shall live or die If a man were upon a tryal for his life what would it avail him that all his fellow prisoners and the whole crowd about him were for him when the whole Bench and Jury were against him If your Lives and Estates were in question to whom would you go to make your friend the Iudge or the People Sirs be convinced that if God be against you t is as bad as if God and all the world were against you For all signifies nothing without him Oh whatever you do study to get in and keep in with him I tell you the time is coming when the breath of men will signifie nothing when their Commendation will do you no good O man though all the world should give thee their hands and subscribe thy Certificate it would signifie nothing in Gods account or his Court. Many build their hopes for Heaven upon the good opinion that others have of them But I tell thee man though thou couldst carry Letters of commendation with thee when thou diest and all the Ministers of the Gospel should give thee their Bene discessit all would be no more then a blank paper and he would not save thee a jot the sooner if he should find thee to have been but a secret hypocrite a rotten-hearted Professor all the while Pr. 5. That God would not be pleased with you in any thing except you make it your care to please him well in every thing You will be one day ashamed except you have respect to all Gods Commandments Psal. 119. 6. you have not a good conscience except it be your care in all things to live honestly Heb. 13. 18. If Naaman must be excused in one thing to bow in the house of Rimmon that he might not displease his Master this is enough to spoil every thing 2 Kings 5. 18. Some will needs keep Gods good will and the worlds too and so will give both their turns They will serve God at home and conform to the world abroad and it shall be a great thing indeed that they will not swallow rather then lose the good will of men especially great men These men have two faces and two tongues the one for the good and the other for the bad company that they come into Some held two first principles the one the common Fountain of all good which is God and the other the cause of all evil and they worshipped both the good principle for love and the evil for fear Just such a Religion are many among us now of But let them know whoever they are that while they grasp all they lose all For God will never own time-servers nor men-pleasers for the Servants of Christ Ephes. 6. 6. Gal. 1. 10. 3. With reference to your practices And here as ever you desire to come up to this blessed life of doing always those things that please God you must carefully follow these six Rules Rule 1. Look round about you to the whole latitude and compass of your duty Great is the latitude of Christianity The Commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119. 96. And many Professors do scarce look more then one way but while they intensly mind one thing they neglect another It may be while they are taken up with the care of religious duties they forget relative duties Or they are careful of personal duties but very remiss in the duties that they owe to the souls of their families Or they complain and mourn over their own sins but lay not to heart others sins It may be they are more punctual in their more immediate duties towards God but are very negligent in their duties towards men or they will spend much time for their souls but do little lay to heart the case of the Church and the misery of perishing souls that are round about them Possible they keep the Sabbath strictly and pray and hear and fear an oath but in the mean time make little conscience of breaking their promises passing hasty and uncharitable censures spending time vainly being unprofitable in their discourse Close handed to godly uses suffering sin to go unreproved letting out their passions at every petty cross Many will mind their duty to them that are within and in the mean time are very short in their duties to them that are without This is too common a case Where is the Christian almost that seriously bethinks himself what might I do to win souls It may be you will go into the company of the godly where you may be edified but when do you go to your poor neighbours whom you see to live in a sinful state and tell him of his danger and labour to gain him unto Christ yea so much is this great duty neglected and out of fashion that I am afraid many question whether it be a duty or no. As if you might let sin lie upon the soul of your Brother and yet be innocent Levit. 19. 17. If it were but his Oxe or his Ass that lay ready to perish you would make no question but it were your duty to help him out of the ditch And do you think in earnest that you owe more to these then you do to his soul Is it to Ministers only or to all Believers that Scripture belongs Prov. 11. 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and be that winneth souls is wise Surely the lives of too many Christians do speak the same language that Cain spake with his mouth Am I my Brothers keeper Gen. 4. 9. 'T is true God will have you keep every one within the bounds of your proper stations but so as to take occasions yea to seek occasions as you are able to be doing good to others Do you not know how to get within your poor neighbours Carry an alms with you do him a kindness oblige him by your courteous and winning carriage Then I shall look to see the Kingdom of Christ flourish gloriously when every one that professeth godliness shall arise and take hold of the skirt of his neighbour Oh see your neglects in this Do not think it enough to keep your own Vineyard Let your Friends and Neighbours have no quiet for you till you see them setting in good earnest to seek after Heaven Oh if you might bring in but every one his man to Christ what a blessed thing were this I lose my self in this Argument but I am content to do so this duty being so miserably neglected Too many live as if Religion lay all in praying and hearing holy conference and the like forgetting that pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widow in their affliction Jam. 1. 27. The other should be so done as that this should not be left undone You make conscience of being just and true and faithful but do you not forget to win upon others by your kindness and affableness as if it were not written in your Bibles be pitiful be courteous having compassion
