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
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
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.
of that And therefore no wonder if the Redeemer be neglected and God denied the honour of the work So much of this second point the Reasons and Ends of Christ's undertaking I shall purposely be shorter on the rest 3. The third point to be understood concerning our Redeemer is What he hath done and suffered for mankind and wherein his Redeeming work consisted both as to the General and the special part Should I stand on these at large I must needs be voluminous and therefore I shall but briefly reciet them for your remembrance I. The first thing that Christ did for the saving of the world was his Interposing between offending man and the wrath of God and so preserving the world from the destruction which the execution of the violated Law would have procured Undertaking then to become the Seed of the woman and so to break the Serpents head and revealing this Grace by slow degrees till the time of his coming And then when the fullness of time was come he was made man being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary and so the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men who beheld his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Thus God was manifested to men in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. 3. And as he was perfectly Holy in his Nature without any stain or guilt of Original sinne so was he perfectly Holy in his Life and never broke the least Command of God in thought word or deed Never could any convince him of sinne Joh. 8. 46. He fulfilled the Law of Nature which all the world was under and the Mosaical Law which the Jews were under and the special Law that was given to himself as Mediator and was common to no other Creature in the world And thus he performed these excellent works I. By the fullfilling of all Righteousness he pleased the Father alwaies accomplishing his Will and so did much of the work of a Saviour in Meriting for for us Matth. 3. 15. 5. 17. Joh. 8. 29. Matth. 12. 18. 17. 5. Rom. 5. 19. For such an High-priest became us who is Holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. 2. He hath conquered the Tempter that conquered us And therefore did he purposely yield himself to such sore temptations Matth. 4. That his Victory might be glorious and the Second Adam might overcome him that had overcome the first And thus he hath done much to the rescue of the Captivated 3. Hereby also he hath overcome the world which overcame the first Adam and his posterity He trampled upon its seeming glory he neglected and despised its baits and allurements he went through all its cruel persecutions and oppositions So that the world now as well as the Devil are conquered things By which he hath made way for the Victory of his followers and given them ground of great encouragment Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the world Yea I may say in a sort he hath overcome the flesh also For though Christ had no corrupt flesh as we have to contend with yet had he a natural and sensitive appetite which the Command of God did forbid him to fulfill And therefore when innocent Nature diâ—â—red that the Cup might pass from him and abhor death by a simple Aversness yet perfect Holiness permitted not this to proceed to a Refusal by the comparing Intellect and Choosing or Refusing Will but saith Not my will but thine be done And when Christ was hungry and weary the desire of food and rest by the sensitive appetite was no sinne But when the Work of God forbad the fullfilling of such desires he still denyed them 4. Hereby also he hath set us a perfect copy and patern of obedience and is become our Example whom we must endeavour to imitate For he knew that it is the most effectual teaching to do it by words and deeds together It is a great help to us when we do not only heare his voice but see also which way he hath gone before us When he saith Learn of me he directs us not only to his words but to himself who was meeke and lowly Matth. 11. 28. 5. Moreover Christ received of the Father fullness of the Spirit and Power for the benefit of the Redeemed that he might be meet to be the Head and the Treasury of the Church and to shower down the streams of Grace upon his Members and when all Power was given him in Heaven and Earth he might be fitted to the following application of his benefits and to rule and support and defend his people 6. Moreover he was pleased himself to become a Preacher of the Gospel of Salvation not to all the world but principally as a Minister of the Circumcision that is the Jews Rom. 15. 8. He that purchased Salvation condescended also to proclaime it The preaching of the Gospel is a work that Christ thought not himself too good for Sometimes to many sometimes to one or two as he had opportunity often with tears and alwaies with earnestness and compassion did he go about doing good and seeking the lost and healing the diseased and calling men to Faith and Repentance and offering them the Grace and Life which he purchased 7. And he was pleased also to seale up his Doctrine by his Works casting out Devils healing all diseases raising the the dead and working divers other Miracles to assure them that he came from God and did his Work and revealed his Will that so the world might have no excuse for their unbelife but that they that would not believe upon any other account might yet believe him for the sake of his works Joh. 3. 2. Acts 2. 22. Heb. 2. 4. Joh. 5. 36. 10. 25 38. 14. 11 12. 15. 24. 8. Besides all this he gave up himself to a life of suffering being despised by his Creatures whom he came to Redeeme and destitute voluntarily of fleshly pleasures and of that riches and worldly provision that might procure it He was a man of sorrows afflicted from his youth persecuted from the Cradle he gave his Cheeks to the smiters and his Person to be made the scorn of fools He was crowned with thornes spit upon and buffited and having sweat water and blood in his Agonie in the garden he was hanged on a Cross where thieves were both his companions and revilers where they gave him gall and vineger to drink pierced his blessed Body with a spear and put him to a shamfull cursed death But he endured the Cross despising the shame and gave up himself thus a Sacrifice for sinne and bore our transgressions that we might be healed by his stripes and having ransomed us by his Blood he was buried as an offender continuing for a time in the Power of the grave Isa. 53. throughout Matth. 26 27. Heb. 12. 2. All this he consented to undergo
