Object will decoy thee into a natural suitable Expression of thy self and as our Lord speaks in Rev. 2. 23. All the Churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the Heart Expect also that the great God will have a Bar for your Detection in another world T is confessed by all Christians as in 2. Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ. O that we could every one of us now seriously place our selves before the Iudgment seat of God! Remember O immortal souls that you must all very shortly appear before a Iudge who hath Eyes like a flame of fire and you must then be exposed in the full view of Heaven Earth Remember that you shall then have no Vizard no Disguise to cover you but all men and Angels must hear truly what you are It was the warning in Eccl. 11. 9. know thou that God will bring thee to Iudgment Even so Know thou that thou canst not avoid the day when God shall bring every worke into Iudgement with every secret thing Know thou that when the dead small and great stand before God then thou shalt stand among ' em Know thou that tho' thou shouldst then shriek O Rocks hide me or O Mountains-defend me the the Rocks and the Mountains would be deaf unto that lamentable cry Holy Ierom could say Wherever I am or whatever I do Methinks I hear the Alarums of the last Trumpet Arise ye dead come to Iudgement O that you would often Reflect upon the Day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ. Counsil 2. Cry mightily to God that He would give you the Gold which will endure all Tryals whatsoever Our Lord saith unto us in Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire That Gold is Grace let us buy that is let us beg it of Him. Let us make that our servent our frequent Prayer in Psal. 119. 80. Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I may not be ashamed Be careful and prayerful that you may be New Creatures and have the Root of the matter in your souls Be careful and prayerful That you may have Oyl in your vessels Be careful and prayerful That you may have in you the well of water which springs up into everlasting life Let your prayers be restless till you find that you are indeed Born again indeed Converted indeed Sanctified As for the Grace of God my son seek it as silver for indeed the Gain of it is better than fine gold Counsel 3. Often bring your selves to the Tryals of a Self-Examination T is the Charge of God in 2. Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves Your souls are as Vessels then Pierce them to see what they have Your souls are as Metals then Touch them to see what they are Such are the Allusions of the Holy Spirit there Know thy self was a golden Rule of Old and it will make a golden Saint when we make much use of that Rule Try thy self We are to use the Word of God as a Glass in which we are to behold our selves and we are often to compare our selves with what is therein required of us When we are in a Meditation as we should every day be upon some Truths of God we should then examine ourselves Whether we are moulded according thereunto And when we are under a Visitation as we sometimes are by the Rods of God we should then Examine our selves as they that of Old said Let us now search and try our wayes Especially when we are approching to the Table of the Lord Self-Examination is not then to be omitted So hath the Apostle urged in 1. Cor. 11. 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. T is a fearful Impiety and Presumption for a man to sit down at the Holy Supper without enquiring Have I a Wedding garment on or no Yea t is convenient for a man every Evening before he sleeps to examine himself and ask If I dy this night is my immortal spirit safe O tremble exceedingly least your doom should be that in Jer. 2. 37. The Lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them Therefore be much in Examining your selves Examine Whether you have true REPENTANCE Wherefore Try whether you are at so much pains for no Outward and Earthly thing as you are for the mortification of every lust And Try whether Afflictions themselves are welcome to you when you see you sins thereby embittered and subdued Examine Whether you have true FAITH Wherefore Try whether your Souls are extremely affected with the blessed Fulness Glory which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Try whether your hearts most affectionately close with the Gospel-way of Salvation by Jesus Châ—ist so as cheerfully to venture the Lives of your souls upon it Examine Whether you have true LOVE Wherefore Try whether any thing that has a Tendency to promote the Honour of God be readily embraced by you as a thing more desirable than all the Riches in the world And Try whether you count no Service too much to be done for the People of the Saints of the Most High. Put the Question to your selves and let the Preface of your Answer be that Request in Psal 139. 23. Search me O God and try me and help me to know my self To be much in such Self-Examination is the way to be a Golden Christian and indeed none but such an one will have a Value for the Exercise II. Let us also approve ourselves as gold under the Dispensations of the Blessed GOD. Particularly First Let them that are in Prosperity behave themselves well under the Tryals of the Lord. It may be that you are come to have store of Gold O that you may Be like what you Have T is possible that you have been in much Distress and Sorrow But God has brought you forth as t is said He brought Israel out of Egypt in Ps 105. 37. He brought them forth with Gold. Consider That God is now Trying of your Faithfulness No doubt you have sometimes promised the God of Heaven That if you might have such a measure of Health and Strength or That if you might have such a Degree of Estate and Honour you would glorify God with a wonderful Activity Well saith our God I 'll try God is trying whether you will be true to those Professions and Engagements which you made before He so smil'd upon you God is trying whether you will not Confirm that Observation in Jer. 17. 9. The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Consider moreover That God is now trying of your Thankfulness A very terrible Wrath is denounced against them in Deut. 28. 47. Who serve not God for the abundance of all things God gives you an Abundance of all things and it is to try
of the Mediator to be sufficient for me It would hurt no Godly man to set his Name with Hand and Heart to such an Instrument afterwards frequently Reflecting on it frequently Renewing of it However let every man this Day make this Confession in Psal. 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant The Third Rule And now demean your selves in all things as the Servants of God ought to do There is a Four-sold Concernment that will now lye upon you First Be studious to know what Service God calleth for Ly at His Feet and say as Paul of old Lord What wouldest thou have me to do or like Samuel once Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Be daily Reading of the Word be daily Thinking on the Word upon every opportunity say I will hear what God the Lord will say To all add That as your daily Petition unto God in Psal. 119. 115. I am thy servant O Lord give me understandeng that I may know thy testimonies Secondly Be ready to Do what Service God calleth for Never object never cavil against any of Gods Commands never dispute any thing that He requires but own 'T is all holy and just and Good. Be not more undutiful unto God than the servants of the Centurion were to him If He say Go then go if He say Come then come if He say Do this then do it without any Grumbling at it Say not I won't altho there be Hard Sayings pressed upon thee Albeit God may enjoin this Pluck out thy right eye cut off thy right hand and albeit the Injunction of God may be Take up thy Cross yet Comply yet Conform without any Reluctancies and say with him in Psal. 119. 128. O Lord I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right Thirdly Be greatly Contriving how to be most serviceable unto God. Ponder well What you are What you have What you can and Ponder how all may be improved in the Service of the Lord. Thus be Zealous of good Works Never be satisfied unless you can say I am at work for God. Let even your Eating your I â—â—ding your Visiting be done as a Service for the Lord and let your Time your Strength your Estates all the Powers of your Spirits and all the Members of your bodies be ingeniously laâ—â— out in that Service Often ask your own souls What is there that I may do for God Even court and hunt Advantages to be serviceable Say like the Prophet in Isa 6. 8. Say Lord if 〈◊〉 hast any Service to be done here I 〈…〉 me Fourthly Be sweetly Contented with all the Allowances of the Lord. Iohn Bapiâ—st gave this Counsel to the servants in the Roman Gaâ—â—sons Luc. 3. 14. Be content with your Wages The Servants in God's Houshold haâ—e the same Counsel in Heb 13 5 Be content 〈…〉 as you have Tho you should have but â—hort Commons and straw lodgings in the world tho you should be without many Flesh â—â—leasing Curiosities and Conveniencies let this quiet you I am a Servant Don't complain of the Lord as the slothful and wicked servant once He is 〈◊〉 hard Master Let your Wills be moulded and melted into His and cheerfully leave Him to judge What may be Food convenient for you Count that you have enough when God saies you shall have no more and alwaies have a good Opinion of Gods Disposals Learn Pauls Lesson In whatever state to be content It is not for Beggars nor Servants to be Choosers This This t is to be a Servant of the Lord. Blessed is the servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing SECT VIII BUt This is not all that we have to do We have Houses too that we ought to be concerned for Wherefore The Second Exhortation is Let us also study to Engage OUR HOUSES in the Service of God. It is the property of every Good man to desire Company in the Service of the Lord. O that we might have the Company of all that belong to our Houses in it But What shall we do In short Would we truly say with Ioshua My House shall serve the Lord We must then Do like Iesus Iesus the blessed Name-sake and Antitype of Ioshuah hath a Three-fold Offfice that of a Priest a Prophet and a King. In His lesser Family of Disciples once in His greater Family of Believers alwaies we find Him so Every Householder should be all of this in his own Family Each man pretends to he a King in his own house he should there be a Priest and a Prophet too There are Three great Cares lying upon us in our Families there is Family Prayer and Family Instruction and Family Government T is by the Discharge of these three things that we engage our Houses to serve the Lord. Family-PRAYER SECT IX FIrst then Let Family-Prayer be maintained in our Houses that they may serve the Lord. My Neighbours I have told you often and I now tell you weeping That it will be a sad thing if so much as one Prayerless-Family be found among you all The owners of that House will never be able to stand or live in the fiery day of of God's pleading with him You have been Warned and Warned full many a time that if your Houses be not Warmed with your Prayers the fierce Wrath of God abideth on them and I hope none of you will venture to meet me at the Bar of the Lord Jesus with the fearful heavy guilt of this Omission upon your souls The very Turks themselves at this day uphold a Family-Worship among themselves God forbid that any styled Christians here should be worse than they SECT X. THe Method in which I shall treat with you here about shall be I. To offer some Directions about Family-Prayer The First Rule Let all Persons that should attend Family-prayer count themselves concernd to Pray without â—easing Eveâ—y Master of an House is to carry on the Prâ—yer in it That man is not fit to have aâ— Hâ—use that cannot make a Prayer But if the Maâ—ter be absent Then the Mistress is to see â—till that Prayer be not wanting It seems affiâ—med of Eâ—ther a Woman in Cap. 4. 16. That she Pray'd with her Maidens There should not be one Prayer the less in a Family because 〈◊〉 is become the Ruler there No the Lâ—sses of a Family should increase the Prayers of it And let the Master of a Ship remember That the Sailers are his Family He should pray with them aboard every day while they are at Sea together You that see the Wonders of God together should together sing the Praises of God and together beg the Mercies of God. Methinks the poor Sea-men should be the best 〈◊〉 in the world With what face can you pray in a Storm if you do not also pray in a Câ—lm Now Master t is your Work t is part of your Order from your great Ownâ—r to see that this â—e done 〈◊〉 all Mariners call upon
and give your Hoary Head to be found in the way of Righteousness May You have before you the Exemple of that Nehemiah who was A man come to seek the welfare of the Children of Israel of that Cornelius who was A Devout man that jeared God with all his House and pray'd to God alwayes of that Treasurer who made the Bible his perpetual Companion and Beleeved with all his Heart and as You have Opportunity Do Good unto all men May the Death I dare not say the Loss of your Ten Children the last of which going from you made a Tenth Wave in your Tryals only promote your Vnion Communion with Him who is Better than Ten sons and may you enjoy in the House of God a Place and a Name better than that of sons daughters May all the Storms besides those which the Adventures of your younger years upon the Atlantic Ocean made you betimes acquainte withal in an unstable a tempestuous World prove so many fresh fair Gales to be friend your late but sure Arrival unto the Rest which remains for the people of God Wherein the Anchor of your Hope is already Cast and where to You are with the more-than-half Furled Sails of Time hastening apace after him that said I desire to loose Anchor and be with Christ which is by far the best of all T is by these Prayers that I would approve my self Sir Your Dutiful Son and very humble Servant COTTON MATHER THE GOOD MANS RESOLUTION Josh. 24. 