how long his patience will yet endure you or what hour he will call away your Souls And if death come alas what a case will it find you in how lamentably unready are you to meet him how unready to appear before the dreadfull God whom you have offended and what a terrible appearance do you think that will be to you most certainly if you die before you are converted you will not be from among the Devils and damned souls an hour The Law hath cursed you already and the execution will be answerable if you die in your sins And thus you may see the gain of sin and what it is that you have been doing all this while for your own Souls and what a case it is that you have brought you selvs into and what need you have speedily to look about you 5. The next step of your Consideration should be this Bethink your selves what a blessed Condition you might be in if by Conversion you were but recovered from this misery and brought home to God This moved the heart of the Prodigall son to return Luke 15. 16 17. When he came to himself he said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger He that had not husks to feed on with the swine considered the plenty that he had for saken at home The poorest member of the houshold of Christ is in a better condition then the greatest King on earth that is unconverted You might have lived another kinde of life then you have done for safety and benefit and true content if you would have turned your minds and life to God Were you but Converted you would be the living members of Christ and his precious benefits would be yours His blood would clense you from all your sins and they would be all freely forgiven you God would be Reconciled to to you and become your friend yea your Father and your God and will take you for his houshold servants and adopted children The Holy Ghost would dwell in you and guide your understandings and shew you that which flesh and blood connot reveal and bring you into acquaintance with the mysteries of God He will be a Spirit of Light and Life within you and work your hearts yet more to God and give you yet stronger inclinations and affections to the things above He will help you when you are weak and quicken you where you are dull and be your remembrancer when you are forgetfull of necessary things He will help you in prayer both for matter and for manner and help you in Meditation and conference and other duties He will warn you of your danger and strengthen you against temptations and cause you to overcome and if you fall he will cause you to rise again he will be an in-dwelling comforter to you and so effectually speak peace to you in the midst of your disquietness that by speaking it he will create it in you And in the multitude of your thoughts within you his comforts will delight your Souls O what a life might you live if Christ by his Spirit did once live in you you may easily conjecture how tender Christ would be of his own members how dearly he would love them how constantly he would watch over them how plentifully he would provide for them and how safely he would preserve them And if you should come into a rougher way he would lead you out Afflictions should never be laid on you but for your good and continue no longer then your need continueth them and be taken off at last to your satisfaction and contentment Indeed your life would be a life of mercies and that which is but a common Mercy to common men would be a speciall Mercy to you as coming from your Fathers love and furthering you salvation and hinting out to you your everlasting Mercies You could not open your eyes but you would see that which may encourage and comfort you all the works of God which you behold would shew you his Majesty his love and power and lead you to himself You could not open your Bible but you would find in it the blessed lines of Love O what good it would do you to read there the blessed Attributes of your God! to look upon his Name to peruse the description of his most perfect nature what good would it do you to read of the nature and incarnation and life and death and resurrection and assension and intercession and return of your blessed Redeemer what good would it do you to find those holy Rules which your new nature is agreeable to and to read over the Law that is written in your hearts and read the curse from which you are delivered what life and joy would your Souls receive from the many and full and free promises of grace were you once but truly sanctified and made new your condition would be often comfortable but alwaies safe and when you were in the greatest fears and perplexities you would still be fast in the armes of Christ And what a life would that be to have daily access to God in prayer to have leave in all your wants and dangers to seek to him with a promise of hearing and success that you may be sure of much more from him then a child can from the tenderest father or a wife from the most loving husband upon earth What a life would it be when you may alwaies think on God as your felicity and fetch your higehest delights from him from whom the ungodly have their greatest terrours And it is no contemptible part of your benefits that you may live among his people and in their speciall love and have a speciall Communion with them and interest in their prayers may possess among them the priviledges of the Saints and the Ordinances of God That in stead of idle talk and the unprofitable fellowship of the children and works of darkness you may joyne with the Church of God in his Praises and feed with them at his table on the body and blood of Christ and then have conveyances of renewed grace and a renewed pardon sealed to your Souls But how long should I stay if I should tell you but one half the blessings of a Sanctified and spirituall state In a word God would be yours Christ would be yours the Holy Ghost would be yours all things would be yours the whole world would have some relation to your wellfare Devils would be subdued to you and cast out of your Soules sinne would be both pardoned and overcome Angels would be ministring spirits unto you for your good The promises of Scripture would be yours and everlasting Glory would at last be yours and while you staid on earth you might comfort your selves as oft as you would with the believing foresight of that unconceiveable unspeakable endless felicity O sirs what a treasure have I here expressed in a few words what hearts would you have if they
Marriage supper and even compelleth them to come in but he expecteth that they bring a wedding garment and come not in a garbe that shall dishonour his house Though his Grace be free yet he will not expose it to contempt but will have the fullness and freeness of it glorified Though he came not to Redeem himself but us yet he came to be glorified in the work of our Redemption He hath no Grace so free as to save them that will not esteem it and give him thanks for it And therefore though Faith is enough to accept the gift yet must it be a thankfull faith that will magnifie the giver and a humble faith that will feele the work of it and an obediential faith that will answer the ends of it And therefore that faith which is the Condition of our Justification is fitted as well to the honour of the Giver as the commodity of the receiver And as Reason telleth us that it should be so so Christian ingenuity consenteth that it be so The Soul that is truly united to Christ and partaketh of his nature doth think it's own Receiving greatest where the honour of Christ is greatest And it cannot take pleasure in the thoughts of such a kind of Grace as should dishonour the Lord of Grace himself As Christ is solicitous for the saving of the Soul so that he makes the Soul solicitous of the right entertainment of him that saveth it And therefore though his Blood and not his Teaching or his Government was the Ranson of our Souls yet he is resolved to Justifie none by his Blood but on the Condition of that Faith which is a hearty Consent to his Teaching and Dominion It is not in the Application or bestowing of Christ's benefits as it was in the purchasing of them When he came to Ransom us he consented to be a sufferer and gave his cheeks to the smiter and submitted to reproach he endured the Cross despising the shame and being reviled he reviled not but prayed for his persecutors But when he comes by his saving Grace into the Soul he will not there be entertained with contempt For in the flesh he came on purpose to be humbled but in the Spirit he comes to be exalted In the flesh he came to condemn the sinne that reigned in our flesh Rom. 8. 