filial and of the right strain if Love be not its Companion Fear of punishment shews that you love your natural selves but it shews not that you love God and are true-hearted to him The Devils fear and tremble but they do not Love It is Love and and not Fear that is the Byas the Inclination and as I may say the Nature of the will of man By his Love it is that you must know what the man is The Philosopher saith Such as a man is such is his end which is all one as to say Such as a man is such is his Love You may Fear a thing at the same time when you hate it and it 's too common to have some hatred mixt with Fear You may be as much against God and his holy waies when Fear only drives you to some kind of religiousness as others are that scarce meddle with Religion at all The first thing that God looks at is what you would do and the next is what you do If you do it but had rather leave it undone you lose your reward and God will take it as if you had not done it For it was not you that did it if you did it not from Love but it was Fear that dwelleth in you God takes mens hearty Desires and Will instead of the Deed where they have not power to fulfill it But he never took the bare Deed instead of the Will A blockish kind of worship consisting in outward actions without the heart is fit to be given to a wooden god a sensless Idol but the true and living God abhorres it He is a Spirit and will be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth such worshipers he seeketh and such he will accept Joh. 4. 23 24. A begger will be glad of your Almes though you leave it with an ill will because he needeth it but God hath no need of you nor of your service and therefore think not that he will accept you on such termes That people worshipeth God in vain that draw near him with their mouth and honour him with their lips when their heart is farre from him Mat. 15. 8 9. A mans heart is where his Love is rather then where his Fear is If you should lie still upon your knees or in the holy Assembly If you should be the strictest Observer of the Ordinances on the Lords daies and yet had such hearts in you as had rather let all these alone if it were not for fear of punishment it will all be disregarded and reckoned to you according to your wills as if it had never been done by you at all It 's Love that must win Love or make you fit for Love to entertain If you give your goods to the poor or your bodies to be burned in a cause that in it self is good and yet have not Love it availeth nothing 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3 5. You will not think your Wife hath conjugall affections that loveth another man better then you and had rather be gone from you if she could live without you It 's an unnatural Son that loves not his Father but had rather be from him then with him If God called you to a bestiall drugery or slavery he would then look but for your work and not care much whether you be willing or unwilling If your Ox draw your plow and your Horse carry his burden you care not much whether it be willingly or unwillingly Or if it be an enemy that you have to deal with you will look for no more then a forced submission or that he be disabled from doing you hurt But this is not your case It is a state of friendship that the Gospel calls you to you must be nigh to God his Children and the Members of his Sonne espoused to him in the dearest strongest bonds And do you think it is possible that this should be done without your wills and affections If you can be content with the Portion of a slave and an enemy then do your task and deny God your affections But if you look for the entertainment and Portion of a Friend a Child a Spouse you must bring the heart of a Friend and of a Child and of a Spouse Fear may do good by driving you to the use of means and taking out of your hands the things by which you would do your selves a mischief It may prepare you for saving Grace and when you are sanctified it will prove a necessary servant of Love to keep you in awe and save you from temptations But Love is the ruling affection in the sanctified and fear is therefore necessary because of the present imperfection of Love and because of the variety of temptations that here beset us Think not therefore that you are savingly renewed till God have your very hearts When you do but believe and tremble it is better then to be unbelieving and stupid and secure but you are not true Christians till you believe and Love We use to fly from that which we fear and therefore do apprehend it to be evil to us We avoid the presence and company of those that we are afraid of but we draw nigh them that we love and delight in their company We Fear an Enemy We Love a Friend We Fear the Devil naturally but we do not Love him It is Love that is that Affection of the soul that entertaineth God as God even as Good though that Love must be accompanied with a filial fear even a dread and reverence of his Majesty and greatness and a fear of displeasing him If you should toile out your selves in Religious duties with a heart that had