time to look about me 't is high time to bestir me What shall I always loyter and trifle as I have done hitherto Shall I never take more care and more pains and be more busie for God and my Soul than I have hitherto been 'T is high time 't is high time to awaken and put on I may no longer live the rest of my time in the Flesh The time past of my life may suffice me to have wrought the will of the Gentiles As the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 3. The time past may suffice me It is enough it is long enough that I have liv'd this carnal life O 't is more then enough 't is too long 't is a shame that I have lived under the profession of Christianity so long as I have and yet my soul be brought to no better pass O 't is time that I awaken and bestir my self to amend my pace Cry out thus upon your selves awaken O my soul in time 't is time 't is high time 't is more than time to look about thee come my lazy heart up and be doing And if it be time to get more Grace than ever I had sure 't is high time to set to recovering what once I had and have now lost Is my soul at a loss and shall I always sit down by the loss Much I have lost already and shall I go on losing and losing till I have lost all Friends we cry unto you remember whence you have fallen and Repent recover your first love do your first works and when you will take the cry from our mouths and cry thus upon your selves then there 's hopes ye will recover 3. In crying unto the Lord for his help If Ministers cannot stir you if Conscience cannot stir you if ye cannot awaken your selves nor recover your selves yet the Lord God can do it the helper of Isâ—ael can help you Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Isa 55.6 Before you be too far gone before your case grow desperate whilst the Lord is at hand calling upon you now seek out to him Go to the Physitian of souls He can cure every Disease and thy Disease the Consumption of the heart Behold thou art in a Consumption not of the Liver or Lungs or Reins the Consumption of the Heart is upon thee and this Consumption no other Physitian can cure but the Physitian of Souls What-ever other Physitian thou goest to with the neglect of him thou wilt find them all Physitians of no value what-ever other course thou takest with the neglect of seeking God he will say to thee as Jer. 46.11 In vain shalt thou use many Medicines for thou shalt not be cured Go to God for thy languishing soul cry unto Him lift up thine heart with thy might pour forth thy very soul in thy Prayers Lord I am fallen Lord I pine my soul languisheth my Faith faileth my Beauty is withered my Spirit is wasted my Flesh and my Heart faileth but thou art the strength of mine heart and my hope is in thee help Lord or I dye I dye for ever 4. In putting a force upon your selves to do your duty It is not lying down in the Ditch and only crying God help me you must do your best to help your selves or God will not help you All the means under Heaven will never do unless we can bring you to set your hearts on work for your selves have you any of you taken a fall Are you down and would you recover Count upon it that it must cost you pains your hearts hang back and are loth to come to it that 's your Disease your loathness to spiritual action and what must you do to get your selves on Why what would you do to your Oxe or your Horse if they lag or grow lazy O they must feel the Goad and the Spur and that will quicken them O Friends put Spurs to your own sides prick your selves on to more activity suffer not your selves to jogg on in Religion so as you can with ease easie Religion will never help you You that are not for pains-taking there you must lye and pine and perish and there 's no help for you Why lyest thou thus upon thy face Get thee up says God to Joshua Josh 7.10 Why stand you bewailing and bemoaning your selves Up and be doing thou hast sinned thy self into this case thou hast idled thy self into this loss and nothing will help thee out without thine own diligence and labour Go tell your own hearts there 's no hope of recovery without industry and if they will not hear on 't chide them out of this listless temper What canst thou take pains for Bread or for Money and no pains for thy soul Canst thou take pains to please thy flesh and yet will be at no pains to please God O what a wicked wretched foolish heart have I Any labour will down but this necessary labour Well thou shalt not ' scape me so thou art no heart for me if thou art not an heart for work never stand excusing or delaying thou must come to it fall to thy duty and follow it close or thou wilt dye the Death In this manner force your selves on let not your hearts be quiet within you till you have engaged in a more active and laborious Life Thus I have shewed you by what acts you are to stir up your selves 2. To what pitch in Religion we should stir up our selves To this I shall Answer 1. In General 'T is not to amend a little to get into something a better case than you are but to come on to purpose to come on fully after the Lord. May be some of you may think if this word should have some effect upon you and make you a little better that it had done its work upon you no no you are far short of what you should be and think not that this word hath done its work though it should make you a little better than you are unless it also bring you effectually onward towards what you should be There 's no mark short of perfection that should bound or terminate your aims But I shall give you three marks on this side the Goal the better to direct your eye towards it 1. To such a pitch as is proportionable to your time You are some of you Professors of long standing and yet are come to but little O labour that your growth may be according to the time you have 2. Those that are fallen should strive to get up to that pitch to which once they had attained This is the first thing we should have in our eye to recover what we have lost to recover our first love to do our first works which the Church of Ephesus was exhorted to Rev. 2.5 That which hath been attained may be attained and must be striven after You that are fallen remember how it hath been with you in your best time remember
