be broken they will not bend Rough Trees must be hewn with Axes so old Sinners must find rough dealing at conversion If you would come home to God comfortably come quickly and early The sooner you begin the more sweetness you will find All God's Wayes afford Pleasantness and in all his Paths there is Peace 2. Having delivered the Counsels that concern you all in general let me now direct my speech to the Regenerate in particular To you whom the Word of God hath been the Power of God to Salvation I would commed these things that they may be kept in remembrance II. COUNSEL 1. Be very thankful for any good which God hath wrought in you by the means of Grace God is takeing away in some measure the pure and powerful dispensation of his Ordinances and this is matter of sorrow O but God hath made them advantagious to your souls already and this is matter of praise 1 Thess 1.3 5. Give thanks to God seeing the Gospel hath come to you not in word only but in the power of the holy Ghost You then that can experience a new Light in your minds Conviction in your conscience a change in your wills and holiness in your affections and union with Christ give God the praise It had been a misery indeed if God had taken us away from Ministers or Ministers from us before we had got any good by them Those amongst you that are ignorant hard-hearted unbelieving sinners have reason to be grieved at the very heart The Sun of the Gospel is eclipsing and you are not yet enlightened by it the fire is putting out before your souls be warmed It is a sad sign those are in the number of the sons of perdition from whom the clear Gospel is hid 2 Cor. 4.3 If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost The Child unborn cannot midwife it self into the world when the Mother is dead but there is hopes that an Infant that is born may be nourished up even unto a perfect man Why Brethren unconverted persons are unborn and if Faithful Ministers and Ordinances should be altogether taken from you both Father and Mother dye and then who shall make you partakers of the new Birth But now you that are born again you will be able in some measure to feed your selves the meat is before you in the Scriptures and the holy Ghost will help you to feed on it If there should not be a succession of Pastors amongst you your condition may be sad but it is safe if you should dye without the continuance of Ordinances having a part in the Resurrection from sin to a new Nature and holiness of life the second Death shall have no dominion over you If you live longer you have former Experiences former Truths former Promises old Store to live on You have the granary of Experiences and of the Scriptures to maintain you in spiritual Life if there should come a Famine of publick Ordinances God hath not dealt with every soul as with yours Two or three of you have lived under the same Ministry have sit and heard together in the same Seats yea one of you is taken the other is left Say then with a thankful heart as Christ Why hast thou revealed thy self to me and not to others Even so Father because it seems good in thy sight Mat. 11.25 2. Walk humbly before God in a sence of your insufficency to good and proness to evil Mic. 6.8 walk humbly with thy God Never walk securely ever be jealous of your deceitful hearts Take heed of falling into sin though at present you stand Ever live under the sence of that truth that the heart is deceitful above all things and madly wicked What Master that knows the deceitfulness of a Servant would trust him too far and so who that hath had frequent experience of the falsness of his heart would put too much confidence in it for the future Ever keep low thoughts of your selves live continually in dependance upon God for strength to perform duties to subdue corruptions resist temptations and to bear afflictions Paul prayed thrice i. e. often when he had a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him 3. Beware of every sin have and express godly sorrow for it break off every iniquity by repentance Beware especially of and keep your selves from your iniquities Psal 18.23 Cut off your right hand and pluck out your right-eye-sins Mat. 5.29 God hates it Jer. 44.4 it grieves him They rebelled and vexed his Spirit it will grieve you also 1 Pet. 2.11 and wars against the soul i. e. against the Peace and Tranquilty of your minds every sin contracts guilt and guilt creats trouble It 's impossible a Christian should walk comfortably whilst he showes any liking to any sin Sin doth especially prejudice us as to Prayer both before in and after Prayer it shuts our eyes that we dare not lift them up to Heaven O my God I blush and am ashamed to look up Ezra 9.6 It stops our mouths that we cannot speak and manacles our hands and contracts our hearts that we cannot lift them up to God If we would lift up hearts and hands in Prayer without doubting we must lift up holy hands 