thou shouldst spread forth thine hands God will hide his eyes though thou make many prayers he will not hear Esay 1. 15. If a man without skill set about our work and marr it in the doing though he take much pains we give him but small thanks God will be worshipped after the due order 1 Chron. 15. 13. If a servant do our work but quite contrary to our order he shall have rather stripes than praise Gods work must be done according to Gods mind or he will not be pleased and this cannot be except it be done with a holy heart 2 Chron. 25. 2. IV. Without this thy hopes are in vain Iob 8. 12 13. The Lord hath rejected thy confidence Ier. 2. 37. First thy hopes of comfort here are in vain 'T is not only necessary to the safety but comfort of your condition that you be converted Without this you shall not know peace Esay 59. 8. Without the fear of God you cannot have the comforts of the Holy Ghost Act 9. 31. God speaks peace only to his people and to his saints Psal. 85. 8. If you have a false peace continuing in your sins 't is not of Gods speaking and then you may guess the Author Sin is a real sickness Esay 1. 5. yea the worst of sickness 't is a leprosie in the head Levit. 13. 44. the plague in the heart 1 Kings 8. 38. 't is brokenness in the bones Psal. 51. 8. it pierceth it woundeth it racketh and tormenteth 1 Tim. 6. 10. A man may as well expect ease when his diseases are in their strength or his bones out of joint as true comfort while in his sins O wretched man that canst have no ease in this case but what comes from the deadliness of thy disease You shall have the poor sick man saying in his lightness he is well when you see death in his face He will needs up and about his business when the very next step is like to be into the grave The unsanctified often feel nothing amiss they think themselves whole and cry not out for the Physician but this shews the danger of their case Sin doth naturally breed distempers and disturbance in the soul. What a continual tempest and commotion is there in a discontented mind What an eating evil is inordinate care What is passion but a very feaver in the mind What is Lust but a fire in the bones What is Pride but a deadly tympany or covetousness but an unsatiable and unsufferable thirst or malice and envy but venom in the very heart Spiritual sloth is but a scurvy in the mind and carnal security a mortal lethargy And how can that soul have true comfort that is under so many diseases But converting grace cures and so eases the mind and prepares the soul for a setled standing immortal peace Great peace have they that love thy commandments and nothing shall offend them Psal. 119. 165. They are the wayes of wisdom that afford pleasure and peace Prov. 3. 17. David had infinitely more pleasure in the word than in all the delights of his Court Psal. 119. 103 127. The conscience cannot be truly pacified till soundly purified Heb. 10. 22. Cursed is that peace that is maintained in a way of sin Deut. 29. 19 20. Two sorts of peace are more to be dreaded than all the troubles in the world Peace with sin and Peace in sin Secondly Thy hopes of Salvation hereafter are in vain yea worse than in vain they are most injurious to God most pernicious to thy self there is death desperation blasphemy in the bowels of this hope 1. There is death in it Thy confidence shall be rooted out of thy tabernacles God will up with it root and branch it shall bring thee to the King of terrors Iob 18. 14. Though thou maist lean upon this house it will not stand Iob. 8. 15. but will prove like a ruinous building which when a man trusts to it falls down about his ears 2. There is desperation in it Where is the hope of the hypocrite when God taketh away his soul Iob 27. 8. Then there is an end for ever of his hope Indeed the hope of the righteous hath an end but then 't is not a destructive but a perfective end his hope ends in fruition others in frustration Prov. 10. 28. The godly must say at death It is finished but the wicked It is perished and in too sad earnest bemoan himself as he in a mistake Where now is my hope He hath destroyed me I am gone and my hope is removed like a tree Iob. 19. 10. The righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14. 32. When nature is dying his hopes are living when his body is languishing his hopes are flourishing his hope is a living hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but others a dying yea a damning soul undoing hope When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth Prov 11. 7. It shall be cut off and prove like the spiders web Iob 8. 14. which he spins out of his won bowels but then comes death with the broom and takes down all and so there is an eternal end of his confidence wherein he trusted For the eyes of the wicked shall fail and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost Iob 11. 2. Wicked men are setled in their carnal hope and will not be beaten out of it They hold it fast they will not let it go Yea but death will knock off their fingers Though we cannot undeceive them death and judgment will When death strikes its dark through thy liver it will let out thy soul and thy hopes together The unsanctified have hope only in this life 1 Cor. 15. 19. and therefore are of all men most miserable When death comes it lets them out into the amazing gulf of endless desperation 3. There is blasphemy in it To hope we shall be saved though continuing unconverted is to hope we shall prove God a liar He hath told you that so merciful and pitiful as he is he will never save you not withstanding if you go on in ignorance or a course of unrighteousness Esay 27. 11. 1 Cor. 6. 9. in a word he hath told you that whatever you be or do nothing shall avail you to salvation without you be new creatures Gal. 6. 15. Now to say God is mercifu◠and we hope he will save us nevertheless is to say in effect we hope God will not do as he saith We may not set Gods attributes at variance God is resolved to glorifie mercy but not with the prejudice of truth as the presumptuous sinner will find to his everlasting sorrow Obj. Why but we hope in Jesus Christ we put out whole trust in God and therefore doubt not but we shall be saved Ans. 1. This is not to hope in Christ but against Christ. To hope to see the Kingdom of God without being born again to hope to
