Alarm to the Unconverted! part 4

Q: What does the Bible say about conversion?

The Bible teaches that conversion involves a turning from sin and a turning to God, often requiring repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Conversion is a fundamental theme in Scripture, where it is addressed as a necessary step for salvation (Acts 3:19). It entails not just an intellectual assent but a heartfelt transformation that leads to a forsaking of sins and a turning towards God. The process of conversion is often illustrated in the New Testament, especially in passages such as Isaiah 55:6-7, where God invites the wicked to forsake his ways and return to Him for mercy. This turning involves not only recognizing one's sinful state but also exercising faith in Christ, who is the way to be reconciled to God. In John 6:37, Christ assures that all who come to Him will be accepted, highlighting the assurance and invitation to embrace His grace through genuine conversion.

Q: How do we know sovereign grace is true?

Sovereign grace is supported by Scripture that emphasizes God's sovereignty in salvation, such as in Ephesians 1:4-5. The truth of sovereign grace is deeply rooted in the teachings of Scripture, where the sovereignty of God in salvation is evident. Ephesians 1:4-5 illustrates that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption as His children. This indicates that it is God's initiative and grace that precede human action. Additionally, passages like Romans 8:28-30 detail the process of salvation from foreknowledge to glorification, highlighting that it is God's sovereign will that activates salvation. The assurance of grace, along with the sovereignty of God, provides a solid foundation for the belief in sovereign grace, as it affirms that salvation is wholly the work of God and not dependent on human merit.

Q: Why is repentance important for Christians?

Repentance is crucial for Christians as it signifies a turning away from sin and a return to God, which is essential for spiritual renewal. Repentance is a key aspect of the Christian faith that signifies a transformative act of turning from sin towards God. It is not merely feeling remorse for one's sins but involves a conscious decision to forsake sin and embrace God’s holiness (Isaiah 55:7). In the New Testament, repentance is continually connected to faith in Christ as essential for salvation (Acts 2:38). It initiates a renewed relationship with God and signifies true conversion, as indicated in Romans 2:4, where we see that God's kindness leads us to repentance. This act of repentance restores the believer not only to a right standing with God but also fosters ongoing growth and maturity in the faith.

Q: How does Scripture explain the concept of grace?

Scripture describes grace as God's unmerited favor, freely given to believers for salvation and empowerment in the Christian life. Grace is a foundational concept in Scripture, representing God's unmerited favor towards humanity. In Ephesians 2:8-9, it is clearly stated that by grace we are saved through faith, not by our own works, emphasizing that salvation is solely a gift from God. Grace not only initiates salvation but is also essential for ongoing spiritual growth. 2 Corinthians 12:9 highlights that God's grace is sufficient for us, enabling believers to live victorious lives despite their weaknesses. The pervasive theme of grace throughout Scripture underlines that it is through God's generous and loving disposition that we receive forgiveness and eternal life, answering the human need for redemption.

O unhappy soul, that was the glory of man, the companion of angels, and the image of God, that was God's representative in the world, and had the supremacy among the creatures, and the dominion over the Maker's works, are you now become a slave to sense? Are you heaping together a little refined earth, so unsuited to your spiritual and immortal nature?

Oh, why, do you not consider where you will spend eternity? Death is at hand, the judge is even at the door. Yet a little while, and time shall be no longer, and will you run the hazard of continuing in such a state, in which, if you are overtaken, you are irrecoverably miserable?

Come then, arise and attend to your dearest concerns. Tell me, where are you going? what? will you live in such a course in which every act is a step towards perdition and you do not know but the next night you may be making your bed in hell

oh if you have a spark of reason consider and turn and hearken to your true friend who would show you your present misery that you might in time make your escape and be eternally happy hear what the Lord saith fear ye not me saith the Lord will you not tremble at my presence Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 22

O sinners do you make light of the wrath to come? I'm sure there is a time coming when you will not make light of it why the very devils believe and tremble what? are you more hardened than they? Will you run upon the edge of the precipice? Will you play at the hole of the asp? Will you put your hand into the cockatrice's den? Will you dally with devouring wrath, as if you were indifferent, whether you escape or endure it?

There is no one so beside himself as the willful sinner, that goes on in his unconverted state without sense, as if nothing ailed him. the man that runs into the cannon's mouth and sports with his blood or lets out his life for a frolic is sensible sober and serious compared with him that goes on still in his trespasses for he stretcheth out his hand against God stretcheth himself against the Almighty he runneth upon him even upon his neck upon the thick bosses of his butlers Job chapter 15 verses 25 to 26

Is it wisdom to sport with the second death? Or to venture into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone? What shall I say? I can find no expression, no comparison by which to set forth the dreadful madness of that soul which will go on in sin.

Awake, awake, O sinner, arise and take your flight. There is but one door that you may flee by, and that is the narrow door of conversion and the new birth. unless you turn unfeignedly from all of your sins and come to Jesus Christ and take him for the Lord your righteousness and walk in him in holiness and newness of life as the Lord liveth it is not more certain that you are now out of hell than that you shall without fail be in it but a few days or nights from now

O set your heart to think on your case does not your everlasting misery or welfare deserve a little consideration? Look again over the miseries of the unconverted if the Lord not spoken by me regard me not but it is the very word of God that all this misery lies upon you what a state you are in! It is for one that has his senses to live in such a condition, and not make all possible haste to prevent his own utter ruin,

O man, who has bewitched you, that in the matters of this present life you should be wise enough to forecast your business, foresee your danger, prevent your ruin, but in matters of everlasting consequence shall be slight and careless, as if they concerned you little. Is it nothing to you to have all the attributes of God engaged against you? Can you live without his favour? Can you escape his hands or endure his vengeance?

Do you hear the creation groaning under you and hell groaning for you and think your case good enough? Are you under the power of corruption, in the dark, noisome prison, fettered with lusts, working out your own damnation? And is this not worth a thought? Will you make light of all the terrors of the law, all its curses and thunders, as if they were but the threatenings of a child? Do you laugh at hell and destruction? Or can you drink the envenomed cup of the Almighty's fury, as if it were but a common potion?

Get up now, your loins, like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Are you such a Leviathan as that the scales of your pride should resist your Maker? Will you esteem him and his arrows as straw, and the instruments of death as rotten wood? Are you chief of all the children of pride, even that you should count his darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking of his spear? Do you mock at fear? And are you not frightened? Do you not turn back from God's word when his quiver rattles against you, the glittering spear and the shield?

Well, if the threats and calls of the word will not awaken you, I am sure death and judgment will. But what will you do when the Lord comes forth against you, and in his fury falls upon you, and you shall feel what you now but read? If when Daniel's enemies were cast into the den of lions, both they and their wives and their children, the lions had mastery over them and broke all their bones in pieces, ere ever they came to the bottom of the den, what shall become of you when you fall into the hands of the living God?

