fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
It was to be a whole day as a Sabbath is 2. It must be wholly spent in the proper exercises of it a Sabbath of Rest it must be in this extraordinary duty there must be a laying aside our ordinary works and the whole time spent either in the publick or private worship of the day How seldom is it that we hear of such a Fast Some Hours as I said we sometimes spend together in seeking the Lord but when do we keep a Day to the Lord The morning of the day is usually as other mornings we are as busie at our Callings and may be more busie to dispatch our work out of hand and so come hot out of our shops and fields with our heads full and hearts full of our worldly affairs and as soon as ever the Publick Duty is over then away to our work again Is it such a Fast the Lord hath chosen will ye call this a Day of Humiliation Christians 't is well that you spend some Hours of Prayer but call not That a Day of Humiliation when ever you set apart a Day for Fasting let it be a Sabbath of Rest to you begin it in secret and separating your selves from all your unnecessary ordinary works hold you to the duty of the day as your strength will bear it to the end of the day Let the private part of it both before and after Publick Exercises be spent as your Lord's days are in suitable converses with God Were this more observed we might expect more of Spirit and of Power in the duty and more Fruits afterward 2. There is also a failing in the Abstinence of the Day How often have I known it that the Abstinence in a day of Humiliation hath been no more than the sparing of one Meal which hath been made up by a larger Break-fast and perhaps a Feast at least a full Meal at Supper and sometimes in the intervals of the duties Wine Cake Sweet-meats Tobacco and such like refreshments are allowed and used No particular Rules for the degree of Abstinence can be prescribed to all sorts of persons but this should be observed in the general 1. That there be such Abstinence used both as to quantity and quality as may best subserve the Spiritual duties of the day especially that of afflicting the Soul and therefore 2. That not only our full Meals be forborn but no Wine or strong Drink c. no not so much as a Pipe of Tobacco be allowed for the present pleasure or refreshment of it This latter concerning the use of Tobacco I the more particularly mention because I suppose it is not so much thought on many of those that use it much find great pleasure in the use of it and it may be can give no good account of their present need of it and yet will use it at such times If it be really needed as in some cases it may and by some persons let it be used But if Daniel would eat no pleasant Bread nor Flesh nor Wine came into his mouth Dan. 10.3 If the Jews be reproved Is 58.3 that in the day of their Fast they find their pleasure then any thing taken as an exhilarating refreshment which is not necessary to the present duty is a transgression Well this will be something towards the stirring us up in Prayer self-afflicting Abstinence 2. Especially a deep consideration of the case we are in will most effectually do it Qui nescit orare discat navigare Tempests will teach even profane Mariners to pray if any thing will do it afflictions will fetch out our very hearts in our Prayers and is not iniquity an affliction Sure if it be we are in an afflicted state for consider a little again how grievously iniquity doth abound I shall not now lead you a voyage over the Seas and remember you how 't is abroad how the Devil drives almost all the world before him filling them with all unrighteousness and what a small handful there are that follow Christ and how very little of serious Religion or Christianity and how much iniquity there is in those few Let us at present inquire how 't is with us at home may we not take the words of the Text into our mouths and complain We even we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind are taking us away Who can say Mine heart is clean I have kept me from mine iniquity who of us will not say My righteousness is as a filthy rag Or if any will not say thus concerning themselves must not we say it for them and of them To put in but a word of the profane Rout the open enemies of Religion and Righteousness whose wickedness hath left the shade of the twilight and the covert of the night and who are grown up to that impudence as to shew their shame in the Sun-light not to speak much neither of their Prophets and Teachers amongst whom though through mercy there are that deal faithfully yet some of them cannot others will not tell them of their transgressions or heal their hurt what Snuffs are there in some of the Candlesticks what dark Lanthorns are many of those that should be burning and shining lights Seers without eyes lame Leaders sickly Healers of the hurt of the daughter of our people such some of them are as if God had said concerning us as Micah 2.11 If any man walking in the spirit of falshood do lie and do prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be even the Prophet of this people To let these pass also let us consider how 't is with the Sinners in Zion with those of us who profess to have separated themselves from the follies and filthinesses of the Land to the Law of their God may not even these also complain Even we are as an unclean thing our filthiness is still in our skirts What is our Religion what is our Righteousness what a totter'd maimed thing is it Ah how little Religion is there in our Religion how little of the Spirit how little of the power how glorious soever the form appears How much unrighteousness is there mingled with our righteousness is not our Gold mix'd with Dross and our Wine with Water What a spirit of vanity what hypocrisie pride headiness censoriousness peevishness is there to be found and all cryed up for Religion What wood and hay and stubble is there built upon the foundation Christians and yet carnal Christians and yet earthly and sensual having not the Spirit how much soever of the Name of Religion in them And amongst them that were once better how many are there that must go on with the complaint and confess we all do fade as a leaf we wither and wast and consume and are even dried away And it is not here and there a fading leaf does not the Tree fade so that 't is but here and there a leaf that
