endeavouring the repressing of Sin and propagation of Piety so to look back signifies a withdrawing our Affections and Endeavours from it and a relinquishing this so glorious and commendable an Enterprize And in speaking of this I shall briefly take notice 1st of the Persons and 2dly Of the Temptations inducing to this sinful Retrospection And in the first place as to the Persons I cannot but briefly remark with a melancholy Reflection that not only vast Numbers who are engag'd by the awful Obligations of Baptism have no more sense of their Duty and Interest than if they had been brought up in a Land of Darkness Not only great Multitudes hear the Gospel every day and themselves also read the Holy Scriptures and yet they are to 'em as a Book seal'd they neither feel nor understand their Power and Life But also there are others who have had a sight and sense of their Duty have been under Convictions and taken up Resolutions for Heaven and Eternity and yet all their Purposes like Ephraim's Righteousness have been but as a morning Dew which is presently consum'd with the heat of the next approaching Temptation And this is very sadly to look back after we have set our Hands to the Plough when we have felt the warmings of the Divine Spirit in our Hearts the incubations of the Holy Ghost brooding on our Souls in order to bring forth the Image of God in a state of renewed Holiness when we have made some advances in Piety and have begun in the Spirit yet after all to end in the Flesh this is miserably to look back from our Employment and solemn Engagement But 2dly to carry on my Application You Gentlemen who have promis'd to become the Servants of Jesus Christ not only by the Vow of your Baptism but also by the Rules of those Religious Associations into which you are engag'd to encourage one another to walk as becomes the Gospel and to declare your selves the Opponents to Vice and Ungodliness and to repress Profanation Debauchery and Excess within your sphere and knowledg by endeavouring to give Life and Vigour to those good Laws which our Pious Legislators have establish'd for this End Consider you have put your Hand to the Plough of God for 't is his Cause that you are engag'd in and if upon the account of some little opposition you withdraw your Assistance or stop in your Duty this is the looking back here intimated in the Text. I beg Gentlemen I may not be mistaken as if I was afraid you were weary of that good Work which you have set your Hands unto and were about to relinquish it my Discourse proceeds from another Design namely That by shewing the great Mischief which must attend your forsaking this Cause I might the more effectually recommend it to your Selves and perswade Others to engage in it and encourage your Zeal to all the prudential and vigorous Methods which are needful for its Prosecution But yet since 't is not impossible but some who have set their Hands to this good Work may look back may flag in their Diligence and cool in their Affections I shall briefly take notice of some of the Temptations tending to it and these fall under one or the other of these 3 Heads 1st Fear 2dly Shame 3dly Sloth 1st Fear When a Person that has not first sat down and counted the Cost what it will stand him in to be the Soldier of Jesus Christ and what degree of Valour and holy Resolution it requires to fight in this glorious Cause and to labour in this Work that he must be sincere and impartial not afraid of the Reproaches of the Small or the Frowns of the Great or any diminution of his temporal Interest when such a Person finds that the Cause he has undertook may eclipse his Profit and that there is indeed greater Opposition than he expected then he begins to faint and to chill in his Warmth and to find excuses for his Recession But let such consider that St. John tells us That the Fearful as well as the Vnbelieving shall have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21.8 i. e. Such who faint in the spiritual Warfare and have not courage enough to stand up for the Cause of Jesus Christ in opposition to the Conveniencies and Friendships of the World such are unfit for the Kingdom of God And as Solomon observes That the fear of Man bringeth a Snare Prov. 29.25 a Snare on the Conscience and an intangling hindrance to religious Duties so He that ventures upon the displeasure of God rather than Man or whom sordid apprehensions of worldly loss or the breach of carnal Friendship or the browbeatings of the Powerful can beat off from his Work such a Person does hereby render himself unfit for that blessed Sentence of Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. For he that cannot venture himself on the Cause of Christ Jesus and whose Faith is too feeble to shore him up from sinking under the fear of Men such a Person is a miserable Bondman to the World how fair soever his pretensions may be to Regeneration and Holiness of Life But Beloved I believe and hope better things of you and things that accompany a zeal of Sincerity and a vigorous prosecution of your glorious Undertaking 2dly Shame is another Temptation to induce Men to look back It has been the chiefest Policy of Satan ever since God has in wonderful Mercy unto his Church been pleas'd to stop the violence of his Rage and Persecution to oppose Religion by Scoffs and Mockings at those that will not still remain his Vassals And our Age and Nation has been so unhappily exercised by this stratagem of Hell that one would be tempted to think that the Prophecy of St. Peter look'd at these Days 2 Pet. 