1 Tim. 2.8 Sin makes a Christian act like an enemy towards God and to think God is justly turned to be his enemy and who can with any heart ask any favour from an enemy If we would draw near to God in full assurance of Faith we must come with an heart sprinkled from a guilty and defiled conscience and our lives washed with pure water Heb. 10.22 Again the least sin smiled upon puts us back in our Christian course it weakens Faith takes away our Courage disheartens us from doing our very duty How canst thou reprove another with courage saith conscience when thou thy self knowest thou standest in need of reproof well than exercise daily repentance for daily failings sue out a pardon every day and get one Seal more added to your Pardon daily you have as much need to pray for daily forgiveness as for daily bread 4. Grow in Grace 2 Pet. 3.18 Make progress in holiness take heed of decaying beware lest God's Ministers lose the things they have wrought upon and amongst you 2 Ep. John ver 8. Increase your knowledge Follow on to know the Lord let your repentings for sin be kindled go from one degree of Faith to another let your love to God abound more and more The more Grace you have the more you will glorify God the fitter you will be to do him service the more able to bear affliction a little Grace is not enough to bear great Trials and the more Grace the fitter for Glory yea and very probably the more Glory To this end continue in the use of those means that uphold and encrease Grace Ex eisdem nutrimus ex quibus constamus Feed upon the Milk of God's Word and the
halting from the reigning power and predominancy of corruption The former is found in the Godly but it is their grief and burden Peter upon a sudden push of temptation halted down and fell fouly into a denial of Christ and that with such circumstances as might make any Christians ears glow and tingle to hear recited Mat. 26. yet afterwards he was far from applauding himself herein He went out and wept bitterly As one of the Ancients sayes of some that fell through weakness in time of Persecution Vicit eos paena non avertit perfidia negarunt semel sed quotidie confitentur negarunt sermone sed confitentur gemitibus ululatibus flecibus liberis non coactis vocibus They denied in word but afterwards confessed with sighs and groans and tears The Faithful sometimes halt through infirmity but it is their grief Others that halt deliberately far unlike them neither can they fairly pretend sorrow for it Alas it is their choice they approve of it and think themselves in taking their liberty in having so great a latitude about the matters of Religion much wiser then those who are more precise and strait-laced But so much for Explication to shew what it is to halt in Religion and how many wayes men are subject to it Now that is very sad and sinful you have as much affirmed Hos 10.2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty God will be served with all the heart and with our whole soul and to divide it betwixt Him and others is a thing He cannot endure He cannot brook It were easy to produce other Scriptures that speak to this purpose but we shall have occasion to make use of them in the following discourse therefore I wave them here to proceed to the Demonstrations of the Point And I shall evidence the great evil of halting in Religion 1. From the nature of the thing it self 2. From the whence it proceeds 3. from the consequences and effects Demon. 1. Halting in Religion must needs be exceeding evil that considered in it self is directly opposit and contrary to God from whom the true Religion is derived and unto whom it returns It is both contrary to God's Nature and to his Mind and Will Contrary to Gods Nature He is still the same with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning Now how unlike to God are they that are off and on ever and anon changing one thing to day another to morrow yea it may be seemingly devout while on their knees but vain and prophane when on their feet Good and upright is the Lord. Thou most Upright Thou most Upright dost weigh the path of the just Then surely they are contrary to him who are for crooked ways The Lord that is faithful Isa 49.7 Heb. 10.23 He is faithful in all his promises to us How unlike to God are they who are false in their engagements playing fast and loose with him And how contrary this halting in Religion is to God's Mind and Will you may learn from what is said of those Mongrel-Worshippers 2 King 17.33 34. In v. 33. it is said They feared the Lord and served their own gods But in v. 34. They feared not the Lord. Such serving of God is as no serving of him There 's one But which takes off the lustre of all Amaziah did He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord BUT not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 He began well but afterwards turned away from following the Lord v. 27. So we find this as a Blot in the story of some of the good Kings whose Acts are recorded in Holy Writ Such and such a one reigned well did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord only the high places were not taken away And here they fell short Demon. 