a cure upon any languishing Souls or what 's become of them all O hath not this adversarie stolen them all away stolen away the warnings stolen away the reproofs stolen away the awakening counsels that have been given you and so hitherto held your Souls fast asleep Now having to do with such a busie and stirring Devil you had need the more to bestir your selves and look about you that he do not irrecoverably undo you Resist the Devil Jam. 4.7 Be sober be vigelant 1 Pet. 5.8 knowing that your adversary Is he so watchful upon you to hinder you and mischief you does he lye at the catch to steal away this awakening word from you You had need lye at the catch also catch at every word the Lord speaks to you concerning this matter lay hold upon them lay them up in your hearts forget them not while you live keep them in memory let them dwell in you and hold your thoughts upon them keep them working in your hearts and never let them slip till they have done the work and your Souls be recovered 2. There are stirring lusts within you that oppose your recovery Your lusts are your disease and your disease resists your remedy There is a body of Sin within you there 's the same evil nature in you that are Christians that there is in Sinners though the power of sin be broken yet there is much of it still remaining Though the Egyptians be drowned Sin as a Throne be subdued yet the Canaanite Sin as a Thorn is still in the Land Though Christians have not an Enemy Enemy to which they are in bondage yet they have an Enemy that 's still fighting against their Souls sin hath no longer dominion over them Rom. 6.14 yet it still makes war upon them Though the head of this Serpent be broken yet 't is a Serpent still And as 't is said of Daniel Gen. 49.17 It is a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path it biteth the Horse heels it wounds and vexes and hinders though it cannot kill This Sin is called a Body of Sin Rom. 6.6 and of this Body there are many members every lust of our heart is a Member of our Body of Sin Our evil nature is this Body and there our numerous Lusts do meet as in their common root and thence they spring Now these Lusts are they that hinder and spoil us Friends these are they that have tempted you off from God and tempted you off from your integrity and turn'd you to iniquity and hitherto hindred your returning Jam. 1.14 Every man when he is tempted is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed Do not think to lay all the blame upon the Devil and so to excuse your selves no your own hearts have joyned with the Devil you have been accessary to your own ruine Some men when they have run themselves out of their Estates by Riot and Drunkenness they will think to lay all the blame upon their evil company O this evil company this evil company have been my Bane sure enough they have and therefore let every wise man be warned and shun them as the Devil But yet let not evil company bear all the blame 't is that evil heart of thine thine own hearts lust that betrayed thee into thy evil company What could evil company have done hadst thou not had an evil heart to go after them How long might they have enticed thee and never prevailed if thou hadst not been drawn aside by thine own hearts lust and enticed They are those Devils within you those Lusts that war in your Members that have given the Devil his advantages against you Some fall a lusting after Money and this lust sets them so hard on work for the world keeps them so busie about their Trades and their Estates that they forget God and their Souls Others lust after Pleasures and ease and idleness and this keeps them off from those labours and that industry which is necessary to the maintaining their Souls in life Some lust to Pride others to Envy others to frowardness and contention and those make such gashes in their Hearts as let out the life bloud of all their Rellgion 'T is mens lusts that bring their Souls down and do devour and eat up all their Religion and as I said before of the Devil so here of Lust that which hath brought them down will hinder their rising And these Lusts are stirring Lusts working and warring in our Members holding us in captivity to the Law of Sin as Rom. 7.23 and hindering our recovery and redemption When I would do good evil is present with me v. 21. that is to hinder and hold me back from doing any thing that would do me good And as it was with the Apostle so is it more or less with every Christian May we not all say after him When I would do good evil is present with me Lust is busie lust stands ready to spoil me in every duty Whatever calls we have to duty to repent and return to the Lord to pray and cry unto the Lord Though the Word calls remember whence you are fallen and repent though Conscience calls seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Lust strikes in to stop or turn away our Ears from these Calls Why is it that no more of you have answered these Calls Remember whence you are fallen and repent O 't is your Lusts that have stopp'd your ears Whatever need or necessity there be lying upon us to hearken to these calls though we see all the good that is within us even at deaths door graces dying comforts dying hopes dying and all our Religion ready to give up the ghost yet our Lusts will not suffer us to mind our Necessities Whatever inclinations or desires or purposes we have to make an escape to seek a remedy for these our diseased languishing Souls whatever offers and attempts we make to set upon more earnest praying and crying to the Lord for help and deliverance to set upon a more watchful diligent life whatever good it be we purpose or set our selves upon still evill is present with us one lust or other is still at hand to spoil or hinder all so that we cannot do the things that we would Gall. 5.17 We think to come to it we hope to come to it while the word is preaching to us and our hearts are a little touched and affected with it whilst we are made to stand convinced in our own particulars This decayed state is evidently my state and it is an evil and wretched and dangerous state and thereupon we take up such thoughts Well through the grace of God I will amend I will no longer go on thus I will seek my recovery yet still Lust strikes in and fights against all such thoughts so that we cannot do the things that we would Christians do you not find it thus in your experiences One lust or other is
when he dies as the meaning there is and he must do so while he lives that 's his duty Col. 3.1 and his duty is his way that he should go his course is to be from bad to good and from good to better from weakness to strength yea and from strength to strength from a little to an increase of strength Christians you are all bound for Heaven Travellers to the Holy Hill your progress in holiness is your ascending and climbing up the Hill you are getting up the Jacobs Ladder which reaches the Hill-top Every Holy Day you live every Holy Duty you perform every little degree of Grace that 's added to you is your getting up so many rounds higher upon that Holy Ladder And this is it you have to do to be climbing and climbing higher and higher in the Grace of God and in the Works of Grace And this now is the reason of our so slow motion he that goes up the Hill takes the more time and the shorter steps yea and as one foot goes up the other slides back Our goings up at Hill are more painful Facilis descensus at revocare gradum hic labor hoc opus est And hence is it that there is so much need of the Goad and the Spur to prick us on Down at hill there 's more need of the Bridle than of the Spur. Even Christians have need of the bridle in this respect we need not be driven down to the lower Valleys which we have left we are too apt to be running back to the gains and the pleasures here below 't is to hasten our motion upward that we so much need the Rod and the Spur. Yea and we need to be quickned and warned to look well to the Bridle to restrain us from our cross and contrary motions Sure Friends our so eager running still after this world running after the riches and pleasures of this life evidence it sufficiently what need we have to be stirred up to look well to the Bridle As the Psalmist says Ps 39.1 I will hold my mouth so have we all need to hold our hearts as with a bridle to hold the bridle upon our wills affections and appetites Do not you see how apt you are to run too fast this way with what speed are some Professors riding downwards what haste do they make to be rich and to be great in this world The very Mountains of this Earth the Mountains of Pride and worldly Greatness and Glory the very Hill tops of Worldlings are but as low Valleys to a Christian he is still going down at hill while he is climbing up these worldly Mountains and therefore he needs the bridle to hold him in Consider it do we not still want to be warned and called upon and to call upon our selves to lay hold upon the bridle Behold Friends how many of us do suffer our carnal hearts to run their course how seldom do we give check to our fleshly desires how seldom do we speak such a word to our selves Stay O my heart not too fast O my Soul How little pains do we take to restrain our intemperate affections How very few self-bridling Christians self-checking Christians are here among us When we do hear such words I am afraid I am making too much haste to be rich I am afraid I allow my self too much liberty for the pleasing my flew Or if such a word be now and then let fall yet how little is it hearkned to Though we sometimes fear we run too fast this way yet