was affected with true evangelical sorrow for sin but on the contrary can commit sin with delight rolling it as a sweet morsel under their tongue which they will not part withall they must needs perish everlastingly if they should die in this estate the word is express that iniquity will be the ruine of the impenitent Ezek. 18. 30. 4. Vnregenerate persons are not in a state of salvation Joh. 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Such as never had a gracious change wrought in their hearts that are asleep in sin and never were awakened as are dead in sin and never were quickened such as have old natures and old hearts and never were renewed that never put off as concerning their former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts and put on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4. 22 24. they are uncapable whilest such of this salvation there is no entrance for them into the Kingdom of Heaven 5. Christless persons are not in a state of salvation 2 Cor. 13. 5. Know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates Such as have not Christ and are not themselves in Christ they are for the present in a state of Reprobation It is Christ only can save those that are without Christ that are not united to him by Faith and the Spirit that are Unbelievers without Faith and carnal without the Spirit they cannot whilest such be saved 6. Vnsanctified persons are not in a state of salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness none shall see God Such as are unholy such as live after the flesh shall die none but those that through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live Rom. 8. 13. 7. And in a word Disobedient persons are not in a state of salvation Heb. 5. 9. He became the author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him to none else and Eph. 5. 6. The wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience Such as walk in a course of disobedience as live and allow themselves in the practice of known sins whatever they be they are children of wrath because children of disobedience The Scriptures are so plain that I need without many words of mine only lay them before you as a Glass wherein you may discern your spiritual state Try your selves by these places these Texts will reach all that are not in a state of salvation CHAP. II. II. THE second words shall be to move you to endeavour after your Salvation The Motives to stir up you to endeavour your salvation may be drawn 1. From the consideration of your selves Whom you should endeavour the salvation of 2. From the consideration of the salvation which you should endeavour to obtain 3. From the consideration of the Damnation of all such as do not obtain salvation Motive 1. From the consideration of your selves whom you should endeavour the salvation of It is the salvation of your selves which I would press you unto It was the exhortation of the Apostle Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and this is my exhortation of you this day Labour after your own salvation If I were to perswade you to do some great kindness for another were it a difficult thing and like to cost you much labour and trouble I should not likely prevail but when I am perswading you to do a kindness for your selves and the greatest kindness in the World even to endeavour after the salvation of your selves methinks the natural Love which you bear to your selves should induce you to hearken and do whatever is requisite in order hereunto though it cannot be done without difficulty and trouble How far will carnal self-love carry carnal men what difficulties will they go thorow what expences of time and pains and strength will they be at how will some rise up early and sit up late deny themselves food and rest and many comforts of this life how will others compass Sea and Land and hazzard life it self and all to get an estate in the world for themselves and should not spiritual self-love which is the only reall self-love carry you thorow difficulties should you think much of exspending time and pains that you may get salvation for your selves carnal self-love will bring destruction and misery upon such as are swayed by it and in the issue will prove self-hatred as you really love your selves as you would escape the most dreadful misery and obtain the chiefest happiness for your selves labour after salvation for your selves Your self your Persons do consist of two parts namely Soul and Body it is the salvation of both which I exhort you unto 1. Consider it is the salvation of your Souls which I would have you endeavour after the salvation of your precious souls your souls are more precious than your bodies and they are more precious than the whole world 1. Your souls are more precious than your bodies they are by far your more excellent part the original of your soul is more immediately from God he formeth the spirit of man within him Zach. 12. 1. they are beams they are streams that issue forth immediately from God moreover they carry more of the impress and image of God upon them as they are invisible spiritual rational free immortal they have also more high and excellent operations than the body is capable of as of the understanding conscience memory will affections and I may add that if there be any lustre upon the body it doth receive it from the soul when the soul is gone the beauty is gone whatever motion or use there is in the body it doth depend on the soul when the soul is departed the body can neither hear nor speak nor see nor walk nor do any business the body is a rotten stinking carkass without the soul and whilest the soul doth abide in it the body is the inferiour part the body is but the Cabinet the soul is the Jewel the body is but the house of clay the soul is the living inhabitant the body is as it were the beast as one saith Corpus homini jumentum which the soul doth make use of to carry it from one place to another the body is the servant it is the soul that rules O labour then after the salvation of your souls which are your most excellent part what care do some take to preserve their bodies much more reason have you to endeavour the salvation of your souls when London's Fire was burning the houses those who could not save all their goods took care to save those which were the most precious especially their money and jewells O whatever become of your bodies here whatever sickness or hardship they be exposed unto labour to save your jewels your precious souls the Cabinet will be spoilt the clay and mudd-wall will be broken down and
