not Child-hood and Youth the time wherein Solomon adviseth the Children of men should be trained up in the way wherein they should goe O Parents Prov. 22.6 If God be worth your own acquaintance is he not worth the acquaintance of such as are so near and dear unto you Can you without trembling think that as soon as Death breaks up your house you may to Heaven and your Children must to Hell and thither through your default But if you should dye in this neglect of instructing your Children you will be miserable as well as they And O! What a greeting will there be hereafter between ungodly Parents and Children What an hearing will it be to your tormented Souls to hear your Children cry out against you All this that we suffer was long of you you should have taught us better and did not What an addition will such out-cries be to your misery 4. Suffering Children to fall out with one another By not redressing the disorderly carriages of your Children towards one another How few Reboccah's are there She was carefull to remove jars and mischiefs that might arise between her two Sons 5. Not praying for â—hem By not praying for your Childrens Souls and against those very particulars which their natural constitution leads them mostly to 6. Not correcting aright By not correcting them aright as to time not early enough He that loveth him correcteth him betimes not whilst the fault is fresh in his thoughts with all the aggravating circumstances thereof Not with compassion enough You have reason saith Mr Dod to be angry with your selves rather than to be bitter to your Children for you correct your own sin in your Children If the Child be curst and froward hath he not seen his Parent brawling and contentious c not ushering correction with Prayer that God would bless word and rod. Commonly Parents correct in an high passion whereby Prayer is hindered and the Medicine becomes invalid 7. Being over-angry By being angry without a cause or above the desert Anger must be let out according to the nature of the offence If Parents be always chiding or correcting they make their Children resolute like Hagar and Ismaei to take up their heels and into the Wilderness will they any where to be delivered from such hard usages Provoke not your Children to wrath Eph. 6.4 Some Parents want natural affections are too severe Correction like Physick if too frequent will work no more with Children than our meat with us 8. By loving your Children more than God Loving inordinately loving them as they are yours not as they are Gods as they bare your Image not Gods for their beauty and parts rather than for their graces loving a beautifull Child that is voyd of grace more than a deformed Child though eminent in grace loving one excessively as Jacob Joseph hence Joseph is envyed by the rest prodigal favours to some especially if without reason are offensive to others who are less respected Loving so as loth to let them go when God calls for them you cannot say as Eli it is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do as seems him good God pulls and you pull and you quarrel with God about the goard and you think you do well to be angry Job blessed God when God took all away at once by one blow 9. Not providing callings for them or not the best By not devoting them to some honest calling but letting them live in idleneness and so they grow up monuments of your neglect Some Gentlemen train up their Children to hold an Hawk to follow a Dog and commonly they dye in an Alehouse or shorten their lives thereby But if you do provide a calling for your Children is it not what is most gainfull rather than what will be most usefull to the good of the Soul Had you not rather have them rich Factours among Idolaters where they learn the manners of the Heathens then to have a meaner calling at home where the Gospel is preached in power and purity 10. Not matching them aright By not matching them to godly persons but rather to the rich Hereby ye shew that the silver shrines are in higher repute than grace and Godliness 11. Giving away all to them By giving all to your Children though the Church of God hath more need of it Hereby you evidence that you prefer not Zion before your chiefest joy that you love the outward grandeur of your Children more than the prosperity of the Church It is a wonder saith Mr. Baxter how so many seemingly holy can quiet their Consciences in such a sin as this is If one of you have two or three hundred pounds per annum it is a wonder if you leave an hundred pounds a year of it to pious or charitable uses Nay do not Parents leave all to their Children when they have apparent proofs that they will spend it in the service of Hell O! Let Parents tremble What wilt thou inable and strengthen thy Children to rebell against God put fuell to the fire put swords into their hands to sight against the most high Parents I beseech you look diligently to your duties be humbled for these and such like miscarriages O! look about you and you will see a sad Apostasy in Children Parents civil the Children debauched Parents godly the Children formall or loose Parents eminent for grace Children notorious for lewdness Let your bowels turn within you to see so great a degeneracy Double your diligence that there may be an holy seed Knock off the chains of Hell from your Children what you may lay not out all your time how they may be rich It is no time to seek great things for your selves seek them not Pitty the Souls of your Children that are slaves to the Devil How can ye mind your trades fields bodies whilst the Souls of your Children are in danger of perishing How can ye see the Devil driving your Children to Sin and Hell and ye stand still with a Gallio-Spirit Go to your Closets and ask your hearts whether the Soul be not the principal part of the Child and whether that needs not your care more than the body Do not throw away the Blade to preserve the Scabbard God hath set you to watch their Souls to train up their Souls to provide for their Souls if you do not what is your love more than a Pagans a Turks towards your Children You think you should be unnatural if you should not lay up for your Children though many Professours upon pretence that God will provide indulge to the flesh pamper their bodies and starve their Children but here is the best laying up to lay up a stock of Prayers for them and a stock of Counsell and Instruction in them O Parents Once more I beseech you put on bowels of pitty and compassion Pitty the perishing Souls of your own Children Command your Children to keep the way of
you cannot so exhort as Ministers c. But have you not been told that God can work by small means as well as by great and that by things that are not God can confound the wisdome of the flesh and bring to naught the things that are Is not this like the pretence of not being eloquent Do you not know have you not heard that the issue and event depends on the blessng of the Lord rather than on the work it self Is it not all one to the Lord to wound by a short as by a long sword Cannot God bless a few words in thy mouth as he did in Christs and the Apostles Can'st not thou say follow Christ and may not presently a Matthew a Publican leave his sinfull courses and embrace the Christian faith Can'st thou not say Repent and Believe that your sins may be blotted out and may not God concur with thee as he did of old times Is the Lords hand shortned that it cannot help If Israel be not gathered yet thy reward is with the Lord if thine heart were upright and could testifie that night and day thou hast not ceased to warn to rebuke and counsel Certainly your memories are not so bad but you must remember the weight of sin and of the wrath of God you have seen the wonders of the Lord in the deeps you that have escaped to shoar can tell of the Rocks and Shelves and Storms which you have been delivered from and will you set other Shipwrack their Souls rather than hold out your light unto them 〈…〉 may avoyd their ruines What shall I say to humble you There is more 〈◊〉 in Hell than you can afford Blush blush and be ashamed to have less zeal love and pitty to perishing Souls than Dives in Hell had he would have his Brethren saved from the Valley of Hinnom Your silence will make others think that Hell is a tollerable place that sin is not so evil and bitter a thing that to lye under Gods wrath is not so great a misery whilst you are so slow and backward to warn your Friends and Acquaintance that they slee from these and take Sanctuary in the true City of Refuge the Lord Jesus Christ O! If you know the worth of a Soul pitty the multitude with whom the day is not broke whose forlorn Souls are under a continual Massacre from the bloudy Butcher of Hell Besmear your Souls no longer with the guilt of their bloud Let them not starve for want of bread whilst you have to give them I shall bless God for ever and ever if this your negligence of the Souls of those whom you may account without may be cordially bewailed and you for the future double your diligence for their conversion Ministers cannot convert without the Concourse of Omnipotency neither can you Though Satan and thy own lazy heart hath told thee thou art unfit to set upon this work yet better do it meanly than wholy omit it God like Parents on earth loves to see his Children lift at those duties which are too hard for them and then he steps in and is a Co-worker with them What God did by illiterate Fishermen by Priscilla he can do by thee The Lord pardon thy former unmercifulness to the Souls of men But if