A Call to the Unconverted, Application 4

A Call to the Unconverted · Application 4

p. 220Vse.

FRom what hath been said, you may further learn these following things.

1. From hence you may see, not only what blasphemy and impiety it is, to lay the blame of mens destruction upon God, but also how unfit these wicked wretches are to bring in such a charge against their Maker. They cry out upon God, and say, He gives them not grace, and his threatnings are severe, and God forbid that all should be damned that be not Converted and Sanctified; and they think it hard measure that a short sin should have an endless suffering; and if they be damned, they say, they cannot help it: When in the mean time, they are busie about their own destruction, p. 221even cutting the throat of their own souls, and will not be perswaded to hold their hands They think God were cruel if he should damn them; and yet they are so cruel to themselves that they will run into the fire of Hell; when God hath told them it is a little before them, and neither intreaties, nor threatnings, nor any thing that can be said, will stop them. We see them almost undone: Their careless, worldly, fleshly lives do tell us that they are in the power of the Devil: we know if they die before they are Converted, all the world cannot save them; and knowing the uncertainty of their lives, we are afraid every day lest they drop into the fire. And therefore we intreat them to pitty their own souls, and not to undo themselves when mercy is at hand; and they will not hear us. We intreat them to cast away their sin, p. 222and come to Christ without delay, and to have some mercy on themselves; but they will have none. And yet they think that God must be cruel if he condemn them. O wilful wretched sinners! It is not God that is cruel to you: it is you that are cruel to your selves. You are told you must Turn or burn and yet you Turn not. You are told that if you will needs keep your sins, you shall keep the Curse of God with them: and yet you will keep them. You are told that there is no way to Happiness but by Holiness, and yet you will not be Holy. What would you have God say more to you? What would you have him do with his Mercy? He offereth it you, and you will not have it. You are in the ditch of sin and misery, and he would give you his hand to help you out, and you refuse his help: he would cleanse you of your sins, p. 223and you had rather keep them. You love your lust, and love your gluttony, and sports, and drunkenness, and will not let them go. Would you have him bring you to Heaven whether you will or no? Or would you have him bring you and your sins to heaven together? Why, that's an impossibility; you may as well expect he should turn the Sun into Darkness. What! an unsanctified fleshly heart be in Heaven; it cannot be: There entreth nothing that is unclean, Revel. 21.27. For what Communion hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial? 2 Corinth. 6.14, 15. All the day long hath he stretched out his hand to a disobedient and gain saying people, Romans 10.25. What will you do now? Will you cry to God for mercy! why God calleth upon you to have mercy upon your selves, and you will not. Ministers see the p. 224poysoned cup in the drunkards hand, and tell him, There is poyson in it, and desire him to have Mercy on his soul, and forbear, and he will not hear us; drink it he must and will: he loves it, and therefore though Hell come next, he saith, he cannot help it. What should one say to such men as these? We tell the ungodly careless worldling, It is not such a life that will serve the turn, or ever bring you to Heaven. If a Bear were at your back you would mend your pace; and when the curse of God is at your back, and Satan and Hell are at your back will you not stir, but ask what needs all this ado? Is an immortal soul of no more worth? O have mercy upon your selves! But they will have no mercy on themselves, nor once regard us. We tell them, the end will be bitter. Who can dwell with the everlasting fire? And yet p. 225they will have no mercy upon themselves. And yet will these shameless wretches say, that God is more merciful then to condemn them, when it is themselves that cruelly and unmercifully run upon Condemnation; and if we should go to them with our hats in our hands and intreate them, we cannot stop them. If we should fall down on our knees to them, we cannot stop them; but to Hell they will, and yet will not believe that they are going thither. If we beg of them for the sake of God that made them, and preserveth them; for the sake of Christ that dyed for them; for the sake of their own poor souls, to pitty themselves and go no further in the way to Hell; but come to Christ while his arms are open, and enter into a state of life while the door stands open, and now take mercy while mercy may be p. 226had; they will not be perswaded. If we should die for it, we cannot get them so much as now and then to consider with themselves of the matter, and to Turn. And yet they can say, I hope God will be merciful. Did you ever consider what he saith, Isa. 27.11. [It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he hath formed them, will show them no favour.] If another man will not cloath you when you are naked, and feed you when you are hungry, you will say he is unmerciful. If he should cast you into prison, or beat and torment you, you would say, he is unmerciful. And yet you will do a thousand times more against your selves, even cast away both soul and body for ever, and never complain of your own unmercifulness. Yea and God that waited upon you all the while with his p. 227mercy, must be taken to be unmerciful, if he punish you after all this. Unless the holy God of Heaven will give these wretches leave to trample upon his Sons blood, and with the Jews, as it were again to spit in his face, and do despight to the Spirit of grace, and make a jest of sin, and a mock at holiness, and set more light by saving mercy, then by the filth of their fleshly pleasures, and unless after all this he will save them by the mercy which they cast away, and would none of, God himself must be called unmerciful by them. But he will be justified when he Judgeth, and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful worm.

