that we have all reason to expect a return and that not upon the former frustrated design of refining but upon that more infallible and fatal one of consuming us This is so dreadful but withal so just an expectation that if there be any Iacobs among us any who can wrestle and prevail with God there never was so pressing need of their intercession O let all that are thus fitted for it vigorously undertake this pious work let no Moses's hands ever wax heavy but be always held up in a devout importunity let them transcribe that holy Oratory which he so often effectually used plead to God his own cause with a what wilt thou do to thy great Name and when there is nothing in us that can pretend to any thing but vengeance ransack Gods bosom rifle his bowels for arguments of compassion repeat to him his own titles that he is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Numb 14. 18. And by these solicite yea conjure him to pity And how great an ardency is required to this intercession What strong cries must they be that shall drown so loud a clamor of impieties And how does it reproach the slightness of our sleepy heartless addresses Can we hope to bind Gods hands with Wit hs and Straws To arrest his vengeance with such faint and feeble assaults And when nature and danger suggest to Heathen Nineveh not only to cry but cry mightily to God shall the superaddition of our Religion damp ours into a whisper a soft unaudible sound A storm will teach the profane Mariner to pray in earnest and alas we have not wanted that discipline 'T is not long since we might have said with those Acts 27. No small tempest has long lain on us neither Sun nor Stars in many days nay in many years appearing nothing but black and dismal portents of a final wreck to a poor weather-beaten Church and then sure 't was time to be importunate to learn so much of instruction from the waves that tossed us as to make our prayers keep pace with them in swift uninterrupted succession in loud and not to be resisted violence That we did so then I dare not affirm but sure I am the necessity of it is not yet out-dated for though the Sky however black with clouds carry no thunder in it though the impetuous winds that blow from every quarter should not break out in tempest and bring shipwrack to us yet we too fully exemplifie the truth of the Prophets Axiome That the wicked are like the troubled Sea that cannot rest we have within us a principle of ruine which can operate though nothing from without excite it A tempest is not always necessary to sink a Ship one treacherous leak may do it in the greatest calm and what security can there then be to our torn Vessel whose rents our continued divisions do still keep open Indeed our preservation must be as our restoration was the work of Omnipotence thither therefore let us address with St. Peters pathetick Prayer Save Lord or we perish O that all who are concern'd in the grant of that Petition would qualifie themselves to present it Lift up such pure hands that God who hears not sinners Io. 9. may yet hear them afford a gracious ear and give an answer of Peace CHAP. III. A survey of the Mischiefs arising from Inconsideration THE last Section having defeated all the promising hopes of the former by shewing us how sadly we have frustrated all the designs and engagements of our profession enervated all those apt and powerful methods and how perfectly contrary our practices are to our rules mere curiosity would more prompt us to enquire what are the hidden causes of those so strange effects what unhappy propriety there is in the soil that after so much culture and husbandry it should produce nothing but wild Grapes and by what arts and wiles Satan has not only evaded but even retorted those blows which were aim'd at him But as in diseases the pains and languishings are obvious to the grossest sense but the springs and originals of them most frequently lye deep and are so complicated and interwoven that they require much art to search and to distinguish them nay do often mock the most subtile inquisitor and send him back with meer conjectures and uncertain guesses so in this Epidemick Spiritual distemper the malady is notorious and visible but the causes of it not so easily determin'd yet that not so much from the darkness as the number of them so many do pretend and that with very good colour to this unhappy this monstrous birth that a Solomon himself must have made the proposal of dividing it as not being able to have assign'd it entire to any one Mother INDEED so many are the concurrents towards it that it would far exceed the limits of this little Tract but to point at them I shall not therefore undertake any such exact enumeration but shall only take notice of those which either for the generality or degree of their efficacy appear the most eminent AND first the great and stupid Inconsideration which most men have concerning their Religion may well pass for a main cause of its frustration Christianity may make Archimedes his challenge give it but where it may set its foot allow but a sober advertence to its proposals and it will move the whole world it comes with most invincible and controuling arguments but still they are arguments and those must first obtain attention before they can force assent they will most infallibly weigh down the scales though the whole world were the counter-balance but then that must presuppose their being put into those Scales being entertain'd with so much of deliberation as may try and examine their weight In a word they address to us as men that is creatures endued by God with rational Souls and discursive faculties but if we will suppress these and set up only the brute to give audience we must not expect Balaams prodigy shall be every day repeated that the beast should be wiser than the rider and consequently cannot wonder if the Success vary with the Auditors AND 't is to be fear'd this is the state of most of us that all the convincing Logick that demonstration of the Spirit as St. Paul calls it and all the perswasive Rhetorick of the Gospel find us so stupid and unconcern'd that they can make no impression all the avenues are so blockt up that they can find no way of approaching us We are like the Indian Serpents Phylostratus mentions proof against all charms but such as with their glittering splendor assault our Eyes nothing moves us but what courts our Senses and what is not gross enough to be seen we think too nice to be consider'd The form and name of Christianity men find ready to their hands and it costs them no labour to put it on but should they be interrogated of the import and significancy
