
! 

i 



ALARM 

TO 

UNCONVERTED SINNERS; 

IN 

A SERIOUS TREATISE 

ON 

CONVERSION. 

BY REV. JOSEPH ALLE1NE. 

REVISED AND ABRIDGED. 

PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 




In the revision of this work numerous obsolete or defective 
words or phrases have been altered, and some passages, in- 
cluding a few referring to denominational peculiarities, have 
been omitted. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAG2. 

An Earnest Invitation to Sinners to turn to God, ... 5 

CHAPTER I. 

Showing what Conversion is not, and Correcting some 
Mistakes about it, . . 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Showing positively what Conversion is, IS 

CHAPTER III. 
Of the Necessity of Conversion, 54 

CHAPTER IV. 
Showing the Marks of the Unconverted, ..... 80 

CHAPTER V. 
Showing the Miseries of the Unconverted, 98 

CHAPTER VI. 
Containing Directions to the Unconverted, ..... 127 

CHAPTER VII. 
Containing the Motives to Conversion, . . . . . . 1 G3 

Conclusion, 179 



ALARM 

TO 

UNCONVERTED SINNERS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

An earnest Invitation to Sinners to turn to God. 

Dearly beloved, I gladly acknowledge myself a 
debtor to you, and am concerned, as I would be 
found a good steward of the household of God, to 
give to every one his portion. But the physician 
is most solicitous for those patients whose case is 
most doubtful and hazardous ; and the father's pity 
is especially turned towards his dying child. So 
unconverted souls call for earnest compassion and 
prompt diligence to pluck them as brands from the 
burning, Jude 23 ; therefore to them I shall first 
apply myself in these pages. 

But whence shall I fetch my argument ? Where- 
with shall I win them? 0 that I could tell. I 
would write to them in tears, I would weep out 
every argument, I would empty my veins for ink, I 



6 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



would petition them on my knees. 0 how thank- 
ful should I be if they would be prevailed with to 
repent and turn. 

How long have I labored for you ! How often 
would I have gathered you ! This is what I have 
prayed for and studied for these many years, that I 
might bring you to God. 0 that I might now do 
it. Will you yet be entreated ? 

But, Lord, how insufficient am I for this work. 
Alas, wherewith shall I pierce the scales of Levia- 
than, or make the heart feel that it is hard as the 
nether millstone? Shall I go and speak to the 
grave, and expect the dead will obey me and come 
forth ? Shall I make an oration to the rocks, or 
declaim to the mountains, and think to move them 
with arguments? Shall I give the blind to see? 
From the beginning of the world was it not heard 
that a man opened the eyes of the blind ; but thou, 
O Lord, canst pierce the heart of the sinner ; I can 
but draw the bow at a venture, but do thou direct 
the arrow between the joints of the harness, slay the 
sin, and save the soul of the sinner that casts his 
eyes on these pages. 

There is no entering into heaven but by the strait 
passage of the second birth ; without holiness you 
shall never see God. Now give yourselves unto the 
Lord. Now set yourselves to seek him. Now set 
up the Lord J esus in your hearts, and set him up in 
your houses. Kiss the Son, Psalm 2:12, and em- 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

brace the tenders of mercy ; touch his sceptre and 
live ; for why will ye die ? I beg not for myself, 
but would have you happy : this is the prize I run 
for. My soul's desire and prayer for you is, that 
you may be saved. Rom. 10:1. What greater joy 
to a minister than to hear of souls born unto Christ ? 

I beseech you suffer friendly plainness and free- 
dom with you in your deepest concern. I am not 
playing the orator ; these lines are upon a weighty 
errand indeed — to convince, to convert, and to save 
you. If I would quiet a crying infant, I might sing 
to him in a pleasing mood, and rock him asleep ; but 
when the child is fallen into the fire, the parent takes 
another course ; he will not try to still him with a 
song or a trifle. I know, if we speed not with you, 
you are lost ; if we cannot get your consent to " arise 
and come away," you perish for ever : no conversion, 
and no salvation: we must get your good-will, or 
leave you miserable. 

But here the difficulty of my work again recurs 
upon me. Lord, choose my stones out of the brook. 
1 Sam. 17 : 40, 45. I come in the name of the Lord 
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. I come 
forth, like the stripling David, to wrestle, not with 
flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, 
and rulers of the darkness of this world. Eph. 6:12. 
This day let the Lord smite the Philistines, spoil the 
strong man of his armor, and give me the captives 
out of his hand. Lord, choose my words, choose 



8 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



my weapons for me ; and when I put my hand into 
the bag, and take thence a stone and sling it, do 
thou carry it to the mark, and make it sink, not into 
the forehead, but into the heart of the unconverted 
sinner, and smite him to the ground like Saul of 
Tarsus. Acts 9:4. 

But I turn me unto you. Some of you do not 
know what I mean by conversion, and in vain shall 
I attempt to persuade you to that which you do not 
understand ; therefore for your sakes I will show 
what this conversion is. 

Others cherish secret hopes of mercy, though they 
continue as they are ; and for them I must show the 
necessity of conversion. 

Others are like to harden themselves with a vain 
conceit that they are converted already ; to them I 
must show the marks of the unconverted. 

Others, because they feel no harm, fear none, and 
so sleep as upon the top of a mast ; to them I shall 
show the misery of the unconverted. 

Others sit still, because they see not their way 
of escape ; to them I shall show the means of con- 
version. 

And finally, for the quickening of all, I shall close 
with the motives to conversion. 



MISTAKES ABOUT CONVERSION. 



9 



CHAPTER I. 

Showing what Conversion is not, and correcting some mis- 
takes about it. 

Let the blind Samaritans worship they know not 
what. John 4:22. Let the heathen Athenians in- 
scribe their altar "To the unknown God." Acts 
17 : 22. Let Papists commend ignorance as the 
mother of devotion. They that know man's consti- 
tution, and the nature of the reasonable soul, cannot 
but know that the understanding has suck empire 
in the soul, that he who will go rationally to work 
must labor to let in light there. And therefore, 
that you may not mistake me, I shall first show 
what I mean by the conversion I persuade you to 
endeavor after. 

Truly, my beloved, the devil hath made many 
counterfeits of conversion, and cheats one with this, 
and another with that ; and such craft and artifice 
he hath in his mystery of deceits, that, if it were 
possible, he would deceive the very elect. Now, 
that I may cure the ruinous mistake of some who 
think they are converted when they are not, as well 
as remove the troubles and fears of others, who think 
they are not converted when they are, I shall show 

yOU THE NATURE OF CONVERSION, BOTH WHAT IT IS 
NOT, AND WHAT IT IS. 

We will begin with the negative. 



10 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



It is not the taking upon us the prof ession of Chris- 
tianity. Christianity is more than a name. If we 
will hear Paul, it lies not in word, but in power. 1 
Cor. 4:20. If to cease to be Jews and Pagans, and 
to put on the Christian profession, had been true 
conversion — as this is all that some would have to 
be understood by it — who better Christians than 
they of Sardis and Laodicea? These were all Chris- 
tians by profession, and had a name to live only : but 
because they had a name, they are condemned by 
Christ, and threatened to be rejected. Rev. 3:1, 
16. Are there not many that name the name of the 
Lord Jesus, that yet depart not from iniquity, 2 Tim. 
2 : 19, and "profess they know God, but in works 
deny him ?" Titus 1:16. And will God receive 
these for true converts ? What, converts from sin, 
when yet they live in sin ? It is a visible contradic- 
tion. Surely, if the lamp of profession would have 
served the turn, the foolish virgins had never been 
shut out. Matt. 25 : 12. We find not only profes- 
sors, but preachers of Christ, and wonder-workers, 
rejected, because evil-workers. Matt. 1 : 22, 23. 

It is not putting on the badge of Christ in bap- 
tism, Ananias, and Sapphira, and Simon Magus 
were baptized as well as the rest. How fondly do 
many mistake here, deceiving and being deceived ; 
dreaming that effectual grace is necessarily tied to 
the external administration of baptism — which, what 
is it but to revive the popish tenet of the sacraments 



MISTAKES ABOUT CONVERSION. 



II 



working grace ? — and thus, that every baptized per- 
son is regenerated, not only sacramentally, but really 
and properly. Hence, men fancy, that being regen- 
erated already when baptized, they need no farther 
work. But if this were so, then all that have been 
baptized must necessarily be saved, because the 
promise of pardon and salvation is made to conver- 
sion and regeneration. Acts 3:19; Matt. 19 : 28. 
And indeed, were conversion and baptism the same, 
then men would do well to carry but a certificate 
of their baptism when they died, and upon sight of 
this there were no doubt of their admission into 
heaven. 

In short, if there be no more necessary to conver- 
sion, or regeneration, than to be baptized, this will fly 
directly in the face of that scripture, Matthew 7:13, 
14, as well as multitudes of others ; for, first, we 
shall then no more say, " Strait is the gate, and nar- 
row is the way for if all that were baptized are 
saved, the door is exceeding wide, and we shall 
henceforth say, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way that leadeth unto life." If this be true, thou- 
sands may go in abreast ; and we will no more teach 
that the righteous are scarcely saved, or that there 
is need of such a stir in taking the kingdom of heaven 
by violence, and striving to enter in. Surely, if the 
way be so easy as many suppose, that there is little 
more necessary than to be baptized and tc cry, 
"Lord, have mercy," we need not put ourselves to 



12 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



such seeking, and knocking, and wrestling, as the 
word requires in order to salvation. Secondly, if 
this be true, we shall no more say, "Few there be 
that find it ;" yea, we will rather say, " Few there be 
that miss it." We shall no more say, that of the 
"many" that are "called, but few are chosen," 
Matt. 22:14, and that even of the professing "Is- 
rael but . a remnant shall be saved." Rom. 9 : 27. 
If this doctrine be true, we shall not say any more 
with the disciples, " Who then shall be saved ?" but 
rather, " Who then shall not be saved?" Then, if a 
man be baptized, though he be a fornicator, or a 
railer or covetous, or a drunkard, yet he shall inherit 
the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 5:11, and 6 : 9, 10. 

But some will reply, Such as these, though they 
did receive regenerating grace in baptism, are since 
fallen away, and must be renewed again, or else they 
cannot be saved. 

I answer, 1. There is an infallible connection be- 
tween regeneration and salvation, as we have already 
shown. 2. Then man must be born again a second 
time, which carries a great deal of absurdity in its 
face : and why may not men be twice born in nature 
as well as in grace? But, 3, and above all, this 
grants, however, the thing I contend for, that what- 
ever men do or pretend to receive in baptism, if they 
be found afterwards to be grossly ignorant, or pro- 
fane, or formal, without the power of godliness, they 
"must be born again/ 3 or else be shut out of the 



MISTAKES ABOUT CONVERSION. ^ 13 

kingdom of God. So then they must have more to 
plead for themselves than their baptismal regenera- 
tion. 

Well, in this you see all are agreed, that, be it 
more or less that is received in baptism, if men are 
evidently unsanctified, they must be renewed again 
by a thorough and powerful change, or else they 
cannot escape the damnation of hell. " Be not de- 
ceived ; God is not mocked." Whether it be your 
baptism, or whatever else you pretend, I tell you 
from the living God, that if any of you be a prayer- 
less person, or unclean, or malicious, or covetous, or 
riotous, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company, 
Prov. 13 : 20, in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, 
and self-denying Christian, you cannot be saved. 
Heb. 12:14; Matt. 15:14. 

Paul, while unconverted, touching the righteous- 
ness which is in the law, was blameless. Phil. 3 : 6. 
The Pharisee could say, " I am no extortioner, adul- 
terer, unjust," etc. Thou must have something more 
than all this to show, Luke 18 : 11, or else, however 
thou mayest justify thyself, God will condemn thee. 
I condemn not morality, but warn thee not to rest 
in it ; piety includes morality, as Christianity doth 
humanity, and grace, reason ; but we must not divide 
the tables. 

It is also manifest that men may have a form of 
godliness, without the power. 2 Tim. 3:5. Men 
may pray long, Matt. 23 : 14 ; and fast often, Luke 



14 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



18:12; and hear gladly, Mark 6 : 20 ; and be very 
forward in the service of God, though costly and 
expensive, Isa. 1:11; and yet be strangers to con- 
version. They must have more to plead for them- 
selves than that they go to church, give alms, and 
make use of prayer, to prove themselves sound 
converts. There is no outward service but a hypo- 
crite may do it, even to the "giving all his goods to 
feed the poor, and his body to be burned." 1 Cor. 
13:3. 

Conversion is not the mere chaining up of corrup- 
tion by education, human laws, or the force of afflic- 
tion. It is too common and easy to mistake educa- 
tion for grace ; but if this were enough, who a bet- 
ter man than Jehoash ? While Jehoida, his uncle, 
lived, he was very forward in God's service, and calls 
upon him to repair the house of the Lord, 2 Kings, 
12 : 2, 7 ; but here was nothing more than good 
education all this while ; for when his good tutor 
was taken out of the way, he appears to have been 
but a wolf chained up, and falls into idolatry. 

In short, conversion consists not in illumination oi 
conviction, in a superficial change or partial reforma- 
tion. An apostate may be an enlightened man, Heb. 
6:4; and a Felix tremble under conviction, Acts 
24 : 25 ; and a Herod do many things, Mark 6 : 20. 
It is one thing to have sin alarmed only by convic- 
tions, and another to have it crucified by converting 
grace. Many, because they have been troubled in 



MISTAKES ABOUT CONVERSION. 



15 



conscience for their sins, think well of their case, 
miserably mistaking conviction for conversion. With 
these, Cain might have passed for a convert, who 
ran up and down the world like a man distracted, 
under the rage of a guilty conscience, till, with build- 
ing and business, he had stifled it. Others think, 
that because they have given over their riotous 
courses, and are broken off from evil company or 
some particular lust, and are reduced to sobriety 
and civility, they are now no other than real con- 
verts ; forgetting that there is a vast difference be- 
tween being sanctified and civilized ; and that many 
seek to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and are 
not far from it, and arrive to the almost of Chris- 
tianity, and yet fall short at last. While conscience 
holds the whip over them, many will pray, hear, read, 
and forbear their delightful sins ; but no sooner is 
the lion asleep than they are at their sins again. Who 
more religious than the Jews when God's hand was 
upon them : yet no sooner was the affliction over, 
than they forgot God. Thou mayst have forsaken 
a troublesome sin, and have escaped the gross pol- 
lutions of the world, and yet in all this not have 
changed thy carnal nature. 

You may cast lead out of the rude mass into the 
form and features of a man, yet all the while it is 
but lead still ; so a man may pass through divers 
transmutations, from ignorance to knowledge, from 
profaneness to civility, and thence to a form of relig- 



16 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



ion, and all this time he is but carnal and unregen- 
erate whilst his nature remains unchanged. 

Hear then, 0 sinners, hear as you would live. 
Why would you wilfully deceive yourselves, or build 
your hopes upon the sand ? I know that he may 
find hard work that goes to pluck away your hopes. 
It cannot but be ungrateful to you, and truly it is 
not pleasing to me. I set about it as a surgeon 
when about to cut off a mortified limb from his well- 
beloved friend, which of necessity he must do, though 
with an aching heart. But understand me, beloved, 
I am only taking down the ruinous house, which will 
otherwise speedily fall of itself and bury you in the 
ruins, that I may build it fair, strong, and firm for 
ever. The hope of the wicked shall perish. Prov. 
11 : 7. And hadst not thou better, 0 sinner, let the 
word convince thee now in time, and let go thy false 
and self- deluding hopes, than have death too late 
open thine eyes, and find thyself in hell before thou 
art aware? I should be a false and faithless shep- 
herd if I should not tell you, that you, who have 
built your hopes upon no better grounds than these 
before mentioned, are yet in your sins. Let con- 
science speak: What is it that you have to plead 
for yourselves ? Is it that you wear Christ's livery ; 
that you bear his name ; that you are of the visible 
church ; that you have knowledge in the points of 
religion, are civilized, perform religious duties, are 



MISTAKES ABOUT CONVERSION. 



17 



just in your dealings, have been troubled in con- 
science for your sins ? I tell you, from the Lord, 
these pleas will never be accepted at God's bar : all 
this, though good in itself, will not prove you con- 
verted, and so will not suffice to your salvation. 0 
look about you, and bethink yourselves of turning 
speedily and entirely. Study your own hearts ; rest 
not till God has made thorough work with you ; for 
you must be other men, or else you are lost men. 

But if these persons be short of conversion, what 
shall I say of the profane sinner ? It may be he 
will scarcely cast his eyes on, or lend his ear to this 
discourse ; but if there be any such reading, or 
within hearing, he must know from the Lord that 
made him, that he is far from the kingdom of God. 
May a man keep company with the wise virgins, 
and yet be shut out ; and shall not a companion of 
fools much more be destroyed? May a man be 
true in his dealings, and yet not be justified of God? 
What then will become of thee, O wretched man, 
whose conscience tells thee thou art false in thy 
trade, and false to thy word, and makest thy advan- 
tage by a lying tongue ? If men may be enlight- 
ened and brought to the external performance of 
holy duties, and yet go down to perdition for resting 
in them and sitting down on this side of conversion, 
what will become of you, 0 miserable families, that 
live without God in the world? and of you, O 
wretched sinners, with whom God is scarcely in all 

Alleine's Alarm. ^ 



18 ALLEINE'S ALARM. 

your thoughts ; that are so ignorant that you cannot, 
or so careless that you will not pray ? 0 repent 
and be converted ; break off your sins by righteous- 
ness ; away to Christ for pardoning and renewing 
grace ; give up yourselves to him, to walk with him 
in holiness, or you shall never see God. 0 that 
you would take the warnings of God ! In his name 
I once more admonish you : Turn ye at my reproof. 
Forsake the foolish, and live. Be sober, righteous, 
and godly. Wash your hands, ye sinners ; purify 
your hearts, ye double-minded. Cease to do evil, 
learn to do well. But if you will go on, you must 
die, 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



19 



CHAPTER II. 

SHOWING POSITIVELY WHAT CONVERSION IS. 

I may not leave you with your eyes half open, 
like him that saw "men as trees walking." The 
word is profitable for doctrine as well as reproof. 
And therefore, having thus far conducted you by 
the shelves and rocks of so many dangerous mis- 
takes, I would guide you at length into the haven 
of truth. 

Conversion then, in short, lies in the thorough 

CHANGE BOTH OF THE HEART AND LIFE. I shall 

briefly describe it in its nature and causes. 

I. The author of conversion is the Spirit of God, 
and therefore it is called " the sanctification of the 
Spirit," and "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," 
yet not excluding the other persons in the Trinity ; 
for the apostle teacheth us to " bless the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope." And Christ is said to "give 
repentance unto Israel," and is called the "ever- 
lasting Father," and we his seed, and the children 
which God hath given him. Yet this work is prin- 
cipally ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and so we are 
said to be "born of the Spirit." 

So then regeneration is a work of God : " We 
are born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God." John 1:13. If ever thou 



20 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



wouldst be savingly converted, thou must despair 
of doing it in thine own strength. It is a resurrec- 
tion from the dead, Eph. 2 : 1 ; a new creation, Gal. 
6:15; Eph. 2 : 10 ; a work of absolute omnipotence, 
Eph. 1:19. If thou hast no more than thou hadst 
by thy first birth, a good nature, a meek and chaste 
temper, etc., thou art a stranger to true conversion : 
this is a supernatural work. 

II. The efficient cause of conversion is internal, 
or external. 

1. The internal cause is free grace alone. "Not 
by works of righteousness which we have done, but 
of his mercy he saved us," and " by the renewing of 
the Holy Ghost." " Of his own will begat he us." 
We are chosen and called unto sanctification, not 
for it. 

God finds nothing in man to excite his love : 
enough to provoke his loathing. Look back upon 
thyself, 0 Christian ! Do not thine own clothes 
abhor thee? Job 9:31. How then should holi- 
ness and pureness love thee ? Be astonished, O 
heavens, at this ; be moved, 0 earth. Who but 
must needs cry, Grace, grace. Hear and blush, ye 
children of the Most High — 0 ye unthankful men ! 
that free grace is no more in your mouths, in your 
thoughts ; no more adored, admired, and commended 
by such as you. One would think you should be 
doing nothing but praising and admiring God wher- 
ever you are. How can you forget such grace, or 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



21 



pass it over with a slight and formal mention ? 
What but free grace could move God to love you, 
unless enmity could do it, unless deformity could do 
it ? How affectionately doth Peter lift up his hands : 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, 
who of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again." 
How feelingly doth Paul magnify the free mercy of 
God in it : " God who is rich in mercy, for his great 
love wherewith he loved us, hath quickened us to- 
gether with Christ, By grace ye are saved." 

2. The external cause is the merit and interces- 
sion of the blessed Jesus. He hath obtained gifts 
for the rebellious, and through him it is that God 
worketh in us what is well pleasing in his sight. 
Through him are all spiritual blessings bestowed 
upon us in heavenly things. Every convert is the 
fruit of his travail. He is made sanctification to us. 
He sanctified himself — that is, set apart himself as a 
sacrifice — that we may be sanctified. " We are 
sanctified through the offering of his body once for 
all." Heb. 10:10. 

It is nothing, then, but the merit and intercession 
of Christ, that prevails with God to bestow on us 
converting grace. If thou art a new creature, thou 
knowest to whom thou owest it ; to Christ's agonies 
and prayers. And whither else shouldst thou go ? 
If any in the world can show that for thy heart 
which Christ can, let them do it. Doth Satan claim 
thee ? Doth the world court thee ? Doth sin sue 



22 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



for thy heart ? But were these crucified for thee ? 

0 Christian, k>ve and serve the Lord whilst thou 
hast a being. 

III. The instrument of conversion is either per- 
sonal or real. The personal is the ministry. I have 
begotten you in Christ through the Gospel. 1 Cor. 
4:15. Christ's ministers are they that are sent to 
open men's eyes, and to turn them to God. Acts 
26:18. 

0 unthankful world, little do you know what you 
are doing while you are persecuting the messengers 
of the Lord. These are they whose business it is, 
under Christ, to save you. Whom have you re- 
proached and blasphemed ? Against whom have 
you exalted your voice, and lifted your eyes on high ? 
" These are the servants of the most high God, that 
show unto you the way of salvation," and do you 
thus requite them, 0 foolish and unwise ! O sons 
of ingratitude, against whom do ye sport yourselves ? 
These are the instruments that God uses to convert 
and save sinners : and do you revile your physicians, 
and throw your pilots overboard ? " Father, for- 
give them ; for they know not what they do." • 

The real instrument is the word. We are begot- 
ten by the word of truth. This it is that enlightens 
the eye; that converts the soul, Psalm 19 : 7, 8; 
that maketh wise to salvation. 2 Tim. 3:15. This 
is the incorruptible seed, by which we are born again. 

1 Pet. 1:23. If we are washed, it is by the word. 



THE NATURE OP CONVERSION. 23 

Eph. 5 : 26. If we are sanctified, it is through the 
truth. John 17: 17. "Of his own will begat he 
us with the word of truth.' ' James 1:18. 

O ye saints, how should ye love the word ; for by 
this you have been converted : 0 ye sinners, how 
should you ply the word ; for by means of this you 
must be converted. You that have felt its renew- 
ing power, make much of it while you live ; be for 
ever thankful for it ; tie it about your neck ; write it 
upon your hand ; lay it in your bosom. When you 
go, let it lead you ; when you sleep, let it keep you ; 
when you wake, let it talk with you : say with holy 
David, " I will never forget thy precepts, for by 
them thou hast quickened me." You that are un- 
converted, read the word with diligence ; flock to it 
where powerfully preached : pray for the coming of 
the Spirit in the word ; come from your knees to the 
sermon, and come to your knees from the sermon. 
The seed doth not prosper, because not watered by 
prayers and tears, nor covered by meditation. 

IV. The final cause or end of conversion is 
man's salvation, and God's glory. We are chosen 
through sanctification to salvation ; called that we 
might be glorified ; but especially that God may be 
glorified, that we should "show forth his praise," 
and "be fruitful in good works." 0 Christian, 
do not forget the end of thy calling; "let thy 
light shine," let thy lamp burn ; let thy fruits be 
good, and many, and in season ; let all thy designs 



24 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



fall in with God's, that he may " be magnified in 
thee." 

Y. The subject of conversion is the sinner, and 
that in all his parts and powers, members and mind. 
Those who are drawn to Christ, or come to him by 
believing, are his sheep, " whom the Father hath 
given him." John 6 : 37, 44. Wouldst thou know 
whether thou art given to Christ ? prove thy con- 
version, and then never doubt of thy election ; or, 
if thou canst not prove it, set upon a present and 
thorough turning. Whatever God's purposes be, 
which are secret, I am sure his precepts are plain. 
How desperately do rebels argue ! " If I am elect- 
ed I shall be saved, do what I will : if not, I shall 
be damned, do what I can." Perverse sinner, wilt 
thou begin where thou shouldest end ? Is not the 
word before thee? What saith it? "Repent and 
be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." 
"If you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall 
live." " Believe and be saved." What can be 
plainer ? Do not stand still disputing about thine 
election, but set to repenting and believing ; cry to 
God for converting grace. Revealed things belong 
to thee ; in these busy thyself. It is just, as one 
well said, that they who will not feed on the plain 
food of the word should be choked with the bones. 
Whatever God's purposes be, I am sure his promises 
are true ; whatever the decrees of heaven be, I am 
sure that if I repent and believe I shall be saved ; 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



25 



and that if I repent not, I shall be damned. Is not 
here plain ground for thee ; and wilt thou yet run 
upon the rocks ? 

More particularly, this change of conversion passes 
throughout the whole man. A carnal person 
may have some shreds of good morality, but he is 
never good throughout. Conversion is not a repair- 
ing of the old building ; but it takes all down, and 
erects a new structure : it is not the putting in a 
patch of holiness ; but, with the true convert, holiness 
is woven into all his pow ers, principles, and practice. 
The sincere Christian is quite a new fabric, from the 
foundation to the top-stone. He is a new man, a 
new creature. All things are become new. Con- 
version is a deep work, a heart- work. It makes a 
new man in a new world. It goes throughout with 
men, throughout the mind, throughout the members, 
throughout the motions of the whole life. 

1. Throughout the mind. It makes a universal 
change within. 

(1.) It turns the balance of the judgment ; so that 
God and his glory outweigh all carnal and worldly 
interests. It opens the eye of the mind, and makes 
the scales of its native ignorance fall off, and turns 
men from darkness to light. The man that before 
saw no danger in his condition, now concludes 
himself lost, and for ever undone, Acts 2:37, except 
renewed by the power of grace. He that formerly 
thought there was little harm in sin, now comes to 



26 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



see it to be the chief of evils ; he sees the unreason- 
ableness, the unrighteousness, the deformity and 
filthiness of sin ; so that he is affrighted with it, 
loathes it, dreads it, flees from it, and even abhors 
himself for it. He that could see little sin in him- 
self, and could find no matter for confession, now 
sees the rottenness of his heart, the desperate and 
deep pollution of his whole nature. He cries, Un- 
clean, unclean : Lord, purge me with hyssop, wash 
me thoroughly, create in me a cleanvheart. He sees 
himself altogether filthy, corrupt, both root and tree ; 
he writes unclean upon all his parts, and powers, 
and performances ; he discovers the filthy corners 
that he was never aware of, and sees the blasphe- 
my, and theft, and murder, and adultery, that is in 
his heart, of which before he was ignorant. Here- 
tofore he saw no form nor comeliness in Christ, nor 
beauty, that he should desire him ; but now he finds 
the hidden treasure, and will sell all to buy this field. 
Christ is the pearl he seeks. 

Now, according to this new light, the man is of 
another mind, another judgment, than he was be- 
fore. Now God is all with him, he hath none in 
heaven, nor in earth like him ; he truly prefers him 
before all the world ; his favor is his life, the light 
of his countenance is more than corn, or wine, and 
oil. A hypocrite may come to yield a general as- 
sent that God is the chief good ; yea, the wiser 
heathens, some few of them, have at last stumbled 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 27 

upon this : but no hypocrite comes so far as to look 
upon God as the most desirable and suitable good 
to him, and thereupon to acquiesce in him. This is 
the convert's voice : " The, Lord is my portion, saith 
my soul. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and 
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee, 
God is the strength of my heart, and my portion foi 
ever." 

(2.) It turns the bias of the will both as to means 
and end. The intentions of the will are altered. 
Now the man hath new ends and designs ; now he 
intends God above all, and desires and designs noth- 
ing in all the world, so much as that Christ may be 
magnified in him. He counts himself more happy 
in this than in all that the earth could yield, that he 
may be serviceable to Christ, and bring him glory. 
This is the mark he aims at, that the name of Jesus 
may be great in the world. 

Reader, dost thou view this, and never ask thy- 
self whether it be thus with thee ? Pause a while, 
and breathe on this great concern. 

The choice is also changed. He pitcheth upon 
God as his blessedness, and upon Christ and holiness 
as means to bring him to God. He chooseth Jesus 
for his Lord. He is not merely forced to Christ, by 
the storm, nor doth he take Christ for bare necessity, 
but he comes freely. His choice is not made in a 
fright, as with the terrified conscience, or the dying 
sinner that will seemingly do any thing for Christ, 



23 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



but only takes Christ rather than hell. He deliber- 
ately resolves that Christ is his best choice, and 
would rather have him than all the good of this 
world, might he enjoy it while he would. Phil. 
1 : 23. Again, he takes holiness for his path; he 
does not of mere necessity submit to it, but he likes 
and loves it : "I have chosen the way of thy pre- 
cepts." He takes God's testimonies, not as his bond- 
age, but as his heritage ; yea, heritage for ever. 
He counts them not his burden, but his bliss ; not 
his cords, but his cordials. He does not only bear, 
but takes up Christ's yoke : he takes not holiness as 
the stomach does the loathed potion, which a man 
will take rather than die, but as the hungry doth 
his beloved food. No time passeth so sweetly with 
him, when he is himself, as that he spends in the 
exercises of holiness. These are both his aliment 
and element, the desire of his eyes and the joy of 
his heart. Put it to thy conscience whether thou 
art the man. 0 happy man, if this be thy case! 
But see thou be impartial in the search. 

