increasing till it issue in glory John 4. 14. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of water springing up into everlasting Life And as all sorts of Life are from God so all sorts of Death he has power to inflict All Afflictions and Plagues when this Lord sends them do say Here we are The King of Terrors Death is God's subject and says I am ready to strike young or old high or low few or many as the Lord of all does give me Commission and Command And the second Death at God's righteous pleasure opens its everlasting doors to receive and eternally to swallow up all that he sentences thither Isa 5. 14. Therefore Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoyceth shall descend into it Such a Lord the effects of whose love and anger are felt not only in this World but also in the other and indeed run parallel with Eternity should certainly be attended on with a great dread of offending him with the exactest care in every thing to please him 7. God is a Lord obeyed by the whole Creation but only Men on earth and Devils and damned Spirits in Hell These greater lights the Sun and Moon that rule the day and night are perfectly ruled by their Maker and rise and set at his command And to shew that he can stop the Sun in its swift motion at Joshua's intreaty he commanded it to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the Valley of Ajalon Josh 10. 12. Nay in the days of Hezekiah he makes the Sun to move backward and to return no less than ten degrees by which it had gone down Isa 38. 8. All the Stars of Heaven he calls by their names and they observe their courses according to his Ordinances The Sea does ebb and flow according to his appointment and keep within the bounds that he has set it when it roars and is most tempestuous The Storms and Winds fulfil his word and if he do but say to them Peace be still presently there is a great calm He calls for the Thunder and the Lightning and how terrible is the Voice of the one and the flashing of the other The Thunder is silenced and the Lightning extinguished at his pleasure All Creatures that glide through the Air or slide through the Ocean that feed and grow upon the Earth in their way and manner obey their Maker and Preserver's Will Fye Oh Fye upon Apostate Angels and Men that they should be the only Rebels Look upward downward on the right hand and on the left and the many Thousands of Creatures which your Eyes behold are so many instances of Obedience to God Why Oh why should not all we be ready to yield our utmost Service 8. God is a Lord who over-rules them that rebel against him though they break his Commands they cannot get from under his power but he can check restrain disappoint and destroy them at his pleasure The Seed of the Woman has been hated by the Serpents brood and they that have been born only after the Flesh have been strongly inclined to persecute such as have been born after the Spirit Gal. 4. 28 29. Now we Brethren as Isaac was are the Children of Promise But as then he that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now And so 't is likely to be still When Heathen Emperors and Kings were Converts to the Christian Faith the Prince of Darkness did not turn and change He always was and is and will be full of Malice against Christ the Head and against his true Members And those who are of their Father the Devil the Lusts of their Father they will do and they that are Saints must expect find their Hearts set against them and as far as they can their hands too But that Lord who is with his People is greater infinitely than the evil one 1 John 4. 4. Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World As Satan's Subtlety is nothing to God's Wisdom as his Power is small to God's Almightiness so his Wrath though never so great is a little and contemptible thing when the Love which God bears to his People is believingly considered The mightiest Men whom Satan employs to run down the Church of the living God shall never affect their wicked purpose the Church triumphs over her most surious Enemies looking unto her Mighty Helper Psal 46. 5 6 7. God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Heathen raged the Kingdoms were moved They stirred up themselves with their united force and in their rage they would have devoured the Israel of God but He uttered his Voice and the Earth melted All these Enemies were dispirited and came to nothing and no wonder for it follows The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah Well may the voluntary Subjects of such a Lord attend upon him with forwardness and Faith since he has such an absolute uncontrolable Dominion over all his and their Enemies 9. God is a Lord infinitely above and better than any other Lords whatsoever As he is infinitely superior to all in Majesty and Greatness so also in Mercy and Goodness The whole Earth is full of Divine Goodness Psal 145. 9. The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works It is special and peculiar Kindness which is shewn to his Saints Psal 103. 11. As the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his Mercy towards them that fear him What are other Lords if compared with God As for Mammon who has most of Mankind to be his Vassals his delights are low his Riches uncertain his all is Vanity Satan is a cruel Lord he is a Lyar who deceives a Murtherer who destroys all whom he can keep under his Power and Dominion And the Wages which Sin does give to them that serve it is eternal Death and the more diligent they have been in the Service of Sin and the more laborious Workers of Iniquity Hell will be so much the hotter their Sorrow and Misery so much the greater Are such Lords as these comparable to the Lord Jehovah whose Strength whose Love is everlasting What care does he take of all that are truly his Servants How mild and gentle is his Government His Kingdom is Righteousness and Peace and Joy It was a Pious Ejaculation of one of the Ancients Da Domine quod jubes O Lord give that which thou commandest His Servants are by himself created in Christ Jesus unto the good works in which he has commanded them to walk He teaches them by his own Spirit to do his Will Psal 143. 10. Teach me to do thy Will for
be One yet in the Unity there is a Trinity This one God is Father Son and Holy Ghost Nazianzen an ancient Greek Father thus expresses his apprehensions of God when he came to worship him I am not able says he to apprehend One but I am presently struck with the brightness of Three I am not able to distinguish Three but I am presently brought back to One again Regulate your Apprehensions of God by that Revelation he has made of himself in his own Word and pry no farther than what is written that so you may undistractedly worship God himself and not the fruit of your imagination instead of him 3. To attend without distraction implies the greatest intention of mind As all the Lines from the circumference of a Circle meet together in one point of the Center so the Thoughts of the Mind should center upon God and the Duty that is done to him God should be so minded as that all other things should be out of mind Though the Soul is united to the Body yet it should be in a sense separated as risen with Christ and with him ascended and sitting in heavenly places Eph. 2. 6. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus How intent upon God and his Praises are the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And the Spirits of Saints Militant should imitate those that are Triumphant It is storied of that famous Mathematician Archimedes that when Syracuse was taken by Marcellus he was so intent in making Figures upon the ground that he minded not the taking of the City and was slain by a Soldier that knew not who he was for Marcellus had given a Commandment to save him If such a danger could not disturb the intention of Archimedes for the saving of a City the saving of a Soul does justly challenge a greater intention in every Duty we perform to God 4. To attend without distraction implies the highest concernedness of Soul Faith should be strong and constrain the Mind to be serious things invisible should be represented so evident and substantial as if they were most visible and apparent God should be addressed as if he appeared to us as he did to Abraham as if he talked with us as he did to the Children of Israel from Mount Sinai With humbleness of Mind and self-abasement considering our distance guilt and vileness we should cry out Let not the Lord be angry if we intreat the forgiveness of Sin and that our Souls may live before him Now we should stir up our selves and take hold of God Isa 64. 7. Now his Strength and his Son and his Covenant may be laid hold on within a little while it may be too late and impossible to do it We should be concerned in all Duties and perform them with such a solicitous care as if we saw the Dart of the last Enemy ready to pierce us and the Grave open for us as if we saw the Judge upon the great white Throne and all both small and great standing before God and the Books opened that they might be judged according to their Works Rev. 20. 11 12. There should be a concernedness of Spirit as if we saw the World in a flame Hell naked before us and we beheld the flashings of eternal fire as if we saw Heaven opened and all that Glory that is there Weight and Worth and Necessity command Concernedness now when we attend on God we draw nigh to him about those things that are of most absolute necessity and of the greatest worth and weight imaginable 5. To attend without distraction implies the fullest bent and inclination of heart there must be intensivum velle a strong propension of the Will towards God and this is expressed by longing by panting Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God 'T is the Lord himself that thus determines the Will towards himself and this he doth without compulsion for he alters the Nature and Inclination of it so that the Will being made free by Divine Grace uses its liberty aright and chuses God as its end and the way of his Testimonies Such an end such a way is most worthy to be chosen The Heart now designs and desires the injoying Fellowship with God as infinitely more valuable than all other Enjoyments And this full bent of the Heart mightily fixes it so that the stream of the Affections is kept the better in one undivided Channel When the Psalmist said there was none on Earth he desired besides God it plainly shewed that his desire after God swallowed up his desire after worldly things and when he says Whom have I in Heaven but God! He signifies that he should not count Heaven it self to be Heaven indeed without the Enjoyment of God there 6. To attend without distraction implies a sincere care to please the Lord in that attendance his Approbation being principally minded Man's good thoughts and word are more easily gained but the Jew inwardly his praise is not of Man but of God Rom. 2. 29. And indeed all other Commendations are insignificant unless the Lord commandeth 2 Cor. 10. 18. The undistracted Attendant studies to approve himself to God With what confidence does David speak before his all discerning Judge that he had walked in his integrity Psal 26. 1. and Psal 17. 3. Thou hast proved my heart thou hast visited me in the night Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing He was not conscious to himself of regarded sin or of allowed guile and negligence in the Lord's Service Care to please that God whom we serve is a necessary ingredient in every Service that is acceptable This care commands the heart into the presence of God and keeps it there and he loves to see Hearts before him set on him and seeking after him 7. To attend without distraction implies resisting all attempts to draw away the heart from God Satan and Mammon will be knocking at the Door of the Heart while 't is attending upon the Lord and the flesh which lusts against the spirit will be apt to shew its treachery and to open the Door Undistracted Attendants do use great Vigilancy for they are full of Jealousie over themselves They bid Satan to get him behind them for they are worshipping the Lord their God and 't is wickedness and boldness in him to disturb them in the Lord's Service and when the Affairs of the World would crowd in upon them they reply They have some greater and more important affairs to mind and therefore those worldly matters must be regarded only at a convenient season At all times it should be our care to keep unspotted from the World to keep our selves that the wicked one touch us not 1 Joh. 5. 18. but this care should be greatest when our approaches to God are nearest For if the World and the God of it should all bespatter and defile us even while
assistance The looking upon the Defects in our Services should make us look unto our Lord in whom we are compleat Col. 2. 10. and with a more intire dependance to rest upon his righteousness hereby Christ is honoured and the Father pleased and a multitude of faults will be cover'd But help against them must be desired from the Holy Ghost A gracious heart still desires renewed strength and aid from the Spirit to serve the Lord more acceptably but a lazy reliance upon Christ with an allowance of defects and distractions in the Duties we perform must needs be a very great provocation CASE VI. What course are Melancholick Persons to take in their Attendance on God when Distractions arise from the prevalency of that Distemper I answer 1. They should take heed of prolixity and length in holy Duties It is not length but life in these Duties that God looks at It is a thought that may lodge in the Breast of an Heathen but is unworthy of a Christian's heart that he shall be heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his much speaking Mat. 6. 7. Christians should not think much of the time they spend with God yet overdoing in this regard is doing less than if less were done When Melancholy hinders Duties from being extended as formerly with vigour and fervency they were they that more briefly now perform them should be the more frequent in short and holy Ejaculations And they must be sure to take heed of taking more pains to fix their thoughts than their heads will bear for when their Heads are out of order the more they labour to be intent the further they are off from it the disorder increases and so does their discouragement The Lord pities in such cases and allows them to spare their pains which are not only fruitless but hurtful and to pity themselves and not to attempt what a distempered Brain is unfit for 2. Melancholick ones must look unto Jesus in the due use of means for the cure of Head Distempers How many corporal Maladies did our Lord heal in a miraculous manner when he was here on Earth And he has not put off his Compassions towards the Bodies of Men now he is in Heaven Though the skill of the Lutist be never so great he can never make good Musick if the Lute it self be out of tune Satan has great advantage by prevailing Melancholy to hinder Devotion by the disorder of the Head though the Heart be never so honest and well inclin'd And our Lord very well knows this and being a merciful and faithful High-priest he is ready to succour in this case also Heb. 2. ult All power is given to him in Earth as well as Heaven all judgment committed to him Joh. 5. 22. so that all Distempers and Diseases come and go at his Command and though Miraculous Cures are not now to be expected yet something like them sometimes has been wrought in answer unto Prayer and Faith and where there has been a stedfast looking to Jesus there has been a mighty Blessing that has attended the means that have been used for the bringing of Blood and Spirits and Brain into better order 3. There are two great Duties which those that are under the power of Melancholy are not so sit for The one is Meditation and the other Self examination A distemper'd and disordered Head will make but sorry work of solemn Meditation the Head will ake the Mind will be lost in a cloud and mist of Confusion and the evil one will be ready to strike in and make the Melancholick Man turn self-accuser and consequently self-tormenter Such an one therefore should be wary of attempting the Duty of set Meditation but that and reading should be joyned together A short consideration of what is read there should be as the Head will bear a desire that the Heart may be affected and by the Grace of God a resolution to act and walk accordingly and those should be the Petitions Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies and make me to go in the path of thy Commandments Psal 119. 35 36. And as for self-examination Melancholick ones being now not so well themselves they should not be forward nor peremptory in passing Censures and Judgment upon themselves and they should be aware that Satan is now busie about them and he being a lying Spirit his Suggestions that they are Hypocrites and have no Grace that they are cast away and utterly forsaken by the God of all Grace should in no wife be credited Satan's Suggestions may be known by the design of them which is not to quicken Souls to Duty as the motions of the holy Spirit are but to drive them away from God and to make them say as he did in another case since the case is desperate and all hope of Salvation gone Why should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 King 2. 33. 4. Melancholick ones in the midst of their Distractions should grieve that neither head nor heart are so disposed to serve the Lord as they desire That 's proper language to be used which came out of the Mouth of holy Job chap. 10. 15. I am full of confusion see thou my Affliction And since they cannot actively glorifie God by the exercise of strong Faith and vehement Love and Joy and Delight in God they should glorifie him by an humble and patient submission to his Will When a melancholick Soul is quite emptied of all self-confidence and self-conceit is in a manner annihilated when under a great sense of its own guilt and vileness it looks unto Jesus and desires by his Blood and Spirit to be justified and washed and made clean when 't is ready to acknowledge that if ever 't is saved and brought to Heaven Grace will be free and superabundant because one of the lowest places in Hell has been deserved how far is flesh from glorying and hereby glory is given to the Lord. When melancholick ones are ready in their greatest Distractions and blackest darkness to justifie the Lord as righteous in all his Ways and holy in all his Works Psal 145. 17. and to condemn themselves because formerly when their Heads were in better order their Hearts were no better disposed and inclined to the Lord's Service they please and glorifie him more than they are aware of The more there is of self-distrust self-dislike self-condemnation humility and patient bearing of Divine Indignation because of sin that has been committed Mic. 7. 9. the more honour by all this does really redound to God 5. Let Melancholick ones take heed of being quite staved off from Duties and Ordinances though their performances are but mean and sorry The Lord can discern sense in the Soul when perhaps there is hardly sense in the words he takes notice of the gracious bent and good inclination of the heart towards himself when the Thoughts against the Will do wander Hezekiah had a most remarkable answer and prayed to good purpose when his Petitions
worketh also in you that believe It concerns us to take heed what we hear and how We should be forward to be made acquainted with God's Truth and Will and neither should be held in unrighteousness for to hear what God speaks and not to mind it but to act quite contrary is disobedience with an high aggravation 3. Attending upon God implies returning and yielding our selves unto God Man is naturally Contentious and struggles hard about this point and will not yield that God should direct and rule and that 't is reasonable that he in all things should submit and obey Man till he is instructed and enlightned from above will be still murmuring and disputing against his Duty and will not come to God though God is Light and can shine into his Mind though Divine Goodness can satiate Man's Soul though the Lord has supream and sufficient Authority to Command the Conscience and to lay the whole Man under obligation to Obedience But when we attend upon God indeed we hearken to his Call to return and we return at his Call There cannot be a right Attendance without sincere Conversion and this Conversion is Man's yielding of himself to his Lord. Rom. 6. 12 13. Let not sin reign in your mortal Bodies that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof neither yield ye your Members as instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin but yield ye your selves unto God as those that are alive from the Dead and your Members as instruments of Righteousness unto God The Body must be yielded that the Holy Ghost may Consecrate it to the Lord's Service that Eyes and Mouth and Hands and Feet and all may be at God's Beck and ready to fulfill his Pleasure And especially the Heart must be yielded nay the whole heart else returning is but feigned Jer. 3. 10. Her treacherous Sister Judah hath not returned to me with her whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. The Soul must consent to have all its powers renewed and sanctified that with them all it may give Attendance upon God the Heart without any reservation must yield that God should work out of it whatever is offensive that he should work in it that which is pleasing in his sight 4. Attending upon God implies seeking and desiring after God Isa 26. 9. With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit will I seek thee early The bent of the very Soul was towards God and the desires are kept up in vehemency both Night and Day The Lord humbles himself to behold things done in Heaven yet he looks down upon the Children of Men upon Earth to see if there be any that understand and seek him And if he seeks after these seekers how ready is he to be found of them The Command is that we should seek the Lord and his strength and his Face evermore Psal 105. 4. God is to be sought unto for himself when the all-sufficient Jehovah gives himself to any he gives infinitely more than if he gave them many thousand such Worlds as this is His strength is of absolute necessity to secure us from evil and to assist us in the doing of good and the shining of his Face makes our work easie and pleasant it makes our Life and even Death it self comfortable No wonder therefore when God said Seek ye my Face one of his Attendants heard presently as the Eccho answers the Voice said Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27. 8. To seek to any else is vain 't is seeking for Water in a broken Cistern that can hold none Men of low degree though never so great a multitude are vanity and Men of highest degree are a ly Psal 62. 9. But God's Power Mercy and Truth are an evident proof that he is forward and sufficient to satiate the Souls of all that charge their Souls to wait only upon him and to have their expectations from him 5. Attending upon God implies waiting upon him in his own House and Sanctuary Every Christian's House should be an House of Prayer but the place of publick assembling to Worship should be highly prized and frequented for the work sake that is performed there The living the true the eternal God is here publickly owned and acknowledged and so is the only Mediator Jesus as also the Holy Ghost whose Aid and Grace is all in all as to the efficacy and success of those Ordinances which are administred Saints that have seen God's Power and Glory in his Sanctuary it is no marvel that their Souls thirst for God for the living God and that 's the Language of their Hearts When shall we come and appear before God Psal 42. 2. As the Sanctuary was next to the holiest of all so the House of God on Earth is as it were the Suburbs of the City of God in Heaven The Sanctuary is the place where the Light of holy and heavenly Doctrine shines Here the Psalmist understood the end of the ungodly and that all their prosperity was but a Dream and Image being abused by themselves to further and hasten their destruction for they are quickly cast down from their greatest height and brought into Desolation as in a moment and utterly consumed with Terrors Psal 73. 17 18 19 Here also he understood how good God is to Israelites indeed when he does afflict them his Rod guides them purges their Hearts he upholds them with one hand when he corrects them with another he makes earthly things more contemptible in their Eyes and sets their Affections more upon himself who is their Portion for ever In the Sanctuary Believers are quickned strengthened comforted and settled And this one thing they desire of the Lord and that they seek after that they may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of their life that they may behold the Beauty of the Lord his Holiness and Grace in Christ with the admirable Harmony of all his Attributes and that they may perpetually be enquiring in his Temple until being guided unto Death and brought safe to Glory they are past all danger Psal 27. 4. 6. Attending upon God implies not only keeping the way of his Ordinances and Institutions but minding his Dispensations and the manner of his dealing with us The Ordinances of the Gospel are from Heaven and not of Men. Men have no right to institute who have no power to bless Mens Inventions in Religion though often followed with great eagerness are found unprofitable and vain to them that have been Zealous for them But the Ordinances which the Lord himself has appointed he is ready to own and make effectual to them that attend upon him in the use of them so that they shall have reason to say they have sought the Lord and have found him and have tasted and seen that he is gracious Ordinances are Feasts with which Saints are entertained called by the Prophet Feasts of fat things full of Marrow and of Wine on the Lees-well refined Isa 25.
