ends and how lumpish and heavy are our hearts in the beginning of a Sabbath much more than upon any other day Doth not this prove the day to be no way pleasing to us And how chearfull are some of us when the Sabbath is ended The heart is not so well pleased all the day as then yea do not some cheat and delude themselves hereby as if they had joy in the Lord and had received comfort from the Word and other Ordinances whereas they are glad that the yoak of Ordinances the burden of the Word of the Lord and the burden of the day of the Lord is taking off their Shoulders Being hindred from profaning it only by external motives How many are there who would profane Gods Sabbaths and wholy neglect the Ordinances of them were it not for the Laws of men and the eyes of their Relations How quieted are some when they have attended the publick service Satisfied with worshipping God publickly and do they betwixt and after those solemn duties refrain their lips from worldly talk from impertinencies from such discourse as bears no proportion with the holiness of the day When works of Necessity and Charity happen out beyond our expectation or forecast Glad to be hindred from works of piety are we at all troubled at them Do not we rather rejoyce because we have thereby a dispensation to withdraw from the immediate worship of God And how many neglect to do all their works on the six dayes Exod. 20.9 though the Lord so expresly chargeth them so to do that they may have a pretence of necessity to do much servile work on the Sabbath How common is it to dress meat on the Sabbath more than on any other day when there is not the least pretence of weakness c. Hereby not only Servants but the whole house are too much in labour and destraction and hindred if not from the solemn Assemblies yet from Family and Closet worship How do many gossip complement Eating too much on the Sabbath and feast away abroad the day of the Lord or else eat to an excess at home and thereby make themselves fitter for a bed than to wait on the Sanctuary to hear Christs voice to meditate on his love and to feed in his pleasant pastures How carefull are we to keep our selves Stealing Gods time and ours from pilfering from our Neighbour but not from stealing from God his time yea are not some Governours so ungodly unmercifull that they will allow their people no time but the Sabbath to recreate themselves from their labours If they need recreation you have more time than God hath reserved sure you should not steal from God to pleasure them In the discharge of the works of mercy to Man and Beast Not performing duties of mercy aright Do not we respect more our own commodity than the will of God than the dispensation of God and the creatures necessities Are these works of mercy attended with such spiritual meditations as they do afford us if our hearts were holy How few bless God for giving them one day Not blessing of God for the Sabbath wherein they may lighten their hearts of all worldly cares and throw off all griefs and secular cumbers and may seek for relief and comfort in their God Perhaps the Master observes a day unto the Lord Careless whether those under them observe the Sabbath but how careless is he that his Sons and Daughters and all within his gate honour the day of the Lord Do not many Professing Governours of Families let them sleep away the Sabbath that they may be the fitter for their drudgeries the following week O! when will Governours be as diligent that their Servants and Houshold serve the Lord as that they serve themselves You have been carefull that your work were done on the week but careless whether Gods work were done by them on the Sabbath careless whether your Servants profited by the Sabbath yea or no When will Gods glory and the good of your peoples Souls be nearer to you than your worldly advantages You ask your Servants what work they have done for you every day and call them to frequent accounts for your gains-sake and what never reckon with them about their Spiritual Soul-work O! how little is the love of God shed abroad in your hearts How justly may God be angry with us till he hath consumed us for our desiling the day of the Lord It was Gods express Law Exod. 31.14 that every one that desileth it should surely be put to death When the people were weary of the Sabbath when they said Amos 8.5 v. 7. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat c. v. 7. The Lord swore by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works v. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a floud and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt v. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day v. 10 And I will turn your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into lamentation c. v. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the land not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. v. 12. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it CHAP. XX. Their miscarriages about Heart-examination THe more that the Lord of Heaven chargeth us with a Duty Professors miscarriages about Self-examination the more inexcusable are our neglects of it There are few things more commanded us than to try and examine our hearts and lives 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves c. Prove your selves c. We are apt to be strangers to our selves to cheat our selves with vain presumptuous hopes to rest in notions therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Examine your selves take an experimental knowledge of your selves We are apt to prove others and censure them therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prove your own selves begin at home try your state try your actions bring the mettal to the touchstone see whether it be sound or counterfeit try your Faith whether it be temporary or saving prove your Repentance whether it be through or superficial examine your Love whether it be sincere or hypocritical and your Obedience whether it be universal or partial Deut. 4.39 Know therefore and consider it in thine heart make a return or answer to thine heart Commune with thine own heart
that it would please God to make my words as an Hammer Motives to let our hearts be broken for and from our Sins to break the Rocks O that I may be thus usefull to your Souls O that somewhat at last may be hinted that may through the blessing of Goâ— break your hearts for and from sin that may promote your Repentance for your own and your othermens sins And indeed unless your hearts be broken for sin they will never be broken from sin But the more bitterness of Spirit you are in for sin the more probability there is you will not return unto sin When men have furfetted upon a Dish and are greatly afflicted and pained by it the more unlikely they are to return again unto that Dish That is certain saith Mr. Burroughs either a mans sin will make an end of his mourning or his mouâ—ning will make an end of his sin Yea if your hearts be not broken for other mens sins they are not kindly broken for your own sins You will never put it out of all doubt that your sorrow is right and genuine unless you mourn for others as well as your own sins for it will alwayes be objected that if Sin as Sin were your Burden if Sin as dishonouring God as wounding Christ as grieving the Spirit then other mens sins being reslexions on the Authority and Will of the great God Father Son and Spirit should have some considerable weight upon your Souls The truth is others sins become thine if thou knowest them and mournest not for them O then In what a case are all the hardned jolly Professours who can make a sport of Drunkeness Uncleanness Superstition Perjury c. in others Consider therefore by the Help of this Glass others sins as well as thine own to help on thy brokeness of heart for and from sin Psal 119.158 Behold with David the transgressour and be grieved because they keep not Gods word Let your Souls with Lot be vexed there are greater sins found among Professours in England than were in Sodom Let thy Soul be as his was as in Hell as upon the Rack How can you evidence that you are translated from death to life because you love the Brethren whilst you are not troubled to see them wounding and damning their souls by their sins you are grieved to see any Friends of yours in great hazards and dangers by the Sword by Sickness by Fire but the Souls of your Friends are in the greatest danger yet you lament not the sight of these deplorable spectacles God forbid that any of you should have grounds of hope to gain Liberties and outward Privileges by others provocations whilst all their sins become yours whilst you are not humbled for them But to lay before you some Considerations that may set home by the Spirit draw water out of the Flint 1. God is greatly incensed Should not your hearts be broken for and from sin seeing sin hath so incensed God against the Land of your Nativity Can you retire from the World and seriously consider the Prints of Gods displeasure against poor England and yet remain impenitent Is it nothing to you that God hath for many years been withdrawing from his Sanctuary in England O! Your Ministers have had miscarrying Wombs and dry Breasts Though they rose early and sate up late were much in watchings and in labours for the Conversion and Edification of Souls yet how seldome have any been under the Pangs of the New Birth How seldome were any pricked at the heart How seldome have any cryed out What shall we do to be saved And for others concerning whom we hoped better things How have they shed their Leaf How have they pined and withered away as to Practical Godliness How have they lost that Seriousness that Heavenlyness that Power of Godliness which before they seemed to have had Your Ministers saw this and lamented it they acquainted you with it invited you to remember from whence you are fall'n to repent and do your first works But yet You returned not unto the Lord. Should not this pierce your very hearts Is it nothing to you that not only your selves but so many Professours in England should lose their faithful and painful Ministers Is it nothing to you for God to call home by Death and otherwise so many of his Embassadours whom you have grieved whom you have despised and affronted and who have been more burthened with your Pride Earthliness Divisions Sensuality c. than they are with their present Poverty and Dishonours under which they lye What doth it portend save War and Hostility when Embassadours are called home And may not you fear that the wrath of God is and will be against you till there be no remedy They mocked the Messengers of God 2 Chron. 36.16 and despised his Words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy If God will treat with you no more believe it he will fight with you And O! O! O! Who will set the Bryars and Thornes against him He will goe through them he will consume them in his wrath Is it nothing to you that there is yet such a Spirit of Division in the Land O! What heats and heart-burnings what animosities and jealousies are there so that a Brother cannot trust a Brother Is it nothing to you that God hath been so long contending with the Land by the Sword and by the Pestilence and so lately by Fire Is it nothing to you that God permitted that dreadful Fire in London to break forth about Three of the Clock on a Lords Day morning Did he not thereby cause his Sabbath in a manner to cease in London Did not he make his holy Day of Rest a Day of labour and disquiet Did not he hereby as it were anticipate his Peoples conventions to expiate him and so drew them as it were off from the Remedy that his hands being loosened he might punish 2 Chron. 7.12 Deut. 9.14 Jer. 2.2 and not be prevailed with to pardon May we not say with Jeremiah even upon this account The Lord hath swallowed up all the Habitations of Jacob and hath not pittied he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong Holds of the Daughter of Judah he hath brought them down to the ground Is it nothing that at the same time God should send forth such a boysterous Wind to fann and blow up the Fire East West South and North God therein executing the Judgement threatned against Elam Jer. 49.36 of bringing the four Winds from the four Quarters of Heaven c. If the punishment of one Element saith a late Writer be dreadful as the Water was to the old World and the Air is in Pestilential Infections and the Earth was when it opened its mouth to swallow up Corah and his company how dreadful is Gods punishing a Land or Person with double and treble Judgements in one
A GOSPEL-GLASSE Representing the MISCARRIAGES OF English Professors BOTH In their Personal and Relative Capacities for which God is contending with them by the Sword Plague c. and since the writing of the greatest part of the following Treatise for the Press by the dreadful Fire in London OR A CALL FROM HEAVEN To SINNERS and SAINTS By Repentance and Reformation to prepare to meet God Levit. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Jer. 2.35 Yet thou sayest Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me Behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not sinned LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXVII THE Authors PREFACE WHEN it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness then saith the Prophet Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion Joel 2.1 2. and found an Alarum in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven unto the Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his Foot-stool in the day of his anger He hath violently taken away his Tabernacle as if it were of a Garden V. 6 he hath destroyed the Places of the Assembly The Lord hath caused the solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger his Priests V. 7 Yea the Lord hath cast off his Altar he hath abhorred his Sanctuary the Law is no more her Prophet also find no Vision from the Lord. O that now mine eyes could fail with tears V. 9 and my bowels were more troubled within me O that my Liver were poured upon the Earth for the destruction of the Daughter of my People V. 11 because the Children and the Sucklings swoon in the streets of the City We see not our Signes there is no more any Prophet Psal 74.9 neither is there among us any that knoweth How Long. When we 2 Sam. 6.1 2. like David were restoring the Ark of God I mean the presence of Christ in his Worship and Ordinances what Stumblings of the Oxen have we seen What miserable Disappointments have we met with And what sad breaches have there been made How hath God stopt our way and branded our Enterprises with wonderful remarks of his sore displeasure Hear therefore the word of the Lord Hos 4.1 ye Children of Israel for the Lord hath a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land We poor Ministers have pleaded with you till we can plead no more the Lord hath bid us stand by whilest he himself takes up the Controverste O is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10.31 Are you not sensible what Arrows God hath begun to shoot amongst us How many thousands Psal 58.9 Isa 5.25 and ten thousands hath he taken away as with a whirlwind by the Pestilence For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still How hath God shaken our Heavens Hag. 2.6 and our Earth the Sea as well as dry Land How doth he contend still by the Sword And how much precious blood hath the Earth and Sea drunk up For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still O! Come Psal 46.8 Behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the Earth Every Providence of God especially his more notable Acts hath a reason written upon it could mans eye read it When the Church complained that God was as a stranger in the Land Jer. 14.8 10. and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night The Lord replyes to them Thus have they loved to wander c. The Controversie began on their side they may see their Sin in the Punishment as in a Glass Do they winder I grow strange to them The estrangement began on their part Nothing appears more our instant Duty than to enter a serious scrutiny What have we done Wherein have we offended Lam. 3.40 41 44. Let us search and try our wayes saith the afflicted Church of Judah upon this very occasion of the Lords covering himself with a Cloud that their Prayers could not pass through and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens O! Hag. 1.5.7 Consider your wayes The Lord doubled it Your iniquities have seperated between you and your God Isa 59.2 and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear I find men will easily subscribe to this that Sin is the procuring cause of all misery but I find an aptness to transferr the guilt from one to another from one party to another and though people do even sell themselves to work wickedness yet so predominant is Self-love that it sees no spots in it self Ahab is not the troubler of Israel but Elijah Nay a good man Aaron excuseth himself Exod. 32.22 and layes the blame on others The Sin is theirs not mine Men have a natural desire to justifie themselves and their desire is so strong that they care not whom they bespatter or burden so they may but ease and acquit themselves And indeed Sin is such an ugly Monster that no man will own it if he can choose but had rather lay this Child of Darkness at any mans door yea at Gods than Father it himself My Design in this Enterprize is to obviate this Distemper and to bring you all of you to own your iniquity that you may say resolve upon it that you will confess your iniquity Psal 32.5 that so God may forgive the iniquity of your sin My Place and Duty as a Minister though wholly unworthy of that Relation to God and you binds me to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations Ezek. 16.2 and therefore I have descended to Particulars that if it be the will of God I might hit the humour 1 Kings 8.38 and shew to every man the plague of his own heart The Lord knoweth I take no pleasure to rake in these Dunghills I dread the ill uses that the Sons of Belial may make of this Enterprize I expect various Censures from them who should be otherwise minâ—ed but my record is on high that the great Design of this Publication is to reduce Professours to a more aweful humble serious Repentance towards God and singular Conversation before men I thank God for the freedome that a Reverend Brother hath taken with the ejected Ministers Vox clamantis in Deserto and I must profess that since the perusal of that most seasonable Piâ—ce I have had no quiet in my Conscience till I entred upon this Labour Though my bodily Distempers pleaded loud for my silence though I was
short-sighted men yet you are but Devils in Christs account So was the arch-Hypocrite Judas One of you is a Devil Of all Devils none so bad as the Professing Devil Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar when he carouzed in the Bowls of the Sanctuary 2 Pet. 2.3 Their damnation slumbereth not who through covetousness make use of the covering of faigned words O! When will ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and True holiness Eph. 4.24 Believe it if thou art a whited wall God will smite thee Though thou get some present glory or profit by thy outside holiness yet God more abhors thee than the bleer and imperfect observing World can applaud thee Will a King indure it that thou take his Robes and cloath a Swine with them or that thou take his Crown and set it on the head of a base Varlet God is coming against the Hypocritical Nation And he accounts it a disgrace for thee to voice thy self to be the Son of so great a Prince whilst thou art a Slave to Hellish lusts All you do for God will not profit you you lose all you have wrought whilst acted by self and corrupt in your ends and aims Though you trust in lying words Jer. 7.8 Isa 57.12 in your outward shews yet I will declare thy righteousness and thy words for they shall not profit thee What shall I say There is no acceptance for you to be had without the Benjamin of sincerity with you A day of trouble is hastning and you think then to pray but will God hear your cry when trouble cometh upon you Job 27.9 Psal 106.15 Psal 51.6 If you deny God your heart never expect his ear Quails you may have but with a vengeance with leanness in your souls That which God desireth and looketh for is truth in the inward parts God and Religion have received so much dishonour by pretenders to Christ and Truth and so many Atheists have been made confirmed and hardned in England by the Observations they have made on Professours hypocritical pretensions that I fear the stains will hardly be wash'd away without blood and some probably will be called forth to seal to the Truth of Christ by their death to convince men that there are some real Christians who will spend and be spent for Christ and that whilst many have but a Name to live yet there are a few in our Sardis who are not defiled with hellish Hypocrisie but love Truth in their inward parts CHAP. XIX Their Sabbath-Sins Lastly WHen you remember the evil of your wayes Professors Sabbath-Sins of your ungodly wayes you may not omit your Sabbath-Sins God hath appointed the Sabbath He hath sanctified it for special and entire communion with himself The Law of the Sabbath was given before the Fall because man was to labour and dress the Garden on the six dayes and therefore could not have that compleat and indistracted communion with God even in his estate of innocency which he might enjoy by a total seperation from all earthly and heterogeneous employments But since the Fall this Rest is of more absolute necessity for that we cannot now apply our minds entirely to matters of so different a nature as heavenly and earthly things are The Sabbath is many wayes honourable it was antiently set apart by God it was written with Gods own finger in the Tables God rained Mannah on that day it 's called an Everlasting Covenant by way of eminency as if nothing of Gods Covenant were kept if this were not Yea God puts a Remember on this day and no other Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day If a Friend sendeth to you that he will come and solace himself in your company such a day and tells you the set time when he will come will he not take it ill if you neglect him then If you are full of employments and other guests and have no leisure to attend communion with him Thus saith God Remember such a time I will set it apart on purpose to enjoy you and feast you I will then take you into my Cellars my Wine Cellars and after an holy manner inebriate you with Divine comforts You are on your other dayes clogg'd and cumbred with earthly affairs so that I can have therein but broken communion with you but pray Remember to lay aside all other business to rest from all your other works that I and you may freely converse together But instead of this How little Preparation do we make for the observing of this day unto the Lord Their not preparing for it Though Remember be a Watch-word of solemn Preparation for it Remember it think of it before it come that so thou mayest be ready to sanctifie it without any distraction by worldly business Which of us dispatcheth his worldly business seasonably on the six dayes Nay is it not a wicked custome to engross more business into our hands and hearts the day before than on any other day of the Week Do not greedy Professours sit up later on Saturday Night than any other Night Hereby their hearts are cumbred with the World and their natural strength and spirits wasted and spent so that they cannot with a free Spirit wait upon God Such is the reverence that is due to the solemn and publick Duties of Devotion that they require not only a surcease from other works and thoughts for the time of the performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that we look to our feet c. that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the World and not easily withdrawn from it may be raised to a disposition becoming the day God alone knows how oft the Devil and our own hearts have intangled us with occasions on the Saturday whereby our minds have been distracted on the Sabbath Yea have we not at times even secretly wished that the Sabbath were over or might be adjourned that we might pursue some worldly design which is obstructed by its interposal The Sabbath is the Saints Market-day or Fair-day You know what preparations are made by Worldlings for their dayes of gain would to God we had learned wisdome from carnal men so to fit and prepare for the advantages to our Souls we may reap upon Gods day Their curtailing it Amos 8.4 How have we curtailed the Sabbath Have not we risen later on the Lords day than on any other and gone sooner to bed on that day than on any other When will the Sabbath be gone Do not we make it the shortest day of the Week O! If God had reserved all the dayes to himself save one how diligent would you have been to take all the day to your worldly business This is a clear evidence that your minds are more on your Profits and Pleasures than on the Service of Christ How lowring are our countenances Being sad when the Sabbath begins and glad when it
