Creature who was the Subject The Wisdom and Love and Mercy of God would not give way to this that the world should be destroyed so soon after it was made and man left remediless in everlasting Misery Satisfaction therefore must be the Remedy This must be such as might be as fit to procure the Ends of the Law as if the Law it self had been executed that is as if the offendors had all dyed the death that it did threaten It must therefore be a publik Demonstration of Justice and of the odiousness of Sinne to the terrour and warning of sinners for the future And this was done by Jesus Christ when none else in Heaven or Earth could do it For it did as fully demonstrate this Justice of God and preserved his honour and the usefullness of his Law and government that a Person so high and Glorious and so dear to him should suffer so much for sinne as if all the world had suffered for themselves And thus God made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. And thus Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Hereby also God Demonstrated the Holiness of his Nature How much he hateth sinne and how unreconcilable he is to it as light to darkness As the Law and Judgments of God do proceed from his Perfect Nature and Will so do they bear the Image of that perfection and demonstrate it to the world This therefore is the nobler End and work of Christ in our redemption to declare the Holiness and Perfection of God in his Nature and Will though the former the declaring of his Governing Justice be the neerer End If the death of Aarons two sonnes were such a Declaratition that God will be sanctified in all that draw neer him Lev. 10. 2 3 If his Laws and present Judgments do declare him to be a Holy and Jealous God that will not forgive sinne without a valuable consideration or satisfaction Jos. 24. 19. how much more evidently is this declared in the death of Christ If the Bethshemites cry out who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 20. Upon the death of 50070 men how much more may the guilty Soul say so when he thinks on the Crucified Sonne of God As it is the End of Gods execution on transgressors that the Lord may be exalted in Judgment and God that is Holy may be Sanctified in Righteousness Isa. 5. 16. So was it his End in the Sacrifice of his Sonne 3. Another End of our Redemption by Christ is the Demonstration of the Infinite Wisdom of God His Wisdom in the preventing the ruin of the late-created world that it might not be said that sin and Satan had frustrated him of the Glory of his Creation and destroyed it almost as soon as he had made it Yea in getting an advantage by the malice of his enemies for the more admirable attainment of the Ends of his Law and the Glorifying of all his Governing Attributes He would not have made man a free Agent and left him in the hand of his own will and suffered him to sinne if his Wisdom had not known how to secure his own Intrest and Honour to the full And so also in the oeconomy and admirable frame of his Gracious Sapiential Government by Christ the manifold Wisdom of God doth shine forth Ephes. 3. 9 10. As the wonderfull structure of Heaven and Earth and every part of this Natural frame doth gloriously reveale the Wisdom of the Creator so the wonderfull Contrivance of our Redemption by Christ and the Reparation of the world by him and the Moral frame of this Evangelical dispensation doth wonderfully demonstrate the Wisdom of the Redeemer And as the observation of our Natures may give us Cause to say with David Psal. 139. 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made So the observation of our new Natures and condition may well cause us to say I will praise thee for I am graciously and wonderfully Redeemed marvelous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well As Nature may teach us to admire the frame of Nature so Grace will teach us to admire the frame of Grace and to see the beauty of its several parts and much more of the whole where all the parts are orderly composed 4. Yea the very Power of God is demonstrated in Christ. And therefore he is called 1 Cor. 1. 24. The Power of God and the Wisdom of God not only formally because Christ himself is the Wise and Powerfull God nor only Efficiently because God doth exercise his Power and Wisdom by his Sonne in Creation Redemption and Government but also Effectually and Objectively as Christ is the great and most admirable Demonstration of the Power and Wisdom of God in the world What work transcendeth the incomprehensible Miracle of the Incarnation That God should assume the Nature of man into personal Union The Creation of the Sunne is no greater a work of Power then the Incarnation and sending of the Sonne of God the Intellectual Sunne the Light of the world That living Light that lightneth every one that cometh into the world though yet the darkness comprehendeth not his light Joh. 1. 4 6 9. What was he but the living visable Power of God when he healed all diseases cast out Devils raised the dead and rose from the dead himself and ascended into Glory and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Church enduing them with Power from on high Acts 1. 8. Luke 24. 49. when he was on Earth he was Anointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power and went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil Acts 10. 38. Being dead he was declared to be the Sonne of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Yea he filled his servants with power Act. 6. 8. Even such as was admired and desired by the ungodly Act. 8. 19. He being the brightness of Gods Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our sinnes he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name then they Heb. 1. 3 4. As Christ therefore in his glorified Humanity united to the Godhead is far more excellent then the Angels of God and more glorious then the Sunne so is the Power of God more abundantly demonstrated in him than in the Sunne or the Angels or any other Creature The Illuminated do know this and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