(3.) It turns the bent of the affections. These 
run all in a new channel. The Jordan is now driven 
back, and the water runs upwards against its natu- 
ral course. Christ is his hope. This is his prize. 
Here his eye is : here his heart. He is contented to 
cast all overboard, as the merchant in the storm 
ready to perish, so he may but keep this jewel. 

The first of his desires is not after gold, but grace. 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



29 



He hungers after it, he seeks it as silver, he digs for 
it as for hid treasure; he had rather be gracious 
than be great ; he had rather be the holiest man on 
earth than the most learned, the most famous, the 
most prosperous. While carnal, he said, 0 if I were 
but in great esteem, rolling in wealth, and swimming 
in pleasure ; if my debts were paid, and I and mine 
provided for, then I were a happy man. But now 
the tone is changed. 0, saith the convert, if I had 
but my corruptions subdued, if I had such a measure 
of grace, such fellowship with God, though I were 
poor and dospised I should not care, I should ac- 
count myself a blessed man. Reader, is this the 
language of thy soul ? 

His joys are changed. He rejoiceth in the ways 
of God's testimonies as much as in all riches. He 
delights in the law of the Lord, wherein once he 
had little savor. He hath no such joy as in the 
thoughts of Christ, the fruition of his company, the 
prosperity of his people. 

His ceres are quite altered. He was once set 
for the world, and any scrap of by-time was enough 
for his soul : now his cry is, " What shall I do to 
be saved?" His great solicitude is to secure his 
soul. 0 how would he bless you if you could but 
put him out of doubt of this ! His fears are not so 
much of suffering as of sinning. Once he was afraid 
of nothing so much as the loss of his estate or repu- 
tation ; nothing sounded so terrible to him as pain, 



30 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



or poverty, or disgrace ; now these are little to him, 
in comparison of God's dishonor or displeasure. 
How warily doth he walk, lest he should tread upon 
a snare ! He feareth alway ; he hath his eye upon 
his heart, and is ever watchful lest he should be 
overtaken with sin. It kills his heart to think of 
losing God's favor ; this he dreads as his only un- 
doing. No thought would pain him so much as to 
think of parting with Christ. 

His love runs a new course. My Love was 
crucified, saith Ignatius ; that is, my Christ. This 
is my Beloved, saith the spouse. Cant. 5 : 16. How 
doth Augustine often pour his love upon Christ! 
O " eternal blessedness !" He can find no words 
sweet enough. " Let me see thee, 0 light of mine 
eyes. Come, 0 thou joy of my spirit. Let me be- 
hold thee, 0 life of my soul. Appear unto me, 
0 my great delight, my sweet comfort : 0 my God, 
my life, and the whole glory of my soul. Let 
me find thee, 0 desire of my heart. Let me hold 
thee, 0 love of my soul. Let me embrace thee, 0 
heavenly bridegroom. Let me possess thee !" 

His sorrows have now a new vent. The view of 
his sins, the sight of Christ crucified, that could 
scarcely stir him before, now how much do they 
affect his heart ! 

His hatred boils, his anger burns against sin. He 
hath no patience with himself : he calls himself fool 
and beast, and thinks any name too good for him- 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



31 



self, when his indignation is stirred up against sin. 
Psalm 73 : 22 ; Pro v. 30:2. He could once delight 
in it with much pleasure ; now he loathes the thought 
of returning to it. 

Commune then with thine own heart, and attend 
to the general current of thine affections, whether 
they be towards God in Christ above all other con- 
cerns. Indeed, sudden and strong motions of the 
affections are ofttimes found in hypocrites, especial- 
ly where the natural temperament is warm. And, 
contrariwise, the sanctified themselves are many 
times without sensible stirring of the affections, 
where the temper is more slow, dry, and dull. The 
great inquiry is, whether the judgment and will be 
steadily determined for God above all other good, 
real or apparent ; if so, and if the affections do sin- 
cerely follow their choice and conduct, though it be 
not so strongly and sensibly as is to be desired, 
there is no doubt but the change is saving. 

2. Throughout the members. Those that were 
before the instruments of sin, are now become the 
holy vessels of Christ's living kingdom. He that 
before dishonored his body, now possesses his ves- 
sel in sanctification and honor, in temperance, chas- 
tity, and sobriety, and dedicates it to the Lord. 

The eye, that was once a wandering eye, a wanton 
eye, a haughty, a covetous eye, is now employed, as 
Mary's, in weeping over its sins, in beholding God 
in his works, in reading his word, or in looking 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



for objects of mercy and opportunities for his ser- 
vice. 

The ear, that was once open to Satan's call, is now 
open to the voice of Christ's house, and to his disci- 
pline. It saith, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear- 
_eth." It waits for his words as the rain, and relishes 
them more than the appointed food, "more than 
the honey and the honey- comb." 

The head, that was full of worldly designs, is now 
filled with other matters, and set on the study of 
God's will, and the man employs his head not so much 
about his gain as about his duty. The thoughts and 
cares that fill his head are, principally, how he may 
please God and flee sin. 

His heart, that was filled with filthy lusts, is now 
become an altar of incense, where the fire of divine 
love is ever kept burning, and whence the daily sac- 
rifices of prayer and praise, and the sweet incense 
of holy desires, ejaculations, and prayers, are con- 
tinually ascending. 

The mouth is become a well of life, his tongue as 
choice silver, and his lips feed many ; now the salt 
of grace has seasoned his speech, has eaten out the 
corruption, Col. 4 : 6, and cleansed the mouth from 
its filthy communication, flattery, boasting, and back- 
biting, that once came like flashes that proceeded 
from the hell that was in the heart. The throat, that 
was once an open sepulchre, now sends forth the 
sweet breath of prayer and holy discourse, and the 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



man speaks in another tongue, even the language of 
Canaan, and is never so well as when talking of God 
and Christ, and the matters of another world. His 
mouth bringeth forth wisdom ; his tongue is become 
the silver trumpet of his Maker's praise, his glory, 
and the best member that he hath. 

Now here you will find the hypocrite sadly de- 
ficient. He speaks, it may be, like an angel, but he 
hath a covetous eye, or the gain of unrighteousness 
in his hand ; or the hand is white, but his heart is 
full of rottenness, Matt. 23 : 27, full of unmortified 
cares, a very oven of lust, a shop of pride, the seat 
of malice. It may be, with Nebuchadnezzar's image, 
he hath a golden head, a great deal of knowledge ; 
but he hath feet of clay, his affections are worldly, 
he minds earthly things, and his way and walk are 
sensual and carnal. The work is not thorough with 
him. 

3. Throughout the life and practice, the new man 
takes a new course. His " conversation is in heav- 
en." No sooner doth Christ call by effectual grace, 
but he straightway becomes "a follower of him." 
When God hath given the new heart, and written 
his law in his mind, he forthwith walks in his stat- 
utes, and keeps his judgments. 

Though sin may dwell — truly a wearisome and 
unwelcome guest — in him, yet it hath "no more do- 
minion over him." "He hath his fruit unto holi- 
ness," and though he makes many a blot, yet the 

AUeine's Alarm. 3 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



law of life and Jesus is what lie looks at as his copy, 
and he hath an unfeigned respect to all God's com- 
mandments, making conscience of ever y sin and ev- 
ery duty. His very infirmities, which he cannot help 
though he would, are his soul's burden, and are like 
the dust in a man's eye, which though but little, yet 
is not a little troublesome. 0 man, dost thou read 
this and never turn in upon thy soul by self-exam- 
ination? The sincere convert is not one man at 
church and another at home ; he is not a saint on 
his knees, and a cheat in his shop ; he will not tithe 
mint and cummin, and neglect mercy and judgment, 
and the weighty matters of the law ; he doth not 
pretend to piety and neglect morality ; but he turns 
from all his sins, and keeps all God's statutes, though 
not perfectly — except in desire and endeavor — yet 
sincerely ; not allowing himself in the breach of any. 
'Now he delights in the word and sets himself to 
prayer, and opens his hand and draws out his soul 
to the hungry. " He breaketh off his sins by right- 
eousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the 
poor," and hath " a good conscience, willing in all 
things to live honestly," and to keep without offence 
towards God and man. 

Here, again, you find the unsoundness of many 
professors who consider themselves good Christians ; 
they are partial in the law, and take up with the 
cheap and easy duties of religion, but go not through 
with the work. It may be you find them exact in 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION 



their words, punctual in their dealings, but then they 
do not exercise themselves unto godliness ; and as 
for examining themselves and governing their hearts, 
to this they are strangers. You may see them duly 
at the church ; but follow them to their families, and 
there you shall see little but the world minded ; or 
if they have family duties, follow them to their 
closets, and there you shall find their souls are little 
looked after. It may be they seem otherwise relig- 
ious, but bridle not their tongues, and so " all their 
religion is vain." It may be they come up to closet 
and family prayer ; but follow them to their shops, 
and there you find them in the habit of lying, or 
some covert and fashionable way of deceit. Thus 
the hypocrite goes not throughout in the course of 
his obedience. 

VI. The objects from which we turn in conver- 
sion are, sin, Satan, the world, and our own right- 
eousness. 

1. We turn from sin. When a man is converted, 
he is for ever at enmity with sin ; yea, with all sin, 
but most of all with his own sins, and especially 
with 4 his bosom sin. Sin is now the object of his 
indignation. His sins swell his sorrows. It is sin 
that pierces him and wounds him ; he feels it like a 
thorn in his side, like a prick in his eyes : he groans 
and struggles under it, and not formally, but feel- 
ingly cries out, " 0 wretched man !" He is not im- 
patient of any burden so much as of his sin. If God 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



should give h im liis choice, he would choose any 
affliction so he might be rid of sin ; he feels it like 
the cutting gravel in his shoes, pricking and paining 
him as he goes. 

Before conversion, he had light thoughts of sin ; 
he cherished it in his bosom, as Uriah his lamb ; he 
nourished it up, and it grew up together with him ; 
it did eat, as it were, of his own meat, and drank of 
his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him 
as a daughter. But when God opens his eyes by 
conversion, he throws it away with abhorrence, as 
a man would a loathsome toad, which in the dark 
he had hugged fast in his bosom, and thought it 
had been some pretty and harmless bird. When a 
man is savingly changed, he is deeply convinced 
not only of the danger but the defilement of sin; 
and 0, how earnest is he with God to be purified ! 
he loathes himself for his sins. He runs to Christ, 
and casts himself into the fountain set open for sin 
and for uncleanness. If he fall, he has no rest till 
he flees to the word, and washes in the infinite foun- 
tain, laboring to cleanse himself from all filthiness 
both of flesh and spirit. 

The sound convert is heartily engaged against sin ; 
he struggles with it, he wars against it ; he is too 
often foiled, but he will never yield the cause, nor 
lav clown the weapons, while he hath breath in his 
body ; he will make no peace ; he will give no quar- 
ter. He can forgive his other enemies ; he can pity 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 37 

them, and pray for them ; but here he is implacable, 
here he is set upon extermination ; he lumteth as it 
were for the precious life ; his eye shall not pity, 
his hand shall not spare, though it be a right hand 
or a right eye. Be it a gainful sin, most delightful 
to his nature or the support of his esteem with 
worldly friends, yet he will rather throw his gain 
down the kennel, see his credit fail, or the flower of 
pleasure wither in his hand, than he will allow him- 
self in any known way of sin. He will grant no in- 
dulgence, he will give no toleration ; he draws upon 
sin wherever he meets it, and frowns upon it with 
this unwelcome salute, "Have I found thee, 0 mine 
enemy ?" 

Reader, hath conscience been at work while thou 
hast been looking over these lines ? Hast thou pon- 
dered these things in thy heart ? Hast thou searched 
the book within, to see if these things be so ? If 
not, read it again, and make thy conscience speak, 
whether or not it be thus with thee. 

Hast thou crucified thy flesh with its affections 
and lusts ; and not only confessed, but forsaken thy 
sins, all sin in thy fervent desires, and the ordinary 
practice of every deliberate and wilful sin in thy life ? 
If not, thou art yet unconverted. Doth not con- 
science fly in thy face as thou readest, and tell 
thee that thou livest in a way of lying for thy ad- 
vantage ; that thou usest deceit in thy calling ; 
that there is some way of secret wantonness that 



03 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



thou livest in ? why then, do not deceive thyself ; 
thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of 
iniquity. 

Doth not thy unbridled tongue, thy indulgence of 
appetite, thy wicked company, thy neglect of prayer, 
of reading and hearing the word, now witness against 
thee, and say, " We are thy works, and we will fol- 
low thee ;" or, if I have not hit thee right, doth not 
the monitor within tell thee, there is such or such a 
way that thou knowest to be evil, that yet for some 
carnal respect thou dost tolerate thyself in ? If this 
be thy case, thou art to this day unregenerate, and 
must be changed or condemned. 

2. We turn from Satan, Conversion binds the 
strong man, spoils his armor, casts out his goods, 
turns men from the power of Satan unto God. Be- 
fore, the devil could no sooner hold up his finger to 
the sinner to call him to his wicked company, sinful 
games, and filthy delights, but presently he followed, 
like an ox to the slaughter, and a fool to the correc- 
tion of the stocks ; as the bird that hasteth to the 
prey, and knoweth not that it is for his life. No 
sooner could Satan bid him lie, but presently he had 
it on his tongue. Xo sooner could Satan offer a 
wanton object, but he was stung with lust. If the 
devil says, "Away with these family duties," be 
sure they shall be rarely enough performed in his 
house. If the devil says, " Away with this strict- 
ness, this preciseness," he will keep far enough from 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



it : if he tells him, " There is no need of these closet- 
duties," he will go from day to day and scarcely 
perform them. But since he is converted he serves 
another Master, and takes quite another course : he 
goes and comes at Christ's bidding. Satan may 
sometimes catch his foot in a trap, but he will no 
longer be a willing captive ; he watches against the 
snares and baits of Satan, and studies to be ac- 
quainted with his devices ; he is very suspicious of 
his plots, and is very jealous in what comes across 
him, lest Satan should have some design upon him ; 
he " wrestles against principalities and powers ;" he 
entertains the messenger of Satan as men do the 
messenger of death ; he keeps his eye upon his ene- 
my, and watches in his duties, lest Satan should get 
an advantage. 

3. We turn from the world. Before a man has 
true faith, he is overcome of the world ; either he 
bows down to mammon, or idolizes his reputation, 
or is a " lover of pleasure more than a lover of God." 
Here is the root of man's misery by the fall ; he is 
turned aside to the creature, and gives that esteem p 
confidence, and affection to the creature, that is due 
to God alone. 

0 miserable man, what a deformed monster hath 
sin made thee ! God made thee " little lower than 
the angels ;" sin, little better than the devils. The 
world, that was formed to serve thee, is come to rule 
thee — the deceitful harlot hath bewitched thee with 



40 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



her enchantments, and made thee bow down and 
serve her. 

But converting grace sets all in order again, and 
puts God on the throne, and the world at his foot- 
stool ; Christ in the heart, and the world under the 
feet. So Paul, " I am crucified to the world, and 
the world to me." Before this change, all the cry 
was, "Who will show us any worldly good?" but 
now he prays, " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy 
countenance upon me," and take the corn and wine 
whoso will. Before, his heart's delight and content 
were in the world ; then the song was, " Soul, take 
thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry ; thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years ;" but now all this is 
withered, and there is no comeliness, that we should 
desire it ; and he tunes up with the sweet Psalmist 
of Israel : " The Lord is the portion of my inherit- 
ance ; the lines are fallen to me in a fair place, and 
I have a goodly heritage." He blesseth himself, 
and boasteth himself in God. Nothino* else can 
give him content. He hath written vanity and vex- 
ation upon all his worldly enjoyments, and loss and 
dung upon all human excellencies. He hath life 
and immortality now in pursuit. He pants for grace 
and glory, and hath a crown incorruptible in view. 
His heart is set in him to seek the Lord. He first 
seeks the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness 
thereof, and religion is no longer a matter by the by 
with him, but his main care. 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 41 

Before, the 'world .had the sway with him ; he 
would do more for gain than godliness — more to 
please his friend, or his flesh, than the God that 
made him ; and God must stand by till the world 
was first served. But now all must stand by ; he 
hates father and mother, and life, and all, in com- 
parison of Christ. Well, then, pause a little, and 
look within. Doth not this nearly concern thee? 
Thou pretendest for Christ, but does not the world 
sway thee ? Dost thou not take more real delight 
and content in the world than in him ? Dost thou 
not find thyself better at ease when the world goes 
to thy mind, and thou art compassed with carnal 
delights, than when retired to prayer and meditation 
in thy closet, or attending upon God's word and 
worship? ISTo surer evidence of an unconverted 
state, than to have the things of the world upper- 
most in our aim, love, and estimation. 

With the sound convert, Christ has the suprema- 
cy. How dear is his name to him ! How precious 
is his favor ! The name of Jesus is engraven on his 
heart. Gal. 4 : 19. Honor is but air, and laughter 
is but madness, and mammon is fallen like Dagon be- 
fore the ark, with hands and head broken off on the 
threshold, when once Christ is savingly revealed. 
Here is the pearl of great price to the true convert ; 
here is his treasure ; here is his hope. This is his 
glory, " My beloved is mine, and I am his." 0, it 
is sweeter to him to be able to say, Christ is mine, 



12 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



than if lie could say, the kingdom is mine, the 
Indies are mine. 

4. We turn from our own righteousness. Before 
conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own 
fig-leaves, and to make himself whole with his own 
duties. He is apt to trust in himself, and set up 
his own righteousness, and to reckon his counters 
for gold, and not submit to the righteousness of 
God. But conversion changes his mind ; now he 
counts his own righteousness as filthy rags. He 
casts it ofT, as a man would the dirty tatters of a 
beggar. ]STow he is brought to poverty of spirit, 
complains of and condemns himself, and ail his in- 
ventory is, " poor, and miserable, and wretched, and 
blind, and naked." He sees a world of iniquity in 
his holy things, and calls his once-idolized righteous- 
ness but filth and loss ; and would not for a thou- 
sand worlds be found in it. Now he begins to set 
a high price upon Christ's righteousness : he sees 
the need of Christ in every duty, to justify his per- 
son, and sanctify his performances ; he cannot live 
without him ; he cannot pray without him. Christ 
must go with him, or else he cannot come into the 
presence of God ; he leans upon Christ, and so bows 
himself in the house of his God ; he sets himself 
down for a lost undone man without him ; his life is 
hid in Christ, as the root of a tree spreads in the 
earth for stability and nutriment. Before, the news 
of Christ was a stale and tasteless thing; but now, 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



43 



how sweet is Christ. Augustine could not relish his 
before so much admired Cicero, because he could not 
find in his writings the name of Christ. How em- 
phatically cries he, " 0 most sweet, most loving, 
most kind, most dear, most precious, most desired, 
most lovely, most fair !" etc., Meditat. c. 37, all in 
a breath, when he speaks of and to Christ. In a 
word, the voice of the convert is with the martyr, 
"None but Christ." 

VII. The object to which we turn in conversion 
is, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; whom 
the true convert takes as his all- sufficient and eter- 
nal blessedness. A man is never truly sanctified 
till his very heart be in truth set upon God above 
all things, as his portion and chief good. These are 
the natural breathings of a believer's heart : " Thou 
art my portion." "My soul shall make her boast 
in the Lord." "My expectation is from him; he 
only is my rock and my salvation ; he is my defence ; 
in God is my salvation and my glory ; the rock of 
my strength, and my refuge is in God." 

Would you put it to an issue whether you be 
converted or not ? Now let thy soul and all that is 
within thee attend. 

Hast thou taken God for thy happiness ? Where 
doth the content of thy heart lie ? Whence doth 
thy choicest comfort come in ? Come, then, and 
with Abraham lift up thine eyes eastward, and west- 
ward, and northward, and southward, and cast about 



44 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



thee, what is it that thou wouldst have in heaven or 
on earth to make thee happy ? If God should give 
thee thy choice, as he did to Solomon, or should say 
to thee, as Ahasuerus to Esther, " What is thy pe- 
tition, and what is thy request, and it shall be 
granted thee?" what wouldst thou ask? Go into 
the gardens of pleasure, and gather all the fragrant 
flowers thence : would these content thee ? Go to 
the treasures of mammon; suppose thou mightest 
lade thyself as thou wouldst from hence. Go to the 
towers, to the trophies of honor ; what thinkest 
thou of being a man of renown, and having a 
name like the name of the great men of the earth ? 
Would any of these, all these suffice thee, and make 
thee count thyself happy? If so, then certainly 
thou art carnal and unconverted. If not, go farther ; 
wade into the divine excellences, the store of his 
mercies, the hiding of his power, the depths unfath- 
omable of his all- sufficiency. Doth this suit thee 
best and please thee most? Dost thou say, "It is 
good to be here" — "Here will I pitch, here will I 
live and die?" Wilt thou let all the world go 
rather than this ? Then it is well between God and 
thee : happy art thou, 0 man — happy art thou that 
ever thou wast born. If God can make thee happy, 
thou must be happy ; for thou hast avouched the 
Lord to be thy God. Dost thou say to Christ as 
he to us, " Thy Father shall be my Father, and thy 
God my God ?" Here is the turning point ; an un- 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



ffi 



sound professor never takes up his rest in God, but 
converting grace does the work, and so cures the 
fatal misery of the fall, by turning the heart from 
its idol to the living God. Now says the soul, 
" Lord, whither shall I go ? Thou hast the words 
of eternal life." Here he centres-, here he settles. 
It is the entrance of heaven to him ; he sees his 
interest in God. When he discovers this, he saith, 
" Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul, for the Lord 
hath dealt bountifully with thee." And he is even 
ready to breathe out Simeon's song, " Jjord, now 
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ;" and saith 
with Jacob, when his old heart revived at the wel- 
come tidings, "It is enough." When he sees he 
hath a God in covenant to go to, " this is all his sal- 
vation and all his desire." 

Is this thy case ; hast thou experienced this ? 
Then, " blessed art thou of the Lord;" God hath 
been at work with thee ; he hath laid hold on thy 
heart by the power of converting grace, or else thou 
couldst never have done this. 

More particularly, in conversion, 

1. We turn to Christ, the only Mediator be- 
tween God and man. 1 Tim. 2:5. His work is to 
bring us to God. 1 Pet. 3:18. He is the way to 
the Father, John 14 : 6, the only plank on which 
we may escape, the only door by which we may 
enter. John 10:9. Conversion brings over the 
soul to Christ to accept him as the only means 



46 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



of life, as the only way, the only name given under 
heaven. He looks not for salvation in any other 
but him ; he throws himself on Christ alone. 

"Here," saith the convinced sinner, "I will ven- 
ture ; and if I perish, I perish ; if I die, I will die 
here. But, Lord, suffer me not to perish under the 
eye of thy mercy. Entreat me not to leave thee, or 
to return from following after thee." Ruth 1 : 16. 
Here I will throw myself ; if thou slay me, I will 
not go from thy door. 

Thus the poor soul doth venture on Christ and 
resolvedly adhere to him. Before conversion, the 
man made light of Christ, minded his farm, friends, 
merchandise, more than Christ ; now, Christ is to 
him as his necessary food, his daily bread, the life 
of his heart, the staff of his life. His great desire 
is, that Christ may be magnified in him. His heart 
once said, as they to the spouse, " What is thy be- 
loved more than another?" Cant. 5 : 9. He found 
more sweetness in his merry company, wicked games, 
earthly delights, than in Christ. He took religion 
for a fancy, and the talk of great enjoyments for an 
idle dream; but now "to him to live is Christ." 
He sets light by all that he accounted precious, for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. 

All of Christ is accepted by the sincere convert : 
he loves not only the wages, but the work of Christ ; 
not only the benefits, but the burden of Christ ; 
he is willing not only to tread out the corn, but to 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



47 



draw under the yoke ; he takes up the commands 
of Christ, yea, the cross of Christ. 

The unsound closeth by halves with Christ : he is 
all for the salvation of Christ, but he is not for sanc- 
tification ; he is for the privileges, but appropriates 
not the person of Christ ; he divides the offices and 
benefits of Christ. This is an error in the founda- 
tion. Whoso loveth life, let him beware here ; it is 
an undoing mistake, of which you have been often 
warned, and yet none is more common. Jesus is a 
sweet name ; but men " love not the Lord Jesus in 
sincerity.' ' They will not have him as God offers, 
"to be a Prince and a Saviour." They divide what 
God has joined, the king and the priest : yea, they 
will not accept the salvation of Christ as he intends 
it ; they divide it here. Every man's vote is for 
salvation from suffering ; but they desire not to be 
saved from sinning ; they would have their lives 
saved, but withal would have their lusts. Yea, 
many divide here again ; they would be content to 
have some of their sins destroyed, but they cannot 
leave the lap of Delilah, or divorce the beloved 
Herodias : they cannot be cruel to the right eye or 
right hand : the Lord must pardon them in this 
thing. 0 be carefully scrupulous here : your soul 
depends upon it. The sound convert takes a whole 
Christ, and takes him for all intents and purposes, 
without exceptions, without limitations, without re- 
serve. He is willing to have Christ upon any terms ; 



48 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



he is willing to have the dominion of Christ, ds well 
as deliverance by Christ ; he saith, with Paul, ''Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do ?" Any thing, Lord. 
He sends the blank to Christ, to set down his own 
conditions. 

2. We turn to the laws, ordinances, and ways of 
Christ. The heart that was once set against these, 
and could not endure the strictness of these bonds, 
the severity of these ways, now falls in with them, 
and chooses them as its rule and guide for ever. 

Four things, I observe, God doth work in every 
sound convert, with reference to the laws and ways 
of Christ ; by which you may come to know your 
state, if you will be faithful to your own souls ; and, 
therefore, keep your eyes upon your hearts as you 
go along. 

(1.) The judgment is brought to approve of them, 
and subscribe to them, as most righteous and most 
reasonable. The mind is brought to like the ways 
of God ; and the corrupt prejudices that were once 
against them, as unreasonable and intolerable, are 
now removed. The understanding assents to them 
all, as holy, just, and good. Rom. 7 : 12. How is 
David taken up with the excellences of God's laws ; 
how doth he expatiate on their praises, both from 
their inherent qualities and admirable effects ! Psalm 
19 : 8, 9, 10, etc. 

There is a two-fold judgment of the understand- 
ing. The absolute judgment is, when a man thinks 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



such a course best in the general, but not for him, 
or not under his present circumstances. Now, a 
godly man's judgment is for the ways of God, and 
that not only the absolute, but comparative judg- 
ment : he thinks them not only the best in general, 
but best for him : he looks upon the rules of religion 
not only as tolerable, but desirable ; yea, more de- 
sirable than gold, fine gold ; yea, much fine gold. 

His judgment is fully determined that it is best to 
be holy, that it is best to be strict, that it is in itself 
the most eligible course, and that it is for him the 
wisest and most rational and desirable choice. Hear 
the godly man's judgment : " I know, 0 Lord, that 
thy judgments are right ; I love thy commandments 
above gold, yea, above fine gold ; I esteem all thy 
precepts concerning all things to be right ; and I 
hate every false way." Mark, he approves of all 
that God requires, and disallows all that he forbids. 
" Righteous, 0 Lord, and upright are thy judgments. 
Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are 
righteous and very faithful. Thy word is true from 
the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judg- 
ments endureth for ever." See how readily and 
fully he subscribes ; he declares his assent and con- 
sent to it, and all and every thing therein contained. 

(2.) The desire of the heart is to know the whole 
mind of Christ. He would not have one sin undis- 
covered, nor be ignorant of one duty required. It 
is the natural and earnest breathing of a sanctified 

Alleine's Alarm. 4 



50 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



heart : "Lord, if there be any way of wickedness in 
me, do thou discover it. What I know not, teach 
thou me ; and if I have done iniquity, I will do it 
no more." The unsound convert is willingly igno- 
rant, loves not to come to the light. He is willing 
to keep such or such a sin, and therefore is loath to 
know it to be a sin, and will not let in the light at 
that window. Now, the gracious heart is willing to 
know the whole latitude and compass of his Maker's 
law. He receives with all acceptation the word 
which convinceth him of any duty that he knew not, 
or minded not before, or which discovereth any sin 
that lay hid before. 

(3.) The free and resolved choice of the will is 
for the ways of Christ, before all the pleasures of 
sin and prosperities of the world. His consent is 
not extorted by some extremity of anguish, nor is it 
only a sudden and hasty resolve, but he is deliber- 
ately purposed, and comes freely to the choice. 
True, the flesh will rebel, yet the prevailing part of 
his will is for Christ's laws and government ; so that 
he takes them not up as his toil or burden, but his 
bliss. While the unsanctified goes in Christ's ways 
as in chains and fetters, he does it heartily, and 
counts Christ's laws his liberty. He delights in the 
beauties of holiness, and has this inseparable mark, 
" That he had rather, if he might have his choice, 
live a strict and holy life, than the most prosperous 
and flourishing mere worldly life." " There went 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION. 



51 



with Saul a band of men whose hearts God had 
touched." When God toucheth the hearts of his 
chosen, they presently follow Christ, and, though 
drawn, do freely run after him, and willingly devote 
themselves to the service of the Lord, seeking him 
with their whole desire. Fear hath its use ; but 
this is not the main-spring of motion with a sancti- 
fied heart. Christ keeps not his subjects in by 
force, but is King of a willing people. They are, 
through his grace, freely devoted to his service ; 
they serve out of choice, not as slaves, but as the 
son or spouse, from a spring of love and a loyal 
mind. In a word, the laws of Christ are the con- 
vert's love, delight, and continual study. 

