have nothing but Sathans leavings O! Doubtless for these delays is Christs wrath ready to be powred out upon this Nation to the uttermost The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven 2 Thes 17.8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ By delaying to hearken to Christs calls and invitations thou tellest Christ to his face that he is not altogether lovely that he is not the fairest of ten thousand that there is somewhat in Sins service and the Devils that is more desirable than what can be had in Christs And canst thou imagine such Blasphomy viz. To tell Christ to his face that thou valuest thy lusts above the enjoyment of him is not provoking O! if ever these come over fully to Christ if Christs patience be extended yet longer and they be at length wone to him How will they befool themselves that they came into Christs service no sooner Nimis sero te amaâ—â— O! I have loved thee too late Oh thâ—â—oy the unspeakable Joy I have lost Oh the peace that I might have had Oh the assurance of Gods love that my Soul might have been filled with Oh the experiences of the grace of God that I might have had if I had come into Christ on Christs first call and intreaty Oh the opportunities of service that I might have had when the marrow was in my bones when I was young and fresh for duty Oh! Lam. 3.27 How good had it been if I had born Christs yoak sooner in my youth O the many sins that I have been guilty of Oh! how long withstood I the Grace of God and grieved the Spirit of God Oh! What a burden was I to Christs Ministers and much more to Christ himself But God alone knows how soon his Spirit shall cease striving with these poor Souls and how long they shall be within a capacity of obeying the Heavenly Call The Jewes have a Rule that if a man vowes any service to God before he dyes he must do it presently because he may dye presently Rev. 6.8 Death and Hell are described coming on Horseback in full speed Ask thy self therefore Jeremiah's question Jer. 12.5 Can I out-run or escape these Horsemen However through the great and wonderful averseness there is in mens hearts from Christ they stay and linger like Lot in Sodom that if God do not work a miracle upon them and for them they will perish in the flames They know what the foolish Virgins lost by their delayes all is one no coming to Christ as long as possibly they can make any shift to live without him and until an Almighty power exert it self on their Souls to make them willing of a Christ One hath a Wife another a Yoak of Oxen all of them some business or other to detain them for the present from Christ They do not utterly deny to come but at present they have such employments as that they have no present freedome to wait upon him The Son of God must dance attendance on them they must be banqueting with the Devil within and Christ must stand without yea wait their leasure till they receive him in There are several sorts of these delaying Professours 1. Delayes to come to Christ Some and they the worst sort from their great love to their lusts and to the comforts and sensualities of this life which they fear From love to worldly Lusts when they are under Christs yoak they shall be bereaved of delay coming to Christ Sin hath so rooted it self in their hearts and affections that they are loth to take a final farewell thereof loth to mortifie their earthly members Sin is so prevalent with them that they had rather part from their right eye hand and foot than part from their sins hence they choak their Convictions what they can admit of any pleasures and diversions to wear out the impressions that are made in their Consciences that they may still lodge sin in their bosomes and not come to Christ hence they labour to quench the Spirit of God and through the prevails of spiritual sloth will not use the means whereby they may be fully converted to Christ They pretend they are desirous of Christ only they doubt whether Christ is willing to receive them but that which lieth at the bottom is this they are loth to leave their darling lusts and loth to pray and watch their hearts and to do what God requires and expects at their hands in order to Conversion You may imagine God is highly provoked hereby for God to send his Son unto you the best Jewel that ever lay in his bosome and for you to neglect and undervalue him and preferr swinish lusts before him 't is a plain argument that you never saw sin aright in its nature and effects and that you do not credit God in his discoveries of the glory of his Son You do not believe you are so miserable without a Christ as indeed you are you slight the greatest Gift that ever God conferr'd upon the children of men you make void the great counsels of God all the thoughts of his wisdome and grace in contriving such a way as by Jesus Christ to save you from wrath to come you also frustrate the expectations of God Mat. 21.37 for Surely saith God they will reverence my Son whereas by your trifling delayes you tell God and men that you believe not any advantage you shell have by the Son of God you think it will be to your loss to receive in the Lord of glory He tells you Psal 36.8 Ye shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his House Cant. 5.1 3. and ye shall drink of the Rivers of his Pleasures He tells you He hath gathered his Myrrh with his Spices He hath wine milk and honey You cry out Prov. 24.33 I have put off my Coat how shall I put it