the neglect of a Redeemer and recovering Grace which you should never have felt if you had never been Redéemed 2o. And in the Degree of the punishment which will be far sorer Heb. 10. 29. And 3o. in the Remedilesness of it the Sentence being irreversible and peremtory The first Law indeed provided no Remedy but it did not Exclude Remedy nor make it impossible But the Law of Christ doth positively and expresly exclude all Remedy and leave the Soul that goeth unconverted out of the body to utter Desperation and Misery without Help or Hope of End But I shall not stand now to describe to you the terrors of Judgment or of Hell because I have done it already in other Books which I desire you to fetch the rest of this Meditation from that is My Treatise of Judgment and the beginning of my third Part of my Book of Rest. II. Having tould you what should be the Matter of your Consideration I shall next tell you but briefly in what Manner you should performe it And here I shall not stand to prescribe you any long or exact Method for Meditation both because it agreeth not with my present resolved brevity and because the Persons that now I deale with are not capable of observing such Rules and if any desire such Helps they may transferre the Directions which are given on another Subject in my Book of Rest to the Subject now in hand 1. Do not stay till such thoughts will come of them selvs into your minds but set your selves purposely to Consider of these matters Take some time to call your Souls to an account concerning their present state and their preparations for Eternity If a Heathen Seneca could call himself every night to an account for the evill committed and the good omitted in the day past as he professeth that he ordinarily did why may not even an Unconverted man that hath the helps which are now among us bethink himself of the state of his Soul But I know that a Carnal heart is exceeding backward to serious Consideration and is loath to be troubled with such thoughts as these and the Devil will do what he can to hinder it by himself and others but yet if men would but do what they may do it might be better with them then it is Will you but now and then purposely withdraw you selvs from company into some secret place and there set the Lord before your eyes and call your Souls to a strict account about the matters that I have mentioned even now and make it your business to exercise your Reason upon them and as you Purposely go to Church to heare so Purposely set your selvs to this duty of Consideration as a necessary thing 2. When you are upon it labour to waken your Souls and to be very Serious in all your Thoughts and do not think of the Matters of Salvation as you would do of an ordinary triviall business which you do not much regard or care how it goes But remember that your Life lyeth on it even your everlasting Life And therefore call up the most earnest of your thoughts and rouse up all the powers of your Souls and suffer them not to draw back but command them to the work And then set the seven Points that I mentioned even now before you And as you think of them lobour to be Affected with them in some measure according to their exceeding weight As Moses said to Israel Deut. 32. 46. Set your Hearts to all the words which I testifie among you this day which ye shall command your children to do c. For it is not a vaine thing for you because it is your life And as Christ said Luke 9. 44. Let these sayings sink into your ears So I say to you Let the Matters which you think of go to your hearts and sink down to the quick of your affections And if your hearts would slip away from the work and other thoughts would creep into your mind and you are aweary of these Considerations before they have done their wor see that you give not way to this laziness or unwillingness but remember it is a work that Must be done and therefore hold your Thoughts upon it till your hearts are stirred and warmed within you And if after all you cannot awake them to Seriousness and Sensibility put two or three such wakening Questions as these to your selves 1. Quest. What if it were but the case of my body or state or name should I not earnestly consider of it If one do but wrong me how easily can I think of it and how tenderly do I feel it and can scarce forget it If my good name be blemished and I be but disgraced I can think of it night and day If I lose but a beast or have any Cross in the world or decay in my Estate I can think of it with sensibility If I lose a child or a friend I can feel it as well as think on it If my health be decayed and my Life in danger I am in good earnest in thinking of this And should I not be as serious in the Matters of Everlasting Life Should I not think of it and soberly and earnestly think on it when body and Soul do lie at the stake and when it concerneth my everlasting Joy or Torment 2. Quest. What if I had but heard the Sonne of God himself calling on me to Repent and be Converted and seconding his Commands with those earnest expression He that hath an eare to hear let him hear would it not have brought me to som serious Thoughts of my state Why this he hath done in his Word and doth it by his Embassadors and why then should I not consider it 3. Quest. If I did but know that death were at my back and ready to arrest me and that I should be in another world before this day sevennight I should then begin to bethink me in good sadness And why do I not so now when I have no hold of my life an hour and when I am sure that shortly that time will come 4. Quest. If my eyes were but open to see that which I pretend to believe and which is certainly true even to see a glimpse of the Majesty of the Lord to see the Saints in Joy and Glory to see the damned Souls in Misery and if I heard their lamentations would not this even force my heart to Consideration O then how earnestly should I think of these things And why should I not do so now when they are as sure as if I saw them and when I must see them ere it be long Many more such awakening Questions are at hand but I give you but these brief touches on the things that are most common and obvious that the most ignorant may be able to make some use of them With such thoughts as these you must bring on your backward hearts and shake them out of their insensibility
And therefore you may hence learn in what sort you must seek after it 1. You must not place the chief part of your Religion in it as if it were a life of meer sorrow that we are called to by the Gospel But you must make it a servant to your Faith and Love and Joy in the Holy Ghost and other Graces As the use of the needle is but to make way for the thred and then it is the thred and not the needle that makes the seam So much of our sorrow is but to prepare for Faith and Love and these are they that close the Soul with Christ. It is therefore a sore mistake of some that are very apprehensive of their want of sorrow but little of their want of Faith or Love and that pray and strive to break their hearts or weep for sinne but not much for those higher Graces which it tendeth to One must be done and not the other left undone 2. As tears are the Expressions of the heart so those are the most kindly and sincere which voluntarlly flow from the inward feeling of the evill that we lament If you could weep never so much meerly because you think that tears are in themselves necessary and had not within the hatred of sinne and sense of its vile and killing nature this were not true Humiliation at all And if the Heart be humbled before the Lord it is not the want of tears that will cause him to despise it Some are so backward to weep by Nature that they cannot weep for any outward thing no not for the loss of the dearest friend when yet they would have done ten times more to redeem his life then some that have tears at will Groans are as sure Expressions of sorrow as tears with such as these And the hearty rejecting and detestation of sinne is yet a better Evidence then either But where men have naturally a weeping disposition which they can manifest about Crosses in the world and yet cannot shed a tear for sinne there the Case is the most suspicious 3. The principal Cause why you must strive for deeper sorrow is that you may obtaine the Ends of that sorrow that sinne may be more odious to you and more effectually mortified that self may be taken down and Christ may be valued and desired and exalted and that you may be fitted for a Holy Communion with God for the time to come and saved from Pride and kept in watchfullness 6. From this that was last said you have a Rule by which you may certainly discern what measure of Humiliation it is that must be had It mst go so deep as to undermine our Pride and so far the heart must needs be broken as is necessary to break the heart of sinne and carnal self If this be not done ther 's nothing done though you weep out your eyes You must be brought so low that the blood of Christ and the favour of God may be more precious in your eyes then all the world and in your very hearts prefered before it And then you may be sure that your Humiliation is sincere whether you have teares or none 7. From hence also you may see that you must take heed of ascribing to your own Humiliation any part of the office and honour of Christ Think not that you can satisfie the Justice of the Law or merit any thing of God by the worth of your sorrows though you should weep even tears of blood It is not true Humiliation if it consist not in the sense and acknowledgment of your unworthyness and desert of condemnation and if it do not lead you to look out for pardon and life from Christ as being lost and wholly insufficient for your selves And therefore it would be a plain contradiction if true Humiliation should be taken as Satisfaction or Merit or trusted on instead of Christ. IV. Having thus far opened the Nature and Reasons of true Humiliation I conclude with that advice which I principally here intended Refuse not to be throughly and deeply humbled Be not weary of the humbling workings of the Spirit Grief is an unwelcome guest to Nature but Grace can see Reason to bid it welcome Grace is ingenious and cannot look back on so great unkindness with unwillingness to mourne over it Zech. 12. 