a great while after in times of want and scarcity And know this Christians you may have ocasion to make use of every Truth you have heard before you dye at one time or other even those which while you hear them may seem less useful To a man in prosperity the Doctrine of Sufferings and Afflictons may hot seem so seasonable or to one in adversity to press the duties of one in a prosperous state but yet these may come to be of great advantage to you The Sermons you have heard many years since and which you hear this day may prove food to your souls many years hence Isa 42 23. Who is among you that hears for the time to come Oh Christians do you labour to be such hearers Mot. 2. Remember how you have received remember old Truths former Sermons Sabbaths Sacraments for the time may come and you know not how soon when you may have little else to live upon but the old store even what you have formerly received and heard You may be cut short in your spiritual opportunities you may have few at least comparatively of those helps you have in joyed or injoy Ordinances in such a way as may not yeeld satisfaction to your consciences and then the remembrance of what you have received and what communion with God you have enjoyed will be very precious Time may come bear with the expression when you may have little but cold dishes to feed upon In a time of scarcity when there is little corn to be reaped it is some comfort to have it in the barn or store-house The corn Joseph laid up in years of plenty helped to preserve himself and whole family yea all the land of Egypt And if you be careful to remember how you have received and heard you may be able to feed your selves and others in a time of scarcity of spiritual opportunities if for your and others sins God should bring it on you Let me therefore leave the counsel in the Text with you Go to the old store Feed on cold meat when you may want warm Warm it again on your hearts by meditation and a practical remembrance of the Word Those things which when you had full meals and full stomachs you lightly esteemed when your souls are hungry and soul-provision is scarce your commons short then you may find and tast much sweetness in them Mot. 3. A third Motive to excite you to remember how you have received and heard is this Consider that God remembers how you have received and heard and he will make you remember it also and call you to an accâ—uâ—t for the things you have received and heard He remembers all the Truths that have been delivered to yoâ— the Warnings you have had the Sermons you have neard the Sacraments you have received and all other means of Grace you have injoyed though you forget them he remembers how plainly purely plen â—â—ully and with what affection you have received th â— And consider further God will call you to accouâ—â— or all these things what good you have got by them what inprovement you have made of them â—hether you have been brought to Repentance and â—â—ith by them and what progress in Faith and Holiâ—â—â—â— you who profess your selves to be Saints have m â—e under them Oh therefore seeing God remembers these do you also remember them 4. A fourth Motive to excite you to this Duty of remeâ—bring how you have received and heard is Consider the great benefit and usefulness of this remembrance it will be of very great use and advantage to your souls This I shall somewhat largely insist on And the particulars I shall hint under this head may serve hot onely as Motives to excite you to the practice of this duty but also as Directions to direct you what use you should make of the Truths and Ordinances you have formerly received The first Benefit of remembring how you have received and heard is That it will by the blessing of God upon it prove a choice Antidote against Errors in Doctrine and also against corruptions in the Worship of God if ever any of these come to be vented among you or obtruded and imposed upon you If Doctrines come to be preached that tend to the beating down the power of Godliness or practice of holiness or that prejudice the free Grace of God in Election or Justification crying up conditional Decrees upon foresight of Faith or Works or perseverance or advancing Works in the business of Justification or such Doctrines as advance the power of Nature the freedom of mans will assert that true Believers may finally and totally fall from Grace the remembrance of what you have received and heard with the experience of the Work of God in your own hearts you who are Saints will antidote you against and help you to confute these and such like false doctrines And teach you to say We have not so learned Christ The reason why men slide into new errors or old ones new vampt is because they let slip old truths if you forget truths you have heard you lose your touchstone to try Doctrines by and then you may be easily cheated with counterfeit mettal instead of Gold You will be like a Ship that hath lost its Anchor or Compass you will goe you know not whither and be in danger of splitting upon the Rocks And this will also antidote you against humane inventions mingled with and obtruded on men in the Worship of God You will be able to say We have not so learned to Worship God and teach you to reason Did Christ or his Apostles appoint Ordinances to be thus or thus dispensed Labour therfore to remember and make this use of your remembrance how you have received and heard 2. A second use or benefit of remembring how you have received and heard is this It will be by God's blessing a notable means to shame and humble you for all your uneven unworthy and unsutable walking unto those savory Truths and precious Ordinances you have been partakers of It will make you ashamed of your deadness dulness formality in Duties and declinings and decaies in Grace And you should endeavour thus to improve your remembrance of former receits of mercy It will make you say to your souls Hath my conversation been sutable to Divine Truths Have I followed the directions and taken the warnings God hath given me Oh what a vile sinful wretch have I been And am I to walk so unanswerably to the Grace of God in the Gospel It will make you blush when you remember how plainly purely powerfully plentifully Ordinances have been dispensed to you To think Oh that I have had so impure a heart and life under such pure Ordinances that there hath been no more of the power of Godliness expressed in my conversation when I have lived under such powerful Administrations that I have brought forth so little fruit that I have been and am no more fat and
