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Poor man's family book
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Genre
Doctrinal Treatise
Date
1674
Full Title
The poor man's family book. 1. Teaching him how to become a true Christian. 2. How to Live as a Christian, towards God, himself and others, in all his relations; especially in his Family. 3. How to Die as a Christian in Hope and Comfort, and so to be Glorified with Christ for ever. In plain familiar Conferences between a Teacher and a Learner.
Source
Wing B1352
Sampling
The original format is octavo.
The original contains contains footnotes,contains elements such as italics,contains comments and references,
The Second dayes Conference.
Of the Conversion of a Sinner; What it is?
Of the Conversion of a Sinner; What it is?
Speakers.
Paul, A Teacher.
Saul, A Learner.
Paul. WEll Neighbour; Have you
examined your self by the word
of God, since I saw you, as
I directed you?
Saul. I have done what I can in it.
P. And what do you think now of your case, upon
tryal?
S. I think it is much worse than I had hoped it was;
and as bad as you feared: When I first read the promises
to all that Believe in Christ, I was ready again
to hope that I was safe: But when I read further, I
found that it was as you had told me; and that I had
none of Christs Spirit and therefore am none of his;
and that I am not a Penitent Convert, and am not in
a State of life. But I now beseech you Sir, upon my
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knees, as you pitty a poor Sinner, tell me what I
must do to be saved?
P. Are you willing and Resolved to do it if I tell
it you, and prove it to you fully by the word of God?
S. By the grace of God I am Resolved to do it, be it
what it will: For I know it cannot be so bad as sin and
Hell.
P. You say well. I will first tell you this again in
the General, 1. That your Case is not remediless,
but a full and sufficient Salvation is purchased, and
tendred in the Gospel to you as well as to any others.
2. That Christ and his Grace is this Remedy; and
that God hath given us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son: He that hath the Son hath life, and he that
hath not the Son hath not life, but remaineth in his
guilt and sin.
3. That Christ having already made himself a sufficient
sacrifice for sins, and merited our Reconciliation,
pardon and Salvation, to be given in his way,
hath made a Covenant of Grace (Conditional)
with sinful man, by the Promise of which he forgiveth
us all our sins and giveth us right to everlasting life.
4. That Christs way of saving men from sin is by
sending his Ministry and word to call them, and
giving his Spirit within to sanctifie them: And this
Spirit is Christs Advocate to plead his cause, and do
his work, and prepare us by Holiness for the Heavenly
Glory.
5. That all the Condition required of you that you
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may have all these Blessings of the Covenant of Grace,
is but sincerely to Believe and Consent, and give up
your self in Covenant to God the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, and continue true to the Covenant which you
make.
Read over these five points well, and consider of
them: and then tell me whether this be not glad tidings
to an undone miserable sinner? - Have you read
them over?
S. I have read them: And I perceive that they are
glad tidings of hope indeed. But truly Sir, I have
heard the Gospel so carelesly, that I do not throughly
understand these things; And therefore intreat you to
open them to me more fully and plainly.
P. I know you were Baptized in your Infancy;
which was your priviledge, being entered by your Parents
into the Covenant of God. But their Consent and
Dedication, will serve your turn no longer than till you
come to age and natural capacity to consent and Covenant
for your self. Tell me then, have you ever soberly
considered what your Baptism was, and what Covenant
was then made betwixt God and you? And have you
seriously renewed that Covenant your self, and so given
up your self to God?
S. Alas, I never either seriously considered or renewed
it; But I thought I was made a Christian by it,
and was sufficiently regenerated, and my sins done
away, and that I was a Child of God and an heir of
Heaven.
P. And how did you think all your sins since your
Baptism were forgiven you?
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S. I confessed them to God, and some of them to the
Minister, and I received the Lords Supper; and I
thought that then I was forgiven; though I never had
the true sense and power thereof, on my heart and
life.
P. What if you had never been Baptized, and were
now first to be Baptized. What would you do?
S. I would understand and consider better of it, that
I might not do I knew not what.
P. Why truly Baptizing is well called Christening:
For Baptism is such a Covenant between God and man,
as maketh the Receiver of it a visible Christian; And if
you had sincerely renewed and kept this same Covenant,
you had needed no new Conversion, or Regeneration,
but only particular Repentance for your particular following
sins. Baptism is to our Christianity, what Matrimony
is to a State of Marriage; or like the listing and
Oath of a Soldier to his Captain, or of a Subject to
his Prince. And therefore I will put you upon no other
Conversion, than to Review your Baptism, and understand
it well, and after the most serious deliberation,
to make the same Covenant with God over again,
as if you had never your self made it before, or rather as
one that hath not kept the Covenant which once you
made.
