those best that are of his own Opinion though there be nothing of the special Image of God upon his Soul Or if he love a true Christian it is not so much for his Holiness and Spirituality as because he is of his mind in those matters of Opinion Hence it is that he is usually a bitter censurer of those that are not of his Opinion how upright soever they may be His very esteeme of men and love to them is partial and factious to those that are of his Mind and Sect A Papist will esteem and love men of the Popish Sect and an Anabaptist will esteem and love men of that Sect most yea a Protestant if he be an Opinionist doth esteem of men and love them as a Sect Whereas the true Christian as he is truly Catholick and of the Catholick Church which is not confined to Papists no nor Protestants so he hath truly Catholik affections and loveth a Christian as a Christian a Godly man as Godly yea if he saw more serious Godliness in one that is not of his Opinion in lesser things yet would he love him more then one that is in such matters of his Opinion that is ungodly or of more doubtfull Piety For as it is God in Christ that he principally loveth so it is Christ that he admireth in his Members and so much of Christ as he sees in any so much are his special affections towards them 9. Ordinarily the meer Opinionist will Sacrifice the very Ends of the Gospel and the honour and success of the great fundamental Truths of God to the interest of those Opinions which he hath in a singular manner to his Own He will rather hinder the propagation of the common Truths and the Conversion of the ignorant then he will silence his Opinions or suffer them to lose any advantages with the world Hence it is that we cannot prevaile with the Papists to silence a while the differences between us and them till we have taught their ignorant in Ireland and other barbarous parts the knowledg of those Truths that all are agreed in Nor can we get many Anabaptists or any such Sect that is engaged in a division to forbear their Opinions till we have endeavoured â—o lay the necessary grounds on which all must build that will be saved But though it be apparent to the world that their disputes and contentions do exceedingly harden the ignorant and ungodly against all Religion and hinder their Conversion and Salvation yet will they go on in the unseasonable intemperate bruting of their conceits and will not be perswaded to agree on those terms for the managing of differences as most tend to secure the interest of Christ and his Gospel in the maine If an Opinionist be for the Truth he is usually without much zeale for it because that Nature doth not befriend the great Spirituall Truths of the Gospel so much as it doth errours and private conceits But if he be of Erroneous Opinions he is usually very zealous for them For Corrupted Nature and Self and Satan and the world oft-times do more befriend these and furnish him with a Zeale for them and blow the coale The counterfeit Angel of Light is very ordinarily also a spirit of heat and great activity not a reviving fire nor a refining fire but a consuming fire devouring Christian Love and meekness and patience and therewith the Church and Truth of God so far as it can prevail For lesser matters that minister Questions such men can say by that which tends to Godly Edifying in Faith 1 Tim. 1. 4. Yea that Charity which is the very End of the Commandement out of a pnre Heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned vers 5. From these they swerve and turn aside to vain jangling oft times desiring to be Teachers of such thigs in which they understand not what they say nor whereof they speak vers 6 7. Consenting not to the wholsome Words of Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness they teach otherwise being proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strife of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evill surmisings perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. Yea they sometime take their Opinions or their worldly gain that they often ayme at to be instead of Godliness And think that to be Godly is to he of their mind and way They use to strive about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers and their vain bablings increase to more ungodliness 2 Tim. 2. 14 16. But the True Convert looks principally to the main He loves every known Truth of God but in their Order and accordingly to their worth and weight He will not for his own Opinions wilfully do that which shall hazard the main or hinder the Gospel and the saving of mens Souls Though he will not be false to any Truth yet he will avoid foolish and unlearned questions knowing that they do gender strife and the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men and meekly instruct opposers following Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart Tim. 2. 22 23 24 25. 