the inward graces thou seemest to haâ—â— but art thou not wanting in others Thou seemeâ—◠〈◊〉 â—ve faith but is not love lacking Art thou not 〈◊〉 â—â—us revengeful quarrelsome Professor thou seemest to have love but is not humility lacking Art thou not proud and haughty and high minded Thou seemest to be humble but is not meekness lacking Art thou not fierce and froward and peevish in thy way Thou seemest to be meek but is not patience lacking How canst thou bear affliction dost thou not murmure and repine and vex thy self in the day of adversity Thou seemest all this but art thou true in thy sayings righteous and exact in thy dealings merciful and compassionate and bountiful to those that are in necessity Thou seemest to have all these inward graces but is not a bold profession of Christ lacking Thou art bold to own Christ and hear his Word even to come in hazard but whatever thou canst say of thy hearing is not Prayer lacking if thou pray in secret is not prayer in thy Family lacking If thou pray in thy family is not secret prayer lacking If Prayer be both in secret and in thy Family is not Family-instruction the teaching thy family the care of their souls lacking If there be some care of others in thee is not the communing with thine own heart lacking Is not self examination lacking Dost thou search thy heart and try thy ways as thou oughtest dost thou make a diligent search a narrow search in fear lest thou shouldest be mistaken If there be self converse and self acquaintance dost thou maintain a converse with God is not holy Meditation lacking How often dost thou look heaven-wards what time dost thou spend dayly in serious meditation of God and the things above If there be such acts exercised the actings of Faith the actings of Love the actings of holy Prayer the actings of holy Meditation What life is there in these actings Are they not all as dead things Sacrifices without an heart Images without life If thou thinkest there be the presence of every Grace a will to every Duty an enmity against every Sin what power is there accompanying them what power in duty what power against every sin Doth not the corruption of thy heart bear down that grace thou thinkest thou hast and â—â—rry thee down the stream of an evil and vain life 〈◊〉 there be some good will to a godly life is not povâ—â—â—â—â—â—ing It is tâ—â—e the best of Christians have much lacking in degree their faith is weak their love is imperfect but is there nothing lacking of the essential parts of a christian Thou not only lackest strength of Faith but it may be thou lackest Faith thou not only lackest strong love but thou lackest love A child though he hath not the understanding of a man or strength of a man yet may be a true child but if he want the soul of a man or the head or the heart of a man he is a monster and no humane child Is not the soul or the life of Christianity the head and the heart of a Christian the life of a Christian lacking in thee If so thou art but a Monster and no Christian Is there not the conscience of a Christian lacking in thee Is not thy Christian covenant lame and imperfect Hast thou covenanted universally for all the parts of christianity for every duty against every sin without any reserve of the least liberty from our duty to any sin And is thy conversation intire according to thy covenant Is there nothing allowedly lacking in thy conversation of all that thou hast covenanted with the Lord Or what ever thou dost Is there not life and soul and heart lacking in all that thou dost Thou prayest but dost thou not pray without an heart Thou hearest but dost thou not hear without a soul Thou seemest a follower of Christ and livest in the practice of his precepts but is there not life lacking in all thy duties O consider over all these particulars and consider how many things are lacking in you 1. Consider and fear lest when you come to be weighed in the ballance you should then any of you be found wanting lest when you come to die and expect entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom Christ should then say to you no you cannot come in one thing is lacking in thee one thing that is necessary to thy entrance one thing lacking in thee of the essence of a Christian all would be lost thy soul lost the everlasting kingdom lost Consider therefore and fear 2. Consider and be humbled and be ashamed that after all the time you have had and all the helps and means you have had and all the tenders and offers the Lord hath made to supply all your lacks be humbled and be ashamed that yet there is so much laâ—king and all this for want of an heart to accept and improve what hath been offered let us be humbled and ashamed friends that if we have any thing of the faith of Gods elect in us yet We are so weak in the Faith that if we have any thing of the love of Christ in us yet that our love is so cold and imperfect that if we are found walking in the way of the Lord it is so slowly and so haltingly This is our shame and matter of great humiliation that we have gotten no more grace that we live no better lives But what shall I say to you that want not onely the strength of Faith zeal of Love a more even and steddy and fruitful life but want Faith and want Love and are not yet come into the ways of the Lord. I say to you as I said before fear and tremble think what it will be to be found thus in the day of the Lord. But to you that have Faith and have no more that do in some degree live by Faith and yet live no better consider and be ashamed consider and be confounded in your selves consider and be humbled under all your wants and haltings 3. Consider and make up what is lacking Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened pray the Apostles Prayer Eph. 3.16 That the Lord would grant unto you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might in the inner man and your hearts may be filled with all the fulness of God Get those poor weak souls to be strengthened and get those halting and barren lives to be established and filled with the fruits of righteousness Take the counsel of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.6 Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity that these things may be in you and abound that ye be no longer barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Brethren whilest heedless and inconsiderate ones are upon the losing oh consider how
Counsel be well advised and run not thus headlong upon thine own ruin O hold up such Government in your Spirits that your Hearts may be tractable and flexible plyable Hearts let them be stiff and fast to the concernments of God but loose and easily withdrawn from the interest of Self Stiff against sin stiff against Temptation resolute for Holiness Is thy will brought about for God for Religion for Conscience Stand to it to the Death never be perswaded out of your Religion never be perswaded out of your Consciences or Consciencious walking let your Hearts be resolved for the greatest strictness of Religion and be strict and stiff in such Holy resolutions but never again be so set upon your own wills your Carnal wills here get a pliable Heart never to be perswaded off from God easily to be perswaded back from Self and Flesh It 's Prophesied Isa 11.6 There shall be such a change wrought upon the rough and furious and ravenous Spirits of Sinners by the power of Christ that the Wolf and the Leopard and the Lyon shall be so tamed that a little Child may lead them They shall be so flexible and pliable that they may be easily lead that the least Items or Intimations from God or from Conscience may bring them to any thing that when Lust puts hardest upon them for sin when Self presses most impetuously upon them for minding or pursuing it's Interest or will a Word from God an Item from Conscience may bring them about after the Lord that Self may never be able to fortifie them against Conscience but that Conscience may with ease break the Bands and loose the Cords of Self and command them after their God It was said of Caesar's Souldiers that where his Interest was concerned they were more than Men in their own concernments they were less than Women Let the Servants of Christ learn so much of the Souldiers of Caesar let them be so true so fast to the Interest of Christ and Religion of Holiness that they may be above the Spirit of a Man and so the Spirit of a Christian is above the Spirit of a Man but let them sit so loose from the Interest or the Commands of Self that a Woman or a little Child may bring them back from the pursuance of it that such a word from whatever Mouth it comes what is this Self or this Flesh to thee that thou so hearkenest to it or insistest so upon it Wilt thou obey thine adversary Wilt thou cleave to thy Mortal Enemy Self is no better 't is the worst Enemy thou hast and wilt thou feed thine Enemy Strengthen thine Enemy Fight for thy Enemy That such a word may be enough to countermand the will of the Flesh and to bring the Heart back from obeying it's strongest motions and Lusts This will be the blessed Fruit of a due Heart-government the defeating and subduing of Self-will and the sweet and easie compliance of the Heart with and it's complacency in the will of God and it will be no hard thing for such a Soul to say Not my will but the will of the Lord be done 3. Self-love 1. There is a Self-love which is our Duty there is an innate Principle of Love planted by God himself in the Nature of Man in his State of Innocency God hath made all Men living lovers of themselves and he would have them so That word Thou shalt love thy Neighour as thy Self evidenceth that we must love our selves The fruits of this Self-love are 1. Self-preservation 2. Self-blessing 1. Self-preservation the securing our selves from Mischief the saving our selves from danger Acts 2.40 Save your selves this generation He that said Save your selves from this evil generation hath therein said much more save your selves from Condemnation To save our selves from sin to save our selves from Wrath to save our Souls this is a great Duty lying on every man in this World and this Self-saving or Self-preservation our Self-love will prompt and press us to He that loveth himself will save himself he that duly loveth his Soul will do what he can to save his Soul That men destroy and Damn themselves that men neglect Christ the Author of Salvation that men neglect Religion and Godliness the way of Salvation is for want of a true love to themselves Sinners Christ is Preached unto you and tendred to you and if you lov'd your selves better you would love Christ and accept of him You are exhorted to Repentance to Godliness and if you loved your own Souls you would repent and be holy Thou art an hater of thy Self an Enemy a Murderer of thine own Soul who art not a lover of Christ and of Religion and godliness What a Brute art thou O sinner yea worse than a Brute thou canst love thy Friends thou canst love thy Wife and thy Child thou canst love thy Companions yea thou canst love thy sins and thy lusts only thou hast no love to thy Soul 'T is laid down as a mark of wicked Persons among many others 2 Tim. 3.3 Without natural Affection For a Child to be without natural Affection to the Parents for Parents to be without natural affection to the Child for men to be strangers to their own flesh without natural Affection to their Friends or Relations this is a mark of a wicked man What is it then for men to be without natural affection to their own Souls wilt thou say thou lovest thy Soul when thou so sadly neglectest thy Soul when thou takest no care for thy Soul when for the love of thy Lusts and thy Pleasures and thy Companions thou wilt Damn thy Soul Sinners what have you done for your Souls ever since you were born You have done something for your Flesh you have fed it and cloathed it and wrought hard for it to get a provision and maintenance for it but what have you done for your Souls what pains didst thou ever take that it might be well with thy Soul what knowledge hast thou gotten what Grace hast thou gotten what Peace for thy Soul hast thou gotten Peace with God hast thou done any thing toward the reconciling thy Soul to God thou knowest how little thou hast done thou hast loaden sin upon thy Soul thou hast loaded guilt upon thy Soul thou hast left it like the Soul of a Laodicean Rev. 3.17 Poor and miserable and Blind and Naked that Soul within thee is a miserable Soul a guilty Soul a blinded hardned Soul a polluted naked Soul it would make your hearts ake if you consider'd it in what woful wretched case you have left your Souls to this day If you have so much sense in you think of it and lay it sadly to Heart what a miserable case you have left your Souls in the reason of this is because you are without love to your Souls hence is it that you have had so little care of your Self-preservation 2. Self-blessing Isa 65.16 There is a Self-blessing that is
