light of the Gospel JOHN 3. 20. For every man that doth evill hateth the light neither cometh he to the light least his deeds should be reproved p. 331 Gods Impartiality in his Judgements ISAIAH 42. 24. Who gave Jacob to the spoile and Israel to the Robbers Did 〈…〉 I the Lord 〈…〉 The great dignity of the Saints HEB. 11. 28. Of whom the world was not worthy p. 363. The time of Gods grace is limited GEN. 6. 3. And the Lord said My spirit shal not always strive with man because he is but flesh and his days shall be an hundred and twenty years p. 377. A Sermon for spiritual Mortification COLOS. 3. 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is Idolatry p. 393. The sinfulnesse and danger of Hypocrisie ISAIAH 58. 58. 4. the later part Ye sha'l not fast as ye do to day to make the voyce to be heard above p. 407. Reformation under Correction the way to prevent desolation JOB 34. 31. 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have borne chastisements I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do it no more p. 417. A SERMON OF The use and benefit of Divine MEDITATION HAGGAI 1. 5. Now therefore saith the Lord of Hosts Consider your wayes THe Prophet reproveth the people because they could find in their hearts to mind their own houses and yet were careless of the house of the Lord the Lord had sent a drought a famine and sundry punishments upon them for this thing and yet they laid it not to heart and therefore he sends Haggai the Prophet unto them to call them to repentance and which is an admirable course and little thought of in the world he begins with holy meditation and consideration Now therefore thus saith the Lord consider your wayes that is both in regard of the course of them your wicked wayes and also in regard of the bitter fruit of them your wretched and unprosperous wayes Here be two things very remarkable according to the Text 1. The repetition and inforcing of it again for he urgeth it again Consider your wayes in the seventh verse 2. The benefit that came by it it brought them to repentance for they all obeyed the voice of the Lord and the words of the Prophet verse 12. So that the Doctrine from hence is this That Serious meditation of our sins by the Word is a speciall means to make men repent Meditation is a setled exercise of the mind for a further inquiry of the truth and so affecting the heart therewith and therefore their be four things in meditation The first is an exercise of the mind not barely closing with the truth and assenting unto it and seeing it and there rests but it looketh on every side of the truth I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Psal 119 59. saith David that is I looked on my wayes on both sides above and beneath it 's taken from curious works which are the the same on both sides so that they which work them must often turn them on every side used Exod. 38. 33. as being works with two faces as one well observes so it was with David I turned my wayes up-side down and looked every way upon them thou never meditatest unlesse thou look on thy wayes on both sides with all circumstances An elegant phrase we have Dan. 12. 4. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall abound and be increased Run to and fro what is that It is not the bodily removing of man from one place to another so much as busie stirring of the mind from one truth to another so that it seeth the whole selvedge and compasse of the truth thou wilt never get the truth to be meditated of till thou run to and fro in it meditate it on this side and meditate it on that side look on it in every nook of it Meditation is like perambulation when men go the bounds of the Parish they go in every part of it and in every skirt of it so meditation is the perambulation of the soul when the soul looks how far sin goes how far the flesh goes how far the wrath of God against it goes Secondly as it is an exercise so it is a setled exercise it is not a sudden flash of a mans conceit but it dwels upon a truth When a man is in a deep meditation upon a thing he neither sees nor hears nor attends any thing else the stream of the heart is setled upon the truth received The word of God abides in you and you have overcome the world 1 John 2. 14. How came these young men to overcome Satan not by looking into the word or only thinking of the word but by letting the word abide in them When a man hath been offered an injury his heart is alwayes setled upon it when he eats his mind runs on the injury when he walks and talks still his mind runs on the injury so thy heart must go on the truth 2. Tim. 3. Continue in things thou hast learned that is take up thy mansion house in them A wicked man may turn into the word sometimes to think of it but it is as a man goes into another mans house there is not his dwelling Thirdly it is to make a further inquiry Meditation doth not only settle upon the truth known but it also would fain know more of those truths that are subject to it as a man without may see the out-side of the house but he cannot see the rooms within unlesse he come nigh and draw the latch and come into the house and go into the rooms and look about them Meditation pulls the latch of the truth and looks into every closet and every cupboard every angle of it Here is my sin here is my uncleannesse and here is Gods anger here is the woful evil that will follow upon it and here is a remedy against it Meditation searches into all the lofts and closets of the truth The entrance of thy word giveth understanding unto the simple Ps 119. 30. The ingress as one expounds it or going into thy word gives understanding the wicked stand looking upon the truth without the doors but it is the ingresse or going into the truth that gives understanding Indeed the truth is like a neat Palace saith Chrisostome the Spirit of God is like the light of the Sunne that shineth into it the wicked they stand without like fools peeping in at the windows and there be many thousand of pearls that are not manifest unto them the house seems dark to them that stand without Thou must enter into the word and into every particular truth in it and go up stairs and down stairs and have an eye into every room There thou shalt find humility there contrition there
