done Now this is your way to level your accounts concerning your sins to repent and amend all your evils and to sue out your pardon through Faith in the bloud of Christ And now you see what 't is to lay hold on God to continue his presence with us by casting away our Idols by laying hold on his Covenant by recovering into Communion getting into an holy acquaintance with God living so that you will both accept of God and be accepted with him maintaining a frequent entercourse betwixt the Lord and your souls letting him hear often from you and listening and longing to hear as often from him by keeping even reckonings betwixt the Lord and you keeping a reckoning of your mercies and a reckoning of your sins by levelling your accounts by walking worthy of your mercies by getting the scores of your sins crossed washed away by repentance and pardoned by the bloud of Christ Here 's that you have to do if you would take hold of God and continue his presence with you Friends is the Lord within you I hope he is in many of you would you that he abide and continue with you I know you would you that are Christians I know you would all say Wo to me if the Lord depart from me I know it is the desire of every sincere heart among you let the Lord dwell in me and walk in me as he hath said he will let Christ dwell in mine heart by faith Lord leave me not take not thy Holy Spirit from me if all the Friends I have in the world forsake me if all the comforts I have under Heaven fail me if mine house must go and mine estate go and my health go and my life go yet let not the Lord depart from me let the Lord still dwell in my soul dwell in me as my Teacher and Instructor dwell in me as my governour and my guide dwell in me as my portion and treasure dwell in me as my Refuge and Protector let but the Lord God continue with me and influence me by his Grace and quicken me by his Spirit and guide me by his Counsels and hold me by his Right Hand and lift up the light of his Countenance upon me and so long mine heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope in this hope that he will shew me the Path of Life I shall behold his Face in Righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with his Likeness Why is this your mind is this your desire that it may be thus with you why now you know what you have to do that it may be so Beloved you have much the more reason to hearken to these instructions and hereby to secure the continuance of the Lord in your own hearts in such a time as this wherein there are so many tokens of his being about to depart out of our Congregations to shut up the Doors of his House against us O how will it be if when the days shall come wherein we shall lose our opportunities of meeting the Lord in the Congregation how very sad will it be if we should in such a time not find him within us if the Word of the Lord should be thrust out from his House and the Spirit of the Lord should be withdrawn from our Hearts if with our publick communion we should lose our secret communion if instead of finding comfort in our retirements to God he should hide his Face from our Souls if instead of speaking comfortably he should speak roughly to us if this should be his Word to us in such a day Now see what thou hast done now remember thy wantonness and thy worldliness thy hypocrisie and thy backslidings and triflings out thy day of grace of these things thou hast been warned aforehand but wouldst not lay them to heart and now reap the fruit of thy folly think not to have countenance from me and comfort from me in the day of distress whom thou hast so mocked and slighted in thy prosperity If men be angry let them be angry if men will persecute let them persecute and look for no relief from me O what if the Lord should speak thus to any of your Souls in the days of darkness that may come how dreadful dark will it then be or what if he should say nothing but leave thee a blind and hardned and senseless Soul wasting away and growing worse and worse and not at all affected with his severe providences How if it should be thus O Friends that this may not be your case that God should depart from his House and your Souls together know that you are so much the more concerned to give special heed to the Instructions you have received for the laying such hold upon him that he may continue with your hearts if he should not be intreated but depart from his House and Congregations 4. Stirring Religion will take hold of God What might have been said to this is in great part prevented by what hath been said already yet something I shall add and shew 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 2. That stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 1. Negatively not headiness in Religion an hot and mistaken Zeal about the lower and more uncertain things of Religion not such a Spirit of Fire which was in those Disciples Luke 9.54 who would needs call for Fire from Heaven to destroy and consume those that were not Followers of them not a stirring up of strife and contention a making breaches and divisions and propagating of our own Opinions by censuring and judging those that are otherwise minded and are not in every thing according to our own Size Such as these are some of those perilous persons which the Apostle warns Christians not to imitate but to take heed of of whom he says 2 Tim. 3.2 they are Proud Boasters False Accusers or make-bates fierce despisers of them that are good heady highminded and after all their blustering against others have but a form of Godliness denying the power thereof from such says he turn away take heed of them and take heed of being leavened with such a Spirit This then this headiness and fierceness and hot censoriousness upon the account of Religion this is not the stirring Religion I mean 2. Positively An humble active lively zealous prosecuting or pursuing that which is Religion indeed or the substance of sincere Christianity Some vain ones there are who upon the hearing this headiness and fierceness this hot and mistaken zeal blamed and decryed will turn the edge of such Reproofs against Godly Zeal and all fervour and activity for God and every one that goes beyond the drowsie sleepy multitude of Professors is cried out against as one of these heady highminded ones Such is the craft of the Devil that if he cannot blow up coals of wildfire that under the pretence of kindling
