Paul must be laid exceeding low in his Conversion that he might be the fitter as a chosen Vessel to bear Christs Name among the Gentiles Lay all this now together Sirs and consider what cause you have to cherish the Humbling works of Grace and not to quench them When your hearts begin to be afflicted for sinne go not among foolish and merry Companions to drink or laugh it away drive it not out of your minds as unkindly as if it came to do you hurt But get alone and consider of the matter and on your knees in secret beseech the Lord to follow it home and break your hearts and make you meet for his healing consolations and not to leave you in this red sea but to bring you through and put the Songs of praise into your mouths DIRECT V. Having thus directed you about your Humiliation the next Direction which I would offer you that you may not miscarry in the worke of Conversion is this See that you close with the Lord Jesus Christ understandingly heartily and entirly as he is revealed and offered to you in the Gospel In this your Christianity doth consist Upon this your Justification and Salvation lie This is the summe of your Coversion and the very heart of the New creature The rest is all but the preparatives to this or the fruits of this Christ is the end and the fulfiling of the Law the substance of the Gospel the way to the Father the life the help the hope of the Believer If you know not him you know nothing If you possess not him you have nothing And if you are out of him you can do nothing that hath a promise of Salvation And therefore I shall distinctly though briefly tell you what it is to close with Christ Vnderstandingly heartily and entirely as he is offered in the Gospel And I. That you may close with Christ Vnderstandingly you must look to these things 1. That you understand who Christ is as in his Person and his Offices 2. That you understand the Reason of his undertaking 3. That you understand what it is that he hath done and suffered for us 4 That you understand the Nature and worth of his benefits and what he will do for you 5. That you understand the terms on which he conveyeth these benefits to men and what is the nature extent and condition of his promises And 6. that you understand the Certain Truth of all this For the first you must understand that Jesus Christ hath two Natures in one Person that he is both God and Man As he is God he is of the same substance with his Father and one in essence with him the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity the Word of God the only begotten Sonne of the Father Eternal Incomprehensible and Infinite As Man he hath a true Humane Soul and body as men have so that his Godhead his Humane Soul and his Body are really distinct This Humane Nature was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary without man and born of of her and is so truly united to the Divine Nature as that they are one Person Not that the Godhead is turned into the manhood nor the manhood into the Godhead but the Godhead hath taken the manhood into Personal Unity with it self This was not from Eternity but when man had sinned and had lost himself and needed a Redeemer By reason of his Miraculous Conception he was free from all Original sinne being holy harmless and undefiled His Person and Natures were fit for his Office which was to be the Mediator between God and man to make Reconciliation and recover us to God Had he not been God but meer man his dignity would not have been sufficient for such an interposition nor his obedience or sufferings of any such value as to be the price of our Redemption Nor could he have born our burden or conquered death and risen again and overcome the Prince of death the Devil nor have ruled his Church and preserved and sanctified them and prospered his Cause and subdued his enemies nor effectually interceded with the Father nor judged the world or raised the dead and done the work of a perfect Saviour Nor was the Angelical Nature sufficient for this Office Had he not been man he had not been neer enough to us to have suffered in our stead and taught us by his Doctrin and given us his Example nor could he have suffered or dyed for us For God cannot die or suffer As he is God he is One in Nature with the Father and as he is man he is One in Nature with us and therefore is fit to Mediate for us and in him we are brought thus nigh to God To this Office of the Mediator there are many acts belonging from whence it hath several denominations of which more anon So much of Christ's Person 2. The next thing that you must understand is the Reason and Ends of his Undertaking which though we are not able fully to comprehend nor the Reason of any of the works of God yet must we observe so much as is revealed And these following Ends or Reasons of this work do shew themselves clearly in the Scripture and in the event 1. One is The Demonstration of Gods Justice as he is Governor of the world according to the Law of Nature He made man rational and a voluntary Agent capable of Good or Evil with Desires and Hopes of the Good and fears of the Evil and so to be ruled according to his Nature He made for him a Law that Revealed Good and Evil with Promises to move him by Desire and Hope and with Threatnings to drive him by necessary Fear By these engins God resolved to govern mankind This Law was the Rule of mans Duty and of his Receivings or of Gods Judgment According to this Law the world was to be Governed by God His Governing Justice consisteth in giving all