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THE 
 
 GREAT CHANGE: 
 
 TREATISE ON CONVERSION 
 
 BT 
 
 GEORGE REDFORD, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 WITH 
 
 :3ln Introbttctlon, 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN ANGELL JAMES, D.D. 
 
 REVISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOl. UNIOV. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 >o. 146 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
[The following treatise was prepared for the press of 
 the London Religious Tract Society, and is reprinted by the 
 American Sunday-school Union, from proof-sheets kindly 
 forwarded by our trans- Atlantic friends. 
 
 It is a plain, solemn, scriptural illustration of one of 
 the most important truths of the Christian faith, and will 
 be found eminently calculated to dissipate false hopes, to 
 guard the inquirer after salvation against fatal mistakes, 
 and to guide him into the strait and narrow way that leads 
 to life everlasting.] 
 
 Ehtered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1&43, by Her- 
 man Cope, Treasurer, in ti;ust for the American Sunday-school Union, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 IsTBODrcTiox by the Rev. J. A. James 5 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ON COXVEnSIOK. 
 
 Preliminary Address to the Reader 15 
 
 Chapt3er I. Conversion explained 19 
 
 II. The Importance and Necessity of Con- 
 version enforced 26 
 
 III. The State of the Unconverted 33 
 
 IV. The Means which God has appointed, 
 
 and ordinarily employs, in the Con- 
 version of Sinners 43 
 
 V. The Possibility of your Conversion 63 
 
 VI. Reasons why you have never yet been 
 
 converted 78 
 
 VII. Reasons why your Conversion should 
 
 take place now 97 
 
 VIII. The Promise of Converting Grace 105 
 
 IX. The Marks of Conversion 114 
 
 PART II. 
 
 PARTICULAR CASES COXSIDERED OF THOSE THAT NEED 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 I. The Unbeliever and Caviller 124 
 
 II. The Undecided 143 
 
 III. The Mistaken 149 
 
 IV. The Self-sufficient 155 
 
 V. The Worldling 160 
 
 VI. The Delayer 164 
 
 VII. The Careless 168 
 
 VIII. The Hopeless 172 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Reader, whoever you are whose eye shall read these 
 pages, you have, indeed, just cause for anxiety, whether 
 you feel it or not. Did you ever, in serious moments, 
 and in a serious manner, ask such questions as these : 
 ^*What am I? Whence came I? Who sent me here ? What 
 is my business in this world? What is to become of me when 
 I go hence ?" If not, why not? To say nothing' of religion, 
 does not reason press such inquiries on your attention ? 
 You find yourself in existence, possessing a rational 
 soul. You know you cannot remain here long, and must 
 soon lie down in the grave with your forefathers ; but 
 does your history end there 1 Is there no world beyond 
 the tomb 1 There is : reason suggests it ; revelation 
 proves it. Yes ; you are not only mortal, but immortal. 
 Immortality! What a word! What a thing! Did you 
 ever revolve it? A deathless creature, an everlasting 
 existence ! Such is your soul. You are ever walking 
 on the precipice of eternity, and any moment — the next, 
 for aught you can tell — you may fall over it. Eternal 
 duration alone, apart from the consideration whether it 
 is to be spent in torment or in bliss, is an awful idea. 
 You are to live somewhere forever. Should this matter 
 be allowed to lie forgotten among the thousand uncon- 
 sidered subjects ? Should it be treated with indifference, 
 excite no reflection, produce no anxiety ? How can you 
 help being anxious? Ought you not to be anxious? 
 Going on, step by step, to eternity, should you not 
 pause, ponder, and say, "Whither am I tending?" The 
 rational course is, either to disprove your immortality, 
 or seriously to reflect upon it : either to persuade your- 
 self that, though you live as a man, you shall die as a 
 brute, 01 else to act as an immortal being : either to pro- 
 1* 5 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fess the gloomy negation of atheism, or else prepare for 
 everlasting existence. The careless infidel is more con- 
 sistent than the unanxious nominal believer in revela- 
 tion. For a man to express his belief that he is immortal, 
 and yet to care nothing about immortality, is the most 
 monstrous inconsistency. Ought you not to be anxious ? 
 But this is not all. Consider your history ,• look back 
 upon your past life ; pry into your heart ; examine your- 
 self. Would not reason, even if there were no Bible, 
 discover to you much in your conduct that you must 
 condemn. Admitting there is a God — and you believe 
 there is — does not conscience tell you of many duties 
 omitted, and many sins committed ? This is discerned 
 by the dim taper of your own reason; but let in the 
 broad daylight, the bright sunshine of divine revela- 
 tion, and then what alarming defects, what appalling 
 transgressions are seen ! Think of a God so holy that 
 the heavens are unclean before him, and his angels 
 charged with folly ; a law so perfect that a sinful feel- 
 ing violates its precept and incurs its penalty: what, 
 then, must be your sinfulness in the sight of God ! Try 
 yourself, not by your own self-love, nor by man's erring 
 judgment, nor by the opinions of flattering companions, 
 but by the infallible standard of God's holy word ; and 
 from such an ordeal you must return with the awful 
 declaration sounding in your ears, "Thou art weighed 
 in the balances, and art found wanting." It is not hyper- 
 bole, but sober truth, to say that your sins are more in 
 number than the hairs of your head. If there had been 
 but one sin in all your life, there would have been just 
 cause for solicitude. That one sin should break your 
 peace, disturb your sleep, and imbitter your enjoyments, 
 by the solicitude it awakened, till there was reason to 
 hope it was forgiven. That one sin would bring upon 
 you the condemnation of God's righteous law, and would 
 be a cause of more just anxiety than the discovery of the 
 most fearful diseases in your body, or the greatest losses 
 of your property. "What, then, should be the solicitude 
 awakened by sins innumerable, committed in childhood, 
 youth, and manhood, against God and man, in opposition 
 to reason and conscience, in despite of the Holy Scrip- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 tures, and the remonstrances of ministers and friends'? 
 What! going on to eternity with all this load of sin 
 upon the conscience, and yet without solicitude] 
 
 Consider your mortality ! Your breath is in your 
 nostrils. Ynu are not certain of another moment. The 
 concerns of your immortal soul, the means of grace, the 
 opportunities of salvation, the interests of eternity, ever 
 hang on the passing instant, are all suspended upon the 
 brittle thread of human life, and are dependent upon the 
 frail tenure of a beating pulse. You know not that your 
 term of existence is long enough to enable you to read 
 through this book. Now, if death, which is ever follow- 
 ing after you, were the end of your existence, tiiere would 
 be no room for anxiety : at any rate none for the anxiety 
 which prompts to preparation ; whatever reason there 
 would be for dread and dismay. But death is not the 
 end, it is but the gate into eternity. "It is appointed 
 unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." 
 Annihilation would be fearful enough : to plunge into 
 the gulf of oblivion, to cease to be forever, how horri- 
 ble ! But how much more horrible eternal consciousness, 
 attended with eternal torment ! Did you ever weigh the 
 import of that most awful of all words, hell? Death is 
 a terrific monosyllable : from the cold touch of this last 
 enemy all sentient beings recoil with horror. But death 
 is only as the dark, heavy, iron-covered door of the pri- 
 son, which opens to, while it conceals, the sights and 
 sounds of the dungeon. 0, that first moment after 
 death! What disclosures, what scenes, what feelings 
 come with that moment! And that moment must come, 
 — may come soon. Should you not be anxious ? 
 
 Your want of anxiety^ if you are really wUhouf il^ is a 
 proof of your want of religion, and of all raeetness for 
 eternity. A religion without anxiety is no religion at 
 all. It is impossible to be saved without being anxious 
 to be saved : solicitude to be saved is the first step 
 towards salvation. It might as soon be conceived that 
 a man could be saved in his sins, as in his carelessness 
 and indifference. The first and most natural inquiry of 
 every one who is really in earnest about his soul, is, 
 "What shall I do to be saved?" What intense 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 solicitude is breathed in that most solemn inquiry ! Can 
 any man know how holy God is, how strict the law is, 
 how evil a thing sin is, how great a blessing salvation 
 is, how glorious heaven is, how dreadful hell is, and 
 how awful eternity is, and not, if his mind is really and 
 seriously directed to these subjects, be anxious 1 It 
 were more rational to imagine a man could have his 
 property, his liberty, his life hanging in suspense, and 
 yet feel no solicitude, than to be truly religious, and yet 
 have no anxiety about his soul. The concern of some, 
 who have been awakened to serious reflection, has been 
 so great, that it has for a while disordered their intellect. 
 This is excessive, and has arisen from want of clear 
 knowledge of what can relieve their solicitude. But 
 there never yet was one who was truly saved, who did 
 not bear with him along the road to glory the burden, 
 though not an unrelieved one, of a deep solicitude about 
 his eternal welfare. 
 
 The anxiety of others on your behalf ought to make you 
 anxious for yourself. It would be improper, except in 
 the same figurative sense as pity and other emotions are 
 ascribed to God in the Scripture, to ascribe anxiety to 
 him ; but in this sense we may. God is solicitous about 
 you ; he has looked upon your soul, and its fallen state, 
 with deep and infinite concern ; his divine compassion 
 has yearned over you ; he has felt such anxiety for you, 
 as to send his Son to die upon the cross for you, his 
 Spirit to renew and sanctify you, his Bible to instruct 
 you, and his ministers to warn you. Jesus Christ has 
 been so anxious for you, that he has actually died for 
 you upon the cross, and commissioned his servants to 
 make known to you his love. The Spirit is anxious for 
 you, and is ever striving with you in the Bible, and your 
 conscience. Angels are anxious for you, and are waiting 
 to become ministering spirits to your salvation. Devils 
 are anxious to prevent your eternal happiness ; which 
 shows the greatness of your danger, and the just ground 
 you have for alarm. Ministers are anxious for you, and 
 labour and pray and preach for your conversion. Your 
 parents, if pious, are anxious for you, and are supplicat- 
 ing, amidst tears and waiting and watching, for your 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 salvation. Friends are anxious for you, and are writing 
 and talking to you about your soul's concerns. The 
 church of God is anxious for you, and is interceding for 
 you with the God of all grace; — and you, you only, are 
 without anxiety. Is not this surf)rising and affecting, 
 that you alone should be indifferent to your salvation ; 
 that you should remain torpid and careless at the centre 
 of this universal and deep solicitude. 
 
 Your very want nf solicitude should he a cause of anxiety 
 to you. You must be convinced that there is ground for 
 it. You cannot be so utterly ignorant of the nature, im- 
 portance, and claims of religion, as not to know that 
 there is much in it both calculated and designed to pro- 
 duce a serious thoughtfulness. There have been mo- 
 ments, one would think, when the subject would force 
 itself upon your attention, as one pre-eminently deserving 
 the consideration of a rational and immortal creature; 
 when, by some alarming sermon, or by some impressive 
 event, or by some faithful warning, it would speak to 
 you as a messenger from heaven, and with the voice cf 
 God ; when an incipient pensiveness was stealing over 
 the soul, and filling the whole field of vision with the 
 realities of eternity. But your earthly-mindedness soon 
 suppressed all this; the transient thoughtfulness sub- 
 sided, and the current of your volatility, arrested for a 
 short season, flowed onward in its course with its usual 
 impetuosity, and you are now as far from any thing seri- 
 ous as ever. Astounding spectacle ! A rational crea- 
 ture, anxious about a thousand things, yet not anxious 
 about the soul ! Agitated, perplexed, inquisitive about 
 little matters of a mere passing interest, w^hich the next 
 day will be forgotten ; and yet neglecting that great 
 subject, which swallows them all up, as the ocean does 
 the drops of rain that fall upon it. Your health, your 
 property, your prospects, your friends, any thing, every 
 thing, but your soul, and your soul's salvation, seizes 
 and carries you away I So that you see you can be seri- 
 ous. You cannot plead in excuse for yourself any na- 
 tural inability, any paralysis of the powers of the mind, 
 any utter incompetency for being occupied w4th such 
 matters. Nor can you offer in defence of yourself the 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 excuse, that anxiety would be unavailing, that it would 
 be only a useless self-torture, a tantalizing effort, that 
 would be forever reaching after an object, which as regu- 
 larly receded from you. No. You can think, and rea- 
 son, and desire, and hope, in reference to religion, as in 
 reference to any other subject; nor is there any subject 
 in which enlightened, well-directed, persevering solici- 
 tude would be so sure of gaining its end, as in reference 
 to this. None shall seek in vain here, who seek aright. 
 God has pledged his promise, his oath, for the salvation 
 of all who tmly repent and believe. Where, in tempo- 
 ral matters, there is only hope, in spiritual ones there is 
 absolute certainty. 
 
 And now, to bring these remarks towards a conclu- 
 sion, and to make way for the author, whom they are 
 intended to introduce, I would speak to you for a few 
 moments on the subject of his valuable and most im- 
 pressive treatise — and which is just the subject, indeed, 
 about which it concerns you to be anxious — I mean, 
 your conversion to God. This is the most momentous 
 change — the greatest which man can undergo. In some 
 respects, it is greater than that which takes place when 
 the redeemed, emancipated spirit drops the fetters of cor- 
 ruption, and soars away in happy freedom from earth to 
 heaven ; for heaven is but the perfection and perpetuation 
 of the change which is wrought in conversion. How 
 impressively does the apostle James speak of this, where 
 he says, " He which converteth the sinner from the error 
 of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 
 multitudeof sins !"* ShzW^iNe a soul from death! A dead 
 body is a fearful object, but how much more so a dead soul ! 
 Dead, not as to rationality, but to spirituality : dead to God, 
 to holiness, to salvation. Perhaps you never reflected 
 upon this. How eloquently, how impressively has it been 
 touched upon by a great writer ! " What, my brethren, if it 
 be lawful to indulge such a thought, would be the funeral 
 obsequies of a lost soul ] Where shall we find the tears fit 
 to be wept at such a spectacle'? Or, could we realize the 
 calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commiseration 
 and concern would be deemed equal to the occasion? 
 * James v. 20. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 Would it suffice for the sun to veil his lipht, and the 
 moon her brightness ; to cover the ocean with mournino-, 
 and the heavens with sackcloth? Or, were the whole 
 fabric of nature to become animated and vocal, would 
 it be possible for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry 
 too piercing-, to express the magnitude and extent of 
 such a catastrophe?" 
 
 This is not too strongly put, nor is the solemnity of tlie 
 figure out of proportion to the magnitude of the awful 
 truth to be illustrated. Now, conversion means the 
 resurrection of the soul, instead of its continued death. 
 It is the rising into a new, glorious, and immortal life 
 of the moral principle, compared with which, even the 
 resurrection of the body, when it shall forsake the dark- 
 ness, decay, and imprisonment of the sepulchre, and, in 
 obedience to the call of God, put on incorruption and 
 immortality, is but a dim manifestation of the power and 
 glory of the Redeemer. This is the blessed change set 
 forth in the present volume ; and it is a change which 
 must occur in ymi, or the obsequies above alluded to, and 
 not the resurrection, will take place with regard to your 
 soul. Oh that I could excite a hope and awaken an 
 expeljtation in your mind of the felicities of this new, 
 divine, heavenly and eternal existence. Would that I 
 could send on your attention to the following pages, 
 with the kindling ambition to be a partaker of this sub- 
 lime transformation ; with something of an ariticipation 
 that you are about to hear and obey the voice which 
 saith, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
 dead, and Christ shall give thee light."* Yes, the day- 
 spring from on high may be about to visit the ^ave in 
 which your soul lies dead in trespasses and sins. A 
 new existence, unknown and unth ought of till now, with 
 all its energies and activities, a career of eternal holiness 
 and happiness, may be opening before you. 
 
 What an impressive view of the consequences of con- 
 version does the declaration of our divine Lord present 
 to you, when he says, "There is joy in the presence of 
 the anrrels of God over one sinner that repenteth l"t 
 
 Eph. V. 14. tLuke xv. 10. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Repentance is conversion. Now, the conversion, not 
 merely of a nation, or a multitude, but of a single indi- 
 vidual, is of such importance as to be known in heaven, 
 and is a source of such joy as to fill the mansions of the 
 blessed with new interest and fresh rapture. Your con- 
 version would do this. Your conversion would draw 
 upon you the congratulations of the innumerable company 
 of angels. Think of this. It is not the joy of ministers 
 and friends upon earth, but of the angels in heaven, who, 
 from their position, capacity, and experience, can better 
 appreciate the immensity of the consequences of conver- 
 sion ; can penetrate t^r deeper than saints on earth can do, 
 into the heights, and depths, and breadths, and lengths of 
 that eternity, which is the seal and crown of the felicity 
 promised to ever)^ real penitent ; and can more accurately 
 comprehend "the mysterious and undefinable value of the 
 soul, its intense susceptibility as a rational, moral, ac- 
 countable substance, incapable alike of extinction or 
 unconsciousness through infinite duration." Surely, 
 surely, such a consideration alone is sufficient to awaken 
 and sustain the most intense anxiety, that you might be 
 the subject of a change with which are connected, as an 
 inevitable result, the joyful sympathies of the celestial 
 liierarchy over a felicity at once immense and eternal. 
 
 vSuch, then, is the design of this valuable work, to ex- 
 plain the nature, and enforce the necessity, of conversion 
 to God. It comes with a message from God to you ; and 
 it is a messenger of mercy and not of wrath. It comes 
 to lead you to the fountain of life, the way of salvation, 
 the path to glory, honour and immortality. A special 
 providence may have placed it in your hands. Receive 
 it not with indifference, treat it not with carelessness. 
 A seraph from the throne of the Eternal, a herald from 
 the world of light, could not ])resent to you a subject in 
 which you are more deeply or more directly interested. 
 
 Read these pages with the deepest seriousness of 
 mind. Choose a season of retirement. Command all 
 vrorldly subjects away. Collect and concentrate your 
 tlioughts on that one word — conversion. Read as with 
 paradise opening above you, the bottomless pit yawning 
 beneath you, eternity spreading out before you, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 the eye of God fixed upon you. Read with docility, 
 attention, and earnestness. Read with recollection that, 
 after you have perused the book, you will never be a^ain 
 as you have been, since, if you are not converted, you 
 will acquire new light and new responsibility, by which 
 an unconverted state will involve a deeper ffuilt, and a 
 more dreadful punishment. Read, especially, with sin- 
 cere, fervent, and believing- prayer for the help of God's 
 Holy Spirit. And may the Lord render the perusal the 
 means of your conversion ! J. A. James. 
 
THE 
 
 GREAT CHANGE. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ON CONVERSION. 
 
 PRELIMINARY ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 A MINISTER of the gospel was once summoned 
 to visit a young lady in deep affliction. She was 
 an entire stranger, but had been occasionally one 
 of his hearers. The case was represented as 
 urgent, and no time was lost in complying with 
 the invitation. But though it required not more 
 than half an hour to reach the house, yet he 
 arrived too late. Akhough not dead, she was not 
 in a state to be spoken to, and the medical at- 
 tendant decidedly forbade any attempt to converse 
 with her. Upon inquiry of her mother, it was 
 stated that she had been ill for several weeks, and 
 had frequently expressed the strongest desire to 
 see that minister; but her friends put it off' till it 
 was too late, and shortly after she died without the 
 
 15 
 
16 PRELIMINARY ADDRESS 
 
 opportunity of an interview. Reader, pause and 
 reflect upon these words — too late! They seem 
 to suggest this lesson — Think in time. No one 
 was ever injured by thinking in time ; but muhi- 
 tudes have had to deplore, in reference to all sorts 
 of subjects and interests, that they began to think 
 when it was too late. If persons are about to 
 take any important step in life, upon which their 
 future comfort or success depends, they usually 
 think intensely, and always will do so, if they are 
 wise. Take the following illustration : — A man 
 has a cause to be tried before a judge and jury, 
 which involves his property, his character, or his 
 life : will he wait till the day and hour of trial, 
 before he inquires what may be necessary to his 
 defence ? Will he not endeavour to anticipate 
 every argument or proof that may be brought 
 against him, and every circumstance that may be 
 in his favour ? The answer is, he certainly will, 
 if he is wise. 
 
 Let us conceive another case. You are about 
 to embark on board a ship for a long and perilous 
 voyage. Not only yourself, but those dearest to 
 your affections are to be your companions, to be 
 bound with you to the same destination. Would 
 you not use every precaution to ascertain the trust- 
 worthiness of the vessel, the captain, and the 
 crew ? Would you not sit down, and both calmly 
 and carefully think, what would be desirable for 
 your comfort, or required for your necessities 
 during the voyage ? 
 
 All this, you admit, is perfectly reasonable and 
 prudent. To neglect thinking in time in any of 
 these instances, and many similar ones, would 
 justly expose any person to the charge of rashness, 
 folly, or thoughtlessness ; and if, by such neglect, 
 
TO THE READER. 17 
 
 he should at last become involved in difficulties 
 and sufferings, he would have little claim upon 
 the sympathy of his fellow-men. He might have 
 avoided all these inconveniences by the exercise 
 of only ordinary prudence. He did not employ 
 forethought, and so he has become inextricably 
 perplexed. To induce you to think, to direct 
 you how to think efficiently, and to prompt you 
 to think in time, upon the most important of all 
 concerns, is the object of the present volume. 
 If you are right and safe in your hopes and pros- 
 pects for futurity, the reading of these pages will 
 confirm you in them ; but if you are mistaken, 
 deceived, or have hitherto been thoughtless and 
 careless, not now to think, may be to inflict upon 
 yourself irreparable injury. You must think at 
 some time, and if that should not be till it is too 
 late, your thoughts will then only prove tor- 
 mentors. They will certainly issue in remorse, 
 agony, and terror. 
 
 But some of my readers may here say, " It is 
 yet time enough; it is not too late: we will think 
 hereafter, when we have more leisure, or a better 
 inclination." If you will examine this reason for 
 delay, you will at once perceive its fallacy. The 
 precise period when it may be too late to think of 
 your soul and its salvation, no human wisdom can 
 determine. It is impossible for yourself, or any 
 one else, to foresee and fix the day, the month, or 
 the year. It is the uncertainty of the period when 
 consideration may be too late, that should induce 
 you to think without delay. Can you say that 
 the awful meaning of the expression too late may 
 not be felt by you this week, to-morrow, or this 
 night? It may even now, with all its infinite 
 and endless consequences, be hanofing over you. 
 2^- 
 
18 PRELIMINARY ADDRESS. 
 
 By the Sovereign Author of your being you are 
 allowed no tinne for delay, and if you take it, you 
 take it upon a fearful venture. If you should 
 repent too late, what is the doom that awaits you? 
 Then you will be a lost soul! Many are lost be- 
 cause they did not think of repenting till it was 
 too late. Think in time. Your immortal soul 
 may be saved or lost, as you now think, or refuse 
 to think ; yea, it must ere long be either saved or 
 lost for eternity. Read this little treatise, there- 
 fore, under the impression that, by the divine 
 blessing, it may lead to your conversion. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 
 
 Our first business, in presenting to you a treatise 
 upon conversion, must be to explain what, accord- 
 ing to our judgment, the word of God intends by- 
 conversion. When you are in possession of the 
 true notion, that is, the scriptural and divine idea 
 of this important subject, you will labour under 
 no uncertainty or obscurity as to the change you 
 are required to undergo before you can hope to 
 escape perdition and enjoy everlasting life. We 
 observe, therefore, that it is a change, or a turning 
 about of our mind or heart, and signities a re- 
 versing of our moral and religious state, a com- 
 plete transformation of the character — from irre- 
 ligion to piety, from sin to holiness, from unbelief 
 to faith, from impenitence to contrition and con- 
 fession, from the service of the world to the ser- 
 vice of God, from uneasiness to peace, from fear 
 to hope, from death to life. It is important you 
 should observe that this is mainly, though not 
 exclusively, an inward change. It must begin in 
 the heart and extend to the whole character. You 
 must become, in a moral and religious sense, a 
 new creature. You must not hmit your notion 
 to that which is merely external and visible, or 
 imagine that any mere change of conduct or pro- 
 fession is conversion. There are freouently con- 
 siderable changes wrought in external behaviour, 
 
 19 
 
20 CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 
 
 and these even much for the better, when there 
 is no real change of heart, no conversion. A 
 man may change from being a drunkard, become 
 strictly sober, and yet not be converted. He may 
 turn from any vicious course to the observance 
 of the strictest rules of virtue, and not be con- 
 verted. He may relinquish irreligious habits, and 
 observe the sabbath, be regular at public worship, 
 and attend to all the rites of religion, and not be 
 converted. He may turn from infidelity to a firm 
 belief in the divine authority of the Bible, and 
 not be converted. He may turn from one sort of 
 religion to another, and yet not be converted. A 
 Papist may become a Protestant, or a Protestant 
 a Papist, and yet be, in God's sight, unconverted. 
 Although that lying church tells all that embrace 
 its creed and practice its superstitions, that it will 
 answer for their salvation, yet it can offer no 
 guarantee but its own impious presumption ; and 
 that will be detected when it will be too late for 
 those who have heedlessly trusted it, either to re- 
 ject its delusions, or demand, what they ought 
 first to have demanded, divine authority for their 
 faith, and not the bare assertions of frail and falli- 
 ble men. 
 
 . Conversion is something more inw^ard, spiritual, 
 and peculiar ; more closely in contact with the in-' 
 most soul, more thoroughly and deeply seated in 
 the heart, than any of the changes already named. 
 It may indeed involve and require a turning from 
 some of these states, from some of these practices 
 and habits, to others quite opposite ; but, in itself, 
 it consists in none of them. It is a change of the 
 natural and carnal mind, \\>rought by the Spirit of 
 C4od, and raising it from the degradation of things 
 seen and temporal, to the desire and pursuit of those 
 
COXVERSIOX EXPLAINED. 21 
 
 that are divine and spiritual. It begins in the heart 
 and nnind, in serious and sorrowful reflection upon 
 our sinful state, as destitute of the supreme love of 
 God, alienated in desire and in practice from his 
 holiness, with the heart devoted to sin or worldly 
 trifles, and in consequence under divine displea- 
 sure, and condemned by the terms of God's per- 
 fect law. When such convictions are deeply 
 lodged in the mind by the Spirit of God, it is 
 made anxious for the pardon of sin, and it searches 
 the Scriptures with this view. Then Christ 
 appears as the one Mediator, the one Sacrifice, 
 through which "whosoever believeth in him shall 
 not perish, but have everlasting life."^ Conver- 
 sion is effected when, on account of the burden 
 of our sins, we feel our need of Him, and, throuq-h 
 his grace given unto us, we believe the precious 
 promise, which says, "Whosoever shall call upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved, "t and. 
 "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely. "+ Man by nature loves sin in some of its 
 degrees and forms, or so loves and pursues inno- 
 cent and lawful things as to exclude the supreme 
 love of God. But, in conversion, he turns with 
 disgust from all direct iniquity, and looks with 
 comparative indifference upon natural joys, under 
 the sense of possessing, in the promise of the 
 gospel, a far higher good. Hence the Scripture 
 represents conversion as a neiv birth, a new life, 
 a new nature, a neiv creation, effected by the 
 Spirit of God. "Old things are passed away; 
 behold, all things are become new."§ 
 
 We must observe an^ain ; conversion does not 
 
 * John iii. IG. jRom. x. 13. 
 
 4 Rev. xxii. 17. § 2 Cor. v. 17. 
 
22 CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 
 
 consist in a mere feeling of alarm, nor of hope ; it 
 is not mere conviction of sin, nor mere knowledge 
 of the gospel. Neither is it a mere desire to be 
 converted : but it is a real, conscious turning unto 
 C4od ; a clear, and decided, and entire belief of 
 his testimony, accompanied, as all sincere belief 
 must be, with a permanent change of heart. The 
 sinner, if converted, perceives that he is a lost and 
 helpless rebel against God ; that his guilt requires 
 pardon, his pollution needs cleansing. He becomes 
 sensible that he is dead in sins, and needs quicken- 
 ing grace ; he even then feels that grace effectually- 
 working in his heart. In fact, conversion expresses 
 the entire change which a vivid and practical 
 belief of the gospel produces in the soul. 
 
 But, perhaps, you have not a clear notion of 
 what the Scripture requires, when it demands 
 faith in Christ for salvation, saying, "Whosoever 
 believeth on him shall not be ashamed."* What 
 is it then to believe? The idea conveyed by that 
 term requires only to be presented in its proper 
 simplicity. Persons have very vague, confused, 
 and mystified notions of believing. Yet the term 
 is one of the plainest that can be used. We all 
 know perfectly well what it signifies when it is 
 used in common life. Its meaning is the same 
 when it is used in religion. It does not express 
 any act of the mind different from that which is 
 intended when we fully confide in the testimony 
 of a fellow-creature of known and tried veracity. 
 It is the confidence the mind places in the truth 
 of the words spoken, whether those words convey 
 a statement of some past fact, or a promise of 
 something to be done. If a friend, of whose 
 
 * Rom. ix. 33. 
 
CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 23 
 
 veracity you not only have no reason to entertain 
 a doubt, but of whose integrity you have proof 
 sufficient to warrant an unwavering- confidence, 
 imparts any piece of intelligence, and says he 
 knows its certainty, and can vouch for its accuracy, 
 you then feel w^arranted in placing entire reliance 
 upon his w^ord ; and if it is a matter that requires 
 you to act, you do not hesitate to give practical 
 proof of your faith in the word of your friend. 
 And yet in all such cases there is a possibility 
 that this friend may deceive you ; he may be 
 deceived himself. There is a possibility, and 
 however bare that possibility, yet the admission 
 of it is all that I require for my present purpose. 
 Suppose a friend to proceed beyond the mere 
 announcement of some fact, and makes us a pro- 
 mise of some future, important benefit he means 
 to confer ; we should then admit some other con- 
 siderations before we entirely confided in his pro- 
 mise. For instance, we should inquire, Is he a 
 man of benevolence? Has he any particular 
 friendship for us ? Is he in the habit of perform- 
 ing generous actions ? Can he fulfil this promise 
 without serious sacrifice or loss ? If we found 
 every inquiry of this kind could be satisfactorily 
 answered, we should then have valid ground for 
 believing his promise, and we should feel no 
 hesitation in anticipating its fulfilment. We 
 should be especially encouraged in such an anti- 
 cipation, if we knew that he was in the habit of 
 conferring such favolirs. In proportion to the 
 magnitude of the promise, would be our anxiety 
 to weigh well every consideration that could con- 
 tribute to the ascertainment of his sincerity, ability, 
 veracity, benevolent habits, and such like. But 
 if all these points are satisfactorily settled, then 
 
24 CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 
 
 ■we should fully anticipate, at the appointed time, 
 the fulfilment of the promise. Now, this is faith. 
 This is just that exercise of mind that God re- 
 quires towards himself and his promises. There 
 are, however, some important observations which 
 must not be overlooked. Faith in God derives 
 all its virtue and efficacy from that ivhich is 
 believed. It is the faithfulness of God that makes 
 a true faith in him so important, so precious, so 
 efficient. There are certain contingencies and 
 possibilities, which, after all, must be admitted to 
 attach to the promises of a fellow-mortal, as in 
 the case lately supposed. For instance, that per- 
 son may, after all, fail us, and, though the fullest 
 confidence is reposed in his word, we may never 
 receive what he has promised. He may change 
 his mind ; he may die before the time appointed 
 arrives ; he may lose his property, and not be able 
 to fulfil his word ; we may offend him in the inter- 
 val : and, therefore, we never can be quite sure of 
 receiving the desired good. Hence, faith in man, 
 in the best, in the sincerest, in the most trustwor- 
 thy, must always be qualified, and exercised with 
 certain limitations. We never can be infallibly 
 sure that we shall not be disappointed. But none 
 of these contingencies apply to the faith of a sin- 
 ner in God. He will never retract his promise, 
 can never alter his word, will never lose his ability, 
 will never reject a believing sinner. Hence the 
 power of that faith in him to save the soul. 
 When we thus believe in Tjrod, it is his word re- 
 ceived into the soul which converts it, that is, 
 brings it to confide, to hope, to rejoice, to obey. 
 Thus faith is the cardinal virtue of the Christian, 
 the root and stem of all graces. Till we believe, 
 we are not converted : as soon as we do believe, 
 
CONVERSION EXPLAINED. 25 
 
 according to his word, we are converted. Hence 
 the grace and promise of the gospel must be known 
 and understood before they can be cordially be- 
 lieved. This is the kind of conversion which the 
 Scriptures enforce. When once the happy change 
 has passed, — and pass it must on all who would en- 
 joy^eternal life, — the converted man feels like ono 
 translated out of darkness into marvellous hght ; 
 a new world opens before him ; a new object and 
 end of life seem to have taken possession of him ; 
 a new and opposite direction is given to the ener- 
 gies of his soul ; and now all his desire, all his 
 anxiety seems to be after that salvation which 
 before he neither sought, nor apprehended, nor 
 valued. 
 
 Reader, if the foregoing brief sketch of true 
 conversion be scriptural, if it approve itself to 
 your conscience, as borne out and sustained by 
 the requirements of the divine word, if you know 
 it to be that very conversion, without which no 
 man shall see the kingdom of God, then it is for 
 you to judge whether or not you have thus been 
 converted. It is the earnest desire of the writer 
 that you should feel constrained to answer this 
 question, and that you should answer it now, 
 calmly and solemnly, as before your own con- 
 science, and in the sight of that God who seeth 
 in secret, and who will judge you at the last day. 
 Let me entreat you to answer this question now 
 remembering that this is conversion, the conver 
 sion Jesus Christ requires, that without which 
 none can be saved — without which you will be 
 lost. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY OF CONVERSION 
 ENFORCED. 
 
 l.SiN has made it necessary that, " except a 
 man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God."^ This is revealed by Christ in the dis- 
 course with Nicodemus, as well as in numerous 
 other places ; and it would be unnecessary to 
 quote further evidence on what is so plainly and 
 uniformly expressed in the New Testament. You 
 must, therefore, realize the fact, that the nature of 
 God makes it necessary that every sinner should 
 undergo this change. He has declared that no 
 sinner, in his sinful, unrenewed and unconverted 
 state, shall see his face ; and you can no more 
 evade this law than that which says, "All flesh 
 shall see corruption." It is declared in that re- 
 velation v/hich is stamped with Heaven's high 
 authority, that a man must be converted, and be- 
 come as a little child, or he cannot see God's king- 
 dom; that every one must repent, must believe in 
 Christ and become a nev/ man. Now, Jesus 
 Christ repeated this constantly, and enforced it 
 upon all, with his own authority and that of his 
 Father who sent him. Throughout the whole of 
 his preaching, this doctrine appears. He sent out 
 his apostles and many chosen disciples to call men 
 everywhere to receive his testimony ; and they 
 went forth, preaching to sinners that they should 
 repent of sin and turn to Christ, as the Lamb of 
 
 » John iii. 3. 
 36 
 
ITS IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY. 27 
 
 God that had come to take away the sin of the 
 world. 
 
