you Therefore 3. Live under the government of conscience that is live a conscientious life make conscience of your duties and perform them make conscience of sin and avoid it Approve your hearts to your consciences in all things be conscientious livers and be universally consciencious Be able to say with the Apostle Acts 23.1 I have lived in all good conscience and as Heb. 13.18 I have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly To obey conscience in some things and to rebel against it in other things is not to live a conscientious life be universally conscientious of every duty of every sin O Friends how many are there of us even among Professors that do halt after conscience are very lame and deceitful in our ways some things we do and other things we neglect some sins we forbear and other sins we venture upon You that are Professours and seem in a fair way of recovery consider how you come off here it may be you are afraid of gross sins you dare not be drunk or swear and curse and blaspheme but are you afraid also of taking the name of God in vain Mingling O Lord O God O Christ with your common and ordinary discourses It may be you are afraid to be found in an alehouse companions and partakers with the drunken and the riotous but are you afraid to be found unnecessarily among the vain ones and to become vain with those that are vain It may be you are afraid to couzen and cheat your consciences will not suffer you to do that but yet do you not covet or be inordinatly eager and greedy after the world It may be you dare not work or travel on the Lords day though some among us will venture to do that also the conveniences for their markets or their fairs and the shortning their expenses what ever conscience sayes to the contrary will put them upon this Sabbath profanation One word by the way to such I remember a story told me by a reverend man that a professor of his flock being about to travel upon the Lords day to a Fair that was next day being reproved of it by his minister and asked if he thought it not a sin yes I do says he but I have repented of it His meaning was he meant to travel the next Lords day but he had repented of it already It is a strange kind of repentance for a man that is going to an alehouse or to a whore first to do something that he could call repenting and then to go and commit the fact You that are guilty if there be any such among you let me ask you have you repented of your former Sabbath profanations or have you not If you have not repented there is the guilt of all your former journies of this kind still lying upon you you are guilty to this day guilt is never taken away without repentance If you say you have repented of your former practice then I hope you mean never while you live to be guilty again You have not repented of any sin till you are resolved through the grace of God to forsake it for ever Remember this unless you resolve to have done with all such journeyings hereafter you have not repented of what is past and if you have not repented of what is past there is the guilt of all still lying upon you and your souls lyable to answer for it before the Judgment of God But thou that allowest not thy self such a liberty of working or journying upon the Lords day yet dost thou make conscience of sleeping or loitering or idling out a great part of the day It may be thou wilt not be then found in the fields or at thy sports for conscience sake but maist thou not be found walking about the streets or idly visiting or vainly spending thy time with a neighbour Though thou wilt not be abroad when thou shouldst be in the Congregation yet wilt thou not be out of doors when thou shouldst be teaching or instructing or praying with thy family It hath often troubled me to think how little help some poor families have from their governours even on the day of the Lord. It may be you will not be unjust or deceitful in your dealings but are you not unmerciful or uncharitable It may be you bear no rooted malice or grudge in your hearts God forbid you should that is for a Devil rather than a Christian but suppose you do not yet it may be you do What ever you think you may have routed malice from resting in your hearts But if you do not yet you will be fretful and furious and soure and sullen and can express it in bitter looks in strangeness and keeping your distance in biting words and backbiting stories and this conscience lets you alone in It may be you are not of a vicious conversation but are you of a gracious conversation It may be there may be no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouths your breath doth not stink of ribaldry and obscene discourses but yet are you not frothy and unsavory in your communication If your speech be not rotten and corrupt yet is it seasoned with salt that it may administer grace to the hearers It may be you dare not neglect praying but yet will not your consciences suffer you to trifle and shuffle in prayer It may be you pray and are serious in prayer and feel some workings of conscience and meltings of heart and enlargement of affection and some sense of God and religion whilst you are upon your knees but when you have done and go out of your closet do you not then leave your consciences behind you your religion behind you Do you carry conscience into your shops into your fields unto the markets You pray as a man of conscience and hear as a man of conscience but do you buy sell eat and drink and converse in the world as a man of conscience Take you out of duties and may we not take you out of your religion What are you at other times but even as other men Is this to be universally conscientious Can you be sincerely conscientious if you be not universally so He that is not conscientious in every thing is truly consciencious in nothing Brethren take heed you do not give conscience a kiss and a kick Kiss it and comply with it in the things you like and kick at conscience when it presses too hard upon you in the things you like not If in any thing you give conscience a kick conscience may remember you and give you a gripe for it another day O if you would recover the authority of conscience if you would have conscience hold out the golden Scepter to you if you would have conscience smile upon you if you would have true peace of conscience and live indeed under the power of conscience be universally conscientious exercise your selves to it to live holily in all
things honestly in all things and at all times This exercise of keeping to conscience is a painful exercise you can never live a conscientious life unless you will be content to live a painful life to take pains with your hearts to take pains with your thoughts and affections to take pains with your tongues and all your members to hold them close to the rule of conscience this painful exercise will get you an heat will beget warmth in those cold and careless hearts The most conscientious Christians are the most warm and lively Christians and according as you get and keep your hearts warm so will your diseases waste the health of your souls return into you Remember what I have said if ever you would recover your lost souls recover conscience if ever you would recover conscience get the guilt the guile of conscience purged away by the bloud of Christ and water of repentance keep the eye of conscience open let conscience be the Supervisor of all your ways let the book of conscience be kept clear from blots and blurs and let there be a faithful record kept there of all your ways let the tongue of Conscience have leave to speak and warn you from day to day and submit to its Scepter and government be no longer govern'd by Will or by appetite or by lust or by the fashions and customs or examples of men but be govern'd by Conscience Do not give Conscience a Kiss and a Stab hearken to it in some things and wound it in other things but study to live in all good Conscience on your Sabbath-dayes on your working-working-dayes in the House of the Lord in your own houses in the houses of your Friends in the Field in the Market in the matters of God in the matters of the World when you are alone when in company when you are in good company when you are fallen into evil company wherever you are whatever you are a doing still have an eye upon Conscience an ear open to Conscience and let Conscience prescribe to you what you should do and how you should carry it in every affair 3. Beware of taking cold That 's a special rule Physicians use to give to the recovering Patient when Persons are upon recovery of their bodily diseases how ordinary is it that upon a little cold they relapse and sometimes die of their disease Is thy Soul upon recovery take heed of Colds Soul such there are who when they begin to be wrought upon and brought to any sence of Religion there appears a great heat and fervour of spirit upon them 't is with them as with the Prophet Jer. 20.9 Thy Word was in me like fire their love and desire and zeal for God seem all in a flame O what warm affections have they how warm in their Duties how warm in their converses they seem to be all Life and Soul and then after a time they grow stark cold and little life is left in them and some of them never recover again while they live Hath thy Spirit gotten an heat hath the Word heated thee and those Exercises of Prayer Repentance and keeping Conscience gotten thee into an heat then take heed of growing cold keep you constant to those Exercises that have begotten an heat in you Keep you in the Sun-shine all your heart-warmth is begotten and must be maintained from above live in the beholding the face of God live under the Sun-beams of the Sun of righteousness keep you close to God keep you near to Christ live in intimate communion with God Take heed of those clouds your sins that will obscure the Sun Isa 59.1 Take heed of an Eclipse see that this Earth do not interpose betwixt your Souls and Heaven take heed of the damp Influences of the dead that you live amongst We live in a cold World a cold Age that Age has overtaken us which Christ Prophesied of Mat. 24.20 Wherein the love many of should wax cold Those that are grown cold themselves will serve for nothing but to chill and damp the Spirits of others Be not unnecessarily conversant with this cold World trust not your selves in their Company have you never found how much your Souls have lost by carnal Correspondencies Professors how is it with you Do you still retain your