harvest of souls unto him Oh then we shall have a welcome to heaven with that blessed euge Well done good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Mat. 25.23 Let us apply the Apostles charge as given to us in his Apostolical visitation 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nemâ—e quod ad carms prudentiam utinet Beza in loc Luther who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and in his kingdom preach the word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort withall long suffering and doctrine the Ministery is not an easie trade an idle mans occupation Sudor aeconomicus est magnus politicus est major Ecclesiasticus est maximus as Luther was wont to say the Master of a family hath a great work lying upon his hands the Lord lay it upon his heart the Magistrate hath a greater the Minister hath the greatest of all Oh then let the sence of that great freedom we now injoy and the dear rate it hath been purchased at the blood of many Saints quicken us up to duty and diligence and perswade us to act up to the rules laid down by a Reverend Brother Mr. Baxter in his Gild. Salvi and to work after the patterne of our Worcester-shire Brethren 3. Again hath the Lord broken the staff of our oppressors and their yoaks from off our necks Oh! let us not lay the staff of oppression upon one another nor put yoaks on one anothers necks least our bands be made stronger Jerusalem is in deed a glorious City when the buildings thereof are compacted together and contiguous and the Inhabitants thereof are at unity among themselves Psal 123. Wring not men consciences you may hap to break the wards of them if you do Dr. Sibs but we must not so pursue unity as to neglect purity nor press uniformity so as to degenerate into Tyranny Order in disciplinary points is beautiful and agreement defirable but to force it begetteth confusion and breedeth animosities How can we bear witness against the Prelates Lordship if we should Lord it over one another or against the Popes infallibility if we should impose upon one another if we should prescribe laws to one anothers consciences or make our own intetpretations in doubtful Scriptures and relating to order onely canonical and binding to all Mr. Clarke in vâ—ta patrum it would be indeed a crown of beauty and Diadem of glory upon our heads if there was that peace among us as was betwixt Miconius and his Colseagues concerning whom he useth these words Currimus certavimus laboraviwus pugnauimus vicimus viximus semper conjunctissime when the watchmen of Israel do lift up their voice and with their voice together they do sing when they see eye to eye Isa 52.8 When they all do speak the same things when there are no divisions among them but are perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgemen 1 Cor. 1.10 But if we cannot attain this unity in circumstantials let us bless God that we do it infundamentals and let our union in the head untie us in the heart carrying it with all tenderness one toward another in differences of smaller moment under this assurance that Ibi tandem conveniemus ubi Luthero cum Zuinglio optime jam convenit there 's no clashing in heaven betwixt Luther and Zuinglius about the Sacrament we shall all be of one minde in heaven and why should we clash upon earth Though some of us dispense the Supper to a select company judging it most agreeable to Gospel order and pattern yet why should we urge this upon our brethren who judge otherwise or why should our Brethren urge a general admission upon us Why should the disputes be so hot and contests so high among brethren about modelling the Congregations whether by casting out or leaving out the scandalous and profane when as we all own the Lords Supper to be a standing ordinance and do not antiquate it with the Quakers nor withhold the cup from our people with the Papists nor maintain a Consumbstantiation with the Lutherans nor dispense it promiscuously to all of age in our parishes mad men and fools onely excepted with some Episcopal men but endeavor a pure administration agreeing in that as our great end that it may be dispensed onely to visible Saints Why should such wormwood and gall appear in our pens and Pulpets one against another upon this subject have we not other work to do may we not imploy our stock better would it not add more to Gods honour and our own also if we did lay out that zeal which we spend one against another against Papists and Impostors Is it a time for Shepherds to quarrel about folding of their Sheep when Wolves are broke into the flock Is it a time for Officers of an Army to dispnte titles and trifles when the enemy appears in the field with a formed Army against them Is it a time for us to spend our strength in anger and animosities one against another when the Nation swarms with Hereticks when they make such havock of the flock in many places and when they all combine against us for however they differ among themselves they agree in their hatred and opposition of us like a Brigado of horse that Scout up and down in several parties yet meet together at the head quarters Surely the undermining of a Gospel-Ministery is the general Rendevouz of all our Sectaries at least most of them Oh then let the sence of danger perswade us to body in love and the sence of duty provoke us to improve our personal safety preaching opportunity Gospel-liberty freedome of communion maintenance and Ministery most to the glory of a good God and this we shall best do and best reach the great end of God in our great deliverances if we set up the Apostles counsel as our great way-mark Act. 20.28 Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood and we shall better understand this text and our duty by perusing Master Baxter upon it in his Gildas Salutanus 3. This Doctrine hath a word of friendly advice to military men which I hope shall meet with a friendly resentment because it comes from a friend with a friendly intent I am no Cynick nor apt to quarrel if I was I would be more prudent then to enrage them by tart language who have so often fought an enraged enemy in the open field and more ingenuous then to spend my choler against them who have spilt their blood for my safety And therefore O ye valiant ones of Israel consider how far this doctrine is applicable to you in that capacity are the appearances of God eminent and immediate in the day of his
