guilty because the more wicked Darest thou to warrant it that God will take the less notice of the wrongs men do him because they are used and accustomed so to wrong and abuse him every hour in the day If your Reason can allow and warrant this I must say it is different yea and opposite to the common Reason of Mankind Say not I make my own Reason the Rule and Standard of yours or other mens For I argue here as I have done all along before upon the common Topicks and Maxims of Reason generally allowed all the World over by Mankind If a Practice be evil the oftner it is repeated the more still it is aggravated To be plain and faithful with you Gentlemen if it be your custom to blaspheme 't is God's custom to damn Blasphemers If you use to be drunk and unclean God uses to punish Drunkâ—rds and Adulterers if impenitent and unreformed with his everlasting wrath And when you are cited as shortly you must be before the awful Tribunal of the great the just and the terrible God ask but your selves whether such a Plea as this be like to excuse you in whole or in part and take off the heinousness of these horrid Impieties Will your prophane Oaths and direful Execrations and Imprecations be excused in the least degree by telling him Lord I was so accustomed to blaspheme thy Name Cursing Swearing and Damning were so familiar Language in my Lips from day to day that I had quite lost the sense of the Action as well as of the evil thereof and therefore Lord pity spare and have mercy on me O damn not my soul to thine everlasting wrath For though I have imprecated it upon my self yet frequent custom at length extinguished all my sense and conscience of the evil thereof till at length I could play with a direful imprecation as an harmless thing nay thought it an ornament and grace to my Speech a gallant Expression alamode the Times and Places I lived in Is not this as good a Plea and not a jot better than that of a Malefactor upon his Tryal for Life and Death when Theft or Robbery have been evidently and substantially proved upon him and the Judge demandeth what he hath to say for himself why Sentence of Death should not pass upon him Mercy my Lord Mercy cries he for I have been so used and accustomed to filching and thieving from my Youth up that for some years before I was apprehended every ones Goods and Cattel seemed to me to look like my own so that I scarce knew when I stole and when I did not And thus Gentlemen you have heard a fair Tryal of the Sin of prophane Swearing and Imprecations of Damnation and you have heard the verdict of your own Reason and Conscience upon the Case The Lord help you to break off and reform that sin for which there is not one word of Apology or excuse now left in your Mouths Let me close all I have to say upon this head with one plain Question Do you think you must die or live here for ever as you now do If you are convinced as all the Living are supposed to be that you must die do you desire an easie and comfortable or a painful and terrible Death I presume there is no man living that is convinced he must die but desires naturally and rationally an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as easy and comfortable a dissolution as may be If so I appeal to your Reason whether prophane swearing and blaspheming the Name of God be a proper rational way to obtain peace and comfort at death With what hope or encouragement can those tongues of yours cry at death Lord have mercy upon me which have prophaned that Name and imprecated Damnation from him till you came into your last extremities which convinced you you could live no longer 'T is a serious Question and well worth a cool and solemn debate in your own Reasons and Consciences Some of you are more immediately exposed to the dangers of death than others ready to be disbanded by a Bullet If you fall you must either fall considerately or inconsiderately If inconsiderately and without any sense or conscience of this horrid guilt you die impenitently and consequently desperately and miserably If considerately and with awakened Consciences I demand Whether such guilt as this will not roar louder than the Peals and Vollies of those great and small Guns do which breathe Destruction upon you and round about you I have done my Message plainly and faithfully to the very face of your Reason and Conscience and if for my faithfulness and zeal both for God's honour and yours I am rewarded with your Câ—rses yet if you would forbear to blaspheme and â—end in pieces the Name of God I shall not much regard the obloquy and reproach my Name shall undergo and suffer upon that account But I expect from you better fruit than this CHAP. IV. Wherein Reason and Conscience are again consulted about the Practice of Drunkenness and their righteous and impartial Censure given upon that Case SECT I. THough our Souls and Bodies be of vastly different Natures and Originals yet they do clasp and embrace each other with most dear and tender affection 'T is marvellous to behold such a Spiritual and Heavenly Creature as the Soul in all men fervently loving and in most men fondly doting upon a lump of Clay a clod of Earth It sympathizeth tenderly with it If the meanest Member of the Body be in pain the Soul is presently concerned for it and evidences it self to be so by commanding the eyes both to watch and weep the Tongue to complain and moan the Hands to bind up its Wounds with all imaginable tenderness and carefully defend it