thou continue careless and cruel if thou wilt not by Prayers for them and counsels to them seek their reducement as sure as thou art reading the voyce of thy Brothers blood is crying against thee from the earth By your example before if not since Profession you have been the cause of the destruction of Souls of how many who can tell And as Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after he was rotten in his grave so your sin your wicked examples may propagate the trade of sin from generation to generation until Christ shall come to Judgement Tremble tremble at the thoughts of it if thou hast not the heart of a Beast in thee O! how many Souls are crying in Hell against thee cursing the day they knew thee or their Ancestours knew thee for that by thee they learned to sin the more and were strengthned in their wickedness by thy tongue and by thy life And now are not you bound to do your utmost to make restitution to labour to save them that be alive Is it not reasonable that you should labour to win Souls to Gods as you have to the Devils service and to have many blessing God in the Heavens for you that ever they were in the company of such an active zealous Christian who by word and life was instrumental to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and of their God And is it not a glorious work to hold forth such Light to the World that they seeing your good works may glorifie God and you may be Propagators of Zeal and Holiness from Generation to Generation till Christ shall appear to judge the World and to reward you for all the services you have done to his Name O! how welcome shall that man be to Heaven and Christ who hath fed the Souls and clothed the Souls and visited the Souls which he hath purchased with his own precious blood Christ will own thee for his Benefactour CHAP. XXXVII The Dis-ingenuity and Scandalousness of their Miscarriages WHen God had given the Prophet Ezekiel a large Catalogue of Judah's Abominations The wickedness of the former miscarriages Ezek. 8.9 V. 6 13 15. he then shew'd him the Wickedness of their Abominations He said unto me Goe in and Behold the wicked Abominations they do here He commanded him once and again and again to turn him yet again and he should see greater Abominations I cannot indeed promise thee that thou shalt now see greater Abominations than those already mentioned All that I shall now do shall be to represent the former Miscarriages in their crimson dye and scarlet colour And The First Thing I shall mention Commitred against so good and kind a God Eph. 4.30 as making your Sins Professours out of measure sinful is your Dis-ingenuity in so sinning against God O! You have sinned against a gracious God You have grieved the good Spirit of God whereby some amongst you have been sealed to the day of Redemption I am bold to say that one godly man's sinning against light and mercy doth more break the heart of God than the bruitish Sins of a Pagan Kingdom Ezek. 6.9 I am broken saith God with your whorish heart which hath departed from me c. And ye shall loath your selves for your evils which ye have committed in your abominations Amos 2.13 God hath been press'd down with your sins as the Cart with sheaves till he hath even Creak'd under the weight God expected more from the Treet planted in Zion than from the wild ones in the Wilderness Luke 13.9 Grief and Burthen springs much from unexpected Unkindnesses I looked for Fruit and there was none How were David's and Saul's Sins aggravated from
your souls are the most considerable Jewels you stand possessed of All the world will not weigh with one soul Thy money may ransome thy body nothing save Christs blood thy soul Pause a while Reader and reflect on all thy sinfull neglects of thy immortal Soul lest on thy death-bed thou shriek and cry O my soul whether art thou going 2. Carelessness of others souls How little are the souls of others valued and cared for how many masters are there that care no more for their servants souls than for the dogs nay not so much Perhaps some of you are carefull that the bodies of your families be cloathed be fed c. but the souls lie unprovided for Soul-poysoners not censured as they ought to be Make nothing to lay poyson for souls more care is taken for the pigs than for the souls 1. How do we justly censure them as worthy of Capital punishments that murther the bodies of men but not so others who poyson and destroy thousands of souls How do you hate to have an hand in murthering the bodies of any to lay poyson for the destruction of any and yet how commonly do men lay the poyson of ill councell and ill example before others to cause them to fall into the pit of hell and are not affected with this great evil 2. Not troubled at soul-murtherers How troubled are we at any that kill bodies or that murther others but not so at the millions that destroy their own and others souls that have an hand in ruining in damning themselves and others 3. If any neglect means that might have continued the life of their husbands children c. how are they dejected how do the wring their hands and beat their breasts whereas if by carelessness if by the neglect of their duties if by evil example they have destroyed their souls they are not troubled about these matters 4. Low esteems of those that prize their souls How do you account meanly of all that take pains for their souls that wait at the pools of Bethesda that consult Ministers and books and attend on the Ordinances for their souls whilst you account it your wisdome to lay out the most if not all of your time for your bodies Hast thou the name of a Christian I pray God to let one word to sink into thine heart thou hast not Christ thou hast not the Spirit of Christ in thee he knows how to value souls and therefore shed blood for them and sends his Spirit in the Gospel to be importunate for their salvation CHAP. II. Their want of saving Conviction and Compunction HOw many Professours like Paul Alive without the Law Rom 7.9 Rev. 3.1 are alive without the Law How many like Sardis have a name to live imagine they are alive when they are dead How many are alive in their own conceit and perhaps in the conceit of others and yet are void of the true super-natural life How many are contented with their being baptized They see no need of Christ they were born of Christian Parents Luke 3.3 they are of the stock of Abraham We have Abraham to our Father They do not consider how many baptized persons are deadly enemies to Christ and to their souls and averse to the wayes of holiness they will not consider that Swearers Drunkards and Adulterers have as good claimes to Christ and heaven as these have How many also please themselves with the Religion of Education God hath not moulded their hearts though Parents their lives their Parents have taught them some Principles of Religion but they are strangers to the wonderful operations and teachings of the Holy Ghost they have not the Unction from above they know not what it is that teacheth all things and yet such as these are alive i. e. merry jocund jovial confident if any goe to heaven they shall be of the number But to speak more particularly First Few convinced of original sin imputed How many are there that were never convinced of original sin imputed or imparted 1. How few are convinced that Adam was a common person and that we sinned in his loynes that if he had stood we had stood and that it is just with God that he ship wracking himself we should be counted sinners in him We did eat of the forbidden fruit in Adam we in Adam believed the Devil rather thaâ— God we in Adam broke with God for toyes and trifles we were ungrateful disobedient in him we apostâ—tized in him and broke covenant with God in him hence by one mans offence sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sin for that as Levi paid tithes in Abraham so we becâ—me rebells against the Majesty of Heaven in our first Parents when did you shed a tear for Adam's sin for your and his grand provocation 2. Few convinced of original sin inherent Psal 5.9 How few see Adam 's sinful nature imparted to them They see not their inward part is very wickedness nothing but wickedness Few see what a sad Apostacy from the perfection of mans nature Sin hath brought into the world and how black an Image of Sathan it hath drawn upon the soul they never saw what filthy dirty loathsome things they are in the eyes of God they never saw their noysomeness and venome the garbage and malignity of their hearts How few see a general defect of all righteousness and holiness wherein at first they were created How few are convinced of an antipathy to all that is good That they are haters of God by nature Eph. 2.1 that they are dead in trespasses and sins a more dreadful estate than if they were rotting in their graves that they have an Ocean of corruption within them that will never be dried up in this life that they have a worse Leprosie than that among the Jewes which got into the walls and would never out till the house was demolished who almost thinks so sadly of themselves They bless God their hearts are good though they be the worst of men pray not slight Ordinances closet duties and family worship lies neglected yet the Devil perswades them all is well their hearts are good though the heart of man by nature be like hell it self whose fire of lust is unquenchable though it be like Peter's great sheet which he saw in the Vision full of all unclean things Acts 11.6 though it be a receptacle of all impiety yet how few turn their eyes inward to see their natural deformities Alass All the venome the Snake sends forth is nothing to the poyson that lies in its nature And all those monstrous impieties which the lives of men are taunted with are not to be compared with the venome that lurks in the heart of every man by nature Men would not glory in their blood and descent did they but believe how sin descended and was conveyed Men could not content themselves to walk heavily under some actual
