It was to be a whole day as a Sabbath is 2. It must be wholly spent in the proper exercises of it a Sabbath of Rest it must be in this extraordinary duty there must be a laying aside our ordinary works and the whole time spent either in the publick or private worship of the day How seldom is it that we hear of such a Fast Some Hours as I said we sometimes spend together in seeking the Lord but when do we keep a Day to the Lord The morning of the day is usually as other mornings we are as busie at our Callings and may be more busie to dispatch our work out of hand and so come hot out of our shops and fields with our heads full and hearts full of our worldly affairs and as soon as ever the Publick Duty is over then away to our work again Is it such a Fast the Lord hath chosen will ye call this a Day of Humiliation Christians 't is well that you spend some Hours of Prayer but call not That a Day of Humiliation when ever you set apart a Day for Fasting let it be a Sabbath of Rest to you begin it in secret and separating your selves from all your unnecessary ordinary works hold you to the duty of the day as your strength will bear it to the end of the day Let the private part of it both before and after Publick Exercises be spent as your Lord's days are in suitable converses with God Were this more observed we might expect more of Spirit and of Power in the duty and more Fruits afterward 2. There is also a failing in the Abstinence of the Day How often have I known it that the Abstinence in a day of Humiliation hath been no more than the sparing of one Meal which hath been made up by a larger Break-fast and perhaps a Feast at least a full Meal at Supper and sometimes in the intervals of the duties Wine Cake Sweet-meats Tobacco and such like refreshments are allowed and used No particular Rules for the degree of Abstinence can be prescribed to all sorts of persons but this should be observed in the general 1. That there be such Abstinence used both as to quantity and quality as may best subserve the Spiritual duties of the day especially that of afflicting the Soul and therefore 2. That not only our full Meals be forborn but no Wine or strong Drink c. no not so much as a Pipe of Tobacco be allowed for the present pleasure or refreshment of it This latter concerning the use of Tobacco I the more particularly mention because I suppose it is not so much thought on many of those that use it much find great pleasure in the use of it and it may be can give no good account of their present need of it and yet will use it at such times If it be really needed as in some cases it may and by some persons let it be used But if Daniel would eat no pleasant Bread nor Flesh nor Wine came into his mouth Dan. 10.3 If the Jews be reproved Is 58.3 that in the day of their Fast they find their pleasure then any thing taken as an exhilarating refreshment which is not necessary to the present duty is a transgression Well this will be something towards the stirring us up in Prayer self-afflicting Abstinence 2. Especially a deep consideration of the case we are in will most effectually do it Qui nescit orare discat navigare Tempests will teach even profane Mariners to pray if any thing will do it afflictions will fetch out our very hearts in our Prayers and is not iniquity an affliction Sure if it be we are in an afflicted state for consider a little again how grievously iniquity doth abound I shall not now lead you a voyage over the Seas and remember you how 't is abroad how the Devil drives almost all the world before him filling them with all unrighteousness and what a small handful there are that follow Christ and how very little of serious Religion or Christianity and how much iniquity there is in those few Let us at present inquire how 't is with us at home may we not take the words of the Text into our mouths and complain We even we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind are taking us away Who can say Mine heart is clean I have kept me from mine iniquity who of us will not say My righteousness is as a filthy rag Or if any will not say thus concerning themselves must not we say it for them and of them To put in but a word of the profane Rout the open enemies of Religion and Righteousness whose wickedness hath left the shade of the twilight and the covert of the night and who are grown up to that impudence as to shew their shame in the Sun-light not to speak much neither of their Prophets and Teachers amongst whom though through mercy there are that deal faithfully yet some of them cannot others will not tell them of their transgressions or heal their hurt what Snuffs are there in some of the Candlesticks what dark Lanthorns are many of those that should be burning and shining lights Seers without eyes lame Leaders sickly Healers of the hurt of the daughter of our people such some of them are as if God had said concerning us as Micah 2.11 If any man walking in the spirit of falshood do lie and do prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be even the Prophet of this people To let these pass also let us consider how 't is with the Sinners in Zion with those of us who profess to have separated themselves from the follies and filthinesses of the Land to the Law of their God may not even these also complain Even we are as an unclean thing our filthiness is still in our skirts What is our Religion what is our Righteousness what a totter'd maimed thing is it Ah how little Religion is there in our Religion how little of the Spirit how little of the power how glorious soever the form appears How much unrighteousness is there mingled with our righteousness is not our Gold mix'd with Dross and our Wine with Water What a spirit of vanity what hypocrisie pride headiness censoriousness peevishness is there to be found and all cryed up for Religion What wood and hay and stubble is there built upon the foundation Christians and yet carnal Christians and yet earthly and sensual having not the Spirit how much soever of the Name of Religion in them And amongst them that were once better how many are there that must go on with the complaint and confess we all do fade as a leaf we wither and wast and consume and are even dried away And it is not here and there a fading leaf does not the Tree fade so that 't is but here and there a leaf that
