have no Interest in Christ who alone is able to deliver you from the wrath to come 1. That you may be sensible of your lost estate you must get a Conviction of your sin your eyes must be opened to see your selves guilty of sin before God and your mouths must be stopped so as to have nothing to say if the Lord should condemn you You must not only understand the nature of sin in the general that it is a transgression of the holy and righteous and good Law of the holy and glorious God of Heaven and Earth but also you must be particularly and thorowly convinced that you have transgressed this Law of God you must be convinced of your particular sins As to the kinds of your sins you must 1. See your selves guilty of Original sin of Adams first transgression by a just imputation you being in his loyns and parties in the first Covenant and then you must see what inherent sin there is in your nature that you were conceived and born in sin that you are a viperous brood a Serpentine generation a seed of evil doers that the Toad is not fuller of poyson than your natures are full of sin that your natures are contrary unto the nature of God and have an enmity in them against the Law of God Rom. 6. 7. You must be convinced how your natures are depraved being wholly destitute of Original Righteousness empty of all good and inclinable wholly unto evil that they are a polluted fountain from whence can proceed nothing but what is unclean that they are a bitter root from whence doth spring forth such cursed fruits of sin in your lives and you should look upon your sin of nature to be the worst because the Original of all actuall transgressions 2. You must be convinced of your actual sins how you have broken Gods Law in thought word and deed you must see your sins of Omission and your sins of Commission against the first and second Table of the Law and take notice of the number of them so far as you can remember together with their aggravations if they have been committed through ignorance when you have had means of knowledge if against light of Nature and the Word if against the reluctance of natural Conscience if against many Warnings and Reproofs if they have been committed with security hardness of heart delight greediness pride presumption obstinacy and the like and that you might be convinced of the guilt of sin you must look into the Law in which as in a glass you may see your natural face and all the spots thereof the Law will discover the sin of your natures as it requireth perfect conformity thereunto in habit disposition and inclination and forbiddeth all evil byasses of the will and heart to sin as well as external transgressions Moreover the Law will discover to you your actual sins but then you must look beyond the head Precepts of the Law which are but ten for you must take notice of the several branches belonging to every head which are many as for instance If you would finde out whether you are guilty of Adultery you must not only look upon the Precept as forbidding only the gross outward act Thou shalt not commit Adultery but as reaching to the inward desires and inclinations and so our Saviour Math. 5. 28. interprets this Precept that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart and so in the Precept Thou shalt not kill it is murder not only to take away the life of another by violence but also to be angry with our brother without a cause and so in the other Precepts And as you must look into the Law for Conviction of sin so you must also look into your own Consciences and read what is there registred and compare your hearts and lives with the Law and you should call to minde the places you have lived in the businesses you have been employed about and the circumstances of your lives may bring to remembrance many sins committed long ago with their aggravations You must get thus a conviction of the guilt of your sins especially if you have fallen into any grosser sin in your life as adultery drunkenness theft if you have been guilty of swearing Sabbath-breaking profaneness or the like you must see the heinousness of them and withall you must see that every sin which you have committed is heinous as it is a dishonour to the highest Majesty who is infinitely more exalted above the greatest Earthly Kings and Potentates than they are exalted above the meanest Worm or Flie and for such as you to dishonour and affront him by sin is very heinous This is the first thing a Conviction of your sins which you must endeavour after 2. That you may be sensible of your lost estate you must get a conviction of the punishment which God hath threatned and you have deserved for your sins will the Lord put up the affronts which are offered to him by his Creatures will he bear the dishonours of his great and glorious Name by sin without punishing the sinners No surely his holiness will not permit it his Justice hath been offended and must have satisfaction and therefore he threatneth to punish the offenders most severely God threatneth temporal calamities and death as the wages of sin and because through patience he forbeareth to punish many transgressions so remarkably in this life and the most dreadfull temporal Judgements which he inflicteth upon any are no wayes proportionable to the desert of their sins and the demands of his infinite Justice therefore he threatneth eternal punishment in Hell look into some places of Scripture where the Lord doth denounce severe threatnings against sinners Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Eph. 5. 6. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience 2 Thess 1. 8 9. Christ will come in flaming fire taking vengeance on them which know not God and obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the prefence of the Lord and the glory of his power Rom. 2. 6 8 9. God will render unto every man according to his deeds to them who are contentious and do not obey the truth indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish on every soul of man that doth evil That you may see and be sensible of your lost estate you must be convinced not only in the general of the justice and equity that such Judgements should be inflicted on sinners because God himself hath denounced them in his Word who cannot be unjust toward his Creatures and because sin hath deserved them being the breach of his Law which is holy and just and good and an offence
of an infinite Majesty whose Justice is infinite and must be satisfied with a proportionable punishment unto the offence but also you must be convinced that you are such sinners that you have committed such and such sins that you have broken the Law in such a point and such a point and in every point that you are guilty of fornication or drunkenness or theft or covetousness or lying or profaneness and it may be of all these and more than these The first is the conviction of the Law the second the conviction of the Fact then follows the third conviction which is of the State that therefore you are under the Curse that you are condemned that the wrath of God hangeth over your head and that you must be tormented for sin most horribly and eternally in Hell It is the conviction of the dreadfull punishment of Hell which God hath threatned and unto which you are exposed for sin that will awaken you to a sense of your lost state when the conviction is imprinted deep upon you by the Spirit when you believe that Hell is no Fiction but a reality as certainly prepared for the wicked as God is above preparing places in Heaven for his people and you have a peep-hole as it were into Hell and imagine something of the torments which the damned there do and shall endure for such sins as you have committed how they roll and tumble in flames of brimstone how they are lashed by an accusing Conscience tormented with and by the Devil and even consumed by the wrath of a sin-revenging God how they cry roar and howl how they weep and wail and gnash their teeth and that this must be their condition for ever and when withall you think that you are walking upon the brink of this pit and hastening towards the place of these flames that Hell doth belong to you that you are in the number of the cursed crew some of whom have already taken up their lodging in Hell and that you are like to come thither shortly that you are lyable every moment to drop into the burning Lake then you will perceive that you are lost and undone 3. That you may be sensible of your lost estate you must be convinced of your insufficiency to satisfie Gods Justice for your sins if you could do this you might do well enough but this you cannot do Gods Justice is infinite and requireth infinite satisfaction which you being finite are insufficient to give what can you offer to God thousands of Rams rivers of Oyl Mines of Silver Mountains of Gold Rocks of Pearl yea the whole Creation if it should offer it self to be annihilated could not make compensation to Gods Justice for one sin nothing less than infinite must be the satisfaction and therefore this should make you further sensible of your lost estate in your selves 4. You must get a conviction of your inability to resist and defend your selves against God who hath threatned so severely to punish you for sin as Gods Justice is infinite and therefore you cannot satisfie it so his Power is infinite and you cannot resist it who can stand in his sight when once he is angry who can defend himself against an Omnipotent arm If God whet his glittering Sword and his hand take hold on vengeance what Powers of Earth are strong enough to make resistance Read how God expresseth himself concerning such as set themselves against him Isa 27. 4. Who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go thorow them I would burn them together Look upon your selves as briars and thorns yea as dryed stubble before a consuming fire which hath no power to resist the flame and therefore that you are lost and undone in your selves because of your sins 5. You must get a conviction of the impossibility of your fleeing from and escaping Gods wrath which hath you in pursuit whither can you go from his presence or whither can you flee from his anger and indignation See Amos 9. 2 3. Though they dig into Hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climb up into Heaven thence will I bring them down and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the Sea thence will I command the Serpent and he shall bite them You cannot flee into any place but God will follow you you cannot hide your selves in any place but God will finde you there is as little hopes of escaping Gods Wrath as of resisting his Power See Psal 21. 