A Treatise of Conversion, Chapter 7 · Section 2
SECT. II.
1. Hinderance. THe first hinderance of Conversion that I shall warn you of, is; The wilfull Neglect of those Ordinary Means which God hath appointed for the working of Conversion. When God will give any man saving grace, ordinarily he will do it by the Means of Grace▪ He that hath appointed his Ordinances to that end▪ will so far stand to his own Appointment, and honour his own Ordinances, as to work by them, and not ordinarily without them. If men therefore will not use Gods Means, no wonder if they go without his Grace. For first, such are out of the way of Grace; and when they avoid the Causes, they cannot in reason look for the Effects. 2. And moreover, they do provoke God to withhold and deny his Grace when they set so light by it, as that they will not so much as use the means to get it. A man by the help of common grace may see the Absence and the Necessity of special grace, and may do something in the use of Means to obtain it if he will; and when men will not so far use their common grace, it is just with God to deny them special Grace. For Example.
1. One Particular Means of conversion, is; The hearing of the Word preached by the Ministers of Christ in the Publick Assembly, Rom. 10. 14, 17. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a Preacher? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. God sent Paul to open mens eyes and convert them, Acts 26. 17, 18. Acts 10. 3, 5. God would so far favour Cornelius, as to send an Angel to him, but not to preach the Gospel, but onelyonly to bid him send for a Preacher, because he would keep to his standing Ordinance, and make use of his Ministers and appointed Means. So he would stop Paul by a Vision in his way, and do more for him in acquainting him extraordinarily with his Name, then he doth with others; and yet he sendeth him to Annanias for instruction, Acts 9 6. 10. It was by hearing Peter Preach that the Jews were pricked at the heart, and converted, and three thousand added to the Church at once, Acts 2. 37, 41. It was God that must open the heart of Lydia; but what did he open it for, but to attend the things that were spoken by Paul; that thereby she might be converted, Acts 16. 14. God would vouchsafe an Earthquake to prepare the heart of the Jaylor for conversion, but he would not convert him without the preaching of Paul and Silas, Acts 16. 32. It was those that had ears and heard not, and hearts that were hardened against the Word, that were not converted, healed, or forgiven, Mar. 4. 12. John. 12. 40. Acts 28. 27. By teaching sinners the way of God, David assured himself, they shall be converted to him, Psal. 51. 13. The Word of God is the seed of Life, which is sown and takes root in the hearts of them that God will save▪ Matth. 13. 8, 19, 23. Luke 8. 11. It is the Word of God which abideth for ever, which is the Incorruptible Seed by which we are born again, 1 Pet. 1. 23, 25. God hath made those Promises of a blessing on his Word, which should draw us to attend it, Prov. 1. 23. Isa. 55. 3. Incline your ears, come unto me, hear and your souls shall live. And he hath threatned those that will not hear and obey severely, Mat. 10. 14. If a people will not hear the Ministers of Christ, they must shake off the dust of their feet in witness against them; and Christ hath attested that it shall be more easie for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgement then for that people. It is by his Ministers that Christ doth teach his Church, and every soul that heareth not him, shall be cut off from his people, Acts 3. 26. If you will be at home when the Message of God is delivered to the Congregation, you cannot expect the Blessing and Benefit of it. If you can find something else to do when you should hear the Word of God, God will find something else to do when he should give you his saving Grace.
Object. But the Minister is but a weak man, and I cannot profit by him.
Answer. Doth he not deliver the profitable Word of God? Doth he not preach the Doctrine of Faith, and Repentance, and Justification by Christ, and shew you the way of Life? If you can hear the Doctrine of Everlasting Life and not profit by it, because the Minister is not so able as others, blame your own hearts, and give more Attendance and regard to what you hear; And lament that ignorance or carelesness of your own that hindreth you from profiting.
Object. But I have more Temptations in the Congregation, then I have when I sit at home. Satan is troubling me with vain thoughts, and I cannot attend.
