be fear what unbelievers and in no danger what hypocrites and in no danger what backsliders what Apostates and yet in no danger what can you say there 's no danger to men in my case can you say I thank God whoever be in danger my Soul is out of danger There 's not one of you dares say so you have lost the understandings of men if you confess not The Lord be merciful to me my Soul is in great danger What are you in danger and yet not in fear what in such great danger and yet not afraid not afraid of the Devil not afraid of Death not afraid of Hell when in such great danger of it When Christ says Luke 12.4 Fear not them that kill the body wilt thou say no nor will I fear him that can destroy body and Soul O poor stupid Souls awaken your fears open your eyes and see your danger the Lord open your eyes before it be too late and make you to see the fearful case you are in and so make you afraid If I could rouze up your fears it would be as the stirring up a nest of Hornets about your ears which sure would make you run for it Prov. 28.14 Happy is the man that feareth if there were more fear in you there were more hope of you Friends I should have done God and your Souls good service this day if I could but preach you into fear if I could but make you afraid of your selves if this word might run through all the 3 sorts of you I am dealing with the Impenitent the Loyterers and the Backsliders wo is me wretched creature I am afraid I am afraid what will become of me I am afraid I shall to Hell I am afraid the Devil will have me at last if such a word might come through all your hearts the next word I should hope to hear would be this Well I see there is no safe abiding thus I am undone if I continue as I am arise O my soul flee away out of this sinful state and get thee into Christ shake thee out of this sloth recover out of this languishing state recover thy first love return to thy first works or I shall lose my Crown and my Soul O Friends stir up such a fear in your selves do not hide your danger from your own eyes till it be too late dare not to say such a word I trust my Soul is in no danger but deal plainly with your selves and come to understand the truth and the worst of your case give not over to study your danger till you have stirred up your fear and when your fear is once up this there is hope will stir up all within you to make out after an escape 3. Stir up desire Desire is the thirst of the Soul and thirst is a stirring appetite as I have already shew'd and therefore shall need to speak the less here Desire will stir up to labour therefore 't is that Solomon says Prov. 21.25 The desire of the slothful killeth him 'T is death to the slothful to labour and yet his desire will prick him on upon it One thing have I desired that I will seek after Ps 27.4 One thing have I desired that notes a stirring desire when the motions of the soul run in one chanel all after one thing then they run more strongly and impetuously and this strong desire puts him upon an earnest seeking the satisfaction of it Prov. 13. 12. When the desire cometh it is a tree of life And what is so sweet when it comes will be the more earnestly pursued before it comes Would you be zealous followers of God and followers of Holiness get stronger desires after the Lord and his Holiness Strong desires will pour forth strong cries your Souls will go on crying after the Lord crying after his Grace and the power of his Spirit if ye do in earnest desire it Cold desires or none at all leave the soul as a Ship becalmed that stirs not on when the Wind is quick and the Sails are filled its motion is more swift but when the Wind lies it moves not at all Our slight and slow endeavours in following of God if you inquire into the reason of them 't is because desire fails Stir up your desires get you quick and strong desires and these will not suffer you to be so sluggish But how must we stir up our desires after God 1. Suppress and keep under your carnal desires Desire Earth less than you do and you will desire Heaven more than you do A River that is divided into several Chanels runs more weakly in either when our streams are united and run all in one Chanel they are much the stronger Vnite mine heart to fear thy name says the Psalmist Ps 86.11 Let me fear God and let me fear none but God So let your Souls say Unite mine heart to love thy name and to desire after thee let me love nothing but God let me desire nothing but God let me be able to say as the Psalmist Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there 's none on earth that I desire besides thee Thou hast all my love and all my desire is towards thy name When you love nothing but God when you desire nothing but God O this will be strong love these will be strong desires What you inordinately love or desire besides the Lord this will abate your love and your desires after him Friends your desires after this World your appetite after Meat and Drink and Money and carnal Pleasures are too eager to have any strong desires after the Lord. Quench your carnal thirst if you would have your Souls to pant after God and spiritual things Be more indifferent what you have or how 't is with you in respect of these carnal things whether you have more or less whether it be better or worse with you in respect of these leave it to God to do with you what he will to let forth these nether streams or to dam them up to make you rich or poor prosperous or afflicted and the more patient you are of wanting the nether streams the more impatient will be your thirst after the upper streams Whereas 't is hard to find any persons in the World that have a greedy appetite to things below who have any great or strong desire upwards If any man love this world 1 Jo. 2.15 that is with an ardent and intense love the love of the Father is not in him And so if any man desire this world with his most eager and greedy desire the desire after God is not in him Methinks this word should shake the hearts of some professors there are I doubt many that go under the name of Christians that are as excessively hungry after this world whose Souls are hunting after and heaping up whatever they can catch of this earthly muck with as great zeal and ardency of mind as any of those do
when he dies as the meaning there is and he must do so while he lives that 's his duty Col. 3.1 and his duty is his way that he should go his course is to be from bad to good and from good to better from weakness to strength yea and from strength to strength from a little to an increase of strength Christians you are all bound for Heaven Travellers to the Holy Hill your progress in holiness is your ascending and climbing up the Hill you are getting up the Jacobs Ladder which reaches the Hill-top Every Holy Day you live every Holy Duty you perform every little degree of Grace that 's added to you is your getting up so many rounds higher upon that Holy Ladder And this is it you have to do to be climbing and climbing higher and higher in the Grace of God and in the Works of Grace And this now is the reason of our so slow motion he that goes up the Hill takes the more time and the shorter steps yea and as one foot goes up the other slides back Our goings up at Hill are more painful Facilis descensus at revocare gradum hic labor hoc opus est And hence is it that there is so much need of the Goad and the Spur to prick us on Down at hill there 's more need of the Bridle than of the Spur. Even Christians have need of the bridle in this respect we need not be driven down to the lower Valleys which we have left we are too apt to be running back to the gains and the pleasures here below 't is to hasten our motion upward that we so much need the Rod and the Spur. Yea and we need to be quickned and warned to look well to the Bridle to restrain us from our cross and contrary motions Sure Friends our so eager running still after this world running after the riches and pleasures of this life evidence it sufficiently what need we have to be stirred up to look well to the Bridle As the Psalmist says Ps 39.1 I will hold my mouth so have we all need to hold our hearts as with a bridle to hold the bridle upon our wills affections and appetites Do not you see how apt you are to run too fast this way with what speed are some Professors riding downwards what haste do they make to be rich and to be great in this world The very Mountains of this Earth the Mountains of Pride and worldly Greatness and Glory the very Hill tops of Worldlings are but as low Valleys to a Christian he is still going down at hill while he is climbing up these worldly Mountains and therefore he needs the bridle to hold him in Consider it do we not still want to be warned and called upon and to call upon our selves to lay hold upon the bridle Behold Friends how many of us do suffer our carnal hearts to run their course how seldom do we give check to our fleshly desires how seldom do we speak such a word to our selves Stay O my heart not too fast O my Soul How little pains do we take to restrain our intemperate affections How very few self-bridling Christians self-checking Christians are here among us When we do hear such words I am afraid I am making too much haste to be rich I am afraid I allow my self too much liberty for the pleasing my flew Or if such a word be now and then let fall yet how little is it hearkned to Though we sometimes fear we run too fast this way yet on we let our selves run and do not lay a due restraint upon our selves Or if we do a little check our motions earthward yet do we effectually restrain them 'T is not enough that you say My heart needs a Bridle you must make use of the Bridle when you have stopped your hearts in their carnal course then you have done something Friends when you have considered and tried the difficulty of preventing your motions downwards and of speeding your way upwards then you will see farther what need you have to bestir your selves Lay altogether Is it certain that those that fall short of Religion or fall off from the Religion they have will be lost at last Is there such a distance betwixt what we are and what we should be Is it so hard to raise those that are fallen Is it so hard to discern the Soul-consumption till it be almost past cure Is there such an indisposition in consuming Souls to seek and such an opposition made by a stirring Devil and their stirring lusts against their obtaining their cure Is it so hard for those that stand to get on their way then certainly every one of us had need to awaken and look to our selves Thus much for the 2d General 3. What it is to take hold of God In answer to this 3 things 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us 2. Our Happiness is in this that the Lord is among us 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Presence of God with us and our preventing his Departure 1. Our great Happiness is in this that the Lord is in us God is then in us 1. When the Fear of God is within us 2. When the Face of God is upon us 1. When the fear of God is within us When the Spirit of the Lord the Image and Holiness of the Lord is within us which come all to one That Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts is the same as those Jer. 31. and Ezek. 36. I will put my spirit within you A new heart will I give you Or as Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you When God takes up his Habitation sets up his Throne in the hearts of his People undertakes the Government of them bp his Word and Spirit subdues them to himself reigns in righteousness in their Souls and makes them his voluntary Subjects and willing People when the Grace of God prevails and bears rule in their Hearts 'T is not Gods being in their Mouths the Grace of God in their Lips but his being in their Hearts his dwelling and living in their Hearts the real and inward Sanctification of them by his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in them This is the being of God in his People and this is the blessedness or happiness of his People When God is within us the Devil is cast out sin is thrown down the Kingdom of Satan is destroyed where the Kingdom of God is set up It is peoples misery to have the Devil in them to have Sin bear rule and therefore 't is there blessedness to have these Tyrants cut down and cast out and the Kingdom of God set up in their stead 2. When the Face of God is upon us when we live in his fear and live also in the light of his Countenance when he shines and smiles upon our hearts when he loves his Saints and shews them his Loves when
them for their sins or if there be a rebuke that he sends sometimes in their ears as they stand in the crowd amongst other Sinners yet he will not set it upon their hearts but lets them alone to shift it off as they will and to harden their hearts against it this is a sign that the Lord is departed from such Souls O Friends how many rebukes hath the Lord given to Backsliders how many charges hath he given you to remember and repent and to shake up your selves out of your listless careless state do these rebukes stick do these charges stick do they work upon you have they set you upon your repenting or recovering work how hath it been with you what have you done since the Lord hath been particularly dealing with you in this matter Are there any of you that have done nothing but sleep on and continue as you were O Sirs let me tell such of you that 't is to be feared the Lord is departed from you that he hath loosened the reins of his Government and hath left you to your selves to grow worse and worse harder and harder till you be utterly consumed and brought to nothing 4. When he denies the benefit of his protection Here 2 things 1. The Lord is the Protector of his people 2. God then departs from them when he casts them out of his protection 1. The Lord is the Protector of his People the Keeper of Israel Ps 121.5 7. The Lord is thy Keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil the Lord shall preserve thy Soul He is not only the Keeper of their Substance of their Flocks and of their Herds and of their Houses but he preserves the Souls of his Saints Ps 97.10 'T is true every man is to be his own Keeper the Keeper of his own Soul we abuse and forfeit the protection of God that thence grow careless and neglect the keeping of our selves Commit the keeping of your Souls to him in well doing 1 Pet. 4.19 Dost thou say the Lord is thee Keeper of my Soul and I will leave it to him and will not trust in my self in mine own keeping Thou sayst well that thou wilt not trust thy Soul in thy own keeping but dost thou hereupon neglect the keeping of thy Soul wilt thou not do what thou canst to keep thy self but wilt grow careless of thine own heart and leave the whole care upon him thou herein forfeitest Gods protection The same word that promises the Lord shall preserve thy Soul requires Prov. 4.23 keep thine own Soul Keep thine heart with all diligence We must be every one of us our own keepers or God will not but here is our great security when we have done all that it is the Lord that is our Keeper The Devil could tell that well enough Job 1.10 Hast thou not made an hedge about Job He would fain have been doing with him but God had hedg'd the Devil so out that he could not touch him without his leave And he that hedg'd the Devil out from Job hedges him out from all his Saints and he that hedges the Devil out hedges the World out with all its temptations and snares Christians you whose hearts are upright with God how is it that the world and its temptations are not broken in upon you and have not totally carried you away from God and his Holy ways and carried you after your covetousness or your pleasures or the honours and preferments of this Earth as it hath done many others O you may thank God for this he hath hedgd the World out 'T were well with many even Professors if they