die foolish Soul thou must be judged and condemned and suffer the vengeance of Eternal Fire there 's no shifting it off or escaping it 't is a plain case the Evidence is full and undeniable lay it to heart for of a truth thou art in an evil case Here-upon as the effect of this Conviction follows 3. Consternation Now the bold Sinner is knock'd in the Head and laid on his back now his old hopes give up the Ghost and Fear and Astonishment take hold upon him This Convincing Spirit is the same which is called the Spirit of Bondage working Fear Rom. 8.15 And when he is thus broken by Fear and feeling all his hopes and supports falling under him gives himself for a lost and undone Man then he is made ready to the hand of him that comes to seek and to save that which is lost He from whom just now nothing was heard but God I thank thee I am not as other Men is now brought to his O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me Presumptuous Sinner thou art never like to be happy till thou be undone there 's no hope of thee till thou be overcome of Fear O cry unto the Lord to cure thee of thy confidence to work thee to harder thoughts of thy present state if ever thou lookest it should be well with thee hereafter What dost thou yet retain thine old confidence wilt thou yet do all thou canst to maintain that good opinion of thy state which thou hast hitherto had what dost thou herein do but resist that Spirit of God who would but break thee that he might build thee up for ever Wilt thou not be undeceived wilt thou not be convinced wilt thou never know thy danger till it be too late to be prevented But how shall I do to get mine heart awakned out of this dangerous state Why wouldst thou be delivered Then 1. Dread Presumption more than ever thou dreadedst Conviction Every hard word every close word from a Minister of Christ how do Sinners shun it and hide themselves as much as they can from it Fear the fair speeches and smooth words that thy false heart speaks to thee more than the sharpest rebukes thou receivest from the Mouth of God Be willing to know the worst of thy case before it be too late to be recovered Be afraid to be deceived flatter not thy self and be afraid of the flatteries of others Know it to be safer for thee to think worse of thy self than thou art than to think it better than ' t is 2. Wait for and help on as much as thou canst a thorow-Work of Conviction upon thee 1. Give heed to and improve the convincing Word Heb. 4.12 The Word of God is quick powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword piercing to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit of the Joints and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart But as quick and powerful as this Word is yet it will not cut nor pierce unless it be duly heeded Therefore as the Apostle speaks in another case Heb. 2.1 We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard to every thing to every word that the Lord speaks not only to his sweeter and softer words his promising and comforting words but to his sharper and harder words his convincing and threatning words every word of God is needed by us and no word will do its work if it be not heeded Thou shouldst when thou hearest such words as these He that committeth Sin is of the Devil He that doth not Righteousness is not of God The Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God He that walketh after the Flesh shall die He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his If any Man love the World the love of the Father abides not in him Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Except ye repent ye shall all perish Thou shouldst when thou hearest such words consider whose words are these Is not this the Word of the Lord Thou shouldst bethink thy self to whom doth the Lord speak thus Is it not to me Am not I one of this number Am not I Unrighteous Am not I a Servant of my Flesh Hath not my Life been a wicked Life a worldly Life a meer carnal Life Have I been born again and become a new Creature Have I the Spirit of Christ Is this proud Spirit this froward Spirit this vain Spirit this lying contentious Spirit is this the Spirit of Christ Have I repented of my Sins and returned from my sinful and foolish wayes Speak O my Conscience do not lye to me but tell me truth how dost thou find it Sure I have been a Sinner and a worldly and wicked liver and I cannot find that I have repented or been new-Born and become a new Creature to this day How then can I conclude but that God hath spoken this word to me Thou art the Man that shall die and shall not see the Kingdom of God And how canst thou but take these words from his Mouth into thine own and confess I am the Man 2. Pray for the Convincing Spirit The Word without the Spirit can do nothing neither convince nor comfort thee When God sent a Word into the World he sent his Spirit along with it to make it prosper He was promised to be sent to this very end amongst others to Convince the World of Sin John 16.8 O pray for this Spirit when thou hearest a word that strikes upon thy sore lift up thine Heart to the Lord let thy Spirit thine Almighty Spirit set home this Word upon mine Heart I hear such a word as makes both mine Ears to tingle and I cannot deny but it belongs to me but for mine Heart I cannot get it to stick let the Spirit of the Lord sharpen this Nail and drive it home Here 's a poor Minister does what he can speaks as plainly as closely and as powerfully as he is able does what he can to startle me and to humble me and break me But poor Man he cannot do it this Heart is too deep for him to reach it too hard for him to pierce it But where is the God of mine Heart O let the Spirit of the Lord take the Pulpit and set an edge upon this two-edged Sword that its Iron may enter into my Soul Cry thus unto the Lord Say not as once Israel did Let not the Lord speak to us any more but let Moses speak Let this be thy Prayer Let Moses speak and the Prophets and Pastors and Teachers speak but let the Lord speak also and then there 's hope I may hear 3. Receive and retain the convincing Word when it comes Do not pray Lord speak and then turn away the Ear Lord come in and then shut the door against him pray for the Holy Ghost and then see that you resist not the Holy Ghost What
fruits may sprout forth and grow up again the root was not touched whatever was done upon the boughs The heart-Adulteries and heart drunkenness the swearing and lying and oppressing heart the root of all these wickednesses remained untouch'd Let that inward corruption of Nature which is the root of Actual sin be first and most effectually laid at The root of sin is to be destroyed By the Word of Christ By the Blood of Christ 1. By the Word of Christ Heb. 4.12 The Word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joynts and marrow It reaches to the inwards and pierces the Entrails Like the Lightning it will melt the sword in the scabbard 't will break the bones 't will slay the babe in the womb When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts Act. 2.37 Friends do not open the Ear only but open the Breast to the Word set the point of this Sword to the very heart of your sins and count not that it hath done its work whatever slaughter it hath made of your sins without till the Soul of them the inward pravity of your Natures and the inward lusts immediately issuing thence have received their mortal wound 2. By the Blood or Death of Christ Rom. 6.6 Our old man is crucified with him Ay that 's it that must do it 't is Christ crucified that must crucifie sin We read Mark 5.29 of a Woman that had been many years afflicted with an issue of Blood who by the influence of Christ through the touch of his hemme had the fountain of her blood dried up and so her bloody issue cured The irruptions and breakings forth of lust into action are as so many Issues of blood running upon us the workings of pride the workings of Covetousness sensuality and the like are a filthy fluxe so many unclean issues or running sores upon us Those that sport themselves with their sins are as men that make a sport of their filthy ulcers and unclean diseases Now the way of cure of these unclean issues may be illustrated from that Scripture There are three things to be noted in the cure of that woman 1. The bloody Issue was cured by the drying up the Fountain of her blood These filthy fluxes of lust and wickedness will never be cured till their Fountain be dryed up till the Body of sin be destroyed 2. The fountain of her blood was dried up by vertue issuing from Christ There went out vertue from him 't is said upon which the woman was cured Sin can never be slain but by vertue and influence from Christ Therefore he is said to be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13.1 Here 's a Fountain prepared against a Fountain and a fountain of blood against a fountain of blood the blood of Christ is a fountain opened to drayn out and dry up our fountain of iniquity 1 Joh. 1.7 The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 3. The vertue of Christ was received and the cure wrought by a touch of the hemme of his garment that is by the faith of the woman who said that is who believed If I may touch the hemme of his garment I shall be whole Her faith was it which got out the vertue as Christ himself afterwards testifies vers 34. Thy faith hath made thee whole Friends would you be healed of your plagues Go to Christ for a cure Put forth the hand of faith and touch touch not the hemme of his garment but his side and his heart his hands and his feet touch this Jesus as a crucified Jesus Christ can heal you with a touch but he will not touch your diseased Souls unless your faith first touch him We read Numb 21. that a look of a stung Israelite which was the same thing with this womans touch on the brazen Serpent got out such vertue from him who was signified by that Serpent as cured him of his sting Christ look'd on by faith will not only heal thee of the sting but will kill the Serpent that it shall never smite thee with such a deadly sting again Go to Christ sinner say within thy self If I can but touch him I shall be made whole look to the brazen Serpent and both thou shalt be healed and the fiery Serpent slain Believe that there is such vertue in Christ as will do the cure and lay hold and relye upon him for it Bring thy unclean fountain to that fountain which is opened for sin and for uncleanness and thou shalt certainly find that this blood of Christ shall cleanse thee from all sin Thou that art a Saint mayst set thy Probatum est to this remedy thou hast been with Jesus and thy Faith hath made thee whole thine Old man is crucified with him and the body of sin is destroyed onely because the cure is but begun and must be perfected by degrees by the same remedy as long as thou livest in this imperfect state by renewed acts of faith upon the blood of Christ expect thy total cure From the continual issuing forth of the same vertue by which sin hath received its deaths wound let it die daily till it cease to be for ever 2. Put a knife to the throat of sin My meaning is cut it short of that Provision that would feed and nourish it The old man is given to Appetite and you know what the counsel is in that case Prov. 23.2 Put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite Look how many lusts there are so many sorts of feedings there are to keep them in heart Pride must have ornaments or honour applause respect and observance and for want of other feeding 't will feed upon thoughts upon our self-reflections and dotages any vain conceit of some worth or excellency we find in us Covetousness must have money houses and lands the hopes of getting and the content of possessing them Sensuality must have carnal pleasure and mirth wine and strong drink and dainties and varieties c. and whilest the flesh may have its lust it growes head-strong and imperious there 's no way to keep it tame but by keeping it short of what it craves Make no provision for the flesh saith the Apostle Rom. 13.14 to fulfill the lusts thereof And you may observe it that he prescribes this as a remedy to cure those intemperances riot and drunkenness chambering and wantonness strife and envying mentioned ver 13. It may be thou complainest sometimes of thy corruptions of the impetuousness of lust of the unruliness of thy spirit and confessest it and prayest against it but whilest thou prayest thou canst not find in thine heart to make thy lust to fast it must have its provision still allowed it It may be even when thou art praying against thy pride thou letst it feed upon thy very Prayer thy eloquence or affectionate Enlargement or
but can I be too busie a too zealous for the Living God Can I say of my best this is too much Can I say of any thing less than my best this is enough 'T is the Lord God whom thou servest fear to be unworthy This is the advantage of our carrying this thought upon our Hearts I serve the Lord it will put us upon the best and highest Service Give me leave to add another Advantage though not of so proper consideration here This thought whilst it provokes us to the highest will yet comfort us touching the least and meanest of all our Services Some poor weak Christians are apt to discourage themselves in all they do from this that it is so very low and little that they do I am a poor Creature 't is but little that I have to serve the Lord withal I am ignorant and of weak understanding I have not the Parts nor Gifts that others have I might possibly serve the Lord better were it not for this Fear which is upon me I am afraid to speak of God or of the Things of God I am of slow Speech and rude Language I cannot express my self to any purpose I am ashamed of my teaching my Family of my praying in my Family I do it so brokenly and confusedly that I fear I do more hurt than good in it I but poor Man as weak as thou art and as weakly as thou dost what thou dost if thou do what thou canst This is serving the Lord and whether it be little or much if thou canst but truly say This is serving the Lord thou mayst be comforted in it If Sinners considered that their little Sins were serving the Devil 't would make them afraid of the very least transgression Some Sinners are not so great Sinners as others they are not guilty of those higher and more notorious Crimes that some others are and this quiets them and keeps off Fear from them Thou art no Drunkard thou sayest nor no Adulterer nor no Blasphemer I but dost thou not live a carnal vain careless earthly Life and is not this serving the Devil Though thou dost not serve the Devil in the Ale-house or the Whore-house though thou dost not serve the Devil with Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies yet is it not the Devil still thou servest Thou servest thy Covetousness thou servest thy Pride and thy sensual Appetite thou neglectest Christ and thy Soul and is not this serving the Devil Such a thought upon the most harmless of Sinners Hearts yet I serve the Devil would make him afraid Is it a light thing to serve the Devil Though I be not numbred among the chief of Sinners though there be others worse than I yet am not I under the same Master Though I be among the hindermost of the Company yet am not I one of them This Life I live is no serving God and therefore 't is doubtless the serving of the Devil Take heed O my Soul If the Devil can but hold thee 't will be all one whether it be by greater or smaller Cords the Devil is dragging thee to Hell and so he can but get the thither at last it will be upon the matter all one to him whether it be by greater or lesser Sins Though he can't perswade thee to ride post into the Pit yet if he can but toll thee in that shall suffice him though it be but by a slower pace Now as such a thought I serve the Devil would afright the least of Sinners so will such a thought I serve the Lord comfort the least of Saints But this by the way 4. Another Reason why we should Fear is because of the great Treasure we carry about with us whither-ever we go Christians are Travellers and they travel with charge about them This World is a dangerous World the Passengers through it are in danger of falling among Thieves which will spoil and rob them of their Treasure A Christian carries more Riches about him than the whole World is worth He hath the whole Gospel within him he hath the two Tables of the Covenant his Heart is the Ark in which they are laid up He hath Christ in him the Fruits of his Blood his Pardon and Reconciliation the graces and comforts of his Spirit his evidences for Heaven all the Records of the gracious Transactions betwixt God and his Soul the Pawns and Pledges of Divine Love the King's Broad-Seal and the Earnest for Glory all the Income of his Faith the Returns of his Prayers all that he hath gotten all the Manna he hath gathered the Hidden Manna the White Stone with the New Name he carries all his Riches up and down with him whither-ever he travels Hast thou any Divine Light in thine Heart any love for Christ any zeal for God and his Gospel any Tokens of his Love or Tenderness of his Honour Is there Peace or Joy or Hope within thee All this thou art in danger of being rob'd and spoil'd of This is the Design that Satan hath upon thee this is the Errand of every Worldly Lust of every Temptation every Companion every Carnal Relation every Change of Condition every Carnal Pleasure all thy Earthly Possessions the Devil hath set them in ambush and they lie in wait for thee to rifle thee and spoil thee of all that ever thou art worth Hast thou never fallen amongst these Thieves and suffered great loss by them Hast thou been rob'd and art thou not afraid thou mayest again Will not thy loss make thee more wise and wary How many Instances have there been of secure and unwary Christians who whilst they have been venturous upon Temptations have trusted themselves amongst their vain Companions indulged themselves a more free and jolly and easie a more remiss and flesh pleasing Life or a more busie drudgery for this VVorld have as to their sense at least lost all they had for the other VVorld VVho when they have come a little to themselves fall a mourning out Naomi's bitter Song Ruth 1.20 Call me no more Naomi but call me Marah I went out full but I returned empty Whilst mine Heart was tender and mine Eye jealous whilst I kept my watch and kept my distance from this World and its Temptations O what Light Love Peace Joy did then shine upon and possess my Heart then I had a God whom I could call mine own then I had a Jesus and could lean upon my Beloved then I could believe love serve delight in enjoy and praise the Lord. But wo wo to me how is it now Whilst I allowed my self a little more boldness with this Flesh and this World I have even lost all ere I was aware I am fallen among Thieves and what have they left me O mine Ease my Pleasures my Money my Lands which I have turned aside to how have you served me Whilst I have been loving and following and serving you how have you rewarded me Ah me they have taken away my
