the Flame to increase his Indignation The most part of Christians are guilty here We come to the Ordinances as it were to discharge a Custome and perform a Ceremony that we may have it to say to our Conscience that it is done and there is no more intent and purpose We do not seek to have Soul communion with God We come to Sermon to hear some new thing or new truth or new fashion of it To learn a Notional Experience of Cases But alas this is not the great purpose and use of these things It is to have some new sense of these things we know We know already but we should come to get the Truth mâ—re received in our Love to serve God in our Spirits and to return to him our selves in a Sacrifice acceptable This is the greater half if not the whole of Religion Love to Jesus Christ who loved us and living to him because he died for us and livihg to him because we love him Now all our Ordinances and Duties should be Channels to cary our Love to him and occasions of venting our Affections Thirdly the Lord rejected this peoples services because they were exact and punctual in them and neglected other parts of his Commandments And this is clearly expressed here I will not hear your prayers though there be many of them Why Your hands are full of blood Ye come to worship me and pray to me and yet there are many Abominations in your Conversation which you continue in and do not challenge in your selves Ye have unclean hands and shall your prayer be accepted which should come up with pure Hands They took his Covenant in their mouth and offered many Sacrifices but what have ye to do with these things sayeth the Lord since ye hate to be reformed since ye hate personal Reformation of your Lives and in your Families what have ye to do to profess to be my people Psal 50 19 17 The Lord requires an universality if ye would prove sincerity If ye have respect to any of his Commands as his Commands then will ye respect all If ye be partial and choose one Duty that is easy and refuse another harder ye will come to the Church and hear but ye will not pray at home Ye will fast in publck but not in private Then sayes the Lord ye do not at all obey me but your own humour ye do not at all fast unto me but unto your selves As much as your interest lyes in a Duty so much are ye carried to it And I take this to be the reason why many are so Eager in pursuing publick Ordinances following Communions and Conferences with Gods people ready to Pray in publick rather then alone If ye would follow them into their secret Chamber how much indifferency is there how great infrequency how little fervency VVell sayes the Lord did ye pray to me when ye prayed among others No ye prayed either to your selves or the company or both Did ye seek me in a Communion No sayeth the Lord ye sought not me but your selves If ye sought me indeed with others ye would be al 's earnest if not more to seek me alone Zech. 7. 6. And again the Lord especially requires the weightier matters of the Law to be considered As it was among the Jews their Ceremonies were commanded and so good but they were not so much good in themselves as because they were means appointed for another end and use But the Moral Law was binding in it self and good in it self without relation to another thing And therefore Christ lays this heavy Charge to the Pharisees Ye tithe mint and anise Mat. 23. 23. Woe unto you for ye neglect the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy and Faith these ye ought to have done and not left the other undone Are there not many who would think it a great fault to stay away from the Church on the Sabbath or Week day and yet will not stick to swear to drink often VVoe unto you for ye strain at a gnat and swallow a camel Therefore are the Prophets full of these Expostulations The people seemed to make Conscience of Ceremonies and External Ordinances but they did not order their Conversation aright They did not execute Judgment and relieve the oppressed did not walk soberly did not mortify sinful lusts c. Alas we deceive our selves with the noise of a Covenant and a Cause of God we cry it up as an Antidot against all evils use it as a charm even as the Jews did their Temple and in the mean time we do not care how we walk before God or with our Neighbours Well thus saith the Lord Trust ye not in lying words Jer. 7. 4 5 6. If drunkenness reign among you if filthiness swearing oppression cruelty reign among you your Covenant is but a ly all your professions are but lying words and shall never keep you in your Inheritances and Dwellings The Lord tells you what he requires of you Is it not to do justly and walk humbly with God Mic. 6. 7. This is that which the grace of God teaches To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly towards your God your neighbour and your self Tit. 2. 11 12. And this he prefers to your publick Ordinances your Fasting Covenanting Preaching and such like Is not this to know me saith the Lord Jer. 22. 15. 16. You think you know God when you can discourse well of Religion and intertain conferences of practical Cases You think it is knowledge to understand Preachings and Scripture But thus saith the Lord To do justly to all men to walk humbly towards God to walk soberly in your selves is more real knowledge of God then all the Volumes of Doctors contain or the heads of Professors Is this knowledge of God to have a long flowrishing discourse containing much Religion in it Alas no to do justly to oppress none to pray more in secret to walk humbly and soberly this is to know the Lord practice is real knowledge indeed it argues that what a man knows he receives in love that the Truth hath a deep impression on the heart that the Light shines into the heart to inflame it What is knowledge before God As much as principles Affection and Action as much as hath Influence on your Conversations If you do not and love not what you know is that to know the Lord Shall not your knowledge be a Testimony against your practice and no more SERMON X. Isai 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil c. IF we would have a sum of pure and undefiled Religion here it is set down in opposition to this peopleâ— shadow of Religion that consisted in External Ordinances and Rites We think that God should be al 's well pleased with our service as we our selves therefore we choose his commands which our humour hath no
you clean there is a Fountain opened though sin were as Scarlet it can perfectly change the colour of it If you wash not while the Fountain is open it will quickly be sealed on you and then it shall be said when the Angel sweareth by him that liveth for ever that time shall be no more then shall it be said let him that is unclean be unclean still Now cleansing is offered in the Gospel if you will love your loathsomnesse so well as not to dip your selves in this Fountain then let the unclean be so still Your repentance will never change your colour though you should melt in sorrow And therefore you who have found a way to be saved otherways nor by Jesus Christ you shall be deceived Your Tears and Mourning that you might have had though Christ had never come in the world is all you use to speak of and build your hope on and if you speak of Christ it is in such terms as to buy him by such repentance so that the truth is you use but Christs Name as a shadow you make no use of him He needed not to have come in the world for many of you could have done al 's well without him But as many of you as cannot find cleansing who see filth increase by washing come to Christ Jesus and say If thou wilt thou canst make me clean Math. 8. 2. Nothing beside Jesus can do it believe his sufficiency nothing beside him Will do believe his willingnesse for for this cause he is an opened Fountain that all may come and draw SERMON XVI Isai 64. 6 7. All our righteousnesses are as filthy raggs and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away NOt only are the direct breaches of the Command uncleannesle and men originally and actually unclean but even our holy Actions our commanded Duties Take a mans civility religion and all his universal inherent Righteousnesse all are filthy raggs And here the Church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of Isai 66. 3. and Chap. 1. Vers 11 12 13. c. This people was much in Ceremonial and External Duties and therefore they cryed the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord as if this would have outcryed all their other sins therefore were they proud and lords in their ōwn estimation and innocent Jer. 2. 31 35. They thought the many good services they did to God might compense all their wrongs Mic. 6. 6 7. They gave a price to Justice for their sins even a confeslion of it by offering a Lamb c. and a purpose to amend But lo what sense the Prophet hath of all this Lord all our righteousnesse is filthy likewise Albeit we have paid the Debt of sins with Duties yet now we see all these are sins themselves and must have another sacrifice so that all matter of boasting is now removed and we are stript naked of all righteousnesse We covered our filthinesse before with Duties now both the one and the other is filthy We would look upon two sorts of righteousnesses the natural mans and the converted mans upon the ones Civility and fair Profession and upon the others real or true Grace in discharge of Duties and we shall find good reason to conclude both the one and the other under filthinesse so that there is no ground of boasting no inherent righteousnesse can make us accepted before God First then whatever men can do from Natural Principles all the flower and perfection of mens Actions both civil and religious is but abominable before God as long as their persons are unjustified Every performance is defiled by the uncleannesse of the person And therefore God heareth not sinners Joh. 8. That is unjustified sinners though they pray much yet God heareth them not And this is lively expressed by Hag. 2. 