Object my mistake and misapplication of this Text in that men our fellow Christians are the object of this Love and Service here to be provoked unto And I deny it not but it is Gods Image Interest and Service in and by them in reference to the pleasing of his will so good so acceptable and so perfect Rom. xii 1 2. that is the great inducement to this love And as these things are discernable in them communicable to them and followed or neglected by them so are they related to and all of us concerned in this Love and good Works either as Agents or Objects or both and of this Love and Service is God the Original Dirigent and Vltimate End Quest What is the duty of Magistrates from the highest to the lowest for the suppressing of prophaneness SERMON XV. Rom. 13.3 For Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evil REligion if right doth excel all other things in the world upon the account of its universal usefulness and the powerful influences it hath upon them that are true to it for the promoting of their present future and everlasting happiness Of all other the Christian Religion which we own and profess is the best and most worthy of our engaging in and immoveable cleaving to being pure and undefiled before God and the Father as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 1.27 v. Unspeakably profitable it is and advantageous to the Kingdoms that receive it and to the Persons who are sincere in it and studious of conforming themselves to its holy Precepts and Rules The sacred Scriptures drawn up and left by men divinely inspired and infallibly assisted from which alone we fetch it not from Fathers or Councils whatever esteem and Veneration we have for them do commend themselves unto the judgments and consciences of men who have not shaken hands with reason and fetch so great a compass as to contain and reveal either in particular or general directions all that which is necessary for us to believe or do in order to our full satisfaction and endless felicity in the next world and our present safety peace and comfort in this foolish and troublesome one David tells us Psal 119.96 The Commandment is exceeding broad It is long for its duration being aeternae veritatis of everlasting truth not any thing shall be diminished or cut off from it not any thing shall be chang'd or alter'd in it and it is broad for its usefulness extending to and spreading it self over all the occasions of men for it hath comforts Sovereign and proper in all distresses though never so pinching together with directions adapted to and fitted for all conditions and affairs though never so difficult and abstruse The blessed Word of God will teach you how to order and demean your selves in your personal capacities and in your relative too how to walk alone and how to draw in the Yoke It presents us with the best Ethicks Oeconomicks and Politicks in the World Aristotles and Machiavels are fooleries if compared with it This precious word being well attended to and obeyed will make comfortable Families flourishing Kingdoms and States Oh that all those unto whom the Lord hath in his goodness vouchsafed these Oracles would be so wise as to make them their delight and Counsellors Sure I am we should then be blessed with better Husbands and Wives better Parents and Children better Masters and Servants better Friends and Neighbours better Ministers and people better Magistrates and Subjects The beauty of the Lord our God would be upon us and that would make our faces shine Of the last mention'd Relation viz. That between Magistrates and Subjects the holy Apostle Paul treats at the beginning of this Chapter and so on to the 8th verse In the first verse he issueth out his precept from which it appears that Christ is no enemy to Caesar and the principles of Christian Religion not inconsistent with those of Loyalty The best Christians will be found at long run to be sure the best Subjects None so true to their Prince as those that are most faithful to their God for what saith our Apostle Let every Soul be Subject to the higher powers Every one Man Woman and Child that is capable of understanding what subjection means and of expressing it Be he of what rank and in what station he will high or low noble or base rich or poor of the Clergy by the Popes leave or of the Laity as some love to speak let him be Subject not overtop not exalt himself over that which is called God but be subject to the higher powers Who are they the Civil Magistrates Antichrist hath put in his claim here but he is justly non-suited by Protestants It is the Civil Magistrate whose interest and right our Apostle here asserts and pleads Kings as he speaks in another Epistle and all that are in Authority These we are to pray for to these we ought to be Subject to these we must pay tribute these we must honour support and assist these we are bound to obey not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and that in all things in which obedience to them doth not carry in the bowels of it disobedience unto God whom the greatest and highest of them are infinitely below This precept he backs and binds upon Christians with sundry arguments drawn 1. From the Institution Of Magistracy of what kind soever the Government be whether Monarchical or Aristocratical c. Still Government is of divine Institution It is Gods Ordinance and Appointment There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God It is not of the Devil who is an enemy to order and delights in confusion nor is it only by the will of man whatsoever they may and do contribute toward it nor is it ony of those who possess the Throne and sway the Scepter but it is of God who in his infinite wisdom and goodness to mankind hath determined and ordered it should be so who according to the pleasure of his will without giving account of his matters putteth down one and setteth up another and who hath infused such an instinct and principle into men living together in a Community as powerfully and effectually leads to the electing of one or more and setting him or them over them arming and intrusting them with power and authority for the administration of justice and publick affairs that by them common safety and good may be both secured and promoted and from them as from the head vital and comfortable influences may be conveyed to the whole politick body yea to the meanest and lowest of its members who grind at the Mill and handle the Diffaff 2. From the sin of those who refuse this required Subjection and oppose and resist the Magistrate v. 2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God He doth herein run counter and Cross to the all-wise God and his declared will He doth as
13. When the Lord sent Paul to Preach the Gospel among the Gentiles that he might hearten him for that difficult and dangerous work he promised him Protection Act. xxvi 17 18. Delivering thee from the People to whom I now send thee To open their eyes They stand in need of a mighty presence of God with them who have just cause to fear That those people will seek their death to whom they bring the word of Life and Salvation I thought this Scripture so apposite to the matter in hand and so directive to private Christians that it may plead my excuse for this enlargement upon it 2. That Private Christians may be sure to mind it our Saviour hath put it into the Rule of Prayer Matth. 6.10 Thy Kingdom come I have read That it is one of the Jews Maxims touching Prayer Ista Oratio in quâ non est memoria regni Dei non est Oratio That Prayer in which there is no mention made of the Kingdom of God is no Prayer at all when we pray Thy Kingdom come we beg That the Gospel which is the Rod of Christ's Power and the Scepter of his Government may spread all the world over For where the Gospel is believed and obeyed there doth Christ reign over fallen Man as Mediator 3. The Saints under the Old Testament prayed for the Calling and Conversion of the Gentiles under the Gospel-dispensation Psal lxvii 2 3. That thy way may be known upon Earth thy saving health among all Nations Let the people praise thee O God Let all the people praise thee 4. When by the Preaching of the Gospel in any place the people were wrought upon and brought to Believe in Christ They were exhorted to pray That the Word of the Lord might be carried to all other parts of the gentile-Gentile-world 2 Thess iii. 1. Finally Brethren Pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you And such Prayers are not to be thought to be lost or put up to God in vain That Prediction or Promise Rom. xvi 20. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly did doubtless excite many a Prayer and That Promise was eminently accomplished and those Prayers which were grounded upon it and put up to God in faith took effect when the Kingdom of Satan administred in the Idolatries of the Gentiles was laid waste and the Christian Profession was advanced by Constantine the Great Having now so inviting an occasion offered to me give me leave to present a Request to you and it shall be in the words of the Apostle 1 Thess v. 25. Brethren Pray for us for those who labour among you in the Word and Doctrin And I hope I may without vanity enforce this Request by the same Apostles Argument or Motive Hebr. xiii 18. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Many reflect upon us with disparagement and we are very sensible of our own many and great infirmities But Help us with your Prayers That we may Be better Live better and Preach better It is no Paradox but a well-weighed Truth That a godly private Christian upon his knees in his Closet may assist the Minister in his Study and in the Pulpit And that I may prevail in my Request I can assure you That whatsoever Gifts or Graces ye obtain of God for your Ministers by your Prayers they will come as Blessings upon your selves like the vapours that rise from the Earth being concocted in the Middle-Region fall down upon it again in fruitful showers 1 Cor. iii. 21 22. For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas If any say This is a Digression from the Case which I was to speak to I would entreat them to consider what is the general scope and design of it and they will find That it comports very well with it Once I am sure That it is as much the Duty and Concernment of private Christians to pray for the Success of the Gospel that it may be blessed to the Conversion and Salvation of Souls in England as that it may be preached entertained believed and obeyed in the uttermost parts of the Earth And so I will return to prosecute my Discourse with two Remarks 1. That From what hath been said touching the Prayers of private Christians for the spreading of the Gospel we may be assured That God hath determined to bestow those Mercies for which he commands his people to pray And more than That He usually bestows them in the disposal of his Providence upon the intervention of his Peoples Prayers as may be collected from Ezek. xxxvi 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness ver 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes ver 30. I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the Field compared with ver 37. Thus saith the Lord I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them 2. That no godly private Christian can object against his Duty in praying that the Gospel may be carried to all Nations and be entertained by them nor alledge any excuse or pretence why they should be exempted from it If any hesitate let me expostulate the matter with their Consciences Have ye received the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and can ye not pray Do ye feel the Love of Christ warming stirring and constraining your hearts and will ye not pray ye dearly value the Glory of God and sincerely desire That the earth may be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea And can ye refrain from praying that this may be performed ye tenderly compassionate the miserable condition of Poor Perishing Souls and will ye not afford them so much as your Prayers that they may be relieved Are ye not greatly affected with the distinguishing Grace of God in bringing the Gospel to you and opening your Hearts to receive it How then Can ye offer up your Praises to God for so signal a Mercy without making some reflection on the deplorable state of those who have not as yet obtained the like favour without lifting up a Prayer for them that they may be made partakers of the same Grace Or will ye reply That you do pray indeed That God would visit the heathen World with the Gospel of Salvation But ye cannot think that your Prayers will contribute much toward so great and good a work Suffer me to debate this also a little with you Why will you reproach the Spirit and Grace of Prayer in saying it can avail little or nothing when God himself saith Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous man availeth much Those Prayers which can mount as high as Heaven are able also to reach
the one because they must the other because they ought Some get into the greatest crowd for the advancement of their diving trade of picking pockets they not at all observing how the Devil tricks them of their Souls for perverting the ends of the Gospel 3. Some propose Ends frivolous and trifling though they are sinful too e. g. some to see fashions some to be taken notice of among serious Christians for Worldly not Spiritual advantage Prop. 4. Those that propose a good End must call themselves to a strict and severe account how that end is obtained or lost A slight account is in some respect worse than none at all for by a shuffling account you do but as it were bribe Gods Officer natural Conscience to respit you from time to time till Death surprizeth you with a summons to give up your account to Christ himself I 'll name four Metaphors which will illustrate and prove this 1. We must give such an account as a Scholar to his Teacher of what he learns (r) Mar. 4.13 And he said unto them know ye not this parable and how then will ye know all parables q. d. If you understand not those similitudes that most plainly shew you how you must receive the Word if ever you get saving benefit by it how will you ever profit by any thing else 2. You must give an account as a Steward to his Master (s) Luk. 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship c. But here 's the difference between being Stewards to our Heavenly and to an Earthly Master Christ and his Servants have but one and the same interest if we improve whatever he intrust us with for our real profit we do thereby give him the Glory he expects and he will accept of our accounts 3. We must give an account as a Debtor to our Creditor (t) Mat. 18.24 The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain King which would take account of his Debtors and when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which ought him ten thousand talents c. We are so far sinfully indebted to the Justice of God that unless we be discharg'd upon our Suretyes payment we must be imprisoned with Devils unto Eternity 4. We must give an account as a Malefactor to a Judge (u) Mat. 12.36 Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Unprofitable words cannot scape being accounted for Let 's fulfil all these Metaphors in calling our selves to account and when we have done that we have not done all for Prop. 5. The strict Account we take of our selves must be frequent Every Christian is Christs Garden that drinketh (w) Heb. 6.7 in the rain that cometh oft upon it As there must be frequent Showers on Gods part so there must be frequent Weeding on our part or no Blessing to be expected This is not a Duty that can be dispatcht at once those that do not often account never account as they ought Methinks I may allude unto the dying words of Elisha to Joash (y) 2 King 13.18 19. when he bid the King smite upon the ground without prescribing how oft but when he smote only thrice the man of God was wroth with him and told him he should have smitten oftener What do you reflect upon your selves only upon some qualm of Conscience or upon some rouzing Sermon or upon some startling Providence Don't you know that your hearts are incredibly deceitful Satan perpetually watchful to steal away the Word and he will do it unless you (z) Ps 119.11 hide it in your heart Your ordinary Experience tells you that you never let your accompts run on to any length but they are intangled and that your frequent self-reflections are always blessed with growth of Grace But I 'll come to some Inferences from the Doctrine Infer 1. It is not the bare hearing of the best Preachers in the World that will save you Though a Minister be never so successful in the Conversion of Sinners unless your Souls be Converted you had better never have heard him Let not any scoffing Atheist say Then I 'll never hear any of them more Sirs pray believe this one word that will not make your Damnation more tolerable (a) Ezek. 20.32 33. That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all We will be as the Heathen as the families of the Country to serve wood and stone As I live saith the Lord God surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you God will not send his Word to a people and leave them at their liberty to continue in their infidelity or to return to it at their pleasure if they will live as Heathens their Condemnation shall be far worse Infer 2. Many persons who lay aside other Business spend much time and take much pains to hear the best Preachers but they either not proposing or not pursuing a right end renders all they do worse than nothing and they drop into Hell while they seem to be knocking at Heaven door We read of five thousand Men besides Women and Children may we not moderately reckon the Women and Children to double the number (b) Mat. 14.15 c. and 15.32 c. these poor people when they came from home took Provision with them for several days drank Water lay several nights upon the ground in the open Fields staid after their Victuals was sâ—ent till they were scarce able to get home for saintness all this appears by having Baskets so ready to gather up the Fragments whereas in the Wilderness there was none to be bought or borrowed But alas How few of this Ten Thousand were then savingly Converted We read not of any great numbers of Converts by Christs Preaching for Christ but covertly and sparingly discovered himself to be the Messiah least he should hinder the main thing he came into the World for viz. to dye for sinners for (c) 1 Cor. 2.8 had they known him they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory Besides Christ told his Disciples (d) Joh. 14.12 their Preaching should be followed with the Conversion of more Souls than his Pauze a little and think how many will tell Christ they have heard him Preach in their streets and they have followed him into the Wilderness they have there wanted their sleep in the night and gone with a hungry belly in the day for which Christ fed them by Miracle and yet Christ will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity (e) Lu. 13.26 27. Let me follow these Inferences with a word or two of Reproof 1. Of those whose other Duties do not hold proportion with their Hearing Mistake me not I had rather never speak word more while
