not called upon Me O New-England Do not many prophanely neglect the worship of God in publick assemblies in their families in secret Do not more perform it in such an unworthy manner as God will never acknowledge it for His worship yea though it be a time of fear and danger wherein the blessed God New-Englands best friend the hope of our Israel and Saviour thereof in time of trouble threatens us to be gone and carry away all our pleasant things and our glory with Him Yet may we not say with the Prophet There is none that is few or none in comparison that call upon His Name and stir up themselves to take hold of Him Isai. 64. 7. Good it will be for us to consider it in order to our humiliation and reformation I know indeed it is better for men to call upon God and worship Him as they can then prophanely to neglect it but assuredly externall worship without internall morall worship will be of no account with God nor is by any means to be rested in And if this be all the worship that the body of Professors among us tender unto God we are in a very bad condition it had need to be well considered and laid to heart by us Thirdly Labour we then to call upon God and worship Him in truth To tender such homage and service to Him as He will graciously accept as such Let us make sure that our calling upon God be such indeed and well pleasing to the Lord. You that are out of Christ never yet made a Prayer heard a Sermon sanctified a Sabbath worshiped God in any one instance as you ought to do God saith to every impenitent unbelieving sinner Thou hast never yet called upon Me. But yet pray as well as you can beg the spirit to humble you and draw you to Christ beg Faith and every other Grace and wait upon God in the use of all means as well as you can for the communication of grace and when you have it be sure to improve it and actuate it and stir it up mingle Faith with Prayers Sermons Sacraments that you may call upon God and worship Him acceptably that all your external worship may be accompanied with animated by natural and internal worship which is the very soul of it That there may be a connexion of these two so that inward worship in Faith Love fear of God and such like graces may be exercised expressed strengthned actuated as to the principal of it to the glory of God and our comfort Then will the Lord say you call upon Him and worship Him indeed and shal not loose your reward Would it not be a sad thing if you should loose all your Prayers and all your calling upon God should be nothing in His account Will not their case be very sad that shall say unto Christ in the great day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderfull works and He shal professe unto them I never knew you Mat. 7. 22 23. And will not your condition be deplorable if in that day you should say Blessed Lord we have prayed we have called upon God in thy Name we have worshipped God in hearing His Word and receiving Sacraments And He should reply I profess I know no such matter I am sure you never called upon God never prayed unto Him or worshipped Him in all your lives What a confusion would this cover you with and yet this entertainment will many professors meet with in that day look about you therefore in time least you loose all the prayers you make and worship you performe and make sure you call upon God in sincerity Thus much for the first challenge and charge in the Text. Had the Jews done all that was commanded them respecting the Principle Matter Manner End of Gods Worship in a way of Gospel sincerity yet they would have been unprofitable Servants far from meriting the leâ—t Divine favour much more then when they had not as to the body of them called upon God at all in sincerity The second charge is 2. That they had been weary of God But thou hast been weary of me O Israel Others indeed read the words Thou hast not called upon me O Iacob when thou hast Laboured or wearied thy selfe with me or for me As if he should say it is true thou hast Laboured in externall dutyes been at much cost and paines in sacrifices offerings observances but yet for all that thou hast not called upon me worshipped me therein Thou hast tyred thy self and laboured hard in pretence for me yet I disclaim all that thou hast done as none of my worship because it hath not proceeded from inward hearty devotion nor been attended with universal Obedience and a Religious holy Conversation Thou hast laboured much in sacrifices and offerings but hast not sacrificed thy lust mortified thy corruptions offered and given me a believing humble contrite sincere obedient heart the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart which is required by me and without which all thy other sacrifices are unacceptable Therefore I reckon thou hast not called upon my Name indeed or worshipped me all this while Thus the whole ver should be resolved into one discretive proposition to this effect Though thou hast taken a great deal of pains in pretence and appearance for me in thy sacrifices and oblation and ceremonial worships yet in reality thou hast not called upon me or performed any worship to me Thus men may make as many prayers and fast as often as the Pharisees used to do run to all the Lectures about them frequent