could find in their experiences as you do find in yours that God had hedg'd the World out of them But O how many of these even Professors are there that the World hath broken in upon them broken in upon their hearts and carried them away after it Do not some of you feel that your hearts are gone gone after your covetousness gone after your ease and your pleasures gone from God gone from your Religion as to the strictness and power of it gone from a good conscience and your tenderness of it gone from your heavenly minds and so you are become of those that mind earthly things Sure some of you do not know your selves do not observe your selves nor are acquainted with your own Spirits if you do not acknowledge Lord be merciful to me mine heart is far gone my conscience my tenderness my religion my love to Christ is much lost by the incroachment of this present World Is it so and how does it sit upon your hearts does it not trouble you does it not make you afraid sure you have reason to be afraid and to say within your hearts I doubt I am none of those Saints of whom God hath undertaken to be the Keeper or at least if God had ever an hedge about me the hedge is broken down the tempter is broken in and is carrying away all that little good I had and will never leave carrying and carrying till he hath carried away my Soul God hath made an hedge about his Saints not to hedge all temptations out he sometimes suffers the devil the world as he did in the case af Job to break over the Hedge He lets his Precious Ones to fall into divers temptations but still they are under the protection of his Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape Christians may be hard put to it may suffer many a foyl we too often feel the Devil is too hard for us the World too hard for us and we suffer great losses and impairings in our grace and comfort But the promise will bring us about again fetch us in again knock off our fingers from being so bold with these earthly things Indeed we can never have assurance that we are under the protection of that Promise but are left without the hedge and are none of the Lords whilst the world and its temptations do continue to make such a prey of our Souls and hold us such Slaves and Captives to it but if we be the Lords the Promise will bring it about again This is the first God is the Protector of his People 2. Then God departs from them when he casts them out of his protection when he says concerning any person as he said concerning his Vineyard Is 5.5 6. I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down and I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but bryars and thorns shall come up I will also command the Clouds that they rain no rain upon it 'T is one thing for the tempter to be suffered to break in over the Hedge another
Gods God never departs till there be another God taken in with him and set up by him and God will never continue unless these Idols be cast away Ezek. 14.5 They are estranged from me by their Idols they are grown strangers to me and I must be a stranger to them they have taken in other Gods besides me And v. 5. Repent says God and turn your selves from your Idols If you would have me stay let them go their way There is a setting up of Idols in the Congregation a setting up of Stocks and Stones to worship and there is a setting up of Idols in the Heart Ezek. 14.3 These men have set up their Idols in their Hearts Those that have no such Idols as Israel had those that abhor Image Worship or worshipping of the Sun and the Host of Heaven those that would be trembled to see an Idol set up in the House of God may yet have an heart full of Idols One of the chief of our Idols is the World and our great Heart-Idolatry is Covetousness or the Love of the World Col. 3.5 And Covetousness which is Idolatry If God be provoked to depart from us 't is to be suspected that this is the Idol that drives him away Our hearts are gone after the World and thereupon 't is that the Lord God is so far from our Hearts Would you lay hold on God put away your Idols cast this world out of your Hearts 'T is vain to confess we have sinned against God 't is vain to pray Lord leave us not God will never regard your confessions nor your prayers till your Idols be cast out Friends whatever we suffer or are like to suffer 't is this World 't is our Worldliness that hath undone the most of us the gains of this World the pleasures of this World have been taken into our Hearts and thereupon 't is that God leaves us to sink and go to ruin as we do Cease from your Idolatry away with your Earthly-mindedness and Fleshliness your hands are full of dirt and ashes empty them of these or you can never lay hold on God We cry out against the Wickedness of our Age the Atheism the Adulteries the Oaths and prodigious Profaneness that is among us and these and suck-like Evils we look on as the reason why God is such a stranger and so angry with us But besides these Wickednesses of the openly Profane there are other iniquities to be found even amongst those that profess against this Profaness and this for one the Iniquity of our Covetousness that hath thus provoked the Lord against us Is 57.17 For the Iniquity of his Covetousness I was wrath and smote him I hid me and was wrath and yet he went on frowardly in the way of his Heart Here 3 things 1. That Covetousness is Iniquity or Wickedness Covetous Ones are Wicked Ones however they may look like Holy Ones whatever of God or Religion appears yet their Covetousness where it is predominant marks them out for Wicked ones Art thou a Professor of Religion dost thou Hear dost thou Pray dost thou joyn thy self to those that fear God and yet art thou a Worldling thou art but a Wicked Man whatever thy Profession be 2. The Iniquity of our Covetousness will make God to withdraw and hide his Face from us I hid me and was wrath 3. Covetous men how dear soever their Covetousness costs them yet they will go on their way He went on frowardly that is perversly or obstinately in his way He would not be turned back he would not give off from following his worldly heart how angry soever God was with him for it O this Disease of a worldly Heart when it is rooted once it hardly admits of a Cure Beloved God hath prescribed you many Remedies and God hath given you many Warnings and your Souls have suffered great loss by it O the impoverishment that hath fallen upon your inward man by your so over eager pursuit of the advantages of our outward man and yet for all this who will take warning How little abatement is there to be seen of the Zeal of our Hearts after Earthly things O 't is an evil Disease and a tough Disease that will hardly be purged away There are some Humours of the Body that are so tough that where they abound they can hardly be purged away without the destroying of Nature and there is no Humour in the Body so tough and hard to be removed as this disease of the Soul Well but yet unless you mean to part with God yea and to part with him for ever you must let this Idol go And the like may be said of any other of our Idols any other Sins you have set up in your Hearts There can be no taking hold of God but you must let all your Idols go you are at this point either these must be parted with or God and your Souls must part You that are proud Professors that Pride must be laid in the Dust you that are for your pleasure or your ease you that are for your credit and reputation you that are given to appetite whose God is your Belly or your Throats you must come off from all that your hearts are thus set upon or else count upon it that as you have begun to fall as there is a breach between God and your Souls begun so it will grow worse and worse with you and the breach grow wider and wider till it become too great to be ever made up What Friends will ye love this World to the Death will you love your Pleasures and your Ease and your Lusts to the Death will you sell all that you have all your Religion all your Hopes and your Comforts that you have had in it will you sell your God and your Souls for these vile things The Young Man in the Gospel foolishly refused to sell what he had in the world for Christ and will you not refuse to sell Christ and all your Hopes as to the other world for the trash you have here do not you see do none of you see how dear they have cost you and how low they have brought you as to the State of your inward man already and will you hold on still and never give over till you have lost all and all hopes of ever recovering what you have lost O be yet advised and go no farther on cast ye away cast ye away your Idols and yet return to the Lord and he will return to you 2. Our laying hold on the Covenant of God We have no other hold on God but his Covenant with us we had need keep the Covenant of God inviolable for there 's all the hold we have either for this life or the life to come And this is the hold that we find this people of Israel insisted upon v. 9. of this Chapter Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People that is thy Covenant People See we beseech thee or
of them elsewhere heretofore but my present purpose is to speak of them in the latter sense as the neglect of calling upon the Name of God notes the neglect of all Religion These several observations I shall hence offer to you Doct. 1. The Churches special Complaints are of the Churches Sins of their own Sins they cast the first stone at themselves We are not Ishmael or Edom or the Philistins but the Israel of God we are as an unclean thing It s grievous to them to see and hear of the sins of others I was grieved because of the Transgressors Psal 119.158 That the Uncircumcised among us the open Enemies of the Gospel are so Wicked should be a grievous thing to us The Idolatries and Adulteries the Drunkenness and shameful Spewing those floods of filthiness that overflow among such should be a grief of heart to all the Saints It is not a thing to be made so light of as it is by us that there is such a Vile Generation risen up among us even as if Hell it self were broken loose to affront the God of Heaven to defile his Holy Name and to disgrace the Throne of his Glory this should go near the hearts of all that love Christ and the Holiness of the Gospel And there is doubtless a great fault among us and it is our great Sin that we do no more lay it to heart We tell stories one to another of the Wickednesses that are amongst us but we do but tell it as matter of News but who among us are Mourners in secret for all these Abominations If Mens hatred of Godliness and the Persecutions that they raise against it do reach even to us and touch our selves in our own particulars as far forth as we feel their rage to light upon our selves in our own Persons or Estates so far forth we are apt enough to complain against them but whilst we can escape and sleep in a whole skin all is but lightly pass'd over This is our great Sin and a great Argument that our hearts are not so much concern'd for God or Religion as for our own interest 't is what we our selves suffer not what Religion suffers that goes so near us Well this should be matter of our complaint and grief that the Enemies of God are so wicked as they are But yet if we could but keep all right among our selves let Enemies be as bad as they will yet if it were with us as it should be the matter were not so great though there be such Flies and such Lice and such Frogs such swarms of Locust-Lusts and wickednesses upon the Egyptians among us yet if the People of God were more free from such Verminous sins though there be such thick darkness over all the Land of Egypt yet if in Goshen there be light among the Israel of God in the Churches of Christ though we should be as Israel was held to the Brick-kilns under Oppression and Persecution yet if we might grow and multiply as they did if the number of Saints might increase and if those that are might grow more holy and strong in the Lord and in the power of his might if it were but thus well with us that are Christians and Professors of Religion this were a comfort how wicked soever the World were But this is our misery and here should be our special Complaints and our great Mournings that our Iniquities the Iniquities of the Church of Professors of Religion are so great and so many as they are We are all as an unclean thing our Enemies are wicked and we are not upright we that name the Name of Christ do not depart from our Iniquities We that pray and hear and profess to have seperated our selves from the filthiness of the Land to the Law of our God even we have transgressed the Covenant of the Lord. What haltings and Hypocrisies are there among us What Revolters and Backsliders are many of us become What Heart-Idolatries are there to be found among us What Pride and what Covetousness and what Quarrellings and Contentions do there abound even amongst us What Sleepers and Loyterers and Triflers are we What a luke-warm Generation do we shew our selves How little of the Purity and Spirit and Life of Religion is there going amongst us Self-love and Self-seeking and Flesh-pleasing and Men-pleasing and an excessive heat and zeal for our carnal things how hath it eaten up the Zeal of God and the Spirit of Christianity so that we may complain with the Apostle Phil. 2.21 All seek their own and not the things of Christ Certainly Friends this should be our great Lamentation and let it be for a Lamentation to us before the Lord. Let us complain let us lament that Religion which hath so many Enemies hath so many false Friends that that which is so hunted by the profane Hunters so shot at by the Uncircumcised Archers doth receive its greatest wounds in the Houses and by the hands of its Friends that the Circumcision is become as Uncircumcision that whilst the stripes of the ungodly are upon our backs our own filthiness is yet in our skirts Let us lament not only the spreading evils that abound amongst the generality of Professors but let us especially lament every one of us that our own hands are also in the Transgression There 's a decay grown amongst Professors but let us enquire Lord am not I even I one of the decayed souls There are worldly greedy Professors whose hearts are gone after their Covetousness and O Lord am not I gone in the Company There are Hypocrites there are Idlers a company of cold and luke-warm souls and am not I such a one my self O my my soul art thou faithful to God Have I kept my Covenant Have I kept mine Heart and kept my Watch and kept my Way Have not I wandred with them that wander and fallen with them that fall Let this be our Lamenting let us take up a Lamentation together let us joyn our Sighs and mingle our Tears let us Lament together and let us also as Zech. 12.12 mourn every one of us apart and our Families apart our Wives apart and our Children apart for our Personal sins and our Family-sins that neither we nor our own Houses have had our hearts so with God but that the Lord hath a Controversie with us Doct. 2. Christians should not palliate or mince their own sins in their Confessions but give them their due aggravations What could the Church say more against themselves then they do in the Text We are all as an unclean thing very Vile full of Diseases and Sores and our very Righteousness is as filthy Rags They do not hide or lessen their sins they say not as bad as we are others are worse 't is not we have been faulty We are not as good as we should be we have our spots and our failing as who have not But they speak it out with a full mouth our