8 9. Thine hand shall finde out all thine enemies not only some but all sinners thy right hand shall finde out them that hate thee Thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thine angers the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them By this time sinners methinks you should perceive your selves to be lost and un-done all refuge now fails you there is no escaping for you 6. But lastly that you may fully know that you are in a lost estate you must get conviction that as yet you have no interest in Christ who alone can deliver you from the wrath of God which is to come upon the ungodly Indeed Christ can and doth deliver his people from wrath and the punishment their sins have deserved but when you know that you are out of Christ then you may know you are in a lost estate if you suppose that you have an interest in him without good grounds you are like to be lost irrecoverably and not know it till it be too late therefore you must know that as yet you have no interest in him that all your pretensions to him have been presumptuous conceits that so you may be lost in your own apprehensions Can you think you have an interest in Christ that never truly mourned for sin that never hungred after Christ that have no true Faith to apply him have you interest in Christ that have no true Love to Christ and never yielded subjection to Christ Have you interest in Christ that have no Influence from Christ have you Union to Christ that have no Communion with him No no all you that are Unbelievers and have persisted hitherto in a sinfull course are strangers unto Christ and therefore be convinced that you are in a lost estate And O how should fear and trembling possess you through the apprehensions of the dreadfull wrath of God how should you go up and down like condemned malefactors that are condemned to Hell and know not how soon they may be dragged to execution O what reason have you to lye down in terrour and rise up in terrour and feed upon terrour all the day long Such thoughts as these are suitable to the condition of such as you It may be the next step I take I may step into Hell Alas Alas I am in a state
you all may attain Salvation Some of you it may be have been notorious sinners your consciences do accuse you of such great sins with such hainous aggravations that you may be discouraged and out of hope that suchas you should be saved you have offered such high affronts and indignities unto the highest Majesty that you think he can never put them up you have run so deep and so long upon the score that you think the scores can never be wiped off if they had been smaller faults or more ordinary slips or you had sought after Salvation sooner you might have hoped to speed but now you fear the door of mercy is shut and the day of Grace is spent and there is no pardon and salvation for such vile sinners as you But let me tell you that the vilest of you all may attain Salvation the door of mercy is not so fast shut as yet but by knocking hard it may be opened and so long as the day of your life is continued and the means of grace are continued you cannot say that the day of grace is quite spent there is salvation attainable by the worst of you all if you will look after it our Saviour tells us of Publicans and Harlots that entred into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than the Pharisees who boasted in their own righteousness Matth. 21. 31. He conversed with and called the worst of sinners to repentance Matth. 9. 11 13. Indeed when the Apostle maketh mention of notorious sinners he telleth us that such whilest such could not be saved 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor â—ffeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inkerit the Kingdom of God Those that are such notorious sinners and continue in the practice of such sins without repentance they cannot be saved but withall he addeth in the 11. verse that some of them had been such sinners but were now in a state of Salvation through their interest in Jesus Christ and the operation of the Spirit of God upon their hearts And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God they were justified their sins pardoned and persons accepted in the name of the Lord Jesus through the imputation of his righteousness unto them and they were washed and sanctified by the Spirit of God through infusion of Grace by the Spirit into them I might add further instances of notorious sinners who have been saved as Manasses Mary Magdalen Paul who before Conversion calleth himself the chiefest of sinners yet obtained Mercy and Salvation and let me tell you moreover that if you repent now and apply your selves to Christ the greater your sins have been the more will Gods glory be illustrated in your Salvation and the abounding of your sins will make way for the superabounding of his grace 3. All of you that hear these words may obtain Salvation it is possible that every one of you in this place may be saved it would be a rare thing but it is a possible thing indeed there are but few that shall be saved but who knoweth but all of you may be found in the number of those few and O how would it rejoyce my heart to see all those faces in Heaven whom I see here this day to hear the words of Salvation Be encouraged to seek after your salvation by the possibility of obtaining Now salvation is possible for all of you that have not as yet attained it but let me add that it will not be possible long for you all whilst you are in the land of the living it is possible though you be condemned to Hell for sin whilst unbelievers Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already