the Lord suffer them not to fashion themselves according to the course of the world Connive not at them in practising what you think is abominable in the worship of God Remember they are Gods Children more than yours Ezek. 16.20 All Souls are mine God claims a special right in them thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me If you neglect your duties you and your Children are like to have sad greetings when you meet before the Lord another day How will your Children lay their hells and torments to your dores how will they curse the day they were born of such fond women who indulged to them in their neglects of God Cursed be the day that ever I saw the passions the pride the formality of my Father or of my Mother for thereby I learned to sin against the Lord. O your examples undid me I had not come to this place of torment had it not been for you Children As Children evidenced in several particulars Are not you also greatly faulty towards your Parents If Children be richer than their Parents how irreverent are they how over familiar with their Parents as if they had forgot the first Commandement with promise How disobedient are they to their lawfull commands though the command of God be express Col. 3.20 Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in all things and it is added for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father thy Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the Earth Was Christ subject to his Parents Luk. 2.51 and should not you be subject to yours Sure you should have obeyed them as farr as without sin though their commands crossed your natural desires as Joseph when Israel said unto him come I will send thee to thy Brethren at Sechem though he knew he should be sent to them who hated him yet he said unto his Father Here am I. How stout and rebellious are Children when corrected Hebr. 12.9 How few can say we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence This Sin so provoked God Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. that he made it Capitall in the dayes of old If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voyce of his Father or the voyce of his Mother and that when they have chastred him will not hearken unto them then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and shall say this our Son is stubborn and rebellious c. and all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evill away from among you How rebellious are Children in refusing the eallings which Parents have appointed for them If the Parent be bound to bring them up to a calling are not the Children bound to attend that calling Brethren let every man wherein he is called 1 Cor. 7.24 therein abide with God Christ probably was brought up in his reputed Fathers calling Is not this the Carpenter Mar. 6.3 How disobedient are Professing-Children in their marriages Children are the Parents goods so God reckoneth them yea so the Devil reckoneth them When the Devil had commission to meddle with Jobs goods he falls on the Children Some are worse than Ishmaels Gen. 21.21 Nature and Civility made him submit to his Mother for the choice of his Wife If Children must obey their Parents in littles much more in weighty matters How little have you requited your Parents This you are bound unto To shew piety at home 1 Tim. 5.4 and to requite Parents is good and acceptable before the Lord. Your Parents took care of you when you were as beasts you had your life and education from them and what now slight them when old or weak What laugh at their follies What when you are high reject your parents that are low The very Heathen Oratour declaims against this We are not born saith he for our selves but partly for our Country partly for our Parents How are you degenerated from your Parents commands and examples There are few true Rechabites who forbore wine from generation to generation It makes my heart ake when I read that the people served the Lord all the dayes of Joshuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Joshuah Judges 2.7 10 11 12 14. who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel but there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord c. and the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt c. and provoked the Lord to anger and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoylers that spoyled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies O! in vain will ye relieve your selves in your Baptismal relations unto God that you have Abraham to your Father Mat. 8.11 Gods judgements will be more bitter to you more heavy on you than on others when the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out You will be ready to curse the day you came of such Parents that ever you had such holy instructions and examples to no purpose save to greaten your condemnation The Lord said unto Moses Deut. 31.16 17. This People will goe a whoring after the Gods of the Strangers of the Land whither they goe to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my Covenant which I have made with them Then mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evills and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evills come upon us because our God is not amongst us Nay Abraham whom you trust to and the Privileges by him will upbraid his Son Dives with his former good things Son Luke 16.25 remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil thingâ— but now he is comforted and thou art tormented O most dreadful Your very righteous Parents shall rejoyce in your ruine The righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance Psa 58.10 11. c. So that a man shall say Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth CHAP. XXXI The sins of Professing-Masters and Servants FIrst you Masters As Masters see how guilty you are in the Relation of Masters 1. Not chooling godly Servants Psal 101.6 Should not your eyes like Davids have
the merciful Dispensations of God to them 1 Sam. 15.17 18 19. And Samuel said When thou wast little in thine own sight wast not thou made the Head of the Tribes of Israel and the Lord annointed thee King over Israel and the Lord seat thee on a journey and said Goe and utterly destroy the Sinners c. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord And Nathan said to David c. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. I annointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul And I gave thee thy Masters House and thy Masters Wives into thy bosome and gave thee the House of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would morcover have given unto thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight And hath there not been as much disingenuity and unkindness in our Sins The Lord hath given his Statutes to us and his Laws He hath not so dealt with all the Nations under Heaven He hath nourished and brought us up as Children Isa 1.2 3 4. but we have rebelled against him The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People my People doth not cousider Ah sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity c. God fetcheth a deep sigh Ah! under the burden of this Ingratitude His Spirit is laden and troubled with it They have provoked the Holy One of Israel Mis-improvements of Mercies are very provoking When God comes for Bread to be sent away with Stones must need vex the good Spirit of the Lord. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken it Oh for Professours to be worse than Publicans for they will be kind to such as are kind to them Have not we sinn'd against God even with his favours and requited him evil for good May not the Lord say unto us Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus require the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee All the mercies we have received greaten our sins The more richly that God hath heaped his Blessngs upon us the more wantonly we have followed the swinge of our own Lusts and the more contemptuously spurned at his holy Commandements We have great cause to be ashamed for that all our sins have been 〈◊〉 gainst mercy and therefore against the Principle and Law of Nature It is a perpetual Spot not to be worn out by time that of King Jeash that he slew Zechariah the Son of Jehojada the High Priest who had been loyal unto him in the getting of the Kingdom and faithful in the administration of it ◠Chron. 24.22 23. Thus Joash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehojada his Father had done to him but slew his Son and when he dyed he said the Lord look upon it and requite it And it came to pass at the end of the year that the Host of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people from among the people But alas What Engagements could Zechariah possibly lay on Joash that may weigh with the Mercies of our God to us And yet how have we made his choicest Favours as Arrows to shoot at the God that sent them What wretched Prodigals have we been to wast all in the service of Hell which were conferr'd with so open an hand to draw forth our time strength and spirits in the praises and services of God For this our Ingratitude Ezra 9.13 14. the Lord may justly be angry with us till he hath consumed us so that there shall be no remnant nor escaping O that you would remember the Lord from Shittim to Gilgal Mica 6.5 i. e. from the beginning of Mercy to the end of it And you will hardly find that you any of you have been the better for it but many Jeshurun-like have waxed fat and kicked God is this day calling out of Heaven to England and to each particular person in it Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise I could even wish for the thousands of our Israel that they had received fewer Privileges or had had the grace to serve the Lord in the abundance of all things better than they have to this very day If ever you purpose sound Repentance then take a view of all the Mercies of God towards you Goe back to the time when the first stone was laid yea goe back to the eternal projects of God to make thee out of nothing and to redeem thee when worse than nothing Review the upper and lower Springs with which Soul and Body have been refreshed Remember how many eminent Deliverances and Salvations God hath wrought for thee And if at any time thou hast been straitned in outward comforts yet remember how thou hast been enlarged with spiritual graces if God hath denyed thee in one kind of mercy he hath supplyed it by a gracious wonderfull commutation in another in a better if thou hast been denyed the fleshpots of Egypt and the land flowing with honey yet it hath been all made up in the bread the Mannah that fell from Heaven if thou hast had sometimes bodily infirmities yet thou hast been strengthned with all might in the inward man if thou hast been denyed thee the gold of the earth yet God hath supplyed thee in making thee rich in faith If sometimes Friends have been unfriendly inconstant or treacherous yet God hath stood by thee when all left thee God hath dealt with you as with Sons your gleanings are better than the Vintage of the world Having laid these and innumerable such mercies in one Scale now lay in the other Scale thy soul ingratitude not only that particular sin of unthankfulness that thou hast been guilty of of which before but the ingratitude that hath been in all thy sins in thy pride hypocrisie formality self-love self-seeking impatience neglect of duty to Superiours Equals and Inferiours profaneness intemperance unrighteousness c. that Remembring the Lord and his goodness towards thee together with thy cursed returns thou may'st yet abhor thy self in dust and ashes Take words and say My Salvations are more than I can number Blessed be God the Father of all mercy But my sins also are innumerable I cannot recount them shame upon me O! how vile have I made my self whilst by abuse of rich mercy Mat. 5.47 Isa 1.3 I have lived below the ingenuity that is found in Publicans and Beasts O that God would give me the success that the Angel had on such a sinfull people as you are Judg. 2.1 2 3 4. And the Angel of the Lord come up from Gilgal to Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your
Fathers and I said I will never break my covenant with you and ye shall make no league with the Inhabitants of this land c. but ye have not obeyed my voice why have ye done this c. And it came to pass when the Angel of the Lord spake these words to all the Children of Israel that the people lift up their voice and wept Secondly Very scandalously The scandalousness of your miscarriages is another aggravation of them Had all the forementioned abominations been committed in Defarts and Holes of the earth where none had been privy to your irregularities you had had no sin in comparison of what you now stand justly charged with If you had been only rotten hearted that would not have been under the eye and censure of the World Religion would have had no blemish no loss no considerable loss thereby But men have looked to your hands and feet whilst God to your hearts and finding so many defilements on you hereby the Name of God hath been blasphemed God is spoken evil of whilst you have done evil before men You knew the world was an observing world greedy to espy all the Errata's of your lives you knew spots in Cambrick would sooner be marked than in course cloth you knew how apt the world was to condemn all Saints for the miscarriages of a few pretenders to Christianity you knew how the world lay in wait like the Arabian for his prey waiting for somewhat to calumniate Christ and his followers with you knew the tongues that are set on fire of Hell would belch out their emnity upon the sight of your sins you knew how apt they were to be prejudiced against you and as the people in Elies dayes from the miscarriages of them that pretended to draw near to God would by your occasion abhorre the Offerings of the Lord. 1 Sam. 2.17 1 Pet. 3.16 2 Sam. 12.14 2 Tim. 2.26 You should have walked with such a good Conscience that whereas the world would speak against you as evil-doers they might be ashamed But insteed of this you have opened the mouth of Blasphemy you have gratified the Devil exceedingly were he capable of joy you have furthered it by being contented to be winnowed by him and to be led captive at his will The scandals of men reputed for holiness have been his greatest Harvests his greatest advantages He hopes by the falls of Cedars to break down and crush the Shrubs and tender plants that grow nigh God alone knows what mischief you have done to Religion already and where the mischief will end Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after his death Whereas ye should have left a precious Name behind you holy exact copies of Righteousness for succeeding generations to write after you have laid the stumbling block of your iniquitie before the faces of hundreds and thousands to cause them to fall Give over wondring that for these last ten years the Gospel hath had a a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts know you have like the Serpent the Dragon stood as in the place of bearing you have hindred the Birth or devoured the Child as soon as Born you have been of the old generation of Gods Curse you would not to Heaven your selves Luke 11.52 and hindred others that would if you had not laid your offences in their way Perhaps some of you may think to relieve your selves that you know none are taken in these Gins and Traps you will know shortly that he that tempteth to evil commits an hainous sin though his temptation prove not effectual God will not reward men altogether by the event of scandals but by the tendency of Scandal in its own nature Others not sinning after your example will not excuse and lessen your faults which were so apt to lead them into sin Matth. 18.17 Wo saith Christ to him by whom the offence comes Wo to them that take offence but greater wo to them that give it If God threatned Eli to take him up by the roots for not punishing Scandals in his Sons 1 Sam. 3.13 because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not What dreadfull judgements are we exposed to who are the offence-givers Wonder not if having caused many to stumble at the Law that God will make us contemptible and base before all the people Ye are departed out of the way Mal. 2.8 9. ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people How oft have we been as unsavoury Salt Mat. 5.13 and is it any wonder if we be cast out and thrown to the Dunghill O that you would remember David take him into your Closet with you he was scandalous in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba it is true he repented in dust and ashes he abhorred himself made his bed to swim the sin was pardoned the guilt thereof removed a solemn absolution was sent him by a Prophet and yet how did God follow him with misery upon misery He might in the death of the Child in the defilement of his Daughter in the murder of Ammon and in the treason of Absolon in his weeping and going barefoot in his Concubines being defiled and his own Crown and Life jeoparded in all these things he might see the woful fruits of Scandal 2 Sam. 12.9 10 11 12 13 14. Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the Sword and hast taken his Wife to be thy Wife and hast slain him with the Sword of the Children of Ammon Now therefore the Sword shall never depart from thine House c. Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own House and I will take thy Wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy Neighbour and he shall lye with thy Wives in the sight of the Sun For thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Sun And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye If David repenting of his Scandals be thus punished what will become of you who have made Religion to be abhorred and yet are insensible unbroken and unhumbled to this very day Well may unrepented of Scandals lye in your bones many dayes hence Psal 51.8 Psal 38.8 seeing David's did yea he roared because of his sin Well may you goe drooping to your graves being bereft of all joy and comfortable looks from Heaven whilst repenting David lost so long the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51.12 What shall I say O all ye
razing down our Jerusalem to the foundation thereof rejoyce God will remember them and make them desolate and lay his vengeance on Edom And if any of the bordering Philistines shall deal by revenge V. 15 16 17. and take vengeance with a despightfull heart God knows how to stretch out his hand upon them and to destroy the remnant of the Sea coast and to execute great vengeance upon them And if any of our Neighbours round about shall with Tyrus say against Jerusalem Aha she is broken Ezek. 26.2 3 4. that was the gates of the people she is turned unto us we shall be replenished now that she is laid wast God can soon stoop these Mountains by causing many Nations to come up against them as the Sea causeth his Waves to come up and scrape their dust from them and make them like the top of a Rock Amos 3.2 God cannot bear it that the Heathen should be insulting whilst he is correcting his own and therefore God hath confirmed it by an Oath that he will deal severely with such Mockers Zeph. 2.8 9 10. I have heard of the reproach of Moab c. therefore as I live saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall be as Sodom c. Zech. 1.15 And I am sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Leave we these to the Righteousness of God and let us return to our selves whilst they are insulting Isa 64.4 Numb 16. Job 31.3 may we be on humbling and repenting Work God is come down and hath done terrible things that we looked not for we have been visited but not with the common visitation of all people God hath strange punishments for the workers of iniquity And no wonder when strange Oaths have been minted of later times that our Forefathers never heard of there have been strange wayes of Epicurisme and Gluttony strange wayes of uncleanness strange unknown fashions in apparel and for Fraud cheating and Tricks of Legerde main they have fresh and new and frequent every day Hath not God then a just controversie with his people If the Lord draw out Judgements that were never heard of before and make us signs and wonders to the world and an astonishment to all Nations may we not justifie his proceedings If we exceed our Forefathers Sins what wonder is it if we feel Judgements that they were never sensible of CHAP. XXXIX What use Professours should make of this Gospel-Glass ANd now Professour to all thy former Sins Quarrel not with the Glass do not add this great abomination that having had the Glass of the Word so faithfully revealing many of thy sins to thee thou shouldst go away and strait forget what manner of man thou hast been Let not Satan tempt thee to quarrel with the enterprise for that the Glass is not broad enough to shew to thee all thy stains and deformities know here are enough presented to thy view to lay thee low enough in Hell without Repentance Perhaps also by thy corrupt reason thou canst plead for one or two particulars or bring it under debate whether they are stains or not But know to the confusion of thy face here are spots unquestionable spots discovered and such as are not the spots of Gods Children But wouldst thou improve this or any other such Glass for the good of thy Soul Let Gods Honour and thy precious Souls everlasting welfare perswade thee to receive in meekness and love the following Counsels 1. Reflect on all the particulars Improve it for promoting Consideration and Meditation that thou may'st see what are thine iniquities Do not behold only and so goe away be not contented with slight apprehensions but muse that the Fire may burn Consider how oft in the Bill of Attainder thy Conscience tells thee thou art guilty O! ponder these things in thine heart chew the Cud recoyl upon thy self Let the Lord hear one the more for thee crying out what have I done How have I provoked the Lord By meditation retain the memory of thy sins with all their aggravations as much as thou canst set past sins in present view and possess the sins of thy youth as if they were just now committed now track the abominations of your lives charge this duty upon thy own Soul as that which must be done as thou wilt answer it at thy peril before God and Angels Perhaps hitherto you have forgot your corrupt lives and hearts as you have your natural faces forthwith but let it be so no more for Christs sake Consider not only how many of these sins you have been guilty of but how frequently and for how many dayes or years thou hast lived in some of these abominations having oft been guilty of the same sin though perhaps thou knew'st it to be a sin and hast prayed and resolved against it And because the particulars may seem little sins though in a sense there is no little sin because there is no little God and sins have their accents and aggravations from the person who is affronted yet because it is with sin as it is with stones you may carry this stone and that stone without trouble with much case but when many little stones are heared together they become weighty and heavy to bear therefore I advise that by serious meditation you sum them up joyntly till your backs or rather your hearts be broken and you take up the language of the Prophet My sins are passed over my head Psal 38.4 they are become too heavy for me to bear Reflect not only on thy Pride and carelessness and other particular miscarriages but put all the Items into one main Sum that it may stoop thy heart 2. Confession Away now and present thy self before the great and holy God whom thou hast provoked by these by all these great abominations and upon thy knees give glory to him by confessing to him as many of thy sins as thou canst remember with all their aggravating circumstances Josh 7.19 It is the same advice that Joskuah gave to Aâ—chan tell God what thou hast done and what thouâ—â—ast left undone Hide it not from him Confess to God all thy low unworthy thoughts of him all thy enmity against him his Laws and People c. Go and confess what envy what malice what ranckour hath lain in thine heart against thy Neighbour Confess to the Lord how oft thou hast spoke evil of dignities of the blood-royal of the favourites of Heaven of the Sons and Daughters of the most High who were more righteous than thy self Many times thou hast brag'd with the Pharisee what sins thou hast not been guilty of now confess what thou hast been guilty of I know if thou art an Hypocrite thou art loth to bring it forth thou thinkest it will be a shame to thee But let me tell thee it is a shame
from Genesis to the Revelation and what ever filthiness waâ— found in Men or Kingdoms may be founâ— upon our skirts and shall not we hang up our harps refuse to be comforted shall not we lye down prostrate before God and pour out water before the Lord and weep till we can weep no more Tremble O my heart under all these provocations And let your hearts be as the leaves of a treee that is shaken by the Whirlwind What so many hellish lusts to swarm in thy heart What guilty of so many millions of iniquities against the God of Heaven and yet thou secure light vain and frothy I profess if I did not know what a stone I have within I should wonder all the day long how it is possible we can stand under so much guilt without shreiks cryes and lamentations I should wonder how you eat and drink and sleep how you can laugh or sing whilst God is so provoked Can I think that man lives who is not moved by the weight of a mountain on his back Professour thou hast that which is heavier than Mountains of lead upon thy Soul and yet thou hardly feelest it Thou dost not groan under that which drew not only tears of water but of blood yea clots of blood from the eyes and veins of Jesus Christ I wonder how you continue your claims to Christ how you can call God Father Christ Redeemer whilst you have so little love to him and whilst you were never pricked at the heart for all the injuries that you and others have done him Whom you love you are troubled for if he be injured by your selves or others But where is your Soul-trouble for your own and other mens sins Are not many as sensual as ever as great servants to the flesh as ever Have you not your Feasts and Entertainments as formerly Though it be a day Isa 22.12 13 14. wherein the Lord calls to weeping and mourning to baldness and girding with sackcloth yet behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine And hath not the Lord sent you a word that may make your knees to tremble Is not the hand-writing plain It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye saith the Lord God of Hosts O! Fall down amazed fill thy Spirit with horrour away into thy Closet though thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity yet pray to the Lord if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart and the wickedness and prophaness of thy life and particularly thy unseasonable mirth and fleshly indulgencies may be forgiven How can you trade with so much guilt upon you You have had your pleas for your covetousness and inordinate affections to the World that God bids you provide for your own But what think'st thou of thy Soul Is that no part of thine own Is that no piece of thy charge O! Provide for thy Soul Thy Soul cannot be safe whilst stained with so many thousand impurities which were never mourned over to this day O! Let sorrow enter into the very inwards of thy heart and let the insupportable pressures of sin sink thy very Soul Zech. 12.10 Mourn as the tender Mother for her only Son be in bitterness so as thou canst not relish those things which thou hast hitherto followed with so much eagerness Let the loathsomeness of thy sins be continually before thine eyes as thy standing dish So it was with Repenting David Psa 51.3 Lam. 5.16 Lam. 1.1 2 3 4 9 13 21. My sin is ever before me So it was with the Church Woe to us we have sinned It is true they were under fearful Plagues How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become a Widow She that was great among the Nations and Princess among the Provinces how is she become tributary Among all her Lovers she hath none to comfort her all her Friends have dealt treacherously with her c. She dwelleth among the Heathen she findeth no rest all her Persecutours overtook her between the straits The wayes to Zion mourn c. She came down wonderfully and she had no Comforter c. The Enemy hath magnified himself c. From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them c. All mine Enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it Lam. 2.3 15 16. The Lord hath burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devoureth round about c. All they that pass by clap their hands at thee they hiss and wagg the head at the Daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the Perfection of Beauty Lam. 4.6 11 16. the Joy of the whole Earth All thine Enemies have opened their mouth against thee they hiss and gnash the teeth and say We have swallowed her up Certainly this is the day we looked for We have found We have seen it The punishment of the iniquity of the Daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment and no hand stayed on her The Lord hath accomplished his fury he hath powred out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof The anger of the Lord hath divided them c. Lam. 5.2 8 10 11. Our Inheritance is turned to Strangers our Houses to Aliens Our Necks are under Persecution We labour and have no rest Servants have ruled over us there is none to deliver us out of their hand Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible Famine They ravished the Women in Zion and the Maids in the Cities of Judah But yet they mind not their misery so much as their sin Woe unto us for we have sinned In order to the promoting of this godly sorrow I do importune thee with the highest fervency I can that thou seperate some extraordinary time to humble thy self by Fasting and Prayer that God would give thee Repentance for thine own and thine other mens sins Perhaps to this day thou hast never observed one in order to the getting of a broken heart O that I could now prevail with thee for this is the means that God hath blest again and again On such dayes God hath softned many an heart and cast out the Devil of security and hardness which could not be cast out in ordinary times of waiting upon God Let thy main request on that day be for a deep consideration of all thy sins with all their several aggravations and a deep humiliation for them O! I beseech you if you have any love to Christ to the credit of Religion to your perishing Souls break through all businesses and impediments and retire your selves and fall down at the footstool of God more solemnly than ever you did If you are by the consideration