Who do not then contend with God, repent and be converted, so none of this shall come upon you? seek you the Lord while he may be found call you upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6 to 7

8 directions to the unconverted Before you read these directions, I advise you, yea, I charge you, before God and His holy angels, that you resolve to follow them, as far as conscience shall be convinced of their agreeableness to God's word and to your state, and call His assurance and a blessing that they may succeed. and as I have sought the Lord and consulted his oracles as to what advice to give you so must you entertain it with that awe, reverence and purpose of obedience which the word of the living God requires now then attend set your hearts unto all that I shall testify unto you this day for it is not a vain thing it is your life Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 46

this is the aim of all that has been spoken hitherto to bring you to set your hearts upon turning to God I would not trouble you nor torment you before the time with the thoughts of your eternal misery but in order that you make your escape were you shut up under your present misery without remedy it were but mercy to let you alone that you might take in that little poor comfort which you are capable of in this world But you may yet be happy if you do not willfully refuse the means of your recovery.

Behold, I lay open the door to you. Arise and take your flight. I see the way of life before you. Walk in it and you shall live and not die. It grieves me that you should be your own murderers and throw yourself headlong when God and man cry out to you as Peter in another case to his master, Spare thyself.

the destruction of the ungodly man is willful God that made them cries out to them as Paul to the jailer when about to murder himself do thyself no harm the ministers of Christ forewarn them and follow them and will gladly have them back but alas no expostulations or entreaties will prevail but men will hurl themselves into perdition while pity itself looks on

What shall I say? Would it not grieve a person of any humanity if, in the time of a raging plague, he should have a remedy that would infallibly cure all the country and recover the most hopeless patients, and yet his friends and neighbours should die by hundreds around him because they would not use it?

Men and Brethren, though you carry the certain symptoms of death on your faces, yet I have a prescription that will cure you all infallibly. Follow these directions, and if you do not then win heaven, I will be content to lose it. Here then, O sinner, and as ever you would be converted and saved, take the following counsel.

1. set it down with yourself as an undoubted truth that it is impossible for you ever to get to heaven in this your unconverted state can any other but Christ save you? and he tells you he will never do it except you be regenerated and converted does he not keep the keys of heaven? and can you go in without his leave? as you must if ever you go in your natural condition without a sound and thorough conversion

2. labour to get a thorough sight and lively sense and feeling of your sins till men are weary and heavy laden, and pricked to the heart, and quite sick of sin, they will not come to Christ for cure, nor searly inquire, What shall I do? They must see themselves as dead men, before they will come to Christ, that they might live. Labour therefore to set all of your sins in order before you. Do not be afraid to look upon them, but let your spirit make diligent search. inquire into your heart and into your life enter into a thorough examination of yourself and all your ways that you may make a full discovery and call in the help of God's Spirit out of the sense of your own inability to do this by yourself for it is His proper work to convince of sin.

Spread all before your conscience till your heart and eyes are set to weeping. Do not leave striving with God and your own soul till it cry out under the scent of your sins as the enlightened jailer, what must I do to be saved? To this purpose meditate on the number of your sins. David's heart failed him when he thought of this and considered that he had more sins than the hairs of his head. This made him cry out for the multitude of God's tender mercies.

The loathsome carcass does not more hatefully swarm with crawling maggots than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts. They take the head, the heart, the eyes and the mouth of him. Look backward. Was there ever a place, whatever was the time, in which you did not sin? Look inward. What part or power can you find in soul or body which is not poisoned with sin? What duty did you ever perform into which this poison is not shed? Oh, how great is the sum of your debt, who have been all your life running upon trust and never did or can pay off one penny! Look over the sins of your nature and all its cursed brood, the sins of your life. Call to mind your omissions and commissions, the sins of your thoughts, words and actions, the sins of your youth and the sins of your riper years. Do not be like a desperate bankrupt that is afraid to look over his books. Read the records of conscience carefully. These books must be opened sooner or later. Meditate upon the aggravation of your sins as they are the grand enemies of God and of your life and of the life of your soul in a word they are the public enemies of all mankind how do David, Ezra, Daniel and the good Levites aggravate their sins from the consideration of their opposition to God and his good and righteous laws and of the mercies and warnings against which they have been committed Oh the work that sin has done in the world. This is the enemy that has brought in death, that has robbed an enslaved man. that has turned the world upside down and sown the dissensions between man and the creatures, between man and man, yea, between man and himself, setting the animal part against the rational, the will against the judgment, lust against conscience, yea, worst of all, between God and man, making the sinner both hateful to God and the hater of God.

O man, how can you make so light of sin? This is the traitor that thirsted for the blood of the Son of God, that sold him, that mocked him, that scourged him, that spat in his face, that tore his hands, that pierced his side, that pressed his soul, that mangled his body, that never left him till he had bound him, condemned him, nailed him, crucified him, and put him to an open shame. This is that deadly poison, so powerful of operation that one drop of it shed on the root of mankind has corrupted, spoiled, poisoned and ruined the whole race. This is the bloody executioner that has killed the prophets, burned the martyrs, murdered all the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the kings and potentates, that has destroyed cities, swallowed empires and devoured whole nations. whatever weapon it was done by it was sin that caused the execution do you yet think it is only a small thing?

if Adam and all his children could be dug out of their graves and their bodies piled up to heaven and an inquest were made as to what matchless murderer were guilty of all this blood it would be found to be sin study the nature of sin, till your heart's inclined to fear and loathe it, and meditate on the aggravation of your particular sins, how you have sinned against all of God's warnings, against your own prayers, against mercies, against corrections, against the clearest light, against freest love, against your own resolutions, against promises, vows, and covenants of better obedience.

Charge your heart with these things till it blushes with shame and be brought out of all good opinion of itself. Meditate on the desert of sin. It cries to heaven. It calls for vengeance. Its due wages are death and damnation. It brings the curse of God upon the soul and the body. The least sinful word or thought lays you under the infinite wrath of God. Oh, what a load of wrath! What a weight of curses! What treasures of vengeance have all the millions of your sins deserved? Oh, judge yourself, that the Lord may not judge you.

Meditate on the deformity and the defilement of sin. It is black as hell, the very image and likeness of the devil drawn upon the soul. It would terrify to see yourself in the hateful deformity of your nature. There is no mire so unclean, no plague or leprosy so noisome a sin in which you are plunged and rendered more displeasing to the pure and holy nature of the glorious God than the vilest object can be to you. Could you take up a toad into your bosom and cherish it and take delight in it? But you are as contrary to the pure and perfect holiness of the divine nature till you are purified by the blood of Jesus and the power of renewing grace.

But all other sins consider these too.