Now if you were to be Baptized presently, there
are these three things which you must do: 1. Your
understanding must know the meaning of the Covenant,
and Believe the Truth of the word of God, which
is his part. 2. Your Will must heartily Desire and
Accept of the Benefits of Gods Covenant offered you,
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and Resolvedly Consent to the Conditions required
of you. 3. And you must presently Oblige your self,
to the faithful Practice of them, and to continue true
to your Covenant from the time of your Baptism till
death.
S. Truly if Conversion be no more than to do what I
vowed to do, and to be a Christian seriously, which before
I was but by name and Hypocritical profession, I
have no more Reason to stick at it, than to be against
Baptism and Christianity it self. First then will you
help my Understanding about it.
P. I. You must understand and Believe the Articles
of the Christian faith, expressed in the Common Creed:
which you hear every day at Church, and profess
Assent to it.
S. Alas, I hear it and say it by rote; but I never
well understood it, or considered it.
P. The Christian Belief hath three principal parts:
that is, our Believing in God the Father, and
in God the Son, and in God the Holy Ghost: And each
of these hath divers Articles. 1. In the first part all
these things must be understood and believed. 1. That
there is one only GOD, in three Persons the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: who is an Infinite,
Eternal, Perfect Spirit: a perfect life, understanding
and will; perfectly powerful, wise and good: The first
efficient, chief governing, and final cause or end of
all: Of whom, and through whom, and to whom are
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all things: The Creator and therefore the Owner, the
Ruler and the Benefactor and End, especially of
man.
2. That this God made Adam and Eve in his own
Image, under a perfect Law of Innocency, requiring
perfect obedience of them, on pain of death.
3. That they broke this perfect Law by wilful
sin, and thereby fell under the sentence of death, the
displeasure of God, the forfeiture of his Grace, and of
all their Happiness.
4. That all of us having our very Beings and Natures
from them (and their successours,) derive Corruption
or Pravity of nature also from them, and a
participation of Guilt: And these corrupted natures
are disposed to all Actual sin, by which we should
grow much worse and more miserable.
5. That God of his mercy and wisdom took advantage
of mans sin and misery to glorifie his Grace, and
promised man a Redeemer, and made a new Law
or Covenant for his Government and Salvation, forgiving
him all his sins, and promising him Salvation,
if he Believe and Trust in God his Saviour, and Repent
of sin, and live in thankful sincere obedience, though
imperfect.
6. In the fulness of time, God sent his Son,
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his eternal Word made man, to be our Redeemer; who
was conceived in a Virgin by the Holy Ghost, and by
perfect obedience fulfilled Gods Law, and became our
example, and conquered all temptations, and gave
himself a Sacrifice for our sins, in suffering, after a
life of humiliation, a cursed shameful death upon a Cross;
and being Buried, he Rose again the third day, and
having conquered Death, assured us of a Resurrection;
and after fourty dayes continuance upon earth, he ascended
bodily in the sight of his Disciples into Heaven;
where he is the Teacher, the King and the Intercessour
for the Church with God; by whom alone
we must come unto the Father, and who prepareth for
us the heavenly Glory, and us for it.
7. Before he ascended, he made a more full and plain
Edition of the foresaid Law or Covenant of Grace;
And he gave authority to his chosen Ministers,
to go and preach it to all the world and promised them
the extraordinary gift and assistance of his Holy Spirit:
And he ordained Baptism to be used as the solemn
initiation of all that will come into his Church, and
enter into the Covenant of God: In which Covenant,
[God the Father consenteth to be our Reconciled
God and Father, to pardon our sins, for the sake of
Christ, and give us his holy Spirit, and Glorifie us in
Heaven for ever: And God the Son consenteth to be our
Saviour, our King and Head, our Teacher and Mediator,
to bring us reconciled to his Father, and to justifie us,
and give us his Spirit and eternal life: And God the Holy
Ghost consenteth to dwell in us as the Agent and
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Advocate of Christ, to be our Quickener, our Iluminater
and sanctifier, the witness of Christ, and the
earness of our Salvation. And we on our part must
profess unfeigned Belief of this Gospel of Christ, and
Repentance for our former sins, and consent to
receive these Gifts of God, Giving up our selves
soul and body to him as our only God, our Saviour and
our Sanctifier, as our chiefest Owner, Ruler and Benefactor;
Resolving to live as his Own, as his Subjects
and his Children, in true Resignation of our selves to
Him, in true Obedience, and Thankful Love:
Renouncing the world, the flesh and the Devil, that
would tempt us to the contrary; and this to the end;
but not in our own strength, but by the gracious help of
the Spirit of God.]
