Forsake the foolish and live Prov. 9. 6. Be sober righteous godly Tit. 2. 12. Wash your hands you sinners purifie your hearts ye double minded Iames 4. 8. Cease to do evil learn to do well Esay 1. 16 17. But if you will on you must die Ezek. 33. 11. CHAP. II. Shewing positively what Conversion is I May not leave you with your eyes half open as he that saw men as trees walking Mar. 8. 24. The word is profitable for doctrine as well as reproof 2 Tim. 3. 16. And therefore having thus far conducted you by the shelves and rocks of so many dangerous mistakes I would guide you at length into the harbour of truth Conversion then in short lies in the thorow change both of the heart and life I shall briefly describe it in its nature and causes 1. The author it is the spirit of God and therefore it is called the sanctification of the spirit 2 Thes. 213. and the renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Yet not excluding the other persons in the Trinity For the Apostle teacheth us to bless the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for that he hath begotten us again 1 Pet. 1. 3. and Christ is said to give repentance to Israel Acts 5. 31. and is called the everlasting Father Esay 9. 6. and we his seed and the Children which God hath given him Heb. 2. 13. Esay 53. 10. O blessed birth Seven Cities coutended for the birth of Homer but the whole Trinity Fathers the new creature Yet is this work principally ascribed to the Holy Ghost and so we are said to be born of the spirit Ioh. 3. 8. So then it is a work above mans power We are born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Iohn 1. 31. Never think thou canst convert thy self If ever thou wouldst be savingly converted thou must despair of doing it in thine own strength Ier. 31. 18. It is a Resurrection from the dead Rev. 20. 5. Eph. 1. 2. a new creation Gal. 6. 15. Eph. 2. 10. a work of absolute omnipotency Eph. 1. 19. Are these out of the reach of humane power If thou hast no more than thou hadst by thy first birth a good nature a meek and chast temper c. thou art a very stranger to true conversion This is a supernatural work 2. The moving cause is Internal or External The Internal mover is only free grace Not by works of righteousness which we have done but of his own mercy he saved us by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Of his own will begat he us Iam. 1. We are chosen and called unto Sanctification not for it Eph. 1. 4. God finds nothing in man to turn his heart but to turn his stomach enough to provoke his loathing nothing to provoke his love Look back upon thy self O Christian. Take up thy verminous rags Look upon thy self in thy blood Ez. 16. 6. O reflect upon thy swinish nature thy filthy swill thy once beloved mire 2 Pet. 2. Canst thou think without loathing of thy trough and draugh Open thy sepulchre Mat. 23. 27. Art not thou almost struck dead with the hellish damp behold thy putrid soul thy loathsom members O stench unsufferable if thou dost but sense thine own putrifaction Psal. 14. 3. Behold thy ghastly vissage thy crawling lusts thy slime and corruption Do not thine own cloaths abhor thee Iob. 9. 31. How then should holiness and purity love thee Be astonished O Heavens at this be moved O Earth Ier. 2. 12. Who but must needs cry Grace Grace Zech 4. 7. Hear and blush you Children of the most high O you unthankful generation that free grace is no more in your mouths in your thoughts no more adored admired commended by such as you One would think you should be nothing but praising and admiring God whatever you are How can you make a shift to forget such grace or to pass it over with a slight and seldom mention What but free grace should move God to love you unless enmity could do it or deformity could do it unless vomit or rottonness could do it How affectionately doth Peter lift up his hands Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again 1 Pet. 1. 3. How feelingly doth Paul magnifie the free mercy of God in it God who is rich in merâ—â— for his great love wherewith he loved us hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace are ye saved Eph. 2. 4 5. The external mover is the merit and intercession of the blessed Iesus He hath obtained gifts for the rebeâ—â—ious Psal 68. 18. and through him it is that God worketh in us what is well pleasing in his sight Heb. 13. 21. Through him are all spiritual blessings bestowed upon us in â—â—â—venly things Eph. 1. 3. He intercedeth for the Elect that believe not Ioh. 17. 20. Every Convert is the fruit of his travel Esai 53. 11. O never was infant born into the world with that difficulty that Christ endured for us How emphatically he groaneth in his travel All the pains that he suffered on his Cross they were our birth pains Act. 2. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pulls and throws that Christ endured for us He is made sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He sanctified himself that is set apart himself as a sacrifice that we may be sanctified Iohn 17. 19. We are sanctified through the offering of his body once for all Heb. 10. 10. 'T is nothing then without his own bowels but the merit and intercession of Christ that prevails with God to bestow upon us converting grace If thou art a new creature thou knowest to whom thou owest it to Christ's pangs and prayers Hence the natural affection of a believer to Christ. The â—oal doth not more naturally run after the Dam nor the suckling to the dugs than a believer to Jesus Christ. And whither else shouldst thou go If any in the World can shew that for thy heart that Christ can let them carry it Doth Satan put in doth the World court thee doth sin sue for thy heart Why were these crucified for thee 1 Cor. 1. 13. O Christian love and serve the Lord while thou hast a being Do not even the Publicans love those that love them And shew kindness to them that are kind to them Mat. 5. 46 47. 3. The Instrument is either Personal or Real The personal is the Ministry I have begotten you to Christ through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4. 15. Christs Ministers are they that are sent to open mens eyes and to turn them to God Acts 26. 18. O unthankful World little do you know what you are doing while you are persecuting the Messengers of the Lord. These are they whose business is under Christ to save you Whom have you reproached and blasphemed Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted your eyes on high Esay 37.
THE WAY TO True HAPPINESS In a Serious TREATISE SHEWING I. What Conversion is not and correcting some Mistakes about it II. What Conversion is and wherein it consisteth III. The Necessity of Conversion IV. The Marks of the Unconverted V. The Miseries of the Unconverted VI. Directions for Conversion VII Motives to Conversion By Ioseph Alleine late Preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somersetshire LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1678. TO THE READER He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear Precious Souls THere is that Life and Light and Love in every true Believer but especially in every Faithful Minister of Christ which engageth them to long and labour for your Salvation Life is communicative and active It maketh us sensible that Faith is not a Fantasie nor true Religion a Stage-play nor our hopes of our Eternal Happiness a Dream And as we desire nothing more for our selves than to have more of the Holy Life whicâ—â— we have alas in so small a measure so what is it that we should more desire for others With the eye of an infallible though too weak faith we see the Heaven which you neglect and the blessed Souls in Glory with Christ whose companions you might be for ever we see the multitudes of Souls in Hell who came thither by the same way that you are going in who are shut out of the glorious presence of God and are now among those Devils that deceived them remembring that they had their good things here Luk. 16. 25. And how they spent the Day of their Visitation and how light they once set by God by Christ by Heaven by Mercy whilest Mercy was an earnest solicitour for their Hearts And with our bodily eyes we see at the same time abundance of poor sinners living about us as if there were no God no Christ no Heaven no Hell no Iudgment no nor Death to be expected as if a man were but a master beact to rule the rest and feed upon them and perish with them And if it were your own case to see what Souls do in Heaven and Hell and at once to see how unbelievingly carelesly and senselesly most men live on earth as if there were no such difference in another World would it not seem a pittiful sight to you If you had once seen the five Brethren of Dives on Earth eating drinking laughing and merry cloathed and faring daily with the best and at the same time seen their Brothers Soul in Hell begging in vain for a little â—ase and wishing in vain that one from the dead might go warn his Brethren that they come not to that place of Torment would it not seem to you a pittiful sight would not pity have made you think Is there no way to open these Gentlemens eyes No way to acquaint tâ—em what is become of their Brother and where Lazarus is and whither they themselves are going No one driveth or forceth them to Hell and will they go thither of themselves and is there no way to stop them or keep them back Did you but see your selves what we see by faith believing God and at once beheld the Saints in Heaven the lost despairing Souls in Hell and the sensless sensual sinners on earth that yet will lay none of this to heart sure it would make you wonder at the stupidity of mankind Would you not say O what a deceiver is the Devil that can thus lead on souls to their own damnation Oh what a cheater is this transitory