the house of Eli and he did it As a fundamental assistance to all this Look to the setling of your Souls in a firm belief of the Gospel for so far only as we beleeve the words of eternal life they are of power to us Remember that in Heb. 4.2 The Gospel came to the Jews but it did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith The weight of words lies in the truth of them and not only in the worth of them For if you speak of mountains of Gold of heaps of Pearls though these are rich words yet if there be not as much truth in them they are but an empty sound and take not the heart Converse much with all the witnesses of the Scriptures truth converse with and call to mind frequently that inward Seal which is upon your own spirits that living and effectual force and vertue which the Word of God hath had upon your hearts unto a thankful embracing of it to a holy subjection to it to a couragious and chearful dependance upon it to the melting of your hearts and the pouring out of your spirits unto God Remember these things for Gods appearances in his Word are as so many seals and witnesses from above Rest not till you can say with that Angel Rev. 19.19 These are the true sayings of God And with the Apostle in Joh. 21.2 We know that his testimony is true For while this is not done our comforts and rejoycings in God cannot be high they cannot exceed our faith Then let no dark clouds remain upon your spirits so far as you can if you have received a little light make it to encrease more and more to the perfect day Observe the language of the people of God I know that my Redeemer lives I know that thou art with me How often have you these expressions in the first Epistle of John 2.3.4 and 5. Chapters We know that we are of God We know that God dwells in us We know that we have passed from death to life We know that we are in the truth Endeavor to come to this Again Be frequent in drawing comfortable and reviving inferences from your Interest in God Mark what inference the Church makes I will wait upon God my God will hear me Faith and a lively enjoyment of God is full of argumentation and that is the life of the Soul It is not maintained by a speculation of God but by arguments reasonings and such conclusions as are meat and drink indeed to the Soul CHAP. XX. Our Apostacy hath made us unapt for divine Life and Converse with God through a Mediator and willing to conform to the lowest Patterns HAving said much to this Point I will shew now what great need there is that so much should have been said and much more also for the furtherance of this life in God take therefore into your hearts these few things First We are naturally in greater affinity and capacity as to the things of the creature then to the things of God It is was not so from the beginning but our Apostacy cast us into this unhappy state that whereas we were nearest unto God now all things are nearer unto us then God we are grown strangers to that life As the child of a Prince that goes away in his childhood and is trained up in a beggers house he contracts a beggers spirit and grows a stranger to a Princes life So it hath been with us As Nebuchadnezzar lived like a beast and forgot the life of a Prince yea of a man so we are strangers from the life of God What God saith in Hosea 8.10 is true of us all We account his things as strange things as things that we are not acquainted with we have neither a pleasing sight of them nor a pleasing taste of them but they are to us as meat that we cannot relish that suits not with us Nothing was more natural to man then to live in God as we came out of Gods hand It was not more natural for the fish to live in the water then for us to live in God and that was a blessed state The brest is not more natural to the child then that life was to us that was our first life and it was sweet though it was short It was a blessed life for God let out himself in so much fulness as took the heart up into intimate acquaintance We were made upright that is such as God delighted in such as we should be now we are altered our spirits are divided and scattered In as much then as we have not altogether cast off our depraved natures we have need to be thus called upon we being more enclined to the creature then unto God Secondly Naturally we have a greater propensity to observe the Law then the Gospel to do what we are bid then to take what is offered and given to us in the Gospel For the Law is natural to us it is written in our hearts the things that are revealed in the Gospel are above Nature This disposition the Apostle found in those Rō 9. latter end Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness did not attain unto the Law of Righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone It was a stumbling stone indeed to them they rather chose to make their way to life by the Law then to accept of life according to the propositions of the Gospel because the Law was more near to them it was more natural to them but the Gospel is supernatural Children are nearer to and more apt to receive those things which are by Nature then those things which are by instruction and appointment It is natural for a child to eat he need not be taught it but for a child to learn that is hard he is at more distance from it So it is more easie for us to form our selves to the obedience of the Law then to the Gospel Thirdly We are naturally more apt to converse with God immediately