our rising up early and sitting up late our spending our strength our lungs our spirits yea and our estates among you you have requited us evil for good even to the spoyling of our Souls Acts 7.51 52. Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy-Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted c. Have not you in your hypocrisie made outcries against others for silencing your Ministers for taking away the bread out of yours and your Childrens mouths and for removing them from their stations and dwellings But may not I profess in the name of all my Fellow-Sufferers that your misimprovements your inconstancies your pride and earthliness have been and are our chiefest burdens a greater pressure to us than any burdens that lye upon our names bodies or estates I cannot but think of a passage of holy Mr. Shepheard The Jews saith he did long for Christ and when he came they Crucified him and you would have Ministers and you had them and though you did not immediately cast them out of their places yet you so wearied their Spirits and grieved the Spirit in them that you made them glad to bury themselves and leave their places you had Prophets and their teâ—â—s and their sorrows too yea and their blâ—â—d too and O! what a light matter was it teâ—â—s you to break their very hearts How little did you obey them that ruled over you Hebr. 13.17 and submitted your selves that they might give their account with joy and not with grief How little did you believe that that is unprofitable for you Have not you made nothing of it for your Ministers to lose their labour to put them upon crying out I have laboured in vain Isa 49.45 Yea how have you grieved their very Souls with reproaches Some who have pretended affection to them yet have had their reproachfull Names of Priest Parson Vicar c. Though God hath put a Crown of honour upon them by making them his Ambassadours yet how have some impudent Professours blasted them with their stinking breath and prosane scoffs Ambassadours are inviolable by the Laws of Nations The Lord saith one hath set a better mark on them than Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm yet you have made a light matter of vexing their very Souls When you could have nothing else against your Minister have not you been censuring him for his manner of speaking 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters say they are weighty and powerfull but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible Lastly And being weary of them Have not your Ministers been so troublesome to you in your sins in your formality worldliness lukewarmness c. that you were even weary of them Have not you been as weary of them as the Children of Israel of Angels food as weary as weak somachs are of feeding on one dish Your Ministers urged flesh-displeasing and self-denying duties they would not suffer you to sin quietly and were not you therefore burthened with them they would not stand and comply with your carnal ends and sinfull interests and did not your hearts therefore cry out away with them Have not you been like the Gadarenes more willing to part with your Ministers than with your swinish lusts Rom. 1.28 Because you did not like to retain God in your knowledge 't is no wonder if God give up many of you to a reprobate mind Hath not the Gospel been too costly too chargeable to some of you and too irksome requiring too much pains taking to others of you O! when you Remember your crying iniquities for which God is chiefly contending with you forget not this dreadfull sinne of being weary of Gods Ambassadours of being weary of speaking with God and of hearing God speak unto your Souls CHAP. XXXIII Their misearriages with reference to the Ministers of Christ Professours miscarriages toward their Ministers since their removal Not finding the want of them Not esteeming the loss great enough since their removal 1. H How many of you do not find them wanting This will be evident by the following Queries Have you indeed accounted that none in the world want help like your selves upon this very account Do you look upon your selves as litting in darkness yea in the region and shadow of death under a worse Plague than the Egyptian-darkness that was a darkness wherein men lived but do you look on this as a darkness of death Do you account a Throne without the Gospel but the Devils Dungeon Wealth without the Gospel fuell for Hell Advancement without the Gospel but a going high to have the greater fall Do you look upon your selves as under a worse famine than that of bread Cannot you your selves make up this great loss cannot you set other things in the breach Do not some of you set good books in the room of your Ministers Going about to make it up by good books I confess saith a Reverend Man Reading hath its use but the voice hath a secret force upon the Soul it hath a Ministerial efficacy by which the Authority and Soveraign efficacy of the Spirit is conveyed I pray God the fruitfullness of the Press may not beget a dis-esteem and contempt of the great Ordinance of the Minister already you have been told already that Luther had rather his books should be burnt than the Scriptures suffer a dishonour and neglect by perusing his papers Do not some of you set your own parts and gifts in their room Their own parts and gifts Do not some of you think that you have so profited by their Ministry that you have no further need to attend upon any Ministers of Christ May not such doubt whether their experience of the power and efficacy of the Ministry hath been true seeing true experience thereof sweetneth the Ministry unto Souls raiseth up their esteems of it and engageth them to a further and more chearfull attendance upon it A true tast will sharpen the Souls appetite the true Christian gets a Stomach by eating as the new born babe by sucking 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be that ye have found that the Lord is gracious Do not some of you go about to make up your selves by attending on Christ's companions in the sense of Solomon And Christ's companions Cant. 1.7 by going to Wells without water by sucking empty breasts whence you can draw nothing but wind or blood what is this but seeking the living among the dead expecting gracious showers from Clouds without rain making up the want of bread with stones if not poyson O! why do not you say Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon for why should I be as