the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God ver 11. and why may not they be so can you give any other reason but free-grace and the meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure of God that you are washed whilest they continue filthy that you are sanctified whenas they are all over polluted or that you are justified whereas the guilt of sin lies upon them still and cannot the name of Christ and Spirit of God do all that in them and for them which is done in and for you Titus 3. ver 3. the Apostle gives this in charge unto Titus that he should enmind the Brethren of this as their duty to shew all meeknesse unto all men in their dealing with them under an hopefull expectancy that a gracious change may be wrought in them though little of God appears at present in them and this he inforceth by leading them back to consider what themselves once were for we our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceiving serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another Con. 6. Consider that it is a piece of good friendship to your selves to endeavour the spirituall good of others you do very much consult your own advantage by it and this I shall offer in some particulars It is an high point of spirituall good husbandry an excellent way to encrease your own stock a good Minister cannot preach a good Sermon nor a sober Christian manage a spirituall discourse Nephesh Berachah the soul of blessing but they do or may receive good to themselves Prov. 11. ver 25. The liberall soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall also be watered himself it is not the liberall hand though it be true as to acts of common bounty if rightly ordered but the liberall soul answering to that Prov. 10. ver 11. The lips of the righteous feed many by wholesome counsell seasonable exhortations and spirituall instructions now this is a fatning discourse the soul thrives bravely that observes this method your own graces will be more exercised your own consciences will be awakened your own knowledge will be more enlarged and your own spirits will be more quickened unto and established in the good wayes and truths of God you cannot be serious in reproving others but it will give corruption a wound in your own hearts you cannot perswade others to repent of their fins but it will stirre you up to renew repentance for your own sins you cannot exhort others to duty but you will be admonisht of your own and you cannot deal seriously with others about salvation but it will quicken up an holy diligence in you to mind your own salvation Surely these improvements are well worth your labour 2. It makes much for your personall safety the more there be to stand in the gap the better the breach will be made up ten would have preserved Sodom when as nine could not do it the Saints do much with God when numerous and unanimous when the whole Church prays for Peter an Angel procures his Goal-delivery you helping together with your prayers is Paul's expression owning the joint addresses of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 1. ver 11. striving together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1. ver 27. Paul layes much stress upon number and unity when many strive and strive together like valiant Champions and a well ordered army it is like to go well with the Gospel in the Doctrines and liberty of it Therefore cast your bread upon the waters for you know not what evil shall be upon the earth Eccl. 11. ver 1.2 Take this in a spiritual sense and you will find an inforcement in it to the duty proposed for in a time of straight Zech. 12. ver 5. The Governours of Judah shall say in their heart even from the heart acknowledg it Legio fulminea the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord their God By vertue of their Interest in the Lord their God evils have been diverted Judgments have been removed and blessings in their right seasons have been procured 3. It makes much for your spiritual comfort The soul of righteous Lot was vexed from day to day with the unlawfull deeds of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2. ver 8. Is not this your case Do not your eyes run down with tears because men keep not Gods Law yea in that abundance that they swell into rivers Holy David's did Psal 119.136 Is not every profane wretch an Hazael to your eyes and a Hadadrimmon to your hearts and can you step out of your door in many places it is so and not see some piece of wickedness which cuts you to the heart or hear every man speak vanity to his neighbour Psal 12. ver 2. now how would it revive your spirits how would it rejoyce and comfort your hearts if you could see the face of things changed amongst you that you might go to this neighbours house and finde them praying to anothers and find them praising God to a third and find them reading and discoursing of the word and things of God nay that you could not walk in the streets but you should hear the Inhabitants