then by a Mediator Because this is still according to the natural course and original appointment of God in the first Creation of Man Though then there was a very great disproportion an infinite disproportion between God and us yet because there was no Conscience of guilt no matter of offence this poor Creature though but dust and ashes could come to God and did converse with him immediately But now since his going away from God God hath declared that man should come no more immediately to him but by the Door which he hath appointed He hath made Jesus Christ that Door and whosoever entereth by him hath life and none else You may knock at the door of Mercy and spend your days in tears and prayers but not be heard unless your way be through Christ Therefore 1 Pet. 1.21 the Apostle speaks thus Through Him we beleeve in God And
and our Redeemer thy Name is upon us See what a conclusion here is made Doubtless thou art our Father and therefore we call to thee for help 3. There is this encouragement and strength that the spirit of a man receives in thus arguing with God that if he can say in truth I am thine God much more will say to the creature I am thine If we have so much love to offer our selves to God to become his much more will the love of God make him to become ours for God loves first and most and surest If mine heart rise toward God much more is the heart of God toward me because there Love is in the Fountain CHAP. IV. Wicked mens prayers not to be dreaded The sins of those that pray greatest Some out-live the contests of the Spirit Three things to be still done by those who have resigned themselves to God NOw I come to the Application Vse If there must be such a Resigning of our selves to God when we come to him then truly you need never fear the prayers of the men of this world assure your selves they wish you as much evil as it is possible and their hearts cannot love you they envy all your welfare and the constant vote of their spirits is that your day were turned into night and that in stead of light darkness should be round about you but it matters not though they put up such prayers to God they are but bruta fulmina The reason of it is because they come to God without that which is the nerves and sinews of prayer If they come to God and bow the knee before him that God would bless them and prosper them poor Creatures they speak to no purpose because they deal hypocritically with God for they bow the knee and call him Lord as if he were their Lord but they do what they list and are their own Lords Rulers and Commanders Hos 7.14 God saith the people of Israel dealt so with him They did not cry to me with their hearts when they howled upon their beds and assembled themselves for corn and for wine and rebelled against me They pray that God would do so such a good turn for them but they shut their hearts against God and had a rebellious spirit at the same time Though I have strengthened their arm yet they imagined mischief against me They are no friends of my Cause and Kingdom in this world but wish their overthrow though I have shewed them mercy In Hos 4.7 8. it 's said They have set their hearts on iniquity and it shall be like people like Priests and I 'le punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings or as the word is I will cause their doings to be turned upon them Men may think when they come to God that the sins of so many years past are forgotten that God will not reckon with them for sins so long past and so they come to God in their filth and with their hearts unwashen But saith God They are deceived I will turn their ways upon them and though they be sins of so long time backward yet I 'le remember them In Hos 8.3 Israel cryed to me My God we know thee What saith God Israel hath cast off the thing that is good the Enemy shall pursue him They have set up Kings but not by me c. They say My God we know thee No saith God I 'le not know you thou hast cast off the thing that is good Mal. 2.2 3. You have God expressing himself to this purpose If you will not hear and lay to heart to give glory to my Name A man dishonors God and puts the greatest indignity and affront upon God that can be when he refuseth to hear and obey Then I 'le curse your blessings and cast even the dung of your solemn Feasts on your faces c. That 's a strange thing but it was so their solemn Feasts were as dung to God and God saith he will cast them as dung in their faces and they shall be a dunghill which my Soul abhors You need not fear the prayers of such men as are without yoke and fear not God but the prayers of Saints are to be dreaded because they have power with God if they come to God and say Save me I am thine God will answer I am thine I will save thee 2. If when we come to God we must make a resignment of our selves to God and acknowledg we are not our own but his Then we learn secondly that the sins of a praying people are the greatest sins there be no sins that are so out of measure sinful as the sins of those that pray and pray most Hath God made thee as a Prince with himself hath God set open a door that thou mayst have access to him hath he given thee leave in the day of thy straits to pour out thy Soul hast thou in the midst of those mercies in the sense of the sweetness of those visions said to God that thou art his and hast thou departed from him hast thou given to him a withdrawing shoulder as it 's said of them This sin is