thee and with all possible thankfulness accept thee as mine and give up my self to thee as thine Thou shalt be Soveraign over me my King and my God Thou shalt be in the Throne and all my powers shall bow to thee they shall come and worship before thy feet Thou shalt be my portion O Lord and I will rest in thee Thou callest for my heart Oh that it were any way fit for thine acceptance I am unworthy O Lord everlastingly unworthy to be thine But since thou wilt have it so I freely give up my heart to thee Take it it is thine Oh that it were better But Lord I put it into thine hand who alone canst mend it Mould it after thine own heart make it as thou wouldst have it holy humble heavenly soft tender flexible and write thy Law upon it Come Lord Jesus come quickly enter in triumphantly take me up for thy self for ever I give up to thee I come to thee as the only way to the Father as the only Mediator the means ordained to bring me to God I have dostroyed my self but in thee is my help Save Lord or else I perish I come to thee with the rope about my neck I am worthy to die and to be damned Never was the hire more due to the servant never was penny more due to the labourer than Death and Hell my jâ—st wages is due to me for my sins But I fly to the merits I trust alone to the value and vertue of thy Sacrifice and prevalency of thine intercession I submit to thy teaching I make choice of thy Government Stand open ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in O thou spirit of the most high the comforter and sanctifier of thy chosen come in with all thy glorious train all thy Courtly attendants thy fruits and graces Let me be thine habitation I can give thee but what is thine own already but here with the poor Widow I cast my two mites my soul and my body in to thy treasury fully resigning them up to thee to be sanctified by thee to be servants to thee They shall be thy patients cure thou their maladies they shall be thy agents govern thou their motions Too long have I served the world too long have I hearkned to Satan but now I renounce them all and will be ruled by thy dictates and directions and guided by thy counsel O blessed Trinity O glorious Unity I deliver up my self to thee receive me write thy name O Lord upon me and upon all that I have as thy proper goods Set thy mark upon me upon every member of my body and every faculty of my soul. I have chosen thy precepts Thy Law will I lay before me this shall be the copy which I will keep in my eye and study to write after According to this rule do I resolve by thy Grace to walk after this law shall my whole man be governed And though I cannot perâ—ectly keep one of thy Commandments yet I will allow my self in the breach of none I know my flesh will hang back but I resolve in the power of thy Grace to cleave to thee and thy holy ways what ever it cost me I am sure I cannot come off a loser by thee and therefore I will be content with reproach and difficulties and hardships here and will deny my self and take up my Cross and follow thee Lord Jesus thy Yoke is easie thy Cross is welcome as it is the way to thee I lay aside all hopes of a worldly happiness I will be content to tarry till I come to thee Let me be poor and low little and despised here so I may but be admitted to live and raign with thee hereafter Lord thou hast my heart and hand to this agreement Be it as the laws of the Medes and Persians never to be reversed To this I will stand in this resolution by Grace I will live and die I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments I have given my free consent I have made my everlasting choice Lord Jesus confirm the contract Amen CHAP. VII Containing the Motives to Conversion THough what is already said of the Necessity of Conversion and of the Miseries of the unconverted might be sufficient to induce any considering mind to resolve upon a present turning or Conversion unto God yet knowing what a piece of desperate obstinacy and untractableness the heart of man naturally is I have thought it necessary to add to the means of Conversion and Directions for a Covenant-closure with God in Christ some Motives to perswade you hereunto O Lord fail me not now at my last attempts If any soul hath read hitherto and be yet untouched now Lord fasten in him and do thy work Now take him by the heart overcome him perswade him till he say Thou hast prevailed for thou wast stronger than I Lord didst thou not make me a fisher of men And have I toyled all this while and caught nothing Alas that I should have spent my strength for nought And now I am casting my last Lord Iesus stand thou upon the shore and direct how and where I shall spread my net and let me so enclose with arguments the souls I seek for that they may not be able to get out Now Lord for a multitude of souls now for a full draught O Lord God remember me I pray thee and strengthen me this once O God But I turn me unto you Men and Brethren Heaven and Earth do call upon you yea Hell it self doth preach the Doctrine of repentance unto you The Angels of the Churches travel with you Gal. 4. 19. the Angels of Heaven wait for you for your repenting and turning unto God O sinner why should the Devils make merry with thee why shouldst thou be a morsel for that devouring Leviathan Why should harpies and hell-hounds tear thee and make a feast upon thee and when they have got thee into the snare and have fastned their talons in thee laugh at thy destruction and deride thy misery and sport themselves with thy damnable folly This must be thy case except thou turn And were it not better thou shouldst be a joy to Angels than a laughing-stock and sport for devils Verily if thou wouldst but come in the Heavenly Host would take up their anthems and sing Glory be to God in the highest the morning Stars would sing together and all the sons of God shout for joy and celebrate this new creation as they did the first Thy repentance would as it were make holy-day in heaven and the glorious spirits would rejoyce in that there is a new brother added to their society Rev. 22. 9. another heir born to their Lord and the lost son received safe and sound The true penitents tears are indeed the wine that cheereth both God and man If it be little that men and Angels would rejoyce at thy Conversion know that God himself would
