gone away hardned from many a Sabbath thou hast gone away hardned from many a Sermon and must this Day and this Word leave thee as all the rest have done When dost thou hope to be recovered if thou wilt not be broken Wilt thou say it is no matter though I never be recovered though I perish and die in this hardned state Wouldst thou fear to be let alone till thou be past recovery to be lost forever Then yield to the stroke of the Word and let thine heart be humbled and broken and brought to repentance 4. Get the temper of your hearts to be changed Let the Word work to the mollifying you and to the changing of you to the renewing you after the image of God in righteousness and holiness And what ever awakenings there have been of your sleepy consciences what ever light or understanding there may be conveyed into your minds yea and what ever wounds and breaches there have been made upon your hard hearts yet till you be renewed in the very frame and temper and dispositions of your hearts never count your selves to be recovered Thou art a lost soul till thou art a sanctified soul that is till thine heart be broken off and brought back from the love and lusts and ways of this World and brought about unto God and his holy ways till godliness be gotten into thine heart and formed into thy nature and thou hast a love of it and hearty good liking of it and the very bent of thine heart which was formerly towards sin and vanity be now towards holiness and heaven When thou art brought to this this new frame of heart then thou art recovered Now Sinners let this be that you have in your eye and upon your hearts let this be your endeavour let this be your prayer that God would so bless his Word to you that it may awaken your sleepy consciences enlighten your blinded minds soften and break your hardned hearts that you may be changed and renewed after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness that you may be wrought into a new temper changed into another spirit loving and savouring and delighting in the holy ways of God that Religion may become sweet and pleasant to you that your spirits may be made suitable to God and his holy ways that the food of God may relish with you and the work of God may be more easie to you Sick men can neither relish their food nor endure their work Dost thou find no relish in Religion Does the work of holiness seem contrary to thee Dost thou groan under it as that thou canst not bear Dost thou groan under this praying and repenting and watching and striving against sin and denying thy self and mortifying thy flesh Canst thou not endure to be held to such work It is a sign that thy sickness is still upon thee and thou art not recovered O get your hearts to be so changed and renewed by the Word and Spirit of the Lord that both the food of God may relish with you and his work may be pleasant 3. His Rod. Sinners are fools and the Rod is Physick for Fools The rod is for the Fools back Prov. 26.3 Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but the Rod reduced me now have I kept thy word Sinner thou hearest the awakening word but it doth not awaken thee thou sleepest on Thou hearest the mollifying and breaking word but it does not break nor mollifie thee thou art still a wilful stubborn soul and thine heart is so obstinately set upon thine own loose and wild ways that thou wilt not be broken off thy will nor broken off from thy course but God may bring some affliction upon thee bring thee into poverty cast thee on thy sick bed set death at thy beds foot to stare thee in the face and this will tame thee then thou mayest be spoken to then the Word there is hope will enter into thee and work upon thee Indeed some sinners are so desperately hardened that neither word nor rod will do What afflictions come they rather stupifie than awaken them They continue as very stocks under the smitings of God as they are under his teachings and therefore take heed the longer thou goest on to harden thine heart against the word there is the less hope that thou wilt be humbled by afflictions Dare not to encourage your selves and harden your hearts against repentance by hopes and purposes that when sickness comes and death looks thee in the face then thou wilt repent no no the longer thou hardnest thy self against the word the less hope there is that thine heart will be broken by afflictions But some hope there is that when the word awakens not the rod may But if that do not neither then God be merciful unto thee there is but one thing more and that will certainly do it the unquenchable flames will awaken thee Hell will do that which all the means under Heaven cannot do But that fire will not be thy physick to cure thee but thy plague to kill thy soul for ever The afflictions of this life are Gods physick for the recovering thy soul O take this cup at the hand of the Lord take this physick for thy soul But what is it to take this medicine so as it may be recovering physick 1. Submit to afflictions when God lays them on Be patient and contented that the Lord should afflict thee Do not fret nor murmur at the afflcting hand of God Some froward patients if their Physitian be forced to give any harder physick it will not down but they fret and fume against the physitian as if he were cruel and will not submit to take what he offers them Be patient under the hand of God and submit to what ever he layes on 2. Consider thine afflictions Eccl. 7.14 In the day of adversity consider Affliction is a considering time Sinners you will not consider now but you may have time enough to consider it afterwards You will neither consider what you do Ecles 5.1 They consider not they do evil Nor will you consider what the Lord speaks to you you hear our words that we speak to you from the Lord but we cannot perswade you to consider them Consider what we say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Think over the words that you hear It is a miserable plague that hath seized upon your hearts this inconsideration and that which hinders you from profiting by the word and holds you under your senselessness and hardness of heart Think of what you hear think what a wretched case the word declares you to be in When you hear such words He that committeth sin is of the Devil 1. Joh. 3.8 He that liveth after the flesh shall die Rom. 8.13 He that is not born again cannot inherit the Kingdom of God When you hear such words as these then consider then think with your self what a word have I heard to
you Therefore 3. Live under the government of conscience that is live a conscientious life make conscience of your duties and perform them make conscience of sin and avoid it Approve your hearts to your consciences in all things be conscientious livers and be universally consciencious Be able to say with the Apostle Acts 23.1 I have lived in all good conscience and as Heb. 13.18 I have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly To obey conscience in some things and to rebel against it in other things is not to live a conscientious life be universally conscientious of every duty of every sin O Friends how many are there of us even among Professors that do halt after conscience are very lame and deceitful in our ways some things we do and other things we neglect some sins we forbear and other sins we venture upon You that are Professours and seem in a fair way of recovery consider how you come off here it may be you are afraid of gross sins you dare not be drunk or swear and curse and blaspheme but are you afraid also of taking the name of God in vain Mingling O Lord O God O Christ with your common and ordinary discourses It may be you are afraid to be found in an alehouse companions and partakers with the drunken and the riotous but are you afraid to be found unnecessarily among the vain ones and to become vain with those that are vain It may be you are afraid to couzen and cheat your consciences will not suffer you to do that but yet do you not covet or be inordinatly eager and greedy after the world It may be you dare not work or travel on the Lords day though some among us will venture to do that also the conveniences for their markets or their fairs and the shortning their expenses what ever conscience sayes to the contrary will put them upon this Sabbath profanation One word by the way to such I remember a story told me by a reverend man that a professor of his flock being about to travel upon the Lords day to a Fair that was next day being reproved of it by his minister and asked if he thought it not a sin yes I do says he but I have repented of it His meaning was he meant to travel the next Lords day but he had repented of it already It is a strange kind of repentance for a man that is going to an alehouse or to a whore first to do something that he could call repenting and then to go and commit the fact You that are guilty if there be any such among you let me ask you have you repented of your former Sabbath profanations or have you not If you have not repented there is the guilt of all your former journies of this kind still lying upon you you are guilty to this day guilt is never taken away without repentance If you say you have repented of your former practice then I hope you mean never while you live to be guilty again You have not repented of any sin till you are resolved through the grace of God to forsake it for ever Remember this unless you resolve to have done with all such journeyings hereafter you have not repented of what is past and if you have not repented of what is past there is the guilt of all still lying upon you and your souls lyable to answer for it before the Judgment of God But thou that allowest not thy self such a liberty of working or journying upon the Lords day yet dost thou make conscience of sleeping or loitering or idling out a great part of the day It may be thou wilt not be then found in the fields or at thy sports for conscience sake but maist thou not be found walking about the streets or idly visiting or vainly spending thy time with a neighbour Though thou wilt not be abroad when thou shouldst be in the Congregation yet wilt thou not be out of doors when thou shouldst be teaching or instructing or praying with thy family It hath often troubled me to think how little help some poor families have from their governours even on the day of the Lord. It may be you will not be unjust or deceitful in your dealings but are you not unmerciful or uncharitable It may be you bear no rooted malice or grudge in your hearts God forbid you should that is for a Devil rather than a Christian but suppose you do not yet it may be you do What ever you think you may have routed malice from resting in your hearts But if you do not yet you will be fretful and furious and soure and sullen and can express it in bitter looks in strangeness and keeping your distance in biting words and backbiting stories and this conscience lets you alone in It may be you are not of a vicious conversation but are you of a gracious conversation It may be there may be no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouths your breath doth not stink of ribaldry and obscene discourses but yet are you not frothy and unsavory in your communication If your speech be not rotten and corrupt yet is it seasoned with salt that it may administer grace to the hearers It may be you dare not neglect praying but yet will not your consciences suffer you to trifle and shuffle in prayer It may be you pray and are serious in prayer and feel some workings of conscience and meltings of heart and enlargement of affection and some sense of God and religion whilst you are upon your knees but when you have done and go out of your closet do you not then leave your consciences behind you your religion behind you Do you carry conscience into your shops into your fields unto the markets You pray as a man of conscience and hear as a man of conscience but do you buy sell eat and drink and converse in the world as a man of conscience Take you out of duties and may we not take you out of your religion What are you at other times but even as other men Is this to be universally conscientious Can you be sincerely conscientious if you be not universally so He that is not conscientious in every thing is truly consciencious in nothing Brethren take heed you do not give conscience a kiss and a kick Kiss it and comply with it in the things you like and kick at conscience when it presses too hard upon you in the things you like not If in any thing you give conscience a kick conscience may remember you and give you a gripe for it another day O if you would recover the authority of conscience if you would have conscience hold out the golden Scepter to you if you would have conscience smile upon you if you would have true peace of conscience and live indeed under the power of conscience be universally conscientious exercise your selves to it to live holily in all
vanity will this a running on upon mine own death and a shutting up the door of mercy forever against me and yet shall I continue as I am Is there a way of life yet before me is there a door of mercy yet open to me and shall I not get into the Way and be making towards the door Consider sinners what is the best the wisest and the only safe course to take from henceforth and do accordingly 2. Why must we ponder our paths 1. God pondereth them Is 26.7 Thou weighest the path of the just 2. The devil pondereth them Luke 22.31 That he may sift you as wheat 3. Wicked men our enemies ponder them 4. Our way may be right in our own eyes for want of consideration when yet upon consideration it may appear to be the way of death Prov. 14.12 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death 1. There is a way of some men that is not so much as right in their own eyes who as little as they do consider it do see their way to be the way of death and not of life the way of the openly Prophane the way of the Drunkard and Adulterer the way of the Swearer and Blasphemer Prophanness doth not pretend to be the way of life Drunkards and Adulterers know they are out of the way their consciences tell them this is not the way of God this is not the way to heaven their conscience tells them I must turn I must repent and take up a better way ere I die I must not die a Drunkard I must not die a Blasphemer or a Scoffer I must repent or I am lost and hopes they have that they shall repent and this their hope hardens them The consideration that such men should take up is not to convince them that they are out of this way of life that they know already but to convince them of the necessity of a present turning and changing their way Darest thou not to die a Drunkard or a Libertine or a Licentious Liver how then darest thou to live so a day longer Art thou sure but that death may meet thee before thy turning day comes And how if it should thou knowest that then there is no hope of thee but Everlasting wrath must be thy portion Thou countest upon turning and repenting but consider what is the reason thou dost not repent at present that thou dost not this day give a divorce to all thy wickedness shake hands with all thy companions and forthwith become a new man Why not now O I cannot bring mine heart to it And dost thou in good earnest think that it will be easier hereafter Hath the Lord been perswading thee to a change all thy life long and thou seest his word cannot prevail thou seest it doth not after all thy convictions and fears and threatnings of the Word and checks of thy conscience hitherto thou goest on thy lust is too hard for thy conscience or convictions and dost thou think in thy heart that this is the way to make it easy to repent to continue longer in thy sin A course of sin hardens thee sinner Thine heart is not so hardned against repentance this year but look for it thou art like to find it harder the next year The farther thou goest on in sin the farther off art thou from repentance 2. There are others whose ways are right in their own eyes which consideration would make appear to be the way of death and not of Life I shall instance in two sorts 1. The ways of moral unbelievers These are they that are sober and temperate and harmless and just in their dealings with men and courteous and good natured this is their way and this way seems right unto them in this way they hope to come to heaven though whatsoever they have of morality they have nothing of Christianity in them Conversion or Regeneration are as strange things to them as they were to Nicodemus Jo. 3.3 who when Christ told him except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God he answered how can these things be And they have need to ask as Pilate did what is truth So they what is this new birth what is this new creature what is this conversion Consider man what dost thou think of this plea at last when this is all thou canst say I am an honest man but God help me no good Christian I am no drunkard but yet an unbeliever I am no Lyar nor Swearer but yet no convert to Christ Consider those scriptures Jo. 3.3 except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God â—â—d Mat. 18.3 Except a man be converted he cannot enter into the kingdom of God And dost thou bless thy self in thy harmless and less vitious way when thou hast never felt any such thing as Regeneration upon thee This thy way is thy folly and though it be right in thine own eyes yet it is and thou will find it to be the way of death 2. The way of hypocritical professors some hypocrites know themselves hypocrites and the way seems not right to them others are hypocrites and yet take themselves to be sincere and the deceit of their hearts may be so deep that there is need of deep consideration to discover it They pray and they hear and have some face of Religion upon their ways they will speak of God and the things of God with some affection and live in the visible communion of the church with good approbation they are it may be well reputed and well reported among all men and yet for all that the root of the matter may not be in them they may be unsound and rotten at heart and neither themselves know it and others suspect it there may be some secret reigning lust in their hearts they may be lovers of the world lovers of their ease or their pleasures more than lovers of God Whatever they have there may be one thing lacking as it was the case of the young man Mar. 10.21 whose life was commendable in many things yet says Christ one thing lackest thou and that one lack was loss of heaven And have we not all need to consider our selves and to consider deeply how it is with us A sincere Christian is an entire christian psal 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled that is the entire in their way that labour to be entire lacking nothing and sure we had need consider whether we are or no. Some Professors are so lame and halting in their way that they lack many things almost all things of serious Christianity Thou hast the profession of christianity but is not the power of it lacking Thou dost some of the works of righteousness but may not the Lord complain of thee as of Sardis Rev. 3.2 I have not found thy works perfect before me thou dost some of the works of Christians but are not the inward graces lacking Some of
