The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation, Treatise 1 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
Wherein Reason and Conscience are once more consulted about that bitter and implacable Enmity, found in thousands this day, against all serious Piety, and the strict Professors thereof, who differ from them in some external Modes and Rites of Worship, and their Determination upon that Case impartially reported.
SECT. I.
MAN is naturally a sociable Creature, delighting in Company and Converse. He that affects to live by, and to himself, must be (saith the Philosopher) foreign, either a God that is self-sufficient, and stands in need of none; or a … Beast so savage and fierce, that it can endure nothing but it self.
This natural Quality of sociableness is diversly improved. Sometimes sinfully in wicked Combinations to do mischief, like the herding together of Wolves and Tigers. Such was the Confederation of Simeon and Levi, Brethren in Iniquity, Gen. 49. 56. Sometimes 'tis improved Civilly for the more orderly and prosperous Management of human Affairs. Thus all civilized Countries have improved it for common Security and Benefit. And sometimes Religiously, for the better promoting of each others spiritual and eternal Good.
Now the more firmly any Civil or Religious Societies are knit together by Love, and coalesce in Unity, by so much the better they are secured against their common Enemies and Dangers, and become still the more prosperous and flourishing within and among themselves. For when every Man finds his particular Interest involved in the publick Safety and Security, (as every private Cabbin and Passenger is in the safety of the Ship) every particular Person will then stand ready to contribute his uttermost Assistance for the publick Interest both in Peace and War. United Force, we all know, is more than single; and in this Sense we say, Unus homo, nullus homo; one Man is no Man, that is, considered disjunctively and alone; when yet that single Person standing in a proper place of Service in the Body, may by his Prudence and Courage, signify very much to the Publick Weal of his Country; as Fabius did to th… Roman State, of whom the Poet truly observed,
Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem.
That one Man by his prudent Delay and Conduct, hath saved the whole Commonwealth.
SECT▪ II.
'Tis therefore the undoubted Interest of Christian States and Churches, to make every individual Person…s useful as may be to the whole, and to enjoy the Services of all their Subjects and Members, one way or other, according to their different Capacities, that it may be said of them (as the Historian speaks of the Land of Canaan) that there was in it, Nihil infruct …uosum, nihil sterile; not a shrub but bare some Fruit.
No prudent Kingdom or Church, will deprive themselves of the benefits they may enjoy by the Services of any considerable Number of Men (especially if they be able and good Men) without a plain inevitable necessity. No Man without such a necessity will part with the Use and Service of the least Finger or Toe, much less with a Leg or Arm; but would reckon himself half … done, if a Paralytick Disease should strike one half of the Body, and render it utterly useless to defend and succor the other Part in time of danger.
SECT. III.
Much so stands the Case with Churches and Kingdoms, when the causeless and cruel Enmity of one part, prevails so far against the other, as to deprive that State or Church of the Use and Service of Multitudes of good and faithful Members.
It is Folly in its highest exaltation, for one part of a Nation, out of bitter Enmity to the other, not only to seek all ways and means to suppress and ruin it, whilst a common Danger hangs over the whole; but to rejoyce in the Miseries of their Brethren, as the principal thing which they fancy would contribute to the great Advantage of their Cause. What but a general Punishment (if that will do it) can work Mens hearts into a more general Compassion?
The Histories of those times sufficiently inform us, That the great Feuds and Factions in the Western Church, not only immediately preceded, but opened the way to the terrible Inundations of the Goths and Vandals. Whilst the suffering Par cries out, Cruelty, Cruelty; those that inflict it cry, as loud, Justice, Justice. Whatever rational Apologies or Methods of Peace come from the oppressed Party, are censured by the other as Murmur and Mutiny. All Men commend Unity, and assert it to be the Interest of Kingdoms and Churches. They wish all Men were of one Mind, but what Mind must that be? To be sure, none but their own.
The more cool, prudent, and moderate Spirits of each Party, may strive to the uttermost to allay these unnatural Feuds and Animosities. The Wisdom of the governing-part may take the Instruments of Cruelty out of their hand; but 'tis God alone that can pluck up the roots of Enmity out of their hearts.
