And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
— Isaiah 19:22
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
— Acts 11:21
And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
— Acts 15:3
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
— Acts 16:14-15
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
— Hebrews 10:39
Showing Positively What Conversion Is, by Joseph Alleine. The following contains Chapter Two of his work, “An Alarm to the Unconverted.” Published in 1672.
Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. JOHN 3.3.
I am not permitted to leave you with your eyes half open, like the one who saw men like trees walking.Mar 8.24 The word is profitable for doctrine as well as reproof,2Tim 3.16 And therefore, having conducted you this far past the shelves and rocks of so many dangerous mistakes, I would guide you at length into the harbour of truth. Conversion then (in short) lies in the thorough change both of the heart and life. I will briefly describe it in its nature and causes.
1 . The author is the Spirit of God.
And therefore it is called the sanctification of the Spirit, 2Thes 2.13 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,Tit. 3.5 yet not excluding the other Persons in the Trinity: for the apostle teaches us to bless the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he has caused us to be born again;1Pet 1.3 and Christ is said to give repentance to Israel,Act 5.31 and he is called the everlasting Father; Isa 9.6 and we are his seed, and the children which God has given him. Oh, blessed birth! Seven cities contended for the birth of Homer, but the whole Trinity fathers the new creature. Yet this work is principally ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and so we are said to be born of the Spirit.Joh 3.8 So then, it is a work above man’s power.
We are born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.Joh 1.13 Never think you can convert yourself: if you would ever be savingly converted, you must despair of doing it in your own strength.Jer 13.93 It is a resurrection from the dead, a new creation, a work of absolute ominipotence.Eph 1.19 Are these not beyond the reach of human power? If you have no more than you had by your first birth (a good nature, a meek and chaste temper, etc.), then you are a stranger to true conversion. This is a supernatural work.
2. The moving cause is either internal, or external.
The internal mover is free grace alone: Not by works of righteousness which we have done; but of his own mercy he saved us by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.Tit. 3.5 Of his own will he bore us. Jas. 1.18 We are chosen and called to sanctification, not because of it.Eph 1.4
God finds nothing in a man to turn his heart, but to turn his stomach; there is enough to provoke his loathing, but nothing to provoke his love. Look back at yourself, O Christian. Take your verminous rags; look at yourself in your blood.Eze 16.6 Oh, reflect upon your swinish nature, your filthy swill, your once-beloved mire!2Pet 2.22 Can you think of your trough and draught without loathing? Open your tomb.Mat 23.27 Aren’t you struck almost dead with the hellish damp? Behold your putrid soul, your loathsome members.
Oh, insufferable stench, if you would only smell your own putrefaction! Psa 14.3 Behold your ghastly visage, your crawling lusts, your slime and corruption. Don’t your own clothes abhor you? Job 9.31 How then could holiness and purity love you? Be astonished at this, O heavens; be moved, O earth! Jer 2.12 Who is it that must cry, Grace! grace! Zech. 4.7 Hear and blush, you children of the Most High; O you unthankful generation! Blush that free grace is no longer in your mouths, or in your thoughts: it is no longer adored, admired, and commended by such as you. One would think you would do nothing but praise and admire God, whatever you are. How can you rationalize so as to forget such grace, or pass it over with a slight and rare mention? What besides free grace would move God to love you, unless hostility could do it, or deformity could do it, unless vomit or rottenness could do it? How affectionately does Peter lift up his hands? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of his abundant mercy has caused us to be born again.1Pet 1.3 How emotionally does Paul magnify the free mercy of God? God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive together with Christ because of his great love with which he loved us: by grace you are saved.Eph 2.4-5
The external mover is the merit and intersession of the blessed Jesus. He has obtained gifts for the rebellious;Psa 68.18 and it is through him that God works in us what is well-pleasing in his sight.Heb 13.21
Through him, all spiritual blessings are bestowed upon us in heavenly things,Eph 1.3 He interceded for the elect that don’t believe, Joh 12.20 Every convert is the fruit of Christ’s suffering,Isa 53.11 Oh, never was infant born into the world with the difficulty that Christ endured for us! How emphatically he groans in his suffering! All the pains that he suffered on his cross were our birth-pains,Act 2.24 the pulls and throws that Christ endured for us. He became sanctification for us,1Cor 1.30 He sanctified himself (that is, he set himself apart as a sacrifice) so that we may be sanctified,Joh 17.19 We are sanctified through the offering of his body, once for all. Heb 10.10
Except for his own pity, then, and the merit and intercession of Christ, nothing prevails upon God to bestow converting grace on us. If you are a new creature, you know to whom you owe it: to Christ’s pangs and prayers. From this comes the natural affection of a believer for Christ. The foal does not run after the dam more naturally, nor the suckling for the teats, than a believer runs to Jesus Christ. And where else should you go? If anyone in the world can show more for your heart than Christ can, let them carry it. Does Satan? Does the world court you? Does sin sue for your heart? Were these crucified for you? 1Cor 1.13 O Christian, love and serve the Lord while you have a being. Don’t even the Publicans love those who love them, and show kindness to those who are kind to them? Mat 5.46-47