of one city saying unto another let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts Zech. 8. ver 21. This sets forth the zeal and charity of those converts who would not come alone but draw others along in company with them to the worship of God which is lively expressed in a Mimesis Mr. Pemble in loc or imitation of the encouragements and invitations they should use one to another I will go also every one was as forward for himself as zealous for another as a learned Expositour hath it O blessed frame of spirit O religion would then flourish indeed when Ministers have their comes and calls each to other to the service of God nay that such an awakening should be upon your neighbours that here one should take hold of the skirts of your garments and here another as children catch hold on their Mothers gowns hang upon them and run after them saying we will go with you to such an Ordinance to such a Christian meeting for we have heard that God is with you we heard it formerly but believed it not yea derided it but now we have heard from the secret teachings of the Spirit of God within us and are convinced of it that God is with you with you in prayer with you in the word preached with you in all the duties of Religion with you in your private waitings upon him with you in the way of holiness Of a truth God is in you 1 Cor. 14. ver 25. and therefore we will go with you your God shall be our God your wayes shall be our wayes and your company shall be our company what a rejoycing of heart would this be to the truly godly and if the Lord give his blessing
5. 7. Undue receiving of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 8 Heresies Apoc. 2.22 Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation 9. Want of due respect unto and fear of the great name of God Deut. 28.58 59. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law that are written in this book That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed even great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance Cause these sins as Joshuah did the Tribes of Israel 7.16 to pass before your consciences to finde out the Achan for which the Lord hath so sorely afflicted you and having found out those particular sins be humbled for them repent of them and carefully avoid all future tendencies unto them as Samuel advised Israel 1 Sam. 7.3 Put away the strange gods from among you and Ashteroth So do I you put away from you the love of all sins and especially Ashsteroth that sin which hath been the root of your disease and think you hear the Lord Jesus by his spirit speaking these words unto you Behold ye are made whole sin no more least a worse thing come unto you Joh. 5.14 And improve your late visitation with the present opportunities of grace That ye may be partakers of Gods Holiness Heb. 12.10 Consecrate your lives which ye have received a new from the dead unto the Lord devote your selves wholly to the service of the great God let me bespeak you in the words of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 That ye live no longer the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God and that not onely in the general duties of your general Callings as Christians but with a special eye to your particular standings and capacities as Magistrates Ministers or as Christians so and so related and qualified Three things are hinted in this verse 1. That the time of mans abode in the flesh is fixed and dedetermined by God That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and residue of time is stated in heaven I may here allude by way of resemblance unto a piece of cloath which as to the number of yards is laid in the warp so soon as brought to the Weaver and every hour he works in the woof he lessens the bulk of yarn that is wrapped upon the beam untill at length he finisheth the whole piece and cuts it off leaving nothing but the thrums behind the heathen had this in their three fatall sisters And Job alludes to it Chap. 7.6 My days are swifter then a Weavers shuttle before man is born into the world whilst his substance is yet imperfect in the wombe of his mother like raw yarn in the shop as all his members are in Gods book so the measure of life is fixed in the appointment of his great Creator and every day he lives Weaves off somewhat of his life until at length nothing is left upon the brain but the thrums of a crazy and putrid carcass which is cut off and thrown into the grave Hezekiah alludes to this Isa 38.10 12. I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life 2. Whilest man lives to the lusts of men he lives not according to the Law of his Creator Ego te non Catelinae genui sed Patriae as he said to his son I begat thee not to serve Cataline but thy Country so speaks the Lord Jehovah to man I created thee not to serve man but thy Maker not to live according to thy own or other mens lusts but according to my laws now the lusts of the flesh and the laws of an holy God they are inconsistent and opposite each to other It is a sad thing to be a servant of men in many cases but in none so sad as in this It was the great English Cardinals complaint in the day of his distress If I had served my God with half that faithfulness as I have served my King he would not have left me now or to this sence Many men have rued it and will at the great day of accounts that they have been such slaves to the lusts of men their pride avarice ambition uncleanness c. And have so cast off the easie and noble yoak of Gods laws many servants have much to answer for the Lord give them timely repentance and masters too else their own and their servants sins will stand upon their score 3. He only lives