work-house That he possesseth the heart of every unregenerate man The strong man keeps the house and so all is quiet It was a sad day when the abomination of desolation should be seen standing in the holy place but what are abominable Men to abominable Devils They did but exercise their cruelties on the bodies of the Jewes but how many Devils have their walks in the hearts of natural men and women If thou art in thy bloods the Devil hath entred into thee as sure as ever he entred into the heard of Swine and so hurrieth thee into base lasts as he carried them headlong into the Sea CHAP. III. Their want of Despair in Self IF Men are sensible of their sinne and miserie Few humbled Souls Rom. 10.3 yet how many are going about to establish their own righteousness Though some are convinced of the ugliness of sin of â—he miserie by sin yet they are not fully convinced that the covenant of works requires perfect personal and corstant obedience that it admits not of repentance that it accepts not of the will for the deed Gal. 3.10 but Curseth every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them so that if there be a failer by a vain thought the conditions of that covenant are broken and nothing save fearful expectations should seize on such a Soul Few I say believe this but though they are bankrupt Children of Adam yet they hope by their pedling Wares to set up again and maintain themselves without being beholden to any other for the procuring of their salvation hence they pray who were prayerless before hear and perhaps with much diligence who were wont to play away the Sabbath and Sermon time and reform in many things and now Soul take thine ease thou hast goâ—ds laid up for many years yea for eternity thou art converted sure and so think all the Neighbour-hood O! what a change is here The man was a Drunkard not so now an Adulterer a prophane Belial but now civilized yea a devout man Serious that was flashy before and touching the righteousness which is in the Law Phil. 3.6 blameless Now he is alive indeed his Conscience is pacified which before troubled him he can hear the Word gladly which before was burthensome to him he can pray with affection and with some delight when before all the Ordinances of Heaven were tedious and intollerable burthens to him Now he thinks Sure I have life within me I am not dead He sees not all this while that he must have life from without and ability from without He doth not yet say Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psa 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up No no he can look up with confidence and call God Father Job 12.6 and though sometimes he provokes God yet he is secure He doth not see that he is dead i. e. damned 2 Cor. 3.5 and insufficient as of himself to think any thing as of himself but all his sufficiency is of God He thinks he is not utterly unable to make amends for his sins not quite dead for he can pray c. He sees not that it is as easie to make new Worlds as to put up one acceptable Prayer to God He sees not that he needs an Almighty power to enable him to perform his duties and infinite satisfaction to discharge him of his debts He is somewhat sensible of his danger by sin Isa 63.1 but he eyes not him that is mighty to save He looks for help within but not without He sees no absolute necessity of Christ all this while He sees not that all his righteousnesses are as filthy raggs in Gods sight Isa 64.6 and that all his duties fill up the Catalogue of his sins He sees not that there is no Salvation in any other save Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 because there is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He hopes to goe to Heaven through doors of his own the door of Repentance the door of Reformation the door of good Works c. hence he takes hold of the mercy of God and the promises of pardon Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him yea he will abundantly pardon Thus have I done saith this awakened person and now my Case is good O! I would not be in mine old myres for a World O! what a change is here I was a careless Wretch careless of God and my Soul careless of praying reading hearing c. not so now And now that the house Matth. 12.43 44 45. out of which the unclean Spirit is gone is swept and garnished he carrieth it high and little thinks he that seven worse Spirits are entring in This is the case of multitude of Professours whom Christ will never seek nor save Luke 19.10 for that they are not lost they are not succourless and helpless they think they may save themselves from wrath to come They see not that there is a Satisfaction to be made to Divine Justice which they cannot make wherefore their hopes are from their reformations not from Christ their peace is from their performances not from Christs blood of attonement All these have I kept from my youth up Luke 18.21 Hence he is consident not from Christs coming under the Law hence he is diligent in Prayer c. but careless of the way of Faith hence he blesseth himself in his own performances and is no way taken up with what Christ hath done and suffered for him Moses is magnifyed and Christ is slighted Duties are set up and Faith neglected Works advanced and cryed up and Faith is little heeded or look'd after How few are there who count themselves wholly destitute of every good thing that should make them acceptable unto God They lay not the weight of Salvation upon the grace of God by Jesus Christ but upon somewhat that comes from themselves they will have a Bridge of Duties that shall carry them over the Gulph of eternal miserie they hope to quench Hell Fire by their tears Alass some years agoe you might as well have drawn Water out of the Flint as tears from them but the case is altered I was blind but now I see the deserts of sin which I saw not before I see it is a fearful thing to sin against God and now I bewail my sins and am sorry at heart for them sure my condition is monded I thank God I am not as other men nor as once I was my self I hope by my tears to wash away my sins All the while Christ lieth without doors the Soul is a stranger to Faith in Christ he sees not his
few Professours are the Promises of God exceeding great and precious 2 Pet. 1.4 Not admiring Gods condescention therein 3. How little do we admire at Gods stopping so low as to oblige himself by promise to such varlets as we God might have dealt with us by way of absolute Soveraignty and Dominion imposing only upon us commands to do our duty without adjoyning any promise of a reward he being our Creatour and we his Creatures It is his great condescention to deal with us by way of Promise which is not only an insinuation and signification of what he will do but a laying a bond or obligation upon himself to do so and so Herein God did more condescend unto Man than unto the fallen Angels they have not any one not the least Promise of any good made by God unto them And yet how little are we in admiration Not blessing God for them 1 Jo. 2.25 4. How little do we bless the Lord for those Jewels that are wrapt up in the Promises for the Fruit that hangs on this Tree of Life This is the Promise that he hath promised us even eternal Life A Crown is promised Jam. 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him A Kingdome is promised Hearken Jam. 2.5 my beloved Brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him Yet how unthankfull This doubtless proceeds from our diffidence of the reality and faithfulness of the Promiser and therefore that shall be another Question 5. How little do we relye upon God Not relying on the Promiser to make good his Promises How many think God the Promiser as changeable as themselves Men in Boats being in constant motion upon the Waters are apt to fancy that the Land and Trees move as they themselves do So many Christians think as oft as they fail in point of strict duty God will fail too Who layes all the stress upon the faithfulness of him that hath promised Do not we lean partly to the Promises and partly to our own endeavours and the means we use and so divide our dependencies betwixt the Promises of God and our own Duties to bring in pardons peace holiness or any outward comforts 6. Do not we eye Promises Not eyeing Christ in them without eyeing Christ Do not we dote on the Bracclets but neglect the Friend Do not some set a greater value on the Promise than on Christ's Person Though the Promises are only the Chrystal Streams of that River of Life Rev. 22.1 which proceedeth out of the Throne of God and the Lamb yet do not we make them the Primary and not the Secondary Object of Faith Who look upon Promises only as Instruments to bring Christ and the Soul together 7. Not hoping for the good of them How little do we hope for the good laid up in the Promises What fearful expectations have many Prosessours though they walk close with God though they abstain from that which is evil though they fulifill after God to the utmost of their power though they design which way to walk in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good word and work yet how cast down how discouraged are they how do they pine away and their hearts dye within them how are they as Reeds shaken as Ships driven and cannot cast anchor within the Vail Moses himself was shaken when a deliverance of Gods own promising met with opposition And Moses said Lord wherefore hast thou so evil intreated this people Exod. 5.22 23. why is it that thou hast sent me For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy Name he hath done evil to this people neither hast thou delivered thy people at all It is Gods wonted course to bring signal mercies under a sentence of death before we enjoy them and yet how prevailing is unbelief when God deferrs and the Promise is obstructed How faint are we Our hope is not lively 8. Noc waiting for the good of them Heb. 10.36 How little do we wait till that good which is in the Promises be given out to us I may truly say to many yea to most Ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the Promise Sure The Vision is for an appointed time Hab. 2.3 and God would have us to wait though it tarry because it will not tarry beyond the time appointed by the wise and saithful God But though God never fail of his own time yet he seldome comes at ours and then we run into unbelief if not impatiency of spirit How oft do we Antedate the Promise and set it a time before Gods time Jam. â— 4 Patience hath not its perfect work so that if God save us out of our miseries we shall not be able to say as the Church Loe this is our God Isa 25.9 we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation This limiting the holy One of Israel either as to means when we tye up the Lord to work by wayes and causes of our own or to dayes and hours of our own bold and impudent prescription is no small provocation Psa 78.40 41. How oft did they provoke him in the Wilderness and grieve him in the Desert Yea they turned back and tempted God and limited the holy One of Israel Some will wait a month or two for the Promise of Pardon that they may have peace in their Consciences and for Promises of outwards but when they see nothing comes of their waiting 2 Kings 6.33 then there is no hope why should I wait on the Lord any longer That Wretch waited a little but not long enough We allow time to the Physician to cure us we yield that he knows the fittest time to apply cordialls but we yield not so much to God We would have the smarting Plaister pulled off before the Wound be healed whereas it is best for us to have it kept on David's foot was almost slipt when he saw the Promise of the Kingdom deferred he makes a bad inference from the delay One day I shall fall by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 We do not stay our selves on the Promises till the thing promised be given into our bosomes David waited patiently but so do not we Our hearts are not at rest but we stagger like Drunkards we reel this way and that way but are not established and setled In this we are not consident that God who hath promised cannot lye and therefore will perform the word that is gone forth from an unfeigned lip We are too hasty in our desires whereas God knows the fittest season for the Promise to bring forth We shall have it when the time is come but we