Laws the mercies the warnings that they were committed against Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. Ezra 9. Oh 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 〈◊〉 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 setting the sensitive part against the rational will against judgment lust against conscience yea worst of all between God and man making the lapsed sinner both hateful to God and a hater of him Zech. 11. 8. O man how canst thou make so light of sin This is the traitour that sucked the blood of the Son of God that sold him that mocked him that scourged him that spat in his face that digged his hands that pierced his side that pressed his soul that mangled his body that never lest till it had bound him condemned him nailed him crucified him and put him to open shame Esay 53. 4 5 6. This is that deadly poison so powerful of operation as that one drop of it shed upon the root of mankind hath corrupted spoiled and poisoned and undone his whole race at once Rom. 5. 18 19. This is the common butcher the bloody executioner that hath killed the Prophets that hath burnt the Martyrs that hath murdered all the Apostles all the Patriarchs all the Kings and Potentates that hath destroyed Cities swallowed Empires butchered and devoured whole Nations Whatever was the weapon that 't was done by sin was it that did the execution Rom. 6. 23. Dost thou yet think it but a small thing If Adam and all his children could be digged out of their graves and their bodies piled up to Heaven and an inquest were made what matchless murderer were guilty of all this blood it would be all found in the skirts of sin Study the nature of sin till thy heart be brought to fear and loath it And meditate on the aggravations of thy particular sins how thou hast sinned against all Gods warnings against thine own prayers against mercies against corrections against clearest light against freest love against thine own resolutions against promises vows covenants of better obedience c. charge thy heart home with these things till it blush for shame and be brought out of all good opinion of it self Ezra 9. 6. Meditate upon the desert of sin It cryeth up to Heaven it calls for vengeance Gen. 18. 20. It s due wages is death damnation It pulls the curse of God upon the soul and body Gal. 3. 10. Deut. 28. The least sinful word or thought laies thee under the infinite wrath of God Almighty Rom. 2. 8 9. Mat. 12. 36. Oh what a load of wrath what a weight of curses what a treasure of vengeance have all the millions of thy sins then deserved Rom. 2. 5. Ioh. 3. 36. Oh judge thy self that the Lord may not judge thee 1 Cor. 11. 31. Meditate upon the deformity and defilement of sin 'T is as black as hell the very image and likeness of the Devil drawn upon thy soul. 1 Iohn 3. 8 10. It would more affright thee to see thy self in the hateful deformity of thy nature than to see the devil There is no mire so unclean no vomit so loathsome no carcase or carrion so offensive no plague or leprosie so noisom as sin in which thou art all enrolled 〈◊〉 covered with its odious filth whereby 〈◊〉 art rendred more displeasing to the pure and holy nature of the glorious God than the most filthy object composed of whatever is hateful to all thy senses can be to thee Iob 15. 15 16. Couldst thou take up a toad into thy bosom Couldst thou cherish it and take delight in it Why thou art as contrary to the pure and perfect holiness of the divine nature and as loathsome as that is to thee Mat. 23. 33. till thou art purified by the blood of Jesus and the power of renewing grace Above all other sins fix the eye of Consideration on these two 1. The sin of thy nature 'T is to little purpose to lop off the branches while the root of original corruption remains untouched In vain do men lave out the streams when the fountain is still running that fills up all again Let the axe of thy repentance with David's go to the root of sin Psal. 51. 5. Study thy natural pollution how universal it is how deep how close how permanent it is till thou dost cry out with Paul's feeling upon thy body of death Rom. 7. 24. Look into all thy parts and powers and see what unclean vessels what styes what dunghills what sinks they are become Heu miser quid sum vas fâ—erquilinii concha putredinis plenus foetore horrore August Solil c. 2. The heart is never soundly broken till throughly convinced of the heynousness of original sin Here fix thy thoughts This is that that makes thee backward to all good prone to all evil Rom. 7. 15. that sheds blindness pride prejudices unbelief into thy mind enmity unconstancy obstinacy into thy will inordinate heats and colds into thy affections insensibleness benummedness unfaithfulness into thy conscience slipperiness into thy memory and in a word hath put every wheel of thy soul out of order and made it of an habitation of holiness to become a very hell of iniquity Iames 3. 6. This is that that hath defiled corrupted perverted all thy members and turned them into weapons of unrighteousness and servants of sin Rom. 6. 19. that hath filled the head with carnal and corrupt designs Mic. 2. 1. the hands with sinful practices Esay 1. 15. the eyes with wandring and wantonness 2 Pet. 2. 14. the tongue with deadly poison Iames 3. 8. that hath opened the ears to tales flattery and filthy communication and shut them against the instruction of life Zech. 7. 11 12. and hath rendred thy heart a very mint and forge of sin and the cursed womb of all deadly conceptions Mat. 15. 19. so that it poureth forth its wickedness without ceasing 2 Pet. 2. 14 even as naturally freely unweariedly as a fountain doth pour forth its water Ier. 6. 7. or the raging Sea doth cast forth mire and dirt Esay 57. 20. And wilt thou yet be in love with thy self and tell us any longer of thy good heart O never leave meditating on this desperate contagion of original corruption till with Ephraim thou bemoan thy self Ier. 31. 18. and with deepest shame and sorrow smite on thy breast as the publican Luk. 18. 13. and with Iob abhor thy self and repent in dust and ashes Iob 42. 6. 2. The particular evil that thou art most addicted to Find out all its aggravations Set home upon thy heart all Gods threatnings against it Repentance drives before it the whole herd but especially sticks the arrow in the beloved
told thee what thou must do to be saved Wilt thou now obey the voice of the Lord Wilt thou arise and set to thy work O man what answer wilt thou make what excuse wilt thou have if thou shouldest perish at last through very wilfulness when thou hast known the way of life I do not fear thy miscarrying if thine own idleness do not at last undo thee in neglecting the use of the means that are so plainly here prescribed Rouze up oh sluggard and ply thy work Be doing and the Lord will be with thee A short Soliloquy for an unregenerate sinner Ah wretched man that I am what a condition have I brought my self into by sin Oh! I see my heart hath but deceived me all this while in flattering me that my condition was good I see I see I am but a lost and undone man for ever undone unless the Lord help me out of this condition My sins My sins Lord what an unclean polluted wretch am I more loathsome and odious to thee than the most hateful Venome or noisome carcase can be to me Oh! what a Hell of sin is in this heart of mine which I have flattered my self to be a good heart Lord how universally am I corrupted in all my parts powers performances All the imaginations of the thoughts of my heart are only evil continually I am under an inability to averseness from and enmity against any thing that is good and am prone to all that is evil My heart is a very sink of all sin and oh the innumerable hosts and swarms of sinful thoughts words and actions that have flown from thence Oh the load of guilt that is on my soul my head is full and my heart full my mind and my members they are all full of sin Oh my sins How do they stare upon me How do they