have respect unto all thy Commandements Then shall I not be ashamed that is then shall I be upright in the way and have boldness both before God and Men when I shall have respect that is when it is in mine heart to do thy whole will without giving my self leave to turn aside either to the right hand or the left He that Lives in the neglect of the acts of worship that prayes not and hears not he that neglects the general duties that sets not himself to seek the Kingdom of God to work out his own Salvation to walk as becometh the Gospel but takes up with a careless carnal worldly sloathful life whether he finds he allows himself in these great neglects or thinks he does not though his heart smites him and will not suffer him to be quiet or go out with such a life in peace the very neglect or not engaging in these great and most necessary duties does prove him an ungodly man and 't will not help this man to say I allow not my self in these neglects for where-ever there is grace there will be praying and hearing and something done towards the working out our Salvation 'T will never be found any man's godliness that he allows not himself to live thus ungodlily when yet he does it Though he gives not himself a deliberate toleration if yet his heart take leave to live thus without God in the world his wayes will betray him whose and what he is Yea and those that do something in those great and general duties yet if they allow themselves in the neglect of any particular duties that they know to be such in the neglect of Righteousness in the neglect of Mercy in the neglect of their Families and the duties they owe to them in the neglect of Neighbour or Strangers and the duties they owe to them and can wink at and dispense with themselves herein such men can never prove but their Religion is vain Art thou a Godly man who art an unrighteous and unmerciful man Art thou a good Christian who art no good Husband Art thou a good Woman who art an evil Wife Art thou a good Man who art a bad Neighbour and givest thy self leave to be so Art thou a Godly man whom halting after the Lord must serve thee instead of walking with God Art thou a follower of Christ who wilt have him abate thee some of his demands abate thee truth abate thee mercy abate thee self-denyal or if he will not abate it to thee any thing that thou likest not thou wilt abate it to him Is this to be undefiled or entire in the way of the Lord will God call that uprightness which cannot be called integrity and that sure cannot be counted integrity which advisedly leaves out any one of the Commandements of God But now he that gives himself to Prayer Hearing and praising the Lord who makes it the scope and business of his life to please God and make sure for eternity studying and endeavouring to approve himself in every thing to him who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and to keep himself unspotted of the world this is a Godly man this is Religion indeed Though through infirmity in many things he fall short he prayes but is sick of his praying he hears but is asham'd to think how he hears his Spirit is so often clouded and clog'd with corruptions and infirmities that he can feel no life nor take any comfort in any thing he does though by the power of corruption and temptation he be at times put besides praying and other duties and be sometimes found in the field when he should have been in his Closet in the Market when he should have been at Church though he find his heart too often running off from his work and slinking away after his earthly businesses and gaines and the vigorous prosecution of his design for heaven be sometimes intermitted though he sometimes fail in the ruling of his spirit in the governing of his thoughts and passions and hereupon be surprised by fits of pride or of anger or impatience the more it is thus the more doubtful will he unavoidably be touching his state and therefore dread to let thy lusts get head or take incouragement from their word yet if the bent of his heart and his course be towards the Lord and his intention and indeavour be to fulfil after him not indulging but judging himself for all his failings and striving within himself to stand compleat in all the will of God this man is a godly man and because he will not pardon himself God will certainly pardon and overlook all his infirmities and failings and graciously accept him in Christ Jesus to whom be glory for ever amen Now brethren to gather up all that hath been said for I would not have you to try by one but by all three marks laid down and so to bring this trial to an issue That soul that hath deliberately and absolutely chosen the Lord for his portion resolving to stand to his choice and not to change for ever that makes it the business of his life to pursue his choice and counts it the onely happiness of his life to serve and enjoy that God whom he hath chosen and for his sake is willing to suffer the losse of all things that so heartily approves of Christ and his Gospel that he accepts and adventures his soul and his hopes upon him alone that hath so dedicated himself and given up both the right and the possession of himself to him that he accounts himself no longer his own but is a servant and follower of Christ in righteousness and holiness of life heartily resolving and endeavouring never to allow himself in any known sin nor in the neglect of any known duty though his weaknesses be great his falls and failings be many this man is beyond all question a sincere godly man Doest thou yet fear whether thou be the man let that fear set thee a searching once and once again let it follow thee into thine heart and through all thy wayes let it lay thee in the ballance and compare thee with this pourtraicture of a godly man which is now set before thee if this will not serve to quiet and satisfie thee I know no more to say to thee but that thou diligently set thy self by increasing in the grace of God and outgrowing thy sinful weaknesses and failings to outgrow thy fears and thy doubts And when at length thou art come to a clear judgment that this is thy case then Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee if God have ever a child if there be ever an heir of the Kingdom of heaven in the world thou art one If thou be not mistaken in thy self but this be a true character of thee I am mistaken in the Gospel if thou be not a Godly and a blessed man Thou hast sincerely chosen the Lord and that 's a sure sign that
3. That you may not fear the severities of Religion fear the severity of Christ against Irreligion Thou canst not bear the work of Righteousness but how wilt thou bear the wages of Unrighteousness if thou canst not be tied up so strait by the cords of his Discipline how wilt thou endure the chains of his indignation If the severities of his service be to thee a stumbling-stone the wrath of the Lamb will be a mill-stone if this stone fall upon thee it will grind thee to powder Matth. 21.44 Sinners let their tongues run at a wild rate I must have my ease I must have my liberty I was never in bondage and cannot now endure it to come under such a severe restraint But thou that professest thy self to be one of his Disciples wilt thou say as these say I cannot bear it I cannot endure it Canst thou burn what thinkest thou of the everlasting severity Consider what thou dost either submit to Christs Pastoral Rod or fall for ever under his Iron Rod wherewith he will crush thee to pieces like a Potters Vessel Why is this the case must I bow or burn must I come under his Government or be ground under his Milstones O I have done no more reasoning with flesh and blood no more picking quarrels with Religion whatever there be in it I dare not but submit to it all for fear a worse thing come unto me Well but wilt thou submit then wilt thou set thine heart to all his words wilt thou set thy Neck to all his works This is the third thing now I exhort you to follow after Severity and strictness in the wayes of the Lord which because it hath something more of asperity and roughness in it than those that follow there will be so much the more need of Fear to bring us to it 4. Simplicity Severity may be in Hypocrisie the Scribes and Pharisees were severe severe in their Fasts disfiguring their faces looking with sad and dejected countenances severe in the observation of the Rites Customs and Traditions of their Fathers yea and of the Letter of the Law of God there were very strict sects of them Act. 26.5 and yet they were Hypocrites Simplicity notes The Heart in our work Singleness of heart 1. Simplicity notes Heartiness in our Work nothing is plain and honest but that which is hearty doing the Will of God from the heart Ephes 6.6 Ye have obeyed from the heart Rom. 6.17 My Son give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 What is it to give God the heart This is one thing comprehended in it to give him the heart for a servant or to serve him with the heart He that gives God the heart gives him the best he hath and gives him all he hath the heart will command the tongue and the hands and the time and the Estate to be all at his service which way the heart goes all goes Serving the Lord with the heart is serving him in good earnest we do but play with duty we do but mock God where the heart is not 't is only serving him in spirit that is serving him in truth Friends be real and in good earnest in what you doe let all your Religion come deep let your Prayers and your Prayses and all the exercising your selves to Godliness of life be the streamings and issuings forth of your hearts to the Lord. Whatever you doe do it heartily as unto the Lord. Serve the Lord as you have been used to serve your flesh in good earnest What you have done for your Estates what you have done for your Names or for your safety you have done it heartily and shall that only which we do for God and for our Souls be done without an heart what is God what are our Souls and the concernments of them that they should be thus put off Is this heartless service all that God is worthy of will he accept it at our hands or is it no matter whether he accept it or no Is this spiritless service answerable to the worth of our Souls and the weight of Eternity will you venture all upon shadowes and lyes Are we but in Jest when we talk of a God or a Christ or a World to come Are our hopes and fears about hereafter but delusions and dreams Do you believe from the heart and dare you not obey from the heart How can you say you believe there is a God indeed that of a very truth there is such an Heaven and such an Hell in one of which your immortal Souls must dwell for ever how can you believe such things and not feel your very inwards even all the Powers of your Souls engaged about them Am I speaking to those that believe not is it not to you that believe that I now direct my words Consider friends The God in whom you believe is a Spirit and will be served in Spirit and in Truth God is a great God and infinitely worthy of the best and of all you have your Souls are precious eternal Life and eternal Death are serious things and which of these two will be your lott is a serious question and sure these most serious things do call for your most serious and hearty attendance upon them Away with all guile and hypocrisie provoke not the jealous God fool not away your Souls by trusting to lyes Worship God in the Spirit lift up your Souls in your Prayers chasten your Souls in your Fastings And as your Souls must be in your Lips in your Eyes in your Ears while you are solemnly worshipping of God so let your Hearts be in you Hands too in all that you have to doe Let your heart have an hand in all the actions of your lives Eccles 9.10 Whatever thine hand findeth to doe do it with thy might that is do it with all your heart the heart is the might of the man God is the strength of the heart and the heart is the strength of the man Sinners when they go forth upon service for the Devil they carry their heart in their hands Micah 7.3 They do evil with both hands earnestly Earnestly there 's the heart in their hands They do their worst that God will suffer them Thou hast done iniquity as thou couldest Jer. 3.5 as much as ever thou wert able As Sinners do their worst so let Christians do the best they can Whatever thou hast to do for thine own Soul by gathering in and treasuring up against the time to come do the most and the best thou canst be as hearty in laying up treasure in Heaven as ever thou hast been in laying up treasure on Earth Whatever service thou hast to do for God in thy generation by doing good to others do it with all thine heart In your instructing admonishing counselling reproving in your working righteousness in your shewing mercy in your promoting and encouraging any good work or preventing evil in your propagating serious Religion in your pulling poor sinners as
343. at the beginning of l. 26. add the Figure 2 But the chief faults are in the paging viz. After p. 224. instead of 225. is 257. and after p. 320. is p. 305. and after p. 320 again is 337. But in the Book it self there is not any thing out of its proper place but all comes in in its order the only error herein being in the Figures of the Pages Godly Fear OR The Nature and Necessity of Fear and its Usefulness c. PROV 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth alway YOU will not expect that I spend time in enquiring after the connection of these words with the foregoing or the following parts of this Chapter if you consider the Book in which they are found The Book of Proverbs wherein many precious Truths are laid and pack'd together but not connected together this Book being rather a Golden Mine than a Golden Chain The words of the Text are an entire Proposition which may be logically resolved into 1. A Subject the Man that feareth together with the Circumstances of time alway 2. An Attribute or something affirmed concerning this Man happy he is an happy Man For the opening of these words briefly Happy or blessed or as it is in the Original O the blessedness O how blessed he is a very happy Man the Man that feareth that is say some The Man that feareth all the evil that is before him the misery that is before him the danger that he is in Say others The Man that feareth God according as it 's express'd Prov. 23.17 that is in the fear of God all the day long Others that walks cautelously and warily Qui prospicit ne quid temerè aggrediatur nec absque debitâ deliberatione consilio sollicitè cavens ne quid boni omittat nec in malum ruat He that walks with Counsel and Care that he neglects not his Duty nor fall into danger Put all these Interpretations into one and you have the full sense of the words He that walking under an awe and reverence of God and a sense of the danger he is in wisely and warily orders his steps that he be not surprized by Sin or by Wrath. Alway The Caldee renders it Omnia that feareth all things that feareth himself his Eyes his Ears his Tongue his Table his Estate his Business his Company his Friends and his Enemies that is as far forth as they may be Inlets or Instruments or Temptations to Sin and so may expose him to danger But the word is alway that feareth at all times that is never secure The Doctrine that I shall hence insist upon is this Doct. A Life of Holy Fear is a Blessed Life In the opening hereof I shall more particularly enquire 1. What that Fear is to which Blessedness is pronounced 2. What that Blessedness is which is pronounced to this Fear In the handling whereof I shall together give in the proof of the Doctrine 1. What that Fear is to which Blessedness is pronounced There is a Fear that is our weakness As 1. the Fear of the faint-hearted a natural pusillanimity or cowardize there are such weak Spirits in whom every little danger or but the shadow of a danger shakes their Hearts and puts them into anxieties and disquiets In what perpetual bondage do some timerous Spirits live how restless are their hearts like the troubled Sea that cannot be at rest every little gust raises a storm In what a daily and hourly succession of vexing disquiets do they live 2. The Fear of the Scrupulous about some supposed moral Evils which concern their practice who through weakness of Understanding or the abounding of Melancholy do often fancy that to be Sin which is no Sin and thereby fright themselves off from the use of their Liberty and sometimes from their very Duty Every Morsel that they eat every Garment that they wear they are afraid lest it be too much or too good or too fine c. and thereby scruple themselves out of their convenient Food and all comely Apparel Some poor Melancholick Christians dare not pray for fear of taking the Name of God in vain dare not come to the Table of the Lord at all for fear of coming unworthily In this Fear there is a mixture of Good and Evil there 's something Good an aversion from Sin and tenderness of running into it and there 's something evil a sinful mistake counting that evil which is not evil as we may not call Evil Good so neither may we call Good Evil this weakness as it is evil so it is mischievous too it leads us into Sin we may sometimes sin for fear of Sin and it brings us into Bondage we may say concerning this fear of Sin as the Apostle doth concerning the fear of Death Heb. 2.15 There are some who through fear of Sin are all their life time subject to Bondage Of the two it 's much a less evil than the other extream better a scrupulous Conscience than a dissolute Conscience better strain at a Gnat than swallow a Camel there 's less danger in being frighted at a Bug-bear than not afraid of a Bear whatever there be in Nicety it 's a vertue in comparison of Licentiousness yet this Fear this groundless mistaken Fear is an evil and to be suppressed There is a Fear which is Mens great wickedness a Fear of Religion and Righteousness a Fear of the Labours and Severities of Religion and of those Sufferings it may expose them to Sometimes Men Fear the Yoke of Christ they dare not be his Disciples his Yoke they doubt will be too heavy for their Necks To be tied up so short from every Sin from all their Carnal Liberties and Pleasures to be held so close to painful Duty and to such constant Duty the foresight of it scares them back from Christ they dare not be his Disciples I would be a Christian but I am afraid how I shall ever be able to bear his Yoke But mostly they Fear the Cross of Christ they have heard what Christ expects Matth. 16.24 If any will come after me let him take up his Cross and they see that it so falls out that no sooner is the Yoke taken upon the Neck but the Cross is presently laid on upon the Back He that will be a sincere Christian must be a suffering Christian All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Must they so Then serve Christ who dare for me They dare not be Followers of the Lamb for fear of being a prey to the Wolves There is a Fear which is Mens Punishment the Fear of the Guilty a guilty Heart is a terror to it self a Magor-missabib Fear round about and makes almost every thing else a terror to it Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no Man pursues his guilt still dogs him at the heels the terrors of the Lord fall on him and horror and astonishment take hold of him All these Fears are