 It is a law as certain, as infallible, as universal, 
 as any laid upon the material universe, upon hu- 
 man bodies or human minds : — "Ye must be born 
 again."* It is, moreover, a law that never has 
 been, that never can be, dispensed with. Do 
 you think, or can you think, that there will be any 
 exception in your case to that law, "Except ye 
 be converted — ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven ?"t Can you imagine that there can 
 exist any reason so weighty as to induce God to 
 alter this law for your sake, and to receive you to 
 heaven without a compliance with it? Impossi- 
 ble ! Eternally impossible ! If you reflect upon 
 the nature of God, you will perceive that his will 
 does and must prevail. It must be supreme and 
 final, because he is God. It cannot bend, it will 
 not bow to yours. Yours must bow to it, what- 
 ever pain and humiliation it may cost you. It is 
 a divine obligation laid upon you by your relation 
 to God ; and until you feel its force and necessity, 
 you are an active and open rebel against Him. 
 You may think it a very hard thing, but that will 
 not alter the case ; or you may think it a v^ry 
 light thing, and talk of it in very light terms, but 
 this will not change your position. There is no 
 salvation — God has said it — there can be none — 
 Christ declares that there can be none — without 
 conversion. You may think, as many have done, 
 that this law does not apply to your case, because 
 you are free from great sins, and have always en- 
 deavoured to do your duty. 
 
 2. The necessity of conversion may be still 
 
 • John iii 7. -j- Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
28 THE IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY 
 
 further illustrated, by a comparison of the nature 
 of sinners and the nature of God. A sinner in his 
 rebellious state cannot be received as an affection- 
 ate and obedient child of God. Think of it your- 
 self. No absurdity could be greater or more 
 glaring than to suppose the enjoyment of such a 
 state as that of acceptance before God without 
 conversion ; because that were to suppose a guilty, 
 impenitent, rebellious sinner in heaven, with a 
 nature utterly opposed to heaven and its righte- 
 ous Sovereign. It were to suppose vice dwelling 
 in the region of perfect purity ; hostility to God 
 raised to the honour of immortal fellowship with 
 him ; and deep, unsubdued, hateful depravity reap- 
 ing the reward of faith and love, and in association 
 with all that is pure, glorious and blessed. Such 
 incongruities could not, in the nature of things, be 
 tolerated by Him who has the power of prevent- 
 ing them. A sinner in an impenitent and uncon- 
 verted state would but suffer torment in the pre- 
 sence of heavenly purity. That which most hates 
 God, is most opposed to his nature, could find no 
 delight in dwelling forever with him ; and that 
 which now shrinks instinctively from the sight 
 of his eye, from the sound of his word, and the 
 conviction of his Spirit, would quail and tremble 
 and be full of torment, in the presence of God 
 and his holy angels. Then, you must be converted 
 if you desire to dwell with God ; or, if you refuse 
 to be converted, abandon altogether the hope of 
 being saved from hell. Sin and punishment, im- 
 penitence and destruction, are united together by 
 an eternal, infallible law, which you never can 
 annul, never evade, never overcome ; and which 
 God will never abrogate. Then, we say again, 
 repent and be converted, or you are lost. 
 
OF CONVERSION ENFORCED. 29 
 
 3. Consider the consequences as to your own 
 state and feelings through life, in the prospect of 
 death, and through your immortal existence, which 
 the word of God represents as naturally and ne- 
 cessarily attendant upon conversion on the one 
 hand, or impenitence and unbelief, on the other. 
 The contrast between these two classes of conse- 
 quences is immense, awful and beyond the power 
 of description. You will scarcely attempt to deny 
 that the question. Am I converted or unconverted? 
 surpasses every other that can engage your atten- 
 tion ; that is to say, it is infinitely more important 
 than any question relating to your temporal con- 
 dition in this life. For, whether you are rich or 
 poor, still you must die ; and then it will be of no 
 moment whether you have fed upon delicacies, or 
 obtained your bread, and that a scanty portion, by 
 the sweat of your brow ; whether you have hved 
 to old age, or been cut off in youth ; and to spend 
 a few more years in a mortal body, is, after all, 
 not so great a matter as either to make you very 
 anxious for its enjoyment, or very sad if it should 
 be denied. Whether you are honoured, admired 
 and remembered among mortal men like yourself, 
 or whether you live unknown and die unnoticed 
 and neglected, is comparatively a trifling matter. 
 And whether your life, be it long or short, is 
 passed in the possession of unbroken health, 
 or in sickness, debility and dependence, is, com- 
 paratively, a trivial matter. Or whether you 
 have seen and tasted all the good there is for the 
 sons of men in this life, or have been born to 
 trouble and to toil, is also of little importance 
 But whether at death you shall be lost forever, or 
 be forever saved and made happy, is a matter of 
 infinite concern. You must admit that it is so. 
 3* 
 
30 THE IMPOKTANCE AND NECESSITY 
 
 All is triflino^ in comparison with it. The very 
 thought of the solemn issue awaiting your death, 
 must inevitably have an influence upon your pre 
 sent feelings. Think, I beseech you, of the in 
 finite difference in the hour of death, between the 
 two states of faith and unbelief; the two emotions 
 of hope and fear. It is all the difference between 
 heaven and hell ! Think, then, of the vast, the as 
 tounding contrast between the peaceful departure 
 of a real Christian, a truly converted person, having 
 in his soul the hope of glory, and saying, as many 
 have done, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
 de])art in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy sal' 
 vation;"* "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly;"! 
 " I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ ;"± 
 and the guilty recollections of an impenitent 
 and unconverted sinner, who has all his life 
 long served Satan and the world, and given no 
 attention to the interests of his soul, and of that 
 world to which he goes. Think of him, as en- 
 compassed on all sides with fear ; bowed down by 
 the insupportable burden of guilt; a conscience 
 but a canker, or worse — a burning brand within 
 the soul, set on fire by the anticipation of hell tor- 
 ments ; dreading to depart, yet feehng that he 
 must depart in a few moments more to the bar of 
 Divine justice, and thence to the abyss of unutter- 
 able torments. This appalling contrast may readi- 
 ly be illustrated by a few well-known facts, which 
 will show that I have not presented an imaginary 
 picture, but what has been frequently, and is still 
 constantly, realized. 
 
 Hobbes, the infidel philosopher, referring to his 
 death, and anticipating it as near, said he " should 
 be glad then to find a hole at which t o creep out 
 
 * Luke ii. 29, 30. f Rev. xxii. 20. t Phil. i. 23. 
 
OF CONVERSION ENFORCED. 31 
 
 of the world." And when he drew near to the 
 moment, he confessed that he was "about to take 
 a leap in the dark." The Hon. F. Newport, who 
 had received a religious education, but turned 
 infidel, said in his last sickness, lookinir at the fire 
 in his chamber, " O that I was to lie and broil 
 upon that fire for a hundred thousand years, to 
 purchase the favour of God, and be reconciled 
 to him again! But it is a fruitless, vain wish, 
 Millions of millions of years will bring me no 
 nearer the end of my tortures than one poor hour. 
 
 eternity ! eternity ! Who can properly para- 
 phrase upon the words/or ever and ever?'' Vol- 
 taire said to Dr. Tronchin, " I am abandoned by 
 God and man. I will give you half of what I am 
 worth if you will give me six months' life." The 
 doctor said, " Sir, you cannot live six weeks." 
 Voltaire replied, "Then I shall go to hell, and 
 you will go with me;" and soon after expired. 
 Would any one say, Let me die the death of Vol- 
 taire, of Newport, or of Hobbcs ? Take an in- 
 stance or two of dying Christians. Dr. Leland, 
 departing from life, said, " I give my dying testi- 
 mony to the truth of Christianity. The promises 
 of the gospel are my support and consolation. 
 They alone yield me satisfaction in a dying hour. 
 
 1 am not afraid to die. The gospel of Christ has 
 raised me above the fear of death ; for I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth." Mr. W^alker, of Truro, 
 said, "I have been upon the wings of the cherubim! 
 Heaven has, in a manner, been opened to me ! I 
 shall soon be there!" To another friend, soon 
 after, he said, "O my friend, had I strength to 
 speak, I could tell you such news as would rejoice 
 your very soul ! I have had such views of hea- 
 ven ! But I am not able to say more." " O my 
 
 1^ 
 
32 ITS IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY. 
 
 friends," said Mr. Janeway, "stand and wonder; 
 come, look upon a dying man, and wonder ! Was 
 there ever greater kindness ? Was there ever more 
 sensible manifestations of rich grace ? O, why 
 me, Lord ? why me ? Sure this is akin to heaven. 
 If this be dying, dying is sweet. Let no Christian 
 ever be afraid of dying ! O, death is sweet to 
 me ! This bed is soft. Christ's arms, his smiles 
 and visits, sure they would turn hell into heaven ! 
 
 that you did but see and feel what I do ! Come 
 and behold a dying man, more cheerful than ever 
 you saw any healthful man in the midst of his 
 sweetest enjoyments. O sirs, worldly pleasures 
 are pitiful, poor, sorry things, compared with one 
 glimpse of His glory which shines so strongly into 
 my soul. O ! why should any of you be so sad, 
 when I am so glad ? This, this is the hour that 
 
 1 have waited for !" Again, some hours after, he 
 said, "Methinks I stand, as it were, one foot in 
 heaven, and the other on earth. Methinks I hear 
 the melody of heaven, and by faith I see the angels 
 waiting to carry my soul to the bosom of Jesus : 
 and I shall be forever with the Lord in glory. 
 And who can choose but rejoice in all this ?" In 
 such strains he continued, till, at length, full of 
 
 jfaith and joy, he cried aloud, "Amen ! amen !'* 
 and soon after expired. A pious youth, dying in 
 extreme bodily anguish, once said to the writer of 
 these pages, " I would not exchange my place 
 with a prince."* 
 
 These contrasted cases, it is admitted, are strong 
 ones, and you may never sink to the misery of the 
 
 • See this contrast further illustrated in "The Anchob," 
 and "The Thke and its FnuiTs," boih published by the 
 American Sunday-School Union. Com. of Pub 
 
THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 33 
 
 one class, nor rise to the exultation and seraphic 
 joy of the other. Yet, if we admit that none of 
 these strong characteristics may ever attach to 
 you, still the reality, the main substance will be 
 yours, because your state after death will be happy 
 or miserable forever, according as you are, or are 
 not, a converted person. Think of this : either 
 angels will wait for your departing spirit, to convey 
 it to the bosom of Jesus, where it will enjoy ful- 
 ness of pleasure for evermore ; or devils, with 
 malign satisfaction, will watch for the fatal 
 moment of its expulsion from the frail body, to 
 seize upon it as their prey, to chase or drag it 
 down to the regions of eternal despair. There is 
 a hell, and there is a heaven. Of this the Bible 
 assures us. The one is for the unconverted and 
 unbeheving, the other for those who have sub- 
 mitted to the divine mandate, "Be converted."* 
 The question, then, Shall I be lost, or shall I be 
 saved ? is clearly shown to be of infinite import- 
 ance to each reader; and the point upon which 
 it turns is this, Am I, or am I not, converted ? 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 
 
 If I may suppose that you are at the present 
 moment unconverted, and if you candidly admit 
 it yourself, then there are but two questions which 
 have to be answered before we proceed with the 
 great subject of this little treatise. 
 
 *Acts lil. 19. 
 
34 Tin: state of the unconverted. 
 
 The first is, Can any unconverted person really 
 assure himself that he shall not be finally lost ? 
 Or, secondly, Can he really imagine that he is able 
 to disprove the authority of that volume which 
 asserts, that every unconverted and impenitent 
 sinner shall really at death be lost forever? 
 
 As to the latter of these questions, I might 
 rJmost take it for granted that you will not at once 
 j)resume to say that the Bible is all false, and that 
 you can prove it so. And yet, if you say so, if 
 you only think so, or hope so, you ought to be 
 v/ell fortified, not with mere doubts and questions, 
 not with quibbles and difficulties, but with positive, 
 direct, and indubitable evidence of the most com- 
 plete and satisfactory kind ; else you will be inex- 
 cusable before God and your own conscience for 
 disregarding its authority. But I am quite certain 
 that you are not possessed of such evidence ; that 
 you cannot be prepared to set aside the authority 
 of the Bible even to your own satisfaction, however 
 much an alarmed and an evil heart might incline 
 you to wish it. Yet, if you should think you are, 
 then I must refer the consideration of your case to 
 that part of this work where your unbelief, and 
 the nature of your objections, will be more fully 
 noticed. I shall here reason with you as one con- 
 vinced, and powerfully feeling, that the authority 
 of the Bible cannot be set aside. 
 
 Admitting, then, the authority of that divine and 
 wonderful book, it is quite certain, that the un- 
 converted will be excluded from the bliss of the 
 heavenly state. The Bible cannot be mistaken, 
 nor perverted in its testimony, upon this matter. 
 It asserts, in numerous places, that will be pre- 
 sently noticed, the lost state of impenitent and 
 unconverted men. It represents them as even 
 
THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 35 
 
 now in a lost state. It says that they are at this 
 moment condemned ; that it is not a question to 
 be decided hereafter, but one that is already 
 settled; the sentence is passed, and nothing is 
 wanting but its execution. 
 
 Is your heart suitably impressed, is it alarmed, 
 is it deeply affected even to agony, in the con- 
 sideration of this word — lost ? It means, in refer- 
 ence to you, under divine condemnation, and in 
 immediate and moat imminent danger of eternal 
 destruction ! There is really nothing that keeps 
 you back from everlasting perdition but the for- 
 t)earance and patience of God. Is it not said, 
 "Their foot shall shde in due time?"* Is not 
 your peril represented in those words of the 
 psalmist, " Surely thou didst set them in sHppery 
 places ; thou castedst them down into destruction. 
 How are they brought into desolation, as in a 
 moment '."t It is a consideration which ought to 
 affect the heart of every unconverted person, that 
 he fully deserves the condemnation which the 
 divine word pronounces upon him, whether ha 
 himself thinks so or not. Divine justice calls 
 aloud for his punishment, saying, "Cut it down; 
 why cumbereth it the ground ?"± If you are un- 
 converted, then you may imagine the divine sword 
 to be brandished over your head, and prevented 
 from smiting you only by sovereign forbearance, 
 such as none but God could or would exercise, 
 under the provocations of which you have been 
 guiky, and the aggravations with which your sins 
 rj-e charo-eable. Even the patient, gentle, tender- 
 hearted Jesus has said concerning you, "He that 
 believeth not is condemned already. "§ To the 
 
 * Deui. xxxii. 35. f Ps. Ixxiii. 18, 19. 
 
 4 Luke xiii. 7. § John iii. 19. 
 
do THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 
 
 place of punishment, therefore, you are already 
 doomed. The sentence is fixed, and will be in- 
 flicted unless you repent and are converted. You 
 are even now bound to that awful place, and on 
 your way thither as fast as the flight of time can 
 bear you. It is determined by the divine purpose, 
 that nothing- shall stay the process or arrest the 
 execution of that tremendous sentence but your 
 conversion. 
 
 You could not be thus under the divine con- 
 demnation unless you were an object of God's 
 anger ; and, surely, the persuasion of this is enough 
 to make you, or any other sinner, weep and trem- 
 ble ! If you realized the anger of the Almighty, 
 it might make you, it ought to make you, shudder, 
 to think that you have deserved it, and anxious 
 above all things to have it immediately averted. 
 Do not, therefore, imagine, nor suflJer any sophistry 
 of sin, Satan, or wicked men to persuade you, 
 that God is not angry with you, or that he will 
 not in due time proceed to express his anger by 
 punishment. He neither wants the right, nor the 
 power, nor the will to destroy those who are his 
 enemies ; to destroy them individually and seve- 
 rally : but he suspends the execution of his wrath 
 for their sake, and to make them monuments of 
 his mercy. He waits to see if they will come to 
 their right mind, repent of the evil they have 
 done, and return, like contrite children, to their 
 oflended, but affectionate Parent. 
 
 It is further to be observed, that there is evil 
 enough in the wicked principles which reign in 
 the hearts of all unconverted persons, to kindle in 
 them, even in this life, the fire that never can be 
 quenched. If conscience were but roused in you, 
 as it has been in many others not more guilty, to 
 
THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 37 
 
 Sting and torment, and to anticipate what is coming- 
 upon you and may not be far ofT, you might feel 
 even now horrors which would soon convince 
 you that hell is a reality. Thousands of sinners 
 have confessed that they needed no other proof of 
 eternal torments than what they bore in their own 
 bosoms. What is it, then, that keeps you from 
 feeling this beginning of eternal punishment ? Un- 
 doubtedly you might be made to feel it, as well as 
 others. But you have not now in your heart the 
 sense of his consuming wrath, because he is long- 
 suffering, and has not yet allowed your sin to bring 
 upon you all its consequences : but he will thus pre- 
 vent its fatal issue only for a limited space. When 
 that is expired, if the desirable end be not an- 
 swered, if you be not converted, nor led to repent- 
 ance by the goodness and forbearance of God,* 
 then he will take off all restraint from the power 
 both of sin and of conscience. You, perhaps, do 
 not at present perceive nor feel the mysterious and 
 mighty power there is in sin, in conscience, and 
 in the law of God, to turn your soul into a fiery 
 oven, or to produce w^ithin you indescribable ter- 
 rors. Hence that indifference, insensibility, and 
 unconcern, which you may have long manifested, 
 and over which you are now called to mourn. 
 
 Sinners in general are apt to presume upon 
 impunity, because there are no visible means of 
 punishment and destruction close at hand. But, 
 like the sea under the influence of a storm, how 
 soon may their souls be lashed into a fearfu. 
 tempest of terror and anguish ! It affords no se- 
 curity to a sinner, that he is at present in health, 
 at present resolute, at present quite calm, at pre- 
 
 * Rsm. ii. 4. 
 4 
 
38 THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 
 
 sent, as he deems, safe and secure. He may not 
 see the means by which he might be brought 
 speedily to judgment. He may not be able to 
 detect the agency by which the threatened ven- 
 geance may be executed. But there is a destruc- 
 tion that walketh in darkness ; there are innume- 
 rable ways, all unseen by us, and by impenitent 
 sinners seldom suspected, which may in an instant 
 open before them a passage to perdition, and 
 bring them, most unexpectedly, to their end. 
 Unconverted persons, in every rank of life, walk 
 heedless on the brink of the pit, or over a thin and 
 rotten covering which conceals its mouth. How 
 easily is he hurled over a precipice, who stands 
 close to its verge ! If he stands blindfold, or in 
 the night, and move but one step forward, he may 
 plunge himself into destruction. Can any wicked 
 person, any unconverted sinner, then, really feel 
 himself secure for one moment, when he is re- 
 minded of that which he dares not dispute, that 
 God possesses inexhaustible means of bringing his 
 enemies to their end whenever it pleases him to do 
 so ; that is, whenever he decides that their proba- 
 tion shall terminate ? His quiver is full of arrows ; 
 they fly unseen at noon-day. The keenest sight 
 cannot discern or anticipate them. The strongest 
 shield affords no defence against them. Of these 
 things you can scarcely be unconscious, and as- 
 suredly you will not attempt to dispute them. 
 
 Know, then, unconverted sinner, that God has 
 bent his bow, and made ready his arroAv upon the 
 strings. It is directed against your heart. See ! 
 it points with deadly aim, with unerring cer- 
 tainty ! Mark how justice strains the bow ! The 
 arrow trembles upon the string, and is ready to 
 fly forth ! It is all but gone ! Yet justice looks 
 
THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 39 
 
 for the last assent, the divine signal, waiting till 
 the sovereign arbiter says. Strike now, and once 
 for all. — An impenitent sinner, smitten by "the 
 pestilence that walketh in darkness," once said. 
 "I will not die!" "No," said the miserable 
 comforters that stood around, "you shall not." 
 But convulsions came on, and the awful scene was 
 soon ended, without the sigh of repentance, or the 
 slightest symptom of contrition. Take another 
 instance. A few years ago, a gentleman of wealth 
 in London, on his dying bed, felt so strong an 
 aversion to dying then and leaving his wealth be- 
 hind him, that he hastily rose from his sick-bed, 
 went out, and walked in his yard, exclaiming " he 
 would not die !" But the unhappy man's strength 
 being speedily exhausted, his affrighted friends 
 carried him back to his bed, where he soon after 
 expired, and probably the sooner for his mad 
 effort to resist the summons. Alas ! he knew 
 nothing of conversion, and was destitute of faith 
 in Him who promises eternal life to repenting 
 sinners. 
 
 Reader, then, let me press upon your attention, 
 let me affectionately urge home upon your heart, 
 the most serious consideration of this sentiment — 
 I will even call it this fact — that all those who have 
 never passed through a divine change of heart, a 
 true repentance and an unfeigned conversion of the 
 soul by the mighty power of the Spirit of God — 
 all who were never born again, and raised from a 
 death in sin to newness of life in Christ Jesus, are 
 in the hands of a righteous God, and are held 
 back from the destruction they have deserved only 
 by his sovereign pleasure. The sole reason why 
 you, if still unconverted, are kept from the place 
 of punishment, is because God " is long-suffering 
 
46 
 
 THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 
 
 to US-ward, not willing that any should perish, but 
 I'hat all should come to repentance."* 
 
 Let us now return again to the question with 
 which we set out. Can any unconverted person 
 assure himself that he shall not be eternally lost ? 
 Can YOU? It is difficult to imagine that any can 
 entertain the slightest hope that he shall escape, 
 especially when he feels that he cannot annul the 
 authority which says, *' He that believeth not shall 
 be damned.t "Except ye repent, ye shall all 
 perish. "± The unquestionable truth of Christ's 
 words being admitted, it seems impossible for any 
 unconverted person to find a single ray of hope or 
 shadow of a reason for expecting that his eter- 
 nal state should be otherwise than desperate. 
 Whether he may entertain any vague notion of 
 impunity for his sin, of mercy uncovenanted, of 
 the improbability of God's fulfilling such threat- 
 enings as the Bible contains, of punishment here- 
 after being only temporary, or of forgiveness at the 
 eleventh hour ; whether he entertains such notions 
 or not, it seems quite sufficient to say that he has 
 no authority for any of them ; and even in his own 
 view, the very best or most probable supposition 
 of final impunity or escape from punishment, can 
 afford but a forlorn hope. All these suppositions 
 are mere spider's webs, and can supply no solid 
 ground of confidence. The sooner they are aban- 
 doned, the better for his soul's safety and peace. If 
 e prefers substance to shadow, divine authority 
 to the quicksands of human opinion and specula- 
 tion, he will admit at once that nothing is more 
 clear from the Bible than that no unconverted man 
 can escape the wrath to come ; and therefore he, 
 while such, can possess no evidence, no, not even 
 
 * 2 Pet. ill. 9. "t" Mark xvi. 16. \ Luke xiii. 5 
 
THE STATE OF THE UNCONVERTED. 41 
 
 the shadow of evidence, against the statement that 
 he himself is in a lost state, and, continuin£T in that 
 state, will be lost, Avholly lost, irretrievalily and 
 forever lost! 
 
 All that has been hitherto pressed upon the 
 reader's attention in this chapter relates entirely 
 to the unconverted. Their guilt, misery and 
 danger have been briefly pointed out. The writer 
 cannot, however, pass from these observations 
 without expressing the deep anxiety he feels, lest 
 any one should avoid the application of this most 
 solemn part of the subject, through a mistaken 
 opinion that, though just in itself, it is wholly in- 
 applicable to him. Some reader may, perhaps, be 
 induced to entertain such a thought. The very 
 representation already given of the situation in 
 which an unconverted sinner stands, may possibly 
 prove so startling and alarming, that some readers 
 may perhaps seek refuge from it in the thought, 
 that they may possibly be already converted, and 
 that, consequently, what has been said may, after 
 all, not be applicable to their case. If such a 
 thought should arise in the mind of any reader, 
 he will allow me affectionately, but earnestly, to 
 entreat him not to come to that conclusion lightly 
 or hastily. Perhaps you are not quite sure : you 
 may be mistaken. You surely are mistaken if you 
 are resting on the pleasant thought of your re- 
 ligious education, your speculative belief of the 
 gospel, your habits of attention to religious ordi- 
 nances, your early discipleship, your freedom from 
 grof^s vice, or your blameless life. All these, or 
 any one of them, as a ground of hope that you are 
 already converted, will supply me with a sufficient 
 reason for entreating you to read on. Do not, I 
 beseech you, shut the book at this part, and say, 
 4* 
 
43 THE STATE OF THE UNCOxNVERTED. 
 
 " It is for a different class of persons, it does not 
 belong to me." Perhaps you may find that it is 
 expressly for you. If you should be really con- 
 verted, the re-examination of your state can do 
 you no injury whatever, but may do you much 
 good. You will be confirmed by examining your 
 conversion to the bottom : you will then only be 
 established in your happy state. But if there 
 should be any room to doubt its reality, if you 
 should not be able to show that you have under- 
 gone that conversion which Christ requires, then 
 to dismiss the subject at this point, to refuse now 
 to proceed in the perusal of this book, may be to 
 thrust, or even scornfully to dash, " the cup of salva- 
 tion" from you, just as God was putting it into your 
 hands. O, be entreated not to act thus ! It may 
 prove a subject of bitter, unavailing, everlasting 
 regret. A disinclination to read a treatise which 
 proposes to discuss a subject so interesting and im- 
 portant to every human being, under the supposition 
 that it is needless or inapplicable, is a strong pre- 
 sumptive evidence of your being in an unconverted 
 state, and renders it the more necessary that you 
 should be Avarned of your danger. The very disin- 
 clination to proceed would prove an av/ful insensi- 
 bility, and ought to excite in you a fear that you 
 deeply need the instruction that is here offered you. 
 I entreat you, therefore, now to resolve to go on, 
 and read through this whole treatise : or if you are 
 still indisposed to do this, then, at least, as my 
 only hope of doing you good, let me entreat you 
 to turn to those short parts which are addressed to 
 the mistaken and the self-sufficient ; for in these 
 you may find something to convince you that 
 there is the most urgent reason, in your present 
 state of miiid, why you should read the whole. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MEANS WHICH GOD HAS APPOINTED, AND ORDI- 
 NARILY EMPLOYS, IN THE CONVERSION OF SINNEIi-S. 
 
 1. "Thus saltli the Lord of hosts ; Consider 
 your \vays."* No direct means of conversion can 
 be of any avail, until your are brought to serious 
 and deep reflection upon your present state. If 
 it is true that you are yet an unconverted per- 
 son, this is a condition which calls for immediate 
 consideration, and that of the most solemn and 
 serious kind, for it is a state of condemnation. 
 You are under a sentence of exclusion from God, 
 from heaven and eternal happiness. If you were 
 in a situation of temporal danger, danger to your 
 person, or to your worldly interests, you would 
 reflect much upon it. If you were threatened 
 with bodily injur}', with alarming disease, with 
 distress in your circumstances, you know perfectly 
 well that these things would make you very un- 
 easy, deprive you of 3'our rest, and prompt you to 
 reflections and' efforts by which the evil might be 
 avoided or remedied. You Avould not be care- 
 less or indifTerent, if you v/ere told that an assassin 
 waited to destroy you in the road you had to 
 travel. You would not be at ease, if you felt that 
 you had contracted the infection of some dreadful 
 disease. You could not enjoy either pleasure or 
 food, if you had reason to fear that some fatal ca- 
 tastrophe was about to befall you in jonr temporal 
 afTairs. And shall the greatest of all evils bo 
 threatened, threatened by an authority not to be 
 
 43 
 
 'b* 
 
44 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 disputed, and yet no serious reflections be pro- 
 duced ? Will you not begin to think thus : I am 
 a sinner, a great sinner, and I have never yet 
 'thought how I am to escape that perdition which 
 God says awaits impenitent sinners !" O, think 
 on your state ! Seriously reflect upon the misery 
 of being an unpardoned sinner! Think deeply of 
 the inflexible justice which you can neither resist 
 nor escape. Think often, and meditate deeply, on 
 the fact, that if you should die in an unconverted 
 state, you will be lost, forever lost ! Look before 
 you; anticipate consequences, and ask, "Who can 
 dwell with everlasting burnings ? What am I, that 
 I can hope to escape with impimity, or that I 
 should brave the terrors of eternal wrath and in- 
 finite power ?" See how clearly the divine indig- 
 nation is revealed; and assure your heart how 
 certain and destructive will be its visitation, how 
 utterly hopeless the condition of those who shall 
 finally become its victims. Set before your mind 
 this gloomy prospect, and then fathom to the very 
 bottom your sinful heart, that you may fully know 
 how vile and wretched and helpless it is. Well 
 would it be, if you could not merely entertain such 
 reflections now and then, but resolutely take some 
 suitable season, and that without delay, to investi- 
 gate your case, and faithfully write down your 
 opinion of yourself; only taking heed to form your 
 opinion not under the influence of pride, self- 
 complacency, or worldly notions of the goodness 
 of your nature, but by the searching light of Holy 
 Scripture, and with its denunciations and threat- 
 enings against all impenitent sinners clearly and 
 fully in view. Apply no comfort to your soul on 
 account of redeeming qualities, good intentions, 
 alms-deeds, abstinences, or pious observances. 
 
THE MEWS OF CONVERSION. 45 
 
 But remember yo-r very nature is entirely cor- 
 raptcd, and your li .art dead in sin ; that you are 
 a child of wrath, and without any ability either to 
 atone for sin, or appease the wrath of God. That, 
 besides, you are a mortal creature, and, because 
 you may die soon and suddenly, you need an im- 
 mediate salvation, and cannot wait for it till you 
 m.ight merit it by your works, even if a certain 
 amount of them could deserve it ; that, therefore, 
 you can never be happy or safe till you find a 
 complete salvation ready to be enjoyed, and 
 adapted to an unworthy, helpless, guilty soul, 
 that must find all its salvation at once, and in one 
 almighty Deliverer. If you would take pains to 
 review your case in some such way as this, you 
 would find it tend greatly to deepen the sense of 
 your real condition as lost, and thereby to enforce 
 upon you an immediate and an earnest appli- 
 cation to Him who is able to save, and who is 
 willing and waiting to become to you all that you 
 need. 
 
 Moreover, I might enforce the great import- 
 ance of such self-examination, by reminding you 
 of the disastrous effects of inconsideration. It is 
 possible, if you so resolve, to abstain from all such 
 thoughts. You may, no doubt, if such be your 
 determination, shake off or suppress all such re- 
 flections. But would it be rational ? Would it be 
 wise ? Would it be for your happiness ? If you 
 have had so much serious thought already, as to 
 have read the volume thus far, how can you, 
 without being wilfully guilty of destroying your 
 own soul, resolve now, at this very point — '* I will 
 go no further, I will reflect no more. It only 
 makes me uneasy and wretched. I will try to 
 forget it. I will not perplex myself with these dis- 
 
46 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 tressing considerations ; for if I do, I foresee I shall 
 get worse, become melancholy, or sink into de- 
 spair. I will try to rid myself of such thoughts, 
 by mingling in worldly amusements." But gay 
 amusements will not heal a wounded heart, nor 
 effectually quiet an accusing conscience. A French 
 physician was once consulted by a person who re- 
 presented himself as subject to the most gloomy 
 fits of melancholy. The physician advised his pa- 
 tient to mix in scenes of gayety, and particularly 
 to frequent the Italian theatre ; and added, " If 
 Carlini (a most famous comic performer) does not 
 dispel your gloomy complaint, your case must be 
 desperate indeed." The reply of the patient is 
 worthy the attention of those who frequent such 
 places in search of happiness, as it shows the utter 
 emptiness and insufficiency of their amusements. 
 "Alas ! sir," said the patient, " I am Carlini ; and 
 while I divert all Paris with mirth, and make them 
 almost die with laughter, I myself am dying with 
 melancholy and chagrin." The utter folly of resort- 
 ing to such amusements to dissipate serious thought 
 has been proved by thousands. Cardinal Riche- 
 lieu, after he had given law to all Europe for many 
 years, acknowledged the unhappy state of his 
 mind to a friend. When he was asked why he 
 Vv'as so sad, he replied, " The soul is a serious thing ; 
 it must either be sad here, or be sad forever." 
 Now I forewarn you particularly as to this matter, 
 and at this point. You may succeed, if you try to 
 escape from these troublesome reflections, but it 
 will only be for a time ; or if that time should be 
 all the rest of your life, you will find that you 
 have effected nothing for your own welfare and 
 happiness, but, on the contrary, been the greatest 
 enemy to your own real interest. You would not 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSIOX. 47 
 
 admire the mariner who, on the first appearance 
 of a storm, should make no preparation to meet 
 it. You would not commend that person who, on 
 being awakened in the night by the cry of fire, 
 should still close his eyes and recHne again for 
 sleep, without an effort to escape ! But you are 
 called to awake from your sleep of sin, to " arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."* 
 You may perhaps just hear the warning, and re- 
 sign yourself again to fatal lethargy and careless- 
 ness ; and what will be the result ? I tremble to 
 write it ! O, may you shudder and tremble to 
 read it ! You may perish, and perish forever, be- 
 cause you here resolve to think, or read, or reflect 
 no more upon this subject. It may give you pain; 
 but better that it should, if it may lead to your con- 
 version and salvation, than that you should go on 
 till you perish, and find, in the pangs of eternal 
 perdition, the consequences of not considering 
 your danger, when you might have escaped it ; 
 the consequences of not inquiring into your ow^n 
 real case, when you might have found a divine 
 physician waiting to effect a cure. 
 
 Be entreated then to consider your case. Un- 
 used as you may be to reflection and meditation, 
 especially of this kind, yet your case urgently de- 
 mands them; and without them there is no hope. 
 All other means will be unavailing, if you will not 
 reflect upon the present state of your soul. Till 
 you are brought to examine and think seriously 
 and deeply, there is no hope for you ; there can 
 be nothing done ; you cannot be saved. 
 
 2. The word of God is the great means of con- 
 version. " The law of the Lord is perfect, convert- 
 
 • Eph. V. 14. 
 
