strike him down and he rose up a Paul Lord let us humbly claim what thou hast so gratiously Proclaimed and thou hast Proclaimed thy Name thy own Name to be the Lord even the Lord gratious and merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. xxxiv 6. Yea so long-suffering that thou Wouldest not that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. iii. 9. to prevent their perishing In this Sence we will and to this Sence do all good and faithful Ministers interceed with God for their people But we must not only interceed for you but we must also interceed with you in Gods behalf For we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we beseech you therefore in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God 2 Cor. v. 20. And we must not only intreat you but we must treat with you argue debate and reason out the case with you Why will you dye Why will you not return why will you forsake your own Mercies Why will you lay out your mony for that which is not bread and your strength for that which satisfieth not Why will you prefer a broken Cistern which will hold no water before the Fountain of living water it self Why will you chuse the puddle of the impoysoned pleasures of sin which are but for a season Before the Healing Crystal Streams Those Rivers of Pleasure and fulness of Joy which are at Gods Right-Hand for ever more Yea we must add our hardest Labour to our softest Prayers And our dearer Cost to our cheaper Requests We must dig about you and manure you You are Gods Husbandry and Building And we must Till and Dress you and Build you up to the utmost of out Skill and Industry And tho this be not the Work of an hour or a day but of our whole Life and Ministry Yet suffer me to attempt it so far as the time will bear And first I must Dig about you that is loosen and remove the clung the cold the hard and clutchy Loam and hungry Earth from about your Roots which chil and stunt and starve you that you bear no Fruit in Gods Vineyard That is your indulged Lusts and inordinate Love of the World which by gnawing at your Hearts spoyl both your growth and fruitfulness Your Carnal security your ignorant and bold presumptions your trusting in your outward priviledges and false confidences in your formal duties and customary performances and self-flatteries as to the sufficiency of your attainments and good progress you reckon you have made All these and many more have an unhappy aptitude to hinder your bearing Fruit and make you barren in some the hardness of the Rock prevents the taking Root In others the Thorns draw away the good nourishment or growing up about it Shade and over drop it keep away the Sun and Weather and stifle and pinch it up it hath no room to spread The cares of the world the love of riches and the lusts of other things choak the seed and the Plants that they bring no Fruit to perfection Mark iv 19. In others the overvaluing of their outward priviledges as those Jews Jeremiah writes of Chap. vii Who cryed The temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord. And those in our Saviours time St. John viii We are Abrahams seed we have Abraham to our Father Or the Opinion of their attainments Like the Church of Laodicea Rev. iii. Who said she was rich and increased in goods and had need of nothing Or boasting in their formal duties as that Pharisee Luk. xviii I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all I possess Or proud comparing your selves with some notorious flagitious sinners I thank God I am not like such an one nor do like such an one nor like that Publican Some of these or somthing like these lies at the Root of most mens Hearts and chils or starves or binds or choaks them that they bear no Fruit nor answer Gods expectation tho they have a standing in his Church So many now a days and it may be some of your selves are prone to say we are good Protestants we are no Papists no nor we are no Phanaticks But we are true Sons of the Church we have been Baptised we keep our Church we say our Prayers we receive the Sacrament As if the outward washing would save you without the answer of a good Conscience toward God and making your Covenant with God without the keeping of it Or coming to Church without learning or practising what you are here taught or calling upon God without departing from iniquity and lifting up your hands tho they be full of Blood Bribes or Oppression Or receiving the Sacrament without discerning the Lords Body or considering what you do Or standing in the Vineyard without bearing Fruit. When that is the very ground of Gods Controversie with you and the thing that hastens your ruin and you might stand longer in an Hedg-row or on a Common than in Gods inclosure Now as when the Gardiner digs about a Tree it is to loosen the clung Earth take away the bad lay open the Roots that he may lay better to them as was toucht before such must be the end of our Spiritual our Ministerial digging about your Hearts And as I conceive this expression is equivalent to that of breaking up the fallow ground of the Heart to Plow up the Weeds and Thorns and make it mellow and tender to receive the Seed as that must be done by the Plough of the Law so must this with the Spade of the Law Docendo monendo convincendo redarguendo by teaching admonishing convincing