if this one thing were all things and disobedience to this Commandement were disobedience to all Is it nothing to us that hereby Crossing Christs Prayer as much as in us lies we make the Prayer of Christ of none effect Christ knew the evil of heart-burnings and divisions of wrath and bitterness against one another though we do not and therefore having preached up love among his Disciples on earth he sets upon praying down Union from his Father in Heaven and what he insisted most upon in his Sermon that he enlargeth most upon in his Prayer John 17.11 21 22 23. And now I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us That the World may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Throwing off Christs Livery John 13.35 that they may be made perfect in one and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Is it nothing to us that hereby we throw off Christs distinguishing Livery By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another He doth not say Hereby you shall be my Disciples but hereby it shall be known Nor doth he say Hereby I shall know nor hereby you shall know but hereby shall others know Nor doth he say Hereby they shall ghès and conjecture but hereby they shall know as by a sure and infallible sign Nor doth he say Hereby some a very few shall know this great secret but hereby all men shall know Nor doth he say Hereby all men shall know that you seem to be my Disciples but that you are so indeed Is it nothing to us Representing Christ as an Imposture that hereby we make the Jewes and Heathens look on Christ as an Impostour How can they look upon him otherwise whilst they see his Coat so full of seams yea his Body so full of rents Hereby we hinder the World from being convinced that Christ is sent of God Christ therefore prayed John 17.21 23. Making Christs doath of none effect that His might be one that the World may know that God sent him Is it nothing to us that hereby we make as much as in us lyes the Cross of Christ of none effect and his blood to be shed in vain Christ not only preach'd up Love and prayed for it but also paid for it As he went from preaching up Love on Earth by his Sermon to pulling it down from Heaven by Prayer So he went from praying to paying for it and the Price which he laid down for it Ephes 2.14 15 16. was his Blood saith a late ingenuous Writer For he is our Peace who hath made both one c. having abolished in his flesh the enmity c. for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross Shall Christ dye to break down partition walls and will we dare to keep them up Shall he shed his blood for peace and shall we imploy our wit and interest to blow the trumpet to War Is it nothing to us Calling in question Gods Promises Isa 65.25.11.6 that hereby we make Jews and Pagans call in question the truth of Gods promises What can they think of those promises that the Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord. That the Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the failing together and a little Child shall lead them When the Lambs cannot fold together without pushing at one another Is it nothing to us Grieving Christ and the Spirit that hereby we grieve our dear Lord Jesus and the ever blessed Spirit May we not easily imagine what a grief it is to the head to see the members of his body renting and tearing each other to see heirs of the same hope those that lye together in the same bosom of Election and whose Names are on his Breast and whom he presents before his Father together in Heaven to be thus broken asunder on earth O! me thinks if we had any love to Jesus Christ we should study to be of one affection What Luther said once to the Ministers of Norimberg is very considerable Suppose said he you saw Jesus Christ standing bodily in the midst of you and thus bespeaking you What do you O my dear Children whom I have Redeemed by my blood that you might mutually love one another There is no danger in your difference but there is much in your dissention Do not thus sadden my Spirit do not thus spoil the holy Angels of their joy in heaven Am not I more to you than all your matters of difference How can we expect the company of the Spirit of grace and peace whilst such fiery contentions are amongst us Were the Disciples quarrelling and contending when the Holy Ghost fell on them No They were all with one accord in one place Acts 2.1 Psal 133.10 Where men dwell together in Unity there the Lord commands the blessing for ever God will not saith a learned man sow the precious seed of his grace and love among bryars and thornes the enemies of peace Is it nothing to us Rasing Sion that hereby we do what in utlyes to rase Sion even to the foundation thereof The stones support the building by being coupled together Mat. 12.25 Making real Saints weaty to support the World any longer How can the house stand when the stones are severed when not a stone is left joyned to a stone Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against it self shall not stand Is it nothing to us that hereby we make reall Saints the pillars of the World weary of staying in the World to support it any longer It was the sight of the divisions among Christianss that made Grynaeus Melancthon Strigclius those pious and precious Souls weary of earth Psa 55.6 and to wish and desire the wings of a Dove that they might sly away and be at rest in that place where there is a rest remaining for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 as from all other evils so from this of divisions and dissentions among Brethren It was â—â—e conjecture of one that as Go is first Judgement against the old World was by Water against the heat of Lust so his last Judgement upon the World
misdemeanours were they convinced of the body of sin within them their greatest sorrows would be for their sinful propensities Neither would you wonder at any impieties and enormities in the Earth but would admire at the restraints of Heaven that they are no greater Alass If the Reader were left to himself he would presently lay hands on his nearest relations and on himself Certainly the reason why we turn not Cannibals why every man is not a Sodomite a Murtherer an Oppressour c. is because God hath a rein on the heart and curbs it for the continuation of mankind that otherwise would soon be destroyed The great boundary of the Seas and of the Ocean of corruption is the Soveraign above But O! how do we commend Nature such a man hath a good nature such a man you may trust him he will never commit such abominations You may as well believe a Toad will not poyson or the Sea will not overflow the Earth if God leave it to its self But to descend to particulars 1. Few convinced of the minds corruption Rom. 8.7 How few see the corruption of their mind How few are convinced that the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be How are our minds delighted with tales and toyes more than with the serious mysteries of God How few are sensible that they are as foolish and mad as any Bedlams in that they please themselves with that which should be their greatest burden namely Sin They are worse than the Bee or Ant for these prepare for a severe hard Winter these provide for hereafter whilst most people mind present things present pleasure present profit c. with the neglect of heaven and future glory They mind more what to eat and drink here what to have at present for this life than what to lay up for eternity They busie themselves to know what is of no consequence but careless of momentous and eternal matters How few employ their minds to know God and how he is to be worshipped and pleased but employ themselves in needless and unprofitable speculations in this like fools and children who preferr painted glass before jewels of value they more set by a little mirth and pleasure than the matters of their salvation How are our minds enslaved to our affections to the more bruitish inferiour and ignoble parts of the soul and we love to have it so Through this corruption of our minds how do we justifie sin excuse it and plead for it Hence also there are swarms of idle confused impertinent foolish ridiculous thoughts that fill our souls and duties seldome in the day week or year any conceptions of God suitable to his majesty and holiness How unstable are our minds and judgements so that we are as reeds shaken with every wind now for duty then soon wheel'd off again now for repenting and humbling work then tired and soon diverted And if we know the out-side of truths yet how often is that a barr to our closing with Christ and walking in him And yet though these poor blind deluded Bartimeus's fill all our wayes and paths so that where ever we goe we meet with them yet how seldome are any convinced of this how seldome do any cry for eye salve that they may see 2. Few convinced of the corruption of the Conscience Tit. 1.15 And though not only the mind but the conscience is defiled though there be a blindness upon it whereby it mis judgeth and calleth darkness light and though it be senseless and stupid as a stone yet few do believe this corruption hence they take sanctuary in their consciences their consciences bear them witness though it be bribed and corrupted and they have a good conscience though they know not what conscience is 3. How few are convinced of the corruption of their Will Few convinced of the corruption of their Will How do they wish that drunkenness uncleanness c. were no sins How do they choose to live a merry rather than an holy life to be the servants of the Devil rather than of God to commit sin and thereby hazard their damnation rather than to suffer and through many tribulations to enter into the Kingdom of God And how gladly would most Professours enter and take up their rest in somewhat below God if they could but enjoy the world according to their will Few convinced of the corruption of their Affections 4. Few are convinced of the pollution of their Affections Though they hate what they should love and love what they should hate though they love sin which they should hate and hate and slight God to whom they should give the precedency of their love though all be in disorder all be mis-placed though God be dethroned and Sin Sathan and the World be set up above all that is called God yet few do really believe that such a miserable Chaos is upon them 5. Few convinced of the corruption of their Memories How few are sensible of the corruption of their Memory Though they are especially charged to remember God and how to get a possession of him and to remember duty and how to practise and to remember sin and how to shun it yet how soon do they forget such truths and lodge in their memories injuries that they may avenge them and vanities foolish jests unprofitable toâ—es and tales to please themselves therewith You can remember how merry you were such a time how vain how your sensualities were abounding but you soon forget a Sermon or if you remember any thing delivered by the Preacher it is that which either concerns others conditions rather than yours or which yields you the least advantages heaven-ward We can remember the fall of Peter much easier than the repentance of Peter than his bitter weepings we can remember David's Adultery but not his Repentance and how it broke his bones and made his bed to swim Few convinced that sin iâ— the greatest evil Secondly How few have been convinced that sin is the greatest evil How few have seen it in its perfect odiousness in its naked face as that which makes Men Devils fighting against God How are most strangers to its pedigree Joh. 8.44 and consider not the Devil to be its Father We would be thought to have nothing to do with the Devil nor that he hath any thing to do with us we can live in sin and yet hypocritically enough defie the Devil and all his works We can make more moderate constructions of our sins and call them the frailties of our flesh but he that commits sin is of the Devil i. e. the Devil's drudge Sathan works in him and by him If men were convinced of this they would not drink in the Devil's piss Sin it comes from the Devil it is the Devil's excrement and yet this is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel O! with what greediness is the
