am bold to advise you how you shall behave your selves when it comes Out of love to your souls I advise you what to do in the day of Jacobs troubles First have the mark of mourners on your foreheads let me beg it of you if you have not that mark on you in the day of Jacobs troubles without doubt the Devils black mark will be found on you at the last day In Ezekiel 9. v. 4.5 all that had not this mark on them were the persons destinated to destruction When the overflowing scourge comes when the destroying Angel goeth upon his circuit he is not to spare man woman nor childe but those that had this mark upon them even those that cried out for the abominations done in the land Read that text Now mark the difference that God and the world puts upon such mourners in Sion God puts a mark of preservation upon such as the world puts a mark of destruction seditious humorsome keeping a whining fasting and mourning behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles get the mark of mourners on your foreheads let not God see that you are a careless people let not God that sees this Congregation this great number of people have cause to say that you are a careless company care not for your own sins nor for the sins of others care not for the wrath of God though gray hairs be here and there upon us you know it not care not for the Churches misery though Jacob be under the hatches and the Church like to be grownd to powder thou canst trudge about the world and endeavour to preserve thy Estate but carest not for the wrath of God nor the miseries of the Church Thou art not one of those persons that behavest thy self well in the day of Jacobs troubles I tell thee if the sins of a Nation be nothing to thee the judgements of a Nation shall be something to thee Remember that a messenger of Jesus Christ a poor dying worm who is just now leaving you told you thus much that if the ungodliness prophaneness sensuality blasphemy and atheisme of a Nation be nothing to thee then the judgements of a Nation shall be something to thee Either mourn for sin or mourn for woe and sorrow Oh! do you mourn for the wickedness that is done in this Land though sinners make sport of it and please themselves in it and look upon it as part of their glory that they can go to Hell quietly let me beg it of you all and leave it as my counsel with you to get the mark of mourners on your foreheads let it appear that the Angel may take notice of thee and mark thee when the overflowing scourge shall pass through the land Really there is hypocrisie in Professors on both hands in times of the Churches prosperity and in times of the Churches adversity the Devil may tell thee that thou art sincere though thou takest no notice of the Churches troubles nor mournest for it be not deceived thy heart is not right in the sight of God if thou carest not what becomes of his Church thou hast had a hand in their sins have a hand in their sufferings Thou hast helpt to bring sorrow to the Church by reason of thy sin Oh bring tears of godly sorrow to help to quench the flame that sinne hath kindled Secondly would you behave your selves well in the time of Jacobs troubles keep your selves pure from the reigning sins of the times wherein you live I speak not of any particular time but when God is angry with his Church let it be now be it when it will it then becomes Christians to keep themselves pure from the sins of those times In Revel 18. v. 4. hearken to that text of Scripture thou carnal complying temporizing and time-serving Professour I heard a voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people and be not partakers of her sin lest you are partakers of her plagues When mens sins are filling apace when the Ephah is near full keep thy self pure from the sins of the times lest thou be made partaker of the plagues of the times Consider what are the sins of such times if there be prophaneness superstition impiety malice against Religion sensuality impenitency and see little else but wickedness of this dye and nature touch you not one of them keep your selves pure I am giving you counsel as for my own life if I were dying on my sick bed as God knows how soon I may according to the measure that God hath given me of his free Grace I could not give you better counsel Oh that I could deliver it with that authority that I ought Purity is a condition of the Covenant 2 Cor. 6.18 He will be to you a Father and you shall be to him Sons and Daughters if you will come out from such uncleannesses A word to the wise is enough and according as God furnisheth you with his Spirit learn to behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles keep your selves pure from the sins of the times Thirdly Feel the sorrow of the Church if the Church be nothing to thee Christ is nothing to thee and if Christ be nothing to thee thou art an enemy to Christ and thou mayest profess thou beleevest in Christ and hopes to be saved by Christ but if the Church be nothing to thee thou art but a dead Member a wooden Leg a glass Eye an artificial Tooth You must be either friends or