Communion in those thy sins thou hast made thy selfe guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore I beseech you to look to it and in time to repent and pray with the Prophet David Ps 51. Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord even from the blood of thy Son lest one day it be laid unto thy charge and required straitly at thy hands For for this cause many are sick among you and many weak Is it so then that the Lord doth so severely punish the unworthy receiver of the Sacrament Take notice I pray you then from whence cometh all sicknesse weaknesse and mortality and the reason why the Lord doth send so many kinde of sorrowes crosses and miseries upon men namely because of the unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper So saith Master Calvin why do you wonder to see such wars and rumours of wars that there is so many blood-sheds so many Towns and Cities ruinated and so many Countries sacked and depopulated so many calamities come upon the Churches abroad and so many plagues and scourges to over-run Christendome at this day is not the cause plain enough men come unto the Table of the Lord carelesly and unworthily And beloved we shall never see the Lord take away his judgements here from the earth until we betake our selves to a more diligent and holy receiving of the Sacrament For this very cause there are so many strange diseases amongst us never formerly known or heard of untill these dayes as the French-Pox the English sweat as they call it that even the Physitians themselves are blunted at them and as Peter Martyr well observs hence are all diseases as plagues pestilences which were late amongst us dropsies bloody-Flux Agues Apoplexies Convulsions burning-Feavers and Impostumes c. and all for this cause One man hath fallen into a Feaver and we wonder at the cause whence he took it but in truth the communion hath cast him into his Feaver and the Lord will avenge himself on him for the same Another is sick and he thinks that a cold hath brought it upon him but it is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament that is truly the cause of it A third man dyeth before his time even in his full strength before in the course of nature he hath ended half his daies but the cause is unworthy coming to the Communion which hath taken hold on him and cut off the thread of his life Many there be that expound these words in a spirituall sense Many are sick and weak and many are fallen asleep that is to say many have their consciences seared and their hearts hardened c. and this is true also that because men come unpreparedly they have their hearts hardened and their consciences seared and their soul plagued with many spirituall plagues But it is as true also in temporall judgements thou hast had many afflictions and much sickness laid unto thee but thank thy selfe for it namely because thou hast come unworthily unto the communion thou hast had much weaknesse in thy body which hath cost thee much money and weakned thy estate but thy unholy coming unto the Sacrament is that which thou maiest thank for it Thou hast been reproched and contemned and endured much shame but take notice of it that it proceeds from the fore-going cause and that is a speciall reason why the Lord hath brought these and many other evils upon thee Thou canst say the Commandements for the most part by rote but thou didst never know the mysterie of this one Commandement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Behold the Communion is one of Gods own names and how many thousands are there in the world that take this name of God in vain Is there never a drunkard here in this congregation that hath been at the Sacrament Is there never a whoremonger never a covetous worldling Where is the man whosoever he be among you all that is such a one He is in the state of damnation Is there never a luke-warm and carnal Christian that contents himselfe with a formall worship and a dead performance of holy duties that hath no zeal for God nor courage for his truth but is carelesse of all Gods commandements whosoever amongst you are guilty of these sins or any other and hath come unto this holy Communion in them they are the persons that how oft soever they have received so oft they have taken this name of the Lord in vain And if I should examine this Congregation from the one end of it unto the other I fear that every pew would yeild some one if not many that have taken a Communion which is one of Gods names in vain Should I but examine thee that comest unto the Communion this day how by the last Sacrament thou receivedst and the last Sermon thou hast heard thy faith is strengthened thy repentance renewed and thy obedience is increased and thy care doubled for to walk with God whether thou art made by them more