they go Gen. 28.12.13 We read Ruth 4.5 At what time the Kinsman must have the inheritance he must have it at the hand of Ruth to allude hereto You can never inherit the Blessing unless you be espoused to Christ Ye shall not see my face said Joseph except your brother be with you So here no seeing the face of God with comfort nor prayer heard nor person accepted nor sin pardoned no souls reconciled no Blessing obtained but through Christ Prayers are but as howlings if they be not put up in the Name of Christ the only Mediator Read Heb. 12.18 c. you shall find the misery of souls without Christ but their happiness being come to the Mediator of the New-Testament Out of Christ we have to do with God from Mount Sinai in thunderings and lightnings in tempest and terrible voices but through Christ from Mount Sion whence better things are spoken than Abels blood spake So Ephes 2.12 c. Without Christ and afar off without God having no hope strangers to the promise But through Christ made nigh reconciled fellow-citizens with the Saints of the household of God the partition-wall broken down he is our peace God is a terrible Judg a consuming Fire to men out of Christ but in him a Gracious Father reconciling this world to himself not imputing iniquities Ephes 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings But how or for whose sake Why in Christ only on his account In him we have redemption the remssion of sin ver 7. God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Ephes 4.32 Jesus Christ is the Light of the world without which darkness horrour and perpetual confusion had been upon all mankind the onely Foundation to stand against Hell gates no other Name given whereby we can be saved The way by which we draw near to God with hope to speed is consecrated through his blood the grand encouragements we have in our addresses to God are Christ's Merit and Mediation Jesus Christ is the only door at which God giveth his dole of Blessings and by which we can enter into the Fathers presence and favour He is the gate of Heaven He is all in all My dear People The time of my departure from you not voluntary but constrained seemeth now at hand possibly I am speaking the words of a dying man and may see your faces no more in this place 't is my comfort I have not kept back any thing that is profitable for you nor shunned to declare to you all the Counsel of God But have to my ability taught you to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded for so runs my Commission Mat. 28.20 And let me tell you I dare not exceed knowing that terrible Commination Deut. 18.20 The Prophet that shall presume to speak a word in my Name which I have not commanded him to speak even that Prophet shall die And Mat. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and teach men so he shall be called the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven The Scripture tels me what things I must teach and exhort And if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting c. 1 Tim. 6.1 2. Could I find the things which it is probable are shutting the mouths of many hundreds of learned consciencious Ministers expressed in or by good consequence to be drawn from the Scriptures which I am sure are sufficient to furnish the Man of God throughly to every good work 2 Tim. 3.17 I would not for a World divest my self of the Liberty of my Ministry nor bereave my self my wife and little ones of our Livelihood nay I would willingly practise them and teach you so to to I this day appeal to the most High with the Prophet Jer. 17.16 As for me I have not hastened from being a Pastor to follow thee O Lord thou knowest Most gladly would I have continued preaching Christ Jesus the Lord furthering your Faith and Joy and driving on the great Marriage between Christ and your Souls but sure I am my Lord needeth not my sinning to carry on his Work amongst you neither will I charge him with unfaithfulness nor his Word with deficiency in pretending to mine own faithfulness in the Ministerial Function but I 'le patiently commit my self to Him that judgeth righteously endeavouring to follow his steps who became poor that we might be made rich and suffered greater things for me than I can do for him On Him I desire to be found waiting and keeping his Way who hath the giving of the Opening of the Mouth and is thereby known to be the Lord Ezek. 29.21 He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth can if he please restore our Liberties and pleasant things if not here am I let him do what is good in his fight The Will of the Lord be done Why should I part with you repining or murmuring at a churlish unkind World whilst it is evident the World hated him before it hated us and my Text tels us that Christ blessed his Disciples at his parting and Ascension Now the Lord Christ who went to Heaven blessing bless you this day with the best of Blessings the sure Mercies of David and lasting Benefits of the everlasting Covenant The Lord Jesus the good Shepherd who gave his Life for the Sheep be your Shepherd and cause showers of Blessings from Heaven on your Souls Bodies Children Families and Estates And God even the Father for Christ's sake grant that you and I who are this day parting with grieved hearts may at last meet with joy having all tears wiped from our eyes and every sad thought taken from our hearts to be ever with the Lord at whose right-hand are pleasures for evermore And God the holy Ghost abide with you and me to guide us into Truth to stablish us in the Truth and comfort our hearts unto the end of the world The Lord be with you all And are we parting Suffer I beseech you this word of Exhortation In the last day that great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cryed If any man thirst let him come to me and drink John 7.37 The Apostle at Troas ready to depart the morrow preached long at his parting with the Elders of the Church of Ephesus who must see his face no more how fervently did he preach and pray Acts 20. Two of Luthers wishes were That he might have seen Christ in the flesh and have heard Paul preach But my Brethren what tongue can express the worth of their Farewel-Sermons Though I be a weak earthen vessel a reed shaken with the wind yet shall not my mouth be open and my heart enlarged when I must preach to you no more And am I leaving you My Beloved and longed-for how gladly would