rather forbear them if you durst you have not the hearts of Gods Children in your breasts The Magistrate can frighten men to the Congregation and outward worship You may lock a man in the Church that had rather be away And will any man think that this makes him acceptable to God You may keep a Theif from stealing by prison and irons but this makes him not accepted with God as a true man You may cure a man of cursing and swearing and railing and idle and ribbald talking even in a minute of an hour by cutting of his tongue but will God accept him ever the more as long as he hath a heart that would do it if he could There 's abundance of people at this day that are kept from abusing the Lords day and from swearing and stealing yea and from laying hands on all about them that are godly and this by the Law of man and the fear of present punishment And do you think that these are therefore innocent or acceptable with God By this account you may make the Devil a Saint when he is chained up from doing mischief You may as well say that a Lyon is become a Lamb when he is shut up in his Den Or that a mastiff Dog is become harmelss and gentle when he is muzled Believe it sirs you are
your selves to Christ and turn to him as Zacheus and other primitive Converts did surrendering all that you have unto his Will Luke 19. 8 9. Leave not any root of bitterness behind Make no exceptions or reserves but Deny yonr selves Forsake all and follow him that hath led you this self-denying way aud trust to his Blood and Merits and Promise for a Treasure in Heaven and then you are his Disciples and true Christians indeed Luke 14. 33. Luke 18. 24 25. Reader if thou heartily make this Covenant and keep it thou shalt find that Christ will not deceive thee when the world deceiveth them that chose it in their greatest extremity But if thou draw back and think these terms too hard remember that Everlasting Life was offered thee and remember why and for what thou didst reject it And if in this life-time thou wilt have thy good things expect to be tormented when the believing self-denying Souls are comforted Luke 16. 25. May 29. 1658. R. B. THE CONTENTS COnsiderations to provoke men to take heed of sticking in a half-Conversion pag. 1 Direct 1. Labour for a right understanding of the true Nature of Christianity and meaning of the Gospel that must convert 32 Direct 2. When you understand that which you are called to search the Scripture and see whether it be so 41 Direct 3. Be much in the serious Consideration of the Truths which you understand and believe 51 Seven things to be considered 56 The manner of this Consideration 79 Twelve Motives to Consideration 86 Direct 4. See that the work of Humiliation be throughly done and break not away from the Spirit of Contrition before he have done with you And yet see that you mistake not the Nature and Ends of the work and that you drive it not on further then God requireth 119 Preparatory Humiliation what ibid. Sound Humiliation how known 120. c. The Ends and Vse of Humiliation 130 Mistakes about Humiliation to be avoided 154 Whether it be possible to be too much humbled 160 How to know when sorrow should be restrained 163 And when sorrow must be encreased 167 Motives for submission to a through-Humiliation 182 Direct 5. Close with the Lord Jesus understandingly heartily and entirely as he is revealed and offered in the Gospel 191 What must be understood of the person of Christ. 192 The Ends of Redemption to be understood 195 The Demonstrations of the glory of God in Christ and to whom 221 What are the works of Redemption that Christ hath done 232 The Benefits by Christ procured The general Benefits 241 The Benefits proper to Believers 247 The several termes on which the several Benefits are conveyed 263 The certainty of all this 270 How Christ must be received heartily and with the will 272 Christ must be entirely received and how 283 Direct 6. See that the flesh be throughly mortified and your hearts taken off the pleasures profits and honours of the world and think not of reconciling God and the world as if you might secure your interest in both 299 Direct 7. Be sure that you make an absolute Resignation of your selves and all that you have to God 306 Direct 8. See that you mistake not a meer change of your opinions and profession and behaviour for a saving change 324 The Markes by which a sound Conversion may be known from a meer opinionative change 330 Directions to get beyond an opinionative Conversion 347 Direct 9. Acquaint your souls by faith with the glory of the everlasting Kingdome and see that you take it for your portion and your end and from thence let the rest of your actions be animated 353 Wherein this Blessedness doth consist 359 Direct 10. Rest not and count not your selvs converted till God and holiness have your very Love Desire and Delight and take it not for a saving change when you had rather live a worldly and ungodly life if it were not for the fears of punishment 363 Direct 11. If you would not have the work miscarry Turn then this present day and hour without any