where we must eternally reap the fruit of our doings here Do we live as Men that have that Eternity in our eye and the lively sense upon our hearts of that Death and Judgment that glorious Reward and eternal Punishment that is before us Sure we do not O how few of us do thus live Do we Pray and Hear and Buy and Sell and Converse in the World as Men that see and look for so great a change Was there never a time when we felt more of the Eternal things upon our hearts than now Was there never a time when we were more serious and in good earnest in our Religion When we were more deeply engaged in laying up Treasure in Heaven and making an escape from the Wrath to come Was there never a time when such serious questions What must I do to be Saved What if I should be Damned shut out of the everlasting Kingdom shut up in everlasting darkness What may I do to please God and to walk worthy of his holy Calling and to make sure of a part in Christ Was there never a time when such Questions were more ordinarily put than now and when we were more solicitous about the having them answered 2. How is it with our particular Graces and inward vital Operations Do we retain our first Faith Do we hold out in our first Love Where are those warm and lively affections that discovered themselves in the infancy of our new Birth Time was when some of us were all in a flame of Love and Life and Zeal for God when we had melting affections mourning tender hearts when our spirits were hotly working within us about God and the things of God when we could not live nor be at ease but under the influences of Heaven and the illapses and intimations of the Divine Love and good will to our souls when Communion with God and entercourses with Heaven were sweeter to us than our appointed Food was there never such a time with some of you And is it so now Or are not these matters sadly changed with you from what they once were May you not say with the Psalmist Psal 77.3.5 I remember the days of old and am troubled I remember my pleasant things my pleasant Houses the sweet and delightful entercourses I had with the Lord I remember these things and am troubled to see what a fall there is from what once I enjoyed 3. And how is it in your duties and in your lives Is the old spirit of Prayer kept up with you Hath the Lord such constant Visits such affectionate Visits from you as he was wont to have Are your Sighs are your Tears are your Souls poured out in Praying and in striving and wrestling with the Lord in Prayer as formerly they have been And is there such a vein of serious Religion running through your whole lives Do you eat and drink work together and converse together in the Spirituality and singleness of heart which the Primitive Christians did Act. 2.46 and which sometimes some of you did Is it your care to exhort and quicken and build up and provoke one another to love and to good works Is there that Watchfulness over your goings that diligence in instructing in governing and educating your Families in the fear and knowledge and worship of God as hath been Or must you not take up a Lamentation over your selves and fall to judging and condemning your selves some of you at least upon most of these accounts and cry out in bitterness O my soul how art thou fallen Friends let not these words pass as words of course let them enter into your hearts and stick in your sides and be a wound in your very souls Let me upon all this that hath been said put the question yet again to you all How is it with you How is it with your souls What do ye hold your own or are ye at a loss What Prospering or Perishing Flourishing or Withering Upon the wing and mounting upwards as the Eagles or upon the Dust with the Worms Friends pray consider who among you can say I thank the Lord my soul is upon the increasing hand through the grace of God my Soul is maintained in Life and I am reaching forward and getting a little ground Heaven-ward daily through rich mercy the Grace that hath been bestowed on me hath not been bestowed in vain I cannot deny the goodness of God to me I have good hopes that it 's something better with me than it has been Some of you I hope can speak thus to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with you But I fear too many even of you that are Professors must give a sadder Answer How is it with my soul O the Lord be merciful to me 't is but in a poor and pittiful case Lord I pine Lord I am fallen I am fallen With my outward man 't is well enough but O mine inner man withers my Religion vanisheth my poor soul languisheth my grace perisheth much of it is lost and that which remains is dying daily I took it all along to be well enough but now I think on 't O 't is a miserable decay that is grown upon me Beloved I have told you already what complaints there are of decays from other places and now consider is not the Moth come into this Congregation Is not the Worm eating at our root also Compare the present spirit and temper that is too generally upon us with what it was in our first meetings at Seimours Court sure there appeared another manner of warm lively serious affectionate spirit then than is to be found but in very few of us at this day What hath so many years Preaching and Praying and Sacraments we have had since had no better success than this Have you been hearing all this while to your loss and Praying to your loss and had Sacraments to your loss O that every one of you now would lay his hand on his own heart and faithfully enquire where be the decayed souls among us Lord is it I Lord am not I one of them Do not think now to excuse the matter do not tell me we hope 't is not so bad your fear of us is more than you have ground for O that I were mistaken in you that it were better with you then according to my Jealousies But I must tell you if you have not the same fears some of you concerning your selves I doubt 't is because you have no more observed your selves nor so throughly considered your selves how 't is with you Well let these hints humble us and lay us low before the Lord. Let these words startle us and awaken us and prepare us towards our recovery Thus much touching the partial decay 2. There is a total decay or Apostasie from the Faith If those that are real Christians do not yet many high Professors may ye and are become Apostates from Christ Such as these 1. Never brought
on his fidelity as quiets and sustains and stays their hearts in hope of his help and in peace and comfort and so 't is exprest Isa 50.10 Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Christians have their doubts and their fears and their darkness and their tempests even their hearts also are sometimes like a troubled Sea and how sadly are they tossed with the Tempests But how do they stand under all this How is it that they are not sunk and over-whelmed and utterly lost in all this Their trust is their strength they stay themselves upon the Lord. I am in a poor case Lord hard beset hard bestead I know not what to do nor what to make of my self nor how to help my self only mine Eyes are towards thee thou art my Rock and my Refuge I have given this soul of mine to thee 't is thine own and thereupon I have committed it to thy custody Look thou to it Lord thou hast undertataken for me and that shall satisfie me there I will lean I will stay I will repose my fearing wearied soul 2. This trust in Christ makes much for our improvement and establishment in Christianity For 1. It is our taking hold on Christ As the Anchor takes hold on the Rock as the Root takes hold on the Tree so Faith takes hold on Christ and the higher our Believing is grown up into affiance or trusting the stronger is its hold 2. It will answer to all our doubts and fears and to all the