sanctifie you by his Spirit and you resist and quench it If any man reprove you for your sin you fly in his face with evil words and if he would draw you to an holy life and tell you of your present danger you give him little thanks but either bid him look to himself he shall not answer for you or else at best you put him off with an heartless thanks and will not Turn when you are perswaded If Ministers would privately instruct and help you you will not come at them your unhumbled souls do feel but little need of their help If they would Catechize you you are too old to be Catechised though you are not too old to be ignorant and unholy Whatever they can say to you for your good you are so self-conceited and wise in your own eyes even in the depth of ignorance that you will regard nothing that agreeth not with your present conceits but contradict your Teachers as if you were wiser then they you resist all that they can say to you by your ignorance and wilfulness and foolish Cavils and shifting evasions and unthankfull rejections so that no good that is offered can find any welcome acceptance and entertainment with you 4. Moreover its apparent that you are self-destroyers in that you draw the matter of your sin and destruction even from the blessed God himself You like not the contrivances of his Wisdom You like not his Justice but take it for cruelty You like not his Holiness but are ready to think he is such a one as your selves Psal. 50.21 and makes as light of sin as you You like not his Truth but would have his Threanings even his peremptory Threatnings prove false And his goodness which you seem most highly to approve you partly resist as it would lead you to repentance and partly abuse to the strengthning of you sin as if you might the freelyer sin because God is Merciful and because his Grace doth so much abound Yea you fetch destruction from â—he blessed Redeemer and Death from the Lord of life himself And nothing more emboldneth you in sin then that Christ hath died for you as if now the danger of death were over and you might boldly venture As if Christ were become a servant to Satan and your sins and must wait upon you while you are abusing him and because he is become the Physitian of souls and he is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him you think he must suffer you to refuse his help and throw away his Medicines and must save you whether you will come to God by him or no so that a great part of your sins are occasioned by your bold presumption upon the death of Christ. Not considering that he came to redeem his people from their sins and to sanctifie them a peculiar people to himself and to conform them in Holiness to the image of their heavenly Father and to their head Mat. 1.21 Tit. 2.14 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Col. 3.10 11. Phil. 3.9 10. 6. You also fetch your own destruction from all the providences and works of God When you think of his eternal fore-knowledge and Decrees it is to harden you in your sin or possess your minds with quarrelling thoughts as if his Decrees might spare you the labour of repentance and an holy life or else were the cause of your sin and death If he afflict you you repine If he prosper you you the more forget him and are the backwarder to the thoughts of the life to come If the wicked prosper you forget the end that will set all reckonings strait and are ready to think it s as good be wicked as godly And thus you draw your death from all 7. And the like you do from all the Creatures and mercies of God to you He giveth them to you as the tokens of his love and furniture for his service and you turn them against him to the pleasing of your flesh You eat and drink to please your appetite and not for the glory of God and to enable you for his work Your cloathes you abuse to pride Your Riches draw your hearts from heaven Phil. 3.18 Your honours and applause do puff you up If you have health and strength it makes you more secure and forget your end Yea other mens mercies are abused by you to your hurt If you see their honours and dignity you are provoked to envy them If you see their riches you are ready to covet them If you look upon beauty you are stirred up to lust and it s well if godliness be not an eye-fore to you 8. The very gifts that God bestoweth on you and the Ordinances of grace which he hath instituted for his Church you turn to sin If you have better parts then others you grow proud and self-conceited if you have but common gifts you take them for special Grace You take the bare hearing of your duty for so good a work as if it would excuse you for not obeying it Your Prayers are turned into sin because you regard iniquity in your hearts Psalm 66.18 and depart not from iniquity when you call on the name of the Lord 2 Tim. 2.19 Your prayers are abominable because you turn away your ear from hearing the Law Prov. 28.9 And are more ready to offer the Sacrifice of fools thinking you do God some special service then to hear his word and obey it Eccles. 5.1 You examine not your selves before you receive the Supper of the Lord but not discerning the Lords body do eat and drink judgement to your selves 1 Cor. 11.28 29. 9. Yea the persons that you converse with and all their actions you make the occasions of your sin and destruction If they live in the fear of God you hate them If they live ungodlily you imitate them if the wicked are many you think you may the more boldly follow them if the godly be few you are the more emboldened to despise them If they walk exactly you think they are too precise if one of them fall in a particular temptation you stumble upon them and turn away from holiness because that others are imperfectly holy as if you were warranted to break your necks because some others have by their heedlesness sprained a sinnew or put out a bone If an hypocrite discover himself you say They are all alike and think your selves as honest as the best A Professor can scarce slip into any miscarriage but because he cuts his finger you think you may boldly cut your throats If ministers deal plainly with you you say they rail If they speak gently or coldly you eiâ—her sleep under them or are little more affected then the seats you sit upon If any errours creep into the Church some greedily entertain them and others reproach the Christian Doctrine for them which is most against them And if we would draw you from any ancient rooted errour which can but plead two or three
