reason is because they are in every action he doth thoughts run on all mens actions if thoughts were alone men might mend them but they busie themselves about all actions if a man pray thoughts run along with him in prayer nay men pray with twisted thoughts so that before he comes to an end of his prayer he shall have abundance of glancings on other things See it in old Eli 1 Sam. 1. Hanna was praying Old Eli saith the Text thought she had been drunken Either he was or should have been praying also yet you see he had wandring thoughts ê™ mark the lips of his neighhours So as John was preaching Mat. 3. there came a thought into his hearers hearts that they were the seed of Abraham What did make them think so John spake of no such matter but he said Every tree that brings not forth good fruit c. They had it seems by thoughts in the duty of hearing therefore seeing thoughts do thus twist themselves about mens actions hence it is that they are so hard to be rooted out 3. It is hard for men to forsake their own thoughts because they are in mens hearts Their inward thoughts Psal 49. 11. Every man hath two kind of thoughts inward and outward explicite and implicite implicite thoughts are those that never shew themselves in the heart but at some desperate attempt Explicite are those which are in the heart every day as in Psal 49. 11. They think their houses shall continue for ever Would you think that men should have such thoughts their outward thoughts were they were mortall Wee see saith the Text that men die c. and yet they they think inwardly that they shall live for ever Now according to these inward thoughts men act and hence it is that men neglect repentance and other holy duties as if God would never call them to an account they have not these thoughts above-board but they are inward and these spoile the heart and these are the cause why men cannot forsake their own thoughts Ephiphanius speaks of a fig-tree which grew in a wall c. Bad thoughts will be alwayes seizing on a 〈…〉 he dies and then all his thoughts perish But so long as a man is alive in old Adam these thoughts are rooted in the bottom of the 〈…〉 which hinder good duties aud this is the cause why vanity of mind sprouts up Examine your selves then for it is one of the best wayes for a man to try his estate by even to examine his thoughts If a man would see whether the sea be salt he need not drink all the water that is in it one drop will serve his turn So a man may see whether he be a child of God or of the Devil even by his thoughts I will make it appear by these Reasons First because mens thoughts are the free acts of their hearts Many times you speak not as you would you do not as you would but a man thinks alwayes as he will Favour of great men and desire to please them makes men do many times what they would not but thoughts are free I may say so and so but I will think what I list Ergo if thou wilt judge a man judge him by that he does freely and not by that which he does by compulsion But now thy thoughts are free they are thine own act nothing can force thy thoughts but thy self ergo in them thy heart shews it self whether it be carnal or spirituall When Peter denied his Master could a man have judged him by that then he might have judged him in Apostate but that was his passion he discovered what his fear was not what his heart was For if a man might have but looked into Peters heart though it was a fearfull sin and without Gods mercy might have damned him Yet there you might have heard him say Oh it is my Master Oh that I had never come hither It is my Master and Saviour I have none but he It was for fear of his life that he denied him For Prov. 23. 7. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he A covetous Usurer may make a rich feast and say with his tongue Sir you are welcome he must give good words the shame of the world and speech of people will make him do it yet his thoughts it may be are not towards thee So try thy selfe how go thy thoughts at home or abroad Are thy thoughts on heaven or heavenly things or are they below Sure I am if a mans thoughts were on heavenly things then his heart would be there also for as a man thinks so is he Prov. 23. 7. 2. As they are the freest acts so they are the immediate acts of the heart Can a man judge of the fountain by the water that runs seven miles off as well as by that which runs immediately from it The water seven miles off may have tincture from the soyle and so it may be bad there though good at the fountains head ergo judge of the fountain by the water which comes immediately from it Now thoughts come immediately from the heart nothing is between them and the heart and out of the heart saith our Saviour proceed evill thoughts c. Mark 7. 21. Other sinnes come from the heart too but it is at the second third or fourth hand abundance of circumstances come between them and the act as in the act of murder it may be there were base words offered yea and blows too c. but thoughts come immediately from the heart Ergo if thy thoughts be proud carnall c. so act thou if thy thoughts carry thee away in the cares of this life so is thy heart c. 3. Thoughts they are the continued acts of the heart a man is alwayes doing them Can a man judge of an Usurer and say he is liberall because he makes one great feast unto his neighbours No but he may say it is a Usurers feast a great feast By what a man doth alwayes by that judge him Thou art not alwayes praying c. or in good company but thou art alwayes thinking good or evill thoughts thy thoughts are continued acts of thy heart Can a man judg a horse for stumbling once in a long journey At such a place he went well and at such a time and alwayes yet perhaps once in a year he may stumble Can you or will you judge him by that No rather judge him by that which hee is alwayes doing Thou art alwayes thinking now that is thy God which thou art alwayes thinking on If on riches then that is thy god or whatsoever it be then that is thy god Examine then thy heart by thy thoughts for out of the abundance of thy heart thy mouth speaketh yea for one word there is abundance of thoughts for one good duty there is abundance of thoughts ergo if thou wilt examine thy heart examine thy thoughts 4. Thoughts are the Univocall acts
know them you would not doe it for had they knowne the Lord of life they would not have crucified him 1 Cor. 2. 8. so if such as doe persecute Gods children did but know their worth and that they were his children they would not do it Let us esteem godly men and women as persons of great worth The Saints of God have alwaies done so Saint Lawrence being demanded by his persecutors wherein the worth of the Church lay the story saith he gathered a companie of poor people together and pointed at them and said there lies the worth of the Church so I have read of an ancient King who made a great feast and invited a company of poor people which were Christians and he bade his Nobles also now when the Christians came he had them up into the Presence Chamber but when the Nobles came he set them in his hall Being of the Nobles demanded the reason he answered I doe not this as I am their Kyng here for I respect you more then them but as I am a King of another world I must needs honour these because God doth most honour them and then they shall be Kings and Princes with me soe doe you esteeme of them according to their worth and shew it If they be persons of such great worth here you may be directed how to get a name of worth in the world to be honoured of God This is the way labour to be beleevers serve God and close with the godly be of one minde and of one heart with them Honour is the thing that all desire according to that of Saul to Samuel Honour me before the Elders of my people so we are all ready to say oh that I could be honoured in the heart of those that I converse withall I say then thou must labour to serve and honour God in thy heart let that be thine honour It is a meere folly for men to think to get honour by swearing by lying by cutting and slashing and drunkennesse c. The sweet ointment of a good name is not compounded of stinking ingredients That should serve to comfort the godly that seeing they are of so great worth what though they be disgraced here let this suffice thee God that knows the true worth of every thing he accounts thee worthy what though dogs bark and crie out against thee for thy holinesse let them alone and know thou this that the time will come when never a curre of them all but will wish oh that mine end might be like his and that they might goe as thy dogge to heaven with thee when they shall see thee sitte at his right hand where are pleasures for evermore Lastly you that approve your selves to be of the number of the godly labour to walke worthy of the Lord. Colos 1. 10. Doth God thus advance you then strive you to honour him with inward and outward worship God hath not done these things for you that you may live as you list no you are a chosen generation c. 1 Pet. 2. 19. Ergo you must shew forth the vertue of him that hath called you You that are parents of children the more you doe for them the more you look they should honour you the more God hath done for you the more you ought to feare him God hath drawn you out of darkenesse into a marvellous light and will you yet walke as vassals of Satan This was that kept Josoph from committing adultery even the favour of advancement and how then can I doe this great wickednesse saith he so thou art advanced to honour from a childe of the devill to be the son of God how then canst thou commit wickednesse Consider I say how God hath advanced thee from being a slave of Satan to be his adopted son and shall I now become a covetous person shall I be a companion of Gods enemies when you are enticed by the divell or wicked men to any sin say what shall such a man as I consent shall I flie from my colours what a Kings son and flie Consider this THE TIME OF GODS GRACE Is limited In a SERMON By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE TIME OF GODS GRACE Is limited GEN. 6. 