Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, Direction 3

Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion · Direction 3

p. 51DIRECT. 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 p. 52be 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 p. 53may 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 p. 54it? 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. p. 55It 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 lay the blame on God, because he doth not give it you, and say, We cannot convert our selves. But would you have the Spirit come in, while you hold the dore against him? He knocks and desireth you to open and let him in, and you wish him to come in, but you bolt the dore, and no intreaty will procure you to open it. It is Consideration of the saving doctrine of the Gospell, that openeth the heart and giveth it entertainment. Set you selves therefore on purpose to this work, & open the doores of your heart which are now shut, and let the King of Glory come in. Who will believe that you love the Light, when you shut the windows, and draw the curtains? If you will set your selves to consider of the Truth, the windows of your Soul will be set open, and then the light will certainly come in. Now you read over whole Chapters, and hear Sermon after Sermon, and either they never stir p. 56you, or at least, it's but a little for a fit, like a man that hath a little warmd him at the fire in the winter, and when he goes from it is colder then before: But if you would but set your selves to consider of what you hear or read, one line of a Chapter, or one sentence of a Sermon would say you in tears, or make you groane, or at least do more then now is done. Satan hath garrisond the heart of every carnall man: And consideration is the principall means to cast him out. If by considering of the terrible threatnings of the word, you would discharge these Canons of God against them, what a battery would it make in the corruptions of your Souls. Our God is a consuming fire, and the fire of hell is threatned in his Law, as the wages of sin: By serious Consideration you may as it were, fetch fire from God and from his word, and set to the very gates of Satans garrison, and fire him out of many of his holds.

But because this is so needfull a point, I shall be so large upon it as 1^o to tell you some of those things that you should consider of, 2^o. to tell you in what manner you should do it, and 3^o. to give you some Motives to put you on.

p. 57I. The first thing that I would have you oft to think on, is, The Nature of that God with whom you have to do. Consider that if he be the most wise, it is all the reason in the world that he should rule you. If he be Good, and infinitely Good, there is all the reason in the world that you should Love him: and there is no shew of reason, that you should love the world or sin before him. If he be faithfull and true, his threatnings must be feared, and his promises must not be distrusted; and there is no reason that you should make any question of his Word. If he be Holy, then Holiness must needs be most excellent, and those that are the Holiest must needs be the best; because they are most like to God: And then he must be an enemy to sin, and to all that are unholy, because they are contrary to his nature. Consider that he is Almighty, and there is no resisting him, or standing out against him: In the twink of an eye can he snatch thy guilty Soul from thy body, and cast it where sin is better known. A word of his Mouth can set all the world against thee; and set thine own conscience against thee too: A frown of his face can turn thee into Hell. And if he p. 58be thine enemy, it is no matter who is thy friend: For all the world cannot save thee, if he do but condemne thee. They are blessed whom he blesseth, and they are cursed indeed whom he curseth. He was from Eternity, and thou art but as it were, of yesterday: Thy being is from him: thy life is alwaies in his hands, Thou canst not live an hour without him: thou canst not fetch a breath without him: nor think a thought, nor speak a word, nor stir a foot or hand without him: Thou mayst better live without bread, or drink, or fire, or aire, or earth, or water, then without him. All the world is before him but as the drop of a bucket, or a little sand of dust that should be laid in ballance with all the earth: Hadst thou but compassed about this lower world, and seen all the Nations of it, and its wonderfull furniture, and seen the great deeps of of the mighty Ocean, and the abundance of Creatures that be in all? O what thoughts then wouldst thou have of God! But if thou hadst been above the Starres, and seen the Sun in all its glory, and seen the frame and course of those higher Orbes, and seen the blessed glorious Angels, and all the inhabitants of the higher p. 59world, O then what thoughts of God wouldst thou entertaine? O but if it were possible that thou hadst seen his Glory, or seen but his back-parts as Moses did, or seen him in Christ the now glofied Redeemer, what apprehensions wouldst thou have of him then. Then how wouldst thou abhor the name of sin: and how weary wouldst thou be of the pleasantest life that sensuality could afford thee? Then thou wouldst quickly know, that no Love can be great enough, and no praises can be high enough, and no service can be holy and good enough, for such a God: Then you wouldst soon know, that this is not a God to be neglected, or dallyed with: nor a God to be resisted, nor provoked by the wilfull breaking of his Laws. It is Eternal Life to know this God, Joh. 17. 3. and for want of knowing him, it is that sin aboundeth in the world. This maketh Holyness so scarce and leane: Men worship they care not how, because they worship they know not whom. O therefore dwell on the Meditations of the Almighty. So far as he doth possess thy mind, there will be no place for sin and vanity. One would think, if I should set you no further task, and p. 60tell you of no other matter for your Meditation, this one, should be enough: For this one is in a manner all. What will not the due knowledge of God do upon the Soul. That's the best Christian, and the most happy man that knoweth most of him: And that's the most vile and miserable wretch, that is furthest from him, and strangest to him: It is the Character of the foole of fooles, to have a heart whose disposition and practice saith, There is no God, Psal, 14. 1. That is, To be so affected and employed in their hearts, as if there were no God: and when God is not in all his thoughts, Psal. 10. 4. It was better with man when he had less knowledge for himself, and fewer thoughts for himself, and more of God. And there is no way to restore us to sound understanding, and to perfect our knowledge, but to turn our eye upon God again: For in knowing him, we know all, that's worth the knowing. Take hold then of the blessed God in thy Meditations, and fill thy thougts with him, and dwell upon those thoughts. Remember he is alwaies with thee: and where ever thou art, or what ever thou art doing, most certainly he seeth thee▪ As p. 61sure as thou are there, the Lord is there. He knowes thy thoughts: he heares thy words, he sees all thy waies. And is such a God as this to be provoked or despised! Were it not better provok and despise all the world? Is his favour to be sleighted.? Were it not better to lose the favour of all the world? Consider of this.

2^o Another thing that I would have you oft Think of, is, what end you were made for, and what business it is, that you came for into the world. You may well think that God made you not in vaine: and that he made you for no lower end, then for himself: And that he would never have made you, nor so long preserved you, if he had not cared what you do. He would never have endued you with a Reasonable and immortal Soul, but for some high, and noble, and immortal end. Surely it was that you might be happy in Knowing him, that he made you capable of Knowing him: for he made nothing in vaine. It is usefull to a horse to know his pasture, and provender, and work, and perhaps his master; but he needs not know whether there be a God: And accordingly he is qualified. But it is sure p. 62mans chief concernment to know that there is a God, and what he is, and how to serve him, and what he is and will be to us: Or else we should never have been capable of such things. And he would never have made you capable of loving him, but that you should be exercised and made happy in that Love. The frame and faculties, and capacity of your Souls; and the scope of Scripture, do all declare, that you were sent into this world, to seek after God, and to Love him, and obey him, and rejoice in him in your measure; and to prepare for a life of nearer Communion, where you may Enjoy him and please him in the highest perfection. Consider with your selves, whether a life of sin be that which you were made for? Or whether God sent you hither to break his Laws, and follow your own lusts. And whether the satisfying of your flesh, and the gathering of a little worldly wealth, and the feathering of a nest which you must so quickly leave, be like to be the business that you were sent about into the world.