more delay where fifty Considerations are given to shame men out of their delayes 381 Direct 12. Stop not in weak and wavering purposes and faint attempts but see that you be groundedly unreservedly and fi mly or habitually Resolved 441 What Resolution is and by what Deliberations it is caused The Preparatory câ—mmon Acts and the speciall Acts Illumination and the wills Determination how wrought 442 c. The unresolved are unconverted 450 What Resolution it is that is necessary 455 Twenty Motives to Resolution 461 Hinderances of Resolution 505 Two Directions for prosecuting Resolution that it may hold 513 The Conclusion 521 ERRATA PAge 1. l. 15. for you r. the. p. 41. l. 29. r. it a. p. 15. l. 15. r. as if it p. 99. l. 5. for Mal. r. Math. p. 51. l. 5. for your r. our p. 56. l. 8. for say r. lay p. 72. l. 17. blot out and. p. 98. l. 14. r. portends p. 181. l. 1. r. this be p. 126. l. 13. for confesseth r. consenteth p. 143. l. 19. for work r. worth p. 144. l. 6. blot out that p. 157. l. 8. for reproachers r. reprovers p 167. l. 21. for the r. then p. 170. l. 14. for you r. your p. 171. l. 10. for so r. to p 174. l. 10. for Judas r. Judges with a. p. 176. l. 1 2. for your selves r. yours l. 6. r. veine l. 15. for once r. over p. 177. l. 23. r. you are p. 205. l. 3. for begin a r. beginning p. 210. l. 3. dele hath p. 215. l. 9. for Premises r. Praises p. 218. l. 25. dele purpose p. 220. l. 20. for of r. so p. 229. l. 21. for manage r. marriage p. 242. l. 21. for discern r deserve p. 247. l. 13. for charging r. changing p. 279. l. 7. r. you p. 294. l. 27. for sanctification r. satisfaction p. 298. l. 24. dele to p. 307. l. 12. for or r. our p. 309. l. 4. r. pure and. p. 314. l. 12. dele I. p. 319. l. 21. r. it it is p. 326. l. 4. and. 7. r. opinionative p. 338. l. 3. r. life and. l. 27. for is r. it p. 339. l. 27. r. party p. 341. l. 19. for to r. made p. 362. l. 7. for 1. r. 10. p. 432. l. 5. r. learn p. 446. l. 28. for the r. that p. 469. l. 1. for any r. and. p. 494. l. 7. r. till then p. 500. l. 3. 4. for handfull r. housefull p. 513. l. 5. for offer r. office p. 517. l. 16. r. so I. p. 524. l. 18. for mystery r. misery Directions to Sinners that are purposed to Turn and are under the Work of Conversion that it miscarry not THe first and greatest matter in the seeking after the salvation of our souls is to be sure that we lay the foundation well and that the work of Conversion be throughly wrought To this end I have already used many perswasions with
that you must certainly have Hell with it if you keep it methinks your doubt should quickly be resolved and you should be loath to give another nights lodging to so chargeable and dangerous a guest Now when we perswade you to holiness of life you will demurre on it as if there were some doubtfullness in the matter But if you knew the nature and end of holiness you would soon be out of doubt and if you knew but how much happier you might be with God you would never stick at the parting with your most delightfull sinnes As the Jews rejected Christ and preferred a murderer before him and cryed out Crucifie him and all because they did not know him 1 Cor. 2. 8. Joh. 8. 9. 1. 10. Act. 13. 27. So you let Christ knock and call and offer you salvation and you stand questioning whether you should obey his call and whether you should not preferre your lusts before him and all because you know him not nor the Grace and Glory which he tendereth to you When men understand not the Reasons of God that should prevail with them no wonder if they part not with that which is as dear to them as their lives But when once they know the Reasons of Christianity those moving weighty undenyable Reasons that are fetcht from God and Heaven and Hell they 'l then stand questioning the matter no longer but they will resign up all even life it self All this I speak of a spiritual powerfull and a practical Knowledge and not of every swimming opinion and conceit Study therefore what God is and what he is to you and what he would be to you Study what sinne is and what the damnation is which it deserveth Study what Christ is and hath done and suffered for you and what he is willing to do if you neglect him not Study what the world is and what is the utmost that sinne will do for you Study what the everlasting Glory is which you may have with God if you lose it not by your folly And study what Faith is and what Repentance is and what Love and Joy and a holy and heavenly life and how little reason you have to be afraid of them If this understanding have but deeply possessed you it will byas your hearts and make you resolved setled Converts Whereas if you seem to turn and scarce know why and seem to take up a Christian life before you are throughly possessed with the Nature Grounds and Reasons of it no marvell if you are quickly lâ—st again in the dark and if every Caviller that you meet with can non-plus you and make you stagger and call in question all that you have done and ravell all your work Or if you do but runne from one party to another and follow every one that tels you a fair tale and never know what to fix upon nor when you are in the way and when you are out The Apprehensions of the mind do move the whole man Wisdom is the guide and stay of the Soul Sinning is doing foolishly 2 Sam. 24. 