awakening consideration That Multitudes miscarry by the hand of some secret sin that is not only hidden from others but for want of observing their own hearts even from themselves A man may be free from open pollutions and yet die at last by the fatal hand of some unobserved iniquity And there be these eleven hidden sins by which souls go down by numbers to the chambers of death These you must search carefully for and take them as black marks where-ever they be found discovering a graceless and unconverted estate As you love your lives read them carefully with a holy jealousie of your selves lest you should be the persons concerned 1. Gross Ignorance Ah how many poor souls doth this sin kill in the dark Hos. 4. 6. while they think verily they have good hearts and are in the ready way to Heaven This is the murderer that diâ—patches thousands in a silent manner when poor hearts they suspect nothing and see not the hand that mischiefs them You shall find whatever excuses you have for ignorance that 't is a soul-undoing evil Esay 27. 11. 2 Thess. 1. 8. 2 Cor. 4. 3. Ah would it not have pitied a man's heart to have seen that woful spectacle when the poor Protestants were shut up a multitude together in a barn and a butcher comes with his inhumane hands warm in humane blood and leads them one by one blindfold to a block where he slew them poor Innocents one after another by the scores in cold blood But how much more should our hearts bleed to think of the hundreds in great congregations that ignorance doth butcher in secret and lead them blindfold to the block Beware this be none of your case Make no pleas for ignorance If you spare that sin know that that will not spare you Will a man keep a murderer in his bosome 2. Secret reserves in closing with Christ. To forsake all for Christ to hate father and mother yea and a mans own life for him this is a hard saying Luke 14. 26. Some will do much but they will not be of the religion that will undo them they never come to be entirely devoted to Christ nor fully to resign to him They must have the sweet sin They mean to do themselves no harm They have secret exceptions for life liberty or estate Many take Christ thus hand over head and never consider his self-denying terms nor cast upon the cost and this error in the foundation marrs all and secretly ruines them for ever Luke 14. 28. Mat. 13. 21. 3. Formality in Religion Many stick in the bark and rest in the outside of religion and in the external performance of holy duties Mat. 23. 25. and this oft times doth most effectually deceive men doth more certainly undo them than open looseness as it was in the Pharisees case Mat. 21. 31. They hear they fast they pray they give alms and therefore will not believe but their case is good Luke 18. 11. whereas resting in the work done and coming short of the heart-work and the inward power and vitals of religion they fall at last into the burnings from the flattering hopes and confident perswasions of their being in the ready way to Heaven Mat. 7. 22 23. Oh dreadful case when a man's religion shall serve only to harden him and effectually to delude and deceive his own soul 4. The prevalency of false ends in holy duties Mat. 23. 5. This was the bane of the Pharisees Oh how many a poor soul is undone by this and drops into hell before he discerns his mistake He performs good duties and so thinks all is well and perceives not that he is acted by carnal motives all the while It is too true that even with the truly sanctified many carnal ends will oft times creep in but they are the matter of his hatred and humiliation and never come to be habitually prevalent with him and to bear the greatest sway Rom. 14. 7. But now when the main thing that doth ordinarily carry a man out to religious duties shall be some carnal end as to satisfy his conscience to get the repute of being religious to be seen of men to shew his own gifts and parts to avoid the reproach of a prophane and irreligious person or the like this discovers an unsound heart Hos. 10. 1. Zech. 7. 5 6. Oh Christians if you would avoid self-deceit see that you mind not only your acts but withal yea above all your ends 5. Trusting in their own righteousness Luke 18. 9. This is a soul-undoing mischief Rom. 10. 3. When men do trust in their own righteousness they do indeed reject Christ's Beloved you had need be watchful on every hand for not only your sins but your duties may undo you It may be you never thought of this but so it is that a man may as certainly miscarry by his seeming righteousness and supposed graces as by gross sins and that is when a man doth trust to these as his righteousness before God for the satisfying his justice appeasing his wrath procuring his favour and obtaining of his own pardon for this is to put Christ out of office and make a Saviour of our own duties and graces Beware of this O professours you are much in duties but this one fly will spoil all the ointment â—â—en you have done most and best be sure to go out of your selves to Christ and reckon your own righteousness but rags Psal. 143. 2. Phil. 3. 8. Esay 64. 6. Neh. 13. 22. 