the Apostles of Christ It hath been the design of Satan and the work of the corrupt hearts of men in all Ages to be making Additions to the Commands of Christ and to be mingling mens Inventions with the Institutions of Christ in matters of Worship Churches are very apt to degenerate from plain Spiritual Worship and the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ into a name to 〈◊〉 a meer outward form of Religion and a gay and pompous way of worshipping God such as may most please the flesh and fancy of men Now in such a case it is the duty of God's People to remember how they have received and heard They should remember that God hath said he will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.23 24. and what Christ hath said Mat. 15.3 10. and Mark 7.7 8 9. Reade these Scriptures at leisure This was Christ's Doctrine And when the Church was very much degenerated God bids them Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein Not the old paths of Custom Tradition the opinion and practice of forefathers but those wayes that are as old as your Bibles are as the Word of God and the Gospel is for these are the good old way Other wayes may be old but not good When things of mens devising are put upon men and crowded into God's Worship Christians should run to their Bibles and ask Was it so from the beginning Did Christ and his Apostles preach pray administer and receive Sacraments thus how did they appoint them to be dispensed Christians should account it wisdom enough to follow their direction and example Certainly they worshipped God decently yet they contented themselves with what they had received of the Lord without making additions of their own When any thing is obtruded upon God's People in matters of Worship they should try all things by the Word of God It is a saying of Cyprian to this purpose in an Epistle of his Si canalis aquam ducens subito deficiat nonne ad fontem pergitur c. If the Conduit-pipe or Cistern which was wont to give forth water plentifully suddenly stop do not men go to the Fountain to find out the cause whether the Fountain be dry or the veins stopped c. Sic â—â—portet facere Dei sacerdotes si in aliquo nutaverit aut vâ—â—â—llaverit veritas ad originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam traditionem revertamur c. Let us return to the Word and Gospel and Apostolical tradition that which is truly so called and can be proved from undisputable authority to be such This is a safe Rule and the way to keep Churches from corruption and rightly to reform them if they be in any thing corrupted 3. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from spiritual deadness to remember what they have received and heard for the directing of their practice and ordering of their conversations They should remember practical Truths the Commands Counsels Exhortations Directions they have found in and heard from the Word of God These should be had in everlasting remembrance They are to be remembred by Christians all their dayes and never to be forgotten Though some notions should through weakness slip out of your minds yet practical Truths should be written not in the dust but on your hearts as on marble engraven as with the point of a diamond never to be razed out Oh Beloved many many of these have you received and heard You have been pressed unto publick family secret relative duties you have been directed how you should hear reade pray confer receive Sacraments how you should carry your selves as Magistrates Ministers People Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants in commerce traffique and dealings with men Oh remember these things And especially if such times should come when you may not hear so much and often of these things as heretofore you have done 4. It is the duty of Christians to remember the reproofs and warnings against sin they have received and heard The remembrance of these will be a means to keeâ—â—ou from sin You have been many times warned to take heed of sin as a most venemous Serpent and the most inveterate enemy both of God and of your own souls God hath sent his Messengers rising early to warn you to take heed of all sin You have been warned to beware of Prophaness Sabbath-breaking Error Superstition yea and of Hypocrisie Formality Deadness Apostacy you should remember what and how you have received and heard so as to take heed of these and all other sins and especially when you shall be in an hour of temptation when these sins may be rise common and grow in fashion 5. It is the duty of Christians and a means both to keep and recover from deadness to remember the forewarnings they have had of God's Judgments You have been told of God's Judgments against sin in general and against such and such sins in particular You have been told of Afflictions Sufferings Persecutions that you must look for You have been told of these in the written Word and by Gods Ministers And you should especially remember these when you see Judgments coming or feel them already executed Remember those warnings in the Word of God John 16.1 2 3 4 33. Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 O Christians you have been forewarned that Error in Judgment Wantonness in Opinion and Practice under the Gospel loathing of Manna would bring a famine of the Word that decayes in and leaving of first Love would cause God to remove his Candlestick that deadness and formality would cause God to come as a thief in the night to take away the Gospel and all your precious things O therefore Christians when you see such Judgments coming or feel them upon you remember what and how you have received heard and this Remembrance will be a special means to bring you to Repentance 6. And lastly It is the duty of Christians 〈◊〉 â—emember the comforts they have received in and heard from the Word of God those grounds of comfort precious Cordials and strong Consolations you have read and heard to bear up your hearts under the sence of sin and apprehensions of God's wrath and in a time of dissertion and against the fierce and fiery assaults of Satan the strength of corruption weakness of grace difficulty of duty as also under afflictions from God and sufferings and persecutions from men This will be a means to keep the hearts and hopes of Christians alive in the saddest conditions they can be brought into It will be of great use in an evil day And thus I have shewed you what it is for the matter Christians are chiefly and especiallp to remember Secondly For the further explication of the duty in the Doctrine I come now to shew how for the 〈◊〉 Christians are to remember how they have received and heard And this is more expresly spoken of in the Text
Sabbaths and yet in vain how many Sermons and yet in vain how many Threatnings Promises Entreaties and yet in vain how many strivings of the Spirit and yet in vain How hath God fed this Nation with the finest of the Flower and best of the VVheat and made the Rock to drop with Honey and yet how lean wonderfully lean are the souls of these Nations like Pharoah's lean Kine in the enjoyment of thrice seven years of plenty of the Gospel how hath he made his Clouds to rain upon you even to the emptying and wasting of themselves and yet in vain Are you not Rocks and Mountains hard and barren now even as before how little Reformation in your Parish in your Families how little are Husbands and VVives how little are Parents and Children Masters and Servants reformed how little is Religion and God's VVorship set up in your Families how little do you endeavour to bring your VVives your Husbands your Children and Servants to a saving knowledge of God! how little do you catechise and instruct them and how little do you labour to see Christ formed in the hearts of your domestick relations How few old sins do you leave how few new duties do you take up and practise How little do you endeavour to perform duties in a more holy humble and servent manner than before May not his Ministers cry out in the language of the Prophet they have laboured in vain they have spent their strength in vain And judg I pray you Sirs is it not just with the Lord when our Nation our Parishes your Families remain unfruitful after such multiplied cost and pains and this for so many years is it not just with the Lord now to say England such Towns and Parishes such Families such Persons are given to barrenness let them alone I will command the Clouds they rain no Rain upon them 2. The Second ground and reason of a Ministers removal from a People is those persecutions and afflictions that befal them Sometimes the Persecution falls upon the Church in general upon People and Pastors and then Ministers cannot with that clearness and justifiableness leave their Flocks as when some Ministers only are aimed at God's Church is compared to a Lilly among Thorns to a flock of Sheep amongst Wolves and Noahs Ark upon the deluge tossed to and fro with storms and tempests upon the Sea of this troublesome world There is an