witness against me Wo is me my Creditors are upon me every commandment taketh hold upon me for more than ten thousand talents yea ten thousand times ten thousand How endless then is the summe of all my debts If this whole world were filled up from earth to Heaven with paper and all this paper written over within and without by Arithmeticians yet when all were cast up together it would come unconceivably short of what I owe to the least of Gods commandments Wo unto me for my debts are infinite and my sins are increased They are wrongs to an infinite Majesty and if he that committeth treason against a silken mortal is worthy to be racked drawn and quartered what have I deserved that have so often lifted up my hand against Heaven and have struck at the Crown and dignity of the Almighty Oh my sins my sins Behold a troop cometh Multitudes multitudes there is no number of their Armies Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me they have set themselves in array against me Oh! it were better to have all the Regiments of Hell come against me than to have my sins to fall upon me to the spoiling of my Soul Lord how am I surrounded How many are they that rise up against me They have beset me behind and before they swarm within me and without me they have possessed all my powers and have fortified mine unhappy soul as a Garrison which this brood of Hell doth man and maintain against the God that made me And they are as mighty as they be many The sands are many but then they are not great the mountains great but then they are not many But wo is me my sins are as many as the sands and as mighty as the Mountains Their weight is greater than their number It were better that the Rocks and the mountains should fall upon me than the crushing and unsupportable load of my own sins Lord I am heavy laden let mercy help or I am gone Unload me of this heavy guilt this sinking load or I am crushed without hope and must be pressed down to Hell If my grief were thorowly weighed and my sins laid in the ballances together they would be heavier than the sand of the Sea therefore my words are swallowed up they would weigh down all the rocks and the hills and turn the ballance against all the Isles of the Earth O Lord thou knowest my manifold transgressions and my mighty sins Ah my soul Alas my Glory Whither art thou humbled Once the Glory of the creation and the Image of God now a lump of filthiness a Coffin of rottenness replenished with stench and loathsomeness Oh what work hath sin made with thee Thou shalt be termed Forsaken and all the rooms of thy faculties Desolate and the name that thou shalt be called by is Ichabed or Where is the Glory How art thou come down mightily My beauty is turned into deformity and my Glory into shame Lord what a loathsome Leper am I The ulcerous bodies of Iob or Lazarus were not more offensive to the eyes and nostrils of men than I must needs be to the most holy God whose eyes cannot behold iniquity And what misery have my sins brought upon me Lord what a case am I in Sold under sin cast out of Gods favour accursed from the Lord cursed in my body cursed in my soul cursed in my name in my estate my relations and all that I have My sins are unpardoned and my soul within a step of death Alas what shall I do Whither shall I go Which way shall I look God is â—rowning on me from above Hell gaping for me beneath Conscience smiting me within temptations and dangers surrounding me without Oh whither shall I fly What place can hide me from Omnisciency What power can secure me from Omnipotency What meanest thou O my soul to go on thus Art thou in league with Hell hast thou made a covenant with death Art thou in love with thy misery Is it good for thee to be here Alas what shall I do Shall I go on in my sinful ways Why then certain damnation will be mine end shall I be so besotted and bemadded as to go and sell my soul to the flames for a little Ale or a little ease for a little pleasure or gain or content to my flesh Shall I linger any longer in this wretched estate No if I tarry here I shall dye What then is there no help no hope None except I turn Why but is there any remedy for such woful misery any mercy after such provoking iniquity Yes as sure as Gods Oath is true I shall have pardon and mercy yet if I presently unfeignedly and unreservedly turn by Christ to him Why then I thank thee upon the bended knees of my soul O most merciful Iehovah that thy patience hath waâ—ted for me hitherto for hadst thou took me away in this estate I had perished for ever And now I adore thy Grace and accept the offers of thy mercy I renounce all my sins and resolve by thy Grace to set my self against them
AN ALARME TO Unconverted Sinners In a Serious TREATISE SHEWING I. What Conversion is not and correcting some Mistakes about it II. What Conversion is and wherein it consisteth III. The Necessity of Conversion IV. The Marks of the Unconverted V. The Miseries of the Unconverted VI. Directions for Conversion VII Motives to Conversion Whereunto are annexed divers Practical Cases of Conscience Judiciously Resolved By Ioseph Alleine late Preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somerset-shire LONDON Printed by E. T. and R. H. and are to sold by Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls-Church-yard 1672. To all the Ignorant Carnal and Ungodly who are Lovers of pleasures more than God and seek this world more than the Life Everlasting and live after the Flesh and not after the Spirit These Calls and Counsels are directed in hope of their Conversion to God and of their Salvation He that hath an ear to hear let him hear Miserable Souls THere is that Life and Light and Love in every true Believer but especially in every Faithful Minister of Christ which engageth them to long and labour for your Salvation Life is communicative and active It maketh us sensible that Faith is not a fantasie nor true Religion a stage-play nor our hopes of eternal happiness a dream And as we desire nothing more for our selves than to have more of the Holy Life which we have alas in so small a measure so what is it that we should more desire for others With the eye of an infallible though too weak faith we see the Heaven which you neglect and the blessed souls in Glory with Christ whose companions you might be for ever we see the multitudes of souls in hell who came thither by the same way that you are going in who are shut out of the glorious presence of God and are now among those devils that deceived them remembring that they had their good things here Luke 16. 