be by the damned Spirits Oh that I might now feel more of this Heavenly Life begun and carried on in my Soul by a farther Participation of his Holy Image and Conformity to his Will by more vital Effects of his indwelling Spirit in my Soul forming it to be a Temple to himself for his own Delightful Residence that forgetting that which I have received I may still be Coveting and desirous of more forgetting what I have attain'd I may press on with an Holy Eagerness and Fervency towards the Mark When I seriously examine my own Heart had I nothing else to prove the Weakness of my Grace and the sinful Remainders of Unbelief but the low Desires and few Comfortable Thoughts the seldom joyful Prospect of this Blessed State how sad an Evidence were it of my low Attainments that I breath with no more Impatience after that Blessed Holy Rest in the Injoyment of God and Christ and labour no more in preparing for it When we profess to believe that all the Desires of our Souls shall be fix'd on Him and filled with Him as our Infinite and Supreme Good and all the Expectations of Faith and Hope swallowed up in Endless Admiration Gratitude and Joy being fully satisfied and at Rest in the Presence and Vision of God without the least Inclination or Desire of Change And by Consequence There will be no need of Novelty as now to a give a Relish to our Happiness All Happiness in this World is by comparing a Man's present Condition with his past or with that of some Inferiours But the Intrinsick Good Felicity and Joy of Heaven will need no such Foil to set it off no such Comparison to make it prized The Blessed Spirits will never lose the lively Sense of that low and miserable Condition from which they were raised to so great a Glory and so will ever equally rejoyce in the Happiness of their Translation and Wonderful Change And what was at first delightful will for Ever be so and not disdain'd or lessen'd by a Continuance as it happens in this World from the Emptiness Shallowness and Vanity of the Creature An Affectation of Variety and Desire of Change proceeding always from a Sense of Want But Holy Souls shall never be weary of Seeing Loving and Enjoying God his Blessed Presence will afford us Undecaying and Endless Satisfacton Pleasure never to be interupted or abated and never to cease The Blessed Object is absolutely Infinite and so will be always new to a Finite Understanding and Continual Fresh Communications from his Infinite Fulness must needs make our Subjective Happiness to be always new and Eternally such Let me by such Thoughts quicken and excite my Diligent Endeavours after a greater Meetness to injoy so great a Bliss And to that end Consider whether any of those Happy Souls who have finisht their Course and obtained the Prize do now regret their utmost Diligence Patience and Perseverance during their short Abode here to secure the Blessedness of an Endless Life No no they are far from repenting the Time they spent the Trouble they were at the Care they used the Difficulties they met with the Sufferings they endured to conflct with the World and the Flesh to resist Temptation to watch over their Hearts and Words and Ways to work out their Salvation to please God and be faithful to him c. They find to their Unspeakable Comfort and Everlasting Joy that Heaven makes amends for all they could do or suffer in order to their Coming thither Yea they find that they were not Diligent and Humble and Patient and Circumspect enough That they did not love God and seek his Glory redeem their Time and improve all their Talents and Opportunities of doing and receiving Good and give up themselves intirely to prepare for Heaven to that degree they should have done They find by the Transcendency of the Blessed Recompence that it deserved infinitely more than the most Active Zealous Christian upon Earth did ever do in order to it Lord Quicken my Resolutions and Endeavours by such Thoughts as these Inspire my Sluggish Carnal Heart with Holy Light and Life and Zeal and Fervour that looking to the Things which are not seen which are Eternal I may (*) 1 Tim. 1.19 lay up a good Foundation against the Time to come and so lay hold on Eternal Life But Alas How much have I neglected the great Duty of Holy Meditation How little Skill and Experience have I in it How tastless and inspid oftentimes are my Thoughts of God! how confused and unsteady how little Pleasure or Advantage have I by Contemplating his Highest Excellencies Yet methinks could I but retain the same awakened lively Thoughts of Heaven and Eternal Life which sometimes I have had might I continually feel the Sweet and Sacred Influence as for a little Season I have sometimes felt it how little how very a Nothing would all