doubting questions that the anxious soul will be pulling in for resolution and satisfaction which whilst they remain unresolved he is never like to go comfortably or prosperously on his way There are amongst Multitudes of others these three great cases it sees before it which it must have resolution in 1. Saith the soul I have a Wilderness to pass through this world is a Wilderness and the time of my Life is my Travelling through this Wilderness wherein I shall find much work and hard usage who shall help me through this Wilderness 2. I have a Jordain to pass over I must pass through the Vale of the shaddow of Death I must dye who shall bring me over Jordain 3. I have an Inheritance that lyes beyond the River on the other side Death who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance Trust answers to all to all the doubts that arise in these three cases The first case is most immediately proper to our business in hand but I shall crave leave to speak a few words also to the two latter which will be at least of this use to knock in what I shall speak upon the former 1. Case I have a Wilderness to pass through the time of my life is a passing through the Wilderness who shall help me through it And here the soul will put two particular questions 1. Who shall lead me my way through the VVilderness Here are many ways many false ways many cross ways and but one that is the right way How shall I hit my may to Heaven the right way that leads thither-wards Who will shew me and lead me in this way Here Trust answers Christ will do it I lean upon him to be my Moses to lead me in the way that I should go Thou wilt guide me with thy Councel Psal 73.24 Christ hath gone the way before his Saints and he will shew them his steps to direct them Therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 12.2 Run the Race looking to Jesus as for encouragement so for direction follow not the foot-steps of the Sheep only but follow the foot-steps of the Shepheard and walk on as he walked before thee But how shall I find the way or the steps wherein Christ walked Jer. 10.23 It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps How can a Man understand his own ways Prov. 20.24 There are many hard and intricate cases where I may be at a stand and not know which way to take Their answer is as Psal 143.8 In thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul to thee and v. 10. Thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of Vprightness I trust thou wilt thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and bring me to glory 2. Question Who shall supply and sustain me in the Wilderness This World is a dry and barren Land I must have Bread to strengthen me I must have water to refresh me whence shall I be supplyed Why I trust in Christ for supplyes He will give me Manna will rain down Bread from Heaven for me He will be a springing Rock to me of whose streams I shall be refreshed Such a Rock there was in the Wilderness of old and the Apostle tells me 1 Cor. 10.4 This Rock was Christ Christians are sensible that their stock of Provisions which they carry with them will not last that little Grace they have those little Comforts they have will be quickly spent and wasted if there be not continually fresh supplyes Whence shall I be supplyed Trust answers as the Apostle in another case Phil. 4.19 My God will supply all my wants according to the Riches of his Grace by Christ Jesus I trust he will I am often as a dry Tree my soul within me is as a barren Wilderness I have every day my work coming upon me work for mine own Soul work for my Family work for my Friends and Enemies I have every day my wants coming upon me I want Faith I want Love I want Life and Zeal and Strength O how poor and low is it with me my Soul hungreth and thirsteth and fainteth within me and now what shall I do I will get me to the Rock and there will I trust I will trust in Christ his Grace shall be sufficient for me 2 Cor. 12.9 of his fulness I hope to receive even Grace for Grace Christians is this at any time the case of your souls Are you discouraged by your Poverty and Barrenness Do you complain how weak and insufficient you are for your work how low and scant 't is with you in respect of Grace and Strength Do you doubt how you shall hold up and hold on Do you thirst and faint after the influences of Heaven Do you fear you shall wast and wither and consume away in your souls Penury O to the Rock to the Rock go to Christ and trust him for supplies There are these three things that he looks you should depend upon him for 1. For the continued influence of his Grace whereby to hold and maintain your souls in life 2. For assistance in Duty for his Spirit to help your Infirmities and to work your works in you 3. For all needful and necessary Comforts You are yet but Children and as Children you have not your stock in your own hands you have but from hand to mouth every day you will need new provisions You are Children
on a Flower and sometimes on a Dunghill but stays nowhere Our better thoughts are so transient and in and out that they are to no purpose Sometimes one Scripture comes to mind but before any thing is made of it away from that to another and another till all be forgotten and become unfruitful Sometimes one Duty is thought upon then off from that to another sometimes a little glance heavenward by and by we fall and pitch upon the earth one thought thrusts out another till all that 's good be lost Such hoverings up and down there are from this thing to that as brings an utter confusion in the heart These also may be reckoned among our vain thoughts which we are cautioned against Jer. 4.14 How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Not only our thoughts of vanity but our thinking of good things in vain and to no purpose these also are vain thoughts Exercise your thoughts upon good things upon the matters of God and your Souls and exercise them to purpose on them That your thoughts may be stirring thoughts so as to stir up your hearts towards God and Godliness they must be 1. Searching thoughts looking upon and looking into the things of God Ps 77.6 My spirit made diligent search Searching looks deep into things There are 3 great deeps that we should be searching into the deep of the Heart and what we can find there either of good or evil the deep of the Pit the Infernal Pit for what we may find there to awaken us and the deep mysteries of God and his Gospel for what we can find there to keep us doing If you would be thinking more what there is within you what a world of wickedness there is in your hearts if you would be thinking oftner what there is beneath what a dismal place your sins are preparing for you if you would be thinking more of the mysteries of God and Godliness of the Counsels and instructions and ways of God of the kindnesses and compassions of God of the severities and wrath of God and looking narrowly and deeply into them such thoughts as these would be awakening stirring thoughts but then they must be 2. Working thoughts looking into these things