whom thou didst despise in thy presumption How easily can he lay that flesh under gripes and groans and make it too weak to hold thy soul and make it more loathsom then the dung of the earth That flesh which now must have what it loves and must not be displeased though God be displeased but must be humoured in meats and drink and cloaths whatever God say to the contrary how quickly would the frowns of God consume it When thou wast passionately defending thy sin and quarrelling with them that would have drawn thee from it and shewing thy spleen against the reprover and pleading for the works of darkness how easily could God have snatcht thee away in a moment and set thee before his dreadful Majesty where thou shouldst see ten thousand times ten thousand of glorious Angels waiting on his throne and have called thee there to plead thy cause and asked thee What hast thou now to say against thy Creator his Truth his Servants or his holy waies Now plead thy cause and make the best of it that thou canst Now what canst thou say in excuse of thy sin Now give account of thy worldliness and fleshly life of thy time of all the mercies thou hast had O how thy stubborn heart would have melted and thy proud looks be taken down and thy countenance be appaled and thy stout words turned into speechless silence or dreadful cries if God had but set thee thus at his Bar and pleaded his own cause with thee which thou hast here so maliciously pleaded against How easily can he at any time say to thy guilty soul Come away and live in that flesh no more till the resurrection and it cannot resist A word of his mouth would take off the poise of thy present life and then all thy parts and powers would stand still and if he say unto thee Live no longer or live in Hell thou couldst not disobey But God hath yet done none of this but hath patiently forborn thee and mercifully upheld thee and given thee that breath which thou didst breath out against him and given those Mercies which thou didst sacrifice to thy flesh and afforded thee that provision which thou spentest to satisfie thy greedy throat he gave thee every minute of that time which thou didst waste in idleness or drunkenness or worldliness and doth not all this Patience and Mercy shew that he desired not thy damnation Can the candle burn without the oyl Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them As well as you can live an hour without the support of God And why did he so long support thy life but to see when thou wouldst bethink thee of the folly of thy waies and return and live Will any man purposely put arms into his enemies hands to resist him or hold the Candle to a Murderer that is killing his children or to an idle servant that Plaies or sleeps the while Surely it is to see whether thou wilt at last Return and Live that God hath so long waited on thee 5. It is further proved by the sufferings of his Son that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked would he have ransomed them from death at so dear a rate Would he have astonished Angels and men by his condescension Would God have dwelt in flesh and have come in the form of a servant and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead and would Christ have lived a life of suffering and dyed a cursed death for sinners if he had rather taken pleasure in their death Suppose you saw him but so busie in preaching and healing them as you find him in Mark 3.21 or so long in fasting as in Mat. 4. or all night in prayer as in Luk. 6.12 or praying with thâ— drops of blood trickling from him instead of sweat as Luke 22.44 or suffering a cursed death upon the Cross and pouring out his soul as a sacrifice for our sins Would you have thought these the signs of one that delighted in the death of the wicked And think not to extenuate it by saying that this was only for his Elect. For it was thy sin and the sin of all the world that lay upon our Redeemer and his sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as another but it is true that it was never the intent of his mind to pardon and save any that would not by faith and repentance be Converted If you had seen and heard him weeping and bemoaning the state of a disobedient impenitent people Luke 19.41 42. or complaining of their stubborness as Mat. 23.37 Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy chilâ—ren together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Or if you had seen and heard him on the Cross praying for his persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do would you have suspected that he had delighted in the death of the wicked even of those that perish by their wilfull unbelief When God hath so loved not only loved but so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him by an effectual faith should not perish but have everlasting life I think he hath hereby proved against the malice of men and devils that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but had rather that they would Turn and Live 6. Lastly if all this will not yet satisfie you take his own word that knoweth best his own mind or at least believe his oath but this leadeth me up to the fourth Doctrine Doct. 4. THE Lord hath confirmed it to us by his Oath that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he Turn and Live that he may leave man no pretence to question the truth of it If you dare question his word I hope you dare not question his oath As Christ hath solemnly protested that the unregenerate and Unconverted cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 Iohn 3.3 So God hath sworn that his pleasure is not in their death but in their Conversion and Life And as the Apostle saith Heb. 6.13 16 17 18. Because he can swear by no greater then himself he saith As I live c. For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of Promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by on oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us which we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast If there be any man that cannot reconcile this truth with the Doctrine of Predestination or the actual damnation of the wicked that 's his own ignorance he