the Battel without fear or wit O the witless mad-headed multitude of Sinners in the World how do they rush on upon their wickedness they will neither ask Counsel nor take Counsel but on they will at a venture come of it what will Stand Sinner and fear fear and consider what is it thou art doing whither is it thou art running thou wilt on thy Way thou wilt after thy Lusts and after thy Companions thou wilt after these Riches and these Pleasures there 's no stopping thee nor putting thee to pause upon it thou art all in haste and impatient to be advised But yet for all thy haste take heed of what comes after thy Bargain is not like to be so good as to require such haste hasty Bargains seldom want woe What-ever is done rashly seldom comes to any other issue but either Repentance or Ruine Qui ante non cavet c. If thou wilt not Fear thou wilt shortly find what 't is to be thus head-strong and precipitant 2. Audacity or fool-hardiness or mad venturousness upon known dangers This is of kin to rashness but is not the same It is the other extream to Cowardise the mean betwixt both is Fortitude The Fear we are now treating of is not opposite to Fortitude as Cowardise is 't is not from pusillanimity but from magnanimity that we thus fear The most Heroick Spirits most fear to be base Exod. 1.17 Those worthy Midwives feared God and feared to sin against God and therefore feared not the Wrath of the King And as this Holy Fear doth not argue faint-heartedness so neither doth that audacity argue fortitude Is it valour or madness for a naked Man to run upon an Army of Enemies Such Desperadoes as kick against the pricks and run upon the Pikes of Divine Vengeance who knowing the Judgment of God against them that do such things will yet run their course of In quity not fearing of Judgments laughing at Reproofs Threatnings and Warnings and deriding those trembling Hearts that dare not run on with them to the same excess of riot What gallantry of Spirit do they count themselves to have arrived unto Gallantry of Spirit what to dare the Almighty to his Face to challenge Death and Hell to meet you in the Field for the Briars and Thorns to gather themselves to Battel against the devouring Fire Sure if ever you come to your wits you will understand how mad you have been Sinner darest thou continue in thine unbelief and impenitency when thou knowest that he that believeth not shall be damned he that repenteth not shall perish for ever Darest thou to walk after thy Lusts fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind when thou knowest that they that live after the flesh shall die Thou knowest what the place and the portion of the Proud of the Covetous of the Liars of the Hypocrites is and yet darest thou continue in the number and the way of these Men Dost thou dare to go down quick into the Pit to take up thy dwelling in everlasting Darkness and thy lodging in the Eternal Fire Awaken from this Folly put away this madness from thee Awake and tremble to think what a desperate adventure thou hast hitherto run If you should see your Children in sport jumping over a boyling Furnace dancing on the Battlements of a Tower or in a frolick standing on tip-toe on the Weather-cock of a Steeple how would your Bowels turn your Bones tremble and all within you shake and shiver And will you yet be more venturous and fool-hardy your selves If ever you come to your selves you will be your own Wonder and Fear 3. Security Carnal Security Security is often taken for Safety To have our Estates or our Peace or our Souls secured is the same as to have them all in safety Job 11.14 15. If iniquity be in thine hand put it far away then shalt thou be secure because there is hope and thou shalt take thy rest in safety This Carnal Security is a retchlesness or carelesness of Heart to be without sense of our danger and without sollicitude for our safety The cares of this Life and the Pleasures of the Flesh do stupifie the Sinners of the Earth do lay their Souls a-sleep and bind up their senses so that they neither fear nor mind what 's like to come upon them This was the case of the old World in the dayes of Noah Luke 17.27 They did eat they drank they married and were given in marriage till the day came that Noah entred into the Ark. Their sensuality laid them all a-sleep and they never dream't of that Flood that came and destroyed them all It is said of the Men of Laish Judges 18.7 They dwelt careless after the manner of the Zidonians they were quiet and secure They neither feared Enemies nor made any provision against them but left themselves open to the mercy of any Invader Secure Sinners lay themselves open to all manner of mischiefs the Tempter may come the Avenger may come upon them before they are aware and he that may come will come The Lord of that Servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with Vnbelievers Luke 12.46 O how sick is this World of this Lethargick Distemper We cannot say as once 't was said Isa 33.14 The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites Behold the Sinners all asleep and who is there among the Hypocrites that fears But how is it with you Sinners are you in no danger Is there no Devil in the World or is there no fear that he intends to hurt you Is that Lion that us'd to walk up and down seeking whom to devour is he now confin'd to his Den so that he cannot hurt the Earth any more Are your Lusts those Lion's Whelps grown tame Do they no longer war in your Members Doth the World cease to be a temptation and a snare and are you out of danger of that Perdition and Destruction in which it draws its Lovers Is there no danger of your becoming Proud or Covetous or Sensualists lovers of Riches lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God or is it no harm if you be so Nay what woful Work hath been made upon you already What inrodes and invasions have been made and are not your Souls already taken Captives Behold that ignorance and folly that impotence and weakness that enmity and perversness that malice and envy wherewith your hearts are already filled and that stupidity and senslesness under all these evils that appear upon you What doth all this portend Doth it speak good concerning you Doth it say thus concerning you these Men are in an happy state there 's no fear to Men in such a case no fear of the Covetous no fear of the Drunkards and the Lyars and the Scoffers they are all happy Men. Consider Man whither
yet enquire What ground and reason can you give of the hope that is in you and it may be all the answer that will be given amounts to no more than this I hope because I hope I am perswaded because I am perswaded my Mind gives me so mine Heart tells me so I can have no other thought but that it is well and shall be well with me There 's many a Man that 's like unto that Man pointed out Deut. 29.19 who though he heareth the words of God's Curse blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of mine own heart Though God speaks never a good word though the Scriptures speak never a good word of such though God curses such a Man yet his own heart blesses him Though God sayes to him Thou Fool thou Belial thou Infidel thou Child of the Devil yet not a word is heard from his own heart but an honest Man a good Christian and a Child of God There is sometimes to be found a poor trembling Christian whom the Devil sets a cursing himself when God doth bless him that calls himself Hypocrite Unbeliever a Cast-away and Reprobate from God though God calls him Beloved and highly favoured and so there is that blesses himself whom God hath cursed It 's vain to tell him Thus saith the Lord or to bid him search the Scriptures hearken to what the Lord God will speak or to say to him as Jehoshaphat to the King of Israel 1 Kings 22.7 enquire of the Prophet of the Lord. Doth God his Scriptures his Ministers speak any good concerning thee It 's vain to speak thus to him Thus saith mine heart is more with him than Thus saith the Lord. Thus my mind gives me is enough to make him dis-believe the God of Truth he will rather make God a lyar than not believe his lying heart Consider this Sinners whether this be not your case God sayes The Ignorant the Unbelievers Liars Swearers the evil Workers and Impenitent are the Children of the Devil and shall never inherit the Kingdom of God And yet thou though thou canst not say but that thou art ignorant impenitent an evil worker given up to thy hearts lusts and hardned in thy way wilt not be perswaded but thou art a Child of God God sayes thou art none of his and thou wilt still say thou art to his Face Just thus was it with those Jews afore-mentioned John 8.44 Christ tells them to their Faces Ye are of your Father the Devil and proves it to them for saith he The Lusts of your Father ye do and you are just like your Father he was a Murtherer from the beginning and a Liar and the Father of it and what else are you And yet behold the confidence of the Men No we are Abraham's Seed and the Children of God Sinner who-ever thou art that art doing the Lusts and working the Works of the Devil Christ speaks this very word to thee which he here spake to those Jews Thou art of thy Father the Devil If yet thou sayest I hope not God is my Father and I am his Child there is that Presumption that may keep thee from fearing till thou too late feel the Wrath of God seizing upon thee This Presumption that 't is so well with thee already that if it be possible I may make thee afraid of that which keeps thee from fear know for a certain it will endanger so to hold thee in thy wretched state that 't is never like to be better with thee than ' t is This is it which hardens thee against Counsels and Reproofs slights the tenders of Mercy and out-faces the terrors of the Lord this shuts up thine Ears and thine Heart against the word of Reconciliation and does non-plus all the importunities of the Ministers of the Gospel Let them bid thee believe thou art a Believer already Let them command thee to repent Thou hast done it let them warn thee to flie from the Wrath to come and this is all the Fruit thou tellest them thou art already passed from Death to Life The confidence that thou art well enough already is like to make the Preaching of Christ to be of none effect to thee And because this is such a brazen Wall as keeps Christ and Grace out of the Heart and resists and repels all those Arguments which the Word makes use of to perswade to Christ and Life I shall make some batteries upon it as I pass along The first step to Conversion is Conviction Conviction is Presumption broken down and the breaking in of that Fear which makes way for Faith There are in Conviction these three things 1. Illumination 2. Redargution 3. Consternation 1. Illumination the enlightning of the Mind the opening of Sinners eyes and making their Sin and the danger that it exposes to known unto them the convincing Spirit brings the Commandment before them by which is the knowledg of Sin Rom. 7.7 and vers 9. When the Commandment came Sin revived and appeared to be Sin and exceeding sinful vers 13. It could be no longer hid nor any longer be look'd on as a light thing but a very dreadful thing to be a Sinner the truth is we none of us know Sin as it is some Light hath broken in upon our Hearts but 't is but little in comparison and thereupon we can be venturous so far upon it and too easily go out with it and lick our selves whole when we have sinned but if we knew the Heart and the Tail of this Scorpion what malignity there is in it and what comes after 't would make us tremble and take heed When the Spirit of the Lord brings the Commandment to us and layes Sin by that 't will look with another face than now it does 2. Redargution The Spirit of God not only shews what Sin is and what a fearful thing it is to be under Sin but withal proves and demonstrates to Sinners what-ever their confidence hath been of the contrary that they are under Sin when the Commandment hath done its work to discover Sin and the evil of it then Conscience is brought forth to do its work to witness the Sinner guilty Hast thou not sinned let Conscience speak does not thine own Heart tell thee of thy Lying and of thy Swearing and of thy Coveting and of thy company-keeping and a World more of such evils that thou hast lived in And hast thou ever been purged from thy Sins hast thou repented and turned from thy evil Wayes thou knowest thou hast not thou art in love with Sin in a league with Sin and livest to this hour in the practice and under the power of it Is this the Man that hath been so confident of the goodness of his state whose heart hath blessed him and promised him that no evil shall befal him What a Sinner and yet at peace What an impenitent Sinner and yet so confident thou shalt have peace Thou must
the Heavenliness of Mind are all but a varnish The Leprosie that hath fretted and eaten into the Wall will break out through the Plaister wherewith it 's whited over It 's possible it 's true that others may be deceived in them also these Pictures may be so drawn to the Life that every one may take them to be living Souls and yet while they have a Name that they live they may be dead Rev. 3.1 Grace is Truth a real thing not a shadow or paint This Truth is in the inward parts originally Thou lovest Truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 thou lovest Truth not Shadows or Images but Realities thou lovest Truth in the inward parts inside Truth a true Heart a pure Conscience he is a Christian which is one inwardly Rom 2.29 Grace is Life the Life of God 't is called Ephes 4.18 It is a Vital Power that forms the Heart into the Image of God that spirits and acts the whole Man and that exerts and produces those Vital Operations which are according to God and resists and works out that corruption which is contrary to God Grace is a Law a Law in the Heart Jer. 31.33 that commands and governs both it and the Life contradicts and overcomes that evil Law the Law of Sin that wars in the Members Grace is the fixing of the Heart upon God the returning and coming back of the Soul from that vanity after which it had lusted and gone awhoring and the pitching of it upon him as the Center of all its Hopes Aims Desires and Motions It comes down from Above even from the Father of Lights and it fetches up the heart to him Grace is the healing of Nature our participation of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 a Principle of Holiness in the Heart which is the health of the Soul and whereby it purgeth it self of all that corruption wherewith it was leavened and infected and is reduced to that better Temperament from which by Sin it fell Grace is the establishment of the Heart in Good Heb. 13.9 the firmness of the Soul it s being wrought to a good consistency it does not leave the Soul hovering and wavering and hanging betwixt Good and Evil but unalterably though not perfectly settles it upon Holiness and Righteousness Though there be degrees in firmness some weaker Christians are but unstable Souls in comparison of those that are more deeply rooted and more strongly fixed upon God and Godliness yet the very weakest of real Christians are so unalterably fixed upon God and his holy Wayes that nothing in the World can so far change their Minds as wholly to bring them back but the main bent of their Hearts and Course is still for Holiness and Righteousness Now are there none among the Professors of Religion that know all this and much more yea and feel something within which they judg to be the Babe springing in the Womb the Life of God begotten in them the New Creature brought to the Birth and brought forth in whom all this is but a false Conception and proves an Abortion at last Brethren since there may be such mistakes either the taking that for Faith or Grace which is not so or the taking your selves to have it within you when it is not there many have been thus mistaken damnably mistaken have gone down to the Chambers of Death full of the hopes of Eternal Life since it may be thus beware that none of you be thus mistaken Beware of taking that for the Faith which will save your Souls which doth not save you from your Sins Beware of venturing your Lives upon the strongest perswasion that Christ is your Life especially while you find that Sin is not dead Beware of trusting to an out-side Christianity that dwells in the Head or upon the Tongue whilst the Flesh and the World still have the possession of the Heart Beware of trusting to that Godliness which hath somewhat touched and affected the Heart but is but slight and shallow and is not gotten deep into the Soul Beware of trusting to that for Godliness that is but a weak and feeble thing that hath no life nor power in it but is a dead thing that doth not put forth it self in Vital Operations that is over-top'd and held captive by the Law of your Members that is made use of to comfort you but is not suffered to govern you but is kept as an underling and made to stand aside and give place to the Pleasures and Inclinations of your Flesh that is laid up to help you in your need and till then laid by that it hinder you not in your Carnal Interests or Designs Take heed of counting that your Grace which leaves you under the power of your old depraved Natures Is not thy natural pride and haughtiness subdued Dost thou continue froward envious of a fleshly and earthly heart as thou wast used to be doth the old Stream run still or if it be at times bayed up doth it ordinarily break down the Bay and run its wonted course Fear that Grace that is thus overpowred by Nature Trust not to that for Grace which is a wavering in and out thing that hath no consistency in it but leaves thee a ductile sequacious Soul carried about hither and thither with every Wind and apt to be variously snap'd according to the several temptations or circumstances thou art in Some Mens Godliness keeps pace with the Times is upon the Wing or hangs the Wing according to the encouragement or discountenance of the dayes they live in If Religion hath gotten the Wind on its side then they go on prosperously and hang forth all their Sails and will as soon strike Sail when the Wind is contrary Some are Holy only in Affliction when they are low and in trouble when they are sick and in pain and like to die then O what complaining of Sin what pretendings to Repentance what breathings after Grace then Reading and Praying and Meditations and Discourses about the other World come in request but when they prosper again and are in health all their Religion is laid by and forgotten Others are Godly only when they are pleased and all goes smoothly on with them Every little gust of Affliction blows all their Grace off its legs Some Mens Religion is much according to what their Company is Who more zealous and savoury and lively when they fall in amongst the Zealous and yet at other times as flat and as carnal and as vain as others scarce a Thought or a Word of any thing that good is when it will disgust the Company If this be all the Religion thou hast take heed of venturing thy Soul upon it or of growing confident that this is Grace or Godliness And that which is Grace indeed that Truth in the Inward Parts that Life of God that new Law in the Heart that fixedness upon God that health and that firmness of the Soul in Good Beware you count not your selves to
to repent at last who wilt not now accept of it And thus you have the Grounds and Reasons why Men Fear not It is from their Ignorance Unbelief and Presumption III. The Grounds and Reasons why we should Fear These are such as follow 1. We have reason to Fear because of our Ignorance Mens Ignorance is the reason why they Fear not as before and yet it 's a great reason why they should Fear Who have so great reason to fear as the Blind Every Bush may be a Thief every Sheep may be a Wolf every Lamb may be a Lion for ought he sees to the contrary every step may be into the Ditch or into the Fire or into the Water where-ever he stands or sits or dwells he knows not who or what may be near him and have not such Men reason to Fear Particularly by reason of Ignorance 1. We know not our way 2. We know not the Dangers that are in our way 1. We know not our way John 12.35 He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth Whither art thou bound Soul Thou art a Traveller but to what City to what Countrey art thou travelling O I am going to Canaan to the New Jerusalem I am travelling Heavenwards But dost thou know the way to that good Land Some of the most ignorant will answer as Christ said to his Disciples Wither I go I know and the way I know when the truth is they neither understand the one nor the other The way to God though it be a strait way and leads directly on by a line yet it 's hard to hit upon If I were to give but one general direction for finding the way to Heaven this should be it Take your first turning upon the right hand and then keep strait on without turning either to the right hand or to the left The way that thou art now going is to Hell but there is a turning on the right hand just before thee Repentance which is our turning out of the way of Death into the way of Life take that turning and then turn no more but keep strait on to the end of thy Life But as strait a way as the way of Life is it is not so easie to keep us in it There are many turnings out on either hand and at every Turning stands a Deceiver calling to Passengers as they go Turn in hither this is the way walk in it The Pharisee stands at one Turning and sayes This is the way The Law of Carnal Commandments the formal and superstitious observation of the Externals of Religion The Hypocritical Zealot stands at another and sayes This is the way The Spirituals of Religion believe in Christ love God and then live to thy self The Sectary of whatsoever Sect he be sayes Here is Christ this is the way of Life turn in hither be one of Us and thou shalt do well The Flesh stands and cries Hearken to none of these they are all blind Guides and will lead thee into their own Ditch come take this great and beaten Road in which thy Fore-fathers have gone before thee Follow the Wise Men and the Learned Men and those multitudes that thou seest going before thee Trust in the Mercy of God and trouble thy self no farther And the Devil stands at every one of these Turnings and if he can but perswade thee to take one of them it comes much alike to him which it be Now what shall a poor ignorant Soul do in this case to hit the right when there are so many false wayes He does not know the way himself and he is like to meet with so many false Guides how can he but Fear he may be misled and lost It fares with these Ignorant Souls as with the Hosts of the Syrians that were going to Dathan to slay Elisha 2 Kings 6.19 Elisha smites them with blindness and then leads them whithersoever he pleases Out he goes to them and tells them This is not the way neither is this the City come along with me and I will bring you to the Man whom you seek but he led them to Samaria This blind Host thought they had been right and going to Dathan but when their eyes were opened they saw themselves betrayed into Samaria into the hands of their Enemies Poor blind Soul thy hope is Heaven that 's thy journeys end thy Home to which thou sayest thou art travelling and thou perswadest thy self thou art in the way thither but for all this thou mayest be mistaken thou mayest be going to Samaria to Sodom to Hell and not to Heaven thou art in darkness and knowest not whither thou goest thou dost not know thy way how then canst thou but fear whether thou art in the right way or the wrong 2. By reason of Ignorance we know not the dangers in our way If we have some apprehension that the way is dangerous yet we know not in particular where the danger lies and so ere we are aware may fall into it Some young Travellers though they be told they be going a dangerous Road yet know not the dangerous Places nor the dangerous Persons that they fall upon a Thief starts up out of a Bush where they never suspected him and when he comes by his fair Language and Carriage they take him for a Friend and suspect not he comes upon any evil Intention till their loss too late teach them what he is What harm is there in such a vain fashion in such a questionable recreation in Cardings Dicings Dancings What harm is there in a little carnal Mirth or in vain and merry Company they be not Drunkards nor Swearers nor Adulterers there 's nothing amongst them but honest mirth and pleasantness what hurt is there in that why what harm is there in falling among Thieves what harm is there in being rob'd of all thou hast hast thou never been a loser by such friendly Thieves hast thou lost none of thy precious Time amongst them which thou couldst ill spare nay have they not stollen away thy heart It may be thou hast found thou wert of a better Spirit when thou camest amongst them thou hadst some sense and savour of God and Religion upon thine heart and some holy seriousness and tenderness and when thou returnest thou seest it's lost thou hast left all thy Religion behind thee Is this no harm when thou hadst been serv'd so once wouldst thou be content to be serv'd so again If thou hadst a cup of pleasant Wine before thee and one should tell thee Take heed there 's poison in the Cup wouldst thou say what harm is it if there be If one should meet thee in a Wood or a Desert and should offer thee Money or Pleasure or what-ever thou wilt if thou wilt be rul'd by him and do what he would have thee and a Friend should tell thee this may be the Devil that comes to truck with thee for thy Soul wouldst thou say what harm is it if it be
