with God by deferring and deferring And hereby many mischiefs attend The World that Pest of Souls and Graces is admitted before we have got our Antidotes against the Infection of it Hence deadness of heart ensues multitudes of worldly distractions so that after a few hours the Soul hath no mind at all to speak with God but though it must to the Closet yet there is it pestered with wandring thoughts discontented thoughts worldly thoughts so that the time which should be spent in pure Communion with God is taken up in driving these Fowls from the Sacrifice Besides God is an holy God and jealous for his Name and he esteemeth it a reflection on him to be so neglected that he must be served last of all and therefore withholds his influences from the Soul to condemn such salocy abuses of his great Name and then no wonder if thou be soon overcome with a world of vain impertinent cogitations By neglect of early going into your Closets you credit the World too much as if it were more worthy of your time and strength than the Lord is Whereas you should profess that all your hours are Gods and therefore you dare not Prov. 3.9 but honour him with the first Fruits of all your increase you will thereby sanctifie all the Harvest all the Vintage by presenting God with the green Eares By neglect of your Mornings you hint to other Observers as if you were not First to seek God and his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof You neglect the sittest season for then the mercies of the night are freshest smell sweetest which after a while like Flowers will lose their scent with us Whilst the Iron is hot it is our wisdome to strike His Mercies are renewed every Morning so should our Praises By entring on business without calling on God you declare you need not the Lords assistances and that you depend not on him for every thing but can make a snift to live without him Whereas God feeds us from hand to mouth and hath not left any stores with us that we may make our addressments to him night and day who must water us every moment Poor Souls did you but see your dangers by reason of the three great Brigades of Enemies the World the Flesh the Devil you would not be so fool-hardy to venture abroad untill you have beseeched God to help poor needy indigent Creatures Remember You want as soon as you wake and those things you want as none but a God can supply you You need Divine Power to follow your Callings By neglecting this season the Devil and the World have often made you forget or omit the Duty for the day You have no leisure in the Morning and what then the Devil fills thy hand with unexpected business that the excuse grows stronger and more plausible But must we serve the Slave and neglect the Lord of glory By omitting this hour you are the unfitter for Family-worship were the Instrument tuned before it would be the fitter to play in consort But oh what hazards dost thou run not only by preferring other things and business before God but by neglecting the first hour of the day when thou art not sure of a second Thou purposest such an hour to pray but what is thy Life save a Vapour which may expire before that hour CHAP. XIV The miscarriages of Praying Professours about Prayer 7l Praying Professors miscarriages THere is not only Ungodliness in not Praying Prayerless Souls worshipping God no more than Beasts an Oxe or an Asse c. but in Praying amiss And O! how many wayes do Professours fail in and about this Duty both before and in and after First before the Dury How do Professours fail before their entrance upon this Duty of Prayer 1. Neglecting Meditation Psa 5.1 of God By neglect of Meditation Few can say Consider my Meditation Have not we rush'd upon this Duty before we have meditated of the God we were approaching to What an holy God he is and how unworthy we are to take his Name into our mouths What a consuming fire he is and what dry stubble we are Have not we rush'd into Gods Presence his Holiness Omnisciency Heb. 4.13 as the Horse rusheth into the battel Have we considered that his eyes are piercing as flames of fire That all things are naked and open as it were dissected before him with whom we have to do We have not set God before our eyes neither have we believed that he is as certainly an Observer of us as we are with our selves Our thoughts would not be so low so earthly so distracted did we believingly consider into whose Presence we are coming Have we considered Gods Almightiness Omnipotency That He can do more for us than we can ask or think He that cometh to God in Prayer should believe that God is 1 Sam. 15.29 that He is the Strength of Israel that what we are to beg of God Pardon of Sin Victories over our Lusts c. are Mercies beyond the Creatures power to reach forth to us but the Lords arm is not shortened that he cannot help Have we meditated on Gods bounty Gods goodness and grace pity and tender compassions As one more ready to give than we to ask as one who giveth liberally and upbraids not with our oft comming We want vast thoughts of the great goodness and mercy of God we have base beggerly thoughts of God as if we should trespass too much upon him and weary him by coming to oft to his door Have we mused upon the Faithfulness of God his Faithfulness Who is under engagements to relieve us to ease us to be found of us when we seek him with our whole hearts 1 John 5.14 And this is the considence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Have we meditated of the Way of the Way unto God Odi Deum absolutum Luth. by whom we must come to God How daring are Souls to venture on an absolute God How is the new and consecrated Way neglected How is Christ laid by as if there were no need of a Mediatour of an Advocate with the Father How seldome do we pass through Gâ—lgotha to the heavenly Jerusalem and see that none can come to the Father but by the Son We see not our need of Incense and Odours to be mingled with our Sacrifices Revel 8.3 4. little do we consider that the Opportunity of speaking with God is the price of blood of the precious blood of the Son of God Have we meditated of our Sins of their Sins of those to which we are by nature and custome mostly addicted and of those with which we have since the last Duty polluted our Souls From the want of Meditation hereof ariseth formality in Duties the heart is not humbled in Confession neither is the Soul importunate with the Lord for pardon
sentence of death thus to employ his Pen when he cannot his Tongue for the good of thy Soul Every particular Chapter will if God add his blessing prove a compleat Soul-saving Treatise I shall add no more to perswade thee to Come and see but this that nothing but unwillingness to see what is here to be seen and unperswadableness to make such improvement of such Sights can make thy Case desperate Be sure only Before In and After thy serious perusal of these Chapters of so much worth that thou beg earnestly of God that he would be pleased with some of his Sons Eye-salve to open thine eyes that thou mayest see and by his Spirit move so upon thy spirit that thine eye may suitably affect thine heart with what so much tends to the promoting of thine eternal welfare The Sins of Professours CHAP. I. Their regardlesseness of Souls 1. HOw Careless are we of our own Souls 1. Ignorance of their preciousness O how few do believe they are men having bodies that must dye but Souls that will never dye How few do believe that their bodies were given them to be serviceable to their Souls Their heads their hearts their eyes their ears their hands their feet c. were all to attend upon their souls and to help them to Heaven But this is not believed by many As they are ignorant of the blessed God who made them and of Jesus Christ who came to redeem them and know not whether there be an Holy-Ghost or no So they are ignorant of the preciousness of their Souls Christ hath not given them eyes to read and understand that a man is not cannot be profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul Christ's questions what will it profit a man c. What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Matth. 16.26 Put it out of all question Alas many who carry the name of Christians deserve not the name of men When you begin to value your Souls you begin to be men Oh that men would value that which once they shall they must value The damned Spirits know now the worth of their Souls How many will not 2. Inconsiderateness How few consider the worth and preciousness of their Souls When do such thoughts as these possesse you Here in this earthly tabernacle in this house of booths dwells a thing that I never said that is worth a world though here I crawl up and down like a worm of two or three Cubits long and am in danger to be thrown into an hole every day yet I carry with me a Jewell the loss whereof the whole world cannot repair How seldome do nominal Professours consider sadly and seriously what will become of their souls when their excellency Job 4 21. which is in them shall go or journey away as Eliphaz speaks Examine your thoughts all the day long from morning to Evening and few are laid out for the Soul 3. Caring â—â—â—e for the body â—han the 〈◊〉 Are not all the thoughts and cares laid out upon the body though the body be but clay and the soul is a spirit the body must dye but the soul shall never dye How frequently do we think of our â—odies what their wants burthens necessities are but not so of our souls How much of every day is spent in providing for thy body but how little for thy souâ— The body should be but the soul's servant yet men feed the slave and starve the child The body must be fed every day clad every day yea adorned every day and â—hysick'd if distempered but the soul needs food rayment phyâ—ck continually yet lyeth unregarâ—ed is left miserable naked starved c. A servant hath two talents to keep the child and the child's cloaths will the Master thank the servant if he plead I have kept the cloaths but I have neglected the life of the child Thy body is but thy souls outward garment How often have your Ministers told you that the soul was better than the body and that your souls needed dayly care more than your bodies and yet you look after the one with the neglect of the other A day is coming when thou wilt wish thou hadst been bred in the Field among the beasts and worms for that thou regardest thy soul no more than if thou hadst but the life of a beast thou wilt wish thou hadst been made a toad a serpent a worm a dog a swine c. for then thou shouldst not have suffered to eternity as now thou wilt unless the eyes of thy understanding be opened to see consider and make provision for thy precious but perishing soul Thy body is perishing every day and thy soul is upon the borders of eternity it must live for ever and yet all thy care is for the body which likely will not live threescore years and ten but the soul is neglected that must live threescore millions of years in hell without repentance and then when that date is over thou art as far from the end of thy misery as thou wast the first day thou wast thrown among the damned 4. Strangeness towards our souls How many will not speak with their souls They are greater strangers to them than the Londoners are to their next Neighbours Didst thou ever ask thy soul such questions O my soul how is it how will it be with thee O my soul in what state art thou O my soul what will become of thee O! what will become of thee in the next world 5. Niggardlyness towards our souls At what cost were we any time for our jeoparded souls The Physitian is consulted with if there be an ache upon the body we will with the woman part with all beggar our selves to recover health of body When did you know a man starve himself if he could have bread and water what ever it cost We will be at any expence of time labour and charges to keep our bodies from starving but how are the Ordinances of God the Word and Sacraments the spiritual food of the soul neglected The flesh must be satisfied as for the soul there is little regard to its well-being 1 Pet. 2 2. We cannot endure to see a Cat a Dog a Beast want meat but how easily do many digest the want of that milk whereby they should be maintained and grow God saith one gives to these their requests he gives them quailes but sends leanness into their souls 6. How fearless are many of soul-losses Fearlessness of souls losses how common is it for people to draw back from the service of Christ O! what is the matter I shall lose my estate liberty pay such a fine c. They little consider what their souls will lose if they do not persevere if they live not up their light Professours pardon me that I miscall you though you are blind and mad and see not the worth of your souls yet know that
your souls are the most considerable Jewels you stand possessed of All the world will not weigh with one soul Thy money may ransome thy body nothing save Christs blood thy soul Pause a while Reader and reflect on all thy sinfull neglects of thy immortal Soul lest on thy death-bed thou shriek and cry O my soul whether art thou going 2. Carelessness of others souls How little are the souls of others valued and cared for how many masters are there that care no more for their servants souls than for the dogs nay not so much Perhaps some of you are carefull that the bodies of your families be cloathed be fed c. but the souls lie unprovided for Soul-poysoners not censured as they ought to be Make nothing to lay poyson for souls more care is taken for the pigs than for the souls 1. How do we justly censure them as worthy of Capital punishments that murther the bodies of men but not so others who poyson and destroy thousands of souls How do you hate to have an hand in murthering the bodies of any to lay poyson for the destruction of any and yet how commonly do men lay the poyson of ill councell and ill example before others to cause them to fall into the pit of hell and are not affected with this great evil 2. Not troubled at soul-murtherers How troubled are we at any that kill bodies or that murther others but not so at the millions that destroy their own and others souls that have an hand in ruining in damning themselves and others 3. If any neglect means that might have continued the life of their husbands children c. how are they dejected how do the wring their hands and beat their breasts whereas if by carelessness if by the neglect of their duties if by evil example they have destroyed their souls they are not troubled about these matters 4. Low esteems of those that prize their souls How do you account meanly of all that take pains for their souls that wait at the pools of Bethesda that consult Ministers and books and attend on the Ordinances for their souls whilst you account it your wisdome to lay out the most if not all of your time for your bodies Hast thou the name of a Christian I pray God to let one word to sink into thine heart thou hast not Christ thou hast not the Spirit of Christ in thee he knows how to value souls and therefore shed blood for them and sends his Spirit in the Gospel to be importunate for their salvation CHAP. II. Their want of saving Conviction and Compunction HOw many Professours like Paul Alive without the Law Rom 7.9 Rev. 3.1 are alive without the Law How many like Sardis have a name to live imagine they are alive when they are dead How many are alive in their own conceit and perhaps in the conceit of others and yet are void of the true super-natural life How many are contented with their being baptized They see no need of Christ they were born of Christian Parents Luke 3.3 they are of the stock of Abraham We have Abraham to our Father They do not consider how many baptized persons are deadly enemies to Christ and to their souls and averse to the wayes of holiness they will not consider that Swearers Drunkards and Adulterers have as good claimes to Christ and heaven as these have How many also please themselves with the Religion of Education God hath not moulded their hearts though Parents their lives their Parents have taught them some Principles of Religion but they are strangers to the wonderful operations and teachings of the Holy Ghost they have not the Unction from above they know not what it is that teacheth all things and yet such as these are alive i. e. merry jocund jovial confident if any goe to heaven they shall be of the number But to speak more particularly First Few convinced of original sin imputed How many are there that were never convinced of original sin imputed or imparted 1. How few are convinced that Adam was a common person and that we sinned in his loynes that if he had stood we had stood and that it is just with God that he ship wracking himself we should be counted sinners in him We did eat of the forbidden fruit in Adam we in Adam believed the Devil rather thaâ— God we in Adam broke with God for toyes and trifles we were ungrateful disobedient in him we apostâ—tized in him and broke covenant with God in him hence by one mans offence sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sin for that as Levi paid tithes in Abraham so we becâ—me rebells against the Majesty of Heaven in our first Parents when did you shed a tear for Adam's sin for your and his grand provocation 2. Few convinced of original sin inherent Psal 5.9 How few see Adam 's sinful nature imparted to them They see not their inward part is very wickedness nothing but wickedness Few see what a sad Apostacy from the perfection of mans nature Sin hath brought into the world and how black an Image of Sathan it hath drawn upon the soul they never saw what filthy dirty loathsome things they are in the eyes of God they never saw their noysomeness and venome the garbage and malignity of their hearts How few see a general defect of all righteousness and holiness wherein at first they were created How few are convinced of an antipathy to all that is good That they are haters of God by nature Eph. 2.1 that they are dead in trespasses and sins a more dreadful estate than if they were rotting in their graves that they have an Ocean of corruption within them that will never be dried up in this life that they have a worse Leprosie than that among the Jewes which got into the walls and would never out till the house was demolished who almost thinks so sadly of themselves They bless God their hearts are good though they be the worst of men pray not slight Ordinances closet duties and family worship lies neglected yet the Devil perswades them all is well their hearts are good though the heart of man by nature be like hell it self whose fire of lust is unquenchable though it be like Peter's great sheet which he saw in the Vision full of all unclean things Acts 11.6 though it be a receptacle of all impiety yet how few turn their eyes inward to see their natural deformities Alass All the venome the Snake sends forth is nothing to the poyson that lies in its nature And all those monstrous impieties which the lives of men are taunted with are not to be compared with the venome that lurks in the heart of every man by nature Men would not glory in their blood and descent did they but believe how sin descended and was conveyed Men could not content themselves to walk heavily under some actual
