may follow such a trouble But a gratious heart counts his condition the better for such troubles at first and counts it a mercy that God would any way awaken him and although he lie under many fears yet he expects much good from such troubles and would not be rid of them but upon good grounds and although he doth pray constantly to be delivered from those troubles yet he would not have been without them for the world neither would he go back to his former condition though he were sure thereby to be rid of his troubles Again when a gratious soul doth get peace he doth not content himself barely with peace but he examines what manner of peace he hath gotten whether it be a holy place yea or no whether it be better then his trouble for says he although I wanted peace and I sought for that yet the Lord-knows that was not all I sought for I sought for holiness and for communion with God and f I know my heart I had rather be kept without peace in my spirit and yet close to God then come neerer to peace and to go farther off from God Therefore unless he can see his peace is a holy gratious peace accompanied with the fruits of the spirit and with communion with God it wil not please him but if the heart be carnal under trouble it is careless under a calm and so it hath freedome from the storm it is enough It is a mistake therefore when you say that the people of God do measure their conditions by the peaceableness of it No no they measure it by the goodness and soundness of the peace that they have and they suspend their joy til they have proved and tryed their peace Thirdly You mistake the peace of the soul for it does not consist in a freedom from conviction of sin nor in a cessation of the tenderness of conscience and a losse of the sense of the evil of it But it lies in the evidence of the pardon oâ— sin which is spoken in to the conscience by which it answers all objections that are brought against it For the people of God who have most of this peace have all these things yet remaining Their peace stands with all these but thine is built upon the absence and want of these As first a gracious heart hath peace yet it hath convictions of sin 1 John 1.8 If we say we have nâ— sin Nay he hath more convictions of sin then before he sees more sinne in himself then ever he saw in all his life Job 42.5 6. I have seene the Lord I abhorre my self and Ezek. 16.63 You shall be ashamed and confounded when I am pacified towards you Yes this does not break his peace because he sees sinne and pardon together and the peace does not lessen the sight of sin but makes it plainer to him But your peace is onely in the cessation of Convictions you see not sin as you did and therefore you are not troubled if thine eyes were open and thou didst see thy sinne as the people of God do it would revive thy troubles again Thy peace is false because it consisteth not with conviction if thou hadst a true peace it would heighten thy Convictions thou wouldest see more sin then ever yet thou didst and those more clearly which thou hast seen already Rom. 7.9 When the Law came sin revived and I dyed This is spoken of Paul after he had obtained the pardon of sin and he that before saw nothing blameworthy in him self saw afterwards nothing but a body of sin and death Secondly The soul may be charged for sin and yet have peace He may be charged by God as Israel is Ezek. 16. But this is to humble it It may be charged by its own conscience as Paul Rom. 7.18 19. In my flesh dwels no good thing He may be charged by Satan as we finde that he is ready to charge the people of God and tempt them to doubt of their interest But yet the soul may have an answer to all these in the blood of Christ A soul may have notwithstanding all that is alledged peace with Paul Rom. 8.33 34. and stand out and say though I am daily charged and I cannot but charge my self yet who shall condemne it is Christ that hath dyed So that you see a Believers peace consisteth with these things But thy peace is in this Time was that thou wert troubled for sinne and thou couldest not eate or drink or sleep quietly for it but now you thank God it is otherwise God began to charge thee for sin and conscience was stirred and thou wert afraid and perhaps Satan began to charge thee too For when God begins to charge for sinne to mind it of Christ Rev. 3.17 then the Devil he charges to drive the soul to despaire Jerem. 18.12 And you shal see whether the hand of God or Satan be most in the trouble by these two things whilst the trouble continues you shal know by observing whether the desires after Christ or the fears of wrath and hel are the greatest when the Trouble ends you shall know by the continuation of such desires after Christ For if Gods hand be most In such troubles for good he will keep up the soul after himself when the trouble is over But if Satans hand be principal in them then they lose all those seeming desires which they had after Christ Oh you who have lost your seeming zeal for God with your troubles of conscience Consider it is to be feared that Satan onely troubled to keep thee off from Christ he saw that God began to stir in the Word and he thought it was time for him to stirr also But when he saw that God began to cease striving with thee and thou beganst to grow cold again he ceased to trouble thee also and hence is thy quiet if Satan should but stirre again he would shake thy peace and this he would do if he saw any danger of losing thee but he knows this peace is a likelier way to hold thee then such a trouble But Gods people have a peace in despite of all his molestations A believers peace does not destroy the tenderness of his conscience nor his sensibleness of the evil of sin for he is more sensible of sin then he was before he sees the evil of it more though the danger be not so much He is sensible of the smallest sinne and there is no sin which he now does account so when he was under terrours of Conscience he looked upon his grosse sins and his feares did arise principally from them but now he looks upon his secret sins and his grief is for them So that he saies when a temptation comes how can I do this thing and sinne against God But the carnal mans peace is much built upon his insensibleness he sees the evil of sinne lesse then he did he feels Conscience lesse and conscience feels sin lesse a