irreconcileable enmity betwixt the interest of Christ and the interest of Satan and therefore no wonder if the gates of Hell the policy and power of infernal darkness are united and combined against the Church of Christ The Devil is called a Red Dragon Rev. 12. A Dragon denoting his hurtful poisonous and destructive nature and a red Dragon denoting his cruelty that he is delighted in and becoloured with the blood of God's People and all the storms and persecutions that have befallen the Church he hath raised them He labours with might and main with rage and fury by imprisonments by banishments by fire and faggot to eradicate and totally to destroy Christ's Kingdom and Interest out of the world either by falling upon the Church in general or upon her Lights Guides and Watch-men in particular Remove the Watchmen and the Garison is easily surprized and taken put out the Lights and you are surrounded with darkness take away the Guide and the Travellor is eaeasily seduced and therefore Satan sometimes in his persecutions aimes chiefly at pious learned painful and zealous Ministers because they most of all like burning and shining Lights squander and dispel the darkness of his kingdom discover and manifest his hellish and subtile stratagems and methods of deceiving poor souls and lead them from them into the wayes of Piety and Salvation because they are as God's Boanarges's and Barnabasses battering down the walls of his kingdom presumption security and dispaire by awakening men and women out of their spiritual lethargy and letting them see their danger and misery that they may escape it and on the other hand by comforting raising up such as are dejected and under temptations to despaire and on both hands lessen and weaken his interest in the world and therefore the Devil to secure his own interest and to oppose to hinder and to destroy the Interest of Christ will have them burnt or banished silenced their mouths stopped that no more lightning and thunder no more Cordials and Comforts come from them or by violent on-set of hot Persecution make them run and fly for it When they persecute you in one City flee ye into another And as the interest of Satan is one ground of Persecution so the irreconcilable enmity betwixt the Interest of Christ and the sinful corrupt interests of ungodly men is another ground of Persecution upon the Church of banishing imprisoning and silencing Ministers to be a friend to the one is to be an enemy to the other The friendship of the world saith James is enmity with God and whosoever will be a friend of the world is a enemy of God Jam. 5.4 If Ministers dare and will comply with the sinful interests of great men and become Court-flatterers and Parasites to Kings either to preach up or not to preach down their State-Corruptions and Wickedness they shall have peace and protection If you were of the world saith our Saviour to his Disciples that is of the principles customes fashions of the world the world would love you for she loves her own Joh. 15.19 And this was the reason why Antichristian false doctrines were so much imbraced in the dayes of John because they were doctrines of the world doctrines pleasing flesh and blood and sutable to the principles customes and interests of sinful men They are of the world therefore they speak of the world and the world heareth them 1 John 4.5 Never was there any Interest of Great men so sinful and corrupt nor any Religion owned countenanced and established by Authority so superstitious idolatrous and abominable as to want Defenders and Promoters some for favour some for fear some for secular advantages to preserve and keep what they have or to gain honours preferments and riches by it others from their choice and election loving and delighting in that way The way and means that Jeroboam and his Council contrived to withdraw and keep the People from going to Jerusalem to sacrifice and to secure the ten revolted Tribes to him his posterity was abominable idolatry against which they had many caviates and cautions from God for which their fore-fathers had been severely punished Exod. 32. Judg. 2.10 11 12 13. 3.5 6 7 8. yea for this their famous King Solomon lately deceased was threatned with the renting of part of his Kingdom from his Posterity and verified in this revolt 1 Kings 11. Yet notwithstanding all this the sinful contrivance of Jeroboam wanted not owners and promoters for besides the Courtiers and the common People the lowest of whom he consecreated
be broken they will not bend Rough Trees must be hewn with Axes so old Sinners must find rough dealing at conversion If you would come home to God comfortably come quickly and early The sooner you begin the more sweetness you will find All God's Wayes afford Pleasantness and in all his Paths there is Peace 2. Having delivered the Counsels that concern you all in general let me now direct my speech to the Regenerate in particular To you whom the Word of God hath been the Power of God to Salvation I would commed these things that they may be kept in remembrance II. COUNSEL 1. Be very thankful for any good which God hath wrought in you by the means of Grace God is takeing away in some measure the pure and powerful dispensation of his Ordinances and this is matter of sorrow O but God hath made them advantagious to your souls already and this is matter of praise 1 Thess 1.3 5. Give thanks to God seeing the Gospel hath come to you not in word only but in the power of the holy Ghost You then that can experience a new Light in your minds Conviction in your conscience a change in your wills and holiness in your affections and union with Christ give God the praise It had been a misery indeed if God had taken us away from Ministers or Ministers from us before we had got any good by them Those amongst you that are ignorant hard-hearted unbelieving sinners have reason to be grieved at the very heart The Sun of the Gospel is eclipsing and you are not yet enlightened by it the fire is putting out before your souls be warmed It is a sad sign those are in the number of the sons of perdition from whom the clear Gospel is hid 2 Cor. 4.3 If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost The Child unborn cannot midwife it self into the world when the Mother is dead but there is hopes that an Infant that is born may be nourished up even unto a perfect man Why Brethren unconverted persons are unborn and if Faithful Ministers and Ordinances should be altogether taken from you both Father and Mother dye and then who shall make you partakers of the new Birth But now you that are born again you will be able in some measure to feed your selves the meat is before you in the Scriptures and the holy Ghost will help you to feed on it If there should not be a succession of Pastors amongst you your condition may be sad but it is safe if you should dye without the continuance of Ordinances having a part in the Resurrection from sin to a new Nature and holiness of life the second Death shall have no dominion over you If you live longer you have former Experiences former Truths former Promises old Store to live on You have the granary of Experiences and of the Scriptures to maintain you in spiritual Life if there should come a Famine of publick Ordinances God hath not dealt with every soul as with yours Two or three of you have lived under the same Ministry have sit and heard together in the same Seats yea one of you is taken the other is left Say then with a thankful heart as Christ Why hast thou revealed thy self to me and not to others Even so Father because it seems good in thy sight Mat. 11.25 2. Walk humbly before God in a sence of your insufficency to good and proness to evil Mic. 6.8 walk humbly with thy God Never walk securely ever be jealous of your deceitful hearts Take heed of falling into sin though at present you stand Ever live under the sence of that truth that the heart is deceitful above all things and madly wicked What Master that knows the deceitfulness of a Servant would trust him too far and so who that hath had frequent experience of the falsness of his heart would put too much confidence in it for the future Ever keep low thoughts of your selves live continually in dependance upon God for strength to perform duties to subdue corruptions resist temptations and to bear afflictions Paul prayed thrice i. e. often when he had a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him 3. Beware of every sin have and express godly sorrow for it break off every iniquity by repentance Beware especially of and keep your selves from your iniquities Psal 18.23 Cut off your right hand and pluck out your right-eye-sins Mat. 5.29 God hates it Jer. 44.4 it grieves him They rebelled and vexed his Spirit it will grieve you also 1 Pet. 2.11 and wars against the soul i. e. against the Peace and Tranquilty of your minds every sin contracts guilt and guilt creats trouble It 's impossible a Christian should walk comfortably whilst he showes any liking to any sin