my trust Why this is it that the Lord will so second my labours with you that you may hear and trust that you may strive and trust that whilst I strive with you you may be brought to it to strive every one of you with your own hearts putting your trust in the Lord. So shall you find in your experiences that this life of trust will be a life of tryumph over all your weaknesses doubts and fears How Christ helps us to persevere which should next come to be spoken of will appear in the next particular and therefore I pass it by here 2. For the helping us through the sufferings that we shall meet with in his ways Christ must be trusted here for these two things 1. To help us in what we are to do with respect to a suffering state 2. To perform what he hath undertaken to do for his suffering People 1. To help us in what we are to do with respect to a suffering state There are 4. things that you your selves are to do to prepare you for a suffering state 1. You must give up your selves and all that you have to be disposed of by him at his pleasure Say of your selves I am his own say of all that you have all is Christs As Christ hath said of himself and all that he hath 1 Cor. 3.22 All is yours so say you of your selves and all that you have all is thine Lord this House and these Lands and this Money all is thine I give thee the full right to it all Say you so and be willing that he should say as in the Parable Mat. 20.15 May I not do with mine own what I please If I leave it to thee to enjoy or if I give it to Strangers for a spoil and a booty 't is mine own and I may bestow it where ever I please Say not only as the Psalmist Psal 119.94 I am thine save me but I am thine afflict me bring me low take from me whatever thou wilt all that I have is thine 't is at thy command 't is at thy service call for it and use it at thy pleasure if thou order it for the Spoilers to the Spoilers let it go let them strip me naked and share it amongst themselves if the Lord will have it so 2. You must keep you fast by Christ and sit loose from all things else Give your selves to Christ and cleave unto Christ do not say I am thine and then go a gadding and wandring after Strangers Stick fast to Christ be able to say Ps 119.31 I have stuck to thy Testimonies I have stuck to the Lord and I will stick to thee I am thine and nothing shall separate between me and thee stick to Christ and sit loose from all things else let not any thing thou hast given him stick to thy fingers nor let thine heart hanker after it You have Estates some of you you live in the favour and friendship of Men you have an esteem and repute among them but let not these be overmuch prized and valued by you You that have Estates be as if you had them not You that have Friends and their love and good will be as if you had none as the Apostle adviseth 1 Cor. 7.29 Never speak such a word I must keep mine Estate I cannot part with it I must keep my Friends I cannot disoblige them get your hearts so loose from all that if Christ should call you to such a bold owning of him as would sweep away all you have and leave you never a Penny nor never a Friend in all the World you could chearfully submit The sitting thus loose from all we have afore-hand would make it less grievous and less difficult when sufferings come to lose them all He whose heart cleaves to any thing so that he says This I cannot part with this will either part Christ and him or create him the more torment to part with it when he sees it must go Remember Lots Wife when called out of Sodom where she must leave all behind her her heart being left there and thereupon looking back as loth to depart she was smitten into a Pillar of Salt 3. Reckon upon nothing certain or sure to you under the Sun Do not think because you have kept all about you hitherto that you shall never lose it count upon it there may a necessity be laid upon you that all must be parted with Do not give your selves to Christ and all that you have in confidence that he will not take it or call for it away Possibly this may be the case of some they can easily say I give my self and all I have to Christ and for Him I am content to suffer the loss of all but 't is upon this confidence that they shall never be put to it They hope they may be Christians and yet never be call'd out to be suffering Christians they can easily pass away their right in hope that Christ will continue them in constant possession Think no such vain thought but what you give to Christ count upon it that Christ may send some or other to turn you out of Possession reckon upon it that you may be quickly in such a case wherein you may be put to it either to forsake Christ or actually to be spoiled of all that you have 4. Make sure of something of something that the greatest sufferings cannot prejudice you in or take away from you This is the goodness of God to his that whereas there is but one thing needful this one thing is certain Luk. 10.41 One thing is needful Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken from her There is but one thing needful and that one thing is certain That good part could never be taken from her To be totally undone and ruined is intolerable God never called any of his Servants to it nor ever will He never calls for so much but he still leaves them something which he would not have them part with They are only the Damned in Hell whose case this is they have lost all and have nothing left them There is something for you to get and keep which will be sure to you O get the Lord God to be your Portion get Christ to be your Inheritance get you sanctified Grace get an upright heart and a good Conscience and make them sure Christians you cannot possibly be able to bear the loss of all things unless you may have this something left Make Christ sure make your title to everlasting glory sure get Integrity and Uprightness a good Conscience an holy Conversation to be sure evidences of your title charily preserve and maintain these evidences and then the worst Enemies you have either in Earth or Hell can never undoe you no nor leave you in a worse case than you are If you should lose your Estates all your Friends yea and your life to boot you are no losers whilst you can but