1. The sin of your heart. It is to little purpose to lop off the branches while the root of corruption remains untouched. In vain do men lave out the streams when the fountain is running that fills them up again. let the axe of your repentance with David's go to the root of sin study how deep how permanent is your natural pollution how universal it is till you cry out with Paul against your body of death the heart is never soundly broken till thoroughly convinced of the heinousness of its original and deeply rooted depravity here fix your thoughts This is that which makes you backward to all good and prone to all evil, that sheds blindness, pride, prejudice and unbelief into your mind, enmity, inconstancy and obstinacy into your will, inordinate heats and colds into your affections, insensibleness and unfaithfulness into your conscience, slipperiness into your memory. In a word it has put every wheel of the soul out of order and made it from a habitation of holiness to become a very hell of iniquity. This is what has defiled and perverted all of your members and turned them into weapons of unrighteousness and servants of sin. that has filled the head with carnal and corrupt designs, the hand with sinful practices, the eyes with wandering and wantonness, the tongue with deadly poison. This is what has opened the ears to tales, flattery and filthy talk, and shut them against the instructions of life. and has rendered your heart the cursed source of all deadly imaginations, so that it pours out its wickedness without ceasing, even as naturally as the fountain pours forth its waters, or as the raging sea casts forth mire and dirt. Will you ever yet be in love with yourselves, and tell us any longer of your good heart? O never leave meditation, tainting only desperate contagion, the original corruption of your heart, till with Ephraim you bemoan yourself, and with the deepest shame and sorrow smite on your breast as the publican, and with Job abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes. 2. The particular evil that you are most addicted to. Fill out all of its aggravations, set home upon your heart all God's threats against it. Repentance drives before it the whole herd but especially sticks the arrow into the beloved sin singles this out above the rest to run it down Oh labour to make this sin odious to your soul and double your guard and resolutions against it because this is most dishonouring to God and most dangerous to you 3. Strive to affect your heart with a deep sense of your present misery read over the previous chapter again and get it out of the book and into your heart remember when you lie down that for all you know you may awake in flames and when you rise up that the next day may bring you to a night in which you spend your bed in hell is it nothing to you to live in such a fearful state to stand tottering on the brink of the bottomless pit to live in the mercy of every disease that if it but fall upon you would send you forthwith into the everlasting burnings. Suppose you saw a condemned wretch hanging over Nebuchadnezzar's burning fiery furnace by nothing but a thread which was ready to break every moment, would not your heart tremble for such an one? Thou art the man, this is your very case, O man, woman, who reads this, if you are yet unconverted. What if the thread of life should break? And you know not, but it may be the next night, yea, the next moment. Where would you be then? Where would you drop? Verily upon the breaking of this thread you fall into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where you must lie till God, while God has a being, if you die in your present state? And does not your soul tremble as you read? Do not your tears wet the paper, and your heart throb in your bosom? Do you yet begin to smite on your breast and think with yourself, what need have you of a change?

Oh, what is your heart made of? Have you not only lost all regard to God, but all love and pity for yourself? O study your misery till your heart cry out for Christ as earnestly as ever a drowning man did for a boat or the wounded man for a surgeon. Men must come to see the danger and feel the smart of their deadly sores and sicknesses or Christ will be to them a physician of no value. The manslayer hastens to the city of refuge when pursued by the avenger of blood But men must be even forced and driven out of themselves or they will not come to Christ. It was distress and extremity that made the prodigal think of returning. While Laodicea thinks herself rich, increased in goods, in need of nothing, there is little hope of her. she must be deeply convinced of her wretchedness, blindness, poverty and nakedness before she will come to Christ for His gold, raiment and eye salve therefore hold the eyes of conscience open amplify your misery as much as possible do not flee the sight of it for fear it should fill you with terror the sense of your misery is but as it were the festering of a wound which is necessary to the cure better now to fear the torments that await you than to feel them hereafter

4. settle it in your heart that you must look out of yourselves and away from your own doings for any help that is do not think that you are praying reading, hearing, confessing or amending will affect the cure. These must be attended to but you are undone if you do but rest in them. You are a lost man if you hope to escape drowning on any other plank but Jesus Christ. You must unlearn yourself and renounce your own wisdom, your own righteousness, your own strength and throw yourself wholly upon Christ or you cannot escape.

While men trust in themselves and establish their own righteousness and have confidence in the flesh, they will not come savingly to Christ. You must know that your gain is but loss, your strength but weakness, your righteousness but rags and rottenness, before there will be an effectual closure between Christ and yourself. Can the lifeless body shake off its grave clothes and loose the bands of death? then may you recover yourself who are dead in trespasses and sins and under an impossibility of serving your master acceptably in this condition

therefore when you go to pray or meditate or to do any of the duties to which you are here directed go out of yourself and call in the help of the Spirit as despairing to do anything pleasing to God in your own strength yet do you still neglect duty? while the eunuch was reading then the Holy Ghost did send Philip to him when the disciples were praying when Cornelius and his friends were hearing then the Holy Ghost fell upon them and filled them all

5 henceforth renounce all of your sins if you yield yourself to the practice of any sin you are undone In vain do you hope for Christ, excepting you depart from iniquity. Forsake your sins, or you cannot find mercy. You cannot be married to Christ, except you be divorced from sin. Give up the traitor, or you can have no peace from heaven. Keep not Dean Lila in your lap. You must part with your sins or with your soul. Spare but one sin, and God will not spare you. Your sins must die. or you must die for them if you allow one sin though it be but a little one a secret one though you may plead necessity and have a hundred shifts and excuses for it the life of your soul must go for the life of that sin and will not that be dearly bought?

O sinner hear and consider if you'll part with your sins God will give you his Christ is that not a fair exchange? I testify unto you this day that if you perish it is not because there was never a Savior provided nor life tendered but because with the Jews you prefer the murderer before the Savior sin before Christ and you love darkness rather than light search your heart therefore as with candles as the Jews did their houses for leaven before the Passover labour to find out your sins enter into your closet and consider what evil have I lived in? what duty have I neglected towards God? what sin have I lived in against my brother? and now strike the dart through the heart of your sin as Joab did through Absalom's do not stand looking at your sins nor rolling the morsel under your tongue but cast it out as poison with fear and detestation alas what will your sins do for you that you should hesitate to part from them they will flatter you but they will undo you and poison you while they please you and arm the justice and wrath of infinite God against you they will open hell for you and pile up the fuel to burn you. Behold the gibbet that they have prepared for you. Go treat them like Haman and do upon them the execution that they would else have done upon you. Away with them, crucify them, and let Christ only be Lord over you.