15. But as for MEE and MY HOVSE we will serve the Lord. SECT I. NEVER was there in this world a People more obliged or encouraged unto the Service of the Great God than we the New-English Israel are The God of Heaven is Our God and it becomes us to Fear Him our Fathers God and how much ought we to worship Him To serve God was the very Errand which we were brought into this Wilderness upon and has hitherto been both our Glo-Glory our Defence That we now grow so dull and cold in this we may write an Ichabod upon all our enjoyments and therein see our Chariots and our Horse-men gone To Revive the Decay'd Service of God among us would be to reduce us into that Favour and Friendship of him who was The Hope of our Fathers which would make us happy enough to refute all the Lies of our Enemies Thus would God the Lord speak peace unto us Thus would Salvation be nigh to us and Glory dwell in our Land. SECT II. TO do some and gain more Service for our God the Text now before us is to be Discoursed on These words are among the last words of Ioshuah the servant of the Lord they are a Devâ—ut and a Divine sentence uttered by the renouned Ioshua in a Speech to The Parliament of Israel The Dying Words of all Great and Good men have usually been esteemed Remarkable by the Survivers and those books which contain Apoâ—â—thegmata morientium have been reckoned perhaps among the most useful in the world Tho the Dying Songs of Swans have not been such things as the Vulgar Error has reputed them yet the Dying Words of Saints have afforded a fit Moral for the Fable The speech of a Dying Saint has as deep a favour of Heaven as the Breath of a dying man has of Earth But mâ—thinks the Dying Words of a Ioshua should be peculiar Oracles peruse them and you will find them so He had been first the Lord-General of Israels Army and was now the Lord Protector of Israels Common-Wealth In this Capacity a few months before he dy'd he issued our orders for a Convention of States to meet at Shâ—chem a place about forty miles from his own Abode The Senate the Iudges the Officers and all the Representaâ—tives of the people being assembled before the Tabernacle which on this extraordinary occasion was removed hither this famous Prince endeavours to settle confirm them in the Service of the living God. It is likely he seared a secret Retaining of Idolatry among many while he was yet alive but it is certain he fore-saw an open Defection to Idâ—â—atry hastening upon them when he should be dead and gone Wherefore he laies in against it by a most powerful and pathetic Speech which has in it First An History of Memorable Providences wherein they had experienced the matchless kindness of God unto them Secondly An Inference from this History which is expressed in two things First A Counsil He concludes Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him. Therefore Wherefore Why inasmuch as you find the Lord so bountifâ—l that you cannot possibly Aâ—mend your selves if you leave Him or excuse your selves if you grieve Him. Therefore are you to fear Him serve Him. Every Mercy of God hath a Therefore in it it calls for Gratitude and Obedience When God has been merciful to us even common Ingenuity end much more holy Ingenuity will put us upon that Enquiry What shall I render to the Lord Behold an Answer in this Therefore We are Therefore to fear the Lord and serve him we are Therefore to put away all our Idols all our Follies for ever more Secondly A Copy He gives them a Precedent an Exemple to induce them hereunto The Pattern of a considerable person has no inconsiderable Influence upon the Observers of it Such an one does good or ill even like a Briareus with an Hundred Hands An Hundred an Hundred more will do like Him. If he be wickked he does according to the Language of Solomon Speak with his Feet If he be Godly he is according to the Character of Iohn a Voice Such an One most effectually bespeaks all about him as Gideon did once Do what you see me to do Thus Ioshua enforces his farewel Exhortation here saith he Be it known to you that I and my house will serve the Lord I was once your Leader pray let me be so still As I leadd you into the Canaan of the Lord let me have so much credit with you as also to lead you unto the Service of the Lord. Be assured I shall be a Witness against you another day if you do not now receive me as a Copy for you You have here Ioshua's Resolution and it was founded upon such moral Reasons that we may take it as Written for the Admonition of us all Wherefore this is the Doctrine which I would demand your Attention to DOCT. Every man should engage both HIMSELF and HIS HOUSE in the Service of the Almighty GOD. SECT III. VVE have diverse Propositions now before us to discourse upon The First of them is this PROP. I. The whole Duty of man is contained in the true Service of God. Both in the First Covenant and in the New Covenant which God has made with man there is a Duty which man must pay to God. In the First Covenant this Duty was to be paid in a way of meritorious Obedience in the New Covenant this Duty is
to be paid in a way of ingenuous Gratitude But the Service of God this ever comprizes all our Duty in it It is the same that the Wise man refers unto in Eccl. 12. 13. Fear God and keep His commandmens for this is the whole duty of man. There are diverse comprehensive and synonymous Terms by which our Duty to God is expressed in the Scripture of Truth Our Duty is called A Serving of God as it refers to the Acts of our lives in which but it s also called A Fearing of God and A Loving of God as it refers to the Frames of our hearts with which we are to do it It is called A Knowing of God as it refers to the principle of it it is likewise a Living to Him and Walking with Him on the same accounts that it is a Serving of Him. The Service of God notes two things which are to accompany our whole Duty to him It notes first the Homage therein done to our God. The Service of God is His Worship Hâ—s natural Worship and His appointed Worship Hence the Septuagint so translate our Text I and my house will worship the Lord. We serve God when we render to him his Natural Worship So t is intimated in Deut. 10. 12. Fear the Lord thy God walk in His waies love him serve the Lord thy God with all thy Heart When we hope in God when we call on God when we cleave to God then we serve Him. And we serve God when we render to Him his appointed Worship This was intended in Exod. 8. 1. Let my people go that they may serve me We serve Him when we observe the Ordinances of God when we adore him according to the Rules of His Word in His House and wait upon him in the use of his blessed and sacred Institutions It Secondly notes the Honour therein brought to our God. Service is perform'd to God when Glory is procur'd for Him. His Essential Glory we can by no means advance we may His declarative and therein we serve the Lord. T is a passage in Isa. 43. 10. Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord and my servant Our Testimonies to God's Excellencies are the things by which we serve Him. We serve God when we acknowledge Him as our Best Good and our last End and our Omnipresent Iudge We serve him when we think and speak well of him our selves and obtain many others to do so too A Witness for God is a Service to him SECT IV. THis being thus explained I pass on to a Second Proposition PROP. II. Every man should engage HIMSELF in the Service of the Almighty God. The purpose and study of every man should be this I will serve the Lord. We should all be able truly to say of God as in Act. 27. 23. His I am and Him I serve A Servant of God this was the Title not of Ioshua alone but of other Worthies too when Abraham is mentioned it is Abraham the Servant of the Lord. When Moses is mentioned it is Moses the Servant of the Lord. When God speaks of Iob he says Iob my Servant Thus was Ionah thus was Eliâ—jah thus was Zerubbabel also styled And it is a style which Wee too should be ambitious of If we would not be miserable for ever we must be the mystical the Spiritual seed of Israel but such are so saluted in 1 Chron. 16. 13. O ye seed of Israel his Servant As our Fathers Friend so our Fathers Lord we must not forsake We must all be the Servants of God as our Father before us was And this especially for the three ensuing causes REASON I. We are to serve God because God hath Madâ— us The Argument with which Paul perswaded Philemâ—n to receive a Run-away Servant of his own was that in Phil. 1. 19. Thou owest unto me even thine own self By that Argument should each one of us be perswaded to become a Dutiful Servant of the Lord We owe unto him even our own selves Man 〈◊〉 most fit thing that thy Maker should be thy Master There are two Questions which I hope every Child within these Walls can give some right Answer to The Answer to them will render it unquestionable That you and I are to Serve God for ever One Question is By whom were you made We have an Answer to this in Psal. â—00 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God and it is He that has made us and not we our selves Thus 〈◊〉 the Psalmist once argue O come let us worship before the Lord our maker Why If he be our Maker He is to be the Object of our Service And this the rather because of another Question which is For What were you made We have an Answer to this in Isa. 43. 21. This people have I formed for my Self they shall shew forth my praise When we praise God we serve God. Why This is the very business which we were sent into the world upon We had never appeared in the Rank of Actual Beings if God had not propounded some Service to be done unto Himself by creatures of our shape and mould We are Created by God and Endowed by him What could it be for but this That God may have some service from us T is said in Act 17. 28. In him we live and move and have our being Most absurd shall we be if it be not for Him too REASON II. We are to serve God because Christ has Bought us Indeed the Arminian universal Redemption we reject with a just abhorrence The Satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer was not Intended by Him for the Redemption of all mankind nor was it Intended any further than his Intercession is which reaches only to the Elect of God. The Virtue and Success of our Lords death depends not wholly on something to be done by men which God is not the Doer of otherwise men would themselves be the Principals in procuring their own Salvation But one scope of our Lord's Death was even to purchase for us that Grace that Faith that Free-Will which may qualifie us to enjoy the Virtue and Success of it Certainly Peter was more beholden unto the Merit of Christ for his Redemption than Iudas was for his Yet the Purchase of Christ wonderfully binds us all to the Service of God. For First the Redemption of Christ has made our Serving of God a possible thing Had it not been for this poor fallen undone man had never been in a Capacity to serve the Lord. We had never heard this Call from heaven O Repent Return Reform this voice from on high O set your selves now to the serving of that God whom you have been sinning against it had never sounded in our Ears if the Lord Jesus had not made Himself a Sacrifice We must have continued the Slaves of the devil for ever if the Stings of the Dragon had not fastned on the Lord. The Lord Jesus has bought us all into such a Condition that the Proffers and
the Tenders of the Gospel might be made unto us We are told of some in 2. Pet. 2. 1. Who Deny the Lord that bought them Ovile Sacriledge and Impiety That we might all have the priviledge of 〈◊〉 Invitation to the Service of God this has cost no less than the Heart-bloud of Christ and what a monstrous villany were it for us now to despise the Invitation Again The Redemption of Christ has made our Serving of God a Reasonable thing We are all among the Redeemed either in Reality or at least in Possession all the Chosen and Called of God are most really interested in the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and therefore for them to decline the Service of God were as unequal as it is unlikely But every one of us is at least professedly interested in it Man art thou willing to quit all claim unto the Death and Blood of the Lord Jesus O No not for ten thousand worlds Every one saies I hope I am Redeemed Well then The Service of God is that which we must count our selves Redeem'd unto What saies the Appostle in 1. Cor. 6. 20 Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God. We that have been the Captives of the mighty and the prey of the terrible apprehend our selves to be set at Liberty from their horrible Tyrannies by the Suffering of Christ What less than the Service of God are we thereby obliged unto In a word We are the Bought servants of God and wo to us if our Behaviours be not agreeab to our Obligations REASON III. The Lords daily Mercy to us requires our hearty Service to Him. It is noted of the rudest among the Gentiles in Luâ— 22. 25. Their Benefactors exercise a Lordship over them Never Never had we any Benefactor like to our God who daily loads us with his Benefits Unthankful wretches are we if we shake off the Lordship of such a Lord. It was an Address once made to a Governour in Act. 24. 2. By thee we enjoy great quietness and very worthy deeds are done unto us by thy providence It were a disloyal an unworthy thing not to serve such a Governour Truly From God we enjoy great quietness by the Providence of God we are delivered from a Thousand perils every day and we are surrounded with ten thousand Comforts Every day by the Providence of God we are directed protected sustained and supplyed every day This calls for the Service of God at our hands T is said in Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto Him. What a persuasive piece of Oratory is that I beseech you by the Mercies of God. He that urges you to the Service of God may thus plead with you I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that God may not have one Servant in the world the less for you I beseech you Brethâ—â—â— that when the Goodness and mercy of God is following of you you do not turn your backs on the Service of God. To pursue this Argument I beseech you Brethren Whose Light is it whereby you are every day revived It is God's Whose Air is it whereby you are every day refreshed It is God's Whose Fire is it that warms you Whose Meat is it that feeds you Whose Raiment is it that covers you All is God's O then Serve Him. These are the Cords of a man with which we are bound to the Service of our Lord. This is the Poesie which God has inscribed in the Ring of every mercy O learn to serve the Giver of this It was a sad Complaint which the Lord made in Isa. 1. 2. I have nourished them and brought them up yet have they rebelled against me Alas what a YET is there Our God has been as a Father to us and yet shall not we Serve Him as our Master He Relieves us He Supports us He Bestowes on us the mercies of Children and shall not we yet return so so much as the Respects of Servants unto Him The Heavens will hear and be amazed the Earth will give â—ar and be astonished at a thing so much exceeding Brutality it self as this SECT V. BUt we are not to be Alone in the Service of God Man is a sociable Creature as he does need so he must help Humane Society in this Grand concern Wherefore we have a Third Proposition yet to be reflected on PROP. III. Every man should engage HIS HOUSE also in the Service of the Almighty God. We are all related unto some House or other Sometimes a Nation is called by that name So t is said in Exek 3. 1. Speak to the House of Israel And thus every man should labour to promote the Service of God in the Nation which he belongs unto All that can be properly done by him for his Nation in his Station to set up and bring in the Service of God so much every man is to do if ever he would give a good Account of his Talents in the Day of God's appearing But most usually a Family is called by this Name and so it is in the Text now before us T is a Metonymie the House is put for them who dwell in the house Those who cohabit in the same house are to endeavour that the same God may be served by all under the Roof And this is incumbent especially on the Superiors in the House All that are About us but cheefly all that are Vnder us are by us to be drawn or driven to the Service of God. The Master of the Family is to see unto it that every one under his Charge become the Servant of the Lord. And this because of such things as these REASON I. We should engage our Houses to the Service of God out of Respect to God Himself To the Householder it may well be said For Godâ—s sake look after thy House For God's sake Let there be Godâ— Service 〈…〉 To speak particularly First The Commandment of God calls for it We have this Commandment often repeated unto us That we should be careful about the Instruction and Conversion of them that we are charged with T is a Commandment incâ—lcated in the Old Testament We have in Deut. 6. 6 7. The words which I command thee thâ—u shalt diligently teach them unto thy Children We have it again in Psal. 78. 67. He commanded our fathers that they should make known unto their Children that these might set their hope in God and keep his Commandments We have it once more in Deut. 4. 9 10. Gather the people that they may learn to fear me and that they may teach their Children T is a Commandment not unmentioned in the New Testament also We find in Eph. 6. 4. Ye Fathers bring up your Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Behold How many solemn Charges are laid upon us to do our part that God may be served by all that are under