reproving threatning as a good Expositor expresseth it which are all the proper works of the Law That we may therefore apply our selves rightly to this work In the 29th of Deuteronomy verse 18. we read of a root bearing gall and wormwood very bad very bitter Fruit and the next verse describes him to be one that blesseth himself in his heart and saith he shall have peace tho he add drunkenness to thirst and the 12. verse before and the 25. after seems to intimate the grounds or occasion of that his confidence because he was entred into Covenant with God As if that would secure him from danger Now I beseech you observe with what Spade Moses himself digs about this Root verse 20. The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lye upon him And the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of this Law Read what follows at your leisure as also Deut. xxviii more largely from verse xv to the end which contains 54. verses and many more
2. God can do no more 3. Your kindest Intercessours will ask no more for you 4. God charges them they should not 5. He hath told them he will not grant it tho they do 6. They will turn their Prayers against you if you turn not 7. Your own mouths will be stopt 8. Or be opened in vain for God will not regard your too late requests 9. God will take the means away you yet injoy 10. Or he will take away his Spirit and Blessing from them 11. Or which is still worse blast and curse them to you 12. And avenge your long sinful hardness with final and judicial hardning And Lastly Will expose you to eternal ignominy and himself deride your folly But I must not only dig about you but Manure you not only apply the Corrosives of the Law but the Cordials of the Gospel Not only Thunder could I do it like a Boanerges but like a Barnabas both Shine and Rain upon you those Consolations which may refresh and chear you Not only rip up your Breasts and cut you to the Hearts with the Sword of Gods dreadful threatnings but pour in the Balm of Gilead into those Wounds that Sword hath made to close and heal them Not only use the Spade and Mattock but such Tools call them by what names you please by which fresh amendment warm and tender Mould and mellow Earth of a cherishing prolifick Nature may be applyed to your Roots to the very Roots of your Hearts and Consciences I mean the tender Mercies of our God his great and preticus Promises the warm and cherishing blood of Jesus Christ Supposing therefore and 't is my Heart's desire and Prayer to God that it prove not a false supposition that what hath been said already hath removed what might hinder and hath laid bare your Roots and made them open to receive the influence of what 's yet to follow I now in the name of that God whose name is recorded Exod. xxxiv 6. As proclaimed by himself to be the Lord the Lord God Merciful and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin tho he will by no means acquit the guilty the wilfully impenitent the stubbornly unfruitful Who keepeth mercy for thousands of them that turn to him love him and keep his Commandments Whose word it is that When the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not dye Eze. xviii 27 28. In the name of that God whose mercy endureth for ever as David tells us twenty six times in one Psalm cxxxvi Who not only sheweth Mercy but delighteth in mercy See the three last verses of the Prophet Micah who not only saith but sweareth and that by himself because he can swear by no greater and sweareth by that which is greatest in himself and dearest to himself if any thing be greater or dearer than other that is by his Life and by his Holiness As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked But that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye O house of Israel Eze. xxxiii 11. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David Psal lxxxix 35. to his people that accept his Covenant therefore the Covenant of Grace is called the Sure mercâ—es of David I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure meâ—cies of David Isa lv iii. that is with those that encline their Ears and come to him that hear that their souls may live This God I say desireth not the death of the greatest sinner amongst you nor the cutting down of the barrennest tree in all his Vineyard But calls you with the most pressing importunity and invites you with the most indubitable assurance to turn to him and that if you do so you shall not dye To you who have been so long Fruitless in so rich a Soyl Planted on so very fruitful hills upon Mount Sion his Holy Hill his Church his Gospel Church Who have disappointed Gods expectation so often so many years as he hath come to look for Fruit and have sent him away disappointed grieved provoked because he found none To you and such as you I say Behold Behold and wonder wonder to amazement to astonishment at his superabounding goodness and unwearied patience that First He hath spared you to another year notwithstanding not only your own forfeitures and provocations by your past unfruitfulness and the condemning Sentence which they extorted from him against you But also the subtle Conspiracies the bold design the cruel and restless machinations of the Enemies of his Gospel and your lives Who in their proud hopes and wicked purposes had