Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come to us as the raine the latter and former raine unto the earth God will be to such as follow on to know him in his way as the former and latter raine is to the earth which without it is dry and barren but being refreshed therewith proves green and fruitfull Now alass persons when once they are gotten in Christs Fould think their work well nigh done but God knows it is but then begun their Labour before was but to come into the vineyard and there I am sure they must not be idle they are put there to work to be lights to others and shew forth Christs vertues and there God will prune them dresse them water them but it is that they may be fruitfull else they must be plucked up as cumberrers of the ground do not therefore think your work is now neer done for you are but now begun you are now entred into the warr listed under your Captain Christ Jesus and must till death continue fighting striving and overcoming that at last you may overcome therefore if you read prayed fasted watched weeped assembled much before now do it much more 2 Cor. 5. We labour or made a business of it to be accepted of God and saith the holy Apostle Peter writing to them which had obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ our Savour and had escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knewledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love for if these things be in you and abound they make you neither barren nor unfruitful But if they lack these things they are blind and cannot set a farr off but have forgotten they was purged from their old sins 2 Pet. 1. 2. One would think that persons that had gone thus farr as to obtain like precious faith with Gods elect and were purged from their old sins having escaped or were escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust might have well nigh done their work yet the holy Ghost here shews them that now their work is but begun and saith they must give All diligence so saint Paul to the Philipians Chap. 2. 12 My brethren as you have alwaies obeyed both in my presence absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling from all this we may learn that it s no being idle in Christs Vineyard if it cost us much diligence to get in it must cost us much more to keep in so I shall conclude this second Remedy with the holy Ghosts counsel to the Church of the Hebrews Chap. 6. 11 12. And we desire that every one of you marke it well do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that you be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Thirdly a third Remedy may be this that you would humbly and constantly endeavour to profit something in every assembly make it your care to be still doing or geting good then you are about your daies work content not your selves to come together from day to day and wait under the ministry going a way without gain but come to the assembly with sensibility of many things you yet want this will quicken your zeal ripen your expectation and prepare way for God that delights to be rich in giving to give you richly You will profit little though you want never so much if you are little sensible of your wants and God will give you little because you will be but capable to improve little for where the sence of want is low there the pulse God-ward will beat faintly and nothing more doth occasion this indifferency to assemble then seeing it amount to little in the profit and advantage to persons that are frequent in attending it makes them count better stay at home than be never the better for their meeting together Mal. 3. 14. You have said it is a vain thing to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have keept his ordinances and walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts They went not surely the right way to expect profit nor had their eye upon right profit but something they did propose to themselves in coming that they got not and so cries out it is in vain to serve him it is even thus among professors now if they see meetings come to little though the fault be only in themselves it ends to make them think lightly of assembling Who is there among you saith God Mal. 1. 10. that would shut the doors for naught or kindle a fire on my Altar for naught he that ploweth ploweth in hope he that soweth soweth in hope that is persons that do work expect and count upon fruit therefrom they will not do it for nothing and indeed it is but reasonable he that plants a vineyard should drink of the wine thereof great layings out preparing the heart for expectations of great returns and when persons do lay out count upon answerable returns as they righteously may God being pleased they should and this coming to pass tends much to their encouragement Object But some may say I have gone long to the assemblies and gone on purpose sensible of many wants and have counted upon to profit as here you direct me yet for al this I am ready to grow weary for I see it come to little I am still shalow in my understanding and weake in my memory Ans I shall answer this objection two ways first by praying you to enquire whether that little you do know and have learned you do put into practise What can ingage God more to teach you to know more than walking up to what you do know Oh thou that art named the house of Jacob is the spirit of the Lord straitned are these his doings Doth not my words do good to them that walks uprightly Mica 2. 7. see to it whether you live not much short of what you do know and if you find you do as some such defect must needs be the cause why you profit so little then you will see great reason God should not trust you with five Talents seeing you improve not two But secondly seeing you do profit little Be troubled much let it be your burthen while persons in assembling gain but little and are but little troubled they are not like to have their condition much mended To come often and profit little is very sad but to be unsensible of ones wants is much sadder Whereas on the contrary to be in want and so sensible of ones want that they go burthened up and down is the best way to get remedy when Joseph was in affliction some that were concerned to bear part
