our selves the least swerving from them Some Professors there are whose Religion is all in their Rules and their Rules they have only in their Books or their heads and but little in their hearts who would be excellent Christians if their lives were according to what they prescribe to themselves When they are in secret upon their considering work they propose holy Rules and make good decrees oh if they were but observed what Christians would they be but when they come abroad their Rules are left behind them and it may be never remembred till they return to their Closets again O what a difference is there betwixt the same persons in their Closets and in the Fields or Markets Friends they are not strait rules but strict practices that our Lord requires 3. Severity in reckoning When we make every day a Judgement day and reckon with our selves as God will reckon with us strictly God will bring every work to Judgement Of every idle word men must give an account Greater sins smaller faults our commissions and our omissions the matters of fact and the circumstances of them must be reckoned up Nothing must slip our reckonings but what hath slipt our memories and we must keep that Register carefully 4. Severity in censuring and judging our selves for our sins and failings When we will not wink at our faults no nor mince or excuse them 't was my oversight or 't was my weakness but rebuke our selves sharply I have done foolishly I have done naughtily gathering up all the circumstances that may give our sins their due aggravations and so passing our censures accordingly Such a strict and punctual course as this hath a formidable aspect not only to sinners but even to some of the sincere weaklings among Christians But however it looks baulk it not nor any part of it Will you pinch upon Conscience because that would pinch upon the flesh will you deny Christ rather than deny your selves Every shuffling or shifting off a known Duty is a degree of denying of Christ Hast thou given thy self unto Christ and wilt thou deny him any thing he will have of thee Must this flesh be spared in his cause who spared not his Life for thee Did he say 't is too hard to obey 't is too hard to suffer 't is too hard to die may not less than my Blood than my Soul serve their turns And yet wilt thou say 'T is too hard to serve him 't is too hard to live wholly to him may nothing less than all I have serve may not something may not a little suffice him This flesh will be like enough to say so 't is too hard 't is too much that Christ requires something may be spared to my ease to my appetite to my credit and will grumble and murmure if it may not But shall thy Soul say after this saying of thy flesh Doth thy Soul say 'T is but reason that Christ should have all 't is but reason that Christ alone should be served and served in every thing and to the utmost that he requires It is best for me that I be wholly his the very severities of Christ will be better to me than the liberties of the flesh the pains of Christianity than the pleasures of Sin let me have the weariness of the Saints rather than the ease of Sinners let the yoke of Christ wring rather than be thrown off Doth not thy Reason and thy Conscience speak thus in thee and yet must the grudgings and repinings of the flesh carry it Christians if it be better to be a Disciple of Christ than a stranger if it be better to be a close and a thorow-pac'd Disciple than to bungle and halt if it be the strictness of Christianity out of which its sweetness growes the more exact conformity the more sweet communion with Christ if there be meat in all his work and his hardest work be the most savoury meal then O why do we so wrong our selves by keeping aloof and following him by halves taking up with the easier parts and slinking away from that which is more difficult and thereby feeding onely on the husk and shell of Christianity leaving the kernel to those that will be so wise as to take pains for it Friends shall we yet be for strictness will you resolve will you venture upon it who are there of you that will yet be perswaded to follow after the Lord that will be exact Conformists that will be close Disciples punctual Christians punctual in your words punctual in your practices whose hearts shall say now according to the Apostles words Phil. 1.27 My Conversation shall be in all things as it becometh the Gospel mine eye and mine aim and mine endeavour shall be to stand compleat in all the wills of God O that there were such an heart in us But O the fearfull heart O the sluggish heart that we still feel within us O these poor and low spirits that have no ambition for the excellencies of Religion and cannot bear its difficulties What a pitifull maimed thing is the Religion of many Professors how little is there in it what easie lazy sleepy Disciples are they how unequal are their spirits how uneven their goings how weak are their hearts how slow are their motions Heavenwards and how often do they step aside to save themselves from labour or trouble Never a little hotter service is in sight but their flesh calls them off and away they go presently after it When is it that that voice is heard within thee Pity thy self spare thy self but it does prevail Such a word It is not for mine ease it is not for my credit or it is not safe for me what a mighty charm is it to still and countermand the loudest calls of Christ and Conscience But consider friend whose voice is it that speaks thus to thee why whose voyce was it that spake the like words to Christ when he spake of his sufferings Matth. 16.22 Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Pity thy self Master and let it not be thus unto thee whose voice was this Christ tells us whose in the next words Get thee behind me Sathan 't was the Devil that spake thus by Peter's mouth and 't is this same Devil that by the mouth of thy flesh speaks the like to thee Why man art thou afraid to hearken to Christ and art thou not afraid to hearken to the Devil Beloved we are few of us so much Christians as to be able to endure hardness and therefore 't is we are so easily and so often called off Well but however as little as we have attained let us put on after it Inure your selves to hardness and that 's the way to endure it Be severe a while and you will be the better able to bear severity Fear in good earnest how you ever again baulk a Duty and after a while you will finde that the hardest Duty is not to be feared