(4.) The bent of his course is directed to keep 
God's statutes. It is the daily care of his life to 
walk with God. He seeks great things, he hath 
noble designs, though he fall too short. He aims 
at nothing less than perfection : he desires it, he 
reaches after it ; he would not rest in any degree of 
grace, till he were quite rid of sin, and perfected in 
holiness. 

Here the hypocrite's rottenness may be discov- 
ered. He desires holiness, as one well said, only 
as a bridge to heaven, and inquires earnestly what 
is the least that will serve his turn ; and if he can 
get but so much as may bring him to heaven, this is 
all he cares for. But the sound convert desires ho- 
liness for holiness' sake, and not merely for heaven's 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



sake. He would not be satisfied with so much, as 
might save him from hell, but desires the highest 
degree : vet desires are not enough. What is thy 
way and thy course ? Are the drift and scope of 
thy life altered ? Is holiness thy pursuit, and re- 
ligion thy business ? If not, thou art short of sound 
conversion. 

And is this which we have described, the conver- 
sion that is of absolute necessity to salvation ? 
Then be informed, that strait is the gate and narrow 
the way that leadeth unto life — that there are few 
that find it — that there is need of a divine power 
savingly to convert a sinner to Jesus Christ. 

Again, then be exhorted, 0 man, to turn in upon 
thine own self. What saith conscience? Doth it 
not begin to accuse ? Doth it not pierce thee as 
thou goest ? Is this thy judgment, and this thy 
choice, and this thy way, that we have described ? 
If so, then it is well. But doth not thy heart con- 
demn thee, and tell thee there is such a sin thou 
livest in against thy conscience ? Doth it not tell 
thee there is such and such a secret way of wicked- 
ness that thou wishest to pursue ; such or such a 
duty that thou makest no conscience of ? 

Doth not conscience carry thee to thy closet, and 
tell thee how seldom prayer and reading are per- 
formed there ? Doth it not carry thee to thy fami- 
ly, and show thee the charge of God, and the souls 



THE NATURE OF CONVERSION, 



53 



of thy children and servants, that are neglected 
there ? Doth not conscience lead thee to thy shop, 
thy trade, and tell thee of some iniquity there ? 
Doth it not carry thee to the dram-shop, or the 
resort of idleness, and blame thee for the loose 
company thou keepest there, the precious time th?u 
misspendest there, for the talents which thou wa^t- 
est there, for thy gaming, and thy drinking, etc. ? 
Doth it not carry thee into thy secret chamber, and 
read there thy condemnation ? 

O conscience ! do thy duty : in the name of the 
living God, I command thee, discharge thine office ; 
lay hold upon this sinner, fall upon him, arrest him, 
apprehend him, undeceive him. What, wilt thou 
flatter and soothe him while he lives in his sins ? 
Awake, 0 conscience ! what meanest thou, O sleeper ? 
What, hast thou never a reproof in thy mouth? 
What, shall this soul die in his careless neglect of 
God and of eternity, and thou altogether hold thy 
peace ? What, shall he go on still in his tres- 
passes, and yet have peace ? Oh, rouse up thy- 
self, and do thy work. Now let the preacher in thy 
bosom speak : cry aloud, and spare not ; lift up thy 
voice like a trumpet : let not the blood of his sou] 
be required at thy hands. 



54 



ALLEIXB'S ALARM 



chapter in: 

THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 

It may be you are ready to say, What meaneth 
this stir ? and are apt to wonder why I follow you 
with such earnestness, still ringing the same lesson 
in your ears, that " you should repent, and be con- 
verted. " But I must say to you, as Ruth to Nao- 
mi, " Entreat me not to leave thee r *or to return 
from following after thee." Were it a matter of in- 
difference — might you be saved as you are — I would 
gladly let you alone ; but would you not have me 
solicitous for }^ou, when I see you ready to perish ? 
As the Lord liveth, before whom I am, I have not 
the least hope to see one of your faces in heaven, 
except you be converted. I utterly despair of your 
salvation, except you will be prevailed with to turn 
thoroughly, and give up yourself to God in holiness 
and newness of life. Hath God said, " Except a man 
be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," 
J ohn 3:3; and yet do you wonder why your ministers 
so earnestly labor for you ? Think it not strange that 
I am earnest with you to follow after holiness, and 
long to see the image of God upon you. JSTever 
did any, nor shall any, enter into heaven by any 
other way but this. The conversion described is not 
a high attainment of some advanced Christians, but 
every soul that is saved passeth this change. 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 55 

It was a saying of the noble Roman, when he was 
hasting with corn to the city in the famine, and the 
mariners were loath to set sail in foul weather, "It is 
necessary for us to sail — it is not necessary for us to 
live." What is it that thou dost count necessary ? 
Is thy bread necessary ? Is thy breath necessary ? 
Then thy conversion is much more necessary. In- 
deed, this is the one thing necessary. Thine estate 
is not necessary ; thou mayest sell all for the pearl 
of great price, and yet be a gainer by the purchase. 
Thy life is not necessary ; thou mayest part with it 
for Christ, to infinite advantage. Thy reputation is 
not necessary ; thou mayest be reproached for the 
name of Christ, and yet be happy ; yea, much more 
happy in reproach than in repute. But thy conver- 
sion is necessary ; thy salvation depends upon it ; 
and is it not needful, in so important a case, to look 
about thee ? On this one point depends thy making 
or marring to all eternity. 

But I shall more particularly show the necessity 
of conversion in five things ; for without this, 

I. Thy being is in vain. Is it not a pity thou 
shouldst be good for nothing, an unprofitable burden 
of the earth, a wart or wen in the body of the uni- 
verse ? Thus thou art, whilst unconverted ; for thou 
canst not answer the end of thy being. Is it not 
for the divine pleasure that thou art and wast 
created ? Did not God make thee for himself? Art 
thou a man, and hast thou reason 9 Then, bethink 



56 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM, 



thyself why and whence thy being is. Behold God's 
workmanship in thy body, and ask thyself, to what 
end did God rear this fabric? Consider the noble 
faculties of thy heaven-born soul. To what end did 
God bestow these excellencies? Was it to no other 
end than that thou shouldst please thyself, and grat- 
ify thy senses ? Did God send men into the world, 
only like the swallows, to gather a few sticks and 
mud, and build their nests, and rear up their young, 
and then away ? The very heathen could see farther 
than this. Art thou so " fearfully and wonderfully 
made," and dost thou not yet think with thyself — 
surely, it was for some noble and exalted end ? 

0 man ! set thy reason a little in its seat. Is it 
not a pity such a goodly fabric should be raised in 
vain ? Verily thou art in vain, except thou art for 
God : better thou hadst no being, than not be for 
him. Wouldst thou serve thy end ? thou must re- 
pent and be converted : without this thou art to no 
purpose ; yea, to bad purpose. 

Thou art to no purpose. Man, unconverted, is 
like a choice instrument that hath every string 
broken or out of tune. The Spirit of the living God 
must repair and tune it by the grace of regeneration, 
and sweetly move it by the power of actuating grace, 
or else thy prayers will be but bowlings, and all 
thy services will make no music in the ears of the 
Most Holy. All thy powers and faculties are so 
corrupt in thy natural state, that, except thou be 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION, 



57 



purged from dead works, thou canst not serve the 
living God. An unsanctified man cannot work the 
work of God. 

1. He hath no skill in it ; he is altogether as un- 
skilful in the work as in the word of righteousness. 
There are great mysteries in the practice as well as 
in the principles of godliness. Now the unregene- 
rate know not "the mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven." You may as well expect him that never 
learned the alphabet to read, or look for goodly 
music on the lute from one that never set his hand 
to an instrument, as that a natural man should do 
the Lord any pleasing service. He must first be 
taught of God, taught to pray, taught to profit, 
taught to go, or else he will be utterly at a loss. 

2. He hath no strength for it. How weak is his 
heart ! he is presently tired. The Sabbath, what a 
weariness is it ! He is without strength, yea, dead 
in sin. 

3. He hath no mind to it ; he desires not the 
knowledge of God's ways ; he doth not know them, 
and he doth not care to know them ; he knows not, 
neither will he understand. 

4. He hath neither due instruments nor materials 
for it. A man may as well hew the marble without 
tools, or paint without colors or instruments, or build 
without materials, as perform any acceptable service 
without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the 
materials and instruments in the work. Almsgiving 



53 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



is not a service of God, but of vain-glory, if it spring 
not from divine love. What is the prayer of the 
lips without grace in the heart, but the carcass 
without the life ? What are all our confessions, un- 
less they be exercises of godly sorrow and unfeigned 
repentance? What our petitions, unless animated 
with holy desires and faith in the divine attributes 
and promises ? What our praises and thanksgivings, 
unless from the love of God, and a holy gratitude 
and sense of God's mercies in the heart ? So that 
a man may as well expect that trees should speak, 
or look for motion from the dead, as look for any 
service, holy and acceptable to God, from the un- 
converted. When the tree is evil, how can the fruit 
be good ? 

Also, without conversion you live to had purpose. 
The unconverted soul is a very cage of unclean birds, 
a sepulchre full of corruption and rottenness. 0 
dreadful case ! Dost thou not yet see a change to 
be needful ? Would it not have grieved one to see 
the golden consecrated vessels of God's temple 
turned into quaffing bowls of drunkenness, and pol- 
luted with the idol's service ? Was it such an abom- 
ination to the Jews, when Antiochus set up the 
picture of a swine at the entrance of the temple ? 
How much more abominable, then, would it have 
been to have had the very temple itself turned into 
a stable or a sty ; and to have had the " holy of 
holies" served like the house of Baal ! This is the 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 59 

very case of the unregenerate : all thy members are 
turned into instruments of unrighteousness, servants 
of Satan ; and thy inmost heart into a receptacle of 
uncleanness. You may see what kind of guests 
are within, by what comes out ; for, " out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies/' 
etc. This black troop discovers what a hell there 
is within. 

O abuse insufferable! to see a heaven-born soul 
abased to such vileness ; to see the glory of God's 
creation, the chief of the works of God, the lord of 
this lower world, eating husks with the prodigal ! 
Was it such a lamentation to see those that did feed 
delicately sit desolate in the streets ; and the pre- 
cious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, esteemed 
as earthen pitchers ; and those that were clothed in 
scarlet embrace dunghills ? Lam. 4 : 2, 5. And is 
it not much more fearful to see the only being that 
hath immortality in this lower world, and carries the 
stamp of God, become as a vessel wherein is no 
pleasure, and be put to the most sordid use? 0 
indignity intolerable ! Better thou wert dashed in 
a thousand pieces, than continue to be abased to so 
vile a service. 

II. Not only man A but the whole visible cp.ea- 
tion, is in vain without this. God hath made all 
the visible creatures in heaven and earth for the 
service of man, and man only is the spokesman for 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



all the rest. Man is, in the world, like the tongue 
to the body, which speaks for all the members. The 
other creatures cannot praise their Maker, but by 
dumb signs and hints to man that he should speak 
for them. Man is, as it were, the high- priest of 
God's creation, to offer the sacrifice of praise for all 
his fellow- creatures. The Lord God expecteth a 
tribute of praise from all his works. 'Now, all the 
rest do bring in their tribute to man, and pay it by 
his hand. So then, if a man be false, and faithless, 
and selfish, God is wronged of all, and has no active 
glory from his works. 

O dreadful thought ! that God should build such 
a world as this, and lay out such infinite power, and 
wisdom, and goodness thereupon, and all in vain ; 
and that man should be guilty, at last, of robbing 
and spoiling him of the glory of all ! 0 think of 
this. While thou art unconverted, all the offices of 
the creatures are in vain to thee ; thy meat nourishes 
thee in vain ; the sun holds forth his light to thee in 
vain ; the stars that serve thee in their courses by 
their powerful, though hidden influence, do it in 
vain ; thy clothes warm thee in vain; thy beast car- 
ries thee in vain ; in a word, the unwearied labor 
and continued travail of the whole creation, as to 
thee, are in vain. The service of all the creatures 
that drudge for thee, and yield forth their strength 
unto thee, that therewith thou shouldest serve their 
Maker, is all but lost labor. Hence, "the whole 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 61 

creation groaneth," Rom. 8 : 22, under the abuse 
of men unsanctified, who pervert all things to the 
service of their lusts, quite contrary to the very end 
of their being. 

III. Without this, thy religion is vain ; all thy 
religious performances will be but lost ; for they can 
neither please God nor save thy soul, which are the 
very ends of religion. Be thy services ever so spe- 
cious, yet God hath no pleasure in them. Is not 
that man's case dreadful whose sacrifices are as 
murders, and whose prayers are a breath of abomi- 
nation ? Many, under convictions, think they will 
set upon mending, and that a few prayers and alms 
will set all right again ; but alas, sirs, while your 
hearts remain unsanctified your duties will not pass. 
How punctual was Jehu ! and yet all was rejected 
because his heart was not upright. How blameless 
was Paul ! and yet, being unconverted, all was but 
loss. Men think they do much in attending God's 
service, and are ready to set him down so much 
their debtor ; whereas their persons being unsancti- 
fied, their duties cannot be accepted. 

0 soul ! do not think, when thy sins pursue 
thee, that a little praying and reforming thy course 
will pacify God. Thou must begin with thine 
heart. If that be not renewed, thou canst no more 
please God than one who, having unspeakably 
offended thee, should bring thee the most loathsome 
thing to pacify thee ; or having fallen into the mire, 



C2 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



should think with his filthy embraces to reconcile 
thee. 

It is a great misery to labor in the fire. The 
poets could not invent a worse hell for Sisyphus 
than to be ever toiling to get the stone up the hill, 
and then that it should presently roll down again 
and renew his labor. God threatens it as the great- 
est of temporal judgments, that they should build 
and not inhabit, plant and not gather, and that their 
labors should be eaten up by strangers. Is it so 
great a misery to lose our common labors, to sow in 
vain, and to build in vain ? how much more to lose 
our pains in religion — to pray, and hear, and fast in 
vain ! This is an undoing and eternal loss. Be not 
deceived ; if thou goest on in thy sinful state, though 
thou shouldst spread forth thy hands, God will hide 
his eyes ; though thou make many prayers, he will 
not hear. If a man without skill set about our 
work, and spoil it in the doing, though he take much 
pains, we give him but small thanks. God will be 
worshipped after the due order. If a servant do 
our work, but quite contrary to our order, he shall 
have rather stripes than praise. God's work must 
be done according to God's mind, or he will not be 
pleased ; and this cannot be, except it be done with 
a holy heart. 

IY. Without true conversion, thy hopes are in 
vain. " The hope of the hypocrite shall perish." 
" The Lord hath rejected thy confidences." 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 



63 



1. The hope of comfort here is vain. It is not 
only necessary to the safety, but comfort of your 
condition, that you be converted. Without this, 
you " shall not know peace." "Without the " fear 
of God" you cannot have the "comfort of the Holy 
Ghost." God speaks peace only to his people and 
to his saints. If you have a false peace, continuing 
in your sins, it is not of God's speaking, and then 
you may guess the author. Sin is a real sickness, 
yea, the worst of sickness ; it is a leprosy in the 
head, the plague of the heart ; it is rottenness in the 
bones ; it pierceth, it woundeth, it racketh, it tor- 
menteth. A man may as well expect ease when his 
diseases are in their full strength, or his bones out 
of joint, as true comfort while in his sins. 

O wretched man, that canst have no ease in this 
case but what comes from the deadliness of the dis- 
ease ! You shall hear the poor sick man saying, in 
his wildness, he is well, when you see death in his 
face : he would be up and about his business, when 
the very next step is likely to be to his grave. The 
unsanctified often see nothing amiss ; they think 
themselves whole, and cry not for the physician ; 
but this only shows the danger of their case. 

Sin doth naturally breed distempers and disturb- 
ances in the soul. What a continual tempest is 
there in a discontented mind ; what a corroding evil 
is inordinate care ! What is passion but a very fever 
in the mind ; what is lust but a fire in the bones ; 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



what is pride but a deadly dropsy ; or covetousness, 
but an insatiable and insufferable thirst ; or malice 
and envy, but venom in the very heart ? Spiritual 
sloth is but a scurvy in the mind, and carnal security 
a mortal lethargy ; and how can that soul have true 
comfort which is under so many diseases ? But 
converting grace cures, and so eases the mind, and 
prepares the soul for a settled, standing, immortal 
peace. " Great peace have they that love thy law, 
and nothing shall offend them." They are the ways 
of wisdom that afford pleasure and peace. David 
had infinitely more pleasure in the word than in all 
the delights of his court. The conscience cannot be 
truly pacified till soundly purified. Cursed is that 
peace which is maintained in a way of sin. Two 
sorts of peace are more to be dreaded than all the 
troubles in the world ; peace with sin, and peace in 
sin. 

2. Thy hopes of salvation hereafter are in vain ; 
yea, worse than in vain ; they are most injurious to 
God, most pernicious to thyself. There is death, 
desperation, and blasphemy in this hope. 

(1.) There is death in it. Thy confidence shall be 
rooted out of thy tabernacles, God will up with it 
root and branch ; it shall bring thee to the king of 
terrors. Though thou mayest lean upon this house, 
it will not stand, but will prove like a ruinous build- 
ing, which, when a man trusts to it, falls down about 
him. 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 



(2.) There is desperation in it : " Where is the hope 
of the hypocrite when God takes away his soul ?" 
Then there is an end for ever of his hope. Indeed, 
the hope of the righteous hath an end ; but it is not 
a destructive, but a perfective end ; his hope ends 
in fruition, others in frustration. The godly may 
say at death, "It is finished ;" but the wicked, "It 
is perished," and in too sad earnest bemoan himself, 
as Job, in a mistake, "Where is now my hope? 
He hath destroyed me ; I am gone, and my hope is 
removed like a tree." "The righteous hath hope 
in his death." When nature is dying, his hopes are 
living ; when his body is languishing, his hopes are 
flourishing ; his hope is a living hope, but others' a 
dying, yea, a damning, soul-undoing hope : " When 
a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish ; 
and the hope of unjust men perish eth." It shall be 
cut off and prove like a "spider's web," which he 
spins out of his own bowels ; but then comes death 
and destroys all, and so there is an eternal end of 
his confidence wherein he trusted ; for " the eyes of 
the wicked shall fail, and their hope shall be as the 
giving up of the ghost." Wicked men are fixed in 
their carnal hope, and will not be beaten out of it ; 
they hold it fast ; they will not let it go ; but death 
will knock off their fingers. Though we cannot un- 
deceive them, death and judgment will. When 
death strikes his dart through thy liver, it will ruin 
thy soul and thy hopes together. The unsanctified 

Alleine's Alarm. 5 



m 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



have hope only in this life, and therefore are " of all 
men most .miserable." When death comes, it letb 
them out into the amazing gulf of endless despe- 
ration. 

(3.) There is blasphemy in it. To hope we shall 
be saved, though continuing unconverted, is to hope 
that we shall prove God a liar. He hath told you, 
that, merciful and pitiful as he is, he will never save 
you notwithstanding, if you go on in ignorance, or a 
course of unrighteousness. In a word, he has told 
you that, whatever you be or do, nothing shall avail 
you to salvation unless you become new creatures. 
JSTow, to say God is merciful, and we hope that he 
will save us, without conversion, is in effect to say, 
"We hope that God will not do as he says." We 
must not set God's attributes at variance ; God has 
resolved to glorify his mercy, but not to the preju- 
dice of his truth, as the presumptuous sinner will 
find to his everlasting sorrow. 

Objection. But we hope in Jesus Christ; we put 
our whole trust in God; and therefore doubt not 
but we shall be saved. 

Answer 1. This is not hope in Christ, but against 
Christ. To hope to see the kingdom of God with- 
out being born again ; to hope to find eternal life in 
the broad way, is to hope Christ will prove a false 
prophet. David's plea is, "I hope in thy word.' 9 
But this hope is against God's word. Show me a 
woj d of Christ for thy hope that he will save thee 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 67 

in thine ignorance or profane neglect of his service, 
and I will never try to shake thy confidence. 

2. God doth with abhorrence reject this hope. 
Those condemned in the prophet, went on in their 
sins ; yet, saith the prophet, " will they lean upon 
the Lord." Micah 3:11. God will not endure to 
be made a prop to men in their sins. The Lord re- 
jected those presumptuous sinners that went on still 
in their trespasses and yet would stay themselves 
upon Israel's God, as a man would shake off the 
briers that cleave to his garment. 

3. If thy hope be any thing worth, it will purify 
thee from thy sins, 1 John, 3:3; but cursed is 
that hope which cherishes men in their sins. 

Objection. Would you have us despair? 

Answer. You must despair of ever coming to 
heaven as you are, that is, while you remain uncon- 
verted. You must despair of ever seeing the face 
of God without holiness ; but you must by no 
means despair of finding mercy upon your thorough 
repentance and conversion ; neither may you despair 
of attaining to repentance and conversion, in the use 
of God's means. 

V. Without conversion, all that Christ hath 
done and suffered will be, as to you, in vain , 
that is, it will no way avail you to salvation. Many 
urge this as a sufficient ground for their hope, that 
Christ died for sinners ; but I must tell you, Christ 
never died to save impenitent and unconverted sin- 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



ners, so continuing. A great divine was wont, in 
his private dealings with souls, to ask two questions : 
1. What hath Christ done for you? 2. What hath 
Christ wrought in you? Without the application 
of the Spirit in regeneration, we have no saving 
interest in the benefits of redemption. I tell you 
from the Lord, that Christ himself cannot save you 
if you go on in this state. 

1. It were against his trust. The Mediator is the 
servant of the Father, shows his commission from 
him, acts in his name, and pleads his command for 
his justification ; and God has committed all things 
to him, intrusted his own glory and the salvation of 
the elect with him. Accordingly, Christ gives his 
Father an account of both parts of his trust before 
he leaves the world. Now Christ would quite cross 
his Father's glory, tarnish his greatest trust, if he 
should save men in their sins ; for this were to over- 
turn all his counsels, and to offer violence to all his 
attributes. 

(1.) To overturn all his counsels ; of which this 
is the order, that men should be brought through 
sanctification to salvation. He hath chosen them, 
that they should be holy. They are elected to par- 
don and life through sanctification. If thou canst 
repeal the law of God's immutable counsel, or cor- 
rupt him whom the Father hath sealed, to go di- 
rectly against his commission, then, and not other- 
wise, mayst thou get to heaven in this condition. 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 69 

To hope that Christ will save thee while unconverted, 
is to hope that Christ will falsify his trust. He 
never did, nor ever will save one soul but whom the 
Father hath given him in election, and drawn to him 
in effectual calling. Be assured, Christ will save 
none in a way contrary to his Father's will. 

(2.) To save men in their sins would offer violence 
to all the attributes of God. 

To his justice ; for the righteousness of God's 
judgment lies in rendering to all according to their 
works. Now, should men sow to the flesh, and yet 
of the Spirit reap everlasting life, where were the 
glory of divine justice, since it would be given to the 
wicked according to the work of the righteous ? 

To his holiness. If God should not only save 
sinners, but save them in their sins, his most pure 
and strict holiness would be exceedingly defaced. 
The unsanctified are, in the eyes of God's holiness, 
exceedingly vile and hateful. It would be offering 
the extremest violence to the infinite purity of the 
divine nature to have- such dwell with him. " They 
cannot stand in his judgment : they cannot abide 
his presence." If holy David would not endure 
such in his house, no, nor in his sight, can we think 
God will ? Should he take men as they are, from 
the mire of their filthiness to the glory of heaven, 
the world would think that God was at no such 
great distance from sin, nor had any such dislike to 
it as we are told he hath ; they would be ready to 



7i) 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



conclude that God was altogether such a one as 
themselves, as some of old wickedly did, from the 
very forbearance of God. 

To his veracity. For God hath declared from 
heaven, that " if any shall say he shall have peace, 
though he should go on in the imagination of his 
heart, his wrath shall smoke against that man 
that "they" only "that confess and forsake theii 
sins shall find mercy ;" that "they that shall enter 
into his hill must be of clean hands and a pure 
heart." Deut. 29 : 19, 20; Prov. 28 : 13; Psalms 
24 : 3, 4. Where were God's truth, if, notwith- 
standing all this, he should bring: men to salvation 
without conversion ? 0 desperate sinner, that darest 
to hope that Christ will make his Father a liar, and 
nullify his word to save thee ! 

To his wisdom. For this were to throw away the 
choicest of mercies on them that would not value 
them, nor were any way suited to them. 

They would not value them. The unsanctifled 
sinner puts but little price upon God's great salva- 
tion. He sets no more by Christ than the whole by 
the physician. He prizes not his balm, values not 
his cure, but tramples upon his blood. "Now, would 
it stand with wisdom to force pardon and life upon 
those that would return no thanks for them ? Will 
the all- wise God, when he hath forbidden us to do 
it, throw his holy things to dogs, and his pearls to 
swine, that would, as it were, but turn again and 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. ft 

rend him ? This would make mercy to be despised 
indeed. Wisdom requires that life be given in a 
way suitable to God's honor, and that God provide 
for the securing of his own glory as well as man's 
felicity. It would be dishonorable to God to bestow 
his choicest riches on them that have more pleasure 
in their sins than in heavenly delights. God would 
lose the praise and glory of his grace, if he should 
cast it away upon them that were not only unworthy, 
but unwilling. 

Also, the mercies of God are no way suited to 
the unconverted. The divine wisdom is seen in 
suiting things to each other, the means to the end, 
the object to the faculty, the quality of the gift to 
the capacity of the receiver. Now, if Christ should 
bring the unregenerated sinner to heaven, he could 
take no more felicity there than a beast would, if 
you should bring him into a beautiful room, to the 
society of learned men ; whereas the poor thing had 
much rather be grazing with his fellow-brutes. 
Alas, what could an unsanctified creature do in 
heaven? he could not be contented there, because 
nothing suits him. The place doth not suit him ; 
he would be quite out of his element, a fish out of 
water. The company doth not suit him : what com- 
munion hath darkness with light ; corruption with 
perfection ; vileness and sin with glory and immor- 
tality ? The employment doth not suit him ; the 
anthems of heaven fit not his mouth, suit not his 



72 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



ear. Canst thou charm thy beast with music ; or 
wilt thou bring him to thy organ and expect that 
he should make thee melody, or keep time with the 
tuneful choir? Had he skill, he would have no 
will, and so could find no pleasure in it. Spread 
thy table with delicacies before a languishing pa- 
tient, and it will be but an offence. Alas, if the 
poor man say of a Sabbath-day, " "What a weariness 
is it !" how miserable would he think it to be en- 
gaged in an everlasting Sabbath ! 

To his immutability , or else to his omniscience or 
omnipotence ; for this is enacted in heaven, and en- 
rolled in the decree of the court above, that none 
but the " pure in heart shall see God this is laid 
up with him, and sealed among his treasures. Now, 
if Christ bring any to heaven unconverted, either he 
must get them in without his Father's knowledge, 
and then where is his omniscience ? or against his 
will, and then where were his omnipotence ? or he 
must change his will, and then where were his im- 
mutability ? 

Sinner, wilt thou not give up thy vain hope of 
being saved in this condition ? Saith Bildad, " Shall 
the earth be forsaken for thee ; or the rocks be 
moved out of their place ?" May I not much more 
reason so with thee ? Shall the laws of heaven be 
reversed for thee ? Shall the everlasting founda- 
tions be overturned for thee ? Shall Christ put out 
the eye of his Father's omniscience, or shorten the 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION 



73 



arm of his eternal power for thee ? Shall divine 
justice be violated for thee ; or the brightness of his 
holiness be blemished for thee? 0 the impossi- 
bility, absurdity, blasphemy, of such a confidence ! 
To think Christ will ever save thee in this condition, 
is to make the Saviour become a sinner, and do more 
wrong to the infinite Majesty than all the wicked on 
earth or devils in hell ever did, or ever could do ; 
and yet wilt thou not give up such a blasphemous 
hope ? 

2. To save men in their sins were against the word 
of Christ. We need not say, "Who shall ascend 
into heaven, to bring down Christ from above ? Or, 
who shall descend into the deep, to bring up Christ 
from beneath ? The word is nigh us." Are you 
agreed that Christ shall end the controversy ? Hear 
then his own words : " Except ye be converted, ye 
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. " 
" You must be born again." " If I wash thee not, 
thou hast no part in me." " Repent or perish." 
One word, one would think, were enough from 
Christ ; but how often and earnestly doth he reite- 
rate it : " Verily, verily, except a man be born 
again, he shall not see the kingdom of God." Yea, 
he doth not only assert but prove the necessity of 
the new birth, from the fleshliness and sinfulness of 
man from his first birth, by reason of which man 
is no more fit for heaven than the beast is for the 
chamber of the king. And wilt thou yet rest in thy 



74 



ALLEINE'S ALARM, 



own presumptuous confidence, directly against 
Christ's words ? He must go quite against the 
law of his kingdom, and rule of his judgment, to 
save thee in this state. 

3. It would be against the oath of Christ. He 
hath lifted up his hand to heaven, he hath sworn 
that those who remain in unbelief and know not his 
ways — that is, are ignorant of them, or disobedient 
to them — shall not enter into his rest. And wilt 
thou not yet believe, O sinner, that he is in earnest ? 
Canst thou hope he will be forsworn for thee ? The 
covenant of grace is confirmed by an oath and sealed 
by blood ; but all must be made void, and another 
way to heaven found out, if thou be saved, living 
and dying unsanctified. God is come to his last 
terms with man, and has condescended as far as in 
honor he could. Men cannot be saved while uncon- 
verted, except they could get another covenant 
made, and the whole frame of the Gospel, which 
was established for ever with such dreadful solem- 
nities, quite altered. And must not they be dis- 
tracted, to hope that they shall ? 