from the least injurious touchâ— But if the whole be in danger how do its nobler Faculties of Understanding Memory and Invention awaken and bestir themselves to the uttermost for its deliverance and safety Whilst the Soul lives in union with the Body 't is filled with assiduous and too often with exorbitant and distracting cares for its necessary support and comfort And when it must be separated from it by death what strong aversations to death doth it ordinarily discover The strong tyes and bonds betwixt it and the Body cannot be loosed without much conflict and strugling evidenced by these Emphatical groans it sends forth groans which other men understand not nor can be supposed to understand till they themselves come to feel the parting Pull The reason of all which lies in the intimate relation which is betwixt these different Natures which God hath married together in the Womb from which time they have been companions and partners in all the comforts and troubles of life The Body is the Soul's house in which iâ— dwells and still shall dwell till death dissolve it 'T is the Soul's Garment that clothes and covers it It hath worn this Garment of Flesh from the beginning and is
swear falsly c. and come and stand before me in this House which is called by my Name and say we are delivered to do all these Abominations Is this House which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers in your eyes Behold even I have seen it saith the Lord but go ye now to my place which was in Shilo where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel SECT V. Of the Nature of true Câ—nversion YOU have heard that Conversion does not consist in these External things at your Eternal peril be it if you trust in them But true Conversion is the turning of the whole man to God Acts 26. 18. 'T is nothing less than the total change of the inward temper and frame of the Heart and the external course of the Life Isa. 55. 8. T is not the cold Confession but the real forsaking of sin in which we shall find mercy Prov. 28. 13. Thy heart and will love and delight must turn sin out and take Christ in or thou art no Gospel-Convert A true Convert loaths every sin and himself for sin Ezek. 36. 31. But general Confessions of sin are consistent with the full dominion of sin Moreover in all true Conversion there is a positive turning unto God a whole heart-choice of him for your supreme and ultimate happiness and portion Psal. 73. 25. And of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Prince and Saviour Acts 5. 31. And answerably it will devote your whole Life to his Service and Glory Phil. 1. 21. And thus it brings forth the new man And the whole Frame of your Heart and Life is marvellously changed and altered 2 Cor. 5. 17. Old things are passed away behold all things are become new It may be you will think such a change as this impossible to be made upon you And so it is indeed until the day of God's power come Psalm 110. 3 What! to forsake with loathing your old Companions and Courses which you have so long lived with and delighted in and to embrace with highest pleasure strict Godliness which you have so loathed and ridiculed This would be a strange alteration indeed But as strange as it seems to be 't will be effected in a moment when God fulfils that gracious Promise as I hope he is now doing to you Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you Operations follow Natures When the heart of a Beast was given to that great King Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5. 21. his dwelling was with the wild Asses they â—ed him with Grass like Oxen. But let the Spirit of a man return to him again and he 'll blush to think of his brutish Company and way of Life And so will you of yours also As marvellous a change as this has past upon as eminent and notorious sinners as your selves Gal. 1. 22. the God of the Spirits of all flesh can with ease and speed produce all this by that Almighty Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself SECT VI. Of the Hazards attending Conversion IF the Lord shall in his rich grace and mercy to your Souls stir up in them the thoughts and resolutions of a change of your course great care ought to be taken in the time of this change lest they miscarry in their remove from one State to another Multitudes miscarry betwixt a State of Prophaneness and true Godliness To continue in the State of Prophaneness is to be certainly lost and so it is to take up short of Christ in meer Civility and Formality in Religion This middle state takes up multitudes by the way who do but change the open Road for a more private way to Hell Meer Civilized Nature is Unregenerated Nature still They return but not to the most high they are like a deceitful Bow saith the Prophet Hos. 7. 16. They seem to aim at Christ and Salvation but as an Arrow from a weak Bow it goes not home or as from a deceitful Bow it slents aside and misses the Mark 'T is true they are not openly prophane as they were before but they take up and settle in an Unregenerate State still Their Condition is the same tho their Company be not This is excellently set forth by our Saviour Matt. 12. 