The Young Mans Guide, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Containeth Directions suitable to Young Men.
HAving answered the Objections of some Young Men against their early serving of God. I come now to give you some Directions suitable to your state and condition.
1. Labour to be well rooted and grounded in the principles of Religion, otherwise you will soon be carried away with every wind of Doctrine, and so made a prey to every seducer. Observe who they be that are easiest seduced by Papists, Quakers, and false Teachers, and you will find that they were such who were never well grounded in the Principles of Religion. Ephes. 4. 14. They are said to be Children in understanding, who are tossed to and fro, and carried away with every wind of Doctrine; implying, that weak and ungrounded Christians are aptest to imbrace every false and erronious Doctrine. Whereas the Martyrs being well grounded in the Principles of Religion, could not be removed from the Truth by all the Arguments of the most Learned Doctors. As therefore thou wouldst be preserved from all erronious Doctrines, and damnable Heresies, labour in the use of all means God hath sanctified, that thou mayst be well rooted and grounded in the truth. To that end,
1. Learn some good and sound Catechism. If thou canst not get it by heart, then read it over again, and again. Thou mayst read and hear much, and yet never attain to a well-grounded knowledge in Religion, till thou beest well instructed in the Principles of it. This the Apostles well knew; therefore they delivered to their several Churches a Form of Doctrine, which contained the Fundamental Principles of Religion, which every Member thereof was perfectly to learn, Rom. 6. 17. 2 Tim. 1. 13. Heb. 5. 12. and 6. 1. Whosoever shall think to attain unto any sound knowledge in Religion, meerly by hearing the Word preached, before he be well grounded in the Principles thereof, will find it a hard work, and understand by his experience how necessary the laying a good Foundation is to his building up in Faith and Holiness.
2. Take all opportunities of reading the writings of godly learned men, who by their labours have cleared the main and principal points of Religion. And amongst the many Books now extant, be sure you rather make choice of such as do soundly inform the judgment, and work powerfully upon the heart and affections, than of such as containing little but frothy conceits of wit, do only please the phantasie with fruitless flashes.
3. Especially be frequent in reading the holy Scriptures, which contain not only the Principles of Religion, but also all necessary truths to be known and practised. Yea as David speaketh, Psal. 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. It giveth wisdom to the simple, and to the young man knowledge and discretion. For this Timothy is commended, That he had known the Scriptures from his Childhood, 2 Tim. 3. 15.
II. Return to the Lord: Repent, and be converted to God. Conversion being so great and necessary a duty, and so especially included in that remembring of our Creator required in the Text, I shall insist a little the more distinctly upon it; and shall,
1. Open the nature of it.
2. Press thee to it.
1. For the nature of Conversion, it is a turning, or coming back to the Lord. Sin is our departing, or going away from God: Impenitence in sin is our keeping away from him. Conversion is our return, or coming back to God. It is our coming back,
1. From unbelief, to faith in God.
2. From our enmity and rebellion, unto friendship and obedience to God.
1. It is our coming back from unbelief, to faith in God. Every Convert is become a Believer. The unconverted World are all concluded in unbelief, Rom. 11. 32. In Conversion we are fetched out from that wretched multitude of unbelievers: Converts and Believers signifie the same persons in Scripture-sense.
This faith we are converted to, comprehends in it three things.
1. Our sealing to the truth of God.
2. Our adventuring upon the truth of God.
3. Our resigning our selves to the government of the truth.
1. Faith is our sealing to the truth of God, or our belief of the truth of the Word of God, Ioh. 3. 33. He that believeth hath set to his Seal, that God is true. It is our belief of the truth of the Scriptures in general, and in special of the truth of the Gospel. It is our sealing to Christ, or our believing that he is the Messiah of God, and the Saviour of the world; that this is the Stone that is laid in Sion, on whom whosoever believeth shall not be confounded, 1 Pet. 2. 6. that in him there is Salvation, and none other, Act. 4. 12.
2. Faith is our adventuring upon the truth of God, an adventuring our lives, an adventuring our Souls upon the truth of the Word of God, and upon that Jesus concerning whom this Word bears witness. Faith is an adventuring for the other world. The object of Faith are things not seen, Heb. 11. 1. that is, the invisible world. The Scripture tells us of another stare, a more blessed and glorious state than that we here are in: this blessed state is in the other world, which however it cannot now be seen, yet Faith hath such evidence that there is such a state, that it will adventure for it.
Believers are Merchants, Matth. 13. 45. Merchantadventurers, that will adventure all they have, their whole Stock and Patrimony, for the riches of that good Land. Believers are adventurers for the other world, and they trust their whole adventure with Christ, he shall be their Pilot, yea he shall be their Ark to bring them into the holy Land above.