This is the Baptismal Covenant, the manner of
whose outward administration you have often seen.
By this Covenant as it is Gods Law and Act on his
part, all that truly consent and give up themselves thus
absolutely to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
are presently pardoned all the sins that ever they were
guilty of, as by Gods instrumental Act of oblivion:
And in it they have the Gift of their Right to the
Spirit, and to everlasting life, and of all the mercies
necessary thereunto.
8. The Holy Ghost in a peculiar manner is
given to all that thus truly Believe and consent to the
holy Covenant: To dwell and work in them, and
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Regenerate them more fully to the Nature and Image of
God, working in them, 1. A holy Liveliness and
Activity for God; 2. A holy Light and knowledge of
God; 3. A holy Love and Desire after God, and all that
by which God is manifested unto man. And they that
have not this renewing Spirit of Christ, are none of
his: And by this the Temptations of the flesh, the world
and the Devil must be overcome.
9. At death mens souls are judged particularly and
enter into joy or misery; And at the end of this
world, Christ will come in glory, and raise the dead,
and judge all the world according to their works. And
they that have sincerely kept this Covenant (according
to the several Editions of it, which they were under)
shall be openly Justified and Glorified with Christ:
Where they shall be made perfect themselves in soul
and body, and perfectly know, love, praise and please
the most blessed God for evermore, among the blessed
Saints and Angels: And those that have not performed
this Covenant, shall be for ever deprived of this glory,
and suffer in Hell everlasting misery, with Devils and
ungodly men.
These nine Points must all be competently understood
by you; or else you cannot understand what Baptism,
Repentance, Conversion or Christianity is: And you
cannot consent to you know not what.
S. Alas, Sir, when shall I ever be able to understand
and remember all this?
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P. It is all but your common Catechism; Yea it is all
but the Creed which you daily repeat, a little opened.
But if you do not Remember all these words; if yet you
remember the sence and matter of them, it will suffice.
S. But you told me that besides Understanding and
Belief, the Wills true Consent is also necessary.
P. II. That is the second part of Religion and Holiness,
and indeed the very Heart of all: for what the
Will is that the Man is. But I need not here many
words to tell you, that when you have considered the
terms of the Baptismal Covenant, your hearty resolved
full consent to it, is the Condition of your present
Right, upon which Christ taketh you as his own.
S. But hath my Will no more to do but to consent to
that Covenant?
P. That implieth that your consent must still continue,
and that it reach to the particular means and duties
which Christ shall appoint you. And the Lords Prayer
is given as the more particular Rule of all the Desires of
your Will. Therefore you must well study the meaning
of that Prayer.
S. You told me also that Practice is the third part of
Religion: How shall I know what that must be?
P. III. You must here know, 1. The Rule of
your Practice; 2. What your Practice must be according
to that Rule. The Foundation and the End of all
your Practice is laid down already in what is said:
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I. The Foundation and Root of all is your Relation to
God according to this Covenant: 1. You are Devoted
to Him as being totally His Own: And therefore
you must live to Him, and seek his Glory, and
rest in his Disposals. 2. You are related to him as his
Subject: And therefore must endeavour absolutely
to Obey Him, above all the world. 3. You are Related
to him (when you are true Believer) as his
Child and Friend: And therefore must live in
Faithfulness and Love. And this is the Foundation and
summ of all your holy life.
II. And the Ends of all your Practice must be, 1. That
you may be fully delivered from all sin and misery, and
be made more Holy, and more serviceable to
God, and profitable to men, and may Glorifie your
Father, Redeemer and Sanctifier, by the Glory of his
Image on you, and so may be more pleasing to Him;
And 2. that you may be perfectly Holy and Glorious
and happy in Heaven, and may with Saints and Angels
dwell with Christ, and know and love and praise and
serve the Lord in Glory, in perfect joy for evermore.
These Ends being all most excellent and sure, must be
still in your eye, as the great and constant poise and
motive of all your Practice.
III. As you are a Subject, your obedience hath its
Rule: And the Rule is the Law of your Redeemer
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and Creator. This Law, is the Law of Nature, and the
Commands of Christ superadded in the Gospel, set together.