The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Jesus Christ establish strengthen settle you We should every one of us prove unstable souls and shall never stand if the God of Grace do not stablish us we are every one of us weak souls and shall certainly fall and come to nothing if the God of grace do not strengthen and settle us And therefore we had need to pray and that earnestly every one of us the God of all grace stregthen me the God of all grace stablish and settle this my weak and unstable soul Hence also Christians are exhorted Rom. 3.11 Hold fast what thou hast keep that good thing which is committed unto thee And so we had need every one of us to call upon our selves hold fast O my soul hold fast to Christ hold fast to Holiness hast thou gotten any Grace any sound Religion into thine heart Hold it fast that thou lose it not Our Candle will burn dim there is a Thief in the Candle which will wast it away if it be not carefully snuffed and look'd to Grace in the heart is as a spark of fire in the Hearth it will be cover'd over with Ashes if it be not kept continually blowing the rust will eat out our Gold the Moth will fret out our Garments the Thief will steal away our Treasure if it be not watchfully maintained O what Losses do many Christians actually suffer through their carelesness and negligence loss in their Love loss in their Life and Zeal and all their holy Affections that little good that is in them may grow to such a decay that it may be ready to dye and come to nothing and as their Grace which is their Life decays so their vital operations fail with it All their sensible and sweet communion with God will be hindred the warm and lively workings of their hearts upon God their thoughts and meditations on God their desires after Him their delights in the Lord the secret entercourses of love betwixt the Lord and them will much cease when grace flags Whilst grace is kept alive the thoughts of God will be many and precious Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts to me O Lord how great is the sum of them Their Meditations of him will be sweet a reviving and refreshing to their hearts Have you none of you sometimes found it so Have you not poured out your souls into his Bosom and felt the Lord pouring in his Wine and his Oyle into yours Have you not walk'd with him upon the Mount and sate down under his shadow with great delight and found his Fruits sweet to your tast Have you not sometimes rejoyc'd in his Presence and felt the joy of the Lord to be your strength And then O what Love hath streamed forth O what Praises have been sent up to His Blessed Name This if ever you have experienced such Blessed seasons hath been maintained from the life of Grace in you and according as Grace sinks or gathers rust and grows dim so doe not all your vital operations fail with it I need not spend time to prove that such sinking and decaying of our Spirits our Graces and the comfortable operations of them may be the experiences of Christians do too fully and too frequently yield us undeniable proofes 2. There may be outward decays decays in point of practise There may be a neglect of the duties of Prayer Hearing Meditation Examining and taking an account of our selves Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob thou hast been weary of me O Israel I can seldom hear of thee thou hast been a Praying People a Sacrificing People but thou art grown weary of my worship How seldom art thou found in thy Closet or in the Congregation Thou art become a very Stranger to those duties which once were thy delight Or if duties be performed yet the heart and the life of them may be lost their Sacrifices may be without an heart if they bring their Incense yet there may be no fire to kindle it dead Praying cold Praying must suffice them O how do our Spirits often freeze in those Devotions which should kindle a fire in us Some Mens duties serve for nothing but to keep them asleep and to keep Conscience quiet which if there should be a total neglect would flye in there faces and awaken them There may be a decay in their Conversations they may decline from a Spiritual to a Carnal conversation from an Heavenly to an Earthly Life Those that had once escaped the pollutions of the world may be again entangled in the world 2 Pet. 2.20 There may be a declining from a savoury useful to an unsavoury and unprofitable life the Salt of the Earth may have lost its savour those very Tongues whose speech was used to be with Grace seasoned with Salt Ministring Grace to the Hearers may either be dumb and speak nothing or else be employed to speak Vanity How long may we be in some Professors company e're we hear a savoury word from their lips or if any good does come how heartless and lifeless is it In what they do they move like Puppets in what they speak they speak like Parrots that which they have learn'd by rote but without any true sense of what themselves do speak Such decays as these both inward decays and outward decays may be grown upon Christians Such declining souls are a miserable Spectacle the reproach of the Gospel the disgrace of Religion that are more like Carkases or Ghosts than living souls Idol Christians that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Tongues and speak not Feet and walk not Such who if they have any thing of Religion in them no body in the world is like to have the benefit of it nor themselves the comfort of it They may be stark dead and dryed up at the roots they may be meer Chaff and Stubble for ought any body else or themselves either can say to the contrary These dry Trees how-ever they stand in the Vineyard they may stand there for Fuel for the fire and not for Fruit. Such miserable Spectacles are withering Professors and yet what multitudes of them are there to be seen Friends let us consider our selves with respect to the perticulars mentioned if we have not denyed the Faith and become down-right Infidels and Atheists if we believe God and the Gospel and the great and wonderful things of the world to come yet are there not many of us that have lost the sense of the weight and importance of those great things Have not the lean and ill-favoured Kine eaten up the fat ones Have not the thin and the blighted Ears smitten and destroyed the full ones Hath not this Earth and the businesses thereof choaked up some of our hearts and left little sense of God or Immortality upon us Particularly consider 1. Do we live as People that do verily believe we must shortly be in another world
where we must eternally reap the fruit of our doings here Do we live as Men that have that Eternity in our eye and the lively sense upon our hearts of that Death and Judgment that glorious Reward and eternal Punishment that is before us Sure we do not O how few of us do thus live Do we Pray and Hear and Buy and Sell and Converse in the World as Men that see and look for so great a change Was there never a time when we felt more of the Eternal things upon our hearts than now Was there never a time when we were more serious and in good earnest in our Religion When we were more deeply engaged in laying up Treasure in Heaven and making an escape from the Wrath to come Was there never a time when such serious questions What must I do to be Saved What if I should be Damned shut out of the everlasting Kingdom shut up in everlasting darkness What may I do to please God and to walk worthy of his holy Calling and to make sure of a part in Christ Was there never a time when such Questions were more ordinarily put than now and when we were more solicitous about the having them answered 2. How is it with our particular Graces and inward vital Operations Do we retain our first Faith Do we hold out in our first Love Where are those warm and lively affections that discovered themselves in the infancy of our new Birth Time was when some of us were all in a flame of Love and Life and Zeal for God when we had melting affections mourning tender hearts when our spirits were hotly working within us about God and the things of God when we could not live nor be at ease but under the influences of Heaven and the illapses and intimations of the Divine Love and good will to our souls when Communion with God and entercourses with Heaven were sweeter to us than our appointed Food was there never such a time with some of you And is it so now Or are not these matters sadly changed with you from what they once were May you not say with the Psalmist Psal 77.3.5 I remember the days of old and am troubled I remember my pleasant things my pleasant Houses the sweet and delightful entercourses I had with the Lord I remember these things and am troubled to see what a fall there is from what once I enjoyed 3. And how is it in your duties and in your lives Is the old spirit of Prayer kept up with you Hath the Lord such constant Visits such affectionate Visits from you as he was wont to have Are your Sighs are your Tears are your Souls poured out in Praying and in striving and wrestling with the Lord in Prayer as formerly they have been And is there such a vein of serious Religion running through your whole lives Do you eat and drink work together and converse together in the Spirituality and singleness of heart which the Primitive Christians did Act. 2.46 and which sometimes some of you did Is it your care to exhort and quicken and build up and provoke one another to love and to good works Is there that Watchfulness over your goings that diligence in instructing in governing and educating your Families in the fear and knowledge and worship of God as hath been Or must you not take up a Lamentation over your selves and fall to judging and condemning your selves some of you at least upon most of these accounts and cry out in bitterness O my soul how art thou fallen Friends let not these words pass as words of course let them enter into your hearts and stick in your sides and be a wound in your very souls Let me upon all this that hath been said put the question yet again to you all How is it with you How is it with your souls What do ye hold your own or are ye at a loss What Prospering or Perishing Flourishing or Withering Upon the wing and mounting upwards as the Eagles or upon the Dust with the Worms Friends pray consider who among you can say I thank the Lord my soul is upon the increasing hand through the grace of God my Soul is maintained in Life and I am reaching forward and getting a little ground Heaven-ward daily through rich mercy the Grace that hath been bestowed on me hath not been bestowed in vain I cannot deny the goodness of God to me I have good hopes that it 's something better with me than it has been Some of you I hope can speak thus to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with you But I fear too many even of you that are Professors must give a sadder Answer How is it with my soul O the Lord be merciful to me 't is but in a poor and pittiful case Lord I pine Lord I am fallen I am fallen With my outward man 't is well enough but O mine inner man withers my Religion vanisheth my poor soul languisheth my grace perisheth much of it is lost and that which remains is dying daily I took it all along to be well enough but now I think on 't O 't is a miserable decay that is grown upon me Beloved I have told you already what complaints there are of decays from other places and now consider is not the Moth come into this Congregation Is not the Worm eating at our root also Compare the present spirit and temper that is too generally upon us with what it was in our first meetings at Seimours Court sure there appeared another manner of warm lively serious affectionate spirit then than is to be found but in very few of us at this day What hath so many years Preaching and Praying and Sacraments we have had since had no better success than this Have you been hearing all this while to your loss and Praying to your loss and had Sacraments to your loss O that every one of you now would lay his hand on his own heart and faithfully enquire where be the decayed souls among us Lord is it I Lord am not I one of them Do not think now to excuse the matter do not tell me we hope 't is not so bad your fear of us is more than you have ground for O that I were mistaken in you that it were better with you then according to my Jealousies But I must tell you if you have not the same fears some of you concerning your selves I doubt 't is because you have no more observed your selves nor so throughly considered your selves how 't is with you Well let these hints humble us and lay us low before the Lord. Let these words startle us and awaken us and prepare us towards our recovery Thus much touching the partial decay 2. There is a total decay or Apostasie from the Faith If those that are real Christians do not yet many high Professors may ye and are become Apostates from Christ Such as these 1. Never brought
empty still and naked still all that you have receiv'd from God doth not keep you warm what-ever Treasures have been poured out upon you your hearts have been as bags with holes the Treasure of the Lord runs out as fast as 't is poured in you are leaking Vessels nothing will stay with you Therefore consider your selves consider whether it hath not been thus with you O how have the Instructions of God His Counsels and his Comforts slid away how quickly are they let slip VVhat becomes of all your Sermons and Sabbaths and Sacraments you have had VVe have brought you many a rich Treasure we have been pouring into those hearts of yours such living Food such rich VVine and Oyle that might have made you fat and flourishing but what 's become of it all O it still finds an hole in your hearts at which it runs out as fast as 't is poured in Consider Friends if it be not so with many of you when you have been instructed and affected with your instructions when you have been fed and revived and refreshed with your Food how soon after is it all run out and lost Sure Friends it 's grievous to the Ministers of Christ and a discouragement to us in our Administrations to see how little a while what we bring you from God abides upon your hearts the Lord hath Sowne much upon you but how little is there he Reaps In some of you there 's little springs up and those in whom there 's more springs up and flourishes for a time in the blade O how hath it withered and grown to deday and will not ripen to the Harvest That it may be better for the future your first business is to consider and bethink your selves if hitherto it be not thus with you Bethink your selves every one of you How is it with me Is mine heart kept full full of the Knwledge of God full of Faith and the fruits of it Is mine heart kept warm Is there such an heat wrought into it as holds Is mine heart a Treasure of good things and do they abide in me Do the counsels of the VVord and the comforts and quicknings of Sacraments stay by me Have I some standing abiding Treasure within me something within me to shew that the VVord is not Preached to me in vain Or do not I do as others let all slip and dye away with the speaking Bethink your selves thus how 't is with you is your Grace grown up Are your souls built up in Faith and Holiness God hath been building among you but how doth the building go up In some of you hath it not ever been at a stand If the Foundation hath been laid yet scarce a stone laid up upon it and others in whom the Building seemed to be rais'd to some considerable height is it not broken down is not your work fallen again Deal plainly in this matter bethink your selves do your souls prosper or is it but low with you and hath it not been some time better with some of you than 't is now 2. If it be but low with your souls much more if you have had a long time to increase since you first believed and more then that if heretofore it hath been better with you then 't is now then bethink your selves further Is not this an evil case you are in Is this a case to be rested in Do you like it to be as you are If you had a Child of your natural body that should be no more able to speak or go or feed its self and had no more understanding at 10. or 20. years old then when 't was but an Infant but must be still Suckled and carryed in Armes at