our Inspection God does Command us to command them thereabout Secondly The Interest of God calls for it Our Lord said unto a Peter in Ioh. 21. 15. Lovest thou me Then Feed my Lambs The like may be said unto a Master If thou doest love God then bring thy lambs to serve Him. To propagate Religion is to magnify and glorify the Lord. It is said in Prov. 14. 28. In the multitude of people is the Kings honour as t is said of an earthly so may it be said of the Heavenly King. Now if we cause our Houses to serve God in Conjunction with our selves hereby we propagate Religion yea to many generations I remember Solomon assigns this as one Cause why he did well educate his own Children t was because his father had so dealt with him Saith he in Prov. 4. begin Hear ye children the instruction of a father for I was my father's son and he taught me Let us fix our children in the Service of God and they will afterwards do do so by theirs Thus the Lord will alwaies have A seed to serve him which Will be accounted for a generation Our Children did I say yea our Servants too may in like manner carry on a Succession of Service to the Lord. It was the Commendation of Solomon in 1. King. 10. 8. Happy are these thy servants which hear thy wisdome Now many ages after we find the posterity of them Servants retaining a savour of Devotion and Affection to the House of God. REASON II. We should engage our Houses to the Service of God out of Respect to our Houses too T is said A righteous man regards the life of his beast How much more will a righteous man regard the state of his House We have two things also to be particularized here First our Houses are miserable thro' us if they do not serve God. It is hinted as a most extraordinary misery upon any person in Prov. 5. 35. He shall dy without instruction Fearful and woful will be the case of those in our Houses whom our Instruction shall not endear the Service of God unto Our Houses are starving while our God is not serving in them The Prophet said in Lam. 2. 11. Mine eyes do fail with tears because the children swoon in the streets of the city they say to their mothers where is the corn O doleful spectacle But while our Children are strangers to God there is a worse Famine in our Houses we suffer their Souls to pine and perish without the Bread of life Yea our Houses are Burning while our God is not Serving in them What a terrible desolation was that on Sodom in allusion to which t is said of a wicked man in Iob. 18. 15. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation Why there is a dreadful storm of ardent Brimstone ready to fall upon those Houses where the Children are not bringing up for God the Wrath of God like an horrible Tempest of burning Brimstone is impending over them What shall I say more Our poor Children are enslaved unto Satan until they come to be serving of God. If a Devil had a Bodily Possession of our Children how impatient should we be to see them delivered We should cry out like the Woman of Canaan in Matth. 15. 22. Have mercy upon me O Lord my child is grievously vexed with a devil But know the Devil has a spiritual Possession of our Children till they come to serve the Lord the evil spirit he takes them he tears them and they fome and pine and are thrown into the water and into the fire O pitty them if we are not more stupid than the Ostrich pitty we our forlorn Houses and let not the Service of God be wanting throâ— any fault of ours Secondly We are Accountable for our Houses if they do not serve God. As the Daughter of Pharaoh said unto the Mother of Moses in Exod. 2. 9. Take this child and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages Thus does the Lord say unto us Take these children take these young ones and bring them up to serve me I will reward thee for it The Apostle saies of Ministers They watch for souls as they that must give an account so it may be said of all House-keepers They must give an account of the souls that belong unto their Families T was confessed by the Prophet in the Parable 1. King. 20 39. Behold a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said Keep this man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his This This is a thing certainly to come to pass in the dreadful Day of God. Man Thy life shall be for his life who did not serve God because thou didst not teach him and Thy soul shall be for his soul who is lost for ever because thou didst not look after him Iacob could say to his Uncle about his Lambs That which was torn of Beast of my hands didst thou require it Behold thou hast Lambs in thy Fold Little ones in thy House God will strain for it if wild beasts and Lusts carry any of them away from the Service of God through any neglect of thine thou shalt smart for it in the fiery prison of God's terrible Indignation Wherefore as Paul saies O keep so I say O Save that which is committed unto thy trust SECT VI. IT is now Time that we make a due Application of these Faithful Sayings And there is a double Exhortation which I have to manage The First Exhortation is Let us all Resolve to engage OUR SELVES in the Service of God. To Quicken you to it Consider seriously Who your Fellow-servants are when once you serve the Almighty God. O come in and serve God for shame lest in the whole world you have none but Devils to bear you company And will you be of their side of their sort Rebellion truly is as the sin of Witchcraft for this peice of Madness in it All other Beings make a Surrender of themselves unto the Service of God and it is said of theâ— in Psal. 119. 91. All are thy Servants O do not you stand out Hearken ye immortal souls You have the call of Christians to entice you into this happy Service All the Eminent Believers of the By-past-Ages the men of whom the world was not worthy all these do with one voice and a loud one urge this upon you Come and serve our God as we have done before you Even Iames himself the Kinsman of the Lord is ambitious rather of this Denomination The Servant of the Lord. And puissant Emperours before now have gladly espoused such a Title as that The Vassals of the Lord. More than this you have the Call of Angels to incite you thereunto Those bright Morning stars ask this of you Will you come and move in our Sphaere They all are the servants of the Lord and they do his pleasure At his Beck they clap their silver wings
and they do his Commandments An Angel said once to Iohn the Apostle I am thy Fellow-Servant That Angel is yet alive he makes the motion to every one of us Wilt thou be my Fellow-Servant before the Lord Yea the SON of GOD Himself gives you this Call. Of Him saith our God in Isa 42. 1. Behold my Servant Shall God say thus of Christ and shall He not say it of thee O do not scorn to be the Servant of that GOD who has for a Servant Him whom all the Third Heaven is with endless Raptures adoring of Consider yet again What your Service is while you serve the Almighty God. No Service was ever so delightsome as this t is All peace and perfect peace No Service was ever fo profitable it brings in those things The gain whereof is better than fine Gold you shall be sure to experiment the Truth of that Maxim God is a Rewarder No Service was ever so Honourable It prefers us to be Favourites of a greater Monarch than he that had an hundred and seven and Twenty Provinces under him A Service do we count it No t is a Freedom We are Lords when we are The Lord's Then as he said sumus Domini is true not only in Genitivo singulari but in Nominativo plurali It is a Freedom Yea t is a Kingdom It gives us to sing Lord Thou hast made us Kings and Priests It has been well said Deo servire est regnare We have Crowns on our heads all the while we are in the Service of God but how massy how weighty will they be grown when our Pay-day comes Every Servant of God may now say as in 2. Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness But Then Then we shall ascend those glittering and glorious Thrones which Eye hath not seen on them we shall be ever with the Lord. Consider finally and let me warn you faithfully If you do not Resolve to serve God it had been good for you that you never had been born All that forsake the Service of God are employ'd in another Service which every soul may tremble at the Description of 't is a Service to those hellish Tigres in Eph. 22. The course of this world the prince of the power of the air and the lust of the flesh You cast off the Service of One but you incurr a Bondage to three let Horror sieze thee O man and let thy ears tingle at the intimations of it The World the Flesh the Devil are thy Lords if God have not Service from thee All the Galleys in the Mediterranean Sea cannot shew a more dismal Vassalage And what will the Issue of that Service be Truly The Wages is Death God will not save you if you do not serve Him. You that now grind for the Philiâ—â—ines of Hell every day must one day be requited with only Coals and Wounds for all your fatal Drâ—dgeries and though you then roar Lord pitty me He will reply with a furious Rebuke Depart I know you not Let me then address you in the Words of Ioshua Choose now whom you will Serve Come speak up come to some Resolution Say Will you serve the cursed and cruel Enemies of your Souls or will you serve the GOD Whom it is good for you to draw near unto O make this Return Lord we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God. SECT VII YOu have been told Why now here How you are to become The Servants of God. There are diverse Counsils to be given hereabout The First COUNSIL Renounce and Forsake the Service of those Idols which you have heretofore been enslaved unto We must as Ioshua here assures us we must put away other gods if we we would serve the Lord. Our Lord has admonished us in Matth. 6. 24. Ye cannot â—erve God and Mammon Even so Ye cannot serve God and Satan And again Ye cannot serve God and Sin. The Holy God may say of you as of them long since Ye have served strange gods But O do you now say to Him as they in Isal. 21. 13. O Lord other lords besides thee have had dominion over us but we will noâ— be for Thee alone Become weary of your Captivity under those Task-masters which have hither to been torturing your souls There are two sorts of Tyrants that every unregenerate man is a Servant unto his Tempers and his Tempters Let the Tempers within us no more cause us to toil and run and sweat for the gratifying of them Let the Tempters without us no more hurry us too fro that their Humours may be pleased Souls I give you no bad counsil when I propound this and I do propound it O Run away from your old masters Come away poor souls come away from the land of your Captivity Look upon the grim face of the Patroons undâ—r which you groan say to them all Farewel you malicious you bloudy you for did Masters Farewel We hope you shall never have any of our Service more O look upon the Calamities of your Service under your invisible Adversaries and say T is enough Say The time past may suffice Thus Take ye the Wings of a Dove and flee away The Second Counsil Bind your selves unto the Service of God by a Covenant never to be Forgotten It was the good Counsil of Hezâ—kâ—ah in 2. Chron. 30. 8. Yeild yourselves unto the Lord. In the Hebrew Original t is Give the Hand unto the Lord. The giving of the Hand was a Rite in the making of a Covenant Men and Brethren Look Zionâ—ards I beseech you and say now I will join my self to the Lord in a perpetual COVENANT Think on the Service which God is to have of you and be able then to declare as in Psal. 119. 110. I have sworn it and I will perform it Make a solemn Covenant that you will be the Lord's Yea a Written a Formal a subscribed Covenant for it has by some been advised and practised Written and Formal Indentures are made between man and man Why should not there be so between God and man when a Service is to be Entred into Especially since t is said in â—sai 44. 5. A man shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord In a Sacred Covenant say I Renounce all the Vanities and Idols of this World. I Engage that I will cleave unto the Lord Iehovah as my Best Good and my Last End promising to live upon Him and unto Him hoping are long to live with Him for ever I Engage That I will cleave unto the Lord Iesus as my Prophet and my Priest and my King Promising to acknowledge Him as the Author of all my Salvation I Engage That I will ever study what is my Duty in these things and wherein I find my self to fall short I will ever count it my Grief my Shame and for pardon betake my self to the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant All this I Engage humbly imploring the Grace
