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
not thus with some of you that are Professors of Religion Consult your own experiences how freely and how chearfully can you follow your Trades and worldly business you can Work and Travail and Buy and Sell and follow it night and day can rise early and go to Bed late and eat the Bread of Carefulness enduring heat and cold and never complain but when you come to Praying and communing with your own hearts or taking a walk by Holy Meditation into the other VVorld when you come to have to do in any of the matters of God and serious Religion O how like Drones and Sleepers do you go on A little of this is enough and more than you can well bear your VVheels drug your Spirits tire and thereupon you hastily over with this work and are glad when you have done How seldom is it that you go into your Closets as willingly as you come out How well were it if you did as freely fall upon your knees as you use to rise from them when you have done How comes this to pass O you are yet carnal carnally disposed carnally inclined your fleshly habits do dispose you to your fleshly ways and fetter you and hang on your heels when you should be doing for God and your Souls O to work Christians to work work off these carnal dispositions and work up your hearts to Spirituality and Heavenliness Get you to be better temper'd and better disposed and the way to habituate your selves to Religion is to hold you closer to the exercise of Religion if you would but use a little more force upon your selves for a time and hold you to diligence in your Holy ways this would by degrees by the co-operation of the spirit of Grace with you which you might boldly look for to come into your help this your forceing your selves upon a diligent holy life for a while would bring you to go on after you had been inured to it with more freedom and alacrity Heb. 15.14 Those that were strong Christians steady and established Christians how came they to be so O 't is said That by reason of use by having their senses exercised by this means they grew up to it Friends be perswaded to make tryal exercise your selves more to Godliness use your selves to a strict conscientious Life If you find it hard at first yet force your selves upon it hold your selves hard to it and by that you have accustomed your selves to this course a while look for it you will find it sweet and easie and when you have thus gotten the habit of Religion when by reason of use and having your senses exercised to Godliness you become Holily disposed and inclined then what Christians think you are you like to be what thriving Christians what flourishing Christians what fruitful Christians are you then like to become then your hearts will be streaming hearts and flaming hearts and will mount up and ascend in those flames of holy Love and Zeal above this Earth and Flesh and a Unity to live in the Light and Love and Joy of the Lord. O Friends would you set your hearts to be reaching out towards this holy frame would the Lord be pleased by the more abundant influences of his Spirit upon us to work us up to and settle us in this habit of Holiness this Spiritual and willing and ready mind then we should become a beautiful Congregation then we should become a blessed People and should grow up as Trees of Righteousness which the Lord hath Planted and which the Lord hath Blessed What Friends doth not all this stir you Is there such a Blessed state and frame to be had and is it not worthy your striving after Come my Beloved let 's bestir our selves let us follow after let us be reaching on with our might to this holy Prize Be not discouraged at difficulty be doing and the Lord will help you VVe are workers together with God for you be you workers together with us for your selves set your hearts to it and the Lord will work in you both to will and to obtain of his good pleasure And thus I have shew'd you what that solidity in Religion which I am stirring you up to be reaching after is to be well-grounded and settled in the substantials of Christianity He that worshippeth God in the Spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and heedfully shunning all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts hath given himself to a Righteous Sober and Godly life he that being deeply resolved for Christ and firmly trusting in Christ doth with full purpose of heart cleave unto him sticking fast to the Lord and keeping him close by him till he hath by reason of use gotten Holiness to be habitual to him This is a Pattern that I would you would have much before your eyes 4. To fruitfulness in Religion There is a readiness to good works mentioned Tit. 3.1 standing in the preparation or propension or bent of the soul upon holy action whereof before and there is a fruitfulness in good works or the souls putting it forth in holy action All Religion stands in action either the inward action of the Soul or the outward action of the Life 'T is the doing Christian that is the excellent Christian the fruitful field which hath a Blessing in it There is amongst our Corn some that looks fresh and strong and grows up ranker and taller than the rest but at best