this World be to me How comparatively weak its strongest and most alluring Snares to draw me off from God! with what an unshaken Mind could I refuse and resist ' em with what an unconcerned Indifference could I look upon all its most charming Glory Could I maintain such a Frame of Spirit as I have sometimes had for a little while in the serious Contemplation of Divine Misteries in Fervent Prayers and other Solemn Duties of Religion when the Acts of Faith were strong and lively my Heart set on fire with Love to God and Holy Breathings after Him admiring his matchless Grace to fallen Sinners and to my Soul in particular when he brought me to the very Suburbs of Heaven tho' alas how seldom by the delightful Thought of what the Blessed Spirits above enjoy in being where Christ is and beholding his Glory when I was ready to say within my self 'T is good to be here this is no other than the Gate of Heaven Oh! when shall Mortality be swallowed up of Life But when I thought at any time to fix and settle in such sweet Contemplations how quickly did my lazy backward Heart fly off how soon did the Flame decay and dye away how soon did I find my self fallen down to Earth again sunk down from the Bosom of my Lord presently forgot my self and Heaven to dwell among the Pots and embrace a Dunghill 'T was not on my own Wings O Lord that I soared so high but I hope by the Breathings of that Holy Spirit of Light and Love who bloweth when and where and how long he listeth who gave me at any time any such first Fruits of the Spirit who convinc'd me of the Certainty of the Heavenly Inheritance by a lively believing Foresight of it who made me earnestly desire the Wings of a Dove to be gone and appear before God in Sion made me Pant and Groan to be delivered and to be with God and Christ with inexpressible Desire and Joy unconceivably mixt with Sighs and Groans O my God! let not this experience be only
to Mercy His Spirit is yet striving with you if you are willing to Repent and return to God He sought you and call'd you to return when you were wandring as a lost sheep in the broad way And can you think he will not be found of you if you seek him with your whole Heart Therefore renew your Repentance and beg more earnestly a Spirit of Humility Holy Fear and Watchfulness And every Morning implore Divine succours against that Sin and all Temptations to it which as much as possible you must avoid Constant and fervent Prayer after Repentance must be your Refuge and your Remedy If you let fall your Hands this Amaleck will prevail again As soon and as far as you fail in the Constancy and Fervency of that Duty your Sin will get strength and successfully attempt you another time But by this Practice God may turn Evil to work for Good make you gain by your Loss stand the faster by your Falls and become stronger by the discovery of your Weakness and so be better establish'd for the future But take heed that you pervert not the Grace of God and encourage your self to sin again by the Supposition that if you should Fall 't is but to Repent and renew your Resolutions and all will be well This is a subtile Artifice of Satan but such methinks as should take with none who have ever known by Experience what it is to Repent Who have felt the burden of Sin to be heavier than a Milstone than the weight of a Mountain Who have tasted how evil and bitter a thing it is to depart from God Who have loathed and abhorr'd themselves with deep Remorse and Sorrow and Anguish of Spirit wishing with all their Hearts that they had not sinn'd and if it were in their power would give all the World to retrieve it and would rather die than commit that Folly Luk. 23.30 17.2 again they then repented of Let those who have not their own Experience to confirm this read over and consider the Case of David when he wrote the Penitential Psalms How many like him have roar'd and cry'd out under the sense of Sin of stings and furies in their Conscience of the poison'd Arrows in their Souls and his Terrors surrounding them where-ever they went from the sense of his Sins Malignity the apprehensions of God's Anger and the consequent Fears of his Wrath. Serious Repentance after great Transgressions is another Thing than most imagine it When their aggravated Sins shall beset them behind and before be placed in order before their eyes and set in array against them 'T is always a work of Difficulty as well as Importance to crucifie corrupt affections to tear a beloved Lust from the Heart with self-indignation to abhorr and cast away what before you lov'd and delighted in How did David's Sin stare him in the Face It is continually with me it is ever before me said He. It haunted him like a Spectre or like Belshazzar's Hand-writing