DIRECTION I.

If you would be converted and faved, labour to understand the neceffity and true nature of conversion; for what, and from what, and to what, and by what it is that you muft turn.

Confider what a lamentable condition you are in till the hour of your converfion, that you may fee it is not a ftate to be refted in. You are under the guilt of all the fins that ever you committed, and under the wrath of God and the curfe of his law, you are bond flaves to the devil, and daily employed in his work against the Lord, yourfelves, and others; you are fpiritually dead and deformed, as being devoid of the holy life, and nature, and image of the Lord. You are unfit for any holy work, and do nothing that is truly pleafing to God. You are without any promife or af furance of his protection, and live in continual danger of his juftice, not knowing what hour you may be fnatched away to hell, and moft certain to be damned if you die in that condition, and nothing fhort of converfion can prevent it. Whatever civilities, or amendments, or ventures, are fhort of true converfion, will never procure the faving of your fouls. Keep the true fenfe of this natural mifery, and fo of the neceffity of conversion on your hearts.

And then you must understand what it is to be converted; it is to have a new heart or difpofition, and a new conversation.

Queft. 1. For what muft we turn?

Anfw. For thefe ends following, which you may attain: 1. You shall immediately be made living members of Chrift, and have intereft in him, and be renewed after the image of God, and be adorned with all his graces, and quickened with a new and heavenly life, and faved from the tyranny of fatan, and the dominion of fin, and be justified from the curfe of the

law, and have the pardon of all the fins of your whole lives, and be accepted of God, and made his fons, and have liberty with boldnefs to call him Father, and go to him by prayer in all your needs, with a promife of acceptance; you fhall have the Holy Ghoit to dwell in you, to fanctify and guide you: You fhall have part in the brotherhood, communion and prayers of the faints: You fhall be fitted for God's fervice, and be freed from the dominion of fin, and be useful and a bleffing to the place where you live; and thall have the promife of this life, and that which is to come. You fhall want nothing that is truly good for you, and your neceffary afflictions you will be enabled to bear; you may have fome tafte of communion with God in the Spirit, efpecially in all holy ordinances, where God prepareth a feast for your fouls; you shall be heirs of heaven while you live on earth, and may forefee by faith the everlafting glory, and fo may live and die in peace; and you fhall never be fo low, but your happiness will be incomparably greater than mifery.

your

How precious is every one of these bleffings, which I do but briefly name, and which in this life you may receive!

And then, 2. At death your fouls fhall go to Chrift, and at the day of judgment both foul and body thall be juftified and glorified, and enter into your Mafter's joy, where your happinefs will confift in thefe particulars:

1. You fhall be perfected yourfelves; your mortal bodies fhall be made immortal, and the corruptible shall put on incorruption; you thall no more be hungry, or thirsty, or weary, or fick, nor fhall you need to fear either fhame, or forrow, or death, or hell, your fouls fhall be perfectly freed from fin, and perfectly fitted for the knowledge, and love, and praises of the Lord.

2. Your employment fhall be to behold your glori

fied Redeemer, with all your holy fellow-citizens of heaven, and to fee the glory of the most bleffed God, and to love him perfectly, and be beloved by him, and to praise him everlastingly.

3. Your glory will contribute to the glory of the New Jerufalem, the city of the living God, which is more than to have a private felicity to yourselves.

4. Your glory will contribute to the glorifying of your Redeemer, who will everlastingly be magnified and pleased in you that are the travail of his foul; and this is more than the glorifying of yourselves.

5. And the eternal Majefty, the living God, will be glorified in your glory, both as he is magnified by your praifes, and as he communicateth of his glory and goodness to you, and as he is pleafed in you, and in the accomplishment of his glorious work, in the glory of the New Jerufalem and of his Son.

All this the pooreft beggar of you that is converted, fhall certainly and endlessly enjoy.

2. You fee for what you muft turn: Next you must understand from what you must turn: And this is, in a word, from your carnal felf, which is the end of all the unconverted. From the flesh that would be pleased before God, and would ftill be inticing you thereto. From the world, that is the bait; and from the devil, that is the angler for fouls, and the deceiver. And fo from all known and wilful fins.

3. Next you must know to what end you must turn; and that is, to God as your end; to Chrift as the way to the Father; to holiness as the way appointed you by Chrift; and fo the ufe of all the helps and means of grace afforded you by the Lord.

4. Laftly, you must know by what you must turn. And that is by Chrift as the only Redeemer and Interceffor, and by the Holy Ghoft as the Sanctifier, and by the word as his inftrument or means, and by faith and repentance as the means and duties on your part to be performed. All this is of neceffity.

IF

DIRECTION II.

If you will be converted and faved, be much in fecret ferious confideration. Inconfideratenefs undoes the world. Withdraw yourselves oft into retired fecrefy, and there bethink you of the end why you were made, of the life you have lived, the time you have loft, the fin you have committed, of the love, and fufferings, and fulness of Chrift, of the danger you are in, of the nearness of death and judgment; and of the certainty and excellency of the joys of heaven, and of the certainty and terror of the torment of hell, and eternity of both, and of the neceffity of converfion and an holy life. Steep your hearts in fuch confiderations as thefe.

DIRECTION III.

If you will be converted and faved, attend upon the word of God, which is the ordinary means. Read the fcripture, or hear it read, and other holy writings that do apply it conftantly; attend on the public preaching of the word. As God will light the world by the fun, and not by himself without, fo will he convert and fave men by his ministers, who are the lights of the world, Acts xxvi. 17, 18. Matt. v. 14. When he hath miraculously humbled Paul, he fendeth him to Ananias, Acts ix. 10. and when he hath sent an angel to Cornelius, it is but to bid him fend for Peter, who must tell him what he is to believe and do.

DIRECTION IV.

BETAKE yourselves to God in a courfe of earnest constant prayer. Confefs and lament your former lives, and beg his grace to illuminate and convert you. Befeech him to pardon what is past, and

to give you his fpirit, and change your hearts and lives, and lead you in his ways, and fave you from temptation, and ply his work daily, and be not weary

of it.

DIRECTION V.

PRESENTLY give over your known and wilful fins. Make a stand, and go that way no farther. Be drunk no more, but avoid the very occafion of it. Caft away your lufts and finful pleafures with deteftation. Curfe, and fwear, and rail no more, and if you have wronged any, reftore as Zaccheus did; if you will commit again your old fins, what bleffing can you expect on the means for conversion?

DIRECTION VI.

PRESENTLY, if poffible, change your company, if it hath hitherto been bad; not by forfaking your neceffary relations, but your unneceffary finful companions, and join yourselves with thofe that fear the Lord, and enquire of them the way to heaven, Acts ix. 19, 26. Pfal. xv. 4.

DIRECTION VII.

DELIVER up yourselves to the Lord Jefus as the Phyfician of your Souls, that he may pardon you by his blood, and fanctify you by his fpirit, by his word and minifters, be inftruments of the fpirit. He is the way, the truth, and the life; there is no coming to the Father but by him, John xiv. 1. Nor is there any name under heaven, by which you can be faved, Acts iv. 12. Study therefore his perfon and natures, and what he hath done for you, and what he is to you, and what he will be, and how he is fitted to the full fupply of all your neceffities.