your souls are the most considerable Jewels you stand possessed of All the world will not weigh with one soul Thy money may ransome thy body nothing save Christs blood thy soul Pause a while Reader and reflect on all thy sinfull neglects of thy immortal Soul lest on thy death-bed thou shriek and cry O my soul whether art thou going 2. Carelessness of others souls How little are the souls of others valued and cared for how many masters are there that care no more for their servants souls than for the dogs nay not so much Perhaps some of you are carefull that the bodies of your families be cloathed be fed c. but the souls lie unprovided for Soul-poysoners not censured as they ought to be Make nothing to lay poyson for souls more care is taken for the pigs than for the souls 1. How do we justly censure them as worthy of Capital punishments that murther the bodies of men but not so others who poyson and destroy thousands of souls How do you hate to have an hand in murthering the bodies of any to lay poyson for the destruction of any and yet how commonly do men lay the poyson of ill councell and ill example before others to cause them to fall into the pit of hell and are not affected with this great evil 2. Not troubled at soul-murtherers How troubled are we at any that kill bodies or that murther others but not so at the millions that destroy their own and others souls that have an hand in ruining in damning themselves and others 3. If any neglect means that might have continued the life of their husbands children c. how are they dejected how do the wring their hands and beat their breasts whereas if by carelessness if by the neglect of their duties if by evil example they have destroyed their souls they are not troubled about these matters 4. Low esteems of those that prize their souls How do you account meanly of all that take pains for their souls that wait at the pools of Bethesda that consult Ministers and books and attend on the Ordinances for their souls whilst you account it your wisdome to lay out the most if not all of your time for your bodies Hast thou the name of a Christian I pray God to let one word to sink into thine heart thou hast not Christ thou hast not the Spirit of Christ in thee he knows how to value souls and therefore shed blood for them and sends his Spirit in the Gospel to be importunate for their salvation CHAP. II. Their want of saving Conviction and Compunction HOw many Professours like Paul Alive without the Law Rom 7.9 Rev. 3.1 are alive without the Law How many like Sardis have a name to live imagine they are alive when they are dead How many are alive in their own conceit and perhaps in the conceit of others and yet are void of the true super-natural life How many are contented with their being baptized They see no need of Christ they were born of Christian Parents Luke 3.3 they are of the stock of Abraham We have Abraham to our Father They do not consider how many baptized persons are deadly enemies to Christ and to their souls and averse to the wayes of holiness they will not consider that Swearers Drunkards and Adulterers have as good claimes to Christ and heaven as these have How many also please themselves with the Religion of Education God hath not moulded their hearts though Parents their lives their Parents have taught them some Principles of Religion but they are strangers to the wonderful operations and teachings of the Holy Ghost they have not the Unction from above they know not what it is that teacheth all things and yet such as these are alive i. e. merry jocund jovial confident if any goe to heaven they shall be of the number But to speak more particularly First Few convinced of original sin imputed How many are there that were never convinced of original sin imputed or imparted 1. How few are convinced that Adam was a common person and that we sinned in his loynes that if he had stood we had stood and that it is just with God that he ship wracking himself we should be counted sinners in him We did eat of the forbidden fruit in Adam we in Adam believed the Devil rather thaâ— God we in Adam broke with God for toyes and trifles we were ungrateful disobedient in him we apostâ—tized in him and broke covenant with God in him hence by one mans offence sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sin for that as Levi paid tithes in Abraham so we becâ—me rebells against the Majesty of Heaven in our first Parents when did you shed a tear for Adam's sin for your and his grand provocation 2. Few convinced of original sin inherent Psal 5.9 How few see Adam 's sinful nature imparted to them They see not their inward part is very wickedness nothing but wickedness Few see what a sad Apostacy from the perfection of mans nature Sin hath brought into the world and how black an Image of Sathan it hath drawn upon