A GOSPEL-GLASSE Representing the MISCARRIAGES OF English Professors BOTH In their Personal and Relative Capacities for which God is contending with them by the Sword Plague c. and since the writing of the greatest part of the following Treatise for the Press by the dreadful Fire in London OR A CALL FROM HEAVEN To SINNERS and SAINTS By Repentance and Reformation to prepare to meet God Levit. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Jer. 2.35 Yet thou sayest Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me Behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not sinned LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXVII THE Authors PREFACE WHEN it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness then saith the Prophet Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion Joel 2.1 2. and found an Alarum in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven unto the Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his Foot-stool in the day of his anger He hath violently taken away his Tabernacle as if it were of a Garden V. 6 he hath destroyed the Places of the Assembly The Lord hath caused the solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger his Priests V. 7 Yea the Lord hath cast off his Altar he hath abhorred his Sanctuary the Law is no more her Prophet also find no Vision from the Lord. O that now mine eyes could fail with tears V. 9 and my bowels were more troubled within me O that my Liver were poured upon the Earth for the destruction of the Daughter of my People V. 11 because the Children and the Sucklings swoon in the streets of the City We see not our Signes there is no more any Prophet Psal 74.9 neither is there among us any that knoweth How Long. When we 2 Sam. 6.1 2. like David were restoring the Ark of God I mean the presence of Christ in his Worship and Ordinances what Stumblings of the Oxen have we seen What miserable Disappointments have we met with And what sad breaches have there been made How hath God stopt our way and branded our Enterprises with wonderful remarks of his sore displeasure Hear therefore the word of the Lord Hos 4.1 ye Children of Israel for the Lord hath a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land We poor Ministers have pleaded with you till we can plead no more the Lord hath bid us stand by whilest he himself takes up the Controverste O is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10.31 Are you not sensible what Arrows God hath begun to shoot amongst us How many thousands Psal 58.9 Isa 5.25 and ten thousands hath he taken away as with a whirlwind by the Pestilence For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still How hath God shaken our Heavens Hag. 2.6 and our Earth the Sea as well as dry Land How doth he contend still by the Sword And how much precious blood hath the Earth and Sea drunk up For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still O! Come Psal 46.8 Behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the Earth Every Providence of God especially his more notable Acts hath a reason written upon it could mans eye read it When the Church complained that God was as a stranger in the Land Jer. 14.8 10. and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night The Lord replyes to them Thus have they loved to wander c. The Controversie began on their side they may see their Sin in the Punishment as in a Glass Do they winder I grow strange to them The estrangement began on their part Nothing appears more our instant Duty than to enter a serious scrutiny What have we done Wherein have we offended Lam. 3.40 41 44. Let us search and try our wayes saith the afflicted Church of Judah upon this very occasion of the Lords covering himself with a Cloud that their Prayers could not pass through and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens O! Hag. 1.5.7 Consider your wayes The Lord doubled it Your iniquities have seperated between you and your God Isa 59.2 and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear I find men will easily subscribe to this that Sin is the procuring cause of all misery but I find an aptness to transferr the guilt from one to another from one party to another and though people do even sell themselves to work wickedness yet so predominant is Self-love that it sees no spots in it self Ahab is not the troubler of Israel but Elijah Nay a good man Aaron excuseth himself Exod. 32.22 and layes the blame on others The Sin is theirs not mine Men have a natural desire to justifie themselves and their desire is so strong that they care not whom they bespatter or burden so they may but ease and acquit themselves And indeed Sin is such an ugly Monster that no man will own it if he can choose but had rather lay this Child of Darkness at any mans door yea at Gods than Father it himself My Design in this Enterprize is to obviate this Distemper and to bring you all of you to own your iniquity that you may say resolve upon it that you will confess your iniquity Psal 32.5 that so God may forgive the iniquity of your sin My Place and Duty as a Minister though wholly unworthy of that Relation to God and you binds me to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations Ezek. 16.2 and therefore I have descended to Particulars that if it be the will of God I might hit the humour 1 Kings 8.38 and shew to every man the plague of his own heart The Lord knoweth I take no pleasure to rake in these Dunghills I dread the ill uses that the Sons of Belial may make of this Enterprize I expect various Censures from them who should be otherwise minâ—ed but my record is on high that the great Design of this Publication is to reduce Professours to a more aweful humble serious Repentance towards God and singular Conversation before men I thank God for the freedome that a Reverend Brother hath taken with the ejected Ministers Vox clamantis in Deserto and I must profess that since the perusal of that most seasonable Piâ—ce I have had no quiet in my Conscience till I entred upon this Labour Though my bodily Distempers pleaded loud for my silence though I was
loves O! I hate my self whilst writing this that I love the Lord so little so seldom It was he that made me and not I my self He hath wonderfully formed me and wonderfully preserved me and shewed many wonders in the deeps to me O! what shall I do to love the Lord with a superlative love O I am ready to say Let me love nothing if I love not thee nay love nothing till I love thee O that you would grieve abundantly for want of Love to God! You have past as through the Red Sea you have been as the flaming Bush God hath looked after you as if he minded none but you you have been as the Signet on his right hand nay more you have been engraven on his Palmes and what not love the Lord Shame upon you that you can dote upon the dark filthy dirty World and neglect the Lord of Glory All the Affections you have God gave them when he gave thee a reasonable Soul but for this end that you should place them on himself and not on his Enemy Is it not hard measure that God should be denied Love when he gave you power to love If a Friend sends you Bottels of Wine it is hard that when he comes to you you should deny him a taste of his bounty Believe it Sirs whatever you do for the Lord unless you Love him yea unless you Love him more than any thing else it is not accepted 1 Cor. 13.3 Though you give your Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth you nothing Though you bring forth Fruit yet you are empty Vines Hos 10.1 because you eye Self not God Your most exquisite Services are but pieces of dead Carrion unless they be seasoned with the Salt of Love This People draw nigh with their lips but I abhorr them and their Duties because the silly Dove is without an heart Whatever a man gives me if his heart be not in it I slight it God much more What shall I say The Holy Apostle counts him worthy of a Curse that loves not Jesus Christ If any man love not the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Auathema Maranatha And is it not sad to be cursed to the coming of Christ He deserves it that loves not Christ and he must and shall be forced to own the Righteousness of God in sentencing him to Eternal flames who might have been secured against them had he but loved Christ more than a base dunghill Lust CHAP. XI Their evil surmises of God 4ly Their evil surmises of God EVil surmises of God is another piece of ungodliness found too frequently among some of the more raised Professours even such as have the root of the matter in them I shall the rather insist on this sin because right thoughts of God are the fuell which maintains the fire of Religion without which it soon decayeth and is extinguished 1. Miscalling his love-to-kens Do not we miscall Gods love-tokens Hath not God sent thee many love-tokens by his Spirit to assure thee that he owns thee and delights in thee as his Spouse For thee to question thy relation to him upon every turn must needs be grievous to him how grievous then is it for thee to deny all his tokens of grace and love to thy Soul and to count them but delusions but the works of the Infernal Spirit transforming himself into an Angel of Light To call light darkness good evil sweet bitter the work of Christ the Devils work is ill resented by the Lord it goeth unto his heart You that are Husbands Wives Parents Children cannot endure to have your love and fidelity suspected upon every base suggestion and whisper Believe it God takes notice and laies to heart all your jealousies of him all your base unworthy censures of him 2. How ill are Gods Providences resented III resenting Gods Providences 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.28 Although God hath told you there is a beauty in their contexture that things present and things to come are yours that all shall work together for good that your Providential losses as well as your Providential enjoyments that your changes as well as your setlings your wants as well as your abundance shall all be Sanctified to you yet how few with that blessed man bless the Lord Job 1.21 Rom. 5.2 3. when taking away And with Paul rejoyce yea glory in tribulations God assures you that your sicknesses reproaches wants shall do you good yea death shall do you good all shall be good or do you good all shall be food or physick out of the eater shall come forth sweetness even from Gods desertions you shall have advantages your very thorns shall drop honey shall bear grapes yet notwithstanding what hard thoughts have you of God under such dispensations Didst thou onely accuse thy self judge thy self abhorre thy self it were well but in speaking against thy self thou fallest foul upon God himself by questioning his love from these providences Deny thy self what thou wilt but beware of a denial of Gods love and of the Spirit of grace that hath taken up his lodgings within thee O that all melancholly doubting Christians would consider of this too seldome suspected provocation and unkindness of theirs towards God! O! take up and keep up better thoughts of God what ever his carriage be towards you Though he slay you yet trust in him When will you be as David who though beleaguered with Enemies yet kept up good thoughts of God he doubted not of Gods pitty of Gods favour and protection and therefore I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Psa 3.6 Psa 27.3 v. 1. that have set themselves against me round about Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear c. in this will I be confident In what Why that the Lord is my Light and my Salvation and the strength of my life God hath not spent all his stores he hath enough for me he will not suffer me to be tempted above what I shall be able to bear but will with the temptation make way for my escape And hath not God told thee that the mountains shall depart Isa 54.10 and the hills be removed yet his loving kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of his peace be removed But alas Thou canst entertain good thoughts of God in fair weather Mar. 4.38 but let them fall in a storm then it is Master carest thou not that we perish Thou canst trust in God when he carrieth himself as a Friend and answereth all thy requests and granteth all thy desires but not so when he seemeth an Enemy Canst thou with Paul say I am perswaded that neither Death Rom. 8.38 39. nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
