lying in wait to steal it away whatever you have built you have adversaries lying in wait to pull down again I have heard of some inchanted places where what men built in the day the Devil pull'd down at night and this danger you are continually in what 's built at one prayer the Devil labours to pull down before the next Let your eye be much upon your hearts observe diligently how they hold up or sink that if there be the least damp or decay growing upon you you may espie it before it be gone too far 'T is no wonder we lose all upon such a sudden when ordinarily as soon as ever our duties are done away we goe and think no more where we have been or what we have been about as if we were well content to take our leave of our duties and our God together When you depart out of your Closets leave your hearts behind you Worldlings seldom bring theit hearts thither when they come to pray they leave their hearts behind them Let Christians never carry them thence when you have done praying and must abroad to your earthly affairs let your hearts stay behind with your God Let your thoughts be much upon the entertainment you have had see to it that the temptations you meet with do not so easily divert you from minding what you have been begging or wrestling for 2. Make present use of what you have obtained God gives Grace and Strength and Life for use and use will preserve it Hath the Lord warm'd thy heart goe warm thy Brothers heart and that will keep thine from cooling Hath God spoken comfortably to thy soul goe and speak of thy God and what he hath done for thee to others Hath God inclined and thereby fitted thee for action take the season thou may'st do more for God and for thy soul in such an hour than in many dayes beside be doing with what thou hast received and thou need'st not fear losing it when we are idle then we fall asleep and grow cold Instruments do not rust while they are in use We never more spend our strength than when we spare our labour 3. Life up your hearts to the Lord often every hour in some short Ejaculations No business no company can hinder this duty and this will be of special advantage to you therefore neglect it not every sigh or breathing of your souls Heaven-wards will fetch down fresh influences from Heaven upon you 4. Charge this whole course actually upon your selves every morning and examine every evening how you have kept to it 5. If you cannot otherwise bring or hold your selves 〈◊〉 this course bind your selves to it for some time by special vow till being a while inured to it it may become at length more easie Being thus entred upon and prepared for a godly life I shall give you some directions 3. How to carry it on and for your help herein take these following counsels I. In your whole course pursue and as much as possible eye your end God and your own salvation Consider often wherefore you live and what it is you would have and if this be it that God may be honoured and your souls saved let this be pursued and prosecuted in all the parts of your life Take not that course do not that action that hath not some tendency that way and that which hath a tendency let it be directed to that glorious end Let every arrow be levell'd at your mark The reason why the end is no more attained is because it is more intended 't is no wonder we shoot short or beside our mark when our eye is not upon it The eying our end will both direct our course and quicken and encourage us on Set the Lord much before your eyes dwell upon the contemplation of his Glory and glorious Excellencies consider how worthy the Lord is to be exalted and what an honour it is to poor creatures to be any way serviceable to his Honour what pity it is that any of your time any of your strength should be spent upon vanity which might be so improved to so worthy aud high an end Begrutch every minute of your time that is not bestowed on God Consider the blessedness of living for ever in the presence and enjoyment of God Look towards the holy City enter by faith into the Holy of Holies set your selves before the Throne of God view as much as at this distance you are capable that everlasting light those blessed and glorious joyes those rivers of pleasure that exceeding eternal weight of glory which is there possessed by the Saints And then say to your hearts Come on soul come on here 's that thou art praying for here 's that thou art labouring for here 's the Country the Kingdom the Crown that thou art fighting for and wrestling for and running and suffering for The setting this glory before your eyes will both quicken and sweeten your holy course and take off your hearâ—â— from any other courses The end puts a beauty upon the means and a blackness upon all the hinderances of its attainment A sight of Heaven will make a holy life a beautiful life There are two things that make an holy life beautiful 1. That it 's the Image of an Heavenly life 2. That it 's the way to it All the labours difficulties sufferings of a godly life are therefore pleasant and beautiful because they are the way of the Kingdom And on the other side a sight of Heaven will make the wayes of sin to be unpleasant to be dark and black wayes There are two grounds upon which sin is odious to the Saints 1. It 's Opposition and unlikeness to God it bears the Image of Hell upon it not of Heaven 2. It 's Interposition betwixt them and their end Nothing else can ever keep them from God There 's no danger of their falling short of Everlasting blessedness but by sin This is the only Gulf that 's fixed between them and Glory And hence 't is that the way of sin with all its pleasures ease and delights is to the Saints a dark and dismal way The pleasures of sin are black pleasures the gains of sin are black gains the jollity and liberty and prosperities of sin are all dark and black in their eye These clouds whatever brightness there seems in them do keep the Sun from shining on them Oh! what progress might you make in the way of Life where Holiness with all its difficulties become beautiful and Sin with all its delights become odious What would there then be wanting that might encourage you on what would there be then left to hinder you Why let God and Glory be more in your eye and then Sin will be more odious Holiness will be more precious in your eye you would then neither want encouragements to lead you on nor be incumbred with such temptations as now keep you back Tit. 2. 11 12 13. The Grace of God
This may comfort and support thee much under thy failings and miscarriages in some particular duties but if this be thy case in ordinary in the main of thy life that to will is all thou hast thou art not a Christian He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his And he that hath the Spirit of Christ it is in him as the living power of God actually carrying him on in an holy life Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them I will not only command perswade incline you but cause you It shall be done my Spirit shall bring you on and help you through Yâ— shall keep my Staâ—utes and do them Where-ever the Spirit of God hath breathed in the life of grace there are more than breathings out after a gracious life Sincere grace hath more in it than wishings and wouldings than attempts and overtures Life is a power to act Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your salvation for it is God that workeâ—h in you to will and â—o do Where-ever God worketh the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle he works also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operari Where-ever God works in he gives us a power to work out the works of Christiâ—nity Oh rest not till thou find thy self endued with this power from on high inabled to go through with thy work They are not thy Attempts but thy Atchievements they are not thy Offers at an holy life but thy acting it that must prove thee a Christian He that doth rightâ—ousness is righteous Be it thus with thee be all to Christ let Christ be all to thee let all Christ be accepted and improved by thee heartily accept the merit of Chrisâ— Righteousness submit to the light and authority of his Law get thy self possest with and live in the power of his Spirit be it thus with thee come up hither and then thou art safe Thy almost is now come to altogether and if I must now leave thee thou wilt be the better able to spare me These things do and the God of peace shall be with thee Thou art gotten into Sanctuary and now what-ever Tossings and Tumblings whatsoever unpleasing or afflicting changes may be thy lot in this World thou may'st sing that Requiem to thy self Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Gothy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with amerry heart for God now accepteth thee Though thou walkest through the shadow of Death thou may'st now sit thee down under the shadow of thy Lord with great delight and with great security whose fruit shall be ever sweet to thy taste Though thou dwellest in Mesech and hast thy Habitation among the Tents of Kedar yet thou may'st lay thee down in peace and take thy rest for the Lord doth the Lord will make thee to dwell in safety 2. To the Godly Happy Souls The God of Peace is with you all things shall work for good to you only that he may continue with you continue you with him in the obedience of that Gospel to which you have delivered up your selves My Exhortation to you shall be 1. General Respecting the whole course of your Lives 2. Particular Respecting your daily Walk My general Exhortation shall be bottomed on that of the Apostle Phil. 1. 27 28. Let your Conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your Affaires that you stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel In nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel Walk worthy of the Gospel let your lives be suitable and answerable to the Holy Gospel which yoâ— profess 1. Let your lives answer the ends of the Gospel the exaltation of the Name and glorious Grace of God in Christ live an humble self-denying self-abasing this is a Christ exalting life 2. Let your life answer â—he Dignities and Honours the Gospel invests you with You are the children of God the Heirs of Glory the Spouse of Christ the Bride the Lambs Wife You are a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people know your priviledges and do not live below your selves defile not your glory by stooping to a Carnal and Earthly Life a Jewel is not more unbecoming a Swines snout than fleshly Husks a Saints Palate 'T is below you who are peculiar people to your God to live in common with the Men of â—his World humble your selves into the least of Saints but do not humble your selves into Bruits a Live in the Spirit converse with God be dealing for Glory Honour and Immortality 3. Let your Lives answer the Names which the Gospel puts upon you Doves Lambs Lillies be harmless peaceable gentle beautiful fragant sending forth a precious savour in the World 4. Let your Lives answer the Riches the Reward the Crown the Kingdom which the Gospel sets before you Live a contented life be satisfied be well pleased with what you have here be it little or much disgrace not your portioâ— the Gospel allots you as if it â—re a poor insufficient portion Let your souls â—â—y How small an handful soever you have of this Earth it is enough Christ is mine A discontented Christian says Christ is not enough Heaven is not enough Let the Contentation of thy Spirit declare before the World that the Lines are fallen to thee in 〈◊〉 pleasant place and that thou hast a goodly heritage Do not put this Scorn upon God and Glory that thou must be beholding to the Devil to mend thy portion Christian either thou art within the Promise or a stranger from it Either thou hast the God of Peace with thee or not If not me-thinks thou shouldst find other matter to take up thy thoughts and not have leasure to perplex thy self with every trivial want that thy meat or thy drink or thine house or the carriage of thy friends towards thee are not according to thy mind thy Soul thy Soul man thy life is in danger Oh what an Eternity art thou like to have of it Canst thou want a God a Christ an Heaven and thine heart never stir at it And is the dissatisfaction of thy vain mind or appetite such a Burthen Is the Devil in thy heart and it never moves thee and shall an ill neighbour be a vexation to thee Canst thou feel a Feather when thou hast a Talent upon thee The Curse the Curse of God is upon thee I cannot wonder thou shouldst be discontent but me-thinks these small matters by a man in thy case should not be minded If Christ and the Promise be thine is not that enough Are not all things enough God is all
