Sirs I see now that which I never saw before I wonder how I could venture so madly upon sinne and how I could make light of God of Christ of death of Judgment and Everlasting life I have been hitherto your Companion in sinne but I would not take the same course again for all the world I see now there is a better portion hereafter to be obtained which I was mindless of I see now we were all this while making merry at the brink of Hell and there was but a step between us and death Now I see that the course that we have taken is wicked and deceitfull and will not serve turn If I serve the flesh it will reward me but with rottonness I will therefore hereafter serve that God that will certainly reward me with Evorlasting life I beseech you Sirs come away with me and see and try what I have seen and tryed I have lived with you in sinne O now let us joyn together in Repentance and a Holy life I shall be glad of your company to Heaven but if you will not do it take your course For my part I am Resolved by the Grace of God I am fully Resolved to be from this day forward a New man and never to joyn with you more in a fleshly and ungodly life Never tempt me or perswade me to it for I am Resolved Thus if you will declare your Resolutions to others and seek to win them you may possibly do them good but however you will be the deeper engaged to God your selves Yea though I would have no ostentation of Conversion nothing done rashly in publike nor without the advice of a faithfull Minister beforehand yet with these Cautions I must say that it 's a shame that we hear no more in publike of the Conversion of sinners As Baptism is to be in publike that the Congregation may witness your engagement and pray for you and rejoice at the receiving of a member So the solemn renewing of the same Covenant by Repentance after a wicked life should ordinarily be in publike to give warning to others to avoid the sinne and to give God the honour and to have the Prayers of the Church and to satisfy them of our Repentance that they may have Communion with us The Papists do more offend of the two in so much confining Confession and Penitence to the Priests eare in secret and not bringing it before the Church then they do in making a Sacrament of it I wonder that people should every day thrust into our hands their requests to pray for them when they are sick and that it is so rare a matter to have any desire our Prayers for the pardon of all the sinnes of their natural unconverted state I would here seriously advise all those that it concerneth that when God hath shewed them so great a Mercy as to Convert them and make them New Creatures they would go to their faithfull Minister and by his advice put up such a bill as this Such a man of this parish having long lived in blindness and deadness and ungodliness and name the particular sinnes if they were publickly known and being by the great Mercy of God convinced of his sinne and misery and sustained with some hopes of Mercy by the Blood and Merits of Jesus Christ and being now Resolved by the Grace of God to forsake this fleshly worldly life and to give up himself to Christ and Holiness doth earnestly intreat the Church to pray for him that his many and hainous sins may be all forgiven and that God would againe receive him into Mercy and that he may hold on in Faith and Holiness to the last and never turn again to the course of his iniquity And if the Minister think it meet refuse not to make your selves an open Confession of your former life of sinne and misery and to Profess openly your Resolution to walk with God for the time to come This course should be more ordinary with us and if Conversâ—ion it self were not so rare or else so defective that it doth too little quicken men to a sence of duty and sinne and Mercy or so doubtfull and by slow degrees that it is scarce discerned by many that have it were it not for some of these more ordinary would it be to the great rejoycing and benefit of the Church The Conclusion And now I have given you Directions in the most great and necessary business in this world They are such as I received of God and if Faithfully practised will put your Salvation past all hazard But what they have done or what they will do I cannot tell but must leave the Issue to God and you It s pitty eternall Glory should be lost for want of yielding to so holy and sweet and reasonable a course It is lamentable to observe what ignorant base unworthy thoughts the most have of the very Office of the holy Ghost who is the sanctifier of all that God will save The very name of Regeneration and Sanctification is not understood by some and is but matter of derision to others and the most think that it is another kind of matter then indeed it is To be baptized and come to Church and to say some cold and heartless Prayers and to forbeare some gross disgracefull sins is all the Sanctification that most are acquainted with and all have not this And thus they debase the work of the holy Ghost If a Prince have built a sumptuous Pallace and you will shew men a Swine-stie and say This is the Pallace that the Prince hath bin so long a building were not this to abuse him by contempt If he build a Navy and you shew a man two or three pig-troughs and say These are the Kings ships would he not take it for a scorn Take heed of such dealing with the holy Ghost Remember what it is to believe