2. Halting in Religion must needs be very evil which comes from such ill causes Such as the cause is such is the effect Now here I shall not insist on the Fall of mankind which is indeed the prime cause of all that halting in Religion which is in the World I shall not stay at that sinning sin the corruption of mans nature which was consequent upon his fall which makes way for all those sinful warpings crooked windings turnings in the course of our conversations But I will come to some more particular and nearer causes And so this halting I am speaking of is either from a bad head or from an evil heart or from both 1. From a bad head As we may see those that are troubled with the Vertigo c. that have bad heads how ill they can guide their feet Thus corruption of the judgement false Principles received into the mind cause the soul to halt and turn aside Many Hereticks of old thought it lawful enough to bow their bodies to an Image to an Idol so that they kept their hearts for God But this was doubtless a false Principle They whose hearts were true to God in Israel would not so much as how the knee to Baal Many of them taught It was enough to believe with the heart that confession with the mouth was not necessary Though as Anastas Sinait wel determines to be restrained by any fear of persecution a libera fidei confessione est quaedam species Abnegationis Not to confess Christ is to deny him No mean betwixt these Matth. 10.32 33. Some hold it lawful enough to profess the contrary to what they believe Jura perjura secretum prodere noli Whereunto the Doctrine of equivocation and mental reservation maintained by the Jesuits is as near a kind as may be The Christians in Justin Martyrs time were of other Principles We had rather dye sayes he for the Confession of our Faith than either lye or delude those that examine us otherwise we might readily use the common saying Jurata lingua est animus injuratus est My tongue only is sworn my mind unsworn Such principles as these they were far from approving of Some hold that men may be saved in any Religion It is not very likely that such should stick to the true But such are the false principles that teach men to play fast and loose with God These would teach men to deny Christ with Peter but not to repent with Peter Further many halt from a doubting Conscience or from an erring Conscience and it is sad being left to the conduct of but a doubting Conscience Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin That man halts in his course who is drawn to this or that sed titubante Conscientia as Beza terms it with an hobling hesitating Conscience The Apostles Rule v. 5. is Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Again how sad is it being led by an erring Conscience Indeed such a soul is in a miserable strait Ordinarily it is a sin to follow Conscience when it erreth When Conscience determines that to be a sin which is a duty or that to be
towards the Shechemites Ye have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the Land who will gather themselves together against me As David complained of Joabs baseness in falling upon Abner I am this day weak though anointed King The Kingdom of Christ is weakened and obstructed very much by His followers haltings and miscarriages Others are hereby kept off from Religion who otherwise might have been coming on Yea they that decline the profession of Religion for fear of Persecution and sufferings are not so far from the Kingdom of God as those who are cast off this other way These have a loathing of Religion it stinks with them whereas the other may be convinced in their consciences that it is the best Way the Way of the Righteous only they are discouraged from closing with it because of those hard measures the Righteous ordinarily meet with in this world But this shews us the great evil of mens halting in Religion this hindereth the progress of Religion this obstructeth the Truth and Kingdome of Christ that the Gospel cannot have so free a course and passage as otherwise it might Hence many look upon Religion as a way of deceit as if it taught men to play the hypocrites to be one thing in Profession and the contrary in Practice Which is as true as that the Sun is the cause of darkness Indeed God hath given a streight and perfect Rule to draw all the lines of our conversations by but when our hand shakes when we turn aside in our course keep not close to our Rule many foolish by standers are ready to censure the Rule it self and say that is crooked 2. In respect of the Godly For any that have entered into Religion to halt in Religion 1. It is a matter of reproach to the Godly in general Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed for my sake sayes the Psalmist O why should the Faithfull be put to shame for our sakes Indeed they will not think much to bear reproach for the Lords sake but Why should they be reviled evil-spoken of why should they bear reproach for our sakes As Nehemiah sayes of Shemaiah that False-Prophet Nehem. 