help me out of this miserable state help by your Prayers help by your Counsels Pray for a poor lost Soul Preach to a poor miserable Creature tell me what I must do help me to know the Lord shew me the path of Life Thus far that wicked one Simon Magus was stirred when Peter had set his sin and his misery home upon him Act. 8.24 Pray for me says he pray to the Lord for me that none of these things come upon me What am I in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity For the Lord's sake help me out Pray to the Lord for me that I abide not in this Condition O how few such stirring Consciences how few such awakened Sinners can we find among you When do we hear one of all the Sinners here comeing to us with such a question Sirs what shall I do what must I do to be saved When do we hear any such Request to us Pray for me O pray me out of the hands of my Drunken Companions Pray me out of my Covetousness pray that the Lord would deliver me from this hard heart from this blind mind from this froward spirit pray that the Lord would convince and convert my soul Sinners I doubt that how well soever you sometimes speak of the Preaching you hear yet I doubt it doth not reach your hearts For mine own part I do not remember the time when any one Sinner among you did ever seriously put the question to me What must I do to be saved This is the second thing wherein Sinners stirring up themselves towards Religion stands in their crying out for help 3. In taking the Alarme from the Watch-men God hath sent forth his Ministers to Alarm this sinful world Joel 2.1 Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Isa 48.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy Voyce like a Trumpet tell my People their Transgressions and the House of Israel their sins What is the use of an Alarm Why to awaken and to declare to People that there is VVar making upon them that there is an Enemy near that they are in danger of perishing if they suddenly look not to themselves Thus will I do to thee that is I Will do terrible things to thee Therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel That was Amos his Alarm to Israel Amos 4. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed that was Jonahs Alarm to Nineveh Jon. 3.4 The Axe is laid to the root of the Tree God is making short work with Sinners Every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the Fire that 's John-Baptist's Alarm Mat. 3.10 The times of this Ignorance God winked at but now he commandeth all Men every where to Repent for he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousness that 's Paul's Alarm Act. 17.30 31. The like Alarms are the Ministers of Christ sounding in Sinners ears every day Repent or ye shall Perish Believe or ye shall be Damned be Converted or ye shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The most of Sinners for all this stir not but sleep on Hath not the Alarm been sounded amongst you And yet how few Sinners of you are there whose souls are not fast asleep to this day We have cryed unto you as Dalilah to Sampson Arise Sampson the Philistins are upon thee Arise Sinner the Devil is upon thee Sin lyes at the door the Judge stands at the door Death is ready to dart thee thorow Hell opens her mouth for thee and behold nothing will do to awaken you We give the Alarm but you will not take the Alarm This is the stirring of the soul which I am Preaching of when Sinners are Alarmed and take the Alarms when the VVord Preached sets Conscience a Preaching and thundering upon Sinners when Conscience calls to them turn to the Lord break off thy sins by Repentance thou art a dead Man if thou go on there 's but a step betwixt thee and everlasting death thou wilt be in thou wilt be swallowed up of the eternal Furnace if thou suddenly Repent not When Mens hearts thus take the Alarm and their Consciences being startled do fall to work with them and provoke them to look after God and his Grace This is another thing wherein this stirring stands 4. In forcing themselves back from their sins and onwards to Christ Though in a proper sense there can be no coaction of the will yet such violence may be used towards our selves as in our common speech we call forcing of our selves So Saul 1 Sam. 13.12 I forced my self and offered a Burnt-offering Sinners should lay violent hands as it were upon their hearts pulling them back from sin putting them on to Christ Sinners must do by their hearts as the Angels did by Lot Gen. 19.16 When they were hastening him out of Sodom they laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his Wife and Children as they lingred and plaid loath to depart and even pulled them out from that burning that was coming Do your hearts hang back from Christ do they still hang after your sinful ways Lay hold on them pull them along Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by force That notes that People are in good earnest for Heaven and cry mightily to God wrestle with the most High for admission This speaks a kind of using Violence with God but the first Violence Men are to use is upon themselves They