It was to be a whole day as a Sabbath is 2. It must be wholly spent in the proper exercises of it a Sabbath of Rest it must be in this extraordinary duty there must be a laying aside our ordinary works and the whole time spent either in the publick or private worship of the day How seldom is it that we hear of such a Fast Some Hours as I said we sometimes spend together in seeking the Lord but when do we keep a Day to the Lord The morning of the day is usually as other mornings we are as busie at our Callings and may be more busie to dispatch our work out of hand and so come hot out of our shops and fields with our heads full and hearts full of our worldly affairs and as soon as ever the Publick Duty is over then away to our work again Is it such a Fast the Lord hath chosen will ye call this a Day of Humiliation Christians 't is well that you spend some Hours of Prayer but call not That a Day of Humiliation when ever you set apart a Day for Fasting let it be a Sabbath of Rest to you begin it in secret and separating your selves from all your unnecessary ordinary works hold you to the duty of the day as your strength will bear it to the end of the day Let the private part of it both before and after Publick Exercises be spent as your Lord's days are in suitable converses with God Were this more observed we might expect more of Spirit and of Power in the duty and more Fruits afterward 2. There is also a failing in the Abstinence of the Day How often have I known it that the Abstinence in a day of Humiliation hath been no more than the sparing of one Meal which hath been made up by a larger Break-fast and perhaps a Feast at least a full Meal at Supper and sometimes in the intervals of the duties Wine Cake Sweet-meats Tobacco and such like refreshments are allowed and used No particular Rules for the degree of Abstinence can be prescribed to all sorts of persons but this should be observed in the general 1. That there be such Abstinence used both as to quantity and quality as may best subserve the Spiritual duties of the day especially that of afflicting the Soul and therefore 2. That not only our full Meals be forborn but no Wine or strong Drink c. no not so much as a Pipe of Tobacco be allowed for the present pleasure or refreshment of it This latter concerning the use of Tobacco I the more particularly mention because I suppose it is not so much thought on many of those that use it much find great pleasure in the use of it and it may be can give no good account of their present need of it and yet will use it at such times If it be really needed as in some cases it may and by some persons let it be used But if Daniel would eat no pleasant Bread nor Flesh nor Wine came into his mouth Dan. 10.3 If the Jews be reproved Is 58.3 that in the day of their Fast they find their pleasure then any thing taken as an exhilarating refreshment which is not necessary to the present duty is a transgression Well this will be something towards the stirring us up in Prayer self-afflicting Abstinence 2. Especially a deep consideration of the case we are in will most effectually do it Qui nescit orare discat navigare Tempests will teach even profane Mariners to pray if any thing will do it afflictions will fetch out our very hearts in our Prayers and is not iniquity an affliction Sure if it be we are in an afflicted state for consider a little again how grievously iniquity doth abound I shall not now lead you a voyage over the Seas and remember you how 't is abroad how the Devil drives almost all the world before him filling them with all unrighteousness and what a small handful there are that follow Christ and how very little of serious Religion or Christianity and how much iniquity there is in those few Let us at present inquire how 't is with us at home may we not take the words of the Text into our mouths and complain We even we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags we fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind are taking us away Who can say Mine heart is clean I have kept me from mine iniquity who of us will not say My righteousness is as a filthy rag Or if any will not say thus concerning themselves must not we say it for them and of them To put in but a word of the profane Rout the open enemies of Religion and Righteousness whose wickedness hath left the shade of the twilight and the covert of the night and who are grown up to that impudence as to shew their shame in the Sun-light not to speak much neither of their Prophets and Teachers amongst whom though through mercy there are that deal faithfully yet some of them cannot others will not tell them of their transgressions or heal their hurt what Snuffs are there in some of the Candlesticks what dark Lanthorns are many of those that should be burning and shining lights Seers without eyes lame Leaders sickly Healers of the hurt of the daughter of our people such some of them are as if God had said concerning us as Micah 2.11 If any man walking in the spirit of falshood do lie and do prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be even the Prophet of this people To let these pass also let us consider how 't is with the Sinners in Zion with those of us who profess to have separated themselves from the follies and filthinesses of the Land to the Law of their God may not even these also complain Even we are as an unclean thing our filthiness is still in our skirts What is our Religion what is our Righteousness what a totter'd maimed thing is it Ah how little Religion is there in our Religion how little of the Spirit how little of the power how glorious soever the form appears How much unrighteousness is there mingled with our righteousness is not our Gold mix'd with Dross and our Wine with Water What a spirit of vanity what hypocrisie pride headiness censoriousness peevishness is there to be found and all cryed up for Religion What wood and hay and stubble is there built upon the foundation Christians and yet carnal Christians and yet earthly and sensual having not the Spirit how much soever of the Name of Religion in them And amongst them that were once better how many are there that must go on with the complaint and confess we all do fade as a leaf we wither and wast and consume and are even dried away And it is not here and there a fading leaf does not the Tree fade so that 't is but here and there a leaf that