and staying and dwelling and working upon them Think upon your evil hearts and never leave thinking and thinking till you be affected with what you find in them think till your hearts ake for the evil you see in them think upon your sin till your heatts tremble and turn from your sins 'T was said of Peter Mat. 14.72 When he thought thereon he wept Psalm 119.59 I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies Think on all your evils till your hearts be thus affected with them and thereupon be put to flight to make an hasty escape from them Think on God and on Holiness and on Grace till your hearts be athirst for God and his Grace so as to put your selves upon following hard after him Think on these things with an applicatory eye to yourselves Yet again bethink your selves whether you have escaped or how you may escape the evils that are within or before you whether you have obtained or how you may obtain the good things you desire Think how 't is with you how much you are under the power of sin how short you are of the Grace of God or if you have any how very low 't is with your Souls in this respect how little you have gotten or how much you have lost And when you find how bad 't is then think farther Is it good for me is it safe for me to continue at this pass is there any hope that I may recover out of this case is it worth my pains to seek out after an escape what shall I do shall I venture on in this idle trifling carnal way as I have done shall I venture an eternal loss an eternal misery and wo rather than put my self to it to recover shall I venture my soul on these Cobwebs these rotten and deceitful Boughs that I have hang'd mine hopes upon mine heart tells me I may be saved however though I have never more grace than I have now though I never take more care than I do now I hope for all that it may be well at last shall I venture all upon such an hope shall I venture to sin in hope and sleep in hope and loyter in hope that yet I shall obtain mercy is it not most evident that the hope that serves for nothing but to secure men in a carnal sinful careless way is a lying hope a damning hope 'T is a lye this carnal hope 't is a lye that I have in my right hand I shall be undone by it for ever and ever there 's no hope there 's no hope but I shall be lost and perish eternally unless I shake off my sins and shake up mine heart to follow on after the Lord. Friends would not such thoughts as these be stirring thoughts could you sleep in your sins or under your backslidings were you more exercised in such thoughts as these O put upon such thoughts think of the sad case your Souls are in and think till you weep over your selves think of the dreadful things you are in danger of and think till you tremble think of the things you have received and heard from the Lord and think till they pierce and enter into your Souls The many things that I have spoken to you in this matter let them not be forgotten but recover them back to your minds and call them over in your thoughts and set your hearts a working thus upon them All the words I can speak all the counsels I can give you for your recovery they will never do you good nor work a cure if you set not your hearts on work upon them as you know your bodily food will never nourish you nor your Physick cure you unless nature work both with your Food and Physick Friends I beseech you in the Lord that you deny me not this request that you will every one of you bestow some such thoughts upon your souls what will you deny me in this will you not grant me thus much I do not now perswade you to spend your money upon your souls to be at the charge of all your substance for your souls recovery this is that at present that I would desire of you that you would every day spend some serious thoughts about them and what will you not do thus much not spare a few thoughts for your eternal welfare Is not the scaping the fire worth your thinking of I know you will say O 't is worth thinking and working and running and labouring all that ever I can and spending all that ever I have to save my life to save my soul every one of you will say so and yet for all that I doubt there are many of you that will not do this little thing to spend some
with joy and my mouth with praise Brethren such sensible apprehensions of the excellency and blessedness of that prosperity in religion which I have been pressing you to what would it work what would it bring forth less than such strong desires O let my soul be in such a case What would I desire more how would I despise and trample on the beauty and glory of the world and leave such dotages upon the best to be found here to the men of this world who know no better things O how heartily could I then say with the Apostle Phil. 3.7 8 9. What things were gain to me I now count them loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I am content to suffer the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him and may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Such ardent desires would a sense of the excellency of Christ and a prosperous Christian life bring forth O that I might apprehend O that I might attain to such a blessed state and such ardent desires would bring forth a zealous prosecution and following after if by any means possible we might attain and get up unto it O friends that you would set to it thus to stir up your desires You say I desire I desire I desire to please God and to follow God more fully and more freely than I do but it is so dully and so coldly that you desire it that it comes to nothing and for ought I know such cold desires may burn with you in Hell at last O get an abatement of your carnal desires never look to desire heartily after an heavenly life till you have crucified and conquered your earthly desires Consider more thorowly your necessities consider the miserable poverty of your souls and barrenness of your lives the great power that this World hath still upon you and your necessity of getting it conquered and do not barely say I could wish it were better with me wishing will never do it but bring your hearts to it to say in good earnest I must I must get mine heart into a better frame I must get me to a better life a necessity lies on me to look to it and labour for it and then look upon the blessedness and comfort of such a prosperous flourishing state of soul and look till your hearts be enamoured of it and this is it that will engage you mightily in the effectual following after it 4. Stir up hope Maybe you 'll say I do desire it were better with me I see it would be happy for me if I could obtain but the Lord help me I have little hope of it I have desired so long and waited so long and yet it comes not but my poor and barren soul after all still abides in the same dead and lifeless state as ever and is so far short and at so great a distance from that blessed state that I am even quite discouraged and am in doubt I shall never obtain Be not discouraged hope in God To stir up this hope consider 1. The promise of God 2. The earnest that you have already received 1. Consider the promise of God The hope of the Saints is called Acts 26.6 the hope of the promise of God The promise which is the foundation of our hope is our encouragement against all despondencies Amongst the many promises that we have for our encouragement I shall mention one Matth. 