thing that is not good or so far engaged to any Presbyterian to close with him in any thing that is evil but that we might with unprejudiced mindes and severe consciencces go with them both so far as is agreeable to the Word of God and here is a blessed way to a firm and lasting Union And now that this is not my own notion and fancy onely for I know nothing I have said but is past the Assembly long since For in the Paper if I very much mistake not concerning Accommodation the power of Excommunication is so allowed to the Congregation and that he may be Excommunicated by the Eldership therein What would you have more Here you do harmoniously link Congregational and Classical power both together And therefore away with all Jesuitical plots to dis-sever those that are in such a probable way of union And indeed there were Two things that made the breach at first Why did our Brethren go to New-England or abroad to other places Either there was a form of Prayer imposed or Ceremonies they could not submit to blessed be God that is turned out at the back door and there is a Directory for that or else mixt Communion And the Parliament hath given evidence That they will take order for such a power in every Congregation that an honest heart may with much comfort there sit down and so purge and refine his own Congregation that he may with much honor to Jesus Christ and satisfaction to his own Spirit enjoy the Ordinances of God in much purity Therefore I beseech you stir up your selves and one another that we study how to lessen the differences and do not give way to passionate dividing invectives God forbid there should be any such in Pulpits or in Corners or at Tables Let us all get reconciling Spirits and speak uniting language in our Sermons in our Books and upon all occasions that if it were possible they that are like to dwell in one Heaven hereafter might now dwell in one England and might serve God together and joyntly advance Jesus Christ together in the purity of his Ordinances and live in sweet peace and harmony together 2. As in Church matters so I beseech you shew your love likewise in all your Transacting Civil and City Affairs manage all your meetings your negotiations with love Let all things be done in love says the Apostle walk in love not onely now and then and speak in commendation of love you hear a Sermon of love with approbation but do all things in love give counsel in love and reprove in love and tax with love and whatsoever affairs you are to transact let all still be done in love when you come abroad in the streets there you will meet a company of poor people a proper object for love of pity it were worthy of this City to consider them Your love is principally intended I confess to the Saints to wit a love of complacency but love all love your Enemies Love should be of a diffusive overflowing disposition Love poor fatherless Children so as to bring them up at School blessed be God that you have so many Schools here and I hope the City will both wisely and conscionably still cherish those Nurseries that yong Children may be bred to write and reade and so afterwards bound Apprentices that they may be set to good Callings or fitted for the University those that have parts and look to your poor It would be a project worthy the wisdom of this renowned City that is famous for many things Many decayed Tradesmen there are and many that were good house-keepers before are fain to go a begging which they do in the night being ashamed to appear in such an habit in the day What if you should choose some one relieving Committee to give money to the poor you have many ready enough to take it from them to consider how you should finde out some way for the poor to get their living men women and yong children men that live idlely better give six pence to one that is working then a peny to one that is idle you nourish them up in a trade of temptation as long as you nourish them up in idleness For maimed Soldiers let your love be shown to them but for those that are able to work take care to keep them in employments but rather relieve them working then begging This were like true love indeed a fasting-Fasting-days fruit as you heard a word of it before out of Isa 58. what a Fast would you have such a Fast as there the Prophet speaks of Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the hands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens If the Lord would shew that mercy to crown this Fast with success that if you have been too rigid in your Taxes too severe and partial in your Impositions and put it into your hearts to loose burthens and to let the oppressed go free and ease every yoke though you have sown in tears you would reap in joy And is it not likewise to deal bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou coverest them and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Here is work for a Fasting-day and say not It is putting up so many Prayers and hearing so many Sermons The question is whether you will act over your own Prayers and the Sermons you have heard this day will you take out this Lesson Oh! how will you rejoyce the heart of your praying servants the hearts of all the City the wrestlers with God if such visible fruits should spring up after this days exercise it would incourage others to creep into corners upon such an occasion Here is a special promise Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health spring forth speedily There is darkness in the City in many particulars now sad darkness how know