and then condemn us for not believing them To make Laws for the Church unnecessary in their own opinion and sinful in other mens and command things which they know that others think the Lord forbids and then load them with the sufferings and reproaches of the disobedient turbulent heretical schismatical or seditious To call men factious if they will not be of their faction and Sectaries if they will not unreasonably subject their Souls to them and joyn with an imperious Sect against the Catholick Vnity and Simplicity All which the Romanists practice upon the Church of Christ How easie but how unreasonable and yet how unresistible is all this How easie is it to call a meeting of sober Christians for prayer and mutual edification such as that was Acts 12. 12. by the name of a Factious Schismatical Conventicle and a meeting of Drunkards or Gamesters by a more gentle less disgraceful name To say a man becomes a Preacher when he modestly reproveth another for his sinnes or charitable exhorteth him in order to his Salvation or giveth any necessary plain instruction to his Family for whom he must give account Believe it it will be a poor excuse to any man that becomes an enemy to the diligence of a Saint that he could thus cloak his malice and cloath a Saint with the vizer of an Hypocrite and the rags of any odious Sect. If the Pharisees were to be believed it was not they but Christ that was the Hypocrite nor was it the Son of God but an Enemy to Caesar and a Blasphemer that they put to death But will not Christ know his sheep though he find them torn in a wolks skin You say it is turbulent Preâ—isians that you strike but what if Christ find but one of the least of his Brethren bleeding by it It is but Hypocrites or Schismaticks that you reproach but if Christ find an humble serious Christian suffering by your abuse and you to answer it I would not be in your coats for all the greatness and honour that you shall have before your everlasting shame If Tertullus accuse a pestilent fellow and a mover of Sedition and Christ find an holy laborious Apostle in Bonds and suffering by it it is not his names that will excuse him and make an Apostle or Persecution to be another thing TO return to the endangered Flocks Look upward sirs and think whether Heaven be worth your labour Look downwards and think whether Earth be more worthy of it Lay up your treasures where you must dwell for ever If that be here then scrape and flatter and get all that you can But if it be not here but in another life then hearken to your Lord and lay up for your selves a treasure in Heaven and there let your very hearts be set Matth. 6. 20 21. And upon the peril of everlasting misery hearken not to any man that wil tempt you from a diligent holy life It is a serious businesse deal seriously in it and be not laught or mockt out of Heaven by the flouts of a distracted sensual Atheist If any of them will pretend to sobriety and wisdom and undertake to prove that God should not be loved and served and your Salvation sought with all your might and with greater care and diligence then any earthly thing procure me a sober conference with that man and try whether I shall not prove him to be a befoold servant of the Devil and a mischievous enemy of your Salvation and his own O that we might have but sober debates instead of jeers and scorns and railings with this sort of men how quickly should we shew you that they must renounce the Scripture and renounce Christianity and if that be nothing with them that they must renounce God and renounce right Reason and unman themselves if they will renounce a holy Heavenly life and blame them that make it their principal business in the world to prepare for the world to come But if they will not be entreated to such a sober conference will you that hear them if you care what becomes of you but come to us and hear what we can say for a Holy life before you hearken to them and let your souls have fair play and shew that you have so much love to your selves as not to cast away Salvation at the derision of a fool before you have heard the other side If I make not good the strictest Laws of God Almighty against the most subtil cavils of any of the instruments of Satan then tell me that Infidels or Epicures are in the right Compare their words with the words of God Consider well but that one Text 2 Pet. 3. 11. and tell me whether it suit with their Opinions Seeing all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting to the coming of the Day of God! Did these words but sink into your hearts the next time you heard any man reproach a Holy Heavenly life it would perhaps make you think of the words of Paul to such another Acts 13 10. O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all Righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord And if holiness be evil spoken of by them that never tried it what wonder Christ hath foretold us that it must be so Matth. 5. 11 12. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you John 15. 19 20. If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you c. 1 Pet. 4. 4 5 14. They think it strange that they run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and dead If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified Seneca himself oft telleth us that among the Heathen Vertue was a derision so far is the nature of man degenerated The question is not what you are called or taken to be but what you are Intus teipsum considera inquit Sen. non qualis sis aliis credas Plerunque boni inepti inertes vocantur Mihi contingat iste derisus Aequo animo audienda sunt imperitorum convitia ad honesta vadendi contemnendus est iste contemptus that is Inwardly consider of thy self and judge not what thou art by the words of others For the most part good men are called fools and
