Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, Errata

Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion · Errata

ERRATA.

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p. 1Directions to Sinners that are purposed to Turn, and are under the Work of Conversion; that it miscarry not.

THe first and greatest matter in the seeking after the salvation of our souls, is to be sure that we lay the foundation well, and that the work of Conversion be throughly wrought. To this end I have already used many perswasions with you unconverted to return, as thinking all further Directions vain, till we have perswaded men to a consent and p. 2willingness to practice them. And in the end of that Discourse, I added a few Directions for the use of such as are willing to be converted. But because I know that this is a matter of exceeding consequence, I dare not thus leave it, before I have added some further Directions, to prevent the miscarrying of this work where it is begun. And least I should lose my labour, through the unpreparedness of the Reader; I shall first give you some preparing Considerations, which may awaken you to the practice of the Directions which I shall give you.

Consider first, That half-Conversions are the undoing of many thousand souls. If you are but like Agrippa, Act. 26. 28. almost perswaded to be Christians, you will be but almost saved. Many a thousand that are now past help, have had the Word come near them, and cast them into a fear, and make some stirre and trouble in their souls, awakening their consciences, and forcing them to some good purposes and promises; `yea, and bringing them to the performance of a p. 3half-reformation; But this is not it that will serve your turn. Many have been so much changed, as not to be farre from the Kingdom of God, that yet came short of it, Mark. 12. 34. There is no promise in Scripture that you shall be pardoned if you almost repent and believe; or be saved, if you be almost sanctified and obedient: But on the contrary the Lord hath plainly resolved, that you must turn or die, though you almost turn: and repent, or perish though you almost repent: and that you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, without conversion and a new birth, though you come never so near it. God hath resolved upon the termes of your salvation: and it is in vain to hope for salvation upon any other termes. God will not change nor come down to your termes; It is you that must change and come quite over to his termes, or you are lost for ever. If you come never so near them, you are but lost men if you come not up to them. The Lord well knew what he did, when he made his Covenant and Law, and he imposed nothing on the sonnes of men, but what his infinite wisdom told him, it was fit for him to impose: p. 4and he will not now compound with sinners, and take less then he requireth; that is, less then the preheminency in their hearts; nor will he ever come down to any lower termes with you, then those which he propoundeth to you in his Gospel. And therefore poor sinners as you love your souls, do not stand dodging and halving with God; but give up your selves entirely to him: and do not stop at the beginnings of a conversion, but go through with it, till you are become new creatures indeed, or you are undone when you have done all. A half unsound Convert will as certainly perish as a Drunkard or a Whoremonger; though his torment may not be so great.

2. Consider also, That if you do not go through with the work when you are upon it, you may perhaps make it more difficult then it was before ever you medled with it, and make it a very doubtfull case whether ever it will be done. As it is with a wound or other sore; if you tamper with it with salves that are not agreeable to it, or are disorderly applied; p. 5or if you skin it over before it be searched to the bottom, it must be opened again, and will cost you double pain before it be cured. Or as I have seen it with some that have had a bone broken, or out of joynt, and it hath been set amiss at first; O what torments were the poor creatures fain to undergo, in having it broken or stretcht and set again! which might have been spared, if it had been throughly done at first. So, if you will be shrinking, and drawing back, and favouring your flesh, and will not go to the quick, you will make your Conversion much more difficult; you must be brought to it again, and fetch your groanes yet deeper then before; and weep over all your former teares: your doubts will be multiplied: your fears and sorrows will be encreased: and all will go sorer with you then at first. O what a case will you be in, when your sores must be lanced a second time, and your bones as it were broken again! Then you will wish you had gone through with it at the first.

