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Whereunto are annexed diverse Practical Cases of Conscience Judiciously Resolved.
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An Earnest Invitation to Sinners to Turn to God in order to their Eternal Salvation.
DEarly Beloved, and longed for, I gladly acknowledge my self a debter to you all, and am concerned, as I would be found a good Steward to the Houshold of God, to give to every one his Portion. But the Physician is most solicitous for those Patients, whose case is most doubtful and hazardous, and the Father's bowels are especially turned towards his dying Child. The numbers of the unconverted souls among you, call for my most earnest compassions and hasty diligence to pluck them out of the burning, Iude 23. and therefore to these first I shall apply my self in these lines.
But whence shall I fetch my arguments, or how shall I choose my words? Lord, wherewith shall I woo them? wherewith shall I win them? Oh that I could but tell! I would write unto them in tears, would weep out every argument, I would empty my veins for Ink, I would petition them on my knees, verily (were I able) I would. O how thankful I would be, if they would be prevailed with to repent and turn.
How long have I travelled in birth with you? how frequently have I made suit to you? how often would I have gathered you? how instant have I been with you? this is that I have prayed for, and studied for, for many years, that I might bring you to God: Oh that I might but do it! Will you yet be intreated? Oh what a happy man might you make me, if you would but hearken to me, and suffer me to carry you over to Jesus Christ!
But, Lord, how insufficient am I for this work! I have been many a year wooing for thee, but the Damsel would not go with me. Lord, what a task hast thou set me to do! Alas, wherewith shall I pierce the scales of Leviathan, or make the heart to feel that is hard as a stone; hard as a piece of the nether Milstone! Shall I go and lay my mouth to the grave, and look when the dead will obey me and come forth? Shall I make an Oration to the Rocks? or declaim to the Mountains, and think to move them with arguments? Shall I give the blind to see? From the beginning of the world was it not heard that a man opened the eyes of the blind; But thou, O Lord, canst pierce the scales and prick the heart of the Sinner. I can but shoot at rovers, and draw the bow at a venture, and do thou direct the arrow between the joynts of the harness, and kill the sin, and save the Soul of a sinner, that casts his eyes into these labours.
But I must apply my self to you, to whom I am sent: yet I am at a great loss. Would to God I knew how to go to work with you! would I stick at the pains? God knoweth you your selves are my witnesses, how I have followed you in private, as well as in publick, and have brought the Gospel to your doors, testifying to you the necessity of the new birth, and persuading you to look in time after a sound and thorough change. Beloved, I have not acted a part among you, to serve my own advantage: your Gospel is not yea… and nay. Have you not heard the same truths, from the Pulpit, by publick labours, and by private letters, by personal instructions? Brethren, I am of the same mind as ever, that holiness is the best choice, that there is no entring into Heaven, but by the streight passages of the second birth, that without holiness you shall never see God, Heb. 12. 14. Ah my beloved! refresh my bowels in the Lord. If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any bowels and mercies, fulfil you my joy. Now give your selves unto the Lord, 2 Cor. 8. 5. Now set your selves to seek him. Now set up the Lord Jesus in your heares, and set him up in your houses: Now come in and kiss the Son, Psal. 2. 12. and embrace the tenders of mercy. Touch his Scepter and live; why will you die? I beg not for my self; but fain I would have you happy: This is the prize I run for, and the white I aim at. My soul's desire and prayer for you is, that you may be saved, Rom. 10. 1.
The famous Lycurgus, having instituted most strict and wholesom Laws for his people, told them he was necessitated to go a Journey from them… and got them to bind themselves in an Oath, that his Laws should be observed till his return. This done, he went into a voluntary banishment, and never returned more, that they might, by vertue of their Oath, be engaged to the perpetual observing of his Laws. Methinks I should be glad of the hard conditions which he endured (though I love you tenderly) so I might but hereby engage you throughly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dearly beloved, would you rejoyce the heart of your Minister? Why then, embrace the Counsels of the Lord by me: forgo your sins: set to prayer: up with the Worship of God in your families: keep at a distance from the corruptions of the times. What greater joy to a Minister, than to hear of souls born unto Christ by him, and that his Children walk in the truth? 2 Iohn 4.
Brethren, I beseech you suffer friendly plainness and freedom with you in your deepest concernments. I am not playing the Orator, to make a learned speech to you, nor dressing my dish with eloquence, wherewith to please you. These lines are upon a weighty errand indeed, viz. to convince, and convert, and to save you. I am not baiting my hook with Rhetorick, nor fishing for your applause, but for your souls. My work is not to please you, but to save you; nor is my business with your fancies, but your hearts. If I have not your hearts, I have nothing. If I were to please your ears, I could sing another song. If I were to preach my self, I would steer another course; I could then tell you a smoother tale: I would make you pillows, and speak you peace; for how can Ahab love this Micaiah that always prophesies evil concerning him? 1 Kings 22. 8. But how much better are the wounds of a Friend, than the fair speeches of the Harlot, who flattereth with her lips, till the Dart strike through the liver, and hunteth for the precious life? Prov. 7. 21, 22, 23. and Prov. 6. 26. If I were to quiet a crying infant, I might sing him to a pleasant mood, and rock him asleep. But when the Child is fallen into the Fire, the parent takes another course; he will not go to still him with a song or trifle. I know if we speed not with you, you are lost. If we cannot get your consent to arise, and come away, you perish for ever. No Conversion, and no Salvation: I must get your good will, or leave you miserable.
But here the difficulty of my work again recurs upon me. Lord choose my stones out of the Rocks, 1 Sam. 17. 40, 45. I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel. I come forth like the stripling Goliah, to wrestle, not with flesh and blood, but with Principalities and Powers, and the Rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. 6. 12. This day let the Lord smite the Philistine, and spoil the strong man of his Armour and give me to fetch off the captives out of his hand. Lord choose my words, choose my weapons for me, and when I put my hand into the bag, and take thence a stone, and sling it, do thou carry it to the mark and make it sink, not into the forehead, 1 Sam. 17. 49. but the heart of the unconverted sinner, and smite him to the ground, with Saul in his so happy fall, Acts 9. 4. Thou hast sent me, as Abraham did Eliezer, to take a wife unto my master thy Son, Gen. 24. 4. But my discouraged soul is ready to fear the woman will not be willing to follow me. O Lord God of my Master, I pray thee send me good speed this day, and shew kindness to my Master, and send thine Angel before me, and prosper my way, that I may take a wife unto thy son, Gen. 24. 12. That as the servant rested not till he had brought Isaac and Rebekah together, so I may be successful to bring Christ and the souls of my people together, before we part.
But I turn me unto you. Some of you do not know what I mean by conversion, and in vain shall I persuade you to that which you do not understand, and therefore for your sakes, I shall shew what this Conversion is. Others do cherish secret hopes of mercy, though they continue as they be; and for them I must shew the necessity of Conversion. Others are like to harden themselves with a vain conceit, that they are converted already, unto them I must shew the marks of the unconverted. Others because they feel no harm, fear none, and so sleep upon the top of the mast; to them I shall shew the misery of the unconverted. Others sit still, because they see not their way out; to them I shall shew the means of conversion. And finally for the quickening of all, I shall close with the motives of Conversion.