on we let our selves run and do not lay a due restraint upon our selves Or if we do a little check our motions earthward yet do we effectually restrain them 'T is not enough that you say My heart needs a Bridle you must make use of the Bridle when you have stopped your hearts in their carnal course then you have done something Friends when you have considered and tried the difficulty of preventing your motions downwards and of speeding your way upwards then you will see farther what need you have to bestir your selves Lay altogether Is it certain that those that fall short of Religion or fall off from the Religion they have will be lost at last Is there such a distance betwixt what we are and what we should be Is it so hard to raise those that are fallen Is it so hard to discern the Soul-consumption till it be almost past cure Is there such an indisposition in consuming Souls to seek and such an opposition made by a stirring Devil and their stirring lusts against their obtaining their cure Is it so hard for those that stand to get on their way then certainly every one of us had need to awaken and look to our selves Thus much for the 2d General 3. What it is to take hold of God In answer to this 3 things 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us 2. Our Happiness is in this that the Lord is among us 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Presence of God with us and our preventing his Departure 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us God is then in us 1. When the Fear of God is within us 2. When the Face of God is upon us 1. When the fear of God is within us When the Spirit of the Lord the Image and Holiness of the Lord is within us which come all to one That Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts is the same as those Jer. 31. and Ezek. 36. I will put my spirit within you A new heart will I give you Or as Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you When God takes up his Habitation sets up his Throne in the hearts of his People undertakes the Government of them bp his Word and Spirit subdues them to himself reigns in righteousness in their Souls and makes them his voluntary Subjects and willing People when the Grace of God prevails and bears rule in their Hearts 'T is not Gods being in their Mouths the Grace of God in their Lips but his being in their Hearts his dwelling and living in their Hearts the real and inward Sanctification of them by his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in them This is the being of God in his People and this is the blessedness or happiness of his People When God is within us the Devil is cast out sin is thrown down the Kingdom of Satan is destroyed where the Kingdom of God is set up It is peoples misery to have the Devil in them to have Sin bear rule and therefore 't is there blessedness to have these Tyrants cut down and cast out and the Kingdom of God set up in their stead 2. When the Face of God is upon us when we live in his fear and live also in the light of his Countenance when he shines and smiles upon our hearts when he loves his Saints and shews them his Loves when
fire left from the evening to kindle the morning Sacrifice O Friends how often is it that though at our morning Sacrifice a fire be kindled that it 's quenched and lost before the evening through the carelesness and negligence of our hearts Sin and the World have a whole days time to quench and put out what an hours duty hath been kindling and so at the return of our duty-seasons we find our hearts at the same loss in the same deadness and hardness as before Beloved these two Directions of getting up our hearts into a lively frame in duty and of keeping up that holy frame from duty to duty though there be some difficulty and it will cost you pains to practise them to purpose yet the advantage you will hereby gain will be abundantly worthy all your pains and therefore I pray remember them if you do in good earnest intend an advancing in Religion let these two Directions be before your eyes every day you have them preached to you and you have them written for your use the Lord write them upon your hearts and hold them before your eyes This course will be as the whetting our Instruments and keeping them keen for our work how much work may be done and with much more ease by a cutting than a blunted Instrument Eccl. 10.10 If the Iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge he must put to more strength 't will cost you much more pains to make any work in your Religion whilst your edge is blunted a dull heart will do little and that little not without much pains By the course prescribed whet your spirits and keep them with a good edge and then all your work will be the more easily carried on To this I shall add 3. Let your prayers be pursued in your practice Whatever Grace you pray for whatever Sin you pray against follow after the one and fight against the other in your daily practice Let Prayer and Practice joyn hand in hand and both drive the same way Think not you have done your whole days work when you have prayed morning and evening Religion must be the business of your whole time be thou in the fear of the Lord be thou at the work of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 and not the business of an hour or two When you have been praying for an heavenly mind that God would help you to live in the spirit to set your affections on things above to have your conversation in Heaven when you have ended your Prayer what should ye now do Why then to thinking on heavenly things let your thoughts run upon and be working more throughout the day upon these holy things to pray for an heavenly mind and never to think more of heavenly things all the day long till you come to pray again what will such praying come to When you pray for a willing obedient and fruitful life what should you do Go and take pains with your hearts to bring them on and to hold them close to your several duties When you have been praying against Sin for power over a proud heart or a froward heart or a covetous worldly heart what should you now do Why then set your watch against your sins take heed of every proud thought of every froward word take heed and beware of all covetous practices set your selves to the mortifying of these sins to restraining your selves from the actings of them to pray against pride or to pray against covetousness and as soon as you have done to leave your hearts loose for them to carry it as proudly or as frowardly as before to be as busie for the world as eager in hunting after it what 's this but to set your Prayers and your Practices together by the ears to destroy the things you have been building to destroy by your Practices what you have been building by your Prayers And whilst this hath been the voice of your Prayer Lord deliver me from a proud or froward or covetous heart your Practices say I care not whether this Prayer be heard or no I had rather be let alone and left under the power of them If ever you would that your praying should come to any thing let your Prayers and Practices drive the same way Let it not suffice you to pray for a more gracious and fruitful heart and life to pray for a more mortified heart a more self-denying course but set to it to put your Prayers into practice Let the stream of your care the stream of your endeavours run the same way with the stream of your prayers and desires and that 's the stirring Prayer I would have you give your selves to such as may effectually overpower the stream and course of your life and carry it on according to the stream of your Prayers O Friends If of all that I have said these three last words might be remembred and observed if in every Prayer you henceforth make you would diligently strive to get you up into a spiritual and lively frame If 2. you would carefully maintain this blessed frame afterwards from duty to duty If you would 3. set to the practice of those things you pray that God would enable you to what do you think would be the success O what a cure would be wrought O what a blessed change might we expect to appear upon you and all your Religion 2. Fasting and Prayer In the former particular I spake of Prayer as an ordinary duty here as an extraordinary as annexed to that extraordinary duty of Fasting and Humiliation We may say of that evil spirit that Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep that 's fallen upon us as Christ said of that Devil Mat. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Extraordinary Diseases must have extraordinary Remedies Hitherto I have spoken mostly to our personal Cases now I shall speak with more respect to the publick Case of our People and Age and shall direct you 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation 2. How you may most successfully perform this duty 1. How you may most effectually stir up a spirit of Prayer in your days of Humiliation And so 1. There 's something in the very abstinence that conduceth to the stirring up the spirit of Prayer Abstinence is pinching upon the flesh and should be so much in such days as may afflict the body first and thereby the soul The abstinence of a Fast should be afflicting abstinence as far forth as the body will bear it without prejudice to its health and so becoming an hindrance rather than a furtherance of the duty There 's a two-fold failing too common in our days of Humiliation 1. In the time Mostly what we call a Day of Humiliation comes to no more but a few Hours of Prayer It 's said of a Fast Lev. 17.31 It shall be a Sabbath of Rest to you that is 1.