into their very hearts and it will be an help to the begetting and warming affections in others when once you have experimentally tasted the sweetness and are thereby deeply affected with Religion then you are like to hold to it and prosper in it This tast and relish of Religion is not to be gotten but by our inward and experimental acquaintance with it whilst it dwells but in the head and upon the tongue it will be but a dry and insipid thing to you whilst you dwell upon the surface and out-side and are but smatterers and triflers in Religion you may say of all your Religion as it was said of Samaria's Idolatry Hos 8.7 It hath no Stalk the Bud yields no Meal or if it hath any stalk or seems to yield any meal yet neither stalk nor meal hath any sweetness in it Friends you must go deeper in Religion if ever you will tast the sweetness of it Get your hearts to be so leavened and seasoned with it get Religion to be so Naturalized to you drink in the spirit of Religion into you that you may be metamorphised and changed into its own Image and Nature and then you will find how pleasant it will be to you 3. To solidity in Religion Particularly 1. To solid substantial Religion 2. To be more solid in Religion 1. Get up to solid and substantial Religion VVhat the substance of Religion is I shall shortly hint to you from two Scriptures Phil. 3.3 We are the Circumcision which Worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Tit. 2.12 Teaching us that denying all ungodliness and wordly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present world Out of these two Scriptures you may learn wherein the substance of Religion lyes viz. 1. In worshipping God in the Spirit or as Joh. 4.24 in Spirit and in Truth This Notes 1. The inward worshipping God our loving fearing praising the Lord c. 2. Our being real and spiritual in the outward worship of God our hearing with understanding our praying with our Spirits c. Our taking heed to it that our acts of worship be not barely bodily exercise but the works of our souls be not shaddows and Images of worship but the very thing they pretend to be 2. In rejoyceing in Christ Jesus That is as our Mediator by whom as we exhibit all our worship so we expect its acceptance and all the comforts and fruits of it 3. In shunning of Iniquity Denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts This Notes 1. The abstaining from the practise of sin that we do no Inity Psal 119.3 2. The mortifying the Lusts of sin the killing of sin within the Crucifying the flesh with the affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 4. In the practise of Holiness and Righteousness Our living Soberly and Righteously and Godly in this present world These are the substance of Religion he that worships God in Spirit and in Truth that thus rejoyces in Christ Jesus that denying all Ungodliness and wordly Lusts lives Righteously and Soberly and Godly in this present world he is a substantial Christian There may be great growth in these substantials in this solid Religion where there seems but little in affection there may be much affection in others that are not solid Christians there may be Christians that can't weep for sin as some others can but yet they can take more heed of sin they can fear it and shun it and conquer the power of it more than those that can more passionately weep for it There are some that cannot so passionately melt under the VVord but yet the VVord sticks more upon them and hath more power over their practise There are that can't feel so much of the warm and lively workings of love to God but they are more tender how they offend or displease God more bent upon being Serviceable and Faithful to God And sure there 's more of solid Religion in these than in some others in whom it works more passionately Friends look to this if you be wanting in affection let it be made up in circumspection what you want of the delights of Religion let it be made up in diligence If you feel not so much of the warm workings of love to Christ yet can you but keep you close to Christ and the obedience of his will if whilst you are less lively you be yet more tender and heedful and watchful in your goings if whilst you can't melt nor passionately mourn for sin yet you carefully shun and beware of sin if though you be not elevated and raised to those heights and raptures of joys as some others yet you are more mortified to sin the world if you be dead with Christ dead to the Fashions and Lusts and Pleasures and Riches of this world if ye be dead with Christ though your life and the comforts of it be yet but hidden you have gotten the substance of Christianity in you In these and such like instances stands the solidity of Christianity wherein he that groweth most is the best Christian It 's true when affection and solidity go together where we are both substantial Christians and also warm and lively Christians that 's incomparably best and most desireable Follow after both but especially take heed that what-ever be wanting in affection be made up in solidity Get to be more understanding experienced Christians get to be more Conscientious tender strict and close followers of Christ in all the known and weighty matters of the Law Be mortified to sin be crucified to the World be bent upon doing all the good you can in your Generations this is it I mean by solid Religion O Friends what a deal of light and frothy Religion have we known some years since in our Land which made a great noise and a fair shew and appear'd in a great flush of affection and had but little it What tryumphing in Christ what boasting of the Spirit what magnifyings of free grace what pretentions to great joyes and confidences were there amongst many hot and hasty Professors which have since vanished into meer wind How comes this to pass Why there was not the substance of Religion at bottom the sounding Vessels were hollow and had nothing in them Be as affectionate as you can be as zealous and lively as possible but be sure that there be substance under all your shews Be diligent Christians be doing Christians be mortified Christians 't is this which will hold out and therefore let this be it you are reaching up unto to keep you from Iniquity to keep you close to duty and hence to be built up through Faith unto Salvation 2. Get to be solid in Religion to more firmness to be more deeply rooted in the Faith and more firmly resolved for the obedience of the Gospel this the Apostle expresses by groundedness and settleness Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled
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