art chusing and when reason and judgement are quickest and least engaged least the engaging of these blinde thee that thou wilt not see the scale when it turns We have a Scripture which will give much light to this Heb. 11.24 25. Moses when he came to years refused to be called the son of Pharaohs Daughter and chose rather to suffer with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season when he came to weigh and consider things and to make his choice then he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs Daughter then he threw away the Court Honours and Pleasures but it was in judgement he chose rather to suffer with the people of God he saw something of greater importance to him Before this time he was pleased wel enough with AEgyptian toys and trifles of the Court but now comes his chusing time he must be seted in his spirit and he weighs all and upon a serious survey of both sides he throws away the Rattles which hee had played withall before and he makes another choice he chose rather to suffer Thus wee have the sum of the words in the dayes of thy choice Here is a second word to make it more full In thy choice dayes in the days that thou art fittest for Meditation or Action then set the Lord before thee do not put off the thoughts of God till a time when thou shalt be altogether unfit for him and his Service till a time wherein thou wilt be fit for nothing these are the choice days and thy youth is the chusing time We have the same word which in my text is rendered youth read chosen men 2 Sam. 6.1 David gathered together the chosen men of Israel the choisest and fittest men for action now thou art fittest for the Service of the Lord and this sense seemes to correspond much with the text for it agrees much with that which is but a Paraphrase upon these words before the evil dayes come when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them Do not say in thy heart I will try what the world will afford me now and when I have sucked the breasts of her consolation dry and there no more to be had there then I will try what is to be had in Religion what the ways of God will yeeld this Religion is a thing only fit for old Men and Women that have nothing else to do whose palats are grown old and cannot rellish or taste the delights which youth affords or whose memories are grown weak and have forgotten the pleasures of their past days these may begin to think of Heaven now their blood is grown cold and their senses fail them that they can hardly distinguish between sweet and bitter when we have worn out our selves in the world and crippled our Bodies and worn out our Senses in turning every stone and sucking every flower which will afford us any comfort then will we creep to our Closets and cloyster up our selves there too and spend the remainder of our dayes in praying and sighing but for our youth you must excuse us we will take this time to our selves to eat drink and be merry and put death and Judgement and every troublesome thought from us O say not thus in your heart but in your choyse days begin thus work for no day nor time is too precious for the Lord. I have now briefly opened the words I shall propound such Observations as will naturally flow from them 1. That every man has a choice or chusing time 2 God expects that at that time we should chuse him 3 It is a great advantage to begin with the Loâ—d before we are too far engaged in other choyces 4. Remembring and considering or setting God before our eyes is a great Duty and a great help towards the feare of the Lord. 5. No time so fit for this great work as the youth I shal not handle all these distinctly but shall dravv them into one grand Conclusion and in handling that I shall touch and clear up all these as branches of that great Truth vvhich lyeth in the vvords vvhich is this DOCTRINE That nothing conduces more to the fear of the Lord as a means on our part then a seas nable and timely setting him before our eyes A serious and a solemn calling forth of the Attributes of the glorious God and comparing and weighing them with the vanity of the creatures does wonderfully conduce to the ballancing our spirits and to the setting and fixing them upon God as our and chiefest good and at least to over-awe our spirits with a fear of him if not to draw forth the heart unto a love of him For it is very clear that all the wickedness amongst men does arise from a forgetfulness of God David renders a reason of the wickedness of his enemies Psal 54.3 they did not set God before them For strangers are risen up against me and oppressors seek after my soul they have not set God before them And in that fore-mentioned place Deut. 8.11 12. the Lord clearly expounds disobeence and forgetfulness of himself one by the other I shal not spend time in proving this Truth generally but shal divide my discourse into these four parts 1. To enquire how and what of God is to be set before our eyes to help forward this work 2. How the setting of the Lord before us doth further this feare in our hearts 3. How to keep the Lord in our eye when we have him there 4. Why the young man especially must set upon this duty For the first How and what of God is to be set before our eyes to help forward this work Answ I le begin with that in the Text Consider him as thy Creator this doth surely reach thee this reaches Angels and Men and Devils in In ipsa voce creatoris occultum habetur Argumentum look to thy very being or to the beings of thy Creature-enjoyments and Nature wil tel thee by these That God is to be feared that thou dost ow him homage and service think what God may challenge from thee as thou art his Creature the Apostle condemns the Heathen that they did not walk up to this light Rom. 1.21 Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God God complains from hence of unjust measure from his people Ezek. 16.18 19. Thou hast set mine Oyl and mine Incense before them my meat also which I gave thee fine flower and oyl and honey where-with I fed thee thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour Hosea 2.8 For she did not know that I gave her wine and oyl and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baalim And may not the same complaint be made against us That we offer up our time and strength and parts to the World and Sin and Lust and Satan Did they give you these things Are these your Creators Did â—hey give you your being