Ordinances and take a great deal of pains in appearance for God and in his worship and yet never call upon God nor worship him in due manner they may seem to be very laborious in duties and Religious services for Gods sake with respect to Gods glory as well as their own good and yet all their pains in that kind be rejected by the Lord as nothing worth Others read the words Thou hast not called upon me seeing thou hast wearied thy self for me or in my service And if they be thus rendered and sensed the latter clause is exageticall or explanatory of the former rendring a reason why the Lord saith they had not called upon Him namely because though they had brought a multitude of sacrifices and kept up His worship in all the outward instituted wayes and means of it yet they exhibited no worship to Him without trouble and weariness not with any promptness and alacrity of mind but with an ill will which made all they did as good as nothing in Gods account Others read Thou hast not called upon me when thou hast wearied thy self against me O Israel As if He should say you have indeed taken a great deal of pains about the outward part of worship in killing sacrifices bringing oblations keeping festivals observing the ceremonies of
A Seasonable Discourse Wherein SINCERITY DELIGHT in the Service of GOD is earnestly pressed upon PROFESSORS of RELIGION Delivered on a Publick FAST at Cambridge in NEW-ENGLAND By the Reverend and Learned URIAN OAKES Late Pastor of the Church there and Praesident of HARVARD COLLEDGE Zech. 1. 5 6. Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever But my Word and my Statutes which I Commanded my Servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which dy in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their works do follow them CAMBRIDGE Printed by Samuel Green 1682. To the READER THere are especially two things whereby discourses are commended unto the acceptance of their Readers One is the Weight Excellency and seasonablenesse of the Subject The other's the known Worth Ability and Fame of the Author Upon both which accounts the ensuing Sermon may and I doubt not will find a ready reception amongst all that are godly and judicious into whose hands it shall come As for the subject matter of this Discourse it is that which highly concerns a Professing People and the Lords New-England People are eminently so most intensely to consider of The heart-searching God requireth that those that enter into Covenant with Him should be sincere in all their Callings upon His Name Josh 24. 14. Fear the Lord and serve Him in Sincerity and Truth He knows who have only a forme of godliness but are strangers unto the power of it whose services can never please Him Sapiens Nummularius est Deus Nummum fictum non recipiet Nor is there a more sure discovery of secret and deep hypocrisy in the hearts of Men then that of being weary of Gods service or thinking a little service too much for the great God When the Iew brought a lean sacrifice and then said What a wearinesse is it as if he were tyred with so great a burden he did serve the Lord and yet not serve Him at the same Time Mal. 1. 13. Nor is there any thing more offensive to the Lord Iesus then luke-warmnesse in profâ—ssion or having a Name to live and being dead as we see by the Epistle sent from Heaven unto the Churches of Asia and consequently unto all other Churches to the end of the World cautioning them to be watchfull against evils of that kind as they would not have the Lord deal by them as He hath done to Jerusalem or as He hath done to the Churches in Asia who because of hypocrisy and formality in Profession are rejected and their Raines become such as that Travellers cannot look upon them without horrour and amazement That there is still a blessed number of lively Christians in these Churches is through the grace of Christ very true the Lord increase them and make them a thousand times more then they are Neverthelesse that there is also a prevailing spirit of Apostacy among multitudes is no lesse certain Where is the love of our Espousals When our Fathers followed the Lord into this vast and then wast Wildernesse having no other interest but Religion and no other designe but Reformation before them Have not many of this generation left and lost that love to the pure and holy institutions of Christ which those of the former generation desired and delighted in Are not some weary of that Theocracy or Government which God hath established amongst in as to sacred and civill respects willing for a change in both This Wise Master-builder hath then accommodated the word by Him spoken upon a very publick occasion to the state of these Times and of this People And he hath thereby manifested himself to be of the same spirit with that faithfull and worthy Shephard who went before him in the work of the Ministry in that precious flock of Christ which is at Cambridge This Sermon seconding and confirming those of his eminent predecessors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chron. 12. 