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
the Joyes of Heaven may be stirring and working in the minds of the unsanctified but if they take not up the Heart for Christ the person is not a true Believer As the Gospel must be Believed to be True so Christ that is offered us in the Gospel as Good must be Heartily and Thankfully accepted accordingly And the Glory the Justification Reconciliation with God and other benefits procured by him and offered with him must be valued and desired above all earthly fleshly things If you are convinced that sinne is evill as contrary to God and hurtfull to you and hereupon have some mind to let it go and some wishes that Christ would save you from it and yet still have a Love to it that is greater then your dislike and the bent of your heart is more for it then against it and your habituate desires are rather to keep then to leave it this is not Sanctification nor a saving consent to be saved by Christ. If you have some convictions that Holiness is good as being the Image of God and pleasing to him and necessary to your Salvation and so should have some mind of Holyness on these grounds yet if you have on the other side a greater aversness to it because it would deprive you of the pleasures of your sinne and the Habitual inclination of your will is more against it then for it certainly this will not stand with true Sanctification of Faith in Christ to save you from the power of sinne by his Spirit Thousands deceive themselves by misunderstanding some common passages that are spoken to comfort afflicted Consciences viz. That the least true desires after Grace do prove the Soul to be Gracious This is true if you speak of the least Desires which are Predominant in the Soul when our Desire is more habitually then our unwillingness and we thus preferre Christ before all the world the least of this is an Evidence of Saving Grace But such Desires as are subdued by the contrary Desires and such a will as is accompanyed with a greater unwillingness habitually and such a Faith as is drowned in greater unbelief these are not Evidences of a saving change nor can you justly gather any special comfort from them He that hath more unbelief then Belief is not to be called a Believer but an unbeliever And he that hath more hatred or dislike of God and Holiness then Love to them is not to be called Godly but ungodly nor a Lover of God but a hater of him I am easily perswaded that many of you that are ungodly could be contented that God be Glorified if his Glory do not cross your carnal interest and so you desire Gods Glory even for it self as that which is absolutely Good in it self But if your fleshly interest be so dear to you that you will sacrifice Gods Glory to it and had rather God were dishonoured then your fleshly interest contradicted it is your flesh then that is made your God and your chief End It is not every wish or mind of Christ no not to save you from sinne as sinne that will prove you true Belielievers Nor is it every minding of God or love to him no not as one apprehended by you to be the chiefest Good and desirable for himself as your End that will prove indeed that you savingly love him as long as the contrary mind and will is Habitually predominant in you Such as the very habit and bent of a mans heart is such indeed is the man It s possible for a man even a good man to have two contrary ends and intentions yea ultimate ends as that which is desired for it self and referred to nothing else is called Vltimaâ—e but it is not possible for him to have two principall predominant Ends. So far as we are carnal still we make the pleasing of our flesh our ultimate End For doubtless we do not sinne only by pleasing the flesh as a means to Gods Glory nor only in the mischoosing of other means But yet this is none of our Principal End so far as men are truly Sanctified And because that is called a mans mind or will which is the chiefest and highest in his mind and will therefore we use to denominate men from that only which beareth rule in them And thus we may say with Paul It is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me For a disowned act that proceedeth from us against the bent and habit of our wills and the course of our lives from the remnants of a carnal misguided will is not it that must denominate the person nor is so fully ours as the contrary act And therefore though indeed we sinfully participate of it yet when the question is whether Believing or unbeliefe sinning or obeying be my work it is not Comparatively to be called mine which I am much more against then for So on the other side if the unsanctified have some transient superficial uneffectual acts of Desire or Faith or Love to God which are contrary to the bent and habit of their hearts this is not theirs nor imputable to them so far as hence to give them their Denomination It is not they that do it but the common workings of the Spirit upon them If ever then you would be assured that your are Christians look to the Habitual bent of your hearts and see that you do not only talk of Scripture and slâ—ghtly believe it and speak well of Christ with some good wishes and meanings and purposes but as you love your Souls see that Christ be Received as your dearest Saviour with Thankfullness and greatest Love and as your Soveraign Lord with true subjection and that he have your Superlative estimation and Affections and all things in the world be put under him in your Souls This must be so if you will have the portion of Believers No Faith that is short of this will prove you Christ's Disciples indeed or Heirs of the Promises made to Believers The voice of Christ that calls to you in the Gospel is My sonne give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Do what thou wilt in waies of duty and think as highly as thou wilt of thy self thou art no true Believer in Christ's account till thou hast given him thy heart If he have thy tongue if he have thy good opinion nay if thy body were burnt in his Cause if he had not thy Love thy Heart it were as nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. For thy works and sufferings are so far acceptable through Christ as they are testimonies of this that Christ hath thy heart If he have not thy heart he takes it as if he had nothing And if he have this he takes it as if he had all For this is not only preferred by him before all but also he knows that this commandeth all If Christ have thy Heart the Devil will not have thy tongue and life the Ale-house or a Harlot will not have thy body nor the world will
Ghost is as necessary to your Salvation Without the sanctifying work of the Spirit you could never be delivered from sin and Satan nor restored to Gods Image and consepuently could never be the Members of Christ nor have any saving benefit by his Sufferings Would you not think him unworthy to live that would reproach the Fathers work of nature and say that the whole Creation is but some poor contemptible work And would you not think him unworthy the name of a Christian that had contemptible thoughts of the Sons Redemption as if we could be saved as well without a Saviour or as if it were but some poor and triviall commodity that Christ had purchased us I know you would confess the mistery of that man that believeth no better in the Father and the Son And how comes it to pass that you think not of your own misery that believe no better in the holy Ghost Do not you debase the Sanctifying office of the holy Spirit when you shew us your knowledg and parts and outward duties and civility and tell us that these are the work of sanctification What is Sanctification but such a thing as this Why Holiliness is a new Life and Spirit in us and these that you talk of are but a few flowers that are stickt upon a Corps to keep it a while from stinking among men till death convey it to a buriall in Hell O Sirs Sanctification is another kind of matter then the forsaking of some of your fouler vices and speaking well of a Godly life It is not the