help me out of this miserable state help by your Prayers help by your Counsels Pray for a poor lost Soul Preach to a poor miserable Creature tell me what I must do help me to know the Lord shew me the path of Life Thus far that wicked one Simon Magus was stirred when Peter had set his sin and his misery home upon him Act. 8.24 Pray for me says he pray to the Lord for me that none of these things come upon me What am I in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity For the Lord's sake help me out Pray to the Lord for me that I abide not in this Condition O how few such stirring Consciences how few such awakened Sinners can we find among you When do we hear one of all the Sinners here comeing to us with such a question Sirs what shall I do what must I do to be saved When do we hear any such Request to us Pray for me O pray me out of the hands of my Drunken Companions Pray me out of my Covetousness pray that the Lord would deliver me from this hard heart from this blind mind from this froward spirit pray that the Lord would convince and convert my soul Sinners I doubt that how well soever you sometimes speak of the Preaching you hear yet I doubt it doth not reach your hearts For mine own part I do not remember the time when any one Sinner among you did ever seriously put the question to me What must I do to be saved This is the second thing wherein Sinners stirring up themselves towards Religion stands in their crying out for help 3. In taking the Alarme from the Watch-men God hath sent forth his Ministers to Alarm this sinful world Joel 2.1 Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Isa 48.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy Voyce like a Trumpet tell my People their Transgressions and the House of Israel their sins What is the use of an Alarm Why to awaken and to declare to People that there is VVar making upon them that there is an Enemy near that they are in danger of perishing if they suddenly look not to themselves Thus will I do to thee that is I Will do terrible things to thee Therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel That was Amos his Alarm to Israel Amos 4. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed that was Jonahs Alarm to Nineveh Jon. 3.4 The Axe is laid to the root of the Tree God is making short work with Sinners Every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the Fire that 's John-Baptist's Alarm Mat. 3.10 The times of this Ignorance God winked at but now he commandeth all Men every where to Repent for he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousness that 's Paul's Alarm Act. 17.30 31. The like Alarms are the Ministers of Christ sounding in Sinners ears every day Repent or ye shall Perish Believe or ye shall be Damned be Converted or ye shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The most of Sinners for all this stir not but sleep on Hath not the Alarm been sounded amongst you And yet how few Sinners of you are there whose souls are not fast asleep to this day We have cryed unto you as Dalilah to Sampson Arise Sampson the Philistins are upon thee Arise Sinner the Devil is upon thee Sin lyes at the door the Judge stands at the door Death is ready to dart thee thorow Hell opens her mouth for thee and behold nothing will do to awaken you We give the Alarm but you will not take the Alarm This is the stirring of the soul which I am Preaching of when Sinners are Alarmed and take the Alarms when the VVord Preached sets Conscience a Preaching and thundering upon Sinners when Conscience calls to them turn to the Lord break off thy sins by Repentance thou art a dead Man if thou go on there 's but a step betwixt thee and everlasting death thou wilt be in thou wilt be swallowed up of the eternal Furnace if thou suddenly Repent not When Mens hearts thus take the Alarm and their Consciences being startled do fall to work with them and provoke them to look after God and his Grace This is another thing wherein this stirring stands 4. In forcing themselves back from their sins and onwards to Christ Though in a proper sense there can be no coaction of the will yet such violence may be used towards our selves as in our common speech we call forcing of our selves So Saul 1 Sam. 13.12 I forced my self and offered a Burnt-offering Sinners should lay violent hands as it were upon their hearts pulling them back from sin putting them on to Christ Sinners must do by their hearts as the Angels did by Lot Gen. 19.16 When they were hastening him out of Sodom they laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his Wife and Children as they lingred and plaid loath to depart and even pulled them out from that burning that was coming Do your hearts hang back from Christ do they still hang after your sinful ways Lay hold on them pull them along Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by force That notes that People are in good earnest for Heaven and cry mightily to God wrestle with the most High for admission This speaks a kind of using Violence with God but the first Violence Men are to use is upon themselves They must first lay violent hands on their own hearts to bring them about towards God and this must be done by pressing the things which they hear on upon their hearts rouzing up their fear and setting that as a Dogg upon their heels to hunt them away from their sins and drive them on to Christ This fear will be to Sinners as the Avenger of blood to the Man-slayer 't will hunt them on their way and hasten them to Christ O my Soul art thou not afraid to continue as thou art to continue a Drunkard to continue a Worldling or a Lyar or a Sleeper in thy course of Sin Art thou not afraid of the Devil art thou not afraid of Death doth not Hell make thee tremble Art thou afraid what may come upon thee and yet wilt thou not stir Is the Avenger of Blood at thine heels and yet wilt thou not run for 't Thus should Sinners fright themselves to Christ If goodness and kindness and mercy will not allure you let your misery and the danger you are in scare you put your finger into the fire dwell in the considering that VVrath and fiery Indignation which you are falling into a sudden transient thought now and then will do little you must think and think over again and again of these terrible things And to make such thoughts to work put the case to your selves What if these dreadful things should come upon me