And what is the matter, when all is sifted and examined? Why, the matter is this; some will be more serious, strict, and conscientious, than others think fit or necessary for them to be. They …are not Curse, Swear, Who…e, and be Drunk as others do. They scruple to comply with what God hath not commanded, and the very Imposers confess to be indifferent antecedently to their Command. They reverently mention the Name of God without an Oath, and the solemn Matters of Religion, without a Jest in their Company. They will assume as much Liberty to reprove Sin, as others do to commit it. They take more pleasure in heavenly Duties and holy Conferences, than in Ranting and Roaring in Taverns and Alehouses. That is, in a word, they live up to the Principles of Religion, which all pretend to; and this is their unpardonable Crime, a fault never to be expiated by any less punishment than their destruction.
And are not People (think you) come to a fine pass, when the strictest Obedience to the Laws of God shall be accounted more criminal, than the most open and profane Violation of them? Nay, tho they reprove the other Parties Sins no other way, but by their more serious and religious Lives; yet this alone shall be sufficient to make them culpable and obnoxious.
SECT. IV.
If the Party thus generally hated and maligned, be (for the generality of them) serious and godly Christians; or if the strictness and holiness of their Lives, and tenderness of their Consciences be the true Ground and Reason of our hatred of them; such an hatred, when it becomes general, is a direful presage of some common Calamity and Misery hastning upon such a People, Hos. 9. 7. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come, Israel shall know it; the Prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad; for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
And our own Reason will give us this Conclusion, as well as Scripture. For whatsoever brings Sin to its full maturity, must needs hasten Judgments. And what can heighten and accent the Sins of a People more than such a cruel hatred of good Men upon the score and account before given? All hatred of Godliness hath a tang of Devilishness. 'Tis a desperate flying in the very Face of God, whose Image Holiness is. Sin can scarce be graduated a peg higher
Reason tells the Husbandman, 'tis time to Mow and Reap his Corn when it is full Ripe. And it may convince you, that God's time of reaping down a sinful People is near, when their Sins are grown to such full maturity as this. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get ye down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great, Joel 3. 13.
SECT. V.
The true Cause and Rise of this great and fixed Hatred amongst professed Christians (whatever may be pretended to salve Reputation) is the Contrariety and Repugnancy of the Natures and Principles by which the Godly and Ungodly are governed. There is an Enmity betwixt the two Seeds, Gen. 3. 15. And this Enmity runs down in a Blood, more or less in all Ages and Places, Gul. 4. 29. As then, he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. So it was, and so it is, and so it will be, till Conversion changeth the heart and principle. This Enmity cannot die, whilst Satan …ives, and rules in the hearts of Children of Disobedience.
And the Enmity is mutual. An unjust man i… …n abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way, is an abomination to the wicked, Prov. 29. 27. Only with this difference; The good Man hates, Non virum, sed vitium, not the Person, but his Sin. The wicked Man hates both the Person of the Godly, and his Godliness too; yea, the Person for his Godliness sake.
This hatred of the Godly, secretly and habitually lurks in the Nature of a wicked Man, as Rapaciousness doth in a young Wolf that never saw a Lamb. It extends it self universally to the whole Kind, and reaches those, whose lives are most obligingly sweet; yea, those that are bound to them in the strictest Bonds of Nature. As we may see in that most unnatural Instance of Cain's murthering his own Brother Abel. It discovers it self in seeking the Destruction of them they hate upon a Religious account, and in rejoycing at any Evil that be…als them. Nothing is more grateful to them, than any occasion to disgrace and expose them with contempt to the World.
SECT. VI.
But tho the strictness and holiness of good Men, causing the Consciences of wicked Men privately to condemn, and inwardly to gaul and grate them for their loosness and prof…neness, be the true and read Ground and Cause of the Grudge and Hatred; yet they think it fit for Reputation s…ke, that this be wholly suppressed and silen…d, and something else pretended for the Cause and Reason of it, else it would look too like the Devil himself. And therefore amongst o…her plausible Pret…nsions for their Malignity to those that are better th…n themselves, these three are principally insisted on, and pleaded.
1. That it is not their Piety, but their Hypocrisy which they hate. Not because they have indeed more Piety than others, but because they make more vain Shew and Ostentation of it, than themselves do; who, setting aside their ridiculous Grimaces, and affected phantastick Words and Actions, are every whit as good as themselves.
2. Because under a pretence of greater strictness in Religion, they do but hatch and carry on Sedition and Rebellion; and that the World will never be quiet, whilst such Vipers are suffered in the Bowels of it.