proves to have but little in the Ear 't is grown up all in Stalk and hath little fruit we can't say of it as Hos 7.8 It hath no Stalk 't is all Salk and hath no Ear 't is the full Ears of the Field that are its fruitfulness That is fruitfulness where there is good fruit brought forth and much fruit That ground which either bringeth forth no good fruit or but very little we count barren ground Will you call that a fruitful field which brings forth but here and there an Ear a few handful of Ears to whole Sheaves of Tares and VVeeds VVill you call that a fruitful Tree which hath but two or three Berries in the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches It is precious fruit and plenty of it that will give us the account of fruitful Christians Fruitfulness in Religion is the Honour of Religion Herein is my Father Glorified that ye bring forth much fruit Joh. 15 8. And what Glorifies God God will make glorious before the VVorld Barrenness is a Reproach 't is matter of sorrow and shame Such Christians which stand as dry Trees should not stand with dry Eyes VVe read that Barren Wombs have been the matter of great Affliction How did Sarah and Rachel take on that they had no Children And Hannah when she Prayed for a Child having yet none said 1 Sam. 15. I am a Woman of a sorrowful spirit out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken But however it be upon the account of
in Holy Communication or discourse among you Good words are none of the least of our good works This one thing would much conduce both to the recovering that of religion which is lost and to the filling up that which is wanting in our selves or others This hath been in use amongst some of you but is it not much fallen and forgotten Do not many of you that are Professors converse together as carnally and as unprofitably as men that have no religion in them This is a great shame and of sad consequence and Religion which is now so much fallen in the World is never like much to rise till this holy practice be revived You are all ready enough to complain what decays there are in Religion but are you willing to help towards its recovery We have helped one another down sadly we have consumed one another by our own coldness will you help to recover one another to warm and to quicken one another as you have helped to cool and to deaden By this means you will mutually have the benefit of each others graces and experiences your graces will hereby in a sort become their graces and their graces become yours Your candle may light your Brethrens candles at least you may give light to those that are round about you but of this more afterwards I cannot enlarge further upon the several ways wherein your religious activity should be exercised you must take these hints in general Labour to be doing Christians diligent busie Christians ready to every good work and fruitful in every good work Have an eye upon and be reaching to this active life hide not your Talent in a Napkin put not your Candle under a Bushel keep not your Religion to your selves your Knowledge your Graces your Experiences to your selves Hath the Lord lighted up a Candle in your Hearts let your light shine before men that may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 5. To evenness and equality both of temper and course Evenness of temper is an argument of health and strength they are the weakly bodies that are apt to change with every change of Air or Weather and they are but weakly Souls whom every change of their circumstances puts out of frame This even frame must and will shew it self in an evenness of the course 'T is an holy life that Christians must live and not satisfie themselves with sometimes an holy duty or day There must not be only some drops of Religion sprinkled here and there upon their paths but their life must be an holy stream and the stream must be constantly running towards God and Heaven They must run a Race thitherward Heb. 12.2 He that runs a race keeps on his way step by step in a continued motion We must neither turn aside nor go uncertainly on sometimes running and sometimes but creeping or standing still we must keep our way and keep our pace we must not go jumping heavenward doing something of our duty and jumping over others we must take all along in order as we go Christians it may be by the grace already obtained there 's something done in Religion at times but how many duties do ye jump over and let them alone Sometimes you will pray and sometimes you will jump over your praying seasons Sometimes you will perform works of piety but you will jump over works of righteousness and mercy Sometimes you will be serious and savoury and then you will leap out into lightness and vanity Sometimes you will take a leap to Heaven in your retirements to converse with God and then you will leap down again into the mud and mire Sometimes you will have some holy fits and then your proud fits or froward fits Sometimes ye run and then stand still diligent for a start and then grow resty and idle who knows how long after It is uncomfortable to consider how much this is the Religion of the most of Professors their Religion like a Feaver comes by fits