this he would look no further but the sincere Christian though satisfied that his state is safe will rest in no attainments in grace but reaches forward and presses on if it were possible to attain to the resurrection of the dead He that doth not desire and design and endeavour perfection never yet came up to sincerity A true believer desires holiness for holiness sake and therefore is set upon perfecting holiness Others desire it only for heavens sake and therefore are only for so much as will bear their charges thither others make use of holiness only as a bridge to Heaven and therefore are for no more then will just serve their turn The true believer hath a holy nature and therefore holiness is his element and natural employment and he must needs desire holiness in its height because every nature reaches after perfection in its kind The godly desires not holiness only because it is the way to Heaven but he loves Heaven the better for the holy way that leads to it and for the perfect holiness which is there Q. VII When others are all for the Salvation of Christ are you as truly for Sanctification by Christ Do you take Christ as God offers him with all his offices and benefits to be both a Prince and a Saviour to give you repentance as well as remission of sins Are you willing of the dominion of Christ as well as deliverance by Christ Do you close with his burden as well as his benefits do you count his laws your liberty his government not your bondage but your priviledge his service your freedom Do you go in Christs ways as in jives or fetters or do you run with inlargement of heart delight or real willingness Q. VIII When others do make self their end do you set up God above all as your highest end The hypocrite doth the same duties with the godly but with different ends He eats for himself and fasts for himself and prays with no better then self ends and therefore is rejected Now is it your great design in your whole course to glorifie God and enjoy God Do you count this your whole business and blessedness do you make other business to stoop to this other interest to yield to this Do your souls breath after this above all worldly good that Christ may be magnified in you Do you count your name and your estate as loss and the delights of sense but puddle-water in comparison of Christ If conscience give in a comfortable and clear answer to these Questions Go in peace Blessed are you of the Lord God is your Friend Heaven is your Heritage The Promises are your Portion Christ is yours all is yours For he that doth these things shall never be moved Psal. 15. 5. A Necessary Case on 1 Thess. 4. 1. Q. WHat may and must a Christian be and do that he may please God A. To your pleasing of God something is necessary as to your persons or estates and something as to your performances and acts First As to your persons or estates it is necessary in general that you be in a state of reconciliation with God If you would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing you must first be friends with him for how can two walk together except they be agreed Get the controversie taken up between God and thee and then shalt thou with Levi walk with God in peace Labour to get the breaches made up to have the enmity slain to have divine displeasure removed till thy pardon be obtained and thy peace made nothing thou canst do will please God he will be angry with thy person and angry with thy prayers What a tart Message is that to impenitent sinners Malach. 1. 10. God cannot take pleasure in their persons I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts nor in any of their performances neither will I accept an offering at your hand He professeth that his soul had no delight in them and tells them they are unto him as a Vessel wherein there is no pleasure Gen. 22. 28. It 's the modest expression of that Vessel into which Nature empties it self Come in then and touch the golden Scepter yield to mercy kiss the Son resign to Christ accept of the peace tendred you in the Word of Reconciliation and then God will be friends More particularly that you may be in a state of reconciliation and so in a capacity of pleasing God you must follow these directions 1. Put off every sin It is your iniquity that separateth between you and your God this is the make-bate If thou wouldst have God pleased turn every sin out of doors pluck it out cast it from thee If thou regard iniquity in thy heart God will not hear thee nor regard thee Psal. 66. 8. If thou art of them that have pleasure in unrighteousness the Lord hath no pleasure in thee He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness evil shall not dwell with him the foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity See that thou abandon every sin that thou knowest spare not one Agag not a right eye not an Herodias for then God will not spare thee Give the Darling of thy bosom a Bill of divorce say to all thy Idols get thee hence God will not look to that man that looks pleasantly upon any sin The Jealous God will not endure to see thee hankering on the Harlots lips embracing any sin with delight He will not bear it to see thee smile upon any sin He holds thee for a Traytor to his Crown if thou willingly harbour his Enemy Though thou be very diligent in Gods Service and presentest him with multitude of Sacrifices and many Prayers he will be pleased with nothing but hide his Face and stop his Ears whilst thou keepest thine iniquities in thine hands Isa. 1. 16 17 18. God will not amicably treat with them that will not put away the evil of their doings O look into thy hands look into thy heart look into thy house into thy shop thy trade thy calling see if there be not some way of wickedness that thou art found in Thou canst not have peace with God nor he pleasure in thee till this be removed put off therefore the old Man with his deeds 2. Put on the Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 13. First The red Robe of his Righteousness for Iustification The Lord will never give thee a good look nor a good word but in Christ He is a revenging a consuming fire out of Christ but get on his robes he will be well pleased Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God but Christ had much more that God was well-pleased with sinners in and for him Away with these rags and with these fig-leaves How can the righteous soul of God but abhor you whilst in the menstruous cloaths of your own righteousness Dare not to come to God but with Christ in your Arms