and before God who feedeth them with Christ the Bread of Life especially every Sabbath day Were this or some such course taken from week to week would not this hook into your practice all the great Duties of Religion And so you would give a good account of your hearing but 3. My third Direction is this Do not only satisfie your selves but carry on your enquiry that it may thrô grace satisfie Christ My Text is a question proposed by Christ and to him must we give our answer You may give a plausible account to Ministers but 'pray ' remember you must give an account to Christ You may by leading questions mislead Ministers as persons that go to Law do their Lawyers and they lose their Cause by it but when by studied Hypocrisie you mislead Ministers to gratifie you with a mistaken judgment you lose your Souls by it 'T is Christ that asks the question not to be informed by you for he knows what is in man better than they themselves Christ would have you to be plain-hearted and ingenuous that wherein you see cause to complain he may help you When the trembling Soul after the hearing of such Ministers as would undeceive them is like Jeremy for his peoples being deceived by false Prophets (u) Jer. 23. ◠My heart within me is broken because of the Prophets all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his Holiness q. d. Fear and trembling takes hold of me I am ashamed I am at my Wits end the word of God calls for so much Holiness and I have so little Thou enquirest Lord what I hear for I dare not say that my intentions and ends are so serious as they should be I am afraid to own any thing that is good Christ in a way of compassion is ready to encourage such a Soul Canst thou but sincerely say thou comest to meet Christ and to learn of Christ Jesus Christ welcomes such to him and they may answer him with comfort Under this head consider 1. Christ asks thee here in this World that thou mayst now be able to give such an answer as thou mayst stand by at the last day when there will be neither Hopes nor Time to rectifie it if it be insufficient 'T is in this something like our Pleadings in Courts of Judicature we must put in our Plea and stand to it Thou knowest Lord there is through Grace something of sincerity but for any thing else do thou Lord answe◠for me 'Pray ' mark this when once the Soul can bring the question back again to Christ thus Thou askest me what I come for Lord I come for thee to answer for me I can't satisfie my own Conscience 't is ready to fly in my Face much less can I satisfie my Jealous Master unless tho◠compassionately answer for me Lord thou usest to answer for thine own May we then suppose Christ thus to enquire Who shall lay any thing to the charge of any one who sincerely comes to wait for me in mine Ordinances Can we suppose any one to be so daring as to perk up and say I charge all these to be a company of proud conceited Hypocrites they 'll needs be wiser than their Neighbours they spend their time in running up and down to hear Sermons Christ doth as it were answer Dost thou make this a Crime What he did 't was out of Love to me and Obedience to me He hath chosen that good (w) Luk. 10.42 part which shall not be taken away from him and for you who are so ready to accuse others and excuse your selves for slighting or ill managing all the means offered for your Salvation (x) Mat. 22.13 Bind him hand and foot that he may make no resistance take him away that he may neither make an escape nor have any hopes of Mercy and cast him into outer darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth 2. If you do not give Christ an answer which he will accept of 't is in vain to expect relief from any other If the Father be offended Christ interposeth himself bears the wrath of God and prevents it from us Christ is the days-man between God and us If the Spirit be grieved by our quenching his motions and striving against his striving with us to hear and obey the Lord Jesus provided that rise not to THE Sin against the Holy Ghost which the greatest part of trembling Christians often fear they have committed though by the way let me tell them that their fear they have committed it yields them sufficient assurance they have not committed it for this sin is always attended with such hardness of Heart that they sin without remorse So that while the Spirit overcomes their resistances and prevails with them to comply with Christ through Christ their sins against the Spirit shall be pardoned But (y) Exod. 23.20 21. when the Angel of the Covenant Jesus Christ was promised to be sent before the Israelites in the Wilderness to keep them in the way and to bring them into the place prepared for them they are expresly charged to beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your Transgressions but severely punish them Not that sins against Christ shall never be pardoned though repented of but to keep us from adventuring upon sin as if it should easily be pardoned whereas the Apostle tells us (z) Heb. 10.26 If we sin wilfully there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin i. e. Those that reject and renounce Christs Sacrifice for sin there 's no other Sacrifice can atone God for them I grant that this Text chiefly concerns the unpardonable sin But I pray you consider those that do not make it the main business of their Lives to give Christ such an account as he will accept of what improvement they have made of his Word if they live and dye in that neglect they shall as certainly perish as they who commit the sin against the Holy Ghost There are but very few can commit that sin but an incredible number commit this without considering the danger of it Now Christians is your time to make up such an account as you must stand or fall by to Eternity Oh that I had but one Minutes such conception of Eternity as 't is possible to be had in this World I reckon 't would influence my whole Life Christs Sentence at last will be according to 〈◊〉 account we give him here and if his Sentence ben't as you would have it there will be no altering of it Your Repentance then will be no small part of your Torment Object I can't think that Christ will be so sharp and severe This affrights me more than any thing This is the most terrible Consideration that ever I heard I expected relief from Christ at last and that Christ should hear me at my
at him (e) Psal 8.2 Out of the mouths of very unlikely persons hast thou ordained strength that thou mightest still the Enemy and the Avenger q. d. God doth by the Spiritual Skill and Strength which he gives even to young weak Converts unfit to grapple with an Enemy God enables even such to silence confound and conquer the Enemies of God and his People and the Devil in the head of them whose Kingdom and Power is broken by this means and those that fight under his Banner against God and Christ And pray observe the Title here given him viz. the Avenger he being Sentenced by God to Eternal Torments makes it his business to revenge himself what he can upon God and Christ upon his Children and Servants Christians if you can through Grace make Satan himself against his will help you to profit by the Word this will raise your Souls beyond what is ordinary both for Grace and Comfort Or if God in his Wisdom suspend such manifestations of himself yet such exercise of Grace shall certainly tend to the multiplying of Praises in the other World And now though I have in my pitiful manner answered the Case my work is not yet done till I have answered a Complaint upon the Case and 't is the Complaint of those who have least cause of those who give Christ that Answer to his Question which satisfies him but yet can't give an Answer will satisfie themselves Their Hearts ake from the very proposing of the Question and their Hearts misgive them under all that 's said in Answer to it Complaint We have more Cause to complain than we are able to express Oh the Sermons that we have lost of which we can give no account at all and of those that are not utterly lost we have made no suitable improvement We are convinced that we should be as impartial now in examining whether we have got saving Faith by hearing of the Word We should be as strict now as if we were upon our Dying Bed We know not whether ever we shall have a Death-bed many more likely to live than our selves dye suddenly and why not we Nay rather now for we have not now wearisome Sickness to disable us We have now those helps that we can't have then Freedom of Ordinances in publick Capacities for Duties in secret We may now bring things to an issue which is then next to impossible These and a Thousand such Considerations even fright me when I sit down to think my Thoughts even overwhelm me to reflect what a sorry account I can give of all that I have heard These and more doleful Complaints are the usual entertainments of their most serious Christian Friends To all which I shall offer these Answers Answ 1. The Word of God which they apply to their Sorrow they ought as well to apply to their Comfort for those who are really grieved that they can't satisfie themselves much less as they think Christ They are mistaken for Christ is ordinarily best satisfied with that which the gracious Soul is least satisfied e. g. That Prayer which he is most ashamed of Christ most approves of (f) Cant. 2.12 The Flowers appear on the Earth the time of the Singing of Birds is come and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land 'T is Spring-time in the Soul When the Groans of a contrite Heart sound harsh to others they are Musick in Christs Ears not that Christ delights in his peoples Sorrows but as they are Evidences of his Graces in them and of his Spirit 's abiding with them It is only the gracious Soul that is grieved at Heart that he can't give Christ a better account of his profiting (g) Ezr. 9.6 10. ch 10.2 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God What shall I say after this There 's hope in Israel concerning this thing The Apostle expresly assures us that (h) 1 Cor. 11.31 32. those that judge themselves shall not be judged with a Judgment of Condemnation Chear up therefore poor dropping Soul and to thy comfort consider whether this be not the only thing wherein Christ and you Believers be not of the same mind Christ puts a better interpretation of his actings than he himself dares many a time Christ owns that as Grace which he condemns for Hypocrisie Christ forgives him that which he can never forgive himself Christ says Well done good and faithful Servant for that which he ever finds fault with But the complaining Soul saith I mistake him I speak to the rong person Propose comfort to those that are grieved they can't give Christ a satisfying account whereas I am not troubled enough nor grieved enough a serious reflection upon such returns as mine to Christs kindness would certainly break any Heart but mine But alas I am next to nothing affected with it 2. I therefore further answer Thy complaining for want of sensible complaining entitles thee to Comfort Darest thou own so much as this that thou art troubled thou can'st be no more troubled at the shameful account thou givest to Christ Thou art afraid that Word has overtaken thee (i) Isa 6.9 10. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes least they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart c. Surely thou canst not think worse of thy self than this Let me tell thee the more thou thinkest of this the less cause thou hast to apply this to thy self for those who God gives up to judicial hardness never think or speak of such things but in scorn and to make a mock of them and that thou darest not do there 's another word for thee to think of (k) Isa 66.1 2 Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where 's the place of my rest To this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and that trembleth at my Word If God hath any place upon Earth for his Repose it is in that Soul that stands in awe of his Word and with due Reverence receives it What! Dost thou complain thou art not troubled enough Nor contrite enough Not humbled enough How do many Souls bring their Complaints to Ministers and bring their Bills to Congregations for brokeness of Heart and a deep sense of Sin when they are so much broken already that their other Duties are almost justled out by it Don't therefore overlook that Text (l) Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost We should make it our business to live in a ferious course of Holiness towards God and Righteousness towards Men in the love and practice of Peace with all and in the joyful sense of the love of God and hopes of Glory