when he dies as the meaning there is and he must do so while he lives that 's his duty Col. 3.1 and his duty is his way that he should go his course is to be from bad to good and from good to better from weakness to strength yea and from strength to strength from a little to an increase of strength Christians you are all bound for Heaven Travellers to the Holy Hill your progress in holiness is your ascending and climbing up the Hill you are getting up the Jacobs Ladder which reaches the Hill-top Every Holy Day you live every Holy Duty you perform every little degree of Grace that 's added to you is your getting up so many rounds higher upon that Holy Ladder And this is it you have to do to be climbing and climbing higher and higher in the Grace of God and in the Works of Grace And this now is the reason of our so slow motion he that goes up the Hill takes the more time and the shorter steps yea and as one foot goes up the other slides back Our goings up at Hill are more painful Facilis descensus at revocare gradum hic labor hoc opus est And hence is it that there is so much need of the Goad and the Spur to prick us on Down at hill there 's more need of the Bridle than of the Spur. Even Christians have need of the bridle in this respect we need not be driven down to the lower Valleys which we have left we are too apt to be running back to the gains and the pleasures here below 't is to hasten our motion upward that we so much need the Rod and the Spur. Yea and we need to be quickned and warned to look well to the Bridle to restrain us from our cross and contrary motions Sure Friends our so eager running still after this world running after the riches and pleasures of this life evidence it sufficiently what need we have to be stirred up to look well to the Bridle As the Psalmist says Ps 39.1 I will hold my mouth so have we all need to hold our hearts as with a bridle to hold the bridle upon our wills affections and appetites Do not you see how apt you are to run too fast this way with what speed are some Professors riding downwards what haste do they make to be rich and to be great in this world The very Mountains of this Earth the Mountains of Pride and worldly Greatness and Glory the very Hill tops of Worldlings are but as low Valleys to a Christian he is still going down at hill while he is climbing up these worldly Mountains and therefore he needs the bridle to hold him in Consider it do we not still want to be warned and called upon and to call upon our selves to lay hold upon the bridle Behold Friends how many of us do suffer our carnal hearts to run their course how seldom do we give check to our fleshly desires how seldom do we speak such a word to our selves Stay O my heart not too fast O my Soul How little pains do we take to restrain our intemperate affections How very few self-bridling Christians self-checking Christians are here among us When we do hear such words I am afraid I am making too much haste to be rich I am afraid I allow my self too much liberty for the pleasing my flew Or if such a word be now and then let fall yet how little is it hearkned to Though we sometimes fear we run too fast this way yet on we let our selves run and do not lay a due restraint upon our selves Or if we do a little check our motions earthward yet do we effectually restrain them 'T is not enough that you say My heart needs a Bridle you must make use of the Bridle when you have stopped your hearts in their carnal course then you have done something Friends when you have considered and tried the difficulty of preventing your motions downwards and of speeding your way upwards then you will see farther what need you have to bestir your selves Lay altogether Is it certain that those that fall short of Religion or fall off from the Religion they have will be lost at last Is there such a distance betwixt what we are and what we should be Is it so hard to raise those that are fallen Is it so hard to discern the Soul-consumption till it be almost past cure Is there such an indisposition in consuming Souls to seek and such an opposition made by a stirring Devil and their stirring lusts against their obtaining their cure Is it so hard for those that stand to get on their way then certainly every one of us had need to awaken and look to our selves Thus much for the 2d General 3. What it is to take hold of God In answer to this 3 things 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us 2. Our Happiness is in this that the Lord is among us 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Presence of God with us and our preventing his Departure 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us God is then in us 1. When the Fear of God is within us 2. When the Face of God is upon us 1. When the fear of God is within us When the Spirit of the Lord the Image and Holiness of the Lord is within us which come all to one That Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts is the same as those Jer. 31. and Ezek. 36. I will put my spirit within you A new heart will I give you Or as Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you When God takes up his Habitation sets up his Throne in the hearts of his People undertakes the Government of them bp his Word and Spirit subdues them to himself reigns in righteousness in their Souls and makes them his voluntary Subjects and willing People when the Grace of God prevails and bears rule in their Hearts 'T is not Gods being in their Mouths the Grace of God in their Lips but his being in their Hearts his dwelling and living in their Hearts the real and inward Sanctification of them by his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in them This is the being of God in his People and this is the blessedness or happiness of his People When God is within us the Devil is cast out sin is thrown down the Kingdom of Satan is destroyed where the Kingdom of God is set up It is peoples misery to have the Devil in them to have Sin bear rule and therefore 't is there blessedness to have these Tyrants cut down and cast out and the Kingdom of God set up in their stead 2. When the Face of God is upon us when we live in his fear and live also in the light of his Countenance when he shines and smiles upon our hearts when he loves his Saints and shews them his Loves when
sighted yet it wants tenderness and they can dispense with themselves in smaller matters you will never be Christians of any proof you will never come to much in religion unless your hearts be tender of the smallest evils 3. Let the mouth of conscience speak quick and home I will not say concerning Conscience as the Apostle concerning the Tongue Be swift to hear slow to speak but let it be swift to hear and swift to speak Let it speak quick and speak home Let it speak home and speak aloud let not your consciences be muzled or meal mouthed let them speak and speak closely and deal plainly with you let them not whisper out a warning or a reproof but if they may not otherwise be heard let them do as the Prophet was to do Isa 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet Let conscience never leave speaking and crying till it be heard such a conscience as this is like to be a stirring conscience That 's a stirring conscience which will maintain its authority and integrity whatever difficulties or pains it cost which will be faithful in instructing admonishing and rebuking and will not that its word or authority be slighted which will not suffer its self to be slighted and abused nor to be baffled or put off with shifts and excuses or delays such a conscience will be obeyed you shall have little ease it will not suffer you to have any rest or quiet in your minds if you will not hearken to it As the Apostle said he will not 2 Cor. 13.2 so neither will conscience it will not spare them that have sinned If conscience gives an admonition or a warning take heed of pride take heed and beware of covetousness or frowardness or suppose but loytering and coldness in matters of Religion if conscience gives warning take heed