The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Jesus Christ establish strengthen settle you We should every one of us prove unstable souls and shall never stand if the God of Grace do not stablish us we are every one of us weak souls and shall certainly fall and come to nothing if the God of grace do not strengthen and settle us And therefore we had need to pray and that earnestly every one of us the God of all grace stregthen me the God of all grace stablish and settle this my weak and unstable soul Hence also Christians are exhorted Rom. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast keep that good thing which is committed unto thee And so we had need every one of us to call upon our selves hold fast O my soul hold fast to Christ hold fast to Holiness hast thou gotten any Grace any sound Religion into thine heart Hold it fast that thou lose it not Our Candle will burn dim there is a Thief in the Candle which will wast it away if it be not carefully snuffed and look'd to Grace in the heart is as a spark of fire in the Hearth it will be cover'd over with Ashes if it be not kept continually blowing the rust will eat out our Gold the Moth will fret out our Garments the Thief will steal away our Treasure if it be not watchfully maintained O what Losses do many Christians actually suffer through their carelesness and negligence loss in their Love loss in their Life and Zeal and all their holy Affections that little good that is in them may grow to such a decay that it may be ready to dye and come to nothing and as their Grace which is their Life decays so their vital operations fail with it All their sensible and sweet communion with God will be hindred the warm and lively workings of their hearts upon God their thoughts and meditations on God their desires after Him their delights in the Lord the secret entercourses of love betwixt the Lord and them will much cease when grace flags Whilst grace is kept alive the thoughts of God will be many and precious Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them Their Meditations of him will be sweet a reviving and refreshing to their hearts Have you none of you sometimes found it so Have you not poured out your souls into his Bosom and felt the Lord pouring in his Wine and his Oyle into yours Have you not walk'd with him upon the Mount and sate down under his shadow with great delight and found his Fruits sweet to your tast Have you not sometimes rejoyc'd in his Presence and felt the joy of the Lord to be your strength And then O what Love hath streamed forth O what Praises have been sent up to His Blessed Name This if ever you have experienced such Blessed seasons hath been maintained from the life of Grace in you and according as Grace sinks or gathers rust and grows dim so doe not all your vital operations fail with it I need not spend time to prove that such sinking and decaying of our Spirits our Graces and the comfortable operations of them may be the experiences of Christians do too fully and too frequently yield us undeniable proofes 2. There may be outward decays decays in point of practise There may be a neglect of the duties of Prayer Hearing Meditation Examining and taking an account of our selves Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob thou hast been weary of me O Israel I can seldom hear of thee thou hast been a Praying People a Sacrificing People but thou art grown weary of my worship How seldom art thou found in thy Closet or in the Congregation Thou art become a very Stranger to those duties which once were thy delight Or if duties be performed yet the heart and the life of them may be lost their Sacrifices may be without an heart if they bring their Incense yet there may be no fire to kindle it dead Praying cold Praying must suffice them O how do our Spirits often freeze in those Devotions which should kindle a fire in us Some Mens duties serve for nothing but to keep them asleep and to keep Conscience quiet which if there should be a total neglect would flye in there faces and awaken them There may be a decay in their Conversations they may decline from a Spiritual to a Carnal conversation from an Heavenly to an Earthly Life Those that had once escaped the pollutions of the world may be again entangled in the world 2 Pet. 2.20 There may be a declining from a savoury useful to an unsavoury and unprofitable life the Salt of the Earth may have lost its savour those very Tongues whose speech was used to be with Grace seasoned with Salt Ministring Grace to the Hearers may either be dumb and speak nothing or else be employed to speak Vanity How long may we be in some Professors company e're we hear a savoury word from their lips or if any good does come how heartless and lifeless is it In what they do they move like Puppets in what they speak they speak like Parrots that which they have learn'd by rote but without any true sense of what themselves do speak Such decays as these both inward decays and outward decays may be grown upon Christians Such declining souls are a miserable Spectacle the reproach of the Gospel the disgrace of Religion that are more like Carkases or Ghosts than living souls Idol Christians that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Tongues and speak not Feet and walk not Such who if they have any thing of Religion in them no body in the world is like to have the benefit of it nor themselves the comfort of it They may be stark dead and dryed up at the roots they may be meer Chaff and Stubble for ought any body else or themselves either can say to the contrary These dry Trees how-ever they stand in the Vineyard they may stand there for Fuel for the fire and not for Fruit. Such miserable Spectacles are withering Professors and yet what multitudes of them are there to be seen Friends let us consider our selves with respect to the perticulars mentioned if we have not denyed the Faith and become down-right Infidels and Atheists if we believe God and the Gospel and the great and wonderful things of the world to come yet are there not many of us that have lost the sense of the weight and importance of those great things Have not the lean and ill-favoured Kine eaten up the fat ones Have not the thin and the blighted Ears smitten and destroyed the full ones Hath not this Earth and the businesses thereof choaked up some of our hearts and left little sense of God or Immortality upon us Particularly consider 1. Do we live as People that do verily believe we must shortly be in another world