God had told it them from Heaven that they are unsanctified and under an impossibility of being saved in this condition There are then these several sorts that past all dispute are unconverted they carry their marks in their foreheads 1. The unclean These are ever reckoned among the goats and have their names whoever be left out in all the fore-mentioned catalogues Eph. 5. 5. Rev. 21. 8. 1. Cor. 5. 9 10. 2. The Covetous These are ever branded for idolaters and the doors of the Kingdom are shut against them by name Eph. 5. 5. Col. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. 3. Drunkards not only such as drink away their reason but withall yea above all such as are too strong for strong drink The Lord fills his mouth with woes against these and declares them to have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God Esay 5. 11 12 22. Gal. 5. 21. 4. Liars The God that cannot lie hath told them that there is no place for them in his Kingdom no entrance into his hill but their portion is with the Father of lies whose children they are in the lake of burnings Psal. 15. 1 2 Rev. 21. 8 27. Ioh. 8. 44. Prov. 6. 17. 5. Swearers The end of these men without deep and speedy repentance is swift destruction and most certain and unavoidable condemnation Iam. 5. 12. Zech. 5. 1 2 3. Railers and Back-biters that love to take up a reproach against their Neighbour and fling all the dirt they can in his face or else wound him secretly behind his back Psal. 15. 1. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 10. 1 Cor. 5. 11. 7. Thieves Extortioners Oppressors that grind the poor over-reach their brethren when they have them at an advantage these must know that God is the avenger of all such 1 Thes. 4. 6. Hear O ye false and purloining and wasteful servants Hear O ye deceitful tradesmen hear your sentence God will certainly hold his door against you and turn your treasures of unrighteousness into treasures of wrath and make your ill-gottenâ— silver and gold to torment you like burning Metal in your bowels 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Iam. 5. 2 3. 8. All that do ordinarily live in the prophane neglect of Gods worship that hear not his word that call not on his name that restrain prayer before God that mind not their own nor their families souls but live without God in the world Ioh. 8. 47. Iob. 15. 4. Psal. 14. 4. Psal. 79. 6. Eph. 2. 12. 4. 18. 9. Those that are frequenters and lovers of evil company God hath declared he will be the destruction of all such and that they shall never enter into the hill of his rest Prov. 13. 20. Psal. 15. 4. Prov. 9. 6. 10. Scoffers at Religion that make a scorn of precise walking and mock at the messengers and diligent servants of the Lord and at their holy profession and make themselves merry with the weaknesses and failings of professors Hear ye despisers hear your dreadful doom Prov. 19. 29. 2 Chron. 36. 16. Prov. 3. 34. Sinner consider diligently whether thou art not to be found in one of these ranks for if this be thy case thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity for all these do carry their marks in their foreheads and are undoubtedly the sons of death And if so the Lord pity our poor Congregations Oh how little a number will be left when these ten sorts are set out Alas on how many doors on how many faces must we write Lord have mercy upon us Sirs what shift do you make to keep up your confidence of your good estate when God from heaven declares against you and pronounces you in a state of damnation I would reason with you as God with them How canst thou say I am not polluted Ier. 2. 23. See thy way in the valley know what thou hast done Man is not thy conscience privy to thy tricks of deceit to thy chamber pranks to thy way of lying Yea are not thy friends thy family thy neighbours witnesses to thy prophane neglects of Gods worship to thy covetous practices to thy envious and malicious carriage may not they point at thee as thou goest there goes a gaming Prodigal there goes a drunken Nabal a companion of evil-doers there goes a railer or a scoffer a loose liver Beloved God hath written it as with a Sun beam in the book out of which you must be judged that these are not the spots of his Children and that none such except renewed by converting grace shall ever escape the damnation of Hell Oh that such of you would now be perswaded to repent and turn from all your transgressions or else iniquity will be your ruine Ezek. 18. 30. Alas for poor hardned sinners Must I leave you at last where you were Must I leave the tipler still at the Ale-bench Must I leave the wanton still at his dalliance Must I leave the malicious still in his venome And the drunkard still at his vomit However you must know that you have been warned and that I am clear of your blood And whether men will hear or whether they will forbear I will leave these three scriptures with them either as thunderbolts to awaken them or as â—earing Irons to harden them to a reprobate sense Psal. 68. 