and Atheisme grows exceedingly O that mine head were as waters c. CHAP. X. Their want of Love to God 3ly WAnt of Love to God is another great branch of ungodliness abounding amongst Professours Professors want of Love to God in Christ This is â—o great a branch of ungodliness that Jesus Christ hath reduced all the Commandements of the first Table concerning the Worship of God to this great one Matth. 23.36 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and all thy Soul and all thy Might Indeed every one pretends to love God I hardly ever met with a person but said he loved God He that hateth dissembleth with his lips Prov. 26 God may say truly How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me God is loved but not for himself but for what he brings God is used and the World is embraced If God comes empty handed or with his hands full of trouble misery c. Farewell God is loved 2 Tim. 3.4 Job 21. but with a secondary love Professours are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God God must stand by and give place to sensuality therefore they say unto God depart c. They like God whilst they may enjoy their pleasures too whilst they may not be infringed Let but a few things be considered and we will see how much want there is of love to God in Christ 1. Whom we love we are not ashamed of Evidenced in being ashamed of a Relation to him The Mothers is such to her Child and Gods to us he is not ashamed to be called our God But do not we conceal our Title to God in some Companies that hate him How do we throw off our Livery Mar. 8.38 and dare not to be known to have walked with God Remember he that is ashamed of me c. 2. Not troubled for his dishonour 2 Pet. 2.8 Psa 119 53. 158. Not hating Gods Enemies Psal 139.21 Not hating self for not loving God Parents are troubled when their Children are dishonoured and so Children when their Fathers but are our Souls vexed racked with the filthy couversations of Sodomites Where are the Rivers of waters Where is thy horrour because men keep not Gods Commandements 3. Those we love their Enemies are ours Parents Enemies are the Childrens Enemies But do we hate them that hate God yea with a perfect hatred 4. True lovers of God hate themselves for not loving God enough How oft do they thus sigh Wretch that I am to grieve God to estrange my self from God so seldome to be with God to stay with him no longer How can I content my self with these transient glances with these sudden casts of mine eye and to be instantly wheel'd off from my God again O this fleeting mind of mine when will it fix on God and abide with him O this gadding heart of mine when will it center in its true and perfect happiness When I turn mine eye from earthly objects either I am displeased with them or there is some better thing that draws off my mind and heart But dare I say so of God that be is unlovely and yet I have been weary of him 5. Not trusting him Did we love God we would trust him we dare trust our very lives in a Friends hands But we dare not so trust God What would a carnal man give that he had but his life and health in his own dispose When he is poor he had rather it were in his own hands to supply his wants than in Gods for he thinks it would go better with him We trust God for little We think our selves quite undone when we have nothing save a God and a Promise to trust to 6. Not joying nor grieving as they ought How little do we joy in the presence of God and Christ and grieve for their absence Is God all in the want of all and is God the All in the enjoyment of all Can we say shew us the Father and it sufficeth us When we have no Fig-tree left can we rejoyce in the God of our Salvation Can we say Take all Ziba now that my Lord is come now that the Lord stoops to dwell in houses of clay O worldlings take your riches and make the best of them I envy you not I have enough in God Do we so grieve for the absence of God and Christ that nothing but God and Christ can make amends O that our happiness life comforts were folded up in God and Christ Can we live no more without God and Christ than a Beam without the Sun 7 Not thoughtful to please him Rom. 12.2 Ephes 5.10 True Lovers are thoughtfull to please the Beloved But is there any thing that we think less of than pleasing of God A true lover of God is alwayes proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. He is still searching that he may know more wherein he may please God as willing always to be more useful for God What have I to do more but how seldom do we ask our hearts what way may we walk in all well pleasing How seldom do we design for the glory of God 8. True Lovers are open handed and bountiful to God they bestow readily and freely any thing they have on him they will part with their Isaaks their dearest things with Limbs c. Rutherford that man of God wish'd every limb a man every bone a man yea every hair a man to set forth the praises of God When God calls for limbs can we say Farewell to them Are there not some things so dear to us that we cannot spare them to Christ Are we so taken with Christ that our hearts are dis-ingaged from the love of other things is every thing vile but Christ Is all you part from instantly supplyed in the loves and smiles of Christ 9. True Lovers of God are contented with nothing by way of return from God save only love from him returns of love they must have They do not pray save for love they go not in before God for Corn Wine Oyle c. but for love for God to open his heart to take off his mask from his lovely face and shew them the light of his countenance They are not like the Raven that came to Noah more for necessity Isa 26.8 9. than delight Yea in the way of thy Judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early 10. Not praising him True Lovers are wont to praise each other But how seldom do we set forth the praises of Christ Love is witty full of eloquence Cant. 5.10 11 12 13 14 15 16. witness the Spouse My Beloved is white and ruddy
ends and how lumpish and heavy are our hearts in the beginning of a Sabbath much more than upon any other day Doth not this prove the day to be no way pleasing to us And how chearfull are some of us when the Sabbath is ended The heart is not so well pleased all the day as then yea do not some cheat and delude themselves hereby as if they had joy in the Lord and had received comfort from the Word and other Ordinances whereas they are glad that the yoak of Ordinances the burden of the Word of the Lord and the burden of the day of the Lord is taking off their Shoulders Being hindred from profaning it only by external motives How many are there who would profane Gods Sabbaths and wholy neglect the Ordinances of them were it not for the Laws of men and the eyes of their Relations How quieted are some when they have attended the publick service Satisfied with worshipping God publickly and do they betwixt and after those solemn duties refrain their lips from worldly talk from impertinencies from such discourse as bears no proportion with the holiness of the day When works of Necessity