Yea, perhaps you may put God to it to fetch you in by some sharpe affliction, and send out so boisterous and churlish p. 6a Messenger to call you home, as may make you wish you had hearkened to a more gentle call: When the Sheep will straggle, the Dog must be sent to affright them home. Many a foolish sinner makes light of the gentle invitations of grace, and they stand hovering between their sins and Christ, and sometimes they have a mind to turn, and the next temptation they are off again, and then they come on again coldly and with half a heart; and thus they stand trifling with the God of Heaven, till he is fain to take another course with them, and resolves to use some sharper means: And when he layeth them under his rod, and they can neither fly from him, nor resist him, but see that their lives and souls are at his mercy, then they begin to look about them, and see their folly and change their minds. You can tarry, and delay, and dally with the dreadfull God, in the time of your prosperity, and we may ask you over and over whether you will turn, before we can have a hearty answer: But what will you do when God shall begin to frown, and when he takes you in hand by his unresistible power, and lets loose upon you the terrours of p. 7his wrath? Will you then make as light of his mercy as you do now? Have you not read Dan. 5. 6. how small an apparition of his anger, did make a carouzing King look pale, and his joynts to tremble, in the midst of his jovialty? A Manasseth will bethink himself and come in when he is laid in irons, though he could set light by God before, 2 Chron. 33. 13. If Jonah will runne away from God, he can send a boisterous Messenger to arrest him, and cast him as it were into the belly of Hell, and make him cry for mercy to him that he disobeyed. So, if you will stand trifling with God, and will not by fair meanes be perswaded to yeeld and come away, you may shortly look to hear from him in another manner: for he hath a voice that will make the proudest face look pale, and the stubbornest heart that is to tremble. If an idle stubborn Child will not learn nor be ruled, the Master or Parent will teach him with the rod, and give him a lash, and ask him, Will you yet learn? and another lash and ask him, What say you now, will you yet obey? So will God do by you, if he love you, and mean to save you: When he hath taken away p. 8your wealth, your friends, your children, will you then hearken to him, or will you not? When you lie groaning on your couch, and all your parts are overwhelmed with paines, and death begins to lay hands upon you, and bids you now come and answer for your rebellions and delayes before the living God, What will you do then? Will you turn or not? O the lamentable folly of sinners, that put themselves to so much sorrow, and create calamity for themselves! When sickness comes, and death draws near, you beg, and cry, and groan, and promise: When you feele the rod, what Christians will you then be? And why not without so much adoe? You then think God deales somewhat hardly with you: And why will you not turn then by gentler means? You might spare your selves much of this misery if you would; and you will not. Is it a seemly thing for a man to be driven to Heaven by scourges? Is God so bad a Master, and Heaven so bad a place, that you will not turn to them, and mind them, and seek them, till there be no remedy, and you are as it were driven to it against your wills? Is the world such an Inheritance, p. 9and sinne so good a thing, and the flesh or devil so good a Master, that you will not leave them till you are whipt away? What a shamefull unreasonable course is this?

Well sirs, the case is plain before you. Turn you must at one time or other, or be the firebrands of Hell. And seeing it is a thing that must be done, were it not best for you to take the easiest and the surest way to do it? Why this is the easiest and the surest way; even to strike while the iron is hot, before it coole again; and to go through with it when God doth move you and perswade you; If you love your flesh it self, do not put him to take up the rod, and fetch you home by stripes and terrours.

But that's not the worst: For it will sorely hazard the work it self, and consequently your salvation, if you do not go through with it, at the first attempt. I know there is many a one that hath been converted and saved, after many purposes and promises and half-conversions. But yet I must tell you, that this is a very dangerous course. For you do not know when you grieve the Spirit of grace, and set so light by mercy when p. 10it is offered you, whether that Spirit may not utterly forsake you, and leave you to your own ungodly wills, and let you take your lusts and pleasures, and say, [Let this wretch be filthy still: let him keep his drunkenness, his companions, his worldliness, and the curse of God with them, till he have tried what it is that they will do for him: Let him follow his own conceits, and the pride and obstinacy of his own heart, till he find whether they will bring him: Let him serve the flesh and the world, till he understand whether God or they be the better master. Seeing he will not be wise on earth, let him learn in hell, and let torments teach him, seeing mercy might not teach him.] O poor soul! what a case art thou in, if this should once be the resolution of God?

Moreover, you may easily know that the longer you stay, the more leasure you give the devil to assault you, and to try one way when he cannot prevail by another, and to strengthen his temptations: Like a foolish Souldier, that will stand still to be shot at, rather then assault the enemy.

And the longer you delay, the more your sin gets strength and rooting. If p. 11you cannot bend a twig, how wil you be able to bend it when it is a Tree? If you cannot pluck up a tender plant, are you likely to pluck up a sturdy Oak. Custom gives strength and root to vices. A Blackmoor may as well change his skin, or a Leopard his spots, as those that are accustomed to do evil, can learn to do well, Jer. 13. 23.

If you stick at Conversion as a difficult matter to day, it will be more difficult to morrow, or the next monethmonth, and the next year, then it is now.