partiality which is one of the great sins of the Age to cry up some and decry others to overvalue some and to undervalue others Every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Chrst (x) 1 Cor. 1.12 I am of Paul He had an extraordinary Call to the Apostolical Office there 's none preaches Free Grace like him He withstood (y) Gal. 2.11 â—â—â—r to the Face because he was to be blamed And as for Apollos he had need to learn of his Hearers (z) Acts 18.26 24. end When Aquila and Priscilla heard him they â—â—ok him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly None of these things can be spoken of Paul and therefore I am for Paul Another says I am for Apollos (a) ch 2.6 10 10. he is a powerfull Preacher an eloquent Man and mighty in the Scripture fervent in Spirit diligent in the things of the Lord speaking boldly in the Synagogues mightily convincing the Jews I am for Appollos Paul is nothing to him for a Preacher his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible and therefore I am for Apollos Another saith I am for Cephas he was the chief Apostle Christ gave him a special charge to feed his Sheep and his Lambs (b) Joh. 21.17 and therefore I 'll be of his Flock Another says I am for Christ all these have their imperfections but Christ hath none and therefore I 'll expect the immediate teaching of Christ by his Spirit I 'm not for the teachings of Men. And thus Christians do not only differ from one another in their esteem of Preachers but we shall find them differ from themselves in their esteem of the same Persons they magnifie and vilifie the same Ministers (c) Joh. 5.35 John was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season and but for a season to rejoyce in his light To Christ himself they said one day Hosanna and the next day Crucifie him and of Paul the Galathians (d) Gal. 4.14 16. one while received him as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus presently after are as shye of him as of an Enemy because he insists upon some Truths they have no mind to How may this Distemper be prevented or cured Answ 1. Keep up your Esteem of Jesus Christ as your great Shepherd and of all Faithfull Ministers or his under Officers (e) 2 Cor. 4.5 We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 'T is impossible to overvalue Christ provided you do not mistake his Work and neglect your own do not expect that from Christ which he will not do he will not teach you without the Ministry of Man where he vouchsafes it Christ hath the words of Eternal Life but yet he commits to the Ushers of his School The Word of Reconciliation (f) 2 Cor. 5.20 And we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God And 't is Christ that saith expresly (g) Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me This doth not only relate to extraordinary Officers such as the Apostles for Christ as well (h) Eph. 4.11 12. gave Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ And therefore conscienciously Attend upon the Ministry of Men but expect the benefit of it only by the Blessing of Christ whoever plants or waters the success is from Christ 2. Take heed of a narrow Spirit confine not the Church of Christ to a Party No not the best Party upon Earth What hath Christ only these few Sheep in the Wilderness If Christ should have no other Subjects his would â—e a little Flock indeed (i) Rev. 7.9 Whereas Christ's sealed Ones who are sealed for Holiness are a great multitude which no Man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues standing before the Throne and before the Lamb c. Christians be as severe against your selves as you will but be not so against others Say to thy self If I should be less strict than I am I should question mine own fitness for Church Communion But I dare not judge so of another I do not know his temptations I do not know how far God might leave him to himself (k) 2 Chr. 32.32 To try him that he might know what was in his Heart c. Shall I from such an action judge of his State No I dare not be severe to your selves but be charitable unto others 3. Take heed of over-esteeming any least God blast his Ministry as to you that it be less profitable than before You may easily observe that when any one is overvalued God is robb'd of the overplus of Honour that is given to any Creature This is a tender thing and God will not bear it let a well ordered Self-love steer you right in this matter Query Whether Ministers or Peoples falling into scandalous Sin or dangerous Error spring not from this Root These Cautions concern as well the sincere as others but my last under this Head concerns only Hypocrites or those who have too cause to suspect themselves to be so 4. Take heed of being swayed by private Interest (l) Jude 16. To have mens persons in admiration because of advantage i. e. Of flattering persons upon some carnal account You have the Apostle naming some of their spiritual Diseases (m) 1 Tim. 6.3.4 5. If any man affect to teach or to hear otherwise and consent not to wholsome words i. e. words that tend to cure the Soul of Spiritual Distempers even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness i. e. that Doctrine which promotes downright godliness He is proud i. e. he is swell'd up he is great in his own esteem though knowing nothing solidly but doting brainsick about questions of no use and strifes of words contending about words whereof cometh envy of those that are wiser than himself strife An ignorant person will not yield that another knows more than himself railings What he wants in arguments he 'll make up with foul language evil surmisings Uncharitably suspecting what they will not speak out perverse disputings Not to clear up Truth but to shuffle in Error of men of corrupt minds distemper'd in their heads destitute of the Truth have quitted savoury Truth supposing that gain is godliness whatever tends to their worldly interest that is very well consistent with their Religion from such withdraw thy self have nothing to do with them Qu. 2. When there 's a difference in the Directions that are given by Ministers what shall those do who are to observe them Prescription are sometimes peremptory and we are charged to do expresly thus and when we hear
and then these must evidently offend and cross his Blessed Nature The more patient quiet and mild men are the liker are they to God and the more uncharitable and implacable the liker to the Devil the Accuser of the Brethren When our dear Saviour who came on purpose to reconcile God and Man and men to men The Anthem which was sung by Angels was Glory to God in the highest on Earth peace and good-will unto men These Contentions do ring these Bells backward and chase away that peace and good-will back to Heaven again When Joseph was so kind to his guilty Brethren as to be reconciled to them he sent them back again with this charge Genes 45.24 See that ye fall not out by the way q. d. See I am reconciled to you all quarrel not among your selves a most kind and equal advice In like manner our Blessed Saviour when he had obtained Remission for us commanded all his Disciples to have salt in themselves and to have peace one with aaother he renews no Commandment but that of loving one another And the Holy Ghost in the Apostles doth still inculcate this Lesson above all others to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace to be like minded to have the same Love to do nothing through strife or vain-glory to avoid the provoking one another Now how inexcusable doth this leave all fiery and contentious spirits And how justly may they be handled without any Mercy that handle their brethren without any Charity And certainly as the Lord commands a blessing upon Brethren that dwell together in unity Psal 133. so it is a manifest token of his wrath when a spirit of dissention is sent upon People when Manasseh is set against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manassâ—h and they together against Judah then it follows for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 And look as the Husbandman deals with his way-ward Cattel when they cannot agree in the Field he pounds them up and makes them quiet in the Fold so may our Just and Holy God make all those that cannot unite in the Church to agree at the Stake As Meletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria who fell into such debate when they were in Prison for the same Cause that they refused to hold communion together till they both at length agreed in Red. And so two other learned men were at such discord in the Mines whither they were condemn'd for Christianity that they made up a Wall between their Works to keep them asunder till at last they met at the fatal Pile 2. They consume the Power and Life of Godliness God's grace never thrives in an unquiet Spirit The Jews say that Jehovah lives in Salem which signifies Peace but he cannot live in Babel which signifies Confusion That Zeal that Time those Studies which should be employed in the increasing of saving Knowledge Faith Hope and Holiness they are all consum'd in these uncharitable Contentions Instead of making our own Calling and Election sure we are busie to reprobrate our Brethren and to render their Calling ineffectual Instead of considering one another to provoke to Love and good Works these engage us to consider all the defects and faults of others and to provoke them to Anger and to every evil Work This is fasting for strife and debate these imbitter our Prayers and hinder our access to God when we cannot lift up unto him holy hands without wrath nor without doubting yea they 'll tempt us to restrain Prayer before God or to do as Mr. Latimer tells of some that would not say the Lord's-Prayer at all lest they should be thereby obliged to forgive others and therefore in the stead thereof went to our Ladies Psalter How can such approach the Holy Table that will make no agreement with their Adversaries that will not forgive that desire not to be forgiven In short where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.16 17 18. It will be Objected here That it is our Duty where we have Right and Truth on our side to contend earnestly So they were exhorted Jude 3. to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints To be cool or lukewarm is to betray and sell the Truth and this Neutrality becomes no man in the Cause of Truth To this I Answer 1. We must consider the Nature and Consequence of Truth that is that it be a great or necessary Truth For though no Truth must be deny'd yet many Truths may be forborn If every Man should be oblig'd to vent and propagate at all times every thing which he holds to be true no place or conversation would be quiet It was a Truth that a Believer might eat all things yet the Apostle did not think it necessary to urge or insist upon it nor that it would quit the cost of a doubtful disputation Rom. 14.12 2. In asserting any Truth a Man may be earnest and yet charitable he may think well of his Opposites and yet think ill of their Opinions he may oppose an error with a spirit of meekness with soft words and hard arguments An excellent direction there is for this 2 Tim. 2.23 24 25. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves This is far from aggravating mens mistakes spinning out odious consequences from them concluding that all of another perswasion do militate against their own Consciences that worldly interest or vain Humour swayes them that they are ignorant Sotts or superstitious Time-servers and the like these kind of strivings are not for any Servant of the Lord. When Michael had the worst of all adversaries to dispute with he durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. And if a little railing might not be mixt in a Dispute with the Devil himself how dare any man use it against any one of the same Nature Nation and Religion with himself Most piously therefore was it resolved by divers eminent German Divines who met at Marpurg to discuss the point of the Real Presence that though they could not accord therein yet that they would preserve the bond of Charity inviolable among them Yea but you Object That our Opposites are violent and if we be gentle we shall but incourage them Shall they be hot in the wrong and we lukewarm in the right How can we handle charitably such uncharitable persons Unto this I Answer We may be resolute and yet charitable for one Grace never crosses another As the greatest Courage is still accompanied with the
continues still to do in order to the freeing and delivering the Children of God from the fear of death and the bondage that ensues thereon 1. He worketh and increaseth those Graces of his Spirit in them which are destructive hereof and opposite hereunto you 'l say which are they 1. There is the Grace of Faith This is the Grace that conquers the World that conquers the Devil and that conquers also the slavish fear of Death This excellent Grace of Faith hath such an excellent hand in the conquering of all these that it is call'd the conquest and victory it's self This is the victory says the Apostle John 1 John 5.4 even your Faith Our Saviour tells Peter Luke 22.31 32. That Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as Wheat And with what did he sift and shake him Why it was with the fear of Death he was afraid they would deal with him as they did with his Master It was his slavish fear of Death that made him deny Christ and to do it once and again but anon he recovered himself and got above this fear he was reâ—dy by and by boldly to confess Christ and that in the face of Death and danger How came this about Why it was by means of Faith Christ had pray'd for him that his Faith should not fail it may be said of those that are fearful of death that they are of little Faith 2. A second Grace is Love An ardent love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will banish all slavish fear of death out of the Soul 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Of what fear doth he speak The next words tell you he speaks of slavish tormenting fear of that fear which hath torment By perfect love he means a greater measure and degree of love I said but now of fearfull Christians that they have but little Faith I may add also that they have but little Love for perfect or great love expells all tormenting and servile fear 3. A third Grace is Hope The very nature of Hope is quite contrary to fear Where there is a Hope of eternal life there can be no prevailing fear of Death 'T is said of the righteous Prov. 14.32 that they have Hope in their death and those that have Hope in their death they are not afraid to dye Then Hope doth more especially free us from an inordinate fear of Death when it grows up to that which the Scripture calls The full assurance of Faith Heb. 6.11 this is a gracious Gift which the Father bestows upon many of his Children they know that they are in him that they are pass â—â— from death to life 1 John 2.5.3.14 2 Cor. 5.1 that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv'd they shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Ay this is that which steels and fortifies them against the fear and terror of Death This leads me to consider of a second way or means whereby Christ delivers the Children from a slavish fear of death 2. He delivers them from it by convincing and parswading them that they shall not be Losers but Gainers yea great gainers thereby It was this perswasion that made the Apostle Paul to desire death rather than to dread it I desire says he to depart or to be dissolv'd which is far better Philip. 1.23 And again v. 21. he saith For me to dye is gain It were easie here to expatiate and shew the advantage the exceeding great advantage that Believers have by Death It is commonly said to consist in these two things in a freedom from all Evil in the fruition of all Good 1. It consists in a freedom from all Evil which is sub-divided into the evil of Sorrow and the evil of Sin Believers are freed by Death from the evil of Sorrow 'T is one blessed Notion of the life to come that God will wipe off all tears from his peoples eyes and remove all sorrow and causes of Sorrow from their Hearts Believers also are freed by Death from the evil of sin which is indeed the greatest evil the evil of evils all the evils of sorrow are but the effects and fruits of the evil of sin By Death they are deliver'd from all actual sins not only from Fleshly but Spiritual filthiness Now they are deliver'd ordinarily from inordinate actions but then also from inordinate affections they shall never any more be troubled with Pride Passion Discontent Unbelief or the like By Death also they are discharg'd from Original sin and all remainders thereof when the Body dies Believers are rid of that body of death which dwelleth in them and is always present with them they no more complain of themselves as wretched creatures upon the account thereof 2. It consists in the fruition of all Good Believers when they dye they enjoy God Himself who is the chiefest Good He is bonum in quae omnia bona all other things that are good and desireable are comprized in him as the Sun-beams are in the Sun the Saints enjoyment of God in this life is a Heaven upon Earth but our enjoyment of God after death will be the Heaven of Heavens David says in one Place Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Saints and Angels and Arch-Angels in Heaven says Musculus with whom David and such as he will have to do but what are these to God Believers won't barely enjoy God after death but they will enjoy him fully In this life they enjoy a little of God and oh how sweet and refreshing it is But in the life to come they shall have as much enjoyment of God as their hearts can wish or hold Now they enjoy God in the use of means in Prayer in hearing the Word and in receiving the Lords Supper but hereafter they shall have not only a full but an immediate fruition of God Now they see the Face of God in the Glass of his Word and Ordinances and 〈◊〉 what a lovely sight is it But then they shall see God face to face and what tongue can mention or heart imagine the loveliness of that sight If it were not too great a digression I could readily demonstrate the gain and advantage of Death from other Topicks Believers in the other life shall possess and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven which doth more transcend the Kingdoms of this World and all the glory of them than the light of the Sun doth excell the light of a Candle they shall be most gloriously perfected both in their Souls and in their Bodies their vile bodies at the Resurrection shall be changed and fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 Their gain and happiness will be greatly augmented in the other life by the work and employment that they shall do and by the Society and Company that they shall