of this worldly carnal lazy trifling life and a warning will not do it will check and chide and rebuke and scourge the heart if its voice may not be heard 't will set in its teeth 't will bite and sting and worry the soul if once speaking or chiding or scourging will not do 't will hold on and lie at the soul from day to day and give no rest till it prevail O what stirring Christians should we be had we such stirring consciences the reason why we sin and sink as we do shuffle in our Religion turn aside after the world play the hypocrites or the formallists in our duties let all run to ruine within us and suffer our selves to continue asleep this is much our consciences faults conscience lets us alone and either does not speak but keep silence or if it speak 't is too softly it does not chide or scourge us it does not come to us with a rod to smite us for our faults You that can go on in your sins or go so coldly on in your Religion you with whom the World is so much risen and godliness is so much fallen you can't but confess that this is the case of many of you how is it with your consciences mean while what says conscience to you in this case it may be just nothing conscience is asleep as well as you O if we could but awaken your consciences out of sleep if the stirring words the Lord sends among you might have but this effect to stir up conscience this would awaken you all to another manner of life and activity in Religion Friends what 's become of all those words those awakening words that have been spoken on this subject have they stirred up any thoughts of heart within you and set these on work have they stirred up your affections and set these aworking in you if they have not 't is a sign they have not stirred up conscience and what hearers have you been if conscience hath been asleep all this time when shall we ever stir your hearts or mend your ways if we cannot stir your consciences If your consciences will yet hear then let them speak and give their judgment on these particulars 1. If it be not a wretched thing to be most remiss and negligent in those things which are your highest concernment to be so busie and intent about those small matters about Meat and Drink and Money which all perish with the using and to be so remiss and heedless and heartless about the most weighty and important affairs What says conscience to this Do not you think in your consciences that this is a wretched thing and a piece of extream folly 2. If the matters of this world be not all but small matters in comparison of the matters of Religion the matters of God and the other World what says conscience to this Do not you think in your consciences 't is so that the most prosperous state in this world is a Toy in comparison of prospering in your Souls and the matters of Salvation If that Question be put to you Mat. 16.26 What shall it profit you if you win the whole world and loose your own souls would not your consciences say It would profit me nothing O 't is a miserable gain that 's gotten by such an eternal loss every mans conscience I doubt not but must speak thus if it will speak at all 3. If yet this be not many of your cases Is it not the plain truth that you are more remiss and heedless and cold in the matters of Religion than in the matters of this World do not some of your consciences tell you O'twere well for me if I were but as hearty and lively in Religion as in my worldly concernments if I could serve the Lord as hotly and as heartily as I serve my flesh but I cannot say 't is so well with me my conscience tells me and I cannot deny it I am much more intent about Earth than about Heaven 4. If it be not better for you to rouze up and recover your selves out of your remisness and coldness in the matters of God and to abate your zeal for the World would it not be well for you if this word might have this effect to make such a change do not you think in your consciences ' t would 5. If it be not necessary for you thus to rouze your selves up and recover doth not conscience tell you you are in hazard of being undone for ever if you continue at this pass 6. If Conscience judges thus in all these particulars and will but speak one word more then it would be well if conscience would hereupon give the word of command awaken sleepers arise sluggards put away your sloth from you hearken to the word of the Lord take his warning stir up your selves bethink your selves recover your selves from this dulness and deadness of heart seek the Lord earnestly serve the Lord instantly no more such idling and creeping on be zealous run the good race fight the good fight make sure the good treasure lay hold on eternal life live not
fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Jesus Christ establish strengthen settle you We should every one of us prove unstable souls and shall never stand if the God of Grace do not stablish us we are every one of us weak souls and shall certainly fall and come to nothing if the God of grace do not strengthen and settle us And therefore we had need to pray and that earnestly every one of us the God of all grace stregthen me the God of all grace stablish and settle this my weak and unstable soul Hence also Christians are exhorted Rom. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast keep that good thing which is committed unto thee And so we had need every one of us to call upon our selves hold fast O my soul hold fast to Christ hold fast to Holiness hast thou gotten any Grace any sound Religion into thine heart Hold it fast that thou lose it not Our Candle will burn dim there is a Thief in the Candle which will wast it away if it be not carefully snuffed and look'd to Grace in the heart is as a spark of fire in the Hearth it will be cover'd over with Ashes if it be not kept continually blowing the rust will eat out our Gold the Moth will fret out our Garments the Thief will steal away our Treasure if it be not watchfully maintained O what Losses do many Christians actually suffer through their carelesness and negligence loss in their Love loss in their Life and Zeal and all their holy Affections that little good that is in them may grow to such a decay that it may be ready to dye and come to nothing and as their Grace which is their Life decays so their vital operations fail with it All their sensible and sweet communion with God will be hindred the warm and lively workings of their hearts upon God their thoughts and meditations on God their desires after Him their delights in the Lord the secret entercourses of love betwixt the Lord and them will much cease when grace flags Whilst grace is kept alive the thoughts of God will be many and precious Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them Their Meditations of him will be sweet a reviving and refreshing to their hearts Have you none of you sometimes found it so Have you not poured out your souls into his Bosom and felt the Lord pouring in his Wine and his Oyle into yours Have you not walk'd with him upon the Mount and sate down under his shadow with great delight and found his Fruits sweet to your tast Have you not sometimes rejoyc'd in his Presence and felt the joy of the Lord to be your