10. And sinners are fools Prov. 1. 22. Psal. 75. 4. Their mirth is but the mirth of fools and their song the song of fools Eccl 7. 4. 5. Yea the best of their services while they refuse to hear and obey is but the Sacrifice of fools Eccl. 5. 1. And such are not fit for the House of God For God hath no pleasure in fools Eccl. 5. 4. He hath need to have his wits about him and know what he doth that will be the servant of the God of Heaven and will escape the deceits of a subtile Devil and get to Heaven through so many dâ—fficulties as are before him Above all getting therefore get Wisdom DIRECT II. If you would not have the work of your Conversion miscarry when you understand what is offered you then Search the Scripture daily to see whether those things be so or not So did the Bereans Act. 17. 11. and the Text saith that therefore they believed We come not to cheat and deceive you and therefore we desire not that you should take any thing from us but what we can prove to you from the Word of God to be certainly true We desire not to lead you in the dark but by the light to lead you out of darkness and therefore we refuse not to submit all our Doctrine to an equall tryal Though we would not have you wrong your souls by an unjust distrust of us yet would we not desire you to take these great and weighty things meerly upon our words For then your Faith will be in man and then no marvell if it be weak and uneffectual and quickly shaken If you trust a man to day you may distrust him to morrow and if one man be of greatest credit with you this year perhaps another of a contrary mind may be of more credit with you the next year And therefore we desire no further to be believed by you then is necessary to lead you up to God and to help you to understand that Word which you must believe Our desire therefore is that you search the Scripture and try whether the things that we tell you be the truth The Word will never work on you to purpose till you see and hear God in it and perceive that it 's he and not man only that speaks to you When you hear none speaking to you but the Minister no marvell if you dare despise him for he is a frail and silly man like your selves When you think that the Doctrine which we preach to you is meerly of our own devising and the conjecture of our own brain no marvell if you set light by it and will not let go all that you have at the perswasion of a Preacher But when you have searcht the Scripture and find that it is the Word of the God of Heaven dare you despise it then When you there find that we said no more then we were commanded and God that hath spoken this Word will stand to it then sure it will go nearer you and you will consider of it and make light of it no more If we offered you bad wares we should desire a dark shop and if our gold were light or bad we would not call for the Ballance and the Touchstone But when we are sure the things that we speak are true we desire nothing more then tryal Beauty and comliness have no advantage of loathsome deformity when they are both together in the dark but the light will shew the difference Error may be a loser by the light and therefore shunnes it Joh. 3. 19 20 21. But truth is a gainer by it and therefore seeks it Let Papists hide the Scripture from the people and forbid the reading of them in a tongue which they understand and teach them to speak to God they know not what we dare not do so nor do we desire it Our Doctrine will not go off well
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
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
Evidences might raise you from Opinion to a working saving Faith 6. Lastly take heed lest any thing be suffered to keep possession of your Hearts and so to confine the truth to your braine When the world is kept up in life and power and is nearest the heart there is no room for the Word there but it must float upon the top and swim in your Opinion because it can go no deeper your lusts and profits having possession before it The Word can never go to the heart with unmortified men but by casting your Idols out of your hearts nor will it take rooting in you but by rooting out the world O Sirs if you knew the misery of a meer Opinionist you would sure be perswaded now to practise these Directions that may raise you higher An Opinionist is a deceiver of himself and oft of others a troubler of the Church 〈◊〉 he have any Zeal for Opinions and hit as usually he doth on the wrong And when his Religion is right he is wrong himself being out of the way even when he is in the right way because he is not right in that right way For he doth but sit down in it when he should travaile it A runner shall not win the prize by being in the right way only unless he make hast The knowledg of the Opinionist doth but serve to aggravate his sinne and cause him to be beaten with many stripes