say they are all mine If upon the curse you may say From this I am delivered When you read the Law you may see what you are saved from when you read the Gospel you may see him that Redeemed you and see the course of his Love and holy Life and sufferings and trace him in his temptations tears and blood in the work of your salvation You may see death conquered and Heaven opened and your Resurrection and Glorification provided for in the Resurrection and Glorification of your Lord. If you look on the Saints you may say They are my Brethren and Companions If on the unsanctified you may rejoyce to think that you are saved from that state If you look upon the heavens the Sun and Moon and Stars innumerable you may think and say My Fathers face is infinitely more glorious It s higher matters that he hath prepared for his Saints Yonder is but the outward Court of Heaven The blessedness that he hath promised me is so much higher that flesh and blood cannot behold it If you think of the grave you may remember that the Glorified Spirit a Living Head and a Loving Father have all so near Relation to your dust that it cannot be forgotten or neglected but will more certainly revive then the plants and flowers in the spring because that the soul is still alive that is the Root of the Body and Christ is alive that is the Root of both Even death which is the King of fears may be remembred and entertained with joy as being the day of your deliverance from the remnants of sin and sorrow and the day which you believed and hoped and waâ—ted for when you shall see the blessed things which you had heard of and shall find by present joyful experience what it was to choose the better part and to be a sincere believing Saint What say you sirs is not this a more delightfull life to be assured of Salvation and ready to die then to live as the ungodly that have their hearts overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day comes upon them unawares Luke 21.34 â—6 Might you not live a comfortable life if once you were made the Heirs of Heaven and sure to be saved when you leave the world O look about you then and think what you do and cast not away such hopes as these for very nothing The flesh and world can give you no such Hopes or Comforts And besides all the misery that you bring upon your selves you are the troublers of others as long as you are Vnconverted You trouble Magistrates to rule you by their Laws You trouble Ministers by resisting the light and guidance which they offer you Your sin and misery is the greatest grief and trouble to them in the world You trouble the Common-wealth and draw the Iudgements of God upon us It s you that most disturb the holy peace and order of the Churches and hinder our Vnion and Reformation and are the shame and trouble of the Churches where you intrude and of the places where you are Ah Lord How heavy and sad a case is this that even in England where the Gospel doth abound above any other Nation in the world where Teaching is so plain and common and all the helps we can desire are at hand when the sword hath been hewing us and Iudgement hath run as a fire through the Land when deliverances have relieved us and so many admirable mercies have engaged us to God and to the Gospel and an holy life that yet after all this our Cities and Towns and Countries should abound with multitudes of unsanctified men and swarm with so much sensuality as everywhere to our grief we see One would have thought that after all this Light and all this experience and all these Iudgements and Mercies of God the people of this Nation should have joyned together as one man to Turn to the Lord and should have come to their godly Teachers and lamented all their former sin and desired him to joyn with them in publike Humiliation to confess them openly and beg pardon of them from the Lord and should have craved his Instruction for the time to come and be glad to be Ruled by the Spirit within and the Ministers of Christ without according to the Word of God One would think that after such Reason and Scripture evidence as they hear and after all these means and mercies there should not be an ungodly persoâ— lest among us nor a worldling oâ— a drunkard or a hater of Reformation or an enemy to holiness be found in all our Towns or Countreys If we be not all agreed about some Ceremoâ—ies or Forms of Government one would think that before this We should have been all agreed to live a holy and heavenly lâ—fe in obedience to God his word and Ministers and in Love and Peace with one another But alas how far are our people from this course most of them in most places do set their hearts on earthly things and seek not first the Kingdom of God and the righteouâ—neâ—s hereof but look at holinesâ— as a needless thing Their Families are prayerless or else a few heaâ—tlâ—ss lâ—feless words must serve instead of hearty fervent daily prayers their children are not taught the knowledge of Christ and the Covenant of Grace nor brought up in the nurture of the Lord though they faâ—sly promised all this in their Baptism They instruct not their servants in the matters of salvation but so their work be done they care not There are more oaths and â—nâ—ses and ribbald or railing speeches in their families then gracious words that tend to edification How few are the Families that fear the Lord and enquire at his Word and Ministers how they should live and what they should do and are willing to be taught and ruled and that heartily look after everlasting Life And those few that God hath made so happy are commonly the by-word of their neighbours when we see some live in drunkenness and some in pride and worldliness and most of them have little care of their salvation though the cause be gross and past all controversie yet will they hardly be convinced of their misery and more hardly recovered and reformed But when we have done all that we are able to save them from their sins we leave the most of them as we find them And if according to the Law of God we cast them out of the Communion of the Church when they have obstinately rejected all our admonitions they rage at us as if we were their enemies and their hearts are filled with malice against us and they will sooner set themselves against the Lord and his Laws and Church and Ministers then against their deadly siâ—s This is the dolefull case of England We have Magistrates that countenance the ways of Godliness and a happy opportunity for Vnity and Reformation is before us and faithfull Ministers long to