10. Lastly True Converts are stedfast but Opinionists are usually mutable and unconstant The sound Convert receiveth the greatest Truths and receives the Goodness as well as the Truth and takes it not only into the Head but into the Heart and giveth it deep rooting He closeth with God as his only felicity and with Christ as his only Refuge and Redeemer and with Heaven as the sure everlasting Glory to which the world is but a mole-hill or a dungeon No wonder then if this man be stedfast and unmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord that knows his Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. But the Opinionist either fasteneth on smaller matters or else holdeth these great matters but as bare Opinions and therefore they have no such interest in his heart as to stablish him against shaking tryals and temptations For two sortâ— there are of these Opinionists the onâ— sort have no Zeal for their own Opinions because they are but Opinions And these are time-servers and will change as the King or their Land-lords change and fit their Opinions to their worldly Ends. The other sort have a burning Zeale for their Opinions and these use to wander from one Opinion to another not able to resist the subtilty of seducers but are taken with fair and plausible reasonings not able to see into the heart of the cause These are as Children tâ—ssed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight and cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in weight to deceive Eph. 4. 14. When with great confidence they have held one sort of Opinions a while and railed against those that were not of their mind ere long they
will themselves forsake them and take up another way and be as consident in that and take no warning by the experience of their former deceit And thus they go oft from one Opinion to another till at last finding themselves deceived so oft some of them cast off all Religion and think there is no certainty to be found in any Suspecting Religion when they should have suspected their false hearts And all this comes to pass because they never received the Truth in the love of it that they might be Sanctified and Saved by it 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Nor ever gave it deep entertainment in their hearts that it might throughly Convert them but took it as a bare Opinion into the brain to polish their tongues and outsides and deceive themselves as much as others And thus I have shewed you the difference between a sound Convert and an Opinionist or one that hath but a overly superficial Change that you may see which of these is your own condition To return now to my Advice and Exhortation I intreat every person that readeth or heareth these words to see that they stick not in an Opinionative Conversion To which End I further desire you 1. To consider that it is a higher matter that Christ came into the world for then to change mens bare Opinions and it is a higher matter that the Gospel is intended for and that Ministers are sent to you for For it is more then a corruption of mens Opinions that siane hath brought upon you and therefore it is a deeper disease that must be cured The Work of Christ by his Gospel is no less then to fetch you off all that which flesh and blood accounts your Happiness and to unite you to himself and make you Holy as God is Holy and to give you a new Nature and make you as the dwellers or Citizens of Heaven while you walk on Earth Phil. 3. 20 21. And these are greater matters then the changing of a Party or Opinion The Holy Ghost himself must dwell in you and work in you and imploy your Soul and life for God that you may study him and love him and live to him here and live with him for ever Do but think well of the Ends and meaning of the Gospel and how much greater matters it drives at and then you will see that there 's no taking up with an Opinionative Religiousness 2. Keep company if it be possible with the most Sober Spiritual and Heavenly professours that will be drawing you to the observation of your own heart and life and opening to you the riches of the Love of Christ and winning up your affections to God and Heaven And be not the companions of unexperienced wranglers that have no other Religion but a Zeal for their Opinions and will endeavour rather to make you like Satan then like God by possessing your minds with malice and bitter thoughts of your brethren and employing your tongues in reproaches and vaine strivings and making you fire-brands in the places where you live Neither be companions of them that hold the Truth no deeper then Opinion For though some such may be usefull to you in their places yet if you have not more edifying familiars your danger will be very great lest you should let go the life of Religion and take up with meer notions and formalities as they 3. When you have considered that every Truth of God is a Message to your Hearts as well as to your Heads and hath a work of God to do upon them look after that work and when you have heard or read a Truth go down into your Hearts and see what it hath done there And if you find not in your Will and Resolutions and Affections the Image and fruits of the Truth you have heard fetch it up again and ruminate upon it and do not think you have received it or done with it till this be done yea take it but as lost and sinfully rejected if it have not done you some good at the very Heart 4. Also be sure that you Practise all practical Truths upon the first opportunity as soon as you have heard them Imprison them not in unrighteousness Cast them not out in forgetfulness use not a Lecture of Divinity as if it were a lesson of Musick or a meer Philosophical or Historical discourse Read not the Doctrine of Salvation and the Promises of Heaven and the forewarnings of everlasting misery as you read a common story or a groundless conjecture in an Almanack But as a Message from God which tells you where you must dwell for ever and as a Direction sent from Heaven to teach you the way thither Fall to work then and practise what you know if you would be Christians indeed Be yee doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves For the Opinionative hearer seeth but a slight appearance of the Truth as a man that lookes on his face in a glass which he quickly forgets But he that is a Sound Believer and practiser and not only an Opinionative forgetful hearer is the man that shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1. 