may help themselves and us If you still refuse will not your loss be more than ours If we lose our labour which to our selves we shall not if we lose our hopes of your salvation what is this to your everlasting loss of salvation it self And what is our suffering for your sakes in comparison of your endless sufferings But O this is it that breaketh our hearts that we leave you under more guilt than we found you and when we have laid out life and labour to save you the impenitent souls must have their painâ— increased for the refusing of these Calls And that it will be part of your Hell to think for ever how madly you refused our Counsel and what pains and cost and patience were used to have saved you and all in vain It will be so it must needs be so Christ saith that it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment than for the rejecters of his Gospel-calls The nature of the thing and the nature of Iustice certainly tell you that it must be so O turn not our complaints to God against you Turn us not from beseeching you to be reconciled to God to tell him you will not be reconciled Force us not to say that we earnestly invited you to the heavenly feast and you would not come Force us not to bear this witness against you Lord we could have born all our labour and sufferings for them much easilyer if they would but have yielded to thy grace But it was they themselves that broke our hearts that lost our labour that made us preach and intreat in vain It was easier to preach without maintenance than without success It was they that were worse to us than all the persecutors in the world How oft would we have gathered them but they would not but are ungathered still How many holy faithful Ministers have I known these eleven years last past who have lived in pining poverty and want and hardly by charity got bread and cloathing and yet if they could but have truly said Lord the Sermons which I preach privately and in danger have won home many souls to thee it would have made all this burden easie But I tell thee senseless impenitent sinner thou that deniedst God thy heart and thou that deniedst them thy Conversion which was the end of all their labours hast dealt much more cruelly with them than they that denied them the Levites bread Poor sinners I know that I am speaking all this to those that are dead in sin but it is a death consisting with a natural life which hath a capacity of spiritual life Or else I would no more speak to you than to a stone And I know that you are blind in sin but it is a blindness consisting with a reasonable faculty which is capable of spiritual Illumination Or else I would no more perswade you than I would do a beast And I know that you are in the fetters of your own lusts your wills your love your hearts are turned away from God and strongly bewitched with the dreams and dalliances of the flesh and world But your wills are not forced to this Captivity Surely those wills may be changed by Gods grace when you clearly see sufficient reason for to change them Else I would as soon preach were I capable to Devils and damned souls Your case is not yet desperate O make it not desperate There is just the same hope of your Salvation as there is of your true conversion and perseverance and no more Without it there is no hope and with it you are safe and have no cause to doubt and fear Heaven may yet be yours if you will Nothing but your own wills refusing Christ and a holy life can keep you out And shall that do it Shall Hell be your own choice And will you not I say will you not be saved O think better what you do Gods terms are reasonable His word and ways are good and equal Christs yoke is easie and his burden light and his Commandments are not grievous to any but so far as blindness and a bad and backward heart doth make them so You have no true reason to be unwilling God and Conscience shall one day tell you and all the World that you had no reason for it You may as wisely pretend reason to cut your throats to torment your selves as plead reason against a true conversion unto God Were I perswading you not to kill your selves I should make no question but you would be perswaded And yet must I be hopeless when I perswade you from everlasting misery and not to prefer the world and flesh before your Saviour and your God and before a sure everlasting Joy God forbid Reader I take it for a great mercy of God that before my head lieth down in the dust and I go to give up my account unto my judge I have this opportunity once more earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own salvation I beg it of thee as one that must shortly be called away and speak to thee no more till we come unto our endless state that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thy self and use the reason of a man and look before thee whither thou art going and look behind thee how thou hast lived and what thou hast been doing in the world till now and look within thee what a case thy soul is in and whether it be ready to enter upon Eternity and look above thee what a Heaven of Glory thou dost neglect and what a God thou hast to be thine everlasting Friend or Enemy as thou choosest and as thou livest and that thou art always in his sight Yea and look below thee and think where they are that died unconverted And when thou hast soberly thought of all these things then do as God and true Reason shall direct thee And is this an unreasonable request I appeal to God and to all wise men and to thy own conscence when it shall be awake If I speak against thee or if all this be not for thy good or if it be not true and sure then regard not what I say If I speak not that message which God hath commanded his Ministers to speak then let it be refused as contemptuosly as thou wilt But if I do but in Christs name and stead beseech thee to be reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5. 19 20. refuse it at thy peril And if Gods beseeching thee shall not prevail against thy sloth thy lust thy appetite against the desires of thy flesh against the dust shadows of this world remember it when with fruitless cries and horrour thou art beseeching him too late I know poor sinner that Flesh is bruitish and lust and appetite have no reason But I know that thou hast reason thy self which was given thee to over-rule them and that he that will not be a Man cannot be a Saint nor a Happy man I know that thou livest