but O! how is the world mistaken in many of them Thou hast not called upon me Isa 41.21 23. O Jacob Though Jacob was a People sever'd into a Church-State with an aim at Gods praise yet Jacob pray'd not This was grievous unto God Do not many Professours clearly evidence that they are prayerless Souls by their disobedience to the Preceptive their impatience under the Providential Will of God By their distrust of the All-sufficiency and Faithfulness of God Zeph. 3.2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not near to her God By their entring into so many Temptations Matth. 26.41 Jer. 10.21 Watch and Pray lest you enter into Temptation By their being deceived and labouring to deceive others in the things of God The Pastours are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord. By their Back-slidings Zeph. 1.6 Considerations against this sin Psa 10.4 Joh. 21.15 and Apostasies And them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord. Doth not this sin speak out high contempt of God That God is not entertained so much as in a thought He will not seek God God is not in all his thoughts That the thoughts of God are blasphemous What profit should we have if we pray unto him Yea Doth not this sin speak out the hearts denial of God What saith the Psalmist Psa 53.1 4. The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God he calls not upon God To live without Prayer is to be dead while alive for it is to live without God Jer. 10.25 The Families that know not God and that call not on his Name are the same What Will ye not do so much as Pray unto God What can you do less for God than by this homage to own him for your Maker Or less for your own Souls than to beg their lives of him whose hand of Justice is lift up against them Their Souls and theirs only shall live Psa 69.32 that seek the Lord. No Malefactours dye more unlamented than those that when cast will not beg for their lives How many also are there Restraining Prayer that have cast off Prayer How many have restrained Prayer And that both when they have thought they have prayed themselves out of affliction they have had no more to say to God Job 15.4 till under affliction again and when they have for some time prayed for deliverance to no purpose This evil is of the Lord why should I wait any longer This is worse than not to pray at all Not to pray at all notes only the neglect of duty but to cast off Prayer a distaste of duty But I shall be more particular Though Prayer be the only Key Neglecting Eâ—aculatary Prayer to unlock the Store-houses and Treasuries of all Blessings yet how little hath this Key been used I shall wave publick and private and only instance in secret Prayer and that both sudden and composed and solemn How few Professours have made conscience of Ejaculatory Prayer How seldome have we darted up our Souls to Heaven upon sudden emergent occasions in some short desires As when we are hearing Lord set home this Word upon my heart When in Prayer our hearts are melting c. Lord suffer not my heart any more to be hardened from thy fear When we are about our worldly employments Lord keep my heart with thy self c. Are not some of us wholly unacquainted with this kind of Praying Not such a Dart saith one to be found in all their Quiver They know not how in the midst of their worldly businesses and company yea in the midst of their solemn religious duties in hearing reading conferring praying c. to send their thoughts to give God a visit though a short one in a desire or two to speak at least one or two heart-words unto him Have not most Professours too much contented themselves with their solemn Visits of God but between their solemn Duties have scarce ever conversed with God What account shall we be able to give of our thoughts the first-born of our Souls from morning to evening Is not this the highest improvement of them to send them in embasies unto Heaven and by them to converse with God Do not the best of us find strangeness apt to grow between God and our Souls between our set Duties And may we not impute that strangeness to our omission of these more â—â—ansient and occasional talkings with God How many precious things in Christian conference in Sermons in our solemn joynt Prayers are lost for want of present liâ—ting up our hearts to God for his presence therein and blessing thereupon How many blessed motions or the Holy Spirit suggested to us in our particular Callings are quench'd for want of these short sallyes of our Souls to Heaven for more grace that these sparks may be kept alive yea blown into a flame Neglect of this kind of Prayer is no small provocation it grieves God there is much unkindness in it that God should be so gracious as to let his door stand wide open at all times and that he should assure us of welcome when ever we come to him and yet that we should not be so kind as to step in to visit him with a desire hour after hour and that though we may thus visit him and not neglect but rather further any business we have in hand and without being uncivil to any company in which we are He cannot but take this udkindly How few Professours have made conscience of closet-Prayer Neglecting closet Prayer Though Christ takes it for granted that his Disciples will thus pray and hath annexed a sweet promise to the due performance of this duty When thou prayest enter into thy Closet Mat. 6.6 and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Retire thy self get thee a place set thy self a time wherein thou mayest vacare Deo be at leisure to make it thy business to pray to God c. Yet how is this duty wholly omitted by some and too too seldom performed by others Satan prevails with some otherwise honest Souls to put off this duty from time to time by telling them either that they will but play the hypocrites therein or that the time is not convenient by reason either of some bodily or of some soul distempers or that this and the other worldly business must of necessity be dispatch'd at such a time c. O how little do such love the Lord that are afraid to talk too secretly or too often in secret with him But alas how many omit closet-Prayer altogether Some content themselves with praying with others either in the Church or in the Family How can such look upon themselves as Saints whatever Profession they make What a Saint and yet
12.8 Hab. 2.1 For this I besought the Lord thrice and yet no answer O! when shall we resolve with Habbakkus to stand upon our watch and look and see what he will say to us The neglect of this hath bred so many Formalists in our Congregations After we have put our Prayers into Gods hands we never mind them more We would be angry with Beggars if they begg'd an almes and away presently as careless of answers The sincerity of thy heart would be more evidenced Not blessing God for answers if thou didst consider what returns thou hast that thou mayst bless God for them and improve them for God and in case of denials 1 Sam. 1.15 to be of a troubled Spirit as Hannah was for that her Prayer for a Child was so long denied What mournings hast thou for that thy Pride Not mourning for denials Worldliness Unbelief hardness of Heart c. are not yet pardoned and subdued Poor creature thou continuest in the road of Duty but observest not whether God hears thee or not Saul went beyond thee 1 Sam. 28.6 He observed and was troubled that God answered him not by Urim nor yet by Prophets Have not we by carelesness by returning to our vomits and mires intercepted our own Prayers Have not we torn our own Petitions Tearing their own Petitions Isa 59.1 2. and snatch'd them out of Gods hands Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear How seldome have we took Bernards advice in his gloss upon Not joyning endeavours Oremus Laboremus Jo. 8.21 Ezek. 39.23 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands that is saith he let us pray and endeavour We love to employ God to subdue our sins c. But we sit idle we hate taking pains we are not co-workers with God I may say unto you as Christ I goe away and ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins The Heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them Then shall they cry unto the Lord Mic. 3.4 but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings Prayer is a Key to open Heaven to Believers but it may be so managed as to open Hell to thee CHAP. XV. Their slighting the written Word of God especially in not reading and meditating on it as they ought 8ly Professours despifing Gods written Word SLighting of the written word of God is another piece of ungodliness which English Professours have been very guilty of There is not a surer sign of despising any person than the setting light by what he saith unto us for according to the honour we give unto the Speaker the words spoken will be of weight with us But alas how hath the Bible Gods written word been undervalued by us How little have we credited Gods written word Evidenced in their not crediting it And yet it is natural for us to believe whatsoever is said by one of whose truth we are confident Have not