empty still and naked still all that you have receiv'd from God doth not keep you warm what-ever Treasures have been poured out upon you your hearts have been as bags with holes the Treasure of the Lord runs out as fast as 't is poured in you are leaking Vessels nothing will stay with you Therefore consider your selves consider whether it hath not been thus with you O how have the Instructions of God His Counsels and his Comforts slid away how quickly are they let slip VVhat becomes of all your Sermons and Sabbaths and Sacraments you have had VVe have brought you many a rich Treasure we have been pouring into those hearts of yours such living Food such rich VVine and Oyle that might have made you fat and flourishing but what 's become of it all O it still finds an hole in your hearts at which it runs out as fast as 't is poured in Consider Friends if it be not so with many of you when you have been instructed and affected with your instructions when you have been fed and revived and refreshed with your Food how soon after is it all run out and lost Sure Friends it 's grievous to the Ministers of Christ and a discouragement to us in our Administrations to see how little a while what we bring you from God abides upon your hearts the Lord hath Sowne much upon you but how little is there he Reaps In some of you there 's little springs up and those in whom there 's more springs up and flourishes for a time in the blade O how hath it withered and grown to deday and will not ripen to the Harvest That it may be better for the future your first business is to consider and bethink your selves if hitherto it be not thus with you Bethink your selves every one of you How is it with me Is mine heart kept full full of the Knwledge of God full of Faith and the fruits of it Is mine heart kept warm Is there such an heat wrought into it as holds Is mine heart a Treasure of good things and do they abide in me Do the counsels of the VVord and the comforts and quicknings of Sacraments stay by me Have I some standing abiding Treasure within me something within me to shew that the VVord is not Preached to me in vain Or do not I do as others let all slip and dye away with the speaking Bethink your selves thus how 't is with you is your Grace grown up Are your souls built up in Faith and Holiness God hath been building among you but how doth the building go up In some of you hath it not ever been at a stand If the Foundation hath been laid yet scarce a stone laid up upon it and others in whom the Building seemed to be rais'd to some considerable height is it not broken down is not your work fallen again Deal plainly in this matter bethink your selves do your souls prosper or is it but low with you and hath it not been some time better with some of you than 't is now 2. If it be but low with your souls much more if you have had a long time to increase since you first believed and more then that if heretofore it hath been better with you then 't is now then bethink your selves further Is not this an evil case you are in Is this a case to be rested in Do you like it to be as you are If you had a Child of your natural body that should be no more able to speak or go or feed its self and had no more understanding at 10. or 20. years old then when 't was but an Infant but must be still Suckled and carryed in Armes at those years as if it had been but in its first year would not such a Child be a Cross to you and an Affliction O how is it that you are not a Cross to your selves and an Affliction to your selves that after so long a time as some of you have had of growing you should yet in matters spiritual not be past Babes or Children It was an Affliction to the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.1 that he must still speak to them as to Babes I could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ Here 2 things 1. To have Christians to continue still as Babes and Children is an Affliction to their Ministers The manner of the Apostles speech intimates so much that it was a trouble to him that he must still speak to them as Babes 2. By how much the more carnal Christians remain by how much the less spiritual by so much the more Childish they continue to be still carnal is there said to be the same with being Babes Dost thou think that thou art grown past a Child How is it that thou art so carnal still minding carnal things and living such a carnal life Carnally minded Professors those that are given so much to their carnal things and are of such a carnal Conversation if they have any thing of Christ in them yet 't is but very little if they be Christians they are but Babes in Christ as they grow up they will grow more Spiritual and Heavenly Never think your selves to be grown or thriving Christians till ye can more despise these carnal things and ways and are come to be more Spiritually-minded and have gotten this Earth and Flesh more out of your hearts and under you feet VVell but is it not an Affliction to you to continue thus carnal Are you well satisfied with that carnal heart you have with that carnal life you live But what do you think of your state that have grown up from being Carnal to be Spiritual and are now fallen from being Spiritual to be Carnal again Have you once had the day-light shining in your hearts and are you now returned to the twi-light again Did you once live a life of Faith and a life of Love and had your Conversation in Heaven were you once of a tender heart of a circumspect savoury Life Did you live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and are you now fallen back to a more eager minding earthly things and have lost that sense that lively sense you had of things Spiritual and Eternal Bethink your selves Friends whither this be any of your cases and whether you like it to be in such a case Or whether you do not with grief acknowledg it my soul is but in evil case and it's time for me to bestir my self and get me up to a better state 2. In crying out upon your selves to be reaching forward to what you have not attained and to recover what you have lost as the Psalmist Psal 57.8 Awake up my glory so say you awake up my Grace awake up my Love awake my Fear awake up my Conscience And as the Apostle to the Romans chap. 13.11 Awake O my soul 't is high time to awaken out of sleep 't is high
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