yet the sentence of condemnation is traversible you may appeal from the Court of the Law to the Court of Chancery you may fly from the bar of Gods justice unto the throne of grace and if you heartily repent of sin and by faith lay hold on Christ you may obtain pardon and salvation Whilst the reprieve of your life lasteth salvation is attainable but when once your life is come to an end which you know not how soon it may be and you be found in a state of impenitency and unbelief then the percullis will be shut down upon you for ever then the black flag will be hung out then the talent of lead will seal up the measure of your wickedness and your condemnation will be irreversible when the day of your life is spent the day of grace will be spent too and the door of mercy will be shut upon you for ever and it will be impossible for any of you that have not attained then to attain salvation 5. This salvation is a neer Salvation Say not in your heart Who shall ascend up into Heaven to learn what it is there or who shall descend into the deep to bring notice of it from thence or who shall take the wings of the morning and fly into the uttermost parts of the earth thence to bring tydings of it to you for the word of salvation is near unto you it is brought home to your own doors it is that word which is now sounding in your cars even the words which we Ministers preach unto you read what those words are which are brought so nigh Rom. 10. 8 9 10 11 12 13. The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Heretofore salvation was only amongst the Jews and whoever of other Nations would be saved they must travel to Jerusalem and worship the Lord in his Temple and enquire for salvation in that place then salvation was afar off from the Gentiles especially from these Brittish Isles but now since the revelation of Jesus Christ as those which were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ so the word of salvation is brought nigh unto us you have many Messengers of Peace which bring the glad tydings of salvation near unto you and this may further encourage you to seek after it 6. This salvation is an Evident Salvation I mean that it is more clearly and evidently made
faith from the consideration 1. Of God 2. Of the Promises 3. Of Christ 4. Of the Saints 1. From the consideration of God who hath given his Son to save sinners it is an encouragement to faith to consider 1. That God is mercifull and therefore willing to pardon and save otherwise he would not have sent his Son he doth not delight in the death of sinners Ezek. 18. 23. but delighteth to shew mercy see Micah 7. 18 19. Exod. 34. 6 7. Psal 103. 8 9 c. 2. That God is faithfull in his Promises of salvation which he hath made through his Son in his Covenant of Grace God needed not have made the Covenant nor promised mercy to any sinners but having made the Covenant he is engaged to make it good 3. That it is for his glory to save sinners through his Son the glory of his free grace yea and justice too which hath been fully satisfied by Christs death 2. You have encouraging Arguments for faith from the consideration of the Promises which are 1. Large made to all sorts of persons and all sorts of sinners none are excluded 2. Full they extend to all sorts of sins though never so many and great Isa 55. 7. 3. Free nothing is required on your part but accepting 4. Sure being the Promises of God in Christ 3. You have encouragement to believe in Christ for salvation from the consideration of Christ the proper object of faith 1. The quality of his person who is God and man in one person that he might reconcile man unto God 2. The merit of his sufferings which as hath been shown was of infinite value and sufficient for the redemption of men 3. His alsufficient power to save those that come to him Heb. 7. 25. 4. His mercy and faithfulness to make reconciliation Heb. 2. 17. 5. His interest with the Father 6. His continual intercession at the right hand of God Heb. 7. 25. 4. You have encouragement to believe in Christ for salvation from the consideration of the Saints the experience which they have had of salvation by Christ some of whom have been as vile sinners as you You have as good grounds to come unto Christ and believe in him for salvation as the most holy men alive before conversion 5. If you would attain this grace of faith in Jesus Christ you must labour to act it looking up to God for help herein endeavour to cast and roll your selves upon Christ to apply Christ and his merits and to rely upon him and his righteousness It is in your endeavour that God doth work and here you must endeavour again and again against all opposition which you find from the Devil and your own evil heart of unbelief which will be ready to carry you away from Christ So much for the 4th Direction Direction 5. You must get a new Nature if you would be saved You must be made partakers of the Divine Nature if you would be made partakers of this salvation You have brought unholy and impure natures into the world with you which must be changed and renewed after the Image of God in knowledge righteousness and true holiness before you can be in a state of salvation and see the Kingdom of God This new nature which is absolutely necessary unto salvation is begun in the work of regeneration and carried on in the work of sanctification In regeneration the work of grace is begun the habits of grace are infused a new principle of spiritual life is put into the soul and sin which before lived and had dominion over the man imploying all his members as instruments of unrighteousness to make provision for the satisfaction of its affections and lusts doth receive its deaths wound and loseth its force and reigning power In sanctification the work of grace is carried on the habits of grace are strengthned and encreased the new man doth grow and the old man doth decline and decay there is a vivification or quickning more and more of grace by the influence of the Word and Spirit and a mortification or subduing more and more of remaining iniquity What our Saviour tells Nicodemus Joh. 