Scripture-affirmations been doubted of by us How little hath our knowledge of them been attended with building a Christian life upon them as a foundation Have we believed that Scripture commands come from God and are most just and fit for him to lay upon us Hath this belief brought forth obedience Have we believed that Scripture-threats are Gods-threats and will therefore be performed to every impenitent Sinner And hath this belief kept us from sin or promoted repentance Have Scripture promises been believed to be Gods-promises and that therefore all the absolute ones shall certainly be performed to the Elect and all the conditional ones to those that perform the conditions And hath this belief stirr'd us up and help'd us to perform the conditions God hath magnified his Word above ell his Name but so have not we Psal 138.2 Not honouring it above Gods other Names We are apt to be afraid at the appearances of the great God in his extraordinary works in the World but who trembleth at the appearances of God in the Scriptures And yet God appears more in the glory of his Majesty therein than in all his other works whether of Creation or of common Providence Mat. 5.8 God maketh more account of his written Word than of Heaven and Earth he had rather lose Heaven and Earth than one jota or tittle of his Word Accounted it a small matter to swerve from it But have not we accounted it no great matter to swerve a little from the written Word of God Yea have not we made a light matter of leaving undone what is therein required and of doing what is therein forbidden Were the Scriptures high in our esteems did we look upon Gods testimonies as wonderfull things our very Souls would be in keeping them Psal 119.129 Thy testimonies are wonderfull therefore doth my Soul keep them Have not we accounted them fools that have preferr'd the Word before whatsoever hath been near and dear unto them in this World Accounting tender Consciences more nice than wise Rev. 6.9 Have not we accounted them more nice than wise who have been slain for the Word who have lost Name Liberty Livelihood Friends Relations yea Life it self and endured all Torments and Tortures rather than they would offend the written Word of God in any one thing either by omission or commission God hath written to us the great things of his Law or word but have they not been accounted a strange thing Accounting it a strange thing Hos 8.12 a thing that we should have got little good if we had obeyed them and little hurt by disobeying them Have not we used the Word as a stranger only for our own ends to serve our own turns as we have had advantage thereby Have not we made the Word a stalking horse for our own carnal designs Making the Word a stalking-horse Have not we pretended very great Zeal for the Word when all the while we have been Zealous for self either our own opinions and perswasions or our own honour and greatness or our own livelihood Have not we like boat-men looked one way and rowed another cryed the Word of the Lord but meant the other thing Have not even Scripture Doctrines eb'd and flowed upon politick considerations How seldome have we discoursed with others Seripturally Not talking of it Deut. 6.7 The Scholar is upon every occasion discoursing of those Notions which he prizeth but hath not our speech bewrayed our low esteems of the Word Have not we been willingly and contentedly ignorant of Scripture-discoveries Willingly ignorant of it Job 21.14 So is not
in this Divine Garden but it is the Meditater the Christian-Bee that gathers the honey out of them though it be the duty by which the Soul digesteth truths and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshment yea the duty by which all other duties are improved yet how much is this duty neglected by all sorts of Professours because though it be the delightfullest task to the Spirit yet it is the most tedious to the Flesh that ever men on earth were imployed in Have not many been long Professours At all and yet if they would tell all the truth they will confess they never spent one hour together in mediating on the most weighty Scripture-truths on God on Mans Estate by Creation Degeneration Regeneration Glorification on Christ on the Vanity of the Creature on the Beauty of Holiness on Death on Judgement on Heaven and Hell Meditation saith Mr. Baxter in his Saints rest is confest to be a duty by all but by constant neglect denyed by most and I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to pass that men that are very tender Conscienced toward most other duties yet do as easily overslip this as if they knew it not to be a duty at all they that are presently troubled in mind if they omit a Sermon a Fast a Prayer in publick or private yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time unto this very day How few have mannaged this duty aright Aright Hath not that which we call Meditation been Study only Hath not some controversial point or some nice speculation been the matter of our Meditation Hereby we evidence that we have not so great spiritual hunger after Righteousness as we should Hungry men saith one do not use to stand and pick bones when they have meat enough to eat Hath not our end in meditating been only the increasing of our knowledge and not the improving of our knowledge Have not we begun this work without God When we were going about to Meditate have not we neglected Prayer for help from Heaven to go through with the work though without God we can neither know resolve upon nor perform what is good for from him yea from his own good pleasure comes both the will and the deed Have not we idled away our meditating seasons If we have sequestred our selves from worldly businesses and company for meditation at any time have not we idled away that time by suffering our thoughts to gad and wander up and down to no purpose to be sure not to fetch in considerations for the stamping holy impressions upon our hearts and lives Have not we in meditating been without a due sense of Gods presence May not we cry out Gen. 28.16 surely the Lord was in such and such a place where I have been meditating and I knew it not i. e. I considered it not Hath not the work of our understandings in this business been to retain and not to convey truth into the heart Have our understandings represented what should work holy affections and resolutions aright Have they presented things good of a Divine and Heavenly nature as God Christ Heaven c. in their prime and beauty Have they presented things in their nature simply evil as Sin Gods wrath Hell at their worst Have not we left off meditating before we attained the end of Meditation before holy affections and resolutions are wrought Have not we rush'd out of this duty as well as rush'd into it Have not we gone from this work as a bird out of the snare with joy and speed Have not we ended as well as begun this work without God not praying to God for strength to perform what we have been inabled by grace to resolve upon for God and for pardon of what hath been amiss in the duty O! when will English Professours be prevailed with to make conscience of this duty of duties I once more intreat thee to use Mr. Baxters words as thou art a man that maketh conscience of a revealed duty and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint and the Soul-ravishing exercise of Heavenly Contemplation and as thou art faithfull to the peace and prosperity of thine own Soul that thou speedily and diligently set upon this great duty O! Considerations against flighting Gods written Word what a mighty blessing is it to have such a book wherein are written by God himself the great counsels of his will concerning mans Eternal Salvation What a sin is it then to have low mean yea vile and base thoughts of it Is not our slighting of the Word of the Lord the cause of all the wickedness in our hearts and lives Whence are all our omissions and commissions but because we make a light matter of sinning against the Scriptures Certainly this great provocation hath a great hand in our miseries and threatneth utter ruine to us Prov. 13.13 Isa 5.24 Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blosome shall go up as dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy one of Israel CHAP. XVI Their miscarriages about the Promises 9ly Professors miscarriages about the Promises MUch Ungodliness is also evidenced in Professors miscarriages about the Promises of the Ward the promises being the great promoters of godliness in the world not only as arguments to induce it by shewing how God will reward it but likewise as principles of godliness or the chief instrument whereby God makes Souls partakers of the Divine nature 1. Not believing their truth How little do we believe the truth of the Promises How little do we believe that the Spirit of God and glory rests on them that suffer for Christ and his Gospel and that as tribulations do abound for Christ so shall consolations by him or that we shall have an hundred fold advantage by any loss we sustain for Christ and his concernments All that fear of man all that cowardise all those tremblings of heart that are upon Professors this day all that enmity against the Cross of Christ which appears on the faces and hearts of men are clear demonstrations how little the promises for the bearing up under suffering for the deliverance out of suffering or rewarding of suffering for Christ are believed We cannot set the Promises against all Crosses 2. Not prizing them enough How low are our esteems of the Promises of God of the great and faithful God in comparison of what they are concerning the Promises of honest and sufficient men I appeal to thee if a King should promise thee a thousand pound per annum whether it would not more rejoyce thine heart than the Promises of eternal Life which God hath made unto thee do With how