speak a word for you ye workers of Iniquity O what shall I have to secure me from such a repulse and to assure me that he will be an Advocate for me If I can but get Christ to be mine Advocate there 's no doubt then but my matters will be good and the cause will go for me here 's the difficulty What shall I have to prove my title to Christ and his Advocation and to secure me that he will undertake for me Why my very trust if it be sincere will prove my Title He that trusteth in him shall not be confounded And for the evidencing the sincerity of this trust a confirmed Christian will have this to say Through the grace of God I have the testimony of a good Conscience and an holy Conversation my works of Faith and my labours of Love my mortified Sins this crucified and conquered World through the Spirit of Christ within me for whom I have forsaken all and followed Him these will attest the truth of my trust though none of these things none of my Graces none of my Dutyes can answer for me or acquit me in the Judgment or open the door of Glory to me yet they will be good evidences to prove my claim to Christ that can and will do it When Christ shall plead I have dyed for Sinners and thereupon shall challenge Absolution and entrance for those that have believed in Him and obeyed his Gospel the Accuser will reply But this Man hath not believed hath not obeyed the Gospel but now if I can get that to be evidenced by the testimony of a good Conscience and my holy Conversation then the mouth of the Accuser will be stopped for ever against me and so an entrance shall be administred to me abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom And here now is the trust of the Saints and its tryumph over all matters of doubt and difficulties that lye between them and everlasting Glory From hence may they take up those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Death where is thy Sting Grave yea Sin Hell Devil where is your Victory Thanks be to God who hath given me the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ From what hath been said learn by the way 1. That the life of a Christian in this World is to be a life of trust 2. That a life of trust is an excellent and desirable life and worth your reaching after But these I shall speak to together Christ is to be trusted not only for the world to come to give us entrance into Heaven but for this world also to lead and help us on to be with us in all our way from first to last Our great difficulty and our great danger of miscarrying is not so much in our end as in our way to it As hard as 't is to dye well 't is harder to live well Though the last Enemy Death looks with a more frightful face yet our Enemies that we meet with all along our lives Sin and Lust and Temptation do us the most deadly mischief He that hath conquered Sin need not fear to encounter Death do but live an Holy Life and then be nothing careful how ye shall dye Those Saints Heb. 11. Abel Abraham Sarah with the rest of them 't is Recorded that they liv'd by Faith it 's said of them v. 13. They all dyed by Faith not one amongst them miscarryed in Death who by Faith kept close to God in their lives Now our great difficulty and danger being in our lives there is the most need of trusting in Christ for his conduct through this World and this being that which I am now especially directing you to be reaching to that I may more effectually lead you on to such a life of trust I shall yet more particularly shew you that Christ must be trusted for 1. Our entrance into Religion 2. Our progress in Religion 3. Our perseverance in Religion 1. It is Christ that must do the first work for us must bring us in at the straight Gate and give us entrance into Religion Who brought Israel out of Egypt Cut out a passage for them through the Red Sea and set them into the way of the Promised Land 'T was the same Moses that conducted them through the Wilderness Christians you that have passed the New Birth and have broken out of the Womb you that are escaped out of Egypt that state of Bondage you once were in with the rest of this miserable World and are now gotten safe into the way of life Who is it that hath helped you hitherto Are you not beholden to Christ for this As it was said of the second Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.22 so 't is true of the first Resurrection As in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive Are there any living souls amongst you 'T is Christ who is your Life And who is it that must help after and bring in those that are behind and quicken those that are yet dead Is it not the same Jesus that must do it Sinners you that have been left dead in your sins some of you have not trod one step towards the New Birth others of you have been brought to the Birth but still stick in the Womb What hope have you that you shall ever be new Born If you be not new Born there 's no hope of you but you must dye for ever better you had never been Born into this World then not to be Born a new to Christ You must dye there 's no help for you there 's no hope of you you must dye eternally the second Death will seize upon you and swallow you up for ever if you be not Born the second time You are yet without the Gate and if you dye there dye in your sins dye in your ignorance in your impenitence and unbelief if ye dye without the streight Gate you go down quick into the Pit Now what hope is there of your being brought in Multitudes of your Predecessors in sin have never come in have liv'd and dyed and gone to their Graves and gone down to Hell in their impenitence and down you are going apace What hope is there now that you may stop before you come there that you may be brought about out of that common rode that broad way that you are going and brought into the narrow gate that gate of Life May be you will say Christ I trust will do it and the truth is that 's all you have to say that 's all the hope you have there 's the same Jesus before you who hath brought in so many others who says to you all as Isa 45.22 Look unto me and ye shall be saved None cometh to the Father but by me and Joh. 6.37 Him that cometh to me that will trust upon me to bring him to God I will in no wise cast him out Go to Jesus Sinners tell him Lord thou hast told me that none can come to the
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