the soul they never saw what filthy dirty loathsome things they are in the eyes of God they never saw their noysomeness and venome the garbage and malignity of their hearts How few see a general defect of all righteousness and holiness wherein at first they were created How few are convinced of an antipathy to all that is good That they are haters of God by nature Eph. 2.1 that they are dead in trespasses and sins a more dreadful estate than if they were rotting in their graves that they have an Ocean of corruption within them that will never be dried up in this life that they have a worse Leprosie than that among the Jewes which got into the walls and would never out till the house was demolished who almost thinks so sadly of themselves They bless God their hearts are good though they be the worst of men pray not slight Ordinances closet duties and family worship lies neglected yet the Devil perswades them all is well their hearts are good though the heart of man by nature be like hell it self whose fire of lust is unquenchable though it be like Peter's great sheet which he saw in the Vision full of all unclean things Acts 11.6 though it be a receptacle of all impiety yet how few turn their eyes inward to see their natural deformities Alass All the venome the Snake sends forth is nothing to the poyson that lies in its nature And all those monstrous impieties which the lives of men are taunted with are not to be compared with the venome that lurks in the heart of every man by nature Men would not glory in their blood and descent did they but believe how sin descended and was conveyed Men could not content themselves to walk heavily under some actual
dung of hell devoured and swallowed How few see sin to be contrary to the works of God although God had no sooner perfected the goodly faâ—rick of Heaven and Earth but sin gave a shrewd shake to all it shook and dis-joynted all and had it not been for Christ the great Mediatour it had ruined the whole frame of Nature How few see sin to be contrary to the will of God God saith I will have this done I 'le not do it saith Sin I 'le have this suffered saith God I 'le not suffer it saith Sin Nay so great is the contest betwixt Sin and God that if it could it would unbee God How few take notice of its contrariety to the very nature of God God is good Sin is evil God is pure Sin is impure How few believe sin to be universally evil that there is no good in it We cannot perswade men that there is good in poverty good in disgrace good in reproaches with the tongue and persecutions unto death but easily are men perswaded there is some good in sin How few are convinced of the miserable effects and consequences of sin The wrath of God is not revealed against their unrighteousnest and ungodliness so as to make their knees to tremble The hand-writing on the wall is not observed They are still alive We cannot for our hearts perswade men to goe up to heaven to see what spoyles it made there could we herein prevail then would they inferr that there is more evil in the least sin than there is good in all the Angells of heaven for that one sin conquered them and spoyled them of all their beauty and made them of glorious creatures to become such loathsome and hideous spectacles neither can we prevail with any almost to take a journey to Paradise to see its venome there or to goe to the Garden or to Mount Calvary to see what work it did there or to goe to hell-gate to hear the doleful shrieks and cries which it hath caused there though God hath said Psal 68.21 God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses though there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57.21 though sin be the sole object of Gods hatred for God loved the whole Creation till its beauty was blasted and stained by sin though sin only seperates between God and souls Isa 59.2 though in the belly of it be found all miseries deaths and hells though it be the founder of all graves and of Tophet though it fill the conscience with terrours and hell with fire and brimstone yet few are affected with the evils of it but they drink in iniquity as water Thirdly Few sensible of being under the wrath of God John 3.28 36. Eccles 8.11 How few Professours are sensible that they are cast by an holy and righteous Law that they are condemned creatures that the wrath of God abideth on them Few have seen the black cloud full of woes brim full of wrath ready to empty it self upon their souls they take no notice that though the sentence be not executed speedily yet it is given forth and there may be but a little breath and they are gone to perish for ever How many senseless souls are there in our Parishes whose consciences were never shaken whose spirits were never wounded who never received the spirit of bondage to fear who never knew what a fearfull expectation of judgement meant who go dancing to hell in the Devils chains and yet count themselves the noble and gallant spirits and flatter themselves in their own eyes and say we shall have peace though we walk in the imaginations of our hearts Deut. 29.19 Rev. 3.16 17. These are Laodicean-like rich and full and needing nothing when God is about to spue them out of his mouth as we discharge our stomacks of some loathsome surfets Pro. 26.16 These are wiser in their own conceit then seven men that can render a reason Though one Minister at the heels of another endeavour with Scripture upon Scripture to convince them of and to prick them at the heart for their sin and danger yet they are boysterously confident and presumptuous that they shall to heaven as soon as any Precisians in the Country Never