Guide while you travel in Turky This World is Turky a wild and strange Countrey And he who has opened you a way through it unto Heaven he has appointed you Ministerial Guides to lead you therein Guides guided themselves by that Heavenly infallible One whose Conduct you may expect in your due use of them Guides of whom your Saviour hath said He that heareth them heareth him and he that despiseth them despiseth him To be very often upon bended Knees To pray is to desire as Malefactors desire their Pardon and as Lepers desire their Cure A short-liv'd Vapor cannot be such a Prayer But what is sincere and without ceasing it is never failing It hath the promise of the King and therefore is sure to take the Kingdom of Heaven Ask and ye shall receive To take the Oath of Allegiance i. e. Your Baptismal Covenant and Oath Whereto your thorow Consent and sutable Walk are all real Religion The Lord have Mercy on the mad Multitudes of which some do place their Religion in no better than the very Spots and Blemishes of Religion And others in no more than the meer Fashion and Dress of it Vain is their Religion by whom this Oath is not taken tho their Sect be ever so strict Be their Christianity of this or that Form Christ shall profit them nothing Their Hearts be not cleansed by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost but deluded by some Angel of Light or of Darkness Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Finally it shall not be lost Labour To keep your Hearts at your right Hands To join Contemplation and Action in all things of Religion Not to consider what you do is most Inhumane and not to perform the Duty you have considered is most Profane It is an Unclean Creature that either chews not the Cud or if it does divideth not the Hoof. To act without Counsel is to go upon four Feet To consult and not to act is to send your Brains a Woolgathering Whatever your Hand finds to do do it with all your Might Your Holy things you must do with Holy Thoughts and Pains Strain the Nerves of your Mind and of your whole Man And of all things look you well to your Aims Never go ye into the Church as Boys go into the Thames not to wash and cleanse but to divert themselves Hear Sacred things striving to understand make Religious Vows resolving to perform them desiring no longer to live than you do so Look on Flatterers as so many Murderers turn you from them and from your very selves when you turn Flatterers to your selves Be not the Apes of such a Monster as Vitellius who upon the Approach of his Ruin raised no other Fortification but that of a drunken Mirth which kept out the Noise and Report but hastned the Stroke of it Remember that wilful Sin if any must be your Death Being that neither God's Decrees or Satan's Devices do commit any rapes on your Souls If you do not all that is here named as many as are themselves any wiser must pronounce you Wilful and tremble at your hastning Wo Every Prisoner in Hell cries out of his Will Not complaining that his Judg was an hard Master but his Heart was an hard Milstone Not able to say that he perished thrô meer Deceivableness or otherwise than thrô his willingness to be deceived And may it not now be hoped that your Minds are inlightned too much to be incensed against this Advice That your Enmity against your God is abated and your Fear of him encreased Justly or otherwise it is hoped so And for the just and true Conquest of both your Fear and Enmity you are presented with these Considerations The God to whom you are called is as merciful as can be desired For he is Infinitely so Indeed our Misery and not our Sin is the Object of his Mercy Sin is most contrary to his Government yea to hâ—â— Godhead and cannot but be the Obâ—ect of his vindictive Hatred Peccaâ—um est Deicidium Sch. Our Misery is the Object of his Mercy Of the blessed Compassion of which he provideth a new and living Way of Salvation and being provided he is most ready to save the very chief of Sinners turning into that way Insomuch that let us suppose any single one to have committed all the Sins of Adam and of his whole Progeny The vast Ocean would not so easily and presently quench one spark of Fire as the Divine Mercy would forgive all those Sins upon the Sinner's believing on Christ Jesus The Blood of our Saviour is as Satisfactory and Meritory as can be desired For it is as the Holy Oracles name it the Blood of God i. e. of him who is God equal with the Father as well as Man like unto his Brethren And this hath given more honour to God than hath been taken from him by the Sins of Devils and Men. So that without the least loss to his Glory God may save the worst Soul that Repents and Believeth on him that shed this Blood And in giving the Crown of Heavenly Glory God giveth no more than his