Creed or profess themselves Believers though the Congregation seeth not hypocrite written in their foreheads God seeth iâ— written on their hearts and those that converseâ— with them may see it written in their lives And yet these men are the forwardest to cry out against Hypocrites The Devil hath taught it them to stop the suspition and the chase of conscience as he hath taught the greatest Schismaticks or Church-dividers the Papists to cry out most against Schism and division and pretend to unity But these shifts do blind none but fools and forsaken consciences and the cheat that is now detected by the wife will quickly by God be detected before all the world Till then lâ—t them make merry in their deceits who would envy the drunkard the pleasure of an hours swinish sick delight This is their portion and this is their time As we have chosen and covenanted for another portion we are content to stay the time assigned till God shall tell them all the world who was sincere who the hypocrite For our parts we believe that he is most or least sincere that is most or least serious in the practice of his own profest Religion For my part I must profess that by the mercy of God I have made it the work of many a year to look about me and think wherein the felicity of man doth indeed consist And I have long been past doubt as much as I am that I am a man that it is not in transitory sensual delights and that these are such lean and dry commodities and pittiful pleasures leaving men so speedily in a forlorn state that I am contented that my greatest enemy have my part of them I have renounced them to God as any part of my felicity and I renounce them to men Let them do with me about these things as God will give them leave I will have a portion after death or Iâ—e have none And the case is so palpable that it is my admiration that the contrary deceit is consistant with the nature and reason of a man and that so many Gentlemen and Scholars and persons of an ingenuous education can no better distinguish and can possibly conquer their reason so easily with the presence or sensual delights and so easily make nothing of that which will be to morrow and for ever meerly because it is not to day Well I must say the Wisdom and Justice of God is abundantly seen in the Government of the world with the Liberty of the will and determining that all men should speed as they choose It may be the Reader will say be expected that instead of writing such popular discourses I should have vindicated my self against the accusations that in multitudes of Libels and Pamphlets are scattered abroad against me But doth he think that man is seriously a Christian that is not more zealous for God and Religion and the souls of men then for himself Have I nothing else to do with my time labour but plead cause of my own which God will so speedily and effectually plead Will it not be time enough to be justified at the Bar and day of God I am content that they carry it as they desire till then were it not more for their own and other mens sakes then mine Am I like to forsake my life all for Christ endure torments if I were called to it if I cannot endure to be reviled and slandered by passionate men Was it for nothing that our Lord would not answer for himself when he was accused before Pilate Shall they be able to calumniate under the threatnings of the Revenge of Heaven and shall I not be able to be silent under such a promise as Mat. 5. 10 11 12. The servant of the Lord must not strive Our Lord gave us an example of not reviling again when he was reviled He made himself of no reputation but endured the cross and contradiction of sinners despising the shame I confess I think when Gods interest and the good of others doth require it a man should not be wanting to his own defence and I have long ago written that which will satisfie the impartial But when I saw that it is like to tend to heats and set more on work I had rather let men call me all the names they can devise and voluminously accuse me of any thing that malice shall suggest then do any thing to foment contentions in the Church But if God convince me that it is my duty to detect the calumnies of man it is a work soon done But what good will it do the world for me to open the numerous untruths that other men have published or to confute every Script when all that I converse with are satisfied already and believe not the reproaches and all the evidence in the world will not satisfied those that will not read it or are resolved by their malice or interest never to be satisfied For my part I doubt not but God and their consciences will give them such a Confutation as shall be sufficient to them and me to end the controversie My work is to plead the Cause of God and holiness against the profane and sensual world and no further to plead any Cause of my own then is necessary to that If I must bear the effects of mens displeasure I had an hundred times rather it were for pleading for Holiness and Love and Peace and Concord against impiety uncharitableness and divisions