3. The Lord said My Spirit shall not alway strive with man because he is but flesh and his dayes shall be a hundred and twenty yeares IN this Chapter is continued the History of the decay of the World wherein is described Gods purpose of destroying mankind in which are these two parts First the meritorious deserving Cause wherein God gives an account what he doth how inexcusable the world is and how just God is unto the. 14 verse Secondly a direction unto Noah to make an Arke where we may see that God in his judgement remembers mercy The meritorious deserving cause is described first from the quantity of those persons in those evill dayes a great many verse the first men began to multiply in places populous where there are some good there are many bad Secondly by the quality of those persons the Sons of God when they saw the daughters of men the sonnes of God viz. the posterity of them that maintained Religion they began to be carelesse and carnally confident they did looke after the profits and pleasures of this life and then it was high time for God to enter into Judgement Thirdly by the kind of sinne They lusted after unlawfull Marriages c. and the root of this was originall corruption the Imaginations of mans heart were onely evill and that continually verse 5. These words are a Proclamation of Gods purpose to bring it to an end in which are four things First the Lords complaint in these words The Lord said Secondly the proclamation it selfe in these words my Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man Thirdly the reason because he is but flesh Fourthly the limitation of the time a hundred and twenty years in which time if they repent I will repent but if they will not my Spirit shall not alway strive As if the Lord had said I have tried all conclusions and used all means partly by Mercies to allure them partly by Judgements to terrifie them partly by my word to recall them and by all meanes possible to bring them to my selfe yet they remaine incorrigible I now am resolved to strive with them no more From the words thus opened there will naturally arise these two points First that the Lord of Heaven and earth doth strive mightily with a company of poore Rebells and all to bring them unto himselfe but on this I intend not to insist The seond is this viz. that there is a time when God will strive with men â—o more and that in this life The scope of this aimes at the whole world but what is said in generall may also be said
Communion in those thy sins thou hast made thy selfe guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore I beseech you to look to it and in time to repent and pray with the Prophet David Ps 51. Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord even from the blood of thy Son lest one day it be laid unto thy charge and required straitly at thy hands For for this cause many are sick among you and many weak Is it so then that the Lord doth so severely punish the unworthy receiver of the Sacrament Take notice I pray you then from whence cometh all sicknesse weaknesse and mortality and the reason why the Lord doth send so many kinde of sorrowes crosses and miseries upon men namely because of the unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper So saith Master Calvin why do you wonder to see such wars and rumours of wars that there is so many blood-sheds so many Towns and Cities ruinated and so many Countries sacked and depopulated so many calamities come upon the Churches abroad and so many plagues and scourges to over-run Christendome at this day is not the cause plain enough men come unto the Table of the Lord carelesly and unworthily And beloved we shall never see the Lord take away his judgements here from the earth until we betake our selves to a more diligent and holy receiving of the Sacrament For this very cause there are so many strange diseases amongst us never formerly known or heard of untill these dayes as the French-Pox the English sweat as they call it that even the Physitians themselves are blunted at them and as Peter Martyr well observs hence are all diseases as plagues pestilences which were late amongst us dropsies bloody-Flux Agues Apoplexies Convulsions burning-Feavers and Impostumes c. and all for this cause One man hath fallen into a Feaver and we wonder at the cause whence he took it but in truth the communion hath cast him into his Feaver and the Lord will avenge himself on him for the same Another is sick and he thinks that a cold hath brought it upon him but it is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament that is truly the cause of it A third man dyeth before his time even in his full strength before in the course of nature he hath ended half his daies but the cause is unworthy coming to the Communion which hath taken hold on him and cut off the thread of his life Many there be that expound these words in a spirituall sense Many are sick and weak and many are fallen asleep that is to say many have their consciences seared and their hearts hardened c. and this is true also that because men come unpreparedly they have their hearts hardened and their consciences seared and their soul plagued with many spirituall plagues But it is as true also in temporall judgements thou hast had many afflictions and much sickness laid unto thee but thank thy selfe for it namely because thou hast come unworthily unto the communion thou hast had much weaknesse in thy body which hath cost thee much money and weakned thy estate but thy unholy coming unto the Sacrament is that which thou maiest thank for it Thou hast been reproched and contemned and endured much shame but take notice of it that it proceeds from the fore-going cause and that is a speciall reason why the Lord hath brought these and many other evils upon thee Thou canst say the Commandements for the most part by rote but thou didst never know the mysterie of this one Commandement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Behold the Communion is one of Gods own names and how many thousands are there in the world that take this name of God in vain Is there never a drunkard here in this congregation that hath been at the Sacrament Is there never a whoremonger never a covetous worldling Where is the man whosoever he be among you all that is such a one He is in the state of damnation Is there never a luke-warm and carnal Christian that contents himselfe with a formall worship and a dead performance of holy duties that hath no zeal for God nor courage for his truth but is carelesse of all Gods commandements whosoever amongst you are guilty of these sins or any other and hath come unto this holy Communion in them they are the persons that how oft soever they have received so oft they have taken this name of the Lord in vain And if I should examine this Congregation from the one end of it unto the other I fear that every pew would yeild some one if not many that have taken a Communion which is one of Gods names in vain Should I but examine thee that comest unto the Communion this day how by the last Sacrament thou receivedst and the last Sermon thou hast heard thy faith is strengthened thy repentance renewed and thy obedience is increased and thy care doubled for to walk with God whether thou art made by them more zealous for God more forward in his worship and service and every day more holy and heavenly-minded if not then tâ—oâ— hast taken this Name of the Lord thy God in vain and the Lord will not hold thee guiltless that is the Lord will not take away the guilt from thy conscience but he wil let thy sin lye open and thou shalt not be cleansed from it nor justified by the very blood of Jesus Christ but it shall rest upon thee to thy utter ruine and destruction unlesse thou forsake thy sins and so come preparedly unto this holy Table and banquet I know there is a convenant of grace a sweet refreshing for every humbled soul that is hungry and broken for his sins and for every poor distressed conscience let all such come and lay their sin upon Christs crosse and welcome But if there be any that come in their sins and will not reform their lives but be as they came sinners and so they mean to continue the Lord himself will lay this mans sins upon his own head and they shall never be taken away from him but Christ shall at the day of judgement pronounce him a guilty person to his eternal condemnation King Belshazzar that abused but the holy Vessels of the Temple and the Cups thereof what a small plague befel him for it Dan. 5. 27 28. God hath numbred thy Kingdome and finished it thou art weighed in the ballance and art found too light thy kingdom is departed from thee and is given to the Medes and Persians So beloved brethren if any of you shall abuse this Cup of the Lord coming to it with a filthy unclean heart and polluted conscience and earthly affections there is a hand-writing against every soul that thus cometh this day unto the Table of the Lord thou art numbred and weighed and found too light Thou O man and woman whosoever thou art that prophanest and contemnest these holy things of God thou