but Turn that is unfeignedly and throughly Turn p. 70. Proved p. 77. Doct. 3. God taketh pleasure in mens Conversion and salvation but not 〈◊〉 their death or damnation He had rather they would Turn and Live then go on and Die p 85. Expounded to p. 93. Proved p. 93. to p. 103. Doct. 4. The Lord hath confirmed it to us by his Oath that he hath no Pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he Turn and Live that he may leave man no pretence to doubt of it p. 103. Vse Who is it then that takes pleasure in mens sin and death Not God nor Ministers nor any good men p. 106. Doct. 5. So earnest is God for the Conversion of sinners that he doubleth his commands and exhortations with vehemency Turn ye Turn ye Applyed p. 120. Some Motives to obey Gods Call and Turn p. 126. Doct. 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason the case with Unconverted sinners and to ask them Why they will die p. 152. A strange Disputation 1. For the Question 2. The Disputants Wicked men will die or destroy themselves p. 154. Vse The sinners cause is certainly unreasonable p. 163. Their seeming Reasons confuted p. 175 Qu. Why are men so unreasonable and loth to Turn and will destroy themselves p. 200. answered Doct. 7. If after all this men will not turn it is not long of God that they are condemned but of themselves even of their own wilfulness They die because they will die that is because they will not turn p. 209. Vse 1. How unfit the wicked are to charge God with their Damnation It is not because God is unmerciful but because they are cruel and merciless to themselves p. 225. Obj. We cannot convert our selves nor have we Free-will Answered p. 235. and in the Preface Vse 2. The subtilty of Satan the deceitfulness of sin and the folly of sinners manifested p. 238 Vse 3. No wonder if the wicked would hinder the Conversion and Salvation of others p. 240. Vse 4. Man is the greatest enemy to himself p. 241. Mans destruction is of himself proved p. 242. The hainous aggravations of self-destroying p. 257. The concluding Exhortation p. 263. Ten Directions for those that had rather Turn then Die p. 273. to the end These Books following of the same Authors are also Printed for Nevil Simmons Book-selseller in Kederminster TRue Christianity or Christs Absolute dominion and mans necessary self-resignation and Subjection in two Assize Sermons preacht at Worcester in 12o. A Sermon of Judgement preached at Pauls before the Honorable Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London Decem. 17. 1654. and now enlarged in 12o. Making light of Christ and Salvation â—oo oft the Issue of Gospel Invitations manifest in a Sermon preached at Law-â—eace Iury in London 8o. The Agreement of divers Ministers of Christ in the County of Worcester for Catechizing or personal Instructing all in their several Parishes that will Consent thereunto containing 1. The Articles of our Agreement 2. An Exhortation to the people to submit to this necessary work 3. The Profession of Faith and Catechism in 8o. Guildas Salvianus the Reformed Pastor shewing the nature of the Pastoral work especially in private instruction and Catechizing in 8o. Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments and the True Nature of Visible Christianity 4o. Of Justification four Disputationâ— clearing and amicably defending the Truth against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren 4o. A Treatise of Conversion preached and now published for the use of those that are strangers to a true Conversion especially the grosly Ignorant and Ungodly 4 One sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts A Winding-sheet for Popery One sheet against the Quakers A second sheet for the Ministry Justifying our Calling against Quakers Seekers and Papists and all that deny us to be the Ministers of Christ. Directions to Justices of Peace especially in Corporations to the discharge of their duty to God written at the request of a Magistrate and Published for the use of others that need it The Crucifying of the world by the Cross of Christ With a Preface to the Nobles Gentlemen and all the Rich erecting them how they may be Richer A CALL TO THE Unconverted Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O' house of Israel IT hath been the astonishing wonder of many a man as well as me to read in the holy Scrippture how few will be saved and that the greatest part even of those that are called will be everlastingly shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven and be tormented with the Devils in Eternal fire Infidels believe not this when they read it and therefore must feel it Those that do believe it are forced to cry out with Paul Rom. 11.33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Iudgements and his waies past finding out But nature it self doth teach us all to lay the blame of evil works upon the doers and therefore when we see any hainous thing done a principle of justice doth provoke us to enquire after him that did it that the evil of the work may return the evil of shame upon the author If we saw a man killed and cut in pieces by the way we would presently ask Oh who did this cruel deed If the town were wilfully set on fire you would ask What wicked wretch did this So when we read that the most will be firebrands of hell for ever we must needs think with our selves How comes this to pass and who is it long of Who is it that is so cruel as to be the cause of such a thing as this And we can meet with few that will own the guilt It is indeed confest by all that Satan is the cause but that doth not resolve the doubt because he is not the principal cause He doth not force men to sin but tempt them to it and leave it to their own wills whether they will do it or not He doth not carry men to an Ale-house and force open their mouths and pour in the drink nor doth he hold them that they cannot go to Gods service nor doth he force their hearts from holy thoughts It lieth therefore between God himself and the sinner One of them must needs be the principall cause of all this misery which ever it is For there is no other to cast it upon And God disclaimeth it He will not take it upon him And the wicked disclaim it usually and they will not take it upon them And this is the Controversie that is here managing in my text The Lord complaineth of the people and the people think it is long of God The same controversie is handled Chap. 18. where Verse