Unworthy Spirits Oh me-thinks Christians we should rather step one before another and when our Lord demands Who will go with me Who will bear my Cross Me thinks we should readily answer I will go let me bear it Lord and not grudge as we do that he puts us to it Our impatience bears false witness against God and his Gospel what is the voyce or the meaning of impatience less than this What-ever is said in honour of the Gospel what a blessedness what an ineffable advantage 't is to all that heartily own it yet having proved it I find it even as much as nothing by that all the costs and charges of it are cast up The comforts of it will never ballance them set one against another the bad against the good the bitter against the sweet Set one against another and I have made but a bad bargain by becoming a Christian This is the voice of impatience Christian thou passest over thy Murmuring as a light evil as if thy pain might excuse thy pettishness As if it were because 't is so common a very small thing but is it nothing to bely God to bear false witness against his Gospel thy repining that ever thou wert a Christian Brithren Let us do the Lord this Right by the patience of our spirits to confesse before the world That all the sufferings of this Life are not worthy to be compared to the Glory that shall be revealed And looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith Let us learn of him for the Joy that is set before us to endure the Cross and despise the shame that we may sit down at his as he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Secondly Your patient suffering will be God's Witness of your Adoption Heb. 12. 7. If you endure chastening God dealeth with you as with Sons The LORD doth not use to deal so with strangers Afflictions are Gods Family Discipline Yet mark 't is not the suffering alone will prove our Sonship the Rod is for the fools back as well as the childs but patient suffering will for 1. Patient suffering is it self an evidence of our adoption it is the mark of the Lord Jesus upon us If thou hast both the same lot and the same spirit that was upon Christ there 's thy Lords mark upon thee whereby he marks thee out for one of his own Men had need of other marks to prove them Christians than what the Rod hath made on their backs 't is our quiet submitting to it and that upon Gospel grounds as hath been before shewed that must do it and this will be evidence enough None but a Son will thus submit 2. The suffering state of Christians is ordinarily attended with other evidences Sufferings will set patience on work and patience will set every other grace on work Whatsoever it be that finds work for patience will therein find work for faith and love and hope and self-denial Christians never appear so much believers so humble so mortified as under the Cross If there be any faith or love or hope in the heart 't will appear in the day of adversity If there be any fire under the ashes throw on water and then you shall hear it when it may be before you could see none there As Solomon sayes folly so we may say wisdom grace is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will fetch it out We seldom know either how bad or how good our hearts are till they are thus proved This I did to prove thee and to know what was in thine heart Besides this is the season when ordinarily there are most plentiful illapses and incomes from above God seldom sends such tokens of his love as to his Children in prison The light of his countenance he often reserves for their darkest estate he sets to his Seal when the wax is on fire There have been Christians that would never believe that they were such till God hath told it them at the stake the highest joyes the fullest sence of everlasting kindness have been most ordinarily the portion of Gods Martyrs When Hell is let loose upon them then Heaven is most open Many Christians have met with such refreshings in their Bonds that their enlargement hath been their Prison If this be so Christians who would fear sufferings who would not be patient would it comfort you to know that God is your Father Be patient and you shall know it What would you not bear so you might be sure you are the Lords It may be you have been held under doubt and fears and sad uncertainties hitherto all your dayes you have gone about from duty to duty from Ordinance to Ordinance from Christian to Christian enquiring and mourning and complaining and crying our Oh if I were sure that Christ were mine that my faith and my love and my hope and my obedience were sound and sincere such as would prove my adoption then could be I quiet Why if ever God calls thee to Sufferings follow him chearfully He calls thee out to prove to thee that thou lov'st him Fear not to go up with him on the Cross Assurance is a fruit that most â—â—dinarily grows on that Tree Let hypocrites only fear sufferings 't will be sad indeed to them there 's many a self-deceiving Professor that never suspected himself to be an hypocrite till persecution made him an Apostate that 's a woful case to have sufferings come upon him for the Gospel's sake only to tell him That he hath no part in Christ nor his Gospel Let hypocrites be afraid and unquiet but let Saints be patient The same trials which will prove them bastards will prove you Sons Your patient suffering is the cure of your Corruption Sufferings are our medicine for corruption and patience our cure To what degree of patience a Christian hath attain'd that degree of power hath he gotten over iniquity Till lust be conquered there 's no patience If there be but one unmortified corruption remaining and an affliction comes and grates upon that this will provoke there 's no beating it Whence is impatience but from this for the most part that we cannot bear any violence that 's offered to lust what is patience but this that we can bear that pain that lust when pinched will put us to quietly to suffer our pride our envy our passion our sensual appetites to be cut short of what would gratifie them and freely to leave them under that which comes to kill and crucifie them to be able to want that fuel that feeds and endure that water that doth quench these fires this is Patience VVhen our pride is strip'd of its ornaments our appetites deprived of their delicates our covetousness of its substance our flesh of its ease and we either feel no smart or can bear the smart of it then we are Patient And when we can thus leave our Corruptions to whatever sufferings
me so I can be in pain in disgrace If thou wilt have me But I cannot be unholy I cannot bear it to be such a starveling in the state of my Soul Lord for more holiness Lord for more life and care and zeal and fruit let me have it upon what terms thou pleasest only let me have it Can you say thus to the Lord I hope you can what and yet be displeased it he take you at your word can you pray thus and yet repine and murmur that the Lord hears your prayers Christian when the Lord comes to deal roughly with thee entertain his chastisements whatever they be with this thought Now the Lord is about to give me my hearts desire now is my day of hope This distress this sorrow and anguish the Lord hath brought upon me may be come to perform that work which I have long'd to see What the Word hath been so long a doing and yet is not done What Sacraments Prayers Mercies have been so long a doing and yet is not done Now is the time this may be the means to bring it about This bitter Cup hath health in the bottom this Plough and these deep furrowes it makes look towards an Harvest The work is doing that I have been so long a begging This froward this senseless this sloathful this earthly barren heart which I feel to day I hope now in a little time I shall be rid of for ever If this be the meaning of my troubles as I hope it is I will wait I will wait for the fruit and if this be the fruit oh welcom welcom this blessed Providence 6. Your patient suffering shall be the advance of your glory Remember what I have told you already Your suffering shall go into your reward according to your deep poverty so shall your riches be As 't was said concerning Babylon Rev. 18. 7. How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much sorrow and torment give her So shall it be said concerning you How much they have been abased and afflicted for me so much Joy and Glory give them As sure as the persecuâ—ings of the ungodly shall meet them in hell so certainly shall the Persecutions of the Righteous meet them before the Throne of God This shall be written on their everlasting Crowns Here is the Patience of the Saints By this time you see Christians that a suffering state is not so formidable nor patience under it so impossible nor your impatience so excusable as your hearts are so apt to tell you Sufferings you cannot avoid but you may abide them your carnal hearts will cry out I can't endure and therefore whatever shift I make I must avoid them The Gospel tells you You may endure but if you will be Christians you can't avoid them All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Well since it 's thus Gird up the loins of your Minds and follow your Lord. Consider him that endured such contradictions of Sinners and be not weary noâ— faint in your minds The Captain of your salvation was made perfect through sufferings and if you will be patient so shall you his followers Turn to your strong hold ye Prisoners of hope prove to the world that your Faith is no fancy nor your Rock a refuge of lies that your profession of holiness is not a meer talk or vapour Fear not to bear yours and thankfully accept your Lords Testimony when the Lord hath fulfilled his sad Predictions let your faith and patience seal to the fulfilling his promises When-ever the hand of the Lord touches to the quick and you feel in earnest that 't is hot service to be a Christian when your flesh begins to fly in your face and cries out against your Soul either as Zippâ—rah against Moses a bloody Husband hast thou been to me or as Job's Wife to him Curse God and dye chide it into silence Thou speakest like