A Christian Directory, Part 2: Christian Economics

III. Now this being the infallible truth of the gospel, and this being the true difference between the righteous and the wicked, the justified and condemned souls, oh how nearly doth it now concern you, to try which of these is your own condition! Certainly it may be known: for God will judge the world in righteousness, by the same law or covenant by which he governeth them. Know but whom the law of Christ condemneth or justifieth, and you may soon know whom the Judge will condemn and justify; for he will proceed according to this law. If you should die in an unrenewed state in your sins, your hopes of heaven would all die with you; and if you should think never so well of yourself till death, and pretend never so confidently to trust on Christ and the mercy of God, one hour will convince you to your everlasting woe, that God's mercy and Christ's merits did never bring to heaven an unsanctified soul. Self-flattery is good for nothing, but to keep you from repenting till time be past, and to quiet you in Satan's snares till there be no remedy: therefore presently, as you love your soul, examine yourself, and try which of these is the condition that you are in, and accordingly judge yourself, before God judge you.136 May you not know if you will, whether you have most minded earth or heaven, and which you have preferred and sought with the highest esteem and resolution, and whether your worldly or heavenly interest have borne sway, and which of them it is that gave place unto the other? Cannot a man tell if he will, what it is which his very soul hath practically taken for his chief concernment, and what it is that hath had most of his love and care? and what hath been next his heart, and which he hath preferred when they came to the parting, and one was set against the other? Cannot you tell whether you have lived principally to the flesh, for the prosperity of this world, and the pleasures of sin? or whether the Spirit of Christ by his word, hath enlightened you, and showed you your sin and misery, and humbled you for it, and showed you the glory of the life to come, and the happiness of living in the love of God, and hereupon hath united your heart unto himself, and turned it from sin to holiness, from the world to God, and from earth to heaven, and made you a new creature, to live for heaven as you did for earth: surely this is not so small and indiscernible a work or change, but he that hath felt it on himself may know it. It is a good work to bring a sinner to feel his unrighteousness and misery, and to apply himself to Christ for righteousness and life: it is a great work to take off the heart from all the felicity of this world, and to set it unfeignedly upon God, and to cause him to place and seek his happiness in another world, whatever become of all the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh. It is thus with every true believer, for all the remnant of his sins and weaknesses: and may you not know whether it be thus or not with you? One of these is your case: and it is now time to know which of them it is; when God is ready to tell you by his judgment. If indeed you are in Christ, and his Spirit be in you, and hath renewed you, and sanctified you, and turned your heart and life to God, I have then nothing more than peace and comfort to speak to you (as in the following exhortation): but if it be otherwise, and you are yet in a carnal state, and were never renewed by the Spirit of Christ, will you give me leave to deal faithfully with you, as is necessary with one in your condition, and to set before you at once your sin and your remedy, and to tell you what yet you must do if you will be saved.