here the feast is reserved for hereafter wrath to come and life to come are unconceivable and therefore unexpressible we can neither order our Speech by reason of our inward darkness nor of that ineffable Light thoughts fail us words fail us we are lost in the thoughts of future blessedness as well as in those of our former misery What therefore we cannot perfectly understand let us silently and reverently Admire and Adore What a prodigious height did Man fall from when he fell from his God What a desperate Abyss of misery did he fall into when he fell into sin And therefore what a stupendious height is that which Love shall raise him to in Glory All we can do is to put no bounds to our Love to Christ The true measure of our Love to Christ should be to Love him without measure and the true degree of our Love to a Redeemer is to Love him in the highest Degree But alas Where is our Love to Christ How weakly do we express our Love to him who has given us the fullest clearest demonstrations of his to us beyond all expressions His was stronger then death ours ready to die the water-floods coulds not quench his a few drops extinguish ours he shed blood for us with more freedom than we a few tears over him and his bleeding almost dying interest in the World he loved sinners better than we can love Saints he died for us with more flame of zeal than we can live to and for him Let us be ashamed that we can find a love so vehement for our perishing comforts nay for our killing corruptions and yet have so indifferent affections for a Saviour How shall we be able to Love our enemies for his sake when we can neither Love him with an intense Love for his sake nor our own Let us mourn therefore bitterly that the Love of Christ should be unconceivable and invisible and that our Love to him should be so too upon such different accounts his for the greatness of it ours for its smallness II. Prop. There is a sufficiency of the Love of Christ to us that may be known The Love of Christ to sinners may be considered either in the cause or as in the effects in the Spring and Fountain or in the streams that flow from thence into Souls Love as it was in the heart of Christ is unmeasurable the Spring the original cause and reason of it was his own unaccountable Love and can only be measured by the Love of the Father to his Son which is equally unmeasurable John 15.9 As the Father has loved me so I have loved you But Christs Love in the effects that it has been pleas'd to produce in and upon our Souls may be understood and in some good measure apprehended If we cannot fix our eyes immediately upon the body of the Sun in its meridian glory yet we may comfortably refresh our selves with its beams and feel the healing warmth of the Sun of righteousness arising and shining upon our Souls If we cannot measure Christs Love when it dealt with God in making his Soul an offering for sin nor what that Love was wherewith he loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2.20 yet we may know that Love wherewith he loved us and washt us from our sins Rev. 1.5 The Love of Satisfaction passes knowledge the Love of Sanctification may be known As that poor Man John 9.15 tho' he could not give a Philosophical account to the Scribes and Pharisees how Clay and Spittle should contribute to the opening his Eyes yet could say This one thing I know that whereas I was born blind I now see So may a renewed Soul say Tho' I know not from what unmeasurable Fountain this Grace and Mercy did proceed tho' I am ignorant of the manner of its working yet this one thing I can say Whereas I was a lover of sin I now hate it and whereas I have been a despiser of Christ I now prize and love him as the chiefest of Ten thousand I can say That that vanity that corruption which sometime had a mighty power over me is now subdued and conquered More particularly 1. Altho' we cannot perfectly know the Love of Christ yet may we know so much of it as may raise our desires to know more As he that meets with a Vein of precious Metal tho' it be small yet it gives him hopes of meeting with more and those hopes encourage his labours to dig deeper and search further so that little we can attain of the knowledge of Christs Love in our wayfaring state makes the Soul labour and strive and hope and pray that it may come to fuller knowledge of that love in its own Country As that sight which Moses had of God encouraged him to pray Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy glory So that view we have of Christ in a glass darkly serves to engage our endeavours and sharpen our desires to see him face to face in glory As we gain upon the knowledge of Christ so we grow and as it were encroach upon him still if God will condescend and come down to visit the Soul the Soul will make an argument from thence that he would take it up to himself A taste of Christs Love whets the Spiritual appetite after a feast 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire ye the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 2. However our knowledge of Christs Love is imperfect yet we may know so much as may shame us that we have loved him no better we know the Love of Christ carried him out to suffer most dreadful things upon our account and may hence reflect upon our selves with great shame that our love has been so weak as not to carry us out to suffer for his Name he endured the cross we are terrified at the sight of it The argument is very strong 1 John 3.16 Thus if Christ laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But how weakly does it work upon us How little a matter can this love constrain us to lay down for their sakes And it s a most concluding argument Col. 3.13 that we should forbear and forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any as Christ forgave us but alas how little does this instance of the Love of Christ prevail upon us That Love which prevail'd with him to forgive us Talents will not does not prevail with us to forgive our brethren a few Pence Matth. 18.27 28. The Love of Christ was a conquering a triumphant Love it bore down what-ever stood in its way It grapled with the displeasure of God with the malice of Devils the fury of unreasonable Men and with the unkindness of his Friends it broke through all Discouragements and trampled upon all Oppositions the waters could not quench it the floods could not drown
say I will give you my word for it We may easily conceive it requisite from that natural light which remain'd in the reasonable creature that God the Creator and Governor is to be worshipped 4 Acts 17.23 Rom. 1.23 25 1 Kings 18.21 and that no worship can be accepted of God but what is instituted of himself and sith there abides in Man naturally a strong desire of truth and immortality of knowing how he may be accepted of God 5 2 Cor. 5.9 Psal 4.6 73.24 and enjoy Communion with him that there should be some assured 6 2 Tim. 3.14 Revelation 7 John 1.18 Deut. 29.29 whereby he doth manifest himself and declare his will as the glass of his Divinity 8 2 Cor. 3.18 4.6 and the rule of his worship 9 Isa 1.10 12. Matth. 7.21 Col. 2.23 24. that we may not be guilty of worshipping we know not what or how being he is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and in truth 10 Joh. 4.22 24 3. Tho' God in infinite Wisdom during the time of the long-liv'd Patriarchs till some time after the flood thought it sufficient notwithstanding there was an early defection from his appointments which yet in some measure came under the Reformation of Enoch 11 Gen. 4.26 Noah 12 Gen. 8.20 9.5 and Abraham 13 Gen. 17.1 c. Deut. 8.5 4.7 8. to continue that way of Revelation from one to another during the infancy of his Church however when she grew up it became necessary for the due Conservation Vindication and Propagation of his Word that as all Nations by the light of Nature are directed generally to the use of Laws his own Laws reaching to the very motions of the heart should be written 14 Prov. 22.19 20. Luke 1.3 4. Rom. 15.4 This is found to be the most credible way of Proposal it being most fit we should ascribe that to God which is really consonant to the greatest Wisdom that the certainty of the Word of truth might be known and communicated God himself wrote his Laws 15 Exod. 24.12 Hos 8.12 and commanded Moses 16 Exod. 34.1 27. and the Prophets 17 Hab. 2.2 Jer. 36.2 Scripta tabella manet Dr. Templer to write his will and oracles These coming as the credential Letters of the supream infallible Majesty which are to remain inviolable not be rejected by any who could never see any demonstrative evidence to weaken the Authority thereof So that it would be most injurious to the Divine benignity to suspect that the All-wise and most gracious God would be wanting to his Church in so necessary a matter The great Doctor of the Gentiles would argue ‖ Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his Son but deliver'd him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things These things being premis'd 2. I shall proceed to the particular grounds of the Assertion so as I would hope they may not only satisfie real Christians but such as are doubting of the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures if not dispos'd to be Antiscripturists 1. The Assent of Divine Faith whereby a sinner is converted and brought nigh to God is only built upon the Authority of God the Revealer considering his infallible Veracity that he is a God of truth and cannot deceive or be deceived having dominion over his Creatures who are therefore to submit to his Word penn'd upon his command by those who were divinely inspir'd 18 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Sam. 23.2 3. Hos 12.10 2 Pet. 1.21 1 Thes 2.13 as they vouch'd and prov'd themselves to be and we have no solid reason to except against their Proof Tho' the Prophets and Penmen of Scripture were not always accompanied with miracles when they delivered their Messages from God yet they required an attendance and obedience under an eternal penalty to be inflicted upon those who did disobey the voice and Message of God which if they to whom it came did not receive with a Divine Faith they did in Gods account refuse to obey There is no suspending our Assent when God expresly declares his Will by himself or his Messengers coming in his Name as in the last days he did by his Son 19 Heb. 1.1 who spake with Authority and not as the Scribes 20 Matth. 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was a Divinity discern'd in it by the hearers and so there was in some proportion in the Prophets of the Lord somewhat Divine which might be discern'd by those unto whom it came as by Paul distinctly ‖ else it had been hard for God to have charged their eternal and temporal welfare or ruin 6 Acts 22.9 upon their discerning or not discerning a right betwixt his Word in the mouth of his own Prophets and that Word which pretended only so to be in the mouths of the false Prophets We have a notable instance hereof in opposition to those who pretended to Prophecy in the Name of the Lord to gain credit to their lies 21 Jer. 23.22 25 28. The Prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream and he that hath my Word let him speak it faithfully what is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord Is not my Word like fire saith the Lord And like an hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces The righteous God would not have required of Men under a dreadful penalty to have assented to his Word in opposition to the impostors dreams had there not been most certain tokens for the differencing of it from that of the false prophets whose words as all others besides his were as Chaff light and useless stuff for Mans food which the Wheat the bread of life might be easily known from by those who had eyes to see and did not because of their evil deeds love darkness rather than light ‖ John 3.19 we know they who by a good light are conversant in receiving and paying of monies do readily discern the genuine from counterfeit coin Whereupon Gerson * Pars prima De distinctione verarum Visionum a falsis affirmed that the true coin of Divine Revelation may be known from the counterfeits of Diabolical Visions as true Gold is from its counterfeit by its weight flexibility and durableness or continuity and incorruptibleness configuration and colour Gods holy Word had light and heat and power proper to it which made it evident tho' prejudice and conceited interest hindred many to whom it came from giving entire credit to it delivered by the Lords true Prophets 21 Isa 53.1 Jer. 43.3 and Christ himself 22 John 9.29 12.37 38. who will certainly manifest himself as in displeasure to those who reject him revealing the Father so in favour to those who receive him 23 John 14.21 Matth. 11.20 T is no way likely that one from the dead should so manifest himself if he came to impart his experiences to his
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
Gospel of the Grace of God may be carried into the dark corners of the Earth for the Conversion and Salvation of them who are ready to perish and so the Kingdom of Christ get ground in the World is I am sure a most holy and excellent design and so I recommend this also to the Prayers of Godly private Christians These few things being suggested touching those Christians who bear a Publick Character I now shall address my self to all Godly Private Christians and I must exhort and beseech them with all the fervour I can to set their hearts sincerely upon this glorious work and to bestir themselves in it with all their might This belongs to every Christian as such in what circumstances soever the Providence of God doth dispose of them whether they be High or Low Noble or Base Rich or Poor Learned or Unlearned Male or Female None are to be excluded or exempted But it is likely This may seem strange to many Private Christians That they should be charged in the Name of Christ to be helpful to promote the spreading of the Gospel all the world over Alas will one say with the Eunuch I am a dry tree and no such fruit is to be expected from me And I will another say am but a Cypher and make no Figure in the world as the Phrase goes and therefore I can signifie nothing But let me beseech all Private Christians to take heed of shifting off from themselves any Duty or Service that Christ calls them to or would employ them in And To suspend their Determination a little until I have shewed them as Christ shall enable me How and wherein Private Christians may be helpful in this Great and Good work And then I hope they will see That they may do much more therein than possibly they have hitherto apprehended The second thing mentioned is Their Duty and Work Which is To be helpful in promoting the Entertainment of the Gospel And the third thing is How or in what ways and by what means they may be most helpful in it But for dispatch sake I shall speak to both these Conjunctly Now That I may proceed herein the more clearly and profitably I think it may be useful to place Private Christians according to their several Circumstances and Capacities as to the matter now under consideration in three Ranks or Orders 1. There are many Private Christians who live very remote from such Places and People as have not the Gospel preached unto them Or at least have not hitherto entertained it 2. There are some Private Christians who may Occasionally go into or may Providentially be cast into such Places 3. There are some Private Christians who live among such people in a more fixed or constant Residence As In our Factories abroad Or In our Plantations in the Indies or other Heathen places Now Tho' it be the Duty of all Private Christians To promote the entertainment of the Gospel yet all cannot take the same Measures nor be Active in the same ways And therefore it may be to very good purpose To let each of them to see wherein their Proper work doth lie That they may contribute their assistance accordingly 1. Most of the Private Christians among us live very Remote from those People who have not as yet entertained the Gospel And so They cannot be helpful unto them by Personal instruction or counsel Neither can they attract them by the Example of their holy conversation And yet they may greatly contribute toward the promoting of the entertainment of the Gospel among them And that they may do several ways e. gr 1. They may and ought to pray in Faith That the Gospel may be sent among them That it may be Received by them And be blessed to the Conversion and Salvation of all that are ordained to Eternal life among them For such Prayers