those that are fallen evidenced 1. From the difficulty of discerning their decays in the beginning 2. From their indâ—sposition and unwillingness to seek out after a cure 3. From the opposition that is made against their recovery By 1. A stirring Devil 2. Their stirring Lusts 3. From the difficulty of holding on for those that stand III. What it is to take hold of God Here 3 things 1. Our happiness lies in this That the Lord is within us 2. Our happiness lies in this That the Lord is among us Our taking hold of God is our continuing his Presence with us Where 1. God may depart from those with whom he hath been present both 1. From particular persons and how he may depart from them shewed in 5 Particulars 2. From a People or Nation and how he may be said to depart from them 2. It 's wo with those people from whom the Lord departs 3. Our taking hold of God is our taking an effectual course to continue his Presence with us And this 1. By casting away our Idols 2. By taking hold of the Covenant of God 3. by recovering our Communion with him IV. Stirring Religion will take hold of God 1. What 's meant by stirring Religion 2. Stirring Religion will take hold of God and continue his Presence with us For 1. 'T will work out those evils which provoke him to depart 2. 'T will work up and increase those good things in us which he will not lose or forsake V. How we should stir up our selves answered in the following Directions 1. Make an advantage of stirring Providences 2. Put upon stirring Thoughts 3. Get stirring Affections In special stir up Godly Sorrow Fear Desire Hope 4. Get a stirring Conscience 5. Be much conversant with stirring Society where are directions for the exercise of that neglected duty holy and quickning discourse 6. Be much exercised in stirring Duties especially in 1. Prayer 2. Fasting and Prayer The Concusion Isaiah 64.6 7. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and we all do fade as a Leaf and our Iniquities like the Wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee IN the former of these Verses we find the Church making a double complaint of their Sin of their Affliction 1. Of their Sin there all misery begins and there all our Complaints should begin We are all not an unclean thing but as an unclean thing Sicut quid inpurum as the worst of things as any thing that 's most filthy and unclean There is the Uncleanness of a Toad a Venemous deadly uncleanness Our Uncleanness is as bad as that our hearts are as 't is said the evil tongue is full of deadly Poyson There is the uncleanness of a Leaper a Contagious uncleanness such is ours we have infected one another we are all infected There is the uncleanness of a Serpent a stinging uncleanness such is ours our Sin hath bitten us and stung us to the heart There is the uncleanness of a Dunghil a stinking uncleanness such is our uncleanness our Iniquities have made us to stink before the Lord Find out any thing that 's worse or more unclean than all these whatever it be our Sin hath made us as bad as the worst nothing can be said too bad of Sin and none speak worse of it than the People of God who have the least of it Those that are all Sin carry it as if there were nothing in sin no hurt in it We cannot make Sinners understand or be sensible what evil there is in sin but Saints feel it But it might be replyed by some amongst them Though we have our Deformity yet we have our Beauty too though we have our uncleanness yet we have a covering for it we have Righteousness as well as Sin What 's the Answer to that Righteousness What Righteousness have we O our very Righteousness is as filthy Rags 't is but a ragged Righteousness we have a totter'd maimed torn thing the best we have is but as a Rag unprofitable as a rag not able to hide the shame of our nakedness and as a nasty filthy rag if we have any thing that looks better than other 't is all naught our best is a loathsome thing 2. Of their Afflictions We all fade like a Leaf and our Iniquities like the Wind have driven us away driven us into Banishment driven us into Captivity carryed us away from our Country and from the City of our God yea and from the favour and presence of our God into a strange Land into our Enemies hands We all do fade and wither like a Leaf our sin hath brought us down into a decaying withering state and our Iniquities like the Wind have driven us away Withered faded Leaves you see how they are blown down the Trees and carryed away with every Wind when those that are green and flourishing keep their stand against wind and weather In verse 7. we have an additional complaint they go on yet further to make a greater and a sadder complaint against themselves And that is and yet for all this as bad as our case is yet there is none that calleth upon thy Name Our punishment found us in a polluted and wasted state and behold we grow worse and worse we wither daily Prayer fails then which there is not a more deadly symptom of a decayed soul Prayer is the very breath of a Christian when Mens breath fails they dye and turn to their Earth Here observe 1. Against whom this Complaint is commenced that is against the generality of the People there is none that is none in comparison very few if any that call 2. The matter of this additional complaint they did not yet call upon God though their Iniquities had brought them to the dust yet they had not brought them to their knees though they had made them a Prey yet they had not set them a Praying 3. The immediate reason of this their neglect of God in such a time they were all asleep and they did not awaken or stir up themselves to take hold of God or to seek after him There is none that calleth upon thy Name Calling upon the Name of God is sometimes taken for Prayer Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble that is Pray unto God Sometimes as Prayer is so calling upon the Name of God is put for all Religion Gen. 4.26 Then in the days of Enoch began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord that is then Religion began to appear and to break forth more visibly in the Earth In the Text you may take the words as comprehending both senses Prayer in special and all Religion in general and indeed that is no Praying that leads not on to all Religiâ—n As these words There 's none that calleth upon thy Name Note the neglect of Prayer in that sense I have spoken
in Holy Communication or discourse among you Good words are none of the least of our good works This one thing would much conduce both to the recovering that of religion which is lost and to the filling up that which is wanting in our selves or others This hath been in use amongst some of you but is it not much fallen and forgotten Do not many of you that are Professors converse together as carnally and as unprofitably as men that have no religion in them This is a great shame and of sad consequence and Religion which is now so much fallen in the World is never like much to rise till this holy practice be revived You are all ready enough to complain what decays there are in Religion but are you willing to help towards its recovery We have helped one another down sadly we have consumed one another by our own coldness will you help to recover one another to warm and to quicken one another as you have helped to cool and to deaden By this means you will mutually have the benefit of each others graces and experiences your graces will hereby in a sort become their graces and their graces become yours Your candle may light your Brethrens candles at least you may give light to those that are round about you but of this more afterwards I cannot enlarge further upon the several ways wherein your religious activity should be exercised you must take these hints in general Labour to be doing Christians diligent busie Christians ready to every good work and fruitful in every good work Have an eye upon and be reaching to this active life hide not your Talent in a Napkin put not your Candle under a Bushel keep not your Religion to your selves your Knowledge your Graces your Experiences to your selves Hath the Lord lighted up a Candle in your Hearts let your light shine before men that may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 5. To evenness and equality both of temper and course Evenness of temper is an argument of health and strength they are the weakly bodies that are apt to change with every change of Air or Weather and they are but weakly Souls whom every change of their circumstances puts out of frame This even frame must and will shew it self in an evenness of the course 'T is an holy life that Christians must live and not satisfie themselves with sometimes an holy duty or day There must not be only some drops of Religion sprinkled here and there upon their paths but their life must be an holy stream and the stream must be constantly running towards God and Heaven They must run a Race thitherward Heb. 12.2 He that runs a race keeps on his way step by step in a continued motion We must neither turn aside nor go uncertainly on sometimes running and sometimes but creeping or standing still we must keep our way and keep our pace we must not go jumping heavenward doing something of our duty and jumping over others we must take all along in order as we go Christians it may be by the grace already obtained there 's something done in Religion at times but how many duties do ye jump over and let them alone Sometimes you will pray and sometimes you will jump over your praying seasons Sometimes you will perform works of piety but you will jump over works of righteousness and mercy Sometimes you will be serious and savoury and then you will leap out into