the inward graces thou seemest to haâ—â— but art thou not wanting in others Thou seemeâ—◠〈◊〉 â—ve faith but is not love lacking Art thou not 〈◊〉 â—â—us revengeful quarrelsome Professor thou seemest to have love but is not humility lacking Art thou not proud and haughty and high minded Thou seemest to be humble but is not meekness lacking Art thou not fierce and froward and peevish in thy way Thou seemest to be meek but is not patience lacking How canst thou bear affliction dost thou not murmure and repine and vex thy self in the day of adversity Thou seemest all this but art thou true in thy sayings righteous and exact in thy dealings merciful and compassionate and bountiful to those that are in necessity Thou seemest to have all these inward graces but is not a bold profession of Christ lacking Thou art bold to own Christ and hear his Word even to come in hazard but whatever thou canst say of thy hearing is not Prayer lacking if thou pray in secret is not prayer in thy Family lacking If thou pray in thy family is not secret prayer lacking If Prayer be both in secret and in thy Family is not Family-instruction the teaching thy family the care of their souls lacking If there be some care of others in thee is not the communing with thine own heart lacking Is not self examination lacking Dost thou search thy heart and try thy ways as thou oughtest dost thou make a diligent search a narrow search in fear lest thou shouldest be mistaken If there be self converse and self acquaintance dost thou maintain a converse with God is not holy Meditation lacking How often dost thou look heaven-wards what time dost thou spend dayly in serious meditation of God and the things above If there be such acts exercised the actings of Faith the actings of Love the actings of holy Prayer the actings of holy Meditation What life is there in these actings Are they not all as dead things Sacrifices without an heart Images without life If thou thinkest there be the presence of every Grace a will to every Duty an enmity against every Sin what power is there accompanying them what power in duty what power against every sin Doth not the corruption of thy heart bear down that grace thou thinkest thou hast and â—â—rry thee down the stream of an evil and vain life 〈◊〉 there be some good will to a godly life is not povâ—â—â—â—â—â—ing It is tâ—â—e the best of Christians have much lacking in degree their faith is weak their love is imperfect but is there nothing lacking of the essential parts of a christian Thou not only lackest strength of Faith but it may be thou lackest Faith thou not only lackest strong love but thou lackest love A child though he hath not the understanding of a man or strength of a man yet may be a true child but if he want the soul of a man or the head or the heart of a man he is a monster and no humane child Is not the soul or the life of Christianity the head and the heart of a Christian the life of a Christian lacking in thee If so thou art but a Monster and no Christian Is there not the conscience of a Christian lacking in thee Is not thy Christian covenant lame and imperfect Hast thou covenanted universally for all the parts of christianity for every duty against every sin without any reserve of the least liberty from our duty to any sin And is thy conversation intire according to thy covenant Is there nothing allowedly lacking in thy conversation of all that thou hast covenanted with the Lord Or what ever thou dost Is there not life and soul and heart lacking in all that thou dost Thou prayest but dost thou not pray without an heart Thou hearest but dost thou not hear without a soul Thou seemest a follower of Christ and livest in the practice of his precepts but is there not life lacking in all thy duties O consider over all these particulars and consider how many things are lacking in you 1. Consider and fear lest when you come to be weighed in the ballance you should then any of you be found wanting lest when you come to die and expect entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom Christ should then say to you no you cannot come in one thing is lacking in thee one thing that is necessary to thy entrance one thing lacking in thee of the essence of a Christian all would be lost thy soul lost the everlasting kingdom lost Consider therefore and fear 2. Consider and be humbled and be ashamed that after all the time you have had and all the helps and means you have had and all the tenders and offers the Lord hath made to supply all your lacks be humbled and be ashamed that yet there is so much laâ—king and all this for want of an heart to accept and improve what hath been offered let us be humbled and ashamed friends that if we have any thing of the faith of Gods elect in us yet We are so weak in the Faith that if we have any thing of the love of Christ in us yet that our love is so cold and imperfect that if we are found walking in the way of the Lord it is so slowly and so haltingly This is our shame and matter of great humiliation that we have gotten no more grace that we live no better lives But what shall I say to you that want not onely the strength of Faith zeal of Love a more even and steddy and fruitful life but want Faith and want Love and are not yet come into the ways of the Lord. I say to you as I said before fear and tremble think what it will be to be found thus in the day of the Lord. But to you that have Faith and have no more that do in some degree live by Faith and yet live no better consider and be ashamed consider and be confounded in your selves consider and be humbled under all your wants and haltings 3. Consider and make up what is lacking Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened pray the Apostles Prayer Eph. 3.16 That the Lord would grant unto you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might in the inner man and your hearts may be filled with all the fulness of God Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened and get those halting and barren lives to be established and filled with the fruits of righteousness Take the counsel of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.6 Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity that these things may be in you and abound that ye be no longer barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Brethren whilest heedless and inconsiderate ones are upon the losing oh consider how
live and die unconverted and so go to Hell at last These very warnings that now thou hast if they should not work upon thee to turn thee from thy sins and bring thee to Christ if the Gospel should leave thee in the case thou art this day thou wilt to Hell as sure as if thou wert there already and then all that thou now hearest or shalt ever hear whilst thou livest will but heat thy Furnace seven times the hotter against thou comest down But because there is yet hope thou mayest be converted thank God thou art here for there is hope as from this first ground because thou art within the reach of the bloud of Christ so 2. There is hope from this that sinners are yet under the ministry of reconciliation as the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 To us is committed the word of reconciliation So we may say to sinners to you it is given to hear the word of reconciliation it is for your sakes that this word of reconciliation is committed to us that we might preach it unto you God hath not onely continued you within the reach of the bloud of Christ but under the teachings of his Ministers whose work it is to tell you how you may have the benefit of his bloud to make a tender and offer of this bloud of Christ to you and to persuade and make you willing to accept it we are sent to preach Christ unto you and to make known unto you what help there is in Christ for you and what freedom you have given you to lay hold on Christ and also to persuade and bring you into Christ that you may have the benefits of his bloud It is a strange word we have given us Luke 14.28 Compel them to come in Go and call poor sinners to me and if they be not willing to come compel them in not force them in whether they will or no Christ will not have any sinner against his will but compel them that is use all the importunity you can to make their unwilling souls willing use such arguments as if it be possible they may not be able to resist and though they do resist yet do not give them over so but do your your best by your importunity to overcome their resistance Go says Christ to his servants fetch in all the sinners in the Country to me here is room for them all as many as there are come already yet there is room for more v. 22. Let my house be filled with guests filled with Converts go find out these poor wretches where they lie rotting and perishing in their sins and bring them in Christ doth not say to his Ministers concerning sinners as once he did to his Disciples concerning little children Mat. 9.14 Suffer little children to come to me suffer poor sinners to come to me do not put them back or discourage them when they would come but persuade them in help them in press them to come in beseech them to come and be reconciled to God I am not willing that any of them should perish but that all should be brought to repentance and obtain everlasting life 2 Pet. 3.9 This is the business of our Ministry and this Ministry of reconciliation thou poor sinner art under to this day Now does not all this give sinners hope that yet they may be recovered Why hath God let thee live to hear this word Why hath God brought thee hither this day to hear it What canst thou not say I hope it is that I may be converted I hope it is that I may be recovered The Lord yet comes among you to tell you what you must do to be saved what you must do to get Christ to be yours to preach repentance to you that you may recover your selves out of the snare of the Devil who are held captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Sinners You are all Prisoners and Captives but yet you are Prisoners of hope you are dead souls but there is hope you may be made alive you are lost souls but there is hopes you may be found There is hazard that you may be quickly irrecoverably lost but some hopes there is you may be recovered O will you come to Christ will you come to the means grace as men of hope Hear the Word in hope that it may work savingly upon you pray for such a work in hope that God may hear though all the sinners among you in one sense are men of hope yet in another sense the most of sinners are men of no hope in this sense you are all men of hope that there is a door of hope yet open to you but in this sense you are men of no hope that is if you continue as you are there is no hope but you must perish A wild and groundless hope too many sinners have they hope against hope they hope for recovery without using the means of recovery they hope for salvation without reconciliation they hope for remission without repentance they hope to be redeemed from death without being redeemed from iniquity this is to hope against hope this is to hope for that of which there is no hope There is no hope of salvation without repentance no hope of escaping without returning Ministers of the Gospel are to break down such false and deceitful hopes not to build them up That which from what hath been said I would persuade you to is to hope for salvation and in that hope to look after conversion to hope for conversion and in that hope to hear the converting word to hope for a new heart and life and in that hope to pray that God will give you this new heart Dare not to sleep in hope to sin in hope to harden your selves in your sins in hopes of forgiveness pray in hope hear in hope humble your selves in hope turn in hope that God will accept and be merciful to you When you come to hear do not come as most sinners do not knowing or considering wherefore they come together but when thou goest to hear and to pray go with this hope in thine heart I am going to hear the word of Faith the word of Repentance and I hope God will bless it to me that it may work Faith and Repentance in me I am going to hear the heart-breaking and the heart-humbling word the converting word and I hope the Lord will humble and break and convert me by it I have often heard and have been never the better hitherto I have not been humbled and broken by it this wretched heart is as dead and as hard as if it had never been preached to Well but doth the Lord yet again call me forth to hear this word O I will go in hope that yet at last it may work upon me Hope hath two things in it Desire and Expectation This is the hope I would persuade you to come to the word in to come with desire to be wrought upon and
with this vain and foolish life I will go and return unto the Lord and then it will be better with me than now 2. The next step to this recovery is coming to God the first is coming to your selves and the use and exercise of your reason and understanding And who among poor sinners shall these words preach into your right senses You have been foolish sensless souls is there any of you that are yet come to your selves Do you judge it better for you to come back from your vain ways and to come about to the Lord Is this voice heard in your hearts Oh if I could break off from my sins and become a real Convert to Christ then would it be better with me than now It would be an happy change this day would be an happy day this Sermon would be to me an happy Sermon if the Lord would bless it so to me as to bring me off from my sins and bring me to God O how wonderfully better would it be for me than it is now If any of you are come so far to your selves as to judge and to say it would be better for me let me go on with you and ask you further What will you resolve upon Will you say on with the Prodigal well I will arise and go to my Father It is better for me so to do and I will do it through the help of God I will return Now for Repentance now for Religion and Righteousness now for a new heart and a new life I have done with my old heart Sathan I have done with my old life sin and vanity I have done with henceforth through the grace of God I will be for God and godliness Do you say so Are you resolved so Come on but one step further if you say the word come on and do likewise the Prodigal when he said I will go to my Father he arose and went accordingly Be not like the Son in the Parable who said I go Sir but went not but say and do come and joyn your selves to the Lord come into his house come into his ways give your selves to him for his servants and go on and serve him then were your souls recovered Then should it be said to you as concerning him These my children were dead and are alive were â—ost and are found and we should say over you as the Father did It is meet we should make merry that this day should be a glad day a joyful day it is meet that we should rejoice for this our Brother is recovered he was dead and is alive O let the Lord God thus rejoice over you O let all his Saints rejoice with you Come sinner make a joyful day of it come unto the Lord come to your Father and he will be ready to meet you and with open heart and open arms would receive and embrace you 2. What men may do to recover They cannot recover themselves of themselves it is God that must do it but they may and must do something towards it 1. Men can pray for their recovery Even carnal men may pray and though there be no full promise that God will hear yet God hath both required them to pray and hath appointed this as a means of their recovery Acts. 8.22 The Apostle bids Simon Magus pray that the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him It is an hopeful sign that God has a purpose to give grace when he sets sinners a praying for grace at least if they cannot pray themselves they can speak to others that can and desire them to pray for them This that Simon Magus did he begged the Apostles to pray for him O what a wretched case are those in that will neither pray for themselves nor so much as beg Christians to pray for them Sinner when didst thou ever do such a thing When didst thou ever go either to a Minister or a Christian with such a word in thy mouth pray for me It may be when thou hast been sick thou hast sent to the Congregation to pray for thy bodily recovery but when didst thou send or speak to them to pray for thy souls recovery Is not thy soul more precious than thy body Is it not thy soul more desperately sick than ever thy body hath been is not prayer for sick souls as needful and as much prevailing as prayer for sick bodies And yet how many bills have we sent in to pray for recovery from bodily diseases to one sent in to pray for the conversion of a soul But whether thou do it or not this thou canst not deny but thou canst do this towards thy conversion thou canst pray for it and desire others to pray for thee 2. Men can hear the Word This is another means of mâ—ns recovery Is 55.3 Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live And this means also they can use The same feet that will carry them to an Alehouse can as well carry them to Church The same ear that can hear a Song or foolish and idle talke câ—â—â—s well hear a Sermon Thou wilt say this I do and yet am not recovered Therefore 3. Men can give heed to what they hear They can mark and observe what the Word speaks Luke 8.18 Take heed how ye hear Give heed to what you hear and do not sleep under the sound of the Word or fit heedlesly or carelesly without minding what the Lord speaks And herein is the great neglect Sinners will come to a Sermon but mind as little what is preached to them as those that never come here This is a wretched neglect and the common case of many hearers Mat. 13.13 Hearing they hear and do not understand Our words could not have such poor success if people would mind more the things that we speak O sinners bethink your selves how often have you been here and not heeded one word that hath been spoken 4. Men can think What is easier than thoughts we use to say good words are cheap but good thoughts are cheaper than good words the exercising of mens thoughts is noted to be the first step to repentance 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves and repent and so Ps 119.59 I thought on my ways and turned c. Thou sayst thou canst not recover thy self I but canst thou not bethink thy self neither what a case thou art in Thou hearest sometimes from the Ministry of the Word that thou art a lost man a lost soul But when thou hearest it preacht to thee canst thou not think upon it Thou dost not think upon it it is too true no longer than the Word is a speaking nay it may be nor then neither What thoughts have you had of it since you were told that naturally you are lost and what a miserable case it is to be a lost soul Have you since thought such a though Wo is me I am a lost soul oh what a poor wretch am I while
rejoicing over the recovered souls Our great joy should be every man over the recovery of his own soul With what joy should this word be spoken this my soul was dead and is alive and we should rejoice over any other recovered souls It is matter of rejoicing when we can say this my Child or this my Brother or this my Neighbour was dead and is alive What joy is it to a travailing woman when she is safely delivered of a living child J h. 16.21 A wâ—man when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of thâ— chilâ— she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man child is born into the World Sinners your deliverance may cost you pain and travel but when you are once delivered and recovered you will forget all this pain then you will and then you ought to rejoice What joy is the day of victory to the triumphing Souldier What joy was the year of Jubilee to the indebted or the servants when they were to go out free from there debts and service What joy to the Mariner who hath been tossed with tempests to have gotten safe to shore Hast thou shot the gulf and gotten safe to land Hast thou gotten death and hell under thy feet Is death destroyed and is life and immortality brought to light in thy soul Art thou passed from death to life O what a day of joy what a day of praise should this be to thee Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous and again I say Rejoice Phil 4.4 Stand Christian stand and look back on that death that was lately feeding on thy soul stand and look down into the hole of the pit from whence thou art delivered Remember how it was with thee not long since when thou wert without Christ and without hope and without God in the World when thou wert a slave to every lust in thy heart to every vile companion when thou wert by led by the Destroyer and posting on to destruction When thou Wert without fear and without sense of that danger and misery which was running upon thee like a floud Remember how it was with thee when God first open'd thine eyes and thy fears came upon thee How did thy soul cry out I am lost I am undone when thou sawest what a gulf there was fixed between thy natural estate and the state of grace When thou sawest a necessity of conversion and yet wert astonished at the difficulty of obtaining it When thy proud heart would not stoop thine hard heart would not break nor yield unto the Lord When thou wert afraid that thou shouldst have perished in the birth and never have seen life remember how it hath been with thee and how it is now What hath the Lord delivered thee from thy fears conquered to thee thy difficulties Is thine heart broken and brought about to the Lord Is the day broken and the day star risen in thine heart art thou passed from death to life What s y st thou now Is it not meet thou shouldst rejoice Is not this birth day the day of thy new birth a day of joy and praise Dost thou not bless thy self that it is not with thee as it hath been Does not thine heart shake to think what if I had been let alone let to go on in the way that I was going I went with the Drunkards I was among the Lyars and Swearers and Covetous and the Scoffers I was one of them As much against a new heart and new life as any of them as true a drudge to my flesh and this world as the worst of them How is it that the Lord God singled my soul out of that wicked crowd and brought me up out of that state of the dead and brought me into the light of life and hath written me amongst the living in Jerusalem Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Magnifie the Lord O my soul and let my spirit rejoice in God my Saviour He that is mighty hath done for me great things and holy is his name 3. Let us again take up a lamentation over the imperfection of our recovery Rejoice in the Lord but rejoice with trembling Psal 2.11 Rejoice that the work is begun that thou art come to the morning of the day of redemption that the day is dawned that the Sun is risen upon thee yet lament that there are still such clouds yea so much of the darkness of the night remaining upon thee Rejoice that thou art born again but yet lament that thou art but as a new born Infant so imperfectly washed from thy pollution in thy bloud and that so much of the shame of thy nakedness is yet appearing that though thou art made a child of light yet there is so much of thine old darkness of thine old ignorance and unbelief abiding upon thee that though thou art born from above yet thine heart should be so much below that though thou art risen with Christ thy affections should be so little set on things above that though thou art born of the Spirit the Flesh should still have such power in thee Lament and bewail it that thou art no more perfectly recovered that it can yet hardly be discerned whether thou be alive or dead or if it appear thou art alive lament that thou art such a a dwarf still or such a sickly and unthriving child that thou art such a froward and unruly child Lament that thy recovery is so imperfect and be growing up towards perfection be working out those remains of thine old corrupt state be working out this carnality and this earthliness and working up thine heart to more spirituality and heavenliness and let both thine heart and thy life be as the path of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 Christians whilst I have hope of many of you that you are passed from death to life and in this hope do rejoice over you yet I have sorrow in mine heart for you that you that have life have it no more abundantly that you are yet so imperfectly recovered from among the dead and that you are not which I doubt is the case of too many among you contending and reaching forwards towards perfection How many living Christians soever there be of you yet I can see but few growing Christians among you Pray Friends look inwards what sensible improvement have any of you made of late years Yea how many of us are there that do not lay it to heart that do not lament it that they are improved no more Who of you can say that you are breathing and thirsting after an increase or if you thirst for more grace how very few are reaching forth and labouring and that in so good earnest that they are impatient in their spirits and restless till it may be better with them O what might I do to whet your appetites after