IV. And first, will you here lay to heart your folly, and unfeignedly lament your sinful life before the Lord? not only this or that particular sin, but principally your fleshly heart and life; that in the main, you have lived to this corruptible flesh, and loved, and sought, and served the world, before your God, and the happiness of your soul? Alas, friend, did you not know that you had an immortal soul, that must live in joy or misery for ever? Did you not know that you were made to love, and serve, and honour your Maker; and that you had the little time of this life given you, to try and prepare you for your endless life; and that as you lived here, it must go with you in heaven or hell for ever? If you did not believe these things, why did you not come, and give your reasons against them, to some judicious divine that was able to have showed you the evidence of their truth? If you did believe them, alas, how was it possible that you could forget them? Could you believe a heaven and a hell, and not regard them, or suffer any transitory worldly vanity to be more regarded by you? Did you know what you had to do in the world, and yet is it all undone till now? Were you never warned of this day? Did never preacher, nor Scripture, nor book, nor friend, nor conscience, tell you of your end? and tell you what would be the fruit of sin, and of your contempt and slighting of Christ and of his grace? Did you know that you must love God above the world, if ever you would be saved, and that you must to that end be partaker of Christ, and renewed by his Spirit; and yet would you let out your heart upon the world, and follow the brutish pleasures of the flesh, and never earnestly seek after that Christ and Spirit that should thus renew and sanctify you? Do you not think now that it had been wiser to have sought Christ and grace, and set your affections first on the things above, and to have made sure work for your soul against such a day as this, than to have hardened your heart against God's grace, and despised Christ, and heaven, and your salvation, for a thing of nought? You see now what it was that you preferred before heaven: what have you now got by all your sinful love of the world? where now is all your fleshly pleasure? will it all now serve turn to save you from death, or the wrath of God, and everlasting misery? will it now go with you to another world? Or do you think it will comfort a soul in hell, to remember the wealth which he gathered and left behind him upon earth? Would it not now have been much more comfortable to you, if you could say, My days were spent in holiness, in the love of my dear Redeemer, and in the hearty service of my God; in praising him and praying to him, in learning and obeying his holy word and will; my business in the world was to please God, and seek a better world; and while I followed my lawful trade or calling, my eye was chiefly on eternal life; instead of pleasing the flesh, I delighted my soul in the love, and praise, and service of my Redeemer, and in the hopes of my eternal blessedness; and now I am going to enjoy that God and happiness which I believed and sought. Would not this be more comfortable to you now, than to look back on your time as spent in a worldly, fleshly life, which you preferred before your God and your salvation? Christ would not have forsaken you in the time of your extremity, as the world doth, if you had cleaved faithfully to him. You little know what peace and comfort you might have found, even on earth, in a holy life: how sweet would the word of God have been to you! how sweet would prayer, and meditation, and holy conference have been! Do you think it is not more pleasant to a true believer, to read the promises of eternal life, and to think and talk of that blessed state, when they shall dwell with God in joy for ever, than it was to you to think and talk of worldly trash and vanity? If you had used the world as a traveller doth the necessaries of his journey, the thought of heaven would have afforded you solid, rational comfort all the way. O little do you know the sweetness of the love of God in Christ, and how good a christian findeth it, when he can but exercise and increase his knowledge, and faith, and love to God, and thankfulness for mercy, and hopes of heaven, and walk with God in a heavenly conversation! Do you not wish now that this had been your course? But that which is done cannot be undone, and time that is past can never be called back: but yet there is a sure remedy for your soul, if you have but a heart to entertain and use it. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."137 Jesus Christ being God and man, is the Mediator between God and man; his death is a sufficient sacrifice for our sins; it is his office to save all those that come to God by him: do but unfeignedly repent of your sinful life, and yet set your heart upon the life to come, and love God and holiness better than the world and fleshly pleasure, and trust your soul on Christ as your Redeemer, and he will certainly forgive you, and reconcile you unto God, and present you justified and spotless in his sight. Think of your sin till you abhor yourself; and think of your sin and misery till you feel that you are undone if you have not a Saviour; and then think what love God hath showed you in Christ, in giving him to be incarnate and die for sinners, and offering you freely to pardon all that ever you have done, and to justify and save you, and bring you to endless glory with himself, if yet at last you will but give up yourself to Christ, and accept his mercy and return to God. What joyful tidings is here now for a sinful, miserable soul! Yet this is the certain truth of God. This is his very covenant of grace, which is founded in the blood of Christ, and which he is now ready to make with you, and seal to you by his Spirit within, and his sacrament without, if you do but heartily and unfeignedly consent: believe in Christ, and turn to God, from the world and the flesh, and resolve upon a holy life if you should recover, and then I can assure you from the word of God, that he will freely pardon you, and take you for his child, and save your soul in endless glory. As late as it is, he will certainly receive you, if you return to him by Christ with all your heart. And doth not your heart now rejoice in this unspeakable mercy, which is willing to save you after all the sin that you have committed, and after all the time that you have lost? Do you yet love that God that is so abundant in goodness and in love? and that Saviour who hath purchased you this pardon and salvation? Is it not better, think you, to love, and praise, and serve him, than to live in fleshly lusts and pleasures? and is it not better to dwell in heaven with him, in endless joys, than to live awhile in the vain delights of sinners, and thence to pass to endless misery? O beg of God now to give you a new heart to believe in Christ, and repent of sin, and love him that is most holy, good, and gracious: and take heed that you slight not his grace any longer; and that you do not now take on you in a fear, to be that which you are not, or to do that which you would not hold to, if you should recover. And to make all sure, will you now sincerely enter into a covenant with Christ; I mean but the same covenant which you made in baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper; and which would have saved you, if you had sincerely made and kept it? Let me therefore help you both to understand it, and to do it, by these questions, which I entreat you to answer sincerely as one that is going to the presence of God.

Quest. I. Do you truly believe that you are a rational creature, differing from brutes, being made to love and serve your Maker, and have an immortal soul, which must live in heaven or hell for ever? and that there is indeed a heaven of joys, and a hell of punishments, when this life is ended?