work-house That he possesseth the heart of every unregenerate man The strong man keeps the house and so all is quiet It was a sad day when the abomination of desolation should be seen standing in the holy place but what are abominable Men to abominable Devils They did but exercise their cruelties on the bodies of the Jewes but how many Devils have their walks in the hearts of natural men and women If thou art in thy bloods the Devil hath entred into thee as sure as ever he entred into the heard of Swine and so hurrieth thee into base lasts as he carried them headlong into the Sea CHAP. III. Their want of Despair in Self IF Men are sensible of their sinne and miserie Few humbled Souls Rom. 10.3 yet how many are going about to establish their own righteousness Though some are convinced of the ugliness of sin of â—he miserie by sin yet they are not fully convinced that the covenant of works requires perfect personal and corstant obedience that it admits not of repentance that it accepts not of the will for the deed Gal. 3.10 but Curseth every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them so that if there be a failer by a vain thought the conditions of that covenant are broken and nothing save fearful expectations should seize on such a Soul Few I say believe this but though they are bankrupt Children of Adam yet they hope by their pedling Wares to set up again and maintain themselves without being beholden to any other for the procuring of their salvation hence they pray who were prayerless before hear and perhaps with much diligence who were wont to play away the Sabbath and Sermon time and reform in many things and now Soul take thine ease thou hast goâ—ds laid up for many years yea for eternity thou art converted sure and so think all the Neighbour-hood O! what a change is here The man was a Drunkard not so now an Adulterer a prophane Belial but now civilized yea a devout man Serious that was flashy before and touching the righteousness which is in the Law Phil. 3.6 blameless Now he is alive indeed his Conscience is pacified which before troubled him he can hear the Word gladly which before was burthensome to him he can pray with affection and with some delight when before all the Ordinances of Heaven were tedious and intollerable burthens to him Now he thinks Sure I have life within me I am not dead He sees not all this while that he must have life from without and ability from without He doth not yet say Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psa 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up No no he can look up with confidence and call God Father Job 12.6 and though sometimes he provokes God yet he is secure He doth not see that he is dead i. e. damned 2 Cor. 3.5 and insufficient as of himself to think any thing as of himself but all his sufficiency is of God He thinks he is not utterly unable to make amends for his sins not quite dead for he can pray c. He sees not that it is as easie to make new Worlds as to put up one acceptable Prayer to God He sees not that he needs an Almighty power to enable him to perform his duties and infinite satisfaction to discharge him of his debts He is somewhat sensible of his danger by sin Isa 63.1 but he eyes not him that is mighty to save He looks for help within but not without He sees no absolute necessity of Christ all this while He sees not that all his righteousnesses are as filthy raggs in Gods sight Isa 64.6 and that all his duties fill up the Catalogue of his sins He sees not that there is no Salvation in any other save Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 because there is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He hopes to goe to Heaven through doors of his own the door of Repentance the door of Reformation the door of good Works c. hence he takes hold of the mercy of God and the promises of pardon Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him yea he will abundantly pardon Thus have I done saith this awakened person and now my Case is good O! I would not be in mine old myres for a World O! what a change is here I was a careless Wretch careless of God and my Soul careless of praying reading hearing c. not so now And now that the house Matth. 12.43 44 45. out of which the unclean Spirit is gone is swept and garnished he carrieth it high and little thinks he that seven worse Spirits are entring in This is the case of multitude of Professours whom Christ will never seek nor save Luke 19.10 for that they are not lost they are not succourless and helpless they think they may save themselves from wrath to come They see not that there is a Satisfaction to be made to Divine Justice which they cannot make wherefore their hopes are from their reformations not from Christ their peace is from their performances not from Christs blood of attonement All these have I kept from my youth up Luke 18.21 Hence he is consident not from Christs coming under the Law hence he is diligent in Prayer c. but careless of the way of Faith hence he blesseth himself in his own performances and is no way taken up with what Christ hath done and suffered for him Moses is magnifyed and Christ is slighted Duties are set up and Faith neglected Works advanced and cryed up and Faith is little heeded or look'd after How few are there who count themselves wholly destitute of every good thing that should make them acceptable unto God They lay not the weight of Salvation upon the grace of God by Jesus Christ but upon somewhat that comes from themselves they will have a Bridge of Duties that shall carry them over the Gulph of eternal miserie they hope to quench Hell Fire by their tears Alass some years agoe you might as well have drawn Water out of the Flint as tears from them but the case is altered I was blind but now I see the deserts of sin which I saw not before I see it is a fearful thing to sin against God and now I bewail my sins and am sorry at heart for them sure my condition is monded I thank God I am not as other men nor as once I was my self I hope by my tears to wash away my sins All the while Christ lieth without doors the Soul is a stranger to Faith in Christ he sees not his
their Enemies but if we stay here we perish or as Ladies use Litters to carry them over the dirt or as we use a Penthouse during the Storm and then Farewell or as Passengers the Boat they cry vehemently a Boat a Boat and as soon as they are Fetryed over the deep farewel to the Boat they think no more of it When he slew them then they sought him Psal 78.34 and they returned and enquired early after God Then never before and never after Undoubtedly multitudes have been affrighted to Christ who were never truly and throughly converted to him and have left their Sins from compulsion of their judgement not from the propension of their will not from any love they have borne to Christ they love to be safe but still hate to be holy O! O! how many are herein deluded who have pretended a great deal of love to Christ whilst base Self the love of pleasure and ease and to be exempted from horrours and fears hath been the Bias that hath drawn them to Christ I appeal to thy Conscience whether Christ be valued be look'd after save in a strait When trouble is upon thee then this Physician is sent for but when the pang is over the Physicians company is too chargeable is no way desirable the sooner he turns his back the better When Women are great with Child and when Men and Women both hear it thunder and see it lighten when the Arrows of the Lord fly thick and a great mortality is sweeping many to the Grave O! then how shall I get Christ then Books are read Sermons heard and valued Prayers not neglected but when the fears of death are over Psal 4.6 Ephes 5.16 O! then who will shew us any good Then Redeem lost time not for God and Souls but for the World then head and ears in the world again then secret Prayer is neglected then the Bible lies in a dusty corner not viewed till the next storm arise and then Christ must be awakened with Master Mark 4.38 carest thou not that we perish I will tell you what your Ministers have told you before Sin and the World were your Companions in days of health ease and peace and Christ your desire in cloudy days Is it not so If Christ in the day as well as in the night lies chief between thy breasts thou hast cause to say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name But I fear most pitch on Christ for themselves and not for Christ Christ in the time of Contagion shall go for something but Christ in dayes of health and ease shall be valued no more than a meer Chimara a Cipher a Nothing It is one thing to take Christ to pacifie the Conscience and another to take him to purify the heart An unquiet Conscience is to most a greater burden than an insensible seared and polluted Conscience than an impure heart Oh! Repent of thy juglings with Christ Psa 78.36 They did flatter him with their mouths and they lied unto him with their tongues They pretend to come to Christ in order to service and obedience when all the while they serve themselves on Christ Base Capitulations with Christ Thirdly How many have base Capitulations with Christ Many come running to Christ and ask him as the man in the Gospel Good Master what shall I do Mark 10.17.21 22 that I may inherit eternal life Christ tells him and them Gee thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come take up the Cross and follow me But as he so they are discontented And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great Possessions Undoubtedly many Hypocrites have some glimpse of Christs glory and they run to Christ whilst others deride him but they like not the Price that Christ sets They would have Christ on their own terms Christs terms are to have the Heart My Son Prov. 23.26 give me thy heart Do not lend it only but give give it chearfully give it presently give me it now Now that it is called to day To day Heb. 3.7 8. if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Give me thy heart to be framed and fashioned by me to be stamped and sealed by me be no longer thine own I will not be content thou lend me thy heart for a Sabbath or for a day of Prayer and then that thou call for thine heart again and bestow it upon thy lusts give me thine heart and do not sell it for base ends for base respects give me thine heart do not keep it to thy self lay up and leave thine heart in my hand for me to keep it for thee But alass how shamefully do we break with Christ We would live as we list and do as we list We are content to give Christ the body the outward man the ear the tongue the head c. but we reserve our heatts for the service of the World and of Sin or if we are perswaded to give the heart yet it is but a devided heart not the whole heart but a piece of it Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart saith Christ but Pride Covetousness and Voluptuousness would fain have a share hence no â—â—l closings between Christ and many Professors Christ and they part They as some Customers seem to commend the wares but they like their money better Few see themselves so miserable without a Christ as to come up to the price Their cursed Leagues with base Lusts bind them so fast in Chains that they cannot they will not come up to Christs proposals to Christs demands they will treat with Christ on no other terms unless they may have the pleasures of Sin and may fulfill the lusts of the flesh but if Conscience be disquieted and troublesome then they make new offers they will leave many sins they will except but one There is but one exception they have and if that may be accepted then they are Christs they have but one reserve These Swine are contented to escape the pollutions of the World 2 Pet. 2.20 22. through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ so they may have one mire to return to and wallow in If Christ will stoop to these terms then welcome Christ if one sin and Christ may share the heart betwixt them the man is contented but few are contented that every knee should bow that every sin be parted from The Lord be mercifull to me If I bow in the house of Rimmon No saith Christ All or none If the Conscience be not quiet upon this then as Marriners throw overboard their goods their Jewels their Bales of Silk and other pleasant wares in a Tempest to ease the Vessel which they wish for in a Câ—lm and labour to fetch up again if it be
some secret lust more precious than Christ he is not the chief Corner-Stone whereas to them that believe he is precious exceeding precious Few like Paul determine to know nothing else save Christ and him Crucified One Christ was enough to take up Pauls thoughts to eternity Si Christum noscis c. he did not care what he was ignorant of so he knew Christ Though he was brought up at Gamaliels feet he laid down all his knowledge at Christs feet 1. Are your hearts so drawn to Christ From esteeming Christ the most necessary good as to count him the most necessary good in all the World And all other things to be but adjuncts so that you are able to live without them but not without Christ Liberty is sweet to a believer but he can live in a Prison yea and live merrily too he can sing there if Christ be within the grate Bread is sweet but he can live in a Wilderness a desolate houling desart and sing there too as Moses did if Christ be there yea and preferr it before Canaan If thy Presence go not with us carry us not hence A Wilderness with Christ is more precious than a Canaan without him If ye were through Believers the World would not be accounted among the Necessaries One thing is necessary One not many Other things may divert or may a little refresh but Christ is the Necessary 2. yea the only good Is he in a sense the only good to your Souls Is nothing else good separated from Christ give a Believer what you will without Christ it weighs nothing he droops as the Marygold when the Sun withdraws What is all this whilst I am Christless There is none good but Christ Riches are miscall'd goods they are not good sure in their reference as they relate to Christ as they come from Christ from that bosome of love and as they advance Christ and bring Christ and the Soul to nearer Communion If the World in its glory splendour and fulness hinder communion with Christ by deadning flatning and distracting the heart it becomes a burthen He is burthened with friends relations enjoyments of all sorts that rob him of Christ that ecclipse the face of the Sun of Righteousness through their unhappy interposals Phil. 3.7 What was gain is counted loss As he enjoyeth much or little of Christ thereafter he laughs or weeps he riseth or falleth In Christ are Riches honours and friends yea Prayers Sermons Sacraments c. The Lord is the Temple He is all in all Col. 3.11 He is all things and in all things not only by way of merit whatever they have or expect is on Christs account nor only by way of conveyance through him we have all good communicated nor only by way of causality as he worketh all in all but he is all virtually he is instead of all things to them he makes up the defect of all things If no Estate no Friends no Liberty no Health no Comfort c. yet the Believer wanteth nothing As having nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 and yet possessing all things Thus the Woman told the Persecutour when he threatned her to deprive her of her Husband Christ is my Husband Professours look to your hearts Isa 24.16.56.3 to your affections and then you will have cause to cry My leanness my leanness woe unto me I am a dry tree Seventhly How few Christians have Few consider the Cost beforehand in their closing with Christ considered the Cost they may be at They were told of the Cross but the Cross was at a great distance and things when remote seem little How many little studied the import of that word Cross What a shameful painful tedious death it imports Something of trouble they would undergoe for Christ but really they never thought of dying for Christ of spilling their hearts blood for Christ So that they did not close with Christ understandingly either they were ignorant of Christs person or of the consequents of closing with him that they should be hated of all men for his Names sake Mat 10.22 Acts 14.22 that they must through much tribulation enter into his Kingdom that they shall be put out of the Synagogues and that the time cometh Jo. 16.2 that whosoever killeth them will think that he doth God service Hence when unexpectedly the rain descends Mat. 7.27 the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon their houses the stately spiritual buildings which they have been erecting they do not only totter but fall and great is their fall Even Cedars are taken up by the roots How many in such times put away a good Conscience and concerning Faith have made ship-wrack 1 Tim. 1.19 Jude v. 12. How many are Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots They see not the riches of Christ will make them amends for all these losses and perills they cannot ballance the troubles of the Flesh with the comforts of the Spirit the present evil things with the future inheritance in Heaven the Temptations they meet with are unexpected They are like some Ladies that put forth to Sea for pleasure they launch forth towards Christ but as the King of Navarre who said he would not venture farther than he could quickly retreat in case of danger The Storm makes them return to their Harbour yea with the Dogg to the vomit 2 Pet. 2.22 and the Sow to the mire These poor Souls O that my heart could bleed for them were willing to come up to some of Christs terms Gal. 3.4 to lose a little nay to suffer many things but they cannot endure to lose Life O my Soul weep in secret for them when thou considerest that the Children of the Kingdom Church-Members shall be cast out into outer daarkness Mat. 8.12 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 5.18 Luke 9.23 Luke 14.26 God will not abate a punctum of what he requires he expects that we take up the Cross daily that we hate Life it self as well as whatsoever else is near and dear unto us The Conditions imposed on his fallen Creatures are irreversible he will never stoop lower O! this makes many a man to goe away sorrowful I beseech the Reader to goe over with the work of Conversion again now that the Cross is in sight now that Tribulation ariseth Now let him see whether Christ is better than Name Liberty Friends Relations Lively-hood and Life it self and whether he can believe Luke 9.24 that he that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for Christs sake shall find it and that with advantage CHAP. VIII Their shuffling together false Signes of closing with Christ 8ly HOw do many Professours shuffle together a company of false Signes of closing with Christ Many rest in false Signes of closing with Christ How do they count them true and infallible which are
