in the judgement we must not admit of a staggering and reeling minde nor of a levity in our judgements to be driven and carried about with every winde of doctrine as the Apostle speakes Ephes 4. 14. Eph. 4. 14. Athanasius knew this well when he held his iudgement fast in the truth of the deity of Christ against the Arians so Saint Austin his iudgement fast in the doctrine of grace against the Pelagians and Cyprian against the Donatists or Novatians or Catharists It is an honour for a man to recant an errour but a perfidious shame for any Christian to suffer any truth to be supplanted by any errour 2 In the will and affection our love must hold the truth fast therefore the Apostle bids us to be glued unto it Rom. 12. 9. it is with truths Simile as with some plants which live and thrive not but in warme climates That ancient desire after truth and delight in it to take counsell from it and strength from it and comfort by it must not decay and dye within us but must remaine and abound though others hate disgrace and endeavour to make voyd the truth yet wee must cleave unto it and love it as David Psal 119. 3 In our profession hence that advice of the Apostle in Phil. 2. 16 to hold forth the word of life even in the midst of a darke and froward generation Christ would have us not onely to beleeve but to confesse him before men Remember that it was no small sinne in Peter when he pretended that he knew not the man Gregory Nazianzen reports in one of his orations against Iulian that some Christian souldiers being cunningly circumvented by him to idolatrous sacrifices perceiving the errour they all ran backe unto him and threw him his money againe and protested they were Christians and in what they did they were circumvented by him Heb. 10. Heb. 10. 23. 23. let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering the Christian must change neither his Master nor his service nor his livery 4 In our conversation wee must still practise truths and keepe our lives answerable unto them Saint Iohn cals this a walking in the truth then a man walkes in the truth when hee holds on his course of holy obedience unto it against all the encouragements and discouragements of the world as the three children in Daniel c. not with the Galathians beginning in the spirit and ending in the flesh or like those Israelites whose righteousnesse was as the morning dew But we must still runne the race set before us and keep stedfast our feet unto the pathes of righteousnesse and waies of truth Quest Why must divine truths heard and received be held fast Sol. Reasons thereof are many I will briefly point out some of them 1 Divine truth is a most precious and excellent thing therefore in Scripture it is compared to gold which of metals is the most precious nay it is more precious then gold or rubies and all the things which thou canst desire are not to be compared unto it see Pro. 3. 14. 15. Pro. 3. 14. 15. It is more excellent then the excellencies of the creatures not then some of them but then all of them and a man if hee were to imagine any excellency or if the utmost of his desires were enlarged yet could they not finde out and pitch upon such an excellency Therefore saith Saint Iohn to the Church of Philadelphia Revel 3. 11. Hold that Revel 3. 11. fast which thou hast that no man take thy crowne the crowne is the top of royalties such a thing is truth let no man take thy crowne Beloved there are two properties which assure us of the excellency of things 1 The more holy they are the Two things intimate an excellency more excellent they are all corruptions are diminutions of excellency the more mixt a thing is the more it is abased as if gold and tinne be mixed and the more pure it is as meere gold the more glorious it is Now the truths of God are holy not as persons are holy which is with mixture and imperfection but as the light at noone day is pure without darkenesse at all 2 The more that God is in any thing the more excellent it is for so much as we partake of him who is excellency it selfe so much more wee rise in our excellency But the great God is altogether seen in this word of truth there is his wisedome there is his power and greatnesse there is his love and mercifulnesse there is his Christ and faithfulnesse therefore it is most excellent and consequently to be held fast by us 2 Divine truths are as it were made over to us under termes of constancy and perpetuity I finde in Scriptures that they are termed sometimes Our heritage estates which are personall if that bee the phrase for possession may be sold as that which a childe buyes with his owne money but estates which are naturall or hereditary such I meane as come to be ours by descent these ought to be kept for posterity God forbid said Naboth that I should sell the inheritance of my fathers divine truths are an heritage to descend from us to our children and therefore wee are neither to dispossesse our selves of them nor to suffer our selves by any to bee dispossessed of them Psal 119. 111. thy testimonies Psal 119 111. have I taken as an heritage for euer Gods trust something wee commit to God something God commits to us 2 Tim. 1. 12. He is able to keepe that which I haue committed unto him we trust God with our soules and God trusts us with his truths which are therefore called that good thing committed to us for to keep 2 Tim. 1. 