3.3 Knowing this that there shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts For how has Holiness of Life been ridicul'd and the Power of Godliness and the Life of the the Spirit and a state of Conversion and Regeneration been made the subject of impious Derision and scornful Reproach insomuch that Some have been even asham'd to own themselves so good as they really were for fear that some name of Ignominy and Contempt would be cast upon them And indeed I do not find any Opposition greater than this to balk you in the way of your vertuous procedure But to counterpoise this remember that you are engag'd to own the Cause of a Crucified Jesus of him that was number'd among the Transgressors and who endured the Cross and despised the Shame and if you have not constancy enough to bear a little Reproach for the sake of our great Master and to be contented to undergo the name of Informers and busy Fellows or such who make a noise to get your selves a Name if you cannot patiently endure the Reproaches of the Agents of Hell
I must acknowledg my performance has been by far too mean to recommend so glorious a Work And having thus given an Account of the Occasion of this Discourse I shall only add That after this Design was begun by Members of the Church of England be it spoken to their greatest commendation and praise many Dissenters did join with them and have been very zealous and vigorous in prosecuting this GREAT END without the least animosity or jarring about the unhappy difference that lies between us May the great and good God in his due time close up our Breaches and make us all sensible that Real Holiness is the only Badg of True Christianity And now Gentlemen I come to address my self to you who are Members of those truly honourable Societies for the Reformation of Manners It 's a particular Instance of Divine Love as well as a Mark of Immortal Honour that the Almighty has conferr'd upon you that he has stirr'd up that noble Zeal in you to endeavour to stop the notorious Profaneness and Wickedness of the Age in which we live It being an Vndertaking so just in its Design so commendable in its End that it carries before it in the plainest Characters That it came down from God and as I hope it 's a chearful Instance notwithstanding our great degeneracy that the Almighty has not abandon'd us as altogether incorrigible to Judgment and Ruin So I pray it may not be the last effort of Divine Admonition trying if we will by these Methods be reclaim'd and render our selves capable of the Favours we desire Or if it be That it may not be rendered fruitless either by a general Contempt cast upon it and so this holy Fire be quench'd by an overflowing general flood of Impiety or else by your growing weary and cooling in your Zeal and fainting in your Work and thereby give occasion to the Children of Wickedness not only to triumph over you but over Religion it self and so open a door to those terrible Judgments to seize upon us which we have too much cause to fear as the consequence of our Sins The design of this Discourse is to prevent the latter and the Justice Honour and Goodness of your Vndertaking having been so well justified by my Reverend Brethren who have gone before me and whose Discourses are made publick I thought I could not insist on a more proper Subject than to recommend the continuance of your Zeal in this so good a Work which you have undertaken And to what has been delivered in the ensuing Pages on this account I shall only add That it had been much better you had never set about this glorious Work if you shall at last fall back and desist from it since nothing can more amate the spirit of Piety or encourage Vice than your declining and sinking from a Cause which you have so openly espous'd and by so many Overt-Acts avow'd I write Gentlemen to you conjunctly and to every particular Member of your Societies severally and therefore am not solicitous if any should take an impious occasion to burlesque the Comparison or ridicule the Application of it taken from so low an imployment as that of the Plow since the plainness and closeness of the Similitude as well as the Authority of Him that gave it cannot displease any that are not Atheists or that contemn not the Wisdom of the Blessed Jesus the Author of it I acknowledg that some do undervalue your Vndertaking by urging the meanness of it in allowing 't is true that it 's a good Work to suppress the abominable sin of Cursing and Swearing of profaning the Lord's Day and Houses of Disorder c. which are too numerous about this City But what 's all this to the rooting out of that spirit of Selfishness which is broken loose among us that Bribery and Corruption that has almost eaten out the Vitals of the Nation and which are the blackest symptoms of approaching Destruction To which I answer I wish there were no occasion for this irregular Objection and I daily pray that the Lord may pour forth a publick Spirit upon us that we may not answer the Character which he gives of the last days That Men shall be lovers of themselves but that such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a generous Love to our dear Countrey may be rais'd up in the Hearts of all in Authority of all that are intrusted with the administration of publick Affairs that every Man may prefer the publick Interest before his own and that all who wear the badg of Power may be Persons answering Jethro's Character Men of Truth hating Covetousness But since it 's allow'd even by the Objectors That it 's a good Work which you are