Richard Baxter · 5 of 8

A Call to the Unconverted. · Sermon II. · Part 2

6. Lastly, if all this will not yet satisfy you, take his own word, that knoweth best his own mind, or at least believe his oath: But this leadeth me up to the fourth doctrine.

Doct. 4. The Lord hath confirmed to us by his oath, that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he turn and live; that he may leave man no pretence to question the truth of it.

If you dare question his word, I hope you dare not question his oath. As Christ hath solemnly protested that the unregenerate and unconverted cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xviii. 3. John iii. 3. so God hath sworn that his pleasure is not in their death, but in their conversion and life. And as the Apostle saith, Heb. vi. 13, 16, 17, 18. Because he can swear by no greater than himself, he saith, “As I live, &c.” For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife: wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before us, which we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.” If there be any man that cannot reconcile this truth with the doctrine of predestination, or the actual damnation of the wicked, that is his own ignorance; he hath no pretence left to deny or question therefore the truth of the point in hand; for this is confirmed by the oath of God, and therefore must not be distorted to reduce it to other points; but doubtful points must rather be reduced to it, and certain truths must be believed to agree with it, though our shallow brains do hardly discern the agreement.

USE.

I do now intreat thee, if thou be an unconverted sinner that hearest these words, that thou wouldest ponder a little on the forementioned doctrines, and bethink thyself awhile who it is that takes pleasure in your sin and damnation! Certainly it is not God: He hath sworn, for his part, that he takes no pleasure in it. And I know it is not the pleasing of him that you intend in it. You dare not say, that you drink, and swear, and neglect holy duties, and quench the motion of the Spirit, to please God. That were as if you should reproach the prince, and break his laws, and seek his death, and say you did all this to please him.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin and death? Not any that bear the image of God, for they must be like minded to him. God knows it is small pleasure to your faithful teachers to see you serve your deadly enemy, and madly venture your eternal state, and wilfully run into the flames of hell. It is small pleasure to them to see upon your souls (in the sad effects) such blindness, and hard-heartedness and carelessness, and presumption; such wilfulness in evil, and such unteachableness and stiffness against the ways of life and peace. They know these are marks of death, and of the wrath of God, and they know from the word of God what is like to be the end of them; and therefore it is no more pleasure to them than to a tender physician to see the plague-marks break out upon his patient. Alas! to foresee your everlasting torments, and know not how to prevent them! To see how near you are to hell, and we cannot make you believe it, and consider it! To see how easily, how certainly you might escape, if we knew but how to make you willing! How fair you are for everlasting salvation, if you would but turn and do your best, and make it the care and business of your lives! but you will not do it. If our lives lay on it, we cannot persuade you to it: We study day and night what to say to you, that may convince you and persuade you, and yet it is undone: We lay before you the word of God, and shew you the very chapter and verse where it is written, that you cannot be saved except you be converted, and yet we leave the most of you as we find you:—We hope you will believe the word of God, though you believe not us, and that you will regard it when we shew you the plain scripture for it: but we hope in vain, and labour in vain, as to any saving change upon your hearts. And do you think that this is a pleasant thing to us? Many a time in secret prayer we are fain to complain to God with sad hearts, “Alas! Lord, we have spoken to them in thy name, but they little regard us: We have told them what thou bidst us tell them concerning the danger of an unconverted state, but they do not believe us; we have told them that thou hast protested that “there is no peace to the wicked,” Isaiah xlviii. 22. and lvii. 21. but the worst of them all will scarcely believe that they are wicked; we have shewn them thy word, where thou hast said, “That if they live after the flesh they shall die;” Rom. viii. 13. but they say, “They will believe in thee, when they will not believe thee; that they will trust in thee, when they give no credit to thy word; and when they have hope that the threatnings of thy words are false, they will yet call this a hoping in God; and though we shew them where thou hast said, that when a wicked man dieth all his hopes perish, yet cannot we persuade them from their deceitful hopes,” Prov. xi. 7.—We tell them what a base unprofitable thing sin is; but they love it, and therefore will not leave it.—We tell them how dear they buy this pleasure, and that they must pay for it in everlasting torment; and they bless themselves, and will not believe it; but will do as the most do: and, because God is merciful, they will not believe him, but will venture their souls, come of it what will. We tell them how ready the Lord is to receive them; and this doth but make them delay their repentance and be bolder in their sin.—Some of them say they purpose to repent, but they are still the same; and some say they do repent already, while yet they are not converted from their sins. We exhort them, we intreat them, we offer them our help, but we cannot prevail with them; but they that were drunkards are drunkards still; and they that were voluptuous flesh-pleasing wretches are such still; and they that were worldlings are worldlings still; and they that were ignorant, and proud, and self-conceited, are so still.—Few of them will see and confess their sin, and fewer will forsake it, but comfort themselves that all men are sinners; as if there were no difference between a converted sinner and an unconverted. Some of them will not come near us when we are willing to instruct them, but think they have enough already, and need not our instruction; and some of them will give us the hearing, and do what they list; and most of them are like dead men that cannot feel; so that, when we tell them of the matters of everlasting consequence, we cannot get a word of it to their hearts. If we do not obey them, and humour them in baptising the children of the most obstinately wicked, and giving them the Lord’s Supper, and doing all that they would have us, though never so much against the word of God, they will hate us, and rail at us; but if we beseech them but to confess and forsake their sins, and save their souls, they will not do it.—We tell them, if they will but turn, we will deny them none of the ordinances of God, neither baptism to the children, nor the Lord’s Supper to themselves; but they will not hear us. They would have us disobey God, and damn our own souls to please them, and yet they will not turn and save their own souls to please God.—They are wiser in their own eyes than all their teachers; they rage and are confident in their own way, and, if we would never so fain, we cannot change them. Lord, this is the case of our miserable neighbours, and we cannot help it; we see them ready to drop into hell, and we cannot help it; we know if they would unfeignedly turn they might be saved, but we cannot persuade them; if we would beg it of them on our knees, we cannot persuade them to it; if we would beg it of them with tears, we cannot persuade them; and what more can we do?”

