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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26915	Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation of souls, and of those scandals, heresies, and desperate apostasies that are the consequents of a counterfeit, or superficial change / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1243; ESTC R15278	227,645	552

Paul must be laid exceeding low in his Conversion that he might be the fitter as a chosen Vessel to bear Christs Name among the Gentiles Lay all this now together Sirs and consider what cause you have to cherish the Humbling works of Grace and not to quench them When your hearts begin to be afflicted for sinne go not among foolish and merry Companions to drink or laugh it away drive it not out of your minds as unkindly as if it came to do you hurt But get alone and consider of the matter and on your knees in secret beseech the Lord to follow it home and break your hearts and make you meet for his healing consolations and not to leave you in this red sea but to bring you through and put the Songs of praise into your mouths DIRECT V. Having thus directed you about your Humiliation the next Direction which I would offer you that you may not miscarry in the worke of Conversion is this See that you close with the Lord Jesus Christ understandingly heartily and entirly as he is revealed and offered to you in the Gospel In this your Christianity doth consist Upon this your Justification and Salvation lie This is the summe of your Coversion and the very heart of the New creature The rest is all but the preparatives to this or the fruits of this Christ is the end and the fulfiling of the Law the substance of the Gospel the way to the Father the life the help the hope of the Believer If you know not him you know nothing If you possess not him you have nothing And if you are out of him you can do nothing that hath a promise of Salvation And therefore I shall distinctly though briefly tell you what it is to close with Christ Vnderstandingly heartily and entirely as he is offered in the Gospel And I. That you may close with Christ Vnderstandingly you must look to these things 1. That you understand who Christ is as in his Person and his Offices 2. That you understand the Reason of his undertaking 3. That you understand what it is that he hath done and suffered for us 4 That you understand the Nature and worth of his benefits and what he will do for you 5. That you understand the terms on which he conveyeth these benefits to men and what is the nature extent and condition of his promises And 6. that you understand the Certain Truth of all this For the first you must understand that Jesus Christ hath two Natures in one Person that he is both God and Man As he is God he is of the same substance with his Father and one in essence with him the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity the Word of God the only begotten Sonne of the Father Eternal Incomprehensible and Infinite As Man he hath a true Humane Soul and body as men have so that his Godhead his Humane Soul and his Body are really distinct This Humane Nature was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary without man and born of of her and is so truly united to the Divine Nature as that they are one Person Not that the Godhead is turned into the manhood nor the manhood into the Godhead but the Godhead hath taken the manhood into Personal Unity with it self This was not from Eternity but when man had sinned and had lost himself and needed a Redeemer By reason of his Miraculous Conception he was free from all Original sinne being holy harmless and undefiled His Person and Natures were fit for his Office which was to be the Mediator between God and man to make Reconciliation and recover us to God Had he not been God but meer man his dignity would not have been sufficient for such an interposition nor his obedience or sufferings of any such value as to be the price of our Redemption Nor could he have born our burden or conquered death and risen again and overcome the Prince of death the Devil nor have ruled his Church and preserved and sanctified them and prospered his Cause and subdued his enemies nor effectually interceded with the Father nor judged the world or raised the dead and done the work of a perfect Saviour Nor was the Angelical Nature sufficient for this Office Had he not been man he had not been neer enough to us to have suffered in our stead and taught us by his Doctrin and given us his Example nor could he have suffered or dyed for us For God cannot die or suffer As he is God he is One in Nature with the Father and as he is man he is One in Nature with us and therefore is fit to Mediate for us and in him we are brought thus nigh to God To this Office of the Mediator there are many acts belonging from whence it hath several denominations of which more anon So much of Christ's Person 2. The next thing that you must understand is the Reason and Ends of his Undertaking which though we are not able fully to comprehend nor the Reason of any of the works of God yet must we observe so much as is revealed And these following Ends or Reasons of this work do shew themselves clearly in the Scripture and in the event 1. One is The Demonstration of Gods Justice as he is Governor of the world according to the Law of Nature He made man rational and a voluntary Agent capable of Good or Evil with Desires and Hopes of the Good and fears of the Evil and so to be ruled according to his Nature He made for him a Law that Revealed Good and Evil with Promises to move him by Desire and Hope and with Threatnings to drive him by necessary Fear By these engins God resolved to govern mankind This Law was the Rule of mans Duty and of his Receivings or of Gods Judgment According to this Law the world was to be Governed by God His Governing Justice consisteth in giving all their Due according to his Law At least so far as that the End of the Law may be attained that is the honour of the Law-giver preserved transgression made odious by the terror of penalty and obedience made honourable by its fruits of impunity and reward Otherwise the Law would not have deterred effectually from Evil nor encouraged to Good especially to so much as Creatures must go through for the Crown of Life And so the Law would have been no fit Instrument for the Government of the world that is the Law would have been no Law But this the Wise and Righteous God would not be guilty of of making a Law that was no Law and was unmeet for the ends to which he made it which was essential to it as a Law There was no way to avoid this intollerable consequent when man had sinned but strict execution of the Law or by sufficient Satisfaction in stead of such an Execution The Execution would have destroyed the Commonwealth even the whole inferior world at least the reasonable