World that can make men so forget the World where they must live for ever O what an enemy is this flesh that thus draweth down mens Souls from God! O what a besotting thing is sin that turneth a reasonable soul into worse than a beast what a bedlam is this wicked world when thousands are so busily labouring to undo themselves and others and gratifyingâ— the Devil against the God and Saviour who would give them everlasting blessed life And as we have such a sight as this by Faith to make us pity you so have we so much taste of the goodness of God the sweetness of his ways and the happiness of believers as must needs make us wish that you had but once tried the same delights which would turn the pleasures of sin into detestation God knoweth that we desire nothing more for our selves than the Perfection and Eternity of this Holiness and Happiness which we believe and taste And should we not desire the same for you And being thus moved with necessary pity we ask of God what he would have us to do for your Salvation And he hath told us in Scripture that the preaching of his Gospel to acquaint you plainlyâ— with the truth and earnestly and frequently intreat you to turn from the Flesh and World to God by Iesus Christ is the means with which his grace is ready to concur for your Salvation when obstinate resistance causeth the Holy Spirit to forsake the Sinner and leave him to himself to follow his own Counsels Lusts and Wills In this hope we undertook the Sacred Ministry and gave up our selves to this great and most important work in the great sense of our unworthiness but yet in the sense of your Souls Necessity We were not such Fools at our first setting out as not to know it muct be a life of labour self-denyal and patience and the Devil would do his worst to hinder us and that all sorts of his instruments would be ready to serve him against our Labours and against your Souls Christ our Captain saved us by Patient Conquest and so must we save â—â—r selves and you And so must you save your â—â—â—ives under Christ if ever you be saved It was no strange thing to Paul that bonds and afflictions did every where abide him nor did he account his life dear that he might finish his course with joy and the Ministry committed to him by the Lord Acts 20. 23 24. It was no strange thing to him to be forbidden to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved by such as were filling up the measure of their sins and were under Gods uttermost wrath on Earth 1 Thes. 2. 15 16. Devils and Pharisees and most where they came both high and low were against the Apostles preaching of the Gospel and yet they would not sacrilegiously and cruelly break their Covenant with Christ and perfidiously desert the Souls of Men even as their Lord for the Love of Souls did call Peter Satan that would have tempted him to save his life and flesh instead of making it â— sacrifice for our sins Mat. 16. 23. What think you should move us to undertake a calling so contrary to our fleshly ease and interests Do we not know the way of Ease and Honour of Wealth and Pleasures as well as others and have we not flesh as well as others Could we not be content that the
Religion do make such false Christians better than the poor Heathens and Infidels or much worse and whether he be not an Hypocrite that professeth to be a Christian and a servant of God when he is none nor will be And whether he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall not have the sorest stripes or punishment Luke 12. 47. Quest. 11 Ask them whether in their baptism which is their Christening as a Covenant they did not renounce the flesh the World and the Devil and vow and deliver up themselves to God their Father their Saviour and their Sanctifier And whether all or most men perform this vow And whether a perjured Covenant-breaker against God is fitter for Salvation than one that never was baptized Quest. 12. Ask them whether the holy nature of God be not so contrary to sin as that it is blasphemy to say that he will take into Heavâ—n and into the bosom of his eternal delights any unholy unrenewed Soul 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. Quest. 13. Ask them why it was that Christ came into the World whether it was not to save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. And to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. And to bring home straying souls to God Luk. 15. and to be the way to the Father John 14. 6. And whether Christ save that soul that is not converted by him and saved from his sins Or whether it be the dead Image only of a Crucified Jesus that is all their Saviour while they will have no more of him Quest. 14. Ask them why they believe and were baptized into the Holy Ghost and whether a man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that is not born of the Spirit as well as of Water Joh. 3. 