3. That both the former have been made su… …iciently evident and apparent in several former, and more recent Instances of the Hypocrisy and seditious Designs of as high Pretenders to Religion and Reformation, as those are, whom they truly hate, and would not suffer them to live, if their Power were answerable to their Hatred.
As to this first Plea, viz. Their Hypocrisy, 'twill quickly be found to be too thin and weak, to endure the Test of your own Reason and Consciences. For how will you answer them, when they shall thus argue and expostulate the matter with you?
You that thus Censure, and those that are censured for Hypocrisy by you, do both profess one and the same Religion. Your profane Lives are …toriously contrary to all the Principles of this Religion. You Swear, Drink, Whore, Revile, and Persecute the others, only because you fancy their Tones, G…stures, &c. to be some way or other ind…cent▪ You cannot deny, but they live Soberly and Godly. They attend upon all the Duties of Religion strictly and conscientiously. Your Malice against them can find nothing to carp at, but some little Trifles, with which the Essence of Religion is not concerned. Did they run into the same excess of riot with you, greater matters than these would be over-looked, yea, and applauded too.
Now let Reason and Conscience say, who is most likely to be the Hypocrite, the Man that calls himself a Christian, and under that Profession wallows in all profaneness, not once censuring himself for it; or he that lives Soberly and Godly, against whom Malice it self can produce nothing but such inconsiderable Trifles as these? Is not this the very Case which Christ hath determined to our hands, and made such Censurers the Hypocrites, Matth. 7. 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy Brothers eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? It was but one blemish, and that a very small one too, but a Mote; however this you can quickly spy, and as rashly censure. But mean while there's a Beam, an horrid flagitious wickedness in your selves; but 'tis too near your own Eyes to be discerned by you. Which of these two (think you) is the Hypocrite?
2. But what if this Mote that you discern, be but a fancy, a meer imagination of your own, how will that aggravate your Sin, and evince both your Malice and Hypocrisy together? You say their Tones and Gestures in Religious Duties are Ridiculous and Scenical. This you take up lightly against some few of them, and as unjustly apply unto the aspersing of the whole Party, which your own Reason must and will immediately condemn. For there are multitudes of that Party, whose Countenances, Tones, and Gestures, are as decorous, grave, and becoming the presence of that God with whom they they have to do, as any Men in the World.
3. And as for those few whom you thus blemish for their indecent Tones or Gestures; what if those Tones you speak of, amount to no more, but natural Defects, and unavoidable Infirmities, which they would, but cannot help? Do they for this, and no worse than this, deserve to be censured and condemned for Hypocrites? Or, what if they be insensible Actions, occasioned by the greater Intention of their Spirits in the Service of God? May not those very things which you profanely flou… ▪ censure, and scoff at, either not all be noted as blemishes to their Devotion by the Eye of God, or noted with Approbation and Delight, as the effects of spiritual fervency in his Service? Certainly, Gentlemen, you are no good Marks-men, that neither draw the right Arrow, nor level at the true mark.
4. And were not this a vain and empty Pretence to cover your own Malice against Godliness; how comes it to pass that more Scenical Habits, Words, and Gestures, should pass as Ornaments in others, whom you affect? Whether this be not partiality unworthy of a Man, let Reason and Conscience freely judge.
In a word, What Commission or Authority, can you produce thus to ascend the Throne of God, and draw your bitterest Censures through the very Hearts of Gods People for such pitiful Tri…les as these; first condemning them as Hypocrites, which is a most unwarrantable Presumption; and then persecute them as far as you can for their presumed Hypocrisy? Have a care what you do; be not Mockers, lest your Bonds be made strong. This is a Sin which hastens National Desolation, 2 Chr. 36. 16, 17. They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his Word, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his People, till there was no …emedy. Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chal…ees, who s…ew their young Men with the Sword, &c.
Plea II.
You say, 'Tis not Godliness you hate, and would persecute; but they are a sort of Persons, who under a pretence of Zeal for Religion and Reformation, design nothing else but Sedition and Rebellion; that the Nation will never be quiet, whi…st such Vip…rs are suffered to live in it; and to fortify this Plea, you add, that both their Hypocrisy and Sedition have been ma…e sufficiently …vident to the World in many Instances.