I know there are many particular cavils that are brought by them against the Lord, but I shall not here stay to answer them particularly, having done it already in p. 228in my Treatise of Iudgement, to which I shall refer them. Had the disputing part of the world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction, as they have been busie in searching after the cause of them, and forward indirectly to impute it to God, they might have exercised their wits more profitably, and have less wronged God, and sped better themselves. When so ugly a monster as sin is within us, and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us, and so dreadful a thing as Hell is before us, one would think it should be an easie question, who is in the fault, and whether God or man be the principal or culpable cause▪ Some men are such favourable Judges of themselves, that they are proner to accuse the Infinite Perfection and Goodness it self, then their own hearts: and imitate their first parents that said, The Serpent tempted p. 229me, and the woman that thou gavest me, gave unto me, and I did eat;] secretly implying that God was the cause. So say they, [The understanding that thou gavest me, was unable to discern; the will that thou gavest me, was unable to make a better choice; the objects which thou diast set before me, did entice me; the temptation which thou didst permit to assault me, prevailed against me. And some are so loth to think that God can make a self-determining creature, that they dare not deny him that which they take to be his prerogative, to be the determiner of the will in every sin, as the first efficient immediate physical cause. And many could be content to acquit God from so much causing of evil, if they could but reconcile it with his being the chief cause of good; as if truths must be no longer truths, then we are able to see p. 230them in their perfect order and coherence: because our r…velled wits cannot set them right together, nor assign each truth its proper place, we presume to conclude that some must be cast away. This is the fruit of proud self-conceitedness, when men receive not Gods truths as a child his lesson, in an holy submission to the omniscience of our Teacher, but as Censurers that are too wise to learn.

Object. But we cannot Convert our selves till God Convert us: we can do nothing without his grace: It is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy.

Answ. 1. God hath two degrees of mercy to shew: the mercy of Conversion first; and the mercy of Salvation list: the latter he will give to none but those that will and run, and hath p. 231promised it to them only. The former is to make them willing that were unwilling: and though your own willing and endeavours deserve not this grace, yet your wilfull refusal deserveth that it should be denyed to you. Your disabily is your very unwillingness it self, which excuseth not your sin, but maketh it the greater. You could Turn if you were but truly willing: and if your wills themselves are so corrupted, that nothing but effectual grace will move them, you have the more cause to seek for that grace, and yield to it, and do what you can in the use of means, and not neglect it, or set against it. Do what you are able first, and then complain of God for denying you grace if you have cause.

Object. But you seem to intimate all this while that man hath free will.

p. 232Answer. The dispute about free-will is beyond your capacity; I shall therefore now trouble you with no more but this about it. Your will is naturally a free, that is, a self-determining faculty, but it is vitiously inclined, and backward to good, and therefore we see by sad experience that it hath not a vertuous moral freedom. But that is the wickedness of it, which deserveth the punishment. And I pray you let us not befool our selves with opinions. Let the case be your own. If you have an enemy so malicious, that he falls upon you, and beats you every time he meets you, and takes away the lives of your children, will you excuse him because he saith, [I have not free will, it is my nature; I cannot choose unless God give me grace.] If you have a servant that robbeth you, will you take such an answer p. 233from him? Might not every Thief and Murderer that is hanged it the Assize give such an answer, [I have not free-will; I cannot change my own heart: what can I do without Gods grace?] and shall they therefore be acquit? If not, why then should you think to be acquit for a course of sin against the Lord?

2. FRom hence also you may observe these three things together. 1. What a subtile tempter Satan is. 2. What a deceitful thing sin is. 3. What a foolish creature corrupted man is. A subtile tempter indeed, that can perswade the greatest part of the world to go wilfully into ever…asting fire, when they have so many warnings and disswasives as they have. A deceitful thing is sin p. 234indeed, that can bewitch so many thousands to put with everlasting life, for a thing so base and utterly unworthy! A foolish creature is man indeed, that will be so cheated of his salvation for nothing; yea for a known nothing: and that by an enemy, and a known enemy. You would think it impossible that any man in his wits should be perswaded for a trifle to cast himself into the fire, or water, or into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his life. And yet men will be enticed to cast themselves into Hell. If your natural lives were in your own hands, that you should not die till you would kill your selves; how long would most of you live? And yet when your everlasting life is so far in your own hands under God, that you cannot be undone till you undo your selves, how few of you will forbear your own undoing? Ah what a silly thing is p. 235man! and what a bewitching and befooling thing is sin?

3. FRom hence also you may learn, that it is no great wonder if wicked men be hinderers of others in the way to heaven, and would have as many Unconverted as they can, and would draw them into sin, and keep them … it! Can you expect that they should have any mercy on others, …hat have none upon themselves? …nd that they should much stick at …he destruction of others, that …ck not to destroy themselves? They do no worse by others then …hey do by themselves.