48 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 ing the soul.'"^^ "Faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the word of God."t " Is not my word 
 like as a fire ? saith the Lord, and like a hammer 
 that breaketh the rock in pieces V^l Before I pro- 
 ceed to point out to you the testimony of God con- 
 cerning the way of salvation, and to press upon you 
 the invitations and promises of the Divine word, 
 it seems important to remind you of the necessity 
 of concentrating your attention upon the one sub- 
 ject, and that the most momentous which can en- 
 gage your thoughts. You are directed to the 
 book of God, to seek instruction upon this one 
 subject — how you are to be saved. It is to aiford 
 you the means of possessing exact knowledge upon 
 this point, that the Bible has been written ; and if 
 you search not the Scriptures v/ith a desire to at- 
 tain this knowledge, if you seek not this pearl of 
 great price, this treasure hid in a field, what- 
 ever else you may have learned from Holy Scrip- 
 ture, you will have read in vain, as to your soul's 
 real advantage. Think, therefore, what it is you 
 now wish to find ; what is essential to your peace 
 of mind, to your preparation for death, judgment, 
 and eternity. Let nothing divert your attention 
 from the one great and absorbing subject — your 
 salvation. You come to the word of God for that, 
 and therefore, in reading it, you must not be satis- 
 f.ed with curious information of ancient times ; 
 v/ith the discovery of things deep and high, beau- 
 titul and entertaining, wonderful and gratifying — 
 things that may enlarge your understanding, aug- 
 ment your stock of knowledge, delight your imagi- 
 nation, improve your practical wisdom; but you 
 must read it as the law of the Lord, perfect, and 
 
 * Ps. xix. 7. f Rom. x. 17. t Jer. i xiii. 29. 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 49 
 
 converting- the soul; the proclamation of divine 
 mercy, addressed to you as a rebel; the charter of 
 all your hopes. You must read it, till you find its 
 light penetrating the dark chamber of your heart — 
 revealing the mystery of iniquity that works there ; 
 read it, till it makes you feel that you are both 
 guilty and condemned ; read it, till it makes you 
 despair of escaping the wrath of God, or satisfyin£- 
 his justice for your past sins ; read it, till you are 
 penetrated with holy awe, under a sense of the di- 
 vine purity and righteousness — until you tremble 
 before its resistless truth and high authority, as 3'ou 
 would before the presence of the eternal Judge. 
 In short, you will have read the word of God to 
 no purpose, unless it has made you shudder and 
 shrink at the view of your sinful and lost condition. 
 It is designed for your conviction and conversion: 
 if you have not found these there, you have read 
 it in vain ; and if ever you are converted, remember 
 it must be by this word of God. But you are to 
 read it not only for conviction ; you must search 
 there for those views of the Saviour which will 
 suit your case, and inspire a hope of mercy. Jesus 
 Christ, in his divine character, his infinite ability, 
 his perfect atonement for sin, the efficacy of his 
 mediation, his readiness to save repenting sinners, 
 must be sought for by you in the sacred book. 
 The object for which it has been written and pre- 
 served in the world, is to proclaim salvation unto 
 sinners ; and you must find salvation in those sa 
 cred pages, salvation through the divine Saviour 
 there set forth, or you will remain in an uncon- 
 verted and lost state. Whatever you hear from 
 Christian ministers, or read in good books, con- 
 cerning your salvation ; or whatever alarms, con- 
 victions, and inquiries may be excited in your mind 
 5 
 
50 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 by these ; nothing short of the authority of God in 
 the Bible must be laid as the basis of your faith 
 and hope. Let all other helps, all other prompters, 
 all other voices, point you to this sufficient and 
 infallible guide. If they are rendered serviceable 
 to you in the matter of your conversion, it must 
 be through the medium of that safe and salutary 
 advice, " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye 
 think ye have eternal life : and they are they which 
 testify of me."* Every other book or tract, friend 
 or minister, must be as a finger-post pointing to the 
 Scripture, and saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of the world. "t There 
 you must find, and there you will find, if you 
 search for him, a divine deliverer from the wrath 
 of God, an atoning sacrifice for all your sins, and 
 a Mediator whose intercession you must engage 
 on your behalf. This is the discovery essential to 
 your conversion and peace of mind. This is the 
 Rock on which you must build your hope, and 
 against which no storms or tempests will be able 
 to prevail. 
 
 Further, as to the frame of mind with which 
 you are to employ this means of your conversion. 
 You must be deeply impressed with the duty of 
 implicitly believing in the grace of that Saviour 
 whom the Bible presents to you. The divine 
 ability, the atoning blood, and perfect righteous- 
 ness of Christ are fully set forth in the Scriptures, 
 that you may cordially receive them, and make 
 them the sole foundation of your hope. If you 
 have any doubts of the authority of God's word, 
 then these must first be removed. For you can- 
 not come to the Bible, to discover your salvation in 
 
 » John V. 39. I John i. 29. 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 51 
 
 the Saviour it exhibits, unless you are thoroug^hly 
 convinced that it is the word of God, and that 
 the Saviour it exhibits is able to save your soul. 
 But supposing, as I have yet supposed all along, 
 that you are no infidel, no denier of this divine 
 , book, no speculator nor quibbler, then I simply 
 ! urge upon you here the duty of opening the Bible 
 I with the firm conviction upon your mind — " This is 
 i the word of God; salvation is here; my Saviour 
 is here set forth ; and I must proceed to search in 
 this book for those truths which are to reach my 
 case, those promises that are to relieve m}'- fears, 
 and become the basis of all my hope of salvation. 
 Here is divine light to instruct my mind, divine 
 love to cheer my heart, divine mercy to forgive 
 my sin, divine grace to renew my soul. If I can 
 but find and appropriate these to myself, I shall be 
 converted, I shall be blessed, and become eternally 
 happy in defiance of all my sin and guilt, weak- 
 ness and misery. I will, therefore, come to this 
 divine volume, as many sick, or blind, or lame, 
 came to the Saviour, saying, 'Lord, if thou wilt, 
 thou canst make me clean;'* 'Jesus, thou Son of 
 David, have mercy on me ;'t 'Lord, I believe; 
 help thou mine unbelief.' "i To quicken your 
 faith in his ability, it will be of importance to im- 
 press upon your mind, how wicked and ungrate- 
 ful it would be in you to harbour one unbelieving 
 thought of his power or his willingness to save, 
 not men in general, but you in particular. Since 
 his promise of salvation refers to all who both 
 need it and are willing to accept it, and contains no 
 exception against any but the unbeliever and the 
 impenitent, you can have no pretence for sup- 
 
 • Matt viii. 2. f Mark x. 47. + Mark ix. 24. 
 
r/i THE MEANS OF CONVERSIOX. 
 
 posing yourself excluded from that general pro- 
 clamation of mercy, which is ratified by the oath 
 of God, and sealed by the blood of Christ. It were 
 an impious reflection upon the wisdom and mercy 
 of God, to suppose that he could have promised 
 forgiveness to all who repent, and yet have in- 
 tended to reject any one that might thus apply 
 unto him. The following passages may satisfy 
 you upon this matter. They ought to remove all 
 hesitation, and they will, if you are in earnest, and 
 read them aright, that is, with a just view of their 
 design ; for undoubtedly they were intended for 
 you, and such as you. "Come now, and let us 
 reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins 
 be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
 wool."* " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye 
 to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
 ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
 without money and without price."! "Let the 
 wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
 his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, 
 and he will have mercy upon him'; and to our 
 God, for he will abundantly pardon. "j "Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and 1 will give you rest,"§ "Jesus stood and 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me, and drink. "i| " The Spirit and the bride say, 
 Come. And let him that heareth say. Come. 
 And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever 
 will, let him take the water of life freely."^ 
 " Wherefore he is able also to save them to the 
 uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he 
 
 * Isa. i. 18. f Isa. Iv. 1. k Isa. Iv. 7. 
 
 § Matt. xi. 28. \ John vii. 37. \ Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 53 
 
 ever liveth to make intercession for them."* 
 "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
 from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we 
 deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If 
 we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for- 
 give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness. "t "All manner of sin and blas- 
 phemy shall be forgiven unto men."+ " There is 
 forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be 
 feared. "§ " Through this man is preached unto 
 you the forgiveness of sins."|| " In whom we have 
 redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness 
 of sins."^ " This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
 of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief. How- 
 beit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me 
 first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffer- 
 ing, for a pattern to them which should hereafter 
 believe on him to life everlasting."** 
 
 These passages may suffice as specimens; but 
 if you have an earnest desire to find more, you 
 have only to open the book, and gather them in 
 abundance for yourself. 
 
 3. Prayer is a means which God has appointed, 
 and which you can employ. It is the direct ap- 
 plication of your soul to the God of mercy and 
 salvation. This is a privilege which he allows, 
 though you are a rebellious and sinful creature ; 
 but it is a privilege accompanied with two abso- 
 lute and universal conditions. The first is, that 
 you shall pray as a guilty sinner ; as one who has 
 utterly forfeited all claim and right, and who 
 
 * Heb. vii. 25. f 1 John i. 7—9. t Matt. xii. 31. 
 
 § Ps. cxxx. 4. 1! Acts xiii. 38. ^ Col. i. 14. 
 
 ** 1 Tim. i. If), 16. 
 
54 
 
 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 casts himself wholly upon the sovereign mercy 
 of the offended Creator. The principal topics 
 of prayer, in connection with the present import- 
 ant subject, should be, (1.) The confession of your 
 sorrow on account of sins, so many and aggravated 
 that you can never fully express them. (2.) You 
 ought to desire of God a still deeper and more 
 just sense of the evil of sin, as committed against 
 the purity, majesty, justice and goodness of God. 
 (3.) Your most earnest entreaties should be put up 
 for strength in your soul to forsake all sin, and to 
 render it increasingly hateful and loathsome to 
 your iieart. 
 
 Another condition essential to the acceptance 
 of your prayer, is, that you should come to God 
 in the name, and only in the name, of Jesus Christ 
 his beloved Son. It is certain, for it is revealed 
 to us, that no man cometh to God but by Christ 
 Jesus ;* and that no prayer of ours can ever be 
 heard with acceptance, that is not offered to God 
 through this medium. In the name of Jesus Christ 
 you may ask for the divine gift of faith, by which 
 you will be enabled to lay hold upon the atoning 
 sacrifice ; for hope, as the anchor of your soul; 
 for humility, submission, peace of mind, and joy 
 in the Holy Ghost. " I am the way," said our 
 divine Teacher and Saviour. And the apostle 
 Paul declares, " There is one mediator," intending 
 to imply that there is no other, " between God and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus. "t 
 
 These being the essential conditions on which 
 you are to avail yourself of the privilege of 
 prayer, I will now proceed to point out more fully 
 what should be the special characteristics of such 
 
 * John xiv. 6. -j- 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 5a 
 
 prayer as should be offered by one wishing- for 
 converting grace. It must, then, be particuhirly 
 directed to a full and frank confession of your sin. 
 Your own reason will convince you, that God is 
 perfectly acquainted with your numerous and ag- 
 gravated transgressions, that his eye has watched 
 and marked all the depraved workings of your 
 heart and actions of your life. It is, therefore, 
 but reasonable that you should confess your sins 
 fully to him, who knows them, and who requires 
 the confession of them, not to inform him, but to 
 prove your own true conviction of your guilt, 
 and to affect your own heart with a deeper sense 
 of its pollution and misery. Any other kind of 
 confession but this will be unavailing. You will 
 but defeat your own object in praying at all, if 
 you do not make the fullest, frankest, and most 
 humble acknowledgment of sin. It will serve 
 no purpose but the aggravation of your guilt, to 
 conceal or palliate any thing. There must be no 
 extenuation, no concealment ; but all must be fully 
 confessed, and truly, sincerely, and penitently de- 
 plored by you. Be neither ashamed nor afraid to 
 confess your sins by name to him that secth in 
 secret : let their multitude, as the sands on the sea 
 shore, be told ; let their aggravation be felt ; let 
 their enormity be deplored — all, all will fall short 
 of the reality. You never can enough consider, 
 enough regret, enough confess and repent of your 
 sins. They are, and they ought to be felt as crimes 
 against God and your own soul ; crimes w^hich 
 no tears, no repentance, no sufferings of yours can 
 ever wash away. 
 
 Remember, also, that you have no plea, no argu- 
 ment, no name to mention, why God should for- 
 give your sins, but that name, that plea, which 
 
50 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 God has himself furnished. The merit of Christ 
 is to be your only plea, and by this alone can you 
 urge your suit before God. Therefore, this must 
 become the foundation of your hope, the great 
 consideration which you are allowed to mention, 
 because God, for Christ's sake only, forgives sin. 
 His precious blood is everywhere in the Bible set 
 forth as afibrding hope to the guilty, that they 
 shall be forgiven and accepted. He says, " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved:" "Behold the Lamb 
 of God:" "Christ sufiered for sins, the just for 
 the unjust :" " The blood of Jesus Christ his 
 Son cleanseth us from all sin."* It is not so much 
 my object, in this place, to explain the great doc- 
 trine of the Christian atonement, as to impress 
 upon your mind the important fact, that you will 
 find true peace w4th God by pleading it, and only 
 by pleading it ; for all other efforts of your desire, 
 or hope, or faith, or repentance, will be unavailing 
 for your acceptance, till you say, with the fervour 
 of true penitence, " Behold, O God, our shield, 
 and look upon the face of thine anointed. "t 
 
 " Consider all the dying pains 
 That my Redeemer felt; 
 And let his blood wash out my stains, 
 And answer for my guilt." 
 
 In connection with your Saviour's atonement 
 for sin, it is necessary you should devoutly confide 
 in the efficacy of his mediation. The doctrine is 
 taught you in the Bible, that " he ever livcth to 
 make intercession. "| That he pleads for those 
 who come to God in his name, and condescend- 
 ingly takes up their suit, and says, "Father, for- 
 give them."§ He has " entered into heaven, now 
 
 • Isa. xlv. 22; John i 29 ; 1 Pet. iii. 18; 1 John i. 7. 
 f Ps. Ixxxiv. 9. t Heb. vii. 25. § Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 57 
 
 to appear in the presence of God for us," "' as a 
 great High Priest, who has entered into the hea- 
 venly sanctuary with his own blood. Upon this 
 subject, if you are not already well-informed, you 
 should read what is recorded in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, chap. ii. 10 — 18 ; iv. 14 — 16 ; the whole 
 of chap. v. and viii. Until you realize the great 
 doctrine of Christ's mediation, set forth in these 
 chapters, and implore the mercy of Christ, and his 
 gracious, all-prevailing intercession, your prayers 
 cannot come up with acceptance. We wish you 
 to feel that there is no one beside Christ to inter- 
 cede for you ; and that this office he has willingly 
 undertaken, and will faithfully perform. Beseech 
 him to raise your mind to a full assurance of his 
 successful interposition. If you come to God 
 only by him, making mention of his name, and of 
 his only, then you will be accepted in the Beloved. 
 
 " Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead, 
 ' Nor doubt the Father's grace." 
 
 Address him in language like this : — " O blessed 
 Saviour, by thy tender love, and by the riches of 
 thy mercy to sinners, I beseech thee, give me thy 
 grace, that I may grieve for my sins, and trust in 
 thy atonement for their pardon. Soften this stony 
 heart ; enlighten this dark mind ; subdue my flesh 
 to the dictates of thy Spirit ; subject my reason to 
 the authority of thy word ; and let my joy be 
 found in thy forgiving love. Pour into my heart 
 the precious streams of thy grace ; speak peace 
 and pardon to my guilty conscience, and leave me 
 not to my unbelief, my guilt, my darkness. Let 
 thy precious blood cleanse me from all my sin 
 and heal all my wounds. Then will I rejoice 
 and bless thy name for evermore." 
 
 * Heb. ix. 24. 
 
58 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 There is one more important consideration, and 
 but one more, in reference to prayer, which I will 
 here lay before you. This, however, it is essen- 
 tial to press upon your attention. Your prayers 
 must contain the earnest expression of your de- 
 pendence upon the influence of God's Holy 
 Spirit, to work in your mind all the requisite dis- 
 positions. For you will probably feel, even in the 
 duty of prayer, considerable distrust and uncer- 
 tainty, whether you possess any right dispositions, 
 or whether you have at all experienced divine 
 grace. Suspicions of your own heart will arise ; 
 and Satan will endeavour either to prevent you 
 from feeling aright, or to persuade you, that what- 
 ever your feelings have been, they are of no im- 
 portance, because they are not gracious ; or that 
 they are merely the effect of fear, and not of love 
 and true penitence ; and will, therefore, prove 
 unacceptable to God. Let me entreat you, there- 
 fore, to depend upon, and to implore, the aid of 
 God's Spirit, both to excite right feelings, to give 
 them power and strength in your heart, and to 
 render them permanent. For it is the doctrine 
 of the divine word, that you can do nothing ef- 
 fectually of yourself; that no saving change can 
 take place without God's assistance ; and that 
 every good purpose, good feeling, and right 
 prayer, must be wrought in you by the operation 
 of the divine Spirit. You will, perhaps, distress- 
 'ngly feel the weakness of your own heart, and 
 will be left to experience the inefficiency of all 
 purposes made in your own strength, unless He 
 strengthens you with his strength in your soul, 
 and enables you both to will and to do according 
 to his good pleasure. Therefore, let this truth be 
 ever present to your mind in all your prayers, 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 59 
 
 that you need his Spirit, and can do nothing right 
 without his aid. This is to be sought fervently 
 and constantly. With a believing, importunate 
 spirit, you are to implore this precious gift, this 
 fruit of Christ's mediation, that the Spirit may 
 help your infirmities, and work in you all holy, 
 pious, and devout dispositions, and the work of 
 faith with power. Your prayers upon this sub- 
 ject are especially to be prompted by the " ex- 
 ceeding great and precious promises" of the 
 Spirit's aid: "Ask, and it shall be given you; 
 seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be 
 opened unto you."'^ "If ye then, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts unto year children, 
 how much more shall your heavenly Father give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that askhim?"t Is this 
 precious, all-important gift to be obtained by 
 asking ? How, then, can one in your circum- 
 stances abstain from asking, or forget to ask, or 
 refuse to ask? since, without it, your heart can- 
 not be thoroughly and savingly turned to God. 
 
 4. Another means which you are to employ, if 
 you desire to be converted, is, hearing the gospel 
 preached. This is a divine appointment for the 
 express purpose of converting sinners. God has 
 sent his ministers to preach his gospel to every 
 creature : and if it is their duty to preach, it is a 
 corresponding duty on your part to hear; to hear 
 it constantly, seriously, attentively, and with de- 
 vout prayer that it may convince and convert 3"ou. 
 But how should you either believe or be saved, if 
 you do not hear the gospel with immediate self- 
 application? "Faith Cometh by hearing.":!: 
 Christ has commanded his ministers to preach 
 
 * Luke xi. 9. f Luke xi. 13. 4 Rom x. 17. 
 
60 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 the gospel to every creature. This is the public 
 announcement of God's mercy, of Christ's love, 
 of the fulness, freeness, and sufficiency of the 
 promised pardon. Can you neglect it now with- 
 out neglecting your own interests, without injur- 
 ing your own souls ? You have abundant oppor- 
 tunities of hearing God's testimony of Christ by 
 the gospel. You can scarcely be placed in any 
 part of the land but it is within your reach. Per- 
 haps you have even a superabundance ; you have a 
 choice out of many faithful preachers. Take heed, 
 then, beth of hearing with an unbelieving heart, 
 and with a reserve for a future day of salvation. 
 Listen to that minister who most faithfully reproves 
 sin, most affectionately warns you of the danger 
 of continuing in impenitence, and most scrip- 
 turally sets forth the Saviour, in his divine ability, 
 his full redemption, liis love to souls, and his 
 grace suflfcient for all. I conceive that t need 
 not enlarge further upon this topic. Surely, if 
 you are desirous of being converted, you will 
 readily find a minister to direct you to Christ. 
 Only hear for salvation, and, looking up to God 
 for his blessing, you will not hear in vain. 
 
 5. And, lastly, I notice under one general ob- 
 servation here, there are miscellaneous means 
 which you may use, and which, though important, 
 can receive only a short notice in this brief trea- 
 tise. They are such as these: Next to your 
 Bible, consult such books as are appropriate to 
 your state of mind, and in which you may find 
 the truth of the gospel enforced in a manner 
 appropriate to your case. At the same time, 
 avoid opening any book that might divert your 
 mind from the great subject of your salvation. 
 Even though such works might be innocent, in- 
 
THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 61 
 
 structive, and proper enough at another time ; 
 yet, if you feel concern for your soul, you must 
 pursue the subject with an ardour not to be 
 quenched ; with a daily thirst to find the water of 
 life. You must make this the great business, 
 which is to be pursued with the utmost avidity, 
 with the deepest anxiety ; and till you find Christ 
 formed in your heart the hope of glory, you ought 
 not to rest, nor allow any thing to divert your 
 mind from the one great object. 
 
 Let me add, God has placed within your reach 
 another important means of assisting you, in the 
 advice and encouragement of Christian friends, or 
 ministers. Some such, I am to suppose, you may 
 find near you ; and I think I may venture to say, 
 you will find them glad to advise you on your 
 soul's concerns. 
 
 Moreover, it is important to avoid all company 
 of an opposite kind, especially that of the thought- 
 less, the gay, or the wicked. Flee from such, as 
 from your worst foes. Their levity may be in- 
 fectious ; their examples may betray your soul 
 into perdition. Avoid, too, whatever engage- 
 ments, or amusements, or recreations might divert 
 your mind from the one subject which you ouo;ht 
 to have ever before you. The salvation of your 
 soul should be your earnest, supreme, and con- 
 stant pursuit. 
 
 Remember, too, how important are fortitude 
 and resolution under the frown or scorn of frivo 
 lous and gay associates. You must brace up your 
 purpose to withstand all such assaults, for you 
 may be exposed to severe trials in these respects. 
 Your former worldly friends will not part with 
 you without making you feel their contempt for 
 your new and strange notions. But you have to 
 6 
 
62 THE MEANS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 consider and determine m your conscience, which 
 is easiest to be borne, the scorn of your fellow- 
 men, or the just and everlasting displeasure of 
 God. Consider, I entreat you, who has said, 
 " The friendship of the world is enmity M'ith 
 God."* "He that loveth father or mother more 
 than me is not worthy of me."t " Whosoever 
 therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my 
 words in this adulterous and sinful generation ; 
 of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, 
 when he cometh in the glory of his Father with 
 the holy angels. "J Some have not been steady 
 in their resolution, nor firm against worldly 
 snares. Two young men, deeply impressed 
 with the importance of salvation and the value 
 of their souls, commenced a religious course 
 together. For some time they kept their vows, 
 and steadily pursued the great object both pro- 
 fessed to have in view. But all at once a change 
 took place in the conduct of one of them. He 
 began to neglect public worship, and became shy 
 of his pious companion. Shortly after, the back- 
 slider was invited to attend a fashionable ball, and 
 assented to the proposal. His companion was 
 greatly distressed at the inteUigence, but still felt 
 firmly resolved, for his own part, to seek the sal- 
 vation of his soul, or perish with the publican's 
 prayer upon his lips. Upon receiving the intel- 
 ligence that his friend was going to the ball, he 
 waited upon him, and, with tears in his eyes, en- 
 deavoured to dissuade him from his purpose, in- 
 viting him to go that same evening to a meeting 
 that was to be held for prayer. But he pleaded in 
 vain. On parting, he said to his pious companion, 
 
 * James iv. 4. f Matt. x. 37. 4 Mark viii. 38. 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION'. 63 
 
 that he must not give him up as lost, for that after 
 he had attended that ball, he intended to make it 
 his business to seek religion. The evening arrived. 
 One went to the prayer-meeting, the other to the 
 amusements of the ball-room. Soon after the 
 opening of the religious meeting, the heart of the 
 young inquirer was set at liberty, and his soul was 
 made to rejoice in the Saviour's love. Soon after 
 the ball opened, the other was standing at the head 
 of the ball-room, holding the hand of a young lady 
 whom he was to lead down the dance. The music 
 was just commencing, when this young man fell 
 backward a lifeless corpse upon the floor. The 
 other was immediately sent for to assist in convey- 
 ing him to his father's house. These two young 
 men were brothers. Reader, learn the peril of 
 trifling with convictions, the danger of yielding to 
 worldly friends, the ruin that may lurk in a return 
 to worldly pleasures, the judgment that may im- 
 pend upon a looking back to the Sodom from which 
 you have once escaped. " RememberLot's wife."* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 Dear reader, if you are convinced that you are 
 yet unconverted, let me entreat you now to attend 
 to a few remarks, which may serve to show that 
 the important and happy change signified by that 
 word may take place ; that it is a thing quite pos- 
 sible, and not the less so, though you should think 
 it impossible. Unconverted persons, when they 
 are brought to think at all seriously upon this 
 
 * Luke xvii. 32. 
 
64 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 change, are very apt to view it as something so 
 difficult as to be next to impossible. Their ig- 
 norance of its nature, and their entire inattention 
 to what the New Testament teaches upon the 
 subject, may explain how it is that they deem it 
 impossible. As soon as they begin to think, their 
 difficulties and discouragements seem to multiply 
 and strengthen, till sometimes they feel disposed 
 to abandon all hope of ever undergoing it. Per- 
 haps they have heard the subject described as in- 
 volving mystery, or in terms which appeared to 
 them unintelligible. 
 
 It is, therefore, highly desirable that you should 
 feel convinced that there is nothing in the nature 
 of conversion to render it impossible in your case. 
 
 1. You are fully capable, as far as your natural 
 pov/ers are concerned, of understanding all the 
 doctrines and facts of the gospel, v/hich are made 
 the means of producing a change. So that you 
 can plead no natural incapacity for understanding 
 '' the truth as it is in Jesus." You can under- 
 stand v/hat it is to be a sinner in the sight of God, 
 to be under the curse of his law, to be in danger 
 of eternal punishment. You can understand what 
 is meant by Christ's atonement for sin ; what, by a 
 gracious forgiveness, a full pardon, and a promise 
 of eternal life. You can, further, understand 
 what is meant by an entire change of character. 
 In so far as these things can be expressed by 
 v/ords, you can understand them, though to feel 
 them may require a more intimate and perfect 
 knowledge. Yet, in this respect, these subjects 
 stand in no worse situation than any other matters 
 of experience. We can understand by words and 
 sentences what it is to think, to move, to live, to 
 reason, to be pained, and to be pleased ; though 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOTR CONVERSION'. 65 
 
 the actual experience of the things expressed by 
 these terms gives us a more clear and complete 
 conception of them. Hence, you ought to be im- 
 pressed with the conviction, that there is nothing 
 impossible, especially if you will pay adequate at- 
 tention, in your apprehending those great truths 
 of the gospel which must be received before con- 
 version can be effected. It is not intended here 
 to intimate that there are no difficulties in the way 
 both of your apprehending and feeling these sub- 
 jects ; but, simply, that there is no impossibihty. 
 You may not only understand them all, and per- 
 ceive their authority and intimate connection, but, 
 by the blessing of God, which you may expect, 
 and are encouraged to ask, you may also feel them 
 in all their force. You can imagine no insur- 
 mountable obstacle in this quarter ; for the truths 
 in question are so simple and plain, that the hum- 
 blest capacity may apprehend them : they are so 
 plain, that even a child may understand them ; and 
 it is quite certain that many children, and persons 
 of very inferior capacity, have understood them. 
 
 2. I observe, your heart, though sinful, is yet 
 as susceptible of that change, called conversion, 
 as the hearts of others who have experienced it. 
 You possess that very nature for which the means 
 of conversion are provided. You can think, and 
 reason, and are susceptible of hope and fear. You, 
 probably, feel that you possess a heart that needs 
 conversion ; for you can hardly deem it fit in its 
 present state to be admitted into God's immediate 
 presence. And you have, doubtless, seen or 
 known some w^ho have imdergone this change. 
 You knew them before their conversion, and you 
 have seen them since, and have perceived a great 
 akeration. Even if you have not approved of it, 
 6* 
 
GG POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 you must have observed it. Then consider this 
 fact: before their conversion they were just in the 
 same state as you now are ; that is, they had not 
 been quickened to a due sense of their sinfulness, 
 but they are now quickened; they had not felt the 
 fearful consequence of dying- in impenitency, but 
 they were made to feel it: they had no aspirations 
 of heart after the holiness of the Christian charac- 
 ter, or happiness of the Christian hope ; but they 
 have cherished these aspirations, and do now feel 
 them as living principles in their heart. These, 
 then, are evidences that human nature, your 7ia- 
 ture, is susceptible of the great change, called con- 
 version. Those who have undergone it were in 
 no way different from yourselves, as to their powers 
 of mind, as to their moral state, as to their natural 
 endowments, or as to their sinful condition; and 
 yet these facts show that they have changed their 
 views, have cherished other feelings, and have 
 become new creatures. The change, therefore, 
 which has passed upon thousands of them, may 
 pass upon you, in so far as this, which is all I am 
 at present concerned to establish, that your nature 
 presents no greater obstacles than theirs ; and what- 
 ever the divine word, fitly received, has taught 
 them, it is able to teach you, if you will attend to 
 it seriously ; and whatever the Spirit of God did in 
 their case, in disposing their minds rightly to feel 
 the word of truth, he is ready to do for you, and 
 you are just as susceptible of his influence as they 
 were. I have no wish to infuse into your mind 
 any self-confidence ; I would not, on any account, 
 induce you to think that you can effect this change 
 unaided or unblessed by God's Holy Spirit. But I 
 would have you view your own nature, however 
 bad it may be, as in no worse condition than that 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVKRSION. 67 
 
 of multitudes who have ah'eady been made sub- 
 jects of converting- grace. 
 
 3. It is quite certain, that many have been con- 
 verted, and become eminent and happy Christians, 
 who were once as averse from conversion as you 
 are, as ignorant of what it is, and as unwilhng to 
 renounce a carnal and worldly state for the sake 
 of the pleasures of religion. Of this you may be 
 quite sure, for many such have testified to these 
 facts, and stated that no hearts could be more 
 fortified by prejudice, or disinclined by evil habits 
 to submit to the divine authority of Christ, or 
 obey him as their Lord and King ; and yet their 
 opposition was subdued, and their hearts inclined, 
 and at last they submitted, and found peace and joy 
 in believing. Now, from these general facts it 
 may be inferred that there is nothing in your case 
 that can place you beyond the reach of that effec- 
 tual grace which has been granted unto so many 
 others. I know it is a part of an unbeliever's dis- 
 position to indulge doubts, and to place imagi- 
 nary difficulties in the way, for the very sake of 
 seeming to throw responsibility from the sinner. 
 He would gladly find reason to lay his destruction 
 at God's door, and prove that, if he is lost, it is 
 not his own fault, because there are, as he pre- 
 tends, insurmountable obstacles in his way. Some- 
 thing of this may be discovered in the case of 
 almost every sinner. He will find himself looking 
 about for excuses by which he may escape from the 
 charge of having destroyed himself; and a sinful 
 heart is always prone to cleave to the idea, that there 
 is an awful fatality, a dire necessity, or impossibi- 
 lity in his case, which prevents him from being 
 saved, though loilling, as he would pretend. 
 Hence, many solace themselves, if I may use such 
 
68 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 a term, with the idea, that if they remain uncon- 
 verted, and are lost, they shall be able to prove that 
 it was not their fault. Satan will, with unceasing 
 effort, labour to maintain such a notion ; and as 
 long- as it is maintained, there is an effectual barrier 
 placed in the mind against believing, because the 
 sense of responsibility in this particular case is de- 
 stroyed, or the heart is deceived into acareless state. 
 Now, there can be little hope of bringing you 
 to a right view of your duty, as to repentance, and 
 faith in God's appointed medium of salvation, as 
 long as any idea of this sort remains. If you ap- 
 prehend there is any barrier to your conversion, 
 placed by nature, or Providence, or the Saviour, 
 you are not likely th make any effort. He who 
 believes any result to be impossible, is not likely 
 to use the means of effecting it, even though he 
 may see those very means accompanied with suc- 
 cess in many similar cases. So the alarmed, but 
 yet unbelieving sinner, is apt to imagine his own 
 case to be a solitary exception, and to indulge this 
 fancy against all fact and reasoning, as well as 
 against the general assertion of Scripture, rather 
 than give up his unbelieving thought of the insur- 
 mountable nature of the barrier which he fancies 
 is placed in his way. But all such discouraging and 
 desperate notions ought to be relinquished. It is 
 impossible that you can have any foundation for 
 them. The gospel is intended for all, without a 
 single exception. Its Author says, he "will 
 have all men to be saved,. and to come unto the 
 knowledge of the truth."* If your vague sus- 
 picion, that you are excluded by some insur- 
 mountable obstacle, Avere true, then the testimony 
 
 * 1 Tim. li. 4. 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. G9 
 
 of God, and of Jesus Christ, would be false. 
 Besides, multitudes who have had the same sus- 
 picions, and laboured under them for long periods, 
 have at length discovered them to be false, and 
 have cordially believed God's testimony, and found 
 the joy of acceptance and reconciliation. And 
 why should not you ? Moreover, you cannot know 
 certainly that any such difficulty really lies in 
 your way. You must admit that it is mere sus- 
 picion, and that you have never resolutely tried 
 to overcome the supposed difficulty, nor earnestly 
 sought divine assistance to remove it. " Who art 
 thou, O great mountain ? Before Zerubbabei thou 
 shalt become a plain."* Be entreated, then, by 
 one who is earnestly desirous of your salvation, 
 who has seen many such suspicions melt away 
 before the truth, to try the effect of fervent, con- 
 tinued prayer. But let your prayer be prompted 
 by a conviction of the ability and willingness of 
 your Saviour to remove this and every obstacle. 
 Select out of the Scripture, and use in prayer, and 
 in faith, some passages which freely promise sal- 
 vation to all, even the chief of sinners ; such as 
 exhibit the abounding of grace above sin ;t such as 
 display the infinite power of God to remove every 
 difficulty, and gather out all the stumbling-stones ;:|: 
 such as challenge the doubting to produce any 
 ground for their fears ;§ such as encourage you to 
 disclose all your heart to God ; " Come now, and 
 let us reason together, saith the Lord."|| Then 
 would your difficulties vanish, your doubts be re- 
 lieved, and divine succour be afforded, to work in 
 you both to will and to do according to God's 
 good pleasure. 1[ 
 
 *Zech. iv. 7. f Rom. v. 20,21. t Isa. Ixii. 10. 
 
 § Jer. viii. 22. B Isa. i. 18. •[ Phil. ii. 13. 
 
70 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 4. It is very common for the unconverted, when 
 they become a little acquainted with their misera- 
 ble and guilty condition, and are somewhat 
 alarmed on account of it, to imagine that there 
 exists a positive decree of the Almighty against 
 them, which absolutely excludes them from for- *. 
 giveness, and seals them up to despair and final ' 
 ruin. Sometimes they even plead this as an excuse [ 
 for their total neglect of religion, and abandonment 5 
 of themselves to a careless and dissolute life. But ' 
 if any reader has entertained such a notion, let me 
 entreat him to consider and examine the founda- 
 tion upon which it rests, or rather, its want of all 
 foundation. He will nowhere find in Scripture 
 any such decree. He would not, surely, pretend 
 that there is any special determination of God 
 against him.self: He would not pretend that any 
 such exists in the Bible ; he would not allege that 
 he has bad any special revelation of it made to 
 him. The only ground, therefore, which he can 
 state for such an opinion, must be some strong 
 impression upon his mind, or some general 
 denunciation of Scripture, in which, by inference, 
 he supposes himself to be included. f 
 
 As to any impression upon his own mind, how- 
 ever strong it may be, he has far more reason to 
 think that it is a mere vain imagination, suggested 
 by a guilty conscience and a despairing heart, or 
 a direct insinuation of the enemy of his soul, than 
 any portion of revealed truth, or any impression 
 wrought by the Spirit of God. It is quite certain 
 that God's Spirit calls upon him, in common with 
 all sinners, to repent ; and this He would not do, 
 if his case were absolutely sealed. There cannot 
 be admitted to exist any disagreement between 
 the dictates of the Spirit in the written word, and 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 71 
 
 the impressions produced by the same Spirit on 
 our hearts. If the Spirit by the word commands 
 and urges the sinner to repent and believe the 
 gospel, the same Spirit cannot suggest to his mind 
 that repentance and faith would be useless, be- 
 cause of a divine determination against his salva- 
 tion. Hence, he ought to give up and abandon 
 his own imagination, as idle, false, tending to his 
 misery and ruin ; and abide by the language of the 
 written word, as clear and infallible, and not to 
 be contradicted by any vague notions or imagina- 
 tions of his own sinful and prejudiced heart. Let 
 God be true to his word, but every imagination of 
 our mind that is opposed to that word, false. 
 