3. The instrument is either personal or real.
The personal is the ministry: In Christ, I became your father through the gospel.1Cor 4.15 Christ’s ministers are those sent to open men’s eyes, and turn them to God.Act 26.18 O unthankful world, little do you know what you are doing while you are persecuting the messengers of the Lord: it is their business (under Christ) to save you. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted your eyes on high? Isa 37.23 Those who show you the way of salvation are the servants of the most high God. Act 16.17 And is this how you repay them, O foolish and unwise? Deut. 32.6 O sons of ingratitude, against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make faces, and stick out your tongue? Isa 57.4 These are the instruments that God uses to convert and save you; and yet you spit in the face of your physicians, and throw your pilots over-board? Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The real instrument is the word: We were born by the word of truth: This is what enlightens the eyes, converts the soul,Psa 19.7-8 makes us wise unto salvation.2Tim 3.15 This is the incorruptible seed by which we are born again.1Pet 1.23 If we are washed, it is by the word;Eph 5.26 if we are sanctified, it is through the truth.Joh 17.17
This is what generates faith, and regenerates us.Rom 10.17; Jas. 1.18 O you saints, how you should love the word! For you have been converted by this: O you sinners, how you should ply the word! For you must be converted by this: no other ordinary means but this. You that have felt its renewing power, make much of it while you live; be forever thankful for it: tie it around your necks; write it on your hands; store it in your hearts. Pro 6.21-22 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 your precepts, for you have made me alive by them.Psa 119.93 You that are unconverted, read the word with diligence; flock to it where it is powerfully preached; fill the porches like the multitude of impotent, blind, lame, and withered who were waiting for the moving of the water.Joh 5.3 Pray for the coming of the Spirit in the word. Come off your knees to the sermon; and come to your knees from the sermon. The seed does not prosper, because it is not watered by prayers and tears, nor is it covered by meditation.
4. The final cause is man’s salvation and God’s glory.
We are chosen through sanctification to salvation,2Thes 2.13 called that we might be glorified,Rom 8.30 but especially, that God might be glorified,Isa 60.21 that we would display his praises,1Pet 2.9 and be fruitful in good works.Col. 1.10 O Christian, don’t forget the end of your calling: let your light shine,Mat 5.16 let your lamp burn; let your fruits be good, and many, and in season;Psa 1.3 let all your plans align with God’s, that he may be magnified in you,Phi 1.20 Why should God regret that he has made you a Christian, as in the time of the old world when he regretted that he made men? Gen 6.6 Why should you be an eye-sore in his orchard by your unfruitfulness? Luk 13 or a son that causes shame: a grief to your father, and a bitterness to the woman who bore you? Pro 17.25; 10.5 Let the womb bless her that bore you.Pro 17.21 One who fathers a fool does it to his sorrow; and the father of a fool has no joy.
5. The subject is the elect sinner in all his parts and powers, members and mind.
God calls only those he predestines.Rom 8.30 None are drawn to Christ by their calling, nor do they come to him by believing, except his sheep — those whom the Father has given him.Joh 6.37, 44 Effectual calling runs parallel with eternal election.2Pet 1.10
You begin at the wrong end if you dispute first about your election. Prove your conversion, and then never doubt of your election; or can you not yet prove it? Focus on a present and complete turning. Whatever God’s purposes are, though secret, I am sure his promises are plain. How desperately rebels argue! If I am elected, I will be saved, no matter what I will; and if I am not, I will be damned, no matter what I can. Perverse sinner, will you begin where you should end?
Is the word not before you? What does it say? Repent and be converted, so that your sins may be blotted out.Act 3.19 If you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live.Rom 8.13. Believe and be saved.Act 16.31 What can be plainer? Don’t stand still, disputing about your election, but set to repenting and believing. Cry to God for converting grace. Revealed things belong to you; busy yourself in these. It is just (as one well said) that those who will not feed on the plain food of the word, will be choked with the bones. Whatever God’s purposes are, I am sure his promises are true. Whatever the decrees of heaven may be, I am sure that if I repent and believe, I will be saved; and I am sure that if I don’t repent, I will be damned. Is this not plain ground here for you, and would you still run upon the rocks?
More particularly, this change of conversion passes throughout the whole subject. A carnal person may have some shreds of good morality, a little close to the list; but he is never good throughout the whole cloth, throughout the whole body of holiness and Christianity. Feel him a little further near the ridge, and you will see he is only a deceitful piece. Conversion is not repairing the old building; instead, it takes everything down and erects a new structure: it is not putting in a patch, or sewing on a list of holiness; instead, with the true convert, holiness is woven into all his powers, principles, and practice. The sincere Christian is quite a new fabric from the foundation to the top-stone, all fire-new.20He is a new man,Eph 4.24 a new creature.
All things have become new.2Cor 5.17 Conversion is a deep work, a heart work; it turns everything upside down, and places a man in a new world. It goes throughout men, throughout the mind, throughout the members, throughout the activities of the whole life.
1. Throughout the mind. It makes a universal change within. First, It turns the balance of the judgment, so that God and his glory outweigh all carnal and worldly interest. It opens the eye of the mind, and makes the scales of its native ignorance fall off; it turns men from darkness to light. The man that saw no danger in his condition before, now concludes he is lost and forever undone Act 2.37 unless he is renewed by the power of grace. One who formerly thought there was little harm in sin, now comes to see it as the chief of evils; he sees the unreasonableness, the unrighteousness, the deformity and filthiness that is in sin, so that he is frightened by it, loathes it, dreads it, flees it, and even abhors himself for it. For one who could see little sin in himself before, and could find nothing to confess except for a few gross and glaring evils,
sin now revives his conscience.Rom 7.9 He sees the rottenness of his heart, and the desperate and deep pollution of his whole nature: he cries, Unclean, unclean.Lev. 13.45 Lord, purge me with hyssop, wash me thoroughly, create in me a new heart.Psa 51.2, 7, 10 He sees himself altogether filthy,Psa 14.3 corrupt, both root and tree.Mat 7.17-18 He writes “unclean” on all his parts, and powers, and performances. He discovers the nasty corners he was never aware of, and sees the blasphemy and theft, murder and adultery that is in his heart, and of which he was ignorant before. Up to this point, he saw no form or attractiveness in Christ, no beauty that he should desire him; but now he finds the hidden treasure, and he will sell everything to buy this field. Christ is the pearl he seeks, sin the puddle he loathes. Now, according to this new light, this man is of another mind than he was before, another judgment. Now God is everything to him; he has none like him in heaven or earth.Psa 73.25 He prefers him truly before all the world: God’s favour is his life; the light of his countenance is more than corn, or wine and oil (the good that he formerly enquired after and set his heart upon).Psa 4.6-7 Now, let all the world be set on one side, and God alone on the other; let the harlot put on her paint and gallantry, and present herself to the soul in all the glory of her kingdoms (as when Satan would have tempted our Saviour with her).