3^o. The next thing that I would have you consider of is, How you have answered the Ends of your Creation, and how you p. 63have done the business that you came into the world to do. Look back upon the drift of your hearts and lives: read over the most ancient records of your consciences: and see, what you have been, & what you have been doing in the world till now. Have you spent you daies in seeking after God? and your estates and strength in faithfull serving him. Have you lived all this time in the admirations of his excellencies, and the servent Love of him, and delightfull remembrance of him, and the zealous worship of him? If you had done this, you had not need of a Conversion. But consider; have you not forgotten what business you had in the world, and little minded the world that you should have prepared for, and lived as if you knew not him that made you, or why he made you? was sport and merryment the end that you were created for? was ease and idleness, or eating, or drinking, or vaine discourses, or recreation, the business that you came into the world about? was living to the flesh, and scraping up riches, or gapeing after the esteeme of men, the work that God sent you hither to do. Was this it that he preserved you for, and p. 64daily gave you in provision for? what was it to forget him and sleight him, and turne him out of your hearts, and rob him of his service and honour; and to set up your flesh in his stead, and give that to it that was due to him? Bethink you what you have done, and whether you have done the work that you were sent to do, or not?

4^o The next thing you should use to Consider of is, How grievously you have sinned, and what a case it is that your sin hath brought you into. If you take but an impartiall view of your lives, you may see how far you have mist your marks, & how far you have been from what you should have been; and how little you have done of that which was your business: And O what abundance of aggravations have your sins, which I shall pass over now, because I must mention them under another head. It is not only some actuall out-breakings against the bent of your heart and life; but your very heart was false, and gone from God, and set in you to do evill.

O the time that you have lost; the means and helps that you have neglected; the motions that you have resisted; the p. 65swarms of evil thoughts that have filled your imaginations; the streams of vaine and evill words that have flowed from your mouth! the works of darkness, in publik and in secret that God hath seen you in! And all this while, how empty were you of inwad holiness, and how barren of good works, to God or men. What have you done with all your talents? and how little or nothing hath God had of all?

And now consider what a case you are in, while you remain unconverted? you have made your selves the sinks of sinne, the slaves of Satan, and the flesh; and are skilfull in nothing but doing evill: If you be called to prayer or holy meditation, your hearts are against it, and you are not used to it, and therefore you know not how to do it, to any purpose: But to think the thoughts of lust or coveteousness, or hatred, or malice, or revenge; this you can do without any toile: To speak of the world, or of your sports and pleasures, or against those that you bare ill will to, this you can do without any study. You are such as are spoken of, Jer. 4. 22. My people is foolish: they have not known me: they are sottish children, p. 66and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evill, but to do good they have no knowledge.] You are grown strangers to the God that made you, in whose love and service you should live and find your chief delights. Your hearts are hardned, and you are dead in your sins: The guilt of the sins of your lives are still upon you: You can neither look into your hearts or lives, no not on one day of your lives, or the best hour that you have spent, but you must see the ugly face of sin, which deserveth condemnation. You have made God your Enemy that should have been your only felicity: And yet you are alwaies at his mercy and in his hands. Little do you know how long his patience will yet endure you; or what hour he will call away your Souls; And if death come, alas, what a case will it find you in! how lamentably unready are you to meet him! how unready to appear before the dreadfull God whom you have offended; and what a terrible appearance do you think that will be to you? most certainly if you die before you are converted, you will not be from among the Devils and damned souls an hour. The Law hath cursed you already: p. 67and the execution will be answerable, if you die in your sins. And thus you may see the gain of sin, and what it is that you have been doing all this while, for your own Souls; and what a case it is that you have brought you selvs into; and what need you have speedily to look about you.

5. The next step of your Consideration should be this. Bethink your selves what a blessed Condition you might be in, if by Conversion you were but recovered from this misery, and brought home to God. This moved the heart of the Prodigall son to return, Luke 15. 16, 17. [When he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger.] He that had not husks to feed on with the swine, considered the plenty that he had for saken at home. The poorest member of the houshold of Christ, is in a better condition then the greatest King on earth, that is unconverted. You might have lived another kinde of life, then you have done, for safety, and benefit, and true content, if you would have turned your minds and life to God. Were you but Converted, you would be p. 68the living members of Christ, and his precious benefits would be yours: His blood would clense you from all your sins; and they would be all freely forgiven you: God would be Reconciled to to you, and become your friend, yea your Father and your God; and will take you for his houshold servants, and adopted children: The Holy Ghost would dwell in you, and guide your understandings, and shew you that which flesh and blood connot reveal, and bring you into acquaintance with the mysteries of God: He will be a Spirit of Light and Life within you, and work your hearts yet more to God, and give you yet stronger inclinations and affections to the things above. He will help you when you are weak, and quicken you where you are dull, and be your remembrancer when you are forgetfull of necessary things. He will help you in prayer, both for matter and for manner, and help you in Meditation, and conference and other duties: He will warn you of your danger, and strengthen you against temptations, and cause you to overcome; and if you fall, he will cause you to rise again: he will be an in-dwelling comforter p. 69to you, and so effectually speak peace to you in the midst of your disquietness, that by speaking it, he will create it in you: And in the multitude of your thoughts within you, his comforts will delight your Souls. O what a life might you live, if Christ by his Spirit did once live in you! you may easily conjecture how tender Christ would be of his own members, how dearly he would love them, how constantly he would watch over them, how plentifully he would provide for them, and how safely he would preserve them. And if you should come into a rougher way, he would lead you out: Afflictions should never be laid on you but for your good; and continue no longer then your need continueth them; and be taken off at last to your satisfaction and contentment. Indeed your life would be a life of mercies: and that which is but a common Mercy to common men, would be a speciall Mercy to you, as coming from your Fathers love, and furthering you salvation, and hinting out to you, your everlasting Mercies. You could not open your eyes, but you would see that which may encourage and comfort you: all the works of God which p. 70you behold, would shew you his Majesty, his love and power, and lead you to himself. You could not open your Bible, but you would find in it the blessed lines of Love: O what good it would do you, to read there the blessed Attributes of your God! to look upon his Name; to peruse the description of his most perfect nature! what good would it do you to read of the nature, and incarnation, and life, and death, and resurrection, and assension, and intercession, and return of your blessed Redeemer? what good would it do you to find those holy Rules which your new nature is agreeable to, and to read over the Law, that is written in your hearts, and read the curse from which you are delivered? what life and joy would your Souls receive from the many, and full, and free promises of grace! were you once but truly sanctified and made new, your condition would be often comfortable, but alwaies safe: and when you were in the greatest fears and perplexities, you would still be fast in the armes of Christ: And what a life would that be, to have daily access to God in prayer: to have leave in all your wants and dangers, to p. 71seek to him with a promise of hearing and success; that you may be sure of much more from him, then a child can from the tenderest father, or a wife from the most loving husband upon earth. What a life would it be, when you may alwaies think on God as your felicity, and fetch your higehest delights from him, from whom the ungodly have their greatest terrours? And it is no contemptible part of your benefits, that you may live among his people, and in their speciall love, and have a speciall Communion with them, and interest in their prayers, & may possess among them the priviledges of the Saints, and the Ordinances of God: That in stead of idle talk, and the unprofitable fellowship of the children and works of darkness, you may joyne with the Church of God in his Praises, and feed with them at his table on the body and blood of Christ, and then have conveyances of renewed grace, and a renewed pardon sealed to your Souls: But how long should I stay. if I should tell you but one half the blessings of a Sanctified and spirituall state? In a word, God would be yours, Christ would be yours, the Holy Ghost would be yours, all p. 72things would be yours; the whole world would have some relation to your wellfare: Devils would be subdued to you, and cast out of your Soules; sinne would be both pardoned and overcome; Angels would be ministring spirits unto you for your good: The promises of Scripture would be yours; and everlasting Glory would at last be yours; and while you staid on earth, you might comfort your selves as oft as you would, with the believing foresight of that unconceiveable, unspeakable, endless felicity.