being according to the Will of God They may be confident that he heareth them 1 Joh. v. 14. And that God requireth and expecteth such Prayers from them cannot be unknown to any who acquaint themselves with the Scriptures For 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ recommendeth this matter to the Prayers of private Christians Matth. ix 37 38. Then saith he unto his Disciples The harvest truly is plenteous but the Labourers are few Pray ye therefore to the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth Labourers into his harvest Here we may take notice 1. That by the Metaphor or Allegory of an Harvest our Saviour would instruct us That as when the Corn is ripe Men use to employ Reapers to cut it down and gather it in So there are some blessed Seasons wherein God hath decreed to send the Gospel among a People and accordingly prepares and disposeth them for the Reception of it and raiseth in them a propensity and strong affection toward it Thus it was when John the Baptist came and Preached That the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand Matth. iii. 2. and it follows in verse the 5th Then went out unto him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan And our Saviour sets a special remark upon that time Matth. xi 12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force When therefore ye hear That the Day of the Gospel begins to Dawn in any of the dark corners of the Earth Then Lift up a Prayer That the Grace and Power of the Spirit may accompany it and make it successful 2. Our Saviour teacheth you to pray That the Labourers may be increased proportionably to the work as when he saith The Harvest is plenteous but the Labourers are few Pray then that God would imploy such as are Skilful and Industrious such as Paul describes 2 Tim. ii 15. Study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth And pray That God would imploy such a number of them as is sufficient for the work A Reverend Person among us hath for many years complained That in many places where there is but One to labour in the Ministerial Work there is enough for three or four tho' all of them be very industrious But it seems that Men either cannot or will not make better provision 3. Private Christians when they perceive How the case stands should be importunate with God that he would send forth Labourers into his harvest Send them by the Efficacious word of his Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut ejiciat vel extrudat Thrust them out by his Grace working in them and his Providence ordering of circumstances concerning them It is no wonder if Flesh and Blood shrink from the employment of carrying the Lord's Message to a barbarous people Moses would fain have been excused from going into Egypt and he multiplied Evasions and Pretences till the Lord was angry with him Exod. iii. 10 11 14. and Chap. iv 1 10
those who preach it at home with your prayers that they may receive grace and assistance from God and be blessed with Success And now I shall take the liberty to present another to you in the behalf of many who preach the Gospel among us your Contributions for Wales and the Collection made at Pinners-hall for the encouragement of several poor Ministers in the Country hath afforded matter of rejoicing to many And I doubt not have drawn forth many praises and prayers to God on your behalf and let me beseech you be not weary of well-doing in this Instance The Apostle found that Professors are as likely to faint and tire in works of Charity especially if they be frequent as in any Christian duty whatsoever and therefore he fixeth his Counsel and Encouragement there Gal. vi 9. And let us not be weary of well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Bear with me if in special I commend to your care those whom the Providence of God hath disposed of in good Market-Towns and Corporations Possibly some may think that such are well enough provided for But many find that the Corinthian temper hath not left the World Even in good Towns Ministers may Preach and want I think I shall not speak beside the purpose if I shut up this with 1 Tim. v. 8. He that provideth not for his own is worse than an Infidel This may suffice to have been spoken touching the second means whereby private Christians who live remote from such places as have not entertained the Gospel may be helpful toward the bringing of it among them 3. The third way wherein private Christians who live far from those places where the Gospel is not entertained may be helpful to promote the admission of it among them is to use their interest in those who on several occasions may go to such places by importunate perswasions and pertinent directions to excite them to carry a Love and Zeal for Christ in their own hearts and from that principle to act to the uttermost of their capacity for the spreading of his Gospel and the enlargement of his Kingdom It was I think a good design of Hugo Grotius who as he tells us wrote his Book Of the verity of the Christian Religion for the use of his Country-men who Sail to the uttermost ends of the Earth to furnish them with proper Arguments which might leave a due impression thereof upon the hearts of the poor Heathen Private Christians may also write to their friends who live abroad to endeavour to convince the miserable Captives of Satan that their Idols are vanities This course did the Prophet Jeremy take to excite and direct the Jews who were in Babylon how they should deal with those among whom the providence of God had cast them Jer. x. 11. Thus shall ye say to them The Gods who have not made the Heaven and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens It is observed by learned men that this verse is written in the Chaldee tongue tho the rest of the book be written in Hebrew whereby he doth as it were put the words into their mouths that they might speak to them in their own language so as to be understood by them and by this he doth instruct us That it is not sufficient for the worshipers of the true God to keep themselves from the pollutions of Idols but they must do more for they must make Profession of the true God and his worship The like course may private Christians take to promote the conversion of the Ignorant Earthly and Profane at home with whom they have no personal converse and that is To stir up others who have that advantage to deal with them about the everlasting concernments of their Souls Thus I have spoken something touching the case of such private Christians as come within the first Circumstance viz. Such as live remote from the places where the Gospel is not entertained and in what ways they may be helpful in order to their reception of it 2. I proceed to consider the case of such private Christians as occasionally or providentially are brought among those people which have not entertained the Gospel and to shew how they may be helpful in bringing them into acquaintance with the Doctrine of Salvation Let none pretend that because this work doth specially belong to the Ministers of Christ that thereupon private Christians are exempted or discharged from that which God hath made their Duty Let none think to excuse themselves by saying They are not learned for they are a Reproach to Christianity who have not learned the Essentials of their Religion and the enforcing and inculcating of these must lead the way in the Conversion of Infidels Let none say They have enough to do to mind their own business For I doubt not but if they minded the Interest of Christ more their own would prosper the better But if they drive on any Design that is contrary to the Faith or Precepts of the Gospel it will be found their Duty and safety to extricate themselves out of it as soon as they can If they suggest that it would be a vain thing for them to expect or attempt to do any good among Infidels That will be found to be only the sluggards Plea There is a Lion in the way Prov. xxvi 13. He who hath no heart to an undertaking will not fail to lay in his own way huge Mountains of insuperable difficulties But to prevent or remove all Evasions it shall be proved that among private Christians if we may judge by circumstances or visible appearance few or none if they really be such as they profess themselves do labour under such disadvantages or improbabilities of succeeding in their attempts of recommending Christ and his Gospel as many of those were under whom yet the Lord made use of and eventually blessed in communicating the knowledge of Himself to such as were before strangers to him To manifest this I shall produce four Examples two out of the holy Scriptures and two out of Ecclesiastical History Out of the holy Scriptures one shall be out of the Old Testament the other out of the New Out of the Old Testament it is surprizing and astonishing to observe what a glorious work the Lord brought about by the Instrumentality of a little captive Maid whom the Syrians had brought out of the Land of Israel Read 2 Kings v. 2 3. to verse 19. The brief summary whereof is this The poor little Girl waiting on her Lady dropt a few words Would God my Lord were with the Prophet in Samaria for he would recover him of his Leprosie Another takes up those words and reports them to Naaman Many such Discourses are breathed and expire in the same moment The more wonderful is the conduct of Gods Providence who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will I may accommodate to this case
prophaneness they will pull down upon their own heads the guilt of all that prophaneness which is committed And this I dare say there is no man that liveth in the World no not the best and most holy but he hath sins enough of his own too too many more than he is able to bear or to answer for His own follies and miscarriages if bound upon him will be found sufficient to break his back and sink him into the bottomless pit of misery So David tells us and he spake no more than what his own sense and feeling did suggest and dictate to him Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as a burthen they i. e. His own iniquities his own head heart and life sins are too heavy for me And as it was with him so it is with every one and therefore no man hath need to add to the load by heaping upon himself the guilt of other mens sins too Though it must be confest that notwithstanding all which the wisest and most circumspect person can do notwithstanding all the care he can take he will hardly be found altogether innocent as to this Holy Austin one of the best of the Fathers saw sufficient yea abundant reason for the putting up this humble Petition Lord deliver me from my other mens sins and it may be feared that no small number of great men who have been yea and are in place of power and authority will when the all-seeing God comes to search them be found deeply culpable and dreadfully chargeable upon this account and therâ—fore others that do at this day possess the same or like places are very nearly concerned to look to themselves Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Happy the man whom other mens sins and dangers falls and hurts make to beware That hath gone for currant as a certain truth qui non prohibet cum potest jubet He that doth not forbid and prevent the commission of sin when it is in the power of his hand to do it doth interpretativè Command the doing of it He allows it who winks at it he doth encourage it who stops it not He doth so in the account of God who is a righteous Judge He had as good command it as stand by and see it done and say nothing And if men will in this or any other way contract guilt they may expect to tast the bitter Effects of it If Rulers will spare offenders let not them think that God will spare them Ahab in a foolish kindness and pity let Benhadad go whom God had appointed to utter destruction Now observe what a thundering Message the Prophet brought him thereupon 1 Kings 20.42 Thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people So that this kindness of Ahab to Benhadad was desperate cruelty to himself and Israel And the case of Eli is very pertinent to this purpose and most worthy of observation He was not only Priest but Judge armed with both Parental and Magistratical power His Sons did not write after that Copy which he had set them but were Sons of Belial wicked and prophane to a Prodigy for they Sacrilegiously robbed God and filthily abused the women that were assembled at the door of the Tabernacle and by these means made the offering of the Lord to stink turn'd it to an abomination For this Eli their Father reproved them but it was with very soft and silken words Why do ye such things For I hear of your evil doings by all this people nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords people to transgress And here was all he did but Oh how angry was God hereupon It made his fury come up into his face Though Eli was a good man a Priest one that God had caused to draw near to him though he had reproved his Sons and given them good advice yet this was not enough it would not serve his turn God was greatly provoked because he did proceed no further and see how dreadfully he threatned him 1 Sam. 2.31 c. I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy Fathers house that there shall not be an old man in it thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation the man of thine that I shall not cut off from my altar shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart And the dream is doubled the resolution of God is fixed this one threatning that carrieth sorrow and anguish enough in the bowels of it is followed with another 1 Samuel 3.11 I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle I will perform against Eli all that I have sworn concerning his house when I begin I will also make an end God would go thorow with the work and not only be diligent in the beginning of it but likewise constant in the performance and compleat in the finishing of it For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever Such a punishment shall be inflicted such a burden laid upon him as shall never be taken off for the iniquity which he knoweth because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Set a mark upon these last words in which indeed the accent and emphasis lies there was the provocation that was it that exposed him to the divine displeasure and brought him under so severe a judgment His Sons made themselves vile they defiled debased and dishonoured themselves by their sins and abominable practices they had render'd themselves odious and loathsom in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people Eli was not ignorant of this but was told of it it raised a great cry many complaints thereof were brought to him but he RESTRAINED THEM NOT. He did not curb them He was too mild and tender and gentle he carried the matter as one that was not zealous for his God but afraid to offend them and unwilling to grieve them He did not affright and ferret them out of their prophaneness they still continued what they were and held on their former course and yet he did not draw the Sword of justice he did not inflict upon them grievous punishments though they persever'd in the Commission of grievous sins he forgot to act up to the Authority of a Father an High-Priest a Judge and therefore God will severely punish him Eli's Sons run deep in Score and because he thus let them alone God would make Eli himself to pay the reckoning Consider of this and tremble you indulgent fond Parents that hear and see your Childrens Lying Swearing Looseness and Debaucheries but let them alone you timorous Slothful Magistrates that will not make prophane persons smart know and be assured that your selves shall You let them go but Vengeance will hold you But I proceed for though Rulers own concerns should awaken and rouze them up yet that is not all therefore Sixthly