a man to be drunken this is abundance of sins for it is an abuse of Gods creatures a spending of his substance a weakning of his parts a scandall to others c. Sin in deed is a sin with an addition sin in deed is an impudent sinâ— see Isaiah 65. 2 3. c. that man is impudent with a witnesse that will commit sinne in deed for he is neither ashamed of Gods nor mans presence if any man be a desperate sinner this is he But it may be objected how then can thoughts be said to be such sins even sins of the highest part of a man I answer a Thiefe or Rogue hath burnt a mans dwelling house yet he may proceed further and burn his stable too a 1000 pound and a shilling are more then a 1000 pound Sins in thought are included within sins in deed The souls part of sinne is the greatest part of sinne Now thoughts are the souls part of sin yet sins in deed must needs be worse in regard of the progresse of sinne and also because thoughts are included in them thoughts and deeds are more then thoughts alone I exhort and desire you therefore to consider First what great reason you have to set your thoughts on God God himselfe merited this dutie at your hands God hath taken a number of thoughts for us Innumerable are thy thoughts O God to us ward Ps 40. 5. the Lord thinks on us from the Cradle to the Crosse If the Lord should have intermitted his thought of thee thou couldst not subsist when thou wast up the Lord thought how to feed thee when thou wast in bed he thought how to preserve thee he doth not use to think of thee at one time and not at another but he thinks on thee when thou art sick and when thou art in health asleep or awake the Devill else would seize on thee I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinks on me saith the Psalmist Psal 40. 17. And Nehemiah saith O Lord think on me shall we call to God to think on us then surely it is our duty to think on him yea and he may call to us for that duty Secondly consider with your selves what thoughts they are which God calls for my son saith he give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. He would faine have thy heart he lets thee labour with thy hands for thy living and he lets thee have thy feet to walk and the rest of thy members for thy severall uses but the Lord requires thy heart and therefore give him the thoughts of thy heart for if thy neighbour come to thee for fire thou canst not give him fire if thou take away the heat thereof so give the Lord thy heart and the thoughts of it will follow The Devill calls for thy heart also ergo reason as Joseph did when he was tempted how can I doe this and sinne against my God my Master hath delivered into my hands all that he hath thee only excepted and shall I take thee how can I doe this So the Lord hath with-holden nothing from thee but thy heart my sonne saith he give me thy heart yet wilt thou deny it him with the thoughts thereof Tell me you that are rich would it be any disparagement unto you to be Gods servants to set your thoughts on God True it is the greater ill men of this world thinke it some disparagement to think on these things But I tell thee thou that art a Gentleman if thou have grace it makes thee more than a Gentleman grace takes not away mens honor and riches but if he be a Knight it makes him more than a Knight And as Paul said to Philemon receive him now a servant and more than a servant he was a servant when he was carnall but now being a Christian he is more than a servant if you have grace it is an addition to your riches riches and more than riches ergo give your hearts to God and it will be the better for you Thirdly the Lord hath made thy thoughts thy Jewels thy thoughts are precious the Lord keepeth them under lock and key he will not let any see them if all men should observe a man and look into him yet they cannot see his thoughts no God hath lockt them up and made them thy Jewels wilt thou then cast them into the myre wilt thou preferre Haukes and Hounds in thy thoughts before God canst thou sit at dinner and not once think of God but alwayes on base pelfe why thy thoughts are thy Jewels Again A man that is wise will be wary what companions he keeps your thoughts are your only companions you never go out nor in but your thoughts go along with you and for this cause Solomon would have us place the word of God in our thoughts Prov. 6. 22. See Psal 139. 15. 16. when I am awake I am present with thee Men will be carefull what meat they eat because such meat as they eate such is their blood and as their blood is so is their body now as the body feeds on meat so doth the soul on thoughts if we look not to our thoughts they will be subject to abundance of corruptions a man must give an account of every idle word he speaks and thoughts are the intrinsecal words of the heart now if men must give an account of every idle word then of every idle thought also Let this then teach all and every one of us in the fear of God to consider our thoughts else our end will be destruction A SERMON OF SELF-DENIAL LUKE 9. 23. And he said unto them all If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his crosse daily and follow me THis Text contains the first action performed of every Christian viz. to deny himself concerning which you may here see First the grounds of it Secondly the reasons of it Thirdly the occasion of it Fourthly the parts of it Fifthly and lastly the necessity of it I intend to handle these words as they are in relation to the context First the grounds of this truth viz. that every man must deny himself And it is here expressed to be twofold viz. the contrariety that is between Christ and a mans self me and himself these two terms are contradictory one to the other if any man will come after me let him deny himself these two cannot stand together Secondly the contrariety that is between self and self if a man be in Christ he hath two selves he hath a self in himself and a self out of himself the self in himself is old Adam the other in Christ which is the new man there is the self-denying and self-denyed if a man will find himself he must lose himself Paul must not be found in Paul having his own righteousnesse but he must find himself in Christ for salvation belongeth unto the Lord Psal 3. 8. And ergo let him deny himself Secondly you may see
taken from among you for who knowes whether God spared this congregation even for this good mans sake for it is the righteous only that God respects and for their sakes he will spare a whole people therefore surely as Solomon saith the righteous is better than his neighbour yea though never so poor and despised in the eyes of the world yet are they precious in Gods account when I make up my Jewels saith God I will spare them Mal. 3. 17. so that the righteous are Gods Iewels the excellent of the earth are precious in Gods sight and have we not great cause then to lament for the losse of such Seeing then it becometh all Gods children to lament the death of the righteous O how farre then are all such from the spirit of God who are so farre from lamenting that on the contrary they rejoyce at the death of the godly man because he stood in their way they could not follow their works of darknesse as they would but he hindered them he stood in their light they could not run on in sin and wickednesse but he would be reproving admonishing and telling them of their faults and this makes them long for the good mans end and to rejoyce in it when it doth come these do not consider that when the righteous is taken from the earth then they lie open unto the judgements of God But as the Sodomites thrust out just Lot out of their city that so Gods vengeance might fall the sooner upon them for till he was gone the Lord would not destroy them Gen. 19. 21. Even so doe these men desire to be rid of the righteous and rejoyce when they are taken away from them not considering that they are open to Gods vengeance which hangeth over their heads ready to devour them We ought then to be most grieved for the death of the righteous when any of the Saints are taken away by death Oh what a comfort is a righteous man to the children of God what a feeling of grace is there in such a one what comfortable words come there from the mouth of such men how full of comfortable speeches was this poor man alwayes ministring comfort to those that came to visit him what a loss is this then unto us it is more than if thousands of the wicked had gone together and shal we not mourn for the loss of such a one If one of our family or friends dye we can mourne for them and good reason and shall we not mourne for the losse of one of Gods Saints one of the spirituall family one of our fellow-members In this then examine thy self how it is with thee when thou hearest of any of the faithfull that are taken away art thou grieved for it dost thou lament and mourn for it if thou doest not surely thou art no true Christian for the children of God cannot choose but lay it to heart and lament when any of the righteous is taken from among them As Israel lamented the death of Samuel 1 Sam 25. 1. Now concerning the sin of the people in not regarding nor laying it to heart this was a great sin of security in them in that they did as it were rest on their pillows and cryed peace unto themselves notwithstanding Gods judgements upon them in taking away the righteous and freeing them from the evill to come we note that When God will bring any great judgement upon a People or Nation he will ordinarily take away his faithfull servants from among them that so they may be freed from the evil to come Thus good Josiah must perish in his young years that so he might not be taken with the evill to come I will gather thee unto thy fathers saith God and thou shalt goe to thy grave in peace and thy eyes shall not see all the evill that I will bring upon this place 2 King 22. 