you but light may break forth the light of comfort every way if there were such real fruit of your Fasting and Prayer Then shall thy health spring forth speedily God might heal your Distempers and keep you in a heavenly frame It is an admirable mercy I am glad God hath brought it to my minde which the God of Salvation hath shewn to you since the Parliament began in preventing the Plague from spreading in London one Troop of destroying Angels might have done that that all the Armies against it could not have done you have had it lingring amongst you divers Summers but God hath given you the comfort of your Prayers and health hath sprung exceedingly in the City and who knows but God may give an answer to this days poor prayer and health may yet spring more plentifully And thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward I know when the City hath been called Traytors and black
when they come up to a higher Orb are so worldly wise it blunts their Zeal There was wont to be great complaints he was a good Minister but an ill Bishop he was an excellent Councellor but a bad Judge advancement spoiled him God knows whether any thing like this lies at any of your doors never so good as when Common-Councel-man to say no more Now therefore wisely and seriously consider what Spirit acts you in your City-meetings what is the greatest Enginier that drives you on whether it be the Publike good the Lord knows it And for the very Government of the City whether sometimes you be not more zealous in your own things and more remiss in the things of God the Lord knows this Whether sometimes you be not more indulgent to the rich and pinch the poor most how much care you may spend and exercise to maintain your own Priviledges and keep up the Honor and the reputation of the City and it may be too exceeding faint and flat and dull when it comes to the Sanctification of the Lords day and purity of the Ordinances and magnifying of Christ there you moved may be as if your Chariot wheels were knockt off If it be so God knows it and will reckon for it Right Honorable Right Worshipful and Welbeloved I beseech you now lay your hands upon your own hearts and seriously observe your selves as in your more private Sphaere and in your several relations so especially now as you are Citizens indeed as you are part of the Representative City what Oathes you took then I know not or whether any or no but I am sure of this the very thing it self carries with it an Obligation if the City shall advance you to that Trust you are bound to be faithful to it and then to act and move so as in all things you may discharge your trust Now God forbid that ever People should say thus upon any good grounds Ship-money was aheav burthen but now indeed it is onely exchanged there may be as much oppression in some Officers in raising the Taxes as ever there was in the Officers in the gathering of Ship-money God forbid this should concern any of you look to it Others may say we were wont to be called before the Councel Table and there we must wait and attend c. and spend much money and what if some should complain now it may be some Committees in the City where things are not rightly charged pinch as much as ever other places did How justly I know not but I am sure there are such discourses abroad Oh! do you seriously and wisely consider if there be any such distempers God knows all these things You have a Conscience that is a Witness against you that will be a Judge and as you would meet the great God with comfort at the great Assize keep a privy Sessions often in your own bosoms and set all right and straight there Oh! let there be a Conscience-Committee let there be a Bosom-Committee let there be a daily not Quarterly Session kept there Great complaints there were heretofore Such a one he hath a Monopoly of Sope or Tobacco Lace and many things And many complain now as fast Such a one hath got a Monopoly of Offices and Places and Ingrosses all they will thus and thus interest themselves in every thing and when they have done all it may be inrich themselves and impoverish the Publike How far these things are to be charged upon any one I know not But I so far love the City and would have you prize the comforts of your own Consciences as to take the advantage of this day and reflect upon your selves and sweep every man before his own door People that are abroad in the Countrey have heard so much of the fame of London since these things began that they come here with great expectation hearing of the fidelity and courage of London and what you have done with your Purses and how many have ventured their lives they have great thoughts of London but when they shall come up hither and in some of your shops and finde as bad dealing here as in the Countrey and it may be deal with some of their Officers and finde as partial dealing here as in the Countrey You know not what sad reports are cast upon the City by this means and if you would have a lovely picture drawn of London both at home and abroad I beseech you Let it not be in vain that the Lord hath put it into your hearts to meet solemnly this day but let there be some good fruit of it And I hope every man will take some pains this Evening or soon after that he may take some time to view all the Pages of his whole course and when he findes any Errata or any thing amiss as Lord Major as Alderman as Common-Councel-man or Officer that in the consideration of this That God knows all things you will fall down before him and cry every one Peccavi and say Lord I