Yet the soul will not fall down and worship her, but will prefer a naked, yes, a crucified and persecuted Christ, before her. Even a hypocrite might come to yield a general assent to this, that it is the chief good; yes, the wiser heathens (some of them) have at last stumbled upon this: but there is a difference between the absolute and the comparative judgment of the understanding. No hypocrite comes so far as to look upon God as the most desirable and suitable good to him, and at that point, acquiesces in him. This was the convert’s voice: The Lord is my portion, says my soul: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.Psa 73.26; Lam. 3.24
Secondly, It turns the bias of the will, both as to means and ends.
(1.) The intention of the will is altered. Now the man has new ends and plans: now he intends to have God above all; and he desires and designs nothing in all the world so much as that Christ may be magnified in him.Phi 1.20 He considers himself more happy in this than in all that the earth could yield: that he may be serviceable to Christ, and bring him glory in his generation. This is the mark he aims at, so that the name of Jesus may be great in the world, and that all the sheaves of his brothers may bow to this sheaf.
Reader, do you read this, and never ask yourself whether it is that way with you? Pause awhile, and breathe on this great concern.
(2.) The election also is changed, so that he chooses another way.Psa 119.13. He rests upon God as his blessedness; and upon Christ as the principal; and upon holiness as the subordinate means to bring him to God.30He chooses Jesus for his Lord.Col. 2.6 He is not merely forced into Christ by the storm; nor does he take Christ for a bare necessity, as the man who begged from the gallows that he would rather take a wife than the noose; but it is a free choice. This match is not made out of fright, as with the terrified conscience, or a dying sinner who will seemingly do anything for Christ (he only takes Christ rather than hell); rather, he deliberately resolves that Christ is his best choice,Phi 1.23 and he would rather choose him than all the good of this world, even if he might enjoy it while he could. Again, he takes holiness for his path; he does not submit to it out of mere necessity, but he likes and loves it. I have chosen the way of your precepts.Psa 119.173 He takes God’s testimonies, not as his bondage, but as his heritage, indeed, his heritage forever,Psa 119.111 He does not consider them his burden, but his bliss; not his cords, but his cordials. He not only hears, but he takes up Christ’s yoke: he does not take holiness like the stomach takes the loathed medicine, (which it swallows rather than die); instead, he takes it like the hungry man takes his beloved food: no time passes so sweetly with him as the time he spends in the exercise of holiness; these are both his aliment and his element, the desire of his eyes and the joy of his heart.
Put it to your conscience as you go along, whether you are that man? O happy man, if this is your case! But see you are thorough and impartial in the search.
Thirdly, It turns the bent of the affections,2Cor 7.11. These all run in an new channel: the Jordan is now driven back, and the water runs upwards against its natural course. Christ is his hope,1Tim 1.1, this is his prize;Phi 3.8 here is his eye; here is his heart. He is content to throw everything overboard (as the merchant does in the storm when he is about to perish), so he may but keep this jewel.
The first of his desires is not after gold, but grace;Phi 3.13 he hungers after it, he seeks it as he would seek silver, he digs for it as he would for hidden treasure: he would rather be gracious than be great: he would rather be the holiest man on earth than the most learned, most famous, or most prosperous. While carnal, he said,“Oh, if I were only in great esteem, and rolled in wealth, and swam in pleasure; if my debts were paid, and I and mine were provided for, then I would be a happy man.” But now the tune has changed: Oh, says the convert, if only I had my corruptions subdued; if I had such measures of grace, such fellowship with God,
then even if I were poor and despised, I would not care; I would consider myself a blessed man. Reader, is this the language of your soul?
His joys are changed. He rejoices in the ways of God’s testimonies as much as he would in all riches.Psa 119.14 He delights in the law of the Lord, which he once little savoured. He has no such joy as he does in thoughts of Christ, the fruition of his company, and the prosperity of his people.
His cares are quite altered. He was once set on the world, and any scraps of spare time (nothing too often) was enough for his soul. Now he gives up caring for the donkeys, and sets his heart on the kingdom. Now his cry is, What shall I do to be saved? Act 16.30 His great concern is how to secure his soul. Oh, how he would bless you if you could only put away his doubts of this!
His fears are not so much of suffering, but of sinning.Heb 11.25-26 Once he was afraid of nothing so much as the loss of his estate, or esteem, the pleasure of friends, the frowns of the great: nothing sounded so terrible to him as pain, or poverty, or disgrace. Now these are little to him in comparison to God’s dishonour or displeasure. How warily he walks, lest he tread on a snare! He always fears: he looks before and behind; he has his eye upon his heart and he often looks over his shoulder lest he be overtaken with sin. It kills his heart to think of losing God’s favour; this he dreads as his only undoing; Psa 51.11-12; Psa 119.7
No thought in the world pinches him and pains him so much as to think of parting with Christ.
His love runs a new course. My love was crucified (said holy Ignatius), that is, my Christ. This is my beloved, says the spouse,Song 5.16 How often Augustine pours his love upon Christ! O eternal blessedness, etc.
He can find no words sweet enough. Let me see you, O light of my eyes. Come, O you joy of my spirit. Let me behold you, Oh, the gladness of my heart. Let me love you, O the life of my soul. Appear to me, O my great delight, my sweet comfort, my God, my life, and the whole glory of my soul. Let me find you, O desire of my heart! Let me hold you, love of my soul! Let me embrace you, O heavenly bridegroom! Let me possess you.