on c. A little more slumber in the Devil's Lap a little more folding of the hands to sleep You are told of Joyes unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Phil. 4.7 John 17.3 of Peace that passeth all understanding of eternal Life by knowing Christ You are told you can never be reconciled unto God but by Christ that he must end all Controversies between Christ and your Souls that He is able to save to the uttermost Hebr. 7.25 Psal 19.10 Acts 24.25 Luke 14.18 Jo. 8.24 Jo. 3.36 Pro. 8.34 35. Rev. 3.20 all that come unto God by him that His Word is more desirable than gold yea than much fine gold But all this prevails not with you When I have a convenient Season c. Yet I cannot I pray have me excused He tells you If you believe not that I am he you shall dye in your sins and that he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him yet delayes still He tells you Blessed
farr lest they should see what they are unwilling to see and so be put upon judgeing and condemning themselves for that which they love beyond an Eye or an Hand 5. The sad consequences of the neglect of this duty O the sad consequences of the neglect of this duty By this neglect your hearts will become careless for that they are not call'd to an account as Servants and Factors are wont when their Masters neglect to examine them Hereby Sins will grow bolder with you and the more easily beset you for that you examine not wherein their strength lies and which way they oftnest prevail over you Hereby the work of Repentance will be obstructed for that innumerable Sins which you are daily guilty of will pass away unobserved with those circumstances attending them which make them of the greater magnitude Hereby your uncertainties about your spiritual estate will remain it may be converted it may be not it may be a Son of God it may be not but a Child of Hell it may be a Believer it may be an Enemy to God and â—â—e of Gods curse Hence will follow great dejectedness under every Providence of God no condition will please you whilst doubting and staggering you will be apt to fear whether your food be in mercy your dayes in mercy your liberty yea the Gospel in mercy to you you will sink under adversity for you cannot say the Lord is my portion you know not whether God will be your strong Tower Fortress c. you cannot manage any duty well whilst this lies neglected Mica 6.8 How can you walk before God with an humble heart when you know not what your hearts are How can you serve him with an upright heart whilst a stranger to this duty The very Heathens knew how necessary this was to all their duties and therefore discreetly caused to be writ over the Temple at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self Miserable are the disappointments that will attend English Professours unless they fall into a compliance with this duty you will dye deluded like the foolish Virgins you will not know your undone condition till it be too late you lie deceived in matters of the greatest and highest concernment you are cheated hitherto in things of eternity you are vexed when deceived by a Friend when supplanted by a Neighbour O! how will it pierce your Souls to be cheated by your selves When we would exclaim against a Knave we say he will cozen his Father the nearer the Relation the more sordid the Cheat O! but here is one that lies in thy bosome and thou and it go to cheat each other continually Let no man deceive himself 1 Cor. 3.18 it seems we are apt to do so But O! how great will your confusion be when this deceit shall be manifested when you shall see your selves frustrated of all your hopes and the glory your hearts promised you How will you be confounded when you shall say we looked for Heaven but behold Hell we looked for Salvation but behold Destruction we looked to be made perfectly Happy but O how our hearts have cheated us we must be damned we thought we had as good hearts as any as true Faith as sound Repentance as cordial love to God as any of our Neighbours as any Precisians of the Countrey we fools counted their life madness c. O! what daggers and swords will these frustrations be to you 6. We and our hearts shall not alwayes be strangers If you be loth to see how it is with you now how will you be able to behold what shall be seen at the day of Judgement Though you now will not know your hearts though you are so stately as not to speak with them or loth to examine the dirty Corners yet God is coming with his Fan the books must be opened and every page of thy heart will be unfolded for God will bring to light every hidden work of dishonesty God will pluck off the rough garment which thou wearest to deceive thy inward parts which are very wickedness shall be made manifest and then thou shalt be speech-less as if thou hadst a muzle put upon thy mouth as the word signifieth Well seeing murder will out as we say the secrets of the Soul must be brought forth is it not better by judging our selves by a severe tryall and sentence on our selves to prevent the wofullness of the last day Judged we must and shall be is it not then thy wisdome to judge thy self here in thy Closet that thou mayst be judged by God with a judgement of Absolution and not of Condemnation Is it nothing to have all thy unrepented and unforgiven sins published on the house-top made known to all the World Ezek. 22.14 at the great day How will thine heart endure then when the Lord shall come to deal with thee You will not see but you shall see Isa 26.11 You will not retire the World lyes in your hearts Business comes in and takes up all your time and spirits God is about to strip you to ease you of your Callings you shall come naked to the Barr of God you shall have no Family business to distract you a fair tryal there shall be but a sad one for thee Your sins shall find you out Numb 32.23 You have had many Calls once more I call upon you in the Name of Christ to examine your hearts by the words of this Book which you have or shall read And be sure of it If you will not nor try your selves by the Word God will try you by his Works Thus saith the Lord Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them But how will God melt them and try them Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord v. 9. Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing v. 10. and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation because they are burnt up so that none can pass through them neither can men hear the voice of the Cattel both the Fowl of the Heavens and the Beasts are fled they are gone And I will make Jerusalem heaps v. 11. and a Den of Dragons and I will make the Cities of Judah desolate without an Inhabitant CHAP. XXI Their Pride BEhold Professors Pride Ezek. 16.49 Evidenced in Irreverence in addresses to God Gen. 18.27 This was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride c. And is not this Devillish Sin become our National Sin 1. With what a bold and impudent face have we come and appeared before God Who hath sensibly exprest himself in Abraham's words Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Instead of a reverential fear of God our behaviour hath been stout against God and we have not trembled in his presence no not whilst we have been terribly
in thy gold or in a golden calf thou art guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 of having other Gods besides the true God and so dost as highly offend the true God and God usually gives up such men unto spiritual judgements Rom. 1.21.24 It makes me fear you have not tasted of the upper springs because the puddle of the World is still sweet to your taste Luke 5.39 No man saith Christ having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better If you had tasted of the joy peace mercy and comforts of Christ your earthly comforts would be disrelished Gal. 6.14 If you did glory in the Cross of Christ the World would be crucified to you and you unto the World The sweetness of Christ would drown all Creature-sweetness But alass Psa 84.10 To which of us is one day in Gods Courts better than a thousand else-where Austin said If one drop of the joyes of Heaven might fall into Hell it would drown all the bitterness of Hell So would it drown all bitterness in the Soul and all the sweetness in the World Worldly comforts would be too course too slat too low to recreate your hearts Did ye but know the honey and milk of Canaan ye would not so much mind the Onyons of Egypt Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon O! What a surpassing indignity is this to Christ Si terram amas terraâ—es Aug. to set him below the foot-stool to value thirty Pieces of Silver before him to preferr Earth before Heaven present things before future that the love of God the recompence of reward shall not lye nearer the heart than the treasures of Egypt O! What a miserable life dost thou live This Sin brings an Hell with it thou art the Devil's Martyr 1 Tim. â— 9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and burtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Thou enjoyest neither God nor the World Thy only happiness is a fancy And this is thy great misery that thou still desirest that which will never satisfie thy desires The more thou hast of the World the more thou wantest the more thou drinkest the more thou thirstest a Dropser is upon thee Semper avarus eget Hor. Hebr. 13.5 Prov. 23 5. ch 8.21 Eccles 5.1 and thou knowest it not Discontent is alwayes the Companion of Covetousness Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Grace and Godliness is substance Why with Esop's Dogg wilt thou let goe the substance for a shadow The things of the World are fancies the things of God realities What good is there to the Owners of riches saving the beholding them with their eyes Do not you all this while bear false witness against God Do not you proclaim to the World that God is not enough to answer to fill your desires and that therefore you goe out after the Creature Is it nothing to you to call God who is all-sufficient who is a fountain of living Water a barren Wilderness Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid Jer. 2.12 13 31. be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evills's they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water O Generation see ye the Word of the Lord Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a Land of Darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hereby you break the conjugal Relation God looks on you as Adulterers and Adulteresses James 4.4 Prov. 5.19 and will judge you accordingly God expects that his breasts should satisfie you and that you be alwayes ravished with his love and dare you tell the World that your God hath deceived you and that you were mistaken in your choice of God and therefore after other Lovers you will goe No wonder that for the iniquity of our covetousness