Saints you have far more to do then other men You have a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue and abundance of deadly sinnes to kill and rooted vices to root upâ—â— You have many a false opinion of God and his waies to be plucked up and the customes of many years standing to be broken You have blind minds that must be enlightned with heavenly kowledg and abundance of Spiritual Truths that are above the reach of flesh and blood that you must needs learn and understand You have much to know that is hard to be known You have a dead Soul to be made alive and a hard heart to be melted and a scared Conscience to be softned and made tender and the guilt of many thousand sinnes to be pardoned You have a new heart to get and a new End to ayme at and seek after and a new life to live abundance of Enemies you have to sight with and overcome abundance of temptations to resist and conquer Many Graces to get and preserve and exercise and increase and abundance of holy works to do for the Service of God and the good of your selves and others O what a deal of work doth every one of these words conteine and yet what abundance more might I name And have you all this to do and yet will you delay And they are not indifferent matters that are before you It is no less then the saving of your Souls and the obtaining the blessed Glory of the Saints Necessity is upon you These are things that Must be done or else wo to you that ever you were born And yet have you another day to lose Why Sirs if you had a hundred mile to go in a day or two upon paine of death would you delay O think of the work that you have to do and then judg whether it be not time to stirre 20. And me thinks it should exceedingly terrifie you to consider what abundance by such Delayes do perish and how few that wilfully delay are ever converted and saved Many a Soul that once had purposes hereafter to repent is now in the misery where there is no Repentance that will do them any good For my part though I have known some very few Converted when they were old yet I must needs say both that they were very few indeed and that I had reason to believe that they were such that had sinned before in ignorance and did not wilfully put off Repentance when they were convinced that they must turn Though I doubt not but God may convert even these if he please yet I cannot say that I have ever known many if any such to be converted Sure I am that Gods usual time is in Child-hood or youth before they have long abused grace and wilfully delaid to turn when they were convinced Some considerable time I confess many have before their first convictions and purposes be brought to any great ripeness of performance but O how dangerous is it to delay 21. Consider also Either Conversion is Good or Bad for you Either it is needfull or unnecessary If it be bad and a needless thing then let it alone for altogether But if you are convinced that it is Good and necessary is it not better now then to stay any longer Is it not the sooner the better Are you afraid of being safe or happy too soon If you are sick you care not how soon you are well If you have a bone out you care not how soon it is set If you fall into the water you care not how soon you get out If your house be on fire you care not how soon it be quenched If you are but in fears by any doubts or ill tidings you care not how soon your fears be over And yet are you afraid of being to soon out of the power of the Devil and the danger of Hell and of being too soon the Sons of God and the holy justified heirs of Heaven 22. Consider also Either you can turn now or not If you can and yet will not you are utterly without excuse If you cannot to day how much less will you be able hereafter when strength is less and difficulties greater and burdens more Is it not time therefore to make out to Christ for strength and should not the very sense of your disability disswade you from delay 23. Consider how long you have staid already and put Gods Patience to it by your folly Hath not the Devil the world and the flesh had many years time of your life already Have you not long enough been swallowing the poison of sinne and long enough been abusing the Lord that made you and the blood of the Sonne of God that was shed for you and the Spirit of Grace that hath moved and perswaded with you Are you not yet gone far enough from God and have you not yet done enough to the damning of your selves and casting away Everlasting Life O wretched sinners it is rather time for you to fall down on your faces before the Lord and with tears and groans to lament it day and night that ever you have gone so far in sinne and delayed so long to turn to him as you have done Sure if after so many years rebellion you are yet so far from lamenting it that you had rather have more of it and had rather hold on a little longer no wonder if God forsake you and let you alone 24. Have you any hopes of Gods acceptance and your Salvation or not If you have such hopes that when you turn God will pardon all your sinnes and give you Everlasting Life is it think you an ingenious thing to desire to offend him yet a little longer from whom you expect such exceeding Mercy and Glory as you do Have you the faces to speak out what is in your hearts and practice and to go to God with such words as these Lord I know I cannot have the pardon of one sinne without the Blood of Christ and the riches of thy Mercy Nor can I be saved from Hell without it But yet I hope for all this from thy Grace I beseech thee let me live a little longer in my sinnes a little longer let me trample on the Blood of Christ and despise thy commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer let me spit in the face of thy Goodness and prefer the flesh and the world before thee and then pardon me all that ever I did and take me into Glory Could you for shame put up such a request to God as this If you could you are past shame If not then do not practise and desire that which you cannot for shame speak out and request 25. Moreover it is an exceeding advantage to you to come in to God betimes and an exceeding loss that you will suffer by delay if you were sure to be converted at the last If you speedily come in you may have time to learn and get more understanding in the matters of
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
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
though he consented not to the sinne of them that did inflict it For he laid down his Life it was not taken from him against his Will Joh. 10. 17 18. 9. Having thus paid the price of our Reconciliation to God the third day he Rose again from the dead Though Soldiours watcht his grave because he had foretold them that he would rise the third day yet were they soon daunted by the glory of an Angel that came and roled away the stone And so Christ made known his Divine Power and Victory and the finishing of his work And as by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 3 14. So by his Resurrection he triumphed over death it self For how should the grave detain the innocent and death overcome the Lord of Life This was the glorious day of triumph In remembrance of this he appointed the Lords Day to be observed by the Church The Resurrection of Christ was the confusion of all the powers of darkness the great Argument to confirm the truth of his Doctrine and prove his Godhead to the unbelieving world 10. Being risen he more fully revealed his Gospel and sent forth his Apostles and Disciples to proclaim the offers of Life to the world and settle the Churches in a Holy order when they had gathered them and to ordaine such Ministers to succeed them as might carry on his work to the end of the world Matth. 28. 19 20. And thus he is the faithfull Law-giver to the Church 11. When he had abode thus forty daies on Earth he ascended up into Heaven while his Disciples stood by and gazed after him Acts 1. 9 10. And there hath taken possession in our Nature advancing it to the Fathers right hand in Glory which was by sinne deprest so low in misery And so he is gone to prepare a place for us leaving us a certain word of promise that he will come again and take us to himself that where he is there we may be also Joh. 14. 2 3. And as our life now is hid there with Christ in God so when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. 12. Being ascended he manifested his Power and his Truth in sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to do such works as he had done and such as were necessary to convince the unbelieving world and to conquer the opposing wisdom and power of the flesh Enabling them to speak in variety of Languages which they had never before learnt as also to understand and powerfully preach the mysteries of the Gospel to confirm their Doctrine by Miracles healing the lame the blind the sick casting out Devils raising the dead and conquering the resistance of Principalities and Powers in seeming weakness and in a contemptible garbe Not to speak now of the Sanctifying Work of the same Spirit on them and on the rest of the Church 13. Lastly in this Glory Christ Intercedeth for us and is our High-priest in the Heavens with God living for ever procuring and conveying to us the Mercies which we need upon the account of his Sacrifice Ruling his Church and preserving them succeeding his Cause and Servants restraining and subduing his Enemies and ours and will perfect his work at the day of his Coming to Judgment So much of the works of Christ. 4. The fourth point to be understood concerning our Redemption is The Nature and worth of the Benefits that are procured for us Which though you may gather much from what is said and the full handling of them would be a larger work then is suitable to my present Ends yet such a brief recital I shall here give you as my Ends require In General we have All from Jesus the Mediator that is worth the having even all the blessings of this present life and of the life to come As we lost our Right to all by sinne so we have our restored Right by Christ alone who came to destroy sinne and its effects Had not he interposed we might have had materially life and natural faculties and other things which now are Mercies but not as Mercies but as the requisites to our deserved punishment Even as the Devils have their Being and natural perfections to sustain them in their sufferings Nature it self so far as Good and all Natural blessings are now of Grace And that not only of such Grace as they were to Adam which was Mercy without proper Merit but of Gospel Grace procured by Christ which is Mercy contray to Merit It is no sounder Doctrine to say that God doth without the Merit of his Sonne bestow our common forfeited Mercies either on the Elect or others then that he giveth us his Saving grace without it As all things are delivered into the hands of Christ Joh. 13. 3. So none can receive any good but from his hands To give Mercies to men that forfeit them and descern misery is so far to pardon their sinne for to remit the sinne is to remit the punishment But the Scripture is not acquainted with any pardon of sinne but what is on the account of the Merits of Christ. They that deny this Mercy of God in giving even to the ungodly such a measure of forgiveness do speak against the daily and hourly experience of all the world and therefore need no other confutation More particularly 1. Christ having taken the Humane Nature into Union with the Divine our nature is thereby unconceivably advanced and brought nigh to God 2. Having fulfilled the Law and offered himself a Sacrifice for sinne Gods Justice and Wisdom and Holiness and Goodness is admirably Demonstrated And this Sacrifice is both Satisfactory and meritorious on our behalf Heb. 1. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Heb. 9. 26. and 10 12. 3. The world and the Devil and Death and the Grave are conquered by him in preparation to our conquest 4. The Lord Jesus himself being risen and Justified hath received all Power in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 19. and is enabled to do all things that are necessary for his further ends As the Redeemer he is become Lord of our selves and of all we have and he is made the Soveraigne Ruler of all having full Power to relax the Law that cursed us and to deal with the world on terms of Grace 5. Accordingly he hath kept off the stroke of the rigorus Justice of God and hindered the strict execution of the Law of works and giveth still abundance of forfeited Mercies to the sinfull world keeping them from deserved torments while he is treating with them on terms of life 6. He hath made an Universal deed of gift of Christ and Life to all the world on Condition that they will but Accept the offer 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. In this Testament or Promise or Act of Oblivion the sinnes of all the world are conditionally pardoned and they are conditionally