swallowed up all and rooted up the whole Vineyard and laid it desolate with all that grows therein and you amongst the rest long since Secondly He yet continues to bestow more cost and pains upon you he is yet waiting to be gratious to you he keeps up his Fence about his Vineyard his double Fence The Wall and Hedg a Christian Magistracy a Gospel Ministry he yet causes you to injoy the labours of the Dressers of his Vineyard He yet imploys laborers to Dress to Prune to Husband to Cultivate those Plants he might in justice have stubbed up long since O admirable patience O adorable Compassions from which alone it is that we are not consumed Let me apply to the Lords patience what in another respect the Apostle speaks concerning mans let patience have its perfect work Let it lead us to Repentance and while we continue Planted by the River side by that stream which makes glad the City of God Let us bring forth our Fruit in due season Thirdly He declares himself willing to forget and forgive our past unfruitfulness if it bear fruit well yet yet after so long bearing none if yet at last it thrive under this last tryal and answer this new husbandry bestowed upon it it shall stand He shall surely live he shall not dy God will blot out all your iniquities out of his remembrance Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well come now let us reason together saith the Lord tho your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa i. 16 17 18. Fourthly To assure our Faith how all this may be done and that it shall be done assuredly he hath provided a security for his own glory That we may attain all this and yet he
to you all the Aâ—mour of God that you may resist the battery of this worst of Satans Engines and defeat the most dangerous of all his stratagems to involve you in Procrastination by giving up your selves speedyly to God and Christ according to what ever convictions have been upon you that you ought and resolutions that you would so do and be ready quickly I would add no more did not one word remain which may seem fit to clinch and rivet that Nail I have been forcing home with so many blows And I shall take it out of your own mouths Methinks I hear some say why so many Arguments in so clear a case and others ready to make the number occasion of their laughter and others 't was good if it had not been so long but it was cruel tedious Well be it so admit it had been delivered at this length which yet by the way it was not let me in cool blood debate the case with these Objectors before we part Is the case so clear in thy opinion that 't is superfluous to multiply Arguments to prove it Out of thy own mouth shalt thou be judged thou sloathful servant Why dost thou continue to Rebel against thy light Why dost thou still delay That 's enough which doth the work it is designed to but that 's too little which doth it not The Motives may be enough to leave thee inexcusable but they are not enow for thee till they effectually persuade thee to leave thy sin and escape thy danger And for the next must I bear your petulent scorn for remembring you of returning to God with such a number and shall it cost you nothing to forget him days without number Do you now laugh because the Motives are so many And what will you do when God shall laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh because these many were too few to make you take warning To make you wise to prevent them and escape them Is it so tedious to you to hear your sins Arraigned and Condemned a long hour And what is it to God to be dishonoured and provoked by them all thy life long Is it a load which breaks the back of thy Patience to hear Motives multiplyed to turn thee Speedily And is it no dangerous tryal of Gods Patience to load him with thy multiplyed sins as a Cart is loaden with Sheaves and pressed down If it be wearisome to hear thy sins reproved How much more Just is Gods complaint They have wearied me with iniquities and made me serve with their sins In a word if I have been thought long in calling you to turn to God how long doth God think your refusing to return And how tedious will it be to bear the eternal reproaches of thy own heart and lashes of thy own enraged Conscience for that refusal Which nothing can exempt thee from but taking the Councel I have so plainly given Consider what I have said and the Lord give us understandings and hearts to close with it that when ever Christ comes He may find us Ready Amen A DISCOURSE Shewing the Sinfulness and Danger of Putting-off our Great WORK BEING The Substance of a Sermon deliver'd at the Funeral of Mr. David Geer at St. Botolph's Aldgate Upon St. JOHN ix.iv. I must work the Works of Him that sent me while it is Day The Night cometh when no Man can work THis Chapter contains the History of one of the chief Miracles which our Blessed Saviour wrought whil'st He was in this World That is His opening the Eyes of the Man which was born Blind And it is Recorded more largely than any of his wonderful Works except his Raising Lazarus from the Dead for it fills a whole long Chapter to declare the Occasion of it the Work it self and what followed upon it and affords Matter of so many useful and choyce Observations 't is some difficulty to pass them by For it did not only Confirm his Mission