[BBC List] alarm - directions

[Mike Abendroth]

Alarm to the Unconverted

Joseph Alleine, 1671

Directions to the Unconverted
 

Before you read these directions, I advise you, yes, 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 your state; and
call in His assistance and 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 heart unto all that I shall testify unto you
this day; for it is not a vain thing-it is your life' (Deut 32:46). This is
the aim of all that has been spoken hitherto, to bring you to set your heart
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 may 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 hold open
the door to you; arise, take your flight. I set 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 yourselves headlong, when God and man cry
out to you, as Peter in another case to his Master, 'Spare yourself.'

The destruction of ungodly men is willful. God has made his people out to
them, as Paul to the jailer when about to murder himself, 'Do yourself no
harm.' [Acts 16:28] The ministers of Christ forewarn them, and follow them,
and would 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 neighbors 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.

Hear, 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 are regenerated and converted. Does He not keep the keys of
heaven, and can you go in without His permission? as you must, if ever you
go in your natural condition, without a sound and thorough conversion.

2. Labor to get a thorough sight and lively sense and feeling of your sins.

Until men are weary and heavy laden, and pricked at the heart, and quite
sick of sin, they will not come to Christ for cure, nor sincerely enquire,
'What shall we do?' [Acts 2:37] They must see themselves as dead men, before
they will come unto Christ that they may live. Labor, therefore, to set all
your sins in order before you; do not be afraid to look upon them-but let
your spirit make diligent search. Enquire 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
a 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, until your heart
and eyes are set weeping. Do not leave striving with God and your own soul,
until it cry out under the sense of your sins, as the enlightened jailer,
'What must I do to be saved?' [Acts 16:30] To this purpose,

Meditate on the NUMBER of your sins. David's heart failed 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 fill his head, his heart, his eyes
and his mouth. Look backward; where was ever the place, what was ever 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 do you ever
perform, into which this poison is not shed? Oh how great is the sum of your
debts, who ha been all your life running into debt, and never did or can pay
off one penny! Look over the sin 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 who is afraid to
look over his books. Read the records of conscience carefully. These books
must be opened sooner or later.

Meditate upon the AGGRAVATIONS of your sins, as they are the grand enemies
of the God 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 were committed! Oh the work that sin has done in the world! This
is the enemy that has brought in death; that has robbed and enslaved man,
that has turned the world upside down, and sown the dissensions between man
and the creatures, between man and man, yes, between man and himself,
setting the animal part against the rational, the will against the judgment,
lust against conscience; yes, 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? 

Sin 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 until he had bound Him, condemned Him, nailed Him,
crucified Him, and put Him to an open shame! Sin 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. Sin is the bloody
executioner that has killed the prophets, burned the martyrs, murdered all
the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the kings and potentates. Sin 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 sin 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 inquiry were made as to what heinous
murderer were guilty of all this blood, it would be all found in sin!

Study the nature of sin, until your heart incline to fear and loathe it; and
meditate on the aggravations of your particular sins, how you have sinned
against all God's warnings, against your own prayers, against mercies,
against corrections, against clearest light, against freest love, against
your own resolutions, against promises, vows, and covenants of better
obedience. Charge your heart with these things until it blush for 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 body. The least sinful word or thought lays you under the infinite
wrath of God. O 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 DEFILEMENT of sin. It is black as hell, the
very image and likeness of the devil drawn upon the soul. It would terrify
you to see yourself in the hateful deformity of your nature. There is no
mire so unclean, no plague or leprosy so detestable as 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; could you cherish it, and take delight in it? But you are
as contrary to the pure and perfect holiness of the divine nature, until you
are purified by the blood of Jesus and the power of renewing grace.

Above all other sins, consider these two.

[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 stop up the
streams, when the fountain is running which fills up all 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, until you cry out,
with Paul, against your body of death. The heart is never soundly broken
until thoroughly convinced of the heinousness of its original and
deep-rooted depravity. Here fix your thoughts; Sin 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, sin 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 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 a fountain pours forth its
waters-or the raging sea casts forth mire and dirt. 

