Ghost, according to the particular articles of the christian faith; and heartily repenting of my sinful life, I do personally, absolutely, and resolvedly give up myself to him, my Creator and reconciled God and Father in Christ, my Saviour and my Sanctifier; renouncing the devil, the world, and the sinful desires of the flesh that, taking up my cross, and denying myself, I may follow Christ, the Captain of my salvation, to the death, and live with him in endless glory.

Read but our church liturgy, yea the papists' liturgies, and you will see that here is not a word but what is in the sense of baptism, and what papists, and protestants, and all Christians, are agreed on.

I pray you, Sir Elymas, read it, and tell him here whether there be any word that you except against.

El. I cannot deny it without denying Christianity. God make us all better Christians; for I perceive we are not what we promised to be. It was you that I talked against, I thought, all this while; but I begin to perceive that it is Christianity itself (in the practice, though not in the name) which my heart is against. I cannot like this godliness, and self-denying, and mortification, and cross-bearing; and yet I perceive that I vowed it, when I was baptised: and if I renounce it, I must renounce my Christianity itself. I would I had not talked with you, for you have disquieted my mind; and I find that it is serious religion itself that is against my mind and course of life, and my mind against it, and that I must be either a saint or an atheist; and which I shall prove I cannot tell. But if I must repent, there is no haste.

THE FOURTH DAY'S CONFERENCE.

The Resolving and Actual Conversion of a Sinner.

Speakers.-Paul, a Teacher; and Saul, a Learner.

PAUL. Welcome, neighbour; you have been longer away than I expected; what was the matter with you?

SAUL. O, sir, I have seen and felt the heavy hand of God since I saw you. We had a violent fever common among us, and my landlord, Sir Elymas, is dead, and so is his servant that

f Prov. iii. 18, 19.

was with him when you talked with him; and I narrowly escaped with my life myself.

I pray you tell me how he took our

P. Alas! is he dead? conference, and how he died?

S. He told me that you were too bold and saucy with him; but he thought you were an honest man, and that you had more reason for your religion than he thought any of you had : and that the truth is, you had the Scripture on your side; and while he disputed with you on Scripture principles, you were too hard for him. But though he was loth to tell you so, he liked the papists better, who set not so much by Scripture; and when a man hath sinned, if he confess to the priest, they absolve him. Yea, rather than believe that none but such godly people could be saved, and rather than live so strict a life, he would not believe that the Scripture was the word of God.

P. Alas, how the rebellious heart of man stands out against the law and grace of God! As for the papists, I assure you they confess all the Scriptures to be the word of God, and of certain truth, as well as we; and they will deny never a word of that which I persuaded you to consent to. They differ from us in this, and they take in more books into the canonical Scripture than we do; and they say, that all that is in their Scripture and ours, is not religion enough for us; but we must have a great deal more, which they call tradition. See, then, the ignorance of these men: that because they think we make them too much work, they will run to them that make them much more. Though I confess their additions consist so much in words, and ceremonies, and bodily exercise, that flesh and blood can the more easily bear it. When the papists dispute with us, they would make men believe that our religion is too loose and favoureth the flesh, and that theirs is far more strict and holy; and yet our sensualists turn papists to escape the strictness of our religion.

And as for their pardons and absolutions, I assure you, their own doctrine is, that they profit and save none but the truly penitent. And even their Gregory VII., called Hildebrand (and the firebrand of the church and empire), and that, in a council at Rome, professeth, that neither false penitence, nor false baptism, is effectual: though some of them make attrition, without contrition, or bare fear without love, to serve the turn. And if their priests do flatter the presumption and false hopes of fornicators, drunkards, and such grosser sinners, by absolving them

as oft as they confess their sin, without telling them that it is all ineffectual, unless, by true conversion, they forsake it, they do this but as a mere cheat for worldly ends; to increase their church, and win the great and wealthy of the world to themselves; quite contrary to their own knowledge and professed religion.

But as for his not believing the Scriptures: the truth is, there lieth the core of all their errors. There are abundance amongst us, that call themselves Christians, because it is the religion of the king and country, who are no Christians at the heart, which made me say so much of the hypocrisy of ungodly men. And I cannot see how a man, that truly believeth the Scripture, can quiet himself in a fleshly and ungodly life, but his belief would either convert him or torment him.

S. But I am persuaded he had some convictions upon his conscience, which troubled him. When he was taken first with the fever, they all put him in hopes that there was no danger of death; and so he was kept from talking at all of his soul, or of another world, till the fever took away his understanding; but twice or thrice he came to himself for half an hour, and Mr. Zedekiah, his chaplain, advised him to lift up his heart to God, and believe in Christ; for he was going to a place of joys, and angels were ready to receive his soul. And he looked at him with a direful countenance, and said, 'Away, flatterer! You have betrayed my soul! Too late! too late! And he trembled so that the bed shook under him.