3 5 6. and that is not converted and begins not the world as it were anew in a teachable tractable newness of life like a little child Mat. 18. 3. And whether it be not a certain truth that If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Quest. 15. Ask them why Christ gave the world so many warnings of the damnableness of the Pharisees Hypocrisie if Hypocritical Christians may be saved And what were these Pharisees They were the Masters of the Iewish Church The Rabbies that must have high places high titles and ceremonies formal garments and must be reverenced of all That gave God lip-service without the heart and made void his commands and worshipped him in vain teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and strictly â—â—the Mint Cummin while love mercy and Iustice were past by Who worshipped God with abundance of Ceremonies and built the Tombs and garnished the Sepulchers of the Saints while they killed and persecuted those that did imitate them and hated the living Saints and honoured the dead They were the bitterest enemies and murderers of Christ on pretence that he was a blasphemer and a seditious enemy to Caesar and the common peace and one that spake against the Temple They were the greatest Enemies of the Apostles And silencers of those that preached Christs Gospel and persecuted them that called on his name And had these no need of Conversion because they could say God is our Father when the Devil was their Father Joh. 8. 44. and that they were Abraham's Seed and are not Hypocritical Christians Drunken Christians Fornicating Christians Carnal Worldly Infidel-Christians the contradiction is your own Persecuting Christians False-named Hypocritical Christians as bad yea worse as they abuse a more excellent profession Mat. 15. 7 8. and 23. and 22. 18. and 6. 2. c. Luke 12. 1. Quest. 16. Doth not the Holy State of Heaven require Holiness in all that shall possess it Can an unholy soul there see and love and praise and delight in God for ever and in the holy society and employment of the Saints Rev. 21. 27. Is he not liker a Mehometan than a Christian that looketh for a sensual and unholy Heaven Quest. 17. What is the difference between the Church and the World Is not the Church a holy Society of regenerate souls Yea the Church visible is only those that in baptism vow Holiness and profess it Look those hypocrites in the face and see whether they do not blush when they repeat in the Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost I believe in the Holy Catholick Church and the communion of Saints who shall have the forgiveness of sins and live ever-lasting Ask them whether they mean Holy Adulterers holy worldlings holy perjured persons Ask them whether they mean a Communion of Saints in a Tavern in a Play-house in a Gaming-house in a Whore-house â—or a jesting canting stage-play Communion If the Church be holy be holy if you will be of the Church If it be a Communion of Saints make it not a Communion of Swine and make not Saints and their Communion seem odious either for their infirmities or their crossness to your carnal interests or conceits Quest. 18. Ask them whether there be a Heaven and a Hell or not If not why are they pretended Christians If there be will God send one man to Heaven and another to Hell to so vast so amazing a difference of states if there be no great difference between them here If Holiness no more differenced Christians from others than saying a Sermon or saying over a Prayer doth difference one from an Infidel where were the Justice of God in saving some and damning others and what were Christianity better than the Religion of Antonine Plato Socrates Seneca Cicero Plutarch if not much worse Go into London streets and when you have talkt with living prudent men then go to the Painters shop and see a comely picture and to the Looking-glass and see the appearances of each passenger in a Glass and to the Periwig-shops and set a wodden-head with a periwig upon the Bulk and you have seen somewhat like the difference of a Holy Soul and of a dead and dressed formal hypocrite Psal. 23. 27. Quest. 19. Ask them whether Kings and all men make not a great difference between man and man the loyal and perfidious the obedient and the disobedient And whether they difference not themselves between a friend and a soe one that loveth them and one that robbeth beateth or would kill them And shall not the most Holy God more difference between the righteous and the wicked Mal. 3. 17 18. Quest. 20. But if they are deaed in every 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 Joh. 1. 12. and 3. 16. and 5. 40. 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. 3. Believe Gods love and the pardon of sin and the everlasting Joys of Heaven that thou maiest 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. and 37. 34. and 69. 