on his fidelity as quiets and sustains and stays their hearts in hope of his help and in peace and comfort and so 't is exprest Isa 50.10 Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Christians have their doubts and their fears and their darkness and their tempests even their hearts also are sometimes like a troubled Sea and how sadly are they tossed with the Tempests But how do they stand under all this How is it that they are not sunk and over-whelmed and utterly lost in all this Their trust is their strength they stay themselves upon the Lord. I am in a poor case Lord hard beset hard bestead I know not what to do nor what to make of my self nor how to help my self only mine Eyes are towards thee thou art my Rock and my Refuge I have given this soul of mine to thee 't is thine own and thereupon I have committed it to thy custody Look thou to it Lord thou hast undertataken for me and that shall satisfie me there I will lean I will stay I will repose my fearing wearied soul 2. This trust in Christ makes much for our improvement and establishment in Christianity For 1. It is our taking hold on Christ As the Anchor takes hold on the Rock as the Root takes hold on the Tree so Faith takes hold on Christ and the higher our Believing is grown up into affiance or trusting the stronger is its hold 2. It will answer to all our doubts and fears and to all the doubting questions that the anxious soul will be pulling in for resolution and satisfaction which whilst they remain unresolved he is never like to go comfortably or prosperously on his way There are amongst Multitudes of others these three great cases it sees before it which it must have resolution in 1. Saith the soul I have a Wilderness to pass through this world is a Wilderness and the time of my Life is my Travelling through this Wilderness wherein I shall find much work and hard usage who shall help me through this Wilderness 2. I have a Jordain to pass over I must pass through the Vale of the shaddow of Death I must dye who shall bring me over Jordain 3. I have an Inheritance that lyes beyond the River on the other side Death who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance Trust answers to all to all the doubts that arise in these three cases The first case is most immediately proper to our business in hand but I shall crave leave to speak a few words also to the two latter which will be at least of this use to knock in what I shall speak upon the former 1. Case I have a Wilderness to pass through the time of my life is a passing through the Wilderness who shall help me through it And here the soul will put two particular questions 1. Who shall lead me my way through the VVilderness Here are many ways many false ways many cross ways and but one that is the right way How shall I hit my may to Heaven the right way that leads thither-wards Who will shew me and lead me in this way Here Trust answers Christ will do it I lean upon him to be my Moses to lead me in the way that I should go Thou wilt guide me with thy Councel Psal 73.24 Christ hath gone the way before his Saints and he will shew them his steps to direct them Therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 12.2 Run the Race looking to Jesus as for encouragement so for direction follow not the foot-steps of the Sheep only but follow the foot-steps of the Shepheard and walk on as he walked before thee But how shall I find the way or the steps wherein Christ walked Jer. 10.23 It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps How can a Man understand his own ways Prov. 20.24 There are many hard and intricate cases where I may be at a stand and not know which way to take Their answer is as Psal 143.8 In thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul to thee and v. 10. Thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of Vprightness I trust thou wilt thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and bring me to glory 2. Question Who shall supply and sustain me in the Wilderness This World is a dry and barren Land I must have Bread to strengthen me I must have water to refresh me whence shall I be supplyed Why I trust in Christ for supplyes He will give me Manna will rain down Bread from Heaven for me He will be a springing Rock to me of whose streams I shall be refreshed Such a Rock there was in the Wilderness of old and the Apostle tells me 1 Cor. 10.4 This Rock was Christ Christians are sensible that their stock of Provisions which they carry with them will not last that little Grace they have those little Comforts they have will be quickly spent and wasted if there be not continually fresh supplyes Whence shall I be supplyed Trust answers as the Apostle in another case Phil. 4.19 My God will supply all my wants according to the Riches of his Grace by Christ Jesus I trust he will I am often as a dry Tree my soul within me is as a barren Wilderness I have every day my work coming upon me work for mine own Soul work for my Family work for my Friends and Enemies I have every day my wants coming upon me I want Faith I want Love I want Life and Zeal and Strength O how poor and low is it with me my Soul hungreth and thirsteth and fainteth within me and now what shall I do I will get me to the Rock and there will I trust I will trust in Christ his Grace shall be sufficient for me 2 Cor. 12.9 of his fulness I hope to receive even Grace for Grace Christians is this at any time the case of your souls Are you discouraged by your Poverty and Barrenness Do you complain how weak and insufficient you are for your work how low and scant 't is with you in respect of Grace and Strength Do you doubt how you shall hold up and hold on Do you thirst and faint after the influences of Heaven Do you fear you shall wast and wither and consume away in your souls Penury O to the Rock to the Rock go to Christ and trust him for supplies There are these three things that he looks you should depend upon him for 1. For the continued influence of his Grace whereby to hold and maintain your souls in life 2. For assistance in Duty for his Spirit to help your Infirmities and to work your works in you 3. For all needful and necessary Comforts You are yet but Children and as Children you have not your stock in your own hands you have but from hand to mouth every day you will need new provisions You are Children
and as Children can't go alone without me saies Christ you can do nothing Joh. 15.5 You are apt to be comfortless Children and 't is He that hath said Isa 51.12 I even I am He that comforteth you Learn to know your own state and carry it accordingly Hast thou Grace Improve it preserve it and make the best of it but never count you have enough to last you till you come home you must to the Breasts every day you must to Christ for your daily Bread or you will quickly starve Hast thou a little strength strength for Duty Improve it to the utmost be diligent and busie in the work of the Lord in every good work in Hearing and Praying and Watching and striving against sin in mortifying the Flesh in helping and strengthning one another do what-ever you can be as active and stirring and industrious as possible but go not in your own strength trust not to the strength you have but let this be your hold which was the Apostles Phil. 4.13 I shall be able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah trust ye in the Lord Jesus for in him is everlasting strength Isa 26.4 Have ye comfort in your hearts Say not as the Psalmist Psal 30.5 I shall never be moved thou Lord of thy goodness hast made my Mountain so strong but know that you will need to fetch in fresh comforts as you have of daily supplies of strength Well thus this Trust will answer to these and all other the doubting questions that a Christian will have to put in his life-time whilst he lives in this Wilderness who will shew me my way who will sustain me in my way till I come to my Journeys end c. Christ will do it I trust He will 2. Case I have a Jordain to pass over I must dye who will bring me over Jordain who will stand by me in that hour He is an established Christian who is able to dye who can say with the Apostle To me to live is Christ to dye is gain none of these things move me I am ready to be offered up I desire to depart and to be with Christ Then is the Life of Jesus most signally manifested in our mortal Flesh when we can by Faith tryumph over mortality But as for me I am afraid to dye I am one of their weakly souls who for fear of death are all their life-time subject to Bondage I walk unevenly and uncomelily because upon this account I walk so uncomfortably How may I out-grow my fears and come to a settlement How shall I do to dye If I could dye I could live to better purpose than now I do or can What shall I have to comfort me Whom shall I have to stand by me in that hour Trust answers why Christ will stand by me He that hath taught me to live will I trust help me to dye He hath conquer'd Death he hath disarm'd and pluck'd out the sting of Death He hath broken the head of that Leviathan 'T was He that said Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction He hath said it and He hath done it He himself hath passed over that Jordain and hath thereby made a way for his Ransomed to pass over He will send his Angels to conduct me through that shady and dismal passage He knows what it is to dye how hard the conflict is with the last Enemy and what special need I shall have of his help in that hour and therefore hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 If I can but hold me by him while I live I will hang upon him when I dye and with Confidence say with the Psalmist Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the Valley of tâ—e shaddow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me He hath said Joh. 11.25 Whoever liveth and believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live He hath said Rev. 20.6 Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on him the second death shall have no power Come on therefore O my soul fear not to lanch forth into the deep trust in Christ He that hath delivered and doth deliver will also deliver in that day from death he will not deliver it 's appointed to all once to dye there 's no repealing that Statute but He will deliver in death He will by death deliver me from all my fears and sorrows Who of all His ever miscarryed in death Look to this that thou be one of His hold thee by Him cleave to Him follow Him while thou livest be faithful to Him to the death and trust to Him He will be faithful to thee in death 3. Case I have an Inheritance which I hope for in the Land of Promise And here the question will be Who shall give me entrance who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance There is a great Gulf fixed betwixt me and Glory there is a Judgment that I must pass through in my entrance into the Rest of God and in that Judgment I must pass under a strict and severe examination and give an account of my self and of all my ways unto God O how shall I stand in the Judgments or who shall stand by me I am a Sinner a guilty soul before the Lord and mine Iniquities are all marked before Him Once I was an Enemy to Christ and how much hath he against me for that time Since I became his Servant and Solemnly Covenanted and Vowed my self to Him Vowed Repentance Vowed Obedience Vowed Holiness to him O what a Servant have I been What an idle and sloathful Servant What a barren and unprofitable Servant He hath made me his Child but O what a wanton unruly froward Child have I been How often have I turn'd aside from him and serv'd my Flesh and this present World O my Pride and Hypocrisie O my trifling and my haltings after the Lord O the reproaches that have fallen upon his Name by my unworthy uneven and uncomely walking before him How shall I answer for this in the Judgment or who shall answer for me Who shall stop the Mouth of my Accuser in that day Christ I trust will do it I put my whole Cause into his Hand He shall be my Advocate against my Accuser whom I will trust to plead for me He hath his Stripes and his Wounds He hath his Blood and his Death to answer for me It is Christ that dyed who shall condemn Rom. 8.34 But what shall I have to confirm my trust in Christ and to secure me that he will answer for me There be many that lay claim to Christ amongst the Unbelievers the workers of Iniquity they will put their trust in Christ and will call to him Lord Lord open to me Mat. 7.22 23. Lord Lord answer for me to whom he will say Away from me I know you not I will not
