A

CALL

to the

UNCONVERTED,

TURN and LIVE;

And accept of MERCY, while MERCY may be had; as ever they will find MERCY, in the Day of their EXTREMITY from the Living God.

By the late Reverend and Pious Mr. RICHARD BAXTER.

YORK:

Printed for WILSON, SPENCE, and MAWMAN.

M,DCC,XCV.

Prefatory Material

A SHORT

ACCOUNT

THE AUTHOR;

AND

The great Success which attended the CALL when first published.

IT may be proper to prefix an account of this book given by Mr. Baxter himself, which was found in his study after his death, in his own words:

"I published a short treatise on conversion, intitled, A Call to the Unconverted. The occasion of this was my converse with bishop Usher, while I was at London. who, approving my method and directions suited for peace of conscience, was importunate with me to write directions suited to the various states of Christians, and also against particular sins: I reverenced the man, but disregarded these persuasions, supposing I could do nothing but what is done better already: but when he was dead, his words went deeper to my mind, and I purposed to obey his counsel; yet, so as that to the first sort of men, (the ungodly), I thought vehement persuasions meeter than directions only; and so for such I published this little book, which God hath blessed with unexpected success, beyond all the rest that I have written, except "The Saint's Rest." In a little more than a year, there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my own consent, and about ten thousand since; beside many thousands by stolen impressions, which poor men stole for lucre sake.--Through God's mercy, I have information of almost whole households converted by this small book, which I set so light by; and, as if all this in England, Scotland, and Ireland, were not mercy enough to me, God (since I was silenced) hath sent it over on his message to many beyond the seas; for when Mr. Elliot had printed all the Bible in the Indian language, he next translated this my "Call to the Unconverted," as he wrote to us here.--And yet God would make some farther use of it; for Mr. Stoop, the pastor of the French Church in London, being driven hence by the displeasure of his superiors, was pleased to translate it into French. I hope it will not be unprofitable there, nor in Germany, when it is printed in Dutch."

It may be proper further to mention Dr. Bates' account of the author, and of this useful Treatise.--In his sermon at Mr. Baxter's funeral, he thus says: "His books of practical divinity have been effectual for more conversions of sinners to God than any printed in our time: and while the church remains on earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls.--There is a vigorous pulse in them, that keeps the reader awake and attentive."--His Call to the Unconverted, how small in book, but how powerful in virtue! Truth speaks in it with that authority and efficacy, that it makes the reader to lay his hand upon his heart, and find that he hath a soul and a conscience, though he lived before as if he had none. He told some friends, that six brothers were converted by reading that Call, and that every week he received letters of some converted by his books. This he spake with most humbled thankfulness, that God was pleased to use him as an instrument for the salvation of souls."

Self-denial and contempt of the world were shining graces in him. I never knew any person less indulgent to himself, and more indifferent to his temporal interest.

His patience was truly Christian; he was tried by many afflictions. We are tender of our reputation. His name was obscured under a cloud of detraction: many scandalous darts were thrown at him. He was accused for his Paraphrase upon the New Testament, and condemned, unheard, to a prison, where he remained some years; but he was so far from being moved at the unrighteous prosecution, but he joyfully said to a constant friend, "What could I desire more of God, than having served him to my power, I should be called to suffer for him!"

His pacific spirit was a clear character of his being a child of God. How ardently he endeavoured to cement the breaches amongst us is publicly known. He said to a friend, "I can as willing be a martyr for love as for any article of the creed."--It is strange, to astonishment, that those who agree in the substantial and great points of the reformed religion, and are of different sentiments only in things not so clear, nor of that moment as those wherein they consent, should be of opposite parties.

Death reveals the secrets of the heart; then words are spoken with most feeling and least affectation. This excellent saint was the same in his life and death: his last hours were spent in preparing others and himself to appear before God. He said to his friends that visited him, "You come hither to learn to die, I am not the only person that must go this way: I can assure you, that your whole life, be it ever so long, is little enough to prepare for death. Have a care of this vain deceitful world and the lusts of the flesh: Be sure you choose God for your portion, heaven for your home, God's glory for your end, his word for your rule, and then you need never fear but we shall meet with comfort."