one of the foolish Women If it will still kick and â—ling and groan out to thee dost thou still retain thy integrity hearken not to it leave it to groan alone as the flesh hath left thy Soul to groan alone under sin so let thy Soul leave thy flesh to groan alone under affliction While thy Soul is quiet there 's the glory of patience though extremity of torment make thy flesh to roar nay the more the flesh roars and the Soul yet keeps silence the more patience If your fears affright you and prophecy to you before hand Oh I shall never be patient if the fore-sight be so dreadful what will the encounter be Yet be not discouraged You say you could be content to suffer if you were sure you could be patient that is you would venture into the water if you had first learn'd to swim why when you are in then you will learn and not before Tribulation worketh patience where it findeth none when you are in the fight you 'l find your weapons your very sufferings will learn you to bear 'T is the flesh that flings and frets but by that it hath been tamed in the house of affliction it will be quieter Be jealous of your selves while you will let not fore-hand presumption hinder fore-hand preparation But whilst you suspect your selves distrust not your God follow the Cloud of Witnesses and lean on the Rock of Ages and when you are put hardest to it let your soul take Sanctuary here When my flesh and my heart faileth me God is the strength of mine heart and my portion for ever Lastly As that wherein I shall take in most of these former particulars Let your lives answer that Spirit of holiness which the Gospel hath powred forth upon you Let your lives be gracious and holy lives Particularly 1. Let the Grace of the Gospel be visible and perspicuous in your lives shew forth the vertues of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Let your lives be the image of thot holy Doctrine or the holding forth of that word of Life which you have received Admire that grace of God which hath appeared to you and let his Grace appear and be admired in you let Grace appear in you in its Purity Power 1. In its Purity represent your God and your Christ and your Religion in its holiness to the world Teach the World to love or at least to reverence holiness by letting them see it before their eyes Holiness hath such a Glory in it that it will command respect and reverence when it is clearly seen Let your paths be pure as God hath separated you to separate your selves from the lusts of men to the Law of your God Keep your selves upright in the sight of God keep your selves unspotted of the world If they will be spotting you let it be only with your beauty spots your Wisdom Truth Holiness Mercy Meekness Patience the Excellencies and Vertues of your God appearing upon you Let this that you are too pure
to have no Assurance that he hath any at all If thou wouldest have power over Corruption if thou wouldest stand in the Day of temptation if thou wouldest not starve in the day of Famine if thou wouldest have the comfort of the Grace thou hast let it grow up to its fuller stature Grace when it is come to Age will speak for it self and shift for it self the better which whilest it is in its Infancie neither knows nor can help it self Christians let your Grace grow and let the Fruits of it increase Let your Fields ripen to the Harvest I may say concerning Sinners not as our Lord said Behold the Fields are already white to the Harvest but behold the Fields are already black to the Harvest The Word is ready to be given Come put in thy Sickle the Harvest is ripe the wickedness is great The Fields of Tares are already black to the Harvest But oh when shall it be said of you Behold the fields are white to the Harvest shall evil weeds grow so fast and shall only the good Corn be at a stand Brethren Let your Fruits grow more plentiful and more perfect daily Let that Scripture be verified in you Pro. 4. 18. The path of the Just is a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Let your hearts be so filled with the fulness of God that your pathes may drop fatness Let it be said of you as of the Spouse Cant. 4. 18. and Chap. 5. 5. Her lips dropped as the Honey Comb and her hands dropped sweet smelling Myrrh Let your lips drop as the Honey Comb as you have drunk in the Milk and Honey that comes down from above so be ever droping it down to others Let something of the fatness something of the fatness that you have received from above be alwayes dropping down Be dropping according to what you have drank as you see sinners of whom 't is said They drink iniquity to be alwayes dropping iniquity dropping Oathes dropping Lies dropping Scoffs and reproaches So let it be said of you They drink the Dew of Heaven and this they are dropping down Let no Child no Servant no Friend come into your Company and go away without some sweet drops from your lips A word of heavenly instruction a gracious admonition a word of encouragement or a quickening word let them have or lift up a prayer and drop down a blessing upon them Something or other of the Dew of Heaven let them feel flowing from your Lips Let your lips drop as the Honey Comb and your Hands drop sweet smelling Myrrh Let your Holy Practises your holy Examples second and set on your wholsom counsels and instructions Let your words be savoury and your works be gracious Let lip and life speak the same things and lead on the same way Christians By your nursing up the Souls and Fruits of others you will ripen and encrease your own If you should look on all the Fruit as little which your selves have brought forth to God you will have this to comfort you That you have born more upon your Brethrens knees the Fruits of those Fields which you have planted or watered will abound to your account Bring forth much Fruit unto God and be much in immediate converse with God Phil. 3. 20. Our Convetsation is in Heaven Be more elevated and raised in your Spirits daily above things sensual and carnal Above Carnal Delights Above Carnal Discouragements 1. Above Carnal Delights live more purely in the Spirit let your Hearts be wrought up to such a spiritual frame that all the joyes pleasures and comforts of your lives may be spiritual Let the Lord be all your delight Psal 37. 5. Let it be with you as much as may be as it is with the Saints already in glory to whom God is all who being changed into his Image and dwelling in his presence are satisfied in him Let God alone be as much to you as God and all the world Let the Fashions and Pleasures and delights of this world be so much beneath your Spirits that it may neither be an abatement of your joy to want nor an addition to your content to possess them Let the light of all these lower sparks be swallowed up in God when the Sun shines all the Stars dis-appear and are not needed Lift up thine eyes Christian and see what pleasures there are within the Veil Come drink thy fill of this new wine let thy Faith draw the Curtains of Eternity and take a view of those heights and depths and lengths and breadths of that Glory and Joy which there it may discover Look on him that fits on the Throne and those everlasting Treasures of Light Holiness Goodness and Mercy which are streaming from his Face on those over-flowing Bowels of kindness and compassion on those Rivers of pure and eternal Pleasures Rest Peace that rise from that glorious Throne and run through the City of God Behold the Tree of life and feed thy Soul on its precious fruit whose very leaves are for the healing of Nations Hearken to and fill thine Ears and Heart with those Tryumphs and Exultations those Raptures and Extasies of unspeakable and glorious joyes those blessings and praisings those Hallelujahs that are tuned upon the hearts and tongues of the Heavenly Chore the glorious Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect by the vision and fruition of thy God the God of Glory Look on and possess this Joy and Glory say to thy Soul as God to Abraham Gen. 13. 14. Lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward through all the Coasts and all the Dimensions of the blessed Land of Promise and holy City and then say Come Soul take up thy rest here all this is thine Look and love love and long long and hope hope and rejoyce in hope of this glory of God Look on thy God and never leave looking till thou art changed into his Image and satisfied with his Image And here let thy delight and thy dwelling be 2. Above all carnal discouragements from any adversaries or dangers wherewith you are baited and affrighted as you walk in the Lord let the joy of the Lord be your strength let your Sun be your shield let your hope be your confidence and fear not your dutie nor danger Look to your hope and you will laugh at fear Dwell in your reward and you will not be afraid to dwell in your dutie But of this a word more by and by Thus much for general Directions 2. I shall next give you some special Directions for you daily work General necessarilie depend on and subsist in particulars As there can be no Religion in a Kingdom unlesse it be first in particular Families nor none in Families unlesse it be in particular persons so a general course of Christianity there cannot be unless it be supported in our particular daily walk The advice I
their personal appearance have all their ways and actings examined and considered over again and receive their doom Then shall men return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that served the Lord and him that served him not Then shall men say Verily there is a reward for the righteous a peculiar reward doubtlesse be is a God that judgeth in the earth If you ask What shall this reward of the righteous be and what shall be the difference betwixt theirs and the rewards of all others whatsoever Let these following Scriptures be examined and give in the answer Rom. 2. 