in this Divine Garden but it is the Meditater the Christian-Bee that gathers the honey out of them though it be the duty by which the Soul digesteth truths and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshment yea the duty by which all other duties are improved yet how much is this duty neglected by all sorts of Professours because though it be the delightfullest task to the Spirit yet it is the most tedious to the Flesh that ever men on earth were imployed in Have not many been long Professours At all and yet if they would tell all the truth they will confess they never spent one hour together in mediating on the most weighty Scripture-truths on God on Mans Estate by Creation Degeneration Regeneration Glorification on Christ on the Vanity of the Creature on the Beauty of Holiness on Death on Judgement on Heaven and Hell Meditation saith Mr. Baxter in his Saints rest is confest to be a duty by all but by constant neglect denyed by most and I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to pass that men that are very tender Conscienced toward most other duties yet do as easily overslip this as if they knew it not to be a duty at all they that are presently troubled in mind if they omit a Sermon a Fast a Prayer in publick or private yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time unto this very day How few have mannaged this duty aright Aright Hath not that which we call Meditation been Study only Hath not some controversial point or some nice speculation been the matter of our Meditation Hereby we evidence that we have not so great spiritual hunger after Righteousness as we should Hungry men saith one do not use to stand and pick bones when they have meat enough to eat Hath not our end in meditating been only the increasing of our knowledge and not the improving of our knowledge Have not we begun this work without God When we were going about to Meditate have not we neglected Prayer for help from Heaven to go through with the work though without God we can neither know resolve upon nor perform what is good for from him yea from his own good pleasure comes both the will and the deed Have not we idled away our meditating seasons If we have sequestred our selves from worldly businesses and company for meditation at any time have not we idled away that time by suffering our thoughts to gad and wander up and down to no purpose to be sure not to fetch in considerations for the stamping holy impressions upon our hearts and lives Have not we in meditating been without a due sense of Gods presence May not we cry out Gen. 28.16 surely the Lord was in such and such a place where I have been meditating and I knew it not i. e. I considered it not Hath not the work of our understandings in this business been to retain and not to convey truth into the heart Have our understandings represented what should work holy affections and resolutions aright Have they presented things good of a Divine and Heavenly nature as God Christ Heaven c. in their prime and beauty Have they presented things in their nature simply evil as Sin Gods wrath Hell at their worst Have not we left off meditating before we attained the end of Meditation before holy affections and resolutions are wrought Have not we rush'd out of this duty as well as rush'd into it Have not we gone from this work as a bird out of the snare with joy and speed Have not we ended as well as begun this work without God not praying to God for strength to perform what we have been inabled by grace to resolve upon for God and for pardon of what hath been amiss in the duty O! when will English Professours be prevailed with to make conscience of this duty of duties I once more intreat thee to use Mr. Baxters words as thou art a man that maketh conscience of a revealed duty and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint and the Soul-ravishing exercise of Heavenly Contemplation and as thou art faithfull to the peace and prosperity of thine own Soul that thou speedily and diligently set upon this great duty O! Considerations against flighting Gods written Word what a mighty blessing is it to have such a book wherein are written by God himself the great counsels of his will concerning mans Eternal Salvation What a sin is it then to have low mean yea vile and base thoughts of it Is not our slighting of the Word of the Lord the cause of all the wickedness in our hearts and lives Whence are all our omissions and commissions but because we make a light matter of sinning against the Scriptures Certainly this great provocation hath a great hand in our miseries and threatneth utter ruine to us Prov. 13.13 Isa 5.24 Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blosome shall go up as dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy one of Israel CHAP. XVI Their miscarriages about the Promises 9ly Professors miscarriages about the Promises MUch Ungodliness is also evidenced in Professors miscarriages about the Promises of the Ward the promises being the great promoters of godliness in the world not only as arguments to induce it by shewing how God will reward it but likewise as principles of godliness or the chief instrument whereby God makes Souls partakers of the Divine nature 1. Not believing their truth How little do we believe the truth of the Promises How little do we believe that the Spirit of God and glory rests on them that suffer for Christ and his Gospel and that as tribulations do abound for Christ so shall consolations by him or that we shall have an hundred fold advantage by any loss we sustain for Christ and his concernments All that fear of man all that cowardise all those tremblings of heart that are upon Professors this day all that enmity against the Cross of Christ which appears on the faces and hearts of men are clear demonstrations how little the promises for the bearing up under suffering for the deliverance out of suffering or rewarding of suffering for Christ are believed We cannot set the Promises against all Crosses 2. Not prizing them enough How low are our esteems of the Promises of God of the great and faithful God in comparison of what they are concerning the Promises of honest and sufficient men I appeal to thee if a King should promise thee a thousand pound per annum whether it would not more rejoyce thine heart than the Promises of eternal Life which God hath made unto thee do With how