strength And then O what Love hath streamed forth O what Praises have been sent up to His Blessed Name This if ever you have experienced such Blessed seasons hath been maintained from the life of Grace in you and according as Grace sinks or gathers rust and grows dim so doe not all your vital operations fail with it I need not spend time to prove that such sinking and decaying of our Spirits our Graces and the comfortable operations of them may be the experiences of Christians do too fully and too frequently yield us undeniable proofes 2. There may be outward decays decays in point of practise There may be a neglect of the duties of Prayer Hearing Meditation Examining and taking an account of our selves Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob thou hast been weary of me O Israel I can seldom hear of thee thou hast been a Praying People a Sacrificing People but thou art grown weary of my worship How seldom art thou found in thy Closet or in the Congregation Thou art become a very Stranger to those duties which once were thy delight Or if duties be performed yet the heart and the life of them may be lost their Sacrifices may be without an heart if they bring their Incense yet there may be no fire to kindle it dead Praying cold Praying must suffice them O how do our Spirits often freeze in those Devotions which should kindle a fire in us Some Mens duties serve for nothing but to keep them asleep and to keep Conscience quiet which if there should be a total neglect would flye in there faces and awaken them There may be a decay in their Conversations they may decline from a Spiritual to a Carnal conversation from an Heavenly to an Earthly Life Those that had once escaped the pollutions of the world may be again entangled in the world 2 Pet. 2.20 There may be a declining from a savoury useful to an unsavoury and unprofitable life the Salt of the Earth may have lost its savour those very Tongues whose speech was used to be with Grace seasoned with Salt Ministring Grace to the Hearers may either be dumb and speak nothing or else be employed to speak Vanity How long may we be in some Professors company e're we hear a savoury word from their lips or if any good does come how heartless and lifeless is it In what they do they move like Puppets in what they speak they speak like Parrots that which they have learn'd by rote but without any true sense of what themselves do speak Such decays as these both inward decays and outward decays may be grown upon Christians Such declining souls are a miserable Spectacle the reproach of the Gospel the disgrace of Religion that are more like Carkases or Ghosts than living souls Idol Christians that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Tongues and speak not Feet and walk not Such who if they have any thing of Religion in them no body in the world is like to have the benefit of it nor themselves the comfort of it They may be stark dead and dryed up at the roots they may be meer Chaff and Stubble for ought any body else or themselves either can say to the contrary These dry Trees how-ever they stand in the Vineyard they may stand there for Fuel for the fire and not for Fruit. Such miserable Spectacles are withering Professors and yet what multitudes of them are there to be seen Friends let us consider our selves with respect to the perticulars mentioned if we have not denyed the Faith and become down-right Infidels and Atheists if we believe God and the Gospel and the great and wonderful things of the world to come yet are there not many of us that have lost the sense of the weight and importance of those great things Have not the lean and ill-favoured Kine eaten up the fat ones Have not the thin and the blighted Ears smitten and destroyed the full ones Hath not this Earth and the businesses thereof choaked up some of our hearts and left little sense of God or Immortality upon us Particularly consider 1. Do we live as People that do verily believe we must shortly be in another world
into their very hearts and it will be an help to the begetting and warming affections in others when once you have experimentally tasted the sweetness and are thereby deeply affected with Religion then you are like to hold to it and prosper in it This tast and relish of Religion is not to be gotten but by our inward and experimental acquaintance with it whilst it dwells but in the head and upon the tongue it will be but a dry and insipid thing to you whilst you dwell upon the surface and out-side and are but smatterers and triflers in Religion you may say of all your Religion as it was said of Samaria's Idolatry Hos 8.7 It hath no Stalk the Bud yields no Meal or if it hath any stalk or seems to yield any meal yet neither stalk nor meal hath any sweetness in it Friends you must go deeper in Religion if ever you will tast the sweetness of it Get your hearts to be so leavened and seasoned with it get Religion to be so Naturalized to you drink in the spirit of Religion into you that you may be metamorphised and changed into its own Image and Nature and then you will find how pleasant it will be to you 3. To solidity in Religion Particularly 1. To solid substantial Religion 2. To be more solid in Religion 1. Get up to solid and substantial Religion VVhat the substance of Religion is I shall shortly hint to you from two Scriptures Phil. 3.3 We are the Circumcision which Worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Tit. 2.12 Teaching us that denying all ungodliness and wordly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present world Out of these two Scriptures you may learn wherein the substance of Religion lyes viz. 1. In worshipping God in the Spirit or as Joh. 4.24 in Spirit and in Truth This Notes 1. The inward worshipping God our loving fearing praising the Lord c. 2. Our being real and spiritual in the outward worship of God our hearing with understanding our praying with our Spirits c. Our taking heed to it that our acts of worship be not barely bodily exercise but the works of our souls be not shaddows and Images of worship but the very thing they pretend to be 2. In rejoyceing in Christ Jesus That is as our Mediator by whom as we exhibit all our worship so we expect its acceptance and all the comforts and fruits of it 3. In shunning of Iniquity Denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts This Notes 1. The abstaining from the practise of sin that we do no Inity Psal 119.3 2. The mortifying the Lusts of sin the killing of sin within the Crucifying the flesh with the affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 4. In the practise of Holiness and Righteousness Our living Soberly and Righteously and Godly in this present world These are the substance of Religion he that worships God in Spirit and in Truth that thus rejoyces in Christ Jesus that denying all Ungodliness and wordly Lusts lives Righteously and Soberly and Godly in this present world he is a substantial Christian There may be great growth in these substantials in this solid Religion where there seems but little in affection there may be much affection in others that are not solid Christians there may be Christians that can't weep for