Yea, the very resistance of the Spirit doth harden the heart, and the delayes and triflings of the soul, do bring it to an insensibility, and boldness in sinne, and drive away the fear of God from the heart. Now it may be you are somewhat awakened, and begin to see that you must turn or die: but if you trifle and delay, this light may be gone, and leave you in greater darkness then before: and the voice that now awakeneth you may be silent, and leave you to fall asleep again.

Moreover, you know that you are uncertain of the continuance of the Gospel. You know not whether you shall have p. 12such lively serious Preachers, as you have now: Nor you know not whether you shall have such godly neighbours, and company to encourage you, and help you in the work. God will remove them one after another to himself, and then you will have fewer Prayers for you, and fewer warnings, and good examples, and perhaps be left wholly to the company of deceived ungodly fools, that will do nothing but hinder and discourage you from Conversion. And you are not sure that Religion will continue in that reputation, as now it is in. The Times may turn, before you turn: and godliness may become a scorn again, and it may be a matter of suffering, and may cost you your lives to live as the servants of Christ must do. And therefore if you stop at it now as a difficult thing, when you have all the helps and encouragements that you can expect, and the way to Heaven is made so fair; and when Magistrates, and Ministers, and Neighbours, are ready to encourage and help you; what will you do in times of persecutions and discouragement? If you cannot turn when you have all these helps and means, what will p. 13you do when they are taken from you? If you cannot row with the stream, how will you row against it? If you dare not set to Sea, when you have wind, and tide, and sunshine; what will you do in stormes and tempests, when all is against you! O what would some of your forefathers have given to have seen the daies that you see! How glad would many a thousand in other Countries of the world be, to have but the helps to Heaven that you have? Never look to have the way fairer and easier while you live. If you think Heaven is offered you at too deer a rate now, you may even let it go, and try whether Hell be better: for the next offer is like to be upon harder termes rather then easier. If you cannot now find in your hearts to turn and live a holy life; What would you have done in the daies of the Apostles, or antient Christians? and, What would you have done in Spain or Italy, where it would cost you your lives? He that will not be Converted now, but thinks the termes of grace too hard, is so impious a despiser of Christ and Heaven, that it is no wonder if God resolve that he shall never p. 41taste of the salvation that was offered him, Luk 14. 24.

Moreover, you know upon what uncertainties you hold your lives, you have no assurance of them for an hour: but you are sure that they are passing away while you delay. And will you trifle then in a work that must be done? What a case are you in, if death find you unconverted? The heart of man is not able now to conceive the misery of your case. How dare you venture to live another day in an unconverted state, least death should find you so? Are you not afraid when you lie down at night, and afraid when you go out of your doors in the morning, least death surprize you before you are converted? If you be not, it's long of your deadness and presumption.

And I would fain hear what it is that should thus stop you. What are you afraid of? Is God an Enemy, that you are loath to come to him? Is the devil a Friend that you are so loath to leave him? Is sinne a Paradise? Is Holiness a Misery? Is it pleasanter life to love your money, or your lands, or your meat and drink, and lusts, then to p. 15love the most blessed God, the Creatour of the World, the life of our Souls, and our Eternal Felicity? Is it better to pamper a carcass that must shortly stink as the dung, then to provide for a living immortall soul? Whether do you think that Earth or Heaven will be the more glorious and durable felicity?

What is it sirs that you stick at, that you make so many delayes before you'l turn? Is there any difficulty in the point? Do you think it a hard question whether you should turn or not? Why how can you be so blind? Do you stand pausing upon the business, as it were a doubt, whether God or the world were better, and whether sinne or holiness, Christ or death, Heaven or Hell, were to be preferred? I pray you Consider; Can you reasonably think that Conversion will do you any harm? Can it bring you into a worse condition then you are in? Sure you cannot fear such a thing: You are in your blood; you are dead in sinne; you are children of wrath, while you are unconverted: you are under the curse of the Law of God; you are the slaves of the devil, you are the heirs of p. 16hell, and under the guilt of all your sinnes; your life is a continued rebellion against God; you are employed every day in the destroying of your selves, in kindling the flames that must everlastingly torment you, and laying in fewell for the perpetuating of your misery; and fighting against your friends that would deliver you, and unthankfully abusing Christ and grace, and Ministers, and Friends that would save your souls. This is the condition that every one of you is in till you are converted. And can you fear least Conversion would bring you into a worse condition then this? Sirs, these Truths are sure and plain: and if yet you stick at it, your errour is so palpably gross, that unless you are mad men, I may be bold to say, it is a wilfull errour. And if you love to be deceived, and wilfully choose a lie, you must take that you get by it.