and Charity happen out beyond our expectation or forecast Glad to be hindred from works of piety are we at all troubled at them Do not we rather rejoyce because we have thereby a dispensation to withdraw from the immediate worship of God And how many neglect to do all their works on the six dayes Exod. 20.9 though the Lord so expresly chargeth them so to do that they may have a pretence of necessity to do much servile work on the Sabbath How common is it to dress meat on the Sabbath more than on any other day when there is not the least pretence of weakness c. Hereby not only Servants but the whole house are too much in labour and destraction and hindred if not from the solemn Assemblies yet from Family and Closet worship How do many gossip complement Eating too much on the Sabbath and feast away abroad the day of the Lord or else eat to an excess at home and thereby make themselves fitter for a bed than to wait on the Sanctuary to hear Christs voice to meditate on his love and to feed in his pleasant pastures How carefull are we to keep our selves Stealing Gods time and ours from pilfering from our Neighbour but not from stealing from God his time yea are not some Governours so ungodly unmercifull that they will allow their people no time but the Sabbath to recreate themselves from their labours If they need recreation you have more time than God hath reserved sure you should not steal from God to pleasure them In the discharge of the works of mercy to Man and Beast Not performing duties of mercy aright Do not we respect more our own commodity than the will of God than the dispensation of God and the creatures necessities Are these works of mercy attended with such spiritual meditations as they do afford us if our hearts were holy How few bless God for giving them one day Not blessing of God for the Sabbath wherein they may lighten their hearts of all worldly cares and throw off all griefs and secular cumbers and may seek for relief and comfort in their God Perhaps the Master observes a day unto the Lord Careless whether those under them observe the Sabbath but how careless is he that his Sons and Daughters and all within his gate honour the day of the Lord Do not many Professing Governours of Families let them sleep away the Sabbath that they may be the fitter for their drudgeries the following week O! when will Governours be as diligent that their Servants and Houshold serve the Lord as that they serve themselves You have been carefull that your work were done on the week but careless whether Gods work were done by them on the Sabbath careless whether your Servants profited by the Sabbath yea or no When will Gods glory and the good of your peoples Souls be nearer to you than your worldly advantages You ask your Servants what work they have done for you every day and call them to frequent accounts for your gains-sake and what never reckon with them about their Spiritual Soul-work O! how little is the love of God shed abroad in your hearts How justly may God be angry with us till he hath consumed us for our desiling the day of the Lord It was Gods express Law Exod. 31.14 that every one that desileth it should surely be put to death When the people were weary of the Sabbath when they said Amos 8.5 v. 7. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat c. v. 7. The Lord swore by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works v. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a floud and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt v. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day v. 10 And I will turn your Feasts into mourning and all your Songs into lamentation c. v. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the land not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. v. 12. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it CHAP. XX. Their miscarriages about Heart-examination THe more that the Lord of Heaven chargeth us with a Duty Professors miscarriages about Self-examination the more inexcusable are our neglects of it There are few things more commanded us than to try and examine our hearts and lives 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves c. Prove your selves c. We are apt to be strangers to our selves to cheat our selves with vain presumptuous hopes to rest in notions therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Examine your selves take an experimental knowledge of your selves We are apt to prove others and censure them therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prove your own selves begin at home try your state try your actions bring the mettal to the touchstone see whether it be sound or counterfeit try your Faith whether it be temporary or saving prove your Repentance whether it be through or superficial examine your Love whether it be sincere or hypocritical and your Obedience whether it be universal or partial Deut. 4.39 Know therefore and consider it in thine heart make a return or answer to thine heart Commune with thine own heart
in Christ Jesus our Lord Whilst the Candle of the Lord shines on thy Tabernacle whilst thy bones are full of marrow whilst thou washest thy feet in butter whilst every Mordechai boweth in the gates whilst thou hast dews on thy heart meltings and enlargements in Ordinances so long thou canst keep up good thoughts of God and his love but let the Scene be altered let the Sun wrap up it self in a Cloud of darkness let the rod lie on the back and the Arrows of the Almighty pierce the heart and then not only grace within is questioned but the love of God without I am cast out from before thine eyes his mercy is clean gone Then all men are lyars even Samuel himself But alas how ignorant art thou of the methods of God Heb. 12.6 7 8. Doth not he chasten every son that he receiveth Should not he have liberty to use what rod he pleaseth whilst all are for thy Profit that thou mayst partake of his Holinesse Rom. 8.29 Phil. 3.20 Matth. 20.23 Col. 1.24 Might not Christ have had ill surmises of his Father upon higher grounds than any thou canst name Who art thou to hope for milder usage from God than he shew'd to his own Natural Son If thou art predestinated to be conformable to Christ to be partaker of his sufferings to drink of his cup wilt thou doubt thy filiation from thy filling up the sufferings of Christ 3. Concluding thence sadly of Gods intentions How do some draw sad conclusions from Gods Providentiall dispensations concerning his intentions for the future When they lose dear Relations an Husband or the Wife of the bosome gone a sweet Child snatcht away and perhaps by inadvertency O then no sooner can we enter into the house of mourning but we hear cries from you O my hypocrisie O my formality O this is one of Gods Arrows of Vengeance O! God is beginning his Controversie which will never end till it laies me as low as Hell Whereas you should entertain other thoughts of God viz. That now he is removing the Idols of jealousie now he is weaning your hearts from Creatures that he may have all your love he knew how much Spiritual