worse if I go on a little longer 4. The Renewing of our Covenant will revive the Obligation of it Though there be not a stricter yet there is another Tye There is a new link added to the old cord Men are more afraid and ashamed to break their word as soon as it is gone forth out of their mouths The seriousness wherewith such a sacred duty should be performed will leave some impressions upon the heart The very considering over our Covenant-breaches which is necessary to our renewing of it will awaken our hearts to more care and watchfulness These things being premised I shall give you this double Direction for the performance of this Duty 1. For the time when 2. For the manner how Touching the former there are some special times when this Duty is especially seasonable As 1. Upon your falls into any greater sins Great sins make great breaches and 't is not safe to let them lie unmade up Breaking of Covenant makes a breach upon Conscience and this will prove as the breaking down the banks of the Sea which if they be not presently made up there may be no stopping them 2. In great straights and Afflictions We have then our hearts at the advantage to bring them back or to bind them the faster to the Lord when we stand in any special need of comfort or help from God Gen. 28. 20 21. when Jacob fled from his Fathers house for fear of his Brother Esau he vowed If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on so that I come again to my Fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God Times of straights and difficulties are a special season for this Duty though it be too ordinary that those vows which we make in the dayes of our distress are quickly forgotten in the dayes of our prosperity Sickness-promises are in our health like Sampsons Wit hs broken as Tow when it toucheth the fire 3. In case of any declinings to a careless remiss and sensless frame of heart or life 4. At our approaches to the Table of the Lord. These are some of the special times for the performance of this Duty 2. For the manner how 1. Remember your Covenant read over and consider distinctly the terms of it and weigh diligently the strictness and great solemnity of your engaging to God therein that your hearts may be the more deeply affected herewith 2. Remember your faults Read over and consider distinctly the sins you have fallen into since your engaging to the Lord together with the several aggravations of them and repent and be humbled under them Isa 50. 4 5. 3. Especially consider how your hearts have stood towards the Lord in the main whether your falls have not been such as give you occasion to suspect that you were not upright in your first engaging Consider whether such a life as you have led since such sins as you have been overcome by since are consistent with sincerity 4. Resolve upon more care watchfulness and faithfulness for the future Verbal promises though there appear some affection at the time if they be not joyned with a resolution to take more care are like to come to nothing 5. Have a special eye in your engaging to the Lord at your special sins failings and neglects that you have found your selves more enclined to and more ordinarily overtaken by I will through the help of God watch against every sin but especially against covetousness passion or lying c. This is my sin herein I am apt to be faulty here my hardest work lies I will watch to every Duty but especially to temperance or patience or self-denial herein I have been most wanting 6. Lay hold on the Covenant or Promise of God for the renewing of his Grace towards you for the renewing of your strength whereby you may be more enabled to perform your promises and pay your vowes It may be your former experiences of your unfaithful hearts have quite discouraged you I have found this heart of mine so fickle and so false and so feeble that I dare not trust it so far as to engage any further for it I have found my work so hard my lusts so strong my temptations so many my strength so small my attempts to follow God so successess that I am afraid I shall never come to any thing I doubt I shall but mock God and bring more guilt upon my self by adventuring to promise any thing farther for this sinful infirm and unfaithful heart Why though thou darest not trust thy heart yet trust thy God who hath said That he will put his fear into thee that thou shalt not depart from him that he will renew thy strength and that his grace is sufficient for thee Depend upon God for the renewing of thy strength and then fear not to renew thy Vows 7. In this strength of the Lord go into his presence and with sorrow in thine heart and shame in thy face falling down before him humbly confess and acknowledge thy falls and failings and then in the like solemn manner as thou hast been before directed engage thy self again to the Lord in the same Covenant 2. I shall next direct you to make right improvement of Duties Godliness doth not stand barely in Praying Meditating or Examining there is something farther that these Duties have a respect and must be useful to 'T is an holy life that is the end to which our holy Duties are to lead and help us on That they may do so take these two following Directions 1. Whenever you set upon Duties resolve to put hard for it to enjoy such sensible Communion with God in them that you may come off in a better and more spiritual frame of heart than you came on 2. Having gotten up your hearts to any better frame in Duty be careful to keep it up after Duty Whenever you set upon Duties resolve to put hard for it to enjoy such sensible Communion with God that you may return from them with some advantage upon your spirits Resolve with him Nunquam à te absque te recedam whenever I come before the Lord I will never go away without him The reason why we thrive no more by Duties is because we do not meet our God in them God never meets with his Saints but he sends them away with some marks of his Goodness upon them The reason why we do seldome meet with God in our Duties is because we do not so wishly look for his appearance God waits for thy coming Soul and if it be not thy fault thou mayest see his face before thou departest and if thou see God in a Duty thou wilt not then return without some impressions of God upon thy heart When Moses came down from the Mount where he had seen the Lord his face did shine there was something of the glory of God upon his
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually God saw Gods eye cannot be deceived men may think they see what they see not and may not see what is before their eyes But can Gods eyes fail him 2. That sin is the greatest of evils The Apostle to set forth the formidable appearance that sin had by the Law expresses it thus Rom. 7. 13. That sin might appear to be sin He could find out nothing more evil and odious to express it by than it self If he had said that sin might appear to be a snare a Serpent a Viper a Devil an Hell that had been much but yet not enough to set forth this evil of evils Sin never is seen in its perfect odiousness but when it shews its own naked face and looks like it self We can never know how great an evil sin is till we know how good the Lord is how precious Christ is how precious the Soul of man is to all which sin is so contrary and destructive Rom. 8. 