4. It would be against his honor. God will so 
show his love to the sinner, as withal to show his 
hatred to sin ; therefore, he that names the name of 
Jesus must " depart from iniquity and deny all un- 
godliness ;" and he that hath hope of life by Christ 
must " purify himself as he is pure," otherwise 
Christ would be thought a favorer of sin. The 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 75 

Lord Jesus would have all the world know, that 
though he pardons sin, he will not protect it. If 
holy David say, "Depart from me, all ye workers 
of iniquity/' Psa. 6 : 8, and shut the doors against 
them, Psa. 101 : 7, shall not such more expect it 
from Christ's holiness ? 

5. It would be against his offices. " God hath 
exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour." He 
would act against both, should he save men in their 
sins. It is the office of a king to be "a terror to 
evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well." " He 
is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath 
on him that doeth evil." JSTow, should Christ favor 
the ungodly, so continuing, and take those to reign 
with him that would not that he should reign over 
them, this would be quite against his office ; he 
therefore reigns that he may " put his enemies under 
his feet." Now, should he lay them in his bosom, 
he would frustrate the end of his regal power ; it 
belongs to Christ, as a King, to subdue the hearts 
and slay the lusts of his chosen. What king would 
take rebels in open hostility into his court ? What 
were this but to betray life, kingdom, government, 
and all together ? If Christ be a King, he must 
have honor, homage, subjection. Now, to save men 
while in their natural enmity, were to obscure his 
dignity, lose his authority, bring contempt on his 
government, and sell his dear-bought rights for 
naught. 



76 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



Again, as Christ would not be a Prince, so neither 
a Saviour, if he should do this ; for his salvation is 
spiritual. He is called Jesus, because he saves his 
people from their sins. Matt. 1:21. So that, should 
he save them in their sins, he would be neither Lord 
nor Jesus. To save men from the punishment, and 
not from the power of sin, were to do his work by 
halves, and be an imperfect Saviour. His office as 
the Deliverer, is "to turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob." " He is sent to bless men, in turning them 
from their iniquities." "To make an end of sin." 
So that he would destroy his own designs, and nul- 
lify his offices, to save men abiding in their uncon- 
verted state. 

Arise, then ! What meanest thou, 0 sleeper ? 
Awake, 0 secure sinner, lest thou be consumed in 
thine iniquities : say, as the lepers, " If we sit here, 
we shall die." Verily, it is not more certain that 
thou art now out of hell, than that thou shalt 
speedily be in it, except thou repent and be con- 
verted : there is but this one door for thee to escape 
by. Arise then, 0 sluggard, and shake off thine 
excuses : how long wilt thou slumber, and fold thy 
hands to sleep ? Wilt thou lie down in the midst 
of the sea, or sleep on the top of a mast ? There is 
no remedy, but thou must either turn or burn. 
There is an unchangeable necessity of the change of 
thy condition, except thou hast resolved to abide the 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 77 

worst of it, and try it out with the Almighty. If 
thou lovest thy life, 0 man, arise and come away. 
Methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful 
hands of a holy violence upon thee ; methinks he 
acts like the angels to Lot : "Then the angels hast- 
ened Lot, saying, Arise, lest thou be consumed. 
And, while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his 
hand, the Lord being merciful unto him ; and they 
brought him without the city, and said, Escape for 
thy life, stay not in all the plain ; escape to the 
mountains, lest thou be consumed." 

0 how wilful will thy destruction be if thou 
shouldst yet harden thyself in thy sinful state ! But 
none of you can say that you have not had fair 
warning. Yet methinks I cannot leave you so. It 
is not enough for me to have delivered my own soul. 
What, shall I go away without my errand ? Will 
none of you arise and follow me ? Have I been all 
this while speaking to the wind ; have I been 
charming the deaf adder, or allaying the restless 
ocean with argument? Do I speak to the trees and 
rocks, or to men ; to the tombs and monuments of 
the dead, or to the living ? If you be men, and not 
senseless stocks, stop and consider whither you are 
going ; if you have the reason and understanding of 
men, dare not to run into the flames, and fall into 
hell with your eyes open ; but bethink yourselves, 
and set to the work of repentance. What, men, 
and yet run into the pit, when the very beasts will 



78 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



not be forced in ? What, endowed with reason, and 
yet trifle with death and hell, and the vengeance of 
the Almighty ? Are men herein only distinguished 
from very brutes, that these, having no foresight, 
have no care to provide for the things to come ; 
and will you, who are warned, not hasten your es- 
cape from eternal torments ? 0 show yourselves 
men, and let reason prevail with you. 

Is it a reasonable thing for you to contend against 
the Lord your Maker, or " to harden yourselves 
against his word/' Job 9 : 4, as though the Strength 
of Israel would lie ? Is it reasonable that an un- 
derstanding creature should lose, yea, live quite 
against the very end of his being ? Is it reasonable 
that the only being in this world that God hath 
made capable of knowing his will and bringing him 
glory, should yet live in ignorance of his Maker, 
and be unserviceable to his use, yea, should be en- 
gaged against him, and resist his Creator ? " Hear, 
0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth," and let the 
creatures without sense judge if this be reason, that 
man, whom God hath " nourished and brought up, 
should rebel against him ?" Judge in your own 
selves. Is it a reasonable undertaking for briers and 
thorns to set themselves in battle against the devour- 
ing fire ; or for the potsherd of the earth to strive 
with its Maker ? You will say, " This is not reason 
or surely the eye of reason is quite put out. And, 
if this be not reason, then there is no reason that 



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 



79 



you should continue as you are, but there is all the 
reason in the world that you should forthwith turn 
and repent. 

What shall I say ? I could spend myself in this 
argument. O that you would but hearken to me ; 
that you would now set upon a new course ! Will 
you not be made clean ? When shall it once be ? 
Reader, wilt thou sit down and consider the fore- 
mentioned argument, and debate it, whether it be 
not best to turn ? Come, and let us reason together : 
Is it good for thee to be here ? Wilt thou sit till 
the tide come in upon thee ? Is it good for thee to 
try whether God will be as good as his word, and 
to harden thyself in a conceit that all is well with 
thee while thou remainest unsanctified ? 

Alas, for such sinners ! must they perish at last 
by hundreds ? What course shall I use with them 
that I have not tried ? " What shall I do for the 
daughter of my people ?" 0 Lord God, help. Alas, 
shall I leave them thus ? If they will not hear me, 
yet do thou hear me. 0 that they may yet live in 
thy sight ! Lord, save them, or they perish. My 
heart would melt to see their houses on fire when 
they were fast asleep in their beds ; and shall not 
my soul be moved within me to see them falling 
into endless perdition ? Lord, have compassion, and 
save them out of the burning : put forth thy divine 
power, and the work will be done. 



80 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 

While we keep aloof in generals there is little 
fruit to be expected ; it is the hand-fight that doos 
execution. David is not awakened by the prophet's 
hovering at a distance in parabolical insinuations. 
He is forced to close with him, and tell him plainly, 
" Thou art the man." Few will, in words, deny 
the necessity of the new birth ; but they have a 
self- deluding confidence that the work is not now to 
do. And because they know themselves free from 
that gross hypocrisy which takes up religion merely 
for a color to deceive others, and for covering wicked 
designs, they are confident of their sincerity, and 
suspect not that more close hypocrisy, wherein the 
greatest danger lies, by which a man deceiveth his 
own soul. But man's deceitful heart is such a 
matchless cheat, and self-delusion so reigning and 
so fatal a disease, that I know not whether be the 
greater, the difficulty or the necessity of the unde- 
ceiving work that I am now upon. Alas for the 
unconverted ! they must be undeceived, or they will 
be undone. But how shall this be effected ? 

Help, 0 all- searching Light, and let thy discern- 
ing eye discover the rotten foundation of the self- 
deceiver ; and lead me, 0 Lord God, as thou didst 
the prophet, into the chambers of imagery, and dig 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 81 

through the wall of sinners' hearts, and discover 
the hidden abominations that are lurking out of 
sight in the dark. 0 send thy angel before me to 
open the sundry wards of their hearts, as thou didst 
before Peter, and make even the iron gates fly open 
of their own accord. And as Jonathan no sooner 
tasted the honey but his eyes were enlightened, so 
grant, 0 Lord, that when the poor deceived souls 
with whom I have to do shall cast their eyes upon 
these lines, their minds may be illuminated, and 
their consciences convinced and awakened, that they 
may see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
and be converted, and thou mayest heal them. 

This must be premised before we proceed, that it 
is most certain men may have a confident persuasion 
that their hearts and states are good, while yet they 
are unsound. Hear the Truth himself, who shows, 
in Laodicea's case, that men may be wretched, and 
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and yet not 
know it ; yea, they may be confident they are rich, 
and increased in grace. Rev. 3 : 17. "There is a 
generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet 
are not washed from their filthiness." Prov. 30 : 12. 
Who better persuaded of his fate than Paul, while he 
yet remained unconverted ? Rom. 7:9. So that they 
are miserably deceived who take a strong confidence 
for a sufficient evidence. They that have no better 
proof than barely a strong persuasion that they are 
converted, are certainly as yet strangers to conversion. 

Alleine's Alarm. Q 



82 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



But to come more close. As it was said to the 
adherents of Antichrist, so here ; some of the un- 
converted cany their marks in their forehead more 
openly, and some in their hands more covertly. 
The apostle reckons up some upon whom he writes 
the sentence of death ; as in these dreadful cata- 
logues, which I beseech you to attend to with all 
diligence: "For this ye know, that no whoremon- 
ger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is 
an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of 
Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with 
vain words ; for because of these things cometh the 
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." 
Eph. 5 : 5, 6. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, 
and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, 
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake that burns with fire and brim- 
stone, which is the second death." Rev. 21 : 8. 
" Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit 
the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither 
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemi- 
nate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor 
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, 
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 
1 Cor. 6 : 9, 10. Woe to them that have their name 
written in this catalogue. Such may know, as cer- 

, O if y ' 

tairily ^ if God had told them from heaven, that 
they are unsanctified, and under an impossibility of 
being saved in this condition. 



i 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 



S3 



There are then these several classes that, past all 
dispute, are unconverted; they carry their marks 
in their foreheads. 

1. The unclean. These are ever reckoned among 
the goats, and have their names, whoever is left out, 
in all the forementioned catalogues. 

2. The covetous. These are ever branded for 
idolaters, and the doors of the kingdom are shut 
against them by name. 

3. Drunkards. Not only such as drink away 
their reason, but withal, yea, above all, such as are 
too strong for strong drink. The Lord fills his 
mouth with woes against these, and declares them 
to have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Isa. 
5:11, 12, 22; Gal. 5:21. 

4. Liars. The God that cannot lie has told them 
that there is no place for them in his kingdom, no 
entrance into his hill ; but their portion is with the 
father of lies, whose children they are, in the lake 
of burnings. Rev. 21 : 8, 27. 

5. Swearers. The end of these, without deep 
and speedy repentance, is swift destruction, and 
most certain and unavoidable condemnation. James 
5: 12. 

6. Railers and backbiters, that love to take up a 
reproach against their neighbor, and revile him to his 
face, or else wound him secretly behind his back. 
Psalm 15:1, 3. 

1. Thieves, extortioners, oppressors, that grind 



84 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



the poor, or overreach their brethren when they 
have an opportunity : these must know that God 
"is the avenger of all such." Hear, 0 ye false and 
purloining and wasteful servants ; hear, 0 ye de- 
ceitful tradesmen, hear your sentence ! God will 
certainly shut his door against you, and turn your 
treasures of unrighteousness into the treasures of 
wrath, and make your ill-gotten silver and gold to 
torment you, like burning metal in your bowels. 

8. Alt that do ordinarily live in the profane neg- 
lect of God's worship, that hear not his word, that 
call not on his name, that restrain prayer before 
God, that mind not their own nor their families' 
souls, but "live without God in the world." 

9. Those that are frequenters and lovers of vain 
company, God hath declared, he will be the de- 
stroyer of all such, and that they shall never enter 
into the hill of his rest. Prov. 9 : 5, and 13:20. 

10. Scoffers at religion, that make a scorn of pre- 
cise walking, and mock at the messengers and dili- 
gent servants of the Lord, and at their holy pro- 
fession, and make themselves merry with the weak- 
ness and failings of professors : " Hear, ye despisers," 
hear your dreadful doom ! Prov. 19:29, and 3 : 34. 

Sinner, consider diligently whether thou art not 
to be found in one of these ranks ; for if this be thy 
case, thou art in the " gall of bitterness and bond 
of iniquity ;" for all these do carry their marks in 
their foreheads, and are undoubtedly the sons of 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED, 



85 



death. And if so, the Lord pity our poor congre- 
gations. 0 how small a number will remain, when 
these ten sorts are left out. May God show you 
your danger, and constrain you to cry, "Lord, have 
mercy upon us !" 

Sirs, what shift do you make to keep up your 
confidence of your good state, when God from 
heaven declares against you, and pronounces you in 
a state of damnation ? I would reason with you as 
God with them, " How canst thou say, I am not 
polluted ? See thy way in the valley ; know what 
thou hast done." Man, is not thy conscience privy 
to thy tricks of deceit, to thy secret sins, to thy way 
of lying ? Yea, are not thy friends, thy family, thy 
neighbors, witnesses to thy profane neglect of God's 
worship, to thy covetous practices, to thy envious 
and malicious carriage ? May they not point at thee 
as thou goest, There goes a gaming prodigal ; there 
goes a drunken Nabal, a companion of evil-doers ; 
there goes a railer, or a scoffer, or a licentious per- 
son ? Beloved, God hath written it as with a sun- 
beam, in the book by which you must be judged, 
that these are not the spots of his children, and that 
none such, except renewed by converting grace, 
shall ever escape the damnation of hell. 

0 that you would now be persuaded to " repent 
and turn from all your transgressions, or else iniquity 
will be your ruin." Alas, for poor hardened sin- 
ners. Must I leave you at last where you are? 



8o 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



However, you must know that you have been warned, 
and that I am clear of your blood ; and whether 
men will hear, or whether they will forbear, I will 
leave these Scriptures with them, which will prove 
either as thunderbolts to awaken them, or as searing- 
irons to harden them. " God shall wound the head 
of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one 
as goeth on still in his trespasses." " He that, being 
often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly 
be destroyed, and that without remedy." " Be- 
cause I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched 
out my hand, and no man regarded, etc. I will 
laugh at your calamity — when your destruction 
cometh. as a whirlwind." 

And now I imagine many will begin to bless them- 
selves, and think all is well, because they cannot be 
reproached with these grosser evils ; but I must tell 
you that there is another sort of unsanctified per- 
sons, that carry not their mark in then- foreheads, 
but more secretly and covertly. These do frequent- 
ly deceive themselves and others, and pass for good 
Christians, when they are all the while unsound at 
heart. Many pass undiscovered, till death and judg- 
ment bring all to light. Those self- deceivers seem 
to come even to heaven's gate with confidence of 
their admission, and yet are turned off at last. I 
beseech you deeply to lay to heart and firmly retain 
this awakening consideration, that multitudes mis- 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 



carry by the hand of some secret sin, that is not only 
hidden from others, but for want of observing their 
own hearts, even from themselves. A man may be 
free from open pollutions, and yet die at last by the 
fatal band of some unobserved iniquity ; and there 
are these twelve hidden sins, through which souls 
go down by numbers into the chambers of eternal 
death : these you must search carefully for, and take 
them as black marks, wherever they be found, 
discovering a graceless and unconverted state ; and 
as you love your lives, read carefully, with a holy 
jealousy of yourselves, lest you should be the per- 
sons concerned. 

1. Gross wilful ignorance. 0 how many poor 
souls doth this sin kill in the dark, Hos. 4 : 6, while 
they think verily they have good hearts, and are in 
the ready way to heaven. This is the murderer 
that despatcheth thousands in a silent manner, when 
they suspect nothing, and see not the hand that de- 
stroys them. You shall find, whatever excuses you 
make for ignorance, that it is a soul-ruining evil. 
Isa. 27 : 11 ; 2 Thess. 1:8; 2 Cor. 4 : 3. Ah, 
would it not have grieved a man's heart to see that 
woful spectacle, when the poor Protestants were 
shut up in a barn, and a butcher came, with his in- 
human hands warmed in human blood, and led them 
one by one, blindfold, to a block, where he slew 
them, one after another, by scores, in cool blood? 
But how much more should your hearts bleed to 



ALLEINE'S ALARM 



think of the hundreds, in great congregations, that 
ignorance doth destroy hi secret, and lead blindfold 
to the block. Beware that this be not your case. 
Make no plea for ignorance ; if you spare that sin, 
know that it will not spare you ; and would a mao 
keep a murderer in his bosom ? 

2. Secret reserves in closing with Christ. To for- 
sake all for Christ, to hate father and mother, yea, 
a man's own life for him, Luke 14 : 26, "This is a 
hard saying." Some will do much, but they will 
not have the religion that will save them : they 
never come to be entirely devoted to Christ, nor 
fully to resign to him : they must have the sweet 
sin ; they mean to do themselves no harm ; they 
have secret exceptions for life, liberty, or estate. 
Many take Christ thus, and never consider his self- 
denying terms, nor count the cost ; and this error iu 
the foundation mars all, and ruins them forever. 
Luke 14: 28-33. 

3. Formality in religion. Many rest in the out- 
side of religion, and in the external performance of 
holy duties. And this oftentimes doth most effect- 
ually deceive men, and more certainly undo them 
than open profaneness; as it was in the Pharisee's 
case. They hear, they fast, they pray, they give 
alms, and therefore will not believe but their case 
is good. Whereas, resting in the work done, and 
coming short of the heart- work and the inward 
power and vitality of religion, they fall at last into 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 89 

the burning, from the flattering hope and confident 
persuasion of their being in the ready way to heaven. 
O dreadful case, when a man's religion shall serve 
smly to harden him, and effectually to delude and 
deceive his own soul ! 

4. The prevalence of false ends in holy duties. 
This was the bane of the Pharisees. 0 how many 
a poor soul is undone by this, and drops into hell 
before he discerns his mistake ! He performs his 
"good duties," and so thinks all is well, but per- 
ceives not that he is actuated by carnal motives all 
the while. It is too true, that, even with the really 
sanctified, many carnal ends will ofttimes creep in ; 
but they are the matter of their hatred and humilia- 
tion, and never come to be habitually prevalent with 
them, and bear the greatest sway. But when the 
main thing that doth ordinarily carry a man out to 
religious duties shall be some carnal end — as to 
satisfy his conscience, to get the reputation of being 
religious, "to be seen of men," to show his own 
gifts and parts, to avoid the reproach of being a 
profane and irreligious person, or the like — this 
discovers an unsound heart. O Christian, if you 
would avoid self-deceit, see that you mind not only 
your acts, but above all your ends. 

5. Trusting in their own righteousness. This is 
a soul-ruining mischief. When men trust in their 
own righteousness they do indeed reject Christ's. 
Beloved, you had need be watchful on every hand ; 



90 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



for, not only your sins, but your duties may undo 
you. It may be you never thought of this ; but 
so it is, that a man may as certainly miscarry by 
his seeming righteousness and supposed graces as 
by gross sins ; and that is, when a man doth trust 
to these as his righteousness before God, for satis- 
fying his justice, appeasing his wrath, procuring his 
favor, and obtaining his own pardon ; for this is to 
put Christ out of office, and make a Saviour of our 
own duties and graces. Beware of this, 0 profes- 
sors ; you are much in duties, but this one fly will 
spoil all the ointment. When you have done most 
and best, be sure to go out of yourselves to Christ ; 
reckon your own righteousness but filthy rags. 
Phil. 3:9; Isa. 64 : 6. 

6. A secret enmity against the strictness of religion. 
Many moral persons, punctual in their formal devo- 
tions, have yet a bitter enmity against strictness and 
zeal, and hate the life and power of religion. They 
like not this forwardness, nor that men should make 
such a stir in religion; they condemn the strictness 
of religion as singularity, indiscretion, and intem- 
perate zeal, and with them a lively preacher or 
lively Christian is but an enthusiast. These men 
love not holiness as holiness, for then they would 
love the height of holiness, and therefore are un- 
doubtedly rotten at heart, whatever good opinion 
they have of themselves. 

7. The resting in a certain degree of religion. 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 91 

When they have so much as will save them, as 
they suppose, they look no farther, and so show 
themselves short of true grace, which will ever put 
men upon aspiring to perfection. Phil. 3:13; Prov. 
4:18. 

8. The predominant love of the world. This is 
the sure evidence of an unsanctified heart. " If any 
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
him." But how close does this sin lurk ofttimes 
under the fair covert of forward profession. Yea, 
such a power of deceit is there in this sin, that many 
times, when every body else can see the man's world- 
liness and covetousness, he cannot see it himself, 
but hath so many colors, and excuses, and pre- 
tences, for his eagerness after the world, that he 
doth blind his own eyes, and perish in his self-de- 
ceit. How many professors are there with whom 
the world hath more of their hearts and affections 
than Christ; "who mind earthly things," and 
thereby are evidently after the flesh, and like to 
end in destruction. Yet ask these men, and they 
will tell you confidently they prize Christ above all ; 
for they see not their own earthly-mindedness, for 
want of a strict observance of the workings of their 
own hearts. Did they but carefully search, they 
would quickly find that their greatest satisfaction 
is in the world, and that their greatest care and main 
endeavor are to get and secure the world, which 
are the certain signs of an unconverted sinner. May 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



the professing part of the world take earnest heed 
that they perish not by the hand of this sin unob- 
served. Men may be, and often are, kept off from 
Christ as effectually by the inordinate love of lawful 
comforts, as by the most unlawful courses. 

9. Reigning malice and envy against those that 
disrespect them, and are injurious to them. 0, 
how do many, that seem to be religious, remember 
injuries and carry grudges, rendering evil for evil, 
loving to take revenge, wishing evil to them that 
wrong them : directly against the rule of the Gos- 
pel, the pattern of Christ, and the nature of God. 
Doubtless, where this evil is kept boiling in the 
heart, and is not hated, resisted, and mortified, but 
doth habitually prevail, that person is in the very 
gall of bitterness, and in a state of death. Matt. 
18 : 32-35 ; 1 John, 3 : 14, 15. 

Reader, doth nothing of this touch thee ? Art 
thou in none of the forementioned ranks ? 0 search, 
and search again ; take thy heart solemnly to task. 
Woe unto thee if, after thy profession, thou shouldst 
be found under the power of ignorance, lost in 
formality, drowned in earthly-mindedness, enven- 
omed with malice, exalted in an opinion of thine 
own righteousness, leavened with hypocrisy and 
carnal ends in God's service, and imbittered against 
strictness ; this would be a sad evidence that all thy 
religion were in vain. But I must proceed. 

10. Unmortified pride. When men love the praise 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 93 

of men more than the praise of God, and set their 
hearts upon men's esteem, applause, and approba- 
tion, it is most certain that they are yet in their sins, 
and strangers to true conversion. When men see 
not, nor complain, nor groan under the pride of their 
own hearts, it is a sign they are dead in sin. 0, 
how secretly doth this sin live and reign in many 
hearts, and they know it not, but are very strangers 
to themselves. John 9 : 40. 

11. The prevailing love of pleasure. This is a 
black mark. When men give the flesh the liberty 
that it craves, and pamper and please it, and do not 
deny and restrain it ; when their great delight is in 
gratifying their appetites and pleasing their senses ; 
whatever appearances they may have of religion, all 
is unsound. A flesh-pleasing life cannot be pleasing 
to God : " They that are Christ's have crucified the 
flesh," and are careful to keep it under, as their en- 
emy. Gal. 5 : 24 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 25-27. 

12. Carnal security, or a presumptuous confidence 
that their condition is already good. Many cry, 
peace and safety, when sudden destruction is com- 
ing upon them. This was that which kept the fool- 
ish virgins sleeping when they should have been 
working — upon their beds when they should have 
been at the markets. They perceived not their 
want of oil, till the bridegroom was come ; and while 
they went to buy, the door was shut. And 0, that 
these foolish virgins had no successors ! Where is 



94 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



the place, yea, where is the house almost, where 
these do not dwell ? Men are willing to cherish in 
themselves, upon ever so slight grounds, a hope 
that their condition is good, and so look not out after 
a change, and by these means perish in their sins. 
Are you at peace ? Show me upon what grounds 
your peace is maintained. Is it Scripture peace ? 
Can you show the distinguishing marks of a sound 
believer? Can you evidence that you have some- 
thing more than any hypocrite in the world ever 
had ? If not, fear this peace more than any trouble ; 
and know that a carnal peace doth commonly prove 
the most mortal enemy of the soul, and, whilst it 
smiles, and kisses, and speaks fairly, doth fatally 
smite, as it were, under the fifth rib. 

By this time I think I hear my readers crying 
out, with the disciples, "Who then shall be saved ?" 
Set out from among our congregations all those ten 
ranks of the profane on the one hand, and then be- 
sides take out all these twelve classes of self- deceiv- 
ing hypocrites on the other hand, and tell me whether 
it be not a remnant that shall be saved. How few 
will be the sheep that shall be left, when all these 
shall be separated and set among the goats. For 
my part, of all my numerous hearers, I have no 
hope to see any of them in heaven that are to be 
found among these two-and-twenty classes that are 
here mentioned, except by sound conversion they 
are brought into another condition. 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 95 

And now, conscience, do thy office : speak out, 
and speak home to him that heareth or readeth 
these lines. If thou find any of these marks upon 
him, thou must pronounce him utterly unclean. 
Take not a lie into thy mouth ; speak not peace to 
him to whom God speaks no peace ; let not sense 
bribe thee, or self-love or carnal prejudice blind thee. 
I summon thee from the court of heaven to come 
and give evidence. As thou wilt answer it at thy 
peril, give in a true report of the state and case of 
him that readeth this book. Conscience, wilt thou 
altogether hold thy peace at such a time as this ? 
I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell the 
truth. Is the man converted, or is he not ? Doth 
he allow himself in any way of wickedness, or doth 
he not ? Doth he truly love, and please, and prize, 
and delight in God above all things, or not ? Come, 
put it to an issue. 

How long shall this soul live at uncertainties ? O 
conscience, bring in thy verdict. Is this man a new 
man, or is he not ? How dost thou find it ? Hath 
there passed a thorough and mighty change upon 
him, or not ? When was the time, where was the 
place, or what were the means by which this 
thorough change of the new birth was wrought in 
his soul ? Speak, conscience ; or if thou canst not 
tell the time and place, canst thou show Scripture 
evidence that the work is done? Hath the man 
ever been taken off from his false foundation, from 



96 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



the false hopes and false peace wherein once he 
trusted ? Hath he been deeply convinced of sin, 
and of his lost or undone condition, and brought out 
of himself, and off from his sins, to give up himself 
entirely to Jesus Christ; or dost thou not find him 
to this day under the power of ignorance, or in the 
mire of worldliness ? Hast thou not found upon 
him the gains of unrighteousness? Dost thou not 
find him a stranger to prayer, a neglecter of the 
word, a lover of this present world ? Dost thou not 
sometimes catch him in a lie ? Dost thou not find 
his heart fermented with malice, or burning with 
lust, or going after his covetousness ? Speak plain- 
ly to all the forementioned particulars. Canst thou 
acquit this man, this woman, from being in any of 
the two-and-twenty classes here described ? If he be 
found with any of them, set him aside ; his portion 
is not with the saints. He must be converted and 
made a new creature, or he cannot enter the king- 
dom of God. 

Beloved, be not your own betrayers ; do not de- 
ceive your own hearts, nor set your hands to your 
own ruin by a wilful blinding of yourselves. Set 
up a tribunal in your own breasts : bring the word 
and conscience together. " To the law and to the 
testimony." Hear what the word concludes of your 
state. 0 follow the search till you find how the 
case stands. Mistake here, and you perish. And, 
Buch is the treachery of the heart, the subtlety of 



THE MARKS OF THE UNCONVERTED. 97 

the tempter, and the deceitfulness of sin, all conspir- 
ing to flatter and deceive the poor soul ; and withal 
so common and easy it is to mistake, that it is a 
thousand to one but you will be deceived, unless 
you be very careful, and thorough, and impartial in 
the inquiry into your spiritual condition. 0 there- 
fore be diligent in your work; go to the bottom; 
search with candles ; weigh yourself in the balance ; 
come to the standard of the sanctuary ; bring your 
coin to the touchstone. Satan is master of deceit ; 
he can draw to the life ; he is perfect in the trade ; 
there is nothing but he can imitate. You cannot 
wish for any grace, but he can fit you with a coun- 
terfeit. Be jealous ; trust not even your own heart. 
Go to God to search you and try you, to examine 
you and prove your reins. If other helps suffice 
not to bring all to an issue, but you are still at a 
loss, open your case ingenuously to some godly and 
faithful minister, or Christian'friend. Rest not till 
you have put the business of your eternal welfare 
out of doubt. " O Searcher of hearts, put thou this 
soul upon, and help him in his search.' ' 



Afteine's Alarm. 



7 



m 



ALLELE'S ALARM, 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED, 

So unspeakably dreadful is the case of every un- 
converted soul, that I have sometimes thought if I 
could but convince men that they are yet unregene- 
rate, the work were more than half done. 

But I find by sad experience that such a spirit of 
sloth and slumber possesses the unsanctified, that, 
though they be convinced that they are yet uncon- 
verted, they ofttimes carelessly sit still ; and through 
the love of sensual pleasure, or the hurry of worldly 
business, or the noise and clamor of earthly cares 
and lusts and affections, the voice of conscience is 
drowned, and men go no farther than some cold 
wishes and general purposes of repenting and 
amending. 

It is therefore of high necessity that I not only 
convince men that they are unconverted, but that I 
also endeavor to bring them to a sense of the fearful 
misery of this state. 