did many break one nights sleep upon the consideration of their sinfull and lost condition by nature never did they loath their ordinary food or feel the smart of broken bones as David did though they have sinned at an higher rate never did they know what a wounded spirit meant what anguish of soul was never did they feel Gods wrath or sin a burthen insupportable they were never pricked at the heart so as to cry out What shall I do to be saved What shall I do to have me sins pardoned Would you know the reason of all this security Alas they are dead in sins and trespasses A dead condition is an insensible condition death deprives of sense as well as life the dead are not frighted with the swords and pistols at their breasts the dead fear not though threatned with fire and brimstone the dead hear not though God be on Mount Ebal thundering curses upon curses the dead see not though sin be so ugly a monster and hell so frightfull a place the dead smell not though sin stinks worse than the vomit of dogs 2 Pet. 2.20 than rotten Sepulchres or than the corrupted matter of the most nasty disease it offends not the dead to have this stinking Carrion alwayes in their bosomes the dead feel not though that which is heavier than montains of lead be lying on their backs they grown not neither do they complain so much as Cain did they do not go softly in the bitterness of their souls by reason of their sins Many cannot say with Hannah that ever they were of a sorrowfull Spirit Though there be so many curses upon the heads of all natural persons though there be an entayl of wrath upon the heads of the very sins they live in though their sins are or may be circumstantiated to a greater degree than any of the Scripture-Offendors that we read of as being committed under the open Sun of the Gospel though Hell be open to receive them every moment whilst impenitent whilst hardned though the Valley of Hinnom is making room for them to entertain them with the vengeance of a justly-provoked God yet few fear few work out their salvation with weeping eyes and trembling hearts they are still alive without the Law they never walked softly with Ahab or were under Soul-trouble with Judas they fall short of the pangs and sense of Hypocrites Oh! Oh! Oh! I pitty these secure souls how short will they fall of their hopes and how farr short of Heaven Fourthly Few sensible of Sathans working in them Eph. 2.2 How few are sensible that all this while the Devil works in them as in his
Conscience though I hazard the displeasure of great men thereby Numb 24.10 So did that Sorcerer though Balaks anger was kindled against Balaam and he smote his hands together 18. I have some sights of another World and I desire to spend an eternity with the Saints So had Balaam Numb 23.10 and did not he desire so much Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his 19. When I think of the day of Judgement I am affected with it whereas before I was sottish and secure So was Felix As he Paul reasoned of Righteousness Acts 24.25 Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled 20. I am an Orthodox Protestant so thou mayst be a Teacher too thou mayst not only know Gods will and approve the things that are more excellent Rom. 2.18 19 20 24. being instructed out of the Law but confident that thou thy self art a guide of the blind a light of them which are in darkness an Instructer of the foolish a Teacher of babes which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law and yet fall short of Christ and of Heaven yea the name of God may be blasphemed among the Gentiles through thee 21. I am free from the scandaious evils of the times So were they in Peter They had escaped the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 22. yea and that through the knowledge of Christ which is more than the moral Heathens ever had and yet were dogs and swine still 22. I live inoffensively none can lay any thing to my charge But was not Paul whilst Christless Phil. 3.6 touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless At the same time he was Persecuting the Church of God 23. I have obeyed the Commandements of God for a long time I am not like a Mushrom soon up and soon vanishing I am a constant Servant to the Commandements of God So was the young man in the Gospel Matth. 19.20 he said unto Christ All these things I have kept from my youth up what lack I yet 24. I have inlargements in duties and satisfie not my self with ordinary duties Matth. 23.14 Luk. 18.12 but make Conscience of extraordinary duties I fast and that oft And did not the Pharisees make long Prayer and fast off I fast twice in the week 25. I have joyes in Ordinances the word of the Lord is sweet and precious I know the time when it was not so But did not Hered hear the word of God gladly Did he not see an excellency in John Mar. 6.20 Had he not his Virtues and Graces in great esteem Had he not a Reverend behaviour towards him Did not he observe him and care to please him He heard him and that gladly He was much delighted in John's Preaching 26. Nay but I go farther for I stirr up others to frequent Sermons So did the Elders of Israel Ezek. 33.30 Come I pray you and hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord c. 27. I obey as well as hear I hear in order to practise And was not Herod conformable to John's Doctrine though John Preached not placentia Mar. 6.20 he was a rough Preacher a burning as well as a shining light yet the Text tells us â—e did many things 28. Matth. 