22 23 24 25. Opinion without Practise is building on the Sand but hearing and sound Believing and doing is building upon the Rock where the building will stand after all assaults Matth. 7. 26 27 28. An Opinionist doth but seem to be Religious while he keeps his reigning sinnes and therefore his Religion is in vain but the Practical Religion is the pure and undefiled Religion Jam. 1. 26 27. Hearty obedience will not only shew that your Religion is deeper then meer Opinion but it will also advance it to a greater purity and root it more deeply then it was before A man that hath studied the Art of Navigation in his closet may talk of it almost as well as he that hath been at sea but when he comes to practise it he will find that he is far to seek But let this man go to sea and joyn practise and experience to his Theory and then he may have a knowledg of the right kind So if a man that hath only read over Military Books would be a true Soldier or a man that hath only studied Physick would be a true Physician what better way is there then to fall to Practise And so must you if you would have a Religion that shall save your Souls and not only a Religion that will furnish you with good Opinions and expressions 5. Moreover if you would get above Opinion be still searching more and more after the Evidences of the ancient fundamental Truths that you have received and lay open your hearts to the power of them Think it not enough that you take the Christian Religion for true but labour after a clearer sight ot its truth For you may possibly upon some conjecture take it for a Truth by bare Opinion whenas the sight of fuller Evidences and a full sight of those
in the dark and therefore we call you to the Law and to the Testimony and desire you to take our words into the light and see whether they be according to the Word of the Lord. Nothing troubleth us more then that we cannot perswade our hearers to this tryal Some of them are so hardened in their sinne and misery that they will not be at so much labour as to open their Bibles and try whether we say true or not Some of them will not trouble their minds with the thoughts of it Psal. 10 4. God is not in all their thoughts And some are already too wise to learn they will not so long abate their confidence of their former opinions though poor soules their ignorance doth threaten their damnation And some are so engaged in a sinfull party that their companions will not give them leave to make so much question of the way that they are in And some will scarce take the Scripture for the Rule by which they must try and be tryed but look more to custom and the will of those in power over them And most are unwilling to try because they are unwilling to know the truth and cannot endure to find themselves miserable nor see the sinne which they would not leave nor see the duty which they love not to practice And thus we cannot get them to try whether the things that we teach them be so For want of this it is that men deceive themselves and think their case to be safe when it is miserable because they will not try it by the Word This makes them rage and be confident in their folly Prov. 14. 16. and laugh and sing at the brink of Hell and swimme as merrily down the stream to the devouring gulf as if no evil were near them This makes them in the depth of misery to have no pitty on themselves and to do so little to escape it Though they have time and means and helps at hand yet there are not hearts in them to make use of them yea they runne themselves daily further on the score and all because we cannot get them to search the Scripture and try whether sinne be so small a matter and whether this will not be bitterness in the end Hence it is that they are so easily drawn by a temptation and that they dislike a holy life and have base thoughts of them that are most diligent for salvation and are most precious in the eyes of God and that they can even deride the way that they should walk in Prov. 1 22. Psal. 1. 2. because they will not search the Scripture to see what it saith to these matters The Word is a Light and would do much to open their eyes and winne them over to God if they would but come to it with a desire to know the truth You think that the ungodly that are rich and great are in a better condition then a godly man that is poor and despised And why is this but because you will not go into the Sanctuary and see in what a slippery place they stand and what will be the end of these men Psal. 73. 