zealous for God more forward in his worship and service and every day more holy and heavenly-minded if not then tâ—oâ— hast taken this Name of the Lord thy God in vain and the Lord will not hold thee guiltless that is the Lord will not take away the guilt from thy conscience but he wil let thy sin lye open and thou shalt not be cleansed from it nor justified by the very blood of Jesus Christ but it shall rest upon thee to thy utter ruine and destruction unlesse thou forsake thy sins and so come preparedly unto this holy Table and banquet I know there is a convenant of grace a sweet refreshing for every humbled soul that is hungry and broken for his sins and for every poor distressed conscience let all such come and lay their sin upon Christs crosse and welcome But if there be any that come in their sins and will not reform their lives but be as they came sinners and so they mean to continue the Lord himself will lay this mans sins upon his own head and they shall never be taken away from him but Christ shall at the day of judgement pronounce him a guilty person to his eternal condemnation King Belshazzar that abused but the holy Vessels of the Temple and the Cups thereof what a small plague befel him for it Dan. 5. 27 28. God hath numbred thy Kingdome and finished it thou art weighed in the ballance and art found too light thy kingdom is departed from thee and is given to the Medes and Persians So beloved brethren if any of you shall abuse this Cup of the Lord coming to it with a filthy unclean heart and polluted conscience and earthly affections there is a hand-writing against every soul that thus cometh this day unto the Table of the Lord thou art numbred and weighed and found too light Thou O man and woman whosoever thou art that prophanest and contemnest these holy things of God thou
unseasonable rains dangerous weather wars rumours of wars What are all the evils under the Sun They are the little finger of Gods justice Thou spiest them here and there in every Town and in every Parish in every Country do they not all witnesse that he is a just God Read Psalm 7. 11 12 13. God hath bent his â—ow already saith David the arrow is ready to flie out of the string It wil not be long before it hit thee if thou meditate not upon amendment God is angry with the wicked every day as an angry man useth to say I will be revenged on thee Wilt thou not give over thy sins I will be revenged on thee Read Psal 11. 5 6 7. Meditate on this he will neither spare King nor subject nor rich nor poor nor noble nor base nor Judges nor Justices yet Judges and Justices may spare but God will not spare they may be bribed to pardon but God will not be fee'd to spare them that go on in their wickednesse and do I think to escape Nay my soul thou canst never escape except thou obeyest The third ground is Meditate on the wrath of God O! what wrath is it Can I stand against it It burns like an oven and all the proud and all that doe wickedly shall be as stubble and the day of wrath shall burne them up Behold this saith the Text Malac. 4. 1. Behold it and meditate on it Can I goe naked in a hot fiery Oven Can I lift up my hands against it My hands will be scorched Can I kick against it My legs will be baked Can I blow upon it with my mouth My mouth is fiered Did I ever see lime burned were I in the limes room could I endure that boyling and yet if I live in my sinnes I shall be as the burning of lime I say 33. 12. Let thy heart meditate terror Who among us shall be able to dwell that is the meaning of it as Montanus sheweth who among us shall dwell with devouring fire who among us shall burn with everlasting burning verse 14. Gods mercie shall say Take him wrath I would have converted him but he would not Gods goodnesse shall say Take him wrath I would have been kinde unto him but he hath abused me Gods patience shall say Take him wrath I have suffered him a great while that he might have time of repentance but he repented not in that time God smote Aegypt in their first born Why For his mercy endureth for ever God overthrew Pharaoh and his hoast Why For his mercy endureth for ever Psal 136. 15. He smote great Kings Sihon a King and Og a King for his mercy endureth for ever So will God damn thee that art a drunkard Why for his mercy endureth for ever God will confound thee that art a worlding Why for his mercy endureth for ever God will be revenged on thee that art a Luke-warmling Why for his mercy endureth for ever This may well make thee â—eare the hair off thy head rather than let thee go on in thy sinnes See Ierem. 7. 29. Meditate on this The fourth ground Meditate on the constancy of God As the Lord was an enemy to wicked men so he continues the same God still a constant enemy to them still As the Lord would not endure sinne heretofore so he is constant he still will not endure it Did the Lord once say Weep and howl ye drunkards Joel 1. 5. he is constant so he saith still Did the Lord say he would burn up sabbath-breakers Jer. 17. 