3. Consider further, That half-Conversions do often prove an occasion of deluding mens souls, and making them quiet in a miserable state, and so of keeping p. 17them from being converted to the last. If you had never done any thing in it, you would more easily be perswaded that your case is bad, and that there is still a necessity of your change. But when you have had some convictions, and troubles of mind, and fears and sorrows, and so have fallen into an outside partiall reformation, and now are perswaded that you are truly converted, when it is no such matter; What a dangerous impediment to your Conversion may this prove? And all because you slubber over the work, and cut it off before it reacheth to sincerity, and strive against the workings of the Spirit, and break away from your Physic…in before he hath done the cure, and would not follow it on to the end. I know that a half-Conversion, if it be known to be no more, is much better then none; and doth often prepare men for a saving work. But when this half-Conversion is taken to be a true and saving change, as …oo commonly it is, it proves one of the greatest impediments of salvation. When ever Christ shall afterwards knock at your door, you will not know him, as thinking that he dwells with you already. p. 18If you read any Books that call on you to be converted, or hear any Preachers that call on you to turn, you have this at hand to cousen your selves with, aud frustrate all: You'l think, This is not spoken to me: For I am Converted already. O how quietly do such poor deluded sinners, daily read and hear their own doom and misery; and never once dream that they are the men that are meant, and therefore are never dismayed at the matter. This formeth you into a state of hypocrisie, and makes the course of your duties and your lives to be hypocriticall. If another man that knows himself to be still unconverted, do but read the threatnings of the Word against such, or hear of the terrours of the Lord from a Minister, he may be brought to confess that this is his own case, and so to perceive the misery of his condition. But when such as you do read and hear these things, they never trouble you, for you think that they do not touch you: You are Scripture-proof, and Sermon-proof; and all by the delusion of your half-Conversion. O how zealously will such a man cry out against the sinnes of others! p. 19and tell them of their misery, and perswade them to turn, and shew them the danger that is near them if they do not; and in the mean time little thinks that this is his own case, and that he speaks all this against his own soul. How will such men applaud a Sermon that drives at the Conversion of a sinner, and that tels them their misery while they are unconverted? O thinks he, this touched such and such: I am glad that such a man and such a man heard it: And he little thinks that it as nearly touched himself. How smoo…hly will he go on in any discourse aga…nst wicked unregenerate men, as David heard the Parable of Nathan, and it never once entreth into their thoughts that they speak all this against themselves; till the Judge shall tell them when it is too late, Thou art the man. It will turn not only the stream of your thoughts into hypocrisie and self-deceit, but also the stream of your speeches to others; yea, and the current of your prayers, and all the rest of your religious performances. When in confession, you should acknowledge and la…ent an unregenerate carnall state, you will only confess that you have the infirmities p. 20of the Saints, and that you have this or that sinne, which yet you think is mortified. When you should importunately beg for Renewing grace, you will beg only for strengthning grace, or assurance: When you should be labouring to break your hearts, you will be studying to heal them: and will be hearkning after present comforts, when you have more need of godly sorrow. It will fill your mouthes in prayer with Pharisaicall thanksgivings for the mercies of Regeneration, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, which you never received. Little doth many a soul know what sanctification, and the feverall graces of the Spirit are, that use to give God thanks for them: There's many and many a one that must for ever be in hell, that were used in their prayers to give God thanks for their hopes of glory. And the common cause of all this deceit and misery is, that men do run from under the hands of their Physician before he ever went to the bottom of their sore, and go away with a half-conversion, and so spend all the rest of their lives in a meer delusion, as verily thinking they are converted, p. 21when they are not. How confidently will such receive the Lords Supper, and thrust themselves into the communion of the Saints, as if they had as good right as any to be there? till the Lord of the Feast shall take them to task, and say, Friend, how comest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment? and then they will be speechless, Mat. 22. 12. How many false deceiving comforts, and perhaps even seeming raptures and assurance, may these have in themselves; as verily thinking their case is good, when alas, they never yet laid the foundation? Yea, and it is to be observed, that Satan is a friend to the comforts of this kind of men, and therefore will do all that he can to promote them. For he would willingly keep his Garrison in peace, Luk. 11. 21. And therefore he may possibly be a comforting spirit to them himself, and imitate the Holy Ghost the Comforter of the Saints: And it may be give them such raptures as seem higher then those which the Spirit of holiness doth give. He envieth the Saints their peace and comfort, because he foresees how durable they will prove: But he can be content that p. 22deluded hypocrites may have joy, because their comforts do not weaken but strengthen his Kingdom within them, and he knows they are like to endure but for a while.