their Due according to his Law At least so far as that the End of the Law may be attained that is the honour of the Law-giver preserved transgression made odious by the terror of penalty and obedience made honourable by its fruits of impunity and reward Otherwise the Law would not have deterred effectually from Evil nor encouraged to Good especially to so much as Creatures must go through for the Crown of Life And so the Law would have been no fit Instrument for the Government of the world that is the Law would have been no Law But this the Wise and Righteous God would not be guilty of of making a Law that was no Law and was unmeet for the ends to which he made it which was essential to it as a Law There was no way to avoid this intollerable consequent when man had sinned but strict execution of the Law or by sufficient Satisfaction in stead of such an Execution The Execution would have destroyed the Commonwealth even the whole inferior world at least the reasonable
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
of that And therefore no wonder if the Redeemer be neglected and God denied the honour of the work So much of this second point the Reasons and Ends of Christ's undertaking I shall purposely be shorter on the rest 3. The third point to be understood concerning our Redeemer is What he hath done and suffered for mankind and wherein his Redeeming work consisted both as to the General and the special part Should I stand on these at large I must needs be voluminous and therefore I shall but briefly reciet them for your remembrance I. The first thing that Christ did for the saving of the world was his Interposing between offending man and the wrath of God and so preserving the world from the destruction which the execution of the violated Law would have procured Undertaking then to become the Seed of the woman and so to break the Serpents head and revealing this Grace by slow degrees till the time of his coming And then when the fullness of time was come he was made man being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary and so the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men who beheld his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Thus God was manifested to men in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. 3. And as he was perfectly Holy in his Nature without any stain or guilt of Original sinne so was he perfectly Holy in his Life and never broke the least Command of God in thought word or deed Never could any convince him of sinne Joh. 8. 46. He fulfilled the Law of Nature which all the world was under and the Mosaical Law which the Jews were under and the special Law that was given to himself as Mediator and was common to no other Creature in the world And thus he performed these excellent works I. By the fullfilling of all Righteousness he pleased the Father alwaies accomplishing his Will and so did much of the work of a Saviour in Meriting for for us Matth. 3. 15. 5. 17. Joh. 8. 29. Matth. 12. 18. 17. 5. Rom. 5. 19. For such an High-priest became us who is Holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. 2. He hath conquered the Tempter that conquered us And therefore did he purposely yield himself to such sore temptations Matth. 4. That his Victory might be glorious and the Second Adam might overcome him that had overcome the first And thus he hath done much to the rescue of the Captivated 3. Hereby also he hath overcome the world which overcame the first Adam and his posterity He trampled upon its seeming glory he neglected and despised its baits and allurements he went through all its cruel persecutions and oppositions So that the world now as well as the Devil are conquered things By which he hath made way for the Victory of his followers and given them ground of great encouragment Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the world Yea I may say in a sort he hath overcome the flesh also For though Christ had no corrupt flesh as we have to contend with yet had he a natural and sensitive appetite which the Command of God did forbid him to fulfill And therefore when innocent Nature diâ—â—red that the Cup might pass from him and abhor death by a simple Aversness yet perfect Holiness permitted not this to proceed to a Refusal by the comparing Intellect and Choosing or Refusing Will but saith Not my will but thine be done And when Christ was hungry and weary the desire of food and rest by the sensitive appetite was no sinne But when the Work of God forbad the fullfilling of such desires he still denyed them 4. Hereby also he hath set us a perfect copy and patern of obedience and is become our Example whom we must endeavour to imitate For he knew that it is the most effectual teaching to do it by words and deeds together It is a great help to us when we do not only heare his voice but see also which way he hath gone before us When he saith Learn of me he directs us not only to his words but to himself who was meeke and lowly Matth. 11. 28. 5. Moreover Christ received of the Father fullness of the Spirit and Power for the benefit of the Redeemed that he might be meet to be the Head and the Treasury of the Church and to shower down the streams of Grace upon his Members and when all Power was given him in Heaven and Earth he might be fitted to the following application of his benefits and to rule and support and defend his people 6. Moreover he was pleased himself to become a Preacher of the Gospel of Salvation not to all the world but principally as a Minister of the Circumcision that is the Jews Rom. 15. 