loves O! I hate my self whilst writing this that I love the Lord so little so seldom It was he that made me and not I my self He hath wonderfully formed me and wonderfully preserved me and shewed many wonders in the deeps to me O! what shall I do to love the Lord with a superlative love O I am ready to say Let me love nothing if I love not thee nay love nothing till I love thee O that you would grieve abundantly for want of Love to God! You have past as through the Red Sea you have been as the flaming Bush God hath looked after you as if he minded none but you you have been as the Signet on his right hand nay more you have been engraven on his Palmes and what not love the Lord Shame upon you that you can dote upon the dark filthy dirty World and neglect the Lord of Glory All the Affections you have God gave them when he gave thee a reasonable Soul but for this end that you should place them on himself and not on his Enemy Is it not hard measure that God should be denied Love when he gave you power to love If a Friend sends you Bottels of Wine it is hard that when he comes to you you should deny him a taste of his bounty Believe it Sirs whatever you do for the Lord unless you Love him yea unless you Love him more than any thing else it is not accepted 1 Cor. 13.3 Though you give your Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth you nothing Though you bring forth Fruit yet you are empty Vines Hos 10.1 because you eye Self not God Your most exquisite Services are but pieces of dead Carrion unless they be seasoned with the Salt of Love This People draw nigh with their lips but I abhorr them and their Duties because the silly Dove is without an heart Whatever a man gives me if his heart be not in it I slight it God much more What shall I say The Holy Apostle counts him worthy of a Curse that loves not Jesus Christ If any man love not the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Auathema Maranatha And is it not sad to be cursed to the coming of Christ He deserves it that loves not Christ and he must and shall be forced to own the Righteousness of God in sentencing him to Eternal flames who might have been secured against them had he but loved Christ more than a base dunghill Lust CHAP. XI Their evil surmises of God 4ly Their evil surmises of God EVil surmises of God is another piece of ungodliness found too frequently among some of the more raised Professours even such as have the root of the matter in them I shall the rather insist on this sin because right thoughts of God are the fuell which maintains the fire of Religion without which it soon decayeth and is extinguished 1. Miscalling his love-to-kens Do not we miscall Gods love-tokens Hath not God sent thee many love-tokens by his Spirit to assure thee that he owns thee and delights in thee as his Spouse For thee to question thy relation to him upon every turn must needs be grievous to him how grievous then is it for thee to deny all his tokens of grace and love to thy Soul and to count them but delusions but the works of the Infernal Spirit transforming himself into an Angel of Light To call light darkness good evil sweet bitter the work of Christ the Devils work is ill resented by the Lord it goeth unto his heart You that are Husbands Wives Parents Children cannot endure to have your love and fidelity suspected upon every base suggestion and whisper Believe it God takes notice and laies to heart all your jealousies of him all your base unworthy censures of him 2. How ill are Gods Providences resented III resenting Gods Providences 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.28 Although God hath told you there is a beauty in their contexture that things present and things to come are yours that all shall work together for good that your Providential losses as well as your Providential enjoyments that your changes as well as your setlings your wants as well as your abundance shall all be Sanctified to you yet how few with that blessed man bless the Lord Job 1.21 Rom. 5.2 3. when taking away And with Paul rejoyce yea glory in tribulations God assures you that your sicknesses reproaches wants shall do you good yea death shall do you good all shall be good or do you good all shall be food or physick out of the eater shall come forth sweetness even from Gods desertions you shall have advantages your very thorns shall drop honey shall bear grapes yet notwithstanding what hard thoughts have you of God under such dispensations Didst thou onely accuse thy self judge thy self abhorre thy self it were well but in speaking against thy self thou fallest foul upon God himself by questioning his love from these providences Deny thy self what thou wilt but beware of a denial of Gods love and of the Spirit of grace that hath taken up his lodgings within thee O that all melancholly doubting Christians would consider of this too seldome suspected provocation and unkindness of theirs towards God! O! take up and keep up better thoughts of God what ever his carriage be towards you Though he slay you yet trust in him When will you be as David who though beleaguered with Enemies yet kept up good thoughts of God he doubted not of Gods pitty of Gods favour and protection and therefore I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Psa 3.6 Psa 27.3 v. 1. that have set themselves against me round about Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear c. in this will I be confident In what Why that the Lord is my Light and my Salvation and the strength of my life God hath not spent all his stores he hath enough for me he will not suffer me to be tempted above what I shall be able to bear but will with the temptation make way for my escape And hath not God told thee that the mountains shall depart Isa 54.10 and the hills be removed yet his loving kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of his peace be removed But alas Thou canst entertain good thoughts of God in fair weather Mar. 4.38 but let them fall in a storm then it is Master carest thou not that we perish Thou canst trust in God when he carrieth himself as a Friend and answereth all thy requests and granteth all thy desires but not so when he seemeth an Enemy Canst thou with Paul say I am perswaded that neither Death Rom. 8.38 39. nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
1 Tim. 1.13 I was a Persecutour a Blasphemer and injurious What saith God Remember this day What day The day wherein you were delivered from the house of bondage under Sin the World and Satan O! how have we forgotten that the Lord by a strong and irresistable work of his blessed Spirit translated us out of the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son It was he that made Jordan to give back and delivered us from Egypt and the Wilderness that we might inherit the good Land O! what Enemies were we studying to be damned galloping to Hell till God met us How seldome do we look back to the Spring from whence all our Mercy flowes For Election How unthankful have we been for that Original-fountain-Mercy eternal Election Why should God single us out a People for himself Why did Grace blossom from Eternity Why did God plot and study my happiness before I had a beeing What was there that Jacob is smiled upon and Esau not so God might have had his Revenues of Glory out of my ruine O that he should glorifie the riches of his mercy in my Salvation And yet how little is God magnified for this How little do we bless God for Christ For Christ Though he be the Stream that alone refresheth the City of God yet how seldome is his Love his stoops and condescentions for us his bleeding and dying for us remembred by us with hearty Praises and Thanksgivings For the Covenant of Grace and the Spirit How little do we bless God for the Covenant of Grace which Mr. Allen excellently calls The Bow in the Cloud after a Deluge of Sin and Misery the forfeited Lease of Eternity renewed the Magna Charta of the City of God the Hopes of Sinners and the Riches of Saints And in particular for the Promise of the Spirit in all his Offices and Operations for the application of the purchased Possession Ezek. 36.27 For outward Salvations I will put my Spirit within you How little do we remember to bless the Lord for outward Salvations You begin perhaps with a little as Jacob and now behold you have two bands a troop of Children Friends c. and an Estate to maintain them When others have had one Mess you have had Benjamin's Portion the silver cup put into the sacks mouth Riches and God too Estate and Christ too Peace and the God of Peace too the World and a good Title to it and yet do not you seldome cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and let all that is within thee praise his holy Name How seldome do you consider who hath maintained you all this while Who hath delivered you and pull'd you as brands out of the sire You have had the Sentence of Death in your selves you have been with David and Paul in the mouth of the Lyon and yet saved near to perish by the Bullet Sword Pestilence Feaver and other dangers and yet your Lives given you for a prey But how soon have you forgotten the wonders shewen unto the dead O the many preventing Mercies that you have been made partakers of Hath not God secured you in many travails How many have died much younger than you whilst the Lord lengtheneth out your dayes in order to Repentance How many have died in an instant and been snatch'd away without any warning given of Death's approach whilst you have had many an Harbinger to give you to understand its nearness to you How many have been crush'd by falls from houses and câ—â—oured by beasts and by other accidents have been hastened to their long home whilst God is long-suffering to you How many have you seen drawn on Sleds led to shameful and violent Deaths whilst you have been kept from such dismal ends And are there no thanks due to the Name of God And yet how seldome do you admire at distinguishing Providence and preventing loving kindnesses You have a guard of Angels to attend you day and night to secure you from danger but how little do you bless the Lord for the Heavenly Host And yet if you do thank God for some signal outward Mercies perhaps for ease from the Stone Gout Cholick perhaps for security from the rage of the devouring Pestilence if you thank not God more for deliverance from Hell from the guilt and power of Sin than for outward Salvations you discredit God and his choicest Mercies by under-rating Spirituals to Temporals We should have blessed God for his Rod For sufferings for Christ as well as for his Staffe for both are Mercies but how unthankful are we even for sufferings for righteousness sake God expects that in every thing we give thanks as we should not be partial in our Obedience so neither in our Thanksgiving How little have we imitated the ancient Christians whose mouths were alwayes full of Thanks be unto God They saluted one another with Deo gratias and when they heard tydings of Persecution or Protection of Crosses or Comforts still they cried out God be thanked How unlike are we to famous Bradford If said he the Queen will release me I will thank her if she will keep me in Prison I will thank her if she will burn me I will thank her Thou shouldst say from thy very heart Though sick though scorned though threatned though all the day long counted as a sheep for the slaughter yet blessed be God that I am counted worthy to suffer for his Name Blessed be God that he counts me for a Son and chasteneth me for my profit that I may be made partaker of his holiness Blessed be God that I am chastened that I may not be condemned But how few give thanks alwayes in all things unto God Eph. 5.20 Isa 24.15 1 Pet. 4.16.13 We have been too backward to glorifie God in Zion much more in the Fires The Apostle Peter would not have any man suffering as a Christian to be ashamed but to glorifie God on this behalf and to rejoyce in as much as he is partaker of Christs sufferings But God knows how farr from Praises we have been when the Storms have been high and threatned our Tabernacles How hath God charged us to remember Mercy Confiderations against Vnthankfulness and to praise him for it Ye that fear the Lord praise him Praise him O ye Servants of the Lord Praise thy God O Zion Psal 22.23.135.1.147.12.148.1.150.1 2. Praise him in the heights Praise God in his Sanctuary Praise him for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellent greatness Doth not the innumerableness of Gods requiries of Praise and Thanksgiving aggravate our neglect of this Duty What Provision hath Christ made against this Sin Hath not he appointed the Sacrament of his Supper on purpose to help us to Remember him and his saving benefits Do this in Remembrance of me But have not many Professours been so resolved to be unthankful that they have neglected this great Ordinance
never desire any privacy between God and thy Soul a Saint and yet find no errand to invite thee to speak with God alone Sure thou rather seekest to approve thy self to men than to God Thou mayest for a time be the worlds Saint but God will at last un-case thee and present thee before the eyes of all the world for an Hypocrite Mat. 6.5 6. The trâ—e Lover delights to visit his Friend when he may find him alone like that good man who when the set time for his closet-Prayer was come would break from any compony he was in with this handsome speech I have a Friend that stayes for me Farewell Others put off this duty by pretending they pray alwayes every hour they are darting up Ejaculations to Heaven As the pretence of every day-Sabbath saith one comes just to no Sabbath so the continual Prayâ—â— of some carnal Professours is not Praying aâ— aâ—â— Eâ—aculatory Prayer should not hinder but rather fit for solemn set Praying Fire must be kept upon the Altar continually but that must not hinder the Morning and Evening Sacrifice True Christians cannot be satisfied with a bit and away but they must â—â—ve their set meals Others look at Closet Prayer to be at the best but a Free will Offering as they term it which they may offer if they will but will not own it a duty Surely such are little sensible of their heart-plagues or else they would alone one by one make Prayers 1 Kings 8.38 39. Zech. 12.10 11. and Supplications Such either have 〈…〉 Spirit at all or else but little very little of the Spirit or else they would be Praying apart In all my observation â—â—e raines of Christians have begun in their Closeâ— neglects either by omitting the duty totally or by â—areless formal customary management of it The truth is saith a late neat Writer this is the first step towards Apostacy Back-sliders grow first out of acquaintance with God in secret then delight in this duty declineth by little and little then are they less frequent in their visits upon which followeth a casting off the duty and yet they may appear great sticklers and zealous in publick Ordinances but if they recover not what they have lost in their secret Trade they will ere long break here also No surer sign of an Hypocrite than to neglect secret Prayer it turns thee into a Nebuchadnezzar into an Heathen nay into a Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 10.21 a Beast They are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord. Thou pretendest a love to God didst thou love him thou wouldst love to be with him yea lovers covet to be alone where they may more freely impart their mutual affections perhaps in thy family Religious worship of God by Prayer is yet kept up to keep up thy credit with men that thou mayst not be thought an Atheist that thou mayst be trusted an hundred things may keep thee and hold thee to publick duties but herein is the tryal of thy uprightness what thou dost in secret for God and with him when the Masters part the two great ones God and World then is the trial of thee whose Servant thou art but oh when the Master is alone then he is mostly neglected When alone thou art fittest for this duty of calling upon God when the World is shut out then thou hast a discharge from the cumbers of the Earth an Heathen Scipio will tell the I have never better company than when I have no company for then can I freely entertain my own thoughts and converse with all the learned that have been in former ages But thou art called to greater honour to improve thy solitude Joh. 16.32 to converse with God when alone to have thy Father with thee Yea God like a modest lover communicates most of his affections to his people when they are in secret Psa 63.6 when David was in the night watches then his Soul was filled with marrow and fatness not that he wanted Gods presence in the day for seven times a day he praised God but his day-sacrifices yielded him not that marrow and sweetness as he tasted in the night when he was sequestred from all company and business O! the hidden Mannah is the sweetest Cant. Hos 2.14 The Church leaneth on the breast of Christ in the Wilderness and there he speaks to her heart Unhappy Soul innumerable are thy losses by neglecting Christs calls Come my Beloved Cant. 7.12 let us goe forth into the Fields there will I give thee my loves That God should so lovingly invite thee to take a turn or two with him every day inorder to his opening his breast to thee and yet be denied Again When alone and not with God thou art lyable to Sathans foulest Temptations to Atheism Discontent or Pride of heart When the Devil finds the house empty he will furnish you with company enough seven other worse Spirits if worse may be you shall be employed Fear a Rape at least if God be not engaged to be a little Sanctuary in thy Closet and retirements Sathan frequents the high wayes and that Robber takes men aside into a corner and then pillageth them of their treasure He thought so to have dealt with Christ and therefore takes him into a Mountain alone Mat. 4.8 When alone your dangers are greatest therefore should your cries to Heaven be most vehement How few Professours have observed the fittest time for secret Prayer Not early enough in the Closet Mark 13.33 God would have us in this sense Watch unto Prayer God would have us early to tell the world whose Servants we are and that we dare not undertake any business without first engaging God with us Mark 1.35 that we dare not enter on Sathans territories without Christ our great Champion with us This Post should be sent to Heaven in the beginning of the day for no sooner in the morning do we begin to live and stirr but we need fresh succours and Auxiliaries from Heaven True Christians count that the sweetest air they breath in which is the fruit of Prayer and all things relish well with him that 〈◊〉 through this golden Pipe of Prayer and therefore he is up early in his Closet that 〈◊〉 may receive all this way from the Lords bounty and faithfulness Therefore 〈◊〉 sooner doth he open his eyes but he opens his heart to God and before he puts onâ— ragg he must to Heaven in secret Ejaculations at least before he goes to his Closet to pour out his Soul more plentifully before God He expecteth no good day unless iâ— be begun with a good duty and therefore my voice shaleâ— thou hear in the morning Psa 5.3.119.147 in the morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee David prevented the dawning of the morning naâ— he prevented God i. e. his Providences and Favours which he expected he loved to have them in the Channel of Prayer But alas how do Professours shuffle