3. and so was made sinne for us that is a Sacrifice for sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. But in the Spirit he comes to conquer our flesh and by the Law of his quickning Spirit to free us from the Law of sinne and death both that the Righteousness of the Law might be fullfilled in us and also that there might be no Condemnation to us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 2 4. The Kingdom of Christ was not worldly for if it had been worldly he would have sought to establish it by strength of armes and fighting which are worldly means Joh. 18. 36. But his Kingdom is within us It is a Spiritual Kingdom and therefore though in the world he was used with contempt as a fool and as a Sinner and a man of sorrows yet within us he will be used with honour and reverence as a King and absolute Lord. It was the houre of the executioner and the power of darkness when he was in his suffering but it is the houre of his triumph and marriage and the prevailing Power of the Heavenly Light when he cometh by Saving Grace into the Soul On the Cross he was as a sinner and stood in our place and bore what was our due and not his owne But in the Soul he is the Conquerour of sinne and cometh to take possession of his own and doth the work that belongeth to him in his dignity and therefore he will there be acknowledged and honoured On the Cross he was pulling down the Kingdom of Satan and setting up his own but in the preparatory purchase But in the Soul he doth both by immediate execution On the Cross sinne and Satan had their full blow at him But when he entred the Soul he hath his blow at them and ceaseth not till he have destroyed them In purchasing he expended his own But in Converting he takes possession of that which he purchased In a word he came into the world in flesh for his undertaken Humiliation but he comes into the Soul by his Spirit for his deserved exaltation And therefore though he endured to be spit upon in the flâ—sh he will not endure to be sleighted in the Soul And as in the world he was scorned with the Title of a King and crowned with thorns and clothed in such Kingly robes as might make him the fitter object for their reproach So when his Spirit entereth into the Soul he will be there inthroned in our most reverent subjective and deepest esteeme and crowned with our highest Love and Thankfullnes and bowed to with the tenders of Obedience and our praise The Cross shall there be the portion of his enemies and the Crown and Scepter shall be his and as all were preferred before him on Earth even Barrabas himself so all things shall be put under him in the Sanctified Soul and he shall be preferred before all This is the end of Humiliation to make ready the heart for a fuller entertainment of the Lord that bought it and to prepare the way before him and fit the Soul to be the Temple of his Spirit A humbled Soul would never have put him off with excuses from Oxen and Farms and Wives As Luke 14. and Matth. 22. But the unhumbled will make light of him And 2. As Christ himself will be honourably recieved or not at all so must the Mercies and Graces which he offereth He will not apply his blood and righteousness to them that care not for it He will not pardon such a masse of iniquity and remove such mountaines as lie upon the Soul for them that feel not the Necessity of such a Mercy He will not take men from the power of the Devil and the drudgery of sinne and the suburbs of Hell and make them his Members and the Sonnes of God and the Heirs of Heaven that have not learn't the value of these benefits but set more by their very sinne and misery and the trifles of the world Christ doth not despise his Blood his Spirit his Covenant his Pardon nor his Heavenly Inheritance and therefore he will give them to none that do despise them till he teacheth them better to know their worth Do you think it would stand with the Wisdom of Christ to give such unspeakable blessings as these to men that have not hearts to value them Why it is more to give a man Justification and Adoption then to give him all this visible world the Sunne the Moone the Firmament and the Earth And should these be given to one that cares not for them Why by this meanes God should miss of his ends He should not
Psal. 51. 17. Luke 4. 18. Mat. 11. 28. Do you think a man can be the Servant of God that liveth a fleshly life will keep his sin Try by Rom. 8. 13. Joh. 3. 19. Ephes. 5. 5 6. 1 Joh. 3. 9 10. Do you doubt whether it be necessary to make so much adoe to be saved and to be so strict and make Religion our cheifest business Try by Psal. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Pet. 4. 18. Heb. 12. 14. Luke 10. 42. Luke 13. 24. Ephes. 5. 15 16. Do you think a man can be saved that is a worldling whose heart is more on Earth then heaven Try by 1 Joh. 2 15. Phil. 3. 19. Col. 3. 1. Luke 14. 26 33. Do you doubt whether you should serve God with your families and instruct them and pray with them Try by Jos. 24. 15. Deut. 6. 6 7. Dan. 6. 10. 11. Exod. 20. 10. Thus if you will in all these weighty matters but goe to the Scriptures and see whether it say as your Teachers say you might soone be resolved and that by the surest authority in the world If you think that your Ministers may be deceived I hope you will confess that God cannot be deceived If you think that your Ministers are passionate or felf-conceited or speak out of ill will to you I hope you dare not say so by the Lord he owes you no ill will nor speaks a word but what is most sure If you think us partiall sure God is impartiall what better judge can you have now then he that is infallible and must judge you all at the last If any Papist put it into your head to ask who shall be judge of the sence of Scripture I answer who shall be judge of the judge of all the world The Law is made to judge you and not to be judged by you None can be the proper judges of the sence of a Law but the maker of it Though others must judge their cases by the Law Your work is to discern it and understand and obey it and your work is to help you to understand it but it 's neither our work nor yours to be the proper or absolute judges of it At least where it speaks plaine it needs no judge Come then to the word in meekness and humility with a teachable frame of Spirit and a willingness to know the truth and a resolution to stand to it and yield to what shall be revealed to you and beg of God to shew you his will and lead you into the truth and you will find that he will be found of them that seeke him DIRECT III. If you would not have the work of your Conversion miscarry my next advice is this See that you be much in the serious Consideration of the Truths which you understand betwixt God and you in secret I have often spoken of this heretofore But because I apprehend it to be a point of exceeding great concernment I shall be longer on it againe then on the rest The greatest matters in the world will not work much upon him that will not think of them Consideration opens the eare that was stopt and the heart that was shut up It sets the powers of the