But here I find myself aground at first setting off. 
What tongue can tell the heirs of hell sufficiently of 
their misery, unless it were Dives in that flame ? 
Luke 16 : 24. Where is the ready writer whose 
pen can depict their misery who are without God in 
the world ? This cannot fully be done, unless we 
know the infinite ocean of bliss which is in perfec- 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 99 

tion in God, and from which a state of sin doth ex- 
clude men. "Who knoweth," saith Moses, "the 
power of thine anger?" And how shall I tell men 
that which" I do not know ? Yet so much we know, 
as one would think would shake the heart of that 
man that had the least degree of spiritual life and 
sense. 

But this is yet the more perplexing difficulty, 
that I am to speak to them that are without spiritual 
sense. Alas, this is not the least part of man's 
misery, that he is dead, dead in trespasses and sins. 

Could I bring paradise into view, or represent the 
kingdom of heaven to as much advantage as the 
tempter did the kingdoms of the world, and all the 
glory thereof, to our Saviour ; or could I uncover the 
face of the deep and devouring gulf of Tophet in all 
its terrors, and open the gates of the infernal fur- 
nace ; alas, he hath no eyes to see it. Could I 
paint the beauties of holiness or the glory of the 
Gospel; or could I expose to view the more than 
diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin : he can no 
more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one, 
and the filthiness and hatefulness of the other, than 
a blind man of colors. He is alienated from the life 
of God, through the ignorance that is in him be- 
cause of the blindness of his heart. He neither 
doth nor can know the things of God, because they 
are spiritually discerned. His eyes cannot be sav- 
ingly opened but by converting grace. He is a 



100 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



child of darkness, and walks in darkness. Yea, the 
light in him is darkness. 

Shall I ring his knell, or read his sentence, or 
sound in his ear the terrible trump of God's judg- 
ments, that one would think should make both his 
oars to tingle, and strike him into Belshazzar's fit, 
even to change his countenance, and to loose his 
joints, and make his knees smite one against another ? 
Alas, he perceives me not ; he hath no ears to 
hear. Or shall I call up the daughters of music, 
and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb ? Yet he 
will not be stirred. Shall I allure him with the 
joyful sound, and lovely song, and glad tidings of 
the Gospel ; with the most sweet and inviting calls, 
comforts, and cordials of the divine promises so ex- 
ceedingly great and precious ? It will not affect 
him savingly, unless I could find him ears as well as 
tell him the news. 

What then shall I do ? Shall I uncover to him 
the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone ; or 
shall I open the box of spikenard, very precious, 
that filleth the whole house of the universe with its 
perfume, and hope that the savor of Christ's oint- 
ments and the smell of his garments will attract 
him ? Alas, dead sinners are like the dumb idols : 
they have mouths, but they speak not ; eyes have 
they, but they see not ; they have ears, but they 
hear not ; noses have they, but they smell not ; they 
have hands, but they handle not ; feet have they, 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 101 

but they walk not; neither speak they through their 
throat. They are destitute of spiritual sense and 
motion. 

But let me try the sense that doth last leave us, 
and draw the sword of the word; yet, though I 
choose mine arrows out of God's quiver, and direct 
them to the heart, nevertheless he feeleth it not ; 
for how should he, being past feeling ? So that, 
though " the wrath of God abideth on him," and 
the mountainous weight of so many thousand sins, 
yet he goes up and down as light as if nothing ailed 
him. In a word, he carries a dead soul in a living 
body, and his flesh is but the walking coffin of a 
corrupt mind that is twice dead. Jude 12. 

Which way then shall I come at the miserable 
objects that I have to deal with? Who shall make 
the heart of stone relent, or the lifeless carcass to 
feel and move ? That God who is able of " stones 
to raise up children unto Abraham ;" " that raiseth 
the dead," " and melteth the mountains," and 
" striketh water out of the flint ;" that loves to 
work like himself, beyond the hopes and belief of 
man ; that peopleth his church with dry bones ; he 
is able to do this. Therefore " I bow my knee to 
the most high God ;" and as our Saviour prayed at 
the sepulchre of Lazarus, and the Shunamite ran to 
the man of God for her dead child, so doth your 
mourning minister carry you in the arms of prayer 
to that God in whom your help is found. 



102 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



" 0 than all- powerful Jehovah, who workest, and 
none can hinder thee ! who hast the keys of death 
and hell ! pity thou the dead souls that lie here en- 
tombed, and roll away the grave-stone, and say as 
to the dead body of Lazarus, Come forth. Lighten 
thou this darkness, 0 inaccessible Light, and let the 
day-spring from on high visit the dark regions of 
the dead, to whom I speak ; for thou canst open the 
eye that death itself hath closed ; thou that formedst 
the ear, canst restore the hearing : say thou to these 
ears, Ephphatha, and they shall be opened. Give 
thou eyes to see thine excellencies, a taste that may 
relish thy sweetness, a scent that may savor thy 
ointment, a feeling that may discern the privilege 
of thy favor, the burden of thy wrath, the intolera- 
ble weight of unpardoned sin ; and give thy servant 
order to prophesy to dry bones, and let the effects 
of this prophecy be as of thy prophet when he pro- 
phesied the valley of dry bones into a living army 
exceeding great." Ezek. 37 : 1-10. 

But I must proceed, as I am able, to unfold that 
misery which, I confess, no tongue can unfold, no 
heart can sufficiently comprehend. 

Know therefore, that, while thou art unconverted, 
1. The infinite God is engaged against thee. It 
is no small part of thy misery that thou art " with- 
out God." How doth Micah run crying after the 
Danites, " Ye have taken away my gods, and what 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 103 

have I more ?" 0 what a mourning then must thou 
lift up, that art without God, that canst lay no 
claim to him without daring usurpation ! How 
piercing a moan is that of Saul in his last extremity, 
" The Philistines are upon me, and God is departed 
from me !" Sinners, but what will you do in the 
day of your visitation ? Whither will you flee for 
help ? Where will you leave your glory ? What 
will you do when the Philistines are upon you; 
when the world shall take its eternal leave of you ; 
when you must bid your friends, houses, and lands, 
farewell for evermore ? What then, I say, will you 
do, that have not God to go to ? Will you call on 
him ? Will you cry to him for help ? Alas, he 
will not own you. He will not take any notice of 
you ; but will send you away with, " I never knew 
you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 

They that know what it is to have a God to go 
to, a God to live upon— they know a little what a 
fearful misery it is to be without God. This made 
a holy man cry out, " Let me have God or nothing : 
let me know him and his will, and what will please 
him, and how I may come to enjoy him, or would I 
never had an understanding to know any thing !" 

But thou art not only without God, but God is 
against thee. O if God would but stand neuter, 
though he did not own nor help the poor sinner, his 
case were not so deeply miserable ; though God 
should give up the poor creature to the will of his 



104 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



enemies, to do their worst with him ; though he 
should deliver him over to the tormentors, that 
devils should tear and torture him to their utmost 
power and skill, yet this were not half so fearful. 
But God will set himself against the sinner ; and, 
believe it, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands 
of the living God." There is no friend like him, no 
enemy like him. As much as heaven is above the 
earth, omnipotence above impotence, so much more 
terrible is it to fall into the hands of the living God, 
than into the paws of bears and lions, yea, furies or 
devils. God himself will be thy tormentor ; thy 
destruction shall come from the presence of the Lord. 

" If God be against thee, who shall be for thee ? 
If one man sin against another, the judge shall 
judge him : but if a man sin against the Lord, who 
shall entreat for him ?" " Thou, even thou, art to 
be feared ; and who shall stand in thy sight when 
thou art angry ?" Who or what shall deliver you 
out of his hands ? Can mammon ? " Riches profit 
not in the day of wrath. " Can kings or warriors ? 
No ; " they shall cry to the mountains and rocks to 
fall on them, and hide them from the face of Him 
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of 
the Lamb ; for the great day of his wrath is come, 
and who shall be able to stand?" 

Sinner, I think this should go like a dagger to 
thy heart, to know that God is thine enemy. 0 
whither wilt thou go ; where wilt thou shelter thee ? 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 105 

There is no hope for thee, unless thou lay down thy 
weapons and sue out thy pardon, and get Ghrist to 
stand thy friend and make thy peace. If it were 
not for this, thou mightest go into some howling 
wilderness, and there pine in sorrow, and run mad 
for anguish of heart and horrible despair. But in 
Christ there is a possibility of mercy for thee, yea, 
a proffer of mercy to thee, that thou mayest have 
God more for thee than he is now against thee. 
But if thou wilt not forsake thy sins, nor turn 
thoroughly and to some purpose to God, by a sound 
conversion, the wrath of God abideth on thee, and 
he proclaimeth himself to be against thee, as in the 
prophet : " Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, 
Behold I, even I, am against thee !" 

(1.) His face is against thee. "The face of the 
Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the re- 
membrance of them." Woe unto them whom God 
shall set his face against. When he did but look on 
the host of the Egyptians, how terrible was the con- 
sequence! "I will set my face against that man, 
and will make him a sign and a proverb, and will 
cut him off from the midst of my people ; and ye 
shall know that I am the Lord." 

(2.) His heart is against thee. He hateth all the 
workers of iniquity. Man, doth not thy heart trem- 
ble to think of thy being an object of God's hatred ? 
" Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet 
my mind could not be towards this people : cast 



them out of my sight." " My soul loathed them, 
and their souls also abhorred me." 

(3.) His hand is against thee. All his attributes 
are against thee. 

His justice is like a flaming sword unsheathed 
against thee : "If I whet my glittering sword, and 
my hand take hold on judgment, I will render ven- 
geance to mine adversaries, and will reward them 
that hate me : I will make mine arrows drunk with 
blood." So exact is justice, that it will by no 
means clear the guilty. God will not discharge 
thee, he will not hold thee guiltless, but will require 
the whole debt in person of thee, unless thou canst 
make a Scripture claim to Christ and his satisfac- 
tion. When the enlightened sinner looks on justice, 
and sees the balance in which he must be weighed 
and the sword by which he must be executed, he 
feels an earthquake in his breast ; but Satan keeps 
this out of sight, and persuades the soul, while he 
can, that the Lord is all made up of mercy, and so 
lulls it asleep in sin. Divine justice is exact ; it 
must have satisfaction to the utmost farthing : it 
denounceth "indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish to every soul that doeth evil." It "ctirseih 
every one that continueth not in all things written 
in the law to do them." The justice of God to the 
unpardoned sinner that hath a sense of his guilt, is 
more terrible than the sight of the creditor to the 
bankrupt debtor, of the judge and bench to the 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 10? 

robber, or of the irons and gibbet to the guilty 
murderer. When justice sits upon life and death, 
what dreadful work doth it make with the wretched 
sinner ! " Bind him hand and foot ; cast him into 
outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth." " Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire." This is the terrible sentence that 
justice pronounceth. Sinner, by this severe justice 
must thou be tried ; and as God liveth, this killing 
sentence must thou hear, unless thou repent and be 
converted. 

The holiness of God is against thee. He is not 
only angry with thee — so he may be with his 
children — but he hath a fixed, habitual displeasure 
against thee. God's nature is infinitely contrary to 
sin, and so he cannot delight in a sinner out of 
Christ. 

0 what misery is this, to be out of the favor, yea, 
under the hatred of God ; that God, who can as 
easily lay aside his nature and cease to be God, as 
not be contrary to thee and detest thee, except thou 
be changed and renewed. 0 sinner, how darest 
thou think of the bright and radiant sun of purity, 
or the beauties, the glory of holiness in God ? " The 
stars are not pure in his sight." " He humbles 
himself to behold things that are done in heaven." 
0 those all-searching eyes of his ! what do they spy 
in thee ; and hast thou no interest in Christ neither, 
that he should plead for thee ? I think he should 



108 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



hear thee crying out, astonished, with the Bethshe- 
mites, "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord 
God?" 

The poiuer of God is against thee. The glory of 
God's power is displayed in the wonderful confusion 
and destruction of them that obey not the Gospel. 
He will make his power known in them, how mightily 
he can torment them. For this end he raiseth them 
up, "that he might make his power known." O 
man, art thou able to contend with thy Maker ? 

Sinner, the power of God's anger is against thee, 
and power and anger together make fearful work ; 
it were better thou hadst all the world in arms 
against thee than to have the power of God against 
thee. There is no escaping his hands, no breaking 
his prison. " The thunder of his power, who can 
understand?" Unhappy man that shall understand 
it by feeling it ! " If he will contend with him, he 
cannot answer him one of a thousand. He is wise 
in heart and mighty in strength : who hath hardened 
himself against him, and prospered ? which removeth 
the mountains, and they know it not ; which over- 
turned them in his anger ; which shaketh the earth 
out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble ; 
which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not ; and 
sealeth up the stars ! Behold, he taketh away, who 
can hinder him ? Who will say unto him, What 
docst thou ? If God will not withdraw his anger, 
the proud helpers do stoop under him." Job 9 : 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 109 



S--6, 12, 13. And art thou a fit match for such an 
antagonist ? " 0 consider this, ye that forget God, 
lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to de- 
liver." Submit to mercy ; let not dust and stubble 
stand out against the Almighty ; set not briers and 
thorns against him in battle, lest he go through 
them, and consume them together ; but lay hold on 
his strength that you may " make peace with him." 
"Woe to him that striveth with his Maker !" 

The wisdom of God is set to ruin thee. He hath 
ordained his arrows, and prepared instruments of 
death, and made all things ready. His counsels are 
against thee, to contrive thy destruction. He sees 
how thou wilt come down mightily in a moment; 
how thou wilt gnash thy teeth for anguish of heart, 
when thou seest thou art fallen irremediably into 
the pit of destruction. 

The truth of God is sworn against thee. If he 
be true and faithful, thou must perish if thou goest 
on. Unless he be false to his word, thou must die, 
except thou repent. If we believe not, yet he 
abideth faithful ; he cannot deny himself ; that is, 
he is faithful to his threatenings as well as to his 
promises, and will show his faithfulness in our con- 
fusion, if we believe not. God hath told thee as 
plain as it can be spoken, that " if he wash thee not, 
thou hast no part in him that "if thou livest after 
the flesh, thou shalt die ;" that " except thou be 
converted, thou shalt in no wise enter into the king- 



11C 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



dom of heaven." Beloved, as the immutable faith- 
fulness of God in his promise and oath affords 
believers strong consolation, so they are to unbe- 
lievers for strong consternation and confusion. 

O sinner, tell me what dost thou think of all the 
threatenings of God's word that stand upon record 
against thee? Dost thou believe they are truth or 
not ? If not, thou art a wretched infidel. But, if 
thou dost believe them, 0 heart of adamant that 
thou hast, that thou canst walk up and down in 
quiet, when the truth and faithfulness of God are 
engaged to destroy thee ! The whole book of God 
doth testify against thee while thou remainest un- 
sanctified : it condemns thee in every leaf, and is to 
thee like Ezekiel's roll, written within and without 
with lamentation, and mourning, and woe. And all 
this shall surely come upon thee, except thou repent. 
** Heaven and earth shall pass away, but one jot or 
tittle of this word shall never pass away." 

Now, put all this together, and tell me if the case 
of the unconverted be not deplorably miserable. As 
we read of some persons that had bound themselves 
by an oath and a curse to kill Paul ; so thou must 
know, 0 sinner, to thy terror, that all the attributes 
of the infinite God are bound by an oath to punish 
thee. 0 man, what wilt thou do ; whither wilt 
thou flee ? If God's omniscience can find thee, 
thou shalt not escape. If the true and faithful God 
will regard his oath, perish thou must, except thou 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. Ill 

believe and repent. If the Almighty hath power 
to torment thee, thou must be perfectly miserable 
in soul and body to all eternity, unless it be pre- 
vented by speedy conversion. 

2. The whole creation of God is against thee. 
" The whole creation/ ' saith Paul, "groaneth and 
travaileth in pain." But what is it that the creation 
groaneth under ? The fearful abuse it is subject to 
in serving the lusts of unsanctified men. And what 
is it that the creation groaneth for ? For freedom 
and liberty from this abuse ; for the " creature is 
not willingly made subject to this bondage." Rom. 
8 : 20, 21. If the irrational and inanimate creatures 
had speech and reason, they would cry out under 
it, as a bondage insufferable, to be abused by the 
ungodly, contrary to their natures and the ends that 
the great Creator made them for. It is a saying of 
an eminent divine, " The liquor that the drunkard 
drinketh, if it had reason, like a man, to know how 
shamefully it is abused, would groan in the barrel 
against him, it would groan in the cup against him, 
groan in his throat, in his stomach against him ; it 
would fly in his face, if it could speak. And if God 
should open the mouths of his creatures, as he did 
the mouth of Balaam's ass, the proud man's gar- 
ment on his back would groan against him. There 
is never a creature, if it had reason to know how it 
is abused till a man be converted, but would groan 
against him : the land would groan to bear him ; the 



HQ 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



air would groan to give him breath ; their houses 
would groan to lodge them ; their beds would groan 
to ease them, their food to nourish them, their 
clothes to cover them, and the creature would groan 
to give them any help and comfort, so long as they 
live in sin against God." 

I think this should be a terror to an unconverted 
soul, to think he is a burden to the creation: " Cut 
it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ?" If inani- 
mate creatures could but speak, thy food would say, 
Lord, must I nourish such a wretch as this, and 
yield forth my strength for him to dishonor thee ? 
The very air would say, Lord, must I give this man 
breath to speak against Heaven, and scorn thy peo- 
ple, and vent his pride and wrath, and filthy com- 
munication, and utter oaths and blasphemy against 
thee? His poor beast would say, Lord, must I 
carry him upon his wicked design ? A wicked man ! 
the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him, 
till death satisfies both. While the Lord of hosts 
is against thee, be sure the host of the Lord is 
against thee, and all the creatures, as it were, up in 
arms, till, upon a man's conversion, the controversy 
being settled between God and him, he makes a 
covenant of peace with the creature for him. 

3. The roaring lion, Satan, hath his full power 
upon thee. Thou art led captive by him at his will. 
This is the spirit that worketh in the children of dis- 
obedience. He is the ruler of the darkness of this 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 113 

world, that is, of ignorant sinners who live in dark- 
ness. You pity the poor Indians that worship the 
devil for their god, but little think it is your own 
case. It is the common misery of all the unsancti- 
lied, that the devil is their god. Not that they in- 
tend to do him homage : they will be ready to defy 
him, and him that should say so of them ; but all 
this while they serve him, and live under his govern- 
ment. His servants ye are to whom ye obey. 
Rom. 6:16. O how many, then, will be found the 
real servants of the devil, that take themselves for 
no other than the children of God ! He can no 
sooner offer a sinful delight or opportunity for 
your unlawful advantage than you embrace it. 
If he suggest a lie, or prompt you to revenge, 
you readily obey. If he forbid you to read or 
pray, you hearken to him, and therefore his ser- 
vants you are. Indeed, he stands behind the curtain, 
he acts in the dark, and sinners see not who setteth 
them at work, but all the while he leads them. 
Doubtless the liar intends not a service to Satan, 
but his own advantage ; yet it is he that stands un- 
observed and putteth the thing into his heart. Un- 
doubtedly Judas, when he sold his Master for money, 
and the Chaldeans and Sabeans, when they plun- 
dered Job, intended not to do the devil a pleasure, 
but to satisfy their own covetous thirst ; yet it was 
he that actuated them in their wickedness. Men 
may be very slaves and common drudges for the 

Alleine's Alarm. 8 



114 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



devil, and not know it : nay, they may please them- 
selves in thoughts of liberty. 

Art thou yet in ignorance, and not turned from 
darkness unto light ? I fear thou art under the 
power of Satan. Dost thou live in the wilful prac- 
tice of any known sin ? Know that thou art of the 
devil. Dost thou live in strife, or envy, or malice ? 
Yerily he is thy father. 0 dreadful case ! However 
Satan may provide his slaves with divers pleasures, 
yet it is but to draw them into endless perdition. 
The serpent comes with the fruit in his mouth, but, 
with Eve, thou seest not the deadly sting. He that 
is now thy tempter, will one day be thy tormentor. 
O that I could but give thee to see how bad a master 
thou servest, how merciless a tyrant thou gratifiest ; 
all whose pleasure is to set thee on to make thy 
perdition and damnation sure, and to heat the fur- 
nace hotter and hotter in which thou must burn for 
millions and millions of ages ! 

4. The guilt of all thy sins lies like a mountain 
upon thee. Poor soul, thou feelest it not ; but this 
is that which seals thy misery. While unconverted, 
none of thy sins are blotted out, they are all upon 
record against thee. Regeneration and remission 
are never separated ; the unsanctified are unjustified 
and unpardoned. It is a fearful thing to be in debt, 
but above all, in God's debt ; for there is no arrest 
so formidable as his, no prison so dreary as his. 
Look upon an enlightened sinner who feels the 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 115 

weight of his own guilt : 0 how frightful are his 
looks, how fearful are his complaints ! his comforts 
are turned into wormwood, and his moisture into 
drought, and his sleep is departed from his eyes. 
He is a terror to himself and all that are about him, 
and is ready to envy the very stones that lie in the 
street, because they are senseless and feel not his 
misery, and wisheth he had been a dog, rather than 
a man, because then death had put an end to his 
misery ; whereas now it will be but the beginning 
of that which will know no ending. 

However you may make light of it now, you will 
one day find the guilt of unpardoned sin to be a 
heavy burden. This is a mill-stone, that "whoso- 
ever falleth upon it shall be broken ; but upon 
N whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to pow- 
der. " The guilt of our sins caused the agony and 
death of the blessed Saviour. And if it did this in 
the green tree, what will it do in the dry ? 

O think of thy case in time. Canst thou think 
of that threat without trembling, " Ye shall die in 
your sins ?" 0, better were it for thee to die in a 
jail, in a ditch, in a dungeon, than die in thy sins. 
If death, as it will take away all thy comforts, would 
take away thy sins too, it were some mitigation ; but 
thy sins will follow thee when thy friends leave thee, 
and all worldly enjoyments shake hands with thee. 
Thy sins will not die with thee as a prisoner's other 
debts will ; but they will go to judgment with thee. 



116 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



there to be thy accusers ; and they will go to hell 
with thee, there to be thy tormentors. 0 the work 
that these will make thee. 0 look over thy debts 
in time ; how every one of God's commandments is 
ready to arrest thee, and take thee by the throat for 
the innumerable bonds it hath upon thee. What 
wilt thou do, then, when they shall all together 
come in against thee ? Hold open the eyes of thy 
conscience to consider this, that thou mayest despair 
of thyself and be driven to Christ, and fly for refuge 
to " lay hold on the hope that is set before thee." 

5. Thy raging lusts do miserably enslave thee. 
While unconverted, # thou art a very servant to sin ; 
it reigns over thee, and holds thee under its do- 
minion, till thou art brought within the bonds of 
God's covenant. There is not such another tyrant 
as sin. 0 the vile and fearful work that it doth en- 
gage its servants in ! 

Would it not pierce thy heart to see a company 
of poor creatures drudging and toiling to carry to- 
gether fagots and fuel for their own burning ? This 
is the employment of sin's drudges. Even while 
they bless themselves in their unrighteous gains, 
while they sing in pleasure, they are but treasuring 
up vengeance for their eternal burning ; they are 
but adding to the pile of Tophet, and flinging in oil 
to make the flame rage the fiercer. Who would 
serve such a master, whose work is drudgery, whose 
wages are death ? 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 117 

What a woful spectacle was the poor wretch pos- 
sessed with the legion ! Would it not have grieved 
thy heart to see him among the tombs cutting and 
wounding himself ? This is thy case ; such is thy 
work ; every stroke is a thrust at thy heart. Con- 
science indeed is now asleep ; but, when death and 
judgment shall bring thee to thy senses, then wilt 
thou feel the anguish in every wound. The con- 
vinced sinner is a sensible instance of the miserable 
bondage of sin : conscience flies upon him, and tells 
him the end of these things ; and yet such a slave he is 
to his lusts, that on he goes, though he sees it will be 
his perdition : when the temptation comes, lust breaks 
the cords of all his vows and promises, and carries 
him headlong to his own destruction. 

6. The furnace of eternal vengeance is heated ready 
for thee. Hell and destruction open their mouths 
upon thee ; they gape for thee ; they groan for thee, 
Isa. 5 : 14 ; waiting as it were with a greedy eye, as 
thou standest on the brink. If the wrath of men 
be " as the roaring of a lion," " more heavy than the 
sand," what is the wrath of the infinite God? If 
the burning furnace heated in Nebuchadnezzar's 
fiery rage, when he commanded it to be made yet 
seven times hotter, was so fierce as to burn up even 
those that drew near to throw the three children in, 
how hot is that burning of the Almighty's fury ! 
Surely this is seventy times seven more fierce. What 
thinkest thou, 0 man, of being a fagot in hell to all 



118 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



eternity? ''Can thine heart endure, or can thine 
hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with 
thee? saith the Lord of hosts." Canst thou abide 
the everlasting burnings ? Canst thou dwell with 
consuming fire ; when thou shalt be as glowing iron 
in hell, and thy whole body and soul shall be as per- 
fectly possessed by God's burning vengeance as the 
sparkling iron with fire, when heated in the fiercest 
furnace ? Some of the choicest servants of God, 
when under the hidings of his face, and dreading the 
effects of his displeasure, have bewailed their condi- 
tion with bitter lamentations. How then wilt thou 
endure when God shall pour out all his vials, and 
set himself against thee, to torment thee ; when he 
shall make thy conscience the tunnel by which he 
will be pouring his burning wrath into thy soul for 
ever, and when he shall fill all thy pores as full of 
torment as they are now full of sin ; when immor- 
tality shall be thy misery, and to die the death of a 
brute, and be swallowed in the gulf of annihilation, 
shall be such a felicity as the whole eternity of 
wishes and an ocean of tears shall never purchase ? 

Now thou canst put off the evil day, and laugh 
and be merry, and forget "the terror of the Lord." 
But how wilt thou hold out, or hold up, when God 
will cast thee into a "bed of torments," and make 
thee to "lie down in sorrow;" when roarings and 
blasphemies shall be thy only music, and the wine 
of the wrath of God, which is poured out without 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 119 

mixture into the cup of his indignation, shall be thy 
only drink ; and when thou shalt draw in flames for 
thy breath : in a word, when the smoke of thy tor- 
ment shall ascend for ever and ever, and thou shalt 
have no rest day nor night, no rest in thy conscience, 
no ease in thy bones ; but thou shalt be an execra- 
tion and astonishment, and a curse and a reproach, 
for evermore? Jer. 42: 18. 

0 sinner, stop here, and consider. If thou art a 
man, and not a senseless block, consider. Bethink 
thyself where thou standest — upon the very brink 
of destruction. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul 
liveth, there is but a step between thee and this. 
Thou knowest not, when thou liest down, but thou 
mayest be in hell before morning : thou knowest 
not, when thou risest, but thou mayest drop in be- 
fore night. Barest thou make light of this ? Wilt 
thou go on in such a dreadful condition, as if nothing 
ailed thee ? If thou puttest it off, and say est, " this 
doth not belong to thee," look again over the fore- 
going chapter, and tell me the truth. Are none 
of those black marks found upon thee ? Do not 
blind thine eyes ; do not deceive thyself ; see thy 
misery while thou mayest prevent it. Think what 
it is to be a vile outcast, a lost reprobate, a vessel 
of wrath, into which the Lord will be pouring out 
his tormenting fury while he hath a being. 

Divine wrath is a fierce, devouring, everlasting, 
unquenchable fire, and this must be thy portion, 



120 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



unless thou consider thy ways, and speedily turn to 
the Lord by a sound conversion. They that have 
had but a foretaste of this woe, O what amazing 
spectacles they have been ! Whose heart would not 
melt to have heard Spira's outcries ; to have seen 
Chaloner, that monument of justice, worn to skin 
and bone, blaspheming the God of heaven, cursing 
himself, and continually crying out, " 0 torture, tor- 
ture, torture! 0 torture, torture!" as if the flames 
of wrath had already taken hold on him ; to have 
heard Rogers crying out, "I have had a little pleas- 
ure, but now I must have hell for evermore ;" wish- 
ing but for this mitigation, that God would let him 
lie burning for ever behind the back of that fire, on 
the hearth, and bringing in his sad conclusion still, 
at the end of whatever was spoken to him to afford 
him some hope, "I must to hell, I must to hell, I 
must to the furnace of hell, for millions and millions 
of ages?" 0, if the fears and forethoughts of the 
wrath to come be so terrible, so intolerable, what 
must be the feeling of it ? 

Sinner, it is in vain to flatter you : this would be but 
to draw you into the unquenchable fire. Know ye 
from the living God, that here you must he ; with these 
burnings you must dwell till immortality die and im- 
mutability change, till eternity run out and omnipo- 
tence is no longer able to punish, except you be in good 
earnest renewed throughout by sanctifying grace. 

1. The lavj discharges all its threats and curses at thee. 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 



121 



0 how dreadfully dotli it thunder. It flashes devour- 
ing fire in thy face. Its words are as drawn swords, 
and as the sharp arrows of the mighty. It demands 
satisfaction to the utmost, and cries, Justice, justice ! 
It speaks blood, and war, and wounds, and death, 
against thee. 0 man, away to thy strong hold ; away 
from thy sins ; haste to the sanctuary, the city of 
refuge — even the Lord Jesus Christ ; hide thee in him, 
or else thou art lost, without any hope of recovery. 