10. There is somewhat of God in godly sorrow and therefore the Soul consenteth to it and seeketh for it and calls it in Yea and is grieved that it can grieve no more Not that sorrow as sorrow is desireable but as a necessary Consequent of our grievous sinning and a necessary Antecedent of our further recovery As we may submit to Death it self with a cheerful willingness because it is sanctified to be the passage into Glory how dreadfull soever it be to Nature in it self so much more may we submit to Humiliation and brokenness of heart with a holy willingness because it is sanctified to be the entrance into the state of Grace Consider for your satisfaction of these following things 1. The main brunt of your sorrows will be but in the beginning and when once you are setled in a holy course you will finde more Peace and comfort then ever you could have had in any other way I know if you will be medling with sinne again it will in its measure breed sorrow again But a godly life is a life of Uprightness Conversion is a departing from sinne and consequently a departing from the Cause of sorrows And can you not bear such a sorrow for a little while 2. Consider but whence you are coming Is it not out of a state of wrath And where you have been all this while Was it not in the power of Satan And and what you have been doing all your lives Hath it not been the drudgery of sinne and the offending of your Lord and the destroying of your selves And is it meet is it reasonable is it ingenious for you to come out of such a Case without lamentation that you staid in it so long 3. Consider also that it is Necessary to your own recovery and Salvation Do you think to take so dangerous a surfeit and then to be cured without a Vomit You will endure for the health of your bodies the bitterest pills and loathsomest potions the shortest dyet and the letting out of your blood for you know that your life lieth on it and there is no remedy And should you not endure for the saving of your Souls the bitterest sorrows the keenest rebuks the freest Confessions and the most plentifull tears Sinne will not down at easier rates Self will not be conquered else The heart of it will not be broken till your hearts be broken We know your sorrows Merit nothing and make not God amends for your sinnes nor is it for want of sufficiency in the blood of Christ that we require them But it is part of the fruit of his Blood upon your Souls If his Blood do not
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
him to them gave he Power to become the Sonnes of God even to them that believe in his Name Joh. 1. 12. This is the wonderfull Love that the Father hath bestowed on those that were his Enemies that they should not only be reconciled to him by the death of his Sonne but also be called the Sonnes of God Rom 5. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 1. For he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be Holy and without blame before him in love having predestiuated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephes. 1. 4 5. 6. O what an unspeakable Mercy is it to have the blessed God whom we had so oft offended to become our Reconciled Father in Christ. For it is not an empty title that he assumeth but he hath more abundant love to us and tenderness of our welfare then any title can make us understand 5. And hereupon it doth immediatly follow that we have a right to the blessed Inheritance of his Sonnes and are certain Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom Col. 1. 12. For if Sonnes then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Being saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and justified by Grace through Christ we are made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3. 5 6 7. Being begotten againe to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. 6. With all the Holy Ghost is given to us not only to close us at first with Christ but to take up his abode in us as his temples and to be the Agent and Life of Christ within us and to do his work and maintain his Interest and clense us of all filthiness of flesh and Spirit and Sanctifie us throughout and to strive against and conquer the flesh and to keep us by Divine Power through Faith unto Salvation 1 Cor. 6. 19. Gal. 5. 17 22. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 5. For because we are Sonnes God seudeth forth the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. This Spirit of Adopton which we receive doth bear witness with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God Rom. 8. 15 16. For if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. By this Spirit is the spirit of the world cast out of us the spirit of pride and of blindness and of delusion and hard-heartedness and of sensuality and malice and hypocrisie are cast out By this is Gods Image imprinted on our Souls we are conformed to his blessed Will we are made partakers of the Divine Nature being Holy as God is Holy Col. 3. 10. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 16. Hereby we are delivered from the thraldom of sinne and the slavery of the Devil and the seduction of the world and our treacherous Flesh. Hereby also we are fitted for the Service of God to which before we were undisposed and unfit O what an ease is it to the Soul to be free from so much of the burden of sinne What an honour is it to have the Spirit of God within us and to have a Nature so truly Heavenly and Divine How can it go ill with him that hath God dwelling in him and that dwells in God 1 Joh. 4. 15. 7. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that we shall be actually imployed in the special and neerest Service of God that on Earth is to be performed Let diseased Souls desire idlenes and swinish sinners take pleasure in the mire and feed like ravenous beasts on carrion or as dogs on dung but the Saints will ever rejoice in God and take it for the most blessed life on Earth when they can but do him the greatest Service Let his Enemies that hate his Service be weary of it as if it were a toile or drudgery but his Children will desire no sweeter work They never think themselves so well as when they are most serviceable to their blessed Lord though at the greatest cost and labour to the flesh So sweet is Gods Service that the more of it we can do the more is our pleasure and honour and content Other work spendeth strength but this increaseth it Other work must have râ—creation intermixt but this is it self the most delightfull recreation Other service is undertaken for the love of the wages but this is undertaken for the Love of the Master and the work and is wages it self to them that go through with it For other service is but a means and that to some inferior end but this is a means to the Everlasting perfection and blessedness of the Soul and such a means as containeth or Presently procureth somewhat of the end All the Saints are even here a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light They are an holy Priesthood to offer up a Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Their very bodies are a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God in their reasonable service What a sweet work is it to live in the daily Love of God in his Praises in the hopes and sweet fore-thoughts of Everlasting Joyes The world affordeth not such a Master nor such a work 8. Another of the precious benefits by Christ is The liberty of accesse in all our wants to God by Prayer with a promise to be heard The flaming sword did keep the way to the tree of life till Christ had taken it down and consecrated for us a new and living way through the Vaile which is his flesh and now we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and therefore may draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 19 20 22. When worldlings may cry to their Baal in vaine the Righteous cry and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their hurtfull troubles O what a Mercy is it in our falls in our distresses in our dangers in our wants to have a God a faithfull mercifull Father to go to and make our moane to for relief What a Mercy is it when our flesh and our hearts do faile us when friends and worldly things all fail us to have God for the Rock of our hearts and our Portion Psal. 73. 26. When sickness begins to break these bodies and earthly delights do all forsake us and death calls us to come to our endless state then to have a Reconciled Father to go to and crave his ayd upon
many sinnes and the wrath of God if they did but well Consider of it Durst they live so peaceably in a state of death and in the slavery of the Devill if they did but well Consider of it Would they do no more to prepare for their speedy appearing before God and for the scaping of Hell fire if they did but Consider of it Would thâ—â— swallow down their cups so greedily and give up themselves to the world so eagerly if they did but well Consider what they do Methinks they should not The cause of sinne and the Devil is so naught that I should hope to shame it with most of the ungodly if I could but bring them to a serious Consideration of it O how the Kingdom of Satan would down if we could but tell how to make men Considerate How fast the Devil would lose his servants What abundance Christ would gaine And how many would be saved if we could but tell how to make men Considerâ—te And one would think that this should be easily done seeing man is a self-loving and reasonable creature But yet to our grief and great admiration we cannot bring them to it I should not doubt but one Sermon or one Sentence of a Sermon might do more good then a hundred do now If I were but able to perswade the hearers when they come home to follow it by serious Consideration But we cannot bring them to it If our lives lay on it we could not bring them to it Though we knew that their own lives and Salvation lieth on it yet can we nor bring them to it They think and talk of other matters almost as soon as the Sermon 's done and they turn loose their Thoughts or if they do read or hear or repeat a little yet cannot we get them to one half hours secret and sober Consideration of their case This is the Reason why it is so rare a thing to see men throughly turn to God This is much of the use of all Gods teachings and afflictions too but to