21. God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 1. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded c. I will mock at your calamity when your destruction cometh as a whirlwind And now I imagine many will begin to bless themselves and think all is well because they cannot be spotted with the grosser evils above mentioned But I must further tell you that there are another sort of unsanctified persons that carry not their marks in their foreheads but more secretly and covertly in their hands These do frequently deceive themselves and others and pass for good Christians when they are all the while unsound at bottom Many pass undiscovered till death and judgement bring all to light Those self-deceivers seem to come even to Heaven gate with confidence of their admissionâ— and yet are turned off at last Mat. 7. 22. Brethren Beloved I beseech you deeply to lay to heart and firmly to retain this 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 into the chambers of death These you must search carefully for and take them as black marks wherever they be found discovering
be broken but upon whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder Mat. 21. 44. What work did it make with our Saviour It pressed the very blood to a wonder out of his veins and broke all his bones and if it did this in the green tree what will it do in the dry Oh think of thy case in time Canst thou think of that threat without trembling Ye shall die in your sins Ioh. 8. 24. Oh better were it for thee to die in a goal die in a ditch in a dungeon than die in thy sins If death as it will take away all thy other comforts would take away thy sins too it were some mitigation But thy sins will follow thee when thy friends leave thee and all worldly enjoyments shake hands with thee Thy sins will not die with thee 2 Cor. 5. 10. Rev. 20. 12. as a prisoners others debts will but they will to judgement with thee there to be thine accusers and they will to hell with thee there to be thy tormentors Better to have so many fiends and furies about thee than thy sins to fall upon thee and fasten in thee Oh the work thot these will make with thee Oh look over thy debts in time How much art thou in the books of every one of Gods laws How is every one of Gods commandments ready to arrest thee and take thee by the throat for innumerable bonds that it hath upon thee What wilt thou then do when they shall altogether lay it in against thee Hold open the eyes of conscience to consider this that thou maist despair of thy self and be driven to Christ and fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before thee Heb. 6. 18. V. Thy raginglusts do miserably enslave thee While unconverted thou art a very servant to sin it reigns over thee and holds thee under its dominion till thou art brought within the bond of Gods covenant Iohn 8. 34 36. Tit. 3. 3. Rom. 6. 12 14. Rom. 6. 16 17. Now there 's no such Tyrant as sin Oh the filthy and fearful work that it doth ingage its servants in would it not pierce a mans heart to see a company of poor creatures drudging and toiling and all to carry together faggots and fuell for their own burning Why this is the employment of sins drudges Even while they bless themselves in their unrighteous gains while they sing and swill in pleasures they are but treasuring up wrath and vengeance for their eternal burning they are but laying in powder and bullets and adding to the pile of Tophet and flinging in Oyl to make the flame rage the fiercer Who would serve such a master whose work is drudgery and whose wages is death Rom. 6. 23. What a woful spectacle was that poor wretch possessed with the legion Would it not have pitied thine heart to have seen him among the tombs cutting and wounding of himself Mark 5. 5. This is thy case such is thy work Every stroke is a thrust at thine heart 1 Tim. 6. 10. Conscience indeed is now asleep but when death and judgment shall bring thee to thy senses then thou wilt feel the raging smart and anguish of every wound The convinced sinner is a sensible instance of the miserable bondage of sin Conscience flies upon him and tells him what the end of these things will beâ— and yet such a slave is he to his lusts that on he must though he see it will be his endless perdition and when the temptation comes lust gets the bit in his mouth breaks all the cords of his vows and promises and carries him head-long to his own destruction VI. The furnace of eternal Vengeance is heated ready for thee Esay 30. 33. Hell and destruction open their mouths upon thee they gape for thee they groan for thee Esay 5. 14. waiting as it were with a greedy eye as thou standest upon the brink when thou wilt drop in If the wrath of a man may be as the roaring of a Lion Prov. 19. 12. more heavy than the sand Prov. 27. 3. What is the wrath of the infinite God If the burning furnace heated in Nebuchadnezars fiery rage when he commanded it to be made yet seven times hotter were so fierce as to burn up even those that drew near it to throw the three children in Dan. 3. 19 22. How hot is that burning oven of the Almighty's fury Mal. 4. 1. Surely this is seventy times seven more fierce What thinkest thou O man of being a faggot in hell to all eternity Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee saith the Lord of hosts Ezek. 22. 14. Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings Canst thou abide the consuming fire Esay 33. 4. When thou shalt be as a glowing Iron in hell and thy whole body and soul shall be as perfectly possessed by Gods burning vengeance as the fiery sparkling iron when heated in the fiercest forge Thou canst not bear Gods whip how then wilt thou endure his scorpions Thou art even crushed and ready to wish thy self dead under the weight of his finger how then wilt thou bear the Weight of his loyns The most patient man that ever was did curse the day that ever he was born Iob 3. 