their Master as thosâ— Marâ—ners did upon the Passinger in 〈◊〉 1 6 Arâ—â—e 〈…〉 God that we perish 〈◊〉 Let the Master of 〈◊〉 School also Remember That the Scholars are his Family He should pray with them and bless them in the Name of the Highest God provides Angels and will not you afford Prayers for the safety of those little ones We read of some in Mark. 10. 13. who brought young children unto the Lord Iesus Christ The Children that are brought to you by Parents or Guardians these are by you to be brought unto the Lord Jesus that He would lay His Blessing and saving hands upon them Yea the Captain of a Train'd Band is to esteem the Souldiers as his Family That good Captain Cornelius could sâ—y in Act. 10. 30. I prayed in my House As for those that will not pray in the Field t is to be questioned whether they will Fight there Trainings without Prayings are like to degenerate into meer Debaucheries The Prayeresâ— Captain gives a very dangerous and desperate Word of Command when he saies Follow your Leader Briefly All Superiors generally have a Family in the Kind of their Superiority which they are to attend Prayers withal The Second Rule Let all the Matters that would hinder Family-Prayer be put far from our Tabernaâ—les There are diverse Impediments of our family-Prayers â—hiâ—h â—e are to be Cautioned against As now Let not family Iarrs hinder family-Prayers The Aposâ—â—â—â—aith to them that are in â— Câ—njogal Reâ—lation that they should be meek tender lovâ—ng for this cause in 1. Pet. 3. 7. That your Prayers be not hindred if Peace be gone from a family then Prayer is gone How can Scolding and it may be Striking too agree with Praying in which we are to lift up pure â—ands without wrath Again Let not family Scabs hinder family-Prayers Bad-Members in a family often cause that there are no Prayers in it Many men will not pray because others will scoff and flout But let your Houses have no such In-mates no such Ishmaels in them It is recorded of Elisha in 2 King. 4. 33. he would not have a servant with him which he could not pray withal If any profane graceless Despisers of Prayer would impose themselves upon us let us then say to them Depart ye workers of iniquity for I will call upon the Lord. Once more Let not Family-Prayers be hindred by unsuitable Times The earlier we dispatch them the easier We should not ordinarily let Business royl us in the Morning nor â—roâ—siness drown us in the Evening before Family Prayer be over As To every purpose â— thus to every Prayer there is a time and judgment and a wise mans heart will discern it The Third Rule Be frequent enough and yet very serious in your family Prayers Very shameful is their neglect who have Prayers in their Families but once a day The Apostle saith in Col. 4. 2. Masters continue in prayer he speaks with a manifest Allusion to the daily Offering under the Law of old which was both morning and evening We should have Morning-Prayers and Evening-Prayers correspondent unto the daily Sacrifice And hence because the Sacrifice was doubled on the Sabbath I have known some pious people pray four times every Lords-Day with their Families Be sure Twice a day is ordinarily the seldomest and slenderest Repetition that our Family-prayers are to have O but we should therein stir up our selves to take hold on God. When you keel before the Lord you should not be rash hasty sudden in it you should not be sleigâ—ty in this great Excercise of of Religion Before we pray we should think Think seriously To WHOM am I to pray and For What am I to Pray and How soon may I dye and my praying seasons all be over And before we pray we should Read. Read seriously something of the Things which are commanded you of God. The Scriptures are to accompany our prayers T is said They are to dwell with us The Bible is to be one of the House When we betake our selves to our Pâ—ayers we should not let the Bible say I should have been as one of the Family pray why was not I called in The Fourth Rule Let not your Family-prayers be your only prayers Understand that Seâ—ret Prayers â—s â—â—ll as private Prayers are to be performed by â—s all For this the word of our Lord is very positive in Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret T is a great fondness and folly in any of us if private prayer cause us to lay aside secret prayer No There is Closet-Prayer as well as Parlour-Prayer which we ought to labour in I would say as our Lord in another case One you ought to do not leave the other undone We have special Transâ—â—issâ—â—ns to be confessed in our prayers these are 〈◊〉 to be confessed To divulge a secret 〈◊〉 is to add a further sin Our secret sins do call for our secreâ— Prayers We have special Tempâ—â—â—â—s to be bewailed in our prayers and these 〈◊〉 secâ—etly to be bewailed Our Desires are sometimes to be too secret for our Neighbours Our secret Griefs and our secret Fears call for our secret Prayers And as one of the Ancients elegantly expresses it Invisible prayers are to be often made to an invisible God. Secret prayer is one good sign of a gracious heart Let the Lord oft see you like Nathanael at secret prayer under the 〈◊〉 and He will say Behold an Israelite iâ—deed Would you get Internal Blessings then pray in secret Solomon got his Widom his Vertue by secret prayer Peter by secret prayer in 〈…〉 carâ—ied with Tranâ—es and Raptures into the other world Would you get External Blessings Then pray in secret Hâ—â—nah with secreâ— prayer asked one Son and had six Iacob had all his House preserved by secret prayer Yea Would you be General Blessings Pray then in â—â—câ—et Moses by secret prayer diverted wrath plagues from all the Congregation That infamous Apostate Iulian was killed by the secret prayer of a good man at that hour very far distant from him What shall I say No Supe sedeas no Diversion should ever be given to your secret prayers Moreover besides your Prayers with all the Family you may do well sometimes to Reâ—â—râ— unto prayers with this or that particular person in it Some do so translate that passage in Gen 25. 21. Isaac entreaâ—ed the Lord with his wife It were but a discreet and a decent practice foâ— married persons to 〈◊〉 likewise Thus holy Pâ—rents have often taken their Children one by one alone and there pray'd and wept and pour'd out their souls over the poor lambs in secret places before the Lord. Thus are we to do Thus to pray SECT XI BUt the Sluggard will pretend A Lion in thâ— way Wherefore I pass on II. To Remove some Objeâ—ctions against Family-Prayer A Threefold want is pleadâ—d
upheld The Curse of God is the Sauce in every Dish the Curse of God is the Cover to every Bed in that lamentable Family Houses molested with Devils are not more miserable than Houses destitute of Prayers I have seen it in an house where the Devils have had Possession of a Child that when Family-Prayer began the Devils would make hideous Roarings and Noises in the Room as being under a Vexation thereat which was intolerable to them Truly The Devils have no Disturbance in Houses where Family-prayers is not maintained prayerless houses are haunted houses and the Fiends of Darkness reign and ramp there without Controâ—l Indeed Prayerless Families are not only the Cages but also the Causes of all Impiety They bring an Irresistible Deluge of Disorder upon all the Town and Land and cause all the Countrey to swarm with the workers of iniquity who call not upon the Lord. And as the prayerless Householder is now cursed by God so he will one day be cursed by all his House he brings curses on them and they will spend curses on him in the Day of Vengeance In the ever-burning lake they will curse the day that ever they saw thy prayerless house and That House brought me to this Hell This this will be their Cry world without End. Consider next the marvellous Blessings which belong to all Praying Families It was noted about the Family of Obed-Edom in 1. Sam 6. 11. The Lord blessed Obed-Edom and his househould while the Ark of the Lord was there So shall it be noted about the Family of a praying Householder The Lord will bless that man and his Household while that Prayer to the Lord is there Family-prayers are conjoined prayers and united prayers thus they become very successful prayers What Encouragement is there given to them in that promise Matth. 18. 19. If two of you shall agree on earth touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them O let your Families Agree in the Asking of grace in the Asking of glory in the Asking of every good thing Prayer in Confort will obtain it all When Cornelius was at his Family-prayer what a signal favour did the Almighty God show unto him Some while since a whole Town in Switzerland was very suddenly destroyed by an Earth-quake all except one peice of an house in which a good man happned then to be at Prayer with his Family T is impossible to tell O how great is the goodness which God has laid up for Houses that seek unto Him But besides all the other comforts of a praying Householder he has This peculiar to him He teacheth all his Family to A praying Parent will have praying children David prayed in his Family and his Son Solomon prov'd a praying young man. A praying Master will have praying Servants Abraham pray'd in his Family and his Man Eliezer became a very praying person Thus O man all thy young people will be filling every corner of thy house with Prayers for thy Felicity O consider of these things and such let the Impression of them upon you be That you may by Prayers with your Families Engage your Houses to serve the Lord. SECT XIII THere are two Things more by the Discharge of which we Engage our Hoxses to serve the Lord and those Two are in a manner One Family-Instruction and Family-Government I link these together because of their near Dependance and Agreement in their Exercise This therefore is the Address now to be made unto us Let Family-Instruction and so Family-Government be maintained in our Houses that they may serve the Lord. Let there be no unâ—aught and unrul'd Families among us but let us be careful about the Education of such as belong to our Families I beseech you let there be a difference between English Houses and Indian Wigwams in the middest of us and let not English Parents be as indulgent and negligent as they report the Indians are And give me leave to say You that are Mothers have a special Advantage to instil the Fear of God into the souls of them that sit upon your knees T is said in Prov. 1. 8. My son forsake not the law of thy Mother Solomon was well instructed by his Mother and it proved his eternal Benefit T is not for Nothing that in the Sacred Records when men have proved good or bad it is noted Their Mothers were such and such You that are Mothers may insiâ—uate Religion into your Children earlier and easier than their Fathers can SECT XIV I shall Repeat the Method which we were in before and under Family-Instruction take in that Family-Government which you are to be studious of I am I. To offer some Directions about Family-Instruction The Directions to be given hereabout may â—e referr'd unto two Heads First The Matter of Family Instruction The Family-Instruction with which we urge our houses to the Service of God are to have 〈◊〉 less than Four things composing of it First There are Holy Lessons with which we are to Instruct our Families We are to make them hear and make them learn those Lessons which may give to the young ones Knowledge and Discretion Teach them the Scriptures of Truth T was said to Timothy in Cap. 3. 15. From a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures No doubt his Godly Mother and Grandmother were the cause of his doing so We should procure that our Young ones may read the holy Scriptures and mind the holy Scriptures and know the holy Scriptures even from a Child Let them have by heart here and there a Verse or a Paragraph Especially in the Psalms and in the Proverbs if you would have them good teach them the Psalmes of David if you would have them wise teach them the Proverbs of Solomon And Scriptureâ— Stories are to be told unto them as soon as ever they enquire after new things and strange But while we do thus we are also to teach them the Doctrines of God. Inculcate upon them the Principles of Religion as often as you do the Knife on the Stone in the Wheâ—ting of it T was said unto the Lord Jesus in Matth. 22. 16. Master Thou â—eâ—chest the way of God in Truth Every Mâ—ster should render his young ones able to say that unto himself Master Thou teachest the Truth of God. Especially We should be sure that they be not ignorant of any Saving Truths Tell them What they are come to by the First Adam and what they may come to by the Second Adam Tell them what Covenant man was once and What Covenant man is now to be saved by Yea let none of the Things to be believed none of the Things to be practised none of the Things to be pray'd for be left unmentioned in your Instructions All the Lessons of the Creed the Commandments and the Lords Prayer are to be laid before them And we are to be particularly faithful to them in the present Truths the labouring Truths the witnessed Truths of the
that Charge of God in 1. Joh. 3. 23. This is His Commandment that you believe on the Name of his Son. Charge them to accept of Christ Jesus as their Prince and their Saviour Charge them to repair unto Christ Jesus for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Lay also upon them that Charge of God in Mat. 6. 6. Enter into thy Closet and pray to thy Father in secret Charge them to Retire for their Devotions every day Charge them to let not a day pass them without Crying to God for His Mercy and Pardon and Salvation Once more Lay upon them that Charge of God in Prov. 1. 10. My son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not Charge them that they be not the Companions of Fools Charge them that they do not associate themselves into an Intimacy and a Familiarity with any but such as may be sober discreet blameless persons Finally Lay upon them that Charge of God in Hag. 1. 5. Thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your waies Charge them that they Consider what their present Condition is and what their future Condition is like to be Charge them that they consider of their past Behaviours and of the Death and Iudgment and Eternity which is yet before them A young man has become a real Convert by being obliged unto Consideration for one Quarter of an Hour in a Day Wish for them say to them Oh that they were wise that they would Consider In a word Let your Charge on them be that which Holy Bolton gave to his Children when he dyed I charge you that at the Day of Iudgement none of you dare to meet me in an Unregenerate estate Secondly The Manner of Family-Instruction T is to be performed in such a Manner as may best Attain the Ends of it Particularly First We are to Instruct our Families very Seasonably We are told in Matth 24. 45. The Ruler over the Household is to give them their meat in due Season There lies much in the Time we take for the Work. We should indeed have our Frequent Times to do it We should speak what may be for the Instruction of our Families every day and often in a day and on various occasions be dropping our savoury Admonitions Even when we sit at the Table we should rarely Rise without feeding the Minds as well as the Mouthes of our Attendents Much more at the Hâ—urs of Prayer we should do something that may make them more acquainted with Divine Objects then they were before But we should likewise have our Stated Times to do it Especially Sacred Time will be very properly a Stated Time for it On the Dayes of the Lord we should instruct our Houses in the Things of the Lord that were infinitely better than to be Sleeping or Talking at an idle rate as then too many do But about the Stated Time for Family-Instruction there is a double Discretion to be used It is to be dispatched in a Quiet Time in a Time when there is no Disturbance by Passions within or Noises without It is said in Eccles. 9. 16. The words of wise men are heard in quiet and no wise man will speak when there is not Quietness enough to allow an Audience for him And it is to dispens'd in a Lively Time in a Time when Spirits are stirring and Affections are vigorous T is said in Rom. 12. 11. Be â—ervent in spirit serving the Lord thus this peice of Service for the Lord is to be done when there is a Fervency of Disposition thereunto Secondly We are to Instruct our Families very pertinently Accommodate our Instructions to their Conditions Are there any Vnconverted persons in our Families Let them be Suitably Instructed Say to them as in Psal. 34. 11. Hearken to me and I will Teach you the Fear of the Lord. Let them be warned of the Dangers which do threaten their miserable souls and let them be stirred to the Duties that may lay them at the Pool in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are there any Converted persons in our Families Let them too be suitably Instructed We read in Joh. 8. 