8. He that purchased Salvation condescended also to proclaime it The preaching of the Gospel is a work that Christ thought not himself too good for Sometimes to many sometimes to one or two as he had opportunity often with tears and alwaies with earnestness and compassion did he go about doing good and seeking the lost and healing the diseased and calling men to Faith and Repentance and offering them the Grace and Life which he purchased 7. And he was pleased also to seale up his Doctrine by his Works casting out Devils healing all diseases raising the the dead and working divers other Miracles to assure them that he came from God and did his Work and revealed his Will that so the world might have no excuse for their unbelife but that they that would not believe upon any other account might yet believe him for the sake of his works Joh. 3. 2. Acts 2. 22. Heb. 2. 4. Joh. 5. 36. 10. 25 38. 14. 11 12. 15. 24. 8. Besides all this he gave up himself to a life of suffering being despised by his Creatures whom he came to Redeeme and destitute voluntarily of fleshly pleasures and of that riches and worldly provision that might procure it He was a man of sorrows afflicted from his youth persecuted from the Cradle he gave his Cheeks to the smiters and his Person to be made the scorn of fools He was crowned with thornes spit upon and buffited and having sweat water and blood in his Agonie in the garden he was hanged on a Cross where thieves were both his companions and revilers where they gave him gall and vineger to drink pierced his blessed Body with a spear and put him to a shamfull cursed death But he endured the Cross despising the shame and gave up himself thus a Sacrifice for sinne and bore our transgressions that we might be healed by his stripes and having ransomed us by his Blood he was buried as an offender continuing for a time in the Power of the grave Isa. 53. throughout Matth. 26 27. Heb. 12. 2. All this he consented to undergo
not have the principal part of thy life If Christ have thy Heart it will be heard much in thy conference it will be seen in thy labours For that which hath a mans Heart will hardly be hid unless he purposely hide it which a Christian neither can nor ought to do It would make a man wonder to hear some wretches that will runne from God as fast as they can and yet face you down that God hath their hearts that have no mind so much as to meditate or talk of Christ or his precious Blood or mysterious Redemption or the glorious Kingdom purchased by him that will be at neither cost nor labour in his Service and yet profess that Christ hath their hearts that will refuse a Holy Heavenly life and perhaps make a scorn of it and maliciously prate against the Sanctified and yet will stand to it that the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier of the Elect hath their hearts No wonder if those hearts are ill managed and in a miserable deceived state that are so unacquainted with themselves Faith entreth at the Understanding but it hath not all its essential parts and is not the Gospel Faith indeed till it have possessed the will The heart of Faith is wanting till Faith hath taken possession of the heart For by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Heart Ephes. 3. 17. And if he dwell not in the heart he dwells not in the Man in a saving sort He had some interest in Judas Simon Magus Ananias and Saphira as to the head and perhaps somewhat more in a superficial sort But Satan entred into the heart of one and filled the heart of another of them with a lie and the heart of the third was not right in the sight of God and therefore he had no part or lot in Christ but was still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and all because Christ was not heartily entertained Acts 5. 3 8. 22 23. It is in the heart that the word must have its rooting or else it will wither in time of tryal It is seeking with the whole heart that is the evidence of the blessed Psal. 119 2. And it is a feigned turning when men turn not to God with the whole heart Jer. 3. 10. This is Gods promise concerning his Elect I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24. 7. See then that the heart be unfeignedly delivered up to Christ For if Christ have it not the flesh the world and the Devil will have it Your Hearts must be a dwelling for one of these Masters choose you whether It is the damnation of most professed Christians that they have nothing for Christ but a good opinion or a few good words or outside services or some sleight Religiousness on the by when the flesh and the world go away with their hearts and yet they will not know it nor confess it Christ will not be an underling or servant to your flesh Your Hearts he hath bought and your Hearts he will have or you are none of his If he shall have nothing from you but a name you shall have nothing but the name of his purchased Salvation III. The last part of the Direction yet remains viz. that you must clâ—se with Christ entirely as well as Vnderstandingly and Heartily It is whole Christ that must be received with the whole heart For the understanding of this it must be known both How and Why Christ is offered to us As he came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8 and to seek and save that which was lost Luke 19. 