and as Children can't go alone without me saies Christ you can do nothing Joh. 15.5 You are apt to be comfortless Children and 't is He that hath said Isa 51.12 I even I am He that comforteth you Learn to know your own state and carry it accordingly Hast thou Grace Improve it preserve it and make the best of it but never count you have enough to last you till you come home you must to the Breasts every day you must to Christ for your daily Bread or you will quickly starve Hast thou a little strength strength for Duty Improve it to the utmost be diligent and busie in the work of the Lord in every good work in Hearing and Praying and Watching and striving against sin in mortifying the Flesh in helping and strengthning one another do what-ever you can be as active and stirring and industrious as possible but go not in your own strength trust not to the strength you have but let this be your hold which was the Apostles Phil. 4.13 I shall be able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah trust ye in the Lord Jesus for in him is everlasting strength Isa 26.4 Have ye comfort in your hearts Say not as the Psalmist Psal 30.5 I shall never be moved thou Lord of thy goodness hast made my Mountain so strong but know that you will need to fetch in fresh comforts as you have of daily supplies of strength Well thus this Trust will answer to these and all other the doubting questions that a Christian will have to put in his life-time whilst he lives in this Wilderness who will shew me my way who will sustain me in my way till I come to my Journeys end c. Christ will do it I trust He will 2. Case I have a Jordain to pass over I must dye who will bring me over Jordain who will stand by me in that hour He is an established Christian who is able to dye who can say with the Apostle To me to live is Christ to dye is gain none of these things move me I am ready to be offered up I desire to depart and to be with Christ Then is the Life of Jesus most signally manifested in our mortal Flesh when we can by Faith tryumph over mortality But as for me I am afraid to dye I am one of their weakly souls who for fear of death are all their life-time subject to Bondage I walk unevenly and uncomelily because upon this account I walk so uncomfortably How may I out-grow my fears and come to a settlement How shall I do to dye If I could dye I could live to better purpose than now I do or can What shall I have to comfort me Whom shall I have to stand by me in that hour Trust answers why Christ will stand by me He that hath taught me to live will I trust help me to dye He hath conquer'd Death he hath disarm'd and pluck'd out the sting of Death He hath broken the head of that Leviathan 'T was He that said Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction He hath said it and He hath done it He himself hath passed over that Jordain and hath thereby made a way for his Ransomed to pass over He will send his Angels to conduct me through that shady and dismal passage He knows what it is to dye how hard the conflict is with the last Enemy and what special need I shall have of his help in that hour and therefore hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 If I can but hold me by him while I live I will hang upon him when I dye and with Confidence say with the Psalmist Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the Valley of tâ—e shaddow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me He hath said Joh. 11.25 Whoever liveth and believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live He hath said Rev. 20.6 Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on him the second death shall have no power Come on therefore O my soul fear not to lanch forth into the deep trust in Christ He that hath delivered and doth deliver will also deliver in that day from death he will not deliver it 's appointed to all once to dye there 's no repealing that Statute but He will deliver in death He will by death deliver me from all my fears and sorrows Who of all His ever miscarryed in death Look to this that thou be one of His hold thee by Him cleave to Him follow Him while thou livest be faithful to Him to the death and trust to Him He will be faithful to thee in death 3. Case I have an Inheritance which I hope for in the Land of Promise And here the question will be Who shall give me entrance who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance There is a great Gulf fixed betwixt me and Glory there is a Judgment that I must pass through in my entrance into the Rest of God and in that Judgment I must pass under a strict and severe examination and give an account of my self and of all my ways unto God O how shall I stand in the Judgments or who shall stand by me I am a Sinner a guilty soul before the Lord and mine Iniquities are all marked before Him Once I was an Enemy to Christ and how much hath he against me for that time Since I became his Servant and Solemnly Covenanted and Vowed my self to Him Vowed Repentance Vowed Obedience Vowed Holiness to him O what a Servant have I been What an idle and sloathful Servant What a barren and unprofitable Servant He hath made me his Child but O what a wanton unruly froward Child have I been How often have I turn'd aside from him and serv'd my Flesh and this present World O my Pride and Hypocrisie O my trifling and my haltings after the Lord O the reproaches that have fallen upon his Name by my unworthy uneven and uncomely walking before him How shall I answer for this in the Judgment or who shall answer for me Who shall stop the Mouth of my Accuser in that day Christ I trust will do it I put my whole Cause into his Hand He shall be my Advocate against my Accuser whom I will trust to plead for me He hath his Stripes and his Wounds He hath his Blood and his Death to answer for me It is Christ that dyed who shall condemn Rom. 8.34 But what shall I have to confirm my trust in Christ and to secure me that he will answer for me There be many that lay claim to Christ amongst the Unbelievers the workers of Iniquity they will put their trust in Christ and will call to him Lord Lord open to me Mat. 7.22 23. Lord Lord answer for me to whom he will say Away from me I know you not I will not
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.
