Prayer in the text is noted to be a stirring duty there 's none that stirreth up himself there 's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself Had they prayed and prayed as they ought this would have stirred them up or have been their stirring up them selves to take hold of God But neglecting to pray they therein neglected to stir up themselves Prayer is a stirring duty 1. 'T is to stir up the Lord to their help Ps 35.23 Stir up thy self and awaken to my judgment my God and my Lord. Ps 80.2 O Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth stir up thy strength and come to save us The God of Israel sometimes seems to be as Elijah once said mocking of that false God Baal 1 Kings 18.27 It may be he is asleep and must be awakened Though he be the keeper of Israel and never slumbreth nor sleepeth yet he sometimes carries it towards them as if he were asleep and expects to be awakened by their cries upon him 2. Especially prayer is for the stirring up our selves There is a sort of praying dull and cold and formal praying that 's good for nothing but to lay our souls asleep When conscience begins to stir and run upon sinners and fright them for their neglect of God then they will to their prayers and blind devotions and this must serve them as a charm to allay and quiet conscience as Davids Musick did to drive away that evil spirit that vexed Saul Some sinners consciences will not let them be quiet but dog them and haunt them and fright them into something of religion they dare not live without calling upon God their consciences will not suffer them to be quiet under a total neglect and thereupon something must be done which they can call praying and then they are at ease and can go on quietly in their sins without trouble or disturbance these mens praying serves them for nothing but to lull them asleep in their sins But prayer rightly performed will stirr and awaken prayer is said to be a striving with God Rom. 15.30 a wrestling with God Gen. 32 24. and this is our most effectually striving with God and wrestling with God our striving and wrestling with and stirring up our own hearts Praying is not the saying of some good words but the calling up all our powers to come in and joyn in seeking the Lord. That you may particularly understand what a stirring duty Prayer is consider 1. That in Prayer we set our selves under the Eye of the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth It is a drawing night unto God a lifting up our Eyes to the Everlasting hills a presenting our selves before the throne of God the throne of his Grace a setting all the Attributes of God before our Eyes his Allmightiness his Allsufficiency his infinite greatness dreadfulness goodness and grace which all make up that fearful Name the Lord our God Deut 28.58 and sure Friends such a sight of the glorious and dreadful God will be a stirring sight 2. In Prayer we come to deal with God about all the wonderful and astonishing things of Eternity we are to have eternal life and death in our Eye when we pray and what will stir us if Eternity if a sense that we are now treating with the Eternal God about the eternal things will not O a sense of this that we are begging for our lives begging for our immortal Souls begging the everlasting Kingdom seeking our escape from the everlasting Fire a deep sense of this upon our hearts will awaken them 3 In Prayer there is a ripping open all the affrightning Evils that are in our Hearts Confession unbowels the Soul and fetches up all the filth and rottenness of the Heart lays open all the deadly Diseases that are in the Heart every wicked thought and filthy lust and vile affection all the falshood and Hypocrisie all the pride and malice and envy and frowardness of the Heart are in our confessions brought forth and laid open before the Lord. The Devils are rouz'd that lodged within us and were taken too little Notice of and all the hazard and danger that our Souls are in by these our wickednesses will in our confessions be made to stand before our Eyes and there cannot be such a discovering of our wicked Hearts and our danger that we are in but it will affright and awaken us 4. Prayer is the uniting of all our powers and the engaging them all in seeking the Lord. It strains every string it bends all our forces upon the duty it sets all our faculties our understandings our memories our wills our affections our consciences on work as the Psalmist Ps 103.1 Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Pray to the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me call upon his Name Prayer is not tongue-work or knee-work but Soul-work bless the Lord O my Soul and 't is not a peice of an Heart one string of the Instrument but every string must be strained and struck up understanding memory will affections all must joyn all that is within me bless his holy Name All our faculties and all our graces our faith our love our hope our desires whatever we have of God within us all must be called forth to joyn in seeking of him 5. Prayer is not only the employing and exercising our Souls with all their faculties and graces but the putting them forth to the height not only the striking every string but the straining every string to the height the word in the original which is translated Acts. 12.5 Prayer without ceasing signifies instant earnest Prayer or more properly according to the notation of the word strained Prayer prayer stretched out and this is that praying which is stirring praying the pouring forth our Soul in Prayer With my Soul have