the occasion of a Sermon that enlightened me quickened me This breach brought me to Christ acquainted me with my necessity of interest in Christ I am not of the temper of that Emperour who said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I dye let the Earth be burned But O that my Civil Death might minister occasion of your Spiritual and Eternal Life O that this divorcing day betwixt you and me might be the day of your Espousals to Christ Dying David bespeaketh Solomon I go the way of all the Earth Keep the charge of the Lord thy God that thou mayest prosper 1 Kings 2.1 2 3 4. My loving People I am this day going the way of all that will live godly in Christ Jesus the way of tribulation I charge you keep the Lord's way as you expect any blessing and prosperity look for them only through Christ the Way the Truth and the Life I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge both quick and dead as the Apostle when his time of departure was at hand charged Timothy that ye rest not without Interest in Christ and I leave this Sermon as Joshua did the Pillar as a Memorial that I admonished and besought you to come to Christ and become his Servants O let not the Word I have spoken to keep my self pure from your blood condemn you in the day of Christ You cannot plead We were not bidden to the Wedding-Feast we were not called to Christ No if you be found out of Christ at that great day how will it torture you to consider How have we hated Instruction and have not obeyed the voice of our Teachers In vain may you wish O that we had the day of Grace once again Domine cur non modo c. said Augustine at his conversion Lord why not now an end of my filthiness So say I to you Why not now a parting with sin and closing with Christ Take these Considerations or Motives 1. The Lord Christ calleth you whilst we are testifying these things to you Whilst Noah was preparing the Ark Christ was preaching See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh from Heaven 2. Others who have had as great hindrances as you have followed Christ at his Call James and John Mat. 4 22. left the ship and their father immediatly and followed Christ neither enjoyments not imployments nor relations could hinder them Zacheus a rich man of low stature in a great press yea of a wicked Sect a Publican great obstacles yet he breaketh through all he runs and climeth to see Jesus If you come not to Christ you will be inexcusable 3. Let the Loveliness of Christ draw you he is the Rose of Sharon the Lilly of the Valley the bright and morning Star the Sun of Righteousness chiefest among ten thousands and altogether lovely O let his Fulness and Perfections win your hearts and attract your affections 4. Let the Love of Christ constrain you his condescending and dying for you to save you from everlasting death Will not such bonds of Love hold you 5. The Lord taketh exact notice how long your Teachers are labouring with you what means you have and what fruit appeareth These three years have I come seeking fruit Luke 13.7 6. You must shortly appear before the Judge to give account how you have profited by all the Sermons and Lectures you have heard c. 7. Now is the Ax laid at your roots Judgment begining at the house of God your Teachers ready to be removed into corners possibly you may go from Sea to Sea and not find that refreshing food for your souls nor those advantages which you have had Now therefore what mean you O sleepers are you set on fire round about and not lay it to heart Let the time past of your life suffice you to have been servants of sin It is high time for you to awake out of sleep and to follow Christ 8. If you will not come this day what if the Lord should write you Christless and swear in his wrath You shall never enter into his Rest nor tast of his Supper saying I would have purged you and ye were not purged never be purged dye in your sins he that is filthy let him be filthy still 9. Christ is willing to be yours if you will be his he will not reject you if you come you have as fair Encouragement to come as ever any had 10. They are very fair terms propounded Is it not fit you serve him if you expect him to save you that you obey him if you hope for his Salvation Had he bidden you do some great thing should you not have done it how much more when he requireth nothing but what is your reasonable service befitting you as his Creatures They are fair terms Repent and be conuerted that your sins may be blotted out Come to me and find rest Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Be faithful unto death and obtain the Crown of Life 11. And lastly Let your necessity drive you to Christ Is there but one Ark in the world to save you from drowning but one City of refuge to keep off Vengance from you O hie thither apace Is there but one day-Star to shine into your hearts but one Son of Righteousness with Healing under his wings but one Sacrifice for sin accepted But one Mediator betwixt God and Man the Man Christ Jesus O get interest in Him Oh! why do any of you linger and not hasten to this Zoar when Fire and Brimstone are so nigh so certain to all that reject Christ Oh! why do you draw back when drawing back is unto Perdition Know my Brethren these things as much concern you as ever any souls in the world what need have you of Christ to be your Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption without Him you are cursed captivated and condemned John 3.18.36 without Christ ye are deaf and dead poor and polluted and have no title to Heaven to the Promises nor any thing but sin and its wages Death Nay if you obey not whilest Christ calleth Come unto me you must with honour hear that other voice Depart ye cursed Those mine enemies that would not that I should rule over them bring forth and slay them before me Let me hint to you on what terms you must be in your coming to Christ 1. You must be divorced from your sins make sure you take off the heads of your dearest lusts 2. Disclaim all other Saviours besides Christ renounce confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 rest not in your outward priviledges nor performances but when you have done all you can say We are unprofitable servants 3. Rest not in a bare notion of Christ take heed lest you sit down with Fancy instead of Faith 4. Take a whole Christ Christ to rule you to teach to sanctifie you as well as save you 5. Give your selves wholly to Christ without reserve give him your ear open to his