6. A secreâ— enmity against the strictness of religion Many moral persons punctual in their formal devotion have yet a bitter enmity against preciseness and hate the life and power of religion Phil. 3. 6. compared with Act. 9. 1. They like not this forwardness nor that men should keep such a stir in religion They condemn the strictness of Religion as singularity indiscretion and intemperate zeal and with them a lively preacher or zealous Christian is but a heady fellow These men love not holiness as holiness for then they would love the height of holiness and therefore are undoubtedly rotten at heart whatever good opinion they have of themselves 7. The resting in a certain pitch of Religion When they have so much as will save them as they suppose they look no further and so shew themselves short of true Grace which will ever put men upon aspiring to further perfection Phil. 3. 12 13. Prov. 4. 18. 8. The predominant love of the World This is a sure evidence of an unsanctified heartâ— Mar. 10. 37. 1 Iohn 2. 15. But how close doth this sin lurk oft-times under a fair covert of forward profession Luke 8. 14. Yea such a power of deceit is there in this sin that maâ—â— times when every body else can 〈◊〉 mans worldliness and covetousness he câ—â—not see it himself but hath so many colours and excuses and pretences for his eagerness on the world that he doth blind his own eyes and perish in his
point save carnal interests ask them why they are Preachers or Priests And if Conversion and Holiness be a needless thing what use they themselves are of and why the Country must be troubled with them and pay them tythes and owe them reverence When these twenty Questions are well answered conclude that you may be saved without Conversion But if poor soul thou art fully convinced and askest What should I do to be converted The Lord make thee willing and save thee from hypocrisie and I will quickly tell thee in a few words 1. Give not over sober thinking of these things till thy heart be changed Psal. 119. 59. 2. Come to Christ and take him for thy Saviour thy Teacher thy King and he will pardon all that 's past and save thee Iohn 1. 12. and 3. 16. and 5. 40. 1 Iohn 5. 11 12. 3. Believe Gods love and the pardon of sin and the everlasting joyes of Heaven that thou maist feel that all the pleasures of the world and flesh are dung in comparison of the Heavenly delights of Faith and Hope and holy Love and peace of Conscience and sincere obedience 4. Sin no more wilfully but forbear that which thou maist forbear Isa. 55. 7. 5. Away from Temptations occasions of sin and evil company and be a Companion of the humble holy heavenly and sincere Psal. 119. 115. 63. 6. Wait on Gods spirit in the diligent constant use of his own means Read hear meditate pray Pray hard for that grace that must convert thee wait thus and thou shalt not wait in vain Psal. 25. 3. and 37. 34. and 69. 6. Pitty O Lord and perswade these souls Let not Christ's blood his doctrine his example his spirit be lost unto them and they lost for ever Let not Heaven be as no Heaven to them while they dream and dote on the shaddows in this world And O save this land from the greater destruction than all our late plagues and flames and divisions which our sins and thy threatnings make us fear O Lord in thee have we trusted let us never be confounded Having thus contributed my endeavour in this Preface to the furtherance of the design of this excellent book I must tell thee Reader that I take it for an honour to commend so masculine a birth unto the World The Midwife of Alexander or Aristotle need not be ashamed of her office Who the Author of this treatise was how he preached how he lived how he suffered and for what and how he died his Life and Letters lately printed fully tell you and I earnestly commend the reading of them to all but especially Ministers not to tell them what men have been here forbidden to preach Christ's Gospel and for what nor what men they are that so many years have done it but to tell you what men Christ's Ministers should be But say not He kill'd himself with excessive Labour and therefore I will take warning and take my ease For 1. He lived in perfect health all his days notwithstanding his labours till after his hard and long imprisonment 2. It was not the greatest labours of his times of liberty that hurt him but his preaching 6 or 7 or 8 times a week after that he was silenced because he could not speak to all his people at once O make not an ill use of so excellent an example Say not like Iudas What need this waste His labour his life his sufferings his death were not in vain The ages to come that read his Life and read this little popular treatise and his Call to Archippus shall say They were not in vain And though he was cut off in the midst of his age and his longer labours more elaborate writings thus prevented take thankfully this small but methodical warm and serious tractate Read it seriously and it cannot be but it must do thee good I am one that have lookt into books and sciences and speculations of many sorts and seriously tell thee as a dying man that after all my searches and experience I have found that Philosophical enquiries into the Divine Artifices and the Nature