7.28.13.54 Mar. 1.22.11.18 When I hear the word I am strangely taken with it So were the people when they heard Christ they were astonished at his Doctrine 29. Many a time under a Sermon my knees and heart ake So it was with Felix As he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance c. Felix trembled 30. But I Pray and Pray oft as well as hear and therefore is it not well It may be ill enough if thou hast no better evidence When you make many Prayers when you multiply Prayer when you add Prayer to Prayer yet I will not hear Isa 1.15 31. There was a time when I felt sin no more than a dead man feels a mountain upon him but now it is heavy 't is burthensome And was it not so to Cain And Cain said unto the Lord my punishment or mine iniquity is greater than I can bear Was it not so to Judas Mat. 25.8 10. when he repented himself and restor'd the thirty pieces of silver saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the Innocent blood and went and hanged himself 32. I have desires after grace and am willing to be at cost for it So the foolish Virgins And the foolish being awakened out of their security in their form of Godliness said unto the wise give us of your Oyl Matth. 25.8 10 yea they went to buy They were willing to be at cost for the power of Godliness 33. I associate only with Gods people yea with the purest and holiest So did the foolish Virgins they associated not only with Virgins but with the wise Virgins Matth. 25.1 Both wise and foolish went out together to meet the Bridegroom 34. I consult Ministers for my Soul and have high attainments But wherein dost thou go beyond those of whom it is said Isa 58.2 They seek me daily and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to God Wherein dost thou go beyond those in the Hebrews Hebr. 6.4 5. who were once inlightened and had tasted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy-Ghost Hebr. 6.9 and had tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the world to come If thou hast not better things than these thou hast not savingly closed with Jesus Christ for as yet thou hast nothing that accompanieth Salvation from which Salvation cannot be seperated O! I cannot but pitty these poor hearts these Almost-Christians Almost Christians and Almost Saved I may say they are not farr from the Kingdome of God and yet in a sense they are farther than any others Our greatest difficulty hath been to undeceive these to unchrist these I mean to take off these figleaves with which they have covered themselves that they may come to Christ for clothing and so prevent the appearing of their nakedness O! It is hard tough work to perswade a proud Pharisee that all his Righteousness will not steed him that he must fling away all that he must have something else to shew for Heaven and Glory O! How have men fled in our faces when we have told them that yet they have nothing that is essential to a Christian as a Christian or which makes a Christian a Christian no more than a picture hath of the essence of a man You may imagine a man that hath bestown 20 or 30 years in building how loath is he to pull down all again Though he fears the foundation is but on the Sands he will rather venture than begin all
that they cannot pass up If I come to Christ he will not look on such a Wretch as I am Many such hard thoughts of Christ are suggested by Satan and too soon entertained by us Whilst so you can never thank God for any Mercy for you doubt whether it be a Mercy to you Can you bless him for life health and length of dayes whilst you have this Suggestion that your account swells with your time Can you bless God for Estates Honours Friends c. when you have this jealousie that God is fatning you as Hoggs for the slaughter Can you bless God for Ordinances whilst you suspect that there is a Commission given forth that though you have eyes yet you shall not see c. And that the Sun is to harden you whilst it softneth others Yea how can ye bless God for Christ when you imagine he is set for your fall By giving way to these Jealousies you dam up the Springs of Praise that should slow from your lips day and night Hereby you will also be hindred from waiting on the Lord with that free and chearful Spirit as ye ought I cannot wait on an Enemy as on a Friend If I have cursed jealousies of any man I find no pleasure to be in his company and if he employs me about any thing I goe grudgingly about it The truth is So long as you entertain suspitions of Gods willingness to make you happy Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim P. 27 28. and to afford you sufficient means to make you happy all your Religion will degenerate into a spurious and base-born Devotion Instead of that free and friendly converse that ought to be maintained between God and your Souls you will only flatter him in a servile manner and bribe him not to be your Enemy Worship God you must for fear of incurring his displeasure and lest your neglects of him should rouze up his anger against you but you cannot entertain any chearful and friendly society with a Beeing which appears in a dress so horrible to your Souls Now between this necessity of coming to him and that fearfullness to approach him what can there be begotten but a forced and constrained Devotion which because you do not love you would willingly leave did not the dread and horrour you have in your Souls of him dragg you to his Altars And what are you wont to do there Truly nothing but cry and look as if you were going to Execution till you can flatter your selves into some hopes that he is moved by your cries and forced submissions to lay aside his frowns and cast a better aspect upon you But your hard thoughts of God returning you are constrained to renew your slavish Devotions that you