bring men to sober Consideration God knows that sinne hath unmanned us and lost us the use of our Reason where we have most use for it and therefore the means and Works of God are to recover us to our Reason and to make us men againe The very graces of his Spirit are to make us to be more Reasonable And now before I dismiss this Direction I have a Question and a Request to make to thee whoever thou art that Readest these lines My Question is this Hast thou ever sâ—berly Considered of thy waies and laid thâ—se greatest matters to heart or hast thou not Dost thou ever use to retire into thy self and spend any time in this needâ—ull work If thou dost not my Request to thee is that now at last thou wouldest do it without delay Shall I beg this of thee shall the Lord that made thee that bought thee that preserveth thee Request this of thee that thou wouldest sometimes betake thy self into some secret place and set thy self purposely to this work of Consideration and follow it earnestly and close with thy heart till thou hast made something of it and brought it to a Resolution Wilt thou then spend a little time in reasoning the case with thy self and calling thy heart to a strict account and ask thy self What is it that I was made for And what business was I sent into the world about And how have I dispatcht it How have I spent my time my thoughts my words and how shall I answer for them Am I ready to die if it were this hour Am I sure of my Salvation Is my Soul Converted and truly Sanctified by the Holy Ghost If not what Reason have I to delay Why do I not set about it and speedily resolve Shall I linger till death come and find me unconverted O then what a sad appearance shall I make before the Lord. And thus follow on the discourse with your hearts What say you Sirs Will you here promise me to bestow but some few hours if it be but on the Lords Day or when you are private on the way or in your beds or in your shops in these Considerations I beseech you as ever you will do any thing at my Request deny me not this Request It is nothing that is unreasonable If I desired one of you to spend an hour in talking with me you would grant it yea or if it were to ride or go for me And will you not be intreated to spend now and then a little time in Thinking of the matters of your own Salvation Deny not this much to your selves deny it not to God if you will deny it me Should you not bethink you a few hours of the place and state that you must live in for ever Men will build strong where they think to live long But a tent or a hut will serve a Souldiour for a few nights O Sirs Everlasting is a long day In the Name of God let not Conscience have such a charge as this against you hereafter Thou art come to thy long homeâ— to thy Endless state before eveâ— thou spentest the space of an hour in deep and sad and serious Considerations of it or in trying thy title to it O what a Confounding charge would this I am confident I have the witness of your Conscienses going along with me and telling you it is but reasonable yea and needfull which I say If yet you will not do it and I cannot beg one hours sober discourse in secret between you and your hearts about these things then what remedie but even to leave you to your misery But I shall tell you in the Conclusion that I have no hope of that Soul that will not be perswaded to this duty of Consideration But if I could perswade you to this reasonable this cheap this necessary work and to follow it close I should have exceeding great hopes of the Salvation of you all I have told you the truth Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding 2 Tim. 2. 7. Or if you put me to conclude in harsher terms they shall be still the Oracles of God Now Consider this yee that forget God lest I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psal. 50. 22. And so much for the third Direction about Consideration on which I have staid somewhat long because I apprehend it of exceeding necessity DIRECT IV. The fourth Direction which I shall give you that the work of your Conversion may not miscary is this See that the work of Humiliation be throughly done and break not away from the Spirit of Contrition before he have done with you and yet see that you mistake not the Nature and the Ends of the work and that you drive it not on further then God requireth you Here I shall first shew you the true Nature of Humiliation and 2o. the use and ends of it and 3o. the
mistakes about it that you must avoid and 4o. I shall press on the Substance of the Direction and shew you the necessity of it I. There is a Preparatory Humiliation that goes before a saving change which yet is not to be despised because it is a drawing somewhat neerer unto God though it be not a faithfull closure with him This Preparatory Humiliation which many have that perish doth chiefly consist in these things following 1º It lieth most in the Fear of being damned As it is most in the Passions so most in this of Feare 2o. It consisteth also in some apprehension of the greatness of our sinnes and the wrath of God that hangs over our heads and the danger that we are in of being damned for ever 3o. It consisteth also in some apprehensions of the folly that we are guilty of in sinning and of some Repentings that ever we did it and some remorse of Conscience for it 4o. Hereto may be joyned some Passions of Sorrow and this expressed by groans and tears 5o. And all this may be accompanyed with Confessions of sinne to God and man and Lamentations for our misery and in some it preceedeth to desperation it self 6o. And lastly it may proceed to an indignation against our selves and to the taking of a severe revenge on our selves yea more then God would have men take as Judas did by self-destroying This desparation and self-execution are no parts of the Preparatory Humiliation but the excess and error of it and the entrance upon Hell 2. But there is also a Humiliation that is proper to the Converted and which accompanieth Salvation and this conâ—eineth in it all that is in the former and much more Even as the Rational Soul conteineth the sensitive and vegetative and much more And this Saving Humilation consisteth in these following particulars 1. It beginneth in the Understanding 2º It is rooted in the Will 3º It worketh in the Affections and 4o. When there is opportunity it sheweth it self in outward expressions and actions 1. Humiliation in the Understanding consisteth in a low esteem of our selves and in a self-abasing self-condemning Judgment on our selves And that in these Particulars 1o. It consisteth in a deep and solid apprehension of the odiousness of our own sinnes habitual and actual and of our selves for our sinnes and that because they are contrary to the blessed Nature and Law of God and so contrary to our own perfection and chief Good 2o. It consisteth also in a solid and fixed apprehension of our own ill-deserving because of these sinnes So that our Judgments do subscribe to the equity of the condemning sentence of the Law and we Judge our selves unworthy of the smalest mercy â— and worthy of Hell fire 3o. It consisteth in an apprehension of our undone and miserable Condition in our selves not only as we are the Heirs of Torment but as we are void of the Image and Spirit of God and have lost his favour and are under his displeasure and enmity by our sinne and have forfeited our part in Everlasting Glory and how unable we are to help our selves And 1o. This is in such a measure that we truly judge our sinne and our selves for sinne to be more odious then any thing else could have made us and our misery by sinne in the foresaid particulars to be greater then any outward Calamity in the flesh and then any worldly loss could have procured us And this we apprehend by a Practical Judgment and not only by a bare uneffectual speculation 2o. And the spring of this is some Knowledge of God himself whose Majesty is so Glorious and whose Wisdom is so Infinite who is so Good in himself and unto us and whose Holy Nature is contrary to sinne and who hath an absolute Propriety in us and Soveraignty over us 3o. And also it proceedeth from a Knowledge of the true state of mans felicity which by sin he hath cast away that it consisteth in the Pleasing and Glorifying and Enjoying of God in Loving and Delighting in him and Praising him for ever and having a Nature Perfectedly Holy and sitted hereunto To see that sinne is contrary to this felicity and hath deprived us of it is one of the springs of true Humiliation And 4º It proceedeth also from a believing Knowledg of Christ Crucified whom our sinnes did put to death who hath declared in the most lively manner to the world by his Cross and sufferings what sinne is and what it had done and what a case we had brought our selves into Thus much of saving Humiliation consisteth in the Understanding 2o. The Principal seat of this Humiliation is in the Will and there it consisteth in these following Acts. 1o. As we think basely of our selves so the Will hath a fixed Displacency against our selves for our sinnes and a kind of Loathing of our selves for all our abominations as you may read Ezek. 36. 31. 20. 43. 6. 9. A humble sinner is allen out with himself and as he is Evill his heart is against himself 2o. There is also in the will a deepe Repenting that ever we sinned and wronged God and abused Graceâ— and have brought our selves to this as we have done so that the humbled Soul could wish that he had spent his daies in prison in beggery or in bodily misery so that he had not spent them in sinne and if it were to do againe he would rather choose such a life of shame and calamity in the world then a life of sinne and would be glad of the exchange 3o. A humbled Soul is truly willing to grieve for the sinnes which he hath committed and to be as deeply sensible of them and afflicted for them as God would have him Even when he cannot shed a tear yet his will is to shed them When he cannot feel any deep afflicting of his Soul for sinne his hearty Desire is that he might feel it He doth an hundred times weep in Desire when he doth it not in Act. 4o. A humbled Soul is truly willing to Humble the flesh it self by the use of those appointed means by which God would have him bring it in subjection As by fasting or abstinence or mean attire hard labour and denying it unnecessary delights It 's a Doubt worth the Considering whether any such Humbling act must be used purposely in Revenge on our selves for sinne To which I answer that we may do nothing in such Revenge that God doth not allow or that makes our body less fit for his service for that were to be Revenged of God and our Souls But those Humbling means which are needfull to Tame the body may well be used with this double intention First and Chiefly as a Means for our safety and duty for the time to come that the flesh may not prevail and then Collaterally we should be the more content that the flesh is put to so much suffering because it hath been and still is so great an Enemy to God and
