sure also to keep off every thing that may stifle or quench the heat of your love take heed of those strong blasts those wicked and cursed temptations that arise from Hell take heed also of those damps that arise from the world if you set your affections there those cold vapours arising thence will either abate or extinguish the heat of this pure heavenly fire of love take heed of being Servants with the World to the lusts of the flesh beware of these things Sin the lusts of the flesh the love of the World and Christ are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inconsistent they cannot dwell together in one Soul 1 Joh. 2. 15 If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him These are like two fires in one Chimney the one will extinguish the other Direct 4. Fourthly and Lastly Be sure to add fuel to this fire and keep this heat you have received from Heaven warm take heed that your hearts never get cold I must confess that we live in a cold and frozen age in the worlds old age in an age wherein there is little love to God to Jesus Christ and to the Saints and if you would in this cold season keep up the height of your love to Christ I would advise you 1. To be much in communion with him the nearer you are to the Sun the more heat you will have 2. Be diligent and active and vigorous in the performance of every duty clothe your selves well with the constant performance of duty tender bodies delicate persons if they leave off a Garment are very apt to catch cold and so it will be with us if we neglect the constant performance of duty the neglect of praying morning and evening the neglect of praying constantly in your Closets the neglect of hearing Sermons the neglect of the due observation of the Sabbath in the neglect of these things you will be apt to get cold yet it is not enough barely to attend these duties which is too common a folly and sin but there is one thing more to be done and that is when you have been in the exercise of your love and in communion with Christ when you have warmed your selves in your Closets or at an Ordinance go not too soon into the world this care we do usually take for our bodies when we are warm when we are hot we do not presently expose our selves to the cold and thus we should do in reference to our souls when we have been at an Ordinance and have been warmed and heated there we should not too soon adventure abroad into the world this hath done a world of mischief and persons have thereby cool'd and dampt their love 3. And one thing more When you meet together not to be quench-coals one to another not to abate the love and zeal one of another but as the Apostle exhorts Heb. 10. 24 Consider one another What to do to provoke unto love and to good works love to God love to Christ love one to another love to the Ordinances of God When you meet together do not meet together I say to cool one another but meet as so many live-coals that will kindle and enliven one another that you may make the greater heat that you may warm your selves and one another and so keep your hearts and affections continually warm for God Vse 2. I have yet a word to another sort of people by way of Application and that is to such as have never yet tasted of the love of God nor never yet have found any love to Christ in their souls I hope there are or may be none or few such here and therefore I shall speak but little to this if there should be any such here or any of yours at home should be such their case is as bad as that of Cain or Judas If they have yet no love to God and to Christ I tell them that are here and do you that are here tell them that are at home that they must never content themselves without it any longer without which they can never be able to say truly to say that God loves them for if they hate Christ Christ will hate them and set himself against them yea there is a curse gone out and pronounced against them already 1 Cor. 16. 22 If any man says the Apostle love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha And therefore you that are such as I am now speaking to be you perswaded from henceforth to love Christ and in order thereto wait upon the means of grace where God hath promised to shew forth his love and to inkindle it and inflame their hearts with a greater and higher love to himself In Job 22. 21 says Eliphas to Job Acquaint thy self with him that is with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee And this brings me now at last though I have staid long from it to the second Observation from the Text wherein lies much comfort for poor souls though you have had hitherto but a little light and love from God and but little love to God And that is Doct. 2. That they that seek the Lord early shall certainly find him and shall find him a God full of grace and mercy and shall certainly enjoy him eternally in Heaven Our deceased Friend that precious Saint of God that is gone before us having found the benefit of an early seeking after God and Christ in the way of his Ordinances desired that her nearest Friends Relations and Children might be and indeed by chusing this Text doth advise us all to be a Generation of Seekers and oh that God would make every one of us such as may seek thy face O Jacob O God of Jacob that is that may seek after Jesus Christ This is the work of our lives and it is well for us that Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost and to put this great advantage into our hands that we could never have had without him In Matt. 7. 7 8 Christ exhorts us Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Under the Covenant of works you might seek and seek till your eyes sunk into the holes of your heads and never have found Christ nor God but now he tell us that he is come into the world and that if we seek him with our whole hearts in the way of his Ordinances and appointments we shall find him and that if we knock there it shall be opened unto us In the prosecution of this Observation I shall only speak to these three things 1. First of all I shall shew you That man is born in a natural estrangement from God every man every individual person every Mothers Child is brought into the