they take for Star-light Sinners whatever brightness or beauty there be in any of your Faces whatever Gaudy or merry Outsides you have yet what an inside have you your hearts are all dark holes where dwells every abominable thing Toads and Serpents Zim and Jim Owles and Satyrs and every unclean thing dwells within you Thou that hast the fairest outside there are Toads and Serpents and Worms crawling and breeding in thine heart You would every one of you be afraid of your selves you would loath your selves and you would tremble at your selves you would if you knew how run away from your selves in a fright if you knew what were in your hearts Sinners care not to look into their hearts and some of them are afraid to look inwards and well enough you may you would see such ugly and monstrous Sights as might even scare you out of your Wits Saints have all their Riches within them they have a treasure in their hearts A good man out of the good treasure of his heart Mat 12.35 There may be and often is poverty without but there 's a treasure within the richest of sinners they have all their Treasures without them in their houses in their Purses in their shops in their Chests but all the while there 's poverty and beggery in their hearts Thou art a very beggar Sinner with all thy load of Wealth 't is a poor beggarly Soul thou hast how richly soever thy Carcase be provided for 'T is the heart of the Saints where God bestows all his Riches Christians Look to your hearts you carry more riches in you then the whole World is worth you loose all that ever you are worth if you loose your hearts He that hath a Treasure in his house will look more carefully to the locking of his doors especially the room where his Riches lye must be most fortified with Bolts and Bars You have more to loose than the Princes of the Earth and therefore have the more reason to keep those hearts wherein all your riches lye Not only your graces but your good works are all kept in your hearts If ever you have done any good in all your lives whereof you hope for a reward in the other World all your Duties the holiness and fruitfulness of your Conversation your works of Righteousness your works of Mercy these are all kept in your hearts Conscience is the keeper of them the Conscience of an honest holy gracious heavenly life is a precious Treasure kept within you 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing the Testimony of a good Conscience All your Duties arise from your hearts all your Holiness and Fruitfulness and activity for God are so many holy streams flowing from an holy heart and all these streams return into the heart there they must be kept against the day of Accounts 5. It is the Ark of your strength Some mens strength lies in their heads in their Wisdom and Counsel and Policy a wise man is a strong man Other mens strength lies in their hands a Princes strength lies in his Armies in his Forts and Castles and strong Towers but a Christians strength is in his heart The Lord is in his heart and Psal 73.26 Thou art the strength of mine heart Eph. 6.10 Be ye strong in the Lord and in the power of his might The weakest Christians have a strong God and hence it is they are strong and of good courage Christians have need of strength 1. Of Strength for their Work there are great things they have to do they have much work hard service the life of a Christian is not a toying but a toyling life You shall never get to Heaven by play or by Idleness you have much business lying upon you and great business The working out your Salvation is hard work The Soules of Sinners lye idle as if they had nothing to do What pains dost thou use to take for thy Soul What hast thou done all thy life long towards the working out thy Salvation Sinners you live as if God should throw in Heaven upon you and cloath you with Glory and immortality whilst your Souls are fast asleep no you must work if you will live you must labour for the meat that endures to eternal life Joh. 6.27 if ever you will have the eating of it You must pray and watch and strive to enter in at the strait gate if ever you will get in This should be your work and it is the work of Christians and for this their great work they have great strength given them and all their strength is in their hearts 2. Christians have need of strength for their burthens Christians have hard work and heavy burthens lying upon them Besides the Care that is upon them for their Souls which is a great and weighty burthen and their fear of miscarrying in the matters of their Souls which is another burthen they have burthens of Sufferings and Afflictions ordinarily upon their backs All the hatred and malice all the scorns and reproaches of this Evil World light and lie upon the backs of poor Christians and how shall they bear their burthens if they have no strength 3. They have need of Strength against their Enemies Christians live in the midst of Enemies Enemies without the Devil and his Instruments Enemies within their own Lusts and Corruptions and they must be in continual fight against these Enemies and their Enemies being so many and so strong they have need of strength to resist them Christians have need of strength and strength they have and all their strength is in their hearts There their Armour lies The shield of Faith the breast-plate of Righteousness the helmet the hope of Salvation and there their Captain dwells the Captain of their Salvation lodges in their hearts Lose your hearts and lose your strength and what will you do at your Work how will you bear your burthens how will you stand against your Enemies when your strength is lost What became of Sampson when he was deprived of that wherein his strength lay what weakly Souls are careless Christians every little duty is too hard them how quickly are they weary weary of Praying weary of Hearing weary of Meditation weary of a watchful Life a little work will make them weary How little can they do and how little can they bear every little cross sinks their spirits and what resistance can they make against Enemies every lust is apt to carry them away every Temptation overcomes them O Christians by how slow a pace do we keep on our way how little sign do we make at our work we have been Christians some of us of twenty years standing or more how little good have we done how little treasure have we gotten in how little execution have we done upon our sins and lusts what poor weakly lifeless half-starv'd Souls have we to this day sure we have been ill keepers of our hearts the ark of our strength hath been laid waste strangers
Wherefore dost thou doubt so wherefore dost thou drag so O thou of little Faith Where 's our Love to Christ when our work for Christ goes so slowly on 2 Cor. 5.14 The Love of Christ constrains us The Love of Christ will quicken us the Love of Christ will put Life into us we should find our Tongues and find our Hands and find time to be more abundant in service could we feel more of the Love of Christ in us Thou makest nothing of it that thou art such a dull untoward unactive Souls but is it nothing to want Faith Is it nothing to want love to Christ Is it nothing to be without Grace in thy heart Or if thou hast any to have so very little as thou canst not tell whither 't is any or no It is an ill sign that thy Soul is in a very doubtful case at least 't is to be doubted Whether thou hast any Grace in thee Where in ordinary thou art so untoward and listless to the matters of God and the businesses of Religion 3. 'T is of ill consequence 'T is a sign our case is bad and it is an hindrance from our growing better It is the vivacious active stirring soul that 's like to be the thriving Soul Sluggards and Sleepers are never like to come to any thing We may preach to you while our hearts ake we may instruct you and tell you what is your duty while we will and you may hear us while you will but in vain shall we preach and in vain will you hear till we can fire you out of this deadness and whet and set an edge upon those blunted Souls what will it be to be told of your Duty whilst you remain to have so little heart to it what becomes of all the Sermons you hear of all the teaching you what you should do and how you should live what becomes of all the convincing awakening quickning words that are in your ears from day to day what doth all our Preaching and all your hearing bring forth upon you truly friends the little success that is to be perceived of our Preaching among you either to the converting of sinners or improving of professors the small success that does appear what there is within God knows does even make us out of heart But as little success as we have we are never like to have it much better unless we may stir your hearts and awaken you to more diligence and activity When we have done all we can we are I doubt like at last to leave the most of you either quite dead in sin or but very Dwarfes in Religion Sinners is it nothing to you that the enlivening word should leave you still among the dead Christians is it nothing to you that the nourishing and quickning Word should leave you but babes and infants Is it not a trouble to you and a discomfort to you that you get no more that you grow no faster much more that any of you should consume and languish under the hands of your Physicians I must tell you it is a discomfort to us but is it not more a discomfort to you can you continue at this pass and not be troubled at it O what a comfort is it to be a thriving lively Christian Methinks when you see any such before your eyes you should at least sigh out such a wish O that it were so with me and breath out such a groan wo is me that 't is not so methinks it should be an heaviness of heart to you to feel your own soul in Cloggs when you see others upon the wing O that I could make you sensible of your diseases that I could preach you heart sick that I could but make your hearts ake under your distempers that you might no longer be able to go up and down without trouble in this unthriving case Sure friends you whose case this is had need to be troubled and 't would be well for you if your Souls were in pain and refused to be comforted till you be cured To make you yet more sensible of the perniciousness of this untoward dull and listless temper look a little more upon the excellency of the contrary a chearful lively temper 'T is call'd 2 Cor. 8.17 A forward mind 1 Pet. 5.2 A ready mind that need not be spurred and whip'd but goes chearfully and freely on its way What is a sprightful horse to a dull and heavy jade what is a blunted rusty knife to that which is bright and keen what is a consumptive languishing body to one that 's lively and healthful what is a dark and lowring to a Sunshine day what is Winter to Summer yea what are the living to the dead what a pitiful thing is that dead and spiritless heart of thine when thou lookest on them in whom is the life of God Hear O ye sleepy and listless Souls awaken stir up your selves shake off this sloth and sleep work out this untoward spirit What do you mean to hang thus betwixt alive and dead will you hold you at this pass till you come to your Graves Is this all the care and the pains you ever mean to bestow on God and your Souls must the Lord ever find you so unready and untoward to what he calls you to shall the world find a forward mind in you shall your flesh find such a ready mind to whatever it hath for you to do and will you only be unready and unactive for God Wherefore have you Reason and Understandings wherefore have you the Scriptures before you what are Sabbaths and Ordinances and Ministers for must we come hither only to sing you asleep or to rock von in your Cradles Where is that Grace that is in you where is your Faith where is your love to Christ where is your hope if you have any Grace where is it what must all these precious talents be eaten up with rust or laid up in a napkin Remember the slothful Servants doom Mat. 25.30 What are your immortal Souls what is the holy God what is Jesus Christ what are the glorious treasures of Eternity are all these worth no more of your care and industry will none of these things move you will not these great things quicken you Hear them all calling upon you God calls upon you oh my children if you have any respect for me come along come faster after me Christ calls oh my Disciples if you have any love to me if all that I have done for you if all that I will do for you will move you arise and mend your pace Heaven calls upon you if ever you mean to come here gird up your loyns and come on Yea Hell calls look ye down hither what a place is here prepared for Sleepers and Loyterers Your poor Souls call have ye any pity for me must I perish and die for the pleasing this lazy flesh Your poor Families call your poor Children call your poor Neighbours call
could you give I doubt this is the account the most of you would give I cannot tell God knows how 't is with me for my part I know not how ' t is That Heart hath been well look't to mean while hast thou carried it like a wise man the while Thou hast great acquaintance in the world thou takest upon thee to know other mens hearts and wilt judge and censure them as thou listest what man and yet hast so little acquaintance with thy self Be thou thine own judge hast thou been a wise man the while to be such a stranger to thy self that thou dost not know thine own heart Thou wilt say the word tells me Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful and who can know it how then should I know it I answer 1. The more deceitful the Heart is and the harder 't is to know it the more it had need be looked into 2. Though it cannot be perfectly known yet there may be much of it known the heart of man is a great deep 't is true and though thou canst not easily see to the bottom of it yet if thou wilt but look down into the deep thou must see a great way 3. If thou canst not see thorow thine heart with thine own Eyes yet with Gods eyes thou mayest Take the help of the Eyes of the Lord and thou mayest understand even all that is in thine heart God that sees the Heart reveals the heart and he hath given thee such discoveries of thy very heart in his word he hath made the Scriptures such a Looking-glass for thee that if thou wouldst look into that more there thou mightest see thy self and all that is in thee Heb. 4.12 The word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart Christians if you would secure your hearts from danger know them and be acquainted more throughly with them if you would know your hearts better look oftner inward commune with your hearts go down dayly into your own Bosoms take an account of your selves question with your selves how fares it with my Soul is there any real saving Grace in me If there be how fares it with that Grace I have Does it thrive doth it flourish is it kept up in Life and Activity Doth my light shine doth my Love flame do my thoughts and my affections climb and are they working upwards how is it with my Conscience Is it kept pure Doth it speak peace Doth it deal faithfully Doth it check me doth it smite me for the least Evils Doth it comfort me when 't is better Have I a good Conscience Have I the Testimony of a good Conscience Doth my Conscience witness for me that I have been faithful that my Desire and my care and endeavour is and hath been in all things to approve my self to the Eye of God and to be sincere and upright before him O Beloved What a Mercy to us would it be if we would be perswaded to be much in such heart inspection and much in such heart communing The Devil would find the harder work to get in there 's no Disease or Distemper would then grow upon your hearts but it would be espyed in the beginning and so the more easily removed Friends let me prevail with you in this thing I beseech you in the name of the Lord set more upon this Heart-study Of all the business you have to do in the world there 's nothing more necessary nothing more advantageous and yet I doubt nothing more neglected Friends if you have been strangers at home be no longer strangers never say again I cannot tell how it is with my Soul study it til you can tell and study it diligently and you shall be able to tell The Lord will help you to understand your selves if you will but more diligently commune with your own Hearts will