I desired thee Is 26.9 the straining and working up all within us every faculty and grace of our Hearts to the height the stirring up all our strength in the work this is that Praying instantly required Rom. 12.12 that praying fervently Jam. 5.16 that crying and crying mightily unto God unto which the Scriptures promise Audience Now when Prayer hath thus rouzed up our sleepy Souls set all our Faculties and Graces a stirring within us and so gotten an heat in the heart by the joynt and vigorous exercise of all within us in the duty when we have prayed our Souls awake and all our Graces awake and our Heart is waxen hot within us we are therein prepared and put in a readiness and disposedness to and shall feel our selves bent upon the practise of every holy duty in our whole course This therefore is my next direction put upon Praying and such stirring Praying Go set the Lord and all his Glory before your Eyes and get a sense of eternity upon your Hearts rip open and lay
speak a word for you ye workers of Iniquity O what shall I have to secure me from such a repulse and to assure me that he will be an Advocate for me If I can but get Christ to be mine Advocate there 's no doubt then but my matters will be good and the cause will go for me here 's the difficulty What shall I have to prove my title to Christ and his Advocation and to secure me that he will undertake for me Why my very trust if it be sincere will prove my Title He that trusteth in him shall not be confounded And for the evidencing the sincerity of this trust a confirmed Christian will have this to say Through the grace of God I have the testimony of a good Conscience and an holy Conversation my works of Faith and my labours of Love my mortified Sins this crucified and conquered World through the Spirit of Christ within me for whom I have forsaken all and followed Him these will attest the truth of my trust though none of these things none of my Graces none of my Dutyes can answer for me or acquit me in the Judgment or open the door of Glory to me yet they will be good evidences to prove my claim to Christ that can and will do it When Christ shall plead I have dyed for Sinners and thereupon shall challenge Absolution and entrance for those that have believed in Him and obeyed his Gospel the Accuser will reply But this Man hath not believed hath not obeyed the Gospel but now if I can get that to be evidenced by the testimony of a good Conscience and my holy Conversation then the mouth of the Accuser will be stopped for ever against me and so an entrance shall be administred to me abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom And here now is the trust of the Saints and its tryumph over all matters of doubt and difficulties that lye between them and everlasting Glory From hence may they take up those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Death where is thy Sting Grave yea Sin Hell Devil where is your Victory Thanks be to God who hath given me the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ From what hath been said learn by the way 1. That the life of a Christian in this World is to be a life of trust 2. That a life of trust is an excellent and desirable life and worth your reaching after But these I shall speak to together Christ is to be trusted not only for the world to come to give us entrance into Heaven but for this world also to lead and help us on to be with us in all our way from first to last Our great difficulty and our great danger of miscarrying is not so much in our end as in our way to it As hard as 't is to dye well 't is harder to live well Though the last Enemy Death looks with a more frightful face yet our Enemies that we meet with all along our lives Sin and Lust and Temptation do us the most deadly mischief He that hath conquered Sin need not fear to encounter Death do but live an Holy Life and then be nothing careful how ye shall dye Those Saints Heb. 11. Abel Abraham Sarah with the rest of them 't is Recorded that they liv'd by Faith it 's said of them v. 13. They all dyed by Faith not one amongst them miscarryed in Death who by Faith kept close to God in their lives Now our great difficulty and danger being in our lives there is the most need of trusting in Christ for his conduct through this World and this being that which I am now especially directing you to be reaching to that I may more effectually lead you on to such a life of trust I shall yet more particularly shew you that Christ must be trusted for 1. Our entrance into Religion 2. Our progress in Religion 3. Our perseverance in Religion 1. It is Christ that must do the first work for us must bring us in at the straight Gate and give us entrance into Religion Who brought Israel out of Egypt Cut out a passage for them through the Red Sea and set them into the way of the Promised Land 'T was the same Moses that conducted them through the Wilderness Christians you that have passed the New Birth and have broken out of the Womb you that are escaped out of Egypt that state of Bondage you once were in with the rest of this miserable World and are now gotten safe into the way of life Who is it that hath helped you hitherto Are you not beholden to Christ for this As it was said of the second Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.22 so 't is true of the first Resurrection As in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive Are there any living souls amongst you 'T is Christ who is your Life And who is it that must help after and bring in those that are behind and quicken those