then for defending my self or upon the account of Ceremonies or smaller matters And if for these I bear it I doubt not of more comfort at the present much less do I doubt of a better issue then false accusers can expect We shall be shortly upon even ground The time is short The pleasures of sin the triumphs of malice the sufferings of innocency are but for a moment I envy them not so short and dark day The Judge is at the door that will judge all again and set all strait and judge in righteousness When I am afraid of leaving a noisom and unrighteous world and ending all my pain and trouble and being beyond the reach of malice then I will fear what man can do Let them keep me out of heaven or deprive me of my peace and comfort if they can If they fear not the threatnings of God against the malicious and unjust surely I have less reason to fear their threatnings When they have done their worst to others let them save themselves from death if they can I am devoted to God and I never yet found cause to repent it I am resolved to use the utmost of my power for the interest of Holiness Charity and Peace and for loyalty to the King and obedience or patient submission to Superiors And if yet I bear the fruits of fury let those that insult over sufferers as if they were therefore guilty or miserable remember that we could have avoided it if we would and could
and you must hear it no more for ever That therefore which you will do must presently be done or it will be too late If ever you will repent and Believe it must be Now. If ever you will be converted and sanctified it must be Now. If ever you will be pardoned reconciled to God it must be Now. If ever you will reign it s now that you must fight and conquer O that you were wise that you understood this and that you would consider your latter end Deut. 32. 29. And that you would let those words sink down into your hearts which came from the heart of the Redeemer as was witnessed by his tears Luke 19. 41 42. If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hidden from thine eyes And that these warnings may not be the less regarded because you have so often heard them when often hearing increaseth your obligation and diminisheth not the truth or your danger 3. And as there is no Return to Earth so is there no doing this work hereafter Heaven and Hell are for other work If the Infant be dead born the open world will not revive him That which is generated and born a beast or serpent will not by all the influences of the Heavens or all the powers of Sun or Earth become a Man The second and third concoxion presuppose the first The harvest doth presuppose the seed time the labour of the husbandman It s now that you must sow and hereafter that you must reap It s now that you must work and then that you must receive your wages Is this believed and considered by the sleepy world Alas sirs do you live as men that must live here no more Do your work as men that must work no more and pray as men that must pray no more when once the time of work is ended What thinkest thou poor besotted sinner will God command the Sun to stand still while thou rebellest or forgettest thy work and him Dost thou look he should pervert the course of nature continue the spring and seed-time till thou hast a mind to sow or that he will return the dead-born or mis-shapen Infant into the womb that it may be better formed or quickned Will he renew thy age and make the young again and call back the hours that thou prodigally wastedst on thy lusts and idleness Canst thou look for this at the hand of God when Nature and Scripture assure thee of the contrary If not why hast thou not yet done with thy beloved sins Why hast thou not yet begun to live Why sittest thou still while thy soul is un-renewed and all thy preparation for death and judgement is yet to make How fain would Satan find thee thus at death How fain would he have leave to blow out thy candle before thou hast entred inâ—â— the way of life Dost thou look to have Preachers sent after thee to bring thee the mercy which thy contempt here left behind Wilt thou hear and be converted in the Grave and Hell or wilt thou be saved without holiness that is In despight of God that hath resolved it shall not be O ye sons of sleep of death of darkness awake and live and hear the Lord before the Grave and Hell have shut their mouths upon you Hear now least hearing be too late Hear now if you will ever hear Hear now if you have ears to hear And O ye sons of Light that see what sleeping sinners see not call to them and ring them such a peal of lamentations tears and compassionate intreaties as is suited to such a dead and doleful state Who knows but God may bless it to awake them If any of you be so far awakened as to ask me what I am calling you to do My Text tells you in general Up and be Doing Look about you and see what you have to do and Do it with your might 1. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do That is whatsoever is a Duty imposed by the Lord whatsoever is a Means conducing to thy own or others welfare Whatsoever Necessity calleth thee to do and Opportunity alloweth thee to do Thy hand findeth that is Thy executive powers by the conduct of thy understanding is now to do Do it with thy Might Do thy best in it 1. Trifle not but do it presently without unnecessary Delay 2. Do it Resolutely Remain not doubtful unresolved in suspense as if it were yet a question with thee whether thou shouldest do it or not 3. Do it with thy most awakned affections and serious intention of the powers of thy soul Sleepiness and insensibility are most unsuitable to such works It is a peculiar people zealous of good works that Christ hath purchased to himself Tit. 2. 