foes to Christ if friends then friends to his Church if thou doest not gather with him thou scatterest and if thou takes not a common interest with the Church of God thou art but a false friend to Christ if thou dost not feel the Churches pain thou hast none of the Churches Spirit if a finger or a toe suffer the whole body is sensible Thou hast none of the Spirit of Christ if thou doest not feel the sorrows of the Church Woe be to those that dwell at ease in Sion very few great men are like good Nehemiah who was of the Kings Court and in great favour with him and ailed nothing yet his heart was full of sorrow for the Church of God insomuch that the King saw by his countenance that he was troubled and Nehemiah made use of the opportunity and rested not till he had accomplished his design for the House of God Men that have a great estate and in great places many times are the greatest enemies to the Church of God and they are ready to forsake Christ like the rich young man in the Gospel which you may read at your leasure In Amos 6. ver 6. read your doom there if the Devil do possess some of you with prejudice I profess seriously Brethren it is in love to your souls I speak read that 6. verse of the 6. of Amos poor Joseph lay by the heels the Irons entered into his soul But those that took their pleasure and was not
sorry for the affliction of Joseph should go into captivity with the first that went into captivity The Church hath a flood of persecution and mouths full of the venom of the old Serpent is spit out after them yet the Church is kept safe In the 25. of Matthew you have three famous parables of the ten Virgins of the Talents of the Sheep and Goats there you may see that the trial of the last day is according to the simpathizing with the Church Do but consider it seriously it is according as thou hast sympathized with the Church that thy tryal will then be You saw me in my Members in my poor afflicted Members you never looked after them and inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me Then shall they go into everlasting pains but the righteous into life eternal Pray remember this there will be a day of judgement and the Scripture is the rule by which all must be tryed that lives under it The love of the Brethren is the mark by which we shall be judged at the last day 1 John 3.14 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Those that are spiritual Brethren that have God for their Father Jesus Christ for their elder Brother new Jerusalem that is above for their Mother ought so to love one another as the Apostle saith in that 1 John 3.16 That they ought to lay down their lives for each other If God doth call for thy Estate thy Life thy Hearts Blood to be sacrificed for him thou oughtest to do it Brethren amongst other Arguments to sway with a true Son of the Church this should be one what shall I turn upon the Church of God now in affliction what a stumbling-block and cause of offence will it be to my weak Brother Brethren when God seems to call upon you saying Who is on the Lords side and who is not you are to love the Church so as if your lives did lie at stake to part with it every member should endeavour the preservation of the whole Fourthly wouldst thou behave thy self well in the day of Jacobs troubles give God no rest day nor night till he have mercy on his people until he take his rod from the back of the righteous until he make his Church a triumph and rejoycing over the whole earth Prayers and tears are the Churches weapons use no other for those are the weapons that will fell tall and stately Cedars those be the weapons that will scatter Kingdoms It is said of a Queen of the Scots that she was more afraid of John Knox then of an Army of twenty thousand men such was his prevalency in Prayer Are you living men or not do you breath or not if you are spiritually alive and living Members of the Church of Christ you cannot but lay close siege at the Throne of Grace in its behalf Dost thou pray to God and canst thou pray and forget the Israel of God Hast thou a mercenary care that thy own soul shall be saved and forgets the Church of God in misery never putting up a serious petition for Gods Israel nor mindest the afflictions of Joseph Oh! give God no rest day nor night until he hath mercy on Sion This is a successful war that you are commanded and encouraged unto in Isa 62. ver 6 7. I have set watch-men upon thy walls O Jerusalem that shall never hold their peace day nor night until he establish Jerusalem and make it the praise of the whole earth Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence Oh the Lord increase the number of such persons Oh! that you that are real Members of the Church would stand upon the walls and give God no rest day nor night until he hath established Sion and made Jerusalem the praise of the earth Oh! bless God for the success of Prayer when poor weak impotent crasie prayers engageth All-sufficiency and Omnipotency to do this Read Psalm 137. and the 6. first verses By the Rivers of Babylon we sate down yea we wept when we remembred