may stablish us to day for a People unto himselfe and that we may curse our selves if we doe not walke with God both our selves and ours and woe to him that hath no care to keepe his Oath no wonder he is a begger no wonder his debtors run from him and leave him in the lurch It is a wonder that the earth doth not open her mouth and swallow him up Numb 16.32.33 as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram and all the plagues written from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation Amen fall not upon his soule and body Why you have entred into a curse man and an Oath with the Lord Nehem. 10.29 Neh. 10.29 See how the holy man continued this course how they entred a Covenant there with the Lord as if they should have said The Lord curse this tongue if I speake not graciously the Lord curse this hand if I doe not yeeld obedience to his will and command look to it the curse will dog thee and follow thee if thou break Covenant as it did the Iewes in Nehemiahs time Now when he had returned the people out of captivitie he brought them all before the Lord to enter into a Curse and into an Oath to walke in Gods Law It was a sweet course every soule here stands bound to doe as they did They tooke a solemne Oath what ever they had beene they would now walke in Gods Law Give me your hand brethren or at least let me have your heart in the mean time because that cannot be Are you the servants of God entred into Covenant with the Lord then know you are bound to keepe Covenant by vertue of that Oath and when you are in your Families remember your Oath you are bound hand and foot to the Lord and therefore when you are drawne by any thing to breake Covenant with the Lord thinke thus with your selves What an honest man and lie and forsweare my selfe you have all sworne to the Lord brethren your little ones and all Cursed shall you be in all that you take in hand if you doe not walke precisely and exactly in his Law and Covenant Husbands call upon your wives Husband and Wise and Parents call upon your children when you see them breake Covenant and say Wife or children What shall we bring a Curse upon our selves When you begin to be carelesse of the Sabbath and cold and luke-warme and dull call upon one another and say You know the plague was neere at hand husband at such a time but the Lord kept it from us For Gods sake husband let us take heed that we doe not bring the curse upon our Family No marvell though one runne away with this from us and an other with that and the Lord lay this sicknesse and that affliction upon us What wilt thou be a perjured man for shame keepe thy Oath God will never trust thee else hereafter Now the Lord sweares to us by himselfe Heb. 6.13 because he hath no greater to sweare by It is a sweet thing that the Lord hath bound himselfe by Oath to us to keepe Covenant with us If you have an honest and an able man bound to you for a debt you goe away content you have enough Why we have the Lord in bonds for the fulfilling his part of the Covenant He hath taken a corporall Oath of it that he will doe it and shall we not take the Lords bond and rest content with that Let us now * Heb. 13.22 suffer the words of exhortation with patience and meeknesse O brethren this point concerns us neerely this day Covenants goe farre especially if they be for weighty matters when a man is in Covenant for more then he is worth Thinke of it seriously The first use shall be of Examination Vse 1. If this be so we may have a touch-stone from the forme of Doctrine delivered to discover to us who is the sound professor indeed There are a great many formall professors but few true ones indeed A man can scarce tell who to trust you say for trading I say for living you say for buying and selling I say for professing Would you know whether you are sound at root and not have a name onely to live and yet are dead Rev. 3. vers 1. Revel 3.1 Let him that keeps Covenant that deales squarely you know what that is brethren that keeps touch with the Lord let him be the sincere man he is worthy the name of a Christian There are many fadling patching Christians that are off and on here and there there is no hold of them a man knowes not where to have them that will say faire and bid well but doe nothing in the end Goe you home to your selves see whether you keepe touch with the Lord. You thinke you are bound to keepe covenant in nothing but in your money Rich men thinke all honesty is in paying of money I will not speake of the misery of them that must patch up and down in that fashion and hang on every bush But ô sayes the rich man that is carefull to give every man their due and to keepe his day what times doe we live in a man knows not where to lend to have it againe at his time there is no honest dealing to be found Marke the villany of his heart because he keepe touch with men and is as good as his word O sayes he we live in very ill times and their is scarse a man to be found that one may trust of his word there is such unhonest dealing in all places that there is no hold of mens words But yet oppresses and grindes the face of the poore and looks for his gaine altogether where is your honesty So some that are carefull of the body and give it its due but the soule whines within for mercy mercy that it may have something to refresh it withall but that cannot be heard that is starved the body is fat but the poore soule is leane enough where is your honesty doe you not owe repentance hearing reading and praying to your soules your poore soule crys ô remember me let me have some mercy and forgivenesse sought for me at the hands of the Lord let me have some time imployed for my good But you cannot heare it Is this honesty brethren if a man sterve his servant so that he pine away till he is scarse able to goe and at last come to the grave every one cryes out shame of him But ô brethren the poore soule that is starved but no man cryes shame of that when did the Lord heare of many of you here present Alas never brethren never But when the soule said now pray for helpe against this corruption and for mercy for such a sin now awake out of thy secret worldlinesse you went away and would not heare that you have no leisure nor no time for that but starve your poore soule and the devill he hath