they would not refuse thee let the world say what they would against it And are all these ready to receive thee and yet art thou not ready to come in Yea Heaven it self is Ready the Lord will receive thee into the glory of his Saints as vile a beast as thou hast been if thou wilt but be cleansed thou maist have a place before his throne his Angels will be ready to guard thy soul to the place of Joy if thou do but unfeignedly come in And is God ready the Sacrifice of Christ Ready the Promise Ready and Pardon Ready are Ministers Ready and the People of God Ready and Heaven it self Ready and Angels Ready and all these but waiting for thy Conversion and yet art thou not Ready What not Ready to live when thou hast been dead so long not Ready to come to thy right understanding as the Prodigal is said to come to himself Luke 15.17 when thou hast been besides thy self so long Not ready to be saved when thou art even ready to be condemned Art thou not ready to lay hold on Christ that would deliver thee when thou art even ready to drown and sink into damnation Art thou not ready to be saved from Hell when thou art even ready to be cast remedilesly into it Alas man dost thou know what thou dost if thou die unconverted there is no doubt to be made of thy damnation and thou art not sure to live an hour And yet art thou not ready to turn and to come in O miserable wretch hast thou not served the flesh and the Devil long enough Yet hast thou not had enough of sin Is it so good to thee or so profitable for thee Dost thou know what it is that thou wouldst yet have more of it Hast thou had so many calls and so many mercies and so many blows and so many examples hast thou seen so many laid in the grave and yet art thou not ready to let go thy sins and come to Christ What! after so many convictions and gripes of Conscience after so many purposes and promises art thou not yet ready to turn and live Oh that thy eyes thy heart were opened to know how fair an offer is now made to thee and what a Joyful message it is that we are sent on to bid thee come for all things are ready 2. Consider also what Calls thou hast to Turn and Live How many how loud how earnest how dreadful and yet what encourageing joyful Calls For the principal Inviter it is God himself He that commandeth Heaven and Earth commandeth thee to turn and presently without delay to turn He commands the Sun to run its course and to rise upon thee every morning and though it be so glorious a creature and many times bigger then all the earth yet it obeyeth him and faileth not one minute of its appointed time He commandeth all the planets and the orbs of Heaven and they obey He commandeth the Sea to ebb and flow and the whole Creation to keep its course and all obey him The Angels of heaven obey his will when he sends them to Minister to such silly worms as we on earth Hebrews 1.14 And yet if he command but a sinner to Turn He will not obey him He only thinks himself wiser then God and He cavils and pleads the cause of sin and will not away If the Lord Almighty say the word the Heavens and all therein obey him but if he call but a drunkard out of an Ale-house he will not obey or if he call a worldly fleshly sinner to deny himself and mortifie the flesh and set his heart on a better inheritance he will not obey If thou hadst any love in thee thou wouldst know the voice and say Oh this is my Fathers Call how can I find in my heart to disobey For the sheep of Christ do know and hear his voice and they follow him and he giveth them eternal life Iohn 10.4 If thou hadst any spiritual life and sense in thee at least thou wouldst say this Call is the dreadful voice of God and who dare disobey For saith the Prophet Amos 3.8 The Lyon hath roared who will not fear God is not as man that thou shouldst dally and play with him Remember what he said to Paul at his Conversion It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Act. 9.5 Wilt thou yet go on and despise his word and resist his Spirit and stop thine ear against his Call Who is it that will have the worst of this Dost thou know whom thou disobeyest and contendest with and what thou art doing It were a far wiser and easier task for thee to contend with the thorns and spurn them with thy bare feet and beat them with thy bare hands or put thy head into the burning fire Be not deceived God will not be mocked Galat. 6.7 Whoever else be mocked God will not you were better play with the fire in your thatch then with the fire of his burning wrath For our God is a consuming fire Hebrews 12.29 O how unmeet a match art thou for God! It is a fearful thing to fall into his hands Hebrews 10.31 and therefore it is a fearful thing to contend with him or resist him As you love your souls take heed what you do What will you say if he begin in wrath to plead with you What will you do if he take you once in hand Will you then strive against his Judgement as now you do against his grace faith the Lord Isa. 27.4 5. Fury is not in me that is I delight not to destroy you I do it as it were unwillingly but yet who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battle I would go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shâ—ll make peace with me It s an unequal combat for the bryars and stubble to make war with the fire As thus you see Who it is that calleth you that should move you to hear his Call and Turn so consider also by what instruments and how often how earnestly he doth it 1. Every leâ—f of the blessed Book of God hath as it were a voice and calls out unto thee Turn and live Turn or thou wilt die How canst thou open it and read a leaf or hear a Chapter and not perceive God bids thee Turn It is the voice of every Sermon that thou hearest For what else is the scope and drift of all but to call and perswade and intreat thee for to Turn 3. It is the voice of many a motion of the Spirit that secretly speaks over these words again and urgeth thee to Turn 4. It is likely sometime it is the voice of thy own Conscience Art thou not sometime convinced that all is not well with thee and doth not conscience tell thee that thou must be a new man and take a new course and often call upon