12 13 14. As the Priests Holy Garments and Flesh could not make Bread or Pottage holy but the unclean body could make these unclean So this Nations and Peoples performances and Holy Duties could not make them Holy and their Persons clean But their unclean persons and actions made all their performances unclean The solemn meeting and sacrifice c. could not make them accepted but their unclean persons made their solemn meetings and religious Duties vile and abominable in Gods sight And thus to the unclean all things are unclean even their mind and conscience Tit. 1. 15. The unbelieving man who is born unclean and defiled with so much original corruption and so many actual transgressions defileth all things he toucheth As a dead body or a leprous garment under the Law made all unclean it touched and nothing could make it holy by touching of it So all your Civility all your Profession will never contribute to the cleansing of your Person And your persons shall defile all your most clean actions God loveth not that stock of Adam and all that groweth on it must be hateful He is only well pleased in Jesus Christ and with those who are transplanted out of rotten Adam into the true Vine Jesus it is such fruit only that can be acceptable Therefore until you be sprinkled with clean water and made clean according to the new Covenant way you cannot please God Believe this your sins and your duties are one your Oaths and your Prayers are in the same account with God What have you then to build upon when all this is removed You must once be stript naked of all coverings and will not your nakedness then be great The Pharisee went away unjustified and the poor repenting sinner justified What was the reason There are not many of you have such a fair venture for Heaven as he had so many Prayers Fastings Alms to ground your Hope on Nay but all this would never justify his person because once he was unclean come of Adam and had contracted more uncleannesse and all that is like the leprous Garment defiling all that cometh near it So that whatever hath any dependence on a son of Adam must contract filthinesse Now I ask your Consciences have you so many specious coverings to adorn your self with Is not your outside spotted and not so clean as the young civil Man and the religious Pharisee Certainly no and yet you have no other ground to plead the acceptation of your persons upon but only this your Prayers and Tears or some such Duty performed by you Well all is uncleannesse since your persons were once unclean no Sope nor Nitre can wash it no holy flesh make it holy no good wishes nor duties can make it acceptable Did not this people think of their Duties as much as you do And had more reason so to do for our Congregations have not so much form of godlinesse as they had and yet God solemnly protesteth to them that all their works were defiled even these which they took to wash themselves with so your repentance and tears must be al 's filthy
of Israel by this Redeemer But now we are surrounded with Consolation before and behind Christ already come so that we may in joy say lo this is our God we have waited for him others waited and longed and we see him and Christ shortly to come again without sin to our Salvation And what could be able to take our Joy from us if we had one Eye always back to his first coming and another always forward to his comeing again SERMON XV. Isai 64. 6 7. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses as filthy raggs c. THis peoples condition aggreeth well with ours though the Lords dealing be very different The Confessory part of this Prayer belongeth to us now And strange it is that there is such odds of the Lords Dispensations when there is no difference in our Cohditions Always we know not how soon the complaint may be ours also This Prayer was prayed long before the Judgment and Captivity came one so that it had a Prophesy in the bosome of it Nay it was the most kindly and affectionat way of warning the people could get for Isaiah to pour forth such a prayer as if he beheld with his Eyes the Calamity as already come And indeed it becometh us so to look on the Word as if it gave a present beeing to things al 's certain and sensible as if they were really What strange stupidity must be in us when present things inflicted Judgments committed sins do not so much affect us as the forefight of them did move Isaiah Always as this was registrat for the peoples use to cause them still look on Judgements threatned as performed and present and anticipat the day of Affliction by repentance and also to be a Patern to them how to deal with God and plead with him from such grounds of Mercy and Covenant Interest So it may be to us a warning especially when sin is come to the Maturity and our secure backsliding Condition is with Child of sad Judgements when the harvest seemeth ripe to put the sickle in to it There is in these two Verses a confession of their own sinfulness from which grounds they justify Gods proceeding with them They take the cause upon themselves and justify him in his Judging whither Temporal or Spiritual Plagues were inflicted In this Verse they take a general survey of their sinful Estate concluding themselves unclean and all their performances and commanded Duties which they counted once their righteousness And from this ground they clear Gods dealing with them and put their mouth in the Dust and so from the Lords Judgment they are forced to enter into a search of the Cause so much sin and from discovered sin they pronounce God righteous in his Judgment perceiving a great difference in the Lords manner of dealing with them and their fathers they do not refound it upon God who is righteous in all his ways but retort it upon themselves and find a vast discrepance between themselves and their fathers Verse 5. And so it was no wonder that Gods Dispensation changed upon them God was wont to meet others to shew himself gracious even to prevent stroaks But now he was wroth with them Nay but there is good cause for it They rejoyced and wrought righteousness but we have sinned And this may be said in the general never one needeth to quarrel God for severe dealing If he deal worse with one then with another let every man look into his own bosome and see reason sufficient yea more provocation in themselves then others Always in this Verse they come to a more distinct veiw of their loathsome condition Any body may wrap up their repentance in a general notion of sin but they declare themselves to be more touched with it and condescend on particulars yet such particulars as comprehend many others And in this Confession you may look on the Spirits work having some Characters of the spirit in it First they take a general view of their uncleannesse and loathsome Estate by sin Not only do they see sin but sin in the sinfulnesse of it and uncleannesse of it Secondly They not only conclude so of the Natural Estate they were born into and the loathsomnesse of their many foul scandals among them But they go a further length to passe al 's severe a sentence on their Duties and Ordinances as God hath done Isai 1. and 66. The spirit convinceth according to Scriptures Light and not according to the dark spark of Natures Light and so that which Nature would have busked it self with as its Ornament that which they had covered themselves with as their Garment had spread their Duties as robs of Righteousnesse over their sins to hide them all this now goeth under the name of filthinesse and sin They see themselves wrapt up in as vile raggs as they covered and hid Commanded Duties and manifest Breaches come in one Category And not only is it some of them which their own Conscience could challenge in the time but all of them and all kinds of them Moral and Ceremohial Duties that were most sincere had most Affection in them all of them are filthy raggs now which but of late were their righteousnesle Thirdly there is an universality not only of the Actions but of Persons not only all the Peoples or Multitudes performances are abomination but all of them Isaiah and one and other the holiest of them come in in this Category and Rank we are all unclean c. Though the people it may be could not joyn Holy Isaiah with themselves yet humble Isaiah will joyn himself with the people and come in in one prayer And no doubt he was al 's sensible of sin now as when he began to prophecy and growing in holinesse he must grow also in sense of sinfulnesse Seing at the first sight of Gods Holinesse and Glory he cryed unclean c. Isai 6. 5. Certainly he doth so now from such a principle of accesse to Gods Holinesse which maketh him abhore himself in Dust and Ashes Fourthly They are not content with such a general but condescend to two special things two spiritual sins to wit Omission or shifting of spiritual Duties which contained the substance of Worship None calleth one thee few or none none to count upon calleth on thee that is careth for immediat accesse and approaching unto God in prayer and meditation c. Albeit External and Temple Duties be frequent yet who prayeth in secret or if any pray that cannot come in compt the Lord knoweth them not because they want the Spirits stamp on them This must be some other thing nor the general conviction of sin which the world hath who think they pray all their days Here people who though they make many prayers Isai 1. Yet they see them no prayers and no calling on Gods Name now But Fifthly to make the challenge the more and the confession more spiritual and compleat there is discovered