And thus you may perceive, how hard it is to convert one of these half-converted men, that have strangled the New Creature as it were in the birth, and that are fortified against all the means of grace, by a false conceit that they are sanctified already. See therefore that you make sure work, and take not up in the middle, and with halves, but take your present time, and give up your souls to a totall change.

4. Consider; If you take up short of a through Conversion, you lose all your labour, and sufferings, and hopes, as to the matter of your salvation.

And what pitty is it that so much should be lost? Alas, to see many of our hearers toucht at a Sermon, and come to a Minister and bewail their sinne, and seem to be humbled, and promise to be new men, and yet all this to be lost; How sad a case is this to think of? p. 23To see them leave their company and former course of life, and come among the professors of holiness, and all men take them for reall Converts; and yet all this to be lost, and their souls lost after all: How sad a case is this? If you grow up to the greatest parts for outward duty, and be able to discourse, or pray, or preach, even to the admiration of the hea…ers; yet if you do not ground this on a through Conversion, all is but lost, as to your own salvation. If you keep up the highest strain of profession, and get the highest esteem in the Church, so that others depend upon you as Oracles; yea, if the Pope with all his infallibility should cannonize you for Saints; it were all but loss. If you should keep up the most confident perswasions of your salvation, and hope to go to Heaven to the last hour of your lives; it were all but lost if you build not all on a through Conversion. Yea, if you should be taken by persecutors for one of the party to which you joyn, and should suffer for the cause of Religion among them; all were but lost, without a sound Conversion, 1 Cor. 13▪ 1, 2, 3.

p. 24It is a pittifull case to see some poor unsanctified souls, how they wander and change from one opinion to another, and from party to party, to find out that which they want within. They turn to this party first, and that party next, and then to another, and then think they are sure in the way to Heaven: when they never throughly turned to God by Jesus Christ; and therefore are certainly out of the way, whatever party it be that they joyn with. Some go to the giddy Sects that make the highest pretences to strictness: And some go to Rome, because they think that there they shall have more company, and hear the deluding sound of Vnity, Vniversality, Antiquity, Succession, Miracles and such like: And then they think they have hit the way. Alas poor souls! If God were but nearest and dearest to your hearts, and Christ and his Righteousnes exalted within you, and your soules unfeignedly turned from your sinnes, you would be in the certain way to Heaven, in what Countrey or company, or Church soever you were; supposing that you believe and do nothing there, which is inconsistent with p. 25this life of Grace. (Though yet every Christian should choose that particular Society, if he can, where he may not only be saved, but most certainly saved, and find the greatest helpes and least hinderances, or else where he may do God the greatest service.) But choose what company you will in all the world, the strictest, the most reformed, the most splendid in outward pompe and glory, or of whatever excellency else you can imagine, you will never be saved in it your selves, as long as your hearts are unconverted. I know the Papists have found out many devices, by Sacraments, and Ceremonies, and the Merits of the Saints, to patch up the defect of a through Conversion; but all are meer delusions that pretend to such a thing.

O then think of this poor sinner: Hast thou gone so farre, and done so much, and shall all be lost, because thou wilt not follow it to the end? Hast thou groaned, and wept, and confessed and bemoaned thine own condition? Hast thou prayed, and read, and heard, and fasted, and changed thy company, and much of thy course of life? and shall all this be lost, p. 26for want of going to the bottom, and making a through work of it? What a loss will this be?

5. Consider also, What an admirable help and advantage it will be to you through the whole course of your lives, if the work of Conversion be once throughly wrought. I will shew you this in some Particulars.

First, It will be an excellent help to your understandings, against the grosser Errors of the world, and will stablish you in the truth much more then meer Arguments can do: For you will be able to speak for the truth from feelling and experience: He that hath the Law written both in his Bible and in his heart, is likely to hold it faster then he that hath it in his Bible alore. But of this I have spoken already in my Treatise against Infidelity, Part 2.

Secondly, If you be but throughly Converted, you will have that within you which will be a a continuall help against temptations: You have not only experience of the mischief of sinning, and the folly of those Reasons that are p. 27brought for its defence; but you have also a new nature, which is against the temptation, as life is against poison; and as it is a great disadvantage to the Law of Christ, that it speaks against the nature of the ungodly; so is it a disadvantage to the temptations of the Devil, that they would draw a Christian against his new nature. You have that within you that will plead more effectually against sensuality, uncharitableness, pride, or worldliness, or any the like sinne, then reason or learning alone can do. (As in the forecited Book I have further manifested.)