the Apostles of Christ It hath been the design of Satan and the work of the corrupt hearts of men in all Ages to be making Additions to the Commands of Christ and to be mingling mens Inventions with the Institutions of Christ in matters of Worship Churches are very apt to degenerate from plain Spiritual Worship and the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ into a name to 〈◊〉 a meer outward form of Religion and a gay and pompous way of worshipping God such as may most please the flesh and fancy of men Now in such a case it is the duty of God's People to remember how they have received and heard They should remember that God hath said he will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.23 24. and what Christ hath said Mat. 15.3 10. and Mark 7.7 8 9. Reade these Scriptures at leisure This was Christ's Doctrine And when the Church was very much degenerated God bids them Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein Not the old paths of Custom Tradition the opinion and practice of forefathers but those wayes that are as old as your Bibles are as the Word of God and the Gospel is for these are the good old way Other wayes may be old but not good When things of mens devising are put upon men and crowded into God's Worship Christians should run to their Bibles and ask Was it so from the beginning Did Christ and his Apostles preach pray administer and receive Sacraments thus how did they appoint them to be dispensed Christians should account it wisdom enough to follow their direction and example Certainly they worshipped God decently yet they contented themselves with what they had received of the Lord without making additions of their own When any thing is obtruded upon God's People in matters of Worship they should try all things by the Word of God It is a saying of Cyprian to this purpose in an Epistle of his Si canalis aquam ducens subito deficiat nonne ad fontem pergitur c. If the Conduit-pipe or Cistern which was wont to give forth water plentifully suddenly stop do not men go to the Fountain to find out the cause whether the Fountain be dry or the veins stopped c. Sic â—â—portet facere Dei sacerdotes si in aliquo nutaverit aut vâ—â—â—llaverit veritas ad originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam traditionem revertamur c. Let us return to the Word and Gospel and Apostolical tradition that which is truly so called and can be proved from undisputable authority to be such This is a safe Rule and the way to keep Churches from corruption and rightly to reform them if they be in any thing corrupted 3. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from spiritual deadness to remember what they have received and heard for the directing of their practice and ordering of their conversations They should remember practical Truths the Commands Counsels Exhortations Directions they have found in and heard from the Word of God These should be had in everlasting remembrance They are to be remembred by Christians all their dayes and never to be forgotten Though some notions should through weakness slip out of your minds yet practical Truths should be written not in the dust but on your hearts as on marble engraven as with the point of a diamond never to be razed out Oh Beloved many many of these have you received and heard You have been pressed unto publick family secret relative duties you have been directed how you should hear reade pray confer receive Sacraments how you should carry your selves as Magistrates Ministers People Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants in commerce traffique and dealings with men Oh remember these things And especially if such times should come when you may not hear so much and often of these things as heretofore you have done 4. It is the duty of Christians to remember the reproofs and warnings against sin they have received and heard The remembrance of these will be a means to keeâ—â—ou from sin You have been many times warned to take heed of sin as a most venemous Serpent and the most inveterate enemy both of God and of your own souls God hath sent his Messengers rising early to warn you to take heed of all sin You have been warned to beware of Prophaness Sabbath-breaking Error Superstition yea and of Hypocrisie Formality Deadness Apostacy you should remember what and how you have received and heard so as to take heed of these and all other sins and especially when you shall be in an hour of temptation when these sins may be rise common and grow in fashion 5. It is the duty of Christians and a means both to keep and recover from deadness to remember the forewarnings they have had of God's Judgments You have been told of God's Judgments against sin in general and against such and such sins in particular You have been told of Afflictions Sufferings Persecutions that you must look for You have been told of these in the written Word and by Gods Ministers And you should especially remember these when you see Judgments coming or feel them already executed Remember those warnings in the Word of God John 16.1 2 3 4 33. Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 O Christians you have been forewarned that Error in Judgment Wantonness in Opinion and Practice under the Gospel loathing of Manna would bring a famine of the Word that decayes in and leaving of first Love would cause God to remove his Candlestick that deadness and formality would cause God to come as a thief in the night to take away the Gospel and all your precious things O therefore Christians when you see such Judgments coming or feel them upon you remember what and how you have received heard and this Remembrance will be a special means to bring you to Repentance 6. And lastly It is the duty of Christians 〈◊〉 â—emember the comforts they have received in and heard from the Word of God those grounds of comfort precious Cordials and strong Consolations you have read and heard to bear up your hearts under the sence of sin and apprehensions of God's wrath and in a time of dissertion and against the fierce and fiery assaults of Satan the strength of corruption weakness of grace difficulty of duty as also under afflictions from God and sufferings and persecutions from men This will be a means to keep the hearts and hopes of Christians alive in the saddest conditions they can be brought into It will be of great use in an evil day And thus I have shewed you what it is for the matter Christians are chiefly and especiallp to remember Secondly For the further explication of the duty in the Doctrine I come now to shew how for the 〈◊〉 Christians are to remember how they have received and heard And this is more expresly spoken of in the Text