6. Make a solemn choice of God for your portion and blessedness. with all possible devotion and veneration avouch the Lord for your God set the world with all its glory and paint and gallantry with all its pleasures and promotions on the one hand and set God with all his infinite excellences and perfections on the other and see that you deliberately do make your choice take up your rest in God sit under his shadow let his promises and perfections turn the scale against all the world Settle it in your heart that the Lord is an all-sufficient portion, that you cannot be miserable while you have God to live upon. Take Him for your shield, an exceeding great reward. God alone is more than all the world. Content yourself with Him. Let others possess the performance and glory of this world, but do you place your happiness in the favor of God and in the light of his countenance.

Poor sinner, you have fallen off from God and have engaged his power and wrath against you. You know that of his abundant grace he offers to be your God again in Christ. What do you say? Will you have the Lord for your God? take this counsel and you shall have him come to him by Christ renounce the idols of your pleasures gain and reputation let these be pulled from their throne and set God's interest uppermost in your hearts take him as God to be chief in your affections and purposes for he will not endure to have any set above him in a word you must take him in all his personal relations and in all his essential perfections in all his personal relations God the Father must be taken for your father oh come to him with the prodigal father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and I'm not worthy to be called thy son but since of my wonderful mercy thou art pleased to take me that I am of myself most vile, even a beast and no man before thee. To be a child, I solemnly take thee for my father, commend thyself to thy care, and trust to thy providence, and cast my burden upon thee. I depend on thy provision, and submit to thy corrections, and trust unto the shadow of thy wings. I hide in thy chambers, I fly to thy name, I renounce all confidence in myself, I repose my confidence in Thee I declare my engagement with Thee I will be for Thee and not for another

God the Son must be taken for your Saviour your Redeemer and your righteousness He must be accepted as the only way to the Father the only means of life Oh then put off the raiment of your captivity put on the wedding garment and go and marry yourself to Christ Lord, I am Thine and all I have, my body, soul and estate. I give my heart to Thee. I will be Thine undividedly, Thine everlastingly. I will set Thy name on all I have and use it only as Thy goods during Thy absence, resigning all to Thee. I have no king but Thee to reign over me. Other lords may have dominion over me, but now I will make mention of Thy name alone. and do here take an oath of fidelity to thee promising to serve and to fear thee above all competitors I would reject my own righteousness and despair of ever being pardoned and saved by my own duties or graces and lean solely on thy all sufficient sacrifice and intercession for sin for my pardon, life and acceptance before God I take thee for my only guide and instructor, resolving to be directed by thee, and to wait for thy counsel.

Lastly, God the Spirit must be taken for your sanctifier, for your advocate, your counsellor, your comforter, the teacher of your ignorance, the pledge and earnest of your inheritance.

Awake thou north wind, and come thou south, and blow upon my garden. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 16

Come thou spirit of the Most High here is a temple for thee do thou rest here forever dwell here though I give possession to thee full possession I send thee the keys of my heart that all may be thine I give up the use of all to thee, that every faculty and every member may be thy instrument to work righteousness and to do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

In all his essential perfections, consider how the Lord has revealed himself to you in his word. Will you take him as such a God? O sinner, here is the most blessed news that ever came to the sons of man the Lord will be your God if you will but close with him in his excellences will you have the merciful the gracious sin pardoning God to be your God? oh yes says the sinner otherwise I am undone but he further tells you I am the holy and sin hating God if you will be owned as one of my people you must be holy holy in heart holy in life you must put away all of your iniquities and be the ever so dear to you ever so natural ever so necessary to the maintaining of your worldly interest unless you will be as enmity with sin I cannot be your God cast out the leaven put away the evil of thy doings cease to do evil learn to do well bring forth mine enemies or there is no peace to be had with me what does your heart answer? Lord I desire to be holy as holy as thou art holy and to be made partaker of thy holiness I love thee not only for thy goodness and mercy but for thy holiness and purity I take thy holiness as my happiness, O be to me a fountain of holiness. Set on me the stamp and impress of thy holiness, I will thankfully part with all my sins at thy command, my willful sins I do henceforth forsake, and for thine infirmities that cleave unto me, though I will be rid of them, I will strive against them continually. I detest them, and will pray against them, and never let them have rest in my soul. Beloved, whoever of you will thus accept the Lord, he shall be your God. Again he tells you, I am the all-sufficient God. Will you lay all at my feet, give up all to my disposal, and take me for your only portion? Will you own and honour my all-sufficiency? Will you make me as your happiness and treasure? Your hope and bliss? Am I a sun and shield, all in one? Will you have me for your all? Now what do you say to this? Does your soul long for the onions and flesh pots of Egypt? Are you loath to change your earthly happiness for a portion in God? And though you would be glad to have God and the world too, yet can you not think of having Him and nothing but Him? but I'd rather take up with the earth below if God would but let you keep it as long as you would if so this is a fearful sign but now if you are willing to sell all for this pearl of great price if your heart answer Lord I desire no other portion but thee take the corn and the wine and the oil who will that I may have the light of thy countenance I fix upon thee for my happiness, I gladly venture myself on thee, and trust myself with thee. I set my hope in thee, I take up my rest with thee. Let me hear thee say, I am thy God, thy salvation, and I have enough, all that I wish for. I will take no terms with thee, but for thyself. let me have thee for sure let me be able to make my claim and see my title to myself and for other things I leave them to thee give me more or less anything or nothing I shall be satisfied in my God take him thus and he is thine own again he tells you I am the sovereign Lord if you will have me for your God you must have me have the supremacy you must not make me second to sin or to any worldly interest if you will be my people I must have the rule over you and you must not live at your own pleasures will you come under my yoke? will you bow to my government? will you submit to my discipline? to my word? to my rod? sinner what do you say to this? Lord, I would rather be at thy command and live at my own will. I would rather have thy will to be done than mine. I approve of and consent to thy laws, and account it my privilege to live under them. And though the flesh rebel, and often break its bounds, I have resolved to take no other law but thee. I willingly take the oath of thy supremacy, and acknowledge thee for my sovereign, and resolve all my days to pay the tribute of worship, obedience, love, and service to thee, and to live to thee to the end of my life. This is a right acceptance of God. To be short, he tells you, I am the true and faithful God. If you will have me for your God, you must be content to trust me. Will you venture yourselves upon my word and depend upon my faithfulness and take my bond for your security? Will you be content to follow me in poverty and reproach and affliction here and tarry till the next world for your preferment? Will you be content to labour and suffer and to tarry for your returns until the resurrection of the just? My promise will not always be instantly fulfilled, will you have the patience to wait?

Thou Beloved, what do you say to this? Will you have this God to be your God? Will you be content to live by faith and trust Him for His unseen happiness, an unseen heaven, an unseen glory? Do your hearts answer, Lord we will venture ourselves upon Thee. we commit ourselves to thee, we cast ourselves upon thee we know whom we have trusted, we are willing to take thy word we prefer thy promises before our own possessions and the hopes of heaven before all the enjoyments of earth we will do thy pleasure, what thou wilt here so that we may have but thy faithful promise for heaven hereafter

if you can in trust and upon deliberation thus accept of God he will be yours thus there must be in a right conversion to God a closing with him suitable to his excellences but when men close with his mercy but still love sin hating holiness and purity or will take him for their benefactor but not for their sovereign or for their patron and not for their portion this is no thorough or sound conversion.