that hath called you is holy so you must be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1. 15. you must live soberly righteously and godly in this present world soberly in regard of your selves righteously in regard of others and godly in regard of the Lord. 1. Soberly in regard of your selves which implyes 1. Temperance in eating and drinking you must take heed of Gluttony and Drunkenness 2. Chastity you must take heed of Adultery and Uncleanness in thought speech look and act 3. Moderation you must be sober in your desires after these earthly things and take heed of inordinate affection to any thing 2 You must live Righteously in regard of others You must give to every one their due and do to others as you reasonably can desire that they should do unto you you must take heed of unrighteousness either in regard of Commutative Justice in your buying and selling borrowing and lending and in regard of Distributative Justice in dispensing of rewards and punishments you must beware of oppressing afflicting injuring any of going beyond or defrauding any of withholding dues keeping back wages from those that have done you service knowing that if they cannot God will be the avenger of all such 3. You must live godly in regard of the Lord you must especially shew your New Life in the immediate Worship of the Lord and that publickly in his House privately in your Families secretly in your Closets you must worship God in the Ordinances of his own appointment and this you must do with reverence having an awe and dread of God upon your spirits with whom you have more immediately to do with sincerity having a sincere respect to Gods glory therein and that you might be accepted by him and meet with him with vigilancy watching the fittest time in regard of the thing and the temper of your Bodies and Souls and the breathings of Gods Spirit with humility sensible of your sinfulness unworthiness weakness emptiness neediness with diligence before to prepare your hearts and in Ordinances to engage them and resist the Devil and the contrary workings of the flesh with frequency laying hold on all the opportunities as you can without neglecting other businesses which for that time you may be more necessarily called unto with servency getting your hearts if you can raised and enlarged labouring that they may burn within you with love to God with delight and complacency in God and above all with Faith in Jesus Christ through whom alone it is that you can have strength to perform duties and that you can have any acceptance in them by the Father Direction 7. You must resolve upon sufferings for Christ if called if you would be saved you must bear the Cross if you would wear the Crown remembring that if the Cross be weighty it will work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. you must reckon upon sufferings for Christ before hand and resolve that you will stick to him and his wayes though you should lose esteem by it and become the Drunkards Song and be reproached amongst men though you lose liberty by it and be thrust into Prison though you should lose Estate by it and be brought to pinching want though you should lose Friends by it and have none to stand by you though you should lose Life by it and be cut off in the midst of your years otherwise you cannot be Christs Disciples indeed and obtain this salvation which he hath purchased See the terms which our Saviour propounds Luk. 14. 26 27. If any man come unto me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life he cannot be my Disciple This we are to understand that a man must choose to displease Father Mother Wife Children the nearest and dearest Relations and part with any thing in the world yea with Life it self rather than to displease and part with Jesus Christ and that we must resolve to bear the Cross whatever it be that God hath allotted for us otherwise we do not accept of Christ upon Gospel-terms you must resolve to be partakers of the affliction of the Gospel if you would obtain the salvation of the Gospel you must resolve to suffer with Christ and for his sake when called if you would reign and be glorified together with him Whatever profession you make of Christ and his wayes in time of peace and prosperity when the Sun of persecution doth arise upon you with burning heat you will wither and fall away and turn fearfull Apostates and then your last estate will be worse than your first and as your sin will be greater here so your punishment will be more dreadfull hereafter in Hell where you will confess that the light sufferings which you have declined for Christs sake here are not worthy to be compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of wrath which you must endure for your Apostacy unto all eternity Direct 8. You must study and apply the Promises of the Covenant of grace if you would be saved without the Covenant of grace there had been no possible salvation for any of the fallen Children of Men the Covenant of Works which God made with Man at the first being broken by sin it doth condemn all that are under it it is by vertue of the Covenant of Grace that any are brought into a state of salvation therefore study and apply the Promises of this Covenant Now you must know that all the Promises of the Gospel which are scattered up and down the Scripture do belong unto this Covenant but I shall spread before you those few more general Promises which the Apostle doth make mention of where he treats of the New Covenant Heb. 8. 10 11 12. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes into their minde and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People and they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest for I will be mercifull unto their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Here are Four great Promises which the Lord hath made to his People which I shall explain though not in the order of the Text that you may the better understand and apply them 1. God promiseth that he will be to them a God and they shall be to him a People this includes all the rest It is a full and sweet promise that God will be our God it hath a great deal more in it than we can conceive we may look and look again and though our Faith have never so piercing an eye never so large and deep reach yet we cannot look to the bottom and fathom the