7. It is said to be enmity against God God hath no â—nemy in the world but sin and those whom sin hath made him Sin hath set all the earth against the God of glory From this enmity which sin hath filled the hearts of men with arise all their rebellions against his word and government all their unwillingness and averseness from his ways their weariness of his service their frowardness murmurings impatiences frettings and insurrections of heart against his dispensations providence The unruliness and stubbornness of the wills of men the distemper and disorders of their passions and affections the vanity vileness and confusion of their thoughts the defilement and deadness of their consciences the ebulition of so many hellish lusts setting mens hearts upon all mischief Whence is all this but from sin that dwells in them Sin hath made men very Devils set upon all manner of mischief Devils against God hating reproaching blaspheming cursing fighting against God There should quickly be no God nor Heaven nor Being left if the wickedness of mans heart had power answerable to its malice Devils against themselves set upon the destruction and damnation of their own souls there needed not another Devil to attempt and devour them if God should but let them alone they would quickly make their distruction sure of themselves Devils one against another There is not one sinner but if God should pull up the fluces and let his wickedness have its full course would do his utmost to damn all the World enemies friends husbands wives children all should be destroyed And can there now be a greater evil then this imagined I you will say if all this be true it is a great evil indeed But may be for all these great words there may be no such great matter in it Why do but consider what sin hath done and cannot be envied and then you will see reason to believe all that hath been said Go to Mount Calvary and see what it hath done there What was it that slew the Lord of glory that put Châ—â—st to death Was it not those sins that were laid upon him These were his betrayers and murtherers These were the thorns the nails the spear that wounded him the gall and vinegar that was given him to drink Let the sweat the cries the groans the blood the soul that were pressed and poured out by sin let these speak if too much hath been saâ—d Turn aside from Mount Calvary and go down to the Valley of Hinnon lay your ear to the mouth of Tophet and hearken what work sin hath done there What is it that hath filled Hell so full already that hath sent down Cain and Judas Ananias and Saphira with those millions of damned Souls that are already tormented in those flames Did God damn so many Souls for nothing or for a trifle inflict so great a torment for a small offâ—â—nce What is it that hath cast them in thither Was it their righteousness was it not their iniquities If you could step down into those Chambers of Death and ask those wretched creatures Friends How came you in hither What would they answer Oh it is our sins that brought us into this place of torment Oh! it was my covetousness brought me hither would one say Oh! it was my lying brought me hither saies another Oh! it was my pride or my passion or my wantonness or my sloathfuness that brought me hither saies a third Oh sin sin this is it for which we burn we roar we rave we dye we dye eternally Can there be too much said of the evil of sin that hath done all this mischief 3. Spiritual sins are the greatest of sins Soul pollutions are the most foul pollutions By how much the more excellent the soul is above the body in its nature by so much the more vile and mischievous being depraved with sin The soul of man is the prime subject of the image of God in man there was much of God to be seen in the body or externals of man but the face of God the glory of God was stamped upon his soul the soul being corrupted it became the express image of the Devil Satan is rudely limb'd and some darker shadows of him drawn on the outward man but he is drawn out to the life in the soul the very face the heart of Satan his pride malice envy falshood is engraven on the heart A proud heart hath more of the Divel than a proud look a wanton heart is more vile â—â—an a wanton eye a murtherous or adulterous heart is worse than a murtherous or adulterous act It is true when Sin is committed without it is worse than when it sleeps in its causes within and sin in its birth is worse than in its bare conception and the reason is because when sin is committed there are both parts the outward and the spiritual together there is the sin of the hand and the sin of the heart too to make up the murther But then if you should distinctly consider that which the heart hath done towards the murther and that which the hand hath done the hearts part would appear to be incomparably the worst The sins of the heart are the root sins the spring that sets all the wheels a going the fountain that sets all the streams a running the fire that sets the furnace a smoaking Carnal men make little of outward sins nothing of spiritual If they would not be Extortioners or Oppressors oâ— Swearers or Cursers some of them yet evil thoughts may lodge in them Lust may bear the rule in them Pride Envy Ignorance Atheism Heart-blasphemy these are scarcely accounted evils What are Thoughts a little inward discontent anger and the like that we should trouble our selves with these Oh! You do not know what there may be in a Thought or a secret lust there may be a Thousand evil Words and actions in the
is all one as to say that God hath put more sweetness into creatures then is in himself that the basest and vilest use of the creatures doth yield more true content then the souls exercising it self on God as if the thorn should yield more sweetness the bramble more fatness then the Fig-tree or Olive where are the understandings of these men I tell you Sinners when you have gone from flower to flower from creature to creature from pleasure to pleasure and sucked out all the fatness and sweetness that these will yield a poor Christian will get more real pleasure out of one Chapter of his Bible out of an honest Sermon out of one hours converse with God in Prayer then yoâ—r whole life will bring you in The Gospel with its brests of consolation at which he sucks yields him sweeter milk those clusters of Canaan on which he lives yield him richer Wine then the whole world will afford any The gleanings of a Christians joy are better then the Vintaâ—e of Sinner and you cannot so much slight the glory of their Sâ—n as they despise the glory of your sparks 3 By these spiritual exercises and delights they become more and more spiritual themselves By their beholding the face of God they are changed from glory to glory into his image and likeness by living so much in Heaven the temper and frame of their hearts becomes heavenly mens ordinary company and exercises have such an influence upon them that 't is not unusual that they change their disposition Frothy company and vain exercises will leave a frothiness and vanity upon mens spirits and serious and savoury company and exercises do leave a good savour behind them He whose work is in the Coal-mines his hiew is thereafter the flies that feed on the dung look like the dung they feed on Carnal men by being continually conversant about their earthly affairs have nothing but earthiness left upon their spirits their Thoughts Affections their Souls are become earth earthly their duties are earthly their prayers their praises their hearings all are earthly When they go to Church when they go to their Clossets they must carry their earth along with them or leave their hearts behind them On the other side Christians by having their dwellings with God their Delights their Recreations their daily business with God the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon them by their Divine Exercises they are made more partakers of the Divine Nature and as Worldlings businesses and delights do leave an earthliness upon their very Religion so a Christians Religion doth Spiritualize his Civil Affairs Carnal mens prayers do savour of their Fields Oxen and sports Carnal mens Sabbaths do smell of their Working-days and a Christians works do savour of his prayers a Christians Week-days have a tincture of his Sabbaths he eats and drinks he buys and sells he ploughs and threshes not as a man but as a Saint he doth not onely pray as a Saint and hear as a Saint but he ploughs as a Saint he trades as a Saint his heart is in Heaven while his hand is at the Plough he is serving his God while he is serving his own necessities he seeks he serves he eyes he enjoys his God in all he hath or doth he proves by his sense that God is every where with him he dwells feeds labours lodges with him he lives he dies And thus you