on the Wall it still appear'd before him in some horrid shape However Sin may smile in its first address and bespeak us in flattering language and promise Pleasure and Profit and great Advantages and Satisfaction these are but fair Appearances This is but the outside of the Cup and the Colour of the Liquor It will prove Gail and Wormwood and a mixture of deadly Poison if ever God set it home upon the Conscience and awaken us to a true sense of it And the Continuance of daily Repentance for Sin which all Christians are called to is no such easie matter neither Constant Self-abasement and Humiliation before God from a sense of his Majesty and Holiness and of our many Sins and Pollution thereby The imperfection of our best Duties continually to be bewailed inordinate Affections to be still mortified always resisting and opposing Sin in its Root and Branches conflicting against the whole Interest of the Flesh the World and the Devil seeking after more Holiness to be deriv'd unto us by the Grace of Christ to be wrought in us by his Spirit and maintain'd by his Power and making daily Applications to the Fountain of all Grace for spiritual strength to continue our warfare against Sin in all Instances of outward Duty and inward Actings of Grace even as long as we live all this is included in it Due Apprehensions concerning Repentance as so comprehensive and difficult a Duty would teach us to beware of Sin XXVII The Necessity of Christian Resolution to Vpright Persevering Obedience how full and extensive it ought to be and yet humble by what means we may be assisted to perform that which we resolve HAving acknowledg'd my Transgressions unto God and begg'd Forgiveness and experimentally learn'd the Evil of Sin by the bitterness of Repentance I resolve for the future to watch against it more narrowly and against every thing that leads to it endeavouring to please and honour my God and Saviour by an upright obedient Heart and Life And for the Remission of my former contracted Guilt I trust to Jesus Christ according to the Revelation made in the Gospel of what he is hath done and suffer'd and continues to do in Heaven for the Salvation of Repenting Sinners who desire to come unto God by Him But how often O my Soul have I mock'd God and deceiv'd my self with formal and faint Purposes of Amendment My good Resolutions have been all of them as the morning Cloud and the early Dew which quickly passed away One fresh assault of Temptation hath swept away all my good Purposes as a Spider's Web. I have falsified so many and broke my word so often that I dare not trust to any thing I now resolve or rely on any Promise I should farther make Succour me therefore O Lord by thy powerful Grace that what was defective in my former fruitless Resolutions may be now rectified Let me be more humble in the sense of my Weakness more dependant on thy Grace and more heartily seek it from time to time Strengthen me with Strength in my Soul with Might and Power in my inward man that I may so resolve and purpose as to perform that I may not be one day hot and the next cold zealous in the Beginning but faint and lukewarm in the Brogress fervent and serious only in Resolving but weak and impotent in the Execution Having chang'd my Master my End and my Hopes by returning unto God from whom I had gone astray I firmly resolve through the assistance of his Grace to change my Course of Life that Old things being done away all things may become New that * Rom. 6.22 being made free from sin by pardoning Mercy and become the servant of Christ I may have my fruit unto Holiness that my End may be Eternal Life In the interim whether I live or die let it be unto the Lord resolving both in Life and Death to be absolutely his And to that purpose O my Soul Let
freeness of his Love the Riches and All-sufficiency of his Grace towards all who come unto God by him I adore Thee O most blessed Spirit as proceeding and sent from the Father and the Son to renew all the Powers of my Soul and restore the Divine Image there to enlighten my mind to know and receive the Truth as it is in Jesus and purify my Heart and to sanctifie all the Members of my Body and make them Instruments of Righteousness unto Holiness which before were Servants unto Sin and gradually to deliver me from the power the defilement and abode of Sin as from the Guilt and Punishment by the Blood of Jesus And as the Witness of God to the Truth of the Holy Scriptures and as the Great Paraclete to comfort and establish the Hearts of Believers sealing them up to the day of Redemption and giving them the Earnest of the Heavenly Inheritance O blessed Spirit be thou my Witness that though I have violated the Law of God and defac'd his Image and