19 And by his Mediation to reconcile us to God and bring us up to Glory so two things were to be done for the accomplishment of this First he was himself to Merit our Salvation and pay the price of our Redemption on the Cross and in his own Person to conquer the world the Devil and death and the grave And then he was by his Intercession in the Heavens to make application of this and bestow the benefits thus purchased by him And because it was he and not we that made the purchase it therefore pleased the Father that the purchased treasure should be put into his hands and not immediately put into ours He is become our Treasury and authorized to be our Head All Power is given him in Heaven and Earth We have so fouly miscarryed already that he will no more trust his honour in our hands as at first he did We shall have nothing of Pardon or Grace or Glory but what we have in and from the Sonne God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Sonne He that hath the Sonne hath Life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not Life 1 Joh. 11. 12. It is not only the Nature and Person of Christ that is to be believed in but it is the Person as impowred to certain ends and clothed with his Office yet we must now entertain Now the Office of Christ being for our Salvation and the Glory of God is suited to these happy ends And our Necessities are principally in these three points 1. We have the Guilt of sinne upon us to be pardoned and the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law and the punishment of sinne to be removed 2. We have the Corruption of our Nature to be healed the power of sinne to be destroyed the Image of God repaired on us and our hearts and lives to be acted and ordered according to the Will of God and to these ends Temptations to be conquered and our Souls directed strengthned and preserved to the end 3. We must be raised from the Grave at the last day we must be Justified in Judgment and possessed of that Glory which is the End of our Faith To this Justification Sanctification and Glorification may the rest be reduced Now the Office of Christ is suited to these Necessities of ours and as we cannot possibly be saved unless all these Necessities be supplied and these works done for us so we cannot possibly have these things done but by Accepting of Christ as Authorized and impowred by his Office and Perfections to do them The Glory that God will have by this work I have before expressed to you at large He will have his Justice Wisdom and Power and Holiness and Mercy to be demonstrated and honoured by Christ. And therefore Christ hath resolved to give out none of his benefits but in such manner and waies as may best attain these highest Ends. These several points therefore I must intreate you here to note distinctly 1. That you must be brought into a special Relation to the Person of Christ as cloathed with his Office before you can lay claim to his Saving Benefits He is the Head and you must become his Members He is
this be lost for want of going to the bottom and making a through work of it What a loss will this be 5. Consider also What an admirable help and advantage it will be to you through the whole course of your lives if the work of Conversion be once throughly wrought I will shew you this in some Particulars First It will be an excellent help to your understandings against the grosser Errors of the world and will stablish you in the truth much more then meer Arguments can do For you will be able to speak for the truth from feelling and experience He that hath the Law written both in his Bible and in his heart is likely to hold it faster then he that hath it in his Bible alore But of this I have spoken already in my Treatise against Infidelity Part 2. Secondly If you be but throughly Converted you will have that within you which will be a a continuall help against temptations You have not only experience of the mischief of sinning and the folly of those Reasons that are brought for its defence but you have also a new nature which is against the temptation as life is against poison and as it is a great disadvantage to the Law of Christ that it speaks against the nature of the ungodly so is it a disadvantage to the temptations of the Devil that they would draw a Christian against his new nature You have that within you that will plead more effectually against sensuality uncharitableness pride or worldliness or any the like sinne then reason or learning alone can do As in the forecited Book I have further manifested Thirdly If Conversion be throughly wrought you will have within you a continuall helper of your graces and a Remembrancer to put you in mind of duty and a spurre to put you on to the performance and a furtherer of your souls in the performance it self It is out of this spark and principle within you that the Holy Ghost doth raise the acts of grace This is it that the Word and Prayer and Conference and Sacraments and all the Means of Grace must work upon If we see you do amiss we have hopes that you will hear us If we plainly reprove you we may look you should take it in good part For you have that within you that saith as we say and is at deadly enmity with the sinne which we reprove If we provoke you to Love and to good Works we dare almost promise our selves that you will obey For you have that within you that disposeth you to the duty and preacheth our Sermons to you over again O what an advantage it is to our teaching when you are all taught of God within as well as by his Messengers without But when we speak to the unconverted we have little to work upon We give Physick to the dead We speak all against