of the highest nature for it is a renewed Apostacy Those that are without God and Christ in the world are Apostates but it is by one Apostacy it is a continued act wherein they are held but now thou art gone out from God after thou hadst returned to him thou hast gone from the unspeakable refreshings of the Father of mercies and hast offered violence to the many engagements which thou hast layd yea which they have layd upon thy Soul thou hast broken the bonds of them all Sins after Resignation and after the matter of difference is taken up between God and the Creature are not to be easily passed over they are the worst sins Remember your selves as many as have known Jesus Christ when you said to God that you would walk with him did you mean it And hast thou fallen from the truth into a lye The world many times come to God and say many good words that they will be his but as it 's said of them in Psal 78.36 They flattered with their lips and lyed with their tongues their hearts were not stedfast in the Covenant with their God They minded no such thing but thou didst and therefore boundst thy self more thou didst intend to be bound When thou engagedst thy self to God thou didst it upon the greatest reason through the enforcement of the highest Arguments thou feltst the power of God conquering and subduing thee and thou yieldedst thy self to be his for ever And remember how often thou hast said this to God Is not the voyce of thy Soul still in his ears Doth not he remember the language thou hast uttered And after thou hast said it again and again that thou wouldst do no more so after thou hast said Thou art and shalt be my God for thee to draw back
perish Whose hope shall be cut off c. Though the marrow be fresh in thy bones and thou be in the vigor of thy youth though all be green and flourishing about thee yet thou art but like the flag without water and the rush without mire in a withering dying and wasting condition though at present thou please thy self in beholding thine own greenness so are the paths of all that forget God Therefore it 's good to consider of it betime Psal 9.17 David saith God will turn all that forget him into Hell Sheol The word signifies a state of death yea a depth of deaths Indeed to forget God is a deep sin and it brings deep death upon men that live in it that dare walk so boldly viewing every creature and minding every vanity and do not make it their work to mind God All the good you do shall be forgotten and all the evil you do shall be remembered and God will say to you one day I know you not I was a stranger to you upon Earth I could not have an eye from you but when your lazy idle spirits pleased and now out of my sight I 'le never own you nor look upon you more and this will be the case of all that forget God Having presented you with the Fault I shall now lay before you the Causes whence it is that men live so in a course of forgetfulness of God CHAP. VII Man wanders from God having lost the government of his spirit Thoughts of God suit not perverted Souls are above them and against them Satan lord of the imaginations and master of the affections in those which forget God 1. MEn have lost the regiment of themselves that government which God had put into their hands over themselves Man was created in a good state like a well ordered family where there are some in command and others under command some commanding and others commanded He made man upright saith Solomon Eccles 7.27 When is a thing right When it agrees with its Rule God and man were alike the Image of God was upon man What is the Image of God God is good and God is wise and so was man and this was the rightness of mans condition God made man right Aquin. all was in order the reason of man was subject to God and the spirit of man was subject to Reason Man had the command of himself that he could set his thoughts in order and send them out upon their proper work and errand and raise affections suitable to their objects and command their motion Now the case is altered 1 Thes 5.14 The Apostle speaking of some men among other terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls them unruly This may be the name of the whole state of man he is unruly like an Army routed where neither Commander nor Soldier are in their places so is man having swerved from his Rule The truth is the government is not utterly extinct but utterly perverted like a Change in a State where though there be an alteration in the frame and constitution of it yet there will be a Government still So here that government which man had over himself being perverted now that which is good is trampled upon and that which is evil is exalted Serving divers lusts and pleasures saith the Apostle Tit. 3.5 This is the state of man In Prov. 17.24 The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the Earth wandering up and down like masterless creatures God is forgotten and man hath lost the command of himself to set and hold his mind streightly in attendance upon God This is one Cause 2. Another is this God is not the object that suits them The eye is not pleased therefore it withdraws What is in God is above man Man was created in a state of obedience to God and communion with him but now is sunk into such a state of darkness and depravation that what was his life is now too high for him that as our bodies cannot live in the ayr so the understandings of men cannot now feed upon God who is