tree yet behold the wind of the Lord may arise that shall drive you away take your soul from these things and then whose shall they be If you will not fear temporal judgements yet I pray you fear eternal fear hell May not the Lord shake you off this tree of time and take you out of the land of the living to receive your portion There is not only an universal deadness of spirit on the land but a prophane spirit Iniquities abominable sins abound Every Congregation is overgrown with scandals and for you None may more justly complain we are all unclean sin is not in corners but men declare their sin as Sodom sin is come to the Maturity Defection and Apostacy is the temper of all Spirits and above all the general contempt and slighting of this glorious gospel is the iniquity of Scotland so that we wonder that the withered leaves yet stick to that the storm is not yet raised and we blown away Now you are like stones your hearts as Adamants and cannot be moved with his threatnings the voice of the Lords word doth not once move you you sin and are not afraid Nay but when Gods anger shall joyn with iniquity and the voice of his rod and displeasure roar this shall make the mountains to tremble the rocks to move and how much more shall it drive away a leaf You seem now mountains but when God shall plead you shall be like the chaff driven too and fro O how easy a matter shall it be to God to blow a man out of his dwelling place sin hath prepared you for it he needeth no more but blow by his Spirit or look upon you and you will not be You who now are lofty and proud and maintain your self against the word when you come to reckon with God and he entereth in judgement you shall not stand you will consume as before the moth your hearts will fail you Who may abide the day of his coming It will be so terrible and so much the more terrible that you never dreamed of it If the example of this people will not move you do but cast your eyes on Ireland who all do fade as a leaf and their iniquities have taken them away out of their own Land Shall not the seeing of the eye nor the hearing of the ear teach you What security do you promise to your selves Have not we sinned as much as they Were not they his people as we Certainly since God waiteth longer on you the stroak must be the greater provoked patience must turn fury If you would then prevent this peoples complaint go about such a serious acknowledgement of your sins search your wayes and turn again to the Lord. And let not every man sit down in a general notion of sin but unbowel it until you see uncleanness go up to the fountain head Original corruption go down to all the streams even the iniquity of holy things let every man be particular in the search of his own provocations personal and every one be publick in the general sins of the Land that you may confesse out of knowledge and sense we are all unclean c. SERMON XVIII Isai 64. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee c. THey go on in the Confession of their sins Many a man hath soon done with that A general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to You may see here Sin and Judgement mixed in thorow other in their complaint They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolat estate of captivity as to forget their provocations Many a man would spend more affection and be more pathetick in the expression of his misery when it is pungent nor he can do when he speaketh of his sins We would observe from the nature of this confession something to be a patern of your repentance And it is this When the spirit convinceth and men are serious in repentance then the soul is more searching more universal more particular in acknowledgement of sins These are characters of the Spirits work First The Spirit discovereth unto men not only sin but the loathsomeness of sin its hainous nature how offensive it is to Gods holy eye Many of you know abundance of evil deeds and call them sins but you have never taken up sins ugly face never seen it in the glasse of the holy Law uncleannesse it self because you do not abhore your selves poor and low thoughts of God maketh mean and shallow thoughts of sin You would be as Job vile ch 40. 4. And abhore your selves in dust and ashes ch 42. 6. As Gods holiness grew great in your eyes Sins uncleanness would grow proportionably Is 6. 3. 5. And here your repentance halteth in the very entry But Secondly The Spirit discovereth not only the uncleanness of mens natures and leadeth them up to original corruption but the Spirit also leadeth men alongs all the streams not only these that break out but those who go under ground and have a more secret and subtil conveyance It concludeth not only open breaches of the command under filthiness but also all a mans own righteousness though never so refined it concludeth it also a defiled garment so that the Soul can look no where but see sin and uncleanness in its ornaments and duties And thus it appeareth before God without such a covering openeth up its Soul hideth not sin with the covering of duties but seeth a necessity of another covering for all Now therefore let the most part of you conclude that you have never yet gotteh your eyes open to see sin or confesse it because when you sit down to compt your sins there are many things that you call not sin you use not to reckon your praying and repentance among sins Nay because you have so much confidence in your repentance and confession you have never repented you must see a necessity of a covering of Christs righteousness above all Faith in Jesus must cover repentance and it self both with the glorious object of it But alas how soon are many at an end of confession some particular grosse actions may come in remembrance but no more Sum up al your confessions they have never yet pitched on the thousand part of your guiltiness no not in kinds let be in number But thirdly The Spirit convinceth spiritually and particularly both it convinceth of Spiritual sins as we said last of the iniquity of holy things and especially of the most substantial duties faith and prayer John 16. 8 9. there are not many of you have come this length to see your want of prayer No your own words do witness against you for you use to say I pray day and night I believe in God with all my heart Now therefore out of your own mouth shall you be condemned when the spirit convinceth you of Sin you will see no faith no prayer at the first
opening of the eyes But I add there is no true confession but it is particular the Spirit useth not to be wilder mens spirits in a general notion only and a wild field of unknown sins And such are many of your convictions You mourn for sin as you say and yet you cannot condescend on a particular that burdeneth your conscience you grant you have many sins but sit down to compt them and there is a short compt of them Now do you not reflect back upon former humiliations in publick and former acknowledgements of sins in private do you not yet return upon your own hearts to lay home this sad challenge I have never repented I do not yet repent must not all your solemn approaches be iniquity and abomination while your souls are not afflicted for sin while you can see so few sins c. The fasting dayes of Scotland will be numbered in the roll of greatest provocations because there is no real and spiritual conviction of sin among us Custom now hath taken away the solemnity and there remaineth nothing but the very name Is this the fast that the Lord chooseth No believe it this shall add to your provocation and rather hasten lingering judgement then keep it off we would beseech you this day pray for pardon of former abused fasts If you had no more to mourn for this might spend the day and our spirits both and exhaust all our present supplications even the wall of partition that stands between God and Scotland which all our former solemn humiliations hath built up a great deal higher then other sins could reach There is none that calleth upon thy Name Did not this people make many prayers Isai 1. 15. before the captivity And did they not cry which noteth some fervency in it And fast a little before it in Jeremiahs time Chap. 11. 11. and 14. 12. in the time of it Ezek. 8. 18. Mic. 3. 4. Zech 7. 3. How then is it that the Prophet now on the watch-tower looking round about him to take up the peoples condition and being led by the Spirit so far as to the case of the captives in Babel can find no prayer no calling And was not Daniel so too Dan. 9. 13. Lo then here is the construction that the Spirit of God putteth on many prayers and fastings in a Land There is none calleth on thy Name there is none that prayeth faithfully and fervently few to count upon that prayeth any It may be there are many publick prayers but who prayeth in secret and mourneth to God alone There are many prayers but the inscription is To the unknown God to a nameless God your praying is not a calling on his Name as a known God and revealed in the Word This then we would say unto you that there may be many prayers in your account and none in Gods There are many prayers of men that God counteth no more of then the howling of a dog First The cry of mens practices is often louder then their prayers and goeth up to Heaven that the cry of prayer cannot be heard When mens conversation is flat contrary to their supplications supplication is no calling on his Name but charming rather Sodoms abominations had a cry up to God Gen. 18. 21. So Ahels blood had a cry for vengeance which Cains prayers could not out-cry Thus the Lord would not hear many prayers Isa 1. 