upon conscience Guilt Guile 1. Guilt there is guilt upon the conscience every sin leaves guilt behind it The whole world is become guilty before God Rom. 3.15 Because the whole world are sinners or subject to the Judgment of God But then there is guilt upon the man and guilt upon the conscience There are some sins that leave guilt upon the man but do not immediatly leave guilt upon the conscience as sins of ignorance these leave guilt upon the man but not allways upon the conscience because such sins conscience does not nor can take notice of and so they cannot be called sins against conscience Guilt there is upon conscience 1. When conscience through remissness or neglect does not take notice of them nor charge the soul to take heed of them 2. When though conscience does know sin to be sin and those particular acts that I am tempted to to be sinful acts yet lust prevails to bring us on upon the commission of them against conscience Thou knowest that lying is a sin thy conscience tells thee so and yet thou wilt lye Thou knowest that drunkenness that defrauding that profaning the sabbath that neglect to pray and to hear are sins And thy conscience tells thee they are and yet thou wilt lye or be drunk or work or travel upon the Lords day neglect to pray c. This leaves a guilt upon thy conscience O how great O how dreadful guilt is there upon the consciences of many of us How many bills of indictment will thy conscience have to bring forth against thee before thy Judge The guilt of neglecting Christ the guilt of hardning thy heart against mercy besides all the guilt of thine oaths and of thy drunkenness and of thy covetousness and of thy lying and stealing and scoffing all this guilt lyes upon thee and this is one thing that conscience must be recovered from ere it can be a good conscience 2. Guile or falshood or treachery of conscience Conscience will juggle and deal deceitfully it will dispense with or give allowance of sin it will connive and wink at iniquity Some sins which can be better spared it resists others such as interest or inclination lead more strongly to it lets them pass and will not see them to be sin and therefore dares not examine whether they be sin or no. This is a guileful conscience it is true of Christians what is said of Nathaniel Joh. 1.47 An Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Psal 32.2 Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile This is a good conscience that is plain and honest and faithful Heb. 13.18 We trust ye have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Now these being the diseases in conscience guilt and guile from these we must get them recovered and their recovery must be wrought by bloud and water By the bloud of Christ Heb. 5.14 How much more shall the loud of Christ purge your consciences And by water also by he water of sanctification and by the water of repentance Penitent tears have their use to the washing of conscience Sinners take heed have no guilt upon your consciences have you no guile in your consciences O how dreadfully guilty O how miserably guileful hath that conscience of thine been Get your consciences purged get the bloud of Christ to be sprinkled upon them Draw water so the pouring forth penitent tears is expressed .. 1. Sam. 7.6 They drew water and poured it forth before the Lord and fasted that day Draw water sinners weep before the Lord for your sins and this will be the washing your consciences from the guilt and guile that is upon them 2. Keep conscience working Though method would require that I speak to this of keeping conscience under the next general the keeping of the heart yet I choose rather to speak to it here Keep conscience working A lazy sleeping conscience is good for nothing it is a stirring working conscience that does its office that must industriously be maintained Conscience hath 1. An eye 2. A Book 3. A Tongue 4. A Scepter 1. An eye And the eye of conscience must be kept open The eye of conscience is even as the eye of God it may be said of conscience in its measure as of God Psal 139.2.3 Thou knowest my down fitting and uprising thou understandest my thoughts and art acquainted with all my wayes The eye of conscience beholds our very inwards all things are naked and open even before that conscience with which we have to do and this is somthing you have to keep you doing to keep the eye of conscience open Let not conscience wink at your follies let it see and observe what ever you do 2. A Book A Register or book of records where it writes down what it sees Jer. 17.1 The sin of Judah is written It is graven upon the tables of the hearts the meaning there is it hath entered into their hearts it hath corrupted and eaten into their hearts there are the scars and impressions of it upon them Their iniquities have marked them and marked them in their very hearts for vile and ungodly ones This graving of sin upon the heart notes the hearts defilement the corrupting of the heart But then there is a writing for remembrance a writing of scores or books of account and thus mens sins are written in the book of conscience now this also must be looked to that conscience be faithful and book down all our sins that they may be remembred by us and repented of The book of conscience will be written whether men will or no if conscience will be negligent and will not write down its own faults God will do it and will write down all our sins if conscience will not If we mark not God will mark them Jer. 2.22 Thine iniquity is marked before me If we record not God will record them What conscience writes conscience may read and remember but what God writes upon the neglect of conscience sinners cannot read or remember now but there it shall all be to be seen at the great day of accounts when the book shall be opened and read before Angels and men Sinners what is there written in those books within you Are your sins written there Hath conscience kept a record of them It is well if it have look into that book read over and remember all your ways go and ask thy conscience if thou hast not been a Lyar if thou hast not been a swearer a Drunkard a covetous liver a flesh pleaser ask thy conscience if it hath not been so How many have been thy lyes how many have been thine oathes how many drunken bouts how many rioting days how many greedy and covetous practices hast thou been guilty of Look into that book in thy bosom if conscience hath been faithful there thou maiest read and remember and so come to be humbled for them But if conscience hath not noted these things but
things honestly in all things and at all times This exercise of keeping to conscience is a painful exercise you can never live a conscientious life unless you will be content to live a painful life to take pains with your hearts to take pains with your thoughts and affections to take pains with your tongues and all your members to hold them close to the rule of conscience this painful exercise will get you an heat will beget warmth in those cold and careless hearts The most conscientious Christians are the most warm and lively Christians and according as you get and keep your hearts warm so will your diseases waste the health of your souls return into you Remember what I have said if ever you would recover your lost souls recover conscience if ever you would recover conscience get the guilt the guile of conscience purged away by the bloud of Christ and water of repentance keep the eye of conscience open let conscience be the Supervisor of all your ways let the book of conscience be kept clear from blots and blurs and let there be a faithful record kept there of all your ways let the tongue of Conscience have leave to speak and warn you from day to day and submit to its Scepter and government be no longer govern'd by Will or by appetite or by lust or by the fashions and customs or examples of men but be govern'd by Conscience Do not give Conscience a Kiss and a Stab hearken to it in some things and wound it in other things but study to live in all good Conscience on your Sabbath-dayes on your working-working-dayes in the House of the Lord in your own houses in the houses of your Friends in the Field in the Market in the matters of God in the matters of the World when you are alone when in company when you are in good company when you are fallen into evil company wherever you are whatever you are a doing still have an eye upon Conscience an ear open to Conscience and let Conscience prescribe to you what you should do and how you should carry it in every affair 3. Beware of taking cold That 's a special rule Physicians use to give to the recovering Patient when Persons are upon recovery of their bodily diseases how ordinary is it that upon a little cold they relapse and sometimes die of their disease Is thy Soul upon recovery take heed of Colds Soul such there are who when they begin to be wrought upon and brought to any sence of Religion there appears a great heat and fervour of spirit upon them 't is with them as with the Prophet Jer. 20.9 Thy Word was in me like fire their love and desire and zeal for God seem all in a flame O what warm affections have they how warm in their Duties how warm in their converses they seem to be all Life and Soul and then after a time they grow stark cold and little life is left in them and some of them never recover again while they live Hath thy Spirit gotten an heat hath the Word heated thee and those Exercises of Prayer Repentance and keeping Conscience gotten thee into an heat then take heed of growing cold keep you constant to those Exercises that have begotten an heat in you Keep you in the Sun-shine all your heart-warmth is begotten and must be maintained from above live in the beholding the face of God live under the Sun-beams of the Sun of righteousness keep you close to God keep you near to Christ live in intimate communion with God Take heed of those clouds your sins that will obscure the Sun Isa 59.1 Take heed of an Eclipse see that this Earth do not interpose betwixt your Souls and Heaven take heed of the damp Influences of the dead that you live amongst We live in a cold World a cold Age that Age has overtaken us which Christ Prophesied of Mat. 24.20 Wherein the love many of should wax cold Those that are grown cold themselves will serve for nothing but to chill and damp the Spirits of others Be not unnecessarily conversant with this cold World trust not your selves in their Company have you never found how much your Souls have lost by carnal Correspondencies Professors how is it with you Do you still retain your first vigour as when you began to be recovered May not the Lord complain over some of us as of Israel Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth and the love of thine Espousals I remember it as a thing that is past that now is not or as Ephesus Rev. 2.4 Thou hast lost thy first Love and what follows from this decay Hence is it that we are become a Company of sickly Professors of Carnal Professors of Earthly Professors the World hath return'd upon us the Flesh hath gotten head again in us the things that are Eternal and the influences of them upon us are even lost and swallow'd up of things Temporal our Stocks and our Businesses and our Trades how have they even choak'd up our Religion Friends it 's matter of astonishment to consider how very few lively Christians there are to be found amongst us Thus we every one talk what a General decay of Religion there is among us has not thine own Mouth complain'd of the coldness of this Age But whilst thou complainest of the Age how is it with thee Art not thou sick of the same Disease Look homeward look inward into thine own House into thine own Heart what Spirit of Religion is there going in thine own Family Hast thou not by thy negligence let all run to decay there What Life of Religion is there maintain'd in thine own Heart Friends feel you every man his own Pulse lay your hand every Man upon his own Heart and feel how faintly it beats Heaven-wards Sure Friends if we should examine our own Cases we should find enough to set us all a Weeping over our own decays and she should hear that voice within us Weep not for others but weep for thy self and thine own Children O take heed lest such of you as are fallen back among the Sick do not also return among the Dead and make your recovery again more hopeless at last than 't was at first You that stand be warn'd by those that are fallen stand with your Loyns girded and your Lights burning and you that are fallen fallen to decay fallen to a dead and flat and lifeless State you that are fallen remember whence you are fallen remember and repent remember and recover strengthen the things that remain if there be any sparks left blow off your Ashes blow up the Coals Let the Life of God and the love of Christ and a Zeal for Holiness be again kindled in you and if ever the Lord should recover you again there 's great hazard whether he may thou mayest die of the Cold thou hast taken the Consumption that hath Eaten up so much of thy Vitals may be unto
Death Eternal Death but if ever God should recover thee again and revive his work and enliven that almost Dead Carkass then at last learn from thine own miserable experience to take heed of taking Cold again as long as thou livest Thus much for the recovering the Heart which is pre-supposed to the keeping of the Heart The Heart thus recovered out of its lost State must be kept and well look'd to that it fall not back again and here 2. Now I shall shew you what it is to keep the heart or how it must be kept and so 1. It must be kept under Government 2. It must be kept under Guard 1. It must be kept under Government here I shall shew 1. The necessity of keeping the Heart under Government 2. How the Heart must be Governed 1. The necessity of keeping the Heart under Government that will appear by considering what an Heart it is and because the Heart is recovered in part and there is much of its Old and Original pravity remaining in it which will be apt to boil up and break forth again I shall a little open the wretched temper and disposition of it which will evidence how great a necessity there is to keep it under Government 1. It is a wicked mischievous heart Jer. 17.9 Desperately wicked Psalm 5.9 Very wickedness Rom. 8.7 Enmity against God It is the Fountain whence all the filthy streams that pollute and defile our lives do flow and are cast forth It is the Furnace whence all the stinking fumes and smoaks that annoy the World are sent forth It is the Nest where all the Cockatrices Eggs are Hatched It is the Sink that gathers in all manner of filth into it and then sendeth it abroad to do mischief Psal 41.6 His Heart gathereth iniquity to it self as the Sinks gather in all the filth of the Town and when he goeth abroad he telleth it only there is this difference between this and other Sinks other Sinks gather in the filth but 't is in order to the conveying it and carrying it away Into this evil evil Sink of the Heart all the filth is gathered and there it stops and stinks and casts it self back in its annoying streams Out of the Heart comes evil Thoughts Murthers Adulteries c. Mat. 15.19 All this Filth and Mudd all this Wickedness and Malignity as it Naturally dwells in every Heart so there 's much of it remaining even in renewed Hearts and will if there be not constant care to keep down and by degrees to cast it out will rise and swell and work up again in them Christians you may thank God that there is Salt cast into these filthy Fountains for the healing these muddy waters that there is a Spring of Living Waters broken in your Hearts by degrees to drain out your Dirt that there is Grace begotten in you to resist and repell the contagion of Lust but this little Grace will be choak'd up again if Lust be not kept under And as it is a Wicked so 't is a Mischievous Heart it 's set upon mischief Wickedness will be doing wickedly as 't is said of the Workers of Iniquity so 't is true of all as far forth as they are unrenewed Mischief is in their Hearts Psal 28.3 There 's the same Reason of keeping our Hearts under restraint as of keeping Mad-men in they will be doing mischief if they have their liberty Besides the mischief that our evil Hearts will be doing to others they will be mischiefing themselves Mad Men will tear their own Flesh will cut and wound themselves if they be let alone and there is no such danger of evil Hearts as in regard of that mischief they do themselves 1. Our evil Hearts will hinder us from doing good to our Selves or of receiving or laying up good for our Selves Rom. 7.19 The good that I would I do not why what hinders See Vers 21. I find a Law the Law of Sin in the Heart When I would do good evil is present with me Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that we cannot do the things that we would Sometimes good Counsel is given us from the Lord but we do not take it How many good Counsels have you heard from the Ministry of the Word that are lost and forgotten and come to nothing Sometimes a good motion comes into the Heart to repent and amend our ways to pray or to Meditate or to search out Hearts to cease from this Earth and Flesh from serving our Sense and minding only the present and to lay up Treasure in Heaven and provide for the time to come have you never such motions Do you never hear such a voice within you Get you Baggs that wax not Old a Treasure in Heaven that faileth not Choose the good part lay hold on Eternal Life give your self to Praying keep a good Conscience take heed and beware of Covetousness use more diligence live with more heedfulness have your Conversation in Heaven and keep your self unspotted of the World keep your self in the love of God set the Lord alway before your Eyes behold his Face in Righteousness study to shew thy self approved of God and to walk so in all things that thou mayest be accepted of God are there not such motions as these come into your hearts You that are Christians sure you have many such good motions But how do they take What do they bring forth If you had obeyed all the good motions that you have sometimes felt within you O what manner of Christians would you have been What mortified what circumspect what raised and Heavenly minded Christians had you been But how do your good motions take What success are they attended with Do not you see that they are often strangled in the Birth and die away and come to just nothing Or at least do you not meerly halt and trifle in the pursuace of them If you Pray or hear or set your Hearts to humble your selves before the Lord how are you Distracted and Diverted and Deadned and all your duties spoiled in the doing so that you can have little comfort or real advantage by what yo do Do you not often mourn over your Prayers and Sermons and Sabbaths as meerly lost to you When you would work up your Hearts Heaven ward and fix above when you would love and del ght your selves in the Lord and Solace your selves in the contemplation of the Divine Love and Goodness when you would fain set your Hearts to live such a Godly Conscientious Circumspect Self-denying Life and comfort your selves with such thoughts I hope I shall never live such a Careless Carnal Useless Unsavory Earthly Life again I hope you have many such Thoughts Desires Hopes and Aims you are lamentable Christians if you have not but how do they succed What do they bring forth Do they not often prove Abortive and bring forth nothing May it not be said of you as of those Job 15.35 They conceive
