5. But it may be said, if repentance be what you represent it, a thing of such mighty import, and such impracticable performance, as a change of mind, in what rational way can it be made the subject of a precept or an injunction? you would not call upon the Ethiopian to change his skin-you would not call upon the leopard to change his spots; and yet you call upon us to change our minds. You say, "Repent;" and that too in the face of the undeniable doctrine, that man is without strength for the achievement of so mighty an enterprise. Can you tell us any plain and practicable thing that you would have us to perform, and that we may perform to help on this business? This is the very question with which the hearers of John the Baptist came back upon him, after he had told them in general terms to repent, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. He may not have resolved the difficulty, but he pointed the expectations of his countrymen to a greater than he for the solution of it. Now that Teacher has already come, and we live under the full and the finished splendour of his revelation. O that the greatness and difficulty of the work of repentance, had the effect of shutting you up into the faith of Christ! Repentance is not a paltry, superficial reformation. It reaches deep into the inner man, but not too deep for the searching influences of that Spirit which is at his giving, and which worketh mightily in the hearts of believers. You should go then under a sense of your difficulty to Him. Seek to be rooted in the Saviour, that you may be nourished out of his fulness, and strengthened by his might. The simple cry for a clean heart, and a right spirit, which is raised from the mouth of a believer, brings down an answer from on high, which explains all the difficulty and overcomes it. And if what we have said of the extent and magnitude of repentance, should have the effect to give a deeper feeling than before of the wants under which you labour; and shall dispose you to seek after a closer and more habitual union with Him who alone can supply them, then will our call to repent have indeed fulfilled upon you the appointed end of a preparation for the Saviour. But recollect now is your time, and now is your opportunity, for entering on the road of preparation that leads to heaven. We charge you to enter this road at this moment, as you value your deliverance from hell, and your possession of that blissful place where you shall be for ever with the Lord-we charge you not to parry and to delay this matter, no not for a single hourwe call on you by all that is great in eternity—by all that is terrifying in its horrors-by all that is alluring in its rewards-by all that is binding in the authority of God-by all that is condemning in the severity of his violated law, and by all that can aggravate this condemnation in the insulting contempt of his rejected gospel;-we call on you by one and all of these considerations, not to hesitate but to fleenot to purpose a return for to-morrow, but to make an actual return this very day-to put a decisive end to every plan of wickedness on which you may have entered to cease your hands from all that is forbidden-to turn them to all that is required-to betake yourselves to the appointed Mediator, and receive through him, by the prayer of faith, such constant supplies of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, that, from this moment, you may be carried forward from one degree of grace unto another, and from a life devoted to God here, to the elevation of a triumphant, and the joys of a blissful eternity hereafter. St. Andrew's, October, 1825. T. C. The Text opened, DOCT. 1. It is the unchangeable law of God, that wicked men must turn or die-Proved, God will not be so unmerciful as to damn us Answered, The Use, Who are wicked men, and what conversion is; and how we may know whether we are wicked or converted, Applied, DOCT. 2. It is the promise of God, that the wicked shall live, if they will but turn; unfeignedly and thoroughly turn-Proved, DOCT. 3. God taketh pleasure in men's conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation. He had rather they would turn and live, than go on and die-Expounded-Proved, DocT. 4. The Lord hath confirmed it to us by his oath, That he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn and live; that he may leave man no pretence to doubt of it, USE. Who is it then that takes pleasure in men's sin and death?-Not God, nor ministers, nor any good men, DocT. 5. So earnest is God for the conversion of sinners, that he doubleth his commands and exhortations with vehemency, "Turn ye, Turn ye,"-Applied, Some motives to obey God's call, and turn. DocT. 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason the case with unconverted sinners, and to ask them, Why they will die? A strange disputation:-1. For the question. 2. The disputants. Wicked men will die, or destroy themselves. USE. The sinner's case is certainly unreasonable, 113 Their seeming reasons confuted, QUEST. Why are men so unreasonable, and loath 116 to turn, and will destroy themselves?—Answered, 128 DocT. 7. If after all this, men will not turn, it is not God's fault that they are condemned, but their own, even their own wilfulness. They die because they will; that is, because they will not turn, USE, 1. How unfit the wicked are to charge God with their damnation. It is not because God is unmerciful, but because they are cruel and merciless to themselves, 131 138 OBJECT. We cannot convert ourselves, nor have 142 143 144 USE, 4. Man is the greatest enemy to himself, 144 THE GREAT SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED THE CALL WHEN FIRST PUBLISHED. It may be proper to prefix an account of this book given by Mr. Baxter himself, which was found in his study, after his death, in his own words: I published a short treatise on conversion, entitled, A Call to the Unconverted. The occasion of this was my converse with Bishop Usher while I was at London; who, approving my method and directions for Peace of Conscience, was importunate with me to write directions suited to the various states of Christians, and also against particular sins. I reverenced the man, but disregarded these persuasions, supposing I could do nothing but what is done better already: but when he was dead, his words went deeper to my mind, and I purposed to obey his counsel; yet, so as that to the first sort of men, the ungodly, I thought vehement persuasions meeter than directions only: and so for such I published this little book, which God hath blessed with unexpected success, beyond all the rest that I have written, except The Saint's Rest. In a little more than a year, there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my own consent, and about ten thousand since, beside many thousands by stolen impressions, which poor men stole for lucre's sake. Through God's mercy, I have information of almost whole households converted by this small book which I set so light by: and, as if all this in England, Scotland, |