the bent of their souls and every reproof and exhortation to holiness goes against their very natures And therefore what wonder if we have the smaller hopes to prevail Fourthly If the work be throughly done at first it will help to resolve many doubts that may be afterwards cast into your minds You need not be still at a loss and looking behind you and questioning your foundation but may go cheerfully and boldly on O what an excellent encouragement is this to know that you have hitherto made good your ground and left all safe and sure behind you and have nothing to do but to look before you and press on towards the mark till you lay hold upon the prize Whereas if you be in any great doubt of your Conversion it will be stopping you and discouraging you in all your work you will be still looking behind you and saying What if I should yet be unconverted When you should cheerfully address your selves to Prayer or Sacraments how sadly will you go as being utterly uncertain whether you have a saving right to them or whether God will accept a Sacrifice at your hand When you should grow and go forward you will have little heart to it because you know not whether you are yet in the way and this will damp your life and comfort in every duty when you must say I know not whether yet I be throughly Converted O therefore stop not the work at first Fifthly and lastly if the work be throughly done at first you will persevere when others fall away You will have rooting in your selves entertaining the seed as into depth of earth and you will have the Holy Ghost within you and more then so engaged for your preservation and the perfecting of your salvation When they that received the Word as seed upon a rock and never give it deep entertainment will wither and fall away in the time of triall and from them that have not saving grace shall be taken away even that which they seemed to have Mat. 13. 12. 25. 19. 6. And Lastly Consider If you fall short of a true Conversion at the first the Devil will take occasion by it to tempt you at last to utter despair When you have made many essaies and trials and been about the work again and again he will perswade you that there is no possibility of accomplishing it If we convince an open prophane person that is unconverted he may easier see that yet there is hopes of it But if a man have been half-converted and lived long in a formall self-deceiving profession of Religion and been taken by himself and others for a godly man as it is very hard to convince this man that he is unconverted so when he is convinced of it he will easily fall into desperation For Satan will tell him If thou be yet unconverted after so many Confessions and Prayers and after so long a course of Religion what hope canst thou have that yet it should be done Thou wilt never have better opportunities then thou hast had If such Sermons as thou hast heard could not do it what hope is there of it If such Books and such Company and such Mercies and such Afflictions have not done it what hope canst thou have Canst thou hear any livelyer Teaching then thou hast heard or speak any holyer words then thou hast spoken If yet the work be quite undone it is not forsaking another sinne nor going a step further that will do it and therefore never think of it for there is no hope Dost thou not know how oft thou hast tryed in vain and What canst thou do more And thus you give advantage to the Tempter by your first delayes and taking up in meer Preparatories And therefore I beseech you as you love your souls take heed of resisting the Spirit of grace and breaking off the work before it is throughly done but go the bottom and follow it on til it be accomplished in sincerity And now hoping that upon these Considerations you are resolved to do your best I shall come to the thing which I
principally intended which is to give you certain Directions which if you will obey you may be Converts and Saints indeed DIRECTION I. Lest the Work of Conversion should miscarry where it seemeth to be begun or in a hopefull way I first advise you to Labour after a right Vnderstanding of the True Nature of Christianity and the Meaning of the Gospel which is sent for to Convert you You are naturally slaves to the Prince of darkness and live in a state of darkness and do the works of darkness and are hasting apase to utter darkness And it is the light of saving knowledge that must recover you or there is no recovery God is the Father of Light and dwelleth in Light Christ is the Light of the world His Ministers are also the Lights of the world as under him and are sent to turn men from Darkness to light by the Gospel which is the light to our feet and this is to make us Children of Light that we may no more do the works of darknses but may be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 2 Cor. 4 3 4. 1 Joh 1. 5 1 Joh. 1. 5 9. Jam. 1. 17 Mat. 5. 14 Act. 26. 18. Joh. 8. 12. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Eph 5 8 13. Col 1 12. Believe it Darknes is not the way to the Celestial Glory Ignorance is your Disease and Knowledge must be your Cure I know the ignorant have many excuses and are apt to think that the case is not so bad with them as we make it to be and that there is no such need of Knowledge but a man may be saved without it But this is because they want that Knowledge that should shew them the misery of their Ignorance and the worth of Knowledge Hath not the Scripture plainly told you that If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose mindes the God of this world hath blinded lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 3. 