25. and how they spent the day of their visitation and how light they once set by God by Christ by Heaven by Mercy whilest Mercy was an earnest solicitour for their hearts And with our bodily eyes we see at the same time abundance of poor sinners living about us as if there were no God no Christ no Heaven no Hell no Judgment no nor Death to be expected as if a man were but a master beast to rule the rest and feed upon them and perish with them And if it were your own case to see what souls do in Heaven and Hell and at once to see how unbelievingly carelesly and senselesly most men live on earth as if there were no such difference in another world would it not seem a pitiful sight to you If you had once seen the five brethren of Dives on earth eating drinking laughing and merry clothed and faring daily with the best and at the same time seen their brothers soul in Hell begging in vain for a little ease and wishing in vain that one from the dead might go warn his brethren that they come not to that place of torment would it not seem to you a pitiful sight would not pity have made you think Is there no way to open these Gentlemens eyes No way to acquaint them what is become of their brother and where Lazarus is and whither they themselves are going No one driveth or forceth them to Hell and will they go thither of themselves and is there no way to stop them or keep them back Did you but see your selves what we see by faith believing God and at once beheld the Saints in Heaven the lost despairing souls in Hell and the senseless sensual sinners on earth that yet will lay none of this to heart sure it would make you wonder at the stupidity of mankind Would you not say O what a deciver is the Devil that can thus lead on souls to their own damnation O what a cheater is this transitory world that can make men so forget the world where they must live for ever O what an enemy is this flesh that thus draweth down mens souls from God! O what a besotting thing is sin that turneth a reasonable soul into worse than a beast What a Bedlam is this wicked world when thousands are so busily labouring to undo themselves and others and gratifying the Devil against the God and Saviour who would give them everlasting blessed life And as we have such a sight as this by Faith to make us pity you so have we so much tast of the goodness of God the sweetness of his wayes and the happiness of believers as must needs make us wish that you had but once tryed the same delights which would turn the pleasures of sin into detestation God knoweth that we desire nothing more for our selves than the Perfection and Eternity of this holiness and happiness which we believe and tast And should we not desire the same for you And being thus moved with necessary pitty we ask of God what he would have us to do for your salvation And he hath told us in Scripture that the preaching of his Gospel to acquaint you plainly with the truth and earnestly and frequently intreat you to turn from the flesh and world to God by Jesus Christ is the means with which his grace is ready to concurr for your salvation when obstinate resistance causeth not the Holy Spirit to forsake the sinner and leave him to himself to follow his own Counsels Lusts and Wills In this hope we undertook the Sacred Ministry and gave up our selves to this great and most important work in the great sense of our unworthiness but yet in the sense of your souls necessity We were not such fools at our first setting out as not to know it must be a life of labour self-denial and patience and the devil would do his worst to hinder us and that all sorts of his instruments would be ready to serve him against our labours and against your souls Christ our Captain saved us by patient Conquest and so must we save our selves and you and so must you save your selves under Christ if ever you be saved It was no strange thing to Paul that bonds and afflictions did every where abide him nor did he account his life dear that he might finish his course with joy and the Ministry committed to him by the Lord. Act. 20. 23 24. It was no strange thing to him to be forbidden to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved by such as were filling up the measure of their sins and were under Gods uttermost wrath on earth 1 Thess. 2. 15. 16. Devils and Pharisees and most where they came both high and low were against the Apostles preaching of the Gospel and yet they would not sacrilegiously and cruelly break their Covenant with Christ and perfidiously desert the souls of men even as their Lord for the love of souls did call Peter Satan that would have tempted him to save his life and
flesh instead of making it a sacrifice for our sins Mat. 16. 23. What think you should move us to undertake a calling so contrary to our fleshly ease and interests Do we not know the way of Ease and Honour of Wealth and Pleasures as well as others And have we not flesh as well as others Could we not be content that the cup of reproach and scorn and slander and poverty and labours might pass from us if it were not for the will of God and your salvation Why should we love to be the lowest and trodden down by malignant pride and counted as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things and represented to Rulers whom we honour as schismaticks disobedient turbulent unruly by every Church-usurper whom we refuse to make a God of Why give we not over this preaching of the Gospel at the will of Satan that is for the everlasting suffering of your souls under the pretense of making us suffer Is not all this that you may be converted and saved If we be herein besides our selves it is for you Could the words of the ignorant or proud have perswaded us that either your wants and dangers are so inconsiderable or your other supplies and helps so sufficient that our labours had been unnecessary to you God knoweth we should have readily obeyed the silencing sort of Pastors and have betaken us to some other land where our service had been more necessary Let shame be that hypocrites reward who taketh not the saving of souls and the pleasing of God for a sufficient reward without Ecclesiastical Dignities preferments or wordly wealth I have told you our motives I have told you our business and the terms of our undertaking It is God and you sinners that next must tell us what our entertainment and success shall be Shall it be still neglect and unthankful contempt and turning away your ear and heart and saying we have somewhat else to mind Will you still be cheated by this deceiving world and spend all your daies in pampering your guts and providing for that flesh that must lie rotting very shortly in a grave Were you made for no better work than this May not we bring you to some sober thoughts of your condition nor one hour seriously to think whither you are going What! not to one awakened look into the world where you must be for ever Nor one heart-raising thought of the everlasting Glory Not one heart-piercing thought of all your Saviours love nor one tear for all your sinful lives O God forbid Let not our labour be so despised Let not your God your Saviour and your souls be set so light by O let there be no profane person among you like Esau who for one morsel sold his birth-right Poor sinners We talk not to you as on a stage in customary words and because that talking thus is our trade We are in as good earnest with you as if we saw you all murdering your selves and we are perswading you to save your lives Can any man be in jest with you who believeth God who by faith foreseeth whither you are going and what you lose and where the game of sin will end It is little better to jest with you now in Pulpit or in private than to stand