where we must eternally reap the fruit of our doings here Do we live as Men that have that Eternity in our eye and the lively sense upon our hearts of that Death and Judgment that glorious Reward and eternal Punishment that is before us Sure we do not O how few of us do thus live Do we Pray and Hear and Buy and Sell and Converse in the World as Men that see and look for so great a change Was there never a time when we felt more of the Eternal things upon our hearts than now Was there never a time when we were more serious and in good earnest in our Religion When we were more deeply engaged in laying up Treasure in Heaven and making an escape from the Wrath to come Was there never a time when such serious questions What must I do to be Saved What if I should be Damned shut out of the everlasting Kingdom shut up in everlasting darkness What may I do to please God and to walk worthy of his holy Calling and to make sure of a part in Christ Was there never a time when such Questions were more ordinarily put than now and when we were more solicitous about the having them answered 2. How is it with our particular Graces and inward vital Operations Do we retain our first Faith Do we hold out in our first Love Where are those warm and lively affections that discovered themselves in the infancy of our new Birth Time was when some of us were all in a flame of Love and Life and Zeal for God when we had melting affections mourning tender hearts when our spirits were hotly working within us about God and the things of God when we could not live nor be at ease but under the influences of Heaven and the illapses and intimations of the Divine Love and good will to our souls when Communion with God and entercourses with Heaven were sweeter to us than our appointed Food was there never such a time with some of you And is it so now Or are not these matters sadly changed with you from what they once were May you not say with the Psalmist Psal 77.3.5 I remember the days of old and am troubled I remember my pleasant things my pleasant Houses the sweet and delightful entercourses I had with the Lord I remember these things and am troubled to see what a fall there is from what once I enjoyed 3. And how is it in your duties and in your lives Is the old spirit of Prayer kept up with you Hath the Lord such constant Visits such affectionate Visits from you as he was wont to have Are your Sighs are your Tears are your Souls poured out in Praying and in striving and wrestling with the Lord in Prayer as formerly they have been And is there such a vein of serious Religion running through your whole lives Do you eat and drink work together and converse together in the Spirituality and singleness of heart which the Primitive Christians did Act. 2.46 and which sometimes some of you did Is it your care to exhort and quicken and build up and provoke one another to love and to good works Is there that Watchfulness over your goings that diligence in instructing in governing and educating your Families in the fear and knowledge and worship of God as hath been Or must you not take up a Lamentation over your selves and fall to judging and condemning your selves some of you at least upon most of these accounts and cry out in bitterness O my soul how art thou fallen Friends let not these words pass as words of course let them enter into your hearts and stick in your sides and be a wound in your very souls Let me upon all this that hath been said put the question yet again to you all How is it with you How is it with your souls What do ye hold your own or are ye at a loss What Prospering or Perishing Flourishing or Withering Upon the wing and mounting upwards as the Eagles or upon the Dust with the Worms Friends pray consider who among you can say I thank the Lord my soul is upon the increasing hand through the grace of God my Soul is maintained in Life and I am reaching forward and getting a little ground Heaven-ward daily through rich mercy the Grace that hath been bestowed on me hath not been bestowed in vain I cannot deny the goodness of God to me I have good hopes that it 's something better with me than it has been Some of you I hope can speak thus to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with you But I fear too many even of you that are Professors must give a sadder Answer How is it with my soul O the Lord be merciful to me 't is but in a poor and pittiful case Lord I pine Lord I am fallen I am fallen With my outward man 't is well enough but O mine inner man withers my Religion vanisheth my poor soul languisheth my grace perisheth much of it is lost and that which remains is dying daily I took it all along to be well enough but now I think on 't O 't is a miserable decay that is grown upon me Beloved I have told you already what complaints there are of decays from other places and now consider is not the Moth come into this Congregation Is not the Worm eating at our root also Compare the present spirit and temper that is too generally upon us with what it was in our first meetings at Seimours Court sure there appeared another manner of warm lively serious affectionate spirit then than is to be found but in very few of us at this day What hath so many years Preaching and Praying and Sacraments we have had since had no better success than this Have you been hearing all this while to your loss and Praying to your loss and had Sacraments to your loss O that every one of you now would lay his hand on his own heart and faithfully enquire where be the decayed souls among us Lord is it I Lord am not I one of them Do not think now to excuse the matter do not tell me we hope 't is not so bad your fear of us is more than you have ground for O that I were mistaken in you that it were better with you then according to my Jealousies But I must tell you if you have not the same fears some of you concerning your selves I doubt 't is because you have no more observed your selves nor so throughly considered your selves how 't is with you Well let these hints humble us and lay us low before the Lord. Let these words startle us and awaken us and prepare us towards our recovery Thus much touching the partial decay 2. There is a total decay or Apostasie from the Faith If those that are real Christians do not yet many high Professors may ye and are become Apostates from Christ Such as these 1. Never brought