will bear up you hearts under and fortifie them against all Sufferings and Persecutions you may meet with in the wayes and for the sake of Christ when you shall remember the warnings Christ hath given you John 16.1 2. and the grounds of comfort you have found in the Word of God Improve your remembrance of Truths for this end So much for the Motives to stir up to the practice of this duty in the Text. And these eight last particulars may serve also to direct you what use you should make of the remembrance of what and how you have received I shall proceed to add some few Directions to direct you how and after what manner you should remember what and how you have received 1. Direction Remember what and how you have received and heard Thankfully Oh be thankful Christians that you have enjoyed the Word and Ordinances of God so long and that with so much plainness power purity and plenty Though you should never enjoy them more yet you have cause to bless God that have enjoyed the Word Sacraments Ministers so long above not onely your desiâ—â—s but also your expectations Especially be you thankful that have received Christ and Grace through these that you have received Grace before you have lost any of the means of Grace that Christ and your souls have met before you and Ministers have parted 2. Direction Remember how you have received and heard Penitentially and sorrowfully 1. Penitentially and sorrowfudly That you prized and improved Truths and Ordinances no better got no more good by them grew no more in grace under them gained no more power against corruptions or ability to do and suffer by them while you did enjoy them 2. Remember how you have received sorrowfully if you have lost or should lose any of your opportunities When the Wayes of Sion mourn sure the Sons of Sion should mourn You should be sorrowful for the Solemn Assemblies the reproach of them should be a burden unto Christians You should remember your Gospel-enjoyments with tears as those Psal 137.1 2. even weep when you remember Sion As the Psalmist Psal 42.3 Chrstians in such a case should bewail the loss of Ordinances and of so many of God's Ministers 3. Christians should especially remember Gospel mercies Penitentially in the want of them when and that they by their sins have helped to sin them away by their unfruitful and unworthy walking Know Christians they are the sinnes of Ministers and People that stop the mouths of Ministers and deprive a People at any time of any of the tokens of God's presence You should in such a case and condition with sorrow of heart say we once enjoyed comfortable dayes of the Son of man but by our deadness spiritual wantoness and unfruitfulness we have now sinned them away 3. Direction Remember what and how you have received Affectionately and Practically It is not a meer notional but an affectionate and practical remembrance of Truths received and Ordinances enjoyed that I now press to Remember them with burning and inflamed hearts So remember Truths as to practise them to love Truth and to live in Truth and Ordinances so as to live up to them so as to have pure hearts answerable to pure Ordinances the power of Religion in your conversation sutable to powerful administrations Remember the Word of Truth to direct your practice even as a Compass to sail by in a troublesom Sea a dark night and as a copy to write after So remember what you have heard as to set on the practice of duties you have been exhorted to and directed in and to avoid the sins you have been warned against So remember as to improve your remembrance of Truths to those eight Uses before specified namely as an Antidote against error in Doctrine corruption in Worship to humble for keep from sin quicken to duty make you prize love pray for long after the Word for your comfort and support under Sufferings Having given you some Directions how you should remember what and how you have received and heard I shall now close this Doctrine by adding some Means and Helps to enable you to the performance of that duty I have been exhorting you to 1. A first Means or Help to enable to remember what you have received and heard is Labour after a sincere love to the Word Ordinances and Ministers of Christ Love Truth and you will the more easily remember it You will not suddenly or easily forget that you dearly love Affection is a very great help to Memory Receive Truth in your love and affection and then you will keep it in your minds and memories A man will remember what his mind and heart is set upon A special means to keep Truths in your heads is to labour that they may be engraven in your hearts Look upon the Word and Ordinances of God as your Treasure and you will be sure then at least practically to remember it Men scarcely forget where they have laid their Treasure or their Jewels though they may where they have laid things of lesser moment Love doth and will renew and revive the object loved in the mind and in the thoughts Affection to Divine Objects is the safest Lock and Key to secure Spiritual Treasures Psal 119.97 David loved the Law and then he could do no other but make it his meditation all the day long 2. A second help or means to enable you to remember what and how you have received and heard is Application to apply and appropriate Truths and Ordinances to your own souls Labour to insure your interest in Christ the Covenant of Grace and the great Truths of the Gospel and that will much further your remembring of them You will be careful to remember what you look on as your concernments Though men may forget others business they will hardly forget their own especially if they be matters of great concernment a matter wherein their whole estate is concerned or a matter of life and death And such are the things you have received and heard in the Gospel When you hear the Word say there God spoke to my soul Men forget truths because they are apt to put them off to others and not to look on themselves as as concerned in them Oh therefore look on thy soul as concerned in what thou hast heard and received and this will help thee to remember it 3. A third means to help you to remember what you have received and heard is Serious and frequent meditation and contemplation on what you have heard This is a great help to memory Divine meditation fixes Truths in the head and fastens them in the heart Luke 2.19 she kept those things because she pondered them Be therefore much in meditation 4. A fourth means to further your remembrance of what you have received and heard is Holy conference This Moses directs to as a means to keep the things of God in the heart Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. This
