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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61908	A gospel-glasse, representing the miscarriages of English professors, both in their personal and relative capacities ..., or, A call from heaven to sinners and saints by repentance and reformation to prepare to meet God.	Stuckley, Lewis, 1621 or 2-1687.	1667 (1667)	Wing S6088; ESTC R13173	281,871	514

who have committed more sins in number than the hairs on my head than the sands on the Sea shore And what Mercy for me Shall I have a Christ Will Christ accept of me who have wronged his Father and him for so many years together O! how long doth many an awakened Soul hang in doubts and fears ere it will venture upon Christs graciousness alone and then when the Soul hath long stood out the fears increase I have refused Christ so long to all my former transgressions I have added this my puting off Christ and Salvation when freely tendered and therefore sure I may not now come And now if Christ offers them mercy still they are fearful they cannot believe that Christ is serious and real O! by these jealousies of Christ you provoke him not a little You are ready to say This is too good news to be true What is this but to say The Gospel is false it is no true and faithful Word 't is not to be received with all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save the greatest of sinners blasphemers and persecutours of Christ This is the great Sin that made Christ weep You seldome find Christ weeping over the Idolaters of the World I find him not weeping over Sodom and Gomorrah but if Hierusalem refuse Christ this makes him weep indeed Hierusalem Luke 19.42 Hierusalem O if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that concern thy peace Christ became a man of sorrows Isa 53.3 was acquainted with griefs c. on hopes he should see of the travail of his Soul and be satisfied It troubles Christ to see thee to goe about to make God a Lyar to his Son and to be denied thy loves and affections for whose sake he submitted to his Fathers frowns O! this sin of Unbelief hath great unkindness in it Mar. 16.14 and therefore no wonder if Christ upbraids for it A man is properly upbraided when as the kindness that hath been done to him is revealed to him together with his ungratefulness But what shall I say So farr are Souls from coming to Christ that they do seldome bewail this sin and seldome seek to God for power against it and though men pretend they cannot come to Christ yet the truth is they will not so Mr. Fenner in his willful impenitency hath abundantly proved The immediate cause of your not coming is not a natural deficiency but a moral opposition of Spirit against Christ CHAP. VII Their taking Christ partially without conjugal affections and without considering the cost they may be at 5ly Many take Christ partially IF at length men are perswaded to come to Christ yet they take him partially both as King Prophet and Priest As their King They are contented he shall rule in many things but not in all Their drudgery to one or two lusts must be preferr'd before Christs Scepter and Government Some part of Christs Yoak of Commandements they will submit to but are not pleased that Christ shall impose what they will they pick and choose here they will obey in another thing I pray have me excused few are brought to say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Any thing Lord I am called to thy foot as the man of the East was ready to trudge after thee to the ends of the Earth As their Prophet Here they divide too many things they will learn of Christ but they must partly lean to their own understandings and be taught for Doctrines the Traditions of men They are also partial in their close with Christ as their Priest They hope to be saved partly by his mediation and partly by their own As the Papists so many Protestant Professours are for a divided Christ few are for exalting Christ alone so as to renounce all other Lords who have had Dominion over them and to count all other Teachers besides Christ as vain absurd unsound and weak Few renounce all their own righteousness as dung to put the Crown on Christs head alone to make Christ their alone Mediatour their alone Intercessour No they must have Cisterns of their own to keep their water in and Sands of their own to build upon and so Christ the Elect precious Stone is refused by the Builders How many hope to be pardoned partly by Christ and partly by their Civility and new Obedience They lay their title to God Heaven and Glory partly from Christs merits and partly from their own deserts few whose hopes are founded on Christ's satisfaction alone but their hopes rise or fall according to what they do for him rather than according to what he hath done and suffered for them their hopes of acceptance with God are more from their reformations than from Christs entring within the Vaile If they have peace of Conscience they ascribe it to their Prayers rather than to Christs Intercession and if they Pray in secret in their Closet and in their Family too when both before were neglected they hope to pass by this Bridge to Heaven but if it be too short they will set Christ to patch up what is wanting that they may land on the other shore Hence it is that many Professors are much more consciencious in their obedience to the moral law than they are to the Law of Faith for that they hope their obedience will steed them asmuch if not more than Jesus Christ but if they understand that without Faith there is no pleasing God then they will labour for a faith that may justifie them rather as an act of theirs than in respect of the object Christ. Christ is still used only upon necessity and to make up the want of somewhat else but very few dare rest on the merits of Christ alone so as to see all their righteousness to be as filthy rags To few ●s Christ made of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Let me ring a peal in your Ears Totum Christum et totum Christi You must receive Christ entirely all Christ and all of Christ or you are not Christians though you have a name to live Christ is coming to distinguish names from things and then you will curse the day you had the Name or heard of the Name you will have your portion with Hypocrites These are indispensible terms on which Christ will insist All or none Christ as a Refiner as well as a Saviour Christ as a Lord as well as a Sacrifice Sixthly Many close with Christ without coniugal affections If men are perswaded in the horrours of their Spirits to take Christ as Priest Prophet and King as a meer shift to shift off their troubles and sorrows and their sins the occasions of them yet their hearts stand off from Christ as an Husband they have not conjugal affections to him their hearts are not brought over to him they receive him not into their bosomes into their choicest affections all this while There is still