Soul awork and wakeneth it from the sleep of incogitancy and security The Thoughts are the first actings of the Soul that set a work the rest Thinking on the matters that must make us wise do the work of God on the heart is that which lieth on us to do in order to our Conversion By Consideration a sinner makes use of the Truth which before lay by and therefore could do nothing By Consideration he taketh in the Medicine to his Soul which before stood by and could not work By Consideration a man makes use of his Reason which before was laid asleep and therefore could not do it's work When the Master 's from home the Schollars will be at play When the Coach-man is asleep the Horses may miss the way and possibly break his neck and their owne If the plowman go his way the Oxen will stand still or make but bad unhandsome work So when Reason is laid asleep and out of the way what may not the Appetite do and what may not the Passions do and what may not Temptations do with the Soul A wise man when he is asleep hath as little use of his wisdome as a foole A Learned man when he is asleep can hardly dispute with an unlearnd man that is awake A strong man that 's never so skillfull at his weapons is scarce able in his sleep to deale with the weakest child that is awake Why all the powers of your Soul are as it were asleep till Consideration awake them and set them on work And what the better are you for being men and having Reason if you have not the Vse of your Reason when you need it As men are Inconsiderate because they are wicked so they are the more wicked because they are inconsiderate The keenest sword the greatest Cannon will do no execution against an enemie while they lie by and are not used There is a mighty power in the Word of God and the example of Christ to pull down strong holds and conquer the strongest lusts and corruptions But they will not do this while they are forgotten and neglected Will Heaven intice the man that thinks not of it Will Hell deterre the man that thinks not of it Why is it that all the reasoning in the world will do no more good on a man that is deaf then if you said nothing But because the passage to his Thoughts and understanding is stopt up And if you have eyes and see not and eares and heare not and willfully cast it out of your thoughts what good can any thing do to you that is spoken It is not holding your meat in your mouth that will nourish you if you will not let it down nor taking it into your stomack if you will not keep it but presently cast it up again But it must be kept till it be disgested and distributed So it is not the most excellent Truths in the world that will change your hearts if you let them not down to your hearts and keep them not there by Meditation till they are digested and turned into sprituall life The plaister must be laid upon the sore if you would be cured The wound and sickness is at your Heart and if you will not take in the word to your heart where the sickness is I know not how you should expect a cure The Soul will not be charmed into Holiness by the bare hearing or saying over a few good words as wizzards use to cure diseases or seeme to cure them It must be Truth at the Heart that must change the Heart And if you will not Think on it and think on it againe how can you expect it should come at your Hearts You say you would gladly have Christ and grace and are ready to
have the Love the Honour or the thanks that he intended by his gift It is necessary therefore that the Soul be throughly humbled that pardon may be received as pardon and Grace as Grace and not set light by And 2. as this is necessary for the honour both of Christ and Grace so also it is necessary for our own benefit and consolation The Mercy cannot indeed be ours if Humiliation do no make us capable of it These Cordials must be taken into an empty Stomack and not be drownd in â—legm and filth A man on the Gallows will be glad of a pardon but a stander by that thinks he is innocent would not regard it but take it for an accusation There is no great sweetness in the name of a Redeemer to an unhumbled Soul It sets not by the Spirit the Gospel is no Gospel to it the tidings of Salvation are not so glad to such a one as the tidings of riches or worldly delights would be As it is the preparation of the Stomack that maketh our meat sweet to us and the coursest fare is pleasanter to the sound then sweet-meats to the sick so if we were not emptied of our selves and vile and lost in our own apprehensions and if Contrition did not quicken our appetites the Lord himself and all the miracles of his Saving Grace would be but as a thing of nought in our eyes and we should be but weary to heare or think of them But O what an inestimable Treasure is Christ to the Humbled Soul What life is in his promises What sweetness in every passage of his grace and what a feast in his unmeasurable Love 4. Another Use of Humiliation implyed in the former is that it is necessary to bring men to yield to the terms of the Covenant of Grace Nature holds fast it 's fleshly pleasures and lives by feeling upon present things and knows not how to live upon invisibles by a life of Faith And this is the life that all must live that will live in Christ And therefore he calleth them to the forsaking of all the crucifying the world and flesh the denying of themselves if they will be his Disciples But O how loath is nature to part with all and make a full resignation unto Christ but fain it would make sure of present things for fear leâ—t the promises of Heaven should but deceive them and then they would have Heaven at last as a reserve And on these terms it is that Hypocrites are Religions and thus it is that they deceive their Souls But when the heart is truly broken it will then stand no longer on such terms with Christ but yield up all It will then no longer Condition with him but stand to his Conditions and thankfully accept them Any thing will then serve with Christ and Grace and the hopes of Glory 5. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit us for the Retaining and Improving of Grace when we have received it The Proverb is Lightly come lightly go If God should give the pardon of sinne to the unhumbled how soon would it be cast away And how easily would such be hearkning to temptation and returning to their vomit The burn't Child we say dreads the fire When sinne hath kill'd you once and broken your hearts you will think the worse of it while you live And when a temptation comes you will think of your former smart Is not this it that cost me so many groans and laid me in the dust and had almost damned me and shall I go to it again Was I so hardly recovered by a Miracle of Mercy And shall I runne again into the misery that I was saved from Had I not sorrow and fear and care enough but I must go back again for more and renew my trouble Thus the remembrance of your sorrows will be a continuall preservative to you And a contrite spirit that is emptied of it self and is taught the worth of Christ and mercy will not only hold them fast but will know how to use them in thankfullness to God and benefit to himself 6. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for it's approach to God himself from whom it had revolted As it beseems not any creature to approach the God of Heaven but in Reverentiall humility so it beseems not any sinner to approach him but in Contrite Humility Who can come out of such wickedness and misery and not bring along the sense of it on his heart It beseemeth not a Prodigal to meet his Father as confidently and boldly as if he had never departed from him but to say Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Luke 15. 