that by the next night thou maist make thy bed in hell Is it a just matter to live in such a fearful ease to stand tottering upon the brink of the bottomless pit and to live at the mercy of every disease that if it will but fall upon thee will send thee forthwith into the burnings Suppose thou sawest a condemned wretch hanging over Nebuchadneâ—ar's burning fiery furnace by nothing but a twine thread which were ready to break every moment would not thine heart tremble for such an one Why thou art the man This is thy very case O man woman that readest this if thou be yet unconverted What if the thred of thy life should break Why thou knowest not but it may be the next night yea the next moment where wouldst thou be then whither wouldst thou drop Verily upon the crack but of this thread thou fallest into the lake that burneth with fire and Brimstone where thou must lie scalding and sweltering in a fiery Ocean while God hath a being if thou die in thy present case And doth not thy soul tremble as thou readest Do not thy tears bedew the paper and thy heart throb in thy bosom Dost thou not yet begin to smite on thy breast and bethink thy self what need thou hast of a change O what is thy heart made of Hast thou not only lost all regard to God but art without any love and pity to thy self Oh study thy misery till thy heart do cry out for Christ as earnestly as ever a drowning man did for a boat or the wounded for a Chirurgeon Men must come to see the danger and feel the smart of their deadly sores and sickness or else Christ will be to them a Physician of no value Mat. 9. 12. Then the man-slayer hastens to the City of râ—fuge when pursued by the avenger of blood Men must be even forced and fired out of themselves or else they will not come to Christ. 'T was distress and extremity that made the Prodigal think of returning Luke 15. 16 17. While Laodicea thinks her self rich increased in goods in need of nothing there is little hope She must be deeply convinced of her wretchedness blindness poverty nakedness before she will come to Christ for his Gold raiment eye-salve Rev. 3. 17 18. Therefore hold the eyes of conscience open amplifie thy misery as much as possible Do not flie the sight of it for fear it should fill thee with terror The sense of thy misery is but as it were the suppuration of the wound which is necessary to the cure Better fear the torments that abide thee now than feel them hereafter Dir. IV. Settle it upon thine heart that thou arâ— under an everlasting inability ever to recover thy self Never think thy praying reading hearing confessing amending will do the cure These must be attended buâ— thou art undone if thou restest in them Rom. 10. 3. Thou art a lost man if thou hopest to escape drowning upon any other plank but Jesus Christ Act. 4. 1â— Thou must unlearn thyself and renounce thine own wisdom thine own righteousness thine own strength and throw thy self wholly upon Christ as a man that swimmeth casteth himself upon the water or else thou canst not â—scape While men trust in themselves and establish their own righteousness and have confidence in the fleshâ— they will not come savingly to Christ Luke 18. 19. Phil. 3. 3. Thou must know thy gain to be but loss and dung thy strength but weakness thy rightâ—ousness rag's and rotteness before 〈◊〉 will be on effectual closure between Christ and â—hee Phil. 3. 7 8 9. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Esay 64 6. Can the liveless carcase shake off his grave cloths and loose the bonds of death Then maist thou recover thy self who 〈◊〉 dead in trespasses and sins and under an impossibility of serving thy maker acceptably in this condition Rom. 8. 8. Heb. 11. 6. Therefore when thou goest to pray or meditate or to do any of the duties to which thou art here directed go out of thy self call in the help of the spirit as despairing to do any thing pleasing to God in thine own strength Yet neglect not thy duty but lie at the pool and wait in the way of the spirit While the Eunuch was reading then the Holy Ghost sent Philip to him Act. 8. 28 29. when the Disciples were praying Act. 4. 31. when Cornelius and his friends were hearing Acts 10. 44. then the Holy Ghost fell upon them and filled them all Strive to give up thy self to Christ. Strive to pray strive to meditate strive an hundred and an hundred times try to do it as well as thou canst and while thou art endeavouring in the way of thy duty the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and help thee to do what of thy self thou art utterly unable unto Prov. 1. 23. Dir. V. Forthwith renounce all thy sins If thou yield thy self to the contrary practice of any sin thou art undone Rom. 6. 16. In vain dost thou hope for life by Christ except thou depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. Forsake thy sins or else thou canst not find mercy Prov. 28. 13. Thou canst not be married to Christ except divorsed from sin Give up the traitor or you can have no peace with Heaven Cast the head of Sheba over the wall Keep not Dalilaâ— in thy lap Thou must part with thy sins or with thy soul. Spare but one sin and God will not spare thee Never make excuses thy sins must die or thou must die for them Psal. 68. 21. If thou allow of one sin though but a little a secret one though thou maist plead necessity and have a hundred shifts and excuses for it the life of thy soul must go for the life of that sin Ezek. 18. 21. and will it not be dearly bought Oh sinner hear and consider If thou wilt part with thy sins God will give thee his Christ Is not this a fair exchange I testifie unto thee this day that if thou perish it is not because there was never a Saviour provided nor life tendered but because thou preferredst with the Jews the Murderer before thy Saviour sin before Christ and lovedst darkness rather than light Iohn 3. 19. Search thy heart therefore with candles as the Jews did their houses for Leven before the Pass-over Labour to find out thy sins Enter into thy Closet and consider what evil have I lived in what duty have I neglected towards God! what sin have I lived in against my brother and now strike the darts through the heart of thy sin as Ioab did through Absalom's 2 Sam. 18. 14. Never stand looking upon thy sin nor rolling the morsel under thy tongue Iob 20. 12. but spit it out as poyson with fear and detestation Alas what will thy sins do for thee that thou shouldst stick at parting with them They will flatter thee but they will undo thee and cut thy throat while they smile upon thee and poyson
