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A26701 The way to true happiness in a serious treatise / by Joseph Alleine. Alleine, Joseph, 1634-1668.; R. A. (Richard Alleine), 1611-1681.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1678 (1678) Wing A982; ESTC R27085 136,618 250

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heart unto all that I shall testifie unto thee this day for it is not a vain thing it is your life Deut. 32. 4. 6. This is the end of all that hath been spoken hitherto to bring you to set upon turning and making use of Gods means for your Conversion I would not trouble you nor torment you before the time with the forethoughts of your eternal misery but in order to your making your escape Were you shut up under your present misery without remedy it were but mercy as one speaks to let you alone that you might take in that little poor comfort that you are capable of here in this world But you may yet be happy if you do not wilfully refuse the means of your recovery Behold I hold open the door unto you arise and take your flight I set the way of life before you walk in it and you shall live and not die Deut. 30. 19. Ier. 9. 16. It pities me to think you should be your own murderers and throw your selves headlong when God and men cry out to you as Peter in another case to his master Spare thy self A noble Virgin that attended the Court of Spain was wickedly ravished by the King and hereupon exciting the Duke her Father to revenge he called in the Moors to his help who when they had executed his design miserably wasted and spoiled the Country which this Virgin laying so exceedingly to heart shut her self up in a Tower belonging to her Fathers house and desired her Father and Mother might be called forth and bewailing to them her own wretchedness that she should have occasioned so much misery and desolation to her Country for the satisfying of her revenge she told them she was resolved to be avenged upon her self Her Father and Mother besought her to pity her self and them but nothing would prevail but she took her leave of them and threw her self off the battlements and so perished before their faces Just thus is the wilful destruction of ungodly men The God that made them beseecheth them and cryeth out to them as Paul to the distracted Jaylor when about to murder himself Do thy self no harm The Ministers of Christ forewarn them and follow them and fain would hold them back But alas No expostulations nor obtestations will prevail but men will hurl themselves into perdition while pity it self looketh on What shall I say Would it not grieve a person of any humanity if in the time of a reigning plague he should have a receipt as one well that would infallibly cure all the Countrey and recover the most hopeless patients and yet his friends and neighbours should die by the hundreds about him because they would not use it Men and Brethren though you carry the certain symptoms of death in your faces yet I have a receipt that will cure you all that will cure infallibly Follow but these few directions and if you do not then win Heaven I will be content to lose it Hear then Oh sinner and as ever thou wouldst be converted and saved embrace this following counsel Dir. I. Set it down with thy self as an undoubted truth that it is impossible for thee ever to get to Heaven in this thine unconverted state Can any other but Christ save thee And he tells thee he will never do it except thou be regenerated and converted Mat. 18. 3. Iohn 3. 3. Doth he not keep the keys of Heaven And canst thou get in without his leave as thou must if ever thou comest thither in thy natural condition without a sound and through renovation Dir. II. Labour to get a thorow sight and lively sense and feeling of thy sins Till men are weary and heavy laden and pricked at the heart and stark sick of sin they will not come to Christ in his way for ease and cure nor to purpose enquire What shall we do Mat. 11. 28. Acts 2. 37. Mat. 9. 12. They must set themselves down for dead men before they will come unto Christ that they may have life Iohn 5. 40. Labour therefore to set all thy sins in order before thee Never be afraid to look upon them but let thy spirit make diligent search Psal. 77. 6. Enquire into thine heart and into thy life Enter into a thorow examination of thy self and of all thy wayes Psal. 119. 59. that thou maist make a full discovery and call in the help of Gods spirit in the sense of thine own inability hereunto for it is his proper work to convince of sin Iohn 16. 8. Spread all before the face of thy conscience till thine heart and eyes be set abroach Leave not striving with God and thine own soul till it cry out under the sense of thy sins as the enlightned Jaylor What must I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. To this porpose Meditate of the numerousness of thy sins David's heart failed when he thought of this and considered that he had more sins than hairs Ps. 40. 12. This made him to cry out upon the multitudes of Gods tender-mercies Psal. 51. 1. The loathsom carcase doth not more hatefully swarm with crawling worms than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts They fill the head the heart the eyes and mouth of him Look backward where was ever the place what was ever the time in which thou didst not sin Look inward what part or power canst thou find in soul or body but it is poisoned with sin What duty dost thou ever perform into which this poyson is not shed Oh how great is the sum of thy debts who hast been all thy life long running upon the hooks and never didst nor canst pay off one penny Look over the sin of thy nature and all its cursed brood the sins of thy life Call to mind thy Omissions Commissions the sins of thy thoughts of thy words of thine actions the sins of thy youth the sins of thy years c. Be not like a desperate Bankrupt that is afraid to look over his books Read the records of conscience carefully These books must be opened sooner or later Rev. 20. 12. Meditate upon the aggravations of thy sin as they are the grand enemies against the God of thy life against the life of thy soul in a word they are the publick enemies of all mankind How do David Ezra Daniel and the good Levites aggravate their sins from the consideration of their injuriousness to God their opposition to his good and righteous Laws the mercies the warnings that they were committed against Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. Ezra 9. O the work that sin hath made in the world This is the enemy that hath brought in death that hath robbed and enslaved man that hath blacked the devil that hath digged hell Rom. 5. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Iohn 8. 34. This is the enemy that hath turned the creation upside down and sown dissension between man and the creatures between man and man yea between man and himself seting the sensitive part against the