engag'd in altho it does not reach all the Ends that they desire therefore surely 't is your Honour your Interest and Duty to be zealously affected in so good a thing And who knows but that God may be pleas'd seeing you sincere and zealous in his Cause where it lies within the verge of your Power in suppressing Vice to bless us in suppressing by the Acts of his more immediate Providence those Disorders which are so far out of your reach which are so destructive unto our common National Interest I am sure it 's the only way to avert Judgments and obtain Mercies to repress Sin and in doing our duty where we can we may expect Assistance and a Divine Hand to help us in those things where we cannot There are other Objectors who urge That you move in a Sphere that you are not plac'd in and that you stretch your selves to a Line beyond your Measure since you meddle in what concerns publick Officers But I hope the ensuing Discourse may help to convince such that every Man is concern'd in the common cause of Vertue and is listed as a Soldier to fight the Lord's Battels And as to others who oppose you by Scorns and Derision they must be such who by their Lives are contrary to the regular Courses you endeavour to inforce whose Mouths must and I hope shortly will be stopt Since therefore you are engag'd in a field of the greatest Honour in a Cause so beneficial to the Souls of Men hereafter and to their Bodies here May the great God inspirit you with Zeal with Prudence and Industry consonant to your worthy Design This is the Prayer of Gentlemen Your most humble Servant and Welwisher J. Russell Luke ix 62. No Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God THE Service of Jesus Christ and the Work of Religion is a Business of that Honour and mighty Importance that it deserves our most sedulous and constant Endeavours and commands a most strict adherence to it from all its Professors It requires of all those that engage in it a resolution to persevere and go thrô all its Stages and to hold on to the end of its Journey and to think
and put off the time And a 3d seeming willing to be his Disciple yet would excuse himself from the immediate attendance on his Service Lord I will follow thee but let me first bid them farewel which are at home To whom our Lord replies in the words of the Text No Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God i.e. No Man having engag'd himself to my Service and after turning back to his secular Concerns with a regard had first to those is fit for the Kingdom of God The words are allegorical pressing a constancy to the Service of Christ from the diligence of him that tills the Ground As if our Lord had said He that holds the Plough must keep to his Business not look behind him or neglect his Work to trifle about other things that come into his head if he does he 's unfit for such an Imployment as requires a constant attendance on it So those that enter into my Service they must put on Resolution and not make vain and trifling Excuses to return back to the Affairs of the World but be constant and sedulous otherwise they are not qualified to be my Disciples and so by consequence are unfit for the Glories of my Kingdom which are only design'd as the blessed Rewards of the sincerely Faithful and constantly Laborious The Text appears to be a severe Reproof levell'd against the coldness and negligent carriage of too many who profess to be Disciples of Jesus Christ who having engag'd themselves by their Character and Vows by their Office and Order by their Profession and Pretensions to be his Followers to espouse the Cause of Religion and Piety and the Interest of Holiness and yet after all these solemn Declarations by a sad Tergiversation return to the World and the things thereof and to a remiss and loose state of Life And like Lot's Wife by Sodom tho they were once by themerciful hand of convincing Grace brought out of that supine and sinful Condition in which by Nature they lay after all those Enlightnings and Lectures of their own Consciences do return again like the Dog to his Vomit to their former Corruptions or at least with longing Desires and incurved Hearts look back to that state which will become a Prey to Fire and Brimstone In speaking therefore on this Subject I shall endeavour to do these following things I. To shew what it is to put our Hands to the Plough II. To shew what it is to look back III. To shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good a Work which is That such Persons are not fit for the Kingdom of God I. For the first What it is to put our Hands to the Plough Since our Lord himself is pleas'd to make use of this so plain and homely a Metaphor I hope it cannot savour of Clownishness or Rusticity to follow his Example and since he applies it to those who make a Profession of being his Disciples and afterwards withdraw themselves from his Service I am sure it 's safe and easy too to follow such an Expositor The Plough we know is an Instrument of Husbandry and they that hold it render the Ground fit for Seed and this apply'd spiritually signifies all those that labour to make the World fit to bring forth fruits of Peace that strive to reform the deplorable state of Mankind and to render Mens Hearts capable to receive the Seed of the Word To put our hands to the Plough therefore is to declare against Sin and the Kingdom of Satan and to act against it in our Station It is to engage in the service of Jesus Christ to endeavour to render the Church fruitful of good Works 't is to commence an holy