you be perswaded to it will you resolve upon it to make this a great piece of your every days work Never look for Soul prosperity never look for Soul security without a serious and frequent discharge of this great Duty You may hear all your days and pray for a better heart as long as you live and all in vain if you will not Watch as well as Pray O that the Lord would so strike home this word upon your hearts that you might feel this charge of the Lord sensibly abiding upon you to keep your Hearts by Heart-Acquaintance and Heart-watchfulness My Soul is exceedingly concern'd about the bringing you upon this Duty and I am in great doubt that the most of us are very deficient herein either neglecting it or but slightly or seldom being conversant in it Sure Friends our Tongues would be better employed our Speech would be with Grace seasoned with Salt we should have more savoury words coming from us we should commune one with another more about the concerns of our souls were there more faithful communing with our Hearts our whole conversations would savour more of it We should be more Spiritual and Heavenly more active for God more fruitful and abounding in every good work our work for our Souls would be carried on with more Life and with more Power we should live a more self-denying a more circumspect a more heedful and a more watchful Life were there a due watchfulness over our Hearts What shall I say more in this thing Be diligent be careful be diligent to know the state of your hearts If I should say with Solomon Prov. 27.23 Be diligent to know the state of thy Flocks and look well to thine Herds would you not hearken to me If I should say be diligent to look well to your Trades and to your Money would you not hearken to me in this if I should say be diligent to take care for your Healths and look well to your Bodies would not this Counsel be accepted by you How much more then should you hearken to me in this Be diligent to know the state of your Souls O Friends be diligent to know and be diligent to get your Souls into a good state and to secure them in it be diligent to know what 't is that hurts you and what 't is that hinders you and what it is that endangers your Souls and take heed of it and then be diligent to know what 't is that will help you and further you and advance you and stablish your Souls in peace and build them up in holiness that you may take those advantages and improve those helps that are before you Such watchfulness as this what an heart reviving what an heart flourishing what an heart rejoycing would follow upon it to your selves And what abundant Praise Glory and Honour would grow up to the Name of God and our Lord Jesus Christ Then should those Hearts of yours which are now too much Dens of Thieves Shops of Vanity Fountains of folly Nests of Lusts and Houses of Merchandize become the sacrifices of the Lord and the Temples of
shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Brethren do you in good earnest desire to get you up to such a life as this do you heartily wish it might be thus with you have you any hope that you shall obtain and will you follow after it will you go hence as men and women designing any such thing shall we that have been with the Lord together this day now agree together in the Name of the Lord to be reaching forward with one heart and with one soul towards such an heavenly life shall we help one another and quicken one another and set examples one to another of such spirituality and heavenliness what do ye think would be the fruit of our appearance before the Lord this day might we return to our houses with our hearts full of such holy Resolutions with our hearts flaming in such holy desires Oh be impatient of thinking to return again to your old carnal and sensual and worldly frames to your cold and indifferent and lukewarm and lifeless way of Religion Let not the Devil catch you again wandring or carelesly jogging on at your wonted rate if he do look for it that whatsoever of the Divine Life or Love of the Divine Hope or joy hath been kindled in you this day you will be quickly spoiled and robbed of it all and those poor and weakly hearts will fall into a worse condition then before If you would keep any thing about you that might comfort you if you would secure your Souls from being rifled of all that you have received if you would not return to be dark and dead and barren Souls then remember this Counsel you have received from the Lord to whom my Prayer is for you which was Davids for Israel 1 Chron. 29.18 O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of this people and prepare their heart unto thee Keep these thoughts fresh upon your hearts and you shall thereby keep your hearts after the Lord hath spoken Grace unto you from returning again to folly Lastly Commit the keeping of your hearts to the keeper of Israel Commit them to God Psal 127.1 Except the Lord keep the City the watchmen waketh but in vain The keeping of the heart is a greater trust than the keeping of a City and therefore had need be put into safe hands G d is able to keep it 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him unto that day God is able and God is faithful faithful is he that hath called you and will do it But it may be you will say O I shall never be able to keep mine heart in heaven keep up the love and life and joy of God in my Soul keep my self pure keep me close to God that the Devil never catch me wandring abroad Why I see he may catch me every hour mine heart is given to wandring and I cannot hold it in It would be an ease and a joy and a great delight to me could I get to be raised to such a pitch to be all spiritual and heavenly and there to fix and be ever with the Lord. O what a joy it would be to me had I but hope I might get to such a pitch but wo is me I shall never be able Why do your duty and for such a comfortable success let that care lie on the Lord. Commit it to him both to help you into such a frame and to keep you in it he hath said he will not fail you He hath sealed to you this day that he will help you that he will keep you trust upon him and he will do it But what is it to commit the keeping of our hearts to the Lord 1. To give them to the Lord. God will keep nothing but what is his own Wilt thou give thine heart to the Devil and then commit it to God to keep it for him give your hearts to the Lord give them to him for his Servants and then commit them to his Custody 2. To trust him with the keeping of them Psal 143.9 Deliver me O God from mine enemies for I flee unto thee to hide me I have many enemies that lie in wait for my Soul I dare not trust to my self for security God is my trust and my refuge I flee unto thee to hide me I will trust under the shadow of thy wings Psal 36.7 Therefore brethren my Exhortation to you shall be the same with Peters Exhortation to suffering Christians 1 Pet. 4.19 Commit the keeping of your Souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful creatour Observe it commit but in well doing Do not neglect your duty and think to make it up with this I have committed the care of my self to God I say do not neglect your hearts be not idle and careless of your own duty do not leave your selves open to the Usurpation of lust or the invasion of the Devil do not suffer your hearts to lead you on in your carnal ways leave not that heart of thine to be a blind house a dark hole and filthy Dungeon full of Abominations and then think to make up the matter with this to say I have committed it to the Lord to wash it and cleanse it and keep it I trust God with my Soul he I hope will preserve it commit the keeping of your Souls in well doing do your duty keep your hearts under Government keep them under Guard be washing your hearts daily be watching your hearts daily though God be also yet you are every one your own keepers do your part to keep that which God hath committed to you and then fear not but God will do his part he will keep whatever you have committed to him And thus I have at length run through this great duty of keeping the heart The Lord knows how great need there is of every word that hath been spoken O that none of it might be lost Our poor hearts God knows have hitherto found us but poor heart-keepers The case they are in is Evidence sufficient to prove how sadly they have been look'd to Some of them continuing in a lost state to this day others of them but half recovered others relapsed and fallen back from what they were once hopefully recovered to none of our hearts but have often been among Thieves where we have suffered great loss and how many have been the heart distempers and diseases we have fallen into O what slight what licentious what listless dull and lazy Souls have we been sure these hearts have found us but bad keepers O what shall be the success of these many words that have been spoken what say you Christians is there any hope that your hearts shall be better look'd to for the future what say you will you now be faithful will you keep this charge of the Lord keep this heart with all diligence who is there among you that will say I confess my faults and my great neglects this day I confess I have been careless the sad frame mine heart is in is a witness against me but through the Grace of God I will look better to my self and hope I shall not forget this word as long as I live I hope I shall leave medling with other mens matters and leave censuring of other mens ways and from henceforth keep mine eye more close and constant upon mine own Soul This do be more faithful in keeping your selves and then you may be bold to commit your selves to the Lord as unto a faithful Creator What hath been my design and desire in this whole work But 1. To prepare your hearts for the Lord that he may accept them 2. To bring them over to the Lord that they may become his own 3. To keep them for the Lord to keep them pure that he may take pleasure in them O let this be done and then you may commit them to the Lord to keep them safe Will you be perswaded will you be prevail'd upon thus to prepare and bring over your hearts to the Lord thus to preserve and keep them pure and faithful to him and so trust to his faithfulness Might I prevail with you in this I had done my work and having put you thus into safe custody should there be bold to leave you in this Confidence that you should be thenceforth all kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto Salvation FINIS
hath been asleep and let thee alone to run thy course without its keeping an account yet God hath written down all Though thou hast forgotten what thou hast been though thou hast forgotten or taken no notice of what thou hast done yet God hath his book of remembrance against thee thine iniquities are all marked before him These things thou hast done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Psal 50.21 The Lord stood by and saw thee when thou wert in thy cups the Lord hearkened and heard all thine oaths thy lies and though he kept silence and let thee alone for the time and said little to reprove or affright thee yet thou shalt see and know that he saw thee where ever thou were and marked what ever thou hast done thou shalt know it by this that he will hereafter reprove thee and set all thy sins in order before thee And O what a fearful sight will that be when thou shalt have the black roll of all the wickedness that thou hast done in thy life at once presented to thy view Now you would be ready to say I know nothing by my self or no great matters at least thou hast but a few things against thy self and those few thou countest small matters But when God shall bring forth the whole roll and force thee to read every line and to see every sin in its colours then shalt thou see every one of thy sins as so many Devils to torment thee forever Sinner how dost thou think thou shalt look in that day how will thy face grow pale and thy countenance be changed and thy bones tremble at such an horrid sight of all thy sins at once O prevent this misery by getting Conscience to be faithful let Conscience keep its Book open and write down all thy ways that there thou maist read them at present and remember them in order to thy repentance and their being blotted out by the bloud of the Lamb. 3. A Tongue Conscience is called by a Proverb the Preacher in the bosom How shall this Preacher preach if he hath not a tongue to speak God be merciful to those Congregations which have dumb Priests and to those sinners that have dumb Consciences How long may poor Congregations sit under a dumb Priest ere they hear any thing to purpose either of their duty or their faults they may be blind and ignorant souls and never hear one word of instruction or of the danger of their ignorance they may be without Christ and without God in the World and so may continue to their dying day and never hear one word to bring them to Christ or turn them to God They may be Liars Drunkards Swearers Sabbath-breakers or what they will and whatever they be they never hear a word to bring them to repentance They may live without prayer reading or so much as thinking of God or their everlasting state and not a word spoken to bring them to these necessary duties And just thus sadly it fares with people that are under dumb consciences They may do what they will be as wicked as they will and conscience lets them alone Sinner dost thou not find this to be true in thy case Thou canst go all thy days without serious prayer no prayer in secret no prayer in the family thou canst live in this respect like a very heathen and thou canst lye and swear and drink and scoff and be covetous and what says conscience to all this Not a word Thy conscience may say in its wickedness as God said in his righteousness These things thou hast done and I kept silence Such mens consciences it may be said of them as concerning David towards his son Adonijah 1. Kings 1.6 His father had not displeased him at any time in saying why hast thou done so Mens consciences will not displease them will not displease their lusts but will let them alone and say nothing to them good nor bad How often dost thou hear of thy conscience When did it check thee or reprove thee or warn thee When dost thou hear such a word within thee How shall I do this wickedness and sin against God With what conscience can I be thus false or fraudulent or froward With what conscience can I keep such vain or lewd company With what conscience can I live without prayer or any thing of the worship of God in my house Is there any conscience in this lying or promise-breaking or deceitful dealing Is there any conscience