first vigour as when you began to be recovered May not the Lord complain over some of us as of Israel Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth and the love of thine Espousals I remember it as a thing that is past that now is not or as Ephesus Rev. 2.4 Thou hast lost thy first Love and what follows from this decay Hence is it that we are become a Company of sickly Professors of Carnal Professors of Earthly Professors the World hath return'd upon us the Flesh hath gotten head again in us the things that are Eternal and the influences of them upon us are even lost and swallow'd up of things Temporal our Stocks and our Businesses and our Trades how have they even choak'd up our Religion Friends it 's matter of astonishment to consider how very few lively Christians there are to be found amongst us Thus we every one talk what a General decay of Religion there is among us has not thine own Mouth complain'd of the coldness of this Age But whilst thou complainest of the Age how is it with thee Art not thou sick of the same Disease Look homeward look inward into thine own House into thine own Heart what Spirit of Religion is there going in thine own Family Hast thou not by thy negligence let all run to decay there What Life of Religion is there maintain'd in thine own Heart Friends feel you every man his own Pulse lay your hand every Man upon his own Heart and feel how faintly it beats Heaven-wards Sure Friends if we should examine our own Cases we should find enough to set us all a Weeping over our own decays and she should hear that voice within us Weep not for others but weep for thy self and thine own Children O take heed lest such of you as are fallen back among the Sick do not also return among the Dead and make your recovery again more hopeless at last than 't was at first You that stand be warn'd by those that are fallen stand with your Loyns girded and your Lights burning and you that are fallen fallen to decay fallen to a dead and flat and lifeless State you that are fallen remember whence you are fallen remember and repent remember and recover strengthen the things that remain if there be any sparks left blow off your Ashes blow up the Coals Let the Life of God and the love of Christ and a Zeal for Holiness be again kindled in you and if ever the Lord should recover you again there 's great hazard whether he may thou mayest die of the Cold thou hast taken the Consumption that hath Eaten up so much of thy Vitals may be unto
thy self in these things as great a Pleasure to thee and dost thou find as great a delight in them as thou findest in eating and drinking in buying and selling and getting gain dost thou love to be Praying or to be Praising the Lord as thou lovest to be getting Money dost thou love to be sending thine Heart to Heaven and there to solace it in the thoughts and joyes of the Lord as thou lovest to be thinking of thy Corn or thy Cattel or thy Income by thy Trade Thou knowest thou dost not Canst thou say with the Psalmist Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles Oh Lord my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for thy Courts mine Heart and my flesh cryeth out for the liveâ—ng God A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand a door in thine House is better than all the dwellings of the World Lord lift up thy Countenance upon me and that shall put more gladness into mine Heart than when their Corn and Wine encreased Let the Corn and the Wine be whose it will so that the Lord God will be mine let this World go cross and frown upon me as it will so that the Face and Countenance of God do but shine upon me let me be poor rather than a Stranger from God let me want an House or want Money or want bread rather than want the presence of God canst thou say so heartily say so thou knowest that thou canst not the good things of the earth the Riches and the Pleasures of the Earth are the Riches thou lovest and the Pleasures thou lovest and thou couldst be content to be straitned in the Lord so that thou mightest abound in these carnal things Is it so with thee O what a Heart hast thou what dost thou think of thy Self art not thou an Idolater a lover of Money more than a Lover of God a lover of Pleasures more than a lover of God a lover of thy Self and flesh more than a lover of God and yet art thou not an Idolater doth thine Heart go a Whoring after thine Idols run away from God after thy Money run away from God after thy Pleasures run away from God after thy Self and flesh and yet not an Idolater art thou an Idolater then an Idolatrous Christian an Idolatrous Professor O! how is it that such a thought does not fill thy Face with shame and set thy Soul a weeping and cause trembling and astonishment to take hold upon thee what Friends is it nothing with you to be Idolaters to have Idolatrous Hearts whoring Hearts whoring from God and whoring after your flesh and the Lusts thereof sure Friends it would make the best of our Hearts to ake if we were sensible what degrees of this Idolatry there were to be found in every one of us and many of us I fear it would convince that they are Idolaters to so high degree that there is nothing of true and real love to God in them 2. It 's the root of all Rebellion and Disobedience Self-love 2 Tim. 3.2 is put in the Head of a black-troop of Lusts and Wickednesses Men shall be lovers of themselves there 's the ring-leader and what follows behold a troop cometh covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without Natural affection Truce-breakers false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High-minded lovers of Pleasure more then lovers of God what a Regiment of sins is here led on by Self-love And observe it lovers of themselves lead on the Van and lovers of Pleasures bring up the Rear Heart-sins are Root-sins and Self-love is the Root of these Roots Pride is the Root of Contention Malice is the Root of Revenge Covetousness is the Root of Oppression and self-love is the Root of them all The Apostle says 1 Tim. 6.10 The love of Money is the Root of all Evil and Self-love is the Root of the love of Money particularly that you may know what a mischievous evil this Heart-sin of Self-love is and how pregnant of all other wickedness consider that it is 1. The Rot of all Religion 2. The Root of all Vnrighteousness and Vnmercifulness 3. The Root of all sinful Brawls and Quarrels 4. The Root of sinful Self-seeking 1. It is the Rot of all Religion that is where it is predominant and carries the main stroak in our Religion It is the rottenness of the Heart under all its most specious Religious pretences or performances All sincere Religion is animated by the love of God the love of God is the Soul of Religion If there be no love to God in our profession of Religion if no love to God in our practices of Piety if no love to God in our Prayers no love to God in our Fastings and Alms all our Religion is rotten at Heart Self-love which is it's only Root is it's rotteness Self-love will 1. Limit our Religion 'T will limit it by self-Interest no more nor no other Religion will it allow than will serve our Carnal turns no farther may we go in it than will consist with this love of our selves whatever part or exercise of Religion will pinch upon the Flesh the self-denying part the self-abasing part the Flesh-mortifying part of Religion unless it be to some further Ends Self-love will never bear it So much professing so much Praying and Hearing as will consist with our Ease and our safety as will not put us to too much pains or expose us to too much danger and reproach so much Religion as will not hold us in too strictly and severely and closely Self-love will bear it but where the Yoak of Christ wrings and galls there it must be thrown off 2. It will corrupt our Religion and turn it into Hypocrisie Selfish Professors are Hypocrites and all their Religion is Hypocrisie and Hypocrisie is the rottenness of the Heart You that are Professors see to it that ye be not self-loving Professors if ye be whatever there be in your Tongues or your Looks or your Religious performances you are rotten at the Core rotten in your Hearts It is love to God wherein our sincerity lies Self-love is our Hypocrisie and where this rotten Self-love hath tainted your Hearts your Hearts will taint and corrupt all your Duties it will pervert and corrupt all that ever you do and turn it into quite another thing your Religion is no Religion your Christianity is no Christianity your Praying is no Praying your Spirituality is but fleshliness your Heavenly-mindedness is but Earthiness your seeming fruitfulness is but Emptiness and barrenness Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth his Fruits to himself Hos 10.1 Israel seemed to be a fruitful Vine that had her Clusters upon it there were Clusters of Prayers and Clusters of Sacrifices and Clusters of Alms Israel had their Fruits and yet they were but a Barren and empty Vine how so Why whatever Fruits they had they were all brought forth to Self Self brought them