sin as some others can but yet they can take more heed of sin they can fear it and shun it and conquer the power of it more than those that can more passionately weep for it There are some that cannot so passionately melt under the VVord but yet the VVord sticks more upon them and hath more power over their practise There are that can't feel so much of the warm and lively workings of love to God but they are more tender how they offend or displease God more bent upon being Serviceable and Faithful to God And sure there 's more of solid Religion in these than in some others in whom it works more passionately Friends look to this if you be wanting in affection let it be made up in circumspection what you want of the delights of Religion let it be made up in diligence If you feel not so much of the warm workings of love to Christ yet can you but keep you close to Christ and the obedience of his will if whilst you are less lively you be yet more tender and heedful and watchful in your goings if whilst you can't melt nor passionately mourn for sin yet you carefully shun and beware of sin if though you be not elevated and raised to those heights and raptures of joys as some others yet you are more mortified to sin the world if you be dead with Christ dead to the Fashions and Lusts and Pleasures and Riches of this world if ye be dead with Christ though your life and the comforts of it be yet but hidden you have gotten the substance of Christianity in you In these and such like instances stands the solidity of Christianity wherein he that groweth most is the best Christian It 's true when affection and solidity go together where we are both substantial Christians and also warm and lively Christians that 's incomparably best and most desireable Follow after both but especially take heed that what-ever be wanting in affection be made up in solidity Get to be more understanding experienced Christians get to be more Conscientious tender strict and close followers of Christ in all the known and weighty matters of the Law Be mortified to sin be crucified to the World be bent upon doing all the good you can in your Generations this is it I mean by solid Religion O Friends what a deal of light and frothy Religion have we known some years since in our Land which made a great noise and a fair shew and appear'd in a great flush of affection and had but little it What tryumphing in Christ what boasting of the Spirit what magnifyings of free grace what pretentions to great joyes and confidences were there amongst many hot and hasty Professors which have since vanished into meer wind How comes this to pass Why there was not the substance of Religion at bottom the sounding Vessels were hollow and had nothing in them Be as affectionate as you can be as zealous and lively as possible but be sure that there be substance under all your shews Be diligent Christians be doing Christians be mortified Christians 't is this which will hold out and therefore let this be it you are reaching up unto to keep you from Iniquity to keep you close to duty and hence to be built up through Faith unto Salvation 2. Get to be solid in Religion to more firmness to be more deeply rooted in the Faith and more firmly resolved for the obedience of the Gospel this the Apostle expresses by groundedness and settleness Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled
keep Faith and a good Conscience Well now these 4. things you are your selves to do to prepare you for suffering Give your selves and all you have to Christ's dispose c. and then you are ready for the Cross then let the Devil and all his Armies fall on you are ready to receive their charge without giving an inch of ground But who can do all this or how shall I ever be able to come to it The first of these I hope you have done already If ye be Christians you have given your selves and all you have to Christ but how shall I do to keep me close to Christ to sit so loose from all things to make sure of Christ to maintain the testimony of a good Conscience and an holy Conversation Woe is me I am breaking loose from Christ at every turn I have a fickle and unstable soul that 's apt to wander every day and for things below though I have given them to Christ yet I feel mine heart still cleaving to them and hankering and hanging after them I can't think of being made Poor I can't think of being made a Reproach or a Scorn or a Prey I can't think of it with any patience what shall I do in this case Why here 's that which will do it trust upon Christ to help you pray for such a disengaged spirit pray for such a power pray for such a frame reason and do what you can to perswade your selves into it press your selves on to such a close conscientious holy Conversation strive and labour and be reaching on towards it and then trust upon Christ to bring you to it Commit thy way to him and he shall bring it to pass he shall put thee into such a condition wherein thou shalt be Cross-proof whatever thy Crosses be This is one of Christ's ways by which he helps his Saints to bear the Cross he prepares them for it and he must and will do it if he be sincerely trusted for it It thenceforth lyes upon him his faithfulness stands engaged to work all your works in you where your faith hath put it into his hands 2. Trust him to perform what he hath undertaken to do for you What hath he undertaken to do for his suffering People 1. To support them in their sufferings Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain or uphold thee the burthen of thy sorrows the burthen of thy sufferings the burthen of thy fears thou hast Enemies that will bind heavy burthens and lay them upon thee burthens of Reproaches burthens of wants burthens of thornes pricking and piercing burthens and it may be thou wilt say how can I bear all these burthens I sink I sink my spirit fails within me heavy things there are come upon me O what shall I do to bear them Why cast thy burthen upon the Lord trust upon him and he will sustain thee Phil. 4.5 6. Let your moderation be known unto all Men Be not over solicitous what you shall do or how you shall stand Be careful for nothing the Lord is at hand 2. To preserve them from falling from falling away from Christ from falling off from their holy profession Jude 24. He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory and as he is able so he is faithful 1 Thes 5.24 Faithful is he that hath called you and will do it What will he do why v. 23. he will preserve you blameless unto his coming Christians be careful about your present duty and then never torment your selves with thoughtfulness and fears how you shall stand your ground under the greatest of sufferings but as the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator And thus I have shewed you the second particular wherein that solidity or establishment in Religion which I am pressing you to reach after stands viz. a firm trust in Christ 3. Adherence to Christ or cleaving to the Lord. The two main Roots whereby a Christian is grounded in Christ are the two fore-mentioned Resolution and Trust and the immediate fruits of this rooting is cleaving or sticking fast unto him and the closer we cleave unto