and Doctrine to be from God but the very Miracle it self was Doctrinal the Man 's being born Blind figuring that Spiritual Blindness under which we are all Born and Christ's Healing him and the Manner of it shewing from whence we must expect the true Eye-Salve But I must confine my self to what the present Solemn Occasion directly minds us of The Words I have read were pronounced by our Lord as an Introduction to the Work when he address'd himself to the Performance of it and discover his Faithful Obedience and Excellent Wisdom in improving the Seasons for fulfilling the Works his Father sent him into this World for And commend to us a Truth of general Use and universal Obligation tho our Lord vouchsafes to apply it to Himself in this particular Case I confess the Words have not the Form of a Precept but they have the Force yea more than the Force of a single Command press the Duty more Home than if it had been said expresly Work while it is Day For First They are an Example given in the Person of him whom we are bound to imitate and follow whose Works are Vocal and whose Actions are our Instructions He being the Son of God and our Lord and Master saying I must work 't is as if a Son in the Family should say to the Servants or a Wealthy fore-handed Man to his poor Neighbours who have nothing but their Hands to Live on What ever you do I must mind my Business I must labour and not squander away one Day after another my Father will not suffer it in me and I should quickly be undone by such a Course Such Words spoken in their own Persons are more awakening more pungent than if they only bid them mind their Business For they smartly and sarcastically reproach their Sloath and upbraid them for their Loytering For if the Master of the Family will not bear it in a Son much less will he in a Servant and if he that 's well before-hand must be industrious to prevent Poverty and Want much more must he that hath but from Hand to Mouth But the quickning Influence of the Example is not all For Secondly The Reason by which it is inforced shews it extends to many For when He had said I must work c. while 't is Day when he comes to give the Reason of it he saith not The Night cometh when I can't work but When no Man can work 't is St. Chrysostome's Note thereby clearly implying that the Duty reaches all whom the Reason of the Duty reaches and amounts to thus much That every Man who hath Work to do which must be done by Day and cannot be done by Night must hasten to dispatch it while the Day lasts lest he be surprized and prevented by the Nights Approach Having thus briefly clear'd my Passage to what I design by shewing that the Words tho spoken by our Lord of Himself yet are fairly Applicable unto others and may have Efficacious Influence both upon
Blind and the Lame with many other Expressions which imply Neglect and Sleightiness in his Service Vers 14. But Cursed be the Deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male and Voweth and Sacrificeth to the Lord a Corrupt Thing As much as to say who had Opportunities and Abilities to serve God better yet through Sloath and Negligence presumes to serve Him worse The Servant who hid his Talent in a Napâ—in when he should have traded for his Master with it is first punish't with the Loss of his Talent Take the Talent from him And then with sorer Vengeance Bind him Hand and Foot and cast him into utter Darkness Not only those who rob'd and spoyl'd them but those who neglected to Relieve Christ in His poor Members Shall go away into Everlasting Punishment And other Negligence in what God requires will meet with a Proportionable Doom Secondly Negligence in God's Work casts a great Damp upon others weakens their Hands discourageth their Hearts The World is exceeding prone to be taken with such Examples as gratify their Lusts and indulge their Ease Now when Men who are too ready of themselves to be Slack and Remiss in these Matters see you who are their Betters Sleight and Sloathful How will they argue from and improve so bad a Precedent and say to themselves 'T is safe to do so as the Apostle argues in another Case 1 Cor. 8.10 Shall not the Conscience of him that is weak be emboldned So may I in this Shall not others be imboldned to be as Careless as thy self And so thou wilt destroy thy Brother for whom Christ Dyed And sin against his Soul and sin against Christ and against thy own Life all at once And I appeal to your own Consciences What is it that makes Forwardness and Zeal in Religion and Diligence in God's Work be look't upon with so shy and suspicious an Eye in most places Yea with Disgrace Reproach and Scorn as if it were more ado than needs But the general Coldness and Deadness of Men call'd Christians and professing themselves the Servants of the true God And if any do tacitely reprove them by being more forward they 'll Revenge themselves with the Lowdest Reproaches and Infamous Reflections of Affectation of Singularity Hypocrisy Hair-brain'd Zeal and what not And so when their Spiritual Interest urges them and Conscience urges them to Diligence in their Great Work they dare not endeavour it for fear of Jeers Scorns and being laught at for their Singularity and as Men who would pretend to be wifer than their Neighbour and are either cog'd out of the Power of Godlyness by the flattering Example of the Lazy or Bug-bear'd out on 't by the Reproaches of Singularity But Woe be to him by whom such Offences come It were better a Mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and he were cast into the Sea than that he should offend one Little One who believes in Christ St. Matth. 