14. now in matters of trust wee must be faithfull for we must be responsable for the whole wherewith wee are instructed as the servants in the Gospell who had talents committed to their trust they were called to an account for them so if the Lord trust any man with graces or with his truths the man must carefully keepe and preserve them for the Lord will aske him another day for his trust as Saint Iohn did of the Bishop of Jerusalem for his depositum They observe that a trust must be first redelivered secondly wholly thirdly onely to him who committed it to us for trust 3 Not to hold fast the truths is an exceeding and fearefull injury or wrong it is injurious 1 To God for he is the Lord or God of truth truths are ours for the efficacie of them but onely this for the authority of them Simile Should a private person presume of himselfe to sell the Kings Iewels it might bee as much as his life is worth truths are Gods Iewels hee reveales them he ownes them hee hath sealed them with the bloud of Christ and therefore thou doest presumptuously wrong the Lord to put off the things which belong to him 2 To our
slavishnesse many give up their soules and faith to the religion of others and like waxe are still fashioned to the opinions of great persons they are afraid of their displeasures and therefore even in points of religion will dance after their pipe 6 A sordid and eminent love of the world for which Demas forsooke Christ and Iudas sold his Master and Hymeneus made shipwracke of faith the unsatisfiable slave to the world will never be a faithfull servant to truth hee who hath already pawnd his soule will with as much ease sell off the truth Spira for its sake abjured the truth but ventured the losse of it and himselfe too 7 Many men are licentious and therefore unstedfast corrupt doctrines give more scope then the true and heavenly wee are apt to beleeve that soonest which pleaseth us most erroneous points are more for pleasure and divine truths are more for strictnesse and Simile therefore as those Grecians if I forget not the story gave up their weapons to enjoy their sports so many give up the truth to enjoy their easie and loose kinde of walking Vse 2 But for you I hope better things though I thus speake hitherto you have heard the good truths and waies of God and have held them fast I have not found you as other people of so unsetled and inconstant spirits And therefore as Christ said to the Church of Thyatira the same I will presume to say unto you Revel 2. 24. 25. I will Rev. 2. 24. 25. put upon you no other burden but that which ye have already holdfast what need I urge this with many motives 1 If it be truth why should it Motives be left is errour better then truth then should darkenesse be better then light 2 Can you better your estates by leaving of truths when the divels fell from truth they fell from heaven when Adam fell from truth hee fell from Paradise 3 Will not the truth keepe you if you keepe the truth as the ship doth the Pilot who keepeth it truth will keepe thy soule and graces together thy soule and Christ together thy soule and comfort together thy soule and prosperity together therefore it is called the girdle of truth because as a girdle it holds all together Thou partest with strength with joy with safety with blessing with happinesse if thou part with truth 4 The reward is sure if thou be faithfull not a meane reward but that of life even a crowne of life Rev. 2. 10. Rev. 2. 10. Rules Now that you may for ever hold fast divine truths take these rules or directions 1 Lay a solid foundation in distinct knowledge of them confused braines cause unsetled hearts rest not in Pilates demand what is truth nor in the Israelites hovering betwixt two opinions nor in that grosse salary of religion to take up truth upon trust for any man sake whatsoever were he the sharpest Ieremiah or the learnedst Paul or the comfortablest Barnabas be not satisfied this is truth because this that man saith but as the honourable Beraeans searched the Scriptures about the things which even Saint Paul himselfe delivered so doe you prove all things saith the Apostle receive truth upon an evidence of truth if the first truth which is the word of God and the rule and compasse will not approve it it is errour and not truth Object Yea but how may wee know truths for there are many religions and many opinions obtruded to the world the truth of which cannot so or sily be discerned Sol. I answer that true doctrine may be discerned from false doctrines 1 by the unity of them unum verum convertuntur truth is one or none there is but one way saith Aristotle to hit the marke but many waies to misse it errour is manifold and divers Simile like the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw mixt of gold and clay and as Aristotle speakes of Vices that they are contrary both to vertues and themselves so erroneous doctrines are opposite to truth and to themselves Simile there is no errour but is like a lyer apt to forget and wound it selfe but truth is single like Christs garment undivided as there is but one Christ so but one faith 2 The purity of them all false doctrine like treacherous physicke gives ease Simile or like a whore much in beauty when false in honesty what it wants in verity it makes up in liberty like ill wares which therefore have the larger allowances the doctrine which is unsound generally is licentious as is evident in the Mahometan or Popish tenents But truth is holy in it selfe and to us teaching it within the heart and ordering it in the life It is an adversary to sin because all sin is an adversary unto God 3 The