Sin doth especially prejudice us as to Prayer both before in and after Prayer it shuts our eyes that we dare not lift them up to Heaven O my God I blush and am ashamed to look up Ezra 9.6 It stops our mouths that we cannot speak and manacles our hands and contracts our hearts that we cannot lift them up to God If we would lift up hearts and hands in Prayer without doubting we must lift up holy hands 1 Tim. 2.8 Sin makes a Christian act like an enemy towards God and to think God is justly turned to be his enemy and who can with any heart ask any favour from an enemy If we would draw near to God in full assurance of Faith we must come with an heart sprinkled from a guilty and defiled conscience and our lives washed with pure water Heb. 10.22 Again the least sin smiled upon puts us back in our Christian course it weakens Faith takes away our Courage disheartens us from doing our very duty How canst thou reprove another with courage saith conscience when thou thy self knowest thou standest in need of reproof well than exercise daily repentance for daily failings sue out a pardon every day and get one Seal more added to your Pardon daily you have as much need to pray for daily forgiveness as for daily bread 4. Grow in Grace 2 Pet. 3.18 Make progress in holiness take heed of decaying beware lest God's Ministers lose the things they have wrought upon and amongst you 2 Ep. John ver 8. Increase your knowledge Follow on to know the Lord let your repentings for sin be kindled go from one degree of Faith to another let your love to God abound more and more The more Grace you have the more you will glorify God the fitter you will be to do him service the more able to bear affliction a little Grace is not enough to bear great Trials and the more Grace the fitter for Glory yea and very probably the more Glory To this end continue in the use of those means that uphold and encrease Grace Ex eisdem nutrimus ex quibus constamus Feed upon the Milk of God's Word and the
have Tribulation but be of good Comfort As you should be humble in Prosperity so quiet and chearful in Adversity Carry an even frame in each state Let your Moderation be known unto all men even in bearing Afflictions Be not overmuch cast down with any trouble Let the Enemy see that you have been with God by the Gladness of your Countenance You 'l discredit Religion by too much drooping Let not others say You serve a hard Master God that knows all things knows what condition is best for you and how to deal with you Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes Though Adversity and the Wicked may intermeddle with your outward comforts and take them away yet let them see you have inward Joyes with which they cannot intermeddle nor take away 13. Esteem and approve Time as a precious Commodity Husband Opportunities for Soul-Advantage When you have spare hours improve them in Reading Meditation and Prayer Redeem Time from sleep your callings and recreations in order to Heaven Men usually work sleep and recreate more than necessity calls for and then cry out they have no time for holy Exercises Oh what would damned spirits give for two or three of those hours which we throw away Oh how would they spend them would they sleep play or work them away Nay how would they Pray Read and Repent more in one hour than we do in many Brethren the time is short your work is much you have God to honour your Relations to watch over your own Evidences to make clear O then redeem precious Time do not throw it away Ephes 5.16 15. Contend earnestly for the Faith Jude 3. Maintain fundamental Truths I do not mean that you should fall a wrangling with every one you meet The Apostle indeed takes notice of some men that place their Religion in fightings of Words in conflicting with the Air in janglings and disputings about things they understand not 1 Tim. 1.5 6. Some place their Religion in being of this and that Opinion and indeed they are meer Opinionists Our meaning is this When the Enemies of the Church labour to root up the necessary and very foundation Truths of Christianity that we should stick to them As Paul he did earnestly contend for the Doctrine of Christ being the Messiah against the Jews He maintained the Doctrine of the Resurrection against the Saduces The Doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness against the Teachers of the Law He doth strongly and vehemently maintain Divine Worship against the idolatrous worship of the Athenians And so should we contend opportunely and wisely with tongues and lives Contend against Justification by Works against Idolatry rather than God's Honour should be given to dumb Idols give your honour to the Dust Consider fundamental yea every Truth hath been confirmed by no less than Miracles preserved in a miraculous way and sealed in the Blood both of Christ and of Martyrs Never then sell the Truth but buy it 16. Get longing Desires after the Enjoyment of God in Heaven Let your hearts be often sending sighs thither Long till you be at home Groan earnestly till mortality be clothed with Immortality 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Say as he When shall I come and appear before God Long till you be in Heaven that so you may have constant Communion with God's Angels and Saints that ye may be wholly freed from sin and made perfect in Holiness Let your Conversation be in Heawhilst you are on Earth To this end get more acquaintance with Heaven Study till you be convinced that it is and what it is Understand what that Happiness is that Saints enjoy there When you have got minds informed and hearts affected with it often muse and meditate of it This heavenly Conversation is very sweet it will comfort us when we are never so sad Well may the soul say Now I am full of sin O but then no sin I am now sold under sin O but then I shall be free Now I dishonour God but then I shall honour him altogether Now I am in continual fear of falling into sin but then I shall be past all danger Now I am in continual sorrow but then all tears shall be wip'd away Now I am kept in bondage through fear of death but then there shall be living and no more Death and so no more fears of it Moreover this would teach us to understand the World When we do experimentally taste Heavens Joyes we shall despise Earths Pleasures when we seriously think of that Friendship and Communion we shall have with Friends in Heaven even God Christ Angels and Saints it will wean us from Friends on Earth and make us more willing to leave them And when we think of Heavens Honour we shall undervalue the honours and scorn the contempt we meet with in this world Get now and then upon the top of Pisgah and solace your selves with a view of the Heavenly Canaan Having now given you an account of those main Duties and Counsels that relate more immediately to God and your souls I shall briefly give you the sum of those Counsels I have to leave you about things that relate more nearly to you and others with whom you converse and have to do The first is this 1. Discharge domestical Duties Study and perform the Duties that every Relation calls for Act as Christian Parents and Christian Masters towards your Children and Servants bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord call on them to reâ—d the Scriptures frequently that even of Children they be acquainted with that which will make them wise to Salvation keep them to a form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 hold them to the Principles of Religion Catechisms are called A Form of sound words because they keep the Judgment and Affections sound they help to discern betwixt Truth and Error fit and prepare for hearing of the Word preached and for the receiving of the Lord's Supper For want of this we may observe notorious ignorance in grown youth and old men also For want of this how many that are Fathers in years are meer Children in understanding Again pray with and for your Children and Servants and set them to pray by themselves for this end give them time convenient do not so much forward them in your service as to hinder them from serving God your Servants have God to acknowledge honour and serve as well as you they have sins to be pardoned corruptions to be subdued Graces to beg wants to be supplied and souls to be saved as well as you and will you make them throw their souls over-board to secure your goods And so study to carry as Christians in every other Relation Carry as Christian Husbands and Christian Wives are directed and ought to do that the Gospel of Christ be not blamed upon your account And so you that are Children and Servants as you expect your Parents and Masters should discharge their duties towards you so it is expected you should