20. So when God told Abraham of the bondage and captivity whereunto he would bring his posterity he saith thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace Gen 15. 13. And thus it was with the ancient Father St. Augustine when the cruel Vandals besieged his crity he prayed that the Lord would either take him away or cause them to leave the siege and the Lord heard him and took him a way and presently after the Vandals destroyed the city So Luther writing upon this text saith that the Lord after his death would bring great affliction upon Germany and two years after it so fell out indeed Thus ordinarily God takes away his servants from the evill to come See here the mercy of God unto his children in that he takes them away from among the wicked he calls them out of this world that they may not partake of the evill to come shall any one then think it a curse to be taken away betimes in his young years nay happy is he that is taken away from these miserable and fearfull times wherein the judgement of God for our sins hangeth over our heads and is ready every day to seize upon us Secondly seeing that God when he means to bring any heavy judgement upon a people doth ordinarily take away the righteous from the evil to come this shews that when the righteous are taken from amongst us we are certainly to expect some judgement of God upon us For these are they which stood in the gap and kept off the fire of Gods wrath from us that it should not consume us but now being gone we lie open to the judgements of God and therefore when any righteous men are taken from us the losse of them ought to drive us to repentance least Gods judgements come presently upon us and consume us therefore we must forsake our sins and evil wayes and performe new obedience unto God so will he be mercifull unto us yea he will be a shield of defence unto us and a wal of fire about us and he will turn away his judgements from us THE SIGNES OF GODS forsaking a People Preached By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE SIGNES OF GODS forsaking a People JER 14. 9. And we are called by thy Name leave us not TWo things Brethren and beloved in Christ Jesus are intended and expressed by the holy Prophet from the first verse to the 13. verse There is first a denomination of a judgement and that is dearth or famine from the first verse to the seventh Secondly the sword is threatned to the thirteenth verse he will send the famine then the sword and he will not be intreated Then in the eighth and ninth verses we have the importunate prayer of the Church to turne away these judgements And the praier is marvellous sweet in confession where they confesse their sinnes and seek to God for succour First they desire God that he would not take
Isaiah 27. 11. He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will not pitty them It is commonly beleeved if men come to Church heare the Word and call upon God that then presently they are good Christians Beloved it is not so Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Men are ready when they can but call Lord have mercy on me O sweet Saviour pitty me most mercifull Lord Jesus have compassion on me if they can pray in their families and pray at Church c. to think now all is well with them and Christ cannot but save them and give them the Kingdome of Heaven but our Saviour puts a not upon it and saith not every one that saith Lord Lord it is noâ— a Lord a Lording of Christ with the tongue onely it is not a taking up of an outward profession of Christ only that is sufficient for a man that shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven no saith Christ but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven But of this by the by Secondly there are needlesse discouragements which doe much hurt in prayer Nee lesse discouragements do much hurt to many a poor soule that hath forcible wouldings and wracked desires after grace and holinesse and yet is held by discouragements yea many a Christian heart lieth a long time under it wrestling and striving under its wants and yet kept out from grace and from growing in grace because of discouragements yea the best and strongest of God Saints have been kept off and have hung much on discouragements Fear not saith God to Abraham Gen. 15. 1. So fear not Joshua saith God to Joshua Josh 1. 9. Intimating that both Abraham and Joshua were afraid of discouragements they were afraid that many evils would befall them that they should meet with many rubs and difficulties that would be too hard for them therefore the Lord calls to them fear not be not djsmayed nor discouraged I â—ou saidst fear not Hence observe That God would not have any Christian soul to be discouraged in prayer Thou saidst fear not For our clearer prooceeding herein first let me shew you what discouragement is and secondly how it comes to be dangerous and hurtfull in prayer What is discouragement It is a base dismayment of spirit below or beneath the strength that is in a man under the apprehension of some evill as if it were too hard for him to grapple with it There be foure things in this diffinition First I say it is a base dismayment of spirit and so I call it to distinguish it for there is an humble dismayment which a Christian is commanded A man is bound to be dismayed for his sinnes I say 32. 11. Tremble ye carelesse women that are at ease be troubled ye carelesse ones these carelesse ones went on in their sinnes and feared not God calls to them and bids them to be dismayed But the dismayment and the discouragement I speak of it is a base dismayment of spirit which is either when he is dismayed that ought not or he is dismayed at that whereat he ought not to fear where no cause of fear is As he that riding along upon the high way spying a mans shape thought it was some Spirit and thereupon he sickened and died So many a poor soul looking in the perfect Law of God and seeing his own uglinesse and filthinesse he is discouraged and thinks himself undone his heart waxeth cold within him and he begins to fear that he is but a dead and damned man Secondly it is down beneath the strength that is in a man that man is properly said to be discouraged not that he hath no strength at all in him nor no courage at all for such a one is an infeebled man not a man discouraged but a discouraged man is a man put besides the courage that is in him when a man hath strength enough to grapple with the evill before him but through dismayment of spirit he cannot put it forth Have not I commanded thee saith God to Joshua Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied Iosh 1 9. God had given Joshua strength enough whereby he was inabled to observe and do according to all that Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded him God had now doubled his Spirit upon him yet he commands him be not afraid neither dismayed as if he had said Joshua if thou beest dismayed and discouraged though thou hast strength and power to go through the businesse that I have called thee unto yet thou wilt not be able to use it nor to put it forth if thou beest discouraged Thirdly it is at the apprehension of some evill I say not at the sight of some evill for a man may be dismayed at the apparition of good as Mary when she saw nothing but a good Angell Luke 1. 29. she saw nothing but a glorious Angel neverthelesse she was afraid and discouraged Why because she had a secret apprehension of some evill either of some evill proceeded in the salutation or some unworthinesse in her selfe to receive such a gracious salutation it cannot be the apprehension of any good that discourageth a man but the apprehension of some evill Fourthly not of every evill neither for if the evill be but small courage will stand it out but it is of such an evill as he fears he is not able to grapple withall If the evill before him be inferiour to him he scornes it as the barking of a toothlesse Dog If it be but an evill equall to his strength then he makes a tush at it because he knowes or thinkes himselfe able to encounter with it But if it be an evill above his strength then his spirit melts and droops before him See this in Saul 1 Sam. 17. 11. and his people When they saw the Champion of the Philistims coming against them when they saw him so hugely and marvelously armed and heard him speake such bigge words they thought they were not able to stand and to encounter with him and therefore saith the Text when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistim they were dismayed and greatly afraid Thus you see what discouragement is Now we come to the second question to shew how discouragements come to be hurtfull in prayer such discouragements the Lord would not have our hearts to be in when we pray unto him For first God cannot give ear to that man that is out of heart in his prayers Thou canst never pray if thou beest dismaied in prayer When the soul begins to feare and reason O I am so unworthy that God will not looke at me I am so sinfull so blockish so dead and dull to all good that God will never regard me Thou canst never pray Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved If