jesting over your departing souls when at death you are breathing out your last Alas with shame and grief we do confess that we never speak to you of these things as their truth and weight deserve nor with the skill and wisdom the affection and fervency which beseemeth men engaged in the saving of poor souls But yet you may perceive that we are in good sadness with you For God is so What else do we study for labour for suffer for live for Why else do we so much trouble our selves and trouble you with all this ado and anger them that would have had us silent For my own part I will make my free confession to you to my shame that I never grow coâ—d and dull and pittiless to the souls of others till I first grow too cold and careless of my own unless when weakness or speculative studies cool me which I must confess they often do We never cease pittying you till we are growing too like you and so have need of pitty our selves When through the mercy of my Lord the prospect of that world of souls which I am going to hath any powerful operation on my self O then I could spend and be spent for others No words are too earnest no labour too great no cost too dear the frowns and wrath of malignant opposers of the preaching of Christ's Gospel are nothing to me But when the world of spirits doth disappear or my soul is clouded and receiveth not the vital illuminating influences of Heaven I grow cold first to my self and then cold to others Come then poor sinners and help us who are willing at any rate to be your helpers As we first crave Gods help so we next crave yours Help us for we cannot save you against your wills nor save you without your consent and help God himself will not save you without you and how should we We know that the Devil is against us and will do his worst to hinder us and so will all his ministers by what names or titles soever dignified or distinguished But all this is nothing if you will but take our parts your selves I mean if you will take Christs part and your own and will not be against your selves Men and Devils cannot either help or hinder us in saving you as you may do your selves If God and you be for us who shall be against us And if you will help us give over striving against God and Conscience give over fighting against Christ and his Spirit take part no more with the world and the flesh which in your Baptism you renounced set your hearts to the message which we bring you Allow it your man-like sober thoughts search the Scripture and see whether these things which we speak be so or not We offer you nothing but what we have resolvedly chosen our selves and that after the most serious deliberation that we can make We have many a time looked round about us to know what is the happiness of man And had we found better for our selves we had offered better to you If the world would have served our turns it should have served yours also and we would not have troubled you with the talk of another world But it will not I am sure it will not serve your turns to make you happy nor shall you long make that sorry self-deceiving shift with it as now you do But if you will not think of these things if you will not use the reason of men alas what can we do to save your souls O pitty them Lord that they may pitty themselves Have mercy on them that they may have some more mercy on themselves Help them that they
treat with thee about this matter Let him bid thee believe thou art a beâ—â—ever already let him bid thee repent and turn to the Lord that work thou sayâ—â— is not now â—o do What can there be said to this man that 's like to bring him to good Friend know thy self better or thou perishest without remedy Thou maist pray but what hope is there in thy praying Thou maist read but what hope is there in thy reading Yet read on this little hope there is In this book there 's Eye-Salve that may heal thee of thy blindness In this book there is a Glass that will shew thee thy face Dost thou know thine own face when thou seest it Behold thy very Image in those Marks that are given of an unconverted person Read and consider them and then say if thou be not the man Be willing to know thy self and to know the worst of thy case wink not at the light hide not thy self from thine own soul. Wilt thou never know thy disease till thou be past remedy Much of our hardest work would be over if we could see the sinners to whom we are sent to be convinced sinners If we could but open the blind eyes there were hope we should shortly raise the dead Sinner of a truth thou art in evil case whether thou know it or not thou art among the dead and there is but a step betwixt thee and Hell Thou wilt not believe it though it be told thee yet once again let me beseech thee come to the Glass that is here presented to thee and narrowly observe whether the very marks of the dead be not found upon thee If there be a miscarriage in this first work if thou wilt not understand thy misery and thy danger there 's an end of all hopes concerning thee Whilest this self-ignorance abides upon thee all the Counsels that are necessary to a man in thy case will do thee no good they are never like to prosper with thee because thou wilt not count them proper for thee Who will be perswaded to do that which he believes is already done Who will take the Counsel of the Physician that does not think himself sick The man of God may spare his pains of perswading thee to Conversion whilest thou art confident thou art converted already Who will be at the pains of repentance that concludes he hath repented Who will bear the labour and the pangs of the new birth that is confident he is already passed from death to life But Friend let me a little reason with thee Thou art confident it is well with thee yet why wilt thou not yield to thus much at least to put it to the question am I not mistaken Thou art worse than mad if thou thinkest such a question may not be put Dost thou know that thine heart is false and deceitful and yet because it speaks good concerning thee must it not be question'd whether it speak truth or no Be so wise as to conclude I may be mistaken and thus come to the trial whether thou art mistaken or not And if upon trial by the marks that are before thee thou come to be undeceived and see thy self wrapped up in that misery which hitherto thou wouldst not suspect the next news I expect to hear from thee is What must I do to be saved O were it come to that once Then thou hast an answer at hand in those Means thou wilt find prescribed thee And because they are such as thou wilt hardly be perswaded to use take in the Motives that follow and these will help down the means Consider both the one and the other and if thou dost not find the means proper and the motives weighty I think I shall do thee no wrong if I tell thee thou art still of a blind mind and an harder heart Friend the matter which this little book comes to treat with thee about is of highest importance 't is a matter of life and death If thou sayest The terms upon which Life is offered are hard consider is it not harder to dye He is worthy to dye who will lose his soul to save his labour If thou couldst