Psal. 51. 17. Luke 4. 18. Mat. 11. 28. Do you think a man can be the Servant of God that liveth a fleshly life will keep his sin Try by Rom. 8. 13. Joh. 3. 19. Ephes. 5. 5 6. 1 Joh. 3. 9 10. Do you doubt whether it be necessary to make so much adoe to be saved and to be so strict and make Religion our cheifest business Try by Psal. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Pet. 4. 18. Heb. 12. 14. Luke 10. 42. Luke 13. 24. Ephes. 5. 15 16. Do you think a man can be saved that is a worldling whose heart is more on Earth then heaven Try by 1 Joh. 2 15. Phil. 3. 19. Col. 3. 1. Luke 14. 26 33. Do you doubt whether you should serve God with your families and instruct them and pray with them Try by Jos. 24. 15. Deut. 6. 6 7. Dan. 6. 10. 11. Exod. 20. 10. Thus if you will in all these weighty matters but goe to the Scriptures and see whether it say as your Teachers say you might soone be resolved and that by the surest authority in the world If you think that your Ministers may be deceived I hope you will confess that God cannot be deceived If you think that your Ministers are passionate or felf-conceited or speak out of ill will to you I hope you dare not say so by the Lord he owes you no ill will nor speaks a word but what is most sure If you think us partiall sure God is impartiall what better judge can you have now then he that is infallible and must judge you all at the last If any Papist put it into your head to ask who shall be judge of the sence of Scripture I answer who shall be judge of the judge of all the world The Law is made to judge you and not to be judged by you None can be the proper judges of the sence of a Law but the maker of it Though others must judge their cases by the Law Your work is to discern it and understand and obey it and your work is to help you to understand it but it 's neither our work nor yours to be the proper or absolute judges of it At least where it speaks plaine it needs no judge Come then to the word in meekness and humility with a teachable frame of Spirit and a willingness to know the truth and a resolution to stand to it and yield to what shall be revealed to you and beg of God to shew you his will and lead you into the truth and you will find that he will be found of them that seeke him DIRECT III. If you would not have the work of your Conversion miscarry my next advice is this See that you be much in the serious Consideration of the Truths which you understand betwixt God and you in secret I have often spoken of this heretofore But because I apprehend it to be a point of exceeding great concernment I shall be longer on it againe then on the rest The greatest matters in the world will not work much upon him that will not think of them Consideration opens the eare that was stopt and the heart that was shut up It sets the powers of the Soul awork and wakeneth it from the sleep of incogitancy and security The Thoughts are the first actings of the Soul that set a work the rest Thinking on the matters that must make us wise do the work of God on the heart is that which lieth on us to do in order to our Conversion By Consideration a sinner makes use of the Truth which before lay by and therefore could do nothing By Consideration he taketh in the Medicine to his Soul which before stood by and could not work By Consideration a man makes use of his Reason which before was laid asleep and therefore could not do it's work When the Master 's from home the Schollars will be at play When the Coach-man is asleep the Horses may miss the way and possibly break his neck and their owne If the plowman go his way the Oxen will stand still or make but bad unhandsome work So when Reason is laid asleep and out of the way what may not the Appetite do and what may not the Passions do and what may not Temptations do with the Soul A wise man when he is asleep hath as little use of his wisdome as a foole A Learned man when he is asleep can hardly dispute with an unlearnd man that is awake A strong man that 's never so skillfull at his weapons is scarce able in his sleep to deale with the weakest child that is awake Why all the powers of your Soul are as it were asleep till Consideration awake them and set them on work And what the better are you for being men and having Reason if you have not the Vse of your Reason when you need it As men are Inconsiderate because they are wicked so they are the more wicked because they are inconsiderate The keenest sword the greatest Cannon will do no execution against an enemie while they lie by and are not used There is a mighty power in the Word of God and the example of Christ to pull down strong holds and conquer the strongest lusts and corruptions But they will not do this while they are forgotten and neglected Will Heaven intice the man that thinks not of it Will Hell deterre the man that thinks not of it Why is it that all the reasoning in the world will do no more good on a man that is deaf then if you said nothing But because the passage to his Thoughts and understanding is stopt up And if you have eyes and see not and eares and heare not and willfully cast it out of your thoughts what good can any thing do to you that is spoken It is not holding your meat in your mouth that will nourish you if you will not let it down nor taking it