This is your own wilfulness you have been perswaded to Christ but you will not come you have been perswaded back from your sins but ye will not come back you have been instructed in the way of Life but you will not learn you have been taught and call'd upon to become New Men to become serious Christians but you will not hearken you have been pressed to give your selves to Prayer to studying the Scriptures to studying your own Hearts to the ordering your Conversations according to the Gospel but you will not yield unto it you will walk after the flesh you will be proud you will be covetous and Carnal livers and thus you spend out your days Sinners consider who is it fit should have the Government of you The will of God or your own wills What would be best for you in the end to be subject to the Law of God or this Law of sin What is it that God would have with you This is the will of God your Salvation he would have you to Heaven he would that these poor Souls of yours whom the Devil hath made Drudges to your Flesh and Slaves to his Lust and Sacrifices to his Malice God would have you to be Vessels of Honour to bear his Image to shine forth in his Glory to live in his likeness and to rejoice in his everlasting Joy Man this is that which God would have that thou maiest live in everlasting Blessedness he would have thee to Heaven and he would have thee by an Holy Life to be fitted for that Blessed Life to be made meet to be a partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Therefore 't is that he commands you to Repent therefore 't is that he with so much importunity perswades you to Christ that he might wash you with his Blood and guide you by his Word and sanctifie you by his Spirit and present you blameless and faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding Joy as Jude 24. This is the will of God that you should be thus Governed and thus Ordered that these Earthen Vessels these dirty Souls might be made Vessels of Honour and of his everlasting praise And what is it that your own wills are for but to live so that you may be fit for nothing but to be Vessels of contempt to be Fuel for the everlasting Fire The Devil and your own Hearts are conspired so to sully and to black you with your ways that you may be fit for no other place but to live in the Smoak and the Fire of the everlasting Furnace Gods will is to bring you to that Inheritance which is reserved in Heaven he would have you to have all the Hell you shall have on this side the Grave and your Heaven in that Eternity which comes after Your sorrows all here and your troubles here and hereafter your rest from them all but your will is to have your Heaven here your good things here your Mirth and your Pleasure here and so leave nothing but your Hell for hereafter Now which of these two wills God's will or your own will is it the best for you to be Governed by If you say God's will is better for me to follow than mine own will 't will end best whatever it seems to be at present then one would think you should see so much Reason against this self-will'dness against this wilfulness and hardness and obstinacy in your own ways as to tremble to think of being left any longer under the Government of your own wills Sinners let me do you a kindness this day let me break the Yoak of Bondage the will of your Flesh from off your Necks and unhorse your Riders the Devil Rides your wills and your will rides your Souls come off from this drudgery Let me do the Lord this Honour this day to perswade you under the Government of his will what God would have me to do that will I do as God would have me to live so will I live will you say the word once God would have me be a Penitent and through his grace a Penitent I will be God would have me to be a Christian a sincere Christian and through his help a Christian I will be God would have me to walk humbly to live honestly to live a blameless Consciencious Heavenly Life and O this is the Life that I will give my self to What if you should say this word and say it heartily What if this word should prevail to fetch you off from your Wilfulness and the hardness of your hearts and lay your Souls at the Feet and under the Government of the Almighty What if such a change should now be wrought upon you that your hearts should now be brought about from Will towards God from Lust to Conscience from this thy Carnal and Sensual and vain Life to a Spiritual and Heavenly Life Would you not bless God for such a change Would you not say This is an happy Day for me a Blessed change the Lord hath wrought upon me Then hearken to the word you have heard and say the word once I will be the Lords and from henceforth he alone shall have the Government of me You that will not but will be self-will'd still will be hardned in your way still go home and chew upon this thought Whether will this wilful hardned Heart lead me at last 2. In the conversion of a Sinner the power of self-will is broken the Controversie betwixt God and the Sinner is determined The Controversie is whose will shall stand the will of God or the will of the Flesh in Conversion the Sinner yields that God's will shall be thenceforth his Law It was foretold of Christ Gen. 3. That he should break the Serpents Head the Serpents Head is his Power over Man and his Head-quarters is the will of Man this is his Strong-hold and in the Conversion of a Sinner the Devil is beaten out of and hath lost his Strong-hold 2 Cor. 10.4 The Weapons of our Warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down the Strong-holds the will of Man which is the great Fort or Strong-hold is so broken and pulled down that 1. He is heartily willing to resign up to God to his Will and Government he that before said Not God's will but mine own can now say Not my will but the will of the Lord be done He that before said I will not that this Man that Christ should Reign over me now says I will not that this Flesh shall Rule over me Psal 110.3 Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power the Day of Conversion is the Day of Gods Power wherein the Power of God's Grace is revealed upon Sinners Hearts in the Day of this Power Sinners shall be willing When the Power of Grace hath conquered the Power of Nature the Sinner shall yield and resign up to God and be heartily contented to be thenceforth under his Rule and Government This is the
to you Be more Zealous for the Salvation of your own Souls be more fearful of their Damnation be more tender of wounding and wronging your Souls Take heed of sin Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth wrongeth his own Soul all they that hate me love Death You that sin against God ye wrong your own Souls Love your Souls better and you will never be such proud Livers or such Worldlings or such Drunkards or Rioters you would be sober and serious and circumspect If you lov'd your Selves better you would take heed of this Lying and these Oaths and this unrighteous Dealing of this hardness of Heart in your sins you would fall upon your Knees you would fall upon your Faces and be ashamed and bewail and repent of your sins and return to the Lord from them all had you more of this true Self-love within you Sinners why come you not in to Christ Why will you not yet be perswaded to repent Why Man hast thou no love to thy Self The Apostle tells us Eph. 5.29 No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it He useth that word to press Husbands to love their Wives who says he are their own Flesh Dost thou not love thy Self What wouldst thou say of a Man that doth not love his Wife but would play the Tyrant and Tygre brawling and snarling yea fighting and beating her You would say This were a Monster among Men rather than a Christian worse than the very Brutes amongst whom it 's seldom seen that the Male snarleth or biteth or pusheth at the Female What then is he that loveth not his own Soul Lovest thou thy Self Lovest thou thine own Soul Then take heed of going on in thy Sins then take heed of standing it out against Christ You hear what a reward there is for the Righteous you hear what an Inheritance Christ hath laid up for his Saints an Inheritance in Light Life Love Joy everlasting Pleasure and everlasting Glory Christ would make those poor Souls blessed Souls joyful Souls glorious Souls partakers of the everlasting Riches of his Glory and Joy But what wilt thou say My Soul shall have no part in it My Soul shall never come there my Lot shall never be with the Saints but shall be without amongst Unbelievers Impenitents amongst Dogs and Sorcerers and Idolaters In refusing to come to Christ to Repent and be made Holy thou sayest in effect my Soul shall never come to Heaven Let it to Hell amongst Dogs and Devils and that vile and wicked Generation of the Damned But Sinner hast thou forgot that thou art a Man Art thou a Monster of Men Hast thou lost all love to thy Self to thine own Soul Doest thou neither love nor pity thine own Soul Wouldst thou that Christ should ever love thee when thou whilt not love thy Self Wouldst thou that Christ should ever pity thee when thou wilt not pity thy self O Sinners love your own Souls pity your own Souls be not so cruel and hard-hearted to your selves Will you for the love of your Lusts for the love of the World sell your Souls to the Devil sell them to Hell to make Faggots for the everlasting Burnings Where are your Bowels O pity pity that poor blind and miserable Soul of thine and bring it to Christ for pity's sake go on in thy evil ways no longer be a Drunkard no longer a Worldling no longer a Lyar a Scoffer no longer be no longer hardned in your sins but come away to Christ and escape for your Lives if you love your Selves come if you have any pity for your Selves come let the dread of the Cruelties of the Devil bring you back from following him and come you in and cast your Selves upon the Blood upon the Bowels and Compassions of Christ who is such an High Priest as can have compassion upon the Ignorant and those that are out of the way and even on the worst of Sinners that will return to him What shall I say more to you I will speak but the same words let every one of you see that he so love himself as Christ loved the Church washing it and saving it by his Blood Love your Selves and save your Selves love your Selves and bless your Selves in the God of Truth Don't bless your selves in the Earth in your Money in your Lands in your carnal Pleasures in your carnal Friends these things are not nor ever think they will be your Blessedness but bless your Selves in the God of Truth bless your Selves in Jesus whom God hath sent to bless you in turning you from your Iniquities Act. 3.26 Turn to Christ and you shall be blessed be Believers and you shall be Blessed come in this day and let your Names be written among the blessed of the Lord come every one of you and put in your Names among the Disciples of Christ Let me be one Lord let me be another write down my Name for one among thy Disciples I am willing to be thine and do solemnly covenant and this very day give my Self to Thee Who of you are there that will thus come in Will you be perswaded to it or must I lose my labour Are there any of you Is there any one of all the Sinners in this Company that will thus come in Come then in the Name of the Lord come get your Names to be thus written in the Lamb's Book and and he will write it in Heaven there it will be found in the last Day written in the Book of Life this do and then you that have been hitherto the Haters and Wrongers and Cruel will hence-forth appear to be Lovers of your own Souls 2. There is a sinful Self-love this is the great Heart Idolatry and the Root of all Rebellion and Disobedience to God Here I shall shew you 1. What this sinful Self-love is 1. It is a Love of mistaken Self of Carnal-self a love of the Flesh and it's Affections and Lusts a love of that Flesh which Christ would have us to hate and deny Mat. 16.24 Himself that is his Flesh or Carnal-self Men are mistaken in themselves and count that their Self which is not their Self as Christ said to the Woman of Samaria John 4. concerning her Husband He that thou hast for an Husband is not thine Husband so may it be said to Sinners That which thou takest for thy Self is not thy Self this Flesh which thou takest for thy Self and lovest as thy Self is not thy Self You that love your Flesh you love your Enemy you that please your Flesh you are pleasing your Enemy you that are working for your Flesh and providing for your Flesh and pampering your Flesh you are working for and feeding your Enemy you count you are seeking of and working for your Self no 't is for your Enemy this Flesh is your Mortal Enemy Now this is one sort of sinfull Self-love when we love our Flesh or our corruptions when we love our Selves as Fleshly-minded Men when we love to please and
thy self in these things as great a Pleasure to thee and dost thou find as great a delight in them as thou findest in eating and drinking in buying and selling and getting gain dost thou love to be Praying or to be Praising the Lord as thou lovest to be getting Money dost thou love to be sending thine Heart to Heaven and there to solace it in the thoughts and joyes of the Lord as thou lovest to be thinking of thy Corn or thy Cattel or thy Income by thy Trade Thou knowest thou dost not Canst thou say with the Psalmist Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles Oh Lord my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for thy Courts mine Heart and my flesh cryeth out for the liveâ—ng God A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand a door in thine House is better than all the dwellings of the World Lord lift up thy Countenance upon me and that shall put more gladness into mine Heart than when their Corn and Wine encreased Let the Corn and the Wine be whose it will so that the Lord God will be mine let this World go cross and frown upon me as it will so that the Face and Countenance of God do but shine upon me let me be poor rather than a Stranger from God let me want an House or want Money or want bread rather than want the presence of God canst thou say so heartily say so thou knowest that thou canst not the good things of the earth the Riches and the Pleasures of the Earth are the Riches thou lovest and the Pleasures thou lovest and thou couldst be content to be straitned in the Lord so that thou mightest abound in these carnal things Is it so with thee O what a Heart hast thou what dost thou think of thy Self art not thou an Idolater a lover of Money more than a Lover of God a lover of Pleasures more than a lover of God a lover of thy Self and flesh more than a lover of God and yet art thou not an Idolater doth thine Heart go a Whoring after thine Idols run away from God after thy Money run away from God after thy Pleasures run away from God after thy Self and flesh and yet not an Idolater art thou an Idolater then an Idolatrous Christian an Idolatrous Professor O! how is it that such a thought does not fill thy Face with shame and set thy Soul a weeping and cause trembling and astonishment to take hold upon thee what Friends is it nothing with you to be Idolaters to have Idolatrous Hearts whoring Hearts whoring from God and whoring after your flesh and the Lusts thereof sure Friends it would make the best of our Hearts to ake if we were sensible what degrees of this Idolatry there were to be found in every one of us and many of us I fear it would convince that they are Idolaters to so high degree that there is nothing of true and real love to God in them 2. It 's the root of all Rebellion and Disobedience Self-love 2 Tim. 3.2 is put in the Head of a black-troop of Lusts and Wickednesses Men shall be lovers of themselves there 's the ring-leader and what follows behold a troop cometh covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without Natural affection Truce-breakers false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High-minded lovers of Pleasure more then lovers of God what a Regiment of sins is here led on by Self-love And observe it lovers of themselves lead on the Van and lovers of Pleasures bring up the Rear Heart-sins are Root-sins and Self-love is the Root of these Roots Pride is the Root of Contention Malice is the Root of Revenge Covetousness is the Root of Oppression and self-love is the Root of them all The Apostle says 1 Tim. 6.10 The love of Money is the Root of all Evil and Self-love is the Root of the love of Money particularly that you may know what a mischievous evil this Heart-sin of Self-love is and how pregnant of all other wickedness consider that it is 1. The Rot of all Religion 2. The Root of all Vnrighteousness and Vnmercifulness 3. The Root of all sinful Brawls and Quarrels 4. The Root of sinful Self-seeking 1. It is the Rot of all Religion that is where it is predominant and carries the main stroak in our Religion It is the rottenness of the Heart under all its most specious Religious pretences or performances All sincere Religion is animated by the love of God the love of God is the Soul of Religion If there be no love to God in our profession of Religion if no love to God in our practices of Piety if no love to God in our Prayers no love to God in our Fastings and Alms all our Religion is rotten at Heart Self-love which is it's only Root is it's rotteness Self-love will 1. Limit our Religion 'T will limit it by self-Interest no more nor no other Religion will it allow than will serve our Carnal turns no farther may we go in it than will consist with this love of our selves whatever part or exercise of Religion will pinch upon the Flesh the self-denying part the self-abasing part the Flesh-mortifying part of Religion unless it be to some further Ends Self-love will never bear it So much professing so much Praying and Hearing as will consist with our Ease and our safety as will not put us to too much pains or expose us to too much danger and reproach so much Religion as will not hold us in too strictly and severely and closely Self-love will bear it but where the Yoak of Christ wrings and galls there it must be thrown off 2. It will corrupt our Religion and turn it into Hypocrisie Selfish Professors are Hypocrites and all their Religion is Hypocrisie and Hypocrisie is the rottenness of the Heart You that are Professors see to it that ye be not self-loving Professors if ye be whatever there be in your Tongues or your Looks or your Religious performances you are rotten at the Core rotten in your Hearts It is love to God wherein our sincerity lies Self-love is our Hypocrisie and where this rotten Self-love hath tainted your Hearts your Hearts will taint and corrupt all your Duties it will pervert and corrupt all that ever you do and turn it into quite another thing your Religion is no Religion your Christianity is no Christianity your Praying is no Praying your Spirituality is but fleshliness your Heavenly-mindedness is but Earthiness your seeming fruitfulness is but Emptiness and barrenness Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth his Fruits to himself Hos 10.1 Israel seemed to be a fruitful Vine that had her Clusters upon it there were Clusters of Prayers and Clusters of Sacrifices and Clusters of Alms Israel had their Fruits and yet they were but a Barren and empty Vine how so Why whatever Fruits they had they were all brought forth to Self Self brought them