is in our Streets All that know you may it please your most excellent Majesty know that you have a great deal of important and weighty work continually before you which must necessarily fill your Royal Head with Thoughts and your Heart with Cares that keeps your eyes waking while others sleep without Interruption or Disturbance There is abundant reason for us all to pity your burdens and to pray that you may be counselled by the God of Wisdom and supported by the God of Power and have the Arms of your Hands made strong by the Everlasting Arms of the God of Jacob but no reason for any Protestant among us to envy your Honour and other Prae-eminences which are just though too small recompences for the hazzards you have run and the Kindness you have shewn and the Thoughts Cares and Pains you have taken for the saving of a People looked upon as being within a very few steps of Ruine None knows the weight of a Crown but he that wears it While it glisters it sits heavy yet Great Sir among those other Affairs which do incessantly engage you let the promoting of Morality and Piety the beating down of Ungodliness and Prophaneness put in for and obtain a principal share for they do deserve it And oh that other Magistraâ—â—s would contribute what in them is to the promoting of the true Religion the Power of Godliness and a Scriptural Reformation together with an hearty and vigorous Suppression of Prophaneness remembring that it is the great and Holy God who hath by the hand of his Providence put into your hand the Sword of Justice which ought not to rust there you must not bear it in vain but draw it when and use it as need requires And if the making of good Laws and denouncing of Judgments in the penalties contained in them be not sufficient to curb vice and to keep men within compass lift up your selves as those that know it is your part As the Ministers of God to execute wrath upon them that do evil If menaces will not do there must be a proceeding to Execution and if shaking the Rod over the Head doth not reach the end there must be a laying of it upon the back only be sure that it is indeed upon the back of them that do evil And unto such it doth concern you to be a terrour for that is the Will of God as my Text tells you It must and will be readily granted that a pleasant and smiling aspect is very grateful because lovely and an affable obliging carriage doth exceedingly become and adorn great Ones but sometimes it is needful for them to cloath themselves with terrour that they might make the most stout-hearted Sinners to tremble Magistrates should not be like Jupiters blocks for Vermin to skip upon and play with An undue and foolish lenity will render them contemptible and the wicked more audacious so as to lift up their horn on high and declare their Sin as Sodom When Justice and Mercy are mingled with a judicious and skilful hand they will constitute a Government of a most excellent temper Vse 2. I shall also be free to speak a few words to my Reverend Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry of what Judgment and Perswasion soever they are about those things which have been and are matters of difference and controversie among us You would all of you be received honoured and attended unto as the Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ My request unto you is that you would approve your selves and convince all that you are such by your preaching Christ up and Sin down all manner of Sin all sorts of Filthiness both of the Flesh and of the Spirit Spare none neither small nor great Be sure that what offends you doth offend God as well as you and then bend your Bow and level your Arrows at it But as for the over-grown prophaneness of the Age which you cannot but know doth so greatly abound in the midst of us set your selves with all your might not only to lop off it's luxuriant branches but if possible to pull it up by the very roots Do not in the bowels of love I beseech you do not rend and tare one another do not waste and spend your precious and swiftly flying time your heat and strength about those things which your Consciences tell you are Adiaphorous or Indifferent and some of you have by Word of Mouth and in your writings owned and acknowledged to be so and a zealous contending for them and stiff upholding of them will break the Peace both of Church and State as it hath done ever since the beginning of the Reformation but will never afford you solid Comfort and a well-grounded Peace when you come to lie upon a Death-bed and the King of Terrours with his grim and gastly countenance shall look you in the face But labour with might and main against that root of bitterness prophaneness which if you know any thing as you ought to know you cannot but know is of a damnable Nature and will if not prevented and heartily repented of cast and sink particular Persons into the bottomless pit of Eternal Perdition and also bring ruine upon an whole Nation so that though Noah Samuel and Job should stand before God and plead for them yet his mind could not be toward them Do not you admit to the Table of your Lord filthy Swine that wallow in the Mire of all prophaneness Swearers Drunkards and others of that black guard do not look like guests meet for such a Solemnity not like such as the Holy Jesus will bid welcome Do not you seal to them an Interest in all the Blessings of that Covenant which they wickedly violate nor in the saving benefits of that most precious Blood which was indeed shed for Sinners but is by them trampled under foot as if it were an unholy thing and had purchased for them a lawless Liberty or License to be Unholy Do not you receive them to a distinguishing Ordinance who run with the herd and are not by their lives and actions distinguished from the worst and vilest Remember that old saying and very good one Sancta Sanctis Holy things for holy Persons And consider what our Lord said to the Prophet Jer. 15.19 If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth He will have his Servants sever the good and the bad giving his Promises and Seals to the former denying them to the latter He will have his Stewards to be faithful feasting his Children with the dainties of his House but not throwing them away to Dogs and those that do so He will own Thus do ye and by so doing you will come forth to the help of the civil Magistrate against those mighty abominations which Domineer and Reign among us Considering the place you are in and that solemn work you have engaged in one would expect that all of you should be holy not only by
declining Old Age must be judged to come under the name of Evil Dayes No reason appears why all the periods of the contrary Age should not be put under the name of Youthful or Choice Dayes All young Gamesters are here called to God Children from their playing for Pins Boys from their playing for Pence Young Men from their playing for Mony and Land All from their several Games of equal folly The Games in which invaluable Souls be lost and the best that is got is but Yellow Dust These Spritful Sportive People are all called to play wiser parts and lay out their various degrees of Strength for the good that in weak Old Age in the last and worst Childhood they will be as unable as now they are unwilling to seek The Time wherein these Tribes are all of them commanded to Convert is the present Remember hath its Now expresly added Forbidding both your Delay until the Afternoon of your Life-day and your Delay unto any other Day Hour or Minute of your Forenoon Requiring that God's Tribute be paid as the Kings Tax is upon sight And that not the least distance of time be admitted between your discerning and your doing your Duty The Doctrine thus offers now it self Present Conversion is the Duty of Youths and Children even the very Youngest that are come to Vnderstanding Or thus It is not for Young Men and Maidens for School-Boyes and Girls or very Children in Hanging-sleeves to put off their Conversion to God so much as a Minute of an Hour This I shall competently demonstrate if I make good these two Assertions viz. 1. That these Young Folk are really bound to Convert presently 2. That they are singularly engaged and encouraged by God so to do and are advantaged more for it than Older People are and than they themselves can be when they are Older And this I essay by these following very Intelligible and Invincible Reasons Hear them as for your Lives O you Young ones to whom I direct them If you hear aright you live and Joy will be in Heaven by and by for your new Birth If not we despised Preachers shall shortly hear you accursing your closed Ears Exclaiming much like unto Joseph's Brethren Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Ministers in that we saw the anguish of their Souls when they besought us to convert presently and we would not hear therefore is distress and it may be remediless Damnation come upon us However in Duty unto all and in hope of gaining some in God's fear I tell you R. 1 You are Commanded as truly as the Oldest People Living to turn unto God presently Therefore 't is your Duty The King of Babylon would have Young Men stand before him So would the King of Heaven He calls you the Youngest of you And as expresly and frequently and more frequently than he calls Old People For he calls you conjunctly with them in most or all Texts in the Bible and he calls you apart here and in other Portions of Scripture by your selves Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye 'T is not turn ye O ye Old decrepit Folk But Turn ye Indefinitely that is Universally O ye of all Ages that hear the Word Psal 148.12 13. Young Men and Maidens and as Old Men Children are called to Praise the Lord. Nagnarim little Children the word indeed is put for Joseph in Egypt Gen. 41.12 and Gideons Son Judg. 8.20 But as the Etymology carryes it 't is most frequently used to signifie New-born Children just shaken out of the Womb And is very often put to signifie Children just able to speak and run up and down 2 Kings 2.23 You the Children of Believing Parents have an Holiness of Covenant-Relation before you are born 1 Cor. 7.14 You have an Holiness of Solemn Dedication by and by after you are born in Holy Baptism Col. 2.11 12. And God requires your Parents and Ministers to be dealing with you as soon as you come to Understanding for Holiness of Inhesion and Qualification He saith there is a way of Holiness in which every Nagnar little Child should go and commands us to Catechise and Train you up in it Prov. 22.6 Ephes 6.4 Nor doth he allow you to delay the little that you can do for your Souls any more than he allows the Oldest People to delay any thing that is in their Power to do Now now is his Word unto all Sinners 2 Cor. 6.2 And Now now is his Word unto you His Command for Duty and for Hast of Duty equally binds Children of tender Years and people of Fourscore Remember it Young People if you be not commanded to come unto God and to abide with him there is no Sinner in the World commanded to Convert nor any Saint in the Church commanded to Persevere Need I tell you what an Authority his is who doth so command And how infinitely obliging 'T is such an one as cannot be told you by Man or Angel Should God command you to cut off your Right hands or to run into the Fire it would be infinitely your Duty and Interest presently to do it For so Supream and Absolute is his Authority that he cannot Command beyond his Right And 't is an Authority so constantly governed by Infinite Goodness that he cannot command us against our Interest So that it is as perfectly impossible for us to Obey him and not benefit our selves as to disobey him and not hurt our selves In a word Could you see this Soveraign Commander but as Moses saw him Exod. 34 Or as Isaiah Isa 6. or as Job Job 42. Or as St. Paul Act. 9. Or as St. John Rev. 1. It would be no Question with you Whether he were to be obeyed or no Or to be obeyed presently or no. You would then think no Obedience great enough no Hast swift enough no Grief for Converting no sooner heavy enough O how late did I love thee St. Austin exclaimed Twenty years was I a bondslave to the Devil cryed Mr. Jo. Machin who was Converted in his Twentieth year Remember not the sins of my Youth saith the Man who knew God's Heart better than to imagine that Youth was Lawless Psal 25. But R. 2. You are threatned just as Old People be if you turn not unto God presently Therefore 't is your Duty Sirs as you are not Lawless so neither are you less under the Menaces and Threats of the Law-giver than other Folk be Psal 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell 'T is not said Old Sinners shall into the place of Devils No 't is unlimitedly the Wicked all of them Wicked Parents and wicked Children wicked Masters and wicked Scholars or Apprentices Every thing wicked every Minute that you delay your Conversion that Threat stands ready charged against your Breasts And who knows but God will shoot it off this very moment if you Convert not this very moment Rom. 1.18 The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Sin 'T is not said
Galatians than the Romans for the same fault Because the Galatians had been fore-instructed and sinned against more Light In all the Bible though it be an History of more then Four Thousand Years we read of but one that converted just before his Death And we do believe that he also did convert at his first convincing-call Rarely do any savingly Convert who do not upon their first convictions Convert St. Austin's stifled Convictions cost him dear You that will make so bold with Conscience as Spira did should expect to roar for it here as he did or hereafter to fare worse than many hope him to do They are considerable Divines who are not hopeless of his Salvation R. 5. You dye and go to Judgment as ordinarily in your young dayes as others in their older Therefore 't is your Duty to convert presently Come stand forth the liveliest Spark of you all and tell us if you can that no body was ever known to dye at your Years Or if there did your Life is no such Vapor your Flesh no such grass as theirs You know our Weekly Bills of Mortality would shame you And the great multitudes of Graves of all sorts every where You do know your own vanity in putting far from your Minds the fatal day that cannot be thrust off one Minute from your Persons It is an undenyable Truth the day of Life and of Grace be not always of a Length And that if they were that could be no warrant for delaying the work of your Salvation But one would think your Life's uncertainty it self if considered should be of weight enough to press you unto hast And make your wilful delay as impossible unto you as 't is Impious For you are not Papists And if you were Prayers for you after death you could not think regularly to obtain They do not hold it lawful to pray for any after their death that do not Repent and Convert in their Life If you dye unconverted your Fathers and Mothers are taught to consent to your being damned And the best Friends you have be forbid to pray for your being took out of Hell or your being cooled in it You do not imagine I hope that a cold drying God be merciful to you just before death is a saving Conversion If it were we might say Heaven is the receptacle of the most and worst of men And a great part of the Scripture is took up in requiring our needless Labor But we are well sure of the contrary Though you ought to be told also that if it were really so yet were your delay still a prodigious Folly Being of your ability to utter those words at your death you are as uncertain as of any thing And you have little reason to think that your present Obstinacy shall not then be punished with at least Impotency Oh Death of Judgment come look you in the Faces of these secure young Folks Shew your selves unto them ask them whether upon sight of you they can think two or three broken words preparation enough for your Terrors And that it can be time enough to think of peace with God when Pain will not let men be able to think three thoughts together of him I knew an excellent Person that used to Exclaim O Lord Pain will not let one think upon thee R. 6. You as much as elder people are absurd in your promises to Convert hereafter Therefore it is your Duty to Convert presently It is no easie thing to ascend to the height of Atheism in which alone you can dare say There is no God or None that you are bound penitently to convert unto or You will not whatever follows ever Turn to him Wherefore you must be dumb or find somewhat else to say Very many I suspect to Harbor in them a dumb Devil and to say little to themselves about matters between God and their Souls But many there are in whom Conscience will not be so easily muzzled But will have somewhat said or else give no quiet For want of all things beside this is said Hereafter I will convert But who has bewitch'd hearers of the Gospel Neither Law nor Gospel it self knows any way to Heaven by a delayed Conversion The Law requires continuing the Gospel requires Beginning and Persevering neither admit of Delaying Gal. 3.10 Cursed be every one young and old that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them Did you not only Intend but Begin and that this present minute not only to wish but to do not only some but all things of the Law The Law for all this would damn you without Mercy for having ever ceased to do all Glory be to God in the highest for the blessed Gospel And what says that Why Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Thou art a sinner a sinner grievous against Law Gospel and Conscience But what then Believe now on the Lord Jesus Turn to God by him dutifully God will draw nigh to thee graciously But neither there or any where is it said If thou art not minded to believe presently do but promise hereafter to do it thou shalt be saved And for your lives young People consider after Law and Gospel but Example and Presidents When Christ call'd his Disciples all follow'd him presently VVhen the Three Thousand were preached to and were convinced they were converted presently So the Jailor Act. 16. converted straitway But look we a little into these your words you will convert hereafter Fall they not into these two parts 1. We will not Convert now 2. We will hereafter First You will not Convert now That is You will abide Rebels to God Devils to your self Vassals to the Devil Idolizers of this vain VVorld c. This you will do though you know it Vnjust Vnsafe Vnprofitable Vngrateful and all that is worst And though you would think it hard if God should hold you in such a state against your Wills Or suffer Satan to keep you in it by force This you will do though you know if God should now use you like your selves that is like unreconcilable Enemies even against his very intreaties you must be sent quick to Hell Though you know too that every sin you commit makes Conversion harder if ever it be made and Hell hotter for you if it be not made This ye will do of Choice you will And because you will without any Reasons that you dare to produce or let mortal Men hear you speak Secondly You will Convert hereafter Thy Power Foolish Creature thy Power Where is thy Power thy Will or thy Reason Thy Power Man Canst thou live as long as thou wilt Or canst thou keep what ability God has now given thee for Conversion and make it more when thou wilt Canst thou save thy self from Distraction Delusions of Satan c. Art thou able thy self to supply thy self with necessaries Natural and Supernatural now and hereafter