in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and remember that you were Baptized into the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost And do you not yet know why nor know the meaning of your Baptismall Covenant It is not only to believe that there are three Persons in the Trinity but to consent to the Relations and duty to them in respect to their several Relations and works If the Father had not Created you how could you have been men The Lord of nature must be acknowledged as the End and the governour of nature and accordingly obeyed And this is to believe and be Baptized into the Name of God the Father If the Son had not Redeemed you you had bin as the Divels were forsaken and given over to dispaire The Purchaser Procurer and Author of Grace of Pardon and Salvation must be acknoledged to be such and himself and his Salvation accordingly accepted and his terms submitted to And this is to believe in the name of the Son and in baptisme we make profession hereof And certainly the work of the holy
the Gout or Sâ—one or other disease and he forbid him wine or strong drink or such meats as he desireth as long as he feeles himself at ease he will be venturing on them and will not be curbed by the words of the Physion But when the fit is on him and he feels the torment then he will be ruled Pain will teach him more effectually then words could do When he feeleth what is hurtfull to him and feeleth that it alway makes him sick it will restraine him more then hearing of it could do So when Humiliation doth break your hearts and make you feel that you are sick of sinne and filleth your Soul with smart and sorrow then you will be the more willing that God should destroy it in you When it lyeth so heavy on you that you are unable to look up and makes you go to God with groanes and teares and cry O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner When you are faine to go to Ministers for ease to your Consciences and fill their eares with accusations of your selves and open even your odious shamefull sinnes then you will be content to let them go Now there is no talking to you of Mortification and the resolute rejecting of your sinnes The Precepts of the Gospel are too strict for you to submit to But a broken heart would change your mindes The healthfull Plow-man saith Give me that which I love these Physicians would bring us all to their Rules that they may get money by us I never mean to follow their directions But when sickness is upon him and he hath tryed all his own skil in vaine and paine giveth him no rest then send for the Physician and then he will do any thing and take any thing whatever he will give him so that he may but he eased and recovered So when your hearts are whole and unhumbled these Preachers and Scriptures are too strict for you You must have that which you love self-conceited precise Ministers must have leave to talk but you will never believe that God is of their mind or will damn men for taking that which they have a mind of O but when these sinnes are as swords in your hearts and you begin to feele what Ministers told you of then you will be of another mind Away then with this sinne There 's nothing so odious so hurtfull so intollerable O that you could be rid of it what ever it cost you Then he will be your best Friend that can tell you how to kill it and be free from it and he that would draw you to it would be as Satan himself to you Matth. 16. 22 23. Gal. 1. 8 9. Humiliation diggeth so deep that it undermineth sinne and the fortress of the Devil and when the foundation is rooted up it will soone be over throwne When the Murderers of Christ were pricked to the heart they 'l then cry out for counsell to the Apostles Acts 2. 37. When a murderer of the Saints is stricken blindfold to the earth and the Spirit withall doth humble his Soul he will then cry out Lord what would'st thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. When a cruel Jaylour that scourged the Servants of Christ is by an Earth-quake brought to a heart-quake he will then cry out What shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. And here comes in the usefulness of Afflictions even because they are so great advantages to Humiliation Men will be brought to some Reason by extreamities When they lie a dying a man may talk to them and they will not so proudly fly in his face nor make a scorne of the word of the Lord as in their prosperity they did God will be more regarded when he pleadeth with them with the rod in his hand stripes are the best Logick and Rhetorick for a fool When sinne hath captivated their Reason to their flesh the Arguments to convince them must be such as the flesh is capable of perceiving We may long tell a beast of dangers and discommodities before we can perswade him from that which he loves Sensuality doth brutifie men in too great a measure And so far as they are brutish it is not the clearest Reasons that will prevaile And if God did not maintaine in corrupted man some remnants of free Reason we migh preach to beasts as hopefully as to men But Afflictions tend to weaken the Enemy that doth captivate them as prosperity by accident tends to strengthen him The flesh understandeth the language of the rod better then the language of Reason or of the Word of God And as the sensible part of our Humiliation promoteth Mortification so the rational and voluntary Humiliation which is proper to the