lightness and vanity Sometimes you will take a leap to Heaven in your retirements to converse with God and then you will leap down again into the mud and mire Sometimes you will have some holy fits and then your proud fits or froward fits Sometimes ye run and then stand still diligent for a start and then grow resty and idle who knows how long after It is uncomfortable to consider how much this is the Religion of the most of Professors their Religion like a Feaver comes by fits only as if it were rather their distemper than their temper 't is but here and there a little sprinkling some few drops fall that have any holy savour and tendency Our stream our stream O how and which way does it run Sure you had gotten much higher if you had been more constantly rising upwards But whilst there are such risings and falls such goings on and standings still or turnings aside whilst you are such working and loytering Souls no wonder it is so low with you as it is Know every one of you that this in and out course is an argument that yet you have but little and will never come to much if it do not come to just nothing at last Now and then a strait step with so many steps awry is this ever like to bring you to Heaven You are travelling up the Hill but when will ye get you higher if as one foot steps forward the other slides back This uncertain unequal going on only as the fit comes 't is an easie kind of Religion if it were but sound But how can you think your selves sound where you are so divided betwixt something and nothing An intermitting Pulse is dangerous if not deadly Friends would you prove your selves to be Christians indeed would you not that both you and your Religion should prove to be as the chaff before the wind And when the Lord shall come to purge his floor would you not that both your souls and your hopes should be blown away as the Chaff and burn with the chaff in unquenchable fire would you make it evident that your Religion is not Irreligion and your Christianity Hypocrisie Then get you up to a more fixed spiritual temper and hold you on in a more even and continued course this will prove you to be Christians both in truth and of growth and hereby you will be making an advance higher and higher till you shall have perfected holiness in the fear of God That 's the mark that stands at the top of the Mount which I would after all that I have said you should have chiefly in your eye perfection of Holiness and be with your might reaching towards For the close of this you now see what that pitch of Religion is that I am pressing you to even the highest pitch that is possibly attainable You see your way before you is an uphill way You that are yet but at the foot of the Mount stay not where you are but get you up by the rising ground till you come to the top Do not now stand desponding at the height of the Hill and the steepness of its passage do not stand complaining of the difficulty of attaining say not within your selves I cannot get on I cannot get me up to this holy spiritual fruitful steady frame and life with all my soul I would but O I cannot I stick still here below I am among the poorest and weakest and hindermost of the Flock and after
and return to be faithful but hold you at the same pass look for nothing else but this that the Soul of the Lord will be utterly loosened from you and he will say concerning you Give them a Bill of Divorce and send them away let them alone let them pine away in their iniquities till they be past recovery or redemption And let me add this farther if the rest of the Professors of England which are in the same case will not see it will not confess will not speedily return and recover what can be expected but that the Lord who hath been for these many years so visibly departing from us and after many returns seems at this time again to be removing from us what can be expected if we speedily repent not but that he will never return but utterly reject us and leave us as a dark Land make us a desolation and astonishment and write his Ichabod upon the Doors of our Congregations and Habitations The Glory is departed from England But if you will yet see and and will confess and return I will say to you as Shecaniah said to Ezra concerning that revolting people when they were upon reforming Ezra 10.2 There is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing There is yet hope in England concerning these poor Souls that the Lord will return and continue to dwell in them and among them as in the former days his Covenant is your hope lay hold upon it 3. Our recovering our Communion with God Our Communion with God stands much in these things 1. In our mutual Acquaintance God with us and we with him God is acquainted with his People and he requires them to come into his Acquaintance Job 22.21 Acquaint thy self with God Acquaintance stands in our Knowledge of God We cannot be said to be acquainted with them we know not in such experimental knowledge as is gotten by converse together We cannot say we are acquainted with every one we know converse or walking together is necessary to our being acquainted The nearer and more intimate our Acquaintance with God is and of the longer continuance by so much the more hold we have of God God will not easily lose his Acquaintance and those that are acquainted with God have tasted so much of the sweetness of walking with him that they will take the more heed how they lose that Acquaintance Those that are intimately acquainted by their friendly converse together this Acquaintance knits their Hearts together as David's to Jonathan so that they will not easily be seperated Hast thou used thy self to intimate converse with God and thereby gotten into experimental Acquaintance with him O thine heart will be hereby knit to the Lord and the Lords Heart knit together with thine Acquaintance cannot bear strangness it 's grievous to us when our Acquaintants become Strangers to us and we are unwilling to be strangers from them Friends do you suffer your hearts to be estranged from the Lord can you forget God and keep at a distance from him can you lose your Intimacy in Heaven are your delightful thoughts of God restrained and is not this grievous to you 'T is a shrewd sign that God and you were never well acquainted You that are the Friends of God keep your acquaintance take heed of wandrings take heed of distances and enstrangments get the experimental delights that arise from your intimacy with him and that will hold you near him And you that have lost your Acquaintance O recover and revive your old Intimacy in Heaven 2. In mutual Acceptance This is a special part of our Communion with God our Complacency in God and his Complacency in us Acquaintants take mutual pleasure in one another their company is grateful and acceptable God is accepted of his Saints they have an hearty goodliking to him and are glad of his Presence not only all the intimations of his Love and Kindnesses to them not only such a word spoken to their Hearts I love thee mine Heart is towards thee thou art mine the dearly beloved of my Soul I am at peace with thee my delight is in thee O how acceptable O how pleasant are such gracious words but not only these but the manifestations of the Will and Counsels of God to them they accept his Commands they love that the Lord should tell them of their Duty His Statutes are my delight Ps 119.77 and they accept his Rebukes and Corrections and his Punishments of them for their Sins Levit. 26.41 knowing that he corrects them in love and that they cannot want his Chastizements that the very Rebukes of his Countenance are sometimes as necessary for them and as beneficial to them as the Light of his Countenance 2. They are accepted with God he accepts their Persons Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved he accepts their approaches to him Ezek. 20.40 41. In mine Holy Mountain of the height of Israel there will I accept them I will accept you with your sweet Savour Offer your Offerings lift up your Voices pour forth your Prayers they shall be a sweet Savour a Savour of Rest to me Now whilst God finds rest in a People he will not depart Ps 132.14 This is my rest here will I dwell for ever Acceptance with God and rejection from God are so contrary that whilst we have the one we need not fear the other and whilst God is accepted with us to be sure we are accepted with him whilst Gods ways please us our ways will please the Lord Prov. 16.7 When a mans ways please the Lord he will make his Enemies be at peace with him and so long we may be secure that our Friend will not become our Enemy but will live in love and continue his abode with us 3. In mutual Correspondence In frequent and friendly entercourses God will be sending down to his Saints Tokens of his Love his Saints will be sending up Presents to the Lord Tokens of their Love to him There is a Jacobs Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth this Ladder is Christ by which there is constant coming and going There are Spiritual Blessings the Blessings of Grace the Blessings of Peace that are sent down from God to his Saints and there are Spiritual Duties Holy Affections Holy Desires Holy Prayers and Praises which by the hand of Christ are sent up before the Lord. 'T is the very Life of Christians to be either receiving down or sending up to Heaven they must hear often from God or they cannot live I will hearken what the Lord God will speak Ps 85.8 And whilst they live God shall hear often from them there are Messengers and Messages that pass daily betwixt God and them They are often sending up and the best Present they have is their Hearts I lift up my Soul to thee Ps 25.1 They will be sending up their Desires to the Lord and their Sighs after him if they have nothing better they will be sending up their Tears