never Christians till you see that in God that winnes your hearts to him so that you would not change your Master for any in the world and till you see that in the Hopes of Everlasting Glory that you would not change it for any thing else that can be imagined by the heart of man And till you see that goodness in a heavenly life that you had rather live it then any life in the world You are not converted to God indeed till you had rather live in Holiness then in Sinne if you had your freest choice and till you would gladly be the strictest holiest persons that you know in the world and long after more and more of it and fain would reach Perfection it self For though we cannot be perfect here yet no man is upright that desireth not to be perfect For he that loveth Holiness as Holiness must needs love the greatest measure of Holiness with the greatest Love This is it that maketh sound Converts to be so faithfull and constant with God A man is forward and ready to a work that he loves when he draws back from it as if it were a mischief that hath no mind to do it A man is hardly kept from the persons and places and employments that he loves but a little will withdraw him from that which he loveth not Why is it that we have so much adoe to take off a Drunkard from his Companions and his lusts but because he loves them better then temperance and gracious company And why can we so hardly draw the lustfull wretch from his filthy lusts or the glutton or the idle sensuall person from his needless or ezcessive recreations but because they love them And why is it that you cannot draw the worldling from his covetousness but he parteth with his money almost as hardly as with his blood but because he loveth it And therefore what wonder if temptations be resisted and the fairest baits of the world despised by him that is truly in Love with God No wonder if nothing can turn back that man from the way to Heaven that is in Love both with Heaven and with the Way No wonder if that man stick close to Christ and never forsake a holy life that tafteth the sweetness of it and feels its to do him good and had rather go that way then any in the world There is no true Christian but can say with David that a day in Gods Courts is better then a thousand and he had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then to dwell in the tents yea or the Pallaces of wickedness Do but mark those Professors that prove Apostates and sorfake the way of godliness which they seemed to embrace and see whether they be not such as either took up some bare Opinions and outward Duties upon a flash of superficial illumination or else such as were frightned into a course of Religion and so went on from duty to duty for fear of being damned when all the while their hearts were more another way and they had rather have been excused These hypocrites are they that are disputing so oft the Obligations to their Duty and asking How do you prove that it is a Duty to pray in my Family or a Duty to observe the Lords Day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to use the Communion of the godly in private meetings or to repeat Sermons or sing Psalms and the like Intimating that they are as Birds in a Cage or Hens in a Pen that are boaring to get out and had had rather be at liberty If it were not for the fear of the Law of God that is upon them they had rather let all these Duties alone or take them up but now and then at an idle time when Satan and the flesh will give them leave If a Feast be prepared and spread before them a good stomack will not stand to ask How can you prove it my duty to eat but perhaps the sick that loath it may do so If the Cup be before the Drunkard he doth not stand on those termes How do you prove it my duty now to drink this Cup and the other Cup No if he might have but leave he would drink on without any questioning whether it be a duty If the Gamester or the Whoremonger might but be sure that he should scape the punishment he would never stick at the want of a Precept and ask Is it my duty If there were but a gift of twenty pound a man to be given to all the poor of the Town yea and to all the people in generall I do not think I should meet with many people in the Town that would draw back and say What Word of God commandeth me to take it Or how can you prove that it is my duty And why is all this but because they have an inward Love to the thing and Love will carry a man to that which seemeth good for him without any command or threatning If these ungodly wretches had one sparke of spiritual life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lords day or that I must converse with the godly and live a holy life they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with my Family and that I may not sanctifie the Lords Day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness Seeing so great a mercy is offered to the world why may not I partake of it as well as others I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between a heart that loves God and Holiness and a heart that seemes religious and honest without such a Love The true Convert perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his â—oul that he is loath to be kept back he cannot spare these Ordinances and Mercies no more then he can spare the bread from his mouth or the cloathes from his back yea or the skin from his flesh no nor so much He loveth them he cannot live without them at the worst that ever he is at he had rather be holy then unholy and live a godly then a fleshly worldly life And therefore if he had but a bâ—re leave from God without a Command to sanctifie the Lords Day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks For he need not be driven to his rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual food when he is hungry nor to Christ the reâ—uge of his soul when the curse and accuser are pursuing him But the unsanctified hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a necessity of these courses And if he can but bring
are received with approbation the Soul is in a miserable case Though I know many tempted melancholy Christians are haunted with such temptations who yet abhorre them and do well at last for all this Some times also when he cannot take you off from Resolving he will lead you among some disputing Opinionists and they shall tise you to take up with their Opinionative Religiousness instead of true Sanctification of which I have spoke in the eighth Direction By these and many such wiles as these doth the old serpent do all that possibly he can to hinder you from sound Resolution and Conversion And therefore you must be armed against his temptations and meet them with abhorrence and if you feel them too hard for you go daily to Christ by Faith and Prayer for renewed strength and call to your faithfull friends and Ministers for helpe Open your case to some one that 's able experienced and faithfull that he may help you with Arguments to resist those temptations which you know not how your selves to deale with God hath appointed Pastours in his Church to be Spiritual Fathers in the Lord and when they have sowed in you the seed of eternall life they watch over it till they see the blade and fruit They travaile as in birth of you till Christ be formed in you It is their offer to help you and God giveth to them that are faithfull abilitis and affections agreeable to their office And therefore lean upon the hand of your faithfull guides and think not to break through temptations alone and get to Heaven without the means that God hath appointed you Having told you the Hinderances and what to do against them I shall add but these two words more of Direction 1. When you are Resolving give up your selves to God with a Holy Covenant or Vow I mean not any rash vow nor any unnecessary vow but the same that you made in Baptism which your age it self doth call you to renew but your sinnes against it do call you more Perhaps you 'l say that you are not able to perform it by your own strength and you are uncertain of Gods assistance and therefore how can you promise or vow To this I answer 1. You may be sure that this Objection is frivolous because it makes against the frequent express Commands of God the practice of his Church in all ages and the nature of Christianity it self God hath in all Ages been pleased to receive men into his service and Church in a Covenant way and Baptism it self is our solemn Covenanting with him and the Lords Supper is appointed for a solemn renewing of it And indeed it is implicitly and virtually renewed by a true Christian every day of his life In every duty he gives up himself to God And if he should cease this Heart-covenant he would cease to be a Christian For the very essence of his Christianity consisteth in it It is his Faith it self 2. And when you covenant for the time to come you do not take on you to foretell infallibly your own perseverance but you Profess your present consent to be Christ's and to continue his and you engage your selves thereto And should you not choose the strictest engagements 1. Where there is the greatest need of them because of the loosness of the heart and the strength of temptations that would draw us away and 2. Where there is the most absolute necessity because if we miscarry we are undone 3. And where you are already obliged by Gods Commands whether you vow or not 4. And where God hath made your consent to the Obligation of necessity to Salvation He that intends to keep Covenant and knows that he must keep it or be condemned hath little reason to be loath to make it 3. And for Gods assistance you have much more cause to expect it in the way of Covenanting which himself hath appointed you then in the neglect of his appointed means Object But if I did it in Baptism what need I do it again Answ. I told you the Covenant must be continued and renewed through the whole course of our lives but especially after a notorious violation of your former promise You once gave up your selves to God and you have proved false to him and it is a wonder of Mercy that ever he will trust you more or enter any more into Covenant with you and will you draw back from such Mercy and such a duty as this Object But I am afraid of breaking my vows again and it is better to forbear them then not to perform them Answ. 1. This Reason makes as much against the inward Vow and Resoluion of the heart so that by this rule you would never be Christians for fear of falling away and being worse 2. There is an absolute necessity of your Resolving and Covenanting and of Keeping your Resolutions and Covenants And when it must be kept or you are utterly undone it 's but a madness to refuse to make the Covenant for fear of breaking it For that is but to make choice of an easier place in Hell for fear of having a worse if you should resolve for Heaven When as Heaven is set open before you and you thus wilfully cast away your hopes Nay your place in Hell is not like to be the easier when you thus deliberately and wilfully refuse the Covenant 3. Your Resolutions and Holy Vows are means of Gods appointment to keep you from breaking his imposed Covenant Is not a Resolved Engaged Devoted Cristian liker to be accepted and to persevere then a waverer that saith I dare not vow for fear lest I performe not In unnecessary matters I had rather you were too backward to vow Some will vow poverty and some a single life and some will vow that they will never drink wine or strong drink more such vows as these may be good for some in cases of special necessity as the last remedies of a dangerous disease but they are not for all nor rashly to be made But the Resolution and vow of cleaving unto God in Faith and Holy Obedience and of renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil this is for all and must be made and kept by all that will be saved 2. Direct And as I would have you second your Resolution by a Covenant with God so would advise you ordinarily to go further and openly Profess the Resolution and Covenant that you have made For as with the heart men believe unto Righteousness so with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 10. Christ will confess those that confess him and disown and be ashamed of those that are ashamed of him When you have escaped the greatest misery in the world and obtained the greatest Mercy in the world the greatness of it calleth you to acknowledg it and give Glory to God Go to your old Companions in sinne and tell them what God hath revealed to you and done for you Tell them O
