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

mourn thou for other Men's Sins, as if they were thine own, and so the Lord may pity and pardon them, and it may be convert them, who shall do more good it may be than ever thou canst do: Let the Lord Jesus be in thy Thoughts the first in the Morning, and the last at Night; do what thou canst, nay, go continually to him to enable thee to do more than thou of thy self canst, and mourn ⟨p. 257⟩bitterly, and lament daily, what thou hast not done, either through' want of Ability or Will; remembering his Love to thee, that he came out of his Father's Bosom for thee, wept for thee, bled for thee, poured out his Life, nay, his Soul to Death for thee, is now risen for thee, gone to Heaven for thee, sits at God's right Hand, and rules all the World for thee, makes Intercession continually for thee, and at the End of the World will come again for thee, who hast loved him here, that thou mightest live for ever with him then.

mourn thou for other Men's Sins, as if they were thine own, and so the Lord may pity and pardon them, and it may be convert them, who shall do more good it may be than ever thou canst do: Let the Lord Jesus be in thy Tho'ts the first in the Morning, and the last at Night; do what thou canst, nay, go continually to him to enable thee to do more than thou of thy self canst, and mourn ⟨p. 257⟩bitterly, and lament daily, what thou hast not done, either thro' want of Ability or Will; remembring his Love to thee, that he came out of his Father's Bosom for thee, wept for thee, bled for thee, poured out his Life, nay, his Soul to Death for thee, is now risen for thee, gone to Heaven for thee, sits at God's right Hand, and rules all the World for thee, makes Intercession continually for thee, and at the End of the World will come again for thee, who hast loved him here, that thou mightest live for ever with him then.

But is this our Life, in these evil and luke-warm Times? How many be there that believe in Christ, that they may live as they list? If to drink, & whore, and scoff, and blaspheme; if to shake a Lock, and follow every fond Fashion; if to cross and cringe before a Piece of Wood; if to be weary of the Word, and outwardly zealous for long Prayers; if to seek for Purity of Ordinances in Churches, and to maintain Impurity in Hearts, in Shops, in Families; if to set our Hearts upon Farms and Merchandises, and so to be covetous; if to set up our own Selves, and Parts, and Gifts, with a secret Disdain of God's Ministers; if to cry down Learning, and set up Ignorance, if to set up Christ, and destroy Sanctification & Obedience; if to be a Sect-Master of some odd Opinions; if to crack the Nut of some superlunary and monkish Notions, and high-flown Speculations; if to hear much, and do little; if to have a Name to live, and yet dead at the Heart; if this be to live the Life of Love, we have many that live this Life; the Lord Jesus wants not Love, if this be to Love: But Oh woe unto you if you thus requite the Lord, foolish People & unwise! The Lord knows we may complain as Paul did, every Man minds his own Things, and not the Things of Jesus Christ; none in Comparison of that huge Number that think they are Religious end, if they be baptized,