Friends 2. His comfort in this his hard lot Though all Men forsook him yet Christ stuck by him the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Christians this may be your case and let this be your comfort though none in the World should own you yet stick by Christ and he will stick by you in all your Tribulations 2. Again you must dye Sickness may Arrest you and cast you upon the Bed of Languishing and Death may stand at your Beds-feet and stare you in the face and the Grave will open its mouth for you to swallow you up Stick fast to Christ and look to find him standing by your Beds-side to comfort you O how will it be with you in that hour O I feel my Diseases and Languishing my Flesh wasteth my Bones ake my strength is lost my heart faints mine eyes fail my breath is departing and all tell me that Death is at the door ready to turn me into rottenness But O! where is my God Now for a sight of Christ Those that are gone back from Christ they may look and look and cry where is the Lord where is the Saviour But poor Wretches there 's no Christ to be seen Death comes and the Devil comes and Sin comes and puts a Sting into Death's tail and the poor Sinner is left to grapple with Death alone its gripes its pangs its terrors are upon him but no Redeemer to be had Whatever come upon thee this shall not thou that holdest thee by him shalt see Jesus standing by thee or if thou should'st not see him yet there he will not fail to be though it may be behind the Curtain yet ready to help thee in thy Conflict with this thy last Enemy 3. Yet again after Death thou must be brought to Judgment where thou wilt meet with a Righteous Judge a Malicious Accuser who will have many things to lay to thy charge All the ugly and frightful sins that ever thou hast done in thy life thou maist look to hear of from that Malicious mouth And how wilt thou stand before that dreadful Bar O there thou shalt be sure Even with these Eyes to behold thy Redeemer there he will certainly be for he is the Judge and there he will stick by thee for he is thine Advocate he hath said to thee Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Fear not how thy matters shall go in the Judgment I will be there I will secure thee from coming into Condemnation I will give thee the Crown of Life This will be the Portion of those that stick fast to Christ He will certainly stick to them stick to them in all the troubles of their lives stick to them in death and stand by them in the eternal Judgment O Christans stick fast hold fast what you have that no man take your Crown Rev. 2.11 Hold fast your holy Profession hold on your Confidence and your holy Conversation and thence-forth expect that Jesus will give you a Crown of Life 2. Stick closâ— to Christ or else you will never be likely to stick fast By how much the closer our adherence to Christ is by so much the firmer is our standing and the less danger of falling off The root of a Tree if it be loosned from the Earth is more easily plucked up it may be some small strings there may be that keep their hold which maintain it in life but if the main root be loosned it 's the more in danger of being blown down The cleaving of the soul to Christ is set forth by the cleaving together of Husband and Wife Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall be joyned to his Wife The word in the Original signifies shall be glued to his Wife What is glu'd together if it shrinks or gapes loses its hold Take heed of warping and shrinking from Christ the glue will give off if you do and when you have once lost your hold you know not whither you may be blown O take heed of growing to a distance of wandring from Christ keep you near him if you would stand firm 4. A confirmed habit of Religion An holy disposition and constitution of soul this is the very heart of the new Creature the Divine Nature whereof Christians are said to be made partakers 2 Pet. 1.4 'T is an holy Spring or Fountain within us which will flow forth in Religious actions and by how much the more maturity it 's ripened up into by so much the more freely will it flow forth An heart that is holily disposed and hath strong and fixed inclinations Heaven-ward will find Religion sweet and easie to it there will be the less need of force and constraint That fear which is so necessary to drive on a servile spirit will be of less use according to the measures that we have attained of this free spirit and ready mind Such Christians have that within them that will save them much of their labour and pains which would be otherwise needful Our work will be easie and we shall go on more prosperously in our way we shall both more abound in the work of the Lord and we shall go on more evenly and steadily in our course Religious acts where there are no Religious habits or where the habit is but weak will be both more seldom and more difficult and when they are done whatever they be for the matter of them yet it will be still questioned whether they be sincerely or savingly Religious Those that are carnally-minded their very Natures do prompt them and carry them on in their fleshly ways there 's the less need of temptation to sin the Devil may save much of his labour their sinful dispositions will carry them on fast enough O Christians let this be in your eye let this be it you aim at and labour for to habituate your selves to Holiness to get up to such a settled holy disposition to such a promptitude and readiness of mind that your hearts may flow forth towards God and Godliness that your inward stream may run Heaven-ward that you may feel a freedom and enlargement of heart towards Godliness of Life Carnal Professors both those that are wholly such and have nothing of the new Nature in them and those who though they have something of the Spirit yet have much of the Flesh remaining in them O how heavily and slowly do they drive on in the matters of Religion How backward are they to duty how hardly brought to it how quickly weary they had rather be any where then with God about any work than about the work of the Lord not only eating and drinking and playing and taking the pleasures of the Flesh but their hardest fleshly labours Ploughing and Threshing will easilier down with them than Praying or Holy Meditation or otherwise Conversing with God This is a wretched temper but is it not an ordinary temper Consider is it