those years as if it had been but in its first year would not such a Child be a Cross to you and an Affliction O how is it that you are not a Cross to your selves and an Affliction to your selves that after so long a time as some of you have had of growing you should yet in matters spiritual not be past Babes or Children It was an Affliction to the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.1 that he must still speak to them as to Babes I could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ Here 2 things 1. To have Christians to continue still as Babes and Children is an Affliction to their Ministers The manner of the Apostles speech intimates so much that it was a trouble to him that he must still speak to them as Babes 2. By how much the more carnal Christians remain by how much the less spiritual by so much the more Childish they continue to be still carnal is there said to be the same with being Babes Dost thou think that thou art grown past a Child How is it that thou art so carnal still minding carnal things and living such a carnal life Carnally minded Professors those that are given so much to their carnal things and are of such a carnal Conversation if they have any thing of Christ in them yet 't is but very little if they be Christians they are but Babes in Christ as they grow up they will grow more Spiritual and Heavenly Never think your selves to be grown or thriving Christians till ye can more despise these carnal things and ways and are come to be more Spiritually-minded and have gotten this Earth and Flesh more out of your hearts and under you feet VVell but is it not an Affliction to you to continue thus carnal Are you well satisfied with that carnal heart you have with that carnal life you live But what do you think of your state that have grown up from being Carnal to be Spiritual and are now fallen from being Spiritual to be Carnal again Have you once had the day-light shining in your hearts and are you now returned to the twi-light again Did you once live a life of Faith and a life of Love and had your Conversation in Heaven were you once of a tender heart of a circumspect savoury Life Did you live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and are you now fallen back to a more eager minding earthly things and have lost that sense that lively sense you had of things Spiritual and Eternal Bethink your selves Friends whither this be any of your cases and whether you like it to be in such a case Or whether you do not with grief acknowledg it my soul is but in evil case and it's time for me to bestir my self and get me up to a better state 2. In crying out upon your selves to be reaching forward to what you have not attained and to recover what you have lost as the Psalmist Psal 57.8 Awake up my glory so say you awake up my Grace awake up my Love awake my Fear awake up my Conscience And as the Apostle to the Romans chap. 13.11 Awake O my soul 't is high time to awaken out of sleep 't is high
the kindness of your youth and the love of your Espousals when your hearts were tender when your love was keen when your affections were quick and lively when the VVord and Ordinances of God were sweet and powerful when you came from far and would go through thick and thin to hear the word of the Lord when your Meditations when your Communications by the way as you went and returned were so savoury and so pleasant to you Such a time there has been with some of you such a time of love and of life there has been are you fallen from this O recover recover and let it be with you as in the days of old 3. Both those that are fallen and every one should strive to get up to the highest pitch of Religion that is attainable You should level at perfection of Holiness and no mark short of Perfection should limit or bound your aims 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God Though perfect Holiness cannot be attained yet it must be aimed at though we cannot reach unto it yet we must be reaching towards it though we cannot obtain yet we must be still following after Because we cannot obtain all that is desirable but there will be still while we live something that is before which we are yet short of therefore our motion in Religion must be constantly a progressive motion we must still be going forward and reaching out to that which is before that our works may be more and our hearts may be better at last then at first Prov. 4.18 The Path of the Just must shine more and more unto perfect day Grace must be growing up till it be swallowed up of Glory 2. Particularly 1. To an hunger and thirst of soul after more of Religion to a stirring Appetite Sick men when their Stomacks come to them 't is a good sign of recovery Hunger and Thirst are eager Appetites that put us to pain and are impatient till satisfied the keenness or eagerness of the Appetite after the Grace of God is express'd by Coveteousness earnest Coveteousness 1 Cor. 12.31 Covet earnestly the best gifts The Coveteous are greedy souls but there are degrees of greediness the hearts of some Covetous ones are more sharp set upon the world than others that are greedy enough Covet earnestly let your hearts be as hungry and thirsty after Grace and the gifts of Grace as the most greedy Men on earth gapes after the world Hunger and Thirst are imperious Appetites that will command men upon any thing any labour any difficulties for the obtaining satisfaction Hunger will break through Stone walls A graciously thirsty soul will not sit still and only say I Thirst give me to drink but he will rise and about to seek where he may be satisfied he will out to the Springs and the Brooks and the Wells of Salvation where he may draw and drink of the VVater of Life He will refuse no pains nor no hazard in order to the satisfying his desire Then you are hungry after Religion then your souls are Athirst for God when you are so sharply set that you must have it and will stick at no labour and difficulties for the obtaining The hunger and thirst of Souls after God is an attainment which is the way to an higher attainment Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they that hunger after Righteousness for they shall be filled Are you hungry after Grace Are you thirsty after God and Godliness Blessed are you for ye shall be filled ye shall have enough Grace enough for you Religion and Righteousness enough your souls shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord He will fulfil the Desires of them that fear him Psal 145.19 O Christians were we a more hungry Congregation were we a more thirsty People Spiritually hungry Spiritually thirsty what an Holy People what a company of gracious souls should we quickly become The Lord will fill his hungry souls with his good things we should be full and abound and have all things even all Grace abundantly towards us and in us 'T is one misery of consuming decayed souls that they have lost their Appetites Some Consumptive bodys will be hungry and eat till they dye but Consumptive souls do neither hunger nor thirst 'T is an ill sign that thou art dangerously gone in a Consumption who hast lost thine Appetite after God in whom thy desire fails 't is one of the Death-Tokens mentioned by Solomon Eccles 12.5 That desire shall fail Thou hast lost much of thy strength and thy spirits the life of Grace is fallen much to decay in thee but doth thy desire after Grace fail to Hast thou lost thine hunger and thy thurst after Righteousness doth thy soul cease to pant after the Water-brooks Canst thou not say I am athirst for God for the living God That soul of thine is nigh unto death if it be not suddenly recovered O Friends how many such dying souls are there among us Grace hath failed and desire hath failed in too many among us Do not deceive your selves with saying I desire I desire to be a more Holy and Heavenly hearty Christian do not say you desire nor think you desire what you do not Appetitus determinator ad hoc If you truly desire Grace an improvement herein then this is the one thing you desire Grace and nothing but Grace Holiness and nothing but Holiness will satisfie And if you can say this one thing I desire then you will also say this one thing I will seek 'T is not a dull and idle and ineffectual wish that can be accounted a sincere desire but such a keen and eager Appetite and Thirst after God as will not let you be quiet or suffer you to rest in such a case Those that are heartily hungry they can't sleep for hunger their hunger will keep them waking What are you such drowsie sleepy souls Can you take any rest in that poor and empty state you are in Sure what-ever you think you have little thirst for God 't would keep you waking if you had your souls would have no ease you could not be in quiet till you obtain O what a case is this that thou art in What to have so little of God in thee and yet no greater desire after more What art thou like to come to whose Bread fails and when hunger fails to whose Grace is sunk and whose desire after Grace fails What neither to have nor to wish thou had'st or to have so very little next to nothing and not to wish for more What to have lost so much and not to weep over thy loss and wish for thy recovery Friends how stands the case with you Sure you do not know your state if some of you do know that it 's but very low with you But what pantings or thirstings or workings of your hearts are there after an increase Do
speak a word for you ye workers of Iniquity O what shall I have to secure me from such a repulse and to assure me that he will be an Advocate for me If I can but get Christ to be mine Advocate there 's no doubt then but my matters will be good and the cause will go for me here 's the difficulty What shall I have to prove my title to Christ and his Advocation and to secure me that he will undertake for me Why my very trust if it be sincere will prove my Title He that trusteth in him shall not be confounded And for the evidencing the sincerity of this trust a confirmed Christian will have this to say Through the grace of God I have the testimony of a good Conscience and an holy Conversation my works of Faith and my labours of Love my mortified Sins this crucified and conquered World through the Spirit of Christ within me for whom I have forsaken all and followed Him these will attest the truth of my trust though none of these things none of my Graces none of my Dutyes can answer for me or acquit me in the Judgment or open the door of Glory to me yet they will be good evidences to prove my claim to Christ that can and will do it When Christ shall plead I have dyed for Sinners and thereupon shall challenge Absolution and entrance for those that have believed in Him and obeyed his Gospel the Accuser will reply But this Man hath not believed hath not obeyed the Gospel but now if I can get that to be evidenced by the testimony of a good Conscience and my holy Conversation then the mouth of the Accuser will be stopped for ever against me and so an entrance shall be administred to me abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom And here now is the trust of the Saints and its tryumph over all matters of doubt and difficulties that lye between them and everlasting Glory From hence may they take up those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Death where is thy Sting Grave yea Sin Hell Devil where is your Victory Thanks be to God who hath given me the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ From what hath been said learn by the way 1. That the life of a Christian in this World is to be a life of trust 2. That a life of trust is an excellent and desirable life and worth your reaching after But these I shall speak to together Christ is to be trusted not only for the world to come to give us entrance into Heaven but for this world also to lead and help us on to be with us in all our way from first to last Our great difficulty and our great danger of miscarrying is not so much in our end as in our way to it As hard as 't is to dye well 't is harder to live well Though the last Enemy Death looks with a more frightful face yet our Enemies that we meet with all along our lives Sin and Lust and Temptation do us the most deadly mischief He that hath conquered Sin need not fear to encounter Death do but live an Holy Life and then be nothing careful how ye shall dye Those Saints Heb. 11. Abel Abraham Sarah with the rest of them 't is Recorded that they liv'd by Faith it 's said of them v. 13. They all dyed by Faith not one amongst them miscarryed in Death who by Faith kept close to God in their lives Now our great difficulty and danger being in our lives there is the most need of trusting in Christ for his conduct through this World and this being that which I am now especially directing you to be reaching to that I may more effectually lead you on to such a life of trust I shall yet more particularly shew you that Christ must be trusted for 1. Our entrance into Religion 2. Our progress in Religion 3. Our perseverance in Religion 1. It is Christ that must do the first work for us must bring us in at the straight Gate and give us entrance into Religion Who brought Israel out of Egypt Cut out a passage for them through the Red Sea and set them into the way of the Promised Land 'T was the same Moses that conducted them through the Wilderness Christians you that have passed the New Birth and have broken out of the Womb you that are escaped out of Egypt that state of Bondage you once were in with the rest of this miserable World and are now gotten safe into the way of life Who is it that hath helped you hitherto Are you not beholden to Christ for this As it was said of the second Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.22 so 't is true of the first Resurrection As in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive Are there any living souls amongst you 'T is Christ who is your Life And who is it that must help after and bring in those that are behind and quicken those that are yet dead Is it not the same Jesus that must do it Sinners you that have been left dead in your sins some of you have not trod one step towards the New Birth others of you have been brought to the Birth but still stick in the Womb What hope have you that you shall ever be new Born If you be not new Born there 's no hope of you but you must dye for ever better you had never been Born into this World then not to be Born a new to Christ You must dye there 's no help for you there 's no hope of you you must dye eternally the second Death will seize upon you and swallow you up for ever if you be not Born the second time You are yet without the Gate and if you dye there dye in your sins dye in your ignorance in your impenitence and unbelief if ye dye without the streight Gate you go down quick into the Pit Now what hope is there of your being brought in Multitudes of your Predecessors in sin have never come in have liv'd and dyed and gone to their Graves and gone down to Hell in their impenitence and down you are going apace What hope is there now that you may stop before you come there that you may be brought about out of that common rode that broad way that you are going and brought into the narrow gate that gate of Life May be you will say Christ I trust will do it and the truth is that 's all you have to say that 's all the hope you have there 's the same Jesus before you who hath brought in so many others who says to you all as Isa 45.22 Look unto me and ye shall be saved None cometh to the Father but by me and Joh. 6.37 Him that cometh to me that will trust upon me to bring him to God I will in no wise cast him out Go to Jesus Sinners tell him Lord thou hast told me that none can come to the