their proper bread and is so indeed to those who are delivered from this polluted and defiled perverted and impotent state As beasts take no pleasure in beholding heaps of gold and rich cabinets of precious Jewels which are excellent and glorious in the eyes of men because they suit not with their condition So the eye of a man is not taken with beholding God though he be good beyond all expression even he that made and keeps all good in Heaven and in Earth the blessed Fountain of all because there is now an unsuitableness between this excellency that is in God and the present state of man that as the best food in the world will not please a sick stomack so neither will this Angels food go down with men as Solomon in Prov. 24. saith Wisdom is too high for a fool Wisdom whether he means the actions that are to be governed by wisdom or the dictates and rules of wisdom every thing of wisdom is too high for a fool Creatures cannot go higher then their appointed and natural station A fish in the water enjoys it self but put it in another element it dyes presently Men are naturally of that constitution and frame that they cannot live but on low things they cannot live above What is the life of a Saint is death to the world to rise toward God is the resurrection of their spirits and the elevation of all their life but its death and destruction to natural men And they are not only averse to this because there is in God that which is above them but that which is against them What dreadful apprehensions hath a man that looks upon the Power and Wisdom of God his Eternity Omniscience c. These are visions that fright him and strike his heart through like a dart This God is holy therefore he will destroy me and there is no escaping because he is Omnipotent and Omniscient There is in the nature of man a necessary motion that it puts it self upon flight from every thing which it conceives to be hurtful it will not endure a cohabitation with what is contrary to it Who can dwell with everlasting burnings God is a consuming Fire to the world and their thoughts and apprehensions take fire at the remembrance of him and scorch their Souls and they cannot endure it It 's a great pain for a man to be where he would not Wo is me saith David that I dwell in Meshech It 's a perpetual dis-rest to a man when the place of his abode displeaseth him Though a thing be never so good yet if a man be sunk out of that state wherein formerly he had a sweet enjoyment of it it delights not Bury her out of my sight saith Abraham of his wife when she was dead Though he loved her dearly while she was living yet when she was dead bury her out of my
contained and kept within his compass and not like water let out of a vessel that runs hither and thither and is lost but kept within its bounds There is a contentment from the object the thing we enjoy as when that doth fully answer our expectation but that is not thank-worthy when a man hath what his heart desires when nothing is wanting there not to quarrel is no great vertue But it 's a Contentment that ariseth from Reason and Judgment when though a mans condition be not so pleasing yet in respect of him by whom he is disposed and in respect of the end of it and in respect of the ingredients wherewith God mingles his state he is at rest Not that this requires an excluding of all desire to have his state otherwise or an excluding of all grief under the sense of any evil of a mans condition but that the heart run not inordinately and impetuously with desires after change when it is not well with us nor are we dejected and sowred in our spirits because it is ill with us When Christ was near unto death and that Cup ready to be reached into his hand he had a desire to escape it and vented his desire in prayer If it be possible let this Cup pass from me But as it was the glory of Jesus Christ to submit to his Fathers Will so here is the excellency of Contentment in a Christian when though he can truly say and may say My case is hard and there is much in it to afflict nature yet I will lay my hand upon my mouth that I offend not with my tongue I will lie quietly under the Hand and Will of God That 's one Branch of our Willingness to be disposed by God to be contented in every state wherein God sets us and he that understands not this hath not yet known God nor seen him I mean he that doth not this nor can do it is a stranger to God 2. A second Branch of being willing to be at Gods disposing is an indifferency of mind in respect of any possible change whereunto we are called according to the Wisdom and Will of God to be willing to be changed and poured as water from vessel to vessel according to the Will of God You shall find an eminent example of this in David 2 Sam. 15.25 When Zadock was by the Ark the King said to him Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me hither again and shew me both it and his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him do with me as seemeth him good This must be the language of every spirit that doth own God as his Soveraign to whom he hath subjected himself What are those that are the people of God but as sheep before the Shepherd that must change their pasture at their Shepherds will and wisdom What are they but as Soldiers that must march hither and thither as they are cammanded or as vessels in the house that stand to be filled or emptied according to pleasure or as servants that must go and