Warfare against the state of Darkness to suppress Vice and encourage Holiness and to do what in us lies to carry on the Cause and Interest of Religion 'T is with an holy Zeal and an undauntedness of Mind to make opposition against that torrent of Vice which is breaking in upon the face of the Church and not only to reform our selves and bring our own Lives into a conformity to the Divine Pleasure but also strenuously endeavour to reform others to break up that Soil which is crusted over with a Callus of Sin and to render it fit for the ingrafted Word of the Gospel to enter 'T is in a word publickly to espouse the Cause and Honour of Religion and to give a check to the growing Progress of the Synagogue of Satan And since the Church of God in holy Scripture is compar'd to a Field as our Lord himself delivers it in that Parable Mat. 13. of the Wheat and the Tares let us consider how much every particular Person is concern'd in the Tillage and Cultivation of it in order that a bountiful Crop of Righteousness may be brought forth to the Glory of God and the Salvation of those that labour in this holy Imployment 1st Every Man by Nature is a barren Ground in which only the Seeds of Sin spring up and fructify to the dishonour of God and destruction of himself And since by that infinite Love of God in giving Jesus Christ and contracting with us on conditions of Love he has render'd us capable of bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance and reaping as the effect of such a gracious Harvest eternal Life And since on our entring into this contract of Peace I mean the Covenant of the Gospel we have sworn to our great Master to become his Subjects and Servants to labour in his Vineyard to be diligent in his Work the neglect and breach of which awful Vow will terminate in Destruction Every one therefore that is baptized into Christ and has put on Christ and has received the Seal of the Covenant of Grace confirm'd by our Redeemer between God and Us has put his Hand to the Plough He has vowed himself to be the obedient Servant of Jesus Christ and has declar'd himself an irreconcileable Enemy to all Ungodliness he has promis'd according to the Prophet Jer. 4.3 To break up the fallow Ground of his Heart and not to sow among Thorns and agreeable to Hosea 10.12 To sow to himself in Righteousness and thereby to reap Mercy to break up the fallow Ground since it's time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon him But 2dly Since we are not design'd by our great Creator for our selves alone but made for Society and therefore for the Good and Comfort of others And since in this regard there must be a discrimination of Persons in respect of Superiority and Inferiority it will be fit to consider how far we have put our Hand to this good Work in the behalf of others and who those are that are more particularly concern'd in it And in doing this I shall briefly consider the three great Divisions into which all Men are rank'd
the way in which he is walking whither it tends and where 't will end that he 'd not rush into the Gulph of everlasting Destruction thro' folly and incogitancy but consider the Weight of Eternity the Worth of his Soul and the Love of God and the Value of Heaven and the dreadful State of Eternal Vengeance and that he 'd labour earnestly to obtain the one and avoid the other And this is a Duty which we owe to Mankind both as we are of the same Nature and as we are commanded by the Divine Word Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him And so St. Paul Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day And in another place let us provoke one another to Love and to good Works And farther We are not only to Perswade our Neighbours and to use all the Methods of Love and Kindness to engage them to their Duty but also since some are so abominably vicious that nothing but the terror and punishment of the Magistrate can restrain them from the open violation of the Law of God therefore it 's the Duty of every Man to detect Such unto the Magistrate that where the Force of Perswasion cannot prevail there the Power of the Sword may restrain And that 't is our Duty thus to discover all such Persons who are the Open and Notorious Opposers of Piety and endeavour to bring upon them legal Inflictions not only appears from the nature of the thing but also from a consideration of that general Duty which lies upon us to labour for the support of the Kingdom of Christ and the suppression and destruction of the Power of Satan And since there are Many so deplorably wicked that the whole Bent and Stream of their Conversation is scandalous and vicious offensive to God destructive to Themselves and pernicious to Others Therefore every Man is bound in Conscience to God and in Honour to Vertue to make such Persons publick Examples by labouring to inflict those Penalties upon them which our good and wholsom Laws have determined 'T is our great happiness that we live under a Government where Iniquity is so far from being established by a Law or so much as left Neutral that 't is not only forbidden but also punished But our Laws are nothing but dead Letters and Justice holds but a wooden Sword without execution for 't is that which is the Life of the Law it self and the Honour of that People which enjoy such wholesom Constitutions And since Magistrates to whom the execution of our Laws are committed cannot do it without information of the Persons and Crimes of Offenders therefore 't is every Man's Duty as he tenders the Honour of God and the Glory of