 Some who entertain the opinion now under con- 
 sideration, would, perhaps, plead that very w^ord 
 of God as the authority for it ; and would even 
 endeavour to prove, that there are express declara- 
 tions of God in his word, from which they infer 
 their final condemnation. I have met w^ith many 
 who have long entertained such an opinion. But 
 I have always found, w^hen they have been required 
 to point out the specific passages of Scripture from 
 which they have drawn their inference, that they 
 are merely sentences of condemnation against sin- 
 ners in general, some particular class of sinners, 
 or such as have apostatized from the faith they 
 once professed. All such threatenings are, how- 
 ever, conditional. They bind God to inflict final 
 punishment if the characters so threatened do no 
 repent. But the possibility of repentance is sup- 
 posed in every case, as is evident by the fact, that 
 many such characters, on hearing the threatening, 
 have repented and found mercy. Even some of 
 those clearly defined and awfully threatened by 
 Scripture, have turned from their evil ways, and, 
 
72 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 throuo;h divine mercy, found forgiveness for all 
 their sins, however great and aggravated. This is 
 true, even of such as have been notorious apostates 
 from their first profession. Thus, Peter denied 
 Christ, and yet was restored. Your case is, how- 
 ever, not like his. You have never yet professed to 
 be converted, and therefore cannot be an apostate 
 from the faith of Christ. Passages of Scripture, 
 therefore, which relate to such persons, can have 
 nothing to do with you. You cannot find any sen- 
 tence of exclusion from forgiveness, in passages 
 which relate alone to those who have denied the 
 Saviour, or renounced the faith of a Christian. I 
 wqll suppose, therefore, that you derive your no- 
 tion of a final sentence having already passed 
 against you, from some of those comprehensive 
 and awful denunciations which are directed against 
 sinners in general, or some particular class of sin- 
 ners, as blasphemers, drunkards, unbelievers, and 
 such like. 
 
 Here, then, I wish you to observe, that all such 
 threatenings, throughout the w^hole Bible, are 
 conditional, that is to say, the execution of them 
 is dependent upon their effect. They leave room 
 for repentance. They are employed for the pur- 
 pose of producing it; and their very announce- 
 ment presupposes that God will wait to see their 
 effect, whether they produce repentance ; and 
 that, wherever such repentance is produced, he 
 can no more proceed to execute the threatening, 
 than fail to execute it where it has produced no 
 effect. A clearer illustration of this cannot be 
 presented, than in the case of the Ninevites. A 
 positive threatening was uttered ; a time solemnly 
 fixed for its execution, without any reserve ; no 
 condition was even expressed ; no offer of mercy 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 73 
 
 ever made to them ; and yet the threatening, be- 
 cause it was regarded, because it wrought repent- 
 ance, could not be enforced. The very fact, that 
 forty days were allowed as a reprieve, seemed to 
 imply that there was room for repentance on their 
 part, and mercy on God's. Though the prophet 
 received no commission to say so ; yet the fact 
 proved, that however severe the threatening of 
 God, and however brief the time allowed, yet, if 
 repentance were wrought, he would accept it, and 
 withhold the threatened evil. This is the princi- 
 ple applicable to all the threatenings of God in 
 Scripture against sinners. Although there may 
 be no express offer of mercy in the immediate 
 connection of the threatening, yet there are, else- 
 where in the book, sufRcient testimonies to the 
 readiness of God to exercise such mercy towards 
 repenting sinners of every class and degree. " Let 
 the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
 man his thoughts : and let him return unto the 
 Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to 
 our God, for he will abundantly pardon."* Hence 
 it will follow, that there is no decree of God re- 
 vealed in the Bible that can warrant any uncon- 
 verted person in concluding that, because he is a 
 sinner, or the greatest of sinners, or because he 
 belongs to a special class of sinners, therefore 
 there is no mercy for him, or no possibility of 
 deliverance from the destruction which is equally 
 threatened against all transgressors of God's law. 
 5. We may now proceed somewhat further, 
 and observe — neither is there any evidence of an 
 unwillingness on God's part to forgive your sins. 
 It is no unusual thing for the guilty mind to ima- 
 
 • Isa. Iv. 7. 
 7 
 
74 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 gine and fear this ; but then it must be when that 
 mind loses sight altogether of the revelation of 
 mercy in the gospel, by Christ Jesus. If that be 
 examined, and if its authority be regarded, instead 
 of its being possible for any sinner to discover in 
 it a single trace of unwillingness in God to save 
 him, the very reverse appears in almost every 
 page ; and, indeed, the whole scheme of the gos- 
 ]iel is the most clear, unequivocal, and emphatic 
 declaration of God's willingness to pardon sin, 
 and receive repenting rebels again into his favour. 
 Let me set before you here a few passages as 
 specimens of the general tenor of the divine tes- 
 timony upon this point — the willingness of God 
 to forgive. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I 
 have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but 
 that the wicked turn from his way and live ; turn 
 ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye 
 die ?"^ " Him that cometh to me I will in no 
 wise cast out."t "Ready to forgive. "± "I, 
 even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions 
 for mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
 sins."§ " The Son of man is come to seek and to 
 save that which was lost."i| "Your heart shall 
 live that seek God."^ " Seek ye me, and ye 
 shall live."** "Ye shall seek me, and find me, 
 when ye shall search for me with all your heart."tt 
 Now, against these general and comprehensive 
 expressions of God's mercy and grace, no ex- 
 ception ought to be taken, unless there can be 
 shov/n to be equally explicit ground for it, and 
 unless an authority equally valid and clear can be 
 pleaded. But we are quite sure no sinner, of any 
 
 * Ezek. xxxiii. 11. ■{- John vi. 37. i Ps. Ixxxvi. 5. 
 ^ Isa. xHii. 25. J Luke xix. 10. 1 Ps. Ixix. 32. 
 
 "** Amos V. 4. -j-|- Jer. xxix. 13. 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 75 
 
 description or class, can produce any exception to 
 these testimonies from the book of God ; but, on 
 the contrary, we could show that they have been 
 applied to individual cases of all kinds of sinners, 
 who have found in this a sufficient warrant for 
 repentance, and sufficient comfort in repentance. 
 They hare believed, and found forgiveness and 
 acceptance through the appointed medium of a 
 Saviour's blood. 
 
 0. It is still further incumbent upon me to ob- 
 serve, that all the grace expressed in and by the 
 gospel presents the same aspect towards you as 
 towards all other sinners. We find no exceptions 
 ia the divine word, which could be possibly con- 
 strued into any exclusion of particular persons. 
 The apostles of Christ do not present the general 
 and comprehensive offer of mercy in the gospel, 
 and then qualify or restrict it by mentioning that 
 any particular class, or even any individuals, are 
 excepted ; but they represent it as looking towards 
 all, and presenting a divine pledge or engagement 
 to every one who truly repents and unfeignedly 
 believes the holy gospel. It is perfectly vain and 
 futile, then, for any man to make exceptions which 
 are not in the word ; or to plead that such can 
 exist, when he has no intimation of them, and can 
 by no fair means infer any from Scripture lan- 
 guage, so as to include himself. The only excep- 
 tions that can exist are such as involve a neglect 
 or rejection of the very matters commanded, 
 without a compHance with which there can, of 
 course, be no salvation ; but then these things are 
 repentance and faith, and nothing in the sinner's 
 natural condition. Hence, it is clear, that the 
 ofospel has the same external aspect towards you 
 as towards all, without any exception or quahfica- 
 
76 POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 
 
 tion. It views all as lost and corrupt, and it im- 
 partially requires of all repentance of sin, and 
 belief in the grace of Christ for pardon and ac- 
 ceptance. It represents the blood of Christ as 
 equally efficient towards one as towards another. 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
 from all sin."* It is represented under the figure of 
 " a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness."t 
 It is nowhere said that sinners only of a certain 
 class shall enjoy the benefit of his atoning blood, 
 or that sinners of another class will be excluded ; 
 but, on the contrary, it is said, " He is the pro- 
 pitiation for our sins : and not for ours only, but 
 also for the sins of the whole world."! His in- 
 tercession is represented as continued in heaven, 
 and as exercised on behalf of all that come unto 
 God by him : " Wherefore he is able to save them 
 to the uttermost that come unto God by him, see- 
 ing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. "§ 
 7. I may complete this part of the subject by 
 observing that you are not cut ofTfrom any means 
 of grace w^hich are essential to your salvation, or 
 which others enjoy. You may observe, that the 
 principal means which others have enjoyed and 
 used, and through which they have attained to 
 conversion, are, the word of God read and preach- 
 ed, with access by prayer to the throne of God in 
 the name of the divine Mediator. If you could 
 inquire minutely of these what means they found 
 lessed to their salvation, you would find that the 
 same are enjoyed by yourself. You can read the 
 Bible as well as any other book ; you can hear the 
 gospel explained as well as any other subject : you 
 can as readily devote an hour to prayer and medi- 
 
 * 1 John i. 7. t Zech. xiii. 1 . t 1 John ii. 2. § Heb. vii. 25. 
 
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CONVERSION. 77 
 
 tation as to any other eng-agement. It is of no 
 avail for any one to say, " But there is something- 
 beyond all these which cannot be commanded, and 
 which I have not in my own power." Of course, 
 for what is not in his power he is not to be held 
 accountable, any further than as it may be necessary 
 for him to depend upon the bestowment of it, to 
 implore it fervently, and to rely upon the faith- 
 ful promises which are made relative to its be- 
 stowment. But as to those matters for which he 
 is held responsible, and which are fully within his 
 reach, he may be sure that he has not yet faith- 
 fully employed these. Till he has done so, and 
 done it in dependence upon the divine blessing, 
 he cannot, even to his own conscience, release 
 liimself from his responsibility. Only let the un- 
 converted sinner search the Scripture for salva- 
 tion, and pray in earnest, with perseverance, and in 
 dependence upon the promised and all-sufficient 
 grace of God ; and if he is disappointed of the 
 blessing, he will be the first sinner so left to perish 
 without grace and without hope. Try, sinner ! 
 Let me urge you to put God to the test of his 
 fidelity to his own promise, and you shall soon 
 find Him both a prayer-hearings and answering 
 God. You can have no right to complain, or 
 demur, till you have fully complied with the com- 
 mands of Scripture. Be entreated, then, not to 
 deceive yourself with the fatal mistake, that you 
 have any vindication for your unbelief and im- 
 penitency in the fact that grace is God's gift, since 
 your destitution of that is clearly traceable to your 
 own indisposition to seek it. " Ye have not, be- 
 cause ye ask not ;"* or, you have asked amiss — 
 
 * James iv. 2. 
 7* 
 
78 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 coldly, without sincerity, without faith, and without 
 perseverance. Would you but resolve never to 
 cease asking- till you had received, or never to 
 leave the cross of Christ till you either perished 
 or were saved, you would soon enjoy " the bless- 
 ing, even life for evermore."* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REASONS WHY YOU HAVE NEVER YET BEEN CON- 
 VERTED. 
 
 My intention in this chapter is, to examine the 
 principal reasons which may be assigned for your 
 continuance in a state of unconversion, with the 
 view of impressing your mind more deeply and 
 thoroughly with the conviction of the sinfulness 
 of that state. It is, and it ever will be, quite im- 
 possible for any unconverted sinner to shift from 
 himself the responsibility of being still, by his 
 own free choice, an unconverted man, as long as 
 Christ can say to all such, "Ye will not come to 
 me, that ye might have life."t He must know 
 and feel that he has never yet been willing to be- 
 come a new creature ; has never set himself 
 heartily to pray for it; has never used the means 
 of coming to a full knowledge of the guilt of sin ; 
 and has never anxiously and steadily pursued the 
 inquiry into God's method of salvation. He has 
 not, therefore, acquitted himself of his responsi- 
 bility, and he can in no way escape from the 
 guilt of remaining to the present hour in an un- 
 converted state. While it is clear he has not 
 
 * Ps. cxxxiii. 3. f John v. 40. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 79 
 
 done his part, he can have no excuse for endea- 
 vouring to rid himself of the charge of neglecting 
 his salvation. The reasons, therefore, of his con- 
 tinuing so long unconverted, ought to be placed 
 before him, and pressed upon him with all the 
 force that properly belongs to them. 
 
 Here we observe, 1. That the free and resolute 
 choice he has made of a sinful life, proves that he 
 has never really desired to be converted. He has 
 delighted in evil things, has given a decided pre- 
 ference to a carnal state, and has entered heartily 
 into the vain and sinful pleasures of this life, con- 
 sidering only how he might gratify his body, or 
 please his carnal and sensual mind. He can 
 scarcely have done this without a distinct know- 
 ledge of the better way; and if with such a know- 
 ledge, then his sin is the greater, the more aggra- 
 vated, because his preference is the more clear 
 and resolute. He knew there was a strait gate 
 and a narrow way, leading unto life ; but he pre- 
 ferred to walk in the broad way, that leadeth to 
 destruction, in which the many go.* 
 
 The unconverted reader cannot but be con- 
 scious that he has given his entire heart to the 
 vanities of the world, and to his temporal inte- 
 rests ; and that he has done so even to the conscious 
 disregard of his higher interests ; frequently 
 against convictions of his sinful state, and of his 
 need of an entire change. He cannot but have 
 experienced many admonitions and calls, many 
 inward warnings, which have been utterly disre- 
 garded, and in defiance of which he has continued 
 to live, and to pursue worldly and temporal good. 
 This obstinate adherence to his own sinful ways 
 
 * Matt. vii. 13, 14. 
 
80 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 ought now to appear to him as a positive and di- 
 rect r<3sistance to the will of God. Herein he has 
 shown the depraved tendency of his affections, the 
 perversion of his will to the choice of sin, and the 
 g-uilty neg-lect of his eternal interests, with which 
 he cannot but perceive himself to be chargeable. 
 2. It may be further alleged, that he has been 
 guilty both of inattention to the truth of God, and 
 of disbelief of its most sacred and important prin- 
 ciples ; and this is another reason why he has not 
 been converted. He has not applied his mind to 
 the humble and candid examination of the gospel ; 
 he has not allowed it to operate upon his heart; 
 he has both directly resisted it, and, by indulging 
 dispositions opposed to the truth, has disqualified 
 himself for understanding and feeling it ; has 
 raised clouds of evil passions, which have dark- 
 ened the mind and prejudiced the heart against 
 the dictates of the divine word. At times that 
 word may have been powerfully urged, its author- 
 ity presented to the mind, and its light and power 
 in part perceived, so as to convince the judgment 
 and leave the conscience without excuse. But 
 even all this has been resisted by a corrupt heart 
 and determined will, still urging him forward in 
 the way of disobedience. Probably he has la- 
 boured to fortify his mind by sophistical argu- 
 ments, and by the reading of books designed to 
 prejudice men against the Holy Scriptures. How 
 many have been constrained to confess on a dying 
 bed, that they were kept from an attention to the 
 Bible by the wicked writings of infidels ! The fol- 
 lowing might be a salutary warning. "I was lately 
 called," said the Rev. W. A. Gunn, in a sermon 
 nt Lothbury church, "to attend a young man at 
 Hoxton. On entering- his room, I found him in 
 
REASONS WHY XOT YET CONVERTED. SI 
 
 the greatest horror of mind. Thinking it perhaps 
 arose from the deep remorse of a penitent sinner, 
 I began to point to Jesus, the sinner's only friend. 
 With an agonizing look of despair, he said, 'Ah ! 
 sir, but I have rejected the gospel. Some years 
 since, I, unhappily, read Paine's Age of Rea- 
 son. It suited my corrupt taste. I embraced 
 its principles. After this, wherever I went, I did 
 all in my power to hold up the Scriptures to con- 
 tempt. By this means I led others into the fatal 
 snare, and made converts to infidelity. Thus I 
 rejected God, and now he rejects me, and will have 
 no mercy on me.' I offered to pray for him. But 
 he replied, ' Oh ! now it is all in vain to pray for 
 me.' Then, with a dismal groan, he cried out, 
 ' Paine's Age of Reason has ruined my soul,' and 
 instantly expired." Reader, you may not have 
 gone quite so far. But you have, probably, never 
 carefully and seriously read your Bible ; never 
 opened it with this impression, " Here I must seek, 
 for here alone lean find, the salvation of my soul." 
 This, then, is culpable indifference, practical in- 
 fidelity. 
 
 3. This has, no doubt, been accompanied with a 
 real dislike of God's service. The unconverted 
 sinner may be conscious that he has all along dis- 
 approved the ways of God. It has appeared to 
 him a very undesirable thing to become a real 
 Christian. He has thought it less pleasant to obey 
 God than to follow the corrupt inclinations of his 
 own heart, which he ought to have resisted ; be- 
 cause it is an essential and natural property of a 
 man, to have the power of controlling his propen- 
 sities by a sense of duty and the dictates of con- 
 science. Is it any wonder that a person should 
 remain unconverted, who has been cherishing a 
 
83 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 dislike of the service of God, who has been doing- 
 every thing in his power to alienate his heart from 
 His service by a contrary practice, and who has 
 never contemplated seriously either the honour 
 and happiness of serving God, or the guilt and 
 misery of continuinof in a state of rebellion? Is 
 it any wonder that he should be still unconverted, 
 to whom the very state of subjection to God, im- 
 plied in the term conversion, has appeared odious 
 bondage ; and its opposite state, the only true 
 liberty and the highest delight? Assuredly, there 
 is in these considerations a sufficient explanation 
 of the fact that he is still in an unconverted state. 
 4. Another reason may be pointed out, in the 
 ungrateful inattention which unconverted persons 
 show towards the Saviour. " Light is come into 
 the world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light. ""^ Many such persons profess, indeed, to 
 acknowledge Christ as their Saviour ; but how far 
 they are either from cherishing any sincere and 
 supreme respect for him, or any ardent love, may 
 be inferred from their habitual neglect of him, his 
 teaching, his ordinances, his admonitions and his 
 promises. If he is the divine Saviour, the only 
 Saviour by Avhom we can be delivered from the 
 guilt and dominion of sin, then, the neglect of him 
 must prevent the enjoyment of the blessings he 
 alone can impart ; then, to disregard him is, in 
 fact, to turn away from the only means which 
 could effect our conversion and salvation. Hence 
 it is obvious, that every unconverted person, in a 
 land where the character and gospel of Christ are 
 known, stands chargeable with rejecting the coun- 
 sel of God against himself, and so of resisting the 
 
 John iii. 19. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 83 
 
 means appointed for his salvation. Who can say- 
 that, if he had attended gratefully to the truth as 
 it is in Jesus, and especially to the claims and in- 
 structions of the Saviour of sinners, he might not 
 long since have found the word made the power 
 of God to his salvation ? But though the Sa- 
 viour has appealed to him, and though the word 
 has been in his hand, and though God's ministers 
 have, in his name, besought the unconverted to be 
 reconciled to Him, yet such persons have not at- 
 tended to the word and character of their Saviour: 
 they have turned a deaf ear to " the voice of the 
 charmer, charming never so wisely.'' Is it, then, any 
 wonder that they should yet be in an unconverted 
 state ? Here, alone, is reason sufficient to account 
 for the deplorable fact. Deplorable, because they 
 may have lost many invaluable opportunities, and 
 much time, which can never be recovered. 
 
 5. They may be conscious of the fact, that they 
 have never yet seriously and devoutly chosen to 
 be converted. That very change which they 
 ought to have desired, because it was both reason- 
 able in itself, and essential to their happiness and 
 salvation ; that change which is enforced upon 
 them, and upon all, by the high authority of God, 
 they have never really wished to experience, and 
 never chosen, as a change which they felt to be 
 necessary. Here, then, they may clearly detect 
 the real cause of their continuance in their present 
 unconverted state. While it is thus obvious that 
 they have never wished to undergo it, they have 
 no need to look for any other reason. Their 
 want of this state of mind is their sin ; just as it 
 is the sin of a thief, that he did not choose to be 
 honest, or of a drunkard, that he did not choose to 
 be sober ; and the want of a right will, in a case of 
 
84 REASONS WHY NOT YET COX VERTED. 
 
 clear duty, instead of extenuating the crime, proves 
 that it is crime ; and it is on account of that bad 
 and immoral state of mind that the unconverted 
 stand guilty before both God and man. Had the 
 sinner chosen to be converted, that is, had his will 
 been inclined or determined to the change, it would 
 have taken place long ago ; yea, the very moment 
 his will had been turned effectually, he would 
 have found the power of God working within hi.s 
 soul. But he would not come unto Christ ; and 
 he knows it. He knows that he never has yet felt 
 his heartdeterminately fixed upon that conversion 
 which God requires. This is what, I think, you 
 will be conscious you have never felt. You can- 
 not but know that you never did calmly and fully 
 resign and commit yourself to the hand of Christ. 
 Although you are conscious that you have often 
 heard his command to repent and believe the 
 gospel ; although you have often felt convinced 
 that you were a sinner, and in danger of eternal 
 perdition ; although you have all along known, 
 and perhaps secretly confessed, that you are bound 
 to repent and seek the salvation of your soul ; yet 
 this very act of choosing to do so, and proceeding 
 to put your choice into execution, you have never 
 done. But, on the contrary, you have trifled with 
 the great business, delayed it, and excused your- 
 self, perhaps in some very subtle and sophistical 
 manner, for this hesitation and reluctance. Now, 
 this is the very state of mind which the Scripture 
 represents, as proving those who are in it guilty of 
 that sin of sins — unbelief. The Saviour says, " Ye 
 will not come to me, that ye might have life.""*"^ 
 When he mourned over the people of Jerusalem, 
 just before his death, he reproached them with this: 
 • John V. 40. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 65 
 
 « Ho\v often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen e:athereth her chickens 
 under her wings, and ye would notr'= Now, could 
 he or would he have laid this at their door, if there 
 had been no sin in it, or if it admitted of any rea- 
 sonable and valid excuse ? Assuredly he would 
 not. He could not have reproached them if they 
 had not been, in this respect, highly culpable. And 
 is it possible vou can deem it any other than a very 
 ffrave and awful matter, never yet to have solemnly 
 willed to be changed in heart and character, when 
 called to it bv so high an authority, when urged to 
 it by a clear sense of your sin and danger ? burely 
 you must not merely admit the fact that it has been 
 so, but that it involves very deep guilt, so to have 
 neglected your soul's salvation, or so to have per- 
 sisted in a course that you knew was opposed to 
 the will of Jesus Christ. When there ought to have 
 been a perfect agreement, an absolute identity, 
 between your will and his on the matter, there has 
 been the" most direct opposition. He would, but 
 vou ivould not. Yea, when he expressed his will 
 in the plainest lancruage, and enforced it in the 
 most commanding manner ; when he even conde- 
 scended to add entreaty the most affectionate and. 
 uro-ent, to admonition the most solemn and awaken- 
 in? ; still you did not coalesce, nor feel at all more 
 indined to comply, but resolutely held out, or drew 
 back, to the indulgence of your sinful heart, under 
 cover of some excuses as vain as they were delusive 
 Unconverted reader, let me entreat you to look 
 back, and consider how very often you have dis- 
 tinctly detected this opposition of your wdl to the 
 Saviour's, and always maintained your resolution, 
 al w a ys retained the secret decision of your will 
 "' * Matt, xxiii. 37. 
 
 8 
 
hvJ REASONS WHY NOT YET CON^'ERTED. 
 
 Still to continue as you were. It is grievous to 
 think that this has been the case every time God 
 has made a direct and distinct appeal to your con- 
 science, every time you have been sensible of the 
 authority of his word in any powerful command 
 to repent, every time a light has been inwardly 
 granted, either to show the way to the cross by re- 
 pentance, or the way to perdition by disobedience. 
 So that if you have been a hearer of the gospel, or 
 religiously educated, you must, many hundreds 
 and thousands of times, have felt the divine author- 
 ity and love of your Saviour weighing in your 
 mind against the fascinations of a sinful state ; and 
 just so many times you have, by distinct acts of 
 your will, chosen to go on in your unconverted 
 state. Your present condition, then, is one of 
 much guilt. There is a vast aggravation of crimi- 
 nality in those acts of your will which have de- 
 cided against the light of truth, against the plain 
 commands of your Saviour, against the powerful 
 attractions of his love. It is said, "That servant 
 v/hich knew his Lord's will, and prepared not 
 himself, neither did according to his will, shall be 
 beaten with many stripes."* Can you deny that 
 a clear case has been made out against you of a 
 resolute and fixed purpose of will to remain op- 
 posed to the command of your Saviour ? He says, 
 " Repent." You have virtually said, " I will not." 
 He says, " Be converted." You say, " I Avill not 
 be converted." And on this ground, therefore, you 
 stand clearly and fully convicted before God. 
 
 0. I am well aware that many of the uncon- 
 verted, and especially such as have enjoyed Chris- 
 tian instruction, are disposed to plead in extenua- 
 ti on of their unwilling ness, that they cannot give 
 
 * Lr.ke xii. 47. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 87 
 
 themselves grace ; and that such is the nature of 
 their sinful state, that they cannot change for the 
 better, and that they cannot will otherwise than 
 they do. I believe this is a very prevalent excuse 
 Avith the unconverted of a certain class, and that 
 it is an indication of a state of mind greatly hard- 
 ened and alienated from the fear of God. This 
 is an attempt to throw off the responsibility from 
 themselves, and to insinuate that their being un- 
 converted is rather their misfortune than their sin. 
 If this is the view or feeling of any reader of 
 this treatise, I hope he will patiently allow me to 
 expostulate with him .upon the extreme improba- 
 bility of the issue of his case proving as he may 
 expect : and for this reason, that the Scripture no- 
 where admits that the unwillingness of the sinner 
 is to be palliated or excused in any degree, or 
 charged upon any one but himself. So that, sup- 
 posing his plea even appeared plausible, and did 
 not admit of any satisfactory reply on the ground 
 of reason, still Scripture is so much, so univer- 
 sally against the plea, that he might, on that 
 ground alone, be sure there was a fallacy in it ; 
 and that if it were acted upon, and looked to for 
 a valid defence at last, it would utterly fail. But 
 the very fact of God's threatening those that re- 
 fuse ; of his having severely punished many who 
 have done so ; his assurance that they will at last 
 be without excuse ; and the further fact, that we 
 often see a fearful retribution inflicted upon those 
 who have refused, through the power of a guilty 
 conscience, and in their own agonizing sense of 
 the moral wrong that they have perpetrated in re- 
 fusing ; these considerations alone w^ould form a 
 strong presumptive evidence, amounting to a suf- 
 ficient proof, that there must be a delusion some- 
 
88 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 where in that man's mind, who feels disposed to 
 throw the responsibility of continuing in impeni- 
 tence from himself, either upon the laws of his 
 nature, or the sovereignty of God. Such con- 
 siderations might be sufficient to induce him to 
 abandon so insecure a refuge for his conscience, 
 and lead him to the conclusion, that God will as- 
 suredly be justified when he speakcth, and be 
 clear when he judgeth.* 
 
 But may not the unconverted himself perceive 
 the very essence of the fallacy he indulges ? Is 
 there not room for a direct appeal to his own con- 
 sciousness ? He knows that he cannot sincerely 
 plead any constraint upon his will. That which 
 arises from the evil habits he has indulged, is pro- 
 perly no constraint, but a cherished desire ; no 
 violence done to his will, but a distinct preference 
 the will itself gives to that of which he affects to 
 complain as a grievance and a necessity. Is he 
 not conscious of the very same freedom of choice 
 in rejecting the command of God, as in complying 
 with any sinful propensity ? Is he not just as 
 much atliberty when he prefers to continue in his 
 unconverted state, swayed as he is by the mo- 
 tives which incline to a life of sin, as when he re- 
 solves to eat his food, to attend to his business, or 
 to pursue his pleasures ? Surely he must admit, 
 that he is conscious of acting in all these cases 
 under the impulse of the same free-will. What 
 right, then, can he have to select one case, and 
 endeavour in that to rid himself of all respon- 
 sibility, by pleading the weakness of his will to 
 do what is right, and its strength to do what is 
 wrong ? If he is a free agent in one of these 
 acts, so he is in all. The bad inclination or the 
 * Ps. li. 4. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 89 
 
 bad habit is no extenuation of the deed ; because 
 still it is a deed of choice, and not of constraint 
 against choice ; and of this he is and must be 
 conscious. He cannot but be convinced, in defi- 
 ance of all sophistry and all palliation, that he 
 really has chosen, hitherto, the course he has 
 pursued ; he has wilfully resisted God's command 
 and Christ's entreaty, and just as wilfully pre- 
 ferred an unconverted state. 
 
 The extreme absurdity of expecting that he will 
 be able to justify himself by the plea supposed, 
 may be still further evinced, by just taking- up any 
 other case in which the depravity of the will has 
 been displayed by the breach of moral obligations. 
 How absurd it would appear, even to the party 
 with whom I am now reasoning, to hear a dis- 
 obedient servant, or an undutiful child, reply, when 
 charged with the violation of duty, "Very true ; I 
 do not deny the charge, but my will was 'indis- 
 posed to comply ; and, you know, I could not help 
 my will being opposed to yours !" Suppose a 
 criminal, arraigned for robbery or murder, arguing 
 in his defence upon the same principle — " I did 
 not choose to be honest ;" or, " I know I willed to 
 commit that murder, and I could not help doing 
 according to my will." Now, all these cases would 
 appear the more aggravated by the distinct ac- 
 knowledgment of the will having deliberately 
 chosen so to act ; and every impartial man, instead 
 of admitting that such a plea removed responsi- 
 bility, would say, that the criminality was hereby 
 made the more obvious, that the guilt was placed 
 precisely at that very point, and that this wilfulness 
 was the"^ very thing which constituted the guilt, 
 for without that there could have been none. 
 The unconverted person, v;ho pleads his in- 
 
90 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 ability, or impotency of will, to choose God's com- 
 mands, or to submit his heart to the authority of 
 the Saviour in the business of repentance and faith, 
 should remember, that he is pleading nothing- to 
 the point ; nothing that God either \vill or can ad- 
 mit, or ought to admit. He ought to be aware, that 
 he is not pleading that he had no will of his own 
 in this business ; if he could do that justly, it might 
 avail ; but his whole plea is, that, with the natural 
 power to will, he had an inclination to will what 
 his conscience and judgment told him was evil. 
 This is, therefore, no excuse in the sight of God, 
 but the very highest proof of guilt. He labours 
 under a grievous fallacy, therefore, who imagines 
 that he can make out a valid extenuation of his 
 impenitence and unbelief, by referring to this sub- 
 tle question of his Avill. He would do much bet- 
 ter by humbly acknowledging that all the guilt lies 
 upon his own head; and that, when he shall ap- 
 pear in the judgment, he will undoubtedly be 
 speechless before that righteous Judge, who now 
 "commandeth all men everywhere to repent;"* 
 and who will then say, " These mine enemies, 
 which would not that I should reign over them, 
 bring hither, and slay them before me."t 
 
 Let me faithfully forewarn the reader, that all 
 his excuses will be found a refuge of lies. All 
 his metaphysical sophistry is opposed to the plain, 
 common-sense view of the ca:se. Facts are be- 
 fore reasoning, and more weighty than opinion ; 
 and he may rest assured, that the repose he seeks 
 for, in these false refuges of a corrupt and per- 
 verted reasoning, Avill be disturbed at last by the 
 stern reality of his condemnation. "The bed is 
 shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it : 
 • Acts xvii. 30. f Luke xix. 27. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 91 
 
 and the covering- narrower than that he can wrap 
 himself in it."* 
 
 7. It is, however, necessary to observe and 
 point out here an opposite error, into which others 
 fall; an error of presumption, no less fatal, and, per- 
 haps, even more prevalent, than the one just com- 
 bated. It consists in supposing that, because they 
 feel they have a will of their own, they can direct it 
 to the discharge of this spiritual duty of repentance 
 and faith at any time ; and so they defer the duty 
 under the false notion, that when they choose, the 
 great work can be done. But this notion is just as 
 perilous as that Avhich would release the will from 
 all responsibility. This would represent the will 
 of man as alone efficient, while the other would 
 reduce it to a cipher. In the one case the uncon- 
 verted would sink the idea of the will altogether, 
 as if they had none ; in the other, the}'^ would 
 make it omnipotent. How perverse are the 
 thoughts of transgressors ! 
 
 It is evident from the Scriptures, that the real 
 truth lies in neither of these extremes. And so 
 our experience proves it to be. For, after every 
 attempt, on the one side, to escape from the guilt 
 of impenitency, it still cleaves to the conscience ; 
 and, on the other, many who have been self-suf- 
 ficient and presumptuous, and depended upon their 
 own strength of purpose, and future good inten- 
 tions, have been constrained in anguish to confess 
 their hardness of heart, and to acknowledge that, 
 as they had refused the call of God, he had left 
 them to be filled with the fruit of their doings. 
 It is certain, that he who presumes upon his future 
 ability to perform spiritual duties, does not under- 
 stand the real weakness of his soul tOAvards all that 
 * Isa. xxviii. 20. 
 
92 REASON'S WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 is morally and spiritually g^ood ; does not know, 
 nor feel, the corruption of his whole nature, nor 
 the perverting- influence which evil affections 
 exercise over his will. The promise of pardon and 
 grace is to those who repent when the testimony 
 is addressed to them ; not to those who promise to 
 repent and helieve at some future period. This 
 would be to parley and barg-ain with God for a 
 continuance in sin. His nature, as well as his 
 word, forbids it. He who thus presumes to 
 defer obedience to the divine testimony, is a 
 stranger to the dependence of sinful man upon the 
 grace of God for so important an act as that of 
 repentance. Does he know or believe the word 
 of Christ, "Without me ye can do nothing;"* 
 "No man can come to me, except the Father 
 which hath sent me draw him ;"t and does he 
 presume, that of his own unassisted free-will — a 
 will altogether under the influence of corrupt 
 motives hitherto — he can choose at any time to 
 return to God, and change his own nature ? A 
 mortal, sinful man ought to tremble at the thought 
 of such temerity. Or does he imagine that, after 
 suffering the accepted time, now, to pass; the time 
 in which compliance on his part would have 
 placed him in a happy conjunction with sovereign 
 power ; after treating the supreme command with 
 indifference and delay; after resolving to continue 
 unconverted, zvil/ing to reject the present offl-r, 
 that he may continue in sin — he shall be able to 
 obtain, and God will be obliged to impart, those 
 gracious influences, without which he can neither 
 be converted nor saved ? 
 