27. he is constant so he saith still Who ever hardned his heart against the Lord and prospered Job 9. â—4 as if he should say I put it to thee to meditate of it canst thou shew me a president did ever any man harden his heart against Gods Word in his sinne that prospered Did Senacherib prosper in his will-worship Did Judas prosper in his covetousnesse Did Jeconiah prosper in his stubbornnesse Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer Where is he that counted the towers Your fathers where are they saith Zachariah Did not my words take hold of them and are they not all now in hell that have ever lived and died in their sin from the beginning of the world Thou canst not shew me one drunkard or one mocker or one prophane person or one formall professor from the day that man was created upon the earth that is not now in hell if he be dead Meditate on this how canst thou expect to be the one onely in all the world that shall escape if thou livest and dyest in thy sins If hell were opened and the bottomlesse pit were lookt into thou shouldest see every soul that ever lived and died in their sins even every soul there is not one soul missing Meditate on this when I dye do I think I shall not be there nay I shall be there too unlesse aforehand I enter in to the strait gate and walk in the narrow way of newnesse of life The Second SERMON OF The use and benefit of Divine MEDITATION HAGGAI 1. 5. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider your wayes NOw follows the manner how to follow Meditation home to the heart Here are four things to be practised First weigh and ponder all these things in thy heart It 's said of Mary she pondred Luke 2. 19. and kept all these sayings in her heart verse 51. The words signifie two things First she compared these things together Secondly she cast them in the scales together Dost thou know God is mercifull ponder it with his justice Dost thou know that Jesus Christ dyed for sinners ponder it with the true drift of it how that it is not to let men go on in their sins but to save them from their sinnes Dost thou obey God in this or that Commandement O ponder thy life with the rest Ponder the path of thy feeet and let all thy wayes be established Prov. 4. 26. A man that eats his meat well forty morsels well yet one crum going awry throttles him Thou walkest in these and these Commandements yea but there be other Commandments besides these dost thou walk in them too thou must if thou meanest to have thy ways to be established The Jews had their continers talents minaes sicles which were greater weights so they had also their gerahs and agarahs smaller measures and smallest of all so have thou greater and lesse weights great ones to ponder the great Commandements and less to weigh even the least of Gods Commandements and see thou make true Evangelical weight or else all will not be well Suppose a man were to pay a 100 pound of good and lawful money and in weight upon forfeiture of all that he hath if he weigh it not but the Creditor doth and finds it light he is undone If thou ponderest not thy wayes God will ponder them Prov. 5. 21. the word signifies he weighs and ponders them in a ballance or
and a pure conscience I say thou gettest a blot to thy own self causest God to be ill spoken of and the very way of his name to be dishonoured This wil be the effect of it and so in every other duty And so I come to the use It is so that we must not only come to the Sacrament but come aright or do any duty but we must do it in a right manner This serves to condemn that naturall popery that is in mens hearts that is of opus operatum of the deed done this is the religion of the Church of Rome that so man do the duty indeed it is better if it be done in a right manner but if it be done there is somewhat a man may look for by that If a man come to the Sacrament the very eating of the Host the very partaking of the body of Christ they make it meritorious so the very hearing of so many Sermons the very saying of so many prayers the very performance of so many duties the very thing it self nakedly confidered it is of some validity This is rooted into the hearts of men we see it up and down people do the dutie and think all is well enough when they consider not how it is done People pray but not with zeal they hear but not with reverence People come to the Sacrament not for the better but for the worse they come not in a right manner and yet every one hopes to speed and builds himselfe on this that God accepts of him But this is the folly of mens hearts it is an evident argument that men go foolishly to work in the ways of God It is the brand of a fool not to be able to observe circumstances Aristotle the heathen he saith it is the part of a wise man to think of and understand the manner of actions as a wise man saith he observes circumstances It is the part of wisedome to observe the right circumstances of every action as it is Ephes 5. 15. Walk circumspectly that is accurately as it is in the original not as fools but as wise Mark he perswades them to a right manner of walking not onely to walk in a good course in praying and hearing in obedience and sobriety in temperance faith and diligence in our callings but do it accurately in a right manner do it as wise men and not as fools who do it in a wrong manner It is the part of a fool I say to do a thing and to leave the right manner of doing it Now this is nothing with God the Lord doth not esteem any action though it be never so frequently done except it be done with his own stamp except it have his own character upon it I remember a story in 2 King 17. 