TO A SOUND CONVERSION. 467 make me lose this labour with thee, and that thou put me not to come in as a witness against thee to thy con- fusion and condemnation. Resolve therefore presently in the strength of Christ, and strike an unchangeable covenant with him. Get thee to thy knees, and bewail with tears thy former life, and deliver° up thyself wholly now to Christ ; and never break this covenant more. If thou lay by the book, and go away the same, and no persuasion will do thee any good, but unholy thou wilt still be, and sensual, and worldly; I call thy con- science to: witness, that thou wart warned of the evil that is near thee, and conscience shall obey this call, and bear me witness whether thou wilt or not : and this book, which thou hast read, which I intended for thy conversion and salvation, shall be a witness against thee: though age or fire consume the leaves and lines of it, yet God and conscience shall bring it to thy me- mory, and thou shalt then be the more confounded to think what reasons and earnest persuasions thou didst reject, in so plain, so great, and necessary a case. But if the Holy Ghost will now become thy tutor, and at once both put this book into thy hand, and his heavenly light into thy understanding, and his life into thy heart, and effectually persuade thee to resolve and turn, how happy wilt thou be to all eternity ! Make no more words of it ; but answer my request, as thou wouldst do if thou wert in a burning fire, and I en- treated thee to come out. Thou hast long enough grieved Christ and his Spirit, and long enough grieved thy friends and teachers : resolve this hour, and rejoice then that thou hast grieved; and now grieve the devil, that thou hast hitherto rejoiced ; and hereafter grieve the wicked, and thy own deceitful flesh, whose sinful desires thou hast hitherto followed : and if thou also grieve thyself a little while, by that moderate sorrow that thy sin bath made necessary for thee, it will be but a preparative to thy endless joys ; and the day is pro- mised, and coming apace, when Satan that thou turnest from shall trouble thee no more, and God that thou turnest to shall wipe away all tears from thy eyes. And
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