and awaken them to the work III When you have brought your hearts to be serious be sure that you drive on your Considerations to a Resolution Break not off in the middle or before you bring the matter to an issue But let all be done in order to Practice When you have been Thinking of the excellencies of God and the world to come and comparing them with all the delights on earth put the question then to your hearts and say What saist thou now O my Soul which of these is the better for thee which is the more desireable and which of them shouldest thou preferre Resolve then and make thy choice according to the light and convictions which thou hast received When you are thinking of the Reasons that should move you to be Converted ask your selves Whether these Reasons be not cleare and what you have to say against them and whether any thing that can be said to the contrary can prove it better for you to be as you are and to remaine unconverted Ask your selves Is my Judgment Resolved or is it not And if it be as sure it must be if you be not besides your selves then write it down under your hands or at least in your hearts I do here confess before the Lord that his Commands are just his motions are Reasonable his offers are exceeding Mercifull I am satisfied that it 's best for me to Turn to him speedily and with all my heart I confess before him that I have no Reason to the contrarie that deserves to be owned and called Reason This is my own Judgment of this I am Convinced If I Turn not after this the Light that is in me and the Judgment that I now possess must needs be a witness against my Soul If you would but thus drive on the case to a Resolution of your Judgments you would have a great advantage for the resolving of your wills which is the next thing that you must proceed to And therefore next ask your selves Why should I not now Resolve and fixedly Resolve to Turn without any more delay Is not the case plain before me What Reason have I to stand questioning the matter any longer and to be unwilling to be happy shall I provoke God by dallying with him and hazzard my Soul by lingering out my time in such a miserable state No by the Grace of God I will Return Even this hour without any more delay Thus drive on all your Consideration to Resolution But of this I have more to say anon By this time you may see of what necessity this duty of Consideration is and how it must be performed that it may further your Conversion But because it is a matter of so great Necessity I am loath to leave it thus till I have done what I can to perswade you to the practice of it To which end I intreate you to think of these following Motives 1. Consideration is a duty that you may performe if you will You cannot say that it is wholly out of your power So that you are left unexcusable if you will not be perswaded to it You say you cannot Convert your selves But cannot you set your selves to Consider of your waies and bethink you of those Truths that must be the Instruments of your Conversion Your Thoughts are partly at the command of your will You can turn them up and down from one thing to another Even an unsanctified Minister that hath no saving relish of Spirituall things can think of them and spend most of his time in thinking of them that he may preach them to others And why cannot you then turn your thoughts to them for your selves You can think of House and Land and Friends and Trading and of any thing that ayleth you or any thing that you want or any thing that you love or think would do you good And why cannot you think of your sinne and danger of God and of his Word and Works of the state of your Souls and of Everlasting Life Are you not able to go somtimes by your selves and Consider of these matters Are you not able when you are alone in your beds or as you travail in the way or at your labour to bethink you how things stand with your Soules Why are you not able what is it that could hinder you if you were but willing 2. Yea further Consideration is so cheape a Remedy that if you will not use this you despise your Souls yea and you despise the Lord himself and the Everlasting things which you are called to Consider of A man that is in danger of losing his estate or health or life and will not so much as bethink him of a Remedy doth sure set light by them and lose them by his contempt A man that had but his house on fire and would not so much as Think how to quench it doth deserve that it should be burnt If your Parents or Children or Friends were in distress if you would not so much as Think of them it were a signe you did not set much by them Why Sirs are not your Souls worth the Thinking on Is not God is not your Redeemer worth the Thinking on And yet you will hypocritically pretend that you love God above all when you will not so much as seriously Think of him How can you shew greater contempt of any thing then to cast it out of your minds as unworthy to be