their Enemies but if we stay here we perish or as Ladies use Litters to carry them over the dirt or as we use a Penthouse during the Storm and then Farewell or as Passengers the Boat they cry vehemently a Boat a Boat and as soon as they are Fetryed over the deep farewel to the Boat they think no more of it When he slew them then they sought him Psal 78.34 and they returned and enquired early after God Then never before and never after Undoubtedly multitudes have been affrighted to Christ who were never truly and throughly converted to him and have left their Sins from compulsion of their judgement not from the propension of their will not from any love they have borne to Christ they love to be safe but still hate to be holy O! O! how many are herein deluded who have pretended a great deal of love to Christ whilst base Self the love of pleasure and ease and to be exempted from horrours and fears hath been the Bias that hath drawn them to Christ I appeal to thy Conscience whether Christ be valued be look'd after save in a strait When trouble is upon thee then this Physician is sent for but when the pang is over the Physicians company is too chargeable is no way desirable the sooner he turns his back the better When Women are great with Child and when Men and Women both hear it thunder and see it lighten when the Arrows of the Lord fly thick and a great mortality is sweeping many to the Grave O! then how shall I get Christ then Books are read Sermons heard and valued Prayers not neglected but when the fears of death are over Psal 4.6 Ephes 5.16 O! then who will shew us any good Then Redeem lost time not for God and Souls but for the World then head and ears in the world again then secret Prayer is neglected then the Bible lies in a dusty corner not viewed till the next storm arise and then Christ must be awakened with Master Mark 4.38 carest thou not that we perish I will tell you what your Ministers have told you before Sin and the World were your Companions in days of health ease and peace and Christ your desire in cloudy days Is it not so If Christ in the day as well as in the night lies chief between thy breasts thou hast cause to say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name But I fear most pitch on Christ for themselves and not for Christ Christ in the time of Contagion shall go for something but Christ in dayes of health and ease shall be valued no more than a meer Chimara a Cipher a Nothing It is one thing to take Christ to pacifie the Conscience and another to take him to purify the heart An unquiet Conscience is to most a greater burden than an insensible seared and polluted Conscience than an impure heart Oh! Repent of thy juglings with Christ Psa 78.36 They did flatter him with their mouths and they lied unto him with their tongues They pretend to come to Christ in order to service and obedience when all the while they serve themselves on Christ Base Capitulations with Christ Thirdly How many have base Capitulations with Christ Many come running to Christ and ask him as the man in the Gospel Good Master what shall I do Mark 10.17.21 22 that I may inherit eternal life Christ tells him and them Gee thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come take up the Cross and follow me But as he so they are discontented And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great Possessions Undoubtedly many Hypocrites have some glimpse of Christs glory and they run to Christ whilst others deride him but they like not the Price that Christ sets They would have Christ on their own terms Christs terms are to have the Heart My Son Prov. 23.26 give me thy heart Do not lend it only but give give it chearfully give it presently give me it now Now that it is called to day To day Heb. 3.7 8. if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Give me thy heart to be framed and fashioned by me to be stamped and sealed by me be no longer thine own I will not be content thou lend me thy heart for a Sabbath or for a day of Prayer and then that thou call for thine heart again and bestow it upon thy lusts give me thine heart and do not sell it for base ends for base respects give me thine heart do not keep it to thy self lay up and leave thine heart in my hand for me to keep it for thee But alass how shamefully do we break with Christ We would live as we list and do as we list We are content to give Christ the body the outward man the ear the tongue the head c. but we reserve our heatts for the service of the World and of Sin or if we are perswaded to give the heart yet it is but a devided heart not the whole heart but a piece of it Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart saith Christ but Pride Covetousness and Voluptuousness would fain have a share hence no â—â—l closings between Christ and many Professors Christ and they part They as some Customers seem to commend the wares but they like their money better Few see themselves so miserable without a Christ as to come up to the price Their cursed Leagues with base Lusts bind them so fast in Chains that they cannot they will not come up to Christs proposals to Christs demands they will treat with Christ on no other terms unless they may have the pleasures of Sin and may fulfill the lusts of the flesh but if Conscience be disquieted and troublesome then they make new offers they will leave many sins they will except but one There is but one exception they have and if that may be accepted then they are Christs they have but one reserve These Swine are contented to escape the pollutions of the World 2 Pet. 2.20 22. through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ so they may have one mire to return to and wallow in If Christ will stoop to these terms then welcome Christ if one sin and Christ may share the heart betwixt them the man is contented but few are contented that every knee should bow that every sin be parted from The Lord be mercifull to me If I bow in the house of Rimmon No saith Christ All or none If the Conscience be not quiet upon this then as Marriners throw overboard their goods their Jewels their Bales of Silk and other pleasant wares in a Tempest to ease the Vessel which they wish for in a Câ—lm and labour to fetch up again if it be
