and return to be faithful but hold you at the same pass look for nothing else but this that the Soul of the Lord will be utterly loosened from you and he will say concerning you Give them a Bill of Divorce and send them away let them alone let them pine away in their iniquities till they be past recovery or redemption And let me add this farther if the rest of the Professors of England which are in the same case will not see it will not confess will not speedily return and recover what can be expected but that the Lord who hath been for these many years so visibly departing from us and after many returns seems at this time again to be removing from us what can be expected if we speedily repent not but that he will never return but utterly reject us and leave us as a dark Land make us a desolation and astonishment and write his Ichabod upon the Doors of our Congregations and Habitations The Glory is departed from England But if you will yet see and and will confess and return I will say to you as Shecaniah said to Ezra concerning that revolting people when they were upon reforming Ezra 10.2 There is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing There is yet hope in England concerning these poor Souls that the Lord will return and continue to dwell in them and among them as in the former days his Covenant is your hope lay hold upon it 3. Our recovering our Communion with God Our Communion with God stands much in these things 1. In our mutual Acquaintance God with us and we with him God is acquainted with his People and he requires them to come into his Acquaintance Job 22.21 Acquaint thy self with God Acquaintance stands in our Knowledge of God We cannot be said to be acquainted with them we know not in such experimental knowledge as is gotten by converse together We cannot say we are acquainted with every one we know converse or walking together is necessary to our being acquainted The nearer and more intimate our Acquaintance with God is and of the longer continuance by so much the more hold we have of God God will not easily lose his Acquaintance and those that are acquainted with God have tasted so much of the sweetness of walking with him that they will take the more heed how they lose that Acquaintance Those that are intimately acquainted by their friendly converse together this Acquaintance knits their Hearts together as David's to Jonathan so that they will not easily be seperated Hast thou used thy self to intimate converse with God and thereby gotten into experimental Acquaintance with him O thine heart will be hereby knit to the Lord and the Lords Heart knit together with thine Acquaintance cannot bear strangness it 's grievous to us when our Acquaintants become Strangers to us and we are unwilling to be strangers from them Friends do you suffer your hearts to be estranged from the Lord can you forget God and keep at a distance from him can you lose your Intimacy in Heaven are your delightful thoughts of God restrained and is not this grievous to you 'T is a shrewd sign that God and you were never well acquainted You that are the Friends of God keep your acquaintance take heed of wandrings take heed of distances and enstrangments get the experimental delights that arise from your intimacy with him and that will hold you near him And you that have lost your Acquaintance O recover and revive your old Intimacy in Heaven 2. In mutual Acceptance This is a special part of our Communion with God our Complacency in God and his Complacency in us Acquaintants take mutual pleasure in one another their company is grateful and acceptable God is accepted of his Saints they have an hearty goodliking to him and are glad of his Presence not only all the intimations of his Love and Kindnesses to them not only such a word spoken to their Hearts I love thee mine Heart is towards thee thou art mine the dearly beloved of my Soul I am at peace with thee my delight is in thee O how acceptable O how pleasant are such gracious words but not only these but the manifestations of the Will and Counsels of God to them they accept his Commands they love that the Lord should tell them of their Duty His Statutes are my delight Ps 119.77 and they accept his Rebukes and Corrections and his Punishments of them for their Sins Levit. 26.41 knowing that he corrects them in love and that they cannot want his Chastizements that the very Rebukes of his Countenance are sometimes as necessary for them and as beneficial to them as the Light of his Countenance 2. They are accepted with God he accepts their Persons Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved he accepts their approaches to him Ezek. 20.40 41. In mine Holy Mountain of the height of Israel there will I accept them I will accept you with your sweet Savour Offer your Offerings lift up your Voices pour forth your Prayers they shall be a sweet Savour a Savour of Rest to me Now whilst God finds rest in a People he will not depart Ps 132.14 This is my rest here will I dwell for ever Acceptance with God and rejection from God are so contrary that whilst we have the one we need not fear the other and whilst God is accepted with us to be sure we are accepted with him whilst Gods ways please us our ways will please the Lord Prov. 16.7 When a mans ways please the Lord he will make his Enemies be at peace with him and so long we may be secure that our Friend will not become our Enemy but will live in love and continue his abode with us 3. In mutual Correspondence In frequent and friendly entercourses God will be sending down to his Saints Tokens of his Love his Saints will be sending up Presents to the Lord Tokens of their Love to him There is a Jacobs Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth this Ladder is Christ by which there is constant coming and going There are Spiritual Blessings the Blessings of Grace the Blessings of Peace that are sent down from God to his Saints and there are Spiritual Duties Holy Affections Holy Desires Holy Prayers and Praises which by the hand of Christ are sent up before the Lord. 