His sorrows now have a new vent.2Cor 7.9-10 The view of his sins and the sight of a Christ crucified that scarcely stirred him before, now deeply affect his heart!
His hatred boils, his anger burns against sin.Psa 119.104 He has no patience with himself; he calls himself a fool, and a beast, and he thinks any name is too good for him when his indignation is stirred up against sin. He could once swill in it with exceeding pleasure; now he loathes the thought of returning to it as much as he loathes licking the filthiest vomit.
Commune, then, with your own heart; pay attention to the common and general current of your affections, whether they are towards God in Christ above all other concerns. Indeed, sudden and strong commotions of the affections and sensitivities, are often found in hypocrites, especially where the natural constitution leads to that. By contrast, the sanctified are often without tangible stirrings of the affections where their temper is more relaxed, unemotional, and detached. The question is whether the judgment and will are firmly determined for God above all other good — whether real or apparent; if the affections sincerely follow their choice and conduct, even though not as strongly and sensibly as desired, there is no doubt that the change is a saving change.
2. Throughout the members. Those who were the instruments of sin before, have now become the holy utensils of Christ’s living temple. Someone who before made a vulgarity or a cask of his body, now possesses his vessel in sanctification and honour, in temperance, chastity and sobriety, and has dedicated it to the Lord. The eye that once was a wandering, wanton, haughty, and covetous eye, is now employed as if by Mary, weeping over her sins,Luk 7.38 beholding God in his works,Psa 8.3 reading his word,Act 8.30 searching for objects of mercy, and opportunities to serve.
The ear that was once open to Satan’s call, and (like a vitiated palate) relished nothing more than filthy or scintillating talk and the fool’s laughter, is now drilled to the door of Christ’s house, and open to his discipline: it says, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears: it cries with him, Veniat verbum domini; it waits for his word as for rain, and relishes them more than the appointed food,Job 23.12 and more than honey and the honey-comb.Psa 19.10
The head that was the shop of worldly designs, is now filled with other matters, and set upon the study of God’s will; the man beats his head, not so much about his gain but about his duty. The thoughts and cares that now fill his head are principally how he may please God and flee sin.
His heart that was a pig-sty of filthy lusts, has become an altar of incense where the fire of divine love is ever kept, and from which the daily sacrifice of prayer and praises, and the sweet incense of holy desires, exclamations, and pantings, are continually ascending.
The mouth has become a well of life,Pro 18.21 his tongue like choice silver, and his lips feed many.Pro 10.20-21 Now the salt of grace has seasoned his speech and eaten out the corruption,Col. 4.6, and cleansed the mouth from his filthy communication, flattery, boasting, criticizing, lying, swearing, and backbitingthat once came like flashes out of the hell that was in the heart.Jas. 3.6-7
The throat, that was once an open tomb,Rom 3.13 now sends forth the sweet breath of prayer and holy discourse; and the man speaks another tongue than the language of Canaan; he never does so well as when talking of God and Christ, and the matters of another world. His mouth brings forth wisdom; his tongue has become the silver trumpet of his Maker’s praise, his glory, and the best member that he has.
Now, here the hypocrite will hesitate. He may speak like an angel, but he has a covetous eye, or he has the gain of unrighteousness in his hand; or else his hand is clean, but his heart is full of rottenness,Mat 23.27 and immoderate cares; it is a veritable oven of lust, a shop of pride, and the seat of malice. It may be, as with Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, that he has a golden head — a great deal of knowledge — but his feet are clay: his affections are worldly; he regards earthly things, and his way and his walk are sensual and carnal. If you follow him to his secret haunts, his footsteps will be found in some by-paths of sin. The work of conversion in him is not pervasive.
3. Throughout the activities, or the life and practice. The new man takes a new course; Eph 2.2-3 His citizenship is in heaven,Phi 3.20 No sooner does Christ call him by effectual grace, than he becomes a follower of Christ.Mat 4.20 When God has given him a new heart, and written his law in his mind, he immediately walks in God’s statutes and keeps his judgments,Eze 36.26-27
Though sin may dwell in him (God knows it is a wearisome and unwelcome guest), it no longer has dominion over him.Rom 6.7, 14 He has his fruit leading to holiness;Rom 6.22 and though he makes many a blot, yet the law and life of Jesus is what he eyes as his copy; he has an unfeigned respect for all God’s commandments.Psa 119.6 His conscience is pricked even by little sins and little duties.Psa 119.113 His infirmities which he cannot help, although he would, are his soul’s burden; they are like the dust in a man’s eye which, though tiny, is more than a little troublesome. O man! Can you read this, and not inwardly examine your own soul? The sincere convert is not one man at church, and another man 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 does not pretend piety, and neglect morality.Mat 23.14 Instead, he turns from all his sins, and he keeps all God’s statutes,Eze 18.21 even though not perfectly (except in his desire and endeavour). Yet he is sincere in not giving himself permission to breach any.Rom 7.15 Now he delights in the word, and he sets himself to prayer, and he opens his hand (if he is able), and gives to the hungry. He ends his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor;Dan. 4.27 he has a good conscience, and he is willing to live honestly in all things,Heb 13.18 and to keep himself without offence towards God and men. Act 24.16
Here again you find the deficiency of many who profess Christ, who consider themselves good Christians. They are selective in the law,Mal 2.9 beginning with the cheap and easy duties of religion; but they don’t finish the work. They are like a cake that isn’t turned: it is half toasted and half-raw. You may find them strict in their words, and punctual in their dealings; but they don’t exercise themselves toward godliness; they are strangers to self-examination, and governing their hearts. You may find them duly at the church; but if you follow them to their families, you will see little besides the world being minded; or if they have a course of family-duties, follow them to their private room, and you will find their souls are little looked after. It may be they seem otherwise religious, but they don’t bridle their tongues, and so their religion is in vain.Jas. 1.26 It may be they align private and family prayer; but follow them to their shops, and you will find them in the trade of lying, or in some covert and habitual way of deceit. Thus the hypocrite is not comprehensive in the course of his obedience.