the Gospel the Increase of the Church and the Good of the Weal-Publick and as He would not be a partaker of other Mens Sins in hiding and concealing them to detect such as openly and commonly affront the Majesty of God and the Authority of Man by notorious Vices and those scandalous Impieties which make us stink in the Nostrils of the Almighty and bring down his Plagues and Judgments upon us But this Point having been formerly so well prov'd in this place and on this occasion in former Discourses I shall therefore proceed towards a conclusion of the first head of the Text That Magistrates by their Power Ministers by their Office and every Christian by his Character as such has put his Hand to the Plough of God has given in his Name as a Labourer in the Field of the Church of Christ in order to root out the Weeds of Impiety and to sow and cherish the good Seed of Grace that we may all grow up to Eternal Life But besides all this more particularly God has stirr'd up the Hearts of Some in and about this Great City whose Numbers God of his Mercy increase and whose Zeal God of his Goodness augment who have united themselves in Religious Fraternities for the more effectual carrying on of This Glorious and never to be enough commended Work of giving a check to Vice and reforming if possible the corrupt and depraved Manners of the unhappy Age in which we live And You who are enter'd into this Noble Design whose Hearts God has more especially touch'd with a sense of your Duty You have in a more than ordinary manner put your hand to the Plough And to encourage you in it I shall truly affirm that this Work and the Undertakers of it are the great springing Glory of our Church and a comfortable Testimony that God has not utterly left us off to Judgment This is a Design worthy of Men as we are the Image of God and worthy of Christians as we are the Disciples of Jesus Christ 'T is the Cause of God that you have undertaken in opposition to the Devil and the Cause of Vertue in opposition to Vice and of Religion in opposition to Atheism 'T is an Enterprize that is every way praise-worthy and I may speak it with a sufficient degree of Reverence 'T is worthy of God to own and Men to prosecute and I hope it 's carried on by Means that are agreeable unto the noble End which it designs And certainly no Man can oppose it or become an Enemy unto it that does not first by his own Life render himself obnoxious to it But now my Brethren if after you have thus begun in a Divine Work and have increas'd your Numbers and diffus'd your Design throughout the Parts of this mighty City and you have seen many good Fruits of these your Endeavours In cleansing many Augean Stables of Lust and Filthiness In making many who made no conscience of profaning the Name of God to set a bar before their Lips In repressing the Disorders which are too frequently committed on the Lord's Day And in charity one may hope of bringing several to a sense of their Sin and to a sincere Repentance and to bless the Almighty for this your Undertaking Now if after all this Satan should become so mischievously successful as to stifle your Zeal and to baffle you in your Work by the little Mocks Scoffs and Taunts of those that are his Agents If you faint at the opposition that you must expect to meet with from the Frowns of Some and the Threats of Others If this beat you out of the Field into which you have entred in order to work It would not only be a sad Omen of your own Spiritual Decay but be also a great Discouragement unto Others and would give the greatest blow unto the Cause of Religion by adding the Trophies and Ensigns of Success to the black Triumphs of the Prince of Darkness But this I shall farther insist on in the next part of the Text which is II. To shew what 't is to look back As the putting our Hand to the Plough intends the ingaging our selves in the Cause and Interest of Holiness and
and the Lies and Scandals they will cast at your Doors if you faint at this Trial as Syracides says your Strength is small And if this should induce any Member to look back let him be afraid of being hereby made unfit for the Kingdom of God for remember what our Lord tells us Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be asham'd of me and of my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be asham'd when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels 3dly Sloth may be another inducement to look back For He that applies himself to this good Work with that fitness which it requires ought to be a Person of Industry and Diligence he must dedicate some part of his time for fighting the Lord's Battels against the publick Goliahs of the Armies of Hell he ought to appear personally in the Cause that he has undertook and not think it enough that he has been a Contributor towards the Charge of this glorious Fabrick of Reformation For tho I do not question but that every Penny that 's bestowed on this Account is as true Charity as feeding the Hungry or clothing the Naked and has also in it something of an excellency far beyond it as a Compassion on Mens Immortal Souls does exceed the pity that 's exprest to their Bodies yet I cannot chuse but deliver my Judgment in this matter altho it should happen to be contrary to the Sentiments of some here present That the poorest Member of these Societies who by a personal endeavour labours in this Work who sacrifices his Time and Pains at this Altar his Offering is greater and he casts in more to his Corban than they who of their abundance bestow many Pounds yearly