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
you unconverted to return as thinking all further Directions vain till we have perswaded men to a consent and willingness to practice them And in the end of that Discourse I added a few Directions for the use of such as are willing to be converted But because I know that this is a matter of exceeding consequence I dare not thus leave it before I have added some further Directions to prevent the miscarrying of this work where it is begun And least I should lose my labour through the unpreparedness of the Reader I shall first give you some preparing Considerations which may awaken you to the practice of the Directions which I shall give you Consider first That half-Conversions are the undoing of many thousand souls If you are but like Agrippa Act. 26. 28. almost perswaded to be Christians you will be but almost saved Many a thousand that are now past help have had the Word come near them and cast them into a fear and make some stirre and trouble in their souls awakening their consciences and forcing them to some good purposes and promises `yea and bringing them to the performance of a half-reformation But this is not it that will serve your turn Many have been so much changed as not to be farre from the Kingdom of God that yet came short of it Mark 12. 34. There is no promise in Scripture that you shall be pardoned if you almost repent and believe or be saved if you be almost sanctified and obedient But on the contrary the Lord hath plainly resolved that you must turn or die though you almost turn and repent or perish though you almost repent and that you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven without conversion and a new birth though you come never so near it God hath resolved upon the termes of your salvation and it is in vain to hope for salvation upon any other termes God will not change nor come down to your termes It is you that must change and come quite over to his termes or you are lost for ever If you come never so near them you are but lost men if you come not up to them The Lord well knew what he did when he made his Covenant and Law and he imposed nothing on the sonnes of men but what his infinite wisdom told him it was fit for him to impose and he will not now compound with sinners and take less then he requireth that is less then the preheminency in their hearts nor will he ever come down to any lower termes with you then those which he propoundeth to you in his Gospel And therefore poor sinners as you love your souls do not stand dodging and halving with God but give up your selves entirely to him and do not stop at the beginnings of a conversion but go through with it till you are become new creatures indeed or you are undone when you have done all A half unsound Convert will as certainly perish as a Drunkard or a Whoremonger though his torment may not be so great 2. Consider also That if you do not go through with the work when you are upon it you may perhaps make it more difficult then it was before ever you medled with it and make it a very doubtfull case whether ever it will be done As it is with a wound or other sore if you tamper with it with salves that are not agreeable to it or are disorderly applied or if you skin it over before it be searched to the bottom it must be opened again and will cost you double pain before it be cured Or as I have seen it with some that have had a bone broken or out of joynt and it hath been set amiss at first O what torments were the poor creatures fain to undergo in having it broken or stretcht and set again which might have been spared if it had been throughly done at first So if you will be shrinking and drawing back and favouring your flesh and will not go to the quick you will make your Conversion much more difficult you must be brought to it again and fetch your groanes yet deeper then before and weep over all your former teares your doubts will be multiplied your fears and sorrows will be encreased and all will go sorer with you then at first O what a case will you be in when your sores must be lanced a second time and your bones as it were broken again Then you will wish you had gone through with it at the first Yea perhaps you may put God to it to fetch you in by some sharpe affliction and send out so boisterous and churlish a Messenger to call you home as may make you wish you had hearkened to a more gentle call When the Sheep will straggle the Dog must be sent to affright them home Many a foolish sinner makes light of the gentle invitations of grace and they stand hovering between their sins and Christ and sometimes they have a mind to turn and the next temptation they are off again and then they come on again coldly and with half a heart and thus they stand trifling with the God of Heaven till he is fain to take another course with them and resolves to use some sharper means And when he layeth them under his rod and they can neither fly from him nor resist him but see that their lives and souls are at his mercy then they begin to look about them and see their folly and change their minds You can tarry and delay and dally with the dreadfull God in the time of your prosperity and we may ask you over and over whether you will turn before we can have a hearty answer But what will you do when God shall begin to frown and when he takes you in hand by his unresistible power and le ts loose upon you the terrours of his wrath Will you then make as light of his mercy as you do now Have you not read Dan. 5. 6. how small an apparition of his anger did make a carouzing King look pale and his joynts to tremble in the midst of his jovialty A Manasseth will bethink himself and come in when he is laid in irons though he could set light by God before 2 Chron. 33. 13. If Jonah will runne away from God he can send a boisterous Messenger to arrest him and cast him as it were into the belly of Hell and make him cry for mercy to him that he disobeyed So if you will stand trifling with God and will not by fair meanes be perswaded to yeeld and come away you may shortly look to hear from him in another manner for he hath a voice that will make the proudest face look pale and the stubbornest heart that is to tremble If an idle stubborn Child will not learn nor be ruled the Master or Parent will teach him with the rod and give him a lash and ask him Will you yet learn and another lash and ask
this be lost for want of going to the bottom and making a through work of it What a loss will this be 5. Consider also What an admirable help and advantage it will be to you through the whole course of your lives if the work of Conversion be once throughly wrought I will shew you this in some Particulars First It will be an excellent help to your understandings against the grosser Errors of the world and will stablish you in the truth much more then meer Arguments can do For you will be able to speak for the truth from feelling and experience He that hath the Law written both in his Bible and in his heart is likely to hold it faster then he that hath it in his Bible alore But of this I have spoken already in my Treatise against Infidelity Part 2. Secondly If you be but throughly Converted you will have that within you which will be a a continuall help against temptations You have not only experience of the mischief of sinning and the folly of those Reasons that are brought for its defence but you have also a new nature which is against the temptation as life is against poison and as it is a great disadvantage to the Law of Christ that it speaks against the nature of the ungodly so is it a disadvantage to the temptations of the Devil that they would draw a Christian against his new nature You have that within you that will plead more effectually against sensuality uncharitableness pride or worldliness or any the like sinne then reason or learning alone can do As in the forecited Book I have further manifested Thirdly If Conversion be throughly wrought you will have within you a continuall helper of your graces and a Remembrancer to put you in mind of duty and a spurre to put you on to the performance and a furtherer of your souls in the performance it self It is out of this spark and principle within you that the Holy Ghost doth raise the acts of grace This is it that the Word and Prayer and Conference and Sacraments and all the Means of Grace must work upon If we see you do amiss we have hopes that you will hear us If we plainly reprove you we may look you should take it in good part For you have that within you that saith as we say and is at deadly enmity with the sinne which we reprove If we provoke you to Love and to good Works we dare almost promise our selves that you will obey For you have that within you that disposeth you to the duty and preacheth our Sermons to you over again O what an advantage it is to our teaching when you are all taught of God within as well as by his Messengers without But when we speak to the unconverted we have little to work upon We give Physick to the dead We speak all against the bent of their souls and every reproof and exhortation to holiness goes against their very natures And therefore what wonder if we have the smaller hopes to prevail Fourthly If the work be throughly done at first it will help to resolve many doubts that may be afterwards cast into your minds You need not be still at a loss and looking behind you and questioning your foundation but may go cheerfully and boldly on O what an excellent encouragement is this to know that you have hitherto made good your ground and left all safe and sure behind you and have nothing to do but to look before you and press on towards the mark till you lay hold upon the prize Whereas if you be in any great doubt of your Conversion it will be stopping you and discouraging you in all your work you will be still looking behind you and saying What if I should yet be unconverted When you should cheerfully address your selves to Prayer or Sacraments how sadly will you go as being utterly uncertain whether you have a saving right to them or whether God will accept a Sacrifice at your hand When you should grow and go forward you will have little heart to it because you know not whether you are yet in the way and this will damp your life and comfort in every duty when you must say I know not whether yet I be throughly Converted O therefore stop not the work at first Fifthly and lastly if the work be throughly done at first you will persevere when others fall away You will have rooting in your selves entertaining the seed as into depth of earth and you will have the Holy Ghost within you and more then so engaged for your preservation and the perfecting of your salvation When they that received the Word as seed upon a rock and never give it deep entertainment will wither and fall away in the time of triall and from them that have not saving grace shall be taken away even that which they seemed to have Mat. 13. 