few Professours are the Promises of God exceeding great and precious 2 Pet. 1.4 Not admiring Gods condescention therein 3. How little do we admire at Gods stopping so low as to oblige himself by promise to such varlets as we God might have dealt with us by way of absolute Soveraignty and Dominion imposing only upon us commands to do our duty without adjoyning any promise of a reward he being our Creatour and we his Creatures It is his great condescention to deal with us by way of Promise which is not only an insinuation and signification of what he will do but a laying a bond or obligation upon himself to do so and so Herein God did more condescend unto Man than unto the fallen Angels they have not any one not the least Promise of any good made by God unto them And yet how little are we in admiration Not blessing God for them 1 Jo. 2.25 4. How little do we bless the Lord for those Jewels that are wrapt up in the Promises for the Fruit that hangs on this Tree of Life This is the Promise that he hath promised us even eternal Life A Crown is promised Jam. 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him A Kingdome is promised Hearken Jam. 2.5 my beloved Brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him Yet how unthankfull This doubtless proceeds from our diffidence of the reality and faithfulness of the Promiser and therefore that shall be another Question 5. How little do we relye upon God Not relying on the Promiser to make good his Promises How many think God the Promiser as changeable as themselves Men in Boats being in constant motion upon the Waters are apt to fancy that the Land and Trees move as they themselves do So many Christians think as oft as they fail in point of strict duty God will fail too Who layes all the stress upon the faithfulness of him that hath promised Do not we lean partly to the Promises and partly to our own endeavours and the means we use and so divide our dependencies betwixt the Promises of God and our own Duties to bring in pardons peace holiness or any outward comforts 6. Do not we eye Promises Not eyeing Christ in them without eyeing Christ Do not we dote on the Bracclets but neglect the Friend Do not some set a greater value on the Promise than on Christ's Person Though the Promises are only the Chrystal Streams of that River of Life Rev. 22.1 which proceedeth out of the Throne of God and the Lamb yet do not we make them the Primary and not the Secondary Object of Faith Who look upon Promises only as Instruments to bring Christ and the Soul together 7. Not hoping for the good of them How little do we hope for the good laid up in the Promises What fearful expectations have many Prosessours though they walk close with God though they abstain from that which is evil though they fulifill after God to the utmost of their power though they design which way to walk in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good word and work yet how cast down how discouraged are they how do they pine away and their hearts dye within them how are they as Reeds shaken as Ships driven and cannot cast anchor within the Vail Moses himself was shaken when a deliverance of Gods own promising met with opposition And Moses said Lord wherefore hast thou so evil intreated this people Exod. 5.22 23. why is it that thou hast sent me For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy Name he hath done evil to this people neither hast thou delivered thy people at all It is Gods wonted course to bring signal mercies under a sentence of death before we enjoy them and yet how prevailing is unbelief when God deferrs and the Promise is obstructed How faint are we Our hope is not lively 8. Noc waiting for the good of them Heb. 10.36 How little do we wait till that good which is in the Promises be given out to us I may truly say to many yea to most Ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the Promise Sure The Vision is for an appointed time Hab. 2.3 and God would have us to wait though it tarry because it will not tarry beyond the time appointed by the wise and saithful God But though God never fail of his own time yet he seldome comes at ours and then we run into unbelief if not impatiency of spirit How oft do we Antedate the Promise and set it a time before Gods time Jam. â— 4 Patience hath not its perfect work so that if God save us out of our miseries we shall not be able to say as the Church Loe this is our God Isa 25.9 we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation This limiting the holy One of Israel either as to means when we tye up the Lord to work by wayes and causes of our own or to dayes and hours of our own bold and impudent prescription is no small provocation Psa 78.40 41. How oft did they provoke him in the Wilderness and grieve him in the Desert Yea they turned back and tempted God and limited the holy One of Israel Some will wait a month or two for the Promise of Pardon that they may have peace in their Consciences and for Promises of outwards but when they see nothing comes of their waiting 2 Kings 6.33 then there is no hope why should I wait on the Lord any longer That Wretch waited a little but not long enough We allow time to the Physician to cure us we yield that he knows the fittest time to apply cordialls but we yield not so much to God We would have the smarting Plaister pulled off before the Wound be healed whereas it is best for us to have it kept on David's foot was almost slipt when he saw the Promise of the Kingdom deferred he makes a bad inference from the delay One day I shall fall by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 We do not stay our selves on the Promises till the thing promised be given into our bosomes David waited patiently but so do not we Our hearts are not at rest but we stagger like Drunkards we reel this way and that way but are not established and setled In this we are not consident that God who hath promised cannot lye and therefore will perform the word that is gone forth from an unfeigned lip We are too hasty in our desires whereas God knows the fittest season for the Promise to bring forth We shall have it when the time is come but we
Lord of Heaven and Earth keep the Soul of this Wife this Child this Servant for if it be missing amongst the number of my sheep at the great day through thy neglect in instructing c. thy Soul shall go for it Hence not only should your Children be taught by you but your Wives and Servants The Wife is commanded to learn of her Husband at home and the Husband to walk with her as a man of knowledge and your Servants should be trained by you in Religion Gen. 14.14 as Abrahams Servants were by Abraham thus some of the Hebrew Rabbins think that Abraham's trained Servants are therefore so called Not conversing personally with them abâ—ut their Souls How seldome do you converse personally with every one in your Families concerning the practical part of Religion How seldome do you ask them any questions how it is with their Souls and what they think will become of them to all Eternity Are you not as great strangers to the inwards of their Souls as you are to the Souls of the Indians If their bodies be in danger meat physick attendance are procured but their Souls may perish in formality and carelessness for any help you will afford them Some Professing-Governours never treat with their housholds about their Spiritual Estate from one year to another Hence comes the great Apostasy of our times The Lord humble us and deliver us from bloud-guiltiness Many an Husband may cry out O my Wife's Soul is like to perish through my default many a Parent may shriek O! I am verily guilty of the bloud of my Child and many a Master may impute to his own account all the disorders of his Servants for that they have no personal conference with them about Original Corruption Regeneration Justification Sanctification Glorification c. Perhaps thou prayest in thy Family every day but not knowing the inward lusts and workings of their hearts towards God or Sin thou knowst not how to pray as thou oughtest thou knowst not what to confess and what to pray for nor what to bless God for 4. Not walking with gravity Have you walk'd with that gravity before your Wives Children and Servants as ye ought Have you not made your selves vile by lightness frothiness and unseemly carriages Governours of Families are the Viceroy's of God they are in the place of God and therefore should keep up their Authority and not sinfully run into such vanity and familiarity with their inferiours as to breed in them contempt of the Ordinance of God 5. Not giving them time to serve God in You have given your Children and Servants time to work for your selves but have you afforded them time to serve their God in Too too many use their Inferiours just as they use their Beasts they work and feed their Beasts but never instruct no more do they instruct their Inferiours When do you call your Wives Children Servants into your Closet and not only press them to look after their Souls and in order thereunto to spend some time in Prayer Reading Meditation c. but tell them how God wrought on you how he awakened you what corruptions prevail'd with you and how God help'd you to crucisie them How do you know but the same motives