thee O Zion we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof it was no time to hear the sound of them we were not so merry They that wasted us required of us mirth saying Sing us one of the Songs of Zion Come let us have some of your zealous mirth Come let us hear you now pray in the Spirit and preach ex tempore then it becomes us to hang our harps on the willows and say How shall we sing the Lords Song in a strange Land Now we have lost our Ordinances and are given up to the hands of Heathens that reigns over us If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Oh pathetical expression he did not shrink from the Church of God but see with what affection he speaks If I forget thee c. I must forget that which I am used to do If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Oh Brethren get this spirit of affection towards the Church Really Brethren I am afraid few of you are real Members of the Church were you you would be more importunate at the Throne of Grace for the Churches establishment see what you may do by importunity in that 18. Chapter of Luke from the first verse to the 8. Brethren you must pardon me because it is my last and although I am so long a taking leave of you yet will it be no obstruction unto you in your journey but a furtherance See what an encouragement there is in that 18. of Luke And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Oh! faint not in your prayers for if the unjust judge that feared not God nor regarded man yet was wrought upon to avenge the poor widow because of her importunity and shall not God avenge his own Elect that cries day and night to him although he bear long I tell you he will avenge them speedily The cloud over the Church may be so thick and the estate of the Church so desperate that when the Son of Man comes he shall hardly finde faith on the earth Do you think that God will not hear his own Elect but suffer their enemies to make such deep furrows over them although he do seem long to thy carnal sense yet when his time is come he will come and not tarry therefore bear a sense upon thy spirit of the Churches misery for he that can be quiet in the Churches misery hath removed himself from the Churches light and society he hath cashier'd himself out of the mystical Body however he may seem to be in outward society Oh! therefore feel and simpathize with the Church in her misery I
only ask thee one question Art thou content to have no part in the happiness of the Church hereafter if thou separatest thy self from the Church Militant I tell thee in the name of my Lord and Master thou shalt be separated from the Church Triumphant hereafter Wouldst thou stand at the right hand of the Head of the Church and be owned as a Member and be glorified for ever with the Church why then here feel the Churches sorrow and cry mightily to God that he will arise and have mercy on Sion But if thou doest not here feel the Churches misery nor cry to God for deliverance thou must be separated from the Church hereafter And thus have I done with this general counsel learn to behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles in four particulars Get the mark of mourners on your foreheads Keep your selves pure from the reigning sins of the times Feel the sorrows of the Church And cry mightily unto God that he would have mercy I now come to the 13 and last general counsel that I have to leave with you and that is Be you all truly wise Once more I say my last general counsel unto you is O be you all truly wise It is not an outward wisdom I would counsel you to but it is a spiritual wisdom a true wisdom Oh learn it it will do you good to all eternity Once more hearken to a few counsels from your departing friend which contains the substance of the greatest wisdom in the world and I am heartily willing to leave them with you as my farewel be truly wise take good counsel in these following particulars First View truth lose not true wisdom let not the god of this world blinde thine eyes any longer thou that hast a dark head here and doest not see the saving truth thou mayest be blinde for ever hereafter Do not lose the blessed Gospel the sight of Divine Beauty this is but a world of shadows stocks and straws and butter-flies Oh get a sight of the world to come think read hear meditate that thou mayest behold the beauty of Truth be much in hearing be much in reading read good Books meditate on them the less opportunity the ear hath the more opportunity the eye should have darkness is the Devils kingdom he is the prince of darkness and deeds of darkness are done in the Devils kingdom get out of it into the glorious Gospel of Light view Truth and study it Secondly Follow the light of it first see it then follow it people are apt to think they are in a good way when they are in a bad when you view Truth and have seen Divine Beauty then follow light or else turn so miserable that Infiniteness it self cannot get thee out of it If thou disobeyest Conscience thou runnest upon the point of the sword Conscience is that which is a discerner bread is bread and grain