The Law of Nature is the whole Nature
and Order of all things in the world, and specially of
man himself, as it signifieth the will of God about mans
duty and his reward or punishment.
The special superadded Commands of Christ are, that
we Believe in him as our Saviour, and believe
all the added Articles of Faith, and hope for Life by his
purchase, and promise, and love God as his goodness appeareth
in his Son and Gospel, and love Christs members
for his sake: that we pray for the Spirit of Christ and
obey him; and that we Observe that Church Order,
as to Ministry, Church-assemblies, the Lords day, the
two Sacraments, publick worship and Discipline, which
Christ by himself or his Spirit in his Apostles hath
commanded us.
And yet you must understand 1. That the Law of
Nature it self, is much more plainly described
and opened in the Holy Scripture, than you are able to
read it in it self. 2. That even these Gospel superadded
Laws have somewhat of a natural obligation in them,
supposing but foregoing matters of fact, (that Christ did
all that indeed he did.) So much for your Rule.
IV. The Degree of Obedience which is your Duty,
is indeed Perfection without further sin: But
your daily Infirmities have a pardon: And therefore the
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Degree of Obedience necessary to your Salvation is but
that it be sincere, that is, That as to the predominant
bent of your Heart and Life, you truly obey your
Creator and Redeemer, and make this the chief trade
or business, which you live for and manage the world.
V. I must also add, that in all this you must still
remember, that 1. the Devil, and 2. the World, 3.
but above all your own Fleshly mind and appetite,
will be the great Enemies of all this Holiness and obedience:
And therefore you must understand their enmity
and the danger of it; and resolve by Gods grace,
to Renounce them, and Resist them as your Enemies to
the last.
And though only sincerity is necessary to salvation,
yet 1. You have not sincerity unless you have a
desire and endeavor after Perfection. 2. And a greater
degree of holiness is necessary to a great degree of
Glory.
S. Alas, Sir, I shall never Remember all this.
P. You may see then how foolishly you have done,
to lose your time in Child-hood and Youth, which
should have been spent in learning the Will of God,
and the way to your Salvation. If you had morning
and night desirously meditated on these things, and read
Gods word, and asked Counsel of your Teachers, and
learn'd Catechisms, and read good Books, and if
you had markt well what you heard at Church, and
had spent all the Lords Dayes in such work as this,
which you spent in play and idleness and vain talk, you
might have been acquainted familiarly with all this and
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more. But that which is past cannot be recalled. If
you cannot remember all this, 1. Labour to understand
it well; 2. And remember that which is the summ of all.
S. What is that?
P. 1. The shortest summ is the Baptismall Covenant
it self, To Believe in and Give up your self
to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, as
your Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, your Owner,
Ruler and Chief Good and End: Renouncing the Flesh,
the World and the Devil.
2. The next summary explaining this more
largely is, 1. The Creed as the summ of what you
must Believe. 2. The Lords Prayer as the summ
of what you must Desire. 3. And the summ of the
Law of nature is in the Ten Commandments:
And the Church Laws of Christ, about Ministry, Communion,
Sacraments and other worship, you will be
taught in the Church by sense, and use, and daily teaching.
Cannot you say the Creed, Lords Prayer and
Ten Commandments?
S. Yes, I learned the words, but I never laid the
sense and substance of them to heart.
P. All that I have said to you is but the sense of
those three: Understand the exposition, and Remember
the forms or words themselves. But even your Duty
is yet shortlier summed up in Love, which is the
fulfilling of the Law. For Justice is comprehended in
Love, which will teach you to do as you would be
done by.
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S. What Love is it that you mean?
P. The Love of God, the Love of your self, and
the Love of your Neighbour, is the summ of all your
duty.
S. This is but Reasonable duty, which no man can
deny or speak against. And one part of it I shall easily
keep, which is, to Love my Self.
P. Alas poor man: Have you kept it hitherto?
What enemie have you had in all the world comparable
to your self? All that your enemies could do
against you is but as a flea-biting. What if they slander
you, oppress you, imprison you, or otherwise
abuse you? Wrong not your self, and all this cannot
hinder your salvation, nor make God love you ever
the less, nor make death ever the more terrible; nor
will it ever be your sorrow in Heaven to think of it.
