fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
not thus with some of you that are Professors of Religion Consult your own experiences how freely and how chearfully can you follow your Trades and worldly business you can Work and Travail and Buy and Sell and follow it night and day can rise early and go to Bed late and eat the Bread of Carefulness enduring heat and cold and never complain but when you come to Praying and communing with your own hearts or taking a walk by Holy Meditation into the other VVorld when you come to have to do in any of the matters of God and serious Religion O how like Drones and Sleepers do you go on A little of this is enough and more than you can well bear your VVheels drug your Spirits tire and thereupon you hastily over with this work and are glad when you have done How seldom is it that you go into your Closets as willingly as you come out How well were it if you did as freely fall upon your knees as you use to rise from them when you have done How comes this to pass O you are yet carnal carnally disposed carnally inclined your fleshly habits do dispose you to your fleshly ways and fetter you and hang on your heels when you should be doing for God and your Souls O to work Christians to work work off these carnal dispositions and work up your hearts to Spirituality and Heavenliness Get you to be better temper'd and better disposed and the way to habituate your selves to Religion is to hold you closer to the exercise of Religion if you would but use a little more force upon your selves for a time and hold you to diligence in your Holy ways this would by degrees by the co-operation of the spirit of Grace with you which you might boldly look for to come into your help this your forceing your selves upon a diligent holy life for a while would bring you to go on after you had been inured to it with more freedom and alacrity Heb. 15.14 Those that were strong Christians steady and established Christians how came they to be so O 't is said That by reason of use by having their senses exercised by this means they grew up to it Friends be perswaded to make tryal exercise your selves more to Godliness use your selves to a strict conscientious Life If you find it hard at first yet force your selves upon it hold your selves hard to it and by that you have accustomed your selves to this course a while look for it you will find it sweet and easie and when you have thus gotten the habit of Religion when by reason of use and having your senses exercised to Godliness you become Holily disposed and inclined then what Christians think you are you like to be what thriving Christians what flourishing Christians what fruitful Christians are you then like to become then your hearts will be streaming hearts and flaming hearts and will mount up and ascend in those flames of holy Love and Zeal above this Earth and Flesh and a Unity to live in the Light and Love and Joy of the Lord. O Friends would you set your hearts to be reaching out towards this holy frame would the Lord be pleased by the more abundant influences of his Spirit upon us to work us up to and settle us in this habit of Holiness this Spiritual and willing and ready mind then we should become a beautiful Congregation then we should become a blessed People and should grow up as Trees of Righteousness which the Lord hath Planted and which the Lord hath Blessed What Friends doth not all this stir you Is there such a Blessed state and frame to be had and is it not worthy your striving after Come my Beloved let 's bestir our selves let us follow after let us be reaching on with our might to this holy Prize Be not discouraged at difficulty be doing and the Lord will help you VVe are workers together with God for you be you workers together with us for your selves set your hearts to it and the Lord will work in you both to will and to obtain of his good pleasure And thus I have shew'd you what that solidity in Religion which I am stirring you up to be reaching after is to be well-grounded and settled in the substantials of Christianity He that worshippeth God in the Spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and heedfully shunning all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts hath given himself to a Righteous Sober and Godly life he that being deeply resolved for Christ and firmly trusting in Christ doth with full purpose of heart cleave unto him sticking fast to the Lord and keeping him close by him till he hath by reason of use gotten Holiness to be habitual to him This is a Pattern that I would you would have much before your eyes 4. To fruitfulness in Religion There is a readiness to good works mentioned Tit. 3.1 standing in the preparation or propension or bent of the soul upon holy action whereof before and there is a fruitfulness in good works or the souls putting it forth in holy action All Religion stands in action either the inward action of the Soul or the outward action of the Life 'T is the doing Christian that is the excellent Christian the fruitful field which hath a Blessing in it There is amongst our Corn some that looks fresh and strong and grows up ranker and taller than the rest but at best proves to have but little in the Ear 't is grown up all in Stalk and hath little fruit we can't say of it as Hos 7.8 It hath no Stalk 't is all Salk and hath no Ear 't is the full Ears of the Field that are its fruitfulness That is fruitfulness where there is good fruit brought forth and much fruit