which will make the improvement of Ionahs passionate Wish that God would take away his life his most rational Desire render not Death only but Annihilation also as eligible as it will be impossible CHAP. VII A survey of the Mischiefs arising from Mistakes concerning Repentance ANOTHER dangerous Underminer of Christian Practice is the many affected mistakes in the business of Repentance Men look upon that as the grand recipe of the Gospel an infallible Catholicon against all their spiritual maladies and so far they judge right for so indeed it is But when they proceed to compound this sovereign Medicine for their own use they do it most deceitfully leave out the principal and most operative ingredients and by being such ill Apothecaries defame the Gospel as the Dispensatory and Christ as the Physician and likewise ruine themselves as the Patients But of those who make this imperfect and Defective composition all do it not alike some leave out one part some another and some so many that they retain nothing of its substance and reality Eat out all the heart and vertue of it and leave only an empty shell the gilding as it were of the Pill the Form and meer outside of Repentance IN this later rank I place those who suffer repentance to pass no farther than their Frontiers and Outworks assign it its quarters in the superficies of the man the Face or Tongue or Gesture but if it attempt to penetrate any deeper if it send but one serious thought to alarm the heart then like the Edomites against Israel Num. 20. all the forces are mustered to impede its passage such formal Penitents as these all ages have produc't Christ tells of those who disfigured their faces Mat. 6. 16. put on as it were a vizard only to act this part and Esay 58. 5. long before describes them by the bowing down the head like a bull-rush and certainly the race of them is not worn out in our daies a demure or rather a lugubrious look a sad or whining tone makes up 't is to be fear'd the sum of many mens Humiliations Nay as the world has of late gone that alone were but a modest pretence such theatrical forms stickle hard for the prize not of that one part but of all religion a distorted countenance is made the Mark of an upright heart and none is thought to speak the Language of Canaan that dresses it not in an uncooth sound and then what wonder is it that they are impatient others should worship God as David invites in the beauty while themselves chuse to do it in the Deformity of holiness BUT others make somewhat a fairer advance towards repentance by taking in some of those things which are indeed its necessary concomitants of this kind is in the first place confession of Sin and this after some sort is stuck at by few no man who hath not herded himself with the worst sort of Fanaticks imagines himself sinless or pretends to be thought so by others but will very readily acknowledge to all the world that he is a sinner and as to men so especially and more solemnly to God Every man that but offers at praying at all thinks confession a necessary Branch of his devotion all publick forms have ever carried that in the front as supposing it the most principal universal and daily requisite to the lapsing state of humane corruption And perhaps 't is the general innate perswasion of this that hath secur'd that part of our Liturgy from those impertinent cavils which have particularly aim'd at most other members of it And I suppose this is as frequent in the Closet as in the Church the only fear is that there it is as loose and general too that those private and particular guilts which are neither fit nor possible to be distinctly inserted in publick do many times lose their place even in private Confessions also The shortness and the ease of general forms being very likely to recommend them to those whose numerous sins threaten too great a length and whose confus'd snarl'd consciences render it difficult thus to pull out thread by thread but where Sins are thus moulded up in a lump they will like great masses of Pills or confections keep the more undecay'd retain more of their strength and vigor So that such Confessions are very indulgent to Satans interest who fears not the impressions that can be made upon him while his body remains entire the great execution then beginning when 't is broken and scatter'd and each sin is singled out for a particular pursuit and where that is not attempted the war can never be successful nor thought in earnest BUT suppose this be done and by exact enumeration each sin is parted from its fellows as when a conqueror pursues the flying troops of routed Enemies yet if this be all if quarter be allowed and any mercy given no real prize is gain'd by this atchievement He who recounts his sins with milder purpose towards them than utter excision he makes no approach towards the essential part of Repentance He may bring out large Catalogues of his sins and call them confessions but