might melt reduce and turn their hearts too 6. Have not you miscarried as to the time Taking undue time for Family-Duties In the Morning too early for the management of your religious work in your houses Some Governours Pray in the Morning too early so early with a small part of their Family whilst others are in Bed or in the service of the World so that they worship not God together as they ought and this is past over with silence but if they miss of their Servant in the Shop or Field O! how doth the fire of Hell break forth at their lips How angry is the Governour he cries out O! I shall be undone by the unfaithfullness of my Wife Children Servants but sees not a greater danger a more probable ruine falling on him for not having his Family to worship God with him Others deferr Morning Prayer till it be almost Noon Too late They will adventure into all worldly imployments as we say without fear or wit they see no need of God to protect them from outward or inward dangers no need of Gods blessing till they are ready to fill their panch and then some Collects must be said some short Prayers it is the Custome of their fore Fathers it is the Religion of their Ancestours or Conscience will trouble at the total neglect of the Morning Sacrifice and therefore the Prayer shall be run over with more hast than the boy that saith his lesson that they may rise up to eat drink and play And as some are unseasonable in their duties in the Morning At Evening too late so at Evening Whilst their strength lasts to serve the world they attend it some 'till even midnight and then come let us go to Prayer when the poor Wife Children and Servants had rather be in bed than on their knees The Governour Prays dully enough 1 Sam. 2.17 Putting off family Prayer with a long grace and that while the poor family sleep or nauseate the duty and so like Elies Sons these Sons of Belial cause their people to abhorre the offering of the Lord. Are there not also some Professing-Governours unworthy of the name of Christian who think to please God and the family with a long grace before meat which shall be in lieu of all the service of the day 7. Not reading Scripture and good books How few are there that read the Scriptures and good books in their houses O! this will take up too much time as if God had given men all their time to neglect him in and to indulge to the services of the Flesh World and Devils CHAP. XXIX The sins of Husbands and Wives HUsband 's and Wives are call'd to reflexion on their miscarriages joyntly Husbands and Wives sins severally Joyntly for their not being so carefull of their choice as they should have been not seeking God enough in a matter of so great consequence which was for tearm of life and wherein the Souls of each other were so highly concerned 1 Cor. 7.39 The Wife is bound by the Law as long as her Husband liveth but if her Husband he dead she is at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. 2 Cor. 6.14 Be ye not unequally yoaked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness That they came together upon low earthly and lustfull motives for profit pleasure beauty rather than to further the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ The Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair Gen. 6.2 and they took them Wives of all which they chose That they did not by Prayer and Fasting
the Lord suffer them not to fashion themselves according to the course of the world Connive not at them in practising what you think is abominable in the worship of God Remember they are Gods Children more than yours Ezek. 16.20 All Souls are mine God claims a special right in them thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me If you neglect your duties you and your Children are like to have sad greetings when you meet before the Lord another day How will your Children lay their hells and torments to your dores how will they curse the day they were born of such fond women who indulged to them in their neglects of God Cursed be the day that ever I saw the passions the pride the formality of my Father or of my Mother for thereby I learned to sin against the Lord. O your examples undid me I had not come to this place of torment had it not been for you Children As Children evidenced in several particulars Are not you also greatly faulty towards your Parents If Children be richer than their Parents how irreverent are they how over familiar with their Parents as if they had forgot the first Commandement with promise How disobedient are they to their lawfull commands though the command of God be express Col. 3.20 Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in all things and it is added for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father thy Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the Earth Was Christ subject to his Parents Luk. 2.51 and should not you be subject to yours Sure you should have obeyed them as farr as without sin though their commands crossed your natural desires as Joseph when Israel said unto him come I will send thee to thy Brethren at Sechem though he knew he should be sent to them who hated him yet he said unto his Father Here am I. How stout and rebellious are Children when corrected Hebr. 12.9 How few can say we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence This Sin so provoked God Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. that he made it Capitall in the dayes of old If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voyce of his Father or the voyce of his Mother and that when they have chastred him will not hearken unto them then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and shall say this our Son is stubborn and rebellious c. and all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evill away from among you How rebellious are Children in refusing the eallings which Parents have appointed for them If the Parent be bound to bring them up to a calling are not the Children bound to attend that calling Brethren let every man wherein he is called 1 Cor. 7.24 therein abide with God Christ probably was brought up in his reputed Fathers calling Is not this the Carpenter Mar. 6.3 How disobedient are Professing-Children in their marriages Children are the Parents goods so God reckoneth them yea so the Devil reckoneth them When the Devil had commission to meddle with Jobs goods he falls on the Children Some are worse than Ishmaels Gen. 21.21 Nature and Civility made him submit to his Mother for the choice of his Wife If Children must obey their Parents in littles much more in weighty matters How little have you requited your Parents This you are bound unto To shew piety at home 1 Tim. 5.4 and to requite Parents is good and acceptable before the Lord. Your Parents took care of you when you were as beasts you had your life and education from them and what now slight them when old or weak What laugh at their follies What when you are high reject your parents that are low The very Heathen Oratour declaims against this We are not born saith he for our selves but partly for our Country partly for our Parents How are you degenerated from your Parents commands and examples There are few true Rechabites who forbore wine from generation to generation It makes my heart ake when I read that the people served the Lord all the dayes of Joshuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Joshuah Judges 2.7 10 11 12 14. who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel but there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord c. and the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt c. and provoked the Lord to anger and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoylers that spoyled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies O! in vain will ye relieve your selves in your Baptismal relations unto God that you have Abraham to your Father Mat. 8.11 Gods judgements will be more bitter to you more heavy on you than on others when the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out You will be ready to curse the day you came of such Parents that ever you had such holy instructions and examples to no purpose save to greaten your condemnation The Lord said unto Moses Deut. 31.16 17. This People will goe a whoring after the Gods of the Strangers of the Land whither they goe to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my Covenant which I have made with them Then mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evills and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evills come upon us because our God is not amongst us Nay Abraham whom you trust to and the Privileges by him will upbraid his Son Dives with his former good things Son Luke 16.25 remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil thingâ— but now he is comforted and thou art tormented O most dreadful Your very righteous Parents shall rejoyce in your ruine The righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance Psa 58.10 11. c. So that a man shall say Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth CHAP. XXXI The sins of Professing-Masters and Servants FIrst you Masters As Masters see how guilty you are in the Relation of Masters 1. Not chooling godly Servants Psal 101.6 Should not your eyes like Davids have