Never was penitent sinner more humble and debasing, never was a sincere believer more calm and comfortable. He acknowledged himself to be the vilest dunghill-worm (it was his usual expression) that ever went to heaven; he admired the divine condescension to man, after saying "Lord, what is man? what am I? a vile worm to the great God!" Many times he prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" and blessed God, that that he was left upon record in the Gospel as an effectual prayer: He said, "God may justly condemn me for the best duty I ever did; and all my hopes are from the free mercy of God in Christ," which he often prayed for.

After a slumber he awaked and said, "I shall rest from my labour." A minister then present said, "and your work follow you." To whom he replied "No works! I will leave out works, if God will grant me the other."--When a friend was comforting him with the remembrance of the good many had received by his preaching and writings, he said, "I was but a pen in God's hand, and what praise is due to a pen?"

His resigned submission to the will of God, in his sharp sickness, was eminent. When extremity of pain constrained him earnestly to pray to God for his release by death, he would check himself: "It is not fit for me to prescribe;" and said, "when thou wilt, what thou wilt."

At another time he said, "That he found great comfort and sweetness in repeating the words of the Lord's prayer; and was sorry that some good people were prejudiced against the use of it; for, there were all necessary petitions for soul and body contained in it."

At other times he gave excellent counsel to young ministers that visited him, and earnestly prayed to God to bless their labours, and make them very successful in converting many souls to Christ; and expressed great joy that they were of moderate peaceful spirits.

During his sickness, when the question was asked, how he did, his reply was, "almost well," His joy was most remarkable when in his own apprehension death was nearest; and his spiritual joy was at length consummate in eternal joy.

Thus lived and died that blessed saint.--I have, without any artificial fiction in words, given a sincere short account of him. All our tears are below the just grief for such an invaluable loss. It is the comfort of his friends that he enjoys a blessed reward in heaven, and hath left a precious remembrance on earth.

Now, blessed be the gracious God, that he was pleased to prolong the life of his servant, so useful and beneficial to the world, to a full age: that he hath brought him slowly and safely to heaven.

I shall conclude this account with my own deliberate wish: "May I live the remainder of my life as entirely to the glory of God as he lived; and when I shall come to the period of my life, may I die in the same blessed peace wherein he died: may I be with him in the kingdom of light and love for ever."

I shall also add Dr. Calamy's account of this Treatise; his words are thus: "In 1657, Mr. Baxter published a Call to the Unconverted; a book blessed by God with marvellous success, in reclaiming persons from their impieties. Twenty thousand of them were printed and dispersed in little more than a year. It was translated into French, and Dutch, and other European languages; and Mr. Elliot translated it into the Indian language; and Mr. Cotton Mather, in his life, gives an account of an Indian prince, who was so well affected with this book, that he sat reading it, with tears in his eyes, till he died."

PREFACE

To all unsanctified Persons that shall read this Book; especially of my Hearers in the Borough and Parish of Kiaderminster.