Thousands and Millions of Souls On this Christian Sabbath what kind of Attendance on God should ours be Before the day comes it should be longed for and when 't is come it should be most welcom Assoon as our Senses are unlock't in the Morning our Souls should be as it were caught up to the third Heaven and there continue until Night Our Lord is risen indeed and we should rise with him and seek those things which are above where he sits at the right hand of God Col. 3. 1. Things on Earth will be intruding into our Hearts and Thoughts but no Entertainment must be given them A Desire or Wish must not be allowed them unless it be that we may not be distracted with them When Abraham was just come to Mount Moriah he says to his Servants Abide you here and I and the Lad will go yonder and Worship Gen. 22. 5. So when the Lord's Day comes we should say to all our Worldly Businesses and Concerns Abide as you are cease from our Care and Thoughts whilst we and our Hearts ascend unto the Hill of the Lord and Worship This day is appointed for our more solemn approaches unto God and that we may have more intimate Fellowship with him and if Communion with him be enjoyed we shall find so much Grace and Strength and Peace therein that we shall be perfectly of the Psalmist's mind That a day in God's Courts is better than a Thousand Psal 84. 10. The very Palaces of the wicked are contemptible No place under Heaven is so desirable as the Sanctuary 2. There is an Attendance upon God on other days He is the Lord of our time and therefore every day he should have some part of it We should be careful to know how he would have us to employ that time which himself gives and will call us to account for We should live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the Will of God not to the Lusts of other Men or our own 1 Pet. 4. 2. and we should grieve that so much has been wasted to his Displeasure and Dishonour David was glad to go up to the House of God on the Sabbath but he was also a daily Attender on him Psal 86. 3. Be merciful unto me O Lord for I cry unto thee daily So Heman Psal 88. 9. Lord I have called daily upon thee I have stretched out my Hands unto thee And Daniel rather than omit praying daily unto God ventured to be cast into the Lion's Den and God miraculously appears for him his Mouth having been open so often in fervent Supplication God shuts the Lions Mouths that though in the Den among them they did not make a Prey of him Every day we should be in the Fear of God and have Faith in him and if in the midst of our Worldly Business our Hearts frequently step aside to attend on God in mental Applications to him that attendance will be both acceptable and profitable But some times every day we should sequester our selves from other business that this greatest and best business may be minded which is to draw near to God 6. There is an attendance upon God in a time of Liberty and a Calm and an attending upon him in a time of Persecution and a Storm In a time of Liberty the Lord has many Followers who leave him when a Storm of Persecution beats in their Faces When the King of Navarre was about to Apostatize to Popery and Beza came to confirm him in the Truth he made this Answer That he would never go so far to Sea as not to be able to put to Shore when he pleased He shewed plainly that he could turn Papist to get the Kingdom of France but he was resolved not to go through much Tribulation to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Hearers compared to stony ground heard the Gospel with forwardness and joy while the Gospel and Prosperity were conjoyned but when Persecution and Tribulation arose because of the Word they were offended they kept not their standing but in that time of Temptation fell away Mat. 13. 20 21. We should be other kind of attendants than so Let us count the cost of being Disciples and conclude that Grace and Glory will quit the cost Our Lord was offended at nothing that was to be done or suffered for our Redemption surely neither his Commands nor his Cross should be matter of offence to us but still we should remain his followers I might also add another distinction There is an attendance upon God in Earth and in Heaven the one is Duty the other is Reward the one is short the other is endless and yet in that Service there shall not be the least weariness nay so far from that that there will be fulness of Joy and everlasting Pleasure Thus I have spoken of the several sorts of attending upon God In the fourth place I am to assign the reasons why the Children of Men ought to give their attendance upon God 1. The Command to attend upon God is written on the Heart of Man by Nature There is both the Creed and the Law of Nature There are several Truths that are apparent without a supernatural Revelation as that there is a God that he rules the World that he sees all the works of the Children of Men and that he will call them to an account for all that they have done There are also Commands which are written in the Hearts of Men. Rom. 2. 14. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts and among these Commands this is as plain as any That God is to be worshipped The Gentiles therefore are blamed because this Command was not observed Rom. 1. 21. Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Now as sins have their peculiar aggravations that are committed against the Light of Nature so neglect of Duty is highly aggravated when 't is evident by the Light of Nature that such Duty ought to be performed 2. Attendance upon God is frequently called for and urged in the Scripture The Lord spake this with his own Voice from Heaven and afterwards wrote it with his own Hand upon the Tables of Stone that we should have no other Gods before him that we should not Worship Idols that we should not take his Name in vain Exod. 20. Our Lord repeats what was enjoyned long before Mat. 4. 10. It is written thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve and he says Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth So Psal 22. 23. Ye that fear the Lord praise him all ye the Seed of Jacob glorifie him and
is this when love to the Father is pretended but the thing intended is the gratifying the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the Eyes or the pride of life which are not of the Father but are of the World 1 Joh. 2. 16. A Cloak of Religion is a specious and goodly thing to look upon Praying Hearing Professing Singing of Praises Presence at other Ordinances looking upwards towards Heaven and speaking like Saints make the outside of this Cloak and Come see my Zeal for the Lord of Hosts and The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these make the Cloak look still the better outwardly But the inside is most foul and filthy there is Ambition reprobate Concupiscence insatiable Covetousness the Purse must be filled the Palate must be pleased the Senses must be delighted and Pride gratified with Applause and Preferment But certainly the Lord will not hold such dissemblers guiltless who with such carnal designs do take his Name in vain 6. They are to be reproved who are temporary Attenders upon God but in time of trial and temptation apostalize and depart from him Some kind of faint wishes they have that they might be saved and with some kind of Joy they entertain the glad-tydings of Salvation but whatever becomes of their Souls their resolution is to sleep in a whole Skin and they will not hazard what they possess on Earth for the sake of a Treasure in Heaven The heat of Persecution scorches such Attenders as these and causes all that is good in them to wither away Mat. 13. 6. They can by no means be reconciled to the Cross of Christ though the Spirit of Glory and of God does rest upon those that take up this Cross and gives them a Mouth and Wisdom to confound and silence the enemies of the Truth and strength to bear whatever wicked and unreasonable Men can inflict Nay abundant Consolation when Sufferings most abound 2 Cor. 1. 5. For as the Sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ When these temporary Followers of the Lord hear him say If any Man come to me and hate not i. e. less love his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Their answer is This is an hard saying who can hear it And not enduring the Trial and Furnace 't is a sign they are but reprobate Silver which the Lord rejects and their utter Apostasie in the time of Temptation shews they never had root in themselves Matt. 13. 21. If they had been of us says the Apostle they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us 1 John 2. 19. 7. They are to be reproved who rest in the bare formality of attending upon God but 't is not their desire or aim to reap any Spiritual Benefit thereby Education Custom and a regard to their Reputation makes them to go in a road and round of Duties and hereby an ignorant natural Conscience has some kind of Peace But in all they do they have no eye on God nor any sincere desires after him So ignorant they are of themselves that they are unsensible of any Spiritual Necessities to be supplied they are unsensible of any Lusts and Passions to be mortified of any Plagues in their Hearts to be healed In attending upon God His Approbation is principally to be minded He is a Jew that is one inwardly whose praise is not of Man but of God Rom. 2. 29. And God himself is chiefly to be longed after Psal 42. 1. As the heart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God But these formal Attendants mind not God's approving of them neither do they desire Communion with him So the Work be but done they care not how nor how little themselves are Spiritually advantaged The Door turns upon the Hinges too and fro but still is where it was many years ago So these Professors come to Ordinances and from them no better than they were They were many years ago proud worldly selfish passionate sensual slothful and oh their Sin and Shame that so they are still or more so than ever notwithstanding all their Religious Services 8. The very best are to be reproved That there are so many sins in their holiest things and when they give their best attendance upon God Though they are new Creatures yet there is much of the old man remaining though they are born of the Spirit yet in part they are still carnal And this flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that they cannot do the things that they would Gal. 5. 17. and what they do they cannot do so well as they desire to do it They are to be pitied indeed under their groaning because of indwelling Sin And the Apostle calls himself wretched because of this who was joyful under the heaviest Cross he ever bore And yet Saints are to be reproved too because were it not their own fault they might still do and be better They might have more Grace from Christ Life more abundantly from him they might have more Aid from the Spirit they might be more enlarged in Ordinances and with greater Swiftness run the ways of God's Commandments Tho' when they have done all all is so defective they have need of the perfect Righteousness of Christ to cover their Failings and Imperfections USE II. Of Exhortation to you all to attend upon God Let not the World and the God of this World have you at command the things that their attendants take up withall are a meer shew and are gone presently The Psalmist speaking of those who only mind such things as these with great Asseveration tells us Psal 39. 6. Surely every Man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain and then adds v. 7. And now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee Expectation from the Creature he knew would be frustrated but hope in God he was well assured would never make him ashamed The Arguments to perswade to attend upon God are these 1. 'T is wonderful Condescension and Compassion in God that he will admit of attendance by such as you are Whose Eye but Gods sees the whole of Sins evil The Lord alone does fully understand his own goodness and glorious Perfections and Excellencies therefore he alone fully understands Sins sinfulness which is so contrary to him The Psalmist tells us He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him Psal 5. 4. When he prohibits Sin he speaks with great concernedness Jer. 44. 4. Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate You may perceive by his words that his very Soul does abhor Iniquity 't is therefore matter of Astonishment that God should have any thing to do in a way of Mercy with Man who is so abominably guilty and defiled What
considering what precious Souls all are intrusted with and how full of Enemies and Snares this World is in which we live But the Lord alone is he of whom Safety is Psal 18. 31. Who is God save the Lord and who is a Rock save our God Sincere attenders upon God are very dear to him they are called his peculiar Treasure Exod. 19. 5. Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then shall ye be unto me a peculiar Treasure above all People They are called his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. They shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him Nay he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his Eye Zech. 2. 8. Therefore he will keep them as the apple of the Eye he will hide them under the shadow of his wings Psal 17. 8. When you attend upon God you repair to a Rock of Salvation to an high Tower of defence With his favour he will compass you as with a Shield Psal 5. 12. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you may securely trust for his truth shall be your buckler Psal 91. 4. In the hollow of his hand you shall be hid and the same hand shall beat down all your Enemies that design your Destruction You shall dwell on high your place shall be the munitions of Rocks Isa 33. 16. No Rock so high so firm as God no Munition so safe the Refuge is eternal When David says Vnto thee will I cry O Lord my rock be not silent to me Psal 28. 1. 'T is signified that this Rock can hear and answer and help abundantly and afford abundant matter for thanksgiving Psal 18. 46. The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted 6. That God whom you attend upon can abundantly satisfie the very Soul of Man When the Soul has wearied it self with seeking satisfaction from the Creature and is sorrowful because its labour has been in vain God can say and do what Creatures cannot Jer. 31. I have satiated the weary Soul and I have replenished every sorrowful Soul The Negative Happiness is considerable in being secured from Evil and Misery but positive Blessedness is more in being satisfied and delighted with Divine Goodness Psal 65. 4. Blessed is the Man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House even of thy holy Temple That rich Man in the Gospel speaks as if he had like Nebuchadnezzar the Heart of a Beast rather than the Soul of a Man When he says Soul thou hast Goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat and drink and be merry Luke 12. 19. This was but sorry provision for an immortal Soul that was just ready to be required at his hand to leave all these things behind it and to go into Eternity Attenders upon God find that in him with which their Souls are satisfied indeed They are satisfied with his Mercy and Love in Christ They are satisfied in Christ's Sacrifice and the Satisfaction he has made for Iniquity They are satisfied when they perceive themselves changed more and more into the Image of God and what a Satisfaction is it to converse above and to sit in heavenly places Eph. 2. 6. And hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus And what a Satisfaction is it at present to be assured of a far fuller Satisfaction hereafter Psal 17. 15. As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 7. Attend upon God for he has long waited that he might be gracious to you How has that Scripture been fulfilled Isa 13. 18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you He has stood at the door and has knock'd for entrance and though that has been denied him he has not gone away as he might in just Anger but behold he stands at the door still Rev. 3. 20. If you hear his voice and open the door he will enter and dwell with you and he and his Benefits shall be yours It is well for sinful Man that God is Patient and Long-suffering he does not cease calling at Man's first Deafness to his call he does not cease offering Grace Mercy and Life upon Man's first refusing to accept what is offered He told the old World that his Spirit should not always strive with Man Gen. 6. 3. yet 't is added his days shall be an hundred and twenty years All that time the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing 1 Pet. 3. 20. to see if the Disobedient would return to him The Lord comes year after year to the barren Fig-tree seeking Fruit but he found none whereupon he says Cut it down why cumbereth it the ground Yet upon Intercession made he is prevailed with to spare it longer to see if means that were used might be effectual to make it fruitful Luke 13. 6 9 The Apostle tells that the Lord is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. Oh repent of your forgetting God and your duty towards him days without number attend and seek unto him in Sincerity who has had many a long look for you and has waited so great a while for your return 8. Consider seriously how God is attended upon in Heaven and what an Honour it is to you to wait upon him He has thousand thousands that minister unto him ten thousand times ten thousand that stand before him Dan. 7. 10. He has Angels that excel in strength who surround his Throne that are ready to do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his word Psal 103. 20. The Seraphims worship him with covered faces to shew their great reverence of God and how they are ravishingly overcome with the brightness of his Majesty and they cry out one to another Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth as well as Heaven is full of his Glory Isa 6. 2 3. These Angels are Spirits these Ministers likened to a flame of fire Psal 104. 4. How Sublime and Spiritual are their Praises How ardent their Love to the Lord whom they praise and serve And yet the Lord is said to humble himself when he takes notice of such Attendants as these 'T is certainly an high Honour that is done you when you are admitted into the presence of such a glorious Majesty he that sits upon a Throne of Grace and is so ready to pitty pardon heal help and save is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
abundantly more Eph. 3. 20. Who can conceive how beneficial waiting upon God is That passage is both encouraging and amazing Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him 3. God is ready to cover a multitude of Infirmities in them that sincerely attend upon him He mercifully observes how willing their Spirits are when their Flesh is weak and cannot keep pace with their renewed Minds When our Lord was in an Agony his Disciples could not watch with him one hour but were fallen asleep yet he himself graciously excuses it Matt. 26. 41. The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak and passes it by He takes notice of the Lustings of the Spirit against the Flesh the Strivings of Grace against Sin and Corruption and passes by the Lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit the Strivings of Sin against Grace The Lord does not enter into Judgment with his Servants nor deal in Rigour with them but he expresses Fatherly Tenderness and Compassion towards them Psal 103. 13. Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him We are directed to beg for the Forgiveness of Trespasses daily which shews that as the Disciples of Christ daily offend so their Heavenly Father is ready to grant forgiveness daily to them Nay Iniquity cleaves unto our holiest things our best Dâ—ties should and might be done a great deal better These Infirmities then are much to be lamented more and more striven against and seeing our selves compassed about with them we should banish all Self-confidence and look into Jesus that in him we may find acceptance and certainly the Righteousness of Christ the Son of God and the Father's love in him will cover the greatest multitude of bewailed Infirmities and Offences 4. It may be also Comfort to Attenders upon God to think whom they have attending upon them Saints on Earth have the Angels in Heaven to be their Guardians Christ is signified by Jacob's Ladder the Angels of God are said to ascend and descend upon the Son of Man John 1. 51. 'T is owing to our Lord Jesus that Believers have the Benefit of the Angels Ministry and the Apostle signifies that all of them are thus employed for the Saints Protection and Security Heb. 1. 14. Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation The reprobate and evil Angels resist Attenders upon God but the elect and good Angels are their Friends These Angels that excel in strength How do they rejoyce when any repent and are converted And they have a Charge over Converts to keep them in all their ways Psal 91. 11. and when 't is added v. 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon thou shalt trample under feet It may be intimated that Satan's Force and Fury and Subtlety shall be ineffectual and that by his Temptations he shall not prevail But though Angels attend the Servants of God they are not wholly trusted to the Angelical Care The Lord himself is their Keeper The Father and the Son come to them and make their abode in them and will secure their own Mansions till they are out of the reach of Enemies and past all danger 5. Sincere Attendance upon God shall attend upon him after another and better manner in another World They shall be sitted for and admitted into the presence Chamber of the King of Glory In Heaven there will be no need of the Sun or of the Moon to shine in it for the Glory of the Lord does lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21. 23. and Rev. 22. 3. And there shall be no more Curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his Servants shall serve him They shall serve him so as never in the least to disserve him they shall do his Will and nothing at all contrary to it there will be a Perfection of Delight and Rest and Peace in the Obedience they shall yield when they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Rev. 4. 8. and Rev. 5. 13. Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever All God's sincere Attendants are now advanced to Priestly nay to Kingly Dignity therefore they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 9. Christ has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own Blood and has made them Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Rev. 1. 5 6. But hereafter they shall inherit and possess the Kingdom prepared for them they shall all of them be actually crown'd with a Crown of Life and Righteousness And Oh what a joyful sight will it be to behold the Lord and all his Saints glorified together with him Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory Thus of the first Doctrine Doct. II. The second Doctrine is this In attending upon God we should look upon him as the Lord and serve him accordingly When God pronounced his own Laws with his own Mouth upon Mount Sinai He thus begins I am the Lord Exod. 20 2. and this was to awe Israel into Obedience We read Deut 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. No other Lord is his equal no Commands to be regarded like his Commands None so worthy of service as He He must have attendance who or whatever is neglected Psal 89. 6 7. Who in Heaven can be compared to the Lord who among the Sons of the Mighty can be likened unto the Lord The mightiest Monarchs upon Earth the highest Angels in Heaven are infinitely below him therefore it follows God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Holy David cries out Psal 8. 1. O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens He worshipped and praised him as the highest Sovereign who excelled all things on Earth and whose Glory the Heaven though full of it was not able to contain and when he says our Lord 't is intimated that he was truly his Servant and Subject and that he gloried in subjection to him In the handling of this Doctrine I shall First Shew you how God is the Lord. Secondly Manifest what influence and effect the apprehension of his being Lord should have upon us when we attend upon him Thirdly and Lastly make Application In the first place I am to shew you how God is the Lord. His Majesty may amaze us when we think or speak of his Dominion we should