over you we can hardly keep life in you the little good that remains is weak and even ready to vanish away But what then will become of you in the Day of Famine when your Manna shall cease and your Waters fail O tremble to hear this word spoken concerning you you shall not mourn nor weep you won't be much troubled nor lay it to heart but ye shall pine away for your iniquities If in such a day of plenty as you have had you are such pining Souls what can you expect but you may pine to death in days of want 2. Especially 't is woful to those that have no Religion in them that are blind and hard and dead Souls that remain still without Christ and without God in the World Sinners if ye be not brought in to be Believers whilst the Word of Faith is preached to you if ye be not converted whilst the Word of Repentance is preached among you if you continue such blind and ignorant Souls whilst you have the light with you what will ye be in the days of darkness Sinners concern not themselves about any such thing let the Gospel shine or be under a cloud let Religion flourish or vanish let God be amongst them or be gone let there be preaching or no preaching 't is all one to them they are like Gallio Acts 18.17 they are for none of these things But Sinners let me tell you as little as you regard it how it goes with the Church of God and the Ordinances of God whether there be liberty or restraint a plenty or a famine of the word when ever the Gospel departs when ever a famine of the word comes 't is you are the men that are like chiefly to have the misery of it 'T is an affliction to the Saints and they may be great losers they may languish and grow to a decay but you are like to lose your Souls you are like to dye in your Sins and to perish for ever if you are thus hardned under the word how are you like to be won to Christ without the Word If the Devil hath such power with you to lead you on in your sins in your drunkenness and swearing and lying and covetousness and to hold you under your impenitence notwithstanding all the instructions and warnings and reproofs you have from the word how fast will he hold you when there 's none to resist him If you never be converted and brought to repentance you know you must to Hell and what hope will there be of your conversion when the converting word is no more preached to you Sinners you had need make better use of the Word while you have it among you you had need look for another manner of work of God than hitherto hath been upon you Of all men in the World you especially had need pray Lord take not the Word of thy Truth from among us or at least Lord delay that dark day O let my Soul be first wrought upon O let it first lay hold on me and recover me from my sins and from the power of the Devil let me become a Convert to Christ a Disciple of Christ before that day come you had need pray thus and you had need hearken more to the Word while you have it and hasten in to Christ That day will stay for none of you when 't is coming and O! what if it should come upon you if the Gospel should be carried away and leave you in that sinful guilty state that now you are in Look to it Sinners in the name of God look to it strike in with Christ presently make thorow work for your Souls instantly while it is called to day harden not your hearts don 't any longer stand shall I shall I one day or other I hope I shall For ought you know God may be even about to pack up his Treasure to take down his standing and ready to be gone and then where are you O carry this thought upon your heart if God should go and his Gospel should go and leave my Soul at this pass wo wo to me poor wretched Soul what shall become of me for ever O if the preaching of the Word leave me under the power of the Devil sure the Famine of the Word is like to seal me up under the hardness of my heart to everlasting condemnation Look to it Sinners pray that such a Day may not overtake you thus and O hasten and take the present season and this day break off your sins by repentance and yield your selves to the Lord be converted that ye may be saved Fear not but Christ will accept you if you will now come in he is yet willing he stands stretching his hands to you he lifts up his Voice to you and calls Come ye poor sinful souls come unto me make an adventure for Heaven come and be my hearty Disciples let the wicked among you forsake his wickedness let him return to the Lord and he shall have mercy Fear not but if you will now come in you shall be accepted but dare not for your lives delay any longer lest the days of darkness overtake you lest the Gospel be removed from us and leave you bound in your sins and then you be carried down bound hand and foot into the everlasting Prison The Lord grant that this be not the dismal lot of any of your Souls and look you to it in time that it be not lose not the present season the Sun seems to grow low it 's almost night O see to it that it be not Sunset among us before it be Sunrising in any of your Souls I hope the day is even now dawning upon some poor Sinners among you that some of your Souls are looking towards Christ and making towards Christ and making your escape from your Sins Is it so with thee art thou awakened from thy Sins art thou wishing and waiting for Christ Even this is the dawning of the day upon thee O for the Sun rising for the forming of Christ upon thine heart look that the work that is go not back again but come on and hold on that thy little morning light may increase and grow up to perfect day and that the Evening and the Morning meet not 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Lord among us and our preventing his departure This was their Sin in the Text they did not take hold of God that is they took no course to continue the Lord amongst them God was going from them and they let him go and look'd not after him they were too willing to part with God And this is the case of Backsliders in heart they are too well contented that God and they do part their heart is withdrawn from God and they matter it not though God withdraws from them Our laying hold on God imports these 3 things which are necessary to our continuing him with us 1. Our letting go our Idols or false
't is to be feared it will then be said concerning you They are not asleep but dead dead in their sins O how many of the dead are there already amongst these sleepy Souls Sinner art thou yet asleep in thy Sins O thou art in a dead sleep and if this night overtake thee thus its like to close up thine eyes as the eyes of the dead are closed never again to be opened And you that hope you have life in you and yet will not be awakened by the day light but will sleep on still whom neither the lightning nor the thunder of the Word will awaken pray tell me what dead sleepers you also are like to continue in the dark and silent night This I say is like to be the misery of people if such a night overtake us they are like to be sensless Souls that will not lay it to heart nor be affected nor moved at all with the darkness that comes upon them but will dye away in a sleep Become of the Gospel of the Ordinances of the Gospel of the Sabbath and all the means of Grace what will they