that are yet dead Is it not the same Jesus that must do it Sinners you that have been left dead in your sins some of you have not trod one step towards the New Birth others of you have been brought to the Birth but still stick in the Womb What hope have you that you shall ever be new Born If you be not new Born there 's no hope of you but you must dye for ever better you had never been Born into this World then not to be Born a new to Christ You must dye there 's no help for you there 's no hope of you you must dye eternally the second Death will seize upon you and swallow you up for ever if you be not Born the second time You are yet without the Gate and if you dye there dye in your sins dye in your ignorance in your impenitence and unbelief if ye dye without the streight Gate you go down quick into the Pit Now what hope is there of your being brought in Multitudes of your Predecessors in sin have never come in have liv'd and dyed and gone to their Graves and gone down to Hell in their impenitence and down you are going apace What hope is there now that you may stop before you come there that you may be brought about out of that common rode that broad way that you are going and brought into the narrow gate that gate of Life May be you will say Christ I trust will do it and the truth is that 's all you have to say that 's all the hope you have there 's the same Jesus before you who hath brought in so many others who says to you all as Isa 45.22 Look unto me and ye shall be saved None cometh to the Father but by me and Joh. 6.37 Him that cometh to me that will trust upon me to bring him to God I will in no wise cast him out Go to Jesus Sinners tell him Lord thou hast told me that none can come to the
perpetually rising up to hinder any good that 's going in your hearts and bringing it to just nothing O how many good motions are quenched good purposes vacated good desires and hopes frustrated good beginnings discouraged your duties spoiled your peace broken your comforts clouded and lost and all by the malign influences of the Body of sin and the impetuousness of your lusts its members Here are those outcries that we sometimes hear from the tender-hearted wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar I am for peace but they are for war I am for peace yet not by a League but by a conquest of mine Enemies let them dye that I may be at rest but still they live and are mighty whilst I am for peace they are for war I can have no rest in my Spirit I am weary of my life because of these Daughters of Heth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Hear Lord cut down cast out these Sons of the Bond-woman that they be no longer a Plague or a Snare unto me Remember these Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem happy should I be could I reward them as they have served me happy should I be if I could take these Children and dash them against the stones And now you see another ground why you have great need to bestir your selves because of these stirring lusts that hinder and mischief you Let me here put in a word of application You will say But what should the consideration of these stirring lusts stir me up unto Why you have it hinted to you already to deal by them as they have dealt and will deal by you Have they given you a fall wrestle with them again till they fall before you Are they for war let them have enough of it war against those lusts that war against your Souls Doth the Flesh lust against the Spirit let the Spirit lust against the Flesh Stretch forth the Spear and draw not back your hand till they become as the Midianites which perished at Endor and became as the Dung of the Earth Mortifie mortifie them as lust hath even mortified your Religion so let your Religion mortifie Corruption Take the Apostle for your Patern O how did that great Apostle Paul bestir himself upon this account what compassionate complaints did he make against his lust Rom. 7. aforementioned The good that I would I do not the evil that I hate that do I when I would do good evil is present with me I find a law in my members war ring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death What earnest prayers did he make For this I besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12.8 I was often upon my knees begging the Lord that these Thorns in my flesh might be pulled out What assaults and batteries did he make upon them 1 Cor. 9.26 27. So fight I not as one that beateth the Air but I keep under my body and bring it to subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a Cast away What will become of me if I let these Lusts live O they will damn me at last After all my preaching of Christ to others I shall be a Reprobate from Christ a Cast away if I conquer not mine own sins one of the two they or I must die Paul was a chosen Vessel and by the Election of God secured from coming into condemnation but this necessary means must be used his sins must be slain or his soul cannot be saved Acts 27.31 Though God had promised him his life and the lives of all in the Ship yet says he unless the Mariners abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved And in the case of Jonah if Jonah had not been cast out of the Ship the Mariners had all been drowned Friends how often must I tell you this Whatever Faith and Hope in Christ you have whatever profession of Christ you have made whatever security you think you have for your Salvation yet if these Jonahs be not cast over board you will all be drowned in perdition and destruction your lusts will