O sirs, what a treasure have I here expressed in a few words! what hearts would you have, if they were but possessed & lively & sensible of all that is contained in this leafe or two! you would not envy the greatest Prince on earth his glory, nor change states with any man that were a stranger to these things. Did you but use to consider of the state of the Saints, how could you keep off, and stay with sinne, and make so many delaies in turning unto God! Sure this consideration might turne the scales.

6^o. The next part of your Meditation should be, Of the gracious and wonderfull work of our Redemption, and the means p. 73and remedies which are provided for your Souls, and the terms on which Salvation may be obtained.

For all the sins that you have committed, you are not given over to despaire: the Lord hath not left you without a reremedie. Your Conversion and Salvation is not a thing impossible. Nay so much is done by Christ already, that it is brought upon reasonable terms even to your hands. A new and living way is consecrated for us by Christ through the veile of his flesh, and by his blood we may have boldness to enter into the Holiest, Heb. 10. 19, 20. He hath borne your burden; and offere…h you in stead of it his burden which is light, Matth. 11. 28. He hath removed the Impossibility, and nailed to his Cross the hand writing that was against you, Col 2. 14, 15. And in stead of it offereth you his easie yoak. He hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers that had captivated you, and openly triumphed over them on the Cross. You are not left under the care of making satisfaction to God for your own sinnes, but only of accepting the Redeemer that hath satisfied. This much I dare confidently say to you all, without extending p. 74his benefits too farre. It will be for want of faith in you, and not for want of satisfaction by the Redeemer, if any of you perish. And how free are his offers? How full are his promises? you are conditionally all pardoned and justified already, as is legible under the hand of God. And the Condition which is imposed on you, is not some meritorious or mercenary work, but the Accepting of the benefit freely given, according to its nature, use and ends. This is the Faith by which you must be justified. These are the terms on which you may be saved. And which is more, the Lord hath provided means, even excellent, and plentifull, and powerfull means, for the furthering of your Souls in the performance of this Condition, and helping you to Believe, and Repent that you may live: And if the Spirit make not these Means effectuall, & adjoyn not his speciall grace, & after this you remaine unconverted, it will not be long of him, but of your selvs. So that you may perceive how hopefull acase you are yet in, by the blood of your Redeemer, if you destroy not your own hopes, and make not your case desperate by wilfull Impenitency, and refusall of free grace. p. 75How faire are you yet for Heaven? and what happy advantages have you for Salvation? It's brought even to your doors; It's thrust as it were into your hands: The Redeemer hath done so much for you all, as to bring your Salvation to the choice of you own wills; and if you be his chosen ones, he will also make you willing. You have precepts to Believe, you are threatned if you will not Believe, you have promise upon promise, and Christ himself offered you pardon, and life, and Salvation with him, if you are but truly and heartily willing. You have God himself, condescending to beseech you to accept them: and Embassadours intreating you in his name and stead: 2 Cor. 5. 19, 20. You have Ordinances fitted to your necessities: both Reading, and Preaching, and Sacraments, and Prayer. You have store of plaine and powerfull Books: you have the Godly about you, most desirous to assist you, that would be glad to see or heare of your Conversion: You have the sight of the wicked, that are wallowing in their own dung, and the dirt of the world, to make you hate such beastly waies. You have Reason and Conscience p. 76within you to consider of these matters, and set them home, and apply them to your selves: You have time and strength to do all this, if you will not abuse it, and provoak God to take it from you for your negligence. You have Mercies of many sorts, outward and inward, to win upon you, and encourage you in the work! And sometime Afflictions to remember you, and awaken you, and spur you on; The Devil and all your Enemies are so far disabled, that they cannot destroy you against your wills, nor keep you from Christ, but by your own Consents. The Angels of Heaven are ready to helpe you, and would even rejoice at your Conversion. This is your case, and these are your helps, and encouragements: You are not shut up under desperation. God never told you, It is in vaine to think of Conversion; It is too late; If any have told you so, it was the Devil, and not God: And one would think that such Considerations as these should drive the nayle to the head, and be effectuall to move you to Resolve, and Turne.

7^o. The last thing that I would set before you to be Considered, is, What's p. 77like to be the end of it, if after all this you should die unconverted?

O sirs, your hearts are not able now to conceive of it, nor the tongue of any mortal man to utter it. But so much of it we can certainly utter, as one would think should make your hearts to tremble. You have seen it may be, a dying man, in what pangs and agonies he parteth with his Soul: and you have seen it's like, the corps that was left there behind; and seen it laid in the common Earth. But you see not what became of the Soul, nor what an appearance it made in another world, nor what compani… did attend it, nor what a place or state it past into. O sirs, when the hour is at hand that this must be your own case, it will awaken you to other kind of affections then you have or can have at the reading of these words. It's wonderfull that a little distance should make us so insensible of that change which we are all certaine will come to pass: And yet through the folly and deadness of our hearts, it is so: But they are other kind of thoughts of these weighty matters, which we shall have the next hour after death, then the liveliest affections beforehand can afford us.

p. 78The misery was great that the Redeemer did find you in, and which you deserved by your sinne against the Law of the Creator. But if you be found unconverted at last, your punishment will be much sorer, and your case far worss then it was before. The Redeemers Law or Gospel, hath it's peculiar Threatning, which differeth from the Law of the meere Creator in severall respects: Even 1^o. in the nature of the punishment, which will be torments of Conscience for the neglect of a Redeemer, and recovering Grace, which you should never have felt if you had never been Redéemed: 2^o. And in the Degree of the punishment, which will be far sorer, Heb. 10. 29. And 3^o. in the Remedilesness of it, the Sentence being irreversible and peremtory: The first Law indeed provided no Remedy, but it did not Exclude Remedy, nor make it impossible: But the Law of Christ doth positively and expresly exclude all Remedy, and leave the Soul that goeth unconverted out of the body, to utter Desperation, and Misery without Help or Hope of End. But I shall not stand now to describe to you the terrors of Judgment or of Hell, because I have done it already p. 79in other Books, which I desire you to fetch the rest of this Meditation from; that is, My Treatise of Judgment, and the beginning of my third Part of my Book of Rest.