their Enemies but if we stay here we perish or as Ladies use Litters to carry them over the dirt or as we use a Penthouse during the Storm and then Farewell or as Passengers the Boat they cry vehemently a Boat a Boat and as soon as they are Fetryed over the deep farewel to the Boat they think no more of it When he slew them then they sought him Psal 78.34 and they returned and enquired early after God Then never before and never after Undoubtedly multitudes have been affrighted to Christ who were never truly and throughly converted to him and have left their Sins from compulsion of their judgement not from the propension of their will not from any love they have borne to Christ they love to be safe but still hate to be holy O! O! how many are herein deluded who have pretended a great deal of love to Christ whilst base Self the love of pleasure and ease and to be exempted from horrours and fears hath been the Bias that hath drawn them to Christ I appeal to thy Conscience whether Christ be valued be look'd after save in a strait When trouble is upon thee then this Physician is sent for but when the pang is over the Physicians company is too chargeable is no way desirable the sooner he turns his back the better When Women are great with Child and when Men and Women both hear it thunder and see it lighten when the Arrows of the Lord fly thick and a great mortality is sweeping many to the Grave O! then how shall I get Christ then Books are read Sermons heard and valued Prayers not neglected but when the fears of death are over Psal 4.6 Ephes 5.16 O! then who will shew us any good Then Redeem lost time not for God and Souls but for the World then head and ears in the world again then secret Prayer is neglected then the Bible lies in a dusty corner not viewed till the next storm arise and then Christ must be awakened with Master Mark 4.38 carest thou not that we perish I will tell you what your Ministers have told you before Sin and the World were your Companions in days of health ease and peace and Christ your desire in cloudy days Is it not so If Christ in the day as well as in the night lies chief between thy breasts thou hast cause to say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name But I fear most pitch on Christ for themselves and not for Christ Christ in the time of Contagion shall go for something but Christ in dayes of health and ease shall be valued no more than a meer Chimara a Cipher a Nothing It is one thing to take Christ to pacifie the Conscience and another to take him to purify the heart An unquiet Conscience is to most a greater burden than an insensible seared and polluted Conscience than an impure heart Oh! Repent of thy juglings with Christ Psa 78.36 They did flatter him with their mouths and they lied unto him with their tongues They pretend to come to Christ in order to service and obedience when all the while they serve themselves on Christ Base Capitulations with Christ Thirdly How many have base Capitulations with Christ Many come running to Christ and ask him as the man in the Gospel Good Master what shall I do Mark 10.17.21 22 that I may inherit eternal life Christ tells him and them Gee thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come take up the Cross and follow me But as he so they are discontented And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great Possessions Undoubtedly many Hypocrites have some glimpse of Christs glory and they run to Christ whilst others deride him but they like not the Price that Christ sets They would have Christ on their own terms Christs terms are to have the Heart My Son Prov. 23.26 give me thy heart Do not lend it only but give give it chearfully give it presently give me it now Now that it is called to day To day Heb. 3.7 8. if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Give me thy heart to be framed and fashioned by me to be stamped and sealed by me be no longer thine own I will not be content thou lend me thy heart for a Sabbath or for a day of Prayer and then that thou call for thine heart again and bestow it upon thy lusts give me thine heart and do not sell it for base ends for base respects give me thine heart do not keep it to thy self lay up and leave thine heart in my hand for me to keep it for thee But alass how shamefully do we break with Christ We would live as we list and do as we list We are content to give Christ the body the outward man the ear the tongue the head c. but we reserve our heatts for the service of the World and of Sin or if we are perswaded to give the heart yet it is but a devided heart not the whole heart but a piece of it Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart saith Christ but Pride Covetousness and Voluptuousness would fain have a share hence no â—â—l closings between Christ and many Professors Christ and they part They as some Customers seem to commend the wares but they like their money better Few see themselves so miserable without a Christ as to come up to the price Their cursed Leagues with base Lusts bind them so fast in Chains that they cannot they will not come up to Christs proposals to Christs demands they will treat with Christ on no other terms unless they may have the pleasures of Sin and may fulfill the lusts of the flesh but if Conscience be disquieted and troublesome then they make new offers they will leave many sins they will except but one There is but one exception they have and if that may be accepted then they are Christs they have but one reserve These Swine are contented to escape the pollutions of the World 2 Pet. 2.20 22. through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ so they may have one mire to return to and wallow in If Christ will stoop to these terms then welcome Christ if one sin and Christ may share the heart betwixt them the man is contented but few are contented that every knee should bow that every sin be parted from The Lord be mercifull to me If I bow in the house of Rimmon No saith Christ All or none If the Conscience be not quiet upon this then as Marriners throw overboard their goods their Jewels their Bales of Silk and other pleasant wares in a Tempest to ease the Vessel which they wish for in a Câ—lm and labour to fetch up again if it be
who have committed more sins in number than the hairs on my head than the sands on the Sea shore And what Mercy for me Shall I have a Christ Will Christ accept of me who have wronged his Father and him for so many years together O! how long doth many an awakened Soul hang in doubts and fears ere it will venture upon Christs graciousness alone and then when the Soul hath long stood out the fears increase I have refused Christ so long to all my former transgressions I have added this my puting off Christ and Salvation when freely tendered and therefore sure I may not now come And now if Christ offers them mercy still they are fearful they cannot believe that Christ is serious and real O! by these jealousies of Christ you provoke him not a little You are ready to say This is too good news to be true What is this but to say The Gospel is false it is no true and faithful Word 't is not to be received with all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save the greatest of sinners blasphemers and persecutours of Christ This is the great Sin that made Christ weep You seldome find Christ weeping over the Idolaters of the World I find him not weeping over Sodom and Gomorrah but if Hierusalem refuse Christ this makes him weep indeed Hierusalem Luke 19.42 Hierusalem O if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that concern thy peace Christ became a man of sorrows Isa 53.3 was acquainted with griefs c. on hopes he should see of the travail of his Soul and be satisfied It troubles Christ to see thee to goe about to make God a Lyar to his Son and to be denied thy loves and affections for whose sake he submitted to his Fathers frowns O! this sin of Unbelief hath great unkindness in it Mar. 16.14 and therefore no wonder if Christ upbraids for it A man is properly upbraided when as the kindness that hath been done to him is revealed to him together with his ungratefulness But what shall I say So farr are Souls from coming to Christ that they do seldome bewail this sin and seldome seek to God for power against it and though men pretend they cannot come to Christ yet the truth is they will not so Mr. Fenner in his willful impenitency hath abundantly proved The immediate cause of your not coming is not a natural deficiency but a moral opposition of Spirit against Christ CHAP. VII Their taking Christ partially without conjugal affections and without considering the cost they may be at 5ly Many take Christ partially IF at length men are perswaded to come to Christ yet they take him partially both as King Prophet and Priest As their King They are contented he shall rule in many things but not in all Their drudgery to one or two lusts must be preferr'd before Christs Scepter and Government Some part of Christs Yoak of Commandements they will submit to but are not pleased that Christ shall impose what they will they pick and choose here they will obey in another thing I pray have me excused few are brought to say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Any thing Lord I am called to thy foot as the man of the East was ready to trudge after thee to the ends of the Earth As their Prophet Here they divide too many things they will learn of Christ but they must partly lean to their own understandings and be taught for Doctrines the Traditions of men They are also partial in their close with Christ as their Priest They hope to be saved partly by his mediation and partly by their own As the Papists so many Protestant Professours are for a divided Christ few are for exalting Christ alone so as to renounce all other Lords who have had Dominion over them and to count all other Teachers besides Christ as vain absurd unsound and weak Few renounce all their own righteousness as dung to put the Crown on Christs head alone to make Christ their alone Mediatour their alone Intercessour No they must have Cisterns of their own to keep their water in and Sands of their own to build upon and so Christ the Elect precious Stone is refused by the Builders How many hope to be pardoned partly by Christ and partly by their Civility and new Obedience They lay their title to God Heaven and Glory partly from Christs merits and partly from their own deserts few whose hopes are founded on Christ's satisfaction alone but their hopes rise or fall according to what they do for him rather than according to what he hath done and suffered for them their hopes of acceptance with God are more from their reformations than from Christs entring within the Vaile If they have peace of Conscience they ascribe it to their Prayers rather than to Christs Intercession and if they Pray in secret in their Closet and in their Family too when both before were neglected they hope to pass by this Bridge to Heaven but if it be too short they will set Christ to patch up what is wanting that they may land on the other shore Hence it is that many Professors are much more consciencious in their obedience to the moral law than they are to the Law of Faith for that they hope their obedience will steed them asmuch if not more than Jesus Christ but if they understand that without Faith there is no pleasing God then they will labour for a faith that may justifie them rather as an act of theirs than in respect of the object Christ. Christ is still used only upon necessity and to make up the want of somewhat else but very few dare rest on the merits of Christ alone so as to see all their righteousness to be as filthy rags To few â—s Christ made of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Let me ring a peal in your Ears Totum Christum et totum Christi You must receive Christ entirely all Christ and all of Christ or you are not Christians though you have a name to live Christ is coming to distinguish names from things and then you will curse the day you had the Name or heard of the Name you will have your portion with Hypocrites These are indispensible terms on which Christ will insist All or none Christ as a Refiner as well as a Saviour Christ as a Lord as well as a Sacrifice Sixthly Many close with Christ without coniugal affections If men are perswaded in the horrours of their Spirits to take Christ as Priest Prophet and King as a meer shift to shift off their troubles and sorrows and their sins the occasions of them yet their hearts stand off from Christ as an Husband they have not conjugal affections to him their hearts are not brought over to him they receive him not into their bosomes into their choicest affections all this while There is still
but questionable yea which have been found in unsound Hypocritical hearts and so deceive themselves Their groundless Pleas that they have closed with Christ as if they had a Christ and real Grace within them How do they live upon these Signes comfortably all their dayes without a Christ Excuse me if I bring in their Pleas and answer them briefly 1. I am changed from what I was nay changed inwardly So was Saul And it was so 1 Sam. 10.9 that when he had turned his back to goe from Samuel God gave him another heart Thou mayest have another heart and yet not a new heart 2. I have extraordinary Gifts I was dull unable to speak of God tongue-tyed among the Saints but I can now hold a discourse with them and manage some of the highest services as well as they Might not Saul say so much for himself had not he the Spirit of Prophesie to admiration When a company of Prophets met him 1 Sam. 10.10 11. the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them Then the people said one to another What is this that is come to the Son of Kish Is Saul also among the Prophets The Spirit of God was upon him also at another time 1 Sam. 19.23 24. and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah and he stript off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and lay downnaked all that day and all that night He was so great a Proficient that as one observes As soon as he was admitted into the Society he commenced Doctour and prophesied with the best of them They stood and prophesied he went on he could run and prophesie yea he was so full of the Spirit of Prophesie that he neither eat nor drank nor slept nor rose but lay down naked all the day and all the night he was as in a traunce all that while and wanted neither meat nor drink nor clothes nor sleep 3. I was full of revenge but now I am come to such a pitch of Religion that I can pass by Offences yea pass them by when I have an opportunity of punishing them that affront me Had not Saul so much Religion The Children of Belial said 1 Sam. 10.27 How shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no Prosents but he held his peace He bears much that can bear being derided 4. Though I am meek in mine own Cause yet when the Name of God and the Church of God suffer I can be very much inflamed So was hypocritical Saul 1 Sam. 11.2 6. When Nahash the Ammonite told the men of Jabesh On this condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tydings and his anger was kindled greatly 5. I am merciful to men to mine Enemies because God hath shewed me mercy So was Saul And Saul said 1 Sam. 11.13 There shall not a man be put to death this day for this day the Lord hath wrought Salvation in Israel Though he was incited to revenge yet he would not 6. When I have any Mercy from God I see God in the Mercy and is not this a good Sign Truly no better than Saul had 1 Sam. 11.13 To day the Lord hath wrought Salvation in Israel 7. I engage God with me before I set upon any considerable Undertakings Did not Saul so much Then said I the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made Supplication to the Lord 1 Sam. 13.12 I forced my self therefore and offered a burnt Offering And Saul said unto Ahiah Bring hither the Ark of God c. And Saul asked counsel of God Shall I goe down after the Philistines 8. When I Pray I look what becomes of my Prayer and I suspend many of my Motions till I have an Answer Saul the Hypocrite went so farr he look'd after his Prayer and would not goe down after the Philistines 1 Sam. 14.37 because God answered him not that day 9. If I have no Answer to Prayer I examine the Reason and I am sure this is more than most Professours do But not more than Saul did When God answered him not that day 1 Sam. 14.37 38. Saul said Draw ye nigh hither all the chief of the people and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day 10. I am troubled for other mens sins and cannot but reprove sinners Is not this a Sign of Sincerity I answer No unless Saul were sincere When he was told the People eat the blood he was troubled and reproved them too 1 Sam. 14.33 He said Ye have transgressed 11. My Zeal against Sin is such that I punish it where-ever I find it I am impartial in my rebukes of sin my Children as well as my Servants are corrected if they trespass against the Lord. Hence I conclude mine estate is good And so might Saul 1 Sam. 14.29 As the Lord liveth who saveth Israel though it the sin be in Jonathan my Son he shall surely dye 12. I conclude God loves me from a constant series of smiling Providences that followeth all that I take in hand I find that the Lord blesseth me in my goings out and comings in whatsoever I do doth prosper And had not Saul strange Successes and Victories When Israel was so low that they had no weapons for Warr nor Smiths to make any Saul took the Kingdome over Israel 1 Sam. 14.47 and fought against all his Enemies on every side c. and whither soever he turned himself he vexed them 13. I find a readiness to confess others better than my self so did Saul with tears in his Eyes And Saul said 1 Sam. 24.16 17. is this thy voice my Son David And Saul lift up his voice and wept and he said to David thou art more righteous than I. 14. I continue my duties when I fear God hath rejected me even in desertion I keep on worshiping So did Saul when Samuel told him God hath rejected thee 1 Sam. 15.25 30 31. he desired Samuel to turn again with him that he might worship the Lord and he prevailed with Samuel to turn again and Saul worshiped the Lord. 15. I see a beauty in the Church and People of God So did Balaam How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel As the Valleys are they spread forth Numb 24.5 6. as Gardens by the Rivers sides as the Trees c. which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar trees besides the waters 16. I cannot for the greatest advantage be brought to sin against God Neither could Balaan Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the Commandement of the Lord c. 17. I live up to the dictates of
that they cannot pass up If I come to Christ he will not look on such a Wretch as I am Many such hard thoughts of Christ are suggested by Satan and too soon entertained by us Whilst so you can never thank God for any Mercy for you doubt whether it be a Mercy to you Can you bless him for life health and length of dayes whilst you have this Suggestion that your account swells with your time Can you bless God for Estates Honours Friends c. when you have this jealousie that God is fatning you as Hoggs for the slaughter Can you bless God for Ordinances whilst you suspect that there is a Commission given forth that though you have eyes yet you shall not see c. And that the Sun is to harden you whilst it softneth others Yea how can ye bless God for Christ when you imagine he is set for your fall By giving way to these Jealousies you dam up the Springs of Praise that should slow from your lips day and night Hereby you will also be hindred from waiting on the Lord with that free and chearful Spirit as ye ought I cannot wait on an Enemy as on a Friend If I have cursed jealousies of any man I find no pleasure to be in his company and if he employs me about any thing I goe grudgingly about it The truth is So long as you entertain suspitions of Gods willingness to make you happy Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim P. 27 28. and to afford you sufficient means to make you happy all your Religion will degenerate into a spurious and base-born Devotion Instead of that free and friendly converse that ought to be maintained between God and your Souls you will only flatter him in a servile manner and bribe him not to be your Enemy Worship God you must for fear of incurring his displeasure and lest your neglects of him should rouze up his anger against you but you cannot entertain any chearful and friendly society with a Beeing which appears in a dress so horrible to your Souls Now between this necessity of coming to him and that fearfullness to approach him what can there be begotten but a forced and constrained Devotion which because you do not love you would willingly leave did not the dread and horrour you have in your Souls of him dragg you to his Altars And what are you wont to do there Truly nothing but cry and look as if you were going to Execution till you can flatter your selves into some hopes that he is moved by your cries and forced submissions to lay aside his frowns and cast a better aspect upon you But your hard thoughts of God returning you are constrained to renew your slavish Devotions that you may purchase another gracious look from him In this circle do your poor Souls spend many dayes and advance not one step towards the New Jerusalem No wonder therefore if God be so provoked at this sin of evil surmises This is what I have observed very common among the Lords People they will pray with some earnestness and perhaps have some confidence that God is gracious and will answer their prayers and grant all their desires but no sooner off from their knees but if they think of God yet they lay down their expectations of receiving any thing from God and fall to distrusting and to renew their jealousies of God as soon as they have done Praying What Is God yea and nay Is he kind when thou art on thy knees and unkind as soon as off Will God take it well from thee that in thy duties thou shalt put to thy Seal that God is true and loving and minds thy good And presently take off the Seal yea rather Seal to a parchment of the Devils drawing that God is false churlish and one that seeks thy ruine O! whilst there is a Devil and a melancholy-humour to be wrought upon I do even despair to see this cursed God-dishonouring and debasing sin to be quite rooted out of the hearts of Christians but yet it is a Provocation and Let it be for a Lamentation CHAP. XII Their unthankfulness 5ly Professours unthankfulness UNthank fulness is another piece of ungodliness that Professours are very guilty of Praise or Thankfulness is as the Penny or Pepper-corn which God expects as acknowledgement as high Rent to be paid him for all we hold of him But how hath this been denyed And thereby how justly have we forfeited all into the hands of God Psa 65. ult Isa 46. ult Though the paying of this rent penny be the only Heavenly work that can be done on Earth the only joyfull imployment that shall last to all Eternity in another life a work that should ever wait for God in Zion and therefore Zion is called Israel my glory not only because God glorieth in Zion but because Zion should continually glorifie God yet how unthankfull are the most Professours The very Heathens will rise up in judgement against unthankfull Christians They had their hymns to their Gods Plato when ready to die gave God thanks for three things that he was made a man that he was born in Greece and that he lived in the time of Socrates How much more should our lips shew forth the high praises of God who hath made us not only men but new men That we are born of God adopted the Children of the most high and regenerated by the Spirit That we have breathed not in Greece but in England in Ariel a place of Visions in the Valley of Vision O the riches of free grace I that our Mothers Conceived with us in this place of light and at such a time when the Nation was most enriched with the light of the Gospel when it was full of gracious Ministers the best that ever the world saw since the Apostles dayes Why had not God brought thee out of the Womb when this land was overrun with Paganism with Popery Why had not the Lord shut thee up and imprisoned thee with the rest of the World in darkness and in the shadows of death O that when the Gospel shines but upon a little spot of ground which God hath inclosed for himself and stiles it his pleasant place his garden that thou shouldst be the man born there That when the rest of the world is like the barren mountains on which no rain falls and brings forth nothing but bryars that God should bring thee forth in the place of his Tabernacle And yet thou ingratefull wretch will hardly confess that the lines are fall'n happily and that thou hast a goodly heritage How seldome is such language as this heard from thee Blessed be the Lord that my lot is fall'n in so fair a ground blessed be God that I was born in England and not in the Wasts of Arabia or America thanks be to the Lord that I have had more than the light of the Sun Moon and Stars to conduct me to Jesus that so