Communion you have lost by the company of your Relations and now he himself would have more of your company now he would have you to delight your selves more in himself now he hath but dryed the stream a weak unsatisfying stream that you may drink and drink abundantly of the purest Chrystal waters that drop from the blessed Fountain immediately now God hath a blessed design of grace to prepare you for glory he is now making the earth an howling Wilderness that you may long for Canaan he is now leaving you to naked walls that he himself may fill them he is now turning all out of doors that you may have the more liberty to treat with his Majesty with the less disturbance without interruption Alas you know not how unkind and burdensome yea treacherous your Friend your Relation might have been if continued longer to you you know not what a dishonour to God and to your selves he might have been if longer continued in the land of the living and therefore to preserve him from scandal and your selves from heart-breakings thereby God hath in mercy pity and faithfulness removed him taking him away it may be from the evil to come Few put these Comments upon Gods Providences towards them but commonly take all in the worst sense they can 4. Calling Gods love in question for want of Evidences How do some instantly call in question Gods love if Evidences be not seen if they be not fairly writ so as the Soul can read them But may not the money be in the Saeks mouth though the Brethren see it not for a while Yea though the Soul hath had a welcome from God yea many a welcome yet how soon is the Soul so crest-fall'n that it is afraid to go into Gods presence and through the power of Satan and Melancholy duty yea many duties have hereby been intermitted This provokes God exceedingly What When you have had his Stâ—ffe and his Bracelets when you have had such admirable proofs of his Love in sending his Son and Holy Spirit after you to work so great and glorious a change in you coming in the still voice and whispering Love unto you dandling you as on the knee welcoming you again and again to the Throne of Grace oft filling your empty Bottles answering your thousand Doubts sealing the Covenant of Grace and granting and confirming to you all the Patents of Love And yet at every turn have you doubted whether God loves you or no God chides Zion for this Isai 49.14 Let not Zion say the Lord hath forsaken c. 5. Concluding God no Friend because Satan is an Enemy and doth tempt them Are there not some good Souls though their goodness lies not in this that are apt to question the Love of God to them from the blasphemous thoughts and injections that they are harrazed with But what because Satan is your Adversary must God therefore not be your Friend Because Satan doth tempt you will it therefore follow that God doth not love you Were we not wonderfully prone to evil surmises and distrusts of God we would not make Satans Malice a ground sufficient to doubt of the Love of God Doth the Husband love his Wife the less for that she is tempted whilst she defies the Tempter and is burthened with his foul and daring sollicitations O how is Satan gratified hereby Considerations against evil surmises of God He is the great Accuser the great Tale-bearer that seperateth choice Friends He goeth betwixt God and Saints as a Mediatour of Differences to accuse Saints to God and God to Saints and will you any longer be Tale-hearers against God Believe it the false witness which he brings is against him who hath given you wonderful proofs of his everlasting Love towards you When O! when will you complain of Satan in the words of the Psalmist The Enemy hath persecuted my Soul Psal 143.3 he hath made me to dwell in darkness like those that have been long dead It is the Enemy that vails and obscures the work of the Spirit what he can that you shall see it no more than a dead man can behold any company that is in the Room Vault or Grave with him When Satan tells you your Graces are counterfeit your Faith but that which a temporary may have your Graces but moral Vertues O! how soon is your Enemy credited how much more believed than God his Ministers and all the testimonies of Gods Love that are brought you Hence you are one day jealous of the Kindness of Christ another day of the Fulness of Christ then of the Intentions of Christ he means no good to me Hence also you doubt of the acceptance of your Persons and Duties There is a Cloud hangs over my Prayers
and victory Have we made conscience to meditate upon our Wants what Graces we mostly need of their Wants what we are most defective in From this neglect we pray as if we did not pray without zeal earnestness and importunity Whereas had we viewed our Wants of God of his Grace Spirit Protection Mercy and Presence we should pray as for Life and those stragling vain thoughts would hereby have been suppressed When the Malefactour is begging his Life at the Barr his Soul is not running adrift after every Feather but he minds his business 't is Life and his Life that is endangered and therefore he gathers up all possible arguments that may induce the Judge to abate of the rigour of Justice towards him But how oft have we been on our knees and have been ignorant of what ailes us so that we might truly say we knew not what to ask When you goe to your Markets you consider what you and yours want but do we so when we goe to our Spiritual Markets Have not we neglected to meditate of the Mercies of God of Mercies received which we have received Hence we come either customarily before God or not with that holy boldness as we should One Mercy opens a door to another The Valley of Achor was given as a door of hope to Israel Hos 2. Forgetting the returns of Prayer makes our hearts ake and knees faint We should book the passages of Gods grace how he remembred us in our low condition how he hath visited us day by day when we have come in as the parched ground we have found God a dew to us and springs of water have appeared in the wilderness When we have come in before God with our Shackles on our Feet with Irons that have entred our Souls God hath made it a Jubilee he hath proclaimed the acceptable year he hath let us out of the Prison-house and hath set our feet in a large place When we have come in before God with guilt on our Souls and with fearful expectations how hath God given us the white stone and sent us away with his blessing and with gladness of heart The neglect of our Diaries of the Providences and Mercies of God the want of reflecting on all the Rings that God hath sent us makes us more like Slaves than Children Do we with David cry out Psa 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred Have not we neglected to meditate on the great and wonderful things of the prevalency of Prayer that have been done upon the Prayers of Gods People We should have in everlasting remembrance what a powerful Engine Prayer is Gen. 32.28 Exod. 32.32 Jam. 5.17 18. It hath held the hands of the Almighty Jacob and Moses prevailed over God It hath been a Key to open and shut the