II. Having tould you what should be the Matter of your Consideration, I shall next tell you (but briefly) in what Manner you should performe it. And here I shall not stand to prescribe you any long or exact Method for Meditation, both because it agreeth not with my present resolved brevity, and because the Persons that now I deale with are not capable of observing such Rules; and if any desire such Helps they may transferre the Directions which are given on another Subject in my Book of Rest, to the Subject now in hand.

1. Do not stay till such thoughts will come of them selvs into your minds, but set your selves purposely to Consider of these matters. Take some time to call your Souls to an account concerning their present state, and their preparations for Eternity. If a Heathen Seneca, could call himself every night to an account for p. 80the evill committed, and the good omitted in the day past, as he professeth that he ordinarily did, why may not even an Unconverted man, that hath the helps which are now among us, bethink himself of the state of his Soul? But I know that a Carnal heart is exceeding backward to serious Consideration, and is loath to be troubled with such thoughts as these; and the Devil will do what he can to hinder it, by himself, and others: but yet if men would but do what they may do, it might be better with them then it is. Will you but now and then purposely withdraw you selvs from company into some secret place, and there set the Lord before your eyes, and call your Souls to a strict account about the matters that I have mentioned even now, and make it your business to exercise your Reason upon them; and as you Purposely go to Church to heare, so Purposely set your selvs to this duty of Consideration, as a necessary thing

2. When you are upon it, labour to waken your Souls, and to be very Serious in all your Thoughts; and do not think of the Matters of Salvation, as you would do of an ordinary triviall business, p. 81which you do not much regard, or care how it goes. But remember that your Life lyeth on it, even your everlasting Life: And therefore call up the most earnest of your thoughts, and rouse up all the powers of your Souls, and suffer them not to draw back, but command them to the work: And then set the seven Points that I mentioned even now before you: And as you think of them, lobour to be Affected with them, in some measure according to their exceeding weight. As Moses said to Israel, Deut. 32. 46. Set your Hearts to all the words which I testifie among you this day; which ye shall command your children to do, &c. For it is not a vaine thing for you; because it is your life. And as Christ said. Luke 9. 44. Let these sayings sink into your ears. So I say to you, Let the Matters which you think of, go to your hearts, and sink down to the quick of your affections.

And if your hearts would slip away from the work, and other thoughts would creep into your mind, and you are aweary of these Considerations before they have done their wor, see that you give not way to this laziness, or unwillingness, p. 82but remember it is a work that Must be done, and therefore hold your Thoughts upon it, till your hearts are stirred, and warmed within you.

And if after all, you cannot awake them to Seriousness and Sensibility, put two or three such wakening Questions as these to your selves.

1. Quest. What if it were but the case of my body, or state, or name, should I not earnestly consider of it? If one do but wrong me, how easily can I think of it, and how tenderly do I feel it; and can scarce forget it: If my good name be blemished, and I be but disgraced, I can think of it night and day: If I lose but a beast, or have any Cross in the world, or decay in my Estate, I can think of it with sensibility: If I lose a child or a friend, I can feel it as well as think on it. If my health be decayed, and my Life in danger, I am in good earnest in thinking of this. And should I not be as serious, in the Matters of Everlasting Life? Should I not think of it, and soberly, and earnestly think on it, when body and Soul do lie at the stake, and when it concerneth my everlasting Joy or Torment?

p. 832. Quest. What if I had but heard the Sonne of God himself calling on me to Repent, and be Converted, and seconding his Commands with those earnest expression, (He that hath an eare to hear let him hear) would it not have brought me to som serious Thoughts of my state? Why this he hath done in his Word, and doth it by his Embassadors, and why then should I not consider it?

3. Quest. If I did but know that death were at my back, and ready to arrest me, and that I should be in another world before this day sevennight, I should then begin to bethink me in good sadness: And why do I not so now, when I have no hold of my life an hour, and when I am sure that shortly that time will come?

4. Quest. If my eyes were but open to see that which I pretend to believe, and which is certainly true; even to see a glimpse of the Majesty of the Lord? to see the Saints in Joy and Glory, to see the damned Souls in Misery; and if I heard their lamentations; would not this even force my heart to Consideration? O then how earnestly should I think of these things? And why should I not do p. 84so now, when they are as sure as if I saw them, and when I must see them ere it be long?

Many more such awakening Questions are at hand, but I give you but these brief touches on the things that are most common and obvious, that the most ignorant may be able to make some use of them. With such thoughts as these, you must bring on your backward hearts, and shake them out of their insensibility, and awaken them to the work.

III When you have brought your hearts to be serious, be sure that you drive on your Considerations to a Resolution. Break not off in the middle, or before you bring the matter to an issue; But let all be done in order to Practice. When you have been Thinking of the excellencies of God, and the world to come, and comparing them with all the delights on earth; put the question then to your hearts, and say, What saist thou now, O my Soul? which of these is the better for thee? which is the more desireable? and which of them shouldest thou preferre? Resolve then, and make thy choice according p. 85to the light, and convictions which thou hast received. When you are thinking of the Reasons that should move you to be Converted, ask your selves? Whether these Reasons be not cleare, and what you have to say against them? and whether any thing that can be said to the contrary, can prove it better for you to be as you are, and to remaine unconverted? Ask your selves, Is my Judgment Resolved, or is it not? And if it be (as sure it must be, if you be not besides your selves) then write it down under your hands, or at least in your hearts. I do here confess before the Lord, that his Commands are just, his motions are Reasonable, his offers are exceeding Mercifull: I am satisfied that it's best for me to Turn to him speedily, and with all my heart? I confess before him that I have no Reason to the contrarie that deserves to be owned, and called Reason; This is my own Judgment; of this I am Convinced: If I Turn not after this, the Light that is in me, and the Judgment that I now possess, must needs be a witness against my Soul. If you would but thus drive on the case to a Resolution of your Judgments, you would have a great advantage for the resolving p. 86of your wills, which is the next thing that you must proceed to. And therefore next ask your selves, Why should I not now Resolve and fixedly Resolve, to Turn without any more delay? Is not the case plain before me? What Reason have I to stand questioning the matter any longer, and to be unwilling to be happy? shall I provoke God by dallying with him, and hazzard my Soul by lingering out my time, in such a miserable state? No; by the Grace of God I will Return; Even this hour, without any more delay. Thus drive on all your Consideration to Resolution (But of this, I have more to say anon.)

By this time you may see of what necessity this duty of Consideration is, and how it must be performed, that it may further your Conversion: But because it is a matter of so great Necessity, I am loath to leave it thus, till I have done what I can to perswade you to the practice of it. To which end I intreate you to think of these following Motives.