That ground which either bringeth forth no good fruit or but very little we count barren ground Will you call that a fruitful field which brings forth but here and there an Ear a few handful of Ears to whole Sheaves of Tares and VVeeds VVill you call that a fruitful Tree which hath but two or three Berries in the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches It is precious fruit and plenty of it that will give us the account of fruitful Christians Fruitfulness in Religion is the Honour of Religion Herein is my Father Glorified that ye bring forth much fruit Joh. 15 8. And what Glorifies God God will make glorious before the VVorld Barrenness is a Reproach 't is matter of sorrow and shame Such Christians which stand as dry Trees should not stand with dry Eyes VVe read that Barren Wombs have been the matter of great Affliction How did Sarah and Rachel take on that they had no Children And Hannah when she Prayed for a Child having yet none said 1 Sam. 15. I am a Woman of a sorrowful spirit out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken But however it be upon the account of
gone from me Friends you must give me leave to speak as plainly to you and as closely in this matter as I am able I know how sad 't will be with you if the word doth not prevail and I know this consuming Disease is hard to be cured Backsliders are ordinarily of hard hearts and deaf ears and so hard to be recovered God knows how it may be with you whether God may gain any thing Religion may gain any thing upon you by this warning I know it will be hard work to bring you up out of this case and yet I am loth to lose my labour I would fain do something for Christ and something for the help of your poor Souls and therefore you must bear with me that I thus set my self to speak over and over thus closely to you that if it be possible my words may stick with you Do not say that I think too hardly of you and make you worse than you are I thank God that there are among you those who are faithful and stand their ground I thank God that there is so much Religion as there is even in some of you I thank God I have hope there is as much of serious Religion continuing in this Congregation as in the most Congregations about us But I must tell you that he is a stranger to us that doth not perceive at what a low ebb serious Religion is amongst many of us and he whose heart bleeds not and breaks not at what his eyes may see and his ears may hear hath but little of the Spirit of Christianity in him Sure there are too many among us that have declined in great degree O that this word might find them out and bring them to their knees first and then set them upon their Legs that so there may be a prevention of their utter Rejection 2. God may depart from his Churches and the Congregations of his People and then he departs from these 1. When he shuts up his House and writes upon the Doors thereof The Glory is departed When he causes their visions to fail his Ordinances to cease from among them when preaching and praying and all his spiritual worship fails when though the Candlesticks continue yet there are few Candles left and those that are not quite put out are put under a Bushel when Pastors and Teachers which were burning and shining Lights are removed into a Corner 2. When he pulls down his House When not only the Candles are carried away but the Candlesticks are broken in pieces When he unchurches his People and scatters his Congregations When the Societies of the Saints are broken in pieces and those that went to the House of God in companies have neither house to go into nor company to go together It 's promised Is 33.20 Ye shall look upon Zion the City of our solemnities thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet Habitation a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the Stakes thereof shall be removed neither shall any of the Cords thereof be broken but there the Glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad Rivers and Streams Now when this word is changed and our eyes see Jerusalem a troubled habitation our Tabernacle taken down its Stakes that pitched it and its Cords that held it all removed and broken in pieces when the Habitation of the Lord is become a desolation and his Vineyard become a meer Wilderness when the Cormorant and the Bittern when Owls and Satyrs when the Beasts and the false Prophets are where once were the Prophets and People of the Lord then is the Lord departed 3. When though his House and his Tabernacle stands and his Ordinances are continued though there be Preaching and Praying still yet the Spirit of the Lord is departed When he doth not continue to bless his House and bless his Ordinances to his People when that word is fulfilled upon them Is 28.13 The Word of the Lord is to them precept upon precept line upon line that they might go and fall backward When the Children of Zion are as it was said those that hate Zion should be Ps 129.6 as the Grass upon the House top that withereth before it be grown up whereof the Mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom Even this is a departure and a grievous departure of the Lord from his People when he continues not among them to bless them continues his Word among them precept upon precept line upon line lets them have Sabbath after Sabbath Meeting upon Meeting Sermon upon Sermon but nothing prospers but they fall and go backward and wither as the grass upon the House top O how many Congregations amongst