P. And how died his servant, Malchus?

S. O, quite in another manner! He heard, in the next room, all the talk between his master and you, and, doubtless, it convinced him; but he went on in his former course of life, till g sickness took him, and then he was greatly terrified in conscience, especially when he heard that his master was dead. And he would often talk of you, and wish that he could have spoken with you; but none would endure to hear of sending for you. O! if you had but heard how he cried out toward the last: O, my madness! O, my sinful, wicked life! O, what will become of my miserable soul? O that I had the time again which I have lost! Would God but try me once again, I would lead another life than I have done; I would make nothing of all the scorns of fools, and all the temptations of the world!' His groans did strike me as a dagger at the heart: methinks I still hear them which way ever I go.

Eccl. vii. 2-6.

P. And what hath been your own condition since I saw you? And what thought you of your master's conference?

S. O, sir, I would not, for a great deal, but I had heard it. I thought, till I heard you answer him, that there had been some sense in the talk of these revilers at a godly life; but then I soon saw that it is all but a foolish scorn and railing; any scolding woman could talk as wisely. His superiority, and confidence, and contempt, was all his wisdom.

P. It is no wonder if he talk foolishly, who talketh against the God of wisdom, and his holy word, and against the interest, health, and happiness of his own soul. He that can live so far below reason as to sell his salvation for the short and swinish pleasures of sin, may talk with as little reason as he liveth.

S. But how could I be any longer in doubt, when you constrained him, in the conclusion, to yield you all the cause? P. And what course did you resolve upon, and take?

S. Alas! sir, my own naughty heart did hinder me much more than his objections did. I went home, convinced that your words were true, and that I must become a new creature, or be undone. And I perused the Baptismal Covenant which you wrote down, and the Articles of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Commandments. I studied the meaning of them, with that exposition which you gave me. My ignorance so darkened my mind, that all seemed strange and new to me, though I used to rote them over in the church from day to day. And being very unskilful in such matters myself, I went oft to my neighbour, Eusebius, as you advised me; and, I thank him, he gladly helped me to understand the words and things which were too hard for me. But when I had done all this, my worldly business took up my thoughts so, and the cares of my family were so much at my heart, and my old companions so often tempted me, and my flesh was so loth to let go all my sinful pleasures, and the matters of religion were so strange to me, that I delayed my resolution, and continued still purposing that I would shortly turn; but while I was purposing, and delaying, the fever took me. And having seen the death of Sir Elymas, and of Malchus, and then received the sentence of death in myself, God, by his terrors, did awaken me out of my delays.

P. O what an unreasonable thing is it to delay, when you are once convinced! What! delay to come out of the bondage of the devil; the guilt of sin; the flames of Sodom; the wrath

h 2 Cor. v. 17.

k

of God! If death take you in an unconverted state, you are lost for ever! What, if you had died formerly in your sin? What, if you die this night? What assurance have you to live an hour? Alas! how brittle and corruptible a thing is the body of a man! And by what a wonder of providence do we live! Is sin so good? Is the state of a sinner so safe, or comfortable, that any should be loth to leave it? Is God, and Christ, and heaven, so bad, that any should delay, and be loth to be godly? Can you be happy too soon; or too soon be a child of God; or too soon get out of the danger of damnation? Is God hateful? Is sin and misery lovely, that you are so loth to change? If sin be best, keep it still. If God and heaven be worst, never think of turning to him. But if best, do you not presently desire the best? Must Christ, and his Holy Spirit, wait on you, while you take the other cup; and stay your leisure, while you are destroying yourself? How know you, but the Spirit of God may forsake you, and leave you to your own will, and lust, and counsel; and say, 'Be hardened, and be filthy still.' What a forlorn, miserable creature would you be! Do you not know that every sin, and every delay, and every resistance of the Spirit, doth tend to the greater hardening of your heart, and making your conversion less hopeful, and more hard? Do you hope for pardon and mercy from God, or do you not? If not, desperation would begin your hell: if you do, is it ingenuous to desire to commit more of that sin, which you mean to repent that ever you committed, and to beg for pardon of from God? Dare you say, in your heart, Lord, I have abused thee, and thy Son, and Spirit, and mercy, long; I will abuse thee yet a little longer, and then I will repent, and ask forgiveness?' Do you love to spit a little longer in the face of that Saviour, and that mercy, which you must fly to, and trust too, at the last? Do you not purpose to love him, and honour him, afterward, and for ever; and yet would you a little longer despise and injure him; would you gratify and please the devil a little longer; and root, and strengthen sin a little more, before you pull it up; and kindle a greater flame in your house, before you quench it? Must you needs give yourself a few more stabs before you go to the physician? Is your life too long; and hath God given you too much time, that you are desirous to lose a little more? Are you afraid of too easy an assurance of forgiveness, that you would make it harder, and would invite despair, by sinning wil

1 Psalm lxxxi. 11, 12.

* Psalm cxix. 60.