he may better express his own sense if he term them rather inventories of his goods for such 't is apparent he reckons them whilest he resolves to keep them Indeed there is not a more absurd piece of Pageantry than these formal Confessions and such as shews how little God is consider'd in his great Attribute the searcher of hearts 'T is certain no man would hope to attone an offended superior by a submiss acknowledgment of his fault did he know that his purpose of reiterating it were discern'd and what a tacite blasphemy is it then to treat God at such a rate as presumes him as deceivable as a poor Mortal and sure this were a strange Ingredient in repentance We look on it as a high pitch of impiety boastingly to avow our sins and it deserves to be consider'd whether this kind of confessing them have not some affinity with it Should I tell a man I have injur'd and provok'd you thus and thus and so I resolve to do again at the next opportunity I refer it to common construction whether this were not to justifie not retract the unkindness Now what I suppose thus said to man is in the secret purpose of our heart no less articulately spoken to God who needs not our words to discern our meaning Therefore whoever intends to repeat his sins nay does not seriously intend to forsake them does in truth maintain and defend his vicious practice how loudly soever his Tongue accuses it And such clamors are but like the feigned Quarrels of combin'd cheats in order to delude some third person But alass the scene is here unluckily laid for God will not be mock'd nor will the Mercy promis'd to him that confesseth and forsaketh ever reach him that confesseth and retaineth Confession is no farther acceptable than as it either flows
purity covetousness of liberality and make our vices the arbitrators of those Laws which should restrain them This is such a gross injustice as common humanity abhors we deal by other measures with men the most notorious and flagitious criminals and reserve this way of process for those things only wherein our God may be concern'd 'T is a severe exprobration of a prophane people Malach. 1. 8. Where God accuses them for treating him with less reverence than they would do a mortal Prince Offer it now to thy Prince but alass we shall force him to descend far lower in his expostulation so far we are from paying him the duty and regard belonging to a Prince that we yield him not the rights of common men force him to stand to those measures which we think too unequitable to press upon a murderer a thief or rebel at the Bar. BUT this waving of common rules is a plain confession that we need more indulgence than those will allow when mens lusts thus usurp the Tribunal and judge in their own cause 't is a palpable discovery they dare not remit themselves to any more equal determination And indeed in this point of their interest they pass a right judgment for 't is certain were the case referr'd to any competent Judge indeed to any but themselves they would inevitably be cast and sure 't is high time that some should assist opprest vertue in its appeal find it out some Court of equity where its plea may be heard and we need not travel far for that purpose every man may do it in his own breast where in his little Common-wealth he shall find a Court of Gods erecting let him but draw the Cause thither discuss the matter in his own conscience and he will soon find the former unrighteous sentences revers'd let him but seriously reflect on his violations of those sacred Precepts of Christ and observe what a sting and secret remorse every such breach leaves within him and that will be a competent attestation of the equity and obligingness of those Mandates for from whence else can the regret arise those things that are either impossible in their nature or unconcerning to us cannot beget it No man accuses himself for not flying in the air or walking upon the water nor owns himself guilty in the non-observance of any Laws but such as have power to oblige him and therefore these close pangs and checks of Conscience are an irrefragable evidence that men do inwardly assent to the justice and authority of those divine rules which their actions yea often their words too do most oppugn BUT over and above the throws and after-pains of conscience when sin is brought forth the self-accusation of the Criminal when none beside controuls nay many flatter and commend I say beyond this secondary and reflext Apology for Christs Law owed to the foregoing prevarication of it there is an early and immediate verdict past in its behalf in the esteem and liking which those documents command where ere they pass creating an assent and veneration not only when obey'd but from profest despisers who cannot chuse to think well of that vertue they desert and the necessity of their affairs compel them to speak ill of An event visible in the condemnation of our Saviour where the Iudge who gave Sentence against him at the same moment washt his hands and openly profest he found no fault in him AND indeed this very reflexion on the Author of these precepts if well consider'd would supersede all other arguments The Mandates of the Gospel on this one score that they are Christs are certainly both pure in themselves and possible to us and so most worthy not only of all Obedience but all Love too He who is our Lord upon both the titles of Creation and Redemption may certainly with all justice impose what laws he pleases on us Yet he who laid down his life for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Testament cannot be imagin'd so inconsiderate of our frailty which himself had smarted for as to introduce another of equal rigor or be so prodigal of his bloud as to pour it out for those who by a new set of impossible commands should infallibly