1. Consideration is a duty that you may performe if you will. You cannot p. 87say that it is wholly out of your power; So that you are left unexcusable, if you will not be perswaded to it. You say, you cannot Convert your selves: But cannot you set your selves to Consider of your waies, and bethink you of those Truths that must be the Instruments of your Conversion? Your Thoughts are partly at the command of your will: You can turn them up and down from one thing to another. Even an unsanctified Minister that hath no saving relish of Spirituall things, can think of them, and spend most of his time in thinking of them, that he may preach them to others: And why cannot you then turn your thoughts to them for your selves? You can think of House, and Land, and Friends, and Trading, and of any thing that ayleth you, or any thing that you want, or any thing that you love, or think would do you good; And why cannot you think, of your sinne, and danger, of God, and of his Word and Works, of the state of your Souls, and of Everlasting Life? Are you not able to go somtimes by your selves, and Consider of these matters? Are you not able when you are alone in your beds, or p. 88as you travail in the way, or at your labour, to bethink you how things stand with your Soules? Why are you not able? what is it that could hinder you, if you were but willing.

2. Yea further Consideration is so cheape a Remedy, that if you will not use this, you despise your Souls: yea and you despise the Lord himself, and the Everlasting things which you are called to Consider of. A man that is in danger of losing his estate, or health, or life, and will not so much as bethink him of a Remedy, doth sure set light by them, and lose them by his contempt. A man that had but his house on fire, and would not so much as Think how to quench it, doth deserve that it should be burnt. If your Parents, or Children, or Friends were in distress, if you would not so much as Think of them, it were a signe you did not set much by them. Why Sirs, are not your Souls worth the Thinking on? Is not God, is not your Redeemer worth the Thinking on? And yet you will hypocritically pretend that you love God above all, when you will not so much as seriously Think of him? How can you shew greater contempt of p. 89any thing, then to cast it out of your minds, as unworthy to be thought on? And how can you more plainly shew that you despise God, and Heaven, then by such a course as this? If it be not worth the Thinking on, it's worth nothing.

3. Consider that God doth not set so light by your Salvation. He thought it worth a great deale more: Must Christ think it worth his bloody sufferings and worth such a life of labour and sorrow, and will not you judg it worth your serious Consideration? If he had not Thought on it, and Thought againe, how miserable shoud we have remained? Ministers also must Think on it, and Study how to save your Souls. And should you not Study how to save your own? Must another man make it the business of his life, to Think how to do you good, that you may be saved? and are you n…t as much bound to do good to your selves? Yea, all that fear God about you are bound to Study to do you good? and should you not bethink you then, of the things that concern your own good?

4. Moreover, what have you your Reason for, but to Consider. And wherein p. 90do you differ from the beasts, so much as in your Reason? If you have Reason, and will not use it, you bruitifie your selves? You live like mad men: for what is Madness, but a loss of the use of Reason? And do you think it a small thing, to deface so noble a Creature as man, and to turne your selves into beasts, and mad-men? Do you think that God will not call you to account for your Reason, how you have used it? Doubtless he gave it you for a higher employment, then to enable you to plow, and sow, and follow your trades, and provide for your flesh. If this were all that a man did exceed a beast in, what a silly wretched wight were man? Yea so much more miserable then beasts, as his knowledg begets more care, and sorrow, and fear, then theirs. What matter is it for having Reason at all, if it be not that we may use it for the matters of God, and Eternall life?

5. Moreover, your Soul is an Active Principle, which will be working one way or other: Your Thoughts will be going on one thing or other; And therefore the bare Consideration is no great labour to you. And if you must lay out p. 91your thoughts on some thing, is it not better lay them out on these things, then on any other? Have you any Better matters to think on then these? Have you any Greater matters? or matters of greater Necessity to think of; You cannot sure imagine it; At least you will not say so for shame. This makes your inconsiderateness an unexcusable sinne. If Thinking were a toile to you, it were another matter. But when you must Think of something, why not of God, and your Eternall state, and the way to Heaven, as well as of other matters. Will you rather throw away your Thoughts then God shall have them? If a man command his servant that is lame, to go on his business, the refuser hath a good excuse: I cannot go, or not without great pain, and danger: But if he have a sonne or a servant, that is so wanton that he cannot stand on his legs, but spends his time in running up and down and dancing, and leaping, this person hath no excuse, if he will refuse to go on his Masters or his Fathers Errand; but will gadd about on his pleasure all day, and will not go a few steps when he is bidden; especially if it were for his p. 92own life, or welfare. So when you have Thoughts that will not be kept idle, but will be gadding abroad through the world, and yet you will not think of God, and the matters of your peace, what wilfullness is this. If you should ask one that hath it not, for meat, or drink, or money, they might well deny you. But if you ask these of one that hath abundance, and knows not what to do with them, but would throw them down the channell, rather then you should have them, what would you think of such a one? Especially, if it were your servant, or your child that owed you much more? Thus do you by God, and your own Souls. You have Thoughts enough and to spare, you know not what to do with them; and yet rather then you will spend one hour in a day or a week in serious Thoughts of the state of your Souls, and the life to come, you will cast them away upon news, and tales, and other folks business that do not concerne you; yea, you will cast them downe the sink of Covetousness, and Malice, and Lust, and Wantonness, and make them servants to the Devil and the flesh. If you have a brooke running by your Land, you p. 93will endeavor to turn it over your ground, that seeing it must run, it may as well run that way where it may do good, as run in vaine. So when your thoughts must run, is it not better that you turne them to your own hearts, and states, to prepare for the world that you are ready to step into, then to let them run in vaine. If you see a man go into a wine-seller, (though it be his own) and pull out all the spigots, and let all the wine run about the seller, and suffer no body to catch it, or be the better for it, what would you conceive of the wisdom or charity of that man? Your Thoughts are a thing more precious then wine, and such a thing as should not be spilt. And yet is not this your everie-daies practice? You are before him that knows your Thoughts: Denie it if you can. What hours of the day, can a man come to you, and find your Thoughts altogether idle? What minute of an hour can a man come and ask you, What are you now Thinking on? and you can truly say, Nothing! I know as long as you are awake you are alway thinking of somewhat, (and perhaps when you are asleep) And what is it on? p. 94This body shall have a Thought: and that body a Thought: every word you hear, and every wrong that's done you, and almost every thing you look upon, shall have a Thought: and God & your own Salvation shall have none: that is; you will lose them, and let them run in wast; but you will do no good with them, nor take in any profit by them, to your selves.

6. Have you any Thing that better deserves your Consideration, then God, and your Salvation? Certainly God hath more right to your Thoughts then any thing else that you can place them on. Your flesh, your Friends, your worldly business are neither so honourable, so necessarie, or so profitable Subjects, as God, and Heaven are. As there is more profit to be got by the tillage of fruitful Land, then barren Heath; or by digging in a Mine of Gold, then in a Clay-pit. So is there more pleasure and profit to be gotten, in one hours serious Thoughts of your Salvation, then in thinking all your life time of the world.