the Devil what harm will it be to take his Money or his Pleasure Why this may be the case In all those little things as thou countest them there may be poison in the Cup there may be the Devil in the Company the Pleasures that are before thee the Money that is before thee these may be the price the Devil is offering thee for thy life May it be so I but I do not think 't is so my Soul may be safe enough for all that why therefore fear that there may be such danger and you never know or suspect it Nay this Devil lies still in wait not only in those places and wayes which look like suspicious places and suspicious ways but he 's every-where at hand even where he is least suspected When could Men think themselves more secure from the Devil than when they are with God in Duties and Ordinances But doth he never meet them there Hath the Devil never met thee in thy Closet or in the Congregation of the Lord How is it at this very hour Now that we are come together before the Lord now that the Lord is instructing us and warning us of the danger we are in Is there not one standing behind and out of sight either stealing away your hearts from minding the Warnings or else contradicting the Word of the Lord Come ccme these are but words and conceits the Devil is far enough off thou art in no such danger of him are there no such whisperings in none of your ears at this time Why whose Voice is this you little think whose 't is 'T is the Devil that thus speaks to the end you may lose this Warning and so he may have his advantage upon you Lord open the eyes of these Men to use that Prayer for you which the Man of God did for his Servant 2 Kings 6.17 So the Lord opened his eyes and he saw all the Mountains full of Angels Chariots of Fire and Horses of Fire If God should so open our eyes I trust we should see this House full of the Angels of God ministring to us but withal we should see this House full of Devils attempting to mischief us a Devil at every Ear a Devil at every Heart trying his skill to stop the one and harden the other from receiving this Word of the Lord. We are never an one of us more secure than Joshua the High-Priest of whom we read Zech. 3.1 That when he was standing before the Lord Satan stood at his right hand to resist him You 'l say again it may be you do not think 't is so why therefore Fear that the Devil should be so near and so busie with you and you neither understand nor will believe it though it be told you Such Ignorance is cause enough of Fear If any of you should have been told ten or twenty years ago how the Devil would serve you how he would hinder any word of Counsel or Instruction from prospering with you how he would hold you under this Ignorance of God and hardness and impenitence of Heart you would have been like enough to answer I hope not I hope to get more of the knowledg of God I hope God will bring me to Repentance one time or other I hope his Word will prosper with me And yet you see how 't is he hath sufficiently plaid the part of a Devil with you you were not so blind or so dead or so hard in your hearts many years ago but you are every way as bad or worse at this day and because you had not this foresight to discern that thus it might be had you not the more reason to Fear it would be so And what say you now as to the time to come If it should be said unto you at this day He that hath dealt thus by you hitherto will be like enough to deal as bad or worse by you to the end of your dayes so that you shall never be brought to Repentance nor ever recover your selves out of the snares of the Devil will you yet again say I hope not I fear it not that very word is enough to make you tremble If the God of this World had not blinded your Minds he could never have thus hardned your Hearts If you that have known Christ and have been in Christ many years ago If some of you should have been told that if you look'd not the better to it the Devil would meet you at the very threshold of Christianity and hold you there from making any farther entrance in would keep you Babes and Infants in the Grace of God that he would keep you all this time so weak in the Faith so cold in your Love so barren in your Life that all this while you should have gotten no more victory over this World and the fleshliness of your Minds and Hearts nor no more intimate acquaintance with God and your own Souls than some of you have at this day If when you had been told you were in danger of being serv'd thus If you had then answered I do not Fear it I should have made bold to tell you You do not know what a Devil he is with whom you had to do and now that you may know him better by observing how he hath dealt by you hitherto you will at length I hope learn to Fear What if the Devil should now appear to you in some bodily monstrous shape would it not fright you Why you may see his foot though you do not see his face you may see him in what he hath done in his temptations of you and the unhappy success of them upon you in that ruinous state your Souls are hereby in and surely Friends to those that understand him The Devil in a secret temptation is more formidable than the Devil in an Apparition the prints of his Hoofs are a more dreadful sight than the Horns of his Head 2. Another reason why we should Fear is because of the deceitfulness of our Hearts What-ever our dangers are from without what-ever designs or devices the Devil or the World have against us yet if all were true within us if our Hearts were true to us our hazard were not so great but saith the Prophet Jer. 17.9 The Heart of Man is deceitful above all things So that we may not only say with the Prophet Micah 7.5 Trust ye not in a Friend put not confidence in a Guide but with Solomon also Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth his own Heart is a Fool. The deceitfulness of the Heart stands 1. In its Treachery 2. In its Subtilty 1. In its Treachery The Heart of a Man is false to it self it is like the Devil a lying Spirit there is no believing it what-ever it speaks It 's full of all guile and will if left to it self betray it self into the hands of its Enemies 2. In its Subtilty It is a crafty Heart it hath many plots and devices to deceive Prov. 19.21 There are
many devices in Man's Heart It hath much of the Devil in it not only of the falshood of the Devil as before It is a lying Spirit nor only of the uncleanness of the Devil this also is the wicked one nor of the malice of the Devil It is the Enemy but of the cunning of the Devil of the subtilty of the Serpent This Serpent also is more subtile than all the Beasts of the Field It 's true it 's also a silly Heart easie to be beguiled it is so subtil as to beguile and yet so silly as easily to be beguiled like those false Teachers 2 Tim. 3.13 Deceiving and being deceived The great and most mischievous deceits of the Heart are its self-deceivings Jam. 1.22 deceiceiving your own selves and vers 26. deceiveth his own heart God cannot be deceived and if Men be deceived in us there is not so very much in that but the most mischievous deceits and which are most to be feared are its deceiving of it self 1. God cannot be deceived He is the searcher of the Heart Jer. 17.10 he knows what is in Man better than the Spirit that is in him God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all things Our Hearts can tell us more of ourselves than all the World can tell us but God can tell us more of us than we of our selves He hath a Key to every Chamber a Window into every Corner a Candle to search into our inmost parts All things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.13 He sees all that is lodging in us all the Lusts of the Heart yea and all the Thoughts of the Heart are open to his Eye Jer. 4.14 How long shall vain thoughts lodg within you He sees what there is a doing within us What good the Heart is at any time a-doing any good desires that are a-working any gracious designs that are going in the Heart he sees what evil there is a-doing an evil Motion cannot wag a Lust cannot stir but his eye is presently upon it Isa 1.16 Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes that is put it quite away cease to do evil if it do but continue though never so much in the dark yet it cannot be hid from mine eyes What are these hearts of ours often a-doing in secret which no others and it may be not our selves take notice of When our eyes are closed our hands are quiet our tongues are silent God knows what there may be doing within There may be devilish devices contriving within there may be dark counsels beneath Heart may be Swearing or Lying or Stealing or Coveting or committing Adultery whilst there 's no noise of any such thing without Yea whilst the Tongue is praying the Ears are hearing the Eye is lift up to Heaven the Heart may be in Hell or on Earth in the Field in the Shop in the Market or who knows where but God's Eye is upon it Friends Who knows where our hearts are or what they are a-doing at this hour It may be now God is a-preaching to you the Doctrine of Holy Fear of Holy Watchfulness and Circumspection some of your hearts may be un-preaching all that God speaks may be preaching Liberty Licentiousness Slothfulness Security to you and telling you there 's no such danger and no such need of Fear as hath been preached unto you Or if they do not contradict the Word that the Lord hath spoken yet it may be they divert you from minding it by telling you some impertinent Stories about other things filling your heads with your business or pleasure cutting you out your Work for to morrow Look inward Friends see if you can find your Hearts within or whether they be not gone abroad you know not whither But where-ever they are or whatever they are doing the Eye of the Lord is upon them Men may dissemble and deal deceitfully with God but they cannot deceive him 2. If they deceive Men it is not so greatly considerable Though that may be our wickedness too If we hide our selves from others if we be better or if we be worst than they apprehend us to be there is not so much in that The Heart is cunning at this also in deceiving of Men by palliating evil intentions with fair and specious pretences by seeking them out corners to sin in waiting for the twilight or the darkness to be a covering for them by smooth words and fair speeches beguiling the Hearts of the simple by a kiss of the Mouth when there is war in the Heart by putting the best side outward putting on the clothing of a Sheep upon a Wolf or a Bear the face of a Saint to cover the Soul of a Devil What is the Hypocrites Praying or Fasting or Alms or savoury Language and Discourse What is all this for 'T is but the Cloathing his Heart hath provided him to advance and set him up in the opinion of others 't is to serve his pride or his covetousness and to hide the poverty and rottenness which is within out of sight Beloved are there none of us guilty upon this account Whose Religion and the Exercise thereof are a meer carnal Design whose Duties are a meer Device to beguile Men into a good Opinion of us to raise up or keep up our Reputation amongst them Is it not thus with some of us Soul what hast thou been doing to day O I have been Praying and Hearing and Fasting or keeping a Sabbath to the Lord. No thou lyest thou hast been juggling and cheating and deceiving of Men. If these have been the Work of thy Tongue or thine Ears or thine Eyes to pray to hear to praise the Lord thine Heart hath found other work to do it hath been making a Garment of these Prayers and Praises to dress up it self in thereby to commend and set it off before the Spectators or it may be to hide or carry on some treacherous or wicked Design which needed such a covering The Heart is thus busie to deceive Men but still its greatest and most mischievous deceitfulness lies here in deceiving it self It is an horrid wickedness to deal deceitfully with the Lord to dissemble and lye unto God It is folly to be false to him who we know will discover the cheat and its highest impiety What is Iniquity if Hypocrisie be not And what Hypocrisie like mocking or lying unto God It is Mens great sin to deal deceitfully with Men But that which I would now lay before you as a special reason why we should Fear our hearts is their self-deceivings And how much Fear should be upon us upon this account will appear when we have considered these three things 1. About what Mens Hearts deceive them 2. By what Mens Hearts deceive them 3. Of what Mens Hearts deceive them 1. About what do Mens Hearts deceive them And that is about that they are most deeply concern'd to mind or regard Particularly 1. About Matters
Hearts deceive them Sometimes even by the Good that is in them The Heart of Man can make a Snare of every Creature Condition Relation or Comfort can make a Net for Souls of the coursest or of the finest Thred can undo them by their Friends and by their Enemies by their Prosperities and by their Adversities by their Sins and their Rigthousness Where-withal may this Man be enticed to Sin to neglect Christ and his Soul Some Mens Hearts find that a Harlot will do it others that a drunken Companion will do it others that nothing but Gold and Silver will do it others that applause will do it some that Idleness others that Business some that Friends others that Enemies some that Prosperity others that Affliction will be the likeliest Temptations and accordingly it manages its deceiving work Our Hearts can deceive us by the best we have by our Vertues by our Duties by our Priviledges and this is often the most dangerous deceit The more generous the Wine in which thou receivest thy Poison the more deadly the Potion Some Hypocrites Hearts tell them they are sincere But how can they make them believe it Why if the Heart may not be believed for its own word the Word of God must be brought to witness this lye Doth not the Scriptures say Rom. 10.9 If thou confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy Heart that God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved And do not I believe the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead Do not I confess and acknowledg it I be ieve it with all mine Heart I confess it before all the World and therefore without doubt I am in a state of Salvation If this will not do but the Heart perceives there must be more in that belief than a notional Assent there must be more in that Confession than a verbal Acknowledgment than its Virtues and Duties and Priviledges its Prayers and Hearings and Alms its Sobriety and Temperance its keeping of Sabbaths and attending upon Ordinances must all be call'd forth to testifie Am not I of God Am not I in Christ Let my Prayers speak let mine Alms speak let my Temperance let my Patience let my Sabbaths speak whose I am I keep the Sabbath whilst others pollute it I hear whilst others forbear I pray and fast whilst others neglect both and therefore sure it must be well with me when yet it may be the Man is ignorant of the Spirit and a secret Enemy against the Power and Purity of Religion all the while I might multiply Instances of the several sorts of the Heart's deceivings and shew that there is nothing but in some way or other may be made use of to beguile us 3. Of what may our Hearts deceive us Even of all we have Of what did our first Parents Hearts deceive them Of their Portion in God and their place in Paradise Of what did Esau's Heart deceive him Of his Birth-right and the Blessing Of what did Sampson's Heart deceive him Of his Locks and of his Life Of what did that Fool 's Heart deceive him Luke 12.20 Of his Soul Isa 44.20 A deceived Heart hath turned him aside so that he cannot deliver his Soul You that believe your selves Saints are apt to think that what-ever you be deceived of yet your Souls are safe and therefore that you have no such need to Fear as other Men. But it may be you may be deceived in this and this very confidence That thy Soul is safe may prove its eternal loss But if you should come off at last with the Salvation of your Souls yet how many desperate hazards do you run of losing them by hearkning to these evil Hearts How much of your time do they steal away which was given you for the working out your Salvation How many Duties have they lost you how many Ordinances have they lost you which the Interest of your Souls could ill have spar'd What a dead and dark and carnal and loose Spirit hast thou sometimes been bewitched into wherein God hath been laid by Soul hath been forgotten Conscience hath been laid a-sleep and all care about the things of God hath been swallowed up of the cares of this Life Is it nothing to thee to be in such a case Doth it not grieve thee to think whither thou art fallen and art thou not afraid what the issue may be whether ever thy Soul may be lifted up out of this Pit whereinto it is sunk so deep in mud and mire But if thou should'st be ask'd now Friend how camest thou in hither who hath led thee into this Dirt who hath cast thee into this Pit May be thou wilt be ready to answer as Eve did The Serpent beguiled me in or as Adam did The Woman deceived me in thou wilt find some else to father thy Faults upon the Devil deceived me into this case the World deceived me in evil Company deceived me in Like enough they did But what could they all have done if thine Heart had not joyned with them The hand of Joab is in all this thine Heart is the Joab that hath dealt this subtilly and deceitfully with thee 1 Kings 22.20 Who will perswade Ahab saith the Lord that be may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead I will go saith the Devil I will perswade him But where-with wilt thou perswade him I will be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of his Prophets Go up and prosper go up and prosper that shall be the word that shall do it There 's no fear of falling at Ramoth thou shalt prevail against thine Enemies and return a Conqueror If it shall be said in like manner who shall perswade this foolish Man to go on his evil wayes that he may fall and perish I will go sayes his Heart presently I 'le be the Devil to perswade him But wherewith wilt thou perswade him O I 'le be a lying Spirit within him I 'le make him believe he shall prosper and have peace in his way he shall not fall nor shall hurt come unto him Go sayes God to the Devil and take heed he sayes not so to that false Heart of thine Go thou shalt perswade and thou shalt prevail Thou shalt intice this idle Person thou shalt harden this vain or this careless Person and he shall hearken to thee he shall follow thee till he fall and perish Christians we have every one of us such an Heart as this that is too ready to go upon such a wretched Errand Have we not suffered much by it's treachery Hath it not often trip'd up our heels or turned us out of our way Hath it not betray'd us out of our Refuge and led us aside after lying vanities Though Grace hath been some security to us against it yet hath it not often been too hard for all the Grace we have Who is there of us that dares stand forth and say My Heart I hope is no such heart It is better than