Answer. Is that a reason against Duty, and so Necessary a Duty? Will you think to overcome the Devils Temptations by yielding to them? That is it that he would have. If he could drive you from Gods Ordinances, he hath his will. Will you make your own sin a pretense against your Necessary Duty? That is to make one sin a pretense for another: yea a lesser sin a pretense for a greater: It is your sin to hear with a careless wandering mind, but it is a greater sin not to hear at all.
Object. I can profit as much by staying at home and reading the Scripture or some good Book: It is the Word of God which they preach, and it is that which I read at home: The Books that are written by learned men, are better then the Sermons that are preached by our Ministers.
Answer 1. What foolish Pretences are these against the plain command of God, and our own Necessary Duty? When God hath appointed you your Duty, will he allow you to forsake it upon your own reason, as if you were wiser then God, and knew what will profit you better then he? If your Physitian give you a Medicine, and bid you take it for the cure of your Disease, will you be wiser then he, and say, why may not such and such a thing serve turn as well, or better? If you will needs be your own Physitian and forsake Gods Direction, and cure your selves, do it as well as you can, and see what will become of it. It is a strange thing that a sottish sinner should think himself wiser then God, and take upon him to mend his Word, and find out a better way to heaven then he hath prescribed him.
2. Can you have grace think you without the gift of God? If you cannot, do you think God will give it you in a way of disobedience, when you run from his appointed Means; or rather in a way of duty and obedience, when you wait on him in that which he hath promised to bless? Find you such Promises to those that turn their back on Gods Publick Ordinances, as we can shew you to them that diligently use them; if you can.
3. Is it not horrible Pride in you to think that you are able to understand the Word of God as well without a Teacher, as with one? The Eunuch said to Phillip, when he asked him whether he understood what he read; How can I except some man should guide me? Acts 8. 30, 31. And yet you think you can read the Word at home as profitably without a guide▪ As if your children that go to School should say, [We have the same books at home, and therefore we will not go to school, our Master doth but teach us our Grammar, and other books, and these we can read at home.] You are wise men that while, that know no more of your own ignorance; and humble men, that think you have no need of teaching; as if God had appointed his Ministers and Ordinances in vain.
4. It is a certain Mark that you never heard or read as you should, or else your hearing or reading would have taught you, that both must go together, and not one shut out the other; and that the greatest, which is Gods publick work, must be preferred. It is a Mark of a graceless heart and worse; even of one that hath much blinded common reason it self, when wretched sinners do know no more of their own Necessity, but think they can live as well without Gods publick Means as with it. If ever Sermon or book had done you saving good, and you had the least spark of Grace and had felt the power of Divine Truth upon your soul, you would have been far from these conceits: You would feel the Necessity of the preaching of the Word, as an hungry man feeleth thee need of his food: Your own Necessity would drive you, and the good which you feel by the Word would draw you, and your Love to it would not suffer you to forbear. If you were Necessarily kept away by any business, you would take it for your loss, when it is not your sin, and would lament that you are deprived of that which you find so sweet and profitable. To find no profit by the preaching of the Word of God, nor any great need of it, is a mark of a dead and graceless soul.
5. Look through the Scripture, and see whether the common way of Conversion were not by the hearing the Word of God preached.
6 If you may thus forbear it, then why may not all others? And then all Christian Assemblies should be dissolved, and forborn; and then what Churches should we have? And do you think that this is the will of God? All sorts of Christians in the world would have Assemblies. Papists have their meetings; and Anabaptists have theirs; and even the Separatists have theirs; and would you have none? Doth not God expresly charge you, that you forsake not the Assembling of your selves together, as the manner of some is, Heb. 10. 25. And to what end else hath he appointed Ministers in his Church?
7. Do you think that there should be any Ministers, or not? If not; then no Church, no Baptism, and then no Christ, and no Salvation. If there should; what should they do, if not preach the Gospel? Paul so far preferred it before other Ordinances, that he thanketh God that he Baptized not any himself save some few among them, because of an inconveniency that might have followed; For God sent me not, saith he, to Baptize, but to preach the Gospel, 1 Cor. 1. 17. If you would have no preaching, you should have no Ministers. And if you would have us preach, who should we preach to? To walls, or to men? If to men, why not to you as well as to others? Are others bound to hear any more then you? And how can we preach without hearers? Paul saith, and so must we, Necessity is laid upon me, and wo to me if I preach not the Gospel: and may we not then say, Necessity is laid on you, and wo to you if you hear not the Gospel? The Scripture saith, How beautifull are the very feet of them that bring the glad tydings of Peace? And you can profit as well without them at home. Is not your spirit then contrary to Gods Spirit, which thus speaks, Rom. 10. 15. And what spirit is it that is cont…ary to Gods Spirit, but the Devils?