reforfeit themselves again and if this cannot be suppos'd the contrary may be concluded that he hath so far condescended to our imbecillity as not to prescribe us any thing which he either finds or makes us not able to perform 'T is true indeed his Laws are above the reach of our corrupt and debased nature and they were unfit to be his were they not so but when he by his grace offers to elevate and refine this nature bring it up to the pitch and purity of those Laws this is a far greater mercy than if he had descended to our corruption so he might have contaminated himself given laws unworthy of him but alass what advantage would it be to us to have the Blasphemy mention'd Psal. 50. so verified to have our God in this sense such a one as our selves but by this other Method he purifies and exalts us puts us in a capacity of being like unto him in which is summ'd up at once all both vertue and felicity AND on this glorious end every particular command of his has a direct aspect every one of them tending to re-impress on us some part of that divine image which was raz'd out by the first sin and this one would think enough to recommend them to our highest value Certainly if Conscience may be Iudge it will be so there being in this case no middle between devout reverence and horrid blasphemy for he that despises such an assimulation must necessarily also despise him who is so resembled he who thinks meekness purity humility c. unamiable qualities can have little esteem for him in whom they are so transcendently eminent but will take the Prophet at his word and say there is no form nor comeliness in him Es. 53. But this sure can never be the Verdict of Conscience he that can thus pronounce must be suppos'd to have supprest and silenc'd that It being one of the most indelible notions there that all that is in God is sublimely excellent But because 't is indeed too possible that conscience may be put under such an undue restraint suffer the violence of a Prisoner when it should sustain the place of a Iudge because many men dare not permit their consciences to speak lest they should say more than they are willing to hear And lastly since these persons make their appeal to reason pretend the aids and boast in the advantages of that it may not be amiss to bring the Cause unto that Bar whose Empire and Authority none must disclaim that own the Style and least of all those Scepticks in Religion with whom we have to do who will allow of no conviction but from it AND God who as the Apostle saies leaves not himself without
divine Nature by the proportions of their own Phancies and indeed such temerity as this is too like to confute its self and feel that Justice it will not believe yet as great and daring a crime as it is I fear there are few that can totally acquit themselves of it for though all avow it yet he that shall narrowly search his own heart will scarce find it clear from all degrees of it We are all apt to cherish a flattering hope that God is not so severe as he is represented or that if in respect of his Justice he be a consuming fire yet that Mercy will be sure to snatch us out of the burning like the Angels to Lot assist our Escapes and provide us a Zoar that our souls may live and this Hope though founded only in our wishes is very apt to slide into our faith and make us believe what we would have by which means this becomes a kind of Epidemick Heresie the most frequent and common misperswasion that occurs concerning the divine Attributes IT would be a work more long than useful to recite the several errors that have sprung from this one That of Origen that the Devils should finally be saved is a noted and pregnant Instance which could be deriv'd from nothing but this unequal apprehension of Gods Justice and Mercy And besides all other ancient we have many branches of a later growth that spring from the same root a set of plausible falsities which would quench the unquenchable Fire and kill the never dying Worm I mean those allaying softning descriptions some of this age have made of Hell some changing the kind others abating the intensness or at least the duration of those Torments each substracting so much from this Tophet that they have left Atheism an easie task to take away the rest and may give suspicion they mean to visit that place which they are so industrious to make easie BUT whatever they do themselves 't is sure this is the way to send others thither to take off their fears of it to make them think it not so dreadful a place as they once suppos'd and consequently less careful to decline the ways that lead to it 'T is indeed too obvious that such perswasions do mightily impugn Christian practice and embolden men in sin and God knows we need no such encouragement the more general fallacious hopes of Mercy being too sufficient for that purpose without these supernumerary deceits but between the one and the other Libertinism is like to outgrow all restraints and the Opinion of Gods goodness instead of leading men to repentance will slacken those reigns wherewith our bruitish Nature should be bridled and restrain'd and we thus left unto the sway of lust and passion must run headlong upon ruine as the Horse rusheth into the Battel For alass we are not so generous as to do well for Vertues sake nay nor so provident as to do it for Reward 't is our fear that is the most prevalent incentive and accordingly we find religion generally makes her first impressions there They are the terrors of the Lord that do most usually and most effectually perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. our Hearts must be pricked and at those Orifices piety enters Now when all these terrors shall be superseded by the opinion of an overwhelming mercy when Hell shall either be annihilated or