formerly undervalu'd the Love of Christ and the Grace of the Gospel yet by thine Aid I now accept what I have so long neglected And thankfully devote my self henceforward to be the Lord's in a Covenant Relation But fearing and distrusting my self I give up my self entirely to the conduct of thy Grace depending upon it for my establishment and perseverance O form my Heart into an obediential Frame that in every thing I may endeavour to answer the Ends and Obligations of this Devoted State To this One God I have once again dedicated and resign'd my self to serve and please and honour Thee in Thought Word and Act to the last moment of my Life In the Performance of all Duties even those which I have been most averse from in the mortification of every Lust and the forsaking of every Sin even those which I was once most addicted to Resolving deliberately to allow my self in nothing great or little secret or open which I shall know or believe to be contrary to thy holy Will making it my business to be fruitful in good Works to the Praise of my Redeemer waiting in the use of all his appointed means for higher measures of Grace and Holiness to be more Victorious over inward Lusts and outward Temptations still pressing towards the mark for the prize of my high and holy Calling even Eternal Life I call Heaven and Earth O Lord to witness this day That I own and avow this to be my Mind and the setled Prevailing Purpose of my Soul This I again ratifie and confirm without any Clauses or Exceptions So help me O my God Glory be to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit XXIX Practical and Consolatory Reflections on the preceding Self-dedication or Covenant with God I Have this day solemnly Avouched the Lord to be my God to walk in his ways thereby to fortifie my Resolutions that I and my * Deut. 6.17 18. House and All that I can persuade to be of my mind will serve the Lord. I intend desire and hope never willfully to Violate the Faith which I have now plighted in the presence of God but to continue stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord c. Should I undertake any new Imployment or enter into any new Condition or change the place of my Abode where I might see more of God's dishonour and meet with more and stronger Temptations to Sin and be called to the performance of more difficult Duties greater Watchfulness and Self-denial c. I would hope hereby to engage the Presence of God with me and his Blessing on all my Affairs on which depends the success of all that I undertake and would hope the better to preserve my Integrity not only This Year but in all the remaining portion of my Time by the abiding sense of my Covenant with God thus seriously renewed This is the Method I have been often advis'd to for Peace of Conscience under doubts and scruples concerning my spiritual state to put the matter out of doubt by again accepting the offered Mercy and Grace of the Gospel and heartily consenting to the New Covenant giving up my self to God in Christ to be ruled and saved by him Blessed be God I have now done so Lord say Amen to thy part of the Covenant that Thou art and wilt be my God as I desire unfeignedly to do to mine that I will be thy Servant But because Articles are sooner consented to than made good tho' I seriously intend never to disown this my solemn Act and Deed but firmly to adhere to it as long as I live that having sworn I will endeavour to perform it that this shall be my Everlasting Choice never to be recanted or alter'd yet considering the sad Instances of my former Weakness and the vigilance and subtle malice of my Great Adversary I again implore the succour of Divine Grace to keep it for ever in the purpose of my Heart that it may be as the Laws of the Medes and Persians never to be reversed I have given up my Name to be Thine O put thy fear into my Heart that I may never depart from Thee Imprint thy Laws upon my Heart that my Obedience may be uniform and universal unwavering and perpetual suitable to so honourable and near a Relation to Thee I am sensible I want Wisdom and Strength to that purpose but thou hast bid me ask it of Thee who givest liberally to All without desert and upbraidest not with present unworthiness or former faults O lead me not into Temptation but deliver me from Evil. Stand by and strengthen me in the Hour of Trial lest I forget my Vows and deny thee O that my Soul may never draw back lest Thine have no pleasure in me I can serve no better Master O let mine Ears be bored to the door of thine House as the Token and Assurance of my being thy Servant unto Death I know 't is my Duty I am sensible 't is my Privilege and Honour I am convinc'd that 't is my Interest and Felicity my Soul my Life my