patching up of the Old man but the Creating of a New man I give you warning therefore from God that you think not basely of the work of the holy Ghost and that you think no more to be saved without the Sanctifying work of the Spirit then without the redeeming work of the Son or Creation Government or Love of the Father Sanctification must turn the very bent and stream of heart and life to God to Christ to Heaven it must mortifie Carnall Self and the world to you it must make you a people Devoted Consecrated and Resigned up to God with all that you have it must make all sin odious to you and make God the Love and Desire of your Souls so that it must give you a new Heart a new End a new Master a new Law and a new Conversation This is that noble Heavenly work which the holy Ghost hath vouchsafed to make the business of his office To slight and despise this is to slight and despise the holy Ghost To refuse this is to refuse the holy Ghost and not to believe in him to be without this work is to be without the holy Ghost if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. The holy Catholick Church is composed of all through the world that have this work upon them and therefore it is called Holy The Communion of Saints is the blessed Vitall fellowship of these Sanctified Ones For these only is the Resurrection unto blessedness the life everlasting with the Lord of life for all others is the Resurrection of Condemnation the everlasting punishment But if the other two Articles of our Faith have been so denied by the blind it is less wonder if this be so Some Hereticks denied God to be the Creatour of the world and because they saw so much evill in the world they said that it was made by Devils or evill Angels who indeed made the sin but not the world So dealt the Jewes by the Son and the Second Article of our Faith The Sacrifice of Bulls and Goats and such Beasts was all the Sacrifice for sin that they believed in And thus deale the multitude of the ungodly by the Spirit Indeed they know not themselves sufficiently to know the need and worth of Sanctification They are too whole to value the skill and care of Christ or the holy Ghost The insensibility of spirituall death and misery and thinking too lightly of Originall Corruption and too well of our depraved nature is both the cause of many of the Heresies of the learned and of the common contempt of Christ and the Spirit and recovering grace in all the unregenerate For it is not possible that men should have any deeper sence of the need or worth of the remedy then they have of the greatness of their sinne and misery O Sirs did we not come upon this great disadvantage to you that we speak to dead men that have indeed a naturall life which doth but take pleasure in their spirituall death how confidently should we expect to prevaile with you all But while you think lightly of your disease we can expect no better but that you think as lightly of Christ and holiness and all the meanes that tend to your recovery and think of the new man as the Poets fabled of the Promethean race that it grows out of the earth of your own poor sorry purposes and performances like ordinary plants Truly Sirs I have led you even as farre as I can and what more to say to you or what more to do for you to procure your Conversion I do not know If it had been in my power to have shewed you Heaven and Hell it self that you might better have known the matters that we speak of I think I should have done it But God will not have men live by sense in this life but by Faith If I could but help you all to such a knowledge and apprehension of these in visible things as the worst of you shall have as soon as you are dead then I should make but little doubt of your Conversion and Salvation Sure if you had but such a sight the force of it would so work upon you that before I went out of the Congregation you would all cry out that you are resolved to be new Creatures But though this be beyond my power and though I cannot shew you your great and wonderfull things that every eye here must shortly see yet I come not to you without a glass of Gods own making and in that glass you may see them There if you have but an eye of Faith you may see that God that you have so long offended and that now so earnestly inviteth you to return There you may see that Crucified Christ that hath opened you a way for Repentance by his Blood and pleadeth that Blood with you for the melting of your impenitent obstinate hearts There you may see the odious face of sinne and the amiable face of Holiness which is the Image of God There you may see both Heaven and Hell for all that they are invisible and may know what will be and that to all Eternity as well as what is And will not such a sight in the glass of Gods Word serve turn to move thee presently to give up the trade of sinning and to Resolve before thou stir for God I
your selves to Christ and turn to him as Zacheus and other primitive Converts did surrendering all that you have unto his Will Luke 19. 8 9. Leave not any root of bitterness behind Make no exceptions or reserves but Deny yonr selves Forsake all and follow him that hath led you this self-denying way aud trust to his Blood and Merits and Promise for a Treasure in Heaven and then you are his Disciples and true Christians indeed Luke 14. 33. Luke 18. 24 25. Reader if thou heartily make this Covenant and keep it thou shalt find that Christ will not deceive thee when the world deceiveth them that chose it in their greatest extremity But if thou draw back and think these terms too hard remember that Everlasting Life was offered thee and remember why and for what thou didst reject it And if in this life-time thou wilt have thy good things expect to be tormented when the believing self-denying Souls are comforted Luke 16. 25. May 29. 1658. R. B. THE CONTENTS COnsiderations to provoke men to take heed of sticking in a half-Conversion pag. 1 Direct 1. Labour for a right understanding of the true Nature of Christianity and meaning of the Gospel that must convert 32 Direct 2. When you understand that which you are called to search the Scripture and see whether it be so 41 Direct 3. Be much in the serious Consideration of the Truths which you understand and believe 51 Seven things to be considered 56 The manner of this Consideration 79 Twelve Motives to Consideration 86 Direct 4. 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 Ends of the work and that you drive it not on further then God requireth 119 Preparatory Humiliation what ibid. Sound Humiliation how known 120. c. The Ends and Vse of Humiliation 130 Mistakes about Humiliation to be avoided 154 Whether it be possible to be too much humbled 160 How to know when sorrow should be restrained 163 And when sorrow must be encreased 167 Motives for submission to a through-Humiliation 182 Direct 5. Close with the Lord Jesus understandingly heartily and entirely as he is revealed and offered in the Gospel 191 What must be understood of the person of Christ. 