Well if thou couldest say plainly what is thy Will 'T is a Will not moved by Gods Threats or Promises to Fear or Love him If it were so thou wouldst Convert now And if it be not so what is thy Purpose for all thy fair Promise Dost intend hereafter to turn unto a God neither Feared nor Loved Surely thou dost not Thinkest thou that thou shalt hereafter Fear and Love him I ask what should make thee so think He will for ever be the same God that now he is Lay to thy Heart what I tell thee If God be not just now worthy of Fear and Love then he never was or will be so for he Changes not In a word VVhat if thou hadst both power to Convert when thou wouldest and hadst a real will to Convert hereafter to God where is the Reason for staying without and against God all the while Thou art Servant he is Lord thou the Child he the Father When Servants run away and will not return to their Masters and very Children run away and will not come back to their Fathers No though the Masters and Fathers call and send and promise and do not need them while they all the while need their Masters and Fathers All people conclude there is a cause of this and a fault must lie somewhere in one of the Parties Either the Fathers Unnatural and the Master Cruel or else the Child is a Viper and the Servant a Monster Speak Man and say now where is the fault what is the cause that thou canst not yet be prevailed with to return to thy Lord and Father Thou must charge Him or thy self with most black and bloody faults If thou lay'st it on God thou makest him worse than the Devil and proclaimest Satan the better Master and Father of the two If thou takest the blame on thy self I ask thee how thou canst endure to see hear or think of thy self A Creature hating it's God that is all Love and all Loveliness No words I think no words of mine I am sure can express how Blasphemous or how Self-condemned they are all that put off Conversion to another time Alas here is Life and all in the case Conversion is the Life of thy Soul Man 'T is Dying till it Convert 'T is in Hell till thou Convert And is this a fit word I will then Convert hereafter Thy darling Child drops into the Fire and thou promisest to come help it out to morrow A very Kind creature thou wilt be thought and as Wise an one Upon every account I may say of these Promises of Turning hereafter as was said of Judas It had been better they had never been born And they be Judasses indeed for though they Flatter and Kiss they Betray and Kill poor Souls R. 7. You as plainly as elder people do dare God to damn you all the while you delay your Conversion Therefore 't is your duty to convert presently I have heard of a Man much accustomed to cursing in his health that could not utter any word but a curse in his sickness Could not pronounce Yes or No but as oft as he spoke in several Months time he bid God to damn him A most frightful thing you will say And yet young people I take you to be in very like condition all that delay your Conversion For the Language of Practice is with God and Men as significant as any if not more If you practically bid God damn you you are of the same spirit with them who verbally bid him so do And if I know any thing Delayers do bid him in deeds as certainly as any sinners do in their words I appeal to your very own thoughts in the case You are corrupted with sin and condemned for it The grace of God calls you to come take your Pardon and your Cure But tells you Now is your Time Promises you no Breath of Life but what 's in your Nostrils nor any offer of Cure or Pardon after the first In every Precept requires present coming Your Delaying therefore is running the Venture And that adventuring is plain saying Lord if now just now be the time I shall not take hold of it Though I Burn I will not yet Turn Thou dost not promise to stay longer for me but if thou wilt not Damn and do thy worst with me I would rather thou wouldst change thy Word Blot now in the dayes of thy Youth out of the Bible Write Remember thy Creator when thou art old and bedridden But if this thou wilt not do I will live under thy Threatning VVrath And let its Vials fall on me if they must I am set against present Conversion for thy Peace Let me add but this Sirs There is but one way possible to Hell which is by Sin For nothing else can incense God against You. He cannot be in the least displeased for ought beside But sin is that which he cannot but Hate and Punish Now to go on wilfully delightfully and resolutely in sin is in effect as if you should kneel down on your knees and beg and pray with tears in your eyes that you may never be saved But may be assured of a place in the lowest Hell The former is interpretatively the latter O madness beyond compare though not Admired because so much Practised R. 8. You as well as Elder people do hate and rob God and imitate and obey Satan till you do Convert Therefore 't is your duty presently to Convert Young people it may be you know not what you do but knowingly or ignorantly these things you do do till you Convert You hate God Interpretatively you hate him By your actions no other can be judged of you If you desired to express hatred of him you could not take a more direct way for it then that you are in For you walk contrary unto him Comparatively you hate him If you have any love to him sure it 's nothing and less than nothing in comparison of that which you bear unto your idolized things and persons Yea Absolutely you hate him as an holy and just Ruler and Judge In his Government you hate him and wish you could dethrone him Deny it if you dare In his Children and Friends you hate him Their Company is an Eye-sore and Burthen unto you his Image on them you cannot bear If it were otherwise you could not but Convert unto him You Rob him yea and all his You rob him of a Child Christ of a Member the Holy Ghost of a Temple the Heavenly Host of a Joy the Church of a Star the World of a Pillar And in the mean time what do you VVhy Satan in the God of every unconvert Creature Him in your Spiritual impurities you Imitate in your bodily you Obey in both you Serve and Gratifie Horrid Servitude Unendurable by Souls and jod less senseless than Plants or less wild than Brutes R. 9. You as elder People do out-sin Satan himself till you do Convert Therefore
Text your State is one that God judges an ill one and calls you out of it and charges you to make all possible speed out of Many wish themselves in a State of God's Wrath when they say Oh that I were in but so good a Condition as this or that Child They know less than many Catechised little Children who know not this Such is an Vnconvert State that Christ himself cannot save a Soul in it The Lord maketh you all to feel the words that I can make you but hear My Father in all his Letters to me used to write O Child better never born than not New Born Infer 2. Your Miserable State is one Alterable Would God call you out of your damning forgetfulness if there were no return possible Would he call you to a saving Remembrance if there were a fixed gulf and unpassable between you and Blessedness 'T is sin and madness for the worst of Sinners to say they are Reprobates No Man alive can know himself to be so And the worst Man Living must make himself still worser by concluding so Young People your Unconversion hitherto has kept you unreconciled to God but hitherto You are not now Vnreconcileable if now ye be not Obstinate and Vnperswadable I praise him who when Satan tempted him to despair of Salvation thus answered For shame Satan say not there 's no hope of me thou mightest be saved thy self if thou could'st Repent Infer 3. God is willing your miserable State should be altered and that speedily too Would he otherwise call you and so call you as you have heard Or can you tell what should make him unwilling True he needs you not But you need him and he delights in Mercy if you will believe him Forget not this of God and his Son God swears by his Life he desires not a Sinners Death Consequently he must desire their Conversion And as for his Son your Blessed Redeemer as he shed his Blood to save Sinners so he sheds Tears over them when they refuse his Salvation 'T is Satan not God that is the Herod desirous to slay you Children And be confident of this if he now moves you to Duty he surely means you Mercy Infer 4. You your selves can do more towards your Conversion and perfective Alteration than all the World can do This is hence gathered from God's setting his Ministers and your Parents and Friends all upon your selves He bids us not go to any others and tell them they must go new form your hearts No but charges us to apply unto you and call on you to make you new Hearts and new Spirits and Convert unto him and Remember him to right purpose 'T is therefore certainly most in the power of your own hand next to Gods God has committed you more to your own keeping than unto any meer Creatures And given you more power over your selves than any other Creature hath Wherefore neither can best Angels benefit you or worst Devils injure you as you can benefit or injure your selves And it less concerns you dayly to enquire what all the World has done for you or against you Then what you your selves have done for or against your selves Would you know what is the just extent of this Power what it is you can do and what it is you cannot do toward your Conversion Others have answered more largely I say this briefly Try and you shall know Do all the good you can and you shall know what good you can do To lie idle and do nothing because you know not how much you can do were a folly like Ezekiels Infant wallowing in its own Blood Infer 5. Your Tempters from present Conversion are Hells black Legion I infer it thus It is only Hell that opposeth Heaven Divels that fight against the Command of God Black Devils that withstand his express Commands But 't is his Command and most express one that you now presently do Convert Wherefore as oft as any man disswades you from it tell him you find by his Lip he has a Cloven Foot And you see Satan is grown idle and impudent and leaves off the trouble of transforming himself into an Angel of Light Tempting Company is the openest Mouth of Hell in all this World Infer 6. Your way unto Salvation is one and the self-same with other folks If not why should it be prescribed in the self-same words that the way of all others is prescribed in Sc. Remembering God Deut. 8.18 Jer. 51.50 There be many about you that will shew you young people a shorter cut to Heaven And there is much within you that will catch at it greedily enough But the Lord give you to receive your sight you will then as easily believe there is one God for you and another for old people as that there is one Religion for you and another for them Verily there is but one narrow Gate for the Entrance and one strait Way for the Progress of both of you Blessed are both that find it Miserable both that miss it I know not how he himself shall be saved that prompts young people that they may be so without Understanding Owning and Living sincerely according unto their Baptismal Engagement May the weight of Mat. 5.19 never lye upon my Soul dear unto me Infer 7. Your greatest Danger is of delaying to Convert Why else are you twice warned thereof in the Text Why required to Convert in your Youth before you are Old and just Now before you are a minute Older Death stands before Old Mens Faces and one would think they should not venture to put it off It is somewhat farther out of your sight indeed but so swiftly it oft comes that it is of wonder you your selves should be so daring as to do it But alas both of you are daily seen full of your Delays Full often in my Pulpit I think what a number should I Convert this time but that my old Folk think they may as well Convert next Week and my young ones think they may Convert next Year both think they may Convert another time And what saâ—â—s my trembling Heart Plainly thus Oh Delay Delay thou bond of Iniquity thou bane of Piety thou bar of Conversion Satan's great Barge into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone be gone and destroy not this Congregation Sirs Remember it down-right denyal of Conversion is nothing near so like to ruine you as dallying Delay of it 'T is Delay is the Element of Unregeneracy as Unregeneracy is the Element of Hell Infer 8. Youthful Vnconverts are the worst of Demoniacks and break most bonds of God For as you have heard you have special Obligations on you Though God makes your days choice and good yet cleave you will unto the worst evil Though you have on you the Restraints which old sinners have long ago had took off from them you sin as they The Spirit of God that has done striving with many of them strives still with you Conscience that is