suppos'd so to annihilate us that we shall lose our passiveness with our being and be as uncapable of suffering as even Heaven its self can make us what will be left to engage us to vertue or deter us from vice Alas do we not often see a daring Lust bid battel to all the artillery of Heaven meet God in his loudest Thunder and venture on damnation in its dreadfullest form and can we think it will be more modest when it shall be told that they are only edgeless weapons it hath to encounter that Gods Thunder amidst all its noise carries no bolt and that the Flames of the bottomless pit are but a painted fire that at a distance may fright but not hurt us or at least so hurt us that we shall not feel it When those rubs which fear interpos'd are thus removed there is nothing to stay the course of headlong riot but precipiciously it will on where ever strong desire shall drive or flattering lust allure he that loved his sin even when it threatned him ruine serv'd it assiduously when it promised no other wages than death Rom. 6. 23. how will he hug this viper when he thinks 't is stingless and give up his ear to be bored by that Master which affords him present pleasures without future stripes we see even in Civil matters the presumption of Impunity is the great nurse of Disorders and if it were not for the coercive power of Laws we should soon see how little the directive would signifie and doubtless 't is the same in spiritual or rather worse by how much we are more bent upon the breaking of Gods Laws than mens and consequently will be the more apprehensive of any Encouragement OF the truth hereof our experience gives too sad proof none rushing so boldly upon Gods justice as those who have most fortified themselves against the dread of it as if they meant their practice should experiment the truth of their speculation and make the utmost trial whether God can be provoked or no. Indeed men use mercy as amaz'd Passengers sometimes do a plank in a shipwrack lay so much weight upon it as sinks both it and themselves so perishing by too great a confidence of their rescue and finding a Gulph where they expected an Ark not that I suppose Mercy unable to support the weight of all the Persons nay and of all the sins in the world which have not the one ponderous adherent of Impenitence superadded but that is a burthen which even the divine Clemency sinks under refuses to plead such a cause and refers it to Iustice as its proper Court And therefore to sin on in hope of mercy is to undermine our selves and commit a folly as absurd as ruinous I wish I could say 't were not also as frequent but God knows 't is every where too apparent men openly avow it so that 't is become the vulgar Answer to every convicting Reproof that God is merciful And surely they that observe the growth of vice since our new descriptions of Hell came abroad will have cause to think the one has had no small influence on the other and that while some have made it borrow the uneasiness of our humane state to make up its torments they have taken care it should be just and lend us back sins of a greater magnitude This miserable traffique have these Factors setled between the present world and the infernal region that Hell should have Earths pains and Earth Hells wickedness the later alas we are too fully possest of which is like to send too many souls to discover the
the mutinous and insolent behaviour of many who profest loyalty did too clearly evince it And as it is said of Ioab that he turn'd after Adonijah though he turn'd not after Absalom 1 King 2 28. and some of ours had little private rebellions of their own even while they oppos'd the more publick I love not to pass censures on mens thoughts yet I doubt some would be too conscious to confute me if I should say there wanted not those who owed their zeal to their Spleen and did not so much love those they fought for as hated those they fought against And it may perhaps deserve enquiry whether that demure pretence of holiness their Adversaries had put on did not more avert some of our Libertines from them than all their real crimes They perhaps so far mistook them as to suspect they might be in earnest when they profest to advance the power of Godliness and at that took an Alarm and such Men if such there were contended not for the Liberty of their Countrey but their Lusts and could with no justice expect either a reputation or success from that cause which they at once helpt to defame and defeat I am loth to go farther and suspect that even some of the devouter sort were inspir'd more by the Spirit of opposition than Piety yet I confess 't is hard to resist that surmise when 't is consider'd that our Liturgy never had its due veneration but when the Directory was set up against it Indeed he that shall remember how our private Oratories were then throng'd and crouded and shall now compare it with our empty Churches will be tempted to think our devotion was of that sort which is excited by interdict and deadned by invitations a perverse kind of Zeal kindled only by Antiperistasis or collision none of that pure flame which descends from heaven And then as our Saviour in another case saies if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. If this fairer and more specious part of us were thus reprovable how obnoxious were the other and if our Earnestness in a righteous cause by its Sinister motives or adherencies be unable to justifie its self how shall it bear that heavier task we laid on it and plead for our other Guilts THIS is the true though not full account of our behaviour under Gods Discipline thus did we fructifie upon his pruning us brought forth indeed nothing but degenerous fruit The holy Writ leaves it as a brand of most inveterate Impiety upon Ahaz that in the time of his distress he sinn'd yet more against the Lord 2 Chron. 