Sanctified is a principal part of Mortification it self And thus you may see that it 's necessary that we be throughly humbled that sin may be throughly killed in us 3. Another use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for a meet entertainment of further Grace and that both for the honour of Christ and Grace and for our own welfare 1. In respect of Christ it is equal that he should dwell in such Souls only as are fit to entertaine him Neither his person nor his business are such as can suit with the unhumbled heart Till Humiliation make a sinner feel his sinne and misery it is not possible that Christ as Christ should be heartily welcome to him or received in that sort as his honour doth expect Who cares for the Physician that feels no sickness and feares not death He may pass by the doores of such a man and he will not call him in But when paine and feares of death are on him â—e will send and seek and bid him welcome Will any man fly to Christ for succour that feeleth not his wants and danger Will they lay hold on him as the only refuge of their Souls and cleave to him as their only hope that feele no great need of him Will they lie at his feet and beg for mercy that feel themselves well enough without him When men do but hear of sinne and misery and superficially believe it they may coldly look after Christ and Grace and feel the worth of the later in such a manner as they feel the weight of the former But never is Christ valued and sought after as Christ till sorrow have taught us how to value him Nor is he entertained in the necessary honour of a Redeemer till Humiliation throw open all the doores No man can seek him with his whole heart that seeks him not with a broken heart And it 's certain that Christ will come on no lower terms into the Soul Though he come to do us good yet he will have the honour of doing it Though he come to heâ—l us and not for any need he hath of us yet he will have the welcome that 's due to a Physician He comes to save us but he will be honoured in our Salvation He inviteth all to the
Justified and Reconciled to God 7. He hath given Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to proclaim this Act of Grace to the world commanding them to go into All the world and preach this Gospel to every Creature and promise Salvation to all that by Faith will become his true Disciples Marke 16. 16. Matth. 28. 20 22. So that their commission also for the promulgation is universal 8. Though his servants have most lamentably neglected their duty and have not gone abroad the world to divulge the Gospel according to his Will imagining that this work had been proper to Apostles and though the Nations have sinfully neglected a due enquirie after this blessed Light yet hath he not left himself among them without witness but hath given them some dawnings of the day or some moon-light in the reflections of Evangelical Truth who have not seen the Sunne it self Much Mercy they have had notwithstanding their transgressions and while they served Devils they have been provided for by God in whom they live and move and be doing them good and giving them raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with foâ—d and gladness and this to teach them that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not farre from every one of them Acts 14. 17. 17. 27 28. And that which may be known of God is manifest among them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. By experience they may find that God dealeth not now in rigor of Justice but on terms of Grace and that sinne is not â—ow unpardonable and they should know that the Goodness of God leadeth them to repentance Rom. 2. 4. 9. As the Gospel conditionally pardoneth all their sinnes and offereth them Everlasting life so it conteineth the clearest Reasons and most effectual motives to perswade them to Accept the offer It affordeth them most excellent precepts and instructions and exhortations and other helps to bring them to a willingness that Salvation may be theirs 10. To which also is added abundance of outward providential helpes to further the working of the Gospel as seasonable afflictions and Mercies of divers sorts 11. And with these is usually concurrent some inward motions and assistance of the Holy Ghost as knocking at the doore where he is not yet let in and entertained 12. And by their presence in the visible Church even the ungodly have many benefits in the Ordinances and instructions and examples of the Saints All these besides a Resurrection are common effects of General Redemption and not appropriated to the Elect. Besides which there are others that the Elect only do receive As 1. God is pleased by effectual Grace to draw them to his Sonne and make the Gospel succesfull to their Conversion insuperably teaching and charging them by his Spirit and causing them to Repent and believe in Christ and to perform the Conditions of his forementioned Promises That Love that brought the Lord on Earth that cloatheth him with flesh that lifted him up upon the Cross doth stream forth in his season into the hearts of his Elect and toucheth them with a changing Power and winneth them to his Father and himself and droppeth into them those Heavenly Principles which will grow up in them to Everlasting Life 2. Hereupon the Soul believing in Christ is United to him as a Member of his Body even of his true Catholik Church and Christ is become the Head the Husband the Lord the Saviour of that Soul in a special sort Christ himself is first given to us in these Relations and from him as our Head his following benefits are conveyed He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life for this Life is in the Sonne 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. He is the Vine and we are the Branches and out of him we can do nothing Joh. 15. 