our hearts that we leave you under more guilt than we found you and when we have laid out life and labour to save you the impenitent souls must have their pains increased for the refusing of these Calls And that it will be part of your Hell to think for ever how madly you refused our Counsel and what pains and cost and patience were used to have saved you and all in vain It will be so it must needs be so Christ saith it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for the rejectors of his Gospel-calls The Nature of the thing and the nature of Justice certainly tell you that it must be so O turn not our complaints to God against you Turn us not from beseeching you to be reconciled to God to tell him you will not be reconciled Force us not to say that we earnestly invited you to the Heavenly Feast and you would not come Force us not to bear this Witness against you Lord we could have born all our labour and sufferings for them much easilier if they would but have yielded to thy grace But it was they themselves that broke our hearts that lost our labour that made us preach and intreat in vain It was easier to preach without maintenance than without success It was they that were worse to us than all the Persecutors in the World How oft would we have gathered them but they would not but are ungathered still How many Holy Faithful Ministers have I known these eleven years last past who have lived in pining poverty and want and hardly by Charity got Bread and Clothing and yet if they could but have truly said Lord the Sermons which I preach privately and in danger have won many Souls to thee it would have made all this burden easie But I tell thee sensless and impenitent Sinner thou that deniedst God thy Heart and thou that deniedst them thy Conversion which was the end of all their labours hast dealt much more cruelly with them than they that denyed the Levites Bread Poor Sinners I know that I am speaking all this to those that are dead in sin but it is a death consisting with a natural life which hath a capacity of spiritual life Or else I would no more speak to you than to a stone And I know that you are blind in sin but it is a blindness consisting with a reasonable faculty which is capable of spiritual illumination Or else I would no more perswade you than I would do a beast And I know that you are in the fetters of your own lusts your wills your love your hearts are turned away from God and strongly bewitched with the dreams and dalliances with the flesh and world But your wills are not forced to this Captivity Surely those wills may be changed by Gods Grace when you clearly see sufficient reason for to change them Else I would as soon preach were I capable to Devils and damned souls Your case is not yet desperate O make it not desperate There is just the same hope of your Salvation as there is of your Conversion and perseverance and no more Without it there is no hope and with it you are safe and have no cause to doubt and fear Heaven may be yet yours if you will Nothing but your own Wills refusing Christ and a holy life can keep you out And shall that do it Shall Hell be your own choice And will you I say will you not be saved O think better what you do Gods terms are reasonable His Word and Ways are good and equal Christ's Yoke is easie and his Burden light and his Commandments are not grievous to any but so far as blindness and a bad and backward heart doth make them so You have no true reason to be unwilling God and Conscience shall oneâ— day tell you and all the World that you had no reason for it You may as wisely pretend reason to cut your throats to torment your selves as plead reason against a true Conversion unto God Were I perswading you not to kill your selves I would make no question but you would be perswaded And yet must I be hopeless when I perswade you from everlasting misery and not to prefer the world and flesh before your Saviour and your God and before a sure everlasting joy God forbid Reader I take it for a great mercy of God that before my head lyeth down in the duct and I go to give up my account unto my Iudge I have this opportunity once more earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own Salvation I beg it of thee as one that must shortly be called away and speak to thee no more till we come unto our endless state that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thy self and use the reason of a man and look before thee whither thou art going and look behind thee how thou hast lived and what thou hast been doing in the World till now and look within thee what a case thy soul is in and whether it be ready to enter upon Eternity and look above thee what a Heaven of Glory thou dost neglect and what a God thou hast to be thine everlasting Friend or Enemy as thou choosest and as thou livest and that thou art always in his sight Yea and look below thee and think where they are that died unconverted And when thou hast soberly thought of all these things then do as God and true Reason shall direct thee And is this an unreasonable request I appeal to God and to all Wise Men and to thy own Conscience when it shall