must first lay violent hands on their own hearts to bring them about towards God and this must be done by pressing the things which they hear on upon their hearts rouzing up their fear and setting that as a Dogg upon their heels to hunt them away from their sins and drive them on to Christ This fear will be to Sinners as the Avenger of blood to the Man-slayer 't will hunt them on their way and hasten them to Christ O my Soul art thou not afraid to continue as thou art to continue a Drunkard to continue a Worldling or a Lyar or a Sleeper in thy course of Sin Art thou not afraid of the Devil art thou not afraid of Death doth not Hell make thee tremble Art thou afraid what may come upon thee and yet wilt thou not stir Is the Avenger of Blood at thine heels and yet wilt thou not run for 't Thus should Sinners fright themselves to Christ If goodness and kindness and mercy will not allure you let your misery and the danger you are in scare you put your finger into the fire dwell in the considering that VVrath and fiery Indignation which you are falling into a sudden transient thought now and then will do little you must think and think over again and again of these terrible things And to make such thoughts to work put the case to your selves What if these dreadful things should come upon me
he reveals his good will and good liking of them and lets them know that they are accepted with him when he is their Friend and lets them have the countenance of their Friend towards them when he is their Father and causes them to feel the Bowels of their Father the Compassions and Kindnesses of their Father and hereby makes them to joy in his Love and to rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God This is Blessedness indeed these are Blessed Ones whose God is thus their Lord. Blessed are the people who are in such a case blessed are the people whose God is the 〈◊〉 Ps 144.15 Christians you need not complain whatever you want if you have no bread in your houses no money in your purses no health in your Bodies no rest in your bones yet have you the Lord God in your hearts it is enough you are blessed Souls Sinners ye need not boast your selves and lift up your heads so high you have money in your purses you have friends in your houses you have health in your bodies you have marrow in your bones you can hardly tell what you lack that would please you and yet miserable souls are you all God is not in you and that to him that knows what it is is misery enough to blast all your comforts and your joys The Devil is where God is not Sin bears rule where God doth not and this is the upshot of your boasting and blessing and comforting of your selves this is all you can say matters of this World go well with me I can live a plentiful and pleasant and merry life the Sun shines on my Tabernacle I have the Wind on my side I am on the warm side of the Hedge I prosper I flourish in the Earth all things go well with me I have but this one thing to trouble me my Soul is in the hands of the Devil there 's nothing of God in me and where God is not there the Devil bears rule This if ye knew it is misery enough for you that whatever you have God is none of yours and this is happiness enough for the Saints that God is in them of a truth 2. Our happiness is that the Lord is among us that we have the visible tokens of his presence that the Ark of his presence is among us that we have his Statutes and his Ordinances and his Worship among us that the Doors of his House are open and the Glory of the Lord filleth his House that the Ordinances are among us and are not as a miscarrying Womb or dry Breasts but are fruitful to the propagating an Holy Seed bringing forth abundance of Children to the Lord and nursing up those that are to be fat and flourishing This was that Glory of the Lord which the Psalmist so thirsts and longs to see Ps 63.2 That I might see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary This was that happiness of the Church which was prophesied Is 60.2 c. The Lord shall arise upon thee and his Glory shall be seen in thee v. 4. Thy Sons shall come from far and thy Daughters shall be nursed up at thy side then shalt thou see and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged v. 8. Who are those that flee as a Cloud and as the Doves of the Windows v. 14 15. They shall call thee the City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy One of Israel and I will make thee an everlasting Excellency a Joy of many Generations v. 21. Thy People shall be all righteous the Branch of my Planting the Work of my Hands that I may be glorified This you will acknowledge must needs be an happy time and all this is the fruit of the presence of the Lord among his People When the Glory of the Lord fills his House and the off-springs of the Lord are numerous and prosperous when the Golden Candlesticks are set up and the Son of man walks in the midst of his Candlesticks when there are not only here and there a flourishing Believer but when there are flourishing Churches flourishing companies of Believers when there are not only a throng