Ballances may be said to be ballances of deceit in a double sense There are ballances where by men deceive others as those false ballances which unrighteous men use for their own advantage to buy or sell by which may be those there meant and there are false ballances whereby men deceive themselves Ungodly men as they weigh their commodities they sell in false ballances thereby to deceive others so they weigh their gains that they get to themselves in false ballances and thereby deceive themselves their bargains that they make they could never count them such good bargains unless they weighed them on their deceitful ballances If sense may be Judge the world is a good bargain when dearest bought though if faith may be Judge when the world may be had cheapest it is not over safe dealing for it Now when the worth of the world is understood the Divels market is spoiled No man will care to deal with such a pedlar whilest the Merchant stands by who will sell his inheritance for counters or his patrimony for dirt and dung who will spend his money for that which he knows is not bread or his labour for that which profiteth not the strength of the temptation is broken when once we understand of how little valew the things are we are tempted by Christians study the world more search the Scriptures and what these testifie of it believe the Scriptures which have written upon all under the Sun Vanity and vexation of spirit understand what an insignificant cypher this figure of the world is Believe your own words you can sometimes speak contemptibly of the world your selves Who of you will not say this world is but a shadow and the fashion of it passeth away do ye think as you speak do not dissemble either speak your minds plainly that this earth is your substance your treasure your portion and that its worth the venturing your Souls for it or if you go on to say this is not your rest you have here no continuing City ther 's no building on this sand here 's no contentment nor continuance here if ye go on to speak thus believe your own words and then Judg how wisely you deal for your selves in venturing your eternity for such empty perishing things 2. By Faith the soul pitches upon an eternal inheritance It s our choosing the good part Luke 10. 42. our laying hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6. 12. those believers Heb. 11. 14. are said to seek a countrey they were not mindful of this they confest themselves and were content to be strangers and pilgrims here their countrey was on the other side Jordan and thither they sent their hearts Faith descries a better countrey it sees into the invisible world Heb. 11 27. its the good spy that 's sent out to search the land of Canaan and finding it to be a good land there the Soul pitches It saies unto the Lord thou art my God thou art my portion for ever this is my rest here will I dwell If I can bear through this weary land and at last enter into that rest however matters go with me here I am not careful about that if I can but attain to the resurrection of the dead if I can but get to Heaven that 's all my desire and design Meet a believer where you will and ask him whether art thou bound Oh for the Holy Land whom seekest thou thou Jesus of Nazareth what runnest thou for what waitest thou for The incorruptible Crown Ask him again will nothing less content thee Look about through all the earth canst thou find nothing worthy thy love what is silver and gold and houses and lands and honours and pleasures are these nothing with thee may not these satisfie thee No no these are not God this is not Heaven there 's no rest here for the sole of my foot my house and my home is above my hope and my treasure is above and my Soul is above and cannot be content to dwell in the dust Ask him yet again But how wilt thou get into that good Land there are difficulties and dangers in the way thou hast a wilderness to go through a red Sea and a Jordan to pass over there are Lions in thy way there are Giants in thy way thou mayest be a prey to thine enemies torn in pieces of wild Beasts or swallowed up in the waters or at least thou mayst wander in the wilderness and loose thy way and never come into thy rest at last Well but however I must venture I am resolv'd for heaven how difficult or dangerous soever the way may prove I 'le venture all here Heaven or nothing Christ or nothing Henceforth let no man trouble me with other business for I bear in my heart the prints of the Lord Jesus he is gotten within me he is engraven upon my breast and on my soul and this heart can never be at rest till I be with him where he is Lord be thou my God and bring me into thine holy habitation lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and shew me thy salvation this one thing I desire let this be granted me and then my heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope I have enough thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And now world where art thou with all thy glory this earth is trodden to dirt when the heart is once in earnest for heaven Christians come pitch your Tents here where will you that your lot shall fall you have two worlds before you which will you chuse hang not betwixt both Will you get up to the Mountains or will you dwell in this Plain Come to a resolution you will never get clear of this world till you climb up to the other 'T is only the milk and honey of Canaan that will wean your souls from the Onions and Garlick of Egypt The flowers of the field will be beautiful till you see the Roses of the Garden The fatness of the earth will be your delight till you understand the sweetness of heaven you 'l never be content to loose from this shore till you see the banks of a better Land you will not part with your present purchases till you see where you may have a better bargain It s to no purpose to think to get off your hearts by common arguments This world is vain this world is troublesome uncertain fading a barren Land if that be all you can say 't will never do your hearts will answer A barren Land is better than none an house of Clay is better then no habitation If my soul may not dwell here where shall I be better Where mayst thou be better Come and see lift up your eyes to the hills look you towards Sion the City of the great King mark all her Bulwarks tell all her Towers behold
even wrought our selves out of work or else how quickly are we discouraged by the greatness of our work the least straw is a stumbling block the least Molehill a Mountain every duty is a difficulty and every difficulty an impossibility How shall I stand under so much work Who would venture on so great difficulties Am I God and not man spirit and not flesh the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak No no thy spirit is weak too this spirit is but flesh How weak is thine heart that it is so soon discouraged O Brethren where is the victorious spirit where are the Heroes of Christianity the Nobles that set their necks to the work of the Lord What designs have you for advancing in holiness for magnifying the grace of God in you for exalting his name in an heavenly life Where are the Trophies of your prowess bring forth the Captives you have taken Can you shew your lusts in Chains your pride in Chains your covetousness in Chains Here are the prisoners I have taken Behold houses and honors and dignities and pleasures behold my feet upon the necks of them all This little I have done for God Yet not I but the grace of God that was with me This little have I done for God the weights are laid aside and now will I run with patience the Race which is set before me Now for a fruitful life for labouring and abounding in the work of the Lord for growing rich unto God rich in good works I cannot sit down by that little I have done he is worthy he is worthy for whom I should do other manner of things then these for whom I should live another manner of life then this O were I all soul all wing all life all action how little would this my all be to what I would it were Rise up O my soul shake off thy ashes open thy sluces let run all thy streams what wilt thou do for thy good I have done for my flesh I have done for my family I have done for my friends what shall I do for my God Read O my soul in the Book of Records as that King did Ester 6. 2. and search what the Lord hath done for thee how he hath pardoned thee and sanctified thee and subdued thine enemies under thee how he hath brought thee out of thine house of bondage and redeemed thee from the house of servants And then ask What honour hath been done the Lord for all this O Brethren how are we straitned we walk as if we were still in our fetters if we were still Vassals to this earth we could hardly be less active for heaven Whilest we tell one another what the Lord hath done for our souls how little have we to tell what our souls have done for the Lord Empty vines we are that bring forth our fruit to our selves that sow for our selves and reap for our selves and thresh for our selves and live to our selves and how little to him And that little we do for God how hardly are we brought to it Am I bound to do this am I bound to do that bound to give so much to the poor bound to spend so much time in prayer bound to such constant care and labour May not less suffice will not less be accepted may I not be a Christian at a cheaper rate And if our flesh can but make us believe that less may serve how glad are we to sit down and save our labour Brethren is it not thus with the most of us must we not be drag'd and driven on to duty what do we more then bare necessity forces us to if fear would let us alone if Conscience would let us be quiet how little is it that love to Christ would put us upon Oh where are the large hearts to God the flowing souls that freely offer themselves to the Lord Woe to us this earth still sucks up our streams 2. Fortitude By this we stand against the fury of the world That 's a magnanimous spirit that delights in difficulties and despises danger a bold soul that not only loves to serve but dares to suffer that is not careful about this matter Dan. 3. Whom none of all these things move Act. 20. 24. that is strong and of good courage Victory attends the valiant and makes more valiant a little Conquest fleshes the faint This Christian fortitude comprehends in it these three things A boldness With God In God For God 1. A boldness with God A free and confident access to God a coming boldly before the Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. And this arises from a sense of Reconciliation with God from an inward acquaintance with God from a conscience of uprightness before the Lord Heb. 10. 19. 22. Having therefore boldness by the blood of Jesus let us draw near with a true heart with an heart sprinkled from an evil conscience There 's no coming before God with a guilty or guileful heart 't is Innocence that gives boldness the conscience of guilt or guile makes us afraid and ashamed to appear before God We are afraid of our Bibles asham'd to look towards our Closets when God hath a quarrel with us We go into our Closets as the Thief to the House of Correction We sneak in ashamed and afraid and shuffle over in haste and are glad when we get out again We cannot pray we scarce dare to lift up our eyes to heaven we blush before the Lord and cannot be free and open-hearted with him Guilt stops our mouths or at least the heart keeps silence where this cryes in its ears How can I go before the Lord What am I like to hear if I speak to him What will he answer me if I call upon him Why eryest thou to me Go to the Gods whom thou hast served go to thy pleasures go to thy companions go to thy Mammon which thou hast served thou art privy to thy treacheries to the Whoredomes thou hast committed with thine other Gods why cryest thou to me in thy distress go to the Gods after which thou hast loved to wander how will that heart hang down the head and give it self the repulse that 's conscious to such treachery When the soul can reply I have no other God to go to this Flesh is not my God this World is not my God my heart is with thee my desire is to thee and I have kept me by thee thou knowest Lord it hath been my care to keep me from the way and from the lusts of this world and to walk before thee in mine integrity then will it lift up its face with confidence in his presence Now he that can thus be bold with God that can with openness of heart make his appeal to God as the witness of his integrity and that can hereupon make his request to God make known his want and his straits and distresses and be bold to leave it upon him to relieve and support him he that
grace be grace high in knowledge and low in love strong in confidence and loose in conscience hot in affection and cold in practise in the solaces of the spirit and yet walking in the flesh Behold a Christian like Nebuchadnezzars Image the head of gold the feet of iron and clay desinit in piscem mulier formofa supernè 'T is strange to observe what contradictions some Professors of Christianity are they are what they are not they are not what they are whilest they would be the great reconcilers of flesh and spirit of earth and heaven and make the serving of God and their own bellies the same service behold how they are divided from themselves they love God and love him not they serve God and serve him not this they may do as well as love God and this present world Oh how different are many of us from our selves our practices from our principles our doings from our sayings and yet how little differing from others you pray as others do not you hear as others do not you swear not as others you curse not as others but do you not covet as others are you not carnal as others Consider your wayes who more intent upon their present commodity who more hot upon the chase of an earthly inheritance then some of those who profess to have laid up their treasure in heaven Are there none to be sound who pretend to the greatest confidence of Divine Love to the highest pitch of Spirituality and Divine Communion who seem to pant after the Lord and breath out their souls in their warm and passionate duties and yet are eaten out and swallowed up of the cares of this life It is an amazing thing to consider what a strange degree of earthliness is to be found among such what infatiable hunger what indefatigable labour after an encrease of their estates how little respect to soul or conscience where their gain is concerned how ordinarily dispensing with lying promise breaking and almost any unrighteousness when 't is for their advantage how many grains must there be allowed them e're charity it self can judge them honest And where is all bestowed that is thus gotten in how little goes out for God or any of his how many hypocritical bemoanings of the hard case of the poor to one liberal alms Some gather only that they may lay up others that they may have to spend upon their lusts to build them houses and furnish their tables to trim their carkasses to please their eye or their palats and all this either justified and allowed or at least made up with some such hypocritical complaints Woe is me this world is too hard for me O it eats up my time O it steals away mine heart how am I overcharged how is my soul even choaked within me what shall I do to help it And when the complaint is thus made the matter is mended now a good Christian now ease and joy and confidence returns and then on again the same course Brethren be serious consider your selves feel your own pulses view your own faces and ways observe your hearts see where their daily walks are may you not find them ten times walking to and fro through the earth to once or twice casting a look towards heaven What are their daily tasks what is the work you every day put them upon Instead of those higher and nobler Offices of Vessels of Honor waiting before the Throne of God standing in his Courts bearing his Name beholding his Face setting forth his Praises have not our hearts been made hewers of wood and drawers of water carriers of burthens servers of tables purveyors for the flesh caterers for the appetite servants to the back and the belly the great traders and merchants of the earth to buy in provision for lust Worthy employment for immortal Souls as if the utensils of the Temple the golden altar the golden table the candlesticks the bowls and the basons all of beaten gold should have been fetchd out and set up in a blind Inne or a dirty alehouse for the service and the pleasure of every drunken companion Have not your Souls none of you been thus dealt withall are not these your heart-works when any thing is to be done for God the body must do that the body must to the closet the tongue must pray the ear must hear the eye must read but the Soul must stay abroad when any thing is to be done for the other world that must be but bodily exercise but when this flesh must be served that 's the heart-work that 's work for the Soul If these Souls could be seen with bodily eyes a man that goes into the field or into a fair or to a feast might see an hundred Souls more there then bodies and he that went into the congregation of the Lord if there were never so great a throng may be he might see but a few hearts in the company Christians consider is this your faith is this your victory over the world is this to be mortified is this to be crucified with Christ or to have your conversation in Heaven or can you think your selves believers especially of so high a form when so earthly and carnal What think you of those Jews of whom the Lord speaks Ezek. 33. 31. They come unto thee as the people cometh they sit before thee as my people they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goes after their covetousness Are these the people of God all whose religion is to come to hear and to pray to have a mouth full of God a mouth full of love and an heart full of covetousness Give me leave to interpose a word or two to the carrying on the former conviction as to many professâ—rs of religion in order whereto let us a little consider that Scripture Philip. 3. 18. 19. Where the Apostle speaks of a sort of professours much of this earthly make and he speaks with tears in his eyes Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind erthly things In the former part of the chapter you may observe how 1. He gives an account of himself and his own Christianity and this in these particulars 1. He set such an high rate on Christ and an interest in his righteousness that in comparison hereof he counted all things else but loss and dung let this gain be loss this earth be dung troden under foot as dung cast out as dung so I may win Christ and be found in him 2. He unites interest in Christ with conformity to Christ they lye both together in the same heart and his Soul is making out after both in the same breath That I may win Christ and be found in him and that I may know him
immarcessible to which we are redeemed we have a survey of them all in this price that was paid for them The love of Christ his kindnesses and compassions do all look forth upon us His sweat his stripes his grief his groans his bloud do all speak Behold how he loved us behold what he hath laid up for those that love him Brethren will not this price buy off your Souls from this Earth which hath bought them from Hell will neither the price nor the purchase do it will not Heaven be taken in exchange for clay you have been at the table of the Lord but sure you do not use to see Jesus there if your Souls yet dwell in the dust Look ye to that tree the cross of your Lord that instrument of death behold how it is become a tree of life a tree of life hung with all manner of precious fruits there are all the curses naild and witherd there are all the flowers and fruits of the Paradise of God growing up and flourishing there is joy and glory there is life and peace Sursum Corda What are these Souls what moles and batts what no eyes to see this glory what see it and not desire it what still feeding with the worms Let these moles get them eyes let these worms get them wings look till you can see and see till you can love and then ascend and be satisfied When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me Joh. 12. 32. Is not the Son of Man lifted up dost thou not see him before thee what is thine heart that doth not yet begin to ascend O what is Christ what not worth the thirty pieces wilt thou again sell thy Lord for money once more look on him whom thou hast pierced and then say O my Soul whom wilt thou Jesus or Barabbas this World is a robber what do I here am I come to crucifie the Son of God afresh to set him at nought again to sell him the second time my mony perish from me rather then it should again become the price of bloud 2. The Sacrament is the New Testament sealed the use of a Seal is to secure and confirm therefore Seals are affix'd to writings bonds or covenants to give them their full force and ratification The writing to which this Seal is set is the Gospel the great and precious promises which are full of life and immortality and all the riches of the promised land The Lord in giving us the Sacramental Elements his Bread and his Cup doth therein deliver us the Covenant of Grace sealed to assure us of the truth and certainty thereof as if he should say This shall be a sign betwixt me and thee that if thou accept of my Gospel treasures upon Gospel terms if thou wilt have no other God but wiâ—t forsake all and follow me this shall be to assure thee that I will be thy God and all that I have is thine And as the Lord seals on his part so we set our seal to our part of the Covenant as the Covenant is mutual so is the sealing Gods giving is his sealing and our receiving is ours our receiving the Elements from the hand of the Lord our eating and drinking is our seal to witness our acceptance of God upon Gods terms let this be a sign betwixt me and thee that I accept Lord I accept of thee according to the tenor and terms of thy Covenant Our acceptance of these Elements is as a Servants taking Covenant money or a Souldiers taking Press money which binds the one to his Master the other to his Captain and our sealing in this manner doth in a sense ratifie Gods Seal as to our particular interest in the promise as upon a servants receiving his Covenant money the Covenant is confirmed not only on his own part but also on his Masters His Master is now engaged to own him provide for him protect him and reward him as his servant It s true Gods Seal alone fully confirms the truth of the Covenant in general but upon my sealing to the condition on my part provided it be sincere and unfeigned hereupon Gods Seal doth not only confirm the Covenant in general that he which believeth and obeyeth the Gospel shall certainly be saved but it now makes it sure to me and gives me a certain propriety in all the promises of God There 's not a man in the world that thus accepts and sets to his Seal but the Seal of God stands good to him he hath it under Gods hand and seal that he shall be pardoned he hath it under Gods hand and seal that grace and peace and all things necessary unto life and salvation are his Only it must be understood and remembred as before our acceptance is not to be only of what God promises a willingness to be pardoned and saved but of what God requires a willingness to serve him and forsaking all others to cleave only unto him as a Souldier takes his Press money not only in token that he accepts of his pay or a servant his Covenant money in token that he accepts of his wages but it is their taking pay upon terms to fight and taking wages on terms to work Now hence arises a double advantage in our war against the world an Encouragement Engagement 1. Gods Seal encourages us on The Covenant of God assures not only a Crown to the Conqueror but assistance to the Combatant He will be not only the rewarder but the helper of all those that diligently seek him He hath said Heb. 13. 5. I will never fail thee nor forsake thee And hereupon thou mayst boldly say The Lord is my helper He hath said Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my spirit within you and ver 26. I will give you a new heart This flesh will never prevail but what cannot the Spirit of the Lord do this old heart and the world will never part they were ever friends and ever will be but he will take away this and give you another heart Fright not thy self with the difficulties thou seest before thee from the strong party the world has within thee thy carnal nature with all thine earthly members from the Allies and Confederates it hath without thee Satan with all his instruments and temptations thou wilt be like to say How can I turn this stream of nature how can I stand against this floud of temptations Can I create me a new spirit or can I conquer whilest this old spirit lives can I command my love and my fear and my hatred as I please can I love what I will and hate what I will and fear what I will can I fly from what my heart follows after or fight against what I so love and desire How can I endure such hardness as not only the fight but the victory will bring upon me Can I be poor can I be hungry be naked be destitute can I be in reproach in disgrace and contempt will this