done Now this is your way to level your accounts concerning your sins to repent and amend all your evils and to sue out your pardon through Faith in the bloud of Christ And now you see what 't is to lay hold on God to continue his presence with us by casting away our Idols by laying hold on his Covenant by recovering into Communion getting into an holy acquaintance with God living so that you will both accept of God and be accepted with him maintaining a frequent entercourse betwixt the Lord and your souls letting him hear often from you and listening and longing to hear as often from him by keeping even reckonings betwixt the Lord and you keeping a reckoning of your mercies and a reckoning of your sins by levelling your accounts by walking worthy of your mercies by getting the scores of your sins crossed washed away by repentance and pardoned by the bloud of Christ Here 's that you have to do if you would take hold of God and continue his presence with you Friends is the Lord within you I hope he is in many of you would you that he abide and continue with you I know you would you that are Christians I know you would all say Wo to me if the Lord depart from me I know it is the desire of every sincere heart among you let the Lord dwell in me and walk in me as he hath said he will let Christ dwell in mine heart by faith Lord leave me not take not thy Holy Spirit from me if all the Friends I have in the world forsake me if all the comforts I have under Heaven fail me if mine house must go and mine estate go and my health go and my life go yet let not the Lord depart from me let the Lord still dwell in my soul dwell in me as my Teacher and Instructor dwell in me as my governour and my guide dwell in me as my portion and treasure dwell in me as my Refuge and Protector let but the Lord God continue with me and influence me by his Grace and quicken me by his Spirit and guide me by his Counsels and hold me by his Right Hand and lift up the light of his Countenance upon me and so long mine heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope in this hope that he will shew me the Path of Life I shall behold his Face in Righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with his Likeness Why is this your mind is this your desire that it may be thus with you why now you know what you have to do that it may be so Beloved you have much the more reason to hearken to these instructions and hereby to secure the continuance of the Lord in your own hearts in such a time as this wherein there are so many tokens of his being about to depart out of our Congregations to shut up the Doors of his House against us O how will it be if when the days shall come wherein we shall lose our opportunities of meeting the Lord in the Congregation how very sad will it be if we should in such a time not find him within us if the Word of the Lord should be thrust out from his House and the Spirit of the Lord should be withdrawn from our Hearts if with our publick communion we should lose our secret communion if instead of finding comfort in our retirements to God he should hide his Face from our Souls if instead of speaking comfortably he should speak roughly to us if this should be his Word to us in such a day Now see what thou hast done now remember thy wantonness and thy worldliness thy hypocrisie and thy backslidings and triflings out thy day of grace of these things thou hast been warned aforehand but wouldst not lay them to heart and now reap the fruit of thy folly think not to have countenance from me and comfort from me in the day of distress whom thou hast so mocked and slighted in thy prosperity If men be angry let them be angry if men will persecute let them persecute and look for no relief from me O what if the Lord should speak thus to any of your Souls in the days of darkness that may come how dreadful dark will it then be or what if he should say nothing but leave thee a blind and hardned and senseless Soul wasting away and growing worse and worse and not at all affected with his severe providences How if it should be thus O Friends that this may not be your case that God should depart from his House and your Souls together know that you are so much the more concerned to give special heed to the Instructions you have received for the laying such hold upon him that he may continue with your hearts if he should not be intreated but depart from his House and Congregations 4. Stirring Religion will take hold of God What might have been said to this is in great part prevented by what hath been said already yet something I shall add and shew 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 2. That stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 1. Negatively not headiness in Religion an hot and mistaken Zeal about the lower and more uncertain things of Religion not such a Spirit of Fire which was in those Disciples Luke 9.54 who would needs call for Fire from Heaven to destroy and consume those that were not Followers of them not a stirring up of strife and contention a making breaches and divisions and propagating of our own Opinions by censuring and judging those that are otherwise minded and are not in every thing according to our own Size Such as these are some of those perilous persons which the Apostle warns Christians not to imitate but to take heed of of whom he says 2 Tim. 3.2 they are Proud Boasters False Accusers or make-bates fierce despisers of them that are good heady highminded and after all their blustering against others have but a form of Godliness denying the power thereof from such says he turn away take heed of them and take heed of being leavened with such a Spirit This then this headiness and fierceness and hot censoriousness upon the account of Religion this is not the stirring Religion I mean 2. Positively An humble active lively zealous prosecuting or pursuing that which is Religion indeed or the substance of sincere Christianity Some vain ones there are who upon the hearing this headiness and fierceness this hot and mistaken zeal blamed and decryed will turn the edge of such Reproofs against Godly Zeal and all fervour and activity for God and every one that goes beyond the drowsie sleepy multitude of Professors is cried out against as one of these heady highminded ones Such is the craft of the Devil that if he cannot blow up coals of wildfire that under the pretence of kindling
The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Jesus Christ establish strengthen settle you We should every one of us prove unstable souls and shall never stand if the God of Grace do not stablish us we are every one of us weak souls and shall certainly fall and come to nothing if the God of grace do not strengthen and settle us And therefore we had need to pray and that earnestly every one of us the God of all grace stregthen me the God of all grace stablish and settle this my weak and unstable soul Hence also Christians are exhorted Rom. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast keep that good thing which is committed unto thee And so we had need every one of us to call upon our selves hold fast O my soul hold fast to Christ hold fast to Holiness hast thou gotten any Grace any sound Religion into thine heart Hold it fast that thou lose it not Our Candle will burn dim there is a Thief in the Candle which will wast it away if it be not carefully snuffed and look'd to Grace in the heart is as a spark of fire in the Hearth it will be cover'd over with Ashes if it be not kept continually blowing the rust will eat out our Gold the Moth will fret out our Garments the Thief will steal away our Treasure if it be not watchfully maintained O what Losses do many Christians actually suffer through their carelesness and negligence loss in their Love loss in their Life and Zeal and all their holy Affections that little good that is in them may grow to such a decay that it may be ready to dye and come to nothing and as their Grace which is their Life decays so their vital operations fail with it All their sensible and sweet communion with God will