of People crowding the Doors of the Lords House but a throng of Saints worshipping at his Feet and walking in the Name of the Lord Happy would such days be blessed are the People that are in such a case by the presence of the Lord among them Yea and every degree towards such a State is so far forth a degree of peoples happiness when the Lord gives his Prophets and Teachers and Ordinances and any freedom to attend upon them and any little success to the propagating of holiness and the sincere Professors of it This is a Token and a Fruit of the presence of God with them 'T is a mercy for people to enjoy their civil advantages fruitful times and seasons for the good things of the Earth plenty of Bread free and flourishing Trades freedom from Oppression c. These are Mercies but these may be where the Lord is not as to his gracious Presence 't is freedom and encouragement for Religion the plentiful raining down of Manna the bread that comes from Heaven and our thriving by our Bread 't is this that evidences that the Lord is among us 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing this Presence of the Lord with us and preventing his departure where I shall shew 3 things 1. God may depart from a people with whom he hath been present 2. 'T is wo with that people from whom God departeth 3. This is to take hold of God to prevent his departure 1. God may depart from his People with whom he hath been present And that 1. From particular persons from whom he may then be said to depart 1. When he hides his Face from them 2. When he suspends the influences of his Grace 3. When he loosens the reins of Government 4. When he denies them the benefit of his protection 5. When he turns away his Heart from them and rejects them 1. When he hides his Face from them and withdraws the light of his Countenance Thus he withdrew from that precious Servant of his David Ps 30.7 Thou didst hide thy Face and I was troubled whom we find praying Ps 4.6 Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance upon me and Ps 51.12 Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Gods Holy Ones may forget God may grow secure and careless and wanton Children and the Lord will not countenance the best of them in their sins If they forget God he finds a way to remember them of him by conveying himself out of their sight the clouds upon his Face the darkness upon their own Spirits make them remember the light which once they had and to look the better to it when the light returns 2. When he suspends the Influence of his Grace witholds his Spirit from them This
done Now this is your way to level your accounts concerning your sins to repent and amend all your evils and to sue out your pardon through Faith in the bloud of Christ And now you see what 't is to lay hold on God to continue his presence with us by casting away our Idols by laying hold on his Covenant by recovering into Communion getting into an holy acquaintance with God living so that you will both accept of God and be accepted with him maintaining a frequent entercourse betwixt the Lord and your souls letting him hear often from you and listening and longing to hear as often from him by keeping even reckonings betwixt the Lord and you keeping a reckoning of your mercies and a reckoning of your sins by levelling your accounts by walking worthy of your mercies by getting the scores of your sins crossed washed away by repentance and pardoned by the bloud of Christ Here 's that you have to do if you would take hold of God and continue his presence with you Friends is the Lord within you I hope he is in many of you would you that he abide and continue with you I know you would you that are Christians I know you would all say Wo to me if the Lord depart from me I know it is the desire of every sincere heart among you let the Lord dwell in me and walk in me as he hath said he will let Christ dwell in mine heart by faith Lord leave me not take not thy Holy Spirit from me if all the Friends I have in the world forsake me if all the comforts I have under Heaven fail me if mine house must go and mine estate go and my health go and my life go yet let not the Lord depart from me let the Lord still dwell in my soul dwell in me as my Teacher and Instructor dwell in me as my governour and my guide dwell in me as my portion and treasure dwell in me as my Refuge and Protector let but the Lord God continue with me and influence me by his Grace and quicken me by his Spirit and guide me by his Counsels and hold me by his Right Hand and lift up the light of his Countenance upon me and so long mine heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope in this hope that he will shew me the Path of Life I shall behold his Face in Righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with his Likeness Why is this your mind is this your desire that it may be thus with you why now you know what you have to do that it may be so Beloved you have much the more reason to hearken to these instructions and hereby to secure the continuance of the Lord in your own hearts in such a time as this wherein there