18. It is not ingenious for a guilty Soul or one that is snatcht as a brand out of the fire to look towards God with a brazen face but with shame and sorrow to hang down the head and smite upon the brest and say O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner For God resisteth the proud but giveth Grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. Jam. 4. 6. Though the Lord be high yet he hath regard unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off Psal. 138. 6. For thus saith the High and Holy one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy and I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa. 57. 15. To this man will I look even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my Word Isa 66. 2. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken hâ—art and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Psal. 34. 18. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not dispise Psal. 51. 17. There is no turning to God unless we loath our selves for all our abominations Ezek. 16. 63. The nearer we approach him the more we must abhor our selves in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. He will not embrace a sinner in his dung but will first wash and clense him Isa. 1. 16. Conversion must make us humble and as little Children that are teachable and look not after great matters in the world or else there is no entering the Kingdom of God Matth. 18. 3 4. And thus you see the Uses and Necessity of Humiliation III. By what hath been already said you may perceive what Mistakes are carefully to be avoided about your Humiliation and with what caution it must be sought 1. One Error that you must take heed of is That you take not Humiliation for an indifferent thing or for such an appurtenance of Faith as may be spared Think not an unhumbled Soul while such can be Sanctified Some carnal hearts conceive that it is only more haynous sinners that must be contrite and broken hearted and
of that And therefore no wonder if the Redeemer be neglected and God denied the honour of the work So much of this second point the Reasons and Ends of Christ's undertaking I shall purposely be shorter on the rest 3. The third point to be understood concerning our Redeemer is What he hath done and suffered for mankind and wherein his Redeeming work consisted both as to the General and the special part Should I stand on these at large I must needs be voluminous and therefore I shall but briefly reciet them for your remembrance I. The first thing that Christ did for the saving of the world was his Interposing between offending man and the wrath of God and so preserving the world from the destruction which the execution of the violated Law would have procured Undertaking then to become the Seed of the woman and so to break the Serpents head and revealing this Grace by slow degrees till the time of his coming And then when the fullness of time was come he was made man being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary and so the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men who beheld his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Thus God was manifested to men in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. 3. And as he was perfectly Holy in his Nature without any stain or guilt of Original sinne so was he perfectly Holy in his Life and never broke the least Command of God in thought word or deed Never could any convince him of sinne Joh. 8. 46. He fulfilled the Law of Nature which all the world was under and the Mosaical Law which the Jews were under and the special Law that was given to himself as Mediator and was common to no other Creature in the world And thus he performed these excellent works I. By the fullfilling of all Righteousness he pleased the Father alwaies accomplishing his Will and so did much of the work of a Saviour in Meriting for for us Matth. 3. 15. 5. 17. Joh. 8. 29. Matth. 12. 18. 17. 5. Rom. 5. 19. For such an High-priest became us who is Holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. 2. He hath conquered the Tempter that conquered us And therefore did he purposely yield himself to such sore temptations Matth. 4. That his Victory might be glorious and the Second Adam might overcome him that had overcome the first And thus he hath done much to the rescue of the Captivated 3. Hereby also he hath overcome the world which overcame the first Adam and his posterity He trampled upon its seeming glory he neglected and despised its baits and allurements he went through all its cruel persecutions and oppositions So that the world now as well as the Devil are conquered things By which he hath made way for the Victory of his followers and given them ground of great encouragment Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the world Yea I may say in a sort he hath overcome the flesh also For though Christ had no corrupt flesh as we have to contend with yet had he a natural and sensitive appetite which the Command of God did forbid him to fulfill And therefore when innocent Nature diâ—â—red that the Cup might pass from him and abhor death by a simple Aversness yet perfect Holiness permitted not this to proceed to a Refusal by the comparing Intellect and Choosing or Refusing Will but saith Not my will but thine be done And when Christ was hungry and weary the desire of food and rest by the sensitive appetite was no sinne But when the Work of God forbad the fullfilling of such desires he still denyed them 4. Hereby also he hath set us a perfect copy and patern of obedience and is become our Example whom we must endeavour to imitate For he knew that it is the most effectual teaching to do it by words and deeds together It is a great help to us when we do not only heare his voice but see also which way he hath gone before us When he saith Learn of me he directs us not only to his words but to himself who was meeke and lowly Matth. 11. 28. 5. Moreover Christ received of the Father fullness of the Spirit and Power for the benefit of the Redeemed that he might be meet to be the Head and the Treasury of the Church and to shower down the streams of Grace upon his Members and when all Power was given him in Heaven and Earth he might be fitted to the following application of his benefits and to rule and support and defend his people 6. Moreover he was pleased himself to become a Preacher of the Gospel of Salvation not to all the world but principally as a Minister of the Circumcision that is the Jews Rom. 15. 8. He that purchased Salvation condescended also to proclaime it The preaching of the Gospel is a work that Christ thought not himself too good for Sometimes to many sometimes to one or two as he had opportunity often with tears and alwaies with earnestness and compassion did he go about doing good and seeking the lost and healing the diseased and calling men to Faith and Repentance and offering them the Grace and Life which he purchased 7. And he was pleased also to seale up his Doctrine by his Works casting out Devils healing all diseases raising the the dead and working divers other Miracles to assure them that he came from God and did his Work and revealed his Will that so the world might have no excuse for their unbelife but that they that would not believe upon any other account might yet believe him for the sake of his works Joh. 3. 2. Acts 2. 22. Heb. 2. 4. Joh. 5. 36. 10. 25 38. 14. 11 12. 15. 24. 8. Besides all this he gave up himself to a life of suffering being despised by his Creatures whom he came to Redeeme and destitute voluntarily of fleshly pleasures and of that riches and worldly provision that might procure it He was a man of sorrows afflicted from his youth persecuted from the Cradle he gave his Cheeks to the smiters and his Person to be made the scorn of fools He was crowned with thornes spit upon and buffited and having sweat water and blood in his Agonie in the garden he was hanged on a Cross where thieves were both his companions and revilers where they gave him gall and vineger to drink pierced his blessed Body with a spear and put him to a shamfull cursed death But he endured the Cross despising the shame and gave up himself thus a Sacrifice for sinne and bore our transgressions that we might be healed by his stripes and having ransomed us by his Blood he was buried as an offender continuing for a time in the Power of the grave Isa. 53. throughout Matth. 26 27. Heb. 12. 2. All this he consented to undergo