short-sighted men yet you are but Devils in Christs account So was the arch-Hypocrite Judas One of you is a Devil Of all Devils none so bad as the Professing Devil Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar when he carouzed in the Bowls of the Sanctuary 2 Pet. 2.3 Their damnation slumbereth not who through covetousness make use of the covering of faigned words O! When will ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and True holiness Eph. 4.24 Believe it if thou art a whited wall God will smite thee Though thou get some present glory or profit by thy outside holiness yet God more abhors thee than the bleer and imperfect observing World can applaud thee Will a King indure it that thou take his Robes and cloath a Swine with them or that thou take his Crown and set it on the head of a base Varlet God is coming against the Hypocritical Nation And he accounts it a disgrace for thee to voice thy self to be the Son of so great a Prince whilst thou art a Slave to Hellish lusts All you do for God will not profit you you lose all you have wrought whilst acted by self and corrupt in your ends and aims Though you trust in lying words Jer. 7.8 Isa 57.12 in your outward shews yet I will declare thy righteousness and thy words for they shall not profit thee What shall I say There is no acceptance for you to be had without the Benjamin of sincerity with you A day of trouble is hastning and you think then to pray but will God hear your cry when trouble cometh upon you Job 27.9 Psal 106.15 Psal 51.6 If you deny God your heart never expect his ear Quails you may have but with a vengeance with leanness in your souls That which God desireth and looketh for is truth in the inward parts God and Religion have received so much dishonour by pretenders to Christ and Truth and so many Atheists have been made confirmed and hardned in England by the Observations they have made on Professours hypocritical pretensions that I fear the stains will hardly be wash'd away without blood and some probably will be called forth to seal to the Truth of Christ by their death to convince men that there are some real Christians who will spend and be spent for Christ and that whilst many have but a Name to live yet there are a few in our Sardis who are not defiled with hellish Hypocrisie but love Truth in their inward parts CHAP. XIX Their Sabbath-Sins Lastly WHen you remember the evil of your wayes Professors Sabbath-Sins of your ungodly wayes you may not omit your Sabbath-Sins God hath appointed the Sabbath He hath sanctified it for special and entire communion with himself The Law of the Sabbath was given before the Fall because man was to labour and dress the Garden on the six dayes and therefore could not have that compleat and indistracted communion with God even in his estate of innocency which he might enjoy by a total seperation from all earthly and heterogeneous employments But since the Fall this Rest is of more absolute necessity for that we cannot now apply our minds entirely to matters of so different a nature as heavenly and earthly things are The Sabbath is many wayes honourable it was antiently set apart by God it was written with Gods own finger in the Tables God rained Mannah on that day it 's called an Everlasting Covenant by way of eminency as if nothing of Gods Covenant were kept if this were not Yea God puts a Remember on this day and no other Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day If a Friend sendeth to you that he will come and solace himself in your company such a day and tells you the set time when he will come will he not take it ill if you neglect him then If you are full of employments and other guests and have no leisure to attend communion with him Thus saith God Remember such a time I will set it apart on purpose to enjoy you and feast you I will then take you into my Cellars my Wine Cellars and after an holy manner inebriate you with Divine comforts You are on your other dayes clogg'd and cumbred with earthly affairs so that I can have therein but broken communion with you but pray Remember to lay aside all other business to rest from all your other works that I and you may freely converse together But instead of this How little Preparation do we make for the observing of this day unto the Lord Their not preparing for it Though Remember be a Watch-word of solemn Preparation for it Remember it think of it before it come that so thou mayest be ready to sanctifie it without any distraction by worldly business Which of us dispatcheth his worldly business seasonably on the six dayes Nay is it not a wicked custome to engross more business into our hands and hearts the day before than on any other day of the Week Do not greedy Professours sit up later on Saturday Night than any other Night Hereby their hearts are cumbred with the World and their natural strength and spirits wasted and spent so that they cannot with a free Spirit wait upon God Such is the reverence that is due to the solemn and publick Duties of Devotion that they require not only a surcease from other works and thoughts for the time of the performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that we look to our feet c. that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the World and not easily withdrawn from it may be raised to a disposition becoming the day God alone knows how oft the Devil and our own hearts have intangled us with occasions on the Saturday whereby our minds have been distracted on the Sabbath Yea have we not at times even secretly wished that the Sabbath were over or might be adjourned that we might pursue some worldly design which is obstructed by its interposal The Sabbath is the Saints Market-day or Fair-day You know what preparations are made by Worldlings for their dayes of gain would to God we had learned wisdome from carnal men so to fit and prepare for the advantages to our Souls we may reap upon Gods day Their curtailing it Amos 8.4 How have we curtailed the Sabbath Have not we risen later on the Lords day than on any other and gone sooner to bed on that day than on any other When will the Sabbath be gone Do not we make it the shortest day of the Week O! If God had reserved all the dayes to himself save one how diligent would you have been to take all the day to your worldly business This is a clear evidence that your minds are more on your Profits and Pleasures than on the Service of Christ How lowring are our countenances Being sad when the Sabbath begins and glad when it
ends and how lumpish and heavy are our hearts in the beginning of a Sabbath much more than upon any other day Doth not this prove the day to be no way pleasing to us And how chearfull are some of us when the Sabbath is ended The heart is not so well pleased all the day as then yea do not some cheat and delude themselves hereby as if they had joy in the Lord and had received comfort from the Word and other Ordinances whereas they are glad that the yoak of Ordinances the burden of the Word of the Lord and the burden of the day of the Lord is taking off their Shoulders Being hindred from profaning it only by external motives How many are there who would profane Gods Sabbaths and wholy neglect the Ordinances of them were it not for the Laws of men and the eyes of their Relations How quieted are some when they have attended the publick service Satisfied with worshipping God publickly and do they betwixt and after those solemn duties refrain their lips from worldly talk from impertinencies from such discourse as bears no proportion with the holiness of the day When works of Necessity and Charity happen out beyond our expectation or forecast Glad to be hindred from works of piety are we at all troubled at them Do not we rather rejoyce because we have thereby a dispensation to withdraw from the immediate worship of God And how many neglect to do all their works on the six dayes Exod. 20.9 though the Lord so expresly chargeth them so to do that they may have a pretence of necessity to do much servile work on the Sabbath How common is it to dress meat on the Sabbath more than on any other day when there is not the least pretence of weakness c. Hereby not only Servants but the whole house are too much in labour and destraction and hindred if not from the solemn Assemblies yet from Family and Closet worship How do many gossip complement Eating too much on the Sabbath and feast away abroad the day of the Lord or else eat to an excess at home and thereby make themselves fitter for a bed than to wait on the Sanctuary to hear Christs voice to meditate on his love and to feed in his pleasant pastures How carefull are we to keep our selves Stealing Gods time and ours from pilfering from our Neighbour but not from stealing from God his time yea are not some Governours so ungodly unmercifull that they will allow their people no time but the Sabbath to recreate themselves from their labours If they need recreation you have more time than God hath reserved sure you should not steal from God to pleasure them In the discharge of the works of mercy to Man and Beast Not performing duties of mercy aright Do not we respect more our own commodity than the will of God than the dispensation of God and the creatures necessities Are these works of mercy attended with such spiritual meditations as they do afford us if our hearts were holy How few bless God for giving them one day Not blessing of God for the Sabbath wherein they may lighten their hearts of all worldly cares and throw off all griefs and secular cumbers and may seek for relief and comfort in their God Perhaps the Master observes a day unto the Lord Careless whether those under them observe the Sabbath but how careless is he that his Sons and Daughters and all within his gate honour the day of the Lord Do not many Professing Governours of Families let them sleep away the Sabbath that they may be the fitter for their drudgeries the following week O! when will Governours be as diligent that their Servants and Houshold serve the Lord as that they serve themselves You have been carefull that your work were done on the week but careless whether Gods work were done by them on the Sabbath careless whether your Servants profited by the Sabbath yea or no When will Gods glory and the good of your peoples Souls be nearer to you than your worldly advantages You ask your Servants what work they have done for you every day and call them to frequent accounts for your gains-sake and what never reckon with them about their Spiritual soul-Soul-work O! how little is the love of God shed abroad in your hearts How justly may God be angry with us till he hath consumed us for our desiling the day of the Lord It was Gods express Law Exod. 31.14 that every one that desileth it should surely be put to death When the people were weary of the Sabbath when they said Amos 8.5 v. 7. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat c. v. 7. The Lord swore by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works v. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a floud and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt v. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day v. 10 And I will turn your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into lamentation c. v. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the land not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. v. 12. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it CHAP. XX. Their miscarriages about Heart-examination THe more that the Lord of Heaven chargeth us with a Duty Professors miscarriages about Self-examination the more inexcusable are our neglects of it There are few things more commanded us than to try and examine our hearts and lives 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves c. Prove your selves c. We are apt to be strangers to our selves to cheat our selves with vain presumptuous hopes to rest in notions therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Examine your selves take an experimental knowledge of your selves We are apt to prove others and censure them therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prove your own selves begin at home try your state try your actions bring the mettal to the touchstone see whether it be sound or counterfeit try your Faith whether it be temporary or saving prove your Repentance whether it be through or superficial examine your Love whether it be sincere or hypocritical and your Obedience whether it be universal or partial Deut. 4.39 Know therefore and consider it in thine heart make a return or answer to thine heart Commune with thine own heart