So much for the subject of conversion.
6. There are things from which or to which we turn.
1. The things from which we turn in this motion of conversion are sin, Satan, the world, and our own righteousness.
First, Sin. When a man is converted, he is done forever with sin, yes, with all sin;Psa 119.128 but most of all he is done with his own sins, and especially with his secret sin.Psa 18.23 Sin is now the butt of his indignation.2Cor 7.11 He thirsts to bathe his hands in the blood of his sins. His sins set abroach his sorrows: it is sin that pierces him and wounds him; he feels it like a thorn in his side, like a thorn in his eyes; he groans and struggles under it; not just nominally, but emotionally he cries out, O wretched man! He is not impatient about any burden so much as his sin,Psa 40.12 If God were to give him his choice, he would choose any affliction so that he might be rid of sin; he feels it like cutting gravel in his shoes, stabbing and paining him as he goes.
Before conversion, he thought lightly of sin: he cherished it in his heart as Uriah cherished his lamb: he nourished it, and it grew up with him; it ate, as it were, of his own meat, and drank from his own cup, and it lay on his chest, and was like a daughter to him: but when God opens his eyes by conversion, he throws it away with abhorrence,Isa 30.22 just as a man would do with a loathsome toad which he hugged close to his chest in the dark, thinking it was some pretty and harmless bird. When a man is savingly changed, he is not only deeply convinced of the danger, but of the defilement of sin. And oh, how earnest he is to be purified by God! He loathes himself for his sins.Eze 36.31 He runs to Christ and throws himself into the fountain because of his sin and uncleanness.Zech. 13.1 If he falls, what a frenzy there is to get clean again! He flies to the word, and washes, and rubs, and rinses, labouring to cleanse himself from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit: he abhors his once-beloved sin,Psa 18.23 just as a cleanly nature abhors the trough and mire in which pigs are seen delighting.
The sound convert is heartily engaged against sin; he wrestles with it, he wars against it. He is too often foiled, but he never yields the cause, nor lays down the weapons. Instead, he gets up and gets to it again while he has breath in his body. He never allows quiet possession: he makes no peace; he gives no quarter. He falls upon it, fires upon it, and is disturbed by it with continual alarm. He can forgive his other enemies; he can pity them and pray for them; Act 7.60 But here he is implacable; here he is set upon revenge. He hunts for the precious life. His eye will not pity, his hand will not spare, even though it is a right hand or a right eye. Whether it is a lucrative sin that delights his nature, or makes him esteemed with carnal friends, he would rather throw his gain down the sewer, see his popularity fall, or have the flower of pleasure wither in his hand, than let himself continue in any known way of sin.Luk 19.8 He grants no indulgence; he gives no toleration. Instead, he confronts sin wherever he meets it, and frowns upon it with this unwelcoming salute, Have I found you, O my enemy?
Reader, has conscience been at work while you have been looking over these lines? Have you pondered these things in your heart? Have you searched the book within, to see if these things are so? If not, read it again, and make your conscience say whether it is this way with you.
Have you crucified your flesh with its affections and lusts? Have you not only confessed, but forsaken all sin in your fervent desires, and the regular practice of every deliberate and wilful sin in your life? If not, you are still unconverted. Doesn’t conscience fly in your face as you read this? Doesn’t it tell you that you are living a lie for your own advantage, that you use deceit in your calling, that there is some way of secret wantonness in which you live? Well then, don’t deceive yourself: you are poisoned by bitterness, and bound in iniquity.Act 8.23
Doesn’t your unbridled tongue, your brutish intemperance, your wicked company, your neglect of prayer and of hearing and reading the word, now testify against you, and say, We are your works, and we will follow you? Or, if I have not hit you right, doesn’t the bird within tell them there is such and such a way that you know is evil, yet to gain some carnal consideration, you tolerate it, and you are willing to spare it? If this is your case, then you are unregenerate to this day, and you must be changed, or else condemned.
Secondly, Satan. Conversion binds the strong man;Mat 12.29 it spoils his armour, throws out his goods, and turns men from the power of Satan to God.Act 26.18 Before, the devil would no sooner hold up his finger to the sinner to call him to his wicked company, to sinful games and filthy delights, than he quickly followed like an ox to the slaughter, like a fool to the correction of the stocks, like the bird that hastens to the prey, not knowing that his life is at stake. Before, no sooner would Satan bid him lie than he quickly had a lie on the tip of his tongue.Act 5.3 No sooner would Satan offer a wanton object, than he would be stung with lust. The devil could do more with him than God could! If the devil said,“Away with these family duties,”you could be sure they would be rarely performed in his house. If the devil said,“Away with this strictness, this preciseness,” he would keep far from it. If he told him,“There’s no need for these private duties,” he would rarely perform them day to day. But now that he is converted, he serves another master, and takes quite another course.1Pet 4.4 He goes and comes at Christ’s beckon.Col. 3.24 Satan may sometimes catch his foot in a trap, but he will no longer be a willing captive. He watches for the snares and baits of Satan, and he studies to become acquainted with his tricks. He is very suspicious of his plots, and watches what crosses his path, in case Satan has some plot against him: he wrestles against principalities and powers.Eph 6.12
He considers the messenger of Satan as men consider the messenger of death: he keeps his eye on his enemy,1Pet 5.8 and takes care in his duties, to prevent Satan from gaining a foothold.
Thirdly, The World. Before having a sound faith, a man is overcome by the world. He bows down to mammon; or he idolizes his own reputation; or else he loves pleasure more than God. 2Tim 3.4 Here is the root of man’s misery caused by the fall: he is attracted to the creature instead of to God, and he gives the creature that esteem, confidence and affection that he owes to God alone.