7. Accept Jesus Christ in all his offices as yours. Upon these terms Christ may be had. Sinner, you have undone yourself and are plunged into the ditch of most deplorable misery out of which you are never able to escape but Jesus Christ is able and ready to help you and he freely tenders himself to you be your sins ever so many ever so great or of ever so long continuance yet you shall be most certainly pardoned and saved if you do not most wretchedly neglect the offer that in the name of God is here made to you the Lord Jesus calls you to look to him and be saved come unto him and he will in no wise cast you out yea he beseeches you to be reconciled he cries in the streets he knocks at your door he invites you to accept him and to live with him if you die it is because you will not come to him for life Isaiah 45.22 John 6.37 2 Corinthians 5.20 Proverbs 1.20 Revelation 3.20 John 5.40

accept and offer to Christ now and you are made forever give your consent to him now and the match is made all the world cannot hinder it do not stand off because of your unworthiness I tell you nothing can undo you but your own unwillingness speak man will you give your consent will you have Christ in all his relations to be yours your king, your priest, your prophet will you have him and bear his cross do not take Christ without consideration but sit down first and count the cost will you lay all at his feet Will you be content to run all hazards with Him? Will you take your lot with Him? Fall where it will? Will you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him? Are you deliberately, understandingly, freely determined to cleave to Him in all times and conditions? If so, you shall never perish, but you have passed from death to life. Here lies the main point of our salvation. that you be found in your covenant closure with Christ and therefore if you love yourselves see that you be faithful to God and to your own soul here 8. Resign all your powers and faculties and your whole interest to be His they gave their own selves unto the Lord 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 5 present your bodies a living sacrifice Romans chapter 12 verse 1 the Lord seeks not yours but you resign therefore your body with its members to him and your soul with all its powers that he may be glorified in your body and in your spirit which are his in a right closing with Christ all of your faculties are given up to him your judgment says, Lord thou art worthy of all acceptation chief of ten thousand, happy is the man that findeth thee all the things that are to be desired are not to be compared with thee Proverbs chapter 3 verses 15 to 17 the understanding lays aside its corrupt reasonings and cavils and its prejudices against Christ and his ways it is now past questioning and determined for Christ against all of the world it concludes it is good to be here and see such a treasure in this field such a value in this pearl as is worth all Matthew chapter 13 verses 44 to 46 He was the richest prize that ever man was offered He was the most sovereign remedy that was ever prepared He is worthy of my esteem, worthy of my choice, worthy of my love, worthy to be embraced, adored, admired forevermore. Revelation chapter 5 verse 12 I approve of his articles. His terms are righteous and reasonable, full of equity and mercy. again the will resigns, it stands no longer wavering but is peremptorily determined, Lord thy love hath overcome me thou hast won me, thou shalt have me, come in Lord to thee I freely open, I consent to be saved in thine own way thou shalt have anything, nay have all, but let me have thee the memory gives up to Christ Lord here is a storehouse for thee out with all this trash and lay in thy treasures let me be a repository for thy truth thy promises thy providences the conscience comes in Lord I will ever side with thee I will be thy faithful registrar I will warn when the sinner is tempted and smite when thou art offended I will witness for thee and judge for thee and guide into thy ways and will never let sin have quiet in this soul. The affections also come to Christ. Oh says love I am sick for thee. Oh says desire now I have what I have sought for. Here is the desire of nations. Here is bread for me, a balm for me, all that I want. fear, bows the knee with awe and veneration. Welcome, Lord, to Thee will I pay my homage. Thy word and rod shall command my actions. Thee will I reverence and adore. Before Thee will I fall down and worship. Grief, likewise, puts in. Lord, thy displeasure and thy dishonor, thy people's calamities and my own iniquities, shall be what sets me a-weeping. I will mourn when thou art offended, I will weep when thy cause is wounded. Anger likewise comes in for Christ. Lord, nothing so enrages me as my folly against thee, that I should be so besotted as to hearken to the flatteries of sin and the temptations of Satan against thee. hatred too will side with Christ I protest mortal enmity to thine enemies I will never be a friend to thy foes I vow an eternal quarrel with every sin I will give no quarter I will make no peace thus let all your powers yield to Jesus Christ again you must give up your whole interest to him if there is anything that would keep you back from Christ it will be your undoing Luke chapter 14 verse 33 unless you forsake it in preparation and resolution of your heart you cannot be his disciple you must hate father and mother, yea your own life also in comparison to him and as far as it stands in competition with him in a word You must give him yourself on all that you have without reservation or else you can have no part in him. 9. Choose the laws of Christ as the rule of your words, thoughts and actions. This is the true convert's choice. But here remember these three rules. One, you must obey them all. There's no getting to heaven by a partial obedience. It's not enough to take up the cheap and the easy part of religion, and let alone the duties for the costly or self-denying, and oppose the interests of the fresh. You must take all or none. A sincere convert, though he makes conscience of the greatest sins and greatest duties, yet he makes true conscience of little sins and of all duties. 2. You must choose Christ's laws for all times, for prosperity and for adversity. A true convert is resolved in his course. He will stand to his choice and will not set his back to the wind and to be of the religion of the times. I have stuck to my testimonies, I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even to the end. Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever. I will have respect to thy statutes continually. Psalm 119. 3. This must be done deliberately and understandingly. The disobedient son said, Sir, I go, but he went not. how fairly did they promise all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee we will do it and it is likely they meant what they said but when it came to the trial it was found that there was not such a heart in them as to do what they had promised Deuteronomy chapter 5 verses 27 and 29 if you would be sincere in closing with closing with the laws and the ways of Christ study the meaning and breadth and extent of them Remember that they are spiritual, that they reach the very thoughts and inclinations of the heart, so that if you will walk by this rule, your very thoughts and inward motions must be under government. Again, they are very strict and self-denying, quite contrary to your natural inclinations. You must take the straight gate, the narrow way, and be content to have the flesh curbed from the liberty it desires. In a word, they are very large, for thy commandment is exceeding broad. Psalm 119 verse 96. You do not rest in general commands, for there is much deceit in them. But bring down your heart to the particular commands of Christ. those Jews in the prophet seemed as well resolved as any in the world and called God to witness that they meant as they said but they rested in generals when God's command crossed their inclination they will not obey Jeremiah 43 verses 1 to 6 and 43 verse 2 Take the Westminster Assembly's larger catechism and see their excellent and most comprehensive exposition of the commandments and put your heart to it. Are you resolved, in the strength of Christ, to set upon the conscientious practice of every duty that you find required of you and set yourself against every sin that you find to be forbidden to you? this is the way to be sound in God's statutes that you may never be ashamed Psalm 119 verse 80 observe the special duties that your heart is most against and the special sins that it is most inclined to and see whether it be truly resolved to perform the one and to forego the other what do you say to your bosom sin? your profitable sin? What do you say to costly, hazardous, and flesh-displeasing duties? If you halt here, and do not resolve by the grace of God to cross the flesh and be in earnest, you are unsound. 10. Let all this be completed in a solemn covenant between God and your soul. set apart some time more than once to be spent in secret before the Lord in seeking earnestly His special assistance and gracious acceptance of you in searching your heart whether you are sincerely willing to forsake all your sins and to resign yourself body and soul unto God and His service to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life compose your spirit into the most serious frame possible suitable to the transaction of so high importance they hold on the covenant of God and rely on his promises of giving grace and strength by which you may be enabled to perform your duties do not trust to your own strength or to the strength of your own resolutions but take hold on his strength being thus prepared, on some convenient time set apart for the purpose, enter upon this work, and solemnly, as in the presence of the Lord, fall down on your knees, and spreading forth your hands towards heaven, open your heart to the Lord in these or the like words. O most holy God, for the passion of thy Son I beseech thee, accept thy poor prodigal now prostrating himself at thy door. I have fallen from thee by mine iniquity, and am by nature a son of death, and a thousandfold more a child of hell by wicked practice. But of thine infinite grace thou hast promised mercy to me in Christ, if I will but turn to thee with all my heart. Therefore, upon the call of thy gospel, I am now come in, and throwing down my weapons, submit myself to thy mercy. For because thou requirest, as a condition of my peace with thee, that I should put away my idols, and be at defiance with all mine enemies, which I acknowledge I have wickedly sided with against thee, I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all. firmly covenanting with thee, not to allow myself in any known sin, but conscientiously to use all the means that I know thou hast prescribed for the death and utter destruction of my corruptions. Whereas formerly I have inordinately and idolatrously trustly set my affections upon the world, I do here resign my heart to thee who mates it, humbly declaring before thy gracious majesty that it is the firm resolution of my heart, and that I do unfeignedly desire grace from thee. that when thou shalt call me here unto I may practice this my resolution through thy assistance to forsake all that is dear to me in this world rather than to turn from thee to the ways of sin and that I will watch against all temptations whether of prosperity or adversity lest they should withdraw my heart from thee I beseech thee also to help me against the temptations of Satan to whose wicked suggestions I resolve by thy grace never to yield myself a servant. And because mine own righteousness is but as filthy rags, I renounce all my confidence therein, and acknowledge that I am of myself a hopeless, helpless, undone creature without righteousness or strength. For as much as thou hast of thy bottomless mercy offered most graciously to me, a wretched sinner, to be again my God through Christ, if I would accept thee, I call upon heaven and earth to record this day that I do here solemnly avouch thee for a Lord my God. and with all possible veneration bowing the neck of my soul under the feet of thy most sacred majesty I do here take thee the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Ghost for my portion and chief good and do give myself body and soul to be thy servant promising and vowing to serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life And since thou hast appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming to thee, I do hereby solemnly join myself in a marriage covenant to him. O blessed Jesus, I come to thee hungry and thirsty, poor and wretched, miserable, blind and naked, a most loathsome, polluted wretch, a guilty, condemned malefactor. unworthy to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord, much more to be solemnly married to the King of Glory. But such is thy unparalleled love, I do here with all my power accept thee, and do take thee for my head and husband, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for all times and conditions, to love, honour, and obey thee before all others, and this unto the death. I embrace thee in all thine offices. I renounce mine own worthiness, and do here avow thee to be the Lord my righteousness. I renounce my own wisdom, and do here take thee for my only guide. I renounce my own will, and take thy will for my law. And since thou hast told me that I must suffer if I will reign, I do here covenant with thee to take my lot as it falls with thee, and by thy grace assist to run all hazards with thee, verily supposing that neither life nor death shall part between thee and me. And because thou hast been pleased to give me thy holy law as the rule of my life, and the way which I should walk to thy kingdom, I do here willingly put my neck under thy yoke, and set my shoulder to thy burden, and subscribing to all thy laws as holy, just, and good, I solemnly take them as the rule of my words, thoughts and actions, promising that though my flesh should contradict and rebel, yet I will endeavour to order and govern my whole life to thy direction, and will not allow myself to neglect anything that I know to be my duty. Only because through the frailty of my flesh I am subject to many failings, I am bold to humbly to request that unintentional shortcomings, contrary to the settled bent and resolution of my heart, shall not make this covenant void. For so thou hast said. now almighty God searcher of hearts thou knowest that I make this covenant with thee this day without any known guile or reservation beseeching thee that if thou aspires any flaw or falsehood therein thou wouldst reveal it to me and help me to do it all right and now O God the Father whom I shall be bold from this day forward to look upon as my God and Father Glory be to Thee for finding out such a way for the recovery of undone sinners. Glory be to Thee, O God the Son, who has loved me and washed me from my sins in Thine own blood, and Thou now become my Saviour, my Redeemer. Glory be to Thee, O God the Holy Ghost, who by the finger of Thine almighty power has turned about my heart from sin to God. O High and Most Holy Jehovah, the Lord God, Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, thou art now become my covenant friend, and I, through thine infinite grace, am become thy covenant servant. Amen, so be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. this covenant I advise you to make not only in heart but in word and not only in word but in writing and that you should with all possible reverence spread the writing before the Lord as if you would present it to him as your act and deed and when you have done this set your hand to sign it and keep it keep it as a memorial of the solemn transactions that have passed between God and you and that you may have recourse to it in doubts or temptations.