Men and Brethren,

THE eternal God, that made you for a life everlasting, and hath redeemed you by his only Son, when you had lost it and yourselves, being mindful of you in your sin and misery, hath indited the gospel, and sealed it by his spirit, and commanded his ministers to preach it to the world, that pardon being freely offered you, and heaven being set before you, he might call you off from your fleshly pleasures, and from following after this deceitful world, and acquaint you with the life that you were created and redeemed for, before you are dead and past remedy. He sendeth you not prophets or apostles, that receive their message by immediate revelation; but yet he calleth you by his ordinary ministers, who are commissioned by him to preach the same gospel which Christ and his apostles first delivered. The Lord seeth how you forget him and your latter end, and how light you make of everlasting things, as men that understand not what they have to do or suffer. He seeth how bold you are in sin, and how fearless threatnings, and how careless of your souls, and how the works of infidels are in your lives, while the belief of Christians is in your mouths. He seeth the dreadful day at hand, when your sorrows will begin, and you must lament all this with fruitless cries in torment and desperation; and then the remembrance of your folly will tear your hearts, if true conversion now prevent it not. In compassion of your sinful miserable souls, the Lord, that better knows your case than you can know it, hath made it our duty to speak to you in his name, 2 Cor. v. 19. and to tell you plainly of your sin and misery, and what will be your end, and how sad a change you will shortly see, if yet you go on a little longer. Having bought you at so dear a rate as the blood of his son Jesus Christ, and made you so free and general promise of pardon, and grace, and everlasting glory; he commandeth us to tender all this to you, as the gift of God, and to intreat you to consider of the necessity and worth of what he offereth.--He seeth and pitieth you, while you are drowned in worldly cares and pleasures, and eagerly following childish toys, and wasting that short and precious time for a thing of nought, in which you should make ready for an everlasting life; and therefore he high commanded us to call after you, and tell you how you lose your labour, and are about to lose your souls, and to tell you what greater and better things you might certainly have, if you would hearken to his Call, Isa. lv. 1, 2, 3. We believe and obey the voice of God; and come to you on his message, who hath charged us to preach, and be instant with you in season and out of season, and to lift up our voice like a trumpet, and shew your transgressions and your sins, Isa. lviii. 1. 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. But alas! to the grief of our souls and your own undoing, you stop your ears, you stiffen your necks, you harden your hearts, and send us back to God with groans, to tell him that we have done his message, but can do no good on you, nor scarcely get a sober hearing.--Oh! that our eyes were a fountain of tears, that we might lament our ignorant, careless people, that have Christ before them, and pardon, and life, and heaven before them, and that have not hearts to know or value them! that might have Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others, if it were not for their wilfill negligence and contempt! O that the Lord would fill our hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls, that we might cast ourselves even at their feet, and follow them to their houses, and speak to them with our bitter tears: For, long have we preached to many of them in vain: We study plainness to make them understand, and many of them will not understand us; we study serious, piercing words, to make them feel, but they will not feel. If the greatest matters would work with them, we should awake them; if the sweetest things would work, we should entice them and win their hearts; if the most dreadful things would work, we should at least affright them from their wickedness; if truth and certainty would take with them, we should soon convince them; if the God that made them, and the Christ that bought them, might be heard, the case would soon be altered with them; if scripture might be heard, we should soon prevail; if reason, even the best and strongest reason, might be heard, we should not doubt but we should speedily convince them; if experience might be heard, even their own experience, and the experience of all the world, the matter would be mended; yea, if the conscience within them might be heard, the case would be better with them than it is. But if nothing can be heard, what then shall we do for them? If the dreadful God of heaven be slighted, who then shall be regarded? If the inestimable love and blood of a Redeemer be made light of, what then shall be valued? If heaven have no desirable glory with them, and everlasting joys be nothing worth, if they can jest at hell, and dance about the bottomless pit, and play with the consuming fire, and that when God and man do warn them of it; what shall we do for such souls as these?