what Prayer is for how much there is depending on the faithful discharge of it and see if this doth not work such a Fear upon thine Heart as will both find thee time and keep thee waking When you go to hear the Word if you considered I am now hearing for my Life the Lord God hath brought me before him that he may tell me words whereby I may be saved the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are now opening to me the most High comes down to shew me the Path of Life that Word that falls from the Preacher's Lips is the Word by which I must be saved and the Word by which I must be judged 't is the Everlasting Gospel I come now to hear which is all I have for Eternity I must stand or fall live or die according to the success of this Word upon me As this is the only Word of Life so this may be the only time of Life God knows whether this may not be the last Warning the last Instruction the last Tender of Grace and Mercy that I may have for ever whether my hearkning to or letting slip what I shall hear from the Lord this day be not that which must give the final determination of mine Everlasting State What would such thoughts did they sit close upon our Hearts when we come to hear the Word what would such thoughts work would they not command thee take heed how thou hearest give heed to the things thou hearest fear how thou let them slip Would a deaf Ear a wandring Eye a roving Imagination be then endured by thee Wouldst thou then suffer as ordinarily thou dost those wandring Birds to catch up the incorruptible Seed as it falls upon thee would it not send thee home with a trembling Heart at all such times when thou hast left all thou heardst behind thee Consider Friends where are you at this present what makes you here this day Let me reason with you a little before the Lord How is it that all your Spirits are not standing upon the Watch-Tower whilst the King of Glory passeth by How is it that all your Ears and Eyes and Hearts are not waiting for him why sit you here all the day idle Do you not understand what Work 't is you are upon O take heed to your selves Salvation and Damnation are before you and one of the two you are certainly working out Is it indifferent to you which of the two it be is it all one to please God or to provoke him to get you nearer or to put you farther off from the Kingdom of God What think you of such praying and such hearing as you content your selves with Will the living God be serv'd with such spiritless Duties Is Death your way to Life Are these dead and heartless Duties Is this dead praying and dull hearing that upon which you will venture your Souls Will you pray your selves into Hell While you have in your hands the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven will you lock the Door with it and shut your selves out Whilst others are swearing and lying and coveting and cursing themselves to Hell will you be hearing and praying your selves thither whither else will such dead Duties carry you certainly such blessing is as cursing such hearing is as hardning the Ears such praying is as blessing an Idol Will God regard Mockers Will God be served with Wind and Words O tremble fear lest you not only lose all your Duties but be irrecoverably lost by them Again what an influence would this Consideration have upon all the actions of your Life if you understood and were sensible that all that ever you do hath such a respect to your eternal state that according to it your final Sentence will be Where-ever you are what-ever you are doing you are serving God or the Devil you are working for Life or for Death There are no indifferent actions considered in individuo and with their Circumstances that make neither one way or other all our motions are either upward or downward Our Life is our Race and every Action of our Lives is a step backward or forward our going in or out of our way Nay onr very doing nothing is doing something if our ease or rest be idleness it 's serving the Devil if it be a refreshing for our Work it 's serving God We may be in a sense serving God when we be a-sleep and we may also by our sleep be serving the Flesh and the Devil We are ever either laying aside our Weights or laying on more Weight we are making us Wings or making us Chains helping our selves on or hindering us in our way We are in this World as Merchants trading for Eternity Our whole Life is a treasuring up good or evil for our selves against the last day We are alwayes either buying or selling buying the Truth of selling our Souls we are upon the Exchange every day and hour either changing better for worse or worse for better every inch of our time is our Talent to trade withal and we are still laying it out to our gain or our loss Our Lives are our Seed-time we are still sowing to the Harvest what we sow in Time we must reap in Eternity Our Eating and Drinking our Working and Playing our Talking and our Silence will one way or other spring up to our hands hereafter Do you understand this Friends Do you consider it O what manner of Persons should we then be what wary and circumspect Lives should we live Would not this if it were considered dam up that stream of Iniquity that runs down through all our course Would our covetous practices our fraudulent and unrighteous dealings would that lying and scoffing that self seeking and flesh-pleasing which take up so much of our time would this hold up the head against such a sense of the influence they must have upon our eternal State Should we then spend so much of our time in doing wickedly or doing nothing would it not find us other Work and work enough for our Time our Tongues and our Hands and our Heads and all our Powers But we do not consider or understand When you are walking in the vanity of your Minds after the Lusts of this World what do you use to think of this or do you think nothing of it I so 't is indeed you will not then think what you are doing but stand and pause awhile when you are serving your flesh can you think now I am serving the Lord now I am working out my Salvation now I am providing for my Soul and laying up against the time to come Dare you say now I am sowing for Eternity this is that which I would reap in the other World This Mirth and this Jollity this Pride and this Idleness this Laughter and these Lyes Let these and the Crop they will bring forth be my Harvest hereafter Would not the thoughts of such a Harvest make you dread such a Seed-time Or else can
the Lord that thou hast a standing infallible and uninterrupted evidence of thy Sincerity and an undoubted Security for thy perseverance to the end Is there not room for such a question What if I should fall short Art thou gotten beyond all possibility of miscarrying for ever Friends know that a possibility of falling into the Wrath to come were that Wrath throughly understood would work more fear than a certain expectation of all the Torments and Miseries of this Life O Fear Hast thou Faith Believe and Fear Hast thou Hope Hope and Fear Hast thou Joy Rejoyce with trembling Rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God and tremble and fear his Wrath and Vengeance There will be this double use and advantage besides others of this fear of the Curse 1. 'T will quicken our necessary fear of Sin 2. 'T will quench our sinful fear of the Cross 1. This fear of the Curse will quicken our necessary fear of Sin Yea and of all the temptations to it Sin is the sting of Death and this Death is the sting of Sin How bitter would Sin taste how gastly would it look were this Gall that lies in its Belly this sting it carries in its Tail discovered and heeded Thou wouldst quickly be filled with thine own wayes didst thou but see what stands at their further end That Bed of Scorpions whither Sin is dragging thee would make every Sin as a Snake or Adder And of all Sins 't would strike the Heart with the greatest fear of its beloved Sins These are they especially under which Hell lies in ambush for us these are Hell's strongest Ropes by which it pulls in Souls Hath any Sin cast a Cord of Love about thee That 's it that 's like to be the Rope to draw thee to the Slaughter Thou canst get loose from many Sins at pleasure but take heed that foolish Heart of thine will die for it s Beloved If thou ask What wouldst thou have O my my beloved Sin What comest thou to me so often for Why takest thou up thy dwelling so near mine Heart It will answer O 't is to please thee that I am so often with thee I know thou lovest me I am the delight of thine Heart and the pleasure of thine Eyes thou canst not be content without me I am that Ease or that Wealth or that Credit that thou lovest Is there not a league betwixt me and thee Am not I the nearest Friend thou hast Thy Health and thy Welfare and thy Soul are not so dear as I am to thee thou lovest me and therefore 't is I come that thou mayest have what thou lovest But what hast thou now to say to it No no Traitor 't is my Life thou seekest 't is my Soul thou comest to steal away and devour O I dread thy fawning Face thy smiles are Darts in mine Heart I tremble at thy wooings and embraces Get thee gone Harlot thy kindnesses are deadly kindnesses What means that Dagger in thine Hand whilst thou thus kissest me with the kisses of thy Mouth 'T is my Death thou art designing I must die if I will any longer love thee and what Death must I die Is it a short and easie Death that thou art betraying me to No no 't is a bitter Death and 't is a lingring Death an eternal Death that thou art preparing for me This Heart hath been under-ground in the dark Cavern of Pitch and Brimstone I have been in the Deep and viewed those Chambers of Death where thou lodgest thy Lovers I have sent down my Spies my thoughts have been below in the Belly of Hell I have beheld how they lie in that Pit roaring and yelling and blaspheming raving mad with the anguish of their burning Souls I have seen the very Smoke and Fire that devours them the burning Teeth of that everlasting Worm that gnaws their Hearts and the fury and rage of that Serpent that deceived them in O my Soul quakes my Bones tremble terror and astonishment have taken hold of me at the Description my thoughts have brought me up of that place of torment And thou O my beloved Sin even thou art it that art most like to carry me down and bury me there If I die that Death 't will be by thy hand if I run my self into that Fire 't will be for thy sake Away from me thou proud Heart get thee gone Covetousness or Sensuality or Slothfulness or whatever the Name of my Beloved be I dare not have any more to do with thee I fear thee more than ever I loved thee I fear where thou mayest lay me before tomorrow if I should suffer thee to lodg but one night more with me Such dread of thy beloved Sin would a fear of the Curse work in thee Friends consider Are there yet any Sins that have such power over your Hearts are your Spirits so chained by them that you cannot get loose O look to those Chains of Fire into which by this Chain of Love your Sins are dragging you Are you afraid of the Curse of God Are you afraid to burn Are you afraid to be rack'd and torn and gnawn and groun'd under the Milstones of eternal Vengeance then be afraid of Sin Let Hell be your Fear and Sin will be your Fear let Sin be your Fear and it will be no longer your Love If you will not fear this Fear if you will laugh at Hell you will sport at Sin If you fear not to be Cursed you will less fear to be Wicked if you fear not Hell you will hardly fear to be Devils on Earth O Sinners steep all your pleasant Morsels in that Vinegar and Gall spice all your stollen Waters with that Pitch and Brimstone strow all your pleasant wayes with those Serpents and Adders which will bite and sting your Souls for ever Mingle all your Carnal Delights with some such deep thoughts of what they are betraying you to and then go on after them without fear if you can And as this fear of Wrath will work a fear of Sin so will it also work the same fear of temptations to Sin Sin and Temptation lead the same way though Temptation be one remove farther back Temptation leads to Sin and Sin to Death He that fears the Fowler will fear the snare of the Fowler he that fears the Hunter will fear his Dogs and his Toyls Get a fear of the Land of Darkness and you will fear to be Companions of such as are travelling thitherward fear the Plague and thou wilt be no company for them whose dwelling is in the Pesthouse Afraid of Hell and yet never well but when thou art amongst those Decoys that are enticing thee thither What are the Allurements of Sinners to the Ear of him that hath Death and Wrath in his Eye Let them entice thee Come Let 's be merry let 's to the Alehouse or the Tavern or to a Play Let 's feed to the full let 's cloth our selves with the best let
of Christ may be right in your Eyes and yet your Hearts not be upright in his Eyes You may be perswaded in your Hearts concerning the Way of Godliness that this is the Good Way that this is the Right Way and an Excellent Way that the Life of a Christian led according to the Rules of the Gospel is an Excellent Life Rom. 2.18 Thou knowest his Will and approvest the things that are more Excellent And to this good Opinion Men may be wrought 1. From the Self-evidencing Light of that Holy Doctrine which prescribes and requires Godliness 2. From the convincing Lives of the Sincere Professors of Godliness 3. From the Self-condemnation that is to be observed in all other wayes 1. From the Self-evidencing Light of the Doctrine of Godliness The Doctrine of Christianity proves it self to be of God by that Divine Light that shines forth in it there is a stamp of Divinity imprinted upon it Is God an Holy God So is this Doctrine an Holy Doctrine Is God a Merciful and Gracious God So is this Doctrine a Doctrine of Mercy a Doctrine of Grace there is Grace and Mercy runs through the whole Body of it nay they are the very Soul and Life of it Is God a God of Wisdom The Doctrine of Christianity is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery Is God a God of Truth and of Righteousness Such is the Doctrine of the Gospel that not only is according to Truth and reveals the Righteousness of God but requires Truth and imposes Righteousness upon all that will embrace it What is more contrary to this Word of Truth than a Lye or than Hypocrisie and Guile What is more contrary to this Word of Righteousness than Unrighteousness Doth the Word of the Gospel allow any Iniquity Is there any guile found in it or any toleration whereof in its Professors Doth it not command all Righteousness and condemn all Unrighteousness even while it justifies the Sinner it condemns the Sin This Religion is pure Religion and undefiled before God Jam. 1.25 Teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live righteously soberly and godly in this present World Tit. 2.13 14. Now he that knows that God is an Holy and Wise God a God of Grace of Truth and of Righteousness and does but understand the Scriptures may without any great difficulty be led into a good opinion of that Godliness which is there held forth and required 2. From the Convincing Lives of the Sincere Professors of Christianity I do not say from the Lives of all Professors some Professors of Christianity there are who are not Christians Some such there are amongst Professors who are disorderly walkers whose Wayes are so evidently contrary to their Profession as if the Devil had led them into their Christianity on purpose to disgrace the Gospel and 't is like enough 't was his doing indeed to make Professors of them This Tempter may tempt Men into Religion as far as may sewe his own ends and Mens Lusts may make them Disciples Such I mean who while they pretend to the Spirit do walk after the Flesh who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1.18 who are proud self-conceited self-willed heady giddy wandring and unstable Souls like crooked Lines that in some points touch with the Rule but for the most part do swerve from it on this hand and on that Who are scrupulous about some smaller Matters which they fancy to have an appearance of evil and yet allow themselves in apparent Evils straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel insisting much on some Circumstances and neglecting the weightier Matters of the Law like those Mat. 23.23 24. 'T is but little that Godliness is beholden for the good Opinion it hath obtained to such as these But to the sincere and single-hearted Professors whose Lives are a Copy or Pattern of wholsom Doctrine holding forth the Word of Life exemplifying the Holy Rules laid down in Scripture and shewing forth the Vertues of Christ before the World Who are in the World as he was in the World who live by Faith and walk in Love being humble meek peaceable merciful temperate true righteous and holy in all manner of Conversation These are the Persons whose Lives do commend Godliness to the World and force their very Hearts many of them to acknowledg Sure this is the Way of God that these Men walk it cannot be but God is in them of a very truth sure these are the Servants of the Living God this is Religion indeed if there be any way of Life this is the way It 's true this way is every-where spoken against by the malicious but the more like to be of God for that So 't was in the Apostles dayes Acts 28.22 As for this Sect we know it is every-where spoken against Mark it Christianity was counted by the malicious but a Sect or a Faction and Christians but Sectaries so they were counted and called about 1600 years ago and therefore 't is no disparagement if they be counted so still But sayes the considering Sinner let them be called what Men please Sectaries Seducers Hypocrites or what else malice can invent yet as it was said of Christ John 10.21 These are not the words of him that hath a Devil so it may be said of his Followers Call them what you will yet these are not the Lives of Schismaticks or Hypocrites these Men are the Servants of the most High God and their way is the way of Life 3. From the Self-condemnation that all other wayes carry in them If this be not the way of Life there 's none if these be not the Servants of God there are none such in the World For where are they else to be found Are the Ignorant and the Earthly and the Irreligious are these the Religious Are the Carnal and the Formal and the out-side Worshippers that will give Christ the Cap and the Knee and yet can Drink and Riot and Swear and Scoff are these the sincere Worshippers of God This must be the Good Way or which else can it with any tolerable probability be imagined to be Surely if this be not it we must even all count to be damn'd for there is no other that so much as looks like the Path of Life The Atheist must say I am not in the way to God this Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God The Pope with his Doctrine must say I am not the Way I am Antichrist 't is Christ only that brings us to God Formality must say I am not the Way for God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4.24 Profaneness must say I am not the Way to God I am the Way of Death and my steps lead down to Hell If there be any Way of Death in the World profaneness is it Drunkards and Swearers and Revellers and Rioters if their Consciences may but have the priviledg of their