'T is the very Life of Christians to be either receiving down or sending up to Heaven they must hear often from God or they cannot live I will hearken what the Lord God will speak Ps 85.8 And whilst they live God shall hear often from them there are Messengers and Messages that pass daily betwixt God and them They are often sending up and the best Present they have is their Hearts I lift up my Soul to thee Ps 25.1 They will be sending up their Desires to the Lord and their Sighs after him if they have nothing better they will be sending up their Tears
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
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
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
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
on his fidelity as quiets and sustains and stays their hearts in hope of his help and in peace and comfort and so 't is exprest Isa 50.10 Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Christians have their doubts and their fears and their darkness and their tempests even their hearts also are sometimes like a troubled Sea and how sadly are they tossed with the Tempests But how do they stand under all this How is it that they are not sunk and over-whelmed and utterly lost in all this Their trust is their strength they stay themselves upon the Lord. I am in a poor case Lord hard beset hard bestead I know not what to do nor what to make of my self nor how to help my self only mine Eyes are towards thee thou art my Rock and my Refuge I have given this soul of mine to thee 't is thine own and thereupon I have committed it to thy custody Look thou to it Lord thou hast undertataken for me and that shall satisfie me there I will lean I will stay I will repose my fearing wearied soul 2. This trust in Christ makes much for our improvement and establishment in Christianity For 1. It is our taking hold on Christ As the Anchor takes hold on the Rock as the Root takes hold on the Tree so Faith takes hold on Christ and the higher our Believing is grown up into affiance or trusting the stronger is its hold 2. It will answer to all our doubts and fears and to all the doubting questions that the anxious soul will be pulling in for resolution and satisfaction which whilst they remain unresolved he is never like to go comfortably or prosperously on his way There are amongst Multitudes of others these three great cases it sees before it which it must have resolution in 1. Saith the soul I have a Wilderness to pass through this world is a Wilderness and the time of my Life is my Travelling through this Wilderness wherein I shall find much work and hard usage who shall help me through this Wilderness 2. I have a Jordain to pass over I must pass through the Vale of the shaddow of Death I must dye who shall bring me over Jordain 3. I have an Inheritance that lyes beyond the River on the other side Death who shall give me possession of mine Inheritance Trust answers to all to all the doubts that arise in these three cases The first case is most immediately proper to our business in hand but I shall crave leave to speak a few words also to the two latter which will be at least of this use to knock in what I shall speak upon the former 1. Case I have a Wilderness to pass through the time of my life is a passing through the Wilderness who shall help me through it And here the soul will put two particular questions 1. Who shall lead me my way through the VVilderness Here are many ways many false ways many cross ways and but one that is the right way How shall I hit my may to Heaven the right way that leads thither-wards Who will shew me and lead me in this way Here Trust answers Christ will do it I lean upon him to be my Moses to lead me in the way that I should go Thou wilt guide me with thy Councel Psal 73.24 Christ hath gone the way before his Saints and he will shew them his steps to direct them Therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 12.2 Run the Race looking to Jesus as for encouragement so for direction follow not the foot-steps of the Sheep only but follow the foot-steps of the Shepheard and walk on as he walked before thee But how shall I find the way or the steps wherein Christ walked Jer. 10.23 It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps How can a Man understand his own ways Prov. 20.24 There are many hard and intricate cases where I may be at a stand and not know which way to take Their answer is as Psal 143.8 In thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul to thee and v. 10. Thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of Vprightness I trust thou wilt thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and bring me to glory 2. Question Who shall supply and sustain me in the