your wickedness, and the law of the land would deservedly put you to a painful death; and will you do them a greater mischief? Will you blind them, and keep them off from Christ and godliness? And will you embolden them in the way of sin, and help them to damnation? God forbid. But alas! they that have no more pity on their own souls, but to use them thus, what wonder if they have no more pity of others. (2.) The next part of my Direction, therefore, is to you that have been brought up in ignorance and ungodliness from your youth. O look about you while you have time and means. If your parents have been false to you, be not false to God and your souls. If your parents have betrayed your souls, do not you betray your own. They kept you in ignorance because they were ignorant themselves; they bred you up in worldliness and ungodliness, because they were worldly aud ungodly themselves; they spoke against holiness, because they knew it not, but were themselves unholy but you have one that hath more interest in you than your parents, that calls to you for your conversion. Hearken to him if all the world should gainsay it: do not care as little for your own souls as your parents cared for them : do not take on you, even to love your parents so well as to follow them to damnation; their company will not make hell any easier to you. Should not the love of your heavenly Father do more to draw you to heaven, than the love of your parents to draw you to hell? O hearken then to God and to his word, though all the world should say against it. Hindrance 14. Another hindrance of conversion, is, Striving against the Spirit of grace. When God would illuminate a sinner, and he is unwilling to see, when God would take off a sinner from his lusts and evil ways, and he is loath to be taken off; God sheweth him his sin to humble him, and he is unwilling to be humbled, but striveth against the Spirit, and runneth into worldly businesses, or merry company, or turneth his thoughts to other things. As Christ said to the Jews, "How oft would I have gathered you, but you would not ";" so he may say to many a sinner, How oft did I shew thee a better way, and thou wouldst not walk in it; how oft did I shew thee the sinfulness and misery of thy P Matt. xxiii. 37. estate, and thou wouldst not come off from it. When men fight against Christ, and purposely wink because they hate the light that would reform them, and when they strive against the Spirit that would convert them, what wonder if they be unconverted! Direct. 14. If ever you would be converted, yield to the Spirit of God that would convert you. It is his office to sanctify all that shall be saved: be not you unwilling to be sanctified by him. If you refuse help when it is offered you, you may justly be left helpless and perish for want of that which you did despise. You are baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost, by which you have professed to take him for your Sanctifier, and are you now unwilling to be sanctified by him? And will you now strive against him when you are so solemnly engaged to him? You cannot be saved unless you be sanctified, and you cannot be sanctified unless it be done by the Holy Ghost, whom you now resist. O how easily and prosperously doth the work go on, when the Spirit of God assisteth, and how impossible is it to be done without him! They that would have a prosperous voyage will take wind and tide, and not be so foolish as to set against them when they stand to their advantage: he that would have health will not abuse the physician, and drive him away from him. O take heed how you use the Spirit of God if ever you would be converted! Hindrance 15. Another hindrance of conversion, is, Unresolvedness and half-purposes; when men will hang wavering between God and the world; and though the light be never so clear to convince them, yet they will not be persuaded to resolve. "A double-minded man," saith James, " is unstable in all his ways "." O how many shall perish for want of resolution! They have been convinced that they must be changed or else they are undone, and yet they would not resolve: they have long been inclining to a better course, and had some thoughts of it, but the world hindereth, or friends hinder, or the flesh hindereth, and they will not resolve; and thus they hang loose from God, and never unfeignedly resign up themselves to him, till either God in judgment leave them to themselves, or death and hell do find them unresolved. ¶ James i. 8. Direct. 15. If you would be converted and saved, do not stand wavering, but resolve, and presently turn to God. If it were a doubtful business, I would not persuade you to do it rashly, or if there were any danger to your souls in resolving, then I would say no more. But when it is a case that should be beyond all dispute with men of reason, why should you stand staggering, as if it were a doubtful case? What a horrible shame is it to be unresolved whether God or the world should have your hearts? Were it not a disgrace to that man's understanding that were unresolved whether gold or dung were better? or whether a bed of thorns, or a feather-bed were the easier? or whether the sun or a clod of earth were the more light and glorious? It is a far greater shame for a man to be unresolved, whether it be God or the world that must make him happy, and that should have his heart, and whether a life of sin or holiness be the better. What! have you read Scripture, and heard sermons so long, and yet are you unresolved of this? Nay, have you common reason, and do you believe that there is a God, and a world to come, and yet are you unresolved whether you must be godly or not? I say to you, as Elias did to Israel," How long halt ye between two opinions? If God