the Scholar of those Notions which he affects and valueth Haven ot our hearts cryed out many times unto the Bible depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of Gods wayes either as to worship or manners and that because knowledge is an obligation yea a provocation to duty and a sting in case duty be neglected What things we prize we search into Not searching the Scriptures Jo. 5.39 But how little have we searched the Scriptures as diggers in Mines do search for gold and silver in the Earth as the Word signifieth And this leads me to those two main Evidences of our slighting the written Word of God our not reading and not meditating upon it Not reading them Dent. 31.11 Matth. 12.3.5.21.16 Luk. 10.26 Deut. 17.19 as we ought which I shall a little enlarge upon How have we been guilty of not reading the Scriptures as we ought That every one ought to read them is so evident that there is no way for the Papists to keep men from believing this truth but by keeping of them from reading the Scripture No business can discharge any from this duty and yet how is this evident duty neglected Some have not been so farr wrought upon as from sense of their own ignorance and blindness in the things that concern their Everlasting welfare and from conviction that they can know such things only by the help of the written Word of God to take up firm resolutions to undertake the study of the Scripture Others notwithstanding their resolutions never set upon the reading of the Bible over At all They have seen no excellency in this book they have seen more in a piece of Philosophy in a rational discourse of Divinity in an ingenious History in a politick discourse yea in a Romance or in a Play Polititian-like who preferr'd an Ode in Pindar before all Davids Psalms How many read the Bible too seldome Oft enough thinking it too much to read it dayly to spend one hour therein every day Have not some spent several hours in a day in reading some good books of mens inditing but not a quarter of an hour in reading Gods-book I even hate mine own works said Luther and oft times wish they were burnt because I fear lest they should withdraw men from reading the Scriptures How much greater is the Number of those Aright not reverently 2 Sam. 7.18 that have not read the Bible aright Are not all of us in this number When have we prepared for the reading of the Scriptures as becomes those that are going in unto God so going into the Sanctuary where the Word of God was kept is tearmed Have not we read fearlesly Tremblingly When we were going to take the Bible into our hands have we trembled at the Word Isa 66.2 lest we should not sanctifie the Name of God yea lest we should take the Name of God in vain in our reading Have not we read heedlesly Attentively Not diligently marking the Duties commanded the Sins forbidden the Rewards promised and the Punishments threatned therein Have not our thoughts been wandering and gadding and not fixed upon what we read When did we attend to Scripture words as heedfully 1 Kings 20.33 as Benhadad's Messengers did to the words of Ahab Have not we read unbelievingly Believingly Deut. 29.9 Rom. 15.4 Josh 1.5 compar'd with Hebr. 13.5 Conscieneiously For right Ends Not believing that the Scripture is the Word of God that whatever we read therein is true and good that the Spirit of God the Inditer of every word in this Book did particularly intend our good in every Verse that in the Scripture Life and Death is set before us yea that Scripture words are our Life Have not we read out of custome and not conscienciously in obedience to the command of God Have not we read for wrong ends Either to satisfie our curiosity and not to regulate our hearts and lives or to have matter of discourse but not matter of practise to have Scripture at our tongues end not at our hearts or only to know being ashamed to be ignorant of those things which all Christians know and to be able to say nothing of such matters which we cannot but have occasion divers times in company to talk of but not to do When did we read the Scriptures with this particular intention that they might be a Lamp unto our feet Psa 119.105 and a Light unto our paths That we might thereby be help'd to order our conversation aright When did we read the Bible with the same attention reverence Quid est Scriptura Sacra nisi quaedam Epistola Omnipotentis Dei ad Creaturam suam Greg. Hos 8.12 and resolution to follow every rule therein as we think we would if we had lived when Christ was upon Earth received a Letter from him directing us what to believe and do that we might be saved Or as we think we should a Book writ immediately by the singer of God as he wrote the Ten Commandements in two Tables Why the Bible is Gods Letter to every one of us in particular written by himself though mediately I have written to him the great things of my Law To him it is in the singular number because to every man and woman particularly When did we read the Bible as Children read the last Will and Testament of their deceased Parent Have not we read the Scripture With Prayer without begging of God his Spirit to help us to understand what we read and to practise what we understand at least not so importunately as we would if we had been begging for our Lives at the Barr of a Judge Have not we sown this seed among thornes in unplowed hearts Jer. 4.3 and have not so much as prayed to God to take away the heart of stone and to give an heart of flesh a teachable plyable tractable spirit ready to receive every Divine impression O! when shall we make conscience of reading the Scriptures daily as we ought The Emperour of Heaven saith Gregory the great the Lord of Angels and Men hath sent to you that which concerns your life and will you still neglect to read it with a fervent and zealous Spirit How guilty have we been in not meditating in the Word of God as we ought How little Not meditating if at all have we dwelt in our serious thoughts upon the matters contained in the written Word of God to the end we might understand how much they do concern us and that our hearts may thereby be raised to some holy affections and resolutions Though meditation be commanded as a chief means sanctified by God for the keeping of his Word Josh 1.8 Psa 1.2 though we cannot be holy and happy without it altogether though it be one of the Profitablest duties of a Christian the Reader and Studier of Scripture may see the beauty and smell the sweetness of the flowres that grow