Carrying themselves proudly saucily and too familiarly with their Superiours Mal. 1.6 Blazoning their Masters Infirmities Obeying them only in what they please Col. 3.22 Tit. 2.9 Mat. 8.9 May not your Master say If I be a Master where is my fear How fearless are you of your Masters especially if your Masters be not very rich and honourable in the earth who respects Gods Ordinance Hence many Professing Servants sland covered in their Masters presence sit before them bow not to them nor rise up before them 2. Do not you when you meet together blazon the infirmities of your Masters Do not you carry your selves as Spies rather than as Servants you do not herein as you would be dealt with 3. Are not you disobedient to your Masters commands unless in what pleaseth you You are rather the Servants of your own lusts rather than your Masters Servants you do not obey in singleness of heart yea you are not indeed obedient The Centurion could say to his Servant goe and he went c. The Heathen Servants excel some that pretend to great attainments of Religion He is the Master that must have his own way Judge ye then in your selves whether you abide in the place wherein God hath set you 4. Not answering when call'd Job 19.16 Do not ye refuse to answer when you are called by your Masters This was Job's plague I called my Servant and he gave me no answer Silence is sometimes a sign of consent but here of contempt If a Servant answers not when he is called he forgets what his calling is The Servants in Davids dayes were of better dispositions they did pick out their Masters mind out of every motion and turning of his eye and hand and so were tontinually in a posture for obedience The eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters Psal 123.2 1 Tim. 6.1 and the eyes of a Maiden to the hand of her Mistriss For want of that honour that is due from Professing Servants to their Masters the name of God is Blaspemed 5. Answering again Tit. 2.9 As some by silence so others by their tongues dishonour their Masters by answering again They should not answer by way of contradiction or reluctance as Servants are very apt to do Some will even brag how they gave word for word perhaps blow for blow nay two words for one Hereby their Governours if ungodly fall foul upon Religion Is this the fruit of your profession prayers running after Ministers 6. Diligent only under their Masters eye Eph. 6.5 6. Not designing to please God in their pleasing their Masters How lazy are some professing Servants Diligent only when under their Masters eye Few serve their Masters as Jacob Laben with all their might The command is that you should obey in singleness of heart not with eye-service as men pleasers Mark eye-service stands not with uprightness of heart As you would not be branded for Hypocrites work behind your Masters backs as if their eyes were upon you Consider how short you fall of this and mourn before the Lord in secret for your eye-service 7. How do some yea many servants eye only the pleasing their Masters Eph. 6.5 Tit. 2.9 but doe not their work so spiritually as to seek to please the Lord Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart It is true Servants should labour to please their Masters yea in all things but they should seek more to approve themselves to God than to any earthly Superiour 8. Mis-timing duties How imprudent are some Professing Servants as to the timing of their duties Some when never so urgent business is to be dispatched will then go in secret to call upon God whereas going to bed later and rising earlier would prevent much straitness as to time and spirit in that great duty Some will fall a talking of the things of God to their fellow-servants very unseasonably not when they are at leasure but when they are most busily imployed for their Masters to the hindring of their work 9. Defrauding their masters How many cheat and defraud their Masters Some cheat them of their time by idling it away being tattlers and busie-bodies or gossiping it away Others cheat them of their money or goods hiring others secretly to do their work and pay them with their Masters money or goods Is not this purloyning and therefore forbidden Tit. 2.10 Not provident for their gain 10. How many are improvident for their Masters goods and gain They will see things spoil before their eyes they will give what is not their own to give they make no conscience to eat and drink what their Masters do not allow them they are not contented with his allowances they will steal small matters and yet whatever they take though but little is the breach of the 8th Commandement and the less the temptation the greater the sin that they will break Gods Law for trisles and serve the Devil for pieces of silver and morsels of flesh What saith Mr. Dod If ever they look for sound peace of conscience they must make restitution of all such things How much soever they steal Numb 5.7 Zech. 5.4 so much they must restore and the fifth part thereto or if they keep it unless they repent they keep Gods curse with it and a woe unto their Consciences 11. Regard less of their Souls How many are altogether careless to get any good to their Souls whilst under Religious Governours They ask not the way to Heaven and if examined they are tongue-tyed will give no account of the hope that is in them 12. Murmuring at reproofs and corrections 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20. How do many murmur under reproofs and corrections What saith the Apostle Servants be subject to your Masters not only to the gentle but to the froward for this is thank-worthy if a man for Conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God Unfaithful to Children 13. How unfaithfull are many to their Masters Children Not heeding them and providing meat and other necessaries for them in their Masters absence 14. Receiving scornfully a Catalogue of their duties How scornfully do even Professing-Servants receive a Catalogue of their duties How loth are they yea how do some unâ—â— to know the mind of God as to the extent of their obedience 15. Their miscarriages toward their fellow-Servants How many wayes do you fail towards your fellow Servants Do not you seek to undermine them of the respect their Masters bare them Do not you labour to supplant them Do not you envy them Are not you unfaithfull to one anothers Souls Do not you wast time in idle and impertinent-discourses Are not you evil examples
our rising up early and sitting up late our spending our strength our lungs our spirits yea and our estates among you you have requited us evil for good even to the spoyling of our Souls Acts 7.51 52. Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy-Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted c. Have not you in your hypocrisie made outcries against others for silencing your Ministers for taking away the bread out of yours and your Childrens mouths and for removing them from their stations and dwellings But may not I profess in the name of all my Fellow-Sufferers that your misimprovements your inconstancies your pride and earthliness have been and are our chiefest burdens a greater pressure to us than any burdens that lye upon our names bodies or estates I cannot but think of a passage of holy Mr. Shepheard The Jews saith he did long for Christ and when he came they Crucified him and you would have Ministers and you had them and though you did not immediately cast them out of their places yet you so wearied their Spirits and grieved the Spirit in them that you made them glad to bury themselves and leave their places you had Prophets and their teâ—â—s and their sorrows too yea and their blâ—â—d too and O! what a light matter was it teâ—â—s you to break their very hearts How little did you obey them that ruled over you Hebr. 13.17 and submitted your selves that they might give their account with joy and not with grief How little did you believe that that is unprofitable for you Have not you made nothing of it for your Ministers to lose their labour to put them upon crying out I have laboured in vain Isa 49.45 Yea how have you grieved their very Souls with reproaches Some who have pretended affection to them yet have had their reproachfull Names of Priest Parson Vicar c. Though God hath put a Crown of honour upon them by making them his Ambassadours yet how have some impudent Professours blasted them with their stinking breath and prosane scoffs Ambassadours are inviolable by the Laws of Nations The Lord saith one hath set a better mark on them than Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm yet you have made a light matter of vexing their very Souls When you could have nothing else against your Minister have not you been censuring him for his manner of speaking 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters say they are weighty and powerfull but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible Lastly And being weary of them Have not your Ministers been so troublesome to you in your sins in your formality worldliness lukewarmness c. that you were even weary of them Have not you been as weary of them as the Children of Israel of Angels food as weary as weak somachs are of feeding on one dish Your Ministers urged flesh-displeasing and self-denying duties they would not suffer you to sin quietly and were not you therefore burthened with them they would not stand and comply with your carnal ends and sinfull interests and did not your hearts therefore cry out away with them Have not you been like the Gadarenes more willing to part with your Ministers than with your swinish lusts Rom. 1.28 Because you did not like to retain God in your knowledge 't is no wonder if God give up many of you to a reprobate mind Hath not the Gospel been too costly too chargeable to some of you and