be awakened If I speak against thee or if all this be not for thy good or if it be not true and sure then regard not what I say If I speak not that message which God hath commanded his Ministers to speak then let it be refused as contemptuously as thou wilt But if I do but in Christs name and stead beseech thee to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. refuse it at thy peril And if Gods beseeching thee shall not prevail against thy sloath thy lust thy appetite against the desires of thy flesh against the dust and shadows of the World remember it when with fruitless cries and horrour thou art beseeching him too late I know poor Sinner that Flesh is bruitish and lust and appetite have no reason But I know that thou hast reason thy self which was given thee to over-rule them and that he that will not be a Man cannot be a Saint nor a Happy man I know that thou livest in a tempting and a wicked world where things or persons will be daily hindering this But I know that this is no more to a man that by Faith seeth Heaven and Hell before him than a Grain of Sand is to a Kingdom or a blast of Wind to one that is fighting or flying for his life Luke 12. 4. O man that thou didst but know the difference between that
the whole mind of Christ Psal. 119. 125. 124. 169. Psal. 25. 4 5. He would not have one sin discovered 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 â— willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. loves not to come to the light Ioh. 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 Law Psal. 119. 18 19 27 33 64 66 68 73 108 124â— 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 rebell yet the prevailing part 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 Gyâ—es 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 Can. 1. 4. and willingly offer themselves to the service of the Lord 2 Chron. 7. 16. seeking him with their whole desire 2 Chron. 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 â—orce 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. 77â— 92 103 111 143. and continual study v. 99. 79. Psal. 2. 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 aimes 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. Matt. 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 to 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 then be exhorted 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 judgement and this thy choice and this thy way that we have described If so then 't is 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 mistery 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 there the precious time thou mispendest there 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 slatter and sooth him while he lives in his sins Awake O conscience What meanest 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 on still in his trespasses and yet have peace O rouze up thy self and do thy work Now let the Preacher in the bosom speak Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet let not the blood of this soul be required at thy hands CHAP. III. Of the Necessity of Conversion IT may be you are ready to say what meaneth this stir And are apt to wonder why I follow you with such earnestness still ringing one lesson in your ears That you should repent and be converted Acts 3. 19. But I must say unto you as Ruth to Naomi intreat me not to leave you nor to turn aside from
following after you Ruth 1. 16. Were it a matter of indifferency I would never keep so much ado Might you be saved as you be I would gladly let you alone But would you not have me solicitous for you when I see you ready to perish As the Lord liveth before whom I am I have not the least hopes to see ever a one of your faces in Heaven except you be converted I utterly despair of your salvation except you will be prevailed with to turn throughly and give up your selves to God in holiness and newness of life Hath God said Except you be born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God Iohn 3. 3. and yet do you wonder why your Ministers do so painfully travel in birth with you Think it not strange that I am earnest with you to follow after holiness and long to see the Image of God upon you Never did any nor shall any enter into Heaven by any other way but this The Conversion described is not an high pitch of some taller Christians but every soul that is saved passes this universal change It was a passage of the Noble Roman when he was hasting with Corn to the City in the 〈◊〉 mine and the Mariners were loth to set sail in the foul weather Necessarium est navigare non est necessarium vivere Our voyage is of more necessity than our lives What is it that thou dost account necessary Is thy Bread necessary Is thy breath necessary Then thy Conveâ—sion is much more necessary Indeed this is the Vnum necessarium the one thing necessary Thine estate is not necessary thou maist sell all for the Pearl of great price and yet be a gainer by the purchase Mat. 13. 45. Thy life is not necessary thou maist part with it for Christ to infinite advantage Thine esteem is not necessary thou maist be reproached for the name of Christ and yet happy yea much more happy in reproach than in repute 1 Pet. 4. 4. Mat. 5. 10 11. But thy Conversion is necessary thy damnation lies upon it and is it not needful in so important a case to look about Upon this one point depends thy making or marring to all eternity But I shall more particularly shew the necessity of Conversion in five things for without this 1. Thy being is in vain Is it not pity thou shouldst be good for nothing an unprofitable burden of the earth a wart or wen in the body of the universe Thus thou art while unconverted for thou canst not answer the end of thy being Is it not for the divine pleasure thou art and wert created Rev. 4. 11. Did not he make thee for himself Prov. 16. 