know such a thing hath been amiss and I desire all may be reformed And so I have done now with the second ground observeable in the words I hope I shall not oppress you You have heard that our hearts have a power of self-condemning and self-absolving You have heard likewise That God knows the great God hath an All-seeing an All-searching eye knows all things sees how it fares with us But then The self-condemning of our hearts is a certain pledge of greater condemnation from God And why so Because Conscience is but Gods Agent it is his Vicegerent in our breasts That God might carry all things righteously at the Solemn and great day of Judgement he imploys this subordinate Officer here to Record all things so then two Books will be open the Book of Gods Judgement and the Book of our Conscience and they will agree like a pair of Tallies there will be a concurrence betwixt them in all particulars God he does imploy Conscience if that condemn thee and if that be not satisfied but still accuses thee thou mayest tremble at the thought of it God himself will condemn thee at last For this is certain Conscience can never be satisfied till God be satisfied in and through Christ and when God is first satisfied in and through Christ then God will satisfie Conscience I confess that many a mans conscience holds his peace that is in a very ill condition but conscience never speaks peace but when thou art in a good estate before God through Christ I doubt there may be many ignorant men here that may be bold Why Conscience troubles me not and accuses me not possibly it may be so but thy Conscience may be stupified and tongue-tyed and thou all this while in a most dangerous condition thou art asleep in the Devils Cradle all this time but when once Conscience comes not onely to hold his peace but to speak peace that
AN OLIVE BRANCH OF PEACE AND ACCOMMODATION BUDDING In a SERMON preached at Basingshaw Church TO The Lord Major Alderman Atkin together with the Representative City Anno Dom. 1645. On a Day of Humiliation appointed on purpose to seek the Lord for the repairing of Breaches and the preventing of further Differences growing in the City By Thomas Hill B. D. then Pastor of Tychmersh in Northamptonshire 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this The testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world Zech. 8. 19. Love the Truth and Peace Non piget me inquit Augustinus sicubi haesito quaerere nec pigebit sicubi erro deserere Quisquis ergò hoc audit legit ubi paritèr lectus est poigat mecum ubi paritèr haesitat quaerat mecum ubi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me ubi meum revocit me istum ingrediamur simul charitatis viam tendentes ad eum de quo dictum est quaerite faciem ejus semper S. Augustini Epist. ad Vincentium London Printed for Peter Cole at the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1648. To the Right Worshipful Sir Iohn Wollaston Alderman of the City of LONDON A true friend to Religion and Learning Abundance of Spiritual Blessings in Christ SIR YOu who live in the upper end of the world as you have the highest Truths so have you the richest Opportunities of cherishing and thereby engaging many Therein indeed you resemble the Celestial bodies which by beams and motion convey a quickning influence downwards which naturally occasions a reciprocal reflexion upwards Unthankfulness to God whether he communicate himself to us immediately or mediately by men and means was an hateful sin even in the Gentiles and the more ingenuous of the Heathen much decryed it The unthankful man is a Compendium of all evils It behoveth the party gratified to be proportionably serviceable to him that gratified him and to begin again saith the Philosopher And that which is much more The Apostle Paul charges it upon his Colossians Let the peace of God rule in your hearts scil. peace with one another which is from God as warring and fierceness amongst Saints is certainly from the Devil to which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful But alas where shall I begin to say or do any thing proportionably Yet I hope I shall never be a Sepulchre to bury by unthankful forgetfulness the extraordinary and unexpected Kindenesses I must speak in the plural number with which you were pleased to surprize me when you were Lord Major Herein you acted like the primus Motor who does great things where there is no praevious preparation in the subject I being a meer stranger to you And now I have a more deep Obligation to make publike acknowledgement and to provoke the whole University of Cambridge together with my self whose advantage is wrapt up in theirs to study how to make suitable expressions of our real thanksgiving Your most seasonable intention and execution of enriching us with a Mathematique Lecture a rich Treasure indeed to us who had but a Four pound stipend per annum for our Mathematique Lecturer which is the more noble in you and welcom to us because one little intimation by me to you did but meet and give a vent to your full inclination which was ready to overflow Something to purpose you would do for Cambridge to advance Learning onely you waited for a fit occasion to have it determined to a proper Channel How greatly indebted is the Universty of Cambridge to the City of London That two of their Alderman should contribute so liberally to maintain such necessary Lectures Alderman Adams to whom the University is much obliged for publike and I for personal favors hath bestowed means to support a Reader of the Arabick