Paul must be laid exceeding low in his Conversion that he might be the fitter as a chosen Vessel to bear Christs Name among the Gentiles Lay all this now together Sirs and consider what cause you have to cherish the Humbling works of Grace and not to quench them When your hearts begin to be afflicted for sinne go not among foolish and merry Companions to drink or laugh it away drive it not out of your minds as unkindly as if it came to do you hurt But get alone and consider of the matter and on your knees in secret beseech the Lord to follow it home and break your hearts and make you meet for his healing consolations and not to leave you in this red sea but to bring you through and put the Songs of praise into your mouths DIRECT V. Having thus directed you about your Humiliation the next Direction which I would offer you that you may not miscarry in the worke of Conversion is this See that you close with the Lord Jesus Christ understandingly heartily and entirly as he is revealed and offered to you in the Gospel In this your Christianity doth consist Upon this your Justification and Salvation lie This is the summe of your Coversion and the very heart of the New creature The rest is all but the preparatives to this or the fruits of this Christ is the end and the fulfiling of the Law the substance of the Gospel the way to the Father the life the help the hope of the Believer If you know not him you know nothing If you possess not him you have nothing And if you are out of him you can do nothing that hath a promise of Salvation And therefore I shall distinctly though briefly tell you what it is to close with Christ Vnderstandingly heartily and entirely as he is offered in the Gospel And I. That you may close with Christ Vnderstandingly you must look to these things 1. That you understand who Christ is as in his Person and his Offices 2. That you understand the Reason of his undertaking 3. That you understand what it is that he hath done and suffered for us 4 That you understand the Nature and worth of his benefits and what he will do for you 5. That you understand the terms on which he conveyeth these benefits to men and what is the nature extent and condition of his promises And 6. that you understand the Certain Truth of all this For the first you must understand that Jesus Christ hath two Natures in one Person that he is both God and Man As he is God he is of the same substance with his Father and one in essence with him the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity the Word of God the only begotten Sonne of the Father Eternal Incomprehensible and Infinite As Man he hath a true Humane Soul and body as men have so that his Godhead his Humane Soul and his Body are really distinct This Humane Nature was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary without man and born of of her and is so truly united to the Divine Nature as that they are one Person Not that the Godhead is turned into the manhood nor the manhood into the Godhead but the Godhead hath taken the manhood into Personal Unity with it self This was not from Eternity but when man had sinned and had lost himself and needed a Redeemer By reason of his Miraculous Conception he was free from all Original sinne being holy harmless and undefiled His Person and Natures were fit for his Office which was to be the Mediator between God and man to make Reconciliation and recover us to God Had he not been God but meer man his dignity would not have been sufficient for such an interposition nor his obedience or sufferings of any such value as to be the price of our Redemption Nor could he have born our burden or conquered death and risen again and overcome the Prince of death the Devil nor have ruled his Church and preserved and sanctified them and prospered his Cause and subdued his enemies nor effectually interceded with the Father nor judged the world or raised the dead and done the work of a perfect Saviour Nor was the Angelical Nature sufficient for this Office Had he not been man he had not been neer enough to us to have suffered in our stead and taught us by his Doctrin and given us his Example nor could he have suffered or dyed for us For God cannot die or suffer As he is God he is One in Nature with the Father and as he is man he is One in Nature with us and therefore is fit to Mediate for us and in him we are brought thus nigh to God To this Office of the Mediator there are many acts belonging from whence it hath several denominations of which more anon So much of Christ's Person 2. The next thing that you must understand is the Reason and Ends of his Undertaking which though we are not able fully to comprehend nor the Reason of any of the works of God yet must we observe so much as is revealed And these following Ends or Reasons of this work do shew themselves clearly in the Scripture and in the event 1. One is The Demonstration of Gods Justice as he is Governor of the world according to the Law of Nature He made man rational and a voluntary Agent capable of Good or Evil with Desires and Hopes of the Good and fears of the Evil and so to be ruled according to his Nature He made for him a Law that Revealed Good and Evil with Promises to move him by Desire and Hope and with Threatnings to drive him by necessary Fear By these engins God resolved to govern mankind This Law was the Rule of mans Duty and of his Receivings or of Gods Judgment According to this Law the world was to be Governed by God His Governing Justice consisteth in giving all their Due according to his Law At least so far as that the End of the Law may be attained that is the honour of the Law-giver preserved transgression made odious by the terror of penalty and obedience made honourable by its fruits of impunity and reward Otherwise the Law would not have deterred effectually from Evil nor encouraged to Good especially to so much as Creatures must go through for the Crown of Life And so the Law would have been no fit Instrument for the Government of the world that is the Law would have been no Law But this the Wise and Righteous God would not be guilty of of making a Law that was no Law and was unmeet for the ends to which he made it which was essential to it as a Law There was no way to avoid this intollerable consequent when man had sinned but strict execution of the Law or by sufficient Satisfaction in stead of such an Execution The Execution would have destroyed the Commonwealth even the whole inferior world at least the reasonable
Justified and Reconciled to God 7. He hath given Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to proclaim this Act of Grace to the world commanding them to go into All the world and preach this Gospel to every Creature and promise Salvation to all that by Faith will become his true Disciples Marke 16. 16. Matth. 28. 20 22. So that their commission also for the promulgation is universal 8. Though his servants have most lamentably neglected their duty and have not gone abroad the world to divulge the Gospel according to his Will imagining that this work had been proper to Apostles and though the Nations have sinfully neglected a due enquirie after this blessed Light yet hath he not left himself among them without witness but hath given them some dawnings of the day or some moon-light in the reflections of Evangelical Truth who have not seen the Sunne it self Much Mercy they have had notwithstanding their transgressions and while they served Devils they have been provided for by God in whom they live and move and be doing them good and giving them raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with foâ—d and gladness and this to teach them that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not farre from every one of them Acts 14. 17. 17. 27 28. And that which may be known of God is manifest among them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. By experience they may find that God dealeth not now in rigor of Justice but on terms of Grace and that sinne is not â—ow unpardonable and they should know that the Goodness of God leadeth them to repentance Rom. 2. 4. 9. As the Gospel conditionally pardoneth all their sinnes and offereth them Everlasting life so it conteineth the clearest Reasons and most effectual motives to perswade them to Accept the offer It affordeth them most excellent precepts and instructions and exhortations and other helps to bring them to a willingness that Salvation may be theirs 10. To which also is added abundance of outward providential helpes to further the working of the Gospel as seasonable afflictions and Mercies of divers sorts 11. And with these is usually concurrent some inward motions and assistance of the Holy Ghost as knocking at the doore where he is not yet let in and entertained 12. And by their presence in the visible Church even the ungodly have many benefits in the Ordinances and instructions and examples of the Saints All these besides a Resurrection are common effects of General Redemption and not appropriated to the Elect. Besides which there are others that the Elect only do receive As 1. God is pleased by effectual Grace to draw them to his Sonne and make the Gospel succesfull to their Conversion insuperably teaching and charging them by his Spirit and causing them to Repent and believe in Christ and to perform the Conditions of his forementioned Promises That Love that brought the Lord on Earth that cloatheth him with flesh that lifted him up upon the Cross doth stream forth in his season into the hearts of his Elect and toucheth them with a changing Power and winneth them to his Father and himself and droppeth into them those Heavenly Principles which will grow up in them to Everlasting Life 2. Hereupon the Soul believing in Christ is United to him as a Member of his Body even of his true Catholik Church and Christ is become the Head the Husband the Lord the Saviour of that Soul in a special sort Christ himself is first given to us in these Relations and from him as our Head his following benefits are conveyed He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life for this Life is in the Sonne 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. He is the Vine and we are the Branches and out of him we can do nothing Joh. 15. 