6 7 8 9. Who will render to every man according to their deeds to them who by patient contiâ—uing in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile The words refer to the last Judgment as appears by the former part of them Who shall render c. In the following part we have the dividing of the Sheep from the Goats which are both described and have their distinct rewards appointed to them 1. We have a description of the Sheep and what their reward shall be and by their description these Sheep should be the very same with Precisians or circumspect Christians 1. They are such as seek for glory and honour and immortality that is that seek for a portion of glory and immortality in the world to come They leave the Kingdoms of this world to be shared among the men of this world and seek for that Kingdom which cannot be shaken 2. They are well-doers good men and holy men men of a good and holy life 3. They continue in well-doing they are not good for a fit but it is the way of their life 4. They patiently continue Patience is either 1. Of Labour they do not complain nor are weary of their work but buckle to it Or 2. Of Sufferings they can bear as well as doe Or 3. Of Delay they are content to stay for their reward till hereafter let others take their portions and their rewards here they are content to stay for theirs till hereafter This is the description of the Sheep and of all the men in the world who should these Sheep be Can they be any other men then those godly men that have been laid open to you Well but what is the Reward which in the Judgement the Lord will render to these Why it is eternal Life eternal Glory and blessedness to them that by patient continuance in well-doing c. he will render eternal Life This is true Sinners this is no conceit it is a certain truth and such a truth as you yourselves must beâ—ieve before ever you can come to good Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Mark it of them that diligently seek him They are the same men you see that are spoken of here and in the former Scripture of these God is the rewarder that is with a special and glorious reward that is necessary to be understood God hath rewards for the ungodly You that are proud persecutors and despisers of God and his wayes God will reward you all for all your doings but he hath a blessed reward for those that seek him And thus saith the Text Every one that cometh to God must believe Sinners you will not be perswaded now but these people are foolish self-deluding people and that the Heaven the Joy the Glory and the Blessedness they feed themselves with the hope of is only in their own fancies but yet if ever you come to any thing if ever you be brought home to God this is that which you must believe That God is a Rewarder and a glorious Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Thus we have the description of the Sheep and of their reward and the certainty therof next we have the description of the Goates and their reward of them there is a general description The men that do evil and this threefold particular description 1. They are contentious 2. They obey not the Truth But 3. They obey unrighteousness which for methods sake I shall reduce to two Heads They are described 1. By their Contention 2. By their Conquest 1. By their Contention There is a twofold contention 1. Of man with man 2. Of man with God This latter is â—xprest in Scripture by gainsaying Rom. 10. by resisting Acts 7. 51. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost by kicking Deut. 32. 15. This kicking implies 1 Opposition against God 2. Oposition joyned with scorn and contempt putting a slight upon God and all his Counsels and wayâ—s Now this latter is the contention meant in the Text contention against God they will not hearkâ—n to his voice nor be obedient to his truth The Lord commands and calls them to accept of his grace and to be obedient to his Law but they rejected God kick against his Word and refuse to hearken to him 2. By this conquest or victory in this contest after all the strivings of God with them they still stand it out and overcome they obey not the truth but persist to obey unrighteousness where 1. By the Truth we are to understand the whole Word of God John 17. 17. Thy Word is Truth both the word of righteousness the Law and the Word of faith the Gospel by obeying the truth we are to understand submitting to the government of the Law and accepting the grace of the Gospel 2 By unrighteousness we are to understand all those corrupt Principles according to which the lnsts of men do govern them which I take the Apostle means Rom. 7. 23. by the Law of Sin In that and the former Verse there is mention made of Four Laws contending one against another whereof Two are on one side and Two on the other The Law of God the Law of the Mind the Law of the Members and the Law of Sin By the Law of God is understood the Word of God by the Law of the Mind is understood in thâ— Regenerate Grace in the Unregenerate the Light of the Natural Conscience by the Law of the Members understand Lust or Concupiscence by the Law of Sin those corrupt Principles according to which Lust governs As the Law of the Mind governs according to those Holy Principles contained in the Word so there are certain Principles of Unrighteousness according to which the Flesh governs To enumerate and reckon up all these corrupt Principles would be as great a task as to reckon up all thâ— Doctrines of Truth and the Righteous Commands of God to each of which Holy Doctrines and Commands there are in this Law of Sin Principles directly contrary Now because it
this duty upon you as your task but excite and encourage your selves to it by looking for a return think what it is that you would have and look to receive it The reason why we obtain no more in prayer is because we expect no more God usually answers us according to our own hearts Narrow hearts and low expectations have usually as little as they look for or desire large expectations are ordinarily answered with large returns Expectation will put life into action you will then pray with most enlarged hearts when you are most full of hopes the reward that is looked for in the Evening will much encourage and quicken the labour of the day fear not to expect too much from Heaven Be not straitned in in your own Bowels and you shall not be straitned in the God of bowels open thy Mouth wide and he will fill it God will never upbraid his Beggars for looking for too great an Almes he hath enough to supply them and he hath a heart to bestow it God will never say to you you are too bold you ask too much too much Grace too much holiness why cannot less content you God hath given you commission to ask what you will not to the one half but the whole of his Kingdome the Kingdome you shall have if no less will serve your turn Christians be thankfull for every little you receive but look for much be thankful for every little every little received from God is much A drop from that Fountain is worth the World yet content not your selves with some drops when if you will the Fountain may be yours The King of Glory loves to give like a King and will never say This is too much either for a King to give or a Beggar to receive Since he hath given you leave spare not to speak in large your desires and let your Eye be as big as your Belly God hath promised you and therefore you may promise your selves whatever you ask that is good for you you shall not ask in vain Oh if we had so much in our Eye when we come before the Throne of Grace we should be oftner there and yet still return with our load Well Christians remember this when ever you come to begg look to receive come not to prayer as to dry breast that is like to yield no milk or to an empty Cistern that will yield no water 3. Learn the skill to plead with God in Prayer Though the Breasts be full yet they must be drawn hard ere the milk will come Though the Lord be willing to give those that task yet he will have them first to prove they are in earnest Store of Arguments he hath furnished us with to press him withal but he will have us use them We must strive with God if we will prevail and the best striving is with his own weapons The counsel I give you in this is Plead hard with God but plead with him upon his own Arguments there are amongst many others these four grounds on which to bottom your plea 1. On God himself 2. On Christ 3. On the Promises 4. On Experiences 1. On God himself And there are two special things from which you may plead here 1. His gracious Nature Fetch your Arguments by which you plead with God for Mercy thence whence he originally fetched his Arguments to perswade himself to shew mercy from his own bowels from his gracious nature from his natural goodness and gracious inclination to mercy John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he grve his onely Son c. Eph. 1. 5. to vers 10. Having predestinated us to the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdome and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed of himself Here we have heaped up in a few words the Riches of Mercy which God hath bestowed on his People Christ his beloved Redemption through Christ and the forgiveness of our sins the adoption of Children acceptance in his fight the Revelation of the Mystery of his Will or the discovering or making known these glorious mercies to us But whence is all this who is it or what was it that perswaded the Lord to this aboundant kindness Why all this arose from himself He purposed it in himself He consulted no other Argument but what he found in his own heart it was from his love the-good pleasure of his Will his Grace the Riches of his Grace wherein he hath abounded towards us Hosea 11. 8 9. How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee up Israel I cannot do it I will not do it I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not destroy Ephraim But why wilt thou be angry Lord why wilt thou not destroy Ephraim Oh sayes the Lord Mine heart is turned within me my heart sayes Spare him my Bowels say Destroy him not I am God and not Man I love him and my love is the love of a God I have compassion on him and my compassion is the pity of a God I will bear with him I am a God of Patience Love is my nature Pity and Mercy and Compassion are my nature I cannot destroy Ephraim but I must deny mine own Nature Love and Pity and Mercy and Goodness are essential to God He can as soon cease to be God as to be Gracious and this is the Fountain of all our Mercy Hence Christ sprung hence the Gospel came and all the Unsearchable Riches of Mercy prepared for poor lost and undone creatures When you come to pray fetch your Arguments hence Plead with the Lord upon his own nature his Natural Love Grace and Goodness Thus we finde the Apostle Peter praying for the Christians to whom he wrote 1 Pet. 5. 10. The God of all Grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you Plead with the Lord in your Prayers as the Psalmist pleades with himself in his Affliction Psalm 77. 7 c. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever hath God forgotten to be Gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies Is his Mercy clean gone Hath God forgotton to be gracious That men should be merciless that men should forget themselves and their Friends in their low estate is no such wonder But hath God who is all Grace all Mercy all Pity hath God forgotten Doth Mercy cease to be merciful Grace cease to be gracious do Compassions cease to be pitiful Hath God not onely forgotten his servant but forgotten himself Remember thy self Lord thine own