come as they are bid and not to stay in any place at their wills There are two things contrary to this frame of spirit which must be looked to and taken heed of 1. The first is An eager and over-vehement prosecution after any good that we want any thing that we would have or be in this world as it was with Rachel Give me children or else I dye The Soul that runs out thus after any thing in this present world is a Soul without bounds hath cast off God denyed his Soveraignty Authority and Command over him 2. A second thing that is contrary to this is an obstinate cleaving or holding to any state or condition in the world be it never so amiable sweet or suitable to our desires To hold this fast and not to be willing to go out of it when God bids us is to deny God it is not to own God in his power of disposing us according to his Will We must endeavor and it must be in our measure with us as it was with Abraham Abraham was at ease Well saith God Get thee out from thy fathers house and from thy Country do as I bid thee leave all and go to a Land which thou hast not seen or known and Abraham went There are some that in the midst of their enjoyments are as men in chains they are married and cannot endure to think of a divorce from that state it 's death to them to think of a change To be brought into disgrace after honor and after the sweetness of freedom to be brought into bondage they cannot brook it The Prophet Habakkuk in Chap. 2.6 speaks of some that lade themselves with thick clay What 's the reason that the treasures of this world are compared to thick clay Because when men get into the possession of them they commonly stick fast as men in the mire But if thou stick fast in the Creature thou art separated from the Creator if thine heart be in conjunction and a state of confederacy and agreement with any things in this world thou art at odds with God and hast shaken hands with him This is the first thing which was propounded to be spoken of What Resignation of our selves to God is CHAP. III. Resignation necessary in Prayer Prayer without it hath no truth in it is non-sence and imposeth upon God absurdly The true Advantage of a spirit of Resignation as to Prayer 2. THe second thing is Why we must do this when we come to pray Consider If you come to God to ask any thing at his hands which you would enjoy and of which you have great necessity without such a disposition and frame of spirit as you have heard you pray but not in truth there is no truth in your recourse to God thine action is false treacherous and deceitful there is no truth in it For consider when you come to God you come with a professed sense of your indigence and your dependance upon God if you did not want you would not ask you come with a professed sense of the all-sufficiency of God and his dominion over you and you come and say Lord and great God and Maker of the World c. Now what false dealing is this with God to call him Lord and not yield obedience to him What absurd dealing is this with the holy One the true God the only wise God to come in this fashion to him It is true he is near to those that call upon him but it is to those that call upon him in truth Psal 145.18 You have an example of such false dealing with God in Psal 78.36 And they remembered God their Rock and the high God their Redeemer nevertheless they flattered him with their mouths and lyed to him with their tongues for their heart
and start aside it 's a sin that wants a name it 's so haynous in its kind so horrid in its nature What high injustice is this in thee to arrogate a liberty to thy self whē thou hast so solemnly parted with it into his hands whose it was Nay was it not after thou hadst experience of walking in thine own ways Didst thou not know what sin meant It 's an argument the Apostle useth Colos 3.6 Wherein you sometimes walked You know what it is to be in your sins Did you not in the day of your sorrow say in your heart I will go to God again Oh! how happy was it when I was with him How sweet were those days wherein I walked under the Government of Jesus Christ and was blessed with the constant communication of the counsel of the Spirit of life and peace Was not that thy speech which was the Churches Hos 2.7 I 'le go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now Now after all this to sin against God to indulge your selves to take a liberty and freedom to transgress against him to whom you have so engaged your selves what a breaking of heart what shame of face should this be When now thou hast put weakness upon the strongest bonds what hast thou said Christ is nothing of no account there is more in my sins then in Christ there is more in the satisfaction of my own desires then in the enjoyment of Jesus Christ for thou hast left one for the other Thou didst think it was best when thou didst give thy self to him and what injury hast thou done to the great and holy one Thou hast set light by him to whom to be given thou thoughtst it thy happiness thou thoughtst it wonderful mercy that he would enter into a new Contract with thee thou thoughtst that should be an everlasting bond of Love upon thy Soul that God should again take thee a Run-away that he should again admit thee a Rebel and a Traytor and hast thou forgotten all this Is God after all this to be set by that thou canst walk so and do as thou list Therefore upon all Considerations the sins of those that are much with God are greatest