us are there from whom the Lord is already thus far departed though he gives us his Word yet he doth not bless his Word though the Sowers come forth to sow yet how is the Seed rotten under the Clods how little is there that comes up Though the Planters plant and the Builders build how few young Plants do we see coming up how slowly does the Building rise does not the Building rather go backward do not the Plants that are hang their heads and wither and no more rise in their room When do we hear of a new convert brought in and how few do we see of the former planting to flourish O we fade we fade we wither as the Grass upon the House top our life and our strength and our beauty how is it fallen and withered the beauty of love the beauty of humility the beauty of holiness how is it even all marred Sure this is a token of the Lords departure from us Thus you have seen how the Lord departs from his People 2. It 's wo with a people when the Lord departs from them Wo unto them saith the Lord when I depart from them Hos 9.12 1. 'T is woful to them that have something of Religion in them when their Pastors and Pastures and Waters fail what 's like to become of them even they also are like to pine for want There are none to whom Famine is so tedeous as to hungry Souls the living Child will cry for Bread when those that are dead can want it well enough and never feel their want And it will not be woful only to their sense they will mourn and lament and be pierced to the very heart to see such a day but to some amongst them it will be a worse wo than that Whilst some mourn for want of the Word others will pine away for want Ezek. 24.21 23. I will profane my Sanctuary the excellency of your strength the desire of your eyes and ye shall pine away for your iniquities Professors there be some among you that have languished and grown to decay in the fulness of all things by all the Ordinances of the Gospel you have had by all the Manna that hath fallen among you by all our Preaching to you and Praying
done Now this is your way to level your accounts concerning your sins to repent and amend all your evils and to sue out your pardon through Faith in the bloud of Christ And now you see what 't is to lay hold on God to continue his presence with us by casting away our Idols by laying hold on his Covenant by recovering into Communion getting into an holy acquaintance with God living so that you will both accept of God and be accepted with him maintaining a frequent entercourse betwixt the Lord and your souls letting him hear often from you and listening and longing to hear as often from him by keeping even reckonings betwixt the Lord and you keeping a reckoning of your mercies and a reckoning of your sins by levelling your accounts by walking worthy of your mercies by getting the scores of your sins crossed washed away by repentance and pardoned by the bloud of Christ Here 's that you have to do if you would take hold of God and continue his presence with you Friends is the Lord within you I hope he is in many of you would you that he abide and continue with you I know you would you that are Christians I know you would all say Wo to me if the Lord depart from me I know it is the desire of every sincere heart among you let the Lord dwell in me and walk in me as he hath said he will let Christ dwell in mine heart by faith Lord leave me not take not thy Holy Spirit from me if all the Friends I have in the world forsake me if all the comforts I have under Heaven fail me if mine house must go and mine estate go and my health go and my life go yet let not the Lord depart from me let the Lord still dwell in my soul dwell in me as my Teacher and Instructor dwell in me as my governour and my guide dwell in me as my portion and treasure dwell in me as my Refuge and Protector let but the Lord God continue with me and influence me by his Grace and quicken me by his Spirit and guide me by his Counsels and hold me by his Right Hand and lift up the light of his Countenance upon me and so long mine heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope in this hope that he will shew me the Path of Life I shall behold his Face in Righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with his Likeness Why is this your mind is this your desire that it may be thus with you why now you know what you have to do that it may be so Beloved you have much the more reason to hearken to these instructions and hereby to secure the continuance of the Lord in your own hearts in such a time as this wherein there are so many tokens of his being about to depart out of our Congregations to shut up the Doors of his House against us O how will it be if when the days shall come wherein we shall lose our opportunities of meeting the Lord in the Congregation how very sad will it be if we should in such a time not find him within us if the Word of the Lord should be thrust out from his House and the Spirit of the Lord should be withdrawn from our Hearts if with our publick communion we should lose our secret communion if instead of finding comfort in our retirements to God he should hide his Face from our Souls if instead of speaking comfortably he should speak roughly to us if this should be his Word to us in such a day Now see what thou hast done now remember thy wantonness and thy worldliness thy hypocrisie and thy backslidings and triflings out thy day of grace of these things thou hast been warned aforehand but wouldst not lay them to heart and