These are the secret complaints and moans that many a poor minister is fain to make. And do you think that he hath any pleasure in this? Is it a pleasure to him to see you go on in sin, and cannot stop you? To see you so miserable, and cannot so much as make you sensible of it; to see you merry, when you are not sure to be an hour out of hell? To think what you must for ever suffer, because you will not turn? And to think what an everlasting life of glory you wilfully despise and cast away? What sadder thing can you bring to their hearts? And how can you devise to grieve them more?

Who is it then that you pleasure by your sin and death? It is none of your understanding godly friends. Alas, it is the grief of their souls to see your misery; and they lament you many a time when you give them little thanks for it, and when you have not hearts to lament yourselves.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin? It is none but the three great enemies of God, whom you renounced in your baptism, and are now turned falsely to serve.

1. The devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and death; for this is the very end of all his temptations. For this, he watches night and day: you cannot devise to please him better than to go on in sin: how glad is he when he sees thee going to the alehouse, or other sin and when he heareth you curse, or swear, or rail? How glad is he when he heareth thee revile the minister that would draw thee from thy sin, and help to save thee? These are his delight.

2. The wicked are also delighted in it; for it is agreeable to their nature.

3. But I know, for all this, that it is not the pleasing of the devil that you intend, even when you please him; but it is your own flesh, the greatest and most dangerous enemy, that you intend to please. It is the flesh that would be pampered, that would be pleased in meat, and drink, and clothing; that would be pleased in your company, and pleased in applause and credit with the world, and pleased in sports, and lusts, and idleness: this is the gulf that devoureth all. This is the very god that you serve, for, the scripture saith of such, “that their bellies are their gods,” Phil. iii. 18.

But I beseech you stay a little and consider the business.

1. Quest. Should your flesh be pleased before your Maker? Will you displease the Lord, and displease your teachers, and your godly friends, and all to please your brutish appetites, or sensual desires? Is not God worthy to be the ruler of your flesh? If he shall not rule it, he will not save it; you cannot in reason expect that he should.