dung of hell devoured and swallowed How few see sin to be contrary to the works of God although God had no sooner perfected the goodly faâ—rick of Heaven and Earth but sin gave a shrewd shake to all it shook and dis-joynted all and had it not been for Christ the great Mediatour it had ruined the whole frame of Nature How few see sin to be contrary to the will of God God saith I will have this done I 'le not do it saith Sin I 'le have this suffered saith God I 'le not suffer it saith Sin Nay so great is the contest betwixt Sin and God that if it could it would unbee God How few take notice of its contrariety to the very nature of God God is good Sin is evil God is pure Sin is impure How few believe sin to be universally evil that there is no good in it We cannot perswade men that there is good in poverty good in disgrace good in reproaches with the tongue and persecutions unto death but easily are men perswaded there is some good in sin How few are convinced of the miserable effects and consequences of sin The wrath of God is not revealed against their unrighteousnest and ungodliness so as to make their knees to tremble The hand-writing on the wall is not observed They are still alive We cannot for our hearts perswade men to goe up to heaven to see what spoyles it made there could we herein prevail then would they inferr that there is more evil in the least sin than there is good in all the Angells of heaven for that one sin conquered them and spoyled them of all their beauty and made them of glorious creatures to become such loathsome and hideous spectacles neither can we prevail with any almost to take a journey to Paradise to see its venome there or to goe to the Garden or to Mount Calvary to see what work it did there or to goe to hell-gate to hear the doleful shrieks and cries which it hath caused there though God hath said Psal 68.21 God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses though there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57.21 though sin be the sole object of Gods hatred for God loved the whole Creation till its beauty was blasted and stained by sin though sin only seperates between God and souls Isa 59.2 though in the belly of it be found all miseries deaths and hells though it be the founder of all graves and of Tophet though it fill the conscience with terrours and hell with fire and brimstone yet few are affected with the evils of it but they drink in iniquity as water Thirdly Few sensible of being under the wrath of God John 3.28 36. Eccles 8.11 How few Professours are sensible that they are cast by an holy and righteous Law that they are condemned creatures that the wrath of God abideth on them Few have seen the black cloud full of woes brim full of wrath ready to empty it self upon their souls they take no notice that though the sentence be not executed speedily yet it is given forth and there may be but a little breath and they are gone to perish for ever How many senseless souls are there in our Parishes whose consciences were never shaken whose spirits were never wounded who never received the spirit of bondage to fear who never knew what a fearfull expectation of judgement meant who go dancing to hell in the Devils chains and yet count themselves the noble and gallant spirits and flatter themselves in their own eyes and say we shall have peace though we walk in the imaginations of our hearts Deut. 29.19 Rev. 3.16 17. These are Laodicean-like rich and full and needing nothing when God is about to spue them out of his mouth as we discharge our stomacks of some loathsome surfets Pro. 26.16 These are wiser in their own conceit then seven men that can render a reason Though one Minister at the heels of another endeavour with Scripture upon Scripture to convince them of and to prick them at the heart for their sin and danger yet they are boysterously confident and presumptuous that they shall to heaven as soon as any Precisians in the Country Never did many break one nights sleep upon the consideration of their sinfull and lost condition by nature never did they loath their ordinary food or feel the smart of broken bones as David did though they have sinned at an higher rate never did they know what a wounded spirit meant what anguish of soul was never did they feel Gods wrath or sin a burthen insupportable they were never pricked at the heart so as to cry out What shall I do to be saved What shall I do to have me sins pardoned Would you know the reason of all this security Alas they are dead in sins and trespasses A dead condition is an insensible condition death deprives of sense as well as life the dead are not frighted with the swords and pistols at their breasts the dead fear not though threatned with fire and brimstone the dead hear not though God be on Mount Ebal thundering curses upon curses the dead see not though sin be so ugly a monster and hell so frightfull a place the dead smell not though sin stinks worse than the vomit of dogs 2 Pet. 2.20 than rotten Sepulchres or than the corrupted matter of the most nasty disease it offends not the dead to have this stinking Carrion alwayes in their bosomes the dead feel not though that which is heavier than montains of lead be lying on their backs they grown not neither do they complain so much as Cain did they do not go softly in the bitterness of their souls by reason of their sins Many cannot say with Hannah that ever they were of a sorrowfull Spirit Though there be so many curses upon the heads of all natural persons though there be an entayl of wrath upon the heads of the very sins they live in though their sins are or may be circumstantiated to a greater degree than any of the Scripture-Offendors that we read of as being committed under the open Sun of the Gospel though Hell be open to receive them every moment whilst impenitent whilst hardned though the Valley of Hinnom is making room for them to entertain them with the vengeance of a justly-provoked God yet few fear few work out their salvation with weeping eyes and trembling hearts they are still alive without the Law they never walked softly with Ahab or were under Soul-trouble with Judas they fall short of the pangs and sense of Hypocrites Oh! Oh! Oh! I pitty these secure souls how short will they fall of their hopes and how farr short of Heaven Fourthly Few sensible of Sathans working in them Eph. 2.2 How few are sensible that all this while the Devil works in them as in his
the world comes in But how little pleas'd with the galleries wherein the beloved may be held How are men pleased with the earth but find no more rellish in Christ and his ways than in the white of an egge What great journeys have you taken even compassed Sea and Land to gain riches and hardly can go a mile or two to meet with God How is every opportunity laid hold of to get more to the heap But do not you remain contented with the least measures of grace yea with somewhat below grace How oft have you left your meat to serve a Customer but when so to serve the Lord Jesus Christ How few design for riches as a means to carry them to a further end They should be but as the rounds of a Ladder not to stand upon but thereby to ascend higher even to glory and to the new Hierusalem But alas few desire the world in subordination to God and as a means to glorifie God but the more they love the World the less God is loved and the more their desires are carried out after riches the less after God How few pursue earthly things in obedience to Gods call How many out of a desire of filthy lucre How few seek the World with an holy indifferency How few reserve their zeal and hottest endeavours for heavenly things Is not the general cry Psa 4.6 Who will shew us any good We need no proof of this there are instances every where How for the getting of a penny Note will some debarr themselves of Ordinances Is it not a sufficient excuse with some for not attending on the Worship of God that they met with a Customer that kept them from the Ordinance Doth not the Clock strike too fast whilst thou art selling to advantage Doth not time run away too fast Dost thou not wish thou couldst with Joshuah cause the Sun to stand still on a Market-day or on a Fair-day when trading is quick But O! The Sexton is blamed for suffering the Clock to stand still on a Sabbath day and when thou art in the Worship of God O! When will the Sabbath be gone Amos 8.5 When will the Duty be over that we may fell How many Hypocritical out-cries are there against the World O! It eats up my time O! It eats up my spirits It robs me of communion with God We say it is an Enemy and yet we can bosome this Snake lodge this Enemy Col. 3.5 that God would have us to kill Mortifie Covetousness How oft hath God charged thee against Covetousness Take heed and beware of it Considerations to withdraw the heare from Covetousness Luke 12.15 Two words to the same purpose all little enough to take thee off from earthly pursuits How apparently hath God with-drawn from thee ever since thou wast taken with this Dalilah How hardly art thou pull'd out of the deep pit and miry clay to Duty much more to God And wilt thou be rich Art thou resolved to run into the bryars Then farewell to thee not only in time but to eternity Mat. 13.23 How many convictions and impressions of the blessed Spirit have your worldly cares choaked How have your inordinate desires of riches puzled your Souls and diverted them from minding and improving the counsells of God and Conscience But O! How unreasonable are earthly prosecutions in this day of Gods wrath When God is plucking up by the roots now to be seeking great things for our selves to have Baruck's sore running on us Jer. 45. ult this makes us the more inexcusable sinners This is altogether unseasonable this is no time for it this is ignoble yea base O that we were ashamed of it We say The last dayes are perillous dayes we pretend to expect the Cross and is this good preparation for the Cross of Christ to load our selves with thick clay to crack our Consciences and thereby to incurr Gods farther displeasure How unlike art thou to the primitive Converts Paul when converted Phil. 3.8 counts all things but dung in comparison of Christ And Zacheus no sooner had a work of grace begun upon him but down went the World faster than ever it went up He parts from riches with more freedome than he sought them The half of my goods I give to the poor Luke 19.8 and if I have wronged any man I will restore four-fold John the beloved Disciple affirms That there is an inconsistency between loving the Father 1 John 2.15 1 John 5.4 and the World and that Whosoever is born of God evercometh the World But alas Our hearts are as Cities without walls the World hath a thorow-fare in them and may come and goe without any Pass from Heaven How hath God put a remark of his sore displeasure upon our worldly endeavours We have to dwell in our seiled houses neglected Gods house Hag. 1.2 4 6. and said The time is not come for the building the waste places for the restoring the Worship of God for the building of the house of God and how hath God caused many of us to vomit up our sweet morsels which we rolled under our tongues O! Consider your wayes Ye have sowen much and bring in little ye eat but have not enough ye drink but ye are not silled with drink and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bagg with holes How hath this Sin deadned you to all the Worship of God How by the interposition of this dark body of the Earth hath the light of Heaven yea the light of Gods countenance been darkned and how hath thy Soul been benighted and clouded They say If a Knife be put into the Earth it will lose its edge I am sure of this experiment That Christians who were once lively and active for God yet by engaging their hearts to the World they have lost their zeal their keenness and their lustre which once they had When thou hast gained time from thy business to think of God and to discharge duty hast hot thou miss'd thine heart hast not thou left and lost it in the croud How dost thou debase thy self hereby The curse of Cham is upon thee a servant of servants thou art a slave to that which thou shouldst rule over God did not give thee a reasonable Soul that thou shouldst choose the Serpents curse to crawl and live upon the Earth O! What sordid practises have some stoop'd unto for the getting this Worlds riches Ahab to gain a few handfulls of earth dares walk to it through Naboth's bowells Judas to pocket thirty Pieces will venture to betray his Lord and the Lord of Heaven and Earth O! tremble to think what sad effects your Covetousness may have upon you before you dye Demas left Christ lost his Soul shipwrack'd his faith and all to embrace this present evil world Prov. 28.20 And if thou make hast to be rich shalt thou be innocent Whether thou place thy confidence and hope