Causes of mens Condemnation though Faith and Repentance be not Proper Causes of their Salvation These Promises being Conditional we cannot be assured of our part in the benefits but by being assured that we perform the Condition By this you may see the Nature of presumption When men say they believe that which never was promised or believe that they have right to the Blessings that are promised to others and not to them or believe that they shall have the benefits promised when they perform not the Conditions all this is presuming and not true believing If men believe that God is reconciled to them and will Pardon them and Justifie them and save them when they are unconverted impenitent unregenerate men this is not indeed a believing of God that hath never made them any such promise nor ever told them any such matter but the contrary But it is a believing the false delusions of the Devil and their own hearts He that will claim any title to Christ and Pardon and Salvation must have something to shew for it yea and something more then the most of the world have to shew For the most shall be shut out Every man therefore that regardeth his Salvation must seriously ask his Soul this question What have I to shew for my title to Salvation more then the most of the world can shew It is not saying I hope to be saved that will serve the turn ' except I can give a Reason of my hopes ' Thousands that lay claim to Salvation shall miss of it because they have no title to it And that which you must have to shew is this A Promise or Deed of Gift on Gods part and the fullfilling of the Condition on your part God saith to all men who ever Repenteth Believeth or is converted shall be saved When you have found that you Repent of all your sinnes and truly believe and are converted to God then and not till then you may conclude that you shall be saved 6. The sixth Point to be understood or believed concerning these Benefits of Christ is the infallible Certainty of them While men look on the promised Glory to come as on an uncertain thing they will hardly be drawn to venture and let go the porfits and pleasures of the world to attaine it much less to part with life it self The life of all our Christian motion is the unfeigned belief of the Truth of Gods Word and specially of the unseen things of the world to come Such as mens belief of Heaven and Hell is such will be the bent of their hearts and the course of their lives and such they will be in yielding to sinne or in resisting it and in all the service they do for God As all men would take another course if they did but see Heaven and Hell with their eyes so all men would presently throw away their worldly fleshly pleasures and turn to God and a holy life if they did but as throughly believe the Joyes and torments to come as if they saw them Flesh and blood can hardly judg of things without the help of sense and fleshly men take all things to be fantasmes or nothings that are not within the judgment of their senses They must see it or feel it or tast it or hear it and Believing is a way that hardly satisfies them though it be God himself that they are to believe Believing is trusting the Credit of an other and we are naturally loth to trust to any but our eyes or other senses We are so false our selves that we are ready to measure God by our selves and to think that he is a deceiver because that we are such And hence it is that the world is so ungodly that they venture on sinne and will not be at the cost and labour of a Heavenly life because they take the matters of the life to come to be but uncertainties and have not so true a belief of them as might possess them with a deep apprehension of their reallity How should the Word profit them that mixe it not with Faith Heb. 4. 2. Unless by begetting Faith it self O what a change would a sound belief of the Scriptures make in the world But having spoken so oft of this in other writings I shall say no more of it now So much of the Knowledg of Christ. II. I have shewed you the first part of this Direction How Christ must be Received understandingly I now come to the second which is that He must be Received heartily As God must be loved so Christ must be believed in with all the heart and Soul and strength If not with All in a Perfect degree for that will not be till we come to Heaven yet with All in a predominant prevalent degree There are many convictions and good meanings and wishes and purposes which may proceed from common Grace and be found in those that never shall be saved These may be called analogically Faith and Love and Desire as those are that are found in the truly Regenerate and yet the persons in whom they are found may not fitly be called Believers or Lovers of God because a man is to be denominated from that in him which is predominant and hath the chief power on his heart The Soul of man is not so simple as to move but one way Its state in this life is to stand between two differing Competitours God and the world Spirit and flesh and there is no man that is Totally given up to either of them No man is so good and spiritual that hath not something in him that is bad and carnal And no man is so fully addicted to God but the Creature hath too much interest in his heart Nor is there any man so given up to the Creature in whom God hath no manner of interest at all in his Estimation and Affections if he indeed believe that there is a God At least it is not so with all that are unconverted Otherwise 1. What is it that common Grace doth if it no whit dispose them towards God Certainly it would not else be Grace 2. And if this were not so then we must say that no unregenerate man hath any Good in him that is truly Moral For if there be no interest of God in his mind or will there can be no Good in him But this is contrary to Scripture and experience It was undoubtedly some Moral Good which Christ loved the man for in Marke 10. 21. Who was not far from the Kingdom of God 3. Otherwise all men must be equally departed from God which is contrary to experience 4. Yea all men must be as bad on Earth privatively as in Hell which certainly is false I may well say that on Earth there is some Good in the worst much more in those that are almost perswaded to be converted Christians Many a thought of the Goodness of God and the necessity of a Saviour and of the Love of Christ and of
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