in this Divine Garden but it is the Meditater the Christian-Bee that gathers the honey out of them though it be the duty by which the Soul digesteth truths and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshment yea the duty by which all other duties are improved yet how much is this duty neglected by all sorts of Professours because though it be the delightfullest task to the Spirit yet it is the most tedious to the Flesh that ever men on earth were imployed in Have not many been long Professours At all and yet if they would tell all the truth they will confess they never spent one hour together in mediating on the most weighty Scripture-truths on God on Mans Estate by Creation Degeneration Regeneration Glorification on Christ on the Vanity of the Creature on the Beauty of Holiness on Death on Judgement on Heaven and Hell Meditation saith Mr. Baxter in his Saints rest is confest to be a duty by all but by constant neglect denyed by most and I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to pass that men that are very tender Conscienced toward most other duties yet do as easily overslip this as if they knew it not to be a duty at all they that are presently troubled in mind if they omit a Sermon a Fast a Prayer in publick or private yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time unto this very day How few have mannaged this duty aright Aright Hath not that which we call Meditation been Study only Hath not some controversial point or some nice speculation been the matter of our Meditation Hereby we evidence that we have not so great spiritual hunger after Righteousness as we should Hungry men saith one do not use to stand and pick bones when they have meat enough to eat Hath not our end in meditating been only the increasing of our knowledge and not the improving of our knowledge Have not we begun this work without God When we were going about to Meditate have not we neglected Prayer for help from Heaven to go through with the work though without God we can neither know resolve upon nor perform what is good for from him yea from his own good pleasure comes both the will and the deed Have not we idled away our meditating seasons If we have sequestred our selves from worldly businesses and company for meditation at any time have not we idled away that time by suffering our thoughts to gad and wander up and down to no purpose to be sure not to fetch in considerations for the stamping holy impressions upon our hearts and lives Have not we in meditating been without a due sense of Gods presence May not we cry out Gen. 28.16 surely the Lord was in such and such a place where I have been meditating and I knew it not i. e. I considered it not Hath not the work of our understandings in this business been to retain and not to convey truth into the heart Have our understandings represented what should work holy affections and resolutions aright Have they presented things good of a Divine and Heavenly nature as God Christ Heaven c. in their prime and beauty Have they presented things in their nature simply evil as Sin Gods wrath Hell at their worst Have not we left off meditating before we attained the end of Meditation before holy affections and resolutions are wrought Have not we rush'd out of this duty as well as rush'd into it Have not we gone from this work as a bird out of the snare with joy and speed Have not we ended as well as begun this work without God not praying to God for strength to perform what we have been inabled by grace to resolve upon for God and for pardon of what hath been amiss in the duty O! when will English Professours be prevailed with to make conscience of this duty of duties I once more intreat thee to use Mr. Baxters words as thou art a man that maketh conscience of a revealed duty and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint and the Soul-ravishing exercise of Heavenly Contemplation and as thou art faithfull to the peace and prosperity of thine own Soul that thou speedily and diligently set upon this great duty O! Considerations against flighting Gods written Word what a mighty blessing is it to have such a book wherein are written by God himself the great counsels of his will concerning mans Eternal Salvation What a sin is it then to have low mean yea vile and base thoughts of it Is not our slighting of the Word of the Lord the cause of all the wickedness in our hearts and lives Whence are all our omissions and commissions but because we make a light matter of sinning against the Scriptures Certainly this great provocation hath a great hand in our miseries and threatneth utter ruine to us Prov. 13.13 Isa 5.24 Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blosome shall go up as dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy one of Israel CHAP. XVI Their miscarriages about the Promises 9ly Professors miscarriages about the Promises MUch Ungodliness is also evidenced in Professors miscarriages about the Promises of the Ward the promises being the great promoters of godliness in the world not only as arguments to induce it by shewing how God will reward it but likewise as principles of godliness or the chief instrument whereby God makes Souls partakers of the Divine nature 1. Not believing their truth How little do we believe the truth of the Promises How little do we believe that the Spirit of God and glory rests on them that suffer for Christ and his Gospel and that as tribulations do abound for Christ so shall consolations by him or that we shall have an hundred fold advantage by any loss we sustain for Christ and his concernments All that fear of man all that cowardise all those tremblings of heart that are upon Professors this day all that enmity against the Cross of Christ which appears on the faces and hearts of men are clear demonstrations how little the promises for the bearing up under suffering for the deliverance out of suffering or rewarding of suffering for Christ are believed We cannot set the Promises against all Crosses 2. Not prizing them enough How low are our esteems of the Promises of God of the great and faithful God in comparison of what they are concerning the Promises of honest and sufficient men I appeal to thee if a King should promise thee a thousand pound per annum whether it would not more rejoyce thine heart than the Promises of eternal Life which God hath made unto thee do With how
There is no other way but by this Ark to escape drowning and the longer they wander in this Wilderness the more hard it will be at last to enter into Canaan the longer they keep off from the promise the more corrupt will their hearts grow and the more corrupt they grow the work of the heart-purifying-faith will be the more difficult 12. Eyeing Providences more than Promises How many of us eye Providences more than Promises and make the Providences rather than the Promises of God the Ground of their Faith One saith well The Star-light of one single Promise is of more use to Christians than a Constellation of many Providences both to assure them in their wayes and to support them under any difficulties 13. Do not we pretend to eye the Promises using indirect means for getting what is promised and yet use indirect means to bring our devices to pass We have pretended to live the Life of Faith but God knows what shifts men have had and wicked at least questionable courses men have taken how much evil hath been done that good may come Have not we to help Gods Promises to bring forth turned out of Gods way resisted Dignities offered Violence to known Laws wronged Conscience forgot all Obligations upon us Not looking that they attain their ends in our Souls 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Jo. 3.3 regarded nothing that stood in our way of compassing our designes 14. How little do we exmaine the Fruits of Gods Promises in our own Souls The exceeding great and precious Promises are given that we might be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust that we might purifie our selves even as God is pure But do we look for these ends to be attained by the Promises in our Souls Do we look not only for a Change from Looseness to Civility but a through Sanctification in Body Mind and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Alas which of us can say Having these Promises we do cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and are perfecting holiness in the fear of God CHAP. XVII Their Abuse of Providence 10ly Professors Abuse of Providence ABuse of Providence is another branch of Ungodliness too much spreading among Professours God is to be honoured not only as the chiefest Good and as the supream Truth and Authority but as the first Cause that giveth Beeing to all things and therefore ordereth and disposeth of all things as he pleaseth having absolute Dominion over all events But O! how is God dishonoured by abusing his Providence The blind World are not only guilty who do not acknowledge God at the other end of Causes as swaying all things by his Wisdome and Power but set up an Idol called Chance but even Professours eminent Professours are herein very guilty 1. Evidenced in their non-observing it How seldome do we observe Gods Providence The Finger of God is in all the Creatures not only We but all Creatures live move and have their beeing from God and in God The whole course of Nature moves as it is turned by the hand of God and directed by his counsel It is not with the work of God as with the Artificers Clock which put into a frame and hang'd with weights will goe though the Artificer be off from it but though God set all the Creatures in frame yet the motion of every wheel depends on God There is not a drop of rain falls till God utter his voice Jer. 10.13 and cause the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Yet how is God not minded We see not his footsteps We may say in this He passeth this way and that and we see him not Our eyes are held to secondary Causes We look when the Wind or Moon will change but we are so short-sighted that we reach not God How seldome do we consider that though Gods Providence doth deliver up his choicest Friends into the hands of his and their Enemies yet doth it not deliver them up unto their will they cannot do what they please but only what pleaseth God Such of Gods own are still engraven on the palmes of his hands though turned over into the hands of the Ungodly they are Gods Favourites still though the wicked say Persecute them and take them for God hath forsaken them How little do we mind that our times are in Gods hands and that as Satan is in a Chain so are his Instruments We fear Men more than God O! when shall we hear that Word of God Say not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy Isa 8.12 13 14. neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And he shall be for a Sanctuary c. 2. Not being affected therewith How little are we affected with the continual course of Providence though it guards and keeps us every moment The Stars in their courses would fight against us the Sea would swallow us up and break in as a devourer the Beasts of the Field would arm against us if God did not check them and bound them yea one man would eat up another were it not for the Lord who sets bounds to the rage of all the Creatures It is the eye of jealousie that is still wakeful for us it is the Lord that puts the hook into the nose and the bridle in the lips of the Senacheribs of the World and yet how little are our hearts affected how little are they comforted and born up how little do they cleave unto the Lord On the contrary But distrusting â—t How distrustful are we of Gods Providence in a time of seen dangers though we are wonderfully delivered from invisible ones every day Who can number the legions of Devils so many deliverances hast thou by Gods Providence every moment and yet how diffident and doubtful are we upon all new imminent outward dangers How little do we believe that God will bring in good to us by such Providences as are ungrateful to Sense to Flesh and Blood Though nothing is more usual than for God to take away some comforts and lay in better comforts to take away an Abel and make it up in Seth to deprive Noah of the comforts of the whole World for a while and then to wash it from its filthiness and to deliver him the possession of it with manifest proofs of his singular distinguishing care of him and his Family whilst all the rest of the Creatures perished in the waters to deprive Mary and Martha of their Brother Lazarus and to return him from the dead unto them with great advantage to deprive Job of his Children and Estate to make his last dayes better than his first Job 1.3 compared with Ch. 42.10 12. and to give him twice as much as he had before for seven thousand Sheep
heart What good didst thou do or receive in that company wa st thou eyes to the blind feet to the lame didst thou labour to bring thy Friends nearer to Jesus Christ or hast thou more estranged and prejudiced them from and against the way of truth O my heart Didst thou take heed to thy wayes that thou didst not sin with thy tongue Didst thou keep thy mouth as with a bridle When going into the Shop or Field yet with Isaack thou art to meditate there and conferr with God and thy heart thus O my heart for whom dost thou labour for Self or for God whose Servant wilt thou be to day the Worlds or Christs O my heart How many snares are there in the World what a dirty place â—is the World and how great is thy danger if God prevent not by special grace O my Soul What need hast thou of Almighty power to keep thee that thou mayest retain thy sweetness in salt waters But alas How seldome do we reflect on our words or silence on our speaking or hearing on our behaviour abroad or at home When do we consider what our affections were most set upon in such and such a place in such an hour and what our demeanour God-ward and toward our Neighbour was We do not believe Bernard who tells us If we would examine our selves as oft as we need Bern. in Cant. we must do it alwayes And Chrysostomes paraphrase and counsel on Psalm 4. is of as little credit with us Let this account be kept every day have a little Book in thy Conscience and write therein thy daily transgressions and when thou layest thee down on thy Bed bring forth thy Book and take an account of thy sinnes 6. Crowing weary of the work before they have brought things to an issue Do not we grow weary of this work before it be brought to any considerable Issue We flagg before we come to the up-shot Still some were learning and never came to the knowledge of the truth And so some pretend at least to be alwayes trying but they hold not fast They try their hearts as some did truths till they be wholly sceptical as ignorant whether converted or no as ever They know not more this year than they did seven years since but hang betwixt Heaven and Hell in a dubious state for want of skill or pains to decide this matter We are not resolute and peremptory enough to have an account of our Souls yea such an one as that we may have boldness in the presence of Christ When David thought on God and was troubled Psa 77.3 6. he never gives over his heart till he ended this controversie He communed with his heart and made a diligent search We should commune till we know whether we be natural or spiritual and accordingly be humbled greatly or greatly rejoyce in God our Saviour But alas This Age is strangely dull and sluggish those Duties that will cost expence of spirits and call for the labour of the mind we wholly omit or do them very negligently Reader Could I but prevail with thee to set in good earnest upon Occasional Meditation and Heart-Examination and Solemn Meditation and Self-Tryal I should bless the Lord as long as I breath for this enterprise of mine The searcher of hearts knoweth that I took Pen in hand on this design to labour with thee in order to inside Duties that thou might'st not be contented with a Form of Godliness and rest in the external part of Religion that more work might be done within doors in Closets and Hearts O that you would reform Not pass on to another Chapter till you have engaged your slippery incconstant hearts to attend on this necessary Duty Take a few Considerations to impell you 1. Motives to this great duty Heathens else will rise up in judgment against us The very Heathen will rise up in judgement to condemn you if you neglect this duty A Roman Philosopher every night before he slept would examine himself thus Quod malum hodie sanesti c. What sin hast thou opposed wherein art thou bettered Cato also would daily at evening call to mind what ever he had seen read or done that day I use saith Senica every evening to plead my cause with my self when the candle is gone and all silent I review all that I have said or done in the day I hide nothing from mine own scrutiny I pass by nothing Pithagoras gave also this severe rule to his Scholars that they should no night suffer sleep to seize their senses till they had three times recalled the accidents and passages of the day what evil have I committed what good have I omitted Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees saith Christ may not I say of the Heathen how can you hope for Salvation O! how hath thine heart cheated thee with vain confidences How hast thou cryed the Temple of the Lord I have Abraham to my Father whilst moral Heathens have been better acquainted with their hearts than thou art Yea Sensitive creatures will else shame us 2. The very sensitive creatures may shame thee into the practise of this duty Go thou sluggard to all the souls of Heaven Do they not sit in the Sun and view themselves look inward to themselves turn every feather to set it at rights Do they not look over their feathers and pick out and throw away that which is bad and set others in their places when misplaced Nay 3. We shall else be self-condemned You your selves will be judges of your selves You take the glass and what is amiss in the hair in the face in the body you rectifie by it and what no observation to be made of the faces of your Souls O! take the word of God and make use of this glass which now is in thine hand doth it discover no spots no neglects no failings O! view thy self and humble thy self reflect on thy self and conserr with thy self till thou art ashamed till thou abhorrest and loathest thy self before the Lord. 4. You have a sure sign of hypocrisie on you The neglect of this duty a sign of hypocrisie whilst this duty lies neglected for all the upright have been very carefull to commune with their hearts to search their hearts to make diligent search lest any lust should be covered as Rachel covered her Idols or as Saul was hid in the stuff Nothing is more desired by a sincere Soul than to be throughly searched examine me O Lord Psa 26.2 as Artificers do whether their gold be weight or no and prove me as Artificers do their silver in the fire try my reins and my heart the most inward motions of my Soul search me more deeply and throughly than the world can do Unfound hearts have one Dalilah they have one house of Rimmon that they cannot endure to be examined and found out they are loath to search too