192 The Ends of Redemption to be understood 195 The Demonstrations of the glory of God in Christ and to whom 221 What are the works of Redemption that Christ hath done 232 The Benefits by Christ procured The general Benefits 241 The Benefits proper to Believers 247 The several termes on which the several Benefits are conveyed 263 The certainty of all this 270 How Christ must be received heartily and with the will 272 Christ must be entirely received and how 283 Direct 6. See that the flesh be throughly mortified and your hearts taken off the pleasures profits and honours of the world and think not of reconciling God and the world as if you might secure your interest in both 299 Direct 7. Be sure that you make an absolute Resignation of your selves and all that you have to God 306 Direct 8. See that you mistake not a meer change of your opinions and profession and behaviour for a saving change 324 The Markes by which a sound Conversion may be known from a meer opinionative change 330 Directions to get beyond an opinionative Conversion 347 Direct 9. Acquaint your souls by faith with the glory of the everlasting Kingdome and see that you take it for your portion and your end and from thence let the rest of your actions be animated 353 Wherein this Blessedness doth consist 359 Direct 10. Rest not and count not your selvs converted till God and holiness have your very Love Desire and Delight and take it not for a saving change when you had rather live a worldly and ungodly life if it were not for the fears of punishment 363 Direct 11. If you would not have the work miscarry Turn then this present day and hour without any more delay where fifty Considerations are given to shame men out of their delayes 381 Direct 12. Stop not in weak and wavering purposes and faint attempts but see that you be groundedly unreservedly and fi mly or habitually Resolved 441 What Resolution is and by what Deliberations it is caused The Preparatory câ—mmon Acts and the speciall Acts Illumination and the wills Determination how wrought 442 c. The unresolved are unconverted 450 What Resolution it is that is necessary 455 Twenty Motives to Resolution 461 Hinderances of Resolution 505 Two Directions for prosecuting Resolution that it may hold 513 The Conclusion 521 ERRATA PAge 1. l. 15. for you r. the. p. 41. l. 29. r. it a. p. 15. l. 15. r. as if it p. 99. l. 5. for Mal. r. Math. p. 51. l. 5. for your r. our p. 56. l. 8. for say r. lay p. 72. l. 17. blot out and. p. 98. l. 14. r. portends p. 181. l. 1. r. this be p. 126. l. 13. for confesseth r. consenteth p. 143. l. 19. for work r. worth p. 144. l. 6. blot out that p. 157. l. 8. for reproachers r. reprovers p 167. l. 21. for the r. then p. 170. l. 14. for you r. your p. 171. l. 10. for so r. to p 174. l. 10. for Judas r. Judges with a. p. 176. l. 1 2. for your selves r. yours l. 6. r. veine l. 15. for once r. over p. 177. l. 23. r. you are p. 205. l. 3. for begin a r. beginning p. 210. l. 3. dele hath p. 215. l. 9. for Premises r. Praises p. 218. l. 25. dele purpose p. 220. l. 20. for of r. so p. 229. l. 21. for manage r. marriage p. 242. l. 21. for discern r deserve p. 247. l. 13. for charging r. changing p. 279. l. 7. r. you p. 294. l. 27. for sanctification r. satisfaction p. 298. l. 24. dele to p. 307. l. 12. for or r. our p. 309. l. 4. r. pure and. p. 314. l. 12. dele I. p. 319. l. 21. r. it it is p. 326. l. 4. and. 7. r. opinionative p. 338. l. 3. r. life and. l. 27. for is r. it p. 339. l. 27. r. party p. 341. l. 19. for to r. made p. 362. l. 7. for 1. r. 10. p. 432. l. 5. r. learn p. 446. l. 28. for the r. that p. 469. l. 1. for any r. and. p. 494. l. 7. r. till then p. 500. l. 3. 4. for handfull r. housefull p. 513. l. 5. for offer r. office p. 517. l. 16. r. so I. p. 524. l. 18. for mystery r. misery Directions to Sinners that are purposed to Turn and are under the Work of Conversion that it miscarry not THe first and greatest matter in the seeking after the salvation of our souls is to be sure that we lay the foundation well and that the work of Conversion be throughly wrought To this end I have already used many perswasions with
Christians and What would you have done in Spain or Italy where it would cost you your lives He that will not be Converted now but thinks the termes of grace too hard is so impious a despiser of Christ and Heaven that it is no wonder if God resolve that he shall never taste of the salvation that was offered him Luk 14. 24. Moreover you know upon what uncertainties you hold your lives you have no assurance of them for an hour but you are sure that they are passing away while you delay And will you trifle then in a work that must be done What a case are you in if death find you unconverted The heart of man is not able now to conceive the misery of your case How dare you venture to live another day in an unconverted state least death should find you so Are you not afraid when you lie down at night and afraid when you go out of your doors in the morning least death surprize you before you are converted If you be not it 's long of your deadness and presumption And I would fain hear what it is that should thus stop you What are you afraid of Is God an Enemy that you are loath to come to him Is the devil a Friend that you are so loath to leave him Is sinne a Paradise Is Holiness a Misery Is it pleasanter life to love your money or your lands or your meat and drink and lusts then to love the most blessed God the Creatour of the World the life of our Souls and our Eternal Felicity Is it better to pamper a carcass that must shortly stink as the dung then to provide for a living immortall soul Whether do you think that Earth or Heaven will be the more glorious and durable felicity What is it sirs that you stick at that you make so many delayes before you 'l turn Is there any difficulty in the point Do you think it a hard question whether you should turn or not Why how can you be so blind Do you stand pausing upon the business as it were a doubt whether God or the world were better and whether sinne or holiness Christ or death Heaven or Hell were to be preferred I pray you Consider Can you reasonably think that Conversion will do you any harm Can it bring you into a worse condition then you are in Sure you cannot fear such a thing You are in your blood you are dead in sinne you are children of wrath while you are unconverted you are under the curse of the Law of God you are the slaves of the devil you are the heirs of hell and under the guilt of all your sinnes your life is a continued rebellion against God you are employed every day in the destroying of your selves in kindling the flames that must everlastingly torment you and laying in fewell for the perpetuating of your misery and fighting against your friends that would deliver you and unthankfully abusing Christ and grace and Ministers and Friends that would save your souls This is the condition that every one of you is in till you are converted And can you fear least Conversion would bring you into a worse condition then this Sirs these Truths are sure and plain and if yet you stick at it your errour is so palpably gross that unless you are mad men I may be bold to say it is a wilfull errour And if you love to be deceived and wilfully choose a lie you must take that you get by it 3. Consider further That half-Conversions do often prove an occasion of deluding mens souls and making them quiet in a miserable state and so of keeping them from being converted to the last If you had never done any thing in it you would more easily be perswaded that your case is bad and that there is still a necessity of your change But when you have had some convictions and troubles of mind and fears and sorrows and so have fallen into an outside partiall reformation and now are perswaded that you are truly converted when it is no such matter What a dangerous impediment to your Conversion may this prove And all because you slubber over the work and cut it off before it reacheth to sincerity and strive against the workings of the Spirit and break away from your Physicâ—in before he hath done the cure and would not follow it on to the end I know that a half-Conversion if it be known to be no more is much better then none and doth often prepare men for a saving work But when this half-Conversion is taken to be a true and saving change as â—oo commonly it is it proves one of the greatest impediments of salvation When ever Christ shall afterwards knock at your door you will not know him as thinking that he dwells with you already If you read any Books that call on you to be converted or hear any Preachers that call on you to turn you have this at hand to cousen your selves with aud frustrate all You 'l think This is not spoken to me For I am Converted already O how quietly do such poor deluded sinners daily read and hear their own doom and misery and never once dream that they are the men that are meant and therefore are never dismayed at the matter This formeth you into a state of hypocrisie and makes the