4. LAstly, you may hence learn, that the greatest enemy to man is himself; and the greatest judgement in this life that p. 236can befall him, is to be left to himself; and that the great work that Grace hath to do, is to save us from our selves, and the greatest accusations and complaints of men should be against themselves; and that the greatest work that we have to do our selves, is to resist our selves; and the greatest enemy that we should daily pray, and watch, and strive against, is our own carnal hearts and wills; and the greatest part of your work, if you would do good to others, and help them to heaven, is to save them from themselves, even from their own blind understandings, and corrupted wills, and perverse affections, and violent passions, and unruly senses. I only name all these for brevity sake, and leave them to your further consideration.

p. 237WELL Sirs, now we have found out the great Delinquent and Murderer of souls, (even mens selves, their own wills) what remains but that you judge according to the evidence, and confess this great iniquity before the Lord, and be humbled for it, and do so no more? To these three ends distinctly, I shall add a few words more. 1. Further to convince you. 2. To humble you. And 3. To reform you, if there be yet any hope.

1. We know so much of the exceeding gracious nature of God, who is willing to do good, and delighteth to shew mercy, that we have no reason to suspect him of being the culpable cause of our death, or to call him cruel: He made all good, and he preserveth and maintaineth all; the eyes of p. 238all things do wait upon him; and he giveth them their meat in due season; he openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desires of all the living, Psalm 145.15, 16. He is not only righteous in all his waies, (and therefore will deal justly) and holy in all his works, (and therefore not the author of sin) but [he is also good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.] Psal. 145.17, 9.

But as for man, we know his mind is dark, his will perverse, his affections carry him so headlong, that he is fitted by his folly and corruption to such a work as the destroying of himself. If you saw a Lamb lie killed in the way, would you sooner suspect the sheep, or the dog, or woolf, to be the author of it, if they both stood by? or if you see an house broken and the people murdered, would you sooner suspect the Prince or Iudge, p. 239that is wise and just, and had no need; or a known Thief or Murderer? I say therefore as Iames 1.13, 14, 15. Let no man say when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth be any man, (to draw him to sin) But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.] You see here, that sin is the brat of your own concupiscence, and not to be fathered on God; and that death is the off-spring of your own sin, and the fruit which it will yield you as soon as it is ripe. You have a treasure of evil in your selves as a spider hath of poyson: from whence you are bringing forth hurt to your selves and spinning such webs as en…ngle your own souls. Your p. 240Nature shews, its you that are the cause.

2. Its evident that you are your own destroyers, in that you are so Ready to entertain any Temptation almost that is offered you. Satan is scarce readier to move you to any evil, then you are ready to hear, and do as he would have you. If he would tempt your understanding to error and prejud…ce, you yield. If he would hinder you from good resolutions, it is soon done. If he would cool any good desires or affections, it is soon done. If he would kindle any lust or vile affections and desires in you, it is soon done: if he will put you on to evil thoughts, or words, or deeds, you are so free that he needs not rod or spur: if he would keep you from holy thoughts, and words, and waies, a little doth it; you need no curb. You examine not his suggestions, p. 241nor resist them with any resolution, nor cast them out as he casts them in, nor quench the sparks which he endeavoureth to kindle: but you set in with him, and meet him half way, and embrace his motions, and tempt him to tempt you. And its easie to catch such greedy fish that are ranging for a bait, and will take the bare hook.

3. Your destruction is evidently long of your selves, in that you Resist all that would help to save you, and would do you good, or hinder you from undoing your selves God would help and save you by his word, and you resist it, it is too strict for you. He would sanctifie you by his Spirit, and you resist, and quench it. If any man reprove you for your sin, you fly in his face with evil words; and if he would draw you to an holy life, and tell you of your present p. 242danger, you give him little thanks, but either bid him look to himself, he shall not answer for you; or else at best, you put him off with an heartless thanks, and will not Turn when you are perswaded. If Ministers would privately instruct and help you, you will not come at them; your unhumbled souls do feel but little need of their help. If they would Catechize you, you are too old to be Catechised, though you are not too old to be ignorant and unholy. Whatever they can say to you for your good, you are so self-conceited and wise in your own eyes, (even in the depth of ignorance) that you will regard nothing that agreeth not with your present conceits, but contradict your Teachers, as if you were wiser then they; you resist all that they can say to you, by your ignorance and wilfulness, and foolish Cavils, p. 243and shifting evasions, and unthankfull rejections, so that no good that is offered can find any welcome acceptance and entertainment with you.

4. Moreover its apparent that you are self-destroyers, in that you draw the matter of your sin and destruction even from the blessed God himself. You like not the contrivances of his Wisdom: You like not his Justice, but take it for cruelty: You like not his Holiness, but are ready to think he is such a one as your selves, Psal. 50.21. and makes as light of sin as you: You like not his Truth, but would have his Threanings, even his peremptory Threatnings prove false. And his goodness which you seem most highly to approve, you partly resist, as it would lead you to repentance; and partly abuse, to the strengthning of you sin, as if you might the freelyer sin, because p. 244God is Merciful, and because his Grace doth so much abound.

Yea you fetch destruction from …he blessed Redeemer, and Death from the Lord of life himself. And nothing more emboldneth you in sin, then that Christ hath died for you; as if now the danger of death were over, and you might boldly venture: As if Christ were become a servant to Satan and your sins, and must wait upon you while you are abusing him: and because he is become the Physitian of souls, and he is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him, you think he must suffer you to refuse his help, and throw away his Medicines, and must save you whether you will come to God by him or no: so that a great part of your sins are occasioned by your bold presumption, upon the death of Christ.