ye are mine and I am Gods Thus Christs love to Christians causeth him to say to them I am yours and all that I have so Christians love to Christ helps them to say Lord we are thine and all we have are thine not only our sins are thine our infirmities are thine but our Parts and our Possessions our Graces and our Duties yea our Houses and our Lands and our Possessions all are thine Christians we have been call'd together this day to a Communion of Loves and thereby to an Espousal of Interests betwixt Christ and us we have received the Pledges of his love his Bread and his Wine he hath given us to Eat and to Drink as the tokens he hath sent us down from Heaven of his Love I have brought you tokens every one of you from the Lord this day tokens of his love we have received the Pledges of his love and we have returned the Pledges of our love to him our very accepting of Christ's Tokens hath been our returning of our tokens Your communion together to Eat of Christ's Bread and Drink of his Cup provided it hath been in sincerity a Spiritual Eating and a Spiritual Drinking your Eating and Drinking his Body and Blood Christ hath accepted as a token of your loves and this communion of love hath been an Espousal of Interests Christ hath hereby told you Because I love you I will be yours and all that I have in Heaven and Earth you may henceforth call your own I am your own Jesus my Father is your own Father and my God is your own God and mine Inheritance is your own Inheritance and you have said if you have sincerely accepted of Christ we are thine own thine own Flock thine own Inheritance thy Ransom'd ones thy Redeemed ones and thy peculiar People this hath been the up-shot of the Transaction betwixt Christ and you this day the Sealing to this word I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine And as there hath been an interchangeable communion of loves and Espousal of Interest betwixt Christ and Christians so also betwixt Christians and Christians as we have said to our Lord I am thine so we have therein said one to another I am yours and must therefore walk in that tenderness of love in that dearness of affection one to another in that mutual care of each others good in that mutual Sense of each others afflictions in that mutual delight in each others Societies in that mutual helping and counselling and comforting one another and hearty seeking and rejoicing in each others good studying to please each other for his good to Edification fearing to grieve or offend or wrong or fall out with or quarrel one with another counting the Interest of every Christian to be the common Interest of the whole Body that we hereby may prove that we love one another not in Word and in Tongue but Indeed and in Truth This now is the Nature and these are the Fruits of Divine Love it will unite Hearts and unite Interests this will be the Interest of Christians which will flow from the love of Christ that Christ's Interest prosper in the World that the Name of Christ be exalted and be honourable both in themselves and in the World that Christ be loved that Christ be praised that the Word of Christ the Worship of Christ his Sabbaths his Ordinances be exalted in the World that the Glory and Holy Image of Christ his Humility Meekness Lowliness Heavenliness Righteousness Mercy may shine forth in our Faces and in the Faces and Wayes of all his Saints that we may in our particulars and jointly shew forth the Spirit and Life of serious and poweful Religion and Godliness in all manner of Holy Conversation this we should account our Interest with respect to Christ that he may be thus Honour'd and Obeyed and this will be the Interest of Christians with respect to Christians that we may see one another the whole Vineyard flourishing in the Power of Holiness as living and lively Instances of the Grace of God and as far as the Lord see it good may see one another prospering in this World even as our Souls do prosper O Christians espouse this common Interest and do what you can to promote this Interest in the World Love Christ and lift up the Name of Christ love Christ and shew forth the Image of Christ love Christ and Consecrate your Life to Christ determine to know nothing to value nothing to rejoice in nothing but Jesus Christ and him Crucified And then love one another and study to please one another to profit one another for their good to Edification to cast in your Lot together to rejoice together with them that rejoice to grieve with them that suffer to live together in love forbearing one another forgiving one another comforting one another even as you your selves would be Loved forgiven and comforted of God This now is the nature and the fruit of Divine Love it unites Interests but Self-love sinful Self-love divides Interests and so those that seek the things of Self their carual things seek not the things of Christ 3. Sinful Self-love hath a root remaining in the best Hearts even of the regenerate though in Conversion Self hath lost the Domlnion and be cast down from the Throne yet is there a secret Tabernacle a corner in the Heart where it fortifies it Self and is still aspiring to recover the Throne it hath lost the Dominion yet it retains in some degree an Interest in the affection and by this affection it hath the advantage of us and often recovers too great a Command again How great a Power sinful Self-love hath still in us the experience of Chistians sadly proves for the clearing whereof consider yet again more distinctly that there is as hath been already hinted a threefold Self-love and accordingly a threefold Self-seeking 1. There is a loving or seeking our selves in conjunction with God and in subordination to him This is a loving or seeking Self spiritually a loving or seeking of Self as Christians as the Servants of God and Members of Christ as cloathed with the Image and devoted to the service and aspiring to the Salvation of God This Self-loving and Self-seeking is our duty and our excellency the Interest of Self spiritual and the Interest of God are a conjunct Interest only the Interest of Self is lower and subordinate to the Interest of God When we thus seek our selves our Spiritual and Eternal good we are therein most effectually seeking God we cannot more effectually seek God than in seeking our own Salvation Those that seek Glory Honour and Immortality for themselves do therein seek the Glory and Honour of the Immortal God thereby declaring that they prize and value the Lord as their chief nay the only good He that neglecting these lower things doth seeek God as his onely happiness doth therein take the Crown off the head of all his Idols and set it where it
but for a Moment 4. Sinners live in their own Light in the Light of their own Fires and Sparks Walk in the Light of your Fire that 's all the Light you have it is all Dark to them from above the Sun shines not the Candle of the Lord gives them no light God speaks Terrour and Trouble to them but they speak Peace to themselves their own Joy and Mirth is all they have to comfort and chear them 5. Sinners Light serves for nothing but to Light them down to Darkness Walk in your Light this shall ye have of mine Hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Sinners how Light soever your Walk be how Merry soever your Lives be yet what is your lying down like to be He is a Wise Man that taketh care that how uncomfortable or weary soever his Way and his Walk be yet he may have a comfortable lying down Psal 37.37 Mark the Just Man and behold the Perfect Man the End of that Man is Peace But O ye Jolly and Merry Souls what is your End like to be Remember your lying down when your Hearts are Merry within you when you live such Laughing and Sporting Lives in the midst of your Cups of Pleasure your Musick and Dancing your Feasting and Sporting and the Jollity of your Revelling and Rioting think with your selves What doth all this lead to When these Merry dayes are over what a Night am I like to have of it When the Candles of your Worldly Prosperity are Burnt down in what a stinking Snuff will they go out What a stink will they be in your Nostrils When your Fires and your Sparks will Light you no longer then they will burn you your Mirth will burn you your Pleasures will burn you your abused Prosperity your Riches your Money your Plenty and the Joy that you now take in them will burn you and they will burn to the bottom of Hell Will you yet rejoyce in these Carnal things Rejoyce with Trembling Tremble to think what the End of these things will be Prov. 14.13 In the midst of Laughter the Heart is Sorrowful and the End of this Mirth is heaviness if the former of these in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowful c. should not be true if you should Laugh and rejoyce and know no Sorrow if it should be with you as with those Merry ones Job 21.9 Their Houses are far from Fear and your Hearts should be as far from Sorrow as your Houses from Fear if you should have all Sweet and no Bitter all Sun-shine and no Clouds if the first Part should not be true upon you if in the midst of Laughter your Hearts should not be sorrowful yet the latter shall certainly be true there shall be no avoiding of that the End of your Mirth shall be heaviness Hold up while you will maintain the Mirth and the Jollity of your Hearts while you can the End of this Mirth will be heaviness you shall lie down in Sorrow Sinners what will ye choose What would a Wise Man choose A Merry Life or a Joyful Death Which do ye think in your Judgments and Consciences is the best choice to Die in Peace to Die in Joy or to Die in Sorrow How would you have it with you when you come to Die Would you then find that all your Sorrow is gone and now your Joy is come Or would you be forced then to say Now farewel all my Mirth I have seen my last of it and henceforth nothing but Sorrow and Anguish for ever Dost thou not tremble to think What if this should be my Case Know it for a Truth there 's no avoiding it if you go on to live this Merry Jolly Life this shall be thy End thou must lie down in Sorrow Christians envy not the World's Mirth nor let your Hearts lust after it you have other Joyes than their crackling Thorns will yield you have your Sorrows while they have their Mirth but you have this advantage of the World 1. You have Joy in your Sorrows as in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sad so in the midst of your Sorrows your Hearts may be Joyful 2. Your Sorrows shall End in Joy this shall you have of the Hand of your God you shall lie down in Peace You that Sow in Tears shall reap in Joy Psal 126.6 Whilest those that Sow in Mirth shall Reap in Tears you that go on your Way weeping whilest they go on their Way Laughing yet mark the End of both Isa 65.13 14. Behold however it be now behold how it shall be hereafter How shall it be My Servants shall Eat but ye shall be Hungry my Servants shall Drink but ye shall be Thirsty my Servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed my Servants shall sing for Joy of Heart but ye shall cry for Sorrow of Heart and shall howl for vexation of Spirit and ye shall leave your Name for a Curse to my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee Now your Enemies Eat and some of you are an Hungry c. But think how it will be in the Day when the Scales be turned when the Sinners Eating Days and Drinking Days and Jolly merry Dayes are over and their Hungring Dayes and howling Dayes overtake them and you that now Hunger and are Sorrowful shall Eat and Drink and be satisfied with the Joy of the Lord. O envy not and meddle not with the sinful Joyes of the World these Strangers shall not meddle with your Joy Prov. 14.10 Meddle you as little with theirs let your God be your Joy and if he give you any matters of rejoycing in this World and allow you some Measures of Joy even in these outward things yet rejoyce with trembling and let your Fear so moderate your Joy in these lower things that you do not lash out into that Carnal Mirth the End whereof is Heaviness Especially when the Matters of Worldly Joy increase upon you you that grow Rich and Prosper in the World that find the World smiling and come crowding in upon you that have even what your Hearts could wish and then feel your Hearts to be tickled and pleased and delighted in your Prosperity then take heed then fear lest you forget God and your Soul and neglect and lose the Joy of the Lord and your care of pleasing the Lord in your abounding Worldly Joyes and never count any such Joyes lawful or safe for you but such as make you to love the Lord the more and serve the Lord with more chearfulness and care If you do not serve the Lord better and walk with God closer and bring forth more of the Fruits of Holiness and Righteousness in more Spirituality and Heavenliness of mind if you be not some way the better God-wards and Heaven-wards in the abundance of all things than you could be or than others are in the want of all things count that Prosperity greater cause of trembling than of rejoycing to you 4.
's my grief that I am a Worldling or proud or froward but God be merciful to me I can't get rid of these evils if your sorrow whatever it be doth not bring forth Fruit unto Repentance it is not wrought up high enough there must be more load layd on there must be more of its Thorns and Spears and Stings thrust into that hard Heart of thine thou must feel more of its Gripes it must fetch out more Groans and Sighs and Tears out of thee thou must be brought to another manner of trouble for sin then yet thou art e're it reach the due degree of Godly sorrow 2. This sorrow must not be so great as to hinder the exercise of any other Grace or Duty 't is seldom there is an errour in the excess we don't use to sorrow over much no no we are apt to err in the defect we do not usually come up to sufficient sorrow our hearts have but a light hurt upon them our wounds ordinarily are not deep enough 't is this which mostly undoes us we find our sin to be too light a burthen 't were well if our hearts were more sick that we could find them bleeding inwardly and bleeding more abundantly as 't was said of false Teachers Jer. 6.14 They heal the hurt of the Daughters of my People slightly It is seldom that we can now a dayes hear of such a thing as a troubl'd Soul and a wounded Spirit We are even Professors of too whole and unbroken hearts The Sacrifice of God is a broken heart Psal 51.17 but how few such Sacrifices are there any where found for the Lord The work of the Ministry God helps us is seldome that more acceptable work an healing work to heal the wounded Soul to bind up the broken heart to comfort them that are cast down but the main of our work lyes in making wounds in pricking to the heart in casting down the high and hardned hearts Is not there much of this work lying upon our hands to be hammering and humbling and piercing your hearts through with Godly sorrow How few are there of you who can truly say I thank God this work is done upon me the breaking work the afflicting work the affrighting work is done upon me my heart through Grace is brought low and made soft and made sick of my sins so that I am prepared for the healing and comforting work That sharp two edged Sword of the word hath pierced so deep and made such work such wounds in my heart that now the Oyl is more needed and the Balm to heal my wounds O it is matter of trouble and sadness of heart to find no more such sad Souls and sorrow bitten hearts then we can either see or hear of in the World 'T is seldom therefore I say that there is too much of this sorrow that trouble for sin riseth too high but yet sometimes and in some cases it may be so there may be an excess of sorrow for sin Christians may be pressed down over measure they may be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow as the Apostle intimates and would have prevented 2 Cor. 2.7 Comfort such an one lest perhaps he should be swollowed up of overmuch sorrow Therefore in this case there must be Limits set to our sorrow and it must be held within these Limits It must be so much only as may not hinder the exercise of other Graces and Duties it must neither hinder our Hopes nor hinder our Faith nor our Love no nor our Joy in the Lord It should be with Christians in this case as with the Apostle in another case 2 Cor. 6.10 As sorrowing yet alwaies rejoycing Sorrowing yet believing sorrowing yet hopeing cast down yet comforted It must not hinder our Duties Some Christians have been so overwhelmed with trouble that they have not been able to hear nor pray nor think with any Comfort upon God or the things of God this is an excess of sorrow and must be restrained Sorrow for sin no more then will help you to believe and Hope and Love and praise and serve the Lord. 2. Affliction This is another object of sorrow The Degrees and Limits of this are 1. That we sorrow not so little but that we have a due and a deep sense of the hand of the Lord upon us Otherwise we despise the chastning of the Lord which the Apostle forbids Heb. 12.5 Despise not thou the chastning of the Lord. By afflictions I mean here the sufferings of this Life Crosses and Losses of Estates of Friends Husband Wife Children or near Relations Sufferings in our persons by Sicknesses Pains Languishing and the like these must be grieved for God complaines Jer. 3.5 I have smitten them but they have not grieved 'T was their sin that they did not sorrow 2. That we sorrow not so much as to sink under our sorrows That we be not swallowed up of overmuch sorrow As we may not slight or despise the chastnings of the Lord so we may not faint when we are chastned The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 7.10 That worldly sorrow the sorrows of worldly-men for their worldly crosses worketh Death It sometimes kills their Bodies some men die of their griefs but it often kills their Hearts sinks them in their Spirits stupifies them and makes them fit for nothing We may not be so depressed with sorrows but that we still keep our Hearts alive and to be of good courage 3. Not as men without hope We must sorrow for all our afflictions but as the Apostle would have Christians sorrow for the dead 1 Thess 4.13 Sorrow not says he as others which have no hope The Righteous hath hope in his Heart and his hope must moderate his sorrow This sad state will not last alwaies there 's hope of an end of his afflictions and that should moderate his sorrow The Righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14.32 and hath this double hope 1. That Death will put an end to his sorrows 2. That the end of his Sorrows shall be the beginning of Everlasting Joyes and in this hope he must comfort himself under his sufferings and moderate his sorrows for them 4. Alwaies as men that have worse matters to sorrow for The least sin is a worse evil then the greatest affliction and calls for more of our sorrow Christians must take heed that they do not loose the sense of sin in their excessive sorrowing for affliction When affliction lyes too heavy sin usually lyes too light Jer. 30.15 Why cryest thou for thine affliction because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee Why art thou impatient under thy sufferings Whatsoever thou sufferest how hard soever it goes with thee in the World there 's a worse thing then all this that should set thee a crying thy sin thy sin which is the root of all that which thou sufferest 5. Let your sorrow for Affliction never be so great as to hinder your sorrow for sin Sorrow more
