A Short and Sure Way to Grace and Salvation, Section 25 – Section 26
Sect. XXV.
But yet more to convince you, you go to heaven, when in ſundry partlcula…s, you fall ſho…t of many wicked reprobates recorded in Scripture; as do bu… deal impartially with thy ſelf, and tell mee thou civill Juſticiary whether thou ever hadſt the heart upon hearing the th…eatnings of the Word, to …ele…t and humble thy ſelf with Ahah? to confeſs thy ſins, and …eſire the people of God to pray for thee with Pharoah? to bee affected with joy in hearing the Word, and practice many things, with Herod? to …ee zealous againſt ſin, with Jehu? willingly to part with a good part of …hy goods, with Anarias? …o forſake the world & all thy hopes in it; to fol…ow poor Chriſt, as Demus and others? to venture thy life with Alexander …he Copper-ſmith, in cleaving to the tru…h? yea it is ſaid of Judas himſelf …hat hee repented, there is contrition; hee ſaith I have ſinned, there is confeſſion, and hee reſtored the money again, there is ſatisfaction; which is … the Papists repentance: and yet hee is Judas the son of perdition still. Now tell me? doſt thou not com ſhort of theſe, many ſuch as theſe be wicked reprobates, and yet wilt thou pleaſ thy ſelf in a falſ conceit, of thine own happineſs, who comeſt further behind them, then they do behind true chriſtians? If ſome that have journied in the wilderneſs to Kad…ſh-barnea, ſhall yet never enter into Gods reſt; ſhall thoſe that never left Egypt? Is …he ſtony ground reprobate? and can the high-way ground bee good. There are three ſorts of ground mentioned, Mark. 4. 4. 5. 6. 7. and the very worſt of them receives the ſeed, yet all damned; whither then ſhall the …empeſt of Gods wrath drive them, that would never yet give the Goſpell … religious ear.
But vicious men, think God is all merciemercy (as …oggie ayr uſeth to represent every object far bigger then it is.) when the Word tells us, that he is a conſuming fire, and a …ealous God, Deut. 4. 24. Heb. 12. 29 and when we …hall find in Deut. 28. thrice as many curſes as bleſſings. Doſt thou expect to have him mercifull to thee, that art unmerci…ull, cruell, and bloody to …im, to his, and thine own soul? none that have eies in their heads and open, can be ſo ſort…. But Sin is like the juic… of Poppie, called Opium; which if the quantity exceed, b…ingeth the patient into a deep ſleep, that he never awaketh. Sinners dream they are awake, but ind…ed they are …ast aſleep; yea, with Sardi they are dead, while they think they are …live.
And indeed this miſp…iſion or miſtake, this very opinion of being in …afe good enough; keeps a man out of all poſſibility of being bettered: …or what we preſume to have attained, wee ſeek not after. Yea this con…ited righteouſneſs, is the onelyonly cauſe of all unrighteouſneſs; and many a man had been good, if he had not at preſent ſo thought himſelf. Untill Paul was humbled to the very ground; trembling and aſtoniſhed, he ne…er asked Jeſus, what wilt thou have me to do. And the like of thoſe Con…e…ts that were p…ickt in their hearts at Peters ſearching Sermon, upon their being convinced, that they were the murtherers of the Lord of life, Acts 2. verſ. 36, 37, 38.
Sect. XXVI.
In the laſt place touching their Election, this is an infallible truth; Whomſoever God hath appointed to ſalvation, to them he hath appointed …he means alſo, which is holineſs. I…deed a man may be ſo bold of his Pre…eſtination, as to forget his converſation; ſo he may dream himſelf in Hea…en, and waken from that dream in Hell. God's purpoſe touching the end, include the means. Though God had promiſed Paul that his company ſhould not be drowned; yet he told the Mar…iners, that unleſſe they kept in the ſhip, they ſhould be drowned, Act. 2…. 22, 23. 31. …s if their ſafety ſhould not be without means: Rebek… had God's Oracle for Jacobs life, yet ſhe ſent him away out of Eſau's reach. It was impoſſible for Herod to hurt the child Jeſus, yet he muſt flie into Egypt.
And ſo I have ſhewn in the laſt place, what are the conditions of the new Covenant, and to whom the promiſes belong; which is all that I undertook. Now if men will yet go on, and periſh in their impenitencie; their blood be on their own heads, and not on mine, I have diſcharged my duty.
Nevertheleſſe, leaſt the ſingle evidence that I bring from the Word of Truth, ſhould not prove ſufficient to gain your credence to what ha…h been ſpoken; And becauſe examples give a quicker impreſſion then arguments, I have one thing more to crave of thee, which is of as great concernment, as all that I have hitherto ſpoken; namely, that thou wilt alſo hear the confeſſion of two parties (in the enſuing, or ſecond part of this Diſcourſe) that were lately in thy very condition; though now by the infinite goodneſſe of God they have their eies opened, and their hea…s changed, to ſee and know, both what it is to be in the ſtate of nature, and what to be brought into the glorious liberty of the ſons God; that ſo by a three-fold coard, you may be drawn to accept of ſalvation upon God's own terms; whereas otherwiſe, you can no way eſcape his eternal wrath.
The enſuing, or ſecond part, which I would requeſt you to read and mind, is; A happie conference, between a Formaliſt converted, and a looſe Libertine; intituled, As Experimental Index of the Heart.
And ſo much of the firſt Part, the ſecond followeth.
FINIS
Sold onelyonly by James Crump, in Little Bartholomews Well-yard; and by Henry Cripps, in Popes-head Alley. 1658.
End of the text · Richard Younge, A Short and Sure Way to Grace and Salvation (1658)