drunkenness Luke 21.14 How have we forgot Christ's charge against this sin even to his own Disciples Have we not hereby been disabled to perform the service which we owe to God As some have been strong to drink so others to eat Both have been unfitted to wait upon God thereby The end of our eating should have been to fit us not to indispose us for the service of God We should measure our Chear by that which Nature requireth and not by that which a greedy Appetite desireth We divest our selves of Man of Reason that should guide us when we are led by a sensual Appetite And yet alas When we have eaten enough and perhaps more than enough a new Dish at the second course makes us fall on without fear or wit and we put not a knife to our throat Prov. 23.2 Serving divers lusts and pleasures is the high way to damnation This way sin entred into the World and in this way O! how many are posting to Hell If you would adopt your selves Children of wrath Eph. 2.3 then fullfill the desires of the flesh O that we should be so senseless so bruitish as to venture the eternal ruine of our Souls to gratifie our appetites for a quarter of an hour She that fared deliciously Rev. 18.7 hath torment and sorrow given her If that you will choose to be beasts here and to eat as beasts as much as you can Know that Heaven will not as Noahs Ark did admit of any Beasts within it When Tertullian gives an account of the Christians Feasts In our feeding saith he we remember that we are to pray at night Prayer is the first and last dish of the feast and when we depart our behaviour is so religious and modest that one would have thought we had rather been at a Sermon than at a Supper Blush O Reader to consider how far short we fall of these Christians in our banqueting hours Believe it Intemperance and Luxury are National sinnes the sins of England It was spoken unless I am mis-informed of our Nation That we build as if we should live for ever and eat as if we should die presently O! when shall we imitate that great Apostle 1 Cor. 6.12 All things saith he are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any It is a base thing for a man to be under the power of Drinks Apparel Recreations and so of Flesh of Meats to be a Vassal to those things over which the Lord hath given him dominion He that loveth any thing too much Qui nimis rem aliquam amat quodam modo servus istius efficitur Rom. 6.16 Mat. 24.38 saith Aquinas is in a sense Servant thereunto And what saith the Apostle Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin c. How many serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies How many are like the men of the old World Given to eating so the word in the Original properly signifieth 2. The costliness of their Diet How have our meats born no proportion to our gains and incomes The rich man that fared deliciously had some pretence for it for he had riches to countervail the expences of his Table Above their Estates But doth not the lowness of our Estates require a meaner Table God knows we have been worse than Infidels on this account in that we have been so farr from providing for our own that to pamper the flesh with costly diet we have suddenly impoverished our selves and brought our Children to live upon others trenchers whereas we should have abated of our superfluities for their sakes if not for our own Goe voluptuous wretch unto the Ant and to the Bee they provide for Winter but thou hast had no forecast and so Poverty comes in on thee and thine as an armed man irresistably 3. unsuitable to the Times How have our Tables been unsuitable to the Times we live in Whether Zion wear the garments of joy or of heaviness all 's one the belly must be served our dishes must not abate Thou farest deliciously every day All times are alike to thee This is a great sin and I cannot but charge many Professours with it Respect is not had to the tokens of Gods wrath Jude v. 12. We eat without fear Without fear of the wrath of God that is ready to break forth upon us In this day doth the Lord of Hosts call to weeping Isa 22.12 13 14. and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep actions lawfull enough at another time eating flesh and drinking wine c. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts We have made little or no distinction of times Perhaps a Fast every month is carelesly kept but every day should be a day of abstinence every day we should abate of what we might enjoy if the judgements of God were not amongst us and others impending over us God hath a controversie with us for feasting when Joseph is in the pit Amos 4.6 and for our eating the Lambs of the Flocks for that we are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph 4. Not respecting the Saints necessities How little respect have we had to the necesities of the Saints O! if there were any true love to God to Religion to the Church of God and to the Saints of the most high we would abate of our worldly comforts in this day Membra putida mortua quae sensum non habent tales sunt Christiani qui de alienis affectionibus non dolent Aug. in Psal 130. we would cut our selves short of what we were wont to lay out not only in fine clothes but in house-keeping in expensive meats and drinks we would not give such liberty to the satisfying of the flesh we would be more sparing in our diet that we might be in the greater capacity to promote pious and charitable designs But alas iniquity abound and the love of many save to their guts waxeth cold 5. Eating without fear of God Doe not we eat without an holy fear of God The Elders of Israel did eat their bread before the Lord. Exod. 18.12 But so have not we so do not we eat as in the presence of God Have not some been so eager upon the pleasing of the flesh and gratifying of their sensual appetites as that they have secretly at least been troubled at a long grace as it is called before meat Have not some fall'n to their meat without invocating God to be with them How unlike are such unto Christ whose usual practise it was to lift up his eyes to Heaven and crave a blessing upon the creatures before he did partake of them
thy sacrilegious robbing of God of his worship and time How often have ye so cramb'd your selves that you have been unfit for any acts of worship yea for any of the works of your particular callings Your heads have been heavy and spirits dull and so God hath had the Carkas but excesses have taken away the heart The tabret and wine are in your feasts Hos 4.11 Isa 5.11 12 13. but you regard not the work of the Lord c. therefore my people are gone into Captivity I wish two things for you First That you would be as ingenious as Austin was who confessed he was no drunkard but yet sometimes too immoderate in eating And Secondly That you would be restless till God hath taught you what he did him Lord saith he thou hast now taught me to use my meat as my medicine to repair not to oppress nature O! Tit. 2.11 12. when will the grace of God appear and teach us to deny worldly lusts and to live soberly CHAP. XXIII Their abundance of Idleness A Third Sin of Sodom was Idleness Professours Idleness Ezek. 16.49 Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom c. an abundance of Idleness was in her and in her daughters This Sin is the Companion of the former when the belly is full the bones would be at rest and when men have eat and drunk to excess then they rise up to play This and the former are City-sins they were found in Sodom and Gomorrah and I wish they were not among us also 1. In their particular callings How are we guilty of abundance of Idleness in our particular callings Few have this for their Motto Laboremus Let us be working I mean working that which we ought How many at the great day will God upbraid with O wicked and slothfull servant Every man hath a Talent of time and strength but it is hid it is not imployed at least as it ought God made not man to play but to sweat out his living 'T was Gods Ordinance in Paradise and since that we are enjoyned to labour with our hands Ezek. 18.18 and not to eat the bread of Idlenest How many because they have not done good among their people shall dye in their iniquity Our land is full of drones and no wonder for we train up our Children in Idleness and indulge to them whilst wasting the first of their dayes in foolish pleasures and recreations Forraigners breed their Children to our shame be it spoken to work those gaies with their hands which our Children must play away their time with hence they having inured themselves to Idleness they hate labour for the future Christ saw some standing Idle Mat. 20.3 6. here he might see many He could not endure it he thought it unreasonable why stand yee here all the day Idle O! how many are idle all the dayes of their lives How many Gentlemen and their Sons are there without a calling They live as if God had sent them into the world to make their hands as pirches for birds to sit upon they are of no use to the Publick In Cities how Idle are the Dames They live as if God had given them reasonable Souls and the light of the Sun only to dress themselves to view a glass and to paint and adorn their Carkasses There are some among you that work not at all 2 Thes 3.11 Nihil agentes fed curiose saragentes and yet busy-bodies busie to invent wayes to pass away time though time be still running and they are hastning into Eternity Doing nothing saith the Apostle and yet working every where save where they should busie to go from house to house to complement friends to devour others times busie to carry tales and news but hating the work of their calling wherein God hath set them The whole life of many is to eat and drink and sleep and sport and sit and talk and laugh themselves fat but there is leanness in their Souls A kind of vagrant people they be that having little to do the Devil is loth they should be idle and therefore he hires them to devour time to carry news and tales to mispend others times 1 Tim. 5.13 They learn to be Idle they study which way they may mispend time wandring from house to house and yet they are not only idle but busie-bodies One compares them to Pedlars opening their Packs and dropping here a tale and there a tale These are at leisure to hear the Devil and to observe his Orders He that will not serve God at home the Devil rather than he shall stand out will send him of his errands and get him to put his Sickle into another mans Corn. Go saith Satan into that house and rail against such a good man carry his miscarriage from one to another till his name rots and stinks in their Nostrils Go to such a mans door he is employed in reading the Scriptures and good books or Catechising his Family c. Go and divert him eat up his time that he may have no leisure for such works He goes he is a busie-body a tatler too He must goe whom the Devil drives Hence occasion is given to the Adversary to speak reproachfully for that so many are turned aside after Satan Let it be considered and lamented how much precious time is devoured in the Bed Five hours sleep will suffice for some constitutions The utmost that Physicians allow is seven hours but some waste and bury themselves in their Beds almost half their time How little do many consider that in the Day of Judgement they must give account as for every idle word so for their idleness in their Bed-chambers Sluggard view the Sun its running a race whilst thou art tumbling on thy Bed and crying O that this were to labour View the Wind and the Air they are in motion View the Waters they stink and corrupt unless running nay view the dull earth it is not so dull as thou art it brings forth for the use of Man Go to the Ant thou sluggard Prov. 6.6 yea any where consider the ways of all save thy self and be wise What! a Professor and yet guilty of an unnatural sinne Nature puts all creatures into motion and to provide for themselves 1 Tim. 5.8 thou art worse than an Infidel yea worse than a Beast The poor Infant cannot suck without labour and yet thou wouldst live without labour God takes this so ill 2 Thes 3.10 that he would not have them to eat who will not labour and if we know such we sin if we feed them God hath not forbid meat to be given to any other sinners only these are not to be fed let them starve and die if they will not labour The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold Prov. 26.4 therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing God hath no pity for drones and he would not have us
in thy gold or in a golden calf thou art guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 of having other Gods besides the true God and so dost as highly offend the true God and God usually gives up such men unto spiritual judgements Rom. 1.21.24 It makes me fear you have not tasted of the upper springs because the puddle of the World is still sweet to your taste Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If you had tasted of the joy peace mercy and comforts of Christ your earthly comforts would be disrelished Gal. 6.14 If you did glory in the Cross of Christ the World would be crucified to you and you unto the World The sweetness of Christ would drown all Creature-sweetness But alass Psa 84.10 To which of us is one day in Gods Courts better than a thousand else-where Austin said If one drop of the joyes of Heaven might fall into Hell it would drown all the bitterness of Hell So would it drown all bitterness in the Soul and all the sweetness in the World Worldly comforts would be too course too slat too low to recreate your hearts Did ye but know the honey and milk of Canaan ye would not so much mind the Onyons of Egypt Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon O! What a surpassing indignity is this to Christ Si terram amas terraâ—es Aug. to set him below the foot-stool to value thirty Pieces of Silver before him to preferr Earth before Heaven present things before future that the love of God the recompence of reward shall not lye nearer the heart than the treasures of Egypt O! What a miserable life dost thou live This Sin brings an Hell with it thou art the Devil's Martyr 1 Tim. â— 9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and burtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Thou enjoyest neither God nor the World Thy only happiness is a fancy And this is thy great misery that thou still desirest that which will never satisfie thy desires The more thou hast of the World the more thou wantest the more thou drinkest the more thou thirstest a Dropser is upon thee Semper avarus eget Hor. Hebr. 13.5 Prov. 23 5. ch 8.21 Eccles 5.1 and thou knowest it not Discontent is alwayes the Companion of Covetousness Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Grace and Godliness is substance Why with Esop's Dogg wilt thou let goe the substance for a shadow The things of the World are fancies the things of God realities What good is there to the Owners of riches saving the beholding them with their eyes Do not you all this while bear false witness against God Do not you proclaim to the World that God is not enough to answer to fill your desires and that therefore you goe out after the Creature Is it nothing to you to call God who is all-sufficient who is a fountain of living Water a barren Wilderness Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid Jer. 2.12 13 31. be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evills's they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water O Generation see ye the Word of the Lord Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a Land of Darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hereby you break the conjugal Relation God looks on you as Adulterers and Adulteresses James 4.4 Prov. 5.19 and will judge you accordingly God expects that his breasts should satisfie you and that you be alwayes ravished with his love and dare you tell the World that your God hath deceived you and that you were mistaken in your choice of God and therefore after other Lovers you will goe No wonder that for the iniquity of our covetousness Isa 57.17 God be wroth and smite us We are greedy of more but what have we done with our former talents Account we must for one Mat. 25.5 for two for ten talents the more we have the greater still will be our account There is a reckoning day at hand O that our moderation were known to all men Phil. 4.5 because the Lord is at hand If thou art not sincere I am as sure as this Book is in thy hand thou wilt curse the time that ever thou hadst an Estate and wilt wish thou hadst been a Beggar for then thou hadst not so much to answer for before God It is certain though some doubt it that thou shalt carry none of thy estate away with thee 1 Tim. 6.7 nothing is to be carried away save guilt to Hell in case of mis-improvement of an Estate yea if you have not rendred unto God according to what you have received 2 Chron. 32.25 the heaping up of wealth is but the charging of thy account thou must account how thou hast disbursed to a farthing I will suppose thou hast by neglects of thy general Calling and by rising up early and sitting up late gained an Estate thou mayest put all thy gain in thine eyes and never see the worse What will thy Estate advantage thee when the Arrows of the Lord enter into thy Soul What will the World advantage thee when the Gout Feaver burning Pestilence c. are upon thee What hast thou got only that which may stand with Gods eternal hatred Never count thy gains till thou hast got that which is inconsistent with Gods wrath What hast thou got above that which God throweth unto the Doggs Shew me Childrens bread or never boast of thy gains Did you ever find any Child of God worse for afflictions but have you not found many worse for their thrivings in the World Jeshurun waxed fat Deut. 32.15 and kicked Whilst you have Bonds and Bills upon others do not you run into arrears unto God And how will you discharge those Suits which God will commence against you When you lye a dying will ye not wish that your time your strength your spirits had been powred forth upon better things than those of this life That you had traded for Grace and Glory rather than for the Gold of Ophir for a little gilt Clay O ye great Projectours for the World I do even fore-see the troubles and horrours the doubts and fears the anguish and amazements of your Souls which your unâ—â—â—â—â—â—ties as to your future estate will put 〈…〉 into in your dying Rooms How 〈…〉 take up such language as this Fool that I was to cumber my self about many things