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
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
and is ready to envy the very stones that lie in the street because these are senseless and feel not his misery and wishes he had been a dog or a toad or serpent rather than a man because then death had put an end to his misery whereas now it will be but the beginning of that which will know no ending How light soever you may make of it now you will one day find the guilt of unpardoned sin to be a heavy burden This is a milstone that whosoever falleth upon it shall 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 Iohn 8. 24. Oh better were it for thee to dye in a gaol dye in a ditch in a dungeon than dye 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 dye with thee 2 Cor. 5. 10. Rev. 20. 12. as a prisoners other debts will but they will to judgment 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 that 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 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 raging lusts do miserably enslave thee While unconverted thou art a very servant of 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 engage 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 fuel for their own burning Why this is the imployment 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 erernal burning they are but lâ—ying in Powder and bullets and adding to the pile of Tophet and flinging in oyl to make the flames 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 pityed 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 courses will be 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 its mouth breaks all the cords of his vows and promises and carries him headlong 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 fiâ—rce What thinkest thou O man of being a faggot in Hell to all eternity Can thine heart indure 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. 14. 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 loins The most patient man that ever was did curse the day that ever he was born Iob 3. 1. and even wooe 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 he 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 terror 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 shall be thine only musick and the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without
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
into the bag and take thence a stone and sling it do thou carry it unto the mark and make it sink not into the forehead 1 Sam. 17. 49. but the heart of the unconverted sinner and smite him to the ground with Saul in his so happy fall Act. 9. 4. Thou hast sent me as Abraham did Eliezer to take a wife unto my master thy son Gen. 24. 4. But my discouraged soul is ready to fear the woman will not be willing to follow me O Lord God of my Master I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness unto my Master and send thine Angel before me and prosper my way that I may take a wife unto thy son Gen. 24. 12. That as the servant rested not till he had brought Isaac and Rebeckah together so I may be succesful to bring Christ and the souls of my people together before we part But I turn me unto you Some of you do not know what I mean by conversion and in vain shall I perswade you to that which you do not understand and therefore for your sakes I shall shew what this Coversion is Others do cherish secret hopes of mercy though they continue as they be and for them I must shew the necessity of Conversion Others are like to harden themselves with a vain conceit that they are converted already unto them I must shew the marks of the Vnconverted Others because they feel no harm fear none and so sleep upon the the top of the maâ—t to them I shall shew the misery of the Vnconverted Others sit still because they see not their way out to them I shall shew the means of Conversion And finally for the quickening of all I shall close with the motives of Conversion CHAP. I. Shewing the Negative what Conversion is not and correcting some mistakes about it LEt the blind Samaritans worship they know not what Ioh. 4. 22. Let the heathen Athenians superscribe their Altar to the unknown God Act. 17. 23. Let the guileful Papists commend the mother of destruction Hos. 4. 6. for the mother of devotion they that know mans constitution and the nature of the reasonable souls operation cannot but know that the understanding having the Empire in the soul he that will go rationally to work must labour to let in the light here Ignorantis non est consensus And therefore that you may not mistake me I shall shew you what I mean by the conversion I perswade you to endeavour after It is storied that when Iupiter let down the golden chaplets from Heaven all of them but one were stoln Whereupon left they should lose a relique of so great esteem they made five others so like it that if any were so wickedly minded as to steal that also they should not be able to discern which was it And truly my beloved the Devil hath made many counterfeits of this conversion and cheats one with this and another with that and such a craft and artifice he hath in this mystery of deceits that if it were possible he would deceive the very Elect. Now that I may cure the damnable mistakes of some who think they are converted when they are not as well as remove the troubles and fears of others that think they are not converted when they areâ— I shall shew you the nature of conversion both negatively or what it is not and positively what it is We will begin with the negative 1. It is not the taking on us the profession of Christianity Doubtless Christianity is more than a name If we will hear Paul it lies not in word but in power 1 Cor. 4. 