7. At least methinks you should Consider, how disproportionably and unequally p. 95you lay out your Thoughts. Cannot you spare God the Tenths; no nor the hundreth-part of them? Look back upon your lives, and trace your Thoughts from day to day, and tell me how many hours in a weeke, in a month, in a year, you have spent, in serious Thoughts of the state of your Souls, and of the life to come? Is it one hour of a hundred, of a thousand, of ten thousand, with some of you, that is thus spent? Nay I have very great cause to fear, that there are some, yea that there are many, yea that ther's far the greatest number, that never spent one hour since they were born, in withdrawing themselves purposely from all other business, and soberly, and in good sadness bethinking themselves what case they are in, what Evidence they have of their Title to Salvation, or how they must be justified at the Barre of God; no nor what business they have in the world, and to what end they were made, and how they have done the work, that they were made for. Ah Sirs, doth Conscience justifie you in this? Or rather will it not torment you one day to remember it? What? did thy Land, and Livings, worldly matters deserve all p. 96thy Thoughts, and did not the saving of the Soul deserve some of them? Did thy lusts, and sports, and wantoness deserve all; and did not God deserve some of them? Was it not worth now and then an hours time, no nor one hours study in all thy life, to bethink thee in good sadness how to make sure of a life of endless Joy and Glory, and how to scape the flames of Hell? This is not an equall distribution of thy Thoughts, As thou wilt confess at last in the horror of thy Soul.

8. It is the end of your present Time and warnings, that you may Consider, and prepare for your Everlasting state. What have you to do on Earth but to Consider how to get well to Heaven? O that you did but know what a Mercy it is, before you enter upon an Endless Life, to have but Time to bethink you of it, and to make your Election sure! If you were to be called away suddenly this night, and the Angel of the Lord should say to any of you, Prepare; for within this hour thou must die, and appear before the living God. Then would you not cryout, O not so suddenly Lord! Let me have a little more time to Consider of my p. 97Condition: Let me have one month longer, to bethink me of the case of my Soul, and to make sure that I am Justified from the guilt of my sins: Let me have one day more at least to prepare for my Everlasting state: for alas, I am yet unready. Would not these be your cries, if God should call you presently away? And yet now you have time you will not Consider of these matters and prepare.

9. Moreover, is it not time for you to Consider your waies, when God doth Consider them: If he would forget them or did not regard them, you might regard them the less your selves: But be sure of it, he doth observe them whether you do or not, and he Remembreth them though you forget them. Dost thou not know that all the sins of thy life are still on record before the Lord; saith Job 14. 16, 17. Thou numbrest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sinne? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sowest up mine iniquity. Do you think that God forgets your sins, as you forget them? saith the Lord by the Prophet Hosea, 7. 2. They Consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness; Now their doings have beset them p. 98about, they are before my face: But, you'l say, what if God do Consider our waies? why surely then it is not for nothing, but evil is near if nor prevented, As the Lord saith in Deut. 32. 34, 35. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my Treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence: their foot shall slide in due time: For the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make hast. If God be registring up thy sins, thou hast cause to tremble to think what that pretends: For in this hardness and impenitency of thy heart, thou art treasuring up wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous Judgments of God, Rom. 2. 5. As Grace is the seed of Glory, so sinne is the seed of shame, and trouble, and everlasting Torment: and though it may seeme long before the Harvest, you will tast the bitter fruit at last; and whatsoever you have sowed, that shall you reap.

10. Moreover; if any thing ail'd you, you look that God should presently Consider you: Or if you want any thing, you think he should Consider your wants: And yet will you not Consider p. 99of him, and of your own wants? When you are in trouble you'l cry to God, Have Mercy upon me O Lord, Consider my Trouble, Psal. 9 33. Consider and heare me O God, Psal. 13. 3. When you lie in pain and sickness, you'l then cry to God; Consider mine affliction, and deliver me, Psal. 119. 153. If you be oppressed or abused, you'l groan as the Israelites under their Task-masters, and perhaps cry to God, as the captived people, Lam. 1. 11. See O Lord, and Consider; for I am become vile: Remember O Lord, what is come upon us; Consider and behold our reproach: ch. 5. 1. & 2. 20. And must God Consider of you, that will not Consider of him, or your own Souls? Or may you not rather expect that dreadfull answer, which he gives to such regardless sinners. Prov. 1. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. And heare your cries, as you heare his Counsell, and think of you, as you thought of him.

Nay more then so; even while you forget him, the Lord doth daily Consider you, and supply your wants, and save you from dangers; and should you then cast him out of your Thought? If p. 100he did not think on you, you would quickly feel it to your cost and sorrow.

11. Moreover the Nature of the Matter is such, as one would think, should for…e a Reasonable creature to consider of it, and often and earnestly to consider. When all these things concurre in the matter, he must be a block or a mad man, that will not Consider. 1. When they are the most excellent, or the greatest things in all the world: 2. When they are our own matters; or neerly concerne us. 3. When they are the most necessary, and profitable, and delightfull things. And 4. When there is much difficulty in getting them, and danger of losing them, And all these go together in the matter of your Salvation.

1. If you will not think of God, and your Souls, of Heaven, and Hell, what then will you think of? All other things in the world are but toyes, and jesting matters to these. Crowns, and Kingdoms, Lands, and Lordships are but chaff, and bawbles, dirt and dung, to these Everlasting things. The acts of renowned Kings and Conquerors, are but as Popet-plaies, in Comparison of p. 101the working out of your Salvation. And yet will you not be drawn to the Consideration of such astonishing things as these? One would think that the exceeding Greatness of the matter, should force you to Consider it whether you will or no: when smaller Objects affect not the Sences, yet Greater will even force their way. He that hath so hard a skin that he cannot feel a feather, methinks should feel the weight of a mil-stone: And if he feel not the prick of a pin, methinks he should feel a dagger. He that cannot hear one whisper, methinks should hear a Cannon, or a clap of Thunder, if he have any such thing as hearing left him. He hath bad eyes that cannot see the Sun. One would think that so Glorious an Object as God, should so entice the eyes of men, that they should not look off him. One would think that such matters as Heaven and Hell should follow thy thoughts which way ever thou goest, so that thou shouldest not be able to look besides them, or to think almost of any thing else, unless with great neglect, and disesteem. O what a thing is a stony heart, that can forget not only the God that he liveth by, but also the place p. 102where he must live for ever? Yea that will not be perswaded to the Sober Consideration of it for one hour.

2. And as these are the Greatest matters, so they are your Own matters, and therefore one would think you should not need so much ado to bring you to Consider them. If it were only other mens matters, I should not wonder at it. But self-love should make you regard your Own. In outward matters, all seek their Own things, Phil. 2. 21. And have they not more Reason to seek their Own Salvation? It is your Own Souls, your Own danger, your Own sin, your Own duty, that I perswade you to Consider of. It is that God, that Christ, that would be your Own: it is that Heaven, that blessedness that may be your Own, if you lose it not by neglect: It is that Hell, and torment, that will certainly be your Own if you prevent it not. And shou…d not these be thought on? You will think of your Own goods, or lands, or riches; of your Own families, your Own business, your Own lives, and why not also of your Own Salvation?