him the more we are confirmed and established The root of a Tree is that by which it cleaves unto the ground and by how much the deeper it spreads it self and works its self into the Earth by so much the faster hold it takes And there is a mutual hold taken the root takes hold of the ground and thereby the ground holds fast the root A rooted Christian hath gotten hold of Christ and Christ hath taken hold of him we have both these together Phil. 8.12 If I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Christ's hold of a Christian is sure but not always perceived Joh. 10.28 29. My Sheep hear my voyce and follow me and I give to them eternal life they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand There are many attempts upon the Saints the World pulls at them Sin pulls the Devil pulls and would pluck them off from Christ and pluck them up by the roots but saies Christ for all that they are safe enough pluck who will they shall not be pluck'd away But as sure as Christ holds them they may sometimes think he hath let go his hold and cast them off and may say as the Psalmist Psal 43.2 Why hast thou cast me off Lord Where am I now I once had hopes that the Lord was my strength but woe is me now I am even cut off and mine hope is perished from the Lord I fear that after all my hopes I shall prove a lost soul at last And as Christ's hold of a Christian so a Christians hold of Christ is always sure though he himself always perceive it not That Prayer of Christ for Peter is for every particular Christian that his Faith may never fail that hand of Faith may grow weak but shall never wither It may shake yet still as the hand of a drowning Man it keeps its hold Yet as to his own sense he may be at a loss and sometimes come to this conclusion if ever I had Faith yet now I am sure I have none Well but however though a Christian may sometimes think I have cast off and let go mine hold of Christ and thereupon he hath cast off and let go his hold of me yet even then when 't is saddest and lowest with him he still cleaves to Christ There are these two things which shall never totally fail 1. There is a secret stay upon Christ this he may do and does even then when he thinks he does not nor cannot There is an hope hidden in his heart even then when he says There is no hope That it may be so appears from Isa 50.10 Who is there that walks in darkness
in Holy Communication or discourse among you Good words are none of the least of our good works This one thing would much conduce both to the recovering that of religion which is lost and to the filling up that which is wanting in our selves or others This hath been in use amongst some of you but is it not much fallen and forgotten Do not many of you that are Professors converse together as carnally and as unprofitably as men that have no religion in them This is a great shame and of sad consequence and Religion which is now so much fallen in the World is never like much to rise till this holy practice be revived You are all ready enough to complain what decays there are in Religion but are you willing to help towards its recovery We have helped one another down sadly we have consumed one another by our own coldness will you help to recover one another to warm and to quicken one another as you have helped to cool and to deaden By this means you will mutually have the benefit of each others graces and experiences your graces will hereby in a sort become their graces and their graces become yours Your candle may light your Brethrens candles at least you may give light to those that are round about you but of this more afterwards I cannot enlarge further upon the several ways wherein your religious activity should be exercised you must take these hints in general Labour to be doing Christians diligent busie Christians ready to every good work and fruitful in every good work Have an eye upon and be reaching to this active life hide not your Talent in a Napkin put not your Candle under a Bushel keep not your Religion to your selves your Knowledge your Graces your Experiences to your selves Hath the Lord lighted up a Candle in your Hearts let your light shine before men that may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 5. To evenness and equality both of temper and course Evenness of temper is an argument of health and strength they are the weakly bodies that are apt to change with every change of Air or Weather and they are but weakly Souls whom every change of their circumstances puts out of frame This even frame must and will shew it self in an evenness of the course 'T is an holy life that Christians must live and not satisfie themselves with sometimes an holy duty or day There must not be only some drops of Religion sprinkled here and there upon their paths but their life must be an holy stream and the stream must be constantly running towards God and Heaven They must run a Race thitherward Heb. 12.2 He that runs a race keeps on his way step by step in a continued motion We must neither turn aside nor go uncertainly on sometimes running and sometimes but creeping or standing still we must keep our way and keep our pace we must not go jumping heavenward doing something of our duty and jumping over others we must take all along in order as we go Christians it may be by the grace already obtained there 's something done in Religion at times but how many duties do ye jump over and let them alone Sometimes you will pray and sometimes you will jump over your praying seasons Sometimes you will perform works of piety but you will jump over works of righteousness and mercy Sometimes you will be serious and savoury and then you will leap out into lightness and vanity Sometimes you will take a leap to Heaven in your retirements to converse with God and then you will leap down again into the mud and mire Sometimes you will have some holy fits and then your proud fits or froward fits Sometimes ye run and then stand still diligent for a start and then grow resty and idle who knows how long after It is uncomfortable to consider how much this is the Religion of the most of Professors their Religion like a Feaver comes by fits only as if it were rather their distemper than their temper 't is but here and there a little sprinkling some few drops fall that have any holy savour and tendency Our stream our stream O how and which way does it run Sure you had gotten much higher if you had been more constantly rising upwards But whilst there are such risings and falls such goings on and standings still or turnings aside whilst you are such working and loytering Souls no wonder it is so low with you as it is Know every one of you that this in and out course is an argument that yet you have but little and will never come to much if it do not come to just nothing at last Now and then a strait step with so many steps awry is this ever like to bring you to Heaven You are travelling up the Hill but when will ye get you higher if as one foot steps forward the other slides back This uncertain unequal going on only as the fit comes 't is an easie kind of Religion if it were but sound But how can you think your selves sound where you are so divided