11. Take heed of delay in your conversion but make a speedy and immediate surrender of your heart to God. I made haste and delayed not. Psalm 119 verse 16 Remember, and tremble at the sad instance of the foolish virgins who did not come to the door of mercy until it was shut, or of a convinced Felix who put off Paul to another season, but we do not find that he ever had another season. O come in while it is called to day, lest you should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, lest the day of grace should be over, and the things which belong to your peace should be hid from your eyes. Now mercy is wooing you. Now Christ is waiting to be gracious to you. And the Spirit of God is striving with you. Now ministers are calling. Now conscience is stirring. Now the market is open and oil may be had. You have the opportunity of buying. now Christ is to be had for the taking oh strike in now with the offers of grace oh now or never if you made light of this offer God may swear in his wrath that you shall never taste of his supper Luke chapter 14 verse 24

12 attend conscientiously upon the word as the means appointed for your conversion attend I say, not customarily but conscientiously with this desire, design, hope and expectation that you may be converted by it come to every sermon every sermon that you hear with this one thought oh I do hope God will now come in I hope this day may be the time this may be the man by whom God will bring me home when you are coming to the privileges of God's house lift up your heart to God thus Lord let this be the Sabbath let this be the season in which I may receive renewing grace oh let it be said that on this day such and one was born unto thee

objection you will say I have been a hearer of the word for a long time and yet it has not been effectual to my conversion answer. Yes, but you have not attended upon it in this manner as the means of your conversion, nor with this design, nor praying for and expecting the happy effect from it.