now reap the fruit of thy folly think not to have countenance from me and comfort from me in the day of distress whom thou hast so mocked and slighted in thy prosperity If men be angry let them be angry if men will persecute let them persecute and look for no relief from me O what if the Lord should speak thus to any of your Souls in the days of darkness that may come how dreadful dark will it then be or what if he should say nothing but leave thee a blind and hardned and senseless Soul wasting away and growing worse and worse and not at all affected with his severe providences How if it should be thus O Friends that this may not be your case that God should depart from his House and your Souls together know that you are so much the more concerned to give special heed to the Instructions you have received for the laying such hold upon him that he may continue with your hearts if he should not be intreated but depart from his House and Congregations 4. Stirring Religion will take hold of God What might have been said to this is in great part prevented by what hath been said already yet something I shall add and shew 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 2. That stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 1. Negatively not headiness in Religion an hot and mistaken Zeal about the lower and more uncertain things of Religion not such a Spirit of Fire which was in those Disciples Luke 9.54 who would needs call for Fire from Heaven to destroy and consume those that were not Followers of them not a stirring up of strife and contention a making breaches and divisions and propagating of our own Opinions by censuring and judging those that are otherwise minded and are not in every thing according to our own Size Such as these are some of those perilous persons which the Apostle warns Christians not to imitate but to take heed of of whom he says 2 Tim. 3.2 they are Proud Boasters False Accusers or make-bates fierce despisers of them that are good heady highminded and after all their blustering against others have but a form of Godliness denying the power thereof from such says he turn away take heed of them and take heed of being leavened with such a Spirit This then this headiness and fierceness and hot censoriousness upon the account of Religion this is not the stirring Religion I mean 2. Positively An humble active lively zealous prosecuting or pursuing that which is Religion indeed or the substance of sincere Christianity Some vain ones there are who upon the hearing this headiness and fierceness this hot and mistaken zeal blamed and decryed will turn the edge of such Reproofs against Godly Zeal and all fervour and activity for God and every one that goes beyond the drowsie sleepy multitude of Professors is cried out against as one of these heady highminded ones Such is the craft of the Devil that if he cannot blow up coals of wildfire that under the pretence of kindling
will devour all serious godliness if he cannot make men hot and heady in the propagating their own fancies will then on the other hand quench and cool that genuine fervency of spirit wherein we ought to serve the Lord If he cannot make men heady he will do what he can to make them heartless and cold and lukewarm in all the matters of God Friends take heed of both these extreams of being heady or fierce on the one hand or of being cold or lukewarm on the other Of heady ones God would have us take heed and turn away from them and for lukewarm ones he will spue them out of his Mouth Rev. 3.16 The stirring Religion I mean is as I said before a lively activity of Soul for God and for the advancing in real Godliness A stirring Spirit is opposite to a drowsie sleepy slothful careless Spirit which is nothing moved by all that the Scripture speaks when it presseth us to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 To be zealous and amend Rev. 3.19 To contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. To strive to enter in at the strait Gate Luke 13.24 To be violent and force our selves on in the way of the Kingdom Mat. 11.12 To fight to wrestle to run to make haste to be fruitful in good works and the like after all these pressing and quickning words there are a sort of slow Bellies sleepy lazy Professors who will but creep on when God would have them run who will lye down laze and loyter out their time when they should be fervent in Spirit who will be idle when they should work be silent when they should speak who let their lazy hearts alone to their own slow easie pace and so are over-grown with rust and suffer their Religion to be even strangled and chok'd up by their flesh to which they so much indulge This stirring Religion is the opposite to such a sleepy heartless way of Religion a blowing up the coals which God hath kindled in us as Timothy is exhorted 2 Tim. 1.6 Stir up the Gift of God The word is Blow up the Coals so Christians are to stir up the Grace of God within them I need say the less here because I have told you so much of it already It is our being awakened and putting on vigorously upon that savory solid fruitful Religion which I have already instructed you in Whatever Holy Principles we have received and sucked in from the Word of God whatever Holy Habits or Dispositions have been begotten and wrought into our Hearts by the Spirit of God have we any thing of the saving knowledge of God have we Faith have we the Fear of God or any Love to the Lord Jesus these must be all set on work and