not thus with some of you that are Professors of Religion Consult your own experiences how freely and how chearfully can you follow your Trades and worldly business you can Work and Travail and Buy and Sell and follow it night and day can rise early and go to Bed late and eat the Bread of Carefulness enduring heat and cold and never complain but when you come to Praying and communing with your own hearts or taking a walk by Holy Meditation into the other VVorld when you come to have to do in any of the matters of God and serious Religion O how like Drones and Sleepers do you go on A little of this is enough and more than you can well bear your VVheels drug your Spirits tire and thereupon you hastily over with this work and are glad when you have done How seldom is it that you go into your Closets as willingly as you come out How well were it if you did as freely fall upon your knees as you use to rise from them when you have done How comes this to pass O you are yet carnal carnally disposed carnally inclined your fleshly habits do dispose you to your fleshly ways and fetter you and hang on your heels when you should be doing for God and your Souls O to work Christians to work work off these carnal dispositions and work up your hearts to Spirituality and Heavenliness Get you to be better temper'd and better disposed and the way to habituate your selves to Religion is to hold you closer to the exercise of Religion if you would but use a little more force upon your selves for a time and hold you to diligence in your Holy ways this would by degrees by the co-operation of the spirit of Grace with you which you might boldly look for to come into your help this your forceing your selves upon a diligent holy life for a while would bring you to go on after you had been inured to it with more freedom and alacrity Heb. 15.14 Those that were strong Christians steady and established Christians how came they to be so O 't is said That by reason of use by having their senses exercised by this means they grew up to it Friends be perswaded to make tryal exercise your selves more to Godliness use your selves to a strict conscientious Life If you find it hard at first yet force your selves upon it hold your selves hard to it and by that you have accustomed your selves to this course a while look for it you will find it sweet and easie and when you have thus gotten the habit of Religion when by reason of use and having your senses exercised to Godliness you become Holily disposed and inclined then what Christians think you are you like to be what thriving Christians what flourishing Christians what fruitful Christians are you then like to become then your hearts will be streaming hearts and flaming hearts and will mount up and ascend in those flames of holy Love and Zeal above this Earth and Flesh and a Unity to live in the Light and Love and Joy of the Lord. O Friends would you set your hearts to be reaching out towards this holy frame would the Lord be pleased by the more abundant influences of his Spirit upon us to work us up to and settle us in this habit of Holiness this Spiritual and willing and ready mind then we should become a beautiful Congregation then we should become a blessed People and should grow up as Trees of Righteousness which the Lord hath Planted and which the Lord hath Blessed What Friends doth not all this stir you Is there such a Blessed state and frame to be had and is it not worthy your striving after Come my Beloved let 's bestir our selves let us follow after let us be reaching on with our might to this holy Prize Be not discouraged at difficulty be doing and the Lord will help you VVe are workers together with God for you be you workers together with us for your selves set your hearts to it and the Lord will work in you both to will and to obtain of his good pleasure And thus I have shew'd you what that solidity in Religion which I am stirring you up to be reaching after is to be well-grounded and settled in the substantials of Christianity He that worshippeth God in the Spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and heedfully shunning all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts hath given himself to a Righteous Sober and Godly life he that being deeply resolved for Christ and firmly trusting in Christ doth with full purpose of heart cleave unto him sticking fast to the Lord and keeping him close by him till he hath by reason of use gotten Holiness to be habitual to him This is a Pattern that I would you would have much before your eyes 4. To fruitfulness in Religion There is a readiness to good works mentioned Tit. 3.1 standing in the preparation or propension or bent of the soul upon holy action whereof before and there is a fruitfulness in good works or the souls putting it forth in holy action All Religion stands in action either the inward action of the Soul or the outward action of the Life 'T is the doing Christian that is the excellent Christian the fruitful field which hath a Blessing in it There is amongst our Corn some that looks fresh and strong and grows up ranker and taller than the rest but at best proves to have but little in the Ear 't is grown up all in Stalk and hath little fruit we can't say of it as Hos 7.8 It hath no Stalk 't is all Salk and hath no Ear 't is the full Ears of the Field that are its fruitfulness That is fruitfulness where there is good fruit brought forth and much fruit That ground which either bringeth forth no good fruit or but very little we count barren ground Will you call that a fruitful field which brings forth but here and there an Ear a few handful of Ears to whole Sheaves of Tares and VVeeds VVill you call that a fruitful Tree which hath but two or three Berries in the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches It is precious fruit and plenty of it that will give us the account of fruitful Christians Fruitfulness in Religion is the Honour of Religion Herein is my Father Glorified that ye bring forth much fruit Joh. 15 8. And what Glorifies God God will make glorious before the VVorld Barrenness is a Reproach 't is matter of sorrow and shame Such Christians which stand as dry Trees should not stand with dry Eyes VVe read that Barren Wombs have been the matter of great Affliction How did Sarah and Rachel take on that they had no Children And Hannah when she Prayed for a Child having yet none said 1 Sam. 15. I am a Woman of a sorrowful spirit out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken But however it be upon the account of
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