particulars by which he eminently makes known the intireness of his indeared love to his Saints and by the same ways I shall shew you by and by that the Saints of God 〈◊〉 express their love to Jesus Christ. 1. First of all he discovers and makes known his love to his Saints in denying himself of all the glory he had with his Father in leaving those Regions above that he might come down and gather his Saints together that he might redeem them out of the hands of Hell and deliver them out of the House of their Prison and bondage Rev. 1. 6 Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood he gave his heart blood for us Phil. 2. 5 6 7 Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God Gods fellow coequal with the Father What did he do why He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Was not here love Greater love hath no man than this That a man lay down his life for his friend yet this was greater love for Christ laid down his life for his enemies Rom. 5. 10. 2. He manifests his intire love to his Saints in the delight he hath in their communion and in fellowship with them Christ is never better pleased or more delighted than when his Saints are in communion and fellowship with him When and Where-ever two or three are gathered together in my name there is my heaven here I delight to dwell If you read over this 8th Chapter of Proverbs it the 31 verse you shall see the â—edundancy of Christs love to his people before ever he had a people they were his contemplative delight that he should come down and be with them and give himself for them Rejoycing in the habitable part of his earth and my delights were with the sons of men Do but read Cant. 7. 5 and there you shall see how the Spouse her self takes notice of the delight her Beloved takes in communion with her The King says she is held or bound as in the Margin in the Galleries What are the Galleries why they are the Ordinances wherein he promises to meet his Saints the King will sit at his round Table he will walk with them in the Galleries in private communion he is held or bound there That is he takes so much pleasure and delight he is taken so much with the beauty he hath put upon his Saints that to speak it with reverence he cannot tell how to go from them and leave them as a man with his best beloved is bound as it were with chains of love 3. And lastly Christ manifests his love to his Saints in the earnest longing he hath to have them with him in his glory When any one sinner is converted it is said there is joy in heaven the King of Saints rejoyceth all the Angels and Saints sing together there is I say joy in Heaven when one sinner comes in Christs sends forth his Angels to entertain them and to bring them into his Fathers presence nay he leads them in himself In Joh. 14. 2 3 Christ tells his Disciples In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there yâ—â— may be also And you may read at your leisure that ravishing Chapter Joh. 17 and if you read it with understanding and your souls go with your eyes be it spoken with reverence to such a glorious God and King as he is you will perceive that he seems not satisfied with his own glory at the right hand of the Majesty on high without the Company of his dear-bought Saints that he hath bought with his own blood Read especially the 22 23 24 verses And the glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Vers. 23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Vers. 24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world Then Christs Mediatory Kingdom will be compleated and the shame and sufferings that were undergon by him will be answered when he hath gathered his Saints to himself to behold his glory 3. And now I shall shew you the second part if we turn the Table then we shall see that the Saints of God in their measure and according to their strength those that are truly such do love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts and you find it not thus with you you have reason to be jealous of and to suspect your selves I say the true Saints of God do love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts Whom having not seen ye love iâ— whom though now you see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love with such a love as raises your hearts it is Amor vulnerans ligans c. a love as one says that wounds that strikes them to the very heart a love that binds their souls to Christ which made the Spouse cry out Cant. 2. 5 Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love The truth is you may imagine that it is an Hyperbolical expression but indeed there is no expression that can fully set it out and therefore you see how the Spouse hangs as it were on the lips of Christ Cant. 1. 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy love or loves is better than wine And every Saint while he is in the wilderness in his Wilderness-state leans on his beloved What would a Saint have in any condition None but Christ Christ is his All in all 4. And therefore in the second place I shall shew you That the Saints of God do mutually and reciprocally express and discover their love to Jesus Christ in their measure in their degree as he makes known his love to them As 1. They express their love to Christ in denying all for him Christ left a Kingdom and all the glory of his Fathers House But alas the Saints of God they have nothing to leave in comparison of what he left They that leave Houses Lands Mannors Kingdoms for Christ all this is little I say in comparison of what Christ left for them but the truth is whatever the Saints have all that they have they will lay at