in this idle careless life to live thus in the neglect of God and my soul When dost thou hear such a word within thee thou hast a conscience such as it is but it hath lost its tongue and will not reprove thee or warn thee but let thee alone to follow thy lust and humour without controul and in what a woful case art thou that art under such a dumb conscience We read that Christ in great wrath said to his Disciples concerning the Pharisees Mat. 15.14 Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind let them alone say nothing to them Hath Christ said thus to conscience concerning thee Let him alone say not a word to him let him be blind while he will let him be hardned while he will speak no more to him to awaken him Is not this a dreadful case O Friends pray for a faithful conscience that will not cease to warn you from day to day Do not muzzle the mouth of conscience encourage your consciences to speak to you by giving them free leave to speak yea by asking and enquiring of conscience Conscience what sayest thou to this course I am going on in If I ask my will or my affections or my lusts concerning these vain ways these all are pleased and like it that I go on thus But what sayest thou O my conscience Is it good that I be a Worldling or a Sensualist or a Liar or unjust or unmerciful Is this as God would have it Is this the life that God is well pleased with Ask conscience such questions and put conscience to it to give in its answer and there is hope it will speak And then hear what conscience speaks If conscience speak and speak and men will not hear this is the next way to stop its mouth a deaf ear will make a dumb conscience If conscience speaks and it cannot be heard if the warnings and items of conscience be born down by lust and appetite this is the next way to put conscience to silence that it speaks no more Sinners you have been hitherto consulting with flesh and bloud taking counsel of sense and appetite and carnal interest and whilest conscience hath kept silence you see in what away you have gone on Would you have conscience speak or have it hold its peace Will you henceforth enquire of conscience what it does in earnest judge of your present life what it does judge best for
things honestly in all things and at all times This exercise of keeping to conscience is a painful exercise you can never live a conscientious life unless you will be content to live a painful life to take pains with your hearts to take pains with your thoughts and affections to take pains with your tongues and all your members to hold them close to the rule of conscience this painful exercise will get you an heat will beget warmth in those cold and careless hearts The most conscientious Christians are the most warm and lively Christians and according as you get and keep your hearts warm so will your diseases waste the health of your souls return into you Remember what I have said if ever you would recover your lost souls recover conscience if ever you would recover conscience get the guilt the guile of conscience purged away by the bloud of Christ and water of repentance keep the eye of conscience open let conscience be the Supervisor of all your ways let the book of conscience be kept clear from blots and blurs and let there be a faithful record kept there of all your ways let the tongue of Conscience have leave to speak and warn you from day to day and submit to its Scepter and government be no longer govern'd by Will or by appetite or by lust or by the fashions and customs or examples of men but be govern'd by Conscience Do not give Conscience a Kiss and a Stab hearken to it in some things and wound it in other things but study to live in all good Conscience on your Sabbath-dayes on your working-dayes in the House of the Lord in your own houses in the houses of your Friends in the Field in the Market in the matters of God in the matters of the World when you are alone when in company when you are in good company when you are fallen into evil company wherever you are whatever you are a doing still have an eye upon Conscience an ear open to Conscience and let Conscience prescribe to you what you should do and how you should carry it in every affair 3. Beware of taking cold That 's a special rule Physicians use to give to the recovering Patient when Persons are upon recovery of their bodily diseases how ordinary is it that upon a little cold they relapse and sometimes die of their disease Is thy Soul upon recovery take heed of Colds Soul such there are who when they begin to be wrought upon and brought to any sence of Religion there appears a great heat and fervour of spirit upon them 't is with them as with the Prophet Jer. 20.9 Thy Word was in me like fire their love and desire and zeal for God seem all in a flame O what warm affections have they how warm in their Duties how warm in their converses they seem to be all Life and Soul and then after a time they grow stark cold and little life is left in them and some of them never recover again while they live Hath thy Spirit gotten an heat hath the Word heated thee and those Exercises of Prayer Repentance and keeping Conscience gotten thee into an heat then take heed of growing cold keep you constant to those Exercises that have begotten an heat in you Keep you in the Sun-shine all your heart-warmth is begotten and must be maintained from above live in the beholding the face of God live under the Sun-beams of the Sun of righteousness keep you close to God keep you near to Christ live in intimate communion with God Take heed of those clouds your sins that will obscure the Sun Isa 59.1 Take heed of an Eclipse see that this Earth do not interpose betwixt your Souls and Heaven take heed of the damp Influences of the dead that you live amongst We live in a cold World a cold Age that Age has overtaken us which Christ Prophesied of Mat. 24.20 Wherein the love many of should wax cold Those that are grown cold themselves will serve for nothing but to chill and damp the Spirits of others Be not unnecessarily conversant with this cold World trust not your selves in their Company have you never found how much your Souls have lost by carnal Correspondencies Professors how is it with you Do you still retain your first vigour as when you began to be recovered May not the Lord complain over some of us as of Israel Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth and the love of thine Espousals I remember it as a thing that is past that now is not or as Ephesus Rev. 2.4 Thou hast lost thy first Love and what follows from this decay Hence is it that we are become a Company of sickly Professors of Carnal Professors of Earthly Professors the World hath return'd upon us the Flesh hath gotten head again in us the things that are Eternal and the influences of them upon us are even lost and swallow'd up of things Temporal our Stocks and our Businesses and our Trades how have they even choak'd up our Religion Friends it 's matter of astonishment to consider how very few lively Christians there are to be found amongst us Thus we every one talk what a General decay of Religion there is among us has not thine own Mouth complain'd of the coldness of this Age But whilst thou complainest of the Age how is it with thee Art not thou sick of the same Disease Look homeward look inward into thine own House into thine own Heart what Spirit of Religion is there going in thine own Family Hast thou not by thy negligence let all run to decay there What Life of Religion is there maintain'd in thine own Heart Friends feel you every man his own Pulse lay your hand every Man upon his own Heart and feel how faintly it beats Heaven-wards Sure Friends if we should examine our own Cases we should find enough to set us all a Weeping over our own decays and she should hear that voice within us Weep not for others but weep for thy self and thine own Children O take heed lest such of you as are fallen back among the Sick do not also return among the Dead and make your recovery again more hopeless at last than 't was at first You that stand be warn'd by those that are fallen stand with your Loyns girded and your Lights burning and you that are fallen fallen to decay fallen to a dead and flat and lifeless State you that are fallen remember whence you are fallen remember and repent remember and recover strengthen the things that remain if there be any sparks left blow off your Ashes blow up the Coals Let the Life of God and the love of Christ and a Zeal for Holiness be again kindled in you and if ever the Lord should recover you again there 's great hazard whether he may thou mayest die of the Cold thou hast taken the Consumption that hath Eaten up so much of thy Vitals may be unto
Death Eternal Death but if ever God should recover thee again and revive his work and enliven that almost Dead Carkass then at last learn from thine own miserable experience to take heed of taking Cold again as long as thou livest Thus much for the recovering the Heart which is pre-supposed to the keeping of the Heart The Heart thus recovered out of its lost State must be kept and well look'd to that it fall not back again and here 2. Now I shall shew you what it is to keep the heart or how it must be kept and so 1. It must be kept under Government 2. It must be kept under Guard 1. It must be kept under Government here I shall shew 1. The necessity of keeping the Heart under Government 2. How the Heart must be Governed 1. The necessity of keeping the Heart under Government that will appear by considering what an Heart it is and because the Heart is recovered in part and there is much of its Old and Original pravity remaining in it which will be apt to boil up and break forth again I shall a little open the wretched temper and disposition of it which will evidence how great a necessity there is to keep it under Government 1. It is a wicked mischievous heart Jer. 17.9 Desperately wicked Psalm 5.9 Very wickedness Rom. 8.7 Enmity against God It is the Fountain whence all the filthy streams that pollute and defile our lives do flow and are cast forth It is the Furnace whence all the stinking fumes and smoaks that annoy the World are sent forth It is the Nest where all the Cockatrices Eggs are Hatched It is the Sink that gathers in all manner of filth into it and then sendeth it abroad to do mischief Psal 41.6 His Heart gathereth iniquity to it self as the Sinks gather in all the filth of the Town and when he goeth abroad he telleth it only there is this difference between this and other Sinks other Sinks gather in the filth but 't is in order to the conveying it and carrying it away Into this evil evil Sink of the Heart all the filth is gathered and there it stops and stinks and casts it self back in its annoying streams Out of the Heart comes evil Thoughts Murthers Adulteries c. Mat. 15.19 All this Filth and Mudd all this Wickedness and Malignity as it Naturally dwells in every Heart so there 's much of it remaining even in renewed Hearts and will if there be not constant care to keep down and by degrees to cast it out will rise and swell and work up again in them Christians you may thank God that there is Salt cast into these filthy Fountains for the healing these muddy waters that there is a Spring of Living Waters broken in your Hearts by degrees to drain out your Dirt that there is Grace begotten in you to resist and repell the contagion of Lust but this little Grace will be choak'd up again if Lust be not kept under And as it is a Wicked so 't is a Mischievous Heart it 's set upon mischief Wickedness will be doing wickedly as 't is said of the Workers of Iniquity so 't is true of all as far forth as they are unrenewed Mischief is in their Hearts Psal 28.3 There 's the same Reason of keeping our Hearts under restraint as of keeping Mad-men in they will be doing mischief if they have their liberty Besides the mischief that our evil Hearts will be doing to others they will be mischiefing themselves Mad Men will tear their own Flesh will cut and wound themselves if they be let alone and there is no such danger of evil Hearts as in regard of that mischief they do themselves 1. Our evil Hearts will hinder us from doing good to our Selves or of receiving or laying up good for our Selves Rom. 7.19 The good that I would I do not why what hinders See Vers 21. I find a Law the Law of Sin in the Heart When I would do good evil is present with me Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that we cannot do the things that we would Sometimes good Counsel is given us from the Lord but we do not take it How many good Counsels have you heard from the Ministry of the Word that are lost and forgotten and come to nothing Sometimes a good motion comes into the Heart to repent and amend our ways to pray or to Meditate or to search out Hearts to cease from this Earth and Flesh from serving our Sense and minding only the present and to lay up Treasure in Heaven and provide for the time to come have you never such motions Do you never hear such a voice within you Get you Baggs that wax not Old a Treasure in Heaven that faileth not Choose the good part lay hold on Eternal Life give your self to Praying keep a good Conscience take heed and beware of Covetousness use more diligence live with more heedfulness have your Conversation in Heaven and keep your self unspotted of the World keep your self in the love of God set the Lord alway before your Eyes behold his Face in Righteousness study to shew thy self approved of God and to walk so in all things that thou mayest be accepted of God are there not such motions as these come into your hearts You that are Christians sure you have many such good motions But how do they take What do they bring forth If you had obeyed all the good motions that you have sometimes felt within you O what manner of Christians would you have been What mortified what circumspect what raised and Heavenly minded Christians had you been But how do your good motions take What success are they attended with Do not you see that they are often strangled in the Birth and die away and come to just nothing Or at least do you not meerly halt and trifle in the pursuace of them If you Pray or hear or set your Hearts to humble your selves before the Lord how are you Distracted and Diverted and Deadned and all your duties spoiled in the doing so that you can have little comfort or real advantage by what yo do Do you not often mourn over your Prayers and Sermons and Sabbaths as meerly lost to you When you would work up your Hearts Heaven ward and fix above when you would love and del ght your selves in the Lord and Solace your selves in the contemplation of the Divine Love and Goodness when you would fain set your Hearts to live such a Godly Conscientious Circumspect Self-denying Life and comfort your selves with such thoughts I hope I shall never live such a Careless Carnal Useless Unsavory Earthly Life again I hope you have many such Thoughts Desires Hopes and Aims you are lamentable Christians if you have not but how do they succed What do they bring forth Do they not often prove Abortive and bring forth nothing May it not be said of you as of those Job 15.35 They conceive