the wildernesse for here is neither bread nor water and our soule loatheth this light bread So beloved if we suffer our soules to be discouraged we shall soone come to murmure against God wherefore hath he brought me up to this strictnesse and precisenesse when I was a drunkard a worldling when I followed the lust of my flesh and liberty then I enjoyed onions garlick and the flesh-pots of Egypt pleasures and delights for my soule then I had a good hope in God and a good perswasion that my soul should goe to heaven and then Preachers told me that if I would give over such and such sinnes and look after Heaven a little more and doe such and such things O then I should come to a Land flowing with milke and honey then I should not misse of glory and salvation But alas I see nothing but Gyants and Anakims I am in a wildernesse now now I see a man may have a great deal of repentance and yet be a cast away A man may have a great deal of faith and yet be but a reprobate A man may give over a great many sins and yet perish in hell now I see a man may live civilly and well and have and do a great many good things and yet be damned when he hath done all A man may even go to Heaven Gates and yet the gates be shut against him and he turned into hell Alas my poor soul is in a wildernesse now I know not which way to goe I am ready to lose my selfe I see nothing here now but huge Gyants the sons of Anack strong corruptions inclining and forcing me to evill most fearefull and violent suggestions and temptations of the Devill ready to thrust me into the gulfe of wickednesse and despaire And now the soule begins to thinke that it is good for it to returne again into Egypt to fall to its old courses again for certainly God looks for no such matter he requires no such strictnesse and precisenesse And so it falls a whining and repining at the Word and Ministers of God that have call'd men to it and laid it upon them and hath no heart now to do thus and thus any longer And thus it falls into discouragements because of the way and into a thousand quandaries whether it may not go back again or no. And all these murmurings and repinings are because men suffer themselves to be discouraged Thirdly discouragements will cause thee to think that God hates thee When the soul like Baals Priests 1. Kings 18. 26. hath been crying from morning to noon ten twenty thirty yeeres it may be and yet hath no answer now it will begin to think if God did love me then he would grant me my petitions Then hereupon comes into a mans secret thoughts and feare that God hardly loves his soule So was it with Israel when they were discouraged they said because the Lord hated us therefore he brought us out of the Land of Egypt Deut. 1. 27. Because that they were discouraged and because that their Brethren that went for spies had disheartned them therefore they were apt to say the Lord hated them Beloved it is a miserable thing when the soule calls the love of God into question Consider that as thou canst not have a friend if thou beest suspitious and jealous of his love to thee So thou canst never have the love of God settled on thy heart so long as thou art jealous of his love to thee Fourthly If thou root them not out it is to be feared that they will bring thee to despair Melancholy thoughts and feares and discouragements drive the soul to despaire For when the soul sees it selfe still disappointed of its hopes at the last it growes hopelesse If it have waited one day and the next day too if it have prayed this weeke this moneth this year and yet still it seeth it selfe held off and disappointed it will at last grow hopelesse Take heed therefore I beseech you of all needlesse discouragements to fear because that thou findest not that that thou wishedst or prayedst for to day or to morrow in thine own time that therefore thou shalt never get it that now thou shouldest for ever despaire of the grace and love of God and think that now God will never hear thee that thou shalt never get grace and power over thy corruptions Men think that the preaching of the Word of God brings men to despaire the preaching of such strict points and the urging such precise doctrines makes men despaire men are loth to be at the paines to root out their discouragements It is rather a cold or dead preaching of the Word that is the cause of this for when the soule is instructed by holinesse humbled by holinesse converted by holinesse at the last when it comes to be thorowly awakened when it sees that this and this is required in a true conversion of the soule to God that herein true repentance must declare and demonstrate it selfe by these and these fruits or else it is but false and rotten Why now the soul must needs be brought to despaire because it seeth that though it have been thus and thus humbled though it have praied fasted and mourned in this and this manner yet it sees it hath not a soundesse of grace There is such a grace in it such a worke and such a fruit of Gods Spirit in it that yet he could never finde in himselfe this makes the soule to despaire Indeed Preachers may be to blame if they speake and preach onely the terrours and condemnations of the Law without the promises of the Gospel for these should be so tempered that every poore broken soule may see mercy and redemption for him upon his sound and unfeigned repentance and humiliation But if men doe despaire they may thanke themselves for it their owne sinnes for it their owne discouragements for it because they suffer these to continue in them Cain his heart grew sad his conntenance fell he was wroth and disquiered in his minde and heavily discouraged why Gen. 4. Sin lay at the dore what dore the dore of his conscience rapping and beating upon his heart Beloved when the soule lets sin lie at the dore drunkennesse pride and worldlinesse security hardnesse and deadnesse of heart lie at the dore when a man lets his negligent and fruitlesse hearing of the word lie at the dore when a man lets his vaine and dead praying his temporizing and fashionary serving of God lie at the dore of conscience to tell him that all his hearing of the word of God profits him nothing that his praiers are dead and vain that his mourning fasting and all his humiliation is counterfeit and rotten and that he hath no soundnesse of grace in him but that for all this he may fall into hell when sin lâ—eth thus at the dore thus rapping at the conscience it is no wonder if the soule fall into desperation as it was here Cain let
in the congregation but he will find it out if he preach in particular he will discover every mans corruption fling wilde fire in every wicked mans face and throw balme of comfort into every godly troubled spirit As King James said well of a reverend Prelate of this Land Me thinks this man preacheth of death as if death were at my back so should Ministers preach as if Heaven were at mens backes or as if hell were at mens backes When he preacheth of mens sinnes and corruptions he must preach so that their consciences may see that the word of God looks into the very thoughts and hearts when he preacheth of the wrath of God and of condemnation c. he must preach so that the conscience may feele even the fire of hell flaming in it this is the way to teach the people the good knowledge of the Lord as it is called 2 Chron. 30. 22. every Minister may teach the knowledge of the Lord but not the good knowledge of the Lord. There is great difference between teaching of the knowledge and of the good knowledge of the Lord. Men may know God and his word and their sinnes but if they go on in their sins it is not good knowledge then indeed a Minister teacheth good knowledge when he makes his people so to know sin as to loath it and to come out of it so to know repentance as to repent indeed Secondly Discrimination As if he should say there are some that are in him and some that are not in him if any man say he abideth in him he ought himselfe to walk even as he walked so that here the Apostle would put a difference between the sound and the rotten-hearted in his congregation Hence observe this point That every Minister is bound to preach so as to make a difference between the precious and the vile Saint John preached so as that his hearers might say the Spirit of Christ is in me or the Spirit of Christ is not in me that themselves might know whether indeed they were true members of Christ or but hypocrites This is the duty of Ministers Ezek 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause men to discerne between the cleane and unclean Here is two things First they shall teach them the difference between the holy and prophane Secondly they shall not onely shew it before them but if they will not see it they shall cause them to see it that is they must beat it into them and rubbe it into their consciences it may be when men may see they will not then he must make them to see If there be any prophane person any luke warme or dead-hearted professor or close hypocrite in the congregation the Minister must make him see his prophanesse his deadnesse and hypocrisie in Gods worship or if there be any godly soule or broken heart the Minister must make them to see that they have a broken heart First reason because else a man defiles the pulpit and prophanes the holy things of God Ezek. 22. 