present and everlasting Welfare and All depends upon it that thou shouldest be my God for ever O conduct me by thy Holy Spirit of Grace that I may walk and act as having heartily consented he should be so and direct my Heart into thy Love and the faithful keeping of thy Commandments That when so many Professors make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and discredit the Religion of my Lord by their shameful Falls thou may'st make me to stand and improve the warning of their Examples to walk humbly and while I stand to take heed lest I fall Having thus surrendred my self to God what is there O my Soul that is ever like to prevail with me to go back and revolt from him Is the gratification of a Lust the securing of an Estate compliance with a Friend the pleasing of a Superior
his Body and his Life but in his Mind too so as to love and hate to chuse and neglect to delight in and abhor such things at one time as he did not before He doth not pass the same Judgment nor retain the same Affections at one time as at another How do I live as if all this were as certainly false as it is unquestionably true admire love fear trust in Man as if he were the direct Contrary to what he is and seek for Immortality upon Earth and act as if I were assured of it and were not liable to any Change though I acknowledge and know the Contrary Though the last Years Experience and the observation of every Day doth convince me of it though all History and all the Records of the Grave attest it though all Mankind in every Age have found it so though it be a manifest notorious Truth legible in the various Changes and Calamities but especially in the Dust and Ashes of all who have lived before us our Graves being often made of our Predecessors Dust and the Earth we bury in having once been living yet how little is it believed how seldom considered The Confirmation of it which one Year gives us hath little Influence on our Hearts or Lives with respect to the next We ought therefore to accustom our selves to these Thoughts before such Changes happen to which our Final Change shall e're long succeed They will be less efficacious if never admitted till our Minds are opprest and feebled by the weight of Affliction We shall then want that Vigour of Reason which should co-operate with the Remedy and which if used before-hand would help to support and stay our Minds under all subsequent Revolutions For those Considerations may be able to fix and stay our Minds under Changes that may not be sufficient to recover and raise our Spirits after they are dejected and fallen SECTION II. Of the Change in Mens Inclinations Opinions and Actions which one Year shews How observable it is in Others how much more discernable in our Selves Honour and Reputation c. how uncertainly preserved and how easily blasted WHat a discovery doth one Year make of the Mutability of Man not only of his outward Condition but of the Man himself his Temper his Practise his Inclinations his Aversions c. He abideth not at one stay every breath of wind turns him to another shape We despise to day that which we admired yesterday and to morrow hate the object of our present love We begin Friendships and cancel them on slight occasions And a mortal Enmity often succeeds to a tender Affection The very Persons who are in one year our darling Friends and possibly deserved to be so may yet be open Enemies the next and seek our Ruine Lord what is Man How deceitful and mutable the Heart of Man We know not what other Men are or will prove to be till a trial and we are equally ignorant concerning our selves till an hour of Temptation How patiently do we think we could bear Afflictions till we feel them how partial and mistaken a Judgment do we make of our Wisdom and Strength in reference to the future we counsel others to Submission and Resignation in the most difficult trials and wonder they complain so loud when we our selves despond and sink under half their Burthen and send up our more impatient murmurs to Heaven when God thinks fit to prove us by a lighter Stroke We censure and condem Others who are in an higher Station and are called to more difficult work than we when by a little Advancement and the like Temptation we discover that we are as bad as they They who were reputed Humble Temperate and Religious when they have been Exalted higher become proud sensual and ungodly Had some been told a Twelve month since what now they are and speak and act they would have made Hazael's Answer Am I a Dog that I should do this A change in the publick Affairs of the State and by that means of particular Interests or some Alteration of our own private Circumstances calling us to new Duties and exposing us to new Temptations