thought on And how can you more plainly shew that you despise God and Heaven then by such a course as this If it be not worth the Thinking on it 's worth nothing 3. Consider that God doth not set so light by your Salvation He thought it worth a great deale more Must Christ think it worth his bloody sufferings and worth such a life of labour and sorrow and will not you judg it worth your serious Consideration If he had not Thought on it and Thought againe how miserable shoud we have remained Ministers also must Think on it and Study how to save your Souls And should you not Study how to save your own Must another man make it the business of his life to Think how to do you good that you may be saved and are you nâ—t as much bound to do good to your selves Yea all that fear God about you are bound to Study to do you good and should you not bethink you then of the things that concern your own good 4. Moreover what have you your Reason for but to Consider And wherein do you differ from the beasts so much as in your Reason If you have Reason and will not use it you bruitifie your selves You live like mad men for what is Madness but a loss of the use of Reason And do you think it a small thing to deface so noble a Creature as man and to turne your selves into beasts and mad-men Do you think that God will not call you to account for your Reason how you have used
the encouragment of a promise and recommend our Souls into his hand as to a faithfull Creator and our surest deerest friend this is a Mercy that no man can well value till they come to use it To know every day that as oft as ever we come to God we are alwaies welcome and that our persons and prayers are pleasing to him through his Sonne what a Mercy is it One would think we should live joyfully if we had but one such promise as this for Faith to live upon Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal. 50. 15. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Sonne Joh. 14. 13 14. No wonder if they be rich that have so free access to such a treasure and if they be safe that have access to so sure a help For God is a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 9 Another precious benefit is that we have Peace of Conscience or ground for it at the least in our Peace with God and so may come to assurance of Salvation and may partake of the Joy in the Holy Ghost For in this Peace and Joy the Kingdom of God doth much consist When the chief cause of all our fear and sorrow is done away what then is left to break our Peace When we have no cause to fear the flames of Hell nor the sting of death or the appearance of our Judge any further then to move us to make ready what then should greatly trouble the Soul If God and Heaven be not matter of comfort I know not what is If we saw a man that had got many Kingdoms to be still sad and dumpish because he had no more we would say he were very ambitious or covetuous And yet he might have reason for it But if you have the Love of God and a title by promise to the Heavenly Inheritance and yet you are discontented and God and Glory is not enough for you this is most unreasonable 10. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is Our Spiritual Communion with his Church and holy members We do not only joyne with them in outward Communion but we unite our desires and there is an harmony of affections We are in the maine of one Mind and Will and Way and we joyntly constitute the Body of our Lord We are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Câ—venant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. We are joyned to that Body and have Communion with it which consisteth both of militant and triumphant Saints and of the Angels also We are no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the cheif corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord in whom we also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 19 20 21 22. And as in holy concord we serve the Lord having one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith one Baptism one Rule the Word of God one mind one heart one work of Holines and Righteousness in the main one hope one Heaven the place of our expectations so have we the fruit of the Prayers of each other and of all the Church and have the honour the safety and other benefits of being members of so blessed a Society Yea we have in this Communion the whole Church obliged and disposed according to their capacity to endeavour the good of every member So that Ministers and Magistrates yea though they were Apostles and Prophets Paul or Apollos all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Kings have their Power for us Ministers have their Gifts for us and for us they must use them If we suffer every member must be as forward to assist us and if we want to relieve us according to their power as if they suffered with us 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. Yea the Angels are our Brethren Rev. 22. 9. and fellow servants yea ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. To encamp about them and to bear them in their arms rejoycing to behold their graces and prosperity as was shewed before 11. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that All things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. When we are Sanctified to God all things are Sanctified to us to serve us for God and help us to him Every Creature that we have to do with is as it were another thing to the Saints then to other men They are all wheels in that universal Engine of Grace to carry us to Salvation The same things that are common Mercies to others are special to us as proceeding from a special Love and being designed to a special use As flesh-pleasing is the ultimate end of the ungodly and all things are thereby debased to be but means to that ignoble end So the Pleasing and fruition of God is the End of all the Saints and thereby all things that they have to do with are advanced to the honour of being Sanctified means to this most high and noble End And as they are engaged to use them to this End and consequently to their own greatest advantage so God hath engaged himself to bless them in that holy use and to cause them all by his gracious providence to cooperate to their good The greatest afflictions the cruellest persecutions from the most violent enemies our wants our weaknesses and death it self all must concurre to carry on this work What then should a Christian fear but sinne How honourable and how safe and how happy a life may he live that hath all these assured for his service And what causeless fears are they that use to afflict the Servants of God concerning their outward troubles and necessities What do we fear and groan under and complaine of but our Fathers physick and the means of our Salvation If this one Truth were but believed and received and used according to its worth O what a life would Christians live 12. The last and greatest of our benefits by Christ is Our Resurrection and our Justification at the barre of God and our reception into Glory This is the end of all and therefore containeth all For this Christ died for this we are Christians for this we believe hope and labour for this we suffer and deny our selves and renounce this world Our bodies shall then be spiritual and glorious no more troubled with infirmities diseases or necessities Our Souls shall be
of God And to Delay your Conversion is the way to draw on either this or worse 49. Consider also that Delaies are contrary to the very nature of the work and the nature of your Souls themselves If indeed you ever mean to turn it is a work of hast and violence and diligence that you must needs set upon You must strive to enter in for the gate is strait the way is narrow that leads to life and few there be that find it Many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 33. 24 25. When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the doore and ye begin to stand without and knock at the doore saying Lord Lord open to us he shall answer I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity vers 27. It is a race that you are to run and Heaven is the prize And you know that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize and therefore you must so run as that you may win and obtain 1 Cor. 9. 24 25. And what is more contrary to this then Delay You are Souldiers in fight and your Salvation lieth on the victory and will you trifle in such a case when death or life is even at hand You are travailers to another world and will you stay till the day is almost past before you will begin your journey Christianity is a work of that infinite consequence and requireth such speedy and vigorous dispatch that Delay is more unreasonable in this then in any thing in all the world And besides your Souls are Spirits of an excellent active nature that will not be kept idle and therefore Delay is unsuitable to their excellencie The best and noblest creatures are most active The basest are most dull and unfit for action The earth will stand still You may easily keep clods and stones from moving But fire and winds that are purer things and the Sunne and such nobler sublimer creatures you are not able to keep idle for an hour Who can cause the Sunne to delay its Course or who can stay the ascending flames And therefore to your more excellent immortall Souls and that in a work that must needs be done how exceeding unsuitable are Delaies 50. If all this will not serve turn let me tell you that while you are Delaying your Judgment doth not delay and that when it comes these Delaies will multiply your misery and the remembrance of them will be your Everlasting torment What ever you are thinking of or what ever you are doing your dreadfull doom is drawing on apace and misery will overtake you before you are aware When you are in the Ale-house little thinking of damnation even then is your damnation coming in hast when you are drown'd in the pleasures or cares of the world your judgment is still hastening You may delay but it will not delay It is the saying of the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 2. 3. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbreth not You may slumber and that so carelesly that we cannot awake you but your damnation slumbreth not nor hath not done of a long time while you thought it slumbred and when it comes it will awaken you As a man that is in a coach on the road or a boat on the water what ever he is speaking or thinking or doing he is still going on and hastening to his journeies end or going down the stream So what ever you think or speak or do whether you believe it or mock at it whether you sleep or wake whether you remember it or forget it you are hastening to damnation and you are every day a day neerer to it then before and it is but a little while till you shall feel it Behold the Judg standeth before the doore Jam. 5. 9. The Holy Ghost hath told you The Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. The day is at hand the time is at hand the end of all things is at hand Rom. 13. 