one part of your time and your lusts another Is this honesty brethren This is the man God esteemes as an honest man not a Protestant at large that hath a good purse and is good in his kinde and will deale honestly with men and pay them their due and at their day but he that will pay God and their soule their due too Exod. 19.5 Exod. 19.5 If you will obey my voyce indeed and keepe my covenant then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me If your debtors keepe day with you you will trade with them rather then with any other man Let it be so in your dealings with men but remember that you do it with God Think not to put off the Lord with faire speeches Good words pay no debts Brethren we come here and give the Minister hearing and God a glosing but we walke not according to Gods commandements You give God good words but you goe home and are as unprofitable as vaine and frothy and idle as ever you were If one owe you money and take this day and that day and promise it and not pay it you would not thinke well of this dealing what may the Lord thinke of your hearts when you have made so many promises to him and had so many resolutions to performe your part of the covenant to him but have not yet kept promise with him Good words are good in their kinde God likes them well as it is in Deut. 5.28 29. This people have said well Deut. 5.28 but these are not sufficient we have enough of this sayes the Lord O that there were such an heart in them Vers 19. to doe as they have said There is the point Brethren If we have a debtor that comes oft to us and promiseth us payment but keeps not day we say you give me good words but I cannot pay debts so and keepe my family so Where is my money So Brethren you come and heare cheerefully and pretend that you will doe that you heare Ah but give God his money O that there were such an heart Know what God cals for Good money will he be payd with counters and shews No but currant money of England when the heart is changed the soule turned and the affections moved to what God cals for and that is good equall and righteous and we desire with all our heart to performe it Brethren when you are gotten home call to minde what you have said this day and this covenant which you have entred into with the Lord and say ô Lord that I had such an heart good words are well but ô a heart a heart Lord is that which thou requirest and I would have And it must be alwayes and in all things you must not picke and chuse and say I will not be a drunkard yet be covetous I wonder that you will not game and be drunke and yet gripe the poore O that there were an heart to keepe the commandements of God alwayes 1 Sam. 13.14 Act. 13.22 This is an honest man with God a man after Gods own heart a man of Gods minde as we may say If ever there were a Saint thou art when the Lord sayes O that they had such an heart the heart answers and sayes O Lord that I had such an heart when the Lord sayes O that thou wouldest keep all my commandements O that I could sayes the soule againe This is upright faire dealing indeed currant money your tongue and outward appearance is nothing that sturdy and peevish heart let it be humbled and your untoward and rebellious heart be brought into subjection Tit. 2.9 And you servants not answer your masters againe And you little ones be not sturdy against your parents and disobedient unto their commands Remember the little ones that mocked Elisha 2 King 2. 23 24. O but you will say we cannot doe what we would No it is pitty you should for then some of you would be without sin which cannot be here But doe you indeavour to doe what you can and are you humbled and grieved for that you cannot doe and doe you strive towards perfection and say with David Thou hast commanded that I should keepe thy statutes Psal 119.4 O that I could Lord Vers 5. O that my wayes were directed to keepe thy statutes And doest labour to mend thy pace because thou hast been slow and art cast behind in the way to happinesse and hast lost thy time This is all God requires of thee If one that is in debt to you fall into decay and come to you and say he is not able to pay you your money but he desires you to goe to his house and take whatsoever is there that is worth any thing to satisfie you I appeale to your consciences is he not an honest dealer yes you will not deny it but you will pitty his case and say the Lord may crosse any man and you will be favourable unto him because he shews an honest minde in that he desires every man should have his own to the utmost he can either in money or in money worth So brethren observe what the soul wants in obedience that it may plucke it out in repentance that is the money worth that when the poore sinner finds a dead heart a sluggish indeavour weaknesse in performance and he cannot doe as he should doe yet what he wants in obedience he fetcheth out in repentance step but in at the entry doore or under the wall or under the window and heare how he will breake his heart bewaile his abominations cry out of himselfe and say though much means and grace have been offered me yet good Lord this wretched world that I should dote upon lying vanities Jon. 2.8 so as to forsake mine own mercies Good Lord subdue this earthly mindednesse Good Lord take all away rather then this should take my soule from thee and from happinesse O thus brethren he labours to please the Lord in sorrow and griefe and mourning for the short comings of his payment in obedience He lays load upon himselfe in this case This is an honest heart this is very good pay it is money or money worth he is humbled and ashamed and confounded because he cannot doe what he would In this case he deals squarely he is an honest Christian An honest man if he be cast backe in his estate he will intreat Libertie of his creditors and resolve and promise them too that if ever God make him able his family shall not gaine by it but he will pay them to the utmost farthing so is it with an honest heart brethren I looke not that a man should not have temptations and corruptions and that sometime prevailing over him but this thou must have and thus thou beg earnestly of the Lord godly sorrow and griefe of heart for thy failings and that he would recover thy * Psal 39.13 strength before thou goe from hence and be