discovers us more to our selves and to other Men than was expected and proves us to be very different from what we appeared to be Such a change for Instance as from Poverty to Riches from Sickness to Health from Obscurity to Honour from Privacy to a Publick charge c. or on the contrary Men cannot bear the weight of Temporal Happiness but Riches and Honours make us to be Other Men than before we seemed to be How weak a thing is Man that cannot carry his own Wishes without falling under them That cannot prosper in his designs without being changed in the Temper of his Mind upon every success So true is it that Man in Honour is like the Beast that perisheth and changed ordinarily for the worse as to serious Religion May we not fear that some who a year since dared not live a day in the neglect of Closet and Family Devotion do now omit it for many Days and Weeks together And that some who once were careful to improve the whole Sabbath to religious purposes now place the whole of their Religion in attending the publiek Worship and think it enough not for that Day only but for the whole Week Under the Afflicting Hand of God or some Apprehensions of an approaching change or sense of guilt upon great Transgressions the Convictions of Sin are lively Conscience is sensible and awake Affections warm Resolutions strong c. But alas how soon doth the case alter our Spirits cool our Zeal abates our good Purposes untwist and die and come to nothing By degrees we return to Folly and boldly venture on that Sin we lately trembled at Through the want of continued smart Afflictions or of a serious awakning Ministry and friendly faithful Admonition or through the Temptations of vain Company and the remaining power of fleshly Lusts So that we falsifie our most sacred Promises and Resolutions violate our holy Vows cancel the Bonds of God upon us suffer the Devil to re-enter and prevail again to take possession of our Hearts and yield our selves an easie prey to his Temptations till our latter end be worse than our Beginning Oh what a Change doth one year let us see in Persons as well as Things in our selves as well as other Men And as it is with Man himself so with every thing that he values himself upon or for which he is esteemed by others and even his Esteem and Reputation is also changeable and uncertain Not to Instance in Riches but in what is nobler Learning and the Improvements of the Mind by Study how soon may the violence of a Disease disturb or stupifie the Brain to that degree as shall reduce the greatest Scholar to the pitied Condition of a Fool or Bedlam And where is his Reputation and Renown in such a Case But much less than that
Period of your Life in order to thankfulness The last Section of these Papers may give you some Assistance therein and consider what Returns you have made to God for all his Kindness You may do well to consider your self also in the Relations you have stood to others as Inferiour Equal or Superior in Family Church or State in your Calling Profession Imployment c. And examine in what more notorious Instances you have been faulty in your Relative Duties How you did ordinarily carry it in your Place and Station for that is the best the truest Picture of a Man which is like him in his ordinary every days Habit. Particularly reflect upon the Sins you have committed in Company with others By whose Example you have been drawn to Sin who may probably have been tempted by yours and bewail it and if the Persons are living admonish them to Repent and if you have injur'd and wrong'd any acknowledge your Fault and to the utmost of your Power make speedy Restitution If any of your Companions in Sin are Dead and you fear died without Repentance humble your self particularly before God for having contributed to their Damnation I know of some who have made such a Catalogue of their Sins with the most observable Aggravations of them which they constantly preserv'd and frequently review'd to keep them Humble Penitent Watchful and Thankful and on some occasions of secret Humiliation have spread them before the Lord as Hezekiah did the Writing of his Enemy covering themselves with Shame and Confusion of Face by considering what they have been and thence admiring the Riches of free Grace in the forgiveness of such Crimes through the Blood of Christ Examine me O Lord and prove me try my Reins and my Heart for thy Loving kindness is before mine Eyes and I will walk in thy Truth Thou hast searched me O Lord and known me Thou knowest my Thoughts a far off all my secret Sins are in the Light of thy Countenance and thou art acquainted with all my ways set my Sins in order before me that I may Repent and forsake them Shew me mine Infirmities and Wickedness