Not considering that he came p. 245to redeem his people from their sins, and to sanctifie them a peculiar people to himself, and to conform them in Holiness to the image of their heavenly Father and to their head, Mat. 1.21. Tit. 2.14. 1 Pet. 1.15, 16. Col. 3.10, 11. Phil. 3.9, 10.

6. You also fetch your own destruction from all the providences and works of God. When you think of his eternal fore-knowledge and Decrees, it is to harden you in your sin, or possess your minds with quarrelling thoughts, as if his Decrees might spare you the labour of repentance and an holy life, or else were the cause of your sin and death. If he afflict you, you repine: If he prosper you, you the more forget him, and are the backwarder to the thoughts of the life to come. If the wicked prosper, you forget the end that will set all reckonings strait, and p. 246are ready to think, its as good be wicked as godly. And thus you draw your death from all.

7. And the like you do from all the Creatures and mercies of God to you. He giveth them to you as the tokens of his love, and furniture for his service, and you turn them against him, to the pleasing of your flesh. You eat and drink to please your appetite, and not for the glory of God, and to enable you for his work. Your cloathes you abuse to pride. Your Riches draw your hearts from heaven, Phil. 3.18. Your honours and applause do puff you up: If you have health and strength, it makes you more secure and forget your end. Yea other mens mercies are abused by you to your hurt. If you see their honours and dignity, you are provoked to envy them. If you see their riches, you are ready to p. 247covet them. If you look upon beauty, you are stirred up to lust, and its well if godliness be not an eye-fore to you.

8. The very gifts that God bestoweth on you, and the Ordinances of grace which he hath instituted for his Church, you turn to sin. If you have better parts then others, you grow proud and self-conceited: if you have but common gifts, you take them for special Grace. You take the bare hearing of your duty for so good a work, as if it would excuse you for not obeying it. Your Prayers are turned into sin, because you regard iniquity in your hearts, Psalm 66.18. and depart not from iniquity when you call on the name of the Lord, 2 Tim. 2.19. Your prayers are abominable, because you turn away your ear from hearing the Law, Prov. 28.9. And are more ready to offer the Sacrifice of p. 248fools, (thinking you do God some special service) then to hear his word and obey it, Eccles. 5.1. You examine not your selves before you receive the Supper of the Lord, but not discerning the Lords body, do eat and drink judgement to your selves, 1 Cor. 11.28, 29.

9. Yea the persons that you converse with, and all their actions, you make the occasions of your sin and destruction. If they live in the fear of God, you hate them. If they live ungodlily, you imitate them: if the wicked are many, you think you may the more boldly follow them; if the godly be few, you are the more emboldened to despise them. If they walk exactly, you think they are too precise; if one of them fall in a particular temptation, you stumble upon them, and turn away from holiness, because that p. 249others are imperfectly holy: as if you were warranted to break your necks, because some others have by their heedlesness sprained a sinnew or put out a bone. If an hypocrite discover himself, you say, They are all alike, and think your selves as honest as the best. A Professor can scarce slip into any miscarriage, but because he cuts his finger, you think you may boldly cut your throats. If ministers deal plainly with you, you say they rail. If they speak gently or coldly, you ei…her sleep under them, or are little more affected then the seats you sit upon. If any errours creep into the Church, some greedily entertain them, and others reproach the Christian Doctrine for them, which is most against them. And if we would draw you from any ancient rooted errour, which can but plead two, or three, or six, or seven p. 250hundred years custom, you are as much offended with a motion for Reformation, as if you were to lose you lives by it, and hold fast old errors, while you cry out against new ones. Scarce a difference can arise among the ministers of the Gospel, but you will fetch your own death from it. And you will not hear, or at least not obey the unquestionable Doctrine of any thing that jumps not with your conceits: One will not hear a Minister, because he readeth his Sermon: and another will not hear him, because he doth not read them. One will not hear him, because he saith the Lords prayer: and another will not hear him, because he doth not use it. One will not hear them that are for Episcopacy: and another will not hear them that are against it. And thus I might shew it you in many other cases, how you turn all that p. 251comes near you to your own destruction, so clear is it that the ungodly are self-destroyers, and that their perdition is of themselves.

ME thinks, now upon the consideration of what is said, and the review of your own waies, you should bethink you what you have done, and be ashamed and deeply humbled to remember it. If you be not, I pray you consider these following truths.

1. To be your own destroyers, is to sin against the deepest principle in your Natures, even the principle of self preservation. Every thing naturally desireth or inclineth to its own felicity, well-fare or perfection. And will you set your selves to your own destruction? When you are commanded to love your neighbours p. 252as your selves, it is supposed that you naturally love your selves. But if you love your neighbours no better then your selves, it seems you would have all the world be damned.

2. How extreamly do you cross your own intentions! I know you intend not your own damnation, even when you are procuring it; you think you are but doing good to your selves, by gratifying the desires of your flesh. But alas, it is but as a draught of cold water in a burning feaver, or as the scratching of an itching wild-fire, which increaseth the disease and pain. If indeed you would have pleasure, or profit, or honour, seek them where they are to be found, and do not hunt after them in the way to hell.