16 17 22. In a word this is the undoing of millions of souls They are all their life time out of the way to Heaven and yet will not be perswaded to ask the way but they runne on and wink and put it to the venture Many a thousand are gone out of the world before they ever spent the quantity of one day in trying by the Scripture whether their state were good and their way were right Nay let their Teachers tell them that they must be sanctified and take another course they will differ from their Teachers though they be never so wise or Learned and they will contradict them and not believe or regard them And yet we cannot get them to come to us and put the case to the tryal and let the Scripture be the jndge Would they but do this they could never sure have such hard thoughts of their Teachers and be offended at their plainest closest dealing You would then say I see now the Minister saies not this of himself he speaks but that which God commandeth him And if he would not deliver the Message of the Lord he were unworthy and unfit to be his Embassadour He were cruel to me if he would not pull me out of the fire by the plainest closest meanes Jud. 23. He hated me if he would not rebuke me but suffer sinne upon me Lev. 19. 17. If he would please men he should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. I know it is no pleasure to him to trouble me or to provoke me but it would be his own destruction if he tell me not of my danger Ezek. 3. 18. And I have no reason to wish him to damn his own soul and suffer me to do the like by mine and all for fear of displeasing me in my sinne These would be your thoughts if you would but try our words by the Scripture and see whether we speak not the mind of God And sure it would go somewhat deeper in your hearts and it would stick by you and be more before your eyes when you once understood that it is the Word of God This then is my request to you sirs that the work of your Conversion may not miscarry that you would carry all that you hear to the Scripture and search there and see whether it be so or not that so you may be put out of doubt and may be at a certainty and not stand wavering and that your Faith may be resolved into the Authority of God and so the work may be Divine and consequently powerfull and prevailing when the Ground and Motive is Divine If you be not satisfied in the Doctrine which the Minister delivereth to you first search the Scripture your selves and if that will not do go to him and desire him to shew you his grounds for it in the Word of God and joyn with you in Prayer for a right understanding of it Do you question whether there be so severe a judgment and a Heaven and a Hell as Ministers tell you Search the Scripture in Mat. 25. 2 Thes. 1. 8 9 10. Joh. 5. 29 Matth. 13. Do you question whether a man may not be saved without conversion regeneration and holyness Open your Bibles and see what God saith John 3. 3 6. Mal. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Do you think a man may be saved without Knowledge Let Scripture judge 2 Cor. 4 3 4. Joh. 17. 3. Hos. 4. 6. Do you think a man may be saved that doth as the most do and goeth in the common way of the world Search the Scripture and see Mat. 7. 13. and 20. 16. and 22. 14. Luke 12. 32. Do you think an unhumbled Soul may be saved that never was contrite and broken hearted for sin Try by Isa. 57. 15. and 66. 2.
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
the encouragment of a promise and recommend our Souls into his hand as to a faithfull Creator and our surest deerest friend this is a Mercy that no man can well value till they come to use it To know every day that as oft as ever we come to God we are alwaies welcome and that our persons and prayers are pleasing to him through his Sonne what a Mercy is it One would think we should live joyfully if we had but one such promise as this for Faith to live upon Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal. 50. 15. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Sonne Joh. 14. 13 14. No wonder if they be rich that have so free access to such a treasure and if they be safe that have access to so sure a help For God is a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 9 Another precious benefit is that we have Peace of Conscience or ground for it at the least in our Peace with God and so may come to assurance of Salvation and may partake of the Joy in the Holy Ghost For in this Peace and Joy the Kingdom of God doth much consist When the chief cause of all our fear and sorrow is done away what then is left to break our Peace When we have no cause to fear the flames of Hell nor the sting of death or the appearance of our Judge any further then to move us to make ready what then should greatly trouble the Soul If God and Heaven be not matter of comfort I know not what is If we saw a man that had got many Kingdoms to be still sad and dumpish because he had no more we would say he were very ambitious or covetuous And yet he might have reason for it But if you have the Love of God and a title by promise to the Heavenly Inheritance and yet you are discontented and God and Glory is not enough for you this is most unreasonable 10. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is Our Spiritual Communion with his Church and holy members We do not only joyne with them in outward Communion but we unite our desires and there is an harmony of affections We are in the maine of one Mind and Will and Way and we joyntly constitute the Body of our Lord We are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Câ—venant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. We are joyned to that Body and have Communion with it which consisteth both of militant and triumphant Saints and of the Angels also We are no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the cheif corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord in whom we also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 19 20 21 22. And as in holy concord we serve the Lord having one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith one Baptism one Rule the Word of God one mind one heart one work of Holines and Righteousness in the main one hope one Heaven the place of our expectations so have we the fruit of the Prayers of each other and of all the Church and have the honour the safety and other benefits of being members of so blessed a Society Yea we have in this Communion the whole Church obliged and disposed according to their capacity to endeavour the good of every member So that Ministers and Magistrates yea though they were Apostles and Prophets Paul or Apollos all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Kings have their Power for us Ministers have their Gifts for us and for us they must use them If we suffer every member must be as forward to assist us and if we want to relieve us according to their power as if they suffered with us 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. Yea the Angels are our Brethren Rev. 22. 9. and fellow servants yea ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. To encamp about them and to bear them in their arms rejoycing to behold their graces and prosperity as was shewed before 11. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that All things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. When we are Sanctified to God all things are Sanctified to us to serve us for God and help us to him Every Creature that we have to do with is as it were another thing to the Saints then to other men They are all wheels in that universal Engine of Grace to carry us to Salvation The same things that are common Mercies to others are special to us as proceeding from a special Love and being designed to a special use As flesh-pleasing is the ultimate end of the ungodly and all things are thereby debased to be but means to that ignoble end So the Pleasing and fruition of God is the End of all the Saints and thereby all things that they have to do with are advanced to the honour of being Sanctified means to this most high and noble End And as they are engaged to use them to this End and consequently to their own greatest advantage so God hath engaged himself to bless them in that holy use and to cause them all by his gracious providence to cooperate to their good The greatest afflictions the cruellest persecutions from the most violent enemies our wants our weaknesses and death it self all must concurre to carry on this work What then should a Christian fear but sinne How honourable and how safe and how happy a life may he live that hath all these assured for his service And what causeless fears are they that use to afflict the Servants of God concerning their outward troubles and necessities What do we fear and groan under and complaine of but our Fathers physick and the means of our Salvation If this one Truth were but believed and received and used according to its worth O what a life would Christians live 12. The last and greatest of our benefits by Christ is Our Resurrection and our Justification at the barre of God and our reception into Glory This is the end of all and therefore containeth all For this Christ died for this we are Christians for this we believe hope and labour for this we suffer and deny our selves and renounce this world Our bodies shall then be spiritual and glorious no more troubled with infirmities diseases or necessities Our Souls shall be
for shame think not the blessed God to be worse then the wicked world and Christ faith of the world Joh 15. 19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own And will not God then Love his Own do you think And if you are willing to be his Own Christ is certainly willing that you should be his Own and will Own all that Own not themselves but him He calleth his Own sheep by name and leadeth them out and when he putteth forth his Own sheep he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice Joh. 10. 3. 4. And Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his Own which are in the world to the End he loved them If you are but truly willing to be his Own People he is certainly willing to be your Own Saviour and your Own God Not that you can have such a propriety in him as he hath in you But in these Relations he will be your Own and Glory and Help and Salvation shall be yours And you may well conclude that God even our Own God shall bless us Psal. 6. 7 6. There is much comfort may be fetcht from that in Luke 15. 31. Though Parables must not be strecht too far Sonne thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine And upon this ground it is that we have the greater encouragement to believe that God accepteth of our very Infants themselves because it is his Will that they should be Devoted engaged and dedicated to him And that which he would have us dedicate and offer to him he will surely accept in that Relation to which he would have it offered I beseech you therefore Remember what it is to be truly Converted It is to be called from things common and unclean and separated to God It is to be brought nigh to him as the Children of his Houshould that are themselves and all that they have in his hands It is to be taken off your Selves and your Own and to lose your selves and all you have in God by the most gainfull loss lest indeed you lose your selves and all while you perswade your selves you save or gain It is a taking God in Christ for your All and so being content to have Nothing but him and for him It is a changing of your old Master self for God a better Master and your old work which was self-seeking and self-pleasing to self-denial and to the seeking and pleasing of God See now that this be done and that your treacherous hearts hide nothing for themselves as Rachel under pretence of necessity hid her Idols but say Here I am to be thine O Lord and to do thy Will More I would have said on this point but that I have written of it already in a Sermon on 1 Cor 6. 