Wilderness This World is a dry and barren Land I must have Bread to strengthen me I must have water to refresh me whence shall I be supplyed Why I trust in Christ for supplyes He will give me Manna will rain down Bread from Heaven for me He will be a springing Rock to me of whose streams I shall be refreshed Such a Rock there was in the Wilderness of old and the Apostle tells me 1 Cor. 10.4 This Rock was Christ Christians are sensible that their stock of Provisions which they carry with them will not last that little Grace they have those little Comforts they have will be quickly spent and wasted if there be not continually fresh supplyes Whence shall I be supplyed Trust answers as the Apostle in another case Phil. 4.19 My God will supply all my wants according to the Riches of his Grace by Christ Jesus I trust he will I am often as a dry Tree my soul within me is as a barren Wilderness I have every day my work coming upon me work for mine own Soul work for my Family work for my Friends and Enemies I have every day my wants coming upon me I want Faith I want Love I want Life and Zeal and Strength O how poor and low is it with me my Soul hungreth and thirsteth and fainteth within me and now what shall I do I will get me to the Rock and there will I trust I will trust in Christ his Grace shall be sufficient for me 2 Cor. 12.9 of his fulness I hope to receive even Grace for Grace Christians is this at any time the case of your souls Are you discouraged by your Poverty and Barrenness Do you complain how weak and insufficient you are for your work how low and scant 't is with you in respect of Grace and Strength Do you doubt how you shall hold up and hold on Do you thirst and faint after the influences of Heaven Do you fear you shall wast and wither and consume away in your souls Penury O to the Rock to the Rock go to Christ and trust him for supplies There are these three things that he looks you should depend upon him for 1. For the continued influence of his Grace whereby to hold and maintain your souls in life 2. For assistance in Duty for his Spirit to help your Infirmities and to work your works in you 3. For all needful and necessary Comforts You are yet but Children and as Children you have not your stock in your own hands you have but from hand to mouth every day you will need new provisions You are Children
taken to give you the Symptoms or Signs by which you may know it their backslidings are so visible that they are manifest even to every eye The paleness of some of our faces the shortness of our breath the wasting of our strength the unwildiness and inability to labour and the listlesness thereto discovers how 't is with us O what weak and listless souls are some of us our flesh and our bodies strong and healthful but how weak are our hearts how short breath'd quickly tired with every little of duty and how pale and wan doth our outward man appear our very Vitals are perished and gone Friend thou hopest thou keepest thy stand but is it indeed with thee as it was wont to be Dost thou pray and hear and live and love and labour in the matters of God and of thy Soul as in thy former days Open thine eyes and look a little upon thy self compare thy self now with what thou wast in thy best estate and then thou wilt say of thy self as God of Ephraim Hos 7.9 Gray hairs are upon me though I knew it not 'T is conspicuous man to every one that observes thee thy Religion thy conscience and all that Grace that is in thee 't is all grown gray Gray hairs are upon thee though thou mindest it not What say you Christians are you all fresh and flourishing Are you strong Christians lively Christians Do your Souls prosper doth your Religion prosper or must you not say I remember the days of Old when it was better with me than now such who are so far gone whose decay is so visible though their recovery be possible yet they are hard to be recovered 3. A third degree is not to be hid and past cure plain to be discovered never to be cured and then the Consumption of souls is ordinarily past cure when men are past feeling It is one thing to be without feeling in those that never had any sense of God upon them and another to be past feeling in those that once had some tenderness of heart Those that have been chilling and cooling and hardning so long till God gives them over to that reprobate sense mentioned Rom. 1.28 the case of such men is become desperate Now you that are fallen into this consuming Disease consider these things how difficult your case is unless it be but in the very beginning and how it will be growing on to be harder and harder if yet you prevent it not with speed till it becomes desperate Consider this and then say if it be not time to look about you and to make hastily out to the Physician for cure Friends take heed will you yet linger on as you have done will you be quiet take your ease and take no effectual care to recover the health you have lost the strength you have lost Tremble to think how suddenly you may be given up to a total and final Apostasie But why is the cure so difficult I answer 1. Because as it hath been said in the beginning it 's so hard to be discerned Who will look after a cure that thinks he ails nothing This Consumption invades and creeps on by such insensible degrees that it is not perceived or minded till it grows up to such an height as will scarce admit of a cure This Consumption fretteth out the