never leave enticing and tempting you from one sin to another from one degree of Apostasie to another till they have damned your Souls If you give them Rope and let them alone they will become such a Rope about your Neck as will drag you to the Pit How near have they brought you to it already are not some of you even become as dying men have not your souls and your hopes one foot in the Grave And if you die thus daily what can you expect but to be buried in flames See what your lusts have already done and tremble to think what they are still a doing you die outright if you save them alive And will you not yet stir have they eaten up your hearts and drunk up your spirits and left such leanness upon your souls Have they withered your branches and rotted your fruit and are these worms still gnawing at your root How can you but cry out Lord what am I come to Lord whether am I falling save Lord or I perish Arise O my Soul cut off the Limbs and smite through the Loyns of the Old Man nothing but his Death can secure his Life Friends how do these words take with you what do they work what nothing moved for all this Or do the Sleepers begin to wake O that it might be so Lord waken them 3. From the difficulty of holding on and getting on the way for those that stand It 's hard to keep our way and much more to make speed on in it and so hard that unless we bestir our selves to purpose we shall never come roundly on The way of Religion is an uphill-way Prov 15.24 The way of life is above to the Wise to depart from Hell beneath The Mark we are making toward stands upon a Hill there the City of God in which alone that perfection we are reaching after is to be found is situate The Holy Hill of Zion Jerusalem which is above Our Mark we are pressing to stands upon an Hill and our way to it is all rising ground and if we put not our selves hard to it we shall never get up Sinners are all running downward and therefore 't is they run so fast Behold how the whole herd of Sinners are all like that herd of swine of the Gaderens running headlong down and never like to stop till they be choked and drowned in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the same way are Backsliders running these also are running down after the herd of Swine But now a Christians way is upwards as 't is said Eccl. 3.21 the Spirit of a Man so much more the Spirit of a Christian ascends and goes upwards he does so
Friends 2. His comfort in this his hard lot Though all Men forsook him yet Christ stuck by him the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Christians this may be your case and let this be your comfort though none in the World should own you yet stick by Christ and he will stick by you in all your Tribulations 2. Again you must dye Sickness may Arrest you and cast you upon the Bed of Languishing and Death may stand at your Beds-feet and stare you in the face and the Grave will open its mouth for you to swallow you up Stick fast to Christ and look to find him standing by your Beds-side to comfort you O how will it be with you in that hour O I feel my Diseases and Languishing my Flesh wasteth my Bones ake my strength is lost my heart faints mine eyes fail my breath is departing and all tell me that Death is at the door ready to turn me into rottenness But O! where is my God Now for a sight of Christ Those that are gone back from Christ they may look and look and cry where is the Lord where is the Saviour But poor Wretches there 's no Christ to be seen Death comes and the Devil comes and Sin comes and puts a Sting into Death's tail and the poor Sinner is left to grapple with Death alone its gripes its pangs its terrors are upon him but no Redeemer to be had Whatever come upon thee this shall not thou that holdest thee by him shalt see Jesus standing by thee or if thou should'st not see him yet there he will not fail to be though it may be behind the Curtain yet ready to help thee in thy Conflict with this thy last Enemy 3. Yet again after Death thou must be brought to Judgment where thou wilt meet with a Righteous Judge a Malicious Accuser who will have many things to lay to thy charge All the ugly and frightful sins that ever thou hast done in thy life thou maist look to hear of from that Malicious mouth And how wilt thou stand before that dreadful Bar O there thou shalt be sure Even with these Eyes to behold thy Redeemer there he will certainly be for he is the Judge and there he will stick by thee for he is thine Advocate he hath said to thee Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Fear not how thy matters shall go in the Judgment I will be there I will secure thee from coming into Condemnation I will give thee the Crown of Life This will be the Portion of those that stick fast to Christ He will certainly stick to them stick to them in all the troubles of their lives stick to them in death and stand by them in the eternal Judgment O Christans stick fast hold fast what you have that no man take your Crown Rev. 2.11 Hold fast your holy Profession hold on your Confidence and your holy Conversation and thence-forth expect that Jesus will give you a Crown of Life 2. Stick closâ— to Christ or else you will never be likely to stick fast By how much the closer our adherence to Christ is by so much the firmer is our standing and the less danger of falling off The root of a Tree if it be loosned from the Earth is more easily plucked up it may be some small strings there may be that keep their hold which maintain it in life but if the main root be loosned it 's the more in danger of