8. It was never Gods End in writing the Scripture; nor the End of Ministers in writing good Books to keep you from the publick hearing of the Word. Each duty must know its place. I had rather the books that I have written were all burnt, then that men should by them be kept from the Publick and greater Ordinances. Do not these very books which you say you read, Command you to hear, and condemn those that do not hear? Do they not shew you that your words are the words of wickedness; and say as much for hearing as now I do? What an hypocritical trick of you is this, when the Bible and other good Books do command you to be constant hearers, and condemn you if you will not, that you will say you can profit more by reading these books then by hearing? What, can you profit more by reading your Duty when you refuse to do it, then by obedient doing it? Can you profit most by reading your own condemnation? You read in Scripture that he that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be Abomination, Prov. 28. 9. The truth is, you shew by this, that you do but make reading a pretence against hearing, when indeed you never did either of them with understanding and grace in your hearts.
9. What do you by withdrawing from the Publick Assemblies but Excommunicate your selves? And is it not our duty then to excommunicate or avoid you if you continue obstinate after Admonition? Do you Believe the Communion of Saints, and yet do you avoid it? Well, if you had any Grace in your hearts, you would make the Assembly and Publick worship of God, the Delight of your souls, and it would do you as much good to call on God and praise him with his People, and hear his instructions, that you could not be without it. You would do as David, Psal. 42. when he was banished from the Temple and worship of God, he cryeth out [As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks, so pant…th my soul after thee, Oh God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say to me, where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voyce of joy and Praise, with the Multitude that kept Holy-day.
The sixth Council at Constant▪ Decreed, that whosoever was absent from the Congregation three Lords dayes together without Necessity; if he were a Minister, should be put from the Ministry, and if he were a private man, he should be cast from the communion of the Church. If you cast out your selves, blame not us if we cast you out.
Object. But say some (that the Quakers have taught) When a Minister preacheth a monethmonth, or two, or three, or a year upon one Text, how can he chuse but add to the Word of God: And therefore why should we hear them?
Answer. A foolish Cavill; what! is Expounding and applying the Word of God, adding to it? Do we tell you that any thing is the Word of God that is not? Why doth not one of these ignorant Objectors come and tell us in any one particular, what it is that we have added to the Word of God? I am now perswading you to hear the Word of God, is this adding to it? Doth not the Word do the like? And doth not God in the Word bid us acquaint you with it, and make it plain to you, and press it upon you? What if a Lawyer bestow a day, or twenty dayes in pleading your Cause before the Judge, that he may save your Estate, or your life from the malice of an Adversary? Will you say that this Lawyer doth add to the Law of the Land by his pleading? What if the Judge pass sentence according to Law, and give the reason of it? Or what if he make a charge of many hours long where ever he comes; doth he add to, or diminish from the Law by so doing? I must crave pardon of the hearers that are but of common reason, that I have spent so much time in answering such sensless sottish Cavils as these. But they must consider that such people we have to deal with, and the more unreasonable and blockish they are, the greater need they have to be taught.
2. Another Means that God hath appointed for Conversion, is: The reading of his Word, and of such good books as are written for the opening and applying of it. Though this must not thrust out hearing, yet is it an excellent mans in its own time and place, or else God would not have appointed it as he hath done, Exod. 24. 7. Josh. 8. 34, 35. 2 Chron. 34. 30. Neh. 8. 3, 8, 18. & 9. 3. Mat. 12. 3, 5 & 21. 26. & 22. 31. Acts 13. 26. & 15. 21. Deut. 31. 11. Acts 8. 30. Col. 4. 16. Rev. 1. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 13. Many a soul hath had happy experience of the success of reading. The Word Read is the Word, and therefore may Convert▪ For the Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, Psalm 19. 7. It is a very great Priviledge to have the Truths of God before our eyes, where we may view them over and over at our leasure, till they be fastened in our hearts.