And will you yet be in love with yourself, and tell us any longer of your
good heart? Oh never leave meditating on the desperate contagion, the
original corruption of your heart, until, with Ephraim, you bemoan yourself;
and with the deepest shame and sorrow smite on your bosom, as the publican;
and, with Job, abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes.

[2] The particular evil that you are most addicted to. Find out all 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
in the beloved sin, and singles this out, above the rest, to run it down. Oh
labor to make this sin odious to your soul, and double your guard and
resolutions against it, realize that this is most dishonoring to God and
dangerous to you.

3. Strive to affect your heart with a deep sense of your present misery.

Read over the previous chapter again and again, and get it out of the book
into your heart. Remember when you lie down, that for all you know, you may
awake in flames; and when you rise up, that by the next night you may make
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; and to live at the mercy
of every disease that, if it but fall upon you, will send you forthwith into
the 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 a one?
You are the man! This is your very case, O man, woman, who reads this, if
you are yet unconverted. What if the thread of your life should break-and
you know not but it may be the next night, yes, the next moment-where would
you be then? Where would you drop? Truly, upon the breaking of this thread,
you would fall into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where you
must lie 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 not yet begin to smite on your bosom, and
think with yourself what need you have of a change? Oh what is your heart
made of? Have you not only lost all regard to God-but all love and pity to
yourself?

O study your misery until 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
sickness-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. 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 the 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 outside of yourself and away
from your own doings for help.

Do not think your praying, reading, hearing, confessing or amending, will
effect the cure. These must be attended to-but you are undone if you rest in
them. You are a lost man if you hope to escape drowning on any other plank
but Jesus Christ! 

You must 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 your gain to be but loss, your strength but weakness, your
righteousness to be but rags and rottenness, before there will be an
effectual closure between Christ and you. Can the lifeless body shake off
its grave-clothes, and unloose the cords of death? Then may you recover
yourself, who are dead in trespasses and sins, and under an impossibility of
serving your Maker 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 not neglect duty. While the eunuch was reading, then the Holy Spirit
did send Philip to him. When the disciples were praying, when Cornelius and
his friends were hearing, then the Holy Spirit fell upon and filled them
all.

5. Henceforth renounce all your sins.

If you yield yourself to the practice of any sin, you are undone. In vain do
you hope for life by Christ, except 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 with heaven.
Keep not Delilah 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 but a little, 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 it
not be dearly bought?

O sinner, hear and consider. If you will part with your sins, God will give
you His Christ. Is not this 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 love darkness rather than light. Search your
heart therefore with candles, as the Jews did their houses for leaven before
the Passover. Labor 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 darts 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 with
them? They will flatter you-but they will undo you and poison you while they
please you, and arm the justice and wrath of the infinite God against you.
They will open hell for you, and pile up fuel to burn you. Behold the gibbet
that they have prepared for you. O treat them like Haman, and do upon them
the execution 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, take 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 excellencies and perfections, on the other; and see that you do
deliberately make your choice. Take up your rest in God. Sit down 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 and exceeding great reward. God alone is more than all the
world; content yourself with Him. Let others possess the preferments and
glory of the world; but you must 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; yet 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, reputation. Let these be pulled from
their throne, and set God's interest uppermost in your heart. 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.

[1] In all His personal relations. God the FATHER must be taken for your
Father. O come to Him with the prodigal: 'Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in your sight, and am not worthy to be called your son' [Luke
15:21]; but since of Your wonderful mercy You are pleased to take me, that
am of myself most vile, even a beast and no man before You-to be Your child,
I solemnly take You for my Father, commend myself to Your care, and trust to
Your providence, and cast my burden on You. I depend on Your provision, and
submit to Your corrections, and trust under the shadow of Your wings, and
hide in Your chambers, and fly to Your name. I renounce all confidence in
myself; I repose my confidence in You. I declare my engagement with You; I
will be for You, and not for another.'