43 44 45. The Devil may be cast out as a prophane Devil and yet keep his propriety still as a formal Devil The sense of that Text is well expressed by one in this Note upon it That a restraint by Formality keeps the Devil's Propriety and disposes the Soul to final Apostacy You are as far from Christ and Salvation under the power of Formality as you were before He that 's cured of a Fever hath no great cause to rejoyce if his Fever have left him under a Consumption which will kill him as surely though it may be less violently or speedily SECT VII Of the absolute Necessity of a thorow Change WHatever the Difficulties and Hazards be that attend this Change by Conversion unto God the Change it self is absolutely and indispensibly necessary to every man's Salvation The Door of Salvation can never be opened without the Key of Regeneration Christ assures Civil and Formal Nicodemus that except he be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. Think not Conversion to be the attainment of some singular and extraordinary Christians for 't is the very point upon which every man 's eternal Happiness or Misery depends There is one Law for all the world They must be changed or damned No Restitutions or Reformations no common Gifts or Abilities no Religious Duties or Services can save any man from Hell without a Change by thorough Conversion Rom. 8. 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God Satisfie and please not your selves with this Though we live in sin yet God is a merciful God we will confess our sins to him say our Prayers keep our Church and no doubt but God will be merciful to us as well as others Consider it man that this merciful God is also a God of Truth and this God of Truth hath plainly assured thee That all these external things signifie nothing to thy Salvation unless thou become a new Creature Gal. 6. 15. And that thou must be born again John 3. 3. Say not without this you will hope in God If you hope in God you must hope in his Word Psalm 119. 81. Now where will you find that Word in the Bible that warrants the hope of Salvation in an unregenerate person All Scriptural hope is of a purifying nature and evermore productive of an holy life 1 John 3. 3. If you say Christ died for the greatest of sinners and you trust to be saved through him 't is true he did so but Conversion is his only method of Salvation Tit. 2. 14. And those that are not washed by Sanctification have no part
The only Thing that makes Men truly happy and perfectly blessed in the World to come By the same Author Isa. 55. 7 8. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. Isa. 1. 18. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho they be red like crimson they shall be as wool 1 Cor. 6. 11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified c. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1691. THE Possibility Nature and Necessity OF CONVERSION Opened and Evinced SECT I. Conviction supposed and Grace admired REason and Conscience have been shaming men out of their Prophaneness in the former Part of this Discourse Free-grace invites them to the Life of Holiness and thereby to the Life of Blessedness in this Second Part. There you see what it is to live like Beasts Here you may see what it is to live like Christians My Charity commands me to suppose that some Readers stand by this time convicted in their own Consciences both of the extream wickedness and the immediate danger of that prophane Course they have heitherto pursued and persisted in And that by this time they begin to interrogate them in the Apostle's close and cutting Language Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death 'T is hard to imagine that so many close Debates and Reasonings as you have heard in the former Part should not leave many of you under conviction and trouble of Spirit You see your own Reasons and Consciences have condemned you And if our heart condemn us saith the Apostle God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 John 3. 20. 'T is folly to imagine you shall be acquitted at God's immediate Bar who are already cast and condemned at your own Privy Sessions If this be the happy effect as I hope it is of all the former close and solemn Debates with your Consciences it will naturally and immediately cast thy Soul Reader into great admiration of an astonishment at the patience and long-suffering of God that hath born with thee under a life of prodigious and reiterated provocations until this day And his Goodness will be as admirable to thee as his Patience in that he hath not only suffered thee to live till this day but made it the day of thy Conviction the first necessary step towards thy Conversion and the very first things he entertains thy convinced and troubled Soul with to be the possibility and probability of thy Conversion to God The greatness of his Patience shews his Almighty Power Rom. 9. 22. Nahum 1. 3. But his willingness to pass by all the wrongs you have done him and to be at peace with you discovers the immense riches of his grace Tit. 3. 3 4. That God should be so quick in the executions of his wrath upon your Companions in sin and so patient and long-suffering towards you that have out-sinned them all is such a comparative consideration of his bounty as should even overwhelm the man that beholds it Rom. 11. 