heart What good didst thou do or receive in that company wa st thou eyes to the blind feet to the lame didst thou labour to bring thy Friends nearer to Jesus Christ or hast thou more estranged and prejudiced them from and against the way of truth O my heart Didst thou take heed to thy wayes that thou didst not sin with thy tongue Didst thou keep thy mouth as with a bridle When going into the Shop or Field yet with Isaack thou art to meditate there and conferr with God and thy heart thus O my heart for whom dost thou labour for Self or for God whose Servant wilt thou be to day the Worlds or Christs O my heart How many snares are there in the World what a dirty place â—is the World and how great is thy danger if God prevent not by special grace O my Soul What need hast thou of Almighty power to keep thee that thou mayest retain thy sweetness in salt waters But alas How seldome do we reflect on our words or silence on our speaking or hearing on our behaviour abroad or at home When do we consider what our affections were most set upon in such and such a place in such an hour and what our demeanour God-ward and toward our Neighbour was We do not believe Bernard who tells us If we would examine our selves as oft as we need Bern. in Cant. we must do it alwayes And Chrysostomes paraphrase and counsel on Psalm 4. is of as little credit with us Let this account be kept every day have a little Book in thy Conscience and write therein thy daily transgressions and when thou layest thee down on thy Bed bring forth thy Book and take an account of thy sinnes 6. Crowing weary of the work before they have brought things to an issue Do not we grow weary of this work before it be brought to any considerable Issue We flagg before we come to the up-shot Still some were learning and never came to the knowledge of the truth And so some pretend at least to be alwayes trying but they hold not fast They try their hearts as some did truths till they be wholly sceptical as ignorant whether converted or no as ever They know not more this year than they did seven years since but hang betwixt Heaven and Hell in a dubious state for want of skill or pains to decide this matter We are not resolute and peremptory enough to have an account of our Souls yea such an one as that we may have boldness in the presence of Christ When David thought on God and was troubled Psa 77.3 6. he never gives over his heart till he ended this controversie He communed with his heart and made a diligent search We should commune till we know whether we be natural or spiritual and accordingly be humbled greatly or greatly rejoyce in God our Saviour But alas This Age is strangely dull and sluggish those Duties that will cost expence of spirits and call for the labour of the mind we wholly omit or do them very negligently Reader Could I but prevail with thee to set in good earnest upon Occasional Meditation and Heart-Examination and Solemn Meditation and Self-Tryal I should bless the Lord as long as I breath for this enterprise of mine The searcher of hearts knoweth that I took Pen in hand on this design to labour with thee in order to inside Duties that thou might'st not be contented with a Form of Godliness and rest in the external part of Religion that more work might be done within doors in Closets and Hearts O that you would reform Not pass on to another Chapter till you have engaged your slippery incconstant hearts to attend on this necessary Duty Take a few Considerations to impell you 1. Motives to this great duty Heathens else will rise up in judgment against us The very Heathen will rise up in judgement to condemn you if you neglect this duty A Roman Philosopher every night before he slept would examine himself thus Quod malum hodie sanesti c. What sin hast thou opposed wherein art thou bettered Cato also would daily at evening call to mind what ever he had seen read or done that day I use saith Senica every evening to plead my cause with my self when the candle is gone and all silent I review all that I have said or done in the day I hide nothing from mine own scrutiny I pass by nothing Pithagoras gave also this severe rule to his Scholars that they should no night suffer sleep to seize their senses till they had three times recalled the accidents and passages of the day what evil have I committed what good have I omitted Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees saith Christ may not I say of the Heathen how can you hope for Salvation O! how hath thine heart cheated thee with vain confidences How hast thou cryed the Temple of the Lord I have Abraham to my Father whilst moral Heathens have been better acquainted with their hearts than thou art Yea Sensitive creatures will else shame us 2. The very sensitive creatures may shame thee into the practise of this duty Go thou sluggard to all the souls of Heaven Do they not sit in the Sun and view themselves look inward to themselves turn every feather to set it at rights Do they not look over their feathers and pick out and throw away that which is bad and set others in their places when misplaced Nay 3. We shall else be self-condemned You your selves will be judges of your selves You take the glass and what is amiss in the hair in the face in the body you rectifie by it and what no observation to be made of the faces of your Souls O! take the word of God and make use of this glass which now is in thine hand doth it discover no spots no neglects no failings O! view thy self and humble thy self reflect on thy self and conserr with thy self till thou art ashamed till thou abhorrest and loathest thy self before the Lord. 4. You have a sure sign of hypocrisie on you The neglect of this duty a sign of hypocrisie whilst this duty lies neglected for all the upright have been very carefull to commune with their hearts to search their hearts to make diligent search lest any lust should be covered as Rachel covered her Idols or as Saul was hid in the stuff Nothing is more desired by a sincere Soul than to be throughly searched examine me O Lord Psa 26.2 as Artificers do whether their gold be weight or no and prove me as Artificers do their silver in the fire try my reins and my heart the most inward motions of my Soul search me more deeply and throughly than the world can do Unfound hearts have one Dalilah they have one house of Rimmon that they cannot endure to be examined and found out they are loath to search too