Once more, in the name of the God of heaven, I shall do the message to you which he hath commanded us, and leave it in these standing lines to convert you or to condemn you; to change you, or to rise up in judgment against you, and to be a witness to your faces, that once you had a serious call to turn. Hear, all you that are drudges of the world, and the servants of flesh and Satan! that spend your days in looking after prosperity on earth, and drown your consciences in drinking, and gluttony, and idleness, and foolish sports, and know your sin, and yet will sin, as if you set God at defiance, and bid him do his worst and spare not! Hearken, all you that mind not God, and have no heart to holy things, and feel no favour in the word or worship of the Lord, or in the thoughts or mention of eternal life, that are careless of your immortal souls, and never bestow one hour in inquiring what case they are in, whether sanctified or unsanctified, and whether you are ready to appear before the Lord! Hearken, all you that, by sinning in the light, have dinned yourselves into infidelity, and do not believe the word of God. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear the gracious and yet the dreadful call of God! His eye is all this while upon you. Your sins are registered, and you shall surely hear of them again. God keepeth the book now; and he will write it all upon your consciences with his terrors; and then you also shall keep it yourselves: O sinners, that you knew but what you are doing! and whom you are all this while offending! the sun itself is darkness before that Majesty, which you daily abuse and carelessly provoke. The sinning angels were not able to stand before him, but were cast down to be tormented with devils. And dare such silly worms as you so carelessly offend, and set yourselves against your Maker! O that you did but a little know what case that wretched soul is in, that hath engaged the living God against him! The words of his mouth, that made thee, can unmake thee; the frown of his face will cut thee off and cast thee out into utter darkness. How eager are the devils to be doing with thee that have tempted thee, and do but wait for the word from God to take and use thee as their own! and then in a moment thou wilt be in hell. If God be against thee, all things are against thee: this world is but thy prison, for all thou so lovest it; thou art but reserved in it to the day of wrath, Job xxi. 30. the Judge is coming, thy soul is even going. Yet a little while, and thy friend shall say of thee, "He is dead;" and thou shalt see the things that thou now dost despise, and feel that which now thou wilt not believe. Death will bring such an argument as thou canst not answer; an argument that shall effectually confute thy cavils against the words and ways of God, and all thy self-conceited dotages. And then how soon will thy mind be changed? Then be an unbeliever if thou canst; stand then to all thy former words, which thou wast wont to utter against a holy and a heavenly life. Make good that cause then before the Lord, which thou wast wont to plead against thy teachers, and against the people that feared God. Then stand to thy old opinions and contemptuous thoughts of the diligence of the saints; make ready now thy strongest reasons, and stand up then before the Judge, and plead like a man for thy fleshly, thy worldly, and ungodly life. But know that thou wilt have One to plead with, that will not be outfaced by thee; nor so easily put off as we thy fellow-creatures. O poor soul! there is nothing but a slender veil of flesh between thee and that amazing sight, which will quickly silence thee, and turn thy tone, and make thee of another mind! As soon as death hath drawn this curtain, thou shalt see first which will quickly leave thee speechless. And how quickly will that day and hour come! When thou hast had but a few more merry hours, and but a few more pleasant draughts and morsels, and a little more of the honours and riches of the world, thy portion will be spent, and thy pleasures ended, and all is then gone that thou settest thy heart upon; of all, that thou soldest thy Saviour and salvation for, there is nothing left but the heavy reckoning. As a thief, that sits merrily spending the money in an alehouse which he hath stolen, when men are riding in post-haste to apprehend him, so it is with you. While you are drowned in cares or fleshly pleasures, and making merry with your own shame, death is coming in post-haste to seize upon you, and carry your souls to such a place and state as now you little know or think of. Suppose, when you were bold and busy in your sin, that a messenger were but coming post from London to apprehend you and take away your lives; though you saw him not, yet if you knew that he was coming, it would mar your mirth, and you would be thinking of the haste he makes, and hearkening when he knocked at your door. O that you could but see what haste death makes, tho' yet he hath not overtaken you! No post so swift! No messenger more sure! As sure as the sun will be with you in the morning, though it hath many thousand and hundred thousand miles to go in the night, so sure will death be quickly with you; and then where is your sport and pleasure? Then will you jest and brave it out? Then will you jeer at them that warned you? Then is it better to be a believing saint or a sensual worldling? "And then whose shall all these things be" that you have gathered? Luke xii. 19, 20 , 21. Do you not observe that days and weeks are quickly gone, and nights and mornings come apace, and speedily succeed each other? You sleep, "but your damnation slumbereth not," you linger, "but your judgment this long time lingereth not," 2 Pet. ii. 3, 4, 5. to which "you are reserved for punishment," 2 Pet. ii. 8, 9.--O that you were wise to understand this, and that you did consider your latter end," Deut. xxxii. 29--"He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear the call of God in this day of his salvation."

O careless sinners! that you did but know the love that you unthankfully neglect, and the preciousness of the blood of Christ which you despise! O that you did but know the riches of the gospel! O that you did but know, a little know, the certainty, and the glory, and blessedness, of that everlasting life, which now you will not set your hearts upon, nor be persuaded first and diligently to seek, Heb. xi. 6. and xii. 28. Matt. vi. 12. Did you but know the endless life with God which you now neglect, how quickly would you cast away your sin, how quickly would you change your mind and life, your course and company, and turn the streams of your affections, and lay your care another way! How resolutely would you scorn to yield to such temptations as now deceive you and carry you away! How zealously would you bestir yourselves for that most blessed life! How earnest would you be with God in prayer! How diligent in hearing, and learning, and inquiring!--How serious in meditating on the laws of God! (Psal. i. 2.) How fearful of sinning in thought, word, or deed; and how careful to please God and grow in holiness!--O what a changed people you would be! And why should not the certain word of God be believed by you, and prevail with you, which, openeth to you these glorious and eternal things?