20. If to cease to be Jews and Pagans and to put on the Christian profession had been true conversion as this is all that some would have to be understood by it who better Christians than they of Sardis and Laodicea These were all Christians by profession and had a name to live but because they had but a name are condemned by Christ and threatened to be spewed out Rev. 3. 1 16. Are there not many that name the name of the Lord Jesus that yet depart not from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. and profess they know God but in works deny him Tit. 1. 16. And will God receive these for true converts because turned to the Christian religion What converts from sin when yet they do live in â—in 'T is a visible contradiction Surely if the lamp of profession would have served the turn the foolish virgins had never been shut out Matt. 25. 3 12. We find not only professours but preachers of Christ and wonder-workers turned off because â—yil workers Matth. 7. 22 23. 2. It is not in the being washed in the laver of Regenerationâ—â— or putting on the badge of Christ in baptism Many take the press-money and wear the Livery of Christ that yet never stand to their colours nor follow their leader Ananias and Saphira and Magus were baptized as well as the rest How fondly do many mistake here deceiving and being deceived dreaming that effectual grace is necessarily tied to the external administration of baptism which what is it but to revive the popish tenent of the Sacraments working grace ex opere operato and so every infant should be regenerated not only Sacramento tenus sacramentally but really and properly Hence men do fancy that being regenerated already when baptized they need no further work But if this were so then all that were baptized in their infancy must necessarily be saved because the promise of pardon and salvation is made to conversion and regeneration Act. 3. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Matth. 19. 28. Our Calling Sanctification as to the beginnings of it or conversion which are but the same thing under different conceptions and expressions is but a middle link in the golden chain fastened to election at the one end and glorification at the other Rom. 8. 30. 2 Thes. 2. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 2. The silver cord may not be broken nor the connexion between sanctification and salvation between grace and glory impiously violated Matth. 5. 8. If we are indeed begotten again it is to an inheritance incorruptible reserved in Heaven for us and the divine power is ingaged to keep us for it 1 Pet. 1. 5. And if the very regenerate may perish at last in their sins we will no more say That he that is born of God his seed remaineth in him and that he cannot sin 1 Iohn 3. 9. i. e. unto death nor that it is impossible to deceive the very elect Matth. 24. 24. And indeed were this true then we need look no further to see our names written in Heaven than only to search the register and see whether we were baptized then I would keep the certificate of my baptism as my fairest evidence for Heaven and should come by Assurance of my gracious state with a wet finger then men should do well to carry but a certificate of their baptism under the
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
and bemoan my fruitless lobours and spend some sighs over my perishing hearers Oh distracted sinners What will their end be What will they do in the day of visitation Whither will they flâ—e for help Where will they leave their glory Esay 10. 3. How powerfully hath sin bewitched them How effectually hath the god of this world blinded them How strong is their delusion How uncircumcised their ears How obdurate their hearts Satan hath them at his beck but how long may I call and can get no answer I may dispute with them year after year and they will give me the hearing and that is all They must and will have their sins say what I will Though I tell them there is death in the cup yet they will take it up Though I tell them 't is the broad way and endeth in destruction yet they will on in it I warn them yet cannot win them Sometimes I think the mercies of God will melt them and his winning invitations will overcome them but I find them as they were Sometimes that the terror of the Lord will perswade them yet neither this will do it They will approve the word like the Sermon commend the preacher but they will yet live as they did They will not deny me yet they will not obey me They will flock to the word of God and sit before me as his people and hear my words but they will not do them They value and will plead for Ministers and I am to them as the lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice yet I cannot get them to come under Christs yoke They love me and will be ready to say they will do any thing for me but for my life I cannot perswade them to leave their sins to forgoe their evil company their intemperance their unjust gains c. I cannot prevail with them to set up prayer in their families and closets yet they will promise me like the forward son that said I go sir but went not Mat. 21. 30. I cannot perswade them to learn the principles of religion though else they will die without knowledge Iob 36. 12. I tell them their misery but they will not believe but 't is well enough If I tell them particularly I fear for such reasons their state is sad they will judge me censorious or if they be at present a little awakened are quickly lull'd asleep by Satan again and have lost the sense of all Alas for my poor hearers Must they perish at last by the hundreds when Ministers would so fain save them What course shall I use with them that I have not tried What shall I do for the daughter of my people Ier. 9. 