this day And that whether in Publick Private or Secret The Day is not done when the Church dissolves The whole of it is holy to the Lord. Walks and Visits are not to be the Evening-Work of the Sabbath but holy and spiritual Conferences Those who have Families to look after be best employed in seeing them spend the vacant time of the Sabbath in Holy Exercises sc Reading the Scripture giving an account what Truths they have been taught joining with them in Praises and Prayer unto God In all of these in their Courses and Order till Night calls for Repose Fifthly The Ordinances of Jesus Christ Which we profane when we neglect or are remiss in our attendance upon them Some particular Characters of a profane Person here follow First He is a profane Person that thinks and speaks but slighly of Religion Religion our chiefest Excellency the Crown of our Beings But have we not many who deride Piety and make a scoff of Religion Who take up their Religion by chance never examining it Thinking that any may suffice whatever it be Secretly despising the holiness and strictness of others thinking they make more ado to get to Heaven than needs But indeed they are not too precise but these are too profane who contemn Religion as unnecessary and superfluous Secondly He is a prafane Person who neglects the Publick Worship of God when he hath opportunity and ability to attend it God's special Presence is in two places Heaven and the Church Thirdly He is a profane Person who neglects the performance of religious Duties in private Every House ought to be a Temple dedicated to God And every Master ought to be a Priest to offer to God the daily Sacrifice of Prayers and Praises Such profane Families as those which are without them God ranks with Infidels and Heathens and devotes them to the same common Destruction In the Morning Prayer is the Key that opens to us the Treasury of God's Mercies and Blessings In the Evening it is the Key that shuts us up safe under his Protection and Safeguard Excuses are vain and cannot take off your Obligation Are you ignorant Many are the helps that God hath provided you Are you incumbred with your Worldly Affairs The weightier they are the more need you have to ask Counsel and Direction of God Are you bashful and modest Alas be ashamed to sin be ashamed to talk loosly be ashamed to neglect thy Duty before thy Family but be not ashamed to pray and do thy Duty Our Saviour hath told us Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and 〈◊〉 my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Mark 8.38 What will become of them who are ashamed of their Duty Fourthly He is a profane Person that performs Holy Duties slightly and superficially Our whole Hearts must go into our Holy Duties And the strength and vigor of our Spirits must diffuse themselves into every part of them to animate and quicken them Sacrifices of old were commanded to be offered up with Fire And no other Fire could sanctifie them but that which shot it self down from Heaven The which was ever after to be kept burning for that use Our Christian Sacrifices of Praise and Prayer must be offered with Fire and that Fire must be dâ—rted down from Heaven The Celestial Flame of Zeal and Love which comes from Heaven and hath a natural Tendency to carry up our Hearts and Souls thither But indeed commonly our Duties are either offered up with strange unhallowed Fire some unruly Passion of Hatred Self-love and Pride Or else they are very cold and heartless Our Prayers are dull and yawning and drop over our Lips without any Spirit or Life in them Fifthly He is a prosane Person that performs Holy Dâ—ties for Worldly Ends and Advantages For what greater contempt of God can there be than to make his service truckle under base Designs A Hypocriâ—e is the most profane Wretch that lives He entitles the Holy God unto the Wickedness he commits and makes God the Patron of his Sin And the Wound that Religion receives from Hypocrites is far more dangerous than that which open 〈…〉 upon it When he that speaks 〈…〉 â—â—â—â— this tempts Men to think that all Religion is but Mockery Sixthly He is a prosane Person who makes what God hath sanctified common and unhallowed And have we not many such prosane Persons Many that abuse the Holy and Reverend Name of God about â—ous Matters Who make mention of him in their â—dle Chat. but are mute and dumb when any thing should be spoke to his Praise There are but two Ends that can warrant and justifie the use of any of God's Names Titles and Attributes And they 〈◊〉 1. God's Glory and 2. The Edisication of our â—es and others God's terrible Name is so full of Gloâ—â— and Majesty that it should never be uttered but where the Discourse is serious and weighty Those who rend it with Oaths and Blasphemies ought to be punished by the Judges And would to God Laws 〈◊〉 put in severe Execution to cramp the 〈…〉 Wretches Others â—ill up their fanâ—har Tattles with the Name of GOD and LORD making them to express some 〈…〉 and fill 〈…〉 their