living comfort That God loves you and that you have had an heart truly to love God and you know that he loves you by your love to him and your love to God being as it were the transcript of Gods Love to you in your souls And indeed which may raise your admirings where God loves and whom he loves he never leave he never ceases to love Rom. 8. 38 39 For I am perswaded saith the Apostle there that neither death nor life nor Angels good or bad Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. Use of exhortation to them that truly love the Lord Jesus Dear Saints you that have indeed a true love to God and do by that see his love to your souls Oh keep your selves in the love of God To that end Direct 1. Set a high price on this grace that is wrought in you and as the Apostle says let it be your great care to preserve and to keep life in this love of yours to Jesus Christ. Jude vers 21 Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life And for this purpose 1. First of all consider the worth of this love to Christ what an excellent and wonderful grace this is to have a heart truly to love the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. It is that which is the clearest evidence of the Love of God it gives you all your life and comfort in a time of darkness in a dark day to know by your love to Jesus Christ that he loves you and that the Father loves you there is no such clear evidence as this in all the World If a man had all the treasures of gold and silver in the world he could not read the love of God in them but in your true love to Jesus Christ you may When you walk in darkness and can see no light this is that spark of light that will give you light when you are at a loss When it is dark round about us when we can see little or no faith little or no hope little or no strength that we have let us then inquire and see whether we have any love and if we have any true love to Christ this will give us light and life Rom. 8. 28 We know that all things says the Apostle work together for good To whom to them that love God If one should ask me this question Why is the promise made to those that love God I answer because the Saints do want somewhat to comfort to support and relieve them in a dark day and when all other light fails and we can see no faith find no holiness this will never fail them If there be once true love to Christ there will be some spark remaining that will administer comfort to them in the darkest day 2. Consider with your selves that if you preserve and keep up this love this love to Jesus Christ in your hearts it will work in you a likeness to Christ And can you desire to be like any person that you love better or that is more exactly and perfectly pure and holy that is more lovely than Christ This true love is a fire that makes all things like it self true love to God is of an assimilating vertue it will make us like to God and like to Christ whom we love Love is like a Looking-glass if you turn the Glass downward there will appear nothing but the representation of earth and terrestrial creatures all earth but if you turn it upward then there will appear Heaven and celestial and the urseen glory of another world unseen as to our bodily eyes but visible to the eye of faith If we give forth our love to Christ why then all Christ all Heaven and all holiness is on the soul. Direction 2. Be diligent and exact on your watch if you do prize and set any value upon this love to Jesus Christ endeavour to keep it as you would keep your lives keep it as you would keep the best Jewel in the world nay the world cannot give cannot afford you such another Jewel This Christ hath bought for you with his own most precious blood by his death his shameful and accursed death and therefore you have reason great reason to keep it safe for its own worth and because it is of so great use as hath been before mentioned because it will be a light to you in a dark in the darkest day and because it will make you like God and like Christ take heed therefore lest it be stoln from you or abated in you As persons that have a Jewel of great price and value will be often looking into the place where they laid it up to see whether it be safe so this spark of Divine fire which is put into and laid up in our Souls is a Jewel of matchless and inestimable price How therefore should we inquire concerning it how it is with us as to our love to God and Christ We should be trying and examining our selves whether Wives or Children or any earthly Relations or worldly concernments or enjoyments have not stoln away our hearts or abated our love We should say to our own hearts in this case as Christ to Peter on another account Lovest thou me more than those Joh. 21. 