may purchase another gracious look from him In this circle do your poor Souls spend many dayes and advance not one step towards the New Jerusalem No wonder therefore if God be so provoked at this sin of evil surmises This is what I have observed very common among the Lords People they will pray with some earnestness and perhaps have some confidence that God is gracious and will answer their prayers and grant all their desires but no sooner off from their knees but if they think of God yet they lay down their expectations of receiving any thing from God and fall to distrusting and to renew their jealousies of God as soon as they have done Praying What Is God yea and nay Is he kind when thou art on thy knees and unkind as soon as off Will God take it well from thee that in thy duties thou shalt put to thy Seal that God is true and loving and minds thy good And presently take off the Seal yea rather Seal to a parchment of the Devils drawing that God is false churlish and one that seeks thy ruine O! whilst there is a Devil and a melancholy-humour to be wrought upon I do even despair to see this cursed God-dishonouring and debasing sin to be quite rooted out of the hearts of Christians but yet it is a Provocation and Let it be for a Lamentation CHAP. XII Their unthankfulness 5ly Professours unthankfulness UNthank fulness is another piece of ungodliness that Professours are very guilty of Praise or Thankfulness is as the Penny or Pepper-corn which God expects as acknowledgement as high Rent to be paid him for all we hold of him But how hath this been denyed And thereby how justly have we forfeited all into the hands of God Psa 65. ult Isa 46. ult Though the paying of this rent penny be the only Heavenly work that can be done on Earth the only joyfull imployment that shall last to all Eternity in another life a work that should ever wait for God in Zion and therefore Zion is called Israel my glory not only because God glorieth in Zion but because Zion should continually glorifie God yet how unthankfull are the most Professours The very Heathens will rise up in judgement against unthankfull Christians They had their hymns to their Gods Plato when ready to die gave God thanks for three things that he was made a man that he was born in Greece and that he lived in the time of Socrates How much more should our lips shew forth the high praises of God who hath made us not only men but new men That we are born of God adopted the Children of the most high and regenerated by the Spirit That we have breathed not in Greece but in England in Ariel a place of Visions in the Valley of Vision O the riches of free grace I that our Mothers Conceived with us in this place of light and at such a time when the Nation was most enriched with the light of the Gospel when it was full of gracious Ministers the best that ever the world saw since the Apostles dayes Why had not God brought thee out of the Womb when this land was overrun with Paganism with Popery Why had not the Lord shut thee up and imprisoned thee with the rest of the World in darkness and in the shadows of death O that when the Gospel shines but upon a little spot of ground which God hath inclosed for himself and stiles it his pleasant place his garden that thou shouldst be the man born there That when the rest of the world is like the barren mountains on which no rain falls and brings forth nothing but bryars that God should bring thee forth in the place of his Tabernacle And yet thou ingratefull wretch will hardly confess that the lines are fall'n happily and that thou hast a goodly heritage How seldome is such language as this heard from thee Blessed be the Lord that my lot is fall'n in so fair a ground blessed be God that I was born in England and not in the Wasts of Arabia or America thanks be to the Lord that I have had more than the light of the Sun Moon and Stars to conduct me to Jesus that so
and neglect the one thing necessary Fool that I was to set my thoughts and affections on things below none of which now give me a drop of water to cool my tongue and to neglect the things above O! If I had never heard of Christ and Glory I had been more excusable for my earthly prolings Psal 69.6 O! How have I disquieted my self in vain I have heaped up riches and know not who shall gather them Had I been as faithful to Christ as I was to Mammon O! with what joy might I have removed hence What abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdome might I have had O! Labour to prevent the horrours of Death and the gnawing Worm of Conscience It is sad when the Sting of Death and the Worm Conscience Prov. 11.4 bite the man together Riches avail not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Believe it it will cut you to the heart to think that less pains might have served for eternal Life than you have bestowed for temporal Goods This plague attends the covetous man the more he desires and heaps up the less he is desired and the less he is lamented when he dyes He is like a Swine that is good for nothing whilst he is alive not good to bear and carry as the Horse nor to draw as the Oxe nor to cloath as the Sheep nor to give milk as the Cowe nor to keep the house as the Dogg but ad solam mortem nutritur fed only to the slaughter So the covetous man doth no good with his riches whilst he liveth but when he is dead his riches come to be disposed of Prov. 13.22 The riches of a sinner are laid up for the just How can you choose but tremble at Dooms-day You cannot desire the comming of Christ If the Church cries Come Lord Jesus come quickly you cannot joyn in that Prayer for that your hearts are glued to