is grain but the goodness of it is better distinguished by being brought to the light Sin is sin but bring it to the light of Conscience it is clearer discerned thou that art a drunkard against thy Conscience a swearer a profaner of the Lords Day a reviler of his people c. and dost it against the light of thy Conscience what canst thou say for thy self at that day of account when this Book shall be laid open among the rest and all thy deeds of darkness discovered Thou that in matters of Religious Worship doest any thing against thy conscience runnest upon inavoidable misery and woe and thou shalt finde bitterness in the end Thirdly Live in the practise of self-deniel Oh take heed of the Flesh and the Devil so much as thou art ruled by these thine enemies so far thou settest thy self from the enjoyment of God for if self-pleasing be not counted by thee to be thine enemy and self-denial thy friend thou art out of the convoy of God what then will be thy end Live crucifying of thy flesh or thou shalt be crucified by it Fourthly Live in the sight of and dependance on the Father Son and Holy Spirit live in the sight thereof continually so long as thou art out of the sight of God so long thou art open to all dangers Depend upon the Father for giving upon the Son for purchasing upon the Holy Ghost for conveighing all good unto thee express thy dependance by thy earnest prayers to God for all good tugging and striving for thy life express thy dependance by a hanging and relying faith upon thy Saviour resisting all temptations resolve to live in the sight of and dependance on Father Son and Holy Spirit Fifthly Live in a good air keep good company a soul that is in evil company is in Hell whilst amongst them or else will go to Hell with them There is nothing more healthful to the body then to live in a good aire a bad air destroyes the health so doth bad company destroy the soul resist temptations thou must part with God or with evil company therefore forsake bad company resist temptations at first rising if thou dost not watch the first beginning of temptations to sin all thy vows and promises will vanish as dew before the Sun Sixthly Exchange temporal joyes for eternal be assured of it the world will leave you this garment the covering of it will fade therefore whilst the colour is any thing good get a better and more enduring part with the worlds contents for spiritual joyes this you are to do by daily mortification diligent edification and be sure to restifie thy sincerity towards God make good friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. Make friends with your estate lay it out upon christs poor Members really the world is going away apace Heaven and Earth is changing and waxeth old there are joyes everlasting Oh then exchange temporal joyes for eternal Seventhly Fill thy self with religious pleasures expect and overlook its cares if thou wouldest be truly wise do this the heart must have its joy either temporal or spiritual would you trample over the world then rejoyce in the Lord and again I say rejoyce Oh be truly wise let God Heaven and the Holy Spirit continually fill thy soul with religious joyes sweetness and beauty which will banish thy cares and dangers if thou art religious expect troubles but overlook them and cast thine eyes upon that joy that is in thy soul that thou art out of the reach of Satan and his instruments being under the safe conduct of Omnipotency who will undoubtedly bring thee safe through all to himself Eighthly If thou lovest life let death dwell in thy heart God knows how soon we may all dye now I am going away and am not to speak any more unto you except God finde out a way beyond our expectation I would therefore leave that counsel that may do you most good and make you truly wise Remember to have death alwayes
Children in Sabbath breaking if thou doest they will break thy heart Hast thou no care of Sabbath here it is a thousand to one whether thou shalt ever enjoy a Sabbath with God hereafter Read that Text in the 58. of Isaiah and the two last verses If the Sabbath be the day of thy pleasure thy pain will be Gods pleasure If any come amongst you and preach otherwise I charge you receive not his doctrine let God have the day called by his own name Rev. 1.8 Seventhly Take heed of sinking under any sufferings if for a good conscience persecutions may come we know not how soon our Sins may deserve it Oh! sink not under you that feel them nor insult not over those that are under it Old men young men pray take notice of it if you would damn your own souls hate not them that would save theirs remember what the voice from heaven saith Acts 9.5 Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me Eighthly Get all good from your Minister and do all good to your Minister that God shall set over you carry your selves towards him as becometh Christians with affection whilst he preacheth truth practise it If any of you hinder me with affection let not that hinder your prositing by him if he be one that you may profit by he deserveth respect from you Ninthly Study