7.7 c. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth c. What man of you if his son ask bread will he give him a stone c. If ye being evil know how to give good things to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask it of him Here I shall shew 1. The matter of the promise or what God will give that is good things In Luke 11.13 't is expressed give the holy spirit there 's all that you need in one word In giving the holy Spirit is included the giving all good things What is it you want to help up your weak and languishing souls Is it a spirit of Wisdom and Understanding that you want is it a spirit of Holiness is it a spirit of Grace and Supplication is it a spirit of Faith and of Power is it the teachings the motions the quicknings the conduct of the Spirit How is it with them that are taught by the Spirit led by the Spirit worship God in the Spirit walk in the Spirit So shall it be with you if ye obtain the holy Spirit upon your asking of him This grace the grace of the Spirit shall be sufficient for you to make the dry tree to sprout and the barren to bring forth fruit 2. The means of obtaining this promise Ask seek knock this notes prayer importunity in prayer and the use of all means that must go along with prayer Ask seek knock pray and pray instantly and follow on after the Lord and ye shall have ye shall obtain this gracious this all-sufficient â—pirit shall be yours 3. The assurance of prevailing This is 1. From the Promise ye shall have ye shall find it shall be opened Heaven shall be opened the heart and the hand of the all-sufficient God the bowels of Christ the Covenant all the Treasures of the Gospel shall be opened to you Thou that art in fear that the heart of the Lord is streightned towards thee that the bowels of his compassion are shut up against thee that the treasures of the Gospel are all lock'd up from thee ask and knock and all shall be opened If all the help that is in Heaven if all the riches of Christ if all the treasures of the Gospel will recover and raise up that weak and withering soul of thine take the right course and thou shalt have it all these treasures shall be opened thou hast my word for it the word of promise which God that cannot lye hath given thee to put thee out of doubt 2. From experience Every one that asketh receiveth c. There 's no man in the world that hath taken this course that ever failed find out any one man if thou canst that can say God hath been worse to me than his word and surely thou mayest boldly say He that never failed any one of his Servants I have good hope he will not fail me 3. From the relation of God to his Saints He is their Father whence he reasons thus If the Fathers of their flesh will not deny the Children of their own bowels which of you if his Son ask bread c. if the Fathers of our flesh will not deny the
is in the heart Men usually unless it be the Hypocrite speak according to what is in their hearts the proud heart speaketh proud things the vain heart speaketh vain things and the holy heart speaketh holy things 2. 'T is the abundance of the heart that 's most apt to come forth at the lips In some hearts there is a little good but much evil in others there is much good and less evil 't is that which abounds in the heart that which is most in the heart that hath the command of the tongue See that there be Grace in your hearts and that the grace of God abound in you a little grace will not do to set your tongues agoing 't is the abundance of the heard that which most abounds within that will have the easiest and most ordinary vent Job 32.18 I am full of matter my spirit within me constraineth me my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer I am full of matter and therefore will I speak an heart full of grace must and will have a vent by the speech The holy spirit within us will constrain us where there is little good coming forth 't is a sign there is not so much as there should be within We may pretend inability and unaptness to speak as the reason of our barrenness of holy discourse that sometimes may be something that hinders but mostly the reason is there wants matter within We have reason to suspect that 't is from want of grace rather than from want of utterance that no more savoury and spiritual and useful words come from us A full heart will be the best help for a stammering tongue Christians let us get an increase of inward grace let us get more of the holy spirit of a spirit of life and love and power within us and our Friends and Acquaintance are like to hear of it oftner and to better purpose than they do Poor creatures that we are we are empty we are empty our insides have no good filling Be ye filled with the spirit faith the Apostle Ephes 5.18 speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and the more we speak thus to our selves the more freely shall we speak to others those that have but little grace are but Babes in Christ and Babes are but Infants that can't speak when the Infant is grown then he will find his Tongue In vain shall I exhort you to use your Tongues more for God till you be nursed up from Children to more strength in grace Would you ever come to be more fruitful and useful in your Generations this must be your way to it get you more inward grace 2. Let your thoughts be working more about holy things Thinking makes way for speaking what our thoughts run most upon that ordinarily our Tongues will run upon We cannot know each others thoughts but we may give a near guess at them by the words that are spoken Men whose thoughts are most in the Earth that are still thinking of their Money or thinking of their Trades or their Pleasures they can hardly forbear to be talking of these things And if our thoughts were more of God and of our Souls of Religion of Righteousness and Holiness we should certainly have more of God and of Heaven in our Mouths The Psalmist who said Ps 119.46 I will speak of thy Testimonies and will not be ashamed said also Ps 119.97 My meditation is of thee all the day long Christians get your thoughts to be well exercised be much in thinking think of the goodness and kindness and holiness and compassions of the Lord think of Christ of his love of his life of his death of his bowels and everlasting kindness think often what great things the Lord hath done for your souls think what ye would that he should do for you much thinking on God and his holy things will leave an holy tincture on your hearts will by degrees do much to the begetting holy habits and dispositions in you The Lord uses to convey down much of his holy Image and likeness upon the heart by the thoughts Friends such of you who find but little of the impress and image of God upon your hearts pray consider it if you be not too great strangers