Isa 57.17 God be wroth and smite us We are greedy of more but what have we done with our former talents Account we must for one Mat. 25.5 for two for ten talents the more we have the greater still will be our account There is a reckoning day at hand O that our moderation were known to all men Phil. 4.5 because the Lord is at hand If thou art not sincere I am as sure as this Book is in thy hand thou wilt curse the time that ever thou hadst an Estate and wilt wish thou hadst been a Beggar for then thou hadst not so much to answer for before God It is certain though some doubt it that thou shalt carry none of thy estate away with thee 1 Tim. 6.7 nothing is to be carried away save guilt to Hell in case of mis-improvement of an Estate yea if you have not rendred unto God according to what you have received 2 Chron. 32.25 the heaping up of wealth is but the charging of thy account thou must account how thou hast disbursed to a farthing I will suppose thou hast by neglects of thy general Calling and by rising up early and sitting up late gained an Estate thou mayest put all thy gain in thine eyes and never see the worse What will thy Estate advantage thee when the Arrows of the Lord enter into thy Soul What will the World advantage thee when the Gout Feaver burning Pestilence c. are upon thee What hast thou got only that which may stand with Gods eternal hatred Never count thy gains till thou hast got that which is inconsistent with Gods wrath What hast thou got above that which God throweth unto the Doggs Shew me Childrens bread or never boast of thy gains Did you ever find any Child of God worse for afflictions but have you not found many worse for their thrivings in the World Jeshurun waxed fat Deut. 32.15 and kicked Whilst you have Bonds and Bills upon others do not you run into arrears unto God And how will you discharge those Suits which God will commence against you When you lye a dying will ye not wish that your time your strength your spirits had been powred forth upon better things than those of this life That you had traded for Grace and Glory rather than for the Gold of Ophir for a little gilt Clay O ye great Projectours for the World I do even fore-see the troubles and horrours the doubts and fears the anguish and amazements of your Souls which your unâ—â—â—â—â—â—ties as to your future estate will put 〈…〉 into in your dying Rooms How 〈…〉 take up such language as this Fool that I was to cumber my self about many things
of your provocations humbled in the very dust be sure to keep Conscience tender Let not your convictions dye strike again and again smite on the thigh again and again whilst the Iron is hot This fire may be kept alive by bringing new fuel to it Labour exquisitely to afflict your Souls that you should be so foolish so vile as under Christs Livery to commit so great and so hideous abominations Take words and say O the Light that I have abused O the means of Grace that I have slighted O the little service that I have done to Christ O the many dis-services Let these things cut and grave and afflict and humble thy Soul exceedingly from morning to evening and from evening to morning till God be pacified towards thee beware lest the motions of a lazy heart cause thee to desist sooner A patient that hath had a long disease must continue in the use of the prescriptions till the ill humour be purged away 4. Indignation Let your sorrow be accompanied with detestation See all your sins and loath them and your selves too This is promised they shall loath their ways and doings which are not good O! how much sin have we confessed which yet we have secretly hug'd in our hearts Labour to have your hearts rise against your pride hypocrifie c. Hate sin not only for Hell but as Hell yea hate your selves for your sins yea hate your selves that you can hate your sins no more O that my hatred of my Lusts might be greater than ever my love was unto them I wish from my Soul Professors were more apprehensive of Gods Judgements that are upon them and the Nation for their sins I wish many of us were come up to the frames of the hard-hearted Jews and expressed so much tenderness as they did when Gods hand was heavy upon them their sins also were an heavy burden Hos 7.14 In their affliction they sought God early they mourned and humbled themselves very much though with the removal of their trouble their sorrows wore away However be not satisfied with this sorrow but labour for such sorrow as David had when he was wounded in his heart for sin though Nathan told him his sin was forgiven yet he continued his sorrows for his great transgressions Labour I beseech you for tears of hatred and indignation be greatly displeased with your selves because you have so foolishly and wretchedly dishonoured God and ventured your eternal undoing and if yet thine eyes be not like the Fish-ponds of Heshbon for thy sins take words and sament before God thine hardness of heart that thou shouldst so grievously offend and provoke God so good so gracious a God and that notwithstanding thine heart should remain unbroken 5. Supplication Let there be added hearty cries to God for pardon of all these and all other abominations Who forgives him that scorns to sue for Remission Here is your work in this day the Devil and a false heart will put you upon other work but this is your present work Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept But O! do not leave the work that