though he consented not to the sinne of them that did inflict it For he laid down his Life it was not taken from him against his Will Joh. 10. 17 18. 9. Having thus paid the price of our Reconciliation to God the third day he Rose again from the dead Though Soldiours watcht his grave because he had foretold them that he would rise the third day yet were they soon daunted by the glory of an Angel that came and roled away the stone And so Christ made known his Divine Power and Victory and the finishing of his work And as by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 3 14. So by his Resurrection he triumphed over death it self For how should the grave detain the innocent and death overcome the Lord of Life This was the glorious day of triumph In remembrance of this he appointed the Lords Day to be observed by the Church The Resurrection of Christ was the confusion of all the powers of darkness the great Argument to confirm the truth of his Doctrine and prove his Godhead to the unbelieving world 10. Being risen he more fully revealed his Gospel and sent forth his Apostles and Disciples to proclaim the offers of Life to the world and settle the Churches in a Holy order when they had gathered them and to ordaine such Ministers to succeed them as might carry on his work to the end of the world Matth. 28. 19 20. And thus he is the faithfull Law-giver to the Church 11. When he had abode thus forty daies on Earth he ascended up into Heaven while his Disciples stood by and gazed after him Acts 1. 9 10. And there hath taken possession in our Nature advancing it to the Fathers right hand in Glory which was by sinne deprest so low in misery And so he is gone to prepare a place for us leaving us a certain word of promise that he will come again and take us to himself that where he is there we may be also Joh. 14. 2 3. And as our life now is hid there with Christ in God so when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. 12. Being ascended he manifested his Power and his Truth in sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to do such works as he had done and such as were necessary to convince the unbelieving world and to conquer the opposing wisdom and power of the flesh Enabling them to speak in variety of Languages which they had never before learnt as also to understand and powerfully preach the mysteries of the Gospel to confirm their Doctrine by Miracles healing the lame the blind the sick casting out Devils raising the dead and conquering the resistance of Principalities and Powers in seeming weakness and in a contemptible garbe Not to speak now of the Sanctifying Work of the same Spirit on them and on the rest of the Church 13. Lastly in this Glory Christ Intercedeth for us and is our High-priest in the Heavens with God living for ever procuring and conveying to us the Mercies which we need upon the account of his Sacrifice Ruling his Church and preserving them succeeding his Cause and Servants restraining and subduing his Enemies and ours and will perfect his work at the day of his Coming to Judgment So much of the works of Christ. 4. The fourth point to be understood concerning our Redemption is The Nature and worth of the Benefits that are procured for us Which though you may gather much from what is said and the full handling of them would be a larger work then is suitable to my present Ends yet such a brief recital I shall here give you as my Ends require In General we have All from Jesus the Mediator that is worth the having even all the blessings of this present life and of the life to come As we lost our Right to all by sinne so we have our restored Right by Christ alone who came to destroy sinne and its effects Had not he interposed we might have had materially life and natural faculties and other things which now are Mercies but not as Mercies but as the requisites to our deserved punishment Even as the Devils have their Being and natural perfections to sustain them in their sufferings Nature it self so far as Good and all Natural blessings are now of Grace And that not only of such Grace as they were to Adam which was Mercy without proper Merit but of Gospel Grace procured by Christ which is Mercy contray to Merit It is no sounder Doctrine to say that God doth without the Merit of his Sonne bestow our common forfeited Mercies either on the Elect or others then that he giveth us his Saving grace without it As all things are delivered into the hands of Christ Joh. 13. 3. So none can receive any good but from his hands To give Mercies to men that forfeit them and descern misery is so far to pardon their sinne for to remit the sinne is to remit the punishment But the Scripture is not acquainted with any pardon of sinne but what is on the account of the Merits of Christ. They that deny this Mercy of God in giving even to the ungodly such a measure of forgiveness do speak against the daily and hourly experience of all the world and therefore need no other confutation More particularly 1. Christ having taken the Humane Nature into Union with the Divine our nature is thereby unconceivably advanced and brought nigh to God 2. Having fulfilled the Law and offered himself a Sacrifice for sinne Gods Justice and Wisdom and Holiness and Goodness is admirably Demonstrated And this Sacrifice is both Satisfactory and meritorious on our behalf Heb. 1. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Heb. 9. 26. and 10 12. 3. The world and the Devil and Death and the Grave are conquered by him in preparation to our conquest 4. The Lord Jesus himself being risen and Justified hath received all Power in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 19. and is enabled to do all things that are necessary for his further ends As the Redeemer he is become Lord of our selves and of all we have and he is made the Soveraigne Ruler of all having full Power to relax the Law that cursed us and to deal with the world on terms of Grace 5. Accordingly he hath kept off the stroke of the rigorus Justice of God and hindered the strict execution of the Law of works and giveth still abundance of forfeited Mercies to the sinfull world keeping them from deserved torments while he is treating with them on terms of life 6. He hath made an Universal deed of gift of Christ and Life to all the world on Condition that they will but Accept the offer 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. In this Testament or Promise or Act of Oblivion the sinnes of all the world are conditionally pardoned and they are conditionally