account He that seeth his Brothers face fowl and tells him not of it hath a mind that others should see his spots as well as himself And is this love to thy Friends O! How have we uncovered that which ingenuous Humanity should have concealed Can you talk so of your Friends that are most dear to you 12. Restraining Prayer for them Have not we restrained Prayer for such Christians as have differed from us Whom we love we pray for But have not our differences been so great that we have excluded one another out of our Prayers unless to reproach each other before the Lord If any man see his Brother sin a Sin 1 John 5.16 which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death How seldome are we very serious and earnest in wrestling with God for others if in some things divided from us Mat. 5.44 If we had counted them Enemies we should have so loved them as to have prayed for them O that Abraham should pray so vehemently for the Sodomites and not we for Saints That Samuel should pray for Saul and not we for the Lords anointed ones Have not our differences interrupted not only civil but all religious communion Yea have not we neglected to pray not only for dissenting Brethren but for the reconciling of them How few are there that pray heartily feelingly believingly for the Peace of Hierusalem though there are many Promises to encourage us therein Zech. 14.19 that his Name shall be one and they shall worship with one shoulder and Judah shall not envy Manasseh Jer. 32.39 nor Manassâ—h vex Ephraim And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them should we not also have been encouraged to pray for that which Christ so affectionately desires Will not Petitions be welcome to Heaven for that which would be the joy of all the Heavenly Host to see effecten Peace on earth among the Saints would be the joy of God who is the God of Peace of Christ who is the Prince of Peace May we not confidently pray for what Christ sweat and bleed 13. Not priling their gifts not blessing God for them How unready have we been to respect and value the gifts and enoblements of such Christians We have neither heartily prayed to God that they might be useful with all their Talents for the good of many nor blest the Father of Lights for communicating so much to them 14. Envying them Hath not the Spirit in us lusted to Envy Whom we love we rejoyce at their gifts and enjoyments but hath not a Spirit of Cain prevailed among us Have not we envied if others had greater acceptance with God than our selves Have we rejoyced at the gifts and graces of differently-perswaded Brethren as if they were our own or have not we secretly at least repined at others praises Have not we been afraid that we and our party have been obscured thereby Hath not this been evident in our being more backward to speak of their graces than of their imperfections Doe not we gaze only on the Sun and call in others to be spectators of it when ecclipsed Do not we like Kites pass over the sound sheep and pitch on the weak and dead Carion or like the Butchers Dog not touch the sound flesh but the offals and putrified pieces or like Swine pass over the flowers and wallow in the Mire If we know one of a differing Congregation from ours that hath a blemish our mouths are full of him but others graces and heavenly walks we can pass over in silence 15. Not helping them Have not we refused to help such Christians We help what we can those whom we really love But are not we like Spectators in a Tragedy Austin complains of such in his time who mourn much to see a sad story acted but let the Play goe on True pitifull love would express it self by the hand Heb. 6.10 1 Cor. 13.4 as well as tongue We read of the labour of love love is bountifull We pretend to love all Saints but what do we for those that are of different perswasions from ours If such an one be in Prison do we visit him If Naked do we cloath him If hungry do we feed him If we remember all the Lords people that are in bonds as if we were bound with them then doe we really love them We love our selves and we are liberal to our selves we can bestow time care estate good things upon our selves but not so on divided Brethren We have words at will Oyle and butter in our mouths to supply them Depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but we give not those things that are needfull Love will suffer any pains for the sake of the Beloved So Paul loved all the Saints that he was willing to spend and to be spent like a Candle to wast himself for their good Which of us hath so spent himself Love will counsel the Beloved especially if in any straight But God knows how little others have been beholding to us even this way possibly we have afterwards insultingly told them this you should have done and herein you failed but as we found them in a Ditch so we left them and directed them not to a way of deliverance The best counsel we can give is for the Soul but let the divided parties yea and others consider seriously and sadly how backward they have been and are to this day to advise to the best way for peace holiness and glory If we believe such an undertaking will impair our Neighbours Name estate ro Soul yet how slow are we to interpose for the disswading of him from so unhappy an enterprize I should hardly think that Parent loves his Child well that sees him run over a cliff and with-holds him not what he can 16. Not sympathizing with them Have not we been so far from helping them that we have not sympathized with them Love is pittifull When they have been sick when did we get over our thresholds to enquire how it fared with them How seldome have we felt their pains If they be in an errour in a dangerous one the more we should compassionate them considering our selves also who have the seeds of the same errours within us considering the blindness of our own minds how we also differ from others in some matters how it is the Spirit that leads into truth c. But have not some rejoyced when any of a different perswasion have fall'n into the Bogs of Familisme Ranterisme Quakerisme c. that they may thence draw their absurd inferences against the whole body whereto such an one was related Yea how little have we laid to heart the afflictions of any of Gods people Have not we been as unconcerned in their sufferings in Germany France Holland Piedmont Ireland
sentence of death thus to employ his Pen when he cannot his Tongue for the good of thy Soul Every particular Chapter will if God add his blessing prove a compleat Soul-saving Treatise I shall add no more to perswade thee to Come and see but this that nothing but unwillingness to see what is here to be seen and unperswadableness to make such improvement of such Sights can make thy Case desperate Be sure only Before In and After thy serious perusal of these Chapters of so much worth that thou beg earnestly of God that he would be pleased with some of his Sons Eye-salve to open thine eyes that thou mayest see and by his Spirit move so upon thy spirit that thine eye may suitably affect thine heart with what so much tends to the promoting of thine eternal welfare The Sins of Professours CHAP. I. Their regardlesseness of Souls 1. HOw Careless are we of our own Souls 1. Ignorance of their preciousness O how few do believe they are men having bodies that must dye but Souls that will never dye How few do believe that their bodies were given them to be serviceable to their Souls Their heads their hearts their eyes their ears their hands their feet c. were all to attend upon their souls and to help them to Heaven But this is not believed by many As they are ignorant of the blessed God who made them and of Jesus Christ who came to redeem them and know not whether there be an Holy-Ghost or no So they are ignorant of the preciousness of their Souls Christ hath not given them eyes to read and understand that a man is not cannot be profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul Christ's questions what will it profit a man c. What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Matth. 16.26 Put it out of all question Alas many who carry the name of Christians deserve not the name of men When you begin to value your Souls you begin to be men Oh that men would value that which once they shall they must value The damned Spirits know now the worth of their Souls How many will not 2. Inconsiderateness How few consider the worth and preciousness of their Souls When do such thoughts as these possesse you Here in this earthly tabernacle in this house of booths dwells a thing that I never said that is worth a world though here I crawl up and down like a worm of two or three Cubits long and am in danger to be thrown into an hole every day yet I carry with me a Jewell the loss whereof the whole world cannot repair How seldome do nominal Professours consider sadly and seriously what will become of their souls when their excellency Job 4 21. which is in them shall go or journey away as Eliphaz speaks Examine your thoughts all the day long from morning to Evening and few are laid out for the Soul 3. Caring â—â—â—e for the body â—han the 〈◊〉 Are not all the thoughts and cares laid out upon the body though the body be but clay and the soul is a spirit the body must dye but the soul shall never dye How frequently do we think of our â—odies what their wants burthens necessities are but not so of our souls How much of every day is spent in providing for thy body but how little for thy souâ— The body should be but the soul's servant yet men feed the slave and starve the child The body must be fed every day clad every day yea adorned every day and â—hysick'd if distempered but the soul needs food rayment phyâ—ck continually yet lyeth unregarâ—ed is left miserable naked starved c. A servant hath two talents to keep the child and the child's cloaths will the Master thank the servant if he plead I have kept the cloaths but I have neglected the life of the child Thy body is but thy souls outward garment How often have your Ministers told you that the soul was better than the body and that your souls needed dayly care more than your bodies and yet you look after the one with the neglect of the other A day is coming when thou wilt wish thou hadst been bred in the Field among the beasts and worms for that thou regardest thy soul no more than if thou hadst but the life of a beast thou wilt wish thou hadst been made a toad a serpent a worm a dog a swine c. for then thou shouldst not have suffered to eternity as now thou wilt unless the eyes of thy understanding be opened to see consider and make provision for thy precious but perishing soul Thy body is perishing every day and thy soul is upon the borders of eternity