15. because hands and practices were polluted you that know no worship of God but in such a solemn duty your religion is summed up and confined within the limits of Temple-worship Family exercise and prayer Certainly the rest of your conversation must speak more God will not heat but such as worship him and do his will Joh. 4. 31. Your prayer is a dark parable if your conversation expone it not This I speak for this end to put many of you out of your false ground of Confidence you have nothing but your prayers to trust unto And for your conversation you never go about it effectually to reform it but goeth on in that which you pray against we declare unto you the truth your prayers are Abomination Pro. 28. 9. The wicked may have prayers And therefore think not to please God and flatter him with your mouths when your conversation is rebellion since you hear not him in his commands God will not hear you in your petitions Pro. 1. 24. 28. You stopped your ear at his reproof God will stop his ear at your request If you will go to heaven by your own righteousness I pray you follow more after it make the garment more to cover your nakedness the skirt of a duty is not sufficient Secondly When iniquity is regarded in the heart and idols set up in Gods place God will not own such a worship but sendeth a man to the Idols he serveth Psa 66. 18. Ezek. 14. 3. 4. Do you not often pray to God against a corruption when your heart cleaveth unto it and what your mouth saith your heart contradicteth Light and Conscience often extort a confession of beloved sins while the temper of the heart hath this language Lord grant not my request And therefore if there be a prayer for pardon of guilt yet there is no through resolution to quite the sin And as long â—â— a soul is not resolved to quite the sin there can be no ingenuous confession of it and no prayer for removing the guilt can be heard You cannot imploy Christ in his office of Mediatorship as a Priest to interceed and offer sacrifice for sin unlesse you as sincerely imploy him as a sanctifier and Redeemer And therefore prayer that separateth Christs offices and calleth not on whole Christ calleth not on his name for his name is Lord Jesus Christ How can the Lord be inquired of by such a one who cometh to mock him puteth up an Idol in the heart and yet prayeth against it or some other sin while he is not resolved to quite it Shall God be resolute to help when we are noâ— earnest in seeking it No wonder God answer you according to the Idol No wonder you be given up to serve Idols and your sin grow upon you as a plague for your hypocrisy when you ingadge your heart too much to any creature and comes to pray and inquire of the Lord in your necessity shall it not be righteousness with him to send you to your God when thou cryest let thy companies deliver thee Isa 57. 13. O man cry unto thy bosome idol and let it help thee since thou trustest to it and spendeth thy heart on it Deut. 32. 37 38. Where is the God that drunk the Wine of your offerings and eat the fat of your sacrifices where is the creature that you have made your heart an altar to to send up the flames of your choicest thoughts and affections to it let this rise up and help you now saith the Lord. Therefore we exhort you if you would have
in God in the worst case and then ye might lay hold on him though he seemed a consuming fire It is then a time that calleth most for secureing your interest in him a time when there is no external advantage to beguile you a time when the only happiness is to be one with God Therefore the man who in such Calamities and Judgements is not a waked to put his eternal Estate out of question he is in a dangerous case For do not most part drive over their dayes and have no assurance of Salvation they dare not say either pro or contra It may be and it may not be And this is the length that the most part come a negative Peace No positive Confidence No clear concluding on sure grounds an Interest Alwayes ye are most called to this when God afflicteth the Land or you If ye do not then make Peace it is most dangerous 3. The Lord loveth Faith in a difficulty best it is the singlest and the cleanliest it is that which most honoureth him and glorifieth his Truth and Faithfulnesse and Sufficiency and Mercy for then it is most purely Elevated above Creatures and pitcheth most on God And therefore bringeth men to this No help for my soul but thou art my portion And this commendeth God most when he is set alone Prosperity bringeth him down among Creatures and secure Faith maketh little distinction But awakening Faith grippeth strongly and singly puteth God alone Secondly Oftentimes when God is departing none stirreth up himself to lay hold on him Although there may be praying and doing of many duties yet there is nothing beyond ordinary The varieties and accessions of new grounds of supplications doth neither make greater frequency nor more fervency This our experience may clear unto us both in duties and faith First There is very little diligence in seeking of God in the way and means appointed even when God seemeth to bid farewel to the Land and go away No body cometh in as an intercessor Men keep on their old way of praying and never addeth to it come what like Who is it that riseth above his ordinary as the Tide of Gods dispensation is There ought to be such an impression made by the changes of Gods countenance as might be read on the duties of his people There should be such a distance between your ordinary and such times as between a sleeping man and a waking man that whatever your attainment of access to God be ye might stir up and go beyond it according as matters call Will God count your publick Fasts a performance of this duty Alas we fast sleeping and none stirreth up himself to these things Is there any difference betwixt your solemn Humiliation and another Sabbath And is there any difference between a Sabbath and a week day save the external duty Is not this palpably our case Is there any wakening among us No security is both the universal disease and complaint And it is become an incurable disease since it became a complaint Doth any of you pray more in private then ye used Or what edge is on your prayers Alas the Lord will get good leave to go from us It feareth me that we would give Christ a Testimonial to go over Seas Hold him hold him Nay the multitude would be gladly quite of him they cannot abide his yoke his work is a burden his word is a torment his discipline is bands and cords And what heart can ye then have to keep Christ What violence can ye offer to him to hold him still All your intreaties may be fair complements but they would never rent his garment Secondly There is no up-stirring to faith among us and laying hold on Jesus Christ albeit all his dispensations warn us that it is now high time There are not many who are about this point effectually to stir up their faith or to secure their interest Think ye that conjectures will carry you thorow difficulties The multitude think they believe much but any temptation proveth their mistake The most part of Scotland would deny God and his Son Jesus Christ if they were put to it Alwayes it is a time ye would not ly out from your strong hold faith only uniteth you to Christ and if ye would be kept in any trial stir up faitâ— Thirdly Prayer and Faith diligence and laying hold on God must go together and help one another Not calling on his Name and not laying hold on him go together and have influence oâ—e upon another First Faith hath influence on Prayer Laying hold on God in Christ will make right calling on his Name it learneth men how to call God to call him Abba Father Faith useth to vent iâ— self in Prayer I say much consideration of God and claiming in to him and to the grounds of confidence in him must both make Prayer acceptable and carry the stamp and impression of Gods Name or Christâ— Nâ—mâ— oâ— it and also make much prayer for when a soul hath pitched on God as its only felicity and thus made choice of him it findeth in him all-sufficiency all things for all things There is no necessiâ—y but it findeth a supply in his fulness for it And therefore it applyeth a man to the fountain to draw out of the wells of salvation There is nothing can be so sweet and refreshing as for such a soul to pour out it sâ—lf every day in him to talk with him face to face Faith ingageth the heart to come to God with all things whereas many difficulties would have been and the secure or unsettled heart would have gone as many different wayes to help them Faith laying hold on God knoweth but one and bringeth all here And therefore access to God is a fruit of it access unto the grace wherein we stand by faith And again how can Prayer be acceptable as long as Faith doth not principle it It is but like a beasts groaning under a burden Laying hold on God himself makes a mans duties acceptable because he speaks and asks believing that he shall receive he trusteth God and doth not tempt him Where lively faith is not intertained there cannot be much affection which is the oyl of the wheels There may be in some bitterness of spirit much vehemency but that is not a pure flame of divine love that burneth upward to him and it is soon extinguished and lasteth no longer nor present sense and then the soul groweth harder as iron that had been in the fire Secondly when there is not much prayer and calling faith cannot be strong and violent for prayer is even the exercise of faith if you wear out of that faith rusteth There may be much quietness with little prayer but there cannot be much and strong and lively faith for where it getteth not continual imployment it faggs And indeed prayer is a special point of holding God fast and keeping him Therefore joyn these if ye would thrive in any one of
