his high displeasure in those temporal Judgements that are among us what else means his not going forth with our Armies the unsuccessfulness of our Fleet the taking of our Merchants Ships the loss of our Trade the scarcity of Corn the dearness of all Provisions so that Poverty comes in upon us like an Armed Man let not Men grumble at these things but lay them to heart humble themselves and reform mourn and amend their ways and doings Thirdly You are Members of the Church as well as Citizens of London and Natives of England Some of you are come into stricter and closer Communion than others in order to the better promoting of your Souls good and your enjoyment of Ordinances purely administred and as you think more according to the mind of God reveal'd in Scripture However all of you do profess your selves belonging to the Church of Christ and so to be Members of his Mystical Body and you ought to study the good of the Church if you do not there is no life in you but you are dead members you may have some kind of being in the body but you are not of it you do not receive Spirits and Life from the Head no vital influences And Oh! how did Paul complain and groan because men were wholly selfish confin'd and shrivel'd up into a narrow interest seeking their own things and not the things of Iesus Christ i. e. the glory of his Name and the good and prosperity of his Church which is not a separate but a joynt interest so that the promoting of one is the promoting both and you ought to study it and do all that you can to contribute to it Fourthly Do not you know that a great many among us are the burthens of the Land and that under them it groans we see England is sick yea it is heart sick oh how faint it is what convulsions hath it what struglings are there even as for life but who is it sick of of the Fanaticks will some say and I say so too only understand it of them who are Fanaticks indeed not of them who are Israelites indeed the Fools Cap is many times through a wilful mistake put upon a Wise Mans head but they will say England is sick of the Dissenters the Non-Conformists and it will never be well till they be suppres'd and purged out but those that are thus minded go by very wrong measures and are Physicians of no value Ahab told Elijah that he troubled Israel but the Holy Prophet did very justly and honestly return it upon the wicked King I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers House in that ye have forsaken the Commandments of the Lord 1 Kings 18.18 And I dare also say concerning those good men which some have given that undeserved name to what in another case Paul said to the Centurion and the Souldiers except these abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved Acts 27.31 I am not for making Parties nor widening or continuing unnecessary differences but desire to love every one that loveth the Lord Iesus in sincerity and I dare affirm that those who are godly in the Nation are the strength thereof the strength both of King and Kingdom Isa. 6.13 the holy seed shall be the substance thereof But I was saying too many are the burthen of the Land I mean those that have suckt in and do belch out damnable Doctrines and the Prophane Crew the Debauchees of the Age the Land is sick of them and perhaps will not be well 'till it hath eas'd it self I say not of their Persons but of their Principles and Practices those those be the Persons that are the Pests and Plagues of the Nation and may they be so accounted in order to their being avoided that so the spreading of the infection may be prevented but since there are such as these multitudes of them you that profess Religion should desire and pray and labour to be the blessings of the Nation and so to be will be your honour Fifthly To fill up the places in which God hath been pleased to set you is the way to make you blessings publick blessings the way for the whole to thrive is for every one to do his part when the Spring Wheels and Ballance move regularly the Watch goes well there is the honour of the place and the profit of the place and those that are high will expect that but there is also the work of the place and let them and others also do that It may be thou art but in a low and mean place however be thou contented with the disposal of Providence that is the way to have a blessing from God for thy self and to be thy self a blessing to the Nation Consider then the place in which you are set and study the duty of that place and to that do thou apply thy self and labour to do it all Are any of you in publick place in City or Country cloathed with Authority and Power in a capacity of encouraging Vertue and Godliness and of punishing and suppressing Vice fill up your Place it is pity there should be any Wicked Profane Idle Careless Sloathful Magistrates they are common Nusances Have you none but a little Cock-Boat to manage being only Governours of Families do you fill up your place and do the duty of that If you have but a little it is the more easily done be you faithful in your little that is the way to advance God may make you Rulers over much to be sure you shall not miss of his joy Sixthly Families are the first Bodies out of which greater Societies and Communities do arise and of which they are compos'd Churches Towns Cities Kingdoms are made up of Families as the integrating parts the least Families is a part of the body a Family is the first Society as it was in our Primitive Parents Adam and Eve and in its growth an increase it comes to be made up of several Persons that stand in several Relations to one another Husband Wife Son Daughter Man-Servant Maid-Servant Villages Towns Cities Countries are all of them made up as was said before of several Families and according as it is in these smaller bodies it is like to be in those greater ones if the several members be corrupt it is utterly impossible that the body should be sound If there be a Plague raging in the Houses it is impossible there should be health in the City And so if Families be tainted corrupted spoiled who can rationally think that the Kingdom should be good Those larger and more numerous Societies which have been spoken of may not unfitly be compared to Orchards or Vineyards that should bring forth Fruit to God and ought to be water'd with the Magistrates eye and water'd by the Ministers hand our Families are the Nurseries in which young tender Plants are set and Nurs'd and reer'd for the supplying and furnishing them afresh as the Old Stock the Super-annuated Trees of