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
upon the qualifications of sound Resolution which I before laid down to you and then take heed of the hinderances in your way and so set your selves to do your duty Remember that I before told you that it it is not a holy saving Resolution unless it be 1. Entire for the matter of it comprehending all that is Essential to Christianity 2. And unless you Resolve upon present obedience without delay 3. And also unless it be Absolute and peremptory taking Christ for better and worse without any reserve 4. And unless it be well grounded 5. And unless it be built on the strength of Christ and not only a carnal confidence of your own 6. And unless it be habitual and firm and become your ordinary frame and byas and as it were the new Nature and inclination of your Souls By this much you see already what manner of Resolution it is that you must have The next thing is to advise you of the hinderances that you may avoid them 1. The principal hinderance of Resolution is Secret Vnbelief when Everlasting life is taken but as an uncertainty or men have no more but a slight Opinion of it The Cure of this disease I have often and a little before delivered you 2. Another thing that hindereth Resolution is Inconsideratness of which also I have spoken purposely before 3. Another hinderance is a sleepy Insensibility when the heart is hardened and men are past feeling We cannot tell how to awaken these men to be sensible of the things that should move them to Resolve Of this also I have spoken by it self 4. Another great hinderance is the naturall strangness and aversness of the mind of corrupted man to these high and Spiritual things So that we drive men by all our Arguments against the byas of their sinfull habits And those habits plead against us more forcibly without a word of reason then all the reason in the world could do See therefore that you keep under changing means till your hearts be changed And the perusing of such weighty Arguments as we offer you may be of use to the changing of your hearts For God useth to work on the Will by the Understanding And therefore Light hath an aptitude to change the Will it self 5. Moreover the rooted Interest of this world doth much hinder men from Resolving to turn It 's alwaies drawing them another way or putting objections and eavils into their minds and if they will needs Resolve it is this that secretly enticeth them to reserves and to resign themselves to God but with conditions and exceptions and so makes them Hypocrites when they think themselves Converts and cheats them with a halfe deceitfull Resolution instead of one that is absolute and firm Against this impediment also I have spoken before 6. Another hinderance is The neerness of fleshly enticing objects When the Covetous man seeth his houses and lands his goods and money the very sight of them breaks the heart of all his better Resolutions The drunkard seems to be Resolved till he sees the cup and then his Resolution is broken The Whoremonger seemeth to be Resolved till the bait is brought neer him and then he goes as an Oxe to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks Certainly if these Resolutions were sound they would either cause men to fly from the bait and not come neere it or else to refuse it when it is presented them In the course of their lives their Resolutions would govern them if they were sincere 7. And Satan himself will do all that he can to hinder you when he sees you ready to Resolve He knows that he must bestirre him now or never You never put him to it indeed till you are Resolving to forsake him One block or other he will be sure then to cast in your way Either he tels you it is but folly and melancholy to trouble your self with these matters or that you may be saved without all this ado or that God is more mercifull then to cast away all that be not Sanctified or that Godliness doth but trouble and distract people and that the professours of it are secretly no better then others and that it is but Hypocrisie for them to make such a stir with their Religion and that we must be moderate in our Godliness and take heed of being Godly over much A hundred such foolish suggestions as these the Devil hath at hand to cast in your way when he seeth you ready to Resolve If these will not serve he will set some of his wicked Disciples on railing or deriding you And perhaps some cunning fool a caveling with you to see if they can overwit you and draw you back If that will not do perhaps he will open the falls of professours to you and labour to perswade you that all are such Or he will shew you what divisions and differences are among them or he will take advantage of some difficulties in Religion or some controversies in which he sees you already engaged to a party or he will tell you of some false doctrine that some forward professours may be tainted with to make them and consequently Godliness it self more odious or at least suspected to you If all this will not do he will endeavour to set your very parents or natural kindred against you that those that should most promote your Salvation and on whom your livelyhood much dependeth shall become your enemies and hate you for offering to give up your selves to Christ If that will not do he will endeavour to entice you with the baits of fleshly pleasure or of preferments or much business or merry company or some great matters that you may hope for in the world And usually this snare is the strongest of all Or else he will tell you that if needs you wll Resolve it is time enough hereafter You may yet take more of your pleasure or commodity before you leave it Yet you may suck the brests of the world a little dryer and then turn to God and cast it off If all this will not prevail with you he will tell you it is now too late you have sinned so long or such haynous sinnes that God will not have mercy on you he will make you believe that God hath utterly forsaken you and there is no remedy and you may as well spare your thoughts of Turning now for Christ will not receive or welcome you and therefore it is even as good go on and take up the rest that the world can afford you for there is no hope of better But the most desperate temptation of all the rest is to put some blasphemous unbelieving thoughts into your mind especially if you fall into company with infidels that will draw you to question the Word of God and the Immortality of the Soul and the truth of Christianity or the life to come whether there be any such things or not Where these once take and