barely as a Bridg to Heaven and so to seek no more then will just bear his charges thither but he desires it for its own sake And therefore desires the height of it That person that desires Grace only for Heavens sake and inquires what is the lowest measure of Grace that any one may have and come to Heaven by which he meaneth but to be saved from misery upon this design that if he could but come to that pitch he would desire no more that person is rotten at the heart Christans the Lord doth expect of you that you should not be Babes and Dwarfs He looks now especially that you should make some progresse What do you more then heretofore What! do you feel his spurs in your sides and his whip at your backs And yet never mend your pace in Religion nor stir one jot the faster Let me commend to you Pauls study Phil. 3. 12. 13. 14. It argues a base and unworthy spirit to content our selves with little things in Religion Coun. V. Labour that Holiness may become your nature and Religion your business Then you are come to somewhat indeed in Religion when the work of God is become your natural and beloved imployment your Meat and Drink your Work and Wages When your Tongues and Hearts do as naturally run on God as others on and of the world much of that may be attained by constant care and prayer Brethren let Gods work be done by you not by the by but as your greatest businesse Seek first the Kingdome of God Matth. 6. 33. And so wherever you be you may be able to give that account of your selves that our Saviour did when they enquired of him That you are about your Fathers business Luke 2. 59. Coun. VI. Confine not your Religion to your knees but carry on an even spun thred of Holiness through your whole Course Brethren 't is the disgrace of Religion that Christians are so unlike themselves unless it be when they are in holy duties This wounds Religion to the quick when it shall be said of Professors these men indeed will pray like Angels but for ought we can see they are as Peevish and as Touchy as any other men and they are as Hard in their Dealings and make as little Conscience of their Words as others do Beloved think not Religion lies only or cheifly in Praying Hearing Reading No you must be throughout Religous Sirs bring forth your Religion out of your Closets into your ordinary Course Let there not be a life of Holiness on the outside of the Cloth But Let Holiness be woven into the whole of your Conversations Here lies the excellency difficulty of Religion when you have the baits of intemperance before you then to hold the Reins hard and deny your flesh when you have provocation before you then to bite in your passions and bridle the unruly member When you have dealings with others then to proceed by that golden rule of Equity and Charity To do to others as your Consciences tell you you would have them do in the like case to you When you are called upon in your several relations then to behave your selves with that tenderness and love with that reverence and obedience with that courtesie and condescension and kindness that becomes you in your various capacities In this I say lies the Excellency of Religion Coun. VII Ever walk with your End in your Eye It is true according to the usual and useful similitude The Traveller thinks not of his Journeyes end every step nor need he yet there is no Traveller but thinks of it at his setting out Brethren there is nothing hinders but that with Prayer and Watchfulness you might come to this in every solemn action to mind God as your End Impose this upon your selves as your daily rule to walk by never to lie down but with these thoughts Well I will make use of my Bed as an Ordinance of God for my natural refreshment that a weary Servant of his may be fitted for his work Never to rise up but with these thoughts I will set forth this day in the Name of the Lord and make it my business this day throughout to please him Never to set to your callings but in the entrance to think thus I will set about my employment in obedience to God because this is his will that I should walk with him in my place and station Never to sit down to your Tables but thinking I will now Eat and Drink not meerly to feed my flesh but to cherish a Servant of Christ Iesus that he may have strength for his service Charge this upon your selves and examine in the evening how you have minded it and check your selves wherein you come short Once learn this and you are come up to something and you shall have the undoubted evidence of your sincerity and shall know the inside of that blessed mistery of walking with God Coun. VIII Be and do more then ordinary in your Familys and Closets now in the defects of the more Publick Ordinances 1. In your Closets See that your Consciences be able to bear you witness that under Gods extraordinary providences you do more then ever in answer thereunto It may be you Prayed twice in the day heretofore why should you not at such a time as this is make one visit more then ordinary to Heaven daily to represent before God the calamites of his Church This be sure of that somewhat more then heretofore must now be done else God will look upon himself as intollerably slighted and upon his Church as most unnaturally neglected if we do not now put to it Be more then ever in self-examination God doth look that when he is trying of us we should be much in the trial of our selves And here let me put it to your Consciences How are your rules for daily examination looked after Do you try your selves by them from day to day Ah wretched negligence what have you given your approbation and passed your promise and yet even in such a day as this so much forget your duty God expects it of you that now you see him angry you should with more jealous fear and tender circumspecton and holy watchfulness and self-denial walk before him else you will greatly incense his indignation when he shall see that you slight his anger 2. In your Families Christians now the Lord calls aloud upon you to set your houses in order Oh see what is amiss in them and strive to cast out that which may be a provocation Three things I advise you to with reference to your Families 1. That you set up the Solemn exercise of Catechising weekly among them Methinks I would not question but that in every Godly Family there is a care of the Catechisme But when Governours do onely impose it in general upon their Families and occasionally take an account I find but little progress is made and therefore I beseech you to