7. O Lord God help Alas shall I leave them thus If they will not hear me yet do thou hear me Oh that they might yet live in thy sight Lord save them or else they perish My heart would melt to see their houses on fire about their ears when they were fast in their beds and shall not my soul be moved within me to see them falling into endless perdition Lord have compassion and save them out of the burning Put forth thy divine power and the work will be done but as for me I cannot prevail CHAP. IV. Shewing the Marks of the Vnconverted WHile we keep aloof in generals there is little fruit to be expected It is the hand fight that does execution David is not awakened by the Prophets hovering at a distance in parabolical insinuations he is forced to close with him and tell him home Thou art the man Few will in words deny the necessity of the new birth but they have a self-deluding confidence that the work is not now to do And because they know themselves free from that gross hypocrisie that doth take up Religion meerly for a colour to deceive others and for the covering of wicked designs they are confident of their sincerity and suspect not that more close hypocrisie where the greatest danger lies by which man deceiveth his own soul. Iames 1. 26. But man's deceitful heart is such a matchless cheat and self-delusion so reigning and so fatal a disease that I know not whether be the greater the difficulty or the displicency or the necessity of the undeceiving work that I am now upon Alas for my unconverted hearers They must be undeceived or undone But how shall this be effected Hiâ— labor hâ—c opus est Help O all-searching light and let thy discerning eye discover the rotten foundation of the self-deceiver and lead me O Lord God as thou didst thy Prophet into the chambers of imagery and dig through the wall of sinners hearts and discover the hidden abominations that are lurking out of sight in the dark O send thine Angel before me to open the sundry wards of their hearts as thou didst before Peter and make even the Iron-gates to fly open of their own accord And as Jonathan no sooner tasted the honey but his eyes were enlightened so grant O Lord that when the poor deceived souls with whon I have to do shall cast their eyes into these lines their minds may be illuminated and their consciences convinced and awakened that they may see with their eyes and hear with their ears and be converted and thou maist heal them This must be premised before we proceed to the discovery that it is most certain men may have a confident perswasion that their hearts and states be good and yet be unsound Hear the Truth himself who shews in Laodicea's case that men may be wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and yet know it not yea they may be confident they are rich and increased in grace Rev. 3. 17. There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30. 12. Who better perswaded of his case than Paul while yet he remained unconverâ—ed Rom. 7. 9. So that they are miserably deceived that take a strong confidence for a sufficient evidence They that have no better proof than barely a strong perswasion that they are converted are certainly as yet strangers to Conversion But to come more close as it was said of the adherents of Antichrist so here some of the Unconverted carry their marks in their foreheads more openly and some in their hands more covertly The Apostle reckons up some upon whom he writes the sentence of death as in these dreadful catalogues which I beseech you to attend with all diligence Eph. 5. 5 6. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God â—et no mâ—n deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedince Rev. 21. 8. But the fearful and unbelieving and the abâ—minable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake
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
that if you will walk by this rule your very thoughts and inward motions must be under government Again that they are very strict and self-denying quite contrary to the grain of your natural inclinations Mat. 16. 24. You must take the strait gate the narrow way and be content to have the flesh curbed from the liberty that it desires Mat. 7. 14. In a word that they are very large for the commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119. 66. Secondly rest not in generals for there 's much deceit in that but bring down thy heart to the particular commands of Christ. Those Jews in the Prophet seemed as well resolved as any in the world and call God to witness that they meant as they said But they stuck in generals When Gods command crosses their inclination they will not obey Ier. 42. 1 2 3 4 5 6. compared with ch 43 v. 2. Take the Assemblies larger Catechism and see their excellent and most compendious exposition of the Commandments and put thy heart to it Art thou resolved in the strength of Christ to set upon the conscientious practice of every duty that thou findest to be there required of thee and to set against every sin that thou findest there forbidden This is the way to be sound in Gods statutes that thou maist never be ashamed Psal. 119 80. Thirdly Observe the special duties that thy heart is most against and the special sins that 't is most inclin'd unto and see whether it be truly resolved to perform the one and forgo the other What sayst thou to thy bosom sin thy gainful sin What sayst thou to costly and hazardous and flesh-displeasing duties If thou haltest here and dost not resolve by the grace of God to cross thy flesh and put to it thou art unsound Psal. 18. 23. Psal. 119. 6. Dir. X. Let all this be compleated in a solemn Covenant between God and thy soul. Psal. 119. 106. Neb. 10. 