for the Bookes and for Conscience Gods Auditor and the keeper of his accounts and aske that Whether you make conscience of private prayer and humbling your soul in secret Whether you make conscience of your stubbornesse to your husband of your peevishnesse and untowardnesse Whether you be a Covenant-keeper and whether you did ever performe that God hath required of you he hath required much of you that you should pray read be sober humble neeke dutifull to your husband But you have been right froward undutifull way-ward why did you pay this debt to the Lord then The conscience will say No Lord I urged him to it and said Now get alone * Isa 26.16 and powre out a prayer to the Lord now goe and read and meditate on the word of God and I told him Lord when he began to be so eager of the world now you will be covetous and worldly but he would not heare me he promised me Lord he would leave it and would doe so no more and he would take up this duty and that duty and put me off this time and another time but he never did it Then you see the case cleere for you never kept day you have a shew of godlinesse 2 Tim. 3.5 but where is the power of it The power is to subdue inward lusts secret corruptions base thoughts that rise in the minde This is not to be found in the most therefore they are but Hypocrites and false hearted At last when the case is so cleare by the Booke of the servant this bad debttor doth confesse it and saith It was a hard time and it was but little if you had had it I thought it could doe you no great good I hoped you would have borrowed it if you had had any great need of it So many a crused hypocrite confesses the conversation is good and the course is holy which he should take and which God requires of him but I feared the losse of my libertie of my ease or my honor and credite if I had done it I feared I should have suffered for it and it was but this I hope it was not such a matter Is this honestie when God and the Gospel call for truth and for sinceritie you put off and say This is no great matte you hope there are worse matters then so in the world Thou art no upright God will have the utmost farthing Mat. 5.26 there is truth in a penny He that will not suffer in one kinde I will never beleeve he will suffer in another But you will say What if a man be covetous he hurts none it is his owne that he holds so fast he is but close fisted a little I hope this is not such a matter This is a great sinne brethren in such a place as this is what not keepe touch here that mans sinne that lives under the Gospel is the greatest sin of all of more weight then the sinnes of any besides and therefore looke to it brethren If a man forfeit a Bond of twenty pound or forty pound perhaps he may recover it but if of forty thousand pound we say it will crush the greatest Merchant in the Land and breake his back An hypocrite a false-hearted one in the place where the Gospel is it is a heinous foule sinne it will sinke him deepe A drunkard where the Gospel is not and an adulterer where the Gospel is not shall goe to hell they shall all perish without repentance But he that lives under the means ye is covetous loose proud vaine oppressing and griping of his poore brethren worldly or the like that Bond will break thy backe it is an hundred thousand pound Bond. Take heede brethren a man that runs in arerages with the Lord here it will be heavy for him Mat. 11.23 And thou Capernaum which wert lifted up to heaven shalt be cast downe to hell Some live at great rents A Dedham man God will not have him have a stomacke onely to a good duty and now and then to pray or to reade or conferre but he requires great debts of him A Dedham drunkard or hypocrite carelesse carnall Gospeller or covetous one the devils will rejoyce for him when he comes to hell they will make Bonefires and make it holiday for him stand upon their tiptoes to look on him and say What are you come hither after all Prayers and Sermons and Sacraments and Admonitions and so many labors of Gods servants that have worne out their lives to keepe you from hence This Bond will breake your backe brethren an hundred thousand millions worth of exhortations you have had and you owe the Lord for them all stil you have paid him nothing for them yet you are not one whit the better for them What shall become of you the Lord will set a thousand devils to torment you when you drop into the pit specially ancient men woe to your soules if once God lay hold of you If a man that is in debt for I know not how many Bonds be arrested but upon one it will cast him into prison but then if after that comes another and another in upon him it will goe very hard with him He plaid fast and loose and faire and farre off all this while but now one hath clapt a Writ upon his backe comes another and arrests him for an hundred pound at such a mans suite and another arrests him for an hundred pound at such a mans suite O thinke of this your reckonings will be fearfull when God casts you on your sicke bed and death comes to fetch away your soules and you are going to the chaines of darknesse then there will come in one Bond after another upon you one inditement after another against you Item for the sinnes of your youth your disobedience and stubbornesse to Parents and Governours when a childe Item for following your profits and pleasures and minding nothing else when you were a young man Item for your worldlinesse since you were an old man One Bond after another the Lord will lay upon you You would thinke such a man that hath so many Bonds come upon him in a hard case quite undone and that there is no recovery for him out of prison but there he must lie till some part of him rot off perhaps and till he die in the Jayle O how you would pitie such a mans case and how you would be grieved for him But O brethren you that are husbands or wives or parents when you see your children or your husbands arrested by God not to goe to an earthly Jayle but to goe to hell for ever O how should it grieve your soules for such a one how should you pitie such and desire the Lord while there is helpe and hope to shew mercy upon them Thus you see these three sorts are cashiered for not being sound and the Lord be mercifull unto us Vse 1. what a few are there besides these Thinke of