4. Art thou a man and hast thou reason Why then bethink thy self why and whence thy being is Behold Gods workmanship in thy body and ask thy self to what end did God rear this fabrick Consider the noble faculties of thy Heaven-born soul to what end did God bestow these excellencies To no other than that thou shouldst please thy self and gratifie thy senses Did God send men like the swallows into the world only to gather a few sticks and dirt and build their nests and breed up their young and then away The very heathens could see further than this Art thou so fearfully and wonderfully made Psal. 139. 14. and dost thou not yet think with thy self surely it was for some noble and raised end O man set thy reason a little in the chair Is it not pity such a goodly fabrick should be raised in vain Verily thou art in vain except thou art for God Better thou hadst no being than not be for him Wouldst thou serve thy end Thou must repent and be converted without this thou art to no purpose yea to bad purpose First to No purpose Man unconverted is like a choice instrument that hath every string broke or out of tune The spirit of the living God must repair and tunâ— it by the grace of regeneration and sweetly move it by the power of actuating grace or else thy prayers will be but howlingsâ— and all thy services will make no musick in the ears of the most holy Eph. 2. 10. Phil. 2. 13. Hos. 7. 14. Esay 1. 15. All thy powers and faculties are so corrupt in thy natural state that except thou be purged from dead works thou canst not serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. Tit. 1. 15. An unsanctified man cannot work the work of God 1. He hath no skill in it He is altogether as unskilful in the work as in the word of righteousness Heb. 5. 13. There are great misteries as well in the practices as principles of godliness now the unregenerate knoweth not the misteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 13. 11. 1 Tim. 3. 10. You may as well expect him that never learn'd the Alphabet to read or look for goodly musick on the Lute from one that never set his hand to an instrument as that a natural man should do the Lord any pleasing service He must be first taught of God Ioh. 6. 45. taught to pray Luk. 11. 1. taught to profit Esay 48. 17. taught to go Hos. 11. â— or else he will be utterly at a loss 2. He hath no strength for it How weak is his heart Ezek. 16. 30. He is presently tired the Sabbathâ— what a weariness it it Mal. 1. 13. He is without strength Rom. 5. 6. yea stark dead in sin Eph. 2. 5. 3. He hath no mind to it he desires not the knowledge of Gods ways Iob 21. 14. He doth not know them and he doth not care to know them Psal. 82. 5. He knows not neither will he understand 4. He hath neither due instruments nor materials for it A man may as well hew the marble without tools or limn without colours or instruments or build without matâ—rials as perform any acceptible service without the graces of the Spirit which are both the materials and instruments in the work Alms-giving is not a service of God but of vain glory unless dealt forth by the hand of divine love What is the prayer of the lips without grace in the heart but the carcass without the life What are all our conâ—essions unless they be the exercises of godly sorrow and unfeigned repentance What our petitions unless animated all along with holy desires and faith in the divine attributes and promises What our praises and thanks-givings unless from the Love of God and a holy gratitude and sense of Gods mercies in the heart So that a man may as well expect the trees should speak or look for Logick from the bruits or motion from the dead as for any service holy and acceptable to God from the unconverted When the tree is evil how can the fruit be good Mat. 7. 18. Secondly to bad purpose The unconverted soul is a very cage of unclean birds Rev. 18. 2. a sepulchre full of corruption and rottenness Mat. 23. 27. a lothsome carcase full of crawling worms and sending forth
they would quickly find that their greatest content is in the world Luke 12. 19. and their greatest care and main endeavour to get and secure the world which are the certain discoveries of an unconverted sinner May the professing part of the world take earnest heed that they perish not by the hand of this sin unobserved Men may be and often are kept off from Christ as effectually by the inordinate love of lawful comforts as by the most unlawful courses Mat. 22. 5. Luke 14. 18 19 20 24. 9. Reigning malice and envy against those that disrespect them or are injurious to them 1 Ioh. 2. 9 11. O how do many that seem to be religious remember injuries and carry grudges and will return men as good as they bring rendring evil for evil loving to take revenge wishing evil to them that wrong them directly against the rule of the Gospel the pattern of Christ and the nature of God Rom. 12. 14 17. 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. Neh. 6. 17. Doubtless where this evil is kept boiling in the heart and is not hated resisted mortified but doth habitually prevail that person is in the very gall of bitterness and in a state of death Mat. 18. 34 35. 1 Iohn 3. 14 15. Reader doth nothing of this touch thee art thou in none of the forementioned ranks O search and search again take thy heart solemnly to task Woe unto thee if after all thy profession thou shouldest be found under the power of ignorance lost in formality drowned in earthly mindedness envenomed with malice exalted in an opinion of thine own righteousness levened with hypocrisie and carnal ends in Gods service imbittered against strictness this would be a sad discovery that all thy Religion were in vain But I must proceed 10. Unmortified Pride When men love the praise of men more than the praise of God and set their hearts upon mens esteem applause and approbation it is most certain they are yet in their sins and strangers to true conversion Iohn 12. 