time to look about me 't is high time to bestir me What shall I always loyter and trifle as I have done hitherto Shall I never take more care and more pains and be more busie for God and my Soul than I have hitherto been 'T is high time 't is high time to awaken and put on I may no longer live the rest of my time in the Flesh The time past of my life may suffice me to have wrought the will of the Gentiles As the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 3. The time past may suffice me It is enough it is long enough that I have liv'd this carnal life O 't is more then enough 't is too long 't is a shame that I have lived under the profession of Christianity so long as I have and yet my soul be brought to no better pass O 't is time that I awaken and bestir my self to amend my pace Cry out thus upon your selves awaken O my soul in time 't is time 't is high time 't is more than time to look about thee come my lazy heart up and be doing And if it be time to get more Grace than ever I had sure 't is high time to set to recovering what once I had and have now lost Is my soul at a loss and shall I always sit down by the loss Much I have lost already and shall I go on losing and losing till I have lost all Friends we cry unto you remember whence you have fallen and Repent recover your first love do your first works and when you will take the cry from our mouths and cry thus upon your selves then there 's hopes ye will recover 3. In crying unto the Lord for his help If Ministers cannot stir you if Conscience cannot stir you if ye cannot awaken your selves nor recover your selves yet the Lord God can do it the helper of Isâ—ael can help you Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Isa 55.6 Before you be too far gone before your case grow desperate whilst the Lord is at hand calling upon you now seek out to him Go to the Physitian of souls He can cure every Disease and thy Disease the Consumption of the heart Behold thou art in a Consumption not of the Liver or Lungs or Reins the Consumption of the Heart is upon thee and this Consumption no other Physitian can cure but the Physitian of Souls What-ever other Physitian thou goest to with the neglect of him thou wilt find them all Physitians of no value what-ever other course thou takest with the neglect of seeking God he will say to thee as Jer. 46.11 In vain shalt thou use many Medicines for thou shalt not be cured Go to God for thy languishing soul cry unto Him lift up thine heart with thy might pour forth thy very soul in thy Prayers Lord I am fallen Lord I pine my soul languisheth my Faith faileth my Beauty is withered my Spirit is wasted my Flesh and my Heart faileth but thou art the strength of mine heart and my hope is in thee help Lord or I dye I dye for ever 4. In putting a force upon your selves to do your duty It is not lying down in the Ditch and only crying God help me you must do your best to help your selves or God will not help you All the means under Heaven will never do unless we can bring you to set your hearts on work for your selves have you any of you taken a fall Are you down and would you recover Count upon it that it must cost you pains your hearts hang back and are loth to come to it that 's your Disease your loathness to spiritual action and what must you do to get your selves on Why what would you do to your Oxe or your Horse if they lag or grow lazy O they must feel the Goad and the Spur and that will quicken them O Friends put Spurs to your own sides prick your selves on to more activity suffer not your selves to jogg on in Religion so as you can with ease easie Religion will never help you You that are not for pains-taking there you must lye and pine and perish and there 's no help for you Why lyest thou thus upon thy face Get thee up says God to Joshua Josh 7.10 Why stand you bewailing and bemoaning your selves Up and be doing thou hast sinned thy self into this case thou hast idled thy self into this loss and nothing will help thee out without thine own diligence and labour Go tell your own hearts there 's no hope of recovery without industry and if they will not hear on 't chide them out of this listless temper What canst thou take pains for Bread or for Money and no pains for thy soul Canst thou take pains to please thy flesh and yet will be at no pains to please God O what a wicked wretched foolish heart have I Any labour will down but this necessary labour Well thou shalt not ' scape me so thou art no heart for me if thou art not an heart for work never stand excusing or delaying thou must come to it fall to thy duty and follow it close or thou wilt dye the Death In this manner force your selves on let not your hearts be quiet within you till you have engaged in a more active and laborious Life Thus I have shewed you by what acts you are to stir up your selves 2. To what pitch in Religion we should stir up our selves To this I shall Answer 1. In General 'T is not to amend a little to get into something a better case than you are but to come on to purpose to come on fully after the Lord. May be some of you may think if this word should have some effect upon you and make you a little better that it had done its work upon you no no you are far short of what you should be and think not that this word hath done its work though it should make you a little better than you are unless it also bring you effectually onward towards what you should be There 's no mark short of perfection that should bound or terminate your aims But I shall give you three marks on this side the Goal the better to direct your eye towards it 1. To such a pitch as is proportionable to your time You are some of you Professors of long standing and yet are come to but little O labour that your growth may be according to the time you have 2. Those that are fallen should strive to get up to that pitch to which once they had attained This is the first thing we should have in our eye to recover what we have lost to recover our first love to do our first works which the Church of Ephesus was exhorted to Rev. 2.5 That which hath been attained may be attained and must be striven after You that are fallen remember how it hath been with you in your best time remember