8. long ago both preached and Printed How happy has Cambridge been Indeed the Church at Ephesus enjoyed the Ministry of Paul and Timothy and Tychicus Blessed men of God but such a succession and eminent lights is seldom known in the same Church the un thankfulnesse and unprofitablenesse of men provoking the Lord to eclipse their Glory Concerning the Author His worth is well known and I wish it were more known in both Englands Doctor Preston chose to be a preacher in Cambridge in England Rather than in another place because he had then a special opportunity dâ—lare non tantum Lapides sed Architectes The Lord was mercisul to all these Churches in ordering the labours of this able Work-man to be in a place so sutable for his more then ordinary Capacity There have been several of the same Name heretofore renowned for their rare accomplishments in some particular faculty wherein they have excelled Iosephus Quercetanus was a learned and famous Physitian Joh. Drusius the Greek word for Oaks was a great Divine and eminent for his Critical Genius But an Age doth seldome produce one so many wayes excelling as this Author did If we consider him as a Divine as a Scholar as a Christian it is hard to say in which he did most excell I have often in my own thoughts compared him to Samuel among the Prophets of old inasmuch as he did truly fear God from his youth and was betimes improved in holy Ministrations and was at last called to be the head of the Sons of the Prophets in this New-English Israel as Samuel was President of the Colledge at Najoth And in many other particulars I might enlarge upon the parallel but that it is inconvenient to extend such instances beyond their proportion What shall I now say New-Englands Samuel is dead How doth Cambridge How doth the Colledge How doth New-England shake since this Oak whom Christ had made a Pillar in the Temple of his God is removed Heu tua Nobis Morte simul tecum solatia rapta It may without reflection upon any be truly said that He was one of the greatest Lights that ever shone in this part of the World or that is ever like to arise in this Horizon He is now become a Royal Diadem in the hand of the Lord being as one speaks concerning a great Worthy An ornament to Heaven it self This Sermon was not by the Reverend Author designed for publication Had himself Emitted it there would have been some Ornamental additions Quicquid tam docta condidit manus caelum est But it is here presented as sound written with his own hand among his Sermon notes And inasmuch as M r. Oakes preached it there needs no more to raise in the Reader a expectation that he shal meet with something worthy his perusal and beyond what others do ordinarily attain unto It is to be lamented that he did not live to finish his meditations on this
and glory that he would deal so mercifully with them The truth of this ascertion he confirms and most convincingly makes out in my text wherein he upbraids them with their prodigious ingratitude unkindnesse and utter unworthinesse of any favour from him instancing in these particulars instead of many demonstrations For He charges them 1. That they had not called upon Him But thou hast not called upon me O Iacob I need not tell you that by Jacob we are to understand the seed and posterity of Iacob such as were descended from him or the house of Iacob as they are sometimes Denominated in Scripture The Lord here challengeth the Jewes with a grievous omission or neglect of calling upon him Now though the Invocation of God is not the whole of Gods worship yet being a special part of it it is by a synecdoche very usual in Gods word put for the whole worship of God so it is said when Enos was born to Sath then men began to cal upon the name of the Lord Gen. 4. 26. That is as may be probably conceived those of Seth's family began to seperate themselves and worship apart from Cain's wicked apostaticall family whence arose that distinction of the sons and daughters of God from the sons and daughters of men Poure out thy wrath saith the Psalmist on the heathen that have not known thee and upon the Kingdoms that have not called upon thy Name Psal. 79. 6. By calling upon God or the Name of God we must freequently understand the whole worship of God in all the parts of it Thus in the text the Lord upbraids the Jews with their neglect of his worship Thou bast not called upon me that is worshipped me O Jacob. A strange charge it may seem and questionless unexpected and very surprizing to the Iews that cryed the temple of the Lord were haughlity because of Gods holy mountain sought God dayly delighted to know his wayes as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God Isa. 28. 