26. Her Priests have violated my law and prophaned my holy things they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed difference between the cleane and unclean Those Ministers prophane the holy place of God when they make not mens consciences know which is holy and prophane when prophane persons may come and go from Church and have not their prophanenesse discovered to them a drunkard a swearer c. and hath not his sinnes laid open to him Is there any prophane person here that hath not an arrow shot into his heart but he can goe away and not take any comfort from the Sermon these men prophane the holy things of God When God gave Benhadad into the hands of Ahab and Ahab spared him and let him goe 1 King 20. the Prophet tells Ahab ver 42. Thus saith the Lord because thou hast let goe a man whom I appointed to utter destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life c so if there be any Minister over any congregation in which there is any drunkard any swearer or whoremaster or wordling or lukewarmling or any other that lives in such sinnes which God hath apointed and decreed to eternal destruction in hell if we tell them not their sinnes and make their consciences feele them then our life shall goe for their life our soule for their soule for we might have given them such a wound as might have been a means to have cured their soule Secondly We are not the Ministers of Christ if we preach not so as that men may know that they are not converted if they are not c. God saith to to the Prophet Jeremiah if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth Jer. 15. 19. Jeremiah could not be Gods mouth to the people unlesse he would divide between the precious and the vile Unlesse Ministers preach so as to make the consciences of their hearers feele in what state they live in they may be Ministers of Satan Idoll-shepheards but they are not the Ministers of Christ Thirdly because otherwise they can doe no good Ezek. 34. 17. and as for you O my flock thus saith the Lord God behold I will judge between cattell and cattell c. As if he should say woe unto the shepheards will they not preach so as to make a difference between cattell and cattell woe unto the Priests will they not preach so as to feede my flocke I will require my flocke at their hands and now saith God will not the shepheards of my people doe it I will now doe it my selfe I will convert those that are to be converted c. I will feed and provide for my flock my selfe Austin notes that after that Peter had smote off Malchus his eare Peter came to be a shepheard and an Apostle of Christ after Paul had persecuted the Church he came to be a Preacher and an Apostle of Christ so after Moses had killed the Egyptian God made him the Captain and deliverer of his people Austin observes from this that God appoints none for his Ministers but Smiters such as be men of blows men that will smite men home to the heart men that wil wound the consciences of their hearers This I speak that you may not be offended at the ministers of Christ when they apply the word of God to your severall consciences and whensoever you have the truth of Christ preached to your soules let your hearts make use of it for if thou apply not the word of God to thy soule as it is preached thou art guilty of thine own bloud If you apply not the word you put off the word of God and then what saith the Apostle Acts 13. 46. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it farre from you and judge
all punishments then this may make their haire to stand upright upon their heads That God whom thou hatest is the punisher of thee even he whose Sonne thou despisest and whose Sabbaths thou prophanest He is able if his wrath be kindled to consume thee in a moment Oh if thou haddest not an adamant heart this would daunt it and dissolve it into teares of bloud God will infinitely punish thee who is a consuming fire but if thou wilt not be daunted there is nothing but fearfull looking for of fire and brimstone for ever in hell When God punisheth his children it is in mercy but to the wicked his wrath is in their punishments and his Judgements are in anger and great wrath and therefore when he punisheth thee thou maiest say A just Judge brandeth me in the hand Is it so Then when Calamities come let us not so much stand upon men or upon the help of them but let us look to God as David did it may be the Lord sent Shimei to raily on me 2 Sam. 16. 10. and so did Job the Lord gives and the Lord hath taken away Iob 21. 12. The Caldeans did it but they were Gods Instruments We should not do as dogs that gnaw the stones that are throwne at them God takes stones as it were and throweth them upon mens heads and sometimes whips them by wicked men Now the wicked are but Gods rod and when he hath scourged thee he will cast the rod into the fire Therefore goe unto the Lord make peace with him and he will remove it The wicked I confesse are in fault but God is the Author of all and he will deliver you in his good time Secondly wherefore will God deale thus with Israel because they have sinned with a rebellious spirit not by infirmity but in disobedience Whence you may learne this point of Instruction That sinne and disobedience against Gods Law is that which brings down punishments and judgements upon a Nation or a people or Church All Sin in generall is the brooder and hatcher of all judgements and the very spawne of all punishments Ah this sinne and disobedience and willfull rebellion against God it will bring sword and famine amongst us and let in the enemy and send out God from amongst us and stop the mouthes of his Ministers and break off the Parliament A more particular cause why God sends punishments amongst us is this because Kings will not be subject to the Lawes of God and Queens will doe what they list when Bishops and all people will have elbow room to doe that which seems good in their own eyes as giving toleration for the prophanation of Gods Sabbaths that the people may dishonour the Lord and runne headlong to hell this and such like sets up wickednesse and brings the wrath of God upon us and his vengeance upon our Land and Kingdome when thus sinne gets the upper hand and day of the word for which I cannot chuse but pitty our poor Land neither could you do lesse if your hearts were not as hard as an adamant and your eyes glued together Ah poore Nation now thou liest a bleeding and drawing to an end and the bell now tolls for this Nation and the Lord is a going from this Land and her punishments and judgements are comming on apace so that all Nations may say Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto this Land what meaneth the heate of his anger then shall men say they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers and served other Gods Judges 4. 2. When they forgat the Lord their God then he sold them into the hand of Iabin King of Canaan this was the ground why the Lord drowned the old world Genes 6. 12. because they had corrupted all their waies this was the cause why the Lord burned Sodome and Gomorrah with wild-fire from heaven this was the cause the Lord destroyed Ierusalem forty years after Christ because they would have none of the offers of Christ and of grace and mercic And thus much for proof Good Lord what a poor weake Land have we if sinne and rebellion be the cause of all punishments then in what a poor case is England how weake are we our hearts may shake within us and our knees may knock together to consider of it having so many sinnes of all sorts of all degrees and committed with so high a hand and in most fearfull manner We are sick from the Crowne of the head to the soale of the feete there is no soundnesse in us we are sicke in head sick in heart sicke in stomack we have had peace and that hath surfeited us and now we have gotten the pleurisie and nothing but letting of bloud will cure us God grant the Lord let us blood in our hearts also God must purge and physick us and fetch out the drosse which we have gathered by our disobedience If sin and rebellion will doe it we have given God cause enough so to plague us Is it so Then we see who are the greatest traytors in the kingdome and what they are that pull down punishments upon a Kingdome they are disobedient rebells and traytors full of sinne I protest the greatest traytors our land hath this day are the prophaners of Gods Sabbaths and such as do give liberty to prophane them and to swear and be drunke these are the plague sores of this Kingdome and bring down heavie jugements upon us yea of what place or dignity soever they be It is not onely poor drunkards but silver and velvet-Coat drunkards even the Lordly men of this kingdom who give liberty to sin for the greater are the men the greater are their sins they are the most dangerous even as great Cut-purses doe more harm then little ones for as Haman was hanged before the Jews saw good daies and the seven sons of Saul were slain before they could have any peace in Israel so while these rebells be not hanged what peace can be expected while Ionah was in the ship there could be no quietness so whilst these rebells and vile wretches live and have favour and are respected and goe on stil unpunished they are in the land as Ionah was in the shippe and so long there can be no quietnesse in the land One Achan did plague a whole land but here are many Aehans in this land Oh poor land thou art wonderfully laden by every ungodly person both in Country and City O let us beg of God that the wicked may be removed out of the land or that God would turne their hearts Is it so that sinne is the brooder of all punishments O then let it teach every one of us to set heart and hand and all to work to joyne all our forces of prayers and tears against these enemies and labour for the reformation of these When Jonas was in the ship the Marriners came about him and asked him from whence comest thou So if
