1. To readers in general, according as their different states and conditions may be ; there are six things earnestly to be requested of them.
(1.) If you be yet strangers to Christ, let these things begin, and beget your first accquaintance with him. I assure thee, reader, it was a principal part of the design thereof; and here thou wilt find many directions, helps, and sweet encouragements, to assist a poor stranger as thou art, in that great work. Say not, I am an enemy to Christ, and there is no hope of reconciliation ; for here thou wilt see, how " God was in Christ reconciling the world to
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. 25
« himself." Say not, all this is nothing except God had told thee so, and appointed some to treat with thee about it ; " for he « hath committed unto us the word of this reconciliation." Say not, yea, that may be from your own pity and compassion for us, and not from any commission you have for it ; for we u are am- bassadors for Christ,'1 1 Cor. v. 19.
Say not, O but my sins are greater than can be forgiven : the difficulties of my salvation are too great to be overcome, especially by a poor creature as I am, that am able to do nothing, no, not to raise one penny towards the discharge of that great debt I owe to God. For here thou wilt find, upon thy union with Christ, that there is merit enough in his blood, and mercy enough in his bowels, to justify and save such a one as thou art. Yea, and I will add for thine encouragement, that it is a righteous thing with God to justify and save thee, that canst not pay him one penny of all the vast sums thou owest him; when, by the same rule of justice, he condemns the most strict, self-righteous Pharisee, that thinks thereby to quit scores with him. It is righteous for a judge to cast him that hath paid ninety-nine pounds of the hundred which he owed, because the payment was not full ; and to acquit him, whose surety hath paid all, though himself did not, and freely confess that he cannot pay one farthing of the whole debt.
(2.) If thou be a self-deceiving soul, that easily takest up thy satisfaction about thine interest in Christ, look to it, as thou valuest thy soul, reader, that a fond and groundles conceit of thine in- terest in Christ do not effectually and finally ob- n , . struct a true and saving interest in him. This is ^^? ™ • • **" the common and fatal error in which multitudes * . Ul se of souls are ensnared and ruined: for look as a Prms s&pe?e Pu- conceit of great wisdom hinders many from the ' . \ ' , ^ attaining of it; so a groundless conceit that , if ,& •/•//*'' Christ is already thine, may prove the greatest , , * 9 V iejj
obstacle between Christ and thee : but here thou ,7 7 . p ,
•ii . r;.v i ,i ; -ii 4. j • themselves wise at-
will meet with many rules that will not deceive // ? c
thee, trials that will open thy true condition to *'
Thou sometimes reflectest upon the state of thy soul, and en-
quirest, is Christ mine ? may I depend upon it, that my condition
is safe ? Thy heart returns thee an answer of peace, it speaks as
thou wouldst have it. But remember, friend, and mark this line,
Thy final sentence is not yet come from the mouth of thy Judge; and
what if after all thy self-flattering hopes and groundless confidence,
a sentence should come from him quite cross to that of thine own
]ieart f where art thou then ? what a confounded person wilt thou he %
Christless, speechless, and hopeless, all at once !
26 THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.
O therefore build sure for eternity; take heed lest the loss of thine eternal happiness be at last imputed by thee to the deceitful- ness and laziness of thine own heart ; lest thy heart say to thee in hell, as the heart of Apollodorus seemed in his sufferings to say to him, / am the cause of all this misery to thee.
(3.) If thou be one whose heart is eagerly set upon this vain world, I beseech thee take heed, lest it interpose itself betwixt Christ and thy soul, and so cut thee off from him for ever. O be- ware, lest the dust of the earth, getting into thine eyes, so blind thee, that thou never see the beauty or necessity of Christ. The god of this world so blinds the eyes of them that believe not. And what are sparkling pleasures that dazzles the eyes of some, and the distracting cares that wholly divert the minds of others, but as a napkin drawn by Satan over the eyes of them that are to be turned off into hell? 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
Some general aims, and faint wishes after Christ you may have ; but alas ! the world has centered thy heart, intangled thy affec- tions, and will daily find new diversions for them from the great business of life ; so that, if the Lord break not this snare, thou wilt never be able to deliver thy soul.
(4.) If thou be a loose and careless professor of Christ, I beseech thee, let the things thou shalt read in this treatise of Christ, con- vince, shame, reclaim thee from thy vain conversation. Here thou wilt find how contrary thy conversation is to the grand designs of the death and resurrection of Christ. Oh, methinks as thou art reading the deep humiliation, and unspeakable sorrows Christ underwent for the expiating of sin, thou shouldest thenceforth look upon sin as a tender child would look upon that knife that stabbed his father to the heart 1 thou shouldst never whet and sharpen it again to wound the Son of God afresh. To such loose and careless professors, I particularly recommend the last general "use of this discourse^ containing many great motives to reforma- tion and strict godliness in all that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
(5.) If thou hast been a profane and vain person, but now art pardoned, and dost experience the superabounding riches of grace ; my request to thee is, that thou love Jesus Christ with a more fer- vent love than ever yet thou hadst for him. Here thou wilt find many great incentives, many mighty arguments to such a love of Christ. Poor soul, consider what thou hast been, what the morn- ing of thy life was, what treasures of guilt thou laidst up in those days; and then think, can such a one as I receive mercy, and that mercy not break my heart ? Can I read my pardon, and mine eyes not drop ? What ! mercy for such a wretch as I ! a pardon
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. 27
for such a rebel! O what an ingenuous thaw should this cause upon my heart ! if it do not, what a strange heart is thine.
Did the love of Christ break through so many impediments to come to thee ? Did it make its way through the law, througli the wrath of God, through the grave, through thine own unbelief and great un worthiness, to come to thee ? O what a love was the love of Christ to thy soul ; And is not thy love strong enough to break through the vanities and trifles of this world, which intangle it, to go to Christ ? How poor, how low and weak is thy love to Christ then ?