peace Oh! live in peace that is the counsel of my Text and the God of love and peace will be with you There is no question but the Non-conformists will be used rigorously but be contented I know that will be and is reported of them that they are movers of Sedition no friends to Caesar c. but they are mistaken for we are resolved to live in peace with all men and to sit down contented under the hand of God And it is my last counsel unto you and the counsel of God in Scripture that come what will come upon you you stir not in thought word nor deed against that lawful Power that God hath set over us For my part the sanctified experience that God hath given me of the unconstancy of the world causeth me not to be moved in the least at this temptation I bless my God for it I have sate down and counted my cost already and I assure you nothing but the wrath of the Almighty could have caused me to leave you such is my love to your souls and zeal to my duty But whatsoever may be the censure of Authority upon us I repeat it again that there may be no mistake for it is like many may come this day to catch words words out of my mouth to entrap me I say whatever Authority doth censure of us I beg and beseech you all that you think of nothing nor use any help to deliver your selves out of sufferings but Faith Patience and Prayer And I profess before you all I have not spoken with nor heard of any of this perswasion but they are all against ever having any hand in any War even those who had a hand in the last and therefore it is a horrible slander that is cast upon the most peaceable Subjects that God and earthly Princes can have pray Christians let it appear so by your peaceable suffering Consider if thou suffer for Conscience thou must not revenge thy self if thou doest thou losest thy reward Shew a spirit of Obedience in the exercise of Love and Patience I do verily hope and I am really perswaded that I shall never hear of any Nonconformist that hath a hand in any Rising or Sedition whatsoever This is my ninth counsel Study peace Tenthly Be not troubled at those reproaches that the enimies of God may cast upon you taking advantage at Gods disappointment of our hopes and providence towards us It is very likely many of you may hear them say what is become of your precious Preacher now you so much boasted of where is your godly brave gifted man where will you go next how will you dispose of your selves Now I hope you that have been my hearers and professors so long have an answer ready to shame them and am sorry if thou hast not saying Although I have lost my earthly Teacher yet I have an heavenly Teacher I have a God to go to which you cannot take from me Shew that thou carriest grace in thy heart and thy God is in heaven They do but upbraid thee with their own misery curse and wrath when they ask thee what is become of such a one Brethren would we have debaucht our Conscience had we not as fair an opportunity as other men to have continued thou that carriest a good Conscience and hast an interest in Jesus Christ what needst thou care what man can do to thee look upon thy reward and comfort thou shalt one day have and look upon thy self with a great deal of holy comfort and confidence and thou mayest in a serious manner smile at their folly and madness how they sport themselves in the loss of that light that might bring them to heaven I confess it is a great reproach and a great affliction it made David cry out Lord let me not be confounded When the enemy said Where is now your God Many in like manner now cry out where is now your God! Heretofore you said there was a stream of Providence did follow Holiness but now where is it doth God like this preciseness and extempore Praying and long Preaching no God likes a formal kinde of serving him best such as is according to the Church and as it was in our fore-fathers dayes he owns it favours it and smiles upon it Come come Providence is various David staggers at it till he comes to weigh the case in the ballance of the Sanctuary be not cast down at these reproaches either thou hast got good by the Ordinances or not if not thou art in a sad condition if thou hast what needest thou care for the reproach of man what need a man care to be upbraided of having his Cup-board plundered when his Treasure was safe in a surer place Christian thy treasure is in heaven thieves cannot there break through and steal Consider this is not a place where things goes right it will go right in another day now thou livest amongst Drunkards and prophane persons there is no room for such in heaven look upon things now as it will go then and let those words of the Judge stick close to thy heart He that is ashamed of me and of my word in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father Twelfthly Learn how to behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles though we are all now in peace blessed be God for it yet we know not what may befall us ere we come to dye when I shall not be here to advise you and supposing this may be your cafe and wishing you well even as my own soul I