up to the rule of his creation who lives up to the will of God this is the royal standard under which we all must march This is the maine wheel which must govern all our motions Obedience to this is that which denominates us both men and Christians and as our duty obligeth us to obey the will of God in the gross and general so far as it is revealed so our Allegiance to God as men and more as Christians binds us to observe our particular calls and cries as God revealeth things to be his minde and will there are indeed standing commands which run through all ages of the world without the least variation to obey which all men especially Christians stand equally obliged But the wise God is pleased to parcel out his will in particular commands to persons as to time manner and matter in many things as his own councels ripen and bring forth his pleasure into the world now a Christian must not onely observe the will of God as it speakes to him in common with other men but as it speaks unto him and calls for something from him in such a standing and capacity and not onely observe the will of God which hath been owned in all ages as the entertainment of his Son sanctifying his Sabbaths waiting upon his own appointments c. But also to act up unto it in our respective stations as he makes it known to us in the present providences and products of it Mr. Hamner in his preface to his excerbitations on confirm And therefore as a learned Writer lately observes That God committed the receiving and refining of truth from Antichristian power and mixture to the forgoing worthies of this and foraign Nations which were happily performed by them but discipline and order seem to belong unto us and which the Lord hath preserved for this period of time wherein the work of reformation is to be carried on to greater perfection this doubtless the late providences speak to be the Lords will and his expectation from the men of this generation Oh then ye servants of the Lord whom
heart-deadness neglect of Family-discipline and that Formality even amongst Professours and Christians of long standing they would not sit down in such a lazie Profession and tolerate that Ignorance that profaneness and those abuses in their Families and Towns if they were throughly awakened by a due collection and serious communication of experienced mercies how often and how signal their deliverances have been from the jaws of death Oh receive in love this word of exhortation from an unworthy hand and the Lord set it home upon your hearts 2. I come now to the pure spiritual part of the exhortation Are the appearances of the Lord eminent and immediate for the help of his people in their greatest straights have you experienced this can you set your seal to this truth hath the Lord engaged for your help and brought you off with safety and comfort when you were under the greatest hazards then make a good use of such mercies and take my advice in these following particulars 1. Make a serious and speedy enquiry whether you are brought of from sin and wrath by Jesus Christ and what have been the methods of God toward you in your spiritual deliverance 2. Quicken up your selves to duty in all your deadness and damps of spirit 3. Be much in the sence and meditation of grace received keep up the consideration thereof To the first Improve your temporal preservatious by way of inquiry after your spiritual safety whether the Lord who hath made bare his Arm in signal deliverances for the life of your bodies hath also stretched forth the right arm of grace for the life of your souls and how the Lord hath methodized the ways of his grace unto you make these two particulars the matter of your great enquest 1. Put this question unto your souls and be serious in it as a matter of most concerning and everlasting import I shall speak now to single persons and therefore shall direct the enquiry to the Reader as though he was that very person I wrote this unto and for Say to thy soul Man The Lord hath often fercht me off from temporal dangers But O hath the Lord wrought that great deliverance for my soul Am I brought off from a state of nature by renewing grace Am I delivered from the bondage of fin and corruption by redeeming grace Am I brought back from spiritual Babylon by restoring grace Am I ransomed from under the power of Satan by victorious grace God hath given me life from the dead for my body but have I life from the dead for my soul also Oh! what will all these temporal deliverances avail me If I have not deliverance from wrath to come by Jesus Christ What advantage will it be unto me that I have often been kept out of the grave if when I dye I drop into hell What comfort will it be to me at a dying hour that God hath saved me out of six troubles yea out of seven if I shall then have no assurance of eternal salvation but rather perplexing fears of perishing everlastingly what was it for Cham to be preserved in the Ark when an overflowing deluge swallowed up the whole world of the ungodly seeing afterward he lived and dyed and lay under the curse of God to eternity or for rebellious Israel to be brought by so many miracles out of Egypt and yet entered not through unbelief into the land of rest Do not therefore hastily conclude from thy temporal salvations that thou shalt be eternally saved for that is unsafe but rather take occasion from thy temporal to enquire into thy everlasting safety let this put thee upon a strict and narrow scrutiny The Apostle urgeth this 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your own selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates The first word in the proper signification implies a piercing through