Psa 4.4 1 Cor. 11.28 Lam. 3.40 Their omitting the Duty altogether hold intelligence with it Let a man examine himself Let us search and try our wayes But yet notwithstanding these Injunctions 1. How many are there that never set about this Duty They will Pray c. but will not be perswaded to look inward They are as great strangers to their own as to others hearts They are at no pains to try in what state they are They will not try Nor examining their Estates whether they are new-born or not whether sanctified or not whether a saving change hath past upon them or not They will not compare themselves with the Characters which are given by Ministers and Books to see whether they be in the gall of bitterness or not in the bond of iniquity or not They never examine what Justification and justifying and saving Faith be and whether they are justified and shall be saved like Gallio Little caring for these things They examine which way they may be greater in the World how to add to the heap how to load themselves with thick clay how to escape the wrath of man how to prolong their dayes but not how to prepare for Eternity and how to make sure of Heaven You ask one another what news from Navies from Armies from Court from Country but when did you spend one hour to ask your hearts this serious question O my Soul what will become of thee when thou leavest this earthly Tabernacle We travel any where but where we should We are better read in any Book than in the sealed Book of our own hearts We are not at all for a personal treaty with our own Consciences We are too much prying into other mens hearts but our eyes turn not inward We know not how it is with our Souls and what will become of them and we have no mind to know such matters As we commune not with our hearts about our States Nor Actions so we do not commune with them about our Actions neither before nor after the doing of them Before we act we do not advise with our Consciences whether what we be about to do be lawful or unlawful and if lawful whether expedient or inexpedient After we have acted whether our actions be good or evil How many are contented so the matter be good but examine not themselves about the manner principles ends and motives Though the Children of Israel knew by the Word of the Lord and from Abraham their Father that Canaan was a Land flowing with milk and honey yet they sent Spies and searched it and thereby were confirmed If men had never so much confidence of the goodness of their Prayers c. yet for Confirmation-sake they should send down Spies into their hearts to see the Clusters of their Zeal and Affections the utmost of the goodness of them But alas how many wholly neglect this necessary and possible Duty If all were like these God might take up his old complaint No man cryed out Jerem. 8.6 What have I done Or O my heart What hath God done for thee 2. The backwardness of the best hereunto How backward are a more refined sort of Professours to a compliance with this Duty How oft have your Ministers invited you beseeched you to hold intelligence with your own hearts and yet cannot prevail How backward are the best to keep a strict eye upon their little house within to see what is done within those doors We are apter to study others lives yea hearts than our own If the best knew how much work lies within doors they would not be so much abroad as they are 3. If we do examine our hearts Not making use of the Word as the Rule yet not by the Word of the Lord. God would have us to try and prove our selves then there must be some measuring Line some Standard some Rule to try our selves by but herein we are hugely defective We try our selves by some sudden pangs or by the good opinion of others concerning us or by the lives of others we being in an Hospital where every one almost is lame and defective or by some other easie Rule that we our selves frame unto our selves and so miserably cheat our selves O! how loth are we that the light of Gods Word should be let down into the dark Cells of our hearts for want whereof there is much dust unobserved and not swept away How loth to try states or actions by the Scripture though thereby they must be tryed at the last day He is a good Text-man that compares Scripture with Scripture and he is a good Christian that compares the Scripture and his own heart together that credits his own heart only when it hath the consent of the Prophets and Apostles making them Umpires in the decision of all his Soul-controversies Have recourse to the Light that shines in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 But alas Who obeys this form of wholesome words 4. Being superficial therein How overly and superficial are many in the examining themselves by the Word How few do examine their State or their Actions fully Though our hearts be very great Impostours Jer. 17.9 deceitful above all things great Supplanters full of guile though there be thousands and thousands of Lusts that lye hid in our hearts and Deceits like the Sands on the Sea-shore yet how carelesly do we set upon this work We take no pains in it 5. Being too seldome in it How seldome are we in this work Some deferr it till a Sacrament and then perhaps the house is searched for the leaven whereas we should keep a petty Sessions in our hearts every day and do what we can to know the bottom of the projects devices workings of our heats When going to Prayer we should examine our selves whether we have clean hands and pure hearts whether we are double-minded James 4.8 if so there is no drawing nigh to God And when we come off from the Duty we should conferr with our hearts what enlargements quicknings meltings humblings we had in the Duty what promises what threats were applyed by the Spirit whether we saw the face of our Beloved or not When going to a Sermon we should examine in what posture we are to meet with God what Oyl we want that we may be supplyed When going to our Beds we should examine our hearts how the day hath been spent what sins were committed what Duties and how discharged what temptations were resisted what mercies received and what growth and increase of grace we have obtained When going to Visit this Duty should be taken up before and after Before thus Wherein may I honour the Lord my God in such company what are their wants that I may endeavour to supply them what are their temptations and discouragements that I may labour to support them what are their graces and best attainments that I may profit by them After thus O my
farr lest they should see what they are unwilling to see and so be put upon judgeing and condemning themselves for that which they love beyond an Eye or an Hand 5. The sad consequences of the neglect of this duty O the sad consequences of the neglect of this duty By this neglect your hearts will become careless for that they are not call'd to an account as Servants and Factors are wont when their Masters neglect to examine them Hereby Sins will grow bolder with you and the more easily beset you for that you examine not wherein their strength lies and which way they oftnest prevail over you Hereby the work of Repentance will be obstructed for that innumerable Sins which you are daily guilty of will pass away unobserved with those circumstances attending them which make them of the greater magnitude Hereby your uncertainties about your spiritual estate will remain it may be converted it may be not it may be a Son of God it may be not but a Child of Hell it may be a Believer it may be an Enemy to God and â—â—e of Gods curse Hence will follow great dejectedness under every Providence of God no condition will please you whilst doubting and staggering you will be apt to fear whether your food be in mercy your dayes in mercy your liberty yea the Gospel in mercy to you you will sink under adversity for you cannot say the Lord is my portion you know not whether God will be your strong Tower Fortress c. you cannot manage any duty well whilst this lies neglected Mica 6.8 How can you walk before God with an humble heart when you know not what your hearts are How can you serve him with an upright heart whilst a stranger to this duty The very Heathens knew how necessary this was to all their duties and therefore discreetly caused to be writ over the Temple at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self Miserable are the disappointments that will attend English Professours unless they fall into a compliance with this duty you will dye deluded like the foolish Virgins you will not know your undone condition till it be too late you lie deceived in matters of the greatest and highest concernment you are cheated hitherto in things of eternity you are vexed when deceived by a Friend when supplanted by a Neighbour O! how will it pierce your Souls to be cheated by your selves When we would exclaim against a Knave we say he will cozen his Father the nearer the Relation the more sordid the Cheat O! but here is one that lies in thy bosome and thou and it go to cheat each other continually Let no man deceive himself 1 Cor. 3.18 it seems we are apt to do so But O! how great will your confusion be when this deceit shall be manifested when you shall see your selves frustrated of all your hopes and the glory your hearts promised you How will you be confounded when you shall say we looked for Heaven but behold Hell we looked for Salvation but behold Destruction we looked to be made perfectly Happy but O how our hearts have cheated us we must be damned we thought we had as good hearts as any as true Faith as sound Repentance as cordial love to God as any of our Neighbours as any Precisians of the Countrey we fools counted their life madness c. O! what daggers and swords will these frustrations be to you 6. We and our hearts shall not alwayes be strangers If you be loth to see how it is with you now how will you be able to behold what shall be seen at the day of Judgement Though you now will not know your hearts though you are so stately as not to speak with them or loth to examine the dirty Corners yet God is coming with his Fan the books must be opened and every page of thy heart will be unfolded for God will bring to light every hidden work of dishonesty God will pluck off the rough garment which thou wearest to deceive thy inward parts which are very wickedness shall be made manifest and then thou shalt be speech-less as if thou hadst a muzle put upon thy mouth as the word signifieth Well seeing murder will out as we say the secrets of the Soul must be brought forth is it not better by judging our selves by a severe tryall and sentence on our selves to prevent the wofullness of the last day Judged we must and shall be is it not then thy wisdome to judge thy self here in thy Closet that thou mayst be judged by God with a judgement of Absolution and not of Condemnation Is it nothing to have all thy unrepented and unforgiven sins published on the house-top made known to all the World Ezek. 22.14 at the great day How will thine heart endure then when the Lord shall come to deal with thee You will not see but you shall see Isa 26.11 You will not retire the World lyes in your hearts Business comes in and takes up all your time and spirits God is about to strip you to ease you of your Callings you shall come naked to the Barr of God you shall have no Family business to distract you a fair tryal there shall be but a sad one for thee Your sins shall find you out Numb 32.23 You have had many Calls once more I call upon you in the Name of Christ to examine your hearts by the words of this Book which you have or shall read And be sure of it If you will not nor try your selves by the Word God will try you by his Works Thus saith the Lord Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them But how will God melt them and try them Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord v. 9. Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing v. 10. and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation because they are burnt up so that none can pass through them neither can men hear the voice of the Cattel both the Fowl of the Heavens and the Beasts are fled they are gone And I will make Jerusalem heaps v. 11. and a Den of Dragons and I will make the Cities of Judah desolate without an Inhabitant CHAP. XXI Their Pride BEhold Professors Pride Ezek. 16.49 Evidenced in Irreverence in addresses to God Gen. 18.27 This was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride c. And is not this Devillish Sin become our National Sin 1. With what a bold and impudent face have we come and appeared before God Who hath sensibly exprest himself in Abraham's words Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Instead of a reverential fear of God our behaviour hath been stout against God and we have not trembled in his presence no not whilst we have been terribly
