The sound believer. A treatise of evangelical conversion. Discovering the work of Christ's spirit,…

2. Because Christ is worthy of the whole Heart, all must be sold away to buy this Field, this Treasure. Matth. 13.44. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me, is not worthy of me. A filthy Lust, a base Harlot hath had thy whole Heart, and dost thou think the Lord Christ will have it divided? Is not one Heart too little for him? Are not ten thousand Souls too few to embrace him, or to cleave to him?

3. Because without this, your coming to him is but feigned, Jer. 3.10. They return to me not with their whole Heart, but feignedly. To cleave to Christ and a Lust, to Christ and a proud Heart, cannot be unfeigned Faith; to go to your Lusts in Time of Peace, and fly to Christ in Times of Extremity is damnable Hypocrisy. When Conscience troubles you, you then go to Christ to ease you, and when your unruly Wills and Lusts trouble you, you go to the World to ease you, and so your Hearts are divided, and you come not wholly and only unto Christ for it. Believe it, it is such a Faith by which you may, as Samuel did on Saul's Garment, take hold of him, but the Lord will never take hold of you. Set a Branch in the Stock, if it stays loosely in it, it will wither in Time; and this is the great Cause of withering Christians, and of so many ⟨p. 139⟩Apostates in these evil Times. Those that came to Christ, John 6. and followed him for a Time, but afterward fell away, ver. 66. what was the Reason of their Fall? viz. when they were offended at Christ, they knew whether to go from Christ; but what saith Peter? Lord, Whither should we go? ver. 68. If you lay the Pipes that are to convey Water from a full Fountain, but one Foot, or one Inch short of it, there cannot be any Water derived from thence. Oh, Beloved, what is the Reason, that many a Man's Faith doth him no Good, derives no Life, Spirit, Blood, Efficacy, Peace, Power from the Lord Jesus? Is it because Christ is a dry Christ, and unwilling to communicate? No, no, the Wound is in their Faith, that Pipe is laid but half Way to him, they fall one Foot short of him, their Souls come, but their whole Souls do not come to him, and hence they never reach Christ; they lie not in Christ, and therefore receive not from Christ, Christ is precious, (here their Souls come) but not exceeding precious, Preciousness it self, as the Word is,