A Treatise of Conversion, Chapter 7 · Section 13 – Section 14
SECT. XIII.
Direction 6. THe advice therefore that I would give you for this work of Conversion, is: That you especially take heed of this dangerous case, of a hardened heart: In the name of God see that you run not into this miserable state; or if you be in it, Oh that I could awaken you that you might speedily be brought out of it. Have you yet time of Repentance? and are your souls and bodies yet together? Yet hath Gods Patience kept you out of hell? Oh harden not your hearts, lest time be gone, and death and darkness be upon you before you are aware. Behold, now is the accepted time, behold now is the d…y of Salvation, saith the Holy Ghost, 2 Cor. 6. 2. Doth God give you warning once again before he smiteth you into everlasting Vengeance, and doth he once more call you to Repent before he summon you to Judgement? Oh take the counsell of the Holy Ghost, Heb. 3. 7, 8, 15. Psalm 95. 8. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: I say, to day, lest he bear not with thee till to morrow. Boast not of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, Prov. 27. 1. And if God do call thine Impenitent soul out of this world before our next meeting in this place, or at least, ere long, remember then that thou hadst time to have prevented the misery which thou must feel to all Eternity.
There is not a more fearfull plague on earth then a hardened heart, none is more like to be sealed up to Damnation then such a one. Dost thou hear of the greatness of thy sin, and hear of Judgement, and Eternal life, and hear of the love and severity of the Lord▪ and yet dost thou not feel it? Oh sad case, and sadly to be lamented by all that understand it! For from thy self it cannot be expected. Believe it sinner, God hath a voice that will be heard and regarded: If the voice of Mercy be made light of, the voice of Judgement shall not be made light of. When we have told thee of thy danger, and of the Remedy by Christ, thou canst go home and cast it out of thy mind: But when God hath said, Go ye cursed to everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels, then make light of that if thou canst. When he hath newly said, Take him and bind him hand and soot, and cast him into utter▪ darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, the… forget this, and cast this out of thy mind if thou canst. Oh poor wretch, if thou hadst to do but with such a one as I, or any one of the sons of men, perhaps thou mightest think to escape well enough: But thou hast to do with the eternal Majesty, and how then wilt thou escape? Canst thou grapple with his Almighty strength? Or canst thou make good thy part against him? When we call on thee to repent and Reform, thou wilt not; when we call thee to a holy and Heavenly life, thou wilt not; but when he shall say, Depart from me thou cursed wretch, wilt thou then say, thou wilt not? When he shall deliver thee to the Devils to be tormented by them for ever, who deceived thee in thy life time, and bid them take thee to everlasting flames, wilt thou then say, Thou wilt not go? Alas poor wretch, what power hast thou to resist? It is the same Almighty God that made all the world of Nothing, and beareth it up in his hand, and disposeth of it at his will, which then will command thee to remediless perdition. If he bid the Sun in the firmament move, it moveth; and once when he bad it stand still, it did stand still, and nothing is able to resist his power; and canst thou resist it? Why, if he send but a Disease upon thee thou art unable to resist it? If he bid thee die, wilt thou say, I will not die? Alas! If sinners could have resisted God, and saved themselves from the stroak of Justice, the Churchyard would not have been so full of graves; nor hell so full of Damned souls as it is at this day. But who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? Job 9. 4. Name me the man, and tell me where he dwells, that hardened his heart against the Lord, and sped well by it in the latter end? I tell you again, if Sermons cannot make you feel, if Mercies and warning, if Threatning and Affliction cannot make you feel, Judgement and Hell shall make you feel. Say not but thou wast told so, and remember this when thou seest not me. Remember that I foretold thee that God will not be alwaies jested with, or abused, and that thou canst not make so light of Hell as thou didst of the warnings of God and man. If thou be turned into a Rock, God hath a hammer that can batter and dash in pieces that Rock.
Object. But if God will harden my heart, how can I help it? It is he that hardened Pharaohs heart, and so he did the Jews, Mar. 4. 12. And if he will do it, what Remedy?