15 16 17. So we should say to our hearts Dost thou love Jesus Christ dost thou love him indeed and in earnest dost thou love him better than these than these Children these pretty little Idols that are set up before our eyes dost love him better than all creature-comforts and relations dost love him better than all earthly treasures better than thy estate better than all the world better than all these Yea better than Heaven it self without Christ Thus I say we should still be examining our hearts and see how it is with us as to our love to Christ for to tell you the truth our hearts are very treacherous I know not how it is with yours but I find it so with mine and that it is a very hard matter to keep up that height of love to Jesus Christ as there should be The Prophet Jeremiah tells us Jer. 17. 9 That the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it And as it is so in general so especially with God the heart is more inclined to be treacherous with God and in things relating to God than in any other things and therefore we have great need to look well to them to be diligent and exact upon our watch in reference to this love to Christ. Direct 3. If God hath vouchsafed this grace to you as he hath made you partakers of his love and given you the transcript or reflection thereof be you sure that you love him again and be you
15 It is here said of him that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to salvation Oh let it be truly so said of you Vse 1. Of Information The folly and inadvertency of the most of the Sons and Daughters of men who seek the world serve their lusts pursue lying vanities and forget God and seek him not Oh what cause have we to complain of Children of Parents and Masters of Families how little care there is among any of an early seeking after Christ Parents generally teach their Children to seek pride to seek the lusts and pleasures of this world and their carnal delights But who is there that goeâ— forth early to seek the Lord We can rise early for the world go from Mountain to Hill to seek after the Profits thereof Isa. 5. 11 The Drunkard will rise early that he may follow strong drink the Thief watches the twilight but none seek the Lord. Vse 2. Exhort To those that have sought the Lord while they were young and do yet continue to seek him I have a word or two to you 1. The first is to advise you to admire exceedingly to admire the goodnefs of God to you in that he ever gave you hearts to seek him Oh wonderful grace that you that were born at the same time with others have sate under the same means with them that never yet have lookt towards Heaven and their souls are now perhaps dropt into Hell Oh I say admire exceedingly admire that God gave you and not them an heart to seek after him to mind Christ and Heaven and the great concern of your souls and surely you cannot but admire it if you consider how little of man there was in it and how much of man there was against it When did ever a straying Sheep seek the Shepherd When ever did the wild-Goats look after one to lead them If Jesus Christ had not found you first you would never have sought after him if he had not found you you would or could never have found him if he had not took hold of your hearts it had been impossible for you to lay hold on him It is utterly impossible for any man in his natural estate and condition to seek after Jesus Christ this is a work that never will or can be done unless God give a new heart and a new spirit there wants something within to promote and effect this work which God only can and must give 2. You that have so done you that have sought the Lord early I would advise you to go on and to persist in seeking Christ and as you go on forget not what sweet experiences you have had of the love and kindness of Jesus Christ what discoveries of light and grace what comforts and revivings what refreshing joys and delights you have met with in your seeking of him these things ought not to be forgotten by you And here I shall set before you the worthy example of a Knight of 80 years of age who two or three days before he dyed set a-part a day on purpose to call to mind the former experiences he had of God and of what kind and how God had dealt with him in his waiting upon him in his Ordinances from time to time And I am informed that this dear servant of God that is now gone hath left behind her a Diary written with her own hand what experiences she had of God in her waiting upon him in his Ordinances and how and what God had spoken to her and by what Ministers And these examples are worthy both of your serious consideration and also excellent patterns for your imitation But 3. You that have so done you that have sought God and Christ early I would advise you to go on in seeking the Lord till you have found him in his glory As you have in your seeking found him in a way of grace here so go on I say till you have found him in his glory hereafter what darkness and difficulties soever lye in the way of your waiting upon him in his Ordinances and appointments that you may be like the Church of Thyatira and that it may be truly said of you as it is said of that Church Rev. 2. 19 I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and thy last to be more than the first This Testimony Christ himself gives concerning this Church The nearer you come to Christ and to enjoyment of him in glory the more haste you should make every thing in nature does so a Stone the nearer it comes to the center the swifter is its motion And the Sun seems to move swiftest when it is near setting Trees of Gods planting bring forth more fruit in old age Psal. 92. 