Tongue and the other Oriental Languages The mercy of God raising his heart thereunto is the sweeter to us because we hope it may in time by Gods gracious dispensation be a means of communicating the Gospel in stead of the Soul-deceiving Alcaron and recover many from under Mahomets Impostures and other poor seduced souls from under the power of darkness and hardness of heart Confusion of Languages was a curse whereby one could not understand another how to build their Babel But such a multiplying of Languages that the Apostles might communicate Gospel-secrets to various Nations was a great Blessing and much advanced the building of Jerusalem and pulling down of Babylon And without doubt there is much of God in it that now there should be a more then ordinary instinct both in yong Students to minde such Studies and Benefactors to encourage them and especially when both meet with staggerings amongst some of the learned Doctors of the Jews who begin to publish their doubts and fears that all this while they have been deluded and used their wits and learning to cloud those Scriptures whose light now begins to shine into their mindes and I trust in Gods time will into their hearts I have it related from very good hands That a Citizen of London being in Aleppo heard a very learned Jewish Rabbi being sick call his people together who wished them very seriously to consider the divers former Captivities they had undergone for the hardness of their hearts and now one for above One thousand six hundred years the cause of which is doubtless our unbelief and hardness of heart We have long looked for the Messiah and the Christians have believed in one JESUS of our Nation who was of the seed of Abraham and David and born in Bethlehem and for ought we know may be the true Messiah and that we have suffered this long Captivity because we have not believed but rejected him Therefore my advice is as my last words That if the Messiah which we expect do not come at or about the year 1650. accompting from the birth of their Christ then you may know and believe That this Jesus is the Christ and you shall have no other And within a little time after this old Doctor dyed And now much honored Sir that the Lord should ennoble your Spirit to settle a Mathematique Lecture here is the more welcom to us because as Alderman Adams his worthy Donation will help to polish our Tongues enable us to receive and communicate the choycest secrets Your bounty will help to enlarge our mindes to consolidate our judgements Hence it may be it was the Ancient Philosophers taught their Pupils Mathematiques very soon as appears by Aristotle and others they confirming their Propositions by Mathematical Demonstrations the knowledge whereof must be presupposed And hence the witty and learned Lord Verulam would have feather-headed yong men study the Mathematiques there being the most clear and certain Demonstration to compose and settle yong heads I
truth that men might speak their hearts and act their hearts and express their hearts in the love they do pretend this is Christian love indeed Three Arguments the Apostle now here uses to engage this reality of their affection one to another 1. Hereby we know that we are of the truth All Gods children are such children as do indeed love one another they have an instinct that carries them to it and this will be a clear discovery that you are of the truth true children indeed no hastards truly begotten again by the Spirit of God Hereby we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren saith John Eph. 1. 3 14. yea Christ goes higher Joh. 13. 35. Hereby shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another that is one very strong argument that might bespeak your mutual affection To have a clear evidence that you are Gods children whatsoever sad news you should hear upon earth if you had but a demonstration from heaven of that this day it would be worth more prayers and tears then I doubt you or I shall pour out before the Lord A second Argument is this And shall assure our hearts before him Have a sweet confidence a stability of Spirit though there be a sea of trouble without yet here will be a bosom-ark something within that will fix and settle the soul there thou mayest cast anchor and lie safe having a perswasion having an assurance before God however unsettled before men and ebbing and flowing and rising and falling now good news and then bad news that damps that dashes all yet do but love one another in deed and in truth as you ought to do and you shall have assurance before God A third Argument he uses in the 22. Verse And whatsoever we ask we receive of him This would be an admirable hint this day if you and I could gather such an evidence out of the Word of God that we may be assured That whatsoever we ask we shall receive We come to ask great matters and to beg great things of God this day and now to have an earnest-peny from Heaven that as sure as you make prayers so sure your prayers shall be answered would not this be an excellent advantage He tells you upon what terms If you do but love one another in deed and in truth These are the three Arguments to demonstrate this truth and quicken to this duty But now for the 2. Argument as the Apostle amplifies it and indeed those are the words that I shall insist upon What a very great advantage now is it to have this assurance before God saith he in the 21. Verse Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God If you have clear hearts before God if you have not a self-condemning