12. 25. 19. 6. And Lastly Consider If you fall short of a true Conversion at the first the Devil will take occasion by it to tempt you at last to utter despair When you have made many essaies and trials and been about the work again and again he will perswade you that there is no possibility of accomplishing it If we convince an open prophane person that is unconverted he may easier see that yet there is hopes of it But if a man have been half-converted and lived long in a formall self-deceiving profession of Religion and been taken by himself and others for a godly man as it is very hard to convince this man that he is unconverted so when he is convinced of it he will easily fall into desperation For Satan will tell him If thou be yet unconverted after so many Confessions and Prayers and after so long a course of Religion what hope canst thou have that yet it should be done Thou wilt never have better opportunities then thou hast had If such Sermons as thou hast heard could not do it what hope is there of it If such Books and such Company and such Mercies and such Afflictions have not done it what hope canst thou have Canst thou hear any livelyer Teaching then thou hast heard or speak any holyer words then thou hast spoken If yet the work be quite undone it is not forsaking another sinne nor going a step further that will do it and therefore never think of it for there is no hope Dost thou not know how oft thou hast tryed in vain and What canst thou do more And thus you give advantage to the Tempter by your first delayes and taking up in meer Preparatories And therefore I beseech you as you love your souls take heed of resisting the Spirit of grace and breaking off the work before it is throughly done but go the bottom and follow it on til it be accomplished in sincerity And now hoping that upon these Considerations you are resolved to do your best I shall come to the thing which I
hold then of the blessed God in thy Meditations and fill thy thougts with him and dwell upon those thoughts Remember he is alwaies with thee and where ever thou art or what ever thou art doing most certainly he seeth thee As sure as thou are there the Lord is there He knowes thy thoughts he heares thy words he sees all thy waies And is such a God as this to be provoked or despised Were it not better provok and despise all the world Is his favour to be sleighted Were it not better to lose the favour of all the world Consider of this 2º Another thing that I would have you oft Think of is what end you were made for and what business it is that you came for into the world You may well think that God made you not in vaine and that he made you for no lower end then for himself And that he would never have made you nor so long preserved you if he had not cared what you do He would never have endued you with a Reasonable and immortal Soul but for some high and noble and immortal end Surely it was that you might be happy in Knowing him that he made you capable of Knowing him for he made nothing in vaine It is usefull to a horse to know his pasture and provender and work and perhaps his master but he needs not know whether there be a God And accordingly he is qualified But it is sure mans chief concernment to know that there is a God and what he is and how to serve him and what he is and will be to us Or else we should never have been capable of such things And he would never have made you capable of loving him but that you should be exercised and made happy in that Love The frame and faculties and capacity of your Souls and the scope of Scripture do all declare that you were sent into this world to seek after God and to Love him and obey him and rejoice in him in your measure and to prepare for a life of nearer Communion where you may Enjoy him and please him in the highest perfection Consider with your selves whether a life of sin be that which you were made for Or whether God sent you hither to break his Laws and follow your own lusts And whether the satisfying of your flesh and the gathering of a little worldly wealth and the feathering of a nest which you must so quickly leave be like to be the business that you were sent about into the world 3o. The next thing that I would have you consider of is How you have answered the Ends of your Creation and how you have done the business that you came into the world to do Look back upon the drift of your hearts and lives read over the most ancient records of your consciences and see what you have been what you have been doing in the world till now Have you spent you daies in seeking after God and your estates and strength in faithfull serving him Have you lived all this time in the admirations of his excellencies and the servent Love of him and delightfull remembrance of him and the zealous worship of him If you had done this you had not need of a Conversion But consider have you not forgotten what business you had in the world and little minded the world that you should have prepared for and lived as if you knew not him that made you or why he made you was sport and merryment the end that you were created for was ease and idleness or eating or drinking or vaine discourses or recreation the business that you came into the world about was living to the flesh and scraping up riches or gapeing after the esteeme of men the work that God sent you hither to do Was this it that he preserved you for and daily gave you in provision for what was it to forget him and sleight him and turne him out of your hearts and rob him of his service and honour and to set up your flesh in his stead and give that to it that was due to him Bethink you what you have done and whether you have done the work that you were sent to do or not 4º The next thing you should use to Consider of is How grievously you have sinned and what a case it is that your sin hath brought you into If you take but an impartiall view of your lives you may see how far you have mist your marks how far you have been from what you should have been and how little you have done of that which was your business And O what abundance of aggravations have your sins which I shall pass over now because I must mention them under another head It is not only some actuall out-breakings against the bent of your heart and life but your very heart was false and gone from God and set in you to do evill O the time that you have lost the means and helps that you have neglected the motions that you have resisted the swarms of evil thoughts that have filled your imaginations the streams of vaine and evill words that have flowed from your mouth the works of darkness in publik and in secret that God hath seen you in And all this while how empty were you of inwad holiness and how barren of good works to God or men What have you done with all your talents and how little or nothing hath God had of all And now consider what a case you are in while you remain unconverted you have made your selves the sinks of sinne the slaves of Satan and the flesh and are skilfull in nothing but doing evill If you be called to prayer or holy meditation your hearts are against it and you are not used to it and therefore you know not how to do it to any purpose But to think the thoughts of lust or coveteousness or hatred or malice or revenge this you can do without any toile To speak of the world or of your sports and pleasures or against those that you bare ill will to this you can do without any study You are such as are spoken of Jer. 4. 22. My people is foolish they have not known me they are sottish children and they have no understanding they are wise to do evill but to do good they have no knowledge You are grown strangers to the God that made you in whose love and service you should live and find your chief delights Your hearts are hardned and you are dead in your sins The guilt of the sins of your lives are still upon you You can neither look into your hearts or lives no not on one day of your lives or the best hour that you have spent but you must see the ugly face of sin which deserveth condemnation You have made God your Enemy that should have been your only felicity And yet you are alwaies at his mercy and in his hands Little do you know
how long his patience will yet endure you or what hour he will call away your Souls And if death come alas what a case will it find you in how lamentably unready are you to meet him how unready to appear before the dreadfull God whom you have offended and what a terrible appearance do you think that will be to you most certainly if you die before you are converted you will not be from among the Devils and damned souls an hour The Law hath cursed you already and the execution will be answerable if you die in your sins And thus you may see the gain of sin and what it is that you have been doing all this while for your own Souls and what a case it is that you have brought you selvs into and what need you have speedily to look about you 5. The next step of your Consideration should be this Bethink your selves what a blessed Condition you might be in if by Conversion you were but recovered from this misery and brought home to God This moved the heart of the Prodigall son to return Luke 15. 16 17. When he came to himself he said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger He that had not husks to feed on with the swine considered the plenty that he had for saken at home The poorest member of the houshold of Christ is in a better condition then the greatest King on earth that is unconverted You might have lived another kinde of life then you have done for safety and benefit and true content if you would have turned your minds and life to God Were you but Converted you would be the living members of Christ and his precious benefits would be yours His blood would clense you from all your sins and they would be all freely forgiven you God would be Reconciled to to you and become your friend yea your Father and your God and will take you for his houshold servants and adopted children The Holy Ghost would dwell in you and guide your understandings and shew you that which flesh and blood connot reveal and bring you into acquaintance with the mysteries of God He will be a Spirit of Light and Life within you and work your hearts yet more to God and give you yet stronger inclinations and affections to the things above He will help you when you are weak and quicken you where you are dull and be your remembrancer when you are forgetfull of necessary things He will help you in prayer both for matter and for manner and help you in Meditation and conference and other duties He will warn you of your danger and strengthen you against temptations and cause you to overcome and if you fall he will cause you to rise again he will be an in-dwelling comforter to you and so effectually speak peace to you in the midst of your disquietness that by speaking it he will create it in you And in the multitude of your thoughts within you his comforts will delight your Souls O what a life might you live if Christ by his Spirit did once live in you you may easily conjecture how tender Christ would be of his own members how dearly he would love them how constantly he would watch over them how plentifully he would provide for them and how safely he would preserve them And if you should come into a rougher way he would lead you out Afflictions should never be laid on you but for your good and continue no longer then your need continueth them and be taken off at last to your satisfaction and contentment