18.6 If it be so dangerous to be Partaker of other Mens Sins What is it to be the Author of other Men's Sins And if no Murderer of Men's Bodies hath Eternal Life What shall become of those who thus Murder Souls Consider our Lord's Words St. Matth. 23.13 Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men for ye neither go in your selves and them that were entring in ye hinder Thirdly Thy Sloathfulness in God's Work greatly dishonours Him not meerly as it disobeys Him but by the Sinister Reflections it makes upon Him as if His Work deserved no better 'T is Natural to us when we see any Design pursued Remisly to conclude 'T is not worth the while to bestow more Pains about it and consequently it greatly provokes him For He that despiseth Him shall be lightly esteemed God regards the manner of our Duties as much nay more than the Duties themselves 'T is not the doing Good pleaseth Him so much as the doing of it Well Not only Eat but so Eat Let a Man Examine himself and so let him Eat Not only Read Pray Hear but Read Considerately Hear Attentively Pray Earnestly So Read so Pray so Hear or else thou may'st do all these more to thy Hurt than Benefit As the Apostle speaks of some Mens Eating and Drinking their own Damnation Not only serve God but Keep thy Heart diligently when thou art about it And be not Sloathful in this Business but Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 The Luke-warm is the worst Temper God will spew such out of His Mouth Rev. 3.16 The Fourth Head from whence we may draw Moitves to excite our Diligence in this Work is by making Comparisons And this will yield us several very Cogent Ones First Compare God and the World and thy Self with thy Self in reference to These thy Worldly Self with thy Religious Self And Alas What vast odds appears even at the first View What are all the Things yea and all the Men of the World put together in Comparison of Him To whom will ye liken God or What Likeness will ye compare to Him Behold the Nations are as the Drop of a Bucket and are counted as the small Dust of the Ballance he taketh up the Isles as a very little Thing All Nations before Him are as nothing and they are counted to Him less than nothing and Vanity Isa 40.15 17 18. What miserable Comforters what deceitful Helpers when their Breath goeth out and their Thoughts perish Yea before that while they Live and are in their Best Estate they are altogether Vanity How Weak how False how soon Weary are all the Men in the World in Comparison of the Almighty All-wise All-sufficient most Faithful and Unchangeable God How Empty how Unsatisfying how Perishing how Deceitful what Lying and Vexing Vanities are all the Honours Profits Pleasures thou can'st pursue or hope to catch in Comparison of Him who is the only full pleasing satisfying Object of the Heart of Man Now argue hence If Men if thy Self yet seek for these with so great Warmth and Heat with so much Life and Vigour and Rise up Early and Sit up Late and Wear out themselves and Labour as in the Fire to grasp these Shadows What Zeal what Diligence should we use in the Work of God that we may please Him and enjoy Him for Ever Solomon observes That Many seek the Rulers Favour Prov. 29.26 How will Men fawn and flatter and crouch and debase themselves and comply with the Humours nay the Lusts of them who can Advance them Though the Psalmist who was a Mighty Prince himself bids us not to Put Confidence in Princes nor in the Sons of Men in whom is no Help Psal 146.3 And giving the Reason for it ver 4. directs us ver 5. shewing us in the Enjoyment of whom true Happiness Consists Happy is the Man who hath the God of Jacob for his Help whose Hope is the Lord his God who made Heaven and Earth and keepeth Truth for
ever And Psal 118.8 9. It is better to Trust in the Lord than to put Confidence in Man than to put Confidence in the Greatest or the Best of Men. And if Men will be so Diligent to please a Landlord a Justice a Master or a Father How much more Careful should we be to please the Great God of Heaven And the Apostle argues Heb. 12.9 We have had Fathers of our Flesh and we gave them Reverence Shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live And God himself Mal. 1.6 And so for the Things of the World No Study or Contrivance of the Head no Labour nor Travel of the Hands or Feet is thought too much How did Jacob Serve for Rachel See how he describes his Diligence Gen. 31.40 In the Day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by Night and my Sleep departed from mine-Eyes And 't is easier to find an Hundred following him in this than Two or Three in his Wrestling with God and not letting Him go till they obtain the Blessing Most Men being serious about Trifles and only trifling and dallying about this Serious Work The One Thing necessary Spending their Money for that which is not Bread and their Labour for that which satisfies not Isa 55.2 Forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters and hewing