Thirdly, If Conversion be throughly wrought, you will have within you a continuall helper of your graces, and a Remembrancer to put you in mind of duty, and a spurre to put you on to the performance, and a furtherer of your souls in the performance it self: It is out of this spark and principle within you that the Holy Ghost doth raise the acts of grace. This is it that the Word, and Prayer, and Conference, and Sacraments, and all the Means of Grace must work upon. If we see you do amiss, we have hopes that you will hear us: If we p. 28plainly reprove you, we may look you should take it in good part: For you have that within you that saith as we say, and is at deadly enmity with the sinne which we reprove. If we provoke you to Love and to good Works, we dare almost promise our selves that you will obey: For you have that within you that disposeth you to the duty, and preacheth our Sermons to you over again. O what an advantage it is to our teaching, when you are all taught of God within, as well as by his Messengers without! But when we speak to the unconverted, we have little to work upon: We give Physick to the dead; We speak all against the bent of their souls; and every reproof, and exhortation to holiness, goes against their very natures: And therefore what wonder if we have the smaller hopes to prevail.

Fourthly, If the work be throughly done at first, it will help to resolve many doubts that may be afterwards cast into your minds. You need not be still at a loss, and looking behind you, and questioning your foundation, but may go cheerfully and boldly on. O what an excellent encouragement is this! to know that you p. 29have hitherto made good your ground, and left all safe and sure behind you, and have nothing to do, but to look before you, and press on towards the mark, till you lay hold upon the prize: Whereas, if you be in any great doubt of your Conversion, it will be stopping you and discouraging you in all your work: you will be still looking behind you, and saying, What if I should yet be unconverted? When you should cheerfully address your selves to Prayer or Sacraments, how sadly will you go, as being utterly uncertain whether you have a saving right to them, or whether God will accept a Sacrifice at your hand? When you should grow and go forward, you will have little heart to it, because you know not whether you are yet in the way; and this will damp your life and comfort in every duty, when you must say [I know not whether yet I be throughly Converted] O therefore stop not the work at first.

Fifthly and lastly, if the work be throughly done at first, you will persevere, when others fall away. You will have rooting in your selves, entertaining the seed as into depth of earth; and you p. 30will have the Holy Ghost within you, and (more then so) engaged for your preservation, and the perfecting of your salvation. When they that received the Word as seed upon a rock, and never give it deep entertainment, will wither and fall away in the time of triall; and from them that have not saving grace, shall be taken away even that which they seemed to have, Mat. 13. 12. & 25. 19.

6. And Lastly Consider, If you fall short of a true Conversion at the first, the Devil will take occasion by it, to tempt you at last to utter despair. When you have made many essaies and trials, and been about the work again and again, he will perswade you that there is no possibility of accomplishing it. If we convince an open prophane person that is unconverted, he may easier see that yet there is hopes of it: But if a man have been half-converted, and lived long in a formall self-deceiving profession of Religion, and been taken by himself and others for a godly man, as it is very hard to convince this man that he is unconverted, so when he is convinced of it, he will p. 31easily fall into desperation. For Satan will tell him [If thou be yet unconverted after so many Confessions, and Prayers, and after so long a course of Religion, what hope canst thou have that yet it should be done. Thou wilt never have better opportunities then thou hast had? If such Sermons as thou hast heard could not do it, what hope is there of it? If such Books, and such Company, and such Mercies, and such Afflictions have not done it, what hope canst thou have? Canst thou hear any livelyer Teaching then thou hast heard? or speak any holyer words then thou hast spoken? If yet the work be quite undone, it is not forsaking another sinne, nor going a step further, that will do it: and therefore never think of it; for there is no hope: Dost thou not know how oft thou hast tryed in vain? and, What canst thou do more?] And thus you give advantage to the Tempter by your first delayes, and taking up in meer Preparatories, And therefore I beseech you, as you love your souls, take heed of resisting the Spirit of grace, and breaking off the work before it is throughly done, but go the bottom, and follow it on, til p. 32it be accomplished in sincerity. And now hoping that upon these Considerations you are resolved to do your best, I shall come to the thing which I principally intended; which is, to give you certain Directions, which if you will obey, you may be Converts and Saints indeed.