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God I may tell you that unless ye be born again unless ye be regenerated ye cannot be saved no possibility of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven without you get this new nature A man must be born the first time before he can possess a temporal inheritance and a man must be born again before he can possess the eternal inheritance You must be children before you can be heirs Rom. 8. 17. children not only by adoption but also by regeneration Ye must be Saints before meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. You must have the new nature before you can enter into the New Jerusalem You must be made like to God in holiness before you can be admitted to live with God in the place of everlasting happiness God doth suffer the wicked that are unclean and unholy to live before him in the Out-house of the Earth but he will not permit any except such as are sanctified to live with him in the Palace of Heaven O then labour after a work of Grace upon your hearts be perswaded of the worth of Grace that it is a rare and precious Jewel that the least measure of Grace is of more worth than ten thousand Worlds be sensible of your want of it that naturally you are without it that it doth not grow in Natures Garden that you have no good Nature in you before God till your Nature is renewed be ready to receive the seed of Grace which drops down from above whilest People are attending upon Gods Ordinances be ready to hearken and yield to the Spirits motions whereby this work of Grace is effected And having the work begun O cherish the Grace you have got and as new-born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby and labour to cleanse your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that ye may perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Direction 6. You must lead a new Life if you would be saved see what kind of Life the grace of God which bringeth salvation doth require and teach namely to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. You must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts you must put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts Eph. 4. 22. and not fashion your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance and unregeneracy 1 Pet. 1. 14. not running with others unto the same excess of riot 1 Pet. 4. 4. not walking according to the course of a profane and ungodly world Eph. 2. 2. but saving your selves from an untoward generation Act. 2. 40. as he
depth of this Promise we may suck and suck again at this breast and though we draw never so hard we can never draw forth all the sweetness that is in this Promise To have God to be our God it is very great it is very sweet Indeed God is the God of all his Creatures yea of his enemies and the vilest sinners but to be our God in this place sounds and signifieth more than that which is common to all it speaketh a peculiar relation a special interest and propriety in God in this promise God doth make over himself and all that he hath to us so far as we are capable of receiving he giveth himself to be our portion he engageth his Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Love and all his Attributes to be employed for our good he promiseth to be our God here and to be our God for ever it signifieth that he will be our Father to love and cherish us to preserve and provide for us whilest we live and to take our Souls to himself when we dye and to raise up our bodies at the last day and make both perfectly glorious and happy in Heaven when time shall be no more He promiseth also that we shall be his People we cannot make our selves so but he promiseth that he will make us so he will make us his Children he will adopt us he will regenerate us give us the title and give us the disposition of Children all this and much more is contained in this Promise That God will be our God and we shall be his People even the whole work of our salvation from our effectual Calling unto our eternal Glorification 2. A second great Promise of the Covenant of Grace is That God will be mercifull unto our unrighteousness and that he will remember no more our sins and iniquities it is a promise of mercy in the free pardon and forgiveness of all our sins this is an exceeding great and precious promise without which there were no access for us unto God no attaining eternal happiness no escaping eternal misery guilt would shut us out of Heaven and sink us into Hell without a pardon This Promise is of vast extent it reacheth to all sort of sins Unrighteousness Sins Iniquities no sin is too great for God to pardon if the sinner doth believe 3. A third Promise of the Covenant of Grace is that God will give us the knowledge of