4. I know that many that have much knowledge are ungodly But what of that Can any man therefore be godly or be saved without Knowledge You may have a bad servant that yet is skilfull enough in his work but yet you will not mend the matter by taking one that hath no skill at all You may send a man on your errand that knows the way and yet will not go it but loiter and deceive you But what of that Will you therefore think to mend the matter by sending one that knoweth not a step of the way nor will not learn it Though a man of knowledge may be the servant of the devil yet no man without knowledge that hath the use of his Reason can be the servant of God A man may go to Hell with knowledge but he certainly shall go to Hell without it I do not say that you must all be men of learning and skil'd in the Arts and Sciencies and Languages But you must have the Knowledge of a Christian though not of a Scholar Can you love or serve a God that you Know not Can you let go friends and goods and life for a Glory which you have no Knowledge of Can you make it the principall business of your lives to seek for a Heaven whose Excellencies you know not of Can you lament your sinne and misery when you are unacquainted with it Or will you strive against sinne as the greatest evil when you know not the evil of it Will you believe in a Christ whom you do not know and trust your souls and all upon him Will you rest upon a Promise or fear a Threatning or be ruled by a Law which you do not understand It is not possible to be Christians without knowing the substance of Christianity Nor is it possible for you to be saved without knowing the way of salvation Labour therefore to be well acquainted with the Grounds and Reasons and Nature of your Religion The clearer your Light is the warmer and livelier your hearts will be Illumination is the first part of Sanctification The head is the passage to the heart O if you did but throughly know what sinne is and what a life it is to serve the flesh and what the end of this will prove with what detestation would you cast it away If you did throughly know what a life of holiness is how speedily would you choose it If you did truly know what God is how infinitely powerfull and wise and good how holy and just and true and what title he hath to you and authority over you and what and Eternal Portion he would be to you how is it possible that you could preferre the dirt of the world before him or delay any longer to return unto him If you did but truly know what Christ is and what he hath done and suffered for you and what that pardon and grace and glory are which he hath purchased for you and offereth to you and how sure his Promise is by which it is offered it is not possible that you should refuse to entertain him or delay to give up your souls unto him Do you think a man that truly knows what Heaven is and what Hell is can still be in doubt whether he should turn or not Alas sirs if God would but open your eyes to to see where you are and what you are doing you would runne as for your lives and quickly change your minds and waies You would no more stay in your carnall state then you would stay in a house that were falling down on your heads or in a ship that you perceived sinking under you or on the sands when you see the tide coming towards you If you did but see your Chamber full of Devils this night you would not stand to ask whether you should be gone And sure then if you knew how the Devils are about you how they deceive you and rule you and wait to drag you away to Hell you would never stay a night longer willingly in such a state While men understand not what the Gospel means nor what a Minister saith to them no wonder if they regard them not but continue in their sinne If you see a Bear or a mad Dog making towards a man and tell him of it and call to him to be gone if he be a man of another language and do not understand you he will make never the more hast but if he understand and believe you he will away If people think that Ministers are in jest with them or that they are uncertain of what they say no marvell if they hear us in jest or as men that believe not what they hear But if you knew that your lives lay on it yea your everlasting life would you not regard it and look about you Now you stand deliberating and questioning the business whether you should turn and let go sinne or no But if you knew
were but possessed lively sensible of all that is contained in this leafe or two you would not envy the greatest Prince on earth his glory nor change states with any man that were a stranger to these things Did you but use to consider of the state of the Saints how could you keep off and stay with sinne and make so many delaies in turning unto God! Sure this consideration might turne the scales 6o. The next part of your Meditation should be Of the gracious and wonderfull work of our Redemption and the means and remedies which are provided for your Souls and the terms on which Salvation may be obtained For all the sins that you have committed you are not given over to despaire the Lord hath not left you without a reremedie Your Conversion and Salvation is not a thing impossible Nay so much is done by Christ already that it is brought upon reasonable terms even to your hands A new and living way is consecrated for us by Christ through the veile of his flesh and by his blood we may have boldness to enter into the Holiest Heb. 10. 