be struck with godly Fear Thus was the Psalmist Psal 104. 1. O Lord my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with Honour and Majesty who coverest thy self with light as with a Garment Psal 96. 4 6 9. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods Honour and Majesty are before him Strength and Beauty are in his Sanctuary O worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness fear before him all the Earth Now that you may the better understand with whom you have to do when you attend upon God You must know 1. God is Lord Creator of whom are all things The Man of God Moses with wonder and adoration cries out Psal 90. 2. Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth or the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God The Lord was before all and he was all of and in and to himself from Eternity The Father is of himself alone the Son is necessarily and eternally of the Father and the Holy Ghost as necessarily and eternally from both the Father and the Son And these Three are that one living and true God whom Christians believe in and in whose Name they are baptized But though God necessarily is yet Creatures are not so but have their being at his pleasure Rev. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created It is the Lord whose Word of Power and Command brought all things out of nothing at first Heb. 11. 3. Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God Though some have imagined that Angels were created and many of them fell long before this visible World was made in Scripture there is not sufficient ground for such an Imagination It is probable those excellent Creatures were made the first day when 't is said Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven The Heaven may take in the highest Heaven and the Host of Angels there Oh what a powerful Word was that which commanded Angels to be which before were nothing and gave them Spiritual and Immortal Natures indued with such mighty Strength and Understanding And when the Lord laid the Foundations of the Earth and stretched the line upon it these glorious Angels called Morning Stars sang together and all these Sons of God shouted for joy Job 38. 4 5 7. This Lord Creator did but say Let there be Light and there was Light The Sun the Moon the Stars the Earth and Seas and all their Hosts were what his Word made them And Man who was to have Dominion over this lower World God did make in his own Image his Body indeed was formed of the Dust of the ground but to shew that his Soul was not of earthly Original God is called the Father of Man's Spirit he breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul Gen. 2. 7. This great Creator whom we attend upon made all things very good Gen. ◠31. and though Sin entring into the World spoiled much of his Workmanship he can easily new make what Sin has marred and he can easily and will certainly destroy those who are finally unwilling to be made new Creatures 2. God is Lord Preserver of what himself has made The word of his power sustains all things Heb. 1. 3. it continues things in those beings into which at first it brought them Psal 148. 5 6. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath also established them for ever and ever He hath made a Decree which shall not pass The same Lord who called things out of nothing by his word hinders their returning into nothing by the same word of command Psal 33. 9. For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast There is so much power exerted in upholding the Creation that the Preservation of the Universe is rightly called a continued Creation of it If God should totally draw back his supporting hand all the Luminaries in Heaven would presently lose their Light the Earth and Seas would become a Chaos of Confusion nay Men and Angels and all things else would immediately lose their beings and become nothing As the Creation so the Preservation of all things is of the Lord alone Neh. 9. 6. Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host the Earth and all things that are therein the Seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all How worthy is he to be worshipped by the Host of Heaven and by the Sons of Men the Inhabitants of the Earth God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almighty or All-sufficient and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Mamma a Pap or Breast all Creatures from the mightiest to the very meanest do hang and depend upon God as Children do upon the Breasts that he may nourish and sustain them And if God thus upholds all things surely he will not fail to preserve his Church and Saints they may with Confidence attend upon him for defence no Humane nor Hellish Force shall prevail against them 3. God is Lord Proprietor and Possessor of Heaven and Earth So Melchizedek called the most high God when he blessed Abram the Father of the Faithful Gen. 14. 19. Blessed be Abram of the most high God the Possessor of Heaven and Earth Psal 24. 1. we read The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the World and they that dwell therein All Persons and things are properly God's own and he may do with them what he pleases By Creation the Lord began and by Preservation he continues to be the Proprietor of all things Propriety is the ground of Power and Power of Government now a most absolute and universal Propriety and Power the Lord does rightly challenge to himself he is accountable to none not to be resisted by any none can stay his hand or say to him What doest thou It was a good answer that Elihu made to Job Ch. 33. 12 13. God is greater than Man Why dost thou strive against him For he giveth not an account of any of his matters It is a wise part to attend upon God who has a Propriety in us and in all things besides and all things are really in his Hands and Possession so that he can with-hold or bestow them according to his own Will If God be for us he can make all things for us if he be against us nothing shall be for our help and benefit There is nothing which we need but a superabundance of it is in God's hand The Possessor of Heaven and Earth has the Blessings of Heaven and Earth to give forth Every Beast of the Forest is his and the Cattle upon a thousand Hills Psal 50. 10. All Sheep and Oxen yea and
with Lord shew me thy Will and let my Will in all things and at all times be determined by thine This is becoming Language and every Soul should sincerely speak it He is the most eminent and perfect Christian who stands most perfect and compleat in all the Will of God 7. When we look upon God as Lord we should never quarrel or murmur at any thing he is pleased to do to us or with us Arbitrary Power is very much affected by the Potentates of this World though it would be much more truly great in them to do as they ought than to do as they please Arbitrary Power is justly challenged by the Lord the universal Sovereign He may do whatever he pleases and it will please him to do nothing but what becomes his own Wisdom Goodness and other glorious Excellencies A mighty Monarch who had walked in Pride at length was so abased that he acknowledged and honoured this highest Lord of all and he says All the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his Will in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth Dan 4. 35. The Dispensations of Divine Providence must not fall under our Censure He that reproveth God will ill answer for it 'T is sinful Boldness to strive with him and say What dost thou As if he had not done so well as he might 'T is more becoming with obedient Patience and Submission to cry out Oh the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Rom. 11. 33. and Psal 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his Ways and holy in all his Works When under his severer Dealings with us we charge him with Rigour and want of Care we do but charge God foolishly His Understanding is infinite Psal 147. 5. therefore he is not liable to the least Mistake His Bowels are tender and he can never become Cruel 'T is inconsistent with his Justice to lay upon any Man more than is right that he should enter into Judgment with God Job 34. 23. He is so gracious that he afflicts when his People need and t is good for them to be afflicted That Man spake very ill who said I do well to be angry Whatever the Lord does to his People he does wisely justly faithfully how then can their Fretting and Impatience be justified It would be far better for them to cease their Contention and Disputing and to answer as Job at last did Job 40 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my Hand upon my Mouth once have I spoken but I will not anwer yea twice but I will proceed no farther 8. When we look upon God as Lord we should long to behold his Glory in his Kingdom It was the Desire of Moses Exod. 33. 18. I beseech thee shew me thy Glory It is but little that the Saints see of the King of Saints in comparison of what they shall see They know but in part and how should they long that that which is perfect may come and that which is in part may be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. The Earth is the Lord's Footstool and here we behold but some Footsteps and Shaddows and have a darker Discovery of him but the Heaven is his Throne and when we come to stand before his Throne how bright will be his Majesty in our Eyes How glorious his Holiness How will his Face be all Light and Love And how ravishing will the fullest Sense of that Love be It should be our Care by a continual Increase of Purity in Heart to be fitted for this beatifical Vision of the Lord of Glory Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God And this Vision should the more longed for because it will be transforming When we behold the Lord's Glory we shall partake of it when we see him we shall to our eternal Excellency and Satisfaction be like him 1 Joh. 3. 2. Beloved now are we the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is In the last place follows the Application USE I. shall be of Reproof Well may the Mouth of his Messengers be full of Reproof since the Lord that sends them is so generally disregarded Several sorts of Persons are worthy Reprehension 1. They are to be reproved who say with Pharaoh who is the Lord that we should obey his Voice How many are there who will not acknowledge they owe him any Service or if they do acknowledge it they are so wicked and unrighteous that they will not render what they cannot but confess is due to him How many say Our Lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal 12. 4. who is he that would give laws to our Tongues and put them under a Bridle They say also our Members are all our own and therefore we will employ them as we please though that employing is abusing and abasing of them to be Instruments of Unrighteousness unto Sin Our Time also is our own and therefore we will pass it according to our own Pleasure as if Time were a thing of no Value and to have it well or ill with them to Eternity were a matter of meer Indifferency They that now cry Who is the Lord When they stand as they all must before his Judgment Seat he will make them know who he is How terrifying will his Looks be How heavy will his Hand be felt They would not obey the Scepter of his Word and he will break them with his Iron Rod and dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel Psal 2. 9. 2. They are to be reproved who have a greater Reverence for Man than for God who is the sovereign Lord of all They dare not displease great Men but the great God they make bold to offend Men whom they depend upon they are careful to keep in with but that God in whose Hand their Breath is and whose are all their Ways they do not glorifie Dan. 5. 23. They depend upon this Lord for their Being and Blessedness and all things Their Life is continued only during his Pleasure all things that they have are of his bestowing and if ever they are blessed 't is God must make them so and yet the Favour and Anger of this God are contemned in Comparison of the Love and Hatred of Man How many will comply with the Lusts of Men that will not conform to the Will of God Mens Inventions are regarded more than God's Institutions Thus the Statutes of Omri were kept and all the Works of the House of Ahab and Israel did walk in their Counsels Mic. 6. 16. when they rejected the Counsel of God against themselves and cast the Laws of Jehovah behind their Backs But how poor a thing is Man's
upon them that we may take heed of being like them 2. Distraction is a Fault that is most easily incurred as the Leaves of some Trees waver with the least stirring of the Wind so the Mind of Man is apt to waver and discover its natural Instability when Corruption stirs within or Satan endeavours to put the Heart into Disorder How far may the Heart if it be not strictly watched start of a sudden as far as the East is from the West nay as far as Earth is from Heaven 'T is natural to the Soul to lift up it self to Vanity This is intimated plainly by the Psalmist when he describes the acceptable Attendant on God to be one that hath not lift up his Soul to Vanity Psal 24. 4. By Vanity we may understand Idols which are called by that Name or the Vanities of this World which the Heart is so prone to gad and rove after even when Duties of the greatest Importance are performing and which ought to be performed with the greatest Fixedness of Thought and Seriousness imaginable 3. The longer the Distraction is it is the worse A Heart which is truly good and honest may be seized on by Distraction before it is aware The evil one may step into the Chariot and begin to drive it away from God deceitful Sin may suddenly arise in the Soul and begin to disturb and defile it But when this is quickly observed and the wakeful Conscience checks the Heart and the upright Heart is glad of the Admonition and presently checks it self and immediately returns to its Lord and to its Work and Duty Satan misses his Aim and the Duty shall not be lost The Soul which follows hardest after God may sometimes stumble but if assoon as 't is down 't is up again and runs the faster This running will not be in vain But when Distraction continues for a great while it argues the Conscience is not so vigilent and faithful as it should be in that it does not correct these vagrant Thoughts which come into the Mind There is a Fault also in the Heart that it can so patiently endure such vain Guests to lodge in it for so long a time before they are turned out of doors The Psalmist says that his Spirit made diligent Search Psal 77. 6. A Spirit that does so will quickly take notice of these roving Imaginations and there is an endeavour to thrust them out assoon as they are found out But if there is a Carelessness and too great a Connivance at these Wandrings though the Soul may not be quite dead in Sin yet there is much of a Spiritual Lethargy and Sleepiness which is the Image of spiritual Death 4. If Distractions in holy Duties are ordinarily allowed of they argue the Heart not right with God When the Heart is constantly absent from Ordinances and does not care to be better inclined and disposed to them when it willingly is at Mammon's and Satan's Command even then when the Body draws nigh to God and there is a Lip-honour and Service given to him this argues plainly that the Heart is unrenewed and remains alienated and estranged from the Lord. The Heart must needs be still carnal and wicked and Enmity against God that is like the eyes of Fools in the End of the Earth Prov. 17. 24. When things above should be sought and Heaven should be minded These things being premised I shall tell you what Distraction in attending upon God is in in these Particulars 1. The Heart is distracted in this Attendance when its Thoughts are impertinent and vain These kind of Thoughts may well be called Legion for they are many They are like the Motes in the Sun or the Bubbles in the Water on a rainy Day innumerable These Thoughts hover about the Minds of the best when they engage in holy Duties and will presently intrude if they are not kept out with a very strict Guard But where they are entertained they draw off the Heart from the Work in hand and the Lord sees it and is displeased Psal 94. 11. The Lord knoweth the Thoughts of Man that they are Vanity and Impertinency is not the smallest part of this Vanity Vain Man is compared to a wild Ass's Colt Job 11. 12. The Silliness of that Creature and its Frisks and Motions to little purpose are a fit Representation of the Mind of Man and of its foolish Sallies and Vagaries in the Lord's Service Who has not reason to cry out with the Psalmist Psal 69. 5. O God thou knowest my Foolishness and my Sins are not hid from thee If in the Performance of holy Duties the Tongue should fall a talking of some other matter and idle and vain Discourse should proceed out of the Lips this would be a scandalous Distraction that others might take notice of Now thinking is the Minds speaking and the Heart-searcher can and does more easily take notice when the Mind thinks impertinently than we can observe when the Tongue speaks so 2. The Heart is distracted when in religious Duties its Thoughts are wicked and vile Our Lord who well knew what is in Man tells us Mat. 15. 19. Out of the Heart of Man proceed evil Thoughts These are the first bad Offspring and the greatest Wickedness that is acted begins with them How great was Man's Wickedness upon Earth When God saw that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. If Thoughts are evil continually they don't cease to be evil when Duties of Religion are engaged in When proud Thoughts or wanton filthy Thoughts or worldly Thoughts or envious malicious and revengeful Thoughts or any other wicked Imaginations have place in the Heart These as Swarms of noisome Flies corrupt Mens Services and make their Sacrifices unto God to become abominable By these the Mind does not only wander from God but is alienated and estranged from him The Heart is in Hell while the Eyes are looking up to Heaven and the Tongue is speaking to the God that dwells there When a Man with an Heart full of such sinful Thoughts approaches unto God how loathsome must he needs be unto his pure and piercing Eye The Lord beholds and knows him afar off Psal 138. 6. And indeed what Fellowship can there be between Holiness and Pollution It s much more unbecoming and dangerous for such an one to approach the Presence of God than it would be for the foulest Leper with the nastiest Garments to come before the greatest Emperor upon the Face of the Earth 3. The Heart is distracted in attending on God When hellish Injections are entertained Satan sheweth his deep and inveterate Enmity against God in these blasphemous Injections and he creates a very troublesome Disturbance to us in the Lord's Service he has fiery Darts whereby he does endeavour to cause Hell Fire in our Consciences by dispairing Agonies and Horrours And blasphemous Thoughts are like fiery Bombs which he shoots into our Souls to put
33. 31. There is a Greediness after Gain no hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Iniquity though so hateful and hurtful is regarded in the Heart but there is no regard unto God there How can there be a worse Distraction than for the Heart to forsake Fullness and Goodness it self and to embrace and fix upon meer Emptiness and Evil In this Distraction there is Phrenzy in the highest Degree 7. The Heart is distracted when carnal self and interest in attending upon God is the great end designed The end is that which directs an action and the eye and heart of him who acts is upon the end which he pursues If the end be wrong the action cannot be right Without a sincere aim no religious Duty can sincerely be performed Now if we look no higher than our carnal selves in those Services we pretend to do for God our selfish design will be in our Thoughts and distract them Acceptance with God and the Enjoyment of him will not be at all minded The Captives in Babylon were blamed in their Fasting and Mourning that God was not in their Eye his Approbation his Glory not regarded Zach. 7. 5. Did ye at all fast unto me even unto me They minded returning to Canaan more than returning to God and to their Duty If indeed we are truly selfish God will not be angry with us for there is an inseparable connexion between God's Honour and our truest interest When we seek and eye him most we most truly eye and seek our selves God has the highest Honour from us when we look for the highest Happiness in him and love him for himself and delight in him and bless and magnifie him to eternity But when God himself is not our end but his Service is made use of that we may the better bring about our earthly and worldly designs and projects Our Duties then are Hypocrisie and Distraction Such were those whom the Prophet so severely taxed Jer. 12 2. Thou art near O Lord in their Mouths and far from their Reins They gave good words but their Hearts were far off from that God to whom they spake It was outward Prosperity and Plenty which they sought and this Plenty and Prosperity was most wickedly abused 8. The Heart is distracted when the worship performed is Will worship of Man's Invention not of God's Institution How can there chuse but be Distraction if there be a wandring out of the Way in which he has appointed us to serve him The Jews of old were very culpable in this respect Isa 29. 13. Their Fear towards me says God is taught by the Precepts of Men When Man aspired to be like unto God in Wisdom he deprived himself of the Knowledge of God and grew unacquainted with his Will so that he is utterly unfit to be his own Instructer in Religion there is a necessity of a Revelation from Heaven that God may be known and the right way of serving him may be understood The vilest Impurities the greatest Cruelties have been practis'd under the Name of Devotion when Man has been contriving how God should be served Nay Will-worship is condemned by the Apostle though there be never so great a shew of Wisdom and Humility and neglecting of the Body Col. 2. 23. The Will of God is to determine what Worship pleases him not the Will of Man and whatever Mortifications and Austerities some may fancy God allows an honour and satisfaction to the flesh as long as the Lusts of it are not fulfilled Worship that is not of God's Institution is meer distraction labour to no purpose unless it be to ill purpose When God is represented by Images he is grosly misrepresented the Glory of him who is an incorruptible Spirit is changed When other Mediators in Heaven are made use of besides that great High Priest who is passed into Heaven Jesus the Son of God worship becomes carnal sinful and the mind of the Worshipper instead of drawing near to God is distracted and drawn away from him In the second place I am to tell you what it is to attend upon the Lord without distraction 1. To attend without distraction is to set God just before us and our selves just before God When our Eye is fixt upon his Eye and we behold him looking most stedfastly upon us He searches the Hearts and weighs the Spirits of the Children of Men. Nothing can escape his finding out for he knoweth the Secrets of the Heart Psal 44. 21. Doth not he see my ways says Job not only the ways of the Feet but the ways and Workings of his very Soul were open to God's View We are all here present before God says Cornelius Acts 10. 33. I have set the Lord always before me says David Psal 16. 8. This is undistracted Attendance when the Lord is still kept in our view and we keep and behave our selves as just under the inspection of the all-observing Eye of his Holiness 2. To attend without distraction is to have right apprehensions of God whom we attend upon God is a Spirit and as such he must be apprehended when we worship him that we may worship him in spirit and in truth and that our Conceptions of him may be spiritual and sutable unto his Nature As he is without Passions which Men are subject to so without those bodily parts which Men have Indeed metaphorically Eyes and Hands and Feet and Heart are in Scripture ascribed unto God but by these is signified his Knowledge his Working his Accesses and Departing his Will and Pleasure We must take heed of entertaining gross Idea's and Images in our Minds concerning God Act. 17. 29. We ought not to think says the Apostle that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art or Man's device Such kind of Representations are very improper of him who not only fills the Earth but the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him Our worship is distraction and the heart is drawn away from God unto a meer Vanity and Idol if God is conceived in the likeness of any Creature How severely are the Gentiles censured and how dreadfully were they punished and left to their vile Lusts and Affections to dishonour their own Bodies because they glorified not God as God but changed his Glory into the Image of corruptible Creatures Rom. 1. 21 22 23. Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became Fools and changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and fourfooted Beasts and creeping things In our Attendance upon God we must think of him as an incomprehensible Spirit of infinite Wisdom Power Truth Holiness Mercy and Goodness ready in Christ to receive returning Sinners but full of displeasure against those that go on still in their Trespasses God must be believed to