1 2 5. As it was not we that purchased our own Salvation so it is not we but Christ that must have the keeping and dispensing of the purchased benefits For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and that he should be the Head over all things to his Church that it might by communication become his fulness Col. 1. 19. Eph's 1. 22 23. He is our Treasury and from him we must have our continual supplies For with him the Father will give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And thus Christ will dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. And set up the Kingdom of God within us 3. Hereupon we have the pardon of all our sinnes not only as to the temporal punishment nor only as to the bestowing of temporal Mercies or common helps of Creatures and Providences for this is but a winking at the daies of our ignorance Acts 17. 30. in comparison of the pardon which afterward we receive Nor is it only a Conditonal or Offered pardon But it is an Actual Remission of the Eternal and of all the destructive Punishment And thus we are Justified from all that might be charged on us from the Law and accepted and used as just by God There is a kind of forgiveness that was promised to the Sacrificers Lev. 4. 20 26 31 35 5 10 13 16 18 6. 7. Numb 15. 28. But as that was upon Christs account so it extended not to the pardon of the Eternal Punishment to any but true Believers He that was once Crucified is exalted by Gods right-hand a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sinnes Acts 5. 31. Through this man is preached the forgiveness of sinnes and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. When our eyes are open and we are turned from dakness to light and from the power of Satan unto God we then receive Remissioâ— of our sinnes Acts 26. 18. When we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Christ in him we have then Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sinnes Col. 1. 13 14. And blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne Rom. 4. 7. And now who shall condemn us It is God that justifieth us For there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 33 34. 4. With this benefit doth concurre our Reconciliation to God and our Adoption by which we are made his Sonnes and God is pleased to own us as our Father For being one with Christ the Sonne of God we are Sonnes by him For to as many as receive
never Christians till you see that in God that winnes your hearts to him so that you would not change your Master for any in the world and till you see that in the Hopes of Everlasting Glory that you would not change it for any thing else that can be imagined by the heart of man And till you see that goodness in a heavenly life that you had rather live it then any life in the world You are not converted to God indeed till you had rather live in Holiness then in Sinne if you had your freest choice and till you would gladly be the strictest holiest persons that you know in the world and long after more and more of it and fain would reach Perfection it self For though we cannot be perfect here yet no man is upright that desireth not to be perfect For he that loveth Holiness as Holiness must needs love the greatest measure of Holiness with the greatest Love This is it that maketh sound Converts to be so faithfull and constant with God A man is forward and ready to a work that he loves when he draws back from it as if it were a mischief that hath no mind to do it A man is hardly kept from the persons and places and employments that he loves but a little will withdraw him from that which he loveth not Why is it that we have so much adoe to take off a Drunkard from his Companions and his lusts but because he loves them better then temperance and gracious company And why can we so hardly draw the lustfull wretch from his filthy lusts or the glutton or the idle sensuall person from his needless or ezcessive recreations but because they love them And why is it that you cannot draw the worldling from his covetousness but he parteth with his money almost as hardly as with his blood but because he loveth it And therefore what wonder if temptations be resisted and the fairest baits of the world despised by him that is truly in Love with God No wonder if nothing can turn back that man from the way to Heaven that is in Love both with Heaven and with the Way No wonder if that man stick close to Christ and never forsake a holy life that tafteth the sweetness of it and feels its to do him good and had rather go that way then any in the world There is no true Christian but can say with David that a day in Gods Courts is better then a thousand and he had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then to dwell in the tents yea or the Pallaces of wickedness Do but mark those Professors that prove Apostates and sorfake the way of godliness which they seemed to embrace and see whether they be not such as either took up some bare Opinions and outward Duties