God the SON must be taken for your Savior, your Redeemer, and your
Righteousness. He must be accepted, as the only way to the Father, and the
only means of life. O then put off the raiment of your captivity, put on the
wedding garment, and go and marry yourself to Christ. 'Lord, I am Yours, and
all I have, my body, soul, and estate. I give my heart to You; I will be
Yours undividedly, Yours everlastingly. I will set Your name on all I have,
and use it only as Your goods, during Your absence, resigning all to You. I
will have no king but You to reign over me. Other lords have had dominion
over me; but now I will make mention of Your name only, and do here take an
oath of fidelity to You, promising to serve and fear You above all
competitors. I reject my own righteousness, and despair of ever being
pardoned and saved for my own duties or graces, and lean solely on Your
all-sufficient sacrifice and intercession for pardon, life, and acceptance
before God. I take You for my only Guide and Instructor, resolving to be
directed by You, and to wait for Your counsel.'

Lastly, God the SPIRIT must be taken for your Sanctifier, for your Advocate,
your Counselor, your Comforter, the Teacher of your ignorance, the Pledge of
your inheritance. 'Awake, you North wind, and come, you South wind-and blow
upon my garden' (Song 4:16). 'Come, Spirit of the Most High; here is a
temple for You; do You rest here forever; dwell here. Lo, I give possession
to You, full possession; I send You the keys of my heart, that all may be
Yours. I give up the use of all to You, that every faculty and every member
may be Your instrument to work righteousness and do the will of my Father
who is in heaven.'

[2] 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 men: The Lord will be
your God, if you will but close with Him in His excellencies. Will you have
the merciful, the gracious, the sin-pardoning God to be your God? 'O 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 your
iniquities, be they ever so dear, ever so natural, ever so necessary to the
maintaining of your worldly interest. Unless you will be at enmity with sin,
I cannot be your God. Cast out the leaven. Put away the evil of your doings;
cease to do evil; learn to do well. Bring forth My enemies-or there is no
peace to be had with Me.' What does your heart answer? 

'Lord, I desire to be holy as You are holy, and to be made partaker of Your
holiness. I love You, not only for Your goodness and mercy-but for Your
holiness and purity. I take Your holiness for my happiness. O be to me a
fountain of holiness. Set on me the stamp and impress of Your holiness. I
will thankfully part with all my sins at Your command. My wilful sins I do
henceforth forsake; and for my infirmities that cleave unto me, though I
would 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 honor my all-sufficiency? Will you take Me as your happiness and
treasure, your hope and bliss? I am a sun and a 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 fleshpots 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
had rather take up with the earth below, if God would but let you keep it as
long as you would? This is a fearful sign. But now, if you are willing to
sell all for the Pearl of great price; if your heart answers, 'Lord, I
desire no other portion but You. Take the grain and the wine and the oil who
will-just so that I may have the light of Your countenance. I fix upon You
for my happiness; I gladly venture myself on You, and trust myself with You.
I set my hope in You; I take up my rest with You. Let me hear You say, "I am
your God, your salvation," and I have enough, all I wish for. I will make no
terms with You but for Yourself. Let me have You for sure, let me be able to
make my claim and see my title to Yourself; and for other things, I leave
them to You. Give me more or less, anything or nothing; I will be satisfied
in my God.' Take Him thus, and He is your own.

Again, He tells you, 'I am the sovereign Lord; if you will have Me for your
God you must give Me the supremacy. You must not make Me second to sin or
any worldly interest. If you will be My people I must have the rule over
you; you must not live at your pleasure. 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 had rather be at Your
command than live at my own will. I had rather have Your will to be done
than mine. I approve of and consent to Your laws, and account it my
privilege to be under them. And though the flesh rebels, and often break its
bounds, I have resolved to take no other Lord but You. I willingly take the
oath of Your supremacy, and acknowledge You for my Sovereign, and resolve
all my days to pay the tribute of worship, obedience, love, and service to
You, and to live to You 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 on My faithfulness, and take My bond for your
security? Will you be content to follow Me in poverty, and reproach, and
affliction here; and to tarry until the next world for your preferment? Will
you be content to labor 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?' 