Son hath bought and paid for The Power of the Holy Ghost to convert and to comfort is as great as can be desired For he is God equal with the Father and Son and cannot but be Omnipotent If we are Hells of Sin and of Sorrow he can make us Heavens of Purity and of Joy Of Satan's Dunghils he can make us God's Temples There be no Hearts but what he can cleanse by his Inspirations The Precedents and Examples of the most bloody Sinners saved are as great as can be desired Sirs as bad as your selves have been saved by the Mercy of the Father by the Merits of the Son and by the Power of the Holy Spirit For Manasses a Monster of Impiety and Villany is now a Star in Glory And not a few of them who murdered our Redeemer on Earth are now with him in Heaven What a Catalogue have we 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Drunkards Revilers Extortioners The Promises made to save other Rebels are as great as can be desired For there is not any one sort of them to be named but upon their Repentance and Faith have Salvation promised to them Yea as great Salvation as any other And lest any should imagine themselves to be excluded most if not all sorts are expresly mentioned Mentioned in the great and precious Offers and Promises of Salvation upon their Conversion The very Name of God is as sweet and encouraging as can be desired The Name expressing his good Affection towards the most hainous Sinners when relenting and returning For it was this that was given his Servant Moses for the heartning of such Merciful and Gracious Longsuffering and abundant in Goodness and
also by Beelzebub Your Faith is vain and you are dead in your Sin if you do not rely on it as it is a Promise of Grace and do not conform to it as it is a Rule of Life The Faith is damning which like Rachel thô it be beautiful is barren There is a Worship of which you may give God much and not honour him at all Ephraim and Judah gave him that which he named Lies and Deceit You do verbally confess Sins But is it not without lamenting them You ask for Grace But it is possible you may not be in much Pain till you have it You speak God's Praise But so you may do and give him none for what the Heart does not it is all undone Hecatombs without Hearts are the Sacrifice of Fools There are rare Gifts which you ' may have and use to the Profit of others and yet perish your selves The Son of Perdition had others Gifts beside the Bag. And for Idleness he was never taxed that we read Spiders the Naturalists say have eight Eyes Have you Eyes that are clear So hath many a venomous Creature Do you excite others to do good So do Drums and Trumpets which abide senseless themselves Swenkfield had no small gift of Prayer and was a great Alms-giver yet he was a Monster There are very religious Affections which you may have and yet be dead in Sins John Baptist 's Disciples for a Season rejoiced in his Light Do your Lamps burn So did the foolish Virgins for a time Do you sometimes shed Tears at a Sermon So have some that lived the while in Fornication It is no new thing for Mens Hearts to thaw in the Sun and freeze in the Shade One day to sigh and groan in the Congregation and the next to rant and roar in the Tavern There is a Love of the Saints which you may have and be none your selves The Heathens which shewed St. Paul no small kindness were not Saints You love them because they love you But do not even the Publicans so You love them for some or other Gift of theirs which charmeth you But do not you so love your Hounds and Hawks You are of the World which hates the Saints if you love them not because they love God and are beloved of God And if you command not your selves even then to love them when you contradict your doubtful Opinions and tell you of your unquestionable Sins There be Legions of strange Spirits that love not the King and yet lavish away Money on his Servants That say of God's Service what a weariness is it Yet will say to a Servant of his as Herod to the Damsel Whatsoever thou shalt ask I will give thee There is a lovely Sincerity which you may have and yet be damned for Hypocrisy Saul had a natural and laudable one before his Conversion and while the Wrath of God abode upon him You have true and honest Hearts as to many moral Acts And had not Abimelech as honest an one as you Julian the Apostate was of a Conversation very strict and it appears not but that of a long time be thought as bad as he spake All Sincerity is not godly There is a wild Olive of it as well as a true There is an unbroken Quietness which you may have without any true Peace Dives had just such his Prologue speaks Quietness Soul take thine Ease But God's Epilogue speaks a distance from Peace Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be taken against