43. Gal. 1. 10. When men see not nor complain of nor groan under the pride of their own hearts it 's a sign they are stark dead in sin O how secretly doth this sin live and reign in many hearts and they know it not but are very strangers to themselves Ioh. 9. 40. 11. The prevailing love of pleasure 2 Tim. 3. 4. This is a black mark When men give the flesh the liberty that it craves and pamper and please it and do not deny and restrain it when their great delight is in gratifying their bellies and pleasing their senses whatever appearance they may have of Religion all is unâ—ound Rom. 16. 18. Tit. 3. 3. A flesh-pleasing life cannot be pleasing to God They that are Christs have crucified the flesh and are careful to cross it and keep it under as their enemy Gal. 5. 24. 1 Cor. 9. 25. 26 27. 12. Carnal seâ—â—rity or a presumptuous and ungrounded confidence that their condition is already good Rev. 3. 17. Many cry peace and safety when sudden destruction is coming upon them 1 Thes. 5. 3. This was that which kept the foolish Virgins sleeping when they should have been working upon their beds when they should have been at the markets Mat. 25. 5 10. Prov. 10. 5. They perceived not their want of Oyl till the bridegroom was come and while they went to buy the door was shut And oh that these foolish Virgins had no successors where is the place yea where is the house almost where these do not dwell Men are willing to cherish in themselves upon never so sâ—ght grounds a hope that their condition is good and so look not out after a change and by this means perish in their sins Are you at peace Shew me upon what grounds your peace is maintained Is it a Scripture peace Can you shew the distinguishing marks of a sound believer Can you evidence that you have something more than any Hypocrite in the world ever had If not fear this peace more than any trouble and know that a carnal peace doth commonly prove the most mortal enemy of the poor soul and while it smiles and kisses and speaks it fair doth fatally smite it as it were under the fifth rib By this time methinks I hear my reader crying out with the Disciples who then shall be saved Set out from among our Congregations all those ten ranks of the prophane on the one hand and then besides take out all these twelve sorts of close and self-deceiving Hypocrites on the other hand and tell me then whether it be not a remnant that shall be saved How few will be the sheep that shall be left when all these shall be separated and set among the Goats For my part of all my numerous hearers I have no hope to see any of them in Heaven that are to be found among these two and twenty sorts that are here mentioned except by found conversion they be brought into another condition Application And now Conscience do thine office Speak out and speak home to him that heareth or readeth these lines If thou find any of these marks upon him thou must pronounce him utterly unclean Levit. 13. 44. Take not up a lie into thy mouth speak not peace to him to whom God speaks no peace Let not lust bribe thee or self-love or carnal prejudice blind thee I subpoena thee from the Court of Heaven to come and give in evidence I require thee in the name of God to go with me to the search of the suspected house As thou wilt answer it at thy peril give in a true report of the state and case of him that readeth this book Conscience wilt thou altogether hold thy peace at such a time as this I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us the truth Mat. 26. 63. Is the man converted or is he not Doth he allow himself in any way of sin or doth he not Doth he truly love and please and prize and delight in God above all other things or not Come put it to an issue How long shall this soul lie at uncertainties Oh Conscience bring in thâ— verdict Is this man a new man or is he â—iot How dost thou find it hath there passed a through and mighty change upon him or not When was the time where was the place or what was the means by which this through change of the new birth was wrought in this soul Speak Conscience Or if thou canst not tell time and place Canst thou show scripture evidence that the work is done Hath the man been ever taken off from his false bottom from the false hopes and false peace wherein once he trusted Hath he been deeply convinced of sin and of his lost and undone condition and brought out of himself and off from his sins to give up himself intirely to Jesus Christ Or dost thou not find him to this day under the power of ignorance or in the mire of
prophaneness Hast not thou taken upon him the gains of unrighteousness Dost not thou find him a stranger to prayer a neglecter of the word a lover of this present world Dost not thou often catch him in a lie Dost not thou find his heart fermented with malice or burning with lust or going after his covetousness Speak plainly to all the forementioned particulars canst thou acquit this man this woman from being any of the two and twenty sorts here described If he be found with any of them set him aside his portion is not with the Saints He must be converted and made a new creature or else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Beloved be not your own betrayers do not deceive your own hearts nor set your hands to your own ruine by a wilful blinding of your selves Set up a tribunal in your own breasts Bring the word and conscience together To the Law and to the Testimony Isa. 8. 20. Hear what the word concludes of your estates O follow the search till you have found how the case stands Mistake here and perish And such is the treachery of the Heart the subtilty of the temper and the deceitfulness of sin Ier. 17. 9. 2 Cor. 11. 3. Heb. 3. 