13 14 Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing See Isa. 49. 29 30 31. 2. I have a word of advice to them if there be any such here that are full of days and it may be full of the world but empty very empty of the knowledg of God and have had little or it may be no acquaintaince at all with Jesus Christ nor did ever look after any We may perhaps say as Job said Job 12. 12 13 With the ancient is wisdom and in length of days understanding With him is wisdom and strength he hath counsel and understanding But is it always so Is there wisdom and understanding always among the aged Be there not among them such as are like Ephraim of whom it is said Hos. 7. 9 10 Gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth it not And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face and they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this They do not consider the grave whither they are going Be there not careless men and women among us that do not yet look out after Christ that do not provide for the welfare of their souls but are cumbred about many things as Martha was Yea many aged men and aged women who have lived all their days pudling in and about the world and worldly concerns and have hitherto neglected the one thing necessary viz. seeking after Christ and the knowledg of him and to get an interest in him Do you not yet know that you are going to appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ And will you not yet come off from this world but the longer you live you will love the world so much the better Is it not high time that something of the concernments of another world should interpose between your life and your death I shall offer you only two or three considerations in reference to this 1. And first I would beseech you and perswade you as I would be perswaded my self That seeing you have hitherto neglected
your souls your precious and immortal souls your spiritual which are your greatest concernments till now you are grown old I would perswade you yea even beseech you to consider that now you have but a little time left to do your greatest work you have now but one hour In Matt. 20. 6 it is said that Christ went out about the eleventh hour when there was but one hour more to night to hire labourers into his vineyard So it is with you it is the eleventh hour your last hour Besides have you no eyes no ears to see and hear that many dye dayly and weekly how many goodly plants that God had planted in his own house have of late been plucked up by the roots and laid in their Graves yea every day the death of young and old do ring a peal in our ears to awaken us to consider what is to come And will not Conscience it self think you ring a dreadful peal in our ears when we come to dye for that neither a voice from the Grave nor yet a voice from the Temple have yet prevailed with us to seek and secure to our selves an interest in God and in Christ Younger persons than our selves are often taken away and may we not thereby see and read that death it self is coming to teach us all to be prepared and in readiness for this our great change Death lies as it were in Ambuscado for us and sometimes men are taken away by it in the field and sometimes at home sometimes by this and sometimes by that disease but death comes to old age aperto marte in the plain and open field as it were and old men and old women cannot imagine that death is many days march from them and therefore they of all persons had need to seek after God and an interest in Christ night and day seek after this in your Houses in your Closets in your Beds in his Ordinances yea where-ever he is to be found and not to give over seeking till with the Spouse before mentioned you have found him 2. Consider how Christ calls on you in the Text. Read the begining of the Chapter Doth not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice vers 1. From whence She standeth in the top of high places by the way in the places of the paths vers 2. She cryeth at the gates at the entry of the city at the coming in at the doors vers 3. To whom doth she cry Vnto you O men I call and my voice is to the sons of men vers 4. What doth she call to them for That they would come and seek wisdom of Christ that they would come and get understanding of him that they would come and get knowledg of him which is wisdom indeed The fear of the Lord that is wisdom indeed Doth Christ thus call and will you not regard nor answer this call What then will be his next call For ought I know it may be this Arise from the dead and come to judgment Consider this 3. And Lastly Consider your grand inducement and incouragement They that seek me early shall find me They that will yet seek him that is your early and God acconnts it so In Psal. 78. 34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God While grace is proclaimed while God says They that seek me early shall find me This I say is your early and that which God himself accounts so and will God yet be found of you if you seek him Oh! what cause have you to bless God that ever he made such a promise as this which is Tabula post naufragium And that in Isa. 55. 6 7 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Oh wonderful grace that such promises should be published to you and me I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me And now I shall no longer be burdensom to you but shall beg of you Children for whom I have provided a few words a short Sermon To hearken to your own Sermon c. Thirdly A word of Exhortation or a short Sermon to young ones Children seek the Lord early whiles you are yet tender and young The Children of their dear deceased Mother should hear her always saying what the Lord said to her They that seek me early shall find me O little Children you lye much upon my heart Remember your Creator in the days of your youth and seek him betimes Eccles. 