reason and manner of things except they may see things plainly they will not believe Yet there is no sound Christian but he believes all Divine Truth implicitely that is he believes the Scriptures to be most certainly true and all things therein contained though there are many things to be found there which he hath no distinct knowledge of I pray mistake me not I am not for a Popish implicite Faith a believing as the Church believes but for our giving an assent universally to all that God hath said As there is a general repentance and humiliation for unknown sins so a general implicite belief of unknown Truths And further the true Christian hath an explicite belief of all Fundamental necessary Truth He must first stedfastly believe ere he can sincerely make a profession of the Truth or chearfully suffer for it Again some are unresolved concerning the present Truth As the times vary so doth mens opposition against the Truth Sometimes one Truth mainly opposed and sometimes another Now it is of very great consequence to be setled in the Truth of the Season As the Apostle Peter sayes of those to whom he writes 2 Pet. 1.12 that they were established in the present Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. in the Truth of the Gospel Non tantum promissa sed reipsa exhibita as Beza Christ was the Truth and substance of those Types and Shadows under the Law but he was further off from them then he is from Beleivers under the Gospel Therefore those legal Types and Shadows give place the Body and Truth being come This is one sense given of that passage But there is another interpretation given of it which is to my present purpose established in the present Truth i. e. in that Truth which at this present time is most under debate As that was the great question of those dayes Whether the way of the Gospel the Christian Religion or Judaism was the true way And thus several ages have raised controversies about Religion In every age there is some special Truth which is as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Shiboleth a mark of distinction betwixt sound Professours and such as are spurious As v. g. this Truth That Jesus is the Christ was the tryal of men at first when the world stormed at him and at all that confest his Name Afterwards when Arrianism sprung up and prevailed in the world the Deity of Christ His being one in essence with the Father was the touch-stone whereby Professors were tried Where Arminianism is rife the point of special Free Grace becomes a main note of discovery Sometimes that false and absurd Opinion of Christ's real corporal presence in the Sacrament hath been cried up by men of corrupt minds as their great Diana and persecution set on foot and raised up against those who would not come over to that grosse conceit then those that were sound in the Faith would be at more then ordinary pains to be clear in the Doctrine of the Sacraments Where Popery prevails and mens traditions and inventions are set up in the room of and as of equal credit or profit with the Ordinances and Institutions of our Lord Christ the Authority and absolute perfection of the Sacred Scriptures together with the Glorious Offices of Jesus Christ are plainly struck at desperately undermined Which points if men be not clear and stedfast in when the temptation comes they will easily be carried away with the error of the Wicked It is nothing to condemn old errors that are laid in their graves long since while one is not established in the present Truth Either not to hold this or to hold it loosely is of very dangerous consequence Only I grant in controversies about lesser matters men of sober and pious spirits may be either at a stand in the dark or of different apprehensions Yet it is to be noted that where such are in the dark and doubtful they would gladly be informed heartily pray for satisfaction and would be as thankful for it if once obtained so what opinion such embrace or receive it is not because such an opinion would some way accord with their worldly interest but because in their apprehension it looks likest to Truth A sound Christian receives the Truth in the love of it and you need do no more to work him to the entertaining of any truth in Religion then only satisfy his judgment that it is a truth He receives not Divine Truths for self-ends or by-respects neither dare he out of respect to carnal self reject any Truth But for any to cherish doubts in their minds upon design that they might have something to say for their parting with the Truth when it is dangerous to hold on in the profession of it to adventue no farther to Sea then if a storm should come they might soon get to shore again to engage no further in the profession of the Truth then they might face about and make a fair retreat when this meets with opposition though the men of this world will judge it a point of Policy yet indeed it is an argument of base hypocrisie and treachery And such studied Scepticks in Religion are next neighbors to downright Atheists But a thin mud-wall betwixt them that is soon broken down But so much of halting in principle Again there is halting in practice Unevenness in conversation when that is not ordered aright Now it must be acknowledged the best men on earth walk not so evenly with God as they ought But here take a distinction or two There is an halting in some particular steps or acts and in ones ordinary in a continued course I say 1. There is an halting in some particular steps or acts This is incident to the Saints themselves Such as walk uprightly in the main yet at one time or other have their sinful slips Faithful Abraham halted before Abimelech Yea that Grace which seemed strongest even his Faith was sinew-shrunk sometimes As Job's patience was otherwhiles sinking under his burdens So David the man after God's own heart turned aside once shamefully in the matters of Vriah Peter halted with the Jews Gal. 2. He is there charged amongst others that he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foot it aright Thus the best of God's Saints have sometimes trod awry 2. But then there is halting in a continued course This is worse than the former The Faithful too oft meet with rubs in their way that for the present stop them but they recover themselves again and proceed on in a right course Whereas all natural men are quite upon a wrong byass Their heart is bent to backsliding from God As there is a phrase Isa 44.20 A deceived heart hath turned him aside Hypocrites have a corrupt byass within that is still drawing them aside into crooked paths And the double-minded man is unstable even in all his wayes Again there is an halting through infirmity from the remainders of corruption and a resolved deliberate