prosper if it hath not your constant care 'T is true we are not to speak the same words in all Companies and our behaviour is not to be alike in its particular Circumstances in all Companies but in the general a serious and holy behaviour the carrying our selves so as men that are in a journey heavenwards the owning and propagating serious Religion the behaving our selves so that others may evidently see the spirit of Glory and of God resting upon us and may be both convinced that God is in us of a truth and if it be possible be gained to God or at least made ashamed of their own sinful and carnal ways Such a temper should we be in and such a carriage should we be of in what Company soever we be we are alwayes in the sight of God and we should be no where but upon business for God and we should carry our selves as such What the Apostle speaks of his Ministry should be exemplified in the practise of Christians 2 Cor. 2.17 As of sincerity as of God in the sight of God so speak we in Christ Wherever you are behave your selves in sincerity in simplicity whatever you speak speak it as in the sight of God be faithful approve your selves to God in all that you do O friends this even this steady this sincere course of life this universal approving your selves to God in all you do will be the fruit of such an abiding sense of God upon your hearts This will be the poise that will make you move swiftly this will be the Ballast that will make you sail steadily And this swift and steady motion heavenward will both make you appear to be Christians indeed and mightily improve and advance your souls in that grace of God that bringeth Salvation O beloved that this now might be the fruit of these many words that I have spoken to you that you would every one of you set your hearts to it to get and to hold such a deep sense of the eternal things upon your spirits as might have influence to the carrying you on in this even and steady course Do not every one of you need some establishment more settledness more fixedness in an heavenly frame do not you feel your selves so up and down so off and on that you can hardly fix Would it not be more comfortable for you if you could get to be more like the unchangeable God that as he is the same God so you might be the same Christians of the same Spirit of the same way so fixed and composed in your Spirits that you might not be moved from the hope nor from the holiness of the Gospel would it not be comfortable to you were it thus with you would it not be much to the honour of the Gospel and to the joy of your own Souls then once again I exhort you by the Lord Jesus get this sight of God in your eye keep this sense of God upon your hearts which will have its fruit unto this settled and even course of holiness the end whereof will be everlasting life This is that which I strive for and am reaching towards in mine own Soul and I must say with the Apostle Phil. 3.12 I press these things upon you not as though I had already obtained but I follow after if I may obtain through Christ Jesus And what I seek and wait and hope for in mine own Soul my hearts desire is that you also may follow after and be partakers of the same Grace that my Soul is in pursuit of that you and I may rejoyce together in the day of the Lord. Thus much for the keeping the heart under Government 2. Keep the Heart under Guard Keep it and all the good that 's in it in safety that it be not lost Christians must keep their Hearts as Worldlings keep their Money and their Jewels and their writings by which they hold their Estates If they have any stronger or safer place than other there they lay them up and whatever else they have to look to their special eye and their strictest Watch is upon their treasure And here I shall shew you 1. Why Christians must especially guard their hearts 2. How Christians must guard their hearts 1. Why Christians must especially guard their hearts They must set a guard upon their tongues they must watch their words and all their carriages but above all keeping they must keep their hearts So the word in the Text is rendred and interpreted by some keep the heart with diligence above all keepings Keep the heart but why so because the heart is 1. The fountain of Life 2. The spring of all vital actions 3. The record of all our sacred Transactions 4. The cabinet of our Jewels 5. Our box of evidences 6. The ark of our strength 7. A sacrifice for God 8. The temple of the Lord. 1. Because the heart is the fountain of Life It is the reason urged in the Text for out of it are the issues of Life The issues that is the streams or rivuâ—ets of life The heart is the fountain from whence all our living streams do flow Christ is our life and the seat or habitation of Christ is in the heart therefore that expression Col. 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory The hope of the Saints is a living and lively hope the life of our hope is from Christ and from Christ within us Eph. 3.17 Christ dwells in the heart by Faith The heart Natural is the fountain of Natural Life it is the primum vivens and the heart Spiritual is the fountain of Spiritual Life we begin to live from within as death begins in the heart so life Death Natural ends in the heart the heart is the last that dieth but death spiritual begins in the heart the heart is the first that dies Sinners dead works do all arise from their dead hearts the root dies first and then the branches and fruit wither and fall off the Devils great design is firstly upon the heart when he hath slain the good that is within he can with ease destroy whatever good is without the fruit will fall off of it self when the root is dead The heart is the first that dies in a spiritual sense and 't is the first that lives It is there the seed of God his immortal Seed is first received and takes its root so that there is the same reason to set a guard upon our hearts as to preserve our life if you would keep your selves alive if you would not fall down among the dead then look well to your hearts which are the fountain of life 2. It is the spring of all our vital actions and operations This is included in the former the heart is the fountain of life and life is the fountain of action A dead man cannot see nor hear nor speak nor move he must live before he can speak or move And what can the spiritually dead do The dead praise
not the Lord Psal 115.17 The living the living he shall praise thee Is 38.19 That is spoken of the naturally dead and living and must we not say the same of the spiritually dead and the living Souls dead Souls can't praise the Lord they can't pray nor believe nor hope nor serve the Lord the living the living Soul it shall praise thee it shall pray unto thee and serve thee Hypocrites are all dead at heart and therefore all their services are but dead services they make a shew and keep a stir in the outward parts of Religion they can talk as Christians and walk and move but it is with these dead Souls as with those dead bodies which we call walking Ghosts they look like men and speak like men and go up and down like men but still they have no Soul in them It is the Devil that acts in them and speaks in them and carrieth them up and down none of all their actions or motions are vital actions the devil can make them speak and walk and look like living men but he cannot make them live such is the Hypocrites Religion he can pray and hear and sing and speak as Christians do but he is dead at heart and thereupon all his duties are but dead duties Friends you are as much concerned to keep your hearts as you are to be able to do any thing that will please God or save your Souls What is the intent of your Religion why do ye come together to pray and hear and partake of the Table of the Lord You will say I come to perform these duties to please the Lord I come in order to the saving of my Soul Do you so then look to your hearts better see that there be the root of Religion within you see that your praying be the praying with the heart that your hearing be not the opening your ear but the opening of your heart to the Word see that whatever you do that hath any shew of Religion in it you do it heartily watch your hearts when you come into the house of the Lord watch your hearts when you set upon any work for God lest they give you the slip and so make all your Services to be but bodily exercises which as 1 Tim. 4.8 profit little Bodily exercises that is the outward part of our Religion Ear Religion Tongue Religion Knee Religion these bodily Exercises where there is not an heart at the bottom of them profit nothing at all they will do nothing to the pleasing of God or the saving our Souls Friends beware of Hypocrisie take heed lest any of you be found hypocrites that your faith you seem to have be not the faith of hypocrites that your hope be not the Hypocrites hope that your praying and fasting and almes be not all the Sacrifices of hypocrites and such sacrifices they are if they be Sacrifices without an heart Come not before the Lord with hollow Vessels which will make a sound but have nothing in them We that look upon you can't tell what there is within you we see your faces and hear your voices but what is under God knows look you to it that it be not all hollow and empty within he that seeth the heart seeth what there is within and will accept or reject according to what he finds of the heart in all you do Friends What do ye here this day have you brought with you ever a Sacrifice for God ever a living Sacrifice the living God will regard none of you if you bring not a living Sacrifice He doth not require of you as he did of old a Bullock or a Ram for a Sacrifice No nor a Dove nor a Lamb for a Sacrifice it is a Soul for a Sacrifice a living Soul that is quickned and sanctified by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ And upon this account farther are you concerned to look to and to keep your hearts as ever you would do any thing in Religion that is acceptable with God or of any avail to your own Salvation The heart is the spring of all vital Actions and they are only our vital Actions our living and lively duties that will be accepted of the living God Would you not be rejected for hypocrites would you not compass the Lord about with lies as Ephraim did Hos 11.12 would you not come before the Lord with lies and comfort your selves with lies then see that you bring your hearts with you before him Is there any life begotten in your hearts is Christ formed upon you is the Spirit of Christ poured forth into you is there the life of God in your hearts and is this the spring of all your acceptable services then as you love your lives as you fear to serve the living God with dead service set a careful guard upon your hearts that neither these be stolen away from God nor that life which is within you be stolen out of your hearts Brethren I would not that any of you be found hypocrites therefore do I labour with you therefore do I preach to you and warn every one of you that you may be presented perfect and upright in the day of the Lord. I would not that you be found hypocrites in that day nor would I that your Religious actions be found hypocritical actions in your present day 'T is said of the limbs of Antichrist 1 Tim. 4.2 That they speak lies in hypocrisies I would have Christians not only none such as speak lies in hypocrisie no nor to speak truth in hypocrisie to do good in hypocrisie and therefore 't is that I have spent so much time among you upon this Subject of looking to your hearts that these may be right with God in all that you do I fear there are hypocrites among you I fear that much of the Religion of some of you may be but hypocritical Religion but look to your selves and as you would be loth to have no better acceptance than hypocrites as you would dread to have your portion with hypocrites so dread it to satisfie your selves with hypocritical duties serve the God of your hearts with an hearty service serve the true God with an heart and with a true heart serve the living God with living hearts see that there be the life of God in your hearts and let the life within you be the Spring of all your Performances that all that ever you do in Religion be the issues of life 3. It is the record of all the transactions which have been betwixt Christ and your Soules If ye be Christs there have been great dealings betwixt Christ and your Souls Christ hath been dealing with you dealing with you by his word dealing with you by his Spirit instructing and enlightning your Souls convincing and awakening your Hearts perswading and alluring your hearts after him Christ hath been dealing with you about your repenting and turning to the Lord about your Reconciliation and making peace with God God hath been in
Christ reconciling you to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 You have not had us dealing with you in the name of Christ who are the Ministers of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 but he who is the great Reconciler Christ himself hath been dealing with you and hath reconciled you to God So sure as the Devil hath been dealing with sinners he hath drawn them away from God drawn them to sin and wickedness against God hath been hardning them against God you could never have been so wicked you could never have been so hardned against God as you are hardned against conversion hardned against repentance if the Devil had not been dealing with you You see what hard hearts you have we cannot humble you we cannot perswade you to repent and turn our words do nothing with you you will not be perswaded to return but you go on your way and remain stupid and sensless of your sin and misery you will not be perswaded 't is so bad with you We cannot for our hearts make you sensible of your wretched cases nor put a stop to you in your sins You may see well enough who hath been dealing with you that you continue so sinful still and so hardned in your sins It is the Devil that hath had to do with you thus to deprave you and to harden you as sure as the Devil hath been dealing with sinners so sure hath Christ been dealing with his Saints 'T is not Ministers that have awakened you that have convinced and humbled you and brought you about to the Lord 't is Christ that hath done these things for you We could never have humbled you we could never have perswaded nor turned nor reconciled you to God if Christ himself had not done it You were once foolish and disobedient led about with diverse lusts you were once Drunkards Liars Covetous and Prophane and you had been amongst this uncircumcised Crew to this day if Christ had not fetched you off 't is with him you have had to do as 't is said Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and open before his eyes with whom we have to do You have to do with Christ Christ hath been dealing with you that are Christians or you had never come to this you had never been these living Souls you had never known what you do of God nor known what you do of Sin nor been washed from your sins your had never been here praying and hearing and praising the Lord and become followers of the Lamb if Christ had not had to do with you Particularly you that are Christians there have been great transactions betwixt God and your Souls 1. In point of Covenant Behold you that are Christians you are in Covenant with the Lord by reason whereof I may say concerning you as Moses concerning Israel Deut. 26.17 18. Thou hast avouched the Lord to be thy God to walk in his ways and keep his statutes And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar People You have avouched the Lord to be yours and the Lord hath avouched you to be his a solemn and mutual Covenant hath there passed between the Lord and you he is become your Covenant God you are become his Covenant People How came this to pass how is it that you are not still as poor sinners are in Covenant with Death and Agreement with Hell how comes it to pass that when poor sinners are in Covenant with the Devil you are in Covenant with God O you may thank Christ for this he hath been effectually dealing with you in this thing He hath not only procured such a gracious Covenant a Covenant of Mercy a Covenant of Pardons a Covenant of Peace but he hath also 1. Made offer of this Covenant of God to you inviting you to come and joyn your selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall never be forgotten 2. He hath made void your Covenant with Death and disanull'd your Agreement with Hell He hath given you an heart to break and make void that wicked Covenant to break with the Devil to break with Sin and the World and to come out from among them 3. He hath effectually perswaded you into this Covenant of God He hath brought you into the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 He hath sprinkled you with the Blood of the Covenant and hath gained your hearty acceptance of all this You have opened your Mouth to the Lord you have vowed your selves you have sworn your selves his Covenant Servants not with your Mouths only not in profession only but you have engaged your hearts to the Lord. Jer. 30.21 Your Hearts are no longer your own you have given them to the Lord to be his for ever So that you can now say through Grace to the Lord what he said to Israel Is 54.20 The Mountains shall depart and the Hills shall be removed but through the help of God my faithfulness shall not depart nor shall the Covenant of my peace ever be removed His I am and through his Grace I am determined to be the Lords for ever Friends such a solemn and sacred Covenant transaction hath there been in those very Hearts of yours betwixt the Lord and you He hath avouched himself to be yours and you have avouched your selves to be his own and those Hearts of yours are the Records wherein this Transaction is registred and kept Remember and look back and consider if there have not been such mutual engagements passed betwixt the Lord and you Look into your Closets and remember what of this kind hath passed between him and you in secret look back to your Sacraments and remember what Covenanting have been between the Lord and you at his Table and what solemn sealing there hath been God sealing to you and you sealing back to him Your Hearts are the Records wherein these Sacred Transactions have been Registred look into thine Heart doth not this testifie for thee how thou hast bound thy self to be the Lords for ever and hast accepted of his Bond to thee The remembrance of this Covenant Transaction will be of use to you as long as you live will be of use to comfort you in the day of your doubts and fears to confirm you in the day of Temptations to hold you close to the Lord according to the Vows that are upon you to quicken you and hold you on in that way of holy and lively Obedience which you have covenanted for When you grow cold and careless and remiss in your way of Religion then remember Is this the Life I covenanted with God to live When you are tempted to decline to a worldly life or a fleshly life then remember I have promised to the Lord that I will never return to such a life again When you are out of heart and complain of weaknesses and want of strength and so are discouraged and disheartned I shall never be able to hold to such an industrious life then remember the Covenant of the Lord with you who
God The people of God are said to be the People that worship God in spirit Phil. 3.3 There are great thoughts of heart and many Scruples arising about the outward Worship of God about the keeping that pure about the clearing and securing of that against the Superstitious Inventions and corrupt mixtures of humane Impositions And 't were happy if the Houses of God in the Land were swept cleaner and kept cleaner from these than they are But the main of our care lies not here these are not the great things we are concern'd to take care about If outward Ordinances were never so purely administred and kept never so free from adulterating mixtures there 's a greater thing then this that lies upon us that the inner Temple be kept pure that the heart Worship be kept pure and intire The heart also is to be an house of Prayer and shall we make this house of Prayer a den of Theeves or an house of Merchandize O what droves of unclean beasts are let in to these hearts of ours what houses of Merchandize are these houses of prayer become these Sanctuaries of the Lord are become meer shops of buyers and sellers Whilst they should be employed in those spiritual excercises of loving and fearing of praying and praising God offering up living and spiritual Sacrifices to the Lord behold how our money is brought into our hearts our sheep and Oxen buying and selling and trading and getting gain these are the inhabitants and these are the exercises of our hearts It is a very grievous thing to consider how much the hearts of Christians are taken up with these things we cannot love the Lord as we should we cannot mind Glory and Immortality as we should It is miserable praying lamentable praising or meditating on God that is to be found in us we are so disordered distracted and confused in these spiritual exercises there is such a mixture of Carnal thoughts such carnal Affections worldly Projects and Cares are thrusting in that corrupt and spoil and enervate all our spiritual Duties that we can find nothing but blind and broken and maimed Sacrifices to offer up unto the Lord. Friends How do you find it when you set your selves to pray or meditate on God Is not the World presently thrusting in are not your carnal Friends or your businesses or pleasures thrusting in and do not your thoughts and affections fall a gâ—â—â—â—ing and a wandring after these and do you not hereby loose many a Prayer and loose many a Sermon and sadly complain of your selves that whatever duty you perform it s all spoil'd in the doing so that you can take no comfort in them What help is there for it but setting a better guard upon your hearts Sure friends we had every one of us need to be mo e vigilant and watchful to prevent these sad matters of our complaints It is not complaining how bâ—d 't is that will make amends or make up the matter po â—ibly your complaints of your selves may seem to give you â—ome ease but consider the same complaints that you make of your selves God also makes of you The Lord God hath complaints against you for the same things Think 〈◊〉 that more than you do God complains of you do you say I am weary of such a distracted divided worldly heart and I am weary too says the Lord Ah I will ease me of them Isa 1. I am weary of these halting trifling distracted hearts these cold Prayers these hypocritical Praises these maimed broken confused Services I am weary of them saith the Lord. If you go on thus to Worship God come hither as often as you will God will be weary to meet you here he hath been waiting from week to week from Sabbath to Sabbath to see if it may be better if he could meet with such Sacrifices here such hearts here as might be pleasing to him he hath waited thus so long and still finds so little of what he likes so few living Sacrifices he hath waited so long and found so little that 't is to be doubted if we continue thus we may come hither to meet one another but our God will be weary to give us a meeting Friends if you would not that the things that offend in your hearts should drive God away then take more heed how you suffer these offences or things to come in or to lodge any longer in you 4. God himself is in his Temple 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the Temple of the living God God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them The hearts of the Saints are the house of God and the house of God is his Habitation The holy God will have none but an holy habitation Will you let sin in and the Devil in to Gods habitation These will darken and defile your hearts Those hearts are but blind houses and dirty holes where Sin and the Devil dwells and is this the best habitation you can afford to the Almighty what place do you think God will prepare for you if you prepare no better a place for him How long will the Lord stay with you how certainly will he withdraw and forsake you if you let lust in with him Sure Friends if you had a due and a deep sense upon your hearts of the Holiness of the Glory of the Majesty of the Jealousie of the holy God If you did verily believe that of a very truth this Holy and Glorious God had a mind to come and take up those very hearts of yours for his own habitation that he would come and dwell in you and walk in you and make those hearts his Chambers of Presence and the Thrones of his Glory If you had such respect for God and such affection that you would have him pleas'd with his habitation and not meet with that which is an offence and a loathing to him in you were you sensible did you verily believe all this you could not but take more care to keep these hearts cleaner and more free for him If you had a great Friend a Lord or a Knight that would come but to lodge a Night in your house what would you do How would you prepare your house for the entertaining of such a friend what sweeping and washing and rubbing and scouring and adorning would there be every Vessel would be brighted every room would be beautified Would you let it lie all dirty and dusty hang'd with Cobwebs and Spiders would you let it lie nasty and filthy and every thing out of its place and order Sure you would not and when he were come in would you set open your doors to let in a rabble of sordid Beggars or common Rogues or Drunkards to come and drink and roar and spue in the very room where your friend were entertained no you would sweep all within and set a Porter at your doors to keep the unclean rabble out O what is the greatest friend in the World to the great and holy