These evil thoughts are not only from the suggestion of the Devil or from that variety of Objects that we have before us from what we see or hear but are also the streamings up of a corrupt heart as out of a boyling Pot of filthy Liquor or out of a reeking Dunghill there arise stinking and noysom steams and smells so naturally doth a corrupt heart steam up into the head and fill it with vile thoughts and imaginations and therefore the cure that is prescribed for these evil thoughts is the cleansing of the heart from wickedness Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Get thine heart washed from its wickedness and that 's the best way to free thy self of wicked thoughts We have many complaints of vain thoughts of disturbing and distracting Imaginations and we hear People asking often How shall I be rid of these evil thoughts Wo is me what wandring roving distracted Thoughts have I so that I can never have comfort in any thing I do but man consider thou art under a worse Disease the unmortified Lusts of thine Heart from whence these Thoughts arise Canst thou bear the Lusts of thine Heart the Pride and frowardness and worldliness of thy Heart canst thou complain of thy Thoughts and not complain of thy Lusts One unmortified Lust hath more mischief in it than an hundred evil Thoughts Thy Duty is to complain more of thy naughty Heart thy naughty disposition and inclination and to get these to be changed and that 's the best way to cure thee of evil Thoughts I say this is the best cure get you better Hearts wash your Hearts from those evil Lusts that dwell in them If you would get rid of worldly Thoughts purge out worldly Lusts if you would be rid of Proud Thoughts get the Pride of your Hearts slain get you an humble Heart and that 's the best cure of proud imaginations if you would be free from vain Thoughts light and impertinent and useless Thoughts get you cured of the Vanity of your Spirits get you to be serious get an Heart more intent upon serious things and that will discharge you of such runagate and vagabond Thoughts It is seldom that People complain of distracting or vain Thoughts but there is a worse Disease whence they arise that they take no notice of Thou hast a vain trifling Heart thou art not in good earnest in thy Religion thou art not sensible of the weight and importance of thine everlasting concerns thou hast an unmortified Heart unmortified Lusts in thine Heart thou lovest the World and lovest thy pleasures and lustest after thine ease or thy carnal delights thine Heart sits too loose from God and the things of God thou art not powerfully and resolvedly bent for the Blessedness to come thine Heart is not yet fixed upon Christ and Christianity this is a worse Disease than evil Thoughts though that be bad enough and the very root from whence they arise Do not therefore enquire barely how shall I be freed from evil Thoughts but chiefly how may I get my Lusts subdued how may I purge out those evil Dispositions and Desires how may I get my Heart more intently fixed on God and things above Get that done once and thy evil Thoughts will quickly fall 2. In the Passions of our Hearts we have unruly Thoughts and unruly passions there is an unruliness in all our Affections who can love and fear and desire and grieve for nothing but what he should what he should fear and desire What we should not fear we fear and what we should fear we cannot What we should love we cannot and what we should not love we set our Hearts upon We cannot raise up good desires in our Hearts nor keep down evil there is an unruliness in all our affections but especially the passion of Anger and Wrath when this breaks forth what Rude and brutish and wild Creatures do men become like a roaring Lion or a ranging Bear like a Bear robbed of her Whelps such is a man in his rage to those that stand in his way The breaking forth of rage is as the breaking forth of fire in an House how much water must there be to quench it this unruliness of Spirit the whole World abounds with proofs of every Countrey every City nay but few Families are there whom their experiences do not teach them what an unruly thing the rage of the Heart of man is And is there not a necessity of keeping such an Heart under Government of governing the Thoughts and governing the Passions and unruly Affections the necessity of Government upon the accompt of the unruliness of our Thoughts and Passions will appear if we consider that our Eternal State is highly concerned in our Thoughts and Passions For 1. These are the Instruments by which men work out their own Salvation or Damnation 2. These are Evidences of what we are in respect of our Eternal State 1. These are instruments by which men work out their own Salvation or Damnation Holy Thoughts holy Affections set us a working out our Salvation the exercising of our Thoughts upon God upon Eternity upon the Blessedness to come and upon the Wrath to come the exercising of our Affections the keeping our Selves in hope of the Salvation of God the keeping our selves in fear of the Reprobation of God the maintaining desires after God and his Salvation these all will be as so many Cords to hold us in as so many Springs to put us on in the way of Salvation Thinking Christians and Hoping Christians and Fearing Christians and Desiring Christians will be Working Christians I thought on my ways and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies Psal 119.59 He that hath this Hope purifieth himself as God is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling Fear a Miscarriage fear falling short fear to be Damned and this will set you a working out your Salvation Men will not work because they do not desire because they do not Fear men do not desire or fear because they will not think think more of God think oftner what 't is to be Saved what 't is to be Damned think much thus and this will stir up your desires and fears desire more the Salvation of God fear more his indignation and Wrath and this will set you to work out your Salvation and to secure your selves from falling into Condemnation And as good Thoughts and well order'd Affections will set us a working out our Salvation so by evil Thoughts and unruly Affections men work out their Damnation Unruly Thoughts disorderly affections in the Soul are as cross Winds or as Storms or Tempests upon the Sea How can the Mariner ever get to the Haven when the wind is contrary and what kindness do Tempests do him but to dash him against the Rocks and drown him in the Deep ungoverned Thoughts and Passions in the Heart are like Mutineers
our Duty Let him that Blesseth himself in the Earth bless himself in the God of Truth He that loveth himself will bless himself There 's a double Self-blessing 1. A seeking our own blessedness Self-love will prompt us to seek an happiness for our selves not only to save our selves from Misery but to bring our selves to Blessedness The blessedness which true Self-love wisheth and seeketh for Self is in God in the God of Truth He that truly loveth his own Soul can be content with nothing less than God for the blessedness of of it No State no Inheritance no Treasure can satisfie him below Heaven and everlasting glory There 's not a man of you that loves his Soul but he is seeking Glory and Honour and Immortality for it he is taking care and taking pains to get a place in Heaven for his Soul to lay up Treasure in Heaven for it Dost thou love thy self who dost not bless thy Self or seek a Blessing in God for thy Self Dost thou bless thy Self in God who slightest God who carest not for God and who refusest the blessing of God and this for the sake of thy Lusts and Pleasures Sinner lovest thou thy Self lovest thou thine own Soul O seek a Blessing for it a blessing in God a blessing in Heaven for it 2. An enjoying and rejoycing in your own Blessedness Loving our selves aright is part of the fruition and enjoying our selves as loving God is of the fruition of God No man that loves himself but he would enjoy himself and bless himself in the reflection on his own Happiness And this is the self-blessing mentioned let him bless himself in the God of Truth that is let him satisfy himself let him comfort himself let him enjoy and rejoyce over himself upon this account that the God of Truth is his God and his Happness Let him not bless himself in the Earth that Riches are his that Pleasures and Honours are his that he hath the World at will but that the Lord God is his let him not chear himself with the Rich Man's Song Luke 12. Soul take thine ease thou mayest enjoy thy Self for thou hast goods laid up for many Years but let him take up the Psalmist's Song Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest O my Soul herein thou mayest bless thy Self herein thou mayest comfort thy Self the Lord hath dealt graciously with thee Friends you whose God is the Lord you are the Men that may bless your Selves you are the Men that may enjoy your Selves you may look into your Hearts with comfort you may look upon your States with Joy you may bless your Selves that God hath given you such an Heart you may bless your Selves that God hath given you such a Portion You that have an Interest in God and this witnessed by the Image of God upon your Hearts you may enjoy your Selves and take comfort as often as you look inward and see the Marks and the Prints of Divine Grace stamped upon you your very love to your Selves will make you to rejoice over your Selves as often as you view the blessed Frame into which the Goodness and Grace of God hath brought you Well this Self-love with it's Fruits Self-preservation and Self-blessing is our Duty and the Lord hath planted it in our Hearts on purpose to bring us on upon all our other Duties God makes great use of this innocent Self-love in his Government of the World God Governs by Laws and Laws Govern by their Rewards and Punishments and Rewards and Punishments have their Efficacy by vertue of this love of our selves what would Laws signifie were there no Rewards to the Obedient nor Penalties to the Disobedient These are the Sinews and Strength of Laws and what would Rewards and Penalties signifie to us were we not lovers of our Selves Our Self-love prompts us to seek our good and to prevent our misery As far as we love our Selves we desire our own Happiness 'T was Self-love that made those many Psal 4.6 to say Who will shew us any good 'T was the Psalmist's Love to the Church Psal 122.9 that made him say I will seek thy good and hence 't is that we endeavour the prevention of our ruin Self-preservation is the Fruit of Self-love Self-love is the first spring and motive to Religion 't is true when we come to be Religious indeed there are higher motives the love of God the Love of Christ is the great Argument to carry us on in sound Religion when we come to be Christians then the main Motive to Christianity is that which Christ used to Peter John 21.15 to faithfulness in his Ministry Lovest thou me Feed my Sheep Lovest thou me Feed my Lambs If ye love me keep my Commandments Joh. 14.15 But the first Motive to bring us to be Christians is this Self-love Lovest thou thy Self Then give thy Self to Christ Lovest thou thy Soul Then be a Christian Christ is the only way to blessedness He that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.12 And he that not the Son hath not Life Christ is the only way to blessedness and the only security against misery against Everlasting misery There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 There is no Name under Heaven by which we must be saved saved from Death from Eternal Death but by the Name of Jesus Acts 4.12 Now when Christ says Come unto me and ye shall have rest Mat. 11. Follow me and ye shall have Treasure in Heaven Mark 10. He that is ashamed of me of him will I be ashamed before my Father that is in Heaven the intent and meaning of all this is if you love your Selves come to me if you love your Souls keep my Commandments if ever you would that those Souls of yours should be happy Souls if you would not that they should be Lost and Burned and Drowned in everlasting Destruction if you love your Souls and wish their good and happiness if you would not be your Destroyers and Murtherers if you have so much love to your Souls that you would they should be Saved and would not that they be Damned then come unto Christ then be followers of Christ then believe then repent and obey the Gospel If you love your Selves be Holy if you love your Selves be Heavenly minded if you love your Selves be humble be painfull be circumspect and walk in all things as becometh the Gospel By the way I exhort you to improve and maintain your true Self-love I say not to you only Husbands love your Wives Parents love your Children Christians love one another but every one of you love your Selves If you love your Selves you will love God if you love your Selves you will love Christ if you love your Selves you will love Godliness if you love your Selves you will be the followers of God the Disciples of Christ and will give your selves to live godly in Christ Jesus See therefore that you love your Selves that your poor Souls may grow more dear