1. and even woo death to come and end his misery Iob 7. 15 16. when God did but let out one little drop of his wrath How then wilt thou endure when God shall pour out all his vials and set himself against thee to torment thee when he shall make thy conscience the tunnel by which he will be pouring his burning wrath into thy soul for ever and when he shall fill all thy powers as full of torment as they be now full of sin When immortality shall be thy misery and to die the death of a bruit and be swallowed into the gulf of annihilation shall be such a felicity as a whole eternity of wishes and an Ocean of tears shall never purchase Now thou canst put off the evil day and canst laugh and be merry and forget the terrour of the Lord 2 Cor 5. 11. but how wilt thou hold out or hold up when God shall cast thee into a bed of torments Rev. 2. 22. and make thee to lie down in sorrows Esay 50. 11. When roarings and blasphemy shalt be thine only musick and the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his indignation shall be thine only drink Rev. 14. 10. When thou shalt draw in flames for thy breath and the horrid stench of sulphur shall be thine only perfume In a word when the smoak of thy torment shall ascend for ever and ever and thou shalt have no rest night nor day no rest in thy conscience no ease in thy bones but thou shalt be an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach for evermore Ier. 42. 18. O sinner stop here and consider
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 it 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 Whilst 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 Physitian that does not think himself sick The man of God may spare his pains of perswading thee to Conversion whilst 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 thy heart is false and deceitful and yet because it speaks good concerning thee must it not be questioned 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 or 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 couldest 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 and should 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 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 â—â—quaintance 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 shall 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 and consent unto him who by the Pen of his servant calls to thee from Heaven Why wilt thou die 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 talâ—s 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 debtor to you all and am concerned as I would be found a good steward to the Houshold of God to give to every one his Portion But the Physician is most solicitous 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 call for my most earnest compassions and hasty diligence to pluck them out of the burning Iud. 23. and therefore to these first I shall apply my self in these lines But whence shall I fetch my arguments or how shall I choose my words Lord wherewith shall I wooe them whereby shall I win them Oh that I could but tell I would write unto them in tears I would weep out every argument I would empty my veins
and this cannot be except it be done with a holy heart 2 Chron. 25. 2. IV. Without this thy hopes are in vain Job 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 â—ot know peace Esay 49. 8. Without the fear of God â—ou cannot have the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 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. 32. 't is brokenness in the bones Psal. 51. 8. it pierceth it woundeth it racketh it tormenteth 1 Tim. 6. 10. A man may as well expect ease when his diseases are in their strength or his bones out of joynt as true comfort while in his sins O wretched man that canst have no â—ase 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 unsatiablâ— 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 ways 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. Tâ— 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 takes 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 â—ruition 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. 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 are 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 own 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 sail and their hope shâ—â—â— be as the giving up of the Ghost Iob 11. 2. â—cked 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 his dart 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 lier He hath told you that so merciful and pittiful as he is he will never save you notwithstanding if you go on in ignorance or a course of unrighteousness Esa. 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 merciful 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 Object Why but we hope in Jesus Christ we put our whole trust in God and therefore doubt not but we shall be saved Answ. 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 find eternal life in the broad way is to hope Christ will prove a false Prophet 'T is David's plea I hope in thy word Psal. 119. 81. but this hope is against the word Shew me a word of Christ for thy hope that he will save thee in thine ignorance or prophane neglects of his service and I will never go to shake thy confidence 2. God doth with abhorrency reject this hope Those condemned in the Prophet went on in their sins yet saith the Text they will lean upon the Lord Mic. 3.
