Excerpt From
A Sure Guide to Heaven
Joseph Alleine, 1634 – 1668

1. An Earnest Invitation to Sinners to Turn to God
• Entrance to heaven requires the second birth and holiness (Heb. 12:14).
• The unconverted are to give themselves to the Lord and seek Him immediately.
• Emphasizes the importance of setting up Jesus in their hearts and homes.
• Encourages embracing mercy, touching Jesus’ scepter, and choosing life.
• Expresses a desire for the unconverts’ salvation (Rom. 10:1).
• Requests permission for frankness in addressing deep concerns.
• Clarifies the serious purpose of the message is to convince, convert, and save.
• States that the goal is not to please but to save souls.

2. Mistakes about Conversion
The devil has made many counterfeits of conversion.

Sinners, heed this warning for your survival. Do not deceive yourselves with false hopes. I reluctantly dismantle your unstable hopes, akin to a surgeon removing a mortified limb to save a friend. I act not to please but to prevent your ruin, rebuilding a secure foundation. The hope of the wicked will perish (Prov. 11:7).

Church-goers, wearing Christ’s name or engaging in religious practices won’t guarantee salvation. These actions, though good, don’t confirm conversion. Urgent self-examination is needed; transformation is crucial for salvation.

Let conscience speak. What have you to plead for yourselves?

• Conversion is not the taking upon us the profession of Christianity. Christianity is more than a name. If we will hear Paul, it does not lie in word, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20).
• Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in baptism.
• Conversion does not lie in moral righteousness. This does not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and therefore cannot bring us to the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:20).
• Conversion does not consist in illumination or conviction or in a superficial change or partial reformation. An apostate may be an enlightened man (Heb. 6:4).
• Conversion is not the mere chaining up of corruption by education, human laws or the force of affliction.

3. The Nature of Conversion
1. The Author of conversion is the Spirit of God, and therefore it is called ‘the sanctification of the Spirit’ (2 Thess. 2:13) and ‘the renewing of the Holy Ghost’ (Titus 3:5).

2. The efficient cause of conversion is both internal and external.
[1] The internal cause is free grace alone. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but of his mercy he saved us,’ and ‘by the renewing of the Holy Ghost’ (Titus 3:5). ‘Of his own will begat he us’ (James 1:18). We are chosen and called unto sanctification, not for it (Eph. 1:4).
[2] The external cause is the merit and intercession of the blessed Jesus. He has obtained gifts for the rebellious (Psa. 68:18), and through him it is that God worketh in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight (Heb. 13:21). Through him are all spiritual blessings bestowed upon us in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3). He intercedes for the elect that believe not (John 17:20).

3. The instrument of conversion is personal and real.
[1] The personal instrument is the ministry. ‘In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel’ (1 Cor. 4:15).
[2] The real instrument is the word. We are begotten by the word of truth. It is this that enlightens the eye, that converts the soul (Psa. 19:7, 8), that makes us wise to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). This is the incorruptible seed by which we are born again (1 Pet. 1:23). If we are washed, it is by the word (Eph. 5:26). If we are sanctified, it is through the truth (John 17:17). This generates faith, and regenerates us (Rom. 10:17; James 1:18).

4. The final cause or end of conversion is man’s salvation, and God’s glory.
We are chosen through sanctification to salvation (2 Thess. 2:13), called that we might be glorified (Rom. 8:30), but especially that God might be glorified (Isa. 60:21), that we should show forth his praises (1 Pet. 2:9), and be fruitful in good works (Col. 1:10). O Christian, do not forget the end of your calling. Let your light shine, let your lamp burn, let your fruits be good and many and in season (Psa 1:3). Let all your designs fall in with God’s, that he may be magnified in you (Phil. 1:20).

5. The subject of conversion is the elect sinner, and that in all his parts and powers, members and mind. Whom God predestinates, them only he calls (Rom. 8:30). None are drawn to Christ by their calling, nor come to him by believing, but his sheep, those whom the Father has given him (John 6:37, 44). Effectual calling runs parallel with eternal election (2 Pet. 1:10).
[1] The mind. Conversion turns the balance of the judgment, so that God and his glory outweigh all carnal and worldly interests. It opens the eye of the mind, and makes the scales of its native ignorance fall off.
[2] The members. These that before were the instruments of sin, are now become the holy utensils of Christ’s living temple. He that before dishonoured his body, now possesses his vessel in sanctification and honour, in temperance, chastity, and sobriety, and dedicates it to the Lord.
[3] The life and practice. The new man takes a new course (Eph. 2:2, 3). His conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). No sooner does Christ call by effectual grace but he straightway becomes a follower of him.

6. The objects from which we turn in conversion are sin, Satan, the world, and our own righteousness.
[1] We turn from sin. When a man is converted, he is for ever at enmity with sin; yes, with all sin, but most of all with his own sins, and especially with his bosom sin. Sin is now the object of his indignation. His sin swells his sorrows. It is sin that pierces him and wounds him; he feels it like a thorn in his side, like a prick in his eyes.
[2] We turn from Satan. Conversion binds the strong man, spoils his armour, casts out his goods, turns men from the power of Satan unto God. He watches against the snares and baits of Satan, and studies to be acquainted with his devices. He is very suspicious of his plots, and is very jealous in what comes across him, lest Satan should have some design upon him. He wrestles against ­principalities and powers; he entertains the messenger of Satan as men do the messenger of death. He keeps his eye upon his enemy, and watches in his duties, lest Satan should get an advantage.
[3] We turn from the world. Before a man has true faith, he is overcome by the world. He either bows down to mammon, or idolizes his reputation, or is a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God.
[4] We turn from our own righteousness. Before conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, and to make himself whole with his own duties. He is apt to trust in himself, and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his counters for gold, and not to submit to the righteousness of God. But conversion changes his mind; now he counts his own righteousness as filthy rags. He casts it off, as a man would the verminous tatters of a nasty beggar.

7. The object to which we turn in conversion is, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whom the true convert takes as his all-sufficient and eternal blessedness. A man is never truly sanctified till his heart be truly set upon God above all things, as his portion and chief good. These are the natural breathings of a believer’s heart: ‘Thou art my portion.’ ‘My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’ ‘My expectation is from him; he only is my rock and salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God’ (Psa. 119:57; Psa. 34:2; Psa. 62).
[1] We turn to Christ, the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). His work is to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). He is the way to the Father (John 14:6), the only plank on which we may escape, the only door by which we may enter (John 10:9).
[2] We turn to the laws, ordinances, and ways of Christ. The heart that once was set against these, and could not endure the strictness of these bonds, the severity of these ways, now falls in love with them, and chooses them as its rule and guide for ever. The desire of the heart is to know the whole mind of Christ. He would not have one sin undiscovered, nor be ignorant of one duty required. “The free and resolved choice of the will is for the ways of Christ. The bent of his course is directed to keep God’s statutes. It is the daily care of his life to walk with God. He seeks great things, he has noble designs, though he falls too short. He aims at nothing less than perfection; he desires it, he reaches after it; he would not rest in any degree of grace, till he were quite rid of sin, and perfected in holiness (Phil. 3:11-14).

4. The Necessity of Conversion

5. The Marks of the Unconverted

6. The Miseries of the Unconverted

7. Directions to the Unconverted

8. The Motives to Conversion”