heart but upon the examination of your selves and weighing your own spiritual condition in the ballance of the Sanctuary you can finde your love is weight it is not counterfeit copper love when you bring it to the touchstone but you are indeed taught of God to love one another you may have confidence towards God But on the other side if our heart condemn us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things But when you come to examine your hearts your hearts cry guilty and have a self-condemning heart Oh! woful is your condition If your heart that is dark and ignorant and knows but a little of your selves if it condemn you and fly in your face you must know you have to deal with the great God of heaven and earth he knows all things and if your own heart condemn you you will be condemned with a witness with a vengeance indeed if not onely your own hearts but God himself should condemn you And so you have some short and general resolution of the words out of these two Verses I have four short Propositions and I will name them and upon every one of them very briefly speak something as near as I can as God shall direct suitable to this day The first Proposition is this That the heart of man hath a self-condemning and a self-absolving power Secondly That God knows our own very hearts yea and more by us then we know by our selves Thirdly If our own heart do condemn us it is an evidence of greater condemnation from the All-searching God Fourthly If our own heart do absolve us it is an evidence of acceptation before God These four Points lie obviously above ground in the words And we will begin with the first I have but a very little to say on that onely to use it as a Key to open the door to what follows The heart or conscience of man hath a self-condemning and self-absolving Power If our heart condemn us not that is excuse us absolve us the heart of man or conscience for they are doubtless the same here Conscience that is a practical power of the soul bearing witness of our selves and actions according to the knowledge of Gods Law God hath given to man not onely a power of knowing but likewise a conscience a power of knowing together with God a recoyling and reflecting upon our own actions and upon our estates the judgement of man reflecting upon himself as he is under and subject to the judgement of God this is that conscience here the heart The Lord gives us a practical understanding a practical knowledge and principles does enable us to make an application of those practical principles to our own particular case And hereupon it is that every man though never bred up to be a Logician in the Schools yet knows how to make Syllogisms either pro or con for or against himself Every body will be able to say this He that walks uprightly he that lives the life of faith he shall be saved there 's a general principle laid down in the word of God then the heart does assume but I through the grace of God desire to walk uprightly I am taught to believe on Christ In the first proposition there the heart is as it were a book a volumn full of Principles Here in the second proposition there it is a witness it bears witness together with God knows with him what its own condition is or what its actions are and therefore in the conclusion it is a Judge I shall be saved and I shall be accepted by him Every one that is unrighteous and so lives and so dyes against him God is thus provok'd but I am so and so therefore against me No unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of God but I am unrighteous therefore I cannot come there Every man or woman be they never so ignorant in this or in any other Assembly hath such a power within them God hath implanted in their mindes such a power set up such a light in thy soul as that thus far thou mayest be Judge
of thy self and thy own actions that thou canst either condemn or absolve thy self If your heart if your Consciences have a power of self-condemning and self-absolving Then it is good to observe your Consciences and be sure to make your Conscience your friend and minde likewise as carefully what conscience says to you As you in your City Transactions I make no question but you preserve Records and what Acts pass or Orders or Decrees or whatsoever you call them at your meetings at your Common-Councel with the Court of Aldermen because you would be able to read over the Story to know how justly things were done and what may be a Rule for the time to come c. Let us be as careful to keep the Records of Conscience and to observe upon every occasion what your hearts say what conscience says For be you sure of this that Conscience hath a self-absolving and a self-condemning power and though it may be now thou little mindest it hereafter when thou comest to dye then Conscience will rub up thy Memory surely you lived under such a Minister and such Items you had given you and thus Conscience did work and sometimes you were almost perswaded with Agrippa and looked Heaven-ward and saw your errors and were almost perswaded to turn over a new leaf but still thou smotherest Conscience O this will be a sad thing if thy Conscience comes in against thee another day it will not onely be a thousand Witnesses but a thousand Armies to destroy thee over and over look to it now how you approve your selves even to your own Conscience And let me here by the way suggest but this to you Suppose you make a few Quaeries to Conscience now and allow Conscience likewise to make some Quaeries to you 1. Quaere What stewards have you been