31. Iesus said unto the Iewes which believed on Him continue in my word Let them be quickned to continue in their Faith and Love and Zeal Let them have Weapons â—o furnish them against all their Difficulties and Cordials to Revive them under all their Discouragements Are there any Vnfruitful Souls in our Families Instruct them suitably by setting before them what is the Doom of the Barren Free and of the Barren Ground even to be cut down and burnt up for ever And say O glorifie your heavenly Father by bringing forth much fruit Are there any Back-sliding Souls in our Families Instruct them suitably by setting before them the Displeasure of God at such as draw-back and His extreme Wrath on them whose Goodness is as the Morning cloud and the early dew and say Remember whence thou art fallen repent and do thy first works Thus are we to suit the the case of those whom we give Instruction to Thirdly We are to Instruct our Families very Diligently T is a thing that we are to labour in T was enjoind in Deut 6. 7. The words which I command thee thou shalt teach them Diligently unto thy Children It calls for our Hearts and our Pains When we set about it we should think with our selves We know not how short our Opportunities may be we know not whether we shall ever speak more to those whom we now direct our selves unto In this as well as in other such Cases we should hear the voice of our own Vncertainty Mortality t is that in Eccles. 9. 10. Do with thy might what thy hand finds to do for there is no work nor wisdom in the grave whither thou art going T is the Work of the Lord about which we are when we are Instructing our Families t is not to be done slothfully we find in Ier. 28. 10. cursed is the man who doth it so t is to be done heartily we find in 2. Chron. 31. 21. that is the way to prosper in it O let us be as Diligent in Instructing of our young people as the Emissaries of Hell are in Seducing of them Fourthly We are to Instruct our Families by Exemple Be Exemplary and follow the Directory of that geat man who said in Psal. 101. 10. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Let our Walk as well as our Talk show the young people with us how they are to walk and to please God and let us be able to call upon them Do you follow me as I follow Christ. Let us give such Expressions of Love to God and his Truths and His Wayes that our Families may come after us in the like Let them discern how to seek the Face of God and how to bear the Hand of God and how to prize the Word of God by seeing how We do it our selves When Elisha would get for
himself a double Portion of the spirit in Elijah he said in 2. King 2. 10. If thou see me it shall be so unto thee O that the Sight of us that the Sight of our Piety and Gravity might Instruct our Houses and help them to a double Portion of those Graces and Vertues which are the Fruits of the Spirit We shou'd study an Instructive Conversation and we should never permit a Cham a young Cham in our families to see us overcome with Drink Disguised with Vice or naked with Folly but In all things we should show our selves a Pattern of good works Fifthly We are to Instruct our Families with Authority As the Minister is to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ of whom t is said in Mat. 7. 29. He taught as one having Authority So should the Householder do And hence we are to keep up our Authority in our families not permitting the child to be have himself proudly against the Ancient It is required in Lev. 19. 3. Ye shall fear every one his Mother and his Father the Mother is here put before the Father because commonly she first loseth her Authority but neither Mother nor Father should suffer themselves to be trampled upon T is an intolerable thing for a saucy impudent unmannerly child to reply I wont when a Parent bids him do this or that You sin grievously if you do not curb and break the Wills of them that you are to bring up in the nurture of the Lord and if you don't make 'em tremble to break any of your commands Wherefore let there be that Wisdom that Meekness that Reservedness and Seriousness in our Deportments with which we may Rule well our own house and have our Children in Subjection with all gâ—â—vity This is that Family-Instruction and Family Government by which we must bring our Houses to serve the Lord. SECT XV. ONe might Rationally imagine that no Exception could be taken at such a profitable and necessary thing as Family Instruction is Yet this also has Exceptions made against it and therefore I am endeavouring II. To Remove some Objections against Family Instruction Diverse things are by many pleaded wherefore they take no care to have their Families parâ—akers of Instruction in Righteousness The First Exception One person will for this Plea Exempt himself The Inferiors in my Family are very Dull T is an hard thing to beat into them any sense of Eternal Concernments On this Pretense it is that poor Negro's especially are kept Strangers to the way of Life they are kept only as Hoâ—ses or Oxen to do our Drudgeries but their Souls which are as white and good as those of other Nations their Souls are not look'd after but are Destroyed for lack of Knowledge This is a desperate Wickedness But are they dull Then instruct them the rather That is the Way to sharpen them T is said in Psal. 119. 130. The Entrance of thy word gives Understanding to the Simple Be they never so simple you may increase their Wit by God's Word And are they truly Dull Then be not you so too Let your Labour be equal to their Dulness We are told in Eccl. 10. 10. If the Iron be blunt then a man must put to the more Strength You must be at the Trouble to stoop unto their Capacities Be you as plain be you as breef in your Instructions as they are dull in their Intellectuals And be frequent be patient in them give Line upon line and Precept upon precept here a little and there a little Even Gutta cavat lapidem a Stone will receive the mark of the Drop that shall often fall upon it The Second Exception Another person will for this Cause Exempt himself The Inferiors in my Family are very Young. T is too soon to begin with them we shall only make them take the Name of God in vain by teaching them to talk like Parrots of Religion before they can conceive better of it To this I answer No You can't begin with them Too soon ` T was said in Isai. 28. 9. Whom shall hee teach knowledge Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts They are no sooner wean'd but they are to be taught and God may give them righter and riper Conceptions of things than you are well aware What saies the Wise man Traiâ— up a Child in thâ— way he should go Let the first liquor that is put into them be sweet and good and they will keep the tang of it all their dayes Quo semel est imbuta recens Are they Young Yet the Devil has been with them already T is said in Psal. 58. 3. They go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies They no sooner step than they stray they no sooner lisp than they ly Satan gets them to be proud prosane reviling and revengeful as young as they are And I pray Why should not you be afore-hand with him And this the rather since the Lord Jesus calleth for them He saies in Marc. 10. 13. Suffer little children to come unto me For know T is not an Affront but an Honour unto the Name of God for such young ones to Learn the truth as it is in Iesus It was very pleasing unto the Lord Jesus Christ when in Matth. 21. 15. The Children cryed Hosannah to Him. If your Children do not cry Hosanna they will call wicked Names they will curse and lie and take the Name of God in vain and which is best Iudge ye Besides we have the Call of God in Psal. 148. 12. Ye Children praise the Lord. The Third Exception A Third person will urge this against it I want Abilities to manage this work my Parts and Gifts are too mean to go thro it To this I answer God will Accept you thoâ— you do it meanly The Prophet made this Apology for himself in Jer. 1. 6. Ah! Lord God I cannot speak But God answered Say not so Tho you have but one Talent yet let it not ly by Though you have only Goats hair or Badgers skins yet employ them for the use of the Tabernacle The Apostle tells the Hebrews You need one to teach you the first principles of the Oâ—â—cles of God yet unto them he said Exhort one â—nother Moreover God will Assist you to do it better T was affiâ—med to him in Ioshua 1. 9. Have not I commanded thee Be strong and of a good Courage for the Lord thy God is with thee Thus be it affirmed here God has commanded thee Do it as courageously and as comfortably as thou canst His Presence will continually cause thee to grow in thy Accomplishments To him that hath shall be given Keep watering the Olive-plants about thy Table He that watereth shall be watered also himself The Fourth Exception A Fourth person perhaps will not blush to say I want Opportunity to attend this Work my Employment will not suffer me But let no man argue so Man hast thou Time to Feed thy Family and
Eternity but now my Time is gone for ever The shâ—â—ek of a poor man going out of the world sometimes has been A would of Wealâ—h for an inch of Time. 〈◊〉 t is Wisdom to prevent such things as these The Vse of these things remains USE Let us all he hence advised to Discern and Improve Time which we have to discharge our Dâ—tyes in The most of us t is to be 〈◊〉 may discern Iudgment we know 〈◊〉 our Duty is and How it is to be dispatched 〈…〉 us also discern Time Suffer we not our time to run from us while we neglect the great Ends which we have it for O let not the Lord have cause to complain of us as in Jer. 8. 7. The Birds in the Heaven know their appointed times but my people do not know That we may Discern time and improve time such Directions as these may well be followed Direction I. Let us Discern our Time and not Mis-spend our Time. Avoid those Time-wasting things Which would serve us about our Time as the High-way men did the poor Traveller in Luc. 10. 30. in his way to Iericho We are all Travelling in the the way to Eternity there are these and those Robbers in the way that would plunder us of our time shun them fly them Count Mis-spencâ— of Time one of the most wicked and woful follies in the world Let us discern three things in all Time and permit no Time to be devoured by two things which we may be under Temptation to The things which we are to discern in all Time are these First let us discern the Worth of all Time. Let not an hour pass without this opinion of it This hour is too good to be lost If we prise the Jewel we shall not lose it It is for our shame that even an Heathen made that complaint Qâ—uem mibi dabis qui diem estâ—met Where will you find a man that esteems his Time as he ought to do Ponder well what a vast price our Lord paid for our Time. We had forfeited all our Tune into the hands of infinite revenging Justice the just wrath of God would have taken away â—ime and Life from us long ago if our Lord Jesus had not laid down such a price as that in 1. Peâ— 1. 18. Ye were redeemed not with silver and gold but 〈◊〉 the precious bloud of Iesus Christ. O don't throw away any of that which cost so deaâ— And ponder well what a vast price the dying the damned set on their Time. We may say of it as Iob of another thing in Cap. 28. 22. Destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears Even so Destruction and Death set an high rate upon it Ask men when Destruction and Death is near to seizing upon 'em How much would you give now for a little of the time that is gone They will reply O whole mountains of gold for one hour of it Judge now as you will judge then Secondly Let us Discern the Irrevokableness of our Time. When our time is once gone it remains Irrevokable and Irrecoverable for evermore We may say of every Time that is past as in Psal. 49. 8. It is precious and it ceaseth forever The Wish of Hezekiah could once bring back the shadow of the Sun but never could any man procure a Return of his Time. Sometimes the doleful Cryes of distressed ones have been Call Time again call Time again But alas Time won't come back for Calling Oh how should this make us to takeheed that we don't abuse any part of our Time I shall never have this time again When once our Time has taken wing what is said of Love in Cant. 8. 7. that may be said of Time If a man would give all the substance of his house for it it would utterly be contemned When once Time is gone 't is gone Thirdly let us Discern our Accountableness for all our Time. God maintains us and supplies us with Time continually He keeps a Sun to measure it The time will come when He will reckon with us about all our Time. T is said in Ecc. 11. 9. O young man walk in the wayes of thy heart but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement In like sort let me say Come squander away thy Time even contrive to get the dead commodity off thy hands but know thou that in the day when God shall judge the world all this Time of thine must be accounted for It was the Law of old in Exod 21. 18. If one man smite another so that he keep his bed and yet walk abroad again he shall pay for his healing and the Loss of his Time Truly so if we impenitently lose any of the Time which God hath given us He will make us pay for it in the day of his pleacâ—ng with us T is said in Matth. 12. 36. Men shall give an account of every idle woâ—d Much more in that day shall men give an account of every idle Hour The God that hath numbred our Hairs hath also numbred our Houâ—es It will be a fearful thing if at last He say unto us Thou wicked and slothful servant thy life has been made up of idle hours These things are we to discern in all Time. For the sake hereof let us now permit no Time to be misplac'd in such things as these First Let us mispend no Time in vanity of them that live in vain pleasures 't is said in 1 Tim 5. 6. they are Dead while they live They discrn no Time and enjoy none Too much Time is not to be laid out in Eating and Drinking To affect Long Meals or to tarry long at the Wine does not become a Christian. Thy Soul is a little too noble a thing sure to be made the Cook of thy Body Moreover Too much Time is not to be laid out in Attiring and Adorning It made an holy man among the Ancients to weep when in a morning he â—aw a person longer in Dressing than himself had been in praying Thy Carcase that is to feed the Worms ere long should not put by thy cares about thy Spirit which must be in Weal or Woe for ever Once more Too much Time is not to be laid out in Sporting and Gaming There are some lawful Recreaâ—ions of which we should be shy lest they steal away our Heart and our Time. That blessed Martyr Iohn Hus just before he dyed in a Letter thus bewaild himself O beg of God to pardon me for the Time I have lost at such a Play that yet in it self was very innocent But there are some unlawful Recreations also in which multitudes play away their Time. The plays which depend upon a pure Lot are such The moral Heathen Zealously reproached them And severe Statutes were made against them when the Roman Empire became a Christian. Men always loose at them those things which are better than any that they win their