 In true conversion, there is required a right af- 
 fection of the heart: this is what he cannot give 
 * John XV. 5. fJohnvi. 44. 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 93 
 
 to himself. For it he is dependent upon the 
 grace of God ; and tiiis he can have no scriptural 
 warrant to expect, if he neglect the present call, 
 and reject the Lord's accepted time. For that 
 grace he is dependent now. His entire hope of 
 receiving it is involved in an immediate and hum- 
 ble casting of himself in faith upon the promise, 
 which is implied in the expostulation, " To-day if 
 ye will hear his voice."* 
 
 8. I must not omit to notice, among the reasons 
 why some have never yet heen converted, the pre- 
 dominant love of an easily besetting sin, which 
 holds the soul fast after it has felt itself willing to 
 give up all other sins. This is a cause which ex- 
 tensively operates in the minds of persons awaken- 
 ed to a sense of their danger. Sin, in some of its 
 forms, perhaps in all but one form, may appear 
 exceedingly sinful ; but if it retain its dominion in 
 only one particular, the soul is still its slave. This 
 may be an easily besetting sin, a sin which you 
 excuse to yourself, which you extenuate and 
 diminish ; but it is a true saying of Scripture, " A 
 little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."t A little 
 leak will admit water enough to sink a ship. A 
 little spark will kindle a fire that may burn a 
 house, or a city. So, what men call a little sin, 
 and which they would have spared, because it is 
 little, and alluring, will corrupt and subjugate the 
 whole soul. Let sin but possess the affections of 
 the heart, and it will run like poison through the 
 blood. How can the salvation of the soul be pur- 
 sued, if even a single sin is cherished ? The very 
 thought of making provision for it, proves that 
 the heart is not right in God's sight : the attempt 
 to conceal it is vain, and can be attended only 
 
 * Heb. iii. 7. f ^al. v. 9. 
 
94 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 with disappointment and disgrace. Be assured 
 that, in the indulgence of any sin, or sinful affection, 
 there is evil enough to counteract all your anxiety 
 after salvation. Now, it may be the case, that 
 you have long had your thoughts directed towards 
 the desirableness of securing by faith an interest 
 in Christ ; but, at the same time, you have had a 
 secret inclination to some forbidden iniquity, or 
 you have been living in some sinful gratification ; 
 and if so, here you may discover the reason why 
 you have never found peace or hope. If sin 
 reigns, it is directly hostile to grace. You may 
 have been in the habit of reading the Scriptures, 
 and of attending to other means whereby reli- 
 gious impressions are produced, and religious 
 habits maintained. But these do not constitute 
 conversion. That, as already shown, is the entire 
 surrender of the heart to Jesus Christ. It neces- 
 sarily implies the sacrifice of every sinful habit, 
 every corrupt affection. Jesus Christ came to 
 save his people from their sins ; and that man 
 cannot be a partaker of converting grace, who 
 would desire any one of those sins to be excepted 
 from the destruction to which all are alike doomed. 
 If, then, you feel that you are yet unconverted, 
 though you may have attended to some of the 
 means of conversion, be entreated to consider, 
 whether there is not yet an easily besetting sin, 
 which forms the great obstacle, the counteracting 
 influence, which keeps you from an entire surren- 
 der of your heart to Christ. 
 
 9. Another reason why you have not been con- 
 verted before, may be found in the fact, that you 
 have often neglected impressions made upon your 
 mind, and disregarded convictions which, on 
 many occasions, have been brought home to you. 
 This is frequently the case Avith those who have 
 
REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 95 
 
 attended upon the faithful ministry of the word, 
 and observed some religious duties. Perhaps you 
 have had your sinful state clearly set before you ; 
 you have felt anxious for your salvation ; you 
 would gladly have attained to the same peace and 
 hope of which you have heard Christians speak. 
 But you have suffered some difficuhies to deter 
 you, or some seductions of the world to draw you 
 aside, and so your impressions have subsided and 
 your convictions have been effaced. The Spirit 
 of God may have spoken to you in the still small 
 voice of conscience, or in the solemn warnings of 
 the Holy Scriptures ; but to all these you have 
 turned a deaf ear, or you have endeavoured to 
 forget them. There was, perhaps, a time Avhen 
 you were near the happy decision ; but some delay 
 was suggested, or some difficulty arose to view, 
 and all the previous convictions were overcome. 
 The sin and danger of trifling with these convic- 
 tions is illustrated in other parts of this volume, 
 and need not be enlarged upon here ; they are 
 mentioned now, only to remind you how clearly it 
 is your own fault that you have not been con- 
 verted before. 
 
 10. Finally, it may be proper to observe, that 
 the conversion of some is delayed because they 
 labour under mistaken views of what should be 
 done in order to conversion. A mind that is 
 powerfully impressed with the importance of sal- 
 vation may be impelled, and frequently is, to set 
 about amendment, and commence a new course 
 of life, without exactly knowing what is the direct 
 method of obtaining forgiveness of sins, and, fre- 
 quently, without employing suitable means for 
 gaining instruction. Those sources of information 
 are not consulted, from which alone it might be 
 at once and clearly learned, that every convinced 
 
96 REASONS WHY NOT YET CONVERTED. 
 
 sinner must first come to Christ, and immediatelj'- 
 receive his promise of salvation. The inevitable 
 consequence is, a vain and fruitless labouring for 
 life by means of a reformation begun in human 
 strength. If a mistake of this kind is committed, 
 it leads to disappointment, and places conversion 
 at a greater distance than ever. The general 
 mistake is, to place duties before faith, reforma- 
 tion before coming to Christ. And wherever this 
 is the case, there is a manifest neglect of the 
 divine admonition, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved."* A sinner maj" 
 say he is using the means of salvation, while yet 
 he has no other idea than that an external reforma- 
 tion is all he needs. In such a case, he is rather 
 using the means to work out a righteousness for 
 himself, than following the directions of the divine 
 word, to repent of sin, and believe in the blood of 
 Christ for its pardon ; and vrhile so doing, he is 
 not converted, nor in the way to conversion. This 
 reason alone, without any previously mentioned, 
 may be sufficient to explain why you have not 
 been converted before. 
 
 Repent, therefore, now, and come to Jesus with 
 a grateful, believing heart, and this will be con- 
 version : then will follow submission to his yoke, 
 obedience to his commands and delight in doing 
 his will. Herein consists the difference between 
 the true gospel of the grace of God, and much 
 that passes under the name of religion. Some 
 place duties and reformation first, and Christ after- 
 Avards ; the word of God places Christ first, and 
 duties as the fruit of union to him. If you wish 
 to see this matter more fully explained, you are 
 referred to those chapters which treat of the Mis- 
 taken^ and the Self-sufficient. 
 
 * Acts xvi. 31. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REASONS WHY YOUR CONVERSION SHOULD TAKE 
 PLACE NOW. 
 
 If conversion be a real blessing, and most essen- 
 tial to your happiness ; if it be a change from a 
 bad state to a good one, from a state of danger to 
 one of safety ; then, assuredly, the sooner it takes 
 place, the better. There can be no reason offered — 
 none, at least, that can be valid — for continuing in a 
 state of sin and danger, while a change is possible, 
 and while every thing invites you to it. But this 
 is not the only view which ought to be taken of 
 the subject ; there are others, which will enforce 
 still more emphatically and directly the urgency 
 of this change. These I will now proceed to lay 
 before you with all fidelity and earnestness, hoping 
 and praying that the force of the reasons may con- 
 strain you to an immediate acquiescence in the 
 divine call, " Be converted."* 
 
 1. Your conversion should take place now, be- 
 cause you enjoy at this moment sufficient means. 
 I am to suppose that you possess the word of God, 
 that you hear the gospel preached, and have ac- 
 cess to the throne of the heavenly grace through the 
 divine Mediator. - 1 am to suppose you are aware 
 of the great facts Vv'hich are included in the gospel ; 
 that you are not ignorant of the invitation of Jesu 
 Christ, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;"t and that 
 you are no stranger to the important and glorious 
 doctrine of his atonement. You already know, 
 that he gave himself to be a ransom for sinners ; 
 
 *Acis ill. 19. f Matt. xi. 28. 
 
 9 97 
 
y© WHY YOUR CONVERSION 
 
 and that he has sent the proclamation forth to all, 
 that whosoever believeth on him shall be saved. 
 All that is necessary, so far as a knowledge of the 
 gospel is concerned, you enjoy at this moment; 
 then, why not close now with the divine call, and 
 receive Jesus Christ into your hearts ? " What are 
 you afraid of, that you dare not venture your soul 
 upon Christ ? Are you afraid that he cannot save 
 you ; that he is not strong enough to conquer the 
 enemies of your soul ? But how can you desire 
 one stronger than 'The mighty God,' as Christ is 
 called ?* Is there need of greater than infinite 
 strength ? Are you afraid that he will not stoop so 
 low as to be willing to take any gracious notice of 
 you ? But, then, look on him as he stood in the 
 ring of soldiers, exposing his blessed face to be buf- 
 feted and spit upon by them ! Behold him bound, 
 with his back uncovered to those that smote him ! 
 And behold him hanging on the cross ! Do you 
 think that he who had condescension enough to 
 stoop to these things, and that for his crucifiers, will 
 be unwilling to accept of you, if you come to him ? 
 Or are you afraid, that if he does accept of you, 
 God, the Father, will not accept of him for you ? 
 But consider, will God reject his own Son, in 
 whom his infinite delight is and has been, from 
 all eternity ; and who is so united to him, that, if 
 he should reject Him, he would reject Himself? 
 There is nothing further to be looked for, in the 
 way of any other Saviour, no new revelation of 
 truth, nor any further means of grace. If you in- 
 dulge an idea that you need any other, you do but 
 deceive yourselves ; for God has already granted 
 you the gospel, and that points out to you the free 
 access which is afforded to all through Christ Jesus, 
 
 * Isa. ix. 6. 
 
SHOULD TAKE PLACE NOW. 99 
 
 that the}' may come to God in prayer, and plead 
 the efficacy of that blood which was shed for the 
 remission of sins. Think of this, then : the price 
 of true wisdom is placed in your hands ; if you use 
 it now, you will obtain the gift ; if you neglect it, 
 youdo virtually refuse it, or unreasonably continue 
 in a state of hostility against God, which is itself 
 exceedingly sinful, and, if persisted in, must draw 
 upon you a sentence of exclusion from his favour 
 forever. What a culpable delay would he be 
 guilty of, who, while labouring under disease, 
 with a physician standing before him and offering 
 a remedy known to be effectual, should show re- 
 luctance, and, from some trifling excuse, defer the 
 use of the means prescribed ! I am well aware, 
 that many sinners imagine they may safely defer 
 this important step ; and that they often delude 
 themselves with the fancy, that there will come a 
 more favourable opportunity, or some more ef- 
 fectual means ; and thus they cheat themselves 
 out of the proper use of those they now possess, 
 under the false notion, that they are to wait for 
 something further, or to expect a more favourable 
 conjuncture. But the present is, in fact, the only 
 time allowed ; and those who neglect it may find 
 that the golden opportunity has been lost, lost for- 
 ever. " Now is the accepted time."^' If this is 
 the acceptable time, what more could be desired 
 by any one ? It is the divine authority which 
 declares this ; and it is equally certain, that this 
 is said of no other period. He, therefore, who 
 rejects this, or who still pleads for delay, loses 
 the only time to which God himself has attached 
 this important epithet, accepted, which surely 
 means that you may, and indeed shall, be accept- 
 
 * 3 Cor. vi. 2. 
 
100 WHY YOUR CONVERSION 
 
 ed. Would any man wish for any other ? Could 
 he fix upon a period which should afford a 
 brighter hope? Or what, beyond such a pledge 
 of divine acceptance, could be desired? If con- 
 version includes acceptance with God, as well as 
 a change of your mind, and both these must con- 
 cur at some time, if you are ever saved ; if, 
 further, you cannot command God's favourable 
 acceptance of you, but must receive it as an act of 
 his free grace ; then, his accepted time should be 
 yours — gratefully, fervently embraced, lest that 
 which you may deem a time more acceptable 
 to yourself, should prove not to be so with Him. 
 Your time, therefore, should be His. The very 
 fact, that His acceptance of you is an act of grace, 
 ought to enforce this upon you. For he who 
 needs an act of grace, and at the same time desires 
 it, must receive it when the conceding party offers 
 to grant it, or it may pass away and never return. 
 This, then, is just the situation of every uncon- 
 verted man. He cannot become converted with- 
 out the grace of God ; that grace announces the 
 present to be the favourable time, pledges itself to 
 the bestowment of it noiv, if there be a true faith, 
 but makes no reserve for a better season, or for 
 any other — no pledge for a future day. The sin- 
 ner, therefore, who knows his true situation, and 
 feels the risk he would run by delay, will surely 
 not think of waiting for a more convenient season, 
 seeing this is the most favourable, the only time 
 sure to him, and the only one to which the high 
 and sovereign Being, on whom he absolutely de- 
 pends for his salvation, has annexed the term 
 "accepft'rf," saying, "To-day if ye will hear his 
 voice, harden not your heart."* To-day Jesus 
 
 * Heb. iv. 7. 
 
SHOULD TAKE PLACE NOW. 101 
 
 is set before you as both an able and a willing- 
 Saviour. I'o-DAY he says, "Come unto me :" to- 
 day he opens his arms for your reception : to- 
 day he admits you to the throne of grace : but 
 remember, if it should appear to you not an ac- 
 cepted time, not yet convenient, or not yet de- 
 sirable to forsake your sin and flee to the Saviour 
 you have, literally, no promise whatever of an 
 other opportunity, no authority to attach the term 
 accepted to any future time. 
 
 2. But let me distinctly press upon you the 
 consideration, that God expressly calls upon you 
 to be converted noiv. He does not say. Take 
 the subject into consideration, and when you have 
 seen the propriety of it, then obey. But at once, 
 and on the spot, and in the same moment in which 
 He announces the Creator's will. He requires the 
 compliance of the guilty creature ; and, by allow- 
 ing no space for delay or dispute. He forbids you 
 to hesitate even for an hour, but obhges you to an 
 immediate compliance. And do not think this 
 either strange or hard. For herein God does but 
 assert his proper prerogative, and place you in 
 your proper situation, as a rebel against his 
 authority, and a guilty offender, dependent alto- 
 gether upon his free mercy for salvation. In no 
 other way, certainly, could an oflended God treat 
 with rebellious creatures. Submission, instant 
 submission to his authority, and instant reliance 
 upon his free and sovereign mercy in Christ Jesus, 
 is the only method which it becomes him to adopt. 
 This is conversion ; this is immediate conversion ; 
 this is what we intend by your conversion taking 
 place noiv. Here, then, we say, is a reason — a 
 reason paramount to all others — a reason from 
 which vou cannot appeal, and the force of which, 
 9^ 
 
102 WHY YOUR CONVERSION 
 
 it is hoped, you both admit and feel, why you 
 should at once be converted to God. " God now 
 commandeth all men everywhere to repent."* 
 " Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at 
 peace. "t " Seek ye the Lord while he may be 
 found, call ye upon him while he is near.":}: Our 
 Saviour says, " Agree wiih thine adversary 
 quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him."§ 
 
 These views might be further confirmed, by 
 showing how God has expressed his anger against 
 those who have refused and delayed, and by re- 
 ferring to those Scriptures which express his 
 displeasure generally against all who do so. As 
 in the book of Proverbs, he says, " Because I have 
 called, and ye refused, "|| &c. The parable of the 
 ten virgins, in the 25th chapter of Matthew, shows 
 what shall be the treatment of those who neglect 
 the accepted time. The shutting of the door 
 against the foolish virgins teaches us, that de- 
 layers may apply too late, and that if they refuse 
 God's appointed time, he may, in anger, swear, 
 " They shall not enter into my rest."^ 
 
 3. It is proper here distinctly to remind you, 
 that you do not know that you shall enjoy any 
 other time besides the present. You cannot look 
 forward and say, I shall live till next year, or till 
 I find more leisure, or till I have settled affairs 
 that now engross my time and attention. You 
 cannot say, I shall live till to-morrow, and will 
 then give my best attention to my soul's affairs. 
 " For what is your life ? It is even a vapour, that 
 appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth 
 away."** Even while you think to enjoy some 
 future period, the fatal sentence may have passed 
 
 • Acts xvii. 30. f Job xxii. 21. t Isa. Iv. 6. § Matt. v. 25. 
 II Prov. i. 24. Tl Heb. iii. 11. ** James iv. 14. 
 
SHOULD TAKE PLACE NOW. 103 
 
 the lips of your patient and long-suffering Lord, 
 "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground T''^ 
 Do you not constantly hear of sickness and death 
 invading persons at all ages and under all cir- 
 cumstances? Even those that felt most secure, 
 and seemed, according to human judgment, most 
 likely to live, have been cut off in a moment, or 
 so severely affected by disease as to be incapable 
 of attending to this most important concern. And 
 I may say, not only have these things been, but 
 they* are constantly occurring around you on 
 every hand ; so that no man can say, " I am safe ; 
 I have made a covenant with death." God grants 
 you the present time for the discharge of this 
 imperative duty, the first, the highest, and the 
 most essential, an immediate turning of your heart 
 from the love and practice of sin, a full and unaf- 
 fected confession of guih, and the earnest entreaty 
 of the divine forgiveness through the blood of the 
 great atoning Sacrifice. 
 
 4. Your conversion ought not to be delayed 
 longer, because you may effectually and forever 
 exclude yourself from that grace which is now 
 offered. This may take place in two ways, from 
 either of which the utmost damage may result to 
 your immortal soul. (1.) By the hardening effect 
 of that state of impenitence in which I suppose 
 you to continue, and to continue by a direct pur- 
 pose of your mind. You resolve not yet to seek, 
 not yet to receive the grace of God for your con- 
 version. The very effect of that resolve upon 
 your mind and heart, is to produce an increased 
 degree of insensibility to your sin and danger, a 
 greater degree of hardihood against God, and a 
 more reckless spirit in reference to the threatened 
 * Luke xiii. 7. 
 
104 CONVERSION SHOULD TAKE PLACE NOW. 
 
 issue of sin. The more your conscience is inured 
 to the possible consequences of transgression, while 
 yet those consequences are at a distance, the less 
 does conscience feel or fear ; the longer you 
 practise evil, the less docs conscience feel it to be 
 evil, the more familiar does it become with the 
 evil, and the less moved by the dread of its ter- 
 mination. These are facts observable in the his- 
 tory of sin and sinners, and they ought to make 
 you afraid of continuing any longer under the 
 dominion of sin, lest you should grow insensible, 
 even past recovery. No sinner can tell when 
 that time may be passed, or at what period he may 
 become so callous that no future means may be 
 powerful enough to quicken him to an alarming 
 sense of his danger, and of the evil of his sin. 
 As all sin tends to lull the conscience and the 
 moral feelings, just as any sleepy drugs tend to 
 overpower the senses ; so, in both cases, there 
 may be a point beyond which no powers of alarm 
 that can be used will be of any avail. (2.) But 
 there is another view which you ought to consider 
 here. The unconverted very often delay conver- 
 sion, under the idea that something in providence 
 will arise, some event occur, or some impression 
 be made upon their minds, v/hich will suggest to 
 them, that " Now is the set time come :" for these 
 extraordinary signs they wait, instead of going at 
 once to confess their sins and seek divine for- 
 giveness. We have shown already, that God's 
 time for your repentance is, when he calls you to 
 it. That time, therefore, has arrived. Improve 
 it now. If you delay past the present moment, 
 in which God employs his summons to arouse 
 you, it is possible that he may be so offended by 
 this additional act of inattention, as to afford neither 
 
THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 105 
 
 means nor grace any longer, but in anger with- 
 draw both, and proceed to judgment, by givino; 
 you over entirely to yourself. There is such a 
 fearful thing sometimes occurring; and though we 
 cannot say in what cases it has really taken place, 
 yet we may suspect it, when it becomes evident 
 that God, in anger, leaves men entirely to them- 
 selves. He said of some, '' So I gave them up 
 unto their own hearts' lust : and they walked in 
 their own counsels."* "Ephraim is joined to 
 idols : let him alone. "t This abandonment of 
 the sinner by God, must, indeed, be a most 
 fearful thing ; for, in it, the case of the unhappy 
 transgressor becomes as hopeless as if he had 
 already passed into the place of punishment, 
 and the eternal state of suffering. Suppose it per- 
 fectly true, that we do not knov\^ and cannot fix 
 the period in any particular case, when this has 
 taken place, and, therefore, cannot, and dare not 
 say of any individual, he is absolutely abandoned 
 of God ; yet, this very fact, of the difficulty of say- 
 ing when and where a man has arrived at this 
 crisis, should make us shrink from risking it, and 
 earnestly endeavour to prevent it, as an evil of the 
 most fearful and stupendous nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 
 
 Most who will take the trouble to read this book, 
 will have had some previous exercise of mind 
 concerning their conversion, and, perhaps, will 
 
 • Ps. Ixxxi. 13. f Hos. iv. 17. 
 
106 THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 
 
 be conscious of having made some ineffectual 
 efforts towards it. Perhaps some will read it, 
 who have been long- convinced of the necessity 
 of conversion, and have been desiring it, as they 
 may think, very earnestly; but they have found 
 hitherto little encouragement, and, perhaps, no 
 ground at all to conclude that they have under- 
 gone the great and momentous change. There , 
 must have been some serious error, or deficiency, ' 
 in all these states of mind ; there must be some 
 radical principle wanting, or else, just views 
 already gained, and right feeling already ex- 
 perienced, might have led on to the full enjoyment 
 of the blessing. Perhaps there has been an over- 
 sight, or even a criminal neglect, of the divine 
 promise of the Holy Spirit's influence. Many, 
 who hear conversion explained and enforced from 
 the pulpit, as essential to salvation, do enter- 
 tain occasional wishes that they may be converted ; 
 but with how inadequate a notion of its nature, or 
 of the means by which it is to be effected, is 
 evinced in the failure of their good purposes, the 
 subsidence of their anxiety, and their continuance 
 in a state of uneasiness and unregeneracy. May 
 not such persons discover an obvious neglect of 
 w^hich they have been guilty, in disregarding the 
 promise of God's assistance? ■■ 
 
 1. We may take occasion here to enforce upon 
 you the necessity, the absolute necessity, of such 
 divine assistance, from the failure of the many 
 attempts which you have already made. 
 
 You have made such endeavours, but it has 
 been without any adequate sense, perhaps without 
 any sense at all, of your dependence upon divine 
 aid. There has not been, at such times, a dis- 
 tinct recognition of your own insufficiency, nor of 
 
THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 107 
 
 your need of divine grace to help you ; hence, all 
 such attempts have failed, and you have been left 
 to feel your own weakness, that you may not trust 
 in yourself, but in the living God. If you look 
 back, therefore, upon your own past experience, 
 you may find the most humbling and emphatic 
 proof of your need of divine help ; and may, 
 hence, derive a valuable lesson, to urge you now 
 to seek that help which is so freely and fully 
 offered to you. If you have found all your resolu- 
 tions fail, and all your convictions subside, you 
 may be sure you have not believed God's word, nor 
 complied with the divine testimony, concerning 
 conversion. You may look back and see, in your 
 own disappointment the folly of which you have 
 been guilty, in not casting your helpless soul upon 
 the promised grace. Your sins, so often triumph- 
 ant, and the snares of temptation, so constantly 
 successful, all witness to the weakness of that na- 
 ture which has been so long and so vainly aiming 
 at a change of heart, in utter neglect and disre- 
 gard of the inspired intimation, that you must 
 experience divine power in your soul, and accept 
 divine assistance. Surely, you will now begin to 
 see that you have only been deceiving yourselves 
 with vain hopes, and expecting, or seeking to 
 accomplish that by your own unassisted efforts, 
 which, you have been forewarned, requires the 
 Holy Spirit's grace and assistance. 
 
 2. Let me then remind you of the high au 
 thority on which such promises of divine help 
 rest. It is God himself who has granted these 
 promises, and sealed them to you in the most 
 solemn manner, as sure and unfailing. It is im- 
 possible for any of God's promises to fail, and that 
 class of them which particularly relates to sinners 
 
108 THE PROr.IiSE OF CONVERTING GRA.CE. 
 
 finding mercy and grace upon turning to him, are 
 as full and clear, as sure and unfailing as any 
 others. The infinite compassion and kindness of 
 God, in recording them for your encouragement, 
 ought to incline you to an instant renunciation of 
 sin, and an entire reliance upon the grace which 
 is exerted whenever the soul is made willing to 
 turn to God. '' Look unto me, and be ye saved. "*^ 
 "The Spirit helpeth our infirmities."! "If ye, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your Father which 
 is in heaven give good things (or, as it reads in 
 Ijuke xi. 13, the Holy Spirit) to them that ask 
 him V'i " I will pray the Father, and he shall 
 give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. "§ "And 
 Avhen he is come, he will reprove" (or convince) 
 " the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of 
 judgment."'! The very fact that such promises are 
 recorded, shows the helplessness of a sinner, and 
 points out his resource. Their proper effect upon 
 you should be, to awaken a firm reliance upon God 
 for their accomphshment, and to convince you that 
 you cannot take a single step of any importance 
 v/ithout his effectual grace. If you neglect, or 
 even if you do not cordially receive and rely upon 
 these promises of divine help, you can expect 
 nothing but failure and disappointment. You 
 may lay it down as an infallible truth, that all 
 your efforts will be unavailing to secure your sal- 
 vation, unless you are brought fervently to plead 
 the promises of God in prayer, and confidently to 
 look for their fulfilment. Think of the Supreme 
 authority, which declares your nature to be as 
 
 * Isa. xlv. 22. j KoRi. viii. 26. t Matt vii. 11. 
 
 § John xiv. 16, 17. 5 John xvi. 8. 
 
THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 109 
 
 morally helpless as it is guilty, and as much in 
 need of grace to help as of mercy to pardon. The 
 representation of these great first principles is 
 made in the holy word, for the purpose of remov- 
 ing every false ground of hope, of inducing you 
 to despair of your own sufficiency, and of inspiring 
 you with the hope that all your sufficiency shall 
 be of God. Thus emptied of yourself, you will be 
 both prepared and concerned to be filled with 
 God ; his power shall then be exerted to work all 
 your works in you. It may appear to some of you 
 not unlike a paradox, to say, that when you are re- 
 duced to a state of desperation, as to yourself, you 
 will then be nearest to hope, as it regards God ; for 
 you will find this the only proper state of mind for 
 the reception of his promised and all-sufficient aid. 
 3. We may also call you to observe, that the 
 blessed and happy result of salvation is pledged, 
 by these infallible promises of God, to all who rest 
 in them, and derive their entire support from 
 them. Here is the object to which faith must 
 direct its eye, the foundation on which faith is to 
 build. It is exhibited so fully, clearly and gra- 
 ciously, for the purpose of inspiring your mind 
 with confidence ; and the very contemplation of it 
 in a right spirit, as it is simply a matter of gracious 
 revelation, will work faith in your heart ; that 
 faith will bring you into the enjoyment of the 
 blessing ; power shall be given you from God, 
 and cause you to feel your heart warmed with the 
 love which he displays in the gift of his Son, and 
 in all his gracious influence upon your soul, to 
 enable you to receive Christ as yours. You may 
 not be able to perceive beforehand how these 
 things should be ; but in submitting your soul to 
 them, in endeavouring to meditate humbly and 
 10 
 
110 THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 
 
 devoutly upon them, you will become conscious 
 of their wonderful power, and feel the divine 
 energy they possess, in that only way by which 
 tliey can be effectually known, even by experi- 
 ence. If, indeed, you are in earnest to enjoy that 
 sound and saving conversion to God, to which it 
 is the humble object of this treatise to direct you, 
 then you will at once abandon all specious ob- 
 jeclions, and all idle notions of your own, and 
 just go to the divine directory to be taught and 
 formed, submitting your heart in all things to be 
 cuided by its dictates, and resolved to follow out 
 the path it sets before you, and to pray for that 
 divine influence which it teaches to be indispens- 
 able : and, in all, resting upon the many gracious 
 promises you will there find suited to every stage 
 of your experience, and to every exigence of your 
 soul. If you can indeed humble yourself to re- 
 ceive all as the free gift of grace, and if, in receiv- 
 ing the gift rightly, you can be content to be 
 Avrought upon by Him that " worketh in us both to 
 will and to do of his good pleasure," *" then the joy 
 of salvation shall be yours ; " The peace of God, 
 which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
 hearts and minds through Christ Jesus ;"t and you 
 shall feel yourselves the subjects of that transform- 
 ing power of the Spirit, which will work mightil}'- 
 within, to the pulling down of the strong-holds of 
 sin and Satan. You desire to know the momen- 
 ous secret of "joy and peace in believing.'":}: Is 
 not this the great object you profess to seek ? Is it 
 not to be brought into this state of heart that you 
 have long been labouring and striving ? Is it not to 
 attain this joyful and happy liberty that you have 
 so often been asking, " What must I do to be 
 
 • Phil. ii. 13. f Phil. iv. 7. i Rom. xv. 13. 
 
THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. Ill 
 
 saved ?" Is it the great, commanding object of you r 
 desire ; that which really appears to you the most 
 desirable and the most important of all blessings ? 
 Is it indeed that, for the possession of which you 
 have sometimes thought you could gladly give up 
 all, and in preference to which you know of no- 
 thing you could either esteem or value "? O, then, 
 this is* the very blessing which God is willing to 
 bestow ; this is the very boon his promises hold 
 forth to you; this is the gift, and the blessing, 
 which he reproves you for not seeking, for not 
 even accepting when offered : and if but once you 
 are brought to an entire reliance upon his promise 
 of grace,"the blessing shall be yours. Nothing can 
 prevent your possession and enjoyment of it, for 
 it is sealed to each, to all that lay hold on the 
 promise of eternal life. The Spirit takes of the 
 things of Christ to show them unto you.* 
 
 Let me, therefore, entreat you once more to 
 think what inexpressible excellences meet in Him 
 who is recommended to you as the only Saviour. 
 "What is there you could desire in a Saviour, 
 that is not in Christ? Or, wherein should you 
 desire a Saviour to be otherwise than Christ is? 
 What excellency is there wanting? What is 
 there that is great or good ; what is there that is 
 venerable or winning; v/hat is there that is adora- 
 ble or endearing ; or what could you" think of that 
 would be encouraging, which is not to be found 
 in the person of 'Christ? Would you have your 
 Saviour to be great and honourable, because you 
 are not willino^ to be beholden to a mean person ? 
 And is not Christ a person honourable enough to 
 be worthy that you should be dependent upon 
 him ? Is he not a person high enough to be ap- 
 * John xvi. 14. 
 
112 THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 
 
 pointed to so honourable a work as your salva- 
 tion ? Would you not only have a Saviour of 
 high degree, but would you have him, notwith- 
 standing his exaltation and dignity, to be made 
 also of low degree, that he might have experience 
 of afflictions and trials, that he might learn, by the 
 things that he had suffered, to pity them that suffer 
 and are tempted? And has not Christ been made 
 low enough for you ? And has he not suffered 
 enough ? Would you not only have him possess 
 experience of the afflictions you now suffer, but 
 also of that amazing wrath that you fear hereafter, 
 that he may know how to pity those that are in 
 danger and afraid of it ? This, Christ has had ex- 
 perience of; which experience gave him a greater 
 sense of it a thousand times than you have, or 
 than any man living has. Would you have a Sa- 
 viour to be one who is near to God, so that his 
 mediation might be prevalent with him ? And can 
 you desire him to be nearer to God than Christ is, 
 who is his only begotten Son, of the same essence 
 with the Father ? And would you not only have 
 him near to God, but also near to you, that you 
 may have free access to him ? And would you 
 have him nearer to you than to be of the same 
 nature, united to you by a spiritual union, so 
 close as to be fitly represented by the union of 
 the wife to the husband, of the branch to the vine, 
 of the member to the head ; yea, so as to be one 
 pirit ? For so he will be united to you, if you 
 accept of him. Would you have a Saviour who 
 has given some extraordinary testimony of mercy 
 and love to sinners, by something that he has done 
 as well as by what he says ? And can you think 
 or conceive of greater things than Christ has done ? 
 Was it not a great thing for him, who was God, to 
 
THE PROMISE OF CONVERTING GRACE. 113 
 
 take upon him human nature ? To be not only 
 God, but man. thenceforward to all eternity? But 
 "vvould you look upon suffering for sinners to be a 
 greater testimony of love to sinners, than merely 
 doing, though it be ever so extraordinary a thing 
 that he has done ? And would you desire that a 
 Saviour should suffer more than Christ has suf- 
 fered for sinners ? What is there wanting, or 
 what would you add if you could, to make him 
 more fit to be your Saviour?" 
 
 Then let me call you to reflect upon the hap- 
 piness and peace which you will experience in 
 feeling the Spirit bearing witness that Christ is 
 yours and that you are his. There is one me- 
 thod, and but one, whereby these joys can ever be 
 experienced by sinners. That is the way of faith. 
 Other ways you have tried in vain. Now try 
 this. Store up the word of promise in your heart ; 
 direct your desires to the Spirit of grace ; contem- 
 plate his gracious Avork Avith confidence and satis- 
 faction, and cry unto Him, and say "Come, O 
 divine Spirit, take away the heart of stone, and 
 give me one of flesh !" And if you are still con- 
 scious, deeply conscious, that you do not yet feel 
 his quickening influence, let your supplications 
 be unceasingly and fervently renewed, wrestle in 
 prayer till Christ be formed in your heart the hope 
 of eternal glory. Faint not at delay; yield not to 
 discouragement. The cause of such delay, and 
 of such discouragement, is yet in yourself. 
 
 10^ 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 It is only intended in this chapter, very briefly 
 to state the principal marks which indicate the 
 reality of conversion. Those which we shall 
 name, may not all appear at once. The reader 
 is, therefore, cautioned not to be discouraged 
 if he cannot find every mark in the early stage 
 of his experience. They may all appear in due 
 course. Let him observe, that there are some 
 signs which will speedily become apparent, when 
 the Spirit of God has commenced his work in the 
 soul. Other signs may exist in principle, but it 
 may require time to call them into exercise, and 
 to bring them to that strength and maturity which 
 can alone make their existence obvious and satis- 
 factory. A seed, as soon as its first germ appears, 
 proves its vitality, and begins to show its own pe- 
 culiar properties, just as certainly as when it has 
 reached its perfection. Some of its peculiar pro- 
 perties appear immediately; all the others are 
 there vitally and in embryo, and, in due time, 
 the entire development of all the essential pro- 
 perties of the plant will take place. The same is 
 true of human nature. It would be impossible 
 to discover, and absurd to seek, all the properties 
 of the perfect man in the new-born babe ; yet 
 they are there, and will display themselves in the 
 order of nature. We make these remarks to 
 guard those who, in the commencement of the 
 work of grace in the soul, are anxious to perceive 
 evidences of conversion, against being discouraged 
 if they cannot discover at once all the signs that 
 may be here named, or which they may find de- 
 111 
 
THE MARKS OF COXVLRSIOX. 115 
 
 tailed in treatises written expressly upon the evi- 
 dences of a state of grace. 
 