19 20. Of the Absolute Dominion of Christ and our self-resignation which I desire you here to peruse to set this further home DIRECT VIII My next Advice that the Work of Conversion may not miscarry is this Take heed lest you mistake a meer change of your Opinions and outward profession and behaviour for a true Saving change Wicked Opinions must be changed and so must evil professions and outward practices But if no more be changed you are wicked still I have great cause to feare that this is the most common damning decit that useth to befall professors of Godliness and that it 's the case of most Hypocrites in the Church A man may be brought to hold any Truth in Scripture as an Opinion and so far be sound and Orthodox and yet never be indeed a sound Believer nor have his Heart possessed with the life and power of those Sacred Truths It 's one thing to have a mans Opinion changed and another thing to have his Heart renewed by the change of his Practical Estimation Resolutions and Dispositions It 's one thing to turn from loose prophane Opinions to strict Opinions and to think the Godly are indeed in the right and that their case and way is safest and best and it 's another thing to be made One of them in Newness and Spirituality of heart and life A lively Faith differs much from Opinion and that which is in unsanctified men which we call Faith and is a kind of Faith indeed it is but a meer Opinionative Faith I call it an Opinionative Faith because it differs from Saving Faith much like as Opinion doth from Knowledg Meerly speculative it is not for some intention of practice there is But the Practical Intention of such persons differs from the Predominant Intentions of the Sanctified even as their Opiniative Faith differs from the Saving Faith And it is no wonder if there be abundance of these Opiniative believers in the world For the Truths of God have very great Evidence especially some of them and men are yet men and consequently reasonable Creatures and therefore have some aptitude to discern the Evidence of Truth Some Truths will compel Assent even from the unwilling Many a thousand ungodly men believe that to be True which they would not have to be True if they could helpe it because they do not heartily take it to be Good in respect to themselves Truth as Truth is the Natural Object of the Understanding though the same Truth as seeming Evill to them may be hated by them that are forced to Assent to it I know that sinne hath much blinded mens Understandings and that the natural man Receiveth not the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness to him and must be spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. But though he cannot Savingly receive them without the Special illumination of the Spirit nor Opinionatively receive them without a common illumination of the Spirit yet he may have this Opinionative conviction and an answerable reformation by the common Grace of the Spirit without the Special Grace An unsanctified man may have something more then Nature in him And every unregenerate man is not meerly or only Natural Many are farre convinced that are farre from being Savingly Converted I can make you know that you shall die that you must part with all your wealth and fleshly pleasures and divers such Truths whether you will or not And one of these Truths doth let in many more that depend upon them So that as dark as the minds of natural men are they yet lie open to many wholsom Truths And as the Understanding is thus farre open to Conviction so the Will it self which is the Heart of the old man will farre sooner yield to the changing of your Opinions then to the saving chang of Heart and life It is not the bare Opinion that your fleshly interest doth fight against but the Power and Practice of Godliness is it and Opinions as they lead to these It 's one thing to be of Opinion that Conversion is necessary that sinne must be forsaken and God preferred before all the world And it s another thing to
be indeed Converted and to forsake sinne and to prefer God before the world It 's a farre easier matter to convince a worldling that he shold not love the world then to cure him of his worldly love aud to convince a drunkard that he should leave his drunkenness and the whoremonger that he should abhorre his lusts then to bring them to do these things which they are convinced of It will cost them deer as the flesh accounts it to deny themselves and cast away the sinne but it costeth not so deer to take up the Opinion that these things should be done It will cost them deer to be downright for God and practically Religious but they can take up an Opinion that Godliness is the best and necessary course at a cheaper rate Strict Practices pinch the flesh but strict Opinions may stand with its liberty O what abundance of our poore neighbours would go to Heaven that are now in the way to Hell if an Opinion that Godliness is the wisest course would serve the turn If instead of Conversion God would take up with an Opinion that they ought to turn and if instead of a Holy Heavenly life God would