1 Tim. 1.13 I was a Persecutour a Blasphemer and injurious What saith God Remember this day What day The day wherein you were delivered from the house of bondage under Sin the World and Satan O! how have we forgotten that the Lord by a strong and irresistable work of his blessed Spirit translated us out of the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son It was he that made Jordan to give back and delivered us from Egypt and the Wilderness that we might inherit the good Land O! what Enemies were we studying to be damned galloping to Hell till God met us How seldome do we look back to the Spring from whence all our Mercy flowes For Election How unthankful have we been for that Original-fountain-Mercy eternal Election Why should God single us out a People for himself Why did Grace blossom from Eternity Why did God plot and study my happiness before I had a beeing What was there that Jacob is smiled upon and Esau not so God might have had his Revenues of Glory out of my ruine O that he should glorifie the riches of his mercy in my Salvation And yet how little is God magnified for this How little do we bless God for Christ For Christ Though he be the Stream that alone refresheth the City of God yet how seldome is his Love his stoops and condescentions for us his bleeding and dying for us remembred by us with hearty Praises and Thanksgivings For the Covenant of Grace and the Spirit How little do we bless God for the Covenant of Grace which Mr. Allen excellently calls The Bow in the Cloud after a Deluge of Sin and Misery the forfeited Lease of Eternity renewed the Magna Charta of the City of God the Hopes of Sinners and the Riches of Saints And in particular for the Promise of the Spirit in all his Offices and Operations for the application of the purchased Possession Ezek. 36.27 For outward Salvations I will put my Spirit within you How little do we remember to bless the Lord for outward Salvations You begin perhaps with a little as Jacob and now behold you have two bands a troop of Children Friends c. and an Estate to maintain them When others have had one Mess you have had Benjamin's Portion the silver cup put into the sacks mouth Riches and God too Estate and Christ too Peace and the God of Peace too the World and a good Title to it and yet do not you seldome cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and let all that is within thee praise his holy Name How seldome do you consider who hath maintained you all this while Who hath delivered you and pull'd you as brands out of the sire You have had the Sentence of Death in your selves you have been with David and Paul in the mouth of the Lyon and yet saved near to perish by the Bullet Sword Pestilence Feaver and other dangers and yet your Lives given you for a prey But how soon have you forgotten the wonders shewen unto the dead O the many preventing Mercies that you have been made partakers of Hath not God secured you in many travails How many have died much younger than you whilst the Lord lengtheneth out your dayes in order to Repentance How many have died in an instant and been snatch'd away without any warning given of Death's approach whilst you have had many an Harbinger to give you to understand its nearness to you How many have been crush'd by falls from houses and câ—â—oured by beasts and by other accidents have been hastened to their long home whilst God is long-suffering to you How many have you seen drawn on Sleds led to shameful and violent Deaths whilst you have been kept from such dismal ends And are there no thanks due to the Name of God And yet how seldome do you admire at distinguishing Providence and preventing loving kindnesses You have a guard of Angels to attend you day and night to secure you from danger but how little do you bless the Lord for the Heavenly Host And yet if you do thank God for some signal outward Mercies perhaps for ease from the Stone Gout Cholick perhaps for security from the rage of the devouring Pestilence if you thank not God more for deliverance from Hell from the guilt and power of Sin than for outward Salvations you discredit God and his choicest Mercies by under-rating Spirituals to Temporals We should have blessed God for his Rod For sufferings for Christ as well as for his Staffe for both are Mercies but how unthankful are we even for sufferings for righteousness sake God expects that in every thing we give thanks as we should not be partial in our Obedience so neither in our Thanksgiving How little have we imitated the ancient Christians whose mouths were alwayes full of Thanks be unto God They saluted one another with Deo gratias and when they heard tydings of Persecution or Protection of Crosses or Comforts still they cried out God be thanked How unlike are we to famous Bradford If said he the Queen will release me I will thank her if she will keep me in Prison I will thank her if she will burn me I will thank her Thou shouldst say from thy very heart Though sick though scorned though threatned though all the day long counted as a sheep for the slaughter yet blessed be God that I am counted worthy to suffer for his Name Blessed be God that he counts me for a Son and chasteneth me for my profit that I may be made partaker of his holiness Blessed be God that I am chastened that I may not be condemned But how few give thanks alwayes in all things unto God Eph. 5.20 Isa 24.15 1 Pet. 4.16.13 We have been too backward to glorifie God in Zion much more in the Fires The Apostle Peter would not have any man suffering as a Christian to be ashamed but to glorifie God on this behalf and to rejoyce in as much as he is partaker of Christs sufferings But God knows how farr from Praises we have been when the Storms have been high and threatned our Tabernacles How hath God charged us to remember Mercy Confiderations against Vnthankfulness and to praise him for it Ye that fear the Lord praise him Praise him O ye Servants of the Lord Praise thy God O Zion Psal 22.23.135.1.147.12.148.1.150.1 2. Praise him in the heights Praise God in his Sanctuary Praise him for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellent greatness Doth not the innumerableness of Gods requiries of Praise and Thanksgiving aggravate our neglect of this Duty What Provision hath Christ made against this Sin Hath not he appointed the Sacrament of his Supper on purpose to help us to Remember him and his saving benefits Do this in Remembrance of me But have not many Professours been so resolved to be unthankful that they have neglected this great Ordinance
which was appointed to strengthen their Remembrance of past Mercies Hath not God told us that he hath formed us for his praise And what yet backward thereunto We can never love God to an height whilst we forget his loving Kindnesses I wonder not that many complain of their decayes of Love to God whilst they forget his wonders of Grace and Love to their Souls Even Publicans will love those of whom they are beloved And did we oftner recount the Mercies of God they would work endearments betwixt God and our Souls Did we consider what a wonder it is that God should draw us out of nothing that he who stoops to behold the things of Heaven should put his singer to our workmanship that he should curiously work us as Needle-work in the dark Vaults of Nature and that when we were fuller of sin than the Toad of poyson that yet he should feed a Toad and cloath a Cockatrice the Fire of Love to God would burn within our breasts How is God provoked by this sin God took it ill at the hands of the Israelites that they remembred not his hand Psal 78.42 nor the day in which he delivered them How much more do we grieve the Lord who remember not the goodness and salvations of the Lord in Canaan yea in Zion Our Saviour was grieved that his Disciples remembred not the five Loaves Mat. 16.8 9 10. and the seven Loaves and how many Baskets they took up Innumerable greater favours hath God shewed to us and yet we forget them How have we forgot the God that bridled Natures proud waves and said Hitherto ye shall goe and no farther When we were ripe for Judgement then Mercy stept in and yet how slow to give thanks Hardly one of tea blesseth God for cleansing Mercy as they ought Were there not ten cleansed but where are the nine This makes me fear People have not had a deep sense of the misery and stains of Nature for that their Saviour is no more thanked Did not the Lord force thee by an over-powering work of Grace upon thy Soul at first Conversion to be willing to be made happy Did not he compel thee to come into the Feast Was it not God that brought thee to such a Parish to such a Minister and to such a Text And did not he by his Almighty power enable thee to believe and apply Was it not he that broke thine heart when as hard as a nethermost Mill-stone and made it soft malleable and pliant to his will and pleasure And what forget the wonders of the Lord in the deep This vexeth the Lord to the heart Did not he cause the Walls of Jerâ—co to fall as by the voice of Rams-hornes by weak inconsiderable means Did not he alienate thine heart from Lusts that were dearer to thee than thine eyes Did not he present the face of Christ as lovely to thy Soul who before was despised aend rejected And hath not Christ fed thee with fresh supplyes of free Grace that have watered thy Soul every moment so that you have been kept through his mighty power How many doubts hath Christ answered and how many scruples hath he by his Holy Spirit satisfied thee in And yet O wretched heart how unthankfull hast thou been Thou hast forgot all his benefits A man would think it were impossible that every unpleasing Providence should make us so forgetful of all the mighty Works that have been done within doors upon our Souls How just is it with God to plague us for this our unkindness unto him Isa 17.10 11. Because thou hast forgotten c. therefore the harvest shall be an heâ—â— In the beginning all succeeded well saith Vatablus upon the place according to our desire In the day the Plant grew and in the morning the Seed flourished but because of unthankfulness extreme misery followed Wonder not that the Showres are with-held that the Lord causeth the Sun to set on the Prophets at Noon day that the Manna falls not before your doors that the hidden Mannah Ingrato quod donatur deperditur Sen. and white Stone are denied you you have been unthankfull you have not taken care for the fragments that nothing be lost Gods Mercies have been lost upon you Or Waters were become Wines our Gleanings were better than the Worlds Vintage God dealt with us as Sons But now if he draws in his hand and make his Garden as a desolate Wilderness for this sin who can say unto God What dost thou Must not all of us put our mouths in the dust Did not we sit under our own Vines Had we not our solemn Assemblies Did not we goe in troops to the house of the Lord Was not Holiness in credit Did not the mix'd multitude joyn with us and desired to be numbred amongst us because God was with us Did not fear come upon all the People And had not the Churches rest Did we fear the shaking of the Spear Might we not have been as holy as we pleased Had not we as much liberty as we desired But O then how unthankfull were we How troubled were we that every Mordecai did not bow that every one would not be of our mind and dance after our Pipe God knows what a Controversie there is with the Land for the Unthankfulness of them that dwelt therein O how glad would ye be of one of the dayes of the Son of man of your old Privileges and Spiritual Liberties Because ye have not served God with joy and praise in dayes of plenty therefore it is but a righteous thing that you serve in scarcity and famine of Bread of the Word of the Lord. CHAP. XIII Their neglect of Prayer especially of secret Prayer 6ly NEglect of Prayer is another part of Ungodliness Professors neglect of Prayer too common even among Professours Request and Thanksgiving are saith one like the double motion of the Lungs by which they suck in and breath out the air again In the Petitionary part of Prayer we desire either the bestowing of some good thing or the preventing or removing of some evil from our selves or the inflicting of some evil on Gods implacable Enemies And in the Gratulatory part of Prayer we return the praise of glory of what we have received from God unto God Though the Thanksgiving part of Prayer be most yet the Petitionary part of Prayer is too much neglected It is Ungodliness to goe about any Business or Journey to fix our Abode to use any Creature Food or Physick without asking Gods leave and blessing in Prayer Yea it is a branch of Atheism this Brat of irreligion is laid at the door of Atheism by the Psalmist Is it not a Lamentation Psa 14.1 3 4. and should it not be for a Lamentation that so many Professours should be guilty of such Ungodlineâ—â— Are there not many that never prayed in all their lives Never Praying Professours are looked upon by the world as Praying people
with God by deferring and deferring And hereby many mischiefs attend The World that Pest of Souls and Graces is admitted before we have got our Antidotes against the Infection of it Hence deadness of heart ensues multitudes of worldly distractions so that after a few hours the Soul hath no mind at all to speak with God but though it must to the Closet yet there is it pestered with wandring thoughts discontented thoughts worldly thoughts so that the time which should be spent in pure Communion with God is taken up in driving these Fowls from the Sacrifice Besides God is an holy God and jealous for his Name and he esteemeth it a reflection on him to be so neglected that he must be served last of all and therefore withholds his influences from the Soul to condemn such salocy abuses of his great Name and then no wonder if thou be soon overcome with a world of vain impertinent cogitations By neglect of early going into your Closets you credit the World too much as if it were more worthy of your time and strength than the Lord is Whereas you should profess that all your hours are Gods and therefore you dare not Prov. 3.9 but honour him with the first Fruits of all your increase you will thereby sanctifie all the Harvest all the Vintage by presenting God with the green Eares By neglect of your Mornings you hint to other Observers as if you were not First to seek God and his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof You neglect the sittest season for then the mercies of the night are freshest smell sweetest which after a while like Flowers will lose their scent with us Whilst the Iron is hot it is our wisdome to strike His Mercies are renewed every Morning so should our Praises By entring on business without calling on God you declare you need not the Lords assistances and that you depend not on him for every thing but can make a snift to live without him Whereas God feeds us from hand to mouth and hath not left any stores with us that we may make our addressments to him night and day who must water us every moment Poor Souls did you but see your dangers by reason of the three great Brigades of Enemies the World the Flesh the Devil you would not be so fool-hardy to venture abroad untill you have beseeched God to help poor needy indigent Creatures Remember You want as soon as you wake and those things you want as none but a God can supply you You need Divine Power to follow your Callings By neglecting this season the Devil and the World have often made you forget or omit the Duty for the day You have no leisure in the Morning and what then the Devil fills thy hand with unexpected business that the excuse grows stronger and more plausible But must we serve the Slave and neglect the Lord of glory By omitting this hour you are the unfitter for Family-worship were the Instrument tuned before it would be the fitter to play in consort But oh what hazards dost thou run not only by preferring other things and business before God but by neglecting the first hour of the day when thou art not sure of a second Thou purposest such an hour to pray but what is thy Life save a Vapour which may expire before that hour CHAP. XIV The miscarriages of Praying Professours about Prayer 7l Praying Professors miscarriages THere is not only Ungodliness in not Praying Prayerless Souls worshipping God no more than Beasts an Oxe or an Asse c. but in Praying amiss And O! how many wayes do Professours fail in and about this Duty both before and in and after First before the Dury How do Professours fail before their entrance upon this Duty of Prayer 1. Neglecting Meditation Psa 5.1 of God By neglect of Meditation Few can say Consider my Meditation Have not we rush'd upon this Duty before we have meditated of the God we were approaching to What an holy God he is and how unworthy we are to take his Name into our mouths What a consuming fire he is and what dry stubble we are Have not we rush'd into Gods Presence his Holiness Omnisciency Heb. 4.13 as the Horse rusheth into the battel Have we considered that his eyes are piercing as flames of fire That all things are naked and open as it were dissected before him with whom we have to do We have not set God before our eyes neither have we believed that he is as certainly an Observer of us as we are with our selves Our thoughts would not be so low so earthly so distracted did we believingly consider into whose Presence we are coming Have we considered Gods Almightiness Omnipotency That He can do more for us than we can ask or think He that cometh to God in Prayer should believe that God is 1 Sam. 15.29 that He is the Strength of Israel that what we are to beg of God Pardon of Sin Victories over our Lusts c. are Mercies beyond the Creatures power to reach forth to us but the Lords arm is not shortened that he cannot help Have we meditated on Gods bounty Gods goodness and grace pity and tender compassions As one more ready to give than we to ask as one who giveth liberally and upbraids not with our oft comming We want vast thoughts of the great goodness and mercy of God we have base beggerly thoughts of God as if we should trespass too much upon him and weary him by coming to oft to his door Have we mused upon the Faithfulness of God his Faithfulness Who is under engagements to relieve us to ease us to be found of us when we seek him with our whole hearts 1 John 5.14 And this is the considence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Have we meditated of the Way of the Way unto God Odi Deum absolutum Luth. by whom we must come to God How daring are Souls to venture on an absolute God How is the new and consecrated Way neglected How is Christ laid by as if there were no need of a Mediatour of an Advocate with the Father How seldome do we pass through Gâ—lgotha to the heavenly Jerusalem and see that none can come to the Father but by the Son We see not our need of Incense and Odours to be mingled with our Sacrifices Revel 8.3 4. little do we consider that the Opportunity of speaking with God is the price of blood of the precious blood of the Son of God Have we meditated of our Sins of their Sins of those to which we are by nature and custome mostly addicted and of those with which we have since the last Duty polluted our Souls From the want of Meditation hereof ariseth formality in Duties the heart is not humbled in Confession neither is the Soul importunate with the Lord for pardon
of your hearts I abhorr my self saith Job This implies a dislike an hatred an indignation against an utter alienation from and an opposition against sin God knows how little of this is mixed with the Confessions of most Professours 3. Petition as to the Matter In their Petitions Both Matter and Manner and End Have not we been faulty in the Matter Have they been alwayes for the best things Life Liberty Estate c. are desired but Grace Victory over Pride Passions Worldliness c. lye unsought for We fail also when we pray simply that we may not suffer for there is no foundation in the Promise for such a Prayer and we may not pray save for what God hath promised Have not we fail'd in the Manner Manner Have we alwayes pray'd with Earnestness Humility Faith Sincerity c. Hath the whole man been employed Few can say as David Psa 109.4 But I Prayer He was all Prayer or all of David or in David was herein employed Few can say With my whole heart have I intreated thy favour 119.58 Alas few pray effectually The heart and soul is not at work in the Duty James 5.16 It is the effectual fervent Prayer that avails We pray as if we had a mind God should deny us Qui frigide rogat docet negare Colos 4.2 We are too much like Children scribling over a piece of Paper which when they have done lay it aside or break it or think no more of it We have not continued in Prayer we have not back'd our Prayers with Prayers reinforced them we have soon fainted we have not been the right seed of Jacob I will not let thee goe untill thou bless me we soon faint and our desires expire Have not we fail'd in the End End James 4.3 May I not say as the Apostle James Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that you may consume it upon your Lusts Hath not our level been too low We should have made Gods Glory our End and we have made Self to quiet Conscience to obtain pardon of sin rather than purity of heart and life Hos 7.14 They assemble for Corn and Wine You have been perhaps earnest for the pardon of your own and Englands sins and yet selfish in all You fear and well you may temporal Plagues you are afraid that Sodoms sins may bring down fire and brimstone and therefore for your own sakes rather than Gods you pray and with some vehemency but your End is still too low Never do you pray aright till you pray more for Christs sake than for your own for his glory rather than for your own present future temporal or eternal advantages It is one thing to seek our selves and another thing to seek God in a duty They that pretended so highly begin to expostulate with God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not and takest no knowledge Mens Lusts Pray rather than their Graces Pride and self-love endite the Petitions You have been suckling your lusts whilst seemingly devout You make Provision for the flesh whilst about spiritual work and whilst your inward man seems to be exercised 4. Thanksgiving In our Thanksgivings who is free from guilt in the gratulatory part of Prayer Some bless God for Justification Sanctification Adoption c. and are strangers to these Privileges yea if catechised know not what these mercies are no more than Parrots know what they prattle Others if like the Leapers they are cleansed yet return not to bless the Lord They are large in Petitions but very sparing in their Praises Unthankful Beggars are an abomination to God and man We should be thankful for the least mercy but though we have had the honour to be admitted into the Presence Chambers as Favourites an honour not vouchsafed to the most of mankind yet we are sullen and slow to return Praises for so great a vouchsafement You have not come to dry breasts you are every day full of mercy 2 Chron. 32. but alas You render not according to what you have received therefore wrath is against you Hast thou had no meetings in Prayer no enlargements no desires to fear the Lord no importunities no wrestlings why yet it is mercy that thou livest upon the patience and bounty of God 'T is much that thou shouldst have a beeing and be preserved to this day 'T is a wonder he should feed thee cloth thee protect thee strive with thee suffer thee who art but dust and ashes to speak with him The last night thou might'st have lain on a bed of fire or by the hedge or have been in the great deeps but alas few so ready to praise as to pray We are too much like the Vagabonds when we have what we come for away we goe and come no more till pinching necessity drives us Yea we too oft aggravate our miseries and over-look the benefits we enjoy that are mix'd with our crosses 3ly How have we After the Duty when our Prayers have been ended fail'd of our duties toward God by running post hast from the Throne of Grace to the World if not to our Lusts Not considering how our hearts were in time of duty whether straitned or enlarged Nor examining how the Duty hath been done whether composed or distracted whether we had the face of God toward us or his face vailed whether we were lively or lifeless dead-hearted or quickned serious or slight what Faith was stirring what Repentance exercised The Church and People of God observed their hardness in duty Isa 63.17 Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy fear We should look back upon our Prayers that we may be humbled for all our vain thoughts untowardness distractions and unbelief in the duty and we should do it then whilst we are in the highest capacity to know the miscarriages of the Soul what the aggravating circumstances thereof are c. And not only in order to Humiliation but Reformation that for the future we may not dare to touch the Mount of Gods Presence with such beastly frames In case we were in a good frame in the Duty quickly losing what was got in the Duty Did we labour to retain the influences of the Ordinance upon our hearts Did not we let the fire goe out again Have not we like some in a great sweat gone into the open air too soon and took a cold That 's dangerous David was more careful to maintain his fresh and lively frames and therefore he intreateth the Lord to keep the same in his Servants heart for ever How have we been faulty not looking for an answer Psa 5.3.85.8 in not believing that our Prayers shall be answered We direct our Prayer unto God but we do not look up till God look down as David We do not hearken what God the Lord will speak Paul observed how long the Lord was silent to his Prayer 2 Cor.