such and such Rates Boasting of selling too dear though their Consciences must needs suggest to them that they have over-sold them and therein have declined the rules of moderation and righteousness When you have selled too dear Loth to make Restitution and so cheated your Brother though Conscience in times of sickness and danger begins to contend with you about it yet how loth are you to make restitution for the wrong you have offered How unlike are you to them in Nehemiah Then said they We will restore them and will require nothing of them Nehem. 5.12 13. so will we do as thou sayest If a Nehemiah should say So God shake out every man from his house and from his labour that performeth not this promise even thus be he shaken out and emptied you would hardly say Amen and praise the Lord. When men buy a Commodity As to Buyers crying out 't is naught how apt are they to discommend it to bring down the price to say It is naught when all the while they know it is offered on easie terms How do Buyers take the Advantage of the Seller's Ignorance of the worth of his own Goods There is a cursed Proverb amongst English-men but in too great request That a man may not only sell as dear but buy as cheap as he can Few like Austin that bought a Book at an unskilful Stationer's hands for an inconsiderable price and afterwards gave the value of it Prov. 20.17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel How often do Buyers even as Sellers often say they will not Saying They will give no more and yet do they cannot take a penny less for such a Commodity so answer that they will not give a farthing more for what they have cheapened and yet all the while intend to come up to the Seller's price How common is it Falling at the day of payment for men to take up Wares and to promise payment at such a day and yet fail Yea how do they promise though they know they shall not be able to be as good as their word It were better for thee to begg thy bread than thus to steal from thy Neighbour Thou art ashamed to begg as he of old thou shouldst be ashamed much more to do worse viz. to defraud thy Neighbour Prov. 21.6 The getting of treasures by alying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death It is a thing very frequent tossed to and fro but it is a vanity and they that use it are Felones deâ—se they do but seek death and destruction by it How few are there As to Buyers and Sellers both that in their buring and selling give a proof of their loving their Neighbours as themselves their Neighbours goods and welfare as their own O! 1 Pet. 1.15 When will ye be holy in all manner of conversation Holy in your Trades as well as in your Church-Assemblies Holy in the Shop and in allâ—secular employments So holy as to abide with God in your Calling When will ye trade for God rather than for Self When will ye labour with your hands Eph. 4.28 that ye may be able to give and not only to receive When will ye trade in fear and be in the fear of the Lord all the day and that lest your Shop should prove your bane and whilst seeking after the Mammon of this life ye lose the true Substance Is this thy Prayer before thou enterest upon thy Calling O that it were Lord help me to trade for thee whilst for my self and for the good of my Neighbours Soul Body Goods as well as for my own How few With reference to the King Stealing Customes among all the several sorts of Traders render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Hierome long since hath told you That Caesar is not Proper but Appellative All the Emperours were called Caesars from Julius Caesar Confiderations against it How can you quiet your Consciences to steal Custome as many of you do What is it save the Law that gives you right to all you have And by the Law so much of your Goods is the King 's it is alienated from you to his Crown and Revenue How dare you cheat him Should you think it hard measure to pay so great a tribute Have you forgot what Christ who came under the Law dâ—d Mat. 17.24 25 26 27. Though tribute was exacted of him when the Children were free yet he would work a Miracle rather than give offence in denying to pay the Fine that was imposed on him Why do ye not take the safest course if it be a disputable matter To be sure you will not give offence to God to the King to your Conscience by paying Customes but you may to all by defrauding Do you herein as you would be dealt with If you were the Head would you have the inferiour Members impoverish the Head If you were the Political Father would you have your Children cheat you Do not you by bribes and otherwise tempt the King's Officers to be false to their trust and to damn their Souls by perjury and treachery Lastly Consider that self-love and self-interest are prevalent as to make you to favour and enrich your selves so also to bribe your minds and judgements and to enslave them to your base passions O! Consider how apt is every one unequally to favour himself and to suck in any corrupt and absurd reasonings whereby he may greaten himself though by the ruine of others If you say as they of the Silver-shrines This brings in our gain We cannot subsist without stealing Customes How else can we live A Father will tell you Indigna vox Christiano c. It ill becomes a Christians mouth to ask How shall I live Not one that Christ call'd to forsake Trades and Professions did ever answer him I must not give over my gain They only reformed or relinquished their Trades when Christ call'd them Till you can relinquish unlawful gains you are none of Christs Disciples Those in the Acts that burnt their unlawful Books to the loss of thousands Acts 19.20 shewed themselves true Converts so mightily grew the Word and prevailed O! When Tyre shall be converted her trading and dealings shall be sacred Isa 23.18 Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. Here give me leave to add the Sin of Lyeing Their Lying too too common among all sorts of Traders as well as others And truly this Sin comes not improperly under the Head of Injustice V. Patrick's Epitome of Mans Duty P. 45 46. Justice even when it is not taken most largely so it is taken for all Religion comprehends our whole duty to our Neighbour as to matters of right Thus by vertue of the fifth Commandement to do justly is to give our Parents their due honour whether they be