full and setled purpose of mine heart and O that this my resolution may be attended with such an effectual power that may make a present actual change upon my whole course and way of life Well I will go in the strength of the Lord and let me find the presence and the power of the Almighty with me O that I might not go out of this house nor be seen in the streets but the tongues of those that see me might say where hath this man or this woman been this day what hath been done to them whence is this strange change Is not this the man that was born blind Is not this the cripple that sate for alms at the beautiful gate of the Temple said they once is not this the man that lived in blindness and in ignorance of God is not this he that was such a lame halting trifling vain walker how do we see him to have his eyes open and living in the grace and power of God what a change is here how comes this to pass surely this man hath been with Jesus surely he is become one of the Lords and the spirit of the living God is in him What say you friends are you now for such a change come and give your selves thus to the Lord and then fear not to commit your selves to his custody trust him for your pardon trust him for protection leave the care of your souls upon him for ever Faithful is he that hath called you and will take care of you Now you have a sure title to him and are hid in his blood and this blood of the lamb shall be to you as the scarlet line on the window of Rhahab was to her Josh 2.18 or as the blood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts of Israel Exod. 12. your certain security that the indignation shall passe over you and the destroyer shall not hurt you for ever 2. Fear and flee the ordinary effect of fear is flight and the reason of flight is fear There are three things in flight 1. There is departure in it be gone get thee up out of this place said the Angels once to Lot Gen. 19. 2. There is haste in it Flight is a departure in haste Haste thee stay not in all the plain 3. T is in order to an escape escape for thy life escape to the mountains Flee sinner flee away from thy sins and live What day thou hidest thee in Christ thou must leave thy sins behind thee or if thou carriest them to Christ with thee which comes all to one it must be only to be crucified particularly 1. Flee out of thy state of sin 2. Flee from the practice of sin 2. Flee out of thy state of sin to say no more in this place to fright thee to thy heels know that thy state of sin is a state of bondage Act. 8.23 thou art a mere bondslave to the devil and thy lusts Dost thou not feel the chains on thy neck the fetters on thy feet art thou not made to serve under thine enemies whom thou canst not find in thine heart but to obey tho it be to the cutting of thine own throat Thou art not left at liberty to act as a Christian according to the Gospel no nor as a man according to thine own reason and conscience but art made a mere brute of to serve the pleasure of the devil and thy lusts Art thou content to live and die such a slave behold the whole world is for liberty what groanings are there under oppression what outcries against impositions and invasions upon rights and priviledges and what impatience of vassalage and servitude and canst thou be so patient of the impositions of lust and thy vassalage under the devil canst thou dwell for ever under the usurpers is there any tyranny like that of thy will and lust is the worst of servitudes onely easie to be born arise thou slave shake off thy fetters get thee up out of thine house of bondage It is not barely a cessation from the acts of sin that I am now pressing you to let him that stole steal no more let him that was a swearer or a lyar or a drunkard swear no more put away lying and turn away from the wine and the strong drink but get you free from your state of sin get you up out of prison cease not only from doing the work but continue not under the dominion of the divel be no longer the practiser no nor the prisoners of sin Christ came not to make your prison more clean or more easie to cast out some of your filth or to get you an abatement of some of your drudgery work but to bring forth the prisoners out of prison Isaiah 42.7 Christ calls not to the prisoners to take their rest or to do their masters work by halves no nor barely to let it all alone but he saies to the prisoners go forth Isa 49.9 Sinners are not only employed and set on work by sin and the devil but they are sold under sin held under sin shut up under unbelief They are prisoners not only by constraint but by consent also they are voluntary prisoners they have made a league with sin and are its covenant-servants they are not onely prisoners to Satan but to their own hearts the heart of man is become so very a devil that it is its own gaoler the devil cannot commit a sinner into safer custody than by making his own heart his keeper Sinners those hearts of yours are become such Devils incarnate so desperately set against Christ so deeply engaged in soul-damning works that if God should leave you to the custody and conduct of your own natures these will lead you on to your damnation 'T is now become natural to sinners to hate the Lord and his way of life Sin hath made such changelings of them from what they originally were that 't is their nature to play the fools and the beasts 't is their nature to be proud to be froward to be malicious 't is mens corrupt nature that so strongly enclines them to follow the Devil and flee from Christ The Chicken doth not more naturally follow the Hen and flee from the Kyte than Sinners do follow that Kyte the Devil and flee from Christ As 't is said of the Devil Joh. 8.44 When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own so may it be said of sinners when they do wickedly they do of their own when they lye and swear and mock and riot they do of their own Their inward part is very wickedness Psal 5.9 Their hearts are a fountain of iniquity Jer. 6.7 As a fountain casteth forth waters so she casteth forth wickedness She casteth forth her wickedness not only continually as a fountain casts out waters the fountain runs night and day Summer and Winter from year to year but with the same freedome also there 's no need of the Pump or the Bucket to fetch