reasoning and praying your heart to it take heed there be not an Act of Indulgence passed for this neglect take heed you do not say the Lord pardon me in this thing and so give off and let it alone 2. Neglect not any opportunity of dutie Whenever the Lord calls to duty let your heart answer whenever the Lord opens a door for any service take the season 1. Be watchful and observe every opportunity Sometimes the Lord puts thine enemy into thine hand gives thee some special advantage against such a lust or corruption Sometimes the Lord puts a price into thy hand an opportunity of getting in or laying up for thy Soul an opportunity of laying out for God or thy Soul observe diligently all such seasons Thou maiest do more or get more in such an hour than in many daies after 2. Keep thy heart in a disposednesse and constant towardlinesse to Dutie be alwaies prepared to everie good work see that however sometimes thou maiest want power to perform yet to will may be alwaies present When a price is put into thine hand seee thou want not a heart to it When thine Enemy is in thine hand let not thy heart spare it let not thine heart be out of the way whenever the season serves let not thy heart recur thus upon thee afterward O what a day have I lost how much seed might I have sown this day for Eternity what a treasure might I have laid up for Everlasting 3. Above all take heed you live not under a neglect of duty The most diligent and vigilant Christians have too many neglects but see that you are not guilty of any neglect in ordinarie that there be not any thing that you know to be your dutie which you commonly and of course passe over so that this day is even as yesterday and to morrow and next day and next week and so on is like to be as this day Whatever it be that you perform such a neglect as this will unavoidably hinder the thriving of your Souls in the Grace of God For 1. The guilt of such a neglect will wither and mar the beauty of what is done and the Lord will have such a standing controversie with you for what is not done that he will not accept or prosper what is done 2. There will be the want of the influence of those duties that are neglected We cannot want a duty but we may afterwards find the want of it in the state of our Souls Grace out of exercise grows to decay and if one of thy spiritual members suffer or wast the whole body suffers with it 3. The Devil will fill up the vacuities of our lives There is not a void Plat in thy Garden but the Devil will be sowing his seed If you do the Devil will not leave an empty day nor an empty hour of your lives If grace do not fill up each day with the duties of it he will fill it up with sin 'T is an hundred to one but a weed grows up in the room where a Flower is wanting Brethren if you would be thriving Christians be Universal Christians for any work your Master hath to do be ingenuous Christians willing to know your whole duty be watchful Christians that you may know your duty seasons and then be faithful allow not your selves in be not patient with your selves under any neglect 3 Take heed of the world If you be Christians Christ hath gotten the better of the world hath gotten the preheminence in you and brought the world under If it be so take heed it get not head again and that you may be both secured from the snares of the world and make your best advantages as Christians of it Take these following Directions 1. Never make an exchange of Christ or any thing of Christ for the world or any thing that is of the world never buy or purchase any thing of the world at so dear a rate as the losse of any thing of Christ Lose not any degree of grace for the gaining this worlds goods lose not a spiritual duty for the attending on a worldly business Enrich not your bodies upon the impoverishment of your Souls What possession or use of this world you may have without your spiritual prejudices enjoy it and be thankful but beware you do not so take up with the businesses and take in the advantages of this earth that your souls suffer losse that you should ever have occasion to say of any thing you have done or gotten This is the price of my peace this is the price of my comfort this is the price of a Sabbath or a Sacrament or a Prayer I have lost a Sabbath I have lost my communion with God in prayer I have abated the life and the vigour and exercise of my grace and this is all I have for it some addition to my outward state I have more of earth but so much the less of Heaven more Gold but the less Grace more of this Manimon but so much the less Manna more of the Cistern but so much the less of the Fountain Beloved it was never the intent of the Gospel to strip you of this worlds goods but to secure you only from the mischief of it be but so watchful and so fearful and so wise and wary in the managing your worldly businesses in the improving or securing your worldly estates that you be not hereby losers upon a spiritual account that you may have what you have as an addition but not so in commutation for Christ and he will never begrutch it you or blame you for it 2. Let not Christ and the world again change places or interests If Christ hath your hearts let him not again be thrown under your feet If the world begotten under foot let it not again get up into the throne let it be your servant if you will but let it never again be your God Let Christ be the chief in you let him have the highest esteem the dearest the strength of your affections the great command of you Let the Word of Christ be of more power with you and carry you farther than all the gains and glory of the World Let not this be your rule To follow Christ and Holiness so far as you may without any prejudice to your worldly interest but let this be it Follow the world so fur only as you may without being false or unfaithful to Christ Venture on in Holiness to the greatest hazard of your estate but venture not after this with the least hazard of your Religion Resolve to be Christians whether you be rich or poor but endeavour not to be rich but upon such terms that you may be never the lesse Christians Especially take heed that the Prosperity of the World steal not away your hearts Psal 62. 10. If riches increase set not your hearts upon them 'T is hard to prosper in the world and not to prostitute our hearts to it Temptation
own mouths do testifie against us When we love to speak in our own praise or if we have more wit than to be vainlie boasting of our selves yet we love to hear our selves commended by others When we are envious at those that out-shine us and so stand in the way of our reputation When we are so impatient of being contradicted that those that are not of our mind are not for our company Do not our habits our looks our company or behaviour our distances which we keep from those below us sadly discover what there is in our hearts Oh Brethren how is it that our hearts tremble no more to behold this monstrous devilish sin appearing in us How can we take pleasure How can we take comfort in the best of all our parts or duties or enjoyments which are so stain'd with this pride Which is even as great an Ornament to any true worth that is in us or in any thing we do as a blister or a carbuncle to a beautiful face How is it that we do not oftner question whether such a measure of pride as we find in our selves can stand with true grace How is it that we are no more asham'd to draw nigh unto God when our hearts tell us how false we have been to him in all our sevices What an Image of jealousie have we set up another God besides the Lord which must at least divide with him in all the fruits that are growing up out of any thing we have received from him Christian Labour to know thy self more thoroughly and amongst all the lusts of thy heart which might if understood bring thee low take particular notice of this thy self-exalting Spirit and if this do not abase thee and shame thee and lay thine honour in the dust thou art proud indeed 5. Be Temperate In the use of Creatures I mean beware of Excesse Eat and Drink for service nor barely for pleasure Let not your Lord be a loser by his bounty to you lose not a dutie in a Dinner A full Meal makes many a drowsie and short duty If you be given to Appetite take heed give not to your Appetite all it craves let not Appetite but Conscience be your measure Eat not your Souls into leanness let not your Table become your Snare and that which is given you for your Health become your Disease When you are at your meat remember your work and let that limit you be only so free in your food as may make you more fit for service He that hath such a race to run such a warfare before him must be temperate in all things or he may lose the goal and the battel not only Drunkards and Gluttons but even Christians that are accounted sober are more peccant this way than they are ordinarily sensible of Their spirits would be more free their services would be more lively their work would be more easie and their way more pleasant if they were but more temperate Christians let this Scripture meet you at your Tables as well as elsewhere Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever else you do do all to the Glory of God 6. Be moderate Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand Maintain such a tranquility and serenity of mind let all be quiet and in such a due and equal composure within you that it may appear in your carriage without Let there be no noises nor tumults but as much as possible let there be a constant silence and calm upon your Spirits Moderate your cares moderate your fears moderate your passions Say to your Spirits when they begin to swell as Christ to the Wind and Waters Peace be still Get the Command of all within you and keep them under constant discipline be careful for nothing fear nothing be impatient at nothing that whatsoever happens to you without you may be able to say with the Apostle None of these things move me Be not like those weakly bodies whose temper changes with the weather Be able to bear whatever changes happen from abroad without any perturbations or perplexing commotions at home In your patience possess ye your souls Christians if you can but keep your temper whatever happens you may keep your way and hold on your course whatever happens An heart our of quiet will put your whole Man out of course If you can but be quiet and patient you may be any thing you may do any thing that God will have you be or do Let your fears and your passions and your impatiencies loose and whither will they carry you When you should be denying your selves you will then be shifting for your selves when you should be following Christ you will then be running from Christ when you should be working out your salvation all your care will be taken up how to save your selves in a whole skin Let these be well laid and you will have nothing to do but to follow your work and to run your Race which God hath set before you V. Carry your selves well towards others A Christians work doth not lye all about himself Though your own Souls be concerned in all you have to do yet your care must not be confin'd to your selves alone you must have a due respect and a due câ—rriage towards others also Carry your selves well 1. Towards all men Let your Conversations be as in all things so towards all men as it becometh the Gospel I must contract and here give you only some short hints 1. Be True 2. Be Just 3. Be Merciful 4. Be Peaceable 5. Be Courteous 1. Be True Take heed of the way of lying Let sinners know that a lye is of their Father and not of yours Let the Word of a Christian be Sacred Make sinners say of Saints the same which God sayes of them They are children which will not lye let their experience force them to acknowledge This spot is not the spot of Gods Children Be true A Lye is 1. Contrary to God who is a God of Truth and cannot lie 2. Conform to the Devil the Father of Lies 3. Destructive to Society there can be no trust where there is no truth and no commerce with those that cannot be trusted Temptations to Lying are many and men are especially tempted to it in these Twâ— Cases 1. In case of any faults committed What can't be excus'd must be conceal'd and for want of a better covering they must hide it under a Lye 2. In their dealings in the world In their buying and selling and trading The trade of lying gets into every Trade as if there were no living but by lying The Seller must have his lyes there must be lye to set off the Wares It s special good the best of its kind when may be 't is stark nought A lye to set up the price It stood me in so much I cannot abate when it may be the next word is a lower price The buyer must have his