Now, beloved, what do you say to this? Will you have this God for your God?
Will you be content to live by faith, and trust Him for an unseen happiness,
an unseen heaven, an unseen glory? Do your hearts answer, 'Lord, we will
venture ourselves upon You. We commit ourselves to You, we cast ourselves
upon You. We know whom we have trusted. We are willing to take Your word; we
prefer Your promises before our own possessions, and the hopes of heaven
before all the enjoyments of earth. We will do Your pleasure-what You will
here, so that we may have but Your 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 excellencies. But when men close with His mercy-but yet 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 and sound conversion. 

7. Accept the Lord Jesus 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 offers 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 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 never cast you out. Yes, He beseeches you to be reconciled.
He cries in the streets; He knocks at your door. He invites you to accept
Him, and live with Him. If you die, it is because you would not come to Him
for life (Isa 45:22; John 6:37; 2 Cor 5:20; Prov 1:20; Rev 3:20; John 5:40).

Accept an offered 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 unto life. Here lies the main
point of your salvation, that you are found in your covenant-closure with
Jesus Christ; and therefore, if you love yourself, see that you be faithful
to God and your 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 Cor 8:5). 'Present your bodies
a living sacrifice' (Rom 12:1). 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 your faculties are given up to Him. Your
judgment says, 'Lord, You are worthy of all acceptance, Chief of ten
thousand: happy is the man who finds You. All the things that are to be
desired are not to be compared with You' (Prov 3:13-15). 

The understanding lays aside its corrupt reasonings and cavils, and its
prejudices against Christ and His ways. It is now past questioning, and
determines for Christ against all the world. It concludes it is good to be
here, and sees such a treasure in this field, such a value in this pearl, as
is worth all (Matt 13:44-46). 'O here is the richest prize that ever man was
offered; here is the most sovereign remedy that ever mercy prepared. He is
worthy of my esteem, worthy of my choice, worthy of my love, worthy to be
embraced, adored, admired, for evermore (Rev 5:12). 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, Your love has overcome me, You have won me, and You shall
have me. Come in, Lord; to You I freely open; I consent to be saved in Your
own way. You shall have anything-nay, have all, let me have but You. 

The memory gives up to Christ: 'Lord, here is a storehouse for You: out with
the trash: lay in the treasures. Let me be a repository of Your truth, Your
promises, Your providences.' 

The conscience comes in: 'Lord, I will ever side with You: I will be Your
faithful registrar. I will warn when the sinner is tempted, and smite when
You are offended. I will witness for You, and judge for You, and guide into
Your ways, and will never let sin have quiet in this soul.' The affections
also come to Christ: 'O,' says Love, 'I am sick for You.' 

'O,' says Desire, 'now I have what I sought for. Here is the Desire of
nations; here is bread for me, and balm for me: all that I want.' 

Fear bows the knee with awe and veneration: 'Welcome, Lord, to You will I
pay my homage. Your Word and rod shall command my actions; You will I
reverence and adore; before You will I fall down and worship.' 

Grief likewise puts in: 'Lord, Your displeasure and Your dishonor, Your
people's calamities and my own iniquities, shall be what shall set me
a-weeping. I will mourn when You are offended; I will weep when Your cause
is wounded.' 

Anger likewise comes in for Christ: 'Lord, nothing so enrages me as my folly
against You, that I should be so besotted as to hearken to the flatteries of
sin and the temptations of Satan against You.' 

Hatred, too, will side with Christ: 'I protest mortal enmity to Your
enemies, that I will never be a friend to Your 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 you keep back from Christ, it will be your undoing (Luke 14:33). Unless
you will forsake all, in preparation and resolution of your heart, you
cannot be His disciple. You must hate father and mother, yes, and your own
life also, in comparison with Him, and as far as it stands in competition
with Him. In a word, you must give Him yourself, and 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. 