13. all conspire to flaâ—â—er and deceive the poor soul and withal so common and easie it is to be mistaken that it 's a thousand to one but you will be deceived unless you be very careful and thorow and impartial in the enquiry into your spiritual conditions Oh therefore ply your work go to the bottom search as with candles weigh you in the ballance come to the standard of the Sanctuary bring your coyn to the touch stone You have the archest cheats in the world to deal with a world of counterfeit Coin is going happy is he that takes no Counters for Gold Satan is master of deceits he can draw to the life he is perfect in the trade there is nothing but he can imitate You cannot wish for any Grace but he can fit you to a hair with a Counterfeit Trade warily look on every piece you take be jealous trust not so much as your own hearts Run to God to search you and try you to examine you and prove your reins Psal. 26. 2. Psal. 139. 23 24. If other helps suffice not to bring all to an issue but you are still at a loss open your cases faithfully to some Godly and faithful Minister Mal. 2. 7. Rest not till you have put the business of your eternal welfare out of question Pet. 2. 10. O searcher of hearts put thou this soul upon and help him in the search CHAP. V. Shewing the Miseries of the Unconverted SO unspeakably dreadful is the case of every unconverted soul that I have sometimes thought if we could but convince men that they are yet unregenerate the work were upon the mattter done But I sadly experience that such a spirit of sloth and slumber Rom. 11. 8. Mat. 13. 15 possesses the unsanctified that though they be convinced that they are yet unconverted yet they oft-times carelesly sit still and what through the avocation of sensual pleasures or hurry of worldly business or noise and clamour of earthly cares and lusts and affections Luke 8. 14. the voice of Conscience is drowned and men go no farther than some cold wishes and general purposes of repenting and amending Acts 24. 25. It 's therefore of high necessity that I do not only convince men that they are unconverted but that I also endeavour to bring them to a sense of the fearful misery of this estate But here I find my self aground at first putting forth What Tongue can tell the heirs of Hell sufficiently of their misery unless 't were Dives his that was tormented in that flame Luke 16. 24. Where is the ready Writer whose pen can decipher their misery that are without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. This cannot fully be done unless we knew the infinite ocean of that bliss and perfection which is in that God which a state of sin doth exclude men from Who knoweth saith Moses the power of thine anger Psal. 90. 11. And how shall I tell men that which I do not know Yet so much we know as one would think would shake the heart of that man that had the least degree of spiritual life and sense But this is yet the more posing difficulty that I am to speak to them that are without sense Alas this is not the least part of man's misery upon him that he is dead stark dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. Could I bring Paradise into view or represent the Kingdom of Heaven to as much advantage as the tempter did the Kingdoms of the world and all the glory thereof to our Saviour or could I uncover the face of the deep and devouring gulph of Tophet in all its terrors and open the gates of the infernal furnace alas he hath no eyes to see it Mat. 13. 14 15. Could I paint out the beauties of holiness or glory of the Gospel to the life or could I bring aboveâ— board the more than diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin he can no more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one nor the filthiness and hatefulness of the other than the blind of colours He is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him because of the blindness of his heart Eph. 4. 18. He neither doth nor can know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. His eyes cannot be savingly opened but by converting grace Acts 26. 18. he is a child of darkness and walks in darkness 1 Iohn 1. 6. yea the light in him is darkness Mat. 6. 2 3. Shall I ring his knell or read his sentence or sound in his ear the terrible trump of Gods judgments that one would think should make both his ears to tingle and strike him into Belshazer's fit even to appall his countenance and loose his joynts and make his knees smite one against another Yet alas he perceives me not he hath no ears to hear Or shall I call up all the daughters of musick and sing the song of Moses and of the Lambâ— yet he will not be stirred Shall I allure him with the joyful sound and the lovely song and glad-tidings of the Gospel with the most sweet and inviting calls comforts cordials of the divine promises so exceeding great and precious it will not affect him savingly unless I could find him ears Mat. 13. 15. as well as tell him the news Shall I set before him the feast of fat things the wine of wisdom the bread of God the tree of life the hidden Manna he hath no appetite for them no mind to them 1 Cor. 2. 14. Mat. 22. 5. Should I press the choicest grapes the heavenly closters of Gospel-priviledges and drink to him in the richest wine of Gods own cellar yea of his own side of set