it must live for ever and yet all thy care is for the body which likely will not live threescore years and ten but the soul is neglected that must live threescore millions of years in hell without repentance and then when that date is over thou art as far from the end of thy misery as thou wast the first day thou wast thrown among the damned 4. Strangeness towards our souls How many will not speak with their souls They are greater strangers to them than the Londoners are to their next Neighbours Didst thou ever ask thy soul such questions O my soul how is it how will it be with thee O my soul in what state art thou O my soul what will become of thee O! what will become of thee in the next world 5. Niggardlyness towards our souls At what cost were we any time for our jeoparded souls The Physitian is consulted with if there be an ache upon the body we will with the woman part with all beggar our selves to recover health of body When did you know a man starve himself if he could have bread and water what ever it cost We will be at any expence of time labour and charges to keep our bodies from starving but how are the Ordinances of God the Word and Sacraments the spiritual food of the soul neglected The flesh must be satisfied as for the soul there is little regard to its well-being 1 Pet. 2 2. We cannot endure to see a Cat a Dog a Beast want meat but how easily do many digest the want of that milk whereby they should be maintained and grow God saith one gives to these their requests he gives them quailes but sends leanness into their souls 6. How fearless are many of soul-losses Fearlessness of souls losses how common is it for people to draw back from the service of Christ O! what is the matter I shall lose my estate liberty pay such a fine c. They little consider what their souls will lose if they do not persevere if they live not up their light Professours pardon me that I miscall you though you are blind and mad and see not the worth of your souls yet know that
your souls are the most considerable Jewels you stand possessed of All the world will not weigh with one soul Thy money may ransome thy body nothing save Christs blood thy soul Pause a while Reader and reflect on all thy sinfull neglects of thy immortal Soul lest on thy death-bed thou shriek and cry O my soul whether art thou going 2. Carelessness of others souls How little are the souls of others valued and cared for how many masters are there that care no more for their servants souls than for the dogs nay not so much Perhaps some of you are carefull that the bodies of your families be cloathed be fed c. but the souls lie unprovided for Soul-poysoners not censured as they ought to be Make nothing to lay poyson for souls more care is taken for the pigs than for the souls 1. How do we justly censure them as worthy of Capital punishments that murther the bodies of men but not so others who poyson and destroy thousands of souls How do you hate to have an hand in murthering the bodies of any to lay poyson for the destruction of any and yet how commonly do men lay the poyson of ill councell and ill example before others to cause them to fall into the pit of hell and are not affected with this great evil 2. Not troubled at soul-murtherers How troubled are we at any that kill bodies or that murther others but not so at the millions that destroy their own and others souls that have an hand in ruining in damning themselves and others 3. If any neglect means that might have continued the life of their husbands children c. how are they dejected how do the wring their hands and beat their breasts whereas if by carelessness if by the neglect of their duties if by evil example they have destroyed their souls they are not troubled about these matters 4. Low esteems of those that prize their souls How do you account meanly of all that take pains for their souls that wait at the pools of Bethesda that consult Ministers and books and attend on the Ordinances for their souls whilst you account it your wisdome to lay out the most if not all of your time for your bodies Hast thou the name of a Christian I pray God to let one word to sink into thine heart thou hast not Christ thou hast not the Spirit of Christ in thee he knows how to value souls and therefore shed blood for them and sends his Spirit in the Gospel to be importunate for their salvation CHAP. II. Their want of saving Conviction and Compunction HOw many Professours like Paul Alive without the Law Rom 7.9 Rev. 3.1 are alive without the Law How many like Sardis have a name to live imagine they are alive when they are dead How many are alive in their own conceit and perhaps in the conceit of others and yet are void of the true super-natural life How many are contented with their being baptized They see no need of Christ they were born of Christian Parents Luke 3.3 they are of the stock of Abraham We have Abraham to our Father They do not consider how many baptized persons are deadly enemies to Christ and to their souls and averse to the wayes of holiness they will not consider that Swearers Drunkards and Adulterers have as good claimes to Christ and heaven as these have How many also please themselves with the Religion of Education God hath not moulded their hearts though Parents their lives their Parents have taught them some Principles of Religion but they are strangers to the wonderful operations and teachings of the Holy Ghost they have not the Unction from above they know not what it is that teacheth all things and yet such as these are alive i. e. merry jocund jovial confident if any goe to heaven they shall be of the number But to speak more particularly First Few convinced of original sin imputed How many are there that were never convinced of original sin imputed or imparted 1. How few are convinced that Adam was a common person and that we sinned in his loynes that if he had stood we had stood and that it is just with God that he ship wracking himself we should be counted sinners in him We did eat of the forbidden fruit in Adam we in Adam believed the Devil rather thaâ— God we in Adam broke with God for toyes and trifles we were ungrateful disobedient in him we apostâ—tized in him and broke covenant with God in him hence by one mans offence sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sin for that as Levi paid tithes in Abraham so we becâ—me rebells against the Majesty of Heaven in our first Parents when did you shed a tear for Adam's sin for your and his grand provocation 2. Few convinced of original sin inherent Psal 5.9 How few see Adam 's sinful nature imparted to them They see not their inward part is very wickedness nothing but wickedness Few see what a sad Apostacy from the perfection of mans nature Sin hath brought into the world and how black an Image of Sathan it hath drawn upon the soul they never saw what filthy dirty loathsome things they are in the eyes of God they never saw their noysomeness and venome the garbage and malignity of their hearts How few see a general defect of all righteousness and holiness wherein at first they were created How few are convinced of an antipathy to all that is good That they are haters of God by nature Eph. 2.1 that they are dead in trespasses and sins a more dreadful estate than if they were rotting in their graves that they have an Ocean of corruption within them that will never be dried up in this life that they have a worse Leprosie than that among the Jewes which got into the walls and would never out till the house was demolished who almost thinks so sadly of themselves They bless God their hearts are good though they be the worst of men pray not slight Ordinances closet duties and family worship lies neglected yet the Devil perswades them all is well their hearts are good though the heart of man by nature be like hell it self whose fire of lust is unquenchable though it be like Peter's great sheet which he saw in the Vision full of all unclean things Acts 11.6 though it be a receptacle of all impiety yet how few turn their eyes inward to see their natural deformities Alass All the venome the Snake sends forth is nothing to the poyson that lies in its nature And all those monstrous impieties which the lives of men are taunted with are not to be compared with the venome that lurks in the heart of every man by nature Men would not glory in their blood and descent did they but believe how sin descended and was conveyed Men could not content themselves to walk heavily under some actual
work-house That he possesseth the heart of every unregenerate man The strong man keeps the house and so all is quiet It was a sad day when the abomination of desolation should be seen standing in the holy place but what are abominable Men to abominable Devils They did but exercise their cruelties on the bodies of the Jewes but how many Devils have their walks in the hearts of natural men and women If thou art in thy bloods the Devil hath entred into thee as sure as ever he entred into the heard of Swine and so hurrieth thee into base lasts as he carried them headlong into the Sea CHAP. III. Their want of Despair in Self IF Men are sensible of their sinne and miserie Few humbled Souls Rom. 10.3 yet how many are going about to establish their own righteousness Though some are convinced of the ugliness of sin of â—he miserie by sin yet they are not fully convinced that the covenant of works requires perfect personal and corstant obedience that it admits not of repentance that it accepts not of the will for the deed Gal. 3.10 but Curseth every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them so that if there be a failer by a vain thought the conditions of that covenant are broken and nothing save fearful expectations should seize on such a Soul Few I say believe this but though they are bankrupt Children of Adam yet they hope by their pedling Wares to set up again and maintain themselves without being beholden to any other for the procuring of their salvation hence they pray who were prayerless before hear and perhaps with much diligence who were wont to play away the Sabbath and Sermon time and reform in many things and now Soul take thine ease thou hast goâ—ds laid up for many years yea for eternity thou art converted sure and so think all the Neighbour-hood O! what a change is here The man was a Drunkard not so now an Adulterer a prophane Belial but now civilized yea a devout man Serious that was flashy before and touching the righteousness which is in the Law Phil. 3.6 blameless Now he is alive indeed his Conscience is pacified which before troubled him he can hear the Word gladly which before was burthensome to him he can pray with affection and with some delight when before all the Ordinances of Heaven were tedious and intollerable burthens to him Now he thinks Sure I have life within me I am not dead He sees not all this while that he must have life from without and ability from without He doth not yet say Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psa 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up No no he can look up with confidence and call God Father Job 12.6 and though sometimes he provokes God yet he is secure He doth not see that he is dead i. e. damned 2 Cor. 3.5 and insufficient as of himself to think any thing as of himself but all his sufficiency is of God He thinks he is not utterly unable to make amends for his sins not quite dead for he can pray c. He sees not that it is as easie to make new Worlds as to put up one acceptable Prayer to God He sees not that he needs an Almighty power to enable him to perform his duties and infinite satisfaction to discharge him of his debts He is somewhat sensible of his danger by sin Isa 63.1 but he eyes not him that is mighty to save He looks for help within but not without He sees no absolute necessity of Christ all this while He sees not that all his righteousnesses are as filthy raggs in Gods sight Isa 64.6 and that all his duties fill up the Catalogue of his sins He sees not that there is no Salvation in any other save Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 because there is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He hopes to goe to Heaven through doors of his own the door of Repentance the door of Reformation the door of good Works c. hence he takes hold of the mercy of God and the promises of pardon Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him yea he will abundantly pardon Thus have I done saith this awakened person and now my Case is good O! I would not be in mine old myres for a World O! what a change is here I was a careless Wretch careless of God and my Soul careless of praying reading hearing c. not so now And now that the house Matth. 