but for a Moment 4. Sinners live in their own Light in the Light of their own Fires and Sparks Walk in the Light of your Fire that 's all the Light you have it is all Dark to them from above the Sun shines not the Candle of the Lord gives them no light God speaks Terrour and Trouble to them but they speak Peace to themselves their own Joy and Mirth is all they have to comfort and chear them 5. Sinners Light serves for nothing but to Light them down to Darkness Walk in your Light this shall ye have of mine Hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Sinners how Light soever your Walk be how Merry soever your Lives be yet what is your lying down like to be He is a Wise Man that taketh care that how uncomfortable or weary soever his Way and his Walk be yet he may have a comfortable lying down Psal 37.37 Mark the Just Man and behold the Perfect Man the End of that Man is Peace But O ye Jolly and Merry Souls what is your End like to be Remember your lying down when your Hearts are Merry within you when you live such Laughing and Sporting Lives in the midst of your Cups of Pleasure your Musick and Dancing your Feasting and Sporting and the Jollity of your Revelling and Rioting think with your selves What doth all this lead to When these Merry dayes are over what a Night am I like to have of it When the Candles of your Worldly Prosperity are Burnt down in what a stinking Snuff will they go out What a stink will they be in your Nostrils When your Fires and your Sparks will Light you no longer then they will burn you your Mirth will burn you your Pleasures will burn you your abused Prosperity your Riches your Money your Plenty and the Joy that you now take in them will burn you and they will burn to the bottom of Hell Will you yet rejoyce in these Carnal things Rejoyce with Trembling Tremble to think what the End of these things will be Prov. 14.13 In the midst of Laughter the Heart is Sorrowful and the End of this Mirth is heaviness if the former of these in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowful c. should not be true if you should Laugh and rejoyce and know no Sorrow if it should be with you as with those Merry ones Job 21.9 Their Houses are far from Fear and your Hearts should be as far from Sorrow as your Houses from Fear if you should have all Sweet and no Bitter all Sun-shine and no Clouds if the first Part should not be true upon you if in the midst of Laughter your Hearts should not be sorrowful yet the latter shall certainly be true there shall be no avoiding of that the End of your Mirth shall be heaviness Hold up while you will maintain the Mirth and the Jollity of your Hearts while you can the End of this Mirth will be heaviness you shall lie down in Sorrow Sinners what will ye choose What would a Wise Man choose A Merry Life or a Joyful Death Which do ye think in your Judgments and Consciences is the best choice to Die in Peace to Die in Joy or to Die in Sorrow How would you have it with you when you come to Die Would you then find that all your Sorrow is gone and now your Joy is come Or would you be forced then to say Now farewel all my Mirth I have seen my last of it and henceforth nothing but Sorrow and Anguish for ever Dost thou not tremble to think What if this should be my Case Know it for a Truth there 's no avoiding it if you go on to live this Merry Jolly Life this shall be thy End thou must lie down in Sorrow Christians envy not the World's Mirth nor let your Hearts lust after it you have other Joyes than their crackling Thorns will yield you have your Sorrows while they have their Mirth but you have this advantage of the World 1. You have Joy in your Sorrows as in the midst of Laughter the Heart is sad so in the midst of your Sorrows your Hearts may be Joyful 2. Your Sorrows shall End in Joy this shall you have of the Hand of your God you shall lie down in Peace You that Sow in Tears shall reap in Joy Psal 126.6 Whilest those that Sow in Mirth shall Reap in Tears you that go on your Way weeping whilest they go on their Way Laughing yet mark the End of both Isa 65.13 14. Behold however it be now behold how it shall be hereafter How shall it be My Servants shall Eat but ye shall be Hungry my Servants shall Drink but ye shall be Thirsty my Servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed my Servants shall sing for Joy of Heart but ye shall cry for Sorrow of Heart and shall howl for vexation of Spirit and ye shall leave your Name for a Curse to my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee Now your Enemies Eat and some of you are an Hungry c. But think how it will be in the Day when the Scales be turned when the Sinners Eating Days and Drinking Days and Jolly merry Dayes are over and their Hungring Dayes and howling Dayes overtake them and you that now Hunger and are Sorrowful shall Eat and Drink and be satisfied with the Joy of the Lord. O envy not and meddle not with the sinful Joyes of the World these Strangers shall not meddle with your Joy Prov. 14.10 Meddle you as little with theirs let your God be your Joy and if he give you any matters of rejoycing in this World and allow you some Measures of Joy even in these outward things yet rejoyce with trembling and let your Fear so moderate your Joy in these lower things that you do not lash out into that Carnal Mirth the End whereof is Heaviness Especially when the Matters of Worldly Joy increase upon you you that grow Rich and Prosper in the World that find the World smiling and come crowding in upon you that have even what your Hearts could wish and then feel your Hearts to be tickled and pleased and delighted in your Prosperity then take heed then fear lest you forget God and your Soul and neglect and lose the Joy of the Lord and your care of pleasing the Lord in your abounding Worldly Joyes and never count any such Joyes lawful or safe for you but such as make you to love the Lord the more and serve the Lord with more chearfulness and care If you do not serve the Lord better and walk with God closer and bring forth more of the Fruits of Holiness and Righteousness in more Spirituality and Heavenliness of mind if you be not some way the better God-wards and Heaven-wards in the abundance of all things than you could be or than others are in the want of all things count that Prosperity greater cause of trembling than of rejoycing to you 4.
care to the Lord. If thou wilt not take care of thine own soul thou leavest it to the custody of the Devil and if thou dost God will leave thee to him also To say I commit the keeping of my self to God and will not take care of my self is the same in effect as to say I comâ—it my soul to the custody of Sathan If thou take not care of thy self God will not take care of thee and if thou be kept neither by thy self nor by the Lord into whose hands art thou like to fall but into the hands of the Devil The Devil is a Keeper yet not a Protector but a Goaler the Keeper of the Prison All the Sinners of the Earth are Prisoners to this Goaler and there is no man that escapes this Keeper till he will faithfully keep and look to himself and so commit himself to the Keeper of Israel 2. Every man hath others to keep â—â—â—des himself Not onely Magistrates who are to keep their People or Ministers who are to keep their Flocks or Parents who are to keep their Children but every man is to look to his Brethren It was the Question of a wicked one and it was a wicked Question Am I my Brothers keeper Yes thou art so thou art to watch thy Brother and to warn thy Brother to prevent his falling into evil and to restore and recover him when fallen Gal. 6.1 If a man be overtaken with a fault ye which are spiritual restore c. Thus every man hath other Keepers and every man hath others to keep besides himself But 3. In special every man is his own Keeper Deut. 4.9 Keep thine own soul diligently And so in the Text Keep thy heart with all diligence Reason 1. If thou wilt not keep thy self all the World is not able to keep thee Ministers will but preach to thee in vain instruct thee in vain warn and watch over thee in vain Magistrates will but govern thee in vain Parents will look to thee in vain if thou wilt not look to thy self God himself will not keep thee if thou wilt not keep thy self Men cannot and God will not he will be no keeper of the careless ones 2. If thou wilt not keep thy self the Devil will be thy keeper He will keep thee to thy wickedness if thou wilt not keep thy self from it This is every mans especial charge to keep himself out of the hands of the Devil The Devil will have thee man if thou look not to thy self nay the Devil hath thee already if thou be careless of thy self God will keep none but those that under him will keep themselves Those that will not keep themselves the Devil may come and take them into his custody The Devil goes up and down the World to see if he can find any Sheep without a Shepherd and he that is not his own Shepherd God will be none of his Shepherd If thou wilt not keep thy self God will not keep thee thou art a Sheep without a Shepherd Here 's a man for me saith the Devil he hath none to look to him nor will he look to himself This is a man for me I will be his keeper He will not keep himself for God I will keep him for Hell He is none of Gods Sheep I will take him for one of my Goats He is left out for me he hath left out himself aâ— therefore God hath left him out and I will take him into custody 3. If thou wilt not keep thy self then thou wilt never keep those others that are committed to thy keeping What a Parent what a Neighbour art thou like to be who art careless of thy self How are thy poor Children like to be lookt too How is thy Family like to be governed by thee if thou keep not thine own soul He that will not keep his own Vineyard how will he keep another mans He that neglecteth himself and his own soul how will he mind the souls that are committed to him Vse 1. Then no man must be a Sleeper or a Loyterer Keepers must watch yea and must work too he that is set to keep himself is as the Keeper of a Garden or the Keeper of a Vineyard and so it is exprest Cant. 1.6 Mine own vineyard have I not kept The Garden hath a Wall to be kept up hath Weeds to be kept under the Vineyard may have wild Vines springing up and exuberant branches that must be pruned and lopt off Thou hast thy hands full of work who hast such a Vineyard as thy self committed to thy keeping What standest thou all day idle Work in thy Vineyard we live most of us as if we wanted work and had nothing to do We find something to do for this World and our outward man and therefore here we are busy but we see not we consider not how much we have to do for our souls and therefore here we are idle as if we had nothing to do and those that have the greatest work lying upon them whose work lies most behind hand who have let all within them run to ruine and lye all out of order these are usually the men that live as if they had nothing to do Thou art a Keeper man a keeper of thine own soul and life Is all in safety Is all in good order Look into thy self and see to what a miserable case for want of good looking to thou art grown Conscience which is thy Wall or thy Fence is broken down that little good that was in thee thy Flowers are withered and plucked up and how doth Weeds abound in thee Pride and Lust and Covetousness and those Thorns the Cares of this life how have they over-run thy ground And dost thou yet loyter as one that hath nothing to do Thou hast work for every day thou hast work for every hour The Foxes are waiting the wild Beaâ—â— Sathan with his temptations are breaking in the weâ—â—s are growing up every hour behold thy case is growing worse and worse thine eyes more blind thy heart more hard and sensless dayly up and be doing look to thy self keep thy self with all diligence lest thou let all run to ruine so long that it be past recovery 2. Then every man must give an account of himself Whoever hath a trust committed to him must be brought to a reckoning how he hath discharged his trust Rom. 14.12 Every one of us must give an account of himself to God God that now says keep thine heart look to thy self will then say how hast thou kept thy self What care or what pains hast thou taken and oh what account will the most of us be able to give Sinner thou art a careless heedless soul thou takest no thought about thy self thou takest thought for thy Sheep and Oxen thou takest care of thy House and thy Ground but what thought dost thou take about thy self thy miserable sick soul thy blind and dead soul thy proud and earthly mind thy envy and