Heart as a Moth fretteth a Garment When the Moth first breeds there it lies undiscovered till by insensible degrees it eats up the strength of the Garment If the Moth seized upon any Garment as fire doth you would shake it off suddenly but because it consumes but insensibly and by slower degrees therefore it 's let alone till it hath done its work Friends is there not a Consumption upon you is not the Moth gotten in I hope not into my Soul Why there 's the misery of it you will not know you consume till ye be utterly consumed 2. From the indisposition and unwillingness of the Heart to seek after a cure Such untowardness and inindisposition there is to this work that I am afraid that by all that I can say I shall not be able to prevail with some of you to make tryal what may be done May be you acknowledge that we have all need enough of this warning but I am in much doubt that when you have heard all your hearts will so hang back from the work that all that can be said will quickly be forgotten and never effectually stir you If you would take the warning and stir up your hearts and set to the work there I hope you might be recovered but I tell you again espâ—cially those that are far gone that I fear your unwilling and untoward hearts will be too hard for the word and will not let you come on to any purpose Consider what I say and remember it a day or two hence and see if it be not with too many of you according to my fears and tell me then if you can I thank the Lord the word hath prevailed and I have set mine heart to it and through the Grace of God will not give over till I may see it effectually work to my recovery 3. From that opposition that is made against our recovery 1. There is a stirring Devil that opposeth it 2. There are stirring lusts that oppose our recovery 1. There is a stirring Devil that opposes your recovery The Devil is a destroyer that 's his name Rev. 9.11 Abaddon Apollyon that is a Destroyer 't is he that hath brought you into this case that hath destroyed that little Grace you had and is thereby attempting to destroy your Souls When you see what wasts have been made upon you upon your consciences upon your comforts 't is the Devil that hath made these wasts he is that Fox that hath devoured your Grapes The Devil is an adversary and a busie adversary 1 Pet. 5.8 walking up and down seeking to do you a mischief 't is he that hath brought you down to this low pass in which you are and he that hath brought you down will do all he can to hinder you from ever rising again The Devil is with you wheresoever you are he watches you where ever you go if you go into your Closets go to pray for recovery the Devil watches you there and does what he can to distract and hinder your prayers When you come to hear the Devil watches you in the Congregation and strives to catch away every word that might do you good All these words which I am speaking to you for your recovery I am in doubt they may have but little success if the Devil can help it there shall none of them stick upon your hearts He that hath brought you so low will be busie with you to hold you so low resisting and stealing away whatever word might help you up What 's become of all the words that have been hitherto spoken to this purpose do they abide upon you have they wrought
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
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
Neighbours of our Families been We are as Members of the same Body concerned in all these and therefore must keep a publick reckoning But our special reckoning which we must most insist upon must be our own personal reckoning Concerning our Mercies we must say as the Psalmist Ps 66.16 Come and I 'll tell and reckon up what the Lord hath done for my Soul For our Sins we must say to our selves what Israel was rebuked for not saying Jer. 8.6 What have I done there 's no man that repented nor said What have I done May be we may some of us be telling too much what others have done the Sins of Princes and great Ones the Faults of our Neighbours and Acquaintance may be too much in our Mouths though they be not so much as they should be upon our Hearts yet our Tongues will run and catch up every evil report and be spreading it abroad making it our ordinary talk and discourse raking up all the evil news we can hear in the Town or Country as if we were the very Sinks to gather in all the Filth of the Places we live in and then casting back the stink of it in our discourses This is a wicked practice which I have more than once warned you of and O that it were avoided and amended But whilest we vainly talk what hath this man or that woman done how foolishly how proudly how frowardly have they behaved themselves O how very seldom is it that we mind our own reckoning Lord what have I done O my Soul what hast thou done Here our chief business lies to mind and make our own personal reckoning Let every man prove his own work saith the Apostle Gal. 6.4 Let every man search his own heart let every man observe and take an account of his own ways and goings 2. Do not under reckon Do not carelesly or deceitfully skip over any of your faults make a plain and perfect account deal faithfully betwixt God and your Souls be not like the unjust Steward Luke 16. when there 's fifty or an hundred owing for do not take your bill and write down but twenty or but ten do not say to your selves as the Lord to