TO A SOUND CONVERSION. 455 6. And lastly, It may proceed to an indignation against ourselves, and to the taking a severe revenge of our- selves ; yea, more than God would have men take; as Judas did by self-destroying. This desperation of self - execution, are no parts of the preparatory humilia- tion ; but the excess and error of it, and the entrance upon hell. See that you close with the Lord Jesus Christ un- derstandingly, heartily, and entirely, as he is revealed and offered to you in the gospel. In this your Christia- nity Both consist ; upon this your justification and sal- vation lie. This is the sum of your conversion, and the very heart of your new creature. The rest is all but the preparatives to this, or the fruits of this. Christ is the end and the fulfilling of the law ; the substance of the gospel ; the way to the Father : the life, the help, the hope of the believer. If you know not him, you know nothing ; if you possess not him, you have no- thing ; and if you are out of him, you can do nothing that bath a promise of salvation. I beseech you therefore remember what it is to be truly converted : It is to be called from things com- mon and unclean, and separated to God ; it is to be brought nigh to him, as the children of his household, that are themselves, and all that they have, in his hands ; it is to be taken off yourselves, and your own, and to lose yourselves and all you have, in God, by the most gainful loss ; lest indeed you lose yourselves, and all the while you persuade yourselves you save or gain. It is a taking God in Christ for you all, and so being content to have nothing but him, and for him. It is a changing of your old master, self, for God, a better master; and your old work, which was self - seeking and self - pleasing, to self - denial, and to the seeking and pleasing of God. See now that this be done, and that your treacherous heart hide nothing for them- selves, as Rachel, under pretence of necessity, hid her idols ; but say, Here I am to be thine, O Lord, and to do thy will. My next advice, that the work of conversion may
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