of things hath among a greater number of uncertainties a great many pretty pleasant probabilities which a holy soul can make good use of in admiring God may find us a lawful kind of sport but in the moralities which Atheists count uncertainties the knowledge of God and our duty and our hopes the doctrine and practice of Holiness Temperance Charity and Iustice and the diligent seeking joyful hopes of life everlasting is all the true Wisdom the Goodness the Rest and Comfort of a soul whatever be our play this is the satisfying certainty the Business and the beatifying improvement of our lives I have done when I have sought to remove a little scandal which I foresaw that I should my self write the Preface to his Life where himself and two of his friends make such a mention of my name which I cannot own which will seem a praising him for praising me I confess it looketh ill-favouredly in me But I had not the power of other mens writings durst not therefore forbear that which was his due Had I directed their pens they should have gone a middle way and only esteemed me a very unworthy servant of Christ who yet long to see the peace and prosperity of his Church and should have forborn their undeserved praise as other men should have done their slanderous libels But if the Reader get no harm by it I assure him the use I made of it was to lament that I am really so much worse than they esteemed me and to fear lest I should prove yet worse than I discern my self who see so much sin and weakness in my betters and much more in my self as to make it the constant sentiment of my soul that PRIDE of mens GREATNESS WISDOM and GOODNESS is the first part of the DEVILS IMAGE on mans soul and DARKNES is the second and MALIGNITY the third Râ— Baxter TO THE UNCONVERTED Reader READER HOw well were it if there were no more unconverted ones among us than those to whom this is directed Vnconverted persons how many are there but how few unconverted Readers especially of such Books as this before thee A Play or a Romance better suits the lusts and therefore must have more of the eye of such what will cherish the evil heart is only grateful not what will change it How many are there to whom this is directed who will not know that they are the men and how little hope is there that this excellent Treatise should reach its end with those who apprehend not themselves concern'd in it Art not thou one of them Art thou a Convert or art thou not yet in thy sins What is sin What is Conversion It may be thou canst tell me neither and yet a Convert thou sayst thou art But to what purpose is it then like to be for the servant of God to
every false way Psal. 119 127 128. Mark he did approve of all that God required and disallowed all that he forbad Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy judgments Thy testimonies that thou â—ast commanded are righteous and very faithful Thy word is true from the beginning and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever Psal. 119. 86 160 162 163. See how readily and fully he subscribes he declares his assent and consent to it and all and every thing therein contained 2. The desire of the heart is to know the whole mind of Christ. Psal. 119. 125 144 169. Psal. 25. 4 5. He would not have one sin undiscovered nor be ignorant of one duty required 'T is the natural and earnest breathing of a sanctified heart Lord if there be any way of wickedness in me do thou discover it What I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do it no more The unsound is willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. loves not to come to the light Iohn 3. 20. He is willing to keep such or such a sin and therefore is loth to know it to be a sin and will not let in the light at that window Now the gracious heart is willing to know the whole latitude and compass of his makers Low Psal. 119. 18 19 27 33 64 66 68 73 108 124. He receives with all acceptation the word that convinceth him of any duty that he knew not or minded not before or discovereth any sin that lay hid before Psal. 19. 11. 3. The free and resolved choice of the will is determined for the ways of Christ before all the pleasures of sin and prosperity of the world Psal. 119. 127 103 162. His consent is not extorted by some extremity of anguish nor is it only a sudden and hasty resolve but he is deliberately purposed and comes off freely in the choice Psal. 17. 3. Psal. 119. 30. True the flesh will rebel yet the prevailing past of his will is for Christs laws and government so that he takes them not up as his toil or burden but his bliss 1 Iohn 5. 3. Psal. 119 60 72. When the unsanctified goes in Christs ways as in Gives and fetters he doth them naturally Psal. 40. 8. Ier. 31. 33. and counts Christs law his liberty Psal. 119. 32 45. Iames 1. 25. He is willing in the beauties of holiness Psal. 110. 3. and hath this inseparable mark That he had rather if he might have his choice live a strict and holy life than the most prosperous and flourishing life in the world 1 Sam. 10. 26. There went with Saul a band of men whose hearts God had touched When God touches the hearts of his chosen they presently follow Christ Mat. 4. 