our minds Hearing and receiving Truths and Ordinances is not the All of a Christians duty There must be also as the Text tells us a remembring how we have received and heard In handling this Doctrine I shall observe this method 1. Prove the Doctrine from Scripture 2. Explicate it and therein shew both what it is to remember and what it is we are to remember 3. Give reasons of the Doctrine 4. Apply it First For the Scripture-proof of this Doctrine see this duty enjoyned to Israel Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. and the particular directions there given were in order to the furthering of this great Duty in the Text namely remembring how they had received and heard This duty is further pressed Prov. 6.21 Prov. 7.1 2 3. Isa 42.23 Who will hearken and hear for the time to come Now if men should hear for the time to come then they must remember what they have formerly heard for no more will be ours in the time to come but what we shall have at least a savoury practical remembrance of And as this is a duty commanded so it hath been conscientiously practised by the Saints of God See the great care of David in the discharge of this duty Psal 119.11 15 48 97. And so also the Virgin Mary Luke 2.51 and in many other places is said to have pondred and laid up the sayings of Christ in her heart The Memory is the storehouse and treasury of the soul in which her spiritual treasures are laid up There are three things saith * Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick one we should be very careful to keep in our remembrance former sins to make and keep us humble former mercies to make us thankful former Truths and Ordinances to make us faithful 2. The second general is to explicate the Doctrine and there first to shew what it is to rememâ—er That I shall but name First To remember is to recollect and call to mind This is our duty in reference to what we have received and heard We must recollect call to mind and ruminate upon Divine Truths formerly received we must as it were chew the cud This is the way to make sound and clean Christians It is the simisitude Chrysostom useth They were clean beasts under the Law at least that was one requisit to make them so that chewed the cud and he is like to make a holy spiritual Christian that delivers Truth to his Memory whilst he hears it and is able and careful to call it to mind again afterward Secondly To remember what we have received and heard is not only to recollect but also seriously to weigh and consider Truths and bring them home to our hearts by particular application 3. The third general is to shew to you what it is that Christians are thus to remember This I shall open under two heads First shew it is the duty of Christians to remember what they have received and heard for the matter 2dly how they have received and heard as to the manner First It is the duty of Christians to remember what Truths and Ordinances they have received and been made partakers of And if any ask what Truths should be remembred I answer That every Truth of God is precious and ought to be treasured up by us in our hearts No one Truth ought carelesly to be let slip The very fragments of Divine Truth should be taken up that none of them be lost The very dust of Gold is precious There is not the least Truth that ever any of you heard or received but may be of use to you at some time or other But there are some Truths which we should be most especially carefull to remember namely the main Foundation-Truths and such as are most necessary to Salvation 1. It is the duty of Christians and a special means both to keep and recover them from formality and deadness in Religion to be very careful to retain in their memories those Fundamental Doctrines and Principles of Religion they have received and heard that are contained in the Scriptures and have been opened confirmed and applied from them in expounding preaching catechising and such other Ordinances as you have enjoyed You must labour to remember old savoury-Truths that you have heard many years since Christians should chew them over again by meditation This is the course Christ directs his Church to in the Text to recover them from deadness in Religion He doth not bid them look after new Notions and high Speculations for these will but puff up the minds of men and not enliven them but he bids them remember how they had received and heard The like direction Paul gives to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.13 14. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast received of me c. The vital Doctrines of Faith in Jesus Christ and concerning the Person Natures Offices and Benefits of Christ with the Truths depending on these Oh! these should never be forgotten by those who have received them And also the vivifical Doctrines of Repentance from dead works Love towards God and our neighbours You have heard these Truths opened confirmed and applied to you many and many a time both from the mouths of former Ministers now dead and gone and such whose labours you have occasionally enjoyed And I trust that we also whose Ministry among you is now towards a period may say as Paul when he was taking leave of the Ephesians Acts 20.20 21 26 27. though we acknowledge in great weakness and with many mixtures of sin Well beloved It is your duty to remember these Truths you have heard and the rather because time may come either by reason of the hand of God in a way of sickness upon you or God may send a famine or if not a scarsity of the Word upon a People for their sinful abuse of former plenty and then when you may not have so frequently and abundantly the Word afresh opened and applied to you it will be of great use to remember what and how you have received and heard If old Errors should be broached under the notion of new Truths Christians should bring them to the standard of God's Word according to that Isa 8.20 of what you have received and heard If any shall go about to cry up Doctrines of conditional decrees mans free-will falling from Grace or the like if you remember what you have heard you will be able to say We have not so learned Christ 2. It is the duty of Christians and a means to recover them from deadness and formality of Religion to remember as the Doctrines of the Gospel they have received and heard so also what they have received and heard in and from the Word of God concerning the Worship of God and the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and to bring all things imposed and practised in Divine Worship to the Rule of God's Word to enquire whether they be such things as have the warrant of the Command of Christ or practice of
is as the driving home of the nail That which one forgets another may remember Improve private conference and speak often one to another and when you meet together be more spiritual savory and profitable in your discourse than heretofore you have been and then especially when you may have fewer publick opportunities Time may come when this may be one of the best helps you may have It may be God may cut you short of many publick advantages to chasten you for your not using or improving private communion of Saints and to quicken you to use and improve holy conference and other private duties more and better 5. A fifth means to help you to remember what and how you have received and heard is Earnest and fervent prayer to God that He would strengthen your memories and give his Spirit to you according to his promise to bring all things to your remembrance Commit Truths to the Spirit 's keeping and trust not onely to your own memories Often plead that promise with God John 14.26 Christ would not trust his Disciples alone with his Sermons He knew their memories were slippery But He intrusts his Spirit to bring things to their remembrance and the Spirit can and will bring Truths to your remembrances in the most seasonable time And lastly Endeavour to practise the things you have received and heard and that will be a means to help you to remember them Labour to get good by the Word and Ordinances and you will not soon forget them He who daily writes after a Copy wil be better able to remember it long after Psal 119.93 I will never forget thy Precepts for by them thou hast quickned me Those Sermons Sacraments and other Ordinances in and by which God hath quickned and comforted you you will not forget So much for handling this Doctrine Might I have had liberty to preach to you as long as I hoped and the Law allowed I should have handled the two other Directions in the Text Hold fast and Repent But seeing I am like to preach to you no more I shall briefly touch upon them and leave them with you in a way of Exhortation A fourth Direction Christ gives to this Church in order to recovering of her from her deadness and formality is To hold fast what she had received The Doctrine is That it is the duty of Christians and a means to recover declining Churches and Christians to hold fast what they have received and heard And indeed without this you cannot be strengthned by it That which you have lost and let slip will do you but little good You must not onely remember but also hold fast I shall not handle this Doctrinally Time will not permit it And besides I have formerly insisted on this Doctrine and duty from the 13th and 25th verses of the second Chapter I shall therefore onely leave the Exohortation with you Hold fast what you have received and heard And here I shall briefly shew you first What you should hold fast 2ly Against what 3ly How you may do it First What you should hold fast 1. Hold fast the Doctrine of the Gospel you have received and heard Do not let go any Truth of God Buy the Truth but sell it not at any rate Prov. 23.23 You may meet with those that would pluck it from you but be sure you hold it fast 2 Tim. 1.13 14. 