the Church in Pergamos Rev. 2.14 I have a few things against thee a few small faults I have God may have many things and great things against you and if you will reckon truly you may find many and great things against your selves 3. Level your accounts 1. For your mercies that you have received the way to level them is to see to it that ye walk worthy of all the mercies of God and that you receive none of the grace of God in vain Let it not suffice you that you live better lives then sinners that have received no such mercies as you have I thank God I am not as this Publican no nor as this Pharisee I am no lewd Liver nor no proud Hypocrite shall that suffice you You may be as neither of these and yet God may have much against you that you are no better then you are You ought to live up to all the light you have received to the love you have tasted of to the experiences you have had of the manifold kindnesses and compassions of the Lord to your souls There are some of you that God hath done more for and bestowed more upon more knowledge more helps more grace then upon multitudes of weaker Christians your life must be as much above the ordinary rank your care and your zeal and your diligence and your faithfulness must be as much above the lower sort of Christians as you have been set above them in what you have received Some of you will not say but the Lord hath been abundantly gracious to you he hath not done by every Christian as he hath done by me his grace hath abounded his kindnesses have abounded O how deeply hath my soul tasted how gracious the Lord is And what should you hereupon say further O this you should say What shall I render how should I live Study O my soul to walk worthy of all this grace O let me have my conversation in Heaven let my conversation be in all things as it becometh the Gospel let me be holy harmless lively fruitful that I may shew forth the vertues of him that hath called me out of darkness into his marvellous light God hath been marvellously gracious to me he hath shewed me marvellous loving kindness he that is mighty hath done for me great things help Lord help me O my God that as thou hast made me such an instance of thy great mercy so I may become an instrument of thy greater praise 2. For your sins the way to level the reckoning for them is by getting the scores to be crossed and having them all blotted and struck out of your account Get them crossed 1. By repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye that your sins may be blotted out Whatever sins you find upon your account there they must stand against you till by repentance they are blotted out Repentance is the washing us from our sins and till they be washed out of your lives they will never be blotted out of your book Fall upon repentance every one of you have you lived an earthly and worldly life O repent that you have Have you been proud or self-conceited or self-willed of a froward a contentious spirit O let your souls and all that is within you say It repents me I am grieved at the heart that ever I have been such a wretch Have you under all your professions of Christ lived a carnal careless heedless idle unsavoury unprofitable life what should you say O it repents me that I have been no more spiritual and diligent and savoury and useful in my generation Repent and reform repent and amend let it grieve you at the heart that you have lost so much time that you have lived to so little purpose that you have been such barren vines such fruitless figtrees in the vineyard of the Lord and now let your root spring forth let your branches shoot up let your buds and blossoms appear and grow up to more fruitfulness this is repentance and nothing short of this Amend your ways come you to a better life a more holy and heavenly life that 's the way to have all your former sinfulness and unfuitfulness blotted out 2. By faith in the bloud of Christ 'T is not your own tears that will wash away your sins 't is onely the bloud of Christ 1 John 1.7 your iniquities must not onely be purged but be pardoned too whatever repentance may do towards it 't is the bloud of Christ and faith in his bloud that must both get them purged and pardoned Do not onely say If I have done iniquity I hope I shall do so no more I hope through the grace of God I shall never live as I have lived but besides this you must get your pardon for what you have
Kingdom to whom he said Thou shalt be over mine house and according to thy Word shall all my people be ruled onely in the throne will I be greater then thou Conscience is subject to none but God God is greater then Conscience 1 Joh. 3.20 God is greater then our hearts that is then our Consciences But next under God Conscience hath the supreme dominion in the Soul and as the Centurion to his Souldiers so Conscience where it maintains Authority says to all the faculties of the Soul to one go and it goeth to another come and it cometh and to every one do this and it must be done Now as Conscience is faithful and diligent or as it is careless and negligent so do matters go in the Soul a faithful watchful conscience sets the whole soul in good order a negligent sleepy conscience lets all run to ruine when God hath given men up to a spirit of slumber when conscience slumbers the whole soul falls asleep or which is worse runs out into all manner of disorders When God will awaken sleepy souls he begins with conscience