26. The Assyrians there observed that God sent Lions among them because they did not observe the right manner of the God of Israel they worshipped the God of Israel but because they observed not the right Manner of his word he sent Lions among them to tear and devour them in pieces So though we pray and hear and read and professe and have a name that we live and though we be taken for good people and heap up duties from day to day and vie performances and though we do them as many times as the children of God nay though we could do them ten thousand times oftner than they yet if we do them not in a right manner if we know not the manner of the God of heaven and earth with humble hearts and selfe-denying spirits with holinesse of affection and with purity of heart if a man do them not in a right manner the Lord wil tear him in pieces and he shall have no deliverance for all that Another use shall be what may be the reasons why people are so willing generally to do duties for the matter and care not to do them in a right manner It shall not be amisse a little to shew the mystery of this thing for we see every man is willing to do duties every man will be praying and coming to Church many reprobates and God knows how many carnall hearts are in this congregation some drunkards it may be some adulterers some it may be that committed whoredome the last night some that have been swearing even now and deceiving in their shops there are many carnall hearts yea every man is willing to do duties to hear and to pray Now what may be the reason that people are willing to do good duties and yet are loath to come off with their carnall hearts There are four reasons The first is this Because the matter of the duty is easy but the manner is difficult It is an easie matter to pray to say Lord I have sinned against heaven and against thee Lord I have sworn I have been a drunkard I have disallowed the Sabbath I have done this and that I pray thee pardon and forgive me and give me thy grace it is an easie matter to do this It is easie for a man to come to Church and mark what the Minister saith and follow him from point to point and it may be he go over it to his famimily This is good there are few that come thus farr And so it is easie to come to the Sacrament to take the Bread and the Cup and to pray for a blessing this is easie but when a man comes to do a duty in a right manner here is difficulty when a man doth it with a How Take heed how ye hear He doth not call upon people to hear that is not the matter there needs no great diligence for that but if you will consider How you hear take heed to that Here must be a great deal of circumspection the soul must be marvellous painfull a man must offer violence to his own soul a man must fight against his own will a man must beat down his own spirit he must crucifie his own thoughts must mortifie his own mind and beat down his own soul It is a hard thing to do in a right manner as the Lord commands if we consider how to do it This is certain flesh and blood cannot abide to take pains if it can serve God with ease and pray with ease that it will do but for a man to weep before God for a man to indict his heart before the throne of grace to rend his bowels before his maker to tear the caul of his heart upon his kees for a man to vow to God and pay them for a man to rid his hand of all the wages of iniquity for a man to purifie himselfe as Christ is pure for a man to wrestle with God and to take grace according to the covenant of grace with life and power to do it in a right manner here is religion and this man cannot abide And so for the Sacrament for a man to come in a right manner Oh it is difficult
Canaan she sought the Lord God of Heaven and earth she was of the cursed stock of Cham whom the Lord commanded to destroy yet she repented and became of the faith of Abraham to see if the Lord would own her but the Lord seemed to reject her and suffered the devil to possess her daughter Now what might not this poor woman think she had made a sorry change of religion seeing that God the author of it would not own her but suffered the devil to possesse her daughter But see the importunity of this woman she would not be quiet untill she had found Christ Mark 7. 24 25. Christ could not be hid No What could he not hide himself in some corner No. no thinks she there is a Christ and if he be to be had under the cope of heaven I wil have him Even so it is with the soul that is importunate in prayer it is restlesse What if Christ do hide himself in the Word c. and will not own a poor soul yet the poor soul knowes there is a Christ and if he be to be found in the whole world he wil have him I wil saith he turn over all duties I will go to all the Ministers that are neer I will use all the means Now Christ cannot be hid from such a soul that is thus importunate Now as it is a prayer that will take no nay so first it will take no privative nay of silence Secondly no possitive nay of denial First no privative nay of silence A man that is importunate in prayer must and will have some answer he is not like Baals Priests that could get no answer 1 King 18. 