12.43 44 45. out of which the unclean Spirit is gone is swept and garnished he carrieth it high and little thinks he that seven worse Spirits are entring in This is the case of multitude of Professours whom Christ will never seek nor save Luke 19.10 for that they are not lost they are not succourless and helpless they think they may save themselves from wrath to come They see not that there is a Satisfaction to be made to Divine Justice which they cannot make wherefore their hopes are from their reformations not from Christ their peace is from their performances not from Christs blood of attonement All these have I kept from my youth up Luke 18.21 Hence he is consident not from Christs coming under the Law hence he is diligent in Prayer c. but careless of the way of Faith hence he blesseth himself in his own performances and is no way taken up with what Christ hath done and suffered for him Moses is magnifyed and Christ is slighted Duties are set up and Faith neglected Works advanced and cryed up and Faith is little heeded or look'd after How few are there who count themselves wholly destitute of every good thing that should make them acceptable unto God They lay not the weight of Salvation upon the grace of God by Jesus Christ but upon somewhat that comes from themselves they will have a Bridge of Duties that shall carry them over the Gulph of eternal miserie they hope to quench Hell Fire by their tears Alass some years agoe you might as well have drawn Water out of the Flint as tears from them but the case is altered I was blind but now I see the deserts of sin which I saw not before I see it is a fearful thing to sin against God and now I bewail my sins and am sorry at heart for them sure my condition is monded I thank God I am not as other men nor as once I was my self I hope by my tears to wash away my sins All the while Christ lieth without doors the Soul is a stranger to Faith in Christ he sees not his
insufficiencies he sees not his unworthiness to goe to Heaven and Glory he sees not his inability to think a good thought he hopes without a Christ he can do something If he did judge his condition hopeless he would tremble and have no rest in himself till God hath delivered him he would see an absolute necessity of obtaining Christ and his righteousness and he would be put off with nothing else But O! how hard a work do Ministers find it first to take off men from their sins and then from considence in their duties We tell men Christ will have no sharer in the glory of saving lost man but people will at least have their works and Christ to divide the spoyles to share in the glory of bringing back lost Souls to God We advise men to lay no weight on their duties bâ—t to lean alone on Christ's merits but in vain Christ saith If yee seek me let these go their way these duties as well as these sins but the deaf eare is turned and we find it much easier to perswade men their sins will damn them then their duties whilst Christ is thereby neglected CHAP. IV. Their miscarriages about their Soul-troubles IF the Spirit of the Lord have convinced men of their danger by their sins Miscarriages about Soul-troubles and their own righteousness that they still see God angry with them and if their Souls remain under trouble and disquiet yet are they not guilty of some if not all of the following miscarriages 1. Few iustifie God How few are there that justifie God Few accept of the punishment of their iniquities they do not clear God as they should from all unrighteousness Commonly proud hearts swell and fume against these methods of God Though the filthiness of their hearts be laid open before them yet they fall not down upon their faces in the acknowledgement of their unworthiness of mercy few charge themselves and acquit God They cannot be brought to give God the glory of his righteousness if he should condemn them to the pit of hell they do not willingly and uprightly own the desert of damnation and charge themselves with it as their due portion and most just inheritance Lam. 3.30 Mic. 7.9 Ezra 9.13 Dan. 9.7 8. Few give their cheeks to him that smiteth as the Church did they do not say I will bear the iudignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him or with Ezra thou hast punished us lesse than our iniquities have deserved or with Daniel O Lord Righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face How seldome do you hear Professours with this Confession in their mouths Lord I am thy creature and thou mayst do with thy creature what pleaseth thee It pleased thee to put thine image on me Eccl. 7.29 Isa 52.3 to create me upright but I have sought out many inventions I have sold my self for nought I have preferred the Devils work before thine and therefore thou mayst abhor me and give me my portion among the damned crew and if I feel some sparks of hell fire in thy wrathfull present frowns it is of thy rich patience and mercy that they are but sparks if thou cast me off for ever it is but what I have deserved long ago it is of the Lords mercy that I was not hurled from the womb or cradle to hell because of my native sinfulness but wo is me I have provoked the pure eyes of thy glorious Majesty dayes without number I have been a Rebel of a long standing against thee my will hath been justling and quarrelling with thine these many years and therefore if I be sent to hell thou art righteous and clear when thou judgest Psa 51.4 I can blame none save my self if I perish everlastingly though I have many fears and sorrows on me yet blessed be God they are not the sorrows of hell thanks be to the Lord that I am not yet among the damned ones roaring in the Pit of hell Few believe they deserve damnation hence Souls are murmuring at any affliction at the loss of an Husband Child Estate c. as if God had dealt hardly with them in depriving them thus How few Professours Few willingly under Soul-trouble Hos 2.6 Rom. 8.15 when under Soul-troubles are willingly under them They see not the advantage of having their way hedg'd up with these thorns They do not receive the Spirit of Bondage They do not accept this punishment They take it not kindly at Gods hands Their troubles are involuntary few kindly works that I meet with among awakened and startled Professours they are held in the chains against their will How many are afraid of sorrow for sin Some think it will spoyl good faces and their beauty may he lost through their troubles but others think it will bring them to despair and therefore farewell to such a Preacher he is too terrible for their Souls Hence Saul must have his harp to divert him the Cards must be taken up again some merry Books some Romances must be read perhaps a Play may be seen jovial frothy Company must be called in and all this to divert the Soul from minding its danger lest it be swallowed up of grief or some unskilfull and unfaithfull Emperick shall be sent for to sow pillows under him that he may sleep the quieter Few Daniel-like when their cogitations much trouble them Dan. 7.28 so that their countenances are changed in them keep notwithstanding the matter in their hearts How few are active in their Soul-troubles Retire and go alone that they may search the Scriptures and ransack their hearts in order to contrition and humiliation of their hearts How few are gladded by any portion of Gods word that brings their sinfulness and self-fulness to remembrance and causeth any meltings of heart and humblings of Souls under it How do some Professours quarrel with their Ministers and snarl at the Books that give them trouble of Spirit 3. Few mourn on spiritual accounts How few mourn for Sin upon Spiritual accounts That their God is dishonoured their good and gracious God who hath done so much for them c. doth not chiefly cut their hearts Against thee Psal 51.4 thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight but perhaps they are troubled for wronging themselves endangering themselves c. They cry as dogs when they have done a fault they fear the whip and so they houle 4. Few reforming and believing mourners How many Professors mourn for their sins yet live in the continued practise of them Notwithstanding their tears yet their hearts are in league with their lusts Thus like the Scolds at Billingsgate they are soon out soon in again with their lusts but few whilst mourning for their sins are sollicitous and carefull which way God may have satisfaction for the injuries that have been done unto him The mourning of many Professours last no longer than the trouble of
anew He is even ashamed to unravell all the Clue of his ungrounded confidences What begin upon a new bottome No not he and so Christ and he part He takes his supposed grace to be a Christ or at least that there must be Christ where such changes are and so cries out Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years yea for Eternity CHAP. IX Their Vngodliness their Ignorance their Errours etc. HAve not many Professors been ungodly men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men without worship Profectors Vngodliness If to deny or withhold any part of that respect or honour that is due unto God Jude 4. be ungodliness how much ungodliness hath there been and is there still amongst us Which of us hath not been guilty of not giving God his right or due honour Have not we suck'd in many ungodly Principles As that it is in vain to worship God there is no happiness comparable to what the World doth afford in communion with God Religion is but a notion and fancy Policy is the only Piety This world must be look'd after whatever becomes of Conscience c. Psal 50.21 Job 22.12 13. Psal 14.1 Have not we been guilty of ungodly thoughts have not we thought that God is not so harsh but we may take liberty in sinning that he taketh no notice of what we think speak and do yea that there is no God Have not we spoken ungodly words have not we uttered those very hard speeches which ungodly sinners speak Have not we spoken against Gods servants yea have we been afraid to speak against his Servant Moses And have not many of our deeds been ungodly yea though we have not ungodly committed them God hath always been sorely provoked by ungodliness The Flood swept away the World of the Ungodly 2 Pet. 2.7 but yet we might have been ungodly under the Law at a cheaper rate than under the Gospel because the Gospel gives us more clear and certain notions of Gods excellency and glory and lays more obligations upon us to respect God and therefore is called a doctrine according to godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 Psa 1.5 Jude 15. The ungodly shall not stand in judgement neither in the world to come nor in this world The day of Judgement is appointed on purpose to take vengeance of ungodly persons First Their Ignorance of God 1 Cor. 15.34 John 4.22 Have not some Professors been and still are altogether ignorant of God Some have not the knowledge of God I speak this saith the Apostle to your shame May it not be said to many of us Ye worship ye know not what Do not many Professours worship God upon no other account than the Romans did their Jupiter or the Ephesians their Diana