The Marks of the Unconverted
While we keep aloof in generals, there is little fruit to be expected: it is the hand fight that does 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 colour, 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 displacency, or the necessity of the undeceiving work that I am now upon. Alas! for my unconverted hearers! they must be undeceived or undone. But how shall this be effected?
“Help, O all-searching light, and let thy discerning eye discover the rotten foundation of the self-deceiver! and lead me, O Lord God, as thou didst the prophets, into the chambers of imagery, and dig through the wall of sinners* hearts, and discover the hidden abominations that are lurking out of sight in the dark. O! send thy angel before me, to open the sundry wards of their hearts as thou didst before Peter, and make even the iron gates to fly open of their own accord. And, as Jonathan no sooner tasted the honey than his eyes were enhghtened, so grant, O 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 to the discovery, that it is most certain men may have a confident persuasion that their hearts and states be good, and yet be unsound. Plear 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. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness.” Who better persuaded of his case than Paul, while he yet remained unconverted? so that they are miserably deceived that 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.
But to come more close. As it was said to the adherents of Antichrist, so here; some of the unconverted carry their marks in their foreheads 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 catalogues, which I beseech you to attend to with all diligence. “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, 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.’^ “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 brimstone: which is the second death.” “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Woe to them that have their names written in these rolls! Such may know, as certainly as if God had told them from heaven, that they are unsanctified; and under an impossibility of being saved in this condition.
There are then these several sorts 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 kiDgdom are shut against them by name, Ephes. v. 5.
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, Gal. V. 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. xxi. 8, 27.
5. Swearers, The end of these, without deep and speedy repentance, is swift destruction, and most certain and unavoidable condemnation, Zech. v. 3.
6. Railers and backbiters, that love to take up a reproach against their neighbour, or else wound him secretly behind his back. Psalm xv. 1, 3.
7. TJiieves, extortioneis, oppressors, that grind the poor, over-reach their brethren when they have them at an advantage. These must know that God “is the avenger of all such.” Hear, O ye false and purloining and wasteful servants! hear, O ye deceitful tradesmen, hear your sentence! God will certainly hold 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, James v. 2, 3.
8. All that do ordinarily live in the profane neglect of Gods worship, that hear not his word, that call not on his name, that restrain prayer before God, that mind not their own nor their family’s souls, but “live without God in the world.”
9. Those that are frequenters and lovers of com-’ pany, God hath declared, he will be the destroyer of all such, and that they “shall never enter into the hill of his rest.” Psalm xv. 4.
10. Scoffers at religion, that make a scorn of precise walking, and mock at the messengers and diligent servants of the Lord, and at their holy profession, and make themselves merry with the weakness and failings of professors: “Hear ye despisers,” hear your dreadful doom, “Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.”
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 excluded from the kingdom of heaven. And, if so, the Lord pity our poor congregations! O, how small a number will be left, when these ten sorts are left out! 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 condemnation? I would reason with you as God with them, “how canst thou say, I am not polluted?” “See the way in the valley; know what thou hast done.” Man, is not thy conscience privy to the tricks of deceit, to thy way of lying? Yea, are not thy friends, thy family, thy neighbours, witnesses to thy profane neglect of God’s
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worship, to thy covetous practices, to thy envious and malicious carriage? May not they 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 person? 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.
O that such as you would now be persuaded to “repent, and turn from all your transgressions, or else iniquity w411 be your ruin!” Alas! for poor hardened sinners! Must I leave you at last where you were? 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, either as thunder-bolts to awaken them, or as searing irons to harden them to a reprobate sense. “God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses.” “He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” “Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. I will mock at your calamity, when your destruction cometh as a whirlwind!”
And now I imagine many will begin to bless themselves, and think all is well, because they cannot be spotted with the grosser evils before mentioned; but I must farther tell you, that there is another sort of unsanctified persons that carry not their marks in their foreheads, but more secretly and covertly, in their hands: these do frequently deceive themselves and others, and pass for good Christians, when they are all the while unsound at heart. Many “pass undiscovered, till death and judgment bring all to light. Those self-deceivers seem to come even to heaven’s (Tate with confidence of their admission, and yet are turned off at last. Brethren, beloved, I beseech you deeply to lay to heart, and firmly retain this awakening consideration,” that multitudes miscarry 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 hand of some unobserved iniquity; and there are these twelve hidden sins, through which souls go down by numbers into the chambers of death; these you must search carefully for, and take them as 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 persons concerned.