Zeal for the Laws, and Security of the Government, if rightly tempered and qualified, is highly commendable; and wherever Sincerity animates, and Prudence governs it, it ought by no means to be discouraged. But there are too many Grounds and Causes of Suspition, that both these will be found wholly wanting, or extreamly defective in many high Pretenders to it, when it comes to be sifted to its bottom Principles, and weighed in the just Ballance of sound Reason.
For if you be in…lamed with a pure Zeal for the Laws and Government you live under, then you will find your selves obliged for your own Vindication to satisfie the just Expectation of your own, and other mens Reasons and Consciences in the following Particulars.
Expectation I.
First, Reason and Conscience in your selves and others, will expect it from you, that you of all Men living should be most precisely and punctually Obedient to all those just and goo… Laws you live under, since your Zeal burn… so hot against those that comply not punctually with them. For those that make so much Conscience (as you seem to do) of other Mens Offences against the Laws, must be presumed (if your Profession be sincere) to make at least as much Conscience of breaking any of them in your own Persons; else neither Reason nor Conscience will ever admit this Plea of yours for sound and good.
Now the Laws sometimes appoint Punishments for Non-conformity to the Rites and Ceremonies, affixed to the publick National Worship; and so they do always for convicted Swearing, Drunkenness, and Adultery. All these Laws have the very same Sanction by the Authority we live under. They forbid, and punish the one as well as the other. And if there be any difference, it lies in this, that these latter are expresly forbidden and threatned by God, antecedently to the Magistrate's Prohibition of them, which hath no small weight in the matter under consideration.
Now if any Man shall pretend Zeal and Conscience against dissent in Judgment or Practice from the Church, but makes no Conscience at all to Curse and Swear, be Drunk or Unclean; he will find it a difficult task to perswade his own, or other mens Reasons or Consciences, that this his Zeal for the Laws and Government, is sincere and pure. For were it so, it could never allow him to live in the notorious Violation of the Laws himself, which he is so fierce and bitter against others for
Expectation II.
Secondly, If your Zeal be sincere, it will contain it self within the Bounds and Limits of the Offence, and not lay hold upon the Innocent, as well as upon the Guilty, and make you hate and persecute them that were never Turbulent and Seditious, equally with the greatest Criminals. If you will hug this Principle, as things stand now, Reason will tell you, 'tis as just at all other times, as it is at this.
Would you not think it an unreasonable and most injurious thing to be plucked out of your Shops, or Houses, and hurried away to the Goal, because two or three dissolute Fellows in the City or Town where you live, have been Riotous or Seditious, tho you possibly know not the Men, nor can be so much as justly suspected of any Confederacy with them? True Zeal for the Laws and Government is content to wait, and suspend its Revenges, till a fair Conviction have passed upon the Guilty. And when it falls upon them, 'tis careful that it touch none besides them; but suffers a Man to retain in the very height of it, due Love and Honour for all that are Innocent.
If Christians be first denominated by general Titles and Terms of distinction, which they cannot help, and then the Crimes of any particular Person, that the World pleases to denominate as one of the same Party, must be charged and imputed to the whole; what must the consequence of this be, but that the whole Community become obnoxious to Punishment, and the very Government it self thereupon be dissolved?
For I take it to be past denial or doubt, that some of each Denomination have been, are, or may be guilty of seditious Practices. Some Hypocrites will lurk among those vast Bodies of People under the most strict and watchful Government; but God forbid their guilt should affect the whole Body, under whose Name they shelter themselves. God, Reason, and Conscience do all command the hottest Zeal to make its Pause and just Distinction here. Let the Guilty be brought to Condign Punishment upon fair Tryal and Conviction. This Discourse designs no Favour for such. But let not those who abhor their Wickedness, and are as pure from their Crimes as your selves, suffer with them, or for them. For then your Reason will tell you, your selves are as liable to sufferings as they, and that your Zeal is not kindled by love to Justice, but the hatred of a Party.
It is not in the Body Politick, as in the Body Natural. If the hand Steal, the feet are justly laid in Irons, and the Neck put into an Halter; because all the Members of the Body Natural are animated and governed but by one Soul. But in the Body Politick every Individual hath a distinct Soul of his own, and therefore that Member only that offends, ought to be punished, and all the rest to enjoy their full Liberty and Honour as before. Away therefore for ever with this Church and State-destroying Synecdoche.