of all the Talents that God hath committed to your hands A steward say the Lawyers is a servant which is wont to set forth his Masters good for advantage What says Conscience Many of you are crowned with gray hairs and have been advanced to Places of great Power in the City and you have lived upon the goodness of your God it may be some of you fifty sixty years or more and a great stock of Talents hath gone through thy hands and thou shouldst have been trading faithfully for thy God all this while what account now can you give to Conscience Suppose you were now to keep conscience counting house for you will allow the word to speak it in your own language I would it were more frequent to keep a Soulcounting house as well as for your Estates a Closet for your consciences and enter in there Thus long I have lived in the world how much have I lived to my God we live indeed so much as we act for God and no more what says Conscience There have many men been in the world a great while and yet lived but a little while and it may be scarce begun to live yet but lived to themselves and to their lusts and to the service of sin and to the drudgery of Satan all this while Give an account of thy stewardship suppose that were thy word in Luke 16. 2. What says conscience now I doubt it would almost strike some of you dead while you were alive if you had but a real Summons indeed that this were your last day O! then Conscience would work strongly and make you tremble as Felix and look pale if you did believe that God would break the threed of thy life suddenly Suppose thou wert a dying man what says Conscience Hast thou been a faithful steward Canst thou give a good and sincere account of those Talents that God hath betrusted thee with 2. Quaere Let me put this as a second Quaere what wilt thou say to thy conscience How hast thou answered all thy Vows and Protestations and Covenants and all the Purposes and Promises that you have made And canst thou say resolutely with him Psal. 56. 12. Thy Vows are upon me I will render praises unto thee Or that thou hast done so Many of you might say not onely with the Psalmist Thy Vows are upon me but thy Protestations and thy Covenants yea it may be have entred into a curse to walk in Gods Law as they in Nehemiah Chap. 10. 29. The Lord knows that very great Obligations lie upon many of you How many Publike Fasting-days have you had not a day but you did or should renew your Covenant with God How many Communion-days have you had not a Communion day but you either did or should renew your Covenant with your God Some of you are under some Obligation or other and under the Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant How have you answered all these in advancing the glory of God and the Publike good and the carrying on the work of a Scripture-Reformation what says conscience 3. Quaere Further if this Quaere should be proposed How can you wash your hands of the guilt of other mens sins What would you that are the Representative City say to that now Suppose that all the Drunkenness and all the Sabbath-breaking and the uncleanness and the prodigious wickedness that hath been committed in the City and in the Suburbs up and down upon the sabbath-Sabbath-day and in other places where the Government of the City hath had or may have influence Suppose this should all now be laid at your door this day I say the Lord Major the Court of Aldermen the Common-Councel-men and they that had the Government of the City they are accountable to God for all the Oathes and Uncleannesses and wickednesses that they have known of and have not punished according to the Acts and Ordinances and Statutes that are to this purpose Give me leave to propound this in the Name of the great God to your Consciences What can you say to this Can you wash your hands in innocency I doubt besides all your by-Oathes that you may be guilty of personally and besides all your secret uncleanness that others may be guilty of and besides the Injustice and Prophaneness that your own hearts accuse you of Do you not think that many of the City-abominations I mean those common abominations that are committed by divers in the City may be charged upon the remiss Government of the City even in a great measure It is good for you now to ask conscience when you come to humble your souls before God and to deal more seriously with him and I hope you will now allow your Ministers to deal faithfully and plainly with you as in the sight of the Lord who will judge both Minister and people at the great Day Had you not need pray with the good old Father Lord forgive me my other mens sins 4. Quae. Let me adde this Quaere what says Conscience of this Many of you I think I may say if I should be mistaken in