efficacy of them usually corrupt doctrines adde to our notions but meddle not with our corruptions they swell us but doe not edifie us they are pils which onely worke upon the braine they neither bring true grace or sound peace with them onely this Satan makes the erroneous very violent that thereby they may thinke themselves in the right But the doctrine which is true is strong it is heavenly in its nature and mighty in its operation comes from God and brings to God makes the bad good and the good better there is no such salve to heale a corrupt heart nor balme to refresh a troubled conscience as truth 4 The antiquity of them errour is but the shadow and ape of truth the saying is id demúm verissimum quod antiquissimum Truth is the first borne for God spake it before the divell spake the other errors may be old but truth saw the light before them the whole farrago of corrupt doctrines amongst the Papists for transubstantiation invocation of Saints prayers for the dead merit supremacy their originals were of yesterday though they boast antiquity yet they dare not stand to the triall of Christ and his Apostles who must decide all truths 5 The simplicity of them errours came in by the Serpent at the first and are much of its nature full of windings and turnings all corrupt doctrines are deceiveable and subtile how many arts were fained by Arrius and the Arrian Bishops to bring in their damnable errour what forging of lyes and odious accusations of Athanasius that he was dishonest with a woman and cut off a mans hand as Eusebius relates and so the Iesuites about Calvin and Luther and Melancthon and Beza c. and so for the establishing of the Councell of Trent the Popes Cloke-bags were weekely filled with devices and carriages Yea and observe the very Papists at this day how deceiveably confident they are that al◠antiquity and testimony is on their side when either it is a packe of their owne writers onely or other authors which they have forged or else antiquity miserably lanced and cut and interlaced by their Index expurgatorius yea and I pray God that many of the opinions in this City be
strength unto them by a constant application of the ordinances partly by hearkning unto some sinfull temptations So that now repentance may become more difficult and unable and godly sorrow can scarce be discerned for that extreame hardnesse of heart and faith can scarce finde the way or make any use of Christ and the promises but the gates of unbeliefe seeme to possesse the soule Yea the feare of God may now not so restraine and awe and the love of God may not so prevaile and excite as they have done in former times Object But you will demand what may be the causes of this dying condition Sol. I conjecture these 1 Simile Some deadly corruption which hath seized upon their spirits if poyson get into the body it works upon the spirits and so weakens and indangers life The people of God are sometimes tasting of poyson they are tampering with unsound doctrines which as they doe infect the judgement so they doe abate their spirituall principles and abilities The Apostle was afraid that he had lost his labour and spent himselfe in vaine to those of Galatia that they were even leaving their hold in Christ and what was the cause of it Surely some false Apostles had leavened them with errour about circumcision and the observation of the law When the judgement is corrupted with any errour then truths are not of that power with the soule where truth looseth in authority there grace will loose in its strength and efficacie 2 Some deadly wound is given unto them you know that a man may dye not onely by a draught of poyson but Simile likewise by the cut of a sword which divides the parts and le ts out the bloud that carries and preserves the life of man There are things which doe fight against the soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 11. and not onely fight against it but wound it nay not the soule and conscience onely but likewise our very graces Sinnings doe not onely prove a troublesome wound to the conscience but likewise a killing and dying wound to our graces if any thing in the world extinguisheth or abateth our graces they are our sinnings which are to graces as water to the fire But now even the people of God doe many times hearken to some baser lusts and viler commissions as you know in David and others and when sinne hath got any favour in the judgement or affection it is like a disease which will not off without a manifest breach of health and strength Simile sinne lames our graces 3 Some deadly neglect Simile if the soule grow negligent it will quickly grow dying as you shal see that inordinate abstinence and neglect of food brings a man quickly into a consumption so when the people of God through spirituall pride shall grow carelesse of vitall assistances that they keepe not so close to the word of life nor to the Sacraments of life nor to the great principle of life by an earnest and constant communion in prayer no marvell if they grow dying persons It is with us in respect of God as it is with the plants in respect of the sunne which live or dye flourish or decay upon their conjunction if I may so speake and Grace is not a life and strength it selfe Minuit supra vires alimenti penuria said Fernelius l. 1 de morb causis neerenesse with its heat So our soules yea and our graces live by that conjunction which they have with God if we keepe not to him close and neere but draw off what doe we but draw