viz. because he is the God of the Nation wherein they were born because he was their fore-Fathers God because his worship is in credit and because the Magistrate commands that God be worshipped Have not we worshipped God by Tradition more than out of Conviction of Judgement Hath not our worship been to the unknown God Acts 17.23 God is truly in a Scripture sense unknown to all that do not know him experimentally and practically Now have we tasted and seen Psal 34.8 that the Lord is gracious Have not we said we knew God and yet kept not his Commandements He that saith so is a Lyar 1 Jo. 2.4 3. and the truth is not in him Hereby know we that we know him if we keep his Commandements If we do not thus know God we are none of his Children he hath no Child so little but he knoweth his Father Jer. 31.4 They shall all know me from the least to the greatest Our being the People of God in Profession will not secure us from ruine Hos 4 6 2 Thes 1.8 My People are destroyed for lack of Knowledge The Lord Jesus will come in flaming Fire to render vengeance on us for he will so deal with all that know not God Secondly Their Eâ—rours How erroneous have been Professours None can be such a stranger to our Israel as to be ignorant that a Spirit of Delusion hath been let loose abroad from Dan to Beersheba so that the Pillars of Religion are shaken the most concerning Truths questioned if not exploded with scorn and contempt Have not some made God the Author of Sin Have not others forgot that they were Creatures and have assumed the liberty or rather highest impudence to say that they were Godded and that the fulness of the God-head doth dwell bodily in every Saint in the same measure as it did in Christ Jesus whilst he dwelt upon the Earth Nay have not others affirmed Jesus Christ to be a Bastard Have not others said They were Christ and would in the pride of their hearts have others to worship them Have not some denied Christs Deity affirming That he was not God essentially but only nominally yea that his pure Nature was stained with Sin How many have denied the Trinity of Persons How many under pretence that the Law of Works binds not have abrogated all the Laws of Christ and turned cursed Libertines How many have under pretence of advancing the Spirits testimony maintained Sanctification to be a dirty qualification and cryed down all marks and signes How many have held that the Doctrine of Repentance Fasting and Humiliation are too Legal for the Spirit of a Christian How many have denied Christs sitting in a Body at the right hand of God How many have denied his Satisfaction and Purchase Have not some held that there is no Heaven no Hell no Resurrection from the Dead and that the Beast and Man have one common end How many have been altogether for Inspirations and profess'd themselves above the Sphere of all Ordinances How many have denied Water-Baptism the Supper the Ministry yea the Scriptures of God How many have accounted it their highest Perfection to sin away all tenderness of Conscience and look'd upon themselves the more holy by how much Villany they could be guilty of beyond others How can we refrain from weeping out our eyes how should our eares tingle Considerations to promote mourning for errours to see and hear these Abominations How hath the God of Truth been provoked by these cursed miscreants What horrible affronts have been offered to the dread Majesty of God thereby How many thousand Souls have perished by these Delusions And what aâ—dishonour hath come to the Christian Religion by reason thereof I cannot express Certainly saith one there is more deadly mischief Bp. Hall and higher offence to God in them than in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhorr These as they are immediate fruit of our spiritual part so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his truth and holiness And as Religion is the highest Concernment of the Soul so the depravation of Religion must needs be the most
to pity them Drones are to be beaten out of the Hive and starved in Winter It is the Workman that is worthy of meat in Christs account Mat. 10.10 Idleness hath brought much evil upon you and bred many in you it begets many diseases in the body but many more in the Soul Psal 91.11 it exempts a man from the protection of Angels and it exposeth to Gods wrath it brought ruine upon Sodom and the Cities round about Jude v. 7. and they are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire 2. In their general callings How are we guilty of abundance of Idleness in our general callings And above all Idleness Spiritual sloth is most dangerous I find some with unwearied diligence labouring to enlarge their Possessions and to raise their Posterity they rise early and sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness but all is for the Body they do little or nothing for their precious Souls and for Eternity Christ and Heaven stand by and few regard them Few work out their Salvation with fear and trembling Some will not be at so much pains for their Souls as to perform the common outward Duties of Religion They will goe to the Market or to be merry with Friends many a mile but if a Lecture he but a few paces from their thresholds they count it intollerable to wet their â—â—et to expose themselves to the air Well Well God hath eased you of this labour But if men are for some easie parts of Religion yet how few are for the difficult parts thereof They cannot endure to watch their hearts to sanctifie the Lords day so strictly as not to think their own thoughts nor speak their own words nor do their own deeds How many Professours have so long given way to their lazy distempers have lain so long upon the Bed of sloth that when we press them to any painful and laborious Duties they think it excuse enough to say We have put off our Coat and loth we are to put it on We have given way to sloth so long that we hate to take pains for Christ and for Eternity Hence Self-examination Meditation Watchfulness against the first risings of sin Mortification of inward heart-sins c. these works are totally laid by and the longer we neglect them the more ado there is to perswade us to take them up We are like truant-Boyes who hate their Book after a long vacation All we have to uphold our selves with is this that the Spirit is willing when God knows the contrary We are willing to be rich and therefore take pains So we would in Spiritual things too if we were so desirous of them If we were willing to enjoy Christ in our Closets would we be even asleep there upon our knees If we were willing to know the way to Glory would we not take so much pains as to goe to the Shepheards tents and ask for the good old way O! O! It will cut you to the heart when you come to Hell-gate that you mist of Heaven for not enquiring the way thither and that you took more pains to be rich and to damn your Souls than to save them Had that time been spent in Prayer holy Conference and in Self-arraignments which was wasted in the Bed Shop Fields unnecessarily you might have had an eternal rest whereas Hell will be as intollerable to all so especially to them who have stood idle all the day long CHAP. XXIV Their Unmercifulness THE Fourth Sin of Sodom was this Professors unmercifulness Ezek. 16.49 Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy That is they were unmerciful and inhumane And are not some Professours even in England very hard-hearted and cruel I have oft thought and said That Our late Civil Wars have had too great influence upon us to make us cruel If there be among you a poor man of one of thy Brethren within any of thy Gates Deut. 15.7 8. in thy Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor Brother but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need Luke 14.13 in that which he wanteth O! The poor we have alwayes with us But When we make a Feast do we call the poor Who invites the Guests that Christ hath bid for our Tables When I consider how rare Bowells of mercy and kindness are Col. 3.11 it makes me fear and I have Scripture-grounds for my fear that few are the Elect of God O hard-hearted Professours Hear ye the Word of the Lord Jam. 2.13 He shall have judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy He shall have all judgement pure judgement without any mixtures of mercy unmixed wrath shall be his portion Christ is so resolved to punish the Unmerciful that he will over-look any sinner rather than him yea for the greater honour of the Justice of God Mat. 25.41 42 c. Mat. 9.36 The Lord seems to begin and end the great Assizes with the Arraignment and Sentencing of the Unmerciful man How few compassionate Professours are there The proper vital act of Mercy is Compassion How few resent the miseries of others as if they were their own Luke 10.33 How few set themselves to do good to those who are miserable Such what-ever they pretend are indeed unmerciful for Mercy is an active and a communicative thing How few are merciful to others Souls How few pity and set themselves to help sinning Souls but more of this under another Head How few are merciful to the Bodies of others How many are there that will not spare of their superfluities to cloth Christs naked shoulders or to fill his hungry belly Men lay out more to adorn a Cup-board or the walls of their houses than ever they gave to Jesus Christ and his Servants all their dayes Men can feed their Birds their Catts their Doggs their Swine but the Sucklings and Lambs of Jesus Christ perish for want Christ tells you what kindness you shew to his Spouse Matth. 25.40 his Friends his Children he counts as done unto himself and believe it all the scornes and neglects you have cast on either his Ambassadors or poor Saints he will remember another day Go to thy Closet and carry this with thee who so stoppeth his ear at the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself Prov. 21.13 but shall not be heard If you give to whom is it Is it not only to the poor of your own party But hath not the Lord charged you to give to every man that asketh Luke 6.30 Gal. 6.10 Hath he excepted any but idlers Are not you to doe good to all though especially to the Houshold of faith And among them should not your greatest charity have been set forth on them who are become poor not by vile courses but by Gods