22. and though drawn do freely run after him Cant. 1. 4. and willingly offer themselves to the service of the Lord 2 Chron. 17. 16. seeking him with their whole desire 2 Chro. 15. 15. Fear hath its use but this is not the main spring of motion with a sanctified heart Christ keeps not his subjects in by force but is King of a willing people They are through his grace freely resolved for his service and do it out of choice not as slaves but as the son or spouse from a spring of love and a loyal mind In a word the laws of Christ are the Converts love Psal. 119. 159 163 167. desire v. 5 20 40. delight v. 77 92 103 111 143. and continual study v. 99 97. Psal. 1. 2. 4. The bent of his course is directed to keep Gods Statutes Psal. 119. 4 8 167 168. 'T is the daily care of his life to walk with God He seeks great things he hath noble designs though he fall too short He aims at nothing less than perfection he desires it he reaches after it he would not rest in any pitch of grace till he were quite rid of sin and had perfected holiness Phil. 3. 11 12 13 14. Here the hypocrites rottenness may be discovered He desires holiness as one well only as a bridge to Heaven and enquires earnestly what is the least that will serve his turn and if he can get but so much as may just bring him to Heaven this is all he cares for But the sound Convert desires holiness for holiness sake Psal. 119. 97. Mat. 5. 6. and not only for Heaven sake He would not be satisfied with so much as might save him from hell but desires the highest pitch Yet desires are not enough What is thy way and thy course Is the drift and scope of thy life altered Is holiness thy trade and religion thy business Rom. 8. 1. Mat. 25. 16. Phil. 3. 20. If not thou art short of sound Conversion Application And is this that we have described the Conversion that is of absolute necessity of salvation then be informed 1. That strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life 2. That there be but few that find it 3. That there is need of a Divine power savingly to convert a sinner to Jesus Christ. Again theâ— bâ—â—xhorted O man that readest to turn in upon thine own self What saith conscience Doth it not begin to bite Doth it not twitch thee as thou goest Is this thy judgment and this thy choice and this thy way that we have described If so then it 's well But doth not thy heart condemn thee and tell thee there is such a sin thou livest in against thy conscience Doth it not tell thee there is such and such a secret way of wickedness that thou makest no bones of Such or such a duty that thou makest no conscience of Doth not conscience carry thee to thy closet and tell thee how seldom prayer and reading is performed there Doth it not carry thee to thy family and shew thee the charge of God and the souls of thy children and servants that be neglected there Doth not conscience lead thee to thy shop thy trade and tell thee of some mystery of iniquity there Doth it not carry thee to the Ale-shop or to the Sack-shop and round thee in thine ear for the loose company thou keepest here the precious time thou mispendest here for the talents of God which thou throwest down this sink for thy gaming and thy swilling c. Doth it not carry thee into the secret chamber and read thee a curtain lecture O conscience do thy duty In the name of the living God I command thee discharge thine office Lay hold upon this sinner Fall upon him arrest him apprehend him undeceive him What wilt thou flatter and sooth him while he lives in his sins Awake O conscience What meanâ—st thou O sleeper What hast thou never a reproof in thy mouth What shall this soul die in his careless neglect of God and eternity and thou altogether hold thy peace What shall he go no still in his trespasses and yet have peace O rouze up thy self and do thy work Now let the
but thine unwillingness Speak man art thou willing of the match Wilt thou have Christ in all his relations to be thine thy King thy Priest thy Prophet Wilt thou have him with all his inconveniences Take not Christ hand over head but sit down first and count thy cost Wilt thou lay all at his feet Wilt thou be content to run all hazards with him Wilt thou take thy lot with him fall where it will Wilt thou deny thy self take up thy Cross and follow him Art thou deliberately understandingly freely fixedly detetermined to cleave to him in all times and conditions If so my soul for thine thou shalt never perish Iohn 3. 16. but art passed from death to life Here lies the main point of thy salvation that thou be sound in thy covenant-closure with Jesus Christ and therefore if thou love thy life see that thou be faithful to God and thy soul here Dir. VIII Resign up all thy powers and faculties and thy whole interest to be his They gave their own selves unto the Lord. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Present your bodies as a living Sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. The Lord seeks not yours but you Resign therefore thy body with all its members to him and thy soul with all its powers that he may be glorified in thy body and in thy spirit which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. In a right closure with Christ all the faculties give up to him The Judgment subscribes Lord thou art worthy of all acceptation chief of ten thousand Happy is the man that findeth thee All the things that are to be desired are not to be compared with thee Prov. 3. 