be hindred the warm and lively workings of their hearts upon God their thoughts and meditations on God their desires after Him their delights in the Lord the secret entercourses of love betwixt the Lord and them will much cease when grace flags Whilst grace is kept alive the thoughts of God will be many and precious Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them Their Meditations of him will be sweet a reviving and refreshing to their hearts Have you none of you sometimes found it so Have you not poured out your souls into his Bosom and felt the Lord pouring in his Wine and his Oyle into yours Have you not walk'd with him upon the Mount and sate down under his shadow with great delight and found his Fruits sweet to your tast Have you not sometimes rejoyc'd in his Presence and felt the joy of the Lord to be your strength And then O what Love hath streamed forth O what Praises have been sent up to His Blessed Name This if ever you have experienced such Blessed seasons hath been maintained from the life of Grace in you and according as Grace sinks or gathers rust and grows dim so doe not all your vital operations fail with it I need not spend time to prove that such sinking and decaying of our Spirits our Graces and the comfortable operations of them may be the experiences of Christians do too fully and too frequently yield us undeniable proofes 2. There may be outward decays decays in point of practise There may be a neglect of the duties of Prayer Hearing Meditation Examining and taking an account of our selves Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob thou hast been weary of me O Israel I can seldom hear of thee thou hast been a Praying People a Sacrificing People but thou art grown weary of my worship How seldom art thou found in thy Closet or in the Congregation Thou art become a very Stranger to those duties which once were thy delight Or if duties be performed yet the heart and the life of them may be lost their Sacrifices may be without an heart if they bring their Incense yet there may be no fire to kindle it dead Praying cold Praying must suffice them O how do our Spirits often freeze in those Devotions which should kindle a fire in us Some Mens duties serve for nothing but to keep them asleep and to keep Conscience quiet which if there should be a total neglect would flye in there faces and awaken them There may be a decay in their Conversations they may decline from a Spiritual to a Carnal conversation from an Heavenly to an Earthly Life Those that had once escaped the pollutions of the world may be again entangled in the world 2 Pet. 2.20 There may be a declining from a savoury useful to an unsavoury and unprofitable life the Salt of the Earth may have lost its savour those very Tongues whose speech was used to be with Grace seasoned with Salt Ministring Grace to the Hearers may either be dumb and speak nothing or else be employed to speak Vanity How long may we be in some Professors company e're we hear a savoury word from their lips or if any good does come how heartless and lifeless is it In what they do they move like Puppets in what they speak they speak like Parrots that which they have learn'd by rote but without any true sense of what themselves do speak Such decays as these both inward decays and outward decays may be grown upon Christians Such declining souls are a miserable Spectacle the reproach of the Gospel the disgrace of Religion that are more like Carkases or Ghosts than living souls Idol Christians that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Tongues and speak not Feet and walk not Such who if they have any thing of Religion in them no body in the world is like to have the benefit of it nor themselves the comfort of it They may be stark dead and dryed up at the roots they may be meer Chaff and Stubble for ought any body else or themselves either can say to the contrary These dry Trees how-ever they stand in the Vineyard they may stand there for Fuel for the fire and not for Fruit. Such miserable Spectacles are withering Professors and yet what multitudes of them are there to be seen Friends let us consider our selves with respect to the perticulars mentioned if we have not denyed the Faith and become down-right Infidels and Atheists if we believe God and the Gospel and the great and wonderful things of the world to come yet are there not many of us that have lost the sense of the weight and importance of those great things Have not the lean and ill-favoured Kine eaten up the fat ones Have not the thin and the blighted Ears smitten and destroyed the full ones Hath not this Earth and the businesses thereof choaked up some of our hearts and left little sense of God or Immortality upon us Particularly consider 1. Do we live as People that do verily believe we must shortly be in another world
he lived and as he would have them live they would not only that they may be blessed in Christ but that Christ may be pleased in them They never have their wills but when Christ hath his will of them It does not suffice me saith a Christian that I have hopes of getting to Heaven by Christ at last I must be more holy here I would live so that my ways may please Christ How can I bear it to be so unlike to him to be so often breaking out and breaking loose from him O that I might hold me close by Him that I might in my whole course please the Lord. I would fain be a more exact and perfect Christian All this the Apostle follows so hard after Phil. 3.12 Not as though I had already obtained or were already perfect but I follow after if I may apprehend Brethren this is as far forth as you are Christians and this should be the sum of your desires and aims to get as near as possible to an exact conformity to Christ both to his Image that as he was so you may be in this World and to his will that you may stand compleat in all the wills of Christ 3. Christians falling so much short of that holy conformity to Christ they desire do fall under many doubts and fears how they shall attain O how short do I fall of such an holy frame of such an holy and undefiled course When I look upon what I would be and what I am what a distance is there how far am I yet behind how hardly can I reconcile my loose and lazy heart to such a strict and holy course My untoward heart O how it slugs and hangs back and will not come on O how it boggles breaks loose how many a step doth it make out of this narrow into the broad way O how it lusts after the ease and liberties of the flesh and how often doth it turn aside from Christ to the vain ways and lying vanities of this present World When I would be totally conformed to the Law of Christ I find another Law in my members carrying me out to a compliance with the Law of Sin I am warping every day I am wandring in every duty I am apt to lose my self in every Company I come into in every business I set my self to I cant but look upon it as a comfortable thing and as a blessed thing if mine heart might be ever with the Lord if I could keep me close by his side and constantly under his eye What a mercy what a joy would it be but Woe is me I cannot obtain I have wished and hoped and