26. nor like wicked men that pray in their pewes they know not what nor whether God hears them or no but an importunate prayer will have an answer like the woman of Canaan Have mercy on me O Lord saith she but Christ answered her not a word Hath she done then No she cries so much the more Have mercy on me O Lord yea she was so importunate that his Disciples were ashamed to hear her yet she cried Have mercy on my daughter the devil hath my daughter and misery will have me unlesse thou wilt have mercy on us Christ answered her never a word It was much trouble to her to have her daughter vext with a devil but this troubled her much more that Christ in whom all her hope was would not hear her nor lend her one look What might she think Is this the merciful Saviour that is so ful of pitty compassion Is this he that hath made proclamation to all the world saying Come unto me all ye that are weary c and I am tyred and wearied by reason of the devil that possesses my daughter c. yet he regards me not Thus she might have said yet these discouragements could not put her off but she cried so much the more yea so that the Apostles were ashamed that Christ should let her stand on that fashion yet she stood it out and prevailed Secondly it will take no positive nay of deniall For when she had an answer and that flat against her it was like bellowes to the fire she was so much the more inflamed she doubles her forces Have mercy on me O Lord c. Chist put her off with a deniall I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I come for sheep not for goats you are of the Canaanites on whom I have set a brand of damnation a servant of servants a slave of hell and darknesse These are all of your blood but I come to save them of the house of Israel But the deniall of an importunate soul is like the stop in a passage of water the more it is stopt the more violent it is so this poor woman is so much the more eager with Christ she did but cry before now she worships him verse 24. 25. as if she should have said Lord help me now I am one of thy lost sheep I confesse I am a Canaanite I am of that damned blood yet Lord help me I am perswaded that thou canst take a course whereby to help me Thou canst cast some mercy on a Canaanite Thus you see an importunate soul will take no deniall but will renew its forces at the Throne of grace Thirdly an importunate Prayer will take no contumelious repulse suppose God should answer never a syllable of thy prayer yet thou wilt pray suppose he do answer and that against thee yet still thou wilt pray Nay suppose he call thee all to naught making thy conscience tell thee of all thy sins and abominations making thee think that heaven is shut up against thee and God hath shut his ears calling thee Dog hell-hound and wretch c. yet nothing can break thee off if thou be importunate indeed So this woman was not beaten off with Christs sending the Devill into her Daughter nor with Christs hiding himselfe when she sought him nor with Christs answering never a word nor with the Apostles frumps nor with his deniall nor contumelious repulse for he called her dog vers 26 Hence dog I had as lieve â—ling my mercy on a dog as on thâ—e What creature but an importunate one could have gone so far But see here the nature of importunity it gets within Christ and takes advantage she confest the cause saying Truth Lord thou hast hit me right I am a dog or a wicked woman let me then have the priviledges that dogs have though dogs may not be equal with children at the cable yet they may wait under the table I acknowledge that thy children are so plentifully fed that some crummes fall from the table therefore let me have the priviledge of a dog Naaman the Syrian was a dog as well as I Rahab the harlot was a dog as well as I Ruth a dog as well as I yet these got câ—ums truth Lord I am a dog yet thy mercy can metamorphose a dog Of these stones thou canst raise children to Abraham Thus it is with an importunate soul though God call it all to naught and cast all ignominious terms upon it as I had as lieve thou shouldest offer me swines blood as to speak in my hearing yet if thou be importunate thou wilt bear any contumelious repulse Fourthly an importunate prayer is impudent in an holy manner And as an impudent begger that is needy counts it no manners to hold his peace from begging although he be bidden Or as a poor petitioner to the King the King bids him hold his peace yet he will not but still he goes on The officers say Thou filthy fellow wilt thou never have done dost thou not see that the King is angry Yet he still cries Help me Lord ô King So the Canaanitish woman or an Importunate prayer is an impudent prayer yet in a holy manner I remember a story of a poor woman in Essex condemned to die she falls to
judgements upon this Land If a man lie sick and they see death in his face they call it the foretelling signe so the Ministers of God may foresee the death and destruction of a Kingdome I am sure we have better grounds then the Physicians can have And therefore why may not the Ministers which are Gods Physicians doe it The signes of Gods punishments that are coming upon us are these The first is of Gods Ministers which with one voice doe foretel judgements to come Then this is a signe that God hasteneth to battel Amos 3. 7. Surely the Lord will doe nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the Prophets but especially when they agree all in one thing then the Kingdom is dangerously gone Luke 1. 70. The Lord giveth one mouth as he spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets I will say nothing in this but let me appeale to your consciences whether all good Ministers in the Church of England have not declared by Gods word that judgements are coming out against this Land and us for many yeares together And as our Saviour saith Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in beaven Secondly when sinnes of all sorts doe abound frequently and with a bold face and whorish forehead For when the harvest is ripe then cometh so many sickles to cut it down so when the sinnes of a Kingdome are ripe then it is time to cut that Kinddome down Genes 6. 