Indeed your life would be a life of mercies and that which is but a common Mercy to common men would be a speciall Mercy to you as coming from your Fathers love and furthering you salvation and hinting out to you your everlasting Mercies You could not open your eyes but you would see that which may encourage and comfort you all the works of God which you behold would shew you his Majesty his love and power and lead you to himself You could not open your Bible but you would find in it the blessed lines of Love O what good it would do you to read there the blessed Attributes of your God! to look upon his Name to peruse the description of his most perfect nature what good would it do you to read of the nature and incarnation and life and death and resurrection and assension and intercession and return of your blessed Redeemer what good would it do you to find those holy Rules which your new nature is agreeable to and to read over the Law that is written in your hearts and read the curse from which you are delivered what life and joy would your Souls receive from the many and full and free promises of grace were you once but truly sanctified and made new your condition would be often comfortable but alwaies safe and when you were in the greatest fears and perplexities you would still be fast in the armes of Christ And what a life would that be to have daily access to God in prayer to have leave in all your wants and dangers to seek to him with a promise of hearing and success that you may be sure of much more from him then a child can from the tenderest father or a wife from the most loving husband upon earth What a life would it be when you may alwaies think on God as your felicity and fetch your higehest delights from him from whom the ungodly have their greatest terrours And it is no contemptible part of your benefits that you may live among his people and in their speciall love and have a speciall Communion with them and interest in their prayers may possess among them the priviledges of the Saints and the Ordinances of God That in stead of idle talk and the unprofitable fellowship of the children and works of darkness you may joyne with the Church of God in his Praises and feed with them at his table on the body and blood of Christ and then have conveyances of renewed grace and a renewed pardon sealed to your Souls But how long should I stay if I should tell you but one half the blessings of a Sanctified and spirituall state In a word God would be yours Christ would be yours the Holy Ghost would be yours all things would be yours the whole world would have some relation to your wellfare Devils would be subdued to you and cast out of your Soules sinne would be both pardoned and overcome Angels would be ministring spirits unto you for your good The promises of Scripture would be yours and everlasting Glory would at last be yours and while you staid on earth you might comfort your selves as oft as you would with the believing foresight of that unconceiveable unspeakable endless felicity O sirs what a treasure have I here expressed in a few words what hearts would you have if they
matters so they are your Own matters and therefore one would think you should not need so much ado to bring you to Consider them If it were only other mens matters I should not wonder at it But self-love should make you regard your Own In outward matters all seek their Own things Phil. 2. 21. And have they not more Reason to seek their Own Salvation It is your Own Souls your Own danger your Own sin your Own duty that I perswade you to Consider of It is that God that Christ that would be your Own it is that Heaven that blessedness that may be your Own if you lose it not by neglect It is that Hell and torment that will certainly be your Own if you prevent it not And shouâ—d not these be thought on You will think of your Own goods or lands or riches of your Own families your Own business your Own lives and why not also of your Own Salvation 3. Especially when it is not only your Own but it is the One thing needfull Luke 10. 42. It is that which your life or death your Everlasting Joy or Torment lieth on and therefore must be Considered of or you are utterly undone for ever Necessity lyeth upon you and wo be to you if you Consider not of these things It is not so necessary that you eat or drink or sleep or live as it is Necessary that you make sure your Everlasting life And the Profit also doth answer the necessity Buy but this one Pearle and you will be infinite gainers though you sell all that you have in the world to buy it Matth. 13. 44 45 46. Get God and get all make sure of Heaven and then fear no loss nor want nor sorrow If you count not all the world as dung for the winning of Christ that you may be found in him possessed of his righteousness it is because you know neither the world nor Christ Phil. 3. 7 8 9. Yea the Delight also will answer the Commodity For in the presence of God is fulness of Joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. 11. And the fore-thoughts of them may well make glad our hearts and cause our Glory to rejoyce Psal. 16. 8 9. For Goodness and Mercy shall follow us all the daies of our lives and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever Psal. 23. 6. He shall guide us with his Counsell and afterward receive us into Glory Psal. 73. 24. And lest yet you should suspect any lack of Comfort he tells you you shall enter into the Joy of your Lord Matth. 25. 23. And that you shall be with him where he is to behold his Glory Joh. 17. 24. 4. And yet if all this might be had with a wet finger If Heaven were the portion of worldlings and sluggards that trouble not their Thoughts much about it then you might have some excuse for your Inconsiderateness But it is not so there are difficulties in your way and they are many and great what a dark understanding have you to informe what a dull and backward nature to spurre on What an unreasonable appetite What rageing passions What violent rebellious senses to contend with to Master and to rule Abundance of adversaries on every hand A subtil Devil and as malicious as subtil and as furious and able to do you a mischief if God restrain him not A world of wicked men about you each one more stiff in Errour then you in the Truth and more fast to the Devil then you are to God if his grace do not hold you faster then you will hold your selves and therefore they are abler to deceive you then you are to undeceive them Many of them are crafty and can puzzle such ignorant beginners as you and can put a face of reverence and truth upon damnable Errors and pernicious waies And those that have not wit have foolish violence and scorn and passion and can drive you towards Hell if they cannot draw you All these Enemies you must Conquer or you are lost And is it not time for a man in so much danger to Consider of them that he may know how to escape And for one that is compassed about with such difficulties to Consider how he may well get through them What abundance of things have you to Consider of of all your life past of the Relations you have born and how you have performed the duties of those relations Of the time you have had and how you have spent it Of the means you have had and what you have received by them Of the present state of your Souls your sins your miseries your hopes and the duties that are incumbent on you in order to your recovery Of the temptations to be encountred with and the graces that are daily to be exercised and confirmed should not a man bethink himself with all possible care and Consider and an hundred times Consider that hath all this to do or be undone for ever You have much to Know that will not easily be known and yet must be known and much to do receive and suffer that hath difficulty joyned with Necessity Were it Necessary and not hard the facility might draw you to make light of it And were it hard and not Necessary the difficulty might more discourage you then the matter would excite you But when it Must be done or you must be shut out of Heaven and lie in Hell for it world without end and yet there are so many difficulties in the way I think it's time to look about you and seriously Consider 12. To conclude Consideration would prevent a world of misery which else will make you Consider when it is too late It must be a principall means of your Salvation if ever you be saved If God have so much Mercy for you he will make you Consider and set your sins in order before you Psal. 50. 21. And set Hell fire before your face and hold your Thoughts on it that you cannot look off He will set before you a Crucified Christ and tell you that this your sins have done and make you think of the Reason of his sufferings what there is in sinne that could require it and what it is to rebell against the Lord and runne your selves into the Consuming fire Now your Thoughts are gadding abroad the world and stragling after every trifle and going away from God But if ever God will save you he will overtake your hearts and fetch them home and shew them that they have somewhat else to think on If Commands will not serve he will send out his threatnings and terrours shall come upon you and pursue your Soul as the wind Job 30. 15. He 'l fetch you out of the Ale-house and the Gaming-house and take you off the merry pin and lay that upon your heart that you shall not easily shake off If you are taken up with the Cares of the world he 'l shew you that
us and the cause of all our sinne and misery And this is the Revenge that is warrantable in the Penitent and some think is meant 2 Cor. 7. 11. 5o. As the Humbled Soul hath base thoughts of himself so he is willing that others should esteem and think of him accordingly even as a vile unworthy sinner so far as his disgrace may be no wrong to the Gospel or to others or dishonour to God His Pride is so far taken down that he can endure to be vilified with some Consent not approving of the sinne of any man that doth it maliciously but consenting to the Judgment and Rebukes of those that do it truly and to the Judgment of God even by them that do it maliciously The Humbled Soul doth not stand defending and unjustly extenuating his sinne and excusing himself and swelling against the Reprover Whatever he may do in a temptation if this temper were predominant his Pride and not Humility must be predominant But he judgeth himself as much as others can justly judg him and humbly confesseth to be Base in mens eyes till God shall think it meet to raise him and recover his esteem And the Root of all this in the will is 1o. A Love to God whom we have offended 2o. A hatred of sinne that hath offended him and that hath made us vile and 3o. A believing sense of the Love and Sufferings of Christ that in his flesh hath condemned sinne Rom. 8. 2 3. And thus you see what Humiliation is in the Will which is the very Life and Soul of true Humiliation 3o. Humiliation also consisteth in the Affections In an unfeigned sorrow for the sinne which we have committed and the corruption that is in us and a shame for these sinnes and a holy feare of God whom we have offended and of his Judgments which we have deserved and a hatred of our sinnes by which we have deserved them But as I must further shew you anon it is not the Measure but the sincerity of these Passions by which you must make a Judgment of your state And that will be hardly discerned by the Passions themselves but only by so much of the Will as is in them and therefore the Will is the safest to Judg by 4o. Humiliation also consisteth expressively in the outward actions when opportunity is offered And it is not true in the Heart if it refuse to appeare without when God requireth it in your ordinary course The outward acts of Humiliation are these 1o. A voluntary Confession of sinne to God and to men when God requireth it and that is when it is necessary to his Honour to the healing of them that we have endangered and satisfying the offended At least in the hearing of men in such cases as these to Confess them openly to God An unhumbled Soul will refuse this for the shame but the Humble will freely take shame to themselves and warne their brethren and justifie God and give him the Glory 1. Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us Read Mark 3. 6. Levit. 5. 5. 16. 21 26. 40. Num. 5. 6 7. Jam 5. 16. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that yee may be healed Prov. 28. 13. He that hideth his sinnes shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Not that any man is to confess his secret sinnes to others except in case that he cannot otherwise find relief Nor that a man is to publish those offences of his owne by which he may further dishonour God and hinder the Gospel But when the sinne is open already and specially when the offence of others the hardening of the wicked the satisfaction of the Church concerning our Repentance do require our Confession and open Lamentation the Humble Soul both must and will submit to it But the rotten hearted unhumbled Hypocrite will Confess but in these cases 1o. When the secrecy of the Confession or the smalness of the fault or the Customariness of such Confessing doth make it to be a matter of no great disgrace 2o. Or when it is so open that it is in vain to attempt to hide it and his Confession will do nothing to increase the disgrace 3o. Or when Conscience is awakened or they see they must die or are forced by some terrible Judgment of God In all these cases the wicked may Confess And so Judas will Confess I have sinned in bâ—traying the innocent blood And Pharaoh will Confess I and my people have sinned And a Thief on the Gallows will Confess and the vilest wretches on their death bed will Confess But we have more death-bed Confessions then voluntary Confessions before the Church Nay so far hath Pride and Hypocrisie prevailed and the ancient discipline of the Church been neglected that I think in most Countries in England there are many more that make Confessions on the Gallows then personally in the Congregation 2o. Humiliation must be also expressed by all those external means and signes which God by Scripture or Nature calleth us to As by tears and groans so far as we can seasonably procure them And by Fasting and laying by our worldly pomp and bravery and using meane though decent attire and by condescending to men of the lower sort and stooping to the meanest By humble Language and Carriage and by forgiving others on this account that we are sensible of the greatness of our Debts to God And thus I have briefly shewed you the true Nature of Humiliation that you may know what it is that I am perswading you to and which you must submit your hearts unto II. When I have told you the Use and Ends of Humiliation you will see more of the Reason of it's Necessity to your selves And first it is one Use of Humiliation to help on the Mortification of the flesh or Carnal self and to annihilate it as it is the Idol of the Soul The nature of mans sinfull and miserable estate is that he is fallen from God to Himself and liveth now to Himself studying and loving and pleasing Himself his Natural self above God And a sinner will let go many outward sinnes and be driven from the out-works before he will let go Carnal self and be driven from the Castle and strength of sinne There is no part of Mortification so Necessary and so Hard as Self-denial Indeed this doth virtually comprehend all the rest and if this be done all 's done If it were but his Friend his Superfluities his House his Lands perhaps a Carnal heart might part with it But to part with his life his All his Self this is a hard saying to him and enough to make him go away sorrowfull as Luke 18. 22 23 24. And therefore here appeareth the Necessity of Humiliation This layeth all the Load on Self and breaketh the heart of the old man and maketh a man loath himself that formerly doted on himself
the Gout or Sâ—one or other disease and he forbid him wine or strong drink or such meats as he desireth as long as he feeles himself at ease he will be venturing on them and will not be curbed by the words of the Physion But when the fit is on him and he feels the torment then he will be ruled Pain will teach him more effectually then words could do When he feeleth what is hurtfull to him and feeleth that it alway makes him sick it will restraine him more then hearing of it could do So when Humiliation doth break your hearts and make you feel that you are sick of sinne and filleth your Soul with smart and sorrow then you will be the more willing that God should destroy it in you When it lyeth so heavy on you that you are unable to look up and makes you go to God with groanes and teares and cry O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner When you are faine to go to Ministers for ease to your Consciences and fill their eares with accusations of your selves and open even your odious shamefull sinnes then you will be content to let them go Now there is no talking to you of Mortification and the resolute rejecting of your sinnes The Precepts of the Gospel are too strict for you to submit to But a broken heart would change your mindes The healthfull Plow-man saith Give me that which I love these Physicians would bring us all to their Rules that they may get money by us I never mean to follow their directions But when sickness is upon him and he hath tryed all his own skil in vaine and paine giveth him no rest then send for the Physician and then he will do any thing and take any thing whatever he will give him so that he may but he eased and recovered So when your hearts are whole and unhumbled these Preachers and Scriptures are too strict for you You must have that which you love self-conceited precise Ministers must have leave to talk but you will never believe that God is of their mind or will damn men for taking that which they have a mind of O but when these sinnes are as swords in your hearts and you begin to feele what Ministers told you of then you will be of another mind Away then with this sinne There 's nothing so odious so hurtfull so intollerable O that you could be rid of it what ever it cost you Then he will be your best Friend that can tell you how to kill it and be free from it and he that would draw you to it would be as Satan himself to you Matth. 16. 22 23. Gal. 1. 8 9. Humiliation diggeth so deep that it undermineth sinne and the fortress of the Devil and when the foundation is rooted up it will soone be over throwne When the Murderers of Christ were pricked to the heart they 'l then cry out for counsell to the Apostles Acts 2. 37. When a murderer of the Saints is stricken blindfold to the earth and the Spirit withall doth humble his Soul he will then cry out Lord what would'st thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. When a cruel Jaylour that scourged the Servants of Christ is by an Earth-quake brought to a heart-quake he will then cry out What shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. And here comes in the usefulness of Afflictions even because they are so great advantages to Humiliation Men will be brought to some Reason by extreamities When they lie a dying a man may talk to them and they will not so proudly fly in his face nor make a scorne of the word of the Lord as in their prosperity they did God will be more regarded when he pleadeth with them with the rod in his hand stripes are the best Logick and Rhetorick for a fool When sinne hath captivated their Reason to their flesh the Arguments to convince them must be such as the flesh is capable of perceiving We may long tell a beast of dangers and discommodities before we can perswade him from that which he loves Sensuality doth brutifie men in too great a measure And so far as they are brutish it is not the clearest Reasons that will prevaile And if God did not maintaine in corrupted man some remnants of free Reason we migh preach to beasts as hopefully as to men But Afflictions tend to weaken the Enemy that doth captivate them as prosperity by accident tends to strengthen him The flesh understandeth the language of the rod better then the language of Reason or of the Word of God And as the sensible part of our Humiliation promoteth Mortification so the rational and voluntary Humiliation which is proper to the Sanctified is a principal part of Mortification it self And thus you may see that it 's necessary that we be throughly humbled that sin may be throughly killed in us 3. Another use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for a meet entertainment of further Grace and that both for the honour of Christ and Grace and for our own welfare 1. In respect of Christ it is equal that he should dwell in such Souls only as are fit to entertaine him Neither his person nor his business are such as can suit with the unhumbled heart Till Humiliation make a sinner feel his sinne and misery it is not possible that Christ as Christ should be heartily welcome to him or received in that sort as his honour doth expect Who cares for the Physician that feels no sickness and feares not death He may pass by the doores of such a man and he will not call him in But when paine and feares of death are on him â—e will send and seek and bid him welcome Will any man fly to Christ for succour that feeleth not his wants and danger Will they lay hold on him as the only refuge of their Souls and cleave to him as their only hope that feele no great need of him Will they lie at his feet and beg for mercy that feel themselves well enough without him When men do but hear of sinne and misery and superficially believe it they may coldly look after Christ and Grace and feel the worth of the later in such a manner as they feel the weight of the former But never is Christ valued and sought after as Christ till sorrow have taught us how to value him Nor is he entertained in the necessary honour of a Redeemer till Humiliation throw open all the doores No man can seek him with his whole heart that seeks him not with a broken heart And it 's certain that Christ will come on no lower terms into the Soul Though he come to do us good yet he will have the honour of doing it Though he come to heâ—l us and not for any need he hath of us yet he will have the welcome that 's due to a Physician He comes to save us but he will be honoured in our Salvation He inviteth all to the