6. Pity O Lord and perswade these Souls Let not Christs 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 shadows in this world And O save this Land from the greater dectruction than all our late plagues and flames and divisions which our sins and thy threatnings make us fâ—ar 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 hâ— 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 to Ministers not to tell them what men have been here forbidden to preach Christs 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 weak 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 Judas what needs 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 and more elaborate writings thus prevented take thank fully 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 and 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 and Charity and Justice and the diligent seeking and joyful hopes of life everlasting is all the true Wisdom the goodness the Rest and Comfort of a soul whatever be our plea this is the satisfying certainty the Business and the beautifying 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 and 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 longs 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 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 DARKNESS is the second and MALIGNITY the third Richard Baxter READER HOW well were it if there were no more Unconverted ones among us than those to whom this is directed Unconverted 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 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 treat with thee about this matter Let him bid thee believe thou art a believer already let him bid thee repent and turn to the Lord that work thou sayst is not now to do What can there be said to this man that 's like to bâ—ing him to good Friend know thy self better or thou perishest without remedy Thou maist pray but what hope is there in thy praying Thou maist read but what
language of thy soul His Ioys are changed He rejoyceth in the wayes of Gods testimonies as much as in all riches Psa. 119. 14. He delights in the Law of the Lord wherein once he had little favour He hath no such Joy as in the thoughts of Christ the fruition of his company the prospirity of his people His Cares are quite altered He was once set for the World and any scraps of by-time nothing too often was enough for his soul. Now he gives over caring for the Asses and sets his heart on the Kingdom Now all the cry is What shall I do to be saved Acts. 16. 30. His great solicitude is how to secure his soul. Oh! how he would bless you if you could but put him out of doubt of this His Fears are not so much of suffering but of sinning Heb. 11. 25 27. Once he was afraid of nothing so much as the loss of his estate or esteem the displeasure of friends the srowns of the great nothing sounded so terrible to him as pain or poverty or disgrace Now these are little to him in comparison of Gods dishonour or displeasure How warily doth he walk left he should tread on a snare He feareth alway he looks before and behind he hath his eye upon his heart and is often casting over his shoulder left he should be â—vertaken with sin Psal. 39. 1. Prov. 28. 14. Eccles. 2. 14. It kills his heart to think of losing Gods favour this he dreads as his only undoing Psal. 51. 11 12. Psal. 119. 8. No thought in the world doth pinch him and pain him so much as to think of parting with Christ. His Love runs a new course My Love was crucified said holy Ignatius that is my Christ. This is my beloved saith the Spouse Cant. 5. 16. How doth Augustine often pour his loves upon Christ. He can find no words sweet enough Let me see thee O Light of mine eyes Come O thou joy of my spirit Let me behold thee O the gladness of my heart Let me love thee O life of my soul. Appear unto me O my great delight my sweet comfort O my God my life and the whole glory of my soul. Let me find thee O desire of my heart Let me hold thee O love of my soul. Let me imbrace thee O heavenly Bridegroom Let me possess thee O eternal blessedness c. His Sorrows have now a new vent 2 Cor. 7. 9. 10. The view of his sins the sight of a Christ crucified that would scarce stir him before now how much do they affect his heart His Hatred boils his Anger burns against sin Psal. 119. 104. He hath no patience with himself he calls himself fool and beast and thinks any name too good for himself when his indignation is stirred up against sin Psal. 73. 22. Prov. 30. 