3. Especially, when it is not only your Own, but it is the One thing needfull, p. 103Luke 10. 42. It is that which your life, or death, your Everlasting Joy or Torment lieth on: and therefore must be Considered of, or you are utterly undone for ever. Necessity lyeth upon you; and wo be to you, if you Consider not of these things. It is not so necessary that you eat, or drink, or sleep, or live, as it is Necessary that you make sure your Everlasting life. And the Profit also doth answer the necessity. Buy but this one Pearle, and you will be infinite gainers, though you sell all that you have in the world to buy it. Matth. 13. 44, 45, 46. Get God, and get all: make sure of Heaven, and then fear no loss, nor want, nor sorrow. If you count not all the world as dung, for the winning of Christ, that you may be found in him, possessed of his righteousness, it is because you know neither the world, nor Christ, Phil. 3. 7, 8, 9. Yea the Delight also will answer the Commodity: For in the presence of God is fulness of Joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore, Psal 16. 11. And the fore-thoughts of them may well make glad our hearts, and cause our Glory to rejoyce, Psal. 16. 8, 9. For Goodness and p. 104Mercy shall follow us all the daies of our lives, and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever: Psal. 23. 6. He shall guide us with his Counsell, and afterward receive us into Glory: Psal. 73. 24. And lest yet you should suspect any lack of Comfort, he tells you, you shall enter into the Joy of your Lord, Matth. 25. 23. And that you shall be with him where he is, to behold his Glory, Joh. 17. 24.

4. And yet if all this might be had with a wet finger, If Heaven were the portion of worldlings, and sluggards, that trouble not their Thoughts much about it, then you might have some excuse for your Inconsiderateness. But it is not so: there are difficulties, in your way; and they are many and great: what a dark understanding have you to informe, what a dull and backward nature to spurre on? What an unreasonable appetite? What rageing passions? What violent rebellious senses to contend with, to Master and to rule? Abundance of adversaries on every hand: A subtil Devil, and as malicious as subtil: and as furious and able to do you a mischief, if God restrain him not. A world of wicked men about you: each one more stiff in Errour, p. 105then you in the Truth; and more fast to the Devil then you are to God, (if his grace do not hold you faster, then you will hold your selves:) and therefore they are abler to deceive you, then you are to undeceive them: Many of them are crafty, and can puzzle such ignorant beginners as you; and can put a face of reverence and truth upon damnable Errors, and pernicious waies: And those that have not wit, have foolish violence, and scorn and passion; and can drive you towards Hell, if they cannot draw you. All these Enemies you must Conquer, or you are lost. And is it not time for a man in so much danger to Consider of them, that he may know how to escape? And for one that is compassed about with such difficulties, to Consider how he may well get through them. What abundance of things have you to Consider of? of all your life past; of the Relations you have born; and how you have performed the duties of those relations? Of the time you have had; and how you have spent it? Of the means you have had; and what you have received by them: Of the present state of your Souls, your sins, your miseries, your hopes, and p. 106the duties that are incumbent on you, in order to your recovery. Of the temptations to be encountred with; and the graces that are daily to be exercised and confirmed: should not a man bethink himself with all possible care, and Consider, and an hundred times Consider, that hath all this to do, or be undone for ever? You have much to Know that will not easily be known, and yet must be known: and much to do, receive, and suffer, that hath difficulty joyned with Necessity: Were it Necessary and not hard, the facility might draw you to make light of it. And were it hard, and not Necessary, the difficulty might more discourage you then the matter would excite you: But when it Must be done, or you must be shut out of Heaven, and lie in Hell for it world without end; and yet there are so many difficulties in the way, I think it's time to look about you, and seriously Consider.

12. To conclude; Consideration would prevent a world of misery, which else will make you Consider when it is too late. It must be a principall means of your Salvation if ever you be saved. If God have so much Mercy for you, he p. 107will make you Consider; and set your sins in order before you, Psal. 50. 21. And set Hell fire before your face, and hold your Thoughts on it, that you cannot look off. He will set before you a Crucified Christ, and tell you, that this your sins have done, and make you think of the Reason of his sufferings; & what there is in sinne that could require it; and what it is to rebell against the Lord, and runne your selves into the Consuming fire. Now your Thoughts are gadding abroad the world, and stragling after every trifle, and going away from God: But if ever God will save you, he will overtake your hearts, and fetch them home, and shew them that they have somewhat else to think on. If Commands will not serve, he will send out his threatnings, and terrours shall come upon you, and pursue your Soul as the wind, Job 30. 15. He'l fetch you out of the Ale-house, and the Gaming-house, and take you off the merry pin; and lay that upon your heart, that you shall not easily shake off. If you are taken up with the Cares of the world, he'l shew you that you have somewhat else to care for, and drown those Cares in greater Cares. If p. 108you have such giddy, unsetled, vagrant minds, that you cannot call in your Thoughts to God, nor hold them with him; he will lay those clogs and bolts upon them at first, that shall restraine them from their idle vagaries: and then he will set upon them such a byass, as shall better order them, and fix them for the time to come. Men do not use to go to Heaven, and never think of it. And to scape Hell fire, and the plague of sinne, and the curse of the Law, and the Wrath of God, and the rage of Satan, and never think on it: Nor do they use to mind other matters, and find themselves in Heaven, before they ever dreamd of it, or before their hearts were set upon it. No Sirs, if ever God will save you, he will make you Consider, and again Consider, and perhaps with many a sigh and groan; and bring these things so neere your hearts, that you shall not only Think on them, but feel them: According to that Command, Deut. 6. 6, 7. & 11. 18, 19, 20. They shall be as written before your eies: You shall think of them when you lie down, and when your rise up, as if they were written upon the testure of your beds: p. 109you shall think of them when you sit at home, when you go abroad, as carrying them still with you, which way soever you go. As before God was not in all your Thoughts, so now he will be the sum and end of them all.

And if by your Resistance you scape these Considerations, believe it, God will bring you to Consideration, by a severer and more dreadfull way. If he do but give your Conscience a Commission, it will follow you, and bring you to such a Consideration, as Judas was brought to. If he lay you under his Judgments, and speak to you by his Rod, and give you a lash with every word, and ask you whether yet you will Consider of it? It may bring such things to your Thoughts, as you were little troubled with before. If he say but the word, how soon will your Soul be required of you; and when you lie in Hell and feel the smart you will then Consider of it. Now we cannot beg of you to bestow one hour in sober Consideration; but then you shall do it without intreaty: Then you will be as a man that hath the Stone, or Gout, or Toothake, that cannot forget it, if he would never so faine. Forget your folly, your p. 110obstinacy, and unthankfullness, then if you can, Forget Gods wrath, and the torment which you feel, then if you can. Now you were so busie that you could not have while to think of the matters of the world to come; but then God will give you leasure; you shall have little else to do; You shall have time enough: When you have thought of these things ten thousand years, you shall still have time enough before you, to think of them againe. You will not Consider now, but, when God hath performed the intents of his heart, in the latter daies you shall perfectly Consider it, Jer, 23. 20. & 30. 24. O that you were wise, that you understood this; that you would Consider your latter end, Deut. 32. 29.