being blown down The cleaving of the soul to Christ is set forth by the cleaving together of Husband and Wife Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall be joyned to his Wife The word in the Original signifies shall be glued to his Wife What is glu'd together if it shrinks or gapes loses its hold Take heed of warping and shrinking from Christ the glue will give off if you do and when you have once lost your hold you know not whither you may be blown O take heed of growing to a distance of wandring from Christ keep you near him if you would stand firm 4. A confirmed habit of Religion An holy disposition and constitution of soul this is the very heart of the new Creature the Divine Nature whereof Christians are said to be made partakers 2 Pet. 1.4 'T is an holy Spring or Fountain within us which will flow forth in Religious actions and by how much the more maturity it 's ripened up into by so much the more freely will it flow forth An heart that is holily disposed and hath strong and fixed inclinations Heaven-ward will find Religion sweet and easie to it there will be the less need of force and constraint That fear which is so necessary to drive on a servile spirit will be of less use according to the measures that we have attained of this free spirit and ready mind Such Christians have that within them that will save them much of their labour and pains which would be otherwise needful Our work will be easie and we shall go on more prosperously in our way we shall both more abound in the work of the Lord and we shall go on more evenly and steadily in our course Religious acts where there are no Religious habits or where the habit is but weak will be both more seldom and more difficult and when they are done whatever they be for the matter of them yet it will be still questioned whether they be sincerely or savingly Religious Those that are carnally-minded their very Natures do prompt them and carry them on in their fleshly ways there 's the less need of temptation to sin the Devil may save much of his labour their sinful dispositions will carry them on fast enough O Christians let this be in your eye let this be it you aim at and labour for to habituate your selves to Holiness to get up to such a settled holy disposition to such a promptitude and readiness of mind that your hearts may flow forth towards God and Godliness that your inward stream may run Heaven-ward that you may feel a freedom and enlargement of heart towards Godliness of Life Carnal Professors both those that are wholly such and have nothing of the new Nature in them and those who though they have something of the Spirit yet have much of the Flesh remaining in them O how heavily and slowly do they drive on in the matters of Religion How backward are they to duty how hardly brought to it how quickly weary they had rather be any where then with God about any work than about the work of the Lord not only eating and drinking and playing and taking the pleasures of the Flesh but their hardest fleshly labours Ploughing and Threshing will easilier down with them than Praying or Holy Meditation or otherwise Conversing with God This is a wretched temper but is it not an ordinary temper Consider is it
and their Sorrows and their Complaints to the Lord Ps 38.9 All my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Ps 56.8 Put my Tears into thy Bottle If it be well with them then their Praises are sent up if they want any thing then up go their Desires to the Lord for Supply if they ail any thing if they be surprized by Sin swallowed up of Sorrow whatever it be that ails them they pour it out into the Bosom of their Friend Some-Messengers or other are daily sent up and whatever the Messengers be if it be a Prayer or a Sigh or a Tear this is still the Message tell him That I am either sick of love or sick for love for an Heart to love the Lord. Such Entercourses there are betwixt God and his Saints and these are a special part of their Communion with God and a special security against distances and enstrangments betwixt the Lord and them And it is to be observed That whenever there is a parting betwixt God and Souls there is a cessation or failing of these Friendly Entercourses Declining Souls how seldom do they look upwards they are so busie here below that they have no leisure and they grow so carnally-minded that they have no list to have much to do with God they restrain Prayer and restrain Holy Meditations the Lord seldom hears from them and when he does 't is so coldly and so dully that he can take no pleasure in it O Friends 't is a sign that there is a breach betwixt the Lord and you when you are fallen so into a neglect of Spiritual Duties Do your affections Heavenward flag do the fervour of your desires fail are your Prayers shortned and straitned are you so seldom and so remiss and so flat in your retirements to God can you not say at least My sighs and complaints are daily before him and my groanings are not hid from him What danger is there that God and your Souls may utterly part if you have thus lost your Correspondence with him 4. Often reckoning by this our Communion with God and our Friendship with him is maintained Often reckoning keeps long Friends whilst we keep our Account clear and fair so long there 's the less danger of a breach The best of Saints run upon score daily we go upon score for Mercies received from God and we go upon score for Sins committed against God and where there is such scoring there must be often reckoning 1. Our score of Mercies should be answered in