1 2 5. As it was not we that purchased our own Salvation so it is not we but Christ that must have the keeping and dispensing of the purchased benefits For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and that he should be the Head over all things to his Church that it might by communication become his fulness Col. 1. 19. Eph's 1. 22 23. He is our Treasury and from him we must have our continual supplies For with him the Father will give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And thus Christ will dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. And set up the Kingdom of God within us 3. Hereupon we have the pardon of all our sinnes not only as to the temporal punishment nor only as to the bestowing of temporal Mercies or common helps of Creatures and Providences for this is but a winking at the daies of our ignorance Acts 17. 30. in comparison of the pardon which afterward we receive Nor is it only a Conditonal or Offered pardon But it is an Actual Remission of the Eternal and of all the destructive Punishment And thus we are Justified from all that might be charged on us from the Law and accepted and used as just by God There is a kind of forgiveness that was promised to the Sacrificers Lev. 4. 20 26 31 35 5 10 13 16 18 6. 7. Numb 15. 28. But as that was upon Christs account so it extended not to the pardon of the Eternal Punishment to any but true Believers He that was once Crucified is exalted by Gods right-hand a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sinnes Acts 5. 31. Through this man is preached the forgiveness of sinnes and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. When our eyes are open and we are turned from dakness to light and from the power of Satan unto God we then receive Remissioâ— of our sinnes Acts 26. 18. When we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Christ in him we have then Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sinnes Col. 1. 13 14. And blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne Rom. 4. 7. And now who shall condemn us It is God that justifieth us For there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 33 34. 4. With this benefit doth concurre our Reconciliation to God and our Adoption by which we are made his Sonnes and God is pleased to own us as our Father For being one with Christ the Sonne of God we are Sonnes by him For to as many as receive
the encouragment of a promise and recommend our Souls into his hand as to a faithfull Creator and our surest deerest friend this is a Mercy that no man can well value till they come to use it To know every day that as oft as ever we come to God we are alwaies welcome and that our persons and prayers are pleasing to him through his Sonne what a Mercy is it One would think we should live joyfully if we had but one such promise as this for Faith to live upon Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal. 50. 15. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Sonne Joh. 14. 13 14. No wonder if they be rich that have so free access to such a treasure and if they be safe that have access to so sure a help For God is a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 9 Another precious benefit is that we have Peace of Conscience or ground for it at the least in our Peace with God and so may come to assurance of Salvation and may partake of the Joy in the Holy Ghost For in this Peace and Joy the Kingdom of God doth much consist When the chief cause of all our fear and sorrow is done away what then is left to break our Peace When we have no cause to fear the flames of Hell nor the sting of death or the appearance of our Judge any further then to move us to make ready what then should greatly trouble the Soul If God and Heaven be not matter of comfort I know not what is If we saw a man that had got many Kingdoms to be still sad and dumpish because he had no more we would say he were very ambitious or covetuous And yet he might have reason for it But if you have the Love of God and a title by promise to the Heavenly Inheritance and yet you are discontented and God and Glory is not enough for you this is most unreasonable 10. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is Our Spiritual Communion with his Church and holy members We do not only joyne with them in outward Communion but we unite our desires and there is an harmony of affections We are in the maine of one Mind and Will and Way and we joyntly constitute the Body of our Lord We are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Câ—venant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. We are joyned to that Body and have Communion with it which consisteth both of militant and triumphant Saints and of the Angels also We are no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the cheif corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord in whom we also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 19 20 21 22. And as in holy concord we serve the Lord having one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith one Baptism one Rule the Word of God one mind one heart one work of Holines and Righteousness in the main one hope one Heaven the place of our expectations so have we the fruit of the Prayers of each other and of all the Church and have the honour the safety and other benefits of being members of so blessed a Society Yea we have in this Communion the whole Church obliged and disposed according to their capacity to endeavour the good of every member So that Ministers and Magistrates yea though they were Apostles and Prophets Paul or Apollos all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Kings have their Power for us Ministers have their Gifts for us and for us they must use them If we suffer every member must be as forward to assist us and if we want to relieve us according to their power as if they suffered with us 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. Yea the Angels are our Brethren Rev. 22. 9. and fellow servants yea ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. To encamp about them and to bear them in their arms rejoycing to behold their graces and prosperity as was shewed before 11. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that All things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. When we are Sanctified to God all things are Sanctified to us to serve us for God and help us to him Every Creature that we have to do with is as it were another thing to the Saints then to other men They are all wheels in that universal Engine of Grace to carry us to Salvation The same things that are common Mercies to others are special to us as proceeding from a special Love and being designed to a special use As flesh-pleasing is the ultimate end of the ungodly and all things are thereby debased to be but means to that ignoble end So the Pleasing and fruition of God is the End of all the Saints and thereby all things that they have to do with are advanced to the honour of being Sanctified means to this most high and noble End And as they are engaged to use them to this End and consequently to their own greatest advantage so God hath engaged himself to bless them in that holy use and to cause them all by his gracious providence to cooperate to their good The greatest afflictions the cruellest persecutions from the most violent enemies our wants our weaknesses and death it self all must concurre to carry on this work What then should a Christian fear but sinne How honourable and how safe and how happy a life may he live that hath all these assured for his service And what causeless fears are they that use to afflict the Servants of God concerning their outward troubles and necessities What do we fear and groan under and complaine of but our Fathers physick and the means of our Salvation If this one Truth were but believed and received and used according to its worth O what a life would Christians live 12. The last and greatest of our benefits by Christ is Our Resurrection and our Justification at the barre of God and our reception into Glory This is the end of all and therefore containeth all For this Christ died for this we are Christians for this we believe hope and labour for this we suffer and deny our selves and renounce this world Our bodies shall then be spiritual and glorious no more troubled with infirmities diseases or necessities Our Souls shall be