not but in doing mischief 2. The Devil loves to dwell where he may be at rest That is not from Work his Work is his rest but from Resistance or Opposition In carnal and unclean Hearts the unclean Spirit may be at rest there 's nothing to disturb or give him disquiet He may dwell at ease and rule and domineer at pleasure Nay if he please he may be at rest not only from Opposition but from Work too he may take up such Habitations for his Houses to sleep in his Work goes on whether he wakes or sleeps Wicked Hearts do the Devil's Work to his hand he may save himself much of his labour they will run on to Death and Hell without the Devils driving them Foolish Sinners are apt to think themselves secure from the Devil they live in I constant calm and find no such buffetings and blusterings of the Devil upon them as some of the Saints do but are in quiet and at peace and thereupon are confident there 's no Devil near them But stay Friends not so confident cast an eye upon Luk. 11.21 there you may read When a strong Man armed keepeth the House his Goods are in peace It is not because the Devil is not near you that you hear no more of him but because he hath you sure enough and needs not keep a stir to make you surer Do but offer to depart and make an escape give but a shake at his Yoke to get it off and get you away towards Christ and then you shall find whether the Devil be at hand or no. He is at rest in thee Sinner and that 's the reason thou hearest no news nor noise of him he hath thee safe enough or else thou shouldst be sure to find he were not far off from thee Seeking rest and findeth none He goes through these dry places from Saint to Saint from Heart to Heart in hope to find entertainment but is still disappointed Here 's little rest for me to be had these dry places I see are no place for me Here 's such watching and wrestling and warring against me such jealouses and suspicions of me so much praying and complaining against me that thre's no stay for me here This whether it be the Truth of the Text or no I will not peremptorily determine but a certain Truth it is The Devil seeks entertainment in the Saints but cannot find to his mind Then he saith I will return to mine House from whence I came out Well I see there 's no hope of rest for me here but I know whither I may go and be welcome I 'le back to my old Habitation And when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished A little cleaner and handformer than when he left it the Devil can allow Sinners a little Reformation But though it be a little cleaned and garnished yet it lies empty still there 's no other Tenant hath taken it up though the Devil went out yet Christ was not let in but there it lies void for the next that comes Then goeth he and taketh seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that Man is worse than his first Beware of a returning Devil the Devil at his return often makes seven-sold worse work than before he did Friends it may be there be some among you in whom the unclean Spirit hath been ruling and spurring and riding you post on upon all manner of wickedness Drunkenness Whoredom Swearing Cursing and all manner of Abominations But at present it may be he is for a season departed and hath a little with-drawn from you and now you are grown more sober and temperate and chast much reformed of what you once were you are swept and garnished you have laid by your former profaneness and taken up the Profession of Religion and put on a Form of Godliness there is a better face upon you and upon your wayes and now you think all 's well you are become new Men and your state is happy But do you not stand empty still Hath Christ taken up these Hearts for his own Habitation If the Unclean Spirit be gone out is the Holy Spirit come in How much soever you are Reformed of what you have been are you transformed by the renewing of your Mind Are you not only garnished with common Grace but are you furnished with special Grace Is Christ within you If not O take heed the Devil may come about again and make his re-entry upon you and then you have not been so wicked heretofore but you may become seven times more vile and your latter end may be worse than your beginning Beloved I hope and am perswaded that there are divers among you from whom through the abundant Grace of God towards you the unclean Spirit is not only withdrawn but cast out that you are not only a little overly swept and garnished but established in the Grace of God I hope and believe that there are many here in whom the Holy Spirit hath gotten such footing that the Devil shall never come in again to set up his Throne or take up his Rest in you But yet I warn you especially the younger Professors among you to maintain a Godly Jealousie of your selves and to fear how it may be with you Now Friends consider what hath been said Are there Preparations for Grace which yet are no Grace Are there Images of Grace which yet are no Grace And may they be so well like that they are often taken to be the same May you have many Properties of Sincere Christians and yet be no Christians May all you have of them go back and come to worse than nothing Believe this and see if it work not fear in you Objection But is this the Work of a Minister of the Gospel to fill poor Christians Heads and Hearts with Doubts and Fears The Word of the Gospel is a Word of Peace a comforting Word and that 's the charge laid upon the Ministers of the Gospel Isa 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my People speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem cry unto her that her Iniquity is pradoned And the poor People of God have need enough to be comforted they have fears enough from the World and their own evil Hearts and do you make Christ to be the Minister of fear to them also Our Doubts are our Sins our Fears are our Infirmities and do you go about to nourish our Diseases The Word of Christ is the Food of Souls and 't is but poor feeding for Christ's Sheep to feed them with Fear Solution 1. All are not Christ's Sheep that are found in Sheeps Clothing the Devil hath some Goats in Christ's Fold All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 And whilst it is really a question whether thou be not one of the Devil's Goats he does thee no harm that puts thee in fear whether thou be or no. This fear is not to
still at a loss and in doubt how it is with me By this time you may see what an advantage there is in this Fear to help us to a right understanding of our states it will never rest searching till we be clearly satisfied Well but now you will say will you leave us here Shall our Fear still follow us with ' How may we know How may we prove that all this is in Sincerity Will you not help us out here what can you farther say that may non-plus our Fears and quiet us against such anxious and troublesome How may I know's may there nothing be brought forth to our help concerning which it may be said by this thou mayest know even all that thou desirest To this I answer 't is hard to bring up a Christian in this imperfect state to such full and infallible and satisfactory evidence of the soundness of his state that he should never again need to put the question How may I yet make a fuller proof of my self yet such marks there are laid down in Scripture and such helps there are for the clear discerning of them as may put a Christian beyond all perplexing and disquieting Doubts and Fears And to the end I may both the better assist the Fearing Christian to out-grow his groundless Fears and also may more effectually stir up the Fears of the unsound I shall a little enlarge here and lay down the most distinguishing Marks I find in Scripture to bring the Soul to a settlement Though I have endeavoured something this way in my Vindiciae Pietatis yet I shall here also say something to this purpose Now the marks that I shall lay down of true and saving-Grace shall be these three 1. A resolved choice of God for our portion and Happiness 2. An actual embracing of Christ as he that shall bring us to God 3. A giving up our selves to the practice of a Godly life The first mark 1. A resolved choice of God for our portion and happiness Here our fear will be putting in for satisfaction in 2 particulars 1. How may I know that he that hath chosen God is indeed a Godly man 2. How may I know that I have sincerely chosen God To the first Inquiry I shall give in the answer from Scripture and Reason 1. From Scripture This is the choice that the Scripture Saints have been recorded to have made This was Moses his choice Heb. 11.25 26. Choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of Sin For he had respect to the recompence of reward This was David's choice Psal 16.2.5 O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance This was Asaph's choice Psal 73.25 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee God is the strength of mine heart and my portion for ever This was Mary's choice Luk. 10.42 Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken from her There are but two parts one of which every one chooses the good part and the evil part The good part is God and things above there is none good but one that is God and there is nothing good but one thing the grace and good will of God the evil part are all things below All the good things of the world are the evil part a good Estate a good Name a good House good Friends though they be good in their kind yet are an evil portion and he whose portion they are is an evil man Psal 17.4 Mary was a good Woman and 't is evident she was so for she made a good choice she chose the good part which shall never be taken from her 2. From Reason There are two things included in this choice of God that are infallible evidences of a godly man Our choosing of God for our happiness includes in it Our preferring of God above all things Our being made like unto God 1. Our preferring of God above all things Every man will choose the best that is that which he judges best and loves best The reason of mens choice is their liking that which they choose better than that which they refuse He that neglecting God chooses this world for his portion therein takes the Crown off the head of the Lord and sets it upon the world and sayes of it this is better for me then God he that neglecting the world chooses God for his portion therein sayes God is better than all 2. Our choosing of God for our happiness infers our being made like unto God Every man chooses for himself according to his own heart 'T is the heart that makes the choice and it chooses that which is most suitable to it The heart that chooses God 't is a sign both that it likes God best and is made like unto God As by mens particular choices here below you may judge what spirit they are of he that chooses the pleasures of the flesh shews himself to be of a sensual heart he that chooses riches shews himself to be of a covetous heart he that chooses the honours and pomps of the world shews himself to be of a proud heart so in mens general choice he that chooses for himself here below proves himself a worldly-minded man and he that chooses for himself above therein appears to be of an Heavenly mind He that hath chosen God 't is a sign that he is made like unto God 't is divine grace in the heart that hath made the choice There 's one of these two ruling powers in every heart Nature or Grace and look which of the two hath the rule 't is that which hath the casting voice in the choice that 's made and each of these do choose what 's suitable to them Corrupt nature chooses what 's suitable to it and finding nothing in God nor in all the world to come that will please it it chooses for it self below And a gracious heart chooses what 's most suitable to it and finding as little to content it in this world as a carnal heart doth in Heaven therefore gets it up and takes its lot above Nothing will content grace but God and Glory and nothing but grace can be content with God alone The heart of man will never be carried up to Heaven to pitch there till there be something of Heaven first let down into it to fetch it up Now he that prefers God above all and is made like unto God is certainly a godly man and thus the first enquiry is answered It is evident that he that hath chosen God is a godly man for this is lay'd down as a special character of the Saints in Scripture and in this choice of God is included our preferring God above all and one being made like unto him 2. How may I know that I have sincerely chosen God Here lyes the main doubt to be resolved There
any thing thou apprehendest to be praise-worthy this must be meat for thy pride It may be thou prayest against thy covetousness or sensuality but as soon as thou art off thy knees away thou goest to work for the one or to thy play to please the other When some of thy last words are lead us not into temptation it may be thy very next steps may be running into temptation this is but mocking of God and deluding thy self If thou would'st prosper against this enemy whil'st thou stormest it by seeking to God starve it by denying thy self 3. Put a bridle on its Jaws My meaning is restrain it from its actings if thou canst not prevent its conception strangle it in the birth if the fire be kindled within yet give it no vent allow not the lust of thine heart the priviledge of thy mouth or the command of thine hand if thou canst not restrain thy covetous desires yet hold in from covetous practices if thou lovest the wine and the strong drink yet withhold the cup from the lip if thou canst not so easily rule thy spirit yet bridle thy tongue the fire of passion doth not waste by spending but rather increases the ordinary preventing and restraining the acts of sin will weaken its habits I have heard some persons vainly speaking at this rate when I have anger in mine heart out it must and then I am friends and so take it for their vertue rather than their sin that they cast out all their mire and dirt in a storm because then a calm follows Thou fool hast thou conquered thine unruly spirit by suffering thy self to be thus conquered by it what do'st thou think of him that conquers his lust by going to an Harlot when thou hast eas'd thy stomach by thy Bedlam-language then there is a calm but thou neither considerest the sin of letting fly thine angry words nor yet wilt mind that the fire will kindle the sooner for that it finds so easie a vent Damme up the furnace and that 's the best way to quench the coals 4. Set thy foot on the neck of Sin Have any of thy lusts fallen before thee make them sure tread them under thee that they rise not up again do not slight them as conquered enemies which now thou needest no more to fear those which are now under thy foot if thou look not well to them may be Lords over thee again Hath the Lord humbled thy proud heart broken thy unruly spirit and seem'd to turn a Lyon into a Lamb whilest thou sayest I hope I shall never be proud again never be so froward or peevish again whil'st thus thou hopest thou shalt not yet still fear lest thou should'st whil'st sin hath any life in it thou art still in danger as we use to say of dying men whil'st there is life there is hope so may it be said of these dying beasts while there is life there is fear Let that fear be as the foot upon their necks to prevent their rising and return upon thee Well thus set upon sin let it be destroyed reward it as it would serve thee and because it will be long a dying let it be killed all the day long draw not back thine hand whil'st its life is left in it O what an advantage will the death of of sin be to the life of holiness when the body of sin is dead 't will stink dead bodies will do so and all the issues of it will be noisome and loathsome to thee Lust is never deadly but when it lives and is sweet and pleasant when it dies and stinks and is become an annoyance to thee it will be the less thine hindrance it hath now done its worst the more it offends the less it will hurt Do'st thou find sin sweet Is it still a pleasure to thee beware of it 't is a sign 't is still alive it would stink if it were dead thou would'st nauseate it thy stomach would rise against it O this stinking pride this stinking covetousness these stinking pleasures away with them my very soul is sick with the stench they make and when sin stinks then holiness will be pleasant and the work of holiness a delight the very severities of Religion will be sweet when the pleasure of sin ceases The death of sin is all our diseases cured the lean and consumptive Soul will now revive and recover and be strengthened for its work The crucifying of sin is the casting off our weights that hang on to hinder us in our way Heb. 12.1 2. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth easily be set us and run with patience the race that is set before us 't is ill running with weights upon our backs Lust is such a weight upon the Saints as Conscience is upon sinners some sinners Consciences make them drive heavily on in their way of sin when they can once knock off this weight when they can kill Conscience and get themselves rid of its checks and controuls then they rush on upon iniquity as the horse rusheth into the battel let the Saints serve their Lusts as Sinners do their Consciences and then they may run with patience the race which is set before them There is a sore evil that is seen under the Sun Sinners all upon the Tantivie riding post towards Hell O how sprightly O how hot are they upon their chace of sin and vanity and poor creeple-Christians but barely wagging on by a Snail-creeping motion heavenward O 't is a sign that the weights do yet hang on thou art yet heavy loaden thou carriest too many bundles of thorns upon thy back too many burthens of earth and flesh upon thine heart to make any hast heaven-ward lay aside these weights tread down these worldly lusts throw off these worldly cares and carnal desires and delights yea get this carnality which is the body of Sin and the very soul of that body to be slain and crucifyed with Christ and when thou art dead with Christ thou shalt live the better to him He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 and vers 18.22 Being made free from sin ye then become the Servants of Righteousness and so shall have your fruit unto holiness and your end everlasting life O what a visible improvement should we quickly see on the professing world did we prosper more in our mortifying work then would the languid and pale-fac'd Saints have blood in their cheeks and more spirits in all their veins the young man within would be fresh and ruddy were the old man once well laid then would the Plants grow up into Trees and the Shrubs into Cedars then will the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb be loosed then would this vile image of earth and flesh vanish and disappear and the Spirit of Glory and of God would more visibly rest upon us and we should go forth as the Sun out of his Chamber and rejoyce as the