off from the principle of our being and conservation 4 Inconsiderate toleration of particular evils not a timely expurgation of them Simile You know that if peccanthumours redound in the body and be not considered of and purged out in time they may of ordinary distempers turne into deadly diseases and so it is with particular corruptions admit they be such as wee are pleased favourably to call infirmities or any other sinnes if they be not quickly expelled and reformed they may bring us neere the gates of death one sinne may bring on another or the same sinne may steale unto a strange degree of strength so that a person unawares is languished extreamely and whence comes this not onely from an inconsiderate admission of sinnes but also from an untimely correction of sinne The soule should presently have physicked it selfe with first a right apprehension of the greatnesse of the evill in the beginning secondly speedy humiliation before the Lord thirdly fervent supplication for mercy and more strength fourthly resolute reformation and abandoning of it But the neglect of these hath brought the soule into a spirituall languor and perhaps into a deep consumption of graces 5 Defect of frequent examinations though at our originall and first conviction of sinne and a sinfull condition we are very tender and circumspect and ever and anon feared and overlooked our spirituall conditions whereby we found singular additions to our graces yet after a while after Christians have got over the pangs of the first birth and have procured more peace and comfort as if a gracious soul would thrive of it selfe they are generally apt to keepe on the course of obedience but thinke it superfluous at least not so necessary often to search and view and fannow themselves And what now befals them surely two great evils viz. that the estate and operation and acts of sin are not so strictly eyed secondly that the estate of their graces is not so well knowne and guarded against speciall motions and temptations whereupon it often fals out that the poor soul is reduced to great streights and leannesse the man cannot pray as heretofore nor finde that love to God and Christ as heretofore nor have that delight in the ordinances nor doe that good in society nor receive that profit nor feele that mournfulnesse of spirit as heretofore why hee did let and suffer his spirituall estate to run on at hazards and the lesse searching of heart the lesse strength of grace alwaies 6 Defect of solemne humiliations in extraordinary fasting and prayer Those meanes which beget our graces are likewise ordained to preserve them and as the use of singular meanes confers more power and life to our graces so a cessation in the use of them proves an exceeding decay unto them it is as if you should take away the pillars from the house or the raine from the earth Now this is certaine that extraordinary times of fasting and prayer they have beene blest with power from heaven to make the strongest temptation and corruption to flye no sinne is able to stand before them and so likewise they have been blest with an answer of singular enlargement addition to our spirituall estate oh how cheerfully how tenderfully how much more fully and fruitfully is thy soule inabled after those duties rightly performed but Christians grow very strangers to these solemne duties either totally omitting of them
and despise them 2 The remembrance must be ingenuous and not preiudiciall though we must sticke to yet not in the truths received our former remembrance must not contract a present or future neglect of any other truths which God shall reveale unto us as when many remember the Sermons of dead men and slight the discoveries of the living 3 There is a threefold remembrance of former truths One is notionall Simile which is like the often looking into a glasse or when a person beholds truths as hee doth pictures gaze on them and that is all Another is verball when a person renues his acquaintance and complements with truth onely his memory onely loades his tongue like a naked Astronomer who knowes heaven and can onely talke of it A third is practicall when the remembrance is like a cloud descending on the plants Simile or like a fire felt as well as seene this kinde of remembrance hath three degrees in it for it is partly Directive when truths remembred are made a compasse for us to sayle by or copies for us to write after still teaching and guiding us how to draw the lines and letters of our conversation Affective when truths remembred are like the conference of Christ rising from the dead burning and inflaming of our hearts with most affectionate love unto them Effective when truths remembred are truths obeyed we often consider former doctrines and still better our present conversations After this practicall forme are wee to remember received truths 4 There is 1 A materiall remembrance which is partly of the things themselves partly of the revelation of them partly of the manner and meanes of revealing them 2 Formall remembrance of For the manner five waies truths received which is rather of the manner how wee our selves did receive them we are often to thinke on truths received not onely as they stand in proposition or revelation but also how they stood with us when wee did receive them for energy or operation and thus I conjecture we are to remember truths received 1 With what estimations and admirations wee did receive them Simile like those people who have the Sunne but halfe the yeere they run after it and are ready to adore it in its approch so when we did receive holy truths at the first we received them as the very oracles of God not as the words of man but as they are indeed the words of God 2 With what subjection of spirit we did receive them wee did not onely admire their excellency but felt their efficacie the word came not in word onely but in power and authority over our very consciences and this power was a full power and an easie power the truths which wee received did command and awe and order our whole man and wee too were most willing to resigne up our selves to the obedience of the Gospell in all things and to be cast into that mould of heavenly doctrine 3 With what affections wee did receive them O then those conflictings of spirit Heb. 10. 