2. Hold fast the plain pure and powerful Ordinances of God Oh do not let these go at least not through your default Let them not go for want of prayers and tears to keep them But may some say How if they should be gone How if God for our sins should take them away Why however yet 3. Be sure you hold fast a high estimation of the Word and pure Ordinances of God If ever you should want them yet prize and esteem them as your treasure let the want of Spiritual Mercies teach you more to value the worth of them Though you should lose many of your mercies and opportunities yet be sure you do not lose your esteem of them 4. Be sure you hold fast your love to the Truths and Ordinances of God as wel in the want as in the enjoyment of them Love the Word and love the Ministers of Christ even then when you may be deprived of them 5. Hold fast your appetite and stomach to the Word Ordinances of God though you should lose some of your meat take heed you lose not your stomach with your meat If you have lesse food yet you should labour to have the better stomachs Oh beg of God that though he should suffer your food to fail yet that he would not take away your appetites but keep them fresh and lively In temporals it would be a mercy if men wanted meat to want a stomach but in Spirituals it will be a mercy though you should have little food yet to have a good stomach continued This will be a pledge of Gods returning and restoring wanted and desired mercies For God hath said He will satisfie the hungry soul with bread 6. Lastly be sure you hold fast the good you have got by the Word Prayer Sacraments the Ministers and Ordinances of Christ Though you should part with these things themselves yet be sure you retain and hold fast the good you have got by them and those impressions of God's Spirit that have bin made on your hearts through under them And all this you must hold fast which leads to the 2d Particular against 1. The fraud and deceit of Seducers and Deceivers who would go about to cheat and cozen you of the great and precious Truths of the Gospel and of the true instituted Worship of God The Apostle tells you that such will a rise that will privily bring in damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 2 3. and the Apostle Paul speaks of the sleights and cunning craftiness of men their methods to deceive They will perhaps plead Antiquity Tradition the Authority of the Church the Suffrage of Ancient Fathers Custom Example yea seeming Reason for many Opinions and Practices But Christians be not cheated of your Religion but that which you have received of the Lord Christ and hath been delivered to you by the Apostles in the Word those Truths and instructions of Christ do you hold fast Secondly Hold fast the Truths and Ordinances of Christ as against the fraud of Deceivers so against the force and violence of Persecutors As you should not be fawned so neither should you be frighted out of any one Truth or Ordinance of God or out of your love to desires after or owning of them Thirdly And the means to enable you to hold fast what you have received are 1. Diligent attendance on the publick Ordinances and Worship of God if and when you can enjoy them in any measure according to Gods will though not altogether in that manner you desire and they should be administred in I hope that for those many praying
their over eager desires to embrace this present World have let Heaven go have lost that for ever 2. Take heed of following mens examples further than you see them to follow the Rule of God's Word the world is ever ful of bad examples if we would walk safely we must walk by Rule If we think it enough only to do as the most there is little hopes of our working out our salvation Matt. 7.13 The word of Christ must judge you hereafter O let it guide you here As many as walk according to this Rule peace shall be upon them and mercy In matters of Religion of Salvation believe none follow none further than there is ground for their opinions and practices in God's written Word Were we to follow mens examples or mens traditions in matters of Religion besides the Scriptures then will not this follow viz. That the Scriptures are not a perfect Rule as the Papists teach that it must be eeked out with unscriptural traditions and the commandments or documents of men And do but once admit this and we shall have no certain Rule at all 3. Take heed of consultiâ—â— here with flesh and blood In the matters of our Salvation not the Flesh who is ever at that Master spare thy self but Conscience informed out of God's Word must be our Counsellor Our souls interest and our carnal interest are many times cross to one another Hence it is our Saviour so much insists on the duties of self-denial and taking up the Cross Yea he further tells us He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it You know great works are seldom perfected at a small charge A rich Mine it will cost a man something before he comes to it but when he has found it it soon recompenseth him for all his former pains and expences both Heaven and Salvation is such a Treasure though we should lose all our earthly comforts this would certainly repair all our losses and make and enrich our souls for ever 4. Take heed of delaying to set to this work Oh! have we not delayed too long Have we not lost time and lost special opportunities lost such advantages for carrying on this work as for any thing we know we may never enjoy again It is high time now to awake out of sleep to shake off Spiritual sloath to apply our selves to the work in good earnest who knows but the day of our visitation the time of our life and of God's patience may be very near an end It may be the eleventh hour However the longer it is ere we set to our work the more difficulty we shall find in it I now come to the Directions 1. See that you understand your work Be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Yea study to be filled with the knowledge of his Will Rest not in good meanings My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge Hos 4.6 â—ee here though bare knowledge cannot save one yet many a one is destroyed for lack of knowledge Beloved though we may not be permitted to preach publickly yet I know not that it would be any crime for us to instruct such in private as repair to us for assistance and advice O that poor souls were as ready to make use of us as we are willing to afford them the best help we can 2. Be sure your Ground-work be good Build on the Rock Christ so indeed you need not fear but your Work will stand Other Foundation can no man lay If ye build besides this Rock or build partly on Christ and partly on your selves the work will come to nought We are quite lost and ruined in our selves that we must be taken off from our own bottoms brought out of our selves to Jesus Christ or we cannot be saved 3. Do all in Christ's strength Phil. 3.13 This way the Apostle Paul went to work Then the work of our Salvation is like to go forward when we have Christ the Saviour putting to his helping hand and joyning with us O as ever you would have your work to prosper be sure you take Christ along with you 4. As Noah being moved with fear fell to work and prepared an Ark to the saving of himself and of his house so let us work out our Salvation with fear We should have a reverent fear towards God to quicken us to duty and to awe and make us exceeding serious in duty Again we should have a jealous fear of Satan and our own sinful deceitful hearts to look narrowly to them who like Sanballat and Tobiah will do but what they can to hinder and take us off our work 5. Labour much with God in prayer Thus there were hopes the work would be going forward Observe what immediately follows the Text It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure When it could â—â—â—aid of Paul Behold he prayeth then was Ananias â—â—nt to confirm him that he might receive his sight and be filled with the holy Ghost Acts 9.11 17. The Work is great to work out your Salvation and it is possible you may want some helps you have had yea and meet with greater hindrances new difficulties in it O pray in strength to carry you thorow It may be you shall not have liberty to hear so much to quicken you the more to prayer You may have fewer hearing-opportunities that you shall have more time to pray 6. Up and be doing when you can find the Spirit at work in your hearts Attend to the motions of God's Spirit This is a special season not to be let slip when we have an offer of his co-operating Grace 7. Do all as in the sight of God Set the Lord ever before you Eye-service is a fault in our servants condemned Eph. 6.6 but a vertue in God's servants Indeed could we but ply our work while God's eye is on us we should never be idle or ill-employed 8. Let out the strength of your spirits in the weighty matters of God's Law and not about trivial unnecessary things Such things as God no where requires of which he sayes In vain do they worship me after the traditions of men If we make our selves busie in building hay and stubble on the Foundation our work shall be burnt and we shall suffer loss 9. Improve the day time God hath alotted to you wherein to work The day of Grace O that we had known our day we have had a large space and a fair season of working granted to us and yet I am afraid that as to the most of us little of our work is done The consideration of our former loss of time should cause us henceforward to double out diligence Now let not a day pass over your heads wherein you do not some way further thâ—â—â—â—â—rk of your salvation Especially improve the Lorâ—â— Day Sabbath-dayes are dayes of resting from outward labours from