thy self in these things as great a Pleasure to thee and dost thou find as great a delight in them as thou findest in eating and drinking in buying and selling and getting gain dost thou love to be Praying or to be Praising the Lord as thou lovest to be getting Money dost thou love to be sending thine Heart to Heaven and there to solace it in the thoughts and joyes of the Lord as thou lovest to be thinking of thy Corn or thy Cattel or thy Income by thy Trade Thou knowest thou dost not Canst thou say with the Psalmist Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles Oh Lord my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for thy Courts mine Heart and my flesh cryeth out for the liveâ—ng God A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand a door in thine House is better than all the dwellings of the World Lord lift up thy Countenance upon me and that shall put more gladness into mine Heart than when their Corn and Wine encreased Let the Corn and the Wine be whose it will so that the Lord God will be mine let this World go cross and frown upon me as it will so that the Face and Countenance of God do but shine upon me let me be poor rather than a Stranger from God let me want an House or want Money or want bread rather than want the presence of God canst thou say so heartily say so thou knowest that thou canst not the good things of the earth the Riches and the Pleasures of the Earth are the Riches thou lovest and the Pleasures thou lovest and thou couldst be content to be straitned in the Lord so that thou mightest abound in these carnal things Is it so with thee O what a Heart hast thou what dost thou think of thy Self art not thou an Idolater a lover of Money more than a Lover of God a lover of Pleasures more than a lover of God a lover of thy Self and flesh more than a lover of God and yet art thou not an Idolater doth thine Heart go a Whoring after thine Idols run away from God after thy Money run away from God after thy Pleasures run away from God after thy Self and flesh and yet not an Idolater art thou an Idolater then an Idolatrous Christian an Idolatrous Professor O! how is it that such a thought does not fill thy Face with shame and set thy Soul a weeping and cause trembling and astonishment to take hold upon thee what Friends is it nothing with you to be Idolaters to have Idolatrous Hearts whoring Hearts whoring from God and whoring after your flesh and the Lusts thereof sure Friends it would make the best of our Hearts to ake if we were sensible what degrees of this Idolatry there were to be found in every one of us and many of us I fear it would convince that they are Idolaters to so high degree that there is nothing of true and real love to God in them 2. It 's the root of all Rebellion and Disobedience Self-love 2 Tim. 3.2 is put in the Head of a black-troop of Lusts and Wickednesses Men shall be lovers of themselves there 's the ring-leader and what follows behold a troop cometh covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without Natural affection Truce-breakers false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High-minded lovers of Pleasure more then lovers of God what a Regiment of sins is here led on by Self-love And observe it lovers of themselves lead on the Van and lovers of Pleasures bring up the Rear Heart-sins are Root-sins and Self-love is the Root of these Roots Pride is the Root of Contention Malice is the Root of Revenge Covetousness is the Root of Oppression and self-love is the Root of them all The Apostle says 1 Tim. 6.10 The love of Money is the Root of all Evil and Self-love is the Root of the love of Money particularly that you may know what a mischievous evil this Heart-sin of Self-love is and how pregnant of all other wickedness consider that it is 1. The Rot of all Religion 2. The Root of all Vnrighteousness and Vnmercifulness 3. The Root of all sinful Brawls and Quarrels 4. The Root of sinful Self-seeking 1. It is the Rot of all Religion that is where it is predominant and carries the main stroak in our Religion It is the rottenness of the Heart under all its most specious Religious pretences or performances All sincere Religion is animated by the love of God the love of God is the Soul of Religion If there be no love to God in our profession of Religion if no love to God in our practices of Piety if no love to God in our Prayers no love to God in our Fastings and Alms all our Religion is rotten at Heart Self-love which is it's only Root is it's rotteness Self-love will 1. Limit our Religion 'T will limit it by self-Interest no more nor no other Religion will it allow than will serve our Carnal turns no farther may we go in it than will consist with this love of our selves whatever part or exercise of Religion will pinch upon the Flesh the self-denying part the self-abasing part the Flesh-mortifying part of Religion unless it be to some further Ends Self-love will never bear it So much professing so much Praying and Hearing as will consist with our Ease and our safety as will not put us to too much pains or expose us to too much danger and reproach so much Religion as will not hold us in too strictly and severely and closely Self-love will bear it but where the Yoak of Christ wrings and galls there it must be thrown off 2. It will corrupt our Religion and turn it into Hypocrisie Selfish Professors are Hypocrites and all their Religion is Hypocrisie and Hypocrisie is the rottenness of the Heart You that are Professors see to it that ye be not self-loving Professors if ye be whatever there be in your Tongues or your Looks or your Religious performances you are rotten at the Core rotten in your Hearts It is love to God wherein our sincerity lies Self-love is our Hypocrisie and where this rotten Self-love hath tainted your Hearts your Hearts will taint and corrupt all your Duties it will pervert and corrupt all that ever you do and turn it into quite another thing your Religion is no Religion your Christianity is no Christianity your Praying is no Praying your Spirituality is but fleshliness your Heavenly-mindedness is but Earthiness your seeming fruitfulness is but Emptiness and barrenness Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth his Fruits to himself Hos 10.1 Israel seemed to be a fruitful Vine that had her Clusters upon it there were Clusters of Prayers and Clusters of Sacrifices and Clusters of Alms Israel had their Fruits and yet they were but a Barren and empty Vine how so Why whatever Fruits they had they were all brought forth to Self Self brought them
that gave it Man though he hath a mortal body yet he hath an immortal Soul The Spirit of a man is the Candle of the Lord and when this Candle is once lighted it shall never go out It s carried away hence but it s carried to God that gave it The Souls of all men good and bad when they die do all go to God even those that go to the Devil are first carried to God by him to receive their Sentence to their everlasting state Sinners when they die go not to God as their Reward or Blessedness but to God as their Judge Sinners will say as Christ did Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit but God will say to them who are ye away from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7.23 I am none of your Father ye are of your Father the Devil get you down to him Commend your Spirits to me what have you given up your Souls to the Devil and all your life long have they been serving of him and he been corrupting and depraving of them blinding them hardning them made them such a filthy and unclean thing and now do ye think to come off so to commend these filthy and unclean Souls to me away with them I 'le none of them If those that are sanctified by my Spirit and serve me with their Spirit come to me when they die I 'le take them to me I will acknowledge my self their Father they shall dwell with me but those that have served sin and the Devil while they lived let not them think to commend their Spirits to me when they die I 'le none of them Well but whether we must dwell with God or the Devil into the other World all Souls good and bad must pass when they go hence 2. There is an eternal Judgement So the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.2 of the Doctrine of eternal Judgment It is call'd an Eternal Judgement not as if the day of Judgment should last for ever in how long or how short a time that judgment shall be dispatched no man certainly knows the glorious God can make short work and will do so in that great and dreadful day It s called Eternal Judgment because it sentenceth men to their everlasting state and its the last judgment there shall never be another to all Eternity but the sentence of this Judgment shall stand for ever 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all stand before the Judgment Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his works to them that by patient continuance in wel-doing do seek for glory honour and immortality eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the truth indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every Soul of them that do evil 3. In the Judgment to come the secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged Men shall be judged for their words men shall be judged for their deeds but not for these only but for the secrets of their hearts Eccl. 12.14 God shall bring every work to Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil The Judgments of men are only over our Bodies and outward Acts they know not our hearts and therefore cannot be our hearts Judges But 1. God sees the heart I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Jer. 17.10 He seeth in secret and he that seeth in secret will reward openly Mat. 6.4 1. He seeth the good that is in secret the love and fear of his Name our inward desires and thirstings and breathings after him every holy thought every holy purpose the inward mournings of the heart under sin and temptation the inward strivings wrestlings of the heart against temptation and corruption our self-loathings and self abasings the integrity and uprightness of our hearts whilst men are censuring or reproaching or punishing us as hypocrites God sees the integrity that is in our Souls O Friends get an honest upright heart in the sight of God you shall never loose the benefit and blessedness of it God sees the sincerity of the upright and will certainly reward it 2. He seeth the evil that is in secret the proud heart the false and guileful heart are open before him Beware of playing the Hypocrite of satisfying your selves with Hypocritical Duties hypocritical Praying hypocritical Hearing or Professing God sees what that heart of thine is a doing while thy tongue is a praying or thine ear hearing thou mayst deceive men and thine own self but God cannot be deceived 2. The secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged in that Judgment of God 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the Counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1. The things of the heart are hidden and dark things The thoughts of the heart dark thoughts the Counsels of the Lord dark Counsels even the good things that are in the heart are to all others but dark things 2. In the day of Judgment these things of darkness shall be all brought to light the secrets shall be all made manifest What a sight will there be in that day when the hearts of all the World shall be seen as it were at one view What a blessed sight will there be when all the Beauty and inward Glory of the Saints all their Graces shall be seen What a black sight also will there be when all the filth and garbage that is in sinners hearts all the venemous brood all the Cockatrices eggs that ever have been hatch'd in those unclean hearts when all the wicked Counsels and Devices of their hearts all the Curses and Blasphemies all the Couzenage and Fraud of the heart all the wicked Plots and Contrivances of the heart against God or his Saints all the Adulteries and Filthiness of the heart all the Madness and Follies of the heart all the Malice and Spite and Rage of the heart when all these shall be presented at one view O what an odious sight will there be Sinners do not cheat your selves in your sinful ways with hopes of Secrecy for all must be brought to light If all that wickedness and hypocrisie if those filthy lusts and unclean thoughts that are in your hearts should be now seen by all this Congregation how would you be ashamed and how would you blush to look any body in the Face but because thy naughty heart and its naughty thoughts and desires cannot be seen thou mayest be a proud fellow of a froward heart of a dissembling lying heart and no body the wiser therefore thou lettest thy self alone to be as thou art as long as thou hast a secret covering for all thy ugly Conditions 't is well enough but do not cheat thy self thus all these hidden things of darkness must be brought to light thou must be turned inside outward and all the shame of
not the Lord Psal 115.17 The living the living he shall praise thee Is 38.19 That is spoken of the naturally dead and living and must we not say the same of the spiritually dead and the living Souls dead Souls can't praise the Lord they can't pray nor believe nor hope nor serve the Lord the living the living Soul it shall praise thee it shall pray unto thee and serve thee Hypocrites are all dead at heart and therefore all their services are but dead services they make a shew and keep a stir in the outward parts of Religion they can talk as Christians and walk and move but it is with these dead Souls as with those dead bodies which we call walking Ghosts they look like men and speak like men and go up and down like men but still they have no Soul in them It is the Devil that acts in them and speaks in them and carrieth them up and down none of all their actions or motions are vital actions the devil can make them speak and walk and look like living men but he cannot make them live such is the Hypocrites Religion he can pray and hear and sing and speak as Christians do but he is dead at heart and thereupon all his duties are but dead duties Friends you are as much concerned to keep your hearts as you are to be able to do any thing that will please God or save your Souls What is the intent of your Religion why do ye come together to pray and hear and partake of the Table of the Lord You will say I come to perform these duties to please the Lord I come in order to the saving of my Soul Do you so then look to your hearts better see that there be the root of Religion within you see that your praying be the praying with the heart that your hearing be not the opening your ear but the opening of your heart to the Word see that whatever you do that hath any shew of Religion in it you do it heartily watch your hearts when you come into the house of the Lord watch your hearts when you set upon any work for God lest they give you the slip and so make all your Services to be but bodily exercises which as 1 Tim. 4.8 profit little Bodily exercises that is the outward part of our Religion Ear Religion Tongue Religion Knee Religion these bodily Exercises where there is not an heart at the bottom of them profit nothing at all they will do nothing to the pleasing of God or the saving our Souls Friends beware of Hypocrisie take heed lest any of you be found hypocrites that your faith you seem to have be not the faith of hypocrites that your hope be not the Hypocrites hope that your praying