22. Behold the goodness and severity of God! on them that fell severity but towards thee goodness If thou be that very man who in the past course of thy Life hast been a prophane Swearer a beastly Drunkard a lascivious person an hater and persecutor of good men and after all this the Lord hath brought an offer of mercy to thy Soul and shall convince thee it is not come too late but that the Door of Hope stands yet open to thee my advice to thee is That thou cast thy self down at the feet of mercy and after this manner pour forth thy laments and desires before the Lord. And is there yet a possibility of mercy O Lord God for such a vile wretch as I have been Can the arms of Free-grace yet open themselves to embrace such a Monster of wickedness as I am Who then is a God like unto thee and what patience mercy and goodness is like thine I have far exceeded others in sin I have lived the Life of a Beast yea of a Devil I have darted thy dreadful and glorious Name with thousands of horrid Blasphemies trampled all thy glorious Attributes under my feet challenged thee to thy very face to do thy worst even to damn me to the pit of Hell I have yielded up this Soul with all its noble Faculties and Powers as instruments of sin unto the Devil and made this Body which should have been the hallowed Temple of thy Spirit to be the noysom Sink or Common-Shore for all unclean and abominable Lusts to run and settle in I have hated reviled and persecuted those that were more strictly sober and godly than my self because their convincing-examples disquieted checked and convicted my Conscience in the eager pursuit of my Lusts and Pleasures I have lived in the prophane neglect of Prayer Meditation Self-reflection and all other spiritual Christian Duties thinking to make an atonement for all by a few hypocritical external Formalities To accommodate my carnal interest in the world I have come â—eeking hot out of an Ale-House or Whore-House to the Table of the Lord where with unhallowed hands and a more unhallowed heart I have crucified again the Lord of Glory and given the vilest affront and despight to that most sacred and precious blood which now must save me or I am lost for ever Thus have I done and because thou kepst silent I thought thee to be altogether such an one as my self But this day hast thou reproved me and set mine abominations in order before me I have tempted and induced many others into the same Impieties with me of whom some are already gone down to the dead and others so fixed and fully engaged in the pursuit of their Lusts that there appear no signs of repentance or recovery in them Thy wrath Lord soon brake forth against the Angels that sinned in Heaven yet hitherto hast thou forborn and spared me who have been highly provoking thee ever since I was born by life of unparallell'd wickedness upon Earth Vile wretch that I am I have despised the riches of thy goodness forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth me to repentance And after all here I am told that there is yet a possibility of pardon mercy and salvation for me The news is so great and so good that I am zealously concerned to exaâ—â—â—â— the grounds and eâ—idences of it And if it shall appear to be as true as it is astonishingly 〈◊〉 and ravishingly sweet
I hope it shall effectually lead me to repentance and dissolve for ever the strongest tyes betwixt me and my lusts SECT II. Conversion of the vilest Sinner possible THAT it is possible for the greatest and most infamous Sinner to be recovered by Repentance and Conversion and thereupon to find mercy and forgiveness with God is a truth as sure and firm as it is sweet and comfortable Three things will give full evidence of it 1. That their Sins do not exceed the power and sufficiency of the causes of Remission 2. That such Sinners are within the calls and invitations of the Gospel 3. That such Sinners are found among the instances and Examples of pardoning mercy recorded in the Scriptures And if the Causes of Pardon be sufficient and able to produce it if the Gospel-invitations do take them in and such sinners as these every way as vile and wicked have not been shut out but received to mercy then 't is beyond all doubt that there is at least a possibility of mercy for such sinners as you are I. 'T is past all rational doubt that the Causes of Remission are every way sufficient and able to produce the forgiveness of such sins as yours are For consider with your selves The power of 1. The Impulsive Cause 2. The Meritorious Cause 3. The Applying Cause 1. The sufficiency and ability of the Impulsive Cause of Pardon which is none other but the Free-grace of God the immense riches and treasures whereof do infinitely exceed the accompts and computations both of Angels and Men Exod. 34. 6 7. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Mic. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea Once more Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound So that whatever thy sins have been they do not they cannot exceed the ability and power of the Grace of God the all-sufficient Impulsive Cause of Remission That infinite Abyss or Sea of mercy can swallow up and cover such mountains of guilt as thine have been 2. Nor do thy sins exceed the power and ability of the Meritorious Cause of Remission namely the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for that Blood is the Blood of God Act. 20. 28. He is the Lamb of God whose blood is sufficient to take away the sins of the world John 1. 