 1. Perhaps the first symptom of which the con- 
 verted become conscious, is a change of their feel- 
 ings in reference to sin, the pleasures of the world, 
 and the chief objects of their former pursuit and 
 delight. These cease to please. The soul that is 
 converted receives a new nature, to Avhich sin is 
 offensive, and the very thought of it alarming. 
 The change which a converted sinner has ex- 
 perienced, consists essentially in a turning of the 
 thoughts and affections, the will and the conscience, 
 to God's commands ; and by the light and au- 
 thority of these he is made sensible to the great 
 evil, great guilt and great misery of all sin. He 
 ceases to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the 
 lusts thereof; and though he may feel the law 
 of his flesh warring against the new law of his 
 mind, yet the very existence of that war shows 
 that a divine principle, counteractive of sin, has 
 entered and is in active operation among the 
 powers of his soul. This is a sign which, if calmly 
 considered, can hardly be mistaken. A nature 
 that delights in sin cannot be confounded with 
 one that hates it, feels contaminated by its ap- 
 proach and pained by its touch. The nature that 
 takes no delight in holiness, and feels no anxiety 
 to become holy and to please God, is directly op- 
 posed to that which views sin as the cause of all 
 its misery, and purity as essential to peace and 
 salvation. Hence, if a man is converted, he be- 
 gins immediately to mortify the flesh with its af- 
 fections and lusts; to deny ungodliness and world- 
 ly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly 
 in this present world. There is to him a force and 
 meaning which he never perceived before, in such 
 passages of Holy Scripture as the following : " Now 
 
116 THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 being made free from sin, and become servants to 
 God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end 
 everlastinig life."* "I delight in the law of God 
 after the inward man."t " How shall we, that are 
 dead to sin, live any longer therein ?"J " Follow 
 holiness, without which no man shall see the 
 Lord."§ The true convert not only must not be, 
 but he ivill not be, disinclined to forsake even his 
 easily besetting sin, and to strive after that purity 
 of heart which will identify him with a holy God 
 and a holy Saviour. Say, then, reader, whether 
 you are brought to that state of mind, that you 
 can cheerfully renounce all that is pronounced 
 evil by the word of God, and folloAv after that 
 purity of heart and life which is pronounced bless- 
 ed ?|| If you find, after careful examination, that 
 you can do this, then you have one important mark 
 of conversion, which, with others, may determine 
 the fact ; but if this be wanting, if sin be still your 
 element and holiness undesirable, be sure, what- 
 ever your convictions and alarms, that you have 
 not yet experienced true conversion. 
 
 2. Conversion cannot have taken place, unless 
 you have been humbled as a sinner under the 
 sentence of God's holy law ; so humbled, and so 
 convinced, as to acknowledge before God the 
 justice of the sentence that condemns the sinner 
 to everlasting punishment. It is possible, indeed, 
 that one who has not experienced conversion, may 
 be convinced of his guilt, and may acknowledge 
 the justice of his sentence ; but, in such a case, 
 there will be no turning of the heart to Him that 
 smiteth. no godly sorrow, or sorrow that draws the 
 heart to Him ajjainst whom sin has been committed. 
 
 * Rom. vi. 22. f Rom. vii. 22. i Rom. vi. 3. 
 
 § Heb. xii. 14. il Matt. v. 8. 
 
THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 117 
 
 who has the power and the right to punish, but 
 who is wiUing to pardon. Examine your own 
 heart upon this matter, and ask yourself such ques- 
 tions as these : Have I been led to see the deep and 
 universal depravity of my nature ? Am I convinced 
 that a righteous Crod might justly mark my iniqui- 
 ties, and proceed to execute against me the dread- 
 ful sentence I have incurred, the sentence of 
 everlasting exclusion from his presence, and ba- 
 nishment to that place where despair and torment 
 must forever reign ? Have 1, under the influence 
 of these convictions, humbled myself before God, 
 and said, with the apostle, " The law is holy, and the 
 commandment holy, and just, and good. But I 
 am carnal, sold under sin."* Since then, I de- 
 serve nothing but justice, and by my sins have 
 forfeited every thing good, have I thus come to 
 God, to seek all through his infinite forbearance 
 and mercy ? Have I told him my convictions, 
 spread my deplorable case before him, and said, 
 Lord, save, or I perish? 
 
 3. Another important sign of conversion will 
 appear in the state of your affections towards the 
 Saviour. Are you drawn to him as the one Me- 
 diator between God and man, the only Redeemer 
 of the soul, whose blood has been received as an 
 atonem.ent for sin, and whose righteousness is to 
 all and upon all those who come unto God by 
 him ? Do you view him as the way, the truth, 
 and the life, without whom no man cometh unto 
 the Father ?t Are you led to place all your hope, 
 and repose all your confidence, in his perfect 
 atonement, his prevailing intercession, his justi- 
 fyincf righteousness ? Are you looking to him as 
 the divine source of gracious influence, from 
 whose fulness alone you can r eceive pardon, jus- 
 *~Romans vii. 13, 14. t John xiv. 6. 
 
118 THE MARKS OF CONVERSION". 
 
 lification and sanctification ? Forsaking all other, 
 and renouncing all confidence in your own reso- 
 lution, obedience, or righteousness, are you will- 
 ing, yea, anxious, to receive, as he is ready to 
 confer, all the blessings of salvation and grace now, 
 and of glory hereafter? Do you not only enter- 
 tain these sentiments, but are your affections 
 warmed with a sense of his excellence, and your 
 heart melted by the contemplation of his dying 
 love ? Do you delight, and feel strengthened by 
 looking to Jesus, in the divinhy of his nature, the 
 greatness of his condescension, the tenderness of 
 his compassion to the chief of sinners ? The soul 
 that has felt his converting grace, has especially 
 felt it in the view of Calvary ; and, indeed, can 
 never revert to that scene of the Saviour's suffer- 
 ing, without a mingled emotion of grief and joy : 
 grief, that it should be necessary that Christ 
 should endure such suffering ; and joy, that he 
 was willing thus to redeem a lost world. If your 
 affections are right toward Christ Jesus, you will 
 value him above all earthly treasure, and desire a 
 sense of his love before every human joy. He 
 will be the chief among ten thousand, and alto- 
 gether lovely. You wnll desire nothing so much 
 as to " -win Christ, and be found in him."* You 
 will love his bright example, as well as the un- 
 speakable blessing of redemption ; and you will 
 set him before your soul as the pattern of that 
 humility, purit}-, separation from sin, and devoted- 
 ness to the glory of God, which you will both 
 earnestly desire and sincerely strive to attain. 
 To do to others, in some measure, as he has done 
 to you, will be your aim and your delight. 
 
 4. The true convert takes pleasure in all God's 
 commandments. If they are hateful or grievous, 
 t Phil. iii. 8,9. 
 
THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 119 
 
 there can be no evidence of conversion. This is 
 a part of that course by which all the true sons of 
 God are to prove the sincerity of their love. Have 
 you such delight in. God's service, that you can 
 forego temporal interests and worldly pleasure ? 
 Are you conscious of a real hungering for the 
 bread and thirsting for the water of life ? It is 
 written, " They that wait upon the Lord shall re- 
 new their strength."* Since God has appointed 
 the reading and hearing of the word, prayer, 
 praise, and Christian fellowship, therefore the 
 soul of the convert delights in them. But there 
 is an essential difference between doing all these 
 Ihings mechanically, slavishly, and formally, for 
 the mere sake of recommending ourselves, or 
 meriting the divine favour ; and doing them from 
 a sense of love and of gratitude, of pleasure and 
 privilege. A formalist may very zealously strive 
 to keep God's commands ; but he knows nothing 
 of the spirit of love, of liberty, and of adoption. 
 The real servant feels Christ's yoke to be easy 
 and his burden light. It is his meat and drink to 
 do the will of God. But he who has not given 
 his heart to God, may serve him only from slavish 
 fear. The force of this criterion depends, there- 
 fore, upon the true spirit of love, from which alone 
 God can be acceptably served and honoured. All 
 other service is worthless, and can never attest a 
 state of conversion.! 
 
 5. It is stated by the apostle Paul, "As many 
 as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons 
 of God."± His working, though not palpable to 
 any of our bodily senses, is not imperceptible by 
 the mind. The love which he produces to God 
 and Christ; the sense of insufficiency for any 
 good works in ourselves ; the conscious depend- 
 » Isa. xl. 31. t Ps. cxix797, 103, 165. t Rom. viii. 14. 
 
120 THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 ence of the soul upon the Redeemer's grace ; the 
 spirit of supplication, and the spirit of filial affec- 
 tion felt in supplication : the earnest longings of 
 the soul after spiritual things, and after the graces 
 of the Spirit in particular ; the drawing of the 
 heart to the divine word, and to the ordinances of 
 religion, the house, the people, and the service of 
 God, when these are not for ostentation, nor for 
 the gratification of a self-righteous spirit, but for 
 the honouring of God, and the attainment of his 
 blessing ; will all contribute to testify, that you are 
 *' led of the Spirit," and not led to " fulfil the works 
 of the flesh." If, in your thoughts in secret, and 
 in seasons of devotion, you are deeply conscious 
 of the presence of God's Spirit, and of his intimate 
 acquaintance with your heart ; if you earnestly 
 desire and entreat him to make you his temple, 
 and to dwell in you forever; if you honour him, 
 love him, wrestle in prayer for his influence, and 
 yield yourself to his motions, which are all pure 
 and heavenly, and may be discriminated by these 
 characters ; then you may confidently hope that 
 he has undertaken the regeneration of your soul; 
 and because you are led by him, you may hum- 
 bly conclude that you are among the sons of God. 
 But attribute none of your affections or inclina- 
 tions to him, except such as lead practically to 
 holiness, to faith in Christ, love to God, and an 
 increase of those fruits of the Spirit mentioned in 
 Gal. V. 22 — 26, as marking those that belong to 
 Christ. Consider all these points calmly and can- 
 didly. Do not rashly or hastily conclude that you 
 possess these signs ; and do not deny or disparage 
 them if they really appear. Better were it, how- 
 ever, that you should entertain doubts of your con- 
 version, than presume upon evidences that are nor 
 practically exhibited, or suppose signs which do 
 
THE HARES OF CONVERSION'. 121 
 
 not exist. The doubt might keep you in suspense 
 and pain; might prevent you from honouring the 
 Spirit of God for what he has done in you ; but 
 the presumption that should take for granted an 
 affection that never really existed in the soul, 
 would betray you into a false hope, and make you 
 satisfied with an imaginary state, which, after all, 
 might prove one of unregeneracy and impenitence. 
 6. A state of conversion may be further evi- 
 denced by your correct apprehension of the nature 
 of Christ's salvation, connected with your cordial 
 reception of it, unaltered, undiminished and un- 
 adulterated. Is the fervent, fixed desire of your 
 hecrt directed towards this particular salvation 
 which you find described in the word of God ! I 
 lay stress upon this particular salvation, and upon 
 the reception of it entirely and cordially, because 
 it is no certain sign simply to desire salvation. 
 Most persons will say they desire to go to heaven, 
 and to be saved from the consequence of sin ; but, 
 at the same time, a large number of such have no 
 adequate or scriptural conception of the salvation 
 provided in the gospel. Thousands would be 
 glad to be saved from the fear of hell, who have 
 no wish to be made new creatures, to be delivered 
 from the love of the world, the dominion of sin, 
 and made meet for heaven by being made holy. 
 A just apprehension of the salvation Christ has 
 wrought out for us, and of the salvation he works 
 in us, is essential to its right reception. Christ 
 saves none from the guilt of sin, who are not 
 r^aved from the power of sin. If, therefore, the 
 gospel be rightly understood by you, and if, seeing 
 it in its own light, it appears to you precisely such 
 as you need, and such as you can, not only without 
 hesitation, but with fervent gratitude and love, 
 11 
 
123 THE MARES OF CONVERSION. 
 
 assent to, accept and embrace ; if you can give 
 yourself up to it, to be guided, governed, and 
 transformed by it, that thereby you may become 
 meet for the inheritance of the saints in light ; 
 then may you hope that *' flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee," but your "Father which 
 is in heaven."* 
 
 7. If you have experienced conversion, then, 
 you have undergone, and will be able to trace, a 
 great change in your motives, and in the ends and 
 aims of your actions. The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God. It is not subject to the law of God. 
 All its motives are either derived from worldly 
 interests, or are self-righteous. An unconverted 
 man may do some actions externally good, and 
 practise some self-denial ; but it is to place these 
 as a counterbalance to sin, or as a price for future 
 felicity. The high and pure motive of love to 
 holiness because it is agreeable to the will of God ; 
 the hatred of sin because He hates it, and because 
 it is in itself degrading and destructive ; the com- 
 manding impulse to live to the glory of God, and 
 to identify ourselves with his righteous cause, 
 against sin, and Satan, and the world; all these 
 are introduced into the heart of a sinner by the 
 grace of God, and, wherever they appear, are signs 
 of conversion. "Ye are bought with a price : 
 therefore glorify God in your body and in your 
 spirit, which are God's. "t The soul that is truly 
 converted is quickened to a sense of this command- 
 ing obligation. It is no burden or task to submit 
 to it and carry it out in practice, but a real plea- 
 sure. "Ye were the servants of sin, but ye have 
 obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which 
 was delivered you."i: "None of us" (that is, no 
 Christian) " liveth to himself, and no man dieth to 
 
 • Malt. XVI. 17. 1 1 Cor. vi. 20. 4 Kom. vi. 17. 
 
THE MARKS OF CONVERSION. 123 
 
 himself. For whether we live, we live unto the 
 Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord : 
 vv'hether we live therefore, or die, we are the 
 Lord's."* 
 
 It must be felt by us, that Jesus Christ has a just 
 and a first claim; and if that be not inwardly and 
 deeply recognised, then there must be some other 
 object that is first and supreme — that is the idol 
 of our heart ; and while that is worshipped, the love 
 of Christ is not in us. 
 
 It may be proper to observe, in concluding this 
 part of the work, that several other marks of con- 
 version might have been named, which may, 
 however, be understood as included in some of 
 those that have been noticed. We have studied 
 brevity, because our limits would not allow us to 
 go more fully into the subject. At the same 
 time we wish to admonish the reader, that his 
 anxiety, in the first instance, should rather be di- 
 rected to conversion itself than to its proper signs. 
 The work, as a whole, is written for the uncon- 
 verted ; and though this chapter may more imme- 
 diately concern the converted, and minister to 
 their consolation and encouragement, yet the dis- 
 covery which others may make, that they possess 
 none of these marks, may, by the divine blessing, 
 render this chapter equally serviceable to them, 
 by convincing them that they are yet in an un- 
 converted state, and urgently need that very con- 
 version which the work, at large, is intended to 
 explain and enforce. This chapter, therefore, is 
 designed for both classes of readers, and happy 
 will the writer be if they should derive benefit 
 from the perusal. 
 
 * Rom. xiv. 7, 8. 
 
PART II. 
 
 PARTICULAR CASES CONSIDERED OF THOSE 
 THAT NEED CONVERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 It is but too evident, that many of those who are 
 in an unconverted state are, literally, disbelievers 
 of the word of God. Whether their disbelief is 
 occasioned by what appears to them the too great 
 strictness and severity of that word, or by the very 
 fact of its requiring that sort of conversion which 
 is so unacceptable to them, or whether it is up- 
 held by what they consider insufficient evidence 
 of divine authority, is not the point at present to 
 be considered; but, simply, the fact that they do 
 not submit to the authority of revelation, and do 
 not admit that they are under any imperative 
 obligation to submit to it. 
 
 That there should be such cases does not sur- 
 prise us. Their occurrence confirms the truth of 
 that volume which clearly foretells the repugnance 
 of human nature to its truths, and predicts both 
 the determined enmity of the heart, and the ma- 
 lignant sophistry to which it has recourse for the 
 vindication of its disbelief. Why most infidels 
 reject the Bible is sufficiently obvious, in the pre- 
 ference which they show for both a lawlessness 
 of mind and a lawlessness of life. Their difficul- 
 ties do not so much respect the question of the 
 evidences as the question of its nature ; they 
 124 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 125 
 
 would soon perceive the weight of evidence, if 
 they felt no objection to the purity and spirituality 
 of the gospel. If the Bible were not opposed to 
 sin, no man would be opposed to the Bible. They 
 would entertain not a moment's hostility to its 
 claims, if it did not manifest hostility to their 
 corruptions. I do not intend here to conceal the 
 fact, that some unbelievers profess to have 
 rational arguments against the Bible ; but, in so 
 far as reason is concerned in their unbelief, they 
 are either false conclusions from inadequate and 
 partial knowledge, or they are mere covers and 
 subterfuges for the depravity of the heart. It is 
 quite an impossibility that pure and unsophis- 
 ticated reason should ever conclude against the 
 authority of revelation. The eye might as soon 
 conclude against the light of the sun, denying 
 that it is light, that it can perceive it, or that it is 
 pleasurable. A person who had been very much 
 connected with unbelievers and infidels, was 
 taken dangerously ill ; and feeling that he could 
 not recover, became alarmed for the safety of his 
 soul. His infidel principles gave him no com- 
 fort. He began, for the first time, to examine 
 into the Christian religion. He embraced it, and 
 found it to be the power of God to his salvation, 
 enabling him to triumph over the fear of death. 
 In the mean time, his infidel friends, hearing 
 of his sickness, and that he was not likely to re- 
 cover, showed a degree of feeling and integrity, 
 which it was hoped might prove the first step 
 towards their conversion. They were not aware 
 that their dying friend had become a Christian. 
 They called to see him, and actually told him that 
 they came on purpose to advise him now to em- 
 brace Christianity ; " because," said they, " if it be 
 11* 
 
126 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 false, it can do you no harm ; but if it should prove 
 true, you will be a great gainer." This was the 
 united advice of a number of unbelievers to their 
 dying friend. What a slender basis, then, must 
 they have had for their objections ! How trifling 
 did those objections appear when weighed against 
 the hope of eternal felicity ! But it is not my in- 
 tention to argue the question of evidence with the 
 reason of the unbeliever. I rather wish to put it 
 to each reader in that state, whether he is not con- 
 scious of an inward dislike to Christianity first of 
 all ; and whether it is not that dislike which has 
 really stimulated him to seek for or invent ob- 
 jections, to hail the discovery of them with satis- 
 faction, and slight arguments in its favour ; and 
 whether, therefore, he may not rather find the 
 source of all his unbelief in the depravity of his 
 own heart, than in any lack of weight in the evi- 
 dences of revelation. 
 
 Let such an unbeliever, if such a one perchance 
 reads these pages, reflect upon the moral guilt of 
 so treating the book which claims to be of divine 
 inspiration. Let him but suppose that such guilt 
 may be chargeable upon hitn. He cannot but 
 know that human nature is corrupt and preju- 
 diced ; that his own may be so in this case ; and 
 that, after all, what he has taken for a defect of 
 evidence in revelation, may, possibly, be nothing 
 but the repugnance of his own heart to its truth ; 
 which, he must admit, is no reason for rejecting it, 
 and which, indeed, becomes an additional argu- 
 ment why he should receive it, because this de- 
 pravity of his heart is itself essentially evil, and he 
 is conscious that it is so ; and, further, because the 
 revelation he has rejected condemns notliing in sin 
 butv/hat his own mind may readily perceive to be 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 127 
 
 evil. Hence, he ought to observe the very serious 
 position in which he is placed, if, under the influ- 
 ence of depravity, or prejudices excited by de- 
 pravity, he rejects the authority of his Maker. If 
 hecansuppose that he is really in such asituation — 
 and he cannot affirm that it is at all impossible, or 
 even improbable — surely he will, then, admit that 
 his case requires the most serious and grave con- 
 sideration ; since, by resisting- the truth of God, 
 and rejecting what is obviously worthy of God's 
 purity, and sustained by divine authority, he may 
 be incurring the awful displeasure which, he must 
 readily admit, the supreme Being feels towards 
 finite creatures who resist his will, and thrust from 
 them his most precious gifts. The very thought 
 that he may be thus wickedly hardening himself 
 against God, and contending with his Maker, 
 ought, surely, to lead him to pause, and impose 
 upon himself the duty of a most faithful and close 
 scrutiny of his own heart. He ought, as a rational 
 creature, to shrink with horror from the thought 
 of a wicked contempt or defiance of God. He 
 would not, if a father, tolerate for a moment a pa- 
 rallel defiance from one of his own little children ; 
 and j-et how much nearer do his children approach 
 to an equality with himself than he does to an 
 equality with God! He must, therefore, admit, 
 that if he is guilty of rejecting God's commands, 
 he stands exposed to the utmost peril of eternal 
 misery. The very possibility of his sinking into 
 such a fearful condemnation demands of him a 
 serious review of the state of his heart ; and to that 
 I now call him, forewarning him that, if he shrinks 
 from it, and absolutely declines it, he virtually 
 admits the charge of prejudice to be true, and in 
 his own conscience must be self-condemned ; 
 
128 THE UNBELIEVEPw AND CATILLER. 
 
 and therefore, in such a condemnation, he may- 
 find the matter and the foundation of a far more 
 serious and awful condemnation yet to come. 
 As, therefore, he is a man of reason and feeling-, 
 so gifted by Providence as to foresee impendini^ 
 evil and guard against it, he is seriously and af- 
 fectionately forewarned to use his reason and re- 
 flection in thoroughly investigating his own case, 
 that he may not bring upon himself that final 
 condemnation which such delinquency deserves. 
 lie cannot be insensible to the fact, that human 
 nature does include, and frequently displays great 
 moral pravity. He perceives it, and condemns 
 it in many instances, in his daily intercourse with 
 his fellow-men. He cannot suppose himself 
 altogether exempted from the like depravity; 
 and if it is constantly exhibited in the social in- 
 tercourse of men with each other, he cannot 
 doubt that it may display itself in his own con- 
 duct towards the supreme moral Governor: nor, 
 indeed, can it be denied that the very wicked- 
 ness which is perpetrated first against man, is vir- 
 tually directed against God, because it is against 
 his will, and from that circumstance derives a far 
 higher character of guilt and demerit than from 
 its being directed merely against man. Hence, 
 every act of rebellion against the divine laws, 
 w^hether laws of nature or laws of revelation, 
 must be a matter of far more serious conse- 
 quence than acts of immorality against the rights 
 of our fellow-creatures, considered simply as done 
 against finite beings, who are our equals, or against 
 the laws of society. 
 
 The unbeliever must admit, further, that great 
 numbers of those who once entertained the 
 strongest, and, as they thought, the best-founded 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 129 
 
 objections to revelation, have, upon more close 
 and serious thoughts, detected the true seat of their 
 disbelief, and have confessed that they were under 
 the influence of a prejudice, arising almost exclu- 
 sively from their dislike of the gospel. They have 
 openly condemned themselves for rejecting, under 
 the influence of this depravity, what they subse- 
 quently found was so much for their benefit, their 
 moral improvement and happiness. They have 
 -not been ashamed to acknowledge, that it was th'j 
 wickedness of their own hearts that made them 
 dislike and reject the gospel ; and that, as soon as 
 they were led to suspect, and by degrees to feel 
 the depravity of their nature, they immediately 
 began to perceive the ample evidence of divine 
 authority in the Bible : thus showing that the only 
 true source of their infidelity was the repugnance 
 of a sinful and revolted nature to the authority of 
 those precepts, which are infinitely pure and per- 
 fect, because they are of God. Now, what has 
 taken place in hundreds and thousands of instances 
 of this kind, corroborated as it is, moreover, by the 
 sentiment, of which every converted person is an 
 illustration, that, while in a state of unconversion, 
 they felt strong propensities to disbelieve and deny 
 the Bible altogether ; and by the existence of such 
 a bias in human nature generally, of which all the 
 unconverted, most probably, are conscious, that 
 they all secretly wish to find the Bible false ; these, 
 taken all together, may make it certain, and ought 
 to convince you, if you are an unbeliever, that 
 there does prevail, to a fearful extent, a prejudice 
 against God's word, which has its sole root in the 
 depravity of the human heart. The Bible is both 
 too good for such as they are, and they themselves 
 are too wicked to agree with it : hence the opposi- 
 
130 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 tion ; and hence, too, the urgent necessity for a 
 change in them — a thorough change of their heart, 
 which is conversion. This change must take place 
 in us, to bring us ujito harmony with the will and 
 law of God; for we may be quite sure, neither 
 God nor his word can ever undergo any change, 
 much less such a one as might bring that word 
 more into harmony with our corrupt and perverse 
 hearts. 
 
 Is there not, then, a sufficient ground in the 
 fact of your own depravity, which I assume you 
 cannot before God deny; in the unquestionable 
 moral excellence of the gospel doctrine, and in the 
 lamentable fact of your prejudice against it; is 
 there not in these things sufficient ground serious- 
 ly to call upon you to examine into the state of 
 your own heart ? Suffer one who can have, in this 
 appeal to you, no motive but that of your best 
 interest, solemnly to charge you to let conscience 
 freely and faithfully perform its office. You know 
 that you have depraved desires and affections : 
 that you have often violated your own conscien- 
 tious convictions of right and purity — have been 
 sensible of many sinful thoughts, words, and ac- 
 tions ; and must know that you have treated the 
 Bible with an indifference, a scorn, or even a 
 hatred, which, upon the supposition of its being 
 God's word, must be exceedingly displeasing to 
 Him. You must, further, be conscious that you 
 have never entered calmly, candidly, and serious- 
 ly into the examination of its evidences — perhaps 
 never read it through, nor any of the numerous 
 volumes which have been written to display and 
 state its evidences : whereas you have, on the 
 other hand, read books written to revile it, and 
 have gladly caught at any apparently formidable 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 131 
 
 or plausible objections which you have heard from 
 unbelievers, and, without seriously examining, 
 have taken them to be unanswerable. You have 
 often received suggestions, or sought for them 
 eagerly, to support you in your infidelity ; but 
 never consulted any person well qualified to re- 
 solve your doubts, explain your supposed difficul- 
 ties, and lead you into a full and clear view of the 
 arguments in favour of the Bible ; and, in all this, 
 you have displayed a heart far more inclined to 
 fall in with the dogmas of infidelity, than to do 
 justice to the claims of revelation. 
 
 All this shows that your heart is in a corrupt 
 state ; that you are not prepared to receive the 
 truth in the love of it ; that you have dishonestly 
 avoided it, and shunned the change which it en- 
 forces. You have been cleaving to your infidel 
 opinions, not because they were really more evi- 
 dently true than the contrary, but because they 
 have served to screen you from the condemnation 
 denounced in the Bible upon sin ; and because you 
 have found it convenient to profess yourself an 
 unbeliever in order to keep from distressing qualms 
 of conscience. You know that you have not de- 
 sired supremely, perhaps not at all, to have your 
 will brought into accordance with the divine will. 
 You must be conscious that you have not desired 
 nor sought that moral purity, that love of God, 
 without which you can neither hope to please him, 
 nor to live forever with him ; but, on the contrary, 
 have adopted any opinions which seemed to afford 
 license and irresponsible hberty to your corrupt 
 nature. You know that any opinions, no matter 
 how crude, inconsistent, and unfounded, which 
 did but seem to release you from all ideas of re- 
 sponsibility to any moral rule, or any supreme 
 
132 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 Governor, were favourably received by you. You 
 may readily perceive that you have no foundation 
 for your infidel opinions but the dictates of men, 
 who can show as little foundation for their doc- 
 trines as yourself. You must know, or may know, 
 that in receiving these opinions you have trusted 
 men not trustworthy, men of small knowledge 
 and rash judgments and bad characters ; and that 
 such are the great mass of professed infidels. 
 You must know that the generality of these are 
 men of corrupt morals, of violent passions and 
 evil tempers ; who can scarcely trust each other, 
 and are constantly fluctuating in their views, and 
 possessed of little that can be considered fixed and 
 settled opinion, except their common dislike of 
 the Bible, and their wish to be free from all moral 
 restraints. You must know that an honourable 
 and virtuous character is an exception among 
 them, and that the mass of them are any thing but 
 honourable and respectable ; that they are persons 
 whom you cannot permanently esteem or trust, 
 and that you would not yourself seriously wish 
 your wife or your children to embrace their 
 opinions and follow their practices. You must 
 have perceived that almost all pre-eminently 
 vicious persons profess infidelity ; that there is a 
 most strong and marked affinity between infidelity 
 and immorality; and that scarcely any one be- 
 comes systematically, openly and daringly wicked, 
 until he has cast off the authority of the Bible, 
 and declared himself an unbeliever. Surely this 
 undeniable fact should make you suspicious of 
 this harmony, this conjunction between the two. 
 
 Hence, then, you must, or, at least, ought to 
 feel, that your association with such, your agree- 
 ment with them, is a matter that calls for your 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 133 
 
 most serious examination — an examination which 
 oug-ht, in particular, to regard this question : 
 whether it is not the depravity of your heart 
 which has made them agreeable to you, and their 
 opinions welcome? 
 
 Surely you cannot deny, that it avouM be for 
 the good of your soul to embrace the glorious 
 prospects of Christianity — that you can find 
 nothing in infidelity to be compared with them. 
 The system has nothing to offer you beyond a 
 blank, an absolute and eternal blank, and a license, 
 an impunity to your depraved nature, for this life, 
 a mere jubilee to your animalism. Think whether 
 this is, or can be, in any sense worthy of a rational, 
 an intellectual nature, capable, as it undoubtedly 
 is, of the pure and seraphic joys of true religion. 
 Think, again, of the slender ground on which your 
 opinions rest; and if that ground should prove 
 false, how irreparable will be the dilemma into 
 which you will fall ! The believer in Christianity 
 can lose nothing ; for if he is wrong, he is as well 
 off as you ; and if he is right, and you wrong, then 
 you forfeit every hope and every joy, and fall un- 
 der the heavy condemnation of your Maker's 
 displeasure. Consider what it is that Christianity 
 would enforce upon you, and imagine what sort 
 of a character it aims to form, what duties it calls 
 you to discharge, and what prospects it sets before 
 you, and judge whether there is in them any thing 
 to which sober reason can object. You are re 
 quired by it to love God with all your heart, and 
 3'our neighbour as yourself. Is there in this any 
 thing objectionable ? Does it not, rather, com- 
 mend itself to every reasonable being who admits 
 that there is a God, and who allows that the whole 
 human family are equally his care? Consider, 
 13 
 
134 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 further, that the peculiarities of Christianity — the 
 doctrines of repentance and of forgiveness of sins 
 through the intervention of a divine Mediator— 
 really contain nothing irrational, but seem to be 
 perfectly adapted to the consciousness of moral 
 imperfection which we all have ; and involve 
 neither any thing unreasonable nor unjust, but, on 
 the contrary, meet our guihy and helpless nature 
 with assisting grace and pardoning mercy. Fur- 
 ther, that Christianity, in requiring conversion and 
 a change of heart, as essential to your acceptance 
 with your Maker and your final happiness, is in 
 perfect accordance with the great fact, of which 
 our ow^n hearts, as well as the state of things 
 around us, afford abundant evidence — that we are 
 a race of fallen, guilt)s and erring creatures. Rea- 
 son itself assures us, that an agreement of our moral 
 nature w^ith the moral nature of God must be an 
 essential condition of our happiness, both in this life 
 and in that which is to come. Your own experi- 
 ence will afford sufficient proof, both in your suffer- 
 ings of body and your afflictions and embarrass- 
 ments of mind ; in the contrariety between your 
 judgment and your passions, your conscience and 
 your inclinations; that you need a change, a radi- 
 cal and entire change of heart, to bring you into a 
 state of accordance with the will and nature of your 
 Creator. And surely you can never hope to at- 
 tain to immortal life, while you continue uncon- 
 scious of that harmony of will and affection ; or 
 while you labour to detach your mind and heart 
 from the thought of submission to God and de- 
 pendence upon him ? Again, look at the miserable 
 end of infidels ; at the darkness and dread of 
 their last hours ; at the absence, to say the least, 
 of any emotions, any aspirations, or any prospects 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 135 
 
 in their last hours, worthy of immortal beinsfs 
 about to pass into the presence of their Maker, 
 and ascend to their final state of being-. Surely 
 there is nothing inviting, nothing exhilarating, no- 
 thing joyful in such scenes as the following, select- 
 ed out of many equally appalling. A respectable 
 writer says — " Some years ago, I occasionally met 
 with a disciple of the late Dr. Darwin. He had 
 drunk so deeply into the system and spirit of his 
 master as to consider him the very first philoso- 
 pher of the age. I have heard him expatiate with 
 enthusiasm on his writings and character, and 
 revile the Holy Scriptures with all the vaunt of 
 vulgar blasphemy. A few months after my last 
 interview with this gentleman, I heard that he was 
 no more. Struck with the event, I was solicitous 
 to know how he died. The account I received 
 •was, that, as death approached, the confidence he 
 had before expressed in his deistical opinions for- 
 sook him, and deep horror seized his mind. A 
 short time before his departure, supposing him- 
 self alone, he was overheard, by an unobserved 
 attendant, giving vent to the agonies of a tortured 
 conscience. With despair, he expostulated with 
 Dr. Darwin, whom he now reproached as his de- 
 ceiver; and after loading his name with execra- 
 tions which I dare not put on paper, he closed in 
 some such terms as the following : Monster ! 
 wretch ! Is this the end of your boasted philo- 
 sophy ? Have you brought me to this ?" — Are 
 these the confessions of infidel philosophers ? If 
 such sayings as these have escaped them occasion- 
 ally, what convulsive emotions must have been 
 hidden in thousands of hearts ! What unexpressed 
 agonies must have been felt on the death-beds of 
 such men ! Pride, resolution, shame, and a mis- 
 
136 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 called heroism, have no doubt constrained the 
 greater part to conceal the festering wound, and 
 to be silent. But quite enough has escaped some 
 of their class to expose the unsoundness of their 
 principles, and warn others against them. O that 
 these heart-rending warnings, these thrilling les- 
 sons, might prove to you as a frightful barrier 
 around the brink of that terrible abyss ! You 
 would greatly prefer to close your mortal life 
 as Christians do, and would feel, even if there 
 were no future reality in a Christian's hopes, that 
 his principles impart in this life vastly more feli- 
 city, and comport better with the character of a 
 rational and moral being, than infidelity. You 
 cannot but perceive that the faith of a Christian 
 saves him from an amazing amount of mental 
 suffering, which the unbeliever cannot avoid, and 
 never does avoid, in the immediate anticipation 
 of death. In every view, therefore, the change 
 included in conversion would be an advantageous 
 one to such a being as yourself; and there is 
 every reason why you should desire to undergo 
 it, and not a single valid reason why you should 
 resist and repel it. It is a change fraught with the 
 most salutary moral effects upon the character ; 
 highly conducive to the peace and establishment 
 of the mind ; and full of the purest and sublimest 
 joy in the prospect of quitting this life and enter- 
 ing upon another. 
 