hath cost them so dear but shall prize it the more and be the more wary and tender how they pollute and turn aside from it God hath adventured deep on you make not him a Liar the devil his instruments will be ready to say concerning you as once he did to the Lord concerning his Servant Job Put them into our power let us have the handling of them a while and thou shalt quickly see what truth there is in them or what trust there is to them they 'l curse thee to thy face they 'l deny thee to thy face they 'l eat their own words they 'l be ashamed of their God their Godliness and Confidence Let God be true Christians and the Devil a Lyar be living Commentaries on this blessed Text Let the World and their black Prince see that they cannot make you miserable because they cannot make you sinners like themselves That you are still the more upright for falling into the hands of a crooked Generation Let them see that though your God will not suffer you yet you are contented to serve him for nothing That though his Hedge be removed from you yet your Heart is not removed from him Be able to say Though all this be come upon us Our heart is not turned back neither have we declined thy way Let our standing and encreasing in the Grace of God and abounding in the works of Righteousness be a standing VVitness for God in the VVorld and a Seal to his Scriptures and in special to the glorious Truth of this Text. 4. The evil things of the Saints prepare better things for them their Sufferings go into their Reward As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ Every suffering comes with a comfort in its Belly and the sweet is so great as swallows up the bitter 't is a hundred fold that the Saints gain by all their Losses in this Life but how great shall their Reward be in Heaven 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding Eternal Weight of Glory They shall not only have weight for weight measure for measure their Load of Glory for their Load of Sufferings but they shall have over-weight over-measure good measure pressed down heaped together and running over shall then be given unto them According to their deep poverty shall be the height of their riches according as their blackness hath been in their Houses of Bondage shall be their brightness in the Land of Promise for all thy shame thou shalt have double The double of thy Reproach in Renown the double of thy Tears in Triumphs all thy bottled Tears shall be returned in Flagons of Joy yea in Rivers of Eternal Pleasure By this time Christians you see what glory there is in this good word All things shall work together for good to them that love God And that none may have the face to say all this is but conceit I shall in the next place bring in clear and undeniable Evidence that it is certainly and unquestionably so as hath been said And therefore know 5. That all things do and shall certainly work for good to them that love God This besides the Testimony of this Scripture I shall make evident from these three Propositions 1. There is a Divine Providence that governs the VVorld 2. The Design of Providence is the accomplishment of the good purpose and promise of God 3. The Providence of God shall never fail of accomplishing its end 1. There is a Divine Providence which governs the VVorld the Epicureans who deny Providence and leave all on Chance and Fortune may as well deny that there is a God which yet they are asham'd to stand to Of Epicurus himself it was said Quem nihil pudendum pudet pudet tamen Deum negare It can be no way reconcilable to the infinite Wisdom of God who made this Glorious Fabrick with the various Creatures therein either not to determine them to their Ends or else to take no care for their accomplishing those Ends they are determined to The whole Current of Scripture is so plain in these matters that he that runs may read Let the following Scriptures amongst others be considered Psal 97. 1. The Lord reigneth let the Earth rejoyce let the isles be glad Psal 67. 15 16. The Eyes of all wait upon thee and thou givest them their Meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desires of every living thing Psal 36. 6. Thou preservest man and beast Psal 75. 6 7. Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Amos 3. 6. Shall there be Evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it Psal 17. 13 14. Deliver my Soul from the wicked which is thy Sword from Men which are thy Hand The confessions of those Infidels Nebuchadnezzar and Darius speak the same Dan. 4. 35. All the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his Will in the Army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his Hand or say unto him What dost thou Dan. 6. 26. I make a Decree that in every Dominion of my Kingdom Men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the Living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even unto the End He delivereth and rescueth and he worketh Signes and Wonders in Heaven and Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions But more distinctly the Lord governs all inanimate and sensitive Creatures in their actions he orders the Stars in their courses The Stars in their courses he made to fight against Sisera He governs the Winds and the Floods he bringeth forth the Winds out of his Treasures he rides upon the wings of the Wind. He maketh the Clouds his Chariots he sitteth on the Floods the Thunder and the Hail and the Rain and the Frosts are all at his Command He giveth Snow like Wool and scattereth the hoar frost like ashes He casteth forth the Ice like morsels he sets bounds to the Sea which it shall not pass the Birds of the Air the Beasts of the Field the Fishes of the Sea yea the stones and dust of the Earth are all at his beck More especially he rules and governs the men of this World He sits in all the Counsels of men though they see him not he orders all their Decrees there 's no Decree can pass unless God gives his Vote He rules in all the actions of men even those things that are acted through our improvidence come not to pass without the providence of God He rules in all the changes that are in the world he changes the times and the seasons he changes Kingdomes and Governments he removeth Kings and
things He that hath the son hath not only with him but in himâ— all things Are all things nothing with thee What wouldst thou have more than all Thâ— Heathens acknowledged That vertue is sufficient Iâ— was a Maxime among the ancient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is self-sufficient A vertuous Man hath no need to be beholding either tâ— Friends or Fortune He hath enough in himself The Apostle tells us That Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with its self-sufficiency is great gain 1 Tim. 6. 6. Solomon tells us Prov. 14. 14. A good man is satisfied from himself He hath that within him out of which his satisfaction grows A Christian hath the whole Gospel within him He hath Christ the Promise the everlasting God Heaven Glory within him As rich as he is he may truly say Omnia mea mecum porto He carries his All in his heart and can thence get out a living a Sufficiency for all Times Cases and Wants Cast him naked out of his Habitation out of his Countrey yet he carries all with him he leaves not an Hoof behind him Christians leave it to the poor of the Earth to carnal men the Riches of them is poor enough leave it them to be discontent A carnal Man hath so many to be beholding to to parch up his contentment that 't is no wonder he falls short of it the Sun the Clouds his Fields his Folds his Friends his Enemies his Honours his Pleasures his Meat his Drink his House his Mony yea the Devil all his lusts every Creature must come in with their part to contribute to his contentment if but one thing fails him there 's somthing wanting to make it up Nay if none fail but they all do their best to please him yet all will not do in the fulness of his sufficiency he is in straits When he hath all he can have his still hungring Heart cries out of what it hath Vanity of Vaâ—â—ties all is Vanity Leave it to these Christians who â—ave nothing but emptiness to fill their Souls withâ—â— leave it to them to be discontented Will you â—ay the same imputation upon the God of Glory The Discontent of a Christian is a kind of Blasphemy it proclaims concerning God also and all the Glory of the Gospel This also is Vanity Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity Christians study your Riches more count over your Treasures dwell more in your God and his Gospel Read over your Priviledges Promises and Hopes feed more on that Bread of Life drink more freely of those Living Springs which are broken forth to you Prove more what Godliness hath in it Get out the sweetness and the Pleasure of it none in the World live such a voluptuous Life as he that lives mâ—â—t with God get out the pleasure of Godliness lie more at the Breasts suck harder press the Clusters and the Wine and Milk will come make the most of Religion and you will have enough never blame it for empty or unsatisfactory while there is more to be had Gad not into other Pastures run not from Flower to Flower keep you Home Let not your God find you in another Field If you keep with God the less you have of Creature-vanities the more full will your Contentment be Christian Honour thy God and his Gospel let his Breasts satisfie thee and err thou alwayes in his Love Let the World read the Gospel-sufficiency in thy Souls pleasure and satisfaction with it alone 5. Let your Conversations answer the supports of the Gospel and its succours Live a patient life Jam. 5. 7. Be patient brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Patience is a Grace suited to our present Gospel state I will call it a Friend that 's born for the day of adversity If you are Christians you have need of Pâ—tience and if you have Patience you need no more Jam. 1. 4. Let Patience have her perfect work that you may be entire lacking nothing Patience is a submitting sedate and calm frame of spirit whereby a Christian from Gospel grounds it born up under all his Troubles and born through all his Duties Betwixt Patience and Contentedness there is this difference Contentedness is the quiet of the heart and its satisfaction with its smallest portion of good things Patience is the quiet of the heart under the greatest pressure of evil things A patient spirit is a submitting spirit It s heartily content that God should have his Will With whatsoever God is pleased it will not be displeased It 's the Lord lâ—â— him do whatsoever seems good in his Eyes What seems good in God's eyes shall not seem evil in mine It is a Calm and quiet spirit It will not strive noâ— cry nor lift up its voice in the streets it can mourn but it does not murmur it can feel but it will not fret at the hand of God A patient person is ever compos mentis has the command and government of his spirit keeps it sober and in due order doth not rave and rage Impatience is a kind of frenzy such persons are besides themselves In our patience we possess and by our impatience we lose our Souls we lose the rule and government of them the peace and the use of them An impatient man is besides himself both as a Man and as a Christian 1. He is besides himself as a Man Impatience turns Reason out of doors and for the Affections they are all in an uproar and will know no command or government 2. He is besides himself as a Christian turned quite out of course Duties Comforts Experiences Hopes all are laid aside Keep you quiet keep the peace in your heart and you keep your heart In this calmness and quietness it bears up under troubles Patience hath Fortitude in it it neither frets nor faints under all its burthens Christians must bear and patient Christians can bear any thing that comes on them The proper exercise of patience is enduring he endures not that suffers only but that can bear what he suffers It bears through its Duties The passion of a patient person doth not hinder his action He holds his course keeps on his way whatever load he hath on his back He runs with patience the race which is set before him he is not discouraged nor diverted from his holy course by any suffering it costs him And indeed Christian Patience stands not in a bare forced quiet in a biting in or keeping down our fretting aestuations from venting themselves in word or carriage or in a sullen silence or stupidity but in the maintaining such a tranquility of spirit under all we suffer as that we can still both enjoy and serve the Lord. He is a patient Christian that is as much a Christian in a storm as in a clam that can pray believe love bless God follow God and keep his way when he smites as when he smiles Lastly in all this a Christian is upheld and carried on from