benefit of this duty I have known a man that hath bought a ship fraughted it for a great voyage laid out all his stock upon it gone out to Sea dasht it against a Rock and lost all and come home a begger daies of fasting and praier are as ships that we put all our stock and treasure in mark this if they come home empty again if they bring noe mercies nor blessings with them you are undon you had need to get a breif to be gathered for in the parish and all wil be too little to get you up again when you come to enter into covenant with God will you deal deceitfully what ship-wrack do you hereby make of your consciences have ye abused many heavenly opertunities and will you doe this also all the congregations under heaven will not be able to raise your wants be not deceived saith the Apostle What a man sowes that he shall reape so what you sowe in these duties that and no other fruit you shall reape The second thing is this a word of information to informe us how to fast aright First I will informe you of the reasons of it consider this if your soul be not bettered your family not amended the Countrey not reformed superstition not abated the persecuted Church of Christ not releived I will give you the reason I am afraid the hearts of men are not fitted for this great work I doubt that many of the great men of the Nation doe not sightly understand it Ministers are not rightly qualified for it Congregations are not throughly humbled If you heare that things doe miscarry in the Palatinate that things grow worse and worse that the plague encreaseth then remember there was hypocricy in the duties and so you loose the benefit of this day therefore if hypocrisy takes away the life and benfit of the duty then look well to your selves and look well what you doe this day look well what you goe about that so you may enter upon the duty as you should Consider of it for the Lords sake be true to God and your own hearts you know not the danger of a day of fasting ill spent which that you may avoide I will give you some motives and rules Take this for a motive consider your selves upon your death beds It is a sad thing that I shall tell you is it not fearfull to consider that when you are in great distractions full of various thoughts those things that are brought for Cordialls and comforts to your deserted soules should prove troublesome and heart-breakings unto you A man upon his death-bed sends for a Minister he comes unto him and finds him in sad dist empers crying No God no Christ no mercy no comfort what will become of me I know not what to doe why man what is the matter you that have fasted and prayed and been frequent in these duties you that have kept the sabbath regarded Gods people releived the poor there is no man in the Town can pray like you you can make a praier of two houers long what do you think there is no mercy in God no pitty in Christ Oh saith he this is my bane my fasting and praying is the cause of my woe for I have but mocked God in all this I have seen sad experience upon a poor soules heart of this prayer and fasting rightly observed is a flame of all other duties all other are but one duty but a flame of all duties are in this fire Now when a man shall see the grave open the wife stand weeping the child sighing when his eyes grow dimme his lips pale now for him to say I have had a by-respect in all my duties that I have performed I have been a deceitfull man in my trade c. what tell you me of fasting and duties I have fasted my soule to hell and there I shall feele the sad consequence of my hypocrisie Consider of this ye that will pray and cheat pray and be drunk ye that to morrow will goe to a stage play Is this your fasting and praying when you are in hell then it will come to your minde how you have fasted away your God your Christ how you have sleighted these this will make a man teare his flesh from his bones his should move us to be serious in this duty we are now about Take an other Motive and it is this Bring what ever you will to God and bring not this all is nothing and all the services you can performe without this are nothing if you doe not bring a heart sprinkled with the bloud of Christ a sincere honest heart all else will be but dung bring all parts and duties you cannot so much as pray aright without sincerity doe you remember what Simeon said to his father Jacob pray you let Benjamin goe down no I will not take money and Cammels and what else you will but Benjamin shall not goe but saith he unlesse Benjamin goe I will not because else I shall be taken for a spie Soe when ever thou goest to pray to God be sure thou take Bemjamin with thee thou maist carrie all thy parts and duties unlesse Benjamin goe it will not doe Now by Benjamin I meane sincerity you may spend teares about the duty in hand varnish over the duty as much as you can all the eloquent tongues of greatest Orators will not be heard nay if all the Angels in heaven should bring teares and bloud for our deliverance all this will be nothing unlesse we have an honest sincere heart a faithfull heart in which there is no guile a man that hath an honest heart when he confesseth sin it is with a purpose to leave it he doth not confesse and sin sin and confesse but he is in good earnest which that you may doe take a rule or two First Ye that are come to seek God this day study whether the work of this dayspring from living principles or no. There be painted Flowers doe not smell but take Flowers out of a garden and they smell by reason of their sweet principles so there be painted duties which smell not sweet in the nostrels of God therefore consider are your duties sincere doe they smell have ye not only an artificiall weeping like those women in Jeremy that could weep when they would But doe ye weep from your hearts you know painted food it satisfies not study to find out that your duties come from a living principle and not by art labour to have it spring from the blood of the Covenant and thereupon thou goest to duty I could tell you of many deceits one is in the affections what is Christ come to town miracles wrought well I will goe see it and all this while he hath only a little oyle in the Lamp none in the Vessel Oyle in the Lamp I understand to be some smaller work of Gods spirit some outward principle Oyle in the Vessel I understand to be some inward principle that
ever we would see good dayes we must joyne our prayers and all our powers against our sins and the sins of others When the Philistins saw that the Arke was the cause of the punishments that befell them then they never rested till they had sent it away so let us ship and packe away our sins if ever we would have our punishments removed from us Say O mine enemie have I found thee thou art the enemies of King and Countrey and Parliament and Gospel and thou art he that brake the last Parliament thou art he that lost the day at the Isle of Ree thou art he that sent so many poor Rochellers to the grave with famine and thou art he that makes division between Kings and commons The Lord give us power and courage for if ever we had need now we have and let us bestir our selves and pray that God would be pleased to stirre up the heart of the King and other Magistrates against these sinnes Oh that Magaistrates in their places would set their hearts and hands against all these sinnes but light execution is done and most Magistrates stand for ciphers in their places and onely take up a room and do nothing We cannot draw them with all the arguments we can use to punish these sinnes We have cause to mourne for they stand like scrare-crowes with a peice in their hands but never shoote and the birds may pick the strawes from their heads so that Magistrates do nothing But to you I speake that are chiefe in Towns and chief Officers you should all joyne hand in hand and heart in heart to pull down these ale houses hel-houses and nurseries of the devil and to supplant wicked nesse We must not be one for them and another against them for in so doing we shall never see good dayes And you Gentlemen when are your hearts and hands against them when did you ever speak or write against them when did you ever set foot in striving to have them supprest men stand with their fingers in their mouthes and their hands in their pockets and dare not stand for God and good causes The Lord be merciful unto us we doe not joyne our forces prayers and powers that we can make for Gods glory Oh that the Lord would be pleased to put his Spirit into our hearts that we may be all of one mind So you Gentlemen in your places and we Ministers in our places and all of us we are with all the strength and courage and mettle that the Lord hath put into us to cry and pray and preach down sinne And all you Masters and Dames you are to reforme your Families for these sinnes bring down punishments upon the Land Therefore labour to find out the wickednsse of your Families and admonish them and reprove them plainly and shew them from Gods word the punishments that are due to them If you would doe these things then there might be something done and if reproof and admonishment will not serve the turne then expell them and banish them as Abraham did Hagar and Ismael You Christians mourne for your sins and joyne your hearts and prayers against the sins of the place where you live If any house be on fire others will come with water to quench it as if it were their own so here is a flame of fire kindled in this Kingdome of England and the wrath of God is like wild-fire coming down upon us from heaven therefore let every one of us bring some water or other to quench this fire that is round about us in every place and almost upon all hearts Let every man