Marriage supper and even compelleth them to come in but he expecteth that they bring a wedding garment and come not in a garbe that shall dishonour his house Though his Grace be free yet he will not expose it to contempt but will have the fullness and freeness of it glorified Though he came not to Redeem himself but us yet he came to be glorified in the work of our Redemption He hath no Grace so free as to save them that will not esteem it and give him thanks for it And therefore though Faith is enough to accept the gift yet must it be a thankfull faith that will magnifie the giver and a humble faith that will feele the work of it and an obediential faith that will answer the ends of it And therefore that faith which is the Condition of our Justification is fitted as well to the honour of the Giver as the commodity of the receiver And as Reason telleth us that it should be so so Christian ingenuity consenteth that it be so The Soul that is truly united to Christ and partaketh of his nature doth think it's own Receiving greatest where the honour of Christ is greatest And it cannot take pleasure in the thoughts of such a kind of Grace as should dishonour the Lord of Grace himself As Christ is solicitous for the saving of the Soul so that he makes the Soul solicitous of the right entertainment of him that saveth it And therefore though his Blood and not his Teaching or his Government was the Ranson of our Souls yet he is resolved to Justifie none by his Blood but on the Condition of that Faith which is a hearty Consent to his Teaching and Dominion It is not in the Application or bestowing of Christ's benefits as it was in the purchasing of them When he came to Ransom us he consented to be a sufferer and gave his cheeks to the smiter and submitted to reproach he endured the Cross despising the shame and being reviled he reviled not but prayed for his persecutors But when he comes by his saving Grace into the Soul he will not there be entertained with contempt For in the flesh he came on purpose to be humbled but in the Spirit he comes to be exalted In the flesh he came to condemn the sinne that reigned in our flesh Rom. 8. 3. and so was made sinne for us that is a Sacrifice for sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. But in the Spirit he comes to conquer our flesh and by the Law of his quickning Spirit to free us from the Law of sinne and death both that the Righteousness of the Law might be fullfilled in us and also that there might be no Condemnation to us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 2 4. The Kingdom of Christ was not worldly for if it had been worldly he would have sought to establish it by strength of armes and fighting which are worldly means Joh. 18. 36. But his Kingdom is within us It is a Spiritual Kingdom and therefore though in the world he was used with contempt as a fool and as a Sinner and a man of sorrows yet within us he will be used with honour and reverence as a King and absolute Lord. It was the houre of the executioner and the power of darkness when he was in his suffering but it is the houre of his triumph and marriage and the prevailing Power of the Heavenly Light when he cometh by Saving Grace into the Soul On the Cross he was as a sinner and stood in our place and bore what was our due and not his owne But in the Soul he is the Conquerour of sinne and cometh to take possession of his own and doth the work that belongeth to him in his dignity and therefore he will there be acknowledged and honoured On the Cross he was pulling down the Kingdom of Satan and setting up his own but in the preparatory purchase But in the Soul he doth both by immediate execution On the Cross sinne and Satan had their full blow at him But when he entred the Soul he hath his blow at them and ceaseth not till he have destroyed them In purchasing he expended his own But in Converting he takes possession of that which he purchased In a word he came into the world in flesh for his undertaken Humiliation but he comes into the Soul by his Spirit for his deserved exaltation And therefore though he endured to be spit upon in the flâ—sh he will not endure to be sleighted in the Soul And as in the world he was scorned with the Title of a King and crowned with thorns and clothed in such Kingly robes as might make him the fitter object for their reproach So when his Spirit entereth into the Soul he will be there inthroned in our most reverent subjective and deepest esteeme and crowned with our highest Love and Thankfullnes and bowed to with the tenders of Obedience and our praise The Cross shall there be the portion of his enemies and the Crown and Scepter shall be his and as all were preferred before him on Earth even Barrabas himself so all things shall be put under him in the Sanctified Soul and he shall be preferred before all This is the end of Humiliation to make ready the heart for a fuller entertainment of the Lord that bought it and to prepare the way before him and fit the Soul to be the Temple of his Spirit A humbled Soul would never have put him off with excuses from Oxen and Farms and Wives As Luke 14. and Matth. 22. But the unhumbled will make light of him And 2. As Christ himself will be honourably recieved or not at all so must the Mercies and Graces which he offereth He will not apply his blood and righteousness to them that care not for it He will not pardon such a masse of iniquity and remove such mountaines as lie upon the Soul for them that feel not the Necessity of such a Mercy He will not take men from the power of the Devil and the drudgery of sinne and the suburbs of Hell and make them his Members and the Sonnes of God and the Heirs of Heaven that have not learn't the value of these benefits but set more by their very sinne and misery and the trifles of the world Christ doth not despise his Blood his Spirit his Covenant his Pardon nor his Heavenly Inheritance and therefore he will give them to none that do despise them till he teacheth them better to know their worth Do you think it would stand with the Wisdom of Christ to give such unspeakable blessings as these to men that have not hearts to value them Why it is more to give a man Justification and Adoption then to give him all this visible world the Sunne the Moone the Firmament and the Earth And should these be given to one that cares not for them Why by this meanes God should miss of his ends He should not
converted He will not alwaies stand over you with Salvation and say O that this sinner would Repent and live O that he would take the Mercies that I have provided for him Do not expect that God should do thus alwaies with you for it will not be 45. Your Delaies do weary the Servants of Christ that are employed for your recovery Ministers will grow weary of preaching to you and perswading you When we come to men that were never warned before we come in hopes that they will hear and obey and this hope puts life and earnestness into our perswasions But when we have perswaded men but a few times in vaine and leave them as we found them our spirits begin to droop and flag Much more when we have preached and perswaded you many years and still you are the same and are but where you were This dulls a Ministers spirit and makes him preach heavily and coldly when he is almost out of heart and hope I do not justifie Ministers in this and say they should do thus I know they should not and if they were perfect they would not but they are but men and imperfect themselves and what man is able to be as lively and fervent in his work when people stir not and he sees no good done on the miserable hearers as if he had the encouragement of success O when we do but see the hearts of hardned stubborn sinners relent and break and melt before the power of the Word and when we hear them cry out for Christ and Mercy and cry out against themselves for their former folly and confess their sinnes and ask us what they shall do to be saved and are but willing to be ruled by Christ the Physician of their Souls this would put life into a Preacher that was cold and dull this would even make a stone to speak But when we tell men of Gods threatnings till they are past believing them and tell you of Gods Anger till they seem to be past fearing it and tell them of the plague of sinne till they are past feeling when in stead of preaching men to Faith and Repentance and fear and tenderness of heart we preach them into greater unbelief and carelesness and dead stupidity this is enough to dull or break the heart of almost any Preacher in the world What man is able to sollow so fruitless a work with liveliness And then it 's you that will have the loss and danger of it When you have dried the brests the child may famish If your Preachers could not awake and change you with all their convincing arguments and fervency how quietly may you sleep on when you have flatted them by discouragements If Satan can either dismount or make useless these Cannons that were wont to batter his garrison he may then possess you Souls in peace You talk against persecutors that silenced Ministers But O Sirs it is you that are our greatest persecutours that refuse and delay to yield to the calls of Christ by our Ministry and make us labour so much in vaine Though it be not in vaine as to our own Souls yet you make it in vaine as to yours When we have studied till we almost break our braines and preached till we have quite broke our strength and we are consumed and worn away with labour and bodily paines that it procureth then you come after and make us requital by breaking our hearts by your delaies and refusing to turn and live Truly Sirs I must tell you for my own part that if it had not been for those that gave me better encouragment by their obedience I should never have held out with you a quarter of this time If all had profited as little as some and all had stuck as fast in an unconverted state as some if the humble penitent obedient ones among you had not been my comfort and encouragment under Christ I had been gone from you many a year ago I could never have held out till now either my corruption would have made me runne away with Jonas or my judgment would have commanded me to shake the dust of my feet as a witness against you and depart But to what end do I speak all this to you To what end Why to let you see how you abuse both God and man by your Delaies and disobedience You cannot possibly do us that are your Teachers a greater injurie or mischief in the world It is not in your power to wrong us more Are our studies and our labours worth nothing think you Are our watchings and waiting worth nothing Are our Praiers and tears and groane to be despised God will not despise them if you do Believe it he will see them all on your score and you will onâ— day have a heavy reconing of them and pay full deare for them Is it equal dealing with us that when we are watching for your Souls as men that know we must give an account you should rob us of our comfort and make us do it with sighes and sorrow Heb. 13. 17. Yea that you should undo all that we are doing and make us lose our labour and our hopes And yet do you not think to pay for this I tell you again unconverted sinners we are wearied with your delaies Many years we have been perswading you but to Turn and live and yet you are unturned You have been convinced long and thinking on it and wishing long and talking of it and promising long and yet it is undone and here is nothing but delaies We see while you delay death takes away one this week and another the next week and you are passing into another world apase and yet those that are left behind will take no warning but still delay We see that Satan delaies not while you delay He is day and night at work against you if he seem to make a truce with you it is that he may be doing secretly while you suspect him not We see that sinne delaieth not while you delay It is working like poyson or infection in your bodies and seazing upon your vital powers it 's every day blinding you more and more it 's hardening your hearts more and searing up your Consciences to bring you past all feeling and hope And must we stand by and see this miserable work with our peoples Souls and all be frustrate and rejected by themselves that we do for their deliverance How long must we stand by with the light in our hands while you are serving the flesh and neglecting that which we are sent to call you to It is not our business to hold you the candle to play by or to sleep by or to sinne by these are works that better agree with the dark But God sent us to you on another message even to Light you out of your sinnes to him that you might be saved Truly beloved hearers I must needs say that the time seems long and very long to me that