upon a flash of superficial illumination or else such as were frightned into a course of Religion and so went on from duty to duty for fear of being damned when all the while their hearts were more another way and they had rather have been excused These hypocrites are they that are disputing so oft the Obligations to their Duty and asking How do you prove that it is a Duty to pray in my Family or a Duty to observe the Lords Day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to use the Communion of the godly in private meetings or to repeat Sermons or sing Psalms and the like Intimating that they are as Birds in a Cage or Hens in a Pen that are boaring to get out and had had rather be at liberty If it were not for the fear of the Law of God that is upon them they had rather let all these Duties alone or take them up but now and then at an idle time when Satan and the flesh will give them leave If a Feast be prepared and spread before them a good stomack will not stand to ask How can you prove it my duty to eat but perhaps the sick that loath it may do so If the Cup be before the Drunkard he doth not stand on those termes How do you prove it my duty now to drink this Cup and the other Cup No if he might have but leave he would drink on without any questioning whether it be a duty If the Gamester or the Whoremonger might but be sure that he should scape the punishment he would never stick at the want of a Precept and ask Is it my duty If there were but a gift of twenty pound a man to be given to all the poor of the Town yea and to all the people in generall I do not think I should meet with many people in the Town that would draw back and say What Word of God commandeth me to take it Or how can you prove that it is my duty And why is all this but because they have an inward Love to the thing and Love will carry a man to that which seemeth good for him without any command or threatning If these ungodly wretches had one sparke of spiritual life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lords day or that I must converse with the godly and live a holy life they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with my Family and that I may not sanctifie the Lords Day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness Seeing so great a mercy is offered to the world why may not I partake of it as well as others I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between a heart that loves God and Holiness and a heart that seemes religious and honest without such a Love The true Convert perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his â—oul that he is loath to be kept back he cannot spare these Ordinances and Mercies no more then he can spare the bread from his mouth or the cloathes from his back yea or the skin from his flesh no nor so much He loveth them he cannot live without them at the worst that ever he is at he had rather be holy then unholy and live a godly then a fleshly worldly life And therefore if he had but a bâ—re leave from God without a Command to sanctifie the Lords Day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks For he need not be driven to his rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual food when he is hungry nor to Christ the reâ—uge of his soul when the curse and accuser are pursuing him But the unsanctified hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a necessity of these courses And if he can but bring
I have been preaching so many yeares to you for Conversion and for an Holy Heavenly life even since I first knew you and that yet so many of you are drown'd in sinne and ignorance and are unconverted when I think your very Consciences tell you that it is a thing that must be done I tell you all these years do seem to me a long time to wait on you in vain Blessed be the Lord that it hath not been in vaine with some or else I would scarce preach any more then one other Sermon to you even to bid you farewel I pray you deal but fairly with us and tell us whether ever you will turn or not If you will not but are resolved for sinne and Hell say so that we may know the worst speak out your minds that we may know what to trust to For if we once knew you would not turn we would soon have done with you and leave you to the Justice of God But if still you say you will turn when will you do it You will do it and you hope you shall but when How long would you have us wait yet Have you not abused us enough Nay I must tell you that you even weary God himself It is his own expression Mal. 2. 17. Isa. 43. 24. Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Isa. 1. 14. And I must say to you as the Prophet Isa. 7. 