2. He could once swill in it with too much pleasure now he loaths the thought of returning to it as much as of licking up the filthiest vomit Commune then with thine own heart and attend the common and general current of thine affections whether it be towards God in Christ above all other concernments Indeed sudden and strong commotions of the affections and sensitive part are oft-times found in hypocrites especially where the natural constitution leads thereunto and contrariwise the sanctified themselves are many times without sensible stirrings of the affections where the temper is more slow dry and dull The great inquiry is whether the judgment and will be standingly determined for God above all other good real or apparent and if the affections do sincerely follow their choice and conduct though it be not so strongly and sensibly as is to be desired there is no doubt but the change is saving 2. Thorowout the Members These that were before the instruments of sin are now become the holy utensils of Christs living Temple Rom. 6. 16. 1 Cor. 3. 16. He that before made as it were a band or a barrel of his body now possesseth his vessel in sanctification and honour in temperance chastity and sobriety as dedicated to the Lord 1 Thes. 44. Gal. 5. 22 23. 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. The Eye that was once a wandring eye a wanton eye a haughty a covetous eye is now employed as Mary in weeping over her sins Luk. 7. 38. in beholding God in his works Psal. 8. 3. in reading his word Acts 8. 30. in looking up and down for objects of mercy and opportunities for his service The Ear that was once open to Satans call and that like a vitiated palat did relish nothing so much as filthy or at least frothy talk and the fools laughter is now bored to the door of Christs house and open to his discipline It saith speak Lord for thy servant heareth It cries with him veniat verbum Domini and waits for his word as the rain and relishes them more than the appointed food Iob 23. 12. than the honey and the honey comb Psal. 19. 10. The Head that was the shop of worldly designs is now filled with other matters and set on the study of Gods will Psal. 1. 2. Psal. 119. 97. and the man beats his head not so much about his gain but about his duty The thoughts and cares that now â—ill his head are principally how he may please God and flie sin His Heart that was a sty of filthy Insts is now become an altar of Incense where the fire of divine love is ever kept in and whence the daily sacrifice of prayer and praises and sweet incense of holy desires ejaculations and anhelations are continually ascending Psal. 108. 1. Psal. 119. 20. Psal. 139. 17 18. The Mouth is become a well of life his Tongue as choice silver and his Lips feed many Now the salt of grace hath seasoned his speech and eat out the corruption Col. 4. 6. and cleanseth the man from his filthy communication flattery boasting rayling lying swearing backbiting that once came like the flashes proceeding from the hell that was in the heart Iames 3. 6. 7. The Throat that was once an open sepulchre Rom. 3. 13. now sends forth the sweet breath of prayer and holy discourse and the man speaks in another Tongue in the Language of Canaan and is never so well as when talking of God and Christ and the matters of another World His Mouth bringeth forth wisdom his Tongue is become the silver Trumpet of his makers praise his glory and the best member that he hath Now here you shall have the hypocrite halting He speaks it may be like an Angel but he hath a covetous eye or the gain of unrighteousness in his hand Or the hand is white but his heart is full of rottenness Mat. 13. 27. full of unmortified cares a very oven of lust a shop of pride the seat of malice It may be with Nebuchadnezzar's Image he hath a Golden head a great deal of knowledge but he hath feet of clay his affections are worldly he minds earthly things and
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
course you could wish that you were as some others be and could do as they can do How long will you rest in idle wishes and fruitless purposes when will you come to a fixed full and firm resolve Do not you see how Satan gulls you by tempting you to delays How long hath he toll'd you on in the way of perdition how many years have you been purposing to amend what if God should have taken you off this while Well put me not off with a dilatory answer Tell not me of hereafter I must have your present consent If you be not now resolved while the Lord is treating with you and woing of you much less are you like to be hereafter when these impressions are worn out and you are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Will you give me your hands Will you set open the doors and give the Lord Jesus the full and present possession Will you put in your names into his Covenant Will you subscribe What do you resolve upon If you are still upon your delays my labour is lost and all is like to come to nothing Fain I would that you should now put in your adventures Come cast in your lot make your choice Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation to day if you will hear his voice Why should not this be the day from whence thou shouldest be able to date thine happiness why shouldest thou venture a day longer in this dangerous and dreadful condition What if God should this night require thy soul O that thou mightest know in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes Luke 16. 