which all need the utmost you can do for them Where are your Bowels to usward for our sakes awaken for our sakes arise and be doing we die if you will not give us a better example we die if you sleep on who should awaken and save us The whole Interest of God in the World calls upon you for his names sake for the Gospels sake for the Churches sake for Religions sake which sinks which decays for the sake of all these recover your Souls and your Life O friends what shall all these loud cryes do upon you shall all leave you such lumps and loyterers Christians be yet awakened call up all the Grace you have whet those dull and blunted Spirits get you a better edge upon them Why may not this word give a whet to you If you come hither sleepy Souls what a Mercy would it be if you might return home awakened if you came hither dead and dull and listless Souls what a comfort would it be if you might return home quickned and enlivened what if you should feel that this word had kindled a fire in you had made your hearts burn within you burn with holy Love and Life what a mercy would this be to you what if you might be sent hence with ready minds forward minds bent upon a more active and useful and heavenly life And what if after all this you should go away just as you came hither though the Bellows have been blowing yet your ashes are not purged away though the fire hath been kindled yet it will not burn would you like it if all this should be lost and do nothing upon you if this untoward and dull temper of Soul should be too hard for the Word and you should return from the Physician of Souls with your diseases uncured Do what you can friends every one of you to help to your own recovery to get up to this lively active frame and if you can obtain it then look to your hearts as long as you live that if it be possible this wretched distemper of a leaden unuseful lifeless listless unactive heart may never return upon you 2. How the heart must be guarded This I shall answer in these 5 particulars 1. Set a constant watch upon it 2. Keep all your Powers up in Armes 3. Keep close by your Captain and Physician 4. Carry up your Hearts where your Enemies can't come 5. Commit the keeping of them to the keeper of Israel 1. Set a constant Watch upon it That 's a word that is given to every Christian Mark 13.37 What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. And of all things we have to watch the heart is it that must chiefly be watched Our eyes must be chiefly there whether ever else we have to look we must especially look upwards and look inwards We must look upwards our eye must be upon Gods eye that all seeing eye that seeth in secret Whether our eye be or no Gods eye is ever upon our hearts I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Jer. 10 18. The eye of rhe Lord is a searching eye there is no secret of the heart but he espieth and searcheth it out and 't is a jealous eye that will not wink at nor allow nor indulge to the least heart evils The sense of that jealous eye would awe us into more watchfulness over our selves The reason of our neglect of self inspection is that we forget that the Lord looks upon us We cannot look upwards but we shall behold the very eye of God upon us If an hundred men stand looking upon us and we do not look upon them we cannot tell whether they look upon us or no but if we look stedfastly upon them we may see in their very eye that they are looking upon us Look up to God and you will plainly see that his eye is upon you And the observing of Gods eye upon you will turn your own eyes upon your selves What is it that the Lord looks thus upon me for what is it that he sees in me Is it any thing he likes that he looks upon Is it his approving eye that is upon me Is it a look of love or of kindness or is it that which he is offended at or disliketh Is there Jealousie is there Displeasure or Anger in that holy eye that is upon me is it a smiling look or a frowning and angry look that he casteth upon me Look on me I see he doth His Eye is never off me let me look upwards when I will I see that God looks downwards and his Eye is directly upon me and his Eye is a piercing Eye it pierceth to my very entrailes he beholds the very bottom of my heart I had need look carefully to mine own Soul when there is such an Eye upon it Night and Day Thus look upwards and set the Lord before your sight as the Psalmist did Psa 16.8 And then look inwards and set your hearts before your selves There is an Expression 2 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves which may be interpreted if they shall return into themselves the Eye of the Body can't see it self but the eye of the Soul may and must be chiefly upon its self You that are looking about this way and that way you had more need look homewards There are men that are of great acquaintance in the world but yet have no acquaintance with their own hearts VVhither their Souls be in safety or among Thieves VVhither their Hearts be clean or all bespotted and defiled whether they be healthful or sickly Souls whether they be alive or dead 't is more then they can tell where they be or in what case they are How is it with your Souls Friends How fares it with you in your inner Man VVho is there within with you Are there none but Friends Is Christ there Is the Spirit of Grace there Is there a good Conscience or are there not Robbers within Is not thine heart an houseful of Thieves Is not the world gotten in are not the pleasures of the Flesh within Is not the Devil within that unclean Spirit hath he not defiled and defaced the Image of God Is he not sowing his Tares in thee Is not thine heart a defiled diseased distemper'd heart Is it not a slight and frothy and vain heart Is it not a loose and licentious heart Is it not an untoward wayward listless heart Look inward Christians and look often inward and see what hearts you have and how 't is with them Psal 4.4 Commune with your own hearts Look into them and talk with them and take an Account how it fares with them If I should ask you how is it with your hearts are they alive or dead Are they clean Hearts holy Hearts tender Hearts heavenly Hearts lively and strong and working upwards Or are they hard Hearts polluted defiled hearts dull and slow and listless Hearts If I should ask you thus what account
could you give I doubt this is the account the most of you would give I cannot tell God knows how 't is with me for my part I know not how ' t is That Heart hath been well look't to mean while hast thou carried it like a wise man the while Thou hast great acquaintance in the world thou takest upon thee to know other mens hearts and wilt judge and censure them as thou listest what man and yet hast so little acquaintance with thy self Be thou thine own judge hast thou been a wise man the while to be such a stranger to thy self that thou dost not know thine own heart Thou wilt say the word tells me Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful and who can know it how then should I know it I answer 1. The more deceitful the Heart is and the harder 't is to know it the more it had need be looked into 2. Though it cannot be perfectly known yet there may be much of it known the heart of man is a great deep 't is true and though thou canst not easily see to the bottom of it yet if thou wilt but look down into the deep thou must see a great way 3. If thou canst not see thorow thine heart with thine own Eyes yet with Gods eyes thou mayest Take the help of the Eyes of the Lord and thou mayest understand even all that is in thine heart God that sees the Heart reveals the heart and he hath given thee such discoveries of thy very heart in his word he hath made the Scriptures such a Looking-glass for thee that if thou wouldst look into that more there thou mightest see thy self and all that is in thee Heb. 4.12 The word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart Christians if you would secure your hearts from danger know them and be acquainted more throughly with them if you would know your hearts better look oftner inward commune with your hearts go down dayly into your own Bosoms take an account of your selves question with your selves how fares it with my Soul is there any real saving Grace in me If there be how fares it with that Grace I have Does it thrive doth it flourish is it kept up in Life and Activity Doth my light shine doth my Love flame do my thoughts and my affections climb and are they working upwards how is it with my Conscience Is it kept pure Doth it speak peace Doth it deal faithfully Doth it check me doth it smite me for the least Evils Doth it comfort me when 't is better Have I a good Conscience Have I the Testimony of a good Conscience Doth my Conscience witness for me that I have been faithful that my Desire and my care and endeavour is and hath been in all things to approve my self to the Eye of God and to be sincere and upright before him O Beloved What a Mercy to us would it be if we would be perswaded to be much in such heart inspection and much in such heart communing The Devil would find the harder work to get in there 's no Disease or Distemper would then grow upon your hearts but it would be espyed in the beginning and so the more easily removed Friends let me prevail with you in this thing I beseech you in the name of the Lord set more upon this Heart-study Of all the business you have to do in the world there 's nothing more necessary nothing more advantageous and yet I doubt nothing more neglected Friends if you have been strangers at home be no longer strangers never say again I cannot tell how it is with my Soul study it til you can tell and study it diligently and you shall be able to tell The Lord will help you to understand your selves if you will but more diligently commune with your own Hearts will you be perswaded to it will you resolve upon it to make this a great piece of your every days work Never look for Soul prosperity never look for Soul security without a serious and frequent discharge of this great Duty You may hear all your days and pray for a better heart as long as you live and all in vain if you will not Watch as well as Pray O that the Lord would so strike home this word upon your hearts that you might feel this charge of the Lord sensibly abiding upon you to keep your Hearts by Heart-Acquaintance and Heart-watchfulness My Soul is exceedingly concern'd about the bringing you upon this Duty and I am in great doubt that the most of us are very deficient herein either neglecting it or but slightly or seldom being conversant in it Sure Friends our Tongues would be better employed our Speech would be with Grace seasoned with Salt we should have more savoury words coming from us we should commune one with another more about the concerns of our souls were there more faithful communing with our Hearts our whole conversations would savour more of it We should be more Spiritual and Heavenly more active for God more fruitful and abounding in every good work our work for our Souls would be carried on with more Life and with more Power we should live a more self-denying a more circumspect a more heedful and a more watchful Life were there a due watchfulness over our Hearts What shall I say more in this thing Be diligent be careful be diligent to know the state of your hearts If I should say with Solomon Prov. 27.23 Be diligent to know the state of thy Flocks and look well to thine Herds would you not hearken to me If I should say be diligent to look well to your Trades and to your Money would you not hearken to me in this if I should say be diligent to take care for your Healths and look well to your Bodies would not this Counsel be accepted by you How much more then should you hearken to me in this Be diligent to know the state of your Souls O Friends be diligent to know and be diligent to get your Souls into a good state and to secure them in it be diligent to know what 't is that hurts you and what 't is that hinders you and what it is that endangers your Souls and take heed of it and then be diligent to know what 't is that will help you and further you and advance you and stablish your Souls in peace and build them up in holiness that you may take those advantages and improve those helps that are before you Such watchfulness as this what an heart reviving what an heart flourishing what an heart rejoycing would follow upon it to your selves And what abundant Praise Glory and Honour would grow up to the Name of God and our Lord Jesus Christ Then should those Hearts of yours which are now too much Dens of Thieves Shops of Vanity Fountains of folly Nests of Lusts and Houses of Merchandize become the sacrifices of the Lord and the Temples of
the Living God and he would dwell in them and walk in them and say of them these are my rest here will I abide for ever 2. Keep all your powers up in armes Our Enemies will fight for our Heaâ—ts Sin the World and the Devil are like Absalom 2 Sam. 15.6 at first he used fair and flattering Speeches and complemented and kissed them that came nigh him saying O that I were made Judge in the Land his meaning was O that I were King what a King would I be to you So he stole the hearts of the Men of Israel Afterwards he takes up Armes and fights against those whose hearts he could not steal from David Our Spiritual Enemies deal a like by us at first they attempt to steal away our Hearts from God Sin smiles upon us and fawns upon us and promiseth what it will do for us O that you would hearken to me how happy should ye be if you will follow me It doth not pretend to be King but to be our Servant if you will love this world all that is in the world will be your Servants but if this will not do our Enemies will fight for us our Fleshly Lusts will war against our Souls to take them Captives 1 Pet. 2.11 and the World and the Devil will side with Lust The Devil will buffet the world will rage and bluster against those that will still continue the Servants of Christ Hereupon Christians are said to be Souldiers 2 Tim. 2.3 their state here is a warring and warfaring state they are to fight 1 Tim. 6.12 fight the good fight of Faith they are to wrestle Eph. 6.12 against flesh and bloud against principalities and powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses or wicked Spirits in high places Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth that is fighteth against the Spirit and the Spirit must lust or fight against the Flesh and all this fighting what is it for 't is for our hearts The Devil and the World are fighting and our Souls lie at stake He that overcometh there 's a Soul gained a Soul saved he that is overcome there 's a Soul lost When Men fight for their lives when this must be the issue kill or be killed how desperately do they fight we mannage our warfare against sin and the Devil as if there were no great matter lying upon it Men count not themselves any great loosers if they be overcome and hereupon 't is that we leave our selves so open to Temptations and stand as so many naked men against our Adversaries and entertain such Truces and Treaties with them and make such weak resistance against them as if our contention were about a Flea or a dead Dog Men do not consider that it is for their precious life the Devil and the World is fighting but that 's it that sin and this world would have of you they would have your hearts they fight for your Souls Now hereupon Christians must be alwayes up in Armes and stand to their Armes As the Devil rallies up Armies against us so the Lord provides us of Armour and requires us Eph. 6.13 to put on our Armour and to stand to our Armes Take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand We may neither stand unarmed nor put on our Armour to sleep in put on your Armour and stand in your Armour especially we must keep close about us these 6 pieces of Armour 1. The Shield of Faith v. 16. wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil The Devil is shooting his Darts at us and every Dart is levelled at the heart The Devils Darts are fiery Darts burn when they hit that will burn up all the good in the Soul Darts will stick and fiery Darts will burn When you see one Man burn in Lust there 's a Dart of the Devil that burns in his Heart when you see others flame in anger and fury there 's a fiery Dart of the Devils in his Heart his Tongue is set on fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 Think on this you that are apt to be thus set on fire the next time you are in such an heat that your hearts burn with fury and your Tongue spits fire in venting furious Language then think with your selves I feel my Soul in a flame the fire comes out at my Mouth Lord whence comes all this O I had need look to my self sure there is a fiery Dart from the Devil in mine Heart these angry hot and hasty words are no other but the smoak of that Fire which the Devil hath kindled within me Such a Thought as this might be as water to quench that Fire But if such a thought won't do it then take the Shield of Faith by which you may quench these Fires We are therefore exhorted 1. Pet. 5.9 to resist the Devil stedfast in the Faith Trust upon Christ for your help stand against the Devil as David against the Philistine 1 Sam. 17.45 thou comest against me with sword and Spear saies David but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts that is I come trusting in the Lord of Hosts This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand There 's his Faith and that 's his best Weapon Resist the Devil and trust in God fight against sin and trust in Christ for the victory Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah for in him is Everlasting strength 2. The helmet of hope which is called the helmet of Salvation ver 17. Rom. 8.24 Ye are saved by hope Hope will strengthen the heart and hold up the head Christians should withstand Temptations and assaults as men of hope whatever your Tempations are whatever buffetings of Satan you may be encountred with how furiously soever the world falls on threatning you thundring against you persecuting you for your faithfulness to Christ or fawning upon you or flattering you away from your integrity how thick soever the suggestions of your hearts lusts come upon you enticing you urging and pressing you Do not undo thy self by thy Religion do not ruine thy self by thy Conscience come about after this World save thy self from its rage and accept of its kindnesses how hard soever you may be thus tempted and set upon and how apt soever thy faint heart may be to fear and doubt thou shalt never be able to stand hold fast thine helmet hope in God who will be thy helper and deliverer Psal 43. ult Why art thou cast down O my Soul Hope in God Strive against sin but strive in hope resist Temptations but resist in hope withstand this evil world withstand its flatteries withstand its furies and withstand in hope Do not say as once David did 1 Sam. 27.1 I shall one day or other perish by the hand of Saul I shall one day or other fall by Temptation I shall never hold out