All your enemies in the world, cannot force you to
commit one sin, nor make you a jot displeasing unto
God. But you your self have committed thousands of
sins, and made your self an enemy to God. O the folly
of ungodly men! They can hardly forgive another if
he do but beat them, or slander them, or impoverish
them: And yet they can go on to abuse, undo and destroy
their souls, and run towards Hell, and easily forgive
themselves all this; yea take it for their benefit,
and will not be restrained, nor perswaded
to forbear, nor shew any mercy to their own miserable
souls. I tell you, though the Devil hate you, yet all
the Devils in the world have not done so much against
you as you have done against your self. The Devils
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did but Tempt you to sin, but never did nor could
compel you: But it is you that have wilfully sinned
your self, and sold your soul, as Esau his birthright, for
a morsel, for a pleasant cup or game, or for a lust or
filthy pleasure, and for a thing that's worse than nothing.
Was it not You, even you your self, that forgot your
God, neglected your Saviour, resisted the holy Spirit,
refused sanctifying grace, despised Heaven, and set
more by this dirty world? Was it not You your self
that loved not Holiness, nor a holy God, nor the
holy Scriptures, nor holy persons, nor holy thoughts,
or words, or ways? that lost your precious Time;
and omitted almost all your duty, and run into a multitude
of sins? And if the Devil studied his worst
to hurt you, what could he do more, than to tempt
you unto sin? If you had been a sworn enemy to your
self, and plotted how to do your self the greatest mischief,
what could you do worse, than to sin and run on
Gods displeasure? Which is the way to the Gallows,
but by breaking the Law, by murder, felony or the
like? And which is the way to Hell, but Loving sin,
and refusing Grace? And yet are you a Lover of your
self?
S. All this is too true: And yet I am sure that I
love my self: How then comes all this to pass?
P. You Love your self with a Sensitive Love, that
goeth all by sense, and little by Reason, much less by
Faith. As a Swine Loveth himself when he is bursting
his belly with Whey; or a Rat when he is eating Ratsbane.
You Love your Appetite, but you have little
care of your Soul: You love your self: but you love
not that which is Good for your self: As a sick man
loveth his life, but abhorreth his meat and medicine.
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Indeed God hath planted a Love to our selves so
deep in nature that no man can choose but Love himself:
And therefore in the Commandments the Love of
God and our Neighbour only are expressed; and the
Love of our selves is presupposed. But Christ knowing
what destroyers men are of themselves, and forsakers
of their own salvation, doth call upon sinners to
Love, Care and Labour for their own souls.
These things conjunctly make up mans enmity against
his own salvation. 1. The soul hath lost much of the
knowledge of its own excellency in its higher faculties.
2. Its Love to it self as Rational is dulled, and wanteth
stirring up. 3. It is inordinately fallen in Love
with it self as sensitive, and its lower faculties.
4. It doteth on all sensual objects that are delightful.
5. It is as dead and averse to those noble spiritual
higher objects, in which it must be happy. And in
this sense, Man is his own greatest enemy.
I the rather speak all this to you on this point, because
your very Repentance consisteth in being angry
with your self, and falling out with and even loathing
your self for your sins, and your self-undoing. And
till you come to see what you have done against your
self, you will never come to that true humiliation and
self-distrust as is needful to your salvation. And also
because that it is here and here only that your safety
and happiness is like to stick for the time to come.
Do but as a man that Loveth Himself, and you are safe.
God intreateth you to have mercy on your self. He
hath resolved on what terms he will have mercy upon
sinners: They are unchangeably set down in his Gospel.
And sinners will not yield unto his terms.
Though they be no harder, than, To Receive his Gifts
according to their nature, men will not be intreated to
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Receive them, They would have fleshly and worldly
prosperity, but deliverance from sin, and Holy
communion with God, they will not have. Here is the
only stop of their salvation. All men might be
Holy and happy if they would: But most men will
not. This is the woful state of sinners! They will cry
to God for mercy, mercy, when judgement cometh,
and it is too late; and yet now no counsel, no reason,
no intreaty will perswade them to accept it. It is a
pitiful thing, to hear Christs Ministers in his Name,
beseech men to accept of sanctifying saving mercy, from
day to day, and all in vain, and to think how these
same men will cry for mercy, when mercy hath done
with them, and the door is shut. Yea now they still
say, We hope to be saved because God is merciful,
while they will not have his saving mercy. As if
mercy stuck in the hand of God as an unwilling giver,
while it is they that refuse it as unwilling to receive
it. Like a thief that is intreated by the Judge to give
over in time and to have mercy on himself, and not
to cast away his life, and will not hear nor be perswaded;
and yet at the Barr of Gallows will cry out for
mercy. What would you say to a famished Beggar
that should stand begging for an alms and will not take it?
would it not be a strange sight at once to hear the Beggar
say, I pray you give me mony or bread, and the Giver
offering it, and say, I intreat thee to take it, and have
pity on thy self, and do not famish; and cannot prevail?