be God follow him, if Baal be God follow him"." If it be better to be damned than leave your sins, then keep them, and the curse of God with them. But if it be better to deny your flesh, than to suffer everlastingly the wrath of God, then away with your iniquities, and meddle with them no more; if it be better to live in an alehouse awhile, than in heaven for ever, then drink on and spare not; but if it be not, why do you not consider and come away. If God and godliness be not better than the world and wickedness, then take your course; but if they be, why do you stand wavering, and do not resolve to be the people of God with all your hearts? O what a blind and miserable creature is a wicked man, that such matters as these should seem doubtful to him! or that he should yet be unresolved of them! What, unresolved whether it be best to go to heaven, or not! and whether it be best to be damned, or not! And all this for the love of a stinking unprofitable lust! If this be wisdom, what then is folly ? 1 Kings xviii. 21. Hindrance 16. Another hindrance of conversion, is, Delay. When men are resolved that they must be converted or condemned, and purpose to let go sin, and to take another course, yet they delay and put off the time. They would yet have a little more of the pleasure of their sin before they part with it. Yet they cannot spare it, but shortly they will do it. They are yet young, and they hope they have daylight, and time enough before them. They are yet in health, and therefore they hope there is no such haste, but they may have time to think on it. Because God will receive a sinner whensoever he returneth, they think they may stay a little longer. And thus some grow hardened by custom in their sin, and others are cut off while they are purposing to return; and many thousand souls are lost for ever that once were purposed to have turned to God, and all because they delayed their return; as the sluggard saith, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumbers; " so saith the sinner, yet I may sin a little while, till they have sinned themselves into a reprobate sense, or provoked God to leave them to themselves, and so they must perish everlastingly by their delay. Direct. 16. O consider, therefore, sinners, that conversion is not a work to be delayed. Would a man lie under the wrath and curse of God one day, that knew what it is? Methinks he should not. Are you loath to come out of the bondage of the devil? Why, your delay doth shew that your heart is false, and that you be not willing truly to be converted. He that is loath to leave his sin this day or hour, would never leave it, if he knew how to keep it: if he did not love it, he would be willing to be rid of it without delay. He that loveth God, had rather return and be reconciled to him, and partake of the joy of his Spirit to-day, than to-morrow. Did you but know what God is, you would not delay your conversion to him. Did you but know what the glory is that he offereth you, you would not delay to make sure of it any longer. Did you but see the nature of sin, and know the miserable effects of it, O how hastily would you endeavour to be rid of it! If you had so many serpents or toads in your bosoms, you would not say, I will cast them out to-morrow, but how quickly would you shake them from you? If you • Prov. vi. 10. xxiv. 33. had but felt the sting of sin, it would appear another matter to you than now it doth. It is one kind of face that sin hath in an alehouse, or in the height of your filthy lust, or in the seeming gain of your covetous practices; and it is another kind of face that it hath when God will reckon for it with the guilty soul. Should a man trifle in such a course, wherein, if he die, he is lost for ever? Why, poor, wretched sinner, how long wilt thou delay? And why wilt thou delay? Wilt thou delay till death shall seize upon thee, and thou drop into hell before thou art aware? Dost thou not know that sin gets advantage by thy delay? thee that ever his Spirit shall be offered to thee more; if thou refuse his assistance, and delay thy conversion but one day longer. And woe be to thee if he depart from thee t! When people will have none of God, nor will hearken to his voice, he often giveth them up to their own heart's lusts, to walk in their own counsels "." O unworthy wretch! if thou hadst any of the ingenuity of a Christian within thy breast, thou wouldst say, 'I have abused Christ and his grace so long, that I am utterly ashamed of it, and will abuse him no more; I have too long slighted Christ already, and too long hearkened to his enemy's voice. If thy dead heart were but well awakened to consider and feel thy own condition, thou wouldst be quickly affrighted out of thy delay, and run as hastily from thy state of sin, as thou wouldst out of a house that were all on fire over thy head, or out of a boat that were sinking under thee. What, hast thou not yet served the devil long enough? Hast thou not yet sufficiently abused Christ, not oft enough rejected the grace of God? Hast thou not yet wallowed long enough in the filth of sin? But must thou needs have more of it? Hast thou not yet done enough to the destruction of thy soul? Nor drunk in enough of that deadly poison, nor stabbed thyself sufficiently by thy wickedness, but thou must needs have more? Will sin come up easier, when it is deeper rooted? And canst thou more easily be converted, when thou hast driven away the Spirit of God that should convert thee? Wilt thou travel out of thy way till night, before thou wilt turn back again? And wilt thou drive the nail yet faster to the head, which thou knowest must be drawn out again? O be not wilfully t Hos. ix. 12. Jer. vi. 8. u Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12. |