himself they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest they shall not teach one another the knowledge of God that is they cannot or they shall not be able to do it they may and ought to teach one another instrumentally it is the duty of some to teach and the duty of others and they have need to learn but they shall not be able to teach effectually they may give instructions to one another concerning God and his wayes but they cannot give light they may set the light before them but they cannot set up the light in them they may open Truths but they cannot open the Understanding this is the work of God only to do and this he hath undertaken by Promise to do they shall all know me they shall be taught of God by his Spirit the knowledge of himself he teacheth by men instrumentally but he will teach us by his Spirit effectually 4. A fourth Promise of the Covenant of Grace is that God will put his laws into our hearts and write them in our minds the Law was written before on Tables of Stone but here he promiseth to write them on fleshly Tables of the heart which is done not with Pen and Ink but by the Spirit of the living God 2 Cor. 3. 3. this Promise is very comprehensive it includes not only the giving of a spiritual discovery of the minde and will of God but also the giving of spiritual dispositions affections and strength to perform it and by consequence the removal of indispositions the purging out of corruptions the mortifying of lust the taking away the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh the giving a new heart the putting the Spirit within us and causing us to walk in his Statutes and to keep his Judgements and do them as this Promise is branched forth Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. These in brief are the chief Promises of the Covenant of Grace labour to understand them and apply them that you may be saved Direct 9. You must give up your selves in Covenant to God if you would be saved God hath put his hand and seal to the Covenant which he hath made through his Son with you and you should put your hand to the Covenant and engage your selves unto the Lord you were dedicated to the Lord by your Parents when you were baptized then you understood not what was done now you are arrived to years of understanding you should make it your own act and dedicate your selves to the Lord and the more solemnly you enter into Covenant with God the more strong Obligation it may be upon you to walk closely with God all your dayes Some have directed to do it under hand-writing subscribing the name and some have put words into your mouths which you may do it in if you are not so well able to express the terms your selves you have this done in Mr. Guthry and Mr. Allen's books if those Books be not at hand I shall set before you this Platform which you may make use of in entring solemnly into Covenant with God I A. B. do acknowledge my self to be the Creature and Subject of the great and glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth in whom I live move and have my being and from whom I receive every good thing which I receive and therefore am obliged to conform my minde will and affections to order my words wayes and whole conversation according to his most wise and good most righteous and reasonable Laws Besides which natural Obligation however born in sin and thereby disenabled yet being born in the Church and Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and by my Parents dedicated unto God when I was an Infant I am further obliged by Covenant to be the servant of the Lord. But having proved a Rebel and Traytor against the Highest Majesty breaking his Laws and Covenant-ties which have been upon me spending years of my life in a state of strangeness and enmity to God in the service of the Devil and my own Lusts I do now solemnly renew my Covenant with God that the breach may be made up which sin hath made between God and my Soul Being in the First place convinced of the guilt of my sins whereby I have affronted and offended the highest Majesty whose Justice must be satisfied and withall convinced of my own utter inability to make the least satisfaction either by doing or suffering and that my
Righteousnesses are as filthy rags and therefore altogether insufficient to procure for me the pardon of sin the favour of God and the peace of Conscience as also fully perswaded that no meer Creature is able to give unto me any help and relief in this case And being informed by the Word of God what the Lord Jesus is hath done and suffered for poor sinners That there is no Name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we can be saved but only the Name of Jesus Christ that he is able to save all them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing be ever liveth to make intercession for them that he is a mercifull and faithfull High-priest in things pertaining to God to make Reconciliation for the sins of the People that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out and finding a Promise in the Covenant of Grace that God will be mercifull unto our unrighteousness and that our sins and iniquities he will remember no more which Covenant is of full force through the death of Christ the Testator thereof and having Christ set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood and his Righteousness declared for the remission of sins which are past through the forbearance of God