13. Is it a small thing for you to weary men but you will weary my God also Consider what it is that you do 46. Consider also that you are at a constant unspeakable loss every day and hour that you Delay your Conversion O little do you know what you deprive your selves of every day If a slave in the Gallies or prison might live at Court as a favourite of the Prince in honour and delight and ease would he delay either years or hours Or would he not rather think with himself Is it not better to be at ease and in honour then to be here As the Prodigal said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger All this while I might be in plenty and delight All the while that you live in sinne you might be in the favour of God in the high and Heavenly employments of the Sants you might have the comforts of daily Communion with Christ and with the Saints you might be laying up for another world and might look death in the face with Faith and confidence as one that cannot be conquered by it you might live as the Heirs of Heaven on Earth All this and more then this you lose by your delaies All the Mercies of God are lost upon you Your food and rayment you health and wealth which you set so much by all is but lost and worse then lost for they turn to your greater hurt All our pains with you and all the Ordinances of God which you possess and all your time is lost and worss And do you think it indeed a wise mans part to live any longer at such a loss as this and that wilfully and for nothing If you knew your loss you would not think so 47. Nay more you are all this while doing that which must be undone againe or you will be undone for ever You are running from God but you must come back again or perish when all is done You are learning an hundred carnal lessons and false conceits that must be all unlearnt again You are shutting up your eies in wilful ignorance which must be opened again You must lean the Doctrine of Christ the great Teacher of the Church if you stay never so long or else you shall be cut of from his people Acts 3. 22. 7. 37. When you have been long accustoming your selves to sinne you must unlearn and break all those customes again You are hardning your hearts daily and they must again be softned And I must tell you that though a little time and labour may serve to do mischief yet it is not quickly undone again You may sooner set your house on fire than quench it when you have done You may sooner cut and wound your bodies then heal them again And sooner catch a cold or a disease then cure it You may quickly do that which must be longer a undoing Besides the cure is accompanied with paine You must take many a bitter draught in groanes or tears of godly sorrow for these delaies The wounds that you are now giving your Souls must smart and smart again before they are searcht and healed to the bottom And what man of wisdom would make himself such work and sorrow Who would travail on an hour longer that knowes he is out of his way and must come back again Would you not think him a mad man that would say I will go on a little further and then I will turn back I know Mr. Bilney the Martyr was offended with this comparison because he thought it was against Free Grace But comparisons extend not to every respect There are two things in your sins to be undone the one is the Guilt and the other is the Habit and power of sin the first indeed is done away when you are Converted but at the cost of Christ which should not be made light of And yet some scarres may be left behind and such twigs of Gods Rod may fall upon you as shall make you wish you had come sooner in And for the habit of sinne though Conversion break the heart of it yet will it live and trouble you while you live and those sinnes that now you are strengthning by your delaies will be thorns in your sides and rebels in your Country and find you work as long as you live And thus I may well say that you are doing that while you delay that must be long in undoing and will not be undone so easily as it is done and you are going on that way that must be all trod backward 48. And me thinks if it were but this it should terrifie you from your Delaies that it is likely to make your Conversion more grievous if you should have so great Mercy from God as after all to be Converted There is very few scape that are so exceeding long in travaile but if you come to the birth it 's like to be with double paine For God must send either some grievous affliction to fire and frighten you out of your sinnes or else some terrible gripes of Conscience that shall make you groane and groane againe in the feeling of your folly The pangs and throws of Conscience in the work of Conversion are far more grievous in some then in others Some are even on the wrack and almost brought besides their wits and the next step to desperation with horror of Soul and the sense of the Wrath of God so that they lie in doubts and complaints many a year together and think that they are even forsaken
they will not deliberate upon it till the market be past If they have their land to plow or their â—orn to sow or reap or mow they will not take a twelve months time to pause upon it They can quicky Resolve upon their every-daies business their travails their labours and all their ordinary affaires And yet these same men cannot Resolve in seaven years time and seaven to that whether Heaven or Earth should be more loved and laboured for Or whether a corruptible flesh a wicked fancie a greedy throat should be pleased before the God of Heaven though the pleasing of it cost them the loss of their Salvation Why Sirs a man that is well in his wits would think that these matters should be more out of doubt then the former and speedilier resolved on One would think it should be an easier question whether you should turn to God and a Holy life for the saving of your immortal Souls then whether you should eate or drink or sleep for the preservation of your bodies For I can in many cases bring some reason that should perswade you to forbeare eating or drinking or sleeping for a considerable time but no man breathing can speak a word of reason except mens folly should