and fasting and almes be not all the Sacrifices of hypocrites and such sacrifices they are if they be Sacrifices without an heart Come not before the Lord with hollow Vessels which will make a sound but have nothing in them We that look upon you can't tell what there is within you we see your faces and hear your voices but what is under God knows look you to it that it be not all hollow and empty within he that seeth the heart seeth what there is within and will accept or reject according to what he finds of the heart in all you do Friends What do ye here this day have you brought with you ever a Sacrifice for God ever a living Sacrifice the living God will regard none of you if you bring not a living Sacrifice He doth not require of you as he did of old a Bullock or a Ram for a Sacrifice No nor a Dove nor a Lamb for a Sacrifice it is a Soul for a Sacrifice a living Soul that is quickned and sanctified by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ And upon this account farther are you concerned to look to and to keep your hearts as ever you would do any thing in Religion that is acceptable with God or of any avail to your own Salvation The heart is the spring of all vital Actions and they are only our vital Actions our living and lively duties that will be accepted of the living God Would you not be rejected for hypocrites would you not compass the Lord about with lies as Ephraim did Hos 11.12 would you not come before the Lord with lies and comfort your selves with lies then see that you bring your hearts with you before him Is there any life begotten in your hearts is Christ formed upon you is the Spirit of Christ poured forth into you is there the life of God in your hearts and is this the spring of all your acceptable services then as you love your lives as you fear to serve the living God with dead service set a careful guard upon your hearts that neither these be stolen away from God nor that life which is within you be stolen out of your hearts Brethren I would not that any of you be found hypocrites therefore do I labour with you therefore do I preach to you and warn every one of you that you may be presented perfect and upright in the day of the Lord. I would not that you be found hypocrites in that day nor would I that your Religious actions be found hypocritical actions in your present day 'T is said of the limbs of Antichrist 1 Tim. 4.2 That they speak lies in hypocrisies I would have Christians not only none such as speak lies in hypocrisie no nor to speak truth in hypocrisie to do good in hypocrisie and therefore 't is that I have spent so much time among you upon this Subject of looking to your hearts that these may be right with God in all that you do I fear there are hypocrites among you I fear that much of the Religion of some of you may be but hypocritical Religion but look to your selves and as you would be loth to have no better acceptance than hypocrites as you would dread to have your portion with hypocrites so dread it to satisfie your selves with hypocritical duties serve the God of your hearts with an hearty service serve the true God with an heart and with a true heart serve the living God with living hearts see that there be the life of God in your hearts and let the life within you be the Spring of all your Performances that all that ever you do in Religion be the issues of life 3. It is the record of all the transactions which have been betwixt Christ and your Soules If ye be Christs there have been great dealings betwixt Christ and your Souls Christ hath been dealing with you dealing with you by his word dealing with you by his Spirit instructing and enlightning your Souls convincing and awakening your Hearts perswading and alluring your hearts after him Christ hath been dealing with you about your repenting and turning to the Lord about your Reconciliation and making peace with God God hath been in
the heart that makes them such Prayer is a Sacrifice Psal 141.2 Let my prayer come before thee as incense and the lifting up of mine hands as an evening sacrifice Praise is a Sacrifice Psal 50.14 Offer up to God thanksgiving Almes are a Sacrifice Heb. 13.16 With such sacrifices God is well pleased But what maimed Sacrifices are all these if offered up without an heart What is Prayer without an heart what is Praise what are Alms when the heart is not offered up with them they are heart Prayers and heart Praises and heart Alms that are such Sacrifices with which God is well pleased 2. What kind of heart it is that is a Sacrifice to God A broken or a wounded heart The broken heart is the only sound heart The wounding of the heart is as the lancing of the Impostume it lets out the corruption and leaves it a sound heart The hard heart is a Sacrifice for the Devil with such Sacrifices with hard and unbroken hearts the Devil is well pleased Is thy heart an hard heart and wilt thou thus give it up to God Get it to be broken or thou mayest as well carry it to the Devil for a Sacrifice The Devil loves an hard heart but it is an abomination to the Lord. An hard heart is an unclean beast which is not for Sacrifice All the filthiness and rottenness of the heart lies baked up together in an hard heart 't will never be gotten out 'till the heart be broken In the Law the Sacrifices were to be without blemish Lev. 22.20 21 22. Whatsoever hath a blemish that shall ye not offer It shall be perfect and without blemish Whatsoever is blind or maimed or having a Wenn or Scurvy or Scabed ye shall not offer The unbroken heart is an heart full of Blemishes Wens and Ulcers a Scurvy and a Scabed heart 't is the wounded or broken heart that is the perfect heart or an heart without blemish Now herein you see both the necessity of looking to your hearts and what it is that you must secure your hearts against from all things that may be a blemish to the heart from all those Malladies and Diseases that will be a blemish to the heart that so you do not Sacrifice to God a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 He that sacrificeth to God a corrupt thing cursed be that deceiver A sacrifice without an heart is a lame and maimed thing a sacrifice from a polluted heart is the sacrifice of a corrupt thing Beloved you come with your offerings to the Lord but what have you to offer O you have prayers and praises to offer up but is there an heart in your prayers an heart in your Praises and is it a perfect and upright heart an heart without blemish A perfect heart an heart without blemish who can bring such an heart who can â—y mine heart is perfect who can say mine heart is clean Lord be merciful to me mine heart is the worst thing within me all sores and all blemishes and corruption Obj. My mouth must be stopped for ever my tongue must be silent for ever If I must never pray nor praise God till mine heart is a clean and a perfect heart Sol. There is a double perfection a double cleanness of heart 1. Legal and so that only is a perfect heart that fully answers the Righteousness of the Law or first Covenant that only in this sense is a perfect heart which hath nothing of Evil or Hypocrisie no spot or blemish at all in it that the strictest Justice could be offended at thus there 's not a man in the World can say mine heart is perfect mine heart is a clean heart 2. Evangelical Such a perfection which the new Covenant accepts uprightness a sincere heart is in a Gospel Sense a perfect heart An heart that hath been broken by the Word of Christ and been purged by the bloud of Christ an heart that is a purging and cleansing daily that hath its great spots and blemishes of unbelief and impenitence purged away and hath no spots but are begun to be purged and are cleansing dayly Now an heart that hath been thus initially purged and cleansed will unless it be carefully looked to contract new spots the imposthume will gather and fester again the Leprosie will fret and eat deeper and deeper into it longer than the purging work is carried on the corrupting work will be carrying on If the wounds of the heart be not carefully kept open the Devil will quickly heal it up his hardning is his healing the heart He will be searing the heart so as that though there be never so much wickedness in it it shall not be felt and perceived and when we cease to feel our sores when the heart grows senseless of its sins then is a time when iniquity is like to abound And there 's no way in the World to prevent this increase of our corruptions and hardning our hearts under it but by keeping a constant Guard upon them the Devil will be doing sin will be working and growing upon us if there be not a constant watch kept And what will ye do then for a Sacrifice for God wherewithal will you come before the Lord and bow your selves before the most high God if you have not an heart a clean heart a perfect and upright heart that he will accept As you would be loth that God should meet you in all your Duties your praying and hearing and praising his Name and say unto you as to Israel Isa 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices when you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations your incense is an abomination to me Your Sabbaths your coming to the Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even your solemn meeting Your meetings my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them and when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you Yea when you make many prayers I will not hear Friends would you have the Lord thus to speak to you Is this all the entertainment and acceptance you would have when you come together to pray and to hear would you have the Lord to say I am weary of this People I am weary of these meetings my Soul hateth this praying and this hearing Doubtless this will be all the entertainment you will have whilst you come hither and bring not your hearts for a Sacrifice yea and that broken hearts hearts without guile sincere and perfect in the sight of God and such hearts you will never bring unless you will take more care and pains about them and therefore I exhort you as the Prophet goes on ver 16. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings so also watch ye keep ye clean prevent the return of your evils upon you And then I should be bold to add as ver 18. to
have need of many washing dayes who have so many sinning dayes Every day should be a washing day to us Take that counsel of the Prophet Isa 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings Make you clean and keep you clean Wash ye and watch ye put away the evil of your doings if you would that your hearts should long be kept clean Wash your hands and wash your face and wash your feet or these will defile your hearts Put away the Garment spotted with the flesh keep your outward man clean keep you unspotted from the World that so you may be blameless and unreprovable in the sight of God O Christians let us study every one of us to get to such a blameless and unrebukable Conversation that not only the world may have nothing to spot us with but that our Consciences may have nothing to spot us with that our hearts may not have wherewith to reprove us as little as may be of the common and unavoidable infirmities of our flesh but however we may be overtaken as to these yet be unreproveable as to any tolerated or allowed iniquities these are the great blots wherewith the heart is defiled Brethren beloved whoever among you that fear the Lord I would fain do what I can to prepare you an holy habitation for the holy one that whereas he hath said 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell with them and walk in them you may be such in whom his Soul may delight to dwell that he may say of you all as Psal 132.14 This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it It is a strange expression the holy God speaks this to all his holy ones to thee in particular to thine heart if it be but a clean heart the Almighty God says to thee there is my rest in that heart of thine will I dwell for I have desired it the Lord God hath a desire to be thy Guest hath a desire to that poor Soul of thine to take it up for his own dwelling I would that you may be presented at last unspotted and unreproveable in his sight and to this end that you may be presented holy at last I would that you may be preserved holy and without blame at present O look to those hearts keep you pure let there be written upon you holiness to the Lord they should be a little heaven into which nothing that defileth should enter O purge your selves of whatever may offend and then guard your selves against it This is my warning to you and this is my prayer for you that the very God of Peace will sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless against the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And to him I commend you who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy to him be Gloro for ever Amen 3. Against Distempers A good temper of heart will be an advantage to us in any thing we have to do An heart out of temper is like a bone out of joint or like a Tempestuous Sea there 's no good sailing in it We cannot keep our way but shall be driven about this way and that way with every wind and wave An heart out of temper is like a door off the hinges or a Chariot off the Wheels it draggs and goes untowardly and heavily on O how often are our Souls unhinged our Chariots off the wheels or our wheels without oyl and then what pitiful work do we make at any thing we have to do when we have been in a crowd of worldly business or been foolishly merry and vain what a discomposure do we find upon our Souls and how unfit are we then for duty when we come to pray or to hear what labour doth it cost us to reconcile our hearts to our Duties or to get us into a praying or hearing frame We come to pray as a Musitian comes to play when his Instrument is out of Tune he must spend a good deal of his time in tuneing before one stroke can be strook How much work have we to tune our hearts at such times and it may be at last 't is more then we can do and so we must either let the duty alone or make such sad melody in the Ears of the Lord as a Musitian would do in ours who should play on his Instrument when every string is out of tune Get your hearts in temper and keep them so Be able to say with the Psalmist Psal 57.7 O God mine heart is fixed mine heart is fixed The good temper of the heart notes freedom and towardliness and disposedness for any thing God calls to and firmness and stability in that towardliness Let your hearts be established in Good Let there be an abiding holy temper upon your Spirits some of the distempers that we should guard our hearts against are 1. Slightness and vanity of Spirit A well tempered heart is a serious heart Seriousness of heart is as ballast to a Ship we shall go steadily whilst our hearts are serious 1 Pet. 1.13 Gird up the loyns of your minds and be sober Soberness here is the same with seriousness Christians are always engaged about serious and weighty things their Eternity is concern'd in every day they live and in every thing they do Every action of our Lives is a stroke at that work which must have an influence upon our Eternal State We have weighty work lying upon our hands every day and hour and how unsuitable is a slight and trifling Spirit to important affairs a slight heart is an empty and shallow heart and a shallow heart is unfit to meddle in the deep things of God Watch against slightness of Spirit Frothiness and Vanity becomes not a Christian at any time we may say of the frolicks and light and jovial lives of the carnal world as Solomon says of laughter Eccl. 2.2 I said of laughter it it is mad A Christian is besides himself when he indulgeth to a vain and frothy Spirit Friends 't is not for us to live in jest Eternal Life and Death are no jesting matters learn to live in good earnest those that are light and vain that are little else but froth and vapour in their ordinary Course do use to be but little better in their most serious Duties O what slight praying is there amonst us what shallow and empty Duties do our slight and trifling hearts satisfie themselves withal it may be some of us when we have spent a whole Sabbath with the Lord if we do reflect upon the temper we have been in may sometimes find that we have hardly had a serious hour in a whole day If they should be asked as Christ asked his Disciples Mat. 26.40 What could ye not watch with me one hour what could ye not be serious with me one hour what could we answer