6.43 therefore was he hired that I should be afraid and sin and that they might have matter for an evil report This the wicked wait and long for and ever ly at catch here to get any matter for an evil report To say These are your Professors 2. It 's an occasion of sorrow to the best of Gods People It greives them at the heart to see the Name of God thus dishonoured Religion discredited poor souls endangered Certainly the Apostle Paul was not a little moved greived at Peters halting Gal. 2. when he withstood him to his face Now is it nothing to make the hearts of the Righteous sad whom God would not have made sad 3. It 's an occasion of sin to those that are weaker Peters judaizing was a compelling of the Gentiles to do likewise Gal. 2.14 Thus some of the Jewish Converts yea Barnabas himself was carried away with the dissimulation ver 13. This is a teaching the Lords People to transgress We should fear to use our own liberty where weak Christians would be stumbling at it Rom. 14.13 21. 1 Cor. 8.9 12. We may be an occasion of wounding the consciences of our weak Brethren sometimes by our preposterous unadvised use of things indifferent and lawful in themselves And if it be sinful to use our liberty where we may know it will offend and scandalize our weak Brethren how much more to halt outright and lay the stumbling-block of our iniquity before them 3. In respect of sinners How sad are the consequences of this halting in Religion Wo to the world because of offences Wo to sinners 1. Hereby their minds are further prejudiced against Religion and Godliness And what a sad thing is it that any who profess to serve God should carry so as to prejudice others against his service True it is sinners have naturally a very great prejudice against God and Godliness The carnal mind is enmity against the Law of God No need to do any thing to increase this prejudice and enmity found in them But what is said of the Priests Mal. 2.8 Ye are departed out of the way Ye have caused many to stumble at the Law is true of halting professors Whereas they should be Guides to the blind lights to them that are in darkness by halting in Religion and walking unsutably to their profession they are Blinds rather and Stumbling-blocks before others But see Levit. 19.14 Thou shalt not put a stumbling-block before the blind And Deut. 27.18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way 2. Hereupon their mouths are oft opened against Religion Many set their mouth against Heaven seeing such halting in Religion It ought to be our care by wel doing by our strict circumspect and upright walking to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men We should be so wary that they that even watch for our halting would fain take us tripping might have no evil to say of us Our conversations should be winning at least convincing But uneven walking all halting in Religion will open the mouths of unruly talkers How sad to give the wicked any occasion to blaspheme 3. Hereby their hearts are further hardened in their own sin and wickedness and their hands more strengthened As is said of those lying Prophetesses Ezek. 13.22 Ye have strengthened the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way This is a great encouragement to sinners to go on in their evil wayes to see others miscarry Noah's being once overtaken emboldens many to go on in a course of Drunkenness David's once falling into that foul sin of Uncleanness Adultery makes some altogether shameless in sinning so that they no more regard how they wallow in the mire Bishop Gardiner one of the Marian Apostates and Persecutors cryed out on his death-bed That he had denied his Master with Peter but never repented with Peter Thus halting in Religion is very mischievous to sinners an occasion of their overthrow an hastening of their destruction as it puts them further and faster on in a way of transgression Now what a sad thing is it thus to have a hand in the sins and consequently in the ruine of the souls of others Instead of leading and drawing men towards Heaven to lye in their way and to be â—n occasion of their stumbling and downfall into Hell 4. In respect of ones self 1. Thus Conscience is defiled guilt contracted Such shall be found faulty Hos 10.2 As Peter was to be blamed Gal. 2.11 He was an holy man an eminent Apostle yet his Holiness his high Calling would not hide his miscarriage here but on the contrary was greatly blemished by it Men soil themselves shamefully by halting and turning aside into any crooked wayes See 2 Pet. 2.20 2. There is a cause