1. You must choose them all, there is no getting to heaven by a partial
obedience. It is not enough to take up the cheap and easy part of religion,
and let alone the duties that are costly and self-denying, and oppose the
interests of the flesh; you must take all or none. A sincere convert, though
he makes conscience of the greatest sins and weightiest 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
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 be of the religion of the
times. 'I have stuck to your testimonies; I have inclined my heart to
perform your statutes always, even to the end. Your testimonies have I taken
as a heritage forever. I will have respect to your statutes continually'
(Psalm 119:31,112,117). 

3. This must be done deliberately and understandingly. The disobedient son
said, 'I go, sir,' but he went not. How fairly did they promise, 'All that
the Lord our God shall speak unto you 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 (Deut 5:27,29).

If you would be sincere in closing with the laws and the ways of Christ,
study the meaning, and breadth, and extent of them. Remember that they are
spiritual; 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 strait 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 'your commandment is exceeding
broad' (Psalm 119:96).

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 crosses their inclination, they will not obey (Jer 42:1-6; Jer
43:2). 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 to be required of
you, and to set against every sin that you find to be forbidden? This is the
way to be sound in God's statutes, that you may never be ashamed (Psalm
119:80).

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 forgo 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 a
transaction of so high importance. Lay hold on the covenant of God, and rely
on His promise of giving grace and strength, by which you may be enabled to
perform your promise. Do not trust to your own strength, 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 the 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 Your Son, I beseech You accept Your
poor prodigal now prostrating himself at Your door. I have fallen from You
by my iniquity, and am by nature a son of death, and a thousand-fold more
the child of hell by wicked practice. But of Your infinite grace You have
promised mercy to me in Christ, if I will but turn to You with all my heart.
Therefore, upon the call of Your gospel, I am now come in, and throwing down
my weapons, submit myself to Your mercy. And because You require, as the
condition of my peace with You, that I should put away my idols, and be at
defiance with all Your enemies, which I acknowledge I have wickedly sided
with against You, I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all,
firmly covenanting with You, not to allow myself in any known sin-but
conscientiously to use all the means that I know You have prescribed for the
death and utter destruction of all my corruptions. 

'And whereas formerly I have inordinately and idolatrously set my affections
upon the world, I do here resign my heart to You who made it, humbly
declaring before Your glorious Majesty, that it is the firm resolution of my
heart, and that I do sincerely desire grace from You, that when You shall
call me hereunto, I may practice this my resolution through Your assistance,
to forsake all that is dear unto me in this world, rather than to turn from
You to the ways of sin; and that I will watch against all its temptations,
whether of prosperity or adversity, lest they should withdraw my heart from
You. I beseech You also to help me against the temptations of Satan, to
whose wicked suggestions I resolve by Your grace never to yield myself a
servant. And because my 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.

'And forasmuch as You have of Your bottomless mercy offered most graciously
to me, a wretched sinner, to be again my God through Christ, if I would
accept You; I call upon heaven and earth to record this day, that I do here
solemnly avouch You for the Lord my God, and with all possible veneration,
bowing the neck of my soul under the feet of Your most sacred Majesty, I do
here take You the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for my portion
and chief good, and do give myself, body and soul, to be Your servant,
promising and vowing to serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days
of my life. 

'And since You have appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming
unto You, I do here solemnly join myself in a marriage covenant to Him.

'O Blessed Jesus, I come to You hungry and thirsty, poor and wretched,
miserable, blind and naked, a most loathsome polluted wretch, a guilty
condemned criminal, 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 Your
unparalleled love, I do here with all my power accept You, and do take You
for my Head and Husband, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for
all times and conditions, to love, honor and obey You before all others, and
this to the death. I embrace You in all Your offices. I renounce my own
worthiness, and do here avow You to be the Lord my Righteousness. I renounce
my own wisdom, and do here take You for my only Guide. I renounce my own
will, and take Your will for my law.