on his fidelity as quiets and sustains and stays their hearts in hope of his help and in peace and comfort and so 't is exprest Isa 50.10 Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Christians have their doubts and their fears and their darkness and their tempests even their hearts also are sometimes like a troubled Sea and how sadly are they tossed with the Tempests But how do they stand under all this How is it that they are not sunk and over-whelmed and utterly lost in all this Their trust is their strength they stay themselves upon the Lord. I am in a poor case Lord hard beset hard bestead I know not what to do nor what to make of my self nor how to help my self only mine Eyes are towards thee thou art my Rock and my Refuge I have given this soul of mine to thee 't is thine own and thereupon I have committed it to thy custody Look thou to it Lord thou hast undertataken for me and that shall satisfie me there I will lean I will stay I will repose my fearing wearied soul 2. This trust in Christ makes much for our improvement and establishment in Christianity For 1. It is our taking hold on Christ As the Anchor takes hold on the Rock as the Root takes hold on the Tree so Faith takes hold on Christ and the higher our Believing is grown up into affiance or trusting the stronger is its hold 2. It will answer to all our doubts and fears and to all the doubting questions that the anxious soul will be pulling in for resolution and satisfaction which whilst they remain unresolved he is never like to go comfortably or prosperously on his way There are amongst Multitudes of others these three great cases it sees before it which it must have resolution in 1. Saith the soul I have a Wilderness to pass through this world is a Wilderness and the time of my Life is my Travelling through this Wilderness wherein I shall find much work and hard usage who shall help me through this Wilderness 2. I have a Jordain to pass over I must pass through the Vale of the shaddow of Death I must dye who shall bring me over Jordain 3. I have an Inheritance that lyes beyond the River on the other side Death who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance Trust answers to all to all the doubts that arise in these three cases The first case is most immediately proper to our business in hand but I shall crave leave to speak a few words also to the two latter which will be at least of this use to knock in what I shall speak upon the former 1. Case I have a Wilderness to pass through the time of my life is a passing through the Wilderness who shall help me through it And here the soul will put two particular questions 1. Who shall lead me my way through the VVilderness Here are many ways many false ways many cross ways and but one that is the right way How shall I hit my may to Heaven the right way that leads thither-wards Who will shew me and lead me in this way Here Trust answers Christ will do it I lean upon him to be my Moses to lead me in the way that I should go Thou wilt guide me with thy Councel Psal 73.24 Christ hath gone the way before his Saints and he will shew them his steps to direct them Therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 12.2 Run the Race looking to Jesus as for encouragement so for direction follow not the foot-steps of the Sheep only but follow the foot-steps of the Shepheard and walk on as he walked before thee But how shall I find the way or the steps wherein Christ walked Jer. 10.23 It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps How can a Man understand his own ways Prov. 20.24 There are many hard and intricate cases where I may be at a stand and not know which way to take Their answer is as Psal 143.8 In thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul to thee and v. 10. Thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of Vprightness I trust thou wilt thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and bring me to glory 2. Question Who shall supply and sustain me in the Wilderness This World is a dry and barren Land I must have Bread to strengthen me I must have water to refresh me whence shall I be supplyed Why I trust in Christ for supplyes He will give me Manna will rain down Bread from Heaven for me He will be a springing Rock to me of whose streams I shall be refreshed Such a Rock there was in the Wilderness of old and the Apostle tells me 1 Cor. 10.4 This Rock was Christ Christians are sensible that their stock of Provisions which they carry with them will not last that little Grace they have those little Comforts they have will be quickly spent and wasted if there be not continually fresh supplyes Whence shall I be supplyed Trust answers as the Apostle in another case Phil. 4.19 My God will supply all my wants according to the Riches of his Grace by Christ Jesus I trust he will I am often as a dry Tree my soul within me is as a barren Wilderness I have every day my work coming upon me work for mine own Soul work for my Family work for my Friends and Enemies I have every day my wants coming upon me I want Faith I want Love I want Life and Zeal and Strength O how poor and low is it with me my Soul hungreth and thirsteth and fainteth within me and now what shall I do I will get me to the Rock and there will I trust I will trust in Christ his Grace shall be sufficient for me 2 Cor. 12.9 of his fulness I hope to receive even Grace for Grace Christians is this at any time the case of your souls Are you discouraged by your Poverty and Barrenness Do you complain how weak and insufficient you are for your work how low and scant 't is with you in respect of Grace and Strength Do you doubt how you shall hold up and hold on Do you thirst and faint after the influences of Heaven Do you fear you shall wast and wither and consume away in your souls Penury O to the Rock to the Rock go to Christ and trust him for supplies There are these three things that he looks you should depend upon him for 1. For the continued influence of his Grace whereby to hold and maintain your souls in life 2. For assistance in Duty for his Spirit to help your Infirmities and to work your works in you 3. For all needful and necessary Comforts You are yet but Children and as Children you have not your stock in your own hands you have but from hand to mouth every day you will need new provisions You are Children