step down into the deep and take a turn or two with those damned souls who are drench'd with fire and brimstone and bound in everlasting chains of vengeance shouldest ask them Now what do you think of the terms upon which life was offered Now what think you of that repentance of that obedience of that holy circumspection self denyal and the greatest severity which by the Gospel were imposed upon you If you might once again have the same terms granted you for your redemption from this place of torment would you yet say Hard terms Let me rather dye this death for ever than live such a life let me broil in this furnace rather than escape with such difficulty Shouldst thou ask them thus that have felt what 't is to be damned what answer dost thou think they would make O friend never again groan under the difficulties of conversion till thou believe them to be worse than Hell But I will not farther anticipate my worthy Author Nor is there much need I should commend either himself or his works for the Author himself thou maist at a small charge get acquaintance with him in that History of his life and death which is extant concerning which I shall only say Sic mihi contingat vivere sicque mori And for this work of his what commendation I should give of it would be needed no longer than till thou hast read it over Thou wilt find such Wine in it as needs no Bush. This only I shall say as far as my credit will go it is exceedingly well worth thy most serious perusal O maist thou hear that voice such a voice from Heaven there is whether thou hear it or no Tolle lege take up and read Read friend and read over again Read and understand understand and pray pray and consider consider and consent unto him who by the pen of his servant calls to thee from Heaven why wilt thou dye turn and live O suffer this word of instruction and exhortation to open thy blind eyes to turn thee from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that thou maist receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified Et cum talis fueris memento mei When it is thus with thee then pray for The Friend and Servant of thy Soul Richard Alleine Mr. JOSEPH ALLEINE'S CALL TO THE UNCONVERTED DEarly Beloved and longed for I gladly acknowledge my self a debtour to you all and am concerned as I would be found a good steward of the houshold of God to give to every one his portion But the Physician is most sollicitous for those Patients whose case is most doubtful and hazardous and the Fathers bowels are especially turned towards his dying child The numbers of the unconverted souls among you
awakening consideration That Multitudes miscarry by the hand of some secret sin that is not only hidden from others but for want of observing their own hearts even from themselves A man may be free from open pollutions and yet die at last by the fatal hand of some unobserved iniquity And there be these eleven hidden sins by which souls go down by numbers to the chambers of death These you must search carefully for and take them as black marks where-ever they be found discovering a graceless and unconverted estate As you love your lives read them carefully with a holy jealousie of your selves lest you should be the persons concerned 1. Gross Ignorance Ah how many poor souls doth this sin kill in the dark Hos. 4. 6. while they think verily they have good hearts and are in the ready way to Heaven This is the murderer that diâ—patches thousands in a silent manner when poor hearts they suspect nothing and see not the hand that mischiefs them You shall find whatever excuses you have for ignorance that 't is a soul-undoing evil Esay 27. 11. 2 Thess. 1. 8. 2 Cor. 4. 3. Ah would it not have pitied a man's heart to have seen that woful spectacle when the poor Protestants were shut up a multitude together in a barn and a butcher comes with his inhumane hands warm in humane blood and leads them one by one blindfold to a block where he slew them poor Innocents one after another by the scores in cold blood But how much more should our hearts bleed to think of the hundreds in great congregations that ignorance doth butcher in secret and lead them blindfold to the block Beware this be none of your case Make no pleas for ignorance If you spare that sin know that that will not spare you Will a man keep a murderer in his bosome 2. Secret reserves in closing with Christ. To forsake all for Christ to hate father and mother yea and a mans own life for him this is a hard saying Luke 14. 26. Some will do much but they will not be of the religion that will undo them they never come to be entirely devoted to Christ nor fully to resign to him They must have the sweet sin They mean to do themselves no harm They have secret exceptions for life liberty or estate Many take Christ thus hand over head and never consider his self-denying terms nor cast upon the cost and this error in the foundation marrs all and secretly ruines them for ever Luke 14. 28. Mat. 13. 21. 3. Formality in Religion Many stick in the bark and rest in the outside of religion and in the external performance of holy duties Mat. 23. 25. and this oft times doth most effectually deceive men doth more certainly undo them than open looseness as it was in the Pharisees case Mat. 21. 31. They hear they fast they pray they give alms and therefore will not believe but their case is good Luke 18. 11. whereas resting in the work done and coming short of the heart-work and the inward power and vitals of religion they fall at last into the burnings from the flattering hopes and confident perswasions of their being in the ready way to Heaven Mat. 7. 22 23. Oh dreadful case when a man's religion shall serve only to harden him and effectually to delude and deceive his own soul 4. The prevalency of false ends in holy duties Mat. 23. 5. This was the bane of the Pharisees Oh how many a poor soul is undone by this and drops into hell before he discerns his mistake He performs good duties and so thinks all is well and perceives not that he is acted by carnal motives all the while It is too true that even with the truly sanctified many carnal ends will oft times creep in but they are the matter of his hatred and humiliation and never come to be habitually prevalent with him and to bear the greatest sway Rom. 14. 7. But now when the main thing that doth ordinarily carry a man out to religious duties shall be some carnal end as to satisfy his conscience to get the repute of being religious to be seen of men to shew his own gifts and parts to avoid the reproach of a prophane and irreligious person or the like this discovers an unsound heart Hos. 10. 1. Zech. 7. 5 6. Oh Christians if you would avoid self-deceit see that you mind not only your acts but withal yea above all your ends 5. Trusting in their own righteousness Luke 18. 9. This is a soul-undoing mischief Rom. 10. 