into your stomack if you will not keep it but presently cast it up again But it must be kept till it be disgested and distributed So it is not the most excellent Truths in the world that will change your hearts if you let them not down to your hearts and keep them not there by Meditation till they are digested and turned into sprituall life The plaister must be laid upon the sore if you would be cured The wound and sickness is at your Heart and if you will not take in the word to your heart where the sickness is I know not how you should expect a cure The Soul will not be charmed into Holiness by the bare hearing or saying over a few good words as wizzards use to cure diseases or seeme to cure them It must be Truth at the Heart that must change the Heart And if you will not Think on it and think on it againe how can you expect it should come at your Hearts You say you would gladly have Christ and grace and are ready to
sinne and Judgments are most eminent sorrow must be thâ—n predominant as being a necessary means to solid Joy And therefore ordinarily a sinner that is but in the work of Conversion and newly coming to God from a rebellious state must entertain more sorrow and let out himself more to groanes and tears then afterward when he is brought to Reconciliation with God and walketh in integrity Quest. But when is it that my sorrow is too short and I should labour to increase it Answ. 1. When there is no apparent danger of the last-mentioned evils that is Of destroying your bodies distracting your brains discomomposing your minds and drowning other Graces and duties and the rest then you have little cause to be afraid of an excess 2. When you have not smart enough to cause you to value the Love of Christ and highly prise his blood and the effects of it and hunger and thirst after him and his righteousness and earnestly beg for the pardon of your sinne you have cause to desire the more sorrow If you feel no great need of Christ but pass by him as lightly as the full stomack by his food as if you could do well enough without him you may be sure then you have need to be broken more If you set not so much by the Love of God that you would part with any thing in the world to enjoy it and would think no terms too dear for Heaven You have need to lie under the sence of your sinne and misery a little longer and to beseech the Lord to save you from that heart of stone When you can hear of the Love and sufferings of your Redeemer without any warmth of Love to him again and can read or hear the promises of Grace and offers of Christ and Eternall life without any considerable Joy or Thankfullness it 's time for you then to beg of God a tender heart 3. When you make many pawses in the work of your Conversion and are sometime in a good mind and then again at a stand as if you were yet unresolved whether to turn or no When you stick at Christ terms of denying your selves and crucifying the flesh and forsaking all for the hopes of Glory and think these sayings somewhat hard and are considering of the matter whether you should yield to them or not or are secretly Reserving somewhat to your selves this certainly shews that you are not yet sufficiently humbled or else you would never stand trifling thus with God He must yet set your sinnes in order before you and hold you a while over the fire of Hell and ring your Consciences such a peal as shall make you yield and resolve your doubts and â—each you not to dally with your maker If Pharaoh himself be off and on with God and sometime he will let Israel goe and then again he will not God will follow him with plague after plague till he make him yield and glad to drive or hasten them away And even where he deals in waies of Grace he maketh so much use of sorrows as to make men yield the sooner to his terms and glad to have Mercy on such terms if they were harder 4. When you are heartless and dull under the Ordinances of God and Scripture hath little life or sweetness to you and you are almost indifferent whether you call upon God in secret or no and whether you go to the Congregation and heare the Word and joyn in Gods Praises and the Communion of the Saints and you have no great relish in holy Conference or any Ordinance but do them almost meerly for custom or to please your Consciences and not for any great need you feel of them or good you find by them this shews for certain you want some more of the rod and spurre your hearts be not wakened and broken sufficiently but God must take you in hand again 5. When you can be mindless of God and of the life to come and forget both your sinne and Saviours Blood and let out your thoughts almost continually upon worldly vanities or common things as if you were over-grown the need of Christ this shews that the stone is yet in your hearts and that God must keep you to a harder dyet to mend your appetites and make you feel you sinne and misery till it call off your thoughts from things that less concern you and teach you to mind your Everlasting state If you begin to forget your selves and him â—t's time for you to have a remembrancer 6. When you begin to tast more sweetness in the creature and be more tickled with applause and honour and pleased more with a full estate and more impatient with poverty or wants or wrongs from men and crosses in the world and when you are set upon a thriving course and are eager to grow rich and fall in love with money when you drown your selves in worldly cares and busines and are combred about many things through your own choice this shews indeed that you are dangerously unhumbled and if God have Mercy for you he will bring you low and make your riches gall and wormwood to you and abate your appetite and teach you to know that one thing is needfull and so be more eager after the food that perisheth not and hereafter to choose the better part Luke 10. 