only as if it were rather their distemper than their temper 't is but here and there a little sprinkling some few drops fall that have any holy savour and tendency Our stream our stream O how and which way does it run Sure you had gotten much higher if you had been more constantly rising upwards But whilst there are such risings and falls such goings on and standings still or turnings aside whilst you are such working and loytering Souls no wonder it is so low with you as it is Know every one of you that this in and out course is an argument that yet you have but little and will never come to much if it do not come to just nothing at last Now and then a strait step with so many steps awry is this ever like to bring you to Heaven You are travelling up the Hill but when will ye get you higher if as one foot steps forward the other slides back This uncertain unequal going on only as the fit comes 't is an easie kind of Religion if it were but sound But how can you think your selves sound where you are so divided betwixt something and nothing An intermitting Pulse is dangerous if not deadly Friends would you prove your selves to be Christians indeed would you not that both you and your Religion should prove to be as the chaff before the wind And when the Lord shall come to purge his floor would you not that both your souls and your hopes should be blown away as the Chaff and burn with the chaff in unquenchable fire would you make it evident that your Religion is not Irreligion and your Christianity Hypocrisie Then get you up to a more fixed spiritual temper and hold you on in a more even and continued course this will prove you to be Christians both in truth and of growth and hereby you will be making an advance higher and higher till you shall have perfected holiness in the fear of God That 's the mark that stands at the top of the Mount which I would after all that I have said you should have chiefly in your eye perfection of Holiness and be with your might reaching towards For the close of this you now see what that pitch of Religion is that I am pressing you to even the highest pitch that is possibly attainable You see your way before you is an uphill way You that are yet but at the foot of the Mount stay not where you are but get you up by the rising ground till you come to the top Do not now stand desponding at the height of the Hill and the steepness of its passage do not stand complaining of the difficulty of attaining say not within your selves I cannot get on I cannot get me up to this holy spiritual fruitful steady frame and life with all my soul I would but O I cannot I stick still here below I am among the poorest and weakest and hindermost of the Flock and after
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.
a cure upon any languishing Souls or what 's become of them all O hath not this adversarie stolen them all away stolen away the warnings stolen away the reproofs stolen away the awakening counsels that have been given you and so hitherto held your Souls fast asleep Now having to do with such a busie and stirring Devil you had need the more to bestir your selves and look about you that he do not irrecoverably undo you Resist the Devil Jam. 4.7 Be sober be vigelant 1 Pet. 5.8 knowing that your adversary Is he so watchful upon you to hinder you and mischief you does he lye at the catch to steal away this awakening word from you You had need lye at the catch also catch at every word the Lord speaks to you concerning this matter lay hold upon them lay them up in your hearts forget them not while you live keep them in memory let them dwell in you and hold your thoughts upon them keep them working in your hearts and never let them slip till they have done the work and your Souls be recovered 2. There are stirring lusts within you that oppose your recovery Your lusts are your disease and your disease resists your remedy There is a body of Sin within you there 's the same evil nature in you that are Christians that there is in Sinners though the power of sin be broken yet there is much of it still remaining Though the Egyptians be drowned Sin as a Throne be subdued yet the Canaanite Sin as a Thorn is still in the Land Though Christians have not an Enemy Enemy to which they are in bondage yet they have an Enemy that 's still fighting against their Souls sin hath no longer dominion over them Rom. 6.14 yet it still makes war upon them Though the head of this Serpent be broken yet 't is a Serpent still And as 't is said of Daniel Gen. 49.17 It is a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path it biteth the Horse heels it wounds and vexes and hinders though it cannot kill This Sin is called a Body of Sin Rom. 6.6 and of this Body there are many members every lust of our heart is a Member of our Body of Sin Our evil nature is this Body and there our numerous Lusts do meet as in their common root and thence they spring Now these Lusts are they that hinder and spoil us Friends these are they that have tempted you off from God and tempted you off from your integrity and turn'd you to iniquity and hitherto hindred your returning Jam. 1.14 Every man when he is tempted