he lived and as he would have them live they would not only that they may be blessed in Christ but that Christ may be pleased in them They never have their wills but when Christ hath his will of them It does not suffice me saith a Christian that I have hopes of getting to Heaven by Christ at last I must be more holy here I would live so that my ways may please Christ How can I bear it to be so unlike to him to be so often breaking out and breaking loose from him O that I might hold me close by Him that I might in my whole course please the Lord. I would fain be a more exact and perfect Christian All this the Apostle follows so hard after Phil. 3.12 Not as though I had already obtained or were already perfect but I follow after if I may apprehend Brethren this is as far forth as you are Christians and this should be the sum of your desires and aims to get as near as possible to an exact conformity to Christ both to his Image that as he was so you may be in this World and to his will that you may stand compleat in all the wills of Christ 3. Christians falling so much short of that holy conformity to Christ they desire do fall under many doubts and fears how they shall attain O how short do I fall of such an holy frame of such an holy and undefiled course When I look upon what I would be and what I am what a distance is there how far am I yet behind how hardly can I reconcile my loose and lazy heart to such a strict and holy course My untoward heart O how it slugs and hangs back and will not come on O how it boggles breaks loose how many a step doth it make out of this narrow into the broad way O how it lusts after the ease and liberties of the flesh and how often doth it turn aside from Christ to the vain ways and lying vanities of this present World When I would be totally conformed to the Law of Christ I find another Law in my members carrying me out to a compliance with the Law of Sin I am warping every day I am wandring in every duty I am apt to lose my self in every Company I come into in every business I set my self to I cant but look upon it as a comfortable thing and as a blessed thing if mine heart might be ever with the Lord if I could keep me close by his side and constantly under his eye What a mercy what a joy would it be but Woe is me I cannot obtain I have wished and hoped and prayed I have tryed and tryed and still I fall short O how little hope is there left that yet I shall obtain 4. Their trust in Christ is their help against all their discouragements and fears Dost thou say there 's no hope I shall not obtain To perfect conformity to Christ thou canst not but is there no hope of thy becoming a more eminent Christian than now thou art Rebuke that unbelieving thought with this word yet I trust in Christ I shall He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him Heb. 7.25 Not only to save them from wrath but to save them from sin to save them to the uttermost and to sanctifie them to the uttermost Do not say I cannot think how this weak slippery loose untoward heart I cannot think how it should ever come to be setled and fixed in such a severe and holy course do not say such a word Can'st thou not think how Yet he is able to do for thee abundantly above all that thou canst ask or think Eph. 3.20 His thoughts are not as thy thoughts his ways are not as thy ways the Lord Christ can over-do the thoughts of his People can do that for them which they never thought could be done yea and if thou wilt trust him he will do it Consider and study that Scripture Psal 37.5 Commit thy way to the Lord trust in Him and He will bring it to pass Thou hast many good things upon thine heart thou canst not take up with this poor and pittiful and in and out way of life that thou livest thou wouldst fain come to a more spiritual Heavenly active useful course of life This thou proposest to thy self this thou hast made some offers and attempts upon but thou canst not bring it to pass but still thou fallest short what shouldst thou now do why commit thy way to the Lord trust in Him and he shall bring it to pass and as v. 4. He shall give thee the desire of thine heart Christians I hope your hearts are set upon this holy conformity to Christ I hope you will not sit down by what you have already attained God forbid that that easie trifling way of Religion that is all that some of you have attained God forbid that this should satisfie you and I hope it does not I hope you are both wishing for and reaching towards a more strict and painful course Are you so hold on If you have prayed for it pray again pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 Never give over till you have it Have you tryed what you can do to mend your course and mend your pace Try again and again never sit down as discouraged but hold you on keep to the way of the Lord as you can keep you going keep striving and labouring with your hearts with your might and in so doing commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass do what you can through the grace already received and what you cannot trust in Christ and he will do it for you 'T is not an idle trust as I said before that I exhort you to such a trust as to save you the labour Never say I trust in Christ that he will work my work in me and for me and so cast off all care your selves 't is not an idle trust but a stirring trust an encourageing trust heartening you to the work Keep doing keep going keep striving towards a more holy serviceable life and then trust in Christ and he shall bring it to pass and give you your hearts desire Christians my hearts desire and prayer for you is that you may be saved I would fain help you to Heaven and that you might be presented by Christ to the Father without spot or wrinkle and in order hereto I would fain see more of the spirit of Christianity and the holy Image of Christ breathing forth and shewing it self more conspicuously in all your ways I study what I can to Preach so to you that my words may be effectual to bring you up to an higher pitch of Holiness and this is my encouragement my trust in the living God that my labours with you shall not be in vain I Pray and trust I Preach and trust I labour among you and trust and what is