will not be much moved or lay it to heart 5. Night is no time for work John 9.4 night cometh when no man can work Work there is that lyes upon every one of you and such work wherein your life is concerned I will not say only with the Apostle 2 Thes 3.10 He that will not work shall not eat but he that will not work shall not live thou shalt dye the death who dost not in the day work out the work which God hath committed to thee to do You have every one of you your work to do and 't is great work and of great consequence You are to work for your living for an eternal livelihood you are to work out your Salvation that 's your work in the general And in this there are many particular works comprehended there is the work of Repentance and Mortification of Sin c. There 's Grace to be gotten and improved there 's your Peace with God to be made have you done these works have you repented are your sins mortified have you grace in your hearts have you made your peace with God you that have there 's still all this to be maintained and carried on that ye lose not the things which you have wrought But are all these things yet to do with so many of you are you yet without repentance are you yet to seek for grace have you gotten never a drop of the Holy Oil into your Vessels are you without the Knowledge of God without faith in Christ without repentance is your peace with God yet to make doth the wrath of God still abide upon you what and yet asleep what and yet such idle careless loytering souls What if this work should never be done if you should never have more of Christ nor his Grace never have more of Faith and Repentance than you have now why then you must go down among the dead Look ye down cast an eye down on those chambers of darkness that place of pitch and brimstone that place of fire and everlasting burnings look ye down into that horrible pit and see where you must lie what your place and your portion must be for ever if you arise not and work these works of God ye cannot live but must die and that 's the death you must die you must burn you must be tormented night and day for ever and ever Well now you see here 's great work to be done and to be done by every one of you you see what will follow if it be not done you must die the death O methinks now this word should be a stirring word to you awaken every one of you arise and to your work the night cometh when no man can work And let it not suffice any of you to say I hope this work is done and therefore no such danger if I be fallen asleep but know 1. That if the grace you seem to have does make you grow secure if you grow bold to be idle and careless upon the confidence that the work is done that you are converted have repented and are made partakers of the grace of God that confidence of yours is a deadly sign that the work is not done no nor savingly begun upon you 2. Whatever work there be done upon you your life lieth upon it upon your careful and vigorous carrying it on if you do not hold out to the end keep working to the end ye cannot be saved And is not this a stirring word to you also that are sleeping and loytering professors Awake or perish to your work or be damned And is not this stirring word seconded by a stirring providence the appearance of such a night approaching upon us the light being even ready to vanish from amongst us If I should not say concerning such a night in the words of Christ A night comes wherein no man can work yet this I may be bold to say in such a night few men will work What does our experience speak to this The shadows of the evening have been stretched out over us it hath been evening and almost Sunset with us for divers years and O what lamentable influence has this evening wherein the word of the Gospel has been more scarce had upon us what a woful change is there visible upon the greatest number of Professors in England are there not multitudes among us whose Religion is fallen and almost lost since it is grown darker is it not also grown much colder with us and what sleepy loytering souls are we already become Friends if there be such a fall of lively Religion amongst us while it is but evening do you not tremble to think how much more t is like to be when the thick darkness of the night hath overshadowed us 2. Put upon stirring thoughts Our thoughts are apt to be busie and too busie where they should not like little Children which will be busie from morning till night about doing nothing Keep your thoughts imployed and well imployed there are wandring thoughts which are too busie roving and flying up and down this way and that which like the eyes of a Fool Prov. 17.24 are in the ends of the Earth There are the wandrings of our thoughts after sin and vanity and impertinences we are thinking too much and too often of what we should not think and sometimes there are wandrings after good things sometimes our thoughts wander to Heaven wander up and down about things Spiritual and Eternal though we think sometimes of these better things 't is but with wandring thoughts though we light upon them yet we fix not we are not like the Bee which wanders from flower but pitches and stays upon each flower till it hath gotten the Honey but we are more like the Fly that leaps up and down that 's here and there and every where sometimes upon a Wall sometimes
is in the heart Men usually unless it be the Hypocrite speak according to what is in their hearts the proud heart speaketh proud things the vain heart speaketh vain things and the holy heart speaketh holy things 2. 