the Lord suffer them not to fashion themselves according to the course of the world Connive not at them in practising what you think is abominable in the worship of God Remember they are Gods Children more than yours Ezek. 16.20 All Souls are mine God claims a special right in them thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me If you neglect your duties you and your Children are like to have sad greetings when you meet before the Lord another day How will your Children lay their hells and torments to your dores how will they curse the day they were born of such fond women who indulged to them in their neglects of God Cursed be the day that ever I saw the passions the pride the formality of my Father or of my Mother for thereby I learned to sin against the Lord. O your examples undid me I had not come to this place of torment had it not been for you Children As Children evidenced in several particulars Are not you also greatly faulty towards your Parents If Children be richer than their Parents how irreverent are they how over familiar with their Parents as if they had forgot the first Commandement with promise How disobedient are they to their lawfull commands though the command of God be express Col. 3.20 Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in all things and it is added for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father thy Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the Earth Was Christ subject to his Parents Luk. 2.51 and should not you be subject to yours Sure you should have obeyed them as farr as without sin though their commands crossed your natural desires as Joseph when Israel said unto him come I will send thee to thy Brethren at Sechem though he knew he should be sent to them who hated him yet he said unto his Father Here am I. How stout and rebellious are Children when corrected Hebr. 12.9 How few can say we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence This Sin so provoked God Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. that he made it Capitall in the dayes of old If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voyce of his Father or the voyce of his Mother and that when they have chastred him will not hearken unto them then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and shall say this our Son is stubborn and rebellious c. and all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evill away from among you How rebellious are Children in refusing the eallings which Parents have appointed for them If the Parent be bound to bring them up to a calling are not the Children bound to attend that calling Brethren let every man wherein he is called 1 Cor. 7.24 therein abide with God Christ probably was brought up in his reputed Fathers calling Is not this the Carpenter Mar. 6.3 How disobedient are Professing-Children in their marriages Children are the Parents goods so God reckoneth them yea so the Devil reckoneth them When the Devil had commission to meddle with Jobs goods he falls on the Children Some are worse than Ishmaels Gen. 21.21 Nature and Civility made him submit to his Mother for the choice of his Wife If Children must obey their Parents in littles much more in weighty matters How little have you requited your Parents This you are bound unto To shew piety at home 1 Tim. 5.4 and to requite Parents is good and acceptable before the Lord. Your Parents took care of you when you were as beasts you had your life and education from them and what now slight them when old or weak What laugh at their follies What when you are high reject your parents that are low The very Heathen Oratour declaims against this We are not born saith he for our selves but partly for our Country partly for our Parents How are you degenerated from your Parents commands and examples There are few true Rechabites who forbore wine from generation to generation It makes my heart ake when I read that the people served the Lord all the dayes of Joshuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Joshuah Judges 2.7 10 11 12 14. who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel but there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord c. and the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt c. and provoked the Lord to anger and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoylers that spoyled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies O! in vain will ye relieve your selves in your Baptismal relations unto God that you have Abraham to your Father Mat. 8.11 Gods judgements will be more bitter to you more heavy on you than on others when the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out You will be ready to curse the day you came of such Parents that ever you had such holy instructions and examples to no purpose save to greaten your condemnation The Lord said unto Moses Deut. 31.16 17. This People will goe a whoring after the Gods of the Strangers of the Land whither they goe to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my Covenant which I have made with them Then mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evills and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evills come upon us because our God is not amongst us Nay Abraham whom you trust to and the Privileges by him will upbraid his Son Dives with his former good things Son Luke 16.25 remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil thingâ— but now he is comforted and thou art tormented O most dreadful Your very righteous Parents shall rejoyce in your ruine The righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance Psa 58.10 11. c. So that a man shall say Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth CHAP. XXXI The sins of Professing-Masters and Servants FIrst you Masters As Masters see how guilty you are in the Relation of Masters 1. Not chooling godly Servants Psal 101.6 Should not your eyes like Davids have
if this one thing were all things and disobedience to this Commandement were disobedience to all Is it nothing to us that hereby Crossing Christs Prayer as much as in us lies we make the Prayer of Christ of none effect Christ knew the evil of heart-burnings and divisions of wrath and bitterness against one another though we do not and therefore having preached up love among his Disciples on earth he sets upon praying down Union from his Father in Heaven and what he insisted most upon in his Sermon that he enlargeth most upon in his Prayer John 17.11 21 22 23. And now I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us That the World may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Throwing off Christs Livery John 13.35 that they may be made perfect in one and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Is it nothing to us that hereby we throw off Christs distinguishing Livery By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another He doth not say Hereby you shall be my Disciples but hereby it shall be known Nor doth he say Hereby I shall know nor hereby you shall know but hereby shall others know Nor doth he say Hereby they shall ghès and conjecture but hereby they shall know as by a sure and infallible sign Nor doth he say Hereby some a very few shall know this great secret but hereby all men shall know Nor doth he say Hereby all men shall know that you seem to be my Disciples but that you are so indeed Is it nothing to us Representing Christ as an Imposture that hereby we make the Jewes and Heathens look on Christ as an Impostour How can they look upon him otherwise whilst they see his Coat so full of seams yea his Body so full of rents Hereby we hinder the World from being convinced that Christ is sent of God Christ therefore prayed John 17.21 23. Making Christs doath of none effect that His might be one that the World may know that God sent him Is it nothing to us that hereby we make as much as in us lyes the Cross of Christ of none effect and his blood to be shed in vain Christ not only preach'd up Love and prayed for it but also paid for it As he went from preaching up Love on Earth by his Sermon to pulling it down from Heaven by Prayer So he went from praying to paying for it and the Price which he laid down for it Ephes 2.14 15 16. was his Blood saith a late ingenuous Writer For he is our Peace who hath made both one c. having abolished in his flesh the enmity c. for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross Shall Christ dye to break down partition walls and will we dare to keep them up Shall he shed his blood for peace and shall we imploy our wit and interest to blow the trumpet to War Is it nothing to us Calling in question Gods Promises Isa 65.25.11.6 that hereby we make Jews and Pagans call in question the truth of Gods promises What can they think of those promises that the Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord. That the Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the failing together and a little Child shall lead them When the Lambs cannot fold together without pushing at one another Is it nothing to us Grieving Christ and the Spirit that hereby we grieve our dear Lord Jesus and the ever blessed Spirit May we not easily imagine what a grief it is to the head to see the members of his body renting and tearing each other to see heirs of the same hope those that lye together in the same bosom of Election and whose Names are on his Breast and whom he presents before his Father together in Heaven to be thus broken asunder on earth O! me thinks if we had any love to Jesus Christ we should study to be of one affection What Luther said once to the Ministers of Norimberg is very considerable Suppose said he you saw Jesus Christ standing bodily in the midst of you and thus bespeaking you What do you O my dear Children whom I have Redeemed by my blood that you might mutually love one another There is no danger in your difference but there is much in your dissention Do not thus sadden my Spirit do not thus spoil the holy Angels of their joy in heaven Am not I more to you than all your matters of difference How can we expect the company of the Spirit of grace and peace whilst such fiery contentions are amongst us Were the Disciples quarrelling and contending when the Holy Ghost fell on them No They were all with one accord in one place Acts 2.1 Psal 133.10 Where men dwell together in Unity there the Lord commands the blessing for ever God will not saith a learned man sow the precious seed of his grace and love among bryars and thornes the enemies of peace Is it nothing to us Rasing Sion that hereby we do what in utlyes to rase Sion even to the foundation thereof The stones support the building by being coupled together Mat. 12.25 Making real Saints weaty to support the World any longer How can the house stand when the stones are severed when not a stone is left joyned to a stone Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against it self shall not stand Is it nothing to us that hereby we make reall Saints the pillars of the World weary of staying in the World to support it any longer It was the sight of the divisions among Christianss that made Grynaeus Melancthon Strigclius those pious and precious Souls weary of earth Psa 55.6 and to wish and desire the wings of a Dove that they might sly away and be at rest in that place where there is a rest remaining for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 as from all other evils so from this of divisions and dissentions among Brethren It was â—â—e conjecture of one that as Go is first Judgement against the old World was by Water against the heat of Lust so his last Judgement upon the World
in telling them their faults We are so over-run with self-love that we think no stander by can discern so much as we and we are so unwilling to be censured that we stand aloof from having such a Looking glass near us to reflect our spots to us Few with David would count it a kindness for the righteous to smite them How few do amend upon a solemn serious reproof How few retire to their Closets Not obediently and there upon their knees bless God for emboldning any to tell them of their Sins and there beg pardon and strength to reform and enter into a religious vow by the grace of God to amend whatever is amiss 5. Minding only the plâ—â—â—ing of â—â—â—mselves Rom. 15.1 2 3. Most Professours seek to please themselves and not their Neighbour A man would think they never read we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself c. Pâ—ofessours are self-willed they will walk to the utmost of their liberty and if others be offended they little care for grieving and stumbling their weak Brethren They will tell you in the pride oâ— their hearts and loftiness of their Spirits the weak must be satisfied But what if they cannot O! how opposite are Professours to the Apostles condescending frame They think that in different câ—â—cumstantial things the weak should sollow the strong and therefore slight what they think of their actions Gal. 5.13 1 Cor. 8.1 But what saith the Apostle Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifyeth A firm and full knowledge of our liberty in things indifferent saith a learned man if it be seperated from Charity is apt to swell the mind with Pride and make men to despise and set at naught weak doubting and scrupulous Brethren but Charity is carefull to avoyd what may stumble the weak and cause them to fall into Sin and therefore judge this 〈…〉 Rom. 14.13 22. that no man put a stumbling or occasion to full in his brothers way by the use of â—â—differerts Hast thou faith concerning the â—â—â—ullness of the use of things indifferent for of them the Apostle speaks have it unto thy self before God make not a vain publication thereof to the exasperating grieving or stumbling of the weak who may by thy example even against Conscience use the same liberty that thou dost and so through thy knowledge shall thy weak Brother perish 1 Cor. 8.11 i. e. thy using this liberty hath a tendency to destroy him You may think this is no great matter But the same Apostle informs you 1 Cor. 8.11 12. Rom. 14.20 that you hereby sin against Christ you destroy the work of God the Soul of thy Brother and no man on earth can priviledge you from the wrath of God if you destroy them with your meats with the use of your â—iberty for whom Christ dyed and therefore the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 8.13 if meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my Brother to offend O! that men were sâ—â—â—uole as Paul in the condescention of their Charity But alas All men seek their own things if they are satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the things they look no farther they little mind the souls of their Brethren but are securing themselves some outward peace and earthly advantages Few naturally care for the good of others for the glory of God and the edification of their Brethren 6. Valuing Christians by externals How are Christians valued and preferred by externals rather than by internals By gold-rings by outward honours and privileges rather than by their graces They who should have most oâ— your esteem love and respect have least A rich Formalist's company is more prized than an humble mortified poor Christian 's The miscarriage that was in the Apostles dayes is descended to this age and is a blot upon many of the Professours of it Jam. 2.1 O my Brethren Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons How are mens judgements blinded by some external glory and appearance so that a little in a great rich honourable man is counted much and much grace in a poor man is despised 1 Cor. 11.22 over-looked and accounted but littieâ— How do the rich contemn the poor How are the poor neglected in visits But a rich though formâ—l Professour shall have many Friends How common is it for the rich to enjoy Ordinances together and exclude the poor You goe to the houses of the rich but seldome goe over the threshold of the poor and yet what said Christ to him that bade him Luke 14.12 13 14. When thou makest a Dinner or Supper call not thy Friends nor thy Brethren neither thy Kinsmen nor thy rich Neighbours lest they also bid thee again and recompence be made thee but when thou makest a Feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee but thou shalt be recompenced at the resurrection of the just You do not value men by their eminency in grace but in parts and worldly endowments as if gold did set men off more than grace Those who have most of Caesar's Image are held in higher reputation than those who have most of God's Image What a reflexion is this upon the great and blessed God 2 Cor. 5.16 Paul durst know no man after the flesh yet dare you esteem men by their fleshly greatness in the world When you should fix your affections where you see most grace you are taken where you see either most of the world or most gifts prudence learning or most morality You know 1 Cor. 12. that you bestow not most honour on the uncomely parts on them who have least of worldly Privileges though the Apostle yea God expects it How rough and rigorous are you to poor men if over-taken in a fault how is his offence aggravated how severely is he censured But if a rich mans transgression be the same or more to be aggravated from the light it hath affronted and from the danger of its scandal yet how is it past by extenuated if not excused and pardoned O! This having mens persons in admiration over-reverencing men for worldly things is a great disparagement to the grace of God as if riches and honours were more excellent than Religion and Grace They who are highly descended or who relate to the Courts of Princes or who have their stores in their houses are in greater esteem than others who are descended from above who are related to the God of 〈◊〉 who are Favourites in the New Jerusalem and who have store of grace in their hearts O my Brethren Jam. 2.2 3 4 5. If there come into your
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to