short-sighted men yet you are but Devils in Christs account So was the arch-Hypocrite Judas One of you is a Devil Of all Devils none so bad as the Professing Devil Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar when he carouzed in the Bowls of the Sanctuary 2 Pet. 2.3 Their damnation slumbereth not who through covetousness make use of the covering of faigned words O! When will ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and True holiness Eph. 4.24 Believe it if thou art a whited wall God will smite thee Though thou get some present glory or profit by thy outside holiness yet God more abhors thee than the bleer and imperfect observing World can applaud thee Will a King indure it that thou take his Robes and cloath a Swine with them or that thou take his Crown and set it on the head of a base Varlet God is coming against the Hypocritical Nation And he accounts it a disgrace for thee to voice thy self to be the Son of so great a Prince whilst thou art a Slave to Hellish lusts All you do for God will not profit you you lose all you have wrought whilst acted by self and corrupt in your ends and aims Though you trust in lying words Jer. 7.8 Isa 57.12 in your outward shews yet I will declare thy righteousness and thy words for they shall not profit thee What shall I say There is no acceptance for you to be had without the Benjamin of sincerity with you A day of trouble is hastning and you think then to pray but will God hear your cry when trouble cometh upon you Job 27.9 Psal 106.15 Psal 51.6 If you deny God your heart never expect his ear Quails you may have but with a vengeance with leanness in your souls That which God desireth and looketh for is truth in the inward parts God and Religion have received so much dishonour by pretenders to Christ and Truth and so many Atheists have been made confirmed and hardned in England by the Observations they have made on Professours hypocritical pretensions that I fear the stains will hardly be wash'd away without blood and some probably will be called forth to seal to the Truth of Christ by their death to convince men that there are some real Christians who will spend and be spent for Christ and that whilst many have but a Name to live yet there are a few in our Sardis who are not defiled with hellish Hypocrisie but love Truth in their inward parts CHAP. XIX Their Sabbath-Sins Lastly WHen you remember the evil of your wayes Professors Sabbath-Sins of your ungodly wayes you may not omit your Sabbath-Sins God hath appointed the Sabbath He hath sanctified it for special and entire communion with himself The Law of the Sabbath was given before the Fall because man was to labour and dress the Garden on the six dayes and therefore could not have that compleat and indistracted communion with God even in his estate of innocency which he might enjoy by a total seperation from all earthly and heterogeneous employments But since the Fall this Rest is of more absolute necessity for that we cannot now apply our minds entirely to matters of so different a nature as heavenly and earthly things are The Sabbath is many wayes honourable it was antiently set apart by God it was written with Gods own finger in the Tables God rained Mannah on that day it 's called an Everlasting Covenant by way of eminency as if nothing of Gods Covenant were kept if this were not Yea God puts a Remember on this day and no other Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day If a Friend sendeth to you that he will come and solace himself in your company such a day and tells you the set time when he will come will he not take it ill if you neglect him then If you are full of employments and other guests and have no leisure to attend communion with him Thus saith God Remember such a time I will set it apart on purpose to enjoy you and feast you I will then take you into my Cellars my Wine Cellars and after an holy manner inebriate you with Divine comforts You are on your other dayes clogg'd and cumbred with earthly affairs so that I can have therein but broken communion with you but pray Remember to lay aside all other business to rest from all your other works that I and you may freely converse together But instead of this How little Preparation do we make for the observing of this day unto the Lord Their not preparing for it Though Remember be a Watch-word of solemn Preparation for it Remember it think of it before it come that so thou mayest be ready to sanctifie it without any distraction by worldly business Which of us dispatcheth his worldly business seasonably on the six dayes Nay is it not a wicked custome to engross more business into our hands and hearts the day before than on any other day of the Week Do not greedy Professours sit up later on Saturday Night than any other Night Hereby their hearts are cumbred with the World and their natural strength and spirits wasted and spent so that they cannot with a free Spirit wait upon God Such is the reverence that is due to the solemn and publick Duties of Devotion that they require not only a surcease from other works and thoughts for the time of the performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that we look to our feet c. that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the World and not easily withdrawn from it may be raised to a disposition becoming the day God alone knows how oft the Devil and our own hearts have intangled us with occasions on the Saturday whereby our minds have been distracted on the Sabbath Yea have we not at times even secretly wished that the Sabbath were over or might be adjourned that we might pursue some worldly design which is obstructed by its interposal The Sabbath is the Saints Market-day or Fair-day You know what preparations are made by Worldlings for their dayes of gain would to God we had learned wisdome from carnal men so to fit and prepare for the advantages to our Souls we may reap upon Gods day Their curtailing it Amos 8.4 How have we curtailed the Sabbath Have not we risen later on the Lords day than on any other and gone sooner to bed on that day than on any other When will the Sabbath be gone Do not we make it the shortest day of the Week O! If God had reserved all the dayes to himself save one how diligent would you have been to take all the day to your worldly business This is a clear evidence that your minds are more on your Profits and Pleasures than on the Service of Christ How lowring are our countenances Being sad when the Sabbath begins and glad when it