Time if not their Soul. Secondly Let us mispend no Time in Idleness It was an ill world where the Apostle could say as in 2. Thes 3. 11. There are sâ—me that walk disorderly working not at all Every man should be able to make a good Answer to the Question which Pharaoh put unto Ioseph's Brethren I pray What is your Occupation A big part of our Time should be laid out on our particular Callings A Calling is an Ordinance of God Adam in Paradise had a Labour imposed on him Be diligent in some one or other No man so fully and foully falls into the possession of the Devil as the idle man. The Ants the Bees and all the Creatures exclame against him Idleness tiâ— thundred against in Ezek. 16. 49. as one of the Sins that brought Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom long ago it will carry from Earth to Hell the souls of them that in it snore away their lives When men do'nt misspend their Time then do they discern it Direction II. Let us Discern our Time and Attend every Duty in the proper Time. There is a two-fold Prudence which the Wise man's heart is to be no stranger to The First Prudence is Let no Duty be done out of its Time. We are told in Eccles 3. 11. God hath made every thing beautiful in the Time of it There is a Nick of Time that we are to take for all we do Not Snow but Fruit is beautiful in the Summer T is not beautiful for the Duty of Prayer to be done at a sleepy time or at a busy time T is not beautiful for the Duty of Reproof to be done at a time when it can do no good at all Set not upon this or that Duty at a time when God calls to another Duty T is said in Eccles. 8. 6. To every purpose there is a Time and Iudgement We may render all our Duties like Apples of gold in pictures of silver by well timing of them The Second Prudence is Let no Time pass away without its Duty Let none of our times be unaccompanied with the Duties which belong unto them As now there are Duties that belong to a time of Prosperity and Duties which belong to a Time of Adversity T is said in Eccles. 7. 14. In the day of Prosperity be joyful but in the day of Adversity Consider In a time of Prosperity now is a time for men to Remember their Creator before the evil days come Now is a time for men to set their heart and their soul to seek the Lord who hath given them rest on every side In a time of Adversity now is a time for men to bring sin to remembrance now is a time for men to meet the Lord in all the ways of Repentance and Obedience This is to Discern the Time. But there are especially three sorts of times which we are to fill with the Dutyes of those Times First Let the Dutyes of Worshipping times be done in those times We have our times every day wherein the Lord saith seek my Face Now let the Echo of our souls be that in Psal. 27. 8. Thy Face Lord we will seek We have every day our times for private Prayer our times for secret Prayer our times for Reading of and Thinking on the Word of God. Let those things be faithfully done in those Times Especially Remember the Sabbath Day Let Sabbath-time be sanctifyed time On this day ly all the day long at the pool of Mercy Mercy Mercy and Salvation for an immortal soul is this day to be traded for T is a Time that the great God is very Jealous about He does wonderfully curse the Souls and blast the Houses and ruin the Countryes where this Holy Time is not acknowledged He will terribly break the rest of those whom His Rest shall not be regarded by Secondly Let the Dutyes of Visiting Times be done in those Times T is too commonly seen that Amici temporis Fures our Friends are our Theeves they Steal our time bâ—â—â—ause we don't use our time when then they are with us T is observable in Col. 4. 6. as soon as the Apostle had said Redeem the time he adds Let your speech be always with Grace That that indeed is a rare way to Redeem the time Let us ordinarily study to do some good whatever Company we come into It was observed of that excellent Vrsin by his renowned Friend I 〈◊〉 was in his company but I went away Doctior â—ut Melior the wiser or the better from him Abhor O abhor the useless visits that are quite contrary to all such designs Mourn if you have been in any Company without being profitable thereunto Thirdly Let the Duties of Intervening times be done in those times We have large Fragments of time that are the Intervals of our businesses about these Fragments of time I would say as our Lord said about the Fragments of Bread in Joh. 6. 12. Gather up those Fragments that nothing be lost How many thousands of happy thoughts might we have as we are sitting in the House or walking in the Street otherwise wholly unimployed The very Filings of Gold and of Time are not to be cast away To discern our time is to adapt our time Direction III. Let us discern our Time and make none but Good Bâ—â—gains about the time The Scripture once and again tells us as in Eph. 5. 16. that we are to Buy up the time or buy out the time This is to discern the Time We must be at some Cost and at some Charge for it if we would not be ill-husbands of our time We must pay down either Mony or Monyes-worth for it we must fore go and under go many things for it Many things must we give up that our time so may be well-imployed The case is ordinarily so that either we must resign many Pleasures many Profits many Honours or else we must part with our time Now rather give up all Delights than suffer precious time to be pyrated away All the things of time are sometimes Expence little enough for time Yea many things must we give back that so we may not misemploy our time The Devil and our Lusts have been trucking for our time The Devil that hellish Hucster would engross all our Time for his own He deals with us as the Europeans dealt at first with the silly Indians who leâ—â— go their â—old and Silver and Diamonds for glass-Beads and tinsil-Toyes The Answer that our Lust makes to the Tempter is Let me have the pleasures of sin for a season and every season of my time shall be thine O but we should be content to give back all that Satan has proffer'd us for our time let it be never-so-much that we might have had for the misuse of time begrutch it not 'T was the Speech of Austin Perde aliquid ut Deo vaces If you would have Time for God or any Good you must part with something for it In a
Word Let us labour now to Regain the Time that we have been cheated of The cheef way to do that is By a double Diligence for the time to come Make up the time we have made an ill market of by an extraordinary Industry and Activity in the time yet before us The Israelites in their Journey to Canaan made more way the last year or two than they had done in almost forty years before All the many Sermons in the Book of Deuteronomy seem preached by Moses in the last month or two before he dy'd O sit down and think well How shall I lay out my time for the best Advantage Let that be said of us when we dye Diu vixit licet non diu fuit He lived long in a little time To Purchase our time is to discern our time Direction IV. Let us Discern our time and let us Improve the Present time to make our peace with the Eternal God. Alas All the sinful and woful time of our Vnregeneracy is Lost time One that was converted but about seven years before he dyed ordered that Epitaph to be inscribed on his Grave Here â—â—es an Aged man who dy'd but seven years old Thou dost not live till thou dost repent till thou dost beleeve Be sure there is no Duty so much incumbent on us as that of Turning from Sin to God in Christ. Well the great God hath stated the present time for the doing of it T is the Warning the solemn warning of the Holy God unto us 2. Cor. 6. 2. Behold Now is the Accepted time Now is the Day of Salvation Let those that are not yet born-again discern this their time O yee souls in peril What is it that ye resolâ—e upon Your time is to Day to Day if you will hear the voice of God. Let me say about this Time as Boaz about that Land in Ruth 4. 4. If you will redeem it redeem it O Delay not Dally not Trifle not about this grand Concern Do not say as the unhappy Felix did I 'le mind it at a more convenient season No No Discern it that the most convâ—nient season is just NOW O that all unconverted men would consider the Danger the Madness of their Procrastinations T is said in Eccles. 9. 12. Man knoweth not his time Man discern thy time as a flying time and an uncertain time A Jewish Rabbi gave that Coâ—nsel to a Scholar of his Besure you repent at least a day before you dy Truly t is a fearful thing for a man when he comes to dye not to be able to say T is at least a day since that I made my peace with God. Well who of us can say that this day is not our last day We cannot be sure that we repent a day before we dy unless we repent this very day Suppose you were to suffer an horrible Death in case you had not finished some notable Undertaking before night O how would every stroke of the Clock strike to your very hearts within you Behold O Sinner be amazed stand Astonished and take the present time to get out of thy present state T is possible thou mayst be a dead man before to morrow t is possible this night thy soul may be required Horrid will thy condition be if this happen before thy peace be made with GOD. There are Graves in the Burying-Place shorter than the youngest of us all Thou mayst Conclude with saying as David to Ionathan As the Lord lives there is but a step between me and death Wherefore let me Conclude with saying as Michal to David O save thy self to night for to morrow thou mayst be slain Let no man Repent too late but let every man Discern the time T is the sigh of our GOD over us O that they understood that they would Consider their Latter END The TRYED CHRISTIAN A Discourse delivered upon Recovery from SICKNESS IOB XXIII 10. When He hath Tryed me I shall come forth as GOLD THere was a Man in the Land of Arabia whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright The Church of GOD is enriched with an excellent History in an elegant Poesie relating the great Prosperity the sad Adversity and strange Recovery of that perfect and upright man. T is probable that he was an Edomite and the very Iobab whom Esau was Great-Grandfather unto but this I am sure of He was an Israelite indeed From a Rich and Fair estate He suddenly became As poor as Iob and while he was in this poor Condition his noble Friends gave him their friendly Visits and Respects Many admirable Dialogues now passed between them wherein they endeavoured to Accuse and Convince him of some remarkable Iniquity as the Cause of his Calamity and he laboured to vindicate himself to assert his own Integrity and Sincerity In our Context here the good man is expressing his Willingness and Readiness to appear before the Judgement-seat of God and in our Text he declares what he expects would be the Result of his Tryals by the Lord. He comforts himself by those two Considerations First that God's Knowledge did reach him He saith God knowes the way that is in me q. d. Tho I cannot see God yet God can see me and the most inward Purposes or Appetites of my mind are not concealed from Him. And Next that God's Tryal would clear him This is the Article that lyes before us to be Explained and Improved and the Doctrine which may guide our Discourse upon it is That Good men come forth as GOLD under and after the Trials of the Almighty God. It is by the ensuing Propositions that we may arrive to right thoughts about the Truth before us Proposition I. There is a various Tryal which the God of Heaven causes to pass upon His people No Christian can be without his Tryals But there are especialy two sorts of Tryals which ouâ— God will subject us all unto First There are the Trials of Divine Examinations Which will be critical upon us T is said in Psal. 11. 4 5. The Lords eyes behold and His ey-lids try the children of men the Lord sounds as the French Translation hath it both the righteous and the wicked Every man in the world falls under the Notice and so under the Tryal of the omniscient God. The all-seeing Eyes of God as it were Examine us and His Ey-lids knit themselves for a Scrutiny into our Hearts and lives The blessed God will pass a Iudgment after a Trial upon us whether we truly love Him and seek Him or no. We are told in Psal. 7. 9. The righteous God trieth the Hearts and the Reins an Assertion an Expression it may be more than seven times repeted in the Word of God! The Examination and Observation of God extends it self to the most interior parts of men the motions of their very Hearts and Reins come under His exactest Cognizance Every man may so far say after that godly man in Psal. 17. 3. Lord
t is of in Esteem the Auri sacra fames the unhallowed Appetite which men crave it with prefers it above all common things T is in Scripture-phrase a precious thing indeed of which it might be said It is more precious than gold But of a good man might such a thing be spoken it may be said of such a man as in Isa. 13. 12. The man is more precious than fine gold even than the golden wedge of Ophir i. e. Peru as some with much pretense of Reason do conjecture it A gracious man is a precious man all Beholders ought to put a value upon him he is even precious in the eyes of the Lord. Thus like to Gold will good men come forth under and after the Tryals of the Lord which comprehends these two Conclusions in it Conclusion I. A good man is found good by the Examinations of God. When God comes to try a good man He finds the heart of the man to be right before Him. The good man may say with him in â— Chron. 29. 17. O my God I know that thou triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness as for mee in the uprightness of my heart have I offered Indeed our God uses not an Extremity of Justice and Rigour in our Trial He would find a world of Iniquity in us if He did and He would utterly consume us The Lord said in Isa. 48. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not like silver No the Refiner of gold or silver will not allow the the least measure of Dross therein But our merciful Gâ—d overlooks many grains of Corruption many grains of Defilement of Debasement in us for we all have our Grains However upon the Trial of a good man the good God pronounces this of hâ—m This is a dâ—â—r Son and a pleasâ—nt châ—ld I will surely have mercy on hiâ— He pronounces this I find good metal in the soul of thâ—â—an and he shall be mine in the day when I make up my Iewels The Devil the Satan who is the Accuser of the Brethren he may load a good man with Calumnies not a few that evil spirit will accuse a good man as guilty of Hypocrisie in the power of it but the Holy God brings it unto a Tryal and then He pronounces as in Iob. 2. 3. I have tried him and he is my servant a perfect and an upright man One that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity Conclusion II. A good man is made better by the Dispensations of God. It is to him that there is granted the Fulfilment of that promise in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good As for the merciful Dispensations of God these do encline as well as oblige a good man to all manner of Obedience they cause him to think What shall I render to the Lord they cause him to say I will fear the Lord and His goodness I will never sin against so good a God as He. Thus we are told in Rom. 2. 