this present World You preferr Paris before Paradise It is to the Saints loss to be kept so long from Heaven but you count it not so You cannot say Thy Kingdome come What will you do in that day when all the Estate and Friends of Dives cannot relieve with a drop of cold water Riches are like bryars and thornes good to stop gaps but not to lay in our beds and set our hearts upon lest we lye down in sorrow Few remember the Devil's offer All these things will I give thee is the last temptation that old Professours are baited with Take heed therefore and beware of Covetousness CHAP. XXVII Their Envy ENVY is a Sin seldome confessed Professoss Envy James 4.5 but yet much diffused among Professours The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy And indeed Covetousness and Envy are never asunder they are sins against the same command Such as long that what is their Neighbours should be theirs envy to him that which is his and such as envy to him that which is his long to have it to be theirs How desirous are Professours to grasp all to themselves And therefore how apt are the very best to be envious at the power greatness riches if not goodness of others Doth not the experience that you have of your own hearts if you be not strangers at home testisie that this Spirit is stirring and acting in you The poor envy the rich the base the honourable as if they had the less because others have so much Some think that this was the sin that threw down the Angels from Heaven that they envied Adam's glory in that he was made after Gods image and that they relinquished their glory to divest Adam of his To be sure the Devil was restless till he had implunged Adam in the same sin and misery that he was brought into Sure maligning the prosperity of others is not from the Spirit of God He that giveth freely to all would not have us to envy those to whom he gives more freely than to our selves and he that giveth us more doth not envy us for what we have If you have not so much as others it is because you are unfit to receive not because God is unwilling to give Do not we see how this poyson diffuseth it self An early sin it was if not in the Angels as some think yet it was in Eve She envied the all-knowledge of God and must forsooth have at least an equality with God himself It was also strong in the first man that was born of a woman and we still suck it in with our Mothers milk and it seldome dyes till we dye This sinne is commonly among people of the same Profession One Mechanick envies another one Merchant another one Scholar another one Gentleman another one Commander another as Saul envied and hated David because the Women sang that Saul slew his thousands and David his ten thousands one Minister another as those in Paul's dayes that envied him and affected an high strain of eloquence on purpose to obscure that reputation which Paul had got among the Churches And happy had it been if this cursed sinne had dyed in that age but it hath been still working in all ages of the World Is there not a greater promptitude in us Evidenced in detracting from others worth to detract from mens worth than to credit and exalt them To write down their blots and imperfections than to set forth their due vertues and graces If we cannot reach others by imitation we will by calumniation and therefore Luther saith Envious men feed upon the dung of other men They are like flies that love to be upon sores It is admirable to see how dull sighted we are as to the vertues and graces of our Brethren but quick sighted as Eagles to discern their imperfections Mat. 7.3 The beams of Vertue are not seen i. e. not taken notice of but a mote in a Brother's eye is soon espyed Are we not more greedy to receive and spread any thing Readiness to receive and spread defamations whereby our Neighbour is infamed and obscured than we are to entertain and diffuse what tends to his praise and glory And is not this the reason hereof viz. the great desire we have to shine alone and that we would none to vye with us in glory much less to excell us therein Is there not oft-times a secret gladness in our hearts Gladness in their being brought lower when some sad Providences afflict others in their Names Goods Health and Relations that thereby they may be brought to a level with us or to an inferiority in a lower estate When you have seen some Congregation wedged in with a concourse of hearers and yours thin and naked and when some have been cryed up for their purity gravity activity and zeal and when others have greatened their parts or estates and yours rather have been impaired have ye not been ready even to burst with Envy Have you not been glad when some blot hath
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to
his beloved Flock he hath nourished you up and he is willing to lay you in his bosome View your great Surety this day He came under an Arrest for you he hath discharged the debt of all that come by faith to him Rom. 4.25 He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification He is willing the incestuous when penitent should not have his wounds lye undressed lest Satan take any advantage thereby Act. 20.21 Iâ— there â—e Repentance towards God let there be Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ If he hath given you the fore-runner you have his pledge his pawn that he will forgive you Do not say God heareth not sinners whilst there is a Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness All thy sins cannot shut it because it is opened to wash away sin 6. Add to Supplication Resolution Resolution How can you pardon your very Child that will not promise to do