thy sacrilegious robbing of God of his worship and time How often have ye so cramb'd your selves that you have been unfit for any acts of worship yea for any of the works of your particular callings Your heads have been heavy and spirits dull and so God hath had the Carkas but excesses have taken away the heart The tabret and wine are in your feasts Hos 4.11 Isa 5.11 12 13. but you regard not the work of the Lord c. therefore my people are gone into Captivity I wish two things for you First That you would be as ingenious as Austin was who confessed he was no drunkard but yet sometimes too immoderate in eating And Secondly That you would be restless till God hath taught you what he did him Lord saith he thou hast now taught me to use my meat as my medicine to repair not to oppress nature O! Tit. 2.11 12. when will the grace of God appear and teach us to deny worldly lusts and to live soberly CHAP. XXIII Their abundance of Idleness A Third Sin of Sodom was Idleness Professours Idleness Ezek. 16.49 Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom c. an abundance of Idleness was in her and in her daughters This Sin is the Companion of the former when the belly is full the bones would be at rest and when men have eat and drunk to excess then they rise up to play This and the former are City-sins they were found in Sodom and Gomorrah and I wish they were not among us also 1. In their particular callings How are we guilty of abundance of Idleness in our particular callings Few have this for their Motto Laboremus Let us be working I mean working that which we ought How many at the great day will God upbraid with O wicked and slothfull servant Every man hath a Talent of time and strength but it is hid it is not imployed at least as it ought God made not man to play but to sweat out his living 'T was Gods Ordinance in Paradise and since that we are enjoyned to labour with our hands Ezek. 18.18 and not to eat the bread of Idlenest How many because they have not done good among their people shall dye in their iniquity Our land is full of drones and no wonder for we train up our Children in Idleness and indulge to them whilst wasting the first of their dayes in foolish pleasures and recreations Forraigners breed their Children to our shame be it spoken to work those gaies with their hands which our Children must play away their time with hence they having inured themselves to Idleness they hate labour for the future Christ saw some standing Idle Mat. 20.3 6. here he might see many He could not endure it he thought it unreasonable why stand yee here all the day Idle O! how many are idle all the dayes of their lives How many Gentlemen and their Sons are there without a calling They live as if God had sent them into the world to make their hands as pirches for birds to sit upon they are of no use to the Publick In Cities how Idle are the Dames They live as if God had given them reasonable Souls and the light of the Sun only to dress themselves to view a glass and to paint and adorn their Carkasses There are some among you that work not at all 2 Thes 3.11 Nihil agentes fed curiose saragentes and yet busy-bodies busie to invent wayes to pass away time though time be still running and they are hastning into Eternity Doing nothing saith the Apostle and yet working every where save where they should busie to go from house to house to complement friends to devour others times busie to carry tales and news but hating the work of their calling wherein God hath set them The whole life of many is to eat and drink and sleep and sport and sit and talk and laugh themselves fat but there is leanness in their Souls A kind of vagrant people they be that having little to do the Devil is loth they should be idle and therefore he hires them to devour time to carry news and tales to mispend others times 1 Tim. 5.13 They learn to be Idle they study which way they may mispend time wandring from house to house and yet they are not only idle but busie-bodies One compares them to Pedlars opening their Packs and dropping here a tale and there a tale These are at leisure to hear the Devil and to observe his Orders He that will not serve God at home the Devil rather than he shall stand out will send him of his errands and get him to put his Sickle into another mans Corn. Go saith Satan into that house and rail against such a good man carry his miscarriage from one to another till his name rots and stinks in their Nostrils Go to such a mans door he is employed in reading the Scriptures and good books or Catechising his Family c. Go and divert him eat up his time that he may have no leisure for such works He goes he is a busie-body a tatler too He must goe whom the Devil drives Hence occasion is given to the Adversary to speak reproachfully for that so many are turned aside after Satan Let it be considered and lamented how much precious time is devoured in the Bed Five hours sleep will suffice for some constitutions The utmost that Physicians allow is seven hours but some waste and bury themselves in their Beds almost half their time How little do many consider that in the Day of Judgement they must give account as for every idle word so for their idleness in their Bed-chambers Sluggard view the Sun its running a race whilst thou art tumbling on thy Bed and crying O that this were to labour View the Wind and the Air they are in motion View the Waters they stink and corrupt unless running nay view the dull earth it is not so dull as thou art it brings forth for the use of Man Go to the Ant thou sluggard Prov. 6.6 yea any where consider the ways of all save thy self and be wise What! a Professor and yet guilty of an unnatural sinne Nature puts all creatures into motion and to provide for themselves 1 Tim. 5.8 thou art worse than an Infidel yea worse than a Beast The poor Infant cannot suck without labour and yet thou wouldst live without labour God takes this so ill 2 Thes 3.10 that he would not have them to eat who will not labour and if we know such we sin if we feed them God hath not forbid meat to be given to any other sinners only these are not to be fed let them starve and die if they will not labour The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold Prov. 26.4 therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing God hath no pity for drones and he would not have us
the Lord suffer them not to fashion themselves according to the course of the world Connive not at them in practising what you think is abominable in the worship of God Remember they are Gods Children more than yours Ezek. 16.20 All Souls are mine God claims a special right in them thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me If you neglect your duties you and your Children are like to have sad greetings when you meet before the Lord another day How will your Children lay their hells and torments to your dores how will they curse the day they were born of such fond women who indulged to them in their neglects of God Cursed be the day that ever I saw the passions the pride the formality of my Father or of my Mother for thereby I learned to sin against the Lord. O your examples undid me I had not come to this place of torment had it not been for you Children As Children evidenced in several particulars Are not you also greatly faulty towards your Parents If Children be richer than their Parents how irreverent are they how over familiar with their Parents as if they had forgot the first Commandement with promise How disobedient are they to their lawfull commands though the command of God be express Col. 3.20 Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in all things and it is added for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father thy Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the Earth Was Christ subject to his Parents Luk. 2.51 and should not you be subject to yours Sure you should have obeyed them as farr as without sin though their commands crossed your natural desires as Joseph when Israel said unto him come I will send thee to thy Brethren at Sechem though he knew he should be sent to them who hated him yet he said unto his Father Here am I. How stout and rebellious are Children when corrected Hebr. 12.9 How few can say we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence This Sin so provoked God Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. that he made it Capitall in the dayes of old If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voyce of his Father or the voyce of his Mother and that when they have chastred him will not hearken unto them then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and shall say this our Son is stubborn and rebellious c. and all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evill away from among you How rebellious are Children in refusing the eallings which Parents have appointed for them If the Parent be bound to bring them up to a calling are not the Children bound to attend that calling Brethren let every man wherein he is called 1 Cor. 7.24 therein abide with God Christ probably was brought up in his reputed Fathers calling Is not this the Carpenter Mar. 6.3 How disobedient are Professing-Children in their marriages Children are the Parents goods so God reckoneth them yea so the Devil reckoneth them When the Devil had commission to meddle with Jobs goods he falls on the Children Some are worse than Ishmaels Gen. 21.21 Nature and Civility made him submit to his Mother for the choice of his Wife If Children must obey their Parents in littles much more in weighty matters How little have you requited your Parents This you are bound unto To shew piety at home 1 Tim. 5.4 and to requite Parents is good and acceptable before the Lord. Your Parents took care of you when you were as beasts you had your life and education from them and what now slight them when old or weak What laugh at their follies What when you are high reject your parents that are low The very Heathen Oratour declaims against this We are not born saith he for our selves but partly for our Country partly for our Parents How are you degenerated from your Parents commands and examples There are few true Rechabites who forbore wine from generation to generation It makes my heart ake when I read that the people served the Lord all the dayes of Joshuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Joshuah Judges 2.7 10 11 12 14. who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel but there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord c. and the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt c. and provoked the Lord to anger and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoylers that spoyled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies O! in vain will ye relieve your selves in your Baptismal relations unto God that you have Abraham to your Father Mat. 8.11 Gods judgements will be more bitter to you more heavy on you than on others when the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out You will be ready to curse the day you came of such Parents that ever you had such holy instructions and examples to no purpose save to greaten your condemnation The Lord said unto Moses Deut. 31.16 17. This People will goe a whoring after the Gods of the Strangers of the Land whither they goe to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my Covenant which I have made with them Then mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evills and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evills come upon us because our God is not amongst us Nay Abraham whom you trust to and the Privileges by him will upbraid his Son Dives with his former good things Son Luke 16.25 remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil thingâ— but now he is comforted and thou art tormented O most dreadful Your very righteous Parents shall rejoyce in your ruine The righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance Psa 58.10 11. c. So that a man shall say Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth CHAP. XXXI The sins of Professing-Masters and Servants FIrst you Masters As Masters see how guilty you are in the Relation of Masters 1. Not chooling godly Servants Psal 101.6 Should not your eyes like Davids have