3. What pitty is it, that you should do that against your selves, which none else in earth or hell p. 253can do! If all the world were combined against you, or all the Devils in Hell were combined against you, they could not destroy you without your selves, nor make you sin but by your own consent. And will you do that against your selves which no one else can do? you have hateful thoughts of the Devil, because he is your enemy, and endeavoureth your destruction. And will you be worse then Devils to your selves? Why thus it is with you, if you had hearts to understand it: when you run into sin, and run from godliness, and refuse to turn at the Call of God, you do more against your own souls, then men or devils could do besides. And if you should set your selves, and bend your wits to do your selves the greatest mischief, you could not devise to do a greater.

4. You are false to the trust p. 254that God hath reposed in you. He hath much entrusted you with your own salvation: and will you betray your trust? He hath set you with all diligence to keep your hearts: and is this the keeping of them? Prov. 4.23.

5. You do even forbid all others to pitty you, when you will have no pitty on your selves: if you cry to God in the time of your calamity, for Mercy, Mercy; what can you expect, but that he should thrust you away, and say, [Nay thou wouldst not have mercy on thy self: who brought this upon thee but thy own wilfulness?] And if your Brethren see you everlastingly in misery, how shall they pitty you that were your own destroyers, and would not be disswaded?

6. It will everlastingly make you your own Tormenters in Hell to think on it, that you brought your selves wilfully to that misery. p. 255O what a griping thought it will be for ever to think with your selves, [That this was your own doing! That you were warned of this day, and warned again, but it would not do. That you wilfully sinned; and wilfully turned away from God: That you had time as well as others, but you abused it: You had Teachers as well as others, but you refused their instructions: You had holy examples, but you did not imitate them: You were offered Christ, and Grace, and Glory, as well as others; but you had more mind of your fleshly pleasures: You had a price in your hands, but you had not an heart to lay it out, Proverbs 17.16. Can it choose but torment you to think of this your present folly? O that your eyes were opened to see what you have done in the wilful wronging of your own souls! p. 256and that you better understood those words of God, Pro. 8, 33, 34, 35, 36. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not: Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors: For who so findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain the favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me, love death.]

