If you will be converted and saved, labour to understand the necessity
and true nature of conversion; for what, and from what, and to what, and by what,
it is that you must turn.
Consider in what a lamentable condition you are till the
hour of your conversion, that you may feel it is not a state to be rested in. You
are under the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed; and under the wrath
of God, and the curse of his law; you are bond-slaves to the devil, and daily employed
in his work against the Lord, yourselves, and others; you are spiritually
dead and deformed, as being void of the holy life, and nature, and image of the
Lord. You are unfit for any holy work, and do nothing that is truly pleasing unto
God. You are without any promise or assurance of his protection, and live in continual
danger of his justice, not knowing what hour you may be snatched away to hell, and
most certain to be damned if you die in that condition. And nothing short of conversion
can prevent it. Whatever civilities, or amendments, or virtues, are short of true
conversion, will never procure the saving of your souls. Keep the true sense of
this natural misery, and so of the necessity of conversion on your hearts.
- Richard Baxter (A Call to the Unconverted, Sermon 4)
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