2. Quest. Your flesh is pleased with your sin; but is your conscience pleased? doth not it grudge within you and tell you sometimes that all is not well, and that your case is not so safe as you make it to be? and should not your soul and conscience be pleased before your corruptible flesh?

3. Quest. But, is not your flesh preparing for its own displeasure also? It loves the bait, but doth it love the hook? It loves the strong drink and sweet morsels; it loves its ease, and sport, and merriment: it loves to be rich, and well spoken of by men, and to be somebody in the world: but doth it love the curse of God? Doth it love to stand trembling before his bar, and to be judged to everlasting fire? Doth it love to be tormented with the devils for ever?—Take all together: for there is no separating sin and hell, but only by faith and true conversion; if you will keep one you must have the other. If death and hell be pleasant to you, no wonder then if you go on in sin; but, if they are not (as I am sure they are not), then what if sin were never so pleasant, is it worth the loss of life eternal? Is a little drink, or meat, or ease; is the good word of sinners; are the riches of this world to be valued above the joys of heaven? Or are they worth the sufferings of eternal fire?

These questions should be considered before you go any farther, by every man that hath reason to consider, and that believes he hath a soul to save or lose.

Well, the Lord here sweareth that he hath no pleasure in your death, but rather that you would turn and live; if yet you will go on and die rather than turn; remember it was not to please God that you did it; it was to please the world, and to please yourselves. And, if men will damn themselves to please themselves, and run into endless torments for delight, and have not the wit, the heart, the grace, to hearken to God or man, that would reclaim them, what remedy? They must take what they get by it, and repent it in another manner, when it is too late! Before I proceed any further in the application, I shall come to the next doctrine; which giveth me a fuller ground for it.

Doct. 5. So earnest is God for the conversion of sinners, that he doubleth his commands and exhortations with vehemency: “Turn ye, turn ye, why will you die?”

This doctrine is the application of the former, as by a use of exhortation, and accordingly I shall handle it.

Is there an unconverted sinner that heareth these vehement words of God? Is there ever a man or woman in this assembly that is yet a stranger to the renewing, sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost? It is a happy assembly, if it be not so with the most. Hearken then to the voice of your Maker, and turn to him by Christ without delay. Would you know the will of God? Why this is his will, that you presently turn. Shall the living God send so earnest a message to his creatures, and should they not obey? Hearken then, all you that live after the flesh; the Lord, that gave you thy breath and being, hath sent a message to you from heaven; and this is his message, “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Shall the voice of the eternal Majesty be neglected? If he do but terribly thunder, thou art afraid. O but this word concerneth thy life or death everlasting. It is both a command and an exhortation. As if he had said to thee, “I charge thee, upon the allegiance that thou owest to me your Creator and Redeemer, that thou renounce the flesh, the world, and the devil, and turn to me that you mayest live. I condescend to intreat thee, as thou lovest or fearest him that made thee: as thou lovest thine own life, even thine everlasting life, Turn and live: as ever thou wouldst escape eternal misery, “Turn, turn, for why wilt thou die?” And is there a heart in man, in a reasonable creature, that can once refuse such a message, such a command, such an exhortation as this? O what a thing then is the heart of man!

Hearken then, all that love yourselves, and all that regard your own salvation:—Here is the joyfullest message that ever was sent to the ears of man, “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” You are not yet shut up under desperation. Here is mercy offered you; turn, and you shall have it. O with what joyful hearts should you receive these tidings! I know this is not the first time that you have heard it; but how have you regarded it, or how do you regard it now? Hear, all you ignorant, careless sinners, the word of the Lord! Hear, all you worldlings, you sensual flesh-pleasers; you gluttons, and drunkards, and whoremongers, and swearers; you railers and backbiters, slanderers and liars: “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?”

Hear, all ye that are void of the love of God, whose hearts are not toward him, nor taken up with the hopes of glory, but set more by your earthly prosperity and delights than by the joys of heaven; all you that are religious but a little by the by, and give God no more than your flesh can spare; that have not denied your carnal selves, and forsaken all that you have for Christ, in the estimation and grounded resolution of your souls, but have some one thing in the world so dear to you that you cannot spare it for Christ, if he required it, but will rather venture on his displeasure than forsake it; “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?”