like manner David took his leave of Ittai 2 Sam. 15.20 Mercy and Truth be with thee Such was Christ's valedictory Prayer for his Apostles John 17. for Grace to be kept from the evil of sin ver 15. for Sanctification ver 17. for Unity c. Prov. 3.13 15. and 4.7 Wisdom i.e. Wisdom to Salvation Grace is the principal thing Reasons of the Point 1. Grace promoteth the highest end of man which is 1. the Glory of God to which end we were born and for which cause we came into the world 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God Grace helps to serve God acceptably Heb. 12.28 Grace teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly c. Tit. 2.11 2. Reason teacheth to live as men Grace as Christians it enableth to every good work teacheth us to do our duty to God our neighbour to our selves It reacheth to pray acceptably to hear as the Word of God to keep Sabbath to shew mercy to forgive injuries to do all in obedience which maketh much to God's Glory 2. Reason Grace is the best thing for it promoteth the Salvation of the soul which is the best part Sin is the plague destruction of the soul 1 Kings 8.38 Grace healeth sanctifieth saveth the soul Sin infecteth every part faculty Grace sanctifieth all Sin blindeth the eye hardneth the heart poisoneth the affections corrupteth the life defileth deformeth the whole soul Grace enlightens the eyes softens the heart cleanseth beautifieth purifieth maketh lovely what Sin had made odious Eph. 2.5 By Grace ye are saved 3. Grace is the best thing for it makes a man better beneficial to others Riches honours prosperity render few better many worse Grace maketh bad Parents good and good ones better better Children better Husbands Wives better Ministers People Masters Servants better Neighbours Friends better in all Relations Without Grace a man is unprofitable hurtful Lions Bears are wicked men called in Scripture yea Dogs Swine for their brutish qualities Grace rectifies the crookedness of nature Emollit mores c. sweetens mens manners suffers them not to remain wild A heart taught by the Grace of God is full of pity and compassion sheweth mercy the hand helps relieveth the tongue speaks to comfort edification no corrupt communication is heard but gracious words from gracious hearts Col. 4.6 Paul wrought upon by Grace preacheth the Faith he once destroyed Gal. 1.23 Onesimus before Grace received was unprofitable but now by Grace converted is become profitable as his name imports Philem. 10. 4. The Excellency of Grace appears hence It renders a Christian acceptable to God as well as useful to man And that is the highest of a poor Christians ambition that he may find favour in the sight of his God that his services and sacrifices may come with acceptance before God Mal. 3.4 Parts gifts commend us to men only Grace giveth us favour approbation with God And this is the other branch of the Schools distinction Gratiae gratum facientes which they prefer to Gratiae gratis dâ—luâ—ta It is the prayer of the upright heart not of the voluâ—ble tongue that is God's delight Prov. 15.8 The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him that call upon him in truth Psal 145.18 But the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God Prov. 15.8 5. Grace is the best thing because it lasteth longest it endures for ever Riches are not for ever nor doth the Crown endure to all generations Prov. 27.24 Pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11.25 Carnal mirth is soon at an end like the crackling of thorns Eccl. 7.6 But Grace abideth 1 Cor. 13.13 And now abideth Faith Hope Charity 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 6. Grace is the best thing because it helpeth in time of most need Heb. 4. ult 1. Grace helpeth in time of affliction it comforteth quieteth the heart Psal 27.13 I had fainted unless I had believed Grace giveth interest in God who is a present help in trouble It interesteth in Gods Power Wisdom Mercy Goodness Grace can look up to God see him smile when men frown see him at peace in mans hatred Stephen looked up saw Heaven open Christ ready to receive him Paul saw the Lord encouraging Acts 23.11 Be of good chear Paul 2. Grace helpeth in the hour of death Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death When there is no comfort in Riches Offices Friends vain is the help of man Grace disarmeth the King of Terrors O Death where is thy sting Death is welcome to a gracious person as a messenger sent to conduct him to his Father's house to his own Country to his best Friends to Jesus Christ whom his soul loveth Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. 3. At the day of Judgement Grace will find favour will make the Judge our Friend our Advocate Grace will cloath the soul with Jesus Christ his Robes his Righteousness Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments Rev. 16.15 1. Use of Instruction 1. Take notice what a Blessing it is to enjoy the means of Grace to live in a valley of Vision to sit under a powerful Ministry to have the benefit of good Education religious Parents their Instruction and holy Example to have Bibles Catechisms Sabbath-dayes and Sacramental-dayes the Market-dayes for Grace by the blessing of God upon which the soul may be converted and â—e be made wise to Salvation Happy is that people that are in such a case yea thrice happy are they who improve the means to the Ends aforesaid happy we if we know in this our day the things that belong to our peace 2. Then the best pains labour cost that any of us can bestow is to lay out our selves in the getting of Grace that time is best spent which is spent for Grace With all thy getting get Understanding Prov. 4.7 saith Solomon And a greater than Solomon hath told us That Godliness is the best part Luke 20. ult Mary hath chosen the good part c. Whilest others are laying up riches that perish treasures that vanish away clothes that wax old gold and silver that rust Christians are storing their hearts with Grace Whilst others are making their Lands and temporal Estates sure Christians are making their Calling and Election sure Whilst others are laying hold on advantages for this present life Christians are laying hold on Eternal Life 3. The best portion Parents can lay up for their Children is not riches worldly greatness but Grace the favour of God interest in Christ and the Covenant of Grace The best Trade they can teach them is the fear of the Lord to keep holy the Lords Day to flie Vice to follow after Vertue to exercise them in Godliness The second Use is of Reproof To reprove the too slight esteem men have of the Grace of