42. This is thy day and 't is but a day Iohn 9. 4. Others have had their day and have received their doom and now art thou brought upon the stage of this world here to act thy part for a whole eternity Remember thou art now upon thy good behaviour for everlasting If thou make not a wise choice now thou art undone for ever Look what thy present choice is such must thine eternal condition be Luke 10. 42. Luke 16. 25. Prov. 1. 27 28 29. And is it true indeed is life and death at thy choice yea 't is as true as truth is Deut. 30. 19. why then what hinders but that thou shouldest be happy Nothing doth or can hinder but thine own wilful neglect or refusal It was the passage of the Eunuch to Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized So I may say to thee see here is Christ here is mercy pardon life what hinders but that thou shouldst be pardoned and saved One of the Martyrs as he was praying at the stake had his pardon set by in a box which indeed he refused deservedly because upon unworthy terms But here the terms are most honourable and easie O sinner wilt thou burn with thy pardon by Why do but forthwith give up thy consent to Christ renounce thy sins deny thy self take up the Yoak and the Cross and thou carriest the day Christ is thine pardon peace life blessedness all are thine and is not this an offer worth the embracing Why shouldst thou hesitate or doubtfully dispute about the case Is it not past controversie whether God be better than sin and glory better than vanity Why shouldst thou forsake thine own mercy and sin against thine own life When wilt thou shâ—ke off thy sloth and lay by thine excuses Boast not thy self of to morrow thou knowest not where this night may lodge thee Prov. 27. 1. Beloved now the holy Spirit is striving with you He will not always strive Hast thou not felt thy heart warmed by the word and been almost perswaded to leave off thy sins and come in to God Hast thou not felt some good motions in thy mind wherein thou hast been warned of thy danger and told what thy careless course would end in It may be thou art like young Samuel who when the Lord called once and again he knew not the voice of the Lord 1 Sam. 3. 6 7. but these motions and items are the offers and essays and the calls and strivings of the spirit O take the advantage of the tide and know the day of thy visitation Now the Lord Jesus stretcheth wide his arms to receive you He beseecheth you by us How movingly how meltingly how pitifully how passionately he calleth The Church is put into a sudden extasie upon the sound of his voice The voice of my beloved Cant. 2. 8. O wilt thou turn a deaf ear to his voice it is not the voice that breaketh the Ceders and maketh the mountains to skip like a Calf that shaketh the Wilderness and divideth the flames of fire it is not Sinai's Thunder but the soft and still voice It is not the voice of Mount Ebal a voice of cursing and terror but the voice of Mount Gerizim the voice of blessing and of glad tidings of good things It is not the voice of the Trumpet nor the noise of War but a message of peace from the King of peace Eph. 6. 15. 2. Cor. 5. 18 20. Methinks it should be with thee as with the spouse My soul failed when he spake Cant. 5. 6. I may say to thee O sinner as Martha to her sister The Master is come and he calleth for thee Iohn 11. 28. Oh now with Mary arise quickly and come unto him How sweet are his invitations He cryeth in the open concourse If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Iohn 7. 37. Prov. 1. 21. He broacheth his own body for thee Oh come and lay thy mouth to his side How free is he he excludeth none Whosoever with let him come and take the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. Whoso is simple let him turn in hithâ—r Come eat of my bread drink of the wine which â— have mingled For sake the foolish and live Prov. 9. 4 5. 6. Come unto me c. Take my yoak upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest unto your souls Mat. 11. 28 29. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. How doth he bemoan the obstinate refuser O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children as a Hen guthereth her Chickens under hot wings and ye would not Mat. 23. 37. Behold me behold me I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people Esay 65. 1 2. O be perswaded now at last to throw your selves into the arms of love Behold O ye sons of men the Lord Jesâ—s hath thrown open the prisons and now he cometh to you as the Magistrates once to them Acts 16. 39. and bâ—â—eeâ—heth you to come out If it were from a Palace or a Paradise that Christ did call you it were no wonder if you were unwilling and yet how easily was Adam tolled from hence but it is from your prison sirs from your chains from the