Gospel Grounds 'T is not a natural hardiness or apathy 't is not the Spirit of a man that does sustain his infirmities 't is upon the everlasting Gospel that he stands There are three Things especially that bear him through His viewing The Hand of the Lord. The End of the Lord. The Help of the Lord. 1. He sees the hand of the Lord in all that befalls him Whence was Davids patience Psal 39. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth Because thou Lord didst it Whence was Eli's patience 1 Sam. 3. It is the Lord let him do what seems him good Whence was Job's patience Job 1. 21. The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. By the way note That a godly man is not only patient under his afflictions but thankful He is not only thankful for Mercies but for Chastisements 'T is not only the Lord hath given blessed be his Name the Lord hath built me up the Lord hath filled me the Lord hath hedged me blessed be his Name but also The Lord hath taken away the Lord hath humbled me broken me undone me left me naked left me nothing blessed be the Name of the Lord. This by the way 2. He sees the end of the Lord that God intends his good by all that comes upon him He knowes that all things and therefore this which is upon him whatever it be shall work to him for good 3. He feels the help of the Lord. When the hand of the Lord is upon him he feels also the hand of the Lord under him underneath the everlasting Arms Deut. 32. 27. The Gospel as it hath allotted him many Tribulation◠so it hath allowed him mighty supports A mighty God who is the Rock of Ages Isa 26. a merciful High-Priest who being tempted himself is able also to succour those that are tempted Heb. 2. 18. Precious Promises 2 Pet. 1. Gracious experiences Rom. 5. 4. Patience worketh experience This last support experience hath all the rest in it Experience is the whole Gospel proved A patient experienced Christian hath proved all things what they are hath proved the World and what it is and the worst it can do hath proved the Word and what there is in it hath proved what God is what Christ is what grace and peace and a good Conscience are Tribulation often takes away God and his Gospel and we never so well prove what God is as when we have him alone what grace is what a good Conscience is as when we have nothing else left us Our Religion never shews so much what is in it as when it 's most put to it When the Adversary hath gotten the greatest advantage of us of the Sun of the Wind of the Ground when he presseth with most violence with most fury upon us then we best know what the weapons of our Warfare are The comforts and supports of Religion are not known either of what strength or of what sweetness they are till they are thus proved Hezekiah had never such a tast of his integrity as when he received the Message of death Stephen had never such a sight of Heaven as through a storm of stones Christ is never so sweet as in a prison When God meets his Saints in a Wilderness then he speaks comfortably to them A patient Christian hath more or less experience of all this and hence is he supported keeps quiet under all his sufferings and carried with courage on in his way Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. You have need of patience and no excuse for your impatience The sufferings of the Gospel call for patience and the supports of the Gospel will condemn your impatience If you will be godly count upon it that you have a great fight of afflictions to endure Venture not into the fight without your Armour An impatient creature is a naked Soldier How easily will Sathan destroy whom he hath once disarmed The more you can the less you shall suffer Secure your spirit and you save your self from harm There 's no Dart shall hurt you that does not hit your heart Keep your heart whole and the Devil loses all his shot Be patient and you possess your Souls keep your Souls and the enemy loses the day Christians 'T is of great consequence to you to be of a patient spirit and 't is a great Duty there 's much more in it than every eye observes When I perswade you to Patience know That 't is no small thing that I am perswading you to 'T is no less than 1. To the whole of Christianity 2. To the height of Christianity 1. To the whole of Christianity To be truly Patient hath as much in it as to be a Christian To be holy humble meek mortified self-denying crucified to the world heavenly minded all this you must be or you cannot be patient Patient and proud patient and peevish patient and unmortified earthly minded a self-seeker This is as great a contradiction as to be proud and humble fleshly and spiritual earthly and heavenly a Christian and no Christian If ever you will be possessors of this grace you must be partakers of all grace Get a believing broken self-denying heart get your spirits furnished with the love of Christ the hope of the Gospel the contempt of the World live above in the other World Let Christ Glory Honour Immortality be the portion of your Souls and the pleasure of your lives if ever you would be truly patient 2. To Christianity in the height of it In pressing you to patience I am herein pressing you to get Assurance Without assurance though patience be possible yet you 'l find it both difficult and very imperfect What Patience when I question whether my sins be forgiven whether God be reconciled and be not dealing with me as an enemy What Patience when I doubt whether my afflictions be not the pension of a bastard rather than the portion of a Son when I am not sure but my present sufferings are sent to carry me down to eternal sufferings I am in misery and perpetual torments never a day without 〈…〉 it may be never shall this or worse may last for ever 〈◊〉 if I were sure it would be well at last I could be quiet but for ought I know the Furnace I am in may be the very mouth of Hell The diseases the wounds I am under may be sent to let out my Soul into everlasting burnings how can I be patient under such doubts and fears Make God sure Christian make Heaven sure once and then thou may'st set thine Heart at rest then thou may'st almost as easily exercise as thine Enemies find thee Exercise of thy patience Christians if you will be patient you must be painful give diligence be diligent in making your Calling and Election sure be diligent in duty be vigilant against iniquity If you will be patient be impatient of sin and you will be
too precise too tender too watchful too fearful of sin too zealous against sin be all they have to charge you with Keep thee from thine own iniquities say not so much as this I am my Beloveds and my Beloved must be mine Kick out thy Dalilahs Thou must part with thy darling or thy God Let there be no secret league let there be no peace betwixt thy Soul and any iniquity to which thou mayst either steal out to delight thee or turn in to hide thee let no iniquity be thy leisure or protection if when thou aâ— pursued by a persecuter any sin as Jael to Sisera should call to thee turn in hither thou mayst escape remember the nail and the hammer let no iniquity find a corner in thee to lodge in quiet that thou may'st not think to find a corner with it where thou mayst lodg in safety say to all thy sinful delights and sinful hopes get you gone I will neither love you nor trust you however thy sin may please thee whatever it may promise thee be sure thou wilt find it a sting in thy Soul and a stain upon thy Glory Keep your selves from the sins of others beware of the Leaven of the proud Pharisee of the formal and vain-glorious Scribe of the extorting Publican of the debauched Prodigal the ambitious Diotrephes the virulent Tertullus the backsliding Demas beware of all Epidemical Leaven the sickness of the times you may live in Take heed lest you be drawn away with the errours of the wicked and so swimming down the stream you fall from your own stedfastness Let sinners come up to you go not you down to them Let them never say of any of you The man is become as one of us our spot is become the spot of his children Let your lives be a rebuke to the ungodly World whilst you live as the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of the World 2. In its Power Let the power of Grace be seen in its preserving it self in its being and vigorous Exercise against all the Powers of Hell The strength of a man is seen in this that he can bear wind and weather can live any where without imparing his health The strength and mettal of a Sword is 〈◊〉 in this that Iron will not turn its edg True Grace is such a Plant that all the weeds of the Field and Thorns of the Forrest are not able to choke That will endure not only the Summers Heat but the Winters Frosts Christians prove your Grace to be a right plant the right Seed the Seed of God let it bear up against all the world Let not the winds of persecution put out your Light nor the waters cast out of the Serpents mouth quench your love nor so much as cool your zeal especially take heed that the Dragons Tail do not draw you down among the Falling Stars You know what a World you live in You know the old Quarrel betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent both what it is and that it hath been kept on foot through all ages to this day You know the White at which Sathan and all his Archers have been so long Levelling and so hotly discharging the White stone in your Breasts the White Robe on your backs A good conscience and a holy Life are the mark upon which all the Fury of Earth and Hell is spent Oh now prove your Grace to be Grace by its preserving it self against all this violence Let the Devil see you will be Holy whether he will or no Let the evil world see you will be godly do what they can though they may make you poor and destitute and naked yet leâ— them despair of ever making you ungodly let grace hereby appear to be Grace and the mighty power of God in you which that it may do 2. Let Grace ripen towards Glory let not the scorching Sun wither your Blossoms but ripen your Fruit. If you would hold out get you on If you would not have your something to come to just nothing increase your Store Let your spark grow up into a Flame your Grain of Mustard-seed into a Tree I tell you a Mystery The tallest Cedars on God's mountain will best escape the wind whilst the lower Shrubs are in greater danger of being overturned if you will stand sure get you up on the higher ground Christians befool the Devil let him see himself a Loser by all his stirs he makes against you It is not the first time that his cross Winds have prov'd the most auspicious Gales to put the Saints the sooner into Harbour What he hath intended for a withering Storm hath often prov'd a fruitful Dew those very Clouds he expected should rain down Snares have often dropt down fatness If you will go on Hell shall help you forward the Devil's Rods on your back shall but help to mend your pace his thorns shall be Spurs in your sides By stripping you of your fleshly Delights he shall but starve your Lusts his Friends his Burthens shall be your Ballast to make your course more steady Christians are seldom in such a thâ—iving and prosperous state as when they are just come out of the hands of a persecuting Devil Christians grow in Grace there 's no season but may be a growing Season Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Let that living spring which is broken forth in you be like the waters of the Sanctuary Ezek. 4. 