ends and how lumpish and heavy are our hearts in the beginning of a Sabbath much more than upon any other day Doth not this prove the day to be no way pleasing to us And how chearfull are some of us when the Sabbath is ended The heart is not so well pleased all the day as then yea do not some cheat and delude themselves hereby as if they had joy in the Lord and had received comfort from the Word and other Ordinances whereas they are glad that the yoak of Ordinances the burden of the Word of the Lord and the burden of the day of the Lord is taking off their Shoulders Being hindred from profaning it only by external motives How many are there who would profane Gods Sabbaths and wholy neglect the Ordinances of them were it not for the Laws of men and the eyes of their Relations How quieted are some when they have attended the publick service Satisfied with worshipping God publickly and do they betwixt and after those solemn duties refrain their lips from worldly talk from impertinencies from such discourse as bears no proportion with the holiness of the day When works of Necessity and Charity happen out beyond our expectation or forecast Glad to be hindred from works of piety are we at all troubled at them Do not we rather rejoyce because we have thereby a dispensation to withdraw from the immediate worship of God And how many neglect to do all their works on the six dayes Exod. 20.9 though the Lord so expresly chargeth them so to do that they may have a pretence of necessity to do much servile work on the Sabbath How common is it to dress meat on the Sabbath more than on any other day when there is not the least pretence of weakness c. Hereby not only Servants but the whole house are too much in labour and destraction and hindred if not from the solemn Assemblies yet from Family and Closet worship How do many gossip complement Eating too much on the Sabbath and feast away abroad the day of the Lord or else eat to an excess at home and thereby make themselves fitter for a bed than to wait on the Sanctuary to hear Christs voice to meditate on his love and to feed in his pleasant pastures How carefull are we to keep our selves Stealing Gods time and ours from pilfering from our Neighbour but not from stealing from God his time yea are not some Governours so ungodly unmercifull that they will allow their people no time but the Sabbath to recreate themselves from their labours If they need recreation you have more time than God hath reserved sure you should not steal from God to pleasure them In the discharge of the works of mercy to Man and Beast Not performing duties of mercy aright Do not we respect more our own commodity than the will of God than the dispensation of God and the creatures necessities Are these works of mercy attended with such spiritual meditations as they do afford us if our hearts were holy How few bless God for giving them one day Not blessing of God for the Sabbath wherein they may lighten their hearts of all worldly cares and throw off all griefs and secular cumbers and may seek for relief and comfort in their God Perhaps the Master observes a day unto the Lord Careless whether those under them observe the Sabbath but how careless is he that his Sons and Daughters and all within his gate honour the day of the Lord Do not many Professing Governours of Families let them sleep away the Sabbath that they may be the fitter for their drudgeries the following week O! when will Governours be as diligent that their Servants and Houshold serve the Lord as that they serve themselves You have been carefull that your work were done on the week but careless whether Gods work were done by them on the Sabbath careless whether your Servants profited by the Sabbath yea or no When will Gods glory and the good of your peoples Souls be nearer to you than your worldly advantages You ask your Servants what work they have done for you every day and call them to frequent accounts for your gains-sake and what never reckon with them about their Spiritual Soul-work O! how little is the love of God shed abroad in your hearts How justly may God be angry with us till he hath consumed us for our desiling the day of the Lord It was Gods express Law Exod. 31.14 that every one that desileth it should surely be put to death When the people were weary of the Sabbath when they said Amos 8.5 v. 7. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat c. v. 7. The Lord swore by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works v. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a floud and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt v. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day v. 10 And I will turn your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into lamentation c. v. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the land not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. v. 12. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it CHAP. XX. Their miscarriages about Heart-examination THe more that the Lord of Heaven chargeth us with a Duty Professors miscarriages about Self-examination the more inexcusable are our neglects of it There are few things more commanded us than to try and examine our hearts and lives 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves c. Prove your selves c. We are apt to be strangers to our selves to cheat our selves with vain presumptuous hopes to rest in notions therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Examine your selves take an experimental knowledge of your selves We are apt to prove others and censure them therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prove your own selves begin at home try your state try your actions bring the mettal to the touchstone see whether it be sound or counterfeit try your Faith whether it be temporary or saving prove your Repentance whether it be through or superficial examine your Love whether it be sincere or hypocritical and your Obedience whether it be universal or partial Deut. 4.39 Know therefore and consider it in thine heart make a return or answer to thine heart Commune with thine own heart