32 Heb. 10. 32. those bathes of griefe and heavenly compunction with them Acts 2. 37. those flames Acts 2. 37. of love with those Christians Acts 4. 32. those raptures of joy Acts 4. 32. Acts 16. with Lydia Acts 16. yea those extensions of zeale with the Galathians to Saint Paul Gal. 4. Gal. 4. the word had a surpassing influence upon all our affections to melt and convert to raise and dispose of them 4 With what resolute loyalty so that we did hate and defie all contrary errors and waies and so were our hearts sworne to divine truths and as it were espoused to them that wee once resolved to live and dye in those truths and for those truths wee could not endure any mixture with them nor heare of any divorce from them 5 With what reverence wee did embrace the Ambassadors of heavenly truths they were as the Angels of God to us we were like almost with Cornelius to adore the Peters and Pauls I meane the ministers of God revealing his truths unto us the feet of them who brought unto us the glad tidings of our salvation were beautifull and most acceptable unto us Now here are two questions briefly to be resolved Quest What truths heard and received we are often to consider and remember Sol. To this I answer 1 There must be an endeavour to remember all the truths as Christ said of the fragments gather them up and let none be lost so it must bee said of holy truths on which the soule hath formerly fed gather them up all let none be lost Simile You see that the Goldsmith doth not onely looke after the massie piece of gold but he carefully lookes after every ray and dust of gold and preserves it Every truth of God is precious it is more precious then gold it is excellent and as it is excellent in it selfe so it may be usefull to us Simile there is not a star in heaven but is of some good to the lower world so there is not one truth of God but may be of some good use to a Christian But if either for the multitude of truths or the sublimity of truths or for the obscure manner of discovering these truths or for the impotency and irretentivenesse of an unholding and unclasping memory or for the space of time since truths were delivered and received it so fals out that all heard and once received truths will not stand upon record into which they have beene entred but are in many places defaced and cancelled 2 There must at least bee a faithfull remembrance of the most necessary and chiefe truths namely of those which more immediately and intimately and unauoydably concern our salvation of the which for methods sake I conjecture there may be three heads viz. 1 That vitall truth concerning Christ and faith in him this is the great fundamentall truth Note 2 That vivificall truth concerning repentance in the conversion of the heart from dead workes 3 That practicall truth concerning obedience in ordering the life and course of a converted person As the moralists say of Fame or of a mans good name Omnia si perdas famam servare memento Qua semel amissâ postea nullus eris i whatsoever commodity you lose be sure yet to preserve that iewell of a good name That is so choyce a iewell that whatsoever a man loseth hee must yet take heed and care of that The same may bee said of these forenamed truths though through some defect or frailty or malignity any other historicall or problematicall truths may slip from us yet these must be written in our hearts with the point of a Diamond and as in marble the characters of them are to bee kept fresh and alive and are never to be blotted out Object And why this faithfull and frequent remembrance or renewed consideration of truths heard and received Sol. Reasons thereof many 1 Though sometimes an assent may be
not bolstered up with high clamours and with artificiall lyes But truth is naked and plaine it is neither of a cruell nature like Caine nor of a subtile spirit with Absalom nor of a lying spirit with Ahabs false Prophets it flatters no man nor beguiles any being truth it is not ashamed of light or triall and it alone can maintain it self against all contrary quarrels a good cause is like a good conscience even a bulwarke to it selfe like the sunne in its light and heat against all clouds c. 5 The duration of them truth like the sunne hath runne down through all ages not that all men have embraced it but that by some it hath still beene embraced some one or more hath still beene at the barre to beare witnesse unto it New men have still risen up and sometimes out of the ashes as it were of the dead to maintaine and either by tongue or pen or bloud to defend the truth but Erroneous doctrines as they want an inward harmony so also an outward consent like a deceitfull brooke they are spent after a while