12. 1. 1. Consider you must dye It is appointed to all men once to dye Heb. 9. 27. And you may dye whiles you are Children How many pretty little ones are every day taken away before your eyes And if you be snatcht away by the cold hand of death before you know God and have found Christ what will become of your precious and immortal souls Would you be willing to dye and be damn'd Would you leave this world and be content to be turn'd into Hell and be punished with the Devil and his Angels Can you think of losing your Friends and your God too for ever 2. Consider what was the great errand upon which God sent you into the world Not to gratifie your Lusts nor to pursue lying vanities but to know God and Jesus Christ. And will you dare you neglect your special work O! whiles you are in your prime mind what you have to do for your souls Can you think it reasonable that the Devil should have your youth the flower and strength of your days and God be serv'd only with a crazy body or the rottenness of old Age O then delay no longer but seek the Lord. And. 1. Do it speedily the Mannagatherers must go forth betimes Exod. 16. 21 so must the Christ-seekers before the Sun be up before the heat of youthful lusts or earthly cares hinder your diligent seeking 2. Do it in earnest with all your hearts Psal. 119. 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies that seek him with their whole heart 3. Resolve to seek the Lord till you find him in glory not only while your Father Mother or Friends live but as long as you live It was a sad story in Gen. 35. 19 That Rachel dyed when she was but a little way from Ephrath But more sad Luk. 13. 24 When many shall seek to enter into Heaven and not be able 3. Consider That if you seek him early you shall be sure to find him I would bespeak you as David did his young Solomon 1 Chron. 28. 9 And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever It was a very serious speech of Azariah to Asa and to all
Judah and Benjamin 2 Chron. 15. 2 The Lord is with you while you be with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you Quest. But what shall we do to seek him Ans. If you will seek you must forsake sin and flee youthful lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. 1. Especially take heed of lying that 's the Devils chain by which he holds poor Children from Christ Lies are the refuge of guilt and folly where the inconsiderate youth hides himself from man and is kept from God as Adam when he knew he was naked Gen. 3. 7 sewed Fig-leaves together a poor shift to hide his nakedness so the sons of Adam when they become guilty make Lies their covert and instead of seeking fly further from God and bring a double guilt and punishment upon their heads 2. Beware of Pride the wanton youth is like the wild Asses Colt or as Jer. 2. 23 24 The swift Dromedary traversing her ways or a wild Ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure The souls not seeking God is charged upon his Pride Psal. 10. 4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance his looks testifie his pride will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts 3. Be not of a stubborn or disobedient spirit to the counsels of Parents and Teachers but hearken to their instruction It is the most sad and certain presage of the ruine of your souls if you refuse the serious and early advice of your natural and spiritual Fathers That 's a dreadful saying 1 Sam. 2. 25 concerning Eli's Sons They hearkened not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them 2. Go read the Scriptures the Eunuch found Christ there and Augustine found him there while he was reading Rom. 13. 13. Go ask your Teachers and they will direct you in the way go hence into your corners and weep and pray and God will come to you and when you hear the word Preacht mind what is spoken to you it is God that speaketh whom you should seek 4. Consider If you will seek the Lord early you will lay the foundation of your own peace and comfort living and dying O how may you prevent the sighs the groans the repentings the heart-akings that have fill'd up our days for want of an early seeking after God What a comfort was this to our dying Friend as also to her surviving Friends and Relations That She did and could truly say that she began to know God betimes and her great preparation-work for death to use her own words was not now to do And as that was your comfort then so let it be your Copy now What a great advantage was that to David Psal. 71. 