"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." (Rev. iii. 12.) "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." (Rev. xxi. 7, 8.) "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God the Righteous Judge will give me, and to all them that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 8; read Matt. xxv.) THE SECOND DAY'S CONFERENCE. Of the Conversion of a Sinner, what it is. PAUL. Well, neighbour, have you examined yourself by the word of God, since I saw you, as I directed you? SAUL. I have done what I can in it. P. And what do you think now of your case, upon trial? S. I think it is much worse than I had hoped it was, and as bad as you feared. When I first read the promises to all that believe in Christ, I was ready again to hope that I was safe; but when I read further, I found that it was as you had told me; and that I had none of Christ's Spirit, and therefore am none of his; and that I am not a penitent convert, and am not in a state of life. But I now beseech you, sir, upon my knees, as you pity a poor sinner, tell me what I must do to be saved. P. Are you willing and resolved to do it if I tell it you, and prove it to you fully by the word of God? e S. By the grace of God I am resolved to do it, be it what it will, for I know it cannot be so bad as sin and hell. P. You say well. I will first tell you this again in the general, 1. That your case is not remediless, but a full and sufficient salvation is purchased, and tendered in the gospel to you as well as to any others. 2. That Christ and his grace is this remedy; and that God e Acts ii. 37, and xvi. 30. 1 John v. 11, 12. f Matt. xi. 28. hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life, but remaineth in his guilt and sin. 3. That Christ having already made himself a sufficient sacrifice for sins, and merited our reconciliation, pardon, and salvation, to be given in his way,h hath made a covenant of grace (conditional) with sinful man, by the promise of which he forgiveth us all our sins, and giveth right to everlasting life. i 4. That Christ's way of saving men from sin is by sending his ministry and word to call them, and giving his Spirit within to sanctify them. And this Spirit is Christ's advocate to plead his cause, and do his work, and prepare us by holiness for the heavenly glory. 5. That all the condition required of you, that you may have all these blessings of the covenant of grace, is but sincerely to' believe and consent, and give up yourself in covenant to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and continue true to the covenant which you make. Read over these five points well, and consider of them; and then tell me whether this be not glad tidings to an undone miserable sinner? Have you read them over? S. I have read them, and I perceive that they are glad tidings of hope indeed. But truly, sir, I have heard the Gospel so carelessly, that I do not thoroughly understand these things; and therefore entreat you to open them to me more fully and plainly. P. I know you were baptised in your infancy; which was your privilege, being entered by your parents into the covenant of God. But their consent and dedication will serve your turn no longer than till you come to age and natural capacity to consent and covenant for yourself. Tell me, then, have you ever soberly considered what your baptism was, and what covenant was then made between God and you? And have you seriously renewed that covenant yourself, and so given up yourself to God? S. Alas! I never either seriously considered or renewed it; but I thought I was made a Christian by it, and was sufficiently regenerated, and my sins done away, and that I was a child of God, and an heir of heaven. h Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; John iii. 16. Acts xxvi. 16-18; Rom. x. 8-10, 14, 15. 1 Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 16; Rev. xxii. 17. Rom. viii. 9. P. And how did you think all your sins, since your baptism, were forgiven you? S. I confessed them to God, and some of them to the minister, and I received the Lord's Supper; and I thought that then I was forgiven, though I never had the true sense and power thereof on my heart and life. P. What if you had never been baptised, and were now first to be baptised, what would you do? S. I would understand and consider better of it, that I might not do I know not what. P. Why truly, baptising is well called christening; for baptism is such a covenant between God and man, as maketh the receiver of it a visible Christian; and if you had sincerely renewed and kept this same covenant, you had needed no new conversion or regeneration, but only particular repentance for your particular following sins. Baptism is to our Christianity what matrimony is to a state of marriage; or like the enlisting and oath of a soldier to his captain, or of a subject to his prince. And therefore I will put you upon no other conversion than to review your baptism, and understand it well, and after the most serious deliberation to make the same covenant with God over again, as if you had never yourself made it before, or rather as one that hath not kept the covenant which once you made. Now, if you were to be baptised presently, there are these three things which you must do: 1. Your understanding must know the meaning of the covenant, and m believe the truth of the word of God, which is his part. 2. Your will must heartily desire and accept of the benefits of God's covenant offered you, and resolvedly consent to the conditions" required of you. 3. And you must presently oblige yourself to the faithful prac tice of them, and to continue true to your covenant, from the time of your baptism till death. S. Truly, if conversion be no more than to do what I vowed to do, and to be a Christian seriously which before I was but by name and hypocritical profession, I have no more reason to stick at it than to be against baptism and Christianity itself. First, then, will you help my understanding about it? P. 1. You must understand and believe the articles of the christian faith, expressed in the common Creed, which you hear every day at church, and profess assent to it. m John xviii. 