A26915:3
Directions and persuasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation…Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation…
Directions and persuasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation of souls, and of those scandals, heresies, and desperate apostasies that are the consequents of a counterfeit, or superficial change / by Richard Baxter.Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation of souls, and of those scandals, heresies, and desperate apostasies that are the consequents of a counterfeit, or superficial change / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by A.M. for Nevil Simmons, 1658
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.
The Preface.
IT is weight so unconceivable, that dependeth on the soundness of our Conversion and Sanctification, that our care and diligence cannot be too great to make it sure. As the professed Atheist, Heathens, and Infidels without; so the self-deceiving Hypocrites within the Church, do wilfully cast away themselves for ever, by neglecting such a business of everlasting consequence; when they have time, and warnings, and assistance to dispatch it. Multitudes live like brutes or Atheists, forgetting that they are born in sin and misery, and settled in it by wilful custom, and must be Converted or Condemned. These know not (many of them) what need they have of a Conversion, nor what ⟨image 3⟩Conversion or Sanctification is. And some that have been Preachers of the Gospel, have been so lamentably ignorant in so great a matter, that they have persuaded the poor deluded people, that it is only the gross and heinous sinners, that need Conversion; branding them with the name of Puritans, that will not take a dead Profession joined with Civility, for true Sanctification; and promise Salvation to those, that Christ hath with many asseverations professed, shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. Others that confess that a through Sanctification is a necessary thing, do delude their souls with something that is like it. Hence is the misery and dishonour of the Church. Holiness it self is disgraced, by the sins of them that are unholy, because they pretend to that which they have not. Hence it is, that we have thousands, that call themselves Christians, that live a worldly, fleshly life, and some of them hating the way of Godliness, and yet think they are Converted, because they ⟨image 3⟩are sorry when they have sinned, and wish when it is past that they had not done it, and cry God mercy for it, and confess that they are sinners; and this they take for true Repentance: When sin was never mortified in their souls, nor their hearts ever brought to hate it, and forsake it: But when they have had the profit and pleasure of sin, they are sorry for the danger, but never regenerate and made New Creatures, by the Spirit of Christ. Hence also it is, that we have such abundance of mere Opinionists, that take themselves for Religious people.