Heavens Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months And he prayed again and the Heaven gave rain and the Earth brought forth her fruit And O what wonderful things hath God promised to a Praying People Jer. 33.3 Mat. 21.22 Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not Whatsoever ye ask in my Name c. Here is more than Herod offered that was but half the Kingdome here is a Whatsoever Did we appear before God with these instances of grace and promises fresh in our thoughts we should not say What a weariness is it Or that there is no profit in serving God and gallop through our duties as we are wont 2. Not stirring up Grace received Another neglect before Prayer is The not stirring up our Graces before we set upon the Duty We too much rest on habitual preparation whereas actual is necessary He that leaps immediately from the Shop to the Throne of Grace and labours not to quicken his dull Soul and to leave worldly businesses behind him as Abraham his Servants when he goeth to sacrifice no wonder if he lose the Duty and provoke the Lord rather than be accepted with him The Well is seldome so full but that you may nay you must throw in a little to fetch up the more It is thought by the redoubling of David's charge that he found not his heart in a good frame for the exalting of God and therefore cries out so vehemently Psa 103.1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits 2ly When Praying How have we failed when we have entred upon the Duty And that in Invocation in Confession in Petition and in Thanksgiving 1. In our Invocations In Invocation We call God Father and yet how unlike are we unto him we resemble not him we call Father we reverence not him we call Father we trust not to him with that confidence we would to receive of our Fathers of the Flesh we fear when we ask Bread he will give us a Stone we have lower thoughts of Gods bowels than of our own we think our selves more pitiful better natur'd than God himself If I were a Mother and my Child in distress I should deny him nothing 2. In our Confession of Sin Confession Psa 119 26. We are not full and free and ingenious we sit with Rachel upon some Idols we do not declare our wayes unto him but rather cover our transgressions as Adam Few can clear themselves as Job did You will perhaps confess Job 31. We have erred and strayed from thy wayes like lost sheep We have left undone c. Dolus in generalibus Psa 32.3 but still in generals David was in this gravelled When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long But you descend not to particulars or if to particulars yet the Benjamin is reserved loth to let Benjamin goe loth to confess envy pride breach of vowes want of love to Saints loving the rich only neglecting the poor You will confess what every man knows you are guilty of or what every man is addicted to but you shame not your selves by instancing in the particular neglects and commissions by which you chiefly provoke the Lord the Agags are not brought to execution the best of the Cattel are kept back one Wedge is hid in the Tent. Or if you confess most particularly yet it is without hatred of the sins confess'd You confess sin yet hugg it bosome it plead for it within one quarter of an hour You confess sin but without self-abhorrence 1 Kings 8.38 Job 42.6 you loath it not as the Plague
sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand Have not you cause to fear lest you shall also be so given into the hands of worse Babylonians You can judge what is a Ministers competency but when have ye a competency You can add field to field house to house hundreds to hundreds and yet the Horse-leach cries Give Give Yet do not you judge a small stipend that will hardly keep body and soul together a competency for a Minister What is that great service you do for God above the Minister that you should think it reasonable to leave hundreds yea thousands to your Children and that the Minister should be kept so short that he cannot leave them a groat What shall I say to you Let me borrow the words of God by the Prophet Will a man rob God Mal. 3.8 9 10. Yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tythes and Offerings Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Bring ye all the Tythes into the Store-house that there may be meet in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it O! Restitution to be made by such as have not given what was due from them to their Ministers Do not any longer detain what is due to your former Ministers make restitution of unjust gain as ever you hope to be saved It is not enough to say Lord forgive me I thought it not my duty but thou must reckon how many years thou hast reaped Spirituals and pay what thou owest or Judas will condemn thee for he thought it unsafe to keep what was unjustly got Remember Zacheus he thought it not enough to give over his oppression but when converted he made conscience of making restitution Let the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 5.17 18. be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine For the Scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward Here you see double honour honour of reverence and honour of maintenance was due unto your Ministers Here is an allusion to the right of the first-born who were to have a double portion Their maintenace was due from you neither should their maintenance have been ordinary mercenary wages but such as is given by way of honour as well as by way of reward Have not you lived in the contempt of an Ordinance of God 1 Cor. 9.14 The Lord hath ordained c. as before Do not any longer delude your Consciences by crying against Tythes as Antichristian as Jewish Did not Abraham before the Jewish Laws pay Tythes to Melchisedech And are there not from thence arguments drawn that you cannot answer Why do ye not fear lest through the prevalency of Self you should be too base covetous and partial in your own matters O! Give to God what is Gods Deny not your Ministers their dues You owe vaste summs to them which if you detain in this day of their wants God will call you to a speedy account for the grinding of the faces of these poor yea he will make you vomit up such sweet morsels with all the rest of your substance Jam. 5.4 if not with your blood Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your Fields which is of you kept back by fraud crreth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabbath Lydia even enforced the Apostles to accept of her gift The Macedonians beseech'd Paul with much entreaty to accept of their bounty If thou wert converted by one of them thou didst owe to him no less than thy self What thou art and hast should not have been counted too dear for him who was Gods Instrument to pull thee as a brand out of the fire even when thou wast half burnt Say at length with David I will not serve my God with that which cost me nothing I shall conclude this head with the saying of a Reverend man It is a plain argument of a base esteem of God of Grace of the Kingdome of Heaven that a Servant a Factour should have