To the Reader

Thou hast here one of the saddest considerations imaginable presented to thee, and that is, “How far it is possible a man may go in a profession of religion, and yet after all fall short of salvation; how far he may run, and yet not so run as to obtain 1.” This, I say, is sad, but not so sad as true; for our Lord Christ doth plainly attest it: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be

My design herein is, that the formal, sleepy professor may be awakened, and the close hypocrite discovered; but my fear is, that weak believers may be hereby discouraged; for as it is hard to shew how low a child of God may fall into sin, and yet have true grace, but that the sinner will be apt thereupon to presume; so it is as hard to shew how high an hypocrite may rise in a profession, and yet have no grace, but that the believer will be apt thereupon to despond. The prevention whereof I have carefully endeavoured, by shewing, that though a man may go thus far and yet be but almost a Christian; yet a man may fall short of this, and be a true Christian notwithstanding. Judge not therefore thy state by any one character thou iindest laid down of a false professor; but read the whole and then make a judgment: For I have cared, as not to a give children’s bread to dogs,3’* sk) not to use the dog’s whip to scare the chit-TO THE READER. Xi

Iren; yet I could wish, that this book might fall into the hands of such only whom it chiefly concerns, who u have a name to live and yet are dead ;*’l being busy with the form of godliness, but strangers to the power of its* These are the proper subjects of this treatise: And the Lord follow it with his blessing wherever it comes, that it may be an awakening word to all such, and especially to that generation of profligate professors with which this age abounds; who, if they keep to their church, bow the knee, talk out a few prayers and at a good time receive the sacrament, think they do enough for heaven, and hereupon judge their condition safe and their salvation sure; though there be a hell of sin in their hearts, “and the poison of asps is under their lips;“3 their minds ipeing as yet carnal and unconverted, and their conversations filthy and uhsanctified. Ifeternallifebe of so easy attainment, and to be had at so cheap a rate, why did our Lord Christ tell us, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it ?»4 And why should the Apostle perplex us with such a needless injunction, “To give diligence to make our calling and election sure?”S Certainly therefore it is no such easy thing to be saved, as in any make it. and that thou wilt see plainly in the following discourse? I have been some

lRev. iii. 11, 2 ft-lim. iii. 5,

3 Rom. iii. iSa 4M*ttU. via. 14.

5 2 Pet, i. 10,

Xtf TO 1HE READER.

What short in the application of it ‘i and there* fore let me here be thy remembrancer in five important duties.

First, “Take heed of resting in a form of godliness;” as if duties ex opere operato could confer grace; a lifeless formality is advanced to a very high esteem in the world, as a kab of dove’s dung was sold in the famine of Samaria at a very dear rate.l Alas! the profession of godliness is but a sandy foundation to build the hope of an immortal soul upon for eternity; remember, the Lord Jesus Christ called him a foolish builder, “that founded his house upon the sand,”2 and the sad event proved him so, “for it fell, and great was the fall of it:”3 O therefore lay thy foundation by faith upon the rock Christ Jesus ;4« look to Christ through all, and rest upon Christ in alh

Secondly, a Labour to see an excellency in the power of godliness,” a beauty in the life of Christ: If the means of grace have a loveliness in themsurely grace itself hath much more; for, “the goodness of the means lies in its suitableness and ^erviceableness to the end;” the form of godliness hath no goodness in it, any farther than it steads and becomes useful to the soul in the power and practice of godliness. The life of holiness is the only excellent life, it is the life of saints and angels in heaven; yea, it is the life of «Gkpd in himself. As it is a great proof of the

1 2 Kings vi. 25. £Mat. vii. 26-

-TO THE READER* Xltf

‘baseness audfilthiness of sin, that sinners seek to cover it; so it is a great proof of the excelleney of godliness, that so many pretend to it: The very hypocrite’s fair profession pleads the cause of religion, although the hypocrite is then really worst when he is seemingly best,

Thirdly, “Look upon things to come as the greatest realities;” for things that are not believed, work no more upon the affections than if they had no being; and this is the grand reason why the generality of men suffer their affections to go after the world, setting the creature in the place of God in their hearts.

Most men judge of the reality of things by their visibility and proximity to sense; and therefore the choice of that wretched cardinal becomes their option, who would not leave his part in Paris, for his part in Paradise; Sure whatever his interest might be in the former, he had little enough in the latter: well may covetousness be called idolatry,* when it thus ch oses the world for its God.