God sets you about I know it is your duty to provide for the bodies of your Children but consider the danger of thy Soul what guilt thou art under and give the Lord no rest till he hath blotted out all thy sin and art assured that he will remember it no more Relieve not thy self with the general bounty of God or with the free grace and rich mercy of God whilst thou neglectest to cry to God for grace and mercy He will be sought unto by the house of Israel Prize thy condition that thou art alive to pray thou mightst have been in Hell there to howl for ever and ever Seek the Lord whilst he may be found Seek in time before it be too late And if thou doubtest whether thou hast an interest in Christ and the promises because of thy hideous transgressions yet remember the gracious words that tell once from the mouth of Christ to the Samaritan John 4.10 If thou didst know the gift of God thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living water Though thou art unworthy of Childrens bread and hast deserved to be cast forth among the dogs yet thou hast to do with a bountifull and mercifull Lord and therefore be not cast down so as to be discouraged from waiting on the Lord. It was ill said of him why should I wait on the Lord any longer There is no hope I would have thee take better words into thy mouth and say Lord I am unworthy to be the object of thy mercy unworthy to live worthy to be denyed because thou didst call and I did not hear therefore if I call thou mayst justly turn me off in thy fury thou mightest answer me by terrible things in righteousness But deal not with me according to my deservings O! make me the great instance of the power of thy grace let thy mercy in pardoning be great exceeding great O God! Do not delay the suing out thy pardon Without delay away quickly to the Throne of Grace Remember Faelix put off his work till some other time There is danger in delays lest your sense of sin and sorrow for it vanish and decay blow up the first sparks of grace lest they go out and dye again take the first advantages of the grace of God Hast thou an inclination to humble thy self to pray to seek Gods face improve it quickly lest the wrath of God who is nighly provoked already against thee break form upon thee and there be no remedy Do not you know that you have lost the sense of the love of God But have you also lost all sense of Gods wrath Do not you wonder you escape that you are yet alive that you are not free among the dead incorporated with the Hypocrites and damned crew Will you dare you go on in your hardness of heart Will you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath O! God forbid Lay by the world thy false friend thy treacherous Joab that hath smitten to the earth with its kisses and its smiles Here is a business on which thy life the life of thy precious Soul depends Prepare to meet thy God wrath is gone out from the Lord howl weep cry it may be you shall be hid is the day of the Lords wrath it may be your sins shall be forgiven Though the law be a looking-glass to shew you your spots the Baver under the law was made of looking-glosses yet it cannot cleanse you it is the Gospel alone that pardons Away ye wandring Sheep to the great Shepheard of your Souls Hebr. 13.20 great he is in affection and love to his flock he hath laid down his life for you he hath purchased you with his own bloud Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb is most true of Christ and
misdemeanours were they convinced of the body of sin within them their greatest sorrows would be for their sinful propensities Neither would you wonder at any impieties and enormities in the Earth but would admire at the restraints of Heaven that they are no greater Alass If the Reader were left to himself he would presently lay hands on his nearest relations and on himself Certainly the reason why we turn not Cannibals why every man is not a Sodomite a Murtherer an Oppressour c. is because God hath a rein on the heart and curbs it for the continuation of mankind that otherwise would soon be destroyed The great boundary of the Seas and of the Ocean of corruption is the Soveraign above But O! how do we commend Nature such a man hath a good nature such a man you may trust him he will never commit such abominations You may as well believe a Toad will not poyson or the Sea will not overflow the Earth if God leave it to its self But to descend to particulars 1. Few convinced of the minds corruption Rom. 8.7 How few see the corruption of their mind How few are convinced that the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be How are our minds delighted with tales and toyes more than with the serious mysteries of God How few are sensible that they are as foolish and mad as any Bedlams in that they please themselves with that which should be their greatest burden namely Sin They are worse than the Bee or Ant for these prepare for a severe hard Winter these provide for hereafter whilst most people mind present things present pleasure present profit c. with the neglect of heaven and future glory They mind more what to eat and drink here what to have at present for this life than what to lay up for eternity They busie themselves to know what is of no consequence but careless of momentous and eternal matters How few employ their minds to know God and how he is to be worshipped and pleased but employ themselves in needless and unprofitable speculations