prepare you upon the most acceptable terms for future Glory is the true desire of Your unworthy Brother in the dear Concernments of the Gospel Francis Smith A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS Chap. 1. COntaining in it a Sign of Dying to Christ with three causes of its coming which being avoyded may serve as remedies against its ruin with profitable Objections answered 1 Chap. 2. Containing three Causes of weariness to spiritual Worship and the principal Reasons thereof 19 Chap. 3. Briefly shewing the cause of weariness to hear any truth often 23 Chap. 4. Briefly shewing how want of Charity in hearers causeth them dislike what is preached 27 Chap. 5. Containing five Causes of deceitfully thinking we know enough with four marks to know when we are under that deceit 31 Chap. 6. Containing in it Christians aptness through weakness to neglect coming to Christs Table with a short discription of offences that seemingly may hinder three Causes of this Decay 38 Chap. 7. Shewing the great decay to Christianity when mindless to prayer with a plâ—â—â— discovery of the Necessity Excellency Let Helps to prayer in sixteen particulars 46 Chap 8. Shewing the great Decay to Christianity when mindless to Reading and meditation in the holy Scriptures with six calamities very observable which Scripture Ignorance brings 54 Chap. 9. Shewing that an itching ear in Christians after Novelties bespeak them decaying to godliness with four Remedies against it 65 Chap. 10. Proving us dying to Christ when others sinnings are not our sorrowings with two Remedies against this Decay 69 Chap. 11. Shewing that unsavoury talking among Christians when they meet proves them earthly-minded with three Causes of this Decay 74 Chap. 12. Proving unpreparedness to hear the word of God a Sign of Dying to Christ with three sorts of hindrances which must be laid aside what must be our work before Hearing in Hearing and after Hearing 81 Chap. 13. Proving the state of such to be sad who assemble together more for fear of mans eye than Gods with four Discriptions how such may be known or know themselves with two Causes of this decay 89 Chap. 14. Shewing our state dying when we are more troubled at the decayes in our House than in Christs House with four marks to know when we are so dying 89 Chap. 15. Shewing that want of weeping in some when others of Christs Children with grief are stooping declares such to him a dying shewing also in four respects how we are to pitty with four Remedies against this decay 94 Cap. 16. Shewing that when the name of Christ credit to his Gospel is not so dear to us as personal sufferings wâ— are then surely on the dying hand that in estate body and life we ought to submit if called to suffering with four Causes of Decay here 99 Chap. 17. Shewing that sinning through impatience under Offences is a certain mark of deep decay with Objections Answers proving the degrees of anger and three Causes why Christians are impatient unto sin 104 Chap. 18. Proving those Christians to be almost dead that make it more their business to get the Form than the Power of Religion with its Causes and Remedies 111 Chap. 19. Containing in it a description of a decaying Christian by his light trouble at Miscarriages though known to Gods eye while kept from mans eye with two special Causes of this Decay 115 Chap. 20. Shewing the heart very bad when under faults it cannot bear plain dealing with three Causes of this badness 120 Chap. 21. Proving the condition of the rich as well as the poor to be a condition of trouble that whether it be common or more than ordinary to be answerable in prayer with a description of the different kinds of trouble with profitable Objections answered 125 Chap. 22. Containing in it an Assertion of the Causes of Affliction and that without great provocation God is not wont to afflict his people though provoked very unwilling to extremity With four Objections that seem to complain against this Doctrine Answered 132 Chap. 23. Proving those Christians under great Decay that pray more in Affliction to have it removed than sanctified with three Causes of this Decay 143 Chap. 24. Containing in it six Seasons in which Christians ought to humble themselves by fasting proving those under great decay that in times of calamity can find no necessity for fasting 152 Chap. 25. Containing in it the evil of Ignorance in not knowing wherefore Gods Rod is come nor what good it hath done with three Directions how to know when persons are under this Decay and three Remedies against it 159 Chap. 26. Shewing where sin takes its beginning and how by degrees if hearkned to it works ruin with six special marks how persons though pardoned may know when God will suffer them to fall into sin anew 164 Chap. 27. Shewing Satans way by which he gets in our day most advantage upon Churches and a plain discovery of the first rise of the Quakers shewing also the great Law of Edification to be preferred in all Doctrine with Cautions to such as live out of all Church way 177 Chap. 28. Shewing the necessity of humble waiting and confident depending upon the holy Spirit to help in the great work of mortification the necessity whereof is shewed in seven particulars with six directions how to get and keep this holy Spirit 189 Chap. 29. Treating of Spiritual Ignorance of our everlasting condition and five Scriptures tending to reducement from carnal security and three special Causes of such a damning Decay 205 Chap. 30. Shewing the miserable estate of such as after longer acquaintance with Christ are less in love to him with six Causes of this Decay 218 SIGNS OF A Living and Growing CHRISTIAN SIGN I. VVHen thy chief Delight is with the Saints epecially them that excel in virtue SIGN II. When the smites of the Righteous are not a burthen to thee thou canst hear of thy faults with affected attention SIGN III. When Jesus Christ in the midst of temptation is more to thee than all the World SIGN IV. When thou matterest not how dear it cost thee so thou make Corruption weary SIGN V. When increase of time in the use of Gods Ordinances works increase of affection to them SIGN VI. When length of time in Christs House works in thy heart increase of hatred to all sin SIGN VII When thou carriest about with thee a constant jealousie over thy heart proving its affectedness to God and goodness SIGN VIII When every known new mercy begets new thankfulness and that with delight SIGN IX When known calamitie in Gods House begets deep sorrow in thy heart SIGN X. When Gods afflicting thee for thy sin makes thee love God the better SIGN XI When the same care and travail thou labourest once in to get Christ thou as much if not more labours in to keep Christ SIGN XII When by thy labouring in Gods Vineyard thou art little grieved though outwardly