held to their work that so the Knowledge of God may bring forth the Life of God that the Habit of Faith may bring forth a Life of Faith that the Love of Christ and the fear of the Lord may constrain us and provoke us to walk on in the Law of our God that the light that is set up within us may break forth and make our Paths to shine and not only so but that the Holy Fire that 's kindled and blown up in our Hearts may bring forth a Zeal of God in our Lives that we may be Christians and Christians in earnest busie for God busie for our Souls striving against Sin and striving for the Mastery fighting against Sin and fighting to the Victory ready to every good work and fruitful in good works doing what we can to rouse up this sleepy World to raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and helping on and building up one another in our most Holy Faith laying out our strength in following the Lord and laying hold every one on the Skirts of his Brother and leading them on with us living in love and all the fruits of Christian love and hereby adorning our Holy Profession and walking worthy the Lord unto all pleasing this is that which I mean by stirring Religion 2. Stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us for 1. It will work out and drive away whatever offends or would provoke God to depart God will never depart without cause it must be a great matter that must part such dear Friends as God and the Souls of his Saints God will never depart from his People till there be some sin entertain'd and lov'd and allow'd that bids him depart Every sin says to the Lord as those wicked ones Job 21.14 who said to the Almighty depart from us but though every sin says thus yet God will not hearken to its voice unless it be an allowed sin that 's suffered to have the command in the heart and life Sin says to the Lord Depart God shall not rule here and if thou be of the mind that that Sin shall stay with thee notwithstanding if thou art willing to entertain such a Traitor however if thou hadst rather venture the displeasing and disobliging of God than have thy Sin cast out this the Lord will not bear away he will God says concerning every sin If ye love me let these go their way let this Pride go let this Covetousness go let this Frowardness go if thou sayest O with all mine heart Lord I would be glad with all my Soul to be rid of them but wo is me they are too hard for me my lusts will dwell in me and work in me and hinder me in my work for God do what I can O my Soul would rejoyce to be well rid of them O that I might never be proud or froward or carnal or earthly-minded any more I know it is an offence to the Lord and sure it is a grief of mind to me that any thing that offends should abide with me and though I cannot conquer them yet through the help of God I will not foster them whilst I live If these Sons of the Bondwoman must dwell with me yet through the help of the Lord they shall never dwell in peace with me while I live if thou sayest thus and sayest truly and wilt stand to thy word God will not depart from thee God will not depart for unallowed resisted sins If whilst thy sin says to the Lord Depart from me thy Soul says to thy Sin Depart thou rather God will hearken to the voice of thy Soul rather than to the voice of thy Sin Thy Sin says to the Lord Depart but if thy Soul say Lord let me be loosed from my Sins but stay thou with me God will not depart from thee But every allowed Sin every loved Lust and Corruption that thou wilt not hear of parting with if thou art of a proud heart and art resolved to maintain thy Pride if thou art of a Covetous Earthly Heart and Life and wilt not hear of giving off from thy Covetousness if thou art carnal and foolish and froward
so hard to speak where 't is so hard to think of any thing that 's good nor shall I hope to prosper in my exhortation to use your tongues better till you be perswaded to exercise your selves to better thoughts Friends if you would open your ears to the counsels I have given you from the Lord and put your selves upon such holy thoughts your ears would open your mouths I know not what to say to make my words to stick upon you and to be reduced into practice here I come and preach to you and you come to hear and then away and quickly forget all and scarce bestow some of you a serious thought upon it afterward O will you be perswaded to try what you can do to put upon a more thoughtful life and if you would be once brought to it to be more seriously thinking Christians you would more easily come to it to be more savourly speaking Christians While I was musing or thinking saith the Psalmist Ps 39. the fire kindled and then spake I with my tongue 3. Get a zeal for the honour of Christ and for doing him the best service you can Consider often wherefore hath the Lord made me this living soul Ps 100.3 It is he that hath made us and not we our selves But wherefore hath he made us v. 4 5. that we should enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise that we should be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name This we are made for and wherefore am I redeemed why was that precious bloud shed for me for what was it that Christ died 2. Cor. 5.15 That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them Wherefore am I called and sanctified and separated from the ungodly World by the Spirit of Christ why was I not left out among the men of this world wherefore is it that I was not left among the Drunkards and