broken or out of tune. The Spirit of the living God
must repair and tune it by the grace of regeneration,
and sweetly move it by the power of actuating grace,
or else thy prayers will be but howlings, and all
thy services will make no music in the ears of the
Most Holy. All thy powers and faculties are so
corrupt in thy natural state, that, except thou be



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 57

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

O

work of God.

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

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

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

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



58 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 59

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

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

II. Not only man, but THE WHOLE VISIBLE CREA-
TION, is in vain without this. God hath made all
the visible creatures in heaven and earth for the
service of man, and man only is the spokesman for



CO ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 61

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

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

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



62 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

should think with his filthy embraces to reconcile
thee.

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

IV. Without true conversion, THY HOPES are hi
vain. " The hope of the hypocrite shall perish."
" The Lord hath rejected thy confidences."



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 63

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

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

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



64 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 65

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

Alleine'i AUrm. 5



66 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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

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

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



THE NECESSITY OP CONVERSION. 67

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

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

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

OBJECTION. Would you have us despair ?

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

V. Withoiit conversion, ALL THAT CHRIST HATH
DONE AND SUFFERED will be, as to you, in vain ;
that is, it will no way avail you to salvation. Many
urge this as a sufficient ground for their hope, that
Christ died for sinners ; but I must tell you, Christ
never died to save impenitent and unconverted sin-



68 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 69

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

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

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

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



70 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 71

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

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



73 ALLEINE'S ALARM.

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

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

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



THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. 73

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

2. To save men in their sins were against the word
of Christ. We need not say, "Who shall ascend
into heaven, to bring down Christ from above ? Or,
who shall descend into the deep, to bring up Christ
from beneath ? The word is nigh us." Are you
agreed that Christ shall end the controversy ? Hear
then his own words : " Except ye be converted, ye
shall hi no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
" You must be born again." " If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part in me." " Repent or perish."