What brings so many thousand Souls to Hell, but because they would not Consider in time? If you could speak with any of those hopeless Souls, and ask them, How came you to this place of torment? they would tell you, because we did not Consider of our case in time: we little thought of this day, though we were told of it: We had a load of sinne upon us, and did not Consider how we might be relieved: We had Christ, and Mercy set p. 111before us, but we did not Consider the worth of them, nor how to be made partakers of them: We had time, but we Considered not how to make the best of it. We had the work of our Salvation lay upon our hands; but we did not Consider how we might accomplish it: O had we but Considered what now we feel, we might have escaped all this, and have liv'd with God! These would be the answers of those miserable Souls, if you could but ask them the cause of their misery, Ther's scarce a Thief or Murderer hang'd at the Gallows, but will cry out, O if I had but had the wit, and grace to have Considered this in time, I need not to have come to this. Ther's scarce an unthrift that falls into beggery; no nor a man, that comes to any mischance, but will say, If I had Considered it before hand, I might have prevented it. Most of the Calamities of the world might have been prevented, by timely and sober Consideration. God himself doth place mens wickedness much in their Inconsiderateness, and laies the cause of their destruction upon it. Whence is it that Israel was rebellious to astonishment, Isa. 1. 3. Why, Israel doth not know, my people doth not Consider. p. 112Job 34 25, 26, 27. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead: therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed, He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others: because they turned back from him, and would not Consider any of his waies. Why do men live so wilfully in sinne, but because They Consider not that they do evill, Ecel. 5. 1. How many such hath the world that God pronounceth a Wo to? Isa 5. 11, 12. that drink, and play, and give themselves to their merriments, but they regard not the work of the Lord; neither Consider the Operation of his hands. They Consider not in their heart, the folly of their waies, Isa. 44. 18, 19, 20. When they see Gods Judgments, they Consider not the meaning of them, and therefore lay them not to heart, Isa. 57. 1. 2.

And when God calleth men to Conversion, or Reformation, he useth to call them to Consideration as the way to it. Hag. 1. 5. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your waies. The Sonne that shall escape the misery of his Fathers, is he that Considereth, and turneth away p. 113from his transgressions, and Considereth, and doth not his Forefathers works; Ezek. 18. 14, 20. And when he sendeth the Prophet to them, Ezek. 12. 3. It is but with this encouragement; Though they are a rebellious house, it may be they will Consider. And David professeth, that Consideration was the beginning of his Conversion, Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my waies, and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies. I made hast and delayed not to keep thy Statutes.

I know that it is the Lord, that must renew and revive a sinfull Soul: But yet under God, Consideration must do much. O could we but perswade our people to Consider, it is not sure possible that they could be as they are, or do as they do. Would so many thousands live in ease, and quietness under the guilt of so many sinnes, and the wrath of God, if they did, but well Consider of it? Durst they live so peaceably in a state of death, and in the slavery of the Devill, if they did but well Consider of it? Would they do no more to prepare for their speedy appearing before God, and for the scaping of Hell fire, if they did but Consider of it? Would th… swallow down their p. 114cups so greedily, and give up themselves to the world so eagerly, if they did but well Consider what they do? Methinks they should not. The cause of sinne, and the Devil is so naught, that I should hope to shame it with most of the ungodly, if I could but bring them to a serious Consideration of it. O how the Kingdom of Satan would down, if we could but tell how to make men Considerate: How fast the Devil would lose his servants? What abundance Christ would gaine? And how many would be saved, if we could but tell how to make men Consider…te? And one would think that this should be easily done, seeing man is a self-loving, and reasonable creature: But yet to our grief, and great admiration, we cannot bring them to it. I should not doubt, but one Sermon, or one Sentence of a Sermon, might do more good then a hundred do now, If I were but able to perswade the hearers, when they come home, to follow it by serious Consideration. But we cannot bring them to it: If our lives lay on it, we could not bring them to it: Though we knew that their own lives and Salvation lieth on it, yet can we nor bring p. 115them to it. They think, and talk of other matters, almost as soon as the Sermon's done: and they turn loose their Thoughts; or if they do read, or hear, or repeat a little; yet cannot we get them to one half hours secret, and sober Consideration of their case. This is the Reason, why it is so rare a thing to see men throughly turn to God. This is much of the use of all Gods teachings, and afflictions too, but to bring men to sober Consideration. God knows that sinne hath unmanned us, and lost us the use of our Reason, where we have most use for it: and therefore the means, and Works of God, are to recover us to our Reason, and to make us men againe. The very graces of his Spirit, are to make us to be more Reasonable.

And now before I dismiss this Direction, I have a Question, and a Request, to make to thee, whoever thou art, that Readest these lines. My Question is this; Hast thou ever s…berly Considered of thy waies, and laid th…se greatest matters to heart, or hast thou not? Dost thou ever use to retire into thy self, and spend any time in this need…ull work? If thou dost not, my Request to thee is, that p. 116now at last thou wouldest do it without delay. Shall I beg this of thee; shall the Lord that made thee, that bought thee, that preserveth thee, Request this of thee; that thou wouldest sometimes betake thy self into some secret place, and set thy self purposely to this work of Consideration, and follow it earnestly, and close with thy heart, till thou hast made something of it, and brought it to a Resolution. Wilt thou then spend a little time, in reasoning the case with thy self, and calling thy heart to a strict account, and ask thy self, What is it that I was made for? And what business was I sent into the world about? And how have I dispatcht it? How have I spent my time, my thoughts, my words; and how shall I answer for them? Am I ready to die, if it were this hour? Am I sure of my Salvation? Is my Soul Converted, and truly Sanctified by the Holy Ghost? If not, what Reason have I to delay? Why do I not set about it, and speedily resolve? Shall I linger till death come, and find me unconverted? O then what a sad appearance shall I make, before the Lord. And thus follow on the discourse with your hearts? What say you, Sirs? Will you p. 117here promise me to bestow but some few hours, if it be but on the Lords Day, or when you are private on the way, or in your beds, or in your shops, in these Considerations? I beseech you, as ever you will do any thing at my Request, deny me not this Request. It is nothing that is unreasonable. If I desired one of you to spend an hour in talking with me, you would grant it; yea, or if it were to ride, or go for me: And will you not be intreated to spend now and then a little time in Thinking of the matters of your own Salvation? Deny not this much to your selves, deny it not to God, if you will deny it me. Should you not bethink you a few hours, of the place, and state that you must live in for ever? Men will build strong where they think to live long: But a tent, or a hut will serve a Souldiour for a few nights. O, Sirs, Everlasting is a long day. In the Name of God let not Conscience have such a charge as this against you hereafter; Thou art come to thy long home…, to thy Endless state, before eve… thou spentest the space of an hour, in deep and sad, and serious Considerations of it, or in trying thy title to it. O what a Confounding p. 118charge would this? I am confident I have the witness of your Conscienses going along with me, and telling you it is but reasonable, yea, and needfull which I say. If yet you will not do it, and I cannot beg one hours sober discourse in secret, between you and your hearts, about these things, then what remedie, but even to leave you to your misery. But I shall tell you in the Conclusion, that I have no hope of that Soul, that will not be perswaded to this duty of Consideration: But if I could perswade you to this reasonable, this cheap, this necessary work, and to follow it close, I should have exceeding great hopes of the Salvation of you all. I have told you the truth: Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding: 2 Tim. 2. 7. Or if you put me to conclude in harsher terms, they shall be still the Oracles of God; Now Consider this yee that forget God, lest I teare you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you, Psal. 50. 22.

And so much for the third Direction, about Consideration; on which I have staid somewhat long, because I apprehend it of exceeding necessity.