both naturally and graciously perfected both in their faculties and qualities We shall be brought nigh to God We shall be numbered with the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem and be members of that blessed Society and be companions and equal with the Angels of God we shall for ever behold our Glorified Redeemer and see our own Nature united to the Godhead and we shall have the greatest and neerest intuition and fruition of God thefullest Love to him and the swetest Rest content and delight in him that our created Natures are capable of We shall everlastingly be imployed in this Love and delight and in his Praises with all the Heavenly Host And the Glory of God will shine forth in our Glory and the abundance of his Goodness will be communicated to us and he will be well pleased with us with our praises with all that blessed Society and with our Head And this will endure to all Eternity Christians I have now named in a few words those Benefits by Christ which the heart of man is not able to value in any proportion to their unexpressible worth I have named that in an hour which you must enjoy for ever So much of our Benefits by Christ. 5. The fifth point to be understood in the right Knowledg of Christ is The terms on which he conveyeth his Benefits to men and how we must be made partakers of them And these Mercies are of two sorts 1. Common 2. Proper to them that are Heirs of Salvation The Common are 1. Those discoveries of Grace that are made even to Heathens in the Creatures and the mercifull Providences of God These are Absolutely and freely bestowed stowed in some measure on all but in a greater measure upon some as please the Giver 2. The Supernatural or Instituted means of Revealing Christ and Life to the world and drawing them to a saving consent of Faith These are the Gospel written and preached with other concomitant helps The Commission Christ hath given to his Embassadors is to preach this Gospel to all the world even to every reasonable Creature without exception or restriction And it is Absolutely and freely given where it is given But as to the providential disposal of the event God causeth it not to be sent to all but to whom he seeth meet 2. The Proper or Special Mercies are of two sorts 1. Some are Physical inherent qualities or performed acts 2. And some are adherent Rights or Relations Of the former inherent sort there are these three Degees 1. There is the first special work of Vocation Conversion or Regeneration causing the sinner to Repent and Believe and giving him the Principle of Spiritual Life 2. There is the bestowing of the In-dwelling Spirit of God and progressive Santification of heart and life and perseverance with Victory 3. There is the perfecting of all this in our Glorious Perfection in the life to come For the first of these God hath not promised it Conditionally or Absolutely to any individual person that hath it not He hath bound all to Repent and Believe but hath not promised to make them do it only he hath revealed that there are certain persons so given to Christ as that they shall be infallibly drawn to believe But he hath appointed certain means for the ungodly which they are bound to use in order to their Conversion and if they will not use them they are without excuse If they will they have very much encouragement from God Both 1. In the Nature of the means which are fitted to their ends and are mighty to bring down all oppositions and 2. In the Commands and Institution of God whose Wisdom and Goodness may easily resolve us that he will not appoint us means in vaine nor set his Creatures on fruitless labours And 3. Also from the Issue for no man can stand forth and say such a one did his best in the Use of means and yet could not attain the End but fell short of the Grace and Glory of God The diseases of mens Souls are wilfullness and blindness The means of Cure are the Perswasions with the Revelations of the Gospel Men have the Natural Powers of Understanding and Willing but they want that right disposition which we call the Habit or Moral Power which is no more then to say They are Habitually Blind and Wilfull It is so far from being unreasonable to teach and perswade men that are under such an Impotency as this that there is nothing in the world that doth more bespeak our teaching and perswasions For this is the Natural and Instituted way to cure them and give them Power What means of overcoming Ignorance like Teaching and what means of overcoming Habituated Wilfullness like Perswasion added to informing truths We do not use to reason men out of a Natural Impotency nor to perswade them to do that for which they have no Faculties or Object but it is the very means of overcoming a Moral Impotency and making men willing of the Good which they rejected And with this means doth God set in and infallibly cause it to be effectual with his chosen Thus no man cometh to the Sonne except the Father draw him And then for the two following Degrees of Holiness in our Sanctification and Glorious Perfection God hath promised them to those that have this first Degree For the Spirit of Holiness is promised to all that truly Repent and Believe and Salvation to all that are Sanctified and persevere So that the Right to these Inherent Mercies being a Relaetion is conveyed as other Rights and Relations of which we are next to speak 2. As the Spirit by the Operation of the Word upon the heart conveyeth the foresaid Inherent benefits or qualities and acts so the Promise of Grace indited by Christ and the Spirit doth as a Deed of Gift or Testament or Act of Oblivion bestow on us our Rights and Spiritual Relations and from these they do result as the immediate instrumental Cause Thus doth he give Power or Right to as many as receive him to become the Sonnes of God Joh. 1. 12. Thus doth he give us Pardon Justification Adoption and our Right to further Grace and Glory And these Promises are Conditional and our Repenting and Believing in Christ is the Condition And therefore till Conversion do bring us to Repent and Believe we have no Right to any of these benefits of the Promise And therefore though our Repentance and Faith be none of the Proper Cause of our Justification or Right yet the main work in order to our procurement of these benefits that 's now to be done is to perswade the sinner to Repent and Believe to turn that he may live For Gods Act of Grace is past already and the Conditional Pardon is granted long ago and will effectually Pardon us as soon as we perform the Condition and not before Till then we hinder the Efficacy of the Deed of Gift For Unbelief and Impenitency are true