Quest. II. Do you believe that in heaven, the souls of the justified at death, and the body also at the resurrection, shall be joined with the angels, and shall dwell with Christ, and see the glory of God, and be perfected in holiness, and filled with the sense of the love of God, and with the greatest joys that our nature can receive, and shall live in the most delightful love and praise of God for ever?

Quest. III. Seeing you are certain that all the pleasures of this life are short, and will end in death, and leave the flesh which desired them in corruption, do you not firmly believe that the joys of heaven are infinitely better, and more to be desired and sought, than all the pleasures and profits of this life? and that it is most reasonable that we should love God above all creatures, even with all our heart, and soul, and might?

Quest. IV. Seeing then that the love of God is both our duty and happiness, is it not reason that we should be kept from the love of any thing in the world, which would steal away our hearts from God, and hinder us from loving him, and desiring, and seeking him? and that we should mortify the love of worldly riches, honours, and delights, so far as they are against the love of God?

Quest. V. Seeing God is the absolute Lord and Ruler of the world, is it not reason that we obey him, whatsoever he commandeth us, though we did not see the reason why he doth command it? And yet is it not plainly reasonable, that he command us to love, and honour, and worship him; and to love one another, and to deal justly with all, and do as we would be done by, and to be careful of our souls, and temperate for our bodies; and not to neglect or dishonour our Maker, nor to neglect our own salvation, nor abuse our bodies by beastly filthiness or excess; nor to wrong our neighbours, nor deny to do them any good that is in our power? This is the sum of all God's laws: and this is the nature of holiness and obedience. And do you not from your heart believe, that all this is very reasonable and good?

Quest. VI. When the sinful world was fallen from happiness into misery, by turning away from God and holiness to sensuality, and God sent his Son to be their Redeemer and Saviour; to be a sacrifice for sin, and a teacher and pattern of a holy and obedient life, and to make a new covenant with them, in which he giveth them the pardon of all sin, and everlasting happiness, if they will but give up themselves to him as their Saviour, and Sanctifier, and by true repentance turn to God; do you not verily believe that miserable sinners should gladly and thankfully accept of such an offer? and abundantly love that God and Saviour, that hath so tenderly loved them, and so freely redeemed them from the flames of hell, and so freely offered them everlasting life? And do you not believe that he, who, after all this, shall slight all this mercy, and refuse to be renewed by sanctifying grace, and shall neglect his God, and soul, and this salvation, and rather choose to keep his sins; doth not deserve to be utterly forsaken, and to be punished more than if a Saviour and salvation had never been offered to him?

Quest. VII. Hath not this been your own case? Have you not lived a fleshly, worldly life; neglecting God and your salvation; and minding more these lower things? And have you not refused the word and Spirit of Christ, which would have brought you to repentance and a holy life? and consequently rejected Christ as a Saviour, and the Holy Ghost as a Sanctifier, and all the mercy which he offered you on these terms?

Quest. VIII. If this hath been your case, are you now unfeignedly grieved for it? not only because it hath brought you so near to hell, but also because it hath displeased God, and deprived you of that holy and comfortable life, which you might all this while have lived, and endangered all your hopes of heaven? Do you so far repent, as that your very heart and love is changed; so that now you had rather have a holy life on earth, and the sight and enjoyment of God in the heavenly joys for ever, than to have all the pleasure and prosperity of this world? Do you hate your sins, and loathe yourself for them, and truly desire to be made holy? Are you firmly resolved, that if God do recover you to health, you will live a new and holy life? that you will forsake your fleshly, worldly life, and all your wilful sins; and will set yourself to learn the will of God, and call upon him, and live in the holy communion of saints, and make it your chief care to please God, and to be saved?

Quest. IX. Are you willing, to these ends, to give up yourselves absolutely now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as your reconciled Father, your Saviour, and your Sanctifier, to be sanctified and justified, and saved from your sins, and from the wrath of God, and live to God in love and holiness? And are you willing to bind yourself to this, by entering into this covenant with God, renouncing the flesh, the world, and the devil? Either your heart is willing and sincere in this resolution and covenant, or it is not. If it be not, there is no hope that your sin should be pardoned, and your soul be saved upon any other, or easier terms! And for all that God is merciful, and Christ died for sinners, it was never his intent to save one impenitent, unsanctified soul. But if your heart unfeignedly consent to this, I have the commission of Christ himself to tell you, That God will be your reconciled God and Father, and Christ will be your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit will be your Sanctifier and Comforter, and your sins are pardoned, and your soul shall be saved, and you shall dwell in heaven with God for ever.138 God did consent before you consented; he showed his consent in purchasing, and making, and offering you this covenant. Show your unfeigned consent now by accepting it, and giving up yourself unreservedly to him, and you have Christ's blood, and Spirit, and sacrament, to seal it to you. The flesh and the world have deceived you; but trust in Christ upon his covenant terms, and he will never deceive you.

And now, alas, what pity it is, that a soul that is in so miserable a case, and is lost for ever, if it have not help, and speedy help, should be deprived of all this grace and glory, and only for want of repenting and consenting! What pity is it that a soul, that is ready to go into another world, where mercy shall never more be offered it, should rather go stupidly on to hell, than return to God, and accept his mercy! Do but truly repent and consent to this covenant, and all the mercies of it are certainly yours. God will be your God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and pardon, and heaven, and all are yours. The Lord open and persuade your heart, that you may not be undone and lost for ever, for want of accepting the mercy that is offered you!

And now I know it would be comfortable to you, if you could be fully assured that you are forgiven, and shall be saved. In a matter of such unspeakable moment, how joyful would a well-grounded certainty be, to any man that hath the right use of his understanding? I tell you therefore from God, that there is no cause of your doubting on his part, but only on your own. There is no doubt to be made, whether God be merciful, nor whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour and sacrifice for your sins; nor whether the covenant be sure, and promise of pardon and salvation to all true penitent believers be true. All the doubt is, whether your faith and repentance be sincere, or not: and for that, I can but tell you how you may know it; and I shall open the truth to you, that I may neither deceive you, nor causelessly discomfort you.

If this repentance and change which you now profess, and this covenant which you have made with God, 1. Do come only from a present fear, and not from a changed, renewed heart; 2. And if your resolutions be such as would not hold you to a holy life, if you should recover; but would die and fade away, and leave you as you were before, when the fear is past; then it is but a forced, hypocritical repentance, and will not save you, if you so die.139 Though a minister of Christ should absolve you of all your sins, and seal it by giving you the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; for all this you are lost for ever, if you have no more: for absolution and the sacrament are given you but on supposition that your faith and repentance be sincere; and if this condition fail in you, the action of the holiest minister in the world will never save you.

But, 1. If your repentance and covenant come not only from a present fear but from a renewed heart, which now loveth God, and Christ, and heaven, and holiness, better than all the honours, and riches, and pleasures of the flesh and world, and had rather have them, even on God's terms; 2. And if this change be such, as if you should recover, would hold you to a holy life, and not die, or dwindle into hypocritical formality, when the fright is over; then I can assure you from the word of God, that if you die in this repentance, you shall certainly be saved. And though late repentance have so many difficulties that it too seldom proveth true and sound, and it is an unspeakable madness to cast our salvation on so great a hazard; and to defer that till such a day as this, which should be the principal work of all our lives; and for which, the greatest care and diligence is not too much: yet for all that, when conversion is indeed sincere, it is always acceptable, how late soever; and a returning prodigal shall find better entertainment with God, than he could possibly expect; and never will Christ cast out one soul that cometh to him, in sincerity of heart.140 The Lord give you such a heart, and all is yours. Amen. Jer. xxxi. 34; Eph. i. 7; Acts v. 31; Eph. v. 26; Rev. i. 5; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Mal. iii. 17; John i. 12; iii. 16; Eph. ii. 14; Rom. viii. 1, 17; Luke iv. 18; Rom. v. 1, 5; Luke i. 74; John x. 28; Luke xxiii. 43; 1 Cor. xv. 8; Tit. iii. 3, 4; Acts iv. 4-6; 1 Tim. i. 13-16.

A Form of Exhortation to the Godly in their Sickness

Dear friend: Though nature teacheth us to have compassion on your flesh, which lieth in pain; yet faith teacheth us to see the nearness of your happiness, and to rejoice with you in hope of your endless joys, which seem to be at hand. We must rejoice with you as your friends that love you, and therefore are partakers of your welfare: and we must rejoice with you as your fellow-travellers and fellow-soldiers, that are going along with you to the same felicity; and if we are left behind for a little while, yet hope ere long to overtake you, and never to be separated from you more. This is the day for which Christ hath been so long preparing you; and which you have so long foreseen, and have been so long preparing for yourself. This is the day which you thought on in all your prayers and patience, in all your labours and sufferings, your self-denial and mortification, since God did bring you to yourself and him. Now you are going to see the things which you have believed; and to possess the things which you have sought and hoped for; to see the final difference between the righteous and the wicked; between a holy and a worldly life, between the vessels of mercy and of wrath. Your time is hasting to an end, and endless blessedness must succeed it. O now, what a mercy is it to have a Christ! that you are not to encounter an unconquered death; nor to go to God without a Mediator: but that death is by Christ disarmed of its sting; and that you may boldly resign your soul into the hands of your Redeemer, and commend it to him as a member of himself! Now, what a case had your soul been in, if you had no intercessor! if you had been to answer for your sins, yourself only; and had not a Saviour to be your advocate, and answer for you! Now you may better perceive than ever you have done, what God did for you when he opened your eyes, and humbled, and changed, and renewed your heart; and how great a mercy it is to be a penitent believer. You may now see more fully than ever heretofore, what God intended for you, when he converted you; when he forgave all your sins, and justified you by his grace, and adopted you for his child, and an heir of life, and sealed you with his Spirit, and sanctified and separated you to himself. Now what a case were you in, if you were yet in your sins, and in the bondage of Satan, and had not this evidence of your title to eternal life! if you had your heart to soften, and to humble, and to convert, and your faith and justification all to seek, and all your preparations for heaven to make; if you had all this to do, with a pained body, and a distracted mind, in so short a time, with God, and eternity, and death before you, ready with terror to overwhelm your souls! if now you were to seek for an interest in Christ, and for the pardon of all your sins, and your peace with God were yet to make! if you had all your life past to look back upon, as consumed in sin; and when time is at an end, must cry out of all that is past, as lost! This is the case that God in justice might have left you to. But what an unspeakable mercy is it, that you have already been reconciled to that God that you are going to! and that the sins which now would have been your terror, are all forgiven through the blood of Christ! that you can look back upon your time, since the day of your conversion, as spent in faithful devotedness to God, and in a believing preparation for your endless life; and in godly sincerity, notwithstanding your manifold sinful imperfections, which Christ hath undertaken to answer for himself! Though you have nothing of your own to boast of; and no works that will justify you according to the law, at the bar of God; but you need a Saviour, and a pardon, for the failings, even of the best that ever you did; yet must you with thankfulness remember that grace which hath begun eternal life within you, and prepared and sealed you to the fall possession of it. For all the mercy that is in God, and for all the glory that is in heaven, and for all the merits and satisfaction of Christ, and for all the fulness and freeness of the promise;141 if God had not given you a believing, penitent heart, and sanctified and sealed you by the Spirit of his Son, all this could have afforded you little comfort, but would have aggravated your misery, as it did your sin. Seeing then that, many of the wicked would be glad to die the death of the righteous; and when it is too late, they would all be glad if their latter end might be like his; how glad should you be, that God, by such a life, hath prepared you for such an end! And though a humble soul hath still an eye upon its own unworthiness, and Satan is ready to aggravate our sins, in order to our discouragement and fear; yet must you remember what an honourable victory grace hath had over them; and look on them as Christ did, as the advantage of his grace; that "where sin abounded, there grace hath super-abounded."142 You have had something to humble you, and to show you that you were a child of Adam; and you have had something for grace to contend with, and to conquer; and for Christ to pardon: bless him through whom you have had the victory. Had you not deserved hell, Christ would not have saved you from a deserved hell; and the song of the Lamb would not have been so sweet to you, in the everlasting remembrance and experience of his grace. You have sinned as a man, and he hath pardoned as God; you have been weak and nothing, but his grace hath been sufficient for you, and by his strength you can do all things. He hath as dear a love to you now in his exaltation, as he had upon the cross, when he was bleeding for your sins. And will he suffer a chosen soul to perish, for whom he hath paid so dear a price? A Christ in heaven that had never been on earth, would have seemed a stranger to us, and one that never was acquainted with our miseries, nor had testified his love at so dear a rate, as might have convinced, and encouraged, and won our hearts. And a Christ on earth, that had not passed for us into heaven, would have seemed to us but an insufficient, conquered friend; and were unfit to provide us a mansion with the Father, and to receive our souls, when they are separated from the flesh. But "now we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;" and therefore "can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; and therefore we may come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need," Heb. iv. 14-16. This is your time of need, and here is a supply for all your needs. As we may come boldly through our High Priest to the throne of grace, so may we boldly pass by his conduct into the presence of God in glory. For he is purposely gone before "to prepare a place for us, that where he is there we may be also," John xiv. 1-3. Oh what a joy is it to our departing souls, that we have our Head and Saviour already in possession of the kingdom which we are passing to! What a support and joy is it, to receive this message from our ascending Head, "Say to my brethren, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God," John xx. 17. What a joy is it to read his promise, John xii. 26, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be." You have served him, and are following him, and now are going to be with him where he is.