4. The goodness of God leadeth to repentance It even melts and breaks the heart of a good man so that he cannot find in his heart after such deliverances again to break his commandments As for the Afflictive Dispensations of God these also cause a good man more than ever to Abound in the works of the Lord they put him upon more Thinking on his waies and upon turning his feet more unto the testmonies of God. It was said in Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes A good man gets this good thereby his Wisdom and his Vertue is thereby augmented and he Learns Obedience by the things which he suffers USE There is a two-fold Exhortation which I must now bespeak your earnest Heed unto I. Let us approve our selves as Gold under the Examinations of the Blessed God. There are who take notice that the Original in Job 37. 22. is Gold cometh out of the North. God grant that the best Gold may here be found in our North that you the inhabitants of the North may for your Vertues be as Gold before the Lord. Yea that North-Boston may be like Havilah and it may be said The gold of that land is good or there are Extraordinary golden and precious Christians there T is a Three-fold Counsel which you may therefore be advised with Counsil I. Beleeve and Expect the Trials of the eternal God. Beleeve that God now does Vnderstand what you are It was an Article in that famous Prophets Creed in Jer. 12. 3. Thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me and tryed my heart towards thee O that every one of us were enough sensible of that awful solemn Truth T is a common thing to say God knowes my heart but who does enough lay that thing to heart Who reckons any more upon it than the false Gehazi did It was an Orthodox perswasion in Psal. 139. 3 2. O Lord thou hast searched me and known me thou understandest my thought afar off T is very certain that every one of our thoughts are known to the infinite God even afar off long enough before they come into our minds But O Lord who has believed our Report Men and Brethren do you beleeve it and apprehend it and reallize it Beleeve it that God is all Eye and that He needs not a Glass Window in your breasts for the Exploration of you Beleeve it that the eyes of the Lord run to fro through the whole earth and that he will not by a Mistake drop a Blessing wrong as blind Isaac did of old Yea let it be a frequent Meditation with you All that I am and all that I think is well known unto the Lord. And Expect that God will one day Discover what you are There is a Day of Discovery that shall shine upon us all and Behold the Day comes that shall burn as an Oven and all that do wickedly shall be stubble in it Expect that the great God will have a Snare in this world for your Detection Ever now then there happen some Discriminating Things That they which are approved might be made manifest God will have His Times and His Wayes possibly to uncase our hearts before all our Neighbours It was said of that blessed man in 2. Chron. 32. 31. God left him in one thing to try him that he might know all that was in his heart You may look for some Temptation before you dye which will make the Inclinations of your souls notorious to the world especially If your Hearts be not right with God. It is a Simile us'd by one of the Ancients for it You shall have an Ape drest in the Attire of a Man for a while imitating the Look and shape and Gesture of a man but if a Nutt or an Apple be thrown before him he soon showes what he is Thou Hypocrite the Lord will have something to throw before thee which
whether you will serve Him and praise Him for it God is Trying whether you will now often say Bless the LORD O my soul and all that is within me God is Trying whether you will now think What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits Let us be as Gold by affording now a good Experiment Secondly Let them that are in Adversity likewise behave themselves as under the Tryals of the Lord. We may most or all of us Lament I am the man that hath seen Affliction there is a Variety of Calamity which we are try'd withal God forbid that we should procure to our selves the Brand set upon that wicked man of old In the time of his Distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD Never was there in this world a more doleful sight than that of a Theef on a Cross yet Neglecting and Affronting the Son of God. We that have been lately under Affliction particularly under that Affliction of Sickness have as it were lain among the pots God has as it were laid us by among the meanest Lumps of clay but O that we may now come sorth Doves having Wings covered with Silver and Feathers with yellow Gold O that we may come forth of our Tryals more gracious more Savoury more Heavenly than ever we were in our lives before that the Iron-Age of Grief may issue in a Golden-Age of Grace unto us that our Adversity may procure more grace to to us than ever the Prosperity of Solomon did gold to him T is to be desired that the Transmutation of Metals may be Exemplified in us and that the most exquisite Vitrioliâ— powder may not be so powerful to make Natural gold as the Dust of Affliction may be to make Spiritual gold of our souls Look to it Lest our Character be that Reprchate Silver which is rejected by the Lord. The First DESIRE Let us come forth more out-of-Love with Gold which perisheth Our GOD hath taught us that no gold will deliver from Death and Hell and that no gold can be carried away with us at our Departure hence Our God hath told us That though we should have never so much gold about us we may in a moment be taken away from all Wherefore Let us become Indifferent unto gold and all the Delights of this miserable World. Look Look upon thy most golden Comforts and imagine thou hearest that Voice of GOD in Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not When one of the Martyrs had money proffer`d unto him he Refused it saying The Coyn is not current in the Countrey to which I am going O despise all gold but what will be Current there The Second Desire Let us come forth more Admiring of more Affected with such things as are better than gold The Fear of God is one of those things Whereof t is said it Job 28. 16. It cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir Let it be then our prime and cheef Study to be daily acting of it yea Since we have lately seen Time loudly calling on us to Redeem it Let a Respect to God now ennoble all the Actions of our Lives The Word of God is another of those things Whereof t is said in Psal. 19. 10. It is more to be desired than much fine Gold. Let us then set an unspeakable Value thereupon Yea since we have lately seen an End of all Perfection elsewhere Let the Bible of God be now more than ever the Companion of your Solitary Hours Finally The SON of GOD is the Pearl of great price which no Gold is to be equaliz'd unto We read of a Brazen-Serpent or more truly a Coper-Serpent marvellously useful to Israel of old O let us now Esteem the Antitype of that Brasen or Coper Shadow before the Richest Gold. The holy God has newly sent me back from the Sides of Eternity to tell you That One CHRIST is worth ten Worlds T is a thing whereof you have been heretofore advised with frequent solemn lively Warnings from the Eternal God As Ioshua could say in Cap. 24. 27. Behold this stone shall be a Witness for it hath heard all the words of the Lord. So may I say Let this Pulpit and these Walls and Seats and Pillars Remember if you have forgotten That you have been often told All the gold in the world is not worth one Christ. And behold I repeat unto you one Warning more Let this House be a Witness and be you witnesses of it O ye Angels that are invisible here That it has been earnestly affirmed in our Hearing A Christ is better than a Thousand Worlds and they that slâ—ight Him will be miserable for infinitely more than ten Thousand Ages LIFE DESIRED Vpon the Death of a Relation Psal. CXIX 175. Let my Soul live and it shall praise thee and let thy Iudgements help me SWeeter Words than these could not come from the Sweet Singer of Israel himself The Hundred and Nineteenth is the longest and yet if the Comparison be not odious the sweetest of all the Psalms and perhaps the Psalm like the Grace wherewith it was Composed has a growing Sweetness towards the Conclusion of it The one and twentieth Octonary in this excellent Psalm is a Bundle of Heavenly Affections this two and twentieth Octonary is an Heap of Holy Petitions There are especially Six Petitions in this last part of the Psalm The fourth and fifth of them are in the words now before us He begs First for his Life then for God's Help The Life petition`d for may be understood as Two-fold it is called The life of the Soul both Natural Life and Spiritual Life may be intended in that Expression But cheefly the former Let my soul live it is q. d. Let my Self live T is an usual Hebraism In that signification it was the Choice of Sampson Let me dy in the Hebrew it is Let my Soul dy with the Philistines The Help petition'd for has Two Things declared concerning it We have the For-What of this Help this is That he might attend the Business for which he desired to live namely To praise God. And we also have the From-Whence of this Help this is From the Iudgments of God. Thy Iudgments this is one of the Ten various Phrases used here to signify the Wayes and Means whereby God reveals Himself unto the world In short the Doctrine before us is That While we pray to live we should account the Praises of God to be the Cheef End of our Life in which the Judgments of God are to be sought and used as our Help The Propositions which may shape this Truth unto our minds are these Prop. I. The Praise of God is to be accounted the cheef end of our Life on Earth If our Souls do live in our Bodies if we enjoy that Life which is an Union between Soul and Body this is to be the End of it That we may praise the God of our lives It was the pious
Expectation of the Psalmist in Psal. 118. 17. I shal not dy but live and declare the works of the Lord. This is to be the Resolution of every man. Can we say I do not dy but live We should add I will then declare the Praises of the Lord. The first Question that the Thoughts of men should be employed upon is What is the Cheef End of Man The true and Just answer To that Question is The Cheef End of man is to glorifie God. Well put the Question so What is the Cheef End of Life The Answer to that Question too will be the same It is to glorifie God. To praise God What is that To praise God is to Render and Procure a due Acknowlement of His Excellencies Indeed all the Duties of Religion are Contained in this Comprehensive thing When we own when we serve when we Adore the Great God in any or all the waies of His Worship Then we praise Him and we further praise Him when we provoke others to join with us in doing so This This Praise of the LORD is the End of our Life in the World. This is the End of our Being We are told that We have our Being in God. Of all things whatever this is then most Reasonable that We should have our Being for God and our Being for Him is not expressed without our praising of Him. The blessed God looks from on high upon mankind and saith as in Isa. 43. 21. This people have I formed for my self they should show forth my Praise Now that which is the End of our Being is the End of our Living too Two things are to be affirmed of it First The Law of God doth Appoint this as as the End of our Lives Unto every man living this is the Voice of God I spare thy life that so thou mayst live my praise It is said in Rom. 14. 7. If we live we are to live unto the Lord. What the Apostle saith of Eating and Drinking may much more be said of Living as in 1. Cor. 10. 30. It must be unto the Glory of God. God gives our Lives God keeps our Lives and this is His reveled His Preceptive Will concerning our Lives Man I suffer thy life yea I support thy life that I may be praised loved admired by thee as long as thou livest It was an heavy dismal Charge against Belshazzer in Dan. 5. 23. God in whose Hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified The Almighty God gives us notice of this Thy Breath is in my hand at the same time He also requires this of us Let thy life be to my prâ—ise That man makes a sacrilegious Incroachment and Invasion upon Gods Right who makes not Godâ—s Praise the End of his living upon God`s Earth There is therefore Secondly this to be added thereunto The Heart of man should Embrace this as the End of our lives It becomes every man to say I live that God who is worthy to be praised may have the praises of my Obedience to Him. It was the godly purpose of the Psalmist in Psal. 147. 2. While I live I will praise the Lord. And a kin to this is the Right Thought which every man should entertain I do live that I may praise the Lord. Hence this is one of the principal Pleas which the Saints have used in their Supâ—lications for their Lives Good Hezekiah pray'd in his Distress Lord let me live And what was his Argument It was that in Isa. 38. 17. 18. The Grave cannot praise thee the living the living he shall praise thee The heart of man should readily close with such an End for the life of man. Satan saies Thou livest only to Enjoy the delights of the Flesh in the world thou livest only to seek to get and to tast the saecular pleasures provided for thee The soul of man should rise with unspeakable Indignation at this wild proposal On the other side our God saies The Business of thy life is to magnifie Mee to make my Praise glorious Here now Here the Soul of every man should fall in and Reply This is all my Salvation and all my Desire But this leads to PROP. II. Prayers for life are then and only then rightly qualified when they have Respect unto the Praises of God. To clear this matter there are these things to be conceived One Conclusion is That the Living on Earth have many peculiar Opportunities to be Praising of God. Indeed Blessed are the dead who dy in the Lord for they too are alwaies praising of Him. But yet they rest from some Praises when they rest from their Labours here The departed Saints are continually shouting Hâ—llelujah Hallelujah before the Throne of God. The Saints they are joyful in glory and the High Praises of God are perpetually Proceeding from those blessed Souls But Christians in this world have their peculiar Opportunities to be Glorifying of Him that made them This did the Psalmist speak in Ps 88. 11. Shall the dead praise thee To instance in some particulars The Living here may be praising of God by the Discharge of many Relations which the dead Saints are strangers unto We may now praise God as Parents as Masters as Officers in the the Church or Common-Wealth All those Capacities will dy with us when we shall go hence and be-no more Again The Living here may be Praising of God by Bearing many a Witness to the Truths and Wayes of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may now bestow many Rebukes upon the Errors and the Evils of a sinful World. We may part with and esteem an Estate with our Ease and our Life it self out of Respect unto the Name of God. But our Testimonies expire with our Lives Once more The Living may be Praising of God by Advancing His Kingdom here below In this Life we may be instrumental to Convince and Convert Vnregenerate Sinners to build up the Church of the Lord Jesus and to Do good among the ignorant by an Exemplary Conversation But this is to be done only below the stars Furthermore There are Graces proper to this Life which God is praised by the Exercising of The Tears of Sorrow for Sin will be dry`d up when we come to the State in which all Sorrow shall flee away Charity in Giving and Forgiving to them that need it there is no occasion for that Charity among them that are above they are all perfect and happy there Patience under Tryals belongs to our present Condition only there are no Afflictions to trouble us when our few dayes full of trouble are passed away In a Word Our Spiritual Warfare is to be attended only in this Valley of the Shadow of Death We cannot fight the Battles of the Lord and therein we cannot shew the praises of the Lord when we are arrived at the End of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Our Fight is done our Crown is come when we have been Faithful to the Death A Second Conclusion is That Opportunities