and most full and free Salvatition And on his Conditions must we have his Benefits or we shall never have them 7. Lastly Understand and Note that the Means which Christ hath resolved on for Teaching and Ruling us ordinarily are his Word his Ministers and his Spirit all must be submitted to together where they may be had and none of them laid by by separation His Word is the Grammar or Book as it were that we must learn His Ministers must teach us this Book And his Spirit who in the Apostles and Prophets indited and sealed it must inwardly teach us by powerfull Illumination The Word is Gods Laws the Ministers are his Embassadours or Heraulds to proclaime them and command obedience in his Name and his Spirit must open mens hearts to entertain them The Word is Gods Seed the Ministers are the Husbandmen or Servants that sow it and the Spirit must give the increase without which our planting and watering will do nothing He therefore that takes Christ for his Master and King must resolve to be taught and ruled by his established means even by his Word and Ministers and Spirit conjunct For he that refuseth and despiseth these doth refuse and despise Christ and consequently the Father that sent him Luke 10. 16. 1 Thes. 4. 8. For it was never the meaning of Christ when he became the Teacher and King of the Church to stay on Earth and personally and visiby to teach them himself but these three are his means which all must submit to that will be his Subjects and Disciples And he that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 13. He that will not have the Word Ministry and Spirit teach him will not have Christ teach him and he that refuseth to be ruled by these three shall be destroyed as a Rebel against Christ himself Luke 19. 27. Still it is supposed that Ministers must Teach and Rule according to this Word And the Society in which Christ will Teach and govern us is his Church As members therefore of the Vniversal Church and in Communion with his Particular Church where we live and have opportunity we must wait on Christ for his Teaching and Benefits For this is his Schoole where his Disciples must diligently attend and learn Lay all this together and this is the summe The Object of Justifying Saving Faith is One only undivided Christ one in Person but of two Natures God and Man in Office the Mediator between God and man who hath already done the work of Sanctification and Merit and is authorized further to bestow the Benefits By the Gospel Grant he hath given himself as Head and Husband Teacher King and Saviour to all that will entirely and heartily accept him and with himself he giveth Justification by the Promise Sanctification by the Word Ministry and Spirit and final Absolution and Everlasting Life If ever then you will have Christ and Life you must accept him in all these Essentials of his Person and Office and that to the Ends which his Redemption was intended for you must be willing to be Sanctified by him as well as to be Justified You must at once unfeignedly become his Disciples his Subjects his Members if you would become his saved ones You wust consent that as your Teacher and your Lord he shall Teach and Rule your heart and life by his Word Ministers and Spirit in Communion with his Church No barre or exception must be put in nor reservation made against any one of these parts of his Office If you yield not to those parts of his Saving work that tend but to the compleative growth you sinne and deprive your selves of the Benefit but if you yield not to those that must make you truly Sanctified and Justified men you cannot be saved The Essentials of Christ's Person and Office do costitute him the Christ and if he be not received in all those Essentials he is not received as Christ. And thus I have given you the summe of the Gospel and the description of Faith and true Christianity in this Direction for a right closing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And experience of most that I discourse with perswades me to think this Direction of great necessity and to intreat you throughly to peruse and consider it I find abundance of ignorant people that talk much of Christ but know very little of him that can scarce tell us whether he be God or man or which Person in the Trinity he is nor to what End he was incarnate and died noâ— what Relation he stands in to us or what use he is of or what he now is or what he is engaged to do for us But if we ask them about their hopes of Salvation they almost overlook the Redemption by Christ and tell us of nothing but Gods Mercies and their own good meanings and endeavours And I am afraid too many Professors of Piety do look almost all at the Natural part of Religion and the mending of their own hearts and lives and I would this were better done while they forget the supernatutural part and little are affected with the infinite Love of God in Christ. I desire such to consider these things 1. You overlook the summe of your Religion which is Christ Crucified besides whom Paul desired to know nothing 2. You overlook the fountain of your own life and the author of your supplies and you strive in vaine for Sanctification or Justification if you seek them not from a Crucified Christ. 3. You leave undon the principal part of your work and live like moral Heathens while you have the name of Christians Your daily work is to study God in the face of his Sonne and to labour with all Saints to comprehend the height and bredth and length and depth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg Eph. 3. 18. 19. All your Graces should be daily quickned and set awork by the life of Faith in the contemplation of the Redeemer and his blessed work This is the weight that must set all the wheels agoing You do God no Service that he can accept if you serve him not in this Gospel-work of loving trusting and admiring and praysing him in the Redeemer and for his Redemption 4. And so you rob God of the principal part of his Glory which you are to give him which is for this most glorious work of our Redemption I pray you read over again the Ends of this work which I laid down in the beginning of this Direction 5. Moreover you rob your selves of your principal comfort which must all come in by living upon Christ. 6. And you harden the Antiâ—omians and Libertines and tempt men to their extreams that runne from us as Legalists and as men that Savour not the Doctrine of free Grace and are not of a Gospel-Spirit and conversation I would our great neglect of Christ had not been a snare to these mistaken Soulâ— and a stumbling block in their way O Sirs if
knew where you are you would sit as upon thornes as long as you are unconverted you would be as a man that stood up to the knees in the Sea and saw the tide coming towards him who certainly would think that there 's no standing still in such a place Read what I have said of the state of the unconverted in my first Treatise of Conversion In a word you are the drudges of sinne the slaves of the Devil the enemies of God the abusers of his Grace and Spirit the despisers of Christ the heirs of Hell And is this a state to stay in an hour You have all your sin unpardoned you are under the Curse of the Law the Wrath of God is upon you and the fulness of it hangs over your heads Judgment is coming to pass upon you the dreadfull doom the Lord is at hand death is at the door and waits but for the Word from the mouth of God that it may arrest you and bring you to Everlasting misery And is this a state for a man to stay in 6. Moreover Your Delaying giveth great advantage to the Tempter If you would presently turn and forsake your sinnes and enter a faithfull Covenant with God the Devil would be almost out of hope and the very heart of his temptations would be broken He would see that now it is too late there 's no getting you out of the arms of Christ. But as long as you delay you keep him still in heart and hope He hath time to strengthen his prison and fetters and to renew his snares and if one temptation serve not he hath time to try another and another As if you would stand as a mark for Satan to shoot at as long as he please What likelihood is there that ever so foolish a sinner should be recovered and saved from his sinne 7. Moreover Your Delaying is a vile abuse of Christ and the holy Ghost and may so farre provoke him as to leave you to your self and then you are past help If you delight so to trample on your crucified Lord and will so long put him to it by your refusing his Grace and grieving his Spirit What can you expect but that he should turn away in wrath and utterly