29. There is but one sin in the world exempt from Remission by this blood and if thy heart be now wounded with the sense of sin as I here suppose it to be that 's none of thy sin how heinous soever thy other sins be 3. Nor do thy sins exceed the ability and power of the Applying Cause of pardon namely the Spirit of God For though I should suppose thy mind to be clouded and overshadowed with grossest ignorance thy Heart to be as hard as an Adamant or Nether Mill-stone thy Will stiff and obstinate thy Affections enchanted and bewitched with the pleasures of Sin yet this Spirit of God in a moment can make a convincing beam of light to dart into thy dark mind make thy hard heart relent thy stubborn will to bow and all the affectiâ—ns of thy Soul to comply and open obedientially to Christ John 16. 9 10. The Spirit when he cometh he shall convince the world of Sin c. Thus you see whatever your guilt be it does not exceed the abilities of the Causes of Remission On what an Encouragement is this II. And there is yet further Encouragement in this that if you will open your Bibles you may find your selves within thâ— Calls and Invitations of the Gospel And no man can say that man is without hope that is within a Gospel-invitation Consider Isa. 55. 7 8. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts c. Here you have the nature of Conversion described Negatively and Positively by forsaking your ways and thoughts and turning to the Lord The way notes the external course of the Conversation the thoughts denote the internal frame and temper of the Mind both these must be forsaken And turning to the Lord denotes the sincere dedication of the whole man to God all which is possible and easy for the Spirit of God to do and this being once done abundant Pardon is assured If you say you cannot think it God tells you in the very next words That his thoughts are not your thoughts but as far above them as the Heavens are higher than the Earth Read to the same purpose Isaiah 1. 18 Rev. 3. 20. John 7. 37. III. And to make the possibility of Remission yet clearer know for your encouragement that as vile infamous and prodigious Sinners as your selves are recorded and found amongst the instances and examples of forgiven sinners in Scripture Paul was once a fierce and cruel Persecutor and Blasphemer yet he obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1. 13 14. That sinful Woman recorded Luke 7. 37 38 was an infamous and a notorious sinner yet her sins which were many were forgiven her v. 47. Manasseh was a Monster of wickedness as you may read 2 Chron. 33. yet found mercy And if you view that Catalogue of sinners given in 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. you will seem to find among them the very forlorn-hope of desperate sinners advanced nearest to Hell of any men upon Earth yet see ver 11. what is said of some of them And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are justified All these things plainly shew I say not the Certainty that you shall be but the Possibility that you may be pardoned which is a mercy and encouragement unspeakable SECT III. The Conversion of prophane ones highly probable AND because Satan labours to discourage them that are gone in sin so far as you are by cutting off all hopeâ— of mercy from them and bringing them to this desperate Conclusion Damned we know we shall and must be and therefore as good be damned for more as less If we had lived sober and civil lives we might have had some hope but because we have no hope 't is as good for us to take our full swinge in sin as to think of returning by Repentance and Conversion so late in the day as this is To obviate this deadly snare of Satan I shall here further add That there is not only a Possibility of your recovery but in some respect
a stronger Possibility that such as you may be converted and saved than there is for those that have â—ed a smoother and more civil life in the world and wholly trust to their own Civility for their salvation instead of the imputed righteousness of Christ. This plainly appears by that convictive Expression of Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 21. 31. Verily I say unto you That the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you Publicans the most infamous among men and Harlots the worst of women yet these are sooner wrought over to Christ by Faith and Repentance than the more civil and self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees And indeed 't is far easier to come at the Consciences of such sinners by Conviction than at the others They have nothing to ward off the stroke of conviction It must fall directly and immediately upon their Consciences The most smooth and civil part of the world trust to their own righteousness and this self-confidence like Armour of proof resists all attempts to bring them to Christ for righteousness Nothing â—ixes men in a state of evil more than a strong conceit that their Condition is good But such as you are whose whole lives have been polluted with prophaneness and all impiety your Consciences will more easily receive convictions of your present danger and of the necessity of a speedy and thorow change You cannot think as others do that you need no Repentance or Reformation In this respect therefore you lie nearer the Door of Hope and Mercy than other Sinners do If therefore it shall please the Lord whose grace is rich and free to the vilest of sinners to pluck out such as you as brands out of the burning by thorough conversion to Christ you will not only become real Christians as all true Converts are but the most excellent useful and zealous amongst all Christians As you will be most eminent Instances of his Grace so will you be the most eminent Instruments for his Glory As you have gone beyond other sinners in wickedness so you will strive to exceed them all in your love to Christ Luke 7. 