thy Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est poscere à Notente Casaub You have no Sin that troubles you It may be so You name your Sleep in Sin a sweet Rest No doubt but it seems so And you do think it a good Blessing of God's sending Most Dreamers do dream so But verily Sirs if God sends such a Rest and Quietness he sends it as he sends Sword and Pestilence He sends it in Wrath and for Vengeance For never is he so angry with a Man as when he saith Let him alone And when he asks Wherefore should he be stricken any more Wherefore Is there not a Cause think ye for this Advice That either you turn Christians or throw away your Christian Names Naomi being sunk into a Condition that was contrary threw off hers Call me no more Naomi but Marah Why should Goats be called Sheep thô found in their Skins Skins which very Wolves may put on and often do so for a Season Do not wilfully continue dead if you obstinately desire a Name to live Come then quite out of Egypt if you must needs think your selves in Canaan The Devil speaks as kindly as Pharaoh I will let you go only you shall not go far Exod. 8.28 Flesh World and Devil do brook all but thorow Religion Go therefore go Pray that you may receive your Sight You know nothing yet but the Words and the Gestures of Religion the Nature the Truth and the Goodness of it your Eyes behold not Nicodemus knows nothing of Regeneration Learn what is the Sinful and what is the Holy State There is no third every Man is in one of the two Every Man is a Saint and hath the Holy Spirit or he is a Samaritan and hath a Devil The Sinful State is that wherein a Man hates and is hated of God The Holy State is that wherein God and Man are reconciled A Man loves God and is loved of him In the first God and Man are opposed as Fire and Water In the second God and Man are endeared as Father and Son Make your Judgment then and your Choice In order whereto Believe the Fountain of Truth against the Father of Lies Conclude the Scriptures to be true every word And be assured of all they say as of the things which you see with your Eyes Value them read follow and prefer them above the Light of the Sun Act the parts of Men in your endeavours to be Saints Use your Reason in your pursuits of Religion God enlivens Men by awakening their Reason Satan murders them by holding it in Sleep What is your Sin indeed but Vnreasonableness Want of Consideration is most or all Mens Damnation It can never be well with you till Reason corrects the errors of Sense and Faith corrects the errors of Reason For Reason is but a Rule by the Word and Spirit ruled Yet as soon will God give you to see with your Eyes shut as to judg with your Reason unexercised Indeed crack'd Heads be Sockets for new Lights but it 's because all such be false ones Resolve that the Concerns of Eternity shall have the best of your Time That no Mills of secular Business or Circles of sensual Pleasure shall have your best Hours or your deepest Thoughts No but the Morning that is the Graces Friend as well as the Muses shall always be taken up in Sacred Business And of other Seasons All the Fat shall be the Lord's He hath but one Day in seven let
him not have less than one Hour in seven every Day Take fast hold of faithful Reprovers Are there none near you Send for them as Cornelius for Peter And when you have them let them not go Keep them as more needful to your Souls than Butlers and Cooks for your Bodies Turn them not away for crying Fire Fire when you and yours are nigh unto burning Beware of the Phrenzy of the Athenian Beggar Who could not be perswaded but all the Ships in the Harbour were his Tormenting Fears do not half the hurt of presumptuous Hopes Who will have his Arm taken from his Shoulderblade unless he believe it to be gangreen'd Or who of you will run that he may obtain if he presumes himself to have ran and obtained already Deceitful Hopes avert from all endeavours and the very desires that be requisite to Salvation Often compare the Gain of Godliness and the Profit of Sin The Natures the Vses the Durations of the one and the other Draw up a Catalogue or Inventory of them Or read them often in Authors that have drawn them up to your Hand And then Night and Day consider the Danger of Delays Tell your selves that a future Repentance is not a Preparation for the Judgment to come And that it is no Repentance at all which is not entire without Reserve and present without Delay God's voice to every Man of you is this Arise lest thou be consumed Escape for thy Life look not behind thee Haste therefore and Do the Act which is the most momentous one of your Life The act before which the Wrath of God abideth on you And after which there is no Condemnation to you With Judgment Sincerity and Gratitude give your selves to God in Christ Join your selves in Covenant unto the Father Son and Spirit For there is no other God in Heaven but the Triune And the Socinian is but a more subtle sort of Mahometan Learned Dr. Pocock observed that our Saviour was more honoured in Turky than in Cracovia In short Mr. Howe 's Decimo of Self-Resignation is a Diamond And so is Blessed Allein's Manual of Conversion Being made God's Temples keep Porters at your Doors You do no sooner join unto the Lord in the Gospel-Covenant but you become Sacred Temples of the Holy Ghost And becoming such it concerns you to set a strict Watch. That no unclean thing enter you That Things and Persons and whatever is Vnholy be put out of your Society For If any defile the Temple of God him will God destroy But Think it not enough to abstain from Sin You do not think it enough for your Servants to forbear smiting you without serving you And what if from this Hour you never sinned any more Stocks and Stones do not commit any Sins So very poor a Praise it is to die unto Sin if you live not unto God! Would you appear the Children of God You must abound in the Work of the Lord. And be holy as well as harmless Look not for the Aids which God hath promised without the use of all Means which he hath required He hath said he will give Wisdom and Will and Power to do good But not unless you ask He hath not said you shall find unless you seek Yea seek with the whole Heart And Watch daily at Wisdom's Gates and wait at the Posts of its Doors God had given his Apostle all that sailed with him Yet without scruple he pronounced that Except they abode in the Ship they could not be saved Acts 27. Aim as high as Perfection No sensual Man covets less than perfect Health and Strength and Beauty Nor does any spiritual one crave less than perfect Knowledg Love and Obedience He is not Holy enough to be admitted into Heaven who desires no more than needs for his Admission Solomon calls it despising of a Man's Soul to be content with low Attainments for it And to be stingy and pinching and sparing of Pains to accomplish it Sincere Love of God aspires to fulfilling of the Law of God! It 's the Bond of Perfectness and that which holds all our Faculties and Powers in the pursuit of it In Religion he that designs but a Mediocrity is under the reigning power of Hypocrisy A true Christian thinks not himself a sufficiently good Man till he is as holy as the best Angel Whatever you are doing remember you are dying Lamps are wasting as soon as they burn and we are dying as soon as we live How often in the Womb is Life spent before Breath is drawn It 's sure we are on our way toward another World before we are born into this and as long as we breath in it It is dying that we live And there 's no Dweller on the Earth but what is a Passenger As in a Ship under Sail whatever Men are doing they are certainly and swiftly passing It is Dying that you eat drink and sleep Dying that you buy sell or game Dying that you read hear or pray And it is a great need that you have of Death in your Thoughts to quicken you to care of your Ways Dr. Bates his Treatise of the four last Things was ate and drank by the best of Queens Happy England when our Nobility and Gentry entertain themselves as wisely But alas Titius is in danger of the Sea breaking in upon all that he hath With much cost he builds a Wall to keep it out Only he leaves a huge Gap in his Wall Yet many see the Wall who see not the Gap and therefore do admire the Work and praise the Man But Sempronius a less negligent and more skilful Observer spies the Gap And is sick to see the absurdity of the Wall and the Folly of Titius Predicting his Ruin unless the Gap be stopp'd with Expedition Lords and Gentlemen the Case is your own There be vast Gaps in the Walls of your most operous and sumptuous Religion And these you are called to have effectually stopp'd Ask not any of you for you are already told What is your Trespass and what is your Sin that you are so hotly pursued Elijahs must tell Ahabs that they and their Fathers Houses have troubled Israel in that they have forsaken the Commandments of the Lord and have followed Baalam And if a very David shall cloak his Sin Nathan must say plainly Thou art the Man Wherefore be it your care that you be not driven one Day to say We are very guilty concerning our plain Monitor in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us to stop our Gaps and we would not hear him Therefore is distress come upon us In hope of preventing it I have followed Jacob's Counsel to his Sons Gen. 43. I have taken of the Fruit of Canaan and brought you this Present A little Balm a little Honey Spices and Myrrh Nuts and Almonds CHAP. V. To the truly Religious GOodness and Greatness are a rare Conjunction What more Divine than le Bon le Grand