28. 22. and sure we have too just title to the same Character of infamy those sufferings which were sent to chastise our sins serv'd but to encrease them and like the Israelites in the Brick-kilns they multiplied the more for their oppression we debaucht even our Executicners and made every new calamity supply us with some new vice And now when Gods rod was thus despis'd we were in all reason to expect he should draw his sword revenge our resistance of his methods by somewhat we could not resist make our Plagues as obstinate as our selves and involve us in hopeless inevitable ruine This certain fearful looking for of Iudgment Heb. 10. 27. was all we had left our selves of all the rich patrimony we were once possest of and our present misery seem'd impossible to expire any way but by dying into greater BUT as great artificers are us'd to magnifie their Art by choosing the most unlikely materials so did it please God in this total indisposedness of ours when we were so unapt subjects to illustrate his mercy and as if he design'd this national deliverance should in its proportion be the Transcript of our more universal redemption he visited us not only in this state of misery but enmity when we had set our selves in defiance of his judgments he laid as it were an Ambush of mercy for us and surpriz'd us with safety by such undiscernible ways return'd the captivity of our Sion that we were indeed delivered like them that dream Psal. 126. 1. gave us a victory without a war without the intervention of garments rolled in bloud Esa. 9. 5. invested us in our Triumphant robes and in a word made us insensibly to glide into our long forgotten prosperity AND now who can imagine but this miraculous Mutation without us must also work a Change within us Indeed they must have a very ill opinion of humane nature that can think it possible it should have perverseness enough to resist such endearments such kindly Heat must needs be suppos'd to melt us and if before our Pride disdain'd to be compell'd yet even that stubbornest part of us can not object against the being courted into amendment So that when God has thus yielded to our terms left us not so much as a Punctilio in our way to Piety 't is but a reasonable expectation we should embrace it with as great an Earnestness as it was formerly rejected by us AND would God we could say we did so but alas we still affect prodigies take a kind of wanton Joy in defeating Gods designs and as if we aspired to vye Miracles with him have made our returns as unparallel'd as his mercies so that the sum of our account is this No Nation was ever more signaliz'd by Gods goodness or its own perverseness it being hard to determine in which of those respects it is most eminent That this is in the general perfectly true there are too many particulars ready to testifie indeed a whole cloud of Witnesses do concurr to the proving the charge I shall not undertake to examine all yet some of the principal it will not be amiss to take notice of BEFORE we enquire into the use we have made of Gods Mercies let us a little consider what our sense of them is and sure of all the interrogatories we can put to our selves this appears the easiest the most gentle favourable Test that even our own partialities could elect for us it being so natural to men in misery to value a rescue and celebrate their deliverers that the contrary would be the only wonder we see even the Iews who were none of the most malleable people yet deliverances made impressions on them set them to their devout processions and solemn hymns in praise of God nay such a piece of native Religion is this that the Heathens exemplifie it to us The Philistins when they had taken Samson magnified their Dagon as having delivered their enemy and the destroyer of their countrey into their hands Judg. 16. 24. So upon the victory over Saul 1 Sam. 31. 9. they sent round about to publish it in the house of their Idols And in all stories we find the Heathen Altars were never so loaden with Sacrifices as upon such occasions and the Gospel tells us that those on whom Christ bestowed miraculous cures were
so transported with them that their gratitude supplanted their obedience and made them notwithstanding his prohibition proclaim the wonders he had done for them But I fear if we reflect upon our selves we shall not be able to match any of these instances 'T is true our late change was entertain'd with a Joy profuse enough but not enough religious We saw that great things were done for us and thereof we rejoyced but we did not so much consider that the Lord had done them Ps. 114. and so were rather affected with the rarity and profitableness than the mercy and kindness of the Dispensation and though the care of our Governours have provided for the religious part also assign'd days of Purim for the perpetual commemoration of our deliverance yet our slight observance of them does too fully evince our Joy was meerly secular and surely he that observ'd the numerous and loud acclamations in the streets and the few faint Hallelujahs in the Temple must needs say they were very disproportionate and that how much soever the most of us rejoyc't it was not in the Lord and then we are not to wonder that it was so transient since it was meerly earthly it must needs partake of the fadingness of its original whereas had we deriv'd it higher it would have been lasting and durable it could not so suddenly have expir'd had we fetcht it from him in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore But alas our transports were such as exhausted themselves in their own noise we exprest our Joy in Bonfires and it vapour'd away in the smoke there wanted that mixture of Piety which should have fix'd that volatile passion