and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God That is even then when he is in darkness and hath no light at such a time there may be such a stay God would not command him to impossibilities What is it to be in darkness and to have no light Why no les then to give up all for lost to be in the darkness of an uncomfortable and hopeless state and not to have so much light as to discern his holy habits or actings that should comfort him Why yet even then there may be a stay or else God would never have bid him even in such a case to stay himself upon his God There may be a stay and there is so for do but ask such a poor dark disconsolate Christian when as to his sense he is most hopeless and says I have no hope do but ask him then why what will you take to give up and forgoe all your hope in Christ Will you be hired for ever to quit your hope in Christ O no not for all the world look ye there now though he says he hath no hope yet all the world shall not hire him to let go that hope he hath 2. A resolved cleaving to Christ He doth still when 't is lowest with him with purpose of heart cleave unto Him He thinks here also that he hath no mind nor list to follow Christ or Holiness any longer judging it will be all in vain I but ask such a poor Christian Will you return then to take up your lot with Sinners and give off from serving or following Christ any longer Will you return to your old Lusts to your old carnal and fleshly Life Will you return from Christ to embrace this present World Since you have no hope to the other World will you return to make your best of this World Will you to Ryoting and Drunkenness will you to your old Covetousness and Greediness will you hence-forth go back and live in a total neglect of Christ and his holy ways will you give off hearing and give off praying and give off the trouble and care of an holy watchful Life and let loose the reins to your corrupt Nature and let it take its own course Will you do so Can you do so O the Lord forbid sure I will never go back how-ever if I never come to Heaven yet I will not return to wickedness God will speak Peace to his People but though he never speak Peace to me yet I will not return to folly Though I cannot say with Job cap. 13.15 Though he Slay me yet will I trust in him Yet this will I say though he Slay me yea though he Damn me yet will I serve him If I must to Hell yet I am resolved that Holiness shall be my way I will not allow my self to slight Christ or to sin against Christ though I should never have any benefit by Christ Whatever he will do with me as to my future state yet I am resolved to be his Servant while I live If I may not be a Saint in Heaven yet I will be as much as I can a Saint on Earth Holiness is good if I have never so small a spark of it 't is a Beam of God 't is the Image of Christ If I may not see God nor dwell with Christ yet I will get a little of him here a little is better than none though it should last me but a little time If I may not behold his Face in Righteousness yet I will do what I can to sit at his Feet in Righteousness whatever he do with me Ask any poor Christian that is in his darkest state whether this be not the standing resolution and purpose of his heart And is it not evident now that whatever he thinks of himself he still cleaves unto Christ The truth is such abiding workings of the heart towards Holiness are the souls cleaving to Christ and it appears though he cannot see it himself yet to Standers-by that the root of the matter is still in him yea and such holy resolutions in a dark state are stranger evidences of sincerity than the same resolutions where they are encouraged by the highest sensible enjoyments Certainly there is more of evidence in it to be able to say though he damn me yet I will serve him then there is in this I will serve him because he hath saved me For mine own part I should have an higher confidence of a poor disponding and even despairing Christian that 's bent upon Holiness than of many whose Religion is animated and encouraged by raptures of Joy For the close of this e're I proceed farther give me leave to put in a word of Exhortation let me exhort you in the words of Barnabas Act. 11.23 That with purpose of heart you will cleave unto the Lord. Cleaving Notes Firmness Closeness 1. Be firm stick close to Christ Let it be with you as with the Apostle Rom. 8.38 39. Let nothing separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Be sure of this that he will be with you whilst you are with him Jam. 4.8 Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to you So may I say stick fast unto Christ and he will stick fast unto you Christ is a sure Friend and he will stick by all his Friends that are faithful to him Consider the three fore-mentioned cases as Arguments to press this Exhortation 1. You are in a Wilderness and must expect troubles to come upon you Your Faithfulness to Christ may cost you dear you may be forsaken of your Friends you may fall into the hands of your Enemies yet if ye will be Faithful to him though all men forsake you though evil men run upon you yet Christ will stick to you So he did to Paul 2 Tim. 1.16 17. No man stood with me but all men forsook me notwithstanding the Lord stood by me and strengthened and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon where we have 1. The hard case he was nd Christians must look to be in 1. He was in the hands of Enemies of great Men who were examining him and before whom he was to answer for his Life Christians may be brought b fore Rulers and there Tryed for their Lives and judged for Malefactors 2. He was forsaken by his Friends he had many Friends before but when it came to the pinch they all gave him the slip and shrunk back and stood aloof and left him alone Count upon this hard lot and count it not strange if it come to be your lot 'T is not so much to suffer in Company as when any particular person is singled out as a Deer from the Herd and chased alone the Hunters are upon him and the Herd will not shelter him but shift away from him That 's it you may look for to be persecuted by Enemies and not to be owned by your
not thus with some of you that are Professors of Religion Consult your own experiences how freely and how chearfully can you follow your Trades and worldly business you can Work and Travail and Buy and Sell and follow it night and day can rise early and go to Bed late and eat the Bread of Carefulness enduring heat and cold and never complain but when you come to Praying and communing with your own hearts or taking a walk by Holy Meditation into the other VVorld when you come to have to do in any of the matters of God and serious Religion O how like Drones and Sleepers do you go on A little of this is enough and more than you can well bear your VVheels drug your Spirits tire and thereupon you hastily over with this work and are glad when you have done How seldom is it that you go into your Closets as willingly as you come out How well were it if you did as freely fall upon your knees as you use to rise from them when you have done How comes this to pass O you are yet carnal carnally disposed carnally inclined your fleshly habits do dispose you to your fleshly ways and fetter you and hang on your heels when you should be doing for God and your Souls O to work Christians to work work off these carnal dispositions and work up your hearts to Spirituality and Heavenliness Get you to be better temper'd and better disposed and the way to habituate your selves to Religion is to hold you closer to the exercise of Religion if you would but use a little more force upon your selves for a time and hold you to diligence in your Holy ways this would by degrees by the co-operation of the spirit of Grace with you which you might boldly look for to come into your help this your forceing your selves upon a diligent holy life for a while would bring you to go on after you had been inured to it with more freedom and alacrity Heb. 15.14 Those that were strong Christians steady and established Christians how came they to be so O 't is said That by reason of use by having their senses exercised by this means they grew up to it Friends be perswaded to make tryal exercise your selves more to Godliness use your selves to a strict conscientious Life If you find it hard at first yet force your selves upon it hold your selves hard to it and by that you have accustomed your selves to this course a while look for it you will find it sweet and easie and when you have thus gotten the habit of Religion when by reason of use and having your senses exercised to Godliness you become Holily disposed and inclined then what Christians think you are you like to be what thriving Christians what flourishing Christians what fruitful Christians are you then like to become then your hearts will be streaming hearts and flaming hearts and will mount up and ascend in those flames of holy Love and Zeal above this Earth and Flesh and a Unity to live in the Light and Love and Joy of the Lord. O Friends would you set your hearts to be reaching out towards this holy frame would the Lord be pleased by the more abundant influences of his Spirit upon us to work us up to and settle us in this habit of Holiness this Spiritual and willing and ready mind then we should become a beautiful Congregation then we should become a blessed People and should grow up as Trees of Righteousness which the Lord hath Planted and which the Lord hath Blessed What Friends doth not all this stir you Is there such a Blessed state and frame to be had and is it not worthy your striving after Come my Beloved let 's bestir our selves let us follow after let us be reaching on with our might to this holy Prize Be not discouraged at difficulty be doing and the Lord will help you VVe are workers together with God for you be you workers together with us for your selves set your hearts to it and the Lord will work in you both to will and to obtain of his good pleasure And thus I have shew'd you what that solidity in Religion which I am stirring you up to be reaching after is to be well-grounded and settled in the substantials of Christianity He that worshippeth God in the Spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and heedfully shunning all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts hath given himself to a Righteous Sober and Godly life he that being deeply resolved for Christ and firmly trusting in Christ doth with full purpose of heart cleave unto him sticking fast to the Lord and keeping him close by him till he hath by reason of use gotten Holiness to be habitual to him This is a Pattern that I would you would have much before your eyes 4. To fruitfulness in Religion There is a readiness to good works mentioned Tit. 3.1 standing in the preparation or propension or bent of the soul upon holy action whereof before and there is a fruitfulness in good works or the souls putting it forth in holy action All Religion stands in action either the inward action of the Soul or the outward action of the Life 'T is the doing Christian that is the excellent Christian the fruitful field which hath a Blessing in it There is amongst our Corn some that looks fresh and strong and grows up ranker and taller than the rest but at best proves to have but little in the Ear 't is grown up all in Stalk and hath little fruit we can't say of it as Hos 7.8 It hath no Stalk 't is all Salk and hath no Ear 't is the full Ears of the Field that are its fruitfulness That is fruitfulness where there is good fruit brought forth and much fruit That ground which either bringeth forth no good fruit or but very little we count barren ground Will you call that a fruitful field which brings forth but here and there an Ear a few handful of Ears to whole Sheaves of Tares and VVeeds VVill you call that a fruitful Tree which hath but two or three Berries in the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches It is precious fruit and plenty of it that will give us the account of fruitful Christians Fruitfulness in Religion is the Honour of Religion Herein is my Father Glorified that ye bring forth much fruit Joh. 15 8. And what Glorifies God God will make glorious before the VVorld Barrenness is a Reproach 't is matter of sorrow and shame Such Christians which stand as dry Trees should not stand with dry Eyes VVe read that Barren Wombs have been the matter of great Affliction How did Sarah and Rachel take on that they had no Children And Hannah when she Prayed for a Child having yet none said 1 Sam. 15. I am a Woman of a sorrowful spirit out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken But however it be upon the account of
was the case of David when he prayed Ps 51.20 Renew a right Spirit within me When those dews and showers of his Grace which are necessary to the holding our Souls in a flourishing state are restrained and hereupon the Grace we have received withers and grows to decay The former withdrawing of God may consist with the vigour of Grace God may hide his Face sometimes from the dearest of his Saints to prevent their decay but the suspending of his gracious influences will be followed with a decay The Somer Sun-beams ripen the Fruit but the Winter Sun when by its distance its influences are the weaker leaves all to fade and wither It 's winter with those Souls who by their distance from Christ do lose the influences of the Sun of Righteousness When the Sun comes about again and renews its influences then it 's Spring and fresh Buds and Flowers break forth O Friends is it not winter with many of our Souls Have not the influences from above evidently failed us We have wasted out our Somer and driven the Lord to a distance and now behold how our good things die away within us 'T is become cold and frosty weather in our Souls the cold hath withered our Fruit and the Sun doth not revive it The Lord God is sadly withdrawn and gone far off from many of our Souls If Christians would be so wise as to keep them near to the Lord and so to keep the Lord near to them it would be ever Spring and Somer with them and they should know Winter no more O let us hold us under the Divine influences take heed how you put the Lord far off from you take heed of wandring from the Lord lest he punish your wandrings from him by removing himself from you 3. When he loosens the Reins of Government and leaves them to themselves and their own foolish hearts takes off his bridle from them and lets them run their own course suffers their lusts to rule them and lets them alone to walk in their own counsels Thus he withdrew from Israel Ps 81.12 I gave them up to their own hearts lusts or to the hardness or imagination of their own hearts And they walked in their own counsels This is a worse case than the former It goes ill with those Souls where the gracious influences of God are suspended That Field or that Garden is in but poor case that wants the Sun and the Showers but when it wants the care or the eye of the Husbandman too what good can be expected from it or to it When grace is restrained and sin is restrained to what a pass will such Souls quickly grow Gods Government is upheld in Souls by the upholding of Conscience in its vigilancy in its tenderness in its authority When Conscience is tender and watchful and we hold our selves under its inspection and government whilst Christians keep them to be consciencious whilst Conscience tells them of their duty and warns them of their sin and they will hearken to Conscience their case so long is hopeful though God hides his Face and leave their Souls in the dark and speaks not a comfortable word to them yea and leaves them flat and dead as to the wonted lively operations of his Grace suspending as to their sense both his quickning influences and his comforting influences yet as long as Gods Government is kept up in them as long as conscience is kept tender and wakeful though they want the light of the Lord yet they keep close to the Law of their God though his countenance be not towards them yet they have