19 20. He hath borne your burden and offereâ—h you in stead of it his burden which is light Matth. 11. 28. He hath removed the Impossibility and nailed to his Cross the hand writing that was against you Col 2. 14 15. And in stead of it offereth you his easie yoak He hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers that had captivated you and openly triumphed over them on the Cross. You are not left under the care of making satisfaction to God for your own sinnes but only of accepting the Redeemer that hath satisfied This much I dare confidently say to you all without extending his benefits too farre It will be for want of faith in you and not for want of satisfaction by the Redeemer if any of you perish And how free are his offers How full are his promises you are conditionally all pardoned and justified already as is legible under the hand of God And the Condition which is imposed on you is not some meritorious or mercenary work but the Accepting of the benefit freely given according to its nature use and ends This is the Faith by which you must be justified These are the terms on which you may be saved And which is more the Lord hath provided means even excellent and plentifull and powerfull means for the furthering of your Souls in the performance of this Condition and helping you to Believe and Repent that you may live And if the Spirit make not these Means effectuall adjoyn not his speciall grace after this you remaine unconverted it will not be long of him but of your selvs So that you may perceive how hopefull acase you are yet in by the blood of your Redeemer if you destroy not your own hopes and make not your case desperate by wilfull Impenitency and refusall of free grace How faire are you yet for Heaven and what happy advantages have you for Salvation It 's brought even to your doors It 's thrust as it were into your hands The Redeemer hath done so much for you all as to bring your Salvation to the choice of you own wills and if you be his chosen ones he will also make you willing You have precepts to Believe you are threatned if you will not Believe you have promise upon promise and Christ himself offered you pardon and life and Salvation with him if you are but truly and heartily willing You have God himself condescending to beseech you to accept them and Embassadours intreating you in his name and stead 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. You have Ordinances fitted to your necessities both Reading and Preaching and Sacraments and Prayer You have store of plaine and powerfull Books you have the Godly about you most desirous to assist you that would be glad to see or heare of your Conversion You have the sight of the wicked that are wallowing in their own dung and the dirt of the world to make you hate such beastly waies You have Reason and Conscience within you to consider of these matters and set them home and apply them to your selves You have time and strength to do all this if you will not abuse it and provoak God to take it from you for your negligence You have Mercies of many sorts outward and inward to win upon you and encourage you in the work And sometime Afflictions to remember you and awaken you and spur you on The Devil and all your Enemies are so far disabled that they cannot destroy you against your wills nor keep you from Christ but by your own Consents The Angels of Heaven are ready to helpe you and would even rejoice at your Conversion This is your case and these are your helps and encouragements You are not shut up under desperation God never told you It is in vaine to think of Conversion It is too late If any have told you so it was the Devil and not God And one would think that such Considerations as these should drive the nayle to the head and be effectuall to move you to Resolve and Turne 7o. The last thing that I would set before you to be Considered is What 's like to be the end of it if after all this you should die unconverted O sirs your hearts are not able now to conceive of it nor the tongue of any mortal man to utter it But so much of it we can certainly utter as one would think should make your hearts to tremble You have seen it may be a dying man in what pangs and agonies he parteth with his Soul and you have seen it's like the corps that was left there behind and seen it laid in the common Earth But you see not what became of the Soul nor what an appearance it made in another world nor what companiâ— did attend it nor what a place or state it past into O sirs when the hour is at hand that this must be your own case it will awaken you to other kind of affections then you have or can have at the reading of these words It 's wonderfull that a little distance should make us so insensible of that change which we are all certaine will come to pass And yet through the folly and deadness of our hearts it is so But they are other kind of thoughts of these weighty matters which we shall have the next hour after death then the liveliest affections beforehand can afford us The misery was great that the Redeemer did find you in and which you deserved by your sinne against the Law of the Creator But if you be found unconverted at last your punishment will be much sorer and your case far worss then it was before The Redeemers Law or Gospel hath it's peculiar Threatning which differeth from the Law of the meere Creator in severall respects Even 1o. in the nature of the punishment which will be torments of Conscience for