The Sincere Convert

Here likewise is matter of Reproof,¹ to such as seek to come out of this misery from and by themselves. If they be ignorant, they hope to be saved by their good meaning and prayers. ⟨p. 104⟩If Civill, by paying all they owe, and doing as they would be done by, and by doing no body any harm. If they be troubled about their estates, then they lick themselves whole by their mourning, repenting, and reforming. Oh poor stubble, canst thou stand before this consuming fire without sin? Canst thou make thy self a Christ for thy self? Canst thou bear & come from under an infinite wrath? canst thou bring in perfect righteousness into the presence of God? This Christ must do, else he could not satisfy and redeem. And if thou canst not do thus, and hast no Christ, define and pray, that heaven and earth shake, till thou hast worn thy tongue to the stumps, endeavour as much as thou canst, and others commend thee for a diligent Christian; mourn in some Wilderness till dooms day, dig thy grave there with thy nails, weep buckets full of hourly tears, till. thou canst weep no more. Fast and Pray till thy skin and bones cleave together; Promise and Purpose, with ⟨p. 105⟩full resolution to be better, nay reform thy head, heart, life, & tongue, & some, nay all sins; live like an Angel, shine like a sun, walk up and down the world like a distressed Pilgrim going to another Country, so that all Christians commend and admire thee. Die ten thousand deaths, lie at the fireback in Hell so many millions of years as there be piles of grass on the earth, or sands upon the Sea-shore, or stars in heaven, or motes in the Sun: I tell thee, not one spark of Gods wrath against thy sin shall be, can be quenched by all these duties, nor by any of these sorrows, or tears; for, these are not the blood of Christ. Nay if all the Angels and Saints in heaven and earth should pray for thee, these cannot deliver thee, for they are not the blood of Christ. Nay, God as a² Creator having made a law, will not forgive one sin without the blood of Christ; Nay, Christs blood will not do it neither, if thou doest join never so little, that thou hast or doest, unto Jesus Christ, and makest thy self ⟨p. 106⟩