2. gloried in their services boasted of the multitude of their sacrifices and oblations superarogated in their own opinion and exceeded rather then came short and were deficient as to frequency and diligence in the worship of God Nevertheless the Lord upbraids them with great neglect of his worship Thou hast not called upon me O Iacob Had he said Thou hast not called upon me Oh Ghaldean or Egiptian or any other heathen Kingdom there had been nothing strange in it but that Iacob or the people of the Iews should be so charged may look like a parodox indeed But the meaning of God is that they had not called upon him as they should have done nor worshipped him in due manner Doubtless many there were that called upon him in truth and worshipped him aright But the body of that people did all in hypocrisie kept up a gaudy pageant of Religion a form of godliness in prayers sacrifices and other services without life or power which was very loathsome to the Lord They rested in the exteriour part of duties their externall ceremonial worship was not attended with internall morall worship of their souls in faith love and knowledge humility fear of God and respect to his glory and such like holy dispositions of soul as must accompany and animate outward worship or else it is little better than mocking of God and a solemn affront of His Majesty They rested in externals in shews out-sides appearances godly performances to look to with their mouth and in their outward carriage they shewed much love to God but their heart went after their covetousness Ezek. 33. 31. The grace of God was not their principal nor His Glory the end of what they did They fasted but not unto the Lord Zech. 7. 5. There services were pompous operous gaudy things but liveless superficiary insignificant performances all they did was to no purpose To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord Isai. 1. 21. They are such as God required not vers 12. their oblations were vain their incense abomination their assemblies and solemn meetings on high dayes were iniquities loathsome and troublesome to the Lord vers 13 14. They made Religion a cloak to their vilanies that they might drive a close unsuspected trade of wickedness with less trouble to their own consciences thought to make God amends with external worship for their morall enormities would steal murther commit adultery swear falsely burn incense to Baal and walk after other Gods allow themselves in horrible impieties and immortalities and then come and stand before the Lord in his house and say We are delivered to do all these abominations Jer. 7. 9 10. They praised but regarded iniquity in their hearts They brought their sacrifices but with a wicked mind Prov. 21. 27. They drew near God with their mouth and honoured him with their lips but removed their hearts far from Him Isa. 29. 13 God reckons such bodily exercise as nothing worth no calling upon Him no worshipping of Him Thou hast not called upon Me O Jacob whatever thou hast pretended or imagined but thou hast all this while been implicitly and interpretatively in a due construction calling upon some fictitious deity or strange God that will be satisfied with sacrifices and externall worship lip-labour and the carcases of duty without the soul of them Hence we may observe in passage and by the way for I shal not fix upon it Doctr. That there may be little or no calling upon God indeed where there is much seeming calling upon Him There may be no worship of God where is in appearance much worship of Him One would wonder God should challenge the Jews with the neglect of His worship that fasted and prayed and sacrificed and accounted it their glory to keep His ordinances And yet thou hast not called upon Me O Jacob saith the Lord. If your criticall worship is in effect no worship in Gods account external worship is required but never accepted without the inward soul worship Many of these Jews were laborious in the externals of Religion but because there was no labour of their souls no sincere engagement of their hearts and affections in them the Lord tells them they had done nothing all the while but offered affronts to His Majesty put fallacies upon their own souls Men may do many duties and yet do none of them well and consequently do none at all in Gods estimation Men may go the round of duty and plod on in a course of Religious performances and yet do nothing the while to any purpose In all the duties of worship it is not the bare outward action but the manner of performance that gives the denomination and is rejected especially of the Lord. Hence Luther's Saying that Adverbs are of more account with God than Verbs meaning that the manner of our performances which is commonly denoted by this or that Adverb is more available with God
for a time You only have I known of all the families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Amos. 3. 2. He will not let them prosper in their sins as He suffers other men Now hypocrites in the Church cannot brook this discipline but are weary of Gods correction My son saith Solomon Pro. 3. 11. Dispise not the chastning of the Lord neither be weary of His correction The best of Gods People may be weary and saint under it for a time but when they come to themselves and see how righteous it is with God how profitable to themselves they recover themselves and say it is good for them to be afflicted because thereby they are reduced from their strayings into the way of obedience But other men are quite weary of such correction had rather be let alone in their neglect of Gods service then whipt into a better behaviour They love ease andimmunity from affliction more then holiness and obedience Again VI. Weariness of Gods government whereby He would hold them close to His service and obedience Weary they are 1. Of Gods inward government the government of conscience rightly informed from the Word of God and aided by at least a common work of the spirit inthe discharge of its