When I awake I am still with thee that is my thoughts are presently with thee my meditations are of thee and where my thoughts are there am I. When the thoughts are with God the soul is with God when the thoughts are in the earth and mud the soul is all bemired The soul goes forth to view to taste and to chuse for it self the thoughts take a view the affections and senses taste and take the relish and then accordingly the will chuses The will should nakedly follow the understanding and chuse only what the unbyassed judgment tells it is good but it does too ordinarily follow the affections and senses these blind the reason and so ingage the will we chuse what we love and what pleases rather then what upon an impartial deliberation we judge to be good The things of both worlds work upon hearts objectively by the good or evil that is apprehended in them they accordingly affect us our thoughts search into things what there is in them when our thoughts by searching find out God God is regarded and when they are in search after the world they make a shift to fancy this to be good and accordingly it is imbraced The thoughts are the feet and the eyes of the soul the feet Eccles 5. 1. keep thy feet when thou goest into the house of God that is keep and look well to thy thoughts The eyes Prov. 17. 24. The eyes of a fool that is his thoughts are in the ends of the earth the rovings of the thoughts are the souls compassing the earth and its walking to and fro to the ends thereof Keep your thoughts in by the Lord and you keep your souls in your thoughts will be in exercise will be walking daily and hourly some whither or other there 's no keeping them in they will abroad either to heaven or earth oh send them to heaven daily and hold them there let them have no leisure to wander in this earth Brethren think your selves up to heaven as we may pray our selves up and believe our selves up to heaven so we may think our selves thither worldly men think themselves into pride or think themselves into covetousness or think themselves into wantonness are so long thinking and thinking in fuel for lust till they have set it all in a flame as worldly men think themselves into wickedness so let Christians think themselves into holiness think themselves into humility sobriety contentation and heavenliness of mind call off your thoughts from this earth and you will cease to be earthly call them back from vanity and you will cease to be vain call them up to heaven and you call them off from what 's below Think on God more Christians and the everlasting Kingdome think on the way that leads to it on the dangers that lie in the way on the dread of perishing in the way on the beauty and pleasure and comfort of being upright in the way of the goal and prize that is at the end of the way Take up such thoughts as these Is not God better then the world that is is not all things better then nothing Is not grace better then sin that is is not fair better then foul Is not peace better then wrath peace with God then friendship with the world are not the fillings of Gold better then heaps of earth Is a little grace so good and is not more desirable can there be much grace where the desire is so divided betwixt it and vanity Is gold in the Our so precious as gold out of the fire Is the twilight pleasant O what is the day light Is a mixture of flesh and spirit of heaven and earth as desirable as all spirit all heaven If grace be so good if peace with God be so precious why do I not seek it if I have a little grace if I have a little peace why do I not press for more when shall I increase and grow rich towards God if I do not decrease towards this earth Be thinking thus on heaven and heavenly things and if you will be thinking of earth too think of the dark places of the earth and the dark side of its brightness think of the precipices the marishes the quagmires the barren Mountains and desolate Wildernesses the bryars and thorns and wild beasts of the earth my meaning is if you will study the world study its vanity and vexations the danger you are in of being lost or torn in pieces or swallow'd up of them How uncertain are these riches how vanishing is this mirth how unconstant are these friends what a blast are these honors what a flash are these pleasures what a bubble are these buildings how long will they lust what will be left of them a few years hence But O the thorns and the bryars the vexations the cares the fears the disappointments the crosses the sweat and the sorrows that are mingled with these pleasures and possessions But yet farther O the darts and the arrows and the stings that come after O the stabs and the wounds that they give to the soul the darkness and death and damnation that they are dragging it into If you will be thinking on the world let it be with such thoughts as these and then see if it would be so hard to make an exchange of earth for heaven Brethren the reason why it is so hard a work for the Ministry to perswade in souls to Christ is because we cannot get them to entertain any serious thoughts of Christ and of the blessedness that comes in with him the reason why we cannot fetch them off from the world is because we cannot perswade them to think as they should of it of the vanity of it of the bondage it holds them in and the misery it subjects them to If we could but set you a thinking once what harm would it be to me to hearken to Christ what will become of me if I do not hearken to him when shall I come to Christ if I still cleave to this present world what if I should never come but should stand at this distance from him to my dying day Can I ever hope for mercy from Christ if for the love of the world I now refuse him will he regard my cryes when hereafter I shall call Lord open to me Lord answer for me Lord save me if I reject him when he calls Soul open to me Soul submit to me How shall I stand in the Judgment if I have no Christ to stand with me will my estate will my pleasures will my friends be good Advocates for me in that day will this be a good Plea Lord Jesus appear for me let thy wounds plead let thy bloud plead for me let me stand as one of thine for I am he that would none of thee I set at nought thy counsels and despised thy Covenant and trampled upon thy bloud and preferr'd my house and my money and my pleasures and my lusts before
rejoycing Are there any such things Is there any thing in them then let these suffice you will you have your conversation and take your portion with those who are strangers to Christ and the comforts of his Spirit I beseech you by the mercies of God that you do not Do you hope for mercy have you received mercy do you live upon mercy hath mercy pitied you spared you pardoned you doth mercy feed you cloath you and comfort you and will you not hearken to its beseechings Why what doth mercy speak is this it's word Continue in sin for grace hath abounded now follow thy pleasures and thy liberties God is reconciled thy sins are forgiven thy Soul is secure now thou mayst slight the Lord now thou mayst trample upon mercy now thou hast obtained it is this the lesson that mercy teaches or what doth it speak is not this the voice of all the kindnesses and compassions of the Lord come back from your vanities come away from following Idols he sacrifices to God and prostitute not your selves any longer to the lusts of your flesh come away for our sakes come as you love mercy come as you have received mercy come as you hope for mercy come Is not this the voice of mercy and shall it not prevail how shall mercy be heard when it pleads for you if it cannot be heard when it pleads thus with you Is this the rate and price you put upon the grace of God that you will deny it in those little things it demands of you not a carnal pleasure to be abated not a vain companion to be displeased not a few handfuls of earth to be troden under foot for its sake Doth all the interest that Christ and his grace hath in you come to no more then this Brethren where is ingenuity is not goodness obliging will you shew what power mercy hath with you how much you can do how much you can leave for love you at least that have obteined mercy methinks your hearts should be at your mouth ready to take their flight from this wilderness to the mountains of spices Hath God given himself hath God given me his Son and granted me mercy unto life now let him take all farmes and oxen silver and gold honours and pleasures let all go and thou O my Soul become a sacrifice to the most high my love where art thou my desires whither run you come back from these vanities and get you up to your God mercy hath descended let me ascend with it and no longer dwell in the dust 2. Do not the severities of God call you off what mean the Judgments of God which he executes on the earth but to drive us up from our cisterns to the fountain what mean the wormwood and the gall but to wean us from these dugs wherefore are our disappointments vexations distresses but to tell us this is not your rest what speak the winds and the storms the flouds and the fires the sword and the famine the thief and the moth but get you up get you up out of this place of what use is the cross but to crucifie to crucifie us to the world and to crucify the world unto us Brethren have we not sufficiently smarted for our folly what is it that makes us so many rods and makes the lashes of them to cut so deep but our unmortifiedness to this earth how easy would our crosses lye were we dead to the world That 's the voice of the cross Be mortified be crucified prevent the greater severities of God Be crucified or God will crucifie you Be crucified to the world or look to be crucified by the world Friends would you have but one cross in all your lives choose you whether you will have one or many get your earthly minds nayld to the cross of Christ and there 's an end of all your crosses every other cross that comes will thenceforth be so easy that it will even loose its nature 2. What is there in your denyal to hearken to these calls of God Is there any thing less in it then this I will not be reconciled to God! I choose rather that God be mine enemy then that the world be not my friend I had rather have the wormwood and the gall then not the milk and the honey God saies give me thine heart no he shall never have it I have bestowed it on the world and there let it go God saies Take me for thy portion no I will not let me have my portion in this life God saies take me for thy Lord no I will not I will not that God shall reign over me God saies as thou hopest for mercy hearken as thou hopest for mercy submit to me refuse at thy peril be a worldling at thy peril be a sensualist at thy peril well at my peril be it I will run the hazard of that mercy or no mercy I cannot hearken to that word which is so contrary to me Is not all this comprehended in your denyal to come off from the world O tremble and now at length come and give in your answer Are there any of you that will yet say to me as those Jews Jer. 44. 16. The word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not do or as those Jer. 2. 25. there is no hope as good hold thy peace speak no more to us about it for we will not hearken we have loved strangers and after them we will go we have loved our companions and after them we will go There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices we will walk after the imagination of our own evil heart Jer. 18. 12. Is there no hope indeed would you henceforth be given over as hopeless would you that the Ambassadours of the Lord keep silence and for ever give you over as lost men shall there be no more treaty with you about this thing would you that we should preach no more to you nor pray no more for you that you may be brought to a better mind May there not be yet hope concerning you may you not yet be convinced may you not yet be perswaded This once let me prevail with you Oh might we hear such a word from you We have done with all our Idols to the Moles and to the Batts with them all we have done with this vain earthly life no more such madness to venture eternity for minutes to stake the everlasting kingdom for pictures and shadows Come we will hearken to the Lord this day hitherto we have been written in the earth henceforth for the invisible world hitherto we have lived in pleasures we have been sowing to the flesh we have been labouring for the wind we have been laying up our treasure on earth we have been gathering in dirt and throwing away Manna we have fed upon ashes and trod upon pearls our life hath been either a meer play or a labour for bubles Henceforth for substance for the durable riches for the everlasting pleasures for the bags that wax not old the treasure in Heaven that faileth not What say you brethren shall this be your voice will you hearken to the Lord at length give in your answer will you now become enemies to the world will you indeed shall your Souls and it now be parted Then go and draw up a writing of divorcement carry it before the Lord and acknowledg it as your act and deed and giving your selves to him go presently and take your leave of all things under the Sun Bid farewell to those that are with you in the house farwel Father farewel Child farewel Husband farewel Wife Bid farewel to all within doors and without farewel Goods farewel Mony farewel Sheep and Oxen Lands and Livings farewel my pleasant habitation farewel my merry dayes and easy nights farewel my friends and dear acquaintance farewel love friendship credit in the world farewel liberty and life Go take your leave of all the world to day stay not till to morrow lest it again intangle you and bewitch you into another mind And this is the leave I would advise you to take of all you have Be able to say to them all I am none of yours you are none of mine I am none of yours I have given my self to the Lord you are none of mine with my self I have given away you all the Lord hath given you me and to him I return you and shall not henceforth count you any thing to me but what you are to him I have given him the right of you and when he calls for it I will give him possession I can enjoy you and I can want you I can be thankful for fruition and I can bear your loss with what I have I am content if I have not I will be patient whether I have or no I am still the same and henceforth I will seek you as if I sought you not I will use you as if I used you not while you are with me I will rejoyce as if I rejoyced not that I may weep as if I wept not when we must part and I must know you no more Go thus and take your leave to day or if you find it more then one dayes work as 't is like you may set to it every day let not your hearts be quiet till they and this world be thus parted And then arise put on thy sandals and after thy crucified Lord Deny thy self take up thy cross and follow him and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven FINIS
withholding us from Christ Christ comes to bring us back unto the Father 1 Pet. 3. 18. to reduce us to our duty and restore us to our happiness The world that withdraws us from God withholds us from Christ Particularly It holds us back from coming to Christ It holds us in from following of Christ 1. It holds us back from coming to Christ And this it doth by these four means By Darkning our sight Deadning our sense Hanging upon our hearts and about our necks Furnishing us with excuses 1. By darkning the sight that we cannot see either the excellency or the necessity of Christ Christ draws on Souls to him by love and fear First he frights us in by presenting the danger and misery that is falling upon us and we cannot escape if we stand out Look to thy self Sinner this world will betray thee to thy ruine thy pleasures are thy traitors thy carnal friends are thy traitors thy estate is thy traitor they are feasting thee and feeding thee but t is for the day of slaughter the butcher the butcher of souls is near thee into whose hands they are betraying thee they seek thy life thou art but a dead man death is already feeding upon thee the curse of God doth already cleave to thee and is ready to fall upon thee in its full weight thou wilt be devoured thou wilt be swallowed up ere thou art aware come away come to me and thou shalt be safe this house is falling on thine head escape for thy life the avenger of blood is at thy heels flee to the City of refuge I am thy City of refuge come unto me Thus he provokes by fear And this is such an argument to drive Souls into Christ as a clap of thunder or a storm of hail is to the Traviler to hasten him to shelter Then Christ draws by love presents himself and his salvation to the Soul displayes all his beautie and excellencies before it opens the Gospel wherein his grace and his glory appear and shine forth the Gospel is sent down full of Christ there are all the treasures and unsearchable riches of Christ and all held forth in open sight to invite sinners unto him Now the world dashes all this that it workes nothing on the Soul by blinding the eye that it cannot see what Christ sets before it what is either beauty or blackness to the blind soul 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which beleive not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them We are naturally born blind and if our eyes begin a little to be opened this earth is thrown as dust in our eyes that we may not see what 's before us The things of this world as the Moon interposed causeth an eclipse in our souls that we cannot see the Sun we cannot discern either light or darkness either the light of the glorious Gospel or the darkness of the Pitt either our hopes or our dangers this earth keeps both Heaven and Hell out of sight The things of the world should be a glass wherein we may behold the glory of the Lord we may see God in every creature The Heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19. 1. And so doth the earth also and all that is therein but that which God made a glass in which we might see his glory the Divel makes a cloud to take God out of sight what God made a window to let in the light the Divel makes a shut to keep it out Worldly men fix and terminate their eyes in worldly things they can neither look besides them nor through them It is not with them according to the course of nature The Sun dazles mens eyes that they cannot see the Earth but the quite contrary The Earth dazles their eyes that they cannot see the Sun Men usually carry their eyes in their hearts they will not look but where they love or if they should look heavenward yet they could not see the earth hath dazled their eyes Sinners take heed of these riches take heed of these pleasures these substances and these shadowes which your hearts are set upon they will not only be as clogs to keep you down from ascending heavenward but as clouds to hinder you from looking thither It may be they appear as bright clouds but a bright cloud will hide the Sun out of sight as well as a black 2. By deadning the sense they can neither see nor feel they see not the excellency nor can feel their need of Christ who are drunken with these worldly vanities they who altogether live by sense are without sense of any but the present things they can make a shift to live without Christ the less of Christ the better for their turns Christ and the things of Christ are the only things that stand in their way are their way to poverty not to wealth to reproach and shame not to honour they can well enough want Christ while they live but what need they may have of him after this life that enters not into their hearts they are so busy with what they find here that they look not so far as the grave much less beyond it 'T is hard dealing with such hearts but when you find them alone retired and withdrawn from the world and how long may we wait ere we meet with such a season find them in a croud among their carnal friends and companions find them among their Sheep or Oxen or at their pleasures and the noise of these will so drown all that can be said that its like to make as deep impression as a showre upon a stone cry out in their eares fire fire throw Death and Hell in their faces it moves them not so much as to draw forth such a question What may I do to escape We never will come to Christ till we see we need him and we never see our need of Christ till being withdrawn from the hurries of this World we have leisure to sit down and consider How seldom do carnal hearts ask What use is there of Christ wherefore is he come what want would there be of him if there were no Christ If God that spared not his Son but gave him a ransome for the world had spared all this cost it had been all one to them they could have liv'd as merrily and as plentifully here however and that 's all they mind or regard Or if they have any sense of their need of Christ at all it is so little that it will do nothing to the perswading them after him the wound is not so deep but the name of a Saviour will skin it over Seldome does it rise so high as to wring out such a serious question What may I do that Christ may be mine How many Houses and Markets and Shops and Companies may we come into ere we hear any such question Go into the
once found out she quickly spoil'd him of it and delivered him a captive to his enemies find out the strength of the World what it is and wherein it lyes and then you will understand your way to the conquering of it But where lyes this strength of the World I answer In The Spirit of the World within us In the God of the World without us 1. In the spirit of the world within the world hath a strong party within man which sides with it 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God we have not we who have that spirit of God in us have not received the spirit of this world but all others have no other spirit In the whole generation of worldly men there is the same spirit as in the whole generation of the Saints there is the same divine spirit the same spirit of grace the same spirit of faith the same spirit of love the same holy spirit So in all the men of this world there is the same worldly spirit The spirit of this world is an earthly Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 47. the first man is of the earth earthy in his creation he had an earthy body and by sin he is come to have an earthy Soul Sin was his fall from Heaven to Earth as in his choice he made for himself he chose an earthly inheritance so in his temper and disposition and tendency his very nature now inclines and bends towards earthly things his Soul as well as his Body lusts after and feeds upon dust The spirit of the World is a short sighted spirit it cannot see afarr off 2 Pet. 19. Heavenly things are too far distant to be discerned by it it loves and gapes for and grasps things present things to come are far out of its sight The spirit of the world is a low and narrow spirit these poor and beggerly things that this earth affords are the highest of its ambition Seekest thou great things for thy self Yes I do what worldly greatness are these the great things thou seekest a great name a great estate great possessions thou mistakest thy self man these great things are but small things below the spirit of a man below a divine and immortal Soul meat and drink and mirth and money are these the best things thou findest for thy heart to be set upon for thy soul to take pleasure in sure thou hast changed Souls with the bruits that canst take up with such things as these The Spirit of the World is an homebred spirit it hath never been abroad but hath been born and bred in this worldly region it hath never set foot nor been acquainted in a better land the spirit which is of God carries up to the upper regions the regions of light and life and glory and immortality where it hath made discoveries of other manner of treasures and joyes and glories then are here to be found but the spirit of the world hath ever dwelt at home the souls of worldlings dwell in their houses of clay and never travail farther then they can with the snail carry their houses upon their heads their Souls travail no farther then their carkases This Spirit of the World by what hath been hinted of the make and temper of it you see hath a suitableness to worldly things and this is the great advantage the World hath upon us it tempts us to that we love and like all that the World perswades us to is to seek what we have a mind to to do what we have a mind to to follow our natures and dispositions to find out what will best please us and there to take our fill The difficulty of Christs victory over Souls lyes in this that he calls and commands them to things and to wayes contrary to their natures not to please but to deny themselves to kill their Flesh to cross their appetites to contradict their own mind to pursue an happiness which is so sublime and spiritual and so unsuitable to their carnal natures that it is altogether unsavory to them and hereupon he hath hard work to prevail and t is but here and there one amongst many that will be prevailed upon to hearken to him to how many houses may we come to how many souls may we bring the everlasting Gospel ere one will open and accept how many are call'd to Christ to one that comes O brethren you are witness how hardly any of your souls were perswaded to come along with Christ and may be some of you stand off and hang back and will not be perswaded to come fully in to this day What 's the reason of this Oh carnal men think that Christ calls them to their loss perswades them to their hurt that they have a better being whilest they are wallowing in their riches and their pleasures then ever they should find in following of Christ But now the advantage that the world hath on Souls is that it tempts them to things pleasing to them their natures joyn with the world and draw them the same way Whilest Christ calls if any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me this is all the world requires if any man will be my servant let him seek himself and shift for himself and please himself and shun the cross and follow his own heart and what great difficulty is there to perswade men to follow their own minds when worldly temptations meet with worldly spirits when temptations to pride meet with proud hearts when temptations to pleasure meet with flesh-pleasing hearts when temptations to vanity meet with vain hearts when temptations to covetousness meet with covetous hearts how mightily must they needs prevail From this suitableness of the spirit to worldly things it doth Readily take in of the World Greedily make out after the World 1. It doth readily take in of the World the world never knocks but the heart opens the world never offers but the hand is ready to receive yea though the terms upon which we must have it be never so unreasonable though for every draught of pleasure they must after drink the double in wormwood though with the gains of the world they must drink in a curse yet like men in a dropsie though to drink will be death their thirst must be quenched It may be when the world is a tempting the Soul conscience stands by and gives it warning take heed of these pleasures ther 's poyson in that cup or ther 's wormwood at the bottome take heed of these deceitful riches ther 's a snare lies under there 's a curse cleaves to them look to thy self Soul the world is but a playing the Devil with thee these pleasures and these riches it hath sent to fetch away thy Soul it holds thee so busy about thine earthly affairs that thou mayest the mean while loose the opportunity of making Christ thine of making the