3. When men do trust in their own righteousness they do indeed reject Christ's Beloved you had need be watchful on every hand for not only your sins but your duties may undo you It may be you never thought of this but so it is that a man may as certainly miscarry by his seeming righteousness and supposed graces as by gross sins and that is when a man doth trust to these as his righteousness before God for the satisfying his justice appeasing his wrath procuring his favour and obtaining of his own pardon for this is to put Christ out of office and make a Saviour of our own duties and graces Beware of this O professours you are much in duties but this one fly will spoil all the ointment â—â—en you have done most and best be sure to go out of your selves to Christ and reckon your own righteousness but rags Psal. 143. 2. Phil. 3. 8. Esay 64. 6. Neh. 13. 22. 6. A secreâ— enmity against the strictness of religion Many moral persons punctual in their formal devotion have yet a bitter enmity against preciseness and hate the life and power of religion Phil. 3. 6. compared with Act. 9. 1. They like not this forwardness nor that men should keep such a stir in religion They condemn the strictness of Religion as singularity indiscretion and intemperate zeal and with them a lively preacher or zealous Christian is but a heady fellow These men love not holiness as holiness for then they would love the height of holiness and therefore are undoubtedly rotten at heart whatever good opinion they have of themselves 7. The resting in a certain pitch of Religion When they have so much as will save them as they suppose they look no further and so shew themselves short of true Grace which will ever put men upon aspiring to further perfection Phil. 3. 12 13. Prov. 4. 18. 8. The predominant love of the World This is a sure evidence of an unsanctified heartâ— Mar. 10. 37. 1 Iohn 2. 15. But how close doth this sin lurk oft-times under a fair covert of forward profession Luke 8. 14. Yea such a power of deceit is there in this sin that maâ—â— times when every body else can 〈◊〉 mans worldliness and covetousness he câ—â—not see it himself but hath so many colours and excuses and pretences for his eagerness on the world that he doth blind his own eyes and perish in his
it will not affect him savingly unless I could find him ears Mat. 13. 15. as well as tell him the news Shall I set before him the feast of fat things the wine of wisdom the bread of God the tree of life the hidden Manna he hath no appetite for them no mind to them 1 Cor. 2. 14. Mat. 22. 5. Should I press the choicest grapes the heavenly clusters of gospel priviledges and drink to him in the richest wine of Gods own cellar yea of his own side or set before him the delicious honey-comb of Gods testimonies Psal. 19. 10. alas he hath no taste to discern them Shall I invite the dead to arise and eat the banquet of their funerals No more can the dead in sin savour the holy food wherewith the Lord of life hath spread his table What then shall I do shall I burn the brimstone of hell at his nostrils or shall I open the box of Spikenard very precious that filleth the whole house of this universe with its perfume Mark 14. 3. Ioh. 12. 8. and hope that the savour of Christs ointments and the smell of his garments will attract him Psal. 45. 8. Alas dead â—inners are like the dumb idols they have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not noses have they but they smell not they have hands but they handle not feet have they but they walk not neither speak they through their throat Psal. 1. 5 6 7. They are destitute of all spiritual sense and motion But let me try the sense that doth last leave us and draw the sword of the word yet lay at him while I will yea though I choose mine arrows out of Gods quiver and direct them to the heart nevertheless he feeleth not for how should he being past feeling Eph. 4. 19. So that though the wrath of God abideth on him and the mountainous weight of so many thousand sins yet he goes up and down as light as if nothing ailed him Rom. 7. 9. In a word he carries a dead soul in a living body and his flesh is but the walking cossin of a corrupted mind that is twice dead Iude 12. rotting in the slime and putrefaction of noisome lusts Mat. 23. 27 28. Which way then shall I come at the miserable objects that I have to deal with who shall make the heart of stone to relent Zech. 7. 12. or the liveless carcase to feel and move That God that is able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham Mat. 3. 9. that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 9. and melteth the mountains Nah. 1. 5. and strikes water out of the flints Deut. 8. 15. that loves to work like himself beyond the hopes and belief of man that peopleth his Church with dry bones and planteth his orchard with dry sticks he is able to do this Therefore I bow my knee to the most high God Eph. 3. 14. and as our Saviour prayed at the sepulchre of Lazarus Iohn 11. 38 41. and the Shunamite ran to the man of God for her dead child 2 Kings 4. 25. so doth your mourning Minister kneel about your graves and carry you in the arms of prayer to that God in whom your help is found O thou all-powerful Iehovab that workest and none can let thee that hast the keys of â—ell and of death pity thou the dead souls that lie here intombed and roll away the grave-stone and say as to Lazarus when already stinking Come forth Lighten thou this darkness O inaccessible light and let the day-spring from on high visit the darksome region of the dead to whom I speak for thou canst open the eyes that death it self hath closed Thou that formedst the ear canst restore the hearing Sâ—y thou to these ears Ephatah and they shall be opened Give thou eyes to see thine excellenciesâ—â— a taste that may relish thy sweetness a sent that may savour thine oinâ—ments â— a feeling that may sense the priviledge of thy favour the burden of thy wrath the weight intolerable of unpardoned sin and give thy servant command to prophesie to the dry bones and let the effect of this prophesie be as of thy Prophet's when he prophesied the valley of dry bones into a living army exceeding great Ezek. 37. 1. c. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones He said unto me prophesie upon thâ—se bones and say unto them O ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and â—ehold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone And when I behold Loe the sinews and the flesh came up upon them and covered them above but there was no breath in them Then said he unto me Prophesie unto the wind prophesie son of man and say to the wind Thus saith the Lord God Câ—me from the four winds O breath and breath upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army But I must proceed as I am able to unfold that misery which I confess no tongue can unfold no heart can sufficiently comprehend Know therefore that while thou art unconverted 1. The infinite God is engaged against thee It is no small part of thy misery that thou art without God Eph. 2. 12. How doth Micah run crying after the Danites You have taken away my gods and what have I more Iudges 18. 23 24. Oh what a mourning then must thou lift up that art without God that canst lay no claim to him without daring usurpation Thou must say of God as Sheba of David We have no part in David neither have we inheritance in the son of Iesse 2 Sam. 20. 1. How pitiful and piercing a moan is that of Saul in his extremity The Philistines are upon me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28. 15. Sinners what will you do in the day of your visitation whither will you flee for help where will you leave your glory Esay 10. 3. What will you do when the Philistines are upon you when the world shall take its eternal leave of you when you must bid your friends houses lands Farewel for evermore What will you do then I say that have never a God to go to Will you call on him will you cry to him for help alas he will not own you Prov. 1. 28 29. he will not take any knowledge of