our Praises and more abundant Duties and a reckoning must be kept both of what we have received and what we have returned of what the Lord hath done for our Souls and what our Souls have done ever the more for his Name Thus we should reckon for these O my soul the Lord hath done great things for thee hath brought thee from darkness to light hath saved thy life from death when thou wert going on in thy sins running with the multitude either after thy Covetousness or after thy Companions in the lusts and in the lewdness of thine heart when thou wert making all the haste thou couldst down to Hell there Grace met thee and whilst it let others run on it singled thee out and brought thee back out of that deaths Rode and hath brought thee into the way of Life and of a dead Sinner hath made thee this living Soul O what a wonder of Mercy was there and since how many a kindness hath it shewed thee how often hath the same Grace met thee in the House of God and taught thee and instructed thee and quickned thee and comforted thee how often hath Grace met thee in thine own House met thee in secret met thee upon thy knees and hath enlarged thine heart and helped thee to pour out thy Soul before the Lord and hath poured in upon thee such a sense of the kindness of God to thee as hath delighted and even ravished thine heart And what great multitudes of other instances have there been of the renewed Kindnesses of the Lord to thee O to what a reckoning do thy Mercies rise hast thou kept the Account by thee if thou hast what hath been returned in answer of the loving kindness of the Lord As 't was said concerning Mordecai who had saved the Kings Life Esther 6.3 What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Canst not thou say The Lord hath saved my life from death and done for me these great things what honour have I done to the Lord for all this And if upon thy reckoning made it be found as 't was there found in that instance there hath been nothing done or but little done then thou wilt see that there must be more done or God will be angry 2. Our score of sins should be reckoned up in order to the getting them crossed by faith in the Bloud of Christ and repentance from dead works Thus therefore thou shouldst go on O my Soul thou seest what God hath done for thee but what is it that thou hast done against the God of thy Mercy how many slights hast thou put upon the Grace of God how often hast thou abused Mercy hast thou not grown secure hast thou not grown wanton hast thou not been haughty and lifted up in the pride of thine Heart Remember thy frowardness and quarrellings thy backbitings and talebearings hast thou no lies no false and fraudulent dealing to put down upon thy account dost thou not use to play the Hypocrite and come before the Lord with such an hollow heart and such hollow duties as if thou meanst to mock him to the face art thou not either a backslider or a loyterer if thou hast not lost ground and fallen backward yet hast thou not lost time and not gone on forward hast thou no slothfulness and negligence and non-proficiency to write down against thy self hast thou not somewhat against thy self for thy covetousness and over-eagerness upon the World hast thou no wrongs of thy conscience to be remembred dost not find much of these and many more evils that thou art run in score with thy God for and what hath there hitherto been done for the crossing out of the score Sure if thou goest on thus thou art like to hear of him in another way than thou wouldst or it may be not hear from him at all Beloved the keeping good reckoning betwixt the Lord and us being of so great importance and so necessary to the continuing his presence and favour with us I shall give you some short directions concerning it 1. Let every one especially look to his own personal reckoning We must reckon for our people also how great things God hath done for our Nation and his Churches amongst us and how great have been the sins of our People What have our Princes and our Priests what have our Magistrates and our Ministers done What have the Sins of Congregations of our
serious thoughts daily upon it Well whether you will remember this or forget it that my soul may not be guilty of your eternal miscarriage of your dying in your sins or of your sleeping to death in your languishing state I once again warn you to bethink your selves how 't is with you and every day to bestow such serious thoughts upon the important matters of God and your souls as may tend to your recovery 2. Get yon stirring affections 1. Stir up godly sorrow The Apostle wrote such a Letter to the Corinthians as made their hearts ake 2 Cor. 7.8 I made you sorry with a Letter and this sorrow what a stir it made in their hearts v. 10. it stirred up care and fear and indignation and vehement desire and revenge upon themselves for their faults and neglects O that my preaching to you might have the same effect upon you that the Apostles Letter had upon them that I might make you sorry sorry at the heart for the woful cases that many of your souls are in yea set you to it to stir up this godly sorrow in your selves think Friends what matter of sorrow and grief you have within you and amongst you The King said to Nehemiah chap. 2.2 Why is thy countenance sad since thou art not sick I may say to you why is your countenance not sad since you are so sick what sick at heart and yet so merry at heart Look inwards and see how 't is with you rake in your sores and wounds till you make them bleed and smart Sure you have forgotten what hath been