will devour all serious godliness if he cannot make men hot and heady in the propagating their own fancies will then on the other hand quench and cool that genuine fervency of spirit wherein we ought to serve the Lord If he cannot make men heady he will do what he can to make them heartless and cold and lukewarm in all the matters of God Friends take heed of both these extreams of being heady or fierce on the one hand or of being cold or lukewarm on the other Of heady ones God would have us take heed and turn away from them and for lukewarm ones he will spue them out of his Mouth Rev. 3.16 The stirring Religion I mean is as I said before a lively activity of Soul for God and for the advancing in real Godliness A stirring Spirit is opposite to a drowsie sleepy slothful careless Spirit which is nothing moved by all that the Scripture speaks when it presseth us to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 To be zealous and amend Rev. 3.19 To contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. To strive to enter in at the strait Gate Luke 13.24 To be violent and force our selves on in the way of the Kingdom Mat. 11.12 To fight to wrestle to run to make haste to be fruitful in good works and the like after all these pressing and quickning words there are a sort of slow Bellies sleepy lazy Professors who will but creep on when God would have them run who will lye down laze and loyter out their time when they should be fervent in Spirit who will be idle when they should work be silent when they should speak who let their lazy hearts alone to their own slow easie pace and so are over-grown with rust and suffer their Religion to be even strangled and chok'd up by their flesh to which they so much indulge This stirring Religion is the opposite to such a sleepy heartless way of Religion a blowing up the coals which God hath kindled in us as Timothy is exhorted 2 Tim. 1.6 Stir up the Gift of God The word is Blow up the Coals so Christians are to stir up the Grace of God within them I need say the less here because I have told you so much of it already It is our being awakened and putting on vigorously upon that savory solid fruitful Religion which I have already instructed you in Whatever Holy Principles we have received and sucked in from the Word of God whatever Holy Habits or Dispositions have been begotten and wrought into our Hearts by the Spirit of God have we any thing of the saving knowledge of God have we Faith have we the Fear of God or any Love to the Lord Jesus these must be all set on work and held to their work that so the Knowledge of God may bring forth the Life of God that the Habit of Faith may bring forth a Life of Faith that the Love of Christ and the fear of the Lord may constrain us and provoke us to walk on in the Law of our God that the light that is set up within us may break forth and make our Paths to shine and not only so but that the Holy Fire that 's kindled and blown up in our Hearts may bring forth a Zeal of God in our Lives that we may be Christians and Christians in earnest busie for God busie for our Souls striving against Sin and striving for the Mastery fighting against Sin and fighting to the Victory ready to every good work and fruitful in good works doing what we can to rouse up this sleepy World to raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and helping on and building up one another in our most Holy Faith laying out our strength in following the Lord and laying hold every one on the Skirts of his Brother and leading them on with us living in love and all the fruits of Christian love and hereby adorning our Holy Profession and walking worthy the Lord unto all pleasing this is that which I mean by stirring Religion 2. Stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us for 1. It will work out and drive away whatever offends or would provoke God to depart God will never depart without cause it must be a great matter that must part such dear Friends as God and the Souls of his Saints God will never depart from his People till there be some sin entertain'd and lov'd and allow'd that bids him depart Every sin says to the Lord as those wicked ones Job 21.14 who said to the Almighty depart from us but though every sin says thus yet God will not hearken to its voice unless it be an allowed sin that 's suffered to have the command in the heart and life Sin says to the Lord Depart God shall not rule here and if thou be of the mind that that Sin shall stay with thee notwithstanding if thou art willing to entertain such a Traitor however if thou hadst rather venture the displeasing and disobliging of God than have thy Sin cast out this the Lord will not bear away he will God says concerning every sin If ye love me let these go their way let this Pride go let this Covetousness go let this Frowardness go if thou sayest O with all mine heart Lord I would be glad with all my Soul to be rid of them but wo is me they are too hard for me my lusts will dwell in me and work in me and hinder me in my work for God do what I can O my Soul would rejoyce to be well rid of them O that I might never be proud or froward or carnal or earthly-minded any more I know it is an offence to the Lord and sure it is a grief of mind to me that any thing that offends should abide with me and though I cannot conquer them yet through the help of God I will not foster them whilst I live If these Sons of the Bondwoman must dwell with me yet through the help of the Lord they shall never dwell in peace with me while I live if thou sayest thus and sayest truly and wilt stand to thy word God will not depart from thee God will not depart for unallowed resisted sins If whilst thy sin says to the Lord Depart from me thy Soul says to thy Sin Depart thou rather God will hearken to the voice of thy Soul rather than to the voice of thy Sin Thy Sin says to the Lord Depart but if thy Soul say Lord let me be loosed from my Sins but stay thou with me God will not depart from thee But every allowed Sin every loved Lust and Corruption that thou wilt not hear of parting with if thou art of a proud heart and art resolved to maintain thy Pride if thou art of a Covetous Earthly Heart and Life and wilt not hear of giving off from thy Covetousness if thou art carnal and foolish and froward