Carrying themselves proudly saucily and too familiarly with their Superiours Mal. 1.6 Blazoning their Masters Infirmities Obeying them only in what they please Col. 3.22 Tit. 2.9 Mat. 8.9 May not your Master say If I be a Master where is my fear How fearless are you of your Masters especially if your Masters be not very rich and honourable in the earth who respects Gods Ordinance Hence many Professing Servants sland covered in their Masters presence sit before them bow not to them nor rise up before them 2. Do not you when you meet together blazon the infirmities of your Masters Do not you carry your selves as Spies rather than as Servants you do not herein as you would be dealt with 3. Are not you disobedient to your Masters commands unless in what pleaseth you You are rather the Servants of your own lusts rather than your Masters Servants you do not obey in singleness of heart yea you are not indeed obedient The Centurion could say to his Servant goe and he went c. The Heathen Servants excel some that pretend to great attainments of Religion He is the Master that must have his own way Judge ye then in your selves whether you abide in the place wherein God hath set you 4. Not answering when call'd Job 19.16 Do not ye refuse to answer when you are called by your Masters This was Job's plague I called my Servant and he gave me no answer Silence is sometimes a sign of consent but here of contempt If a Servant answers not when he is called he forgets what his calling is The Servants in Davids dayes were of better dispositions they did pick out their Masters mind out of every motion and turning of his eye and hand and so were tontinually in a posture for obedience The eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters Psal 123.2 1 Tim. 6.1 and the eyes of a Maiden to the hand of her Mistriss For want of that honour that is due from Professing Servants to their Masters the name of God is Blaspemed 5. Answering again Tit. 2.9 As some by silence so others by their tongues dishonour their Masters by answering again They should not answer by way of contradiction or reluctance as Servants are very apt to do Some will even brag how they gave word for word perhaps blow for blow nay two words for one Hereby their Governours if ungodly fall foul upon Religion Is this the fruit of your profession prayers running after Ministers 6. Diligent only under their Masters eye Eph. 6.5 6. Not designing to please God in their pleasing their Masters How lazy are some professing Servants Diligent only when under their Masters eye Few serve their Masters as Jacob Laben with all their might The command is that you should obey in singleness of heart not with eye-service as men pleasers Mark eye-service stands not with uprightness of heart As you would not be branded for Hypocrites work behind your Masters backs as if their eyes were upon you Consider how short you fall of this and mourn before the Lord in secret for your eye-service 7. How do some yea many servants eye only the pleasing their Masters Eph. 6.5 Tit. 2.9 but doe not their work so spiritually as to seek to please the Lord Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart It is true Servants should labour to please their Masters yea in all things but they should seek more to approve themselves to God than to any earthly Superiour 8. Mis-timing duties How imprudent are some Professing Servants as to the timing of their duties Some when never so urgent business is to be dispatched will then go in secret to call upon God whereas going to bed later and rising earlier would prevent much straitness as to time and spirit in that great duty Some will fall a talking of the things of God to their fellow-servants very unseasonably not when they are at leasure but when they are most busily imployed for their Masters to the hindring of their work 9. Defrauding their masters How many cheat and defraud their Masters Some cheat them of their time by idling it away being tattlers and busie-bodies or gossiping it away Others cheat them of their money or goods hiring others secretly to do their work and pay them with their Masters money or goods Is not this purloyning and therefore forbidden Tit. 2.10 Not provident for their gain 10. How many are improvident for their Masters goods and gain They will see things spoil before their eyes they will give what is not their own to give they make no conscience to eat and drink what their Masters do not allow them they are not contented with his allowances they will steal small matters and yet whatever they take though but little is the breach of the 8th Commandement and the less the temptation the greater the sin that they will break Gods Law for trisles and serve the Devil for pieces of silver and morsels of flesh What saith Mr. Dod If ever they look for sound peace of conscience they must make restitution of all such things How much soever they steal Numb 5.7 Zech. 5.4 so much they must restore and the fifth part thereto or if they keep it unless they repent they keep Gods curse with it and a woe unto their Consciences 11. Regard less of their Souls How many are altogether careless to get any good to their Souls whilst under Religious Governours They ask not the way to Heaven and if examined they are tongue-tyed will give no account of the hope that is in them 12. Murmuring at reproofs and corrections 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20. How do many murmur under reproofs and corrections What saith the Apostle Servants be subject to your Masters not only to the gentle but to the froward for this is thank-worthy if a man for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God Unfaithful to Children 13. How unfaithfull are many to their Masters Children Not heeding them and providing meat and other necessaries for them in their Masters absence 14. Receiving scornfully a Catalogue of their duties How scornfully do even Professing-Servants receive a Catalogue of their duties How loth are they yea how do some unâ—â— to know the mind of God as to the extent of their obedience 15. Their miscarriages toward their fellow-Servants How many wayes do you fail towards your fellow Servants Do not you seek to undermine them of the respect their Masters bare them Do not you labour to supplant them Do not you envy them Are not you unfaithfull to one anothers Souls Do not you wast time in idle and impertinent-discourses Are not you evil examples
neglected to talk of what you have heard Have not some Not talking of it as soon as dismiss'd from the Sermon fallen into impertinent discourses about news and trifles or into worldly business Mat. 13.7 22. and so the thornes choak'd all the convictions which they received under the Ministry They consider not that the Word they have heard hath been the savour of life or of death 2 Cor. 2.16 and that every one that goes from a Sermon goes off either with God or the Devil in his company Have not you been hearers of the Word only Not practising it Jam. 1.22 and not doers of it Have not you so deceived your own selves Your Ministers have prest you to secret Prayer and to constancy in it but have not you gone away and continued in the neglect of that wherein the power of godliness and heart-sincerity mainly consists Blessed are they that hear the Word of God Luke 11.28 and keep it i. e. that are good Practitioners that have a conscionable care to regulate heart and life according to what they hear and know They are rather blest than the Mother of Christ was for bringing him into the World Christ puts a rather upon the good Practitioner than upon the Virgin Mary But alas Let it be for a Lamentation that so many Professours have been for hearing but for doing only what they listed Amos 8.5 6 7 8 9. Saying When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat Making the Ephah small and the Shekel great and falsifying the Ballances by deceit That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the Wheat The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works Shall not the Land tremble for this c The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Mat. 21.43 Luke 12.43 and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof But Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing When did you find the Glasses to discover and amend your Spots Have you been cast into the Form of the Doctrine which ye have received Have you obeyed from the heart the Form of Doctrine delivered to you Hath your profiting appear'd answerable to the many months and years you have sate under the Dews of Heaven What do you know more than you did before What do you believe love and hope for more than you did Have your hearts and lusts stooped more and more to this Scepter of Christ Believe it Sirs If Sin be not more odious and Christ more sweet and precious after you have been in the Shepheards Tents you have lost your hearing hours yea contracted more guilt to your Souls That you have not been chang'd from glory to glory is a great stain to the Ministry and a great ground of sadness to the poor Ministers who fear they have laboured in vain And yet have not you been such unprofitable hearers that Seekers Ranters and Quakers have took occasion to cry down the Office of the Ministry as a Cheat as an old Almanack out of date because they have seen how unsuccessful the labours of Christs Ministers have been upon your Souls If you had come down from these Mounts with your faces shining if you had received more of God upon your hearts and lives you had more credited the Ministry and put to silence these foolish men What shall I say A worse Famine is coming on Professours than what happened to Egypt and if you have laid up no store what will ye do in the years of lean Kine 7. Have not you greatly miscarried Their miscarriages as to consulting with their Ministers Mat. 16.19 as to consulting with them Though one great work of your Ministers was to deal personally with your Souls and God intrusted them with the power of binding and loosing doctrinally at least and hath promised to loose in Heaven what they loosed on Earth and to confirm the Word of his Servants Isa 44.26 and perform the Counsel of his Messengers yet how little weight have you laid upon their judgements Have not you more credited the Physicians opinion of your Bodies Laying little weight on their Judgements Not consulting with them at all and the Lawyers about your Estates than you have your Ministers concerning your Souls How seldome are Ministers consulted with about the business of the Soul and Eternity Will not they in the Acts rise up to condemn this Generation They repaired to Christs Ministers with Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Acts 2.37 But alas How many have sate 30 40 50. Years under a Minister and never advised with him what to do They have been no more moved Through hard Heartedness Bride than the Rocks were that Bede preached to Or else through the Pride of their hearts they have thought to heal themselves They have been so puff'd up with their own knowledge that they have not cared to hear what their Ministers could declare unto them If they be to take a Journey they will ask the Way of every one they meet but so unreasonably consident are they of their knowing the Way to Glory though there be many Wayes Prov. 14.12 that do indeed lead down to Hell yet seem the right Way to Heaven that they will not so much as ask the Way thither-ward of any Guide Prov. 26.16 The Fool is wiser in his own conceit than seven men thas can render a reason Or else they have thought as well of their Souls as some doe of their flesh Thinking the wound will heal of it self that the wound will heal of it self And hath it not so done no body knows how Can you tell how the troubles and impressions made by the Ministry in your own Souls have worn away have not Ministers sound after the House hath been swept and garnished that seven worse Spirits have entred into the Souls of many convinced and terrified Professors and their latter end was worse than their beginning Many saith famous Hooker in a stupid kind of sottish senselessness wear out the blow and so wast away to nothing as many out of sorrow have become like senseless blocks How oft hath Satan like a Cut-purse drawn thee into solitudes disswaded thee from going near thy Minister that he may rob thee of thy Convictions and the better to effect this hath he not perswaded thee to look on the Minister as proud high scorning to condescend to hear thy Soul grievances and complaints whereas he hath many and many a time with the greatest importunity beg'd this trouble of dressing thy sores If you have consulted with your Ministers Not consulting with them soon enough Acts 24.25 have not you delayed going to these Soul-Physicians When the wound was newly given and bleeding you should have