a good conscience towards him though they cannot rejoyce in God yet they will walk with God though they cannot now see his Face yet they are still diligent in seeking his Face though the Lord seems to have cast them off yet they will not cast him off so long though their case be sad at present yet it will be safe at last Is 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his Servant though he walk in darkness and have no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord c. Christians are there any of you in darkness and without the light of comfort and of joy in your hearts hath the Lord hid his Face from you this you will mourn under yet do you fear and obey the Lord do you live under his Government though you cannot see him and rejoyce in him yet do you serve him and follow him So long 't is well enough trust in the Lord and stay your selves upon God he will be a Sanctuary and support to you though his Sun shine not upon you But when God hides his Face with-holds the sensible Influences of his Grace and loosens the Reins of Government too leaves men to themselves and they thereupon follow their own hearts and walk in their own counsels then whither will they run Friends whatever befall you pray that God will still keep you under government and look to your selves that you do not throw off his government Keep your consciences tender and hold you under the government of them such Backsliders there are who have lost the sight of God have grown to decay through the failing of divine influences and also have lost conscience too their lust hath gotten the government of them the world the love of the world and their cares for the world bear the great sway in their Souls all the bonds of Religion are loosened and can take no hold of them farther than their carnal ease and interest will give leave if they continue in the number of Professors still yet they are a sort of loose Professors unruly ones all the Religion they have will not rule their Tongues nor rule their passions nor their appetites When their passion is up religion must stand by conscience must hold its peace or if it speak they will not hear Lust must be let alone to controul conscience but conscience may not be suffered to controul lust the sins which are for their gain or their pleasure they can swallow them and not keck at it The duties that are a weariness to the flesh they can omit them or shuffle them over when the world or their sloth won't give them leave they can let praying alone or reading or so much as serious thinking of God and the things of God they can let it all alone So much of religion as will serve their turns they will take up and what 's more than that they can dispense with themselves in it If they be told of their faults and their haltings and be never so solemnly charged in the name of the Lord to remember themselves and recover out of this wretched state 't is all one as if nothing had been said on they go in their old carnal rode and will lay nothing to heart And as they let themselves alone so God lets them alone too and will not rebuke
to have the hedge removed God had his Hedge still about Job though he suffered the Devil to leap over it and this Hedge limited him how far he should go and no further But when the Wall is removed and the Hedge broken down and the Enemy is let alone to make what waste he will to eat up and to trample into dirt the Fruit of the Vineyard and make it a place for Briars and Thorns to grow up instead of the Vine then the Lord hath cast off and is gone from the Vineyard Sure Friends there are such Professors in the world and look diligently if there be any such among you about whom the Lord hath broken down his Hedge whom he hath even given up to the world and given up to the devil and in whom these Enemies have eaten up even all their good and made their Souls a meer waste where grows nothing but Bryars and thorns in whom religion and righteousness truth and honesty faith and love and hope and prayer and all sense of God and things to come are devoured and eaten up of the world and those bryars and thorns of pride and lust of envy and intemperance and all unrighteousness are sprung up in their stead My hope is that there are none of the Professors of this place that are so far gone as this but whether there are none of you that are going and in a fair way to it I leave to your consciences to judge If the wall be not utterly thrown down yet are there not some sad breaches made in it at which the Devil and the World have entred If all be not eaten up if all be not trodden down if there be something of Religion left alive if some little minding of God some little care of your Souls some little favour of Christianity be left and how very little is there in some though all be not eaten up yet is not this world an eating daily and a consuming more and more that little of God that remains Does not the World grow upon you and does not Religion waste and your Souls go back farther farther Is it thus with any of you look you diligently whether it be or no if it be thus though I will not say the Lord is utterly departed from you the Lord hath rejected you yet thus much I must say God is going away from your Souls look to it and lay hold upon him by repenting and speedy turning towards him or expect no other but that he will throw you off and cast you out of his sight 5. When he turns away his heart from them and rejects them The Lord hath rejected thee said Samuel to Saul and afterwards The Lord is departed from me said Saul to Samuel God deals with particular persons that will not be reclaimed as with backsliding Israel concerning whom he said Is 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind or my heart could not be towards this People cast them out of my sight and let them go forth God had sent Prophet upon Prophet to them to reclaim and recover them from their Apostasies to their Idols but when they would not be reclaimed then this fatal word comes at length Cast them out of my sight my mind is no longer towards them Friends you that have been Backsliders that have fallen in your Religion that have declined from God to the World God hath sent many a word to you to recover you and now he is giving you solemn warning again What will you now do shall this word be lost and take no effect upon you will you yet continue to sleep on and refuse to be awakened O take heed O awaken who knows if ye yet refuse but God may forthwith speak such a dreadful word concerning you I have no mind to this backsliding Soul I 'll be troubled with him no longer I 'll give him a Bill of Divorce and send him away If you should ask as they did there Whither will he send us Why any whither let them go whither they will for me I 'll own them no longer Send this man to the World which he hath loved send him to the Devil whom he hath followed let him be gone from me I have no mind to him this backsliding wretch he hath no mind to me he hath more mind to the World to his Money to his Trade to his Oxen then he hath to his God and I have no more mind to him than he hath to me Since he hath so much mind to the World and to the Service of the Devil let the World take him let the Devil take him give him a Bill of divorce and send him away What false to his God to his Conscience to his Religion to his Covenant What an Hypocrite an Apostate an Idolater One that has been so and will be so though I have call'd him back and threatned him back and cryed unto him though thou hast played the Harlot and the Hypocrite these many years yet return to me and yet none of my Words will stir him nor move him but on he goes his old way Away with such a wretch I have no mind any longer to him cast him out of my sight Friends you that are gone back do not comfort your hearts with such a thought However I am no total Apostate I have something of Religion something of Conscience left me but know that if you be not total Apostates yet your gradual backslidings are the way to it and if you look not the better to it you will never stop as I have often warned you till you have lost all Are you not total Apostates no more were Israel they still acknowledged God and worshipped the true God but though they did but hang betwixt God and their Idols yet upon their refusal to return God sent forth this word concerning their utter rejection Away with them cast them out of my sight Thou hast thou sayest something of God in thee something of Religion in thee but art thou fallen so far from God as to hang betwixt God and the World and shall not this solemn warning which comes to thee in the name of the God of Heaven shall not this shake thee up from sleeping in such a state and raise and recover thee out of that carnality and earthliness to sincerity in Religion and Godliness Shall all these warnings be spoken to thee in vain and leave thee such an earthly minded such a dead-hearted careless Soul as they find thee God forbid Friends it should have no more success than so and look you to it every one of you that are particularly concern'd in it look to it lest if you continue without an effectual change and recovery God should speak such a dreadful word to any of you I have no longer any mind to this man I have no longer any mind to this woman give them a Bill of Divorce and send them away cast them out of my sight let them be
will devour all serious godliness if he cannot make men hot and heady in the propagating their own fancies will then on the other hand quench and cool that genuine fervency of spirit wherein we ought to serve the Lord If he cannot make men heady he will do what he can to make them heartless and cold and lukewarm in all the matters of God Friends take heed of both these extreams of being heady or fierce on the one hand or of being cold or lukewarm on the other Of heady ones God would have us take heed and turn away from them and for lukewarm ones he will spue them out of his Mouth Rev. 3.16 The stirring Religion I mean is as I said before a lively activity of Soul for God and for the advancing in real Godliness A stirring Spirit is opposite to a drowsie sleepy slothful careless Spirit which is nothing moved by all that the Scripture speaks when it presseth us to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 To be zealous and amend Rev. 3.19 To contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. To strive to enter in at the strait Gate Luke 13.24 To be violent and force our selves on in the way of the Kingdom Mat. 11.12 To fight to wrestle to run to make haste to be fruitful in good works and the like after all these pressing and quickning words there are a sort of slow Bellies sleepy lazy Professors who will but creep on when God would have them run who will lye down laze and loyter out their time when they should be fervent in Spirit who will be idle when they should work be silent when they should speak who let their lazy hearts alone to their own slow easie pace and so are over-grown with rust and suffer their Religion to be even strangled and chok'd up by their flesh to which they so much indulge This stirring Religion is the opposite to such a sleepy heartless way of Religion a blowing up the coals which God hath kindled in us as Timothy is exhorted 2 Tim. 1.6 Stir up the Gift of God The word is Blow up the Coals so Christians are to stir up the Grace of God within them I need say the less here because I have told you so much of it already It is our being awakened and putting on vigorously upon that savory solid fruitful Religion which I have already instructed you in Whatever Holy Principles we have received and sucked in from the Word of God whatever Holy Habits or Dispositions have been begotten and wrought into our Hearts by the Spirit of God have we any thing of the saving knowledge of God have we Faith have we the Fear of God or any Love to the Lord Jesus these must be all set on work and held to their work that so the Knowledge of God may bring forth the Life of God that the Habit of Faith may bring forth a Life of Faith that the Love of Christ and the fear of the Lord may constrain us and provoke us to walk on in the Law of our God that the light that is set up within us may break forth and make our Paths to shine and not only so but that the Holy Fire that 's kindled and blown up in our Hearts may bring forth a Zeal of God in our Lives that we may be Christians and Christians in earnest busie for God busie for our Souls striving against Sin and striving for the Mastery fighting against Sin and fighting to the Victory ready to every good work and fruitful in good works doing what we can to rouse up this sleepy World to raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and helping on and building up one another in our most Holy Faith laying out our strength in following the Lord and laying hold every one on the Skirts of his Brother and leading them on with us living in love and all the fruits of Christian love and hereby adorning our Holy Profession and walking worthy the Lord unto all pleasing this is that which I mean by stirring Religion 2. Stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us for 1. It will work out and drive away whatever offends or would provoke God to depart God will never depart without cause it must be a great matter that must part such dear Friends as God and the Souls of his Saints God will never depart from his People till there be some sin entertain'd and lov'd and allow'd that bids him depart Every sin says to the Lord as those wicked ones Job 21.14 who said to the Almighty depart from us but though every sin says thus yet God will not hearken to its voice unless it be an allowed sin that 's suffered to have the command in the heart and life Sin says to the Lord Depart God shall not rule here and if thou be of the mind that that Sin shall stay with thee notwithstanding if thou art willing to entertain such a Traitor however if thou hadst rather venture the displeasing and disobliging of God than have thy Sin cast out this the Lord will not bear away he will God says concerning every sin If ye love me let these go their way let this Pride go let this Covetousness go let this Frowardness go if thou sayest O with all mine heart Lord I would be glad with all my Soul to be rid of them but wo is me they are too hard for me my lusts will dwell in me and work in me and hinder me in my work for God do what I can O my Soul would rejoyce to be well rid of them O that I might never be proud or froward or carnal or earthly-minded any more I know it is an offence to the Lord and sure it is a grief of mind to me that any thing that offends should abide with me and though I cannot conquer them yet through the help of God I will not foster them whilst I live If these Sons of the Bondwoman must dwell with me yet through the help of the Lord they shall never dwell in peace with me while I live if thou sayest thus and sayest truly and wilt stand to thy word God will not depart from thee God will not depart for unallowed resisted sins If whilst thy sin says to the Lord Depart from me thy Soul says to thy Sin Depart thou rather God will hearken to the voice of thy Soul rather than to the voice of thy Sin Thy Sin says to the Lord Depart but if thy Soul say Lord let me be loosed from my Sins but stay thou with me God will not depart from thee But every allowed Sin every loved Lust and Corruption that thou wilt not hear of parting with if thou art of a proud heart and art resolved to maintain thy Pride if thou art of a Covetous Earthly Heart and Life and wilt not hear of giving off from thy Covetousness if thou art carnal and foolish and froward