14. 4. Do it with all necessary forecast and contrivance Not with a distracting hindering Care but with such a Care as may shew that you despise not your Master and are not regardless of his work And with such a care as is suited to the difficulties nature of the thing and as is necessary to the due accomplishment 5. Do it not sloathfully but vigorously and with diligence Stick not at thy labour Lest thou hear Thou wicked and sloathful servant Mat. 25. 26. Hide not thy hand in thy bosom with the sloathful say not There is a Lion in the way Prov. 26. 13 14. The negligent and the vicious the waster and the sloathful differ but as one brother from another Prov. 18. 9. As the self-murder of the wilfully ungodly so also the desire of the sloathful killeth him because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21. 25. The soul of the sluggard desireth hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Prov. 13 4. Be not sloathful in business but be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. 6. Do it with Constancy not with destructive pawses and intermissions or with weariness and turning back The righteous shall hold on his way and he that is of clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17. 9. Be stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. Be not weary of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. 9. These six particulars are necessary if you will observe serve the precept in my Text. But that misunderstanding hinder not the performance I shall acquaint you further with the sense by these few explicatory cautions 1. The Might and Diligence here required excludeth not the necessity of Deliberation and Prudent conduct Otherwise the faster you go the further you may go out of the way and mis-guided zeal may spoil all the work and make it but an injury to others or your selves A little imprudence in the season and order and manner of a Duty sometimes may
your Gain The time of market for your souls and of laying up a treasure in Heaven and setting your money to the most gainful Usury and of making you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness furthering your salvation by that which hindereth other mens occasioneth their perdition As you have opportunity do good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 6 7 8 9 12. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes Give a portion to seven and to eight for thou knowest not what evil may be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they both shall be alike good v. 6. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thy hand to do it say not to thy neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 27 28. Lay up a foundation for the time to come do good before thy heart be hardened thy riches blasted consumed thy opportunities taken away part with it before it part with thee Remember it must be Now or Never There is no working in the Grave 5. Hath God intrusted you with Power or Interest by which you may promote his honour in the world relieve the oppressed restrain the rage of impious malice Hath he made you Governours and put the sword of Justice into your hands up then and be doing with your might Defend the innocent protect the servants of the Lord cherish them that do well be a terror to the wicked encourage the strictest obedience to the universal Governor discountenance the breakers of his Laws Look not to be reverenced or obeyed before him or more carefully then he openly maintain his Truth and worship without fear or shame Deal gently and tenderly with his lambs and little ones Search after vice that you may succesfully suppress it Hate those temptations that would draw you to man-pleasing temporizing remisness or countenancing sin but especially those that would ensnare you in a controversie with Heaven in quarrels against the ways of Holiness or in that selfconfounding sin of abusing and opposing the people that are most careful to please the Lord. Your trust is great so is your advantage to do good And how great will be your account how dreadful if you be unfaithful As you signifie more then hundreds or thousands of the meaner sort and your actions do most good or hurt so you must expect to be accordingly dealt with when you come to the impartial final judgement Befriend the Gospel as the Charter of your everlasting priviledges Own those that Christ hath told you he will own Use them as men that are ready to hear Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Mat. 25. Know not a wicked person but let your eyes be on the faithful of the land that they may dwel therein and lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Psal 101. 1. Tim. 2. 2. Let those that work the work of the Lord be with you without fear 1 Cor. 16. 10. Remember that it is the Character of a Pharisee and Hypocrite to see the mote of the non-observance of a Ceremony or tradition or smaller matter of difference in Religion in their Brothers eye and not to see the beam of hypocrisie injustice and malicious cruel opposition of Christ and his Disciples in their own eyes And that its the brand of them that please not God that are filling up their sins on whom Gods wrath is coming to the utmost to persecute the servants of the Lord forbidding them to Preach to the people that they might be saved 1 Thess 2. 