twenty times the alloance of Heavens Factour for your Souls You are not come up to the honesty of the Pharisee Mat. 23.23 He gave Tythes of all that he possessed even of the smallest things of Mint and Annis and Cummin Luke 11.42 And doth not Christ say These things ye ought to have done What were your Ministers more unworthy than the Priests of that Age Their regardlessness of the Widdons and Children of their dead Ministers 13. If you have not been niggardly toward your Ministers whilst alive with you have not you been niggardly towards their Wives and Children after their deaths Verily not minding the Widows and Children of deceased Ministers is a sin that God will remember in the day of accounts David enquired after the seed of Jonathan he evidenced his true love to the Father in remembring the posterity O! when shall love be without dissimulation 14. Their grieving their Ministers Have not you been a very great trouble to their Souls Your Ministers were so affectionately desirous of you that they were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel only but also their own Souls because ye were dear unto them And is this your kindness to your Friends to break even their hearts who were glad to spend and be spent for you How proudly have you carried it toward them God threatned the Israelites that the Cananites should be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides Surely it better became Cananites to be thorns to the Israelites than for you to be thorns to your Ministers How oft have you grieved them to see your stoutness and rebellion against all their Counsels May not your Ministers say as David Psal 119.158 I beheld the Transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word May they not say We have seen your lukewarmness your sloth your earthliness c. and our Souls were troubled You should have been like the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.19 the crown of our rejoycing but you have been crowns of thorns which have pierced not our heads but hearts You should have refreshed our Bowels been as Cordials and sweet refrectives after all our wearisome labours but have not you dealt unkindly with us and the more we have loved you have not we had the less love from you Have not you beâ—â— more merciful to your Horses and Dogs than to your Ministers You have baited and been kind to those creatures but God knows how after all our toyle
account He that seeth his Brothers face fowl and tells him not of it hath a mind that others should see his spots as well as himself And is this love to thy Friends O! How have we uncovered that which ingenuous Humanity should have concealed Can you talk so of your Friends that are most dear to you 12. Restraining Prayer for them Have not we restrained Prayer for such Christians as have differed from us Whom we love we pray for But have not our differences been so great that we have excluded one another out of our Prayers unless to reproach each other before the Lord If any man see his Brother sin a Sin 1 John 5.16 which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death How seldome are we very serious and earnest in wrestling with God for others if in some things divided from us Mat. 5.44 If we had counted them Enemies we should have so loved them as to have prayed for them O that Abraham should pray so vehemently for the Sodomites and not we for Saints That Samuel should pray for Saul and not we for the Lords anointed ones Have not our differences interrupted not only civil but all religious communion Yea have not we neglected to pray not only for dissenting Brethren but for the reconciling of them How few are there that pray heartily feelingly believingly for the Peace of Hierusalem though there are many Promises to encourage us therein Zech. 14.19 that his Name shall be one and they shall worship with one shoulder and Judah shall not envy Manasseh Jer. 32.39 nor Manassâ—h vex Ephraim And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them should we not also have been encouraged to pray for that which Christ so affectionately desires Will not Petitions be welcome to Heaven for that which would be the joy of all the Heavenly Host to see effecten Peace on earth among the Saints would be the joy of God who is the God of Peace of Christ who is the Prince of Peace May we not confidently pray for what Christ sweat and bleed 13. Not priling their gifts not blessing God for them How unready have we been to respect and value the gifts and enoblements of such Christians We have neither heartily prayed to God that they might be useful with all their Talents for the good of many nor blest the Father of Lights for communicating so much to them 14. Envying them Hath not the Spirit in us lusted to Envy Whom we love we rejoyce at their gifts and enjoyments but hath not a Spirit of Cain prevailed among us Have not we envied if others had greater acceptance with God than our selves Have we rejoyced at the gifts and graces of differently-perswaded Brethren as if they were our own or have not we secretly at least repined at others praises Have not we been afraid that we and our party have been obscured thereby Hath not this been evident in our being more backward to speak of their graces than of their imperfections Doe not we gaze only on the Sun and call in others to be spectators of it when ecclipsed Do not we like Kites pass over the sound sheep and pitch on the weak and dead Carion or like the Butchers Dog not touch the sound flesh but the offals and putrified pieces or like Swine pass over the flowers and wallow in the Mire If we know one of a differing Congregation from ours that hath a blemish our mouths are full of him but others graces and heavenly walks we can pass over in silence 15. Not helping them Have not we refused to help such Christians We help what we can those whom we really love But are not we like Spectators in a Tragedy Austin complains of such in his time who mourn much to see a sad story acted but let the Play goe on True pitifull love would express it self by the hand Heb. 6.10 1 Cor. 13.4 as well as tongue We read of the labour of love love is bountifull We pretend to love all Saints but what do we for those that are of different perswasions from ours If such an one be in Prison do we visit him If Naked do we cloath him If hungry do we feed him If we remember all the Lords people that are in bonds as if we were bound with them then doe we really love them We love our selves and we are liberal to our selves we can bestow time care estate good things upon our selves but not so on divided Brethren We have words at will Oyle and butter in our mouths to supply them Depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but we give not those things that are needfull Love will suffer any pains for the sake of the Beloved So Paul loved all the Saints that he was willing to spend and to be spent like a Candle to wast himself for their good Which of us hath so spent himself Love will counsel the Beloved especially if in any straight But God knows how little others have been