timber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that tryal may be made what it is within whether sound or rotten or the piercing of a vessel that the Vintner may taste the wine and try the goodness of it thus Chrians must pierce through and through their hearts that they may know the soundness of them Men have a plausible profession yet but rotten hearts men may think their estate to be very good when it is starke naught and conclude they are brought over to God when they are still in the divels quarters therefore the Apostles advice is to try and to do it exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divel is called the tempter because he goes through stitch with his work and tryes to purpose he perforates and pierceth through the heart and if there be any unmortified corruption or unsoundness there he will be sure to finde it out nay as though one word was not enough in a business of so great import the Apostle adds prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which refers to that trial which Goldsmiths make of their mettal that they may not put a cheat upon themselves And here the exhortation is doubled that the duty might be more enforced as being a most needful but a much neglected duty Hence as Zeph. 2.1 The Prophets says Excutite vos iterumque excutite vos Fan your selves yea fan your selves so the Apostle doubles his charge Examine your selves yea prove your selves as if he had said make it much the matter of your enquiry whether ye be in the faith whether Jesus Christ be in you otherwise notwithstanding all your gilded profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and form of godliness ye will be laid aside as counterfeit coin yea cast of as reprobate silver at the great day of tryal when the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the councels of all hearts 1 Cor. 4.5 and though your deliverances have been never so remarkable your preservations never so admirable as to thy temporal safety yet thou wilt be a cast-away and perish everlastingly if thou be not in the faith Christ be not in thee Oh then enquire into thy spiritual estate and labor to evidence the truth and life of grace in thy soul that as thou knowest and ownest deliverances from such and such dangers so thou mayest with safety conclude thy deliverance from wrath to come by Jesus Christ this wil sweeten all the providences of God unto thee this will make the remembrance of forepast deliverances pleasant unto thee Num. 13.23 and will be as the grapes of Eshcol upon which thy soul will feed with delight as Mat. 26.29 having some rellish of that wine which thou shalt drink new to eternity with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of his Father But when thou speakest or meditatest how and how often and in what cases of imminent danger the Lord hath preserved thee and then for want of a through tryal of thy spiritual estate thou beest in doubt what will become of thee to eternity then
alas all the arguments and oratory boastings and bravadoes of Arminius will be but as the staff of Elisha to the dead child or as the Jews tears shed over the grave of dead Lazarus or as the exorcismes of the sons of Sceva they will avail little either to light or life grace or growth without the concurrance of the spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christians do finde by daily and sad experience that the power of godliness would be but poorly advanced in them if they had no other power to act by then that of nature and the work of holiness would be carryed on but slowly in them if they had no better friend then free-will to promote it they would soon stick upon the shallows if the gales and tides of the spirit did not waft them off their hearts would soon be dead if the spirit of the Lord did not quicken them their affections would soon be chilled if the spirit of the Lord did not warm them their desires would soon be straightned if the spirit of the Lord did not enlarge them if the spirit of the Lord did not help our infirmities how listless should we be unto prayer and how lifeless in prayer Oh whatever proud men do vainly boast let not us sacrifice to our own nets nor burn incense to our own drags but say with the Psalmist not unto us not unto us O Lordâ— but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truths sake Psal 115.1 and in all our duties and devotions when we do most for God and act highest for his glory let us breath out those humble acknowledgements of that holy man 1 Chro. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee So vers 6. O Lord our God all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy Name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own This will be a means to keep our hearts in an humble and dependent frame upon God and make us acknowledge with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God we are what we are and this grace which we humbly confess to be bestowed upon us will not be in vain but will make us labour more abundantly for God then they all that proudly assert the power of nature and yet in all our actings for God we shall cast down our crowns at the feet of the Lambe and self-denyingly say Not we but the grace of God which was with us not we but thy talents have gained other five 3. This makes a sad report of the dangerous estate that all men are in whilst they are under the power of corrupt nature they ly upon the brink of the pit they walk within one inch of Hell they hang by the twine thread of a frail and brittle life over that deep and dark dungeon of the great abysse ready each moment to drop in Oh! did they but hear the doleful woes which are denounced against them it would