said if you yet find not for what to mourn Remember your selves is it no matter of sorrow to you to see what your sin hath made What is the head sick and the heart faint and the whole man become wounds and bruises and putrefying sores and is all this nothing to you what is your Religion the Gospel and the name of your God wounded by you by your hypocrisies by your backslidings by your walking so unworthy that worthy name and does not this move you will you tell the World that the Children of God are such wanton unruly Children or such lean and starveling Souls as you appear who go under the name of his have you grieved your God by your falls by your follies by your falshood to his Covenant and declining from his Ways shall your Redeemer weep over you because of the hardness of your hearts and the spirit of grace be grieved by whom you have been sealed to the day of Redemption and will not this grieve your hearts O study out what matter of sorrow you have and give not off that study till tears do come What is it with you as 't was with Israel Jer. 2. are you which were once holiness to the Lord and as the first fruits of his increase now laid in common to the World and the lusts thereof have you changed your glory for that which profiteth not v. 11. Have you forsaken the fountain of living waters and hewed out to your selves cisterns that will hold no water v. 13. Is the Lord become as a wilderness to you and as a Land of darkness and is this world become your Paradise have you lost the kindness of your youth and the love of your espousals and is your love to Christ swallowed up of your lust after vanity See Friends if this be the case of any of you and if it be O make not light of it but lay it deeply to heart and as v. 19. let your own wickedness correct you and your backslidings reprove you and know and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you have thus forsaken the Lord and that his fear is so much departed from you Friends O that my word may put you to grief and make you sorry What art thou not sorry for all this canst thou not yet say O I am pained I am pained at the heart for mine iniquities my backslidings reprove me my foolishness corrects me and makes my soul within me to mourn art thou at ease in such a case is thine heart quiet as if all were well and nothing ailed thee O how little hope is there then of thee that thou wilt be recovered If I could but make you sorry if you would but stir up a godly sorrow in your own souls O how mightily would this work to your recovery then what fear would there be of continuing thus any longer then what indignation against your selves for your own follies in departing thus from the living God! then what care would there be and what vehement desire after a speedy escape and recovery 2. Stir up fear But what cause have we of fear search and you may find cause enough Is there no matters of fear in your present cases You that are in your sins you ignorant impenitent ungodly ones is there no fear of you are your souls safe are they not in danger is there no fear of unbelievers is there no fear of hypocrites no fear of the drunkards the covetous the proud of lyars of loose livers art thou such a one and is there no fear what may become of thee art thou under condemnation and yet not under fear As the penitent Thief said to the other Luke 23.40 Fearest thou not God Fearest thou not God sinner who art under condemnation and if thou fearest not God fearest thou not the Devil neither fearest not thou Hell neither O stupid sensless souls what under condemnation and yet not afraid 2. You that hope you have grace and yet continue low in grace is there no fear concerning you no fear of idlers and loyterers you that have but little and satisfie your selves with that little is there no fear that that something may be nothing He that thinketh himself to be something but is nothing deceiveth his own Soul Gal. 6.3 Is there no fear that though you think your selves to be something to have something of Christianity in you something of saving grace yet you may at last be found to have nothing and so be deceived is there no fear of deceiving your selves in a matter of such importance are you in such danger of being deceived and yet not afraid or if you have something of Christ or Religion in you is there no fear that you may lose that little you have and come to nothing at last What means that exhortation Rev. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast what means that caution 2 John 8. That we lose not the things that we have wrought what mean these words if there be no danger of losing what we have 3. You that are already fallen to decay that have lost your first love is there no fear of your loosing all Is there no fear but you shall recover all again or is there no fear of you whether ever you do recover or no is there no fear of backsliders no fear of revolters and apostates where-ever there 's danger there should