O! consider, eternity is no <lrcam; Hell and the worm that never dies,! is no melancholy conceit. Heaven is no feigned elysium: There is the greatest reality imaginable in these things; though they are spiritual, and ou+ of the ken of sense, yet they are real, and within the view of faith!” Look not therefore at the things which ure seen, but look at the thing which are not seen; for the things

* CoUii,5, f Mark U, 44,
XIT T O ■’ THR. HEADER.

that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, are eternal.*

Fourthly, u Set a high rate upon thy soul;” what wre lightly prize, we easily part with: Many men sell their souls at the rate of profane Esau’s birthright, “for a morsel of bread;”-jnay, “for that which,” in the sense of the Holy Ghost, “is not bread. “J O consider thy soul is the most precious and invaluable jewel in the world, it is the most beautiful piece of God’s workmanship in the whole age of creation, it is that which bears the im-God, and which was bought with the blood of the Bon of God; and shall we not set a value upon it, and count it precious ?$

The apostle Peter1*! speaks of three very precious things.

1. A precious Christ.

2. Precious Promises.

3. Precious Faith.

Now the preciousness of all these lies in their usefulness to the soul, Christ is precious as being the redeemer of precious souls; the Promises are precious, as making over this precious Christ to precious souls. Faith is precious, as bringing a precious soul to close with a precious Christ, as he is held forth in the precious promises. O take heed that thou &rt not found over-valuing other things, and tinder valuing thy soul. Shall thy flesh, nay thy beast be loved, and shall thy soul be slight

#Cor.iv, 18, fHeb. xii, 16.

*Isa. lvf 2. § 1 Pet, i, 18, t%

TO THE IlEADL.Il. X

% ed? Wilt thou clothe and pamper thy body, and yet take no care of thy soul? This is as if a man should feed his clog, and starve his child.” Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them/-* O let not a tottering, perishing carcase have all your time and care, as if the life and salvation of thy soul were not worth the while.

Lastly, “Meditate much on the strictness and suddenness of that judgment-day, which thou and I lftust pass through into an everlasting state;” wherein God the impartial judge, will require an account at our hands of all our talents and instruments: we must then account for time, how we have spent that; for estate, how we have employed that; for strength, how we have laid out that; for afflictions and mercies, how they have been improved; for the relations we stood in here, how they have been discharged: and for seasons and means of grace, how they have been husbanded: and look, how” we have sowed here, we shall reap hereafteiv?f

Header, these are things that of all others deserve most of, and call loudest for our utmost caie and endeavours, though by the most least minded: to consider what a spirit of Atheism (if we may judge the tree by the fruits. i the principle by the practice) the hearts of most re filled with, who live, as if God

were not to be served, nor Christ to be sought,

u. v«, 19, 10.

nor lust to be mortified, nor self to be denied, mor the scripture to be believed, nor the judgment-day to be minded, nor hell to be feared, nor heaven to be desired, nor the soul to be valued; but give up themselves to a worse than brutish sensuality, “to work all uncleanness with greediness,”* living without God in the world: This is a meditation fit enough to break our hearts, if at least we were of holy David’s temper, who “beheld the transgressors and was grieved,” and had “rivers of waters running down his eyes, because men kept not God’s laws.”f

The prevention and correction of this souliestroying distemper, is not the least design f this treatise now put into thy hand: Though the chief virtue of this receipt lies in its sovereign use to assuage and cure the swelling tympany of hypocrisy, yet it may serve also, with God’s blessing, as a plaister for the plague-sore of profaneness, if timely applied by serious meditation, and carefully kept on fey constant prayer.

Reader, expect nothing of curiosity or quaintness, for then I shall deceive thee; but if thou wouldst have a touch-stone for the trial of thy state, possibly this may stead thee. If thou art either a stranger to a profession, or an hypocrite under a profession, then read and tremble, for thou art the mUn here pointed at.

Mutata nomine de te
Fabula narratur* — — Horat.

*Eph. ir, 19, and ii, 12. i;PsaUxix,153,and verse 156,

TO THE REABSTft, - XVfl

But if the kingdom of God be come with power into thy soul ;* if Christ be formed in thee; if thy heart be upright and sincere with God, then read and rejoice.f

I fear J have transgressed the bounds of an epistle: The mighty God whose prerogative it is to teach to profit, whether by the tongue or the pen, by speaking or writings bless this tract, that it may be to thee as a cloud of rain to the dry ground, dropping fatness to thy soul that so thy fleece being watered with the “dew of heaven,:y:” thou may’st “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christy” In whom I am th,y

Friend and Servant,

MATT. MEAD,

London, Oct. 22, 1661.

*Mark ix, 1. fLuke xri?> .21,

ilsa. xlviii, if; §2 Pet. iii, 18?

Ba
t