prayed I have tryed and tryed and still I fall short O how little hope is there left that yet I shall obtain 4. Their trust in Christ is their help against all their discouragements and fears Dost thou say there 's no hope I shall not obtain To perfect conformity to Christ thou canst not but is there no hope of thy becoming a more eminent Christian than now thou art Rebuke that unbelieving thought with this word yet I trust in Christ I shall He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him Heb. 7.25 Not only to save them from wrath but to save them from sin to save them to the uttermost and to sanctifie them to the uttermost Do not say I cannot think how this weak slippery loose untoward heart I cannot think how it should ever come to be setled and fixed in such a severe and holy course do not say such a word Can'st thou not think how Yet he is able to do for thee abundantly above all that thou canst ask or think Eph. 3.20 His thoughts are not as thy thoughts his ways are not as thy ways the Lord Christ can over-do the thoughts of his People can do that for them which they never thought could be done yea and if thou wilt trust him he will do it Consider and study that Scripture Psal 37.5 Commit thy way to the Lord trust in Him and He will bring it to pass Thou hast many good things upon thine heart thou canst not take up with this poor and pittiful and in and out way of life that thou livest thou wouldst fain come to a more spiritual Heavenly active useful course of life This thou proposest to thy self this thou hast made some offers and attempts upon but thou canst not bring it to pass but still thou fallest short what shouldst thou now do why commit thy way to the Lord trust in Him and he shall bring it to pass and as v. 4. He shall give thee the desire of thine heart Christians I hope your hearts are set upon this holy conformity to Christ I hope you will not sit down by what you have already attained God forbid that that easie trifling way of Religion that is all that some of you have attained God forbid that this should satisfie you and I hope it does not I hope you are both wishing for and reaching towards a more strict and painful course Are you so hold on If you have prayed for it pray again pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 Never give over till you have it Have you tryed what you can do to mend your course and mend your pace Try again and again never sit down as discouraged but hold you on keep to the way of the Lord as you can keep you going keep striving and labouring with your hearts with your might and in so doing commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass do what you can through the grace already received and what you cannot trust in Christ and he will do it for you 'T is not an idle trust as I said before that I exhort you to such a trust as to save you the labour Never say I trust in Christ that he will work my work in me and for me and so cast off all care your selves 't is not an idle trust but a stirring trust an encourageing trust heartening you to the work Keep doing keep going keep striving towards a more holy serviceable life and then trust in Christ and he shall bring it to pass and give you your hearts desire Christians my hearts desire and prayer for you is that you may be saved I would fain help you to Heaven and that you might be presented by Christ to the Father without spot or wrinkle and in order hereto I would fain see more of the spirit of Christianity and the holy Image of Christ breathing forth and shewing it self more conspicuously in all your ways I study what I can to Preach so to you that my words may be effectual to bring you up to an higher pitch of Holiness and this is my encouragement my trust in the living God that my labours with you shall not be in vain I Pray and trust I Preach and trust I labour among you and trust and what is
keep Faith and a good Conscience Well now these 4. things you are your selves to do to prepare you for suffering Give your selves and all you have to Christ's dispose c. and then you are ready for the Cross then let the Devil and all his Armies fall on you are ready to receive their charge without giving an inch of ground But who can do all this or how shall I ever be able to come to it The first of these I hope you have done already If ye be Christians you have given your selves and all you have to Christ but how shall I do to keep me close to Christ to sit so loose from all things to make sure of Christ to maintain the testimony of a good Conscience and an holy Conversation Woe is me I am breaking loose from Christ at every turn I have a fickle and unstable soul that 's apt to wander every day and for things below though I have given them to Christ yet I feel mine heart still cleaving to them and hankering and hanging after them I can't think of being made Poor I can't think of being made a Reproach or a Scorn or a Prey I can't think of it with any patience what shall I do in this case Why here 's that which will do it trust upon Christ to help you pray for such a disengaged spirit pray for such a power pray for such a frame reason and do what you can to perswade your selves into it press your selves on to such a close conscientious holy Conversation strive and labour and be reaching on towards it and then trust upon Christ to bring you to it Commit thy way to him and he shall bring it to pass he shall put thee into such a condition wherein thou shalt be Cross-proof whatever thy Crosses be This is one of Christ's ways by which he helps his Saints to bear the Cross he prepares them for it and he must and will do it if he be sincerely trusted for it It thenceforth lyes upon him his faithfulness stands engaged to work all your works in you where your faith hath put it into his hands 2. Trust him to perform what he hath undertaken to do for you What hath he undertaken to do for his suffering People 1. To support them in their sufferings Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain or uphold thee the burthen of thy sorrows the burthen of thy sufferings the burthen of thy fears thou hast Enemies that will bind heavy burthens and lay them upon thee burthens of Reproaches burthens of wants burthens of thornes pricking and piercing burthens and it may be thou wilt say how can I bear all these burthens I sink I sink my spirit fails within me heavy things there are come upon me O what shall I do to bear them Why cast thy burthen upon the Lord trust upon him and he will sustain thee Phil. 4.5 6. Let your moderation be known unto all Men Be not over solicitous what you shall do or how you shall stand Be careful for nothing the Lord is at hand 2. To preserve them from falling from falling away from Christ from falling off from their holy profession Jude 24. He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory and as he is able so he is faithful 1 Thes 5.24 Faithful is he that hath called you and will do it What will he do why v. 23. he will preserve you blameless unto his coming Christians be careful about your present duty and then never torment your selves with thoughtfulness and fears how you shall stand your ground