a bondage to it to be tied up so short The more of this the higher the Disease is and the more to be doubted whether such mens Christianity be sound The strictest Christian is the most healthful and the most evidently a Christian indeed and the greater latitude the heart indulges its self to the more sickly the Soul is if it be not quite dead and no Christian at all Friends You that are Christians indeed if you know what you have done you have vowed the greatness strictness possible That is to press on towards it and to reach out after it You did not Covenant to follow Christ to such a degree and no higher to advance in Religion to such a pitch and no more you did not Covenant for thus much Obedience thus much duty thus much diligence thus much Zeal and no more if ye be Christians indeed you have covenanted to follow the Lord fully to watch to every Duty to watch against every sin to press on to the highest pitch of holiness to do to the utmost to please the Lord. If there were any reserve in your vow to Christ of any little liberty to the Flesh of any limit of your zeal and care if there were any such reserve you are false in your Covenant and but false Christians O friends have you vowed the greatest strictness then watch against the least degrees of looseness Get a settled Judgment of the excellency and necessity of strictness get an hearty love and good liking of it let your Souls be bent upon it let it be your desire and your aim and your hope and your labour to hold you close by Christ and if you would not have licentious practises abound in your life let no licentious Principles no licentious affections nest themselves in your hearts see that there be no lust after any other liberty then Christ hath allowed you Get to be heartily well pleased with all the Laws of Christ with his narrowest ways let that latitude of Religion which is the measure of carnal disciples be your fear and not your desire And if you feel any itch after it look upon it as a disease and distemper of your heart Count thy self but a weakly and sickly Christian whilst is is thus with thee Know that it is your greatest Excellency if Holiness be an Excellency then the more strictly holy the more Excellent Yea and you will find it your greatest Liberty the more holiness the more enlargement of your hearts to all the holy ways of God Psal 119.44 45. I will keep thy law continually c. And I will walk at liberty his meaning was not I will walk licentiously at liberty from thy Laws at liberty from Rule but I will walk freely in thy ways when thou shalt knock off my fetters that hinder me The more we can hold in and inure our selves to be punctual in our Religion the more freedom shall we find and with the more ease and delight shall we run the way of Gods Commands And know this that by how much the more loose you are from the ways of God by so much the more loose from God and what will you have to comfort you what will you have to sweeten Religion to you whilst God is at a distance from you Keep you fast to him and you shall live the more under his reviving and refreshing influences Religion hath its troubles and its harshness and you will have little else then the harshness of it longer then you keep you close to the Lord. The Waters of the Sanctuary will tast but brackish to you longer then the Sun shines upon them a little Sun-shine from above a smile from the Face of God this is the sweetness this is the Blessedness Keep close to God and you shall keep the passage clear between Heaven and your Hearts Religion will be like Ephraims Idolatry Hos 8.7 It will be but a dry stalk the Bud will yield no Meat There will be the Labours of it and the Troubles of it but no Meat for your Souls to feed upon longer then you meet with God in your Duties Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Jam. 4.8 Keep close by God and he will keep close to you May be some of you have never yet tasted how Gracious the Lord is nor will you ever be like to do if you set not in closer in his ways Loose Religion will keep you still in the dark and in a weary and uncomfortable State There 's no such way to make Christ's ways pleasant as by keeping constantly in them no such way to make Christs Yoke easie as by holding it close to your Necks it never so galls and wrings as when it hangs loosely on resolve upon strictness and you shall taste the sweetness Hold you in from running out after the Pleasures of the Flesh and the Face of God will be a pleasure to you which the Distemper of a loose and carnal Heart will certainly deprive you of and hinder you from the relish or finding delight therein 3. Listlesness A dull untoward sluggish unactive lifeless temper where the Edge of our Spirits is blunted insomuch that whatever opportunities we have or whatever calls we have to be doing for God or our Souls we have no list to them but through the way-wardness and and untowardness of our hearts we let them slip and either do nothing or nothing to purpose Opportunities are a price put into our hands but by reason of this sluggish listless untoward temper we have no heart to them but became like the Fool Prov. 17.16 In vain is there a price put into the hands of a Fool which hath no heart to it This is a wretched and pernicious Distemper 2. It proceeds from an evil cause From the carnality of our hearts and our unsuitableness to the work of God It is ungrateful and unpleasing work to us our hearts are so contrary to it we had rather be any where then with God we had rather be about any work then the work of our Souls We can be brisk and sprightful about our carnal and earthly employments but for any thing of Religion there we dragg and go heavily on we are all Soul and Life in what we have to do for our Flesh but our hearts hang backward and come but heavily and untowardly on to do any thing for God This is from the little interest that God hath in our Souls and the little affection we bear to him We are yet carnal and that 's the reason we have so little Edge or so little list to spiritual things 2. It is an ill sign What ill sign is it 'T is a sign of want of Grace either that we have no Grace at all or at least are but very low in the Grace of God that our day is yet but a day of small things Where is our Faith in Christ when we are so backward in the work of Faith As Christ sayd Mat. 14.31
are questioning whether you should go on or forbear why then examine would this be a serving my flesh or a serving the Lord determine that well and then your covenant would guide you whether to do or forbear Once let your hearts stand resolved to pursue the ends of your covenant to live such an holy such an heavenly such a mortified such a self-denying such a diligent life as you have covenanted to live and then your very hearts which are the records of your covenant your very hearts will teach you what you should do When your flesh at any time pleads with you for any abatement of the strictness of Christianity for any Liberty of compliance with the more remiss and loose amongst Christians and suggests to you not too far not too fast not too high in Religion drive on softly deal gently with thy flesh be not over rigid or severe to it be not over busie do not tire thy self at thy work take time take thine ease drive on as thy carnal interest and thy carnal inclinations can bear then read over your covenant and consider Is such a life according to the writeing that hath been agreed upon betwixt my Lord and me Is this cold and indifferent and easie way of Religion all that I have covenanted for well this is one thing if you would keep to your Colours keep to your Covenant 2. Take up your Cross upon your back This is your Lords word Mat. 16.24 Whosoever will come after me let him take up his Cross This will be the proof of what there is of Christ or Christianity in your hearts a sound heart will make a strong back He that loves much will bear any thing he whose heart is not cross-proof is an unsound Christian Your sinful shunning the Cross is your running from your Colours Christians some little Trials we have had some crosses we have met with but for ought I know the Lord may be preparing heavier crosses greater sufferings for you then ever you have been proved withal O be so busie a fortifying your hearts that you may never baulk your Christian course whatever cross may stand in the way I would not that we should needlesly run upon the cross when we may avoid it Sufferings may come fast enough without our pulling them upon our selves But this I would we might every one stand to resolve in the strength of the Lord to be never the less hearty Christians never the less holy never the less precise never the less zealous in the pursuit and practise of a sincere and exemplary Godly Life for any thing you may suffer for it from Men or Devils I do not barely say take up your cross rather then lay down your Christianity but take up your cross rather than lay down your bold Profession of Christianity take up your cross rather than lay down your zeal for Christ or turn aside from the closest and most resolved following of Christ Let the Cross neither make us of Christians to become no Christians no nor to be less Christians than we have seemed to be It hath been so in former ages that Christianity hath never improved nor thrived so much as under the sharpest and severest persecutions and why should it not be so still Look to your selves friends there is hazard that your Souls may suffer that you may be inward loosers by your over solicitousness to escape outward losses the Souls of many Professors may be losers and the Souls of some may be quite lost by the fears of the cross Look to your selves that this be none of your Cases that you be not loosers by persecutions especially take heed that you be not lost your Souls lost by them Be not persecuted from Christ be not persecuted to Hell let not the cross drive you ba k under the curse from which you hoped that you had escaped And that you may not be loosers do what you can to be gainers as other Christians have been before you If it grow to be winter without get you to be warmer within if the winds rise keep your garments the Closer about you Think not to make your peace with evil men by striking sail and following Christ more aloof but make your Peace with God more sure that you may be the more able to bear the reproaches of the World Be as the Stars that are never so bright as when the night is darkest Love one another help one another quicken and comfort and encourage one another so much the more for that the world hateth and goes about to hinder you and never think after all that hath been said about the governing and guarding the sanctifying and keeping your hearts that yet your hearts are right till you can hold fast your integrity and hold on your way in all changes of weather 3. Keep the Crown in your eye and let that word be ever in your ear Rev. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast that no man take thy Crown Run from your Colours and you loose the Crown He that hath heaven in his eyes will not fear to have holiness in his life The hope of the victory will encourage in the fight the hope of the Crown will make the cross to be easie and make us faithful in the covenant Therefore Remember that word Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life Christians if you would not loose the Crown then be faithful be faithful to the death in the covenant of your Lord. Whatever difficulties or discouragements you may meet with in your way what ever hardships or tribulations may befal you if you can yet say with the Church Psal 44.17 18. Though all this be come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way If you can but say this your Lord will say also to you whatever I have done or brought upon you yet I have not forgotten thee the Covenant of my peace shall never be removed Fight the good fight keep the faith till you have finiâ—hed your course and then know there is laid up for thee a Crown of Righteousness which I will surely give thee at that day 4. Carry up your hearts thither where your enemies can't come Carry them up to heaven whatever treasure you lay up there neither moth nor rust can corrupt nor theives break thorow and steal There 's no safety below the Theif will be every where upon you whilst you are conversant in the world walking after the flesh these are your enemies quarters your hearts are in the midst of them in the midst of those Thieves that seek your life whilst they are conversant about these fleshly things Yea whilst you are where God is in your Duties in Ordinances if your hearts be not above at such times if you feed only on what comes down if you ascend not in your Duties if