you cannot so exhort as Ministers c. But have you not been told that God can work by small means as well as by great and that by things that are not God can confound the wisdome of the flesh and bring to naught the things that are Is not this like the pretence of not being eloquent Do you not know have you not heard that the issue and event depends on the blessng of the Lord rather than on the work it self Is it not all one to the Lord to wound by a short as by a long sword Cannot God bless a few words in thy mouth as he did in Christs and the Apostles Can'st not thou say follow Christ and may not presently a Matthew a Publican leave his sinfull courses and embrace the Christian faith Can'st thou not say Repent and Believe that your sins may be blotted out and may not God concur with thee as he did of old times Is the Lords hand shortned that it cannot help If Israel be not gathered yet thy reward is with the Lord if thine heart were upright and could testifie that night and day thou hast not ceased to warn to rebuke and counsel Certainly your memories are not so bad but you must remember the weight of sin and of the wrath of God you have seen the wonders of the Lord in the deeps you that have escaped to shoar can tell of the Rocks and Shelves and Storms which you have been delivered from and will you set other Shipwrack their Souls rather than hold out your light unto them 〈…〉 may avoyd their ruines What shall I say to humble you There is more 〈◊〉 in Hell than you can afford Blush blush and be ashamed to have less zeal love and pitty to perishing Souls than Dives in Hell had he would have his Brethren saved from the Valley of Hinnom Your silence will make others think that Hell is a tollerable place that sin is not so evil and bitter a thing that to lye under Gods wrath is not so great a misery whilst you are so slow and backward to warn your Friends and Acquaintance that they slee from these and take Sanctuary in the true City of Refuge the Lord Jesus Christ O! If you know the worth of a Soul pitty the multitude with whom the day is not broke whose forlorn Souls are under a continual Massacre from the bloudy Butcher of Hell Besmear your Souls no longer with the guilt of their bloud Let them not starve for want of bread whilst you have to give them I shall bless God for ever and ever if this your negligence of the Souls of those whom you may account without may be cordially bewailed and you for the future double your diligence for their conversion Ministers cannot convert without the Concourse of Omnipotency neither can you Though Satan and thy own lazy heart hath told thee thou art unfit to set upon this work yet better do it meanly than wholy omit it God like Parents on earth loves to see his Children lift at those duties which are too hard for them and then he steps in and is a Co-worker with them What God did by illiterate Fishermen by Priscilla he can do by thee The Lord pardon thy former unmercifulness to the Souls of men But if thou continue careless and cruel if thou wilt not by Prayers for them and counsels to them seek their reducement as sure as thou art reading the voyce of thy Brothers blood is crying against thee from the earth By your example before if not since Profession you have been the cause of the destruction of Souls of how many who can tell And as Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after he was rotten in his grave so your sin your wicked examples may propagate the trade of sin from generation to generation until Christ shall come to Judgement Tremble tremble at the thoughts of it if thou hast not the heart of a Beast in thee O! how many Souls are crying in Hell against thee cursing the day they knew thee or their Ancestours knew thee for that by thee they learned to sin the more and were strengthned in their wickedness by thy tongue and by thy life And now are not you bound to do your utmost to make restitution to labour to save them that be alive Is it not reasonable that you should labour to win Souls to Gods as you have to the Devils service and to have many blessing God in the Heavens for you that ever they were in the company of such an active zealous Christian who by word and life was instrumental to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and of their God And is it not a glorious work to hold forth such Light to the World that they seeing your good works may glorifie God and you may be Propagators of Zeal and Holiness from Generation to Generation till Christ shall appear to judge the World and to reward you for all the services you have done to his Name O! how welcome shall that man be to Heaven and Christ who hath fed the Souls and clothed the Souls and visited the Souls which he hath purchased with his own precious blood Christ will own thee for his Benefactour CHAP. XXXVII The Dis-ingenuity and Scandalousness of their Miscarriages WHen God had given the Prophet Ezekiel a large Catalogue of Judah's Abominations The wickedness of the former miscarriages Ezek. 8.9 V. 6 13 15. he then shew'd him the Wickedness of their Abominations He said unto me Goe in and Behold the wicked Abominations they do here He commanded him once and again and again to turn him yet again and he should see greater Abominations I cannot indeed promise thee that thou shalt now see greater Abominations than those already mentioned All that I shall now do shall be to represent the former Miscarriages in their crimson dye and scarlet colour And The First Thing I shall mention Commitred against so good and kind a God Eph. 4.30 as making your Sins Professours out of measure sinful is your Dis-ingenuity in so sinning against God O! You have sinned against a gracious God You have grieved the good Spirit of God whereby some amongst you have been sealed to the day of Redemption I am bold to say that one godly man's sinning against light and mercy doth more break the heart of God than the bruitish Sins of a Pagan Kingdom Ezek. 6.9 I am broken saith God with your whorish heart which hath departed from me c. And ye shall loath your selves for your evils which ye have committed in your abominations Amos 2.13 God hath been press'd down with your sins as the Cart with sheaves till he hath even Creak'd under the weight God expected more from the Treet planted in Zion than from the wild ones in the Wilderness Luke 13.9 Grief and Burthen springs much from unexpected Unkindnesses I looked for Fruit and there was none How were David's and Saul's Sins aggravated from
shall eat their Bread with carefulness Ezek. 12.19 20. and drink their Water with astonishment c. And the Cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste Therefore thus saith the Lord God As the Vine-tree among the Trees of the Forrest which I have given to the fire for fuel so will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Ezek. 15.6 7. And I will set my face against them and they shall goe out from one fire and another fire shall devour them Such ruines were to attend them that Ezekiel though the Messenger of them yet must sigh Ezek. 21.5 12. with the breaking of his loynes and with bitterness yea he must cry and howl and smite upon his thigh You may easily imagine if God were so angry with Judah for their insensibleness of his wrath when it hung in the cloud of threatnings and Types How much more will he be provoked to fury if we lay not to heart those fearfull signs and tokens of his wrath now that the cloud is dissolved into the Pestilence Sword and Fire Is 16.11 O that my bowells may sound like an Harp for England O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1.11 that I might weep day and night O that for the mountains I could take up a weeping and wailing because they are burnt up because Jerusalem is made heaps because Gods fury went out like Fire and burned that none could quench it because of the evil of their doings O ye Sons of men Jer. 21.12 Ezek. 24.2 write you the name of the day even of the same day the God of Heaven set himself against Jerusalem this same day How oft did we profane that day by gluttony exâ—essive feastings gossipings within dores by unnecessary walks and sports without dores How did we cry when will the Sabbath be gone Amos 8.5 8 9. that we may attend our callings Shall not the Land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein Your Sun is gone down at Noon-day God hath turned your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into Lamentation How dare you now make mirth What Now drink Wine in Bowls The Lord take away the heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh The Lord powr out a spirit of mourning upon all the Land that we may lay to heart the wonderfull effects of Gods sore displeasure Wo to them that are at ease and are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Shall not the Isles shake at the sound of thy fall Amos 6.1.6 Shall not the Princes of the Sea come down from their Thrones and lay away their Robes and put off their broidered garments and cloth themselves with trembling Ezek. 36.15 16 17 18. and sit upon the ground and be astonished at thee and take up a lamentation for thee and say how art thou destroyed thou that wast inhabited by Seafairing men the renowned City which was strong in the Soa She and her Inhabitants Now let the Isles tremble in the day of thy fall Come behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 what desolations he hath made in the earth Desolations by the Sword Desolations by the Pestilence and desolations by Fire Some smart that others may Fear Now all these things happen for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10.11 God means not only to punish but to teach and not only the present generation but all generations to the end of the World O the much precious blood that the Sword hath devoured How many thousands hath the Pestilence swept away And now one of the most flourishing Cities of the Christian World famous for the Gospel famous for frequence of Traffick in a few days lyes buried in Ashes or Rubbish If we have any bowells of pity let us weep with them that weep let us commiserate the grievous sufferings of multitudes of Men Women and Children It is certainly now a time to weep Eccles 3.4 Jer. 7.28 and not to laugh And must our Jeremiah's complain of England This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction If some amongst us are sensible of the heat of the Fire and other plagues yet we mourn not Isa 28.21 we do not habitually mourn for those sins and provocations which have moved God to do this work this strange work upon us and against us Possibly some cry and howl for the Goods and Houses that are consumed by Fire and for their Friends whom the Sword and Pestilence have devoured But how few are mourning in secret for their contempt of Christ and his Gospel for controlling and checking the Spirit of God for their spending away so much time and strength to get a little money and neglecting to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure you have mourned for your silver shrines but not for the pride carelesness and covetousness of your hearts you fear poverty and reproach will be your portion but why do you not fear what will be the issue of the hardness of your hearts Hear ye the Word of the Lord They are not humbled unto this day Jer. 44.10 11. Jer. 23.39 40.29.17 18. neither have they feared nor walked in my Law therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah I even I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the City that I gave you c. and will bring an everlasting reproach upon you c. And if you will not after all this turn unto the Lord read your doom I will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten they are so evil c. I here publish my fears to all the World I am afraid that our view of the desolations that God hath wrought are too short and transient and that some want humanity in their being insensible of the plagues and miseries of their Brethren and more want the spirit of mourning for their own and other mens sins Nay are there none of the Race of Ammon left Ezek. 25.3 6 7. Prov. 17 5. Luk. 13 2 3 4 5. Ezek. 25.8 9. Psal 137.7 Ezek. 12.13 14. who say Aha against Gods Sanctuary when it was profaned and against the Land of Israel when it was desolate at least rejoyced in heart Behold God will stretch out his hand upon such a people He that is glad at calaâ—â—ities shall not be unpunished The Tower of Silo fell to lead others to repentance If any will scoff and blaspheme as the Moabites by saying the House of Judah is like unto all the Heathen who have not suffered more nor so much as they God knows how to open the side of Moab and to let in the Sword and ruine upon their strongest Cities And if the Children of Edom who were long ago for