or like commotions in a state Simile though strong or long yet they come to an end at length either some speciall judgements on the ringleaders or the authority of Princes as Alexander against Arius or the prayers of the Saints or the decision of lawfull counsels have still cashiered these meteors but as it is said of divine mercy that it endures for ever the same is affirmed of divine truth it runs from one generation to another till Christ make his Church triumphant the militant Church shall be the pillar of truth 6 The conformity of them to the rule or word Erroneous doctrines like unsound flesh cannot abide handling and Simile like an ill favoured woman would have all glasses broken But truth like sound gold will endure a touch-stone truth will be found truth upon search bring it to the conscience it will worke as truth bring it to the death-bed it will uphold as truth bring it to the scriptures it will hold out as truth 2 When truths upon search are found to be truths then embrace them for the truths sake not upon personall and mutable causes or ends 3 Firme refolution after tryall by which our knowledge comes to be cleare and without doubt there must be now a plain resolution and purpose of heart in cleaving to such faithfully evidenced truths thou must by an immoveable faith as it were root thy very heart in the truths of Christ as Saint Paul though bonds and afflictions though good report or evill though death it selfe abide him for Christ come what will come disputes fancies errors troubles losses I have found the truth and it will I hold for ever 3 Loyall affection then it is loyall when it is inclusive to every truth c. exclusive to nothing but truth this loyall affection will make us to first doe secondly suffer thirdly cleave love truth and then truth will be held I held him and would not let him goe said the Church then in love with Christ Cant. 3. Love is the easiest key to open the heart to Cant. 3. Christ and the strongest locke to keepe sure the truth in our hearts when thou hast experimentally felt the heavenly strength and comfort of Gods truths then wilt thou certainly sticke unto them 4 Ioyne conscience to science O when people have the truths still sounding in their eares and ungodlinesse still stirring and ruling in their lives it cannot be that they should have strong hands who have wicked hearts Hymeneus made shipwracke of faith and of conscience both together 1 Tim 1. 19. Therefore strive to obey the 1 Tim. 1. 19. truths adde to thy faith vertue be a doing Christian as well as a knowing Christian 5 Be watchfull in prayer to God with David to uphold thee with Saint Peter to establish thee still to keepe thee that thou mayest keepe his truths excellent is that speech of Bernard S. Bernard in Psal qui habitat pag. 283. Basil neque enim quae habemus ab eo servare aut tenere possumus sine eo that God by whose light alone we know the truth by his strength alone we keepe it Thus much for the text and now for the occasion and here I cannot be long neither my affections nor yours will admit of large discourse onely a word of you and a word to you Of you so regardfull have you beene to my Ministery so loving to my person so faithfull in your maintenance so cheerefully encouraging generally from you all but chiefly from the chiefest that had it pleased the Lord to have given mee health the which I have scarce enjoyed one whole yeere together since I have beene heere I should not have stirred easily from such a people for the best preferment that could be conveniently offered unto me I speake my heart freely I cannot tell on which side the unwillingnesse is most whether on your part who are left or on my part who am constrained to leave you But to say no more of your goodnesse give mee leave for the close of all to leave a few Legacies with you being all my friends and hearken to my words as the words of a dying man for the Lord knowes how short my daies may be My Legacies are these 1 Lay out more time for your soules the soule is a precious thing the soule is a corrupted thing sinnes are in it much guilt is upon it there is a Christ that it needs holinesse that it must have heaven that it would have thy body is but clay thy soule a spirit the world a vanity thy soule immortall all is well if the soule be wel nothing is well if that be evill I beseech you pray more heare more know more confer more doe more and more for your soules when you come to dye you will then finde it to be all your worke O then whiles health is in you make it thy chiefest worke to seeke the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof for your soules feed not the slave and starve the childe 2 Vpon good grounds make sure of a reconciled God live not in an unreconciled condition no enemy like an ill conscience and a good God study the right of thy sinnes and the bloud of Christ repentance from dead workes and faith in the Lord Iesus so shalt thou behold the face of God and live The waies of reconciliation with God and the setling of thy conscience about it may cost thee many prayers and teares and diligent studies but the love of God and heaven will answer and recompense all 3 Wisely improve all heavenly seasons the Lord hitherto hath continued unto you daies of peace and salvation heavenly opportunities publike and private and I beseech him for ever so to doe Now receive not the grace of God in vaine lay hold on these occasions if there be not wisedome to improve them there may be sadnesse for neglecting