17 18 That when he was old he could plead an old acquaintance with God O Lord thou hast taught me from my youth Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not Two things more I would briefly shew you 1. What will be the difference between them that made it their business early to seek the Lord and them that sought him not or sought him too late and that with reference to eternity in a dying hour 2. Whence that difference doth arise 1. What will be the difference betwixt Saints and Sinners with respect to death at last 1. The wicked and ungodly sinner that would seek the world his own pleasure and sinful lusts When he comes to dye Conscience rings a dreadful peal and makes him cry out in the bitterness of his soul Alas Friend I must dye Animula vagula blandula quos nunc ad ibis locos Poor flitting dear departing soul whither art thou going Christ is an enemy God is a stranger I have no friend to save me I must be damn'd I am undone I am undone for ever But the dying Saint when he hath the sentence of death in him hath the hopes of life before him I must dye says he O welcom Death I am now going to enjoy him whom I have loved to possess him whom I have sought as this precious Saint said to me a little before her death I know whom I have trusted I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine says the Believer Now shall I ever be with the Lord. 2. The careless sinner that would not seek the Lord when he comes to dye bids a doleful adieu to all his comforts farwel Friends Relations pleasures and delights for ever I shall never see a good day more But he that sought the Lord while he liv'd when he comes to dye says Behold I dye now farwel troubles temptations sin and sorrow for ever I am lanching forth into a glorious eternity I shall never see a sad day more 3. The wilful sinner when he is about to dye after all the counsels he hath slighted and now time shall be no more cries out with horrour I have for ever lost my opportunities of seeking God it is now too late I am left to perpetual howlings But the gracious Soul who hath sought and found God in seeking when he is about to dye looks back with delight upon all the Ordinances wherein he hath many times met with Christ and found God nigh to his soul and says I am going where I shall need Ordinances no more but God shall be all in all I am going to mine eternal rest to an everlasting Sabbath-keeping in Heaven 2. Whence doth that difference arise From the wisdom of the one and foolish inadvertency or rather obstinacy of the other one knew his season and did the things that did belong to his peace the other had his season but knew it not and now his misery is great upon him one sought after Christ that he might have an interest in him and make God his friend the other refused Christ and now God is his enemy and so death is to him the King of terrors But the believing soul can to allude to that in Isa. 11. 8 play upon the hole of the Asp and put his hand on the Cockatrice Den and when the pains of an irksom disease are upon him and pangs of death before him he says all these rackings and grievous aches be but like the ratling of the Charriot-wheels that Joseph sent to fetch his Father and his Brethren to him and all his wearisom waking nights be to him as the valley of Achor or door of Hope 1. Because he knows death is no death to him but a passage unto a glorious life with God whom 〈◊〉 hath sought and serv'd all his days he is but going unto his Beloved the Lord Jesus who is gone 〈◊〉 way before him 2. Because he looks on the Grave not as his Prison but a bed of Spices or rather the Saints Tyring-Room where they throw off mortality to put on immortality and lay aside corruption to put on incorruption I thought here to have spoken a word to the nearest Friends and
did supply the place and among the rest I heard Mr. G. on these words Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Joh. 6. 68. As I remember this was his Observation That soul that had once given up it self to could never bear a going off from Jesus Christ. His arguing thus with a doubting soul Try thy self cannot you bear a leaving of God then doubt not that he will leave you would you know whether God loves you consider do you love God for you could not love him unless he loved you first By these and several arguments the Lord was pleased so to set it home on my heart I may well forget the words my heart being so full of peace and joy through believing 1 Pet. 1. that I cannot express it being as I judg better felt than exprest it did seem at that time to me as if I had tasted of that joy unspeakable and full of glory I know not what to make of it except it were a sealing unto the day of redemption I thought then my joy being so great I could willingly have gone out of the body to have been with the Lord. I remember I went home and fell on my knees admiring the freeness of grace to such a worm as I crying out with the Apostle O the depth The sense of free-grace and rich mercy did much overcome me the which I hope I shall admire to all eternity O the goodness of God! when I had again and again refused to be comforted yet he waited to be gracious to me This I write and speak that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost may have the glory of their own work When under my doubts and fears I seldom went to hear but the word did seem to speak unto me and several Scriptures came suddenly to my mind that did reprove and quiet and comfort me such as these Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise him This hath been made good unto me and that in the Psalm In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul and that it is good for me to draw near to God Psal. 73. 28. And that a day in thy courts is better than a thousand Psal. 84. 10. And I can truly say as David did I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in tents of wickedness Experienced I have that of Job I have esteemed thy word more than my necessary food Job 23. 