at these hazards and uncertainties but do thy best put forth thy strength in the work of the Lord that thou mayest come to a certainty if your consciences would speak thus to you and cry thus in your ears night and day and not suffer you to rest till you hear and answer its cries or if you yet linger and delay if conscience would make use of the rod and smite and scourge you out of your remisness if your consciences would fall upon you and sting you for your neglects and fright you out of your security by telling you and laying before you the dreadful reward of sleepers and such idle servants would cast in some of that fire into your hearts which your sin and your sloth is preparing for you if your hearts would condemn you for your follies and tell you down right this my way I am in is the way of death these my paths lead down to hell I am sleeping upon a rock drowzing on a mast O the waves are ready to rise and tumble upon me and to sweep away this sleeping soul of mine and drown it in everlasting perdition Had you but such a stirring conscience as this O what a cure what a change would it speedily make upon you Brethren awaken conscience that conscience may awaken you look to your consciences that conscience may look better to you Watchman what of the night Watchman what of the night Is it day break doth sleep begin to depart from thine eyes what is the Watchman asleep awake sleeper 't is high time to awaken out of sleep Speak thus to your consciences and then hear what conscience will speak to you Friend art thou fallen art thou come to this so thou canst but grow rich in the world thou considerest not how poor 't is with thee in thy soul whilst thou hast been so busie for thy self and thy flesh hast thou let fall the care of thine heart whilst thou hast turned a side after thy pleasures after thy lovers hast thou lost the sight of God have thy carnal correspondencies and compliances made thee such a great stranger in Heaven What says conscience to this Ask Is it peace conscience is it well Is it with me as it hath been is it with me as it should be Speak conscience go tell this man I have somewhat against thee thou hast left thy first love remember whence thou art fallen return to thy first husband for then it was better with thee than now What hast thou gotten since thy departing from thy God may be thou hast gotten more of the world about thee more great friends than heretofore more esteem and reputation amongst thy friends but O wert thou not a better man when thou wert a poorer man hadst thou not more of a Christian in the days of old when thou hadst less of this world Remember the sweet days that thou hadst when thou walkedst humbly with thy God remember the hopes and the joys and the peace that thou hadst in the secret recesses to thy beloved Now thou canst snatch at a duty cast a look heavenward a word and away scarce considering what thou dost or what entertainment thou hast with the Lord thou hast thy long dinners but short duties long markets but short prayers and as slight as they are short What says thy conscience to this does it not tell thee thou hast made a dear bargain 'T is a great rate that thy riches have cost thee that thine ease and thy pleasures have cost thee better thou hadst kept thee a poor man still and been holy and humble and tender and upright than to have made a purchase of the world at so dear a rate as the loss of thine integrity and tenderness Speak conscience and speak home in this matter thou mayest speak where I may not thy word may be heard where mine may not Conscience art thou awakened get thee about and walk the rounds and speak according to what thou findest Go into the City and observe the Professors there go into their Chambers and see if thou find them not in their beds when they should be on their knees go into their Wardrobes search after their gawdy clothing their antick ornaments and attires and see if thou find not such habits and dresses as are fitter for a Stage player than for a Christian go into the Parlour and hear what 's going amongst them there whether there be any more seriousness or savouriness in their discourses together than there is amongst them that know not God and whether the Cards and the Dice be not where the Bible was wont to be Go to their Tables and observe their superfluities and curiosities how delicately how sumptuously they fare every day like that Gentleman Luke 16. Go into their Shops and their Markets and observe if there be no lying and deceitful dealing even as amongst others observe how little difference thou canst find betwixt some that are Professors in their dealings and those that pretend to no Religion Then conscience from the City go down into the Country into the Fields into the Houses and see how busie they are there in ploughing and sowing in building and planting in buying and selling laying house to house and field to field hasting to be rich oppressing the poor working and sweating riding and running and neglecting nothing but God and their Souls See what they do and see how it fares with them both in City and Country what starveling souls thou findest within under their pampered flesh see conscience how 't is and speak according to what thou seest reprove them warn them worry them if they will not hear thy voice set in thy teeth and make them feel O Christians if I could but set on your consciences thus upon your backs or if you would set them on upon your selves you would both hear of more that 's amiss in you than now you will acknowledge and would find no quiet till you set upon amending 5. Be much conversant with stirring society and acquaintance and be stirring among them And here I shall endeavour the reviving of that too obsolete practise of holy and quickning discourse the neglect whereof is both a cause a sign and an effect of the decay of Religion among us For the recovering and promoting of this Holy Practise I shall give you 1. Directions for the bringing you on upon it and the better managing of it 2. An Argument to perswade you to it For the Directions they are these that follow 1. Get your hearts well filled with the Grace of God Mat. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh 1. Men ordinarily fetch their words out of their hearts as 't is said of a fiery Tongue Jam. 3.6 It 's set on fire of Hell that is of that Hell of malice that is in the heart so of an holy Tongue it may be said all the good that comes from it is kindled from Heaven from that of Heaven that
and a special help to holy discourse if what you hear preached on the Lords Day you would make the matter of your discourse the week following hereby you may the more fix what you hear in your own hearts and hence you may be supplied with fresh matter and so find holy discourse the less difficult to you How you have observed this direction since I formerly gave it you whether you have put it in practice I leave it to your consciences to judge Friends if you will not take the directions given you and put them into practice to what purpose are they preached to you I therefore exhort you again to practise this useful direction what you hear on the Lords Days discourse of on the week days 3. From your own experiences of the dealings of God with your own souls Ps 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul Self-observing Christians have many experiences by them which may be much useful for others You may be telling one another what experiences you have had of the workings of sin in you and of temptations and what experiences of the workings of grace and of your victories over corruption and temptation what comforts you have had and how you come by them what distresses and fears you have been under and how you were relieved what difficulties you have found in your work how long you groaned under them and how at length you overcame them Many cases you may have been in out of which much may be brought forth for the benefit of others that are or may be in the same cases 4. From the consideration of the company that at such or such a time you may be like to be cast amongst Some days it may be you may see your necessary business leading you amongst sinners you must work with them in the same field or the same shop or you must travel with them the same journey and the like these sinners whom you foresee in the morning you must converse with on the day may be they may be blind or ignorant sinners or profane and lewd sinners or mocking and scoffing sinners whatever temper they are of the consideration of it will give you an hint what to provide for the ignorant you must go provided with words of instruction for the profane with a word of reproof for all sorts such words as you judge most proper for their case and most like to do their souls good Sometimes you may see your converse is like to be among Christians and then consider whether they be weak Christians and need your help and what their weaknesses are and go provided of a word accordingly a word of comfort to the troubled a quickning word to the dead hearted and slothful a recovering awakening word to the backsliders c. or else they may be stronger and more judicious Christians then your study should be to go prepared with such questions touching your own cases touching any doubts or fears or spiritual wants or difficulties you are under that you might receive benefit from them These directions are all practicable and may be exceedingly useful it will cost you pains to inure your selves to this holy practice but by pains