under the greatest of sufferings but as the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator And thus I have shewed you the second particular wherein that solidity or establishment in Religion which I am pressing you to reach after stands viz. a firm trust in Christ 3. Adherence to Christ or cleaving to the Lord. The two main Roots whereby a Christian is grounded in Christ are the two fore-mentioned Resolution and Trust and the immediate fruits of this rooting is cleaving or sticking fast unto him and the closer we cleave unto him the more we are confirmed and established The root of a Tree is that by which it cleaves unto the ground and by how much the deeper it spreads it self and works its self into the Earth by so much the faster hold it takes And there is a mutual hold taken the root takes hold of the ground and thereby the ground holds fast the root A rooted Christian hath gotten hold of Christ and Christ hath taken hold of him we have both these together Phil. 8.12 If I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Christ's hold of a Christian is sure but not always perceived Joh. 10.28 29. My Sheep hear my voyce and follow me and I give to them eternal life they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand There are many attempts upon the Saints the World pulls at them Sin pulls the Devil pulls and would pluck them off from Christ and pluck them up by the roots but saies Christ for all that they are safe enough pluck who will they shall not be pluck'd away But as sure as Christ holds them they may sometimes think he hath let go his hold and cast them off and may say as the Psalmist Psal 43.2 Why hast thou cast me off Lord Where am I now I once had hopes that the Lord was my strength but woe is me now I am even cut off and mine hope is perished from the Lord I fear that after all my hopes I shall prove a lost soul at last And as Christ's hold of a Christian so a Christians hold of Christ is always sure though he himself always perceive it not That Prayer of Christ for Peter is for every particular Christian that his Faith may never fail that hand of Faith may grow weak but shall never wither It may shake yet still as the hand of a drowning Man it keeps its hold Yet as to his own sense he may be at a loss and sometimes come to this conclusion if ever I had Faith yet now I am sure I have none Well but however though a Christian may sometimes think I have cast off and let go mine hold of Christ and thereupon he hath cast off and let go his hold of me yet even then when 't is saddest and lowest with him he still cleaves to Christ There are these two things which shall never totally fail 1. There is a secret stay upon Christ this he may do and does even then when he thinks he does not nor cannot There is an hope hidden in his heart even then when he says There is no hope That it may be so appears from Isa 50.10 Who is there that walks in darkness
Friends 2. His comfort in this his hard lot Though all Men forsook him yet Christ stuck by him the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Christians this may be your case and let this be your comfort though none in the World should own you yet stick by Christ and he will stick by you in all your Tribulations 2. Again you must dye Sickness may Arrest you and cast you upon the Bed of Languishing and Death may stand at your Beds-feet and stare you in the face and the Grave will open its mouth for you to swallow you up Stick fast to Christ and look to find him standing by your Beds-side to comfort you O how will it be with you in that hour O I feel my Diseases and Languishing my Flesh wasteth my Bones ake my strength is lost my heart faints mine eyes fail my breath is departing and all tell me that Death is at the door ready to turn me into rottenness But O! where is my God Now for a sight of Christ Those that are gone back from Christ they may look and look and cry where is the Lord where is the Saviour But poor Wretches there 's no Christ to be seen Death comes and the Devil comes and Sin comes and puts a Sting into Death's tail and the poor Sinner is left to grapple with Death alone its gripes its pangs its terrors are upon him but no Redeemer to be had Whatever come upon thee this shall not thou that holdest thee by him shalt see Jesus standing by thee or if thou should'st not see him yet there he will not fail to be though it may be behind the Curtain yet ready to help thee in thy Conflict with this thy last Enemy 3. Yet again after Death thou must be brought to Judgment where thou wilt meet with a Righteous Judge a Malicious Accuser who will have many things to lay to thy charge All the ugly and frightful sins that ever thou hast done in thy life thou maist look to hear of from that Malicious mouth And how wilt thou stand before that dreadful Bar O there thou shalt be sure Even with these Eyes to behold thy Redeemer there he will certainly be for he is the Judge and there he will stick by thee for he is thine Advocate he hath said to thee Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Fear not how thy matters shall go in the Judgment I will be there I will secure thee from coming into Condemnation I will give thee the Crown of Life This will be the Portion of those that stick fast to Christ He will certainly stick to them stick to them in all the troubles of their lives stick to them in death and stand by them in the eternal Judgment O Christans stick fast hold fast what you have that no man take your Crown Rev. 2.11 Hold fast your holy Profession hold on your Confidence and your holy Conversation and thence-forth expect that Jesus will give you a Crown of Life 2. Stick closâ— to Christ or else you will never be likely to stick fast By how much the closer our adherence to Christ is by so much the firmer is our standing and the less danger of falling off The root of a Tree if it be loosned from the Earth is more easily plucked up it may be some small strings there may be that keep their hold which maintain it in life but if the main root be loosned it 's the more in danger of being blown down The cleaving of the soul to Christ is set forth by the cleaving together of Husband and Wife Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall be joyned to his Wife The word in the Original signifies shall be glued to his Wife What is glu'd together if it shrinks or gapes loses its hold Take heed of warping and shrinking from Christ the glue will give off if you do and when you have once lost your hold you know not whither you may be blown O take heed of growing to a distance of wandring from Christ keep you near him if you would stand firm 4. A confirmed habit of Religion An holy disposition and constitution of soul this is the very heart of the new Creature the Divine Nature whereof Christians are said to be made partakers 2 Pet. 1.4 'T is an holy Spring or Fountain within us which will flow forth in Religious actions and by how much the more maturity it 's ripened up into by so much the more freely will it flow forth An heart that is holily disposed and hath strong and fixed inclinations Heaven-ward will find Religion sweet and easie to it there will