see what it is to walk in the Spirit Look how far forth such a Christian lives in the Spirit so far forth doth he live such a life as this 3 This is no fansie and if I fail not here if I prove this I hope Sinners you will then see reason enough to take the Phanatick upon your selves and from henceforth stile these despised Saints in your Stilo novo Israelites indeed Christians you that hear me this day will you help me in this proof this once help me and the cause will go cleary on the Lords side you may if you will come in and be willing instances of this Truth Will you live according to your Principles that Life of God which is within you Will you live according to your Rules that Word of Life which is before you Will you follow your Leader that Holy Spirit which is given to conduct you Will you fall closer to the practice of that Godliness which you profess will you live in the obedience of that Spirit which you have received will you shew your selves a pattern of Faith of Patience of Righteousness and Holiness Will you be dealing less about these earthly vanities and be less earthly in your earthly dealings shall your dealings be wholly about Heaven and Heavenly things and will you make these your dealings your delights Will you labour by being more conversant about spirituall things and in spiritual exercises to become more spiritual more spiritually minded more spiritually tempred Will you get more clear off the love and lusts and fashions and ways and joys of this world Will you suffer the Eternal Spirit to fill you with his love and fashion you into his likeness Will you forbear any more resisting grieving slighting quenching his holy motions will you hearken to his counsels answer his impulses Will you grow on to be more Christians daily more Saints daily Saints in heart Saints in tongue Saints in the general frame oâ— your course Will you make your graces more viâ—â—â—le your comforts more visible your spiritual joys and delights more visible will you let your light so shine before men that they must either put out their own Eyes or else be forced to acknowledge that God is in you of a truth Brethren We may much thank our selves for all our Adversaries slanders we have helped them to reproaches we have furnished them with accusations by our walking so much in the Flesh and so little in the Spirit we have taught them to question whether there be any such thing aâ— walking in the Spirit The Lord pardon us the Lord make us sensible of it we have brought up an evil report upon our God upon his Spirit Gospel and wayes and for ought we know have undone many poor wretches by our hardning them in their misconceits of Godliness and Religion There have been so much Dross in our Gold so much Ashes upon our Fire so much Earth upon our Spirits such sad mixture of Water with our Wine so much Liberty taken for our Carnal joyes and Carnal pleasures our Light hath been so dim our Grace hath been so low our good works have been so spare and so thin that we have made them bold to say We are not what we are but a meer lie and deceit And we have now no such way to vindicate our selves our Religion our Holy profession to justifie our God and his Gospel as by blowing up the Coals shaking off our Ashes stirring up the Graces of God within us and letting them have their perfect work in us Will you Christians
World to be found where then are Gods Children God hath no Child if this be so You must write the God of all the Earth childless a Father without a Childe a King without a People if these wise men be true men and true men you can very hardly call them who having robbed the King of Saints of all his Subjects and the Father of Lights of all his Children You see now to what a plain issue this matter is also brought If you be in the right in this thing then the Spirit of God must be unfaithful in his Office God must be false in his promise the Devil doth more to the damning than the spirit of God doth to the saving of souls and one of these two things will follow hence either that the Devil is of more might than the Almighty Spirit or that the God of love hath not so much love as the Devil hath malice and lastly that God hath no People in the world But it may be sinners you will yet reply Well We will grant that this is true that there are those that are led by the spirit and walk in the spirit but when you talk of so much Spirituality in Mortal men of such high notions as living in the fellowship of the spirit living in Heaven when you tell us of such Glorious light such Raptures of Joy such Extasies of Spiritual delights here are the Fancies These are the things which we cannot but account the foolish Dreames of deluded hearts And now you think you have hit at last But is not this it which you say The Spirit enlightens but gives no light The enlightned see no more than the blinde The Spirit renews men and yet they are not changed The Spirit leades the Saints and yet they follow him just as fast as those that have no legs The Spirit dwells in them and yet they have no more fellowship or acquaintance with him than those that never saw him The Spirit assists and yet gives no help The Spirit comforts and yet gives no joy but after all he hath done leaves them just as other men and whatsoever they pretend to have more is a meer cheat and delusion The sum of all comes to this The Spirit doth and yet doth not doth something some great thing and yet that something is just nothing But is there no such life of God wherein the Lord having gotten the chief interest in the heart hath also the Dominion of the life Is there no such life the main dealings and business whereof is the pleasing and honouring of God and the seeking that glory and honour which is from him Must God be an underling to the World and be put off with our spare hours which the World will allow him We were even as good down-right to profess we own no God at all or if we must have one a Baal or an Ashtaroth a Nisroch or a Molech an Oxe or a Calf may serve us well enough for a God a God to be so trampled on or to be said unto stand aside when ever the World hath any thing for us to do Is there no such Spiritual life the comforts whereof are Spiritual comforts the pleasures and delights Spiritual pleasures and delights Are there no delights in God who is a Well of Life and the Fountain of all Blessedness Have the Creatures their several sweetnesses issuing from them the Sun its light the Fire its warmth the Fig-tree its sweetness the Olive-tree its fatness the Fruits of the Earth their pleasant tastes and smell the Instruments of Musick their melodious Ayres and sounds to gratifie and please our senses and is the Fountain onely a dry and unsavory thing when the Cisterns are so fresh and full Have fleshly exercises their several pleasures are the labours of the Husband-man the Travels of the Merchant so strangely sweetned by the gain and in-come of them Are May-Games and Morrice-Dances Sports and Playes so delightsome to men that they will sell their Souls for such Pleasures and are they the Exercises of Religion onely that have no juyce nor sweetness in them Is it Godliness onely that hath no bud the stalk whereof yields no meat Or are the delights and comforts hereof such flashy and airy things that we cannot tell when we taste them whether we be awake or in a dream Once more consider the Scriptures How excellent is thy loving kindeness O God therefore the Children of Men put their trust under the shadow of thy Wings They shall be aboundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy Pleasures for with thee is the Fountain of Life and in thy light we shall see light Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their Corn and Wine increased with Joy shall they draw Water out of the Wells of Salvation Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts Let him that readeth understand do all these speak the life of Saints to be such a dry and dark and impleasant life Let me farther ask you these two Questions 1. Are there any delights in Heaven Is there any joy before the Throne and in the face of God Are there any pleasures at his right hand Doth the Tree of Life that stands in the midst of the Paradise of God yield any pleasant fruit Doth the Chrystal River that runs through the City of God yield any pleasant streams Are the exercises of glory blessing praises and singing Hallelujah Hallelujah are there any pleasure in these Speak Sinners what do you think are there any delights in Heaven 2. Is there not something of that heavenly joy and delight let down to the Saints here Whilest they bear a part in the same exercises have they not a little share in the same pleasure What means then the earnest of their inheritance which is given here The Apostle tells us Eph. 1. 