3. Another Means that God hath appointed us to use for the obtainment of his Grace, is, a serious enquiry of those that should and can instruct us. In common easie matters, you may go either to Ministers or to private Christians, as you see fit; but in matters of great Difficulty, where private men are in danger of mistaking, or are not able to do it as your Case requires, there it is your duty especially to repair to your Teachers; or the most able faithful Ministers that you can well get, and make known your Case to them, and desire their Direction for your effectual Recovery. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night for Counsell, because he perceived that he was a Teacher sent from God: And Christ thereupon did give him advice in the matter of the New birth. So Matth. 19. 16. Another enquireth what he shall do that he may have eternal Life. The Eunuch desires instruction of Philip. Acts 8. And Paul of Annanias, and Cornelius of Peter, as was said before. The Jews that were pricked at the heart, ask Peter and the rest of the Apostles what they shall do? Acts 2. 37. And the Jaylor asks Paul and Silas, what he shall do to be saved? See further, Mal. 2. 7. The Priests lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts, Luke 12. 42. Col. 1. 28. If poor unconverted sinners would but take this course, and go to their Teachers for Direction for their Salvation, and Resolve to practice it when it is given them, Conversion would not be so Rare, nor so many miscarry as now do: But most are so careless that they feel no need of it, and think it were but to trouble themselves and their Teachers to no purpose; and others are so stout that they will not stoop to it; But if we send for them to come and speak with us, that we may afford them the best advice we can, they ask us by what Authority we do it? and think it too much to come neer us and speak to us: others are so sinfully bashfull, that they cannot open their mouths when their salvatiion is concerned in the matter; and others are conceited beforehand, that Ministers will but sleight them and are too stout to speak to them, at least with any seriousness and tenderness of their Case. And thus Satan keeps men from Grace, by keeping them from the Means of Grace.
4. Another means of Conversion, is; The frequent company of those that fear God, and would afford us their help in the way to Heaven, and conference with them about these things. Company hath a transforming power; and the speeches and examples of Heavenly Christians will do much to bring others to a consideration of their wayes. Commonly men are or seem to be such as their familiar company is.
5. Another means for Conversion, is; Frequent and earnest prayers to God. When we know we want Grace, and that God is the giver of it, what should we do but betake our selves to him, and ask saving Grace and wisdom of him, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not? Jam. 1. 5. I know some would perswade us that we may not exhort unconverted men to pray; because their prayer is an Abomination to God, and without faith they cannot please God. To whom I answer briefly. 1. Nature it self teacheth a man in misery to cry to him that is able to relieve him, and to beg pardon of him whom he hath offended, and especially when he knoweth that he is of a merciful nature: And may we not perswade men to that which the very Light of Nature doth direct them to, and the Law of Nature oblige them to? Or will these men go against the Light and Law of Nature? 2. Scripture commandeth these to pray and seek God, Isa. 55. 6, 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is neer. Lot the wicked forsake his wayes, and the unrightous man his thoughts, &c. So Hos. 10. 12. & 3. 5. Amos 5. 6. Acts 8. 22. Peter exhorts Simon Magus to pray, if prhaps the thoughts of his heart may be forgiven him, when he pronounceth him in the gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity. 3. We do not exhort men to pray while they continue wicked, but to return with prayer in their mouths from their wickedness. Our exhortation is as those before mentioned; Let the wicked forsake his way: and thus seek the Lord. Repent of this thy wickedness, and so pray for pardon, as Peter exhorteth. When we bid them pray, we bid them desire, for desire is the soul of prayer, and words are but the body; and when we exhort them to desire Grace, we exhort them to the beginning of Grace. Praying is a returning Act, and when we exhort them to pray, we exhort them to return, and by prayer to begin the Work, and so this beginning may be a Means of the rest of the change that is yet behind.