12. The earth was filled with violence all flesh had corrupted their wayes therefore make an Arke for the end of all flesh is come God will wash away their filthinesse Consider whether it be not thus with England or no. Was ever drunkennesse and blasphemie and scoffing at religion and prophaning Gods Sabbaths nay liberty given so to do was it ever come to that height that now it is were ever great ones as Bishops and Ministers so defiled as now they are our Land hath often been overcome when men were grown desperately wicked then they were destroyed Now what sinnes what blasphemies what hating of God lyeth raging in our times I think there is none in this Congregation but sees and heares how City and Countrey are venomed and benumned and defiled with sinnes of all sorts Thirdly when the devill and wicked men cast bones of dissention that is a signe of ruine When there was a dissention between Rehoboam and the people then God pulled away ten Tribs and much bloud was shed So when King and Commons and all are divided Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim but both against Judah then it is a fearfull signe that that Nation shall be destroyed I say to apply this if ever a Kingdome were divided then this is if we could all accord then we might expect something but now our best bloud is gone and our hearts are gone the Lord in mercie raise us up from dead ashes O consider this I beseech you and lay it to heart Will God deceive his Ministers and make them all blindfold no no. When God puts his Spirit into his Ministers and makes them all with one mouth to call and cry desolation and when all manner of sinnes so fearfully abound and when there is such divisions in the State then let us look for desolation Fourthly the fourth signe of Gods anger on a Nation is when all the hearts of men faile then it is a signe that vengeance is at the door when there is a kinde of Cowardise through the guilt of the conscience Josh 2. 11. It was a certaine signe of destruction when the peoples hearts failed them thus it is with every man almost amongst us every mans heart is faint and sick Iudges 7. 13. When Gideon was to goe against the Midianites being a wonderfull Army one dreamed that a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host and overthrew them Then Gideon said be of good courage for I see that the Lord hath given them into our hands because their hearts were feareful so he took three hundred men and put a trumpet in every mans hand with empty pitchers and lamps and they cried the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and in the twelfth verse see what followed All the host ran and cried and fled Even so it is with us we faint upon every occasion Gods spirit is gone from England While Sampson had the Spirit of God upon him he was too hard for the Philistins but when the Spirit of God was gone from him he had no heart no spirit no courage then every man was too hard for him and then he was taken and had his eyes pulled out So when the Spirit of God was with this Nation we had courage and got the day but now alas every slavish Nation is too hard for us and every bug-beare scares us O poore England heavy is thy case therefore we may expect nothing but miserie one way or another Now I might set down a Comment or Theame with many teares for this cause that every one may reade his own destruction from this point I am not a Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet but from the word of the Lord I speak this thing unto you and upon these grounds I can say so That where these signes are destruction and calamities follow at the heeles of them We having all these signes in our State certainely destruction is at our heeles therefore let me giue you some directions what to doe in these dangerous times First let every man knock off the love of the world of houses of lands and corne and flockes they shortly shall leave thee or thou them O therefore cast them quite out of thy heart I would to God I could bring my heart and yours to this pitch that we could give wife and children and all as lost I confesse it is hard so to doe but God will fire us out shortly from these things if we part not from them in these our deepest afflictions Ier. 45. 5. Baruch was so much glued to the world that he began to feather his nest and therefore the Prophet said seekest thou great things for thy selfe seeke them not for behold I will bring evill upon all flesh So let me say to you as the Prophet said to Gehazi Is it now a time to build Therefore at night when thou goest to bed take thy leave of thy wife and children and of thy houses and all and say this house may be mine enemies before the morning or may be set on fire this is not my wife these are not my children As Doctor Taylor said when he was going to his execution when he saw his wife and children he embraced them and blessed them in the name of the Lord and set them down again and made no bones of them and so do you pluck away your hearts from all these things here below and give them all for lost Secondly get divine submission to the will of God let thy heart be