you ascend not by Ordinances if you get not up to have Communion with God in them this flesh and this world will be thrusting in upon you and steal your hearts away Christ hath been riding down to you this day as the chariots and horses of fire once were sent down for Elijah 2 Kin. 2.11 The Chariots came down to fetch up the Prophet in them the Ordinances of God that you have been at this day was the Chariot of God that was sent down on purpose that those hearts of yours might ride up in it into Glory I hope some of your hearts got up into the Chariot and are ascended with your Lord who came down to fetch them up What Christian is thine heart yet below where was it when the Chariot came down what are your Souls yet among the Sheep and the Oxen among the grass of the Field and the dust of the Earth what yet among the wormes what yet creeping upon this Earth and feeding upon Ashes do your Soules still dwell in these Tombs and Sepulchres I hope there may be some among you can say I thank the Lord mine heart is no longer here it is risen it is ascended with my Lord who came down for it and hath carried it up with him But man how is it with thee whose heart is left behind Christ hath been here and those that were wise took the Season and got up with him into the Chariot But is thine heart still upon this Earth and must it away again to its old trading to its old feeding on this dirt and trash hast thou been tasting of that Angels Food that hidden Manna the bread of God that came down from heaven and canst thou now return to thy Quailes or thy Husks sure thou hadst not a taste of that heavenly food if thou dost not yet disgust and disrelish thine old carnal Delights But are your hearts any of you yet left below behold yet a Chariot from God is before you this Ordinance of Preaching behold the same Jesus in this Chariot is come down again for those hearts that are not yet gotten up Thy Lord is loth to leave thee here wilt thou yet ascend with him Why is there not a cry among you Lord help me up into thy Chariot Lord take my Soul up with thee Lord let not me be left behind Let Christ hear that voice from you Lord take me up with thee here this poor wretched heart of mine lies at thy feet I can't lift it up 't is too heavy for me it hath weights but no wings yet it groans after thee it would not that thou shouldst go up without it Lord lift me up Lord carry up this poor and wretched heart from Earth to Heaven What must I yet dwell in Meseâ—◠〈…〉 mine heart amongst the tents of Kedar M◠〈…〉 amongst these Theives and Robbers O where 〈…〉 that hath brought thee down again for me 〈…〉 thou me O Lord and wilt thou yet leave me at 〈◊〉 â—â—stance from thee O take pity O take me up that I may from henceforth be with thee where thou art Christians O that I could set you even every one of you a crying thus after the Lord and a bemoaning these earthly and too carnal hearts that they are not yet ascended Let Christ yet hear that voice and let it come deep even from the bottom of thy Soul Let Christ hear not that mouth crying nor those eyes crying but that Soul crying Lord take me up also with thee and he will take thee up O get you into the Psalmists Posture and Spirit Psal 42.1 Psal 84.2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for thee my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God When Lord O let this be the day take me this very hour and carry me up to the mountains of spices Christians be but unfeignedly willing that Christ should carry away those hearts from this Earth be but in good earnest with him when you say Lord take me up and he will not leave you behind Get these hearts to heaven and keep them there Get you up from Earth to Heaven and come not down again from Heaven to Earth Let that blessedness be antedated which is promised to be after the Resurrection 1 Thes 4.17 Then shall we ever be with the Lord. Say to the Lord even from henceforth as he sayes to his Church Psal 132.14 Thou shalt be my rest here will I dwell for ever Let it not be a Visit to Heaven that will satisfie you but a Conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in heaven Let it not be a few heavenly hours or a short heavenly repast but an heavenly life that you design and follow after When you get you once thus near unto the Lord live as much as possible in the constant viewes of his Glory so continually beholding and feeding upon the foretastes and forethoughts of his Goodness and Grace that you may be changed daily from Glory to Glory into the same image Know friends that if there be any security in the world from the Robbers and the Spoilers from your Lusts and Temptations from suffering such losses again in your peace the only security you have is to keep your hearts still above Hast thou gotten thine heart to heaven keep thee where thou art keep you out of harmes way If the Devil can but catch those hearts again below catch you a roving catch you a wandring after your carnal things if he can but meet you declining from an heavenly to an earthly Conversation from a spiritual to a carnal Conversation O what sad spoiles of whatever good days you have had of whatever delights and satisfactions and joyes and comforts you have had what spoiles will he make of them all Christians when ever you can get or do feel your hearts in a better frame most full of the love and life and joy of the Lord O think what pity 't is what a sad fall it will be to make an exchange of this blessed state for the barren and brackish Pleasures of this world think with your selves shall I forsake the sweetness of the Fig-tree and the fulness of the Olive and go and browze upon brambles The design friends of all this is to perswade and invite you to live in constant Communion with God You have been received and entertained this day into special communion with God and the intent and meaning of this solemne communion is that by the sweetness and refreshing you find in it you may be set into a way of ordinary communion with him That your life may be a life of Communion with God a life of faith a life of love a life of Holiness and Joy that so you might prophesie to your selves with the Psalmist Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Brethren do you in good earnest desire to get you up to such a life as this do you heartily wish it might be thus with you have you any hope that you shall obtain and will you follow after it will you go hence as men and women designing any such thing shall we that have been with the Lord together this day now agree together in the Name of the Lord to be reaching forward with one heart and with one soul towards such an heavenly life shall we help one another and quicken one another and set examples one to another of such spirituality and heavenliness what do ye think would be the fruit of our appearance before the Lord this day might we return to our houses with our hearts full of such holy Resolutions with our hearts flaming in such holy desires Oh be impatient of thinking to return again to your old carnal and sensual and worldly frames to your cold and indifferent and lukewarm and lifeless way of Religion Let not the Devil catch you again wandring or carelesly jogging on at your wonted rate if he do look for it that whatsoever of the Divine Life or Love of the Divine Hope or joy hath been kindled in you this day you will be quickly spoiled and robbed of it all and those poor and weakly hearts will fall into a worse condition then before If you would keep any thing about you that might comfort you if you would secure your Souls from being rifled of all that you have received if you would not return to be dark and dead and barren Souls then remember this Counsel you have received from the Lord to whom my Prayer is for you which was Davids for Israel 1 Chron. 29.18 O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of this people and prepare their heart unto thee Keep these thoughts fresh upon your hearts and you shall thereby keep your hearts after the Lord hath spoken Grace unto you from returning again to folly Lastly Commit the keeping of your hearts to the keeper of Israel Commit them to God Psal 127.1 Except the Lord keep the City the watchmen waketh but in vain The keeping of the heart is a greater trust than the keeping of a City and therefore had need be put into safe hands G d is able to keep it 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him unto that day God is able and God is faithful faithful is he that hath called you and will do it But it may be you will say O I shall never be able to keep mine heart in heaven keep up the love and life and joy of God in my Soul keep my self pure keep me close to God that the Devil never catch me wandring abroad Why I see he may catch me every hour mine heart is given to wandring and I cannot hold it in It would be an ease and a joy and a great delight to me could I get to be raised to such a pitch to be all spiritual and heavenly and there to fix and be ever with the Lord. O what a joy it would be to me had I but hope I might get to such a pitch but wo is me I shall never be able Why do your duty and for such a comfortable success let that care lie on the Lord. Commit it to him both to help you into such a frame and to keep you in it he hath said he will not fail you He hath sealed to you this day that he will help you that he will keep you trust upon him and he will do it But what is it to commit the keeping of our hearts to the Lord 1. To give them to the Lord. God will keep nothing but what is his own Wilt thou give thine heart to the Devil and then commit it to God to keep it for him give your hearts to the Lord give them to him for his Servants and then commit them to his Custody 2. To trust him with the keeping of them Psal 143.9 Deliver me O God from mine enemies for I flee unto thee to hide me I have many enemies that lie in wait for my Soul I dare not trust to my self for security God is my trust and my refuge I flee unto thee to hide me I will trust under the shadow of thy wings Psal 36.7 Therefore brethren my Exhortation to you shall be the same with Peters Exhortation to suffering Christians 1 Pet. 4.19 Commit the keeping of your Souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful creatour Observe it commit but in well doing Do not neglect your duty and think to make it up with this I have committed the care of my self to God I say do not neglect your hearts be not idle and careless of your own duty do not leave your selves open to the Usurpation of lust or the invasion of the Devil do not suffer your hearts to lead you on in your carnal ways leave not that heart of thine to be a blind house a dark hole and filthy Dungeon full of Abominations and then think to make up the matter with this to say I have committed it to the Lord to wash it and cleanse it and keep it I trust God with my Soul he I hope will preserve it commit the keeping of your Souls in well doing do your duty keep your hearts under Government keep them under Guard be washing your hearts daily be watching your hearts daily though God be also yet you are every one your own keepers do your part to keep that which God hath committed to you and then fear not but God will do his part he will keep whatever you have committed to him And thus I have at length run through this great duty of keeping the heart The Lord knows how great need there is of every word that hath been spoken O that none of it might be lost Our poor hearts God knows have hitherto found us but poor heart-keepers The case they are in is Evidence sufficient to prove how sadly they have been look'd to Some of them continuing in a lost state to this day others of them but half recovered others relapsed and fallen back from what they were once hopefully recovered to none of our hearts but have often been among Thieves where we have suffered great loss and how many have been the heart distempers and diseases we have fallen into O what slight what licentious what listless dull and lazy Souls have we been sure these hearts have found us but bad keepers O what shall be the success of these many words that have been spoken what say you Christians is there any hope that your hearts shall be better look'd to for the future what say you will you now be faithful will you keep this charge of the Lord keep this heart with all diligence who is there among you that will say I confess my faults and my great neglects this day I confess I have been careless the sad frame mine heart is in is a witness against me but through the Grace of God I will look better to my self and hope I shall not forget this word as long as I live I hope I shall leave medling with other mens matters and leave censuring of other mens ways and from henceforth keep mine eye more close and constant upon mine own Soul This do be more faithful in keeping your selves and then you may be bold to commit your selves to the Lord as unto a faithful Creator What hath been my design and desire in this whole work But 1. To prepare your hearts for the Lord that he may accept them 2. To bring them over to the Lord that they may become his own 3. To keep them for the Lord to keep them pure that he may take pleasure in them O let this be done and then you may commit them to the Lord to keep them safe Will you be perswaded will you be prevail'd upon thus to prepare and bring over your hearts to the Lord thus to preserve and keep them pure and faithful to him and so trust to his faithfulness Might I prevail with you in this I had done my work and having put you thus into safe custody should there be bold to leave you in this Confidence that you should be thenceforth all kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto Salvation FINIS
heart broken and nothing but the bloud of Christ the lamb will ever melt this hardness or wash me from this uncleanness This will do it and therefore here I am come before the throne of thy grace and here I will stand and look and beg and hope till thou hear and answer me Help Lord for in thee I trust and look for thy salvation only 2. His word The word of God as it is food for souls so it is medicine or physick for souls And it hath in it a remedy for every disease 1. It is an awakening word to sleepy souls On these it thunders that it may awaken them Ministers must be as Barnabas sons of consolation so also as Boanerges sons of thunder And all their thunder bolts they are to have out of the word of God O how many trumpets have been sounded in your ears how many thunder claps have you heard how many thundring Sermons hast thou heard in thy time What and yet art thou asleep still Man what is that heart of thine made of What a dead sleep art thou in that art not yet awakened This world is all asleep asleep in their sins and therefore the Ministers of the word are to do as the Prophet was to do Is. 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift thy voice like a trumpet and tell my people of their sins Our first work is to call unto them as the mariners to Jonah Arise sleeper carest thou not that you perish Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead This thunder is the voice of the Lord. Psal 29.6 c. The God of glory thundereth the voice of the Lord is powerful the voice of the Lord is full of majestie it breaketh Cedars it maketh the wilderness shake This word of the Lord which is his voice is a thundring voice It breaketh the Cedars the tall and mighty sinners and it shakes the wilderness shakes up those Beasts of the earth out of sleep This sleepy evil is the disease of sinners and it binds them up under a senselessness of all their other diseases till the voice of the Lord doth shake them up out of sleep 2. It is an enlightning word that giveth sight to the blind In this word is that eye salve Rev. 1.18 Wherewith sinners eyes are to be anointed that they may see This eye salve are the instructions of God 3. It is for the breaking and mollifying hard hearts In the word is revealed 1. The righteousness and severity of God Herein is the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 And thus it is Gods Hammer whereby he breaks the rocks and Gods Axe Whereby he hews the blocks in pieces 2. The goodness and kindness of God And thus it is Gods oyl whereby he supples and dissolves and melts them into a plyableness to his will 4. It is for the changing the tempers and inward dispositions of sinners It is a transforming word we are changed into the same image 2. Cor. 3.18 a sanctifying word Joh. 17.17 Sanctify them by thy truth thy word is truth This is one of Christs medicines and this medicine is to be taken But what is it to take this medicine Why it is to hear the awakening word and to suffer it to work upon you to be awakened by it to receive the instructions of the word and so to be enlightned by it to be broken and mollified to be transformed and changed by it Now this is that which I exhort you to if you would recover let the word of God come let it have a free passage into your hearts and let it do its work upon you Be awakened when you hear an awakening word let it shake you up out of your sleep Awake sinners awake you that sleep hear the voice of the Lord and rouze you up out of that secure and sensless state Where is it that thou sleepest At the very mouth of the Lions Den on the top of a Mast I have heard of a drunken man riding in the night on full speed he knew not whither rode to the top of St. Vincents Rocks near Bristol and the horse and man tumbled down the horse was crushed in pieces the man caught by the boughs of a Tree and there fell asleep till morning It was a strange place to sleep in none but a drunken man could have ever slept in such a place In such a desperate sleep art thou as upon the brow of a Rock on the bough of a Tree whence thou art every moment in danger of dropping down into the deep Sleeping sinners this is the case of every one of you it is a wonder you have not broken your necks that you have not fallen into the deep before this day and yet here thou art asleep still Awake you that sleep and understand the danger you are in 2. Get those blind eyes of yours to be opened and receive the instructions of the Word Here we bring you eye-salve be anointed with it that you may see 3. Get those hard hearts to be broken and melted Gods hammer is lifted up lay that stony that hard heart of thine under it that it may be broken Gods Ax is a hewing come bring that knotty piece under it that it may be cut cloven asunder Consider the severity and kindness of God his severity if thou still continue in thine hardness if his Hammer do not break thee his Mill-stones his wrath and indignation will shortly grind thee to powder Consider his severity and consider his goodness and kindness what a wonder is it that after thou hast so long abused the goodness of God and hardned thy self against mercy that mercy should not have given thee off and let thee alone to perish without remedy It is a mercy of God that he is yet preaching to thee of his severity it is the mercy of God that he is yet hammering and hewing at that hard heart of thine God is so good and so kind to thee that he hath sent his Word once more to trie if any good may be done upon thee he is loth thou shouldst perish he would fain thou shouldst recover and live he hath pity upon thee he hath compassion upon that wretched soul of thine and thence is it that he continues to be dealing with thee for thy recovery O wonder wonder that such mercy should not melt thee that such goodness and kindness should not wound thee to the soul that thou shouldst abuse such strange grace that thou should yet resist and stand it out against such a God of compassion Wonder at thy self and be ashamed wonder and be confounded and blush and weep and fall down now at last and yield unto God What art thou hardned still a stone or a stock still Wilt thou go away as far from remorse as far from repentance as thou camest hither God forbid man God forbid that yet thou shouldst provoke the Lord farther against thee Thou hast