c. and wilt continue so then look to thy self God will not stay with such a Soul what love your pleasures more than God what love this World more than God even take them for me says the Lord I 'll be no more a God to them This is the first every allowed sin provokes God to depart 2. Stirring Religion will work out sin especially every allowed sin The life of a Christian is a warfare there is a continual conflict betwixt the flesh and spirit Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth lusteth that is fighteth sin fighteth against grace and grace fighteth against sin Sin fights for the Devil to set him up and to lay the governement on his Shoulder and grace fights for God to lift the Lord up and to give him the preheminence in the Soul God will no longer stay in the heart than he may have the preheminence God will not be kept as an underling if he may not have the preheminence he 'll be gone and leave you to the Devil never talk that you hope God is within you where Sin or the World bears rule God is not there Now where the flesh is let alone in its fight against grace much more where the heart takes part with the flesh and nourisheth and cherisheth and maketh provision for it and grace is let lye asleep there sin rises and increases and abounds both in heart and life Where sin is stirring and that little grace that is is let lye and quite out of heart what can be expected how can it be otherwise but the Devil must carry it against God But when grace revives and the heart falls off from sin and takes part with grace nourishing and cherishing and abetting the better part then sin will be put to it and must away Christians your hearts would quickly be too hot for your sins if the grace that is in you be once well rouzed up when the live Coals are blown up into a Flame the Smoke is consumed and vanisheth Do not sluggishly lye down and complain that you cannot master your sins you are proud and cannot help it you are earthly and worldly and cannot help it you are froward and passionate and peevish and cannot overcome your passions Do not say you cannot overcome you cannot prevail if there be grace in your hearts and you will set to it to stir up the grace that is in you this would overcome What do you think if your love to Christ were blown up into a flame would it not quench the flame of lust Friends 't is a sign that religion is asleep grace is asleep conscience is asleep when your carnality and earthliness do thus ride in triumph over you this little David that little good thing that is within you if it gets on its Armour and go forth to the fight will not only put to flight but put to death the Champion of the Philistines Put your grace to it let it but engage heartily and lively in the fight and sin will run the field Loytering and idleness and laziness do beget and nourish evil humours and diseases exercise and activity will subdue and work them out he that lives a stirring life is usually the most strong and healthful Christians if you would be hearty and healthful and overcome those corruptions that are the diseases of your Souls and the offence of your God if you would overcome resolve upon a stirring life pray and let no praying satisfie but stirring prayer sleepy prayers will stand you in no stead let your thoughts be stirring let your affections be stirring let conscience be stirring let your conversations be stirring conversations be not the carkases of Christians that have no life shew forth the Spirit of Christianity as much as possible be all soul and life and spirit and keep you in lively action and then let your sins stand before yov if they can The quick running Rivers keep themselves pure they are the dead and standing Pools that gather most mud and dirt Certainly Friends our Skie would be clearer and more serene if our Spirits as the Wind did rise higher Our thick Mists and unwholesome Fogs that infest and annoy us would much be dispelled if Grace the rays of the Sun of Righteousness did once break forth more in us What will ye do Friends your light grows dim and your day misty your waters are mudded we are a company of dark souls polluted souls such as the Lord can take little pleasure in what must ye do to help it if you will bestir your selves you may help all get Religion to be aflote let that living stream be running let the coals be blowing and then you shall see your mud will be cleansed and your dross will be purged away Never think 't will be better by sitting still and complaining how bad 't is To work Friends to work with these lazy hearts to work with those earthly minds rouze ye up out of sleep up and be doing and see if you find not the same success against your sins as the Lord promised against the Devil Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he shall fly from you resist Sin and it shall fall under you Now Friends if ye can but get your sins out if ye can subdue your iniquities so far as that not one of them be allowed and all of them have their power broken and weakned in you if those that are by a specialty your iniquities if your special sins your most beloved lusts those that have most of all taken with you and carried your hearts captive those evils that have been your special hinderances either in holiness or comfort and that your hearts have been most apt to go a whoring after if you get these to be mortified and brought under stirring Religion will do it get it to be done once let nothing be left that offends God but that it also offends you and you shall not be like to have reason to complain the Lord is departed from me that which would have driven him away is now removed 2. Stirring Religion will work up and improve and increase those good things which the Lord will delight in and will not forsake As it will work out iniquity so it will work up grace and holiness There is not the poorest and weakest of Saints but by diligence and industry will be improved Stirring Christians will be thriving Christians 't is for want of action and industry that our souls are in this poor case As they said Gen. 43.10 Except we had lingred we had returned the second time or twice by this time Friends if we had not lingered and loitered we might have had twice so much grace twice so much holiness as now we have 't is our lingering that keeps us so poor we may thank our sloth and our carelesness that there is so little of God in us by our industry we shall advance Stirring lively Christians will be thriving Christians the best of Christians can never keep their stand
at these hazards and uncertainties but do thy best put forth thy strength in the work of the Lord that thou mayest come to a certainty if your consciences would speak thus to you and cry thus in your ears night and day and not suffer you to rest till you hear and answer its cries or if you yet linger and delay if conscience would make use of the rod and smite and scourge you out of your remisness if your consciences would fall upon you and sting you for your neglects and fright you out of your security by telling you and laying before you the dreadful reward of sleepers and such idle servants would cast in some of that fire into your hearts which your sin and your sloth is preparing for you if your hearts would condemn you for your follies and tell you down right this my way I am in is the way of death these my paths lead down to hell I am sleeping upon a rock drowzing on a mast O the waves are ready to rise and tumble upon me and to sweep away this sleeping soul of mine and drown it in everlasting perdition Had you but such a stirring conscience as this O what a cure what a change would it speedily make upon you Brethren awaken conscience that conscience may awaken you look to your consciences that conscience may look better to you Watchman what of the night Watchman what of the night Is it day break doth sleep begin to depart from thine eyes what is the Watchman asleep awake sleeper 't is high time to awaken out of sleep Speak thus to your consciences and then hear what conscience will speak to you Friend art thou fallen art thou come to this so thou canst but grow rich in the world thou considerest not how poor 't is with thee in thy soul whilst thou hast been so busie for thy self and thy flesh hast thou let fall the care of thine heart whilst thou hast turned a side after thy pleasures after thy lovers hast thou lost the sight of God have thy carnal correspondencies and compliances made thee such a great stranger in Heaven What says conscience to this Ask Is it peace conscience is it well Is it with me as it hath been is it with me as it should be Speak conscience go tell this man I have somewhat against thee thou hast left thy first love remember whence thou art fallen return to thy first husband for then it was better with thee than now What hast thou gotten since thy departing from thy God may be thou hast gotten more of the world about thee more great friends than heretofore more esteem and reputation amongst thy friends but O wert thou not a better man when thou wert a poorer man hadst thou not more of a Christian in the days of old when thou hadst less of this world Remember the sweet days that thou hadst when thou walkedst humbly with thy God remember the hopes and the joys and the peace that thou hadst in the secret recesses to thy beloved Now thou canst snatch at a duty cast a look heavenward a word and away scarce considering what thou dost or what entertainment thou hast with the Lord thou hast thy long dinners but short duties long markets but short prayers and as slight as they are short What says thy conscience to this does it not tell thee thou hast made a dear bargain 'T is a great rate that thy riches have cost thee that thine ease and thy pleasures have cost thee better thou hadst kept thee a poor man still and been holy and humble and tender and upright than to have made a purchase of the world at so dear a rate as the loss of thine integrity and tenderness Speak conscience and speak home in this matter thou mayest speak where I may not thy word may be heard where mine may not Conscience art thou awakened get thee about and walk the rounds and speak according to what thou findest Go into the City and observe the Professors there go into their Chambers and see if thou find them not in their beds when they should be on their knees go into their Wardrobes search after their gawdy clothing their antick ornaments and attires and see if thou find not such habits and dresses as are fitter for a Stage player than for a Christian go into the Parlour and hear what 's going amongst them there whether there be any more seriousness or savouriness in their discourses together than there is amongst them that know not God and whether the Cards and the Dice be not where the Bible was wont to be Go to their Tables and observe their superfluities and curiosities how delicately how sumptuously they fare every day like that Gentleman Luke 16. Go into their Shops and their Markets and observe if there be no lying and deceitful dealing even as amongst others observe how little difference thou canst find betwixt some that are Professors in their dealings and those that pretend to no Religion Then conscience from the City go down into the Country into the Fields into the Houses and see how busie they are there in ploughing and sowing in building and planting in buying and selling laying house to house and field to field hasting to be rich oppressing the poor working and sweating riding and running and neglecting nothing but God and their Souls See what they do and see how it fares with them both in City and Country what starveling souls thou findest within under their pampered flesh see conscience how 't is and speak according to what thou seest reprove them warn them worry them if they will not hear thy voice set in thy teeth and make them feel O Christians if I could but set on your consciences thus upon your backs or if you would set them on upon your selves you would both hear of more that 's amiss in you than now you will acknowledge and would find no quiet till you set upon amending 5. Be much conversant with stirring society and acquaintance and be stirring among them And here I shall endeavour the reviving of that too obsolete practise of holy and quickning discourse the neglect whereof is both a cause a sign and an effect of the decay of Religion among us For the recovering and promoting of this Holy Practise I shall give you 1. Directions for the bringing you on upon it and the better managing of it 2. An Argument to perswade you to it For the Directions they are these that follow 1. Get your hearts well filled with the Grace of God Mat. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh 1. Men ordinarily fetch their words out of their hearts as 't is said of a fiery Tongue Jam. 3.6 It 's set on fire of Hell that is of that Hell of malice that is in the heart so of an holy Tongue it may be said all the good that comes from it is kindled from Heaven from that of Heaven that
is in the heart Men usually unless it be the Hypocrite speak according to what is in their hearts the proud heart speaketh proud things the vain heart speaketh vain things and the holy heart speaketh holy things 2. 'T is the abundance of the heart that 's most apt to come forth at the lips In some hearts there is a little good but much evil in others there is much good and less evil 't is that which abounds in the heart that which is most in the heart that hath the command of the tongue See that there be Grace in your hearts and that the grace of God abound in you a little grace will not do to set your tongues agoing 't is the abundance of the heard that which most abounds within that will have the easiest and most ordinary vent Job 32.18 I am full of matter my spirit within me constraineth me my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer I am full of matter and therefore will I speak an heart full of grace must and will have a vent by the speech The holy spirit within us will constrain us where there is little good coming forth 't is a sign there is not so much as there should be within We may pretend inability and unaptness to speak as the reason of our barrenness of holy discourse that sometimes may be something that hinders but mostly the reason is there wants matter within We have reason to suspect that 't is from want of grace rather than from want of utterance that no more savoury and spiritual and useful words come from us A full heart will be the best help for a stammering tongue Christians let us get an increase of inward grace let us get more of the holy spirit of a spirit of life and love and power within us and our Friends and Acquaintance are like to hear of it oftner and to better purpose than they do Poor creatures that we are we are empty we are empty our insides have no good filling Be ye filled with the spirit faith the Apostle Ephes 5.18 speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and the more we speak thus to our selves the more freely shall we speak to others those that have but little grace are but Babes in Christ and Babes are but Infants that can't speak when the Infant is grown then he will find his Tongue In vain shall I exhort you to use your Tongues more for God till you be nursed up from Children to more strength in grace Would you ever come to be more fruitful and useful in your Generations this must be your way to it get you more inward grace 2. Let your thoughts be working more about holy things Thinking makes way for speaking what our thoughts run most upon that ordinarily our Tongues will run upon We cannot know each others thoughts but we may give a near guess at them by the words that are spoken Men whose thoughts are most in the Earth that are still thinking of their Money or thinking of their Trades or their Pleasures they can hardly forbear to be talking of these things And if our thoughts were more of God and of our Souls of Religion of Righteousness and Holiness we should certainly have more of God and of Heaven in our Mouths The Psalmist who said Ps 119.46 I will speak of thy Testimonies and will not be ashamed said also