Worldlings they are and Worldlings they will be though God hath told them that the Love of the world is enmity to God and that if any man love the world in that measure the love of the Father is not in him James 4.4 1 John 2.15 so that consequentially these men are willing to be damned though not directly They are willing of the way to Hell and Love the certain cause of their torment though they be not willing of Hell it self and do not love the pain which they must endure Is not this the Truth of your case Sirs You would not burn in Hell But you will kindle the fire by your sin and cast your selves into it you would not be tormented with Devils for ever But you will do that which will certainly procure it in despite of all that can be said against it It is just as if you would say I will drink this rats-bane or other poison but yet I will not die I will cast my self headlong from the top of a steeple but yet I will not kill my self I will thrust this knife into my heart but yet I will not take away my life I will put this fire into the thatch of my house but yet I will not burn it Just so it is with wicked men they will be wicked and they will live after the flesh and the world and yet they would not be damned But do you not know that the means do lead unto the end and that God hath by his righteous Law concluded that you must repent or perish He that will take poyson may as well say plainly I will kill my self for it will prove no better in the end Though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the Sugar that was mixt with it and would not be perswaded that it was poyson but that he might take it and do well enough But it is not his conceits and confidence that will save his life So if you will be Drunkards or Fornicators or worldlings or live after the flesh you may as well say plainly we will be damned For so you shall be unless you Turn would you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer that would say I will steall and kill but I will not be hanged when he knows that if he do the one the Judge in justice will see that the other be done If he say I will steal and murder he may as well say plainly I will be hanged So if you will go on in a carnal life you may as well say plainly we will go to Hell 2. Moreover The wicked will not use those means without which there is no hope of their Salvation He that will not eat may as well say plainly he will not live unless he can tell how to live without meat He that will not go his journey may as well say plainly he will not come to the end He that falls into the water and will not come out nor suffer another to help him out may as well say plainly he will be drowned So if you be carnal and ungodly and will not be converted nor use the means by which you should be converted but think it more ado then needs you may as well say plainly you will be damned For if you have found out a way to be saved without Conversion you have done that which never was done before 3. Yea this is not all but the wicked are unwilling even of salvation it self Though they may desire somewhat which they call by the name of Heaven yet Heaven it self considered in the true nature of the felicity they desire not Yea their hearts are quite against it Heaven is a state of perfect holiness and of continual Love and Praise to God And the wicked have no heart to this The imperfect Love and Praise and holiness which is here to be attained they have no mind of Much less of that which is so much greater The joyes of Heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot truly desire them So that by this time you may see on what ground it is that God supposeth that the wicked are willing of their own destruction They will not turn though they must Turn or die they will rather venture on certain misery then be converted and then to quiet themselves in their sin they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape 2. And as the Controversie is matter of wonder that ever men should be such enemies to themselves as wilfully to cast away their souls so are the Disputants too That God should stoop so low as thus to plead the case with man and that man should be so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all this in so plain a case yea and to resist all this when their own salvation lieth upon the issue No wonder if they will not hear us that are men when they will not hear the Lord himself As God saith Ezek. 3.7 when he sent the Prophet to the Israelites The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee For they will not hearken unto me For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted No wonder if they can plead against a Minister or a godly Neighbour when they will plead against the Lord himself even against the plainest passages of his word and think that they have Reason on their side When they weary the Lord with their words they say wherein have we wearied him Mal. 2.17 The Priests that despised his name durst ask Wherein have we despised thy name And when they polluted his Altar and made the Table of the Lord contempâ—ible they durst say Wherein have we polluted thee Mal. 1.6 7. But Wo unto him saith the Lord that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsheards strive with the Potsheards of the earth Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Isa. 45.9 Quest. But why is it that God will reason the Cause with man Answ. 1. Because that man being a reasonable creature is accordingly to be dealt with and by Reason to be perswaded and overcome God hath therefore endued them with Reason that they might use it for him One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and greatest Reason in the world when it is set before him 2. At least men shall see that God did require nothing of them that was unreasonable but that whatever he commandeth them and whatever he forbiddeth them he hath all the right Reason in the world on his side and they have good Reason to obey him but none to disobey And thus even the damned shall be forced to justifie God and confess that it was but Reason that they should have turned to him and they shall be forced to condemn themselves and confess that they had little reason to cast away themselves by the neglecting of his Grace in the day of their visitation Vse LOOK up your best and strongest Reasons