course of your duties and your lives to be hypocriticall If another man that knows himself to be still unconverted do but read the threatnings of the Word against such or hear of the terrours of the Lord from a Minister he may be brought to confess that this is his own case and so to perceive the misery of his condition But when such as you do read and hear these things they never trouble you for you think that they do not touch you You are Scripture-proof and Sermon-proof and all by the delusion of your half-Conversion O how zealously will such a man cry out against the sinnes of others and tell them of their misery and perswade them to turn and shew them the danger that is near them if they do not and in the mean time little thinks that this is his own case and that he speaks all this against his own soul. How will such men applaud a Sermon that drives at the Conversion of a sinner and that tels them their misery while they are unconverted O thinks he this touched such and such I am glad that such a man and such a man heard it And he little thinks that it as nearly touched himself How smooâ—hly will he go on in any discourse agaâ—nst wicked unregenerate men as David heard the Parable of Nathan and it never once entreth into their thoughts that they speak all this against themselves till the Judge shall tell them when it is too late Thou art the man It will turn not only the stream of your thoughts into hypocrisie and self-deceit but also the stream of your speeches to others
this be lost for want of going to the bottom and making a through work of it What a loss will this be 5. Consider also What an admirable help and advantage it will be to you through the whole course of your lives if the work of Conversion be once throughly wrought I will shew you this in some Particulars First It will be an excellent help to your understandings against the grosser Errors of the world and will stablish you in the truth much more then meer Arguments can do For you will be able to speak for the truth from feelling and experience He that hath the Law written both in his Bible and in his heart is likely to hold it faster then he that hath it in his Bible alore But of this I have spoken already in my Treatise against Infidelity Part 2. Secondly If you be but throughly Converted you will have that within you which will be a a continuall help against temptations You have not only experience of the mischief of sinning and the folly of those Reasons that are brought for its defence but you have also a new nature which is against the temptation as life is against poison and as it is a great disadvantage to the Law of Christ that it speaks against the nature of the ungodly so is it a disadvantage to the temptations of the Devil that they would draw a Christian against his new nature You have that within you that will plead more effectually against sensuality uncharitableness pride or worldliness or any the like sinne then reason or learning alone can do As in the forecited Book I have further manifested Thirdly If Conversion be throughly wrought you will have within you a continuall helper of your graces and a Remembrancer to put you in mind of duty and a spurre to put you on to the performance and a furtherer of your souls in the performance it self It is out of this spark and principle within you that the Holy Ghost doth raise the acts of grace This is it that the Word and Prayer and Conference and Sacraments and all the Means of Grace must work upon If we see you do amiss we have hopes that you will hear us If we plainly reprove you we may look you should take it in good part For you have that within you that saith as we say and is at deadly enmity with the sinne which we reprove If we provoke you to Love and to good Works we dare almost promise our selves that you will obey For you have that within you that disposeth you to the duty and preacheth our Sermons to you over again O what an advantage it is to our teaching when you are all taught of God within as well as by his Messengers without But when we speak to the unconverted we have little to work upon We give Physick to the dead We speak all against the bent of their souls and every reproof and exhortation to holiness goes against their very natures And therefore what wonder if we have the smaller hopes to prevail Fourthly If the work be throughly done at first it will help to resolve many doubts that may be afterwards cast into your minds You need not be still at a loss and looking behind you and questioning your foundation but may go cheerfully and boldly on O what an excellent encouragement is this to know that you have hitherto made good your ground and left all safe and sure behind you and have nothing to do but to look before you and press on towards the mark till you lay hold upon the prize Whereas if you be in any great doubt of your Conversion it will be stopping you and discouraging you in all your work you will be still looking behind you and saying What if I should yet be unconverted When you should cheerfully address your selves to Prayer or Sacraments how sadly will you go as being utterly uncertain whether you have a saving right to them or whether God will accept a Sacrifice at your hand When you should grow and go forward you will have little heart to it because you know not whether you are yet in the way and this will damp your life and comfort in every duty when you must say I know not whether yet I be throughly Converted O therefore stop not the work at first Fifthly and lastly if the work be throughly done at first you will persevere when others fall away You will have rooting in your selves entertaining the seed as into depth of earth and you will have the Holy Ghost within you and more then so engaged for your preservation and the perfecting of your salvation When they that received the Word as seed upon a rock and never give it deep entertainment will wither and fall away in the time of triall and from them that have not saving grace shall be taken away even that which they seemed to have Mat. 13. 12. 25. 19. 6. And Lastly Consider If you fall short of a true Conversion at the first the Devil will take occasion by it to tempt you at last to utter despair When you have made many essaies and trials and been about the work again and again he will perswade you that there is no possibility of accomplishing it If we convince an open prophane person that is unconverted he may easier see that yet there is hopes of it But if a man have been half-converted and lived long in a formall self-deceiving profession of Religion and been taken by himself and others for a godly man as it is very hard to convince this man that he is unconverted so when he is convinced of it he will easily fall into desperation For Satan will tell him If thou be yet unconverted after so many Confessions and Prayers and after so long a course of Religion what hope canst thou have that yet it should be done Thou wilt never have better opportunities then thou hast had If such Sermons as thou hast heard could not do it what hope is there of it If such Books and such Company and such Mercies and such Afflictions have not done it what hope canst thou have Canst thou hear any livelyer Teaching then thou hast heard or speak any holyer words then thou hast spoken If yet the work be quite undone it is not forsaking another sinne nor going a step further that will do it and therefore never think of it for there is no hope Dost thou not know how oft thou hast tryed in vain and What canst thou do more And thus you give advantage to the Tempter by your first delayes and taking up in meer Preparatories And therefore I beseech you as you love your souls take heed of resisting the Spirit of grace and breaking off the work before it is throughly done but go the bottom and follow it on til it be accomplished in sincerity And now hoping that upon these Considerations you are resolved to do your best I shall come to the thing which I
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
