Conversion frequently and fatally mistaken,
The Possibility and Necessity of Conversion. who was a blafphemer, a perfecutor, and injurious ? ITim. i. 13. and who, among all the servants of Christ, loved or laboured for him more than he ? How did he rather fly, than travel up and down the world, in a flame of zeal for Christ ?
As you have beenringleaders in fin, so you will not endure to come behind any in zeal and love to the Lord Jesus : Yet not thinking this way to make him a requital for the injuries you have done him ; (that would be the most injurious act of all the rest) but to testify this way the deep sense you have of the riches andtranscendency of his goodness and mercy to you, above all others.
B § IV. Conversion frequently and fatally mistaken.
UT here I must warn you of some common, but most dangerous mistakes, committed in the world, with reipect to conversion unto God: Except these be seasonably prevented, or removed, none of you will ever stir, or move further than you are towards Christ.
Amongst others, be. ware especially of these three following fatal mistakes; that of,
1. Baptismal regeneration.
2. Common profession of Christianity.
3. Formality in religious duties.
1. There is a notion spread among men, and almost every where obtaining, that the scriptures meannothingelseby conversion, but to be baptized in our infancy into the visible church ; and that this ordinance having passed upon them long ago, they are sufficiently converted already; and that men make but a needless stir and bustle in the world, about any other, or further conversion.
But, firs, I beseech you, considerhowdangerous a thing it is, to takeyourown shadow for a bridge ; and venturing upon it, drown yourselves.
If baptism be conversion enough, why doth Christ say, Mark xvi . 16. " He that believeth, and " is baptized, shall be saved ; but he thatbelieveth not, shall be
" damned ?" Baptism, without faith, signifies nothing to salvation ; but faith, without baptism, (where it cannot be had) secures salvation. And why doth the apostle say, Gal. vi. 25.
" Neither circumcision, noruncircumcifion availeth anything, " but anew creature ?" Or what needed Christ to have pressed andinculcated the indispensible neceffityofregeneration upon Nicodemus, as he doth, John iii. 3, 5, 7. who had been
! many years a circumcised Jew ? This your dangerous dependance upon your baptismal regeneration, is what hath given fuchdeepoffence, and prejudice to many (though without just
The Possibility and Necessity of Conversion.
cause) against that ordinance. I lament it as much as they, that menshouldturn it into suchadeadly snare to their own souls, yet will still honour Christ's abused ordinance.
2. Some think, the common profession of Christianity makes men Christians enough ; they are no Heathens, Mahometans,or idolatrous Papists ; but Protestants, within the pale of the true church ; that is,professed reformed Christians .
But, friends, I beg you to confider that convictive text, 1 Cor. iv. 20. " The kingdom of God is not in word, but in " power." Many there be, that in words confess Christ, but in works theydenyhim. And why were the foolish virgins
(that, is professed reformed Christians)shutoutofthe kingdom of God ; if the lamp of verbal profession,without the oil of internal godliness, were enough for our salvation ? Mat. xxv.
3, 12. Believe it, firs, many will claim acquaintance with Christ upon this account, and expect favour from him in the great day, of whom he will profess he never knew them, Mat. vii. 22. Christ need not have put men upon striving, as in an agony, to enter in at the strait gate ; if baptism in our infancy, or verbalprofeffion of Christianity, were all the difficulties men had to encounter in the way to heaven.
3. Formality in external duties of religion, is another fatal mistake of conversion.
Have not these been the inward thoughts of your hearts ? As bad as we are, though we take liberty to swear, be drunk, and unclean sometimes ; yet we fay our prayers, keep our church, and hope for heaven and salvation, as well asthosethatare more precise.
But tell me, gentlemen, seriously, what do you say, or plead foryourselves more in all this,than those convicted hypocrites did, Ifa. lviii. 2. " Yet they seek me daily, and delight to " know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and for- " fook not the ordinances of their God: They ask of me the
" ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to " God."
Or to come nearer yet to your case, and cut off, at one stroke, for ever this vain plea of yours, read and ponder
God's own censure of it, in Jer. vii. 8, 9. 10, 11 , 12. " Bes " hold,ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye
" steal, murder, commit adultery, and swear falsely, &c. and "come and stand before me in this house, which is called by
" my name, and fay, We are delivered to do all these abomi- " nations ? Is this house, which is called by my name,be- " come aden of robbers in your eyes ? Behold, even I have
" seen it, faith the Lord; but go ye now to my place, which
The Possibility and Necessity of Conversion.
" was in Shiloh,where I set my name at the first, and fee what " I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel."
Y V. Of the nature of true covers i on.
OU have heard, that conversion does not consist in these external things; at your eternal peril be it, if you trust in them : But true conversion is the turning of the whole man to God, Acts xxvi. 18. it is nothing less, than the total change of the inward temper, and frame of the heart, and the external course of the life, Ifa. lv. 8. It is not the cool confession, but the real forsaking of fin, in which we shall find mercy,
Prov. xxviii. 13. Thy heart and will,love and delight, must turn fin out, and take Christ in, or thou art no gospel-convert.
A true convert loaths every tin, and himself for fin, Ezek. xxxvi . 31. but general confessions of fin are consistent with the full dominion of fin.
Moreover, in all true conversion there is a positive turning unto God, a whole heart-choice of him, for your supreme and ultimate happiness and portion, Psal.
Ixxiii. 25. and of the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Prince and Saviour, Acts v. 31. And answerably, it will devote your whole life to his service and glory, Phil. i. 21. And thus itbringsforth the newman, and the whole frame of your heart and life is marvellously changed and altered, 2 Cor. v. 17.
" Old things are passed away, behold,all things are become " new ."
It may be, you will think such a change as this impossible to be made upon you. And so it is indeed, until the day of God's power come, Psal. cx. 3. What ! to forsake with leathing your old companions, and courses, which you have so long lived with and delighted in; and to embrace with highest pleasure, strict godliness, which you have so loathed, and ridiculed ! This would be a strange alteration indeed:
But as strange as it seems to be, it will be effected in a moment, when God fulfils that gracious promise (as I hope he is now doing) to you, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. "A new heart also will I give
" you, and a new spirit will I put within you."
Operations follow nature: When the heart of a beast was given to that great king Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. v. 21. his dwelling was with the wild asses; they fed him with grass, like oxen. But let the spirit of am an return to him again, and he'll blush to think of his brutish company, and way of life ; and so will you of yours also. As marvellous a change as this, has passed upon as eminent and notorious sinners as yourselves, Gal. i,
22. the God of the spirits of all flesh can with ease and speed