in thy gold or in a golden calf thou art guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 of having other Gods besides the true God and so dost as highly offend the true God and God usually gives up such men unto spiritual judgements Rom. 1.21.24 It makes me fear you have not tasted of the upper springs because the puddle of the World is still sweet to your taste Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If you had tasted of the joy peace mercy and comforts of Christ your earthly comforts would be disrelished Gal. 6.14 If you did glory in the Cross of Christ the World would be crucified to you and you unto the World The sweetness of Christ would drown all Creature-sweetness But alass Psa 84.10 To which of us is one day in Gods Courts better than a thousand else-where Austin said If one drop of the joyes of Heaven might fall into Hell it would drown all the bitterness of Hell So would it drown all bitterness in the Soul and all the sweetness in the World Worldly comforts would be too course too slat too low to recreate your hearts Did ye but know the honey and milk of Canaan ye would not so much mind the Onyons of Egypt Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon O! What a surpassing indignity is this to Christ Si terram amas terraâ—es Aug. to set him below the foot-stool to value thirty Pieces of Silver before him to preferr Earth before Heaven present things before future that the love of God the recompence of reward shall not lye nearer the heart than the treasures of Egypt O! What a miserable life dost thou live This Sin brings an Hell with it thou art the Devil's Martyr 1 Tim. â— 9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and burtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Thou enjoyest neither God nor the World Thy only happiness is a fancy And this is thy great misery that thou still desirest that which will never satisfie thy desires The more thou hast of the World the more thou wantest the more thou drinkest the more thou thirstest a Dropser is upon thee Semper avarus eget Hor. Hebr. 13.5 Prov. 23 5. ch 8.21 Eccles 5.1 and thou knowest it not Discontent is alwayes the Companion of Covetousness Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Grace and Godliness is substance Why with Esop's Dogg wilt thou let goe the substance for a shadow The things of the World are fancies the things of God realities What good is there to the Owners of riches saving the beholding them with their eyes Do not you all this while bear false witness against God Do not you proclaim to the World that God is not enough to answer to fill your desires and that therefore you goe out after the Creature Is it nothing to you to call God who is all-sufficient who is a fountain of living Water a barren Wilderness Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid Jer. 2.12 13 31. be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evills's they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water O Generation see ye the Word of the Lord Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a Land of Darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hereby you break the conjugal Relation God looks on you as Adulterers and Adulteresses James 4.4 Prov. 5.19 and will judge you accordingly God expects that his breasts should satisfie you and that you be alwayes ravished with his love and dare you tell the World that your God hath deceived you and that you were mistaken in your choice of God and therefore after other Lovers you will goe No wonder that for the iniquity of our covetousness Isa 57.17 God be wroth and smite us We are greedy of more but what have we done with our former talents Account we must for one Mat. 25.5 for two for ten talents the more we have the greater still will be our account There is a reckoning day at hand O that our moderation were known to all men Phil. 4.5 because the Lord is at hand If thou art not sincere I am as sure as this Book is in thy hand thou wilt curse the time that ever thou hadst an Estate and wilt wish thou hadst been a Beggar for then thou hadst not so much to answer for before God It is certain though some doubt it that thou shalt carry none of thy estate away with thee 1 Tim. 6.7 nothing is to be carried away save guilt to Hell in case of mis-improvement of an Estate yea if you have not rendred unto God according to what you have received 2 Chron. 32.25 the heaping up of wealth is but the charging of thy account thou must account how thou hast disbursed to a farthing I will suppose thou hast by neglects of thy general Calling and by rising up early and sitting up late gained an Estate thou mayest put all thy gain in thine eyes and never see the worse What will thy Estate advantage thee when the Arrows of the Lord enter into thy Soul What will the World advantage thee when the Gout Feaver burning Pestilence c. are upon thee What hast thou got only that which may stand with Gods eternal hatred Never count thy gains till thou hast got that which is inconsistent with Gods wrath What hast thou got above that which God throweth unto the Doggs Shew me Childrens bread or never boast of thy gains Did you ever find any Child of God worse for afflictions but have you not found many worse for their thrivings in the World Jeshurun waxed fat Deut. 32.15 and kicked Whilst you have Bonds and Bills upon others do not you run into arrears unto God And how will you discharge those Suits which God will commence against you When you lye a dying will ye not wish that your time your strength your spirits had been powred forth upon better things than those of this life That you had traded for Grace and Glory rather than for the Gold of Ophir for a little gilt Clay O ye great Projectours for the World I do even fore-see the troubles and horrours the doubts and fears the anguish and amazements of your Souls which your unâ—â—â—â—â—â—ties as to your future estate will put 〈…〉 into in your dying Rooms How 〈…〉 take up such language as this Fool that I was to cumber my self about many things