If you never heard it, or observed it before, remember that you were told it from the word of God this day, that if you will but turn, you may live; and if you will not turn, you shall surely die.

What now will you do, Sirs? What is your resolution? Will you turn, or will you not? Halt not any longer between two opinions: If the Lord be God, follow him; if your flesh be God, then serve it still. If heaven be better than earth and fleshly pleasures, come away then, and seek a better country, and “lay up your treasure where rust and moths do not corrupt, and thieves cannot break through and steal, and be awakened at last with all your might to seek the kingdom that cannot be moved,” Heb. xii. 28. and to employ your lives on a higher design, and turn the stream of your cares and labours another way than formerly you have done. But, if earth be better than heaven, or will do more for you, or last you longer, then keep it, and make your best of it, and follow it still. Are you resolved what to do? If you be not, I will set a few more moving considerations before you, to see if reason will make you resolve.

Consider first, “What preparations mercy hath made for your salvation:” and what pity it is that any man should be damned after all this. The time was, when the flaming sword was in the way, and the curse of God’s law would have kept thee back if thou hadst been ever so willing to turn to God: The time was when thyself, and all the friends that thou hast in the world, could never have procured thee the pardon of thy sins past, though thou hadst ever so much lamented and reformed them. But Christ hath removed this impediment by the ransom of his blood. The time was, that God was wholly unreconciled, as being not satisfied for the violation of his law: but now he is so far satisfied and reconciled, as that he hath made thee a free act of oblivion, and a free deed of gift of Christ and life, and offereth it to thee, and intreateth thee to accept it, and it may be thine, if thou wilt. “For he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation,” 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. Sinners, we too are commanded to deliver this message to you all, as from the Lord, “Come, for all things are ready,” Luke xiv. 17. Are all things ready, and are you unready? God is ready to entertain you, and pardon all that you have done against him, if you will but come. As long as you have sinned, as wilfully as you have sinned, he is ready to cast all behind his back, if you will but come. Though you have been prodigals, and run away from God, and have staid so long, he is ready even to meet you, and embrace you in his arms, and rejoice in your conversion, if you will but turn.—Even the earthly worldling and swinish drunkard will find God ready to bid them welcome, if they will but come. Doth not this turn thy heart within thee?—O sinner, if thou have a heart of flesh, and not of stone in thee, methinks this should melt it. Shall the infinite Majesty of Heaven even wait for thy returning, and be ready to receive thee who have abused him, and forgotten him so long? Shall he delight in thy conversion, that might at any time glorify his justice in thy damnation, and yet doth it not melt thy heart within thee, and art thou not yet ready to come in? Hast thou not as much reason to be ready to come as God hath to invite thee and bid thee welcome?

But, that is not all: Christ hath done his part on the cross, and made such way for thee to the Father, that on his account thou mayst be welcome if thou wilt come. And yet art thou not ready?

A pardon is already expressly granted and offered thee in the gospel. And yet art thou not ready?

The ministers of the gospel are ready to assist thee, to instruct thee; they are ready to pray for thee, and to seal up thy pardon by the administration of the holy sacrament; and yet art thou not ready?

All that fear God about thee are ready to rejoice in thy conversion, and to receive thee into the communion of saints, and to give thee the right hand of fellowship, yea, though thou hadst been one that had been cast out of their society: they dare not but forgive where God forgiveth, when it is manifest to them, by your confession and amendment: they dare not so much as hit thee in the teeth with thy former sins, because they know that God will not upbraid thee with them. If thou hadst been ever so scandalous, if thou wouldst but heartily be converted and come in, they would not refuse thee, let the world say what they would against it. And, are all these ready to receive thee, and yet art thou not ready to come in?