beholding to us even this way possibly we have afterwards insultingly told them this you should have done and herein you failed but as we found them in a Ditch so we left them and directed them not to a way of deliverance The best counsel we can give is for the Soul but let the divided parties yea and others consider seriously and sadly how backward they have been and are to this day to advise to the best way for peace holiness and glory If we believe such an undertaking will impair our Neighbours Name estate ro Soul yet how slow are we to interpose for the disswading of him from so unhappy an enterprize I should hardly think that Parent loves his Child well that sees him run over a cliff and with-holds him not what he can 16. Not sympathizing with them Have not we been so far from helping them that we have not sympathized with them Love is pittifull When they have been sick when did we get over our thresholds to enquire how it fared with them How seldome have we felt their pains If they be in an errour in a dangerous one the more we should compassionate them considering our selves also who have the seeds of the same errours within us considering the blindness of our own minds how we also differ from others in some matters how it is the Spirit that leads into truth c. But have not some rejoyced when any of a different perswasion have fall'n into the Bogs of Familisme Ranterisme Quakerisme c. that they may thence draw their absurd inferences against the whole body whereto such an one was related Yea how little have we laid to heart the afflictions of any of Gods people Have not we been as unconcerned in their sufferings in Germany France Holland Piedmont Ireland
c. How seldome have we had any great conflict for those whose faces in the flesh we never saw Have not we been like Jacobs Children unmercifull enough sate down to eat and drink and forgot Joseph in the Pit Have not we had a late instance of this our hard-heartedness when the Plague so forraged in London and the parts adjacent How little did we mourn with them that mourned Perhaps fear lest the Flying Role might visit us caused us a little to put finger into the eye I must tell you I wish I could weeping that iniquity abounds and the love of many waxeth cold 17. Insulting over them 1 Cor. 13.4 Have not we been so far from sympathizing with them that we have insulted over them Reall love vaunteth not it self is not puffed up But how have we vaunted over fall'n Brethren fall'n into misery that is bad but fall'n into sin that is abominable How oft have I known some high Professours making it an entertainment a banquet for their Friends to speak of the Spots Vanities Gestures c. of others different in some Opinions or Practices from them when their laughture hath given evident proof what contentment they took in the infirmities of their Brethren Ye are puffed up 1 Cor. 5.2 and have not rather mourned c. said Paul to the Corinthians and may not I say so to English-Professours Have not we been worse than Dives's dogs seeing they licked the soars of Lazarus whilst we have rub'd and fretted them and insulted over his miseries 18. Publishing their secrets Have not we very unfaithfully published their secrets We are wont to keep the secrets of those we dearly love especially when they charge us and we promise so to do But how many of us are swift to hear but not slow to speak of what we hear even under the rose Few faithfull Spirits Prov. 11.13 that conceal the matter How many are there that creep into houses yea farther into bosomes to know secrets that they may inslave them to their wills for fear of their publications or else when they have got what they can of them most wretchedly betray the trust reposed in them This makes me even to cry out trust not in a Brother 19. Selfishness 1 Cor. 13.5 Have not we been selfish in our love Charity seeketh not her own Observe it the most love that is going is Publican-love we are careless of their company or to have any intimacy with them from whom nothing is likely to be returned if a Professour be rich he hath many Friends such as they be but the poor is despised of his Neighbour O! how base and mercenary is our love Even your Ministers to whom you have pretended dear and high affections yet if they be laid by or removed at a distance from you that you cannot have them as a pleasant song to you how strange are you instantly to them How soon do you forget them Judas may kiss you but he hath a design upon you Joab may salute but he is working nothing but his own base design 20. Inconstancy Hath not our love been inconstant Real love is abiding but do not we quickly exchange Friends Do we keep them as long as an Almanack to the end of the year Do not new pickt flowers tempt us to throw by the old 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity suffereth long But how soon is our love quenched It makes a blaze but soon is out soon kindled soon quench'd like Children won with an Apple lost with a Nut How have we been at swords point for every trifle Those seven ones one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all should have been as so many quoines to lock together all parts of the building into one But alas every extravigant or extrinsecal opinion hath broken us and our hearts to pieces Have not we been humourish peevisn lovers Our love is dearly bought and more hardly kept Humour is like tinder as soon on fire as touched no love without conformity in every thing we could hardly bed board or house together unless we all said the same thing we loved only whilst pleased and our humours were not crost but the least unkindness the least difference though our agreemenss were more by hundreds than our differences would quench or at least abate our love Charity is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13.5 Gal. 6.1 And to fullfil the law of love its requisite in the Apostles Judgement that we bear one anothers burthens But O! ever since I can remember what a rigid imperious and tyrannical commanding of an Uniformity in every punctilio hath there been Though the pretence be love to Christs Church yet if men would consult their own hearts 't is love of their own power and rule and Lordship over their Brethren and therefore the same party of men when in the Saddle when uppermost have cryed for this rigid Conformity away with cursed tolleration c. and when reduced and brought lower have as much commended Charity Love Forbearance in matters less momentous Now when these things are thus amongst us The greatness of this evil shall we sit still in silence and stupidity and suffer the sweet and soft fire of love quite to expire and the wild-fire of passion and contention to spread and prevail without moving a tongue or hand towards the repressing of the one and reviving of the other This were enough to make the dumb to speak and therefore may justifie my writing when I may not speak yea my expatiating a little in venting my thoughts about this great evil and the desires of my heart to redress it Is it nothing to us In its disobedience See Williams transcendency