fear and flattery have soon faced about How will some cry up such and such for most eminent in grace Persons Others and O how doe they love them when all the while self-love acts them and if they gain not by them they will surely have an howbeit to blot them They are as the foreman to praise the rich from whom they hope to squeeze some of their gold but bring up the rear are the last to commend them from whom they expect nothing of advantage by their glavering tongue How much Hypocrisie hath appeared in our declaimings against others sins O! we must not suffer this the House of God must be kept clean it must not be made a Den of Thieves an Hog-sty and cage of uncleanness and all this while their zeal is nothing but revenge a secret grudge there is against the Delinquent and now that an advantage offereth they will have their penny-worth out of him How many are alwayes finding faults Themselves blaming Magistrates Ministers all but themselves This man wants courage and another wants another grace whilst they themselves want all grace as being meer pieces of pageantry How many whining Hypocrites have we that will in all companies especially where Ministers are be crying out against the baseness and treachery of their own hearts and the wickedness of their own lives and rest in their lazy complaints but reform not How severe are some in their censures of sin in others Censuring as Judah against Thamar she must be burnt who will now suspect Judah to be unclean Mat. 7.3 How ready have we been to judge and censure others rather than our selves To behold a mote in others but not the beam in our selves How many censure Ministers for too seldome preaching in private and yet are themselves Sermon-glutted as yet they have not got a stomach so great was their surfeit with the former plenty yea when they have Sermons neglect them or if they attend with their Bodies on them yet have no fellowship with Christ in them We are just like Consumption people apt to be angry and fret if we have not our wonted meals and the Cooks are blamed for negligence and when the meat is brought before us we are even weary of the smell of it How many censure others for being to talk ative Acting better abroad than at home in publick than in seeret ditties and therefore would impose silence upon others because they have neither heart nor tongue to vindicate God and to promote Religion How many are full of perswasions of the love of God and of the grace of God and yet ignorant of the first Principles of Christianity neglecters of Family-Prayer or Closet-Duties They think well of themselves because in their Duties before men they are devout and zealous and carried forth to the wasting of much time but in their Closets they are straightned and put the Lord off with a short Collect. How many like your City Maids goe in their best are neat cleanly and in gorgeous apparel when walking in the views of others but if you follow them home to their houses and chambers how nasty how foul are they How many are there whose Religion lies in their face habit gesture seem demure humble walk with their eyes looking downwards bow with Absolon to the people and yet their hearts full of pride and loftiness How oft even on Fast-dayes have you had sour faces and inwardly light frothy and unserious hearts As an evidence observe when the day ends the Dog returns to his vomit the heart becomes vain or rather the vanity that was smothered and pent up in the day breaks out as soon as the duties are over We can hang down our heads like a bull-rush we can rough cast our faces but it is hardly for a day How hath Hypocrisie followed thee from the corners of the streets to the very closet Seeming to be more in secret duties than they are Thou hast shut thy door as if thou wouldst shut out World and Devils and there hast fall'n asleep or which is as bad hast parlied with the Devil and pampered thy lusts Hypocrisie like the Frogs of Egypt hath crept into thy most secret retirements How few can pretend to Uniformity in their obedience Being not universally obedient Psal 119.6 How many will be ashamed because they respect not all Gods Commandements still they clip the Law still some reserves they will let go profaneness so they may but reserve covetousness they will pray hear c. so they may cheat their Neighbour under a demure behaviour or they will be strict to rules of Justice and equity among men but they will rob God of his honour some of them are punctual to a day to a farthing Blush Reader if thou art short of the Hypocrites stature they will not cheat you with a brasse Shilling but rob God of his due of his due in the Closet and in the Family too How frequently do we hear some desiring to know the least measure of saving Grace Desiring to know the least degree of saving grace and why because they would sit down therewith There is not a surer note of an unsound heart than to be contented with the least degree of grace and not to press forward How generally do men hate to be examined and tried about their state But not to be examined nor to consult with Ministers about their condition much less to follow their directions This is a sure sign of a rotten heart of a painted-Christian paint will not endure the fire Hypocrites hate lancing and piercing work How many continue in a course of Religion and yet their hearts are hardned more and more and they know it and yet will hardly consult with Ministers about their sad condition or if they do yet practise nothing more than before I am confident there are many who make it their business to keep up their reputation among the Saints but have lost and know they have their credit at the throne of grace and though they have their reward the Saints embrace them for Precious yet Christ neglects them and when they spread out their hands all the day long to the Heavens they have no welcome with God Isa 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of the Rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the bloud of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats And when you spread forth your hands v. 15. I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear O! Considerations against hypocrifie Isa 48.1 2. What a Controversie hath God with England for its great Hypocrisie We have called our selves of the Holy City and have maede mention of the God of Lrael but not in truth not in righteousness Though you have past for Saints in the account of blind and
Psa 4.4 1 Cor. 11.28 Lam. 3.40 Their omitting the Duty altogether hold intelligence with it Let a man examine himself Let us search and try our wayes But yet notwithstanding these Injunctions 1. How many are there that never set about this Duty They will Pray c. but will not be perswaded to look inward They are as great strangers to their own as to others hearts They are at no pains to try in what state they are They will not try Nor examining their Estates whether they are new-born or not whether sanctified or not whether a saving change hath past upon them or not They will not compare themselves with the Characters which are given by Ministers and Books to see whether they be in the gall of bitterness or not in the bond of iniquity or not They never examine what Justification and justifying and saving Faith be and whether they are justified and shall be saved like Gallio Little caring for these things They examine which way they may be greater in the World how to add to the heap how to load themselves with thick clay how to escape the wrath of man how to prolong their dayes but not how to prepare for Eternity and how to make sure of Heaven You ask one another what news from Navies from Armies from Court from Country but when did you spend one hour to ask your hearts this serious question O my Soul what will become of thee when thou leavest this earthly Tabernacle We travel any where but where we should We are better read in any Book than in the sealed Book of our own hearts We are not at all for a personal treaty with our own Consciences We are too much prying into other mens hearts but our eyes turn not inward We know not how it is with our Souls and what will become of them and we have no mind to know such matters As we commune not with our hearts about our States Nor Actions so we do not commune with them about our Actions neither before nor after the doing of them Before we act we do not advise with our Consciences whether what we be about to do be lawful or unlawful and if lawful whether expedient or inexpedient After we have acted whether our actions be good or evil How many are contented so the matter be good but examine not themselves about the manner principles ends and motives Though the Children of Israel knew by the Word of the Lord and from Abraham their Father that Canaan was a Land flowing with milk and honey yet they sent Spies and searched it and thereby were confirmed If men had never so much confidence of the goodness of their Prayers c. yet for Confirmation-sake they should send down Spies into their hearts to see the Clusters of their Zeal and Affections the utmost of the goodness of them But alas how many wholly neglect this necessary and possible Duty If all were like these God might take up his old complaint No man cryed out Jerem. 8.6 What have I done Or O my heart What hath God done for thee 2. The backwardness of the best hereunto How backward are a more refined sort of Professours to a compliance with this Duty How oft have your Ministers invited you beseeched you to hold intelligence with your own hearts and yet cannot prevail How backward are the best to keep a strict eye upon their little house within to see what is done within those doors We are apter to study others lives yea hearts than our own If the best knew how much work lies within doors they would not be so much abroad as they are 3. If we do examine our hearts Not making use of the Word as the Rule yet not by the Word of the Lord. God would have us to try and prove our selves then there must be some measuring Line some Standard some Rule to try our selves by but herein we are hugely defective We try our selves by some sudden pangs or by the good opinion of others concerning us or by the lives of others we being in an Hospital where every one almost is lame and defective or by some other easie Rule that we our selves frame unto our selves and so miserably cheat our selves O! how loth are we that the light of Gods Word should be let down into the dark Cells of our hearts for want whereof there is much dust unobserved and not swept away How loth to try states or actions by the Scripture though thereby they must be tryed at the last day He is a good Text-man that compares Scripture with Scripture and he is a good Christian that compares the Scripture and his own heart together that credits his own heart only when it hath the consent of the Prophets and Apostles making them Umpires in the decision of all his Soul-controversies Have recourse to the Light that shines in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 But alas Who obeys this form of wholesome words 4. Being superficial therein How overly and superficial are many in the examining themselves by the Word How few do examine their State or their Actions fully Though our hearts be very great Impostours Jer. 17.9 deceitful above all things great Supplanters full of guile though there be thousands and thousands of Lusts that lye hid in our hearts and Deceits like the Sands on the Sea-shore yet how carelesly do we set upon this work We take no pains in it 5. Being too seldome in it How seldome are we in this work Some deferr it till a Sacrament and then perhaps the house is searched for the leaven whereas we should keep a petty Sessions in our hearts every day and do what we can to know the bottom of the projects devices workings of our heats When going to Prayer we should examine our selves whether we have clean hands and pure hearts whether we are double-minded James 4.8 if so there is no drawing nigh to God And when we come off from the Duty we should conferr with our hearts what enlargements quicknings meltings humblings we had in the Duty what promises what threats were applyed by the Spirit whether we saw the face of our Beloved or not When going to a Sermon we should examine in what posture we are to meet with God what Oyl we want that we may be supplyed When going to our Beds we should examine our hearts how the day hath been spent what sins were committed what Duties and how discharged what temptations were resisted what mercies received and what growth and increase of grace we have obtained When going to Visit this Duty should be taken up before and after Before thus Wherein may I honour the Lord my God in such company what are their wants that I may endeavour to supply them what are their temptations and discouragements that I may labour to support them what are their graces and best attainments that I may profit by them After thus O my
farr lest they should see what they are unwilling to see and so be put upon judgeing and condemning themselves for that which they love beyond an Eye or an Hand 5. The sad consequences of the neglect of this duty O the sad consequences of the neglect of this duty By this neglect your hearts will become careless for that they are not call'd to an account as Servants and Factors are wont when their Masters neglect to examine them Hereby Sins will grow bolder with you and the more easily beset you for that you examine not wherein their strength lies and which way they oftnest prevail over you Hereby the work of Repentance will be obstructed for that innumerable Sins which you are daily guilty of will pass away unobserved with those circumstances attending them which make them of the greater magnitude Hereby your uncertainties about your spiritual estate will remain it may be converted it may be not it may be a Son of God it may be not but a Child of Hell it may be a Believer it may be an Enemy to God and â—â—e of Gods curse Hence will follow great dejectedness under every Providence of God no condition will please you whilst doubting and staggering you will be apt to fear whether your food be in mercy your dayes in mercy your liberty yea the Gospel in mercy to you you will sink under adversity for you cannot say the Lord is my portion you know not whether God will be your strong Tower Fortress c. you cannot manage any duty well whilst this lies neglected Mica 6.8 How can you walk before God with an humble heart when you know not what your hearts are How can you serve him with an upright heart whilst a stranger to this duty The very Heathens knew how necessary this was to all their duties and therefore discreetly caused to be writ over the Temple at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self Miserable are the disappointments that will attend English Professours unless they fall into a compliance with this duty you will dye deluded like the foolish Virgins you will not know your undone condition till it be too late you lie deceived in matters of the greatest and highest concernment you are cheated hitherto in things of eternity you are vexed when deceived by a Friend when supplanted by a Neighbour O! how will it pierce your Souls to be cheated by your selves When we would exclaim against a Knave we say he will cozen his Father the nearer the Relation the more sordid the Cheat O! but here is one that lies in thy bosome and thou and it go to cheat each other continually Let no man deceive himself 1 Cor. 3.18 it seems we are apt to do so But O! how great will your confusion be when this deceit shall be manifested when you shall see your selves frustrated of all your hopes and the glory your hearts promised you How will you be confounded when you shall say we looked for Heaven but behold Hell we looked for Salvation but behold Destruction we looked to be made perfectly Happy but O how our hearts have cheated us we must be damned we thought we had as good hearts as any as true Faith as sound Repentance as cordial love to God as any of our Neighbours as any Precisians of the Countrey we fools counted their life madness c. O! what daggers and swords will these frustrations be to you 6. We and our hearts shall not alwayes be strangers If you be loth to see how it is with you now how will you be able to behold what shall be seen at the day of Judgement Though you now will not know your hearts though you are so stately as not to speak with them or loth to examine the dirty Corners yet God is coming with his Fan the books must be opened and every page of thy heart will be unfolded for God will bring to light every hidden work of dishonesty God will pluck off the rough garment which thou wearest to deceive thy inward parts which are very wickedness shall be made manifest and then thou shalt be speech-less as if thou hadst a muzle put upon thy mouth as the word signifieth Well seeing murder will out as we say the secrets of the Soul must be brought forth is it not better by judging our selves by a severe tryall and sentence on our selves to prevent the wofullness of the last day Judged we must and shall be is it not then thy wisdome to judge thy self here in thy Closet that thou mayst be judged by God with a judgement of Absolution and not of Condemnation Is it nothing to have all thy unrepented and unforgiven sins published on the house-top made known to all the World Ezek. 22.14 at the great day How will thine heart endure then when the Lord shall come to deal with thee You will not see but you shall see Isa 26.11 You will not retire the World lyes in your hearts Business comes in and takes up all your time and spirits God is about to strip you to ease you of your Callings you shall come naked to the Barr of God you shall have no Family business to distract you a fair tryal there shall be but a sad one for thee Your sins shall find you out Numb 32.23 You have had many Calls once more I call upon you in the Name of Christ to examine your hearts by the words of this Book which you have or shall read And be sure of it If you will not nor try your selves by the Word God will try you by his Works Thus saith the Lord Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them But how will God melt them and try them Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord v. 9. Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing v. 10. and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation because they are burnt up so that none can pass through them neither can men hear the voice of the Cattel both the Fowl of the Heavens and the Beasts are fled they are gone And I will make Jerusalem heaps v. 11. and a Den of Dragons and I will make the Cities of Judah desolate without an Inhabitant CHAP. XXI Their Pride BEhold Professors Pride Ezek. 16.49 Evidenced in Irreverence in addresses to God Gen. 18.27 This was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride c. And is not this Devillish Sin become our National Sin 1. With what a bold and impudent face have we come and appeared before God Who hath sensibly exprest himself in Abraham's words Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Instead of a reverential fear of God our behaviour hath been stout against God and we have not trembled in his presence no not whilst we have been terribly
9. Accounting Gods Judgements greater than their Deserts Do not we think God hath punished us above our Deserts Do not we hence cry out more of our smart and pain than we do of our sins and provocations Were we humble we would bless the Lord that he hath restrained his rough wind in the day of his East wind We would wonder that it is so well with us that we are not in a worse condition We would cry out Lam. 3.40 It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins How loth are we to confess our iniquities have deserved all that we suffer and a great deal more and therefore to humble our selves for our sins How do we endeavour to hide our sins from God Man and our selves 10. Admiring what they suppose they have How apt are we to admire our selves for supposed Excellencies For supposed Beauty Parts Reason Wit and Understanding yea and for supposed Grace Man saith one is a proud piece of flesh and a small matter will make him shew his pride and spread his plumes 11. Boasting of what Good they have and do How apt are we to boast of any Good we do Of our Valour in the Field of our Discourses in such and such Company how wisely we discharged such a Service how well we behaved our selves in such an Action Come see my Zeal for the Lord. Look to your hearts you will find them unduly transported as with the thoughts of your gifts and graces so with what you do through the gift of grace Our very Graces are often an occasion of boasting 'T is a rare thing to see a man rich in gifts 1 Cor. 8.1 Puffed up with any thing of theirs and poor in spirit Even knowledge puffeth up 12. Doth not any thing of ours swell us Are not some puff'd up with their fine Clothes new Attires Ribbons Dressings yea with their very Spots Their Feathers their Hair the excrements of Beasts and Men make them flye high Are not some puff'd up with their Birth Hence they boast that they have the Blood of Kings and Nobles running in their Veins or else that they are of the Stock of Abraham descended from Parents eminent for Piety though they have sadly degenerated from their lives and walks How many are swell'd with their Estates That they have Shops full Houses full and Baggs full puffeth them up Whilst all the treasure is shewed how glad is the heart Even Hezekiah was glad to shew the Embassadours the house of his precious things Isa 39. â— How are others puffed up with the smiles and respects of great men And yet how soon may the Sun be over-cast Then they are no more heeded than the Dial is when the Sun is in a Cloud How doth the bodily strength and perfections of others swell them though every moment they are going down into the dust What is your life It is even a vapour James 4.14 that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away How are others swell'd with their Church-priviledges The Temple of the Lord Ezek. 7.4 the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are we These are lying words not to be trusted in Others with their revelations and high enjoyments 3 Cor. 12.7 Paul was in danger of being exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations therefore was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he should be exalted above measure Rom. 12.3 Gal. 6.3 How few have heeded that of the Apostle Let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think and that If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself How have we been puff'd up with our Reformation Ministers Churches Professours Preferring them before others at home and abroad 13. How little suspicion have we of our selves Not suspecting themselves Of our baseness and sinfullness the deceits and treachery of our own hearts With how much confidence do we thrust our selves into wicked mens company and fear not to be leavened with them How little do we suspect that we shall fall from the grace we have or seem to have We are high minded and therefore fear not We do not suspect that there are worse abominations within than yet are discovered How do we pretend to bless God that our hearts are good We fear not the worst of our selves If others be overcome with uncleanness passion c. we are confident we shall never so dishonour God 14. Fuming at plain dealing Do not we fret and fume when any go about to discover the vileness within I have heard of some Ladies that have hated the glass that gave them a true sight of their spots Psa 141.5 and deformities Humble David loved them best who most convincingly reproved him for what was amiss in him 15. Not being able to deny themselves in any lawfull content Being troubled that any Rule besides themselves We must be pleased we must have our sports and the utmost of our liberty though GOd and man suffer by it never so much we cannot stoop to deny our selves some lawfull contentments though God be to be honoured thereby 16. How have we been troubled that any save our selves have Ruled and been in Authority Few have learnt the Humility of Jothams Olive-tree Fig-tree and Vine The Bramble thinks himself worthy to be in the highest place O! what fightings what sidings what Plots to get higher Haman was never contented till every knee bowed not so much as one Mordecai must be excused If men would but speak out they think they are fitter for Magistrates and Ministers than those that are employed so that whereas the humble man thinks every one better than himself they on the contrary think themselves the only men 1 Pet. 2.13 Do not we account it below us to to submit to every Ordinance of man though for the Lords sake And when we cannot do what we are commanded who suffers meekly and not in anger against the highest Powers Do not we suffer in proud wrath Prov. 21.24 And glad to be commended by others though they discommend themselves 17. How glad are we if others take notice of our actions And how are we pleased if they commend us for them and yet we would not have them think so We will discommend our own Prayers for deadness straitness and our selves for want of parts c. on purpose to draw forth others praise How few are unwilling that others should have good thoughts of them in reference to themselves How few are troubled at the praises of their friends more than at flashes of lightning cast into their faces 18. How do we rejoyce when others cry us up yea to be cryed up undeservedly even when we know it is unjustly when we know how hollow-hearted
drunkenness Luke 21.14 How have we forgot Christ's charge against this sin even to his own Disciples Have we not hereby been disabled to perform the service which we owe to God As some have been strong to drink so others to eat Both have been unfitted to wait upon God thereby The end of our eating should have been to fit us not to indispose us for the service of God We should measure our Chear by that which Nature requireth and not by that which a greedy Appetite desireth We divest our selves of Man of Reason that should guide us when we are led by a sensual Appetite And yet alas When we have eaten enough and perhaps more than enough a new Dish at the second course makes us fall on without fear or wit and we put not a knife to our throat Prov. 23.2 Serving divers lusts and pleasures is the high way to damnation This way sin entred into the World and in this way O! how many are posting to Hell If you would adopt your selves Children of wrath Eph. 2.3 then fullfill the desires of the flesh O that we should be so senseless so bruitish as to venture the eternal ruine of our Souls to gratifie our appetites for a quarter of an hour She that fared deliciously Rev. 18.7 hath torment and sorrow given her If that you will choose to be beasts here and to eat as beasts as much as you can Know that Heaven will not as Noahs Ark did admit of any Beasts within it When Tertullian gives an account of the Christians Feasts In our feeding saith he we remember that we are to pray at night Prayer is the first and last dish of the feast and when we depart our behaviour is so religious and modest that one would have thought we had rather been at a Sermon than at a Supper Blush O Reader to consider how far short we fall of these Christians in our banqueting hours Believe it Intemperance and Luxury are National sinnes the sins of England It was spoken unless I am mis-informed of our Nation That we build as if we should live for ever and eat as if we should die presently O! when shall we imitate that great Apostle 1 Cor. 6.12 All things saith he are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any It is a base thing for a man to be under the power of Drinks Apparel Recreations and so of Flesh of Meats to be a Vassal to those things over which the Lord hath given him dominion He that loveth any thing too much Qui nimis rem aliquam amat quodam modo servus istius efficitur Rom. 6.16 Mat. 24.38 saith Aquinas is in a sense Servant thereunto And what saith the Apostle Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin c. How many serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies How many are like the men of the old World Given to eating so the word in the Original properly signifieth 2. The costliness of their Diet How have our meats born no proportion to our gains and incomes The rich man that fared deliciously had some pretence for it for he had riches to countervail the expences of his Table Above their Estates But doth not the lowness of our Estates require a meaner Table God knows we have been worse than Infidels on this account in that we have been so farr from providing for our own that to pamper the flesh with costly diet we have suddenly impoverished our selves and brought our Children to live upon others trenchers whereas we should have abated of our superfluities for their sakes if not for our own Goe voluptuous wretch unto the Ant and to the Bee they provide for Winter but thou hast had no forecast and so Poverty comes in on thee and thine as an armed man irresistably 3. unsuitable to the Times How have our Tables been unsuitable to the Times we live in Whether Zion wear the garments of joy or of heaviness all 's one the belly must be served our dishes must not abate Thou farest deliciously every day All times are alike to thee This is a great sin and I cannot but charge many Professours with it Respect is not had to the tokens of Gods wrath Jude v. 12. We eat without fear Without fear of the wrath of God that is ready to break forth upon us In this day doth the Lord of Hosts call to weeping Isa 22.12 13 14. and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep actions lawfull enough at another time eating flesh and drinking wine c. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts We have made little or no distinction of times Perhaps a Fast every month is carelesly kept but every day should be a day of abstinence every day we should abate of what we might enjoy if the judgements of God were not amongst us and others impending over us God hath a controversie with us for feasting when Joseph is in the pit Amos 4.6 and for our eating the Lambs of the Flocks for that we are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph 4. Not respecting the Saints necessities How little respect have we had to the necesities of the Saints O! if there were any true love to God to Religion to the Church of God and to the Saints of the most high we would abate of our worldly comforts in this day Membra putida mortua quae sensum non habent tales sunt Christiani qui de alienis affectionibus non dolent Aug. in Psal 130. we would cut our selves short of what we were wont to lay out not only in fine clothes but in house-keeping in expensive meats and drinks we would not give such liberty to the satisfying of the flesh we would be more sparing in our diet that we might be in the greater capacity to promote pious and charitable designs But alas iniquity abound and the love of many save to their guts waxeth cold 5. Eating without fear of God Doe not we eat without an holy fear of God The Elders of Israel did eat their bread before the Lord. Exod. 18.12 But so have not we so do not we eat as in the presence of God Have not some been so eager upon the pleasing of the flesh and gratifying of their sensual appetites as that they have secretly at least been troubled at a long grace as it is called before meat Have not some fall'n to their meat without invocating God to be with them How unlike are such unto Christ whose usual practise it was to lift up his eyes to Heaven and crave a blessing upon the creatures before he did partake of them