forsake you and say Let him keep his sinne seeing he had rather have it then my Grace Let him continue ungodly seeing he is so loath to be sanctified let him take his own course and die in his sinne and repent in Hell seeing he would not repent on Earth You provoke Christ thus to give you up 8. Consider also I beseech you if you ever mean to turn what it iâ— that you stay for Do you think to bring down Christ and Heaven to lower rates and to be saved hereafter with less adoe Sure you cannot be so foolish For God will be still the same and Christ the same and his Promise hath still the same Condition which he will never Change and Godliness will be the same and as much against your carnall interest hereafter as it is now When you have lookt about you never so long you 'l never find a fairer or nearer way but this same way you must go or perish If you cannot leave sinne now how should you leave it then It will be still as sweet to your flesh as now Or if one sinne grow stale by the decay of nature another that 's worse will spring up in its stead and though the acts abate they will all live still at the root for sinne was never mortified by age So that if ever you will turn you may best turn now 9. Yea more then that The longer you stay the harder it will be If it be hard to day it is like to be harder to morrow For as the Spirit of Christ is like to forsake you for your wilfull delayes so custom will strengthen sinne and custom in sinning will harden your hearts and make you as past feeling to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Cannot you crush this Serpent when it is but in the Spawne and can you encounter it in its Serpentine strength Cannot you pluck up a tender Plant and can you pluck up an Oak or Cedar O sinners what do you do to make your recovery so difficult by delay You are never like to be fairer for Heaven and to find Conversion an easier work then now you may do Will you stay till the work be ten times harder and yet do you think it so hard already 10. Consider also That fin gets daily Victories by your delay We lay our batterâ—es against it and preach and exhort and pray against it and it gets a kind of victory over all as long as we prevail not with you to turn It conquereth our perswasions and advice It conquereth all the stirrings of your Consciences It conquereth all your heartless purposes and deceitfull Promises And these frequent Conquests do strengthen your sinne and weaken your resistance and leave the matter almost hopeless Before a Physician hath used remedies he hath more hope of a cure then when he hath tried all means and finds that the best Medicines do no good but the man is still as bad or worse So when all meanes have been tried with you and yet you are unconverted the case draws towards desparation it self The very means are disabled more then before that is your hearts are unapter to be wrought upon by them When you have long been under Sermons and Reading and among good examples and yet you are unconverted these Ordinances lose much of their force with you Custom will make you slight them and be dead-hearted under them And it is these very same Means and Truths that you have frustrated that must do the work or it will never be done The same Plaister must heal you that you have thrown off so oft And what a sad case is this that there is no hope left but in the very same Medicine which you have taken so oft in vain 11. Moreover Age it self hath many inconveniences and youth hath many great advantages and therefore it is folly to delay In age the understanding and memory grows dull and people grow uncapable and almost unchangeable We see by our every daies experience that men think they should not change when they are old that opinion or practice that they have been brought up in they think that they should not then forsake To learn when they are old and to turn when they are old you see how much they are against it Besides how unfit is age to be at that paines that youth can undergo How unfit to begin the holy Warfare against the flesh the world and Devil Gods way is to list his Souldiers as soon as may be Even in their infancy which they must own as soon as ever they come to age And the Devil would not have it done at all and therefore he would have it put off as long as may be In infancy he will
Saints you have far more to do then other men You have a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue and abundance of deadly sinnes to kill and rooted vices to root upâ—â— You have many a false opinion of God and his waies to be plucked up and the customes of many years standing to be broken You have blind minds that must be enlightned with heavenly kowledg and abundance of Spiritual Truths that are above the reach of flesh and blood that you must needs learn and understand You have much to know that is hard to be known You have a dead Soul to be made alive and a hard heart to be melted and a scared Conscience to be softned and made tender and the guilt of many thousand sinnes to be pardoned You have a new heart to get and a new End to ayme at and seek after and a new life to live abundance of Enemies you have to sight with and overcome abundance of temptations to resist and conquer Many Graces to get and preserve and exercise and increase and abundance of holy works to do for the Service of God and the good of your selves and others O what a deal of work doth every one of these words conteine and yet what abundance more might I name And have you all this to do and yet will you delay And they are not indifferent matters that are before you It is no less then the saving of your Souls and the obtaining the blessed Glory of the Saints Necessity is upon you These are things that Must be done or else wo to you that ever you were born And yet have you another day to lose Why Sirs if you had a hundred mile to go in a day or two upon paine of death would you delay O think of the work that you have to do and then judg whether it be not time to stirre 20. And me thinks it should exceedingly terrifie you to consider what abundance by such Delayes do perish and how few that wilfully delay are ever converted and saved Many a Soul that once had purposes hereafter to repent is now in the misery where there is no Repentance that will do them any good For my part though I have known some very few Converted when they were old yet I must needs say both that they were very few indeed and that I had reason to believe that they were such that had sinned before in ignorance and did not wilfully put off Repentance when they were convinced that they must turn Though I doubt not but God may convert even these if he please yet I cannot say that I have ever known many if any such to be converted Sure I am that Gods usual time is in Child-hood or youth before they have long abused grace and wilfully delaid to turn when they were convinced Some considerable time I confess many have before their first convictions and purposes be brought to any great ripeness of performance but O how dangerous is it to delay 21. Consider also Either Conversion is Good or Bad for you Either it is needfull or unnecessary If it be bad and a needless thing then let it alone for altogether But if you are convinced that it is Good and necessary is it not better now then to stay any longer Is it not the sooner the better Are you afraid of being safe or happy too soon If you are sick you care not how soon you are well If you have a bone out you care not how soon it is set If you fall into the water you care not how soon you get out If your house be on fire you care not how soon it be quenched If you are but in fears by any doubts or ill tidings you care not how soon your fears be over And yet are you afraid of being to soon out of the power of the Devil and the danger of Hell and of being too soon the Sons of God and the