in thy gold or in a golden calf thou art guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 of having other Gods besides the true God and so dost as highly offend the true God and God usually gives up such men unto spiritual judgements Rom. 1.21.24 It makes me fear you have not tasted of the upper springs because the puddle of the World is still sweet to your taste Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If you had tasted of the joy peace mercy and comforts of Christ your earthly comforts would be disrelished Gal. 6.14 If you did glory in the Cross of Christ the World would be crucified to you and you unto the World The sweetness of Christ would drown all Creature-sweetness But alass Psa 84.10 To which of us is one day in Gods Courts better than a thousand else-where Austin said If one drop of the joyes of Heaven might fall into Hell it would drown all the bitterness of Hell So would it drown all bitterness in the Soul and all the sweetness in the World Worldly comforts would be too course too slat too low to recreate your hearts Did ye but know the honey and milk of Canaan ye would not so much mind the Onyons of Egypt Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon O! What a surpassing indignity is this to Christ Si terram amas terraâ—es Aug. to set him below the foot-stool to value thirty Pieces of Silver before him to preferr Earth before Heaven present things before future that the love of God the recompence of reward shall not lye nearer the heart than the treasures of Egypt O! What a miserable life dost thou live This Sin brings an Hell with it thou art the Devil's Martyr 1 Tim. â— 9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and burtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Thou enjoyest neither God nor the World Thy only happiness is a fancy And this is thy great misery that thou still desirest that which will never satisfie thy desires The more thou hast of the World the more thou wantest the more thou drinkest the more thou thirstest a Dropser is upon thee Semper avarus eget Hor. Hebr. 13.5 Prov. 23 5. ch 8.21 Eccles 5.1 and thou knowest it not Discontent is alwayes the Companion of Covetousness Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Grace and Godliness is substance Why with Esop's Dogg wilt thou let goe the substance for a shadow The things of the World are fancies the things of God realities What good is there to the Owners of riches saving the beholding them with their eyes Do not you all this while bear false witness against God Do not you proclaim to the World that God is not enough to answer to fill your desires and that therefore you goe out after the Creature Is it nothing to you to call God who is all-sufficient who is a fountain of living Water a barren Wilderness Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid Jer. 2.12 13 31. be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evills's they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water O Generation see ye the Word of the Lord Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a Land of Darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hereby you break the conjugal Relation God looks on you as Adulterers and Adulteresses James 4.4 Prov. 5.19 and will judge you accordingly God expects that his breasts should satisfie you and that you be alwayes ravished with his love and dare you tell the World that your God hath deceived you and that you were mistaken in your choice of God and therefore after other Lovers you will goe No wonder that for the iniquity of our covetousness Isa 57.17 God be wroth and smite us We are greedy of more but what have we done with our former talents Account we must for one Mat. 25.5 for two for ten talents the more we have the greater still will be our account There is a reckoning day at hand O that our moderation were known to all men Phil. 4.5 because the Lord is at hand If thou art not sincere I am as sure as this Book is in thy hand thou wilt curse the time that ever thou hadst an Estate and wilt wish thou hadst been a Beggar for then thou hadst not so much to answer for before God It is certain though some doubt it that thou shalt carry none of thy estate away with thee 1 Tim. 6.7 nothing is to be carried away save guilt to Hell in case of mis-improvement of an Estate yea if you have not rendred unto God according to what you have received 2 Chron. 32.25 the heaping up of wealth is but the charging of thy account thou must account how thou hast disbursed to a farthing I will suppose thou hast by neglects of thy general Calling and by rising up early and sitting up late gained an Estate thou mayest put all thy gain in thine eyes and never see the worse What will thy Estate advantage thee when the Arrows of the Lord enter into thy Soul What will the World advantage thee when the Gout Feaver burning Pestilence c. are upon thee What hast thou got only that which may stand with Gods eternal hatred Never count thy gains till thou hast got that which is inconsistent with Gods wrath What hast thou got above that which God throweth unto the Doggs Shew me Childrens bread or never boast of thy gains Did you ever find any Child of God worse for afflictions but have you not found many worse for their thrivings in the World Jeshurun waxed fat Deut. 32.15 and kicked Whilst you have Bonds and Bills upon others do not you run into arrears unto God And how will you discharge those Suits which God will commence against you When you lye a dying will ye not wish that your time your strength your spirits had been powred forth upon better things than those of this life That you had traded for Grace and Glory rather than for the Gold of Ophir for a little gilt Clay O ye great Projectours for the World I do even fore-see the troubles and horrours the doubts and fears the anguish and amazements of your Souls which your unâ—â—â—â—â—â—ties as to your future estate will put 〈…〉 into in your dying Rooms How 〈…〉 take up such language as this Fool that I was to cumber my self about many things
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to
you cannot so exhort as Ministers c. But have you not been told that God can work by small means as well as by great and that by things that are not God can confound the wisdome of the flesh and bring to naught the things that are Is not this like the pretence of not being eloquent Do you not know have you not heard that the issue and event depends on the blessng of the Lord rather than on the work it self Is it not all one to the Lord to wound by a short as by a long sword Cannot God bless a few words in thy mouth as he did in Christs and the Apostles Can'st not thou say follow Christ and may not presently a Matthew a Publican leave his sinfull courses and embrace the Christian faith Can'st thou not say Repent and Believe that your sins may be blotted out and may not God concur with thee as he did of old times Is the Lords hand shortned that it cannot help If Israel be not gathered yet thy reward is with the Lord if thine heart were upright and could testifie that night and day thou hast not ceased to warn to rebuke and counsel Certainly your memories are not so bad but you must remember the weight of sin and of the wrath of God you have seen the wonders of the Lord in the deeps you that have escaped to shoar can tell of the Rocks and Shelves and Storms which you have been delivered from and will you set other Shipwrack their Souls rather than hold out your light unto them 〈…〉 may avoyd their ruines What shall I say to humble you There is more 〈◊〉 in Hell than you can afford Blush blush and be ashamed to have less zeal love and pitty to perishing Souls than Dives in Hell had he would have his Brethren saved from the Valley of Hinnom Your silence will make others think that Hell is a tollerable place that sin is not so evil and bitter a thing that to lye under Gods wrath is not so great a misery whilst you are so slow and backward to warn your Friends and Acquaintance that they slee from these and take Sanctuary in the true City of Refuge the Lord Jesus Christ O! If you know the worth of a Soul pitty the multitude with whom the day is not broke whose forlorn Souls are under a continual Massacre from the bloudy Butcher of Hell Besmear your Souls no longer with the guilt of their bloud Let them not starve for want of bread whilst you have to give them I shall bless God for ever and ever if this your negligence of the Souls of those whom you may account without may be cordially bewailed and you for the future double your diligence for their conversion Ministers cannot convert without the Concourse of Omnipotency neither can you Though Satan and thy own lazy heart hath told thee thou art unfit to set upon this work yet better do it meanly than wholy omit it God like Parents on earth loves to see his Children lift at those duties which are too hard for them and then he steps in and is a Co-worker with them What God did by illiterate Fishermen by Priscilla he can do by thee The Lord pardon thy former unmercifulness to the Souls of men But if thou continue careless and cruel if thou wilt not by Prayers for them and counsels to them seek their reducement as sure as thou art reading the voyce of thy Brothers blood is crying against thee from the earth By your example before if not since Profession you have been the cause of the destruction of Souls of how many who can tell And as Jeroboam made Israel to sin many years after he was rotten in his grave so your sin your wicked examples may propagate the trade of sin from generation to generation until Christ shall come to Judgement Tremble tremble at the thoughts of it if thou hast not the heart of a Beast in thee O! how many Souls are crying in Hell against thee cursing the day they knew thee or their Ancestours knew thee for that by thee they learned to sin the more and were strengthned in their wickedness by thy tongue and by thy life And now are not you bound to do your utmost to make restitution to labour to save them that be alive Is it not reasonable that you should labour to win Souls to Gods as you have to the Devils service and to have many blessing God in the Heavens for you that ever they were in the company of such an active zealous Christian who by word and life was instrumental to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and of their God And is it not a glorious work to hold forth such Light to the World that they seeing your good works may glorifie God and you may be Propagators of Zeal and Holiness from Generation to Generation till Christ shall appear to judge the World and to reward you for all the services you have done to his Name O! how welcome shall that man be to Heaven and Christ who hath fed the Souls and clothed the Souls and visited the Souls which he hath purchased with his own precious blood Christ will own thee for his Benefactour CHAP. XXXVII The Dis-ingenuity and Scandalousness of their Miscarriages WHen God had given the Prophet Ezekiel a large Catalogue of Judah's Abominations The wickedness of the former miscarriages Ezek. 8.9 V. 6 13 15. he then shew'd him the Wickedness of their Abominations He said unto me Goe in and Behold the wicked Abominations they do here He commanded him once and again and again to turn him yet again and he should see greater Abominations I cannot indeed promise thee that thou shalt now see greater Abominations than those already mentioned All that I shall now do shall be to represent the former Miscarriages in their crimson dye and scarlet colour And The First Thing I shall mention Commitred against so good and kind a God Eph. 4.30 as making your Sins Professours out of measure sinful is your Dis-ingenuity in so sinning against God O! You have sinned against a gracious God You have grieved the good Spirit of God whereby some amongst you have been sealed to the day of Redemption I am bold to say that one godly man's sinning against light and mercy doth more break the heart of God than the bruitish Sins of a Pagan Kingdom Ezek. 6.9 I am broken saith God with your whorish heart which hath departed from me c. And ye shall loath your selves for your evils which ye have committed in your abominations Amos 2.13 God hath been press'd down with your sins as the Cart with sheaves till he hath even Creak'd under the weight God expected more from the Treet planted in Zion than from the wild ones in the Wilderness Luke 13.9 Grief and Burthen springs much from unexpected Unkindnesses I looked for Fruit and there was none How were David's and Saul's Sins aggravated from