8. The Gospel ^se^bindeth the sentence of eternal 
damnation upon thee. If thou continuest in thine im- 
penitent and unconverted state, know that the Gos- 
pel denounceth a much sorer condemnation than ever 
would have been for the transgression only of the first 
covenant. Is it not a dreadful case to have the Gospel 
itself fill its mouth with threats ; to have " the Lord 
roar from mount Zion against thee ? ' ' Hear the terror 
of the Lord : " He that belie veth not, shall be damned. " 
" Except ye repent, ye shall all perish." " This is the 
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and 
men love darkness rather than light." " He that be- 
lieveth not, the wrath of God abideth on him." " If 
the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every 
transgression and disobedience received a just rec- 
ompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neg- 
lect so great salvation ?" " He that despised Moses' 
law died without mercy : of how much sorer pun- 
ishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trod- 
den under foot the Son of God?" 



122 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



And is this true indeed ? Is this thy misery ? 
Yea, it is as true as God is. Better open thine eyes 
and see it now, while thou may est remedy it, than 
blind and harden thyself till, to thy eternal sorrow, 
thou shalt feel what thou wouldst not believe ; and 
if it be true, what dost thou mean, to loiter and 
linger in such a case as this ? 

Alas for thee, poor man ! how effectually hath sin 
undone thee, and deprived and despoiled thee even 
of thy reason to look after thine own everlasting good. 
0 miserable wretch ! what stupidity and senselessness 
have surprised thee. O let me knock up and awake 
this sleeper. Who dwells within the walls of this 
flesh ? Is there ever a soul here, a rational, under- 
standing soul ; or art thou only a senseless lump ? 

Art thou a reasonable soul, and yet so far bruti- 
fied as to forget that thou art immortal, and to think 
thyself to be as the beasts that perish ? Having 
reason to understand the eternity of the future state, 
dost thou yet make light of bein^ everlastingly mis- 
erable, which is to be so much below the brute, as 
it is worse to act against reason than to act with- 
out it ? 0 unhappy soul, that wast the glory of 
man, the companion of angels, and the image of 
God; that wast God's representative in the world, 
and hadst the supremacy amongst the creatures, and 
the dominion over thy Maker's works ; art thou now 
become a slave to sense? Art thou heaping to- 
gether a little refined earth, so unsuitable to thy spir- 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 123 

itual immortal nature ? 0 why dost thou not be- 
think thee where thou shalt be for ever ? Death is 
at hand ; " the Judge is even at the door." Yet a 
little while, and "time shall be no longer." And 
wilt thou run the hazard of continuing in such a 
state, in which, if thou be overtaken, thou art irre- 
coverably miserable ? 

Come then, arise, and attend to thy nearest con- 
cerns. Tell me whither art thou going? What, 
wilt thou live in such a course, wherein every act is 
a step to perdition ; and thou dost not know but the 
next night thou mayest make thy bed in hell ? 0, 
if thou hast a spark of reason, consider, and turn 
and hearken to thy true friend, who would show 
thee thy present misery, that thou mightest in time 
make thine escape, and be eternally happy. ' 

Hear what the Lord saith : "Fear ye not me? 
saith the Lord : will ye not tremble at my presence ?" 

0 sinners, do you make light of " the wrath to come ?" 

1 am sure there is a time coming when you will not 
make light of it. Why, the very devils "believe 
and tremble." What, are you more hardened than 
they ? Will you run upon the edge of the rock ? 
Will you play at the hole of the asp ? Will you 
put your hand upon the cockatrice's den ? Will you 
dally with devouring wrath as if you were indifferent 
whether you escape or endure it ? 0 madness of 
folly ! like that of a madman that casteth firebrands, 
arrows, and death, and saith, "Am not I in sport?" 



124 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



There is no one so beside himself as the wilful sin- 
ner, that goeth on in his unconverted state without 
sense, as if nothing ailed him. The man that runs 
into the cannon's mouth, and sports with his blood, 
or lets out his life in a frolic, is sensible, sober, and 
serious, compared with him that goeth on still in his 
trespasses ; for ( ' he stretcheth out his hand against 
God, and strengtheneth himself against the Al- 
mighty : he runneth upon him, even upon his neck, 
upon the thick bosses of his buckler. " Is it wisdom 
to sport with the second death, or to venture into 
the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone ? 
What shall I say ? I can find out no expression, no 
comparison, whereby to set forth the dreadful mad- 
ness of the soul that will go on in sin. 

Awake, awake ! 0 sinner, arise and take thy flight. 
There is but one door that thou mayest flee by, and 
that is the strait door of conversion and the new 
birth. Unless thou turn unfeignedly from all thy 
sins, and come to Jesus Christ, and take him for the 
Lord thy righteousness, and walk in him in holiness 
and newness of life ; as the Lord liveth, it is not 
more certain that thou art now out of hell, than that 
thou shalt without fail be in it but a few days or 
nights hence. 0 set thy heart to think of thy case. 
Doth not thy everlasting misery or welfare deserve 
a little consideration ? Look again over the miseries 
of the unconverted. If the Lord hath not spoken 
by me, regard me not ; but if it be the very word 



THE MISERIES OF THE UNCONVERTED. 125 

of God that all this misery lies -upon thee, what a 
case art thou in ! Is it for one that hath his senses 
to live in such a condition, and not to make all pos- 
sible haste to prevent his utter ruin ? 0 man, who 
hath bewitched thee, Gal. 3:1, that in the matters 
of this present life thou shalt be wise enough to fore- 
cast thy business, foresee thy danger, and prevent 
thy ruin ; but in matters of everlasting consequence 
shalt be slight and careless, as if they little con- 
cerned thee ? Is it nothing to thee to have all the 
attributes of God engaged against thee? Canst 
thou live without his favor ? Canst thou escape his 
hands, or endure his vengeance ? Dost thou hear the 
creation groaning under thee, and hell groaning for 
thee, and yet think thy case good enough ? Art 
thou under the power of corruption, in the dark, 
noisome prison, fettered with lusts, working out thy 
own damnation— and is not this worth a thought ? 

Wilt thou make light of all the terrors of the law, 
of all its curses and thunders, as if they were but the 
threat enings of a child ? Dost thou laugh at hell 
and destruction, or canst thou drink the envenomed 
cup of the Almighty's fury, as if it were but a com- 
mon potion ? 

Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will de- 
mand of thee, and answer thou me. Art thou such 
a leviathan as that the scales of thy pride should 
resist thy Maker ? Wilt thou esteem his arrows as 
straw, and the instruments of death as rotten wood ? 



126 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



Art thou chief of all the children of pride, even that 
thou shouldst count his darts as stubble, and laugh 
at the shaking of his spear ? Art thou made with- 
out fear, and contemnest thou his barbed arrows ? 
Art thou like the horse that paweth in the valley 
and rejoiceth in his strength, who goethout to meet 
the armed men? Dost thou mock at fear, and art 
thou not affrighted, neither turnest back from God's 
sword when his quiver rattleth against thee, the glit- 
tering spear and the shield ? Well, if the threats 
and calls of the word will not awaken thee, I am 
sure death and judgment will. 0 what wilt thou 
do when the Lord cometh forth against thee, and in 
his fury falleth upon thee, and thou shalt feel what 
thou readest ? If when Daniel's enemies were cast 
into the den of lions, both they and their wives and 
their children, the lions had the mastery of them, 
and brake all their bones in pieces ere they came at 
the bottom of the den, Dan. 6 : 24, what shall be- 
come of thee when thou fallest into the hands of the 
living God ? 

0 do not then contend with God. " Repent and 
be converted," so none of this shall come upon 
thee. " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; 
call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he 
will abundantly pardon." 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 127 



CHAPTER VI. 

DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 

Before thou readest these directions, I advise 
lliee, yea, I charge thee, before God and his holy 
angels, that thou resolve to follow them, as far as 
conscience shall be convinced of their agreeableness 
to God's word and thy state ; and call in his assist- 
ance and blessing that they may succeed. And as 
I have sought the Lord and consulted his oracles 
what advice to give thee, so must thou entertain it 
with that awe, reverence, and purpose of obedience, 
which the word of the living God requires. 

Now, then, attend : " Set your heart unto all that 
I shall testify unto you this day ; for it is not a vain 
thing — it is your life/' This is the end of all that 
has been spoken hitherto, to bring you to set your 
heart upon turning to God. I would not trouble 
you, nor "torment you before the time," with the 
thoughts of your eternal misery, but in order to your 
making your escape. Were you shut up under your 
present misery without remedy, it were but mercy 
to let you alone, that you might take in that little 
poor comfort which you are capable of in this world ; 
but you may yet be happy, if you do not wilfully 
refuse the means of your recovery. Behold, I hold 
open the door to you ; arise, take your flight : I set 
the way of life before you ; walk in it, and you shall 



128 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



live, and not die. It grieves me that you should be 
your own murderers, and throw yourselves headlong, 
when God and man cry out to you, as Peter in an- 
other case to his Master, "Spare thyself." 

The destruction of ungodly men is wilful. God 
that made them crieth out to them, as Paul to the 
distracted jailer when about to murder himself, " Do 
thyself no harm." The ministers of Christ forewarn 
them, and follow them, and would gladly have them 
back ; but, alas, no expostulations or entreaties will 
prevail, but men will hurl themselves into perdition, 
while pity itself looketh on. 

What shall I say ? Would it not grieve a person 
of any humanity, if, in the time of a raging plague, 
he should have a remedy that would infallibly cure 
all the country and recover the most hopeless pa- 
tients, and yet his friends and neighbors should die 
by hundreds about him, because they would not 
use it ? Men and brethren, though you carry the 
certain symptoms of death in your faces, yet I have 
a receipt that will cure you all infallibly. Follow 
but these directions, and if you do not then win 
heaven, I will be content to lose it. 

Hear then, O sinner, and as ever thou wouldst 
be converted and saved, embrace this following 
counsel. 

Direction I. Set it down with thyself as an un- 
doubted truth, that it is impossible for thee ever to 
get to heaven in this thy unconverted state. 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 129 

Can any other but Christ save thee ? and he tells 
thee he will never do it except thou be regenerated 
and converted. Doth he not keep the keys of 
heaven ; and canst thou go in without his leave ? 
as thou must, if ever thou come thither in thy 
natural condition, without a sound and thorough 
conversion. 

Direction II. Labor to get a thorough sight and 
lively sense and feeling of thy sins. 

Till men are weary and heaven laden, and pricked 
at the heart, and quite sick of sin, they will not 
come to Christ, in his way, for cure, nor to purpose 
inquire, " What shall we do ?" They must set 
themselves down for dead men, before they will 
come unto Christ that they may have life. Labor, 
therefore, to set all thy sins in order before thee ; 
never be afraid to look upon them, but let thy spirit 
make diligent search. Inquire into thine heart, and 
into thy life ; enter into a thorough examination of 
thyself and all thy ways, that thou mayest make a 
full discovery ; and call in the help of God's Spirit, 
in the sense of thine own inability hereunto, for it is 
his proper work to convince of sin. Spread all be - 
fore thy conscience, till thy heart and eyes be set 
weeping. Leave not striving with God and thine 
own soul, till it cry out under the sense of thy sins, 
as the enlightened jailer, "What must I do to be 
saved ?" To this purpose, 

Meditate on the number of thy sins. David's 

Alleine's Alarm. 9 



130 ALLELNE'S ALARM. 

heart failed when he thought of this, and considered, 
that he had more sins than the hairs of his head. 
This made him cry out for the multitude of God's 
tender mercies. Look backward ; where was ever 
the place, what was ever the time, in which thou 
didst not sin ? Look inward ; what part or power 
canst thou find in soul or body but it is poisoned 
with sin ; what duty dost thou ever perform, into 
which this poison is not shed ? 0 how great is the 
sum of thy debts, who hast been all thy life running 
upon trust, and never didst or canst pay off one 
penny ! Look over the sin of thy nature, and all its 
cursed brood, the sins of thy life. Call to mind thy 
omissions and commissions ; the sins of thy thoughts, 
words, and actions ; the sins of thy youth, and the 
sins of thy riper years. Be not like a desperate 
bankrupt, that is afraid to look over his books. 
Read the records of conscience carefully. These 
books must be opened sooner or later. 

Meditate on the aggravations of thy sins, as they 
are the grand enemies of the God of thy life, and 
of the life of thy soul : in a word, they are the pub- 
lic enemies of all mankind. How do David, Ezra, 
Daniel, and the good Levites, aggravate their sins, 
from the consideration of their opposition to God 
and his good and righteous laws, and of the mercies 
and warnings against which they were committed ! 
O the work that sin has made in the world ! This 
is the enemy that has brought in death ; that has 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 131 

robbed and enslaved man ; that has done the work 
of the devil, and digged bell. This is tbe enemy 
that has turned the world upside down, and sown 
dissensions between man and the creatures, betwixt 
man and man, yea, between man and himself, setting 
the animal part against the rational, the will against 
the judgment, lust against conscience ; yea, worst 
of all, between God and man, making the sinner 
both hateful to God and the hater of God. 0 man, 
how canst thou make so light of sin ? This is the 
traitor that thirsted for the blood of the Son of God, 
that sold him, that mocked him, that scourged him, 
that spit in his face, that tore his hands, that pierced 
his side, that pressed his soul, that mangled his 
body, that never left him till he had bound him, 
condemned him, nailed him, crucified him, and put 
him to an open shame. This is that deadly poison, 
so powerful of operation that one drop of it, shed on 
the root of mankind, has corrupted, spoiled, poisoned, 
and ruined his whole race. This the bloody execu- 
tioner that has killed the prophets, burnt the mar- 
tyrs, murdered all the apostles, all the patriarchs, 
all the kings and potentates ; that has destroyed 
cities, swallowed empires, and devoured whole 
nations. Whatever weapon it was done by, it was 
sin that caused the execution. Dost thou yet think 
it but a small thing ? If Adam and all his children 
could be dug out of their graves, and their bodies 
piled up to heaven, and an inquest were made what 



132 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



matchless murderer were guilty of all this blood, it 
would be all found in sin. Study the nature of sin, 
till thy heart incline to fear and loathe it ; and medi- 
tate on the aggravations of thy particular sins, how 
thou hast sinned against all God's warnings, against 
thy own prayers, against mercies, against corrections, 
against clearest light, against freest love, against 
thine own resolutions, against promises, vows, and 
covenants of better obedience. Charge thy heart 
home with these things till it blush for shame, and 
be brought out of all good opinion of itself. 

Meditate on the desert of sin. It crieth to Heaven ; 
it calls for vengeance. Its due wages are death and 
damnation ; it brings the curse of God upon the 
soul and body. The least sinful word or thought 
lays thee under the infinite wrath of God. 0 what 
a load of wrath, what a weight of curses, what 
treasures of vengeance, have all the millions of thy 
sins deserved ! 0 judge thyself, that the Lord may 
not judge thee. 

Meditate on the deformity and defilement of sin. 
It is black as hell, the very image and likeness of 
the devil drawn upon the soul. 1 John, 3:8, 10. 
It would affright thee to see thyself in the hateful- 
deformity of thy nature. There is no mire so un- 
clean, no plague or leprosy so noisome as sin, in 
which thou art plunged and rendered more dis- 
pleasing to the pure and holy nature of the glorious 
God than the vilest object can be to thee. Couldst 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 133 

thou take up a toad into thy bosom ; couldst thou 
cherish it, and take delight in it ? But thou art as 
contrary to the pure and perfect holiness of the 
divine nature, till thou art purified by the blood of 
Jesus and the power of renewing grace. 

Above all other sins, consider these two. 

1. The sin of thy heart. It is to little purpose to 
lop off the branches while the root of corruption 
remains untouched. In vain do men lave out the 
streams, when the fountain is running that fills up 
all again. Let the axe of thy repentance, with 
David's, go to the root of sin. Study how deep, 
how permanent is thy natural pollution, how uni- 
versal it is, till thou dost cry out, with Paul, upon 
thy body of death. The heart is never soundly 
broken till thoroughly convinced of the heinousness 
of its original and deep-rooted depravity. Here fix 
thy thoughts ; this is that which makes thee back- 
ward to all good, and prone to all evil ; that sheds 
blindness, pride, prejudice, and unbelief into thy 
mind ; enmity, inconstancy, and obstinacy into thy 
will ; inordinate heats and colds into thy affections ; 
insensibleness and unfaithfulness into thy conscience ; 
slipperiness into thy memory ; and, in a word, hath 
put every wheel of the soul out of order, and made 
it, from a habitation of holiness, to become a very 
hell of iniquity. This is what hath defiled and per- 
verted all thy members, and turned them into 
weapons of unrighteousness, and servants of sin ; 



134 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



that hath filled the head with carnal and corrupt 
designs ; the hand with sinful practices ; the eyes 
with wandering and wantonness ; the tongue with 
deadly poison ; that hath opened the ears to tales, 
flattery, and filthy communication, and shut them 
against the instructions of life ; and hath rendered 
thy heart the cursed source of all deadly imagina- 
tions, so that it poureth out its wickedness without 
ceasing even as naturally as a fountain doth pour 
forth its waters, or the raging sea doth cast forth 
mire and dirt. And wilt thou yet be in love with 
thyself, and tell us any longer of thy good heart ? 
0 never leave meditating on the desperate conta- 
gion, the original corruption of thy heart, till, with 
Ephraim, thou bemoan thyself ; and with the deepest 
shame and sorrow smite on thy breast, as the pub- 
lican; and, with Job, abhor thyself, and repent in 
dust and ashes. 

2. The particular evil that thou art most addicted 
to : find out all its aggravations, set home upon thy 
heart all God's threats against it ; repentance drives 
before it the whole herd, but especially sticks the 
arrow in the beloved sin, and singles this out, above 
the rest, to run it down. 0 labor to make this sin 
odious to thy soul, and double thy guard and reso- 
lutions against it, because this doth most dishonor 
God and endanger thee. 

Direction III. Strive to affect thy heart with a 
deep sense of thy present misery. 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED, 135 

Read over the foregoing chapter again and again, 
and get it out of the book into thy heart. Remem- 
ber when thou liest down, that, for aught thou 
knowest, thou mayest awake in flames ; and when 
thou risest up, that by the next night thou mayest 
make thy bed in hell. Is it nothing to thee to live 
in such a fearful case, to stand tottering on the brink 
of the bottomless pit ; and to live at the mercy of 
every disease, that, if it but fall upon thee, will send 
thee forthwith into the burnings? Suppose thou 
sawest a condemned wretch hanging over Nebu- 
chadnezzar's burning fiery furnace by nothing but a 
thread which was ready to break every moment, 
would not thy heart tremble for such a one ? Thou 
art the man : this is thy very case, 0 man, woman, 
that readest this, if thou be yet unconverted. What 
if the thread of thy life should break — and thou 
knowest not but it may be the next night, yea, 
the next moment — where wouldst thou be then ; 
whither wouldst thou drop ? Verily, upon the 
breaking of this thread, thou fallest into the lake 
that burns with fire and brimstone, where thou 
must lie while God hath a being, if thou die in 
thy present case. And doth not thy soul trem- 
ble as thou readest ? . Do not thy tears bedew 
the paper, and thy heart throb in thy bosom ? 
Dost thou not yet begin to smite on thy breast, 
and bethink thyself what need thou hast of a 
change? 0 what is thy heart made of ? Hast thou 



136 



ALLEINE'S ALARM, 



not only lost all regard to God, but all love and 
pity to thyself ? 

0 study thy misery till thy heart cry out for 
Christ as earnestly as ever a drowning man did for 
a boat, or the wounded for a surgeon. Men must 
come to see the danger and feel the smart of their 
deadly sores and sickness, or Christ will be to them 
a physician of no value. The manslayer hastens to 
the city of refuge, when pursued by the avenger of 
blood ; but men must be even forced and driven out 
of themselves, or they will not come to Christ. It 
was distress and extremity that made the prodigal 
think of returning. While Laodicea thinks herself 
rich, increased in goods, in need of nothing, there is 
little hope. She must be deeply convinced of her 
wretchedness, blindness, poverty, and nakedness, 
before she will come to Christ for his gold, raiment, 
and eye-salve. Therefore hold the eyes of con- 
science open, amplify thy misery as much as possi- 
ble, do not flee the sight of it for fear it should fill 
thee with terror. The sense of thy misery is but 
as it were the suppuration of the wound, which is 
necessary to the cure. Better now to fear the 
torments that abide thee, than to feel them here- 
after. 

Direction IV. Settle it upon thy heart that thou 
must look out of thyself and away from thy own 
doings for help. 

Never think thy praying, reading, hearing, con- 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 137 

fessing, or amending, will do the cure ; these must 
be attended to, but thou art undone if thou rest in 
them ; thou art a lost man if thou hope to escape 
drowning on any other plank but Jesus Christ. 
Thou must unlearn thyself, and renounce thine 
own wisdom, thine own righteousness, thine own 
strength, and throw thyself wholly upon Christ, or 
thou canst not escape. While men trust in them- 
selves, and establish their own righteousness, and 
have confidence in the flesh, they will not come 
savingly to Christ. Thou must know thy gain to 
be but loss, thy strength but weakness, thy righteous- 
ness rags and rottenness, before there will be an 
effectual closure between Christ and thee. Can 
the lifeless body shake off its grave-clothes, and 
loose the bands of death ? Then mayest thou re- 
cover thyself, who art dead in trespasses and sins, 
and under an impossibility of serving thy Maker 
acceptably in this condition. Therefore, when thou 
goest to pray or meditate, or to do any of the duties 
to which thou art here directed, go out of thyself, 
call in the help of the Spirit, as despairing to do 
any thing pleasing to God in thine own strength ; 
yet neglect not duty, put thyself in the way of the 
Spirit. While the eunuch was reading, then the 
Holy Ghost did send Philip to him. When the dis- 
ciples were praying, when Cornelius and his friends 
were hearing, then the Holy Ghost fell upon them 
and filled them all. 



138 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



Direction V. Forthwith, renounce all thy sins. 

If thou yield thyself to the practice of any sin, 
thou art undone. In vain dost thou hope for life 
by Christ, except thou depart from iniquity. For- 
sake thy sins, or thou canst not find mercy. Thou 
canst not be married to Christ except divorced from 
sin. Give up the traitor, or you can have no peace 
with heaven. Thou must part with thy sins or with 
thy soul ; spare but one sin and God will not spare 
thee. Thy sins must die, or thou must die for them. 
If thou allow of one sin, though but a little, a secret 
one, though thou mayest plead necessity, and have 
a hundred shifts and excuses for it, the life of thy 
soul must go for the life of that sin. And will it 
not be dearly bought ? 

0 sinner, hear and consider : if thou wilt part 
with thy sins God will give thee his Christ. Is not 
this a fair exchange ? I testify unto you this day, 
that if you perish, it is not because there was never 
a Saviour provided nor life tendered, but because, 
with the Jews, you prefer the murderer before the 
Saviour, sin before Christ, "and love darkness rather 
than light." Search thy heart therefore with can- 
dles, as the Jews did their houses for leaven before 
the passover. Labor to find out thy sins ; enter into 
thy closet, and consider, What evil have I lived in ; 
what duty have I neglected towards God ; what 
sin have I lived in against my brother ? And now 
strike the darts through the heart of thy sin, as Joab 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 139 

j| did through Absalom's. Never stand looking upon 
I thy sins, nor rolling the morsel under thy tongue, 
I but cast it out as poison, with fear and detestation, 
j Alas, what will thy sins do for thee, that thou 
| shouldst hesitate to part with them? They will 
j flatter thee, but they will undo thee and poison thee 
j while they please thee, and arm the justice and 
wrath of the infinite God against thee. They will 
open hell for thee, and pile up fuel to burn thee. 
Behold the gibbet that they have prepared for thee. 
| 0 serve them like Haman, and do upon them the 
execution they would else have done upon thee. 
Away with them, crucify them and let Christ only 
be Lord over thee. 

Direction VI. Make a solemn choice of God for 
thy portion and blessedness. 

With all possible devotion and veneration avouch 
the Lord for thy God : set the world, with all its 
glory, and paint, and gallantry, with all its pleasures 
and promotions, on the one hand ; and set God, 
with all his infinite excellences and perfections, on 
the other ; and see that thou do deliberately make 
thy choice. Take up thy rest in God. Sit thee 
down under his shadow. Let his promises and per- 
fections turn the scale against all the world. Settle 
it upon thy heart, that the Lord is an all-sufficient 
portion, that thou canst not be miserable whilst thou 
hast God to live upon. Take him for thy shield 
and exceeding great reward. God alone is more 



140 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



than all the world ; content thyself with him. Let 
others possess the preferments and glory of the 
world ; place thou thy happiness in the favor of 
God, and in the light of his countenance. 

Poor sinner, thou hast fallen off from God, and 
hast engaged his power and wrath against thee ; yet 
know, that of his abundant grace he doth offer to 
be thy God again in Christ. What sayest thou; 
wilt thou have the Lord for thy God ? Take this 
counsel, and thou shalt have him ; come to him by 
Christ, renounce the idols of thy pleasures, gain, 
and reputation ; let these be pulled from their 
throne, and set God's interest uppermost in thy 
heart. Take him as God, to be chief in thy affec- 
tions and purposes ; for he will not endure to have 
any set above him. In a word, thou must take him 
in all his personal relations and in all his essential 
perfections. 

1. In all his personal relations. God the Father 
must be taken for thy Father. 0 come to him with 
the prodigal : " Father, I have sinned against heaven, 
and in thy sight, and am not worthy to be called 
thy son ;" but since, of thy wonderful mercy, thou 
art pleased to take me, that am of myself most vile, 
even a beast and no man before thee, to be a child, 
I solemnly take thee for my Father, commend my- 
self to thy care, and trust to thy providence, and 
cast my burden on thee. I depend on thy provision, 
and submit to thy corrections, and trust under the 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 141 

shadow of thy wings, and hide in thy chambers, and 
fly to thy name. I renounce all confidence in my- 
self ; I repose my confidence in thee ; I declare my 
engagement with thee ; I will be for thee, and not 
for another. 

God the Son must be taken for thy Saviour, thy 
Redeemer, and thy righteousness. He must be ac- 
cepted, as the only way to the Father, and the only 
means of life. 0 then put off the raiment of thy 
captivity, put on the wedding garment, and go and 
marry thyself to Christ. " Lord, I am thine, and all 
I have, my body, soul, and estate. I give my heart 
to thee ; I will be thine undividedly, thine everlast- 
ingly. I will set thy name on all I have, and use it 
only as thy goods, during thy leave, resigning all to 
thee. I will have no king but thee to reign over 
me. Other lords have had dominion over me ; but 
now I will make mention of thy name only, and do 
here take an oath of fealty to thee, promising to 
serve and fear thee above all competitors. I disa- 
vow mine own righteousness, and despair of ever 
being pardoned and saved for my own duties or 
graces, and lean solely on thy all-sufficient sacrifice 
and intercession for pardon, and life, and acceptance 
before God. I take thee for my only guide and in- 
structor, resolving to be directed by thee, and to 
wait for thy counsel." 

Lastly, God the Spirit must be taken for thy 
sanctifier, for thy advocate, thy counsellor, thy com- 



142 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



forter, the teacher of thy ignorance, the pledge and 
earnest of thy inheritance. " Awake thou North 
wind, and come, thou South, and blow upon my 
garden." "Come, thou Spirit of the Most High; 
here is a temple for thee ; here do thou rest for 
ever ; dwell here ; lo, I give possession to thee, full 
possession ; I send thee the keys of my heart, that 
all may be thine. I give up the use of all to thee, 
that every faculty and every member may be thy 
instrument to work righteousness and do the will of 
my Father who is in heaven." 

2. In all his essential perfections. Consider how 
the Lord hath revealed himself to you in his word. 
"Will you take him as such a God ? 0, sinner, here 
is the most blessed news that ever came to the sons 
of men : " The Lord will be thy God," if thou wilt 
but close with him in his excellences. Wilt thou 
have the merciful, the gracious, the sin-pardoning 
God to be thy God? "0 yes," saith the sinner, 
" I am undone else." But he farther tells thee, I 
am the holy and sin-hating God ; if thou wilt be 
owned as one of my people, thou must be holy — 
holy in heart, holy in life ; thou must put away all 
thy iniquities, be they ever so dear, ever so natural, 
ever so necessary to the maintaining of thy worldly 
interest. Unless thou wilt be at enmity with sin, I 
cannot be thy God. Cast out the leaven. "Put 
away the evil of thy doings ; cease to do evil ; learn 
to do well." Bring forth mine enemies, or there is 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 143 

no peace to be had with me. What doth thine 
heart answer? "Lord, I desire to have thee as 
such a God ; I desire to be holy as thou art holy, 
and to be made partaker of thy holiness. I love 
thee, not only for thy goodness and mercy, but foi 
thy holiness and purity. I take thy holiness for my 
happiness : O be to me a fountain of holiness ; set 
on me the stamp and impress of thy holiness : I will 
thankfully part with all my sins at thy command. 
My wilful sins I do forthwith forsake ; and for mine 
infirmities that cleave unto me, though I would be 
rid of them, I will strive against them continually : 
I detest them, and will pray against them, and never 
let them have rest in my soul." Beloved, whoever 
of you will thus accept the Lord, he shall be your 
God. 

Again, he tells you, "I am the all-sufficient God." 
Will you lay all at my feet, give up all to my dis- 
posal, and take me for your only portion ? Will 
you own and honor my all- sufficiency ? Will you 
take me as your happiness and treasure, your hope 
and bliss ? I am a sun and a shield all in one ; will 
you have me for your all ? Now what dost thou 
say to this ? Doth thy soul long for the onions and 
flesh-pots of Egypt ? Art thou loath to change thy 
earthly happiness for a portion in God ; and though 
thou wouldst be glad to have God and the world 
too, yet canst thou not think of having him, and 
nothing but him ; but hadst rather take up with the 



144 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



eartli below, if God would but let thee keep it as 
long as thou wouldst ? This is a fearful sign. But 
now, if thou art willing to sell all for the pearl of 
great price ; if thine heart answer, " Lord, I desire 
no other portion but thee ; take the corn, and the 
wine, and the oil who will, so I may have the light 
of thy countenance ; I fix upon thee for my happi- 
ness ; I gladly venture myself on thee, and trust 
myself with thee ; I set my hope in thee ; I take up 
my rest with thee ; let me hear thee say, I am thy 
God, thy salvation, and I have enough, all I wish 
for ; I will make no terms with thee but for thyself ; 
let me but have thee sure ; let me be able to make 
my claim and see my title to thyself; and for other 
things, I leave them to thee ; give me more or less, 
any thing or nothing ; I will be satisfied in my God." 
Take him thus, and he is thy own. 