accept of an Opinion that such are the happiest men that live such a life and if instead of temperance and meekness and self-denial and forgiving wrongs God would accept of an Opinion and Confession that they should be temperate and meeke and self-denying and should forbear others and forgive them then O what abundance would be saved that are now in little hope of Salvation If instead of a diligent life of Holiness and good works it would serve turn to lie still and be of a good Opinion that men should strive and labour for Salvation and lay out all they have for God how happy then were our Towns and Countries in comparison of what they are I am afraid this deceit will be the undoing of many that they take a change of their Opinions for a true Conversion Have not some of you been formerly of the mind that the best way is to eate and drink and be merry and venture your Souls and follow your worldly business and never trouble your selves with any deep and searching thoughts about your Spiritual state or your Salvation Have you not thought that this diligent godliness is but a needless strictness and precisness and have you not since been Convinced of your errour and perceived that this is the wisest course which you before thought to be needless and thereupon have betaken you to the company of the goldy and set upon a course of outward duties and now you think that you are made New Creatures and that this is Regeneration and the work is done I fear lest this be all the Conversion that many forward professours are acquainted with But wo to them that have no more And because the face of our present times doth plainly shew the commonness and prevalency of this disease and because it is a matter of so great concernment to you I shall here give you but as briefly as I well can some signes by which a true Conversion may be known from this meer Opinionative Change 1. The true Convert is brought to an unfeigned Hatred of the whole Body of sinne and especially of those secret or beloved sinnes that did most powerfully captivate him before 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 3 5. Col. 3. 3 5 7 8. But the Opinionative Convert is still Carnall and unmortified and inwardly at the heart the interest of the flesh is habitually predominant He is not brought to an unreconcileable hatred to the great master sinnes that ruled him and lay deepest but only hath eased the top of his stomack and cropt off some of the branches of the tree of death The thornes of worldly desires and cares are still rooted in his heart and therefore no wonder if they choak the seed of wholsome Truth and there be a greater Harvest for the Devil then for God Gal. 5. 24. chap. 16. 19. 6. 4 8. Rom. 8. 5. Matth. 13. 22. 2. Another sign that follows upon this is that the sound Convert doth carry on the course of his Obedience in a way of self-denial as living in a continual conflict with his own flesh and expecting his comfort and Salvation to come in upon the conquest And therefore he can suffer for Christ as well as be found in cheaper obedience and he dare not ordinarily refuse the most costly service For the spoiles of his fleshly desires are his pray and Crown of glorying in the Lord Luke 14. 27 33. Gal. 5. 17 24. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Luke 9. 23 24. 2 Cor. 12. 9. Gal. 6. 14. But the Opinionative Convert still liveth to his carnal-self and therefore secretly at least seeks himself and layeth hold on present things as the true Convert layeth hold on Eternal Life The Truths of God being received but into his Opinion do not go deep enough to conquer self and to take down his great Idol nor make him go through fire and water and to serve God with the best and honour him with his substance much less with his sufferings and death He hath something that he cannot spare for God Matth. 13. 21. Luke 18. 22 23 24. 3. The Sound Convert hath taken God for his Portion and Heaven for that sure and full felicity which he is resolved to venture upon That 's it that he hath set his heart and hopes upon and thither tends the drift of his life Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. Matth. 6. 20 21. But he that is changed only in his Opinions had never such sure apprehensions of the life to come nor so full a confidence in the Promises of God as to set his heart unfeignedly upon God and make him truly Heavenly-minded He may have a Heavenly tongue but he hath an Earthly heart A bare Opinion be it never so true will not raise mens hearts so high as to make their Affections and the very design and business of their lives to be Heavenly Phil. 3. 18 19 20. Rom. 16 17 18. Rom. 8. 5. 4. The Sound Convert hath seen the vileness of himself in the sinfullness of his heart and life and the misery thereby deserved and so is a sincerly humbled self-accusing man But the Opinionist is commonly unhumbled and well conceited of himself and a self-justifying Pharisee unless it be that self-accusing will cost him no disgrace and he take it up as a custom or that which may bring him into the repute of being humbled and sincere For his Opinion will not search and pierce his heart nor batter down his self-exalting thoughts nor root up the master sinne of Pride These are too great works for an Opinion to perform And therefore you shall hear him more in the excusing of his sinne the magnifying of himself or the stiff maintaining of his own conceits then in unfeigned self-abasing Rom. 12. 16. 1 Cor. 1. 19 20. 3. 18. 2 Cor 10.