accepting of this near and sweet Relation which he calleth me unto I joyn and espouse my self unto the Lord Jesus and do promise to be for him only and with full purpose of heart to cleave unto him to love honour and serve him never to deny nor leave him whatever reproaches and distresses I may meet withall for his sake though Persecution should arise and that even unto death I do promise to own his Name and Cause and Truths and Wayes so long as I have breath in my Body But knowing that I am utterly insufficient to do any of these things in my own strength therefore upon the knees of my Soul I earnestly beseech that I may have strength for all these from himself alone Further because God my Father is invisible to the eye of sense and incomprehensible by the grasp of Reason and because my dearest Lord Jesus Christ who alone hath declared him in regard of his bodily presence is now in Heaven absent from his people and because whatever spiritual light or life grace comfort or spiritual communion with the Father and with his Son is vouchsafed unto the people of God it is by the Holy Spirit who is appointed by Office hereunto and graciously promised unto them in the Word Therefore I avouch and choose the Holy Ghost to be my Teacher and Guide to be my Sanctifier and Comforter to help my infirmities in duties to strengthen me with might in my inner man against sin and Satans Temptations to cleanse me from all filthiness of flesh and spirit to heal me of all my spiritual distempers to revive me under all my faintings to supply me with all Graces as to kinde and measure as shall be needfull for me in my place and work to testifie Gods love to my Soul to give me earnests of Glory and to seal me up unto the day of Redemption And O that I might have the presence and abode of the Spirit of God with me and never grieve quench resist and drive away the Spirit any more Also because the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God endited by the Holy Ghost the Epistle of Jesus Christ wherein he hath given notice of his love and will because they are the only sufficient and in themselves a perfect Rule for Faith and a holy Life and 〈◊〉 fully do declare the way and means unto everlasting happiness Therefore I choose the Word of God to be the Rule of my Faith and Life and the Ordinances of God therein prescribed to be the means of my acquaintance and converse with my God so far as I am capable of and he shall vouchsafe and to be the means also of preparing of me for the full and perfect enjoyment of him beyond my present capacity And because the Ordinances are but dark glasses to see the Lord in because ignorance and unbelief do exceedingly vail God from mine eyes flesh and corruption do damp my love to God and my spiritual Joy in him and interrupt my communion with him because of the sins sorrows temptations and afflictions which I cannot be wholly free from and therefore cannot be perfectly happy here in this World and having life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel a discovery and promise of eternal Life made unto me in the Word and withall a command of my Lord to lay up my Treasure in Heaven Therefore I choose Heaven for my Treasure and Inheritance for ever to live there in the company of all the holy Angels and Saints in the blessed sight love and enjoyment of the infinitely blessed God to see and share in the glory of my Dearest Lord Jesus Christ whither I hope my Soul shall be transported by the Angels so soon as it is separated from my Body and that my vile Body when awakened and raised in the Morning of Christs coming shall be fashioned like unto Christs most beautifull and glorious Body and both inherit the Kingdom prepared and promised by my Father Lastly being perswaded of my Duty and encouraged by Gods promise of assistance and acceptance I now dedicate and deliver up my self fully freely and for ever unto the Lord I yield and resign up my Soul with all its powers and faculties my Body with all its senses and members to be the instruments of righteousness unto God I resign up my Minde to think upon the Lord and those things which concern his Interest and Glory to receive embrace and maintain his Truths I resign up my Memory to be a store-house and receptacle chiefly of the great things which do belong to his Kingdom and other things of a more inferiour rank as they may have a reference unto his Glory I resign up my Conscience to receive light and purity from his Word and Spirit and desire that it may act faithfully as the Lords Deputy I resign up my Will unto the Will of God to submit to his Precepts to embrace his Promises to oppose what he hath forbidden to comply with all the dispensations of his Providence towards me to be willing that I should be and do and bear and choose and lose what God would have me I resign up my Heart and Affections to fear and reverence the Lord to believe and trust in the Lord to desire and seek after the Lord to love and delight in the Lord and desire to put them all under his Government and to have them exercised according to his will I resign up my Fancy to be governed and employed by my Reason in the service of my Master I resign up my Sensual Appetite after meat and drink sleep and any pleasures to be subservient to my Rational Appetite and no further to have satisfacton than will tend to the glory of the Lord. I resign up my Hands to work for God my Feet to walk for God my Ears to hear for God my Eyes to see for God my Tongue to speak for God I resign up all my Graces all my Gifts all my Talents to be used for the Glory of my Lord and Master and my whole Man to be ruled and governed by his Laws Promising though my Flesh do contradict and rebell that I will endeavour to order my whole conversation according to his Word humbly looking up to him for strength so to doe that I may be enabled by him to every duty And now I look upon my self no longer my own or that any thing I have is at my own dispose but I wholly belong unto the Lord And therefore blessing and praising and giving thanks unto the Lord for vouchsafing to enter into Covenant with me and enclining my heart to enter into Covenant with him Bending my neck under the feet of the most glorious Jehovah I subscribe my self Witness my Hand and Seal The devoted Servant of the Lord A. B. Direct 10. You must be stedfast and persevere in the wayes of God unto your lives end if you would be saved And here you must be stedfast 1. In the wayes of Truth 2. In