filth and stench of Hell in their vile affections the smoke and flames of Hell in their reeking and burning lusts the darkness of Hell in their darkned and blinded minds and sometimes the torments of Hell in the anguish of their guilty and self revenging consciences And as sinners may find an hell so believers an heaven in the heart an heaven of light an heaven of love and joy and praise Thus it is with some and thus it might be with all were we stronger in Faith Oh what do we lose by living thus by Sense when we mighâ— live by Faith how have our carnal hearts by consuming and spinning out our daies in sloth and idleness sticking at the labour of duty whining under difficulties shrinking from sufferings indulging to our ease and our pleasure and liberties how have our carnal hearts robb'd us of the life of God the pleasures of Angels the joys of the Upper Region and left us little more of Christianity then its wounds and bruises its mournings and complainings its sighs and sorrows Oh foolish hearts that consult so unwisely for our selves that choose rather to live in Brakes among these bryars and thorns then among the Beds of Spices that will rather laze it in a Wilderness then get us up to the Garden of the Lord The life of Faith is an heavenly life The life of God Ephes 4. 18. though Faith shall never come into heaven it self yet thither it translates our hearts It came down from heaven it is the gift of God and though it must not return thither 't is love not Faith that shall dwell before the Throne of God yet thither it raises those hearts in which it lives Though it may not dwell there hereafter Faith shall then be lost in sight yet now its travelling thither going and returning every day and hour Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven there 's all our business where should a Christian be where does he live but where his business lies A Believer that had heretofore so many things to do dividing his heart and time hath now cast all his business into one hath brought all his business near his home he hath nothing to do abroad in the Tents of wickedness in the Camps of the Uncircumcised he hath done with serving flesh and lusts and times and tables and carkasses here his whole work did lye but no more of these now they must be all laid aside or at least made to come and serve with him in his higher business God and glory the loving and praising and serving and securing God to his soul is all he hath to do Phil. 3. 13. This one thing I do forgetting that which is behind and reaching forth to that which is before I press to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. These lower things his outward priviledges hopes and advantages were once the things before him but he 's now gotten beyond and hath left them all behind him not only his Jewish priviledge whereof he had boasted but much more all earthly things he hath cast off these weights and is now flying upon the wing of Faith ascending in flames of love winding up his soul by constant labour above this dung and darkness to the Regions of light and glory This is his business And hence is his blessedness heaven is his work and his meat his labour and his hire he will know nothing for a blessing or a comfort but what his Faith brings him down from above Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me Bid him Hope in God tell him thou shalt yet praise him who is the light of thy countenance and thy God and this will comfort him Say to him while you will Man be of good comfort the fig-tree blossoms the labour of the Olive will not fail there is fruit in the Vines there are Flocks in the Folds there are Herds in the Stalls comfort thine heart what wouldst thou have more And how little will this ease him Oh where is my God how is it with my soul what tidings from above have I a treasure there doth God smile what tidings from within Is it peace there doth my soul prosper Is there grace there is truth in my inward parts this is good news Come in thou blessed of the Lord thou comest with good tidings this shall comfort me This is the life of Faith a conversation in heaven Thus we should and thus we might live more then we do but I doubt I have been here in telling you a Mystery whereof the most of us have but little experimental understanding Christians what acquaintance have you with this life of God Is this your business heavenly work are these your comforts heavenly supports we are yet carnal and walk as men Oh this earth earth how doth it hang on our spirits we live as if there were a middle Region betwixt heaven and earth a middle state betwixt Faith and unbelief Some little we have attain'd of this heavenly life and blessed be the Lord for any thing but oh how little is it Friends wonder not that you see no more of the Divine Glory conclude not that there is no more to be seen put it to the proof live more with God more purely more closely more constantly with him live in the daily exercise of Faith and you will get the sight of other manner of glorious things then can be told you What 's the reason that unbelievers are so wholly in the dark and can see nothing of God no more then they can despise and laugh to scorn O 't is because they come not near where God is they are alienated from the life of God their whole business is in the heart of the earth here they dwell and here is their whole converse Speak ye unbelievers where dwell ye what is your Occupation where is your Conversation far enough from heaven sure where ever it be Speak ye proud and haughty ones where is your Conversation our Conversation is in the air we feed on wind live upon breath honor and applause is all we work for and live upon Speak ye Covetous where is your Conversation our Conversation is in the earth we feed upon dust and ashes and in these our business lies Speak ye contentious quarrelsome ones where is your Conversation our Conversation is in the fire in storms and tempests Speak ye voluptuous Sensualists where is your Conversation our Conversation is in the mud and mire in lasciviousness wantonness and all manner of filthy lusts Speak ye Ranters Ruffians Swearers Cursers Blasphemers where is your Conversation our Conversation is in Hell in the Alehouse the Tavern the Brothel-house we live where Satans Throne is in the very Suburbs of Hell Oh what a difference hath Faith put betwixt Believers and all others in the world whilst they only live the life of God all others live the life of Bruits
or Devils Oh bless God for Faith even ye of little Faith at its first entrance it gives your soul a lift from heaven to earth There it lists your names no longer men of this world but henceforth Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God there it hath laid you up an Inheritance and thence it brings you your maintenance thither it turns your eyes and all your streams it shews you what you have there and by those beams it draws you up thither Those to whom it shews the least of that glory it shews enough to disgrace the glory of the world and as this Sun-light grows so doth all the beauty of the world fade and vanish out of sight By Faith our conversation is in heaven Now by how much the more our conversation is in heaven by so much the more our hearts are there by how much the more our hearts are in heaven by so much the less on earth and when once the world hath lost our love it hath lost its power over us 1. By how much the more our conversation is in heaven by so much the more our hearts and affections are there we ordinarily love to be where we use to be No such damp grows upon affection as by distance and estrangement when we loose our acquaintance we loose our delight in God Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace Joh 22. 21. Acquaint thy self with him and be in love there wants nothing to fix our affections on heaven but being better acquainted there Intimacy begets dearness Do you not love God t is a sign you have had little to do with him Is not your delight in Heaven t is a sign you are seldome there Is prayer and holy meditation and exercising your selves in the Scriptures and attendance on ordinances a weariness and altogether unpleasant to you sure you have little known what the spirit of Prayer and Communion with God in his word and ordinances mean those whose Souls dwell by the wells of salvation and often let down the bucket do taste that the waters thereof are sweet they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life Psal 36. Those that walking closely with God do dwell in the secret of his presence under the sweet dewes and influences of his grace the business of whose life is to behold and love and serve the Lord their hearts have found such rest there that they can find no rest elswhere 2. By how much the more our hearts are in Heaven by so much the less are they on earth worldly professours have all their religion in their mouths there 's little within whatever they talk If any man love the world the love of the father is not in aim If any man love the Father the love of the world ceases Heaven and Hell may meet as well as Heaven and Earth in the same heart Set your affections on things above and not on the earth on both you cannot your bodies as easily as your Souls may dwell in Heaven and Earth together You use to say I cannot be here and there too no sure enough you cannot whilest your Souls are the inhabitants of this they are exiles from the other world and when they have their dwelling in Heaven they are but strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth this world hath lost your hearts when God hath gain'd them 3. When once the world hath lost our hearts it hath lost its power over us who will be entic'd by what he hates or slights God and the world rule both by love If God hath our love he hath the command of all that ever we have if we love the world what can it not do with us whither can it not lead us If the world hath lost our love it were even as good lay down its weapons and let us alone let them follow God let them be holy let them to Heaven their hearts are gone and there 's no holding them back It may still hang in their heels and retard their motion Heaven-ward but their hearts being gone thither their main course will bend it self 6. Faith gives assurance of this better inheritance Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the subsistence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen It is an evidence not only that there is another world and a better world then this and that this better state may be obbtaind that there is an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom possible that these mortals may be clothed with immortality that these corruptibles may put on incorruption and these poor worms that creep on the dust may get them wings and fly away hence into everlasting bliss but it is also an evidence that all this shall be that there shall be a performance of all those glorious things which God hath spoken concerning his Saints Blessed is he that hath believed for there shall be a performance of all that hath been told him Luk. 1. 45. Faith hath taken bond for performance The Almighty God hath bound himself to us and lest through unbelief we should stick at taking his single bond he hath given security hath brought in his Son and heir the Lord Jesus Christ to stand bound with him Faith hath taken this bond and having it self sealed to the Articles or conditions on our parts upon the performance whereof the inheritance stands sure to us upon the greatest security that Heaven and Earth can give it keeps it by it and hath it ready to produce upon all occasions to stop the clamours of unbelief The Covenant of God that 's our security The Almighties bond and articles wherein he hath made over all that ever he hath by an immutable and irrevocable deed to his Saints Heb. 6. 17 18. Nay more Faith will shew a believer his own name in this deed If it can but shew it self to us can make it evident that it is what it is the Faith of Gods elect if it does but once appear that we do sincerely believe it therein shews us our names in the promise of God To say to any one that knows he believes to say to him He that believeth shall be saved is fully as much as if it had been said to him by name Thou O man even thou shalt be saved thy name is written in the book of life Unbelief will be staggering at the promise and will call in question all that the Lord God hath said And when this world comes upon us and tempts us opens its pack and shews us its wares and offers us our choice of whatsoever will please us Take it saies unbelief make sure of something let not go such penniworths they may be the best thou art ever like to have Mayst thou be rich mayst thou live in pleasure and in honour here Be not such a fool as to neglect thy self for a conceit of some strange
murmuring against him and to questioning his love and goodness to you all the flowers that your sunshine hath nurs'd up how doth one frosty night wither away Or else if your Souls have been prospering in the winter how hath the next summers day chok'd them up with weeds Sometimes God hath brought thee into the house of mourning girded thee with sackcloth layd thee in ashes proved thee in the furnace of affliction and then how humble and serious and mortified then what praying and repenting and covenanting with God and strengthning thine heart in him then dead to sin crucified to the world living by faith walking in fear nothing but God and holiness and glory in thy heart and in thy tongue but no sooner hath he turn'd thy captivity put off the garments of thy widowhood brought thee out of darkness into light and redeem'd thy Soul out of trouble but all is presently forgotten and fleshliness vanity and security returns upon thee Oh how little is there yet done to what must be done ere we shall come to any steadiness whilest every wordly change does so rout and disorder us Christians let us be like our God holy and unchangeable get you chang'd into his image and then be unchangable Oh that my Soul were in such a case but how may I obtain Why 1. Seek earnestly after a more abundant diffusion of the establishing Spirit of grace Let the Psalmists prayer be yours Psal 51. 12. Uphold or establish me with thy free Spirit The Spirit of this World is as Reuben Gen. 49. 4. Unstable as water the Spirit of grace is an establishing Spirit Hast thou received this Spirit hast thou a little grace open thy mouth yet wider enlarge thy desire as Heaven A double portion a double portion of thy Spirit O Lord. Consider these two things 1. The greater measures of grace are the portion of those that are the most importunate seekers of grace 2. Those are the most established Souls to whom grace hath abounded 1. The greater measures of grace are the portion of those that are the most importunate seekers of grace To his Saints the Lord giveth his Spirit by measure to some a lesser to some a fuller measure they have all drank in the same Spirit but not all a like draught our Heavenly Father will give his Spirit to those that ask it of him and every man hath according to his asking 't is not with this as with the Manna in the wilderness He that gathered much had nothing over he that gathered little had no lack He that asketh much hath never the more he that asketh little hath never the less 't is not thus but God gives to every man according to his asking The reason why we go on from day to day from year to year with our vessels so empty with so little grace is because our little suffices us we are content and sit down by our little If the Widow had brought more or larger vessels she had had more oyle 2 King 4. 6. The largest hearts go away with the richest loading Do ye see Souls that ply at the bucket that are often letting down into the well of salvation that dwell at the throne of grace whose very breath is prayer that are every day and every night wrestling with the Angel for a blessing whom one blessing will not suffice but are still for more and for more these are the thriving Souls full of prayer and full of the Spirit 2. Those are the most established Souls to whom grace hath abounded 't is not every little measure of true grace that will bring the heart to a comfortable consistency poor weakling Christians sadly prove how even Disciples may be so toss'd in the waves that they know not where to find themselves We are reeds shaken with the wind Oh how are our hearts thrown up and down hither and thither by a perplexing succession of hopes and fears joys and sorrows comforts and crosses and scarce ever at rest sometimes lifted up sometimes depressed sometimes all upon the wing by and by in the dust sometimes in a fever anon in a cold ague yea sometimes breathing out prayers and praises and at the very next minute flameing out in passion and impatiencies thus it is and there is no hope it should be otherwise whilest so low in grace what wonder if whilest we are such children we be carried to and fro with every wind those that are grown up to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might these will have strength to sit still O be aspiring Christians be making up to the highest form and be not content here to take a lower room Be filled with the Spirit follow on follow hard after the Lord and look not to be long your selves till you be fuller of him Brethren do not go about to excuse your sinful perturbations when there is a way before you to cure them You are ready to say do not blame me for it I cannot help it I know 't is very sad to be in a perpetual storm but how can I mend it you know not my tryals none knows where the shooe wrings but he that wears it Do not blame you for it why do not you blame your self for it are you willing of such a troublesome life and to be let alone in it Is the ease of an excuse all the cure you desire Is there not a remedy for your disease I cannot help it what would not more grace help it would not more faith and more patience and more mortification help it You mistake your self you are yet carnal your proud flesh your fretful angry flesh is too hard for that little grace you have get more grace and the cure is done 2. Let your hearts be more strongly intent upon God By how much the more intensely God is minded by so much the less impression will any thing that occurs make upon our spirits when the Scales are but just turned every little dust falling in will make them hover A Bowl that runs strongly towards the mark 't is not every little rub that will turn it out of its course When the soul is making a main heavenward and intends all its powers in the more vigorous pursuit of the Invisible Crown when the heart is possessed and much taken up with its more weighty and glorious concernments when the thoughts affections resolutions are all deeply ingaged and busily working towards God the greatest occurrences of this life are past over as little things 't is because we are so weakly moving heavenward that we are so moved with every trifle Thou complainest of the frequent distractions and fluctâ—ations of thy mind wave upon wave billow upon billow come rolling in upon thee and invincibly roll thy soul out of it self wouldst thou be cur'd of this palpitation of thine heart mind thy God more mind thy business more set thine heart on thy home and upon hasting on thy journey thitherward and see
up a general complaint one against another 't is in every ones mouth Oh how earthly are we become our gold is mixed with dross our wine with water behold a second but sad Incarnation our spirit is become flesh every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards how hard are we driving after bags of earth we assemble our selves for corn and wine and when riches encrease who is there almost that sets not his heart upon them who is there that labours to be holy as to be rich to thrive in grace as in purse though the Lord hath taken off our Chariot Wheels yet still we drive on though he hath been whipping us upward yet behold still we are all below though he hath burnt up our houses and fir'd us out of our Nests yet behold our hearts are still among among the rubbish though he hath mingled wormwood with our milk and gall with our honey yet we say 't is sweet and will not be weaned though he hath testified against our pride and testified against our covetousness and made such stains upon our beauty and such holes in the bottoms of our bags though we see plainly and say God is angry with us and angry for the iniquity of our covetousness yet who are they that have given off and are gone back from their so eager pursuit of the world Oh what 's like to become of us we are so set upon this Idol that it 's much to be feared desolation is determined upon us Do we not ordinarily hear and make such complaints but if we should with our complaints let fall a teare upon the guilty may they not return upon us weep not for us but for your selves for your own covetousness for your own carnality and what should we say for our selves if they do so Oh the Lord help me I am one of the company I even I also am guilty this Idol hath a tabernacle in this heart also though I considered it not But must our complaints suffice us is it enough to make all well to confess 't is so bad must this be all our heavenliness to bewail our earthliness will God take our acknowledgments for amendments is this your redemption to bewail your captivity But when shall it be better when shall it be said to these prisoners Go forth when for the other world when for God alone for nothing but the everlasting kingdom Arise O captive put off thy prison garments get thee up out of this house of bondage unclog unfetter thy Soul get thy foot out of the snare and away for the holy land leave this earth to its heirs let the men of this world take to their portion and be the only servants to it but go thou and serve the Lord let God and the world take their own whilest worldlings will not be the servants of Christ let it no longer be said that Christians are the servants of the world Brethren conclude upon it that you have no more of christianity then you have of spirituality that this spot of earthliness will unavoidably be a blot upon your evidences for Heaven Have you assurance that you are the Lords how can that be when you are so much the worlds What ever arguments you have that seem to conclude well for you yet how many objections are there also Oh how many Buts are there against us Such a one is a judicious understanding Christian But hee 's greedy upon the world such a one is of a savoury gracious behaviour But hee 's unmerciful to the poor such a one is much in prayer and will pray singularly well But there 's no trust to his word such a one is of a free and liberal Spirit But he is proud Shoot down these Butts if ever you would stand established in your confidence Have you not assurance Is this yet to be gotten Oh how can you so eagerly mind any other getting can you have such leisure for Earth when Heaven still hangs in doubt or do ye think that the same way does lead to both that the same labour will serve for both will the same wind and the same course carry you towards both the Poles can you at once be sayling Northward and Southward can you ascend and descend by the same motion when you are progging for your flesh building your houses enlarging your border laying you up treasure on earth and making it as sure as you can Is this your laying up treasure in Heaven your giving diligence to make God sure your calling and election sure once be bound in good earnest for glory and take the strait course thitherward and then farewel World thy kingdom is finished thy dominion is at an end Brethren receive this word of conviction and submit to it the summe whereof is that where there is so much of the Spirit of this World there is but little faith and where there is but little faith 't is more then you can tell whether there be any at all God is a convincing of us if his word does not his providences shall convince us and lay us yet lower in our own eyes what means his undoing and ruining providences but to try us what spirit we are of and to teach us with his briars and thorns to understand our selves better and to recover why is his face so against us why is his hand so heavy upon us what do the ashes of our wasted treasures speak to us If it do not speak out this to us Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead yet does it speak less then this Thou hast but a little strength thou hast but a few names that have not defiled their garments strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye Is not this its word seekest thou yet great things for thy self when I am breaking down what I have built when I am plucking up what I have planted is this a time to seek great things for thy self yea or to think great things of thy self seek them not no nor think any more such great thoughts lay thee down in the dust be ashamed and confounded for what thou art and hast done and climb no more up those trees that are hewing down under thee Brethren when do ye think the Lord will cause his fury towards us to cease when will the flames be quenched when will his repentings be kindled what hope is there that our conflagrations should be at an end till our Idols be burnt up 't is vain to think that our prayers and fastings and weeping before the Lord will put out the fire of his jealousie Get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned they have taken of the accursed thing I will not be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed from among you Josh 7. 10 11 12. The Lord hath broken us with a great breach the Lord hath smitten us with a very grievous blow and now we fall to fasting and praying and