Again, he tells you, I am the sovereign Lord ; if 
you will have me for your God you must give me 
the supremacy. You must not make me second to 
sin or any worldly interest. If you will be my 
people I must have the rule over you ; you must 
not live at your own pleasure. Will you come 
under my yoke ? Will you bow to my govern- 
ment ? Will you submit to my discipline, to my 
word, to my rod? Sinner, what sayest thou to 
this? "Lord, I had rather be at thy command 
than live at my own will ; I had rather have thy 
vr\Y. to be done than mine ; I approve of and con- 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED 145 

sent to tliy laws, and account it my privilege to be 
under them. And though the flesh rebel, and often 
break its bounds, I have resolved to take no other 
Lord but thee. I willingly take the oath of thy 
supremacy, and acknowledge thee for my Sovereign, 
and resolve all my days to pay the tribute of wor- 
ship, obedience, love, and service to thee, and to live 
to thee to the end of my life." This is a right ac- 
ceptance of God. 

To be short, he tells you, I am the true and 
faithful God. If you will have me for your God 
you must be content to trust me. Will you venture 
yourselves upon my word, and depend on my faith- 
fulness, and take my bond for your security? Will 
you be content to follow me in poverty, and re- 
proach, and affliction here ; and to tarry till the 
next world for your preferment ? Will you be con- 
tent to labor and suffer, and to tarry for your returns 
till the resurrection of the just ? My promise will 
not always be instantly fulfilled ; will you have the 
patience to wait ? Now, beloved, what say you to 
this ? Will you have this God for your God ? Will 
you be content to live by faith, and trust him for an 
unseen happiness, an unseen heaven, an unseen 
glory ? Do your hearts answer, " Lord, we will 
'venture ourselves upon thee ; we commit ourselves 
to thee ; Ave cast ourselves upon thee ; we know 
whom we have trusted ; we are willing to take thy 
word ; Ave prefer thy promises before our own pos- 

Allcinc'e Alarm. 10 



146 



ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 



sessions, and the hopes of heaven before all the en- 
joyments of earth ; we will do thy pleasure — what 
thou wilt here, so that we may have but thy faith- 
ful promise for heaven hereafter." If you can in 
truth, and upon deliberation, thus accept of God, 
he will be yours. Thus there must be, in a right 
conversion to God, a closing with him suitable to 
his excellences. But when men close with his 
mercy, but yet love sin, hating holiness and purity ; 
or will take him for their benefactor, but not for 
their sovereign ; or for their patron, and not for 
their portion ; this is no thorough and sound con- 
version. 

Direction VII. Accept of the Lord Jesus in all 
his offices, as thine. 

Upon these terms Christ may be had. Sinner, 
thou hast undone thyself, and art plunged into the 
ditch of most deplorable misery, out of which thou 
art never able to escape ; but Jesus Christ is able 
and ready to help thee, and he freely tenders him- 
self to thee. Be thy sins ever so many, ever so 
great, or of ever so long continuance, yet thou shalt 
be most certainly pardoned and saved, if thou dost 
not wretchedly neglect the offer that in the name 
of God is here made to thee. The Lord Jesus 
calleth thee to look to him and be saved. " Come 
unto him, and he will in nowise cast thee out." 
Yea, he beseecheth thee to be reconciled. He 
crieth in the streets ; he knocketh at thy door ; he 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 147 

inviteth thee to accept of him, and live with him. 
If thou diest, it is because thou wouldst not come 
to him for life. 

Now accept of an offered Christ, and thou art 
made for ever ; now give thy consent to him, and 
the match is made ; all the world cannot hinder it. 
Do not stand off because of thy unworthiness. I 
tell thee, nothing can undo thee but thine own un- 
willingness. Speak, man; art thou desirous of the 
honor ? Wilt thou have Christ in all his relations 
to be thine, thy king, thy priest, thy prophet ? Wilt 
thou have him and bear his cross ? Take not Christ 
without consideration, but sit down first and count 
the cost. Wilt thou lay all at his feet ? Wilt thou 
be content to run all hazards with him ? Wilt thou 
take thy lot with him, fall where it will ? Wilt thou 
"deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow him?" 
Art thou deliberately, understandingly, freely de- 
termined to cleave to him in all times and conditions ? 
If so, thou shalt never perish, but art passed from 
death unto life. Here lies the main point of thy 
salvation, that thou be found in thy covenant- closure 
with Jesus Christ ; and therefore, if thou love thy- 
self, see that thou be faithful to God and thy soul 
here. 

Direction VIII. Resign all thy powers and facul- 
ties, and thy whole interest to be his. 

"They gave their own selves unto the Lord." 
" Present your bodies a living sacrifice." The Lord 



148 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



seeks not yours, but you ; resign therefore thy body, 
with all its members, to him ; and thy soul, with all 
its powers, that he may be glorified in thy body and 
in thy spirit, which are his. 

In a right closing with Christ all thy faculties are 
given up to him. Thy judgment says, " Lord, thou 
art worthy of all acceptation, chief of ten thousand : 
happy is the man that findeth thee. All the things 
that are to be desired are not to be compared with 
thee." Pro v. 3 : 13-15. The understanding lays 
aside its corrupt reasonings and cavils, and its prej- 
udices against Christ and his ways. It is now past 
questioning, and determines for Christ against all 
the world. It concludes it is "good to be here," 
and sees such a treasure in this field, such a value 
in this pearl, as is worth all. Matt. 13: 44-46. 
" O here is the richest prize that ever man was 
offered ; here is the most sovereign remedy that 
ever mercy prepared ; he is worthy of my esteem, 
worthy of my choice, worthy of my love, worthy to 
be embraced, adored, admired, for evermore. Rev. 
5 : 12. I approve of his articles : his terms are 
righteous and reasonable, full of equity and mercy." 
Again, the will resigns. It stands no longer waver- 
ing, but is peremptorily determined: "Lord, thy 
love hath overcome me, thou hast won me, and thou 
shalt have me. Come in, Lord ; to thee I freely 
open; I consent to be saved in thine own way. 
Thou shalt have any thing — nay, have all, let me 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED, 149 

have but thee." The memory gives up to Christ: 
" Lord, here is a storehouse for thee ; out with this 
trash ; lay in the treasure ; let me be a repository 
of thy truth, thy promises, thy providences." The 
conscience comes in: "Lord, I will ever side with 
thee ; I will be thy faithful registrar ; I will warn 
when the sinner is tempted, and smite when thou 
art offended ; I will witness for thee, and judge for 
thee, and guide into thy ways, and will never let 
sin have quiet in this soul." The affections also 
come in to Christ : " 0," saith Love, " I am sick for 
thee." " 0," saith Desire, " now I have what I 
sought for ; here is the Desire of nations ; here is 
bread for me, and balm for me : all that I want." 
Fear bows the knee with awe and veneration : 
"Welcome, Lord, to thee will I pay my homage'; 
thy word and rod shall command my motions ; thee 
will I reverence and adore ; before thee will I fall 
down and worship." Grief likewise puts in : "Lord, 
thy displeasure and thy dishonor, thy people's ca- 
lamities and my own iniquities, shall be what shall 
set me a weeping. I will mourn when thou art 
offended ; I will weep when thy cause is wounded." 
Anger likewise comes in for Christ : " Lord, nothing 
so enrages me as my folly against thee, that I should 
be so besotted as to hearken to the flatteries of sin 
and the temptations of Satan against thee." Hatred, 
too, will side with Christ : " I protest mortal enmity 
to thine enemies, that I never will be a friend to thy 



150 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



foes ; I vow an eternal quarrel with every sin : I 
will give no quarter ; I will make no peace." Thus 
let all thy powers yield to Jesus Christ. 

Again, thou must give up thy whole interest to 
him. If there be any thing that thou keepest back 
from Christ, it will be thy undoing. Luke 14 : 33. 
Unless thou wilt forsake all, in preparation and 
resolution of thy heart, thou canst not be his dis- 
ciple. Thou must hate father and mother, yea, 
and thine own life also, in comparison with Him, 
and as far as it stands in competition with him. In 
a word, thou must give him thyself, and all that 
thou hast, without reservation, or else thou canst 
have no part in him. 

Direction IX. Make choice of the laws of 
Christ as the rule of thy words, thoughts, and 
actions. 

This is the true convert's choice. But here re- 
member these three rules : 1. You must choose 
them all, there is no getting to heaven by a partial 
obedience. None may think it enough to take up 
with the cheap and easy part of religion, and let 
alone the duties that are costly and self-denying, 
and oppose the interests of the flesh ; you must 
take all or none. A sincere convert, though he 
makes most conscience of the greatest sins and 
weightiest duties, yet he makes true conscience of 
little sins and of all duties. 2. You must choose 
Christ's laws for all times, for prosperity and ad- 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 151 

v ersity. A true convert is resolved in his course ; 
he will stand to his choice, and will not set his back 
to the wind, and be of the religion of the times. 
" I have stuck to thy testimonies ; I have inclined 
my heart to perform thy statutes always, even to 
the end. Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage 
for ever. I will have respect to thy statutes con- 
tinually." 3. This must be done deliberately and 
understandingly. The disobedient son said, " I go, 
sir ; but he went not." How fairly did they promise, 
" All that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee 
we will do it !" And it is likely they spake as they 
meant. But when it came to the trial it was found 
that there was not such a heart in them as to do 
what they had promised. 

If you would be sincere in closing with the laws 
and the ways of Christ, study the meaning, and 
breadth, and extent of them. Remember that they 
are spiritual ; they reach the very thoughts and in- 
clinations of the heart ; so that, if you will walk by 
this rule, your very thoughts and inward motions 
must be under government. Again, they are very 
strict and self-denying, quite contrary to your natu- 
ral inclinations. You must take the strait gate, the 
narrow way, and be content to have the flesh curbed 
from the liberty it desires. In a word, they are 
very large, for " thy commandments are exceeding- 
broad." 

Rest not in generals, for there is much deceit ia 



152 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



them, but bring down thine heart to the particular 
commands of Christ. Those Jews, in the prophet, 
seemed as well resolved as any in the world, and 
called God to witness that they meant as they said : 
but they rested in generals ; when God's command 
crosses their inclination, they will not obey. Art 
thou resolved, in the strength of Christ, to set upon 
the conscientious practice of every duty that thou 
findest to be required of thee, and to set against 
every sin that thou findest to be forbidden ? This 
is the way to be sound in God's statutes, that thou 
may est never be ashamed. 

Observe the special duties that thy heart is most 
against, and the special sins that it is most inclined 
to, and see whether it be truly resolved to perform 
the one and forego the other. What sayest thou to 
thy bosom sin, thy gainful sin ? What sayest thou 
to costly, hazardous, and flesh- displeasing duties ? 
If thou haltest here, and dost not resolve, by the 
grace of God, to cross the flesh and be in earnest, 
thou art unsound. 

Direction X. Let all this be completed in a 
solemn covenant between God and thy soul. 

Set apart some time, more than once, to be spent 
in secret before the Lord — in seeking earnestly his 
special assistance and gracious acceptance of thee — 
in searching thy heart, whether thou art sincerely 
willing to forsake all thy sins, and to resign thyself, 
body and soul, unto God and his service ; to serve 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 153 

him in holiness and righteousness all the days of 
% life. 

Compose thy spirit into the most serious frame 
possible, suitable to a transaction of so high im- 
portance. Lay hold on the covenant of God, and 
rely on his promise of giving grace and strength, 
whereby thou mayest be enabled to perform thy 
promise. Trust not to thine own strength, to the 
strength of thine own resolutions ; but take hold on 
his strength. 

Being thus prepared, on some convenient time 
set apart for the purpose, enter upon the work, and 
solemnly, as in the presence of the Lord, fall down 
on thy knees, and open thy heart to him in words 
like those of the covenant, or soliloquy, annexed to 
these directions. 

Direction XL Take heed of delaying thy con- 
version, but make a speedy, an immediate surrender 
of thy heart to God. 

"I made haste, and delayed not." Remember 
and tremble at the sad instance of the foolish vir- 
gins, that came not till the " door of mercy was 
shut and of a convinced Felix, who put off Paul 
to another season ; and we never find that he had 
such another season. 0 come in while it is called 
to-day, lest thou shouldst be hardened through the 
deceitfulness of sin ; lest the day of grace should be 
over, and the things which belong to thy peace 
should be "hidden from thine eyes." Now mercy 



]54 ALLEINE'S ALARM 

is wooing thee ; now Christ is waiting to be gracious 
to thee, and the Spirit of God is striving with thee ; 
now ministers are calling ; now conscience is stirring ; 
now Christ is to be had, if accepted, 0 strike in 
with the offers of grace ; now or never. If thou 
make light of this offer, God may swear in his wrath, 
thou shalt not taste of his supper. 

Direction XII. Attend conscientiously upon the 
word, as the means appointed for thy conversion. 

Attend, I say, not customarily, but conscien- 
tiously ; with this desire, design, hope, and expecta- 
tion, that thou mayest be converted by it. To every 
sermon thou hearest come with this thought : " O 
I hope God will now come in ; I hope this day may 
be the time, this may be the man by whom G »d 
will bring me home." When thou art coming to 
the privileges of God's house, lift up thy heart thus 
to God : " Lord, let this be the Sabbath, let this be 
the season wherein I may receive renewing grace. 
O let it be said that this day such a one was born 
unto thee." 

Objection. Thou wilt say, I have been long a 
hearer of the word, and yet it hath not been effect- 
ual to my conversion. Answer. Yea ; but thou 
hast not attended upon it in this manner, as a 
means of thy conversion, nor with this design, nor 
praying for and expecting the happy effect from it. 

Direction XIII. Strike in with the Spirit when 
he begins to work upon thy heart. 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 155 

When lie works convictions, 0 do not stifle them, 
but join in with him, and beg the Lord to give you 
saving conversion. "Quench not the Spirit;" do 
not reject him, do not resist him. Beware of stifling 
convictions with evil company or worldly business. 
When thou art in anguish on account of sin and 
fears about thy eternal state, beg of God that you 
may have peace only in thoroughly renouncing all 
sin, loathing it in thy inmost soul, and giving thy 
whole heart, without reserve, to Christ. Say to 
him, " Strike home, Lord ; leave not the work in the 
midst. 0 go to the bottom of my corruption, and 
let out the life-blood of my sins." Thus yield up 
thyself to the working of the Spirit, and hoist" thy 
sails to his gusts. 

Direction XIV. Set upon the constant and dili- 
gent use of serious and fervent prayer. 

He that neglects prayer is a profane and unsanc- 
tified sinner. He that is not constant in prayer is 
but a hypocrite, unless the omission be contrary to 
his ordinary course, under the force of some instant 
temptation. This is one of the first things conver- 
sion appears in, that it sets men a praying. There- 
fore set to this duty ; let not one day pass over thee 
wherein thou hast not, morning and evening, set 
apart some time for solemn prayer in secret. Call 
thy family also together daily and duly to worship 
God with thee. Woe be unto thee, if thou be found 
among the families that call not upon God's name. 



150 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



But cold and lifeless devotions will not reach half 
way to heaven. Be fervent and importunate. Im- 
portunity will carry it ; but without violence the 
kingdom of heaven will not be taken. Thou must 
strive to enter, and wrestle with tears and supplica- 
tions, as Jacob, if thou wouldst gain the blessing. 
Thou art undone for ever without grace, and there- 
fore thou must set to it, and resolve to take no 
denial. That man who is fixed in this resolution 
says, "Well, I must have grace, or I will never 
give over till I have grace ; I will never cease 
earnestly pleading, and striving with God and my 
own heart, till he doth renew me by the power of 
his grace.' ' 

Direction XV. Forsake thy evil company, and 
forbear the occasions of sin. 

Thou wilt never be turned from sin till thou wilt 
decline and forego the temptations of sin. I never 
expect thy conversion from sin, unless thou art 
brought to some self-denial, so as to flee the occa- 
sions. If thou wilt be nibbling at the bait, and 
playing on the brink, and tampering with the snare, 
thy soul will surely be taken. Where God doth 
expose men, in his providence, unavoidably to temp- 
tation, and the occasions are such as we cannot re- 
move, we may expect special assistance in the use 
of his means ; but when we tempt God by running 
into danger, he will not engage to support us when 
we are tempted. And, of all temptations, one of 



4 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 157 

the most fatal and pernicious is evil companions. 0 
what hopeful beginnings have these often stifled ! 
0 the souls, the estates, the families, the towns, that 
these have ruined ! How many poor sinners have 
been enlightened and convinced, and been just ready- 
to escape the snare of the devil, and have even 
escaped it ; and yet wicked company has pulled 
them back at last, and made them seven-fold more 
the children of hell ! In a word, I have no hopes 
of thee, except thou wilt shake off thy evil com- 
pany. Thy life depends upon it : forsake this, or 
thou canst not live. Wilt thou be worse than the 
ass of Balaam, to run on when thou seest the Lord 
with a drawn sword in the way? Let this sentence 
be written in capitals upon thy conscience : "a com- 
panion OF FOOLS SHALL BE DESTROYED." The Lord 

hath spoken it, and who shall reverse it ? 

And wilt thou run upon destruction, when God 
himself doth forewarn thee? If God doth ever 
change thy heart, it will appear in the change of 
thy company. 0 fear and flee the gulf by which 
so many thousand souls have been swallowed up in 
perdition. It will be hard for thee indeed to make 
thy escape. Thy companions will be mocking thee 
out of thy religion, and will study to fill thee with 
prejudices against strictness, as ridiculous and com- 
fortless. They will be flattering thee and alluring 
thee ; but remember the warnings of the Holy 
Ghost : " My son, if sinners entice thee, consent 



158 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



thou not. If they say, Come with us, cast in thy 
lot among us ; walk thou not in the way with them, 
refrain thy foot from their path ; avoid it, pass not 
by it, turn from it, and pass away. For the way 
of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what 
they stumble. They he in wait for their own blood, 
they lurk privily for their own lives." My soul is 
moved within me to see how many of my hearers 
and readers are likely to perish, both they and their 
houses, by this wretched mischief, even the haunting 
of such places and company, whereby they are 
drawn into sin. Once more I admonish you, as 
Moses did Israel : " Depart, I pray you, from the 
tents of these wicked men." O fly them as you 
would those that had the plague- sores running in 
their foreheads. These are the devil's panders and 
decoys ; and if thou dost not make thy escape they 
will draw thee into perdition, and will prove thy 
eternal ruin. 

Direction XYI. Set apart a day to humble thy 
soul in secret by fasting and prayer, to work a sense 
of thy sins and miseries upon thy heart. Read 
some faithful exposition of the decalogue, and 
write down the duties omitted and sins committed 
by thee against every commandment, and so make 
a catalogue of thy sins, and with shame and sorrow 
spread them before the Lord ; and if thy heart be 
truly willing, join thyself to the Lord in a solemn 
covenant, like that hereto annexed. 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. ]59 



A SHORT SOLILOQUY. 

What meanest thou, 0 my soul, to go on thus ; 
art thou in league with hell ; hast thou made a 
covenant with death ; art thou in love with thy 
misery ? " Is it good for thee to be here ?" Alas, 
what shall I do ; shall I go on in my sinful ways ? 
Then certain damnation will be my end. And shall 
I be so besotted as to go and sell my soul to the 
flames for a little ale and a little ease ; for a little 
pleasure, or gain, or satisfaction to my flesh ? Shall 
I linger any longer in this wretched state ? No ; 
if I tarry here I die. What then ? Is there no 
help, no hope ? None, except I turn. But is there 
any remedy for such woful misery ; any mercy, after 
such provoking iniquity ? Yes, as sure as God's 
oath is true, I shall have pardon and mercy yet, if 
immediately, and unfeignedly, and unreservedly, I 
turn by Christ to him. 

I thank thee upon the bended knees of my soul, 
0 mosfr merciful Jehovah, that thy patience hath 
waited for me hitherto ; for, hadst thou taken me 
away in this state, I had perished for ever. And 
now I adore thy grace, and accept the offers of thy 
mercy ; I renounce all my sins, and resolve by thy 
grace to set myself against them, and to follow thee 
in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life. 

Who am I, Lord, that I should make any claim 
unto thee, or have any part or portion in thee? 



ALLELXE'S ALARM. 



Yet, since thou boldest forth the golden sceptre, I 
am bold to come and touch. To despair, would be 
to disparage thy mercy ; and to stand off when thou 
biddest me come, would be at once to ruin myself 
and rebel against thee, under the pretence of hu- 
mility. Therefore I bow my soul to thee, and with 
all possible thankfulness accept thee as mine, and 
give up myself to thee as thine. Thou shalt be 
Sovereign over me, "my King and my God :" thou 
shalt be on the throne, and all my powers shall bow 
to thee ; they shall come and worship before thy 
feet. Thou shalt be my portion, 0 Lord, and I will 
rest in thee. 

Thou callest for my heart. O that it were any 
way fit for thine acceptance. I am unworthy, 0 
Lord, everlastingly unworthy to be thine ; but since 
thou wilt have it so, I freely give up my heart to 
thee : take it ; it is thine : 0 that it were better. 
But, Lord, I put it into thine hand, who alone canst 
mend it : mould it after thine own heart ; make it 
as thou wouldst have it, holy, humble, heavenly, 
soft, tender, flexible ; and write thy law upon it. 

" Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ;" enter in tri- 
umphantly : take me up to thee for ever : I give up 
myself to thee ; I come to thee as the only way to the 
Father, as the only Mediator, the means ordained to 
bring me to Grod. I have destroyed myself, but in 
thee is my help ; " save, Lord, or I perish." I come 
to thee worthy to die and to be damned. iSevei 



DIRECTIONS TO THE UNCONVERTED. 161 

was the hire more due to the servant, never was 
penny more due to the laborer, than death and hell, 
my just wages, are due to me for my sins. But I 
flee to thy merits ; I trust alone to the value and 
virtue of thy sacrifice, and the prevalence of thy in- 
tercession. I submit to thy teaching ; I make choice 
of thy government. " Stand open, ye everlasting 
doors, that the King of glory may come in." 

0 thou Spirit of the Most High, the comforter 
and sanctifier of thy chosen, come in with all thy 
glorious train, all thy courtly attendants, thy fruits 
and graces ; let me be thine habitation ; I can give 
thee only what is thine own already ; but here, with 
the poor widow, I cast my two mites, my soul and 
my body, into thy treasury, fully resigning them up 
to thee, to be sanctified by thee, to be servants to 
thee. They shall be thy patients ; cure thou their 
malady. They shall be thy subjects ; govern thou 
their motions. Too long have I served the world ; 
too long have I hearkened to Satan ; but now I re- 
nounce them all, and will be ruled by thy dictates 
and directions, and guided by thy counsel. 

0 blessed Trinity : O glorious Unity ! I deliver 
up myself to thee : receive me ; write thy name, O 
Lord, upon me, and upon all that I have, as thy 
property ; set thy mark upon me, upon every mem- 
ber of my body, and on every faculty of my soul. 
I have chosen thy precepts ; thy law will I keep in 
mine eye, and study to obey it. According to this 

Alleine's Alarm. ^ 1 



im 



ALLEIXE'S 



rule do I resolve, through thy grace, to walk ; after 
this law shall my whole man be governed ; and 
though I shall not perfectly keep one of thy com- 
mandments, yet I will allow myself in the breach 
of none. I know my flesh will hang back ; but I 
resolve, in the power of thy grace, to cleave to thee 
and thy holy ways, whatever it costs me. I am 
sure I cannot come off a loser by thee, and there- 
fore I will be content with reproach, and difficulties, 
and hardships here ; and will " deny myself, and 
take up my cross, and follow thee. ' Lord Jesus, 
thy yoke is easy, thy cross is welcome : as it is the 
way to thee, I lay aside all hopes of worldly happi- 
ness ; I will be content to tarry till I come to thee. 
Let me be poor, and low, and despised here, so I 
may but be admitted to live and reign with thee 
hereafter. Lord, thou hast my heart and hand to 
this agreement : be it as the laws of the Medes and 
Persians, never to be reversed. To this will I stand ; 
in this resolution, through grace, I will live and die ; 
"I have sworn," and will perform it, that "I will 
keep thy righteous judgments ;" I have given my 
free consent ; I have made my everlasting choice : 
Lord Jesus, confirm the contract. Amen. 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 



163 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 

Though what is already said of the " necessity of 
conversion," and of the "miseries of the uncon- 
verted/' might be sufficient to induce any consid- 
erate mind to resolve upon a present turning unto 
God ; yet, knowing what a piece of desperate obsti- 
nacy and untractableness the heart of man naturally 
is, I have thought it necessary to add, to the means 
of conversion and directions for a covenant closure 
with God and Christ, some motives to persuade you 
to be reconciled to God. 

Lord, fail me not now, afc my last attempts. If 
any soul hath read hitherto, and is yet untouched, 
now, Lord, fasten on him, and do thy work ; now 
take him by the heart, overcome him, persuade 
him, till he say, Thou hast prevailed, for thou art 
stronger than I. Lord, didst not thou make me a 
fisher of men, and have I toiled all this while and 
caught nothing ? Alas, that I should have spent 
my strength for naught ! and now I am casting my 
last; Lord Jesus, stand thou upon the shore, and 
direct how and where I shall spread my net ; and 
let me so enclose with arguments the souls I seek, 
that they may not be able to get out. Now, Lord, 
for a multitude of souls ; now for a full draught. 0 



164 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen 
me this once, 0 God. 
But I ton me unto you. 

Men and brethren, heaven and earth call upon 
you ; yea, hell itself preaches the doctrine of re- 
pentance unto you. The ministers of the churches 
labor for you. The angels of heaven wait for you, 
for your repenting and turning unto God. 0 sinner, 
why should devils laugh at thy destruction, and 
deride thy misery, and sport themselves with thy 
folly ? This will be thy case, except thou turn. 
And were it not better thou shouldst be a joy to 
angels, than a laughing-stock and sport for devils ? 
Yerily, if thou wouldst but come in, the heavenly 
hosts would take up their anthems and sing, " Glory 
to God in the highest ;" the morning stars would 
sing together, and all the sons of God shout for 
joy, and celebrate this new creation as they did the 
first. Thy repentance would, as it were, make a 
holiday in heaven, and the glorious spirits would 
rejoice, in that there is a new brother added to their 
society, another heir born to the Lord, and the lost 
son received safe and sound. The true penitent's 
tears are indeed the wine that maketh glad both God 
and man. 

If it be little that men and angels would rejoice 
at thy conversion, know thou that God himself 
would " rejoice over thee, even with singing," and 
"rest in his love." Never did Jacob with such joy 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION, 165 

weep over the neck of his Joseph, as thy heavenly 
Father would rejoice over thee upon thy coming to 
him. Look over the story of the Prodigal Son. 
Methinks I see how the aged father lays aside his 
state and forgetteth his years ; behold, how he run- 
neth ! O the haste that mercy makes : the sinner 
makes not half that speed. Methinks I see how his 
bowels move, how his compassions yearn. How 
quick-sighted is love ! Mercy spies him a great 
way off ; forgets his riotous courses, unnatural re- 
bellion, horrid un thankfulness — not a word of these 
— and receives him with open arms, clasps him about 
his neck, kisses him ; calls for the fatted calf, the 
best robe, the ring, the shoes, the best cheer in 
heaven's store, the best attire in heaven's wardrobe. 
Yea, the joy cannot be held in his own breast. 
Others must be called to participate. The friends 
sympathize ; but none knows the joy the father has 
in his new-born son, whom he hath received from 
the dead. Methinks I hear the music at a distance. 
O the melody of the heavenly choristers ! I cannot 
learn the song, Rev. 14 : 3, but methinks I overhear 
the burden, at which all the harmonious choir with 
one consent strike sweetly in : " For this my son 
was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found." I need not farther explain the parable : 
God is the father : Christ is the provision ; his 
righteousness the robe ; his grace the ornaments ; 
ministers, saints, and angels, the friends and ser- 



166 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



vants ; and thou that readest, if thou wilt but un- 
feignedly repent and turn, the welcome prodigal, the 
happy instance of this grace, the blessed subject 
of this joy and love. 

0 rock ; 0 adamant ! What, not moved yet ; not 
yet resolved to turn forthwith and to close with 
mercy ? I will try thee yet once again. If one 
were sent to thee from the dead, wouldst thou be 
persuaded ? Why, hear the voice from the dead, 
from the damned, crying to thee that thou shouldst 
repent : - " I pray thee that thou wouldst send him 
to my father's house ; for I have five brethren ; that 
he may testify to them, lest they also come into this 
place of torment : if one went to them from the 
dead, they will repent.' • Hear, 0 man ; thy pre- 
decessors in impenitence preach to thee from the 
infernal flames, that thou shouldst repent. 0 look 
down into the bottomless pit ; seest thou how the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever ? 
What thinkest thou of those chains of darkness? 
Canst thou be content to burn ? Seest thou how 
the worm gnaweth, how the fire rageth ? What 
sayest thou to that gulf of perdition ; wilt thou take 
up thine habitation there ? 0 lay thine ear to the 
door of hell : hearest thou the curses and blasphe- 
mies, the weepings and wailings, how they lament 
their follies and curse their day ? How do they 
roar and gnash their teeth ; how deep their groans ; 
how inconceivable their miseries ! If the shrieks of 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 167 

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, were so terrible, when 
the earth clave asunder, and opened its mouth and 
swallowed them up, and all that appertained to 
them, that all Israel fled at the cry of them, 0 how 
fearful would the cry be, if God should take off the 
covering from the mouth of hell, and let the cry of 
the damned ascend in all its terror among the chil- 
dren of men ! And of all their moans and miseries 
this is the piercing, killing emphasis and burden, 
" For ever ; for ever !" 