is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed Do not think to lay all the blame upon the Devil and so to excuse your selves no your own hearts have joyned with the Devil you have been accessary to your own ruine Some men when they have run themselves out of their Estates by Riot and Drunkenness they will think to lay all the blame upon their evil company O this evil company this evil company have been my Bane sure enough they have and therefore let every wise man be warned and shun them as the Devil But yet let not evil company bear all the blame 't is that evil heart of thine thine own hearts lust that betrayed thee into thy evil company What could evil company have done hadst thou not had an evil heart to go after them How long might they have enticed thee and never prevailed if thou hadst not been drawn aside by thine own hearts lust and enticed They are those Devils within you those Lusts that war in your Members that have given the Devil his advantages against you Some fall a lusting after Money and this lust sets them so hard on work for the world keeps them so busie about their Trades and their Estates that they forget God and their Souls Others lust after Pleasures and ease and idleness and this keeps them off from those labours and that industry which is necessary to the maintaining their Souls in life Some lust to Pride others to Envy others to frowardness and contention and those make such gashes in their Hearts as let out the life bloud of all their Rellgion 'T is mens lusts that bring their Souls down and do devour and eat up all their Religion and as I said before of the Devil so here of Lust that which hath brought them down will hinder their rising And these Lusts are stirring Lusts working and warring in our Members holding us in captivity to the Law of Sin as Rom. 7.23 and hindering our recovery and redemption When I would do good evil is present with me v. 21. that is to hinder and hold me back from doing any thing that would do me good And as it was with the Apostle so is it more or less with every Christian May we not all say after him When I would do good evil is present with me Lust is busie lust stands ready to spoil me in every duty Whatever calls we have to duty to repent and return to the Lord to pray and cry unto the Lord Though the Word calls remember whence you are fallen and repent though Conscience calls seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Lust strikes in to stop or turn away our Ears from these Calls Why is it that no more of you have answered these Calls Remember whence you are fallen and repent O 't is your Lusts that have stopp'd your ears Whatever need or necessity there be lying upon us to hearken to these calls though we see all the good that is within us even at deaths door graces dying comforts dying hopes dying and all our Religion ready to give up the ghost yet our Lusts will not suffer us to mind our Necessities Whatever inclinations or desires or purposes we have to make an escape to seek a remedy for these our diseased languishing Souls whatever offers and attempts we make to set upon more earnest praying and crying to the Lord for help and deliverance to set upon a more watchful diligent life whatever good it be we purpose or set our selves upon still evill is present with us one lust or other is still at hand to spoil or hinder all so that we cannot do the things that we would Gall. 5.17 We think to come to it we hope to come to it while the word is preaching to us and our hearts are a little touched and affected with it whilst we are made to stand convinced in our own particulars This decayed state is evidently my state and it is an evil and wretched and dangerous state and thereupon we take up such thoughts Well through the grace of God I will amend I will no longer go on thus I will seek my recovery yet still Lust strikes in and fights against all such thoughts so that we cannot do the things that we would Christians do you not find it thus in your experiences One lust or other is
much less increase their store without diligence and the least of Saints shall not be always at a stand if they will be diligent and whilest your souls flourish in grace the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you The more you have of the grace and holiness of God in you the more the Lord hath to lose the more gracious ones the Lord hath in a Nation the more he hath to lose among that people and the more grace there is in any soul the more he hath to lose if that soul should miscarry the greater treasure the Lord hath in your hearts the closer guard will he keep about it that it be not lost You whose religion hath so abounded that your souls are filled with the fruits of religion fear not God will stand at your right hand he will not lose such a treasure If you make the Most High your habitation and keep his habitation clean and well furnished he will delight to dwell with you Never any gracious soul that made it his work to please the Lord could ever say unless upon a mistake the Lord hath forsaken me Upon a mistake some of his most precious ones may say so and have said so Ps 77.6 7. I communed with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search