in this like fools and children who preferr painted glass before jewels of value they more set by a little mirth and pleasure than the matters of their salvation How are our minds enslaved to our affections to the more bruitish inferiour and ignoble parts of the soul and we love to have it so Through this corruption of our minds how do we justifie sin excuse it and plead for it Hence also there are swarms of idle confused impertinent foolish ridiculous thoughts that fill our souls and duties seldome in the day week or year any conceptions of God suitable to his majesty and holiness How unstable are our minds and judgements so that we are as reeds shaken with every wind now for duty then soon wheel'd off again now for repenting and humbling work then tired and soon diverted And if we know the out-side of truths yet how often is that a barr to our closing with Christ and walking in him And yet though these poor blind deluded Bartimeus's fill all our wayes and paths so that where ever we goe we meet with them yet how seldome are any convinced of this how seldome do any cry for eye salve that they may see 2. Few convinced of the corruption of the Conscience Tit. 1.15 And though not only the mind but the conscience is defiled though there be a blindness upon it whereby it mis judgeth and calleth darkness light and though it be senseless and stupid as a stone yet few do believe this corruption hence they take sanctuary in their consciences their consciences bear them witness though it be bribed and corrupted and they have a good conscience though they know not what conscience is 3. How few are convinced of the corruption of their Will Few convinced of the corruption of their Will How do they wish that drunkenness uncleanness c. were no sins How do they choose to live a merry rather than an holy life to be the servants of the Devil rather than of God to commit sin and thereby hazard their damnation rather than to suffer and through many tribulations to enter into the Kingdom of God And how gladly would most Professours enter and take up their rest in somewhat below God if they could but enjoy the world according to their will Few convinced of the corruption of their Affections 4. Few are convinced of the pollution of their Affections Though they hate what they should love and love what they should hate though they love sin which they should hate and hate and slight God to whom they should give the precedency of their love though all be in disorder all be mis-placed though God be dethroned and Sin Sathan and the World be set up above all that is called God yet few do really believe that such a miserable Chaos is upon them 5. Few convinced of the corruption of their Memories How few are sensible of the corruption of their Memory Though they are especially charged to remember God and how to get a possession of him and to remember duty and how to practise and to remember sin and how to shun it yet how soon do they forget such truths and lodge in their memories injuries that they may avenge them and vanities foolish jests unprofitable toâ—es and tales to please themselves therewith You can remember how merry you were such a time how vain how your sensualities were abounding but you soon forget a Sermon or if you remember any thing delivered by the Preacher it is that which either concerns others conditions rather than yours or which yields you the least advantages heaven-ward We can remember the fall of Peter much easier than the repentance of Peter than his bitter weepings we can remember David's Adultery but not his Repentance and how it broke his bones and made his bed to swim Few convinced that sin iâ— the greatest evil Secondly How few have been convinced that sin is the greatest evil How few have seen it in its perfect odiousness in its naked face as that which makes Men Devils fighting against God How are most strangers to its pedigree Joh. 8.44 and consider not the Devil to be its Father We would be thought to have nothing to do with the Devil nor that he hath any thing to do with us we can live in sin and yet hypocritically enough defie the Devil and all his works We can make more moderate constructions of our sins and call them the frailties of our flesh but he that commits sin is of the Devil i. e. the Devil's drudge Sathan works in him and by him If men were convinced of this they would not drink in the Devil's piss Sin it comes from the Devil it is the Devil's excrement and yet this is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel O! with what greediness is the
loves O! I hate my self whilst writing this that I love the Lord so little so seldom It was he that made me and not I my self He hath wonderfully formed me and wonderfully preserved me and shewed many wonders in the deeps to me O! what shall I do to love the Lord with a superlative love O I am ready to say Let me love nothing if I love not thee nay love nothing till I love thee O that you would grieve abundantly for want of Love to God! You have past as through the Red Sea you have been as the flaming Bush God hath looked after you as if he minded none but you you have been as the Signet on his right hand nay more you have been engraven on his Palmes and what not love the Lord Shame upon you that you can dote upon the dark filthy dirty World and neglect the Lord of Glory All the Affections you have God gave them when he gave thee a reasonable Soul but for this end that you should