be the less need of force and constraint That fear which is so necessary to drive on a servile spirit will be of less use according to the measures that we have attained of this free spirit and ready mind Such Christians have that within them that will save them much of their labour and pains which would be otherwise needful Our work will be easie and we shall go on more prosperously in our way we shall both more abound in the work of the Lord and we shall go on more evenly and steadily in our course Religious acts where there are no Religious habits or where the habit is but weak will be both more seldom and more difficult and when they are done whatever they be for the matter of them yet it will be still questioned whether they be sincerely or savingly Religious Those that are carnally-minded their very Natures do prompt them and carry them on in their fleshly ways there 's the less need of temptation to sin the Devil may save much of his labour their sinful dispositions will carry them on fast enough O Christians let this be in your eye let this be it you aim at and labour for to habituate your selves to Holiness to get up to such a settled holy disposition to such a promptitude and readiness of mind that your hearts may flow forth towards God and Godliness that your inward stream may run Heaven-ward that you may feel a freedom and enlargement of heart towards Godliness of Life Carnal Professors both those that are wholly such and have nothing of the new Nature in them and those who though they have something of the Spirit yet have much of the Flesh remaining in them O how heavily and slowly do they drive on in the matters of Religion How backward are they to duty how hardly brought to it how quickly weary they had rather be any where then with God about any work than about the work of the Lord not only eating and drinking and playing and taking the pleasures of the Flesh but their hardest fleshly labours Ploughing and Threshing will easilier down with them than Praying or Holy Meditation or otherwise Conversing with God This is a wretched temper but is it not an ordinary temper Consider is it
in Holy Communication or discourse among you Good words are none of the least of our good works This one thing would much conduce both to the recovering that of religion which is lost and to the filling up that which is wanting in our selves or others This hath been in use amongst some of you but is it not much fallen and forgotten Do not many of you that are Professors converse together as carnally and as unprofitably as men that have no religion in them This is a great shame and of sad consequence and Religion which is now so much fallen in the World is never like much to rise till this holy practice be revived You are all ready enough to complain what decays there are in Religion but are you willing to help towards its recovery We have helped one another down sadly we have consumed one another by our own coldness will you help to recover one another to warm and to quicken one another as you have helped to cool and to deaden By this means you will mutually have the benefit of each others graces and experiences your graces will hereby in a sort become their graces and their graces become yours Your candle may light your Brethrens candles at least you may give light to those that are round about you but of this more afterwards I cannot enlarge further upon the several ways wherein your religious activity should be exercised you must take these hints in general Labour to be doing Christians diligent busie Christians ready to every good work and fruitful in every good work Have an eye upon and be reaching to this active life hide not your Talent in a Napkin put not your Candle under a Bushel keep not your Religion to your selves your Knowledge your Graces your Experiences to your selves Hath the Lord lighted up a Candle in your Hearts let your light shine before men that may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 5. To evenness and equality both of temper and course Evenness of temper is an argument of health and strength they are the weakly bodies that are apt to change with every change of Air or Weather and they are but weakly Souls whom every change of their circumstances puts out of frame This even frame must and will shew it self in an evenness of the course 'T is an holy life that Christians must live and not satisfie themselves with sometimes an holy duty or day There must not be only some drops of Religion sprinkled here and there upon their paths but their life must be an holy stream and the stream must be constantly running towards God and Heaven They must run a Race thitherward Heb. 12.2 He that runs a race keeps on his way step by step in a continued motion We must neither turn aside nor go uncertainly on sometimes running and sometimes but creeping or standing still we must keep our way and keep our pace we must not go jumping heavenward doing something of our duty and jumping over others we must take all along in order as we go Christians it may be by the grace already obtained there 's something done in Religion at times but how many duties do ye jump over and let them alone Sometimes you will pray and sometimes you will jump over your praying seasons Sometimes you will perform works of piety but you will jump over works of righteousness and mercy Sometimes you will be serious and savoury and then you will leap out into lightness and vanity Sometimes you will take a leap to Heaven in your retirements to converse with God and then you will leap down again into the mud and mire Sometimes you will have some holy fits and then your proud fits or froward fits Sometimes ye run and then stand still diligent for a start and then grow resty and idle who knows how long after It is uncomfortable to consider how much this is the Religion of the most of Professors their Religion like a Feaver comes by fits only as if it were rather their distemper than their temper 't is but here and there a little sprinkling some few drops fall that have any holy savour and tendency Our stream our stream O how and which way does it run Sure you had gotten much higher if you had been more constantly rising upwards But whilst there are such risings and falls such goings on and standings still or turnings aside whilst you are such working and loytering Souls no wonder it is so low with you as it is Know every one of you that this in and out course is an argument that yet you have but little and will never come to much if it do not come to just nothing at last Now and then a strait step with so many steps awry is this ever like to bring you to Heaven You are travelling up the Hill but when will ye get you higher if as one foot steps forward the other slides back This uncertain unequal going on only as the fit comes 't is an easie kind of Religion if it were but sound But how can you think your selves sound where you are so divided betwixt something and nothing An intermitting Pulse is dangerous if not deadly Friends would you prove your selves to be Christians indeed would you not that both you and your Religion should prove to be as the chaff before