our rising up early and sitting up late our spending our strength our lungs our spirits yea and our estates among you you have requited us evil for good even to the spoyling of our Souls Acts 7.51 52. Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy-Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted c. Have not you in your hypocrisie made outcries against others for silencing your Ministers for taking away the bread out of yours and your Childrens mouths and for removing them from their stations and dwellings But may not I profess in the name of all my Fellow-Sufferers that your misimprovements your inconstancies your pride and earthliness have been and are our chiefest burdens a greater pressure to us than any burdens that lye upon our names bodies or estates I cannot but think of a passage of holy Mr. Shepheard The Jews saith he did long for Christ and when he came they Crucified him and you would have Ministers and you had them and though you did not immediately cast them out of their places yet you so wearied their Spirits and grieved the Spirit in them that you made them glad to bury themselves and leave their places you had Prophets and their teâ—â—s and their sorrows too yea and their blâ—â—d too and O! what a light matter was it teâ—â—s you to break their very hearts How little did you obey them that ruled over you Hebr. 13.17 and submitted your selves that they might give their account with joy and not with grief How little did you believe that that is unprofitable for you Have not you made nothing of it for your Ministers to lose their labour to put them upon crying out I have laboured in vain Isa 49.45 Yea how have you grieved their very Souls with reproaches Some who have pretended affection to them yet have had their reproachfull Names of Priest Parson Vicar c. Though God hath put a Crown of honour upon them by making them his Ambassadours yet how have some impudent Professours blasted them with their stinking breath and prosane scoffs Ambassadours are inviolable by the Laws of Nations The Lord saith one hath set a better mark on them than Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm yet you have made a light matter of vexing their very Souls When you could have nothing else against your Minister have not you been censuring him for his manner of speaking 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters say they are weighty and powerfull but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible Lastly And being weary of them Have not your Ministers been so troublesome to you in your sins in your formality worldliness lukewarmness c. that you were even weary of them Have not you been as weary of them as the Children of Israel of Angels food as weary as weak somachs are of feeding on one dish Your Ministers urged flesh-displeasing and self-denying duties they would not suffer you to sin quietly and were not you therefore burthened with them they would not stand and comply with your carnal ends and sinfull interests and did not your hearts therefore cry out away with them Have not you been like the Gadarenes more willing to part with your Ministers than with your swinish lusts Rom. 1.28 Because you did not like to retain God in your knowledge 't is no wonder if God give up many of you to a reprobate mind Hath not the Gospel been too costly too chargeable to some of you and too irksome requiring too much pains taking to others of you O! when you Remember your crying iniquities for which God is chiefly contending with you forget not this dreadfull sinne of being weary of Gods Ambassadours of being weary of speaking with God and of hearing God speak unto your Souls CHAP. XXXIII Their misearriages with reference to the Ministers of Christ Professours miscarriages toward their Ministers since their removal Not finding the want of them Not esteeming the loss great enough since their removal 1. H How many of you do not find them wanting This will be evident by the following Queries Have you indeed accounted that none in the world want help like your selves upon this very account Do you look upon your selves as litting in darkness yea in the region and shadow of death under a worse Plague than the Egyptian-darkness that was a darkness wherein men lived but do you look on this as a darkness of death Do you account a Throne without the Gospel but the Devils Dungeon Wealth without the Gospel fuell for Hell Advancement without the Gospel but a going high to have the greater fall Do you look upon your selves as under a worse famine than that of bread Cannot you your selves make up this great loss cannot you set other things in the breach Do not some of you set good books in the room of your Ministers Going about to make it up by good books I confess saith a Reverend Man Reading hath its use but the voice hath a secret force upon the Soul it hath a Ministerial efficacy by which the Authority and Soveraign efficacy of the Spirit is conveyed I pray God the fruitfullness of the Press may not beget a dis-esteem and contempt of the great Ordinance of the Minister already you have been told already that Luther had rather his books should be burnt than the Scriptures suffer a dishonour and neglect by perusing his papers Do not some of you set your own parts and gifts in their room Their own parts and gifts Do not some of you think that you have so profited by their Ministry that you have no further need to attend upon any Ministers of Christ May not such doubt whether their experience of the power and efficacy of the Ministry hath been true seeing true experience thereof sweetneth the Ministry unto Souls raiseth up their esteems of it and engageth them to a further and more chearfull attendance upon it A true tast will sharpen the Souls appetite the true Christian gets a Stomach by eating as the new born babe by sucking 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be that ye have found that the Lord is gracious Do not some of you go about to make up your selves by attending on Christ's companions in the sense of Solomon And Christ's companions Cant. 1.7 by going to Wells without water by sucking empty breasts whence you can draw nothing but wind or blood what is this but seeking the living among the dead expecting gracious showers from Clouds without rain making up the want of bread with stones if not poyson O! why do not you say Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon for why should I be as