41 42. Joh. 6. 27. 7. When you can return to play with the occasions of sinne or look upon it with a reconcileable mind as if you had yet some mind on it and could almost find in your heart to be doing with it again when you begin to have a mind of your old company and courses or begin to draw as neare it as you dare and are gazing upon the bair and tasting of the forbidden thing and can scarce tell how to deny your fancies your appetites your senses their desires this shews that you want some wakening work God must yet read you another lecture in the black book and set you to spell those lines of blood which it seems you have forgotten and kindle a little of that fire in your Consciences which else you would runne into till you feel and understand whether it be good playing with sinne and the Wrath of God and the Everlasting fire 8. When you begin to be indifferent as to your Communion with God and think not much whether he accept you and manifest his love to you or not but can huddle up your prayers and look no more after them or what becomes of them and use Ordinances and seldom enquire of the success When you can spare the Spiritual Consolations of the Saints and fetch little of your comfort from Christ or Heaven but from your friends and health and prosperity and accomodations and perhaps can be as merry in carnal company when you say and do as they as if you were considering of the Love of Christ this shews that the threatnings went not deep enough Sorrow hath yet another part to
Saints you have far more to do then other men You have a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue and abundance of deadly sinnes to kill and rooted vices to root upâ—â— You have many a false opinion of God and his waies to be plucked up and the customes of many years standing to be broken You have blind minds that must be enlightned with heavenly kowledg and abundance of Spiritual Truths that are above the reach of flesh and blood that you must needs learn and understand You have much to know that is hard to be known You have a dead Soul to be made alive and a hard heart to be melted and a scared Conscience to be softned and made tender and the guilt of many thousand sinnes to be pardoned You have a new heart to get and a new End to ayme at and seek after and a new life to live abundance of Enemies you have to sight with and overcome abundance of temptations to resist and conquer Many Graces to get and preserve and exercise and increase and abundance of holy works to do for the Service of God and the good of your selves and others O what a deal of work doth every one of these words conteine and yet what abundance more might I name And have you all this to do and yet will you delay And they are not indifferent matters that are before you It is no less then the saving of your Souls and the obtaining the blessed Glory of the Saints Necessity is upon you These are things that Must be done or else wo to you that ever you were born And yet have you another day to lose Why Sirs if you had a hundred mile to go in a day or two upon paine of death would you delay O think of the work that you have to do and then judg whether it be not time to stirre 20. And me thinks it should exceedingly terrifie you to consider what abundance by such Delayes do perish and how few that wilfully delay are ever converted and saved Many a Soul that once had purposes hereafter to repent is now in the misery where there is no Repentance that will do them any good For my part though I have known some very few Converted when they were old yet I must needs say both that they were very few indeed and that I had reason to believe that they were such that had sinned before in ignorance and did not wilfully put off Repentance when they were convinced that they must turn Though I doubt not but God may convert even these if he please yet I cannot say that I have ever known many if any such to be converted Sure I am that Gods usual time is in Child-hood or youth before they have long abused grace and wilfully delaid to turn when they were convinced Some considerable time I confess many have before their first convictions and purposes be brought to any great ripeness of performance but O how dangerous is it to delay 21. Consider also Either Conversion is Good or Bad for you Either it is needfull or unnecessary If it be bad and a needless thing then let it alone for altogether But if you are convinced that it is Good and necessary is it not better now then to stay any longer Is it not the sooner the better Are you afraid of being safe or happy too soon If you are sick you care not how soon you are well If you have a bone out you care not how soon it is set If you fall into the water you care not