13 14. that the Saints after they had believed were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance An earnest is a part of that whereof it is an earnest given in hand The earnest of our inheritance is a part of the inheritance Believe it Sinners Gods Earnest is no Jest God will not mock his Saints though you do As sinners to their cost so Saints to their comforts feel that Gods Earnest is in earnest As the Lord sometimes though more seldome causes some flashings of his wrath to flie out in the faces to kindle in the souls and burn in the bowels of some incorrigible sinners as an earnest of those everlasting flames prepared for them beginning their hell upon earth so doth he let fall some handfuls of that Harvest some drops of
countenance Israel might plainly see that Moses had met with God they might see the beams of divine Glory in his face Oh! how sad is it that Christians should return from duty with no more of God in their faces or upon their spirit than for the most part they do We come many times with no other spirits from our Bibles or our Closets than we come out of our Shops or out of our Barns no body would ever think we had been praying or conversing with God there is so little savour of God upon our hearts that we bring back with us Brethren whenever you let down your Pitchers into the Wells of Salvation be not content to bring them up empty be so conversant with God in your Duties that you come off laden as the Bee from the Flower with the honey and sweetness of your duties And this I advise you to endeavour after not only in your secret duties not only in your solemn publick duties on Sabbaths Humiliation-dayes or Thanksgivings but in your daily family-duties your Reading Singing Praying yea even in those shorter Prayers and Praises which you use before and after Meals Whenever you draw nigh to God look to see God to taste of God and to get down something of God upon your hearts And then 2. Whatever you have gotten from God in Duty what life what warmth what refreshing what enlargement of heart be careful to maintain and keep it alive afterwards See that your Spirits do not presently sink and cool again after they have been thus raised and warmed Do not satisfie your selves with this that you have some comfortable entertainment with God and feel some warm and lively works of your heart towards God and some refreshings from him in Duty but look to it that you keep that holy fire that is there kindled from being presently quenched again You do not eat and drink for an hour only that you may have the comfort of your food while your meal lasts but you eat for afterwards that the spirits and strength which you get by one meal may hold you out to the next meal Duties are the set-meals of the soul wherein it so feeds it self upon God that in the strength of what it receives it may afterwards walk with God more comfortably and chearfully The Lord promiseth to his people Lev. 26. 5. The Threshing shall reach to the Vintage and the Vintage to the Seed-time And Amos 9. 13. The Plough-man shall overtake the Reaper and the treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed The meaning is Your old store shall be so much and last you so long as till new com again you shall not only reap enough for the time of Harvest you shall not only gather enough to serve you during the time of the Vintage but your corn shall last from Harvest to Harvest your Wine shall serve you from Vintage to Vintage your Old store shall not be spent till New come to supply you Duties are the Harvests and Vintages of our souls Oh! what blessed lives should we live did we so improve and husband what we get in one Duty that it might last us out to another that the Vintage might reach to the Vintage the Harvest to the Harvest that the life and warmth and refreshing we get in one Duty might hold by us till the next and so we might be carried on in an holy lively heavenly Frame from Duty to Duty as Israel walked on from strength â—o strength till they came and appeared before God in Sion That which holds us so low and barren in Religion is that whatever we have obtained from the Lord in Duties and Ordinances we presently lose it when we have been weeping sometimes before the Lord and wrestling with him and pleading hard for some quickning or comforting influences of his Spirit upon our hearts and the Lord hath heard us and given us our desires yet then as soon as duty is over we go away and forget all and bury all that we have thus obtained in a confused heap of worldly thoughts and businesses we unbend and let down our spirits and lay aside all thoughts of God till we come to duty again we conrent our selves to live in such an estrangement from God all the rest of our time that sin and the world have a whole dayes time to pull down what an hours duty hath been building a whole weeks time to destroy and steal away what a Sabbath hath gotten in and so at the returns of duty we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness that they were before In the Old Testament though the Sacrifices were offered but morning and evening yet the fire that kindled them was not to go out night nor day there must be fire kept alive from the Morning-Sacrifice to kindle the Evening-Sacrifice and fire left from the Evening to kindle the Morning-Sacrifice Oh! Behold how often is it that though at our Morning-Sacrifice a fire is kindled yet we let this fire lie all day under the ashes and take so little care to keep blowing at it that it goes quite out before the Evening and when we come to offer our Evening-Sacrifice we have no fire to kindle it Brethren hath the Lord visited you and quickned and comforted you in duty Oh! think with your selves what a sweet life should I live might it be thus with me alwayes What pity is it that such light should ever go out that such grace should be so short liv'd Why if I do not look to my self the better this Sun-shine will last but a little while and how will the Lord take it if I suffer such sparks that he hath kindled so suddenly to be quenched How is my Soul ever like to prosper if such precious food pass away from it as soon as it is received Is this a fast that I have chosen for a man to afflict his Soul for a day Is this a prayer that God regards for a man to afflict his heart for an hour to be in the Mount with God to be raised up to Heaven for the time and within a few minutes after to be sunk into the dirt of the earth What a sad change is this How can you bear such a loss as this When will your souls come to any thing if you have only some few such lucida intervalla and all the rest of your time are covered over with clouds and darkness Beloved as ever you expect to prosper in grace or be settled in peace be chary of maintaining your duty in-comes do not think to make use of your prayer-comforts to save you the labour of an after care but to help you to be more careful and fruitful But how may we do to keep this Holy and lively frame 1. Be watchful Nehem. 4. 9. Nevertheless we prayed and set a watch against them night and day Beloved it is with you as it was with those Jews whatever you have gained you have Adversaries