office dictating their work and duty obliging them to the service of God impelling and putting them on to perform it accusing and condemning them for neglect of it or slightness and hypocrisie in it They are weary of this troublesome Conscience that will not let them be quiet in sin endeavour to bribe it corrupt it divert it stop its mouth rock it a sleep and cast off the government of it and get the mastery over their consciences Weary aâ—so 2. Of Gods outward government whereby they are overawed checked held in from exorbitancies and driven against their mind to the service of God Weary of family government long to be at liberety at their own dispose to live at their own hand that they may not be troubled with commands counsells corrections of pious Parents that would hold them to their duty and engage them to keep the way of the Lord. Weary of Church-discipline and government had rather live at a loose end then under such discipline cannot bear reproofs admonitions the rod of discipline would break the bands and cast away the cords of Christ. Weary of government in the Common wealth would be glad to be rid of pious Rulers that are a terrour to evil works and will not let them sin impanâ— cannot hear such Masters of restraint long for a change and think they cannot be worse than they are The bottome is They are weary of Gods service Again VII Weariness of spiritual Priviledges that are to be enjoyed in the way of Gods service They are weary of the pleasant things of Ierusalem the Word Worship Ordinances of God liberty to serve Him in the way of His appointments If they could have Baptism for their Children Lord's Supper for themselves enjoy these and those Priviledges without any labour of theirs without any injunction of service they could like it better But all these Priviledges are so charged with duty so clogged and encumbred with service they set at so great a rent of service and pay so dear as they think for their Priviledges that they are weary of them They have little sense or experience of the worth of Priviledges but feel the burden of service and are willing so they may be discharged of the one to part with the other Yea they are full of their mercies and nauseate their Priviledges as much as ever the Israthtes did the Manna Again VIII Weariness many times of their very profession of service and obedience to God A bare empty profession growes a burden to them especially when they have served their turn of it and it is grown out of fashion in the World They repent they are so far engaged as to have taken up a Profession and would desert and abandon it if it were not for shame and they knew how to secure an honourable retreat As they never had experienced the power of godliness so they grow at last to be weary even of the forme of godliness To maintain a Name to live and keep up a Profession of Religion requires more labour and pains then they are willing to bestow upon it But thus you see when a Person or People may be said to be weary of God The second Question should be Whence comes it to pass that a Person or People are weary of God and that this is the generall frame of the Church and People of God sometimes But this would require a very large discourse and I must leave it to some other opportunity USE 1. Of Examination Have we not then great reason to examine our selves narrowly and impartially whether we are not such a People as are weary of God We see the People of the Iews were deservedly charged with it Iacob and Israel were weary of God yea many Churches in New-Testament times on whom more of Light Grace Spirit was shed sorth have been most unworthily weary of the blessed God And what are we that we should plead any priviledge or think our selves secured from such a sinfull frame of spirit as this is I know we have a great opinion of our selves We are ready to think God hath hardly such another People in the World as His People in New-England Hence it will hardly sink into many mens hearts that God should leave New-England and give up His People and Interest here into the hands of Adversaries that are ready enough to stretch forth their hands upon our pleasant things We are prone to imagine the Churches and People of God here are too good to be destroyed or trod down by any foot of pride and violence But I wish there be not more of pride and fancy then of Faith in this opinion I confess the Lord Jesus Christ hath a very glorious interest among us but it is very little beholding to us that have weakened and disparaged it exceedingly by our great miscarriages I know also that there are a number of very choice People among us very dear to God for whom we fare the better at this day And I do indeed hope that God is very unwilling to break up house among us and remove from us Very loath to sell His People for nought when he is not like to increase His wealth by their price Psal. 44. 12. Yea that He feares to speak in His own language Deut. 32. 27. The wrath of the enemy least our adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this I hope the Lord may be saying at this day as in Hosea 11. 8 9. How shall I give thee up Ob New-England My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger Doubtless the Lord remembers the kindness