12. Rev. 22. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 7. Behold saith the Lord I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. And do you as it were see the Judge approaching and damnation hasting on and yet will you delay And withall consider that when it comes it will be most sore to such as you and then what thoughts do you think you shall have of these Delaies You are unable to conceive how it will torment your Consciences when you see that all your hopes are gone to think what you have brought your selves to by your trifling To feel your selves in remediless misery and remember how long the Remedy was offered you and you Delaied to use it till it was too late To see that you are for ever shut out of Heaven and remember that you might have had it as well as others but you lost it by Delay Oh then it will come with horrour into your mind How oft was I perswaded and told of this how oft had I inward motions to return how oft was I purposed to be holy and to give up my heart and life to God I was even ready to have yeelded but I still delaied and now it is too late Then you shall pay for all our warnings and all the Sermons and motions which you lost And now having laid you down no less then fifty moving Considerations if it be possible to save you from these Delaies I conclude with this Request to you whoever you be that read these words that you would but consider of all these Reasons and then entertaine them as they deserve There is not one of them that you are able to gainsay much less all of them If after the reading of all these you can yet believe that you have reason to delay your understandings are forsaken of God But if you are forced to confess that you should not Delay what will you do then Will you obey God and your own Consciences or will you not Will you Turn this hour without delay Take heed of denying it lest you have never such a motion more You know not but God that calls you to it may be resolved that it should be now or never I do beseech you yea as his messenger I charge you in his Name that you Delay not an hour longer but presently be resolved and make an unchangeable Covenant with God and as ever you would have favour in that day of your distress delay not now to accept his favour in the day of your visitation O what a blessed family were that which upon the Reading of this would presently say We have done exceeding foolishly in Delaying so great a matter so long Let us agree together to give up our selves to God without any more Delay This shall be the day we 'l stay no longer The flesh and the world and the Devil have had
are received with approbation the Soul is in a miserable case Though I know many tempted melancholy Christians are haunted with such temptations who yet abhorre them and do well at last for all this Some times also when he cannot take you off from Resolving he will lead you among some disputing Opinionists and they shall tise you to take up with their Opinionative Religiousness instead of true Sanctification of which I have spoke in the eighth Direction By these and many such wiles as these doth the old serpent do all that possibly he can to hinder you from sound Resolution and Conversion And therefore you must be armed against his temptations and meet them with abhorrence and if you feel them too hard for you go daily to Christ by Faith and Prayer for renewed strength and call to your faithfull friends and Ministers for helpe Open your case to some one that 's able experienced and faithfull that he may help you with Arguments to resist those temptations which you know not how your selves to deale with God hath appointed Pastours in his Church to be Spiritual Fathers in the Lord and when they have sowed in you the seed of eternall life they watch over it till they see the blade and fruit They travaile as in birth of you till Christ be formed in you It is their offer to help you and God giveth to them that are faithfull abilitis and affections agreeable to their office And therefore lean upon the hand of your faithfull guides and think not to break through temptations alone and get to Heaven without the means that God hath appointed you Having told you the Hinderances and what to do against them I shall add but these two words more of Direction 1. When you are Resolving give up your selves to God with a Holy Covenant or Vow I mean not any rash vow nor any unnecessary vow but the same that you made in Baptism which your age it self doth call you to renew but your sinnes against it do call you more Perhaps you 'l say that you are not able to perform it by your own strength and you are uncertain of Gods assistance and therefore how can you promise or vow To this I answer 1. You may be sure that this Objection is frivolous because it makes against the frequent express Commands of God the practice of his Church in all ages and the nature of Christianity it self God hath in all Ages been pleased to receive men into his service and Church in a Covenant way and Baptism it self is our solemn Covenanting with him and the Lords Supper is appointed for a solemn renewing of it And indeed it is implicitly and virtually renewed by a true Christian every day of his life In every duty he gives up himself to God And if he should cease this Heart-covenant he would cease to be a Christian For the very essence of his Christianity consisteth in it It is his Faith it self 2. And when you covenant for the time to come you