patient of sorrow make sin sure get it slain by the cross and buried in the grave of your Lord sealing the stone and setting a watch have nothing to conflict with in the day of your affliction but your affliction beware of carrying guilt with you up upon the Cross Let not the gall of guilt be mingled with the vinegar of affliction A mortified spirit will deaden all our pains and a pure Conscience will bear all our burthens Till this be done I must tell you you will find suffering to be hard service T is an easie matter to talk of the sufferings of the Gospel and to boast great things afore-hand as you know who did once and what came of it Though I die with thee I will never deny thee But when it comes to the pinch when Troubles come upon us when the hand of the Lord touches us and touches where it 's most tender brings those calamities on us which are most contrary to us strips us of those comforts which are most dear to us takes away all from us and leaves us naked when we feel the smart of the rod when every stroke fetches blood when the feet are hurt in the Stocks and the Iron enters into the Soul when the vinegar and the gall comes when the thorns and the nails of the Cross are struck in when shame and reproach when scorn and contempt when hunger and thirst when cold and nakedness when bodily torment and pain are all measured to you for your portion and mingled in your cup If ever God should call you out to take your part with that Cloud of witnesses Heb. 11. who were tortured had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings of bounds and imprisonment who were stoned were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword wandring about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented wandring in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth If ever this should be your case then you will know how much there is in Christian patience and how necessary self-denial mortification living in the faith and fellowship of God and the power of his Spirit and assurance of his love are to your patient possessing of your Souls Believe it Christians the Gospel hath not furnished us with such large provision of Graces Comforts Promises Hopes for nothing you will find need enough of them all Such amazing astonishing trials you may be called out to as nothing less than the rickest stock of promises the greatest treasure of Experiences the highest pitch of spiritual Graces your greatest conquest over Lust and the World your living under the fullest influences of Divine Power and the clearest Sense of Divine Love will furnish you with an enduring spirit nothing less will but this will do it Get sin and the World under make God sure make the Promises sure live in a daily conflict with Sin contempt of the World and exercise of all Graces Live in the obedience vision and fruition of your God and then you are ready for the Enemy Let your Sufferings be what they will come when they will your Souls are at Anchor and shall have a continual Calm within how Tempestuous soever the Weather be As a farther Encouragement and Help to this great Duty consider that your patient suffering will be 1. Your witness to the Gospel 2. Gods witness to your Adoption 3. The cure of your Corruption 4. Your triumph over Temptation 5. The improvement of your Sanctification 6. The advance of your glory 1. Your patient suffering will be your witness to the Gospel Who were that Cloud of Witnesses mentioned Heb. 12. 1. but the suffering Saints that Army of Martyrs recorded Chap. 11. whose patience is set forth as a partern to those that should come after These are witnesses What was it by which they bare witness but by their patient suffering To what did they bare a witness but to God and his Gospel What witness did they bear Why That the Gospel is true The sufferings of the Saints are their Seal to the Gospel As he that believeth so much more he that suffereth in Faith hath set to his Seal that God is true In the Faith and patience of the Saints may be seen as the Seal in the wax the prints and impressions of the Truth and Faithfulness of God God hath said he will uphold he will not forsake them and their Patience shews he doth uphold he hath not forsaken them 2. That the Gospel is a glorious Gospel That God is a good Master that its good being with Christ any where That they are no losers by their Religion but that it's wages are above its work and it's pay above its pain It were not possible when they prove how much the Gospel costs them but they should be weary of it and repent of their Faith and renounce their profession if they did not find the Lord a good paâ—â— master The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 3. 3. that Christians are the Epistles of Christ or his Letters of commendation to the World in whom may be read his Excellencies and Glory and the incomparable advantages of his Service And as all Christians so especially suffering Christians The Character of Christ is never so visible and legible as when 't is written in Blood The Bowels and Bounty and kindness of God our Saviour never appear'd in more Glory than upon his Cross and there 's no such lively Transcript of them as upon our Cross On his Cross his Blood on our Cross his Spirit and the precious grace comforts of it are most plentifully shed forth 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye be reproached that is and endure it the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you The spirit and influences of a crucified Jesus do never shine forth to such advantage as in his crucified Saints Upon the patience of a Saint under the sufferings of Christ he that runs may read this written I serve a good Master Our patient suffering is our witness to Christ and his Gospel Christian when God sends thee to Calvary he sends thee thither as a chosen vessel that thou shouldst there bear his name before the world Art thou impatient at this what canst thou not bear this honour thy God hath laid upon thee Hath God chosen thee thee amongst all thy brethren to do him this honour wilt thou be angry that he did not rather choose some other 'T was an unworthy answer of a good Man Moses when God sent him to Egypt to appear for him before Pharaâ—h and to be the deliverer of his people Exod. 4. 13. Send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send Send whom thou wilt any body but me But by our sinful shifting our selves of trouble or our murmurings under them we say the like Send whom thou wilt to witness for thee but let me go free Let me have my ease and my quiet and my liberty and take this honour who will for me
the Gospel and the more necessary and weighty Duties of Religion sufficiently understood and practised Are your Souls safe Is your Calling and Election sure Is the Love and Life and zeal of God grown up to that maturity that you need not mutual help this way Have you any spare time from those things to spend in perplexing controversies Build up one another in your most Holy Faith provoke one another to Love and to good works encourage establish and strengthen one another in the known wayes of holiness and if you find not this both better work and work enough for you then take your liberty These things do live in peace and love and the God of peace shall be with you Hear Oh â—ye freinds of Christ by what oblique Names soever unhappily distinguished will you come and be Friends one with another Are you for peace Your God is the God of Peace Your Jesus is the Prince of Peace Your Gospel is the Gospel of Peace and will you not be perswaded to be Sons of peace Your God is one your Mediator is one your Faith one your Baptism one your Hope one you are one Bodie one Spirit and will you not yet be one Soul Oh how hopeful would our condition be were our hearts generallie set upon peace We should certainly obtain did we more resolvedlie pursue it and what should hinder have you not yet enough of your contentions and quarrellings have not your Souls been sufficiently neglected your Lusts strengthened your Faith weakened your Love withered your comforts wasted your names blemished your holy Profession blamed Hath not your God been sufficiently provoked and the Devil sufficiently gratified are your bellies so filled with gall and your