S. It is a sad and mad condition that you describe,
and it is too true: But methinks it were a fitter comparison
if you likened them to a sick man that begs for
health of the Physicion, but will take no physick; while
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the Physicion begs of him in vain, to take physick that
he may have health. For it is not the health that men
are unwilling of but the Physick. It is not salvation,
but the strait gate and narrow way.
P. There is some Truth in what you say, (that they
are against the means;) But you are mistaken in the rest:
For Holiness which they refuse, is not only a means,
but it is much of Salvation it self. Holiness is
the souls health, and not only its medicine: And perfect
holiness, which is the perfect Knowledge and Love
of God, will be Heaven it self. And to refuse Holiness
is to refuse Health and Heaven.
Short INSTRUCTIONS for the SICK, to be Read by the Master of the Family to them, or by themselves; especially the Vnprepared.
THose happy persons who have made
it the chief care and business of their
lives, to be always ready for a dying
hour, have least need of my present
counsel: It is therefore those unhappy Souls,
who are yet unprepared, whom I shall now
Instruct. And, O that the Lord would bless
these Words; and perswade them yet, ere
Time be gone!
If sin had not bewitched men, and made
them Monsters of senslesness and unbelief, it
could not be, that an Endless Life, so sure, so
near, could be so sottishly made light of all
their lives, as is by most, till they perceive
that Death is ready to surprize them. But,
poor sinner, if this have been thy Case, supposing
that thou art unwilling to be damned,
I earnestly intreat thee in the Name of Christ,
for the sake of thy Immortal soul, that thou
wilt presently lay to heart these short Instructions,
before Time and Hope are gone for ever.
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I. At last bethink thee what thou Art?
and for what End and Work thou comest into
the World? Thou art a Man of Reason, and
not a Bruit; and hast a Soul which was made
to Know, and Love, and Serve thy Maker:
and that not in the second Place, with the
leavings of the flesh; but in the first place, and
with all thy Heart and Might. If this had
been indeed thy Life, God would have been
thy portion, thy Father and thy Defence, and
thou mightst have liv'd and dy'd in peace
and comfort, and then have liv'd with God
for ever. And should not a Creature live to
the Ends and Uses which it was made for?
Must God give thee all thy powers for Himself,
and wilt thou turn them from him, to
the service of the flesh, and that when thou
hadst vowed the contrary in thy Baptism?
How wilt thou answer for such treacherous
ungodliness?
II. It is time for thee now to have serious
thoughts of the Life which thou art going to. If
thou couldst sleepily forget it all the way, it
is time to awaken when thou comest almost
there. When thy friends are burying that
flesh in the earth, which thou didst more regard
than God and thy Salvation, thy Soul
must appear in an endless world, and see
those things which God foretold thee of,
and thou wouldst not believe, or set thy
heart upon. As soon as Death hath
opened the Curtains, O what a sight must
thou presently behold! A world of
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Angels and of holy Souls adoring and praising,
and admiring that God, whom thou
didst refuse to mind, and love, and serve:
A world of Devils and damned souls, in
torment and despair, bewailing their contempt
of Christ and Grace, their neglect of
God and their Salvation; their serving the
Flesh, and loving the World, and wilfully
losing the time of Mercy, and all the means
which God vouchsafed them. Believe it
Sinner, there is an Endless Joy and Glory for
the Saints, and an Endless Misery for all the
Ungodly; and one of these must quickly be
thy case. Thy state is changeable while
thou art in the Flesh; if thy Soul be miserable,
there is yet a Remedy; it's possible
Christ may renew and pardon it: But as
soon as thou goest hence, thou enterest into a
state of Joy or Torment which must never
change; no not when millions of years are
past. And dost thou not think now in
thy conscience that such an Endless misery
should have been prevented with greater care
and diligence, than all the sufferings of this
life? And that the attaining of such an Endless
Glory had been worth thy greatest care
and labour? And that it is far better to see -
the Glory of God, and be filled with his
Love, and joyfully praise him with his Saints
and Angels for evermore, and by a holy life
to have prepared for this; than to please the
Flesh, and follow the World a little while,
and be undone for ever? Hast thou got more
by the World and Sin than Heaven is worth?