15 16. Learn well the second and the hundred and first Psalm And write these sentences on your walls and doors as an Antidote against that self-undoing sin Mat. 18. 6. Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Zach. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Rom. 14. 1 2. and 15. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations For God hath received him Mat. 10. 40 41 42. He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whoso shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward If you love not the Godly love your selves so far as to such self-love is possible wound not your own hearts to make their fingers bleed Damn not your souls and that by the surest nearest way that you may hurt their bodies Provoke not God to thrust you from his presence and deny your suits by your dealing so with them stop not your own mouths when your misery will bespeak your lowdest cryes for mercy by your stopping the mouths of the servants of the Lord and refusing to hear their requests for justice If you have the Serpents enmity against the womans seed you must expect the Serpents doom Your heads will be bruised when you have bruised their heels Gen. 3. 15. Kick not against the pricks Acts 9. Let not bryars and thorns set themselves in battel against the Lord lest he go therefore through them burn them together Isa 27. 4. I speak not any of this by way of accusation or dishonorable reflexion on the Magistrate Blessed be God that hath given us the comfort of your defence But knowing what the Tempter aimeth at and where it is that your danger lieth by what means the rulers of the earth have been undone faithfulness commandeth me to tell you of the snare and to set before you good evil as ever I would escape the guilt of betraying you by flattery or cruel and cowardly silence And especially when your Magistracy is but annual or for a short time it concerneth you to be doing with your might It is but this year or short space of time that you have to do this special service in Lose this and lose all By what men on earth should God be eminently served honoured if not by Magistrates whom he hath eminently advanced impowred and intrusted With considerate foresight seriously ask your selves the question Are you willing to hear at the day of your accounts that you had but one year or a few to do God special service in and that you knew this and yet would not do it Can your hearts bear
it then to hear and think that you lost wilfully lost such an opportunity Look about you then and see what is to be done Are there not Ale-houses to be supprest and drunkards riotous persons to be restrained Preaching and Piety to be promoted Do it with your might For it must be Now or Never 6. To come yet a little nearer you and speak of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls Are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature born only of the flesh and not of the Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. minding the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 5 7 9 13. consequently yet in the power of Satan taken captive by him at his will Act. 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Vp and be doing if thou love thy soul If thou care whether thou be in Joy or misery for ever bewail thy sin and spiritual distress Make out to Christ cry mightily to him for his renewing and reconciling pardoning grace plead his sactisfaction his merits his promises Away with thy rebellion thy beloved sin Deliver up thy soul entirely to Christ to be sanctified governed and saved by him Make no more demurs about it it is not a matter to be questioned or trifled in Let the earth be acquainted with thy bended knees and the air with thy complaints and cries men with thy confessions and enquiries after the way of life and heaven with thy sorrows desires and resolutions till thy soul be acquainted with the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and with the new the holy and heavenly nature and thy heart have received the transcript of Gods Law the impress of the Gospel and so the Image of thy Creator and Redeemer Ply this work with all thy might For there is no Conversion Renovation or Repentance unto life in the grace whither thou goest It must be Now or Never And Never saved if Never sanctified Heb. 12. 14. 7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortifie that either reigneth in thee or woundeth thee and keepeth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with God Assault it resolutely Reject it speedily Abhor the motions of it Turn away from the persons or things that would entice thee Hate the doors of the Harlot and of the Alehouse or the gaming house and go not as the Ox to the slaughter and as a bird to the fowlers snare and as a fool to the correction of the stocks as if thou knewest not that it is for thy life Prov. 7. 