as the â—â—n you would wash by it Secondly the uncleannesse of mens practice maketh unclean performances unclean hands make unclean prayers Isai 1. 15. When men go on in sin and use their members as instruments of unrighteousnesse against God and guiltinesse is above their head unrepented of and unpardoned then whatever the members act for God in religious Duties it must be also abominable for will God take prayers from such a mouth thaâ— cursing cometh out of Isai 3. 10 11 12 Shall sweet water come out of one Fountain with bitter Or can a Fig Tree bear both Thistles and Graps Certainly profane Conversation must make unclean profession And therefore your coming to the Church and Ordinances your praying in your Families or such like must of necessity be defiled since out of the same mouth cometh cursing railing lying filthy speeches Your tongues are so often imployed in Gods dishonour to blaspheme his Name to slander your Neighbours to reproach the Saints that all your prayers must be of the same stamp and al 's bitter as the other stream of your actions When you stretch forth your hands to make many prayers to take the Bread and Wine shall not God hide his Face from such hands as are unclean with many abominations some murdering some abusing their Neighbours some Sabbath-breaking some filthinesse how oft have your hands and feet served you to evil turns And therefore your good turns will never come in remembrance Nay believe it you cannot be heard of God while you cover any offence And this I may say in general even to the Saints any known sin given way to and intertained without controlment without wrestling against it hindereth the acceptation of your solemn approaches If your heart regard iniquity shall God hear Ps 66. 18. No believe it the least sin that you may judge at first venial and then give it toleration and indulgence shall separat between Gods Face and you Your prayers are abomination because of such an idol perked up in the heart beside God that getteth the Honour and Worship due to him and God must answer you according to it Ezek. 19. 1 3 4. God will not be enquired of such as give allowance to sin Ezek. 14. 2 3 4. And on the other hand no sin how great and hainous soever can hinder Gods gracious acceptation when Souls fly unto Jesus and turn their back upon sin or giveth it no heart allowance And to the multitude I say all that you do or touch in a Duty must be defiled because your whole way is unclean Hag. 2. 12 13 14. Think you to sin all the week thorow and worship God on the Sabbath will you lie swear commit adultery rail and curse and come and stand before me saith the Lord No certainly you cannot be accepted And will you hate reformation in your lives and yet take his Covenant in your mouth and call your selves by his Name Christians And shall not God challenge you for that al 's much as for your swearing and cursing and lying c. Indeed the Lord putteth all in one Roll and you need not please your selves in such things Psal 50. 16. Jer. 7. 9 10. For it is all one to you to go to Tavern to drink and come to the Sermon to blaspheme Gods Name and call on it because the profanity of the one defileth the other and the holiness of the other cannot make you holy Thirdly the natural mans performances want the uprightness reality and sincerity that is required it is but a painted Tomb full of rottenness within it is but a shadow without substance for he wanteth the spiritual part of worship which God careth for who will be worshiped in spirit and truth Joh. 4. 23. Now what is it that the most part of you can speak of but an outside of some few duties soon numbered You hear the preaching and your hearts wander about your business You hear and are not so much affected as you would be to hear some old story or fable told you A stage play acted before this generation would move them more then the Gospel doth So that Christ may take up this Lamentation We have piped to you and you have not danâ—ed lamented to you and you have not mourned You use to tell over some words in your prayers and are not so serious in any approach to God as in twenty other things of the world Whatever you plead of your hearts rightness and have recourse to it when your conversation cannot defend you yet your hearts are the worst of all and have no uprightness towards God for you know that what Duties you go about it is not from an inward principle but from Education or Custome or constraint Are you upright when you are forced for fear of censure to come here or to pray at home Is that sincerity and spiritual worship And for the more polished and refined professors you have this moth in your performances and this flea to make your Oyntment to stink that you do much to be seen of men therefore what little fervour of spirit is in secret Duties There you may measure your altitude and your life And O how wearisome how lifeless are secret approaches you would not have many errands to God if you thought no body looked upon you And for spirituality it is a Mystery in all mens practice Who directeth his Duty to Gods Glory If you get some flash of liberty you have your desire But who misseth Gods presence in Duties which a world will approve Who go mourning as without the Sun even when you have the Sun-shine of Ordinances and walketh in the light of them And fourthly though your performances had uprightness of heart going alongs and much affection in them yet all are filthy because of want of Faith in Jesus Christ When you make your Duties a covering of your sins and think to satisfy Gods Justice for the rest of your faults by doing some point of your Duty then it cannot choose but be polluted in his sight And this very thing was the cause of Gods rejecting the Jews righteousness even because they did not look to the end of the Mystery Christ Jesus Did not pull by the vail of Ceremonies to see the Immaculat Lamb of God slain for sin And therefore doth the Lord so quarrel with them as if he had never commanded them to do such things Isai 1. 12 13. Who hath required these things at your hands bring no more vain oblations all is Abomination Even as God should say to you when you come to the Church who required you to come Who commanded you to come to hear the Preaching What have you to do to pray What warrand have you to communicat All your Praying Hearing Communicating is Abomination who commanded you to do these things Would you not think it a foolish Question You would soon answer that God himself commanded you and will he not let us do his bidding Indeed this
and a resolution of amending this then is all your covering and ornament something done by you as many will make the wings of two good works stretch themselves out so far as to cover and hide a multitude of offences between them Therefore I declare in the Lord Jesus his Name unto you whose Conscience must go alongs in the acknowledgment and owning of your case that you have covered your selves with your own righteousnesse that you have taken as filthy rags to cover your nakednesse and sin with as your sins are and so you have made an addition to your uncleanness you are more unclean by your prayers and repentance then before And so God is of more pure eyes then to look graciously on such as you are You have gone about to establish your own righteousnesse and hath not known the righteousnesse of God and so you have come short of it you are yet persons in a state of enmity God is your Judge you are rebels It concerns you much to heed this well to judge of your own actions and persons as God judgeth of them for if God shall judge one way and you judge another way you may be far mistaken in the end If you have so good an opinion of your selves and your duties that you can plead interest in God for them and absolve your selves from such grounds And if God have not the same judgement but rather think as evil of your prayers as of your cursing and abhor the thing that satisfieth you will it not be dreadful in the end For his judgement shall stand and you will succumb in judgement since you crossed Gods mind Therefore we would have you solidly drink in this principle of Religion That man is so unclean and God so abhorreth him that whatever he doth or can do it cannot make him righteous that no good action can make him acceptable and take away the uncleanness of the evil actions and that any sinful action taketh away all the cleanness of the good actions Once believe this If I should sweat out my life in serving God and never rise off my knees If I should give my body to the fire for the truth If I should melt away in tears for sin all this is but filthy raggs and I can never be accepted of God for all that but the matter of my condemnation groweth If I justifie my self my own mouth proves me perverse God needeth no more but my good deeds to condemn me for in all justice And therefore it is a thing impossible I will never put forth a hand or open a mouth upon that account any more I will serve God because it is my duty but life I will not expect by my service when I have done all it is wholly mercy that I am accepted my good works shall never come in remembrance I resolve to be found not having my own righteousnesse I will appear among the ungodly sinners as one that hath no righteousnesse that I may be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ I say drink in this truth and let it settle in your hearts and then we would hear numbers cry O what shall I do to be saved Now as for you who have fled unto Christs righteousnesse only have cast away your own as dung and dross as filthy raggs as you have done right in the