to scatter and disperse those fogs and mists which over-cloud their Souls you should be eyes to the blind but you are not you should be of a merciful Spirit to all Souls more especially to the Souls of all Saints most especially to the Souls of those Saints to whom you are peculiarly related but you are not Exod. 23.5 1 Thes 5.14 1 Cor. 12.7 Mal. 3.16 In the old Law God took care of Asses if they lay under a burthen Israel was to help them Doth God take care for beasts and will not ye for men for Saints for the redeemed of the Lord God requires of you that you comfort the feeble minded The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall Christ expects his own with increase They that feared the Lord spake often one to another to comfort one another with the promises of God made to his people against the flourishing of the wicked and overflowing of ungodliness and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of Remembrance was written before him c. the Lord book't that good service Nihil de Scripturis nihil de salute Animarum agitur sed nugae risus verba proferuntur inventum he pur it upon record But though the Lord hearknetâ— and hears yet he seldom finds us so employed our neglects are sealed up in his bag I pray God we may lay it to heart repent and reform Bernards complaint may justly be revived Not a word of the Scriptures nothing of the Salvation of the Soul but trisles and to yes laughter and words as light as the wind eat up the time I know there have been too many Uzza's amongst us who have had an itching desire to be fingring of the Ark thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think and like the ambitious Sons of Levi taking too much upon them whereby the Ministry hath suffered much contempt The Lord forgive these daring Phaetons who have set the world in a slame hereby But let not us run from one extreme into another Let us give to the Ministry their due Jude v. 20. and yet not neglect to build up our selves in our most holy faith Mutual duties should be exercised between Christian and Christian The Apostle is express for it in the places already quoted I shall adde one more Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another O! if God would be with me so far as to make me an instrument to prevail with you to go and visit one another and stir up one another that knowing the terours of the Lord you may perswade men O! bewail thy unserviceableness thy private spiritedness thy want of love and bowels to others especially now when the Ministerial help fails to such a degree and when there is so great an Apostasie Sure then is no time wherein Christian-fellowship is more called for and wherein it may be more profitable than at this time But alas How are the wise as well as the foolish Virgins asleep generally secure without action no way usefull to each other no more than they are who are fast asleep in their beds of rest O! how few are there like Jonathan and David how few enter into a brotherly promise to exhort one another to call one another to account to tell one another their fears to know of one another their growth in Religion We are proud and loath to have our nakedness appear yea some of us have few stories to tell of Gods goodness and bounty to our Souls and we hate a discovery how low earthly vain backsliding we are Hence reserved to each other But God will bring forth the hidden works of dishonesty 3. Not admonishing or not aright How is Fraternal correption neglected or spoyl'd in the managing Some totally neglect reproving their Brethren Gallio-like they little care for these things they are little concern'd whether God be honoured or dishonoured Others delay admonition Either neglecting it altogether or delaying it The Flesh is backward to this self-denying work and so the many weighty circumstances which should bring the Offendor to Repentance are forgot The Offendor is also hardned in his Sin He thinks by thy silence thou art altogether like unto him so he judgeth of Gods silence these things hast thou done and I kept silence Psa 50.21 thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self so he judgeth of thy silence It 's much easier to fetch out a spot of inck from a cloth the day it is stained than afterwards Sin like a Mole will quickly bury it self and the longer let alone the harder it is to dig it up The longer a disease is let alone the harder cured Cronical diseases are seldome a credit to the Physitian Besides if you neglect the Reproof this day or hour perhaps by the next he will commit the same Sin again for either he knows it not to be a sin or in case he knows it yet every new act doth strengthen the habit of sin It is the nature of sin to blind the Mind to stupifie the Conscience and to harden the heart Exhort therefore one another dayly Heb. 3.13 while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin If the finner add sin to sin put that to your account for neglecting the Ordinance of God for his reducement If he loseth the favour of God and neglects hereupon all private communion with the Lord put that to thy account If at length he becomes impudent in sin so that like a Bedlam he feels not the pricks of sharp admonition put all this to your account because you have delayed to cure to heal to save the Soul of your Brother A timely reproof might have saved a Soul and covered a multitude of sins Besides have you time at your command that you with Faelix will do your duty at a more convenient season May'st not thou dye or the Offendor dye and both in sin thou in the sin of Omission and he in the sin of Commission unrepented of before the day comes wherein thou art resolved to tell him roundly of his fault Why art not thou trembling with fear of blood-guiltiness Is Soul-murther no sin with thee Or have you the Holy-Ghost at command Without the Holy Spirits a sistances and concourse your labour will be in vain you will get a blot by reproving the delinquent will flye in your face hate you for telling the truth he will add sin unto sin and perhaps put you into a flame too and must the Holy-Ghost dance attendance on you If you observe his hour you must go presently whilst the wound is fresh and bleeding but if you neglect his call it is a question whether your hour will be Gods Others miscarry in reproving Some reprove Or miscarrying in it not reproving privately Matth. 18.15 Prov. 10.12 Si solus nosti
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to