Discourâ—s These God will not hold guiltless He holds 〈◊〉 contemned and will revenge the Dishonour 〈◊〉 they do him by it What! Will you dare to 〈…〉 the great Name of God without considering 〈…〉 it a Name to be sported with To be tost to and fro upon every light and vain Tongue Whenever we â—â—ntion it we ought to how our hearts in the deeâ—est prâ—stration before it to which all the Powers anâ— Heaven and Earth bow down with most humble Veneration Canst thou in Duty easily compose thy self to reverence the holy and dreadful Name when thou hast accustomed thy self to name him without any respect in thy common Discourses Let me beseech you O Christians as you tender his Glory of which He is jealous whensoever you speak of God or but mention his Name do it with an holy Awe and Dread of his Divine Majesty And you who are Masters of Families and have Children beware that you stop in them the growing Sin of profaning God's Name To attest any thing by their Faith or by their Truth is a wicked Oath more impious in effect than louder ones The By word Marry is no less than swearing by the Virgin Mary It is a notable Device of the Devil to bring foolish masked words into common use 1. That they may swear who use them though they know it not And 2. That by using unknown Oaths they may be brought in time to take up known ones Vehement Asseverations be also dangerous beginnings of Oaths By the customary use of them we shall insensibly be tripping upon an Oath This and more see p. 163. and up and down on the third Commandment To return Many profane God's Sabbaths invade impiously the Time that be hath set apart for himself his own Worship and Service Many make the Bible their Jest-Book prostituting those Expressions which God hath sanctified to convey to us the knowledge of Himself and of Eternal Life unto the Laughter and Mirth of their loose Companions Those very words which the Holy Ghost inspired for the Edification of the Church the Devil inspires into these prosane Wretches for their own Dammation and the Damnation of those that have pleasure in such horrid Profaneness Seventhly He is a profane Person who despiseth Spiritual Privileges and Eâ—ments Upon this very account the Scripture sets a black anâ— liâ—le Brand upon Esau Left there be any Forâ—â—â—or or profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birthright Heb. 12.16 They are profane who vilifie the Ministry in Themselves and in Others Who dishonour God's Ambassadors And who despise his Children whom God so highly honours as to adopt them into his Family He who despiseth him that is begotten despiseth him likewise that begetteth Contempt of Children and Servants argues secret contempt of the Master and Father Now lay these things to your own Hearts and bring them home to your own Consciences and see whether you are in none of these particulars guilty of Profaneness Do none of you think slightly of Religion accounting it a politick Design or a needless Preciseness Are none of you negligent in the Publick Worship of God Nor in Private and family-Family-Duties Or if you perform them is it not very carelesly and perfunctorily Or if you seem zealous in them is not your Zeal excited by some Temporal Advantages and Worldly Designs Do you not make that Common and Vnholy which God hath made Holy Either by abusing his Name polluting his Sabbaths or vilifying his Word in your ordinary Raillery Lastly Do none of you despise Spiritual Privileges and the Persons who are invested with them If you do how fair soever your Lives and Actions may be although you may think the rude debauched Sinner at a vast distance from your selves and account him the only profane Person yet certainly this black stile belongs as properly to you And you are prosane Violaters of the First Commandment Which requires you to take the Lord for your God and accordingly to honour and reverence Him and whatsoever appertains unto Him FINIS
and impose his drudgery upon you under the notion of ease and quiet If your Consciences were once awakened I know the Work of the Devil must needs bring you more vexation besides the shame than ever you would have from the work of God yea the very omission and neglect of God's Work is a far greater trouble than the performance of it would be therefore if you look no farther than your present Content and Satisfaction if you would go to your final estate the easiest way whatever it be think not to attain this by giving up your selves to a way of Sin nor by wounding your own Consciences which with trouble afterwards will be sure to be avenged upon you but in a way of Duty and laborious working you only can find present content and shall certainly find future Happiness SERMON V. Object 2. TRue may some say Possibly the Work of God might be more pleasing and satisfactory to us than the Work of the Devil if we could work it but to what end is it that God requires from us to work to what purpose doth he command us Doth not he himself know that we have no power Doth not