relations Satâ—n and corrupt nature would soon cut the cords of amity dissolve bands knit angry looks weave vexations gestures contrive evil surmises hinder domestick Prayer c. 2. Manner Secret Prayer is elbow-room-Duty The knoâ—s in the Actus exerciti quoad indivuum cut No Act of Vniformity takes place here In a word Thou maist be what thou wilt be if ipse locus sis as Bernard I leave thee with thy Bridegroom in secret U S E. Let me hear my Will read give leave to the impropriety of speech what I have bequeathed to you Your deeds are good if you have every parcel You count right as we say in Arithmetick if you answer the total or All. 1. My eldest Son in the Closet Read 1 Cor. 11.22 though in another case What have you not houses to Pray in or despise you the Church I mean forsake you the assembling of your selves together for one duty to swallow up another it spoiles All. The whole City to be in the Gates is not good 2. My second Son in the Family You have your House well adorned but there 's something wanting A man is a man though he want an arm or a leg but is not integral Your Prayers are not Mathematically total but when they are then are you 3. My third Publick Prayer is good when there is a concurrance of Family and secret You do well when you believe the History but to rest in Historical faith is not that I commend I give to every one of you an allowance and yet you are found too light Ment mene tekel But first What light peeces without allowance Secondly With allowance First We consider secret Prayer 1. It may be thou makest thy closet but a creep-hole hiding thy self from reproof pleading that thy heart is as good as those that make the greatest shew Though I make not that appearance in the Church nor that noise in my house yet I pray in secret Pardon my mistrust I fear thy prayers are not constant Again thou wilt say I pray alwayes I answer As it is in point of Sabbath when men plead every day ought to be kept a Sabbath and then no Sabbath is kept So thy praying alwayes is not to pray at all 2. Admit thou prayest in secret Dost thou perform Duty out of Conscience to the Command If not thy sacrifice is not accepted 1 Sam. 15.22 Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the Voice of the Lord Behold to Obey is better than Sacrifice and to Hearken than the fat of Rams For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft c. If thou say out of Conscience of Command then what answerest thou to God who commands all Prayer James 2.11 For he that said pray in secret said also pray in family now if thou prayest in secret and not in family thou art become a transgressor of the Law 3. Thou being a Master of a family contentest thy self with secret prayer 1. My Family will not be subject to house-House-duty Art thou a King in thy House as Jezebel in a far different case said Dost thou now govern the Kingdom Dost thou give up thy Lordship Lose not thy Authority O King say I and my House will serve the Lord. 2. Wilt thou say I am ashamed to appear in publick If Prayer be a black deed than let red cover thy face Art thou afraid of children or fools even such are scoffings Michals think it not much to be vile in their sight and thine own sight too Be not ashamed of Christ who is not ashamed of thee his Brother but fear lest be be ashamed of thee when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mark 8.38 3. My thronging family business will not permit Answ As we are to pray with all Prayer so to watch with al Watchfulness not only to watch in prayer and after to hear God's answer but unto Prayer He is a strange God who gives thee Lands Labourers c. and gives thee no time Why hath God given thee two Oxen together two Horses two Servants together but thy hours not two together but minutatem this certainly to index to thee and to give thee warning that time is to be improved and weighed very strictly and more regarded than thy Horses c. Let me perswade thee to look after Blessings in God's Way Dayly bread is sweetest that is got by Prayer and Labour Secondly Light with allowance Though I give thee the allowance of that weighty duty of Family-Prayer yea if thou couldst truly say with the young man Thus have I prayed from my youth up what lack I yet I must answer thee One Prayer more is wanting i. e. Publick Prayer As it is in Petitions to ask daily bread and not hallowed be thy Name is but a lame prayer and to pray for Justification in that Petition Forgive us our trespasses but not for Sanctification in that following and lead us not into temptation it measures not out the blood of Christ rightly which reacheth to the purifying of his People as well as pardoning because of something wanting the foresaid Prayer is but a mutile halting prayer So when one limb is cut off all Prayer is maimed thy Deed is imperfect Thou hast both House and Land but not the Commons thereunto belonging II. Family Prayer First If there be nothing but this Family-Prayer it is not one half of All. 1. I mistrust that something besides the glory of God moves thee to it may be thou wast brought up in a praying Family and custom puts thee upon duty or else the sought applause of thy Family or Neighbours thou art desirous to seem â—o be a good Christian rather than to be so and seekest after the gift of Prayer rather than the grace of Prayer 2. I mistrust thou art not constant in duty may be upon the Sabbath but not in thy six dayes may be at night when thou hast time but not in the morning may be when business is not throng but seed-time and harvest or strangers will easily put thee by 3. Admit a constancy it 's not obedience to the Law-giver for he that hath commanded thee to attend him in thy Parlour hath said the like of the Closet Obedience must be copulative and connexive The Soveraignity of God is alike in all kinds of Prayer The disregarding of secret Prayer is the disregarding the Soveraignity of him who is Unicus Praeceptor Mat. 6.6 Secondly But though I give thee an allowance of one weighty kind viz. secret Prayer Yet for all this thou art not currant For as it is in the Commandments to respect one and not another shews a want of sincerity and thou mayest be ashamed when the wicked call thee an Hypocrite Psal 119.6 So as it is in the parts of a Commandment the negative part of the fourth Commandment it is good not to labour but when thou hast no respect to the positive the sanctification of
Candles and then to put them under bushels I do not remember that the like ever was heard or read of in England before that so many Ministers should have the doors shut upon them in a time when the Protestant Religion is professed and countenanced In the former times when Prelacy was Tyrannical though here one and there one had their mouths stopt so that they could not preach in their own places yet they might preach in another Extraordinary Eclipses usually presage some extraordinary Events The Lord alone knows what the the effects of this Great Eclipse will be And the rather this is to be look'd upon as a great affliction if we consider that we cannot tell when or whether or no there shall be a restauration of Pastors to their People How many poor People may cry out as in Psal 74.9 We see not our Prophets neither is there any amongst us that knoweth how long Well do but see Acts 20.37 38. and think how many Pauls are saying to their People this day Ye may see our faces no more and think how many weeping eyes and sad hearts there are Friends weep many times for a short parting when People are deprived of their Ministers they part with their best Friends 8ly Pray for the Faithful Minâ—sters of God both those that stay behind and especially for those that are constrained to depart 1 Thes 5.25 They have prayed for us many a time In every prayer of mine making mention of you all They have shed many a tear and sent up many a sigh They have mourned for your deadness and unteachableness They do now especially need your prayers 1. Pray that God would keep them stedfast They are Leaders of the People Pray they may not cause them to erre They have many temptations to sin they may be in necessities and that is a great temptation 2. That they may have counsel from God Both those that stay in and those that go out may be in the dark as to their own and the Churches affairs Pray therefore that God's Vrim may be with them both Pray that God would discover to both sorts of Ministers wherein they are defective in any thing that might or should be done and wherein either of them have exceeded that knowing their error they may repent 3. For provision Though bread be taken from their mouths pray God would provide some Obadiahs that may feed them though it be with bread and water In Deut. 10.9 we reade that because Levi had no inheritance amongst his brethren therefore the Lord promised to be his inheritance The Lord knows that many of Levi at this day have little or no inheritance amongst their brethren therefore pray that God himself would be their inheritance They are willing to leave House and Land for the sake of Christ and that they may keep a good and quiet conscience O beg that God would not leave them That seeing they are desirous to honour God that of him they may not be slighly esteemed 4. For their return That you may see their faces once more Rom. 1.10 That they may have a prosperous journey to you again if it be the Will of God If God delight in us he can bring his Priests into his Temple again he can bring Ministers to their People and People to their Ministers O beg that God would speed and hasten the time Plead with God the honour of his Name the necessity of his Church and the shortness of the lives of many of his Ministers Many of them are aged and at the most their dayes are like to be few and those that are younger know not how soon a period may be put to their lives O beg that they may not stand all their dayes idle The door is shut and bars are set so that they cannot enter into God's Vineyard as formerly O beg that the Lord would hasten the opening of the doors of the Temple for them and that he would break these bars assunder What the resolution of God is in this particular you and I know not however do you your duty and perform this office of Love to your Ministers and then let both them and you sit still and acquiesce with the same humble resolution that David had 2 Sam. 15.25 26. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee Lo here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him So if God see it good for you and us he can and will restore us to his House again but if he say he hath no delight in us behold here we are let him do to us as seemeth good in his eyes We do acknowledge we are unworthy to be Priests any longer to him and that God can bring about his own glory though we were all really dead and if God should lay us aside all our life time as vessels in which he hath no pleasure we desire to submit And now Brethren not knowing when or whether or no you may see our faces again in a publick manner I bid you farewel Acts 20.32 Commending you to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up And with the words of the Apostle in Heb. 13.18 19 20. Pray for us and the rather that we may be restored to you the sooner And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen SERMON XVI Zeph. 3.18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assemblies who are of Thee to whom the Reproach of it was a burden THe Prophet Zephaniah supposed by some Mayer ex Gualth cap. 1. v. 1. as the Prophet Isaiah was of a Family of some Note amongst the Jews some Noble were and are called prophesied in those times that bordered upon the Captivity which was Israels second Egypt and in regard that the body of the People were in his time corrupt and sensless he is a Son of Thunder unto them and in that there was in that corrupt body some sound members a few names that had not defiled their garments he is a Son of Consolation to them The body of the People would not believe enough to humble them nor the Faithful amongst them take in so much as to chear them The Prophets of those times found it little less difficult to prop up good men under their dejections than to throw down bad men castled in their own presumptions The most were perswaded that Captivity would never be and the best had much ado to believe it would ever end as appears by Jeremiah's Purchase Jer. 32.6 7 41 42 43 44. The Text is in the Promissory part of this Book The Prophet ascends the Mount of Blessing at the
Godliness as you ought to know If you know any thing of your selves you know that you are insufficient of your selves to every good word and work and that all your your sufficency is of God Every true Believer hath experience of nothing more than of this that without the Grace of Christ communicated to him he is a meer empty nothing But in Christ is all fulness of Grace Grace without measure not for himselfe only but also for all those that beleive in him Go therefore to God through Christ for the communications of Grace and Wisdom as may suffice to enable thee to walk by Line and Rule even the Word of God Which is able to make the man of God perfect and wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 3. You must often compare your selves with the Rule An exact Carpenter will hardly fit the least piece of Timber into hi◠building without the use of his Rule and Square and yet his building is but for a few years at furthest and shall not we much more especially if we desire to be exact make use of our Rules who are building for Eternity A Rule is not to look upon but to use and God hath not given us his Word to reade only but to apply also Now this a Christian doth cheifly by meditation and self-examination Be much therefore in the exercise of these great Christian Duties Worldings and Hypocrites mind them not practise them not It shall be an argument of your sincerity and the reality of your desires to walk exactly if you practise these duties frequently and faithfully You have a Rule for your thoughts shewing you that they must not be vain Jer. 4.14 nor unclean Job 31.1 nor blasphemous Mat. 9.4 nor idolatrous Acts 17.29 nor proud Rom. 12.3 nor unmerciful and coveteous Deut. 15.9 these and all other evil thoughts are to be forsaken Isa 55.7 and your thoughts must be sober and humble Rom. 12.3 and exercised about those things that are true honest just pure lovely and of good report Phil. 4.8 in a word every thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ This you see is the Rule for your thoughts You have a Rule likewise for your words Eph. 4.15 1 Pet. 2.1 Jam. 2.12 Jam. 4.11 Mat. 5.37 Col. 3.8 Col. 4.6 the sum whereof is this That putting aside all filthy false vain and evil communication your speech be alway with Grace seasoned with Salt You have a Rule too for all your actions whether Natural Civil or Religious comprized in that one verse 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the Glory of God Consider now either in the very act while you are thinking speaking or doing any thing or at least in your after reflections upon them whether they have been according to these Rules or not and this is comparing your selves with the Rule wherein you shall find a wonderful advantage in order to circumspect and exact walking 4. Converse with those that order their conversations with the afore-mentioned exactness It was Solomons observation Pro. 13.10 that He that walketh with wise men shall be wise And indeed it is very wonderful to observe the strange effects that are produced by converse and society for the assimilating mens minds and manners to each other either in good or evil Hereupon the Apostle compares converse to Leaven a little whereof only by a kind of society will leaven the whole lump 1 Cor. 5.6 For this cause it was that God cōmanded the Israelites to destroy all the old Idolatrous Inhabitants out of the Land of Canaan and strictly forbad all intermarriages with them lest the Israelites by converse and society with them should learn any of their Heathenish and Idolatrous manners Is it not for the same cause also that the Apostle forbids the yoaking of Beleivers with unbelievers 2 Cor. 6.14 Certainly our own every-dayes experience and observation will tell us that for the most part men are such as they with whom they most frequently and familiarly converse and therefore we see that what Art soever any man desires to be skilled in he will endeavour as much as may be to acquaint himself and converse with such as have the best insight into that Art Now let us make a spiritual improvement of this observation and we shall make no little advantage of it God who in his unmeasurable Wisdom knows best how to advance his own Ends is not satisfied with the single services of any or all the single Persons in the world and hath therefore ordained that his Worshippers shall worship him in Societies and Congregations And why Not because it is greater profit to him Psal 16.2 Job 22.2 3. Single persons can adde nothing no perfection to God no nor the greatest Societies in the world no more than single persons but mark God hath inseparably twisted his own Glory and the Holiness and Salvation of his Creatures together So that he hath ordained and appointed to his Creatures the use of no means for advancing of his Glory but such as tend no less to advancing of their holiness and salvation So that it is apparent from hence that the end of God's ordaining his Servants Worshippers to associate themselves together is that by their converse and mutual example those Sparks of Grace which he hath by his Spirit kindled in their hearts might be blown up into a Flame and that dead hearts might be kindled by their company So we see that a little fire in many small sticks laid singly by themselves is apt to go out but if laid together the fire increaseth and inflames also those which had no fire upon them I know you that are Christians indeed have abundant experience of what I say Many a time anothers ardency in prayer affectionateness in discourse fervency in preaching c. hath put life and spirit into you when you have been as dull as stocks and as sensless as stones of your selves and might so have continued had it not been for that help Anothers holy Example his heavenly Discourse his sober Carriage his Watchfulness over his tongue the Uprightness of his dealing c. hath won you to an holy Imitation and Emulation Oh! therefore if you have any desire to order your conversations with that Exactness which the Apostle here calls for neglect not the assembling and associating of your selves together with such as exercise themselves in the practise of this Duty It is a choice means and so upon proof and tryal you will find it to be Use 3. Let us now in the third place improve what hath been spoken by way of caution that you may take heed of being prejudiced against circumspect walking or exactness of life and conversation 1. Have a care of your affections in the first place that they be not drawn away with the enticements of the flesh nor over-swayed with the opinion or reproaches of the world Looseness and Prophaneness commonly creep