Heb. 1. 6. And what are they all but Ministring spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And therefore sent forth by Jesus Christ the Lord of Saints Which makes some think that the title of Angels was never given to any of these Spirits till the Mediators undertaking and that it was only as they were his deputed messengers or servants for the Ends of that undertaking Sure we are they attended his birth with their acclamations and his life and sufferings as far as was meet with their service and that they are deputed to bear his servants in their hands that they dash not their foot against a stone that they are ascending and descending and are present with the Churches in their Holy Worship and that they rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and that the least of Christ's servants have their Angels beholding the face of God and that the Law was given by their disposition or ordination and they attend the departing Souls of Believers and that they contend against evill spirits for our good and are encamped about us and that they shall attend the Lord at his coming to Judgment and be his glorious retinue and Instruments in the work and that they are numbred with us as members of the same Heavenly Jerusalem and that we shall be like or equall to them Luke 2. 14 15. Marke 4. 11. Luke 22. 43. Acts 10. 6 7 22. Psal. 34. 7. 91. 11. Matth. 13. 39 41. 16. 27. 24. 31. 25. 31. 26. 53. Luke 16. 22. Matth. 18. 10. 2 Thes. 1. 7. Luke 20. 36. Marke 12. 25. Acts 7. 65. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 12. 22. 2 Pet. 2. 11. Luke 15. 10. Joh. 1. 51. Yea men must be either confessed or denied owned or disowned before the Angels Luke 12. 8 9. See Rev. 19. 18. Rev. 3. 5. But if all this seem not sufficient to perswade you that the Angels are so far interessed in the affaires of God about the Redeemed as to behold and admire him in this blessed work take notice of the express affirmations of the Scriptures 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which things the Angels desire to look into And why but to see and admire the Wisdom and Power and Goodness and Mercy and Justice of God shining forth in the Redeemer If this be not plain enough mark well those words Ephes. 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God You see here that the Church of the Redeemed is that admirable looking glass which God hath set up to this very intent that his Angels may in it or by it behold the manifold Wisdom of God Yea and that upon the full revelation of Christ by the Gospel they saw that which did more fully inform and illuminate them No doubt but the very work of Creation yea of this inferior world that are made for the habitation and use of man are far better known to Angels then to man for we know but little of what we daily see and use And consequently it is by Angels more then by men that God is beheld admired and glorified in them And if it be so in these works of Creation we may well say it is so in the works of Redemption 3. But when we are perfected in Glory then we our selves shall clearly see the Glory of this Mystery and of God therein As it is not till we come to Heaven that we shall have the fullest benefits of Redemption so it is not till then that we shall have the fullest understanding of it and God have his fullest praises for it As we are here but sowing the seed of our own Glory which we must reap in the everlasting fruition of God so God is here but sowing those seeds of his Praise and Glory which he will eternally reap by this blessed work Do not therefore judg of the ends and fruits of Christ's undertakings by what you see him attain on Earth but by what he shall attain in Heaven when he hath fully seen the travail of his Soul to his satisfaction and hath presented the whole Church without spot unto God and when the glorious manage of the Lamb with the Heavenly Jerusalem is solemnized and the Kingdom delivered up to the Father Isa. 53. 11. Ephes. 5. 27. Rev. 19. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 24. It will be another manner of conceiving which we shall have in Heaven of this blessed work when we see the face of our Glorified Lord and fully possess the fruits of his Redemption then this is that we have now by our weak believing We shall then have another manner of sight of the Wisdom and Power and Love and Justice that appear to man in the face of Christ then now we have 4. Yea the tormenting discoveries of the Glory of Redemption to the condemned rejecters of it shall also contribute to the Glory of God You see then that this work hath most Glorious Ends which I have mentioned the more largely both to remove their temptations that are apt to think that it was an unnecessary thing and therefore the less regardable and to teach men the true value of it by shewing them the true Ends. For the former I say There was no necessity that God should make the world and reveale his Power and Wisdom and Goodness in this excellent frame but what did suppose the free Will of God the Original Cause Will you therefore say that the Creation is vaine and undervalue Gods admirable works in which he thus revealeth himself to the intellectuall Creatures So here we confess that there could be no necessity of Redemption but what was Originally derived from the Will of God though a necessity ad finem there was from the constitution of things upon supposition of what went before the undertaking But yet shall we undervalue so glorious a work in which the Divine perfections do so fully reveale themselves to the world And I say the more of this because I do observe that its the not apprehending the high and excellent Ends of Redemption that makes it so much slighted and consequently tempteth many to infidelity For the Ends and Uses do set the value on the means That is of little worth that is to little purpose and doth but little good If men understood more the Ends of Redemption and how much of God doth shine forth in the world in the Person and Life and Laws and Works of the Sonne of God they would then live in the admiration of it and be alwaies searching and prying into it and desire to know nothing but God in Christ Crucified and account all things else but as loss and dung for this excellent knowledg But alas the most do sâ—arce discern any higher Ends of Christ or other use of him then to save themselves from Hell and for want of Faith and through Humiliation they have but little sense
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
the Husband of the Church and you must become his Spouse and so of the rest This is called our Vniâ—â—ng to Christ which must go before your further Communion with him It is the Will of God that you shall never receive his Benefits without or before you receive his Sonne Except only those Benefits which go before your Union with Christ himselfe in order to the accomplishing it as the Gospel the gift of Faith to the Elect c. You shall never have actual Pardon Justification Adoption Sanctification or Glory till you have first saving interest in Christ himself He is the Vine and we are the Branches we must be planted into him and live in him or else we can have nothing further from God nor do nothing acceptable to God And therefore the first and great work of Faith is to Receive and close with the Person of Christ as cloathed with his Office 2. Understand and note that as you shall not have his great Benefits before or without his Person so God hath resolved that you shall not have his Special Benefits unless you will take them all together I speak of men at age that are capable of all You shall not have Pardon and Justification or Glory without Sanctification nor the Comforts of Christ without the guidance and government of Christ. You must have all or none 3. From hence it follows that therefore you must Receive and close with Christ Entirely in his whole Office as he is to accomplish all these works or else you cannot be United to him He will not be divided You shall not have Christ as a Justifier