he himself say that we are dead in Trespasses and Sins Is it rational is it just to bid a dead Man work Or doth it become that God who would be thought by us to be infinitely gracious and merciful to mock and deride humane misery when he commands those things from us which he knows to be impossible Had he bid us blend Light and Darkness together or to bend the Axle-tree of the World till both Poles meet had he bid us fling the Stars out of their Orbs or with our hands stop the Sun in the midst of his course all these great impossibilities are as easily atchiev'd as by our own power to work any part of divine and acceptable obedience without gracious assistance from God We can as soon glorifie as sanctifie our selves What should we then do but only sit still and expect till efficacious Grace should move and act us and we not able to gainsay and resist it till God so draw us as that we must run and so call us as that we must answer till then our Obedience is an impossibility and all our Attempts are vain and fruitless This now is a slothful Sinner's pretence why he will not work and no doubt but that too often it doth flash into the thoughts of most men whereby their hearts are discouraged and their hands weakned in the service of God Answ In Answering this I shall not enter into that great Debate of the power of nature to do what is good and acceptable to God but proceed in a plain and accommodated way to Practice and that which will be most convictive to the Conscience First Men will not plead thus in Matters of far less concernment than the Salvation of their Souls Would a Master when he commands his Servant to work take this think you for a sufficient excuse That he hath no power to work till God act and move him It may as well be objected by your Servants to you as by you to God Tell me what power have I to speak or you to hear one word unless God do concurr to it Nay we are not sufficient to think one good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 And do we make this an excuse to forbear those Actions that are necessary and convenient Do we therefore resolve to do nothing because it is impossible for us to do any thing unless God concurs with it What stupid dull Folly were this and we put it daily and hourly to trial and produce me that man that can say God was wanting to him in his concurrence What a miserable and ridiculous task would it be if in every Action of our Lives that we cannot do without God yet should sit still and question God's concurrence Do you sit down to try whether God will enable you to rise when you are down Or do you question whether God will concurr to another step though it is impossible you should stir and move unless God act and move you yet this hinders not mens endeavours In him we live and move and have our being Why do not you do so in spiritual matters We can do nothing without God True yet put it to the trial whether or no God will concurr with you Certainly that man must be nameless that can say I was truly willing and endeavoured to do any spiritual good but God was wanting to me in his concurrence Secondly Those men who thus make Impotence a pretence for their Sloth do not indeed believe what they themselves pretend No it is the inward and secret thought of them all that they have a power to work out their own Salvation and therefore whether they have or no still they are inexcusable while they think they have this power yet they sit still Although a man be chained fast down that he cannot go yet he thinks himself at liberty and notwithstanding sits still you may soon tell where the fault lies it may be imputed for want of Will and not for want of Power So here Wicked men think they have power to work however they speak otherwise therefore they are utterly inexcusable if they do not work It is as clear as the light that their Sloth proceeds not from their Impotence but from their own wilfulness I shall endeavour by a few Arguments to convince you that you do indeed think that you have power to work out your own Salvation therefore if you do it not you are altogether inexcusable whether you have that power or no. First Did you never when God hath shaken his Rod and Whip over you seriously promise and resolve to work his Rod I mean either of Conviction or Affliction Have not these made you enter into an engagement with God that you would serve and obey him for the future Did you not really thus resolve There are few here but sometimes at least in a Fit and Pang of Conscience have so done And why did you resolve all this and yet at the same time think and believe you could do nothing Did you only mock God and play with your own Consciences Certainly your Consciences then were too much provoked and too much awakened to be thus jested and dallied with We find this Temper in the Israelites when they were frighted at the terrible glory from Mount Sinai Exod. 24.3 See how confidently they promise and resolve And all the People answered with one voice and said All the Words which the Lord hath said will we do So the Jews in their great distress Jer. 42.6 Whether it be good or whether it be evil we will obey the voice of the Lord our God c. that it may be well with us Alas how many pious Purposes and holy Resolutions have your Dangers your Fears and your Sick-Beds been witness to Have they not heard you breath out Spare O Lord spare