to the thoughts of God How often in a day are your thoughts in Heaven how very seldom is it that you are seriously looking either upwards or inwards No wonder if your tongues be so silent of God whilst your thoughts are such strangers from God Christians I doubt there are many of us that are much faulty here that our thoughts are no more taken up or working upon things spiritual and heavenly we should make the thoughts of God more precious and delightsom and more familiar and ordinary with us we should be able to say of our thoughts of God as the Psalmist does Ps 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand When I awake I am still with thee Thus it was with that holy man and thus it should be with us we should be much with the Lord in our thoughts but is it so with us Friends do but trace the goings of your souls for one day together and ask your hearts in the evening how much have I been with God this day how often have I been looking Heavenwards the Psalmists holy thoughts were so many that he could not count them and it may be some of ours have been so few that we cannot count them we can hardly remember any such thoughts we have had I know 't is hard work to keep your thoughts well imployed they will be wandering and roving more or less do what you can and you that observe your selves cannot but know it your selves how hard a work it is and I am afraid that some of us because 't is so hard a work will let it alone if their thoughts will gad and rove let them gad whither they will if they will not easily be gotten up to Heaven let them even stay below and so we let them take their own course and run whither they will I pray Friends this once put your selves every one of you to it and spend this one thought upon your selves think which hath most of your thoughts God or this World must you not if you speak truth speak the quite contrary to what the Psalmist speaks whilest he said How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them Must not you say how irksom are thy thoughts to me O Lord how small is the summe of them this argues an evil temper 't is sure a carnal frame your hearts are in where spiritual thoughts are so rare and difficult and I shall not wonder that 't is
of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Charity begins at home and so must all Religion Religion must begin at home in thine own heart first and then in thine house and thence thou wilt get more ability and aptness to diffuse it abroad Consider Beloved how is it with you at your homes upon this account what Religion is there going in your Families how often do your Children and your Servants hear any gracious words from you O Friends do all you can to make all yours Partakers of the Grace you have received Is the word of the Lord in thine own heart let your whole houshold hear oftner of it as you sit at your Tables as you sit at your fires or are walking in your houses 't is not now any stated way of instruction by reading the word repeating Sermons catechizing c. that I am dealing with you about but that in a way of familiar discourse you would be often dropping down some gracious words Friends have you a conscience towards God What conscience is that that will suffer you to live in the neglect of so known and necessary a duty can you with any conscience withhold bread or cloths from your own with what conscience then can you withhold counsel and instruction will you make yours partakers of all you have in the world only they shall have no benefit by the knowledge or the grace you have received Let your bowels instruct you to be kind to their souls and if you will by any arguments be perswaded to be thus kind to your own you will thereby be prepared and get such an holy habit as will make it more familiar and easie to you to live profitably amongst others Beloved Hearken to me in this thing will you hearken and try what you can do if ever you would stand up in your Generations as persons of any use or serviceableness to Christ and the interest of his Gospel if you would not stand in the companies you come into as insignificant Cyphers or as dumb Idols that have mouths and speak not be perswaded to use your tongues to better purpose at your homes 3. Next speak unto your Brethren and fellow Christians to those that fear the Lord. Mal. 3.16 Those that feared the Lord spake often one to another Ps 66.16 Come to me ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you We took sweet counsel together said the Psalmist Ps 55.14 That is we that were the Friends of the Lord or took our selves to be such we consulted together or counselled one another in the matters of God It may be you may be more abashed and afraid to speak to those that are without you know not how they will take it you doubt they may be dogs that will tear and rend you or at least that they may be swine and trample under feet and scorn and despise those holy words you speak unto them they may laugh at you and scoff at your counsels But now with your Brethren in the Lord you may be more free in confidence that they will accept and take in good part the good words you speak and will also be tender to you and bear with your infirmities if any be in speaking Labour for a more profitable converse Christians with Christians Believers with Believers this will be more easie because you may presume one another to be of the same Spirit your good words will be unto them acceptable words and the sense of that will invite you to speak Christians have mutual need one of another to help each other in the Lord and yet there is a great fault amongst us that we are not thus mutually helpful Like those foolish Quakers we have too many of our silent meetings as to our main concern scarce a serious or savoury word comes from us when we meet together Christians learn to amend this fault Let us as we have opportunity edifie and build up one another in the most holy Faith Jude 20. Let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Heb. 10.24 Friends do not tempt one another as perhaps too often you do to be vain as you are vain to be carnal as you are carnal Do not chil and damp each others spirits by your carnal and frothy and impertinent discourses but quicken one another do what you can to whet and set an edge upon each others spirits and holy affections What have you nothing to talk of when you come together but of your trades and your fields or of news or of the weather and such-like impertinences Have you not a God have you not Souls have you not a Country whether you are traveling are you not upon a Journey to that blessed Land have you not Friends and Kindred above that are worth the speaking of have you not enemies and temptations here below an evil world to travel through many corruptions and afflictions to conflict withal and have you not need of mutual counsel comfort encouragement and establishment one from another How is it that you can find room for so much idle talk when you have matters of such weight and moment to fill up your time when do you use to return with most comfort and satisfaction