Profane of the earth among the Heathens and Infidels amongst the blind and ignorant Multitude wherefore is it that I and my brethren in Christ are called in and are become a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people and not left out in common with the World wherefore is all this Why 1 Pet. 2.9 that we might shew forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And then consider farther what shall I do to answer these great ends to serve the Lord to live unto Christ to shew forth his vertues and praises how happy would it be for me if I could serve to these holy ends Is it not my duty thus to live is not the Lord worthy whom I should serve is not Christ worthy to whom I should live what can I do better with my self then to consecrate my life to him O this is a life for a Christian O this is a life for the redeemed of the Lord so to carry it in their whole conversation that Christ may be magnified in them O let my love and my labour and my care let the strength of mine heart let the ardent zeal of my soul be all spent upon this very thing that Christ may be honoured and magnified in me Friends what if we were brought to this pass and wrought up to this holy zeal for Christ what would it bring forth would it suffer us to dwell in silence the zeal of our hearts would open our lips that our mouth would shew forth his praise the tongue of the dumb would be loosed the dumb would speak and speak good of his Name our delight would be to be speaking of our Beloved Our excuses and pleas for our sinful silence are O I am slow of speech of a stammering tongue I can't speak to any purpose and therefore as good hold my peace this may be something in some persons but there 's a worse cause lies at the bottom thou dost not so much want a tongue to speak as thou wantest an heart to speak Hadst thou more love to Christ more zeal for Christ within thee this would open thy mouth if thou canst but find thee an heart thine heart would find thee a tongue if thine heart were as big and as hot as that holy Prophet was Jer. 20. â— thou wouldest say as he did I am weary of forbearing I cannot hold but I must speak thou wouldst then be as weary of forbearing as now thou art weary of speaking Christians get you such a zealous heart let your hearts be once firmly set in you to do Christ all the honour you can be more heartily concern'd for the honour of his name for the glory of his Kingdom for having your hand in the propagating of his Gospel Be more throughly possessed and even swallowed up of his love be more firmly and more passionately devoted to his service and I need say no more to you in this matter this would do it this zeal of your hearts would put grace into your lips 4. Get more pity and compassion to souls Jude 22. the Apostle exhorting Christians to be active for the good of souls requires On some have compassion putting a difference others save with fear pulling them out of the fire The meaning is put a difference in your dealings betwixt the weak and the willful on the weak have compassion deal more pittifully and more gently and more tenderly with them but more roughly with those that are willful save them with fear fright them out of the fire Compassion must be either as a means for the restoring of sinners and thus some must be dealt compassionately and tenderly with others more roughly In this sense there must be compassion exercised towards the weak but not towards the wilfull that is we must deal gently with the one but not so but must deal roughly with the others Or else our compassion must be our motive to put us upon dealing with souls And thus on all we must have compassion without making a difference or if any difference be the worst of sinners must be the object of our greatest compassion We must have compassion on the most obstinate and wilfull sinners upon the wickedest of men those that will have no compassion on you if they have you in their power those that have no compassion on themselves and their own souls those that are the most hardned in their sins towards these especially should be our great compassion those who are in the greatest misery in the greatest danger are the greatest objects of compassion There should be compassion in the heart of a Christian towards every sinner though most to the greatest sinner yet some compassion to every sinner even to the sinning Saints that are amongst us and this our compassion should be an argument fetch'd out of our own bowels to press us to do the best we can for them What was it that mov'd Christ to engage so deep as he did in saving of
and a special help to holy discourse if what you hear preached on the Lords Day you would make the matter of your discourse the week following hereby you may the more fix what you hear in your own hearts and hence you may be supplied with fresh matter and so find holy discourse the less difficult to you How you have observed this direction since I formerly gave it you whether you have put it in practice I leave it to your consciences to judge Friends if you will not take the directions given you and put them into practice to what purpose are they preached to you I therefore exhort you again to practise this useful direction what you hear on the Lords Days discourse of on the week days 3. From your own experiences of the dealings of God with your own souls Ps 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul Self-observing Christians have many experiences by them which may be much useful