in his bloud and then you are clean though your iniquity be searched for yet it shall not be found this righteousness shall answer for you for all your unrighteousness this righteousness shall purchase for you the eternal inheritance O methinks we should hear you all crying out with those Jews though with another heart and in another sense His bloud be upon us and upon our children 2. Peace That 's another fruit of Christs bloud he hath made peace by the bloud of his Cross Col. 1. 20. He hath made peace not only betwixt Jew and Gentile reconciling them both into one body but betwixt God and men reconciling both Jew and Gentile in one body unto God Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God This peace hath all blessings in it love good will pardon grace life as the wrath of God hath all woes in it all the plagues and miseries both of this world and that to come you need say no more to mark out any person for an unhappy and lost person but this The wrath of God abideth on him you have said enough you need not smite him the second time as the wrath of God hath all woes so the peace of God hath all blessings in it 2. The fruits of his spirit The former fruits righteousness and peace which I call the fruits of the bloud of Christ are in a sense the fruits also of the spirit as also these latter which I call the fruits of the spirit are in a sense the fruits of his bloud the spirit convinces of righteousness and preaches peace Joh. 16. 14. He shall take of mine and shew it unto you The spirit first indeed takes of our own and shews that unto us that same Gospel spirit that brings life and immortality brings first death and mortality to light he that convinces of sin is the same spirit that convinces of righteousness He shall take of our own and shew it unto us Look thee here soul what a vile and unclean thing thou art what a wretched and unhappy thing thou art what a Leper what a Viper what a devil in flesh thou hast made thy self what an Egypt what a Sodom what an hell thou hast within thee what a portion what a treasure thou hast laid up for thy self Serpents and Scorpions and Dragons Bloud and Wrath and Fire these must be the portion of thy cup. Secure sleepy soul jolly merry soul that art quiet and at ease sporting thy self with thy pleasures loading thy self with riches decking thy self with ornaments open thine eyes soul look thee here all that 's thine I here set in order before thee these sins and this guilt and these curses and these plagues these are all thou canst call thine own these shall dwell with thee these shall stick and cleave to thee as thy flesh to thy bone as thy body to thy soul this sad and amazing sight the spirit shews us takes of our own and shews it unto us But then says Christ he shall take of mine of my righteousness and peace and shew it unto you I say even these fruits of the bloud of Christ may be also called the fruits of the spirit But besides these there are others that the Scripture expresly calls the fruits of the spirit what these are you may read Gal. 5. 22 23. But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance all the graces and the comforts of the spirit issuing from them these are the fruits of the spirit 2. That these fruits of Christ are sweet 1 Pet. 2. 7. To them that believe he is precious He and all his root and branches tree and fruit he is pleasant to the eye the thoughts of Christ are precious Psa 104. 3. My meditation of him shall be sweet It is a pleasant thing to behold this Sun he is sweet to the ear his words are sweet sweeter then the honey and the honey comb Psa 19. 10. His house and his dwelling is sweet Psa 84. 1. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord. How might I inlarge here But more close to the matter in hand because sense will give us the fullest proof of sweetness let me ask 1. How sweet have you found the fruits of the bloud of Christ Ask the guilty if righteousness be not sweet if pardon be not sweet ask the prisoner if liberty be not sweet ask the debtor how he would receive his discharge from all his debts Dost thou know what bloud guiltiness means I need not commend to thee the bloud of attonement 2. How sweet are the fruits of his Spirit would it not be a pleasure to you to be holy and humble and meek is not love sweet is not holy joy sweet that is is not sweetness sweet nay is not godly sorrow sweet the mournings and meltings for sin have more sweetness in them then the sportings and laughings of sinners Is not the sense of integrity clearness and uprightness is not peace of conscience the assurance of divine love are not these sweet Ask those that labour under the gripes and pangs of a wounded conscience or are stung with the conscience of guile and treachery how they would prize peace of conscience ask those who have received the sentence of death in themselves and lye roaring like bulls in a net full of the fury of the Lord how pretious assurance of the love of God would be Ask those whose souls do dwell at ease who walk in the light of the Lord and have tasted that the Lord is gracious what they would take in exchange for those comforts wherewith they feel themselves comforted of God I appeal to some of your experiences whether ever you have had so much pleasure in all your lives as when you have found your hearts ascending Heaven ward in your flames of love and receiving testimony from the Lord that you are accepted with him surely your souls have tasted how good the Lord is But here note that these fruits of the Spirit some of them especially are sweet only To the Souls Healthy Hungry 1. To the healthy Soul that is to the holy Soul to the sick every pleasant thing is bitter is grace unfavoury is holiness harsh to thee doest thou find no relish in it are thy gourds and thy husks thy locusts and wild hony the pleasures of thy flesh only grateful to thy palate O thou art a sickly Soul there is no health in thee 2. To the hungry Soul The hungry he fills with good things and the hungry will relish his good things the full Soul loaths the honey comb canst thou not tast the sweetness O thou art a full Soul Satan hath filled thine heart thou hast an heart full of dirt and trash the Divel hath made a very stable or barn or dung pot of thine heart meat and drink and mony and mirth have chok'd up thy soul and that 's the reason that Christ is no more savoury Are
glorious hopes in again By the Ear they came in By this the promise entred by this Faith entred Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing Nihil est intellectu quod non fuit prius in sensu saith the Philosopher there 's nothing in our understandings and as little in our affections whether good or evil but what made its way by our senses If God hath our eye and our ear he hath our heart if the Devil have gotten these once 't is not like to be long ere he be possessour of all of such mighty consequence is the keeping our senses as Heaven and Hell amount to Our senses are now vitiated and corrupted pre-occupated by sin and the Devil shut against God and open to iniquity Sin hath gotten the start of grace and having gotten possession of the house makes good the doors for it self and friends whatever knocks for entrance the word presently is who comes there and if it be a friend a friend of sin there 's free admission So that now in pleasing our senses or leaving them at liberty to please themselves we betray our Souls to the hands of Hell to be a Sensualist is next to being a Devil to leave our senses unguarded is to leave open the floudgates of Hell the Devil could not wish our Souls in other hands then to be given up to our senses neither Devil or World need doubt of entrance while they have a friend at the door these earthen gates like that iron gate will open of their own accord to them when ever they come Our depraved senses are the great adversaries to Christianity whatever is said of the enmity of the world of it's gains and fashions its pomps and pleasures all lyes upon this score as they are the objects that tickle and please the senses and by these deprave the mind and turn away the heart What is it that lyes in the way of the Gospel that obstructs it's passage and hinders it's work upon Souls why is it that Christ is not more gladly and generally receiv'd O this is it that hinders 't would deprive us of many a sweet morsell of many a pleasant draught 't would pull off our vain habits and wanton fashions 't would pare off our fleshly pleasures no more indulging to appetite no more pleasing our eyes and ears and palates if Christ be once entertained now we can take our liberty to make provision for the flesh and let the flesh take it's fill we can feed our selves with the finest cloath our selves with the best we can soke our selves in all sorts of sensualities we can fetch in load upon load and make the best of what 's before us we can milk every dug we can suck every bottel we can dig in every mine we can plough and reap in every field that the world hath there 's nothing but Christ can hinder us once give ear to him and that will spoil all our mirth and marre all our markets then we must keep within bounds and neither get nor spend more then he allows us we must keep to our allowance and but a short allowance neither such as will be too strait for flesh and bloud to submit to And hereupon our eyes and ears which are so open upon the World and it's vanities do as it were invite and call in all the help the world can make to resist Christ and his work do call in all the baits and temptations that the whole world is furnished with to divert and turn aside the heart from hearkning to Christ Help World help O my carnal friends help O my fleshly pleasures help O my house and money Christ is come for mine heart I am loath it should go there can you do nothing to stay it with you help or it 's gone Friends would you not that the world keep Christ out or draw you aside from him shut the doors against it make a covenant with your eyes and ears set a watch upon them put a bridle upon your appetite and keep the door of your lips shut the world out be deaf to it's flattery be blind to it's glory wink it into darkness shut the doors and keep the world out and then Christ will be the better accepted Live above the pleasures of sense What have you no higher pleasures no Nobler delights have you not a God to delight you in have you no soul delights or are these they wherein the Bruits have as great a share as you Is meat and drink and cloaths and sports the food of souls your heart delights must your immortal part live at the Trough and feed on swill and husks where is peace with God where is the fellowship of the spirit where is the joy of the Holy Ghost and the hope of glory where is the sweetness of sincerity and the peace of conscience are there no such things or is there no pleasure in them Are you content to take up with this mud whilest those pure streams run by or must you have both Is it not enough that your souls may rejoyce that your hearts may feast and sing unless your flesh also may frisk and frolick it out in it's brutish mirth and pleasure Go taste and see how good the Lord is drink of his rivers acquaint your selves with his pleasures and then see if an Heaven satiated soul can envy the brutes the pleasures of sense Lastly Make a solemn surrender of your selves and ull that you have to the government and disposal of God lay down all at his feet and resolve to take up nothing but with his leave and for his use Let the Lord have the whole ordering of you for your Getting Keeping Using 1. Seek no other things nor any greater abundance of them then God allows you to seek Buy not an house nor a field or a living but make God the purchaser go not into the fair or the market into the shop or over the seas but when God sends you drive not that trade or that bargain concerning which you cannot say I am herein trading for God let the Lord appoint you your work and your rest your labour and your profit be content with what comes in Seek not great things for your selves and quarrel not with providence if by all your seeking you get nothing Seek no more nor no other things then God would have you and seek them no otherwise then in Gods way and order God hath other works then these for you to do God hath other things then these for you to seek God saies seek my face seek my Kingdom first seek my kingdom and the righteousness thereof what is this done Is God sure Is the kingdom sure have you grace have you peace have you enough of these have you wrought your selves out of work here is there no more to be done no more to be gotten is there never a gulf yet fixed betwixt you and glory that needs your care how to get over are you past all danger of
difficulty that 's all the doubt whether thou wilt or no as hard as the victory is if thou perish by the world at last thy destruction will be laid at thine own door 't is because thou wilt not accept of deliverance if thou wilt thou mayst 4. Is not victory over this enemy desirable Is not liberty desirable is not life desirable be an enemy and live the world kills none but its friends Would it not be well with you if this spirit of the world were cast out and God had given you another spirit would it not be a good exchange if for this carking caring anxious earthly greedy heart you had obtained a contented patient mortified spirit an heavenly mind would not the matter be well mended with you if for your treasure on earth you could make God your treasure could you not wish it were so Can you say I thank God I am yet a worldling I thank God my heart is still below I can mind my pleasures and gains I can satisfie my lust and take my liberty and follow my affairs without troubling my self about these higher matters that I know not Hitherto I thank God this world hath been too hard for the Gospel the devil hath kept possession and hath kept Christ out whilest others have puzled and amused themselves with their thoughts and hopes and fears about another world have made an adventure for the unknown riches have been filling their heads and perplexing their hearts with cares for hereafter and have neglected and straitned themselves here I thank God I have been no such fool While you may say I thank God I have an estate in the world I have friends in the world can you also say I thank God this is my treasure these are my delights I can never trouble my self with thinking of or serving any other God but these I can take these in exchange for my soul I thank God for that unrighteousness or that unmercifulness which he hath left me to and let me alone in whereby I have gotten me an estate and preserved it entire to me it had been worse with me then 't is if I could not have ly'd and defrauded if I had made Conscience of Sabbaths of praying and hearing and spending so much time this way as others do I had been a poor man had I taken this course but I thank God I was wiser then so Can you say thus Christians may and will say I thank God I am crucified to the world I thank God for Faith and Prayers and Sabbaths for a new heart and a new life blessed be God that hath chosen me out of this world and called me by his grace blessed be God for a part in Christ and hope towards God blessed be the day wherein my soul was divorced from this world and espoused to another Husband I would not be in bondage to this earth again I would not be a flesh pleaser a self-seeker again if the devil would hire me with all the Kingdomes of the world there is not a Christian in the world but will say thus But where is the worldling that dares deliberately to say I thank God I am a worldling still God hath dealt well with me that he hath left me out and let me alone to follow mine own heart Speak worldling had it not been well for thee if thou also hadst been brought in to Christ would it not be well for thee if yet thou mightest mightest cease from this earth and be a Candidate for heaven mightest cease to be a drudge and a slave and be delivered into the liberty of the Sons of God would it not be well with thee if thou wert would it not be well with thee if yet thou mightest dost thou never wish O that my soul were in such a case why then wilt thou not in this thy day 5. Can this victory be bought too dear There 's nothing in this world but may be over-bought An Army may be so weakned in the fight that victory will not repair it Crowns and Kingdomes may be bought too dear all the royalties and revenues of the world may be purchas'd at such a rate that they may not be a saving bargain But can redemption from the world be over-bought will not the salvation of thy soul pay all thy charges It s true thy rescuing from this enemy may not be without much damage and loss not only of the ship and the lading but of thy life when thou conquerest this enemy thou wilt loose a friend in thy conquering thou wilt purchase enmity therefore the world hateth you Thou wilt not only create thee enemies by thy Conquest but wants and straits and labours and cares when thou ceasest to be a servant to this world think not to have an easie idle life thou wilt have more and harder work then ever the pursuing thine enemy that he rally not again upon thee the watching thine heart the guarding thine eye the governing thine appetite that they run not again after it the pleasing and following thy Lord in all things that he commands thee what day thou breakest with the world and joynest thy self to the Lord this life of labour and care thou puttest thy self upon thou must no more thirst after thy stoln waters nor taste of thy forbidden pleasures thou must no more traverse thy most pleasant ways nor stick at the most painful duties nay not thine ease only or thy pleasure but thy life also and all that thou hast must go when ever thy Lord calls thee to it What course short of this will either obtain or secure thee the victory but how will such a life down with thee how will thy spirit bear it when thy faint heart shrinks from it when thy proud or stubborn heart swells against it when thy old pleasures and liberties when thine old friends and companions when thy silver and thy gold cry after thee canst thou leave us thus can thy soul part with us for ever thou wilt then find that this victory costs thee dear But is not thy soul more worth then all this wilt say Better I were damn'd then sav'd at such an hard rate hell rather then this way to heaven 'T is hard to be a Christian 't is true but blessed be God my soul is escaped my foot is gotten out of the snare liberty liberty is brought to this captive and the opening of the prison to the bound he whom I now serve how hard soever his work is is no hard mâ—ster he gives good wages were his work harder then 't is yet 't is not worthy to be laid in the balance with salvation I will not die for an easie life 6. What if this enemy should reign till death how do you think your worldly life will look when you come to die do you think you shall then say I have done well to be a worldling it may be if God should ask you now dost thou well to be covetous dost thou
and fill'd your purses and fed your carkasses and provided for your Families but it hath starv'd your souls O my leannes my leannes my dry and withered soul my weak heart my wasted Conscience Oh how little truth or tenderness how little love or lise or warmth do I feel within me Oh how much pride and frowardness oh how much lust and liberty to sin hath there grown upon me I can fret and vex and chafe I can be false I can lye and dissemble all the Religion I have gotten into my soul after so long a time of profession is not enough to restrain these vile abominations Oh my soul how sad is it with thee how low is it with thee to this day how comes this to pass why this is thy good husbandry this is thy worldliness thy labouring so much thy hungring so much after the meat that perishes or thy being given to thy pleasure or thy ease this is it that hath held thee in such a poor case such an unfruitful and barren state such a dark and uncomfortable state as thou art in at this day for all this unhappiness thou art beholding to the world and thy worldliness Thus you have seen the enmity of the world against souls it holds back from Christ darkens the sight that we cannot see the excellency or the need of Christ deadens the sense and hinders from following Christ keeps Christ short c. Let this by the way be an argument to disswade from worldliness are you Christians or would you be so would you ever come to any thing in Religion would you prosper in holiness would you have the comfort of Christianity then take heed and beware of a worldly heart which will either hinder you from ever coming to Christ or else be a Canker and a Moth to devour and eat out the spirits of all that Christianity you have II. Wherein the strength of the world lies whereby it prevails upon so many souls It is a wonder it should ever prevail so as it does that ever men of understanding endued with immortal souls should suffer themselves to be led up and down down as they are by such a pernicious and mortal Enemy that when they have seen so many lost and undone by it they should never take warning that it should ever be trusted as it is that it should ever be lov'd as it is that it should ever be hearkened to as it is especially considering how unreasonable its demands are and how inconsiderable its rewards What does the world demand what would it have This is it if it would speak out Come sell me thy God come sell me thy hopes that thou hast for the other world come sell me thy soul come give me thy heart love me and serve me But what shall be mine hire what wilt thou give me then if it would speak out this is the reward it gives Vanity and vexation death and destruction Hell shall be thine hire But suppose it should give what it sayes it will all the good things on this side the grave riches honors pleasures ease abundance of all these and all manner of contentment in the enjoyment of them yet what 's all this thou shouldst gain on this side the grave to what thou shalt loose and to what thou shalt suffer on the other side of the grave what 's Earth to Heaven what 's Time to Eternity Suppose it should say plainly come take thy good things here and thy evil things hereafter take thy riches in this and thy poverty in the other world take thy pleasures here and thy plagues beneath be full or be merry prosper flourish rejoyce for a few houres or for a few dayes and be miserable cry howl be in torments to Eternity If the World should speak out thus to Men this it designs if it should speak out thus into what madness must those Souls be bewich'd that would hearken to it and yet behold though this be the design its driving on and men might know it if they would but consider yet behold how the whole world almost are wondering after this beast and busy in making bargains with it to be its captives and servants yea not only suffering themselves to be perswaded and beguiled in o this bondage but also willingly offering themselves for servants I pray thee take me into the number of thy servants Take my Soul world saies one take my God saies another take my hopes saies another Let me be but a rich man let me be a great man let me have so much money or so much lands or so much pleasure or ease or honour let but this Moon shine upon me and take the Sunshine whoever will let me be this worlds favourite and I am content to be its servant and so along they go after it till they be lost for ever What a wonder is this and yet how many such prodigies are to be seen every day and in every place this is the case of every worldling thou that wilt be rich thou whose heart goes after thy covetousness thou who art given to thy pride or thy pleasures or thy ease thou art boring thine eare to the threshold of thy mortal enemy thou art doing away thy patrimony for husks thou art doing away thy Soul and its eternal inheritance to buy in thy life into an house or parcel of Land or for a bundle of crackling thorns to make thee blaze before which thou mayest dance and be merry for an hour or two and then go down to everlasting darkness This being such a marvelous thing that such an enemy that is so known and confest to be by the very men that suffer themselves to be led Captive by it for what worldling is there that will not confess that this world is an Enemy that such a known Enemy should still so easily prevail in the world as the Apostle in another case Gal. 3. 1. 3. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you are ye so foolish that having begun in the Spirit ye will be made perfect in the flesh O foolish worldlings who hath bewitched you are ye so foolish that being born to things Spiritual and Eternal you will be thus led captive by things Temporal and Fleshly this being such a marvelous thing it will be worth our time to enquire wherein the strength of the world lyes whereby it so strangely prevails And indeed it is a piece of the best policy and that which gives great advantage against an enemy to study and find out where his strength lyeth Judg. 16. 6. c. When Dalilah attemped the delivering of Sampson bound into the hands of the Philistimes she lyes at him day by day tell me where thy great strength lyeth tell me where thy great strength lyeth in vain did they assault him in vain did she bind him her Cords and her Wit hs and her webs could never hold him till at length she found out where his strength lay which when she had