13. Strike into the Spirit when He begins to work in your heart. when he works convictions, oh do not strifle them but join with him and beg the Lord to give you saving conversion quench not the spirit do not reject him, do not resist him beware of stifling convictions with evil company or worldly business when you are in anguish on account of your sins and fears about your eternal state beg of God that you may have peace only in thoroughly renouncing sin loathing it in your inmost soul and giving your whole heart without reserve to Christ say to him strike home Lord do not leave the work half done go to the bottom of my corruption and let out the life blood of my sins thus yield yourself to the working of the Spirit and hoist your sails to the gusts of his wind.

14. Set upon the constant and diligent use of serious and fervent prayer. He that neglects prayer is a profane and unsanctified sinner. He that is not constant in prayer is a hypocrite, unless the omission be contrary to his ordinary course under the force of some instant temptation. one of the first things conversion appears in is in that it sets men a-praying therefore set to this duty let not one day pass in which you have not morning and evening set apart some time for solemn prayer in secret also call your family together daily and duly to worship God with you woe be unto you if you are found among the families that call not upon God's name Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 25 but cold and lifeless devotions will not reach halfway to heaven be fervent and importune importunity will carry it but without violence the kingdom of heaven will not be taken you must strive to enter in and wrestle with tears and supplications of Jacob if you would gain the blessing you are undone forever without grace and therefore you must set to it and resolve to take no denial that man who is fixed in this resolution says well I must have grace or I will never give over till I have grace I will never cease earnestly pleading and striving with God in my own heart till he renews me by the power of his grace. 15 forsake your evil company and forbear the occasions of sin you will never return from sin till you decline and forgo the temptations to sin I never expect your conversion from sin unless you were brought to some self-denial so as to flee the occasions if you will be nibbling at the bait and playing on the brink and tampering with the snare your soul will surely be taken where God exposes men in his providence unavoidably to temptation and the occasions are such as we cannot remove we may expect special assistance in the use of his means but when we tempt God by running into danger he will not engage to support us when we are tempted and of all temptations one of the most fatal and pernicious is evil companions oh what hopeful beginnings have thus often been stifled oh the souls, the estates, the families, the towns that have been ruined oh how many poor sinners have been enlightened and convinced and been just ready to escape the snare of the devil and have even escaped it, and yet wicked company has pulled them back at last and made them sevenfold more the children of hell. In a word, I have no hopes of you except you shake off from evil company. Your life depends upon it. Forsake this or you cannot live. You will be worse than the ass of Balaam to run on when you see the Lord with a sword drawn in the way. let this sentence be written in capitals on your conscience a companion of fools shall be destroyed Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 the Lord has spoken it and who shall reverse it? and will you run upon destruction when God himself forewarns you? if God ever changes your heart it will appear in the change of your company O fear and flee the gulf by which so many thousands have been swallowed up into perdition it will be hard for you indeed to make your escape your companions will be mocking you out of your religion and will study to fill you with prejudices against strictness as ridiculous and comfortless they will be flattering you and alluring you but remember the warnings of the Holy Ghost my son If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, cast thy lot amongst us, walk thou not in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. They lie in wait for their blood, and lurk frivolously for their own lives. Proverbs chapter 1 verses 10 to 19 and chapter 4 verses 15 to 19 my soul is moved within me to see how many of my hearers and readers are likely to perish both they and their houses by this wretched mischief even the frequenting of such places and company by which they are drawn into sin once more I admonish you as Moses did Israel depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men Numbers chapter 16 verse 26 Oh flee from them as you would those that have the plague sores running in their foreheads. These are the devils, pandas and decoys and if you do not make your escape they will draw you into perdition and will prove your eternal ruin. 16. Set apart a day to humble your soul in secret by fasting and prayer to work a sense of your sin and miseries upon your heart. read over a thorough exposition of the commandments and write down the duties omitted and the sins committed by you against every commandment and so make a catalogue of your sins and with shame and sorrow spread it out before the Lord if your heart be truly willing to the terms join yourself solemnly to the Lord in that covenant set down in direction 10 of this chapter and the Lord grant mercy to you in his sight Thus I have told you what you must do to be saved. Will you now obey the voice of the Lord? Will you arise and set to the work? O man, what answer will you make, what excuses will you have, if you should perish at last through very willfulness, when you have known the way of life? I do not fear your miscarrying, if your own idleness do not at last undo you in neglecting the use of the means that are so plainly prescribed. Rouse up, O sluggard, and ply your work. Be doing, and the Lord will be with you. A short soliloquy for an unregenerate sinner. Ah, a wretched man that I am! What a condition have I brought myself into by sin! Oh, see, my heart has deceived me all this while, in flattering me that my condition was good. I see, I see I am but a lost and undone man, forever undone, unless the Lord help me out of this condition. My sins! My sins! Lord, what an unclean, polluted wretch I am! More loathsome and odious to Thee than the most hateful venom or noisome carcass can be to me. Oh, what a hell of sin is in this heart of mine, which I have flattered myself was a good heart. Lord, how universally am I corrupted in all my parts, powers, performances. All the imaginations of my heart are only evil continually. I am under an inability to, and an aversion from, and an enmity against anything that is good. And I am prone to all that is evil. My heart is a very sink of sin. and oh the innumerable hosts and swarms of sinful thoughts, words, and actions that have flowed out of it. O the load of guilt that is on my soul! My head is full, my heart is full, my mind and my members, they are full of sin! O my sins, how do they stare upon me, woe is me! My creditors are upon me, every commandment takes hold upon me, for more than ten thousand talents, yea, ten thousand times ten thousand! How endless, then, is the sum of all my debts! this whole world were filled up from earth to heaven with paper and all this paper were written within and without by arithmaticians yet when all were added up it would come inconceivably short of what I owe to the very least of God's commandments woe unto me for my debts are infinite and my sins are increasing they are wrongs to an infinite majesty And if he that commits treason against a silken mortal is worthy to be racked, drawn, and quartered, what have I deserved but that I have so often lifted up my hand against heaven, and have struck at the crown and the dignity of the Almighty? O my sins, O my sins! Behold a troop cometh, multitudes, multitudes, there is no number of their armies, innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, they have set themselves against me. O it were better to have all the regiments of hell come against me than to have my sins fall upon me to the spoiling of my soul. Lord, how am I surrounded? How many are they that rise up against me? They have beset me before and behind, they swarm within me and without me. They are possessed of all my powers, and have fortified my soul as a garrison, which all the brood of hell mans against the God that made me. They are as mighty as they are many. The sands are many, but they are not great. The mountains great, but they are not many. But woe is me! My sins are as many as the sands, and as great as the mountains. Their weight is greater than their number. It were better that the rocks and mountains should fall upon me, than the crushing and unsupportable load of my own sins. Lord, I am heavy laden. Let mercy help, or I am gone. Unload me of this heavy guilt, this sinking load, or I am crushed without hope and must be pressed down to hell. If my grief were thoroughly weighed and my sins laid in the balances together, they would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore my words are swallowed up. They would weigh down all the rocks and the hills, and turn the balances against the isles of the earth. O Lord, Thou knowest my manifold transgressions and my mighty sins. Ah, my soul! Alas, my glory! How are you humbled? Once the glory of the creation and the image of God, and now a lump of filthiness, a coffin of rottenness, replenished with stent and loathsomeness! Oh, what work has sin made with you! You shall be termed forsaken, and all the rooms of your faculties desolate, and the name which you have shall be called Ichabod, or Where is the glory? How you come down mightily! My beauty is turned into deformity, and my glory into shame. Lord, what a loathsome leper I am! The ulcerous bodies of Job or Lazarus were not more offensive to the eyes and nostrils of men than I must needs be to the most holy God, whose eyes cannot behold iniquity. and what misery have my sins brought upon me? Lord, what estate I am in, sold under sin, cast out of God's favour, accursed from the Lord, cursed in my body, cursed in my soul, cursed in my name, in my estate, my relations and all that I have. My sins are unpardoned and my soul within a step of death. Alas, what shall I do? Where shall I go? Which way shall I look? God is frowning upon me from above, hell is gaping for me beneath, conscience smiting me within, temptations and dangers surround me without. Oh, where shall I fly? What place can hide me from omniscience? What power can secure me from omnipotence? What do you mean, O my soul, to go on thus? Are you in league with hell? Have you made a covenant with death? Are you in love with your own misery? Is it good for you to be here? Alas, what shall I do? Shall I go on in my sinful ways? Why, then, certain damnation will be my end. And shall I be so besotted and mad as to go and sell my soul into the flames for a little ale or a little ease or a little pleasure or gain or comfort to my flesh? Shall I linger any longer in this wretched state? No, if I tarry here I shall die. What then? Is there any help? No hope? None, except I turn. Why? But is there any remedy for such woeful misery? Any mercy for such provoking iniquity? Yes, as sure as God's oath is true I shall have pardon and mercy yet if I presently, unfeignedly and unreservedly turn to Christ. Why then? I thank Thee upon bended knee, the knees of my soul, O most merciful Jehovah, that Thy patience has waited for me hitherto. For hadst Thou forsaken me in this state, I had perished for ever. And now I adore Thy grace, and resolved by Thy grace to set myself against them, and to follow Thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life. Who am I, Lord, that I should make any claim to Thee, or have any part or portion in Thee, who am not worthy to lick up the dust of Thy feet? Yet since Thou holdest forth the golden sceptre, I am bold to come and touch. To despair would be to disparage Thy mercy. To stand off, when Thou bidst me come, would be at once to undo myself, and rebel against Thee under pretense of humility. Therefore I bow my soul unto thee, and with all possible thankfulness accept thee as mine, and give up myself to thee as thine. Thou shalt be a sovereign over me, my king and my god. Thou shalt be on the throne, and all my powers shall bow to thee. They shall come and worship before my feet. Thou shalt be my portion, O Lord, and I will rest in thee. Thou callest for my heart. O that it were in any way fit for thine acceptance. I am unworthy, O Lord, everlastingly unworthy to be thine. But since thou wilt have it so, I freely give my heart to thee. Take it, it is thine. O that it were a better heart! But, Lord, I put it into thy hands, who alone can mend it. Mold it after thine own heart. Make it as thou wouldst have it, holy, humble, heavenly, soft, tender, flexible, and write thy law upon it. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, enter in triumphantly. Take me up for thyself forever. I give myself to thee, I come to thee as the only way to the Father, as the only mediator, the means ordained to bring me to God. I have destroyed myself, but in thee is my help. Save, Lord, or else I perish. I come to thee with the rope about my neck. I am worthy to die and to be damned. never was the hire more due to his servant, never was penny more due to the labourer than death and hell, my just wages are the due for my sins. But I fly to thy merits, I trust alone to the value and virtue of thy sacrifice, and the prevalence of thy intercession. I submit to thy teaching, I make choice of thy government, stand open you everlasting doors that the King of Glory might enter in. O thou Spirit of the Most High, the Comforter and Sanctifier of thy Chosen, come in with all thy glorious train, all thy courtly attendants, thy fruits and graces. Let me be thine habitation. I can give thee but what is thine own already, But here with the widow I give in my two mites, my soul and my body, into thy treasury, fully resigning them up to thee, to be sanctified by thee, to be servants to thee. They shall be thy patients, cure thou their maladies. They shall be thy agents, govern thou their actions. Too long have I served the world, too long have I hearkened to Satan, but now I renounce them all and will be ruled by thy dictates and directions, and guided by thy counsel. O blessed Trinity, O glorious Unity, I deliver myself up to thee. Receive me, write thy name, O Lord, upon me, and upon all that I have, as thy proper goods. Set thy mark upon me, upon every member of my body and every faculty of my soul, I have chosen thy precepts. Thy law will I lay before me. This shall be the copy which I will keep in my eye and study to write after. According to this rule do I resolve by thy grace to walk. After this law shall be my whole man governed. And though I can't perfectly keep one of thy commandments, yet I will allow myself in the breach of none. I know my flesh will hang back, but I resolve by the power of thy grace to cleave to thee and my holy ways whatever it costs me. I am sure I cannot come off a loser by thee, and therefore I will be content with reproach and difficulties and hardships here, and will deny myself and take up my cross and follow thee. Lord Jesus, thy yoke is easy, thy cross is welcome, as it is the way to thee. I lay aside all hopes of a worldly happiness. I will be content to tarry till I come to thee. Let me be poor and low, little and despised here, so that I may be admitted to live and reign with thee hereafter. Lord, thou hast my heart and hand to this agreement. Be it as the law of the Medes and Persians, never to be reversed. To this will I stand. In this resolution by thy grace I will live and die. I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments. I have given my free consent. I have made my everlasting choice. Lord Jesus confirm the contract. Amen.

Alarm to the Unconverted! part 4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about conversion?

How do we know sovereign grace is true?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

How does Scripture explain the concept of grace?

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Alarm to the Unconverted! part 4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about conversion?

How do we know sovereign grace is true?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

How does Scripture explain the concept of grace?

Sermon Transcript

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