a little longer give some space try us yet once more and O Lord we will reform we will amend our sinful Lives we will perform neglected Duties and never more again return to folly Are not these Resolutions an evident Conviction Certainly you thought you had a power so to do and therefore if you do not endeavour to perform you are altogether inexcusable Secondly Did you never in your whole Lives perform a Duty unto God Did you never pray Is there any here so desperately prophane so lost to all shew of goodness that hath not done this And to what end have you prayed For what did you perform your Duty Was it not for Salvation And did you work for Salvation and yet think you had no power to work for it It is impossible Mens very Works do plainly shew that they do think that they have a power something still must be done though it be but formally slightly and coldly a mere Lord have mercy upon me a customary Lord forgive me yet something Conscience will require which men reckon upon and make account to be working out their Salvation Thirdly Wherefore is it that you trust unto and relie upon your good Works if you think you have no power to work out your Salvation Would it be so hard and difficult a matter to take men off from leaning so much upon their Works if they did not think that they had power to work out their own Salvation Men do apprehend a worth and sufficiency in what themselves do in order to Eternity and bid them forgo their Works and renounce their own Righteousness and this is a hard Saying you may almost perswade them assoon to renounce all their hopes of Heaven This is an evident Conviction whatever Notions men may entertain to stop the mouth of a clamorous Conscience when it calls on them for working and labouring yet they do not believe what they themselves speak concerning their Impotence Fourthly Did you never when the Spirit of God was dealing with your Hearts perswading you to enter upon a course of Duty and Obedience Did you never procrastinate and use delays Did you never stifle the Breathings nor quench the Motions of the Holy Spirit by thinking it was time enough to do it hereafter What need I begin so soon or vex my flesh or deny my self the Joys and Pleasures of this Life even as soon as I am come to relish them When Sickness or grey Hairs admonish me and tell me I am near unto Eternity when old Age promiseth me that the Severities of Religion shall be no long trouble then will I look after the Concernments of my Soul then it will be time enough then I will repent believe obey and work out that Salvation that will be then hastening upon me Tell me truly Have not these been the foolish Reasonings of your Hearts Have you not thus often promised God and your own Consciences And doth not this plainly imply you thought you had power to do it Wherefore thou art inexcusable O Man whoever thou art it is in vain to plead want of Power God will confute thee by thy very thoughts Hadst thou no Power Although thou hadst not yet thou thoughtest thou hadst yet wouldest not endeavour to work therefore thy Ruine is as wilful and thy Condemnation as just as if thou hadst a power and wouldst not work for thou perishest merely thro' the default of thine own Will Answ 3. Whether wicked men have this power or no to work out their own Salvation I shall not now stand to enquire but if they had it yet they would not work with it and therefore it is a most vain and insufficient Plea to pretend they wanted power Now this appears evidently because there is no wicked man that ever did so much as he was able to do by the mere strength of Nature without the assistance of supernatural Grace and therefore it is not their Inability but their wilfull Sloth that doth destroy them Do but answer your own Consciences Was there not one Duty more which you could have performed nor one Temptation nor one Corruption more which you could have resisted Could not you have prayed read or meditated upon heavenly things then when your Hearts and Thoughts have been vain worldly and sinful and devilish Might not that Time have been spent in holy Converse which you trifled away in idle impertinent Discourse or in doing nothing or that which was much worse than nothing What force what constraint is laid upon you Can you think And if you can Cannot you think of God as well as of the World as well concerning fulfilling God's Will and working out your Salvation as fulfilling your Lusts Can you not speak And if you can Can you not speak to God in holy Prayer and of the things of God in holy Discourse as well as of your Trades and Bargains those low and trivial Matters that are not