what was it he searched for why he searched what was become of his God he said to his soul as once his enemy said to him in reproach Where is thy God he searched for God but could not find him and thereupon concluded as appears by the following verse the Lord was departed from him and had cast him off for says he Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more is his mercy clean gone hath God forgotten to be gracious This was his thought he had God had left and forgotten him but this was his mistake and so he saw and said afterwards v. 10. This is my infirmity to think so I was mistaken God was with him still though at present he hid his face Keep close to God keep up the holiness of God and God will never be gone if he should at any time hide his face whilest you are walking uprightly before him and your heart should whisper to you God is departed give check to such a thought and say as the Psalmist did this is my infirmity this is my mistake the Lord is still with me and holdeth me by his right hand and this I do and will believe though yet I see him not He hath said The Lord is with you while you are with him and how sad soever it be with me yet I thank the Lord mine heart is with him to him is all my desire in him is all my delight my conscience witnesseth with me that this is my great care that I may please and walk with him and having this witness that my soul is with God this is my confidence that the Lord is still with my soul 5. How we should stir up our selves To the directions I have hitherto occasionally given I shall adde these that follow 1. Make your advantage of stirring providences 2. Put you upon stirring thoughts 3. Get you stirring affections 4. Get you stirring consciences 5. Be much conversant in stirring society 6. Be much exercised in stirring duties 1. Make your advantage of stirring providences times of trouble and affliction and persecution especially such troubles as threaten an eclipse if not the putting out the light of the Gospel such afflicting threatning providences are awakening providences and that upon a double account 1. As they are signs of a storm coming 2. As they are tokens of a night approaching 1. As they are signs of a storm coming When workmen in the fields lie loitering or asleep under the cocks if they espy a storm rising then they are all up and every man falls to his work that they may dispatch before the storm falls and they be beaten out of the field Is there no fear of such a Storm there is a double ground of fear of a Storm coming at this day 1. May we not see a storm in the angry Face of God 2. May we not see a storm in the dark providences of God 1. May we not see a storm in the angry face of God who is so provoked by us Do you think you may provoke God at the rate that so many of us have done as by our manifold iniquities so by our so little answering the Calls of the Gospel to repentance and recovering our selves out of that wretched state we are in and yet God not be angry Prov. 1.24 28. Because I have called and ye refused therefore you shall call and I will not answer If we be so hard of hearing when God calls God will in anger be gone out of hearing when we call upon him God hath been calling to sinners and calling upon the Professors amongst us and what answer hath there been either of the one or the other Hath not the Gospel called upon sinners to come in and be converted and what answer is there of this call Sinners how many are there among you who after all that God hath spoken yet will not answer Drunkards you have been called from your drunkenness called from the Ale-house called from your Companions but are you come away have you cast them off and forsaken them Yea every blind and impenitent sinner among you you have all been called upon to seek the knowledge of God to seek after the grace of God to come to Christ to be his hearty Disciples to become new Creatures to seek the Kingdom of God and to escape out of the snares of the Devil And yet there you lie a company of blind hardned sensless souls even as if you had never been preached to if we had been calling to the Rocks and the Mountains if we had been calling to the dead that are rotting in their Graves if we had been preaching to the skulls and bones of those that have been long since dead and rotten we might even have seen as much success of our word upon these bones and mountains and rocks as we do see upon multitudes of impenitent ones Have you not heard do you not see that it is even just thus and yet is not God angry Dost thou not hear that word in thine ears Jam. 5.9 Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this 2. And what answer is there of the calls of the Gospel upon Professors The Gospel that hath call'd you in to Christ hath also call'd you on after him The Gospel that hath call'd you to the Profession of Christianity hath call'd you also to come on to the power of Christianity hath call'd you from your indifferency from your hypocrisie from your backslidings to a lively fruitfulness in Religion and what answer is there of these Calls upon you Are you awakened are you revived have all
'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