point of Justification judge so likewise after it We would exhort you to judge so of your best actions that are the fruits of the Spirit judge so of them as you have a hand in them All our righteousness Mark Isaiah a holy Prophet joyneth himself in with the multitude And the truth is the more holiness the more humility and self-abasing for what is holiness I pray you but self-denial the abasing of the creature and exalting of Christ Jesus This is the Cross that the Saints must all bear Deny your self and follow me Grace doth not swell men above others it is gifts such as Knowledge that puffeth up Charity or Love puffeth not up Men are naturally high-minded for pride was the first sin of Adam and grace cometh to level men to make the high mountains valleys for Christs Chariot It maketh men stoop low to enter the door of the Kingdome Therefore if you have attained any measure beyond others if you would prove it real grace and holinesse do not exalt your selves above others be not high minded come down and sit among the ungodly among the unclean and let not grace given diminish the low estimation of your self in your self There is a growing that is but a fancy and mens conceit when men grow above Ordinances above other Christians and can see none or few Christians but themselves such a growth is not real it s but fancy it s but swelling and wind and must be pricked to let it out A holy Prophet came in among an unclean people he did not say Stand by I am bolier then thou Such a man as can find no Christian about him even though to the judgement of all others they seek God more then he such a man hath not real solid grace his holiness is profane holiness and proud holiness for true holiness is humble holiness and in honour prâ—ferreth others There is a great fault among those who have fled to Christs righteousness in Justification that they use to come full from duties as a stomach from a honey comb Oft times we make our liberty and access to God the ground of our acceptation and according to the ebbings and flowings of our inherent righteousness so doth the faith and confidence of Justification ebb and flow Christians this ought not to be In so doing you make your own righteousness your righteousness before God for when the unsatisfaction in the point of duty maketh you question your interest so often is not the satisfaction of your minds in duties made the ground of your pleading interest Give you liberty and access you can believe any thing remove it and you can believe nothing Certainly this is a sandy foundation you ought to build nothing on performances you should be as vile in your own eyes and think your nakedness as open when you come nearest God when you have most liveliness as when he hideth his face duty withereth will filthy raggs be your ornament No Christians be more acquaint with the unspotted righteousness of the Immaculat Lamb of God and find as great necessity of covering your cleanest duties with it as your foulest faults and thus shall you be kept still humble and vile in your own eyes and have continual imployment for Christ Jesus your best estate should not puff you up and your worst estate should not cast you down Therefore be much in the search of the filthiness of your holy actions This were a spiritual study a noble discovery to unbowel your duties to divide them and give unto God what is Gods and take unto your selves what is your own The discovery of filthiness in them
say it as you use to say I pray both day â—d night Nay but count after this rule and â—ere will be found few prayers in Scotland alâ—it you reckon up both privat and publick â—nce scrape out of the compt the prayers of the â—ophane and scandalous whose practice deâ—eth their prayers And again blot out the â—ayers of mens tongues and mouths when â—arts are absent And again set aside the â—ormal dwyning coldrife indifferent suppliâ—tions of Saints and the prayers that carry no â—eal of Gods Name and Attributes on them â—rayers made to an unknown God And will â—ou find many behind No certainly any of â—ou may take up the complaint in behalf of the â—and There is none that calleth on thy Name or â—ew to count upon You may say so of your â—elves if you judge thus I have almost never â—rayed God hath never heard my voice and â—ou may say so of the Land This would be a â—ell spent day if this were but our exercise to â—nd out the sins of our duties in former humiliaâ—ions If the Spirit did so convince you as to â—ot out of the roll of Fasts all the former If â—ou come this length as to be convinced solidly â—at you have never yet prayed and mourned for â— I have lived this long and been babling â—ll this while I have never once spoken to God â—ut worshipped I knew not what fancied a God like my self that would be as soon pleaseâ— with me as I was with my self If the Lorâ— wrought thus on your hearts to put you â—â— your own righteousness you should have moâ— advantage in this then in all your Sabbaths anâ— Fasts hitherto Secondly Although the Lords hand be upoâ— them and they fade as a leaf and are driveâ— into another Land yet none calleth on his Name This maketh the complaint more lamentablâ— and no doubt is looked upon as a dreadful sigâ— and token of Gods displeasure and of sorâ— stroaks Daniel an eye-witnesse confirmeth thâ— foretold truth Chap. 9. 13. All this is come upon us yet have we not made our prayer to the Lord oâ— God Well may the Lord make a supposition and doubt of it Lev. 26. 40 41. After so many plagues are come on seven added to seven and again seven times more and yet they will not be humbled And when it is even at the door neâ— to utter destruction and consumption he addeth If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they take with the punishment of sin c. We need ask no reason of this for bray a fool in a morteâ— his folly will not depart from him Prov. 27. 22 Poor foolish man is a foolish man folly is born with him folly is his name and so is he He hath not so much wisdom as to hear the voice oâ— the rod and him that appointeth it Poor Ephraim is an undaunted heifer Nature is a bullock unaccustomed with the yoke and so it is chastised more and more Jer. 31. 18. Man is like aâ— untamed beast as the horse or as the mulâ— Threatnings will not do it God speaketh once yeâ— twice and man perceiveth it not Job 33. 14. God instructeth by the Word and men receive no instruction All the warnings to flee from the wrath to come are as so many tales to make children afraid He saith in his heart I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my own heart Since therefore he will not incline his ear to the Word God sendeth his rod to seal the Word and yet men are so wilde that they sight with Gods rods and will not submit to him A yoke must be put on Ephraim a bridle in mens mouths Psal 32. 9. They will put God to more pains then speaking and it shall cost them more pain For he that will not be drawn with the cords of a man love and intreaties must be drawn with the cords of a beast and yoked in a heavy yoke Yet men are unruly and the yoke groweth the heavier and sorer that they strive to shake it off An uncircumcised heart cannot be humbled How can the Leopard change his spots no more can my people return to me Jer. 13. 23. It is strange that a people so afflicted will not take with the punishment of their iniquity but will say in their heart Wherefore come these things upon me But here it is how can an uncircumcised heart be humbled God may beat on men with rods as on a dog but he will run away from him still the more Isai 9. 13. Nay it may be there will be more stirring after God and more awaking by the first stroak of affliction then when they are continued and multiplied The uncouthness of rods may affect people something but when his hand lyeth on but a little custome breedeth hardness aâ— more and more alienateth spirits from him Now we need no more to seal this truth â—â— our own experience I think never peopâ— might speak more sensibly of it It hath beâ— the manner of the Lords dealing with us to â— fair means to gain us to threaten before he laâ— on to give a proclamation before his stroakâ— And yet it hath been our manner from oâ— youth up to harden our selves against him anâ— go on in our own way Therefore hath thâ— Lord after long patience laid on sad stroaks anâ— smitten us yet have we not turned to him â— may be when the chastisement was fresh aâ— green some poured out a prayer and in trouble visited God Isai 26. 18. but the body of the Laâ— hath not known him that smote them and nâ—ver ran into their hiding place but the temptâ—tion of the time like a flood hath carried them awâ— with it And for the Lords children how soâ— doth the custome of a rod eat out the sense â— it and prayer doth not grow proportionably â— the Lords rods The Lord hath expected thâ— some might stand in the gap and interceed yet fâ— or none called on his Name General correction of the Land have made general apostacy froâ— God not a turning in to God So that we maâ— say we never entered a furnace but we havâ— come out with more dross contracted dross iâ— the fire Mens zeal and tenderness hath beeâ— burnt up reprobate silver may God call us We have had so much experience of the unprofitableness of former afflictions that we knoâ— not what the Lord shall do with us We thinâ— it may be the Lords complaint of Scotland Why should you be afflicted any more you will revolt more and more Isai 1. 5. What needeth another roâ— You are now all secure it is true because you are not stricken Nay but what needeth a rod for it cannot awake you all the fruit of it would be not to purge away sin but to increase it General judgements will prove general tentations and will alienate you more from me and make you curse God and the Covenant And indeed the truth is we know not what