before him the delicious honey-comb of Gods Testimonies Psal. 19. 10. alas he hath no taste to discern them Shall I invite the dead to arise and eat the banquet of their funerals No more can the dead in sin savour the holy food wherewith the Lord of life hath spread his table What then shall I do shall I burn the brimstone of hell at his nostrils or shall I open the box of Spikenard very precious that filleth the whole house of this universe with its perfume Mark 14. 3. Ioh. 12. 8. and hope that the savour of Christs ointments and the smell of his garments will attract him Psal. 45. 8. Alas dead sinners are like the dumb Idols they have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not noses have they but they smell not they have hands but they handle not feet have they but they walk not neither speak they through their throat Psal. 1. 5 6 7. They are destitute of all spiritual sense and motion But let me try the sense that doth last leave us and draw the Sword of the word yet lay at him while I will yea though I choose mine arrows out of Gods quiver and direct them to the heart nevertheless he feeleth it not for how should he being past feeling Eph. 4. 19. So that though the wrath of God abideth on him and the mountainous weight of so many thousand sins yet he goes up and down as light as if nothing ailed him Rom. 7. 9. In a word he carries a dead soul in a living body and his flesh is but the walking Cossin of a corrupted mind this is twice dead Iude 12. rotting in the slime and putreâ—action of noisome lusts Mat 23. 27 28. Which way then shall I come at the miserable objects that I have to deal with who shall make the heart of stone to relent Zech. 7. 12. or the lifeless carcase to feel and move That God that is able of Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Mat. 3. 9. that raiseth the Dead 2 Cor. 1. 9. and melteth the Mountains Nah. 1. 5. and strikes water out of the flints Deut. 8. 15. that loves to work like himself beyond the hopes and belief of man that peopleth his Church with dry bones and planteth his Orchard with dry sticks he is able to do this Therefore I bow my knee to the most high God Eph. 3. 14. and as our Saviour prayed at the Sepulchre of Lazarus Ioh. 11. 38 41. and the Shunamite ran to the man of God for her dead Child 2 Kings 4. 25. so doth your mourning Minister kneel about your graves and carry you in the arms of prayer to that God in whom your help is found Oh thou all powerful Iehovah that workest and none can let thee that hath the keyes of hell and of death pity thou the dead souls that lie here intombed and roll away the grave-stone and say as to Lazarus when already stinking Come forth Lighten thou this darkness O inaccessible light and let the day spring from on high visit the darksome region of the dead to whom I speak for thou canst open the eyes that death it self hath closed Thou that formedst the ear canst restore the hearing Say thou to these ears Ephatah and they shall be opened Give thou eyes to see thine excellencies a taste that may relish thy sweetness a scent that may savour thine ointments a feeling that may sense the priviledge of thy favour the burden of thy wratâ— the weight intolerable of unpardoned sin and give thy servant command to prophesie to the dry bones and let the effect of tâ—is prophesie be as of thy Prophet when he prophesied the valley of dry bones into a living army exceeding great Ezek. 37. 1. c. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones He said unto me prophesie upon these bones and say unto them O ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesâ— upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone And when I beheld Loe the sinews and the flesh came up upon them and covered them above but there was no breath in them Then said he unto me prophesie unto the wind prophesiâ— son of man and say to the wind thus saith the Lord God come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army But I must proceed as I am able to unfold that misery which I confess no tongue can unfold no heart can sufficiently comprehend Know therefore that while thou art unconverted 1. The infinite God is engaged against thee It is no small part of thy misery that thou art without God Eph. 2. 12. How doth Micah run crying after the Danites You have taken away my Gods and what have I more Iudges 18. 23 24. O what a mourning then must thou lift up that art without God that canst lay no claim to him without daring usurpation Thou must say of God as Sheba of David We have no part in David neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse 2 Sam. 20. 1. How pitiful and piercing a moan is that of Saul in his extremity The Philistians are upon me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28. 15. Sinners what will you do in the day of your visitation whither will you flee for help where will you leave your glory Esay 10. 3. What will you do when the Philistines are upon you When the World shall take its eternal leave of you when you must bid your friends houses lands farewell for evermore What will you do then I say that have never a God to go to Will you call on him will you cry to him for help alas he will not own you Prov. 1. 28 29. he will not take any knowledge of you but send you packing with an I never knew you Mat. 7. 23. They that know what 't is to have a God to go to a God to live upon they know a little what a fearful misery it is to be without God This made that holy man cry out Let me have a God or nothing Let me know him and his will and what will please him and how I may come to enjoy him or would I had never had an understanding to know any thing c. But thou