Friends 2. His comfort in this his hard lot Though all Men forsook him yet Christ stuck by him the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Christians this may be your case and let this be your comfort though none in the World should own you yet stick by Christ and he will stick by you in all your Tribulations 2. Again you must dye Sickness may Arrest you and cast you upon the Bed of Languishing and Death may stand at your Beds-feet and stare you in the face and the Grave will open its mouth for you to swallow you up Stick fast to Christ and look to find him standing by your Beds-side to comfort you O how will it be with you in that hour O I feel my Diseases and Languishing my Flesh wasteth my Bones ake my strength is lost my heart faints mine eyes fail my breath is departing and all tell me that Death is at the door ready to turn me into rottenness But O! where is my God Now for a sight of Christ Those that are gone back from Christ they may look and look and cry where is the Lord where is the Saviour But poor Wretches there 's no Christ to be seen Death comes and the Devil comes and Sin comes and puts a Sting into Death's tail and the poor Sinner is left to grapple with Death alone its gripes its pangs its terrors are upon him but no Redeemer to be had Whatever come upon thee this shall not thou that holdest thee by him shalt see Jesus standing by thee or if thou should'st not see him yet there he will not fail to be though it may be behind the Curtain yet ready to help thee in thy Conflict with this thy last Enemy 3. Yet again after Death thou must be brought to Judgment where thou wilt meet with a Righteous Judge a Malicious Accuser who will have many things to lay to thy charge All the ugly and frightful sins that ever thou hast done in thy life thou maist look to hear of from that Malicious mouth And how wilt thou stand before that dreadful Bar O there thou shalt be sure Even with these Eyes to behold thy Redeemer there he will certainly be for he is the Judge and there he will stick by thee for he is thine Advocate he hath said to thee Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Fear not how thy matters shall go in the Judgment I will be there I will secure thee from coming into Condemnation I will give thee the Crown of Life This will be the Portion of those that stick fast to Christ He will certainly stick to them stick to them in all the troubles of their lives stick to them in death and stand by them in the eternal Judgment O Christans stick fast hold fast what you have that no man take your Crown Rev. 2.11 Hold fast your holy Profession hold on your Confidence and your holy Conversation and thence-forth expect that Jesus will give you a Crown of Life 2. Stick closâ— to Christ or else you will never be likely to stick fast By how much the closer our adherence to Christ is by so much the firmer is our standing and the less danger of falling off The root of a Tree if it be loosned from the Earth is more easily plucked up it may be some small strings there may be that keep their hold which maintain it in life but if the main root be loosned it 's the more in danger of being blown down The cleaving of the soul to Christ is set forth by the cleaving together of Husband and Wife Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall be joyned to his Wife The word in the Original signifies shall be glued to his Wife What is glu'd together if it shrinks or gapes loses its hold Take heed of warping and shrinking from Christ the glue will give off if you do and when you have once lost your hold you know not whither you may be blown O take heed of growing to a distance of wandring from Christ keep you near him if you would stand firm 4. A confirmed habit of Religion An holy disposition and constitution of soul this is the very heart of the new Creature the Divine Nature whereof Christians are said to be made partakers 2 Pet. 1.4 'T is an holy Spring or Fountain within us which will flow forth in Religious actions and by how much the more maturity it 's ripened up into by so much the more freely will it flow forth An heart that is holily disposed and hath strong and fixed inclinations Heaven-ward will find Religion sweet and easie to it there will be the less need of force and constraint That fear which is so necessary to drive on a servile spirit will be of less use according to the measures that we have attained of this free spirit and ready mind Such Christians have that within them that will save them much of their labour and pains which would be otherwise needful Our work will be easie and we shall go on more prosperously in our way we shall both more abound in the work of the Lord and we shall go on more evenly and steadily in our course Religious acts where there are no Religious habits or where the habit is but weak will be both more seldom and more difficult and when they are done whatever they be for the matter of them yet it will be still questioned whether they be sincerely or savingly Religious Those that are carnally-minded their very Natures do prompt them and carry them on in their fleshly ways there 's the less need of temptation to sin the Devil may save much of his labour their sinful dispositions will carry them on fast enough O Christians let this be in your eye let this be it you aim at and labour for to habituate your selves to Holiness to get up to such a settled holy disposition to such a promptitude and readiness of mind that your hearts may flow forth towards God and Godliness that your inward stream may run Heaven-ward that you may feel a freedom and enlargement of heart towards Godliness of Life Carnal Professors both those that are wholly such and have nothing of the new Nature in them and those who though they have something of the Spirit yet have much of the Flesh remaining in them O how heavily and slowly do they drive on in the matters of Religion How backward are they to duty how hardly brought to it how quickly weary they had rather be any where then with God about any work than about the work of the Lord not only eating and drinking and playing and taking the pleasures of the Flesh but their hardest fleshly labours Ploughing and Threshing will easilier down with them than Praying or Holy Meditation or otherwise Conversing with God This is a wretched temper but is it not an ordinary temper Consider is it
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
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