you cannot so exhort as Ministers c. But have you not been told that God can work by small means as well as by great and that by things that are not God can confound the wisdome of the flesh and bring to naught the things that are Is not this like the pretence of not being eloquent Do you not know have you not heard that the issue and event depends on the blessng of the Lord rather than on the work it self Is it not all one to the Lord to wound by a short as by a long sword Cannot God bless a few words in thy mouth as he did in Christs and the Apostles Can'st not thou say follow Christ and may not presently a Matthew a Publican leave his sinfull courses and embrace the Christian faith Can'st thou not say Repent and Believe that your sins may be blotted out and may not God concur with thee as he did of old times Is the Lords hand shortned that it cannot help If Israel be not gathered yet thy reward is with the Lord if thine heart were upright and could testifie that night and day thou hast not ceased to warn to rebuke and counsel Certainly your memories are not so bad but you must remember the weight of sin and of the wrath of God you have seen the wonders of the Lord in the deeps you that have escaped to shoar can tell of the Rocks and Shelves and Storms which you have been delivered from and will you set other Shipwrack their Souls rather than hold out your light unto them 〈…〉 may avoyd their ruines What shall I say to humble you There is more 〈◊〉 in Hell than you can afford Blush blush and be ashamed to have less zeal love and pitty to perishing Souls than Dives in Hell had he would have his Brethren saved from the Valley of Hinnom Your silence will make others think that Hell is a tollerable place that sin is not so evil and bitter a thing that to lye under Gods wrath is not so great a misery whilst you are so slow and backward to warn your Friends and Acquaintance that they slee from these and take Sanctuary in the true City of Refuge the Lord Jesus Christ O! If you know the worth of a Soul pitty the multitude with whom the day is not broke whose forlorn Souls are under a continual Massacre from the bloudy Butcher of Hell Besmear your Souls no longer with the guilt of their bloud Let them not starve for want of bread whilst you have to give them I shall bless God for ever and ever if this your negligence of the Souls of those whom you may account without may be cordially bewailed and you for the future double your diligence for their conversion Ministers cannot convert without the Concourse of Omnipotency neither can you Though Satan and thy own lazy heart hath told thee thou art unfit to set upon this work yet better do it meanly than wholy omit it God like Parents on earth loves to see his Children lift at those duties which are too hard for them and then he steps in and is a Co-worker with them What God did by illiterate Fishermen by Priscilla he can do by thee The Lord pardon thy former unmercifulness to the Souls of men But if thou continue careless and cruel if thou wilt not by Prayers for them and counsels to them seek their reducement as sure as thou art reading the voyce of thy Brothers blood is crying against thee from the earth By your example before if not since Profession you have been the cause of the destruction of Souls of how many who can tell And as Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after he was rotten in his grave so your sin your wicked examples may propagate the trade of sin from generation to generation until Christ shall come to Judgement Tremble tremble at the thoughts of it if thou hast not the heart of a Beast in thee O! how many Souls are crying in Hell against thee cursing the day they knew thee or their Ancestours knew thee for that by thee they learned to sin the more and were strengthned in their wickedness by thy tongue and by thy life And now are not you bound to do your utmost to make restitution to labour to save them that be alive Is it not reasonable that you should labour to win Souls to Gods as you have to the Devils service and to have many blessing God in the Heavens for you that ever they were in the company of such an active zealous Christian who by word and life was instrumental to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and of their God And is it not a glorious work to hold forth such Light to the World that they seeing your good works may glorifie God and you may be Propagators of Zeal and Holiness from Generation to Generation till Christ shall appear to judge the World and to reward you for all the services you have done to his Name O! how welcome shall that man be to Heaven and Christ who hath fed the Souls and clothed the Souls and visited the Souls which he hath purchased with his own precious blood Christ will own thee for his Benefactour CHAP. XXXVII The Dis-ingenuity and Scandalousness of their Miscarriages WHen God had given the Prophet Ezekiel a large Catalogue of Judah's Abominations The wickedness of the former miscarriages Ezek. 8.9 V. 6 13 15. he then shew'd him the Wickedness of their Abominations He said unto me Goe in and Behold the wicked Abominations they do here He commanded him once and again and again to turn him yet again and he should see greater Abominations I cannot indeed promise thee that thou shalt now see greater Abominations than those already mentioned All that I shall now do shall be to represent the former Miscarriages in their crimson dye and scarlet colour And The First Thing I shall mention Commitred against so good and kind a God Eph. 4.30 as making your Sins Professours out of measure sinful is your Dis-ingenuity in so sinning against God O! You have sinned against a gracious God You have grieved the good Spirit of God whereby some amongst you have been sealed to the day of Redemption I am bold to say that one godly man's sinning against light and mercy doth more break the heart of God than the bruitish Sins of a Pagan Kingdom Ezek. 6.9 I am broken saith God with your whorish heart which hath departed from me c. And ye shall loath your selves for your evils which ye have committed in your abominations Amos 2.13 God hath been press'd down with your sins as the Cart with sheaves till he hath even Creak'd under the weight God expected more from the Treet planted in Zion than from the wild ones in the Wilderness Luke 13.9 Grief and Burthen springs much from unexpected Unkindnesses I looked for Fruit and there was none How were David's and Saul's Sins aggravated from
the merciful Dispensations of God to them 1 Sam. 15.17 18 19. And Samuel said When thou wast little in thine own sight wast not thou made the Head of the Tribes of Israel and the Lord annointed thee King over Israel and the Lord seat thee on a journey and said Goe and utterly destroy the Sinners c. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord And Nathan said to David c. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. I annointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul And I gave thee thy Masters House and thy Masters Wives into thy bosome and gave thee the House of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would morcover have given unto thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight And hath there not been as much disingenuity and unkindness in our Sins The Lord hath given his Statutes to us and his Laws He hath not so dealt with all the Nations under Heaven He hath nourished and brought us up as Children Isa 1.2 3 4. but we have rebelled against him The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People my People doth not cousider Ah sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity c. God fetcheth a deep sigh Ah! under the burden of this Ingratitude His Spirit is laden and troubled with it They have provoked the Holy One of Israel Mis-improvements of Mercies are very provoking When God comes for Bread to be sent away with Stones must need vex the good Spirit of the Lord. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken it Oh for Professours to be worse than Publicans for they will be kind to such as are kind to them Have not we sinn'd against God even with his favours and requited him evil for good May not the Lord say unto us Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus require the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee All the mercies we have received greaten our sins The more richly that God hath heaped his Blessngs upon us the more wantonly we have followed the swinge of our own Lusts and the more contemptuously spurned at his holy Commandements We have great cause to be ashamed for that all our sins have been 〈◊〉 gainst mercy and therefore against the Principle and Law of Nature It is a perpetual Spot not to be worn out by time that of King Jeash that he slew Zechariah the Son of Jehojada the High Priest who had been loyal unto him in the getting of the Kingdom and faithful in the administration of it ◠Chron. 24.22 23. Thus Joash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehojada his Father had done to him but slew his Son and when he dyed he said the Lord look upon it and requite it And it came to pass at the end of the year that the Host of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people from among the people But alas What Engagements could Zechariah possibly lay on Joash that may weigh with the Mercies of our God to us And yet how have we made his choicest Favours as Arrows to shoot at the God that sent them What wretched Prodigals have we been to wast all in the service of Hell which were conferr'd with so open an hand to draw forth our time strength and spirits in the praises and services of God For this our Ingratitude Ezra 9.13 14. the Lord may justly be angry with us till he hath consumed us so that there shall be no remnant nor escaping O that you would remember the Lord from Shittim to Gilgal Mica 6.5 i. e. from the beginning of Mercy to the end of it And you will hardly find that you any of you have been the better for it but many Jeshurun-like have waxed fat and kicked God is this day calling out of Heaven to England and to each particular person in it Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise I could even wish for the thousands of our Israel that they had received fewer Privileges or had had the grace to serve the Lord in the abundance of all things better than they have to this very day If ever you purpose sound Repentance then take a view of all the Mercies of God towards you Goe back to the time when the first stone was laid yea goe back to the eternal projects of God to make thee out of nothing and to redeem thee when worse than nothing Review the upper and lower Springs with which Soul and Body have been refreshed Remember how many eminent Deliverances and Salvations God hath wrought for thee And if at any time thou hast been straitned in outward comforts yet remember how thou hast been enlarged with spiritual graces if God hath denyed thee in one kind of mercy he hath supplyed it by a gracious wonderfull commutation in another in a better if thou hast been denyed the fleshpots of Egypt and the land flowing with honey yet it hath been all made up in the bread the Mannah that fell from Heaven if thou hast had sometimes bodily infirmities yet thou hast been strengthned with all might in the inward man if thou hast been denyed thee the gold of the earth yet God hath supplyed thee in making thee rich in faith If sometimes Friends have been unfriendly inconstant or treacherous yet God hath stood by thee when all left thee God hath dealt with you as with Sons your gleanings are better than the Vintage of the world Having laid these and innumerable such mercies in one Scale now lay in the other Scale thy soul ingratitude not only that particular sin of unthankfulness that thou hast been guilty of of which before but the ingratitude that hath been in all thy sins in thy pride hypocrisie formality self-love self-seeking impatience neglect of duty to Superiours Equals and Inferiours profaneness intemperance unrighteousness c. that Remembring the Lord and his goodness towards thee together with thy cursed returns thou may'st yet abhor thy self in dust and ashes Take words and say My Salvations are more than I can number Blessed be God the Father of all mercy But my sins also are innumerable I cannot recount them shame upon me O! how vile have I made my self whilst by abuse of rich mercy Mat. 5.47 Isa 1.3 I have lived below the ingenuity that is found in Publicans and Beasts O that God would give me the success that the Angel had on such a sinfull people as you are Judg. 2.1 2 3 4. And the Angel of the Lord come up from Gilgal to Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your
institutions though all the sins for which God cast out the Heathen and cast off his Israel oe found amongst us and these highly aggravated and innumerable circumstances yet how little are we concerned therein How seldom do we express our inward sorrows by Tears and Fasts David beheld the Transgressours aâ—â— was grieved because they kept not Gods word Horrour seized on him because they made void Gods Law Yea Rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not Gods Law Psal 119.158 v. 53 136. 1 Pet. 2.7 But where is the sorrowing after a Godly sort Where are the weeping Jeremiah's Naltons Midhopes or whose Soul like Lots is vexed pierced with the unclean conversation of the wicked If ever God did call us to weeping and to mourning this is the day but behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die And it was revealed in mine ears saith the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die Isa 22.12 13 14. saith the Lord God of Hosts When Elijah saw how iniquity abounded how the worship of God was crushed how things went among the great ones of those wicked times how Idolaters were countenanced the faithfull prophets durst not shew their faces he is so burthened at what became of this that he knows not how to live 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He is weary of the world weary of his own Land though the best under the cope of Heaven yea he thinks it a good time to remove that his eyes may see no more of these detestable things and that his Soul may be no longer prick'd with these scratching Briars But the searcher of Hearts knows how little we have been affected with all the shipwrackt faith and conscience that our eyes have seen how seldome our heads have been fountains of teart how seldome we have made our houses Bochims how insensible we have been of all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which we and our people are guilty of Wo is us we have not been wounded through Gods sides we have not sympathised with a Christ Crucified every day But like Gallio we have not laid these things to heart And yet we have still impudently enough laid claim to Christ and the priviledges of the New Testament purchased by his bloud Though we never followed Christ to the Cross weeping though we have hardly shed one tear for all the contempt and abuse of him which is Epidemical which abounds from Dan to Beersheba from one part of the Nation to another We pretend we have great sorrows though they are not expressed by tears in a sensitive manner we think to relieve our selves with the dryness of our constitution and yet we have tears more than a good many to express our sorrows by if a Relation drops into the Earth we can follow the Herse wringing our hands and beating our breasts if an Estate which we have got by carking cares by neglect of duties heart-duties and family-duties be in one day consumed and dissolved by a flame into ashes we then can express our sorrows by weeping and lamentation witness some of your howlings your cries at the late Desolation by Fire But commune with your own hearts whether you were ever made so sensible ever so affecâ—â—â—and â—unk with the consideration of the honour that God hath lost by you and by thousands like your selves Was God ever more affronted by a professing people than by us Was ever Christ so set at naught as of late times Was he ever more despised in his Person Offices and Institutions by the Rhabsheka's of the Earth than he hath been lately by them who have had a form of godliness Zech. 7.12 and yet our hearts are bard as an Adamant O! what grounds have you to question all your mourning for your own sins whilst you mourn not for the sins of others Did you mourn for sin as it is against God You would mourn for other mens sins for they are against the Lord also Ezra 9.3 You would be like Ezra he rent his garments pull'd off the hair of his beard sate down astonished for the sinfull marriages of the people But we are insensible though God be much more dishonoured by the Adulterers and Adulteresses by the Blasphemers and Atheists by the Worldlings and Apostates who swarm in the midst of us How can we perswade our selves that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts whilst he is so much reflected on and yet we no way suitably affected therewith If a Child if a Father if an Husband if a Friend be injured thou art much affected with the injury but not so with all the affronts that the Sons of Belial put upon the blessed God every day How can we imagine in the least that we have any true love to the Souls of our Neighbours whâ—â—â—â— we behold them lifting up the heel against their Maker wounding and destroying their Souls by their sins and yet we not sign if not weep in secret for the desperate nazards they are running Nay how can you imagine you love your selves your estates liberties lives c. whilst God is provoked to ruine you and them for their great provocations Josh 7. You know one Achan brought a Plague upon the whole body of Israel and yet his sin was secret But we have Street-Drunkards Street-Swearers Street-Adulterers and Adulteresses Street-Scoffers at Piety and the Worship of God And are ye not in danger to partake of the Plagues that these sins are crying for And what yet are your hearts as insensible as Rocks The Lord be mercifull to you and take out the heart of stone How can you be free from being guilty of all the known sins of the land whilst you do not mourn for them before the Lord Nay yea of the â—okens of Gâ—ds dispâ—â—asure against Sin Isa 22.45 Joel 2.2 to shew yet the greatness of your stubbornness you are insensible not only of your own and other mens sins but of the tokens of Gods displeasure against those sinnes God hath emptied us from Vessel to Vessel followed us with the Sword and Pestilence and wonderfully so lately by dreadfull flames God hath spoyled us of our glory and humbled us as low as dust and ashes it is a time of treading down and therefore we should weep bitterly it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness We have had such a Plague as never the like such a Fire hath been kindled as never the like amongst us the Protestant Nations are very low and the Antichristian very bold and consident yet we can hardly hang out harps upon the Willows Eph. 4.19 but as if our hearts were past feeling we are insensible both of sin and wrath O! I hear some cry out of hard times but there is much more reason to cry out