the more thou talkest of it unto them thou conversest with the more it will administer Grace to the Hearers The second Duty is hearing the Word preached And that you may hear the word with less distraction 1. Look beyond Preachers unto that God who sends them and speaks to you by them Look beyond the earthen Vessels unto the Treasure which they bring and upon the Word that is preached as the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Image of God 2 Cor. 4. 4 7. Preachers of the Gospel are Christ's Ambassadors and they are sent to treat with you about Peace with God and by them God beseeches you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. How beautiful should you count the Feet of them who preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad tidings of good things Rom. 10. 15. Such Tidings are too good distractedly and heedlesly to be heard And he that sends them is too great to be thus contemned When you sit before the Ministers of Christ and the Stewards of the Mysteries of God remember what our Lord himself says Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 2. Apprehend who are ready if you hear distractedly and without care to catch away the Word from you as soon as 't is spoken Evil Angels are compared to the Fowls of the Air who hover about the Sower to devour the Seed as soon as it is sown Luk. 8. 5. These evil Spirits are fitly compared to Fowls for they are many and how do they come flocking into our Religious Assemblies 'T is desirable to have Souls come flying to Christ as Doves to their Windows but it may startle us to understand that Devils came flocking into Churches to catch away the Word which is preached there These Enemies as they are many so as Fowls they are above us and consequently not so easie is it to resist them How many Sermons have these evil Angels stolen And the Sermons they have stolen they have them to shew against heedless Hearers at the Day of reckoning 3. Make a Covenant with your Eyes that your hearing may be the less distracted and more attentive Fix not your sight upon any alluring and ensnaring Objects or any thing which may divert you And as your Eyes must be turned away from beholding Vanity that you may be quickned in the way of your Duty so be sure to keep your Eyes waking If sleep locks up the Senses how fast must the Heart the mean time be barr'd against the Word of God! Eutichus a Church Sleeper is an Example upon Record sinking down with sleep while Paul was preaching he fell down and was taken up dead Act. 20. 9. They that sleep at a Sermon scandalously reject and despise the word preached Satan is a most wakeful Witness against them and his Arms are the Cradle in which they are rockt 4. Beg that the Lord himself would open your Hearts to attend to his Word It was he who opened the Heart of Lydia and then she attended to those things which were spoken by Paul Acts 16. 14. 'T is the Lord that makes way for the Word into the Mind that it may be heeded and understood and he makes way for the Word into the Heart that the Heart may be changed and cleansed thereby Joh. 15. 3. Now are ye clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you 'T is dreadful to provoke the Lord so as to be like unto provoking Israel to whom Moses speaks thus Deut. 29. 4. The Lord hath not given you an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear unto this Day And it will be worse if you love to have it thus still O think thus that distracted hearing may cause the word of Life to become deadly to you and God may judicially and yet justly harden your Hearts lest you should see and hear and understand and convert and be healed Isa 6. 10. 5. Let the word preached be mixt with Faith and received with Love The Apostle tells us that the Word preached did not profit the hearers of it not being mix'd with Faith in them that hear'd it Heb. 4. 2. Commands will be heeded and obeyed that are indeed believed to be of God Threatnings and Promises that are most firmly credited cannot but be minded and have a mighty influence The Word also is to be received in the Love of it that you may be saved The design of this Word is your deliverance from sin and misery your Peace your Purity and Perfection your eternal Redemption and Glory and therefore it commends it self exceedingly to your Aflections A sincere love to the Word will command the Thoughts of the Heart and hinder the Word from being disregarded 6. Remember that the Word which you hear is your Life There is a carelesness of life in heedlesness and distraction in hearing the Word of God Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts unto all the Words which I testifie among you this Day for it is not a vain thing for you for it is your Life Prov. 7. 2. Keep my Commandments and live and my Law as the Apple of your Eye Isa 55. 3. Incline your Ear come unto me hear and your Soul shall live and I will make with you an everlasting Covenant even the sure Mercies of David And further to fix your attention to the Word preached be all of you perswaded that you who are now in the Sanctuary must shortly stand at the Judgment-Seat of Christ and the Word which he has spoken the same shall judge you at the last day Joh. 12. 48. Then you must render an account of your Stewardship and how all your Talents have been improved and you must be judged and receive according to your Works And sure I am that the Sentence which will then be pronounced whether it be of Absolution Come ye Blessed or of Condemnation Go ye Cursed cannot but be heard without distraction Both the one and the other of these Sentences must needs be heeded by all upon whom they are passed the one being so very comfortable and the other so terrible and confounding A third Duty which I shall insist on is Prayer now that you may with less distraction call upon the Name of God 1. Consider whose Name it is you are taking into your Mouths Deut. 28. 58. That glorious and fearful Name THE LORD THY GOD. A Name which should never be in the Lips without the profoundest Reverence in the Heart The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens But the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King at his Wrath the Earth doth tremble and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Jer. 10. 10 11. This God whom you pray to is infinitely more above you than the greatest Emperour is above the meanest Worms
Christ's Righteousness and is so presented to the Father The Apostle tells us of the Glory of the Grace of God wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. When Christ was upon Earth the satisfaction he made was sufficient to make reconciliation for all sins and defects And now he is in Heaven he ceases not to intercede for Believers a thousand faults may be found in their best Duties but how absolutely faultless and prevailing is this Intercession of their Advocate 4. Many of those Duties which doubting Saints have thought to be nothing but Sin and Distraction God sees and owns the actings of Grace in He sees some Fire in the smoaking Flax which he will not quench though there is much that is offensive with it he sees some greenness in the bruised Reed though there is much that is dead and he will not break it Matt. 12. 20. His Eyelids try the Children of Men and he has a gracious regard to the actings of Grace and Faith though it be but as a grain of Mustard seed Christ Jesus is said to be quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord Isa 11. 3. He knows what Key will open every Heart and when he will open none can keep shut he can bring the most fearless and stupid to the fear of God And where the fear of God is in truth though it be in a lower degree he easily discerns it When a Well of Water is muddy at the top there is purer Water working up from the Spring at the bottom When the Heart is very much discomposed and distracted in Duty if under all these Infirmities there is a working and stirring of the Grace of God he will both observe and be well pleased with it He will not utterly reject a Duty when there is an hearty desire to do it well and an hearty grief 't is done no better 5. The Lord is ready to give a Blessing to those means which himself has appointed for the cure of these Distractions These means are effectual when the Spirit makes them so And is the Spirit of the Lord straitned Mic. 2. 7. What infirmity is too great for him to help What Heart too roving and unruly for him to settle The means must be used Cry for help that you may be helpt to cry hear the word with a desire to feel its power that you may hear it to better purpose Take encouragement from the mighty Spirit who is so ready to accompany God's Institutions He can fit you for your Duty and fix your Hearts in it and crown the doing of it with the Blessings which are promised And when your Hearts are fixed 't is but reason your Mouths should sing and give praise 6. When Militant Saints come to be triumphant their Distractions and Complaints because of them will be at a perpetual end In Heaven they shall be out of Satan's reach he shall resist them no more this World they will have left which so often troubled both their heads and hearts and will have exchanged it for a World that 's infinitely better their perfected Spirits will be perfect in their Operations nothing of imperfection will cleave to what the glorified Saints above are doing The Vision of God Face to Face will fix the Mind and Thoughts upon him eternally having once looked on they will never care to look off more Perfection of Holiness Love Delight and Joy must needs for ever hinder all even the least wandring None can in the least be weary of the Work that is done in Heaven it is so full of pleasure Rev. 4. 8 They rest not Day and Night saving Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come and full glad may they well be that such a pleasant Employment must never come to an end If all this Congregation with their Pastour can but get safe into the House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens Oh what Thoughts and Apprehensions shall we have How shall we be fill'd with Joy and Wonder at what we shall then behold Being entred and swallowed up in the Joy of our Lord shall we not then cry out Ah! Ah! What a difference is there between this Heavenly Country and the most desirable earthly Inheritance The Sun is but a small Spark to that Light which we now see When we lookt upward we admired Heavens outside the Firmament with all its shining Luminaries but now we plainly see that Heaven is much more glorious within What an excellent Society is this innumerable Company of Angels that we are among How does every glorified Saint and Member of Christ resemble his Head being all fair and no spot remaining How pleasant is the Harmony where there is no Sin no Sorrow no Defect or Discord These Hallelujahs which we now joyn in how ravishing and transporting are they not like the distracted Services which we used to perform together in the Sanctuary We are all now fixt in this glorious place and shall go no more out Our Complaints are quite ended and never again shall we do in the least amiss We are indeed without fault before the Throne of God and we shall Live and Reign Triumph and Magnifie the Lord for ever Thus have I finished my Discourse concerning Distraction in attending upon God a fault whereof all are guilty most make nothing or very light of and very few mind to have it mended My design herein has been to do some Service to the Church of Christ that their Worship may be more pure and Spiritual being freed from those wandring Thoughts which both distract and defile it and that the Best of Lords may still have better and more acceptable Service from all of you and from my self also Whilst we are in this World truly this World is too much in us 't is suitable to our Senses and apt to intice and draw away our Hearts Let the Eye of Faith pierce through the Clouds and see Heavens Joy and Glory and then this Worlds Vanity will be the more apparent and how vain a thing 't is for you to be so thoughtful about it and eager after it When Faith has seen how God is attended upon by Saints and Angels above it may help to kindle in you an holy zeal and a vehement desire more to resemble those excellent Attendants and to serve the Lord more gladly and seriously here below Oh cry to have the Cure of Distractions carried on further towards compleatness Live as Strangers and Sojourners here on Earth not concerned about the things of it as others are Declare plainly that you are born from above and let your Hearts and Thoughts more and more ascend thither Carry your selves as fellow Citizens with the Saints and as those that are of the Houshold of God Let there be more of God more of Grace in all you do and speak in all the Powers of your Souls in all the Duties you perform And think with gladness and
THE CURE OF DISTRACTIONS IN Attending upon GOD In Several SERMONS Preached from 1 Cor. 7. 35. That you may attend upon the Lord without Distraction By NATHANAEL VINCENT M. A. Minister of the Gospel Psal 27 8. When thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus non vocis sed Cordis auditor Cypr. Primum argumentum compositae mentis existimo◠posse consistere secum morari Seneca Epist 2. LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill 1695. To the Truly Honourable Sir WILLIAM ASHURST Kt. AND Alderman of the City of London Much Honoured SIR I Did not Address to you when you were like the Rising Sun and made the Chief Seat in this City where you were deservedly placed to shine with more than ordinary Lustre when you discovered and were severe against the Works of Darkness and your Influence was so benign and kind for the Sustentation and Benefit of London but now you have run your Course so well and have set without the least Cloud nay with so much Clearness and Glory I make this Dedication to you desiring your serious Perusal of a Treatise the Subject of which is of such great importance And indeed now you have quitted the Chair and have less of publick Business to manage and may have more leisure to retire into your Self and from Company and from Civil Affairs this Cure of Distractions in Religious Duties knocks at your Door the Author desiring it may be helpful to your Meditations and Devotion 'T is a great Respect and Honour that is due to the God's on Earth so Magistrates are called and Inferiours should apply to Them accordingly with a great sense of their distance With what Reverence then are we to approach the Supream Majesty The Lord of Hosts the King of Glory Our highest Apprehensions are infinitely below him And the best of Saints do rather wish to Worship him than perform any thing that is worthy of the Name of Worship Among the many Faults in Holy Duties there is one that will never be quite mended in this World and that is Distraction but yet more and more help may be still attained against it And these Sermons mhich I now present you with I hope with a Blessing from Heaven may contribute somewhat and be successful this way If Religious Duties were but well done every thing else would be done the better for it is from God alone that we have ability to do as we ought in any matter whatsoever The Lord gives Wisdom and Grace most liberally to them who most sincerely seek him And such as have most help from God will best perform their Duty towards Man and both Church and State will find them the most useful Members Religion is certainly the truest Policy The Wisdom of this World says the Apostle and of the Princes of this World comes to nought but Godliness in the power of it makes Men better in every Capacity and Relation How does it alter and amend Persons Families Nations where 't is encouraged and prevails Righteousness and Peace Joy and Love are found to be the blessed effects of true Religion It tames the fierceness and subdues the malignity of corrupt Nature And makes Man to look something like what he was in the state of Innocency All that wish well to this City and Nation must needs desire that God may be better served and that Men by his Service may be better'd How happy should we be if People were all Righteous Violence then would be no more heard in our Land nor wasting and destruction within our Borders our Walls would be called Salvation and our Gates Praise and the Lord himself would be to us an everlasting Light and our God our Glory I wish that all Lord Mayors for the future may follow your Example and endeavour to suppress Wickedness and may never be ashamed of Holiness which is the Glory of God and is most unreasonably look'd upon as matter of Disgrace to any Man Sir You are descended from Religious Ancestors and Religion is that which does truly ennoble your Blood and Family An increase of this Nobility and of all other Blessings is wisht to your self and Yours By Honoured SIR Your Most Humble Servant Nathanael Vincent TO THE READER Reader IT is a Subject of the highest consequence and in which all are concerned that I Discourse of in this Treatise and I design some relief against that which is the general Complaint of serious Christians who would fain offer to God more Spiritual and well pleasing Sacrifices but are hindred by the remaining Sin and Vanity of their own Minds They are called indeed the Habitations of God through the Spirit but these Habitations are haunted with distracting Thoughts and vain Imaginations to their great grief and disturbance The Work and Service of the God of Heaven is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principal business every one has to do in this World and though no Duties are to be slightly done to Man which are done for the Lord's sake yet in attendance upon himself and in those Duties which more immediately we perform to him an holy Awe becomes us our Hearts should be immoveably fixed and we should exert the utmost Vigour of our Spirits To trifle with a Jealous God whose All-seeing Eye strictly observes the whole we do and wherein soever we fail is to despise him to his Face and to act to the great peril of our own Souls Our God says the Apostle is a consuming fire and Nadab and Abihu the Sons of Aaron sound him so to their cost and sorrow when they offer'd strange fire such as he commanded them not We must do what God commands and as he commands else what we call our Religious Duties will be look'd upon by him as acts of Disobedience The Mind of Man ever since the first Man parted from God is notoriously fickle and wavering being unsetled by Sin it roves up and down the Earth from one Vanity to another but how hardly is it brought back to God! And though it is engaged to approach near to him yet if it be not narrowly watched in the twinkling of an Eye it starts back and is gone away from him To keep our Hearts with all diligence is our Duty but they will not be held in from wandring by our most careful Custody It is the Hand of that God alone by which the whole Vniverse consists and is kept from dissolution that can fix the Mind of Man and hinder its being distracted in his Service There is a great deal of Pains taken in the World to little purpose All things says Solomon are full of labour Man cannot utter it and yet he affirms that there is no profit under the Sun But 't is lamentable to think that in the Church there should be so much labour in vain Distraction of Mind keeps
all should run this way as to a matter of the mightiest importance and concernment Here if we are undistractedly serious and sincere all is safe and that both throughout time and to Eternity But if Attendance upon God be either neglected or negligently given though we are never so intent and industrious about other things our Souls and all our labour will be lost together In this Chapter a little before the Text the Apostle admonishes the Corinthian Saints of the shortness of time of the transitoriness of this present World and then informs them what kind of Attendance upon himself God required and expected from them 1. His Admonition concerning Time is startling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Time is contracted to a little space An allusion here is to Sails which are no longer spread but bound up when the Ship is just come to the Harbour The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also signifies to wind up a Body in Grave clothes that it may be fit for the Sepulchre Time is thus ready to be wound up continually and to be buried as it were in Eternity compared with this 't is but as a drop to the whole Ocean and this very drop is ever wasting Time is a short thing in a continual Flux and every moment growing shorter Other things are of the less value because they can be enjoyed but a little while the Epithet Temporal or lasting only for a season being added to the greatest Wealth the highest Pleasures nay to Diadems and Kingdoms makes them fall in the esteem of a discerning Judgment But the worth of Time is enhanced by the brevity of it The day of Salvation the accepted time in which we and our attendance upon God may be accepted of cannot extend beyond the limits of the time of life Now we must make Peace with God work out our own Salvation and provide for Eternity this must be done now or never There is not a moment of time but is too good to be lost there is Service and work enough to do in it and to lose all our time is everlastingly to lose our selves 2. The Apostle speaks of the Worlds transitoriness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fashion of the World passes away Mammon is but a sorry Master and really is unworthy of that numerous attendance and mighty respect which is given to him Sin has made man foolish and the world vain And 't is an undeniable argument of Man's Folly that a vain World is so much minded which is so apt to fade and change As Scenes in a Comedy or Tragedy alter and quickly I borrow a similitude from what I am far from approving the last Act comes and the Play is at an end so this World is continually varying Now there appears one and a little after quite and clean another Face of things The Face of the Sky is not more mutable than the state of humane Affairs And thus 't is likely to be to the World's End when the Earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up That God whom Christians attend upon is unchangeable and so is his love to them and the inheritance they expect hereafter is incorruptible and fadeth not away But they themselves are Strangers and Pilgrims in this World and should behave themselves as Passengers that are travelling towards a better World And as for their Enjoyments by the way they should love them as being about to leave them Joy should be moderate in the fruition of them and when they are taken away Sorrow should not be excessive nor transgress the Bounds of Grace and Reason 3. The Apostle as a Man well acquainted with the Court of Heaven directs Believers Attendance upon the Lord who dwells and reigns there He is very careful not to cast a Snare upon the Corinthians nor to impose upon Conscience what God does not Papal Authority is Audacious and Antichristian and makes bold to Command and that upon the highest Penalty what the Lord never required But the Apostle abhors spiritual Vsurpation He would have all observe what God called them to and in every condition to abide with God and to attend upon the Lord without Distraction In the words take notice 1. Of the Lord with whom we have to do The Eyes of Servants are to their Masters and the Eyes of Worshippers should be to the Lord whom they adore and if they had a greater respect to this holy One what an influence would it have upon their Lives and Services The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord in the New Testament is put for Jehovah in the Old The God whom Christians acknowledge is the Lord Jehovah who has his Being of himself and has Dominion over all 2. Observe what this Lord requires and calls for and that is attendance upon him The Greek word which the Holy Ghost uses is very significant and emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies access unto God and abiding with him and being sit for and well-pleased with both the one and the other 3. Who are to attend upon the Lord All Men do owe Homage and Service to him which is their Honour and Interest to pay But those who are his own Children and People are by special obligations and favour called to this duty and priviledge of attending upon their God and they have a new Principle and Nature which inclines them to it 4. Here is a direction as to the manner of attending on the Lord it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without distraction Plutarch calls that Studium sapientiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the study of Wisdom without Distraction when nothing is able to call away the Mind and make it cease that study In attending upon God there must be intention in the mind a full bent of the heart with strength of affection and desire not to be diverted much less to be extinguished All other business comparatively must be lookt upon as trivial attendance upon the Lord must be with the greatest seriousness I raise three Doctrines from the words First The Children of Men ought to attend upon God this the Text plainly supposes Secondly In attending upon God we should look upon him as the Lord and serve him accordingly Thirdly Attendance upon the Lord should be without Distraction Doct. I. I begin with the first of these Doctrines The Children of Men ought to attend upon God The Heaven of Heavens is his Throne and he is attended on by thousands and ten thousands of glorious and holy Ones who minister unto him and stand before him And yet upon Earth which is his Footstool he calls for Attendance too for he rejoices in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delights are with the Sons of Men who understand him and themselves so well as to seek after him He requires continually to be waited on Hos 12. 6. Therefore turn thou to thy God keep Mercy and Judgment and wait on thy God continually Injunctions to wait are reiterated with the
in the Lord for with the Lord there is Mercy and with him is plenteous Redempption and he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities 9. Man must not think to divide his Service between God and Mammon Our Lord himself tells us that no Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon To mind the World as if it were the most desirable thing and to serve the Lord only for the World's sake this is hateful earthlimindedness and Hypocrisie When the Children of Israel assembled themselves before God only for Corn and Wine their Cries were but howlings in his Ears Hos 7. 14. If we would attend upon God we must come out from the World Conformity to the World and walking after the course of it must cease The most desirable good things of it must be contemned in comparison with God and the better and enduring substance We shall never look and aim at so as to obtain the things that are unseen and eternal unless the Eye be shut against the things that are seen and temporal 2 Cor. 4. 18. Not but that Attenders upon God may and ought to mind their secular business which their particular Callings lead them to Christians are cautioned against idleness as great disorderliness and are commanded and exhorted by our Lord Jesus Christ with quietness to work and to Eat their own Bread 2 Thes 3. 11 12. This notwithstanding must ever be remembred that the things of this World are to be regarded so far as God has commanded that they must be begg'd of him they must be kept used and improved for him they must not be liked for themselves but so far as God is enjoyed with them and in them And in the greatest abundance of them this should be the Heart's Language which came from the Heart and Mouth of Luther Noli his satiari Lord I will not be put off with such things as these The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul and I have looked and longed and wait for thy Salvation 10. Man must consent to cast away whatever may separate between the Lord and him And what that is the Prophet plainly tells us Isa 59. 1 2. Behold the Lord's Hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his Ear heavy that it cannot hear but your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear Separation from God is the Hell of Hell and this Hell upon Earth Sin is the cause of Sin is that which provokes the Lord to be angry with Man and with his Soul to hate him to behold him afar off so that he is not admitted unto his Favour or unto Fellowship and Communion with him To talk of Fellowship with God and to walk in this darkness of Sin is to lie to others and to deceive our selves This middle Wall of Partition must be thrown down else there can be no drawing nigh to God Jam. 4. 8. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners purifie your hearts ye double-minded The Hand must not practise and work wickedness the Heart must not regard and like it The more the Heart is desirous of Purity the fitter it is to attend upon the Lord to serve him and to see him Therefore you read Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty In the second place I am to tell you what is implied in Man's Attendance upon God This Attendance is of large extent and takes in all the Service he Commands In Scripture 't is expressed sometimes by following of God sometimes by waiting upon the Lord and in the Text by Attending I shall explain what this is in several particulars 1. Attending upon God implies enquiring of God He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only Wise the Father of Lights from whom all true Wisdom and every good and perfect gift comes down Jam. 1. 17. The Wisdom of this World and of the Princes of this World however 't is magnified as the most profound Policy cannot secure them that are most excellent this way but they and their Wisdom come to nought and perish together but spiritual Wisdom which is hidden from the prudent of the World and is the especial gift of God is ordained to the Glory of them that have it 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. Wisdom to Salvation and everlasting Glory deserves the name of Wisdom sound Wisdom it may well be called Prov. 2. 6 7. For the Lord giveth Wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding he layeth up sound Wisdom for the Righteous he is a Buckler to them that walk uprightly Our inquiry must be of God for Wisdom of this Nature He gives it to all that desire and ask it and that liberally without upbraiding Jam. 1. 5. He upbraids not any with their former hatred of knowledge or contempt of Wisdom neither does he upbraid them with their natural dulness and unaptness to learn but both instruction and also the very heart and ability to receive it are from him Prov. 20. 12. The hearing Ear and the seeing Eye the Lord hath made even both of them The Psalmist thus desired to attend upon God all the days of his life that he might enquire in his Temple Psal 27. 4. They are well counselled and are led safe to Glory who have God to be their guide even unto death and still follow on to know the Lord. 2. Attending upon God implies hearkning and heeding what God speaks Psal 85. 8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak and what Attention does such a speaker deserve who speaks from Heaven and whose Word shews the way to Heaven who speaks peace and publishes glad-tidings of great Salvation When Lydia her heart was opened that she attended unto those things which were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. She heard Paul's Voice but believed the Lord spake by him to her and she regarded the message accordingly We attend upon God in the Ministry of the Word when our Eye looks beyond the Ministry unto the Lord himself and our Ear is attentive that we may understand his Truths which are to be believed his Precepts that are to be obeyed Now the Word comes with a Divine Power and Efficacy when God is heard speaking in the Word 1 Thes 2. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of Men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually
Anger and a reward in the bosom strong wrath Prov. 21. 14. so secret confession of sin bitter mourning for it and begging forgiveness in the Name of Jesus will prevail for the pacifying of God's fiercest displeasure and the obtaining of his Love and Grace 2. There is an Attendance upon God that is Private in the Family This has been wofully sinfully shamefully neglected not only by the prophane but by them that call themselves Professors though hardly worthy of that Name Family Worship has been much press'd from the Pulpit Oh when shall it once be that every ones practise will be answerable I read not only of a Dedication of the Tabernacle and Temple but also of the Houses of the Israelites Deut. 20. 5. Psal 30. was composed at the Dedication of the House of David The Israelites justly called their Houses God's Houses And those tumultuous combined and insulting Enemies of theirs in Pride Scorn and Derision said Let us take to our selves the Houses of God in possession Psal 83. 12. Houses were dedicated to the Lord's Service Joshua says I and my House we will serve the Lord and all Israel promise the same Josh 24. 15 21. David says he will walk within his House with a perfect Heart Psal 101. 2. there be Songs of Mercy and of Judgment Indeed the voice of rejoycing and Salvation is in the Tabernacle of the Righteous Psal 118. 15. The Lord is adored and praised in the Tabernacles of them to whom he has shewed himself a God of Salvation Cornelius one of the first-fruits of the Gentiles was a devout Man and he feared God with all his House and prayed to God alway Act. 10. 2. And fearing of God implies calling upon his Name as casting off fear and restraining of Prayer are joyned together Job 15. 4. so that he prayed unto God with all his House and there is not the least reason to think that they did not pray altogether unless such kind of praying had been any where forbidden We read of a Curse and a Blessing not only upon Persons but upon Families Prov. 3. 33. The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the Just. Surely Families have reason to Pray against the one and that the other may rest on them And truly our Lord Jesus in that Prayer of his own making which is the great Directory for Prayer when he does instruct us to say Give us this day our daily Bread very plainly signifies that those in Families that daily Eat together ought also daily to pray together And are they only to pray together for daily Bread no they are also to Pray for the hallowing of God's Name the coming of his Kingdom and that his Will might be done on Earth as 't is done in Heaven They are to pray for the forgiveness of past trespasses and that Grace may prevent their being led into Temptation and may deliver them from Evil. You see here is ground enough for Families to give their Attendance upon God Families are the Seminaries from which both Church and State are furnished and if there were more of Devotion and Instruction and Discipline there the Church in all probability would be more pure and the State more righteously and better ordered Whereas if Families live without God in the World the Governours the Children and Servants are all usually wicked and likely to become worse and worse and the Churches Face is foul'd with odious spots and stains and the State grows more corrupt till at length 't is ripe for ruine 3. There is an Attendance upon God that is publick in the Congregation In publick Assemblies the true God is owned and honoured in the Face of the Sun and the Lord Christ is glorified Christians Assembling in his Name depending upon his Promise to be in the midst of them and to bless them He walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks Rev. 1. 13. He blesses the Ordinances himself has instituted to the enlightning purifying and Consolation of sincere Attendants on him In these Publick Assemblies Saints unite their spiritual strength in wrestling with God the Faith and holy Desires of a great many Believers together being conjunct are likely to be the more prevailing These Assemblies ought to be valued and frequented to forsake them is ill to the forsaker Hence that caution Heb. 10. 25. Not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching The breaking of solemn publick Assemblies should be an Heart-breaking thing to us and the Lord has promised to gather those that are sorrowful upon this score Zeph. 3. 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assembly who are of thee to whom the reproach of it was a burthen V. There is an Attendance upon God on his own day and upon other days 1. An Attendance upon God on his own day A seventh part of our time is hallowed by the fourth Commandment Six days are for Labour a seventh for Rest from that Labour and that we may have leisure with greater seriousness to attend upon God The great Creator having made the World in six days rested on the seventh and appointed it for a Sabbath and blessed it And the Apostle tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ the great Redeemer is entred into his Rest having ceased his own works as God did from his and therefore there remains a rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a keeping of a Sabbath to the People of God Heb. 4. 9 10. As the Jewish Sabbath was kept in Commemoration of the Lord 's resting from Creation so the Christian Sabbath is to be observed in Commemoration of Christ who is over all God blessed for ever his resting from the work of Redemption it is in him that we have rest by Faith at present and hope for a blessed glorious and everlasting Rest in Heaven The day that Christ rose was the day on which he rested for his lying in the Grave was not his rest but part of his Humiliation and that was the first day of the Week On this Christian Churches assembled for Worship Acts 20. 6 7. The Apostle was at Troas seven days We read not a word being among Christians that he solemnly Worshipt on the seventh day but upon the first day of the Week the Disciples came together to break Bread Upon this day Christians being assembled together Collections were made for good Uses at Corinth and in the Churches of Galatia 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Nay this is called the Lord's Day Rev. 1. 10. Now as the Lord's Supper is a Supper of the Lord's Institution so the Lord's Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a day of the Lord 's appointing and ordaining The prophanation of this Christian Sabbath has been punished with remarkable Judgments The Ordinances administred thereon have been owned and blessed to the Conversion and Confirmation of
purifie your Hearts ye double-minded So Psal 24. 3 4. Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place He that hath clean Hands and a pure Heart The Gospel strictly commands good works without these Faith is dead and vain and Love is only a seeming Fire The Apostle speaks with great vehemency Tit. 3. 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works Our Lord owns them for his near and dear kindred who are doers of his Father's Work and Will Mat. 12. 50. He stretched forth his Hand towards his Disciples and said behold my Mother and my Brethren For whosoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother Attenders upon God must not allow themselves in the doing of Evil Fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness and Fellowship with God are inconsistent 1 Joh. 1. 6. If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in Darkness we ly and do not the truth Unless there be a living to God serving of him in Ordinances is of no account with him And as Hands must be cleansed so the Hearts of Attenders on God must be pure The Heart must not defile it self by regarding any iniquity so as to be unwilling to have it subdued Psal 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not hear me Regarded iniquity will cry so loud for a denial that Prayer will find no Audience The Heart must not pollute it self by love to the World for if this love prevail there can neither be any true love to the Father nor any Interest in the Father's love 1 Joh. 2. 15 Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him The Heart must consent to the crucifixion of all the affections and lusts of the Flesh It must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 double-minded on and off with God but steddy and right with him It s resolution must be to be holy still and its desire to be still holy more and more to have holiness perfected in the sear of God 6. Our Attendance upon God must be with Humility Fear and Faith without wrath and doubting Humility becomes the very Angels for all their excellency is derived and they are charged with possible folly Job 4. 18. 't is owing to the Election and confirming Grace of God that some Angels stood when others being left to the freedom of their own Will apostatized How humble should the Children of Men be who are fallen by their Iniquity The best of Saints have reason to be low in their own Eyes considering how many Talents they owed before they were satisfied for and paid by their Surety and how apt they are still to trespass It may be said of the strongest Christian stand he could not stand he would not were he not upheld by the Lord 's free and mighty Spirit But an humble Sense of our Worthlesness and ill-deserving should not hinder the acting of our Faith in Jesus when we come before the Lord. Our great Redeemer has bought us with a Price and he has bought all things for us We our selves are his Purchase and so is all that Grace we need and all that Glory we hope for God has made a Covenant with Christ and has promised to give us to him for his Inheritance and Possession Psal 2. 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession And to be Christ's Inheritance and Possession implies our being separated from the World our being secured our being made fruitful and our eternal continuing to be enjoyed by him and to enjoy him Promises of all and especially of the best Blessings are made to us for Christ's sake and he will see to the making of them good because the accomplishment of them is so much for the Father's Glory as well as our truest Welfare All this may exceedingly strengthen and raise our Confidence and Hope when we attend on God Doubts concerning our speeding should be look'd upon as unreasonable when we come in such a prevailing Name as Christ's unto his Father and our Father his God and our God and we ask only for things agreeable to his Will 1 John 5. 14 15. And this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us and if we know that he heareth us we know that we have the Petition we desired of him And as Faith is opposed to doubting so to wavering James 1. 6 7. But let him ask in Faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a Wave of the Sea driven with the Wind and tossed For let not that Man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. He is the wavering Man whose Mind hangs doubtful and unresolved between God and the World Christ and Satan Sin and Holiness Such an Attender upon God who is more inclined to serve other Lords shall certainly be rejected Finally The Apostle forbids not only Doubting but Wrath also 1 Tim 2. 8. I will therefore that Men pray every where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God nay it causes an abounding in Transgression The Leaven of Anger and Malice is diligently to be searched for and purged out as that which if it remains will prove us carnal 1 Cor. 3. 3. For whereas there is among you Envying and Strife and Divisions Are ye not carnal and walk as Men Civil Discords Church-Divisions unruly Passions should be avoided with Care and Fear we should be full of Holy Love to all our Brethren ready to forgive the greatest Injuries and Enemies forward to pursue and promote Vnity and Peace whenever we attend upon Him who has called himself the God of Love and Peace 7. Our Attendance upon God should be with Gladness and Delight and a sense how good 't is for us to approach his presence Where the Will of God is best done and that is in Heaven there is the greatest Joy in the doing of it The chearful joyful Servant is a Credit to his Work honours his Lord and is a great Eye-sore to the evil one for Satan is very much afraid lest the Attenders upon God being full of Gladness others should be induced to try that Work and Service which these find so exceeding comfortable Hypocrites that go no further than the out-side of Religion count it wearisome because they do not understand it But as God takes pleasure in the Vpright so the Upright find the truest Pleasure in God and in his Ways The Psalmist speaks upon very good ground Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye Righteous
and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart The Man after God's own Heart said that the Meditations of God are sweet Psal 104. 34. He was glad when they said to him let us go into the House of the Lord Psal 122. 1. He tells us who is the Man that may have what he will all his desire granted 't is he whose delight is in God Psal 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thy Heart He is the blessed Man who takes no pleasure in the counsel way or seemingly easest Seat of the Wicked but his delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal 1. 1 2. And why should he not with delight be served at present since in his Kingdom by all he will be praised with the highest Rapture of Joy for ever 8. Our Attendance upon God should be in all Ordinances It is produced as an Argument that that excellent couple mentioned Luke 1. 6. were both righteous before God because they walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Under the Old Testament there was an Ordinance of God that was to be administred betimes even to the Infants and that was Circumcision and though Abraham at the first Institution of this Ordinance believed and was circumcised at Age as also were the Men of his Houshold and though Circumcision is called a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 11. Yet Infants also were circumcised these little ones are said to enter into Covenant with the Lord their God Deut. 29. 11 12. Under the New Testament our Lord Jesus does not cast these Infants out of his Church and Covenant but says Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Mark 10. 14. The Apostle Peter after he had exhorted to Baptism says The Promise is unto you and to your Children Acts 2. 39. And the Apostle Paul affirms That the Children of Believing Parents are Holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. they are therefore Members of the Body of Christ Now 't is plainly signified that Baptism is the Privilege of all in that Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are all baptized into one Body Indeed some that mind the Sound of Scripture more than the Sense of it when they read Repent and be baptized Believe and be baptized conclude that none but those that are at Age and capable of professing their Faith and Repentance ought to partake of this Ordinance But they would do well to consider who these were that in Scripture repented believed and were baptized they were either * Under the Name of Jews I take in all Proselytes to the Jewish Religion Jews or Heathens that were converted to the Christian Faith at Age and if thousands of such should be converted now now also at Age Baptism ought to be administred to them upon their repenting and believing But in the whole New Testament we do not find any baptized at Age whose Parents were Christians at their Birth Yet several without Scripture warrant are thus baptized at this day Oh that there were less disputing about Infant-Baptism and more care to improve it All Infants that go to Heaven are baptized with the Blood and Spirit of Christ they are justified and sanctified thereby This Justification and Sanctification all that have been baptized should desire to partake of Other Ordinances also should be engaged in for the Lord who has instituted them is ready to own and bless them and himself to be found in them Who that is wise would neglect any one of them since none of them are appointed in vain nay every one of them to serious engagers has been experienced abundantly Beneficial The Lord is to be atteâ—â—â—ed upon how and in what way soever he pleases in the Closet in the Family in the Sanctuary at the Table or any other way that he has ordained Blessed are all they that wait for him 9. Every Attendance upon God should make every Attender better 'T is thought by some that Creatures in the Waters as long as they live they grow still greater Saints as long as they live should still be growing in Grace and be more full of all Goodness They should grow as the Lilly cast forth their roots as Lebanon their branches should spread and their beauty be as the Olive-tree Hos 14. 5 6. God is ready to be as the dew to them that from Him their Fruit may be found It is really a fault in Believers if every time they wait upon the Lord they come not away from him with more Wisdom Strength and Grace and Peace than they had since he is ready to impart such Blessings as these and gives them Liberally without upbraiding USE IV. Shall be of Consolation to them that thus as I have directed do attend apon God Isa 40. 1. Comfort ye Comfort ye my People saith your God with Joy you may come and draw most pure and refreshing Waters out of the Wells of Salvation You are the Children of Peace and the Peace of God is to rest upon you For your Comfort take notice of these things following 1. God puts an high value upon his sincere Attendants He had a special respect to Abel and that excellent Sacrifice that he offered Though the Heaven be his Throne and the Earth his Foot-stool yet to that Man will he look as being well pleased with him that is Poor and of a contrite Spirit and that trembles at his Word Isa 56. 1 2. He remembers the kindness of their Youth the love of their Espousals Jer. 2. 2. and their willing Consecration of themselves to be Holiness to the Lord. He has taken notice of all their Desires and Groans and their Cries to himself and their frequent speaking one to another that they might confirm and encourage one another in the worst of Times and Trials to continue his Attendants still Mal. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and did so well approve them that a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name 2. God delights over his sincere Attendants to do them good He takes pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants they are in Heaviness by Affliction only when there is need of it he delights especially to see their Souls prosper As he opens his Armory and brings forth the Weapons of his Indignation against the Wicked so he opens his Treasures of Bounty and Goodness to his Servants that they may be supplied abundantly He does them good with a good Will his whole Heart and Soul is with them Jer. 32. 41. when his hand is open to them He is ready to fulfil their Desires to grant their Requests Nay when their Thoughts are most Comprehensive and they crave never so much he is able and ready to do for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding
unworthy to be saved nay unwilling to be saved till thou didst make him willing in the day of thy Power 4. When we look upon God as Lord we should exceedingly dread his Wrath and value his Loving-kindness The Rebukes of such a mighty Lord when provoked must needs be terrible Psal 18. 7. Then the Earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the Hills moved and were shaken because he was wrath Exod 15. 6 7. Thy right hand O Lord is become glorious in Power thy right hand O Lord hath dashed in pieces the Enemy and in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee thou sentest forth thy wrath which consumed them as Stubble And as the Anger of God has all evils in its power to inflict on those who are so fool-hardy to provoke it so his loving-kindness is ready to open the treasures of his goodness How bountiful is his love to his beloved ones The Psalmist having meditated on it justly stands amazed at it and cries out How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! Psal 36. 7. It transcends all created love if all the love that is in Men and Angels were united together it would not be so much compared with the love of God as the light of a Gloworm is to the Sun shining forth in its Noon-day Glory And as the love of God is so excellent in it self transcendently excellent also are the acts and beneficial effects of it If the wrath of a King be as the messengers of death Prov. 16. 14. what is the wrath of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords If in the light of the King's Countenance is life and his favour is as the Cloud of the later Rain Prov. 16. 15. the favour of the blessed and only Potentate must needs be infinitely more refreshing and better than life it self It is from this Lord that every Man's Judgment comes He ministers Judgment at present good and evil is dispenced by his hand and 't is he that will pass upon all the final Sentence of Absolution or Condemnation at the last day What care then should there be to have his Wrath appeased by a Mediator what fervency of Spirit in sueing for peace and reconciliation Solomon tells that many seek the Rulers Favour but certainly Divine Favour is much more desirable because every man's Judgment is from the Lord Prov. 29. 26. 5. When we look upon God as Lord we should trust in him for deliverance from other Lords who have had the Dominion over us He can work whatsoever and in whomsoever he pleases and none shall be able to hinder The Psalmist was sensible of sins force and power he was weary of sins Dominion he cries unto God to deliver him from the Reign of all the sins he knew and those sins which were secret and concealed from his view he begs that he might be convinced of them and throughly cleansed from them Psal 19. 12 13. The Lord can turn the Heart perfectly to hate the sin that was most of all beloved and the strength of sin is gone when once 't is hated and as the hatred grows stronger and stronger sin becomes weaker and weaker daily Saul was a proud self-confident Pharisee a furious Persecutor the Lord meets him and stops him in his persecuting Rage he humbles him works in his Heart Faith in Christ against whom he had such a mighty and seemingly invincible prejudice of a Wolf he turns him into one of the Sheep of Christ nay into a zealous and careful Shepherd of the Flock so that he preached that Faith which once he endeavoured to destroy Gal 3. 23. The Lord can subdue Iniquity where it has born the greatest sway If he speaks the word of power down go all strong-holds reasonings that before were thought strong are seen to be absurd imaginations vain high things and thoughts are brought into Captivity and Obedience 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ The very Prince of the Devils Beelzebub himself the Lord can easily dispossess He cast him out of Heaven and surely he can cast him out of the Heart also If the Lord speak the Word Satan falls like Lightning How sudden and remarkable is his Downfall If he charge this unclean Spirit to come out he must presently quit his Habitation and if he command him to keep out he must enter no more Mark 9. 25. He rebuked the foul Spirit saying unto him I charge thee to come out of him and to enter no more into him When the Lord by the preaching of the Gospel made himself known in the World how were Heathen Idols destroyed 1 Thes 1. 9. Ye turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God And whatever Worldly Enjoyments have been idolzied he can shew the Vanity of them and mortifie inordinate Affection to them He is jealous of his Honour likes not to have his Throne usurped we are to trust in this Lord and to desire he would take unto this his great Power and Reign in us and that no opposite Lords may be any longer served 6. When we look upon God as Lord we should be careful to know his Will and always forward to do it That is one of the first Inquiries of a true Convert Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. Man's Will till renewed by Grace is foolish perverse wicked and perniciously inclined He wills that which is to his own Woe 'T is but reason that such a Will should yield to the Will of God who is wise holy and good Who ever acted according to the Will of God and saw cause to repent of it And sure I am that they who do contrary to the Will of God must repent of it in this World or too late in the next We find that Wisdom is very much placed in knowing the Will of God Eph. 5. 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the Will of the Lord is And Happiness is placed in the doing of it Joh. 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them We should approve our selves better Servants if we did but mind more our Lord and Master's Will In Temptation we should consider what is the Will of God and then the Tempter would be withstood When earthly Treasure is laid before us to draw our Hearts to covet it we should remember 't is the Will of the Lord that our Heart and Treasure should be in Heaven Whatever Duty we are setting about towards God or Man we should inquire how would God have this Duty to be done What acceptable Service then would God have from us And what Blessings should we be to those whom we are related to and converse