glad of it c. and it is said there that Jesus rejoyced c. I rather rejoyce that thou hast sent me to poor souls such as are the off-scouring of the world c. but he that is selfe-conceited is wiser forsooth then so Christ tels thee that thou must take up his crosse but thou thinkest that thou hast more wit thou canst go a wiser way to work thou hast an easier way to heaven thou wilt none of the Crosse and I tell thee then that Christ wil none of thee but he will be glad to see thee damned Fourthly and lastly he is in the broad way to hell that is selfe-conceited there be many wayes to hell the covetous goes one way the Drunkard goes another there are a thousand wayes to hell though there be sundry wayes to hell yet they all meet in selfe-conceit there is the broad high way where all meet selfe-conceit is not only the way to hell but it is the brood way where all wayes meet There is a way saith the wise man that seems right c. Prov. 14. 12. but the end of it is death there is the wages there all the wayes meet Oh then examine your selves I should give you signes and tokens to make it appeare unto you but the time will not give me leave I will only name one or two That man that selfe-swears is conceited of himself that is one sign As I am an honest man As God shal help me by my faith and troth As I look that the Lord should save my soul c. these men are highly conceited of themselvs they think that their salvation is sure yea so sure that they may swear by it but these are devillish and damnable self conceits it is Gods prerogative only to sweare by himself Heb. 6. 13. 14. I speak this because I know it is a common practise among men and a hellish brand of a cursed self-conceited man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER In tvvo SERMONS By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE EFFICACY OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seeke and you shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you OUr Saviour CHRIST being demanded by one of his Disciples how they should pray He here teaches them these two things First a Platform of prayer in the 2 3 4. verses Say Our Father c. Secondly he teaches them the Importunity of Prayer which he sets forth by the similitude of a man who having a guest come to him at midnight and had nothing to set before him he went to his friend to intreat him to lend him three loaves and at the first he nakedly intreats Lend me three loaves The door is shut sayes his friend and I cannot open it now Secondly he falls to intreat and to beseech him to do him this favour He had a guest come to him and he knew not what to do Why 't is midnight saies he is there no other time to come but now Thirdly he begins to knock he must needs have them though it be at an unreasonable hour Why I tell you I am in bed Then he intreats him as a friend Friend me no friends sayes he again Yet the man would not leave knocking at last with much adoe the man rises saying Will you never be answered and he lends him three loaves because of his importunity Now saith our Saviour I say unto you though he would not give him as a friend yet because of his importunity he will The similitude is this Thou art that man oh Christian soul this guest is thy self Now then come home to thy self with the Prodigall who when he was come to himself goes to his father and friend This friend is Christ that thou art to pray unto these three loaves are grace mercy and peace These thou art to pray for it may be Christ answereth thee in thy conscience It is midnight thou commest too late there is no mercy for thee The soul prayes still Oh Lord awaken and help me it may be the Lord will answer thee by terror in thy soul The door of mercy is shut thou shouldest have come rather Yet Lord open unto me sayes the soul Nay saith the Lord all my children have mercy already now mercy is asleep I have converted them already they came in due season thou commest at midnight there is no mercy for such a hell-hound as thou art Up Lord have mercy on me sayes the poor soul and look on me c. Look me no looks saith the Lord I came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel there was a time when I would have converted thee when I called unto thee early and late But now I am asleep and my mercy is asleep it hath been awake as long as it could well hold open its eyes and comest thou now Oh the soul cries still and will never give over if mercy be to be had at the throne of grace he will have it Even as a begger being at a gentlemans door they bidding him be gone there is nothing to be had nay sayes the begger I will not be gone here is something to be had and I will have something or else I will die at the door The gentleman hearing him say so thinks it would be a shame for him if he should die at his door and gives him somewhat So when the soul is thus importunate because of importunity it shall be granted Verily I say unto you if you thus ask it shall be given unto you These words contain in them the main duty of importunate prayer Ask if asking wil not serve turn seek if seeking will not serve turn then knock try all meanes Another parable our Saviour put forth Luke 18. 1 2. that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint There was a poor woman wronged by her adversary and there was no Judge to right her but a wicked one so that she had but poor hopes yet she resolves to go or else she shall be undone therefore if she perish she will perish at his feet He cals her all to naught Oh for Gods sake help me sayes she I care not for God nor man sayes the Judge Nay good my Lord saith the woman The Judge seeing her thus importunate said I shall be troubled with her if I do her not justice How much more saith the text shall not God avenge his elect that cry day and night Obj. But some man may demand what is importunate prayer Ans I answer it is a relstess praier which will take no nay nor contumelious repulse but is in a holy manner impudent until it speed and there are in it four things First it is restlesse he that is importunate cannot rest till he speed in his suit before God as the poor woman of