1. Gross ignorance. O, how many poor souls doth this sin kill in the dark! — “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee” — 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 (poor hearts!) they suspect nothing, and see not the hand that injures them. You shall find, whatever excuses you have for ignorance, that it is a soul-undoing evil: “For it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.” Ah! would it not have grieved a man’s heart to have seen that woeful spectacle, when the” poor Protestants were shut up, a multitude together in a barn, and a butcher came, with his inhuman hands warmed in human blood, and led them one by one, blindfold, to a block, where he slew them (poor innocents!) one after another, by scores, in cool blood? But how much more should your hearts bleed to think of the hundreds, in great congregations, that ignorance doth kill in secret, and lead blindfold to the block! Beware this be none of your case. Make no plea for ignorance; if you spare that sin, know that it will not spare you; and would a man keep a murderer in his bosom?
2. Secret reserves in closing mth Christ. To forsake all for Christ, to hate father and mother, yea, a man’s own life, for him, “this is a hard saying.” Some will do much, but they will not be of the religion that will undo 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 cast up the cost; and this error in the foundation mars all, and secretly ruins them for ever.
3. Foi-mality in religion. Many rest in the outside of religion, and in the external performances of holy duties. And this, oftentimes, doth most effectually deceive men, and doth more certainly undo them than open wickedness; as it was in the Pharisee’s case. They hear, they fast, they pray, they ffive alms, and therefore will not believe but their case is good. Whereas, resting in the work done,
and cominor short of the heart-work and the inward power and vitals of religion, they fall at last into the burning, from the flattering hopes and confident persuasions of their being in the ready way to heaven. O dreadful case, when a man’s religion shall serve only 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. O, how many a poor soul is undone by this, and drops into hell before he discerns his mistake! he performs “good duties,” and so thinks all is well, but perceives not that he is actuated by carnal motives all the while. It is too true, that, even with the truly sanctified, many carnal ends will oft-times creep in; but they are the matter of his hatred and humiliation, and never come to be habitually prevalent with him, and bear the greatest sway. But now, when the main thing that doth ordinarily carry a man out to religious duties shall be really some cardinal end, as to satisfy his conscience, to get the repute of being religious, “to be seen of men,” to show his own gifts and parts, to avoid the reproach of 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 withal (yea above all) your ends.
5. Trusting in their own rigJiteousness. This is a soul-undoing mischief. When men do trust in their own righteousness, they do indeed reject Christ’s. Beloved, you had need be watchful on every hand; 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 the satisfying his justice, appeasing his wrath, procuring his fevour, and obtaining of 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, O professors! you are much in duties, but this one fly will spoil all the ointment. When you have done most and best, be sure go out of yourselves to Christ; reckon your own righteousness but rags.
6. A secret enmity against the strictness of religion. Many moral persons, punctual in their formal devotions, have a bitter enmity against precisenessj and hate the life and power of religion. They like not this forwardness, nor that men should keep such a stir in religion; they condemn the strictness of religion as singularity, indiscretion, and intemperate zeal; and with them a lively preacher, or lively Christian, is but a heady fellow. These men love not holiness as holiness, (for then they would love the height of holiness,) and therefore are undoubtedly rotten at heart, whatever good opinion they have of themselves.
7. The resting in a certain pitch of religion.
When they have so much as will save them, (as they suppose,) they look do farther, and so show themselves short of true grace, which will ever put men upon aspiring to farther perfection.