to come All this and more then this have you been told and told again even till you were a weary of hearing it and till you could make the lighter of it because you had so often heard it like the Smiths dog that is brought by custom to sleep under the noise of the hammers and when the sparks do fly about his ears and though all this have not converted you yet you are alive and might have mercy to this day if you had but hearts to entertain it And now let Reason it self be Judge whether it be long of God or you if after all this you be unconverted and be damned If you die now it is because you will die What should be said more to you Or what course should be taken that is liker to prevail Are you able to say and make it good We would fain have been converted and become new creatures but we would not we would fain have forsaken our sins but could not we would have changed our company and our thoughts and our discourse but we could not Why could you not if you would What hindered you but the wickedness of your hearts Who forced you to sin or who did hold you back from Duty Had not you the same teaching and time and liberty to be godly as your godly neighbours had Why then could not you have been godly as well as they Were the Church-doors shut against you or did you not keep away your selves or fit and sleep or hear as if you did not hear Did God put in any exceptions against you in his word when he invited sinners to return and when he promised mercy to those that do return Did he say I will pardon all that repent except thee Did he shut you out from the liberty of his holy worship Did he forbid you to pray to him any more then others You know he did not God did not drive you away from him but you forsook him and run away your selves And when he called you to him you would not come If God had excepted you out of the general promise and offer of mercy or had said to you Stand off I will have nothing to do with such as you Pray not to me for I will not hear you If you repent never so much and cry for mercy never so much I will not regard you If God had left you nothing to trust to but desperation then you had had a fair excuse You migh have said To what end should I repent and turn when it will do no good But this was not your case You might have had Christ to be your Lord and Saviour your Head and Husband as well as others and you would not because you felt not your selves sick enough for the Physitian and because you could not spare your disease In your hearts you said as those rebels Luke 19.14 We will not have this man to reign over us Christ would have gathered you under the wings of his salvation and you would not Mat. 23.37 What desires of your wel-fare did the Lord express in his holy word With what compassion did he stand over you and say O that my people had hearkened unto me and that they had walked in my waies Psal. 81.13 O that there were such a heart in this people that they would fear me and keep all my commandments alwaies that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Deut. 5.20 O that they were wise that they understood this and that they would consider their latter end Deut. 32.29 He would have been your God and done all for you that your souls could well desire but you loved the world and your flesh above him and therefore you would not hearken to him though you complemented with him and gave him high titles yet when it came to the closing you would have none of him Psal. 81.11 12. No marvel then if he gave you up to your own hearts lusts and you walked in your own counsels He condescended to reason and plead the case with you and ask you What is there in me or my service that you should be so much against me What harm have I done thee sinner Have I deserved this unkind dealing at thy hand Many mercies have I shewed thee for which of them dost thou thus despise me Is it I or is it Satan that is thy enemy Is it I or is it thy carnal self that would undo thee Is it an holy life or a life of sin that thou hast cause to fly from If thou be undone thou procurest this to thy self by forsaking me the Lord that would have saved thee Jer. 2.17 Doth not thy own wickedness correct thee and thy sin reprove thee that thou maist see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken me Jer. 2.19 What iniquity have you found in me that you have followed after vanity and forsaken me Ier. 2.5 6. He calleth out as it were to the bruits to hear the controversie he hath against youâ— Mic. 2.3 4 5 Hear O ye mountains the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a Controversie with his people and he will plead with Israel O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me for I brought thee up out of Egypt and redeemed thee c. Hear O heavens and give ear O earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crâ—b but Israel doth not knâ—w my people doth not consider Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a Seed of evil doers c. Isaiah 1.2 3 4. Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee Deut. 32.6 When he saw that you forsook him even for nothing and turned away from your Lord and Life to hunt after the chaffe and feathers of the world he told you of your folly and called you to a more profitable employment Isa. 55.1 2 3. Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Enclinâ— your 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 unto me hear and yoâ—◠〈◊〉 shall live and I will make an â—verlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon ver 6 7. And so Isa. 1.16 17 18. And when you would not hear what complaints have you put him to charging it on you as your