12. I have had great support from that Scripture All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. I have often thought of that Scripture with joy Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto me and not unto the world for who maketh thee differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive I have again and again in these words and many more admired freeness of grace towards such a poor doubting soul as I was I doubt not but he which hath begun will finish his own work on Sarah Lye Amen Amen Thus far I have written a relation of the first 20 years of my age what was the great thing that most troubled me it was That I might have assurance of the love of God and a well-grounded hope of an interest in Christ that what the Lord Jesus had done and suffered might be applied unto me and having hopes through grace and rejoycing much in hopes of the glory of God which hope maketh not ashamed After this I began to have great tryals as to the loss of my relations my Parents that were very dear to me both dying within four Months this with many more troubles much cast me down yet to observe the Providences of God to me and how by his word he sent me relieving experiences should I set it down in order would swell to a great Volume Only thus much I may speak to the praise of God that when Father and Mother forsook God took me into his care and hath graciously provided for me and hath given me an Agurs portion which I beg'd of the Lord when but a Girl I can truly say All the ways of the Lord are and have been to me mercy and truth For this God I have chosen to be my God for ever and ever and I doubt not but he will be my guide even unto death And now my dear Child or Children that shall read of this way and method that the Lord did use in bringing me off from all things to himself take heed pray take heed you do not limit the holy One of Israel nor tye up God to this or any way of working the Lord worketh all things after the counsel of his own will but we are commanded to search our hearts and try our ways and to examine our selves and to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure Look that the work of conversion be wrought and leave time and way to the All-wise God that governs the world and orders all things to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen and Amen All that I have written in these few sheets is not out of any book but that of my own conscience no assister but the spirit and to no end but that God in all things may have glory for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought in me FINIS Books sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside ONe Hundred select Sermons upon several occasions by Tho. Horton D. D. Sermons on the whole Epistle of Saint Paul to the Collossians by Mr. J. Daille translated into English by F. S. with Dr. Tho. Goodwin's and Dr. John Owens Epistles Recommendatory An Exposition of Christs Temptation on Matth. 4. and Peters Sermon to Cornelius and circumspect walking By Dr. Tho. Taylor A Practical Exposition on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly mans choice on Psalm 4. v. 6 7 8. by Anthony Burgess Forty six Sermons upon the whole eighth Chapter of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans Both by Tho. Horton D. D. late Minister of Saint Hellens An Analytical Exposition of Genesis and of twenty three Chapters of Exodus by George Hughes D. D. Books 4to The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration by George Swinrock M. A. A Discourse of Actual Providence by John Collings D. D. An Exposition of the Five first Chapters of the Revelation of St. John by Charles Phelpes An Antidote against Quakerism by Step. Scandret An Exposition on the five first Chapters of Ezekiel with useful observations thereupon by William Greenhil The Gospel-Covenant opened by Pet. Bulkley Gods holy Mind touching matters Moral which he uttered in ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lords Prayer by Edward Eston B. D. The Fiery-Jesuit or an Historical Collection of the rise encrease doctrines and deeds of the Jesuits exposed to view for the sake of London Horologiographia optica Dyalling universal and particular speculative and practical together with a description of the Court of Arts by a new Method by Sylvanus Morgan The Practical Divinity of the Papists discovered to be destructive to true Religion and mens souls by J. Clarkson The Creatures goodness as they came out of Gods hand and the good-mans mercy to the bruit-creatures in two Sermons by Tho. Hodges B. D. Certain considerations tending to promote Peace and Unity amongst Protestants Mediocria or the most plain and natural apprehensions which the Scripture offers concerning the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion of Election Redemption the Covenant the Law and Gospel and Perfection The vanity of man in his best estate in a discourse on Psal. 39. 5. at the Funeral of the Lady Susanna Keate by Richard Kidder M. A. The Morning-Lectures against Popery or the principal Errors of the Church of Rome detected and confuted in a Morning-Lecture preached by several Ministers of the Gospel in or near London Four useful discourses 1 The art of improving a full and prosperous condition for the glory of God being an appendix to the art of Contentment in three Sermons on Phil. 4. 12. 2 Christian submission on 1 Sam. 3. 18. 3 Christ a Christians life and death is gain on Phil. 1. 21. 4 The Gospel of peace sent to the sons of peace in six Sermons on Luk. 10. 5 6. by Jeremiah Burroughs Dr. Wilds Letter of Thanks and Poems A new Copy-book of all sorts of useful hands The Saints priviledg by dying by Mr. Scot. The Vertuous Daughter a Funeral Sermon by Mr. Brian The Miracle of Miracles or Christ in our Nature by Dr. Rich. Sibbs