Yea, heaven itself is ready; the Lord will receive thee into the glory of his saints, a vile brute as thou hast been: if thou wilt but be but cleansed, thou mayst have a place before his throne; his angels will be ready to guard thy soul to the place of joy, if thou do but unfeignedly come in. And is God ready, the sacrifice of Christ ready, the promise ready, and pardon ready?—Are ministers ready, and the people of God ready, and heaven itself ready, and angels ready, and all these but waiting for your conversion, and yet art thou not ready? What! not ready to live, when you have been dead so long? Not ready to come to thy right understanding, as the prodigal is said to come to himself, Luke xv. 17. when thou hast been beside thyself so long? Not ready to be saved, when thou art even ready to be condemned?—Art thou not ready to lay hold on Christ, that would deliver thee, when thou art even ready to drown and sink into damnation? Art thou not ready to be saved from hell, when thou art even ready to be cast remedilessly into it? Alas, man! dost thou know what thou dost? If thou die unconverted there is no doubt to be made of your damnation, and thou art not sure to live an hour: and yet are thou not ready to turn and to come in? O miserable wretch! Hast thou not served the flesh and the devil long enough? Yet hast thou not enough of sin? Is it so good to thee; or so profitable for thee?—Dost thou know what it is, that thou wouldest yet have more of it? Hast thou had so many calls, and so many mercies, and so many blows, and so many examples? Hast thou seen so many laid in the grave, and yet art thou not ready to let go thy sins, and come to Christ? What! after so many convictions, and gripes of conscience, after so many purposes and promises, are thou not yet ready to turn and live?—O that thy eyes, thy heart, were opened, to know how fair an offer is now made to thee! and what a joyful message it is we are sent on, to bid you come, for all things are ready.

2. Consider also, what calls thou hast to turn and live. How many, how loud, how earnest, how dreadful, and yet what encouraging, joyful calls.

For the principal inviter is God himself. He, that commandeth heaven and earth, commandeth thee to turn; and presently, without delay, to turn: He commands the sun to run its course, and to rise upon thee every morning; and though it be so glorious an creature, and many times bigger than all the earth, yet it obeyeth him, and faileth not one minute of its appointed time. He commandeth all the planets and orbs of heaven, and they obey.—He commandeth the sea to ebb and flow, and the whole creation to keep its course, and all obey him. The angels of heaven obey his will, when he sends them to minister to such silly worms as we on earth, Heb. i. 14.—And yet, if he command but a sinner to turn, he will not obey him; he only thinks himself wiser than God, and he cavils and pleads the cause of sin, and will not obey. If the Lord Almighty say the word, the heavens and all therein obey him; but if he call but a drunkard out of an alehouse, he will not obey; or if he call a worldly fleshly sinner to deny himself; and mortify the flesh, and set his heart on a better inheritance, he will not obey him.

If you had any love in thee, thou wouldst know the voice, and say, “Oh this is my father’s call! how can I find in my heart to disobey? For, the sheep of Christ do know and hear his voice, and they follow him, and he giveth them eternal life,” John, x. 4. If thou hadst any spiritual life and sense in thee, at least thou wouldst say, “This call is the dreadful voice of God, and who dares disobey?”—For says the prophet, Amos iii. 8. “The lion hath roared, who will not fear?” God is not a man, that thou shouldst dally and play with him: remember what he saith to Paul at his conversion, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” Acts ix. 5. Wilt thou yet go and despise his word, and resist his Spirit, and stop thine ear against his call? Who is it that will have the worst of this? Dost thou know whom thou disobeyest and contendest with, and what thou art doing? It were a far wiser and easier task for thee to contend with the thorns, and spurn them with thy bare feet, and beat them with thy bare hands, or put thy head into the burning fire. “Be not deceived, God will not be mocked,” Gal. vi. 7. Whoever else be mocked, God will not: you had better play with the fire in your thatch than with the fire of his burning wrath: “For our God is a consuming fire,” Heb. xii. 29. O how unmeet a match art thou for God! “It is a fearful thing to fall into his hands,” Heb. x. 31. And therefore it is a fearful thing to contend with him, or resist him. As you love your souls, take heed what you do. What will you say, if he begin in wrath to plead with you? What will you do if he take you once in hand? Will you not strive against his judgment, as now you do against his grace? Saith the Lord, Isaiah xxvii. 4, 6. “Fury is not in me;” that is, I delight not to destroy you: I do it, as it were. unwillingly; but yet “Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Oh let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me!”—It is an unequal combat for the briars and stubble to make war with the fire.