do not take on you to foretell infallibly your own perseverance but you Profess your present consent to be Christ's and to continue his and you engage your selves thereto And should you not choose the strictest engagements 1. Where there is the greatest need of them because of the loosness of the heart and the strength of temptations that would draw us away and 2. Where there is the most absolute necessity because if we miscarry we are undone 3. And where you are already obliged by Gods Commands whether you vow or not 4. And where God hath made your consent to the Obligation of necessity to Salvation He that intends to keep Covenant and knows that he must keep it or be condemned hath little reason to be loath to make it 3. And for Gods assistance you have much more cause to expect it in the way of Covenanting which himself hath appointed you then in the neglect of his appointed means Object But if I did it in Baptism what need I do it again Answ. I told you the Covenant must be continued and renewed through the whole course of our lives but especially after a notorious violation of your former promise You once gave up your selves to God and you have proved false to him and it is a wonder of Mercy that ever he will trust you more or enter any more into Covenant with you and will you draw back from such Mercy and such a duty as this Object But I am afraid of breaking my vows again and it is better to forbear them then not to perform them Answ. 1. This Reason makes as much against the inward Vow and Resoluion of the heart so that by this rule you would never be Christians for fear of falling away and being worse 2. There is an absolute necessity of your Resolving and Covenanting and of Keeping your Resolutions and Covenants And when it must be kept or you are utterly undone it 's but a madness to refuse to make the Covenant for fear of breaking it For that is but to make choice of an easier place in Hell for fear of having a worse if you should resolve for Heaven When as Heaven is set open before you and you thus wilfully cast away your hopes Nay your place in Hell is not like to be the easier when you thus deliberately and wilfully refuse the Covenant 3. Your Resolutions and Holy Vows are means of Gods appointment to keep you from breaking his imposed Covenant Is not a Resolved Engaged Devoted Cristian liker to be accepted and to persevere then a waverer that saith I dare not vow for fear lest I performe not In unnecessary matters I had rather you were too backward to vow Some will vow poverty and some a single life and some will vow that they will never drink wine or strong drink more such vows as these may be good for some in cases of special necessity as the last remedies of a dangerous disease but they are not for all nor rashly to be made But the Resolution and vow of cleaving unto God in Faith and Holy Obedience and of renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil this is for all and must be made and kept by all that will be saved 2. Direct And as I would have you second your Resolution by a Covenant with God so would advise you ordinarily to go further and openly Profess the Resolution and Covenant that you have made For as with the heart men believe unto Righteousness so with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 10. Christ will confess those that confess him and disown and be ashamed of those that are ashamed of him When you have escaped the greatest misery in the world and obtained the greatest Mercy in the world the greatness of it calleth you to acknowledg it and give Glory to God Go to your old Companions in sinne and tell them what God hath revealed to you and done for you Tell them O
be moved to it by right and weighty Considerations and go upon reasons that will hold up your Resolution For should you Resolve on the most necessary work as this is upon mistakes and wrong or insufficient Reasons as the will of man the custom of the country the reputation of Christianity or only such like there is no likelyhood that your Resolution should endure and it is not sincere while it doth endure 5. Your Resolution must be accompanied with a sense of your own insufficiency to stand to it immutably and execute it faithfully by your own strength as knowing the corruption and deceitfullness of our own heart And it must be strengthned and supported by a confidence or dependance on the sufficiency of Christ. on whose Grace and Spirit you must rely both for the continuing and the performing of your Resolutions as knowing that without him you can do nothing but that you can do all things necessary through Christ strengthning you 6. Lastly Your Resolution is not Savingly sincere unless it be habitually It is a very hard question how far some moving exhortation or the approach of death in sicknes may prevaile with the unsanctified for an Actual Resolution Undoubtedly very farre But that 's a mans mind and will which is Habitually his mind and will When the very Inclination and bent of your will is Right then only is your heart right A bowle may by a rub or banck be turned contrary to the byas but when it is over the rub it will follow the byas againe in its ordinary course The flame may be hindred from assending a little while but when it is got over the stop it will be mounting upward A stone will move upwards against its Nature while it is followed by the strength of the hand that cast it but when the strength is spent it will quickly fall again It is not an extraordinary act that you can try your