which God chargeth us with and truly own that we are chargeable with the faults for which God reproveth us Jer. 3.13 This God enjoyneth Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God They cannot be said to Repent who plead guiltless This Plea God reproveth Israel for yet thou sayest because I am innocent Jer. 2.35 c. Whiles Men plead for sin as no sin or acquit themselves when they are Criminals sins bind on them the wrath of God and stand in the way of a peoples good But there 's hope of a Land Jer. 14. â—0 when it poureth out its Confessions with them We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have sinned against thee 2. Shame fear and deep humblings of Soul under the sence of the wrath of God as provoked by our sins Ahab humbled himself Turn to me with fasting and with mourning Joel 2.13 14. rent your hearts and not your garments for he is gracious c. and repenteth him of the evil who knows if he will return 1 Sam. 7.6 and leave a Blessing behind him God will embitter sin to us or avenge it Provocations shall prevent Mercy when they are easie and pleasing but this remorse must reach to the Heart though it do not savingly change it The Heart must tremble at the threatned Wrath God will have his anger awful to Men and their abominations shall cause a blush at least in a sence of what miseries they expose to Therefore while people make a mock of sin as harmless while they sport with the wrath kindled thereby as a scare-crow God will go on to strip a Kingdom of its Blessings and load it with Judgments They were not at all ashamed Jer. 6.15 neither could they blush therefore at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down But this Humiliation Fear and Shame must be from an affected Soul not bare Bodily appearances in a day of Humiliation or hanging down the Head like a bulrush for a day Isa 58.5 these the Lord despiseth for such things he will not turn away his anger Jer. 3.25 Whereas there is hope when a people lye down in their shame and confusion covers them becâ—use they have sinned against the Lord. It bodes well Ezra 9.4 when men tremble at the words of the God of Israel because of transgression 3. Such a complyance with Gods warnings and rebukes as to put Men on seeking Gods savour and resolving to forsake the National pollutions There must be supplications as well as weeping Jer. 3.21 A voice was heard on the high places weeping and supplications of the Children of Israel for they have perverted their way This is Gods advice to a Land and its the constant way of a Repenting people Jon. 3.8 Thus Niniveh cryed mightily to God Herein the dominion of God is owned and so far Men acknowledge a dependance upon him But this must not be only with the Mouth no it must be with the Heart as to this act and occasion Hos 7.14 Neh. 9.33 A sleighty cry will not prevail It 's a brand on a people that they cryed not unto me with the heart With our Prayers there should be a justification of Gods Threats and Punishments How hopeless then is the condition of a people when that 's true of them we made not our Prayer to God Dan. 9.13 Ez. 18.29 30. and as sad whilst they arraign his ways as unequal But good resolves must attend Prayer a full purpose under present Convictions though it may not alwayes prove effectual through want of a Principle in Sinners and remains of Corruption in Saints We are led to this by that place Take away all iniquity Ashur shall not save us Hos 14.2 3. what have I to do any more with idols Ezra 10.3 Neh. 9.38 and 10.29 Expressive hereof was Ezra's and Nehemiah's entering the people into a Covenant with God against National Sins Now what hopes can there be of a Land if it neglect the Lord as if he had nothing to do with them yea continues resolute in its sins Thus did they who said after our Idols will we go Jer. 44.17 we will worship the Queen of Heaven c. Alas Such a people may lye down in fear and look at the Mercies they want as impossible yea consider the Blessings they yet enjoy as soon to be removed I added that Prayer and Resolves should be in complyance with Gods warnings God will have a regard to his Threatnings and some tribute of Obedience rendered to him by them whom he spares Thus Ahab yielded to Elijahs Message and Niniveh regarded the Threatnings of the Lord by Jonah Therefore it s an awful sign when Nations refuse to hearken Zech. 7.11 12. draw away the shoulder and make their heart as an adamant least they should hear the law and the words of God by the Prophets When this is the frame and carriage of a people towards God what effects follow the following words acquaint you Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts Whether the warnings are sent by the Word in the mouth of his Servants or by his Wonders or by lesser Afflictions the disregard of them makes the bands of a people strong whereas attentiveness and complyance therewith affords encouragement 4. There must be a Reformation All the former without this are too insufficient to be a prognostick of good the other things tend to this and must terminate therein or Repentance wants its aptitude to the designed end I have sent my Prophets Jer. 35.15 saying return ye now every man from the evil of his way and amend your doings c. and ye shall dwell in the Land a gracious offer but behold the obstacle to their benefit thereby you have not inclined your ear nor hearkened unto me In the same manner God leaves it on this issue Learn to do well Is 1.17 18 19. c. If you be willing and obedient yon shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel you shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it It 's no Repentance while gross evils are continued in if our sins be sins of Commission Zech. 14.19 It 's no Repentance while an express Duty be not complyed with when the offence is a sin of Omission This shall be the punishment of all Egypt and of all Nations that come not up to keep the feast of Tabernacles Let there be never so much mourning though it rise to the covering the Altar with tears Is 58.6.7 8. it yields but vain hopes when Men continue unreformed But amendment carryeth with it a happy presage it restraineth the bitter effects of past provocations and God in Mercy encourageth it in a people though on the brink of ruine We see an instance in Judg. 10. the people having confessed
their sin ver 10. accepted of their punishment and called upon God ver 15. They put away their strange gods and served the Lord then the Soul of God was grieved for their misery and he delivered them ver 16. A parallel you have in Niniveh the charge given by the King Jon. â— 8 9. which was complyed with was Let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand then they conclude a possibility of escape according to the tacit reserve in the Prophets message Who can tell if God will turn away from his fierce anger and we perish not 2. But yet further The Repentance in these acts must be for National Sins If it be for other Sins and not for the Sins of the Land it will not warrant our expectations of National Mercies God will have Men direct their Repentance to that which his Wrath is kindled for and which his Testimony is against It 's not enough that you bewail your own personal private sins but these publick faults People are loathest to own bewail and leave these National Offences Custom fixeth them they are commonly reputable and by the generality of Transgressours thought innocent they are supported by lnterest and Power there 's danger by Repenting thereof If you reform as to these there 's oft a loss of Places Men are subject to shame by leaving faults in fashion or the reproach of having long offended in those things and how backward are our proud Hearts to acknowledge we have been in an error But let it be never so hard the Arrow of God is levelled against these very sins and even these shall be bewailed and forsaken or he will proceed to embitter them People may think to commute with God and amend in other matters but this is a vain attempt Mic. 6.15 16. to their own delusion and ruine Thou shalt sow but shalt not reap for the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab and ye walk in their counsels that I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing Therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people This leads me to answer one Objection Object How may we know which be the National Sins Answ If the same particular Sins be universal Consider the carriage of a people in general and compare it with the Word National Sins are too gross not to be seen when the rule of a Peoples walking is set before us But if you would know which are more eminently the National Sins observe what Sins have the greatest influence in Corrupting the Land which cleaveth fastest to a people and most especially leading persons are guilty of which have been longest continued in and in their Nature and Consequences are most grievous which seem the Judgments of God most directed against what sins do the best Ministers and People witness most against By these Rules you may discern what are those National Sins which the Nation agree in the commission of or connivance at But if the National Sins be by accumulation of several sorts of sins according to the different state of people who constitute that Community You then must distinguish a Nation into its constituent or remarkably differing parties as Magistrates and Subjects Ministers and People Rich and Poor Infidels and Believers c. Compare the frame and carriage of each of these with that which God hath made their peculiar Duty and adding the former helps those National Sins will appear which are made up by complication though the same individual Crimes are not entertained by the several parties in a Nation 3. The Repentance must usually be National I do not mean that every individual must repent but the generality or at least some very considerable number and those of such Men that most represent and influence the Body A small number of private Penitents may save themselves but seldom secure a Nation I confess here I must be wary considering how graciously God is pleased to admit sometimes a few to personate a Body and give in Blessings for many on their mediation Phineas his Zeal turns away Wrath from all his people Num. 25.11 Ezek. 22.30 God seems to conclude the unavoidableness of Israels woe from the want of one man to divert it I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none This the desolate Church complains of Isa 64.7 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee But though Sovereignty admits a very few Penitents to profit many Transgressors yet we are not usually to expect this what ever in extremity we may hope for want of better grounds usually a few are called none as to this effect No man repented him of his wickedness Jer. 8.6 Isa 66.4 and 59.16 I called and none did answer he wondered there was no intercessor There were the Prophets themselves and some others that Repented yet so few were as good as none to secure the good which multitudes concurred to remove His Call is to the generality to return and on that he promiseth favour Hear ye the word of the Lord all ye of Judah Jer. 7.2 3. Thus saith the Lord Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place And the failure by the refusal he affixeth to the body of them ver 28. Thou shalt say This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord nor receiveth correction c. We can hardly look for good to a Land unless the repenting persons be numerous enough to vindicate the Glory of God and influence the Land to Reformation Joel 1.14 15. Jon. 3.5 6. The assembly of Penitents must be solemn How general was the Repentance of Niniveh from the greatest to the least from the King and Nobles to the most abject Some farther light may arise from the next head 4. The Repentance should be suited to the different Condition and Circumstances of those that make up a Nation Each must repent of the sins common to all yea the gross trespasses of each sort must be bewailed by every sort But yet there is a Repentance peculiar to each which ought eminently to appear or at least really to be and this exerted according to their respective abilities Magistrates ought to mourn for the sins of the People and also to repent of their own ill Examples bad Laws c. And they must express their Repentance by exerting that Power which they have above others They should enact good Laws restrain and punish Sin command days of Humiliation appoint good Ministers c. So Ezra did Ezra 10.8 9. Neh. 13. The same did Nehemiah Magistrates do not repent if they do not so and a Land may perish for their neglect Suppose a Land divideable into Unbelievers and Believers These Believers must
repent of their own sins as well as the sins of Unbelievers They must be humbled for their own decays Contentions Worldlyness Barrenness Vanity Pride though less gross then others as well as for the Idolatry and Profaneness of the Irreligious The Reason is that these sins of theirs contribute to the bringing down Judgments and obstructing of Mercies as well as the grosser sins of Unbelievers nay in some sense more because they ought to be Witnesses for God in a degenerate Land Their Examples encourage the grosser Villanies of others they have more Light and Strength to keep themselves pure yea if the number of good Men be considerable in a Land the lot of a Nation is mostly determined by them and Gods regards is much more to them than others If you take the Epistles to the seven Churches to be so particular as most do you may see how God reproves and threatens them though small portions of those States of which they were Members in Civil Respects I think I may say that the Repentance of Believers for their sins must exceed the Repentance of Unbelievers in some proportion to that Life Grace and Aids which they have above those Unbelievers their Humiliation must be deeper and more ingenuous their resolves stronger their return more universal their Prayers more fervent their Reformation more extensive spiritual and vigorous than other men In this its true as a man is so to his strength If their Repentance be no greater than others they may expose a Nation and prove its ruine I might proceed to Gentry and Commonalty to Ministers and People but time prevents me and the same Rules may guide you in these as in the instances before described I shall only add that supposing a part of the Land Persecutors and the other Persecuted for Truths sake these latter must be humbled for the sins of Persecutors and repent of their own sins and that according to the advantage which their Afflictions give for their Humiliation and Amendment While men throw repenting work off of themselves to others as if they could acquit themselves of Gods Challenge are there not also sins among you are you no way guilty The Land is like to suffer and the common condition to be deplorable It 's true if the design of God be to single out any one sort of a Nation to suffer by themselves the impenitents of that sort may not dammage the body of the Nation further than their struggles with or their loss of that part may affect the residue As if God resolve to punish Professors of Religion only their impenitence may affect the whole no further than the distress of such Professors amounts to except as it is an awful omen because Judgment seldom begins at Gods House but it reacheth in woful issues to others afterwards Or if God hath a Controversie with the Gentry of a Land their impenitency may not fatally reach the ordinary people if penitent For if God resolves to punish ravenous domineering Pastors or Persecutors their neglect of Repentance shall not hurt the whole that repents nay it will be their advantage to have them blasted if they remain impenitent as the Kingdoms plagues It 's much more so as to particular Families whether the highest or less influencing the corruption of a Common-wealth But where God designs not a distinct respect in his Judgments the stubbornness of any one sort doth threaten the Nation their not repenting in a way proper to them may plunge the whole into a loss of Mercies Thus I have according to my small light resolved the Case The decision of the Case proved 1. The described Repentance doth ordinarily afford a people National Mercies notwithstanding National Sins In the resolution of the Case there occurred some Reasons and many Scriptures to evidence this so that I shall need to say little more for proof There seems to be an express Rule in this matter Jer. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to pluck it up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them The Repentance which God hath accepted so as to prolong the wellfare of Nations was of this sort as you see in Niniveh and other places 2 Chron. 12.7 Should we examine the Repentance of any Land it hath rarely arrived to a greater height A defect of the Repentance injoined in the Covenant of Grace is obvious in that Repentance which hath yet been effectual as to National Mercies This Repentance answers the great methods and ends of Gods general Government as to the Temporal Weale of Nations and provides a Foundation to proceed upon in those methods whereby his Spiritual Kingdom is advanced and the Eternal Welfare of Souls is promoted we may expect God will continue National Mercies to a People who come up to that Repentance which hath preserved other Nations 2 Chro. 7.14 And 30.8 9. Jer. 26.3 13. We have great Encouragement to our Hopes from many Texts 2. Where this Repentance obtains not a People cannot justly expect National Mercies Isa 8.9 Let a Nation seem never so safe its security is vain and all its supports shall be blasted by Impenitency Jer. 15.7 What though a People are related to God I will destroy my people sith they return not from their evil ways May not their priviledges and pledges of Gods Presence secure them No Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these will ye steal murder commit Adultery and swear falsly and say we are delivered to do all these abominations Go to Shiloh and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel and now because you have done all these works and I spake unto you but you heard not I will do unto this house Jer. 7.4 9 10 12 13 14 15. wherein you trust as I have done to Shiloh and I will cast you out of my sight Mock shadows of your Repentance and weak uneffectual Attempts for it and 14.4.7 12. 44.1 10 11. will leave men under disappointments When a People is given up to impenitency and God with-holds a Blessing from the Methods Isa 6.9 10 11. that tend to their Repentance there 's just cause of Fear that Judgments are determined against that Land Hear you indeed but understand not make the heart of the people fat and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes understand with their hearts and convert and be healed How long Lord till the cities be laidwaste God is so positive against a land refusing to return that their Felicity is impossible Wrath came upon Judah for this their trespass 2 Chro. 24.18 19 20. yet he sent Prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord but they would not give ear Thus saith God Why