The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption, Treatise 1 · Chapter 15
CHAP. XV. Encouraging early converts; and vindicating the preaching of the Law from the exceptions of touchy hearers.
FRom the Theſis ſo cleared and vindicated, Learn.
1. What a thrifty courſe it is to be an early convert. If a man muſt come under the Spirits bonds, the ſooner the better; ſo much the longer true peace and liberty we attain, by how much the earlier we have gotten through this Aprenticeſhip. How rich do ſuch grow, if not neglecting their time, and opportunities, who get early out of their ſervice? Whereas, if one be a man before he becomes an Apprentice, beſides that the ſervice will be more tedious and irkeſome at ſuch an age, how much of the prime of his days doth he loſe, wherein he might get a great eſtate, were he his own man? O how much joy, and peace, and aſſurance of Gods Love, how much comfortable communion with him, how many rich experiences, how great an acceſſion of grace, how many opportunities of ſervice, and (if there be degrees of glory) how much of the weight of their crown do they loſe that paſſe the pangs and throws of the new birth, when they are even ready to go out of the World! O friends, how good is it for a man to bear this yoke in his youth, ſeeing it muſt be born at one time or other! Lam. 3. 27. The ſtrength of the bearer is then greateſt; the burthen of ſin at that age, not being greatned by the many aggravations of a riper, and more experienced familiarity with it, will be lighter; the workings and flowings of heavenly affections under it will be ſweeter, more ingenuous, and unmixed with ſelf-ends, and hypocriticall colluſions; the removal of it (in likelihood) will be the ſooner, at leaſt the ſurer; God having engaged himſelf that they that ſeek him early ſhall finde him, whoſoever miſſe him they ſhall not, Prov. 8. 17.
This is much ſet forth by what was before ſaid concerning the meaſures of conviction which the Spirit works by. The longer wee continue in an unregenerate condition, the more do we multiply the ſorrows and throwes of the new birth. The longer we are before we get the debt diſcharged and the book cancelled, the heavier will the account appear when we come to reckon all the arrearages of ſo many years actual ſinnes to the grand debt of original guilt; when we ſhall ſee the Accompt multiplyed into millions, by intereſt upon intereſt, from cuſtome, and obſtinacy, and delight in ſinne.
Friends, we are utterly miſtaken, and doe miſerably beguile our ſelves, when becauſe we are loath to damp the joys and comforts of youth, by ſo unwelcome a trouble as that of conviction, and humiliation for ſinne, we reſiſt the Spirit, and think it more for our advantage to put off ſuch thoughts to old age. It is as if a debtour that owes divers thouſands, ſhould think it more for his eaſe to look over his Accompts, and reckon with his Creditor, when the debt is encreaſed by the intereſt of thirty ar forty years, and the addition of new ſummes. Ah! poor man, if thy conſcience book be ſo overcharged that thou dareſt not look into it at fifteen or twenty years old, how black and diſmal will it look at fifty or ſixty years? When moreover, it will be the greateſt trouble of thy Spirit over and above all thy other ſinns, that thou haſt not returned ſooner; when thou ſhalt queſtion whether God will receive one returning ſo late, under the weight of ſo many aggravated ſinns. 'Tis an hard matter for thoſe that have rejected the Spirits motions in youth, and given their luſts a full ſwinge againſt the checks of their conſciences, to take any comfort, or build to themſelves any ground…d aſſurance of Gods love, thoug… they be really converted, in age: when there are ſuch actual ſins lie at the bottome of the heart, as they are a…raid to con…eſſe to God, and aſhamed to make known to a Miniſter of the Goſpel or Chriſtian friends, but rather chooſe to let the wounds feſter, and heat, and rage within, then to open them. O how many black conſciences in convinced elder ſinners, which for ſhame of confeſſion they covered with a vaile of formality and hypocriſie, go without noiſe to hell, and are never reall till the day of Judgement: and how many are by ſuch ſinners themſelves, out of anguiſh of ſpirit read over with roaring and horror upon their death-beds, which might have been free from thoſe oppreſſing burthens, had they endeavoured earlier to relieve them! If the fetters of the Spirit of Bondage be ſo terrible, that thou ſhunneſt them now; how ſad a thing will it be to bear them in that age when the graſſehopper is a burthen? Eccleſ. 12. 5.