said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live then washed I thee with water yea I throughly washed away thy blood and anointed thee with oyl Eccles 16. 6 9. compared with Chap. 36. 11. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and abominations Here by comparing our estate with Israels estate we may read our danger with Israels danger who being apt to forget the condition God found them in and redeemed them from are charged to remember their own evil wayes This Remembrance was that that wrought such high admiration in St. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 12 13. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious Clearly noting that Pauls remembrance of Christs goodness to him in misery encreased his esteem of Christs mercy Secondly A second Cause may be this Actual withdrawing from that wonted familiarity we use to have with Christ once if it were well with us he must know it and be praised for it if it were evil with us he must be told of it and at the least absence you could cry with the Spouse Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and causest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside from the flocks of thy companions Cant. 1. 17. Thus in a holy friendly intimacy claims his company if now such discover strangeness to him in being strangers to his Fould in a word at every Christians service now seldome though once often thus neglecting the means of encrease must needs cause decrease Thirdly The third Cause may be this Deep declinings to heart acquaintance The watch now over the heart is not so strict as once it was so tender in times past that every comer in and goer out must be under strict examination who they were for whether or no they went Christ Jesus earand but now the door of the heart is set open too too often at hours too unseasonable for reasons too slender to the entertaining many a strange face that never was wont to come there since the King of Glory had taken his possession for this Jeremiah complains against Jerusalem How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee They kept not their heart with all diligence knowing that out of it are the issues of life But trusting it too much were deceived and turned aside thereby Fourthly A fourth Cause may be this Decaying in love to Christs Children once your chief delight was with the Saints and especially those that excelled in vertue now dayly decaying in your love to them and acquaintance with them This Christ Jesus maketh an unerring reason He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him 1 John 2. 10. If any man say I love God and hates his Brother he is a lyer for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can be love God whom he hath not seen Chap. 4. 20. Plainly asserting the impossibility of loving the greater if we love not the lesser so that to what degree there is decay in one there is the same in the other Fifthly The fifth Cause may be this Encrease of affection to perishing things At your first acquaintance with Christ the world and its offers was contemned by you now it is esteemed you had once a holy carelesness for the things of this life now an unholy carefulness for them then you sate at Jesus feet hearing his word but now cumbered with much serving Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Meaning whosoever loves the world at such a rate as to be more thoughtful after its vanities than Heavens excellencies For the love of Money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 10. Lastly A sixth Cause may be this The withdrawings of the holy Spirit that was once pleased and did then visit you often but now is grieved and visits you seldome that once helped you much against temptations laying for dead the deeds of the body now lets you alone to be beaten and baffled with every evil motion and this as the effect of the Spirits withdrawing whose work where ever it is being to greaten the esteem of Jesus Christ and foil temptations of every kind if not discouraged grieved and hindred for fear of which are those high Christian Precepts given not to vex it quench it or grieve it and that because as our natural body without life is voyd of action so without the holy Spirit is a Christian man dry and barren at best but like the Fig-tree something only in shew yet cursed by Jesus Christ for want of fruit When the Apostle Jude comes to speak of some that in the last dayes should turn Mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts mark how they are charactrized out These be they who separate themselves sensual Having not the Spirit Jude reckons them among the Sodomites for filthiness calls them Raging Waves Wandring Stars Murmurers Complainers worse than natural Bruit-beasts and the sum of all As being destitute of the Spirit In the midst of all Davids languishings for fear of so high a loss is not this one of his most bitter cries Cast me not away from thy presence and Take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. 11. I have now done having cast my poor Mite into Gods publick Treasury as one Lift if God will to encourage the growing Christian and reduce the decaying Christian if any be bettered by it I have my end let God have the Honour To whom through Jesus Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit be all due Praises ascribed in Heart with Tongue and Conversation for ever and ever Amen ERRATA EPistle Dedicatory Page 6. Line 25. read your heart p. 9. l 1. r. Isa 55 p. 25. l. 23. for a Sign r. assigned p. 34. l. 4. f. ye r. we p. 72. l. 15. f. Reprobate r. Reproach p. 48. r. Ajâ—lon p. 51. r. Mat. 5 p. 53. r. Zech. p. 58 midle r thou wast p. 61. l. 3. 71. l 8. f. was is r. were are p. 82 l 5. f. even r noon p 92. l. 1â— f. now is r. now are p â—1 l. 14. r. observe and f Eâ—hes 2. 12. r. 2 Cor. 12. 21. p. 93. l. 6. r. of it p. 94. l 5. r. Sign p. 1,6 l. 27. f. shin r. skin