22 23. Why thou befooled stupid soul wilt thou be tasting of the poysoned cup wilt thou be glutting thee with the bait Hast thou no where to walk or play thee but at the brink of Hell Must not the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Must it not be tamed and mortified or thy soul condemned Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Run not therefore as at uncertainty fight not as one that beats the air ver 26. seeing this must be done or thou art undone delay and dally with sin no longer Let this be the day resolve and resist it with thy might It must be Now or Never when death comes it is too late It will be then no reward to leave thy sinne which thou canst keep no longer No part of Holiness or happiness that thou art not drunk or proud or lustful in the grave or hell As thou art wise therefore know and take thy Time 8. Art thou in a declined lapsed state decayed in grace Hast thou lost thy first desires and love do thy first works and do them with thy might Delay not but remember from whence thou art fallen and what thou hast lost by it and into how sad a case thy folly and negligence hath brought thee say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hos 2. 7. Cry out with Job 29. 2 3. 4 5. O that I were as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was on my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me Return while thou hast day lest the night surprize thee Loyter and delay no more thou hast lost by it already thou art far behind hand Bestir thee therefore with all thy Might 9. Art thou in the darknesse of uncertainty concerning thy conversion and thy everlasting state Dost thou not know whether thou be in a state of life or death and what should become of thee if this were the day or hour of thy change If thou art careful about it and enquirest and usest the means that God hath appointed thee for assurance I have then no more to say to thee now but wait on God and thou shalt not be disappointed or ashamed Thou shalt have assurance in due time or be saved before thou wouldst believe thou should be saved Be patient and obedient and the light of Christ will shine upon thee and yet thou shalt see the days of peace But if thou art careless in thy uncertainty and mindest not so great a business be awakened and call thy soul to its account Search and examine thy heart and life Read and consider and take advice of faithful Guides Canst thou carelesly sleep and laugh and sport and follow thy lesser business as if thy Salvation were made sure when thou knowest not where thou must dwell for ever Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you are reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Give all diligence in time to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. In the Grave and Hell there is no making sure of Heaven you are then past enquiries and self-examinations in order to any recovery or hope Another kind of tryal will finally resolve you Up therefore and diligently ply the work it must be Now or Never 10. In all the duties of thy Profession of Piety Justice or Charity to God thy self or others up and be doing with thy might Art thou seeking to inflame thy soul with love to God plunge thy self in the Ocean of his love admire his mercies gaze upon the representations of his transcendent goodness O taste and see that the Lord is gracious Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart and soul and might canst thou pour out thy love upon a creature and give but a few barren drops to God When thou art Fearing him let his Fear command thy soul and conquer all the fear of man When thou art Trusting him do it without distrust and cast all thy care and thy self upon him Trust him as a creature should trust his God and the members of Christ should trust their Head and dear Redeemer When thou
and power to build men up in holiness and obedience and when thou hast done this wilt thou disgrace and hinder it Dost thou take on thee to go on the message of Christ and then speak against him We do not find that Judas dealt thus with him when he sent him as he did other Preachers we read not that he preacht against him O let not my soul be numbered with such men in the day of the Lord It will be easier for Sodom and Gomorah then for the refusers of the Word and Grace of Christ What then will be the doom of the opposers And above all of those treacherous opposers that pretend themselves to propagate and promote them If the wit and malice of Satans instruments were sharpened against the wayes and servants of the Lord it belongs to you to plead Christs cause and shame these absur'd unreasonable gainsayers and stop the mouth of impious contradiction And will you joyne with the gainsayers and secretly or openly say as they Who should confound the dâ—â—ders of a holy life but you Who should lay open the excellencies of Christ the Glory of Heaven the terrours of the Lord and all other obligations to the most serious Religiousness but you that have undertaken it as your calling and employment If any man in the Parish were so Atheistical and brutish as to think God unworthy of our dearest Love our most exact obedience and most laborious service who should display this Atheists folly but you that are doubly as Christians and as Ministers obliged to defend the honour of your Lordâ— If any of the people should fall into such a dream or dotage as to question the necessity of our utmost diligence in our preparations for eternal life who should awake them by lifting up their voices as a trumpet and help to recover their understandings but you that are the watchmen and know their blood will be required at your hands if you give them not loud and timely warning if any subtile malicious servant of the Devil should plead against the Necessity of Holyness and disswade the people from serving God with all their might who should be ready to confirm the weak and strenghten and encourage them that are thus assaulted and help to keep up their zeal and forwardness but you that are leaders in the Army of the Lord is it not a Holy God that you are engaged to serve And a Holy Church in which you have your station And a Communion of Saints in which you have undertaken to administer the Holy things of God Have you not read what was done to Nadab and Abihu when Moses told Aaron This is it that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before the people I will be glorified Lev. 10. 