Help against Divine Anger Nay here the mightiest Man can be no Security Job 9. 13. If God will not withdraw his Anger the proud Helpers do stoop under him And those whom the Lord does undertake to comfort why should Man that shall dye dismay them Isa 51. 12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a Man that shall dye and of the Son of Man which shall be as Grass And forgetest the Lord thy Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth His Power may well make the Fury of Oppressors contemptible But God's Power is irresistable as his Wrath is intolerable 3. They are to be reproved who prefer the worst Lords before the greatest and the best of all The true God is certainly the best Lord and Sin and Satan are the worst that can be served and yet how few has the former how many Servants have the later The Lord's Government is most gracious the Paths he requires us to walk in are Pleasantness and Peace Prov. 3. 17. But the Ways of Sin are quite contrary No Peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57. 21. Whatever Sin in the beginning may seem its End is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two-edged Sword and they that serve it their Feet go down to Death and their Steps will quickly take hold of Hell Shall I shew you the manner of Sin and Satan's Reign Their Vassals are put upon Cruel Hard Service and they must stick at nothing If the fulfilling of their Lusts call for it the Estate must be wasted Health must be endangered Repute and good Name must be disregarded Posterity must be beggared Life it self must be shortened and the precious Soul lost for ever rather than sin not be gratified and served Sin has a Law and what Command does it impose upon those that are subject to it Its Injunctions are such as these Fight against God and slight the Wrath of the Lord Almighty Mind neither thy Duty nor thy Safety Pursue Vanity and Vexation of Spirit but care not for the truest and eternal Blessedness Be sure to please thy Flesh and seek thy self and mind thy Carnal Interest though thou art in the worst Sense undone thereby Go on impenitently and securely in thy Wickedness till thou fall into Hell Flames Do all this and dye and damn thy self unto Eternity What hard sayings are these Yet Thousands and Millions hear and obey them It is amazing that those who have reasonable Souls should act so void of all sound Reason as to refuse his Service who commands them to be wise and safe and good and should chuse to be Fools and to be miserable 4. They are to be reproved who have begun to serve the Lord and afterwards forsake his Service and revolt from him These revolters shew a great Zeal and Forwardness in Religion many of them for a time they seem to have escaped the pollutions of the World and to have got the Victory over it and to have overcome the evil One but being again entangled and overcome themselves by Mammon and Satan they are a credit to these Masters and to their false and pernicious ways but they are a great dishonour to Religion and to the Author of it the Lord of Glory These revolters discover an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God which is so much caution'd against Heb. 3. 12. and if without Faith 't is impossible to please God how much must he needs be provoked by infidelity and with what Torments will their unbelief at last be confuted and punished together These Revolters quench a great deal of Light which has shined into them this aggravates the works of darkness unto which they return though they have under Conviction felt the Terrors of the Lord yet they venture more than ever to incense him in a special manner they grieve the Spirit of God and deeply wound their own Spirits But these Wounds are not felt at present their Consciences are seared Satan has fuller and faster possession of them fulness of sin quickly follows and the last state with them is worse than the first Mat. 12. 45. USE II. Shall be of Advice in these particulars 1. Hearken to the Lord inviting and calling you all to his Service There is room in his House for many Thousands more than are there and there is plentiful and abundant provision for their entertainment In my Father's House says the Prodigal when he came to himself there is Bread enough and to spare Luke 15. 17. Christ's Sacrifice of himself can put away multitudes of sins more than as yet have been pardon'd And though Millions of empty and lost Souls more come to him out of his fulness they may be all replenished and secure under the shadow of his wings His Messengers say to you Come himself says Come his Spirit says Come your Wants which none but he can supply speak aloud to you to go to him keep therefore no longer at a distance He is most ready to receive you graciously and to communicate grace of all sorts to you 2. Behold how willing this Lord is to pass by all past disobedience upon your believing and repentance The Apostle Paul was not upbraided with his persecuting Rage and Hellish Fury when once he submitted himself to the Lord and laid down his Weapons wherewith he had fought against God The Grace of our Lord says he was exceeding abundant with Faith and Love that is in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 1. 14. and v. 15 16. he tells us that he the chief of sinners obtained Mercy that the greatest sinners hereafter may hope and expect Mercy upon their believing and Conversion Howbeit for this Cause I obtained Mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a Pattern to them who should hereafter believe on him to Life Everlasting Whatever your Rebellions have been if now you be willing and obedient All shall be forgotten and forgiven Scarlet and Crimson Sins shall become white as Snow and Wool Isa 1. 18 19. 3. See where your Righteousness and Strength lies Jesus Christ the righteous is the Righteousness of them that do believe His Obedience and Sufferings can satisfie for and cover all your Disobedience and 't is through him alone that you attain the free Gift of Justification of Life He became obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross Psal 2. 8. and 't is by the Obedience of this one the second Adam that all as many can believe in him are made righteous Rom. 5. 19. And as in the Lord you have Righteousness so in him you have Strength too His Power must rest upon you else no good will be done by you Through his Strength all things may be done but he himself says without me ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. Never think by good Works to satisfie for bad ones The best Works have much amiss in them And
us into Disorder in our Duties and utterly out of Frame Sometimes this wickedly bold and foul and wretched Spirit will give the vilest Names to the blessed God which are given to the worst of Men. Sometimes he will say that divine Favour and Fury are both contemptible and as if he were a mere Idol that 't is not in him to do good or to do evil Zeph. 1. 12. whereas indeed penal Evils are all from him Amo. 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it And the Psalmist tells Psal 33. 5. He loves Righteousness and Judgment the Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord. Sometimes Satan will deny the Providence of God and say how doth God know And is there Knowledge in the most high As if he did not regard Men or their Ways but that all things in this World fall out either according to blind Chance or fatal Necessity whereas the Psalmist with great Force and Evidence of Reason argues Psal 94. 9 10. He that planted the Ear shall he not hear He that formed the Eye shall he not see He that teacheth Man Knowledge shall not he know Nay sometimes this evil one though himself believes a God and trembles before him yet will inject atheistical Thoughts and confidently deny the very Being of a God that he may discourage all Religion and Application to him Whereas the Heavens declare the Glory of the Lord and as the Light of the Sun is evident so it is evident there is a God by whom that Sun was made and all things visible besides Finally this lying Spirit will bear in with great Violence blasphemous Falshoods against the Word and Gospel of Jesus Christ Christ was manifested to destroy the Works of the Devil and the Devil will endeavour to hinder the Word of Christ from being believed though God himself did bear witness to the Truth of this Word both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will Heb. 2. 4. and miraculous Operations of Grace cease not to this Day When a blind Mind is made to see when an Heart of Stone is turned into an Heart of Flesh when the dead in Sin are made alive to God and Righteousness is their Practice and their Conversation is in Heaven all this shews a divine Efficacy in the Word and its divine Authority and most certain Truth These hellish Injections must by no means have an undisturbed Abode in the Mind for if they have they will cut the Sinews of all religious Endeavours They will damp the Affections dead the Heart and eat out all manner of gracious Inclinations and Purposes These blasphemous Injections shew that there is a Devil for even Nature as bad as it is will rise against some vile Thoughts which he casts in and he is an Enemy to God to Righteousness to the Souls of Men and as great a Lyar as an Enemy therefore he is not at all to be credited but his Wickedness and Falshoods to be abhorred 4. The Heart is distracted when though its Thoughts are good they are unseasonable A good Thought becomes a bad one when 't is entertained at a time that is not proper for it If when we are confessing Sin a Thought good for the matter of it arises that is utterly alien that draws the Mind away from thinking of Sin and that has no Tendency to humble and break the Heart for it This Thought by its Unseasonableness becomes evil If when we are Petitioning for Mercy a good Thought should intrude and make us forget what we are doing and we neither mind what we are asking nor to whom we are speaking A good Thought in this Case causes a sinful Distraction Solomon says that every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3. 11. A Word spoken in due season how good is it And as Words so Thoughts are the better the more seasonable they are If the subtle Serpent cannot divert the Mind from the Duty performing by bad Thoughts he will endeavour to do it by good ones If when hearing the Word preached we fall a reading the Scripture to our selves or our Minds are upon a Piece of a Sermon hat we heard at another time and the Truths that are propounding and the Duties that are pressing are not at all regarded Alas we are but too much like the very high way ground and the Seed is catched away assoon as sown 5. The Heart is distracted when the Mind and Judgment are so carnal and perverted as to esteem earthly things above spiritual and eternal When our Lord says The Light of the Body is the Eye Mat. 6. 22. He intimates that what the Eye is to the Body the Judgment is to the Soul and indeed to the whole Man If the Judgment be rectified and apprehends things aright the actings of the Soul will be the better but if the Judgment be darkened and does not discern between Truth and Falshood between good and evil between Substance and Shaddows the Soul must needs wander away from God and lose it self quickly When the Judgment is perverted there is a very wicked Distraction of Mind for the Judgment gives Sentence against God and for the Creature as if a Portion in this Life were more worthy to be chosen and secured than an Inheritance that is eternal It was said to the rich Man in Hell Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Luke 16. 25 They are called his good things because his mistaking Mind apprehended them to be the good things indeed and the best things of all were not in his Judgment so good as these How can the natural Man chuse but be distracted in all his Duties he performs to God since his darkened Mind thinks such Duties unprofitable and that the things of God are Foolishness 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 6. The Heart is distracted when the Will and Affections withdraw from God and fasten upon Vanity A false Judgment being past no wonder that a foolish Choice is made This is an ill distraction indeed When the Biass of the Will turns away from God and it refuses to be subject to him though the best Lord and cares as little to enjoy him as to obey him The Lord observed and complained of this Psal 81. 11. My People would none of me He offered no less than himself to them who is so infinitely desirable who was so alsufficient and able to fulfil their Desires in whom the truest Delight was to be found yet this greatest and best Offer was contemned And when the Heart and Affections are thus denyed to God how are they bestowed Pleasures are loved more than God and even in his House and when there is an external Service yielded the Heart goeth after its Covetousness Ezek.
it Heb. 10. 7. Lo I come to do thy Will O God and as willing to finish it therefore in his greatest Agonies he said Not my Will but thine be done His Holy Will notwithstanding the reluctancy of innocent Nature perfectly submits to his Father's Pleasure Joh. 18. 11. The Cup which my Father giveth me to drink shall I not drink it How undistracted and fervent was our Lord in praying for his Church whom his Father had given him out of the World And now he is in Heaven his Heart and Thoughts and Care are upon and for his Members Militant below His intercession for them is incessant his Life now in Heaven is a Life of continual interceding and the end of his intercession is that the Blessings he has purchased by his Sufferings may be bestowed upon Believers whom he suffered for Now what a Slight is put upon this great High Priest who is passed into the Heavens where he is so serious to intercede if we are not serious in petitioning If we hardly think what we are doing when we are asking for those Blessings which it cost him not only strong Cries and Tears but his Blood and Life to purchase They were not small things that the Blood of God was a price to purchase They are not small things that a glorified Redeemer is continually praying to the Father to bestow If these things are scarce thought of when we ask for them they are most sinfully undervalued Christ himself his fulness his satisfaction and intercession are despised altogether 4. In distraction there is a grieving and vexing the Holy Spirit of God by not valuing his proffered assistance When Christ ascended into Heaven and was glorified there he sent the Spirit to abide with his Church for ever And one great work of the Spirit is to aid and assist us in our Supplications He urges us to attend upon God and is most ready to help us in that attendance He is ready to fix our Minds to incline our Hearts aright to enlarge our Desire to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. He offers us his mighty Grace which will enable us to pray prevailingly to hear profitably and fruitfully to improve the Ordinances of God But distracted Attendants are a grief and vexation to this good Spirit they had rather be without his help and grace than have it They chuse rather to lose all their Duties by a wretched heartlessness and formality than be assisted to take pains in these Duties that they may fare the better for them for ever 5. In distraction there is an undervaluing of all promised Mercies and Blessings which God is ready to bestow on them that seriously attend upon him The Promises of the Gospel are made by him whose faithfulness never fails and the surety of the New Testament stands engaged that they shall be accomplished if they are by a true and lively Faith applied These Promises are of things which we cannot be without but we must needs be beyond conception miserable Peace with God through Christ and that Peace within which passes all Understanding Grace sufficient to succour support strengthen and establish the good things of this Life with a Blessing from Heaven upon them and endless Blessedness in the World to come These are the things that are promised and who besides God can make Promises so exceeding precious and so great Now in our attendance upon him he would have us expect what he has promised for he keeps truth for ever and what he has promised he is able to perform Rom. 4. 21. Distracted Attendants upon the Lord look upon these Promises with a strange Eye they believe not the truth of them or are not perswaded of the worth of them and are very careless in pleading of them and having no serious thoughts and desires after the promised Blessings the threatned Curses fall upon them 6. In distraction there is great carelesness of our selves and of our main concerns those of our immortal Souls In attendance upon God our Souls are principally concerned Now these Souls themselves are of more worth than the World and so are the Blessings we request for them and to be heartless and trifling here what Apology can be made for it What is come to the Soul of Man that it should be so mindless of it self That it should have so few Thoughts about it self Distracted Duties argue an indifferency what becomes of the precious Soul to eternity and an indifferency must needs cause a miscarriage and ruine since striving to enter in at the strait gate is necessary Luk. 13. 24. and Heaven will be miss'd of there be not an holy violence to take it In distracted Services Men put a cheat upon themselves they only seem to run and so they will really miss the prize and in this Distraction there is great Hypocrisie which is most hateful to God and which our Lord has denounced so many Woes against Mat. 2. Hypocrites Duties are a most provoking Mockery and tho Hell will have all the Wicked at last turned into it yet in a special manner 't is called the portion of Hypocrites as well as Unbelievers Mat. 24. 51. compared with Luk. 12. 46. 7. Distraction exposes us to Satan Distracted Attendants are Servants of the Lord only in shew but Satan is really served and gratified by their Duties They expose themselves to this Enemy both as an Accuser and a Tempter When their Hearts are absent from the Lord's Work in which they engage Satan s Mouth is open against them He boldly charged Job with being a Mercinary Servant and yet there was no ground for it Job 1. 9 Doth Job fear God for nought But put forth thy hand now and touch what he hath and he will curse thee to thy face v. 11. And if he charged so good and upright a Man without ground surely he will be forward to accuse when there is abundant ground for the Accusation See will Satan say how such and such do serve the Lord with Duties that are things of nought and good for nothing See how they mock the God of Heaven to his very Face And upon such distracted Service as he is forward to be an Accuser so he has great advantage as a Tempter Such Duties bring in no strength from above to withstand him Nay the Lord is provoked to withdraw further and those whom God leaves to themselves how easily does Satan lead them Captive at his pleasure All Strays are seized by the God of this World how close should we cleave to the God of Heaven 8. Distraction is a great obstruction to the efficacy and success of Ordinances If we pray as if we prayed not shall we speed If we hear as if we heard not shall we profit Will doing the Work of the Lord deceitfully be encouraged by the vouchsafing of Grace or rewarded with Glory Carefulness is one effect and fruit of godly Sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 11. For
behold this self-same that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you And as I said before this Carefulness is an ingredient in every acceptable Duty The distracted Attendant has little care that God may be pleased he cares not that Ordinances in the truest in a spiritual sense be beneficial to him God's Anger therefore remains and abides upon him nay he grows more angry because of his negligence Ordinances leave him as they found him not at all more safe or better nay the Word not being a Saviour of Life to Life proves a Saviour of Death to Death 2 Cor. 2. 16. 'T is sad to have the means of Salvation ineffectual to Salvation but 't is worse by these very means of Salvation being distractedly used to have Destruction promoted Thus have I made apparent those Evils that are in Distraction The second sort of Reasons shall be drawn from the benefit of attending upon the Lord without distraction The benefit of such kind of Attendance I shall make manifest 1. Attenders without distraction their Hearts are right with God he is in Christ well pleased with them and with their serious Services That which the Lord chiefly minds and calls for it is their care to give to him and that is their very heart The Lord rejoyceth in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delights are with the Sons of Men Prov. 8. 31. The Sons of Men that seek him and whose Hearts are perfect with him As the wicked Man himself is hateful so the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord because he never offers his Heart God is not in his Thoughts even when he is offering Sacrifice to him but the Prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. The Heart-searcher sees how his heart and his words agree together The Lord is very much pleased to behold the Thoughts called off from other things because He 's preferr'd before them all to behold the Mind fixed upon himself and the Soul with great vigour desiring his Grace his Strength and his Salvation as that which is most worthy to be longed for That 's the Language of Heaven to such an one Cant. 2. 14. Let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely 2. Attenders without distraction draw very near to God And if 't is so good to draw near to him it follows then the nearer the better There are some whom the Lord beholds afar off those whose proud and hard hearts were never truly humbled for sin their iniquity is a Wall of Partition between God and them When the Spouse of Christ her self was given to sleep though her heart waked and was loth and lazy in too great a degree in the seeking of her Lord she complains thus My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone I sought him but could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer Cant. 5. 6. But undistracted attendance shews great diligence vehemency of desire and truth in the inward parts and God is nigh to them that call upon him in truth he is nigh to them not in some things only but in all that they call upon him for Deut. 4. 7. God is nigh as one reconciled as one nearly related as a most compassionate and ready helper as a sure Shield and Buckler as a full and all-sufficient Fountain from whom whatever is needed may be derived 3. Attenders without distraction know still more of God they come to be more intimately acquainted with him and that acquaintance is of all other the most high and beneficial Job 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come to thee To understand the Secrets of Nature to understand humane affairs and how they may be most prudently ordered To understand the Ordinances of Heaven the Motions and Influences of the Sun and Moon and Stars are pieces of knowledge very desirable but to know the Lord himself is a Wisdom far beyond all other Now the undistracted Attendant follows on to know the Lord and gives up himself more intirely to his Service and God will manifest himself to such an one in a more peculiar way Psal 25. 14. The Secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant And their knowledge shall not be only notional but to their great satisfaction it shall be experimental When others only hear of God by the hearing of the Ear they shall taste and see that he is gracious Psal 34. 8 9 10. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the Man that trusteth in him Oh fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lyons lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing 4. Attenders without distraction have most of the Grace of God and greatest strength from him The Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives Grace that is greater than the greatest earthly things or he gives more Grace Jam. 4. 6. still more and more he is ready to communicate and most of all to them that are most humble and that draw nearest to him such as are bent upon it to seek the Lord and his Strength and his Face evermore shall not seek him his Face or Strength in vain Holy David who was a sincere seeker declares the good success he had Psal 138. 3. In the day when I cryed thou answereast me and strengthnedst me with strength in my Soul and as the strength of God did rest on him so the Face of God did shine upon him to his great Consolation Psal 25. 5. ◠His Glory is great in thy Salvation for thou hast made him most blessed for ever thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy Countenance The undistracted Attendant thrives amain he grows rich in Faith rich in Assurance rich in Experience He increaseth with the increases of God he grows up into him in all things who is his Head and approaches still nearer to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ And where there is the most of Grace usually there is the most of Peace and Joy perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and the Comforts of the Holy Ghost commonly keep pace and go hand in hand together 5. Attenders without distraction are most victorious over their spiritual Enemies being strong in the Lord and in the power of his Might the power of the Enemies of their Salvation can prevail but little The nearer any approach unto God the farther they come out from the World and they are the more fortified against it both on the right hand and on the left the less do they mind the world's honour or dishonour evil report or good report from it 2 Cor. 6. 7 8. They are not afraid of the World's terrour and whatever the World offers to them they see enough in God