is in the heart Men usually unless it be the Hypocrite speak according to what is in their hearts the proud heart speaketh proud things the vain heart speaketh vain things and the holy heart speaketh holy things 2. 'T is the abundance of the heart that 's most apt to come forth at the lips In some hearts there is a little good but much evil in others there is much good and less evil 't is that which abounds in the heart that which is most in the heart that hath the command of the tongue See that there be Grace in your hearts and that the grace of God abound in you a little grace will not do to set your tongues agoing 't is the abundance of the heard that which most abounds within that will have the easiest and most ordinary vent Job 32.18 I am full of matter my spirit within me constraineth me my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer I am full of matter and therefore will I speak an heart full of grace must and will have a vent by the speech The holy spirit within us will constrain us where there is little good coming forth 't is a sign there is not so much as there should be within We may pretend inability and unaptness to speak as the reason of our barrenness of holy discourse that sometimes may be something that hinders but mostly the reason is there wants matter within We have reason to suspect that 't is from want of grace rather than from want of utterance that no more savoury and spiritual and useful words come from us A full heart will be the best help for a stammering tongue Christians let us get an increase of inward grace let us get more of the holy spirit of a spirit of life and love and power within us and our Friends and Acquaintance are like to hear of it oftner and to better purpose than they do Poor creatures that we are we are empty we are empty our insides have no good filling Be ye filled with the spirit faith the Apostle Ephes 5.18 speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and the more we speak thus to our selves the more freely shall we speak to others those that have but little grace are but Babes in Christ and Babes are but Infants that can't speak when the Infant is grown then he will find his Tongue In vain shall I exhort you to use your Tongues more for God till you be nursed up from Children to more strength in grace Would you ever come to be more fruitful and useful in your Generations this must be your way to it get you more inward grace 2. Let your thoughts be working more about holy things Thinking makes way for speaking what our thoughts run most upon that ordinarily our Tongues will run upon We cannot know each others thoughts but we may give a near guess at them by the words that are spoken Men whose thoughts are most in the Earth that are still thinking of their Money or thinking of their Trades or their Pleasures they can hardly forbear to be talking of these things And if our thoughts were more of God and of our Souls of Religion of Righteousness and Holiness we should certainly have more of God and of Heaven in our Mouths The Psalmist who said Ps 119.46 I will speak of thy Testimonies and will not be ashamed said also Ps 119.97 My meditation is of thee all the day long Christians get your thoughts to be well exercised be much in thinking think of the goodness and kindness and holiness and compassions of the Lord think of Christ of his love of his life of his death of his bowels and everlasting kindness think often what great things the Lord hath done for your souls think what ye would that he should do for you much thinking on God and his holy things will leave an holy tincture on your hearts will by degrees do much to the begetting holy habits and dispositions in you The Lord uses to convey down much of his holy Image and likeness upon the heart by the thoughts Friends such of you who find but little of the impress and image of God upon your hearts pray consider it if you be not too great strangers to the thoughts of God How often in a day are your thoughts in Heaven how very seldom is it that you are seriously looking either upwards or inwards No wonder if your tongues be so silent of God whilst your thoughts are such strangers from God Christians I doubt there are many of us that are much faulty here that our thoughts are no more taken up or working upon things spiritual and heavenly we should make the thoughts of God more precious and delightsom and more familiar and ordinary with us we should be able to say of our thoughts of God as the Psalmist does Ps 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand When I awake I am still with thee Thus it was with that holy man and thus it should be with us we should be much with the Lord in our thoughts but is it so with us Friends do but trace the goings of your souls for one day together and ask your hearts in the evening how much have I been with God this day how often have I been looking Heavenwards the Psalmists holy thoughts were so many that he could not count them and it may be some of ours have been so few that we cannot count them we can hardly remember any such thoughts we have had I know 't is hard work to keep your thoughts well imployed they will be wandering and roving more or less do what you can and you that observe your selves cannot but know it your selves how hard a work it is and I am afraid that some of us because 't is so hard a work will let it alone if their thoughts will gad and rove let them gad whither they will if they will not easily be gotten up to Heaven let them even stay below and so we let them take their own course and run whither they will I pray Friends this once put your selves every one of you to it and spend this one thought upon your selves think which hath most of your thoughts God or this World must you not if you speak truth speak the quite contrary to what the Psalmist speaks whilest he said How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them Must not you say how irksom are thy thoughts to me O Lord how small is the summe of them this argues an evil temper 't is sure a carnal frame your hearts are in where spiritual thoughts are so rare and difficult and I shall not wonder that 't is