heart unto all that I shall testifie unto thee this day for it is not a vain thing it is your life Deut. 32. 4. 6. This is the end of all that hath been spoken hitherto to bring you to set upon turning and making use of Gods means for your Conversion I would not trouble you nor torment you before the time with the forethoughts of your eternal misery but in order to your making your escape Were you shut up under your present misery without remedy it were but mercy as one speaks to let you alone that you might take in that little poor comfort that you are capable of here in this world But you may yet be happy if you do not wilfully refuse the means of your recovery Behold I hold open the door unto you arise and take your flight I set the way of life before you walk in it and you shall live and not die Deut. 30. 19. Ier. 9. 16. It pities me to think you should be your own murderers and throw your selves headlong when God and men cry out to you as Peter in another case to his master Spare thy self A noble Virgin that attended the Court of Spain was wickedly ravished by the King and hereupon exciting the Duke her Father to revenge he called in the Moors to his help who when they had executed his design miserably wasted and spoiled the Country which this Virgin laying so exceedingly to heart shut her self up in a Tower belonging to her Fathers house and desired her Father and Mother might be called forth and bewailing to them her own wretchedness that she should have occasioned so much misery and desolation to her Country for the satisfying of her revenge she told them she was resolved to be avenged upon her self Her Father and Mother besought her to pity her self and them but nothing would prevail but she took her leave of them and threw her self off the battlements and so perished before their faces Just thus is the wilful destruction of ungodly men The God that made them beseecheth them and cryeth out to them as Paul to the distracted Jaylor when about to murder himself Do thy self no harm The Ministers of Christ forewarn them and follow them and fain would hold them back But alas No expostulations nor obtestations will prevail but men will hurl themselves into perdition while pity it self looketh on What shall I say Would it not grieve a person of any humanity if in the time of a reigning plague he should have a receipt as one well that would infallibly cure all the Countrey and recover the most hopeless patients and yet his friends and neighbours should die by the hundreds about him because they would not use it Men and Brethren though you carry the certain symptoms of death in your faces yet I have a receipt that will cure you all that will cure infallibly Follow but these few directions and if you do not then win Heaven I will be content to lose it Hear then Oh sinner and as ever thou wouldst be converted and saved embrace this following counsel Dir. I. Set it down with thy self as an undoubted truth that it is impossible for thee ever to get to Heaven in this thine unconverted state Can any other but Christ save thee And he tells thee he will never do it except thou be regenerated and converted Mat. 18. 3. Iohn 3. 3. Doth he not keep the keys of Heaven And canst thou get in without his leave as thou must if ever thou comest thither in thy natural condition without a sound and through renovation Dir. II. Labour to get a thorow sight and lively sense and feeling of thy sins Till men are weary and heavy laden and pricked at the heart and stark sick of sin they will not come to Christ in his way for ease and cure nor to purpose enquire What shall we do Mat. 11. 28. Acts 2. 37. Mat. 9. 12. They must set themselves down for dead men before they will come unto Christ that they may have life Iohn 5. 40. Labour therefore to set all thy sins in order before thee Never be afraid to look upon them but let thy spirit make diligent search Psal. 77. 6. Enquire into thine heart and into thy life Enter into a thorow examination of thy self and of all thy wayes Psal. 119. 59. that thou maist make a full discovery and call in the help of Gods spirit in the sense of thine own inability hereunto for it is his proper work to convince of sin Iohn 16. 8. Spread all before the face of thy conscience till thine heart and eyes be set abroach Leave not striving with God and thine own soul till it cry out under the sense of thy sins as the enlightned Jaylor What must I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. To this porpose Meditate of the numerousness of thy sins David's heart failed when he thought of this and considered that he had more sins than hairs Ps. 40. 12. This made him to cry out upon the multitudes of Gods tender-mercies Psal. 51. 