to make the highest earthly Enjoyments despised in comparison Thus the innumerable Multitude of Stars though never so glittering before do all disappear at the Sun rising Undistracted Attenders fix their Eye on God and the more the invisible God is seen the more all visible things will vanish into nothing The Psalmist had cast his Eye upon the prosperity of the wicked and began to admire it he comes into the Sanctuary of God and looking upon God he now wonders at his own Folly in admiring so poor a thing as a worldly happiness and the Temptation that was so strong is overcome Safety from the most dangerous Enemies is of the Lord they whose thoughts are upon his Name find it a strong Tower Satan and Mammon are less able to beguile them and the lustings of the Flesh become weaker and weaker against the Spirit and as they find sin more and more destroyed so they may behold the last Enemy Death without a Sting and the Grave as having lost its Victory 6. Attenders without distraction have most approbation from their own Consciences Conscience is a Monitor unto Duty and a diligent observer how 't is performed It will condemn Laziness it will commend labour of Love it will upbraid the Evil and Slothful with their vain Oblations but to the undistracted Attendant it will say Well done good and faithful Servant And how much Joy and Peace is there in the Testimony of a good Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. and we find a condemning and an approving Conscience compared together the condemning Conscience is the forerunner of God's Condemning and the approbation of the Conscience is the forerunner of God's Absolution 1 John 3. 20 21. If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God Duties come off with great comfort when we have been intent and affected when God has been attentive to us when we behold his Face shining and find his Hand open and Conscience bears us witness that we have been seriously and the Lord has been graciously minding what we have been doing 7. Attenders without distraction are most beneficial to others They have the most publick Spirits and all do fare the better for that interest they have in Heaven which they daily improve for all How much is the Church of God beholding to them who will not hold their Peace day or night who will give the Lord no rest until he make Jerusalem a praise on the Earth Isa 62. 6 7. When the wickedness of Israel had made a great breach for the Wrath of God to break in upon them to consume them Moses attends upon God and intercedes with such intention and concernedness and fervency that the Wrath of God is appeased and the ruine prevented though it was at the door Psal 106. 23. Therefore he said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his Wrath lest he should destroy them Whole Nations reap the benefit of such undistracted and prevailing Intercessions The Apostle tells us that Elias was a Man of like Passions with others yet he was so intent and servent in Prayer that he opened Heaven and fetch'd Rain from thence and the Earth brought forth her fruit and an end was put to a terrible Famine which had lasted for several Years together Jam. 5. â—8 The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man avails much he prevails for others as well as for himself Lot was a righteous Man and vexed his righteous Soul because of the Sodomites unlawful Deeds 2 Pet. 2. 8. yet his Deliverance from Sodom's Flames is ascribed unto Abraham's intercession Gen. 19. 29. And it came to pass when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain that God remembred Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the Cities wherein Lot dwelt Saints should pray harder one for another and pray for them that are without with more earnestness that greater Multitudes may be called out of the World and brought into the Church and secured from the Perdition of ungodly Men. Undistracted Attendants upon God are Pillars to bear up what else would fall into ruine The Church the Nation in which they live the whole World is beholding to them as well as particular Persons for whom they are concerned and whom they bear upon their hearts before the Lord. I have done with the Reasons of the Doctrine In the fourth place I am to answer some Cases of Conscience about these Distractions in attending upon God that so Difficulties which are apt to perplex the Mind in this matter may be removed And CASE I. is this Whether the Thoughts cannot be off from God in the least when we attend upon him but there must be a culpable and sinful Distraction To this I answer 1. In all our holy Duties there should be a constant overawing sense of God upon our Spirits from the beginning to the end of them Slavish fear alienates the heart from God but Filial Reverence keeps the heart close to him That part of the Duty is lost in which the sense of God is banished 2. Something else besides God may be thought of in Duties and yet this is not Distraction To think of our sins when we confess them is our Duty and to recollect the circumstances by which they have been heigtned and rendred more exceeding sinful Isa 59. 12. For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for iniquities we know them Our Wants also we ought to think of and the necessity of having them supplied and the all-sufficient Jehavah is sufficient to supply all needs whatsoever be the Wants never so great and many and the Persons that apply to him never so vast a Multitude The Blessings we desire ought also to be thought of Others also which we pray for may be in our Minds when we are before God with their Distresses under which we would fain be helpful to them by our Supplications on their behalf It was not Distraction in the Apostle but matter of thanksgiving to the Lord that when he was at the Throne of Grace Timothy was in his thoughts and remembrance 2 Tim. 1. 3. I thank God whom I serve from my fore-fathers with pure Conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day 3. Our Thoughts must not run out so much upon the matter of our Duties but that there must be a quick and continual return to God the Object whom we worship We must not so much be thinking what we are praying for but we must ever be minding him whom we are praying to The Psalmist says Psal 142 2. I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble He thought of his trouble but had also a sense he was before God who he
knew could be a present help to him CASE II. Whether it be Distraction and withdrawing from God to think at all of our worldly business and affairs To this I answer 1. In ordering of our earthly Concerns and in all our ways God is to be acknowledged His direction makes us act prudently and his Blessing makes our Labour prosperous The Blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. His Blessing removes the Curse which sin had brought and very much cures the vexatious Vanity of the Creature The Word of God is to be eyed as the Rule which we ought to walk by in our Secular Affairs we should inquire after his Will and aim at his Glory in every thing which we do When Secular Actions are under the conduct and management of Religion there is not only a Blessing upon them but also a great Beauty in them 2. Diligence and Prudence in our wordly affairs is a Duty and this cannot be without thoughts about them Honest Projects and wise Contrivances are not at all to be discommended what is said of the Husbandman's Skill is applicable to Discretion in any other Calling Isa 28. 26 29. God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him A prudent thoughtfulness in these matters cometh from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working To be without heed and care in the Works of our Calling is sinful and scandalous and 't is to walk disorderly Our Lord plainly signifies there must be care and fidelity in worldly things Luk. 16. 11. If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your trust the true Riches The good Man must needs think of his Secular Affairs else he could not guide them with discretion Psal 112. 5. 3. In a special manner we are to take heed when engaged in worldly business of being too long without thinking of God and lifting up our hearts to him Worldly Men when in the Sanctuary and they seem to be worshipping the God of Heaven their thoughts are upon the World because their Affections run that way Thus the Saints should do when at the Exchange or in their Shops or at the Market their hearts even then should frequently be with God this would not be hypocrisie but sincerity in them and worldly business would succeed the better for it 'T is a proper Ejaculation at every turn in our Secular Matters Psal 143. 8. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my Soul unto thee And our ordinary Employments though never so advantageous and delightful should not be so taking but that with the greatest readiness and joy we should cease from them when called to give our Attendance upon God CASE III. Whether the best of Men while in this World can be totally free from Distraction in holy Duties Unto this I answer 1. The natural Vanity of the Imagination is not perfectly cured in any Saint alive and this in some degree will discover it self the most serious and solid mind has something of levity and frothiness in it and this froth will be working up notwithstanding all endeavours to suppress it Evil is present with the best when they would do their very best The Apostle acknowledges there was a law of sin in him Rom. 7. 21. In-dwelling sin remains even there where Grace reigns and is but too active in the Saints when they desire to be most active in the Lord's Service therefore we read that the most spiritual Sacrifices are acceptable through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. Though the House be spiritual and the Priesthood Holy and the Sacrifice spiritual yet all this by it self cannot procure acceptation there are some sinful imperfections some Ebullitions of Vanity as well as actings of grace which to cover there is great need of the Mediation and Righteousness of the Lord Jesus 2. Saints are not so vigilant and take not such pains with their hearts as they ought and might do and before they are aware are distracted in their Thoughts The Sluggard's Field was all grown over with Thorns and Nettles had covered the Face thereof Prov. 24. 31. The heart of Man by Nature brings forth nothing but Weeds and though the heart be renewed yet these Weeds will presently spring up in it if it be not kept with constant care 3. Though Believers are still haunted and pester'd with some vain thoughts yet 't is possible for them to be freed more and more from them The more they are renewed in the Spirit of their Mind they will be able to serve the Lord with greater intention of mind and seriousness of Spirit The more your reason gets power over your fancy and the more Grace gets power over your Reason and the more you call in help from Heaven the more fixed your hearts will be upon God and the Work of God Taking pains with the heart in Duty is hard labour but the Lord is ready to succeed it CASE IV. Whether a true Believer may not sometimes perform Duties so distractedly as to reap no benefit at all by them I answer 1. The more there is of Distraction in Duties the less Spiritual advantage is like to be reaped by them the more frequently the heart does start away from God when 't is engaged in his worship the more of obstruction there is unto the Communication of Grace the nearer we draw to God the nearer he draws to us if we at any time withdraw no wonder if he withdraw likewise And the less a Saint is troubled at his own Distractions his heart is certainly in the worst frame and God is the more displeased 2. Some Duties may be so distractedly performed as to be totally lost 'T is true the Union between Christ and Believers is inseparable and nothing shall separate them from the love of God in him for he makes incessant intercession for all his Members 'T is also certain that the Spirit abides in all true Believers and will never quite leave them who are his Temples and Habitation and the Spirit ever dwelling in them they shall ever continue in a state of Grace and sin shall never recover its Dominion over them and yet sometimes they may fall into particular acts of sin and some particular Duties may be performed after such a careless and distracted manner as to become sin We read Psal 80. 4. O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry with the Prayers of thy People Prayers of Saints may be unacceptable Sometimes Unbelief Despondency and Discontent and Impatience quite spoils Prayer How could the Lord be pleased with Jonah's Petition Jon. 4. 2 3. And he prayed to the Lord and said I pray thee O Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my Country Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest
that here lies the great danger least while God is near in the mouth the World fill the heart and steal it from him There are three things in reference to the World which distract thousands of Hearts and cause millions of Duties to be in vain The one is Love to the World the other is care about it and another is Fear concerning it Of all these you are to beware with the greatest vigilancy and concernedness 1. Take heed of Love to the World If the World has your Love it will have your Thoughts at command and it will not fail to shew its power and to command your thoughts off from God when you attend upon him They that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God will think of Pleasures rather than of God That Rich Man in the Gospel while he was alive had Moses and the Prophets as well as his Brethren he was an Israelite in Name called himself a Child of Abraham and profest himself a Worshipper of the true God but all his worship was heartless his heart was intoxicated with sensual Delights and his Purple and fine Linen and sumptuous fare which every day was provided for him Luk. 16. 19. That which the Soul takes pleasure in how will it be revolved in the Mind Sports and Pastimes Garbs and Ornaments Journies for diversion and delight Feasts and Mirth and Musick if the Heart is foolishly fond of such sorry things as these how will they possess the Soul and that in the very House of God and when his Ordinances are administred They will be present to the imagination though really absent and an imaginary satisfaction will be taken in them and in the mean while the Lord himself will be forgotten and Communion with him slighted They that are greedy after gain their hearts will be upon their gain while their Bodies are before the Lord. Covetousness commands the Thoughts and extinguishes holy Desires while the Tongue is speaking heavenly words the Mind will be projecting and contriving how to get the Wealth of this World as if to be rich towards God were but a poor thing in comparison The earthly heart pleases it self with the Thoughts of what it has and with the Hopes of getting more of the World that for the flesh more abundant provision may be made Oh suffer not the World to have your love and friendship if you are friends to the World and over familiar with it it will have the more easie and ready access into your hearts at any time and that without the least check Familiar Friends you know make bold to come into your door without knocking for admission 2. Take heed of Care about the World How do these solicitous cares about earthly things distract and divide the Mind When the Kingdom of God and his righteousness should be sought there is a taking thought for Food and Raiment and things of that inferiour nature Our Lord knew the evil of these Cares and therefore uses a great many words to disswade from them He tells us that our heavenly Father clothes the Lillies of the Field and feeds the Fowls of the Air which have neither Storehouse nor Barn and much more will he provide Bread for his Children to eat and Raiment wherewith they may be clothed and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of little Faith that make any doubt of it Mat. 6. 30. If Cares about such things prevail they may cause gross omissions of Duty or if Duties are done they may miscarry in the doing there may be such an anxious solicitousness about this earth and the affairs of it that Heaven and the God of Heaven may be hardly thought of Worldly care is one of the things that chokes the Word and it will choke Prayer also it will hinder the Word from being fruitful and Prayer from being successful You have leave to cast all your care upon God who cares for you 1 Pet. 5. 7. And if banishing distrust in God and eagerness after the the World you are careful for nothing in it you may then by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving make your request known unto God Phil. 4. 6. and he will make it known to you that this is the very best course you can take for all manner of supplies 3. Take heed of fear concerning the World Our Lord says why are ye so fearful O ye of little Faith There is great reason for Faith in God no reason for fear what the World can do to you Be not distracted by fear of worldly losses those shall not befal you but when God sees them best for you and they shall turn to your truest gain Be not distracted by fear of the Worlds hatred and the effects of it the Grace and Joy of the Holy Ghost can be an hundredfold better even at present than any worldly comfort that Man can deprive you of If an enraged World can keep you off from the Lord's Service he will have but little from you Be not afraid therefore of their terrour neither be troubled but sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts ◠Pet. 3. 14 15. and he has promised to be a Sanctuary to you The fear of the Lyons Den could not scare Daniel from the Throne of Grace but he prayed and gave Thanks as he was wont before his God If this present World cannot command your love nor care nor raise your fear you will be mightily fortified against one very great cause of Distraction in Religious Services 4. Another cause of Distraction which I must caution you against is Passion and Uncharitableness Passion has a strange and mighty force to transform the whole Soul into it self so that if this prevail not only Grace shall be under a dark Eclipse but even Judgment and Reason and common Prudence shall seem to be altogether banished Passion imbitters or rather invenoms the whole Heart of a Man diffusing it self all over so that all is under the power of it Passion has a monopoly of the thoughts and fixes them upon Injuries received nay though they are but imaginary injuries yet being supposed real how intent is the Mind upon them Perhaps Revenge though so contrary to the Nature of Christianity is wish'd for and meditated Patience indeed possesses the Soul but Passion catches the Soul away so that 't is possest no longer all the Powers and Faculties of the Soul are disturbed and most disorderly employed Passion rises and lies down with the Passionate Man and is a very bad Companion all the day long and when Duties of Religion come to be performed there is so much anger in the heart against Man that God's anger is not feared nor seriously deprecated neither is his love valued or with any earnestness desired As the furious Man abounds in transgression so his attendance upon God abounds in Distractions and these Distractions being the overflowings of wrath and bitterness and hatred how displeasing and abominable must they needs be unto
attendance upon God The Grace of God therefore should make you most to watch against and hate that sin which Nature did most of all delight in and love 7. Another cause of distraction is a zealous affection towards an erroneous way Errours are of several sorts some are praeter fundamentum off from the Foundation others are circa fundamentum about the Foundation a third sort are contra fundamentum against and rase the very Foundation of Religion these last are most dangerous The broachers and spreaders of them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ravening Wolves that spare not the Flock and truly the propagators of lesser Errors do a great deal of harm they are called little Foxes and are often very prejudicial especially to young Converts and prove a great hindrance to the good work begun in them Therefore you read Cant. 2. 15. Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines for our Vines have tender Grapes Errours how do they excite the zeal of the Soul And though they are but about smaller matters yet they so command the Tongue and Thoughts that they are more talk'd of and minded than the great things of Law and Gospel Erroneous Opinions do so possess the Heart that the main truths and things of Religion are little regarded and less improved They that are very fond of Errour when they are praying or hearing or engaged in other Ordinances Satan dresses up that error with a disguise of truth and so presents it to their Minds and their Minds are drawn away by the thoughts of it and Ordinances are ineffectual and lost to them No wonder that zealots for Errour are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jud. v. 13. wandring Stars they wander from the way of truth and this wandring makes them very much to wander from God in holy Duties whilst the eagerness of their Spirits is after their mistakes in which they are so very confident Beguiled Souls are called unstable 2 Pet. 2. 14. the Apostle tells us they are tost to and fro carried about with every wind of Doctrine The unsettledness of their Judgments and proneness to run from one errour to another mightily distracts their Thoughts and they are little if at all edisied by their Duties Errours are very apt to knock at the Door when you are attending upon God and Satan is very busie then to disturb and distract you with Thoughts about them The Lord would be served with greater intention if you did not trouble your Heads with doubtful Disputations which you are caution'd against Rom. 14. 1. and if you did follow that counsel 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest ye being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness 8. The sloth and loziness of the Heart in refusing to take pains with it self to keep close to God is another cause of distraction a cause it is which most commonly prevails there is therefore need of caution against it The Work of the Heart with its own self is very hard Work indeed in the doing of this to purpose lies both the difficulty and also the truth of Religion To be wicked and deceitful are the two bad properties of the Heart which are natural to it the wickedness of the Heart makes it backward to come to God the deceitfulness of the Heart makes it very ready to start aside like a deceitful Bow and to fly off from him Great pains and labour is absolutely necessary to engage the Heart to approach to the Lord and to abide with him These accesses to God are against nature like rowing a Boat against a swift Stream or rolling a Stone up a steep Hill If the Oar be not plyed the Stream carries the Boat back let the Stone but a little alone to it self and how presently and how far will it run downward The Poet observed the strength of Natures inclination Naturam expellas furcâ licet usque recurret Use greatest force ' gainst Natures Will It shall recoyl upon you still There is need of constant care and industry and the aid of supernatural Grace else the Heart will never be brought to acquaint it self with God or to delight in Communion with him Take heed of sloth in holy Duties and carelesness of Spirit which makes Men indifferent and unconcerned what frame their Hearts are in as if in these distractions there were no great sin or harm The Psalmist tells us The Lord is in his holy Temple the Lord's Throne is in Heaven his Eyes behold his Eyelids try the Children of Men Psal 11. 4. with a pleased Countenance he does behold the upright Heart but he frowns upon all careless Servants Take heed of imagining there is no need of striving again vain Thoughts in the Lord's Service If these are allowed of know that God allows not of them and if they have place in you what may they come to at last The greatest sin that ever was committed began with a Thought and if the first Thought had been utterly banished the sinful desire had not been kindled nor the Deed done I have spoken of the causes of distraction with great heed you are all of you to beware of them for if you give way to these they will corrupt all your Duties I read in the old Law that nothing that had a blemish was to be offer'd to God in Sacrifice this shews that Christ the great Sacrifice was without blemish and without spot and 't is an intimation what our Duties ought to be But if Distractions and the causes of them are not taken heed of your Services will be no better than a Sacrifice would have been that had all the forbidden blemishes Lev. 22. 22. Blind broken maimed with Wens Scurvy and Scabbed which must needs have been very hateful if it had been offer'd to the Lord. USE II. By way of expostulation I shall expostulate the matter with you about these distractions in your Religious Performances 1. Without distraction you can mind your Secular Affairs and why should you not be more intent and serious about your eternal concerns What is a small Cypher to the whole Circle of the Heavens What is Time which is ended almost as soon as begun to Eternity that will never end at all Temporal Afflictions are light and burthens only for a moment 2 Cor. 4. 17. Temporal felicity is but a pleasant and short Dream and is chased away as a night Vision But eternal Woes and Joys are Woes and Joys indeed they are perfectly possessed all at once altogether and as to the Woes there can be no hope of any release as to the Joys there is no room for any fear of deprivation 2. Without distraction you can hear or read News or a pleasant History and is not a Religious Duty of far greater importance to you Shall the pleasing of the fancy be minded more than the securing of the Soul Shall the State of Affairs in this World be asked after and will you not seriously