worthy of Men much less of Christians What force is there upon you Doth the Devil screw open the Drunkard's Mouth and poure down his excessive and intemperate Cups whether he will or no Doth the Devil violently move the Tongue of the Swearer and Blasphemer to revile the holy and reverend Name of God Doth he strike men dumb when they should pray or deaf when they should hear or senseless when they should understand Is there any such force or constraint laid upon you May you not avoid the one and do the other if you your selves please Yes you can but you will not therefore neither would you work out your own Salvation if you could Is there any hope that you that will not do the less that God requires from you that you should ever be induced to perform the greater Let your Weakness and Impotence be what it will yet your Condemnation will lie upon you so long as your Wilfulness is much greater than your Weakness No Sinners your precious and immortal Souls will eternally perish now for want of Will to save them Pity your selves will you lose your selves for ever only out of Sloth Will you sleep your selves into Hell and go drowzily into destruction Shall one end of your Souls lie already burning as a Brand of Hell-fire and you not put forth a hand to snatch it out Is it more painful to work the Works of God than it is to perish for ever under insupportable Torments Therefore do you what you possibly can labour and sweat at Salvation rather than fail of it Let this never grate nor fret your Consciences in Hell that they lie there burning for ever merely for your wilfull Neglects SERMON VI. VVHen a man is gone far towards Christianity there are several things that make him neglect a further progress As First His groundless fancying of Difficulties and hard Encounters in the Ways of God Oh were it but as easie to be holy as sinful he were wretched that would refuse to be a Christian or were Christianity but one
hard pull or difficult pang that would soon be over there were some encouragement for them but when they have already struggled and wrestled and waited against the stream thus far and yet see no end Duty to be performed upon Duty and Temptation upon Temptation to be resisted still to be combating with Devils still to be crossing and vexing of our selves no respite no breathing-time allowed them This takes off their Wheels and though they are able to do this yet they will rather sit down quite short of Grace than run thro' such hardships to attain it and so they come up in the mid-way neither holy nor prophane but please themselves with a mediocrity and middle rank of Religion and dare not go further for fear of difficulties nor yet they dare not fall further back for fear of Conscience and so they lie hovering between Heaven and Hell Now this is merely from wilfull Sloth Prov. 26.13 The slothful man saith there is a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets Here the Wise Man brings in a drowsie Sluggard dreaming of dangers and difficulties to excuse his Sloth I dare not stir abroad for there is a Lion in the streets A likely matter that there should be a Lion in the streets but yet see how this Fancy works with him Any thing is an excuse for the Sluggard In ver 14. As the door turneth upon the hinges so doth the Slothful upon his Bed A Door is often in motion to and fro but it gains no ground makes no progress still hangs where it did so it is with slothful Professors that which they have already attained to is that they move to and fro like a door upon the hinges still the same motion over and over again no new progress no new attainment and that merely because they are sluggish and lazy and fansie difficulties to themselves and strange apparitions in the Ways of God that make them stand at a stay where they are and dare not make one step forward As it was with the Israelites who came to the very Borders of the Land of Canaan Numb 13.32 33. When the Searchers had brought reports to them that the Land indeed was good and fruitful but the Walls of the City were built up to heaven and that there were many Giants and that they should be beaten and eaten They were not so much allured with the goodness of the Land as they were deterred by the thoughts of the difficulties and though God himself bid them arise and enter and take possession they would not venture upon so hazardous an exercise and so difficult an enterprize So there are many forward Professors who are come to the very Borders of the Land of Canaan to the very entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven who when they see what strong holds of Iniquity they must cast down what Principalities and Powers they must fight with and what gigantick Lusts as the Sons of Anak they must subdue and destroy this frights them from attempting any further Secondly To be almost a Christian carries in it those advantages and those accommodations which were they altogether such they must lose and therefore this is one Reason why so many stick in the