of Christs love Chap. 9. Sect. 3 4 5. John 13.33 34 35.14.12.15.12 17 that hereby we are in a special manner guilty of disobedience to Jesus Christ That all Christians would love one another was our Lord Jesus his dying charge which he frequently inculcated sweetly insinuated and powerfully enforced it as a Commandement not a bare advice and counsel It is a Commandement of Christs own prescribing A Commandement I give unto you It is a Commandement given as a special Love-token in his last Will and Testament It is a new Commandement A new Commandement I give unto you It is a most excellent Commandement in a new Edition corrected and amended from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and enlarged from his own example Before it was only Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self now it is Love one another as I have loved you This new Commandement is not once only given but given again and again and again by our dying Lord to intimate that as he had one Disciple who went by the name of the Disciple whom Jesus loved So he would have a darling Commandement and that this should be it Love one another Yea he calls it These things as
and yet you dare even then be vain and frothy you know the Lord is much grieved at the backslidings of his people and yet you have lost you antient faith love tenderness zeal publick-spiritedness and communion with God yea you have not only known these to be sins but you have spoken against them as evils you have told men how hainous a thing it is to sin against the Lord and yet you your selves have added iniquity unto iniquity What cloak have you for your sins And very impenitently Fourthly You have sinned impenitently notwithstanding all means for your repentance and reducement which God hath most wonderfully vouchsafed you The Lord hath for many years striven with you to put a stop to your sins and to reclaim you from your miscarriages Sometimes God hath gone up to Mount Ebal and threatned you with Sword Famine Fire and Pestilence and yet you have refused to hear from thence he hath leapt up to Mount Gerazim and allured you by all kind of blessings and yet you have carried your selves stoutly and impudently towards all the offers and tenders of grace for your recovery Jer. 3.4 7. God would have healed you he hath said wilt thou not from this time cry unto me my Father thou art the guide of my youth turn thou unto me yet you returned not You have had many of the Lords faithful Ambassadours who have laid siege at you hearts to engage them to the Lord and to take you off from your sinfull wayes but alas all the glad tidings of mercy have not affected you have not won you all the Ordinances of Jehovah have found little place in you have left no impre â—ion upon your Souls Ezek. 16.51 Hos 4.17 You have justified Judah and Samaria in all their stubborness and rebellion against the Lord. How righteous is it with the Lord to call upon the Ministers Let them alone threaten them no moâ—e promise them no more Rev. 22.11 Let him that is filthy he filthy still you have broken through Armies of Ordinances to commit sin therefore Gospel and Gospel-Ministers let them alone judgements overtake them my plagues my curses seize upon them Let them suddenly be destroyed Prov. 29.1 and that without remedy because they have hardned their necks though often reproved God hath waited more than three and three years on you expecting fruit but he sees little save the Clusters of Sodom upon you he hath born with you so long he hath held his tongue and said nothing so long that you have wickedly thought God to be such an one as you Psal 50.21 So that God must needs be a swift witness against you for the vindicating of his great and glorious Name unless you speedily repent and seek the Lord Zeph. 2.3 if perhaps he may be found O! how long hath God commanded you every where to repent not only by his threats but by his judgements which have begun at the House of God What lowd calls have we had Joel 2.11 1 Pet. 5.6 Turn to the Lord with weeping Let your laughter be turned into weeping Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and yet how stupid how insensible how impenitent have you remained to this very day though you have felt the Arrows of the Lord stying amongst you yea though you have been told Jer. 18.8 If you repent it shall repent the Lord of the evil he had thought either to continue upon you or to bring down on you yet alas where are the stirrings of your affections the soundings of your bowell the meltings and relentings of your repenting hearts O what marble breasts and hearts of Adamant have you How few are there mourning for all the wrongs they have done to the Majesty of God Evidenced in their being infensible of their own sins for all the abuses offered to the grace of God Perhaps the fear of Hell and so indeed self-love hath humbled some Ahabs and made them crouch because they would not be miserable But how few are humbled for their abuse of the love and grace of God by their great offences Whaâ— the Lord complains of by the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 3.8 of the house of Israel that they would not hearken to the Messengers be sent them but were impudent and hard hearted may be again renewed against England and all its dominions the heart of stone is not yet taken away where is the man almost that can say God hath made mâ— heart soft Job 2â— 16 Though you have born arms against God though you have sinned against the Lord with an high hand though upon self-tryal you may sind those very sins amâ—ngst you which brought Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah Psal 42.3 and desolation on Israel yet alas when were tears thy drink When didst thou make thy Bed to swim Is thy beauty gone away for trouble Dost thou abhor thy self in dust and ashes before the Lord Know Reader that the Authors Pen had proceeded thus far before he heard of the late dreadful Burning of London the following lines shew thee what impressions it made on his thoughts and should on thy Soul Perhaps in Rama there is a voice heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children that dye by the Sword or Pestilence or are burnt in their beds Perhaps in London and throughout the Land there are some tears shed for the Coals of fire that God hath scattered the last week over that famous and antient City But how few are mourning for their pride worldliness contempt of the Ministers and Apostasies for which God seems to be contending not only by the Sword and the Pestilence but by Fire with us where are the Dovâ—s of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity A â—haraoh may so far repent as to say Take away the Plague but few cry out Take away iniquity Few detest their sins few loath them few are so burthened with them as that they desire heartily to have them taken away Possibly Sin in its effects in its sad consequences as it consines men to the Pest-house as it endangereth health and life as it is the founder of graves and hells as it burns up your houses and goods is someway burthensom but few are troubled with it Ezek. 10.2.7.16 Hos 14.2 as it grieves resisteth and quencheth the Spirit of God as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude and as it kicks against the breasts of mercy And therefore no wonder if Few are to be found mourning for other mens sinnes Though Jesus Christ be crucified afresh Of other mens sins and put to open shame though the blessed Spirit of our God be always vexed and resisted though there be so much Atheism Epicurism contempt of God and his Ambassadours and Gospel Blasphemy Violence Falshood Pride Adultery Sodomy though there be setting up the posts of men with an apparent contempt of Gods holy