heavenward to be as swimming against the stream but by how much the more grace hath over-powred nature by so much the more he hath now gotten the stream with him his following God is now become as swimming down the stream of that new nature which hath now gotten so much the better in him One of the hardest works of a Christian is Self-denyal to lay down our own wills to curb our appetites to go cross to our own dispositions interests and humours this goes near at first and will hardly be born but after we have us'd our selves a while to it and by degrees inur'd our wills to submission to the will of Christ and holding the bridle strait upon lust and appetite have made our hearts to feel themselves to be under authority a chearful and contented subjection will in time become habitual to us the more self-denyal we have exercised the less will there be afterwards needed He that hath been given to intemperance to gluttony or drunkenness at his first laying a restraint upon himself what a bondage is sobriety and temperance to him but after he hath used himself to a temperate life he finds it more sweet and easie to him and is better pleas'd with it than ever he was with his former excess and scarcely knows now what 't is to lust after his old licentiousness Now Brethren that which I would perswade you to is Make your Religion pleasant by making it easie to you make your Religion easie not by halfing your work or remitting your care but by increasing your strength and your diligence get your hearts strengthened and get them habituated to Religion this will make it easie and ease will make it pleasant What 's the reason that we see some Sinners go on with so much pleasure in their wicked wayes the service of sin is laborious enough and in some respects much more toilsome and expensive than the Service of Christ They have many Masters to serve and every one of them will be calling them to work they have the Devil to serve and the World to serve and divers lusts to serve they are like a servant of men who is at the command of more Masters than one one calls him this way another that way one hath this to be done another that to be done so that for one and another the poor Servant can never be at rest such is the case of Sinners their pride calls them one way their covetousness another their sensuality another their Souls are made meer Hackneys of though they change their rider yet one or other is still upon their backs And yet we see how roundly and merrily they go on their way without ever complaining of their Masters or their work When do you ever hear any such complaints among them O this Devil is an hard Master O this flesh of mine what a Tyrant is it O this feasting and sporting this drinking and rioting what an irksome Trade is it O this getting of Money this laying house to house and field to field I am quite weary of it When do you hear any such groanings or complainings amongst them No no they are strong Sinners they are accustomed to do wickedly and thereupon as very a drudgery as the service of Sin is they can go through it with ease and pleasure Friends get you to be strong in the Lord and you will run your race of duty with much more pleasure than sinners run their course of iniquity hold you close to your work a while and you will get to Heaven with as much ease as Sinners go to Hell O what fools are loytering trifling Christians who think to make their life easie by idleness what 's the reason that thou haltest thus after the Lord and art so slothful in thy way why dost thou not set thine heart and thy shoulders to the work of the Lord and give thy self in good earnest and wholly to it O I can't endure all labour all difficulty I must have a little ease 't is too tedious and painful to me to hold to such close and constant service But dost thou think to make thy work easie by trifling at it Foolish Soul thou takest the ready way to create thee the more difficulty once the work must be done or thou art undone and there 's no such way to do it easily as by doing it diligently the life of a trifler is the hardest life of all that profess themselves Christians doubtless Christ's yoke will sit easiest upon those necks upon which it sits the closest 4. The pleasure of Love He that hath not felt pleasures in love hath not felt what 't is to love This is one of the great pleasures of Heaven to love and to be beloved to receive the over-flowings of the divine love and to feel our hearts emptying themselves and flowing forth in returns of love to God Look how much you have of love so much of Heaven of the joy that is above 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love what follows Ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Joh. 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in joy Psal 37.4 Delight thy self in the Lord to love God and to delight in God are much the same love is the bud and delight is the blossome that grows out of it Love hath a pleasure in it and the love of God will put a pleasure into all Religion How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts Psal 84.1 It is good for me to draw near to God Psal 73.28 I delight to do thy will O my God Psal 40.8 Sing praises to his name for it is pleasant Psal 135.3 It is a pleasant thing for him that loves to please and praise the Lord It is good before the Saints Psal 52.9 Fear often brings us upon Service but 't is love that sweetens it fear brings us on especially in the dayes of our minority and it should do so as I have already shewed if love will not fear must We often pray and read and hear and search our hearts and look to our wayes because we dare do no other we strive and wrestle and watch against sin and its lusts against the world and its temptations because we are afraid what would become of us if we should not 'T is well that any thing will do either love or hope or fear whatever it be that will bring us upon our duty that will keep us from iniquity 't is well that something will do it 'T is better to pray because we are afraid to neglect it than not to pray at all 't is better to keep a good Conscience because we are afraid of an evil Conscience than to be licentious whatever it be that brings us upon a consciencious life better so than to be let alone to carnality and looseness But yet still 't is love that sweetens and thereby strikes the great and