because upon their conversings parlies and treaties that they hold with God still they acknowledg themselves not to be their own but his such therefore shew not the candor and sincerity of a right spirit It 's a sad demonstration of a heart not under the power of divine Love and very much alienated from God that upon sight of such miscarriages is not broken and melted I do as much wonder at the spirit and doctrine of some men as at any thing in the world that are lifting the heads of Christians above all sorrow that would absent them from all mourning that would have them to be all joy Poor men their language is unnatural They must mourn and cannot but mourn if their hearts be right He that knows and loves God cannot but feel the pain and burden of offences against him It 's as impossible that Nature should cease to feel the smart of stripes and wounds as that a spirit filled with or acted by divine Love should not feel the wounds and wrongs that it offers to his Maker Hezekiah shewed indeed his frailty 2 Chron. 32.26 But notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart That notwithstanding is a word to be observed When a mans heart waxeth proud before God and he can lift up himself and transgress with an high hand when the heart glories in any thing and by the brightness of other things a darkness is cast upon the spirit towards God when this man comes to be humbled it 's a great thing Hezekiah was in such a case as this yet notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself Vse 3 We may further improve this Truth by way of Exhortation partly to those that yet have not given themselves up to God that have not said in truth I am thine and partly to those that have done it There is a generation of men that are under no bonds to God they acknowledg him not that are free from righteousness as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.20 They have not so much many of them as felt the breakings of God and those contentions whereby he strives with their unkindness and frowardness they never so much as came to debate the matter or treat with God about this great business whether they should be his or no but live at peradventures and are at their own swinge walking after the will of the mind and of the flesh as the Apostle speaks There is another sort that have felt many tuggings of God upon them God hath been hammering the matter upon them but they have stood it out sometimes he hath brought them upon their knees and to tears nay to self-judging to condemn themselves in his presence sometimes they have cryed and roared in the presence of God such wretches there are in the world which have out-lived the workings of the power of God upon their spirits as those of whom it is said Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall no longer strive with man God spoke of that evil and wretched world that though he had striven not only by the preaching of Noah and of the Ark which was a very loud Sermon but also with his Spirit for there is no generation of men that are ever free from those contests of God but the light that is in them hath pleaded Gods cause against their wickedness and lusts Well saith God now I see they have stood out all this while my Spirit shall no longer strive with man Let them alone as he said concerning Ephraim Hos 13. The Apostles language 2 Cor. 10.5 besides many other Scriptures supposeth that there is often a fight in our Souls against God Bringing every thought of the heart into obedience That word bringing into obedience signifies a taking of the spirit of man as with a sword or spear God comes and arms himself against men and when he comes thus in power they yield themselves to him and they are blessed But there are such that always stand out that resist the Holy Ghost as those stiff-necked Jews in Acts 7. Or if they yield yet not in sincerity not in truth but as it 's said Jer. 3.10 Yet for all this her treacherous Sister did not turn to me with the whole heart but feignedly or in falshood Now concerning these persons I shall say but very few words Canst thou come to God with such a spirit as this What state art thou in O man Thou must not thou canst not forbear praying At one time or other the worst in the world lift up their eyes and hearts to their Maker The very Heathens do not cannot withhold from this If not the light that is in men yet their straits and afflictions will cause them to come as Petitioners to God and wilt thou come to God
patience that should humble us and forward the work when we come to resign our selves because we were before his Let me shut up all with this Exhortation That when you have been with God and made this acknowledgment that you are his and have dealt in truth with God and when God hath shew'd you the mercy you came for now stand fast in your own word and perform it break not your word with him to whom you have thus engag'd your selves If you mind you may have a true description of your own spirits you shall see the right face of them upon change of seasons Hast thou been a begger in the day of thy distress Art thou enlarged Is the mercy come Now observe thy spirit now see what frame thy spirit is in towards God when thy way is made smooth and storms are layd and thou art at rest Observe it Men are very apt to promise in a day of trouble Oh upon a sick bed if God would restore me I would walk more exactly with him in a day of fear what is more common then to say so And as in Deut. 27. when they heard the Word of God repeated to them they shut up all with a professed willingness to submit and when the Curse was read all the people said Amen so be it but it was not so In 2 Chron. 