1. The loathsom carcase doth not more hatefully swarm with crawling worms than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts They fill the head the heart the eyes and mouth of him Look backward where was ever the place what was ever the time in which thou didst not sin Look inward what part or power canst thou find in soul or body but it is poisoned with sin What duty dost thou ever perform into which this poyson is not shed Oh how great is the sum of thy debts who hast been all thy life long running upon the hooks and never didst nor canst pay off one penny Look over the sin of thy nature and all its cursed brood the sins of thy life Call to mind thy Omissions Commissions the sins of thy thoughts of thy words of thine actions the sins of thy youth the sins of thy years c. Be not like a desperate Bankrupt that is afraid to look over his books Read the records of conscience carefully These books must be opened sooner or later Rev. 20. 12. Meditate upon the aggravations of thy sin as they are the grand enemies against the God of thy life against the life of thy soul in a word they are the publick enemies of all mankind How do David Ezra Daniel and the good Levites aggravate their sins from the consideration of their injuriousness to God their opposition to his good and righteous Laws the mercies the warnings that they were committed against Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. Ezra 9. O the work that sin hath made in the world This is the enemy that hath brought in death that hath robbed and enslaved man that hath blacked the devil that hath digged hell Rom. 5. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Iohn 8. 34. This is the enemy that hath turned the creation upside down and sown dissension between man and the creatures between man and man yea between man and himself seting the sensitive part against the
in that 1. They overlook his justice 2. They promise themselves mercy out of Gods way His mercy is beyond all imagination Esay 55. 9. great mercies 1 Chron. 21. 13. manifold mercies Neh. 9. 19. tender mercies Psal. 25. 6. sure mercies Esay 55. 3. everlasting mercies Psal. 103. 17. Esay 54. 8. and all thine own if thou wilt but turn Art thou willing to come in Why the Lord hath laid aside his terror erâ—cted a Throne of Grace holds forth the golden Scepter Touch and live Would a merciful man slay his enemy when prostrate at his feet acknowledging his wrong begging pardon and offering to enter with him into a Covenant of peace Much less will the merciful God Study his name Exod. 34. 7. Read their experience Neh. 9. 17. Secondly his soul-encouraging calls and promises do invite thee Ah what an earnest suitor is mercy to thee how lovingly how instantly it calleth after thee how passionately it wooeth thee Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger for ever Only acknowledge thine iniquity Turn O back-sliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you return and I will heal your back-slidings Thou hast plaid the harlot with many lovers yet return unto me saith the Lord Jer. 3. 11 12 13 14 22. 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 Ezek. 33. 11. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done shall â—e live Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a clean heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ezek. 18. 21 23 30 31 32. Oh melting gracious words The voice of a God and not of a man This is not the manner of men for the offended Soveraign to sue to the offending traiterous varlet Oh how doth mercy follow thee and plead with thee Is not thy heart broken yet Oh that to day ye would hear his voice 2. The doors of heaven are thrown open to thee The everlasting gates are set wide for thee and an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven administred to thee Christ now bespeaks thee as she her husband Arise and take possession 1 Kings 21. 15. View the glory of the other world as set forth in the map of the Gospel Get thee up into the Pisgah of the Promises and lift up thine eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward and see the good land that is beyond Iordan and that goodly mountain Behold the Paradice of God watered with the streams of glory Arise and walk through the land in the length of it and in the bredth of it for all the land which thou seest the Lord will give it to thee for ever if thou wilt but return Gen. 13. 14 15 17. Let me say to thee as Paul to Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets If thou believest indeed do but view what glorious things are spoken of the City of God Psal. 87. 