holy justified heirs of Heaven 22. Consider also Either you can turn now or not If you can and yet will not you are utterly without excuse If you cannot to day how much less will you be able hereafter when strength is less and difficulties greater and burdens more Is it not time therefore to make out to Christ for strength and should not the very sense of your disability disswade you from delay 23. Consider how long you have staid already and put Gods Patience to it by your folly Hath not the Devil the world and the flesh had many years time of your life already Have you not long enough been swallowing the poison of sinne and long enough been abusing the Lord that made you and the blood of the Sonne of God that was shed for you and the Spirit of Grace that hath moved and perswaded with you Are you not yet gone far enough from God and have you not yet done enough to the damning of your selves and casting away Everlasting Life O wretched sinners it is rather time for you to fall down on your faces before the Lord and with tears and groans to lament it day and night that ever you have gone so far in sinne and delayed so long to turn to him as you have done Sure if after so many years rebellion you are yet so far from lamenting it that you had rather have more of it and had rather hold on a little longer no wonder if God forsake you and let you alone 24. Have you any hopes of Gods acceptance and your Salvation or not If you have such hopes that when you turn God will pardon all your sinnes and give you Everlasting Life is it think you an ingenious thing to desire to offend him yet a little longer from whom you expect such exceeding Mercy and Glory as you do Have you the faces to speak out what is in your hearts and practice and to go to God with such words as these Lord I know I cannot have the pardon of one sinne without the Blood of Christ and the riches of thy Mercy Nor can I be saved from Hell without it But yet I hope for all this from thy Grace I beseech thee let me live a little longer in my sinnes a little longer let me trample on the Blood of Christ and despise thy commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer let me spit in the face of thy Goodness and prefer the flesh and the world before thee and then pardon me all that ever I did and take me into Glory Could you for shame put up such a request to God as this If you could you are past shame If not then do not practise and desire that which you cannot for shame speak out and request 25. Moreover it is an exceeding advantage to you to come in to God betimes and an exceeding loss that you will suffer by delay if you were sure to be converted at the last If you speedily come in you may have time to learn and get more understanding in the matters of
am now come to the End of this part of my work if the reading of it have brought thee to the End of thy ungodly careless life it will be happy for thee and I shall so far attain the End of my labour I have purposely put this Direction of the Necessity of Resolution in the last place that I might leave upon thy spirit the Reasons for Resolution that here I have laid down And now I beseech thee Reader whoever thou art with all the earnestness that I am able to use with thee as ever thou wouldest scape the fruits of all thy sinne as ever thou wouldest see the face of God with comfort and have him thy reconciled Father in Christ as ever thou wouldest have a saving part in Christ and have him stand thy friend in thy extremities as ever thou wouldest have hope in thy death and stand on the right hand and be justified at Judgment as ever thou wouldest scape the day of Vengeance prepared for the unconverted and the endless misery that will fall upon all unsanctified Souls as sure as the Heaven is over thy head See that thou Resolve and Turn to God and trifle with him no more Away with thy old transgressions away with thy careless worldly life away with thy ungodly company and set thy selfe presently to seek after thy Salvation with all thy heart and mind and might I tell thee once more that Heaven and Hell are not matters to be jested with nor to be carelesly thought of or spoken of or regarded The God of Heaven stands over thee now while thou art reading all these words and he seeth thy heart whether thou art Resolved to turn or not Shall he see thee read such urgent Reasons and yet wilt not Resolve Shall he see thee read these earnest requests and yet not Resolve What not to come home to thy God to thy Father to thy Saviour to to thy self after so long and wilfull sinning What not to accept of Mercy now it is even thrust into thy hands when thou hast neglected and abused Mercy so long O let not the Just and Jealous God stand over thee and see thee guilty of such wickedness If thou be a Christian shew thy self a Christian and use thy belief and come to God If thou be a man shew thy self a man and use thy Reason and come away to God I beseech thee read over and over again the Reasons that I have here offered thee and judge whether a reasonable man should resist them and delay an hour to come in to God I that am now writing these lines of Exhortatation to thee must shortly meet thee at the barre of Christ. I do now adjure thee and charge thee in the Name of the living God that thou do not thy self and me that wrong as to make me lose this labour with thee and that thou put me not to come in as a witness against thee to thy coufusion and condemnation Resolve therefore presently in the strength of Christ and strik an unchangeable Covenant with him Get thee to thy knees and bewaile with tears thy former life and deliver up thy self wholly now to Christ and never break this Covenant more If thou lay by the Book and go away the same and no perswasion will do any good upon thee but unholy thou wilt still be and sensual and worldly still thou wilt be I call thy Conscience to witness that thou wast warned of the evill that is neer thee and Conscience shall obey this call and bear me witness whether thou wilt or not And this Book which thou hast read which I intended for thy Conversion and Salvation shall be a witness against thee Though age or fire consume the leaves and lines of it yet God and Conscience shall bring it to thy memory and thou shalt then be the more confounded to think what Reasons and earnest perswasions thou didst reject in so plain so great and necessary a case But if the Holy Ghost will now become thy tutor and at once both put this Book into thy hand and his Heavenly light into thy understanding and his life into thy heart and effectually perswade thee to Resolve and Turn how happy wilt thou be to all Eternity Make no more words on it but answer my request as thou wouldest do if thou wert in a burning fire and I intreated thee to come out Thou hast long enough grieved Christ and his Spirit and long enough grieved thy friends and Teachers Resolve this hour and Rejoyce them that thou hast grieved and now grieve the Devil that thou hast hitherto rejoyced and hereafter grieve the wicked and thy own deceitfull flesh whose sinfull desires thou hast hitherto followed And if thou also grieve thy self a little while by that moderate sorrow that thy sinne hath made necessary for thee it will be but a preparative to thy endless joyes and the day is promised and coming apace when Satan that thou turnost from shall trouble thee no more and God that thou turnâ—st to shall wipe away all tears from thy eyes And if the reading of this Book may be but a means of so blessed an End as God shall have the Glory so when Christ cometh to be glorified in his Saints and admâ—red in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1. 10. both thou and I shall then partake of the Communication of his Glory if so be that I be sincere in writing and thou and I sincere in obeying the Doctrine of this Book Amen July 5. 1657. FINIS