12. Luke 16. 15. 5. The Sound Convert is so acquainted with the defects and sinnes and necessities of his own Soul that he is much taken up at home in his studies and cares and censures and his daily worke The acting and strengthening of Grace the subduing of corruption and his daily walk with God are much of his employment Above all keeping he keeps his Heart as knowing that thence are the issues of life He cannot have while to spy out the faults of others and meddle with their affaires where duty binds him not as others can do because he hath so much to do at home Gal. 6. 3 4. Prov 4. 23. But the Opinionist is most employed abroad and about meer notions and Opinions but he is little employed in such heart-searching or heart-observing work His light doth not pierce so deep as to shew him his heart and the work that is there to be necessarily done As the change is little upon his Heart so his employment is little there He is little in bewailing his secret defects and corruptions and little in keeping his Souls accounts and little in secret striving with his heart to work it into communion with God and into a Spiritual lively fruitfull frame He is forward to aggravate the sinnes of others and oft-times severe enough in censuring them But he is a very gentle censurer of himself and a patient man with his own corruptions and puts the best construction upon all that is his own He hath much labour perhaps in shaping his Opinions but little for the humbling and Sanctifying his heart by the power of the Truth 6. And as the difference lyeth thus constantly in the Heart so it is usually manifested by the tongue Matth. 12. 34. The Sound Convert is most desirous to discourse of those great and saving truths which his very heart hath taken in and which he hath found to be the seed of God for his Regeneration and the Instruments of that Holy and happy change that is made upon him He feeleth most savour and life in these great and most Necessary points which formed the Image of God upon him and upon these he daily feeds and lives Read Joh. 17. 3. 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 2. 2. Phil. 3. 8 9 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Acts 26. 22 23. In these Scriptures you may find what points they were that the greatest Saints did study and live upon But the Opinionist is most forward to discourse of meer Opinions and to feed upon the aire of notions and controversies of lesser moment For one hours Holy Heavenly experimental heart-searching discourse that you shall have from him you shall have many and many hours discourse of his Opinions I mean it indifferently of all his Opinions whether true or false For though falshoods cannot be fit food for the Soul yet Truths themselves also may be made of little service to them A man may be a meer Opinionist that hath true Opinions as well as he that hath false Almost all the free and zealous discourse of these men on matters of Religion is about their several sides and parties and Opinions If they be set upon a point especially wherein they seem to themselves to be wiser then others they have a fire of zeale for it in their brests that makes them desirous to be propagating it to others About the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church about the formes of Prayer and the accidents of worship about Infant Baptism or other such controversies in Religion is the freest of their discourse Yea you may perceive much of the difference even in the very manner of their conference A Serious Christian even when he is necessitated to speak of lower controverted points yet doth it in a Spiritual manner as one that more savoureth higher Truths and makes a Holy and Heavenly life his end even in these lower matters and deals about such controversies in a practical manner and in order to the growth of Holiness But the Opinionists even when they speak of the most weighty Truths do speak of them but as Opinions and when they discourse of God of Christ of Grace of Heaven it is but as they discourse of a point in Philosophy or little better They go not through the shell to the kernel they look after the Truth but they have but little relish of the Goodness The like may be said of their reading and hearing of Sermons The sound Convert feeleth life spirits in that which is little savory to the Opinionist It is one thing in a Sermon or Text that is pleasant to a true Christian and another thing usually that is most pleasant to the Opinionist The true Christian delighteth in and feedeth on the inward life of Spiritual Doctrine and the Good which they offer him that is indeed it is upon God and Christ himself that he is feasting his Soul in reading and hearing For this is the Soul of all without which letters and words are but a carcass But the superficial Opinionist is much more taken up either with the History or the Elegancy of Speech or with the rational light of the discourse still sticking in the bark and savouring not Christ and the Father in all As a man that reads the deeds or lease of his own Lands delights in one thing and a cleark that reads the same or the like in a book of Presidents for his learning delights in another thing So is it in this case 7. And hence is follows that they are several sorts of duties and exercises usually that these several sorts of persons are most addicted to The sound Convert is most addicted to those Spiritual means that tend most to the strengthning of his Faith and warming his heart with the Love of God and promoting Holiness and destroying sinne But the Opinionist delighteth most in those means that tend to â—â—rnish him with speculative Knowledg and discourse and to satisfie his fansie or curious mind The sound Convert is much addicted to Prayer even in secret and to Heavenly Meditations and gracious disourse But the Opinionist is much more addicted to reading Histories or Controversies or dogmatical Divinity or Civil and Political matters The sound Convert savoureth best those Preachers and Books that speak the most weighty Spiritual Truths in the most weighty Spiritual manner in Power and Demonstration of the Spirit But the Opinionist relisheth those Preachers and Books most that either speak curiously to please the eare or exactly and learnedly to please the natural intellect or that speak for the Opinions or partly that he is addicted to But others he hath less mind of 8. Moreover the sound Christian layeth out most of his Zeal Affections and Endeavours about the great Essentials of Religion and that as I said in a practical manner But the Opinionist layeth out his Zeale upon Opinions Right or wrong it is but as Opinions Of these he makes his Religioâ— For these he contendeth He loveth