or can who have nothing of Christianity in them nor profess nor pretend to any such thing He is a covetous worldling indeed who doth love the world and wish for the world and work harder for it than some of these do which profess religion It is a shame and a reproach to the Gospel that it should be so and wo be to them by whom the reproach cometh But yet 't is too true there are amongst the number of Professors some though not so many as the world say God forbid there should for they say all are such yet some such there are whose hunger and labour after the world can hardly be overmatch'd by any of those whose names are written in the earth and have no part nor portion in Christ nor name in his Churches Friends I pray deal faithfully in this matter every one of you with your selves ask your hearts How stand I affected to this world are my desires after this earth moderated and limited by my Religion or are they not so high and impetuous that they have even swallowed up my desires after God are you as impatient when you sink and grow to decay in religion as you think you should be if you were sunk and fallen to decay in your outward estates Can you truly say I am not so much athirst to grow rich in this world but I am more athirst to grow rich towards God nay can you say this I am so much athirst for God that this hath quenched my thirst and allayed my desires after this world I am become more indifferent what I have here whether more or less my heart sits loose from all below through the strength of my desires after God can you say so O that you could more of you than I doubt can Well know that 't is impossible that you should intensely desire God and this World together one of the two must fall you must strike sail as to your earthly affections or your souls will never hoise up sail heavenwards And this is the first direction for the kindling and quickning your desires heavenward suppress and allay your carnal and earthly desires 2. Be sensible of your necessity Necessity kindles desire Ps 63.1 My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Whence is this thirst and longing O 't is from his necessity I am in a dry Land where no water is I have need of thee Lord need of thy water Brooks for out of thee I have none 't is all a dry Land there 's no water below thee to quench my thirst Friends would you be quenched in your desires after more Grace be sensible of your barrenness and your want do you not want to be in better case than you are have you grace enough to supply your necessities those that are very poor outwardly whose poverty pinches them their necessity will make them beg How is it there are so many poor so many necessitous souls and yet so few begging souls even ready to starve for want of bread and yet cry no more after it Why 't is because however we are in great necessity yet we have not a due sense of our necessity our soul poverty doth not pinch us men that are extreamly poor in the world their poverty pinches them but for souls the poorer they are the less they are pinched with it O friends if you were more pinched with your spiritual poverty if those dry and lean souls did but feel how lean you are if you were touched with a feeling of your necessities if your cold wishes I would I had more grace were come to I must have more I must be more holy I must be more heavenly-minded I must be more zealous for God and more busie and active in following him a necessity lies upon me and wo is me if I continue as now I am the sense of your necessity of getting up into a better case would enlarge your desires after it 3. Be practically convinced of the excellency of a prosperous state in the grace of God All the world how eagerly are they wishing after prosperity men have such high thoughts of worldly prosperity that every one would be glad to prosper as Mal. 3.15 they count the proud happy so generally do worldly men count the rich happy the prosperous happy When we hear of men grown up to that plentiful estate described Ps 144.13 14. Whose garners are full affording all manner of store whose sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their streets whose Oxen are strong to labour and there 's no complaining in the streets who have plenty of good things and nothing ailing them how do worldlings cry out Happy are the people that are in such a case and hence 't is that their very Souls are all upon the wing making all the haste they can after this earthly prosperity And what if Christians had as great thoughts of soul prosperity O what a case are they in whose hearts are full of all manner of store full of wisdom and spiritual understanding full of faith and of power full of the hidden treasures of eternity whose mouth is full that have grace in their hearts and grace in their lips whose life is full of all the fruits of righteousness what an excellent spirit are they of what an excellent life do they live happy are the people thrice happy are the souls that are in such a case Do worldlings call the proud happy the rich happy the great ones happy ones Yea rather Happy are the Souls whose God is the Lord and those especially who have the grace of God so abounding towards them and in them What if you were practically convinced of this of the excellency of the happiness of a flourishing prosperous state in the grace of God If you did not only notionally conclude it so in the general for that every Christian will do but with a particular respect to your selves O how happy were it for me if I were one of these prospering souls if I could get my soul to be filled with God and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus O if I could love as the best of Saints love O if I could live as I see some Christians live if from creeping on the earth and having my foundation on the dust my soul might get upon the wing and have its conversation in Heaven if in stead of having fellowship with sinners I might have fellowship and live in communion with the Father and the Son if instead of serving my flesh I might spend my days in serving the living God if from being such a sluggard such a cold and lazy soul I might get up to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord O what if there should be such a change made upon me if from this dead and dry and barren case I am in I might be brought to be a living lively fruitful heavenly zealous Christian O what a blessed change would this be O how should mine heart be filled