'And since You have told me that I must suffer if I will reign, I do here
covenant with You to take my lot, as it falls, with You, and by Your grace
assisting to run all hazards with You, truly supposing that neither life nor
death shall part between You and me.

'And because You have been pleased to give me Your holy laws, as the rule of
my life, and the way in which I should walk to Your kingdom, I do here
willingly put my neck under Your yoke, and set my shoulder to Your burden;
and subscribing to all Your laws as holy, just, and good, I solemnly take
them as the rule of my words, thoughts, and actions; promising that though
my flesh contradict and rebel-yet I will endeavor to order and govern my
whole life to Your 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 humbly to request, that unintentional shortcomings,
contrary to the settled bent and resolution of my heart, shall not make void
this covenant, for so You have said.

'Now, Almighty God, Searcher of hearts, You know that I make this covenant
with You this day, without any known guile or reservation, beseeching You,
that if You espy any flaw or falsehood therein, You would reveal it to me,
and help me to do it aright.

'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 You for finding out such a way
for the recovery of undone sinners. Glory be to You, O God the Son, who have
loved me and washed me from my sins in Your own blood, and are now become my
Savior and Redeemer. Glory be to You, O God the Holy Spirit, who by the
finger of Your almighty power, has turned about my heart from sin to God.

'O high and holy Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, You are now become my covenant Friend, and I through Your infinite
grace am become Your 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; not only
in word-but in writing; and that you would 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 it and sign
it. Keep it as a memorial of the solemn transactions that have passed
between God and you, that you may have recourse to it in doubts and
temptations.

11. Take heed of delaying your conversion-but make a speedy, an immediate
surrender of your heart to God.

'I made haste, and delayed not' (Psalm 119:60). Remember and tremble at the
sad instance of the foolish virgins who did not come until the door of mercy
was shut, and of a convinced Felix who put off Paul to another season-but we
do not find that he had another season. O come in while it is called today,
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 opportunity for the buying. Now Christ is to be had for the
taking. Oh! strike in with the offers of grace. Oh! now-or never. If you
make light of this offer, God may swear in His wrath that you shall never
taste of His supper (Luke 14:24).

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 you hear with this thought: 'O I 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. O let it be said that this day such a
one was born unto You.'

Objection. You will say, I have been a hearer of the Word a long time-yet it
has not been effectual to my conversion.

Answer. Yes; but you have not attended upon it in this manner, as a means of
your conversion, nor with this design, nor praying for and expecting the
happy effect from it.

13. Strike in with the Spirit when He begins to work upon your heart.

When He works convictions, O do not stifle them-but join in with Him, and
beg the Lord to give you saving conversion. 'Quench not the Spirit.' [1
Thess 5:19] 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 sin and fears about your eternal state, beg of God that you
may have peace only in thoroughly renouncing all 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 lifeblood of my sins.' Thus yield yourself
to the working of the Spirit, and hoist your sails to His gusts.

14. Set upon the constant and diligent use of serious and fervent prayer.

He who neglects prayer is a profane and unsanctified sinner. He who 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 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 to worship God with you. Woe be unto you, if you be
found among the families that call not upon God's name (Jer 10:25). But cold
and lifeless devotions will not reach halfway to heaven. Be fervent and
importunate. Importunity will carry it; without violence the kingdom of
heaven will not be taken. You must strive to enter, and wrestle with tears
and supplications as 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 until I have grace; I will never cease
earnestly pleading, and striving with God and my own heart, until He renews
me by the power of His grace.'