29. For thy better help therein take these few Directions First set apart some time more than once to be spent in secret before the Lord. 1. In seeking earnestly his special assistance and gracious acceptance of thee 2. In considering distinctly all the terms or conditions of the Covenant expressed in the form hereafter proposed 3. In searching thine heart whether thou art sincerely willing to forsake all thy sins and to resign up thy self body and soul unto God and his service to serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of thy life Secondly Compose thy spirit into the most serious frame possible suitable to a transaction of so high importance Thirdly Lay hold on the Covenant of God and rely upon his promise of giving grace and strength whereby thou maist be enabled to perform thy promise Trust not to thine own strength to the strength of thine own resolutions but take hold on his strength Fourthly Resolve to be faithful having engaged thine heart opened thy mouth and subscribed with thine hand unto the Lord resolve in his strength never to go back Lastly Being thus prepared on some convenient time set apart for the purpose set upon the work and in the most solemn manner possible as if the Lord were visibly present before thine eyes fall down on thy knees and spreading forth thine hands towards Heaven open thine heart to the Lord in these or the like words O Most dreadful God for the Passion of thy Son I beseech thee accept of thy poor Prodigal now prostrating himself at thy Door I have fallen from thee by mine iniquity and am by nature a son of Death and a thousand-fold more the child of Hell by my wicked Practice But of thine infinite Grace thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn to Thee with all my Heart Therefore upon the Call of Thy Gospel I am now come in and throwing down my weapons submit my self to thy Mercy And because thou requirest as the Condition of my Peace with Thee that I should put away mine Idols and be at defiance with all thine Enemies which I acknowledge I have wickedly sided with against Thee I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all firmly Covenanting with Thee not to allow my self in any known Sin but Conscientiously to use all the means that I know thou hast prescribed for the Death and utter Destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have formerly inordinately and idolatrously let out my affections upon the World I do here resign my Heart to Thee that madest it humbly protesting before thy Glorious Majesty that it is the firm resolution of my Heart and that I do unfeignedly desire Grace from Thee that when thou shalt call me hereunto I may practise this my resolution through thy Assistance to forsake all that is dear unto me in this world rather than to turn from thee to the ways of sin and that I will watch against all its Temptations whether of Prosperity or Adversity lest they should withdraw my Heart from thee beseeching thee also to help me against the Temptations of Satan to whose wicked Suggestions I resolve by thy Grace never to yield my self a Servant And because my own righteousness is but menstruous rags I renounce all confidence therein and acknowledge that I am of my self a hopeless helpless undone done creature without righteousness or strength And forasmuch as thou hast of thy bottomless Mercy offered most Graciously to me wretched sinner to be again my God through Christ if I would accept of thee I call Heaven and Earth to record this day that I do here solemnly avouch thee for the Lord my God with all possible veneration bowing the neck of my soul under the feet of thy most Sacred Majesty I do here take thee the Lord Iehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my portion and chief good and do give up my self body and soul for thy servant promising and vowing to serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life And since thou hast appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming unto thee I do here upon the bended knees of my soul accept of him as the only new and living way by which sinners may have access to thee and do here solemnly join my self in a marriage-Covenant to him O blessed Jesus I come to thee hungry and hardly bestead poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked a most loathsome polluted wretch a guilty condemned Malefactor unworthy for ever to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord much more to be solemnly married to the King of Glory but sith such is thine unparallel'd love I do here with all my power accept thee and do take thee for my Head and Husband for better for worse for richer for poorer for all times and conditions to love and honour and obey thee before all others and this to the death I embrace thee in all thine Offices I
BEfore thou readest these Directions I advise thee yea I charge thee before God and his holy Angels to resolve to follow them as far as conscience shall be convinced of their agreeableness to Gods word and thy estate and call in his assistance and blessing that they may succeed And as I have sought the Lord and consulted his oracles what advice to give thee so must thou entertain it with that aw reverence and purpose of obedience that the word of the living God doth require Now then attend Set thine heart unto all that I shall testify unto thee this day for it is not a vain thing it is your life Deut. 32. 46. 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 willfully 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 Countrey which this Virgin laying 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 Countrey 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 such is the willful 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 dye 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 O sinner and as ever thou wouldst be converted and saved embrace this following counsel Direct 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 estate 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 not he 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. Act. 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 inlightened Jaylour What must I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. To this purpose 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 Psal. 40. 12. This made him to cry out upon the multitudes of Gods tender mercies Psal. 51. 1. The loathsome 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 poison is not shed Oh how great is the sum of thy debts who hast been all thy life long running upon the books 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 thine 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 sins 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