for others You may be telling one another what experiences you have had of the workings of sin in you and of temptations and what experiences of the workings of grace and of your victories over corruption and temptation what comforts you have had and how you come by them what distresses and fears you have been under and how you were relieved what difficulties you have found in your work how long you groaned under them and how at length you overcame them Many cases you may have been in out of which much may be brought forth for the benefit of others that are or may be in the same cases 4. From the consideration of the company that at such or such a time you may be like to be cast amongst Some days it may be you may see your necessary business leading you amongst sinners you must work with them in the same field or the same shop or you must travel with them the same journey and the like these sinners whom you foresee in the morning you must converse with on the day may be they may be blind or ignorant sinners or profane and lewd sinners or mocking and scoffing sinners whatever temper they are of the consideration of it will give you an hint what to provide for the ignorant you must go provided with words of instruction for the profane with a word of reproof for all sorts such words as you judge most proper for their case and most like to do their souls good Sometimes you may see your converse is like to be among Christians and then consider whether they be weak Christians and need your help and what their weaknesses are and go provided of a word accordingly a word of comfort to the troubled a quickning word to the dead hearted and slothful a recovering awakening word to the backsliders c. or else they may be stronger and more judicious Christians then your study should be to go prepared with such questions touching your own cases touching any doubts or fears or spiritual wants or difficulties you are under that you might receive benefit from them These directions are all practicable and may be exceedingly useful it will cost you pains to inure your selves to this holy practice but by pains taking a while and the help of God with you it may come to be more easie and were it but seriously set on foot and carefully carried on you cannot easily imagine what an advance to you it will be in the state of your own soul and what a blessed expedient 't will be to propagate religion where it is not and to recover it where 't is fallen and to raise it where it is but low Well this is the sum of all the Directions hitherto given Go always with your bow bent and your arrow upon the string with an heart will disposed to speak and a word ready to be spoken 6. Take a right method by which you may with the most ease attain to this holy use of your tongues You will say 't is hard service and so it is but are you willing to try to come to it Why what method will you prescribe to us that we may attain 1. Begin this practice within your selves speak often to your own hearts Ps 4.4 Commune with your own hearts maintain an holy discourse with your selves The Cock doth first clap his wings on his own breast to awaken himself and then he crows to awaken others As the Apostle Rom. 2.21 Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy self Thou that wouldst instruct another warn and awaken another how canst thou do that if thou dost not first instruct and awaken thy self Mat. 7.5 Thou Hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote out of thy brothers eye That 's the complaint Is 64.7 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee Stir up your selves in the first place say to your own hearts Arise sleeper there 's a God before thee there 's a Christ before thee there 's a Gospel and a Covenant of Grace before thee lay hold on this God lay hold on this Covenant walk worthy of the Lord and be faithful in the Covenant of thy God Speak thus to your own Souls and discourse the matter reason with them about it as the Psalmist reasons with his Soul in his distress Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope in God so do thou reason with thy Soul in thy deadness or in thy hardness or any other case thou art in Why art thou lifted up O my Soul why so hardned Fear God why so proud why so carnal why so slothful humble thy self shake up thy self quicken and rouze up thine own sleepy heart Brethren here 's the original of all our neglects of our duties to others our self-neglects till we stir up our selves more carefully we shall never do any thing to purpose at stirring up one another Kindle an holy fire in your own breasts set your own affections more strongly working upwards if we can get up our own hearts into a more serious lively frame then there 's hope we shall more effectually help up others 2. Next set upon this holy practice in your Families Inure your selves to be speaking of God among your own with them you can be more free and bold There 's no such great difficulty for a Father to speak to his Children for a Master to speak to his Houshold and by speaking much to these you will by degrees grow more free and more able to speak to others Fall therefore closer upon this practice Fathers speak often to your Children Husbands speak often to your Wives Wives speak to your Husbands Masters speak to your Servants Servants speak you one to another Deut. 11.18 19. These my words shall be in thine heart and in thy soul Speak them to thy self first and then ye shall teach them to your Children speaking