15. Forsake your evil company, and forbear the occasions of sin.

You will never be turned from sin until you decline and forego the
temptations of sin. I never expect your conversion from sin, unless you are
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. When 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. O what hopeful beginnings have these often
stifled! O the souls, the estates, the families, the towns, that these have
ruined! 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 for you, except you
shake off your evil company. Your life depends upon it: forsake this-or you
cannot live. Will you be worse than the donkey of Balaam, to run on when you
see the Lord with a drawn sword in the way? Let this sentence be written in
capitals upon your conscience, 'A companion of fools shall be destroyed!'
(Prov 13:20). 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 in
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 Spirit: 'My son, if sinners entice you-do not consent. If they say,
Come with us, cast in your lot among us; walk not in the way with them,
refrain your 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 own blood, they lurk privily
for their own lives' (Prov 1:10-19; Prov 4:15-19). 

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' (Num 16:26). O flee from them as
you would those that had the plague-sores running in their foreheads. These
are the devil's pimps 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 sins and miseries upon your heart.

Read over a thorough exposition of the Commandments, and write down the
duties omitted, and sins committed by you against every commandment, and so
make a catalogue of your sins, and with shame and sorrow spread them before
the Lord. And 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 you mercy 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 excuse will you have, if you should perish at last
through very wilfulness, when you have known the way of life? I do not fear
your miscarrying, if your own idleness does not at last undo you, in
neglecting the use of the means that are so plainly here 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! wretched man that I am! What a condition have I brought myself into by
sin! Oh! I 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 You than the most hateful venom or repulsive carcass can be to me. Oh!
what a hell of sin is in this heart of mine, which I have flattered myself
to be 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 aversion from, and an enmity
against anything that is good; and 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 from it! Oh the load of guilt
that is on my soul! My head is full, and my heart is full; my mind and my
members, they are all full of sin. Oh 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, yes, ten thousand times ten thousand.
How endless then is the sum of all my debts! If this whole world were filled
up from earth to heaven with paper, and all this paper written over within
and without by arithmeticians-yet, when all were added up, it would come
inconceivably short of what I owe to the least of God's commandments. Woe
unto me, for my debts are infinite, and my sins are increased. They are
wrongs to an infinite Majesty, and if he who commits treason against an
earthly king is worthy to be racked, drawn and quartered; what have I
deserved that have so often lifted up my hand against Heaven, and have
struck at the crown and dignity of the Almighty?

Oh my sins! my sins! Behold, a troop comes! Multitudes! multitudes! there is
numbering of their armies. Innumerable evils have compassed me about; my
iniquities have taken hold upon me; they have set themselves against me. Oh!
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
behind and before; they swarm within me and without me; they have possessed
all my powers, and have fortified my unhappy soul as a garrison, which this
brood of hell mans and maintains against the God who made me.

And they are as mighty as they are many. The sands are many-but then they
are not great: the mountains great but then they are not many. But woe is
me, my sins are as many as the sands, and as mighty as the mountains! Their
weight is greater than their number. It were better that the rocks and the
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 balance 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 balance against all the isles of the
earth. O Lord, You know 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: now, a lump of filthiness, a coffin of
rottenness, replenished with stench 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 that you shall be called by is
'Ichabod'-or, 'Where is the glory?' How are you come down mightily! My
beauty is turned into deformity, and my glory into shame. Lord, what a
loathsome leper am I! 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 a state I am in!
Sold under sin, cast out of God's favor, 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 on me from above, hell gaping for me beneath, conscience smiting
me within, temptations and dangers surrounding 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 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 to the flames, for a little ale-or a
little ease, for 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 no help? No hope? None, except I turn. Why-but is there
any remedy for such woeful misery? Any mercy after such provoking iniquity?
Yes: as sure as God's oath is true, I shall have pardon and mercy yet, if I
presently, sincerely, and unreservedly turn by Christ to Him.

Why then, I thank You upon the bended knees of my soul, O most merciful
Jehovah, that Your patience has waited for me hitherto; for had You taken me
away in this state, I had perished forever. And now I adore Your grace, and
accept the offers of Your mercy, I renounce all my sins, and resolve by Your
grace to set myself against them, and to follow You in holiness and
righteousness all the days of my life.

