Power What means of overcoming Ignorance like Teaching and what means of overcoming Habituated Wilfullness like Perswasion added to informing truths We do not use to reason men out of a Natural Impotency nor to perswade them to do that for which they have no Faculties or Object but it is the very means of overcoming a Moral Impotency and making men willing of the Good which they rejected And with this means doth God set in and infallibly cause it to be effectual with his chosen Thus no man cometh to the Sonne except the Father draw him And then for the two following Degrees of Holiness in our Sanctification and Glorious Perfection God hath promised them to those that have this first Degree For the Spirit of Holiness is promised to all that truly Repent and Believe and Salvation to all that are Sanctified and persevere So that the Right to these Inherent Mercies being a Relaetion is conveyed as other Rights and Relations of which we are next to speak 2. As the Spirit by the Operation of the Word upon the heart conveyeth the foresaid Inherent benefits or qualities and acts so the Promise of Grace indited by Christ and the Spirit doth as a Deed of Gift or Testament or Act of Oblivion bestow on us our Rights and Spiritual Relations and from these they do result as the immediate instrumental Cause Thus doth he give Power or Right to as many as receive him to become the Sonnes of God Joh. 1. 12. Thus doth he give us Pardon Justification Adoption and our Right to further Grace and Glory And these Promises are Conditional and our Repenting and Believing in Christ is the Condition And therefore till Conversion do bring us to Repent and Believe we have no Right to any of these benefits of the Promise And therefore though our Repentance and Faith be none of the Proper Cause of our Justification or Right yet the main work in order to our procurement of these benefits that 's now to be done is to perswade the sinner to Repent and Believe to turn that he may live For Gods Act of Grace is past already and the Conditional Pardon is granted long ago and will effectually Pardon us as soon as we perform the Condition and not before Till then we hinder the Efficacy of the Deed of Gift For Unbelief and Impenitency are true
4. In the next place you are hence informed how to answer that Question Whether it be possible for a man to be humbled and repent too much That part of Humiliation which consisteth in the acts of the Uuderstanding and the Will cannot be too much as to the Intention of the Act And if it be too much as to the Objective extent then as it is misguided so it changeth its Nature and ceaseth to be the thing that it was before A man may think worse of himself then he is by thinking falsly of himself as that he is guilty of the sinne which he is not guilty of But this is not the same thing with true Humiliation But to have too clear an apprehension of the evil of his sinne and his own vileness this he need not feare And in the will it is more cleare No man can be too willing to be rid of sinne in Gods time and way nor be too much averse from it as it is against the Lord. But then the other part of Humiliation which consisteth in the depth of sorrow or in tears may possibly be too much Though I know very few that are guilty of it or need to feare it because the common case of the world is to be stupid and hard-hearted and most of the Godly are lamentably insensible But yet some few there are that have need of this advise that they strive not for too great a measure of grief Let your hearts be against sinne as much as is possible But yet let there be some limits in your grief and tears And this counsel is necessary to these sorts of people 1. To Melancholly people that are in danger of being distracted and made unreasonable and useless by overmuch sorrow Their thoughts will be fixing and musing and sad and dark and full of fears and either make things worse then they are or else be deeplyer affected with them then their heads can beare 2. And this is the Case of some weak spirited women that are not Melancholly but yet by natural weakness of their brains and strength of their passions are unable to endure those serious deep affecting apprehensions which others may desire but the depth of their sensibilitie and greatness of their passion doth presently endanger the crazing of their brains and quickly cast them into Melancholly or worse And this is a very heavy affliction where it comes both to the persons themselves and those about them To be deprived of the Use of Reason is one of the greatest corporall calamities in this life And it is matter of offence and dishonour to the Gospel in the eyes of the ungodly that understand not the Case When they see any languish in unmeasurable sorrow or fall into distraction it is a grievous temptation to them to fly from Religion and avoid godly sorrow and all serious thoughts of heavenly things And it occasioneth the foolish scorners to say that Religion makes men maâ— and that this Humiliation and Conversion which we call them to is the way to bring them out of their wits So that by reason of the grief of the godly and the hardening of the ungodly the Case is so sad that it requireth our greatest care to avoid it Quest. But if it be so dangerous to sorrow either too little or too much what shall a poor sinner do in such a streight And how shall he know when to restrain his sorrows Answ. It is but very few in the world that have cause to feare excess of this kind of sorrow The common Case of men is to be blockish and worldly sorrow doth cast more into Melancholly and distractions then godly sorrow But for those few that are in danger of excess I shall first tell you how to discern it and then how to remedie it 1. When your sorrow is greater then your brains can bear without apparent danger of destraction or a Melancholly disturbance and deminution of your Understanding then it is certainly too much and to be restrained For if you overthrow your Reason you will be a reproach to Religion and you will be fit for nothing that 's truly good either to your own Edification or the Service of God 2. If you be in any grievous disease which sorrow would increase to the hazzard of your life you have reason to restrain it Though you may not forbear Repenting or Carefullness of your Salvation yet the Passion of grief you must moderate and abate 3. When sorrow is so great as to discompose your mind or enfeeble your body so as to un-fit you for the service of God and make you more unable to do good or receive good you have reason then to moderate and restrain it 4. When the greatness of your sorrow doth overmatch the necessary measure of your Love or Joy or Thanks and keep out these and takes up more of your spirit then its part having no room for greater duties then it is excessive and is to be restrained There are some that will strive and struggle with their hearts to wring out a few tears and increase their sorrow that yet make little Conscience of other affections and will not strive half so much to increase their Faith and Love and Joy 5. When your sorrow by the greatness of it doth draw you into temptation either to despair or think hardly of God and his Service or to undervalue his Grace and the Satisfaction of Christ as if it were too scant and insufficient for you you have then cause to moderate and restrain it 6. When your sorrow is unseasonable and will needs thrust in at those times when you are called to Thankfullness and Joy you have then cause to moderate and restrain it at that season Not that we should wholly lay by sorrow in any day of Joy and Thanksgiving unless we could lay by all our sinne in the duties of that day Nor should we wholly lay by Spiritual comfort and delight in daies of greatest Humiliation For as our state is here mixt of Grace and sinne so must all our duties be mixt of Joy and Sorrow It is only in Heaven where we must have unmixed Joyes and only in Hell that there are unmixed sorrows or at least not in any state of Grace But yet for all that there are seasons now when one of these must be more eminently exercised and the other in a lower measure As in times of Calamity and after a fall we are caâ—led out so much to Humiliation that Comfort should but moderate our sorrows and the exercise of it beâ—veiled for that time so in times of Special Mercies from the Lord we may be called out to exercise our Thanks and Praise and Joy so eminently that sorrow should but keep us humble and be as it were serviceable to our Joies When Grace and Mercy is most eminent then Joy and Praise should be predominant which is through the most of a Christians life that walketh uprightly and carefully with God And when