47. She loved much for much was forgiven her You 'l never think you can do enough for him who hath done such great things for you Who more fierce and vile before Conversion than Paul who was a Blasphemer a Persecutor and injurious 1 Tim. 1. 13 And who among all the servants of Christ loved or laboured for him more than he How did he rather fly than travel up and down the world in a flame of Zeal for Christ As you have been Ring-leaders in sin so you will not endure to come behind any in zeal and love to the Lord Jesus Yet not thinking this way to make him a requital for the injuries you have done him that would be the most injurious act of all the rest But to testifie this way the deep sense you have of the riches and transcendency of his goodness and mercy to you above others SECT IV. Conversion frequently and fatally mistaken BUT here I must warn you of some common but most dangerous Mistakes committed in the world with respect to Conversion unto God Except these be seasonably prevented or removed none of you will ever stir or move further than you are towards Christ. Amongst others beware especially of these three following fatal Mistakes That of 1. Baptismal Regeneration 2. Common Profession of Christianity 3. Formality in Religious Duties 1. There is a notion spread among men and almost every where obtaining That the Scriptures mean nothing else by Conversion but to be baptized in our infancy into the visible Church and that this Ordinance having past upon them long ago they are sufficiently converted already and that men make but a needless stir and bussle in the world about any other or further Conversion But Sirs I beseech you consider how dangerous a thing it is to take your own Shadow for a Bridge and venturing upon it drown your selves If Baptism be Conversion enough why doth Christ say Mark 16. 16. Hâ— that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Baptism without Faith signifies nothing to Salvation but Faith without Baptism where it cannot be had secures Salvation And why doth the Apostle say Gal. 6. 15. Neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new Creature Or what needed Christ to have pressed and inculcated the indispensible necessity of Regeneration upon Nicodemus as he doth Joh. 3. 3 5 7. who had been many years a circumcised Jew This your dangerous dependance upon your Baptismal Regeneration is what hath given such deep offence and prejudice to many though without just cause against that Ordinance I lament it as much as they that men should turn it into such a deadly snare to their own Souls yet will still honour Christ's abused Ordinance 2. Some think the common profession of Christianity makes them Christians enough They are no Heathens Mahometans or idolatrous Papists but Protestants within the Pale of the True Church that is professed reformed Christians But Friends I beg you to consider that convictive Text 1 Cor. 4. 20. The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Many there be that in words confess Christ but in works they deny him And why were the foolish Virgins that is professed reformed Christians shut out of the Kingdom of God if the Lamps of verbal profession without the Oyl of Internal Godliness were enough for our Salvation Mat. 25. 3 12. Believe it Sirs many will claim acquaintance with Christ upon this account and expect favour from him in the great day of whom he will profess he never knew them Mat. 7. 22. Christ need not have put men upon striving as in an Agony to enter in at the strait Gate if Baptism in our Infancy or Verbal Profession of Christianity were all the difficulties men had to encounter in the way to Heaven 3. Formality in external Duties of Religion is another fatal mistake of Conversion Have not these been the inward thoughts of your hearts As bad as we are though we take liberty to swear be drunk and unclean sometimes yet we say our Prayers keep our Church and hope for Heaven and Salvation as well as those that are more precise But tell me Gentlemen seriously What do you say or plead for your selves more in all this than those convicted Hypocrites did Isa. 58. 2. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching to God Or to come nearer yet to your Case and cut off at one stroke for ever this vain Plea of yours read and ponder God's own Censure of it in Jer. 7. 8 9 10 11 12. Behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit Will ye steal murder commit Adultery and
Step too for the Lord's sake Gentlemen that blessed Step beyond meer Civility to serious Godliness Oh that I knew what Words to chuse and what Arguments to urge that might possibly prevail with you My Witness is in Heaven I would do any thing within my power to procure your temporal and eternal Happiness I beg you in the bowels of Christ Jesus as if I were upon my bended knees before your feet turn not away your eye or ear from these Discourses Ponder and consider once and again what hath been rationally debated in the First Part about your Reformation and what hath and shall be offered in this Second Part. Oh my God! thou that hast counted me faithful and put me into the Ministry thou that hast inclined my heart to make this attempt and encouraged me with hope that it shall not be in vain to all them that read it if it must be so to some I beseech thee lay the hand of thy Spirit upon the heart and hand of thy Servant strengthen and guide him in drawing