3. Is it not a Holy Law and Gospel which you publish You have undertaken to warn the sloathful the sensual the worldly and the prophane that they strive to enter in at the straight gate and seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Luke 13. 24. Matth. 6. 33. and to give diligence to make sure their calling and election 2 Pet. 1. 10. and to give all diligence in adding vertue to their faith c. 2 Pet. 1. 5. and with all diligence to keep their hearts Prov. 4. 23. And are you the men that would quench their zeal and destroy the holy diligence which you should Preach The Lord touch your hearts and recover you in time or how woful will it be with such hardened Hypocrites that in the Light and in his Family and Livery and under his Standard and Colours dare prove Traitors and Enemies to the Lord 4. And what an addition is it to your guilt that you speak against God in his own Name By Office you are to deliver his Message and speak to the people in his Name and in his stead 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. And dare you before the Sun and under the Heavens of God and in his Hearing perswade men that the most Holy God is against Holiness and the King of Saints is an adversary to sanctity and that he that made his holy Law is against the most exact obeying of it Dare you prefix a Thus saith the Lord to so impious a speech as It is in vain to serve the Lord what needs there so much ado for your salvation dare you go to men as from the Lord say You are too careful diligent in his service Less ado may serve the turn What needs this fervour and redeeming time This is but Puritanism or Preciseness It s better do as the most and venture your souls without so much ado Who could at last hold up his face or stand before the dreadful Tribunal that should be found in the guilt of such a Crime What to put God into the similitude of Satan and describe the most Holy as the enemy of Holiness and make him plead against himself and disgrace his own Image and disswade men from that which he himself hath made of necessity to their Salvation What viler Blasphemy can be uttered 5. And it aggravateth your sin that your Relation obligeth you to the most tender affections to your people And yet that you should seduce them to damnation For the Nurse to poison them for the parents to cut the childrens throats is worse then for an enemy to do it If the Devil our professed enemy should himself appear to us and say Prepare not so seriously for death Be not so strict and diligent and holy it were not in many respects so bad as for you to do it that should help to save us from his snares You that profess your selves their Fathers that should travail in birth till Christ be formed in your peoples hearts that should love your people as your own bowels and tender the weak and pitty the wicked and stick at no labour suffering or cost that might advance their holiness and further their Salvation For you to tempt men into a careless life and turn them out of the holy way is an aggravated cruelty It s worse for the Shepherd to destroy us then the Wolf Read Ezek. 34. 33. 6. Are you not ashamed thus to contradict your selves What can you find to Preach from the Word of God that tendeth not to this holy diligence which you are against How can you make shift to Preach an hour and not acquaint men with the Duty and Necessity of seeking God with all their Might Do you not tell them that except they be converted and new born they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. Mat. 18. 3. And that without holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. And that if they live after the flesh they shall die Rom. 8. 13. And that except their righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 20. And will you in
so much to do know all that is now left undone must be undone for ever Alas sirs how many questions of exceeding weight have you yet to be resolved in whether you are truly sanctified whether your sins be pardoned whether you shall be saved when you die whether you are ready to leave this world and enter upon another I tell you the answering of these and many more such questions is a matter of no small difficulty or concernment And all these must be done in this little and uncertain time It must be Now or Never Live but as men that believe and consider these certain unquestionable things 10. Lastly Will you but live as men that believe that the world and the flesh are the deadly enemies of your Salvation and that believe that if any man love the world so far the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. And as men that believe that if ye live after flesh ye shall die but if by the spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the bodie ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. and that those that are in Christ Jesus and are freed from condemnation are such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. And that we must make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the will or lusts thereof Rom. 13. 