mouths with gravel and have you not yet enough of your contentions Christians Slight not these Counsels and Warnings As you would prove your selves the Friends of Christ be ye followers of peace Studie oh studie these things that make for peace Follow peace with all men as much as in you is but especially with the houshold of Faith Let there be no longer strife betwixt us for we are brethren Yet alwaies remember I am pressing you to an holy Union whilst I perswade you to follow peace I must still add and holiness I perswade you not to pursue peace upon tearms dishonourable or prejudicial to Truth They must have both together that will be blessed in either Truth without Peace is as a Jewel without its Cabinet Peace without Truth is as a Cabinet with nothing in it Peace without holiness is as a fair and promising shell with a rotten or worm-eaten kernel holiness without peace is as a pretious kernel under a crack'd and broken shell They that have peace without truth have nothing worth the securing they that have truth without peace have little security for what they have Peace without truth is beauty without worth Truth without peace is worth with its beauty marred Let both go together and then they will be both the Columina Ecclesiae the Pillar of the Church rendring it consistent within it self and the Corona Ecclesiae its Crown rendring it comely and glorious before the World Be it thus wiâ—h us and then Sathan look to thy self thy Kingdom shall down amain when thou canst no longer hold up division thou losest thy dominion Then Saints lift up your heads your Communion shall be sweet your glory shall be great your light shall shine your fruit shall abound the smell of your spices shall flow forth your adversaries shall envy and your King shall greatly delight to see your beauty Oh may this Grace this Peace be granted us from the Lord and let all that love the prosperity of Sions say Amen 2. In an an united Contention Striving together saith the Apostle for the Faith of the Gospel Unite but strive strive not one against another Christian against Christian but strive together Let your Contention be in Communion Strive together against sin and unbelief against Hypocrisie and earthliness strive against strife and debate and envyings and judgings strive together with God in your prayers and supplycations We often pray but our prayers do not agree by keeping at such distance we know not one anothers hearts and are so many men so many minds every one prayes according to his single apprehension and affections What one prayes another unprayes insomuch that we should put the Lord to do contradictions if he must give particular answer to all our prayers And possiblie that may be the reason why the Lord defers his answer so long he will stay till we are better agreed what we would have Matth. 18. 19. If two of you agree on earth touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Strive together in all holy and united endeavours to comfort confirm and establish one another in the Faith of the Gospel Keep up the Communion of Saints and an united contention against sin and unbelief Remember Heb. 10. 25. 3. In an holy boldness in nothing terrified by your Adversaries In nothing that is either in no degree not at all terrified or else in nothing that you have to do be frighted out of no part of your duty or else at nothing that they do or threaten to do against you Be not afraid to be holy Tell your Adversaries when they have said and done their worst you must and you will make bold to serve your God Fear them not and they cannot hurt you they never hurt you unless they divert you from your duty To establish your hearts in this holy boldness and against your carnal fears 1. Consider That 1. By how much the more you fear God by so much the less you will fear men 2. By how much the more you fear sin by so much the less you will fear trouble 3. By how much the less your adversaries fear God by so much the less need you to fear them 2. Believe Psal 27. 13. I had fainted but that I believed Faith is a buckler against fears and faintings Ephes 6. 16. Above all take the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil The shield of faith A shield is a wall of partition interposed betwixt a person and harm 'T is only our apprehensions of harm that raise our fear Faith will save a Christian harmless and thereby preserve him fearless The shield is ordained for a security to all parts and against all assaults Some pieces of our armour are appropriated to one part only the Helmet is for the head the Breast-plate for the brest the Girdle for the loins the Shooes for the feet but the shield is a moveable that is to be lifted up where-ever the blow comes Faith is an universal security Faith may be said to be a Shield 1. Instrumentally As it provides us of a shield as it lifts up a sheild and sets a guard upon the Soul to secure it
worse and worse every spoke of the Wheel every turn of the wheel renders our condition more helpless and hopeless Our adversaries are become rampant our Soul is filled with their scorn and fury our friends are as a broken tooth or a foot out of joynt our hopes are a Spiders Web or as the giving up the Ghost the Almighty causes all his storms and billows to pass over us one day telleth another one night certifieth another and prophesies to us nothing but destruction upon destruction desolation upon desolation and where is the promise of his coming the hope of Israel is asleep her Saviour is a stranger the Ark of God is taken the glory is departed yea and God himself seems to be gone over to the Camp of the Philistines and marching against us we have waited for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness the Harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not saved neither is there yet any to tell us how long Suppose you should have stood by and have seen or heard any such things any where in the World would you not have said can any good come out of such a dark abyss out of such a concatination of so many dreadful and dismal Providences Why by what hath been already said you might have answered thus Stay but a while till the whole wheel be come about till God hath brought off his work from the wheel and then you shall see Providence and the Promise meeting together and kissing each other and shall be able to say in this case what Solomon did in Israels 1 Kings 8. 56. Blessed be God that hath given rest to his People Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of his Servants Christians whatever may come upon you at any time while you live in this World diâ—trust not your God nor be at all dismayed you shall see the day either here or hereafter and 't will be never the worse if it be not till hereafter take it upon the credit of this word All things shall work together for good You shall see the day when your hearts shall rejoyce and say Oâ— 't was happy for us that matters went so cross with us 'T was happy we were so poor and brought so low and laid in the dark and strip'd so naked of all that we either took pleasure or put confidence in Now we see that the Lord hath a more glorious design that he was carrying on for us step by step by every thing that came upon us than we were aware of or could have imagined It 's true the Shimei's have been cursing the Ishmael's have been mocking the Rabshaka's have been railing the Ploughers have been ploughing the Hunters have been pursuing and had almost overtaken overcome and swallowed us up quick but blessed be our God that hath not turned our captivity and saved us by a mighty Salvation but hath done us good by all their mocking and cursing and raging against us Now we see there was such light sowing in our dark dayes such a Peace a sowing in those deep furrows such an Harvest of joy sowing in the dayes watch is over your race is run come and enter into my rest The first Come is Come down with me from the pride from the pomps and jollities of this present World come with me into the Wilderness into the valley of tears come and suffer with me come and dye