that I may watch against them And teach me to Judge and condemn my self that I may not be judged of the Lord or condemned with the World XXV How Christians ought to examine their Decays of Grace and Piety The greatness of their Sin and of their Loss under such a Declension God's Displeasure and departure from them considered to awaken Endeavours of a Recovery In what manner the Faith of Adherence may be acted by one who hath no Assurance IT cannot but be of use to Believers also at stated Times to examine themselves concerning their Languishings and Decays in Grace falling from their first Love to a Spirit of Indifferency and Lukewarmness disorderly walking or unfruitfulness whether gray Hairs are not here and there upon them and they know it not For God may withdraw by degrees so that his Departure may not presently be perceiv'd And some kind of Activity in Duty may be continued upon false Principles and from Common Assistance while a Christian as to his spiritual State may be under a dangerous Consumption 'T is not difficult for others to observe it some times and would be visible enough to themselves would they spare a few hours to examine the matter The Punishment of such Backslidings the loss of the quickning and comforting Presence of the Holy Spirit deserves likewise to be inquir'd into in order to a speedy Remedy and should enforce the Counsel I mean not barely the Ebbing of Affections in the Duties of Religion or the want of Life and quickning from sensible Consolations which new Converts especially such as have been reclaim'd from a course of notorious Impiety have more of at first than afterwards This doubting Christians should particularly take notice of by the Instance of the Prodigal who was extraordinarily feasted at his first Return but was doubtless contented afterwards with the ordinary Provisions of his Fathers house Neither doth God dispence the same measure to all alike nor to any alike at all Times Some who are called to greater Services and Sufferings than others or had greater Conflicts before Conversion may have a greater share than the rest of their Brethren Neither will the same degree of Grace imparted to some Persons so discernably move and comfort as it will do some others of a different Temper 'T is not therefore so much to be the matter of our Enquiry if at all it need to be so whether we have more or less of sensible Joy in the performance of Duty But Whether we are not fallen and declin'd as to the inward vital Acts of Grace and in the outward Fruits of Holiness Whether we have such clear convincing Apprehensions of Divine and Spiritual Truths and the Mysteries of the Gospel as formerly whether our minds are not become more vain and heedless whether our Knowledge of God and of the Revelations of his Will be as powerful and efficacious upon our Hearts and Lives as heretofore whether there be not less Frequency less Consistency less inward Satisfaction in holy serious Thoughts than formerly You were wont to pray and endeavour that God might be first and last in your Thoughts every day and by frequent Ejaculations in civil affairs to maintain a daily converse with God but now you mind not whether it be so or not yea you cannot but know that it is not thus with you still It was once your Burden to be pester'd with foolish filthy worldly vain Thoughts especially on the Lord's Day or in the Worship of God you rejected and disown'd them you lamented and pray'd against them do so much as examine whether it be thus still Consider all your Affections and their several Objects and see whether a Criminal Lukewarmness hath not diffus'd it self into every of them Examine every Grace and see whether your Faith Hope Love holy Desires and Delight in God be not miserably abated as to the strength and vigor the efficacy and frequent exercise of every of them so that your Thoughts of God are few cold and lifeless without Desire Delight and Love Consider the Opportunities of Publick Worship and solemn Occasions of approaching the Divine Presence Are they as much the desire of your Souls and the rejoycing of your Hearts as once they were Are you not more easily diverted from them less satisfy'd and refresh'd by them Are not all Gospel-Ordinances less powerful and quickning and your profit and advantage thereby unspeakably less than formerly Do you hunger and thirst and pant as the Hart after the Water-brooks to draw nigh to God and come into his Courts Do you make conscience of preparing before-hand Do you come with a real desire and design and expectation of profiting and bettering your Spirits Do you join in every part of Divine Worship with that attention seriousness and composure of mind and taste the sweetness and benefit of