Answer. 1. Dost thou think to have any excuse or comfort by Accusing the Righteous and holy God? Oh what a foolish thing is sin, and how it bereaveth poor sinners of their understanding! Thou mightest better have laid the blame upon any one in the world, then upon the Righteous and most holy God. For never sin came from him, nor was caused by him. Dost thou think he will not be justified in his Judging? Gods hardening men is but his leaving them to themselves, to go on in that hardness that he found them in▪ and denying them that Grace which he no way oweth them. 2. And God doth not this neither, till thou abusest his Grace, and strivest against the Light, and castest away thy own mercy; and is it not just then that he should take his mercy from thee? If children will play with their meat, or cast it to the dogs, and tread it under feet, it is time to take it away. This is Gods hardening of the hearts of sinners, he leaveth them as he found them▪ after they have abused and refused his Grace: And withall, he letteth loose the Tempter upon them, that seeing they will be wicked, they may be taken in their own wickedness, and destroy themselves by it: as you will lay a Purse in his way to catch a thief by, when you do not make him thievish. So God will try and catch a sinner when yet he never gives him any inclination to the sin: But when he seeth that they are and will be such, it is just with him to let them take their course, and smart by their folly: and as, if you see a thief that is running into a pit, you are not bound to keep him out, no more is God to keep a sinner from destroying of himself, especially when he hath so often refused his assistance.
Question. But what can I do for the softening of my own heart?
Answer. Oh that thou wert but willing to do what thou shouldest and mightest do: if thou be willing. 1. Get alone and consider of the misery of thy condition; and of the time when thou shalt feel whether thou wilt or no. 2. Keep under the most powerfull preaching of the Word, which is Gods ordinary means for melting of the heart. 3. Keep in the company of those that will remember thee of those holy Truths which have a softening Nature, and will bring everlasting things into thy mind. 4▪ Keep out of the company of foolish and ungodly men, who by their words and practices will harden thee more. 5. Resolve that thou go not on in the Practice of thy known sin; no not once more▪ For sinning against knowledge doth harden the heart, and tempt the Lord to leave thee to thy self. If thou wilt be drunk when thou knowest it to be a sin; and wilt be worldly, and wilt be fleshly, when God and conscience speak against it, this will desperately harden thy heart. 6. Beg daily of God that he would soften thy heart: Beseech him upon thy knees to pardon those sins by which thou hast hardened it, and to give thee his Spirit which must deliver thee from this misery: and follow him hard with these requests from day to day; for if thou prevail not, thou art undone and lost for ever. For saith the Holy Ghost, Prov, 28. 13, 14. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth alwaies, but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief, Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without Remedy.
SECT. XIV.
Hinderance 7. ANother Hinderance of conversion, is: The too great esteem that men have of this world, and the great Interest that it hath gotten in their hearts: By this it is that God is shut out; that Christ is so neglected; that Heavenly things are so much undervalued; Because men have that in their hands already, or at least in their eyes, which they like better. God and Mammon cannot be loved: these two Masters cannot be both served. While the world is leaned to, Christ will be made light of. The Glory to come can never be obtained, but by the hearty forsaking of this present world: It is this that stole the heart from God, and it is this that possesseth it, till Grace recovereth it to God again. And therefore it is the work of Grace to cast out the world, and to set up God: to dethrone this Usurper, and to give God again the Possession of his own. As truly as darkness goeth out of the room when light comes in, so truly doth the love of the world depart where the Love of God doth enter into the soul: For if any man (predominantly) love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, 1 John 2. 15. Men cannot make God their End, and the world their End too. They cannot love God above all, and the world above all too. They cannot set their hearts on Heaven, nor make it their Treasure and their chiefest good, while they set their hearts on earth, and make it their Treasure. For wh…re their treasure is, their hearts will be, Matth. 6. 21. When men are drowned in worldly cares; and taken up so much with worldly contrivances and businesses, there is then no room for the matters of their Salvation. If they would go to consider of their sin and misery, and think of these things that might further their conversion, their worldly matters step in and turn away their thoughts. So that, when they are alone and have opportunity for such considerations, yet they have no hearts to such a work. When they are considering, and begin to perceive that they must either change or perish, and that this life will not serve the Turn, presently the world doth turn their minds, and telleth them of other matters to be minded, and so all is forgotten again. If their hearts be a little wakned and troubled for sin, the pleasure or business of the world doth quiet them, and whiles it maketh them forget their misery, they live as if it were cured, and all their trouble vanisheth away. If they are moved to set up the worship of God in their families, to read, and pray, and instruct those that are under them, the world will not give them leave, they have somewhat else to mind, which it seemeth they think of greater Necessity: And thus the world is an enemy to God, and the love of it keepeth out the Love of God, and the serving of it excludeth his service, and they that are friends of it, are certainly his enemies, Jam. 4. 8. And this is a grievous hinderance of Conversion.