such and such Rates Boasting of selling too dear though their Consciences must needs suggest to them that they have over-sold them and therein have declined the rules of moderation and righteousness When you have selled too dear Loth to make Restitution and so cheated your Brother though Conscience in times of sickness and danger begins to contend with you about it yet how loth are you to make restitution for the wrong you have offered How unlike are you to them in Nehemiah Then said they We will restore them and will require nothing of them Nehem. 5.12 13. so will we do as thou sayest If a Nehemiah should say So God shake out every man from his house and from his labour that performeth not this promise even thus be he shaken out and emptied you would hardly say Amen and praise the Lord. When men buy a Commodity As to Buyers crying out 't is naught how apt are they to discommend it to bring down the price to say It is naught when all the while they know it is offered on easie terms How do Buyers take the Advantage of the Seller's Ignorance of the worth of his own Goods There is a cursed Proverb amongst English-men but in too great request That a man may not only sell as dear but buy as cheap as he can Few like Austin that bought a Book at an unskilful Stationer's hands for an inconsiderable price and afterwards gave the value of it Prov. 20.17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel How often do Buyers even as Sellers often say they will not Saying They will give no more and yet do they cannot take a penny less for such a Commodity so answer that they will not give a farthing more for what they have cheapened and yet all the while intend to come up to the Seller's price How common is it Falling at the day of payment for men to take up Wares and to promise payment at such a day and yet fail Yea how do they promise though they know they shall not be able to be as good as their word It were better for thee to begg thy bread than thus to steal from thy Neighbour Thou art ashamed to begg as he of old thou shouldst be ashamed much more to do worse viz. to defraud thy Neighbour Prov. 21.6 The getting of treasures by alying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death It is a thing very frequent tossed to and fro but it is a vanity and they that use it are Felones deâ—se they do but seek death and destruction by it How few are there As to Buyers and Sellers both that in their buring and selling give a proof of their loving their Neighbours as themselves their Neighbours goods and welfare as their own O! 1 Pet. 1.15 When will ye be holy in all manner of conversation Holy in your Trades as well as in your Church-Assemblies Holy in the Shop and in allâ—secular employments So holy as to abide with God in your Calling When will ye trade for God rather than for Self When will ye labour with your hands Eph. 4.28 that ye may be able to give and not only to receive When will ye trade in fear and be in the fear of the Lord all the day and that lest your Shop should prove your bane and whilst seeking after the Mammon of this life ye lose the true Substance Is this thy Prayer before thou enterest upon thy Calling O that it were Lord help me to trade for thee whilst for my self and for the good of my Neighbours Soul Body Goods as well as for my own How few With reference to the King Stealing Customes among all the several sorts of Traders render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Hierome long since hath told you That Caesar is not Proper but Appellative All the Emperours were called Caesars from Julius Caesar Confiderations against it How can you quiet your Consciences to steal Custome as many of you do What is it save the Law that gives you right to all you have And by the Law so much of your Goods is the King 's it is alienated from you to his Crown and Revenue How dare you cheat him Should you think it hard measure to pay so great a tribute Have you forgot what Christ who came under the Law dâ—d Mat. 17.24 25 26 27. Though tribute was exacted of him when the Children were free yet he would work a Miracle rather than give offence in denying to pay the Fine that was imposed on him Why do ye not take the safest course if it be a disputable matter To be sure you will not give offence to God to the King to your Conscience by paying Customes but you may to all by defrauding Do you herein as you would be dealt with If you were the Head would you have the inferiour Members impoverish the Head If you were the Political Father would you have your Children cheat you Do not you by bribes and otherwise tempt the King's Officers to be false to their trust and to damn their Souls by perjury and treachery Lastly Consider that self-love and self-interest are prevalent as to make you to favour and enrich your selves so also to bribe your minds and judgements and to enslave them to your base passions O! Consider how apt is every one unequally to favour himself and to suck in any corrupt and absurd reasonings whereby he may greaten himself though by the ruine of others If you say as they of the Silver-shrines This brings in our gain We cannot subsist without stealing Customes How else can we live A Father will tell you Indigna vox Christiano c. It ill becomes a Christians mouth to ask How shall I live Not one that Christ call'd to forsake Trades and Professions did ever answer him I must not give over my gain They only reformed or relinquished their Trades when Christ call'd them Till you can relinquish unlawful gains you are none of Christs Disciples Those in the Acts that burnt their unlawful Books to the loss of thousands Acts 19.20 shewed themselves true Converts so mightily grew the Word and prevailed O! When Tyre shall be converted her trading and dealings shall be sacred Isa 23.18 Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. Here give me leave to add the Sin of Lyeing Their Lying too too common among all sorts of Traders as well as others And truly this Sin comes not improperly under the Head of Injustice V. Patrick's Epitome of Mans Duty P. 45 46. Justice even when it is not taken most largely so it is taken for all Religion comprehends our whole duty to our Neighbour as to matters of right Thus by vertue of the fifth Commandement to do justly is to give our Parents their due honour whether they be
Natural Civil or Spiritual In respect of the sixth it is to preserve the Life of our Neighbour and to have a care that we injure him not in his beeing In reference to the seventh it is to preserve his just Relations and not touch them or cause the violation of their faith to to him in reference to the eighth it is to preserve his estate and not meddle with his goods the 9th requires that we preserve his good name and not defame him nor do any prejudice to his credit no more than we would to his estate and by vertue of the tenth we are to moderate our very desires so as not to envy him that which is his nor to long to have it in our possession To be sure there is righteousness to be look'd after in words and expressions as well as in deeds and actions But alas How doth the sin of lying abound among us And no wonder when Perjury is so common a sinne for this God hath a controversie with the Land Hos 4.1 2. Is there not need to take heed every one of his Neighbour and not to trust in any Brother Jer. 9.4 5. will not every one deceive his Neighbour and not speak the truth Have not they taught their tongue to speak lies If you are not couzeninglyers or false-witness-lyers yet are you not reviling-lyers Do you not upon every petty difference speak of one another ye care not what do ye not spread lying defamations Jer. 20.10 I heard the defaming of many report say they and we will report Is not the fawning-lyer common among us Their words are the words of Jacob but their hands are the hands of Esau Psal 55.21 The words of their mouths are smoother than butter but warr is in their hearts their words are softer than oyl yet are they drawn swords their is no faithfulness in their mouth their throat is an open sepulcher Upon this occasion give me leave to use David's Prayer Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth Psal 12.1 2. for the faithful fail from among the Children of men Why wherein consists their ungodliness they speak vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak Is there not also many a Newes-telling lyer among us They believe in their Consciences that it is false Hos 7.3 what they relate and yet to promote an interest for to make hearts glad with lyes they will spread that which is false How many officious-lyers have we who tell lyes for some good end as they think The highest end is Gods glory but will ye speak wickedly for God Job 13.7 and talk deceitfully for him The Vulgar reads the Text Numquid Deus indiget vestro mendacio It contains a truth though not the sense of the place What! hath God need of your lye It is a dishonour to God to be thus help'd And if we must not speak evil that good may come to God sure then we may not whatever the Roman Doctours teach us speak evil that good may come to our selves How can you think you are Gods Children Considerations against Lying Isa 63.8 God engageth himself for his people that surely they will not lye surely they are my people children that will not lye Austin long agoe gave his judgement concerning lying that a man must not tell a lye to save the whole world if it were saith he to save thy Father or thy Mother out of Hell if possibly it could be thou must not tell a lye or if it were to save a Kingdom from destruction And yet to gain a little mirth or to gain a penny or to prevent the frowns of a Superiour how do some teach their tongues to lye Not considering Prov. 6.17 that among the seven things that are an abomination to the Lord lying is one yea as one observes he repeats lying twice though under several names Rev. 21.8 Tit. 1.2 that all lyers shall have their portion in the burning lake that herein they are like unto the Devil who is the Father of lyes and most unlike unto God Eph. 4.25 who cannot lye O then put away lying and speak the truth away with mental reservations and Jesuitical aequivocations Let thy tongue be the faithful interpreter of thy heart Be faithful in your promises and engagements be not yea and nay Remember Cicero the Heathen's saying None but the most villanous will deceive him who had been safe if he had not trusted CHAP. XXVI Their Covetousness IF there be so much unrighteousness Professon Covetousness no wonder that there is also much covetousness that must not be forgot when we remember the evil of our ways Covetousness is the seed of all unrighteousness 1 Tim. 6.10 V. Wells on Mich. 6.8 P. 18. Mat. 21.38 the râ—ot of all evil It was Jezabels covetousness that made her unjustly deprive Naboth of his Vineyard This is the heir come let us kill him and seize on his inheritance Flectere si nequeo Superos acheronta movebo If I cannot prevail with Heaven I will to Hell for an Estate is the voice of covetousness yea which is more sadly to be considered this is that which will put men not only upon injustice to others but to God himself it will make them offer violence to Religion to Divine honour and whatever is sacred in the world all these shall be prostituted to serve the ends of covetousness That man will stick at no abuse of God whose God is his gain How notorious was that of one of the holy fathers of Rome a Pope O quantas divitias peperit haec fabula Christi O how gainfull unto us hath been the fable of Christ And is not covetousness and earthly mindedness an Epidemical sinne Eccles 6.2 Solomon calls it an evil disease 'T is called by one Aurugo the yellow jaundise which makes the sick person look yellow all over This is the Grave which never saith Prov. 30.15 it is â—â—â—gh but like Solomons Horse-leech it cries give give O! what boundless appetites have many who can neither use what they have nor put a period to what they desire as in the Sea one wave riseth above another so here every desire of having is out-gone by a new desire of getting Are not your great cares for riches Evidenced in several particulars Do not your thoughts thus run out O! how shall I thrive more in the world get more estate custome but not O! how shall I get the favour of God the pardon of my sins and victory over my lusts how anxious and sollicitous are you every day for the world but how flat in your coming to have the Image of God renewed How dejected are you when you miss of a good bargain or when you meet with some loss by Sea or Land But how little troubled if you lose an opportunity of communion with the Lord How joyous are you when a little of
in thy gold or in a golden calf thou art guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 of having other Gods besides the true God and so dost as highly offend the true God and God usually gives up such men unto spiritual judgements Rom. 1.21.24 It makes me fear you have not tasted of the upper springs because the puddle of the World is still sweet to your taste Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If you had tasted of the joy peace mercy and comforts of Christ your earthly comforts would be disrelished Gal. 6.14 If you did glory in the Cross of Christ the World would be crucified to you and you unto the World The sweetness of Christ would drown all Creature-sweetness But alass Psa 84.10 To which of us is one day in Gods Courts better than a thousand else-where Austin said If one drop of the joyes of Heaven might fall into Hell it would drown all the bitterness of Hell So would it drown all bitterness in the Soul and all the sweetness in the World Worldly comforts would be too course too slat too low to recreate your hearts Did ye but know the honey and milk of Canaan ye would not so much mind the Onyons of Egypt Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon O! What a surpassing indignity is this to Christ Si terram amas terraâ—es Aug. to set him below the foot-stool to value thirty Pieces of Silver before him to preferr Earth before Heaven present things before future that the love of God the recompence of reward shall not lye nearer the heart than the treasures of Egypt O! What a miserable life dost thou live This Sin brings an Hell with it thou art the Devil's Martyr 1 Tim. â— 9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and burtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Thou enjoyest neither God nor the World Thy only happiness is a fancy And this is thy great misery that thou still desirest that which will never satisfie thy desires The more thou hast of the World the more thou wantest the more thou drinkest the more thou thirstest a Dropser is upon thee Semper avarus eget Hor. Hebr. 13.5 Prov. 23 5. ch 8.21 Eccles 5.1 and thou knowest it not Discontent is alwayes the Companion of Covetousness Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Grace and Godliness is substance Why with Esop's Dogg wilt thou let goe the substance for a shadow The things of the World are fancies the things of God realities What good is there to the Owners of riches saving the beholding them with their eyes Do not you all this while bear false witness against God Do not you proclaim to the World that God is not enough to answer to fill your desires and that therefore you goe out after the Creature Is it nothing to you to call God who is all-sufficient who is a fountain of living Water a barren Wilderness Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid Jer. 2.12 13 31. be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evills's they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water O Generation see ye the Word of the Lord Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a Land of Darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hereby you break the conjugal Relation God looks on you as Adulterers and Adulteresses James 4.4 Prov. 5.19 and will judge you accordingly God expects that his breasts should satisfie you and that you be alwayes ravished with his love and dare you tell the World that your God hath deceived you and that you were mistaken in your choice of God and therefore after other Lovers you will goe No wonder that for the iniquity of our covetousness Isa 57.17 God be wroth and smite us We are greedy of more but what have we done with our former talents Account we must for one Mat. 25.5 for two for ten talents the more we have the greater still will be our account There is a reckoning day at hand O that our moderation were known to all men Phil. 4.5 because the Lord is at hand If thou art not sincere I am as sure as this Book is in thy hand thou wilt curse the time that ever thou hadst an Estate and wilt wish thou hadst been a Beggar for then thou hadst not so much to answer for before God It is certain though some doubt it that thou shalt carry none of thy estate away with thee 1 Tim. 6.7 nothing is to be carried away save guilt to Hell in case of mis-improvement of an Estate yea if you have not rendred unto God according to what you have received 2 Chron. 32.25 the heaping up of wealth is but the charging of thy account thou must account how thou hast disbursed to a farthing I will suppose thou hast by neglects of thy general Calling and by rising up early and sitting up late gained an Estate thou mayest put all thy gain in thine eyes and never see the worse What will thy Estate advantage thee when the Arrows of the Lord enter into thy Soul What will the World advantage thee when the Gout Feaver burning Pestilence c. are upon thee What hast thou got only that which may stand with Gods eternal hatred Never count thy gains till thou hast got that which is inconsistent with Gods wrath What hast thou got above that which God throweth unto the Doggs Shew me Childrens bread or never boast of thy gains Did you ever find any Child of God worse for afflictions but have you not found many worse for their thrivings in the World Jeshurun waxed fat Deut. 32.15 and kicked Whilst you have Bonds and Bills upon others do not you run into arrears unto God And how will you discharge those Suits which God will commence against you When you lye a dying will ye not wish that your time your strength your spirits had been powred forth upon better things than those of this life That you had traded for Grace and Glory rather than for the Gold of Ophir for a little gilt Clay O ye great Projectours for the World I do even fore-see the troubles and horrours the doubts and fears the anguish and amazements of your Souls which your unâ—â—â—â—â—â—ties as to your future estate will put 〈…〉 into in your dying Rooms How 〈…〉 take up such language as this Fool that I was to cumber my self about many things
Physician is sent for both Lawyers and Physicians houses and rooms are full of Clyents and Attendants but men are contented to clear up their own titles to Heaven and glory and to heal themselves of their sin sicknesses a plain argument that they thought the Ministry but useless and that they could make a shift to live without Ministers Thou hast had Prescriptions for thy Souls recovery and health for these many years and yet perhaps hast not given one farthing to thy Soul-Physicians If a Physician write a few lines purses are opened if a Lawyer plead a quarter of an hour yea if he plead not at all but only give his advise you think he deserves a fee but the Ministers work is so low in thy esteems that he might have starved if all were as niggardly as thou hast been Let this be considered and lamented Your Ministers have been under a temptation to withhold the pressing of this duty upon you for that many lay in wait to discredit them as if they preached for nire and sought yours rather than you but let me be your Remembrancer this day We cannot say of you as Paul of the Galathians that you received us as Angels of God yea as Jesus Christ and that you would have pluckt out your eyes for us Alas what did you for us more than the constraints o◠the Law compell'd you to And how many wishes had you that all the Laws for Tithes had been abrogated upon pretence that Ministers should have had a better maintenance by a voluntary contribution But do not we know that the great sticklers for this have been most close-fisted to the Ministers Giving nothing to them for their maintenance Have not some of them refused to give one penny to the Ministers whom they waited on for years together I wonder how you could in your reading the Scriptures if you have indeed read them so long overlook 1 Cor. 9.7 who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock Say I these things as a man v. 8. or saith not the Law the same also v. 9. For it is written in the Law of Moses thou shalt not muzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn. Doth God take eare for Oxen Or saith he it altogether for our sakes For our sakes no doubt v. 10. this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope v. 11. If we have sowen unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things v. 12. If others be partakers of this power over you are not we rather Nevertheless we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the Gospel of Christ v. 13. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple And they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Altar v. 14. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel That you may be the better convinced of the neglect of your duty see the Apostle claimes it as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Power his Right and lawful Authority to receive maintenance from the Corinthians And indeed Christ hath impowered his Ministers and they may demand it without any just imputation of covetousness and self-seeking as the Labourer may his hire The Apostle had power to forbear working i. e. at his Trade He implyes that the Ministry would be the saddest employment because of the laboriousness of it if Ministers should not live of their Ministry Be sides Ministers give people gold for brass Again They who ministred about the holy things lived of the things of the Temple yea and plentifully too for they had the Tenth and yet were scarce the Sixtieth part of the People for the number of the People without the Levites amounted to a thousand thousands and three hundred thousands and the Levites numbred from the Infant to the old man were found but two and tweenty thousands But alas Though the Apostle be so peremptory here and else-where Gal. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things And the Wise-man Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first-fruits of all thy increase Yet I may renew an old complaint Many have dealt by their Ministers as Carriers do by their Horses they lay heavy burdens upon them and then hang Bells about their necks hard work and good words they shall have but easie commons and slight wages as if they were of the Camelion-kind and could live by the air But if you have parted with any thing to the Minister hath it not been as Almes Or else giving only in charity not in justice as an almes not as due not as Dues not as Right Have not you excused your selves from giving what was due from you with The Minister needs it not He hath a fair Estate or at least a competency Yea but what saith the Apostle Have ye not reaped our spiritual things and should not we your carnals Have ye not been instructed Why then did ye not communicate to your Ministers in all good things Hath not the Lord expresly alienated a proportion of Goods for the Ministers labour How dare you live in the Sin of Sacrilege Is it not Sacrilege for you to detain from God what is due to him You are in the snare Prov. 20.25 for you have devoured that which is holy Suppose a man should work for thee all the day long would it be an excuse for thy detaining his dues from him to say The man hath a competency yea he is rich he is richer than I am my Children want it more than he doth he hath little or no charge O! saith the Lord The Labourer is worthy of his hire Wouldst thou not say so in that mans case O! Live up to the Light of Nature or throw up thy Profession It is no less than a wonder to see how little honesty there is among men yea among Professours To defraud a Minister is hardly counted a sin The rise of this is the great contempt of the Ministry A Sin that God is now reckoning with you for The Lord God of your Fathers sent to you by his Messengers 2 Chron. 36.15 16 17. rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place but you mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets May it not be added Untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy For this Sin God brought upon the Israelites the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the
sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand Have not you cause to fear lest you shall also be so given into the hands of worse Babylonians You can judge what is a Ministers competency but when have ye a competency You can add field to field house to house hundreds to hundreds and yet the Horse-leach cries Give Give Yet do not you judge a small stipend that will hardly keep body and soul together a competency for a Minister What is that great service you do for God above the Minister that you should think it reasonable to leave hundreds yea thousands to your Children and that the Minister should be kept so short that he cannot leave them a groat What shall I say to you Let me borrow the words of God by the Prophet Will a man rob God Mal. 3.8 9 10. Yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tythes and Offerings Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Bring ye all the Tythes into the Store-house that there may be meet in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it O! Restitution to be made by such as have not given what was due from them to their Ministers Do not any longer detain what is due to your former Ministers make restitution of unjust gain as ever you hope to be saved It is not enough to say Lord forgive me I thought it not my duty but thou must reckon how many years thou hast reaped Spirituals and pay what thou owest or Judas will condemn thee for he thought it unsafe to keep what was unjustly got Remember Zacheus he thought it not enough to give over his oppression but when converted he made conscience of making restitution Let the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 5.17 18. be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine For the Scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward Here you see double honour honour of reverence and honour of maintenance was due unto your Ministers Here is an allusion to the right of the first-born who were to have a double portion Their maintenace was due from you neither should their maintenance have been ordinary mercenary wages but such as is given by way of honour as well as by way of reward Have not you lived in the contempt of an Ordinance of God 1 Cor. 9.14 The Lord hath ordained c. as before Do not any longer delude your Consciences by crying against Tythes as Antichristian as Jewish Did not Abraham before the Jewish Laws pay Tythes to Melchisedech And are there not from thence arguments drawn that you cannot answer Why do ye not fear lest through the prevalency of Self you should be too base covetous and partial in your own matters O! Give to God what is Gods Deny not your Ministers their dues You owe vaste summs to them which if you detain in this day of their wants God will call you to a speedy account for the grinding of the faces of these poor yea he will make you vomit up such sweet morsels with all the rest of your substance Jam. 5.4 if not with your blood Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your Fields which is of you kept back by fraud crreth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabbath Lydia even enforced the Apostles to accept of her gift The Macedonians beseech'd Paul with much entreaty to accept of their bounty If thou wert converted by one of them thou didst owe to him no less than thy self What thou art and hast should not have been counted too dear for him who was Gods Instrument to pull thee as a brand out of the fire even when thou wast half burnt Say at length with David I will not serve my God with that which cost me nothing I shall conclude this head with the saying of a Reverend man It is a plain argument of a base esteem of God of Grace of the Kingdome of Heaven that a Servant a Factour should have twenty times the alloance of Heavens Factour for your Souls You are not come up to the honesty of the Pharisee Mat. 23.23 He gave Tythes of all that he possessed even of the smallest things of Mint and Annis and Cummin Luke 11.42 And doth not Christ say These things ye ought to have done What were your Ministers more unworthy than the Priests of that Age Their regardlessness of the Widdons and Children of their dead Ministers 13. If you have not been niggardly toward your Ministers whilst alive with you have not you been niggardly towards their Wives and Children after their deaths Verily not minding the Widows and Children of deceased Ministers is a sin that God will remember in the day of accounts David enquired after the seed of Jonathan he evidenced his true love to the Father in remembring the posterity O! when shall love be without dissimulation 14. Their grieving their Ministers Have not you been a very great trouble to their Souls Your Ministers were so affectionately desirous of you that they were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel only but also their own Souls because ye were dear unto them And is this your kindness to your Friends to break even their hearts who were glad to spend and be spent for you How proudly have you carried it toward them God threatned the Israelites that the Cananites should be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides Surely it better became Cananites to be thorns to the Israelites than for you to be thorns to your Ministers How oft have you grieved them to see your stoutness and rebellion against all their Counsels May not your Ministers say as David Psal 119.158 I beheld the Transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word May they not say We have seen your lukewarmness your sloth your earthliness c. and our Souls were troubled You should have been like the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.19 the crown of our rejoycing but you have been crowns of thorns which have pierced not our heads but hearts You should have refreshed our Bowels been as Cordials and sweet refrectives after all our wearisome labours but have not you dealt unkindly with us and the more we have loved you have not we had the less love from you Have not you beâ—â— more merciful to your Horses and Dogs than to your Ministers You have baited and been kind to those creatures but God knows how after all our toyle