too irksome requiring too much pains taking to others of you O! when you Remember your crying iniquities for which God is chiefly contending with you forget not this dreadfull sinne of being weary of Gods Ambassadours of being weary of speaking with God and of hearing God speak unto your Souls CHAP. XXXIII Their misearriages with reference to the Ministers of Christ Professours miscarriages toward their Ministers since their removal Not finding the want of them Not esteeming the loss great enough since their removal 1. H How many of you do not find them wanting This will be evident by the following Queries Have you indeed accounted that none in the world want help like your selves upon this very account Do you look upon your selves as litting in darkness yea in the region and shadow of death under a worse Plague than the Egyptian-darkness that was a darkness wherein men lived but do you look on this as a darkness of death Do you account a Throne without the Gospel but the Devils Dungeon Wealth without the Gospel fuell for Hell Advancement without the Gospel but a going high to have the greater fall Do you look upon your selves as under a worse famine than that of bread Cannot you your selves make up this great loss cannot you set other things in the breach Do not some of you set good books in the room of your Ministers Going about to make it up by good books I confess saith a Reverend Man Reading hath its use but the voice hath a secret force upon the Soul it hath a Ministerial efficacy by which the Authority and Soveraign efficacy of the Spirit is conveyed I pray God the fruitfullness of the Press may not beget a dis-esteem and contempt of the great Ordinance of the Minister already you have been told already that Luther had rather his books should be burnt than the Scriptures suffer a dishonour and neglect by perusing his papers Do not some of you set your own parts and gifts in their room Their own parts and gifts Do not some of you think that you have so profited by their Ministry that you have no further need to attend upon any Ministers of Christ May not such doubt whether their experience of the power and efficacy of the Ministry hath been true seeing true experience thereof sweetneth the Ministry unto Souls raiseth up their esteems of it and engageth them to a further and more chearfull attendance upon it A true tast will sharpen the Souls appetite the true Christian gets a Stomach by eating as the new born babe by sucking 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be that ye have found that the Lord is gracious Do not some of you go about to make up your selves by attending on Christ's companions in the sense of Solomon And Christ's companions Cant. 1.7 by going to Wells without water by sucking empty breasts whence you can draw nothing but wind or blood what is this but seeking the living among the dead expecting gracious showers from Clouds without rain making up the want of bread with stones if not poyson O! why do not you say Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon for why should I be as
one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions What sighs Not mourning enough for the want of them sorrows tears c. hath the removal of your Ministers cost you Cannot you rub it out very quietly If you lose your Jewels Estates Names Friends Children c. we can read the sorrows of your hearts in your countenances you are almost angry with God when a goard is smitten O! what sinkings of heart are there among Professours what cares fears griefs not only to the sadning of their hearts but altering of their countenances when the world vanisheth And yet no aking hearts no dejected countenances for the glory 's departing for Gods shutting up house and departure I am confident it hath not broke one nights rest to many who yet will think themselves wronged if they be not placed in the highest form of Profession What time hast thou set apart to humble thy Soul for all thy abuses of the Gospel and Ministry thereof Not Fasting under this Judgment If a Child be sick time must be set apart to humble thee before God this is your duty but the other should not have been neglected Thou may'st subsist better without Children than without these Spiritual Fathers a Gospel Ministry is a greater Jewell than many Sons and Daughters Thy having sinned away the food of thy Soul should have put thee in Sackcloth and upon Fasting with mourning long ago All Israel lamented after the Ark But are not you as merry and sensual at your tables as ever Yea are not you secretly glad at the removal of your Ministers yea secretly being glad for their removal Ministers and Ministry saith Shepheard are bills of charges to a Congregation and too costly Inhabitants among them 2. Not justifying God in their removal Have you justified God in the removal of them God as a wise and provident Master gave you glorious lights to do his work by but you have plaid away your time is it any wonder that he hath put out your Tapers and Candles Have you confest the righteousness of God herein that he will not be at cost to find you Candle light to play by Hath this been thy hearts acknowledgment God gave me these lights that I might work for him by them and because I did not but wrought the works of darkness therefore he hath most justly left me in darkness and in the shadows of death 2 Thes 2.10 11 because I received not the truth in the love thereof I took it into mine head but not into mine heart God may justly send me strong delusions that I should believe a lye Vide Pareuâ—â— in Act. 5.36 It is the observation of Pareus upon many of the Jews being seduced that it was just with God that they should believe impostours because they would not give credit to Jesus Christ O! God may make short work with us in his Judiciary proceedings When God hath departed upon repulse he hath left a dismall curse behind hind him I say unto you that none of these men which were bidden shall tast of my Supper If the meat be on the table yet it is just with God that I shall never tast of it for I have controuled the Spirit again and again twenty thirty fourty years have I vexed the good Spirit of the Lord and therefore he may swear in his wrath that I shall never enter into his rest If some shall never tast that have neglected one Call woe is me who have neglected thousands Take words and say because I have not obeyed the voice of thy Servants Job 36.12 't is righteous that I perish by the Sword and dye without knowledge 3. Not blessing God for former opportunitles How little have you blest and do you bless God that once you did enjoy a Gospel Ministry and such a Gospel Ministry How seldome are such words as these Blessed be they and blessed be their Counsels and blessed be the Lord that sent them out to meet me in former dayes and for so many dayes months and years together found in your mouths It is a sign that your disesteems of the Gospel and Ministry do still abide whilst you cannot find in your hearts to thank God for enjoying so choice a blessing for so many years together 4. Not crying for their return What cries have you sent up to Heaven for the return of your Ministers Dare you thus imprecate Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I forget to pray for Zions welfare in this particular Had the Ministry of the Gospel been counted a glorious blessing you would have sent strong cryes to Heaven for the return of it Had you believed that they came to treat with your Souls about your peace with God and that God hath appointed this as the great means to bring your Souls to himself you would not have parted with your Ministers so easily being as little moved as at the withering and throwing to the dunghill of a formerly flourishing Nose gay of Flowers and you would have wrestled with the Lord for the return of these glorious Lights of Heaven How can you chuse but feat the Lord hath no more Souls to convert in that place from which the Gospel is removed Jesus Christ prayed Isa 49.8 compared with 2 Cor. 6.2 that the Gospel might be sent to the Gentiles In an acceptable time have I heard thee O! How should you have prayed for the fruit of Christs prayer Have you back'd prayer with prayer Have you doubled your Prayers for the return of your Fathers Have they not begotten you Judg. 9.17 Should they not be unto you as Fathers Will not Idolatrous Micah else condemn you 5. Not preparing for such a mercy How little do you set your selves in a posture for the return of the Gospel and the Ministers of it Until you have humbled your Souls as low as the dust for your unprofitableness pride sensuality earthliness dis-esteems and neglects of the Gospel for your abuse of the talents of Gold that you hid or wasted can you imagine that God will intrust you with more talents Alas few put themselves in a readiness few prepare to meet God as formerly they have met him in the solemn Assemblies Verily God is gone and returned unto his place Hos 5.13 till you acknowledge your offences your Gospel-sins and seek his face But if ye seek him not early how can ye hope for the bringing back the Captivity that the glory and strength will return 6 Being niggardly even now toward them How little do ye now lay out for the refreshing and feeding of your poor Ministers now that their necessities are so growing you cannot now excuse your niggardliness with this they have a competency Alas most of them and their many little ones are in great straights and exigencies and what still straightned in your bowels Is not the Proverb made good Out of sight out of