12; Acts i. 37, and xvi. 31; 2 Cor. viii. 5. S. Alas! I hear it, and say it by rote, but I never well understood it, or considered it. P. The christian belief hath three principal parts: that is, our believing in God the Father, and in God the Son, and in God the Holy Ghost. And each of these hath divers articles. I. In the first part all these things must be understood and believed. 1. That there is P one only God, in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who is an infinite, eternal, perfect Spirit; a perfect life, understanding, and will; perfectly powerful, wise, and good; the first efficient, chief-governing, and final Cause, or End, of all; of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things; the Creator, and therefore the Owner, the Ruler, and the Benefactor, and End, especially of man. 2. That this God made Adam and Eve in his own image, under a perfect law of innocency, requiring perfect obedience of them on pain of death. 3. That they broke this perfect law by wilful sin, and thereby fell under the sentence of death, the displeasure of God, the forfeiture of his grace, and of all their happiness. S 4. That all of us having our very beings and natures from them, (and their successors,) derive corruption or pravity of nature also from them, and a participation of guilt and these corrupted natures are disposed to all actual sin, by which we should grow much worse, and more miserable. 5. That God, of his mercy and wisdom, took advantage of man's sin and misery to glorify his grace, and promised man a Redeemer, and made a new law or covenant for his government and salvation, forgiving him all his sins, and promising him salvation, if he believe and trust in God his Saviour, and repent of sin, and live in thankful, sincere obedience, though imperfect. 6. In the fulness of time, God sent his Son, his eternal • Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. P 1 Cor. viii, 4, 6; 1 John v. 7; 1 Tim. i. 17; Psalm cxxxiv. 7—9; cxlvii. 5; xlvii. 7, and cxly. 9; Isa. xl. 17; Neh, ix. 6; Rev. iv. 8, and xv.3; Ezek. xviii. 4. Gen. i. 27, and ii. 16, 17; Eccl. vii. 29. Gen. iii.; Rom. iii. 23, and vi. 23. * Rom. v. 12, 18, and iii. 9, 19; Gen. ii. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 2, 3 ; Heb. ii. 14; John viii. 44. Gen. iii. 15; John iii. 16. 16; 1 John ii.; John x. 30; "Gal. iv. 4; John i. 1-3; xiv. 2, 3, and iii. 1 Tim. ii. 5; Matt. i. 20, 21; Heb. iv. 15; vii. 26; ix. 26; viii. 2, and x. 21 ; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4; Luke xxiii. 43, and i. 27, 28; 2 Tim. i. 10; Acts ii. 9; iii. 21; ii. 36, and x. 36. Word, made man, to be our Redeemer; who was conceived in a virgin by the Holy Ghost, and, by perfect obedience, fulfilled God's law, and became our example, and conquered all temptations, and gave himself a sacrifice for our sins, in suffering, after a life of humiliation, a cursed, shameful death upon the cross; and being buried, he arose again the third day, and having conquered death, assured us of a resurrection; and after forty days' continuance upon earth, he ascended bodily, in the sight of his disciples, into heaven, where he is the Teacher, the King, and the Intercessor for the church with God; by whom alone we must come unto the Father, and who prepareth for us the heavenly glory, and us for it. 7. Before he ascended, he made a more full and plain edition of the aforesaid law or covenant of grace; and he gave authority to his chosen ministers, to go and preach it to all the world, and promised them the extraordinary gift and assistance of his Holy Spirit: and he ordained baptism to be used as the solemn initiation of all that will come into his church, and enter into the covenant of God: in which covenant God the Father y consenteth to be our reconciled God and Father, to pardon our sins for the sake of Christ, and give us his Holy Spirit, and glorify us in heaven for ever: and God the Son consenteth to be our Saviour, our King and Head, our Teacher and Mediator, to bring us reconciled to his Father, and to justify us, and give us his Spirit, and eternal life: and God the Holy Ghost consenteth to dwell in us as the Agent and Advocate of Christ, to be our Quickener, our Illuminator and Sanctifier, the Witness of Christ, and the earnest of our salvation. And we, on our part, must profess unfeigned belief of this gospel of Christ, and repentance for our former sins, and consent to receive these gifts of God, giving up ourselves, soul and body, to him, as our only God, our Saviour and our Sanctifier, as our chiefest Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor; resolving to live as his own, as his subjects and his children, in true resignation of ourselves to him, in true obedience and thankful love: renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, that would tempt us to the contrary; and this is the end; but not in our own strength, but by the gracious help of the Spirit of God. a Rom. x. 10. * Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Mark xvi. 16; "John i. 10-12; Rom. xii. 1, 2. |