the Bow of the Gospel and directing the Arrows that they may strike the Mark he aims at even the Conviction and Conversion of lâ—uâ—d and dissolute sinners Command these Considerations to stay and settle in their hearts till they bring them fully over to thy self in Christ. I. Consideration And first O that you would consider how the whole of your Life past hath been cast away in vain as to the great end and business you came into the world for You have breathed many Years but not lived one Day to God Your Consciences could never yet prevail with you to get out of the noise and hurry of the World and go along with it into some private retiring-place to debate the state of your Souls and think close but for one hour to such awâ—ul Subjects as God Soul Christ and Eternity Heaven Hell Death and Judgment Do you think Gentlemen that you came into this world to do nothing else but to eat and drink sport and play sleep and die Ask your selves I beseech you whether the life you have hitherto lived have looked to your own eyes like an earnest â—light from Hell and a serious pursuit of Heaven and Salvation How much nearer are you got to Christ now than you were when in your Cradles The sweetest and â—ittest part of your life is past away in Vanity and there 's no calling one day or hour of it back again II. Consideration Consider Gentlemen for Christ Jesus sake you have yet an opportunity to be eternally happy if you will slight and neglect opportunities of Salvation no longer The Door of mercy is not yet finally shut up The Lord Jesus yet waits to be gracious to you Such is his astonishing grace and mercy he will pardon and pass by all that you have done against him if now after all you will but come unto him that you may have life Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die Your Swearing and Blaspheming your Drunkenness Uncleaâ—ness and Enmity at Godliness shall never be mentioned if you will yet repent and return Ezek. 18. 21 22. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him If you say these are hard and impossible terms to Nature 'T is true they are so and God's eâ—d in urging them here upon you is to convince you of your natural impotence and drive you to Christ that by union with him the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in you III. Consideration Let it be throughly considered 'T is no less than Salvation and your own Salvation too which depends upon your Conversion How diligent was Christ in purchasing Salvation How negligent and remiss are we in applying it Oh what compositions of sloth and stupidity are unconverted Sinners How do they sit with folded arms as if it were easy to perish Is this your running and striving to obtain the Palms and Crowns of Immortal Glory Work out saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 12 13. your own salvation with fear and trembling 'T is for Salvation and nothing less you are here pressed to strive And what care pains or soâ—licitude of ours can be equal and proportionate to so great a thing as salvation If every thought of the heart were rescued from all other concerns and the mind stand continuâ—lly â—ixed with utmost intention upon this Subject 〈◊〉 such a Subject deserves it all and much more But when you consider it is not an ther 's but your own Salvation you are striving for how powerfully should the Principle of Self-preservation awaken and invigorate your utmost endeavours after it The Law of Charity and Bowels of Mercy would compel us to do much to save the Body and much more the Soul of another and will they move us to do nothing for our own Salvation Say not if I should be careless and neglective yet God is good and gracious if this Season be neglected there be more to come Alas that 's more than you know 'T is possible your Eternal Happiness may depend upon the improvement of this present opportunity There 's much of time in a short opportunity IV. Consideration Do you think your hearts would be in such a dead careless and unconcerned â—rame alâ—o at this great and awful matter of your Conversion and Salvation if those things were now before your eyes which certainly and shortly must be before them How rational and necessary is it for you now to suppose those very things as present before you which you know to be near you and a few Days or Hours will make present Here let me make a few Suppositions so rational because certainly future and near that no wise man will or dare to slight them as Fictions or Chimaera's I. Supposition Suppose your selves now upon your Death-beds your heart and breath failing your eye and heart-strings breaking all Earthly Comforts failing and shrinking from you These things you know are unavoidable and must shortly befall you Eccles. 8. 8. Suppose also in these your last Extremities your Consciences should awake as probably they will there being now no more Charms of Pleasure and sinful Companions to divert of stupifie them what a case will you then find your selves in What a cold sweat will then lie upon your panting bosoms What a pale horror will appear in your countenances Will you not then wish Oh that the time I have spent in vanity had been spent in the Duties of serious Piety Oh that I had been as careful of my Soul as I was of my Body What are the pains of Mortification which I was so afraid of to the pains of Damnation which I begin to scent and apprehend I thought it hard to pray mourn and deny my self but I shall find it harder to