O miserable man! What a deformed monster sin has made you! God made you little lower than the angels, and he made sin little better than the devils.Joh 6.70; 8.44 But the monster has his head and heart where his feet should be, and his feet kick against heaven. Everything is out of place. The world that was formed to serve you, has come to rule you; and the deceitful harlot has bewitched you with her enchantments, and made you bow down and serve her.
But converting grace sets everything in order again. It puts God in the throne and makes the world his footstool.Psa 73.25 It puts Christ in the heart and the world under his feet.45So Paul says, I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me.Gal. 6.14 Before this change, his cry was, Who will show us any (worldly) good? But now he sings another tune: Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon me, and whoever wants to, take the corn and wine.Psa 4.6-7
Before, his heart’s delight and contentment were in the world. Then, his song was, Soul, take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry; you have many good things laid up for many years: but now all this is withered, and there is no attraction that he desires. He is attuned with the sweet Psalmist of Israel, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; the lines have fallen to me in a fair place; I have a good inheritance.Psa 16.5-6 He blesses himself, and boasts in God; nothing else gives him contentment. He has written “vanity” and “vexation” on all his worldly enjoyments;Ecc 1, 2 he considers all human excellencies but loss and dung. Phi 3.7-8 He now chases life and immortality.Rom 2.7 He trades it all for grace and glory, and he pursues an incorruptible crown.1Cor 9.25 His heart is set to seek the Lord. He seeks first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness. Religion is no longer an incidental matter with him, but is his main concern. The gaudy idol has now become like Nehushtan;2Kng 18.4 he gets up and treads on it, like Diogenes trampled on Plato’s hangings saying, Calco Platonis fastum. Before, the world ruled him; he would do more for gain than godliness,1Tim 6.6 and more to please his friend or his flesh than to please the God that made him. God had to stand by until the world was served first. But now all else must stand by: he hates his father, his mother, life and all in comparison to Christ. Luk 1.26
Well then, pause a little, and look within yourself: doesn’t this intimately concern you? You pretend you are for Christ, but doesn’t the world rule you? Don’t you take more real delight and contentment in the world than in him? Don’t you find yourself more at ease when the world is on your mind, and you are surrounded by carnal delights, than when your are retired in private to prayer and meditation, or when you are attending to God’s word and worship? There is no surer evidence of an unconverted state than to have the things of the world uppermost in our aims, love, and estimation.Joh 2.15; Jas. 4.4
With the sound convert, Christ is supreme. How dear is this name to him? How precious is its savour? The name of Jesus is engraved on his heart;Gal. 4.19 it lies like a sachet of myrrh on his breast.Song 1.13-14 Once Christ is savingly revealed to him, honour is but air, and laughter is but madness, and mammon falls over like Dagon fell before the ark, with its hands and head broken off on the threshold.1Sam 5.4 Here is the pearl of great price to the true convert; here is his treasure; here is his hope;Mat 13.44-45 this is his glory: My beloved is mine, and I am his. Oh, it is sweeter to him to be able to say,“Christ is mine,” than if he could say,“The kingdom is mine,” or “the Indies are mine.”
Fourthly, Your own Righteousness. Before conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig leaves,Phi 3.16 and to make himself whole by his own duties.Mic. 6.6-7 He is apt to trust in himself,Luk 16.15; 18.9 and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his tokens for gold, and not submit to the righteousness of God.Rom 10.3 But conversion changes his mind. Now he throws away his filthy rags, and he considers his own righteousness as a menstruous cloth; he throws it off as a man would shed the verminous tatters of a nasty beggar.Isa 64.7 Now he is brought into a poverty of spirit;Mat 5.3 he complains about and condemns himself,Rom 7 and his entire inventory is poor, miserable, wretched, blind, and naked.Rev 3.17 He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things, and he calls his once idolized righteousness merely flesh, and loss, and dogs’ meat. He would not be found righteous in himself for a thousand worlds.Phi 3.4; 7-9 His finger ever touches his sores,Psa 51.3 his sins, his wants. Now he begins to set a high price on Christ’s righteousness; he sees in every duty his need of Christ, to justify both his person and 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 on the hand of Christ, and so he bows himself in the house of his God. He accounts himself a lost and undone man without him; his life is hidden in Christ, as the life of a man is hidden in the heart. He is fixed upon Christ, just as the roots of a tree spread in the earth for stability and nutriment. Before, the news of Christ was a stale and sapless thing; but now how sweet Christ is! Augustine could not relish his previously much-admired Cicero, because he could not find the name of Christ. When he speaks of and to his Christ, how pathetically he cries, all in one breath, Dulcissime, amantis. benignis. caris. etc. quando te videbo? quando satiabo de pulchritudine tua? Medit. c. 37 (O most sweet, most loving, most kind, most dear, most precious, most desired, most lovely, most fair, etc.). In a word, the voice of the convert says with the martyr: None but Christ, none but Christ.
2. The terms to which we are turned, are either ultimate or subordinate, and also mediate.
The ultimate is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whom the true convert takes as his all-sufficient and eternal blessedness. A man is never truly sanctified until his heart is truly set on God above all things as his portion and chief good. These are the natural breathings of a believer’s heart: you are my portion.Psa 119.57 My soul makes her boast in the Lord.Psa 34.2 My expectation is from him; he alone 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.Psa 62.1-2; 5-7; 18.1-2
Is it an issue for you, as to whether you are converted or not? Then let your soul and all that is within you attend to it now!