of the world lives in you Oh have you been so long professours of Christianity and have not yet gotten the Spirit of Christianity Is this the Spirit of Christ that leads you on in an earthly course did God give you his Spirit to teach you how to be such drudges to the world did God give you his Spirit to teach you how to plow and sow and buy and sell and hoord up treasures on earth what are your thoughts your designs your courses your ordinary talk and discourse what is it but earth earth are these the thoughts the wayes the language of the Spirit can any one that beholds our conversation that in the general bent and tenour of it is all about the world and but now and then a cold wish or a few heartless words about the things of God can any man that beholds us say I these are the persons that are dead to the world that are crucified that are mortified to things below these are they that have received the spirit of Christ indeed these speak like Christians and look like Christians and live like Christians like men of another world can it be said thus of us can we say thus of our selves my life is a spiritual life my course is an heavenly course my steps are all bending to another countrey can we say thus would not our daily course our daily discourse give us the lye if we should Oh we are yet of an earthly sensual Spirit the Spirit of this world is yet bearing rule in us our very Soul is but a lump of earth and flesh Oh for another Spirit a new Soul a more divine and cellestial frame O seek O wait for this better Spirit and then we should quickly see another life once let the world be thrust out of the heart and we shall quickly see more of Heaven breaking forth in the life 2. The strength of the world lyes in the God of this world Sathan gives strength to and marshals its temptations so as that the success of them depends much on him this he he doth 1. By over rating the good things present and underrating the good things to come 2. By sharpning the edge of the evil things present and blunting the edge of the evil things to come 3. By an active stimulating and provoking the Soul on any terms whaatsoever to pursue the present good and to escape the present evil 1. By over rating the good things present and under rating the good things to come He that looks on the world through the Devils glass shall see it double to what it is he gives the same prospect to us as he did to our Lord Matth. 4. 2. shews it in its Glory every Comet Shines as the Sun he makes the silver as gold the brass as silver stones as iron every thing hath a borrowed face and looks better then it is The Apple whereby he tempted our first parents Gen. 3. 5. he makes a deifying Apple In the day that you eat your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Sathans design is to blind and put out mens eyes knowing that they can never see the terrene glory till their eyes be out but his pretence is to open eyes to make such discoveries of the hidden excellencies in these earthly treasures as will transfigure Earth into an Heaven He presents the world as that which hath substance sufficiency contentment hearts ease satisfaction in it he sayes to his friends as the Lord sayes to his Prov. 8. 17. c. I love them that love me and them that seek me early shall find me riches and honours are with me yea durable riches and righteousness I will cause those that love me to find substance and I will fill their treasures thus the Lord speaks to his and the Devil gives the world a tongue to speak at the same rate I love them that love me I have riches and honours durable riches and I will fill them with treasures And as the world speaks so worldlings think it cannot boast greater things of it self then will be believed Hos 12. 8. I am become rich sayes Ephraim I have found me out substance the shadow is a substance in those eyes that see no better things Hence these things are taken up by the men of this world as their portion as their heritage as their happiness and hope thou givest them their portion in this life Psal 17. and they take them as their portion and now Lord what wait I for saith the Psalmist my hope is in thee and now world what wait I for what work I for what live I for truly my hope is in thee the worldling sayes God is my portion and in a sense he says true for the world is his God And on the other side as Sathan over rates this so he under rates the other world 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of of God should shine unto them The Gospel is a window through which the light and glory of the other world breaks in and shines down upon this here the pretended opener of eyes smites with blindness by a vail of unbelief he keeps the Gospel and all the glory of it out of sight unbelief gives the lye to all that the Gospel speaks calls all into question holds under uncertainties whether there be any such thing or no and what 's doubtful and uncertain whether it be or no will be vallewed there after What a low price do carnal hearts put upon the deep things of God upon the great things of eternity Glory and honour and immortality and eternal life what cheap things are they accounted whilest soul and conscience and peace and hopes and life are so ordinarily sold to purchase an earthly inheritance that 's the bargain that every where is driving in this earth how few are there that will deal for Heaven and Glory though it may be bought without mony and without price though it may be had for the seeking for though it be bought to their hands yet they will not take it Now what advantage is this to wordly temptations when the price of things to come is so beaten down when the price of things present is so hoised and raised as if the one could hardly be over-bought and the other were scarce worth the dealing for 2. By sharpening the edge of present evils and blunting the edge of evils to come The afflictions of this life are made to cut deeper than the vengeance to come The persecutions of men are more feared than the Plague of God Satan makes his Vassals to think there is no Heaven or Hell to those on Earth Poverty looks more dismally than eternal Fire Disgrace than Damnation the Wrath of man than the Cnrse of God Let Death and Damnation be preached to the World and this stirs them
so loose from God and the things of God Carnal men can want the presence and favour of God can spare Religion and the duties and comforts thereof and never find any miss of them why so why because these things do not at all serve their design they can be as rich and as great and as merry without minding God or holiness or any such thing And upon a like ground a Believer can want his ease or his pleasure or any of his outward comforts why so why because these if he had them would as little serve his design as Religion will the Worldlings Hearken to me saith Satan and whatever the world doth afford shall be thine Why will this world stand me instead in reference to the world to come Can my soul feed upon this earth and ashes Shall I be ever the better man for being a rich man Will these earthly things commend me to God Is he a respecter of the rich above the poor of the honorable above the despised Is this following after riches or pleasures thou perswadest me to Is this my way to life Avoid Satan thou comest but to mock me and beguile me 4. By Faith we understand that the design of temptations is to deprive us of our Inheritance A Believer knows that the Devil owes him no good will how fair soever he treats him he sees that all his promises are cheats that all his gifts are bribes to corrupt us first and then to destroy us he marks him for his mortal Enemy whose drift is to keep him out of the Paradise of God he hath learn'd from the Scriptures who 't was that at first thrust him out thence This Serpent was he Gen. 3. and now he has him out that his work is to keep him from ever recovering in And he observes how his particular temptations do serve his general design to destroy souls whatever the voice is this is the meaning of every temptation Thou shalt never see God thou shalt never get to heaven if I can help it Faith understands what use the Devil hath made of the world whither did the rich mans Purple and fine linnen and delicious fare lead him Luk. 16. 19. 23. If you had seen him in the state he was in v. 19. in his gorgeous apparrel at his voluptuous Table what carnal heart but would have bless'd him O this is an happy man but where do you find him v. 23. Oh how sadly is the Scene changed Behold this brave Gallant in hell torments A Believer would have seen him in hell in his first view whilst in the midst of all his Gallantry and Gluttony Psa 73. 17. When I went into the Sanctuary I saw the end of these men How was it with them when he saw their end where were they why in the midst of all their prosperity in the heighth of their pride in the heat of their lust in the heaps of their wealth fat and flourishing as full of mirth and jollity as their hearts could wish and out of all fear of a fall even then he sees their end in their very noon-tide he espied their night Where shall we have you a few hours hence But what end was it he saw these men would come to v. 18. Thou hâ—st set them in slippery places thou castest them down to destruction how are they brought to desolation in a moment that 's the end he saw was hastening upon them Desolation and Destruction But how came he so soon to see their end I went into the Sanctuary there I understood their end When I consulted with God about it when I left consulting with Sense and consulted with Faith about it then I understood how matters were like to go with them Believers while they consult with flesh and bloud are to apt to be envious at the foolish to fret themselves at the ungodly whose way doth prosper and to call the proud happy yea and to murmure and think hardly of the Lord who suffers his enemies to eat up the fat and drink the sweet and feeds his people with hunger and thirst I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked But when they come to understand themselves what the meaning of all this plenty and prosperity of the ungodly is and where it layes them at last no more envy then much good may doe them with all their glory and greatness by that the fruit of all their doings comes up they 'le pay for all their pleasure dearly enough Christians do ye see the proud insulting oppressing ruffling world do you see the vile of the earth scrambling for wealth climbing up to honour dividing the spoils and sharing among themselves the preferments and pleasures of the world beware you envy them not Look a little farther and you will see no matter of envy but of pity and praise Pity over them who are but fatting for the slaughter and praise on the behalf of your selves that you Souls are not gathered with them But this by the way Faith understands from those many instances it finds in Scripture what use the Divel hath made of the world what mischiefs and ruines he hath hereby brought on Souls and when this is understood then sure its bewitching face notwithstanding all its paint will not look so beautiful and amiable 5. Faith makes experimental and fuller discoveries of the glory of that inheritance the Soul hath pitchd upon As I said before there 's no way possible to divide the heart from this world till you can shew it a better that 's the voice of every heart which is said Psal 4. 6. to be the voice of the worldlings heart Who will shew us any good and whatsoever it finds and apprehends to be good that it graspes and will hold till an higher good come in sight This world is apprehended to be the worldlings good and t is the best he knows and he must be bought out of it ere he will let it go he must be bought out of his house bought out of his livings and pleasures by something that is or is apprehended to be a valuable price at least ere he will quit what he has It s vain to perswade the rich to voluntary poverty unless you can present him with a reward that will compensate his loss All the arguments in the world from the unsufficiency instability vanity vexation in these earthly things will be easily answered But where shall I have better better half a loaf then no bread a short meal is better then starving the heart will not let go this world but upon the discovery of a better And according to the degree of the manifestation of those better things above so will there be more or less an abatement of our affection to things below A little light from Heaven will make the world look dimme and as the Sun rises higher all our stars creep into darkness at the first entrance of God upon the Soul the world looses the
place as was said before and it s thrust lower and and lower still as God rises higher till at length it be brought quite underfoot It s impossible that God and the world should be intensely lov'd together that both should be our God our end and chiefest good is a contradiction It s irrational for any to conclude that they have any great respect for God who are strongly affected to the world Many professours of religion may be convinc'd that their religion is vain by this that to what ever height it seems to be rais'd its still overtop'd by their earthly mindedness 1 Joh. 2. 15. If any man love the world intensely chiefly the love of the Father is not in him Never talk of Christianity till you cease to be worldings and never look to be lesse worldlings till you understand better what Heaven is Faith in its first entrance into the Soul brings this tidings that God is better then the world and according as it grows higher so is its testimony to this truth more clear and full As the Apostle saith concerning the righteousness of God Rom. 1. 17. so is it true of his Goodness kindness mercy alsufficiency the goodness and kindness of God is revealed from faith to faith that is according as faith grows so is God and all the excellencies of his glorious name more known Every cubit added to the stature of our faith is a new beam of light sprung forth from the face of God and God known is Heaven known our blessedness our inheritance known God is our inheritance Faith as was said before is the good Spie Num. 13. sent forth to view the land of promise The two Generals Christ and Sathan have each of them their Spie which they send forth Christs Spie is Faith the Devils Spie is Sense The Devil will be sending forth his Spie Sense must go and view the inheritance of the Saints But this being short-sighted and not able to travail far must take up all its tidings upon hearesay and finding no good report amongst all its acquaintance sensual men will never speak well of the things of God it hereupon returns with an evil report It s a dark land and a dry and barren land there 's nothing of all that thou lovest to be found in it and it is uncertain whether there be any such land or no everlasting joy and rest are represented as fancies and conceits to carnal hearts It s better here here are houses and lands and pleasures we know there are we see there are but what there is in the other world is altogether dark and uncertain to us Beloved hath your sense never dealt thus by you what apprehensions have you of the glory to come have not your blind senses disparag'd and disgrac'd the things of the Kingdome of God to you You take every thing to be as sense Judgeth it and what is the Judgment of sense of these glorious things It speaks highly of things temporal this world is good a land flowing with milk and honey But what saies it concerning things eternal Are none of you the men and women whose carnal hearts have told you and you have believed them that t is uncertain whether there be an Heaven or no or if there be yet the happiness of it is so much unknown that if you might it would be more to your content to live your eternity among these sheep and oxen in these gardens and orchards in the possession of your earthly delights and pleasures then ever to be carried hence to that unknown world Your opinions of these higher things we may guess at by the care you take about them What care is there taken about the things of God what is there a doing in your houses in your closets or any where about these matters Have you taken up any design for Heaven are you taking any effectual course for eternal blessedness Are you as hearty and serious in seeking God as in seeking this world whilest your hearts are so hot and so zealous and busy in pursuing things temporal is it not upon the matter indifferent to you whether you do any thing or no or how you do it in seeking the Kingdome of God do you pray and labour and watch for your Souls with as good a will as ever you did work for your living do you hunger and thirst after the knowledge and grace of God after a part in Christ after the pardon of your sins as ever you do after your appointed food What enquiries do you make How is it with me what evidences have I for Heaven have I any right to the tree of life Is there no fear I may fall short of the rest and be shut out of the Kingdom of God how may I know whether Christ be mine or no Consider are there any such enquiries no no your sense hath so much disparag'd things to come that they are to you even as if they were hardly worth the inquiring after But now Faith is the good Spie that makes a good report of that Holy Land it makes more diligent search after the riches of it and finds out its hidden treasures and then speaks as it finds faith hath a glass wherein it can behold and whereby it doth reveal to the Soul the glory of God The gospel is its glass 2 Cor. 3. 18. the promises are its glass those great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1. The promises are the deeds and conveyances by which this inheritance is made over Now as among men in their Deeds there is a recital of all the particulars made over by them The houses the lands the gardens the orchards the rivers the royalties and all the immunities belonging thereto so is it here the promises are a Map or Survey of Heaven and Faith is often looking into these deeds reading over the writings and thence understands what a glorious purchase it hath Nay more Faith brings down some of the fruits of this good land this good Spie comes in loaden with some clusters from Canaan A believer that walks with God God le ts fall to him now and then some handfuls of that harvest some drops of that vintage which is ripening for him above what are those beams of divine light that sense of divine love those intimations of divine acceptance those communications of the divine image in the increases of holiness and righteousness that joy of faith and peace in believing what are these but a Specimen of Heaven the first fruits of glory By Faith the Kingdom of Heaven is within us there 's God within us and Christ within us and glory within us Those believers that live in the power of Faith and holiness need not travail far in search for Heaven t is but looking inward there they may find it say not who shall ascend in search for Heaven t is in thine heart Sinners need not go down to the deep to search for Hell there 's an Hell within them The
things thou knowest not what thou mayst find hereafter Who can tell what there is in another world whether there be any other state of blessedness then what our eyes do see But grant there be such an happy state what may this be to thee God knows whether ever thou mayst be the better for 't when thou hast done all thou canst and lost all thou hast and left thy self a poor and miserable and forlorn wretch an abject an exile from all thy comforts and contentments after all this thou mayst never come to Heaven at last foolish man loose not a certainty for an uncertainty know when thou art well and keep what thou hast what thou hast thou art sure of thine house is thine own thy estate is thine own thy friends and thy pleasures and thy liberties do not thine eyes see them dost thou not tast that they are good here thou hast something but what thou mayst have heareafter who can tell And what can a poor Soul answer to such temptations that 's held under unbelief I confess there 's no great wisdom in losing certainties for uncertainties I see I have something here and if I were sure it should be so well with me hereafter I could be content to venture all I have to follow Christ naked to follow holiness even to bonds imprisonment and death But what if there should be no such thing as Heaven or I should never come there But now Faith will reply what are thy good things thou countest so sure to thee what but vanity and vexation but were they better then they are and worth what thou countest them what is the assurance thou hast of them for how long are they thine for how many years for how many dayes what thine eye sees to day where may it all be by to morrow or suppose the most thou canst thou canst have but a lease of life in them when thou diest thy estate dies thy pleasures die thy friends dye to thee and here 's the assurance thou boastest of at present thou hast something that pleases thee and may be they may last for an hour or two longer or for a few dayes more but to be sure after a few years at utmost they will be gone and thou must know them no more This is thy assurance But is Heaven no more sure then this Is that enduring substance like these transient shadows can stability be removed or eternity expire or if the doubt be whether ever thou shalt obtain this blessed state what hath God said He that beleiveth shall be saved Is it uncertain whether God be true Hath God help'd me to beleive and therein told me I shall be saved and shall I yet question whether I shall or no At least this is sure beyond all contradiction Heaven may be had thou shalt certainly be saved if it be not thine own fault if thou wilt thou mayst The Gospel is a mockery if this be not true it apparently offers life to all that will and therefore to thee amongst the rest Rev. 22. 17. The Spirit and the bride say come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely there is this only uncertainty now remaining It s a question whether thou wilt or not If thou wilt thou mayst Now when a Soul is brought to this much more when a beleiver understanding that he beleives can read his own name in the book of life then let the world try its skill what an hard task will it have before it Come change thy God and thy glory for that which profiteth not forsake the fountain of living waters for these broken Cisterns purchase the pleasures of time with the loss of Eternity Come let the other world go what wilt thou give me then why what ever thine heart desires of all that thine eyes do see No no deceitful world I have better things then these and I will now use thine own words I will not loose a certainty for uncertainties God is mine but after a few dayes whose shall these things be that thou offerest me I mean not to be so put off as to take mine Heaven on Earth Let this earth be my prison my purgatory my Hell rather then my Heaven my life is bought into that eternal inheritance reserved in Heaven for me and I will not sell mine inheritance V. The Conquest of Faith over this conflicting world this I shall dispatch in shewing 1. How far forth or in what sence every believer hath overcome the world 2. Wherein the victory stands 1. How far forth or in what sence every believer hath overcome the world this in 4 particulars 1. He is actually interess'd in Christs victory 2. He is radically indued with Christs conquering power 3. He hath actually broken the head design of the world 4. He is effectually marching on in the pursuit of the victory 1. He is actually interess'd in Christs victory he hath overcome in capite a believer is in Christ and as such whatsoever Christ hath done as redeemer of the world is his and for him Joh. 16. 33. aforementioned Be ye of good comfort I have overcome the world Christs victory is a believers security I have overcome be ye of good comfort why what comfort is that to us If an unbeliever had ask'd what comfort is that to me it must have been answer'd none at all whilest thou continuest in unbelief thou hast no part in Christ nor art like to reap any profit by him while he is a conquerour thou art a captive still its lusts fetter thee its thorns choke thee its pollutions cleave to thee thou art at present and thou mayst dye a worldling and from this temporal it may carry thee down to an eternal bondage But if it be ask'd what comfort is it to a believer that Christ hath overcome its great comfort In him thou hast overcome his victory is thy victory Christ saies to thee not only as Joh. 14. 19. because I live ye shall live also because I have overcome ye shall overcome but because I have overcome ye have overcome 1 Joh. 4. 4. ye are of God little children and have overcome 2. He is radically endued with Christs conquering power he hath overcome in causa he hath that within him which will be the death of his enemies he is not only interess'd in Christ and what he hath done but Christ is in him the spirit of Christ which is the power of the living God is in him He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. The same power by which Christ overcame is already communicated to the Soul of a believer and thence may he be said to have already conquered because he hath received that spirit of power which will certainly work for him the victory What can a living child new born do He is as weak as water he cannot speak he cannot stand he cannot conquer a flea but what may not this child do when he