AND now I am come to the Conclusion of this work; my heart is troubled to think how I shall leave you; lest after this the flesh should still deceive you, and the world and the Devil should keep you asleep, and I should leave you as I find you, till you awake in Hell; Though in care of your poor souls, I am affraid of this, as knowing the obstinacy p. 257of a carnal heart, yet I can say with the Prophet Ieremy, 17.16. [I have not desired the woful day, the Lord knoweth.] I have not with Iames and Iohn desired that fire might come from heaven to consume them that refused Jesus Christ, Luke 9.54. But it is the preventing of the eternal fire that I have been all this while endeavouring: and O that it had been a needless work! That God and conscience might have been as willing to spare me this labour, as some of you could have been. Dear friends! I am so loth you should lie in everlasting fire, and be shut out of Heaven, if it be possible to prevent it, that I shall once more ask you, What do you now resolve? Will you Turn or Die? I look upon you as a Physitian on his Patient in a dangerous disease: that saith to him [Though you are far gone, take this medicine, p. 256duplicate page p. 257duplicate page p. 258and forbear but these few things that are hurtful to you, and I dare warrant your life; but if you will not do this, you are but a dead man.] What would you think of such a man, if the Physitian and all the friends he hath cannot perswade him to take one medicine to save his life, or to forbear one or two poysonous things that would kill him? This is your case. As far as you are gone in sin, do but now Turn and Come to Christ, and take his Remedies, and your souls shall live. Cast up your deadly sins by Repentance, and return not to the poysonous vomit any more, and you shall do well. But yet if it were your bodies that we had to deal with, we might partly know what to do for you, though you would not consent. You might be held or bound, while the medicine were poured down your throats, and hurtful p. 259things might be kept from you. But about your souls it cannot so so, we cannot Convert you against your wills. There is no carrying mad men to Heaven in fetters. You may be Condemned against your wills, because you sinned with your wills: but you cannot be saved against your wills. The wisdom of God hath thought meet to lay mens salvation or destruction exceeding much upon the choice of their own wills, that no man shall come to heaven, that chose not the way to heaven; and no man shall come to hell, but shall be forced to say, I have the thing I chose: my own will did bring me hither. Now if I could but get you to be willing, to be throughly, and resolvedly, and Habitually willing, the work were more then half done. And alas, must we lose our friends, and must they lose their God, their happiness, p. 260their souls for want of this? O God forbid! It is a strange thing to me, that men are so inhuman… and stupid in the greatest matters that in lesser things are very civil and courteous, and good neighbours. For ought I know, I hav… the Love of all, or almost all my neighbours, so far, that if I should send to ever a man in the Town, or Parish, or Country, and request a reasonable courtesie of them, they would grant it me: And yet when I come to request of them the greatest matter in the world for themselves and not for me, I can have nothing of many of them but a patient hearing. I know not whether people think a man in the pulpit is in good sadness or not, and means as he speaks: For I think I have few neighbour, but if I were sitting familiarly with them, and telling them of what I have seen, or done, or known in p. 261…he world, they would believe me, and regard what I say; But when I tell thee from the infallible word of God, what they them…elves shall see and know in the world to come, they shew by their …ves that they do either not beleve it, or not much regard it. If I met ever an one of them on the way, and told them, Yonder is … Cole pit, or there's a quicksand, or there are thieves lie in wait for you; I could perswade them to turn by: But when I tell them, that Satan lyeth in wait for them, and that sin is poison to them, and that Hell is not a matter to be jested with: they go on as if they did not hear me. Truly neighbours, I am in as good earnest with you in the Pulpit, as I am in any familiar discourse; and if ever you will regard me, I beseech you let it be here. I think there is never a man of you all, but if my own p. 262soul lay at your wills, you would be willing to save it (though … cannot promise that you would leave your sin, for it.) Tell me▪ thou Drunkard, that art so crue… to me that speaks to thee, that thou wouldst not forbear a few cups of drink, if thou knewest it would save my soul from Hell? Hadst thou rather I did burn there for ever then thou shouldst live soberly as other men do? If so, may I not say, thou art an unmerciful monster, and not a man? If I came hungry or naked to one of your doors, would you not part with more then a cup of drink to relieve me? I am confident you would: If it were to save my life, I know you would (some of you) hazzard your own. And yet will you not be entreated to part with your sensual pleasures for your own salvation? Wouldst thou forbear an hundred cups of drink p. 263man, to save my life if it were in thy power, and wilt thou not do it to save thy own soul? I profess to you Sirs, I am as hearty a beggar with you this day for the saving of your own souls, as I would be for my own supply if I were forced to come a begging to your doors. And therefore if you would hear me then, hear me now. If you would pitty me then, be intreated now to pitty your selves. I do again beseech you, as if it were on my bended knees, that you would hearken to your Redeemer, and turn that you may live. All you that have lived in ignorance, and carelesness, and presumption to this day: All you that have been drowned in the cares of the world, and have no mind of God and eternal Glory: all you that are enslaved to your fleshly desires of meats and drinks, and sports, and lusts: and all you that know not p. 264the necessity of holiness, and never were acquainted with the Sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost upon your souls; that never embraced your blessed Redeemer by a lively faith, and admiring and thankfu… apprehensions of his love, and that never felt an higher estimation of God and Heaven, and an hear…ier Love to them then to your fleshly prosperity and the things below. I earnestly beseech you not only for my sake, but for the Lords sake, and for your souls sakes, that you go not on one day longer in your former condition, but look about you, and cry to God for converting grace, that you may be made new creatures, and may escape the plagues that are a little before you. And if ever you will do any thing for me, grant me this request, to Turn from your evil waies and live. Deny me any thing that ever I p. 265shall ask you for my self, if you will but grant me this. And if you deny me this, I care not for any thing else that you would grant me. Nay as ever you will do any thing at the request of the Lord that made you and redeemed you, deny him not this: For if you deny him this, he cares for nothing that you shall grant him. As ever you would have him hear your prayers, and grant your requests, and do for you at the hour of death and day of judgement, or in any of your extremities, deny not his request now in the day of your prosperity. Oh Sirs, believe it, Death and Judgement, and Heaven and Hell are other matters when you come near them, then they seem to carnal eyes afar off. Then you would hear such a message as I bring you with more awakened regardful hearts.

p. 266WELL, though I cannot hope so well of all, will hope that some of you are by this time purposing to Turn and Live; and that you are ready to ask me, as the Jews did Peter, Acts 2.37. when they were pricked in their hearts, & said, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? How might we come to be truly converted? We are willing, if we did but know our duty. God forbid that we should choose destruction, by refusing conversion, as hitherto we have done.]

If these be the thoughts and purposes of your hearts, I say of you as God did of a promising people, Deut. 5.28, 29. [They have well said, all that they have spoken; O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandements alwaies!] Your Purposes are good: O that there be but an heart in you to perform p. 267these purposes! And in hope hereof I shall gladly give you direction what to do, and that but briefly, that you may the easier Remember it for your Practice.

DIRECTION I.

IF you would be converted and saved, labour to understand the necessity and true Nature of Conversion: For what, and from what, and to what, and by what it is that you must Turn.

Consider in what a lamentable condition you are till the hour of your conversion, that you may see it is not a state to be rested in. You are under the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed; and under the wrath of God, and the curse of his Law; you are bondslaves to the Devil, and daily imployed in his work, against the p. 268Lord, your selves, and others: you are spiritually dead and deformed, as being void of the holy life, and nature, and image, of the Lord. You are unfit for any holy work and do nothing that is truly pleasing unto God. You are without any promise or assurance of his p…otection: and live in continual danger of his Justice, not knowing what hour you may be snatcht away to Hell, and most certain to be damned if you die in that condition. And nothing short of Conversion can prevent it. What ever civilities, or amendments, or vertues are short of true conversion, will never procure the saving of your souls. Keep the true sense of this natural misery, and so of the necessity of Conversion on your hearts.

And then you must understand what it is to be converted: It is to have a New Heart or Disposition, p. 269and a New Conversation.

Quest. 1. For what must you Turn?