out upon me in vain Behold the winter is past and the spring comes on the flowers appear the fig tree putteth forth and the vines with the tender grapes give a goodly smell Behold the fruits of that blessed blood and spirit in the reviving of this dead heart in the fructifying of this barren heart My Soul make thy boast of God though I have nothing of mine own but what I loath and am asham'd of yet here 's through rich mercy something of his fruits I have brought forth yet not I but the grace of God which was with me and his grace hath not been bestowed on me in vain Come on thou withering Soul cry out with the Spouse Awake thou North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden let the Spirit of the Lord breath upon me that my Spices may flow forth and my fruits may appear and then thou mayest go on now let my beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits I cannot enumerate the particular fruits that you should bring forth they are all the fruits of righteousness but in hope that after all that hath been said your fear of being found among the barren may prepare you to receive some farther instruction for your growth and fructifying in every good work I shall only lay before you seven things which if they be in you and abound will make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Follow after 1. Power 2. Activity 3. Severity 4. Simplicity 5. Ingenuity 6. Spirituality 7. Pleasure 1. Power Grace in the very being of it includes power 1 Cor. 4.20 The Kingdom or grace of God is not in word but in power Natural men have natural powers but there is nothing of spiritual power in them wishes and velleities they may have after that which is really and spiritually good O that I could forsake this world and crucifie this flesh and follow God and walk worthy of the Gospel in all things thus they may wish and desire but for their hearts they cannot come to it they cannot bring forth their wish into a will nor their will into performance The least child of God hath more of the power of God in him than the most knowing and the very best of natural men all the parts and vertues of a natural man do fall as much short as to this spiritual vital power of the least of Saints as a dead man does of a living child But yet where there is grace in the beginnings of it in comparison of what it may grow to its power may be small and its strength may be but weakness How great is the power of the healthy above the sickly and faint how much is the power of a man above the power of an infant 'T is well thou art alive but wilt thou still be but a child O what weakly Souls are many amongst the living Souls How ordinary is this complaint To will is present with me but how to perform I find not O how many frustraneous attempts and ineffectual offers do we make at an holy fruitful life we wish for more care and more diligence and more usefulness but still we fall short we are reaching towards but cannot reach to it We judge our selves for our failings we groan under our imperfect duties we are sick of those corruptions that are mingled with them but we cannot overcome them we lament our barrenness we hunger and thirst after more fruitfulness and yet we cannot obtain we cannot do the good that we would we cannot forbear to do the evils that we would not so weak is our heart that though we can weep over our falls and failings yet we cannot amend them But art thou not afraid to continue thus what if death should overtake thee thus how would'st thou dye when thy sin is so much alive yea how canst thou live in any peace whil'st thou seest thou livest to so little purpose Therefore my Brethren let me exhort you in the words of the Apostle Ephes 6.10 Be ye strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Put forth the power that you have receiv'd trust on God for more Put forth that power that you have that 's the way to encrease your strength Do not make your selves to be weaker than you are say not 't is for want of power that 't is no better with you when 't is for want of care and industry much more certainly might be done if we were better Stewards of what we have Let there not be a pretence of weakness to excuse your laziness do what thou canst thou canst do more than thou do'st and if indeed thy strength be but small thou knowest whether to go for more Study well and lay hold on that word Isa 40.28 29.31 Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as the Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint Christians let it not suffice you that you are men of understanding and good affections get a Spirit of power as well as of love and of a sound mind 2. Activity An unactive spirit is next to impotence Awaken from thy liveless wretchless temper put away sloth thou sluggard wilt thou still be a drone this drone hath a sting thine own Soul will feel it sooner or later that thy sloth will sting thee to the heart Christians let it appear that the spirit of the living God is in you by your sprightfulness and vivacity Shall the evil spirit be the only active spirit shall sinners flow forth in vanity and wickedness shall their filthy waters be such a quick and running stream and shall the waters of the Sanctuary be but as a standing pool Be bent for holy action be prepared and ready for every good work It 's said Ephes 2.10 that Christians are created unto good works in the very make and constitution of the new creature we may read its use and end we are new made for this very end and purpose we are adopted and prepared for an active useful life for those good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Thou had'st need stir up thy self and put thy self on lest thou quickly come to question whether thou be a new creature or no if thou continuest so backward and unready to that for which the new creature is Hast thou grace indeed blow off the ashes from that living coal that it may burn and shine out in a gracious life Fire it the most active of all the elements it will not be inclosed but will find a vent for its flames sure thou hast little of that divine fire in
thine heart that canst so easily keep it within O what wonders are sluggish Christians Life without motion Fires that burn not Suns standing still Souls condens'd into the gravity of Carkasses the winged Spirits become as the creeping things of the earth when shall these immortal sparks recover and come to themselves Christians be impatient with these your slothful hearts let there be no sleep in your eyes till your sleepy Souls be awakened Be asham'd that you who talk what God hath done for you should have no more to say of what you have done or are ready to do for him Set every wheel in motion and thereby fit them for more easie motion let them stand no longer still fear lest your rust should eat out all your strength Be henceforth for an active life bethink the time that hath been run out in sleep and now awaken and begin to live in good earnest 3. Severity or strict and painful holding our selves to our rule Christians must be men of action but they must not act wildly or loosely and at all adventures but their actions must be regular they must be punctual and strict to their rule Christ's commands some of them are hard sayings and will put the flesh hard to it but whatever they be they must be submitted to Matth. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you As Christ is severe in his impositions upon us so Christians must be severe in their impositions upon themselves and must not abate to themselves a title of their hardest duty Christians must be rigid to be rigid in the way of any party of them that are or that call themselves Christians is an evil A rigid Presbyterian a rigid Independent or Anabaptist are such in the wrong of their brethren but it is a duty and an excellency to be a strict and rigid Christian provided that our rigor be more to our selves and to our own flesh than to all the world besides Now to bring you to this Severity let me exhort you to these three things 1. Fear to be offended at the severities of Religion 2. Fear to baulk any thing of the severities of Religion 3. That you may not fear the severities of Religion fear the severity of Christ against Irreligion 1. Fear to be offended at the severities of Religion Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me Matth. 11.6 The fear of Christian strictness is that which keeps back many a Soul from Christ A Christian who that understands what 't is to be a Christian will ever be able to bear it 'T is too hard service for me to yield my self to to put my self under such a Law as ties me up so short from all that mine heart desires and holds me so close to things so contrary to me how can I endure it The attempting an universal change of the scope the customs the pleasures and the whole way of my life how grievous are the thoughts hereof the matter of my design the nature of my work the temper of my society to whom I must joyn my self being all spiritual and heavenly how contrary are they to me The forsaking my Friends and Companions the abandoning my pleasures the bounding my liberty the bridling mine Appetite and Passions the laying a law upon my senses the watching every word of my mouth and every thought of mine heart the holding my self on by line and by rule in a way of constant painfull duty without any allowance of the least turning aside to the right hand or the left no though it were to the saving of my life who can with patience think of it All these things are against me How many Souls have there been in the World whom such forethoughts of Christianity have kept back from Christ and held under the power of the Devil But though it doth not prevail thus far upon thee thou wilt adventure after Christ however though thou dost not say in thine heart this yoke is not to be born and so throw it away yet possibly thou mayst say 't is hard to be born and think much of it that less might not suffice Thou wilt yield to it in the general but too often when it comes to be a Case that thou thy self art put harder than ordinary to it thy flesh flings and throwes and murmurs and thou art for the time ready to bethink and repent of thy Christianity Hath it never been thus with thee Fear lest it should and still remember Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me That is not so only as not to renounce me but not so much as to complain or groan or drive heavily under me Good is the Word of the Lord that 's a word becoming the heart and tongue of a Disciple 2. Fear to baulk any of the severities of Religion 'T is one thing to say even in the heart Good is the Word of the Lord and another thing to submit chearfully to it when it comes to the pinch By severity I mean not unreasonable roughness or rigour to our selves the unnecessary afflicting or macerating our bodies by self-whippings and scourgings or Penances going barefoot or in sordid and vile raiment as 't is used in the Church of Rome but by severity I mean strictness and exactness to our Rule whatever pain or prejudice it may cost us or expose us to Our holding our selves closely to every duty in special to those harder duties of self-denyal and mortification the taming of our flesh the beating down our bodies and bringing them in subjection by temperance and necessary abstinence those ungratefull duties admonishing reproving withdrawing from offenders and whatsoever else our Lord hath imposed upon us Particularly there is 1. Severity in imposing upon our selves when we are not partial in the Law taking only Christs easier words and leaving out the harder but do charge our whole duty upon our selves and when we do not deal too gently or remissely with our selves onely telling our hearts this is thy duty and it would be good for thee to observe it but do deal more closely and charge it home See to it O my Soul that thou keep the charge of the Lord It must be done dare not for thy life to favour thy self or spare thy flesh by neglecting thy duty 2. Severity in observing and performing our whole Duty When we are not onely not like the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 23.4 Who bind heavy burthens and lay them on other mens shoulders no nor such as bind heavy burthens for our own shoulders and yet not touch them with one of our fingers but whatever Conscience bids us do that we observe and do 'T is one thing to lay good Lawes and prescribe good Rules to our selves and another thing to observe them We must yoke our selves to our work and go on diligently under the yoke We must not only not quarrel with our rules as too strait for us but keep touch with them and not indulge
our selves the least swerving from them Some Professors there are whose Religion is all in their Rules and their Rules they have only in their Books or their heads and but little in their hearts who would be excellent Christians if their lives were according to what they prescribe to themselves When they are in secret upon their considering work they propose holy Rules and make good decrees oh if they were but observed what Christians would they be but when they come abroad their Rules are left behind them and it may be never remembred till they return to their Closets again O what a difference is there betwixt the same persons in their Closets and in the Fields or Markets Friends they are not strait rules but strict practices that our Lord requires 3. Severity in reckoning When we make every day a Judgement day and reckon with our selves as God will reckon with us strictly God will bring every work to Judgement Of every idle word men must give an account Greater sins smaller faults our commissions and our omissions the matters of fact and the circumstances of them must be reckoned up Nothing must slip our reckonings but what hath slipt our memories and we must keep that Register carefully 4. Severity in censuring and judging our selves for our sins and failings When we will not wink at our faults no nor mince or excuse them 't was my oversight or 't was my weakness but rebuke our selves sharply I have done foolishly I have done naughtily gathering up all the circumstances that may give our sins their due aggravations and so passing our censures accordingly Such a strict and punctual course as this hath a formidable aspect not only to sinners but even to some of the sincere weaklings among Christians But however it looks baulk it not nor any part of it Will you pinch upon Conscience because that would pinch upon the flesh will you deny Christ rather than deny your selves Every shuffling or shifting off a known Duty is a degree of denying of Christ Hast thou given thy self unto Christ and wilt thou deny him any thing he will have of thee Must this flesh be spared in his cause who spared not his Life for thee Did he say 't is too hard to obey 't is too hard to suffer 't is too hard to die may not less than my Blood than my Soul serve their turns And yet wilt thou say 'T is too hard to serve him 't is too hard to live wholly to him may nothing less than all I have serve may not something may not a little suffice him This flesh will be like enough to say so 't is too hard 't is too much that Christ requires something may be spared to my ease to my appetite to my credit and will grumble and murmure if it may not But shall thy Soul say after this saying of thy flesh Doth thy Soul say 'T is but reason that Christ should have all 't is but reason that Christ alone should be served and served in every thing and to the utmost that he requires It is best for me that I be wholly his the very severities of Christ will be better to me than the liberties of the flesh the pains of Christianity than the pleasures of Sin let me have the weariness of the Saints rather than the ease of Sinners let the yoke of Christ wring rather than be thrown off Doth not thy Reason and thy Conscience speak thus in thee and yet must the grudgings and repinings of the flesh carry it Christians if it be better to be a Disciple of Christ than a stranger if it be better to be a close and a thorow-pac'd Disciple than to bungle and halt if it be the strictness of Christianity out of which its sweetness growes the more exact conformity the more sweet communion with Christ if there be meat in all his work and his hardest work be the most savoury meal then O why do we so wrong our selves by keeping aloof and following him by halves taking up with the easier parts and slinking away from that which is more difficult and thereby feeding onely on the husk and shell of Christianity leaving the kernel to those that will be so wise as to take pains for it Friends shall we yet be for strictness will you resolve will you venture upon it who are there of you that will yet be perswaded to follow after the Lord that will be exact Conformists that will be close Disciples punctual Christians punctual in your words punctual in your practices whose hearts shall say now according to the Apostles words Phil. 1.27 My Conversation shall be in all things as it becometh the Gospel mine eye and mine aim and mine endeavour shall be to stand compleat in all the wills of God O that there were such an heart in us But O the fearfull heart O the sluggish heart that we still feel within us O these poor and low spirits that have no ambition for the excellencies of Religion and cannot bear its difficulties What a pitifull maimed thing is the Religion of many Professors how little is there in it what easie lazy sleepy Disciples are they how unequal are their spirits how uneven their goings how weak are their hearts how slow are their motions Heavenwards and how often do they step aside to save themselves from labour or trouble Never a little hotter service is in sight but their flesh calls them off and away they go presently after it When is it that that voice is heard within thee Pity thy self spare thy self but it does prevail Such a word It is not for mine ease it is not for my credit or it is not safe for me what a mighty charm is it to still and countermand the loudest calls of Christ and Conscience But consider friend whose voice is it that speaks thus to thee why whose voyce was it that spake the like words to Christ when he spake of his sufferings Matth. 16.22 Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Pity thy self Master and let it not be thus unto thee whose voice was this Christ tells us whose in the next words Get thee behind me Sathan 't was the Devil that spake thus by Peter's mouth and 't is this same Devil that by the mouth of thy flesh speaks the like to thee Why man art thou afraid to hearken to Christ and art thou not afraid to hearken to the Devil Beloved we are few of us so much Christians as to be able to endure hardness and therefore 't is we are so easily and so often called off Well but however as little as we have attained let us put on after it Inure your selves to hardness and that 's the way to endure it Be severe a while and you will be the better able to bear severity Fear in good earnest how you ever again baulk a Duty and after a while you will finde that the hardest Duty is not to be feared
than to receive the tincture of our society upon our hearts we like our acquaintance and are apt to grow like them Be familiar with the spiritual God and you will become more spiritually minded no such advance towards divine conformity as divine communion conformity will prepare for communion and communion will increase conformity Christians Be spiritual your work is spiritual it lyes in the exercise of spiritual Graces in the performance of spiritual duties in the offering up spiritual Sacrifices Your encouragements are spiritual encouragements spiritual priviledges comforts and rewards favour and acceptance with God fellowship and friendship with God peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost What are all these spiritual works and spiritual encouragements to carnal hearts how unfit is the spirit of a brute for the work of a man and how unsuitable is the Spirit of a man the carnal mind to the work of a Christian They that are in the flesh fleshly men cannot please God Rom. 8.8 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Sowing of fields planting of Orchards buying and selling and trading are as proper works for the beasts of the earth and as much they are like to do at it as blessing and praising and serving the living God to carnal men Sinners you also come together to pray and hear and Sing and serve the Lord but you are like to make as good works of it as to the spirit of these duties as your Cattel would do at building your houses or keeping your markets and by how much the more any amongst Christians are like you by so much the more unskilful are they like to be at the work of God And what are spiritual encouragements to carnal hearts how little would it quicken and provoke carnal men on in the Service of God to tell them as you grow more serviceable so you shall be more acceptable to God as you abound in duty so your grace and your comfort and your hopes and your joy shall abound If you could tell them This is the way to be rich to rise and grow great in this world you shall gain favour and friendship with men the Dignities and Preferments the Gold and the Silver shall be shared amongst the most active and industrious Christians What multitudes would this fetch in to be Disciples and what contending would there be who should be the most forward of all Christ's followers But whil'st this is all we can say you shall find grace in the eyes of the Lord you shall have treasure in Heaven we see by experience enough how little this will move them Get these hearts to be more Spiritualized and then you will find both the work of God and his rewards to be most acceptable work and the highest encouragements Friends what 's the reason that we so lose all our arguments which the Lord puts into our mouths to perswade you to more serviceable and fruitful life we open the good treasure of Heaven to you we set the unsearchable riches of Christ before your eyes and do what we can to enamour you of them thereby to allure on your lazy hearts to kindle desire to quicken to labour but nothing will do you are as slow and as heartless in your pursuit of these invisible treasures as if nothing had been told you of their worth and excellency how comes this to pass why are you 〈◊〉 yet carnal I that 's it that spiritual good things are no more taking with you your fleshly wayes your fleshly pleasures your fleshly converses and correspondencies have so kept alive and fed and fomented the carnality of your hearts that they cannot discern or taste the things of the Spirit When we are become more spiritual we shall savour and relish spiritual things and then shall we feel what attractives they will be our desires will be above our delights will be above our hearts will be lost to these carnal things we shall leave this earth to earthly minds when this mantle of flesh is fallen off and we are gotten up into the Chariots of fire then shall we ride upon the high places of the Heavens and our wings shall carry us on swiftly towards the mountains of Spices As far forth as we are become spiritual our motions upward will become natural and by how much the more natural by so much the more strong and pleasant the rougher things of Religion will be then more smooth and the hard things easie 't is this flesh that creates us difficulties when the flesh is swallowed up of Spirit difficulties shall be swallowed up of delight and then shall we go on our way rejoycing then shall we labour and abound in the work of the Lord when we shall thus taste and see that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Lastly Follow after pleasure the Pleasure of Religion This will spring up to you out of the former branches as I have already hinted Get you such a Spirit of power and holy activity grow up to that exactness simplicity ingenuity and spirituality that you may drink of their pleasures Here I shall shew 1. That Religion hath its pleasure 2. That the pleasures of Religion are the portion of the grown Christian 3. What the particular pleasures of Religion are that we should be reaching after 1. Religion hath its pleasures You may remember I have been lashing and leading you on hitherto at least within a step or two by fear And though your fears will now in great part be left behind you I would not yet leave you That which follows will be of this use to you to encourage you to bear the rougher conduct of fear all along your younger time by that sweeter course you shall have of it when fear shall give up to love as the pleasures that comes in from the hopes of freedom doth allay and sweeten the the severities of an apprenticeship Religion hath its pleasure It hath its tartness and its trouble as you have seen already so much unpleasantness it hath in its fore view that foolish Sinners shun it and run away from it for fear They will not touch the Roses for fear of the prickles As 't is with Saints so 't is with Holiness 't is a Lilly among thorns these thorns not only hurt the Lillies but keep back the hand of the gatherers how many more than there are would be reaching after this precious flower but for fear of being scratch'd Well but whatever there be in Religion to affright it hath much more to invite us to it Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 36.17 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house and thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy pleasures Psal 36.8 what and how great the pleasures of Religion are will be made appear in the third particular