did Come another time But it is a question whether God will waite upon thee any more or not perhaps he 'le give a Commission to his Messengers to speake no more he will send them to another people Or if it doe come againe it may never come with that heat and light that it comes now to thee the Word which iâ— nâ—w a spirited Worâ— may be a dead coâ—d Word ever after to thee Felix put off the Word when it came in some power He might have heard many Sermons before he met with such another Oh let not the probability of enjoying the meanes make thee secure under it Thou sayest pehapes if thou wert likely to have no more of it thou wouldest then listen to the present word and the Convictions of it Oh but what if thou wert sure yet to enjoy the Word art thou sure to finde it a Convincing Word thou mayest have it then but if God hath withdrawne the inlightning convincing power from it what difference will there be betwixt thee and him that hath no word oh how little is this considered and minded by the greatest part of man they hear as if they were sure to heare againe and as if there were no danger of being lost under the Word they say they have the meanes and there is no such hast if we here it not to day we may hear it to morrow we shall have the same Word then which we have now and it wil be well if we listen to it then But though you should have the same Word and the same persons which speake the Word to you then yet you may finde it as another thing to you then the Word may be now a Convincing Word there may be some spirit and power in it now and then it may be otherwise to thee God may have withdrawne all convincing quickning comforting power from it and then it will seeme to thee that it is not the same Word that it was thou mayst hear the same things which stirre thee now and not be moved at al and then if God be withdrawne from his Ordinances it is all one as if he had taken them away too Oh take this into your Consideration you who doe enjoy a constant Ministry and have the Word constantly preacht to you listen to it as if it were departing from you for though the Word it self continue yet if the Spirit depart from it thy soul is undone If you had but a little time to live or but a little time to hear the word thou wouldest be perswaded to look after it But oh these may be true one or both but suppose neither be true that thy life be not short nor the meanes short yet let me tell thee the time in which God will strive with thy soul may be short yea very short There is a prefixed time set for thee to come in to Christ which if thou passest over if thou diddest live to Methuselabs age and haddest the choicest means under Heaven yet thou shouldest not be converted If thou haddest an assurance that any time in thy life would serve the turn yet thou hast no reason to delay for thy life is very uncertain and short for this great work But the means is more uncertain thou art not sure that the Gospel shal always sound in thine â—ars Oh but Gods striving with thy heart is most uncertain for who knows how soon he wil give over to struggle with thee Thy life is a very inconsiderable thing because of the shortness of it it is but a moment in comparison of eternity Oh but the day of grace is a short thing in comparison of thy life Take heed of carelesness as if thou didst know that thy day of grace would bold to the last day of thy life We never read that conversion and death met together in one day save to one man which was the Thief on the Crosse it was to one to prevent despair in them whose eyes are then opened and it was but to one that none might presume upon such a time before it come If such a day and it hath such an end and it leave men under such an irrecoverable condition then take hold of the present time while it is called to day Because thou art sure onely of the present there is a night coming when no man can work not onely a night of death but a night of spiritual slumber wherein thou shalt walk up and down with eyes blinded understanding darkened affections alienated from God Conscience seared with a black mark of ruine and perdition upon thy soul when thou shalt not onely be without sence but past sence past seeing and past feeling and past hopes when thou shalt think that thou seest and yet seest not and think that thou perceivest and yet shalt be blinde as the Mole having no true understanding of God nor of thy own condition before him Oh when this night comes upon thee woe unto thee thy work must needs lye behind for ever If you could but foresee such a thing as this is and did believe indeed that it would come upon thee wouldest thou not lay aside all delaies and bethink thy self of improving this inch of time which thou hast for Eternitie I beseech you all therefore in the Lord be perswaded to consider of this thing it is a great thing that I am treating about lay it to your hearts and lay about you as those who have but a little time to mind a great business Think of these things First Some think themselves too great to think on such things they have great cares and many incumbrances Secondly Many think they are not great enough when they are risen to such a height in honour or estate then they wil mind it and some too young another time wil serve All these put it off to another time A death-bed there they appoint Conscience to meet them and debate the business Two great general Deceits run thorow mens hearts First They pretend that they wil comply with the Gospel Few will say in plaine termes We wil not have Christ reign over us or We wil never hear any more of this matter but they wil appoint another time as they judge most convenient not considering that the time they dreame of may not come at all or if it does it may be no time for this the time for this work may be past Secondly They act for the world as if their being rich great did depend upon a day but as if the business of their souls had no dependance on the advantage of time but the Scripture speaks otherwise it has set thee a day for thy soul which if thou neglect thou shalt lose but for the world that may be had in the last place Matthew 6. First seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Great men mind this you have but a day you may neglect the time and God wil be as strict with you as others in