 But. possibly, you do not rank yourself with 
 direct infidels ; you only dwell upon doubts and 
 difficulties which make you hesitate to attach full 
 confidence to the Bible. Now, without attempt- 
 ing to vindicate the doctrine of God's word, or 
 meet the particular objections that individuals 
 have felt or imagined, which would require a 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 137 
 
 large space, and is already ably done in many an 
 elaborate treatise ; we may endeavour briefly to 
 show, that all the difficulties that men find or 
 fancy, are either comparatively inconsiderable, or 
 orig-inate entirely in their own captious spirit, and 
 would never be discovered if they did not wish to 
 find fault. All ought to know that the human 
 heart is constantly liable to prejudice, and that pre- 
 judice will go great lengths and show great inge- 
 nuity. An unwilling heart never wants an excuse ; 
 and an unbelieving heart rejoices in an occasion of 
 stumbling at the word, being disobedient.* Many 
 of the statements of Scripture are humiliating to 
 our nature, mortifying to our pride of reason, and 
 hostile to our love of sensual gratification. To 
 borrow an allusion from the healing art, we may 
 say, the patient shrinks from the surgeon's knife, 
 and finds his medicine nauseous. Yet, are these 
 things to be allowed to influence our resolution 
 when the question relates to health or life ? Who 
 refuses to submit even to a painful operation or 
 a disgusting dose, if he feels convinced that to 
 do so is to throw away the last hope of life ? 
 Even the bare chance of success makes men 
 heroes in suffering. "All that a man hath will he 
 give for his life."t How much more, then, ought 
 a man willingly to bear in a case that involves 
 the life of his spirit ! He that can suffer trifling 
 objections, mere doubts, obscurities, or superficial 
 blemishes, to prevent him from embracing the 
 gospel promise, shows, that he has never seriously 
 felt his need of salvation, and never realized his 
 situation in the grasp of death, without a hope in 
 the mercy of God. He that is rioting in luxury, 
 or has lost his appetite by a surfeit, may loathe 
 
 ' * 1 Pet. ii. S. t Job ii. 4. 
 
 12* ' 
 
138 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 plain fare, and find a thousand faults in the way 
 in which it is served to him. But a famishing 
 man cavils not at the dish nor the cooking. He 
 seizes upon the nutritious substance. It gives him 
 life and strength. How trifling does every cavil 
 and objection appear, when it is considered, that 
 to refuse the gospel is to cast away the only hope 
 of a sinful man ! The case before you is not be- 
 tween this hope and something that promises as 
 much, or is quite as good, or nearly as good ; but 
 between this or nothing, this or despair, this or 
 destruction. The question, therefore, which you 
 have to decide is too serious for trifling, too mo- 
 mentous for quibbles. Sincerity and candour are 
 essential to a right determination. Treat it as a 
 jury would a cause, where the evidence, if not all 
 that every one could have wished, is yet conclu- 
 sive, and if not quite perfect, yet leaves no room 
 for serious doubts. Your cavilling at the doc- 
 trines or evidences of Scripture is at best but a 
 cover for an unwillingness to admit its statements. 
 Did they find favour in your eyes, were they al- 
 together agreeable, your doubts would disappear. 
 They would not weigh a feather if the case related 
 to a temporal inheritance. You would be glad to 
 take it upon such a title. You would laugh in the 
 face of the man who should dare to allege such 
 inconsiderable or imaginary defects as sufficient 
 to invalidate your title. 
 
 Let me, then, entreat every one who feels any 
 objections or difficulties upon this subject to re- 
 member, that the Bible requires of him nothing 
 that is evil, calls upon him to renounce nothing 
 that is good, asks him to believe nothing that is 
 irrational ; but, on the contrary, it secures to him 
 the highest good at the cost of renouncing only 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 139 
 
 what is evil. Why, then, should there be folt any 
 reluctance to admit its authority ; why cavil to the 
 detriment of your own soul? Can any man say 
 that it is not for his real interest fully to admit the 
 Bible ? Can any man say that he is not a loser, a 
 loser to an infinite amount, by hesitatino- to ac- 
 cept it? "There is one thing-,'' said Mrfs. to a 
 companion in sin and skepticism, " which mars 
 all the pleasure of my life." "Ah," replied the 
 other, "what is that?" " Why, I am afraid the 
 Bible is true. If I could but certainly know that 
 death is an eternal sleep, I should be happy ; my 
 joy would be complete. But here is the thorn 
 that stings me ! This is the sword that pierces 
 my very soul. If the Bible be true, I am lost for- 
 ever. Every prospect is gone, and I am lost for- 
 ever !" What a confession was this ! Yet it 
 might well become every doubter. AVhat a paltry 
 happiness is that which depends on an animal 
 nature ! What a worthless joy is that which would 
 be completed by the assurance of an eternal sleep, 
 or which looks for annihilation at the end of life ! 
 "If the Bible is true, I am lost forever!" On 
 how weak a supposition, then, does the hope of the 
 unbeliever rest ! Surely he must himself admit 
 that the probabilities are against him ? Be en- 
 treated, O doubter, to consider in what a predica- 
 ment you place yourself, if you renounce the Bible 
 for the sake of a human notion, or under the 
 pressure of difficulties which, after all, you must 
 admit may be rather apparent than real ; and 
 which derive their whole force from some igno- 
 rance or mistake of your own ; and which a little 
 more knowledge, or candour, or reading, might 
 completely remove. Have you not often found it 
 so with other subjects ? Have you not observed 
 
140 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 
 
 many times how men alter their opinions when 
 they become better informed, when they shake off 
 prejudices, when they perceive that their interest 
 lies in the way of conviction ? Have you done all 
 in your power to remove difficulties and to gain 
 more knowledge ? Have you asked instruction 
 and advice of those Avho are convinced of the 
 divine authority of Scripture ? Have you sought 
 to be set right, and candidly stated your diffi- 
 culties ? Is it not worth while to inquire for some 
 wise friend who might be able to remove them ? 
 Do not take it for granted that they are insur- 
 mountable. It is next to certain that there is 
 nothing new in them, that they have occurred to 
 others, and been thoroughly explained to the con- 
 viction of the ablest reasoners. Similar attention, 
 research and anxiety on your part to be right, 
 may remove all your objections and set your mind 
 at rest. Consider the infinite importance of this 
 matter. It is your salvation, or your everlasting 
 destruction, which depends upon your decision. 
 Ought that decision to be made passionately, 
 hastily, rashly, under the influence of ignorance 
 and prejudice ? If the Bible is of God, and you 
 reject it, upon the ground of some mere cavil at its 
 ^doctrines or its evidences, you forfeit all its ad- 
 vantages and incur all its awful penalties. You 
 are a lost man, and lost forever. If your objec- 
 tion is valid, what do you gain by it? You are 
 not, even in this life, so happy as the Christian, 
 since you must be perpetually tormented by the 
 fear, ihat perhaps the Bible is true. You never 
 can feel quite sure that you are right. It is im- 
 possible you should be certified of the truth of 
 your principles. There may yet be evidence be- 
 hind, possessed by some minds, by which even 
 
THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER. 141 
 
 you might be convinced. Are, then, the advan- 
 tages of doubt, the pleasures of cavilling, such as 
 to justify you, even to your own understanding, in 
 running such a fearful risk? Let us bring the 
 matter to the following test. It Is low ground to 
 assume, and much higher might be taken, for our 
 appeal; but we take this, because it is most likely 
 to be felt by you in your present state of mind. 
 It is merely an appeal to your self-love and self- 
 interest. Yet it will afford a test of your princi- 
 ples, that may convince you of the impolicy and 
 inexpediency of maintaining them. Imagine your- 
 self upon that dying bed which somewhere and 
 at some day awaits you, and ask yourself. Which 
 has most weight noiv, my cavil, or the Bible ? 
 Which should I now like to feel true, the principles 
 of infidelity, or the promises of the Bible ? Which 
 will administer the best support in my weakness 
 and terror, in my pangs of body, (perhaps of con- 
 science,) the hope of immortality supplied by the 
 Bible, or the cobweb sophistry, the humaa specu- 
 lation, the mere imagination of an eternal sleep — 
 the perhaps " I may be annihilated." Which 
 of these opposite prospects would you wish your 
 wife, your child, to entertain, as they sink into the 
 arms of death ? 
 
 Colonel Allen, who had written several books 
 setting forth objections to the Christian religion, 
 evinced his distrust in his own arguments on an 
 occasion that put him fairly to the test. While 
 once reading some of his own writings to a friend 
 who was on a visit at his house, he received in- 
 formation that his daughter was at the point of 
 death. His lady was a pious woman, and had 
 anxiously instructed her daughter in the principles 
 of Christianity. When the colonel appeared at 
 
142 THE UNBELIEVER AND CAVILLER 
 
 the bedside of his daughter, she appealed to him 
 thus: "I am about to die: shall I believe in the 
 principles you have taught me, or shall I believe 
 in what my mother has taught me ?" On hearing 
 this question he* vas much agitated. Well he might 
 be. What father, though an infidel, could resist the 
 impulses of natural affection, of conscience and of 
 truth at such a moment? A deep and solemn] 
 conflict passed within, and, after waiting a few ' 
 minutes in silence, h*e replied, " Believe in what 
 your mother has taught you." 
 
 Look, then, I beseech you, O doubter, look 
 again at the nature of your difficulties, at the 
 means you may command to remove them, and at 
 the blaze of evidence which shines on every side 
 and from every page of the Bible. Consider well 
 the liability of human reason to error, even in its 
 vaunted philosophy ; and observe carefully the 
 subjection of the human heart to that prejudice 
 and passion which constantly becloud the eye of 
 reason ; and finally consider, how many doubters 
 and cavillers like yourself have at length dis- 
 covered their own error and sin, have declared 
 themselves convinced and satisfied that the book 
 which announces salvation is the word of eternal 
 truth, and worthy of all acceptation. Could you 
 but be brought, in like manner, to perceive the 
 irresistible evidence of God's truth, you would 
 confess that all your objections were but the light 
 dust of the balance, the mere films of your own 
 diseased vision, which had concealed from your 
 view the beauty and radiance of the heavenly lu- 
 minary. Look with the eye of faith— a faith that 
 is welt warranted by the evidences of inspiration ; 
 look to the Sun of righteousness, and speedily he 
 shall arise upon your benighted heart "with heal- 
 
THE UNDECIDED. 143 
 
 ing in his wings."* Your night, dreary and 
 fearful as it has proved to you thus far, would 
 then be turned into day, your doubts be exchanged 
 for hope, your cavilling turned into confidence 
 and thanksgiving: for here, in the Scriptures of 
 truth, in the doctrine of conversion, and here alone, 
 you would find rest to your soul, in the hope that 
 is full of immortality. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE UNDECIDED. 
 
 There is a large class whom I cannot better 
 designate than by this term, because they neither 
 profess to be unbelievers, nor do they feel them- 
 selves entirely bound by the obligations of Chris- 
 tianity. Their indecision may relate either to the 
 question at issue between the infidel and the be- 
 liever ; or they may feel satisfied that the Bible is 
 true and of God, but they may hesitate whether 
 they shall become its disciples. I shall not here 
 attempt to meet the case of those who halt in their 
 decision about the truth of the Bible, because they 
 are to be convinced by an examination of the evi- 
 dences, which this work is not designed to discuss ; 
 but I shall principally address this chapter to those 
 who admit the divine authority of the Scriptures 
 but hesitate to declare themselves bound to pro 
 fess Christianity, or to be openly on the Lord's 
 side. They maintain, as they suppose, a wise 
 neutrality, and seem to vacillate between two 
 opinions ; or, perhaps, more properly, they confess 
 
 *Mal. iv.2. 
 
144 THE UNDECIDED. 
 
 the truth verbally, but withhold a practical con- 
 formity to its precepts. They serve it with their 
 understandings, but withhold their hearts ; or they 
 admit the Bible to be true, but, most inconsistently, 
 refuse to make the sacrifice it requires. Novvy 
 assuredly, the indecision of such, their hesitation 
 to conform themselves in practice to that which 
 they admit to be divine, incurs a high degree of 
 criminality, and must appear to themselves obvi- 
 ously inconsistent, as well as involve them in 
 manifest self-condemnation. For how can he that 
 admits the Bible to be true and divine, justify the 
 delay of a single hour in obeying its injunctions ? 
 Such delay or indecision is palliated by some per- 
 sons, under the excuse of wishing to take time for 
 the consideration of so important a step, because 
 it would incur risk or actual loss ; or because they 
 feel reluctant to lay themselves under the solemn 
 obligation which it involves. They think that to 
 become decided Christians lays them under a sort 
 of vow or pledge, which they fear they might be 
 tempted to violate, and then they think they should 
 incur a condemnation, which they avoid by re- 
 maining in their present undecided state. 
 
 But religious duty stands quite independent of 
 all such considerations, and the very strongest of 
 them have been met and set aside in those words 
 of Christ, '• Whosoever he be of you that forsakeih 
 not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." '^^ 
 " Every one that hath forsaken houses, or breth- 
 ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
 children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall re- 
 ceive an hundredfold, and shall nihcrit everlasting 
 iife."t It is clear from these and similar pas-sages, 
 that there is left to us no option as to the duty of 
 * Luke xiv. 3a. -f Matt. xix. 29^^ ' 
 
THE UNDECIDED. 145 
 
 confessing Christ before men. And it is, there- 
 fore, a most serious question, which those oug^ht 
 to entertain v/ho decline this duty, whether they 
 have not distinctly rejected the Saviour's authority, 
 or whether their faith can be any thing more than 
 a mere name, when it fails to lead them to a con- 
 scientious and entire subjection of themselves to 
 the revealed will of God. Clear it is that they do 
 not fulfil their Saviour's command; and it seems 
 equally clear that their hesitation arises from no 
 reason which he will admit, from none vv'hich even 
 their conscience, when properly informed, csn 
 deem sufficient. They must, therefore, allow me 
 to state, that their indecision upon this point argues 
 a total insensibility to the claims of Christ ; and a 
 sinful deficiency of that kind of faith which, if sin- 
 cere and divine, would lead to action, and to a 
 noble braving of all temporal consequences, and 
 a calm committing of themselves to the promised 
 divine support in carrying out their profession. I 
 would not have such persons imagine that they 
 really love Christ at all, if they are unwilling to 
 obey his commands ; and I would rather have them 
 conclude that they possess no faiih beyond the 
 mere speculative assent to the Scriptures generally, 
 than suppose that a true and saving faith could be 
 productive of such gross and glaring inconsistency. 
 It is, indeed, necessary that such persons should be 
 faithfully forewarned of the self-delusion they are 
 practising, and affectionately admonished to seek, 
 in connection with a full consideration of what 
 Christ requires, that divine grace which would 
 effectually constrain and decide their heart to 
 yield itself unto God. Reader, if this is your 
 case, you have, indeed, deep need of his grace to 
 bring vou to a decision ; for without it vou can 
 13 
 
146 THE UNDECIDED. 
 
 liave little hope that so weak a heart will be suf- 
 ticient to overcome all your difficulties ; yet, with 
 it, ail those difficulties will vanish away, and you 
 will find all the paths of the Lord plain and 
 smooth to those that walk therein. But how sad 
 a case will yours be, if, through a timid spirit, or a 
 wavering resolution, or a want of confidence in 
 the promise of that very word you profess to re- 
 ceive as divine, you should be found to be that 
 servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not ; 
 for to such the threatening is, that he shall be 
 beaten with many stripes.'' 
 
 There is another class of the undecided, whom 
 it m.ay be useful to meet. They are those who 
 profess to see no very urgent necessity for a public 
 profession of their adherence to Christ, beyond 
 what is involved in an occasional, convenient at- 
 tendance upon religious ordinances. They assume 
 that they can be just as good Christians by re- 
 maining as they are : and that if they rest their 
 faith on Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and 
 live a moral life, nothing more can be reasonably 
 required of them. 
 
 But all this evinces very inadequate views of 
 Christian principle and Christian duty. The 
 parties who maintain them must either be very 
 ignorant or very inconsiderate ; for if they would 
 but reflect, they might perceive that, upon their 
 principle, the cause of Christ must be left with- 
 out any systematic support or any adequate coun- 
 tenance. They cannot suppose that the religion 
 of Jesus Christ admits of two principles in the 
 profession of it, and that while some are bound 
 openly to profess and maintain it, others may 
 consistently stand aloof and withhold their influ- 
 • Luke lii. 47 
 
THE UNDECIDED. 147 
 
 ence. They must surely see and admit that there 
 can be but one principle of adhesion for all. No 
 duty can be imposed upon one class that is not 
 imposed upon another. The law of the Lord 
 must be a universal law, and by it all must stand. 
 It must be uniform as well as universal. Therefore, 
 if any are obliged to confess Christ openly, all must 
 be obliged ; and if but one is exempted, then all 
 might be exempted, by a parity of reason ; and if 
 one may excuse himself, then why might not all, 
 upon the same grounds ? But the absurdity of 
 this timid policy any mind can detect. Only let it 
 be followed out in this manner, and it may be 
 readily exposed. Suppose that some are exempted 
 from the duty of confessing Christ; then, why not 
 I ? And if I, why not others ? And if others, why 
 not all ? And then, if all, what is to become of that 
 cause of truth for which the Son of God bled upon 
 the cross, and to the support and acknowledgment 
 of which he has called all his faithful servants? 
 Is it not, therefore, evident from this reasoning, 
 that you have formed wrong notions both of faith 
 and duty ? That you have erred at the very outset, 
 and never can go on well while such notions pre- 
 vail? It is important that you should review, 
 even from its very foundation, the faith which 
 you profess, and inquire whether you have not 
 mistaken even those first principles which are 
 essential to your acceptance. In so far as you-r 
 profession goes, you have withheld a most mate- 
 rial part, and a part which may well be conceived 
 to vitiate all the rest, and to set aside, in fact, the 
 very claim you make to a true faith. It is more 
 likely that you have never yet been converted at 
 all, than that a true conversion should present 
 such an anomaly, such a palpable inconsistency. 
 
148 THE UNDECIDED. 
 
 Your heart, it is probable, is not yet given to God; 
 and though you have received strong convictions 
 of the truth of Christianity, and expressed some 
 external respect for its ordinances, yet it is mani- 
 fest that you have withheld from it that entire 
 subjection which it demands, and are still hailing 
 betwixt two opinions. It must be that some 
 worldly and temporal considerations detain you 
 from fulfilling the claims of Christ; for you could 
 never have derived any warrant from the gospel 
 itself to justify so inefficient and inadequate a 
 profession of the religion of Christ as that which 
 you have imagined might pass for a true surrender 
 of yourself to God. 
 
 It is high time that you should consider this 
 matter in another light, or you may find your 
 whole profession no better than direct, though 
 secret, unbelief; and the infidel opposer less in- 
 consistent than yourself. Hitherto you have been 
 evidently thinking, rather of how little will do to 
 secure to you an interest in Christ, and save you 
 from the words of condemnation, than how much 
 you owe to your divine Lord and Saviour to prove 
 the sincerity of your love, and express your de- 
 votedness to his service. Your hesitation is a 
 sinful hesitation; and if persisted in, after it has 
 been exposed, will prove that you have never yet 
 felt the love of Christ and your vast obhgations. 
 Let me, then, affectionately entreat you, as a poor, 
 undecided and timid professor, to take upon you 
 at once the solemn responsibility from which you 
 shrink, and declare yourself on the Lord's side. 
 If you have, indeed, any faith in his words of pro- 
 mise, or any inclination to act upon them as faith- 
 ful and true, you will undoubtedly trust him for 
 all that grace which is necessary to bring you 
 
THE MISTAKEN'. 149 
 
 through whatever trials or sacrifices a practical 
 faith may involve ; and if you have not that mea- 
 sure of faith that enables you so to trust him with 
 the issue of any temporal risk, how can you infer 
 that you have that faith which is to trust him wiili 
 the eternal interest of your soul? How can you 
 trust that his atoning blood can save you from the 
 denunciations of the divine law, if you cannot 
 believe that his divine power can bring you 
 through any of the adversities of this present life, 
 which you may incur by a faithful adherence to 
 his cause and a full profession of his name ? Ap- 
 ply to him now at once for grace to pardon your 
 sins, to enable you to show your faith by your 
 obedience, and make you and keep you " faith- 
 ful unto death," that you may receive " a crown 
 of life."* 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MISTAKEN. 
 
 There is, undoubtedly, a large class of persons 
 included among the general professors of Chris- 
 tianity, who are mistaken in their vie\^'s of con- 
 version. Most of these have been brought up 
 from their infancy under some sort of religious 
 instruction, and have been habituated to attend 
 upon its ordinances. They profess what may be 
 denominated an educational, or historical faith. 
 They admire Christianity as a very pure and 
 benevolent religion, undoubtedly the best in the 
 world ; but as to any change of heart under its 
 
 * Rev. ii. 10. 
 13- 
 
150 THE MISTAKEN. 
 
 influence, or any spiritual experience of its re- 
 novating power, they deem it fanaticism. 
 
 1. Some of these consider that conversion 
 means, nothing- more than simply giving- their as- 
 sent to Christianity, or perceiving- that the gospel 
 attests itself to be a divine religion. If they show 
 it a decent external respect and submission, have 
 been baptized into the name of Christ, and edu- 
 cated in a belief of his religion, they conceive that 
 there is not any other kind of conversion which can 
 be required of them. They would restrict the 
 use of the term conversion to those who, having 
 previously been heathens, embrace the religion 
 of the gospel; or to such as had been infidels, or 
 grossly vicious characters, and have renounced 
 their evil courses. 
 
 In these instances, they \vould admit that there 
 is something which amounts to an entire change, 
 and would, therefore, account very properly for 
 the use of the word conversion in reference to 
 them. But, as to themselves, they cannot per- 
 ceive any propriety in requiring conversion, or in 
 enforcing it as essential to their salvation. 
 
 Yet, surely, if the words of Christ are correct, 
 these persons are fearfully mistaken. For nothing 
 can be more certain and clear from Scripture than 
 that Jesus Christ and his apostles urged the ne- 
 cessity of conversion upon many individuals who 
 wx^rc of fair religious reputation, and even esteem- 
 ed among the most devout, so far as an outward 
 observance of forms and ceremonies can go, 
 but who gave no evidence of a change of heart. 
 He said to the Jews, who were firm believers in 
 the authority of revelation, and to his own dis- 
 ciples, ''Verily I say unto you, Except ye be con- 
 verted, and become as little children, ye shall not 
 
THE MISTAKEN. 151 
 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven."* Concernino- 
 the great body of professing persons in that day, 
 God had before testified by the prophet Isaiah, 
 that though they frequented his courts, and ad- 
 mitted his authority over them, yet they drew 
 near to him with their mouths, and with their 
 lips did honour him, while they had removed 
 their hearts far from him ; therefore he denounced 
 all their services as vain and unacceptable, and 
 their persons as abominable in his sight.! Hence, 
 too, in calling their attention to that kingdom of 
 Christ which was to be established among them, 
 he expressly enforced upon them a change of 
 heart. " I wHl take away the stony heart out of 
 your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. "t 
 The whole of our Saviour's ministry among them 
 proceeded upon this important principle, that 
 mere forms and privileges, profession and ordi- 
 nances, did neither constitute nor eiince that 
 kind of piety which he required, and for the pro- 
 motion of which he enforced the doctrine of con- 
 version. 
 
 It was manifest in the treatment he himself re- 
 ceived from them, that, notwithstanding all their 
 rigid observance of the law of Moses, and all their 
 glorying in the only religion revealed from heaven, 
 they had not the love of God in them, and, con- 
 sequently, no sound claim to the character of true 
 and spiritual believers. Their rejection of Christ, 
 and especially the cruel and impious manner of 
 that rejection, both show, that, with all their pre- 
 tensions to godliness, they were utterly mistaken, 
 and stood in need of an entire change of heart. 
 The case of Paul before conversion was precisely 
 that of a person firmly believing in the authority 
 
 * Malt, xviii. 3. -{• Isa. xxix. 13. t Ezek.xxxvi. 26. 
 
152 THE MISTAKEN. 
 
 of revelation, zealous for the religious law of his 
 fathers, and strictly conformed to the ceremonies 
 of his religion, and that a divine one ; and yet he 
 Avas undoubtedly an unconverted, unregenerated 
 man. Now, this case seems to make it certain, 
 that the mere profession of Judaism was not true 
 piety, nor a state of conversion ; and that it is, 
 therefore, just as possible for a professed Christian 
 to be in an unconverted state as for a professed 
 Jew ; since both these forms of religion may be 
 externally professed by those v\'hose hearts have 
 never experienced a change from the love of sin 
 to the love of the divine law, or from the love of 
 the world to the love of God. 
 
 2. There is another class of the mistaken, who 
 are equally in danger of missing a sound conver- 
 sion. They are those who admit that conversion 
 is required, and that it is essentially a change of 
 heart ; but they conclude that it has passed upon 
 themselves, simply because they have been the 
 subjects of occasional and partial convictions, or 
 even of strong ones ; or, because they are still 
 frequently agitated in a powerful manner under 
 the preaching of the word. They have heard that 
 a great change is included in conversion ; that it 
 is often accompanied with strong excitement and 
 deep inward convictions of sin. They have had 
 some such impressions wrought upon their minds, 
 and, without looking further into the subject, they 
 have hastily inferred that they are converted. 
 But how superficial and inadequate their views 
 are, may be evinced by the fact, that they have 
 not become new creatures in Christ Jesus ; and 
 by observing what is said in Scripture concern- 
 ing a class who " receive the word Avith joy,"* 
 
 * Luke viii. 13. 
 
THE iMISTAKEN. 153 
 
 yet have no root in themselves ; also by the case 
 of Felix, who trembled while the apostle Paul 
 reasoned of temperance, righteousness, and judo^- 
 ment to come ; •■ as well as by many, both in the 
 days of Christ and his apostles, who assented 
 to the truth as preached, and even felt it to a 
 certain degree in their hearts, yet, subsequently, 
 lost their convictions and became increasingly 
 hardened in their sinful state. So that it is clear 
 they never experienced true and thorough con- 
 version, though they were the subjects of tempo- 
 rary awakenings and convictions. 
 
 Let not the reader, therefore, suppose he has 
 undergone the essential change for which we plead, 
 unless he can show before the heart-searching God 
 that he is a new creature, the opposite of what he 
 was when sin had the dominion over him. For it 
 is certain, whatever degree of excitement he has 
 felt, or whatever temporary concern for the for- 
 giveness of his sins, or whatever resolutions he 
 may have formed to amend his life, if he is not 
 really acting by faith, and living by faith, under 
 the commanding influence of love to God through 
 Christ, he is yet an unconverted person, and, as 
 such, under all the condemnation in which the un- 
 pardoned and the guilty are involved. It behoves 
 him to look upon all he has taken for conversion 
 as mere alarm, or excitement of natural feeling ; 
 and however much he may think it resembles the 
 experience of the converted and the true believer, 
 he may rely upon it there is as essential a differ- 
 ence as between a shadow and a substance, a 
 painted fire and a real one. He has yet to learn 
 what that conversion is, without which he can 
 possess no scriptural hope of heaven. 
 * Acis xxiv. 25. 
 
154 THE MISTAKEN. 
 
 3. There are some who fall into a mistake of 
 another kind. Because they are using the means 
 ordinarily denominated the means of grace, they 
 quiet their consciences, and comfort themselves 
 with the notion that they arc in the way to con- 
 version. They imagine themselves to be like sick 
 persons in the hands of a skilful physician, whose 
 cure has already begun. Or, they are like travel- 
 lers, who have entered a road that will lead to a 
 certain place. But here the unconverted is surely 
 practising collusion with sin and unbelief. The 
 cure is not yet begun, if you have not yet believed 
 with the heart ; the progress is not yet commenced, 
 if you have not entered at the " strait gate." Do 
 not compare yourself with the lame man who was 
 waiting at the pool of Bethesda. No sinner ever 
 really waits for Christ. All such as do not at once 
 believe with the heart unto righteousness, are in 
 the way to be lost instead of saved. There is no 
 greater delusion than this of waiting for grace, 
 or being in the way to be saved. What would 
 you think of that person, who, after you had made 
 him some benevolent promise of a valuable gift, 
 should say, I am in the w^ay to believe you ; I do 
 not believe you now, but I think I shall come to 
 believe you by and by? Does the solemn pledge 
 of a benevolent and trutliful person deserve such 
 treatment ? How very absurd and insulting would 
 such conduct appear ! How justly might it entitle 
 the insulted party to say — Then, if you are only in 
 the way to believe me, but do really reject my pro- 
 mise now, I shall consent to no such an acceptance 
 of my kindness. Come to a point with me. Either 
 say at once you believe my word, or you do not ; 
 for I cannot conceive how you can be in the way 
 to believe me at all, if I am not worthy of your 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 155 
 
 immediate com^dence. The question then comes 
 to this, Is the gospel worthy of all acceptation, or 
 is it not ? If it is admitted to be in all respects 
 worthy, then why is it not instantly believed, in all 
 its fulness of grace and love ? If it is not worthy 
 of instant credit, it never will be. Ah, beloved 
 reader, beware of deluding yourself, or of bein^; 
 deluded by Satan, into the notion that you are in 
 the way to believe the gospel, when you are really 
 in a state of unbelief. The plain fact is, and we 
 must not hesitate to announce it, if you do not at 
 once and cordially believe the testimony God has 
 given of his Son, you are in the direct way to be 
 lost. You are here, then, summoned once more, 
 in the name of the sovereign Lord, in the name 
 of the divine Saviour, either at once to believe in 
 Jesus, or resign that false notion of being in the 
 way to believe ; for if you cherish it, it will keep 
 you from Christ, instead of bringing you to him. 
 Either now say, "Lord, I believe," or resign all 
 pretensions even to a desire to believe, and admit 
 that you are still in the bonds of sin and unbelief. 
 There is no medium state between believing and 
 disbelieving. If you do not heartily believe the 
 gospel, you must be treated as an unbeliever. See, 
 then, that your " being in the way to believe" is all 
 a mistake. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 
 
 There is another class, who are attempting seri- 
 ously and earnestly to realize what they think the 
 Scripture means by conversion, but it is in a spirit 
 of self-sufficiency ; they are labouring to heal them- 
 
158 THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 
 
 selves. It is a very common case, when persons 
 become anxious to obtain salvation, that they seek 
 it by efforts at personal reformation; we mean, as 
 to their external conduct — breaking off bad habits 
 — abstaining from sinful indulgences ; and con- 
 necting with these efforts some directly religious 
 observances, such as reading the Scriptures, 
 prayer and attendance upon public worship. Now, 
 upon these cases we wish to speak with caution, 
 yet with decision and plainness. So far as these 
 things go, they are in themselves goodand co)n- 
 mendable ; but tliey do not necessarily include the 
 scriptural idea of conversion. They may all lake 
 place, and do all frequently take place, without the 
 conversion of the soul ; and if they have been 
 placed by the awakened mind as the ground of 
 its confidence, as the realizing of its notion of 
 conversion, and so fill it with the false per- 
 suasion that it is really and divinely converted ; 
 then this becomes an obstacle to the true conver- 
 sion or change of heart, inasmuch as the mind 
 settles down under this idea into a state of self- 
 complacency, and thereby is made deaf to all fur- 
 ther appeals. It says, like the congregation at 
 Laodicea, mentioned in Rev. iii. 17, "I am rich, 
 and increased with goods, and have need of 
 nothing;" while the Spirit of God says of such, 
 *' Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked." 
 
 Let us look carefully into such a case. You 
 suppose that, by attention to the perfect law of 
 God, and a watchful endeavour on your part to 
 conform to its requirements, you may work your- 
 self gradually into a tolerable, if not into a perfect 
 conformity to it, so that you will be left, accord- 
 ing to your own calculation, with only a very small 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 157 
 
 amount of transgression or deficiency ; against 
 which you place, as a last resource, the mercy of 
 God and the grace of Jesus Christ. In this spirit 
 most persons, under their first serious awakenings, 
 go to work. But, let me ask, is this the full and free 
 salvation which the gospel offers to sinners ? Was 
 this the gospel which the apostle Paul tauorht ? He 
 says, "Ye are not under the law, but under 
 grace."* " There is therefore now no condemna- 
 tion to them which are in Christ Jesus. The law 
 of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me 
 free from the law of sin and death."! " I was 
 alive without the law once ; but when the com- 
 mandment came, sin revived, and I died."! 
 " What the law could not do, in that it was weak- 
 through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin 
 in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law 
 might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the 
 flesh, but after the Spirit. "§ How, then, should 
 that law of God which was not given till after man 
 had become a sinner, and which can impart 
 nothing but the knowledge and conviction of sin, 
 become the means of giving life to those who are 
 already under its sentence of condemnation ? The 
 apostle Paul says, " Sin, taking occasion by the 
 commandment, wrought in me all manner of con- 
 cupiscence. "|| How, then, should it ever work a 
 true and acceptable holiness in you ? How should 
 it enable you to procure forgiveness for the sins 
 already committed ? Certainly, it never can. As- 
 suredly, then, you have been looking to the law 
 of God for that which you should seek from the 
 grace of the gospel ; for it is the free forgiveness 
 
 * Rom. vi. 14. f Rom. viii. 1, 3. 4: Rom. vii. 9. 
 ^ Rom. viii. 3, 4. Ij Rom. vii. 8. 
 
 14 
 
158 THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 
 
 of sins through the precious blood of Christ which 
 can alone make you, or any one else, free from the 
 law of sin and d^ath. But we may refer to the 
 experience of those who have tried this method of 
 procuring health and life to their soul. Has it 
 succeeded? Has it not been often testified, that 
 every attempt to sanctify and save ourselves "by 
 the deeds of the law," instead of " the righteous- 
 ness which is by faith," has utterly failed ? Do not 
 such attempts at self-renovation prove sources of 
 disappointment, bondage and despair ? The soul, 
 yet without strength, finds sin unconquerable, 
 holiness unattainable, and peace disturbed by the 
 murmurings of an accusing conscience. And so 
 it must be, because this is not God's method of 
 saving and renovating sinners ; so it must be, be- 
 cause *' the law worketh Avrath ;"* but the word 
 of the oath (or promise of the gracious covenant) 
 v/hich has come since the law, presents to the con- 
 vinced, entangled and labouring soul, Christ cruci- 
 fied, as " made of God unto us wisdom, and righte- 
 ousness, and sanctification, and redemption.! This 
 is the one object that must engage the faith of the 
 awakened ; and till this is apprehended for com- 
 plete salvation, there is neither life nor grace in 
 the soul. He that works, therefore, for life and 
 salvation in the way of bringing himself to a per- 
 fect obedience to God's law, is working in the fire. 
 This is a reason, a valid reason, and will forevei 
 remain such, why no self-sufficient sinner can be 
 saved. Every such person needs conversion as 
 much as the vilest profligate. He stands upon his 
 own obedience. He takes the lav/ as his founda- 
 tion and rule cf salvation, forgetting that if he 
 " offends in one point, he is guilty of all ;":}: or 
 * iloxu. iv. 15. -j- 1 Cur. i. 30. 4 James ii. 10. 
 