selves by but such a free course and tenor of your lives as will prove that you have a new Nature or a heart Inclined and Habituated to God The main business therefore is to prove that you are Habituallly Resolved Set all these together now and you may see what Resolution it is that must prove you to be Converted 1. It must be a Resolution for all the Essence of Christianity and not only some part 2. It must be a Resolution for present Obedience and not only for some distant time to come 3. It must be an Absolute peremptory Resolution without and against Reserves for the flesh both Total and final without and against any Revocation 4. It must be soundly grounded and moved by right Principles 5. It must be joyned with a humble sence of your insufficiency and a dependance on Christ for continuing and performing it And 6. It must be Habitual and such as sets right the bent and drift of heart and life All this is of Necessity Well Sirs you see now what you must do the next question then is what you will do A great many of motions God hath made to you to let go your worldliness and wickedness and become New Creatures and live to God and never could you be got to Resolve and obey them Many thoughts you have had of it I suppose and long you have been purposing that Turn you would but all have come to little or nothing because you were never fully Resolved I am once more sent to you on this message from God to see whether yet you will Resolve Whether after all you trifling delaies and after all your wilfull sinning and abuse of Gods Patience against your own knowledg and Consciences you will yet Resolve What say you Shall God be your Master indeed and shall Christ be your Saviour Lord Shall Heaven be your happiness and have your hearts indeed Shall Holiness be your business indeed and shall sinne be your hatred and the flesh and the world be your enemies indeed and used accordingly from this day forward without any more ado I beseech you Sirs Resolve and fully Resolve And because I know if we prevaile not with you in this you are undone for ever and therefore I am loath to let you go before we have brought you if it may be to Resolve I will give you here some Considerations to turn the scales and if you will but read them and soberly consider of them I shall have great hope to prevail with you yet after all One would think that the fifty Considerations under the last Direction might suffice But lest all should be too little I will add these following 1. Consider I beseech you what leisure you have had to think of the matter You have lived many years in the world already and you have had nothing to do in it but to seek after true Happiness Even your worldly labours ought to have been all but in order to this And yet are you unresolved Alas Sirs have you lived some twenty some thirty years and more in the world and yet are you not Resolved what you came hither for or what you have to do here Is it twenty or thirty or fourty years since you set out and should by this time have been farre on your journey and are you yet unresolved whither to go or which way to go As if you were newly entering the world or as if you had never heard of your business I think so many years are a faire time of Consideration and it's time to be Resolved if you will Resolve at all 2. And I pray you consider what Helps you have had to have Resolved you before this If you did not know what you had to look after and which way to take you should have enquired You had the Word of God to advise with and you had your Teachers to advise with and many experienced Christians to advise with You wanted not for the wisest faithfulest Counsailers if you had been but willing and diligent certainly you might have been Resolved long ago 3 And consider I beseech you what a case it is that you are unresolved in Is it so hard a question that all this time and all these helps cannot Resolve you What whether God or the flesh should be first obeyed and loved Whether Heaven or Earth Eternal Glory or the transitory pleasures of sinne should be preferred Whether you should care and labour more to be saved from sinne and Hell or from poverty and worldly crosses and reproaches These and such like are the questions to be Resolved And are these so hard that all your wit and all the advise you can have from Scripture and Ministers would not serve turn to help you to a Resolution no not in twenty or thirty years time O wonderful that ever the Devil should be able so to befool men That Reasonable Creatures should be so phrenetâ—ck that they cannot be resolved whether it be better be saved or be damned or whether sinne with Hell after it be better than
Holiness with Heaven after The Lord have Mercy upon the poor distracted world and bring some more of them to their wits We have Wise men if themselves may be judges very wise in their own conceit that know many great matters in the world and yet do not practically know whether God or the Devil be the better master whether sinne or Holiness be the better work and whether Heaven or Hell be the betther wages If they say They know these things judge by their lives whether they know them Practically or not Resolve they will not for God and Holiness and Heaven nor against the flesh the world and sinne whatever they may be brought to confess to their self-condemnation Is it not a pitifull case that such points as these should seem so hard to reasonable men as to be so long in Resolving of them 4. And I pray you Consider How horribly by this you