to this well I hope I shall mock God no more I hope I shall trifle in prayer no more Are you resolved to put your hearts to it and to trie what you can do and never leave trying till you are come to it to make every prayer one of the most serious and hearty exercises of your life Then would there be hope of recovery out of all your diseases 2. Exercise your selves to repentance Repentance signifies a change a change of the mind originally so those two words by which it is expressed in Scripture signifie post factum sapere after we have plaid the fools by sin to come to be wise so wise as to see our folly so to see our folly as to grieve for it and so to grieve ut corrigere to amend and do so no more This change is ordinarily brought on by convulsions and troublesome commotions in the heart there is a sorrow that works this repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation This Repentance is not dispatched all at once but is carried on and perfected by degrees Repentance is a grace and it is an exercise A grace it is as it is given us of God through Jesus Christ Acts 5.31 To give repentance unto Israel c. An exercise as it respects our own acts which this grace causeth us to put forth 2 Cor. 7.10 This self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly manner what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves what indignation what fear what desire what zeal what revenge Get the grace of repentance and live in the daily exercise of repentance 1. Keep your minds working to maintain that change that is begun Have you seen the folly of sin and the misery of sin and how much better it is to turn and come about from it to holiness Are you come to be of this judgment that you were mad to follow the Devil and your lusts that you could never have lived in such a state and gone on in such a course as you have unless you had been mad men Are you gotten into so good a mind Keep you in it Exercise your thoughts cast an eye back upon your former evils and that which God hath made known to you of the misery of them Think often what it is to be a lost soul a captive to the Devil think what a Fool what a Beast thou wert whilest thou livedst such a proud and covetous and carnal sensual lascivious and sottish life and by such thoughts make thy self as odious to thy self as thou canst get to a loathing and abominating of thy evil ways This is that which is promised Ezek. 6.9 They shall loath themselves for the evils they have committed Get this self loathing by studying and remembring what thou wast and ripping up all thine old sores that foolish filthy heart and life of thine hereby work thy self to this loathing and maintain a constant disgust and dislike of thy former state Art thou now in so good a mind as to hate thy self for thy sin be never reconciled to it so as ever to think good thoughts of thy evil ways as long as thou livest 2. Exercise your affections Your sorrow for sin your fear of sin your indignation or anger against sin your desire after power and victory over it Keep these penitent affections working maintain that godly sorrow and fear and indignation Keep your sorrow alive keep your fears working and your indignation burning against your iniquities Let these zealous passions and affections against sin be so raised as never to be allayed let the fire of your holy jealousie be so kindled as never to be quenched let the thoughts of the evil and odiousness of sin be the fuel to keep that holy fire burning and the Bellows to blow it up into a greater flame 3. Exercise your care and consideration how you may compleat and confirm your recovery The word it may be is but yet begun with you You do but begin to be wise begin to be sober and serious there is many a good and hopeful beginning goes back and comes to nothing live in a dayly care of reforming and amending farther what hath been amiss The top of repentance standeth in amendment if you should see your sins to be foolish and odious never so much if you should be grieved and ashamed of your selves for them if the thoughts of the course you have lived should make you afraid and set you a trembling over your old wonted state and way if you do not amend that is no repentance If you should say I hate sin and hate my self for it I hate my self for this pride I hate my self for this covetousness I hate my self for this frowardness and yet you have not the power to resist it and come off from it you sorrow and sin you fear and sin you are angry with your self for sin and yet go on this is no repentance Is 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his wickedness c. The top of repentance stands in amendment and the amendment of repentance must be compleating every day Jer. 7.5 If ye throughly amend your ways if ye throughly execute Judgment c. Then will I cause you to dwell in the Land It is not an half recovery a partial amendment but a perfect recovery that must be in your eye There is a great difference betwixt these two being upon recovery and being recovered Are you upon recovery it is well you are it is more than the most of sinners are there is not the least sign of recovery there is not the least sign of amendment there are nothing but death tokens upon them Sinners I doubt this may be many of your cases you are not so much as beginning to recover your disease is still in its strength and growing upon you you are not amending but you are hardning dayly in your sins going on to have less sense and so less hope of a cure But art thou O sinner art thou upon recovery It is well thou art but let not that satisfie thee that thou art upon the recovering hand but get thee to be recovered And this is that you are to be exercising your self in to get you to be on the mending hand every day labour to grow better and better not only to get a deeper sense of sin but to get more power over sin more victory over your evil hearts more contempt of the world and its temptations more scorn of your carnal companions and more indignation against a carnal sensual life and more firmness and resolvedness of heart to have done with every evil and vain way and the temptations to it I say the temptations to it for whatever opposition there seems to be of the heart against sin yet if there be a venturing upon temptations if thou thinkest thou hatest drunkenness or a jolly vain life and yet wilt be thrusting in amongst those that are such if thou sayst thou hatest this worldly
ye are mine and I am Gods Thus Christs love to Christians causeth him to say to them I am yours and all that I have so Christians love to Christ helps them to say Lord we are thine and all we have are thine not only our sins are thine our infirmities are thine but our Parts and our Possessions our Graces and our Duties yea our Houses and our Lands and our Possessions all are thine Christians we have been call'd together this day to a Communion of Loves and thereby to an Espousal of Interests betwixt Christ and us we have received the Pledges of his love his Bread and his Wine he hath given us to Eat and to Drink as the tokens he hath sent us down from Heaven of his Love I have brought you tokens every one of you from the Lord this day tokens of his love we have received the Pledges of his love and we have returned the Pledges of our love to him our very accepting of Christ's Tokens hath been our returning of our tokens Your communion together to Eat of Christ's Bread and Drink of his Cup provided it hath been in sincerity a Spiritual Eating and a Spiritual Drinking your Eating and Drinking his Body and Blood Christ hath accepted as a token of your loves and this communion of love hath been an Espousal of Interests Christ hath hereby told you Because I love you I will be yours and all that I have in Heaven and Earth you may henceforth call your own I am your own Jesus my Father is your own Father and my God is your own God and mine Inheritance is your own Inheritance and you have said if you have sincerely accepted of Christ we are thine own thine own Flock thine own Inheritance thy Ransom'd ones thy Redeemed ones and thy peculiar People this hath been the up-shot of the Transaction betwixt Christ and you this day the Sealing to this word I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine And as there hath been an interchangeable communion of loves and Espousal of Interest betwixt Christ and Christians so also betwixt Christians and Christians as we have said to our Lord I am thine so we have therein said one to another I am yours and must therefore walk in that tenderness of love in that dearness of affection one to another in that mutual care of each others good in that mutual Sense of each others afflictions in that mutual delight in each others Societies in that mutual helping and counselling and comforting one another and hearty seeking and rejoicing in each others good studying to please each other for his good to Edification fearing to grieve or offend or wrong or fall out with or quarrel one with another counting the Interest of every Christian to be the common Interest of the whole Body that we hereby may prove that we love one another not in Word and in Tongue but Indeed and in Truth This now is the Nature and these are the Fruits of Divine Love it will unite Hearts and unite Interests this will be the Interest of Christians which will flow from the love of Christ that Christ's Interest prosper in the World that the Name of Christ be exalted and be honourable both in themselves and in the World that Christ be loved that Christ be praised that the Word of Christ the Worship of Christ his Sabbaths his Ordinances be exalted in the World that the Glory and Holy Image of Christ his Humility Meekness Lowliness Heavenliness Righteousness Mercy may shine