betwixt something and nothing An intermitting Pulse is dangerous if not deadly Friends would you prove your selves to be Christians indeed would you not that both you and your Religion should prove to be as the chaff before the wind And when the Lord shall come to purge his floor would you not that both your souls and your hopes should be blown away as the Chaff and burn with the chaff in unquenchable fire would you make it evident that your Religion is not Irreligion and your Christianity Hypocrisie Then get you up to a more fixed spiritual temper and hold you on in a more even and continued course this will prove you to be Christians both in truth and of growth and hereby you will be making an advance higher and higher till you shall have perfected holiness in the fear of God That 's the mark that stands at the top of the Mount which I would after all that I have said you should have chiefly in your eye perfection of Holiness and be with your might reaching towards For the close of this you now see what that pitch of Religion is that I am pressing you to even the highest pitch that is possibly attainable You see your way before you is an uphill way You that are yet but at the foot of the Mount stay not where you are but get you up by the rising ground till you come to the top Do not now stand desponding at the height of the Hill and the steepness of its passage do not stand complaining of the difficulty of attaining say not within your selves I cannot get on I cannot get me up to this holy spiritual fruitful steady frame and life with all my soul I would but O I cannot I stick still here below I am among the poorest and weakest and hindermost of the Flock and after
was the case of David when he prayed Ps 51.20 Renew a right Spirit within me When those dews and showers of his Grace which are necessary to the holding our Souls in a flourishing state are restrained and hereupon the Grace we have received withers and grows to decay The former withdrawing of God may consist with the vigour of Grace God may hide his Face sometimes from the dearest of his Saints to prevent their decay but the suspending of his gracious influences will be followed with a decay The Somer Sun-beams ripen the Fruit but the Winter Sun when by its distance its influences are the weaker leaves all to fade and wither It 's winter with those Souls who by their distance from Christ do lose the influences of the Sun of Righteousness When the Sun comes about again and renews its influences then it 's Spring and fresh Buds and Flowers break forth O Friends is it not winter with many of our Souls Have not the influences from above evidently failed us We have wasted out our Somer and driven the Lord to a distance and now behold how our good things die away within us 'T is become cold and frosty weather in our Souls the cold hath withered our Fruit and the Sun doth not revive it The Lord God is sadly withdrawn and gone far off from many of our Souls If Christians would be so wise as to keep them near to the Lord and so to keep the Lord near to them it would be ever Spring and Somer with them and they should know Winter no more O let us hold us under the Divine influences take heed how you put the Lord far off from you take heed of wandring from the Lord lest he punish your wandrings from him by removing himself from you 3. When he loosens the Reins of Government and leaves them to themselves and their own foolish hearts takes off his bridle from them and lets them run their own course suffers their lusts to rule them and lets them alone to walk in their own counsels Thus he withdrew from Israel Ps 81.12 I gave them up to their own hearts lusts or to the hardness or imagination of their own hearts And they walked in their own counsels This is a worse case than the former It goes ill with those Souls where the gracious influences of God are suspended That Field or that Garden is in but poor case that wants the Sun and the Showers but when it wants the care or the eye of the Husbandman too what good can be expected from it or to it When grace is restrained and sin is restrained to what a pass will such Souls quickly grow Gods Government is upheld in Souls by the upholding of Conscience in its vigilancy in its tenderness in its authority When Conscience is tender and watchful and we hold our selves under its inspection and government whilst Christians keep them to be consciencious whilst Conscience tells them of their duty and warns them of their sin and they will hearken to Conscience their case so long is hopeful though God hides his Face and leave their Souls in the dark and speaks not a comfortable word to them yea and leaves them flat and dead as to the wonted lively operations of his Grace suspending as to their sense both his quickning influences and his comforting influences yet as long as Gods Government is kept up in them as long as conscience is kept tender and wakeful though they want the light of the Lord yet they keep close to the Law of their God though his countenance be not towards them yet they have a good conscience towards him though they cannot rejoyce in God yet they will walk with God though they cannot now see his Face yet they are still diligent in seeking his Face though the Lord seems to have cast them off yet they will not cast him off so long though their case be sad at present yet it will be safe at last Is 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his Servant though he walk in darkness and have no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord c. Christians are there any of you in darkness and without the light of comfort and of joy in your hearts hath the Lord hid his Face from you this you will mourn under yet do you fear and obey the Lord do you live under his Government though you cannot see him and rejoyce in him yet do you serve him and follow him So long 't is well enough trust in the Lord and stay your selves upon God he will be a Sanctuary and support to you though his Sun shine not upon you But when God hides his Face with-holds the sensible Influences of his Grace and loosens the Reins of Government too leaves men to themselves and they thereupon follow their own hearts and walk in their own counsels then whither will they run Friends whatever befall you pray that God will still keep you under government and look to your selves that you do not throw off his government Keep your consciences tender and hold you under the government of them such Backsliders there are who have lost the sight of God have grown to decay through the failing of divine influences and also have lost conscience too their lust hath gotten the government of them the world the love of the world and their cares for the world bear the great sway in their Souls all the bonds of Religion are loosened and can take no hold of them farther than their carnal ease and interest will give leave if they continue in the number of Professors still yet they are a sort of loose Professors unruly ones all the Religion they have will not rule their Tongues nor rule their passions nor their appetites When their passion is up religion must stand by conscience must hold its peace or if it speak they will not hear Lust must be let alone to controul conscience but conscience may not be suffered to controul lust the sins which are for their gain or their pleasure they can swallow them and not keck at it The duties that are a weariness to the flesh they can omit them or shuffle them over when the world or their sloth won't give them leave they can let praying alone or reading or so much as serious thinking of God and the things of God they can let it all alone So much of religion as will serve their turns they will take up and what 's more than that they can dispense with themselves in it If they be told of their faults and their haltings and be never so solemnly charged in the name of the Lord to remember themselves and recover out of this wretched state 't is all one as if nothing had been said on they go in their old carnal rode and will lay nothing to heart And as they let themselves alone so God lets them alone too and will not rebuke