taking a while and the help of God with you it may come to be more easie and were it but seriously set on foot and carefully carried on you cannot easily imagine what an advance to you it will be in the state of your own soul and what a blessed expedient 't will be to propagate religion where it is not and to recover it where 't is fallen and to raise it where it is but low Well this is the sum of all the Directions hitherto given Go always with your bow bent and your arrow upon the string with an heart will disposed to speak and a word ready to be spoken 6. Take a right method by which you may with the most ease attain to this holy use of your tongues You will say 't is hard service and so it is but are you willing to try to come to it Why what method will you prescribe to us that we may attain 1. Begin this practice within your selves speak often to your own hearts Ps 4.4 Commune with your own hearts maintain an holy discourse with your selves The Cock doth first clap his wings on his own breast to awaken himself and then he crows to awaken others As the Apostle Rom. 2.21 Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy self Thou that wouldst instruct another warn and awaken another how canst thou do that if thou dost not first instruct and awaken thy self Mat. 7.5 Thou Hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote out of thy brothers eye That 's the complaint Is 64.7 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee Stir up your selves in the first place say to your own hearts Arise sleeper there 's a God before thee there 's a Christ before thee there 's a Gospel and a Covenant of Grace before thee lay hold on this God lay hold on this Covenant walk worthy of the Lord and be faithful in the Covenant of thy God Speak thus to your own Souls and discourse the matter reason with them about it as the Psalmist reasons with his Soul in his distress Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope in God so do thou reason with thy Soul in thy deadness or in thy hardness or any other case thou art in Why art thou lifted up O my Soul why so hardned Fear God why so proud why so carnal why so slothful humble thy self shake up thy self quicken and rouze up thine own sleepy heart Brethren here 's the original of all our neglects of our duties to others our self-neglects till we stir up our selves more carefully we shall never do any thing to purpose at stirring up one another Kindle an holy fire in your own breasts set your own affections more strongly working upwards if we can get up our own hearts into a more serious lively frame then there 's hope we shall more effectually help up others 2. Next set upon this holy practice in your Families Inure your selves to be speaking of God among your own with them you can be more free and bold There 's no such great difficulty for a Father to speak to his Children for a Master to speak to his Houshold and by speaking much to these you will by degrees grow more free and more able to speak to others Fall therefore closer upon this practice Fathers speak often to your Children Husbands speak often to your Wives Wives speak to your Husbands Masters speak to your Servants Servants speak you one to another Deut. 11.18 19. These my words shall be in thine heart and in thy soul Speak them to thy self first and then ye shall teach them to your Children speaking
no knowledge no grace poor blind neighbours poor hardned ones poor lost and undone souls O what shall we do for these poor children and neighbours have I never a word to speak that might do them good shall I be silent to them whilest I see them perishing for want of instruction Christians have you the light with you are there the words of wisdom and instruction with you is there ever a word of grace hid and laid up in your hearts O keep it not in withhold it not from poor perishing souls speak to poor sinners affright them from their sins provoke them to repentance perswade them to pray to hear to read to consider and to turn from the evil of their ways and who knows what such words might do to their conversion and salvation Thus for the directions for the performance and managing of this holy practice 2. The argument that I shall use to perswade you to it shall be from the advantage of this practice for the reviving and improving our own souls in the grace of God The advantage will be great 1. From our necessary preparations to this duty I have told you that 't is necessary to the better performance of this duty to get your own hearts well furnisht with grace to live more in the affecting thoughts of God to get a zeal for Christ to do him all the honour you can to get more compassion to souls without these things whatever our attempts are to converse more profitably and spiritually one with another we shall make nothing of it and these our preparations are our improvements 2. From the practice of this duty Holy discourse will keep our graces in action 'T is for want of action that our talents grow rusty by rubbing up the spirits of our brethren we shall whet our own Though the edge of your knife will be blunted by long cutting 't is not so here the edge of your spirits will grow keener by use your very work will be instead of a Whetstone Who is like to grow rich in this world he that lets his stock lie dead by him or he that puts it to use or imploys it in trade those that occupied with their talents Luke 19.13 c. made this return Thy pound Lord hath gained ten pounds says one thy pound hath gained five pounds saith another but what could he say that bound up his talent in a napkin what greater encouragement to diligence in trading then the hope of increase the hope of the in gathering of the Husbandman is his encouragement in his more plentiful scattering in sowing He that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully 2 Cor. 9.6 and therefore Blessed are they that sow beside all waters Is 32.20 the communicative Christian is sowing where ever he comes and where ever he sows thence shall he also reap and gather his sheaves into his own bosom Christians you say you have but little grace and 't is like enough you say true but would you have more go forth to sow with that little you have The more you scatter the more you are like to gather Would you have more love and life and power to serve and glorifie the Lord be more diligent in shedding abroad what you have Resolve no longer to keep your Religion to your selves put not your light under a bushel put it on a candlestick that it may give light to others and God will increase both your light and your life 'T is to little purpose onely to think of hearing more or of praying more for a better heart this alone will never do converse more like Christians then ye shall be every day more Christians then ye are Learn of sinners Drunkards converse like Drunkards Rioters converse like Rioters profane hearts have ever a profane converse what do their tongues run of what is their talk when they come together but of their cups and their harlots and their sports and what is their ordinary fruit why hereby they not onely propagate their own wickedness in others one Drunkard makes another and he another and these more but also they every one improve their own cursed stock fomenting and heating and stirring up their own hearts lusts and so make themselves twofold more the children of hell then before Christians learn of these brutes do Drunkards converse like Drunkards do Worldlings converse like Worldlings do profane hearts use themselves to profane converses and do you not see how mightily they grow and improve hereby in their wickedness what should this teach you but that Christians converse like Christians Let your Religion be the business of your communion and then look for as much advance to your souls in godliness by this holy converse according as you see sinners to thrive in wickedness by their wicked conversing one with another You see Friends I have been somewhat large in this direction but is there not need of more words than these is not this holy practice sadly let fall amongst us doth not the world something or other of it either quite shoulder it out or thrust it into a narrow room Our heads are so full and our hearts are so full and hence our mouths are so full of carnal things that there 's little room left for a few words of God and the things of eternity to be interposed And O what is the fruit sure that dreadful fall which is so visible in the spirit and the whole practice of piety is both the mother and the off-spring of this grievous neglect we are fallen sick and therefore are so speechless and then we spend and waste more and more by silence Whilst sick bodies waste by speaking sick souls waste more by silence What shall I say farther in this matter The Lord heal a poor barren languishing people the Lord touch our hearts with a coal from his Altar and then touch our lips with a coal from our hearts Brethren I hope you come hither to learn your duty and I hope you have a conscience that will put you upon the practice of what you learn have you yet learn'd what an advantage 't is to have lips of knowledge and what a duty 't is that your speech be with grace Remember what your Master said John 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them I would not that a man of you should be so unhappy as to know and not to do Do you know and believe that holy communication would be an advance to your religion then what shall be your practice in this matter have you a tongue for the world a tongue for your flesh and no tongue for God and your Souls O might I hear that word from your mouths thy word O Lord is within me as fire I am weary of forbearing I will speak that I may be refreshed Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praises 6. Put upon stirring duties I shall mention only two 1. Prayer 2. Fasting and Prayer 1. Prayer