Answ. For these ends following, which you may attain: 1. You shall immediately be made living Members of Christ, and have interest in him, and be renewed a…ter the Image of God, and be adorned with all his graces, and quickned with a new and heavenly life, and lived from the tyrannie of Satan, and the dominion of sin, and be justified from the curse of the Law, and have the pardon of all the sins of your whole lives, and be accepted of God, and made his Sons, and have liberty with boldness to call him Father, and go to him by prayer in all your needs, with a promise of acceptance; you shall have the Holy Ghost to dwell in you▪ to s…nctifie and guide you: you shall have part in the brother-hood, p. 270communion and prayers of the Saints: You shall be fitted for Gods service, and be freed from the Dominion of sin, and be usefull and a blessing to the place where you live; and shall have the promise of this life, and that which is to come. You shall want nothing that is truly good for you, and your necessary afflictions you shall be enabled to bear; you may have some taste of communion with God in the Spirit, especially in all holy Ordinances, where God prepareth a feast for your souls; shall be heirs of heaven while you live on earth, and may for-see by faith the everlasting glory, and so may live and die in peace; and you will never be so low, but your happiness will be incomparably greater then your misery.

How precious is every one of these blessings, which I do but p. 271briefly name, and which in this life you may receive!

And then 2. at death your souls shall go to Christ, and at the day of judgement both soul and body shall be Justifyed and Glorified, and enter into your Masters Joy: where your happiness will consist in these particulars.

1. You shall be perfected your selves: your mortal bodies shall be made immortal, and the corruptible shall put on incorruption; you shall no more be hungry, or thirsty, or weary, or sick: nor shall you need to fear either shame, or sorrow, or death, or hell. Your souls shall be perfectly freed from sin, and perfectly fitted for the knowledge, and love, and praises of the Lord.

2. Your imployment shall be to behold your glorified Redeemer, with all your holy fellow. Citizens of Heaven: and to see the Glory p. 272of the most blessed God, and to Love him perfectly, and be beloved by him, and to praise him everlastingly.

3. Your glory will contribute to the glory of the new Jerusalem, the City of the Living God, which is more then to have a private felicity to your selves.

4. Your Glory will contribute to the Glorifying of your Redeemer, who will everlastingly be magnified and pleased in you that are the travail of his soul: and this is more then the Glorifying of your selves.

5. And the eternal Majesty, the living God, will be glorified in your Glory: both as he is magnified by your praises, and as he communicateth of his glory and goodness to you, and as he is plea…ed in you, and in the accomplishment of his glorious works, in the glory of the …ew Jerusalem, and of his Son.

p. 273All this the poo…est beggar of you that is Converted, shall Certainly and E…l…sly enjoy.

2. You see For what you must Turn: Next you must understand, From what you must Turn: A…d that is, (in a word) From your Carnal Self, which is the End of all the Unconverted. F…om the flesh that would be pleased before God, and would still be enticing you thereto. From the world, that is the bait: And from the Devil, that is the Angler for souls and the deceiver. And so from all known and wilfull sin.

3. Next you must know To what you must Turn: And that is, To God as your End. To Christ as the way to the Father: To Holiness as the way appointed you by Christ: And so to the use of all the helps and means of grace afforded you by the Lord.

p. 2744. Lastly, you must know By what you must Turn. And that is, by Christ as the only Redeemer, and Intercessor: And by the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier: And by the Word as his Instrument or Means: And by Faith and Repentance as the means and duties on your part to be performed. All this is of necessity.

DIRECTION II.

IF you will be Converted and Saved, be much in secret serious Consideration. Inconsiderateness undoes the world. Withdraw your selves oft into retired secrecy, and there bethink you of the end why you were made, of the life you have lived, the time you have lost, the sin you have committed: of the love, and sufferings, and fulness of Christ; of the danger p. 275you are in; of the nearness of death and judgement; and of the certainty and excellency of the Joys of Heaven; and of the certainty and terrour of the torments of Hell; and the Eternity of both: and of the necessity of Conversion and an holy life. Steep your hearts in such Considerations as these.

DIRECTION III.

IF you will be Converted and Saved, attend upon the word of God, which is the ordinary means. Read the Scripture, or hear it read, and other holy writings that do apply it constantly: attend on the publike preaching of the Word. As God will lighten the world by the Sun, and not by himself alone without it: So will he Convert and save men by his Ministers, who are the Lights of the world, p. 276Acts 26.17, 18. Mat. 5.14. When he hath miraculously humbled Paul, he sendeth him to Ananias, Acts 9.10. and when he ha…h sent an Angel to …o…nelius, it is but to bid him send for Peter, who must tell him what he is to believe and do.

DIRECTION IV.

BEtake your self to God in a course of earnest consta…t Prayer: Confess and lament your former lives, and beg his grace to illuminate and Convert you. Beseech him to pardon what is past, and to give you his Spirit, and change your hearts and lives, and lead you in his waies, and save you from temptations. And ply this work daily and be not weary of it.

p. 277DIRECTION V.