Expectation III.
Thirdly, If there be a change made upon the Laws, and they shall at any time tolerate and protect that Party and Practice which once they made Criminal; then your Reason, and every Mans else will expect from you (if your Zeal for the Laws and Government be sincere and unfeigned) that your Countenance and Carriage to that People be changed and altered, according to the different aspect of the Laws and Government upon them: That your Envy and Hatred cease with the offence, and that you be as ready to assist and encourage them, when they act according to Law, as you formerly were to afflict and prosecute them for acting contrary to Law; else, pretend what you will, 'tis plain enough, that it was not Zeal for the Laws and Government, but somewhat else (which every Body may guess at) that inflamed your Rage against them.
For whensoever the Wisdom of the Government finds it necessary by Toleration to take away the Crime and Offence, it must necessarily take away this very Plea for Hatred and Persecution with it. Otherwise it would be all one to act for Law, and against Law; to punish them that are Offenders, and them that offend no more than your selves; to turn the Edg of your Rage and Fury against those that undermine the Government, and those that are as Zealous as your selves to support and defend it by their Persons and Purses.
Expectation IV.
Fourthly, Your Reason will justly expect it from you, that when or wheresoever you shall see eminent Piety meeting with punctual Conformity in one Man, that Man shall be your very Darling, and that both these Qualifications should recommend him to your dearest Affection. The more strictly godly he is, the more conformable he is to the Laws of God; as well as by his punctual Compliance with enjoyned Rules and Rites of Worship to the Laws of Men. If he be a Man of Catholick Charity to all of every Perswasion, whom he judges to fear God, and be truly conscientious; if he boldly and impartially reprove Sin whereever he finds it, tho it be in his own Patron, or Men of his own Profession; you will still love him the more for that. For if Sincerity and Conformity (as you pretend) be the very things which you make such a Noise and Bussle for in the World, here you have them both in conjunction. This is the Man you seem to seek (by these Pleas of yours) for a Pattern and Standard to reduce other Men to.
And is it really so, Gentlemen, with you? Do you heartily affect and prize a strict and serious Conformist, that fears not to expose the odious Shamefulness and Wickedness of profane Swearing, Cursing, Drunkenness, and Uncleanness, without respect of Persons, both in his Pulpit and private Converses? Do you love him the better for his plain dealing with your Consciences, in detecting the grand Cheat of Formality in Religion; for his close cutting Convictions of the insufficiency of meer Civility to your Salvation, and the indispensable necessity of Regeneration? Do you heartily Love and Honour him for thundering you out of Ale-houses and Taverns, unto your Family and Closet-duties? For telling you plainly, your Love must not be confined to your own Party, but extended to all that fear God, however they be externally distinguished among Men? Nay, for convincing you plainly, that Religion lies not in external Modes and Rites, in Standing, Kneeling, or Responses? That the Name and Cry of the Church, the Church, will as little avail to your Salvation, as the cry of the Superstitious and Profane Jews, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these? That true Religion is an inward, serious, spiritual thing, consisting in, and evidencing it self by the Mortification of your Sins, and real devotedness of your Hearts to the Lord?
If such a Man as this will please, and delight your very hearts; then my Reason is bound to conclude, there may be reality in what you pretend. But if you shall hate and loath such a Man as this, equally with a professed Dissenter, you must excuse me, and all the Rational World with me, if we shall conclude, that it is not true Zeal for the Laws, for the Church, or for the sincerity and peaceable Lives of its Professors, but an inward, rooted Enmity at Religion it self, that sets you on work under the feigned pretences of other things.
Expectation V.
Fifthly, Your Reason will expect and exact it from you, that whensoever you shall be convinced that all these Stirs and Bussles that have been in the World, all this Fining, Imprisoning, and Impoverishing your Protestant Brethren and Neighbours for their Conscience-sake, hath done the Church no good, but given a great and real Advantage to our common Enemy to ruin us together; that we may distinguish our selves how we please in our Folly, but they will never distinguish us in their Fury; for we are all known to them by one common Name of H… reticks.
In this Case, your Reason exacts it from you, and so doth the common Reason of Mankind, that a Sense of common Interest, and common Danger, now quiet those Fe…ds, and extinguish those Fires, which our own Lusts first kindled, and the Devil and our common Enemies have incensed, to the great Damage and Hazard of the whole Protestant Cause.