sighted yet it wants tenderness and they can dispense with themselves in smaller matters you will never be Christians of any proof you will never come to much in religion unless your hearts be tender of the smallest evils 3. Let the mouth of conscience speak quick and home I will not say concerning Conscience as the Apostle concerning the Tongue Be swift to hear slow to speak but let it be swift to hear and swift to speak Let it speak quick and speak home Let it speak home and speak aloud let not your consciences be muzled or meal mouthed let them speak and speak closely and deal plainly with you let them not whisper out a warning or a reproof but if they may not otherwise be heard let them do as the Prophet was to do Isa 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet Let conscience never leave speaking and crying till it be heard such a conscience as this is like to be a stirring conscience That 's a stirring conscience which will maintain its authority and integrity whatever difficulties or pains it cost which will be faithful in instructing admonishing and rebuking and will not that its word or authority be slighted which will not suffer its self to be slighted and abused nor to be baffled or put off with shifts and excuses or delays such a conscience will be obeyed you shall have little ease it will not suffer you to have any rest or quiet in your minds if you will not hearken to it As the Apostle said he will not 2 Cor. 13.2 so neither will conscience it will not spare them that have sinned If conscience gives an admonition or a warning take heed of pride take heed and beware of covetousness or frowardness or suppose but loytering and coldness in matters of Religion if conscience gives warning take heed of this worldly carnal lazy trifling life and a warning will not do it will check and chide and rebuke and scourge the heart if its voice may not be heard 't will set in its teeth 't will bite and sting and worry the soul if once speaking or chiding or scourging will not do 't will hold on and lie at the soul from day to day and give no rest till it prevail O what stirring Christians should we be had we such stirring consciences the reason why we sin and sink as we do shuffle in our Religion turn aside after the world play the hypocrites or the formallists in our duties let all run to ruine within us and suffer our selves to continue asleep this is much our consciences faults conscience lets us alone and either does not speak but keep silence or if it speak 't is too softly it does not chide or scourge us it does not come to us with a rod to smite us for our faults You that can go on in your sins or go so coldly on in your Religion you with whom the World is so much risen and godliness is so much fallen you can't but confess that this is the case of many of you how is it with your consciences mean while what says conscience to you in this case it may be just nothing conscience is asleep as well as you O if we could but awaken your consciences out of sleep if the stirring words the Lord sends among you might have but this effect to stir up conscience this would awaken you all to another manner of life and activity in Religion Friends what 's become of all those words those awakening words that have been spoken on this subject have they stirred up any thoughts of heart within you and set these on work have they stirred up your affections and set these aworking in you if they have not 't is a sign they have not stirred up conscience and what hearers have you been if conscience hath been asleep all this time when shall we ever stir your hearts or mend your ways if we cannot stir your consciences If your consciences will yet hear then let them speak and give their judgment on these particulars 1. If it be not a wretched thing to be most remiss and negligent in those things which are your highest concernment to be so busie and intent about those small matters about Meat and Drink and Money which all perish with the using and to be so remiss and heedless and heartless about the most weighty and important affairs What says conscience to this Do not you think in your consciences that this is a wretched thing and a piece of extream folly 2. If the matters of this world be not all but small matters in comparison of the matters of Religion the matters of God and the other World what says conscience to this Do not you think in your consciences 't is so that the most prosperous state in this world is a Toy in comparison of prospering in your Souls and the matters of Salvation If that Question be put to you Mat. 16.26 What shall it profit you if you win the whole world and loose your own souls would not your consciences say It would profit me nothing O 't is a miserable gain that 's gotten by such an eternal loss every mans conscience I doubt not but must speak thus if it will speak at all 3. If yet this be not many of your cases Is it not the plain truth that you are more remiss and heedless and cold in the matters of Religion than in the matters of this World do not some of your consciences tell you O'twere well for me if I were but as hearty and lively in Religion as in my worldly concernments if I could serve the Lord as hotly and as heartily as I serve my flesh but I cannot say 't is so well with me my conscience tells me and I cannot deny it I am much more intent about Earth than about Heaven 4. If it be not better for you to rouze up and recover your selves out of your remisness and coldness in the matters of God and to abate your zeal for the World would it not be well for you if this word might have this effect to make such a change do not you think in your consciences ' t would 5. If it be not necessary for you thus to rouze your selves up and recover doth not conscience tell you you are in hazard of being undone for ever if you continue at this pass 6. If Conscience judges thus in all these particulars and will but speak one word more then it would be well if conscience would hereupon give the word of command awaken sleepers arise sluggards put away your sloth from you hearken to the word of the Lord take his warning stir up your selves bethink your selves recover your selves from this dulness and deadness of heart seek the Lord earnestly serve the Lord instantly no more such idling and creeping on be zealous run the good race fight the good fight make sure the good treasure lay hold on eternal life live not
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
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