New-birth Such a one is no Saint and therefore the men of the World embrace him such an one is no prophane and scandalous person and therefore the Children of God embrace him and think well of him too and thus he doth hold a correspondency with both of them which were he altogether either one or the other he must break off and therefore finding the conveniency of this neutral estate he stops where he is short of true Grace Were he a prophane Wretch then those that are truly godly would avoid his company or were he truly godly then the World would reject and scorn him the â—odly esteem and love him and from their ready Charity they look upon him to be truly gracious Those that are true Christians thinks the almost Christian look upon me as such as themselves and what need I begin by a forward Zeal to disoblige the World And the wicked and prophane respect me too because I go a little before them though not quite cross and contrary to them and so I enjoy the good opinion of both sorts which were I fully one or the other I should hardly attain This man can as it were hold Heaven with one hand and yet hold the World with the other not lose his interest in the one and yet retain his interest in the other he can enjoy the delights and pleasures of the one and then hope for the rewards and happiness of the other Were we lodged in a Star then the Earth would appear very small and almost nothing as the Stars do now to us so were we more above the Earth would appear either as very small or as nothing Thus it is with a Child of God he soars up by the wings of Faith and Love to the heavenly Jerusalem and the Earth appears very inconsiderable to him but now an unregenerate man when he mounts highest yet still will be sure to keep Earth in his eye he will not lose the sight of that and therefore when he hath got to such a pitch that he is able to discover something of Heaven and yet not lose the sight of Earth there he hangs in aquilibrio and will be drawn no further he keeps something of the Earth in his eye and will not lose nor diminish his sight or share of it for the Hopes and Joys of Heaven Thirdly False Opinions and Conceits that they are already Christians hinder these forward Professors from being true Christians It may be they would be Christians indeed did they not think they were already such When men are gone far then they are apt to think they are got home and so they have taken up their rest and will be driven on no further they think that what they have already gotten is enough to bear their charges to Heaven and so they grow careless of getting more they are perswaded that they are Christians and that keeps them from being perswaded to be such I do not intend to forbid eminent Professors to think they are indeed Christians but let them look how this perswasion works with them Doth it tend to make them more careless negligent and remiss When they have been under Troubles of Conscience for their Sins then they saw themselves in a lost and undone condition and had hot and scalding apprehensions of the Wrath of God then they were laborious to frequent Duties conscientious in their walking and fearful lest they should sin but since their Troubles have been worn off they have entertained better Hopes and better Opinions of their state Are they not grown more loose and more regardless They do not take so much pains with their hearts nor are they so strict and holy and severe in their Lives I must tell such what the Apostle tells the Galatians ch
5.7 8. Ye did run well who hindered you This perswasion cometh not of him that calleth you This perswasion that you are Christians cometh not of him that calleth you possibly it would be well with them if they did not think they were so Sirs if so be that thoughts of your being Christians and in a state of Grace did encourage you to walk worthy of that holy Calling if the hopes of your good and holy estate do engage you to purifie your selves as God is pure as they will work if they be right and genuine then still entertain and cherish them but if they turn to loosness remissness or presumption here suspect them to be the overweening Conceits and Elevations of a carnal heart and such as will certainly hinder you of what you thus fondly imagine your selves to be hinder you from making further progress in the Ways of Christianity in regard you take up false conceits that you are Christians already Fourthly Another Ground whence it is that forward Professors many times fall short of true Christianity It may be when they are already gotten far then the Devil especially doth all he can to hinder them when they have gone far towards Grace and Christianity then he unites all his Force and Subtilty to stop them from proceeding further lest they get from under his power and jurisdiction he knows if they once become Christians they are then almost out of his reach and therefore whatever lust be in the Soul he will then especially stir it up whatsoever reserve of Temptations there be he