awakens conscience first and that will awaken all their powers God awakens conscience mostly by frights as the Gaoler by an earthquake and Saul by an affrighting voice from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Soul Soul what art thou doing why slightest thou the Lord why fightest thou against God There 's nothing but such thunder from Heaven that will rouse a sleepy conscience But though there 's none but God that can awaken conscience yet God ordinarily does it by our selves sets the soul on work upon its self to its own awakening a word or it may be but a thought comes into the heart which is made to stick into conscience and to sting it out of sleep and when conscience is stung and begins to stir there 's no more sleep no more quiet in the soul When the Master of the house is up and about once he rouzes all the Servants O Friends get your consciences to be awakened get your consciences to be stirring and then all your faculties will up and be doing That conscience may be a stirring conscience 1. Let Conscience open its ears and hear 2. Let it open its eyes and see 3. Let the mouth of Conscience be open and speak 4. Let it be quick and tender 1. Let Conscience open its ears and hear what the Lord speaks Let the voice of the Lord have an impression upon conscience when the Word comes into the thoughts onely it 's quickly gone and does nothing or when it hath some sudden work upon the affections that wears off but when it enters into the conscience when conscience hears the Word of the Lord when the Word which we preach from God is as the Apostles word 2 Cor. 5.11 made manifest in the conscience then it is in a way to prosper Let conscience open its ears first and 2. Let conscience open its eyes and see see how it is with the Soul how sad and miserable the state and way of the Soul is see how it 's like to be to grow worse and worse see how it should be and what is to be done that it may be better 3. Let Conscience have its mouth open Sleepy consciences are silent consciences those that see nothing will say nothing Let your consciences speak to you whatever the Word preaches to conscience let conscience preach it to the whole heart O Friends if we could so preach to you as to set your consciences a preaching to you the same things if when we preach to you repent and recover your selves out of the snares of the Devil we could get your consciences to preach repentance to you if there were such a voice heard within you I see I must repent I am lost and undone if I repent not if when we give a rebuke to you out of the Word your consciences also would rebuke you if the Word calls you thou unbeliever thou child of the Devil thou hypocrite thou loyterer thou backslider let but conscience say the same 't is true what the Word speaks I am an unbeliever I am an hypocrite a child of the Devil an idler a backsliding soul I cannot deny it 't is too true what the Word speaks concerning me If the Word threatens thou shalt have thy portion with unbelievers and hypocrites thy place among the children of the Devil if thou speedily repent not let conscience say the same this must be my place and my portion if I amend not there 's no help for me there 's no hope for me if I continue and go on as I am If the Word exhorts you Be converted thou unbelieving soul put away thine hypocrisie arise sluggard return O backsliding soul remember whence thou art fallen and recover thy first love and do thy first works let conscience speak the same words go to Christ O my soul turn from thy sins make thy peace with God get thee a new heart be upright with God be sound in the Faith follow the Lord thorowly follow the Lord fully as ever thou lookest for mercy do it as ever thou hopest for pardon do it wouldst thou ever see the salvation of God thou must count upon it to seek after the grace of God and increase and abound therein unto the end and then something would be like to be done 4. Let Conscience be quick and tender 1. Let the ears of Conscience be open and let it be quick of hearing 2. Let its eyes be open and let it be quick sighted 3. Let its mouth be open and let it speak quick home 1. Let its ears be open and let it be quick of hearing Be not of those fat and gross souls which are dull of hearing How many deaf ears do we preach to that hear nothing whose hearts will hear no more then the stone of the wall or the beam of the timber and of those that will hear something how many that are dull of hearing we have much work and hard work to beat any thing into them O get an hearing ear and be quick of hearing Swift to hear as Jam. 1.19 2. Let the eyes of Conscience be open and let it be quick sighted so that it may espy and observe the smallest matter of duty and sin and let it be tender eyed and not able to bear the least of evils some mens eyes can see none but the grossest of evils can see drunkenness to be evil or swearing or gross lying to be evils but for ordinary intemperances and excesses so they do not eat and drink themselves into very beasts and sots though they sit with the Drunkards and waste time with them and their estates with them and be foolish and jolly and carnally merry with them so they be not downright drunk they 'll tell you they see no evil in it Other men though they can see smaller evils yet their consciences can swallow them though conscience be never so quick
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