perpetually rising up to hinder any good that 's going in your hearts and bringing it to just nothing O how many good motions are quenched good purposes vacated good desires and hopes frustrated good beginnings discouraged your duties spoiled your peace broken your comforts clouded and lost and all by the malign influences of the Body of sin and the impetuousness of your lusts its members Here are those outcries that we sometimes hear from the tender-hearted wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar I am for peace but they are for war I am for peace yet not by a League but by a conquest of mine Enemies let them dye that I may be at rest but still they live and are mighty whilst I am for peace they are for war I can have no rest in my Spirit I am weary of my life because of these Daughters of Heth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Hear Lord cut down cast out these Sons of the Bond-woman that they be no longer a Plague or a Snare unto me Remember these Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem happy should I be could I reward them as they have served me happy should I be if I could take these Children and dash them against the stones And now you see another ground why you have great need to bestir your selves because of these stirring lusts that hinder and mischief you Let me here put in a word of application You will say But what should the consideration of these stirring lusts stir me up unto Why you have it hinted to you already to deal by them as they have dealt and will deal by you Have they given you a fall wrestle with them again till they fall before you Are they for war let them have enough of it war against those lusts that war against your Souls Doth the Flesh lust against the Spirit let the Spirit lust against the Flesh Stretch forth the Spear and draw not back your hand till they become as the Midianites which perished at Endor and became as the Dung of the Earth Mortifie mortifie them as lust hath even mortified your Religion so let your Religion mortifie Corruption Take the Apostle for your Patern O how did that great Apostle Paul bestir himself upon this account what compassionate complaints did he make against his lust Rom. 7. aforementioned The good that I would I do not the evil that I hate that do I when I would do good evil is present with me I find a law in my members war ring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death What earnest prayers did he make For this I besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12.8 I was often upon my knees begging the Lord that these Thorns in my flesh might be pulled out What assaults and batteries did he make upon them 1 Cor. 9.26 27. So fight I not as one that beateth the Air but I keep under my body and bring it to subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a Cast away What will become of me if I let these Lusts live O they will damn me at last After all my preaching of Christ to others I shall be a Reprobate from Christ a Cast away if I conquer not mine own sins one of the two they or I must die Paul was a chosen Vessel and by the Election of God secured from coming into condemnation but this necessary means must be used his sins must be slain or his soul cannot be saved Acts 27.31 Though God had promised him his life and the lives of all in the Ship yet says he unless the Mariners abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved And in the case of Jonah if Jonah had not been cast out of the Ship the Mariners had all been drowned Friends how often must I tell you this Whatever Faith and Hope in Christ you have whatever profession of Christ you have made whatever security you think you have for your Salvation yet if these Jonahs be not cast over board you will all be drowned in perdition and destruction your lusts will never leave enticing and tempting you from one sin to another from one degree of Apostasie to another till they have damned your Souls If you give them Rope and let them alone they will become such a Rope about your Neck as will drag you to the Pit How near have they brought you to it already are not some of you even become as dying men have not your souls and your hopes one foot in the Grave And if you die thus daily what can you expect but to be buried in flames See what your lusts have already done and tremble to think what they are still a doing you die outright if you save them alive And will you not yet stir have they eaten up your hearts and drunk up your spirits and left such leanness upon your souls Have they withered your branches and rotted your fruit and are these worms still gnawing at your root How can you but cry out Lord what am I come to Lord whether am I falling save Lord or I perish Arise O my Soul cut off the Limbs and smite through the Loyns of the Old Man nothing but his Death can secure his Life Friends how do these words take with you what do they work what nothing moved for all this Or do the Sleepers begin to wake O that it might be so Lord waken them 3. From the difficulty of holding on and getting on the way for those that stand It 's hard to keep our way and much more to make speed on in it and so hard that unless we bestir our selves to purpose we shall never come roundly on The way of Religion is an uphill-way Prov 15.24 The way of life is above to the Wise to depart from Hell beneath The Mark we are making toward stands upon a Hill there the City of God in which alone that perfection we are reaching after is to be found is situate The Holy Hill of Zion Jerusalem which is above Our Mark we are pressing to stands upon an Hill and our way to it is all rising ground and if we put not our selves hard to it we shall never get up Sinners are all running downward and therefore 't is they run so fast Behold how the whole herd of Sinners are all like that herd of swine of the Gaderens running headlong down and never like to stop till they be choked and drowned in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the same way are Backsliders running these also are running down after the herd of Swine But now a Christians way is upwards as 't is said Eccl. 3.21 the Spirit of a Man so much more the Spirit of a Christian ascends and goes upwards he does so