A26695:168
A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to…
A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to God in order to their eternal salvation showing the thoughtful sinner what he must do to be saved / by Joseph Alleine.A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to God in order to their eternal salvation shewing the thoughtful sinner what he must do to be saved / by Joseph Alleine.
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1688
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Hast thou taken God for thy happiness? Where doth the content of thy heart lie? Whence doth thy choicest comfort come in? Come then and with Abraham lift up thine eyes Eastward, and Westward, and Northward, and Southward, and cast about thee, what it is, that thou wouldst have in Heaven or Earth to make thee happy. If God should give thee thy choice as he did to Solomon, or should say to thee, as Ahasuerus to Esther, What is ⟨p. 40⟩thy petition, and what is thy request? and it shall be granted thee, Esther 5. 3. What wouldst thou ask? go into the gardens of pleasure, and gather all the fragrant flowers from thence; would these content thee? Go to the treasures of Mammon; suppose thou mightest lade thy self while thou wouldst from hence: go to the towers, to the trophies of honour: what thinkest thou of being a man of renown, and having a name like the name of the great men of the earth? Would any of this, all this suffice thee, and make thee count thy self a happy man? If so, then certainly thou art carnal and unconverted. If not, go farther; w•de into the divine excellencies, the store of his mercies, the hiding of his power, the deeps unfathomable of his All-sufficiency: Doth this s•it thee best, and please thee most? Dost thou say, 'Tis good to be here? Mat. 17. 4. Here I will pitch, here I will live and dye? Wilt thou let all the world go, rather than this? Then 'tis well between God and thee: Happy art thou, O man, happy art thou that ever thou wast born. If a God can make thee happy, thou must needs be happy; for thou hast avouched the Lord to be thy God, Deut. 26. 17. Dost thou say to Christ, as he to us, Thy Father shall be my Father, and thy God my God? John 20. 17. Here is the turning Point. An unsound professor never takes up his rest in God; but converting grace does the work and so cures the fatal misery of the fall, by turning the heart from its idols, to the living God, 1 Thes. 1. 9. Now says the soul, Lord, whither should I go? Thou hast the words of eternal life,