no knowledge no grace poor blind neighbours poor hardned ones poor lost and undone souls O what shall we do for these poor children and neighbours have I never a word to speak that might do them good shall I be silent to them whilest I see them perishing for want of instruction Christians have you the light with you are there the words of wisdom and instruction with you is there ever a word of grace hid and laid up in your hearts O keep it not in withhold it not from poor perishing souls speak to poor sinners affright them from their sins provoke them to repentance perswade them to pray to hear to read to consider and to turn from the evil of their ways and who knows what such words might do to their conversion and salvation Thus for the directions for the performance and managing of this holy practice 2. The argument that I shall use to perswade you to it shall be from the advantage of this practice for the reviving and improving our own souls in the grace of God The advantage will be great 1. From our necessary preparations to this duty I have told you that 't is necessary to the better performance of this duty to get your own hearts well furnisht with grace to live more in the affecting thoughts of God to get a zeal for Christ to do him all the honour you can to get more compassion to souls without these things whatever our attempts are to converse more profitably and spiritually one with another we shall make nothing of it and these our preparations are our improvements 2. From the practice of this duty Holy discourse will keep our graces in action 'T is for want of action that our talents grow rusty by rubbing up the spirits of our brethren we shall whet our own Though the edge of your knife will be blunted by long cutting 't is not so here the edge of your spirits will grow keener by use your very work will be instead of a Whetstone Who is like to grow rich in this world he that lets his stock lie dead by him or he that puts it to use or imploys it in trade those that occupied with their talents Luke 19.13 c. made this return Thy pound Lord hath gained ten pounds says one thy pound hath gained five pounds saith another but what could he say that bound up his talent in a napkin what greater encouragement to diligence in trading then the hope of increase the hope of the in gathering of the Husbandman is his encouragement in his more plentiful scattering in sowing He that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully 2 Cor. 9.6 and therefore Blessed are they that sow beside all waters Is 32.20 the communicative Christian is sowing where ever he comes and where ever he sows thence shall he also reap and gather his sheaves into his own bosom Christians you say you have but little grace and 't is like enough you say true but would you have more go forth to sow with that little you have The more you scatter the more you are like to gather Would you have more love and life and power to serve and glorifie the Lord be more diligent in shedding abroad what you have Resolve no longer to keep your Religion to your selves put not your light under a bushel put it on a candlestick that it may give light to others and God will increase both your light and your life 'T is to little purpose onely to think of hearing more or of praying more for a better heart this alone will never do converse more like Christians then ye shall be every day more Christians then ye are Learn of sinners Drunkards converse like Drunkards Rioters converse like Rioters profane hearts have ever a profane converse what do their tongues run of what is their talk when they come together but of their cups and their harlots and their sports and what is their ordinary fruit why hereby they not onely propagate their own wickedness in others one Drunkard makes another and he another and these more but also they every one improve their own cursed stock fomenting and heating and stirring up their own hearts lusts and so make themselves twofold more the children of hell then before Christians learn of these brutes do Drunkards converse like Drunkards do Worldlings converse like Worldlings do profane hearts use themselves to profane converses and do you not see how mightily they grow and improve hereby in their wickedness what should this teach you but that Christians converse like Christians Let your Religion be the business of your communion and then look for as much advance to your souls in godliness by this holy converse according as you see sinners to thrive in wickedness by their wicked conversing one with another You see Friends I have been somewhat large in this direction but is there not need of more words than these is not this holy practice sadly let fall amongst us doth not the world something or other of it either quite shoulder it out or thrust it into a narrow room Our heads are so full and our hearts are so full and hence our mouths are so full of carnal things that there 's little room left for a few words of God and the things of eternity to be interposed And O what is the fruit sure that dreadful fall which is so visible in the spirit and the whole practice of piety is both the mother and the off-spring of this grievous neglect we are fallen sick and therefore are so speechless and then we spend and waste more and more by silence Whilst sick bodies waste by speaking sick souls waste more by silence What shall I say farther in this matter The Lord heal a poor barren languishing people the Lord touch our hearts with a coal from his Altar and then touch our lips with a coal from our hearts Brethren I hope you come hither to learn your duty and I hope you have a conscience that will put you upon the practice of what you learn have you yet learn'd what an advantage 't is to have lips of knowledge and what a duty 't is that your speech be with grace Remember what your Master said John 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them I would not that a man of you should be so unhappy as to know and not to do Do you know and believe that holy communication would be an advance to your religion then what shall be your practice in this matter have you a tongue for the world a tongue for your flesh and no tongue for God and your Souls O might I hear that word from your mouths thy word O Lord is within me as fire I am weary of forbearing I will speak that I may be refreshed Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praises 6. Put upon stirring duties I shall mention only two 1. Prayer 2. Fasting and Prayer 1. Prayer
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.