so no more Let it be in the purpose of your hearts to neglect meditation no more to keep up bitterness among Christians no more c. Enter into an holy Vow against your sins Be a through Protestant protest against the World the Flesh and the Devil It will be thus if your hearts be throughly humbled for your sins and truly inflamed against them O say what have I to do with Idols any more O that you were very resolute come Life come Death come Heaven come Hell yet I will change my course I will not through Gods grace helping me do as I have done omit as I have omitted If you are not very peremptory to resist Satan and Sin not to yeild unto Temptation you encourage the Enemy to tempt you whilst you are not resolved to deny his 〈◊〉 citations That woman is in danger of new sollicitations to uncleanness who doth not resolutely bid defiance to the first Temptation of the Ruffian Perhaps you wonder that after many prayers c. your sin still prevails But know saith one sin will be your Conquerour if you be not resolved to be its enemy Till resolution against all sin be wrought in you God will hate all your prayers for the pardon of your sins He hath an impudent forehead a forehead of Brass that dares go in before God and say O Lord I beseech thee to pardon my worldliness and earthly-mindedness for I am not yet resolved to be Heavenly minded O Lord pardon my envy and I trust thou wilt do it for yet I am unresolved to part from it Pardon my Rebellions for I am not yet resolved whether I shall cease to be a Rebel Believe it whilst you do not resolve to hate sin it is a clear sign you have nor a spiritual knowledge of its evil Did you in the light of the Spirit see sin in its nature and in its bitter effects did you see it as utterly inconsistent with all real happiness and as the infallible and unavoidable precipice of your intollerable and eternal damnation this would make you hate sin and to be irreconcilable to it But here I must give you this caution In the strength of Christ that you raise not your resolutions on your own strength for then you will soon quit them by reason of your own weakness When you bind your self by a Vow against such a sin take Christ into the Bond to be sureâ—y for you to give you help and strength to perform in the hour of temptation Augustine professed that though the thoughts of leaving his sins were once a great burthen to him yet at length being peremptorily Resolved he found it a most easie and delightfull thing to live without them Friends your sufferings may be nearer than you are aware of Your sands I am sure run fast and no stop is put to them you may not expect that the shadow will go backward ten degrees it may rather go forward you may hardly have one hours warning before you must remove hence how suddenly hath God cut down the Cedars and the thistles amongst us O! in that day it will be as scalding lead to thee that death and judgement surprized thee when thou hadst not so much as resolved to leave thy cursed Rebellions against thy God 7. See what becomes of your Resolutions Reformation Psal 119.106 how they are made good thou hast purposed not to offend yea covenanted with thy God for better obedience yea thou hast sworn to keep his righteous Judgements But hast thou dealt uprightly with thy God O! be not satisfied with purposes and resolutions but look to the performances of them Blessed are ye of God if all the sinnes you have been convinced of and have engaged against be now put away if there be no more pride covetousness contention self-seeking c. returning with seven worse Devils upon you I pray God we may see more than Resolution some real and permanent effect of all your Confessions Sorrows and Resolves O! O! O! how would it rejoyce my Soul to see an effectual alteration in the Faces and Lives and Conversations of Professours How shall I bless God for ever if by seeing your Faces in this imperfect Glass you be transformed and your hearts and Eves be put into a new frame of obedience Among all the sigâ—ts in the World none sadder than to see multitudes that had their Faces Zion-wards now facing about to the vanities of the Gentiles O! how glorious how desirable a sight will it be to see these returning with weeping and supplication Here remember your Reformation must be general and special General O! Labour to do as much for God and Grace as you have done for the World and Self As ye have yeelded your members servants to iniquity unto iniquity Rom. 6.19 So now yeeld you members Servants of Righteousness unto Holiness Redeem all former omissions by a double diligence you having idled away much of your time had need spur up your selves See that you walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the time But it is not only a general Reformation that I advise you to Special Watch also and pray against those sins by which you have most dishonoured God If thou aâ—â— recovered of a dangerous disease thou wilt generalâ—y me a good diet but especially get Antidotes and Preservatives against that diseaâ—e thou wast so lately cured of O where the enemy hath made the greatest breaches there let there be double guards and double â—oâ—â—â—cations Be Tertullians true penitents Nonvult iterum Divinae misericordiae oneri c. Tert. He would not burthen the Spirit of God again to deliver him from that sin Follow a worthy Pattern When David had shed blood and had prevailed with God to pardon that sin afterwards though he longed for the waters of Bethlehem yet he abstains and checks himself because it did but hazard the blood of his Captains CHAP. XL. Motives to make sueh use thereof ANd now to hasten to a conclusion O