everlasting fire And yet they will have no mercy upon themselves And yet will these shameless wretches say that God is more merciful then to condemn them when it is themselves that cruelly and unmercifully run upon Condemnation and if we should go to them with our hats in our hands and intreate them we cannot stop them If we should fall down on our knees to them we cannot stop them but to Hell they will and yet will not believe that they are going thither If we beg of them for the sake of God that made them and preserveth them for the sake of Christ that dyed for them for the sake of their own poor souls to pitty themselves and go no further in the way to Hell but come to Christ while his arms are open and enter into a state of life while the door stands open and now take mercy while mercy may be had they will not be perswaded If we should die for it we cannot get them so much as now and then to consider with themselves of the matter and to Turn And yet they can say I hope God will be merciful Did you ever consider what he saith Isa. 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he hath formed them will show them no favour If another man will not cloath you when you are naked and feed you when you are hungry you will say he is unmerciful If he should cast you into prison or beat and torment you you would say he is unmerciful And yet you will do a thousand times more against your selves even cast away both soul and body for ever and never complain of your own unmercifulness Yea and God that waited upon you all the while with his mercy must be taken to be unmerciful if he punish you after all this Unless the holy God of Heaven will give these wretches leave to trample upon his Sons blood and with the Jews as it were again to spit in his face and do despight to the Spirit of grace and make a jest of sin and a mock at holiness and set more light by saving mercy then by the filth of their fleshly pleasures and unless after all this he will save them by the mercy which they cast away and would none of God himself must be called unmerciful by them But he will be justified when he Judgeth and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm I know there are many particular cavils that are brought by them against the Lord but I shall not here stay to answer them particularly having done it already in in my Treatise of Iudgement to which I shall refer them Had the disputing part of the world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction as they have been busie in searching after the cause of them and forward indirectly to impute it to God they might have exercised their wits more profitably and have less wronged God and sped better themselves When so ugly a monster as sin is within us and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us and so dreadful a thing as Hell is before us one would think it should be an easie question who is in the fault and whether God or man be the principal or culpable cause Some men are such favourable Judges of themselves that they are proner to accuse the Infinite Perfection and Goodness it self then their own hearts and imitate their first parents that said The Serpent tempted me and the woman that thou gavest me gave unto me and I did eat secretly implying that God was the cause So say they The understanding that thou gavest me was unable to discern the will that thou gavest me was unable to make a better choice the objects which thou diast set before me did entice me the temptation which thou didst permit to assault me prevailed against me And some are so loth to think that God can make a self-determining creature that they dare not deny him that which they take to be his prerogative to be the determiner of the will in every sin as the first efficient immediate physical cause And many could be content to acquit God from so much causing of evil if they could but reconcile it with his being the chief cause of good as if truths must be no longer truths then we are able to see them in their perfect order and coherence because our râ—velled wits cannot set them right together nor assign each truth its proper place we presume to conclude that some must be cast away This is the fruit of proud self-conceitedness when men receive not Gods truths as a child his lesson in an holy submission to the omniscience of our Teacher but as Censurers that are too wise to learn Object But we cannot Convert our selves till God Convert us we can do nothing without his grace It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy Answ. 1. God hath two degrees of mercy to shew the mercy of Conversion first and the mercy of Salvation list the latter he will give to none but those that will and run and hath promised it to them only The former is to make them willing that were unwilling and though your own willing and endeavours deserve not this grace yet your wilfull refusal deserveth that it should be denyed to you Your disabily is your very unwillingness it self which excuseth not your sin but maketh it the greater You could Turn if you were but truly willing and if your wills themselves are so corrupted that nothing but effectual grace will move them you have the more cause to seek for that grace and yield to it and do what you can in the use of means and not neglect it or set against it Do what you are able first and then complain of God for denying you grace if you have cause Object But you seem to intimate all this while that man hath free will Answer The dispute about free-will is beyond your capacity I shall therefore now trouble you with no more but this about it Your will is naturally a free that is a self-determining faculty but it is vitiously inclined and backward to good and therefore we see by sad experience that it hath not a vertuous moral freedom But that is the wickedness of it which deserveth the punishment And I pray you let us not befool our selves with opinions Let the case be your own If you have an enemy so malicious that he falls upon you and beats you every time he meets you and takes away the lives of your children will you excuse him because he saith I have not free will it is my nature I cannot choose unless God give me grace If you have a servant that robbeth you will you take such an answer from him Might not every Thief and Murderer that is hanged it the Assize give such an answer I have not free-will