this cary it home with you and examining your selves know the Lord will have sinceritie from you Secondly it is a word of consolation Vse 2. this is a marvellous comfort to those that love and feare the Lord all you whose hearts answer It is thus with you lift up your heads with joy for this will uphold you and make you * Luk. 21.28 lift up your heads with comfort in all your troubles and in the day of the Lord When your redemption draweth nigh Isa 3.10 Isa 3.10 say It shall goe well with the godly I say to that man what ever come it shall goe well with him We use to say without doubt without danger A man that owes nothing he cares not for any Pursevant or Sergeant or Baily he feares them not for he knowes they have nothing to doe with him This is a marvellous comfort to him so it ought to be to a sincere heart that hath paid his debt to God when trouble seises upon him you know what Hezekiah said 2 King 20.3 Good Lord remember how I have walked before thee with an upright heart Isa 38.3 If a man be arrested upon a false ground the Law will baile him there is no Law against him Thinke of that brethren Gal. 5.21 Galat. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith * Vers 23. meekenesse temperance against such there is no Law There is no Law to punish or condemne them or accuse them Therefore blessed are your soules that are sincere and upright in heart conversation alwaies to all Gods Commandements in publique in private in ordinarie times and extraordinarie there is no law against you whatsoever Satan or the world say against you there is no law in the Booke of God to condemne you Psal 119.6 Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandements In the times of all dangers and of all miseries which are like to seise upon us soone if the Land should be over-run and friends and means faile here is comfort to every faithfull soule Psal 103.15 All flesh is grasse * Psal 103.15 the winde passeth over it Vers 16. and it is gone Vers 17. ver 17. but the loving kindnesse of the Lord endures for ever and ever Upon whom brethren Vpon them that feare him and thinke upon his covenants to doe them Marke how he sustaines himselfe life goe friends goe meanes goe all flesh is grasse Vers 15. the winde passeth over it and it is gone meanes are gone how then brethren vers 17. Vers 17. But the goodnesse of the Lord endures for ever and ever Though Libertie be gone the Spirit of the Lord endures though means be gone the mercy of God endures Psal 136. all though friends be gone the favour of the Lord endures The loving kindnesse of the Lord endures for ever Upon whom upon them that feare him and thinke upon his Covenants to doe them Though a poore soule fare meanly and live hardly all helps gone the Winde hath passed over them and libertie is gone honour is gone life is going nothing endures yet lift up thy soule in sicknesse and say My health is gone my strength is gone my life is going but the loving kindnesse of the Lord endures for ever Vers 18. upon every soule that keepes his Commandements and thinks upon his Covenants to doe them Lastly for a word of exhortation Vse 4. Is the Commandement of God his Covenant and is the keeping of that the way to obtaine mercy and happinesse here and for ever then goe away if you will and be dishonest still and breake Covenant with the Lord. The very name of dishonestie me thinks should move you brethren to be faithfull in your Covenant and to set on speedily and to be exceeding watchfull and carefull and to performe what you have promised to the Lord. Reason should move you What not keepe Covenant especially with the Lord What shall we make promises to the Lord and enter into Covenant with him and not keep it Let it for shame never be said of us brethren Marke what David saith Psal 119 11. I have hid thy Commandements in my heart that I might not sinne against thee His minde ran of them and his tongue talked of them continually Amongst men brethren you would not have your credit cracked for any thing and you doe honestly A good name is a Jewell But doe thus with the Lord brethren Hath not the Lord kept touch with you in all his promises Did you ever beg any thing of him and he not heare you Why doe you not keepe touch with the Lord Shame your selves for this I beseech you Men in the world if they breake in their estates they have this love and humanitie in them that if any lose then it shall be they that did deale most hardly with them and that got most by them when they were in trading but this kinde friend that was kinde to him and lent him monie sometime in his need he shall not lose a penny by him O saith he I had a friend of him I could never come to him but he would receive me This is honestie and faire and equall O consider of this brethren we have hard bargains at the hands of the world and of the devill and sinne many knocks of soule and girds of conscience with them But the Lord hath beene ever gracious mercifull loving and kinde to us resolve therefore that the Lord shall never lose by you let the world lose if it will and let carnall friends and sinne and Satan lose if they will Let not the Lord lose but resolve what ever becomes of it I will pray constantly and reade in my family morning and evening and upon every occasion and reforme my waies It is not needfull that I should be rich it is that I be sincere and faithfull to the Lord I will labour for a good conscience and endevour to walke with God FINIS Imprimatur Ja. Cranford