a Child of God. Such were the Desires of Paul in Phil. 1. 22. I desire to be dâ—ssolved and be with Christ. When we think of the day in which we shall go to the the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New-Covenant When we think of the day in which the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our enemies and from the hand of SIN O the thoughts of it should fill our Souls with Raptures of Joy they should cause our hearts to leap and spring within us In is an allowable thing to be almost angry with Time to call upon slow Time and say Fly apaces Fly away O Time Come O Eternity come and fetch me into the presence of the Lord. The Visions of the Lord Jesus may cause us to say humbly with aged faithful Simeon Lord let thy servant depart in peace The Chariots of Death sent by the Lord Jesus to fetch us unto Himself should be as welcom to us as the Waggons of Ioseph were to Iacob of old It should cause us to Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory when we think of the unspeakable joy and the full glory which we are going unto There are holy longings and lookings of Soul with which we may cry out Why why are His Churiots so long i'coming Why tarry the Wheels thereof But yet Secondly By way of Correction If these Desires are with Impatience much more if they are thro' Impatience they become sinful before the Lord. The embittered spirits of Christians have been sometimes too prone unto such Desires It was an inordinate passion in Moses when a froward people under his charge provoked him to say in Numb 17. 14. Kill me I pray thee out of hand Had God granted his Desire he had lost Thirty years of eminent Service in the World. It was an irregular passion in Elias when the persecutions of wicked men so tired him as to make him say in 1. King. 19. 4. O Lord take away my life It hath been an Observation that Many good and great men sit under Elias's Iuniper tree As culpable was the Passion of Ionah when the Withering of a Guord had that Effect upon him in Cap. 4. 8. He wished to dy The like pang of Impatience did that Pattern of Patience Iob fall into be spake as if he could hardly for bear laying violent hands upon himself Even so far do the distempered unbridled Wishes of many run Their Desire of Death is a sort of Revenge on God they would as it were deprive God of the glory which He might have of them Compose these desires O ye raging Souls compose these Desires Allay this Fever this phrensy It s not only an irreligious but an unnatural passion which you are carried away withal You desire to dye Well are you sure that the Death which you desire now will not prove a Death which you shall Deplore throughout eternal Ages It is said of the Believer in Psal. 91. 19. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation It is a very disordered heart that will be dissatisfied with so great a mercy Secondly Vnsanctified Desires of Life are to be Reproved also Of these Desires there are Three Sorts to be Reprehended There are first Carnal Desires of Life to be blamed Some desire to live and wherefore is it It is because they desire to eat and drink and be merry They cann't part with such Relations and Possessions as are here to be enjoyed The Comforts of Life are the things that cause their Desires of Life One once beholding his fine Accommodations made this Reflection thereupon Haec faciunt invitos mori these are the things that make us unwilling to dy Unmortified Corruptions are the causes of these desires Remember what the Lord hath said in Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother or Son or DAUGHTER more than me is not worthy of me Thus may the Lord well say to the Subject of these Desires If you had rather be with your friends on earth than with your Father in Heaven you are not worthy to be with me at all And this by the way is to be said of them that desire the life of their Friends as well as of them selves It is for the Interest of the Lord Jesus Christ that the dead Children which you lament are dead or else they had not dyed at all Now sais the Lord Jesus If thou lovest those CHILDREN those Relations more than me and hadst rather have them with thy self to my Prejudice than to have them with me to thy own Bereavement thou art not worthy to have them with me at all Secondly There are Careful Desires of Life to be likewise blamed Many desire to live only upon this account Some Child or some Charge they are concerned for They have this or that Child which they cannot believe will be well provided for when they are dead or they suspect what will become of such or such a Charge There is indeed a Desire of Life on such a Score which is not alwaies very severely to be found fault withal But oftentimes there is too much Distrust in such a desire Why cannot we venture our Families and the Concernments thereof in the Hands of the faithful God The Lord has said in Jer. 49. 11. Leave thy fatherless Children I will preserve them alive And he still saies I will be a better Father and a better Friend unto them than thou thy self canst be Thirdly There are Fearful Desires of Life which are blame-worthy too When Death comes with that message Set thy Soul in order for thou shalt dy and not live many persons are so terrified as to be even at their wits ends O how they groan I cannot dy Indeed Sinners that have not been born twice may well tremble to dy once no body can blame them there is a Second Death ready to sieze upon the forlorn souls that are not Regenerate But such as have been truly turn'd to God in Christ should not entertain Death with such Reluctancies Can you not uprightly say That if you were sure to be freed from Sin you could be content to be struck by Death O then be cheerfully willing to Dy. Thy soul will no sooner pass into Eternity but it shall experience that thing in Rom. 6. 7. He that is dead is freed from Sin. It is often pretended by men I would live because I would be more holy before I dy T is well but there is not seldom a Deceit in the Pretence often something else is in the Bottom A Rebellion against the Will of God. Wouldst thou really and earnestly be holy Be willing then to dy as well as to live Death is the way to Holiness in the Perfection of it In short Good was the Temper of that sick person who being asked Which do you desire to live or to dy answered I refer it to God and when it was again said But suppose
God should refer it to you reply'd I would then refer it to him again USE II. Let us all be now Exhorted that the Praise of Ged may be duly accounted by us as the End of our Life in our Prayers for it Let us not shoot beside our Mark or live beside our End. Let us pray that we may live and let us live that we may praise It is the most lamentable plight in the world that a man should spend his Life in Sinning against God rather than in Praising of Him. But alas This is the case of Multitudes Multitudes among us How few of us Consider of in seriously How sew of you that are now before the Lord ever seriously thought with your selves What is the Errand that I am come into the world upon Hast thou not lived above a Score of years in the world and never yet seriously thought What is it that God sent me hither for Every man here I suppose desires to live let your Prayers express those Desires and say after the Psalmist Ps. 32. 8. My Prayer is to the God of my life But more than so Let those Desires be for the sake of your Praises and say after the Psalmist again in Ps. 119. 17. Deal bountifully with thy Servant that I may live and keep thy Word Three things are you to be advised unto yea Four things are to be impoâ—tunately prest upon you First Mark and Prize your Opportunities to be Prâ—â—â—ing of God. Every man has his Opportâ—nities Some have an Instrument of a Thousand Strings but the meanest of us all has an Instrument of Ten strings for our God to be praised with Let every man often enquire What are my Opportunities to glorify God And let every man alwaies conclude My Opportunities are my Treasures Secondly Let the Word of God Direct you in His Praises Be often Consulting of that Peace will be on alâ— and Praise will be from all that walk according to this Rule A Bible Christians let That be your Counsellour on all Occasions The Psalmist could say in Ps. 119. 164. Seven times a day will I praise thee O Lord because of thy Righteous Judgements Thirdly Let the Rod of God provoke you to His Praises If you cannot Bless God for your Afflictions which yet I think is a thing attainable nevertheless I 'm sure you should praise God in your Afflictions Let God gain some Glory and we shall gain some Good by all our Sufferings Take the counsil in Isa. 34. 15. Glorifie the Lord in the Fires To Enforce these Three Things Consider that Thing wich is intimated in the Text. The Lives of your Souls are enwrapped in the praises of God. Saies the Psalmist Let my soul live and it shall praise thee So I may say Let thy Soul praise and it shall live A praising Soul is a Thriving Soul. In this consisteth Life Eternal it self The Life of thy Soul in the Third Heaven will be the praise of thy God for evermore Praise God for thy Life it is a mercy well worth praise Praise God by thy life so thou wilt begin Heaven upon Earth But there is a Fourth Counsil which more immediately concerns that part of the Congregation which are of my own Age and have therefore a more peculiar interest in my Loves and Cares T is to Young People here that I take leave to say Fourthly Begin You now Betimes to live unto the Praise of the everliving God. My Brethren you have not yet begun to live at all if you have not begun to praise the Lord. You are Dead in Trespasses and Sins you are stark dead in the rotten hideous loathsome Graves of your Unregeneracy if you have not yet begun to order your Conversation aright and to ponder How may I so offer praise as to Glorify God But is not this the deplorable Condition of many many Young people here Conscience do thine Office Is not the Hour yet to come is not the Day yet to dawn when that young person whom thou art the Officer of God unto did by an hearty Covenant bind himselfe unto the Serving and the Praising of the Lord But what mean you O ye inconsiderate Youths to delay the Remembring of your Creator so In the Language of the young Prophet whom God sent unto the Iews of old let me say thus saith the Lord Consider your waies Consider the Vncertainty of your Life which you have to be praising of God withal As young as you are you may dy before the most aged person here It hath been truly noted That The old man has Death before his face but the young man has Death behind his back The stroak of Death may sooner lay you in the Dust than some whose Heads old Time hath snow'd upon O look and see and let thy heart shake at the Apprehension of it Thy Death stands just behinâ— thee there with an Horrible Pole-Ax ready lifted up saying as the Prince of old Shall I smite them shall I smite them If the great God utter the word Smite smite thou art gone beyond all Recovery The Blessed God hath newly caused me to look into the Coffins of two very near and sweet Relations neither of which had ever seen Twenty Winters in the World and with a strong hand He then said unto me Go Go tell the young people of Boston and Charlestown that this is that which they are all expos`d unto Behold I am now come in Bitterness and in the heat of my spirit I am come to Warn you of it That You may dy before you are aware of such a dismal Change at hand O do not procrastinate the praises and the Vertues which the God of Heaven Expects from you put not off until Tomorrow For t is the admonition to be now set before you in Prov. 2. 7. Bâ—ast not thy self of Tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth But Consider also the Dreadfulness of a Death ensuing upon a Life not spent in the praising of God. O this Dying t is a solemn thing 't is A thing by it self What followes it But that in Heb. 9. 27. After Death Iudgement That Iudgment will be Eternal and if it come upon thee before thy turning and living unto God it will be very Terrible Hearken to this awful Truth and Voice of the Almighty God and let thy heart quiver as under the loudest claps of Thunder at it If thou Dy before thy peace be made with God and thy praise be given to Him t is impossible thou shouldst escape the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Small Chipâ— as well as great Logs are horribly burnâ—â—◠〈◊〉 there must thou too undergo most exquisite Anguishes for infinitely more than as many Millions of Ages as the Huge Ocean has Drops of Water in it O Consider these Terrors of the Lord and immediately set upon His Praises Now that you would come to these Resolutions before you go from the present Exercise Entreat me not to leave you or to turn from following after you but give me leave to press upon you at least this one Consideration more Consider seriously How exceeding Acceptable it will be to the great God for such Young persons as you to set upon praising of Him Your Praises they are very much desired by the Lord and not a little delightful to Him. He declares My soul desires the first ripe Fruit and He seem'd to express as it were some Hast for the First Fruits under the Law of Old. The Lord in a sort longs to see you serving of Him with the First Fruits of your Age and of your Praise He saies as in Cant. 2. 14. Let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice The Voice of your Praises makes a matchless melody in the ears of the God that has call'd for them The very Chatterings of our infants are pleasant unto us the Praises and the Devotions of young persons are so unto Our Father which is in Heaven and he asketh for them with ungainsayable Importunities 'T was said unto a young man in 1. Chron. 28. 9. If thou seek the Lord He will be found of thee Even so If thou that art a young person praise the Lord he will be pleased with thee One that owns an Orchard full of many fruitful Trees will take a most particular and affectionate Notice of a young Tree beginning to have some little Fruit upon it Our Father is such an Husband man. Young Iohns are they that prove the Disciples whom Iesus loves Young Iosiahs will have special Comforts in this and special Honours in another world And yee Hearts of Adamant are you not yet overcome to resolve I will now praise and serve the great God! O let not your Answer be I am almost perswaded but become Altogether so As t was said of him Behold he prayes thus let it be said of you Behold he praises How How can you be deaf Adders before the Charms of these Considerations Lord visit the hitherto-unperswaded young people here O make it the Day of thy power with them and keep these things in the Imagination of the thoughts of their hearts for Evermore FINIS