needful work for the Lord's sake apply to it with diligence and chearfulness what your hand findeth to do herein do with all your might And since your planting and watering will turn to no account unless God give the increase begin and second all these holy endeavours with prayer Beg of God that he would open their understandings and hearts that he would work together with you and by you and that he would be pleased to out-do you that he would work that in them and for them which you cannot III. Considâ—r seriously whose your Children and Servants are they are yours yea and they are God's as well as yours God's more than yours First They are yours Your Children are yours by Nature begotten or born of you parts of your selves from you under God they had their Being Your Servants are yours by Compact or Covenant And here let us call again to mind what was said before they are both your Charge and therefore they ought to be your Care you are to look to them you will look to your Money and Goods and not lose them if you can help it The Countrey-man will look to his Corn and Cattel that he may not lose them and is there not reason for as great care here and greater too Our Saviour said It is the will of him that sent me that of all whom he hath given me I should lose none and I am sure it is so here It is the will of him that sent you into the World that of all whom he hath given you you should lose none There may be indeed as there was in Christ's Family so in yours a Son a Daughter of Perdition who lose themselves who will ruin and destroy themselves and their Blood will be upon their own heads But have you a care that you do not lose them through your wilful carelesness and neglect For as I have said they are your Charge and believe me the Charge of a Family is a great Charge of mighty weight and importance as all the World all ranks and degrees of Men will find it when that day shall come in which the Eternal God will reckon with them You know that if any one come by an untimely Death whether it be in the City or in the Countrey the Coroners Inquest must be called and sit upon the Body who ought to make a strict and impartial Enquiry about it that the Murderer might be discovered and brought to condign Punishment because there is not only the Loss of a Relation or a Servant but also the King hath lost a Subject Bring this to the present case before us here is such an one a Soul lost in this Family and there is another lost in that Family and so in a great many more the Lord only knows how great the number of them is How many thousand of Souls do every day drop into Hell If people would give themselves leave seriously to consider it it would make their hearts to ake and dissolve into Tears and peradventure it is nay I do not in the least question but it is the case of some of your Families You have lost a Child and you a Daughter and you a Servant in that sense in which the compassionate Father said concerning his Prodigal This my Son was lost he was dead He was dead in trespasses and sins the poor mournful Father had lost him and the Devil taken him up for a Stray but these of yours are lost beyond the possibility of a recovery their Souls are lost for ever they are dead and dead in sin their Bodies are laid in the Grave in a Bed of Dust and their Souls are gone down to Hell and there laid upon a Bed of Flames which Divine Justice hath prepared for them and the Breath of the Lord like as a stream of Brimstone doth feed But now here God hath lost a Creature one that was the work of his own hands and you may be sure that He will make Inquisition for Blood How did this Soul and that Soul come thus to miscarry was it their own doing was it through their own folly and madness because they would not hearken to the Voice of their Teachers or was it through the neglect of those to whose care and tuition they were committed The guilt of every ones Blood shall be laid some where and God will lay it where it ought to lie and there is as you may gather from what hath been said reason why God should thus proceed because Secondly They I mean your Children and Servants are God's as well as yours nay they are more God's than yours He indeed gave them to you as Iacob told his Brother These are the Children which God hath graciously given to thy Servant But when he gave them to you he did not alienate them from himself nor part with his own Right but reserves that whole and entire to himself He so gives them to us that still they are his Yea they are more his than ours And so it is with all our other Enjoyments Take one Scripture or two for the proof of this first as to our Enjoyments some Men think their Estates are their own and their Money their own so that they may do with them whatsoever they please but it is no such matter we are but Stewards God is the Lord of all For this see Hos. 2.8 9. I gave her Corn and Wine and multiplied her Silver and Gold They were his and he gave them to her But observe now he retain'd a propriety in them and therefore upon her misemploying and abusing them he threatned to take them away I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and recover my Wooll and my Flax. They were hers by vertue of God's donation but they were his also and now she should know as much for he will turn her out and take the Possession of all again This consideration should make all wary that they do not sin with their Enjoyments nor maintain their Lusts at God's cost nor with God's allowances make provision for the Flesh and it should also teach rich Men to do good with what they have and quicken them to acts of Piety and Charity Your Estates are yours but they are God's too and therefore as you ought to use them for your own good and comfort so you must lay them out for God's honour and for God's poor for the Sovereign right in your Estates is in God and it is the same as to your Children God lays his claim to them Ezek. 16.20 21. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredoms a small matter that thou hast slain my Children and delivered them to cause them to pass thorough the fire for them Mark it the Lord grants they were her Children but he doth also call them his Children he