I have been preaching so many yeares to you for Conversion and for an Holy Heavenly life even since I first knew you and that yet so many of you are drown'd in sinne and ignorance and are unconverted when I think your very Consciences tell you that it is a thing that must be done I tell you all these years do seem to me a long time to wait on you in vain Blessed be the Lord that it hath not been in vaine with some or else I would scarce preach any more then one other Sermon to you even to bid you farewel I pray you deal but fairly with us and tell us whether ever you will turn or not If you will not but are resolved for sinne and Hell say so that we may know the worst speak out your minds that we may know what to trust to For if we once knew you would not turn we would soon have done with you and leave you to the Justice of God But if still you say you will turn when will you do it You will do it and you hope you shall but when How long would you have us wait yet Have you not abused us enough Nay I must tell you that you even weary God himself It is his own expression Mal. 2. 17. Isa. 43. 24. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Isa. 1. 14. And I must say to you as the Prophet Isa. 7. 13. Is it a small thing for you to weary men but you will weary my God also Consider what it is that you do 46. Consider also that you are at a constant unspeakable loss every day and hour that you Delay your Conversion O little do you know what you deprive your selves of every day If a slave in the Gallies or prison might live at Court as a favourite of the Prince in honour and delight and ease would he delay either years or hours Or would he not rather think with himself Is it not better to be at ease and in honour then to be here As the Prodigal said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger All this while I might be in plenty and delight All the while that you live in sinne you might be in the favour of God in the high and Heavenly employments of the Sants you might have the comforts of daily Communion with Christ and with the Saints you might be laying up for another world and might look death in the face with Faith and confidence as one that cannot be conquered by it you might live as the Heirs of Heaven on Earth All this and more then this you lose by your delaies All the Mercies of God are lost upon you Your food and rayment you health and wealth which you set so much by all is but lost and worse then lost for they turn to your greater hurt All our pains with you and all the Ordinances of God which you possess and all your time is lost and worss And do you think it indeed a wise mans part to live any longer at such a loss as this and that wilfully and for nothing If you knew your loss you would not think so 47. Nay more you are all this while doing that which must be undone againe or you will be undone for ever You are running from God but you must come back again or perish when all is done You are learning an hundred carnal lessons and false conceits that must be all unlearnt again You are shutting up your eies in wilful ignorance which must be opened again You must lean the Doctrine of Christ the great Teacher of the Church if you stay never so long or else you shall be cut of from his people Acts 3. 22. 7. 37. When you have been long accustoming your selves to sinne you must unlearn and break all those customes again You are hardning your hearts daily and they must again be softned And I must tell you that though a little time and labour may serve to do mischief yet it is not quickly undone again You may sooner set your house on fire than quench it when you have done You may sooner cut and wound your bodies then heal them again And sooner catch a cold or a disease then cure it You may quickly do that which must be longer a undoing Besides the cure is accompanied with paine You must take many a bitter draught in groanes or tears of godly sorrow for these delaies The wounds that you are now giving your Souls must smart and smart again before they are searcht and healed to the bottom And what man of wisdom would make himself such work and sorrow Who would travail on an hour longer that knowes he is out of his way and must come back again Would you not think him a mad man that would say I will go on a little further and then I will turn back I know Mr. Bilney the Martyr was offended with this comparison because he thought it was against Free Grace But comparisons extend not to every respect There are two things in your sins to be undone the one is the Guilt and the other is the Habit and power of sin the first indeed is done away when you are Converted but at the cost of Christ which should not be made light of And yet some scarres may be left behind and such twigs of Gods Rod may fall upon you as shall make you wish you had come sooner in And for the habit of sinne though Conversion break the heart of it yet will it live and trouble you while you live and those sinnes that now you are strengthning by your delaies will be thorns in your sides and rebels in your Country and find you work as long as you live And thus I may well say that you are doing that while you delay that must be long in undoing and will not be undone so easily as it is done and you are going on that way that must be all trod backward 48. And me thinks if it were but this it should terrifie you from your Delaies that it is likely to make your Conversion more grievous if you should have so great Mercy from God as after all to be Converted There is very few scape that are so exceeding long in travaile but if you come to the birth it 's like to be with double paine For God must send either some grievous affliction to fire and frighten you out of your sinnes or else some terrible gripes of Conscience that shall make you groane and groane againe in the feeling of your folly The pangs and throws of Conscience in the work of Conversion are far more grievous in some then in others Some are even on the wrack and almost brought besides their wits and the next step to desperation with horror of Soul and the sense of the Wrath of God so that they lie in doubts and complaints many a year together and think that they are even forsaken
they will not deliberate upon it till the market be past If they have their land to plow or their â—orn to sow or reap or mow they will not take a twelve months time to pause upon it They can quicky Resolve upon their every-daies business their travails their labours and all their ordinary affaires And yet these same men cannot Resolve in seaven years time and seaven to that whether Heaven or Earth should be more loved and laboured for Or whether a corruptible flesh a wicked fancie a greedy throat should be pleased before the God of Heaven though the pleasing of it cost them the loss of their Salvation Why Sirs a man that is well in his wits would think that these matters should be more out of doubt then the former and speedilier resolved on One would think it should be an easier question whether you should turn to God and a Holy life for the saving of your immortal Souls then whether you should eate or drink or sleep for the preservation of your bodies For I can in many cases bring some reason that should perswade you to forbeare eating or drinking or sleeping for a considerable time but no man breathing can speak a word of reason except mens folly should be called Reason that should perswade you to forbear your Conversion for a minute And if you mistake about these bodily matters the loss may be repaired at least in the world to come but if you die before you are Resolved and firmly Resolved to give up your Soul and body to Christ and live a Holy Heavenly life you are undone body and Soul for ever and all the world can never save you Oh what a strange and horrible thing is it that a man that hath the wit to mannage his affaires as plausibly as any of his neighbours that can overwit others in the matters of the world that can govern Towns and Countries that is learned in his Profession in Law in Physick in Merchandize in Navigation or any the like I say that a man of so deep a reach so plodding and active a wit as this should yet be unresolved yea at 30 or 40 years old be unresolved whether to be Sanctified or unsanctified whether to be Holy and be Saved or to be unholy though God hath professed expresly that such shall not see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. These are our wise men these are too many besides the ignorant country men of our Gentlemen our Worshipfull and Honourable men our great Schollars and men of noble or reverend esteem that yet are unresolved whether to be saved or to be damned Though God hath written a Bible to Resolve them and a thousand books are written to Resolve them and Preachers are studying and preaching to Resolve them and a thousand mercies are cast into the scales that one would think should help to turn them and some sharp afflictions are helping to Resolve them and twenty or fourty years certain experience of the vanity of this world the deceitfullness of riches and honour and pleasure and the unprofitableness of sinne one would think should Resolve them yet after all this they are unresolved whether they should presently let go their sinne and whether God or the flesh should be pleased or displeased If this be the wisdom of these men the Lord bless me and all his chosen from such wisdom 6. Nay consider further of your unreasonable wickedness Are not many of your Judgments Resolved when yet your hearts and wils are unresolved I am confident nay I am certain it is so You are at once both Resolved and unresolved What a confusion and warre do you thus make in your own Souls The Judgment is for one thing and the Will and Affections are for another thing What are you not led by Reason Will you let out your Affections and lead your lives quite contrary to your knowledg Would not most of you give it me as your Judgments under your hands that it 's a thousand times better to cast away your drunkenness your filthiness your worldliness and other known sinnes then to keep them any longer What say you are you not Convinced that it were your wisest course to part with them this very day and hour Undoubtedly many of you are And yet for all this will you not Resolve to do it Are you not perswaded in your Consciences that it 's better to dye in a Holy and Heavenly state then in a loose and careles worldly state And that it were your safest and wisest course to become New men and lead a Holy Heavenly life without delay Dare you deny this Is it not your Judgment And yet will you not do it Are you Resolved that it should be done and must be done and yet will you not Resolve to do it Why what is this but to be condemners of your selves to carry a Judge about with you in your own brests that is still passing sentence against you Happy is he saith the Spirit of God Rom. 14. 22. that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth If your Judgments be Resolved let your Wills Resolve or else you are wilfull adersaries of the light and fight against Reason and unman your selves and sinning wilfully against your Knowledg shall be beaten with many stripes 7. Me thinks also it should somewhat quicken you to Resolve when you consider what a case you had now been in if death had found you unresolved For if you are unresolved you are unsanctified and if not Sanctified you are not pardoned or justified and therefore undoubtedly you had been past all help in endless misery if you had died all this while before you were firmly Rosolved for God O what a dangerous ticklish condition have you stood in all this while What wise man would live an hour in such a case for all the world For feare lest that hour should be his last And yet would you stay longer in it and still are you unresolved 8. Believe it Christ will not own you as his servants nor trust you what ever promises you may make him as long as you are unresolved Who will take a servant that is not resolved to do any service Who will take an unresolved person if he knows it as a wife or friend into his intimate love And indeed you are not truly Christians till you are Resolved to take Christ for better and worse What ever state is short of this is also short of true Sanctification and will fall short of Heaven Christ is Resolved to stick to his servants and he will have no servants that be not resolved to stick to him 9. And indeed if you be unresolved as you are falshearted at the first setting out so it is certain that you wll never go well on nor endure to the end in case of tryall nor can you do the business of a Christian life without Resolution If you will be Christ's Disciples you must reckon upon persecutions You must take up
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
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