A26915:521
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
Directions to Sinners that are purposed to Turn, and are under the… › Direction 12
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.
1. Consider I beseech you, what leisure you have had to think of the matter. You have lived many years in the world already; and you have had nothing to do in it, but to seek after true Happiness: Even your worldly labours ought to have been all but in order to this. And yet are you unresolved? Alas Sirs, have you lived some twenty some thirty years and more in the world, and yet are you not Resolved, what you came hither for, or what you have to do here? Is it twenty, or thirty, or forty years, since you set out, and should by this time have been far on your journey, and are you yet unresolved whither to go, or which way to go? As if you were newly entering the world, or as if you had never heard of your business. I think so many years are a fair time of Consideration, and it's time to be Resolved, if you will Resolve at all.
1. Consider I beseech you, what leisure you have had to think of the matter. You have lived many years in the world already; and you have had nothing to do in it, but to seek after true Happiness: Even your worldly labours ought to have been all but in order to this. And yet are you unresolved? Alas Sirs, have you lived some twenty some thirty years and more in the world, and yet are you not Resolved, what you came hither for, or what you have to do here? Is it twenty, or thirty, or fourty years, since you set out, and should by this time have been farre on your journey, and are you yet unresolved whither to go, or which way to go? As if you were newly entering the world, or as if you had never heard of your business. I think so many years are a faire time of Consideration, and it's time to be Resolved, if you will Resolve at all.
2. And I pray you consider, what Helps you have had to have Resolved you before this. If you did not know what you had to look after, and which way to ⟨p. 464⟩take, you should have enquired: You had the Word of God to advise with; and you had your Teachers to advise with; and many experienced Christians to advise with. You wanted not for the wisest faithfulest Counsellors; if you had been but willing and diligent, certainly you might have been Resolved long ago.