be a dreadful sound in their ears Oh their hearts are very hard and their beds very soft who can quietly sleep out one night under the apprehension of that sad estate yet such a lethargy and spirit of deep sleep hath seized upon most men that they nor onely take a little nap but fetch many a sound sleep in that dead and undone condition Oh! if a blind man should wander without a guide until he came within one step of a great lake of brimstone and fire and then his eyes should be suddenly open to see the danger he was near unto what a work would this have upon his spirit How full of rejoycing and amazement would he be filled with that he had escaped so great a danger Or suppose a man should be taken out of a ship when fast asleep and should be laid upon the top of a rock in the middest of a deep and broad Sea what sears would surprize him what expectations of certain and inevitable death would he be possessed with when he awakes and seeth neither ship nor land nor man near him but is left alone in the wide and wild Ocean Nay farther what would be the thoughts and afrightments of that man who should be chained to a brazen pillar and a thousand Cannons charged and mounted and ready to be fired upon him Sure he would be afraid each moment to be dasht in pieces But alas these and all other resemblances which the heart of man can possibly finde out fall far short of that deplorable estate natural men are in they are left upon a rock ready every munite to be engulph't and swallowed up by the deluge of Divine wrath all the curses and threatnings of the law are each moment ready to be discharged upon them nay whilest they are securely jogging on in the ways of sin and vanity the next step they take may tumble them headlong into hell and yet they are asleep and know not blind and see not the dangers they are dropping into and so are they shackled with the ferters of their own corruptions that they cannot step aside to avoid the danger Oh were their eyes opened as once Balaams were and they awakened as once Sampson was we might wonder that any natural man kept his wits that the whole world who lys in wickedness was not baptized with Pashurs new name Magor-Missabib viz. fear on every side Jer. 20.3 even round about them and to see that dreadful passage made good in every Nation and town Rev. 6.15 16. That the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free-man should hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and should say unto the mountains and recks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who way abide his coming Ah surely the sense of their dreadful misery would suddenly bring them into Nabals condition their hearts would die within them and they would be as stones O how should the sense of this provoke the Saints to own with thankfulnesse recovering and renewing grace and especially if we consider Consid 2 what sad distractions the sense of this danger brought forth in us at our first awakening Many of the Saints under their first convictions have seen their misery past all hope of remedy They have had sad visions of wo and wrath at their first enlightening Many have been the terrours and great hath been the consternation of spirit which many have lain under at their first conversion Such a sense of sin wrath and judgement to come hath seized upon them that Felix-like they have trembled nay they have cried out with the Prophet Isa 6. ver 5. Wo
he enumerates many But now when God had brought them through Jordan and possessed them of Canaan that they were filled and filled it is repeated in that fresh and fat pasture their heart was exalted and they forgot God But how doth the Lord take this why see Therefore will I be unto them as a Lion as a Leopard in the way will I observe them I will meet them as a Bear robbed of her whelps sure there must needs be great displeasure when the Father of mercies puts on the nature of such fell and fierce beasts and I will rent the caul of their heart and there will I devour them like a Lion Note the wilde beast shall tear them Put all the dreadfulness of all the creatures in the world together and all that is in the wrath of God O dreadfull consideration who knoweth the power of thy wrath Some think these wilde beasts do point to the 4 Monarchies Mr. Burroughs in locum by which God determined in after times to punish this people as Dan. 7.3 The Babilonish Empire was set forth by a Lion the Persian by a Bear the Grecian by a Leopard and the Roman by the Wilde beast so that Israels case must needs be sad when they are given as a prey to these beasts and this is engraven as an Epitaph upon their Grave-stones O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self O lay this to heart and forget not the mercies of the Lord unto you 5. Those are reprooved who though they remember the mercies of God tell large stories of their eminent preservations and seem to be much affected in reporting of them which signifies little in Gods account yet they do not live up unto them they do not receive any teaching from them more to engage their hearts to God but live as loosly and as much off from God as to any real actings for God as though they were under no extraordinary Obligation unto God which is a brand upon them and notes out a very dis-ingenious and unworthy spirit Vocal thankfulness is the least part of gratitude the whole man should be wholly taken up in the duty it is not the water which passeth through a single spout that will turn this great wheel but the full stream which through many pipes flowes from the fountain All that is within me praise his holy name David thought the all of his soul in every faculty little enough for that