but is not of force to Sanctifie his heart and life and to save him Jam. 2. fully shews Stick not therefore in an Opinionative Religiousness DIRECT IX My next Direction that your Conversion may prove sound is this Acquaint your Souls by Faith with the Glory of the Everlasting Kingdom and see that you make it your Portion and your End and from thence let the rest of your endeavours be animated No man can be a sound Christian that knoweth not the Ends and Portion of a Christian. There is a great deal of difference between the desires of Heaven in a Sanctified man and an unsanctified The Believer prizeth it above earth and had rather be with God then here Though death that stands in the way may possibly have harder thoughts from him But to the ungodly there is nothing seemeth more desirable then this world and therefore he only chooseth Heaven before Hell but not before earth and therefore shall not have it upon such a choice We heare of Gold and Silver mines in the Indies If you offer a Golden mountaine there to an English man that hath an estate and family here that are deare to him perhaps hee 'l say I am uncertain whether their Golden mountains be not meer fictions to deceive men and if it be true that there are such things yet it is a great way thither and the seas are perilous and I am well enough already where I am and therefore let who will go thither for me I will stay at home as long as I can But if this man must needs be banished out of England and had his choise whether he would go to the Golden Ilands or to dig in a colepit or live in a wilderness he would rather choose the better then the worse So is it with an ungodly mans desires in respect to this world and that to come If he could stay here in fleshly pleasure for ever he would because he looks at Heaven as uncertain and a great way off and the passage seemeth to him more troublesom and dangerous then it is and he is where he would be already But when he sees that there is no staying here for ever but death will have him away he had rather go to Heaven then to Hell and therefore will be Religious as far as the flesh and the world will give him leave left he should be cast into Hell when he is taken from the Earth But take an English man that is in poverty and reproach and hath neither house nor land nor friend to comfort him and let him have the offer of a Golden Iland and a person of unquestionable skilfullness and fidelity that will promise in short time to bring him safe thither if he believe this person and can put his trust in him doubtless he will be gone and follow him over sea and land and though the passage may somewhat daunt him yet the promised possession will carry him through all So is it with the true Christian He is dead to this world and sees nothing here in which he can be happy he is burdened and wearied with sinne and suffering he is firmly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel and seeth by Faith the world that is to flesh invisible and believeth in Jesus Christ who hath promised to convey him safely thither and therefore he would away and though he love not death the stormy passage yet he will submit to it having so sure a Pilot because he loves the life which through death he must pass into and had rather be there then here Such as a mans principall End is such is the man and such is the course of his life He that takes this world for his Portion and makes the felicity of it his end is a carnall worldy unsanctified man whatever good and godly actions may come in upon the by It is he and only he that is a sanctified Believer who looks on Heaven as his only Portion and is sailing through the troublesome Seas of this world of purpose to come to that desired harbour not loving these seas better then the Land of Rest which he is sailing to but patiently and painfully passing through them because there is no other way to Glory As it is the desire of the Land to which he is sailing that moveth the Marriner or Passenger to do all that he doth in his Voyage and the desire of his home or journeys End that moveth the travailer all the way and the desire of seeing a perfect Building that moveth the Builder in every stroke of his Work so it must be the love of God and the desire after Everlasting blessedness that must be the very Engine to move the rest of the affections and endeavours of the Saints and must make men resolve on the necessary labour and patience of Believers Take off this weight and all the motions of Christianity will cease No man will be at labour and sufferings for nothing if he can avoid them It is a life of Labour though sweet to the Spirit yet tedious to the flesh which Christianity doth engage us in and there is much suffering to be undergone and this to the very last and to the denyall of our selves and if God require it to the loss of all the comforts of the world For no less then forsaking all that we have will serve to make us Christs Disciples And will any man do this for he knows not what Will any man forsake all that he hath unless it be for something better which may be as sure