THE SELF-SUFFICIENT. 159 
 
 that the same condemnation impends in the case 
 of one transgression as in that of many. Conse- 
 quently, if he has offended only in one point, he 
 is a transgressor ; and from the guih of that one 
 transgression the law could no more release him 
 than from ten thousand. Therefore, he still needs, 
 after all he has done or can do, a Redeemer from 
 sin and guilt : he must still be a debtor to sove- 
 reign grace, or perish in his vain effort to obtain 
 life by the law. It were surely, therefore, better 
 at once to renounce self-dependence, and say, 
 
 " I quit the hopes I held before, 
 To trust the merits of thy Son." 
 
 It is certain, from the whole tenor of the gospel, 
 that the salvation of sinners must be of God's pure, 
 undeserved mercy, and through the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. If there had been any possi- 
 bility of a sinner's restoring and saving himself — 
 "if there had been a law given which could have 
 given life, verily (justifying) righteousness should 
 have been by the law;"* but then there would 
 have been n-o need for the work of Christ. But if 
 these things are so, does not the self-sufficient 
 need conversion ? For what is he trying ? It is for 
 salvation. But if he strives till the day of death — 
 or if that were deferred till the day of doom — if he 
 strives to renew his heart and save his soul by the 
 power of the law of God, he will strive in vain, 
 and worse than in vain — it will but prove the ag- 
 gravation of his guilt ; because he has turned away 
 from free grace to strict justice; has renounced 
 Christ's righteousness for his own; and has pre- 
 ferred the chance of saving himself by his own ef- 
 forts to the infallible certainty of the divine promise. 
 
 » Ga!. iii. 21. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE WORLDLING. 
 
 Because all men must have to do with the world 
 while in it, some men will have to do with nothing 
 else. Our present business is with that numerous 
 class whose heart is in the world, or who have the 
 world in their heart. It is certain from Holy Scrip- 
 ture that all those who are seeking their portion in 
 this life need conversion. And, alas, how vast is the 
 multitude ! What pity, what tender concern, what 
 unwearied assiduity to convince them, should their 
 imminent danger excite in all who understand 
 true religion ! These lines may meet the eye of 
 some worldlings who may attempt to evade their 
 force, or their point, by disclaiming the character 
 of worldlings. They may not be of this class or 
 that ; but the question is, do they not love the world, 
 that is, supremely love and prefer it, in some of 
 its forms, before their salvation, their interest 
 in the eternal world, their God and their Saviour ? 
 Reader, here be kind to yourself, and practise no 
 self-deception. Did you ever take as much delight 
 in your Bible as in some earthly object ? Did 
 you ever do as much to enjoy salvation as you 
 have done to enjoy pleasure in worldly scenes ? 
 Did you ever sacrifice as much to obtain the 
 knowledge of salvation as you have to please 
 yourself and others with earthly things ? Have 
 you not manifested a stronger bias to the things 
 that are seen and temporal than to those that are 
 unseen and eternal ? You may not be a worldling 
 in the sense of money-getting, or in the way of 
 IGO 
 
THE WORLDLING. 161 
 
 fame and ambition, or fashion or gay amuse- 
 ments. You may not be a frequenter of theatres, 
 or horse-races, or card-tables. You may not seek 
 companions at the inn parlour, nor with Sabbath- 
 breakers, nor at the fashionable watering-place, 
 nor at the ball-room. Yet you may be a worldling. 
 You may frequent a place of worship, and yet be 
 a worldling. Your friends and acfjuaintances may 
 be the choicest of religious people, and yet you 
 may be a worldling. Your life may be in the 
 element of the world. Your chief pleasures may 
 arise even from things innocent and lawful. Your 
 portion may be nothing better than an earthly 
 inheritance, or merely the hope of gaining one. 
 And if so, you need conversion. How much more, 
 if your conscience clearly convicts you of loving 
 something in this world more than you love any 
 thing or any being out of this world ! You know 
 who it is that says, " He that loveth father or 
 mother more than me is not worthy of me : and 
 he that loveth son or daughter more than me is 
 not worthy of me : and he that taketh not his 
 cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of 
 me."* The same authority decides the case of all 
 who come under the denomination of worldly: 
 " If any man love the world, the love of the Father 
 is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust 
 of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
 of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."! 
 The glorious and gracious Being who says, in 
 the passage quoted above from Matt. x. 37, " He 
 that loveth father or mother, son or daughter, 
 more than me, is not worthy of me," has a supreme 
 right to your heart ; but the world you so intensely 
 love has none. The language which he has there 
 
 * Matt. X. 37, 38. f ^ John ii. 15, 16. 
 
 14* ' 
 
162 
 
 THE WORLDLING. 
 
 employed exclusively befits the mouth of God, 
 and 1 trust you feel involuntarily, and without 
 any argument or illustration, that it becomes him 
 alone, who has a rig^ht to say, " Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
 strength."* He alone can judge the state of your 
 heart, whether you are not now among the un- 
 happy class to whom he says, " I know you, that \ 
 ye have not the love of God in you."t It must, 
 therefore, be a situation of no common peril to 
 fall under his displeasure, and to feel in one's 
 own conscience that the sentence of the apostle 
 Paul cleaves to us: "If any man love not the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema" {ac- 
 cursed) " Maran-atha," ((he Lord cometh.)X 
 
 Poor votary of the world, in some or in any of 
 its forms ! what have you to say to all this ? Let 
 me suppose you summoned to appear and answer 
 to the claim of your Saviour. What answer would 
 you make ? What answer coidd you make ? Could 
 it be that of Peter, " Lord, thou knowest all things ; 
 thou knowest that I love thee"§ — Could you say 
 that ? No : your conscience testifies, your life 
 shows, that you have loved a very different ob- 
 ject. In the light of the divine presence, the 
 truth must appear and be confessed. It is cer- 
 tain, then, that every worldly-minded person, in 
 whatever form he has shown his love of the world, 
 would be obliged to make this confession : — 
 " Lord, if I must judge only by my past hfe, I fear 
 I have shown no love to thee, but, on the con- 
 trary, have loved what thou hatest, and hated 
 what thou lovest," Perhaps, some would even 
 
 *Markxii.30. f John v. 12. :t lCor.xvi.22. §Johuxxi. 17. 
 
THE WORLDLING. 1G3 
 
 be ready to think, if not to say, that they really had 
 no wish to love Jesus Christ ; they see nothing to 
 engage their affections either in him, or his reli- 
 gion. Oh that such could be persuaded to reflect 
 upon the fearful alternative of not loving Jesus 
 Christ, and of not being loved by him ! Oh that 
 such would pause before they proceed further to 
 act out their dislike of Christ and his religion ! 
 Oh that they would anticipate the situation in 
 w^hich they will be placed when the Judge shall 
 stand before their door ; and when it is quite cer- 
 tain they would gladly renounce every other ob- 
 ject, and every other pleasure, for the delight 
 which the assurance of his favour would impart ! 
 But if such delay till conversion is impossible, 
 they will have cause through eternal ages to de- 
 plore the folly that blinded them to the love of 
 Christ and the love of their own souls ; and in- 
 duced them to prefer the love of the world, or the 
 love of sin, or the love of some poor, frail fellow- 
 creature, which, in the end, has left them disap- 
 pointed, dissatisfied and lost. 
 
 Immortal man or woman ! why will you incur 
 this fearful, this tremendous fate .' AVhy, for the 
 sake of this wretched world, or any thing in it, 
 will you incur the anathema of your Creator and 
 Saviour? Does any uncertainty attach to the 
 issue of such a life as you are leading ? Is it not 
 clear that your heart is hostile to Christ, or, at 
 least, that it is not enraptured with his love ? and 
 if so, the issue is not doubtful; you must perish, 
 unless you change. The decree of Heaven is be- 
 fore your eyes. The tender and compassionate 
 Saviour, the greatest Lover of souls, says you are 
 not worthy of him; he disclaims you; he leaves 
 you, as you have left him, to love the world, and 
 
164 THE DELAYER. 
 
 perish with the world. No : he does not yet 
 leave you, for he prompts us to love you, to ad- 
 monish yoLi, to reason with you, to entreat you to 
 cease from pursuing the fleeting shadow of happi- 
 ness, and embrace the substance ; to awake from 
 mere dreams of bliss, and enter upon the real en- 
 joyment of that divine love which is the true life 
 of the soul. You must be converted from the 
 love of the world to the love of God. You must 
 turn, if you would live in immortal felicity ; or, if 
 you persist in loving the world, you must abandon 
 the hope of glory. Be converted, or perish. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DELAYER. 
 
 Some, who h-^.ve perused this treatise thus far, 
 have been ready to parry all our remarks with 
 this observation, this fatal salvo, this opiate of the 
 conscience : — It is all true, scriptural, important, 
 excellent. We mean to be converted : we are 
 only delaying for a little, and we think we have 
 good reason for delay. We shall become real 
 Christians at last, — all that could be wished. 
 
 The fearful import of these words, " only delay- 
 ing a little," none of those who use them can tell. 
 Here lies, effectually hidden from their view, one 
 of the deepest, deadliest, most successful of all the 
 various devices of Satan. The notion of delay in 
 reference to your conversion may be illustrated 
 by connecting the same idea with the presence of 
 alarming disease in the body. There may be 
 cases in common life, in which a little delay can 
 
THE DELAYER. 165 
 
 do no harm, and may do g-ood ; there may be some 
 attacks of disease, in which a little delay might 
 not incur danger. But there are many others in 
 which it would prove fatal. If aid does not arrive 
 in time, it may be of no avail. Who, then, likes 
 to run the risk of delay, even in common attacks 
 of disorder ? But every delay in conversion in- 
 volves the risk of perdition. It is positive infatua- 
 tion to delay in a case where it can do no good, 
 and may involve irretrievable destruction. Why 
 should you delay your conversion ? Have you 
 ever tried to answer this question? Have you 
 ever met with one good reason for it ? Have you 
 ever heard of any one who had a good reason to 
 give ? The writer could tell you of many who 
 have delayed, and though only intentionally for a 
 little while, yet they lived to deplore, and died to 
 expei^ence, the folly, the infatuation of dela}'. 
 
 But let us bring this matter to the test. There 
 can be nothing gained, nothing saved, nothing 
 made easier by delay. You cannot by delay find 
 out any thing to save your soul better than con- 
 version. Who could dare to say, that by delaying 
 his salvation he is doing no wrong, or doing him- 
 self any good ? Is conversion a good or an evil? 
 If it is a good, and you wish for it, the sooner you 
 experience it, the better. If, without it, you con- 
 fess yourself in peril of damnation, then, to incur 
 that peril any further, is a species of folly that ad- 
 mits no excuse. If, as you admit, salvation is 
 your object, and an object of inexpressible import- 
 ance, compared with which every thing is light as 
 air, worthless as the dust beneath your feet, then, 
 to delay the possession or pursuit is criminal tri- 
 fling, and utterly irreconcilable with rationality. 
 How would you judge, if an earthquake had al- 
 
166 THE DELAYER. 
 
 ready passed under the place of your abode, if 
 already the frag-ments of your dwelling were begin- 
 ning to fall. Would you think it rational and safe 
 to delay a little longer? Would you need to be 
 admonished from without — Escape instantly. An- 
 other shock will bring the entire building to the 
 ground? Could you coolly say to the friendly 
 monitor, / mean to escape, but I am only delay- 
 ing a little, to finish something, to bring some- 
 thing with me? Shall not that last warning pre- 
 vail ? Another moment and you will pay dear 
 for your delay! No sinner ever yet intended to 
 be lost ; and yet how many have been lost by 
 delaj^ the last day alone will reveal. He that de- 
 lays conversion is in the direct way to be lost. He 
 is regardless of the fact, that every moment he 
 delays he is resisting God, he is increasing his sins, 
 he is hardening his heart, he is placing mor^ diffi- 
 culties in his own way; he is tempting God to cast 
 him off altogether, and encouraging Satan to tempt 
 him further into sin. It is awful to think of the 
 anguish which is often experienced by procrasti- 
 nators when they come to feel that they have de- 
 layed too long. My ilesh has trembled when I 
 have heard their piercing shrieks, and seen their 
 frenzied looks, and experienced the difficulty of 
 administering any wojd of hope, or of finding any 
 promise strong enough to subdue their spirit. 
 
 If conversion is admitted to be indispensable 
 ^or a sinner, if its nature has been truly, (that is, 
 scripturally,) described in the foregoing pages, if 
 every one who only procrastinates a little feels 
 the unutterable importance of that conversion, 
 how ought such to shrink from the thought of de- 
 lay, though it should be never so short, since it 
 may be, and most probably will prove to be, but 
 
THE DELAYER. 167 
 
 the beginning of that series of resolutions and 
 delays which will end in final impenitence ! Your 
 resolution has, perhaps, already been formed and 
 broken ; and more than once you have said sin- 
 cerely and seriously, as before the eye of God, "I 
 will repent and be converted." But yet the re- 
 solution remains to be carried into effect, and that 
 with a mind weakened in its purpose, more fa- 
 miliar with the violation of its vow, and more 
 prepared to admit the renewed force of those 
 feelings and reasons for delay which have already 
 more than once mastered it and made it falter in 
 its purpose. There is a solemn and appropriate 
 passage of Scripture, which you will do well to 
 weigh seriously, and impress immediately upon 
 your mind : " He that, being often reproved, hard- 
 eneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, ^fid 
 that without remedy."* Many, many sinners 
 have experienced the awful truth of this threaten- 
 ing, and have lived long enough in the habit of 
 delay to feel that they were given over of God 
 to that impenitency which they had dared to pro- 
 long, by trifling with the divine warning ; and 
 have died exclaiming, with the Hon. F. Newport, 
 the noble Altamont, and others, // is too late! 
 But did you ever know or hear of any one that 
 had repented too soon ? Can you imagine it pos- 
 sible that any one should ever say he had been 
 converted too soon ? Do you think you shall 
 ever feel that ? Is there not yet danger that you 
 may have to say, // is too late! The only certain 
 security you can possess, and the only safegard 
 against that danger, is to repent now, be convert- 
 ed, turn to God now ; delay not another moment, 
 lest that should be a moment too late ! When 
 
 * Prov. xxix. 1. 
 
1G8 THE CARELESS. 
 
 the voice of Noah was heard preaching- righteous- 
 ness, and predicting the deluge, he was scorned 
 and mocked ; but after the door was shut, and the 
 rains began to descend, and the floods to cover 
 the plains and surround the hills, many, who be- 
 fore had scorned, would fain have taken refuge in 
 the ark, rather than flee to that only resort, the 
 tops of the mountains, which their reason showed 
 them would soon be covered. But it was too late ; 
 God had shut in Noah, and in so doing, had shut 
 out the unbelieving and delaying sinners. Think, 
 then, reader, can you still delay ? 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CARELESS. 
 
 This term includes all those who have not given 
 and will not give any serious or fixed attention to 
 their conversion. They are so engaged by their 
 affairs, so enslaved by their pleasures, so entangled 
 by the snare of some sin, that they will, perhaps, 
 scarcely have patience to read these lines specially 
 addressed to themselves. Yet it is with the most 
 anxious concern to do them service, with the most 
 tender pity for their immortal souls, with the most 
 respectful and earnest entreaty, that they are now 
 admonished. If you will take this seasonable and 
 well-meant warning, you may yet escape the wrath 
 of God and taste the joys of true religion. It is 
 not, in your case, yet too late. You may be saved 
 — saved from eternal death, which is undoubtedly 
 at the end of your present course — and be admitted 
 to everlasting felicity. 
 
 You are careless. You know that you are. 
 
THE CARELESS. 169 
 
 You feel that your heart is quite indifferent to 
 your conversion. You will, perhaps, frankly con- 
 fess it. And what a confession that is ! 
 
 Well, then, you have been careless — not about 
 your property, your health, your interests in thi> 
 life, your mental improvement, your pleasures — 
 but about your soul. The principal reason is, be- 
 cause you have been enamoured and enslaved by 
 some sin. Yet it is as certain as that you are rational, 
 and can feel and judge, hope and fear, suffer and 
 enjoy, that you cannot continue in sin, and pos- 
 sess the hope which makes life happy and deprives 
 death of its sting-. You are not in the possession 
 of true happiness, and a hope beyond death, just 
 because you are not converted ; and you are not 
 and will not be converted, beca'use you love sin. 
 You may, perhaps, deny this, or attempt, by some 
 sophistry, to evade it. I know that human minds 
 in your state often do deny this, and try to hide it 
 from their consciences. I know that they will 
 pretend any reason and every reason for not be- 
 coming true Christians, rather than admit that it 
 arises from their love of sin. But it is so, and 
 they will find it so at last. It is one of the master- 
 pieces of Satanic deception, to induce men to be- 
 lieve that, if they are finally lost, it will not be 
 their own fault. Yet this is mere empty sophistry. 
 Many thousands have experimentally proved that 
 it is utterly delusive, and vanishes when once con- 
 science is roused to deal faithfully with them. 
 They really love darkness rather than light, be- 
 cause their deeds are evil : and whatever they may 
 say when surrounded by gay and jocular com- 
 panions, yet, when serious, alone, terrified by the 
 fear of death, or anticipating the presence of God, 
 they feel it to be no comfort that they have lived 
 15 
 
170 THE CARELESS. 
 
 in sin, despised religion and laughed at conver- 
 sion. They are then conscious that they have 
 really preferred sinful pleasures to the salvation of 
 their soul, or else they would not have turned from 
 the one and pursued the other. They are con- 
 scious — and all such, when they think at all upon 
 the matter, are conscious — that their own free will, 
 without any constraint or necessity, has led them 
 to seek their gratification in the ways of sin, rather 
 than in the ways of God. But is not this a fact 
 solemn enough — perilous enough to startle you 
 from your dream of pleasure — sufficient la appal 
 any mind with the tremendous thought of being 
 soon consigned to endless torments? A little fur- 
 ther progress in the same course, and you will find 
 no possibility of' retracing your steps ! The die 
 will be cast ; the sentence, already gone forth, will 
 he executed. Yet, the only true and adequate 
 reason that can be stated, why you are not a true 
 and happy Christian, is, confessedly, that you have 
 been careless ; careless to such a degree, as you 
 would not have been in any other matter, important 
 to your health, your worldly interest, or your hap- 
 piness. The only cause why you have not been 
 converted is to be attributed to the evil disposition 
 of your own heart. You have shown by your 
 own conduct, that you would rather continue under 
 the leprosy of sin, the moral plague of your heart, 
 than be made whole by the hands of the divine 
 Physician. Do not, I entreat you, by all that is 
 solemn in eternity, by all that is precious in the 
 immortal soul, do not shrink from bringing home 
 to your own conscience the charge of being wil- 
 fully in a sinful state. It is a true charge, and 
 you will find it so v/hen it is enforced by your 
 Judge. You are now resigning yourself to the 
 
THE CARELESS. 171 
 
 fatal influence of the most deadly malady under 
 which the soul can labour. You are folding- your 
 arms to rest, just as the storm is about to break 
 on your frail vessel. You are sliding smoothly 
 down to the brink of a precipice, from which your 
 eyes are averted, while you are amused and 
 pleased with the scenery around, from which you 
 will soon disappear. A little more of this kind of 
 self-delusion, and you will be irrecoverably gone ; 
 you will drop into destruction. Awake, thou that 
 sleepest! Be willing to think of Christ, of your 
 soul, of eternity, of that conversion without which 
 you cannot be saved. Admit the plain truth, 
 though it may be disagreeable. Learn the worst 
 of your case, though it may fill you with alarm ; 
 for'vou may learn it when alarm cannot lead to 
 escape. There is more hope in candour and sin- 
 cerity than in self-flattery, false peace and indif- 
 ference. Sin will, sin must, destroy the soul, or sin 
 must be destroyed by the grace of God now. You 
 may not like to make the sacrifice required in 
 order to be saved, but you make a much greater 
 sacrifice to retain your sins. 
 
 Careless, enslaved sinner ! have you yet a desire 
 to live a new life and taste real happiness ? It is 
 not too late, neither are the blessings placed be- 
 yond your reach. If you are in earnest for your 
 everlasting salvation, there is One mighty to save, 
 waiting to receive the confession of your sinfulness, 
 willing to give eternal life to all that come unto 
 him. Haste to his throne of mercy, believe his 
 promise, and receive, without money and without 
 price, the precious gift of his ineffable and ever- 
 lastinsf love. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE HOPELESS. 
 
 There are many persons whose minds have been 
 brought into the lamentable state indicated by the 
 fearful word which stands at the head of this chap- 
 ter, from very different causes. Some have trifled 
 with convictions till they have become insensible 
 and reckless. Others are, perhaps, in an equally 
 hopeless, but a less hardened and careless state. 
 They are conscious that they have repeatedly 
 broken through all the dictates of their consciences 
 and the warnings of the divine word ; and, sensible 
 that they have no strength to carry out their good 
 purposes, they have ceased to form any ; thinking 
 that, at least, they will contract no more guilt by 
 breaking their solemn vows. Others there are, 
 who have become hopeless through an overpower- 
 ing sight of their own guiltiness. Such a view 
 has been set before them of the law of God, and 
 of their own long-continued and aggravated trans- 
 gressions of it, that they have yielded to the sug- 
 gestions of the adversary, who tells them there is 
 no possibility of their salvation. They may feel, 
 and deeply feel, that they need conversion, but 
 they look upon it as an impossibility. Some such 
 have even gone so far as to say God could not 
 save them, even if he would. They feel quite 
 sure that he has given them up to hardness of 
 heart and eternal wrath. Hence, they reject every 
 word of consolation, and refuse the plainest pro- 
 mises of mercy, though addressed specially to the 
 chief of sinners. 
 172 
 
THE HOPELESS. 173 
 
 There is another class of the hopeless, who have 
 fallen into this forlorn and wretclicd state through 
 mistaken views of the divine method of recon- 
 ciliation. It is no uncommon case for those to 
 lapse into this condition, who have been trying to 
 work out a righteousness for themselves, but have 
 failed. The inference by which they are entan- 
 gled and fast bound is this : because they have 
 made an earnest and a long effort to work them- 
 selves up to the hope of salvation, and this has 
 proved utterly abortive, therefore there is no hope 
 for them ; there is some divine decree of reproba- 
 tion against them, and they must forever despair of 
 escaping from that wrath they deserve. This is the 
 issue to which the enemy of souls would urge all 
 who have been awakened to a sense of their sin 
 and guilt, by the application of the law to their 
 consciences. One of this description on a sick- 
 bed was addressed thus : " The gospel affords a 
 balm for every wound which sin has made in the 
 soul." "True," said he ; "but that gospel, de- 
 spised through life, affords me no balm in my death. 
 There is no mercy for me now." 
 
 Some persons have had such a state of mind 
 fixed upon them by the casual reading or hearing 
 of some awful text of Scripture, which has come 
 to them with such force, been so appropriate to 
 their case, that, instead of taking it only as a salu- 
 tary and merciful warning, they have construed 
 it into a direct revelation of their inevitable 
 doom. Yei all the hopelessness, even of such ex- 
 treme cases, consists not in the greatness of the 
 sins committed, but in rejecting the promise of 
 foro-iveness. The decision of such minds is made 
 in direct contradiction to the fulness of divine 
 mercy; and could they be convinced that they 
 lt5* 
 
174 THE HOPELESS. 
 
 neither have nor can have any such ground for 
 believing their case hopeless as they have for 
 believing the divine mercy sufficient for their 
 pardon, they might then see that there is yet hope 
 even for them in God's free mercy, though none 
 in themselves. Nothing, therefore, must hinder us 
 from asserting and proving the all-sufficiency of 
 that atonement through which it is proclaimed, 
 that " all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be 
 forgiven unto men."* 
 
 Every soul that feels its condition to be hope- 
 less, and rests that conviction upon the measure 
 or the guilt of sin, does, in fact, affirm the insuf- 
 ficiency of divine grace, the insufficiency of the 
 blood of Christ, and the insufficiency of his me- 
 diation in his case. If every reason alleged by 
 such be carefully examined, it will be found to 
 deny the truth of innumerable plain texts and 
 promises of God, and must, therefore, be funda- 
 mentally and totally false ; for, "Let God be true, 
 but every man a liar,"t is a saying which even 
 the most hopeless cannot resist. Even their own 
 fears and terrors all depend upon the truth of God, 
 and they themselves all profess to admit the vera- 
 city of God, at least in his threatenings. These 
 are the sources of their despair. They dread the 
 wrath to come, and, therefore, they believe one 
 part of the divine word ; though they do not per- 
 ceive that the threatenings are designed to work 
 repentance. They do not profess to deny or de- 
 spise these threatenings ; they only disbelieve the 
 gracious promises. 
 
 For instance, one says, "I have gone too far." 
 But what is too far ? Let him but define what he 
 conceives is too fur, and it will be found that the 
 *Matt xii. 31. j-~Rom7 iii. 4. 
 
THE HOPELESS. 175 
 
 divine forgiveness extends to that and has been 
 granted to it. Another says, " I have sinned too 
 long." But let him attach a clear idea to the ex- 
 pression, and still it will be found that Christ can 
 save to the uttermost of time as well as of guilt ; 
 that a whole life of the most aggravated trans- 
 gressions, though it had been the life of an ante- 
 diluvian, docs not carry the sinner beyond the 
 reach of divine mercy. The hopeless of another 
 class say, " But we have turned aside from our 
 profession ; we have been apostates, and have 
 opened our mouth in blasphemy, in curses, in a 
 denial of God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Still, 
 all this does not exceed the power of divine for- 
 giveness. Many such have been converted ; and 
 the tender pity that forgavea weeping Peter, after 
 his repeated denial and his profane oaths, waits 
 only for your repentance. 
 
 Still, another affirms the hopelessness of his 
 case to arise out of the supposed fact, that he has 
 committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, of 
 which it is said that " it hath never forgiveness."* 
 But if such a person is asked what is the awful 
 sin thus exempted from forgiveness, he confesses 
 that he cannot tell, but he supposes it to be speak- 
 ing evil against the Holy Ghost, or it is denying 
 Jesus Christ ; yet he has no distinct idea, and 
 certainly cannot say that he has clearly committed 
 it. Why, then, should he pervert the Scriptures 
 to prove himself guilty of that which Scripture 
 itself has not clearly defined. The most judicious 
 expositors and most learned divines agree, that, 
 whatever this sin is, it cannot be committed by 
 any one in an age when the Holy Spirit does not 
 manifest his presence by miraculous signs, for 
 
 * Mark iii. 29. 
 
176 THE HOPELESS. 
 
 that the Scriptures most clearly testify, that every 
 sin known in these days has the promise of for- 
 giveness attached to it upon repentance. Every 
 species of sinners that we can find in the world are 
 exhorted and invited to repent ; and this they 
 could not be, if, among the vast multitude and 
 variety of sins and sinners, there were one ex- 
 empted from the mercy of God. Even those 
 Jews who witnessed the gift of tongues on the 
 day of Pentecost, and said that it was the effect of 
 intoxication — "These men are fuliof ne-w wine"=^' 
 — were not abandoned by the apostles as unpardon- 
 able, but w^ere exhorted to repent, and were as- 
 sured, that if they believed on the Lord Jesus, 
 even they should receive the remission of sins. 
 This exhortation of Peter w^as effectual with 
 many, for "they were pricked in the heart, and 
 said, Men and brethren, what shall we do ?"t 
 And that day more than three thousand believed, 
 and were Vv-elcomed by apostolic authority into 
 the Christian church. If, then, those who had at 
 first attributed divine inspiration to drunkenness 
 were converted and saved, there can be no suffi- 
 cient reason derived from Scripture for the hope- 
 lessness of any sinner, simply on the conviction 
 that he feels of any particular sin. He may be 
 assured that no temptation has happened to him 
 but that which is common to men. If the guilt 
 of apostasy, of murder, of adultery, of horrid 
 blasphemy, of atheism and infidelity, of the most 
 awful imprecations and denials of God and Christ, 
 has been forgiven, it will be impossible for any 
 one to find a sin for which divine mercy has not 
 provided a remedy, of the forgiveness of which 
 Holy Scripture does not afford an example. It 
 * Acts ii. 13. \ Acts ii. 37. 
 
THE HOrELESS. 177 
 
 must be evident, ilicrefore, that all those cases in 
 which sinners are apt to become hopeless, arc 
 really not more so in the view of the divine grace 
 than the case of any other sinner. All need re- 
 pentance ; to all conversion is prescribed ; each 
 is invited to believe ; and again and again it is 
 repeated, "Whosoever believeth on him shall not 
 be ashamed."* 
 
 It is clear, that the only hopelessness of all these 
 cases depends upon the adherence of the mind to 
 a false notion — the unpardonable nature of the sin 
 committed, or supposed to be committed. While 
 that delusion remains, there can be no hope. But 
 Scripture directly disproves it ; and until the truth 
 and certainty of the promises of God be admitted, 
 there is no hope. Yet the inconsistency and self- 
 contradiction of the despairing party are shown in 
 this, that he rejects these promises, while he pro- 
 fesses to feel the truth and certainty of the threat- 
 enings. If he has occasion to fear and tremble at 
 the threatening, he has the very same authority to 
 excite hope ; for He who condemns all sin, says 
 he will forgive all sin, on the faith and repentance 
 of the sinner. It is absurd to believe the one and 
 not the other. 
 
 There seems to be only one other view of all 
 such cases, which it is important here to notice. 
 Some readers of this section may say, that they do 
 not place their despair upon the ground of the 
 unpardonable nature of their sin, but upon the 
 hardness of their heart. They are hopeless, be- 
 cause, after various and anxious efforts, they 
 cannot bring their minds to the belief of the divine 
 promise. In so far as this is hopelessness of their 
 own ability, it is matter for congratulation, rather 
 
 * Rom. X. 11. 
 
178 THE HOPELESS. 
 
 than of despair. The feeling of their own inability- 
 ought to urge them to ask that of God which they 
 cannot impart to themselves. " Faith cometh by- 
 hearing, and hearing by the word of God ;"* not 
 by dwelling upon our own inability. Instead of re- 
 stricting our thoughts and our fears to that, we 
 should be looking to Him that can excite faith ; 
 we should be gathering up the promises that inspire 
 it into despairing hearts. You look to the deep 
 gloom of your own helplessness, and say, We are 
 hopeless, because we cannot believe. True : and 
 how should you be otherwise while you do not 
 look to that quarter from whence the day-spring 
 visits us ? Christ says, "Look unto me, and be 
 ye saved;"! but you look to yourselves, and say. 
 We are lost ! Faith cannot spring up in that heart 
 which is engaged exclusively with its own miseries. 
 When once these miseries are felt, they should 
 urge you immediately to look out of and beyond 
 yourselves for help. So you would do if you were 
 reduced to the extreme of poverty ; so you would 
 do if violent disease had seized your frame ; so 
 you would escape hastily from the flames, if you 
 awoke suddenly, and found yourself enveloped by 
 the devouring element ; so you would cry for help, 
 if you felt yourself sinking in deep waters. Then 
 why not direct your cry to Him who says, " Look 
 unto me and be ye saved ?":}: A look, a right de- 
 sire, a true glance of the eye of faith directed to- 
 wards him, and you would immediately feel that 
 you were strengthened with strength in your soul ; 
 and you would look again and again with growing 
 desire, with declining fear and rising hope, till 
 you felt Christ formed in your heart, the hope of 
 
 glory- 
 
 * Rom. X. 17. t Isa. x\v. 22. t Isa. xlv. 22. 
 
THE HOPELESS. 179 
 
 Mr. Whitefield, a brother of the Rev. George 
 Whitefield, after living some time in a backsliding 
 and careless state, was roused to a perception of 
 his danger, but shortly after sunk into melancholy 
 and despondency. He was drinking tea with the 
 Countess of Huntingdon one afternoon, while her 
 ladyship was endeavouring to raise his hopes by 
 conversing on the infinite mercy of God through 
 Jesus Christ. For a while it was all in vain. 
 "My lady," he replied, "I know what you say is 
 true. The mercy of God is infinite. I see it 
 clearly. But, ah ! my lady, there is no mercy for 
 me. I am a wretch, entirely lost." " I am glad 
 to hear it, Mr. W.," said Lady H. " I am glad at 
 my heart that you are a lost man." He looked 
 with great surprise. "What! my lady, glad I 
 glad at your heart that I am a lost man ?" *' Yes, 
 Mr. Whitefield, truly glad : for Jesus Christ came 
 into the world to save the lost !" He laid down 
 his cup of tea on the table — " Blessed be God for 
 that," he said. " Glory to God for that word," he 
 exclaimed. "Oh what unusual power is this which 
 I feel attending it ! Jesus Christ came to save the 
 lost ! then I have a ray of hope :" and so he pro- 
 ceeded. As he finished his last cup of tea, his 
 hand trembled, and he complained of illness. He 
 went out of the house for air, staggered, was 
 brought in, and shortly after expired. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 And now, my reader, under whatever descrip 
 tion you have ranged yourself as the work was 
 proceeding, here we are about to part. The writer 
 has nearly done with his book. He is about to 
 lay down his pen, and you, the reader, are about 
 to lay down the little volume. But we have both 
 done with it only for time. Its thoughts and 
 sentiments must live and recur again. They will, 
 doubtless, in your heart. We must both realize 
 its consequences in eternity. Whatever are your 
 impressions of the manner in which the author 
 has treated the subject, you cannot doubt, after 
 reading the book, that the subject itself is of trans- 
 cendent importance. If you are disposed to dis- 
 miss the book from your thoughts, yet be earnestly 
 and affectionately entreated not to dismiss its sub- 
 ject : for this momentous reason, that He who 
 says ''Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter 
 into the kingdom of God,^'* is now the gracious 
 Saviour of the world, is waiting to become yours, 
 and is appointed ere long to be your Judge. From 
 his lips you will assuredly hear your final sentence 
 pronounced. Matters of infinite concernment to 
 yourself depend upon your decision of the ques- 
 tion — Are you, or are you not, converted? Will 
 you, or will you not, now be converted ? Heaven 
 or hell through eternal ages is in the answer you 
 finally give ! Pause — consider — pray. 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 180