the things of the world without placing our happiness in them The Supremacy of the world is founded in its apprehended sufficiency to bless us and make us happy Whilest we hold it our treasure we resign our selves to it as our Governour Mat. 6. 21. Where the treasure is there the heart will be also The heart will never dwell in or serve this world when it hath chosen another treasure the world can never hold the dominion of a Lord longer then it can hold the reputation of our God The soul will not be governed or commanded by it unless it be content to take it as its reward when the heart hath said to the Lord Thou art my portion it can say to the world Stand thou as my footstool when we neither promise our selves contentment in our expectations nor feel our selves at rest in our possessions of the world when the heart is fixed on an higher good and so strongly working upward that it will not be detained from the pursuit of it by any thing it either hath or hopes for here then the world is vanquished Now in this is included 1. Our making God our happiness It s vain for any man to say or think the world is not who cannot truly say The Lord is my happiness and Heritage It s natural to man to desire happiness and to pitch some where or other where he hopes 't is to be had what he apprehends to be the best of all he knows most suitable and most satisfactory to his desire and appetite there he fastens Worldly men that know no better promise to themselves a worldly happiness and here they fix and it is impossible for them to loosen hence till they discover and close with some higher good till God comes in the World will not out The Psalmist could never but have envied and Idolized the portion and prosperity of the ungodly had not God been his portion First he must say Whom have I in heaven but thee and then he can add There 's none in earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73. 2. The due limiting our desires after and moderating our delights in the things of this world and a subordination of them all to our great end If the world be not our happiness we shall love it and seek it thereafter The world if it be any thing to us it must be either our end or our means if God be our portion he is our end if God be our end the world ceases to be such two last ends no man can have till he have two souls if the world be not our end it must be either our means or nothing to us Our desires and delights are proportionable to our conceits of and our expectations from the objects of them that which is apprehended and accepted as our end is desired accordingly hath the stream and strength of the soul running out after it there it desires and loves without limit that which is apprehended only as a means is so far only amiable and desired as it subserves our end When ever the world ceases to be accounted our happiness it will necessarily be judg'd only as a means to it and thence will follow this limiting our worldly desires and moderating of our worldly delights we shall desire them no farther nor delight in them otherwise then as they are conducible to God 2. Victory over the world stands in a power to mannage our worldly affairs and businesses without the prejudice of our souls Psal 112. 5. He will guide his affairs with discretion and his discretion herein appears 1. That in the multitudes of the thoughts he hath in his heart and the businesses he hath in his hand he hath still an eye to the main He 's a discreet man that rightly understands and duly minds his great concernment the world must be minded the Plough must be followed the seed must be sown the Flocks must be kept the Oxen and the Asses must be cared for But what is the world to my soul what is my food to my life this must be chiefly look'd to that I perish not that I run not upon an eternal undoing that my soul may live and it may be well with me hereafter I must first seek the Kingdome of God and then let other things be minded as they may He that said Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks and to look well to thy herds Prov. 27. 23. said also with an Emphasis Deut. 4. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently above all keeping keep thy heart Prov. 4. 23. And therefore to this he hath a most special eye his eye looks most inwards it s well with me without or whether it be or no how is it within how goes the work of Faith and Repentance on how goes the work of Mortification and Sanctification on here he bestows his special labour in working out his salvation in laying up treasure in heaven I shall never count my self to prosper whilest my soul prospers not I shall never count my self a good husband whilest mine own Vineyard hath not been kept and I shall never count my self poor while I am growing rich unto God I shall never count my self an ill husband whilest I have been wise and busie for Eternity 2. That to this end he overcharges not pulls no more of business upon him then he can go through with without neglecting his soul though he must imploy himself yet he will not intangle himself in the affairs of this life 2 Tim. 2. 4. His Lord hath given him fair warning Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with the cares of this life and he 's willing to take the warning He 's wary how he undertakes more business then God calls him to if God put him upon a more busie life and lays on a greater load of work or care upon him he chearfully sets his shoulders to it knowing that where God sets him on work he will be with him in the work and help him out but he would have no more to do then God sets him about Christians besides the Call of God there are too often other Masters call us to work 't is not seldome that mens lusts set them on work as their lusts call them off from work call them to play or to sleep or to be idle so sometimes also mens lusts call them to work Some mens pride sets them on work many an hard daies work they have to get something to maintain it Some mens prodigality sets them on work that they may have to spend on their throats their bellies or companions but most of all mens covetousness sets them on work this is an hard and cruel Master oh what a labourious weary life do such men live their life is a meer drudgery rising early going to bed late eating the bread of carefulness How many irons hath the covetous man in the fire how many cares how
hath said Mat. 10. 37. He that loves Father or Mother more then me he that loves Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me He that forsakes not Father and Mother cannot be my Disciple therefore I have no more to say my Friends are dear my Husband is dear my Wife is dear to me I rejoyce in their love and I would not their displeasure I would not worthily be counted unworthy or unkind or disrespectful or undutiful to any of them but God is more then all My friends if you will go along with me if you will to Christ with me if you will be for holiness with me and oh that you would come along let 's along to Christ together let me have your company to heaven oh that I could pray you thither oh that I could perswade you thither I love you so well that I am loath we should part companies if you will go along with me if I may be the Lords and yet be yours I am much more yours then ever but if this be the condition of your love you will love me so I love not Christ you will be my friends so the Lord be not my friend you will respect me and esteem me so I will despise and disrespect holiness you will be for my company so I be not for heaven or so I will not go so far or so fast that way if this be the condition of your love stay with us do as we do live as we live be merry be vain take thy pleasure take thy liberty as we do and we will love thee if you will not love me on other terms then farewell to you all and to all your love I have learn'd what this meaneth he that loveth Father or Mother more then Christ is not worthy of him he that loveth favour or respect more then Christ is not worthy of him and till you can make it out that you have oblig'd me more then Christ hath oblig'd me that your love will be better to me then the love of Christ that respect from men will be better to me then acceptance with God you must give me leave to run the hazard of losing such friends whom I cannot keep without losing God and my soul 4. Circumstance But when he went from Pharaohs Court whither went he when he left the bosome of Pharaohs Daughter to whom did he joyn himself why to a company of poor bondmen that were labouring at the brick Kilns and not to be a Taskmaster or Ruler among them but to take his lot of suffering with them chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God c. Now lay all these circumstances together Moses that had been bred up and liv'd in the Equipage of a Prince and might have so continued when he came to age and understood what the advantages of worldly greatness were when he had his senses quick about him and could make the highest experiment what the sweetness of worldly pleasures was in the highest Spring-tide of worldly lusts and temptations when 't was high water without and his youthful blood was most aflote within when he had time before him to make the most of the worlds favours who had never known what an harder and lower condition meant who had been so strangly obliged by signal favours and could not but be strongly prompted from principles of ingenuity not to slight such favoures in the midst of all these temptations for the service of his God and from his affection to his brethren he voluntarily not upon force but of choice disrob'd himself of all his glory and espoused the sufferings of his brethren esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Egypt v. 27. O brethren how may we be filled with wonder and which of the two wonders are the greatest Moses his self-denial or our denial of Christ Moses his comming off in so great a floud of temptations or our being so ordinarily overcome in those little temptations which daily occurre how little is it that we do or can deny our selves in for Christ what have we forsaken or what are we willing to forsake for Christ upon what inconsiderable termes have Christ and our Souls so often parted what cheap duties will we not do what cheap sins will we not abate what small temptations are hearkned to when Christ cannot be heard How often have we neglected to reprove a sin for fear of loosing a friend how often have we neglected to speak of God for fear of displeasing our company how often have we denyed conscience that we might not deny our lusts what sinful pleasures that our hearts have been lusting after what sinful gains that our eyes have been set upon what pleasant morsels that our appetites have been craving have we been able to deny them how do we let conscience lye at the mercy of every lust if lust will but crave it must be granted whatever become of conscience If the name of Christ should prevail no more in Heaven then it ordinarily doth on earth if God should so ordinarily deny those prayers we offer up in Christs name as we deny those precepts which in the same name are sent down to us we should have as little hopes towards Heaven as the Lord hath honour on earth We grudge we murmur we quarrel with God if he deny us in any thing cross us in any thing and yet how many denyals must he bear from us and be patient 2 King 5. 13. If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it how much more when he saith wash and be clean If it had been some great thing the Lord had required of us that it is not all we have is but a little if it had been some great thing t were a shame to deny it to God but when such little things can't be granted not a word spoken sometimes in a whole day together not an alms given not a vain pleasure abated not a wanton fashion laid aside not a proud look or a froward tongue or a wanton eye or a greedy appetite restrained at his word when we fail in such little things what should we have done had we stood in Moses his stead Brethren when we are led aside from a self-denying to a flesh pleasing life we are ready to say to those that reprove us for it Oh you do not know my temptations if you were in my circumstances you might have done the like But you do know Moses his temptations and if you had had more of Moses heart you would not have complained so much of great temptations Beloved you that dwell in your sieled houses lodg in your warm and easy beds are clothed in your soft and costly raiment fed at your full tables cheared by the countenance and courtesies of your friends compassed about with your accommodations of all sorts when you can choose rather a poor cottage an hard lodging rough or ragged
the whole thus far forth every Believer is willing to die though he still feel a natural dread of death though by reason of the remainders of flesh he be too much taken with the pleasure of an earthly life and being at some uncertainty and under some doubts what his future estate after death may be he may linger and hang back yet were these doubts removed and were he grown to an assurance that whenever his soul looses from this body it should immediately be received into the Paradise of God he so much prefers a life with God in perfect holiness and blessedness above the most prosperous worldly life that though his flesh could wish a longer stay yet his spirit would be willing when ever the Lord calls to depart and be with Christ which is far better And according as the mortification of his flesh his Crucifixion to the world and his assurance of salvation grow more compleat and clear so is his willingness heightned into more earnest desires and longings Come Lord Jesus why doth my Lord delay his coming when Lord when shall this dust return to the earth and this spirit to God that gave it make haste my beloved and come away Oh Brethren what an argument is here to press you to put hard for this Victory over the World when the World is Conquered death is Conquered the fear of death ceases Would you be delivered from this fear would you not count it a mercy better then life to be bold to die arise then and buckle on your armour treat this world no longer as a friend but deal with it as an enemy watch against it fight against it and what day you prevail over it you have both won the field of all your doubts and fears Victory over this world is a sure evidence for heaven and got the Mastery of your carnal hearts which alone make death formidable or unwelcome Brethren death comes you know and it may be upon you on a sudden do you not perceive its approaches do we not some of us already feel our Tabernacles to totter do not the walls moulder the windows grow dim do not our pillars shake and grow weak under us you that are youngest and strongest do you not know that death may be at the door do you know what a day or a night may bring forth are you ready to be gone are you bold to go forth and meet this last Enemy or do you not shake and shrink at the very mention of it Be mortified once and then let death do its worst Give the Word leave to kill this world give the spirit leave to kill this flesh and then you may give death leave to do its office Consider whither ever you go you carry your life in your hand and know not whether ever you shall bring it back O think with your selves when you are going forth into the field think with your selves I carry my life in my hand and God knows whether ever I may return with it whether ever I may come home alive when you go into the house think with thy self God knows whether ever I may come abroad when you arise in the morning God knows whether my next lodging may not be in the dust when you lye down in the evening God knows where my soul may be before morning I may awaken in another world and what if I should awaken in flames and feel this soul wrapp'd up in a winding sheet of fire Is there no fear it may be so Hath this world kept me from Christ all my life long and will it let me to heaven at last hath it held me in Chains all my time here how will it use me when it carries me hence Are you ready to die how shall I die when this earth is still my treasure take away my Gods and what have I more How shall I die when my soul hangs in doubt whither must I when I go hence can I follow this grisly Messenger when I know not whither he will lead me let mine Enemy die first let sin and the World die let mine Enemy be dead and let him that liveth be my friend let me cease from this earth and let heaven be my treasure and then I shall be willing to be gone Be it thus with you Friends and then you will be ready to be offered up Whatever Executioner be now sent to take away your life if old age be sent if a disease a Fever or Consumption if a distast a fall or a fire or any the like casualties if a son of violence a thief or a murtherer whatever Executioner be sent to take away your life and when ever he comes whether in the first second or third Watch you will say with the Apostle The time of my departure is at hand I am ready to be offered up I desire to depart and to be with Christ Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And now at length Behold the man Here is the Conquerour and this is his Victory He that is come unto Christ to whom the world hath ceased to be his treasure and he hath accepted of God as his happiness and Heritage the moderation of whose affections to things earthly doth evidence that they are now only his means not his end He that can mannage his worldly affairs without the prejudice of his soul that whatever his hand finds to do hath still an eye to the main that overcharges not with business but makes business leave room for duty that so cares for the Oxen and the Asses that he neglect not the souls of his sons or servants that in all his dealings hath a due respect to truth righteousness and mercy that will be true though to his own hindrance that will be poor rather then dishonest or unmerciful whom the whole world cannot hire to lye or be unrighteous He that can use the world to its proper end all for God he that can want the worlds good things or suffer the worlds evil things and can keep his heart and his way whether he prosper or suffer that can deny his flesh when he hath to satisfie it that can want and be content suffer and be patient that is humble in the height of honour magnanimous in the depth of danger and difficulty that keeps in an even equal poise sober temperate serious in all the turns and changes of his life He that can thus live in the world and can die out of the world that is willing to be gone this is the Conquerour and here is his victory Use 1. The application that I shall make of the whole shall be by way of Information and Conviction Direction and Exhortation 1. By way of Information and Conviction Learn from what hath been said 1. That every Captive to the World is an unbeliever 2. That where there is but little power over the World there is but little Faith 1. Every Captive to
mark is this they mind earthly things of them that are saved or of them that perish and is not this the most proper character that can be given of thee see and take more perfect knowledge of thy self canst thou not see hast thou received the Spirit and yet not so much light as to discern betwixt earth and Heaven Is the Lord divided and become contrary to himself do not his hand and his seal agree does his word write this man no child and is that his Spirit that calls thee a child of God once again see and compare the writings that in the word and that in thy heart and if the voice within thee be not according call it not the witness of the Spirit but the false witness of the Devil If thou wilt yet understand thy self no better it 's much to be feared thou wilt not there 's too much dust in thine eye for thee to see it If thou wilt not see it yet there it stands written upon thee in most legible characters a minder of earthly things whose end is destruction But beloved I am perswaded better things of you to whom I am now speaking even you of little faith though it may be of a great name yet with you also must I plead a while and tell you from the Lord that I have somewhat against you and oh were it but a little somewhat that I have to speak even against you but sure there is very much to be spoken unless you will save me the labour and speak against your selves So much may be said as if it be duly considered may take you down many rounds lower then you imagine your selves to have ascended how few of you that are risen with Christ but are too often letting your affections run down again to this earth who though you have really counted this earth but dung yet are too greedily gathering up this dung into your bosomes that have your hands full and your mouths full of this dung and much more then you are aware of it is still in your hearts that are not able to loose what you have accounted loss In whom though Christ may be really formed yet there appears little conformity to his life or death To whom though it hath been long since said Lazarus come forth yet to this day you have scarce gotten your heads above ground whose bellies creep upon the dust whilest your eyes and your hopes are in Heaven in whom there is such a mixture of flesh and Spirit that it 's hard to discern which hath the predominance whose hearts seem still so divided betwixt Christ and the world that no body that knows you can tell which hath the better part whose time and whose care and whose labour run out so much on things below that without some great charity it may be judg'd your hearts are there also And yet by some clearer insight into the mysteries of the Gospel by some affectionate intercourses with God in your secret recesses and retirements from the world by your serious heats and inlargements in your duties with others by some tastes and relishes of the pleasure of ordinances by some raptures of joy and the seeming serenity and uncloudiness of your spirits by not considering what abatement the carnality and earthliness of your course must necessarily make upon you are grown to an hope and opinion that you are the highly favoured of the Lord and his greatly beloved But do you not blush then at your unworthiness are you not ashamed that such love and such hopes should no more wean your hearts from these breasts of vanity from which you suck nothing but filth or froth that you should defile such an heavenly treasure by lodging it in such earthen vessels that you should so disgrace that divine portion which you count is yours as that it should not be enough for you but leave you as hungry as if you had no God nor hope in him that you should so disgrace your Fathers table by your unnatural appetite after coals and dirt Is your profession that God is your happiness your treasure your all Is your none but Christ come to more then this Hath your covenanting with God for renouncing the world mortifying your flesh denying your self brought forth no better fruits then these Oh the impudence and disingenuity of our hearts that can carry the conscience of such treachery before the Throne of Grace without shame and consternation how can you lift up your face before the Lord without hanging down the head Nay do you not fear that your hearts also have deceived you and that matters may not be so well with you as you sometimes conclude that your hopes are but delusory that your joys are but dreams and all your comforts are but the lying divinations and prophesies of your own deceived heart Is it out of question with you that you are risen with Christ and ascended with Christ when these hearts are gotten no further up out of their graves Believe it Christians the severities of Religion will be a surer testimony to you then all its suavities an humble patient contented self-denying mortified Christian under all his doubts and fears under all his complaints of darkness and deadness is fairer for heaven then you all Those are the joys of faith which spring up out of the ruines of carnal joys those are the genuine comforts and delights of the Saints that arise up out of the ashes of earthly delights those are the confidences of true believers which grow out of their contempt of the world then will the world think better of our Religion and then may we hope better of our selves when the joy of the Lord is our strength and the joys of the earth are strangers to us and despised by us Oh Brethren let us no longer dishonour our God nor delude our selves let not the world any longer say in our reproach these men are even as we Let them see that our ways are not as their ways that our joys are not as their joys and then they will know our hope is not as their hope our Rock is not as their Rock Children of the Kingdome if I may be bold to call you so where is the proof of your heavenly extract where is your fathers spirit how can you be patient with your selves whilest you are such degenerate plants how can you satisfie your selves that you are the genuine off-spring of God when so unlike your father how can you without weeping behold the glory of these later Temples to fall so far short of those that were in the Ages before us where is the primitive spirituality the mortification and self-denial of the primitive Christians how have the stars chang'd their Orbs from moving in the Celestial Spheres how seem they now to be fixed in the earth how can you count your selves Stars and not Comets when your highest elevation is seldome above the middle Region you hang betwixt heaven and earth We take