from Genesis to the Revelation and what ever filthiness waâ— found in Men or Kingdoms may be founâ— upon our skirts and shall not we hang up our harps refuse to be comforted shall not we lye down prostrate before God and pour out water before the Lord and weep till we can weep no more Tremble O my heart under all these provocations And let your hearts be as the leaves of a treee that is shaken by the Whirlwind What so many hellish lusts to swarm in thy heart What guilty of so many millions of iniquities against the God of Heaven and yet thou secure light vain and frothy I profess if I did not know what a stone I have within I should wonder all the day long how it is possible we can stand under so much guilt without shreiks cryes and lamentations I should wonder how you eat and drink and sleep how you can laugh or sing whilst God is so provoked Can I think that man lives who is not moved by the weight of a mountain on his back Professour thou hast that which is heavier than Mountains of lead upon thy Soul and yet thou hardly feelest it Thou dost not groan under that which drew not only tears of water but of blood yea clots of blood from the eyes and veins of Jesus Christ I wonder how you continue your claims to Christ how you can call God Father Christ Redeemer whilst you have so little love to him and whilst you were never pricked at the heart for all the injuries that you and others have done him Whom you love you are troubled for if he be injured by your selves or others But where is your Soul-trouble for your own and other mens sins Are not many as sensual as ever as great servants to the flesh as ever Have you not your Feasts and Entertainments as formerly Though it be a day Isa 22.12 13 14. wherein the Lord calls to weeping and mourning to baldness and girding with sackcloth yet behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine And hath not the Lord sent you a word that may make your knees to tremble Is not the hand-writing plain It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye saith the Lord God of Hosts O! Fall down amazed fill thy Spirit with horrour away into thy Closet though thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity yet pray to the Lord if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart and the wickedness and prophaness of thy life and particularly thy unseasonable mirth and fleshly indulgencies may be forgiven How can you trade with so much guilt upon you You have had your pleas for your covetousness and inordinate affections to the World that God bids you provide for your own But what think'st thou of thy Soul Is that no part of thine own Is that no piece of thy charge O! Provide for thy Soul Thy Soul cannot be safe whilst stained with so many thousand impurities which were never mourned over to this day O! Let sorrow enter into the very inwards of thy heart and let the insupportable pressures of sin sink thy very Soul Zech. 12.10 Mourn as the tender Mother for her only Son be in bitterness so as thou canst not relish those things which thou hast hitherto followed with so much eagerness Let the loathsomeness of thy sins be continually before thine eyes as thy standing dish So it was with Repenting David Psa 51.3 Lam. 5.16 Lam. 1.1 2 3 4 9 13 21. My sin is ever before me So it was with the Church Woe to us we have sinned It is true they were under fearful Plagues How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become a Widow She that was great among the Nations and Princess among the Provinces how is she become tributary Among all her Lovers she hath none to comfort her all her Friends have dealt treacherously with her c. She dwelleth among the Heathen she findeth no rest all her Persecutours overtook her between the straits The wayes to Zion mourn c. She came down wonderfully and she had no Comforter c. The Enemy hath magnified himself c. From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them c. All mine Enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it Lam. 2.3 15 16. The Lord hath burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devoureth round about c. All they that pass by clap their hands at thee they hiss and wagg the head at the Daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the Perfection of Beauty Lam. 4.6 11 16. the Joy of the whole Earth All thine Enemies have opened their mouth against thee they hiss and gnash the teeth and say We have swallowed her up Certainly this is the day we looked for We have found We have seen it The punishment of the iniquity of the Daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment and no hand stayed on her The Lord hath accomplished his fury he hath powred out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof The anger of the Lord hath divided them c. Lam. 5.2 8 10 11. Our Inheritance is turned to Strangers our Houses to Aliens Our Necks are under Persecution We labour and have no rest Servants have ruled over us there is none to deliver us out of their hand Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible Famine They ravished the Women in Zion and the Maids in the Cities of Judah But yet they mind not their misery so much as their sin Woe unto us for we have sinned In order to the promoting of this godly sorrow I do importune thee with the highest fervency I can that thou seperate some extraordinary time to humble thy self by Fasting and Prayer that God would give thee Repentance for thine own and thine other mens sins Perhaps to this day thou hast never observed one in order to the getting of a broken heart O that I could now prevail with thee for this is the means that God hath blest again and again On such dayes God hath softned many an heart and cast out the Devil of security and hardness which could not be cast out in ordinary times of waiting upon God Let thy main request on that day be for a deep consideration of all thy sins with all their several aggravations and a deep humiliation for them O! I beseech you if you have any love to Christ to the credit of Religion to your perishing Souls break through all businesses and impediments and retire your selves and fall down at the footstool of God more solemnly than ever you did If you are by the consideration
of your provocations humbled in the very dust be sure to keep Conscience tender Let not your convictions dye strike again and again smite on the thigh again and again whilst the Iron is hot This fire may be kept alive by bringing new fuel to it Labour exquisitely to afflict your Souls that you should be so foolish so vile as under Christs Livery to commit so great and so hideous abominations Take words and say O the Light that I have abused O the means of Grace that I have slighted O the little service that I have done to Christ O the many dis-services Let these things cut and grave and afflict and humble thy Soul exceedingly from morning to evening and from evening to morning till God be pacified towards thee beware lest the motions of a lazy heart cause thee to desist sooner A patient that hath had a long disease must continue in the use of the prescriptions till the ill humour be purged away 4. Indignation Let your sorrow be accompanied with detestation See all your sins and loath them and your selves too This is promised they shall loath their ways and doings which are not good O! how much sin have we confessed which yet we have secretly hug'd in our hearts Labour to have your hearts rise against your pride hypocrifie c. Hate sin not only for Hell but as Hell yea hate your selves for your sins yea hate your selves that you can hate your sins no more O that my hatred of my Lusts might be greater than ever my love was unto them I wish from my Soul Professors were more apprehensive of Gods Judgements that are upon them and the Nation for their sins I wish many of us were come up to the frames of the hard-hearted Jews and expressed so much tenderness as they did when Gods hand was heavy upon them their sins also were an heavy burden Hos 7.14 In their affliction they sought God early they mourned and humbled themselves very much though with the removal of their trouble their sorrows wore away However be not satisfied with this sorrow but labour for such sorrow as David had when he was wounded in his heart for sin though Nathan told him his sin was forgiven yet he continued his sorrows for his great transgressions Labour I beseech you for tears of hatred and indignation be greatly displeased with your selves because you have so foolishly and wretchedly dishonoured God and ventured your eternal undoing and if yet thine eyes be not like the Fish-ponds of Heshbon for thy sins take words and sament before God thine hardness of heart that thou shouldst so grievously offend and provoke God so good so gracious a God and that notwithstanding thine heart should remain unbroken 5. Supplication Let there be added hearty cries to God for pardon of all these and all other abominations Who forgives him that scorns to sue for Remission Here is your work in this day the Devil and a false heart will put you upon other work but this is your present work Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept But O! do not leave the work that God sets you about I know it is your duty to provide for the bodies of your Children but consider the danger of thy Soul what guilt thou art under and give the Lord no rest till he hath blotted out all thy sin and art assured that he will remember it no more Relieve not thy self with the general bounty of God or with the free grace and rich mercy of God whilst thou neglectest to cry to God for grace and mercy He will be sought unto by the house of Israel Prize thy condition that thou art alive to pray thou mightst have been in Hell there to howl for ever and ever Seek the Lord whilst he may be found Seek in time before it be too late And if thou doubtest whether thou hast an interest in Christ and the promises because of thy hideous transgressions yet remember the gracious words that tell once from the mouth of Christ to the Samaritan John 4.10 If thou didst know the gift of God thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living water Though thou art unworthy of Childrens bread and hast deserved to be cast forth among the dogs yet thou hast to do with a bountifull and mercifull Lord and therefore be not cast down so as to be discouraged from waiting on the Lord. It was ill said of him why should I wait on the Lord any longer There is no hope I would have thee take better words into thy mouth and say Lord I am unworthy to be the object of thy mercy unworthy to live worthy to be denyed because thou didst call and I did not hear therefore if I call thou mayst justly turn me off in thy fury thou mightest answer me by terrible things in righteousness But deal not with me according to my deservings O! make me the great instance of the power of thy grace let thy mercy in pardoning be great exceeding great O God! Do not delay the suing out thy pardon Without delay away quickly to the Throne of Grace Remember Faelix put off his work till some other time There is danger in delays lest your sense of sin and sorrow for it vanish and decay blow up the first sparks of grace lest they go out and dye again take the first advantages of the grace of God Hast thou an inclination to humble thy self to pray to seek Gods face improve it quickly lest the wrath of God who is nighly provoked already against thee break form upon thee and there be no remedy Do not you know that you have lost the sense of the love of God But have you also lost all sense of Gods wrath Do not you wonder you escape that you are yet alive that you are not free among the dead incorporated with the Hypocrites and damned crew Will you dare you go on in your hardness of heart Will you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath O! God forbid Lay by the world thy false friend thy treacherous Joab that hath smitten to the earth with its kisses and its smiles Here is a business on which thy life the life of thy precious Soul depends Prepare to meet thy God wrath is gone out from the Lord howl weep cry it may be you shall be hid is the day of the Lords wrath it may be your sins shall be forgiven Though the law be a looking-glass to shew you your spots the Baver under the law was made of looking-glosses yet it cannot cleanse you it is the Gospel alone that pardons Away ye wandring Sheep to the great Shepheard of your Souls Hebr. 13.20 great he is in affection and love to his flock he hath laid down his life for you he hath purchased you with his own bloud Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb is most true of Christ and
loath your services but he cannot take any delight in your persons yea you cannot be restored into his love and favour without Repentance there is no Remission Repent ye therefore and be converted Act. 3.19 that your sins may be blotted out And what have you no mind to be forgiven your own and your other mens sins Deus noâ— infund it oleum misericordiae nisi in vas contritum Bernard have you no will to be at peace with God and to be restored into his love and favour Are you content that all these and innumerable sins more should be charged upon your Account O then beg of God to break your hearts for and from your sins A broken vessel a broken heart will hold best the oyl of mercy The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God! thou wilt not despise 6. But their Repentance would exceedingly please God and refresh his Ministers Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing your Repentance will be so pleasing and so reviving to your even broken-hearted Ministers Your Repentance will more please God than all your sins have displeased him Though your sins have very much displeased him yet he was loth to depart from you he hath departed only gradually But if you will repent he will readily return in his departure he hath gone as it were a Snayles pace but if you will return he will return with speed he will turn towards you and fall upon your Necks and kiss you and not upbraid you with any of your former miscarriages And O! what a refreshing will it be to your fainting Ministers to see you returning Prodigals Believe it our Chains would be worn as Bracelets and Jewells and our Exiles would be a Paradise to us did we see you putting your mouths in the dust and crying out because of all your Provocations It is your security your seeking great things for your selves your pride your foolish expectations of our returns whilst you and we are so unfit for such a mercy that is our greatest burden and lies heavier on us than the wrath of any save of God Almighty God knoweth who knoweth the secrets of our Souls that we could be contented to be banished from the face of men so that you were delivered from the power of your lusts If you live and stand fast in the faith we live and though we have nothing yet we possess all things joying and rejoycing to see your Zeal your Repentance your Indignations and Revenges against your sins But we is unto us we fear we have spent our Lungs our Time our Studies our Life in vain upon you whilst we behold your benummedness your insensibleness of all the tokens of Gods displeasure by reason of your transgressions And will you add affliction to the afflicted Is it not enough that we are turned out of the Vineyard where we loved our work better than our lives Is it not enough that we are cast forth from among our People and Friends to seek bread for our selves and little ones from door to door But will you have a greater hand in our misery than any others Will you lay the greatest load of trouble upon us whilst others oppress our outward man will you go on to vex our Spirits Have pitty upon us O Children whom we have begotten in the Gospel you call us your Spiritual Fathers you did receive us as Angels yea as Jesus Christ you would have plucked out your eyes to do us good O! now what do we beg not to have your eyes out but fill'd fill'd with tears Gal. 4.15 and your hearts fill'd with sorrow for hatred and indignation against your sins Weep not for us but weep for your selves And is there not a cause Your tears will be our meat and drink a great part of our joy will arise from seeing your godly sorrow Hagar was not more refeshed with her fountain than we shall be to find your heads as waters and your eyes as fountains of tears and you weeping day and night for your own and others provocations Let it suffice you that you have so long grieved us and Christ by your Security Self-love Worldliness Pride and Passions O that now the Egyptians that we have seen among you may be seen alive no more Let us not be hastned to our graves by your impenitencies and stubborn departures from God We are troubled to find still among you and upon you those very sins which have laid Kingdoms and Churches wast and yet you secure as if the Lord had powred out a Spirit of slumber upon you those very sins which overthrow the Churches of Judea and Asia are found among you and will you not repent and do your first works It grieves us to the heart to see sins run through you as water through a Mill and you regard it not We beseech you out of love to God to your own Souls and to us and our comforts that you would cease to do evil and learn to do well Be moved with fear and prepare an Ark. The old world would not believe Noah But the Lord made them to know he was a Prophet of Righteousness We pitty your Souls we are troubled to see what confidence you put in uncertain Signs and Prognostications which beget carelessness and security in you and how little you fear the threatnings of most dreadfull Judgements against those very sins you have lived in many a sad thought we have about you whilst we see your fickleness inconstancy stupidity and ungrounded because unscriptural hopes O! return return repent repent that we may be able to say ye are our joy our Crown our rejoycing in the day of Christ 7. 〈◊〉 or â—â—ver for ought they know And Lastly Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins even by what may be seen in this Glass seeing now God gives you not only time to Repent but an opportunity of Repentance and such an one as if you neglect it you may never have the like again When time and the means are married and lodged together saith one they beget opportunity Now time and means meet together to effect your Repentance If this opportunity be lost you may never have another and if you should never have any other your case is desperate Opportunities cannot be pray'd or wept back again Heb. 12.17 Esau's instance puts it out of all doubt In Gods opportunity it is an easie thing to repent but if this opportunity should be lost by you which God forbid it may be impossible for you to repent See Mr. Fenners danger of deferring repentance folio 35 36. God may justly give you up to Judicial impenitency It may be God doth now by this Treatise speak home unto thy Soul now it may be God warms thy heart now it may be God works in thee good thoughts and desires Now is thy day of grace But to use the words of one