will then send them upon the Soul For none are more assaulted with Horrours and multiplied Temptations than those who make a great progress towards the Ways of God and are near to the Borders of true Christianity because then the Devil suspects that he shall lose them and that they are even revolting from him When they begin to move towards Heaven and labour after true Grace and Holiness the Devil sees that ordinary Temptations are not then sufficient to secure them that those Lusts that before hampered and captivated them at his pleasure will not now so easily prevail for he finds them too resolute too rough and untractable to deal with he begins then to fear to what a Rebellion this may grow and therefore he sets upon them with all his power way-lays them with all Ambushments circumvents them with all his Wiles and Stratagems and though these be only Armies and Musters of Shadows which a man might break through without any danger would he but arm himself with noble and undaunted Resolutions yet with these the Devil assaults and undermines them and that incessantly and doth at last stop them in their course towards Grace if not beat them back again to their former course of Prophaneness Luke 11.24 25. When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith I will return to mine house whence I came out and when he cometh he findeth it swept and garnished V. 26. Then goeth he and taketh seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that Man is worse than the first i e. When men have cast out unclean gross Lusts by an external Sanctification that the Devil seems to be dislodged when he seeks to return again to his ancient feat and possession he finds the Heart swept and garnished swept from the filth of common Sins and garnished with common Graces as its ornaments so that there seems no re-admission or re-entrance of this unclean Spirit and then he goes and takes to himself seven other Spirits worse than himself that is as I conceive stronger Temptations and more prevailing Lusts and by them he enters and dwells there and defiles that clean-swept house and not only keeps the Sinner from being better but makes his latter end worse than his beginning Fifthly When Men have gone far towards Christianity natural Conscience then leaves them and ceaseth to excite and provoke them to a further proficiency Conscience is the Spur that quickens wicked men to make that progress which they make Now when it hath brought them past common Sins to known and common Duties then it leaves them and urgeth them no further and so they sit down far short of true Grace and Christianity which they endeavoured after Well then let me say to such men as St. Paul to the Galatians chap. 5.7 You did run well who hindred you Was it the difficulty of Religion or the strength of Temptation the Flatteries and Allurements of the World the Violence and Rage of your own Lusts But might you not nevertheless have armed your selves with peremptory Resolutions Might you not undauntedly and victoriously have broke through all these Were you not able when you stood still or when you gave back as frighted and terrified at these things to make one step and another step still forwards Could you not proceed still further and press onwards through all these Yes you might have gone much further if you would you might have made a further progress though all Hell had armed it self against you therefore if you perish there will be cause and reason to blame your selves you can only charge your damnation on your own wilfull sloth and negligence This may suffice for an Answer to the Third General Whence it is that Professors that have gone far towards Christianity yet fall short of Grace and of being true Christians They were too nice to encounter Difficulties they were apt and forward to think well of themselves they were too faint-hearted to cope with Temptations loth to disoblige the World and would not proceed further than spurred on by a natural Conscience and therefore wilfully fell short through their own Sloth and Negligence of Grace here and of Glory hereafter Fourthly The last General propounded was to shew you the Folly and extreme Miscry of those who proceed thus far as to be Almost Christians and yet will not be perswaded to be such Altogether The Apostle seems to be very passionate Gal. 3.1 3. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you c. Verse 3. Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh What are you mad Are you besotted Are you bewitched out of your common Reason and Understanding that having begun in the Spirit and made so far progress in the Ways and Knowledge of Christ that after all this you should fall back again to carnal fleshly Rudiments Why the same may I say to many You that are Professors Why who hath bewitched you Why are you so foolish as when you have not only begun but proceeded far towards Holiness and true Grace that yet you should give over and sit down in a state of Nature and Unregeneracy short of