Ps 119.97 My meditation is of thee all the day long Christians get your thoughts to be well exercised be much in thinking think of the goodness and kindness and holiness and compassions of the Lord think of Christ of his love of his life of his death of his bowels and everlasting kindness think often what great things the Lord hath done for your souls think what ye would that he should do for you much thinking on God and his holy things will leave an holy tincture on your hearts will by degrees do much to the begetting holy habits and dispositions in you The Lord uses to convey down much of his holy Image and likeness upon the heart by the thoughts Friends such of you who find but little of the impress and image of God upon your hearts pray consider it if you be not too great strangers to the thoughts of God How often in a day are your thoughts in Heaven how very seldom is it that you are seriously looking either upwards or inwards No wonder if your tongues be so silent of God whilst your thoughts are such strangers from God Christians I doubt there are many of us that are much faulty here that our thoughts are no more taken up or working upon things spiritual and heavenly we should make the thoughts of God more precious and delightsom and more familiar and ordinary with us we should be able to say of our thoughts of God as the Psalmist does Ps 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand When I awake I am still with thee Thus it was with that holy man and thus it should be with us we should be much with the Lord in our thoughts but is it so with us Friends do but trace the goings of your souls for one day together and ask your hearts in the evening how much have I been with God this day how often have I been looking Heavenwards the Psalmists holy thoughts were so many that he could not count them and it may be some of ours have been so few that we cannot count them we can hardly remember any such thoughts we have had I know 't is hard work to keep your thoughts well imployed they will be wandering and roving more or less do what you can and you that observe your selves cannot but know it your selves how hard a work it is and I am afraid that some of us because 't is so hard a work will let it alone if their thoughts will gad and rove let them gad whither they will if they will not easily be gotten up to Heaven let them even stay below and so we let them take their own course and run whither they will I pray Friends this once put your selves every one of you to it and spend this one thought upon your selves think which hath most of your thoughts God or this World must you not if you speak truth speak the quite contrary to what the Psalmist speaks whilest he said How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them Must not you say how irksom are thy thoughts to me O Lord how small is the summe of them this argues an evil temper 't is sure a carnal frame your hearts are in where spiritual thoughts are so rare and difficult and I shall not wonder that 't is
so hard to speak where 't is so hard to think of any thing that 's good nor shall I hope to prosper in my exhortation to use your tongues better till you be perswaded to exercise your selves to better thoughts Friends if you would open your ears to the counsels I have given you from the Lord and put your selves upon such holy thoughts your ears would open your mouths I know not what to say to make my words to stick upon you and to be reduced into practice here I come and preach to you and you come to hear and then away and quickly forget all and scarce bestow some of you a serious thought upon it afterward O will you be perswaded to try what you can do to put upon a more thoughtful life and if you would be once brought to it to be more seriously thinking Christians you would more easily come to it to be more savourly speaking Christians While I was musing or thinking saith the Psalmist Ps 39. the fire kindled and then spake I with my tongue 3. Get a zeal for the honour of Christ and for doing him the best service you can Consider often wherefore hath the Lord made me this living soul Ps 100.3 It is he that hath made us and not we our selves But wherefore hath he made us v. 4 5. that we should enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise that we should be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name This we are made for and wherefore am I redeemed why was that precious bloud shed for me for what was it that Christ died 2. Cor. 5.15 That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them Wherefore am I called and sanctified and separated from the ungodly World by the Spirit of Christ why was I not left out among the men of this world wherefore is it that I was not left among the Drunkards and Profane of the earth among the Heathens and Infidels amongst the blind and ignorant Multitude wherefore is it that I and my brethren in Christ are called in and are become a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people and not left out in common with the World wherefore is all this Why 1 Pet. 2.9 that we might shew forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And then consider farther what shall I do to answer these great ends to serve the Lord to live unto Christ to shew forth his vertues and praises how happy would it be for me if I could serve to these holy ends Is it not my duty thus to live is not the Lord worthy whom I should serve is not Christ worthy to whom I should live what can I do better with my self then to consecrate my life to him O this is a life for a Christian O this is a life for the redeemed of the Lord so to carry it in their whole conversation that Christ may be magnified in them O let my love and my labour and my care let the strength of mine heart let the ardent zeal of my soul be all spent upon this very thing that Christ may be honoured and magnified in me Friends what if we were brought to this pass and wrought up to this holy zeal for Christ what would it bring forth would it suffer us to dwell in silence the zeal of our hearts would open our lips that our mouth would shew forth his praise the tongue of the dumb would be loosed the dumb would speak and speak good of his Name our delight would be to be speaking of our Beloved Our excuses and pleas for our sinful silence are O I am slow of speech of a stammering tongue I can't speak to any purpose and therefore as good hold my peace this may be something in some persons but there 's a worse cause lies at the bottom thou dost not so much want a tongue to speak as thou wantest an heart to speak Hadst thou more love to Christ more zeal for Christ within thee this would open thy mouth if thou canst but find thee an heart thine heart would find thee a tongue if thine heart were as big and as hot as that holy Prophet was Jer. 20. â— thou wouldest say as he did I am weary of forbearing I cannot hold but I must speak thou wouldst then be as weary of forbearing as now thou art weary of speaking Christians get you such a zealous heart let your hearts be once firmly set in you to do Christ all the honour you can be more heartily concern'd for the honour of his name for the glory of his Kingdom for having your hand in the propagating of his Gospel Be more throughly possessed and even swallowed up of his love be more firmly and more passionately devoted to his service and I need say no more to you in this matter this would do it this zeal of your hearts would put grace into your lips 4. Get more pity and compassion to souls Jude 22. the Apostle exhorting Christians to be active for the good of souls requires On some have compassion putting a difference others save with fear pulling them out of the fire The meaning is put a difference in your dealings betwixt the weak and the willful on the weak have compassion deal more pittifully and more gently and more tenderly with them but more roughly with those that are willful save them with fear fright them out of the fire Compassion must be either as a means for the restoring of sinners and thus some must be dealt compassionately and tenderly with others more roughly In this sense there must be compassion exercised towards the weak but not towards the wilfull that is we must deal gently with the one but not so but must deal roughly with the others Or else our compassion must be our motive to put us upon dealing with souls And thus on all we must have compassion without making a difference or if any difference be the worst of sinners must be the object of our greatest compassion We must have compassion on the most obstinate and wilfull sinners upon the wickedest of men those that will have no compassion on you if they have you in their power those that have no compassion on themselves and their own souls those that are the most hardned in their sins towards these especially should be our great compassion those who are in the greatest misery in the greatest danger are the greatest objects of compassion There should be compassion in the heart of a Christian towards every sinner though most to the greatest sinner yet some compassion to every sinner even to the sinning Saints that are amongst us and this our compassion should be an argument fetch'd out of our own bowels to press us to do the best we can for them What was it that mov'd Christ to engage so deep as he did in saving of
Prayer in the text is noted to be a stirring duty there 's none that stirreth up himself there 's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself Had they prayed and prayed as they ought this would have stirred them up or have been their stirring up them selves to take hold of God But neglecting to pray they therein neglected to stir up themselves Prayer is a stirring duty 1. 'T is to stir up the Lord to their help Ps 35.23 Stir up thy self and awaken to my judgment my God and my Lord. Ps 80.2 O Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth stir up thy strength and come to save us The God of Israel sometimes seems to be as Elijah once said mocking of that false God Baal 1 Kings 18.27 It may be he is asleep and must be awakened Though he be the keeper of Israel and never slumbreth nor sleepeth yet he sometimes carries it towards them as if he were asleep and expects to be awakened by their cries upon him 2. Especially prayer is for the stirring up our selves There is a sort of praying dull and cold and formal praying that 's good for nothing but to lay our souls asleep When conscience begins to stir and run upon sinners and fright them for their neglect of God then they will to their prayers and blind devotions and this must serve them as a charm to allay and quiet conscience as Davids Musick did to drive away that evil spirit that vexed Saul Some sinners consciences will not let them be quiet but dog them and haunt them and fright them into something of religion they dare not live without calling upon God their consciences will not suffer them to be quiet under a total neglect and thereupon something must be done which they can call praying and then they are at ease and can go on quietly in their sins without trouble or disturbance these mens praying serves them for nothing but to lull them asleep in their sins But prayer rightly performed will stirr and awaken prayer is said to be a striving with God Rom. 15.30 a wrestling with God Gen. 32 24. and this is our most effectually striving with God and wrestling with God our striving and wrestling with and stirring up our own hearts Praying is not the saying of some good words but the calling up all our powers to come in and joyn in seeking the Lord. That you may particularly understand what a stirring duty Prayer is consider 1. That in Prayer we set our selves under the Eye of the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth It is a drawing night unto God a lifting up our Eyes to the Everlasting hills a presenting our selves before the throne of God the throne of his Grace a setting all the Attributes of God before our Eyes his Allmightiness his Allsufficiency his infinite greatness dreadfulness goodness and grace which all make up that fearful Name the Lord our God Deut 28.58 and sure Friends such a sight of the glorious and dreadful God will be a stirring sight 2. In Prayer we come to deal with God about all the wonderful and astonishing things of Eternity we are to have eternal life and death in our Eye when we pray and what will stir us if Eternity if a sense that we are now treating with the Eternal God about the eternal things will not O a sense of this that we are begging for our lives begging for our immortal Souls begging the everlasting Kingdom seeking our escape from the everlasting Fire a deep sense of this upon our hearts will awaken them 3 In Prayer there is a ripping open all the affrightning Evils that are in our Hearts Confession unbowels the Soul and fetches up all the filth and rottenness of the Heart lays open all the deadly Diseases that are in the Heart every wicked thought and filthy lust and vile affection all the falshood and Hypocrisie all the pride and malice and envy and frowardness of the Heart are in our confessions brought forth and laid open before the Lord. The Devils are rouz'd that lodged within us and were taken too little Notice of and all the hazard and danger that our Souls are in by these our wickednesses will in our confessions be made to stand before our Eyes and there cannot be such a discovering of our wicked Hearts and our danger that we are in but it will affright and awaken us 4. Prayer is the uniting of all our powers and the engaging them all in seeking the Lord. It strains every string it bends all our forces upon the duty it sets all our faculties our understandings our memories our wills our affections our consciences on work as the Psalmist Ps 103.1 Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Pray to the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me call upon his Name Prayer is not tongue-work or knee-work but Soul-work bless the Lord O my Soul and 't is not a peice of an Heart one string of the Instrument but every string must be strained and struck up understanding memory will affections all must joyn all that is within me bless his holy Name All our faculties and all our graces our faith our love our hope our desires whatever we have of God within us all must be called forth to joyn in seeking of him 5. Prayer is not only the employing and exercising our Souls with all their faculties and graces but the putting them forth to the height not only the striking every string but the straining every string to the height the word in the original which is translated Acts. 12.5 Prayer without ceasing signifies instant earnest Prayer or more properly according to the notation of the word strained Prayer prayer stretched out and this is that praying which is stirring praying the pouring forth our Soul in Prayer With my Soul have I desired thee Is 26.9 the straining and working up all within us every faculty and grace of our Hearts to the height the stirring up all our strength in the work this is that Praying instantly required Rom. 12.12 that praying fervently Jam. 5.16 that crying and crying mightily unto God unto which the Scriptures promise Audience Now when Prayer hath thus rouzed up our sleepy Souls set all our Faculties and Graces a stirring within us and so gotten an heat in the heart by the joynt and vigorous exercise of all within us in the duty when we have prayed our Souls awake and all our Graces awake and our Heart is waxen hot within us we are therein prepared and put in a readiness and disposedness to and shall feel our selves bent upon the practise of every holy duty in our whole course This therefore is my next direction put upon Praying and such stirring Praying Go set the Lord and all his Glory before your Eyes and get a sense of eternity upon your Hearts rip open and lay