As God liveth that made thy soul, thou art but 
a few hours distant from all this, except thou "re- 
pent and be converted.' * 

0, I am even lost and swallowed up in the abun- 
dance of those arguments that I might suggest. 
If there be any point of wisdom in all the world, it 
is to repjent and come in. If there be any thing 
righteous, any thing reasonable, this is it. If there 
be any thing that may be called madness and folly, 
and any thing that may be counted sottish, absurd, 
brutish, and unreasonable, it is this, "to go on in 
thine unconverted state." Let me beg of thee, as 
thou wouldst not willingly destroy thyself, sit down 
and weigh, besides what has been said, these follow- 
ing motives, and let conscience say if it be not most 
reasonable that thou shouldst "repent and turn." 

1. The God that made thee, most graciously in- 
vites thee. His most sweet and merciful nature in- 
vites thee. 0 the kindness of God, his boundless 



168 



ALLEINE'S ALAUM. 



compassion, his tender mercies ! As the heavens 
are higher than the earth, so are his ways above 
our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts 
"He is full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing, and plenteous in mercy.' 1 This is a great argu- 
ment to persuade sinners to come in : " Turn unto 
the Lord your God ; for he is gracious and merciful, 
slow to anger, of great kindness, and repenteth him 
of the evil." 

If God would not repent of the evil, it would be 
some discouragement to our repenting. If there 
were no hope of mercy, it would be no wonder that 
rebels should stand out ; but never had subjects 
such a gracious prince, such pity, patience, and 
clemency to deal with, as you have. " Who is a 
God like unto thee, that pardon eth iniquity ?" 
Micah 7:18. 0 sinners, see what a God you have 
to deal with: if you will but turn, "he will ton 
again, and have compassion on you ; he will subdue 
your iniquities, and cast all your sins into the depths 
of the sea." "Return unto me, saith the Lord of 
hosts, and I will return unto you." Sinners do not 
fail in that they have too high thoughts of God's 
mercies, but in that, 1. They overlook his justice. 
2. They promise themselves mercy out of God's 
way. His mercies are beyond all imagination ; 
great mercies, manifold mercies, ISTeh. 9 : 19, tender 
mercies, sure mercies, everlasting mercies ; and all 
is thy own, if thou wilt but turn. Art thou willing 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 169 

to come in ? The Lord hath laid aside his terror 
and erected a throne of grace. He holds forth the 
golden sceptre : touch and live. Would a merciful 
man slay his enemy when prostrate at his feet, 
acknowledging his wrong, begging pardon, and 
offering to enter with him into a covenant of peace ? 
Much less will the merciful God. Study his name. 
Exodus 34:7. " Keeping mercy for thousands, for- 
giving iniquity and transgression and sin." Also 
read experience, Neh. 9:17. 

His soul-encouraging calls and promises invite 
thee. Ah, what an earnest suitor is mercy to thee ; 
how lovingly, how instantly, it calleth after thee ; 
how earnestly it wooeth thee ! " Return, thou 
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not 
cause my anger to fall upon you ; for I am merciful, 
saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever ; 
only acknowledge thine iniquity. Turn, O back- 
sliding children, saith the Lord ; return, and I will 
heal thy backslidings. Thou hast played the harlot 
with many lovers ; yet return unto me, saith the 
Lord." "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he 
turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from 
your evil ways ; for why will ye die, 0 house of 
Israel ?" "If the wicked will turn from all his sins 
that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, 
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall 
surely live, he shall not die. All the transgressions 



170 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



that lie hath committed, they shall not be mentioned 
unto him ; in his righteousness that he hath done, 
he shall live. Repent, and turn you from all your 
transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 
Cast away from you all your transgressions, and 
make you a new heart and a new spirit ; for why 
will ye die, 0 house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure 
in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God : 
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." 

0 melting, gracious words : the voice of God, and 
not of a man ! This is not the manner of men, for 
the offended sovereign to sue to the offending 
traitorous rebel. O how doth mercy follow thee, 
and plead with thee ! Is not thy heart broken yet ? 
0 that "to-day you would hear his voice." 

2. The doors of heaven are thrown open to thee, 
the everlasting gates are set wide for thee, and an 
abundant entrance into the kingdom of heaven is 
administered to thee. 

. Christ now addresses thee, and calls upon thee 
to arise and take possession of this good land. 
View the glory of the other world, as set forth in 
the map of the Gospel ; get thee up into the Pisgah 
of the promises, and lift up thine eyes northward, 
and southward, and eastward, and westward, and 
see the good land that is beyond Jordan, and that 
goodly mountain ; behold the Paradise of God, 
watered with the streams of glory. Arise and 
walk through the land, in the length of it, and in 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION, 171 

the breadth of it; for the land which thou seest, 
the Lord will give it to thee for ever, if thou wilt 
but return. Let me say to thee, as Paul to Agrippa, 
" Believest thou the prophets ?" If thou belie vest 
indeed, do but view what glorious things are spoken 
of the city of God, and know that all this is here 
tendered in the name of God to thee. As verily as 
God is true, it shall be for ever thine, if thou wilt 
but thoroughly turn. 

Behold the city of pure transparent gold, whose 
foundations are garnished with all manner of precious 
stones, whose gates are pearls, whose light is glory, 
whose temple is God. Believest thou this? If 
thou dost, art thou not beside thyself, that wilt not 
take possession when the gates are thrown open to 
thee, and thou art bid to enter ? 0 ye sons of folly, 
will ye embrace the dunghill and refuse the king- 
dom ? Behold, the Lord takes you up into the 
mountain, shows you the kingdom of heaven and all 
the glory thereof, and tells you, All this will I give 
you, if you will but return unto me ; if you will 
submit to mercy, accept my Son, and serve me in 
righteousness and holiness. " 0 fools, and slow of 
heart to believe !" Will you seek and serve the 
world, and neglect eternal glory ? What, not enter 
into Paradise when the flaming sword, which was 
once set to keep you out, is now used to drive you 
in ? But you will say I am uncharitable, to think 
you infidels and unbelievers. What, then, shall I 



172 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



think of you ? Either you are desperate unbelievers, 
that do not credit it ; or beside yourselves, that you 
know and believe the excellence and eternity of this 
glory, and yet do so fearfully neglect it. 

Do but attend to what is offered you : a blessed 
kingdom, a "kingdom of glory," a "kingdom of 
righteousness," a " kingdom of peace," and an 
" everlasting kingdom." Here thou shalt dwell, 
here thou shalt reign for ever, and the Lord shall 
seat thee on a throne of glory, and with his own 
hand shall set the royal diadem upon thine head, 
and give thee a crown — not of thorns, for there shall 
be no sinning nor suffering there ; not of gold, for 
this shall be viler than the dirt in that day ; but a 
"crown of life," a "crown of righteousness," a 
"crown of glory," yea, "thou shalt put on glory 
as a robe," and shalt " shine like the sun in the 
firmament, in the glory of thy Father." Look now 
upon thy worthless flesh. This flesh, which is mere 
dust and ashes, shall be brighter than the stars. In 
short, thou shalt be made like unto the " angels of 
God," and "behold his face in righteousness." Look 
in now and tell me, Dost thou yet believe? if not, 
conscience must pronounce thee an infidel ; for it is 
the very "word of God" that I speak. 

But if thou sayest thou believest, let me next 
know thy resolution. Wilt thou embrace this for 
thy happiness ? Wilt thou forego thy sinful gains, 
thy forbidden pleasures ? Wilt thou trample on the 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 173 

world's esteem, and stop thy ears to its flatteries, 
and wrest thee out of its embraces ? Wilt thou be 
content to take up with reproach and poverty, if 
they lie in the way to heaven, and follow the Lord 
with humble self-denial, in a mortified and flesh- 
displeasing life ? If so, all is thine, and that for ever. 

And is not the offer a fair one ? Is it not just 
that he should be damned that will go on and perish, 
when all this may be had by taking it ? Wilt thou 
take God at his word ; wilt thou let go thy hold of 
the world, and rid thy hands of thy sins, and lay 
hold on eternal life ? If not, let conscience tell 
thee whether thou art not beside thyself, that thou 
shouldst neglect so happy a choice, by which thou 
mightest be made happy for ever. 

3. God will settle unspeakable privileges at present 
upon thee. Though the full of your blessedness 
shall be reserved till hereafter, yet God will give 
you no little things in hand. He will redeem you 
from your thraldom. He will pluck you from the 
paw of the lion. The serpent shall bruise thy heel, 
but thou shalt bruise his head. He shall deliver 
you from this present evil world. Prosperity shall 
not destroy you ; adversity shall not separate him 
and you. He will redeem you from the power of 
the grave, and make the king of terrors a messenger 
of peace to you. He will take out the curse from 
the cross, and make affliction the refining-pot, the 
fan, the medicine, to blow off the chaff, purify the 



174 



ALLELE'S ALARM. 



metal, and cleanse the mind. He will save you 
from the arrest of the law, and turn the curse into 
a blessing to you. He hath the keys of hell and of 
death, and shutteth and no man openeth, and he 
will shut its mouth, as once he did the lions', that 
you shall not be hurt of the second death. 

Besides, he will not only save you from misery, 
but install you into unspeakable prerogatives. He 
will bestow himself upon you ; he will be a friend 
and a father unto you. He will be a sun and a 
shield to you. In a word, he will be a God to you. 
And what can be said more ? What may you ex- 
pect that a God should do for you, and be to you ? 
That he will be, that he will do. She that marries 
a prince expects he should do for her like a . prince, 
that she may live in suitable state, and have an 
answerable dowry : he that hath a king for his 
father or a friend, expects he should do for him 
like a king. Alas, the kings and monarchs of the 
earth, so much above you, are but like the painted 
butterflies amongst the rest of their kind, or the 
fair colored palmer- worm amongst the rest of the 
worms, if compared with God. As he infinitely 
exceeds the glory and power of his glittering dust, 
so he will, beyond all proportion, exceed in doing 
for his favorites whatever princes can do for theirs. 
He will " give you grace and glory, and withhold 
no good thing from } 7 ou." He will take you for his 
sons and daughters, and make you heirs of his 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 175 

promises, and establish his everlasting covenant with 
you. He will justify you from all that law, con- 
science, and Satan can charge upon you. He will 
give you free access into his presence, and accept 
your person, and receive your prayers. He will 
abide in you, and hold n constant and friendly com- 
munion with you. His ear shall be open, his door 
open, his store open, at all times to you. His bless- 
ing shall rest upon you, and he will make your ene- 
mies to serve you, and work out " all things for good 
unto you." 

4. The terms of mercy are brought as low as pos- 
sible to you. God has stooped as low to sinners as 
with honor he can. He will not be the author of 
sin, nor stain the glory of his holiness : and how 
could he come lower than he has, unless he should 
do this? 

God does not impose any thing unreasonable or 
impossible, as a condition of life, upon you. Two 
things were necessary to be done, according to the 
tenor of the first covenant. 1. That we should 
fully satisfy the demands of justice for past offences. 
2. That we should perform personally, perfectly, 
and perpetually, the whole law for the time to 
come. By our sins we render salvation through 
either of these ways impossible. But behold God's 
gracious provision in both. He does not insist upon 
satisfaction : he is content to take of the Surety, 
and he of his own providing too, what he mighf 



176 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



have exacted from you. "All things are of God, 
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, 
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation : 
to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
them ; and hath committed unto us the word of 
reconciliation/ ' He declares himself to have re- 
ceived a ransom ; and that he expects nothing but 
that you should accept his Son, " who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
tification, and redemption ;" and he shall be right- 
eousness and redemption to you, "who his own 
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that 
we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteous- 
ness." If you come in Christ, and set your heart 
to please him, making this your chief concern, he 
will graciously accept you. 

O consider the condescension of your God ; let 
me say to you, as Naaman's servant to him, M My 
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great 
thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? How much 
rather when he saith to thee, "Wash and be clean !" 
If God had demanded some terrible, some severe 
and rigorous thing of you, to escape eternal damna- 
tion, would you not have done it ? Suppose it had 
been to spend all your days in sorrow in some howl- 
ing wilderness, or pine with famine, would you not 
have thankfully accepted eternal redemption, though 
these had been the conditions ? Nay, farther, if God 



THE MOTIVES TO CONVERSION. 



177 



had told you that you should burn in the fire for 
millions of ages, or be so long tormented in hell, 
would you not have accepted it ? Alas, all these 
are not so much as one grain of sand in the glass 
of eternity. If your offended Creator should have 
holden you but one year upon the rack, and then 
bidden you come and forsake your sins, accept 
Christ, and serve him a few years in self-denial, 
or lie in this case for ever and ever ; do you think 
you should have hesitated at the offer, and disputed 
the terms, and have been unresolved whether you 
were to accept of the proposal ? 0 sinner, return 
and live ; why shouldst thou die when life is to be 
had for taking, when mercy entreats thee to be 
saved? Couldst thou say, "Lord, I knew thee, 
that thou wast a hard man/' even then thou wouldst 
have had no excuse ; but when the God of heaven 
has stooped so low, and condescended so far, if still 
thou stand off, who shall plead for thee ? 

Objection. Notwithstanding all the advantages of 
the new covenant, I am unable to repent and be- 
lieve, and so comply with its conditions. 

Answer. These you may perform by God's grace 
enabling ; but let the next consideration serve for a 
fuller answer. 

5. God doth offer all needed grace to enable you. 
" I have stretched out mine hand, and no man re- 
garded/' "What though you are plunged into the 
ditch of that misery from which you can never get 

in 



178 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



out ? Christ offereth to help you out ; he reacheth 
out his hand to you ; and if you perish, it is for 
refusing his help. " Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock ; if any man open to me, I will come in." 
What though you are poor, and wretched, and blind, 
and naked ? Christ offereth a cure for your blind- 
ness, a covering for your nakedness, riches for your 
poverty ; he tenders you his righteousness, his 
grace: "I counsel thee to buy of me gold, that 
thou may est be rich ; and white raiment, that thou 
mayest be clothed ; and anoint thy eyes with eye- 
salve, that thou mayest see." Do you say, The 
condition is impossible ; for I have not wherewith 
to buy? You must know that this buying is 
" without money and without price." This buying 
is by begging and seeking with your whole heart. 
God commandeth thee to know him, and to fear him. 
Dost thou say, Yea, but my mind is blinded, and my 
heart is hardened from his fear? I answer, God 
doth offer to enlighten thy mind, and to teach thee 
his fear. So that now, if men live in ignorance and 
estrangement from the Lord, it is because they will 
not understand and desire the knowledge of his 
ways. "If thou criest after knowledge, if thou 
seekest her as silver, then shalt thou understand 
the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of 
God." Is not here a fair offer ? " Turn ye at my 
reproof ; behold, I will pour out my Sphit unto 
you." Though of yourselves you can do nothing, 



CONCLUSION. 



179 



yet you may do all through his Spirit enabling you, 
and he offers assistance to you. God bids you 
"wash and make you clean." You say you are 
unable, as much as the leopard to wash out his 
spots. Yea, but the Lord doth offer to cleanse you ; 
so that if you are filthy still, it is through your own 
wilfulness ; " I have purged thee, and thou wast not 
purged." "0 Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made 
clean ? When shall it once be ?" God invites you 
to be made clean, and entreats you to yield to him. 
0 accept his offers, and let him do for you, and in 
you, what you cannot do for yourselves. 



CONCLUSION. 

And now, beloved, let me know your mind ; what 
do you intend to do ? Will you go on and die, or 
will you turn and lay hold on eternal life ? How 
long will ye linger in Sodom ? " How long will ye 
halt between two opinions ?" Have you not yet 
resolved whether Christ or Barabbas, whether bliss 
or torment, whether this vain and wretched world, 
or the paradise of God, be the better choice ? Is it 
a disputable case whether the Abana and Pharpar 
of Damascus be better than all the streams of Eden ; 
or whether the vile pool of sin is to be preferred 
before the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding 



180 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



out of the throne of God and of the Lamb ? Can 
the world in good earnest do that for you which 
Christ can ? Will it stand by you to eternity ? Will 
pleasures, lands, titles, and treasures descend with 
you ? If not, had you not need look after some- 
thing that will ? What mean you to stand waver- 
ing ? Shall I leave you at last, like Agrippa, only 
almost persuaded? You are for ever lost if left 
here; as good be not at all, as not altogether a 
Christian. How long will you rest in idle wishes 
and fruitless purposes ? When will you come to a 
fixed, firm, and full resolve ? Do not you see how 
Satan cheats you by tempting you to delays ? 
How long hath he drawn you on in the way of per- 
dition ? 

Well, put me not off with a dilatory answer ; tell 
me not of hereafter ; I must have your immediate 
consent. If you be not now resolved, while the 
Lord is treating with you and inviting you, much 
less are you like to be hereafter, when these im- 
pressions are worn off, and you are hardened through 
the deceitfulness of sin. Will you give me your 
hand? Will you set open the door and give the 
Lord Jesus the full and ready possession ? Will 
you put your name unto his covenant ? What do 
you resolve upon ? If you still delay, my labor is 
lost, and all is likely to come to nothing. Come, 
cast in your lot ; make your choice. " Now is the 
accepted time ; now is the day of salvation : to-day, 



CONCLUSION. 



181 



if you will hear bis voice." Why should not this 
be the day whence thou shouldst be able to date 
thy happiness ? Why shouldst thou venture a day 
longer in this dangerous and dreadful condition? 
What if God should this night require thy soul ? 
" 0 that thou mightest know in this thy day the 
things that belong to thy peace, before they be hid 
from thine eyes !" This is thy day, and it is but a 
day. Others have had their day, and have received 
their doom ; and now art thou brought upon the 
stage of this world, here to act thy part for thy 
eternity. Remember, thou art now upon thy good 
behavior for everlasting ; if thou make not a wise 
choice now, thou art undone for ever. What thy 
present choice is, such must be thine eternal con- 
dition. 

And is it true indeed ? Are life and death at thy 
choice? Why, then, what hinders but that thou 
shouldst be happy ? Nothing doth or can hinder 
but thine own wilful neglect or refusal. It was the 
saying of the eunuch to Philip, "See, here is water; 
what doth hinder me to be baptized?" So I may 
say to thee, See, here is Christ, here is mercy, par- 
don, life; what hinders but that thou shouldst be 
pardoned and saved ? One of the martyrs, as he 
was praying at the stake, had his pardon set by him 
in a box, which indeed he rightly refused, because 
upon unworthy terms ; but here the terms are most 
honorable and easy. 0 sinner, wilt thou perish 



f 



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ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



with thy pardon by thee?' Do but forthwith give 
thy consent to Christ, to renounce thy sins, deny 
thyself, take up the yoke and the cross, and thou 
earnest the day : Christ is thine ; pardon, peace, 
life, blessedness, are all thine. And is not this an 
offer worth embracing ? Why shouldst thou hesi- 
tate or doubtfully dispute about the case ? Is it 
not past controversy whether God be better than 
sin, and glory than vanity? Why shouldst thou 
forsake thy own mercy, and sin against thy own 
life ? When wilt thou shake off thy sloth, and lay 
by thine excuses ? " Boast not thyself of to-mor- 
row, thou knowest not" where this night may lodge 
thee. 

Now the Holy Spirit is striving with you — he will 
not always strive. Hast thou not felt thine heart 
warmed by the word, and been almost persuaded to 
leave off thy sins and come to Christ ? Hast thou 
not felt some motions in thy mind, wherein thou 
hast been warned of thy danger, and told what thy 
careless course would end in ? It may be thou art 
like young Samuel, who, when the Lord called once 
and again, knew not the voice of the Lord ; but 
these motions are the offers, and callings, and striv- 
ings of the Spirit. 0 take advantage of the tide, 
and know the day of thy visitation. 

Now the Lord Jesus stretcheth wide his arms to 
receive you ; he beseecheth you by us. How mov- 
ingly, how meltingly, how compassionately he call- 



CONCLUSION. 



183 



eth. The church is put into a sudden ecstasy at 
the sound of his voice, "the voice of my beloved/' 
O wilt thou turn a deaf ear to his voice ? Is it not 
the voice that breaketh the cedars, and maketh the 
mountains to skip like a calf ; that shaketh the wil- 
derness, and divideth the flames of fire ? It is not 
Sinai's thunder, but a soft and still voice. It is not 
the voice of Mount Ebal, a voice of cursing and ter- 
ror, but the voice of Mount Gerizim, the voice of 
blessing and glad tidings of good things. It is not 
the voice of the trumpet nor the noise of war, but a 
message of peace from the King of peace. I may 
say to thee, 0 sinner, as Martha to her sister, " The 
Master is come, and he calleth for thee." Now 
then, with Mary, arise quickly and come unto him. 
How sweet are his invitations! He crieth in the 
open concourse, " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me and drink." How bountiful is he ! He 
excludeth none. " Whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." " Come, eat of my bread, 
and drink of the wine that I have mingled. For- 
sake the foolish and live." "Come unto me, take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall 
find rest to your souls." " Him that cometh unto 
me, I will in no wise cast out." How doth he be* 
moan the obstinate refuser! "0 Jerusalem, Jeru- 
salem, how often would I have gathered thy children, 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not!" "Behold me, behold me: I 



184 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



liave stretched out my hands all the day to a rebel- 
lious people." O be persuaded now at last to throw 
yourselves into the arms of his love. 

Behold, 0 ye sons of men, the Lord Jesus hath 
thrown open the prison, and now he cometh to you 
by his ministers, and beseecheth you to come out. 
If it were from a palace or paradise that Christ did 
call you, it were no wonder that you were unwilling ; 
and yet how easily was Adam beguiled thence ; but 
it is from your prison, from your chains, from the 
dungeon, from the darkness, that he calleth you, 
and yet will you not come? He calls you unto 
liberty, and yet will you not hearken ? His yoke is 
easy, his laws are liberty, his service is freedom, and, 
whatever prejudice you may have against his ways, 
if God may be believed, you shall find them all 
pleasure and peace, and shall taste sweetness and 
joy unutterable, and take infinite delight and felicity 
in them. 

Beloved, I am loath to leave you ; I cannot tell 
how to give you over. I am now ready to close, 
but I would see a covenant made between Christ 
and you before I end. What, shall I leave yoU&t 
last as I found you ? Have you read hitherto, and 
not yet resolved to abandon all your sins and to 
close with Jesus Christ ? Alas, what shall I say ; 
what shall I do ? Will you turn off all my impor- 
tunity? Have I run in vain? Have I used so 



CONCLUSION. 



185 



many arguments, and spent so much time to per- 
suade you, and must I sit down at last in disap- 
pointment ? But it is a small matter that you turn 
me off ; you put a slight upon the God that made 
you ; you reject the compassion and beseechings of 
a Saviour, and will be found resisters of the Holy 
Ghost, if you will not now be prevailed upon to 
repent and be converted. 

Well, though I have called you long, and you 
have refused, I shall yet this once more lift up my 
voice like a trumpet, and cry from the highest 
places of the city before I conclude, with the miser- 
able exclamation, "All is over !" Once more I shall 
call after regardless sinners, that, if it be possible, I 
may awaken them : "0 earth, earth, earth, hear the 
word of the Lord." Unless you be resolved to die, 
lend your ears to the last calls of mercy. Behold, 
in the name of God, I make open proclamation unto 
you : " Hearken unto me, O ye children ; hear in- 
struction and be wise, and refuse it not." 

" Ho, every one that thirst eth, come ye to the 
waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy 
and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without 
money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend 
your money for that which is not bread, and your 
labor for that which satisfieth not ? Hearken dili- 
gently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and 
let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your 
ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall 



186 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



live ; and I will make an everlasting covenant 
with yon, even the sure mercies of David." Isa. 
55: 1-3. 

Ho, every one that is sick of any manner of dis- 
ease or torment, or is possessed with an evil spirit, 
whether of pride, fury, lust, or covetousness, come 
ye to the Physician ; bring- your sick ; lo, here is he 
that healeth all manner of sicknesses, and all man- 
ner of diseases, among the people. Matt. 4:23, 24. 

Ho, every one that is in distress, gather yourselves 
unto Christ, and he will become a Captain over you. 
He will be your protection from the arrests of the 
law ; he will save you from the hand of justice. 
Behold, he is an open sanctuary to you ; he is a 
known refuge. Away with your sins and come in 
unto him, lest the avenger of blood seize you, lest 
devouring wrath overtake you. 

Ho, every blind and ignorant sinner, come and 
buy eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Away with 
thy excuses ; thou art for ever lost if thou continue 
in this state. But accept of Christ for thy Prophet, 
and he will be a light unto thee. Cry unto him for 
knowledge, study his word, take pains about re- 
ligion, humble thyself before God, and he will teach 
thee his way, and make thee wise unto salvation. 
But if thou wilt not follow him, but sit down be- 
cause thou hast but one talent, he will condemn 
thee for a wicked and slothful servant. Matthew 
25 : 24-26. 



CONCLUSION. 



187 



Ho, every profane sinner, come in and live. Re- 
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on thee ; 
be entreated. 0 return, come. Thou that hast filled 
thy mouth with oaths and execrations, all manner 
of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven thee, if 
thou wilt but thoroughly turn unto Christ and come 
in. 0 unclean sinner, put away thy whoredoms out 
of thy sight, and thy adulteries from between thy 
breasts, and give up thyself unto Christ, as a vessel 
of holiness, alone for his use ; and then, " Though 
thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; 
and though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." Luke V : 47 ; Isa. 1:18; 4:7. 

Hear, 0 ye drunkards, how long will ye be 
drunken ? Put away your wine. Though you have 
rolled in the filthiness of your sin, give up your- 
selves unto Christ, to live soberly, righteously, and 
godly ; embrace his righteousness ; accept his gov- 
ernment ; and though »you have been vile, he will 
wash you. Rev. 1:5. 

Hear, 0 ye loose companions, whose delight is in 
vain and wicked society, to sport away your time in 
carnal mirth ; come in at Wisdom's call, and choose 
her and her ways, and you shall live. Prov. 9 : 5, 6. 

Hear, 0 ye scorners, hear the word of the Lord. 
Though you make a sport at godliness and the pro- 
fessors thereof, though you have made a scorn of 
Christ and of his ways, yet even to you doth he 
call, to gather you under the wings of his mercy. 



188 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



In a word, though you should be found among the 
worst of that black roll, 1 Cor. 6:10, yet upon your 
thorough conversion you shall be "washed, you 
shall be justified, you shall be sanctified in the name 
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 

Ho, every formal professor, thou art but a luke- 
warm Christian, and restest in the form of godliness. 
Give over- thy halting ; be throughout a Christian, 
and be zealous and repent ; and then, though thou 
hast been an offence to Christ, thou shalt be the joy 
of his heart. Rev. 3 : 16-20. 

And now bear witness that mercy hath been 
offered you. " I call heaven and earth to record 
against you this day, that I have set before you life 
and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose 
life, that you may live." I can but entreat and warn 
you ; I cannot otherwise compel you to be happy ; 
if I could, I would. What answer will you send 
me with to my Master ? Let me speak to you as 
Abraham's servant to Nahor's family, " And now if 
you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell 
me." 0 for such a happy answer as Rebecca gave 
them: "And they said, We will call the damsel, 
and inquire at her mouth. And they called Re- 
becca, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this 
man? and she said, I will go." 0 that I had but 
this from you. Why should I be your accuser, who 
agonize for your salvation ? Why should the pas- 
sionate pleadings of mercy be turned into horrid ag- 



CONCLUSION. 



189 



gravations of your obstinacy and additions to your 
misery ? Judge in yourselves ; do you not think 
their condemnation will be doubly dreadful, that 
shall still go on in their sins, after all endeavors to 
recall them? Doubtless " it shall be more tolerable 
for Tyre and Sidon, yea, for Sodom and Gomorrah, 
in the day of judgment, than for you !" Matthew 
11 : 22, 24. 

Beloved, if you have any pity for your perishing 
souls, close with the present offers of mercy. If the 
God that made you have any authority with you, 
obey his command and come in. If you are not 
the despisers of grace, and would not shut the 
doors of mercy against yourselves, repent and be 
converted; let not heaven stand open for you in 
vain ; let not the Lord Jesus open his stores, and 
bid you buy without money and without price in 
vain ; let not his Spirit and his ministers strive with 
you in vain, and leave you now at last unpersuaded, 
lest the sentence of condemnation go forth against 
you. 

Father of spirits, take the heart in hand that is 
too hard for my weakness. Do not thou end, though 
I have done. A word from thy effectual power will 
do the work. 0 thou, that hast the key of David, 
that openest and no man shutteth, open thou this 
heart, as thou didst Lydia's, and let the King of 
glory enter in, and make this soul thy captive. Let 



190 



ALLEINE'S ALARM. 



not the tempter harden him in delays ; let him not 
stir from this place, nor take his eyes from these 
lines, till he resolve to forego his sins, and accept 
of life on thy self-denying terms. In thy name, O 
Lord God, did I go forth to these labors ; in thy 
name do I close them. Let not all the time they 
have cost be lost hours ; let not all the thoughts of 
the heart, and all the pains that have been about 
them, be but lost labor. Lord, put thy hand upon 
the heart of this reader, and send thy Spirit, as once 
thou didst Philip to join himself to the chariot of 
the eunuch while he was reading the word. And 
though I should never know it while I live, yet I 
beseech thee, 0 Lord God, let it be found at the 
last day that some souls are converted by these 
labors; and let some be able to stand forth and 
say, that by these persuasions they were won unto 
thee. Amen, Amen. Let him that readeth say, 
Amen. 



THE END. 



MX 23 %m\ 