Have you taken God for your happiness? Where does the contentment of your heart lie? Where does your choicest comfort come from? Come then! And with Abraham, lift up your eyes eastward, and westward, and northward, and southward, and look around you: what would you have in heaven or earth to make you happy? If God were to give you your choice, as he gave it to Solomon, or if he were to say to you as Ahasuerus said to Esther, What do you wish, and what is your request? It will be granted to you. Est 5.3 What would you ask for? Go into the gardens of pleasure and gather all the fragrant flowers from there; would these content you? Go to the treasures of mammon; suppose you might deluge yourself with these things: go to the towers, to the trophies of honour; what would you think of being a man of renown, and having a name like the name of the great men of the earth? Would any of this, all of this, suffice to make you consider yourself a happy man? If so, then certainly you are carnal and unconverted. If not, go further; wade into the divine excellencies, the store of God’s mercies, his hidden power, the unfathomable deeps of his all-sufficiency. Does this suit you best and please you most? Do you say, It is good to be here;Mat 17.4 here I will stay; here I will live and die? Will you let all the world go rather than this? Then it is well between God and you: you are happy, O man! You are happy that you were ever born: if God can make you happy, then you must be happy,
for you have affirmed that the Lord is your God.Deut. 26.17 Do you say to Christ, as he says to us, your Father will be my Father, and your God my God? Joh 20.17 Here is the turning point: a nominal Christian never rests in God. But converting grace does that work, and so it cures the fatal misery of the fall by turning the heart from its idols to the living God.1Thes 1.9 Now the soul will say, Lord, where else would I go? You have the words of eternal life.Joh 6.68 Here he centers, and here he settles. Oh, it is like the entrance to heaven for him to see his interest in God. When he discovers this, he says, Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.Psa 116.7 He is even ready to express Simeon’s song, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace,Luk 2.29 and he says with Jacob, when his old heart was revived at the welcome tidings, It is enough;Gen 45.28 when he sees that he has God to go to in covenant, this is all his salvation and all his desire.2Sam. 23.5
Man, is this your case? Have you experienced this? Why then, you are blessed of the Lord! God has been at work with you; he has laid hold of your heart by the power of converting grace, or else you would never have done this.
The mediate term of conversion is either principal, or less principal. The principal is Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man;1Tim 2.5 his work is to bring us to God.1Pet 3.18
He is the way to the Father.Joh 14.6 He is the only plank on which we may escape, the only door by which we may enter,Joh 10.9. Conversion brings the soul to Christ,Col. 2.6 to accept him as the only means to life, the only way, the only name given under heaven.Act 4.12 He doesn’t look for salvation in any other but him, nor in any other with him; he throws himself on Christ alone, like someone would throw himself with spread arms upon the sea.
Here, (says the convinced sinner) here I will venture, and if I perish, I perish; if I die, I will die here. But, Lord, don’t allow me to perish under the pitying eyes of your mercy. Do not entreat me to leave you, or turn from following you.Ruth 1.16 Here I throw myself: if you kick me, if you kill me,Job 13.15 I will not go from your door.
Thus the poor soul ventures on Christ, and resolvedly adheres to him. Before conversion, the man made light of Christ; he minded his farm, friends, and merchandise more than Christ.Mat 22.5 Now Christ is like essential food to him: he is his daily bread, the life of his heart, the staff of his life.Phi 3.9 His great intent is that Christ might be magnified in him.Phi 1.20 His heart once said, as they said to the spouse, What makes your beloved more valuable than another? Song 5.9 Before, he found more sweetness in drunken company, wicked games, and earthly delights, than he found in Christ. He took religion for a fancy, and the talk of great enjoyments for an idle dream.
But now, to live is Christ to him. He treats lightly all that he considered precious before, because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.Phi 3.8 All of Christ is accepted by the sincere convert. He loves not only the wages, but the work of Christ;Rom 7.12 he loves not only the benefits, but the burden of Christ: he is willing not only to tread out the corn, but to pull under the yoke; he takes up the commands of Christ and, yes, the cross of Christ.Mat 11.28; 16.24
The unsound convert half-heartedly follows Christ: he is all for the salvation of Christ, but not the sanctification; he is for the privileges, but he doesn’t appreciate the person of Christ; he separates the offices of Christ from the benefits of Christ. This is an error at its foundation. Whoever loves life, let him beware here. This is a fatal mistake which you have been warned about often, and yet there is none more common. Jesus is a sweet name, but men don’t love the Lord Jesus sincerely.Eph 6.24 They will not have him as God offers him: to be their Prince and Saviour.Act 5.31 They divide what God has joined, King and Priest. Indeed, they won’t accept the salvation of Christ as he intends it; they divide it. Every man votes for salvation from suffering; but they don’t desire to be saved from sinning. They want their lives saved, but they want to keep their lusts. Indeed, many again divide their salvation here. They are content to have only some of their sins destroyed; but they cannot leave the lap of Delilah, or divorce their beloved Herodias. They cannot be cruel to the right eye, or right hand:
the Lord must pardon them in this thing.2Kng 5.18 Oh, be infinitely careful here; your souls depend on it. The sound convert takes the whole Christ, and takes him for all intent and purposes — without exceptions, limitations, or reservations. He is willing to have Christ on his terms, on any terms. He is willing to have the dominion of Christ, as well as deliverance by Christ. He says with Paul, Lord, what would you have me do? Act 9.6 Anything, Lord. He sends a blank contract for Christ to set down his own conditions.
The less principal is 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 love with them, and chooses them as its rule and guide forever.Psa 119.111- 112
Four things (I observe) God works in every sound convert, with reference to the laws and ways of Christ. If you will be faithful to your own souls, you may come to know your estates by these. Therefore keep your eyes on your hearts as you go along.
(1.) The judgment is led to approve of them, and subscribe to them as most righteous, and most reasonable. The mind is brought to love the ways of God; and to consider the corrupt prejudices that were once against them as unreasonable and intolerable; they are now removed.
The understanding assents to them all as holy, just, and good.Rom 7.12 David is consumed with these excellencies of God’s laws. He expounds on them in praises, both as to their inherent qualities and also as to their admirable effects. Psa 19.8-10, etc.