great work Psal 103.4 nay too little and so Psal 116.9 he saies I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living indesinenter ambulabo I will not onely take a turn or two with God but will walk constantly to the end of the race thorough the exercise of every grace the faithfull discharge of every duty the conscionable performance of every service yea though all the Acts and parts and methods of Religion and all this he engageth as a Testimony of his thankfulness to God for eminent mercy in that full and memorable deliverance which he obtained happily in the desert of Maon 2 Sam. 23.25 26. When God fetched off Saul who had begirt David and his men with his Army where he was in eminent danger to have been surprised had not the Lord in way of seasonable Providence alarum'd Saul by the Philistines who then invaded the land This was a right improvement of such a mercy But alas How few be there who tread in David's steps who act up with such resolution and fixedness of spirit for God under the sence of admirable and obliging Providences How little are Providences taken notice of how little are they improved by most so as to quicken them up to more activity for God are there not many who steal murder commit adultery and swear fasly as though they were delivered to do all these abominations Jer. 7.9 10. do they not act as high in waies of sin as ever It is with many in this point as it is with some vapouring tradesmen who live and spend all in riot and luxury till they are clap'd up by their Creditours but when their friends have compounded for them procured their enlargement and given them a trading stock again they promise fair and fair what good husbands they will be and tuckle hard to their trades for a while but within a short space they forget their poverty and imprisonment and lash out again as much as ever so 't is with many men who being brought off by the Lord from some pressing calamity they speak good words and carry it very well for a little time but then they break out into the same excess of sin and vanity as ever what a sudden and strange work was upon Israel when God had set them upon drie land Exod. 15.31 yet Moses and Miriam had scarcely finished their Psalme of praise when Chap. 15.24 The people murmured and spake high against God O take heed of this spirit lest the Lord swear unto you in his wrath as he did to Rebellious Israel that you shall not enter his rest I shall shut up this Use with that Memento of the Apostle Jude verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance how the Lord having saved the people out of Egypt afterward destroied them that believed not that acted not up by faith to those mercies received that improved not those advantages of mercy and providential Administrations which the Lord had put into their hands in subserviency to his glory and their own establishment in that inheritance the Grant whereof God had given to their forefathers Ah friends we have much of Israels blood in our veins of Israels impatiency murmuring rebellion and dis-ingenuity upon our spirits Our feet have often stood upon the brink of Jordan and yet we have not passed over into our land of Rest at least the Canaanites are still in the Land O take heed of Infidelity and unsuitable returns after such signal and astonishing Deliverances both personal and National lest the destroyer come amongst us and disinherit us but let us all learn the minde of God in these glorious Transactions live up unto them and acknowledg before Angels and men that Vnless the Lord had been our Help our soules had dwelt in Silence FINIS A Table of Errata's Page 2. l. 32. read seasonableness p. 4. l. 16. r. people 6. r. Jer. 45. ib. last adde h to the first word 7.10 leave out And 12.8 r. on 14.2 leave out over against the sea 24.21 r. Deut. 4.37 26.4 adde a to gain 28.17 r. his ib. 32. r. confuteth 32.35 r. unto holiness 32.12 r. habitation 33.30 r. Cant. 8. 35. add me in the margin 35.30 r. is 36. 1. r. appearances 37.36 r. commented 40.20 r. 1 Kings ib. 22. r. means of safety 41.25 r. creature 42.18 r. undo 43.30 r. a tempting 46.32 r. was 55.24 r. just complaints 56.3 r. of Jesus 59.25 Leave out the first yea 60.6 leave out those 62.13 leave out our 64. r. cucurrimus 64.14 r. unite 65.30 r. Salvianus 66.6 r. how raw and unskilfull ib. 12. r. expert 67.27 r. possession p. 68. 5. r. slashed 70.9 r. once of you 71. r. that in the margin under the second head ib. 35. adde us 72.25 r. begin to raise ib. 29. r. ye champions ib. l. 30. r. Christ's ib. 34. r. sealed 74.24 r. psal 107 ib. 30. r. census 78.27 r. If they have wearied thee in the land of peace then what wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan Jer. 12.5 89.9 r. beam 90.7 r. cues ib. 34. r. rescuing 92.14 r. Vzzah 100.7 r. Ezek. 9. 102.35 r. discourseth 105.5 r. Witches Samuel ib. r. 1 Sam. 28. 106. II. read nepheshi 107.15 r. the praises of the Lord 109.25 r. and with his own arm 121.35 r. ghnal-banim 122.4 r. quiet 122.4 in the Margin r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 133.21 r. unsuiteable 154.34 for exact r. cast 163.16 r. looked 164.27 r. praiseth 178.18 r. heart-communing 176.39 r. discoursed 181.2 r. woofe 184.31 r. feats 189.32 r. get 194.15 r. propositum 211.22 r. of their 224. II dele But 228.27 r. setters 237.23 r. Isa 43. 241.12 leave out Next ib. 21. r. diseased ib. 24. r. dele not 242.29 r. waxed ib. 38. r. saw Dedica or damnationis Christianorum is to be placed in the Margin of 242. 243.12 r. change 247.18 dele as ib. 25. r. your 251.34 r. physitians 253.7 r. was to ib. 38. r. your 257.22 adde the greatest sinners 260.25 r. Doegs 262.17 vieth 267.3 r. 1 Sam. 13.8 and 1 Sam. 10.8