'T is the abundance of the heart that 's most apt to come forth at the lips In some hearts there is a little good but much evil in others there is much good and less evil 't is that which abounds in the heart that which is most in the heart that hath the command of the tongue See that there be Grace in your hearts and that the grace of God abound in you a little grace will not do to set your tongues agoing 't is the abundance of the heard that which most abounds within that will have the easiest and most ordinary vent Job 32.18 I am full of matter my spirit within me constraineth me my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer I am full of matter and therefore will I speak an heart full of grace must and will have a vent by the speech The holy spirit within us will constrain us where there is little good coming forth 't is a sign there is not so much as there should be within We may pretend inability and unaptness to speak as the reason of our barrenness of holy discourse that sometimes may be something that hinders but mostly the reason is there wants matter within We have reason to suspect that 't is from want of grace rather than from want of utterance that no more savoury and spiritual and useful words come from us A full heart will be the best help for a stammering tongue Christians let us get an increase of inward grace let us get more of the holy spirit of a spirit of life and love and power within us and our Friends and Acquaintance are like to hear of it oftner and to better purpose than they do Poor creatures that we are we are empty we are empty our insides have no good filling Be ye filled with the spirit faith the Apostle Ephes 5.18 speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and the more we speak thus to our selves the more freely shall we speak to others those that have but little grace are but Babes in Christ and Babes are but Infants that can't speak when the Infant is grown then he will find his Tongue In vain shall I exhort you to use your Tongues more for God till you be nursed up from Children to more strength in grace Would you ever come to be more fruitful and useful in your Generations this must be your way to it get you more inward grace 2. Let your thoughts be working more about holy things Thinking makes way for speaking what our thoughts run most upon that ordinarily our Tongues will run upon We cannot know each others thoughts but we may give a near guess at them by the words that are spoken Men whose thoughts are most in the Earth that are still thinking of their Money or thinking of their Trades or their Pleasures they can hardly forbear to be talking of these things And if our thoughts were more of God and of our Souls of Religion of Righteousness and Holiness we should certainly have more of God and of Heaven in our Mouths The Psalmist who said Ps 119.46 I will speak of thy Testimonies and will not be ashamed said also Ps 119.97 My meditation is of thee all the day long Christians get your thoughts to be well exercised be much in thinking think of the goodness and kindness and holiness and compassions of the Lord think of Christ of his love of his life of his death of his bowels and everlasting kindness think often what great things the Lord hath done for your souls think what ye would that he should do for you much thinking on God and his holy things will leave an holy tincture on your hearts will by degrees do much to the begetting holy habits and dispositions in you The Lord uses to convey down much of his holy Image and likeness upon the heart by the thoughts Friends such of you who find but little of the impress and image of God upon your hearts pray consider it if you be not too great strangers to the thoughts of God How often in a day are your thoughts in Heaven how very seldom is it that you are seriously looking either upwards or inwards No wonder if your tongues be so silent of God whilst your thoughts are such strangers from God Christians I doubt there are many of us that are much faulty here that our thoughts are no more taken up or working upon things spiritual and heavenly we should make the thoughts of God more precious and delightsom and more familiar and ordinary with us we should be able to say of our thoughts of God as the Psalmist does Ps 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand When I awake I am still with thee Thus it was with that holy man and thus it should be with us we should be much with the Lord in our thoughts but is it so with us Friends do but trace the goings of your souls for one day together and ask your hearts in the evening how much have I been with God this day how often have I been looking Heavenwards the Psalmists holy thoughts were so many that he could not count them and it may be some of ours have been so few that we cannot count them we can hardly remember any such thoughts we have had I know 't is hard work to keep your thoughts well imployed they will be wandering and roving more or less do what you can and you that observe your selves cannot but know it your selves how hard a work it is and I am afraid that some of us because 't is so hard a work will let it alone if their thoughts will gad and rove let them gad whither they will if they will not easily be gotten up to Heaven let them even stay below and so we let them take their own course and run whither they will I pray Friends this once put your selves every one of you to it and spend this one thought upon your selves think which hath most of your thoughts God or this World must you not if you speak truth speak the quite contrary to what the Psalmist speaks whilest he said How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them Must not you say how irksom are thy thoughts to me O Lord how small is the summe of them this argues an evil temper 't is sure a carnal frame your hearts are in where spiritual thoughts are so rare and difficult and I shall not wonder that 't is
or pull'd upon thee that thou art still of the same mind Wilt thou yet say I am content to be as I am Ah foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you Ah Friends are you so foolish that having begun in the Spirit you will now think to mend your condition by returning to the flesh what might I speak to you to set you into your right minds would you be but convinced that you are out of your minds mad and distracted Souls there were the more hope you would come to your wits and so with the prodigal return to your Father from whom you have been wandring Carnal Professors let not these words depart from your Hearts till they have done their work till they have shewed you your folly and learned you the Wisdom which is from above till your own mouths be forced to acknowledge I have play'd the Fool I have wandred from my God and turned to mine one way and this my way is my folly and now through the help of the Lord I will return Wilt thou so wilt thou return and recover I will then add but this one word more When thou art recovered do thy best towards the recovery of thy brethren pitty thy fallen Friends and help them to arise jogg thy sleepy neighbours and call upon them to awaken who knowes what a small beginning may rise to in the end a few returned Persons may fetch in more and these more a few Souls raised from the dead may be the first Fruits of a more glorious resurrection the light and the life which is sprung up in thine Heart if it be well improved may enlighten and enliven many your zeal hath provoked very many 2 Cor. 9.2 O be solicitous first for thine own recovery and then be zealous for the recovery of more so shall there be after all our darkness an hopeful dawning towards a comfortable day so may we hope that our shining lights which now stand so thin as a Beacon on an Hill as a Cottage in a Vine-yard as a Lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers may grow so numerous that we may become a Land of Light and our Jerusalem may be made a praise in the Earth FINIS Books printed for and are to be sold by John Hancock at the Sign of the three Bibles in Popes Head Alley in Cornhil TWelve Books lately published by Mr. Tho. Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets New Fish-street 1. Precious Remedies against Satans Devices or Salve for Believers and Vnbelievers Sores being a Companion for those that are in Christ or out of Christ 2. Heaven on Earth Or a serious Discourse touching a Well-grounded assurance of Mans Everlasting Happiness 3. The Vnsearchable Riches of Christ held forth in 22 Sermons 4. Apples of Gold for Young Men and Women Or the Happiness of being good betimes 5. A String of Pearls Or the best Things reserved till last 6. The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod with Sovereign Antidotes against the most miserable Exigents 7. An Ark for all Gods Noahs in a Stormy Day 8. The Crown and Glory of Christianity in 48 Sermons on Heb. 12.14 9. The privy Key of Heaven Or a Discourse of Closet Prayer 10. An Heavenly Cordial for such as have had or escaped the Plague 11. A Cabinet of choice Jewels or a Box of precious Oyntment Containing special Maxims Rules and Directions in order to the clearing up of a Mans Interest in Corist and his Title to all the Glory of another World 12. Londons Lamentations The Godly Mans Ark in several Sermons To which is added Mrs. Moors Evidences for Heaven By Edmund Calamy B. D. at Aldermanbury Christs Communion with his Church Militant By Nicholas Lockyer Sin the Plague of Plagues By Ralph Venning A true Narrative of those two never to be forgotten Deliverances one from the Spanish Invasion in 88 the other from the Hellish Powder Plot Nov. 5. 1605. By Mr. Sam. Clark The Accurate Accountant or London Merchant Being Instructions for keeping Merchants Accounts By Tho. Brown Accomptant Short Writing the most Easie Exact Lineal and speedy Method that hath ever yet been obtained as thousands in this City and elsewhere can from their own experience testifie By Theophilus Metcalfe Also a Book called a Schoolmaster to it explaining all the Rules thereof A Word of Advice to Saints or a choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ A Copy Book of the Newest and most Vseful Hands with Directions for Spelling and Cyphering Bridges Remains Being eight choice Sermons By the late Reverend Mr. William Bridge of Yarmouth A Disswasive from Conformity to the World Also Gods Severity against Impenitent Sinners By Henry Stubbes Minister of the Gospel Vennings Remains being the substance of many Sermons By Mr. Ralph Venning prepared by himself for the Press a little before his Death The Poor Mans Family book By Richard Baxter Luthers 34 special and choice Sermons Comae Berenicis or the Hairy Comet being a Prognostick of Malignant Influences from the many Blazing Stars wandring in our Horizon Gospel Love Heart Purity and the Flourishing of the Righteous Being the last Sermons of that late Eminent Divine Mr. Joseph Caryl The Young Mans Guide to Blessedness or Seasonable Directions for Youth in their unconverted Estate By R. Matthew Minister of the Gospel Causa Dei or an Apology for God wherein the Perpetuity of Infernal Torments is evinced and his both Goodness and Justice defended Also the nature of Punishments in General and of Infernal ones in particular displayed by R. Burthogge The Legacy of a Dying Mother to her Mourning Children Being the Experiences of Mrs. Susanna Bell Published by Tho. Brooks King James his Counterblast to Tobacco To which is added a Learned Discourse touching Tobacco by Dr. Maynwaring wherein men may see whether Tobacco be good for them or no. Strength in Weakness Being a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Martha Brooks late Wife to Mr. Thomas Brooks Minister of the Gospel To which is added some Experiences of the Grace and Dealings of God observed and gathered by a near Relation of the said Mrs. Brooks An Excellent Catechism by the late Reverend Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs A Discourse of Christs Coming and the Influence which the Expectation thereof hath on all manner of Holy Conversation and Godlin ss By Theophilus Gale The Shepherds Legacy or forty years experience of the Weather The Young Mans Conflict with and Victory over the Devil by Faith Or a true and perfect Relation of the Experiences of Tho. Powel begun in the fifteeenth and continued till the seventeenth year of his Age. Theological Treatises 1. Production of Mans Soul 2. Divine Predestination 3. The True Church Regiment 4. Predictions of Messias 5. Christs two Genealogies 6. The Revelation Revealed 7. Christs Millenary Reign 8. The Worlds Dissolution By Robert Velvain Christs certain and sudden Appearance to Judgement By Samuel Malbon A brief Descreption of New York and the Places thereto adjoyning with Directions and Advice to such as shall go thither By Dan. Denton A Cry for Labourers in Gods Harvest Being a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. Ralph Venning By R. Bragge Minister of the Gospel Christian Directions shewing how to walk with God all the day long By Tho. Gouge The Young Mâ—ns Guide through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan By Tho. Gouge Conscience the best Friend upon Earth or the Happy Effects of keeping a Good Conscience By Henry Stubbes Patience and its Perfect Work under sudden and sore Trials Orthodox Paradoxes Theoretical and Experimental or a Believer clearing Truth by seeming Contradictions With an Appendix of the Triumph of Assurance over the Law Sin World Wants c. To which is added The New Command Renewed or Love one another With Ten Rules for the right understanding of Scripture By R. Venning A. M. An Awakening Call from the Eternal God to the Vnconverted with seasonable Advice to them that are under Convictions to prevent their miscarrying in Conversion By Samuel Corbyn A. M. The Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of Praise A Treatise of preventing secret and unexpected Mercies with some mixt Reflections By S. Lee. FINIS