to him as that he had and may make him more happy Look to it therefore that you have right and beliving thoughts of Heaven and that unfeignedly you take it for your Home and Happiness and look not for any other Portion Till you see so much of the certainty and excellency of Everlasting Glory as shall prevail with you to lay out your faithfull labour for it and to be at a point with all this world as having laid up your Treasure and Hopes in the world to come you have no ground to conclude that you are true Christian Converts Seeing therefore that it's Heaven that is the very Reason the End the Life of all your Religion it follows that you must necessarily understand somewhat of its excellency and believe its certainty and accordingly set your hearts upon it and make the attainment of it your daily work and business in the world This is to be a Convert indeed Remember therefore first what I told you before wherein the nature of this Blessedness doth consist I will only name the Essentials of it that your apprehensions may be right and forbear to say much as being done already 1. The first thing considerable in our Everlasting Blessedness will be our personal Perfection of the whole man This is in order to the Perfection of our Everlasting Operations and Enjoyments Our bodies shall be no more flesh and blood nor corruptible or mortall or subject to hunger or pain or weariness nor to passions that rebell against the reasonable soul but they shall be spiritul bodies and Immortall and Incorruptible and Undefiled Our Souls will be perfected in their Natural Perfections and in their Moral They shall be of more advanced Understanding and comprehensive Wisdom then now Our wills shall attain to perfect rectitude in a perfect conformity to the Will of God and every affection shall be brought to its perfect order and elevation All sinne shall be done away whether it were in the understanding will affections or the actions The executive power will be answerable to the rest of the Perfections and to the blessed work which it hath to do And thus we shall be like the Angels of God 2. The next thing considerable in our Blessedness is our approximation or approach to God We shall be admitted into the holiest and brought as neer him as our natures are capable of and we are fit for 3. Moreover we shall be Members of the new Jerusalem and receive our Glory in Communion with that blessed Society and so as Members contribute to her Glory 4. And we shall behold the glorified Person of our Redeemer and he will be glorified on us as the fruits of his Victory 5. And we shall behold the face of the blessed God and see his wisdom and power and glory and know as we are known Though we cannot now fully know the manner yet in that sense as our Angels are said to behold the face of God Mat. 18. 10. we also shall behold it 6. We shall also enjoy him in the neerest relation and by the most raised vigorous affections of our souls We shall be filled with his Love as full as we can hold and we shall abound with perfect Love to him again And the Joy that is in his presence which this Intuition and Everlasting Love will afford us is such as no heart is here able to conceive 7. Being thus furnished we shall be employed in his perfect Praises in singing and rejoycing to him with the heavenly Host and Magnifying his great and holy Name 8. And in all this will the Glory of God shine forth and he will be admired in his Saints 2 Thes. 1. 10. 11. In us it shall appear how abundant he is in power and wisdom and goodness in holiness faithfulness and righteousness 9. And God himself will be well pleased with us and with the new Jerusalem and his glorified Sonne and will take complacenâ—y in this manifestation and communication of his Glory and of Himself unto his creatures And this is his Ultimate End and should be the highest point of ours The Revolution hath now brought all to that Center which is both the Alpha and Omega the begining and the end His Will is the Fountain or Efficient of all and it is the Ultimate End and Perfection of all There is no more to add as to the matter but that as to the Duration first we may take it as that which leaves no room for any addition that all this will be Everlasting leaving not any doubts or fears of a cessation Abundance of glorious adjuncts of this felicity might be mentioned but I pass them all by and do but name these few which are the Essentiall Constitutive parts of our Happiness because I have touched them before and fullyer spoken of them in the Saints Rest. Thus much I thought meet to mention here that you may have somewhat of that in your eye that I am perswading you to intend and seek and the rather because I perceive that many of the godly have not such distinct Apprehensions of the constitutive parts of this Felicity as they should have but much wrong their souls and God Himself and the Glory of their Profession by looking but at some of the Parts Believe God sirs that this is the life that you shall live if you will take it for your Portion and set your hearts upon it and follow the Conduct of Christ for the obtaining it Can you be content with Heaven alone Is it enough for you though you be despised and persecuted in the world Do you account this for Certainty and Excellency to be worth all Yea that all is dross and dung to this Thus must you do if you will be true Converts For all such are heavenly in their minds and hearts and in the drift of all their lives and Conversations DIRECT X. My next Advice that you may prove sound Converts is this Rest not and count not your selves truly Converted till God and his holy Waies have your very Love and Desire and Delight and take not that for a saving Change when you had rather live a worldly ungodly life if it were not for the fear of punishment I shall speak but little of this because I toucht upon it before when I told you that Christ must have your hearts and because it is but a consectary of the last or contained in it But yet I think it best to present it here distinctly to your Consideration because a slavish kind of religiousness doth deceive so many and because the life of Grace is here exprest I deny not but holy Fear is eâ—ceeding usefull to us even a Fear of the Threatnings and Judgments of God But yet I must tell you that in Fear there is much more that is common to the unsanctified then there is in Love Desire and Delight Though the Fear of God be the beginning of wisdom it is Love that is the Perfection and that Fear is not
tell the Parents with the Anabaptists It is too soon to be dedicated to God and entred into his Covenant when they come to their childhood and youthfull state he will then perswade them that it is yet too soon and when he can no longer perswade them that it is yet too soon he will then perswade them that it is too late O what a happy thing it is to come unto God betimes and with the first What advantage hath youth They have the vigour of wit and of body They be not rooted and hardned in sinne nor filled with prejudice and obstinacy against Godliness as others be Besides the capacity of serving God of which anon 12. You have such times of advantage and encouragement as few ages of the world have ever seen and few Nations on Earth do enjoy at this day What plain and plentifull teaching have you What abundance of good examples and the society of the godly private and publique helpes are common Godliness is under as little suffering as ever you can expect to see it yea it is grown into repuâ—ation among us so that it is an honour to serve God and a dishonour to neglect it as well it may Our Rulers countenance the Practises of Godliness they proclaim themselves the forward Professors and Patrons of it and take this as their Glory And this is not ordinary in the world Seldome hath the Church seen such daies on Earth And yet is not the way to Heaven fair enough for you Yet are you not ready to turn to God When should men make Hay but when the Sun shines Will you delay till this Harvest time be over and the Winter of persecution come again Can you better turn to God when a godly life is the common scorn of the Countrey as it was a while agoe and when every one will be deriding and railing at you Or when it may possibly cost you your lives Have you Sun and winde and tide to serve you and will you stay to set out in stormes and darkness 13 Moreover Your delâ—y doth cast your Conversion and Salvation upon hazard yea upon many and grievous hazzards And is your Everlasting happiness a matter to be wilâ—ully hazarded by causeless and unreasonable delays 1. If you delay to day you are utterly uncertain of living till to morrow If you put by this one motion you know not whether ever you shall have another Alas that ever the heart of man should be so sensless as to delay when they know not but it may prove their damnation and when Heaven or Hell must certainly follow that they dare put off a day or hour when they know not whether ever they shall see another 2. And as your life is uncertain so are the means uncertain by which God useth to do the work He may remove your Teachers and other helps and then you will be further off then before 3. And if both should continue yet Grace it self is uncertain You know not whether ever the Spirit of God will put another thought of turning into your hearts Or at least whether he will give you hearts to turn 14. Moreover The delay of Conversion continueth your sinne and so you will daily increase the number and increase your guilt and make your souls more abundantly miserable Are you not deep enough in debt to God already and have you not yet sinnes enough to answer for upon your Souls Would you fain have one years sinnes more or one daies sinnes more to be charged upon you O if you did but know what sinne is it would amaze you to think what a mountain lyeth already upon your Consciences One sinne unpardonned will sink the stoutest sinner into Hell And you have many a thousand upon your Souls already and would you yet have more Me thinks you should rather look about you and bethink you how you may get a pardon for all that 's past 15. And as sinne increaseth daily by delay so consequently the Wrath of God increaseth you will run further into his displeasure and possibly you may cut down the bough that you stand upon and hasten even bodily destruction to your selves When you live daily upon God and are kept out of Hell by a miracle of his mercy me thinks you should not desire yet longer to provoke him least he withdraw his Mercy and let you fall into misery 16. And do but consider what will become of you if you be found in these delaies You are then lost body and Soul for ever Now if you had but hearts to know what is good for you the worst of you might be converted and saved for God doth freely offer you his Grace But if you die in your delaies in the twink of an eye you will find your selves utterly undone for ever Now there is hope of a change but when delays have brought you to Hell there is no more change nor no more hope 17. Consider that your very time which you lose by these delaies is an unconceivable loss When time is gone what would you then give for one of those years or daies or hours which now you foolishly trifle away O wretched sinners are their so many thousand Sous in Hell that would give a world if they had it for one of your daies and yet can you afford to throw them away in worldliness and sensuality and loitering delaies I tell you Time is better worth then all the wealth and honours of the world The day is coming when you will set by time When it is gone you will know what a blessing you made light of But then all the world cannot call back one day or hour of this precious time which you can sacrifice now to the service of your flesh and cast away on unprofitable sinning 18. Consider also that God hath given you no time to spare He hath not lent you one day or hour more then is needfull for the work that you have to do and therefore you have no reason to lose any by your delaies Do you imagine that God would give a man an hours time for nothing much less for to abuse him and serve his enimy No let me tell you that if you make your best of every hour if you should never lose a minute of your lives you would find all little enough for the work you have to do I know not how others think of time but for my part I am forced daily to say How swift how short is time and how great is our work and when we have done our best how slowly goeth it on O precious time â— what hearts have they what lives do those men lead that think time long that have time to spare and pass in idleness 19. To convince you more consider I beseech you the exceeding greatness of the work you have to do and tell me then whether it be time for you to delay Especially you that are yet unconverted and strangers to the heavenly nature of the