the wind And when the Lord shall come to purge his floor would you not that both your souls and your hopes should be blown away as the Chaff and burn with the chaff in unquenchable fire would you make it evident that your Religion is not Irreligion and your Christianity Hypocrisie Then get you up to a more fixed spiritual temper and hold you on in a more even and continued course this will prove you to be Christians both in truth and of growth and hereby you will be making an advance higher and higher till you shall have perfected holiness in the fear of God That 's the mark that stands at the top of the Mount which I would after all that I have said you should have chiefly in your eye perfection of Holiness and be with your might reaching towards For the close of this you now see what that pitch of Religion is that I am pressing you to even the highest pitch that is possibly attainable You see your way before you is an uphill way You that are yet but at the foot of the Mount stay not where you are but get you up by the rising ground till you come to the top Do not now stand desponding at the height of the Hill and the steepness of its passage do not stand complaining of the difficulty of attaining say not within your selves I cannot get on I cannot get me up to this holy spiritual fruitful steady frame and life with all my soul I would but O I cannot I stick still here below I am among the poorest and weakest and hindermost of the Flock and after
c. and wilt continue so then look to thy self God will not stay with such a Soul what love your pleasures more than God what love this World more than God even take them for me says the Lord I 'll be no more a God to them This is the first every allowed sin provokes God to depart 2. Stirring Religion will work out sin especially every allowed sin The life of a Christian is a warfare there is a continual conflict betwixt the flesh and spirit Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth lusteth that is fighteth sin fighteth against grace and grace fighteth against sin Sin fights for the Devil to set him up and to lay the governement on his Shoulder and grace fights for God to lift the Lord up and to give him the preheminence in the Soul God will no longer stay in the heart than he may have the preheminence God will not be kept as an underling if he may not have the preheminence he 'll be gone and leave you to the Devil never talk that you hope God is within you where Sin or the World bears rule God is not there Now where the flesh is let alone in its fight against grace much more where the heart takes part with the flesh and nourisheth and cherisheth and maketh provision for it and grace is let lye asleep there sin rises and increases and abounds both in heart and life Where sin is stirring and that little grace that is is let lye and quite out of heart what can be expected how can it be otherwise but the Devil must carry it against God But when grace revives and the heart falls off from sin and takes part with grace nourishing and cherishing and abetting the better part then sin will be put to it and must away Christians your hearts would quickly be too hot for your sins if the grace that is in you be once well rouzed up when the live Coals are blown up into a Flame the Smoke is consumed and vanisheth Do not sluggishly lye down and complain that you cannot master your sins you are proud and cannot help it you are earthly and worldly and cannot help it you are froward and passionate and peevish and cannot overcome your passions Do not say you cannot overcome you cannot prevail if there be grace in your hearts and you will set to it to stir up the grace that is in you this would overcome What do you think if your love to Christ were blown up into a flame would it not quench the flame of lust Friends 't is a sign that religion is asleep grace is asleep conscience is asleep when your carnality and earthliness do thus ride in triumph over you this little David that little good thing that is within you if it gets on its Armour and go forth to the fight will not only put to flight but put to death the Champion of the Philistines Put your grace to it let it but engage heartily and lively in the fight and sin will run the field Loytering and idleness and laziness do beget and nourish evil humours and diseases exercise and activity will subdue and work them out he that lives a stirring life is usually the most strong and healthful Christians if you would be hearty and healthful and overcome those corruptions that are the diseases of your Souls and the offence of your God if you would overcome resolve upon a stirring life pray and let no praying satisfie but stirring prayer sleepy prayers will stand you in no stead let your thoughts be stirring let your affections be stirring let conscience be stirring let your conversations be stirring conversations be not the carkases of Christians that have no life shew forth the Spirit of Christianity as much as possible be all soul and life and spirit and keep you in lively action and then let your sins stand before yov if they can The quick running Rivers keep themselves pure they are the dead and standing Pools that gather most mud and dirt Certainly Friends our Skie would be clearer and more serene if our Spirits as the Wind did rise higher Our thick Mists and unwholesome Fogs that infest and annoy us would much be dispelled if Grace the rays of the Sun of Righteousness did once break forth more in us What will ye do Friends your light grows dim and your day misty your waters are mudded we are a company of dark souls polluted souls such as the Lord can take little pleasure in what must ye do to help it if you will bestir your selves you may help all get Religion to be aflote let that living stream be running let the coals be blowing and then you shall see your mud will be cleansed and your dross will be purged away Never think 't will be better by sitting still and complaining how bad 't is To work Friends to work with these lazy hearts to work with those earthly minds rouze ye up out of sleep up and be doing and see if you find not the same success against your sins as the Lord promised against the Devil Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he shall fly from you resist Sin and it shall fall under you Now Friends if ye can but get your sins out if ye can subdue your iniquities so far as that not one of them be allowed and all of them have their power broken and weakned in you if those that are by a specialty your iniquities if your special sins your most beloved lusts those that have most of all taken with you and carried your hearts captive those evils that have been your special hinderances either in holiness or comfort and that your hearts have been most apt to go a whoring after if you get these to be mortified and brought under stirring Religion will do it get it to be done once let nothing be left that offends God but that it also offends you and you shall not be like to have reason to complain the Lord is departed from me that which would have driven him away is now removed 2. Stirring Religion will work up and improve and increase those good things which the Lord will delight in and will not forsake As it will work out iniquity so it will work up grace and holiness There is not the poorest and weakest of Saints but by diligence and industry will be improved Stirring Christians will be thriving Christians 't is for want of action and industry that our souls are in this poor case As they said Gen. 43.10 Except we had lingred we had returned the second time or twice by this time Friends if we had not lingered and loitered we might have had twice so much grace twice so much holiness as now we have 't is our lingering that keeps us so poor we may thank our sloth and our carelesness that there is so little of God in us by our industry we shall advance Stirring lively Christians will be thriving Christians the best of Christians can never keep their stand