Who am I, Lord, that I should make any claim to You-or have any part or
portion in You, who am not worthy to lick up the dust of Your feet? Yet
since You hold forth the golden scepter, I am bold to come and touch. To
despair would be to disparage Your mercy; and to stand off when You bid me
come, would be at once to undo myself and rebel against You under pretense
of humility. Therefore I bow my soul unto You, and with all possible
thankfulness accept You as mine, and give up myself to You as Your. You
shall be Sovereign over me, my King, and my God. You shall be on the throne,
and all my powers shall bow to You, they shall come and worship before Your
feet. You shall be my portion, O Lord, and I will rest in You.

You call for my heart. Oh that it were any way fit for Your acceptance! I am
unworthy, O Lord, everlastingly unworthy to be Yours. But since You will
have it so, I freely give my heart to You. Take it, it is Yours. Oh that it
were better! But Lord, I put it into Your hands-who alone can mend it. Mold
it after Your own heart; make it as You would have it, holy, humble,
heavenly, soft, tender, flexible-and write Your law upon it.

Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Enter in triumphantly. Take me up for
Yourself forever. I give myself to You, I come to You, 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 You is my help. Save, Lord-or else I perish. I
come to You, with the rope about my neck. I am worthy to die and to be
damned. Never was the pay more due to the laborer; than death and hell, my
just wages, are due to me for my sins. But I fly to Your merits; I trust
alone to the value and virtue of Your sacrifice, and prevalence of Your
intercession. I submit to Your teaching, I make choice of Your government.
Stand open, O everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may enter in.

O You Spirit of the Most High, the Comforter and Sanctifier of Your chosen,
come in with all Your glorious train, all Your courtly attendants-Your
fruits and graces. Let me be Your habitation. I can give You but what is
Your own already; but here with the widow I give my two mites, my soul and
my body, into Your treasury, fully resigning them up to You, to be
sanctified by You, to be servants to You. They shall be Your patients-cure
their maladies. They shall be Your agents-govern You 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 Your dictates and directions, and
guided by Your counsel.

O blessed Trinity, O glorious Unity, I deliver myself up to You. Receive me:
write Your name, O Lord, upon me, and upon all that I have, as Your proper
goods. Set Your mark upon me, upon every member of my body, and every
faculty of my soul. I have chosen Your precepts. Your 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 Your grace to walk: after this
law shall my whole man be governed. And though I cannot perfectly keep one
of Your commandments-yet I will allow myself in the breach of none. I know
my flesh will hang back: but I resolve, in the power of Your grace, to
cleave to You and Your holy ways, whatever it cost me. I am sure I cannot
come off a loser by You: and therefore I will be content with reproach, and
difficulties and hardships here, and will deny myself, and take up Your
cross, and follow You. Lord Jesus, Your yoke is easy, Your cross is welcome,
as it is the way to You. I lay aside all hopes of a worldly happiness. I
will be content to tarry until I come to You. Let me be poor and low, little
and despised here, so I may be but admitted to live and reign with You
hereafter. Lord, You have my heart and hand to this agreement. Be it as the
laws of the Medes and Persians, never to be reversed. To this I will stand:
in this resolution, by Your grace, I will live and die. I have sworn, and
will perform it, that I will keep Your righteous judgments. I have given my
free consent, I have made my everlasting choice. Lord Jesus, confirm the
contract. Amen.

 

Thanks.

 

For the King's honor,

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

 

Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a| 

 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

"Faith is not our physician; it only brings us to the Physician ... Faith is
not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on
Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us;
that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for
our sins.  It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a
sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can
pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It
brings us to the cross, . but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.
Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor
the sacrifice; . Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between
itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgment that the cross alone saves,
and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross, nor to its healing
virtue. It owns the fulness, and sufficiency, and suitableness of the work
done there, and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter
into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see
the glorious spectacle of all things done, and to accept this completion
without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the "It is finished!"
of the Sin-bearer, and says, "Amen."   

NOT FAITH, BUT CHRIST 

by Horatius Bonar 
(1808-1889) 

 

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