There is a twofold judgment of the understanding: judicium absolutum, & comparatum. The absolute judgment is when a man thinks such a course is best in general, but not for him, or not under his present circumstances; pro hic, et nunc. Now a godly man’s judgment favors the ways of God, not only absolutely, but comparatively as well: he thinks them not only best in general, but best for him: he looks upon the rules of religion not only as tolerable, but desirable: indeed, more desirable than gold, fine gold; yes, much fine gold.Psa 19.10
His judgment is decidedly determined that it is best to be holy, that it is best to be strict, that in itself this is the most eligible course; and for him it is the wisest, and most rational and desirable choice. Hear the godly man’s judgment: I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right. I love your commandments above gold: yes, above fine gold. I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way.Psa 119.127-128 Note that he approved of all that God required, and he disallowed all that God forbid: Your judgments are righteous, O Lord, and upright. Your testimonies that you have commanded are righteous and very faithful. Your word is true from the beginning, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. See how readily and fully he subscribes to them; he declares his assent and consent to it, and all and everything that it contained.
(2.) The desire of the heart is to know the whole mind of Christ. He would not leave one sin undiscovered, or be ignorant of one required duty. It is the natural and earnest breathing of a sanctified heart: Lord, if there is any way of wickedness in me, disclose it. What I don’t know, teach me; and if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more. The unsound convert is willingly ignorant;2Pet 3.5 he does not love to come to the light.Joh 3.20 He wants to hold onto a particular sin, and therefore he is loth to know it is a sin, and he will not let the light in at that window. The gracious heart is willing to know the whole latitude and compass of his Maker’s law. He fully accepts the word that convinces him of any duty that he did not know or mind before, or that discloses any sin that lay hidden before.Psa 119.11
(3.) The free and resolved choice of the will is determined for the ways of Christ above all the pleasures of sin and prosperities of the world.Psa 119.103, 127, 162 His consent is not extorted by some extreme anguish, nor is it only a sudden and hasty resolve; instead, he is deliberately purposed, and he freely chooses. True, the flesh will rebel, yet the prevailing part of his will is for Christ’s laws and government; so that he takes them up, not as his toil or burden, but as his bliss. While the unsanctified convert walks in Christ’s ways as if he is in chains and fetters, the true convert does them naturally; he considers Christ’s laws to be his liberty. He is willing to wear the beauties of holiness,Psa 110.3 and he has this inseparable mark: that if he had his choice, he would rather live a strict and holy life, than the most prosperous and flourishing life in the world. 1Sam. 10.26 A band of men went with Saul, whose hearts God had touched. When God touches the hearts of his chosen, they quickly follow Christ,Mat 4.22 and (though drawn) they freely run after him,Song 1.4 and willingly offer themselves to the Lord’s service;2Chr 7.16 they seek him with their whole heart. 2Chr 15.15 Fear has its use, but this is not the main motivation of a sanctified heart. Christ does not keep his subjects by force, but is king of a willing people. They are (through his grace) freely resolved to serve him; they do it by choice, not as slaves. They are like the son or spouse who is motivated by love and a loyal mind. In a word, the laws of Christ are the convert’s love, his desire, his delight, and his continual study.
(4.) The bent of his course is directed to keep God’s statutes.Psa 119.4, 8, 167-168
It is the daily care of his life to walk with God. He seeks great things; he has noble intents even though he falls short: he aims at nothing less than perfection: he desires it, he reaches after it, he would not rest in any tent of grace until he was quite rid of sin, and had perfect holiness.Phi 3.11-14
Here the hypocrite’s rottenness may be discovered. He desires holiness (as one said well) only as a bridge to heaven; he earnestly enquires what the least is that will serve his aims; if he can get just enough to obtain heaven, this is all he cares for. But the sound convert desires holiness for holiness’ sake, and not only for heaven’s sake. He is not satisfied only with what might save him from hell, but he desires the highest ground: yet desires are not enough. What is your way and your course? Is the drift and scope of your life altered? Is holiness your trade, and is religion your business? If not, you are short of sound conversion.
Application. And is the conversion we have described absolutely necessity for salvation? If so, then be informed: 1.) That straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life. 2.) That there are few that find it. 3.) That there is need of a divine power to savingly convert a sinner to Jesus Christ.
Again then, be exhorted to look within yourself. What does your conscience say? Does it begin to bite? Does it twitch as you go? Is this your judgment, and this your choice, and this your way that we have described? If so, then it is well. But does your heart condemn you, and tell you there is such a sin you live in against your conscience? Does it tell you there is a secret way of wickedness which you make no bones about? Or a duty that your conscience ignores?
Does your conscience carry you to your private room, and tell you how seldom you pray and read there? Does it carry you to your family and show you the charge of God, and the souls of your children and servants that you neglect there? Does your conscience lead you to your shop, or your trade, and tell you of some hidden iniquity there? Does it carry you into the liquor store, or the tavern, and go around in your ear because of the loose company you keep there, and the precious time you misspend there; for the talents of God which you throw down this sinkhole; for your gambling and drunkenness, etc.? Does it carry you into your secret chamber and read you a curtain lecture?
O conscience! Do your duty. In the name of the living God, I command you to discharge your office: lay hold of this sinner, fall upon him, arrest him, apprehend him, undeceive him. What! Will you flatter and soothe him while he still lives in his sins? Awake, O conscience! What do you mean, O sleeper? What! Do you never have a reproof in your mouth?
What! Will this soul die in his careless neglect of God and eternity, and you stay completely silent? What! Will he still go on in his trespasses and yet have peace? Oh, rouse yourself and do your work! Let the preacher in your chest speak out! Cry aloud and don’t hold back: lift up your voice like a trumpet; don’t let the blood of this soul be on your hands!
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