10. and must not walk in gluttonie drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying v. 13. but must have our hearts where our treasure is Mat. 6. 21. and converse in Heaven Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and being risen with Christ must seek the things that are above and set our affections on them and not on the things that are on earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Sirs will you say that any of this is our singular opinion or matter of controversie doubt Are not all Christians agreed in it Do you not your selves profess that you believe it Live then but as those that do believe it condemn not your selves in the things that you confess I tell thee if now thou wilt refuse to live according to these common acknowledged truths thou shalt never be able to say before the Lord that mens controversie about a Ceremony or Church-Government of the manner or worship were the things that hindred thee but all sorts sects shall be witnesses against thee and condemn thee for they all agreed in these things even the bloodiest sect that imprison and torment and kill others for their differences in smaller matters are yet agreed with those that they persecute and murder about these things Papists are agreed in them and Protestants are agreed in them All the sects that are now quarrelling among us in the world are agreed in them who are but meet for the name of Christians All these will be ready to bear witness against the prophane the sensual the sloathful neglecter of God and his Salvation and to say we all confessed notwithstanding our other differences that all these things were certain truths and that mens lives should be ordered according unto these But if yet you pretend controversie to cover your malignity or ungodliness I will go a little further and tell you that in the matter as well as in the principles it is things that we are all agreed in which I call you to and which the ungodly do refuse I le briefly name them 1. One part of your work which we urge you to do with all your might is seriously soberly to consider often of all these truths before mentioned which you say you do believe And is it any controversie with reasonable men whether they should use their reason or with believers whether they should consider and lay to heart the weight use of the things which they believe 2. Another part of your work is to love God with all your soul might and to make him your delight to seek first his Kingdom and the rightousness thereof and to set your affections on things above and to live on earth as the heirs of heaven And is there any controversie among Protestants Papists or any about this 3. Another part of your work is to see the honouring of God in the world the promoting of his Kingdom and Government in your selves and others the doing of his will and obeying of his Laws And is there any controversie in this 4. Another part of your work is to to mortifie the flesh to reject its conceits and desires and lusts which resist the foresaid obedience to God and to cast out the inordinate love and care of worldly things to refuse the counsels the commands the will the enticements and perswasions of man which contradict the commands will of God to forsake all that you have in the world rather then forsake your dear Redeemer and hazard your salvation by any wilful sin To take up your Cross and follow Christ through a life of suffering to glory I know there is difficulty enough in all this and that flesh will repine against it and abhor it But is there any controversie about it among any true believers Is not all this the express Command of God and necessary to salvation 5. Another part of your work is to avoid temptations and fly from the occasions and appearances of evil and not only to avoid that which is directly evil it self but that also which would draw you into evil as far as you can and to keep as far as may be from the brink of hell and danger to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknes nor be companions with them but reprove them and mourn for the unclean and wicked conversation of the world This is it that we intreat of you is there any matter of controversie in all this 6. Another part of the work which we call you to is to redeem this little Time that is allotted you To make the best of it and improve it to the greatest furtherance of your salvation To lose none of it upon unprofitable things to spend it in those works which will comfort you most when time is gone If it will be more comfortable to you in the day of Judgment that you have spent your Time in playes sports and idleness worldly cares pleasures then in serving God preparing for another life then hold on and do so to the end But if it will not then do what you would hear of seeing you must hear of it spend none of your time in idleness unfruitful things till you have no better and more necessary things to spend it in till you have Time to spare from more important work This is our request to you that you would not lose one hour of your pretious Time but spend it as those that have lost too much and have but a little more to spend in preparation for eternity And is this any Schismatical or factious motion Is there any thing controvertible