are so many tokens of his being about to depart out of our Congregations to shut up the Doors of his House against us O how will it be if when the days shall come wherein we shall lose our opportunities of meeting the Lord in the Congregation how very sad will it be if we should in such a time not find him within us if the Word of the Lord should be thrust out from his House and the Spirit of the Lord should be withdrawn from our Hearts if with our publick communion we should lose our secret communion if instead of finding comfort in our retirements to God he should hide his Face from our Souls if instead of speaking comfortably he should speak roughly to us if this should be his Word to us in such a day Now see what thou hast done now remember thy wantonness and thy worldliness thy hypocrisie and thy backslidings and triflings out thy day of grace of these things thou hast been warned aforehand but wouldst not lay them to heart and now reap the fruit of thy folly think not to have countenance from me and comfort from me in the day of distress whom thou hast so mocked and slighted in thy prosperity If men be angry let them be angry if men will persecute let them persecute and look for no relief from me O what if the Lord should speak thus to any of your Souls in the days of darkness that may come how dreadful dark will it then be or what if he should say nothing but leave thee a blind and hardned and senseless Soul wasting away and growing worse and worse and not at all affected with his severe providences How if it should be thus O Friends that this may not be your case that God should depart from his House and your Souls together know that you are so much the more concerned to give special heed to the Instructions you have received for the laying such hold upon him that he may continue with your hearts if he should not be intreated but depart from his House and Congregations 4. Stirring Religion will take hold of God What might have been said to this is in great part prevented by what hath been said already yet something I shall add and shew 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 2. That stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 1. Negatively not headiness in Religion an hot and mistaken Zeal about the lower and more uncertain things of Religion not such a Spirit of Fire which was in those Disciples Luke 9.54 who would needs call for Fire from Heaven to destroy and consume those that were not Followers of them not a stirring up of strife and contention a making breaches and divisions and propagating of our own Opinions by censuring and judging those that are otherwise minded and are not in every thing according to our own Size Such as these are some of those perilous persons which the Apostle warns Christians not to imitate but to take heed of of whom he says 2 Tim. 3.2 they are Proud Boasters False Accusers or make-bates fierce despisers of them that are good heady highminded and after all their blustering against others have but a form of Godliness denying the power thereof from such says he turn away take heed of them and take heed of being leavened with such a Spirit This then this headiness and fierceness and hot censoriousness upon the account of Religion this is not the stirring Religion I mean 2. Positively An humble active lively zealous prosecuting or pursuing that which is Religion indeed or the substance of sincere Christianity Some vain ones there are who upon the hearing this headiness and fierceness this hot and mistaken zeal blamed and decryed will turn the edge of such Reproofs against Godly Zeal and all fervour and activity for God and every one that goes beyond the drowsie sleepy multitude of Professors is cried out against as one of these heady highminded ones Such is the craft of the Devil that if he cannot blow up coals of wildfire that under the pretence of kindling
empty still and naked still all that you have receiv'd from God doth not keep you warm what-ever Treasures have been poured out upon you your hearts have been as bags with holes the Treasure of the Lord runs out as fast as 't is poured in you are leaking Vessels nothing will stay with you Therefore consider your selves consider whether it hath not been thus with you O how have the Instructions of God His Counsels and his Comforts slid away how quickly are they let slip VVhat becomes of all your Sermons and Sabbaths and Sacraments you have had VVe have brought you many a rich Treasure we have been pouring into those hearts of yours such living Food such rich VVine and Oyle that might have made you fat and flourishing but what 's become of it all O it still finds an hole in your hearts at which it runs out as fast as 't is poured in Consider Friends if it be not so with many of you when you have been instructed and affected with your instructions when you have been fed and revived and refreshed with your Food how soon after is it all run out and lost Sure Friends it 's grievous to the Ministers of Christ and a discouragement to us in our Administrations to see how little a while what we bring you from