7. Which at their first rising were but up to the Ankles but a little further were up to the Knees a little further they were up to the Loins and at length they grew up to a great river waters to swim in the bottom whereof could not be felt It may be the waters of Grace do yet run low with thee a little Bay will stop or turn the stream thou art yet gotten but to ankle deep or knee deep get thee on stay nor till thy Spring become a River let every day every Duty every experience yea every affliction add to thy streams that as the accession of every little brook to the main Channel raises the water as it passes along so it may be with thy Soul that the farther thou goest on the fuller thy Banks may be till thou comest to be like Jordan in the Harvest whose waters fill all its banks To quicken thee on in this growth in Grace consider 1. That a little Grace will make but poor work with thy mighty sins where Grace is low Lust is high and how is an Infant like to stand before a Man of War 2. That a little Grace will not suffice to bear thee up in great Afflictions that which thou maiest make a shift with in a Calm will not serve thee in a Storm 3. That a little Grace will be sadly put to it if ever thou come to have but little means of Grace 4. That he that hath but little Grace is like
within me says Amen Brethren will you yet again say your Lord nay shall Christ have his wish shall your Servant for Jesus sake shall I have my wish will you now at last conâ—ent to be â—anctified and to be saved let me have this wish and I dare promise from the Lord you shall have yours even whatever your Soul can desire Brethren this once hear this once be prevailed upon be content that your lusts be rooted out and your Lord planted into your Souls Be content to be pardoned content to be converted content to be saved This once hear lest if ye now refuse ye no more be perswaded with oh that they would but be for ever confounded with oh that they had Lest all our wishes and wooings of you be turned into weepings and mournings over you this once hear Oh that you would I heartily thank you for your good wishes and good will towards me for your willing and chearful entertainment of my person and attendance on my Ministry and particularly for your passionate desire of my longer stay among you Which desire if God had not my Soul could not have denied you Though the Almighty to whose pleasure it 's meet that we all submit hath said nay to that wish of yours yet let your Souls say Amen to this last of mine that the Lord God would dwell among you and in you both now and for ever And having thus finished my Labours among you I shall now close up with this double account 1. Of my discharge of my Ministry in this place 2. Of my deprival And shall so commit you to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to huild you up and to give you an Inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified 1. Of my discharge of my Ministry What my Doctrine and manner of life hath been is known to you and what my aim and intent hath been is known to God The searcher of hearts knows that 't is the salvation of Souls that hath been the mark at which I have levelled My way hath been to use all plainness that I might be made manifest in your Consciences Weaknesses and infirmities both natural and sinful the Lord pardon it I have had many I am sensible that much more might have been done both in publick and in private had it not been for a weakly body and a sloathful heart I repent that I have had no more zeal for God no more compassion to Souls I repent that I have been no more constant and importunate with you about the matters of Eternity Oh Eternity Eternity that thou wert no more in the heart and Lips of the Preacher in the hearts and ears of the hearers But while I thus judge my self for my failings Blessed be God for any sincerity to his name and good will to your Souls that he hath seen in me Blessed be God I have a witness in my Conscience and I hope in yours also that I have not shunned to declare to you the whole Counsel of God Brethren I call Heaven and Earth to witness this day that I have set before you life and death good and evil and have not ceased from day to day to warn you to choose life and that good way that leads to it and to escape for your lives from the way of sin and death Oh remember the many instructions I have given you the many Arguments whereby I have striven with you the many Prayers that have been offered up for the guiding and gaining your Souls into the path of life and the turning your feet out of the way of destruction Oh might I be able to give this Testimony concerning you all at my departure they have trodden in the right path they have chosen the good part that shall not be taken from them Beloved Brethren with whom I have travelled in birth that Christ might be formed in you I must shortly give up my account in a more solemn Assembly will you help me to give it up with joy by shewing your Souls before the Lord as the Seal of my Ministry Every sincere Convert among you will be a Crown of rejoycing to me in that day So let me rejoyce and let my joy be the joy of you all What shall I say more If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love any bowels and mercies if the Glory of the Eternal God the Honour of the everlasting Gospel the safety of your immortal Souls the incorruptible Crown the exceeding eternal weight of glory weigh any thing with you then once more let me beseech you by all this to hearken to that word of the Gospel which God hath spoken to you by me 2. Of my deprival The most glorious morning hath its evening the hour is come wherein the Sun is setting upon not a few of the Prophets the shadows of the evening are stretched forth upon us our day draws our work seems to be at an end Our Pulpits and our places must know us no more This is the Lords doing let all the earth keep silence before him It is not a light thing for me Brethren to be laid aside from the work and cast out of the Vineyard of the Lord and it must be something of weight that must support under such a severe doom I know there are not a few that will add to the affliction of the afflicted by telling the world t is their own fault they might prevent it if they would whether this be so or no God knoweth and let the Lord be Judge Blessed be God whatever be this is not laid to our charge as the reason of our seclusion either insufficiency or scandal You are not ignorant what things there are imposed on us as the condition of our continuing our Ministration which how lawful and expedient soever they seem in the Judgment of many yet have the most specious Arguments that plead for them left me utterly dissatisfied in my Conscience about them I must profess before God Angels and Men that my non-submission is not from any disloyaltie to Authoritie nor from pride humour or any factious disposition or design but because I dare not contradict my light nor do any thing concerning which my heart tels me the Lord says do it not After all my most impartial Enquiries after all my seeking counsel from the Lord after all my considering and consulting with men of all perswasions about these Matters I find my self so far short of satisfaction that I am plainly put to this choice to part with my Ministry or my Conscience I dare not lie before God and the World nor come and tell you I approve I allow I heartily consent to what I neither do nor can but must choose rather that my Ministry be sealed up by my Sufferings than lengthned out by a Lie Through the Grace of God though men do yet my heart shall not reproach me while I live If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things But however though I must now no longer act as a Minister I shall through the Grace of God endeavour peaceably and patiently to suffer as a Christian I should to testifie my Obedience to Authority have become all Things to all Men to the uttermost that I could with any clearness of heart But since Matters stand so that I must lose my place or my peace I chearfully suffer my self to be thrust off the Stage And now welcome the Cross of Christ welcome Reproach welcome Poverty Scorn and contempt or whatever else may befall me on this account This Morning I had a Flock and you had a Pastor but now behold a Pastor without a Flock a Flock without a Shepherd This Morning I had an House but now I have none This Morning I had a living but now I have none The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Beloved I am sensible of my Weaknesses and Disadvantages I am under which may render a suffering state the harder to be born help me by your Prayers and not me only but all my Brethren also with whom my Lot must fall Pray for us for we trust that we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly Pray 1. That God would make our Silence speak and preach the same holy Doctrine that we have preached with our Lips 2. That he would give Supports answerable to our Sufferings that he who comforteth those that are cast down will also comfort his Servants that are cast out 3. That according to our earnest expectation and our hope as always so now also Christ may be magnified in us whether it be by Life or Death And thus Brethren I bid you farewel in the words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 11. Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Peace and Love shall be with you And that God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever AMEN FINIS The Terms of our Communion are either from which or to which The Terms from which we must turn are sin Satan the World and our own Righteousness which must be thus renounced The Terms to which we must turn are either ultimate or mediate The ultimate is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who must be thus accepted The mediate terms are ei-Principal or less principal The principal is Christ the Mediator who must thus be embraced The less principles are the Laws of Christ which must be thus observed