Yea, let me tell you, that even here on earth, ye little know the

difference between the life which you refuse, and the life which you

would choose. The sanctified are conversing with God, when you dare

scarce think of him, and when you are conversing with but earth and

flesh.--Their conversation is in heaven, when you are utter strangers

to it, and your belly is your God, and you are minding earthly things,

Phil. iii. 18, 19, 20. They are seeking after the face of God, when you

seek for nothing higher than this world.--They are busily laying out

for an endless life, where they shall be equal with the angels, Luke

xx. 36. when you are taken up with a shadow and a transitory thing of

naught. How long and base is your earthly, fleshly, sinful life, in

comparison of the noble, spiritual lfe of true believers! Many a time

have I looked on such men with grief and pity, to see them trudge about

the world, and spend their lives, and care, and labour, for nothing but

a little food and raiment, or a little fading pelf, or fleshly

pleasures, or empty honours, as if they had no higher things to

mind.--What difference is there between the lives of these men and of

the beasts that perish, that spend their time in working, and eating,

and living, but that they may live? They taste not of the inward

heavenly pleasures which believers taste and live upon.--I had rather

have a little of their comfort, which the fore-thoughts of their

heavenly inheritance afford them, though I had all their scorns and

sufferings with it, than to have all your pleasures and treacherous

prosperity. I would not have one of your secret gripes and pangs of

conscience, and dark and dreadful thoughts of death and the life to

come, for all that ever the world hath done for you, or all that you

can reasonably hope that it should do. If I were in your unconverted

carnal state, and knew but what I know, and believed but what I now

believe, methinks my life would he a fore-taste of hell: How oft should

I be thinking of the terrors of the Lord of the dismal day that is

hastening on! Sure death and hell would be still before me. I should

think of them by day, and dream of them by night; I should lie down in

fear, and rise in fear, and live in fear, lest death should come before

I were converted. I should have small felicity in any thing that I

possessed, and little pleasure in any company, and little joy in any

thing in the world, as long as I knew myself to be under the curse and

wrath of God. I should be still afraid of hearing that voice, Luke xii.

20. "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee." And

that fearful sentence would he written upon my conscience, Isa. xlviii.

22. and lvii. 21. "There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked."--O

poor sinners! it is a joyfuller life than this that you might live, if

you were but but truly willing, to hearken to Christ, and come home to

God. You might then draw near to God, with boldness, and call him your

father, and comfortably trust him with your souls and bodies. If you

look upon the promises, you may say, they are all mine: If upon the

curse, you may say, from this I am delivered! When you read the law,

you may see what you are saved from!--When you read the gospel, you may

see him that redeemed you, and see the course of his love, and holy

life, and sufferings, and trace him in his temptations, tears, and

blood, in the work of your salvation. You may see death conquered, and

heaven opened, and your resurrection and glorification provided for in

the resurrection and glorification of your Lord. If you look on the

saints, you may say, "They are my brethren and companions." If on the

unsanctified you may rejoice to think that you are saved from that

state. If you look upon the heavens, the sun, and moon, and stars

innumerable, you may think and say, "My Father's face is infinitely

more glorious; it is higher matters that he hath prepared for his

saints; yonder is but the outward court of heaven: The blessedness that

he hath promised us is so much higher that flesh and blood cannot

behold it." If you think of the grave, you may remember that the

glorified Spirit, a living Head, and a loving Father, have all so near

relation to your dust, that it cannot be forgotten or neglected, but

more certainly revive than the plants and flowers in the spring,

because that the soul is still alive, that is the root of the body; and

Christ is alive, that is the root of both.--Even death, which is the

king of fears, may be remembered and entertained with joy, as being the

day of your deliverance from the remnants of sin and sorrow, and the

day which you believed, and hoped, and waited for, when you shall see

the blessed things which you had heard of, and shall find, by present

joyful experience, what it was to choose the better part, and to be a

sincere believing saint. What say you, Sir? is not this a more

delightful life, to be assured of salvation, and ready to die, than to

live as the ungodly, that have their hearts overcharged with surfeiting

and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so that day comes upon

them unawares? Luke xxi. 34, 36. Might you not live a comfortable life,

if once you were made the heirs of heaven, and sure to be saved when

you leave the world?--O look about you then, and think what you do, and

cast not away such hopes as these for very nothing. The flesh and world

can give you no such hopes or comforts.