and perswading the things concerning the Kingdom of God Luke 24.32 Did not our hearts burn within us whilest he talked with us and opened unto us the Scriptures 5. The Lords Table where he feasteth his Friends as Cant. 5.1 and bids them welcome saying Eat O Friends Drink yea drink abundantly O Wel-beloved I appeal to the consciences of many sincere Christians when they have taken most pains with their own hearts to get them into frame against a Sacramental day when they have been deeply humbled in self-abhorrency broken in confessions with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered if God have not spoken peace to their souls Son daughter be of good chear thy sins be forgiven if their hearts have not danced for joy as David did before the Ark 6. The Lord's People his faithful Members are they thy friends thy companions of thy intimate society dost thou prefer them to others Psal 16.3 as the only excellent ones 119.63 I am companion to all that fear thee to all even to poor Saints as well as rich despised as well as honourable dost thou relieve them in want succour them in misery visit them if in Prison and therefore because they belong to Christ have much of Christ in them This he taketh kindly Mark 9.41 because they belong to Christ 7. Dost thou love the Day of Christ's appearing which though it be black and gloomy a terrible day to the proud and all ungodly enemies of Christ yet is it a day much to be desired by all that love the Lord who may rejoyce and lift up their heads in joyful hope of this Dayes approach their Redemption draweth nigh now is their Salvation nearer than when first they believed now shall the Elect receive the end of their Faith and Hope and Prayers and Tears and Sufferings 2 Tim. 4.8 It is made a character of the righteous that they love the appearing of Jesus Christ Heb. 5. ult Unto them that look for him Tit. 2.13 Looking for c. Not only looking for but hasting to the coming of the Day of God 2 Pet. 3.12 3d. Note is in Christ's own words John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments all one as well as another hard as well as easie John 15.14 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Abraham is called the Friend of God and his friendship was tried and approved by his obedience to those hard Commandments of leaving his Country and offering up his only son his son Isaac whom he loved The partial obedience of most people is no obedience at all argueth no sincere love to Christ 4. To suffer for Christ to part with our dearest interests for him argueth sincere love to him Jacob endured a hard service of seven years for Rachel which though long because hard yet seemed to him but as a few dayes for the love he had unto her Jonathan endured his father's displeasure for David whom he loved and was well content to part with his hope in the Kingdom because he loved him as his own soul The Martyrs Rev. 12.11 loved not their lives unto the death The Apostles went away rejoycing they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Christ If we dare not adventure to suffer the spoyling of our Goods dare not hazard the frown or displeasure of a Landlord dare not suffer the loss of Name or Reputation for Christ and his Gospel how dwelleth his Love in us 5. Who love the Lord in sincerity will not easily part with Him his Comforts his Graces his Presence and Power of his Ordinances Exod. 21.5 The servant that loved his master and the family would not go out free Love prevailed above Liberty which is very desirable To sincere Christians the absence of Christ is grievous how they mourn to part with Ordinances in which they have found sweet communion with Christ David in the Wilderness how he longed after God! Psal 63.1 With sorrow and weeping tears the Disciples take their leave of St. Paul Acts 20. ult when they were to see his face no more Those people that with those Jews Acts 13.50 expel Ministers out of their coasts or with them Luke 4.29 thrust Christ out of their City or with the more mannerly Gadarens who besought him to depart from them who can be content to suffer a famine of the Word rather than be at the cost of maintaining a Preaching-Minister they will not buy the Truth so dear who are well enough pleased to see their Ministers removed burning and shining Lights put under a bed or a bushel Teachers driven into corners do give a plain demonstration how little love they have to Jesus Christ it is evident they prefer their Swine their Gain their Money to Jesus Christ Now I beseech you Brethren take a little pains to try the truth of your Love to Christ It will be the greatest comfort to your souls of any thing in this world if upon good ground it may appear you are of them that love the Lord in sincerity What bonefires of joy may such Christians make in their hearts in the saddest times and darkest night of affliction Psal 112.4 To the upright ariseth light in darkness If you love Christ be sure ye are of him beloved Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me To you he will be a never-failing friend in trouble in sickness in all afflictions in life and death and at the day of Judgement to them he will pronounce that heart-chearing sentence Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. But if by the foregoing Evidences taken out of the Scriptures of Truth the contrary do appear and we be not found amongst Christs real Friends but however we may flatter our selves among his enemies and of them that hate Him then shall we from his mouth hear that heart-breaking doom Depart from me ye cursed c. I never knew you And if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha SERMON VI. Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity VVE come now to speak to the second Doctrine which is this Doct. 2. The best thing in the world is Grace not gifts parts which are Gratiae gratis datae of an inferiour nature which the Apostle elsewhere wisheth for his Corinthians 1 Cor. 14.5 But here being to take his leave of his People wisheth for them saving Grace such as Faith Remission of sins Fellowship with all Saints in the general Resurrection So Haimo in locum That Grace is so excellent a thing appeareth in this That the Apostle in all or most of his Epistles both begins and ends with it His first salutation in the entrance is Grace be unto you and Peace to which he sometimes addeth Mercy Grace to renew our nature Peace of conscience Mercy for pardon of sin If we find sin pardoned our persons accepted our natures altered then may we comfort our selves c. saith Dr. Sibbs In