and this Christ freely tendered unto me and being invited earnestly yea entreated that I would be reconciled unto God through him and by the Spirit being perswaded of the truth of these things and hereby encouraged to apply my self unto Christ and the Promises through him unto my self I do now grieving that I have offended God groaning under the burden of sin renouncing all my own righteousness hungring after the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness upon the bended knees of my soul come unto him and cast my self wholly upon him I choose him for my only Advocate to plead my cause in the Court of Heaven to procure for me Pardon and Reconciliation that being justified by Faith I may have peace with God through my dear Lord Jesus Christ Next repenting from the bottom of my heartâ— of my sins grieving that I have such a sinfull Nature such a deceitfull heart that I have so adulterated my affections and gone a whoring from God to the Creatures that I have so indulged my flesh and satisfied its irregular desires that I have given ear to the Devil and complyed as I have done with his temptations I now renounce all allegiance and service to the World to the Flesh and to the Devil these enemies of the Lord and of my peace which warr against my Master and against my own soul covenanting and promising never to give away my heart any more from the Lord unto any person or thing in the World to refuse the World for my portion and chief happiness to deny my flesh iâ—s sinfull desires and demands to resist the Devil and his Temptations not to live and allow my self in any known sin and to make use of all the known means which the Lord hath prescribed for the crucifying of the World for the mortifying and utter extirpation of sin for the resisting and overcoming the Devil And being perswaded of the power and interest the subtilty and deceitfulness of these enemies and withall sensible of my own imprudence folly weakness and inconstancy I humbly and earnestly implore and beseech the highest Majesty who is infinite in wisdom power and goodness that he would give me counsel and discretion in the use and management of all means and helps that I may not neglect any nor through sloth and imprudence suffer a lesser duty to justle out a greater that he would give me courage strength and constancy in the maintaining my spiritual warfare against these my spiritual enemies unto my lifes end And if ever I should fall through unwatchfulness and weakness which the Lord grant I may never do I do promise in the strength of the Lord to arise again by Faith and Repentance And because of the Body of sin within me and remaining corruptions I shall be subject during my abode here unto daily failings and infirmities I do promise to pray watch and strive against them beseeching the Lord to strengthen me herein and grant that my sinful infirmities may be lesse every day than other in the mean time looking upon those disallowed miscarriages contrary to the settled bent and resolution of my heart as insufficient to make my Covenant void Furthermore being convinced of the vanity emptiness and utter insufficiency of any or all the Creatures in the World to make me happy had I the most desireable enjoyment of them and having a discovery of the infinitely blessed God made unto me in his Works chiefly in his Word as being the chief good of man and withall a Promise in the Covenant of Grace that he will be our God yea our Father through Christ and that we shall be his people his Sons and Daughters I do here with deep veneration of Soul and chief estimation of minde choose the thrice Blessed Jehovah for my Portion and chief good beyond all persons and things in this World and do avouch him this day to be my God I humbly accept of the relation of a Servant and a Son or Daughter which he hath called me unto I put my self under his wing and commit my self to his care and Tuition and henceforth shall be bold through my dearest Lord to call him and look upon him to be my God and Father and humbly shall expect from him Protection and Provision in his way and work Correction Audience of Prayer and the fulfilling of all those Promises unto me which he hath made unto his Children Moreover being perswaded that none can come unto the Father but by the Son nor share in any spiritual priviledge but through Christs death and intercession and being perswaded of the infinite amiableness of Christs person the greatness of his love and affection unto the children of men as also of his infinite desireableness in regard of those offices and relations which he hath vouchsafed to take upon him and enter into for the good of his people I do avouch the Lord Jesus Christ to be my only Saviour and choose him in all his Offices and Relations I choose Christ to be my High-Priest to intercede and procure for me daily pardon access unto God acceptance of my person and service audience of my prayers and supply of all my wants I choose Christ to be my Prophet to teach me by his Word and Spirit the will of the Father I choose Christ to be my King to rule and govern me to command my whole man into the obedience of himself I choose Christ to be my Captain to go before me and to tread down my spiritual enemies under my feet I choose Christ to be my Friend and Brother to counsel and advise me to stand by me in all the difficulties and straights of my life I choose Christ to be my Husband and beloved humbly