out broken Cisterns that will hold no Water Jer. 2.13 Being wise to do Evil but void of Knowledge to do Good Compare thy Self with other Men How many Younger than thy Self have got more Knowledge How many Poorer than thy Self can spare more Time to Read and Meditate and Pray How many of weaker Parts and under smaller Helps and intrusted with fewer Talents yet have far out-stript thee in your common Master's Work And thou wilt say 'T is like 't is well done of them And thy Judgment approves and praises them For shame then Practise thy Self what thou canst not but applaud in Others Yea let Shame to find thy Self out-stript by so Many that were once behind thee and are so still in many Respects quicken thee to double thy Diligence till thou recover and over-take them yea get again before them Again Compare thy Self with GOD if thou be not afraid to entertain a Thought of so unequal a Comparison Lord What is Man a Worm a Clod a Bubble a Shadow Yea Man in Honour is like the Beast that perisheth and in his best Estate is altogether Vanity And yet as Mean and Inconsiderable a Thing as thou art thou standest upon it thou wilt have it thus and thus and thy Will must be done with Diligence and thy Work with Care and with Exactness and art presently upbraiding those about thee for the least Neglect with What do I keep you for And wilt rid thy self of such unprofitable Incumbrances and wilt not retain an Idle Faithless Servant in thy Family a Jade in thy Stable a Barren or Unthristy Creature amongst thy Caâ—ttle or a Fruitless Tree in thy Orchard And How darest thou be such towards the Great King of all the Earth as thou wilt not suffer any of thy Fellow-Creatures to be towards thy self who art so far below Him so Inconsiderable a Nothing in comparison of Him Once more Compare the Sweet and Easie Indulgence the Gospel hath provided for thee in the Work of God with the Hard Service imposed and exacted under the Law and the Gracious Assistance offer'd and communicated under this Dispensation with the little Help afforded then How Chargeable and Costly were the Sacrifices How Long and Tyring the Journey 's up to Jerusalem How Insupportable the Yoke of those Observances And How small the Aids afforded What would'st thou have done then if thou stickest if thou grudgest if thou repine at what is now expected and shall be accepted As Naaman's Servants said wisely to their Master My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great Thing Wouldst thou not have done it How much more when he saith unto thee Wash and be Clean 2 King 5.13 If God if Christ had bid thee do some Harder Work Wouldst thou not do it to save thy Soul for ever How much more when he hath made the Way more Easie than of Old and offer'd and assur'd greater Help than then to enable thee to do it Lastly Compare thy Work for the True God with what Idolaters and Hypocrites perform to False Ones or to the True One Falsly That you may be moved to Jealousie with those which are not a People and provoked by a Foolish Nation Deut. 32.21 How do the Worshippers of Baal cry whole Dayes and Cut themselves with Knives and Lances till the Blood gushes out How do the Profelytes of Rome Whip themselves pour out their Money to their wily Priests which make Merchandize of them for Masses Indulgences c. How do they Lavish out Gold and Impoverish themselves and Families to inrich the Shrines of Dead and Dumb Idols and undergo hard Penances and tedious Pilgrimages And all in vain led only by a False Opinion of Meriting by what God will despise And How Profuse will Hypocrites be Thousands of Rams and Ten Thousand Rivers of Oyl Yea what is Dearer still The First-Born of their Bodies for the Sin of their Souls Mich. 6. How Shall not only the Queen of the South but the Great Whore of the West Rise up against you and Condemn your Sloath Fifthly We are under many Great and Indispensible Engagements to Diligence in this Work We are bound in Conscience and 't is our Duty that we must We are bound in Gratitude upon receiving so many Talents and Opportunities by which we may We are bound in point of Interest our own Safety and Happiness depends upon it and 't is our Wisdom if we will thus work A word of every one of these may serve First 'T is our Duty and we are bound by His Authority who is our Lord. He hath commanded us to keep His Precepts diligently The First and Great Command is To Love the Lord our God which is the very Soul and Life of this Work with all our Heart and all our Soul with all our Might and all our Strength Every Step in this Way must be trodden heedfully See that ye Walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise Not at Peradventure Keep thy Heart with all Diligence Prov. 4.24 Joshua's Words are very pressing Chap. 22.5 Take diligent heed to do the Commandment and the Law which Moses the Servant of the Lord charged you to Love the Lord your God and to Walk in all His Wayes and to Keep His Commandments and to Cleave to Him and to Serve Him with all your Heart and all your Soul As we must agree quickly with our Adversary so we must give Diligence to be delivered from him We must not only Work at but Work out our own Salvation As we must Receive the Word with all readiness so we must take most Diligent heed to the Things we have heard lest at any time we