forth in our Faces and in the Faces and Wayes of all his Saints that we may in our particulars and jointly shew forth the Spirit and Life of serious and poweful Religion and Godliness in all manner of Holy Conversation this we should account our Interest with respect to Christ that he may be thus Honour'd and Obeyed and this will be the Interest of Christians with respect to Christians that we may see one another the whole Vineyard flourishing in the Power of Holiness as living and lively Instances of the Grace of God and as far as the Lord see it good may see one another prospering in this World even as our Souls do prosper O Christians espouse this common Interest and do what you can to promote this Interest in the World Love Christ and lift up the Name of Christ love Christ and shew forth the Image of Christ love Christ and Consecrate your Life to Christ determine to know nothing to value nothing to rejoice in nothing but Jesus Christ and him Crucified And then love one another and study to please one another to profit one another for their good to Edification to cast in your Lot together to rejoice together with them that rejoice to grieve with them that suffer to live together in love forbearing one another forgiving one another comforting one another even as you your selves would be Loved forgiven and comforted of God This now is the nature and the fruit of Divine Love it unites Interests but Self-love sinful Self-love divides Interests and so those that seek the things of Self their carual things seek not the things of Christ 3. Sinful Self-love hath a root remaining in the best Hearts even of the regenerate though in Conversion Self hath lost the Domlnion and be cast down from the Throne yet is there a secret Tabernacle a corner in the Heart where it fortifies it Self and is still aspiring to recover the Throne it hath lost the Dominion yet it retains in some degree an Interest in the affection and by this affection it hath the advantage of us and often recovers too great a Command again How great a Power sinful Self-love hath still in us the experience of Chistians sadly proves for the clearing whereof consider yet again more distinctly that there is as hath been already hinted a threefold Self-love and accordingly a threefold Self-seeking 1. There is a loving or seeking our selves in conjunction with God and in subordination to him This is a loving or seeking Self spiritually a loving or seeking of Self as Christians as the Servants of God and Members of Christ as cloathed with the Image and devoted to the service and aspiring to the Salvation of God This Self-loving and Self-seeking is our duty and our excellency the Interest of Self spiritual and the Interest of God are a conjunct Interest only the Interest of Self is lower and subordinate to the Interest of God When we thus seek our selves our Spiritual and Eternal good we are therein most effectually seeking God we cannot more effectually seek God than in seeking our own Salvation Those that seek Glory Honour and Immortality for themselves do therein seek the Glory and Honour of the Immortal God thereby declaring that they prize and value the Lord as their chief nay the only good He that neglecting these lower things doth seeek God as his onely happiness doth therein take the Crown off the head of all his Idols and set it where it
that gave it Man though he hath a mortal body yet he hath an immortal Soul The Spirit of a man is the Candle of the Lord and when this Candle is once lighted it shall never go out It s carried away hence but it s carried to God that gave it The Souls of all men good and bad when they die do all go to God even those that go to the Devil are first carried to God by him to receive their Sentence to their everlasting state Sinners when they die go not to God as their Reward or Blessedness but to God as their Judge Sinners will say as Christ did Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit but God will say to them who are ye away from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7.23 I am none of your Father ye are of your Father the Devil get you down to him Commend your Spirits to me what have you given up your Souls to the Devil and all your life long have they been serving of him and he been corrupting and depraving of them blinding them hardning them made them such a filthy and unclean thing and now do ye think to come off so to commend these filthy and unclean Souls to me away with them I 'le none of them If those that are sanctified by my Spirit and serve me with their Spirit come to me when they die I 'le take them to me I will acknowledge my self their Father they shall dwell with me but those that have served sin and the Devil while they lived let not them think to commend their Spirits to me when they die I 'le none of them Well but whether we must dwell with God or the Devil into the other World all Souls good and bad must pass when they go hence 2. There is an eternal Judgement So the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.2 of the Doctrine of eternal Judgment It is call'd an Eternal Judgement not as if the day of Judgment should last for ever in how long or how short a time that judgment shall be dispatched no man certainly knows the glorious God can make short work and will do so in that great and dreadful day It s called Eternal Judgment because it sentenceth men to their everlasting state and its the last judgment there shall never be another to all Eternity but the sentence of this Judgment shall stand for ever 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all stand before the Judgment Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his works to them that by patient continuance in wel-doing do seek for glory honour and immortality eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the truth indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every Soul of them that do evil 3. In the Judgment to come the secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged Men shall be judged for their words men shall be judged for their deeds but not for these only but for the secrets of their hearts Eccl. 12.14 God shall bring every work to Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil The Judgments of men are only over our Bodies and outward Acts they know not our hearts and therefore cannot be our hearts Judges But 1. God sees the heart I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Jer. 17.10 He seeth in secret and he that seeth in secret will reward openly Mat. 6.4 1. He seeth the good that is in secret the love and fear of his Name our inward desires and thirstings and breathings after him every holy thought every holy purpose the inward mournings of the heart under sin and temptation the inward strivings wrestlings of the heart against temptation and corruption our self-loathings and self abasings the integrity and uprightness of our hearts whilst men are censuring or reproaching or punishing us as hypocrites God sees the integrity that is in our Souls O Friends get an honest upright heart in the sight of God you shall never loose the benefit and blessedness of it God sees the sincerity of the upright and will certainly reward it 2. He seeth the evil that is in secret the proud heart the false and guileful heart are open before him Beware of playing the Hypocrite of satisfying your selves with Hypocritical Duties hypocritical Praying hypocritical Hearing or Professing God sees what that heart of thine is a doing while thy tongue is a praying or thine ear hearing thou mayst deceive men and thine own self but God cannot be deceived 2. The secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged in that Judgment of God 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the Counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1. The things of the heart are hidden and dark things The thoughts of the heart dark thoughts the Counsels of the Lord dark Counsels even the good things that are in the heart are to all others but dark things 2. In the day of Judgment these things of darkness shall be all brought to light the secrets shall be all made manifest What a sight will there be in that day when the hearts of all the World shall be seen as it were at one view What a blessed sight will there be when all the Beauty and inward Glory of the Saints all their Graces shall be seen What a black sight also will there be when all the filth and garbage that is in sinners hearts all the venemous brood all the Cockatrices eggs that ever have been hatch'd in those unclean hearts when all the wicked Counsels and Devices of their hearts all the Curses and Blasphemies all the Couzenage and Fraud of the heart all the wicked Plots and Contrivances of the heart against God or his Saints all the Adulteries and Filthiness of the heart all the Madness and Follies of the heart all the Malice and Spite and Rage of the heart when all these shall be presented at one view O what an odious sight will there be Sinners do not cheat your selves in your sinful ways with hopes of Secrecy for all must be brought to light If all that wickedness and hypocrisie if those filthy lusts and unclean thoughts that are in your hearts should be now seen by all this Congregation how would you be ashamed and how would you blush to look any body in the Face but because thy naughty heart and its naughty thoughts and desires cannot be seen thou mayest be a proud fellow of a froward heart of a dissembling lying heart and no body the wiser therefore thou lettest thy self alone to be as thou art as long as thou hast a secret covering for all thy ugly Conditions 't is well enough but do not cheat thy self thus all these hidden things of darkness must be brought to light thou must be turned inside outward and all the shame of