not be startled at it and afraid of him When Elijah in danger of his Life upon the rage and threatning of Iezabel had fled and hid himself in a Cave the Lord came to him and said What dost thou here Elijah 1 Kings 19. Suppose God should then and there come to thee not in a great strong Wind nor in an Earthquake nor in a Fire but in a gentle manner as he did to him in a small still voice and say what dost thou here O Man Is it not high time for thee to be at home honest Men should be so specially such as call themselves by my name should be so what then dost thou here Could you give a satisfactory account of it unto God Could you justifie and maintain it before God Could you with boldness answer Lord I am where I should be I am where my work is I do not at all doubt but such a question as this propounded by the most holy God would raise a blush in your Cheeks for shame or cover your Face with paleness for fear it would leave you speechless and make you tremble it would cause rottenness to enter into your Bones and teach you to make more haste home the next time Well know though God doth not appear and act to such a purpose as this for the present yet if you do not amend and sue out your Pardon he will question you about it at the last and punish you for it too Fourthly When you come so late to your Houses do you in your Consciences think that you come soon enough to your duty Is so late at Night the best time you can pick out to bestow upon God It is more than probable that then you your selves are not in any fit condition to make your appearance before so glorious a Majesty who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and very sensible of his Creatures neglecting him and who will not be mock'd no nor slighted neither Surely you are not then in a fit case to present your Petition to him in whose Hand your Souls and Lives and All are you are not then in a fit case to strive in Prayer and wrestle with Omnipotency though indeed the Door of Grace doth stand always open yet your Souls are not always active and at that time your Bodies will be a clog and hindrance to them At that Hour not only your Hearts it may be are down and flat and dead and your Spirits run very low but your very Heads are discomposed too and out of order and it is not likely that Grace should be lively and vigorous in its motions when Nature it self is jaded tir'd and calls for relief But how do you think it is with the rest of the Family who have stood in your Shops till their Legs have ak'd and been spent and wearied with the toyl and labour of the day doing your work and running from one end of the Town to another upon your Errands and after all have been impatiently waiting and wishing and looking for you till they could look no longer not being able to hold up their Eyes for though the Spirit be never so willing yet the Flesh is weak Now I appeal to you is this a good Praying-time And are not all in a right praying case when in such a case as this And the work is like to be done as it should be when they that set about it scarce know what they do possibly they are all asleep as soon as ever they are fallen down upon their Knees or if not so soon before the Master hath done and the Prayer is ended O Great God how art thou served by these pitiful Wretches that owe thee more than they are worth How would they put thee off Wert thou not what thou art God and not Man and were not thy Goodness thy Patience like thy Self Infinite Thou wouldst not nay more thou couldst not bear it and I leave you to think whether you have reason to hope that he will accept In short by this means at sometimes the duty is totally omitted and then they are sent to Bed as Swine to their Sties at other times it is slightly and shamefully perform'd and so there is short-praying and sleepy praying and dead heartless praying and indeed no praying for we have reason to be confident that God will not call that praying but a trifling and fooling not a seeking but a mocking of him If this be your Incense that you offer to him it must needs stink in his Nostrils and it is no wonder that he counts and calls it an abomination this is no other than offering unto him the Blind and the Lame for a Sacrifice and he may speak to you in the very same words that he us'd to those wicked Persons Mal. 1.8 If ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil Is it not evil Yes it is if it be not evil in your Eyes it is in mine and evil in it self and would be counted so by a Man thy Superiour therefore he thus goes on Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts You see what pains I have taken about this one thing shall I entreat and prevail with you to consider and lay to heart what hath been said and if there be reason of which I do not doubt be rul'd by it And if any that have heard me this day be guilty herein let them humble themselves before God and implore his Pardon and let them be sure to reform this great abuse Go home and sin no more do so no more the time past may suffice VI. I do advise that you would neither in your Closets nor in your Families confine and tye up your selves to a form of Prayer I would do every thing that I do for good would both speak and write to the advantage and edification of others and not willingly anger the Wasp much less offend any of Christ's little ones therefore that I may as far as in me lies have peace with all Men and above and within too I say First I do not wholly condemn a form of Prayer I do not deny the lawfulness of it nor would I for a World charge any Man with sin for making use of one so that he do but pray with his Heart also It is far better to pray with a form than not to pray at all better to go to God with a good Prayer composed by another than with his own nonsense And I also add That a form of Prayer is not only lawful but necessary too for some namely those that know not how to pray without one Those who as Learned Mr. Tho. Fuller saith have not yet attained what all should endeavour to pray ex tempore by the Spirit for them a form of Prayer is as necessary as a Crutch is for a lame Man And I do