hasting away me thinks if you have your wits and sense about you you should presently turn and make sure of Heaven without any more delay 31. Consider also whether it be equal that you should delay your Conversion when you can seasonably dispatch your worldly business and when your flesh would be provided for you can hearken to it without Delay You have wit enough to sow your seed in season and will not delay it till the time of harvest You will reap your corn when it is ripe and gather your fruit when it is ripe without delay You observe the seasons in the course of your labours day by day and year by year You will not lie in bed when you should be at your work nor delay all night to go to your rest nor suffer your servants to delay your business You will know your dinner time and supper time day by day If you be sick you will seek help without delay lest your disease should grow to be uncurable And yet will you delay your Conversion and the making sure of Heaven Why Sirs shall these trifles be done without delay and shall your Salvation be put off In the Name of God Sirs what do you think of Do you imagine that you can better suffer Hell-fâ—re then hunger or nakedness Or that you can better bear the loss of Everlasting Joyes then the loss of your commodities and provisions in the world Sure if you believe the life to come you cannot think so And can you have while for every thing except that one thing which all the rest are meerly to promote and in comparison of which they are all but dreams Can you have while to work to plow and sow and reap and cannot you have while to prepare for Eternal Life Why Sirs if you cannot find time yet to search your hearts and turn to God and prepare for death give over eating and drinking and sleeping and say you cannot have time for these You may as wisely say so for these smaller matters as the greater 32. Moreover if men offer you courtesies and commodities for your bodies you will not stand Delaying and need so many perswasions to accept them If your Landlord would for nothing renew your lease if any man would give you houses or lands would you delay so long before you would accept them A beggar at your doore will not only thankfully take your almes without your intreaty and importunity but will beg for it and be importunate with you to give it And yet will you Delay to accept the blessed offers of Grace which is a greater thing 33. Ye Consider that it is God that is the Giver and you that are the miserable beggars and receivers And therefore it is fitter that you should wait on God and call on him for his Grace when he seemeth to delay and not that he should waite on you He can live without your receiving but you cannot live without his giving The beggar must be glad of an alms at any time and the condemned person of a pardon at any time but the giver may well expect that his gift be received without delay or else he may let them go without it 34. And me thinks you should not deal worse with God when he comes to you as a Physician to save your own Souls then you would do with a neighbour or a friend when it is not for your own good but for theirs If your neighbour lay a dying you would go and visit him without delay If he fell down in a swoon you would catch him up without delay If he fell into the fire or water you would pluck him out without delay Yea you would do thus much by a very beast And yet will you delay when it is not another but your selves that are sinking and drowning and within a step of death and desparation If a woman be but in travaile her neighbours will come to her without delay And yet when their own Souls are in bondage to sinne and Satan and a state of death they will let them lie there year after year and when we desire them to be Converted here 's nothing but delaies 35. If yet you perceive not how unreasonably you deale with God and your Souls I beseech you consider whether you do not deal worse with him then you do with the Devil himself If Satan or his servants perswade you to sinne you delay not so long but you are presently at it You are ready to follow every tipling companion or gamester that puts up the finger You are as ready to go as they to invite you The very sight of the cup doth presently prevaile with the drunkard and the sight of his filthy mate prevaileth with the fornicatour and sinne can be presently entertained without delay But when God comes when Christ calls when the Spirit moveth when the minister perswadeth when Conscience is convinced we can have nothing after all but wishes and purposes and promises with Delaies O what a stomack hath that man or what a brain that will snatch at poyson and swallow dung and dirt with greediness without any chewing and when you offer him meat stands sighing and looking on it and hardly will be perswaded to put it in his mouth and if he do he is chewing it so long that at last he even spits it out againe and cannot get it down Thus deal ungodly wretches between their poisonous sins and the saving means and Grace of Christ. Nay more then this so eager are they on their sinne that we are not able to intreat them to delay it When the passionate man is but provoked we cannot perswade him to delay his rayling language so long as to consider first of the issue We cannot intreat the drunkard to put off his drunkenness but for one twelve-month while he tryeth another course All the ministers in the Country cannot perswade the worldling to forbear his worldliness and the proud persons their pride and the ungodly person his ungodliness for the space of one moneth or week or day And yet when God hath a command and a request to them to Turn to him and be saved here they can Delay without our intreaty 36. Consider also that it is not possible for you to turn too soon nor will you ever have cause to repent of your speediness Delay may undoe you but speedy turning can do you no harm I wonder what hurt you think it can do you to be quickly reconciled to God And why then should there be any Delay where it is not possible to be too hasty Do you think that there is ever a Saint in Heaven yea or on Earth either that is sorry that he stayed not longer unconverted No you shall never hear of such a repentance from the mouth of any that is indeed converted 37. But I must tell you on the contrary side that if ever you be so hapy as to be Converted you will Repent it and an hundred
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
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
your Cross and follow him You must be hated of all men for his sake and the Gospels and you must prepare for prison and fire and sword There 's no hope of being saved while you purpose to save your pleasures riches liberties or lives Matth. 16. 25. Marke 8. 35. Luke 9. 24. And will a man that is unresolved forsake his friends estate and life for the sake of Christ and the hopes of Glory He cannot do it I know that a carnal ungrounded Resolution may decive a man in the day of tryal when the self-suspecting fearfull Christian may hold out But yet without a humble self-denying Resolution joyned with an adherence to Christ for strength there 's no man will hold out If thou be a wavering minded man thou wilt be unstedfast in all thy waies Jam. 1. 8. If thou be not Resolved the words of a mans mouth will turn thee out of the way the very mocks and scorns of a drunkard or a fool that hath no understanding in the matters of Salvation will make thee shrink and hide thy profession and be ashamed of Christ in whom alone thou hast cause to Glory If thou be not a Resolved man what better can be expected but that thou turn as the weather-cock with every wind and fit thy Religion to thy worldly ends and as another Judas sell thy Lord for a little money If thou fall not away it will be but for want of a tryal to procure it and therefore in Gods account thou art gone already because thy Resolution was never with him When you turn to God there will remain within you the remnants of your corruption a body of death a rebelling flesh and this will be still tempting you and drawing you from God And O how strong do these temptations seem to the Soul that is unresolved Yea without a firm habituate Resolution it is impossible to overcome them Your whole way to Heaven is a continual warfare You have enemies that will dispute every foot of the way with you There 's no going a step forward but as the ship doth in the Sea by cutting its way through the waves and billows and as the plow doth in the earth by cutting through the resisting soil There is self which is your principal enemy and there is Satan and the world and almost all that you meet with in it will prove your hinderers And you must make your way by valour and Holy Violence through all And will an unresolved man do this You will scarce ever how your knee to God in secret prayer nor set your selves upon serious Meditations but the flesh and the Devil will be drawing you off You will never attempt a faithfull reproof a