since that I knew and was acquainted with and did eat and drink with and buy and sell with that now are no more seen Where are they all they are all passed over and gone into the other World They are gone and I am following after I must shortly be with them The Saints that are dead and gone they are entred into their Reward they are gone to Christ they are entred into the joy of their Lord and if I be one of them partaker of the same Faith walking in the same holy steps I also shall have the same reward The sinners that are dead and gone they are entred into their Reward shut out from the Presence and Joy of the Lord and shut up under Chains of darkness and burning in the Furnace of Fire and if I follow them in their sins and be impenitent therein a little while hence I shall I shall overtake them I shall have my chain with them my furnace with them Well let this be one thought of your hearts how nearly you are all concern'd in the other World and how certainly you shall be there As sure as you have a being for a time in this World so sure shall you every one of you have an Eternal being in the other World either in the everlasting pleasures above or the everlasting pangs and plagues below 2. Think much this thought Which of these two states in Eternity must be my state is determining every day It is thy present life thine every days course here that must determine the Case whither thou must when thou goest hence Rom. 2.7 8. Thy reward must be according to thy work thy reaping must be according to thy sowing Gal. 6.7 8. Think with your selves I am every day working for Eternity sowing for Everlasting what would you reap what would you should be your reward in the other world I know what you would answer here I would reap in Mercy I would be rewarded in Joy and Glory But what must you reap where must your reward be why that you are every day determining Look what your ways and your works are such your reward must be Sow in Righteousness and you shall reap in mercy Hos 10.12 Sow in tears and you shall reap in j y. Psal 126.6 But if you sow in Tares sow to your flesh sow Sin and Vanity I leave it to your selves to judge what your reaping must be Were such thoughts abiding upon our hearts what manner of Persons should we then be Is this the business of my life Is this the great debate of every day where mine everlasting dwelling must be whether in the Paradiâ—e of God or in the dungeon with Devils whether in everlasting Blessedness or Burnings Is this the great question to be resolved and determined what I shall be hereafter by what I am every day O no more sinning against God O no more neglecting of Christ O no more hardness and impenitency of heart O no more of this worldliness or wantonness or drunkenness mine heart shakes to think whither these are carrying me and where they will lay me Arise O my Soul shake off these Lusts shake thy self out of sleep 't is high time to awaken stop stop this evil course cast off the works of darkness least thou be suddenly swallowed up of Everlasting darkness 3. Think this thought The state and the way of mine heart is the great thing that must determine what mine eternal state must be My works must determine what my reward must be and the state of mine heart will determine what my works will be Well now exercise your selves to such thoughts dwell in such Meditations and think not that you have done any thing to purpose till your thoughts have begotten strong impressions upon your hearts and you are wrought to a sense of those great things and let your sense of them be an abiding sense O what even and steady lives should we then live the evenness of our lives will be both the beauty of our Conversations when there is a due proportion of our dayes one to another this will make our lives beautiful and 't will be the evidence of our integrity Fits of Devotion fits of holy Affections will prove little to us of our uprightness our deadness and dumps when those fits are overs will weaken all our hopes and confidences and call all into question It is our standing holy Affections that will be our standing Comfort O friends how uneven and unsteady are we what unstable Souls what wandring stars are we how sadly different are we from our selves sometimes in our secret duties or at publick Ordinances our hearts seem full of God full of heavenly Affections What movings what meltings what enlargements of heart do we feel all spirit and love and joy and then shortly after behold all is lost our Sun dips into a Cloud the stars fall to the Earth our Spirits sink and flag and the flesh gets up again O if we could but hold in the serene temper we sometimes are in what a life should we have of it but it doth not hold we are given to Changes the temper of our hearts often change with our business and employments when we are busying our selves about the things of God then we are spiritual and heavenly 't were well if it were so always when we are called forth about our earthly employments we become as earthly as other men Do you none of you find it so do you not complain 't is so Lord help me it is even too true I even find it so with me sometimes our tempers change with our company when we are conversant with those that fear God there is some Spirit and some savour in our Converses O it were well if it were alwayes so sometimes and too often we are barren and carnal and dead in the best Society our conversing with Christians is too often an useless and carnal and unsavoury Converse But if it be better with us when in good company how doth it use to be when we fall into carnal company or vain company we seem to have even quite lost our God and our Religion our eternal concernments are laid by and our care about them is intermitted our God and our Souls are thrust behind the door or trodden under foot Whence is all this O our sense of eternal things is for the time worn off Brethren God is the same God Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not There 's the same eye of God upon you wherever you be he that looks how you carry it in your Duties looks upon you in your businesses looks upon you in every company Where-ever you are and as God is the same God so your everlasting concernments are still the same Heaven is as much to be desired Hell as much to be feared your Salvation is to be as carefully wrought out you have as important business lying upon you every where as you have any where and this work will never
God Prepare him an holy habitation open the doors and let the King of Glory come in and then shut the door and let no unclean thing enter to offend and displease him that so the Lord may take pleasure in you and delight in you and may say concerning you this is my rest here will I dwell for ever 2. How the heart is to be kept under Guard 1. What 't is to be guarded against that is against Theeves Blots Distempers 1. Against Theeves The great Thief is the World and all that is of the World and all that in the World which is purloyning from the heart Its profits or worldly gains its Pleasures and carnal Mirth its Favour and Friendship and Fawnings These all lie in wait for entrance into the heart to the end they may rifle and spoil it of all that it hath The World steals in upon the heart and it never comes there but to steals away its Treasure and therefore 't is to be observed that the hearts of such Christians as are most possessed of the World are ever the most poor and beggarly Never look to find much of Christ or his Grace if any thing at all where the World hath gotten Possession Christ comes into the heart on purpose to carry away the heart from the World his Word is where he comes give me thine heart Prov. 23.26 Love not the world nor the things of the world 1 Joh. 2.15 And the world comes into the heart on purpose to steal it away from Christ again There is never any one that embraceth this present World but 't is to his loss whatever the World brings it takes away better than it brings 2 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken us and embraced this present world He embrac'd the World and what got he by it the same day he embraced the World he forsook Christ Christian art thou fallen in with the World Are its gains and its pleasures gotten into thy heart doth it fawn and smile upon thee and is thine heart taken and pleased with its fawnings Look to thy self what hast thou within thee hast thou Grace hast thou Peace does thy Soul flourish for ought I know thou hast seen the last of thy good days what time this World is thus embraced by thee O friends set a watch against this Thief set a guard against it Take heed and beware of Covetousness Luk. 12.15 That 's the same Counsel as guard your hearts against this World Covetousness is the opening the door to let the world in nay the world is gotten in already where Covetousness is Thou which hast a Covetous heart thine heart is already possessed of the world May be thou hast yet but a little of it in thine hand but thine heart is already full of it the whole world is gotten in where Covetousness is gotten in Worldly Professors methinks you should be startled at it if you considered what a Theif you have within you Whatever thou seemest to have of Christ or the Treasures of heaven thou art like to be but a poor wretch in a little time And how is it like to be with thee whose heart hath entertained the Pleasures and the merriments of the world or the favours and fawnings of the Men of the world who lovest to be some body with evil men to have their respect and esteem he that would fain be some body with the world is like to be no body with Christ Make the world to know its distance and whatever you have to do in it keep it at a distance from your hearts Never look to thrive in Christianity whilst you venture to be too busie with this world or to dote on its favours or friendship O it were well with us were we yet but sensible what a snare this world is to us what a bane it is to all that 's good in us Never a flower in all our Garden will flourish where these thorns stand so thick about it that little Grace you have will be less dayly it will be choked up and devoured if you keep you not more clear of this world It were happy for us were we deeply sensible of the danger we are in but there 's the Misery of it people will not be sensible nor be warned to take heed of it this Theif steals away mens Reason and Consciences makes them such children and fools that they will not understand what an enemy it is to them How many Sermons have been preached and published to warn you to take heed of a worldly heart and yet how very few hearts are there that do escape it 't is who can be richest and who can be greatest in the world that the most of our hearts are set upon 't is not who can be the holiest or most heavenly 't is not who can improve in the Faith and Hope of the Gospel in the love and fear of the Lord who can get most of Christ and Heaven into his heart and grow rich unto God but who can grow greatest in this present world Is not this too common a Case though the Lord hath been knocking off our fingers from it pulling off our Chariot wheels