upon your spirits when you have been vainly merry together or when you have been edifying one another in the most holy faith 4. Then in the next place speak to those which are without to poor sinners that are yet in their sins Ps 51.13 Then will I teach transgressours thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Your special work possibly may lye amongst the houshold of faith but as you have opportunity you must do good to all Gal. 6.10 All that need you must be made partakers of your spirituals as well as of your temporal things Those that fear God it may be may sometimes hear some good words from you but have you never a word for those that fear not God O pity your poor unconverted neighbours and in your compassion do what you can to pull them out of the fire convince them of their sins warn them of their miseries perswade them back from the Devil invite and allure them in to Christ let them hear often of grace and sin of heaven and hell of death and judgment from your lips See how the compassions of the Church work towards the Heathen world Cant. 8.8 We have a little sister that hath no breasts what shall we do for our sister The poor Gentiles they have no Scriptures no Prophets no Ordinances no breasts of consolation we have a poor sister that hath no breasts what shall we do for her they pitied the poor Gentiles and in their pity they consider what they might do for them And why do not we carry it alike to unconvered sinners we have poor children poor neighbours that have no eyes no heart that have no Christ
fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
perpetually rising up to hinder any good that 's going in your hearts and bringing it to just nothing O how many good motions are quenched good purposes vacated good desires and hopes frustrated good beginnings discouraged your duties spoiled your peace broken your comforts clouded and lost and all by the malign influences of the Body of sin and the impetuousness of your lusts its members Here are those outcries that we sometimes hear from the tender-hearted wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar I am for peace but they are for war I am for peace yet not by a League but by a conquest of mine Enemies let them dye that I may be at rest but still they live and are mighty whilst I am for peace they are for war I can have no rest in my Spirit I am weary of my life because of these Daughters of Heth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Hear Lord cut down cast out these Sons of the Bond-woman that they be no longer a Plague or a Snare unto me Remember these Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem happy should I be could I reward them as they have served me happy should I be if I could take these Children and dash them against the stones And now you see another ground why you have great need to bestir your selves because of these stirring lusts that hinder and mischief you Let me here put in a word of application You will say But what should the consideration of these stirring lusts stir me up unto Why you have it hinted to you already to deal by them as they have dealt and will deal by you Have they given you a fall wrestle with them again till they fall before you Are they for war let them have enough of it war against those lusts that war against your Souls Doth the Flesh lust against the Spirit let the Spirit lust against the Flesh Stretch forth the Spear and draw not back your hand till they become as the Midianites which perished at Endor and became as the Dung of the Earth Mortifie mortifie them as lust hath even mortified your Religion so let your Religion mortifie Corruption Take the Apostle for your Patern O how did that great Apostle Paul bestir himself upon this account what compassionate complaints did he make against his lust Rom. 7. aforementioned The good that I would I do not the evil that I hate that do I when I would do good evil is present with me I find a law in my members war ring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death What earnest prayers did he make For this I besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12.8 I was often upon my knees begging the Lord that these Thorns in my flesh might be pulled out What assaults and batteries did he make upon them 1 Cor. 9.26 27. So fight I not as one that beateth the Air but I keep under my body and bring it to subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a Cast away What will become of me if I let these Lusts live O they will damn me at last After all my preaching of Christ to others I shall be a Reprobate from Christ a Cast away if I conquer not mine own sins one of the two they or I must die Paul was a chosen Vessel and by the Election of God secured from coming into condemnation but this necessary means must be used his sins must be slain or his soul cannot be saved Acts 27.31 Though God had promised him his life and the lives of all in the Ship yet says he unless the Mariners abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved And in the case of Jonah if Jonah had not been cast out of the Ship the Mariners had all been drowned Friends how often must I tell you this Whatever Faith and Hope in Christ you have whatever profession of Christ you have made whatever security you think you have for your Salvation yet if these Jonahs be not cast over board you will all be drowned in perdition and destruction your lusts will never leave enticing and tempting you from one sin to another from one degree of Apostasie to another till they have damned your Souls If you give them Rope and let them alone they will become such a Rope about your Neck as will drag you to the Pit How near have they brought you to it already are not some of you even become as dying men have not your souls and your hopes one foot in the Grave And if you die thus daily what can you expect but to be buried in flames See what your lusts have already done and tremble to think what they are still a doing you die outright if you save them alive And will you not yet stir have they eaten up your hearts and drunk up your spirits and left such leanness upon your souls Have they withered your branches and rotted your fruit and are these worms still gnawing at your root How can you but cry out Lord what am I come to Lord whether am I falling save Lord or I perish Arise O my Soul cut off the Limbs and smite through the Loyns of the Old Man nothing but his Death can secure his Life Friends how do these words take with you what do they work what nothing moved for all this Or do the Sleepers begin to wake O that it might be so Lord waken them 3. From the difficulty of holding on and getting on the way for those that stand It 's hard to keep our way and much more to make speed on in it and so hard that unless we bestir our selves to purpose we shall never come roundly on The way of Religion is an uphill-way Prov 15.24 The way of life is above to the Wise to depart from Hell beneath The Mark we are making toward stands upon a Hill there the City of God in which alone that perfection we are reaching after is to be found is situate The Holy Hill of Zion Jerusalem which is above Our Mark we are pressing to stands upon an Hill and our way to it is all rising ground and if we put not our selves hard to it we shall never get up Sinners are all running downward and therefore 't is they run so fast Behold how the whole herd of Sinners are all like that herd of swine of the Gaderens running headlong down and never like to stop till they be choked and drowned in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the same way are Backsliders running these also are running down after the herd of Swine But now a Christians way is upwards as 't is said Eccl. 3.21 the Spirit of a Man so much more the Spirit of a Christian ascends and goes upwards he does so