to scatter and disperse those fogs and mists which over-cloud their Souls you should be eyes to the blind but you are not you should be of a merciful Spirit to all Souls more especially to the Souls of all Saints most especially to the Souls of those Saints to whom you are peculiarly related but you are not Exod. 23.5 1 Thes 5.14 1 Cor. 12.7 Mal. 3.16 In the old Law God took care of Asses if they lay under a burthen Israel was to help them Doth God take care for beasts and will not ye for men for Saints for the redeemed of the Lord God requires of you that you comfort the feeble minded The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall Christ expects his own with increase They that feared the Lord spake often one to another to comfort one another with the promises of God made to his people against the flourishing of the wicked and overflowing of ungodliness and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of Remembrance was written before him c. the Lord book't that good service Nihil de Scripturis nihil de salute Animarum agitur sed nugae risus verba proferuntur inventum he pur it upon record But though the Lord hearknetâ— and hears yet he seldom finds us so employed our neglects are sealed up in his bag I pray God we may lay it to heart repent and reform Bernards complaint may justly be revived Not a word of the Scriptures nothing of the Salvation of the Soul but trisles and to yes laughter and words as light as the wind eat up the time I know there have been too many Uzza's amongst us who have had an itching desire to be fingring of the Ark thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think and like the ambitious Sons of Levi taking too much upon them whereby the Ministry hath suffered much contempt The Lord forgive these daring Phaetons who have set the world in a slame hereby But let not us run from one extreme into another Let us give to the Ministry their due Jude v. 20. and yet not neglect to build up our selves in our most holy faith Mutual duties should be exercised between Christian and Christian The Apostle is express for it in the places already quoted I shall adde one more Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another O! if God would be with me so far as to make me an instrument to prevail with you to go and visit one another and stir up one another that knowing the terours of the Lord you may perswade men O! bewail thy unserviceableness thy private spiritedness thy want of love and bowels to others especially now when the Ministerial help fails to such a degree and when there is so great an Apostasie Sure then is no time wherein Christian-fellowship is more called for and wherein it may be more profitable than at this time But alas How are the wise as well as the foolish Virgins asleep generally secure without action no way usefull to each other no more than they are who are fast asleep in their beds of rest O! how few are there like Jonathan and David how few enter into a brotherly promise to exhort one another to call one another to account to tell one another their fears to know of one another their growth in Religion We are proud and loath to have our nakedness appear yea some of us have few stories to tell of Gods goodness and bounty to our Souls and we hate a discovery how low earthly vain backsliding we are Hence reserved to each other But God will bring forth the hidden works of dishonesty 3. Not admonishing or not aright How is Fraternal correption neglected or spoyl'd in the managing Some totally neglect reproving their Brethren Gallio-like they little care for these things they are little concern'd whether God be honoured or dishonoured Others delay admonition Either neglecting it altogether or delaying it The Flesh is backward to this self-denying work and so the many weighty circumstances which should bring the Offendor to Repentance are forgot The Offendor is also hardned in his Sin He thinks by thy silence thou art altogether like unto him so he judgeth of Gods silence these things hast thou done and I kept silence Psa 50.21 thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self so he judgeth of thy silence It 's much easier to fetch out a spot of inck from a cloth the day it is stained than afterwards Sin like a Mole will quickly bury it self and the longer let alone the harder it is to dig it up The longer a disease is let alone the harder cured Cronical diseases are seldome a credit to the Physitian Besides if you neglect the Reproof this day or hour perhaps by the next he will commit the same Sin again for either he knows it not to be a sin or in case he knows it yet every new act doth strengthen the habit of sin It is the nature of sin to blind the Mind to stupifie the Conscience and to harden the heart Exhort therefore one another dayly Heb. 3.13 while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin If the finner add sin to sin put that to your account for neglecting the Ordinance of God for his reducement If he loseth the favour of God and neglects hereupon all private communion with the Lord put that to thy account If at length he becomes impudent in sin so that like a Bedlam he feels not the pricks of sharp admonition put all this to your account because you have delayed to cure to heal to save the Soul of your Brother A timely reproof might have saved a Soul and covered a multitude of sins Besides have you time at your command that you with Faelix will do your duty at a more convenient season May'st not thou dye or the Offendor dye and both in sin thou in the sin of Omission and he in the sin of Commission unrepented of before the day comes wherein thou art resolved to tell him roundly of his fault Why art not thou trembling with fear of blood-guiltiness Is Soul-murther no sin with thee Or have you the Holy-Ghost at command Without the Holy Spirits a sistances and concourse your labour will be in vain you will get a blot by reproving the delinquent will flye in your face hate you for telling the truth he will add sin unto sin and perhaps put you into a flame too and must the Holy-Ghost dance attendance on you If you observe his hour you must go presently whilst the wound is fresh and bleeding but if you neglect his call it is a question whether your hour will be Gods Others miscarry in reproving Some reprove Or miscarrying in it not reproving privately Matth. 18.15 Prov. 10.12 Si solus nosti
in telling them their faults We are so over-run with self-love that we think no stander by can discern so much as we and we are so unwilling to be censured that we stand aloof from having such a Looking glass near us to reflect our spots to us Few with David would count it a kindness for the righteous to smite them How few do amend upon a solemn serious reproof How few retire to their Closets Not obediently and there upon their knees bless God for emboldning any to tell them of their Sins and there beg pardon and strength to reform and enter into a religious vow by the grace of God to amend whatever is amiss 5. Minding only the plâ—â—â—ing of â—â—â—mselves Rom. 15.1 2 3. Most Professours seek to please themselves and not their Neighbour A man would think they never read we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself c. Pâ—ofessours are self-willed they will walk to the utmost of their liberty and if others be offended they little care for grieving and stumbling their weak Brethren They will tell you in the pride oâ— their hearts and loftiness of their Spirits the weak must be satisfied But what if they cannot O! how opposite are Professours to the Apostles condescending frame They think that in different câ—â—cumstantial things the weak should sollow the strong and therefore slight what they think of their actions Gal. 5.13 1 Cor. 8.1 But what saith the Apostle Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifyeth A firm and full knowledge of our liberty in things indifferent saith a learned man if it be seperated from Charity is apt to swell the mind with Pride and make men to despise and set at naught weak doubting and scrupulous Brethren but Charity is carefull to avoyd what may stumble the weak and cause them to fall into Sin and therefore judge this 〈…〉 Rom. 14.13 22. that no man put a stumbling or occasion to full in his brothers way by the use of â—â—differerts Hast thou faith concerning the â—â—â—ullness of the use of things indifferent for of them the Apostle speaks have it unto thy self before God make not a vain publication thereof to the exasperating grieving or stumbling of the weak who may by thy example even against Conscience use the same liberty that thou dost and so through thy knowledge shall thy weak Brother perish 1 Cor. 8.11 i. e. thy using this liberty hath a tendency to destroy him You may think this is no great matter But the same Apostle informs you 1 Cor. 8.11 12. Rom. 14.20 that you hereby sin against Christ you destroy the work of God the Soul of thy Brother and no man on earth can priviledge you from the wrath of God if you destroy them with your meats with the use of your â—iberty for whom Christ dyed and therefore the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 8.13 if meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my Brother to offend O! that men were sâ—â—â—uole as Paul in the condescention of their Charity But alas All men seek their own things if they are satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the things they look no farther they little mind the souls of their Brethren but are securing themselves some outward peace and earthly advantages Few naturally care for the good of others for the glory of God and the edification of their Brethren 6. Valuing Christians by externals How are Christians valued and preferred by externals rather than by internals By gold-rings by outward honours and privileges rather than by their graces They who should have most oâ— your esteem love and respect have least A rich Formalist's company is more prized than an humble mortified poor Christian 's The miscarriage that was in the Apostles dayes is descended to this age and is a blot upon many of the Professours of it Jam. 2.1 O my Brethren Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons How are mens judgements blinded by some external glory and appearance so that a little in a great rich honourable man is counted much and much grace in a poor man is despised 1 Cor. 11.22 over-looked and accounted but littieâ— How do the rich contemn the poor How are the poor neglected in visits But a rich though formâ—l Professour shall have many Friends How common is it for the rich to enjoy Ordinances together and exclude the poor You goe to the houses of the rich but seldome goe over the threshold of the poor and yet what said Christ to him that bade him Luke 14.12 13 14. When thou makest a Dinner or Supper call not thy Friends nor thy Brethren neither thy Kinsmen nor thy rich Neighbours lest they also bid thee again and recompence be made thee but when thou makest a Feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee but thou shalt be recompenced at the resurrection of the just You do not value men by their eminency in grace but in parts and worldly endowments as if gold did set men off more than grace Those who have most of Caesar's Image are held in higher reputation than those who have most of God's Image What a reflexion is this upon the great and blessed God 2 Cor. 5.16 Paul durst know no man after the flesh yet dare you esteem men by their fleshly greatness in the world When you should fix your affections where you see most grace you are taken where you see either most of the world or most gifts prudence learning or most morality You know 1 Cor. 12. that you bestow not most honour on the uncomely parts on them who have least of worldly Privileges though the Apostle yea God expects it How rough and rigorous are you to poor men if over-taken in a fault how is his offence aggravated how severely is he censured But if a rich mans transgression be the same or more to be aggravated from the light it hath affronted and from the danger of its scandal yet how is it past by extenuated if not excused and pardoned O! This having mens persons in admiration over-reverencing men for worldly things is a great disparagement to the grace of God as if riches and honours were more excellent than Religion and Grace They who are highly descended or who relate to the Courts of Princes or who have their stores in their houses are in greater esteem than others who are descended from above who are related to the God of 〈◊〉 who are Favourites in the New Jerusalem and who have store of grace in their hearts O my Brethren Jam. 2.2 3 4 5. If there come into your
you cannot so exhort as Ministers c. But have you not been told that God can work by small means as well as by great and that by things that are not God can confound the wisdome of the flesh and bring to naught the things that are Is not this like the pretence of not being eloquent Do you not know have you not heard that the issue and event depends on the blessng of the Lord rather than on the work it self Is it not all one to the Lord to wound by a short as by a long sword Cannot God bless a few words in thy mouth as he did in Christs and the Apostles Can'st not thou say follow Christ and may not presently a Matthew a Publican leave his sinfull courses and embrace the Christian faith Can'st thou not say Repent and Believe that your sins may be blotted out and may not God concur with thee as he did of old times Is the Lords hand shortned that it cannot help If Israel be not gathered yet thy reward is with the Lord if thine heart were upright and could testifie that night and day thou hast not ceased to warn to rebuke and counsel Certainly your memories are not so bad but you must remember the weight of sin and of the wrath of God you have seen the wonders of the Lord in the deeps you that have escaped to shoar can tell of the Rocks and Shelves and Storms which you have been delivered from and will you set other Shipwrack their Souls rather than hold out your light unto them 〈…〉 may avoyd their ruines What shall I say to humble you There is more 〈◊〉 in Hell than you can afford Blush blush and be ashamed to have less zeal love and pitty to perishing Souls than Dives in Hell had he would have his Brethren saved from the Valley of Hinnom Your silence will make others think that Hell is a tollerable place that sin is not so evil and bitter a thing that to lye under Gods wrath is not so great a misery whilst you are so slow and backward to warn your Friends and Acquaintance that they slee from these and take Sanctuary in the true City of Refuge the Lord Jesus Christ O! If you know the worth of a Soul pitty the multitude with whom the day is not broke whose forlorn Souls are under a continual Massacre from the bloudy Butcher of Hell Besmear your Souls no longer with the guilt of their bloud Let them not starve for want of bread whilst you have to give them I shall bless God for ever and ever if this your negligence of the Souls of those whom you may account without may be cordially bewailed and you for the future double your diligence for their conversion Ministers cannot convert without the Concourse of Omnipotency neither can you Though Satan and thy own lazy heart hath told thee thou art unfit to set upon this work yet better do it meanly than wholy omit it God like Parents on earth loves to see his Children lift at those duties which are too hard for them and then he steps in and is a Co-worker with them What God did by illiterate Fishermen by Priscilla he can do by thee The Lord pardon thy former unmercifulness to the Souls of men But if thou continue careless and cruel if thou wilt not by Prayers for them and counsels to them seek their reducement as sure as thou art reading the voyce of thy Brothers blood is crying against thee from the earth By your example before if not since Profession you have been the cause of the destruction of Souls of how many who can tell And as Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after he was rotten in his grave so your sin your wicked examples may propagate the trade of sin from generation to generation until Christ shall come to Judgement Tremble tremble at the thoughts of it if thou hast not the heart of a Beast in thee O! how many Souls are crying in Hell against thee cursing the day they knew thee or their Ancestours knew thee for that by thee they learned to sin the more and were strengthned in their wickedness by thy tongue and by thy life And now are not you bound to do your utmost to make restitution to labour to save them that be alive Is it not reasonable that you should labour to win Souls to Gods as you have to the Devils service and to have many blessing God in the Heavens for you that ever they were in the company of such an active zealous Christian who by word and life was instrumental to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and of their God And is it not a glorious work to hold forth such Light to the World that they seeing your good works may glorifie God and you may be Propagators of Zeal and Holiness from Generation to Generation till Christ shall appear to judge the World and to reward you for all the services you have done to his Name O! how welcome shall that man be to Heaven and Christ who hath fed the Souls and clothed the Souls and visited the Souls which he hath purchased with his own precious blood Christ will own thee for his Benefactour CHAP. XXXVII The Dis-ingenuity and Scandalousness of their Miscarriages WHen God had given the Prophet Ezekiel a large Catalogue of Judah's Abominations The wickedness of the former miscarriages Ezek. 8.9 V. 6 13 15. he then shew'd him the Wickedness of their Abominations He said unto me Goe in and Behold the wicked Abominations they do here He commanded him once and again and again to turn him yet again and he should see greater Abominations I cannot indeed promise thee that thou shalt now see greater Abominations than those already mentioned All that I shall now do shall be to represent the former Miscarriages in their crimson dye and scarlet colour And The First Thing I shall mention Commitred against so good and kind a God Eph. 4.30 as making your Sins Professours out of measure sinful is your Dis-ingenuity in so sinning against God O! You have sinned against a gracious God You have grieved the good Spirit of God whereby some amongst you have been sealed to the day of Redemption I am bold to say that one godly man's sinning against light and mercy doth more break the heart of God than the bruitish Sins of a Pagan Kingdom Ezek. 6.9 I am broken saith God with your whorish heart which hath departed from me c. And ye shall loath your selves for your evils which ye have committed in your abominations Amos 2.13 God hath been press'd down with your sins as the Cart with sheaves till he hath even Creak'd under the weight God expected more from the Treet planted in Zion than from the wild ones in the Wilderness Luke 13.9 Grief and Burthen springs much from unexpected Unkindnesses I looked for Fruit and there was none How were David's and Saul's Sins aggravated from
who have lost your Virgin affections to Christ who have gone a whoring from your God who are covetous to a wonder and over run with carking cares and sinful despondencies who break out daily into scandalous passions who by divisions envies animosities over-reachings perjuries and hypocrisie have made Religion vile Know from Christ's mouth Mat. 18.6 it had been better for you that a Milstone had been hang'd about your necks and that you had been drowned long agoe in the depth of the Sea than to live so offensively towards men as you have done Jer. 34.16 because hereby the Name of God is polluted It had been better you had never known the wayes of God 1 Pet. 2.20 21. than after Profession and Knowledge to depart and to be as Doggs and Swine If you had never profess'd Gods Name you had never polluted it but God will reckon with you about it I am bold to say that a Drunkard Adulterer Robber c. doth not so provoke the Lord to wrath as a Professour may even by an impatient discontented word and for this compare two Scriptures In the former there is unbelief and quarrelling with God face to face as it were and yet God pass'd that by Numb 11.21 22. with Numb 20.10 and Deut. 32.51 it being in secret with a short check Is the Lords hand waxed short But in the other place Because ye believed not c. to sanctifie me in the eyes of the Children of Israel c. therefore ye shall dye in the Wilderness and never set foot on the Land of Promise One scandalous Professour doth more hurt and more stain Religion than hundreds of Drunkards and therefore their Hell shall be the standard to that of all other sinners Atrocius sub nominis Christi Professione peccat Salvian Mat. 24.51 Appoint him his portion with Hypocrites Thousands in Hell will curse the day wherein they saw your looseness on Earth for thereby they have blasphemed Christ as a Friend of Publicans and Sinners and as if he countenanced you secretly in your Lusts though for state and form he hath spoken great things against such courses in his Word O! how frequently have you made boasts of God Rom. 2.23 24. and the Law but by breaking of it ye have caused his Name to be evil spoken of When you should have been leading others to Heaven you have by your example lead them to Hell How deep shall their Hell be who are plunged thither with their own and other-mens sins also Though God should give you repentance and pardons yet how oft will your Souls bleed to consider how many you have compell'd by your example to sin and blaspheme who are actually in the chains of darkness Gal. 2.14 or hastning thither in a full career O that you would no longer be like the body of Amasa to cause others to stand still or go back from the wayes of Holyness O thou scandalous Professour What account must thou pass with God shortly before perhaps thou hast turned thine eye to the next page Will not the blood of multitudes who perish by thy means be required at thy hands One sin may become many millions of offences as the Numbers may be that shall hear of it No wonder that men are emboldned to sin that the Adulterer cares not for the Curtains of the Night nor the Drunkard for the shadows of the Evening no wonder that the Swearer can spit the Name of God so impudently out of his mouth these have been incouraged by thy revolts backslidings careless and seldome duties and violent earthly seekings O! if you would consider you bore the Ark of the Lord you were entrusted with his honour but you have let it fall yea cast it in the dirt O! tremble at what the God of Heaven hath made a standing decree upon this occasion 1 Sam. 2.30 them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed And though it somewhat comforts me that God will wipe off whatsoever can be cast on him yet know to your sorrow you shall not so easily discharge your selves of the Plagues that are ready to be powred out upon you God expected that you should have been Kings and Priests to him Rev. 1.6 Jo. 3.35 you should have been burning and shining lights you should have been like Innes which have their Signes on both sides you were of the King guard you should have had the Arms of the Crown on your Breasts and on your Backs so that if any had viewed you had met you or had followed you they might have known you for Gods Servants by the stamp and cognisance of Heaven upon you But you have rather been like those Pictures that if you look on one side you may see an Angels face but on the other the Devils O my Soul how canst thou write of these speak or think on them without weeping O Reader retreat retreat quickly to thy Chamber and spend some considerable time to reflect on thy scandalous Words and Actions and how much the Name of God hath thereby been blasphemed and thousands endangered to stumble and fall through thy occasion How many that should have â—een as Shields to ward off those blows of reproach that would fall on God and Religion have proved Swords in the hands of the wicked wherewith the Name of God is wounded and whereby multitudes are in danger of perishing yea and the poor reall Christians are even ashamed to look up and to shew their faces and profession to the world because there have been such Spots in their communion Jude v. 12. such unclean scabbed and unsavoury Sheep that have walked among them CHAP. XXXVIII Their sinning against Knowledge and impenitently notwithstanding all means to bring them to Repentance for their Sins 3ly Against much light YOur Sins are yet further accented by being committed not only against such means of Knowledge but against much Knowledge got thereby You have had the most powerfull Ministry under the whole Heavens And believe it sirs if you had not heard him that spake from Heaven to you If Christ had not come Joh. 15.22 you had had no sin comparatively But now you have no Cloak for your sin You have sinned against more light than the rest of the World You know that covetousness is a sin Isa 57.17 Isa 45.5 Tit. 3.2 and that for the iniquity thereof God hath been wrath and yet you seek great things for your selves still you know that you are to speak evil of no man and yet you bespatter every man almost to set off your selves by staining and blotting of others reputations Isa 58.5 Luk. 12.47 Ezek. 21.10 you know God abhors them that for a day only hang down their heads like bull-rushes and yet this hath been your manner from the beginning of your Profession you know your Masters will you know you should not make mirth when the Lord is angry