with me The second Come is Come up with me up out of the Wilderness up out of your Prisons up from your bonds your Jubilee is come come up with me Come put off your prison-garments and put on your robes shake off your fetters and take up your palms lay down your Cross and take up your Crown from your Prisons to your Palace from the Stocks to the Throne You that have descended with me are the same who shall now ascend with me to my Father and your Father to my God and your God The first Come is the Come of a Suitor Come grant me your love give me your hearts and accept of mine This is the Errant upon which his Ambassadors are dispatched As Abraham's servant to take you as a Wife for your Lord. This is the meaning of all those Jewels and the Bracelets they bring in their hands the Lord sends Servant upon Servant Epistle upon Epistle Token upon Token and all speak the same word Come come come away and accept of your Lord and be married to him The second Come is the Come of the Bridegroom Come home with me into my holy City into my Royal Mansion come into my Chamber come into my Bosom come and lodge between my Breasts live in my presence and rest in my love for ever Christians my business while I have been with you hath been to bring you to God to espouse you to Christ and you that have already or will yet at last be perswaded to give your consent and wil give me leave to make up the Match I can give you assurance That he will shortly come and make up the Marriage and must say to you as Naomi to Ruth Ruth 3. 10. Sit still my Daugther till thou see how the matter will fall for the Man will not be in rest till he have finished the thing this day Sit still Christians till you see how matters will fall and however they fall know your Lord will not be in rest till he have finished this thing and brought you home to be with him where he is I am now parting from you in this confidence that however after a few dayes I shall see your faces no more in this world yet I shall shortly meet you in the Bride-Chamber of Glory where we shall ever be with the Lord. Beloved in the Lord I must now leave you but give me leave e're I go to deal freely with you and yet a little farther in the close of my day this once more to open my heart to you and to tell you 1. What my parting Feares 2. What my parting Wishes for you are which I carry upon my spirit 1. My parting Feares I go off from you with are especially these 1. I am afraid that there are many of you upon whom I have bestowed my labour in vain I am afraid that I have instructed you in vain exhorted perswaded beseeched and reproved you in vain 'T was the Apostles case and his fear concerning the Galatians Chap. 4. 11. It is my grief that when I would have no more to speak but an healing word a comforting word I must yet drop down a bitter word on some of you that when I would speak only from Mount Geriziâ— I must yet again speak to some from Mount Ebal that when I would leave a Blessing behind me upon you all I am like to leave some bound under a Curse It 's grievous to me thus to speak
reproached Mean you still to hold your course be it right or wrong come life come death Is there any among you whose heart smites him on the mouth and whispers him thus in the ear Blasphemest thou God revilest thou his servants and wilt thou still go on to pervert the good ways of the Lord Is there any among you that doth enquire what must I do to get into this way of life Let such of you hearken unto me whilest I give you these following directions Consider that I am now dealing with you about your entrance upon a godly life my present business is to help you over the threshold to get you within the straight gate you must first be Christians ere you can follow Christ you must first enter into the strait gate e're you can walk on in the narrow way Now if ever you would attain to the beginning of godliness take this course I. Get these three principles to be deeply fixed in your heart 1 That the things which are eternal are unspeakably more considerable than the things which are but temporal 2 Thaâ— things not sâ—en are as infallibly certain as the things which are seen 3 That according to your present choice must be your eternal lot 1 That the things which are Eternal are unspeakably more considerable then the things which are but temporal It 's nothing so considerable what men enjoy or suffer 〈◊〉 this world as what they shall enjoy or may suffer in the world to come There are good things temporal and good things Eternal and there are evil thinâ—s temporal and evil things Eternal the â—ood things Temporal are Meat and Drink and Money and Cloaths and Ease and Pleasures and Credit c. and the good thing Eternal aâ—e Gâ—ory and Joy and Best and everlasting blessedness the evil 〈◊〉 Temporal are the sufferings the losses and wants the sorrow and shame and scorn and torments that men fall under or lye under in this life the evill things to come are in one word the Vengeance of Eternal Fire The good things and the evil things of this life are more perceptible having the advantage of their presence and obviousness to our senses the good things and the evil things to come are less understood having the disadvantage of their distance and those clouds that do yet keep them out of fight and hereupon those are slighted and despised and these are looked upon as the onely considerable things till men be set right in their apprehensions of these things it will be a vain and fruitless attempt to perswade them to Christ mistakes and misapprehensions here are the grounds of mens miscarriages The difficulty of perswading sinners to Christ lies mainly here There is so much to be lost and left for Christ there is so much to be suffered undergone so much labour so much hardship and trouble that they cannot see how Christianity and Godliness can ever make them amends for what they are like to suffer they will not be made sensible that the things Eternal will ballance the things that are before them they will not easily be perswaded but that they shall be great losers by hearkning to Christ Now whence is it that men are thus foolish If they did but clearly understand and were deeply affected with the vast difference that is betwixt the vain glory of the world and the weight of that glory that is to come betwixt the light afflictions of this life and the astonishing torments of the other world they would sure be of another mind the great objections against godliness would then be all answered and removed Thou sayest Sinner it is hard to part with thine ease and thy pleasure and thy liberty and thy carnal contentments and delights which if thou wilt follow Christ thou seest must all go But how wilt thou bear it to be shut out of the everlasting Kingdome to be shut out from the presence of God Art thou indeed in the mind of that Atheist that said He would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Thou canst not indure the trouble and persecution of this world but how wilt thou endure the torments and plagues of the other world Oh if thou were but sensible what that exceeding eternal weight of glory is what thou wilt find everlasting death and darkness to be then what significant things would all things that are now before thee appear to be Satan would then want arguments to disswade sinners from Christ his tempting trade would quickly grow to be a poor trade if the concernments of Eternity were clearly understood and duly regarded When the Lord hath once shewed you the wonderful things of Eternity the true riches the enduring substance the lasting joys his rivers of pleasures together with the worm that never dieth and the fire that never shall be quenched When the Lord hath shewed you what a heaven he hath prepared for the Saints what an Oven he hath prepared for sinners then neglect Christ if you can then neglect holiness if you dare then look down and see what poor contemptible things the pleasures and the sufferings here below will appear to be Oh study things Eternal more lanch forth into these Deeps dwell upon the meditation