prostrating our selves before him in hope that this may make up our breach and be the healing of our wound But will this do Get you up get you up why lye you thus upon your faces Is there not an accursed thing among you think not that the Lord will be with you till that be destroyed from among you hope not for any thing from those prayers or fastings that do no execution upon your accursed things Do your prayers leave your pride alive your covetousness alive your wantonness alive your selves are like to dye notwithstanding all such prayers God is either upon refining or rejecting he hath cast us into his furnace kindled his fires been blowing with his bellows if our dross may yet be consumed If that be not done the next word we may hear may be that of the Prophet Jer. 6. 29 30. The bellows are burnt the lead is consumed by the fire the founder melteth in vain for this dross is not taken away reprobate silver shall men call them for the Lord hath rejected them Use 2. Of Direction and Exhortation Brethren have I not yet said enough to fetch you off from your servitude will you go free or have I spent my labour in vain must I leave you at the Brick-kiln or will you go over to Canaan what are your thoughts Is it good to continue in your servile state is the vassalage of unbelief better then the victory of faith what are your resolutions have you sold your selves for servants and will you stand to the bargain may you go free and will you not have you not understood enough of the worlds enmity have you not felt enough of the worlds tyranny have you not sin'd enough and suffer'd enough already by it what say you are you for liberty or bondage for captivity or victory why what may we do to obtain the victory why will you hearken then are you willing of help will you take Gods counsel when 't is offered you well in hope that some of you will hearken I shall yet farther adventure these few directions In the first place I shall mind you of what hath been already spoken touching the wayes by which faith overcometh the world and shall turn them into these 6. counsels 1. Get a right judgment of both worlds study and get an understanding of Earth and Heaven and give not off this study till you be throughly convinc'd of the unspeakable transcendencies of things to come above things present 2. Choose your lot in the best of the two determine for Heaven that infinitely better inheritance Be unalterably at this point I am for the everlasting blessedness however it be with me here 3. Be convinc'd that the good things of this World cannot further nor can the evil things of this world hinder your eternal blessedness and esteem of all things temporal according to the respect they bear to the things that are eternal 4. Be convinc'd that the Design of all the temptations of this World is to deprive you of your eternal inheritance 5. By living more purely a life of faith get clear apprehensions and a deeper sense of the blessedness to come 6. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure by turning your eyes back upon what hath been already said you may make fuller improvement of these directions upon which I forbear any farther enlargement To these I shall add this one general direction Make your advantage of all those means by which your faith may gather strength and in which it's strength is to be put forth and exercised Particularly 1. Improve all your duties this way Let all your seekings of God be a wrestling with the World Put this great affair into every prayer put it into your dayly confessions put it into your daily petitions Carry the sense of your sore bondage into the presence of God let the misery and the danger it hath subjected you to be written upon your hearts and go and spread the writing before the Lord. Let the throne of grace be a Judgment seat where this traitor may be daily arraigned and condemned Take unto you words confess unto God Lord I have dealt very falsely with thee and foolishly for my self I have forsaken the Fountain of living waters for broken Cisterns wherein is no water I have taken the World into my bosom and thrown the Lord at my heels I have set the World on the Throne and trodden Christ under my feet I have served mine enemy and slighted the Rock of my Salvation I have sold my soul for silver and my hopes for handfulls of barley I have followed vanity and neglected alsufficiency I have been a true drudg to this muck a good husband for this flesh but what have I been to the Lord what an evil and slothful servant If I should say I were not a worldling or a sensualist mine own soul would call me lyar to my face but though I see what a fool and what a beast and what a slave I am this sottish heart will not yet be wise it hath loved these Idols and will follow them still Confess thus unto God and if one dayes confession will not shame you out of your folly to it again the next day and the next day and every day as long as you live Bring in new Indictments fill'd up with all the aggravations you can gather up I have been often told of the evil of a worldly heart and life of the danger of it of the unworthiness of it I have been counselled to take heed of it and I have known it has been good counsel I have been oblig'd against it by commands by kindnesses by covenants by interest by experiences of the gall and the Wormwood it hath still prov'd in my belly whatever it hath been in my mouth My judgment and Conscience hath been against it I have been offered a better service and a better reward and I have understood it was a good offer and worth the accepting I have been charged upon pain of death and everlasting damnation to take heed and beware of it and yet still I am where I was Counsels have been despised commands have been broken kindnesses have been slighted covenants have been violated reason and conscience have been baffled yea death and hell have been despised for the sake of this lust and love of the world so foolish am I and ignorant and as a beast before thee Thus quicken and sharpen your confessions with all the aggravations imaginable till if it be possible thy folly may depart from thee not being able to bear such an hot prosecution Deal thus roughly and thus closly with your earthly hearts when ever you have them before the Lord that they may not dare to meet you so there again Put it into your daily Petitions Speak unto the Lord let not thy soul keep silence till he hear Let thine oppressed heart lift up its voice to the most high tell him Oh I have surfeited of
this flesh I am sick of this World these briars and thorns yea and these Lillies and Roses are a grief of mind to me I must have them out ere I can be at rest Make these thorns to scratch me these flowers to stink in my nostrils Beg a new heart beg a better spirit that may neither find pleasure nor so much as ease in such things as these Oh for mortification oh for a more raised spirit where is the life of faith where is the power of the Spirit help Lord help Lord a renewed heart a chaste spirit when shall it once be let not my soul be held any longer an adulteress from thee let not these husks be my meat these ashes be my bread this earth be my treasure while God stands by Let not Christ and my soul be kept strangers whilest I am the familiar of this flesh and the servant of vanity Plead with the Lord for relief Plead with him upon his own interest Who is it O Lord that 's must wronged whose right is it that 's most invaded whose am I Am I not thine Lord Is not my love and my labour and my strength and my time and my body and my soul is it not all thy right shall thine enemy command and carry away that which is thine recover recover thy due Take this heart and all that I have take possession Lord set thy name upon my door and suffer not these strangers to enter or encroach upon thy right Plead with him upon the bloud of his Covenant Whence is the Covenanted Redemption is it only from Hell is it not from lust also can it be from one if it be not from both a total redemption Lord an universal redemption from every Plague from every enemy I cannot escape the pit if I be held in the snare if I break not this outer I shall fall also into the inner Prison by the bloud of the Covenant send forth thy Prisoner out of this Prison What doth this bloud speak Doth it only say Deliver them from the pit for thou hast found a ransome Doth it not also say Whilest thou keepest them in the World keep them from the evil and will not God hear the cry of such bloud Cry unto the Lord. Be instant be importunate with him Try the strength of Prayer Be uncessant resolve against denyals Cry unto him day and night avenge me of mine adversary Rid my soul out of thraldom whilest thou livest give not over if thou wilt not thou shalt not be denyed Has thou gotten a little ground take the same way to maintain what thou hast gotten Does the Conquered World rally upon thee and do thy affections begin to stoop to it Pray them up again Doth thine heart begin again to wander after it Pray it in again Do thy corruptions and temptations begin to get head again and to prevail Pray them down again meet them with a Prayer at every turn The Lord rebuke thee false heart The Lord rebuke thee deceitful World The Lord uphold thee oppressed Soul Beloved your Victory over the World can neither be gotten nor maintained but by power from above T is God only that 's able to give battel to the flesh In vain do you engage unless he engage with you Prayer will set faith on work and faith will engage the promise and the promise will engage Christ with you and Christ will engage the Father to your help If Heaven be too hard for earth the World shall fall before a Praying soul Brethren will you take this counsel put it thus into every Prayer you make and if you find this to be your Great enemy Bend the main force of every Prayer against it Fight neither against small nor great in comparison but against this King of Evils This is the great Thief Lord that meets me at every turn and is robbing me every day that robs the Lord of his due and my Soul of its peace this is the Moth that eats out all my Strength this is the Murtherer that kills my Soul O let this Strong be bowed down this is the Heir kill him and the Inheritance shall be mine And when ever you have made your prayer judge of the acceptance of it by the success it hath on this Adversary When at any time you have found your souls most melted and inlarged in prayer and greatliest refreshed by sensible illapses and incoms from above at such a time presently return into your heart and demand But how goes it now with the interest of the World in me How stands my heart now affected to my carnal things am I weaned Is my clog fallen off What hath my flesh lost by what my spirit seems to have gained What hath my earthly-mindedness my covetousness lost in this prayer Can I now go away and be contented and be patient in any condition hath this Divine warmth left a chill upon my fleshly appetite can I the better want the Quails now I have tasted of the Manna am I less careful and less concerned which way the World goes with me or can I go down presently into my shop or forth into my fields and be as hungry and as much swallowed up of my earthly cares and delights as if I had never tasted any thing of God Can I so Oh this is not the Prayer I took it to be I may not sit down by this I must to my knees again to my God again and again while I live I will not give over thus I will wrestle I will wait I will enquire to day to morrow next day after every prayer Is it yet better yet more mortified yet more weaned Yet more humble and contented I can never I will never satisfie my self with any praying with any answer whilst my flesh thus holds up its head This is the first Direction the stress whereof I lay upon these two things Bend the main force if every Prayer against this evil level your Arrow against the face of this enemy And then judge of the acceptableness of your prayer by the success it hath upon it 2. Improve Sabbaths this way The Sabbath is the test of God Heb. 4. Our holy keeping of Sabbaths is our entring into his Rest our recess from the World and our retiring to the Lord to take our Rest with him The end of the Sabbath is the preservation and propagation of Religion it is for the continuing in memory the Redemption of Christ for the more abundant diffusion and shedding abroad of the Spirit of Christ for the more solemn Celebration of his Worship and so consequently for the maintaining the power of Holiness all which the World would destroy and bury with him in his Grave aud roll it self as a stone upon it all that it might never be remembred There are four special means by which Religion is kept up in the World and transmitted from Generation to Generation 1. A fixed Rule or Standard of Religion whereby the knowledge of God
mind prepossessed and actually stâ—ff'd with the cares of this life Intus existens prohibet alienum How canst thou ascend with thy burthen upon thy back unload unload lay aside every weight and then go up and prosper Say to all thou hast stay you here whilest I go and pray before the Lord let the night before each Sabbath be as the grave betwixt the two worlds there let thy dust be buried and thy Spirit fly naked to thy God Let that night which is the partition betwixt thine own dayes and the Lords be thy Souls taking its leave of all thou hast any sinful thoughts works or pleasures thy lusts and thy evil wayes give them an eternal burial Be gone see my face no more for ever and for matters lawful and honest that concern this earth charge them not to thrust in before the Lord go you also your way for this time and when I have a convenient season I will send for you and if from Sabbath to Sabbath thy feet stand thus on the mountain of the Lord thou mayst find them all the week long on the tops of the mountains of the earth Brethren where is our Sabbath separation Is there not a fault among us upon this account let him that heareth enquire How it is with me Am not I faulty what are my Sabbath thoughts what are my Sabbath discourses If I be better employed in the house of God what do I in mine own house what are my morning and evening and midday thoughts what is my table talk my chimney talk If business if bargains or journeys be not admitted are not visits or complements or vain stories or impertinent news suffered to fill up the time is it thus or not with thee Is it well that it is thus O clear your Sabbaths of such worldly encroachments or you 'l never clear your hearts drive all the world into Pathmos into banishment and be wholly in the spirit on the Lords day Be abstracted from earthly things and earthly thoughts bring them with you neither to the house nor to the day of the Lord let your own houses and your own tables be as the house and table of the Lord have nothing to do from morning to evening but to wait on God 2. It is a day for special Communion with God Tbe meeting of God with his people on that day is like unto that meeting which is promised to Moses Exod. 25. 22. before the mercy seat There will I meet thee and commune with thee there will I shew thee all my mind and hear all thy requests It is a day of blessing thither the tribes go up to bless the Lord and there he comes down to bless his people It 's said Gen. 2. and Exod. 20. that God blessed the Sabbath day Gods blessing the day makes it a day of blessing a good day to his Saints he then comes unto them in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel Those that question whether the first day of the week be the Christian Sabbath let them consider which of all the dayes of the week the Lord hath since the death of Christ so exalted above the rest of the dayes that they can with most confidence say This is the day which the Lord hath blessed on what day were the gates of death broken the Lord Jesus declared to be the son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead on which day was the spirit of God most signally shed abroad on the Apostles and primitive Christians in those extraordinary gifts whereby they were made more capable of publishing the blessed Gospel to the ends of the earth and in that special grace which seized three thousand Souls in one day Act. 2. What day is it that hath been honoured to be the birth day of the greatest number of Saints ever since that hath been their feast day wherein their Souls have been most sensibly nourish'd and they have been increas'd with the increasings of God what meals have they had to their Lords-day meals what joyes to their Lords-day joyes Surely if this may determine the question which day is the Sabbath of the Lord the day that of all others God hath blessed and made a good day the experiences of Christians in all ages would bring in their vote for the first day This is the day that God hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it this by the way This day as is said before is the rest of God a little Heaven let down to us on earth God calls us up hither as he called Moses up to Pisgah to give us a view of the promised land The Sabbath is Heaven opened we may give a guess at the glory to come by those glimses and tastes we have of it now It is the day of interview betwixt the bridegroom and the bride wherein he beholds our faces and shewes us his loves wherein he comes down into his garden to eat his pleasant fruits and we behold his goings the goings of God in his Sanctuary The business of this day is to look into the Ark of the Covenant to review and renew the Covenant transactions betwixt God and our Souls to search out contemplate and admire the mercies and lovingkindness of the Lord to receive the overflowing of his goodness and to pour forth our Souls as an offering to him in our prayers and praises to give and receive mutual tokens and pledges of Love and faithfulness to seal to our fidelity to him and to receive farther assurances of his grace and good will to our Souls to obtain help from God against our enemies whereby we may execute upon them the vengeance written and upon this mountain ordinarily is the victory obteined there breaks he the arrowes of the bow the sword the shield and the battel Christians have you ever experimented this Sabbath Communion hath the Lord God appear'd thus unto you have there been such friendly and familiar intercourses betwixt him and your Souls Oh how contemptibly hath the world look'd in that day But oh what dark and cloudy dayes are our Sabbaths ordinarily to us Sundayes per antiphrasin the Sun not once appearing it may be for many dayes together no wonder our Souls are so earth'd all the week when they are so seldom in Heaven on the day of the Lord what dry feasts are our Sabbath feasts rather fasts then feasts real Communion with God is a strange thing to us even in the day of God Heaven is opened but our eyes are shut God comes down to meet us and to bless us but our hearts are not there the breasts of consolation are full but we have no skill or no list to draw at the breasts we come to the well but we do not let down the bucket we stand by the pool where the Angel comes down but our creeple Souls put not in to the waters we stand without in the outer court of the Lords house our Sabbaths are to us but
heart ever bear the watchings the fastings the labours together with the distresses and afflictions of this warfare I shall surely perish one day or other by the hand of this Enemy Discourage not thy self thus what cannot God do what will not God do who hath said who hath seal'd to it I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Behold his Seal Is it not in thine hand and in thy mouth Trust in God set to thy Seal that God is true and then say Though my flesh and my heart fail God is the strength of mine heart and my portion for ever I will go in the strength of the Lord through him I shall do valiantly he shall tread down mine enemies and my difficulties 2. Our Seal engages us on Hast thou sealed to the Lord and not bound thy self to him Hast thou set thy seal to a blank hast thou engaged thy self to be the Lords and not therein to be no longer the worlds Canst thou serve these two Masters Is not thy renouncing the world necessarily included in thy Covenant Obligation Brethren that the tye may the more sensibly lie upon you I advise that as often as you come before the Lord in this Ordinance you put this expresly into your engagement Father I am sensible of the plague of this earthly heart and of the tyranny of these worldly lusts how impetuously they set upon me and how imperiously they lead me on after them how false and unfaithful have they made me to my God how ordinarily am I led away by them against my Covenant and my conscience But I here bewail it I detest it it is my grief and my shame that ever I have been so false and unworthy Behold now again in thy fear I open my mouth to the Lord I take hold of thy word I hang upon thy help let the Lord my righteousness be my strength and in his Name I again lift up mine hand to the most High solemnly protesting before the Lord that I so avouch thee to be my God and so entirely and unreservedly make over my self unto thee that through the grace of God with me I will henceforth and while I live be the avowed enemy of a worldly heart and life I will use all thy means for the overcoming of it I will study I will watch I will pray against I will rate and check and restrain and resist all the motions lustings and temptations by which I have been so often led aside and overcome I give my self my estate my strength my parts my time all that I have unto the Lord Lord take me at my word and all that I have for thy servants I am thine save me Thou that knowest all things knowest that I would not lye unto God but that I sincerely intend in thy strength to stand to this word in testimony whereof I here take this holy Sacrament from thine hands I have opened my mouth to the Lord help me and I will not go back And now O my soul look to thy self Shall I again break my Covenant shall I wickedly repent and alter the word that is gone out of my lips shall I any longer walk after the course and in the lusts of this world fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of my mind shall mine heart still go after my covetousness shall I study and project and plot and prog for this flesh at that rate as if the world were still my God shall it climb up from the footstool to the Throne shall it again give Laws to my heart and set limits to my Religion shall interest Lord it over Conscience and carnal inclination bear down devotion shall I suffer this Robber to break in again into the Sanctuary of the Lord shall it eat up my Sacrifices steal away my Sabbaths curtail my duties and enervate Ordinances shall the Lord have no more of me then the world will spare him shall business be ever again pleaded against duty or gain against godliness shall my soul take up its dwelling in my shop or in my fields and only give some short visits to heaven at its leisure But oh shall lying and promise breaking shall fraud and oppression shall unrighteousness or unmercifulness be nothing with me or but excusable failings Are these things according to the vows of God that are upon me Look to thy self O my soul be not found a lyar against God O Brethren were there this solemn and express transaction betwixt our souls and the Lord at every Sacrament and did we thus live in the conscience of this Obligation and the dread of being found false to God from Sacrament to Sacrament what might it not bring forth what a wound would be given to the head of this deadly Enemy 3. The Sacrament is the New Testament blessings exhibited The new wine broached this Conduit runs with Gospel Wine Our partaking in the Sacrament is our coming into the Garden of our Lord to eat his pleasant fruits We read Cant. 2. 3. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste I shall stay a while here and shall gather a bundle of these fruits and present them to your eye I shall in short shew 1. What the special fruits of Christ are 2. That these fruits are sweet and pleasant and then I shall add 3. That these fruits are exhibited in the Sacrament 4. The advantages we hence have against the world 1. What the special fruits of Christ are which I shall reduce to these two heads The fruits of His Bloud His Spirit 1. The fruits of his Bloud These are especially two in which all others are comprized Viz. Righseousness Peace 1. Righteousness He is therefore called the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Joh. 16. 8. He shall convince the world of righteousness that is of the righteousness of Christ he shall evidence and make manifest unto the world who all lye in wickedness that in him there is righteousness not only that he is righteous as an individual person but as a publick person that he hath in the name and on the behalf of all those that believe on him fulfilled all righteousness and hath hereby a stock and treasure of righteousness to bestow and wherewith to cloath all those that come unto God by him to whom he is made wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. Beloved are there any guilty souls among you any unrighteous ones do you know what 't is to be guilty do you know the dread and terrour of the Lord do you consider what the face of a righteous incensed God will be to an unrighteous soul do you understand how naked you lye and open before everlasting vengeance how can you endure or how can you escape the wrath to come righteousness of your own you have none and that which you seem to have is not your righteousness But behold here 's righteousness for you come to Christ put in here dip you