whatsoever is in the bottom of your Spirits when you go to Prayer and frequent so many services as there is much pompous Religion in London as so many Lectures in a week and so many fasting-Fasting-days God knows a great deal of Hypocrisie in the bottom but you cannot halt before the Sun of Righteousness the Lord knows not onely what we do but why we do it and for what we do it what ingredients there are in all our actions which we cannot always discover the heart being deceitful in all things who can know it 2. God knows more by us in our actions then all the men in the world can know For there are many closer-actions many secret actions in our retirements and therefore well might the Apostle say here God knows all things more then all men and Angels The Devil watches you and he knows a great deal and Angels may be Witnesses of many of your actions and you may have Friends that may watch over you and know much by you but God knows more then all the men of the world set them all together and that will appear it may be when you come to dye then you read over a Story of your own life and conversation which you had forgotten and your Minister or others could not put you in minde of onely God stirs up Conscience he that knows the heart all the issues of it and the Conscience knows more by you at that time enlightned by God then all men do And therefore you finde that some Murthers have been discovered I had almost said in a miraculous way when they have been concealed a great while the Lord in a most wonderful way hath brought them to light whence is this God knows all things all our actions as I know thy works seven times repeated in the Prefaces to the seven Epistles to the seven Churches Revel. the 2. and 3. Chapter 3. Yea that God knows more good and evil by us then we know by our selves will appear at the day of Judgement You shall finde this most clear in Matthew there at the last Judgement what says Christ You fed me when I was hungry and you clothed me when I was naked Come ye blessed of my Father And he says to the other Depart ye cursed for I was in prison and ye did not visit me c. God knows more good by his servants then they know by themselves and God knows more wickedness by wicked men then they know themselves I am perswaded there are Thousands of Prayers some of you have put up and you have forgotten them God knows them every one and hath them all in a Book of Remembrance and there is many a Sin many of us hath committed that we are so far from Repenting of them that we have forgotten them but God remembers all those sins unless we remember them so in the general so as to lay hold upon him by a lively Faith to repent of them or they will come to be remembred Many a tear hast thou dropped in thy Prayer and it may be set fall many a six pence to poor people and spoken many good words in good Meetings and a little spark fired the whole company and one little grain of seed came up to many a hundred thou hast forgotten this I but God remembers it He sees all things I must hasten And here if you will give me leave to approve my self to God and to your Consciences and to deal most nakedly and plainly with you and in the Application of this to put you upon considering your own ways and laboring clearly and distinctly and impartially now to know your selves God knows all things and therefore I heartily desire that as ever you would finde favor in the eyes of God that you may know your own selves so clearly what is amiss by you that you may be brought to humble your selves and to make your peace with God God knows how it is The counsel the Prophet Haggai gives in Hag. 1. 6 7. Now says the Lord of Hosts consider your ways set your hearts upon your ways It is part of our business to preach to you this day upon a day of Humiliation to put you upon this that you call back your hearts and set them upon your ways And I should think it a great mercy of God if he would please so far to accept poor endeavors as to whisper it into your ears even the greatest person in the Congregation if God would but suggest somewhat to thy soul to bring back thy heart to thy ways that thou mightest fix upon the story of thy life from thy minority thy yonger days to thy gray hairs opus diei this is this days work God knows all I confess when I was first invited to this Employment I thought it had been onely a private day that the Representative City had been onely here present and possibly I should then have spoke of some things that according to the Rules of Prudence will not be so fit now to lay open here being a mixt Auditory and it may be some that will make advantage of the discovery of your miscarriages But you will give me leave to say what is seasonable to lead you to know your selves And I will first begin with you in your own personal condition and beseech you to lay this thought by you That God knows every man in the Assembly Lord Major Aldermen Common-Councel-men for to you I address my self God knows you in your greatest intimacy In all your personal ways as you are men as you are Christians He knows you in all your Family-relations what sincerity there is in the bottom of the heart therein The Lord knows that it may be some of thy Neighbors may censure thee for an Hypocrite and think all thy Religion is but Ostentation thou makest a great shew If thy heart be sound in Gods Statutes be not discouraged go on in thy way God knows it and thou needest not be ashamed And on the other side if thou beest a glosing complementing Hypocrite and if thou dost but act a part in Religion and hast got thy tongue tipt with some Gospel language by hearing and out-living so many Ministers and if thou beest stil a rotten hearted professor God knows this wil discover thee in due time And in all your relations God knows what you are possibly some may be churlish Nabals to their Neighbors God knows it if it be so Possibly some may be hard-hearted Pharaohs to their servants God knows it if it be so Possibly some may be cruel Tyrants to their wives God knows that likewise And possibly some may be fond Eli's to their Children indulgent to them in wicked and ungodly courses and when they should correct them and whip them onely ask them Why didst thou so my childe O look upon your selves in all your relations the Lord who with a candle could search Jerusalem can search