God abides upon your hearts the Lord hath Sowne much upon you but how little is there he Reaps In some of you there 's little springs up and those in whom there 's more springs up and flourishes for a time in the blade O how hath it withered and grown to deday and will not ripen to the Harvest That it may be better for the future your first business is to consider and bethink your selves if hitherto it be not thus with you Bethink your selves every one of you How is it with me Is mine heart kept full full of the Knwledge of God full of Faith and the fruits of it Is mine heart kept warm Is there such an heat wrought into it as holds Is mine heart a Treasure of good things and do they abide in me Do the counsels of the VVord and the comforts and quicknings of Sacraments stay by me Have I some standing abiding Treasure within me something within me to shew that the VVord is not Preached to me in vain Or do not I do as others let all slip and dye away with the speaking Bethink your selves thus how 't is with you is your Grace grown up Are your souls built up in Faith and Holiness God hath been building among you but how doth the building go up In some of you hath it not ever been at a stand If the Foundation hath been laid yet scarce a stone laid up upon it and others in whom the Building seemed to be rais'd to some considerable height is it not broken down is not your work fallen again Deal plainly in this matter bethink your selves do your souls prosper or is it but low with you and hath it not been some time better with some of you than 't is now 2. If it be but low with your souls much more if you have had a long time to increase since you first believed and more then that if heretofore it hath been better with you then 't is now then bethink your selves further Is not this an evil case you are in Is this a case to be rested in Do you like it to be as you are If you had a Child of your natural body that should be no more able to speak or go or feed its self and had no more understanding at 10. or 20. years old then when 't was but an Infant but must be still Suckled and carryed in Armes at those years as if it had been but in its first year would not such a Child be a Cross to you and an Affliction O how is it that you are not a Cross to your selves and an Affliction to your selves that after so long a time as some of you have had of growing you should yet in matters spiritual not be past Babes or Children It was an Affliction to the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.1 that he must still speak to them as to Babes I could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ Here 2 things 1. To have Christians to continue still as Babes and Children is an Affliction to their Ministers The manner of the Apostles speech intimates so much that it was a trouble to him that he must still speak to them as Babes 2. By how much the more carnal Christians remain by how much the less spiritual by so much the more Childish they continue to be still carnal is there said to be the same with being Babes Dost thou think that thou art grown past a Child How is it that thou art so carnal still minding carnal things and living such a carnal life Carnally minded Professors those that are given so much to their carnal things and are of such a carnal Conversation if they have any thing of Christ in them yet 't is but very little if they be Christians they are but Babes in Christ as they grow up they will grow more Spiritual and Heavenly Never think your selves to be grown or thriving Christians till ye can more despise these carnal things and ways and are come to be more Spiritually-minded and have gotten this Earth and Flesh more out of your hearts and under you feet VVell but is it not an Affliction to you to continue thus carnal Are you well satisfied with that carnal heart you have with that carnal life you live But what do you think of your state that have grown up from being Carnal to be Spiritual and are now fallen from being Spiritual to be Carnal again Have you once had the day-light shining in your hearts and are you now returned to the twi-light again Did you once live a life of Faith and a life of Love and had your Conversation in Heaven were you once of a tender heart of a circumspect savoury Life Did you live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and are you now fallen back to a more eager minding earthly things and have lost that sense that lively sense you had of things Spiritual and Eternal Bethink your selves Friends whither this be any of your cases and whether you like it to be in such a case Or whether you do not with grief acknowledg it my soul is but in evil case and it's time for me to bestir my self and get me up to a better state 2. In crying out upon your selves to be reaching forward to what you have not attained and to recover what you have lost as the Psalmist Psal 57.8 Awake up my glory so say you awake up my Grace awake up my Love awake my Fear awake up my Conscience And as the Apostle to the Romans chap. 13.11 Awake O my soul 't is high time to awaken out of sleep 't is high