Alas that I should be forc'd to speak a word which will be so little for the honor of the Gospel The Professors thereof in England are become flow to Duty and of a drowsie temper As to publick specious but little serious as to private perhaps constant but very cold as to secret I doubt very careless A Professor of late hath been little or nothing more than another man save only that he hath heard one Sermon in a week more Alas the very best are remiss and seem to be of the declining hand If a serious zealous Christian of another Church should demand of our Ministers concerning their people as the followers of John asked our Saviour concerning his Disciples Mat. 9.14 Why do we and the Professors of other Churches fast oft c. but your people fast not pray not sanctifie not the Sabbath to any purpose Is it not because the Bridegrooms are with them is it so indeed The day is just upon you that the Bridegrooms are taken away God grant that our curb may prove your spurt The less we must do for you the more do you for your selves and your Children 7. Call to remembrance old Truths repeat in your hearts and in your houses too what ye have formerly received chew upon the Word that you have formerly eaten Who knows but that God may have taken you off your meat your green and flourishing Pastures on purpose to make you find your cud On the precious Truths that at this day lye by the Professors of England as stale commodities or meats out of season verily one Sermon-less-year will make you make a meal of the most despiseable and homely dish that was ever set before you If you can but suck at old Truths with new appetites you will find fresh vertue coming from them and that Doctrine that was laid aside as having served one turn may be effectually taken up for many other good purposes in the soul It is said of our Saviours Disciples once and again in the Gospel after he himself was removed from them Then they remembred the words of Jesus his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them Joh. 2.22 and again Joh. 12.16 These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they c. The former part of this verse Ah! how true is it of this People of England Oh that the latter part may be found so to that this affliction may prove a rod to bring to remembrance both sins committed and Truths neglected that so the People of God may be truly humbled and the Gospel of God greatly furthered In a word What ever God shall reveal unto you as a pertinent Duty as a Duty of the season as a means to further the eternal Gospel of Christ that do In the mean time praying and purposing as Elihu sayes is meet Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more SERMON IX Ephes 6.18 With all Prayer DYing Israel gave his Children portions and to Joseph one above his Brethren Gen. 48.22 I would commend one or two parts above what some of your brethren are content to sit down with All Prayer Three are All as we speak of principles I. Publick Prayer Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the dayes of my Life to behold the Beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple He subjected himself to the appointed publick means and resolved his pursuance of them in case of hidings This Ordinance of Solemn Meetings appointed 1. That God's Name may be hallowed Psal 29.1 2. Give unto the Lord Glory worship Him in the Beauty of Holiness Glory must be given unto the Lord and we must alwayes look what way the Lord hath prescribed for it and that is in his own Ordinances Singularly is the glory of God's Power Wisdom Goodness c. born upon the shoulders of many this way God rides in triumph The Kings honour is in multitude of Subjects Blessed Parents have a full quiver Great Men have many poor at their gates At an Assize and Sessions Great Men have more cognizances than at private meetings and this for their honours When Men Women and Children lay siege to Heaven Haec vis grata Deo Tertul. It 's the Glory of God to be overcome by a multitude 2. Herein his People are regarded 1. Hopes given them of Audience Mat. 18.20 There 's a threefold cord in this one kind of Prayer strong to remove Evils and a powerful twist to pull down Blessings The Wayes sure will be mended when not only rich men with their teems but cottages with their scuttles come to the common work 2. The Godly quickned in the Duty Growing and thriving People have that language Zech. 8.21 Come let us go and Pray I 'l make one in Prayer O come let us worship 3. Others stir'd up When they see a King a Landlord a Master casting a copy for them 2 Chron. 6.12 Thus they are ready to reason See my concernments are like theirs but not my heart zeal love to God watchfulness preparation c. What a fool am I in the midst of the Congregation c. II. Private Prayer Josh 24.25 I and my House will serve the Lord. There should be right houshold-Order and Government according to the Rule amongst Christians Col. 4.1 Paul speaks to Masters of Families to carry like good Kings in the first verse and in the second minds them of their Priestly Office Continue in Prayer This Kind instituted First That his Name may be hallowed The wise and merciful God hath a quick Eye and a strong Shoulder as he knoweth so he profers to bear burdens wherewhith Families are loaden Cast your care on me for I care for you When we lock up our selves at night and have Prayer the Key at our girdles letting out our selves in the morning under his Providence we have him for our God and acknowledge him what he is Secondly Families regarded 1. A bar to domestick Discords There must necessarily be a studied intended right carriage in the family where Prayers are on foot 2. Servants and Children acquainted with their Duties framed to that Worship of God fitted for publick Prayer c. 3. Superiors in Families hereby are under rich Promises Gen. 18.17 4. Affaires of the whole sanctified 1 Tim. 4.5 I I. Secret Prayer Mat. 6.6 This kind instituted First That God's Name may be hallowed For the more self is set aside more way is made for God's Glory the Glory of his Omnisciency c. Secondly Particular regard of man 1. As to the matter of Prayer What an Hell the House would be but for the Closet If the wife heard the confessed vile miscarriages of the husband and â—he husband did but peep into the heart of the wife through an open window and so in other