Whither art thou bound, O believing soul? For Canaan, for Ierusalem which is above, I am bound for Heaven. But art thou sure that there is such a place as Heaven, and such blessedness there? So sure I am, that I will adventure all upon it. But who is it shall bring thee to Heaven? Iesus of Nazareth, he who suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
But God is angry with thee, thou art a guilty Creature, and by thy sins hast fallen under his wrath and displeasure; how wilt thou do for that? why, I'le trust Christ for that, he shall be my Propitiation, he shall make peace for me, and he will do so, 1 Iohn 2. 2. O but thou art an unclean and polluted Creature, and there's no unclean thing can enter into that holy Land, How wilt thou do for that? I'le trust Christ for that also, he shall be my Sanctification, and he will be so, 1 Cor. 1. 30.
3. Faith comprehends under it the resigning up our selves to the government and guidance of the truth of God, our actual living under the power of truth; not only our holding the truth, but our suffering the truth to take hold of us, to rule us, and order us in our whole course. 'Tis the same state that both are in, both those that believe not the truth, and those that obey not the truth. Faith is not only a resting on Christ as our Saviour, but a resigning our selves to him as our Lord and King.
Thou sayst thou dost believe the Gospel, but wilt thou obey the Gospel? hath it gotten the command and government of thee? Is thy life a life of obedience to the Faith? If Sin and the Devil have still the Government of thee, and thou livest under the power of thy flesh, it will no way avail thee to say, I believe in Christ. But of this more in the next particular.
2. Conversion is our return from our enmity and rebellion against God, into friendship and obedience to God; our coming in, and laying down Arms; the ungodly world are all in Arms against God, they are Rebels against the Almighty, their word is the same with those Heathens words, Psal. 2. 3. Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us. The root of this rebellion is that enmity that is in their hearts against God, Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Sinners are enemies against the Being of God, they would be glad if there were no God, none above them to restrain or punish them. The Fool that said in his heart, there is no God, Psal. 14. 1. how glad would that Fool be, if he were sure his heart had said true; if he were sure there were no God indeed. They are enemies against the Soveraignty of God, against his Rule and Government; they all say in their hearts concerning the Father, as those Iews said concerning the Son, We will not have him to reign over us, they are enemies to all the holy ways of God, Col. 1. 21.
Now in Conversion the enmity is slain, and thereby the rebellion subdued; You who were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, hath he now reconciled, Col. 1. 21. A sincere Convert is a Soul reconciled. Reconciliation between God and Man is of both parties. The reconciliation of Man to God stands in a cessation from enmity, a subduing of his rebellion, and his returning into friendship and allegiance. Sinners love not God, nor any thing that belongs to God, their enmity is against him, and all his; against his Word, Worship, and all his ways: they love neither his Laws, nor his Promises; neither his works, nor his ways. God promises and rewards with spiritual and eternal blessings, but what is this to a carnal mind? he must have money, meat, and drink, and fine Cloaths, and pleasures, these Locusts he likes, but loaths Gods Manna.
A Convert is so reconciled to God, that he loves and likes all that is of God; he likes his Crown and his Cross, his comforts and his commands, all that God gives, and whatever he requires: he loves to be, and to do whatever God will have him▪ a strict, holy, and obedient life, a life of care and labour, in all things to please the Lord, that's a life he loves; not only the life he commends and praises in others, but 'tis the life he loves to live.
There are many that are no Converts that come thus far, to be able to say, for my part, I have nothing to say against Godliness, I think well of it, 'tis an honest way, and the safest way: I wish well to the power of Religion, 'twere well if there were more of it found in the world. I, but as much as thou speakest for it, and as well as thou lovest it, thou wilt have but little to do with it thy self; thou lovest strictness, but thou wilt not be strict thy self; thou praisest the close and laborious Christian, but canst not bear nor endure that labour and care thy self. Is this thy reconciliation to God? Mistake not thy self, every sincere Convert is so reconciled to all the ways of God, that these are the ways, this is the life which he chuses for himself. A life of obedience to the whole will of God, this is the life he loves, and lives.
By what hath been said, thou mayst understand what Conversion is; and so what it is, I am now exhorting thee to.
II. I shall now press thee to be Converted, and turn to the Lord. And shall I need to use Arguments to perswade thee? I doubt there may be need enough: How hardly are sinners perswaded in to God? they will after the Devil easily enough, but how few are they with whom all the Arguments imaginable will prevail to bring them to God?