and we who at first were much more glad than thankful within a very short time ceased to be either AND then as violent Heats when once expir'd are succeeded by the extremest Cold so has it fared with us we fell from our Extasies not to the mean but the contrary extreme our vast complacencies at their parting carried with them even ordinary contentation and left us not only joyless but impatient It was indeed matter of Equal shame and wonder to see a scene so suddenly chang'd wherein as in many other instances we seem'd to have transcrib'd the copy of the mutinous Israelites who we find in the very same Chapter Ex. 15. triumphing and repining and no sooner were the Timbrels out of their hands but Complaints were in their mouths vers 24. What shall we drink and in the beginning of the next with the same querulous importunity they require meat But not to wrong them in the comparison their Murmurs had some extenuating circumstances which ours have not they lookt indeed with some appetite upon Aegypt and made some proposals of Return but it was while they suffered the hardships of the wilderness they preferr'd a repleted slavery before a hungry freedom but even they were not so frantick in their mutinies as to make any such offer in Canaan or have any Emulation to the Garlick and Onions amidst the affluence of Milk and Honey No 't is we Alone that have the unhappy skill of reconciling the sins of Canaan and the Wilderness murmur as much under our Vines and Fig-trees as at Rephidim or Marah and make all the outcries of want and slavery whilest we wallow in the utmost luxury of plenty and freedom I need not hear specifie the particulars of our Murmurings this discourse being not likely to find many whose innocence will need that information this malignant humor having spread so that 't is now become almost a scandalous because a singular thing to be contented And certainly a considering Foreiner that should come among us could not but be astonisht to see a Nation so full of all those things which use to create temporal satisfactions and yet to find no body in it satisfied to see so many parties among us and none prosperous This is such a riddle as would tempt a man to suspect his senses and think we had all this while but dreamt of a restoration been under the delusion the Prophet describes of the hungry and thirsty man that at his waking finds he is empty and his soul hath appetite Esay 29. 8. 'T is a sad but visible truth that all that God has done for us hath been so far from filling our desires that it has only serv'd to enlarge them for I appeal to any of our loudest mutineers whether if some years since the present state of affairs had been represented to them drest in the worst circumstances they now complain of they would not then have thought it extremely amiable worth Rachels prize of seven years more hardship nay whether they would not willingly have made some abatements relinquisht part of what they now enjoy to have had the rest secur'd And when God has granted us all we then askt shall we murmer because we could now perhaps ask something more and like ingrate Debtors pick a quarrel to evade payment Was it not enough that he engag'd his Omnipotence for us but must his Omniscience also be prest upon the same service and provide all he could foresee we would wish Alas do we think we have the same hank upon God that some Gallants have on their trusting Merchants that upon Peril of losing all former scores he must still go on to supply us shall we think nothing fit for oblivion but our obligations and in this perverse sense transcribe S. Paul Phil. 3. 13. forgetting those things which are behind reach forward to the things that are before this indeed too fully speaks us the off-spring of our first Parents we can find no gust in all the fruits of Paradise if any one be denied us and still look not on what we have but what we want and as it is observ'd of the greedier sort of creatures that they relish not one bit for the vehement expectation of another So is it with us we devour but do not enjoy our Blessings and to require him to satisfie us is to assign him the Poets Hell set him with Belus daughters to the task of filling a sieve with water or rolling Sysiphus's stone our growing appetites still keeping us empty and restless amidst all endeavours to make us otherwise so that whereas God uses to commit his favours to Men as seed to the Earth in expectation of an harvest some fruits of gratitude and obedience they seem with us rather to be flung into a Gulph whose property is only to swallow never to fructifie I KNOW mens Minds are so possest with their discontents our daily mutinous blasts have puft up and swelled our grievances to such a vastness that he must expect to be very impatiently heard that shall attempt to represent them in a lesser size yet sure 't were not impossible even upon a direct view to demonstrate them very light and moderate but upon a comparative perfectly trivial and inconsiderable and 't is