disgrace your understandings You that cannot abide to be derided as sots and fools in the world do yet abuse your selves thus grosly as iâ— there were never greater sots scarce upon the Earth We have proud men that are so high in their now eies that they can hardly endure contempt from others and love almost none that think but meanly or dishonourably of them and yet what a horrible contempt and dishonour do they cast upon themselves If one of these our wise neighbours should study seaven years to know whether the Sea be fire or water whether a mountain be heavy Whether the fire be hot or cold and could not be Resolved after so many years Consideration what would you think and say of these wise men Why Sirs it is far grosser folly I tell you again it is far grosser folly to be unresolved whether you should be Holy or unholy which is in plain English whether it be better go to Heaven or to Hell For Faith and Holiness is the way to Heaven and an unholy life is the way to Hell And if you will needs forsake the way to Heaven you may hope to come thither as long as you will but you may as well hope to touch the Moon with your finger or to runne up and down with a mountain on your backs And if you will hold on in the way to Hell that is in an unsanctified state you may say you hope for all that to escape Hell even as wisely as to leap into the Sea and say I hope to scape drowning or to throw down your selves headlong from the top of the steeple and say I hope to scape hurting me as well as you Sirs I beseech you do not abuse God and abuse Christ and the Spirit and Scripture and withall abuse your immortal Souls for I know not what for a stinking sin for a thing of nought Your Souls are noble Creatures and your understandings are noble faculties Why will you expose them to be the scorn of Satan and make them so base and sottish as you do You can see the folly of a poor drunkard that will make a beast of himself and go reeling and talking nonsence about the street for the boies to hoot at him and make himself the laughing-stock of the town And I pray you why do you not understand that till you are Resolved for a Holy Heavenly life you are all drunk while you think your selves to be sober You are as miserable as the other and more in this that yours is in your natures and theirs is but an accident yours is continued and theirs in that particular but by fits In the Name of God Sirs bethink you whether you can possibly more disgrace your wits then to be unresolved of a case as plain as the high way and which your Everlasting Salvation or damnation lieth on If one of you could not in twenty years be Resolved whether the the Sunne be light or dark or whether the day or the night be fitter for rest or whether it be better plow and sow or let all alone and hope God will give you a crop without labour would you take this for a wise man Again I tell you your folly is more gross that cannot all this while be Resolved whether you should cast away your wilfull sinnes and give up your selves to Christ and a Holy life to obtain the Glory and scape the misery that is hard at hand If you stood up to the neck in the water or stood but in a storm of raine you would not be so long in deliberating whether it were better for you to stay there longer or come out If your finger were but in the fire you need not so long a deliberation whether you should take it out Any yet these wise men are under many thousand unpardoned sinnes and under the curse of the Law of God and within a step of everlasting fire and have no way possible to escape but by Conversion Faith and Holiness and this God hath told them as plain as the tongue of man can speak and yet they are Considering of it whether it be best to come out of it and yet they cannot be Resolved Did I say They are Considâ—ring Nay the Lord be mercifull to them they are so dead-hearted and besotted that they do not so much as seriously Consider of it But even runne on without Consideration Ah poor wretches They are ready to go to another world and may look every day when the bell toles for them and when death will bring them to their endless life and yet they have not wit enough to Resolve whether they should make ready no nor with enough in their most carless worldly state to know that they are unready Death is coming and Judgment is coming and the burning Wrath of God is coming and are even at the doore and yet these wise men are unresolved of that only way that is of absolute necessity to their safety They must have more time yet to consider of the matter whether it be best for them to turn or no They stand at the very brink of Hell and yet they must further consider of it whether it be better to turn back or to go on Nay they will go on without Consideration And yet these men would take it â—aynously if one should lay hands on them and carry them to Bedlam or but tell them of the hundreth part of the sottishness that they are guilty of 5. And it is further considerable that these men that are all this while unresolved about their Conversion and Sanctification have wit enough to resolve of doubtfuller and less necessary matters without any such advising or delaies And they are men of ordinary parts and capacities for the matters of this world They can eat when they are hungry and drink when they are thirsty without a twelve-months timâ— to advise first on it They can resolve to go to bed at night and to rise in the morning without a years or a daies deliberation If they have any thing to buy or sell