and making us to drive heavily letting loose the spoilers upon us to catch from some of us what we have gotten fed the Husbandman with short harvests filled the Tradsman with complaints of bad Markets yet all is one how little soever many men can catch of this world yet they will catch after it still and what wonder is it then while this world doth so generally carry our hearts that Christ hath so much lost them You that would save any thing of what you have left in you you that would ever get any more while you live you that would not go down to your graves strip'd and naked of all that should then comfort you get again I say to you take heed of this world take heed of this worldliness 2. Against blots that is against wilful allowed sins Every wilful sin will be a blot upon your hearts Our sins are blots and blemishes upon our lives but every blot upon the life is also a blot upon the heart Blots will Darken and Obscure Defile 1. Blots will darken and obscure the Heart I told you that in the heart is kept all our evidences for heaven our sins that we give way to will be blots upon our evidences will so obscure and blur them that they will not be legible Our sins will do the direct contrary to what the blood of Christ will do the bloud of Christ will blot out the hand writing that was against us Col. 2.14 Our sins will blot out whatever hand-writing there is for us Thou that art a Christian there is an hand-writing upon that heart there is the Covenant of God which is thy Charter for glory written upon thy heart There is the token of the Covenant and thine interest in it the Circumcision of the heart there are the Articles of the Covenant
what returns do you think slight and triflling duties are like to have Look to it God will give you but a slight answer if you be but slight in seeking O be sober be serious and if you would be serious in your most solemn duties get this holy seriousness to be your temper Beware of a vain and frothy habit habituate your selves to Godly seriousness not but that there must be at times some little Relaxation the bow would grow weak if it should stand always bent But then 1. Relaxation or remitting the intention of our Spirits must be but short and no more than necessary 2. Never such as to be an hindrance to seriousness afterward though I must sometimes unbend yet I would never unhinge my Soul or disjoint or discompose it for its return to its work We must not be of those whose lives be in jest and only now and then a fit of seriousness 't is thy life thine ordinary course thine ordinary frame and only some little intervals for Recreation To seecure your selves against the distemper of a slight and vain Spirit get a deep and standing sense upon your hearts of the weight and importance of those great concerns that are dayly upon you look more into Eternity Remember you have an immortal God whose eye is always upon you You have an immortal Soul that must live or die for ever Your business in this World is not to please your humours and gratifie your flesh and your fancies but to serve the living God to secure this God to your selves to be your God to seek your peace and reconciliation with God and to that end to make Christ the reconciler sure to you to serve the Lord Christ and hereby to secure the Salvation of your Soul Remember that you have this great work lying upon you and this is not the work of some short inches of your time of an hour in a day or one day in a week but that this must be your every days work and your all days work Think often what if I should miscarry in this great work if I should loyter out or laugh out or trifle out so much of my time that when I shall come to die and away for the other world I should find that work I liv'd for here were not done or but half done or but slightly done if I should then find that I had been light and vain in my Conversation and but slight and shallow in my Religion and whilst I was allowing my flesh what it would have I cut my Soul short of what it should have had Death will make every one of you serious the Grave when you are stepping into it will make you all in good earnest And how would your living in jest or in pleasant idleness then look upon you remember these things daily let deep thoughts of them come daily upon you and this would put you out of your slight and merry tune the sense of these serious things would hold you in a serious temper 2. Looseness There 's a double looseness 1. Such as is opposite to fixedness that 's the same with lightness and vanity of heart a whiffling in and out unstable Soul a slippery heart that we never know where to have it 2. Such as is opposite to strictness that is the same with licentiousness and that is it which I am now to speak to A Licentious heart is a distempered heart The contrary to this Distemper is the compliance or closing of the heart with the Rule and keeping to it The new heart is made after the pattern of Christ its new Lord there 's the same Spirit in a Christian which was in Christ as he was so are we in this world 1 Joh. 4.17 His very Spirit and Image is formed upon our hearts And it is conformed to the new Law or Rule which Christ hath prescribed to it and it stands determined for strictness or exactness of walking according to this rule whereof the Apostle speaketh Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule peace be unto them That is a strict heart which is determined and disposed to live by Rule Licentiousness of heart is the hearts allowing and indulging its Liberty and Latitude in its Course Christianity in general is that which it takes up but it will not be held within the limits of it The strait Gate and the narrow way is too strait and too narrow for it That way it pretends to have chosen but it will be breaking over the hedge as the Inclinations and Interest of the Flesh lead it In some things a Christian in other things a Libertine O how much of this Licentiousness of heart is to be found amonst Christians amonst all the Christians amongst us how few exact and strict Christians are there whose hearts determine for exactness and strictness of life who impose and charge upon themselves the whole Rule and the diligent observing of every point and tittle of it such exactness in point of Practise we cannot in this imperfect state reach unto in many things we offend all Jam. 3.2 Our feet slip and our steps are turning aside every day but it is the indulging our selves a liberty for this turning aside or the hearts not charging strictness upon it that is this Licentiousness of heart There is a gradual Licentiousness of heart and there is a total Licentiousness A total Licentiousness is of such who utterly reject the Yoke of Christ and will not come under his Government but will resign up themselves to Lust and carnal Inclinations to command in Chief over them As those Ephes 2.3 Who walked in the lusts of their flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Such Licentious ones are no Christians if they have the name yet the heart of a Christian is not found in them Gradual Licentiousness is when the heart though it hath put it self under the Yoke of Christ and resigned up its self to be governed by him in opposition to the lusts of the flesh and the World yet often falls a lusting after that liberty from the exactness and severities of Christianity which in the general it hath professed to consent and yeild its self unto And though the decree of the Soul for following Christ in every thing be not made void and utterly broken yet it is so remiss and weak that it will not hold it closely in but there is a frequent breaking loose from the rule and the heart too often indulgeth its self that liberty How far forth a Christian may break loose from the Rule and how far forth he may indulge and allow himself at times and yet be a Christian still is not easie to determine but this is certain that every degree of this heart loosness is a pernicious distemper that must be watched against especially if it rise so high as that there be a dislike of strictness and such a groaning under the severities of Religion as maketh it seem
Wherefore dost thou doubt so wherefore dost thou drag so O thou of little Faith Where 's our Love to Christ when our work for Christ goes so slowly on 2 Cor. 5.14 The Love of Christ constrains us The Love of Christ will quicken us the Love of Christ will put Life into us we should find our Tongues and find our Hands and find time to be more abundant in service could we feel more of the Love of Christ in us Thou makest nothing of it that thou art such a dull untoward unactive Souls but is it nothing to want Faith Is it nothing to want love to Christ Is it nothing to be without Grace in thy heart Or if thou hast any to have so very little as thou canst not tell whither 't is any or no It is an ill sign that thy Soul is in a very doubtful case at least 't is to be doubted Whether thou hast any Grace in thee Where in ordinary thou art so untoward and listless to the matters of God and the businesses of Religion 3. 'T is of ill consequence 'T is a sign our case is bad and it is an hindrance from our growing better It is the vivacious active stirring soul that 's like to be the thriving Soul Sluggards and Sleepers are never like to come to any thing We may preach to you while our hearts ake we may instruct you and tell you what is your duty while we will and you may hear us while you will but in vain shall we preach and in vain will you hear till we can fire you out of this deadness and whet and set an edge upon those blunted Souls what will it be to be told of your Duty whilst you remain to have so little heart to it what becomes of all the Sermons you hear of all the teaching you what you should do and how you should live what becomes of all the convincing awakening quickning words that are in your ears from day to day what doth all our Preaching and all your hearing bring forth upon you truly friends the little success that is to be perceived of our Preaching among you either to the converting of sinners or improving of professors the small success that does appear what there is within God knows does even make us out of heart But as little success as we have we are never like to have it much better unless we may stir your hearts and awaken you to more diligence and activity When we have done all we can we are I doubt like at last to leave the most of you either quite dead in sin or but very Dwarfes in Religion Sinners is it nothing to you that the enlivening word should leave you still among the dead Christians is it nothing to you that the nourishing and quickning Word should leave you but babes and infants Is it not a trouble to you and a discomfort to you that you get no more that you grow no faster much more that any of you should consume and languish under the hands of your Physicians I must tell you it is a discomfort to us but is it not more a discomfort to you can you continue at this pass and not be troubled at it O what a comfort is it to be a thriving lively Christian Methinks when you see any such before your eyes you should at least sigh out such a wish O that it were so with me and breath out such a groan wo is me that 't is not so methinks it should be an heaviness of heart to you to feel your own soul in Cloggs when you see others upon the wing O that I could make you sensible of your diseases that I could preach you heart sick that I could but make your hearts ake under your distempers that you might no longer be able to go up and down without trouble in this unthriving case Sure friends you whose case this is had need to be troubled and 't would be well for you if your Souls were in pain and refused to be comforted till you be cured To make you yet more sensible of the perniciousness of this untoward dull and listless temper look a little more upon the excellency of the contrary a chearful lively temper 'T is call'd 2 Cor. 8.17 A forward mind 1 Pet. 5.2 A ready mind that need not be spurred and whip'd but goes chearfully and freely on its way What is a sprightful horse to a dull and heavy jade what is a blunted rusty knife to that which is bright and keen what is a consumptive languishing body to one that 's lively and healthful what is a dark and lowring to a Sunshine day what is Winter to Summer yea what are the living to the dead what a pitiful thing is that dead and spiritless heart of thine when thou lookest on them in whom is the life of God Hear O ye sleepy and listless Souls awaken stir up your selves shake off this sloth and sleep work out this untoward spirit What do you mean to hang thus betwixt alive and dead will you hold you at this pass till you come to your Graves Is this all the care and the pains you ever mean to bestow on God and your Souls must the Lord ever find you so unready and untoward to what he calls you to shall the world find a forward mind in you shall your flesh find such a ready mind to whatever it hath for you to do and will you only be unready and unactive for God Wherefore have you Reason and Understandings wherefore have you the Scriptures before you what are Sabbaths and Ordinances and Ministers for must we come hither only to sing you asleep or to rock von in your Cradles Where is that Grace that is in you where is your Faith where is your love to Christ where is your hope if you have any Grace where is it what must all these precious talents be eaten up with rust or laid up in a napkin Remember the slothful Servants doom Mat. 25.30 What are your immortal Souls what is the holy God what is Jesus Christ what are the glorious treasures of Eternity are all these worth no more of your care and industry will none of these things move you will not these great things quicken you Hear them all calling upon you God calls upon you oh my children if you have any respect for me come along come faster after me Christ calls oh my Disciples if you have any love to me if all that I have done for you if all that I will do for you will move you arise and mend your pace Heaven calls upon you if ever you mean to come here gird up your loyns and come on Yea Hell calls look ye down hither what a place is here prepared for Sleepers and Loyterers Your poor Souls call have ye any pity for me must I perish and die for the pleasing this lazy flesh Your poor Families call your poor Children call your poor Neighbours call
and so shift for thy self hope for the Victory hope in God for his help hope in Christ for his strength and in that hope stand against Temptations 3. The girdle of Truth ver 14. Having your loyns girt about with truth Look especially to this that you be armed with truth and uprightness of heart Whatever other Armour you seem to have what ever faith you have whatever hope you have whatever word you have to support you whatever Prayer you make to help you there 's no armour will hide an hypocritical heart from God or the Devil God strikes his dart into the false heart through the joints of thine armour And for the Devil he is gotten in already the Devil is already in thine heart if it be a false and hypocritical heart O get sincerity and uprightness before the Lord see that there be truth in your inward parts A sound heart will be the best shelter both against the Accusations and Temptations of all your adversaries whereas if there were no enemies from without a rotten heart will be its own ruine That rust and that moth which is bred within will eat thee out though there should be no Theif to assault thee from abroad 4. The breastplate of Righteousness Put them both together Truth and Uprightness of heart and righteousness of Life will be a mighty security against the Devil and all his whole Party The Psalmist would trust to no other Armour without that Psal 25.21 and that he will trust to Let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait on thee Faith without Truth Hope without Righteousness or Uprightness will never secure us Sincerity and Uprightness of heart is our best heart Armour the Hypocrites Faith will not save him the Hypocrites hope will perish with him 't is sincerity that will carry the day Be honest and plain hearted towards God Let there not be Guile and Unrighteousness found in you Prov. 10.4 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Hic murus ahaeneus esto A good Conscience is a wall of brass against all the darts that are cast against us 5. The Sword of the Spirit Ver. 17. which is the word of God This was the weapon by which Christ conquered the Devil when he fought him hand to hand Mat. 4.3 It is written man shall not live by bread onely It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God It is written thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God Be well versed in the Scripture and you have a sword by you to resist every Temptation Art thou tempted to Pride Remember it is written God resisteth the proud Art thou tempted to a Covetous worldly Life it is written take heed and beware of Covetousness Art thou tempted to Anger and the bitter expressions of it it is written if ye bite and devour one another ye shall be consumed one of another Art thou tempted to a carnal vain sensual Life it is written if ye live after the flesh ye shall die Art thou tempted to a cold Lukewarm indifferent temper or way it is written because thou art neither hot nor cold I will spue thee out of my mouth And so whatever the Temptation be have a particular word ready at hand which may be a sword to strike through it 6. The spirit of prayer Ver. 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Meet every Temptation with the Sword in your mouth and with a Prayer in your heart Believe and Pray Hope and Pray be True be Upright and pray the Lord rebuke thee The Lord strengthen and uphold me pray to him be true to him hope in him who was tempted himself and is able to succour them that are tempted Put on all this Armour and stand to your Armes be always up in Armes be alwayes ready to receive the Alarm Let that word be for an alarm to you and be ever in your ears Rise Sampson the Philistines are upon thee Rise Soul Sin is upon thee the World is upon thee thy Company are upon thee or that Word of Christ Mat. 26.46 Arise he is at hand that betrays me that ease that thou lovest those Pleasures that thou lovest that Money thou lovest that carnal Acquaintance that thou lovest whom thou never suspectest to be Enemies they have a design to betray thee of thy life to take away thine heart from God and they are ever at hand to betray thee however thou thinkest thou art armed take heed of being secure of what use is Armour to him that is asleep Remember Saul and his whole Army when they were asleep David came upon them and had them at his mercy for all their Arms and if he had hearkned to Abishai had smitten him dead in the place be never secure stand upon your Watch or you never stand to your Armes Never think you are out of danger you are in jeopardy every hour your Enemy the Devil is ever walking up and down and watcheth to devour you Therefore that Counsel is needful 1 Pet. 5.8 Be vigilant be sober for your adversary c. Be alwayes as the besieged in a Town that have their Enemy close at the Gates and the Walls they are upon their Guard night and day especially let the main fort the heart be still well watched and guarded Set fear for your Sentinel live in constant fear of a surprize fear will keep the Soul waking be conversant in the World in fear be amongst your carnal friends and acquaintance in fear eat and drink in fear pass the time of your whole warfare here in fear O this fearless secure heart how often hath it betray'd us into Mischief How often have our hearts been even choked up of the World and surfeited of carnal Pleasures and rob'd of its peace and spoil'd of its Treasuries and we have exchanged a sprightful lively chearful healthful Soul for a flat leaden earthly senseless frame before we were aware and all because we were secure and without fear Live in fear daily and in constant jealousie be jealous of your friends be jealous of your enemies be jealous of this world be jealous of every sin be jealous of your selves Let an holy jealousie dwell in your eye and let it keep you waking and watching After all your professing and praying and believing and hoping would you not loose your hearts at last and loose all you have hoped and laboured for then beware of Security if you would be in safety then be never secure but always stand with your loins girded and your lights burning Stand upon your watch Tower keep your doors shut but your windows open Let your eye observe the approaches and be ready and prepared for the assaults that your enemies are making daily upon you I never look you should be flourishing or conquering Christians till you will be perswaded to be jealous Christians fearing and watchful Christians and therefore what I said to you before I say to you again and again stand upon your guard