may we go from one to another and as it was in Ezekiels vision see still greater abominations Ezek. 8. And certainly that All-seeing Eye which discerns what multitudes do thus busie themselves at the times even of his solemnest worship cannot but adjudge us most profane despisers of his mercy in restoring it Yet would to God 't were only the absent upon whom that sentence would fall but alas the behaviour of many in the Church does too loudly testifie how little of devotion brings them thither and at how mean a rate they value all that is done there Those Eyes which there should wait on God as those of a Servant on the hands of his Master Psal. 123. 2. are rolling about to fetch in all the vanities and temptations which can occurr to them and look every way but towards Heaven Our Tongues which should be toucht with a Coal from the Altar devoted wholly to Hymns and Prayers are busied in private Colloquies with those about us Business News nay all the impertinent chat of our most vacant hours is then taken up to entertain us so that he who would know the talk of the Town or neighbourhood need go neither to Exchange nor Market the Church will as certainly supply him And this ill employment of our Tongues engages the like of our Ears which when they should be hearkening what the Lord God will say concerning us are listening to those vain discourses we hold with one another from all which outward indecencies we may too surely collect the inward irreverence of our heart And is it possible that this should now be the Temper of those who not long since seem'd to bewail their exclusion from those sacred Assemblies Did we long for them as David for the waters of Bethlehem when they appear'd unattainable and when they are brought to us refuse to taste them poure them out not as he did in devotion but in contempt 'T is true indeed in temporal Delights possession usually proves a nauseating thing and takes off our appetite but it uses not to be so in spiritual whose peculiar property it is not to satiate but excite by fruition But alas though the Things we converse with are spiritual our Hearts are carnal and that is the cause why instead of crying out with the Psalmist When shall I come to appear in the presence of God Psal. 42. We like those in Malachy Chap. 1. 13. Snuff at his service and say What a weariness is it A weariness indeed it appears in the literal sense with many who sleep at it as men over-labour'd and scarce take so sound repose in their own houses as in Gods indeed such is the variety of rude behaviour that is there us'd that should an unbeliever come into their Assemblies he must surely as St. Paul supposes in another case 1 Cor. 14. 23. say we are mad to see some gazing some whispering some laughing others sleeping and perhaps the far fewer number praying is such a medly as the most brutish Idolaters never admitted in their worships and the way of worshipping Mercury by throwing stones or Hercules by cursing is a sober and decent kind of service compar'd with this And now alas when will the Church recover its ancient Title and become the house of prayer 't is sure according to the present appearance it may have many more proper names that being the least part of the business done in it 'T is true there are some that make it a Sanctuary but 't is only against the penalties of the Law or reproach of errant Atheism they come to save their money or their credit others perhaps shun the solitariness of being at home and come not as to a place of Devotion but Concourse and 't is to be doubted some visit that place as they do many others because they have nothing else to do They want their week-days diversion and so are driven thither upon meer destitution of more grateful entertainments make it a kind of Sunday play-house sit there as Spectators or Judges to see the company or censure the Preacher but never remember that themselves have any other part to act or are beheld by Him who will not always be patient of such profanation but will as the Scripture speaks Repay them to their face who thus contemn him to his We know among men every one counts his House his fortress and an Affront offered him there doubles the Injury and is not only a contempt but an invasion and shall it not be a proportionable enhansement with God also thus to defie him within his own doors and approach his presence in an impious bravery the more fully to shew him how little we regard him At this rate while we address our selves we may as ill manner'd Guests be forbid his house Interrogated by God as the Iews were Is. 1. Why doest thou tread my Courts A total abandoning of Worship being more fair and ingenuous than such Devotion wherein like the barbarous souldiers we bring Christ a Scepter only to smite him on the head with it and make a preface of homage to give our selves the sport of the mockery nay 't is sadly to be fear'd that God may thrust us out of his House shut his Doors against us rescue his Service and himself from our profanation and put us again under the same or a worse interdict than that which lately lay upon us HAVING now seen our scandalous Irreverence towards Gods worship in general 't is too easie to make Application to the several parts of it every one of which must necessarily partake of the contempt which falls upon the whole for while we bring no thoughts but secular with us those are equally disagreeing to all the Divine offices 't will be needless therefore to trace our wandrings in each of those since our whole behaviour in the Church is one great deviation from the business we should come about yet that supersedes not to every guilty person himself the necessity of a more distinct and particular reflection 'T is sure at the last dreadful Audit we must account for every of those spiritual advantages we have abus'd and alas what a dismal reckoning will many of us have then to give up when our prayers which we now turn into Sin shall be turn'd into perdition and We who would not supplicate our God shall in vain invoke the mountains and hills to hide us from the face of the lamb when that Word which we now so fastidiously despise that it must be drest up in the colours of humane Rhetorick to make us at all patient of it and becomes then only tolerable to us when it is farthest removed from being Gods when that word as our Saviour speaks shall judge us and that gracious invitation to life end in that fatal sentence Go ye Cursed Nay when our very Propitiation shall plead against us and the crucified Body of our Saviour which we have in Effigie so often recrucified in our unworthy