of your provocations humbled in the very dust be sure to keep Conscience tender Let not your convictions dye strike again and again smite on the thigh again and again whilst the Iron is hot This fire may be kept alive by bringing new fuel to it Labour exquisitely to afflict your Souls that you should be so foolish so vile as under Christs Livery to commit so great and so hideous abominations Take words and say O the Light that I have abused O the means of Grace that I have slighted O the little service that I have done to Christ O the many dis-services Let these things cut and grave and afflict and humble thy Soul exceedingly from morning to evening and from evening to morning till God be pacified towards thee beware lest the motions of a lazy heart cause thee to desist sooner A patient that hath had a long disease must continue in the use of the prescriptions till the ill humour be purged away 4. Indignation Let your sorrow be accompanied with detestation See all your sins and loath them and your selves too This is promised they shall loath their ways and doings which are not good O! how much sin have we confessed which yet we have secretly hug'd in our hearts Labour to have your hearts rise against your pride hypocrifie c. Hate sin not only for Hell but as Hell yea hate your selves for your sins yea hate your selves that you can hate your sins no more O that my hatred of my Lusts might be greater than ever my love was unto them I wish from my Soul Professors were more apprehensive of Gods Judgements that are upon them and the Nation for their sins I wish many of us were come up to the frames of the hard-hearted Jews and expressed so much tenderness as they did when Gods hand was heavy upon them their sins also were an heavy burden Hos 7.14 In their affliction they sought God early they mourned and humbled themselves very much though with the removal of their trouble their sorrows wore away However be not satisfied with this sorrow but labour for such sorrow as David had when he was wounded in his heart for sin though Nathan told him his sin was forgiven yet he continued his sorrows for his great transgressions Labour I beseech you for tears of hatred and indignation be greatly displeased with your selves because you have so foolishly and wretchedly dishonoured God and ventured your eternal undoing and if yet thine eyes be not like the Fish-ponds of Heshbon for thy sins take words and sament before God thine hardness of heart that thou shouldst so grievously offend and provoke God so good so gracious a God and that notwithstanding thine heart should remain unbroken 5. Supplication Let there be added hearty cries to God for pardon of all these and all other abominations Who forgives him that scorns to sue for Remission Here is your work in this day the Devil and a false heart will put you upon other work but this is your present work Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept But O! do not leave the work that God sets you about I know it is your duty to provide for the bodies of your Children but consider the danger of thy Soul what guilt thou art under and give the Lord no rest till he hath blotted out all thy sin and art assured that he will remember it no more Relieve not thy self with the general bounty of God or with the free grace and rich mercy of God whilst thou neglectest to cry to God for grace and mercy He will be sought unto by the house of Israel Prize thy condition that thou art alive to pray thou mightst have been in Hell there to howl for ever and ever Seek the Lord whilst he may be found Seek in time before it be too late And if thou doubtest whether thou hast an interest in Christ and the promises because of thy hideous transgressions yet remember the gracious words that tell once from the mouth of Christ to the Samaritan John 4.10 If thou didst know the gift of God thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living water Though thou art unworthy of Childrens bread and hast deserved to be cast forth among the dogs yet thou hast to do with a bountifull and mercifull Lord and therefore be not cast down so as to be discouraged from waiting on the Lord. It was ill said of him why should I wait on the Lord any longer There is no hope I would have thee take better words into thy mouth and say Lord I am unworthy to be the object of thy mercy unworthy to live worthy to be denyed because thou didst call and I did not hear therefore if I call thou mayst justly turn me off in thy fury thou mightest answer me by terrible things in righteousness But deal not with me according to my deservings O! make me the great instance of the power of thy grace let thy mercy in pardoning be great exceeding great O God! Do not delay the suing out thy pardon Without delay away quickly to the Throne of Grace Remember Faelix put off his work till some other time There is danger in delays lest your sense of sin and sorrow for it vanish and decay blow up the first sparks of grace lest they go out and dye again take the first advantages of the grace of God Hast thou an inclination to humble thy self to pray to seek Gods face improve it quickly lest the wrath of God who is nighly provoked already against thee break form upon thee and there be no remedy Do not you know that you have lost the sense of the love of God But have you also lost all sense of Gods wrath Do not you wonder you escape that you are yet alive that you are not free among the dead incorporated with the Hypocrites and damned crew Will you dare you go on in your hardness of heart Will you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath O! God forbid Lay by the world thy false friend thy treacherous Joab that hath smitten to the earth with its kisses and its smiles Here is a business on which thy life the life of thy precious Soul depends Prepare to meet thy God wrath is gone out from the Lord howl weep cry it may be you shall be hid is the day of the Lords wrath it may be your sins shall be forgiven Though the law be a looking-glass to shew you your spots the Baver under the law was made of looking-glosses yet it cannot cleanse you it is the Gospel alone that pardons Away ye wandring Sheep to the great Shepheard of your Souls Hebr. 13.20 great he is in affection and love to his flock he hath laid down his life for you he hath purchased you with his own bloud Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb is most true of Christ and
that it would please God to make my words as an Hammer Motives to let our hearts be broken for and from our Sins to break the Rocks O that I may be thus usefull to your Souls O that somewhat at last may be hinted that may through the blessing of Goâ— break your hearts for and from sin that may promote your Repentance for your own and your othermens sins And indeed unless your hearts be broken for sin they will never be broken from sin But the more bitterness of Spirit you are in for sin the more probability there is you will not return unto sin When men have furfetted upon a Dish and are greatly afflicted and pained by it the more unlikely they are to return again unto that Dish That is certain saith Mr. Burroughs either a mans sin will make an end of his mourning or his mouâ—ning will make an end of his sin Yea if your hearts be not broken for other mens sins they are not kindly broken for your own sins You will never put it out of all doubt that your sorrow is right and genuine unless you mourn for others as well as your own sins for it will alwayes be objected that if Sin as Sin were your Burden if Sin as dishonouring God as wounding Christ as grieving the Spirit then other mens sins being reslexions on the Authority and Will of the great God Father Son and Spirit should have some considerable weight upon your Souls The truth is others sins become thine if thou knowest them and mournest not for them O then In what a case are all the hardned jolly Professours who can make a sport of Drunkeness Uncleanness Superstition Perjury c. in others Consider therefore by the Help of this Glass others sins as well as thine own to help on thy brokeness of heart for and from sin Psal 119.158 Behold with David the transgressour and be grieved because they keep not Gods word Let your Souls with Lot be vexed there are greater sins found among Professours in England than were in Sodom Let thy Soul be as his was as in Hell as upon the Rack How can you evidence that you are translated from death to life because you love the Brethren whilst you are not troubled to see them wounding and damning their souls by their sins you are grieved to see any Friends of yours in great hazards and dangers by the Sword by Sickness by Fire but the Souls of your Friends are in the greatest danger yet you lament not the sight of these deplorable spectacles God forbid that any of you should have grounds of hope to gain Liberties and outward Privileges by others provocations whilst all their sins become yours whilst you are not humbled for them But to lay before you some Considerations that may set home by the Spirit draw water out of the Flint 1. God is greatly incensed Should not your hearts be broken for and from sin seeing sin hath so incensed God against the Land of your Nativity Can you retire from the World and seriously consider the Prints of Gods displeasure against poor England and yet remain impenitent Is it nothing to you that God hath for many years been withdrawing from his Sanctuary in England O! Your Ministers have had miscarrying Wombs and dry Breasts Though they rose early and sate up late were much in watchings and in labours for the Conversion and Edification of Souls yet how seldome have any been under the Pangs of the New Birth How seldome were any pricked at the heart How seldome have any cryed out What shall we do to be saved And for others concerning whom we hoped better things How have they shed their Leaf How have they pined and withered away as to Practical Godliness How have they lost that Seriousness that Heavenlyness that Power of Godliness which before they seemed to have had Your Ministers saw this and lamented it they acquainted you with it invited you to remember from whence you are fall'n to repent and do your first works But yet You returned not unto the Lord. Should not this pierce your very hearts Is it nothing to you that not only your selves but so many Professours in England should lose their faithful and painful Ministers Is it nothing to you for God to call home by Death and otherwise so many of his Embassadours whom you have grieved whom you have despised and affronted and who have been more burthened with your Pride Earthliness Divisions Sensuality c. than they are with their present Poverty and Dishonours under which they lye What doth it portend save War and Hostility when Embassadours are called home And may not you fear that the wrath of God is and will be against you till there be no remedy They mocked the Messengers of God 2 Chron. 36.16 and despised his Words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy If God will treat with you no more believe it he will fight with you And O! O! O! Who will set the Bryars and Thornes against him He will goe through them he will consume them in his wrath Is it nothing to you that there is yet such a Spirit of Division in the Land O! What heats and heart-burnings what animosities and jealousies are there so that a Brother cannot trust a Brother Is it nothing to you that God hath been so long contending with the Land by the Sword and by the Pestilence and so lately by Fire Is it nothing to you that God permitted that dreadful Fire in London to break forth about Three of the Clock on a Lords Day morning Did he not thereby cause his Sabbath in a manner to cease in London Did not he make his holy Day of Rest a Day of labour and disquiet Did not he hereby as it were anticipate his Peoples conventions to expiate him and so drew them as it were off from the Remedy that his hands being loosened he might punish 2 Chron. 7.12 Deut. 9.14 Jer. 2.2 and not be prevailed with to pardon May we not say with Jeremiah even upon this account The Lord hath swallowed up all the Habitations of Jacob and hath not pittied he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong Holds of the Daughter of Judah he hath brought them down to the ground Is it nothing that at the same time God should send forth such a boysterous Wind to fann and blow up the Fire East West South and North God therein executing the Judgement threatned against Elam Jer. 49.36 of bringing the four Winds from the four Quarters of Heaven c. If the punishment of one Element saith a late Writer be dreadful as the Water was to the old World and the Air is in Pestilential Infections and the Earth was when it opened its mouth to swallow up Corah and his company how dreadful is Gods punishing a Land or Person with double and treble Judgements in one