an hopeful crop to see all green and fresh and hearty and strong this is not such a pleasure to the Husbandman as 't is to a Christian to see a spring of Grace in his Soul Now I see 't is not in vain to sow to the spirit to serve and wait on God Where is all thy praying where is all thy labouring God knows where 't is saith the barren Soul I doubt 't is all lost I can see no sign of it remaining that 's a sad Soul But ask thus of the thriving Christian where is all thy praying and thy labouring and he can answer O I thank God 't is here to be seen This field of mine a few years since lay all fallow rough and hard and nothing that was good was to be found upon it but now O how it joyes mine heart to find it so the good seed that hath been buried here is not dead 't is gotten up above ground the Lord hath let me see something of his grace breaking forth and it encreases and grows up daily in me The hard and stubborn is now become a melting and broken heart the proud and froward is now become an humble and quiet spirit It hath cost me something many a sad thought many a sigh many a tear but though I came hardly by it here 't is by the grace of God the barren hath brought forth this dry tree hath blossomed this sluggish heart to which the very thoughts of a laborious fruitful life were once so irksome that I doubted that I should never have come to any thing but should have liv'd and died a drone O what a comfort it is to me to see it thus hopefully come on A diligent Christian will have such successes his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 and when he sees what good success he has then let him speak what a pleasure it is to him Christian Thou hast been at thy work but what fruit hast thou found hast thou prospered hast thou sped well dost thou see of the travail of thy Soul Is thy sin weakened is the world conquered is grace quickened in thee Is it so and is it not a pleasure to thee to find it so Doth it not please thee that thou art not so vain nor so earthly nor so proud as thou hast been Doth it not glad thee at the heart to find that the Lord hath been with thee and blessed thee and helped thee in what thou hast set thine heart unto And how lookest thou now on thy remaining works wilt thou any more drive so heartlessely and so heavily on as thou wast wont to do wilt thou any more cry out Hard service a weary life Sure thou canst not what thou findest coming in will make thy very labour and thy sweat to be sweetness to thee 3. The pleasure of Ease Ease hath a pleasure in it not only ease or rest from our work but ease in our work when we can carry it on with ease by how much the harder our work is in it self by so much the greater pleasures will it be when we can go easily through it Christ tells us Matth. 11.30 that his yoke is easie and his burthen light Christ's yoke is an hard and an heavy yoke to Sinners and such which they are in no wise able to bear but he makes it easie to his Saints A yoke may be made easie three wayes 1. By making the burthen of it lighter 2. By making the neck stronger 3. By accustoming the neck to the yoke 1. By making the burthen of it lighter by paring it or taking off something of it a great yoke may be pared and pared till at length it come to be a little on Thus Christ's yoke will not be made easier he will pare nothing off he will not abate any thing of his work there 's the same Law for Saints and for Sinners there 's the same duty impos'd on the weak as the strong Matth. 5.17 18. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets till Heaven and Earth pass one jott or title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled The same Law which was from the beginning shall be Law to the end Christ will never make that to be no sin which once was sin nor that to be no duty which once was a duty nor will he ever dispense with duty or sin he says not to any less shall serve for thee than for others he requires all of every one But here by way of caution take notice of two things 1. Christ's yoke is in this sense easier than Moses ' s yoke there is an abatement of the burthen of Ceremonies and legal Rites that Law of the carnal Commandment as 't is call'd Heb. 7.16 is vanished and taken out of the way no more of that chargeable service of Sacrifices no more Bulls or Goats or Lambs out of our flocks or herds the service of Christians is in this respect cheaper Service than that of the Jews of old 't is only our Moralls whereof nothing will be abated 2. Though Christ requires the same duty of all and imposes the same things and as much upon the weak as upon the strong yet he will accept that of the weak which he will not from the strong Nothing less than perfection is due from the weakest but sincerity will be accepted whatever imperfection there be God will take those weak and maimed Services from the weak which he will not from the strong He that hath a Male in his flock and Sacrificeth a corrupt thing Cursed be that deceiver Mal. 1.14 2. By making the neck stronger That 's an easie yoke to a man which a Child is not able to wagge A labouring man that 's weak and sickly will find his ordinary work to be too hard for him when he recovers his strength he can go through it with ease Weak Christians will ever find Christianity to be hard Service as they grow up to be stronger they will find it grow more easie day by day 3. By accustoming the neck to the yoke The yoke at first putting on wrings and galls and wearies those that are unaccustomed to the yoke are impatient of the yoke 't is use that makes it easie An Apprentice to a Trade though at his first entrance he do not half so much work as afterward yet 't is with twice so much pains The first hour is ordinarily with him the burthen and heat of the day his morning is hotter than his noon The tediousness of Religion meets us at the threshold our hardest task is to begin well nature will make the strongest opposition against grace at the the very birth of the new creature our first charge against lust is usually the hottest charge the travail of the birth hath more pain in it than all the after care of bringing up the child A Christian at his first setting out after Christ feels all his motions
be many that say God is my portion I have chosen him for my inheritance and they think as they speak and yet do but deceive themselves I hope I have sincerely chosen the Lord but yet am in fear lest I also may be deceived How may I know whether it be so or no To this I answer you may know that you have sincerely chosen the Lord 1. If you have chosen him deliberately 2. If you have chosen him absolutely 3. If you carefully pursue your choice 4. If you measure your present happiness by the communion you have with him and the clearness of your title to him 5. If you be willing and resolved to forsake all things for his sake 1. If you have chosen God deliberately if your choice be not in a sudden fit but be the result of the deepest consideration Suddain bargains are often as suddenly repented of A light unadvised choice is not like to hold and while it holds there 's no great heed to be given to it Some men are such unstable Souls that their whole life almost is nothing else but choosing and changing when we choose understandingly and deliberately when we have throughly considered the great reasons for our choosing God his worthiness and excellency and our own necessity and have also weighed all the inconveniencies thereof and all the objections against it and do find that the reasons for do infinitely over-ballance all that can be said against it and hereupon determine for God that 's like to be found a sincere choice 2. If you have chosen him absolutely as that which you will stand to to the last whatever inconveniencies may follow When there are no ifs nor ands no reserves in your heart nor place lest for repentance When your choice runs not as Jacob's conditional vow Gen. 28.20 If the Lord will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I return to my Fathers house in peace then the Lord shall be my God but without any such if's whether he will feed me or no cloth me or no let him do with me as he will for that I am resolved however the Lord shall be my God And indeed so was Jacob too however the words sound This was never intended by him as the condition of his Religion there 's no other condition of that but if or since the Lord will be my God he shall be my God Jacob was in bond to God before and here he enters into a new bond layes a new obligation upon himself every one of these Mercies shall be so many new cords to bind me fast to the Lord but whether these new cords were added or no whether the Lord would keep or feed or cloth him or no 't was never his intent but his old bond should stand however that the Lord should be his God And as there are no reserves nor conditions in this our choice of God so is there a resolution against repenting of our choice whatever should happen A Christian chooses once for all chooses and changes not His choice of God is like to Gods choice Psal 110.4 I have sworn and will not repent sayes he concerning Christ The gifts and calling of God much more the Election of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 where we choose God absolutely we leave no place for repentance 3. If you carefully pursue your choice Thus was it with Paul who had chosen for himself above and taken his aim at the right mark the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus he sayes Philip. 3.12 13. I follow after I reach forward I press to the mark Some vain men perswade themselves that they have chosen God and yet seldom or never look after nor take any care to obtain and make sure of him whom they have chosen they choose God but never follow God nor take the way that leads to the blessedness to come Sincere choice takes in both end and means When the choice of our hearts doth govern the course of our lives and doth effectually bend our course towards the obtaining of him whom we have chosen when this becomes our main drift and scope This I pray for this I wait for this I labour for this I live for I have nothing else to do but to serve and make sure of God if I can but so live as to please God here and get to Heaven when I dye whatever I miscarry in 't is all I look for this argues such a choice of God as will certainly argue us to be of God To choose God and yet to live to our selves to choose Heaven for our portion and yet to have our conversation in the earth an idle and inefficacious choice that doth not effectually command us after him whom we have chosen but let us run our old carnal course is a vanity and a delusion 4. If you measure your present happiness by the communications of God to you and the clearness of your title to him He that hath chosen God for his happiness look how much he possesses and enjoys of God and to what degree of clearness he is come concerning his Evidences for Heaven to such a degree of happiness he counts himself to have arrived whilst he can love and please and serve the Lord and maintain a confidence of his acceptance with him so long he can rejoyce when he is estranged from God he is as a man undone Therefore is it that Christians set themselves to get as much of God here and as sure a claim to the inheritance of the Saints in light as possibly they can Every one would make as sure of happiness as he can and would be happy as soon as he can would get as much as may be into present possession Hence are those breathings and thirstings and rejoycings of the Saints which we read of in Scripture As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 42.1 2. My Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee thy loving kindness is better than life My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Psal 63. O that my wayes were so directed to keep thy Statutes O let me not wander from thy Commandments Psal 119.5.10 For in keeping them is great reward Psal 19. I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved therefore mine heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth Psal 16.8 9. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me thou hast put gladness in my heart Psal 4.6 7. Christians can never have good dayes longer than they are walking with God and beholding his face in righteousness this is their Heaven on Earth The reflection of the face of God in his Holy Image that appears upon them
the irradiations of his Holy Spirit and the light of his countenance whilest they are walking in the Law of the Lord the prospering of their Souls in the grace of God and the comforts of the Holy Ghost this is the sunshine of their lives Their countenance is fallen their heart is sick they reckon themselves among the dead when God and their Souls are parted He hath no part in God that can live comfortably without him It 's true the pleasure that the Saints take in God is more or less according to the different degrees of their love to God and accordingly will the sense of his absence be more or less There is a desiring love which is the highest attainment of some weaker Christians and there is a delighting love which is the attainment of the more grown Christians The purer and stronger the love the greater pleasures comes in from the object of it and the more impatience follows from its distance and estrangement from it The love of weaker Christians puts forth in thirstings after the Lord but they taste but little of the sweetness but the more grown can sit down under his shadow with great delight yet neither the one nor the other can be at ease or contented without him Again there is a difference in the Natural temper and constitutions of Christians some are naturally of lively and warm affections and of a chearful and serene Spirit others are of more flat and dull and heavy spirits and this will make a difference upon their sence of things Spiritual Yea and the same persons at several times may be differing from themselves by reason of bodily distempers or occasional discomposures which may have such an influence upon their Spirits that they may at such seasons not only have lost the sweetness of Divine communion but the sence also of its want and those very duties wherein they were wont to have delightful converse with God may seem the most uneasie and wearisome work of their time But yet whoever he be that in ordinary can be satisfied at ease and be merry whilst he is a stranger from God and neither finds pleasure in him nor takes comfort in pleasing of him this man can never conclude that God is his portion He that is least in the Kingdom of God will doubtless be able to say Lord whom have I in Heaven yea or in Earth besides thee Sinner thou sayest that thou also hast chosen the Lord but how is it that he is no more look'd after or regarded by thee How is it that thou canst live so much without God in the world and find no miss of his presence Art thou content to be miserable whil'st thou livest here or hast thou chosen two portions this world to be thy portion here and God only for hereafter I that 's the truth of the case thou foreseest that this world will not last alwayes but thou must after a while be gone and leave all behind thee whil'st these things will last thou wilt take up with them but when they fail thee thou countest upon God at last and so he must only stand by as thy last refuge when all else is gone then God must be thy happiness Is this thy choice of God when thou canst only say Rather God than nothing So I may be sure of thee hereafter I care not for thee now He that hath not chosen God for his happiness in both worlds hath sincerely chosen him for neither Canst thou say thou hast chosen him for thy happiness in this world also when thou canst count thy self happy without him canst thou want communion with him and yet be at hearts ease canst thou take the prosperities of this world to supply the want of a God the smiles of fortune instead of smiles from Heaven will thy twilight or candle-light serve thee instead of Sun-light Canst thou quiet and comfort thy self thus God is none of my acquaintance but I have good acquaintance enough in the world God is angry with me but I have many good friends about me that bear me good will My work for Heaven goes but sadly on but yet I prosper and thrive in the Earth I have none of the best hearts I confess but yet I have a good House and a good Estate 't would be sad indeed if I had nothing either above or below either within or without me if both Heaven and Earth had cast me out but whil'st one of them holds 't is well mine own Cisterne is full and so long I can spare the Fountain Canst thou comfort thy self thus Deceive not thy self God is not the portion thine heart hath chosen thou wilt never find rest in any thing else who hast pitch'd on him as thine only happiness and till thou hast made him alone thou hast not made him at all the portion of thy Soul 5. If you are willing and resolved to forsake all things for his sake God and this world are proposed to our choice and this is included in the very nature of choosing that one be taken and the other left 't is not choosing to take both one of the two must be parted with or neither can be said to be chosen and so the word tells us Luk. 14.33 Whoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple This seems to be an hard word but is it so indeed Is it hard to part with all our Brass and to receive it in Gold to exchange our rags for better clothing our husks for better seeding What is Earth to Heaven Is all thou hast in the world too great a price to redeem thy Soul from Death and to instate it in everlasting blessedness If these things could redeem thee would'st thou say 't is too much to give this Earth is more than Heaven is worth But farther consider It is not so hard as it seems to be for what is it to forsake all that we have God would not have us to throw away our Estates and make our selves voluntary Beggars to give away our Houses and take up our Habitation in Dens or Caves to give away all our bread and our clothes and leave our selves to hunger and nakedness God would not have us to break the peace with the world to disoblige and fall out with all our friends and to become strangers to our own flesh God would not have us studiously to offend Father and Mother to despise Brethren and Sisters to be undutiful or unnatural to be surly and rude and uncivil to any and thereby create our selves enemies and trouble 't is for the honour of Christianity that we behave our selves sweetly and courteously and dutifully towards all and 't is the Interest of Christianity that those that fear God be good Husbands and provident and have Estates to serve him withall in their generations This is not the meaning of our forsaking of all to cast our selves into voluntary poverty or studiously to make our selves