when he dies as the meaning there is and he must do so while he lives that 's his duty Col. 3.1 and his duty is his way that he should go his course is to be from bad to good and from good to better from weakness to strength yea and from strength to strength from a little to an increase of strength Christians you are all bound for Heaven Travellers to the Holy Hill your progress in holiness is your ascending and climbing up the Hill you are getting up the Jacobs Ladder which reaches the Hill-top Every Holy Day you live every Holy Duty you perform every little degree of Grace that 's added to you is your getting up so many rounds higher upon that Holy Ladder And this is it you have to do to be climbing and climbing higher and higher in the Grace of God and in the Works of Grace And this now is the reason of our so slow motion he that goes up the Hill takes the more time and the shorter steps yea and as one foot goes up the other slides back Our goings up at Hill are more painful Facilis descensus at revocare gradum hic labor hoc opus est And hence is it that there is so much need of the Goad and the Spur to prick us on Down at hill there 's more need of the Bridle than of the Spur. Even Christians have need of the bridle in this respect we need not be driven down to the lower Valleys which we have left we are too apt to be running back to the gains and the pleasures here below 't is to hasten our motion upward that we so much need the Rod and the Spur. Yea and we need to be quickned and warned to look well to the Bridle to restrain us from our cross and contrary motions Sure Friends our so eager running still after this world running after the riches and pleasures of this life evidence it sufficiently what need we have to be stirred up to look well to the Bridle As the Psalmist says Ps 39.1 I will hold my mouth so have we all need to hold our hearts as with a bridle to hold the bridle upon our wills affections and appetites Do not you see how apt you are to run too fast this way with what speed are some Professors riding downwards what haste do they make to be rich and to be great in this world The very Mountains of this Earth the Mountains of Pride and worldly Greatness and Glory the very Hill tops of Worldlings are but as low Valleys to a Christian he is still going down at hill while he is climbing up these worldly Mountains and therefore he needs the bridle to hold him in Consider it do we not still want to be warned and called upon and to call upon our selves to lay hold upon the bridle Behold Friends how many of us do suffer our carnal hearts to run their course how seldom do we give check to our fleshly desires how seldom do we speak such a word to our selves Stay O my heart not too fast O my Soul How little pains do we take to restrain our intemperate affections How very few self-bridling Christians self-checking Christians are here among us When we do hear such words I am afraid I am making too much haste to be rich I am afraid I allow my self too much liberty for the pleasing my flew Or if such a word be now and then let fall yet how little is it hearkned to Though we sometimes fear we run too fast this way yet on we let our selves run and do not lay a due restraint upon our selves Or if we do a little check our motions earthward yet do we effectually restrain them 'T is not enough that you say My heart needs a Bridle you must make use of the Bridle when you have stopped your hearts in their carnal course then you have done something Friends when you have considered and tried the difficulty of preventing your motions downwards and of speeding your way upwards then you will see farther what need you have to bestir your selves Lay altogether Is it certain that those that fall short of Religion or fall off from the Religion they have will be lost at last Is there such a distance betwixt what we are and what we should be Is it so hard to raise those that are fallen Is it so hard to discern the Soul-consumption till it be almost past cure Is there such an indisposition in consuming Souls to seek and such an opposition made by a stirring Devil and their stirring lusts against their obtaining their cure Is it so hard for those that stand to get on their way then certainly every one of us had need to awaken and look to our selves Thus much for the 2d General 3. What it is to take hold of God In answer to this 3 things 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us 2. Our Happiness is in this that the Lord is among us 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Presence of God with us and our preventing his Departure 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us God is then in us 1. When the Fear of God is within us 2. When the Face of God is upon us 1. When the fear of God is within us When the Spirit of the Lord the Image and Holiness of the Lord is within us which come all to one That Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts is the same as those Jer. 31. and Ezek. 36. I will put my spirit within you A new heart will I give you Or as Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you When God takes up his Habitation sets up his Throne in the hearts of his People undertakes the Government of them bp his Word and Spirit subdues them to himself reigns in righteousness in their Souls and makes them his voluntary Subjects and willing People when the Grace of God prevails and bears rule in their Hearts 'T is not Gods being in their Mouths the Grace of God in their Lips but his being in their Hearts his dwelling and living in their Hearts the real and inward Sanctification of them by his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in them This is the being of God in his People and this is the blessedness or happiness of his People When God is within us the Devil is cast out sin is thrown down the Kingdom of Satan is destroyed where the Kingdom of God is set up It is peoples misery to have the Devil in them to have Sin bear rule and therefore 't is there blessedness to have these Tyrants cut down and cast out and the Kingdom of God set up in their stead 2. When the Face of God is upon us when we live in his fear and live also in the light of his Countenance when he shines and smiles upon our hearts when he loves his Saints and shews them his Loves when