there any empty souls among you hungring and thirsting after the bread and water of life what if Christ should come down and meet you here and feed you with these good things would you not say O this is sweet feeding O this is a sweet morning O this is a pleasant meal If you could see all the blessed fruits of the gospel spred upon this table if you saw pardons sealed before you for every one of your souls if grace and peace if love and joy if holiness and power and every thing your souls want or wish for if you should see them here on the table if you should hear a voice from Heaven calling unto you Eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved you that want a pardon there 't is for you you that want holiness humility patience power assurance here 't is for you take it It may be the full souls among you would be nothing moved it would better please them to hear there 's a penny for you there 's a sheep or an house or a living for you But every hungry soul would cry out O this is sweet ' its good to be here 3. That these fruits of Christ are exhibited and given forth in the sacrament The sacrament is a communion the Communion of the body of Christ the Communion of the bloud of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. wherein we come not only to see but to receive Christ crucified to receive of his fulness grace for grace Isa 12. 3. we have a promise with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation here note 1. That the Church of Christ hath her wells of salvation without is death and destruction sinners have their pits and their pools and their cisterns but no wells There is a fountain and a fountain opened Zech. 13. 1. but 't is to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the Israel of God not to his enemies to these the fountains opened is a fountain sealed Christ shall profit them nothing Christ is the Churches inclosure no common for aliens If you ask what are those wells I answer the word is a well the ordinances are wells in particular this ordinance this sacrament to which we are come this day to draw this is a well it hath the depth of a well this ordinance is a deep mystery 't is not every hand no nor every eye that can reach the water 2. It hath the spring of a well wells have not a standing and underived fulness but they have a spring that feeds them Christ is the spring that fills this well 3. It hath the fulness of a well cisterns will hold little water in the well there is store all Christ is here in whom all fulness dwells This well is the Churches it belongs only to those that belong to God 1 Cor. 3. 22. 23. whether Paul Apollos or Cephas whether ministers or ordinances all are yours because you are Christs and Christ is Gods Rom. 9. 4. who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants to whom the adoption and the covenants belong theirs are the seals The things that are without are yours sinners sin is yours guilt is yours temptations snares woes death is yours because ye are none of Christs this well of life is none of yours It will be demanded of you as Math. 22. 12 Friend how camst thou in hither what hast thou to do to take my covenant or the bloud of my covenant into thy mouth since thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee Psal 50. Such may not come to the well or if they come it may prove a well of damnation to them not of salvation and so the Apostle tells them it will prove 1 Cor. 11. 29. This water of life may prove as the water of jealousie that bitter water that will cause their belly to swell and their thigh to rott may be a curse and not a blessing Look to it sinners you may be drown'd in this well when you come to drink you may drink flames and fury instead of the water of life Oh how many have been drown'd in these waters who rushing unpreparedly upon this dreadful ordinance have drown'd all that little good they seem'd to have something possibly they formerly had that was hopeful but by the just judgment of God upon them for abusing such an ordinance they have lost all at first they came it may be with some little tenderness and trembling of heart but not being upright in the main they have at length lost all their sense and have been smitten with deadness and hardness O consider what you are and how 't is with you now you come here are you Christs are you sincerely his are you resolvedly his if you have not assurance that you are his what probable evidences have you that you are are your souls wishing for Christ waiting for Christ thirsting and panting and following after love to Christ likeness to Christ subjection to Christ evidences that he is yours are you resolved never while you live to turn back and give over your pursuit of Christ nor to sit down by any thing short of an universal conformity to his image and will Are you crucified with Christ Is the world crucified to you and you unto the world Is the old man slain and all your earthly members feel every limb of the old man if there be not life still found in them feel the heart of the old man is there not self-will self-love and the love of this present world yet alive feel the head of the old man is not pride and self-conce it alive what plottings and contrivances what great designs are there carrying on for the flesh and the world feel the gall and the spleen of him is not bitterness and wrath envy and malice yet alive observe the eyes and the ears and the tongue and the habit and the way doth not the old man live in all these are not the eyes pleas'd with beholding vanity the ears itching after fleshly fooleries Is not the sound of him upon the tongue the shew of him in the countenance the habit and whole way of life feel the pulses of the old man his breathings and pantings is it not after earth still Brethren if there be any sad remains of this earth and flesh in you as doubtless there are yet is there an abatement of the power and vigor of them if the old man be not quite dead yet is he in a Consumption are the waters of lust fallen yea and still falling lower are you in good earnest for mortification for the death of every lust and are you impatient while they live are you come to this point you 'l never be the friends of your flesh you 'l never take its part again against warnings against reproofs you 'l never live in peace with it but will wrestle and fight and wait for the victory as long as you live
This will give you good hope that Christ is yours and good evidence that he calls to you Come unto the waters 2. In this Well of Salvation there is water of life Ye shall draw water that is living water In this water is comprehended all things belonging to life and godliness Here is bread in this water he that is the Rock springing in the earth is the bread that came down from heaven Joh. 6. 48. 50. Here is bloud with the water out of his side came water and bloud Here is wine and milk in this water Is 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters come buy wine and milk Come to the waters why what shall we get there O there 's wine and milk in the waters come to the waters for wine and milk What case is there of any of the Saints but here 's that which is proper for it Here 's water for the filthy here 's bloud for the guilty here 's bread for the strong here 's milk for the weak here 's wine for the sad here 's for meat medicine and delight here 's the flower of the wheat the healing balm the sweetness of the fig-tree the fatness of the Olive the Tree of Life Christ is in these waters 3. This water of life is to be drawn out of this Well of Salvation Hence 't is that we must come every man with his Pitcher Faith is our Pitcher what need of a Pitcher if there were no water to be drawn unbelievers might then speed as well as believers 4. It s a joy to the Saints to work at the Well With joy shall ye draw c. We read 1 Sam. 7. 6. that the people of God once drew other waters and out of another Well they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. The Wells were their repenting sorrow-bitten hearts the waters were their tears which they poured out before the Lord these were bitter waters and drawn with sorrow the waters you are now come to are pleasant faith and love and joy and praise are here to be both your work and your waters the three latter are the pleasures of the other world the first Faith is your Pitcher to fetch them in and your mouth to drink them down God hath brought you hither to prove the sweetness of love to taste what 't is to love and be beloved God opens you a Spring of everlasting joy thereby to dilate and inlarge your souls in admirings and praises 4. The advantages we hence get against the world are amongst others these following The precious things of Christ thus exhibited in the Sacrament will 1. Quench our thirst 2. Renew our strength 3. Sharpen our weapons 4. Set the reward before our eye 1. They will quench our thirst after the world The world invites as Christ Ho every one that thirsteth come to my waters If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink God and the world are both for the empty souls he that 's empty of God there 's a man for the world he that 's empty of the world there 's a soul for God he that is surfeited of the pleasures of sin will nauseate the joys of Religion he that is satiated with the pleasures of Religion will slight the joys of the world John 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the waters that I shall give him shall never thirst that is either when he is come up to the Well head and shall have drank his full draught he shall thirst no more for ever he shall be satisfied for ever or else he that shall drink of my waters here that shall drink of the brook in the way shall not be thirsty after other waters he that hath drank of the upper springs will better spare the nether springs Our intimate converses with Christ and those gracious savours and divine impressions they leave upon our hearts do naturally weaken and allay our fleshly appetites and inclinations wisdome is not more necessarily expulsive of folly light of darkness holiness of sin then the love and joy of the Lord of the love and the lusts of this world Brethren whatever divine touches whatever peace and joy you seem to feel upon your hearts if the world be not a looser by them if it stand its ground and maintain its interest and esteem in you all that you seem to feel of God upon you look to it that it prove not a fallacy and a dream for my part I shall ever suspect that intimacy my soul hath seem'd to get in heaven and all the pleasure of it if I be not the more content to be a stranger in this earth O my God wilt thou draw forth the breasts to me let me suck and be satisfied let the Lord God be my satisfaction and then let the world try the strength of its temptation 2. They will renew our strength This staff of bread will be the strength of our hearts they are the weak souls whom the world conquers But of this having spoken in a former direction I pass it over here with the naming 3. They will sharpen our weapon We never are foil'd but when our faith fails This is our victory even our faith this weapon of our warfare is mighty through God By how much the more our faith is exercis'd on God by so much the more vigorous believe and you shall be established believe and you shall be strengthened believe and all that you see before you shall be meat for your faith to put it in heart But how shall I believe yea rather how shouldst thou but believe whose Table is this to which thou art come whose word was it that said This bread is my body which was given for you This cup is the New Testament in my bloud which was shed for you This bread is the communion of my body this cup is the communion of my bloud what is this body what is this bloud but virtually all the spirit and life of the Gospel what is the meaning of those words Take and eat and drink but that its the will of God if it be your will also that all this shall be yours would Christ say take what he meant not to give would Christ say eat that which is not bread will be feed souls with common bread did he bring you hither to mock you how should you but believe Believe and you shall find his flesh to be meat indeed his bloud to be drink indeed this bread to be Manna this cup to come to you full of the spirits of the Gospel which will so nourish and quicken your faith that as a mighty man refreshed with wine it will rejoyce to run its course and tread down your Enemy under you 4. The reward is set before our eye Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to câ—t of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth but he that
Lord he likes it and takes it well at our hands that we give him a present answer delaies are as unpleasing to him as they are dangerous to us Wilt thou say when he calls thee suffer me first to go and bid them farewell that are at my house yea wilt thou say when he saies come and be my servant suffer me first to go and serve my belly and my appetite and afterwards I will be thine suffer me first to get me an estate to get more money or lands and then I will be for getting grace how do ye think God will take such an answer The Lord loves to see a willing people of a ready and forward mind that will offer up their first fruits unto God T is recorded to the perpetual honour of that good King Josiah 2 Chron. 34. 3. That in the eighth year of his reign while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his father He was but 16. years old when he began to look heavenward and you may perceive how well the Lord took it by his recording the very year O it is a pleasant thing to see the buds of grace putting forth in the morning of nature to see men growing up in grace as they grow up in stature this is by so much the more beautiful by how much the more rare and seldom found A godly young man is a Jewel that sparkles forth a lustre among all the gravel and pebbles of the earth what a vast difference is there betwixt an humble meek sober gracious young man or woman and the rude proud wanton riotous brutish of that age Old age is a crown and this crown will be much more glorious if it be deck'd with the flowers of the spring 4. If the Devil hath the first time he 'l endanger to have the last too 'T is seldome seen that those that pass over their youth and their strength in the service of sin do ever become the servants of God at last those that stand out against Christ to their last day do mostly stand it out in their last day How seldome do we hear of an old overgrown sinner ever prove a sincere Convert at last The experiences of the Ministers of the Gospel do testifie that the success of their Ministery is ordinarily most upon the younger sort a twig is more easily bow'd or pluck'd up then an old tree if thy heart be too hard for the Word whilest it is young and tender how difficult will the case be when it s brawn'd and crusted by age Zophar in Job speaking of an old sinner sayes Job 20. 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust Observe here these two things 1. That age doth often pay the scores of youth the pains of age are often the reward of the pleasures of youth the wantonness of youth is often revenged by the weakness and diseases of age mens aged bones do remember them of their wasted marrow Sinners though you think you can never fill your bellies with your lusts while you are young yet God will fill your bones with them when you are old and 't will be but a sad meeting when young sins and old bones meet together O what a strange difference will there be betwixt feeling our aged aking bones full of the duties of our youth our prayings watchings fastings labourings and sufferings and having them fill'd with our youthful lusts and lewdness 2. Where sin breaks its fast and dines it often sups and lodges it lies down with him in the dust If timely repentance do not lay thy sin in the dust when thou art young vengeance is like to lay it down with thee in the dust when thou art old It shall lie down with him in the dust A dreadful word the meaning is it shall never be pardoned or done away he shall carry his sins out of the world with him as he liv'd so he dies 'T is ill having sin thy bed-fellow 't is ill sleeping one night in unrepented sin but O what will it be to have all thy wickednesses thy companions in the grave 't is a wretched thing to live in sin but beware of dying in sin whilest the Worms eat up thy flesh these Vultures shall gnaw upon thy soul Young sinner take heed of going on in the hardness of thine heart If the Word of Life do not part thee and thy sins death shall not part you the grave shall not part you Death shall part betwixt thy body and thy soul betwixt thy sins and their pleasures betwixt thy sins and their gains but it shall never part betwixt thy sins and thy soul they die with thee and are buried with thee and they shall rise with thee and become the fuel of that fire that shall burn to the bottom of Eternity Well now at length what say you young men when for God and the other world when for wisdome sobriety chastity when for Religion in earnest now or not till hereafter will you yet be so unworthy as to give your marrow to the Devil and reserve nothing but dry bones for the Lord will you offer up your first fruits to Bacchus and Venus will you burn out your Candle to light you on in your noysome lewdness and never be sweet till you be consumed into a stinking snuff How few are there that will hearken what wild creatures wild Asses Colts are the most of the youth of the earth what a wanton wastful luxurious loose Age is this first Age It cannot be said as to Israel Jer. 2. 2. I remember the kindness of thy youth and the love of thine Espousals but I remember the lusts of thy youth the lewdness and the madness and the wantonness of thy youth art thou willing it should be hereafter thus said to thee Remember now thy Creator and see if that will not hold thee to another course Dost thou not want a bridle in this unruly age what bridle but the memory of a God Remember that there is a God Thou runnest on thy course as the horse rusheth into the battel thou art wilful and obstinate in thy way and wilt not be turned back thou sayest in thine heart my tongue is mine own my time is mine own my estate is mine own who is Lord over me But remember there is a God Thou committest thy wickedness it may be in secret thy way is in the dark thou makest thy advantage of the twilight and imboldenest thy self with this what eye shall see me but remember there is a God Thou despisest wisdome as folly thou hatest instruction seriousness is thy scorn sobriety thy derision thou makest a mock of holiness and laughest at the reproofs of thine iniquities Bid thee be wise and repent of thy wickedness as good speak to the wind or the stones of the earth tell thee of Death or of Judgment as good tell thee a dream Let a Parent advise thee
let a Minister or a Christian friend warn thee and how are they either slighted or laugh'd out of countenance But remember that there is a God Thou wilt know no other heaven but below thou blessest thy self in the earth in thy pleasures in thy companions and canst fancy no other happiness but thy fools Paradise But remember that there is a God Remember that this God is thy Creator and therefore thy Governour and Judge to whom thou owest thy self and thy time and to whom thou must give up thine account Remember and return to thy God remember and repent remember God and then run on if thou dar'st be a drunkard if thou dar'st be a wanton if thou dar'st be a worldling if thou dar'st Remember thy God and repent Remember thy Creator now in this day of thy youth If ever why not now Is not this the fittest time Is not this the accepted time May not this be the only time How know'st thou but that this may be the Word of the Lord to thee Now or never Wilt thou never learn wisdome till thy loss teach thee it Wilt thou never know thy day till thy Sun be set Young men reckon not upon the evening your Sun may be set at noon Consider what thou art to day as one of the fools in Israel a vile insipid useless thing the filth the refuse the off-scouring of the earth and if thou wouldst not be found thus at thy dying day let not this night overtake thee before thou hast run from thy self and thy sins unto thy God Such of you Brethren as have already return'd to the Lord and accepted of his Grace as have had the grace to consecrate your youth to the Lord Oh bless the name of God bless him while you live and have any being Who hath redeemed your life from death and crouned you with loving kindness and tender mercies who hath taken you out from among the dirt and rubbish and made you polished stones for his Temple who hath cur'd you of your madness and made you the children of Wisdome who hath separated the precious from the vile fetch'd you out from the rude Rabble and those Potsheards of the earth wherein there is no pleasure and mark'd you up for his Vessels of Honor What day the Lord goes forth among the wild Herd and takes out here and there one of the company he saith These shall be for me this young man or this young woman shall be mine they shall be mine in the day wherein I make up my Jewels and for the rest that will not hearken let them run till death seize upon them and the pit swallow them up Yet say young man of which number wilt thou be of the taken or the left wilt thou along after thy Creator or wilt thou stay with thy companions what wilt thou say to the Lord Take me or leave me let me be thine or leave me to my self let me this day repent and be sober or let me run mad still till there be no place for repentance Consider and be wise But to return to our matter in hand 2. The circumstance of his education He had been bred up from a child in a gallant Princely way he knew not what belonged to a low estate those that never had much forsake but little when they forsake all 't is but a short step from a little to nothing he can take no great harm in a fall who alwayes sits on the ground want will never much pinch those who never understood plenty 't is no such hard change to be cast from the Cottage to the dunghill we poor little ones if we had hearts might say we have not opportunities to leave much for God 't is those who dwell on high whose Mountains are exalted among the tops of the Mountains of the earth and that have had their Nest among the Stars 't is these are like to feel it when they must take up their dwelling in the dust and this was Moses case from the height to the depth from the height of ease and honour to the depth of affliction and hardship 3. The circumstance of his Obligations Pharaoh's Daughter had strangely oblig'd him had sav'd his life took him up an abject Infant and adopted him for her Child given him Princely breeding and set her heart upon him as her own and hereupon the ingenuity of his Nature could not but plead with him thus Unworthy unthankful creature what art thou meditating whither art thou going a running away from her whose pity gave thee thy life who pittied thee and loved thee who loved thee and took thee in who took thee in and bred thee up what art thou what hast thou that she may not justly call her own and wilt thou thus requite that pity love bounty which thou canst never recompence what a reproach wilt thou become mark'd out for infamous an unworthy unthankful disingenuous ill natur'd man whither wilt thou cause thy shame to go oh how would such suggestions gall and gravel an ingenuous spirit Well but Moses breaks through all let my fame be infamy let me be accounted any thing unworthy unkind foolish or any thing that 's worse God is worthy for whose sake I should bear all this and away he goes 'T is not the least of temptations which lies on some mens spirits and which unhappily keeps them from Christ that they shall discontent their friends disoblige their dear Relations seem to put a slight upon the love and kindness and dearest respects of those whom they have lov'd as their own souls if I take this course if I fall into this uncouth discountenanced reproach'd way what will they call me how will they look on me how shall I look my Father in the face or my Husband or my Wife in the face what will become of the esteem and affection and dearness which now I have with all my intimates and acquaintance what shall I be accounted with whom shall I be reckon'd how shall I bear up under those evil reflections and those unworthy imputations that I cannot but expect But now a resolved Christian will weigh the other side too But how shall I look God in the face how shall I look Christ in the face if upon such grounds I refuse to hearken to him who hath been such a friend as God hath been to me who hath loved me as Christ hath loved me who hath done for me as he hath done for me who hath laid down his life for me who must save my soul from death how shall I look God in the face if this be all I have to say I would have followed thee Lord I would have hearkened to thee but my Father and Mother would have been angry then my Husband or Wife would have taken it unkindly I should have displeased my friends they would have counted me a fool or a mad man or unkind or unthankful if I had hearkened to thee Oh I remember what he