and yet you dare even then be vain and frothy you know the Lord is much grieved at the backslidings of his people and yet you have lost you antient faith love tenderness zeal publick-spiritedness and communion with God yea you have not only known these to be sins but you have spoken against them as evils you have told men how hainous a thing it is to sin against the Lord and yet you your selves have added iniquity unto iniquity What cloak have you for your sins And very impenitently Fourthly You have sinned impenitently notwithstanding all means for your repentance and reducement which God hath most wonderfully vouchsafed you The Lord hath for many years striven with you to put a stop to your sins and to reclaim you from your miscarriages Sometimes God hath gone up to Mount Ebal and threatned you with Sword Famine Fire and Pestilence and yet you have refused to hear from thence he hath leapt up to Mount Gerazim and allured you by all kind of blessings and yet you have carried your selves stoutly and impudently towards all the offers and tenders of grace for your recovery Jer. 3.4 7. God would have healed you he hath said wilt thou not from this time cry unto me my Father thou art the guide of my youth turn thou unto me yet you returned not You have had many of the Lords faithful Ambassadours who have laid siege at you hearts to engage them to the Lord and to take you off from your sinfull wayes but alas all the glad tidings of mercy have not affected you have not won you all the Ordinances of Jehovah have found little place in you have left no impre â—ion upon your Souls Ezek. 16.51 Hos 4.17 You have justified Judah and Samaria in all their stubborness and rebellion against the Lord. How righteous is it with the Lord to call upon the Ministers Let them alone threaten them no moâ—e promise them no more Rev. 22.11 Let him that is filthy he filthy still you have broken through Armies of Ordinances to commit sin therefore Gospel and Gospel-Ministers let them alone judgements overtake them my plagues my curses seize upon them Let them suddenly be destroyed Prov. 29.1 and that without remedy because they have hardned their necks though often reproved God hath waited more than three and three years on you expecting fruit but he sees little save the Clusters of Sodom upon you he hath born with you so long he hath held his tongue and said nothing so long that you have wickedly thought God to be such an one as you Psal 50.21 So that God must needs be a swift witness against you for the vindicating of his great and glorious Name unless you speedily repent and seek the Lord Zeph. 2.3 if perhaps he may be found O! how long hath God commanded you every where to repent not only by his threats but by his judgements which have begun at the House of God What lowd calls have we had Joel 2.11 1 Pet. 5.6 Turn to the Lord with weeping Let your laughter be turned into weeping Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and yet how stupid how insensible how impenitent have you remained to this very day though you have felt the Arrows of the Lord stying amongst you yea though you have been told Jer. 18.8 If you repent it shall repent the Lord of the evil he had thought either to continue upon you or to bring down on you yet alas where are the stirrings of your affections the soundings of your bowell the meltings and relentings of your repenting hearts O what marble breasts and hearts of Adamant have you How few are there mourning for all the wrongs they have done to the Majesty of God Evidenced in their being infensible of their own sins for all the abuses offered to the grace of God Perhaps the fear of Hell and so indeed self-love hath humbled some Ahabs and made them crouch because they would not be miserable But how few are humbled for their abuse of the love and grace of God by their great offences Whaâ— the Lord complains of by the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 3.8 of the house of Israel that they would not hearken to the Messengers be sent them but were impudent and hard hearted may be again renewed against England and all its dominions the heart of stone is not yet taken away where is the man almost that can say God hath made mâ— heart soft Job 2â— 16 Though you have born arms against God though you have sinned against the Lord with an high hand though upon self-tryal you may sind those very sins amâ—ngst you which brought Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah Psal 42.3 and desolation on Israel yet alas when were tears thy drink When didst thou make thy Bed to swim Is thy beauty gone away for trouble Dost thou abhor thy self in dust and ashes before the Lord Know Reader that the Authors Pen had proceeded thus far before he heard of the late dreadful Burning of London the following lines shew thee what impressions it made on his thoughts and should on thy Soul Perhaps in Rama there is a voice heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children that dye by the Sword or Pestilence or are burnt in their beds Perhaps in London and throughout the Land there are some tears shed for the Coals of fire that God hath scattered the last week over that famous and antient City But how few are mourning for their pride worldliness contempt of the Ministers and Apostasies for which God seems to be contending not only by the Sword and the Pestilence but by Fire with us where are the Dovâ—s of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity A â—haraoh may so far repent as to say Take away the Plague but few cry out Take away iniquity Few detest their sins few loath them few are so burthened with them as that they desire heartily to have them taken away Possibly Sin in its effects in its sad consequences as it consines men to the Pest-house as it endangereth health and life as it is the founder of graves and hells as it burns up your houses and goods is someway burthensom but few are troubled with it Ezek. 10.2.7.16 Hos 14.2 as it grieves resisteth and quencheth the Spirit of God as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude and as it kicks against the breasts of mercy And therefore no wonder if Few are to be found mourning for other mens sinnes Though Jesus Christ be crucified afresh Of other mens sins and put to open shame though the blessed Spirit of our God be always vexed and resisted though there be so much Atheism Epicurism contempt of God and his Ambassadours and Gospel Blasphemy Violence Falshood Pride Adultery Sodomy though there be setting up the posts of men with an apparent contempt of Gods holy
institutions though all the sins for which God cast out the Heathen and cast off his Israel oe found amongst us and these highly aggravated and innumerable circumstances yet how little are we concerned therein How seldom do we express our inward sorrows by Tears and Fasts David beheld the Transgressours aâ—â— was grieved because they kept not Gods word Horrour seized on him because they made void Gods Law Yea Rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not Gods Law Psal 119.158 v. 53 136. 1 Pet. 2.7 But where is the sorrowing after a Godly sort Where are the weeping Jeremiah's Naltons Midhopes or whose Soul like Lots is vexed pierced with the unclean conversation of the wicked If ever God did call us to weeping and to mourning this is the day but behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die And it was revealed in mine ears saith the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die Isa 22.12 13 14. saith the Lord God of Hosts When Elijah saw how iniquity abounded how the worship of God was crushed how things went among the great ones of those wicked times how Idolaters were countenanced the faithfull prophets durst not shew their faces he is so burthened at what became of this that he knows not how to live 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He is weary of the world weary of his own Land though the best under the cope of Heaven yea he thinks it a good time to remove that his eyes may see no more of these detestable things and that his Soul may be no longer prick'd with these scratching Briars But the searcher of Hearts knows how little we have been affected with all the shipwrackt faith and conscience that our eyes have seen how seldome our heads have been fountains of teart how seldome we have made our houses Bochims how insensible we have been of all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which we and our people are guilty of Wo is us we have not been wounded through Gods sides we have not sympathised with a Christ Crucified every day But like Gallio we have not laid these things to heart And yet we have still impudently enough laid claim to Christ and the priviledges of the New Testament purchased by his bloud Though we never followed Christ to the Cross weeping though we have hardly shed one tear for all the contempt and abuse of him which is Epidemical which abounds from Dan to Beersheba from one part of the Nation to another We pretend we have great sorrows though they are not expressed by tears in a sensitive manner we think to relieve our selves with the dryness of our constitution and yet we have tears more than a good many to express our sorrows by if a Relation drops into the Earth we can follow the Herse wringing our hands and beating our breasts if an Estate which we have got by carking cares by neglect of duties heart-duties and family-duties be in one day consumed and dissolved by a flame into ashes we then can express our sorrows by weeping and lamentation witness some of your howlings your cries at the late Desolation by Fire But commune with your own hearts whether you were ever made so sensible ever so affecâ—â—â—and â—unk with the consideration of the honour that God hath lost by you and by thousands like your selves Was God ever more affronted by a professing people than by us Was ever Christ so set at naught as of late times Was he ever more despised in his Person Offices and Institutions by the Rhabsheka's of the Earth than he hath been lately by them who have had a form of godliness Zech. 7.12 and yet our hearts are bard as an Adamant O! what grounds have you to question all your mourning for your own sins whilst you mourn not for the sins of others Did you mourn for sin as it is against God You would mourn for other mens sins for they are against the Lord also Ezra 9.3 You would be like Ezra he rent his garments pull'd off the hair of his beard sate down astonished for the sinfull marriages of the people But we are insensible though God be much more dishonoured by the Adulterers and Adulteresses by the Blasphemers and Atheists by the Worldlings and Apostates who swarm in the midst of us How can we perswade our selves that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts whilst he is so much reflected on and yet we no way suitably affected therewith If a Child if a Father if an Husband if a Friend be injured thou art much affected with the injury but not so with all the affronts that the Sons of Belial put upon the blessed God every day How can we imagine in the least that we have any true love to the Souls of our Neighbours whâ—â—â—â— we behold them lifting up the heel against their Maker wounding and destroying their Souls by their sins and yet we not sign if not weep in secret for the desperate nazards they are running Nay how can you imagine you love your selves your estates liberties lives c. whilst God is provoked to ruine you and them for their great provocations Josh 7. You know one Achan brought a Plague upon the whole body of Israel and yet his sin was secret But we have Street-Drunkards Street-Swearers Street-Adulterers and Adulteresses Street-Scoffers at Piety and the Worship of God And are ye not in danger to partake of the Plagues that these sins are crying for And what yet are your hearts as insensible as Rocks The Lord be mercifull to you and take out the heart of stone How can you be free from being guilty of all the known sins of the land whilst you do not mourn for them before the Lord Nay yea of the â—okens of Gâ—ds dispâ—â—asure against Sin Isa 22.45 Joel 2.2 to shew yet the greatness of your stubbornness you are insensible not only of your own and other mens sins but of the tokens of Gods displeasure against those sinnes God hath emptied us from Vessel to Vessel followed us with the Sword and Pestilence and wonderfully so lately by dreadfull flames God hath spoyled us of our glory and humbled us as low as dust and ashes it is a time of treading down and therefore we should weep bitterly it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness We have had such a Plague as never the like such a Fire hath been kindled as never the like amongst us the Protestant Nations are very low and the Antichristian very bold and consident yet we can hardly hang out harps upon the Willows Eph. 4.19 but as if our hearts were past feeling we are insensible both of sin and wrath O! I hear some cry out of hard times but there is much more reason to cry out
shall eat their Bread with carefulness Ezek. 12.19 20. and drink their Water with astonishment c. And the Cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste Therefore thus saith the Lord God As the Vine-tree among the Trees of the Forrest which I have given to the fire for fuel so will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Ezek. 15.6 7. And I will set my face against them and they shall goe out from one fire and another fire shall devour them Such ruines were to attend them that Ezekiel though the Messenger of them yet must sigh Ezek. 21.5 12. with the breaking of his loynes and with bitterness yea he must cry and howl and smite upon his thigh You may easily imagine if God were so angry with Judah for their insensibleness of his wrath when it hung in the cloud of threatnings and Types How much more will he be provoked to fury if we lay not to heart those fearfull signs and tokens of his wrath now that the cloud is dissolved into the Pestilence Sword and Fire Is 16.11 O that my bowells may sound like an Harp for England O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1.11 that I might weep day and night O that for the mountains I could take up a weeping and wailing because they are burnt up because Jerusalem is made heaps because Gods fury went out like Fire and burned that none could quench it because of the evil of their doings O ye Sons of men Jer. 21.12 Ezek. 24.2 write you the name of the day even of the same day the God of Heaven set himself against Jerusalem this same day How oft did we profane that day by gluttony exâ—essive feastings gossipings within dores by unnecessary walks and sports without dores How did we cry when will the Sabbath be gone Amos 8.5 8 9. that we may attend our callings Shall not the Land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein Your Sun is gone down at Noon-day God hath turned your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into Lamentation How dare you now make mirth What Now drink Wine in Bowls The Lord take away the heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh The Lord powr out a spirit of mourning upon all the Land that we may lay to heart the wonderfull effects of Gods sore displeasure Wo to them that are at ease and are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Shall not the Isles shake at the sound of thy fall Amos 6.1.6 Shall not the Princes of the Sea come down from their Thrones and lay away their Robes and put off their broidered garments and cloth themselves with trembling Ezek. 36.15 16 17 18. and sit upon the ground and be astonished at thee and take up a lamentation for thee and say how art thou destroyed thou that wast inhabited by Seafairing men the renowned City which was strong in the Soa She and her Inhabitants Now let the Isles tremble in the day of thy fall Come behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 what desolations he hath made in the earth Desolations by the Sword Desolations by the Pestilence and desolations by Fire Some smart that others may Fear Now all these things happen for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10.11 God means not only to punish but to teach and not only the present generation but all generations to the end of the World O the much precious blood that the Sword hath devoured How many thousands hath the Pestilence swept away And now one of the most flourishing Cities of the Christian World famous for the Gospel famous for frequence of Traffick in a few days lyes buried in Ashes or Rubbish If we have any bowells of pity let us weep with them that weep let us commiserate the grievous sufferings of multitudes of Men Women and Children It is certainly now a time to weep Eccles 3.4 Jer. 7.28 and not to laugh And must our Jeremiah's complain of England This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction If some amongst us are sensible of the heat of the Fire and other plagues yet we mourn not Isa 28.21 we do not habitually mourn for those sins and provocations which have moved God to do this work this strange work upon us and against us Possibly some cry and howl for the Goods and Houses that are consumed by Fire and for their Friends whom the Sword and Pestilence have devoured But how few are mourning in secret for their contempt of Christ and his Gospel for controlling and checking the Spirit of God for their spending away so much time and strength to get a little money and neglecting to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure you have mourned for your silver shrines but not for the pride carelesness and covetousness of your hearts you fear poverty and reproach will be your portion but why do you not fear what will be the issue of the hardness of your hearts Hear ye the Word of the Lord They are not humbled unto this day Jer. 44.10 11. Jer. 23.39 40.29.17 18. neither have they feared nor walked in my Law therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah I even I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the City that I gave you c. and will bring an everlasting reproach upon you c. And if you will not after all this turn unto the Lord read your doom I will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten they are so evil c. I here publish my fears to all the World I am afraid that our view of the desolations that God hath wrought are too short and transient and that some want humanity in their being insensible of the plagues and miseries of their Brethren and more want the spirit of mourning for their own and other mens sins Nay are there none of the Race of Ammon left Ezek. 25.3 6 7. Prov. 17 5. Luk. 13 2 3 4 5. Ezek. 25.8 9. Psal 137.7 Ezek. 12.13 14. who say Aha against Gods Sanctuary when it was profaned and against the Land of Israel when it was desolate at least rejoyced in heart Behold God will stretch out his hand upon such a people He that is glad at calaâ—â—ities shall not be unpunished The Tower of Silo fell to lead others to repentance If any will scoff and blaspheme as the Moabites by saying the House of Judah is like unto all the Heathen who have not suffered more nor so much as they God knows how to open the side of Moab and to let in the Sword and ruine upon their strongest Cities And if the Children of Edom who were long ago for
of your provocations humbled in the very dust be sure to keep Conscience tender Let not your convictions dye strike again and again smite on the thigh again and again whilst the Iron is hot This fire may be kept alive by bringing new fuel to it Labour exquisitely to afflict your Souls that you should be so foolish so vile as under Christs Livery to commit so great and so hideous abominations Take words and say O the Light that I have abused O the means of Grace that I have slighted O the little service that I have done to Christ O the many dis-services Let these things cut and grave and afflict and humble thy Soul exceedingly from morning to evening and from evening to morning till God be pacified towards thee beware lest the motions of a lazy heart cause thee to desist sooner A patient that hath had a long disease must continue in the use of the prescriptions till the ill humour be purged away 4. Indignation Let your sorrow be accompanied with detestation See all your sins and loath them and your selves too This is promised they shall loath their ways and doings which are not good O! how much sin have we confessed which yet we have secretly hug'd in our hearts Labour to have your hearts rise against your pride hypocrifie c. Hate sin not only for Hell but as Hell yea hate your selves for your sins yea hate your selves that you can hate your sins no more O that my hatred of my Lusts might be greater than ever my love was unto them I wish from my Soul Professors were more apprehensive of Gods Judgements that are upon them and the Nation for their sins I wish many of us were come up to the frames of the hard-hearted Jews and expressed so much tenderness as they did when Gods hand was heavy upon them their sins also were an heavy burden Hos 7.14 In their affliction they sought God early they mourned and humbled themselves very much though with the removal of their trouble their sorrows wore away However be not satisfied with this sorrow but labour for such sorrow as David had when he was wounded in his heart for sin though Nathan told him his sin was forgiven yet he continued his sorrows for his great transgressions Labour I beseech you for tears of hatred and indignation be greatly displeased with your selves because you have so foolishly and wretchedly dishonoured God and ventured your eternal undoing and if yet thine eyes be not like the Fish-ponds of Heshbon for thy sins take words and sament before God thine hardness of heart that thou shouldst so grievously offend and provoke God so good so gracious a God and that notwithstanding thine heart should remain unbroken 5. Supplication Let there be added hearty cries to God for pardon of all these and all other abominations Who forgives him that scorns to sue for Remission Here is your work in this day the Devil and a false heart will put you upon other work but this is your present work Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept But O! do not leave the work that God sets you about I know it is your duty to provide for the bodies of your Children but consider the danger of thy Soul what guilt thou art under and give the Lord no rest till he hath blotted out all thy sin and art assured that he will remember it no more Relieve not thy self with the general bounty of God or with the free grace and rich mercy of God whilst thou neglectest to cry to God for grace and mercy He will be sought unto by the house of Israel Prize thy condition that thou art alive to pray thou mightst have been in Hell there to howl for ever and ever Seek the Lord whilst he may be found Seek in time before it be too late And if thou doubtest whether thou hast an interest in Christ and the promises because of thy hideous transgressions yet remember the gracious words that tell once from the mouth of Christ to the Samaritan John 4.10 If thou didst know the gift of God thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living water Though thou art unworthy of Childrens bread and hast deserved to be cast forth among the dogs yet thou hast to do with a bountifull and mercifull Lord and therefore be not cast down so as to be discouraged from waiting on the Lord. It was ill said of him why should I wait on the Lord any longer There is no hope I would have thee take better words into thy mouth and say Lord I am unworthy to be the object of thy mercy unworthy to live worthy to be denyed because thou didst call and I did not hear therefore if I call thou mayst justly turn me off in thy fury thou mightest answer me by terrible things in righteousness But deal not with me according to my deservings O! make me the great instance of the power of thy grace let thy mercy in pardoning be great exceeding great O God! Do not delay the suing out thy pardon Without delay away quickly to the Throne of Grace Remember Faelix put off his work till some other time There is danger in delays lest your sense of sin and sorrow for it vanish and decay blow up the first sparks of grace lest they go out and dye again take the first advantages of the grace of God Hast thou an inclination to humble thy self to pray to seek Gods face improve it quickly lest the wrath of God who is nighly provoked already against thee break form upon thee and there be no remedy Do not you know that you have lost the sense of the love of God But have you also lost all sense of Gods wrath Do not you wonder you escape that you are yet alive that you are not free among the dead incorporated with the Hypocrites and damned crew Will you dare you go on in your hardness of heart Will you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath O! God forbid Lay by the world thy false friend thy treacherous Joab that hath smitten to the earth with its kisses and its smiles Here is a business on which thy life the life of thy precious Soul depends Prepare to meet thy God wrath is gone out from the Lord howl weep cry it may be you shall be hid is the day of the Lords wrath it may be your sins shall be forgiven Though the law be a looking-glass to shew you your spots the Baver under the law was made of looking-glosses yet it cannot cleanse you it is the Gospel alone that pardons Away ye wandring Sheep to the great Shepheard of your Souls Hebr. 13.20 great he is in affection and love to his flock he hath laid down his life for you he hath purchased you with his own bloud Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb is most true of Christ and
What vengeance is that like to prove which hath Gods Armies of Fire and Wind united Is it nothing that the Fire burned at some time contrary to the Wind and as it were in opposition to it and was then as uncheckable as when it had the Winds raising and chasing it Is it nothing that in the drought of the season and the want of water God seem'd to hinder the application of Remora's to both Wind and Fire Was not therein the Judgement executed upon England in its heart which God threatned against the Chaldeans a drought is upon her Waters and they shall be dryed up Jer. 50.38 for it is a Land of graven Images and they are madd upon their Idols Is it nothing that the rational and probable anticipations of the constagrating progresses of the Fire which might have been were hid from the eyes of those whose interest it would have been to have improved them Did not God at that time take courage from the mighty and wisdome from the wise Is it nothing that London the great Bulwark of the Reformed Religion against the assaults and batteries of Popery and Prophaness is in a great measure destroyed But above all Is it nothing that generally there is so little sense of any of these Judgements The Wine of Astomshment is given us to drink and we reel to and fro like Drunkards But alas 2 Chron. 7.14 Who humbleth himself and prayes and seeks Gods face and turns from his wicked wayes that God may heal our Land 2. The sins of any one of us may be the Incendiâ— aries Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing the sins of any one of you in particular may have been the great Incendiary This is certain God hath for the delinquency of one man yea for one sin brought Plagues upon many If any thing will move thine heart this will but nothing will without Gods concurse The Lord fasten this nayl the Lord fix this upon thy Soul and let it be as Frontlets between â—â—ine eyes day and night When Achan was guilty of one sin and that a secret one when he had stoln a wedge of Gold when he had impropriated it to his own use which God had destined to another he troubled the whole Church of God the Armies of Israel fell before the men of Ai the generation of Gods curse yea Joshua their Prince became dejected and his communion with God was thereby for a while broken And the Lord said unto Joshua get thee up Josh 7.10 11 12 c. 22.20 wherefore lyest thou on thy face Did not Achan the Son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel And that man perished not alone in his iniquity The iniquity of Peor though committed long agoe yet raised a cloud of wrath which was ready to empty it self upon the whole Church of God for it many years after Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us Josh 22.17 from which we are not cleansed to this day although there was a Plague in the Congregation of the Lord The Gibeonites who had craftily secured their Lives by an exchange for their Liberties got an Oath from Saul and almost 500. years after when this Covenant was broken in the slaying of many of them and Saul was dead the flourishing Church of God suffered three years Famine for this Perjury Then there was a Famine in the dayes of David 2 Sam. 21.1 three years year after year and David enquired of the Lord And the Lord answered It is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites Manasseh sinn'd and that cost the Liberties and Lives of many good as well as bad Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great anger 2 Kings 23.26 wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the Provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withall Pharaoh refused to give liberty to Gods Church to worship their God and this brought unparallel'd Judgements and Plagues upon the whole Land of Egypt Amalecks abuse of Gods people was not forgotten for an hundred years but God took up an everlasting quarrel with them till he had rooten them out of the Earth Thus saith the Lord of Hosts 1 Sam. 15.2 I remember that which Amaleck did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt Yea the Sins of one good man have brought down Plagues upon many David whether out of curiosity or vain-glory or confidence in an arm of flesh would needs number the people a little sin in comparison of what we are guilty of yet it cost the lives of 70000. by the Pestilence So the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel c. 2 Sam. 24.15 and there dyed of the people from Dan even to Beersheâ—a seventy thousand men Solomon was a good Prince and yet by his sins he brought miserable confusions on the most considerable part of the Church of Israel by that great revolt which it occasioned Wherefore the Lord said to Solomon 1 Kings 11.11 For as much as this is done of thee and thou hast not kept my Covenant and my Sâ—atutes which I have commanded thee I will surely rend the Kingdom from thee and will give it to thy Servant Eli a good man and a good Magistrate yet because too indulgent to his Children a Vice common but seldome considered and bewailed what a fearful Plague brought he upon his Posterity as well as himself And the Lord said unto Samuel Behold I will do a thing in Israel 1 Sam 3.11 12 13 14. at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his House When I begin I will also make an end for I have told him that I will judge his House for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not And therefore I have sworn unto the House of Eli that the iniquity of Elies House shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever Luk. 11.50 51. Mat. 23.35 36. The blood of all the Prophets saith Christ which was shed from the Foundation of the World shall be required of this Generation from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the Altar and the Temple Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation And yet who holds up his hand to Gods Barr and cryes Guilty Guilty Who saith as David when the Angel forraged among the People 2 Sam. 24.17 Let thy hand be against me for these sheep What have they done We are quick-sighted enough yea too much to espye and aggravate the sins of others We expect fearful Plagues for others Adulteries Drunkennesses Swearing and Blaspheming But the Lord hearkeneth when we will