of them till your hearts and all that is within you acknowledge and confess that things present are nothing to things to come 2. That the things that are not seen are as infallibly certain as the things that are seen There is much Atheism and Infidelity in the hearts of men and more then they are aware of if they do not peremptorily conclude there are no such things yet are there not many whose hearts do question at least Whether there be any such things or no We have read and heard of another World but no Mortal ever saâ— it who ever hath ascended up to Heaven and hath brought us word what he hath seen there Who ever hath descended into the Deep and brought us up tidings thence It may be there may be no such matter as another world If we could speak with one that hath been there that would be something to assure us But what if it appear that you may have as great certainty of these things as if one should rise from the dead and come and tell you Do not the Scriptures tell you of such things The Scriptures are a sure Word and there is unquestionable evidence of the truth of what they speak and you have as great reason to believe them as if you had the Testimony of one raised from the dead Luke 16. 31. They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not hear them neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Beloved if you should see before your Eyes persons rising from the Dead if one should come down from Heaven and come in here into this Congregation in all his Glorious Robes with with his Palm in his hand his Crown on his head the joy and glory
of the Lord shining forth in his Face and should declare to you the wonderful things that his Eyes had seen and his Heart had been satisfied and ravished with in the presence of God If you should see another coming up out of the Deep with his Chaines of Darkness upon him with the smell of that Infernal Fire and Brimstone about him with the print of the Dragons clawes appearing in his Flesh and the blackness of that smoaking Furnace stricking on his Face and hidgeously roaring out the anguish he felt burning in his Bowels should tell you This is the state of them that know not God If you should see to such sights appearing this hour here in the midest of you would you not think you had reason to believe there were an Heaven and an Hell This word which is before you is a far greater and a more certain Evidence then if Tidings were thus brought to you by persons rising from the Dead And if you will not give credit to this Testimony of God neither would you give credit to any such Testimony Sinners believe God and believe him who was once on Earth and now daily speaks to you from Heaven believe that Word which is before you in which appear such Beames of Divine Light such an impress of Divine purity which hath been so attested by a Divine power in mighty Signes and Wonders that you may as well question Whether the Sun hath light as whether his Word hath truth believe this Word to be certain and then question if you can whether the things not seen are certain or no. Let these two things sink into your hearts Sinners be once setled and established in your hearts about the importance and about the truth and certaiâ—â—ty of these Eternal things and then you are goâ—ten fairly onwards in your way towards Christ and a Godly life If men were as sure that there is an Heaven and an Hell such unspeakable Glory and such intollerable misery and an Eternity of both if men were as sure of this and did as verily believe it as they are sure of what their Eyes have seen and their Ears have heard and their hands have handled What a flying would there be out of the way of Death and Hell and what a flocking would there be into the way of Life Half the work of Preachers and the hardest half their perswading work would then be at an end There would be as much knocking at their doors for counsel as now there is at sinners doors for their acceptance Oh Brethren if you were once brought to this pass if your unbelief were removed your darkness taken away your Souls awakened your Eyes opened to see these marvellous things as unquestionable Truths would you then scoffe at pureness would you then mock at godliness would you then slight reproofs or need any further conviction of your folly You would have an Admonisher within you a Remembance within you a Reprover within you your own Consciences would plead with you for your entertaining of Christ and embracing his Word and would continually cry in your Ears What meanest thou O fool Doest thou not see a Kingdome before thee which may be thine and art thou willing to lose it Dost thou see that Gulf of Misery and Perdition with open mouth gaping for thee to devour thee Arise sluggard look to thy self least thou be undone before thou art aware 3. That according to your choise in this World your lot must be for ever in the world to come Your chusing or refusing Christ and his holy ways is that which doth determine your Eternal state chuse Christ and you make Heaven sure to you refuse Christ here and you will be rejected of him for ever God doth offer you this choice either the strait and the narrow way with that life of blessedness which is at the further end of this way Or the broad way with that Death and Destruction to which it leads Christ with his Yoak his Cross and his Eternal Crown or the Devil with his golden mines his Paradise and eternal Prison and all the parts of each of these offers are linked together Chuse the Devils golden Mines and fleshly Paradise and you must have his Prison too Take Christs Yoak and his Cross and you shall have his Crown you cannot take the Devils Paradise and Christs Crown if you will have his Pleasures you must have his Prison You cannot obtain life but you must chuse the narrow way that leads to it Here is the choise sinners that God puts you to this is the business of this World to choose for Eternity And that which is the business of this life is the business of this hour This very little piece of your time and the choice you make now may be it that will give a final determination what your Eternal state shall be If you make an evil choice now you may never have a minutes time to choose again for ever Oh if your hearts were sensible of this that there is so much depending upon every houre of your lives as Life or Death Heaven or Hell Eternity sure you could not but reason thus with your selves Is it a time for me to stand all the day idle To be laughing or sporting or to be drudging and scraping for the muck of this Earth Is this a time for me to stand trifling with Christ and the Gospel to make so many delayes to make so many excuses The tearms are too high the way is too strait the yoak is too heavy this I cannot part with that I cannot bring my heart to subscribe to Is this the business that is now under debate what my everlasting state must be In which of the two Regions of Eternity my Lot shall fall whether I shall be a Saint or a Devil a vessel of honour or a vessel of wrath whether my dwelling shall be in everlasting blessedness or in everlasting burnings which way the scales do turn now either for Christ or the world Do they turn for everlasting Sure if matters stand thus I had need be serious and consider what I do This is the first direction get these three principles fixed in your hearts that things Eternal are much more confiderable then things Temporal that things not seen are as infallibly certain as the things that are seen that upon your present choice depends your Eternal lot Chuse Christ and his wayes and you are blessed for ever refuse and you are undone for ever And then II. Make your choice Put your hearts to it to turn either to the right hand or to the left lay both parts before you with every link of each Christ with his Yoak his Cross and his Crown or the Devil with his wealth his pleasure and his curse And then put your selves to it thus Soul Thou seest what is before thee what wilt thou do Which wilt thou have either the Crown or the Curse If thou chuse the Crown remember that the day