Such a seasonable and becoming Sense as this, were in it self sufficient to cool a wise Mans heats, if Penal Laws were left standing in their full force and vigour; but when the Wisdom and Reason of the State shall plainly discern both the Usefulness and Necessity of Liberty, and thereupon take away (as they have now most prudently and seasonably done) the further occasions of mischief to the whole, by relaxing the Yoke that bound some (and those a very great Body of truly Loyal and Useful Subjects) leaving the rest in the quiet Possession of their own Liberties and Properties; what shall we call that Fire, which still continues burning and encreasing, not only after, but by all this, but an unquenchable Hell-fire?
If Chimaera's, and self-created Jealousies, That some carnal Interests of ours are not so well secured to us under Liberty, as they were under Persecution and Tyranny; this were the right way to perpetuate Dissentions and Persecutions to the end of the World.
And now, Gentlemen, I hope I may say, without being vain or opinionative, that your own Reason hath fairly disarmed you of these Pleas and Excuses, by which you have hitherto defended your selves in your most sinful Practices of profane Cursing, and Swearing, Drunkenness, Uncleanness, and bitter Enmity against your Protestant Brethren for things that touch not the Essence of Christianity.
And believe it, Sirs, it is truly Genteel and Glorious, to suffer your selves to be subdued and conquered by the plain Convictions of your own Reason and Conscience. 'Tis ten thousand times more Honourable and Glorious to lay down your Arms at the feet of these, than to lay down both Reason and Conscience at the feet of Satan and your Lusts, and continue sighting obstinately against God, your own Souls, Bodies, Estates, Reputations; yea, your very Reasons and Consciences, your Innocent Brethren, and the Peace of Church and State, under Satan's Banner.
In all this Discourse, I have not designed to exasperate, but asswage and restrain your Lusts and Passions, by laying the loving and gentle hands of your own Reasons and Consciences upon them. I have not given the least Injurious touch to your Honour, but all along pleaded for the Recovery, or Security of it. I have exposed no Man by any particular Mark or Indigitation.
But now I have don… with you; if your own Consciences shall begin to make a rounder and more particular Application of these general Reasonings and Arguments, and say to you, as Nathan to David, Thou art the Man, I am not accountable for that. But be confident of it, you are accountable to God for all those plain Convictions and faithful Endeavours used with you, and tryed upon you, to save you from all those Miseries your head-strong Lusts with furious Precipitation are manifestly running you into.
If you can substantially and solidly refel those Arguments against, and vindicate those Pleas for Sin, which Reason and Conscience have urged and censured above; and can produce stronger and clearer Arguments to defend and justify the Courses here censured and condemned: Or if you can obtain a Writ of Error to remove these Causes to another lawful Court of Judicature, where you shall obtain a more favourable Verdict, your complaint of severe Dealing with you here, will not want some Ground or Colour: But if you cannot (as you know you cannot) then never blame your own Reasons, nor mine, for dealing Rigorously or Injuriously with you.
I am willing to hope, and perswade my self, that I shall at least obtain a Reformation of Life from many of you. I have tugg'd hard for it with you here. I will tug harder with God in Prayer to obtain it for you. But yet, Gentlemen, I must tell you in the close, That tho an external Reformation of these Evil Courses may make your Lives more healthy, happy, and durable in this World, and will greatly conduce to the publick, as well as your personal and private Interest; yet if you expect compleat and perfect Happiness in the World to come, you must advance one step further beyond Reformation, unto sound Conversion. The first makes you comparatively happy here; but the second will make you perfectly happy and blessed for ever hereafter. The first frees you from many temporal Miseries upon Earth; but the second from eternal Miseries in Hell. And this brings you to the other blessed Step, by Conversion, which is the Second Part.
The Second Part: Evincing the POSSIBILITY, NECESSITY, AND EXCELLENCY OF Conversion to God,
The only Thing that makes Men truly happy, and perfectly blessed in the World to come.
By the same Author.
Isa. 55. 7, 8.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Isa. 1. 18.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
1 Cor. 6. 11:
And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, &c.
LONDON: Printed for Thomas Cockeril, at the Three Legs in the Poultrey, over against the Stocks-Market. 1691.