sweep his own doore and the streets will be cleane so if every one would purge his own heart what reformation would there be in every place then God and Christ and gospel might be here still and the enemies might be kept out still which if we doe not who knows how soon the enemie may rush in upon us but alas we harbour these traytors in our bosomes I protest against every man that habours sin in his own house or soul that he is a traytor to the Kingdom whatsoever he be if I knew the man I would fasten mine eyes on him and tell him Oh thou vile Achan doest thou harbour these sins and traytors and keep these sins and then cry out of the dangerousnesse of the times If a man did know certainly that the dogge that he keepes in his house would one day pull out his throate would he keep him fatte that he might the better doe it no sure he would rather hang him Or if a man did know that the fire that burnes upon the hearth would burne him would he blow it or if a man did know that the knife which he hath would one day cutte his throate would he sharpen it no surely Beloved this is the case of all us poor wretches that live in sinne they will be the cause of all the punishments that God sends upon us all Now therefore I charge you all men and women and every one of you to make a Covenant and enter into an oath and a curse to search out every sin and find them out in your families wife and children and servants and do what you can to quench them These Townes and Countreys are on fire O that the Lord would be pleased to send his word home to every one of your hearts you I meane that I love as well as mine own soule my deare people I would spend and be spent for you if God would give me strength and though I speak plaine it is for your everlasting good What are those punishments that he threatned to poure upon them in the furie of his wrath He poureth full battails and the strength of battails all this was upon his own deare people Israel even those people the Lord so severely threatens Hence observe this Doctrine That the Lord oftentimes brings fearful and unavoydable judgements and punishments even upon his own professing people even they that offer sacrifice and that pray and call him Father and fast and pray even upon these people he doth often times bring these punissiments Amos 3. 2. You onely have I known among all the Nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities See the whole currant of Gods word did not the Lord punish the Children of Israel in the time of their Judges they had many sore enemies as Eglon and Sisera The ten Tribes they sinned and were carried into captivity and these were Gods professing people And afterward the other two Tribes Judah and Benjamine were carried away captive into Babylon and there they were seventy years Forty yeares after Christs time the Romans came against them and burnt all their Cities And these were Gods own professing people The Churches of Asia were famous Churches but now they are overthrowne with Turkes Now our sins give God just cause to make him come against us with punishments and
judgements upon this Land If a man lie sick and they see death in his face they call it the foretelling signe so the Ministers of God may foresee the death and destruction of a Kingdome I am sure we have better grounds then the Physicians can have And therefore why may not the Ministers which are Gods Physicians doe it The signes of Gods punishments that are coming upon us are these The first is of Gods Ministers which with one voice doe foretel judgements to come Then this is a signe that God hasteneth to battel Amos 3. 7. Surely the Lord will doe nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the Prophets but especially when they agree all in one thing then the Kingdom is dangerously gone Luke 1. 70. The Lord giveth one mouth as he spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets I will say nothing in this but let me appeale to your consciences whether all good Ministers in the Church of England have not declared by Gods word that judgements are coming out against this Land and us for many yeares together And as our Saviour saith Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in beaven Secondly when sinnes of all sorts doe abound frequently and with a bold face and whorish forehead For when the harvest is ripe then cometh so many sickles to cut it down so when the sinnes of a Kingdome are ripe then it is time to cut that Kinddome down Genes 6. 12. The earth was filled with violence all flesh had corrupted their wayes therefore make an Arke for the end of all flesh is come God will wash away their filthinesse Consider whether it be not thus with England or no. Was ever drunkennesse and blasphemie and scoffing at religion and prophaning Gods Sabbaths nay liberty given so to do was it ever come to that height that now it is were ever great ones as Bishops and Ministers so defiled as now they are our Land hath often been overcome when men were grown desperately wicked then they were destroyed Now what sinnes what blasphemies what hating of God lyeth raging in our times I think there is none in this Congregation but sees and heares how City and Countrey are venomed and benumned and defiled with sinnes of all sorts Thirdly when the devill and wicked men cast bones of dissention that is a signe of ruine When there was a dissention between Rehoboam and the people then God pulled away ten Tribs and much bloud was shed So when King and Commons and all are divided Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim but both against Judah then it is a fearfull signe that that Nation shall be destroyed I say to apply this if ever a Kingdome were divided then this is if we could all accord then we might expect something but now our best bloud is gone and our hearts are gone the Lord in mercie raise us up from dead ashes O consider this I beseech you and lay it to heart Will God deceive his Ministers and make them all blindfold no no. When God puts his Spirit into his Ministers and makes them all with one mouth to call and cry desolation and when all manner of sinnes so fearfully abound and when there is such divisions in the State then let us look for desolation Fourthly the fourth signe of Gods anger on a Nation is when all the hearts of men faile then it is a signe that vengeance is at the door when there is a kinde of Cowardise through the guilt of the conscience Josh 2. 11. It was a certaine signe of destruction when the peoples hearts failed them thus it is with every man almost amongst us every mans heart is faint and sick Iudges 7. 13. When Gideon was to goe against the Midianites being a wonderfull Army one dreamed that a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host and overthrew them Then Gideon said be of good courage for I see that the Lord hath given them into our hands because their hearts were feareful so he took three hundred men and put a trumpet in every mans hand with empty pitchers and lamps and they cried the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and in the twelfth verse see what followed All the host ran and cried and fled Even so it is with us we faint upon every occasion Gods spirit is gone from England While Sampson had the Spirit of God upon him he was too hard for the Philistins but when the Spirit of God was gone from him he had no heart no spirit no courage then every man was too hard for him and then he was taken and had his eyes pulled out So when the Spirit of God was with this Nation we had courage and got the day but now alas every slavish Nation is too hard for us and every bug-beare scares us O poore England heavy is thy case therefore we may expect nothing but miserie one way or another Now I might set down a Comment or Theame with many teares for this cause that every one may reade his own destruction from this point I am not a Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet but from the word of the Lord I speak this thing unto you and upon these grounds I can say so That where these signes are destruction and calamities follow at the heeles of them We having all these signes in our State certainely destruction is at our heeles therefore let me giue you some directions what to doe in these dangerous times First let every man knock off the love of the world of houses of lands and corne and flockes they shortly shall leave thee or thou them O therefore cast them quite out of thy heart I would to God I could bring my heart and yours to this pitch that we could give wife and children and all as lost I confesse it is hard so to doe but God will fire us out shortly from these things if we part not from them in these our deepest afflictions Ier. 45. 5. Baruch was so much glued to the world that he began to feather his nest and therefore the Prophet said seekest thou great things for thy selfe seeke them not for behold I will bring evill upon all flesh So let me say to you as the Prophet said to Gehazi Is it now a time to build Therefore at night when thou goest to bed take thy leave of thy wife and children and of thy houses and all and say this house may be mine enemies before the morning or may be set on fire this is not my wife these are not my children As Doctor Taylor said when he was going to his execution when he saw his wife and children he embraced them and blessed them in the name of the Lord and set them down again and made no bones of them and so do you pluck away your hearts from all these things here below and give them all for lost Secondly get divine submission to the will of God let thy heart be