loath your services but he cannot take any delight in your persons yea you cannot be restored into his love and favour without Repentance there is no Remission Repent ye therefore and be converted Act. 3.19 that your sins may be blotted out And what have you no mind to be forgiven your own and your other mens sins Deus noâ— infund it oleum misericordiae nisi in vas contritum Bernard have you no will to be at peace with God and to be restored into his love and favour Are you content that all these and innumerable sins more should be charged upon your Account O then beg of God to break your hearts for and from your sins A broken vessel a broken heart will hold best the oyl of mercy The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God! thou wilt not despise 6. But their Repentance would exceedingly please God and refresh his Ministers Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing your Repentance will be so pleasing and so reviving to your even broken-hearted Ministers Your Repentance will more please God than all your sins have displeased him Though your sins have very much displeased him yet he was loth to depart from you he hath departed only gradually But if you will repent he will readily return in his departure he hath gone as it were a Snayles pace but if you will return he will return with speed he will turn towards you and fall upon your Necks and kiss you and not upbraid you with any of your former miscarriages And O! what a refreshing will it be to your fainting Ministers to see you returning Prodigals Believe it our Chains would be worn as Bracelets and Jewells and our Exiles would be a Paradise to us did we see you putting your mouths in the dust and crying out because of all your Provocations It is your security your seeking great things for your selves your pride your foolish expectations of our returns whilst you and we are so unfit for such a mercy that is our greatest burden and lies heavier on us than the wrath of any save of God Almighty God knoweth who knoweth the secrets of our Souls that we could be contented to be banished from the face of men so that you were delivered from the power of your lusts If you live and stand fast in the faith we live and though we have nothing yet we possess all things joying and rejoycing to see your Zeal your Repentance your Indignations and Revenges against your sins But we is unto us we fear we have spent our Lungs our Time our Studies our Life in vain upon you whilst we behold your benummedness your insensibleness of all the tokens of Gods displeasure by reason of your transgressions And will you add affliction to the afflicted Is it not enough that we are turned out of the Vineyard where we loved our work better than our lives Is it not enough that we are cast forth from among our People and Friends to seek bread for our selves and little ones from door to door But will you have a greater hand in our misery than any others Will you lay the greatest load of trouble upon us whilst others oppress our outward man will you go on to vex our Spirits Have pitty upon us O Children whom we have begotten in the Gospel you call us your Spiritual Fathers you did receive us as Angels yea as Jesus Christ you would have plucked out your eyes to do us good O! now what do we beg not to have your eyes out but fill'd fill'd with tears Gal. 4.15 and your hearts fill'd with sorrow for hatred and indignation against your sins Weep not for us but weep for your selves And is there not a cause Your tears will be our meat and drink a great part of our joy will arise from seeing your godly sorrow Hagar was not more refeshed with her fountain than we shall be to find your heads as waters and your eyes as fountains of tears and you weeping day and night for your own and others provocations Let it suffice you that you have so long grieved us and Christ by your Security Self-love Worldliness Pride and Passions O that now the Egyptians that we have seen among you may be seen alive no more Let us not be hastned to our graves by your impenitencies and stubborn departures from God We are troubled to find still among you and upon you those very sins which have laid Kingdoms and Churches wast and yet you secure as if the Lord had powred out a Spirit of slumber upon you those very sins which overthrow the Churches of Judea and Asia are found among you and will you not repent and do your first works It grieves us to the heart to see sins run through you as water through a Mill and you regard it not We beseech you out of love to God to your own Souls and to us and our comforts that you would cease to do evil and learn to do well Be moved with fear and prepare an Ark. The old world would not believe Noah But the Lord made them to know he was a Prophet of Righteousness We pitty your Souls we are troubled to see what confidence you put in uncertain Signs and Prognostications which beget carelessness and security in you and how little you fear the threatnings of most dreadfull Judgements against those very sins you have lived in many a sad thought we have about you whilst we see your fickleness inconstancy stupidity and ungrounded because unscriptural hopes O! return return repent repent that we may be able to say ye are our joy our Crown our rejoycing in the day of Christ 7. 〈◊〉 or â—â—ver for ought they know And Lastly Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins even by what may be seen in this Glass seeing now God gives you not only time to Repent but an opportunity of Repentance and such an one as if you neglect it you may never have the like again When time and the means are married and lodged together saith one they beget opportunity Now time and means meet together to effect your Repentance If this opportunity be lost you may never have another and if you should never have any other your case is desperate Opportunities cannot be pray'd or wept back again Heb. 12.17 Esau's instance puts it out of all doubt In Gods opportunity it is an easie thing to repent but if this opportunity should be lost by you which God forbid it may be impossible for you to repent See Mr. Fenners danger of deferring repentance folio 35 36. God may justly give you up to Judicial impenitency It may be God doth now by this Treatise speak home unto thy Soul now it may be God warms thy heart now it may be God works in thee good thoughts and desires Now is thy day of grace But to use the words of one