It was to be a whole day as a Sabbath is 2. It must be wholly spent in the proper exercises of it a Sabbath of Rest it must be in this extraordinary duty there must be a laying aside our ordinary works and the whole time spent either in the publick or private worship of the day How seldom is it that we hear of such a Fast Some Hours as I said we sometimes spend together in seeking the Lord but when do we keep a Day to the Lord The morning of the day is usually as other mornings we are as busie at our Callings and may be more busie to dispatch our work out of hand and so come hot out of our shops and fields with our heads full and hearts full of our worldly affairs and as soon as ever the Publick Duty is over then away to our work again Is it such a Fast the Lord hath chosen will ye call this a Day of Humiliation Christians 't is well that you spend some Hours of Prayer but call not That a Day of Humiliation when ever you set apart a Day for Fasting let it be a Sabbath of Rest to you begin it in secret and separating your selves from all your unnecessary ordinary works hold you to the duty of the day as your strength will bear it to the end of the day Let the private part of it both before and after Publick Exercises be spent as your Lord's days are in suitable converses with God Were this more observed we might expect more of Spirit and of Power in the duty and more Fruits afterward 2. There is also a failing in the Abstinence of the Day How often have I known it that the Abstinence in a day of Humiliation hath been no more than the sparing of one Meal which hath been made up by a larger Break-fast and perhaps a Feast at least a full Meal at Supper and sometimes in the intervals of the duties Wine Cake Sweet-meats Tobacco and such like refreshments are allowed and used No particular Rules for the degree of Abstinence can be prescribed to all sorts of persons but this should be observed in the general 1. That there be such Abstinence used both as to quantity and quality as may best subserve the Spiritual duties of the day especially that of afflicting the Soul and therefore 2. That not only our full Meals be forborn but no Wine or strong Drink c. no not so much as a Pipe of Tobacco be allowed for the present pleasure or refreshment of it This latter concerning the use of Tobacco I the more particularly mention because I suppose it is not so much thought on many of those that use it much find great pleasure in the use of it and it may be can give no good account of their present need of it and yet will use it at such times If it be really needed as in some cases it may and by some persons let it be used But if Daniel would eat no pleasant Bread nor Flesh nor Wine came into his mouth Dan. 10.3 If the Jews be reproved Is 58.3 that in the day of their Fast they find their pleasure then any thing taken as an exhilarating refreshment which is not necessary to the present duty is a transgression Well this will be something towards the stirring us up in Prayer self-afflicting Abstinence 2. Especially a deep consideration of the case we are in will most effectually do it Qui nescit orare discat navigare Tempests will teach even profane Mariners to pray if any thing will do it afflictions will fetch out our very hearts in our Prayers and is not iniquity an affliction Sure if it be we are in an afflicted state for consider a little again how grievously iniquity doth abound I shall not now lead you a voyage over the Seas and remember you how 't is abroad how the Devil drives almost all the world before him filling them with all unrighteousness and what a small handful there are that follow Christ and how very little of serious Religion or Christianity and how much iniquity there is in those few Let us at present inquire how 't is with us at home may we not take the words of the Text into our mouths and complain We even we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind are taking us away Who can say Mine heart is clean I have kept me from mine iniquity who of us will not say My righteousness is as a filthy rag Or if any will not say thus concerning themselves must not we say it for them and of them To put in but a word of the profane Rout the open enemies of Religion and Righteousness whose wickedness hath left the shade of the twilight and the covert of the night and who are grown up to that impudence as to shew their shame in the Sun-light not to speak much neither of their Prophets and Teachers amongst whom though through mercy there are that deal faithfully yet some of them cannot others will not tell them of their transgressions or heal their hurt what Snuffs are there in some of the Candlesticks what dark Lanthorns are many of those that should be burning and shining lights Seers without eyes lame Leaders sickly Healers of the hurt of the daughter of our people such some of them are as if God had said concerning us as Micah 2.11 If any man walking in the spirit of falshood do lie and do prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be even the Prophet of this people To let these pass also let us consider how 't is with the Sinners in Zion with those of us who profess to have separated themselves from the follies and filthinesses of the Land to the Law of their God may not even these also complain Even we are as an unclean thing our filthiness is still in our skirts What is our Religion what is our Righteousness what a totter'd maimed thing is it Ah how little Religion is there in our Religion how little of the Spirit how little of the power how glorious soever the form appears How much unrighteousness is there mingled with our righteousness is not our Gold mix'd with Dross and our Wine with Water What a spirit of vanity what hypocrisie pride headiness censoriousness peevishness is there to be found and all cryed up for Religion What wood and hay and stubble is there built upon the foundation Christians and yet carnal Christians and yet earthly and sensual having not the Spirit how much soever of the Name of Religion in them And amongst them that were once better how many are there that must go on with the complaint and confess we all do fade as a leaf we wither and wast and consume and are even dried away And it is not here and there a fading leaf does not the Tree fade so that 't is but here and there a leaf that