himself to have and own the Lord for his God And Abijah the Son of Ieroboam in whom there was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel An Obadiah that fear'd the Lord from his youth a Iosiah whose heart was tender so that he humbled himself and wept before the Lord a young Iohn that was the Beloved Disciple of our Lord Jesus and lay in his Bosom and a Timothy who knew the Scriptures of a Child And this Age as vile as it is is not altogether barren but some such are to be found among us though too few the Lord knoweth too too few if compared with the rest of the World do you dear hearts add to the number be you Trees of Righteousness Plants of Renown Two things I do earnestly desire for you viz. that you may be holy now and happy for ever that you may spend your time as you ought and then have a blessed Eternity live to purpose and die in peace Husband and lay out this life wisely and make sure of a better I wish you the good things of this World full out so far and so much as will be good for you but withal better things too for really such is my esteem of you that however the Sons of the Earth rate them I look not upon them as good enough to make up a Portion for you they are too little and low and fading they perish in the using may Iehovah whose is the Earth and fulness thereof bestow upon you such a part as will make you serviceable to him and life comfortable to you and while you have it so use and improve it that when it shall fail you you may not miss of the delights and glories of Eternity To this end I beseech you begin betimes do not imbezzle and squander gway your choicest Seasons your golden hours lay not out the very best you have upon the World the Flesh and the Devil thinking to reserve for God the dregs and refuse Oh! how sweet is early Religion how beautiful a green head found in the way of Righteousness how pleasant to see tender Plants bringing forth Fruit unto God Are you descended of good Parents do not degenerate let the Faith that was in them be in you also like precious Faith are your Lines cast in Religious Families walk worthy of the mercy and keep peace with them in the way of God It is your unhappiness to be in wicked Families do not learn their ways partake not with them in their Sins be not tainted by them nor worse for them remembring there were Saints in Nero's House and that it is great indeed truly noble to be good in the midst of bad examples of many discouragements and of great opposition such I would fain have you to be and the more such the better That you may be such beg of God by Prayer and consider what I can but hint to you Study well your own case the vileness of your hearts and the miserableness of your State by Nature whatever you have to commend you unto Men there is more than enough to render you odious and abominable unto God Abhor therefore your selves bewail your condition and get out of it as fast as you can which you can no other way do but by getting into Christ who is the only City of Refuge unto which Sinners may flee for safety the Rock of Salvation in which they may hide and upon it build who died that he might redeem from Sin and Wrath and lives to receive and embrace all those that come unto him go then to him and beg of him that you may be washed with his blood and sanctified by his Spirit that he would please to be a Principle of Spiritual Life in you and the Author of Eternal Salvation to you Be thankful for restraints that you are not so bad as others but rest not in them nor in any external performances or the most lovely form of Godliness but look after a saving change that there be in you the root of the matter an heart sincerely set against sin and for God Avoid all loose bad Company even as you would the Devil for his Children they are and the works of the Father they will do and his designs they will be carrying on in all places where they are Can a Man touch Pitch and not be defiled therewith or familiarly converse with with wicked Men or lewd vain Women and not be in danger of learning their manner walk with wise Men so you may learn wisdom delight in them that fear the Lord and associate with those here with whom you would chuse to be in the other World Be not strangers to the necessary and excellent duty of Prayer but delight to make it your business every day keep not away from Family-duties but bless God for them and be serious and fervent in them yet think not your selves by them discharged from attendance upon God and seeking his face in your private retirements honour your Parents and other Governours and study to please them well in all things in the Lord. Open your ear to Doctrine and be ready to learn and practice all that is good Hear the instruction of your Father and forsake not the Law of your Mother let them not depart from your eyes but keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life unto them that find them and health unto all their Flesh. In your behaviour be sober modest and chast humble and loving to all you have to do with faithful to your trust and diligent in your business mind your Masters interest as much as if it were your own God will bless you the better for it when you are removed from all Spectators so that no body on earth sees you remember there is one above that doth and let that awe and preserve you from sin for he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Love all vertue and goodness hate all vice all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit govern your selves well keep your hearts with all diligence make a Covenant with your eyes set a watch before the door of your lips give honour to Superiours be respective to your equals courteous to your inferiours civil and obliging to all morose and imperious froward and quarrelsom with none wise and prudent in looking to your Concerns and managing all your Affairs consider every motion that is made to you before you embrace and close with it ponder your actions before you do them that you may not make more work for Repentance than you need and weigh your words before you speak them Moses suffer'd greatly for speaking unadvisedly with his lips keep your selves from Sin as that which tends to your destruction and avoid vanity and lightness as that which will issue in your disparagement Sweet youth let me perswade and prevail with you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth own him as your great Lord from whom you had