outward Dispensation can fall on that can affect this generation We know not what the Lord can have behind that can work on us Judgement hath had as much terror Mercies as much sweetness and as much of God in the one and the other as readily hath been since the beginning of the world Only this we know all things are possible to him which are impossible to us And if the Spirit work to sanctifie the Rod a more gentle Rod shall work more effectually his Word shall do as much as his Rod. The case we are now into is just this None calleth on thee It is a terrible one whither our condition be good or bad outwardly our peace hath put us asleep and the Word cannot put men to prayers Now the Lord hath begun to threaten as you have been still in fear of new troubles and a revolution of affairs again yet I challenge your own Consciences and appeal to them whom hath the Word prevailed with to put to prayer Whom hath the rumour of approaching trouble put to their prayers Whose spirit hath been affected with Goâ— fâ—ouning on the Land And this yet more aâ— gravateth your laziness In the time that Goâ— doth shew terrible things to his people in Irelaâ— giveth them a cup of wormwood and to drink â— wine of astonishment Are not you yet at eâ—â— when your brethren and fellow saints are scaâ—tered among you as strangers yet your heaâ— bleed not Well behold the end of it you case is a sad prognostick of the Lords hideing hiâ— Face and consuming us Nay it is a sure token that his Face is hid already When Jâ— friends would aggravate his misery they sumâ— it up in this thou restrainest prayer from God Iâ— is more wrath to be kept from much praying nor to be scattered from your own house Therefore if you would have the cloud of Godâ— anger that covereth the Land with blackneâ— go over you and pour out it self on others you would prevent the Rod hearken to thâ— Word and stirr up your selves to much prayeâ— that you may be called his remembrancers Oâ— how long shall prayer be banished this Kingdom The Lords controversie must be greaâ— with us for since the days of our first love therâ— hath been great decay of the spirit of prayer The Children of God should be so much in it as they might be one with it David was so much in prayer as he in a manner defined himself by it Psal 109. 4. I gave my self unto prayer In the original there is no more but â— prayer I was all prayer It was my Work my Element my Affection my Action Nay to speak the truth it is the decay of prayer that hath made all this defection in the Land Would you know the original of many a publick mans Apostacy and backsliding in the cause of God what maketh them so soon forget their solemn ingagements and grow particular seeking their own things untender in seeking the things of God Would you trace back the Desertion up to the Fountain head Then come and see Look upon such a mans walking with God in private such a mans praying and you shall find matters have been first wrong there Alienation and estrangement from God himself in immediat Duties and secret approaches hath made mâ—ns Affections cooll to his interest in publick Duties And believe it the reason why so few great men or none are so cordial constant and through in Gods Matters is this they pray not in secret They come to Parliament or Council where publick Matters concerning the Honour of God are to be debated as any Stas-man of Venice would come to the Senate They have no dependence on God to be guided in these Matters They are much in publick Duties but little in secret with God Believe it any mans private walking with God shall be read upon his publick carriage whither he be Minister or Ruler There is yet another thing we would have you consider to endear this Duty unto you and bind upon your Consciences an absolute necessity of being much in it and it is this Prayer and calling on his Name is often put for all immediat Worship of God especially the more substantial and moral part of Service This people was much in Ceremonials and they made these their righteousness Nay but there was little secret conversing with God walking humbly with him loving him believing in him Well then prayer is as it were a compend and summ of all Duties It contains in it Faith Love Repentance all these should breath out in prayer In a word if we say to you be much in prayer we have said all and it is more then all the rest because it is a more near and immediat approach to God having more solid Religion in it If you be lively in this you are thriving Christians if you wither here all must decay for prayer sappeth and watereth all othes Duties with the influence of Heaven That stirreth up himself to take hold on thee This expresseth more of their condition under the Rod and while God was threatning to depart and leave them none took so much notice of it as to awake out of his dream to take a fast hold of God It was but like the grip a man taketh in his slumbering that he soon quiteth in his sleep None awaketh himself as a bird stirreth up it self with its wings to flight None do so spread out their sails to meet the wind This importeth a great security and negligence a careless stupidity To take hold to grip strongly and violently importeth both Faith acted on God and Communion with God so that the sense is no body careth whither thou go there is none that stirreth up himself to take violent hold of thee Men ly louse in their interest and indifferent in the one thing necessary do not strongly grip to it No body keepeth thee by prayer and intercession so that there is no diligence added to diligence there is no stirring up of our selves in security First when the Lord seemeth to withdraw and when he is angry it is our duty to take hold the more on him and not only to act Faith and call on him by prayer but to add to ordinary diligence it should be extraordinary First then I say when the Lord is withdrawing and seemeth angry we ought not to withdraw from him by unbelief but to draw near and take hold on him And the Lord giveth a reason of this himself Isai 26. 4 5. because fury is not in me It is but a moments anger it is not hatred of your persons but sins it is not fury that hath no discretion in it to difference between a friend and an enemy It is but at least a fathers anger that is not for destruction but correction The Lord is not implacable come to him and win him let bim take hold of me and let him make peace with me if he will make peace He is a God whose
compassions fail not and so he is never so angry but there is room left for manifestation of Mercy on those that come to him Gods anger is not an humor and passion as ours is he can take the poor Child in his Armes admit it into his bosome when outward Dispensations frown Mens anger is like the sons of Belial Briers and Thornes that none may come near to lest they be hurt but God angry is accessible because his anger is still tempered and mixed with Clemency and Mercy and that mixture of Mercy is so great and so predominant in all his Dispensations here that they being rightly understood might rather invite to come then scarre from it there is more Mercy to welcome then Anger to drive away Secondly Look upon the very end and purpose of Gods hiding himself and withdrawing it is this that we may come and seek him early Hos 5. 15 When God is angry Mercy and Compassion principleth it for anger is sent out to bring in wanderers His anger is not humor but resolute and deliberate walketh upon good grounds Because David in his prosperity missed not God When all things went according to his minde then he let God go where he will Therefore the Lord in mercy must hide his own Heart with a frowning countenance and cover himself with a Cloud that David may be troubled and so take hold on God Psal 31. 7 8. Since then this is Gods purpose that you may come nearer to him and since he goeth away that you may pursue certainly he will never so run away as you may not find him out nor will he run further nor he strengtheneth thee to pursue him Thus Ps 63. 8. God was flying and David pursuing Nay but the flyer giveth leggs to the pursuer he upholdeth him as it were against himself So did the Angel strengthen Jacob to overcome himself Now shall it not be pleasant to God that you lay hold on him as your own even when he seemeth to be cloathed with vengeance seing he changeth his outward Countenance for this very end he seemeth to go that you may hold because when you think he stayeth you hold not as the Child while the nurse is near will look about it and take hold of any thing but when she withdraweth the Child cleaveth the faster to her But Secondly we ought to stirre up our selves more now then any other time Times of Gods withdrawing calleth for extraordinary and doubled approaches So Hab. 5. 