an heart to know him They that are ignorant of God must needs be ignorant also how to attend upon him If their knowledge be only notional and they know him not as they ought to know him they will not attend upon him as they ought to attend upon him Lay hold therefore upon that good Word of Promise Jer. 24. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart And Heb. 8. 11. They shall all know me from the least to the greatest This knowledge of God will have a mighty influence upon your Hearts to bring your very Thoughts into captivity and obedience 2 Cor. 10. 5. We read 1 Sam. 2. 3. That the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed and they who rightly know this will take care to serve him in sincerity True knowledge of God will bring a great awe of him upon your Spirits His Majesty Glory Holiness will strike you into great humility and reverence How will you be emptied of your selves and your Souls and Thoughts swallowed up in God when he does cause his Excellency to pass before you The appearance of the Lord obscures and darkens all things else that they are counted not worth minding Therefore the Prophet says Isa 24. 23. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his Ancients gloriously The Eye of this God whom you attend upon is jealous and yet withal it is all seeing Oh take heed of being deceived as if God would be mocked by Man and Man not be the worse nor smart for it Gal. 6. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he also reap If thy Duties are only like a sowing of meer Chaff how canst thou expect to reap any good by them The good Angels themselves do reverence the Lord whom you are worshipping the Apostate ones tremble before him the better you know him the more godly your fear will be and fear will unite your Hearts and Thoughts both to God and to the Work and Duty he requires 4. Be very careful to cherish the Grace of Hope in your Hearts and look upon holy Duties as highly valuable Priviledges the greater your expectation is of the truest benefit and advantage the more intent and fixed will your Thoughts be The Apostle prays to the God of hope for the believing Romans that they might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. Hope has an earnest expectation and the better the things are which are hoped for still the more earnest the expectation is this the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an emphatical word and signifies to look for a thing with an Head lifted up and with great intention both of Eyes and Mind Such an Hope what a remedy would it be against Distraction When Hope is very low the Mind runs very much upon matter of discouragement and is deadned by it And the best things of all being almost despaired of the Heart is the apter to wander after things that cannot profit but Hope is compared to an Anchor Heb. 6. 19. Which hope we have as an Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast it keeps the Soul steddy and fixed upon what is hoped for till it be enjoyed Duties are not only to be engaged in as what are due to God but we are to be perswaded that the giving what is due to God is the way to receive still more and more from him In these Duties our Hopes should be high in him that is most high we are not able to conceive how much he can do for us We are to hope in him as a most liberal and all-sufficient Giver we are to expect the yearning of his Bowels in our Distresses and Afflictions and especially when we are weary and heavy laden with the burthen of our Iniquities We are to expect the unlocking of the unsearchable Riches of Christ which are enough to enrich the whole beggar'd progeny of Adam and all that come to him shall certainly experience the Riches and fulness of that Grace that dwells in him The Ploughman plows in hope and hope fixes his Thoughts upon the precious Fruits of the Earth which in Harvest he expects to reap Oh study the Promises of God which are exceeding broad they are wider than the Earth and Sea and they reach as high as the highest Heaven Hope for the promised Blessings which are of all sorts Temporal Spiritual Eternal and the more strong and lively hope is it will the more fix your Mind revive your Spirits and quicken your Desires 5. Another Remedy against Distraction is a fervent Love As love is the first and great Command so 't is a most commanding affection Amor meus pondus meum Love is the weight which sets all the Wheels a going and inclines them that way which it self is inclined The Soul of Man has been by some affirmed to be ubi amat non ubi animat where it loves and on the object beloved rather than in the Body which is the Tabernacle where it dwells and the reason is because Love does so command the Mind and Thoughts after it If your love be set upon God Love will set your Thoughts upon him The Thoughts of the Covetous how are they intent upon their beloved gain and the Pleasures which the voluptuous doat on are hardly ever out of their Mind If love to God constrain you to attend upon God it will bring your Thoughts along with it and very much restrain them from wandring The Love of God can never be produced by corrupt Nature nor by the meer force of reason 't is a special Grace of the Lord's Spirit and to him you must make application for it Christ died that he might bring you to God and Love is the going of the Soul to him In the Name of Christ put up your earnest Petitions that this Grace of Love may be wrought in you in truth and being wrought that it may continually be increased The Lord says he will write his Laws in your Hearts Oh pray that this great Command to love him may be written in deep and lasting Characters and if the Lord once become your desire and delight the Duties you perform will become more pleasant and delightful and undistracted God is light and in him there is no darkness nothing but what is desirable All Excellencies in the Creatures are derived from him and the Streams are but little if we look to the Fountain from whence they all come This God as excellent and glorious as he is is willing in Christ to be yours Such loveliness Such loving kindness what Love does it call for from you Let nothing be able to draw away your Love and the
less will your Thoughts be drawn away from him 6. Be very poor in Spirit A pressing sense of your spiritual Necessities will make you very intent and serious in begging Supplies from above for 't is from thence alone you can be supplied They that are pinched with Poverty how much do they think how poor they are They have such a smart feeling of their Needs they can scarce think of any thing besides The condemned Malefactor when he cries for a Pardon and has hopes to speed surely the apprehension of his danger makes his Words and his Thoughts to go together When the Man almost famished asks for Bread no doubt his Mind is very much upon that Bread which may prevent his starving Be you but sensible how great the Needs of your Souls are and that 't is the Father of Spirits only who can give you the mercy and grace which you need and the more of sense you have the less distracted will you be in your Applications to him Our Lord pronounces the poor in Spirit blessed Mat. 5. 3. their Petitions come from an inward sense of their want and of the worth of Blessings and being earnest Petitioners they shall be successful ones You that feel your guilt and fear Divine Wrath must needs think of a Pardon and the desirableness of it when you ask for it You that are sensible of your Maladies how intent will your Minds be upon the Lord the healer of his People And you will have little list to think of something else when you are begging to be cured True poverty of Spirit will constrain to an undistracted seeking of that Gold tried in the fire to enrich you and that white Raiment to cover you Rev. 3. 18. without which you must needs be wretched and miserable because you will be poor and naked 7. Let Conscience be very tender vigilant and faithful Such a Conscience will be very helpful to prevent distraction or quickly to put an end to it It will observe and fetch home the Truant and straying Thoughts and bring them to your Duties * I distinguish between a tender Conscience and a scrupulous one for a scrupulous Conscience is a great cause of distraction for Scruples are most apt to run in and pester the Mind when holy Duties are performing Conscience acts in God's Name by his Authority and urges Obedience to his Laws and much insists if it be truly enlightned and faithful upon the right manner of obeying Conscience takes strict notice of the whole Soul and all the actings of it and this Officer of God especially does this in the Souls approaches to the Lord a sense of being under God's Eye makes the faithful Consciences Eye more strict and ready to spy all faults that they may presently be amended In holy Duties such a Conscience will be very busie it will earnestly protest against vain and distracting Thoughts and it will say What make such thoughts here when God and his Work ought only to be minded The presence of evil when good is doing such a Conscience cannot brook with Patience it stirs up the lustings of the Spirit against those of the Flesh that the Law of the Mind may prevail more against the Law in the Members Rom. 7. 23. If Conscience is asleep in your Performances how sorry and sinful will they be The Heart will be dead the Thoughts will be gone far away no holy Affections will be stirring Pray hard for a good Conscience a Conscience not only purged by the Blood of Christ from all the guilt which by dead Works you have contracted but also by the same Blood healed of its Sleepiness Stupidity and all other faults of it And that Conscience may more effectually check your Hearts from roving and trifling in attendance upon God look before you with the Eye of strong and steddy Faith and see as far as Death and Judgment and into Eternity and then do you judge whether for your carelesly performed Duties your Lord will say Well done true and faithful Servants The Apostle having lookt as far as his own and also the World's last Day wherein the Heaven shall pass away with a great noise the Elements melt with fervent heat and the Earth and the Works therein shall be burnt up rationally infers that Christians Conversations should be very well ordered Duties of Godliness most undistractedly and seriously performed Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 10 11. 8. Another Remedy against Distraction is growing in Grace and in the knowledge of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 18. This will keep you from being led away by errour and will make you more stedfast in Duty as well as Truth When Grace shall be perfected in Glory distraction will be perfectly cured and here on Earth the Cure is advanced as Grace is augmented The more Grace you have you will set the higher value upon Communion with God and this will fill your Hearts with holy Zeal and Indignation against every thing that may divert your Minds and be an obstruction to this Communion The more Grace you have the more you are filled with the Spirit and when you pray in the Holy Ghost your Prayer will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in-wrought Prayer Jam. 5. 16. How much of the Heart and Soul will be therein And the same Spirit in hearing and other Ordinances will keep your Hearts with God when they are about to turn to the right hand or to the left Isa 30. 21. The more Grace you have the more your Treasure will be in Heaven and you are told Mat. 6. 21. Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Now that there may be an increase of Grace Christ must be better known for 't is from him that the first Grace is derived and all additional degrees of it Study him more and understand his fulness who fills all in all Eph. 1. 23. Desire with the Apostle that you may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death Psal 3. 10. If you conform to the Death of Christ and are crucified and dead to the World and the World to you the things of the World will appear without form and comeliness and will be less able to distract your Minds and ensnare your Affections And if you feel the Power of Christ's Resurrection your Hearts and Thoughts will rise with him and at what a rate will you seek those things that are above The Angels when here on Earth they are doing what God commands them and are in Heaven still as to their Thoughts and as to the Happiness they enjoy You should be heavenly when about your earthly business but especially when you are attending upon the God of Heaven And the more experimentally you understand Christ risen the less will things on Earth be minded and the higher will
your Hearts rise and ascend after him 9. Ever commit the keeping of your Souls to God himself in well-doing 1 Pet. 4. 19. Apprehending how liable you are to distraction in his Service intreat that he would undertake for you He that spans the Heavens and in his Hand does hold the Winds so that they stir not in the least against his Will certainly is able to keep your Hearts undistracted in your Duties and close to himself The Lord makes and searches and new makes and fixes the Heart of Man and none of this is to be done by any power less than his When David's Soul followed hard after God he acknowledged it was the Lord's own right hand which upheld him Psal 63. 8. Call in help from Heaven against distraction if you would be helpt effectually The Christian not only when he is leaving the World but when he is engaging in any Religious Duty should say with the Psalmist Psal 31. 5. Into thy Hands O Lord I commit my Spirit He and he alone can keep it in a serious and composed frame USE IV. Shall be of Counsel as to some particular Duties which I shall insist on and shew you how they may with less distraction be performed And there are four Duties which at present I shall speak of The first is Reading the Holy Scriptures The second is Hearing the Word Preached The third is The Duty of Prayer The fourth is Communicating at the Lord's Table Of these in order I begin with Reading the Holy Scriptures and that these may be read with less distraction 1. Be firmly perswaded of the Scriptures Divine Authority and Verity When you take the Bible to look into it remember 't is a Book of God's own making you have in your hands The Writers of it were but his Penmen they wrote not their own but God's Mind and Will and were moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost To be distracted and regardless of what you read is to contemn God in disregarding his Word Mind what you read for the Scripture can make you wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. You may securely trust to his Word its light is infallible 't is certain in its Promises and Threatnings 't will by all be found true to eternity The word of the Lord endures for ever 1 Pet. 1. 25. 2. Believe the Scriptures perfection and sufficiency as a means most full and plain to guide you to everlasting blessedness Here you are faithfully warned to flee from the Wrath to come and from sin which does deserve it and here you may find God's Counsel by which you may be guided safe to Glory Psal 73. 24. You need not be distracted and doubtful in your own Minds as if in the Scriptures God's Mind was declared only in part Man's additions are needless nay impious Prov. 30. 6. Add thou not unto his Words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Liar and Mens Traditions are vain Heed the Word of God as that which enlightens the Eyes converts the Soul rejoyces the Heart as that which is profitable for Doctrine Reproof for Correction instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. 3. Look upon the Scriptures as much directed to you in particular and laying an obligation upon you as if they had dropt from God out of Heaven into your hand The word forbids sin in you as well as in any other in the World the Commands of it reach you as truly as if you had heard the Lord calling to you by Name to yield Obedience The offers of the Gospel are really made to you and upon acceptance the Blessings offered are your own if they are refused how can you ecape the Wrath of him who from Heaven speaks to you for your good Heb. 12. 25. That such a particular application should be made is signified by Solomon whose word is as a Goad and a Nail fastned to stir you up to your Duty and to settle you in it Prov. 22. 19 20. That thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day even unto thee Have I not written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge 4. See the Lord himself just by you when you read his Word and hear him bidding you take heed how you read As he has magnified his Word above all his Name so he requires a special regard should be had to it He looks with approbation and pleasure upon that Man who trembles at his Word Isa 66. 2. but when he perceives instruction to be hated and that his Law is cast behind the Back he admonishes such forgetters of God to consider what this neglect will cost them if not repented of and he threatens to tear them in pieces so as that there shall be none to deliver Psal 50. 17. 22. 5. Lift up your Eyes to Heaven for instruction from the Spirit by whose inspiration the Scripture was given 'T is the Spirit of Christ who opens Mens Vnderstandings to understand the Scriptures Luke 24. 45. Be humbly sensible of your ignorance and proneness to error and mistake A promise is made to the humble and meek that God will guide them in Judgment so that they shall judge aright of things and he will teach them his way Psal 25. 9. Cry to the Lord to make you mind what you read and to profit by what you mind Desire Scripture knowledge that what you know may have a deep impression upon your Spirits may excite holy and gracious Affections and Resolutions in your Hearts and be mightily effectual unto the more thorow amending of your ways and doings 6. In all your ways seek for light from the holy Scriptures that every step you take may be rightly ordered Go not in any way which the word of truth calls a false way How well and wisely does he walk that can say with the Psalmist Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light unto my Path Psal 119. 105. When you go let this Word lead you and then when you sleep there is a promise to keep you and when you awake it will talk with you and be telling you what you must avoid believe and do that you may be blessed for ever The Commandment is a Lamp and the Law is light and the reproofs of instruction are the way of Life Prov. 6. 22 23. And as the Word talks to you so you should talk of the word you read it will fix it in your Thoughts and Hearts the better and make your Discourse more edifying to others Deut. 6 6 7. And these words which I command thee this Day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt diligently teach them to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up The more the word is written in your Hearts the more Grace is there and
Trespasses dead to God and to any thing that is truly good employed in nothing but dead works and thereby fitted to destruction And how should your Thoughts be seized on by the obligation your Lord has laid you under in freeing you from Death and eternal Destruction by laying down his own Life a ransom for you Mat. 20. 28. When the Apostle said he determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucisied 1 Cor. 2. 2. it shews upon whom his Thoughts were Our Thoughts at the Lord's Table should be fastned to Christ as he was to the Cross We should behold admire and be suitably affected when we behold him that is equal with God in the form of a Servant in the likeness of sinsul Flesh and humbling himself so low as to become obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Let the worth of the Person suffering the Merit of the Sufferings themselves and the value of the Benefits thereby procured be believed and how can they chuse but be heedfully thought of 3. Take due notice that Christ when he was dying gave this charge to his Disciples that they should engage in this Ordinance as a Memorial of him Christ's Death was infinitely more than if all Creatures that have Life had lost their Lives to make an atonement Just when he was ready to make his Soul an Offering for sin he bids us to do this in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11. 23 24. The Lord Jesus the same Night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me The command of such a Lord that Lord dying and dying such a meritorious Death and in that Death expressing Love which passes Knowledge and the Command given on purpose that he might still be and live in our remembrance if well weighed will make us mind what we are doing and prevent distraction 4. The Sacramental Elements and Actions being understood with their signification will be a great means to fix the Thoughts of the Communicants When your Eyes behold the Bread let your Faith behold the Body of Christ When you see the Bread broken believe that Christ was wounded and bruised for your Iniquities and bare them in his Body on the Tree When the Bread is given you understand what a gift of God Christ is When you take the Bread into your hands let your Hearts be open more fully to receive Christ himself and to receive still more from him And when you eat the Bread be sure to feed upon Christ the Bread of Life by Faith Rely upon his Crucifixion as your reconciliation for says the Apostle We are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Rom 5. 10. And as Bread is the staff of Life so let this Bread of Life be your Souls stay rest upon Christ for spiritual life and strength more and more abundantly to be given you When you perceive the Wine given a part from the Bread think with your selves that your Lord's Life was indeed though not against his Will taken from him Body and Soul were separated though neither from the Godhead Look beyond the Wine to the Blood of Jesus believe it to be more precious than Gold that perishes and that being the blood of him who is God it can do away the greatest guilt and the foulest spots and stains of the sins of Men. When you drink the Wine believe the Cup of Blessing to be indeed the Communion of the Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. Rest on this Blood to justifie you from all things for which the Law condemns you Rest on this Blood to pacifie your Consciences and heal the Wounds which sin has made there to purifie and heal all the Plagues of your Hearts to make you perfect in every good work and to open a way for you into the holiest of all Heb. 10. 19. not only to procure constant access to the Throne of Grace but an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom Thus you will be helped against distraction in this Ordinance If what is visible to the Eye the Heart understands and improves 5. That you may be the more serious in this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper remember therein you solemnly renew Covenant with the God of Heaven you give your selves from your selves to him and disclaim all other Lord's and Owners and profess to take him to be your Lord your God your Guide your All. Oh mind what you do that you may be sincere in doing it God has no pleasure in Fools Eccles 5. 4. who consider not with whom they have to do who consider not what evil they do when they do that which is good after a distracted and deceitful manner In this Ordinance the Broad-Seal of Heaven is put into your hand to confirm your Faith in the New Covenant and that you may with greater confidence expect the accomplishment of its Promises He that rests on Christ and hungers and thirsts after righteousness may rejoyce in this Ordinance more than a Bankrupt would do that receives an Acquittance sealed of the release of all his Debts and with it a Will and Testament sealed whereby a plentiful Estate is made over and assured to him And the Communicants solemnly profess a Restipulation they tie themselves faster and more strictly to the Lord there is nothing you have or are but is his Will and Heart and Thoughts are to be ever in his Service and at his Command 6. Be sensible how dreadful guilt is contracted when you are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and this guilt comes upon you by distracted careless and unworthy receiving 1 Cor. 11. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Communicant whose Heart cares not how distracted it is how does he contemn the Son of God his Blood and Benefits If he does not count them worth serious thinking of surely he does not think them worth his thankful acceptance How precious is the Blood of Jesus and what an heavy load is the guilt of such Blood 'T is sad not to be saved by the Blood of Christ but much sorer under the guilt of it to sink lower into Damnation Temporal Punishments that are inflicted upon receiving amiss may be terrible but how much worse are eternal Judgments Oh give your Hearts into God's Hand that he may keep and order them at the Table and afterwards the more there is of his help in the performance the less will there be of distraction and of your own infirmities USE V. Shall be terrour unto Sinners and Hypocrites all whose attendance upon God is void of care and full of allowed distraction They freely grant their Hearts a liberty and their navghty Hearts take it to be whatever they please and to run upon