12. you have that wicked King coming to God crouching before God and offering himself before him but it was not done effectually what ever thoughts he had at that time that he would be the Lords they went off again Men come to God by the enforcement of distress and say much but are the same afterwards they take up new words but their hearts are what they were before Jer. 2.20 I have planted thee a noble vine I have broken the yoke and burst the bonds thou saidst I will not transgress But what was the temper and frame what was the spirit of this people indeed When under every high hill and every green tree thou playest the harlot She had a whorish and a wicked spirit even then when she said to God I 'le not transgress So in 2 Chron. 34.29 you see what a fair appearance there was Josiah being stir'd in spirit to think that the Lord God should be so far out of sight and mind and knowledg and knowing what danger they were in because of neglecting the Commandment of God He humbled himself and the people joyned with him and engaged themselves unto God and there was great joy and alacrity among them and there was such an appearance such a Passover as never had been Notwithstanding at Chap. 26.16 it 's said that they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Word and misused his Prophets So false are the hearts of men It concerns you therefore to look to your intentions in this thing Consider That the word is gone out of thy mouth thou hast promised to God that thou wilt be his if thou hast not done it formally thou hast done it virtually There is of the nature of a promise in all prayers No man can come to God as a petitioner but he comes with an acknowledgment of him as his Lord therefore having promised thou oughtst to stand to it a promise binds always but chiefly in such cases as these 1. Where the thing we promised was due before it was promised so was this if thou hast said thou wouldst give thy self to God that was due before 2. Where the performance of the promise brings no loss or detriment if thou fulfil thy promise thou losest not by it thou partest with nothing that will do thee good in that thou thy self becomest the Lords it is thy perfection and thy happiness it is a coming to the very state of Angels No creature can possibly be happy but in a subordination to him that is the supream God blessed for ever Having promised therefore make good thy word 2. Consider That by being with God and having obtained the things you sought for you have now an advantage to walk as the Lords to make good your word Partly because your way is enlarged It 's a hard thing to walk with God in ways full of bryars and thorns it 's hard to walk through Seas of blood and mighty storms and tempests But now when God smooths thy way and removes thy fears and gives thy spirit more composedness it 's a mighty advantage in thy hand and therefore to be improved David was of this spirit Psal 119.32 I will run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart The meaning is Fears and sorrows compress and burden me and make me walk heavily as a man under a weight but if thou wilt scatter these clouds and deliver me from these straits and comfort my Soul if thou wilt cheer refresh and enlarge me then I will run thy ways I 'le not only walk in them but walk with all alacrity and celerity I entered upon these words when the sword was upon the march and fear was upon us terribly Hath God appeared delivered and saved you yea are the clouds of blood scattered and fallen upon the heads of our enemies You have the desire of your Souls the bryars are removed your way is plain now walk with God fulfil your word to him to whom you have given up your selves This advantage also you have from the greatness of the mercy Great mercies do awaken the Soul renew refresh and enliven the Souls of men Now if God hath put thee upon the wing defer not but now up and be doing pay thy vows before thy heart grow cold It is a great thing to lose impressions when they are lost they are hardly regained David lay long before he was the same that he was before his fall it cost him much pains It may be if thou grow cold again that God will heat thee in a fiery furnace He hath ways enough to visit upon thee the neglects of the seasons of grace You may see how he expresseth himself in anger against his people Hos 7.13 Wo to thee for thou hast fled from me destruction unto thee because thou hast transgressed against me though I have redeemed them they have spoken lyes against me though I have strengthened their arm yet they have imagined evil against me When a people are bound by mercies and yet obey not it displeaseth God was very angry with Hezekiah for what because he did not return according to the mercies he had received Surely the mercy you have received is great it must be measured by years and ages it is not one mercy but a multitude a heap of mercies Look how many mischiefs the wrath of malicious men would have heaped upon you look how many evils your own fearing hearts could devise and suggest so many mercies are in this one If therefore thou hast sought God and God hath heard thee remember when thou didst come to God thou didst come upon such terms not to