be called Reason that should perswade you to forbear your Conversion for a minute And if you mistake about these bodily matters the loss may be repaired at least in the world to come but if you die before you are Resolved and firmly Resolved to give up your Soul and body to Christ and live a Holy Heavenly life you are undone body and Soul for ever and all the world can never save you Oh what a strange and horrible thing is it that a man that hath the wit to mannage his affaires as plausibly as any of his neighbours that can overwit others in the matters of the world that can govern Towns and Countries that is learned in his Profession in Law in Physick in Merchandize in Navigation or any the like I say that a man of so deep a reach so plodding and active a wit as this should yet be unresolved yea at 30 or 40 years old be unresolved whether to be Sanctified or unsanctified whether to be Holy and be Saved or to be unholy though God hath professed expresly that such shall not see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. These are our wise men these are too many besides the ignorant country men of our Gentlemen our Worshipfull and Honourable men our great Schollars and men of noble or reverend esteem that yet are unresolved whether to be saved or to be damned Though God hath written a Bible to Resolve them and a thousand books are written to Resolve them and Preachers are studying and preaching to Resolve them and a thousand mercies are cast into the scales that one would think should help to turn them and some sharp afflictions are helping to Resolve them and twenty or fourty years certain experience of the vanity of this world the deceitfullness of riches and honour and pleasure and the unprofitableness of sinne one would think should Resolve them yet after all this they are unresolved whether they should presently let go their sinne and whether God or the flesh should be pleased or displeased If this be the wisdom of these men the Lord bless me and all his chosen from such wisdom 6. Nay consider further of your unreasonable wickedness Are not many of your Judgments Resolved when yet your hearts and wils are unresolved I am confident nay I am certain it is so You are at once both Resolved and unresolved What a confusion and warre do you thus make in your own Souls The Judgment is for one thing and the Will and Affections are for another thing What are you not led by Reason Will you let out your Affections and lead your lives quite contrary to your knowledg Would not most of you give it me as your Judgments under your hands that it 's a thousand times better to cast away your drunkenness your filthiness your worldliness and other known sinnes then to keep them any longer What say you are you not Convinced that it were your wisest course to part with them this very day and hour Undoubtedly many of you are And yet for all this will you not Resolve to do it Are you not perswaded in your Consciences that it 's better to dye in a Holy and Heavenly state then in a loose and careles worldly state And that it were your safest and wisest course to become New men and lead a Holy Heavenly life without delay Dare you deny this Is it not your Judgment And yet will you not do it Are you Resolved that it should be done and must be done and yet will you not Resolve to do it Why what is this but to be condemners of your selves to carry a Judge about with you in your own brests that is still passing sentence against you Happy is he saith the Spirit of God Rom. 14. 22. that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth If your Judgments be Resolved let your Wills Resolve or else you are wilfull adersaries of the light and fight against Reason and unman your selves and sinning wilfully against your Knowledg shall be beaten with many stripes 7. Me thinks also it should somewhat quicken you to Resolve when you consider what a case you had now been in if death had found you unresolved For if you are unresolved you are unsanctified and if not Sanctified you are not pardoned or justified and therefore undoubtedly you had been past all help in endless misery if you had died all this while before you were firmly Rosolved for God O what a dangerous ticklish condition have you stood in all this while What wise man would live an hour in such a case for all the world For feare lest that hour should be his last And yet would you stay longer in it and still are you unresolved 8. Believe it Christ will not own you as his servants nor trust you what ever promises you may make him as long as you are unresolved Who will take a servant that is not resolved to do any service Who will take an unresolved person if he knows it as a wife or friend into his intimate love And indeed you are not truly Christians till you are Resolved to take Christ for better and worse What ever state is short of this is also short of true Sanctification and will fall short of Heaven Christ is Resolved to stick to his servants and he will have no servants that be not resolved to stick to him 9. And indeed if you be unresolved as you are falshearted at the first setting out so it is certain that you wll never go well on nor endure to the end in case of tryall nor can you do the business of a Christian life without Resolution If you will be Christ's Disciples you must reckon upon persecutions You must take up
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