place them on himself and not on his Enemy Is it not hard measure that God should be denied Love when he gave you power to love If a Friend sends you Bottels of Wine it is hard that when he comes to you you should deny him a taste of his bounty Believe it Sirs whatever you do for the Lord unless you Love him yea unless you Love him more than any thing else it is not accepted 1 Cor. 13.3 Though you give your Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth you nothing Though you bring forth Fruit yet you are empty Vines Hos 10.1 because you eye Self not God Your most exquisite Services are but pieces of dead Carrion unless they be seasoned with the Salt of Love This People draw nigh with their lips but I abhorr them and their Duties because the silly Dove is without an heart Whatever a man gives me if his heart be not in it I slight it God much more What shall I say The Holy Apostle counts him worthy of a Curse that loves not Jesus Christ If any man love not the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Auathema Maranatha And is it not sad to be cursed to the coming of Christ He deserves it that loves not Christ and he must and shall be forced to own the Righteousness of God in sentencing him to Eternal flames who might have been secured against them had he but loved Christ more than a base dunghill Lust CHAP. XI Their evil surmises of God 4ly Their evil surmises of God EVil surmises of God is another piece of ungodliness found too frequently among some of the more raised Professours even such as have the root of the matter in them I shall the rather insist on this sin because right thoughts of God are the fuell which maintains the fire of Religion without which it soon decayeth and is extinguished 1. Miscalling his love-to-kens Do not we miscall Gods love-tokens Hath not God sent thee many love-tokens by his Spirit to assure thee that he owns thee and delights in thee as his Spouse For thee to question thy relation to him upon every turn must needs be grievous to him how grievous then is it for thee to deny all his tokens of grace and love to thy Soul and to count them but delusions but the works of the Infernal Spirit transforming himself into an Angel of Light To call light darkness good evil sweet bitter the work of Christ the Devils work is ill resented by the Lord it goeth unto his heart You that are Husbands Wives Parents Children cannot endure to have your love and fidelity suspected upon every base suggestion and whisper Believe it God takes notice and laies to heart all your jealousies of him all your base unworthy censures of him 2. How ill are Gods Providences resented III resenting Gods Providences 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.28 Although God hath told you there is a beauty in their contexture that things present and things to come are yours that all shall work together for good that your Providential losses as well as your Providential enjoyments that your changes as well as your setlings your wants as well as your abundance shall all be Sanctified to you yet how few with that blessed man bless the Lord Job 1.21 Rom. 5.2 3. when taking away And with Paul rejoyce yea glory in tribulations God assures you that your sicknesses reproaches wants shall do you good yea death shall do you good all shall be good or do you good all shall be food or physick out of the eater shall come forth sweetness even from Gods desertions you shall have advantages your very thorns shall drop honey shall bear grapes yet notwithstanding what hard thoughts have you of God under such dispensations Didst thou onely accuse thy self judge thy self abhorre thy self it were well but in speaking against thy self thou fallest foul upon God himself by questioning his love from these providences Deny thy self what thou wilt but beware of a denial of Gods love and of the Spirit of grace that hath taken up his lodgings within thee O that all melancholly doubting Christians would consider of this too seldome suspected provocation and unkindness of theirs towards God! O! take up and keep up better thoughts of God what ever his carriage be towards you Though he slay you yet trust in him When will you be as David who though beleaguered with Enemies yet kept up good thoughts of God he doubted not of Gods pitty of Gods favour and protection and therefore I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Psa 3.6 Psa 27.3 v. 1. that have set themselves against me round about Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear c. in this will I be confident In what Why that the Lord is my Light and my Salvation and the strength of my life God hath not spent all his stores he hath enough for me he will not suffer me to be tempted above what I shall be able to bear but will with the temptation make way for my escape And hath not God told thee that the mountains shall depart Isa 54.10 and the hills be removed yet his loving kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of his peace be removed But alas Thou canst entertain good thoughts of God in fair weather Mar. 4.38 but let them fall in a storm then it is Master carest thou not that we perish Thou canst trust in God when he carrieth himself as a Friend and answereth all thy requests and granteth all thy desires but not so when he seemeth an Enemy Canst thou with Paul say I am perswaded that neither Death Rom. 8.38 39. nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to