8. The predominant love of the “jDorld. 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 doth this sin lurk oft-times under the fair covert of forward profession! Yea, such a power of deceit is there in this sm, that many times, when every hody else can see the man’s worldliness and covetousness, he cannot see it himself, but hath so many colours, and excuses, and pretences, for his eagerness on the world, that he doth blind his own eyes, and perish in his self-deceit. 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; (God forbid else!) and see not their own earthly mindedness, for want of a narrow observation of the workings of their own hearts. Did they but carefully search, they would quickly find that their greatest content is in the world, and their greatest care and main endeavour are to get and secure the world; which are the certain discoveries of an unconverted sinner. May the professing part of the world take earnest heed that they perish not by the hand of this sin unobserved. Men may be, and often are, kept off from Christ as effec-H tually by the inordinate love of lawful comforts, as by the most unlawful courses. “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise.”
9. Reigning malice and envy against those that disrespect them and are injurious to them. O! how do many, that seem to be religious, remember injuries and carry grudges, and will return men as good as they bring, rendering evil for evil, loving to take revenge, wishing evil to them that wrong them, directly against the rule of the Gospel, the pattern of Christ, and the nature of God. Doubtless, where this evil is kept boiling in the heart, and is not hated, resisted, mortified, but doth habitually prevail, that person is in the very gall of bitterness, and in a state of death.
Reader, doth nothing of this touch thee? Art thou in none of the fore-mentioned ranks? O 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, envenomed with malice, exalted in an opinion of thine own righteousness, leavened with hypocrisy and carnal ends in God’s service, imbittered against strictness; this would be a sad discovery, that all thy religion were in vain. But I must proceed.
10. Unmortified pride. When men love the praise of men more than the praise of God, and set their hearts upon men’s esteem, applause, and approbation, 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. O, how secretly doth this sin live and reign in many hearts, and they know it not, but are very strangers to themselves!
11. The pievailing love of pleasure. This is a deep 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 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 cross it and keep it under, as their enemy.
12. Carnal security or a presumptuous confidence that their condition is already good. Many cry, peace and safety, when “sudden destruction is coming upon them.” This was that which kept the foolish virgins sleeping when they should have been at the market. They perceived not their want of oil till the bridegroom was come; and, while they went to buy, the door was shut. And, O! that these foolish vii-gins had no successors! Where is the place, yea, where is the house almost, where these do not dwell? Men are willing to cherish in themselves, upon ever so light 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 ye 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 something more
H2 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 speaks it fair, doth fatally betray it.
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 besides take out all these twelve sorts of close and self-deceiving hypocrites on the other, and then 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 sorts that are here mentioned, except by sound conversion they are brought into another condition.
Ajypltcatio?!. 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 blind thee. I summon thee, from the court of heaven, to come and give in 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 us the truth!” Is the man converted, or is he not? Doth he allow himself in any way of sin, or doth he not? Doth he truly love, and please, and prize, and delight in God above all other things, or not? Come, put it to an issue.
How long shall this soul live in uncertainty? O conscience, bring in thy verdict. Is this man a new man, or is he not? Hath there passed a thorough and mighty change upon him, or not? When was the time, 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 been ever taken off from the false hopes, and false peace, wherein he once trusted? Hath he been deeply convinced of sin, and of his lost and undone condition, and brought out of himself, to give up himself enth-ely to Jesus Christ? or dost thou not find him to this day under the power of ignorance or profaneness? Hast thou, not found on him the gains of unrighteousness? Dost thou not find him a stranger to prayer, a neglecter of the word, a lover af this present world? Speak plainly to all the fore-mentioned particulars. Canst thou acquit this man from being any of the two-and-tw«nty sorts 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 else he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Beloved, be not your own betrayers; do not deceive your own hearts, nor set your hands to your own ruin by a wilful blindness 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 states. O follow the search till you have found how the case stands. Mistake here, and perish. And, such is the treachery of the heart, the subtilty of the tempter, and “the deceitfulness of sin,” all conspire 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. O, therefore, weigh yourselves 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: there is nothing but he can imitate. You cannot wish for any grace, but he can fit you with a counterfeit. Be jealous: trust not so much as your own hearts. Run 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 cases faithfully to some godly and faithful minister. Rest not till you have put the business of your eternal welfare out of question. “O Searcher of hearts, put this soul upon, and help him in, his search.”