3. and know that all this is here tendered in the name of God to thee As verily as God is true it shall be for ever thine if thou wilt but throughly turn Behold the City of pure transparent Gold whose foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones whose gates are pearls whose light is glory whose temple is God Believest thou this If thou dost art thou not worse than distracted that wilt not take possession when the gates are flung open to thee and thou art bid to enter O ye sons of â—olly will ye embrace the dunghils and refuse the Kingdom Behold the Lord God tâ—keth you up into the mountain shews you the Kingdom of Heaven and all the glory thereof and tells you All this will I give you if you will fall down and worship me â— If you will submit to mercy accept my Son and serve me in righteousness ness and holiness O fools and slow of heart 〈◊〉 believe will you court the harlot will you seek and serve the world and neglect the eternal glory What not enter into Paradise when the flaming sword that was once set to keep you out is now used to drive you in But you will say I am uncharitable to think you infidels and unbelievers Why what shall I think you either you are desperate unbelievers that do not credit it or stark distracted that you know and believe the excellency and eternity of his glory and yet do so fearfully neglect it Surely you have no faith or no reason and I had almost said conscience should tell you so before I leave you Do but attend what is offered you Oh blessed Kingdom A Kingdom of glory 1 Thes. 2. 12. a Kingdom of righteousness 2 Pet. 3. 13. a Kingdom of peace Rom. 14. 17. an everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1. 11. Here thou shaâ—t dwell here thou shaâ—t â—eign for ever and the Lord shall set thee in a throne of glory Mat. 19. 28. and with his own hand shall set the Royal Diadâ—m upon thine head and give thee a Crown not of thorns for there shall be no sâ—nning nor suffering there Rev. 21. 27. 22. 3 4 5. not of Gold for this shall be viler than the dirt in that day but a Crown of life Iames 1. 12. a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4. 8. a Crown of glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. Yea thou shalt put on glory as a robe 1 Cor. 15. 53. and shale shine like the Sun in the â—irmament in the glory of thy Father Mat. 13. 43. Look now upon thy dirty flesh thy clay thy worms-meat this very flesh this lump this carcase shall be brighter than the Stars Dan. 12. 3. In short thou shalt be made like unto the Angels of God Luke 20. 36. and behold his face in righteousness Psal. 17. 15. Look in now and tell me dost thou yet believe If not conscience must pronounce thee an infidel for it is the very word of God that I speak But if thou say thou believest let me next know thy resolutions Wilt thou embrace this for thy happiness Wilt thou forgo thy sinful gains thy forbidden pleasures Wilt thou trample on the worlds esteem and spit in the harlots face and stop thine ears at her flareries and wrest thee out of her embraces Wilt thou be content
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 dispatches 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 soulâ— undoing evil Esay 27. 11. 2 Thes. 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 Proâ—estants were shut up a multitude together in a bâ—rn 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 bosom 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 Luk. 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 up the cost and this error in the foundation marrs all and secretly ruines them for ever Luk. 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 performances of holy duties Mat. 23. 25. and this oft-times doth most effectually deceive men and doth more certainly undo them than open loosness 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 Luk. 18. 11. whereas resting in the work done and coming short of the heart-work and the inward power and vitals of Religion they fâ—ll at last into the burning from the flattering hopes and confident perswasions of their being in the ready way to Heaven Matth. 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. 25. 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 satisfie his conscience to get the repute of being religious to bee 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 unâ—ound heart Hos. 10. 1. Zech. 7. 5 6. O Christians if you would avoid self-deceit see that you mind not only your acts but withall yea above all your ends 5. Trusting on 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 professors you are much in duties but this one fly will spoil all the ointment When you have done most and best be sure to go out of your selves to Christ reckon your own righteousness but rags Psal. 143. 2. Phil. 3. 8. Esay 64. 6. Neh. 13. 22. 6. A secret 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 lively 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 the sure evidence of an unsanctified heart Mar. 10. 37. 1 Ioh. 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 many times when every body else can see the mans worldliness and covetousness he cannot 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 self deceit How many professours be there with whom the world hath more of their heart and affections than Christ Who mind earthly things and thereby are evidently after the flesh and like to end in destruction Rom. 8. 25. Phil. 3. 19. Yet ask these men and they will tell you confidently they prize Christ above all God forbid else and see not their own earthly mindedness for want of a narrow observation of the workings of their own hearts Did they but carefully search