liberal work of Charity a hazardous confession of Christ or any dangerous or costly duty but the flesh and the Devil will plead against it and put you to it And in these and many such cases of your lives you will never break through nor do any good on it without Resolution Do I need to tell you how hard the way of Salvation is that fly from it on mistake because you think it harder then it is Do I need to tell you how false you will prove to Christ if you have not Resolution that know it by your ordinary miserable experience that a poor temptation will make you sinne against your knowledg How many good wishes and purposes have you had already in sickness or at a lively Sermon that are all come to nothing for want of a firm Habituate Resolution What abundance of time-servers and of chaffie professours are lately fallen off to the way of rising and riches in the world or to the pride and giddy levity of dividers that oppose the Truth of God and their Teachers and trouble the Church and all because they were never well rooted by a sound Resolution They that take Christ but upon liking do usually mislike him when he calls them to self-denial For they had never that connatural principle that should effectually dispose their Souls to like him nor had they ever the inward experiences of power and sweetness which are proper to the sincere and should increase their liking of him Either Resolve therefore or stand by and perish 10. I beseech you consider also what abundance of clear undeniable Reasons doth God give in to thee to turn the Scales and cause thee to Resolve He fetcheth Reasons from his own Dominion and Soveraignty Should not a creature obey the Lord that made him He reasoneth with you from his daily preservations Do you live upon him and should you not obey him He reasoneth with you from his Almightiness You are all at his Mercy and wholly in his hands and yet dare you disobey him He reasoneth with you from his Love and Goodness Never did evil come from him nor did he ever do any wrong Never was there man or Angel that was a loser by him it is not possible to have so good a master and yet will you not obey him He fetcheth reasons from all his Mercies Every bit of bread is from him and should be an Argument with thee to obey him Every daies health and strength and comforts and every nights rest and ease thy Mercies at home and thy Mercies abroad in private and in publike all should be so many Arguments with thee to Resolve You cannot look upon a plant or a flower under your feet upon the Sun or a Starre that 's over your heads or upon any creature but you may see so many Reasons that should move you to Resolve If all these will not serve he fetcheth yet stronger Reasons from the Incarnation example and blood of the Sonne of God Canst thou look on God incarnate for sinne combating with Satan and conquering for thee and dying and bleeding and buried for thy sinne and yet be unresolved to leave that sinne and turn to him that hath bought thee by his blood If all this will not serve he Reasoneth with thee from thy own benefit If thou care not for God dost thou care for thy self Dost thou regard thy own Soul If thou do it 's high time to Resolve He reasoneth with thee from Everlasting Glory Is a certain Kingdom an Everlasting glorious Kingdom nothing to thee Art thou content to be thrust out of that Eternal Inheritance Is the filthy pleasure of the flesh for a few hours better then the endless joys of the Saints He pleads also with thee from the danger that thou art near Poor Soul thou little seest what others see that are dead before thee Thou little knowest what they feel that died before they were Resolv'd for God He fetcheth his Reasons from the certaine everlasting flames of Hell and is there not force enough in these for to Resolve thee Good Lord what a thing is a senseless sinner Dost thou believe Heaven and Hell as thou takest on thee to do If thou do believe them is it possible for thee believingly to think of
Heaven and its Eternal Glory and yet to be unresolved whether to turn or not Or canst thou think of the endless miseries of the damned and yet be unresolved whether to turn or not Can any heart be so senseless or deluded Moreover he pleadeth with thee from the equity and sweetness of his Service It is but to Love him and to seek his Kingdom and forbear those things that hurt thy Soul His Commands are not unreasonable nor grievous Darest thou speak out and say that sinne is better and that Satan hath provided thee a better work then God hath done He reasoneth with thee also from his Wisdom and his Justice He tels thee that as Satan hath nothing to do with thee and as he is none of thy friends and meaneth thee not so well as God doth so he is not able to prescribe thee a more just and perfect law then God hath done Follow God and thou art sure thou shalt never be deceived or misled For he wanteth not Wisdom or Power or Goodness to be a meet Law-giver and Guide But if thou follow the Devil the world or the flesh thou followest a blind and a deceifull guide And yet after all these Reasons art thou not Resolved He Reasoneth with thee also from thy own experience What good hath sinne done thee And what hurt would Holiness do thee Yea he reasons with thee from the experience of all the world Who was ever the bâ—tter for sinning And who was ever the worse for Holiness How long will thy fleshly delights endure What will this do for thee in thy extremity Was ever man made Happy by it Thou knowest well enough thou must shorty leave it and that it will forsake thee in thy greatest need But so would not God if thou hadst Resolvedly given up thy self to him All men that refuse a Heavenly life do sooner or later wish that they had chosen it Abundance of such Reasonings God useth with thee in his Word and by his Ministers and dost thou think indeed that there is not weight enough in these to give thee cause immediately to Resolve How little or nothing canst thou say against them Canst thou bring any Reason that is Reason indeed against these or any of these Reasons of the Lord Darest thou say that ever a one of them is false or insufficient And what are the Reasons which you have on the contrary to hinder you from Resolving Forsooth because your sinnes are sweet you would fain have the pleasure of them a little longer yet O wretched Souls that find more pleasure in the abusing of your Maker and Redeemer then in loving honoring and pleasing him That delight more in serving the flesh and the Devil then in serving God and seeking after his Favour and your own Salvation You are a hundred times madder then a man that lieth tumbling himself in his dung and will not rise out of it to receive a Kingdom because it is so soft and so sweet that he is loth yet to leave it You are foolisher then Nebuâ—hadnezzar had been if he had been loath to return again to his Kingdom because he would fain stay longer among the beasts of the fields among whom in his distraction he had betaken himself Dan. 4. 31 32 33. And what other Reasons have you against Resolving Forsooth you shall be mockt or jested at by others By whom I pray you Not a man but a miserable fool will do it Yea but you are told you must forsake â—ll and be ready to die for Christ if he â—all you to it Very true and can you â—eep that which he calleth you to forsake How long will you keep it Silly Souls do you not know that you forsake it by not for saking it and lose all by saving any thing and that you have no way to save it but by losing and forsakeing it Suppse you were by enemies banished out of England and upon pain of death you must be gone within a twelve-month And a King that loveth you inviteth you to his Country and tells you for the poor livings that you have lost he will make you Lords and Princes so you will bring with you the little goods you have and leave nothing behind you Hereupon one man takes the next wind and ships over all his riches that he may have it when he comes there Another saith I am loath to leave my goods I have a while longer to stay here and what shall I do without them I am loath to see the habitation of my Ancestours impoverished And so when his time is expired he is fain to leave them all behind him and hath none that will receive him in the Country where he must abide Which of these think you is the wiser man Which of them was it that lost his goods and which did save them I speak to you but such another parable as Christ used to you himself Luke 16. 2 3 4 9. Where you are advised to send your riches before you and to make you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when you dye you may be received into the everlasting habitations I know there are other vain delusions that hinder you from Resolving I will not call them Reasons for they are unreasonable I shall only say this to you that if there be ever a man of you that heareth his words that dare be such a Blasphemer as to reproach the Laws and Image of his maker and say that he hath made you too strict a Law and laid too heavy a task upon you and a Heavenly life is troublesome and unnecessary If there be a man of you that is so devilish as that you dare plead the Devils cause and justifie his work before the Lord's and say that it is better to please the flesh let that man prepare himself to make good these words before the Lord and his Holy Angels and be sure that he shall be there put to it in another manner then he is here by me And if you have such Reasons as you will stand to before the Barre of God to prove the Devil the better Master and an unholy life to be better then a Heavenly see then that you look them up and there make your best of them and expect to live with the Master that you served and to reape as you sowed and eate the fruit of your fleshly waies which you took to be the best But if you have no such Reasons but your Consciences are convinced that God should be served and sinne should be speedily forsaken and Heaven should be provided for above all Resolve then to do it before you stirre Or else say plainly I have no Reason to be wicked but because I will be wicked I will forseke God and damn my own Soul without any Reason because I will do it And if you are at this pass you may take your course 11. Another thing that I would intreat you to consider of is this It is a most