15. they will seek me early And therefore the Lords Children in Scripture have made great advantage of such Dispensations The truth is as long as we are well dealt with security creepeth on and Religion is but in a decaying condition Duties are done through our sleep We are not as men awaking and knowing what we do and whither we go But when the Lord beginneth to trouble us and hides his Face then it is a time to awake out of sleep before all be gone And there ought to be first more diligence in Duties and approaching to God because your case furnisheth more matter of supplication And as matter of supplication groweth prayer should grow If necessity grow and the cry be not according to necessity it is ominous And therefore David useth to make his cry go up according to his trouble In a prosperous Condition though every thing might call a tender hearted loving Christian to some nearness to God yet ordinarly if necessity presse not prayer languisheth and groweth formal Sense of need putteth an edge on supplication wheras prosperity blunteth it The heart missing nothing cannot go above sublunary things but let it not have its will here and the need of Heaven will be the greater Now I say if you sit so many calls both from a Command and from your own necessities you do so much the more sin Affliction will make even a hypocrite seek him and pour out â— prayer and visit him Psal 78. And Isai 26. And if you do not take advantage of all these pressures you must be so much the more guilty And therefore God as it were wondereth at their obstinacy They return not to him that smiteth them All this is come upon us yet have we not prayed And secondly it is sent for that end that you may be more serious and therefore you ought so much the more to awake to lay hold on him This is the way the Lord useth with his secure and wandering Children Psal 119. 67. For the Lord findeth us often gripping too strongly to a present world and taking it in our armes as if we were never to part with it Mens souls cleave to outward accomodations Therefore the Lord useth to part us and our idol that we may take hold of him the faster It is Union with himself that is our felicity and it is that which God most endeavoureth When he removeth beloved Jewels it is because they were a stumbling block and divorced the Soul from God When he seemeth to withdraw himself his going proclaimeth so much Oh follow or perish Thirdly it is a very dangerous thing when he withdraweth and you follow not when he is angry and you care not doth not fly in to make peace with him certainly his anger must wax hotter and desertion will become a spiritual plague Rods must be tempered with much bitterness What mixture of Mercy can be in such a Dispensation where the fruit of it is to harden But if the Lords hardest dealing wrought you to more nearness and Communion with himself then certainly you have a fair advantage against the present trouble and you have your Cup mixed You shall at length blesse God for such Dispensations they may be reckoned for good to you Next there ought to be more exercise of Faith and laying hold on the grounds of Consolation in God in such a time 1. For as difficulties grow Faith should fortify it self against them so much the more The greater the storm be it should fly the more into the Chalmbers Faith in the time of a calme day getteth no tryal Faith bulketh much because it hath not much to do But except there be some fresh and new supplies it cannot hold out in a temptation But it is a singular proof of a Noble and Divine Faith that can lay hold on him and keep him when he would go that can challenge kindness on a miskening Jesus that can stand on the ground of the Promises when there is not a foot breadth of a Dispensation to build on While all things go with you ye have no difficulty to maintain your Faith Nay but when the Lord seemeth to look angry then awake and gather strength take hold on his strength Look what is in your Condition or his Dispensation what is good or omnious then take hold on the other hand on him and look what is in him to answer it and swallow it up Ye ought to be well acquaint with the grounds of Consolation that are
God himself laid hold upon and made ours is more nor removing a temporal Calamitv It is an eternal weight to weigh down all Crosses and Disapointments For what can present things be Is there not in the favour of his countenance that which may drown them in Oblivion Are ye like to sink here Is not God a sure Anchor to hold by And if you do not this your trouble is nothing in respect of the danger of your Soul Secure and loose lying out of God not putting this matter to a full poynt is worse nor all your outward fading Therefore we exhort you in the Lords Name to fly in to this Name of the Lord as a strong tower to run to and be safe When the Lord seemeth now to be angry with us run not away from him though he should yet cloath himself with vengeance as a Garment But First O ye poor people who have never asked this Question whether have I any Interest in Jesus Ask it now and resolve it in time If trouble come on if scattering and desolation come on and our Land fade as a Leaf certainly the Lords anger will drive you away What will ye do in the time of his Indignation All of you put this to the tryal how matters stand between God and you And Secondly if ye find all wrong do not sink in discouragement All may be amended while it is seen wrong in time Nay God taketh away outward Accomodation to make you more serious in this And it is the very voice of Rods every one fly in to your hold every one make peace with me You may take hold and do it feckfully Thirdly You who have fled to Jesus take more hold of him you are called also to renew your Faith and begin again Make peace with God let your confidence be kept fast and thus shall ye be immoveable because he changeth not God will not go from you if ye believe hold him by Faith Christ could not do great things in Galilee because of their unbelief and so be departed from them As unbelief maketh an evil heart to depart from the God of all Life and Consolation So doth it make Goâ— depart from us But Faith casteth a knot upoâ— him to speak with reverence it fasteneth hiâ— by his own Word and Promise and he cannot go by it It is a violent hand laid oâ— God I will not let thee go till thou blesâ— me Fourthly Faith and Prayer or holding oâ— God by believing in him and much imploying him needeth much stirring up unto and awaking That stirreth up himself to take hold oâ— thee Security is the moth of both these and eateth out the life of Faith and Supplication It maketh Prayer so coldrife that it it cannoâ— prevail and Faith so weake that it cannot usâ— violence Fâ—â—st security apprehendeth no evil no need A secure condition is a dream that one is eating and yet his Soul is empty Looâ— how the people of Laish were quiet and secure apprehending no evil Destruction cometh then on as an armed man Always it is much necessity that administers fewel to a mans Faith and Supplication David Psal 30. 7. I saiâ— in my prosperity I shall not be moved Nay but many say in adversity and cry peace peace where no peace is Security pleadeth innocency and then believeth immunity I am innocent therefore shall his anger turn away Jer. 2. 35. Security applyeth not sin and so refuseth the curse of sin and wages of it And thus is a man in his own eyes a lord and then he will come no more to God Jer. 2. 31. It is almost impossible to awake men by general Judgments â—o apprehend personal danger and men never stirr out of their nest till it be on fire We can behold or hear of our neighbours spoyling and violence done to them but till the voice of a cry be heard in our own Streets and Fields no body will take the Judgement to themselves It is well said that which is spoken to all is spoken to none so what is done to all in generall is done to hone The voice of a general Rod speaketh not particularly and maketh not men apprehensive of sad things and thus men are not pressed unto prayer are not put out of themselves It is onely necessity that sapps the roots of it and makes it green Secondly Security is lazy and not active putteth not forth its hand to work and so dieth a beggar for onely the hand of the diligent maketh rich Laying hold on God is a duty that requireth much spirit in it Men do not grip things well in their slumbering There is no Duty that needeth so spiritual and lively Principles If a man do not put on such a peece of resolution and edge upon him he cannot come to the wrestling of Prayer and violence of Faith Although the exercise and acting of Grace dependeth more upon the Spirit of God his present Influence then upon the Soul of man yet this is the way the Lord communicateth his Influence by stirring up and exciting the Creature to its duty as if it could do it alone Grace is one thing and the stirring up of it is another thing For when we ly by and sleep over our time and go not about tâ— matter so seriously as it were life aâ— death it is but a weak hold we can takeâ— God According to the measure of a mâ— apprehending necessity and according the measure of his seriousness in these thinâ— so will the hand of Faith grip and lay hoâ— with more or lesse violence As a mâ— drowning will be put from sleeping aâ— when one is in extreem hazard all his strengâ— will unite together in one to do that whiâ— at any ordinary time it could not do so ougâ— it to be here A Christian assaulted wiâ— many temptations should unite his strengâ— and try the yondmost O but your whoâ— spirits would run together to the saving â— your self if ye were very apprehensive of necessity The exercise of Faith is a dead griâ— that cannot part with what it grippetâ— Therefore first we must say to you it is 〈◊〉 so easy a thing as you believe to lay hold â— God there must be stirring up to it Aâ— when the Lord speaketh of our stirring our selves certainly he meaneth this like wayeâ— that he must stirr us ere we stirr our selveâ— Secondly above all be afraid of a secure condition It is the enemy of Communioâ— with God and spiritual Life therefore look about you and apprehend more your necessity and then give no rest and quietness to your self till you have imployed and engaged him Be as men flying to lay hold on the refuge set before you Thirdly It must be a time of little accesse to God and little Faith when we are all secure and no body goeth about Religion as their work and business We allow our self in it Therefore we do exhort you first to purpose this as your end to aim at and