A69449:52
The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behaviour of a man…The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man…
The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behaviour of a man in the act of the new birth A treatise by way of appendix to the former. By Isaac Ambrose, minister of Christ at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man in the act of the nevv birth A treatise by way of appendix to the former. By Isaac Ambrose, minister of Christ at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.
London: printed by J.F. for Nathanael Webb and William Grantham, 1650
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
as 1I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner: Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye dye, ye sinful Sons of men? Mercy is offered ⟨p. 12⟩2you, the Lord Jesus reacheth out his hand to you: fain would he pluck the Drunkard out of the Alehouse, and the Adulterer from his Whore: O if you break this cord, I know not what to say to you, this is able to break a Mountain in pieces; Shake, O Mountains (saith the Prophet) Why? because God hath redeemed 3Jacob: The Redemption of Jacob was enough to break a Mountain, let his Mercy break our hearts; it is God that begs, the blessing is our own.
4. If yet all this prevail nothing at all, the Lord will then wait, and stay in long patience and suffering, to see if any time a sinner will turn unto him. Our Saviour follows poor sinners from Alehouse to Alehouse, and says, I beseech you, Drunkards, take mercy, and have your sins pardoned: The Lord (as we may say) tires himself, and wearieth himself with waiting one day after another, and one week after another: It may be (saith Christ) this week, this Sabbath, this Sermon a sinner will turn unto me; what, will it never be? Are you not ashamed (my friends) that the Lord Jesus should thus wait your leisure, and follow you from house to house, and from place to place; nay, that Christ should every morning appear to your understanding, and every night come to your bed-side, saying, Let this be the last night of sinning, and the next day the first day of your repentance: O when will you be humbled? when will you receive mercy, that it may go well with you, and with yours for ever! If none of the other will move you, yet for shame let this cord draw you to the Lord: Hear, hear his doleful pangs, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? O when will it once be? A