Prayer in the text is noted to be a stirring duty there 's none that stirreth up himself there 's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself Had they prayed and prayed as they ought this would have stirred them up or have been their stirring up them selves to take hold of God But neglecting to pray they therein neglected to stir up themselves Prayer is a stirring duty 1. 'T is to stir up the Lord to their help Ps 35.23 Stir up thy self and awaken to my judgment my God and my Lord. Ps 80.2 O Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth stir up thy strength and come to save us The God of Israel sometimes seems to be as Elijah once said mocking of that false God Baal 1 Kings 18.27 It may be he is asleep and must be awakened Though he be the keeper of Israel and never slumbreth nor sleepeth yet he sometimes carries it towards them as if he were asleep and expects to be awakened by their cries upon him 2. Especially prayer is for the stirring up our selves There is a sort of praying dull and cold and formal praying that 's good for nothing but to lay our souls asleep When conscience begins to stir and run upon sinners and fright them for their neglect of God then they will to their prayers and blind devotions and this must serve them as a charm to allay and quiet conscience as Davids Musick did to drive away that evil spirit that vexed Saul Some sinners consciences will not let them be quiet but dog them and haunt them and fright them into something of religion they dare not live without calling upon God their consciences will not suffer them to be quiet under a total neglect and thereupon something must be done which they can call praying and then they are at ease and can go on quietly in their sins without trouble or disturbance these mens praying serves them for nothing but to lull them asleep in their sins But prayer rightly performed will stirr and awaken prayer is said to be a striving with God Rom. 15.30 a wrestling with God Gen. 32 24. and this is our most effectually striving with God and wrestling with God our striving and wrestling with and stirring up our own hearts Praying is not the saying of some good words but the calling up all our powers to come in and joyn in seeking the Lord. That you may particularly understand what a stirring duty Prayer is consider 1. That in Prayer we set our selves under the Eye of the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth It is a drawing night unto God a lifting up our Eyes to the Everlasting hills a presenting our selves before the throne of God the throne of his Grace a setting all the Attributes of God before our Eyes his Allmightiness his Allsufficiency his infinite greatness dreadfulness goodness and grace which all make up that fearful Name the Lord our God Deut 28.58 and sure Friends such a sight of the glorious and dreadful God will be a stirring sight 2. In Prayer we come to deal with God about all the wonderful and astonishing things of Eternity we are to have eternal life and death in our Eye when we pray and what will stir us if Eternity if a sense that we are now treating with the Eternal God about the eternal things will not O a sense of this that we are begging for our lives begging for our immortal Souls begging the everlasting Kingdom seeking our escape from the everlasting Fire a deep sense of this upon our hearts will awaken them 3 In Prayer there is a ripping open all the affrightning Evils that are in our Hearts Confession unbowels the Soul and fetches up all the filth and rottenness of the Heart lays open all the deadly Diseases that are in the Heart every wicked thought and filthy lust and vile affection all the falshood and Hypocrisie all the pride and malice and envy and frowardness of the Heart are in our confessions brought forth and laid open before the Lord. The Devils are rouz'd that lodged within us and were taken too little Notice of and all the hazard and danger that our Souls are in by these our wickednesses will in our confessions be made to stand before our Eyes and there cannot be such a discovering of our wicked Hearts and our danger that we are in but it will affright and awaken us 4. Prayer is the uniting of all our powers and the engaging them all in seeking the Lord. It strains every string it bends all our forces upon the duty it sets all our faculties our understandings our memories our wills our affections our consciences on work as the Psalmist Ps 103.1 Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Pray to the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me call upon his Name Prayer is not tongue-work or knee-work but Soul-work bless the Lord O my Soul and 't is not a peice of an Heart one string of the Instrument but every string must be strained and struck up understanding memory will affections all must joyn all that is within me bless his holy Name All our faculties and all our graces our faith our love our hope our desires whatever we have of God within us all must be called forth to joyn in seeking of him 5. Prayer is not only the employing and exercising our Souls with all their faculties and graces but the putting them forth to the height not only the striking every string but the straining every string to the height the word in the original which is translated Acts. 12.5 Prayer without ceasing signifies instant earnest Prayer or more properly according to the notation of the word strained Prayer prayer stretched out and this is that praying which is stirring praying the pouring forth our Soul in Prayer With my Soul have I desired thee Is 26.9 the straining and working up all within us every faculty and grace of our Hearts to the height the stirring up all our strength in the work this is that Praying instantly required Rom. 12.12 that praying fervently Jam. 5.16 that crying and crying mightily unto God unto which the Scriptures promise Audience Now when Prayer hath thus rouzed up our sleepy Souls set all our Faculties and Graces a stirring within us and so gotten an heat in the heart by the joynt and vigorous exercise of all within us in the duty when we have prayed our Souls awake and all our Graces awake and our Heart is waxen hot within us we are therein prepared and put in a readiness and disposedness to and shall feel our selves bent upon the practise of every holy duty in our whole course This therefore is my next direction put upon Praying and such stirring Praying Go set the Lord and all his Glory before your Eyes and get a sense of eternity upon your Hearts rip open and lay
forth to the light all that filthiness and garbage and rottenness that is within you bend all within you to seek the Lord and go cry unto him and cry so loud that your own Souls may be awakened by your cry Strive so with God in prayer wrestle so with the Almighty that your own Soul may find its Hands and Legs Friends do not neglect Prayer and do not deceive and undo your selves by your Prayers do not pray your Souls asleep do not pray your consciences asleep but awaken them 'T is a miserable thing to consider how little some Professors are in secret Prayer sometimes they pray and sometimes they can't tend it their Closet is so seldom visited that it may be said of the very way to it as of the way to Zion Lam. 1.4 the ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn Feasts The Grass grew upon their paths because they were so little trod It is a miserable thing that there is so little praying such seldom Praying as there is but a worse Evil then this is that that little which is is worth nothing we go to Pray many of us as if we had a mind to mock God and provoke him to his Face we go to this duty as if we had a mind to lay our Souls to sleep rather then to stir up and awaken them 't is no wonder there is no more light in our Paths when there is no more life in our Duties 't is no wonder there are so many grey Hairs on the Head so many wrinkles in the Face of our Religion when it is so cold at the Heart when our secret recesses and retirements to God are so Heartless and Spiritless 't is no wonder that Sin and Lust and vanity do so swell and abound that Grace and Holyness do so sink and disappear in our conversations when that which should kill Sin and keep Grace alive the Soul of Duty is so little to be found Friends if ever you would recover the beauty of your ways begin in Secret revive the power of Duty pray constantly pray frequently and be fervent in Prayer pray and strive with God in Prayer pray and strive with your own hearts in Prayer pray and wrestle against the Devil and the World and your Sins in Prayer such praying would make the nest too hot for the Devil and your Sins such Praying would cure your colds such praying in the Morning might be a means to keep you warm for all day and such praying in the Evening would make you awake warm the next Morning Therefore Friends pray hearken to the Word of the Lord hearken to me in this thing put your selves to it put upon constant secret Prayer and put upon such stirring Prayer such instant and importunate Prayer what say you will you do it will you hearken to me in this thing I tell you Friends if I may but prevail with you in this one thing if you will obey and practise this one direction this will make all the rest to prosper you will deny me in nothing if you will but grant me this and if you deny me here if you will go on to satisfie your selves with cold and perfunctory Devotions if you will not set to