who have lost your Virgin affections to Christ who have gone a whoring from your God who are covetous to a wonder and over run with carking cares and sinful despondencies who break out daily into scandalous passions who by divisions envies animosities over-reachings perjuries and hypocrisie have made Religion vile Know from Christ's mouth Mat. 18.6 it had been better for you that a Milstone had been hang'd about your necks and that you had been drowned long agoe in the depth of the Sea than to live so offensively towards men as you have done Jer. 34.16 because hereby the Name of God is polluted It had been better you had never known the wayes of God 1 Pet. 2.20 21. than after Profession and Knowledge to depart and to be as Doggs and Swine If you had never profess'd Gods Name you had never polluted it but God will reckon with you about it I am bold to say that a Drunkard Adulterer Robber c. doth not so provoke the Lord to wrath as a Professour may even by an impatient discontented word and for this compare two Scriptures In the former there is unbelief and quarrelling with God face to face as it were and yet God pass'd that by Numb 11.21 22. with Numb 20.10 and Deut. 32.51 it being in secret with a short check Is the Lords hand waxed short But in the other place Because ye believed not c. to sanctifie me in the eyes of the Children of Israel c. therefore ye shall dye in the Wilderness and never set foot on the Land of Promise One scandalous Professour doth more hurt and more stain Religion than hundreds of Drunkards and therefore their Hell shall be the standard to that of all other sinners Atrocius sub nominis Christi Professione peccat Salvian Mat. 24.51 Appoint him his portion with Hypocrites Thousands in Hell will curse the day wherein they saw your looseness on Earth for thereby they have blasphemed Christ as a Friend of Publicans and Sinners and as if he countenanced you secretly in your Lusts though for state and form he hath spoken great things against such courses in his Word O! how frequently have you made boasts of God Rom. 2.23 24. and the Law but by breaking of it ye have caused his Name to be evil spoken of When you should have been leading others to Heaven you have by your example lead them to Hell How deep shall their Hell be who are plunged thither with their own and other-mens sins also Though God should give you repentance and pardons yet how oft will your Souls bleed to consider how many you have compell'd by your example to sin and blaspheme who are actually in the chains of darkness Gal. 2.14 or hastning thither in a full career O that you would no longer be like the body of Amasa to cause others to stand still or go back from the wayes of Holyness O thou scandalous Professour What account must thou pass with God shortly before perhaps thou hast turned thine eye to the next page Will not the blood of multitudes who perish by thy means be required at thy hands One sin may become many millions of offences as the Numbers may be that shall hear of it No wonder that men are emboldned to sin that the Adulterer cares not for the Curtains of the Night nor the Drunkard for the shadows of the Evening no wonder that the Swearer can spit the Name of God so impudently out of his mouth these have been incouraged by thy revolts backslidings careless and seldome duties and violent earthly seekings O! if you would consider you bore the Ark of the Lord you were entrusted with his honour but you have let it fall yea cast it in the dirt O! tremble at what the God of Heaven hath made a standing decree upon this occasion 1 Sam. 2.30 them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed And though it somewhat comforts me that God will wipe off whatsoever can be cast on him yet know to your sorrow you shall not so easily discharge your selves of the Plagues that are ready to be powred out upon you God expected that you should have been Kings and Priests to him Rev. 1.6 Jo. 3.35 you should have been burning and shining lights you should have been like Innes which have their Signes on both sides you were of the King guard you should have had the Arms of the Crown on your Breasts and on your Backs so that if any had viewed you had met you or had followed you they might have known you for Gods Servants by the stamp and cognisance of Heaven upon you But you have rather been like those Pictures that if you look on one side you may see an Angels face but on the other the Devils O my Soul how canst thou write of these speak or think on them without weeping O Reader retreat retreat quickly to thy Chamber and spend some considerable time to reflect on thy scandalous Words and Actions and how much the Name of God hath thereby been blasphemed and thousands endangered to stumble and fall through thy occasion How many that should have â—een as Shields to ward off those blows of reproach that would fall on God and Religion have proved Swords in the hands of the wicked wherewith the Name of God is wounded and whereby multitudes are in danger of perishing yea and the poor reall Christians are even ashamed to look up and to shew their faces and profession to the world because there have been such Spots in their communion Jude v. 12. such unclean scabbed and unsavoury Sheep that have walked among them CHAP. XXXVIII Their sinning against Knowledge and impenitently notwithstanding all means to bring them to Repentance for their Sins 3ly Against much light YOur Sins are yet further accented by being committed not only against such means of Knowledge but against much Knowledge got thereby You have had the most powerfull Ministry under the whole Heavens And believe it sirs if you had not heard him that spake from Heaven to you If Christ had not come Joh. 15.22 you had had no sin comparatively But now you have no Cloak for your sin You have sinned against more light than the rest of the World You know that covetousness is a sin Isa 57.17 Isa 45.5 Tit. 3.2 and that for the iniquity thereof God hath been wrath and yet you seek great things for your selves still you know that you are to speak evil of no man and yet you bespatter every man almost to set off your selves by staining and blotting of others reputations Isa 58.5 Luk. 12.47 Ezek. 21.10 you know God abhors them that for a day only hang down their heads like bull-rushes and yet this hath been your manner from the beginning of your Profession you know your Masters will you know you should not make mirth when the Lord is angry
institutions though all the sins for which God cast out the Heathen and cast off his Israel oe found amongst us and these highly aggravated and innumerable circumstances yet how little are we concerned therein How seldom do we express our inward sorrows by Tears and Fasts David beheld the Transgressours aâ—â— was grieved because they kept not Gods word Horrour seized on him because they made void Gods Law Yea Rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not Gods Law Psal 119.158 v. 53 136. 1 Pet. 2.7 But where is the sorrowing after a Godly sort Where are the weeping Jeremiah's Naltons Midhopes or whose Soul like Lots is vexed pierced with the unclean conversation of the wicked If ever God did call us to weeping and to mourning this is the day but behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die And it was revealed in mine ears saith the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die Isa 22.12 13 14. saith the Lord God of Hosts When Elijah saw how iniquity abounded how the worship of God was crushed how things went among the great ones of those wicked times how Idolaters were countenanced the faithfull prophets durst not shew their faces he is so burthened at what became of this that he knows not how to live 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He is weary of the world weary of his own Land though the best under the cope of Heaven yea he thinks it a good time to remove that his eyes may see no more of these detestable things and that his Soul may be no longer prick'd with these scratching Briars But the searcher of Hearts knows how little we have been affected with all the shipwrackt faith and conscience that our eyes have seen how seldome our heads have been fountains of teart how seldome we have made our houses Bochims how insensible we have been of all the ungodliness and unrighteousness which we and our people are guilty of Wo is us we have not been wounded through Gods sides we have not sympathised with a Christ Crucified every day But like Gallio we have not laid these things to heart And yet we have still impudently enough laid claim to Christ and the priviledges of the New Testament purchased by his bloud Though we never followed Christ to the Cross weeping though we have hardly shed one tear for all the contempt and abuse of him which is Epidemical which abounds from Dan to Beersheba from one part of the Nation to another We pretend we have great sorrows though they are not expressed by tears in a sensitive manner we think to relieve our selves with the dryness of our constitution and yet we have tears more than a good many to express our sorrows by if a Relation drops into the Earth we can follow the Herse wringing our hands and beating our breasts if an Estate which we have got by carking cares by neglect of duties heart-duties and family-duties be in one day consumed and dissolved by a flame into ashes we then can express our sorrows by weeping and lamentation witness some of your howlings your cries at the late Desolation by Fire But commune with your own hearts whether you were ever made so sensible ever so affecâ—â—â—and â—unk with the consideration of the honour that God hath lost by you and by thousands like your selves Was God ever more affronted by a professing people than by us Was ever Christ so set at naught as of late times Was he ever more despised in his Person Offices and Institutions by the Rhabsheka's of the Earth than he hath been lately by them who have had a form of godliness Zech. 7.12 and yet our hearts are bard as an Adamant O! what grounds have you to question all your mourning for your own sins whilst you mourn not for the sins of others Did you mourn for sin as it is against God You would mourn for other mens sins for they are against the Lord also Ezra 9.3 You would be like Ezra he rent his garments pull'd off the hair of his beard sate down astonished for the sinfull marriages of the people But we are insensible though God be much more dishonoured by the Adulterers and Adulteresses by the Blasphemers and Atheists by the Worldlings and Apostates who swarm in the midst of us How can we perswade our selves that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts whilst he is so much reflected on and yet we no way suitably affected therewith If a Child if a Father if an Husband if a Friend be injured thou art much affected with the injury but not so with all the affronts that the Sons of Belial put upon the blessed God every day How can we imagine in the least that we have any true love to the Souls of our Neighbours whâ—â—â—â— we behold them lifting up the heel against their Maker wounding and destroying their Souls by their sins and yet we not sign if not weep in secret for the desperate nazards they are running Nay how can you imagine you love your selves your estates liberties lives c. whilst God is provoked to ruine you and them for their great provocations Josh 7. You know one Achan brought a Plague upon the whole body of Israel and yet his sin was secret But we have Street-Drunkards Street-Swearers Street-Adulterers and Adulteresses Street-Scoffers at Piety and the Worship of God And are ye not in danger to partake of the Plagues that these sins are crying for And what yet are your hearts as insensible as Rocks The Lord be mercifull to you and take out the heart of stone How can you be free from being guilty of all the known sins of the land whilst you do not mourn for them before the Lord Nay yea of the â—okens of Gâ—ds dispâ—â—asure against Sin Isa 22.45 Joel 2.2 to shew yet the greatness of your stubbornness you are insensible not only of your own and other mens sins but of the tokens of Gods displeasure against those sinnes God hath emptied us from Vessel to Vessel followed us with the Sword and Pestilence and wonderfully so lately by dreadfull flames God hath spoyled us of our glory and humbled us as low as dust and ashes it is a time of treading down and therefore we should weep bitterly it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness We have had such a Plague as never the like such a Fire hath been kindled as never the like amongst us the Protestant Nations are very low and the Antichristian very bold and consident yet we can hardly hang out harps upon the Willows Eph. 4.19 but as if our hearts were past feeling we are insensible both of sin and wrath O! I hear some cry out of hard times but there is much more reason to cry out