PResently give over your known and wil…ul sins. Make a st…nd and go that way no further. Be drunk no more: but avoid the place and occasion of it. Cast away your lusts and sinful pleasures with detestation. Curse, and swear, and rail no more: and if you have wronged any, restore, as Zacheus did. If you will commit again your old sins, what blessing can you expect on the means for your Conversion?

DIRECTION VI.

PResently, if possible, change your Company, if it have hitherto been bad. Not by forsaking your necessary Relations, but p. 278your unnecessary sinful companions; and joyn your selves with those that fear the Lord, and enquire of them the way to heaven, Acts 9.19, 26. Psal. 15.4.

DIRECTION VII.

DEliver up your selves to the Lord Iesus as the Physitian of your souls; that he may pardon you by his blood, and sanctifie you by his Spirit, by his word and Ministers, the instruments of the Spirit. He is the way, the truth and the life; there is no coming to the Father but by him, Iohn 14.6. Nor is there any other name under heaven, by which you can be saved, Acts 4.12. Study therefore his Person and Natures, and what he hath done and suffered for you; and what he is to you: and what he will be, and p. 279how he is fitted to the full supply of all your necessities.

DIRECTION. VIII.

IF you mean indeed to Turn and Live, Do it speedily, without delay. If you be not willing to Turn to day, you be not willing to do it at all. Remember, you are all this while in your blood: under the guilt of many thousand sins, and under Gods wrath, and you stand at the very brink of hell; there is but a step between you and death. And this is not a case for a man that is well in his wits to be quiet in. Up therefore presently and fly as for your lives: as you would be gone out of your house if it were all on fire over your head. O if you did but know what continual danger you live in, and what daily unspeakable loss you do p. 280sustain, and wha… a safer and sweeter life you might live, you would not stand tr…fl…ng, but presently turn. Multitudes miscarry that wilful…y de…ay when they are convinced that it must be done. Your lives are short and uncertain: and what a case are you in if you die before you throu…hly turn! You have staid too long already: and wronged God too long; sin getteth strength and rooting while you delay. Your Conversion will grow more hard and doubtful. You have much to do; and therefore put not all off to the last, lest God forsake you, and give you up to your selves, and then you are undone for ever.

p. 281DIRECTION IX.

IF you will Turn and Live, do it unreservedly, absolutely and universally Think not to capitulate with Christ, and devide your heart betwixt him and the world; and to part with some sins, and keep the rest; and to let go that which your flesh can spare. This is but self-deluding: you must in heart and resolution forsake all that you have, or else you cannot be his Disciples, Luke 14.26, 33. If you will not take God and Heaven for your portion▪ and lay all below at the feet of Christ, but you must needs also have your good things here, and have an earthly portion, and God and Glory is not enough for you; it is in vain to dream of salvation on these terms: For it will not be. If you seem never p. 280duplicate page p. 281duplicate page p. 282so Religious, if yet it be but a Carn…l Religiousness, and the fleshes prosperity, or pleasure, or safety be still ex…epted in your devotedness to God, this is as certain a way to death as open prophaness, though it be more plausible.

DIRECTION X.

IF you will Turn and Live, do it Resolvedly, and stand not still deliberating, as if it were a doubtful case. Stand not wavering as if you were yet uncertain, whether God or the flesh be the better Master: or whether Heaven or Hell be the better End; or whether sin or holiness be the better way. But away with your former lusts, and presently, habitually, fixedly Resolve: Be not one day of one mind, and p. 283the next of another; but be at a point with all the world, and Resolvedly give up your selves and all you have to God. Now while you are reading or hearing this Resolve. Before you sleep another night Resolve. Before you stir from the place Resolve. Before Satan have time to take you off, Resolve. You never Turn indeed till you do Resolve; and that with a firm unchangeable Resolution.

So much for the Directions.

AND now I have done my part in this work, that you may Turn at the Call of God and Live. What will become of it, I cannot tell. I have cast the seed at Gods command; but it is not in my power to give the increase. I can go no further with p. 284my message: I cannot bring it to your hearts, not make it work. I cannot do your parts for your, to entertain it and consider of it Nor I cannot do Gods part, by opening your heart… to cause you to entertain it: Nor can I shew you Heaven or Hell to your eye-sight, nor give you new and tender hearts. If I knew what more to do for your Conversion, I hope I should do it

But … thou that art the gracious Father of Spirits, that hast sworn th…n delightest not in the death of the wicked, but rather that they Turn and Live, deny not thy blessi…g to the…e Perswasions and Directions; and suffer not thine enemies to triumph in thy sight; and the great deceiver of souls, to prevail against the Son, thy Spirit, and thy Word. O pitty poor Vnconverted sinners, that have not hearts to pitty or help themselves. Command the blind p. 285to see, and the deaf to hear, and the dead to live: and let not sin and death be able to resist thee. Awaken the secure; Resolve the u…resolved; Confirm the wavering: and let the eyes of sinners that read these lines, be next employed in weeping over their sins; and bring them to themselves and to thy Son, before their sin have brought them to perdition. If th…u say but the word, these poor endeavours shall prosper to the winning of many a soul to their everlasting Ioy, and thine everlasting glory, Amen.

Finitur,

1656. Decemb. 31.

End of the text · Richard Baxter, A Call to the Unconverted (1658)