but thine unwillingness Speak man art thou willing of the match Wilt thou have Christ in all his relations to be thine thy King thy Priest thy Prophet Wilt thou have him with all his inconveniences Take not Christ hand over head but sit down first and count thy cost Wilt thou lay all at his feet Wilt thou be content to run all hazards with him Wilt thou take thy lot with him fall where it will Wilt thou deny thy self take up thy Cross and follow him Art thou deliberately understandingly freely fixedly detetermined to cleave to him in all times and conditions If so my soul for thine thou shalt never perish Iohn 3. 16. but art passed from death to life Here lies the main point of thy salvation that thou be sound in thy covenant-closure with Jesus Christ and therefore if thou love thy life see that thou be faithful to God and thy soul here Dir. VIII Resign up all thy powers and faculties and thy whole interest to be his They gave their own selves unto the Lord. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Present your bodies as a living Sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. The Lord seeks not yours but you Resign therefore thy body with all its members to him and thy soul with all its powers that he may be glorified in thy body and in thy spirit which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. In a right closure with Christ all the faculties give up to him The Judgment subscribes Lord thou art worthy of all acceptation chief of ten thousand Happy is the man that findeth thee All the things that are to be desired are not to be compared with thee Prov. 3. 13 14 15. The Understanding lays aside its corrupt reasonings and cavils and its prejudices against Christ and his ways It is now past questioning and disputing and casts it for Christ against all the world It concludes it 's good to be here and sees such a treasure in this field such value in this pearl as is worth all Mat. 13. 44. Oh here 's the richest bargain that â—ver I madeâ— here 's the richest prize that ever man was offered here 's the soveraignst remedy that ever mercy prepared he is worthy of my esteem worthy of my choice worthy of my love worthy to be embraced adored admired for ever more Rev. 5. 12. I approve of his articles his terms are righteous and reasonable full of equity and mercy Again the Will resigns It stands no longer wavering nor wishing and woulding but is peremptorily determin'd Lord thy love hath overcome me thou hast won me and thou shalt have me Come in Lord to thee I freely open I consent to be saved in thine own way thou shalt have any thing thou shalt have all let me have but thee The Memory gives up to Christ Lord here is a store-house for thee Out with this trash lay in thy treasure Let me be a granary a repository of thy truths thy promises thy providences The Conscience comes in Lord I will ever side with thee I will be thy faithful register I will warn when the sinner is tempted and smite when thou art offended I will witness for thee and judge for thee and guide into thy ways and will never let sin have quiet in this soul. The Affections also come in to Christ. O saith Love I am sick for thee O saith Desire now I have my longing Here 's the satisfaction I sought for Here 's the desire of nations Here 's bread for me and balm for me all that I want Fear bows the knee with aw and veneration Welcome Lord to thee will I pay my homage Thy word and thy rod shall command my motions Thee will I reverence and adore before thee will I fall down and worship-Grief likewise puts in Lord thy displeasure and thy dishonour thy peoples calamities and mine own iniquities shall be that that shall set me abroach I will mourn when thou art offended I will weep when thy cause is mounded Anger likewise comes in for Christ Lord nothing so enrages me as my folly against thee that I should be so befooled and bewitched as to hearken to the flatteries of sin and temptations of Satan against thee Hatred too will side with Christ. I protest mortal enmity with thine enemies that I will never be friends with thy foes I vow an immortal quarrel with every sin I will give no quarter I will make no peace Thus let all thy powers give up to Jesus Christ. Again thou must give up thy whole interest to him If there be any thing that thou keepest back from Christ it will be thine undoing Luke 14. 33. Unless thou wilt forsake all in preparation and resolution of thy heart thou canst not be his disciple Thou must hate Father and Mother yea and thine own life also in comparison of him and as far as it stands in competition with him Mat. 10. 37. Luke 14. 26 27 28 c. In a word thou must give him thy self and all that thou hast without reservation or else thou 〈◊〉 have no part in him Dir. IX Make choice of the Laws of Christ as the rule of thy words thoughts and actions Psal. 119. 30. This is the true Converts choice But here remember these three rules 1. Thou must choose them all There is no coming to Heaven by a partial obedience Read Psal. 119. 6 128 160. Ezek. 18. 21. None may think it enough to take up with the cheap and easie part of religion and let alone the duties that are costly and self-denying and grate upon the interest of the flesh You must take all or none A sincere Convert though he makes most conscience of the greatest sins and weightiest duties yet he makes true conscience of little sins and of all duties Psal. 119. 6 113. Mat. 23. 23. 2. For all times for prosperity and for adversity whether it rain or shine A true Convert is resolved in his way he will stand to his choice and will not set his back to the wind and be of the religion of the times I have stuck to thy testimonies I have enclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway even to the end Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever Psal. 119. 31 111 117 44 93. I will have respect unto thy statutes continually 3. This must be done not hand over head but deliberately and understandingly That disobedient son said I go sir but he went not Mat. 24. 30. How fairly did they promise All that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee we will do it and it 's like they spake as they meant but when it came to tryal it was found that there was not such a heart in them as to do what they had promised Deâ—â—â—â— 5. 27 29. If you would be sincere in closing with the laws and ways of Christ First Study the meaning and the latitude and compass of them Remember that they are very spiritual they reach the very thoughts and inclinations of the heart so