how soon you get out If your house be on fire you care not how soon it be quenched If you are but in fears by any doubts or ill tidings you care not how soon your fears be over And yet are you afraid of being to soon out of the power of the Devil and the danger of Hell and of being too soon the Sons of God and the holy justified heirs of Heaven 22. Consider also Either you can turn now or not If you can and yet will not you are utterly without excuse If you cannot to day how much less will you be able hereafter when strength is less and difficulties greater and burdens more Is it not time therefore to make out to Christ for strength and should not the very sense of your disability disswade you from delay 23. Consider how long you have staid already and put Gods Patience to it by your folly Hath not the Devil the world and the flesh had many years time of your life already Have you not long enough been swallowing the poison of sinne and long enough been abusing the Lord that made you and the blood of the Sonne of God that was shed for you and the Spirit of Grace that hath moved and perswaded with you Are you not yet gone far enough from God and have you not yet done enough to the damning of your selves and casting away Everlasting Life O wretched sinners it is rather time for you to fall down on your faces before the Lord and with tears and groans to lament it day and night that ever you have gone so far in sinne and delayed so long to turn to him as you have done Sure if after so many years rebellion you are yet so far from lamenting it that you had rather have more of it and had rather hold on a little longer no wonder if God forsake you and let you alone 24. Have you any hopes of Gods acceptance and your Salvation or not If you have such hopes that when you turn God will pardon all your sinnes and give you Everlasting Life is it think you an ingenious thing to desire to offend him yet a little longer from whom you expect such exceeding Mercy and Glory as you do Have you the faces to speak out what is in your hearts and practice and to go to God with such words as these Lord I know I cannot have the pardon of one sinne without the Blood of Christ and the riches of thy Mercy Nor can I be saved from Hell without it But yet I hope for all this from thy Grace I beseech thee let me live a little longer in my sinnes a little longer let me trample on the Blood of Christ and despise thy commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer let me spit in the face of thy Goodness and prefer the flesh and the world before thee and then pardon me all that ever I did and take me into Glory Could you for shame put up such a request to God as this If you could you are past shame If not then do not practise and desire that which you cannot for shame speak out and request 25. Moreover it is an exceeding advantage to you to come in to God betimes and an exceeding loss that you will suffer by delay if you were sure to be converted at the last If you speedily come in you may have time to learn and get more understanding in the matters of
God then else can be expected For knowledg will not be had but by time and study You may also have time to get strength of Grace when young beginners can expect no more then an infant strength You may grow to be men of parts and abilities to be usefull in the Church and profitable to those about you when others cannot go or stand unless they lean on the stronger for support If you come in betime you may do God a great deale of service which in the evening of the day you will neither have strength nor time to do You may have time to get Assurance of Salvation and to be ready with comfort when death shall call When a weakling is like to be perplexed with doubts and fears and death is like to be terrible because of their unreadiness 26. And did you ever consider who and how many do stay for you while you delay Do you know who it is that you make to waite your leisure God himself stands over you with the offers of his Mercy as if he thought it long till you return saying O that there were such a heart in them and when will it once be How long ye simple will you love simplicity and scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledg Turn you at my reproof Deut. 5 29. Jer. 13. 17. Prov. 1. 22. And do you think it wise or safe or mannerly for you to make the God of Heaven to wait on you while you are serving his Enimy Can you offer God a baser indignity then to expect that he should support your lives and feed you and preserve you and patiently forbeare you while you abuse him to his face and drudg for the flesh the world and the Devil Should a worm thus use the Lord that made him You will not your selves hold a candle in your hands while it burns your own fingers nor will you hold a nettle or a wasp in your hand to sting you nor will you keep a dog in your house that is good for nothing but to snarl at you and bite your Children or worry your sheep And yet God hath long held up your lives while in stead of Light you have yielded nothing but a stinking snuff and in stead of graps you have brought forth nothing but thorns and thistles and while you have snarled at his Children and his Flock and done the worst you could against him And would you indeed put God to wait on you thus