It was to be a whole day as a Sabbath is 2. It must be wholly spent in the proper exercises of it a Sabbath of Rest it must be in this extraordinary duty there must be a laying aside our ordinary works and the whole time spent either in the publick or private worship of the day How seldom is it that we hear of such a Fast Some Hours as I said we sometimes spend together in seeking the Lord but when do we keep a Day to the Lord The morning of the day is usually as other mornings we are as busie at our Callings and may be more busie to dispatch our work out of hand and so come hot out of our shops and fields with our heads full and hearts full of our worldly affairs and as soon as ever the Publick Duty is over then away to our work again Is it such a Fast the Lord hath chosen will ye call this a Day of Humiliation Christians 't is well that you spend some Hours of Prayer but call not That a Day of Humiliation when ever you set apart a Day for Fasting let it be a Sabbath of Rest to you begin it in secret and separating your selves from all your unnecessary ordinary works hold you to the duty of the day as your strength will bear it to the end of the day Let the private part of it both before and after Publick Exercises be spent as your Lord's days are in suitable converses with God Were this more observed we might expect more of Spirit and of Power in the duty and more Fruits afterward 2. There is also a failing in the Abstinence of the Day How often have I known it that the Abstinence in a day of Humiliation hath been no more than the sparing of one Meal which hath been made up by a larger Break-fast and perhaps a Feast at least a full Meal at Supper and sometimes in the intervals of the duties Wine Cake Sweet-meats Tobacco and such like refreshments are allowed and used No particular Rules for the degree of Abstinence can be prescribed to all sorts of persons but this should be observed in the general 1. That there be such Abstinence used both as to quantity and quality as may best subserve the Spiritual duties of the day especially that of afflicting the Soul and therefore 2. That not only our full Meals be forborn but no Wine or strong Drink c. no not so much as a Pipe of Tobacco be allowed for the present pleasure or refreshment of it This latter concerning the use of Tobacco I the more particularly mention because I suppose it is not so much thought on many of those that use it much find great pleasure in the use of it and it may be can give no good account of their present need of it and yet will use it at such times If it be really needed as in some cases it may and by some persons let it be used But if Daniel would eat no pleasant Bread nor Flesh nor Wine came into his mouth Dan. 10.3 If the Jews be reproved Is 58.3 that in the day of their Fast they find their pleasure then any thing taken as an exhilarating refreshment which is not necessary to the present duty is a transgression Well this will be something towards the stirring us up in Prayer self-afflicting Abstinence 2. Especially a deep consideration of the case we are in will most effectually do it Qui nescit orare discat navigare Tempests will teach even profane Mariners to pray if any thing will do it afflictions will fetch out our very hearts in our Prayers and is not iniquity an affliction Sure if it be we are in an afflicted state for consider a little again how grievously iniquity doth abound I shall not now lead you a voyage over the Seas and remember you how 't is abroad how the Devil drives almost all the world before him filling them with all unrighteousness and what a small handful there are that follow Christ and how very little of serious Religion or Christianity and how much iniquity there is in those few Let us at present inquire how 't is with us at home may we not take the words of the Text into our mouths and complain We even we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind are taking us away Who can say Mine heart is clean I have kept me from mine iniquity who of us will not say My righteousness is as a filthy rag Or if any will not say thus concerning themselves must not we say it for them and of them To put in but a word of the profane Rout the open enemies of Religion and Righteousness whose wickedness hath left the shade of the twilight and the covert of the night and who are grown up to that impudence as to shew their shame in the Sun-light not to speak much neither of their Prophets and Teachers amongst whom though through mercy there are that deal faithfully yet some of them cannot others will not tell them of their transgressions or heal their hurt what Snuffs are there in some of the Candlesticks what dark Lanthorns are many of those that should be burning and shining lights Seers without eyes lame Leaders sickly Healers of the hurt of the daughter of our people such some of them are as if God had said concerning us as Micah 2.11 If any man walking in the spirit of falshood do lie and do prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be even the Prophet of this people To let these pass also let us consider how 't is with the Sinners in Zion with those of us who profess to have separated themselves from the follies and filthinesses of the Land to the Law of their God may not even these also complain Even we are as an unclean thing our filthiness is still in our skirts What is our Religion what is our Righteousness what a totter'd maimed thing is it Ah how little Religion is there in our Religion how little of the Spirit how little of the power how glorious soever the form appears How much unrighteousness is there mingled with our righteousness is not our Gold mix'd with Dross and our Wine with Water What a spirit of vanity what hypocrisie pride headiness censoriousness peevishness is there to be found and all cryed up for Religion What wood and hay and stubble is there built upon the foundation Christians and yet carnal Christians and yet earthly and sensual having not the Spirit how much soever of the Name of Religion in them And amongst them that were once better how many are there that must go on with the complaint and confess we all do fade as a leaf we wither and wast and consume and are even dried away And it is not here and there a fading leaf does not the Tree fade so that 't is but here and there a leaf that