13 14 15. The Understanding lays aside its corrupt reasonings and cavils and its prejudices against Christ and his ways It is now past questioning and disputing and casts it for Christ against all the world It concludes it 's good to be here and sees such a treasure in this field such value in this pearl as is worth all Mat. 13. 44. Oh here 's the richest bargain that â—ver I madeâ— here 's the richest prize that ever man was offered here 's the soveraignst remedy that ever mercy prepared he is worthy of my esteem worthy of my choice worthy of my love worthy to be embraced adored admired for ever more Rev. 5. 12. I approve of his articles his terms are righteous and reasonable full of equity and mercy Again the Will resigns It stands no longer wavering nor wishing and woulding but is peremptorily determin'd Lord thy love hath overcome me thou hast won me and thou shalt have me Come in Lord to thee I freely open I consent to be saved in thine own way thou shalt have any thing thou shalt have all let me have but thee The Memory gives up to Christ Lord here is a store-house for thee Out with this trash lay in thy treasure Let me be a granary a repository of thy truths thy promises thy providences The Conscience comes in Lord I will ever side with thee I will be thy faithful register I will warn when the sinner is tempted and smite when thou art offended I will witness for thee and judge for thee and guide into thy ways and will never let sin have quiet in this soul. The Affections also come in to Christ. O saith Love I am sick for thee O saith Desire now I have my longing Here 's the satisfaction I sought for Here 's the desire of nations Here 's bread for me and balm for me all that I want Fear bows the knee with aw and veneration Welcome Lord to thee will I pay my homage Thy word and thy rod shall command my motions Thee will I reverence and adore before thee will I fall down and worship-Grief likewise puts in Lord thy displeasure and thy dishonour thy peoples calamities and mine own iniquities shall be that that shall set me abroach I will mourn when thou art offended I will weep when thy cause is mounded Anger likewise comes in for Christ Lord nothing so enrages me as my folly against thee that I should be so befooled and bewitched as to hearken to the flatteries of sin and temptations of Satan against thee Hatred too will side with Christ. I protest mortal enmity with thine enemies that I will never be friends with thy foes I vow an immortal quarrel with every sin I will give no quarter I will make no peace Thus let all thy powers give up to Jesus Christ. Again thou must give up thy whole interest to him If there be any thing that thou keepest back from Christ it will be thine undoing Luke 14. 33. Unless thou wilt forsake all in preparation and resolution of thy heart thou canst not be his disciple Thou must hate Father and Mother yea and thine own life also in comparison of him and as far as it stands in competition with him Mat. 10. 37. Luke 14. 26 27 28 c. In a word thou must give him thy self and all that thou hast without reservation or else thou 〈◊〉 have no part in him Dir. IX Make choice of the Laws of Christ as the rule of thy words thoughts and actions Psal. 119. 30. This is the true Converts choice But here remember these three rules 1. Thou must choose them all There is no coming to Heaven by a partial obedience Read Psal. 119. 6 128 160. Ezek. 18. 21. None may think it enough to take up with the cheap and easie part of religion and let alone the duties that are costly and self-denying and grate upon the interest of the flesh You must take all or none A sincere Convert though he makes most conscience of the greatest sins and weightiest duties yet he makes true conscience of little sins and of all duties Psal. 119. 6 113. Mat. 23. 23. 2. For all times for prosperity and for adversity whether it rain or shine A true Convert is resolved in his way he will stand to his choice and will not set his back to the wind and be of the religion of the times I have stuck to thy testimonies I have enclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway even to the end Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever Psal. 119. 31 111 117 44 93. I will have respect unto thy statutes continually 3. This must be done not hand over head but deliberately and understandingly That disobedient son said I go sir but he went not Mat. 24. 30. How fairly did they promise All that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee we will do it and it 's like they spake as they meant but when it came to tryal it was found that there was not such a heart in them as to do what they had promised Deâ—â—â—â— 5. 27 29. If you would be sincere in closing with the laws and ways of Christ First Study the meaning and the latitude and compass of them Remember that they are very spiritual they reach the very thoughts and inclinations of the heart so