it to be lively and vigorous in your secret duties I shall look upon all else that I have said as lost and that which will come to nothing and therefore pray consider with your selves what you mean to do in this thing will you begin this night go not to pray as at other times but put on upon the life of the duty and then I shall hope to see a blessed and a visible change upon the whole frame and face of your conversation What say you therefore will you do it I am in great earnest with you in this thing since the success of all that I have said to the recovering the decaying interest of Religion among you depends so much upon this one thing and therefore once again I pray deny me not and that you may not deny me take particular notice of this one word more that I shall add remember these words anon in the Evening when you are going to Pray then remember what I have now spoken from the Lord to you and accordingly set your Hearts to it and the Lord grant you the presence of his gracious and Almighty Spirit to help you herein to the praise of his Grace and the comfort and advantage of your Souls For the more effectual fixing of this direction upon you and for your improvement by it I shall here remember you of two Directions which I have formerly Preached and published 1. Be so earnest and intent in this duty that you may feel your hearts enlarged in the lively actings and exercise of Grace and so raised and warmed by your sensible communion with God as may put you into a spiritual and heavenly frame that if it be possible you may come off your knees in a better and more lively disposition of soul than you had in your entrance upon your duty Do not satisfie your selves with the work done but let your aims and endeavours be to get something more of God that you may have to carry away with you when you depart that you may come out of your Closets as Moses came down from the Mount Exod. 34.39 whose face did shine and was a token that he had been conversing with God O let there at such times be a shining and a burning light raised up within you come from your duties as men coming out of Heaven with the very Sun-beams shining in your countenances and with some tincture of Heaven upon your spirits We come many times with no other spirits from our duties than we come out of our Shops or Fields with no more sense and favour of God than if we had never been near him O 't is a sign that thou hast but trifled in thy duties that thou neither hadst nor much mindedst to have communion with God in it certainly sincere communion with God will leave some divine impressions behind it Well every time you go to pray put hard for it to get you into such a divine and spiritual frame before you have done 2. Whatever better or more spiritual frame you are gotten to in duty be careful to maintain it and keep it alive afterwards See to it that your spirits do not presently sink and cool and grow dull and carnal again when you have been thus quickened and spiritualized hath there been an holy fire kindled in you O keep it burning keep it flaming and let it not be covered over with ashes get your hearts to be alive in your duties and keep them alive from duty to duty In the Old Testament though their Sacrifices were offer'd but morning and evening yet the fire that kindled them was not to go out night nor day there must be fire kept alive from the morning Sacrifice to kindle the evening Sacrifice and
perpetually rising up to hinder any good that 's going in your hearts and bringing it to just nothing O how many good motions are quenched good purposes vacated good desires and hopes frustrated good beginnings discouraged your duties spoiled your peace broken your comforts clouded and lost and all by the malign influences of the Body of sin and the impetuousness of your lusts its members Here are those outcries that we sometimes hear from the tender-hearted wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar I am for peace but they are for war I am for peace yet not by a League but by a conquest of mine Enemies let them dye that I may be at rest but still they live and are mighty whilst I am for peace they are for war I can have no rest in my Spirit I am weary of my life because of these Daughters of Heth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Hear Lord cut down cast out these Sons of the Bond-woman that they be no longer a Plague or a Snare unto me Remember these Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem happy should I be could I reward them as they have served me happy should I be if I could take these Children and dash them against the stones And now you see another ground why you have great need to bestir your selves because of these stirring lusts that hinder and mischief you Let me here put in a word of application You will say But what should the consideration of these stirring lusts stir me up unto Why you have it hinted to you already to deal by them as they have dealt and will deal by you Have they given you a fall wrestle with them again till they fall before you Are they for war let them have enough of it war against those lusts that war against your Souls Doth the Flesh lust against the Spirit let the Spirit lust against the Flesh Stretch forth the Spear and draw not back your hand till they become as the Midianites which perished at Endor and became as the Dung of the Earth Mortifie mortifie them as lust hath even mortified your Religion so let your Religion mortifie Corruption Take the Apostle for your Patern O how did that great Apostle Paul bestir himself upon this account what compassionate complaints did he make against his lust Rom. 7. aforementioned The good that I would I do not the evil that I hate that do I when I would do good evil is present with me I find a law in my members war ring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death What earnest prayers did he make For this I besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12.8 I was often upon my knees begging the Lord that these Thorns in my flesh might be pulled out What assaults and batteries did he make upon them 1 Cor. 9.26 27. So fight I not as one that beateth the Air but I keep under my body and bring it to subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a Cast away What will become of me if I let these Lusts live O they will damn me at last After all my preaching of Christ to others I shall be a Reprobate from Christ a Cast away if I conquer not mine own sins one of the two they or I must die Paul was a chosen Vessel and by the Election of God secured from coming into condemnation but this necessary means must be used his sins must be slain or his soul cannot be saved Acts 27.31 Though God had promised him his life and the lives of all in the Ship yet says he unless the Mariners abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved And in the case of Jonah if Jonah had not been cast out of the Ship the Mariners had all been drowned Friends how often must I tell you this Whatever Faith and Hope in Christ you have whatever profession of Christ you have made whatever security you think you have for your Salvation yet if these Jonahs be not cast over board you will all be drowned in perdition and destruction your lusts will never leave enticing and tempting you from one sin to another from one degree of Apostasie to another till they have damned your Souls If you give them Rope and let them alone they will become such a Rope about your Neck as will drag you to the Pit How near have they brought you to it already are not some of you even become as dying men have not your souls and your hopes one foot in the Grave And if you die thus daily what can you expect but to be buried in flames See what your lusts have already done and tremble to think what they are still a doing you die outright if you save them alive And will you not yet stir have they eaten up your hearts and drunk up your spirits and left such leanness upon your souls Have they withered your branches and rotted your fruit and are these worms still gnawing at your root How can you but cry out Lord what am I come to Lord whether am I falling save Lord or I perish Arise O my Soul cut off the Limbs and smite through the Loyns of the Old Man nothing but his Death can secure his Life Friends how do these words take with you what do they work what nothing moved for all this Or do the Sleepers begin to wake O that it might be so Lord waken them 3. From the difficulty of holding on and getting on the way for those that stand It 's hard to keep our way and much more to make speed on in it and so hard that unless we bestir our selves to purpose we shall never come roundly on The way of Religion is an uphill-way Prov 15.24 The way of life is above to the Wise to depart from Hell beneath The Mark we are making toward stands upon a Hill there the City of God in which alone that perfection we are reaching after is to be found is situate The Holy Hill of Zion Jerusalem which is above Our Mark we are pressing to stands upon an Hill and our way to it is all rising ground and if we put not our selves hard to it we shall never get up Sinners are all running downward and therefore 't is they run so fast Behold how the whole herd of Sinners are all like that herd of swine of the Gaderens running headlong down and never like to stop till they be choked and drowned in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the same way are Backsliders running these also are running down after the herd of Swine But now a Christians way is upwards as 't is said Eccl. 3.21 the Spirit of a Man so much more the Spirit of a Christian ascends and goes upwards he does so