are not pure in thy sight Iob 25. He humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven Psal. 113. Oh those light and sparkling eyes of his What do they espy in thee and thou hast no interest in Christ neither that he should plead for thee Methinks I should hear thee crying out astonished with the Bethshemites Who shall stand before this holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 20. Thirdly The power of God is mounted like a mighty Cannon against thee The glory of Gods power is to be displayed in the wonderful confusion and destruction of them that obey not the Gospel 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. He will make his power known in them Rom. 9. 22. How mightily he can torment them For this end he raiseth them up that he might make his power known Rom. 9. 17. O man art thou able to make thy party good with thy maker No more than a silly reed against the Cedars of God or a little cock-boat against the tumbling ocean or the childrens bubbles against the blustring winds Sinner the power of Gods anger is against thee Psal. 90. 11. and power and anger together make fearful work 'T were better thou hadst all the world in arms against thee than to have thee power of God against thee There is no escaping his hands no breaking his prison The thunder of his power who can understand Iob 26. 14. Unhappy man that shall understand it by feeling it If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Which removeth the Mountains and they know it not which overturneth them in his anger Which shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble Which commandeth the Sun and it riseth not and sealeth up the stars Behold he taketh away who can hinder him who will say unto him what dost thou If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers do stoop under him Job 9. 3 4 5 6. c. And art thou a fit match for such an antagonist Oh consider this you that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Ps. 50. 22. Submit to mercy Let not dust and stubble stand it out against the Almighty Set not briars and thorns against him in battel lest he go through them and consume them together but lay hold on his strength that you may make peace with him Esay 27. 4 5. We to him that striveth with his maker Esay 45. 9. Fourthly The wisdom of God is set to ruine thee He hath ordained his arrows and prepared the instruments of death and made all things ready Psal. 11. 12 13. His counsels are against thee to contrive thy destruction Ier. 18. 11. He laughs in himself to see how thou wilt be taken and ensnared in the evil day Ps. 37. 13. The Lord shall la●gh at him for he seeth that his day is coming He sees how thou wilt come down mightily in a moment how thou wilt wring t●●ne hands and tear thine hair and eat thy flesh and gnas● thy teeth for anguish and astonishment of heart when thou seest how thou art fallen remedilesly into the pit of destruction Fifthly The truth of God is sworn against thee Psal. 95. 11. If he be true and faithful thou must perish if thou goest on Luk. 13. 3. Unl●ss he be false of his word thou must die except thou repent Ezek. 33. 11. If we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. That is he is faithful to his threatnings as well as promises and will shew his faithfulness in our confusion if we believe not God hath told thee as plain as it can be spoken That if he wash thee not thou hast no part in him Iohn 13. 8. that if thou livest after the flesh thou shalt die Rom. 8. 13. That except thou be converted thou shalt in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 18. 3. and he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself Beloved as the immutable faithfulness of God in his promise and oath afford believers strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. so they are to unbelievers for strong consternation and co●fusion O sinner tell me what shift dost thou make to think of all the threatnings of Gods word that stand upon record against thee Dost thou believe their truth or not If not thou art a wretched in●idel and not a Christian and therefore give over the name and hopes of a Christian. But if thou dost believe them O heart of steel that thou hast that canst walk up and down in quiet when the truth and Faithfulness of God is engaged to destroy thee that if God Almighty can do it thou shalt surely perish and be damned Why man the whole book of God doth testifie against thee while thou remainest unsanctified it condemns thee in every leaf and is to thee like Ezekiel's roll written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe Ezek. 2. 10. and all this shall surely come upon thee and overtake thee Deut. 28. 15. except thou repent Heaven and earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of this word shall never pass away Mat. 5. 18. Now put all this together and tell me if the case of the Unconverted be not deplorably miserable As we read of some persons that had bound themselves in an oath and in a curse to kill Paul so thou must know O sinner to thy terror that all the attributes of the infinite God are bound in an oath to destroy thee Heb. 3. 18. O man what wilt thou do whither wilt thou fly If Gods omnisciency can find thee thou shalt not escape If the true and faithful God will save his oath perish thou must except thou believe and repent If the Almighty hath power to torment thee thou shalt be perfectly miserable in soul and body to all eternity unless it be prevented by thy speedy Conversion II. The whole creation of God is against thee The whole creation saith Paul groaneth and travelleth in pain Rom. 8. 22. But what is it that the creation groaneth under why the fearful abuse that it is subject to in serving the lusts of unsanctified men And what is it that the creation groaneth for why for freedom and liberty from this abuse for the creature is very unwillingly subject to this bondage Rom. 8. 19 20 21. If the unreasonable and inanimate creatures had speech and reason they would cry out under it as bondage unsufferable to be abused by the ungodly contrary to their natures and the ends that the great Creatour made them for It is a passage of an eminent Divine The liquor that the drunkard drinketh if it had reason as well as a man to know how shamefully 't is abused and spoiled it would groan in the barrels against him it would groan in the Cup against him it would groan in his throat