heart unto all that I shall testifie unto thee this day for it is not a vain thing it is your life Deut. 32. 4. 6. This is the end of all that hath been spoken hitherto to bring you to set upon turning and making use of Gods means for your Conversion I would not trouble you nor torment you before the time with the forethoughts of your eternal misery but in order to your making your escape Were you shut up under your present misery without remedy it were but mercy as one speaks to let you alone that you might take in that little poor comfort that you are capable of here in this world But you may yet be happy if you do not wilfully refuse the means of your recovery Behold I hold open the door unto you arise and take your flight I set the way of life before you walk in it and you shall live and not die Deut. 30. 19. Ier. 9. 16. It pities me to think you should be your own murderers and throw your selves headlong when God and men cry out to you as Peter in another case to his master Spare thy self A noble Virgin that attended the Court of Spain was wickedly ravished by the King and hereupon exciting the Duke her Father to revenge he called in the Moors to his help who when they had executed his design miserably wasted and spoiled the Country which this Virgin laying so exceedingly to heart shut her self up in a Tower belonging to her Fathers house and desired her Father and Mother might be called forth and bewailing to them her own wretchedness that she should have occasioned so much misery and desolation to her Country for the satisfying of her revenge she told them she was resolved to be avenged upon her self Her Father and Mother besought her to pity her self and them but nothing would prevail but she took her leave of them and threw her self off the battlements and so perished before their faces Just thus is the wilful destruction of ungodly men The God that made them beseecheth them and cryeth out to them as Paul to the distracted Jaylor when about to murder himself Do thy self no harm The Ministers of Christ forewarn them and follow them and fain would hold them back But alas No expostulations nor obtestations will prevail but men will hurl themselves into perdition while pity it self looketh on What shall I say Would it not grieve a person of any humanity if in the time of a reigning plague he should have a receipt as one well that would infallibly cure all the Countrey and recover the most hopeless patients and yet his friends and neighbours should die by the hundreds about him because they would not use it Men and Brethren though you carry the certain symptoms of death in your faces yet I have a receipt that will cure you all that will cure infallibly Follow but these few directions and if you do not then win Heaven I will be content to lose it Hear then Oh sinner and as ever thou wouldst be converted and saved embrace this following counsel Dir. I. Set it down with thy self as an undoubted truth that it is impossible for thee ever to get to Heaven in this thine unconverted state Can any other but Christ save thee And he tells thee he will never do it except thou be regenerated and converted Mat. 18. 3. Iohn 3. 3. Doth he not keep the keys of Heaven And canst thou get in without his leave as thou must if ever thou comest thither in thy natural condition without a sound and through renovation Dir. II. Labour to get a thorow sight and lively sense and feeling of thy sins Till men are weary and heavy laden and pricked at the heart and stark sick of sin they will not come to Christ in his way for ease and cure nor to purpose enquire What shall we do Mat. 11. 28. Acts 2. 37. Mat. 9. 12. They must set themselves down for dead men before they will come unto Christ that they may have life Iohn 5. 40. Labour therefore to set all thy sins in order before thee Never be afraid to look upon them but let thy spirit make diligent search Psal. 77. 6. Enquire into thine heart and into thy life Enter into a thorow examination of thy self and of all thy wayes Psal. 119. 59. that thou maist make a full discovery and call in the help of Gods spirit in the sense of thine own inability hereunto for it is his proper work to convince of sin Iohn 16. 8. Spread all before the face of thy conscience till thine heart and eyes be set abroach Leave not striving with God and thine own soul till it cry out under the sense of thy sins as the enlightned Jaylor What must I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. To this porpose Meditate of the numerousness of thy sins David's heart failed when he thought of this and considered that he had more sins than hairs Ps. 40. 12. This made him to cry out upon the multitudes of Gods tender-mercies Psal. 51. 1. The loathsom carcase doth not more hatefully swarm with crawling worms than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts They fill the head the heart the eyes and mouth of him Look backward where was ever the place what was ever the time in which thou didst not sin Look inward what part or power canst thou find in soul or body but it is poisoned with sin What duty dost thou ever perform into which this poyson is not shed Oh how great is the sum of thy debts who hast been all thy life long running upon the hooks and never didst nor canst pay off one penny Look over the sin of thy nature and all its cursed brood the sins of thy life Call to mind thy Omissions Commissions the sins of thy thoughts of thy words of thine actions the sins of thy youth the sins of thy years c. Be not like a desperate Bankrupt that is afraid to look over his books Read the records of conscience carefully These books must be opened sooner or later Rev. 20. 12. Meditate upon the aggravations of thy sin as they are the grand enemies against the God of thy life against the life of thy soul in a word they are the publick enemies of all mankind How do David Ezra Daniel and the good Levites aggravate their sins from the consideration of their injuriousness to God their opposition to his good and righteous Laws the mercies the warnings that they were committed against Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. Ezra 9. O the work that sin hath made in the world This is the enemy that hath brought in death that hath robbed and enslaved man that hath blacked the devil that hath digged hell Rom. 5. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Iohn 8. 34. This is the enemy that hath turned the creation upside down and sown dissension between man and the creatures between man and man yea between man and himself seting the sensitive part against the