of yon if you will not have him as a Guid and Ruler and Sanctifier of you He will not be a partial Saviour If you will not consent that he shall save you from your sinnes he will not consent to save you from Hell 4. Understand and note that Christ will look to his Fathers Interest and Honour and his own as well as to your Salvation yea and before it And therefore you must not hope for any Mercy from him in any way that is dishonourable to him or that is inconsistent with his own blessed Ends and Interest And therefore do not look for any such Grace from him as shall discharge you from your duty or give you liberty to dishonour or disobey him Nor do not think that you shall have him Related to you only for your own ends but on terms of highest honour to God and you Redeemer And do not think that your Grace is ever the less free because Gods Honour is thus preferred For if you are Christians indeed you will take Gods Interest as your own highest Interest and will confess that you could not have your own Ends and welfare any other way 5. Understand and Note also that as all your Mercies are in the hand of Christ so Christ hath appointed in his Gospel a certain way and course of means in which he will bestow it And you cannot expect it from him in any other way but his own As God hath made Christ the way and no man cometh to the Father but by him so Christ hath ordained a standing course of means which are his way for the making over of his Benefits and here you must have them or go without them 6. Understand and Note that there are some of Christ's Ends and Benefits that the very Natural man desires and some that Corrupted Natuâ—e is against Now it is therefore the established way of Christ to Promise us those which we can desire on Condition that we will also accept of and submit to those that we are against Not but that his Grace doth dispose men to the performance of such Conditions But his Grace worketh by means and a Conditionall Promise is his stablished means to draw mans heart to the Performance of the Condition which well considered is a sufficient answer to the Arguments that are commonly urged against the Conditionality of the Promise As the Spirit doth Powerfully work within so he useth that Word from without as his Instrument which worketh Sapientially and Powerfully to the same work If a Physician have two medicines to give his patient as necessary for his cure the one very sweet and the other bitter the one which he loves and the other which he loaths he will Promise him the Sweeter if he will take the Bitter one that by the love of one he may prevail against the loathing of the other and may â—ice it down He will not promise the bitter one which is loathed and make the Taking of the sweet one the Condition He will not say I will give thee this Aloes on Condition thou wilt take this Sugar but contrary I will give thee the sweeter if thou wilt take the bitter In Christs Ends and Works 1. We Naturally are more willing of that which makes for our selves directly then of that which makes directly for the Honour of God and the Redeemer We preferre our own Ends before Gods Glory And therefore Christ hath so ordered the Condition of his Promises that unless we will take him in his Relations of Dignity as King and Lord and will make the Glory and Pleasing of God our principal End we shall have none of him or his Saving Benefits For he came not to fulfill our selfish desires but to fetch us off from our selves and recover us to God that he might have his own And if we will not have our All in God we shall have Nothing 2. And Naturally we are willing as to our own Benefits to be pardoned and freed from the Curse of the Law and the flames of Hell and Natural death and punishment And therefore we are thus farre Naturally willing of free Justification But we are unwilling to let go the seeming profit and credit and pleasure of sinne and to deny the flesh and forsake the world and we are averse to the Spiritual felicity of the Saints and to the Holiness of heart and life that is the way to it And therefore Christ hath most wisely so ordered it in the tenor of his Promises that our Repentance and Faith shall be the Condition of our Justification and deliverance from death and Hell And this Faith is the believing in him and Accepting him Entirely in his whole Office to Sanctifie us and Rule us as well as to Justifie us And thus we must take him wholly or we shall have none of him And the Accepting him as our Teacher and Sanctifier and King is as much at least the Condition of our Justification and Pardon and deliverance from Hell as the Accepting him as a Justifier of us is He that had the Power in his own hands and that made the free Promise or Deed of Gift hath put in such Conditions as his own Wisdom saw best and they are such as suit most congruously to all his Ends even the Glory of God in all his Attributes and the Redeemers Glory and our own
and most full and free Salvatition And on his Conditions must we have his Benefits or we shall never have them 7. Lastly Understand and Note that the Means which Christ hath resolved on for Teaching and Ruling us ordinarily are his Word his Ministers and his Spirit all must be submitted to together where they may be had and none of them laid by by separation His Word is the Grammar or Book as it were that we must learn His Ministers must teach us this Book And his Spirit who in the Apostles and Prophets indited and sealed it must inwardly teach us by powerfull Illumination The Word is Gods Laws the Ministers are his Embassadours or Heraulds to proclaime them and command obedience in his Name and his Spirit must open mens hearts to entertain them The Word is Gods Seed the Ministers are the Husbandmen or Servants that sow it and the Spirit must give the increase without which our planting and watering will do nothing He therefore that takes Christ for his Master and King must resolve to be taught and ruled by his established means even by his Word and Ministers and Spirit conjunct For he that refuseth and despiseth these doth refuse and despise Christ and consequently the Father that sent him Luke 10. 16. 1 Thes. 4. 8. For it was never the meaning of Christ when he became the Teacher and King of the Church to stay on Earth and personally and visiby to teach them himself but these three are his means which all must submit to that will be his Subjects and Disciples And he that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 13. He that will not have the Word Ministry and Spirit teach him will not have Christ teach him and he that refuseth to be ruled by these three shall be destroyed as a Rebel against Christ himself Luke 19. 27. Still it is supposed that Ministers must Teach and Rule according to this Word And the Society in which Christ will Teach and govern us is his Church As members therefore of the Vniversal Church and in Communion with his Particular Church where we live and have opportunity we must wait on Christ for his Teaching and Benefits For this is his Schoole where his Disciples must diligently attend and learn Lay all this together and this is the summe The Object of Justifying Saving Faith is One only undivided Christ one in Person but of two Natures God and Man in Office the Mediator between God and man who hath already done the work of Sanctification and Merit and is authorized further to bestow the Benefits By the Gospel Grant he hath given himself as Head and Husband Teacher King and Saviour to all that will entirely and heartily accept him and with himself he giveth Justification by the Promise Sanctification by the Word Ministry and Spirit and final Absolution and Everlasting Life If ever then you will have Christ and Life you must accept him in all these Essentials of his Person and Office and that to the Ends which his Redemption was intended for you must be willing to be Sanctified by him as well as to be Justified You must at once unfeignedly become his Disciples his Subjects his Members if you would become his saved ones You wust consent that as your Teacher and your Lord he shall Teach and Rule your heart and life by his Word Ministers and Spirit in Communion with his Church No barre or exception must be put in nor reservation made against any one of these parts of his Office If you yield not to those parts of his Saving work that tend but to the compleative growth you sinne and deprive your selves of the Benefit but if you yield not to those that must make you truly Sanctified and Justified men you cannot be saved The Essentials of Christ's Person and Office do costitute him the Christ and if he be not received in all those Essentials he is not received as Christ. And thus I have given you the summe of the Gospel and the description of Faith and true Christianity in this Direction for a right closing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And experience of most that I discourse with perswades me to think this Direction of great necessity and to intreat you throughly to peruse and consider it I find abundance of ignorant people that talk much of Christ but know very little of him that can scarce tell us whether he be God or man or which Person in the Trinity he is nor to what End he was incarnate and died noâ— what Relation he stands in to us or what use he is of or what he now is or what he is engaged to do for us But if we ask them about their hopes of Salvation they almost overlook the Redemption by Christ and tell us of nothing but Gods Mercies and their own good meanings and endeavours And I am afraid too many Professors of Piety do look almost all at the Natural part of Religion and the mending of their own hearts and lives and I would this were better done while they forget the supernatutural part and little are affected with the infinite Love of God in Christ. I desire such to consider these things 1. You overlook the summe of your Religion which is Christ Crucified besides whom Paul desired to know nothing 2. You overlook the fountain of your own life and the author of your supplies and you strive in vaine for Sanctification or Justification if you seek them not from a Crucified Christ. 3. You leave undon the principal part of your work and live like moral Heathens while you have the name of Christians Your daily work is to study God in the face of his Sonne and to labour with all Saints to comprehend the height and bredth and length and depth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg Eph. 3. 18. 19. All your Graces should be daily quickned and set awork by the life of Faith in the contemplation of the Redeemer and his blessed work This is the weight that must set all the wheels agoing You do God no Service that he can accept if you serve him not in this Gospel-work of loving trusting and admiring and praysing him in the Redeemer and for his Redemption 4. And so you rob God of the principal part of his Glory which you are to give him which is for this most glorious work of our Redemption I pray you read over again the Ends of this work which I laid down in the beginning of this Direction 5. Moreover you rob your selves of your principal comfort which must all come in by living upon Christ. 6. And you harden the Antiâ—omians and Libertines and tempt men to their extreams that runne from us as Legalists and as men that Savour not the Doctrine of free Grace and are not of a Gospel-Spirit and conversation I would our great neglect of Christ had not been a snare to these mistaken Soulâ— and a stumbling block in their way O Sirs if
the flesh And all their thoughts and words and actions that have such an End are wicked and pernicious Till you are Resolved by Conversion to be for God you have never a right End in a prevailing sence and therefore you cannot order one thought nor word nor deed aright I tell you every thought you think and every word you speak and every deed you do while you are unconverted are so many steps towards Hell except only those that tend towards Conversion and some way further it Resolve therefore of this or you can Resolve of nothing 15. Moreover if you would presently and firmly Resolve you would ease your friends and the Ministers of Christ of much of their sorrows and fears and cares for you and of much of the most troublesome part of their work As long as you are unconverted they can look on you but as the heirs of Hell that will be quickly in those torments if conversion prevent it not and therefore their hearts are full of sorrow for you when you sorrow not for your selves and their care is how they might prevent your damnation which they know without Conversion can never be done Many a groan doth your Misery cost them and many a thought have they of your danger which you are not aware of O what a grief is it to believing Ministers to see so many of their people in the power of Satan and the high-way to Hell after all their care and labour for their recovery We cannot say that the unconverted shall certainly perish because we have yet hopes that they may be Converted though they be not But we know that if they die in the case that they are in there is no hope of them at all and we know they are uncertin to live an hour And therefore as long as they are in this Condition how can we chuse but be filled with fear and grief and care for them All the troubles that befall a faithfull Minister in his worldly affaires by crosses and persecutions are nothing to the trouble that your sinne and misery bringeth to their minds O what a comfortable life were it for a Minister to live with bread and water among a people that would obey the Gospel and give us hopes that we should live with them in Heaven O how cheerfully may we study for them and preach to them when we see that it is not lost upon them How willingly should we prepare them the bread of life when we see they feed and live upon it How joyfully may we pray and praise God with them when we think how they must joyn with us in the Celestial Praises O Sirs I beseech you grudg not your Ministers this comfort Do not destroy your selves to grieve and trouble them O put them once out of their fears and grief for you by your Resolving ad speedy return to God That they that have many a time thought in their hearts I am afraid this poor sinner will never be recovered I am afraid he will be a firebrand in Hell may now rejoice with you when they see you coming home and may meet you as the Father himself doth meet his prodigal children and weep over you for joy as they were wont to do in sorrow You would ease our hearts of abundance of sad thoughts if we could but perceive you once Resolved and see you come home Now you think our preaching harsh to you because we tell you so much of sinne and of damnation and you think our discipline more harsh when we refuse to have communion with you But if you would once Resolve and Turn how gladly should we open our doores and our hearts to you and how gladly should we turn the stream of our preaching and tell you of nothing but Christ and Heaven and peace and comfort further then your own necessities should require it What say you Sirs to this reasonable request Will you Resolve without any more ado and ease us of our grief and fears and give us but leave to preach more comfortable Doctrine to you 16. Moreover consider that you have much work to do when you are Resolved and Converted and a great way to go when you have begun your journey towards Heaven and till you are Resolved none of this can be done You can go no further till Conversion have set you in the right way Till then the further you go the further you are out of the way Will you be unresolved till the night come on Shall all the rest of your work be undone Will you begin your race when you should be at the end Alas you should be able to say as Paul 2 Tim. 4. 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness when as you cannot yet say I have begun my course I am set in the right way 17. Consider also that Rosolution maketh works easie and successfull The resolute Army is seldom couquered A resolute travailer will go through with his journy and it is easier to himself His spirits are excited and doing it with vivacity he findeth less trouble in it A slow and lazy pase doth sometime soonest weary us A slow motion is most easily stopt when a swift one bears down that which would resist it A man that Resolvedly sets himself to the Work of God and is past any further deliberating of the matter and is at a point with all the world will make a pleasure of that which will stop and stall an unresolved professour Resolve therefore for your own success and ease I tell you by Resolving it is that you must conquer and by conquering you must obtain the Crown The unresolved are wavering at every assault like cowardly soldiers even ready to runne before they fight They will not bear the cost or labour they are soon aweary They cannot say Nay to an old Companion or a tempting bait But the Resolved breaks through all and treads that under his feet as dirt which another sells his Soul for If he meet with reproaches and scornes from men he remembreth that Christ foretold him this and suffered much more of the like before him If his friends turn enemies for the Gospel sake he saith I was told of this before even that I must be hated of all men for Christ. If he be ticed by lewd and wanton company he saith as David Psal. 119. 115. Depart from me ye evill doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God If he be tempted with rewards and honours in the world he will not stand wavering and longing after it as Balaam but he will say as the same Balaam was forced to do If you will give me a handfull of Gold and Silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord. And let their money perish with them that think all the Gold in the world worth the peace of a good Conscience and the favour of God If he be threathened by
men to move him to forsake his duty he saith Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye If he heare seducers he is rooted in the Spirit and the infallible Word and is not shaken by every wind If he see never so many fall off by backsliding he saith It was not only for their company that I chose the holy way God is still the same and Heaven is the same and Scripture is the same and therefore I am Resolved to be the same If God afflict him by poverty sickness or other tryals he saith I did not become a Christian to scape affliction but to scape damnation If he kill me yet will I trust in him Shall I receive good at the hands of God and not evill Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked must I return to dust the Lord giveth the Lord taketh away blessed be his name If oppressing enemies insult over him he can say as Mic. 7. 8 9. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light to me I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and execute Judgment for me He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousness If the wicked cast in his teeth his profession and the name of his God he rejoiceth that he is counted worthy to suffer for that Name and yet he will hope to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living And if he must go to Heaven through poverty and a mean estate he hath learned to want as well as to abound and in what estate soever he be therewith to be contented And so in the work of Conversion it self for want of Resolution many stick long in the birth and they are hanging so long between Heaven and Hell that it 's a wonder of Mercy that God doth not cut them off and let them perish But the well Resolved Soul doth deal more faithfully with the light that is revealed to him and doth not stand strugling so long against it nor hold Christ and his Spirit so long in hand but is glad to make sure work in so great a business and take so good a match while it is offered And being engaged once he is firm as Mount Zion that cannot be moved Resolve therefore that your work may be the more easy and successfull and conquer by Resolving 18. I suppose you dare not Resolve against Conversion and a Heavenly life And why then will you not Resolve for it What purpose you to do for the time to come Is it your Resolution to live and die as you are Have you not purposes in your mind to Repent hereafter Dare you say I am Resolved never to be Converted Some may be so desperate but I think it is but few even of the ungodly Why this shews that there is a secret conviction in your consciences O do not stifle it Neutrality never saved Soul Seing you dare not Resolve against it Resolve for it 19. Consider I beseech you how much it doth concern your selves to have this question well and speedily Resolved God asketh you whether you will be Converted and Sanctisied or not Resolve this question and you Resolve your selves of a great many more that depend upon it The answer to this must be the answer to the rest If the question were whether you will be pardoned or no Whether you will live in Heaven or Hell for ever Whether you will dwell with God and Angels or with Devils You would not be long in answering this You would Resolve without an hours delay Why this is the question Sirs but the answer to it must be the answer to the first question For without Sanctification there is no Salvation If you will not be Converted you shall be condemned whether you will or no For God hath Resolved of this already and there is no resisting the Resolution of God The true state of the question is Whether you will Turn or burn choose you whether for it must be one O therefore if you will but Resolve Christ and us this one question that you will be Converted Christ will Resolve you the principal questions that concern you in the world even whether you shall be pardoned or saved and where and with whom you must live for ever 20. Lastly consider that if you stay till you receive the sentence of death it 's two to one but that will force you to Resolve But a forced Resolution will not serve turn and then it will be very hard for you to discern whether it be any better then meerly from your fears You put off all till sickness come and you see once that you must die there 's no Remedy and then you will cry O if the Lord would but recover me and try me once againe with life I would delay no longer but I would become a new man and live a Holy and Heavenly life I am resolved of it by the Grace of God Yea but who knows whether these last Resolutions be sincere We heare abundance speak this in their sickness that â—â—ver turn when they come to health but forget all and live in a manner as they did before Is it not most likely to be only the fear of death that makes you take up these Resolutions If it be so they will never save you if you die nor hold you to your promises if you live For it is not bare Fear that is true Conversion but it 's a changed heart that is fallen in Love with God and Holiness and into a setled hatred of former sins No late Repentance and Resolutions but these will be any thing worth as to the saving of your Souls And therefore if you should have true Resolutions at the last which is too rare you cannot choose but be much in doubt of them when you find so much of fear upon your spirit and consider that you never would Resolve till then And therefore if you would have a Comfortable change Resolve now in your prosperity before the face of death affright you to it and those feares and the lateness do make you question the truth and soundness of it and so deprive you of the comfort which you have so much need of at a dying hour And thus I have given you twenty Considerations to perswade you if it may be presently to Resolve I am sure there is truth and reason and weight in them but what good they will do you I am not sure because I know not how you will receive them IV. And now I come to the last part of my task which is to Direct you how to perform the work that I have perswaded you to But because it is meerly the Determination of the Will it is presuasion that must do more to the work then Direction And therefore I shall only desire you to look back