while you serve the Devil yet one day more Must God as it were hold the drunkard the candle while he reeles and spues Must he draw the curtain while the filthy wretch doth once more please his fleshly lusts Marvaile not if he withdraw his supporting Mercy and let such wretches drop into Hell And it is not God only but his Servants and Creatures and Ordinances that all are waiting on you The Angels stay for the joy that is due to them upon your Conversion Ministers are studying and preaching and praying for you Godly neighbours are praying and longing for your change The Springs and rivers are flowing for you The winds blow for you The Sunne shines for you The clouds raine for you The Earth bears fruit for you The beasts must labour and suffer and die for you All things are doing and would you stand still or else do worse What hast makes the Sunne about the world to return in its time to give you light What hast make other Creatures in your service And yet must you delay Must God stay and Christ and the Spirit stay Must Angels stay must Ministers stay must the Godly stay and the Ordinances stay and all the Creatures stay your leasure while you are abusing God and your Souls and others and while you delay as if it were too soon to turn 27. Consider that when you were lost the Sonne of God did not delay the work of your Redemption He presently undertook it and turned by the stroak of damning Justice In the fulness of time he came and performed what he undertook he failed not one day of his appointed time And will you now Delay to accept the benefit and turn to him Must he make such hast to save you at so dear a rate and now will you delay to be saved 28. Moreover God doth not delay to do you good You have the day and night in their proper seasons The Sunne doth not faile to rise upon you at the appointed time You have the Spring and Harvest in their meetest seasons the former and later raine in season When you are in want you have seasonable supplies and when your are in danger you have seasonable deliverance And is it meet or equal that you should refuse to bring forth seasonable fruit but still be putting off God with your delaies 29. Moreover When you are in trouble and necessity you are then in hast for deliverance and relief Then you think every day a week till your danger or suffering be past If you be under the pain of a disease or in danger of death or under poverty or oppression or disgrace you would have God relieve you without delay And yet you will not turn to him without delay Then you are ready to cry out How long Lord how long till deliverance come but you will not hear God when he cryeth to you in your sinnes How long will it be ere you turn from your transgressions when shall it once be When you are to receive any outward deliverance you care not how soon the sooner the better but when you are to turn to God and receive his Grace and title to Glory then you care not how late as if you had no mind of it Can you for shame beg of God to hasten your deliverances when you remember your delaies and still continue to trifle with him and draw back 30. Your present prosperity and worldly delights are posting away without Delay and should you delay to make sure of better in their stead Time is going and health is going youth is going yea life is going your riches are taking wing your fleshly pleasures do perish in the very using Your meat and drink is sweet to you little longer then it is in your throat Shortly you must part with house and lands with goods and friends and all your mirth and earthly business will be done All this you know and yet will you delay to lay up a durable treasure which you may trust upon and to provide you a better tenement before you be turned out of this What will you do for a habitation for pleasures and contents when all that you have now is spent and gone and Earth will afford you nothing but a grave If you could but keep that you have I should not much wonder that knowing so little of God and another world you look not much after it But when you perceive death knocking at your doores and see that all your worldly comforts are packing up and
hasting away me thinks if you have your wits and sense about you you should presently turn and make sure of Heaven without any more delay 31. Consider also whether it be equal that you should delay your Conversion when you can seasonably dispatch your worldly business and when your flesh would be provided for you can hearken to it without Delay You have wit enough to sow your seed in season and will not delay it till the time of harvest You will reap your corn when it is ripe and gather your fruit when it is ripe without delay You observe the seasons in the course of your labours day by day and year by year You will not lie in bed when you should be at your work nor delay all night to go to your rest nor suffer your servants to delay your business You will know your dinner time and supper time day by day If you be sick you will seek help without delay lest your disease should grow to be uncurable And yet will you delay your Conversion and the making sure of Heaven Why Sirs shall these trifles be done without delay and shall your Salvation be put off In the Name of God Sirs what do you think of Do you imagine that you can better suffer Hell-fâ—re then hunger or nakedness Or that you can better bear the loss of Everlasting Joyes then the loss of your commodities and provisions in the world Sure if you believe the life to come you cannot think so And can you have while for every thing except that one thing which all the rest are meerly to promote and in comparison of which they are all but dreams Can you have while to work to plow and sow and reap and cannot you have while to prepare for Eternal Life Why Sirs if you cannot find time yet to search your hearts and turn to God and prepare for death give over eating and drinking and sleeping and say you cannot have time for these You may as wisely say so for these smaller matters as the greater 32. Moreover if men offer you courtesies and commodities for your bodies you will not stand Delaying and need so many perswasions to accept them If your Landlord would for nothing renew your lease if any man would give you houses or lands would you delay so long before you would accept them A beggar at your doore will not only thankfully take your almes without your intreaty and importunity but will beg for it and be importunate with you to give it And yet will you Delay to accept the blessed offers of Grace which is a greater thing 33. Ye Consider that it is God that is the Giver and you that are the miserable beggars and receivers And therefore it is fitter that you should wait on God and call on him for his Grace when he seemeth to delay and not that he should waite on you He can live without your receiving but you cannot live without his giving The beggar must be glad of an alms at any time and the condemned person of a pardon at any time but the giver may well expect that his gift be received without delay or else he may let them go without it 34. And me thinks you should not deal worse with God when he comes to you as a Physician to save your own Souls then you would do with a neighbour or a friend when it is not for your own good but for theirs If your neighbour lay a dying you would go and visit him without delay If he fell down in a swoon you would catch him up without delay If he fell into the fire or water you would pluck him out without delay Yea you would do thus much by a very beast And yet will you delay when it is not another but your selves that are sinking and drowning and within a step of death and desparation If a woman be but in travaile her neighbours will come to her without delay And yet when their own Souls are in bondage to sinne and Satan and a state of death they will let them lie there year after year and when we desire them to be Converted here 's nothing but delaies 35. If yet you perceive not how unreasonably you deale with God and your Souls I beseech you consider whether you do not deal worse with him then you do with the Devil himself If Satan or his servants perswade you to sinne you delay not so long but you are presently at it You are ready to follow every tipling companion or gamester that puts up the finger You are as ready to go as they to invite you The very sight of the cup doth presently prevaile with the drunkard and the sight of his filthy mate prevaileth with the fornicatour and sinne can be presently entertained without delay But when God comes when Christ calls when the Spirit moveth when the minister perswadeth when Conscience is convinced we can have nothing after all but wishes and purposes and promises with Delaies O what a stomack hath that man or what a brain that will snatch at poyson and swallow dung and dirt with greediness without any chewing and when you offer him meat stands sighing and looking on it and hardly will be perswaded to put it in his mouth and if he do he is chewing it so long that at last he even spits it out againe and cannot get it down Thus deal ungodly wretches between their poisonous sins and the saving means and Grace of Christ. Nay more then this so eager are they on their sinne that we are not able to intreat them to delay it When the passionate man is but provoked we cannot perswade him to delay his rayling language so long as to consider first of the issue We cannot intreat the drunkard to put off his drunkenness but for one twelve-month while he tryeth another course All the ministers in the Country cannot perswade the worldling to forbear his worldliness and the proud persons their pride and the ungodly person his ungodliness for the space of one moneth or week or day And yet when God hath a command and a request to them to Turn to him and be saved here they can Delay without our intreaty 36. Consider also that it is not possible for you to turn too soon nor will you ever have cause to repent of your speediness Delay may undoe you but speedy turning can do you no harm I wonder what hurt you think it can do you to be quickly reconciled to God And why then should there be any Delay where it is not possible to be too hasty Do you think that there is ever a Saint in Heaven yea or on Earth either that is sorry that he stayed not longer unconverted No you shall never hear of such a repentance from the mouth of any that is indeed converted 37. But I must tell you on the contrary side that if ever you be so hapy as to be Converted you will Repent it and an hundred
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