Not that I blame no I commend the One but I highly praise and extol the Other and I do it in order to give all possible Encouragement to a personal zealous and avowed Prosecution of this Heroick Undertaking Lastly To conclude this Point I shall add a word to encourage to an exemplary Holiness of Life And this if You who have undertaken to be the Patrons of Vertue and supporters of Piety shall fail in if you shall sink down from your exalted Post to the Temptations of the World and be taken in the snares of Vice and Dishonesty this will be such a Tergiversation as must not only be satal to your selves but also to your Design and will cast the blackest Cloud on the honest and sincere endeavours of those that are join'd with you It will open a Door to all the foul Reproaches that Hell can invent and the Agents thereof inject upon you which will not only fall with the greatest weight on the Heads of the Guilty but will also affect those that are Innocent It therefore becomes every one that is engag'd in this Holy Work to walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise considering the Eagle Eyes of all your Adversaries await your steps and nothing can give them such an occasion of impious Joy as your stumbling and faultering at the same Stones which you endeavour to remove and this will indeed be the worst sort of looking back which possibly you can commit Be therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves And as glorious Designs must be managed with the highest Prudence in order to secure 'em from the reproaches of their Enemies so let this be attended with a Wisdom and Circumspection agreeable to it such as your Adversaries cannot gainsay or resist And to obtain this be instant in Prayer that That Great God whose Cause you have undertaken would give a particular Blessing in directing every Member so to walk that you may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a perverse and crooked Generation among whom ye shine as Lights in the World and as Patterns of Piety Humility and Meekness and every thing that is praise-worthy III. I come now to the last part of the Text which is to shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good an Employment Which is that such Persons who look back are not fit for the Kingdom of God And having already in my former Discourse given frequent hints of this I shall be very brief on this Topick that I may oppress your Patience no longer In order to which I will not inlarge what is here meant by the Kingdom of God in regard the sense is obvious to every Capacity it signifying the Enjoyment of all that Happiness which Jesus has purchased and is gone into Heaven to prepare for his Church and People And as those who are not fit for the Glories of this Kingdom do not only miss of Happiness but fall into Misery so That shews something more than the loss of Heaven there 's an implication of the Punishment of Hell The loss therefore of Eternal Life and the Condemnation to everlasting Vengeance must strike Terror one very one that considers the worth of his never-dying Soul and what 't is to undergo the Wrath of God for ever and ever But yet this must kindle a greater fire of Torment in the Consciences of Some than of Others for he that never had the Means of Salvation or on whom they never came with Power and Efficacy the Reflections of Such can never be so bitter so sharp and stinging as of Those who have had the clearer discoveries of Divine Light and Love And therefore for such who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come if They fall away it 's not only impossible to renew them again by Repentance but also to render their Condemnation half so tolerable as of those who had never those participations Consider therefore You who have put your Hands to the Spiritual Plough in order to cultivate both your selves and others if you after both the Vow of your Baptism inward Conviction and outward Profession and a more than ordinary obliging your selves to the Service of Christ Jesus If You look back of all Persons in the World you are most unfit for the glorious Kingdom The Backslider in Heart says Solomon shall be filled with his own Ways Prov. 14.14 i. e. shall reap the fruits of his own Folly But as I hope you have well consider'd the weight of the Work which you have undertook so I trust your Perseverance in it will become a Pattern to succeeding Times and other Places And that your Zeal your Wisdom and Prudence will be still more and more Illustrious and fit you for the love of all good Men here and for greater than ordinary degrees of Glory hereafter And agreeable hereunto this Observation shall shut up my Discourse That as he that looks back is unfit so he that goes on and prosecutes his Work that has an eye of Resolution looking forward on his Duty such a Person is thro' Jesus Christ fit for the Favour and Kingdom of God And your being Such will add to your Crown another day and will advance you above the common Blessing of Heaven and of eternal Life your Zeal and Constancy will be rewarded with a double Portion of everlasting Glory For the God that you serve is not unrighteous to forget your Works and labours of Love but will be a Master of the greatest bounty in liberally requiting all your diligent and faithful Services And that you may All be set down in the number of those that have endured to the End and have finished your Work with Joy and Faithfulness This the Almighty grant by the Assistance of his Holy Spirit thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS