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
over you we can hardly keep life in you the little good that remains is weak and even ready to vanish away But what then will become of you in the Day of Famine when your Manna shall cease and your Waters fail O tremble to hear this word spoken concerning you you shall not mourn nor weep you won't be much troubled nor lay it to heart but ye shall pine away for your iniquities If in such a day of plenty as you have had you are such pining Souls what can you expect but you may pine to death in days of want 2. Especially 't is woful to those that have no Religion in them that are blind and hard and dead Souls that remain still without Christ and without God in the World Sinners if ye be not brought in to be Believers whilst the Word of Faith is preached to you if ye be not converted whilst the Word of Repentance is preached among you if you continue such blind and ignorant Souls whilst you have the light with you what will ye be in the days of darkness Sinners concern not themselves about any such thing let the Gospel shine or be under a cloud let Religion flourish or vanish let God be amongst them or be gone let there be preaching or no preaching 't is all one to them they are like Gallio Acts 18.17 they are for none of these things But Sinners let me tell you as little as you regard it how it goes with the Church of God and the Ordinances of God whether there be liberty or restraint a plenty or a famine of the word when ever the Gospel departs when ever a famine of the word comes 't is you are the men that are like chiefly to have the misery of it 'T is an affliction to the Saints and they may be great losers they may languish and grow to a decay but you are like to lose your Souls you are like to dye in your Sins and to perish for ever if you are thus hardned under the word how are you like to be won to Christ without the Word If the Devil hath such power with you to lead you on in your sins in your drunkenness and swearing and lying and covetousness and to hold you under your impenitence notwithstanding all the instructions and warnings and reproofs you have from the word how fast will he hold you when there 's none to resist him If you never be converted and brought to repentance you know you must to Hell and what hope will there be of your conversion when the converting word is no more preached to you Sinners you had need make better use of the Word while you have it among you you had need look for another manner of work of God than hitherto hath been upon you Of all men in the World you especially had need pray Lord take not the Word of thy Truth from among us or at least Lord delay that dark day O let my Soul be first wrought upon O let it first lay hold on me and recover me from my sins and from the power of the Devil let me become a Convert to Christ a Disciple of Christ before that day come you had need pray thus and you had need hearken more to the Word while you have it and hasten in to Christ That day will stay for none of you when 't is coming and O! what if it should come upon you if the Gospel should be carried away and leave you in that sinful guilty state that now you are in Look to it Sinners in the name of God look to it strike in with Christ presently make thorow work for your Souls instantly while it is called to day harden not your hearts don 't any longer stand shall I shall I one day or other I hope I shall For ought you know God may be even about to pack up his Treasure to take down his standing and ready to be gone and then where are you O carry this thought upon your heart if God should go and his Gospel should go and leave my Soul at this pass wo wo to me poor wretched Soul what shall become of me for ever O if the preaching of the Word leave me under the power of the Devil sure the Famine of the Word is like to seal me up under the hardness of my heart to everlasting condemnation Look to it Sinners pray that such a Day may not overtake you thus and O hasten and take the present season and this day break off your sins by repentance and yield your selves to the Lord be converted that ye may be saved Fear not but Christ will accept you if you will now come in he is yet willing he stands stretching his hands to you he lifts up his Voice to you and calls Come ye poor sinful souls come unto me make an adventure for Heaven come and be my hearty Disciples let the wicked among you forsake his wickedness let him return to the Lord and he shall have mercy Fear not but if you will now come in you shall be accepted but dare not for your lives delay any longer lest the days of darkness overtake you lest the Gospel be removed from us and leave you bound in your sins and then you be carried down bound hand and foot into the everlasting Prison The Lord grant that this be not the dismal lot of any of your Souls and look you to it in time that it be not lose not the present season the Sun seems to grow low it 's almost night O see to it that it be not Sunset among us before it be Sunrising in any of your Souls I hope the day is even now dawning upon some poor Sinners among you that some of your Souls are looking towards Christ and making towards Christ and making your escape from your Sins Is it so with thee art thou awakened from thy Sins art thou wishing and waiting for Christ Even this is the dawning of the day upon thee O for the Sun rising for the forming of Christ upon thine heart look that the work that is go not back again but come on and hold on that thy little morning light may increase and grow up to perfect day and that the Evening and the Morning meet not 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Lord among us and our preventing his departure This was their Sin in the Text they did not take hold of God that is they took no course to continue the Lord amongst them God was going from them and they let him go and look'd not after him they were too willing to part with God And this is the case of Backsliders in heart they are too well contented that God and they do part their heart is withdrawn from God and they matter it not though God withdraws from them Our laying hold on God imports these 3 things which are necessary to our continuing him with us 1. Our letting go our Idols or false
or pull'd upon thee that thou art still of the same mind Wilt thou yet say I am content to be as I am Ah foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you Ah Friends are you so foolish that having begun in the Spirit you will now think to mend your condition by returning to the flesh what might I speak to you to set you into your right minds would you be but convinced that you are out of your minds mad and distracted Souls there were the more hope you would come to your wits and so with the prodigal return to your Father from whom you have been wandring Carnal Professors let not these words depart from your Hearts till they have done their work till they have shewed you your folly and learned you the Wisdom which is from above till your own mouths be forced to acknowledge I have play'd the Fool I have wandred from my God and turned to mine one way and this my way is my folly and now through the help of the Lord I will return Wilt thou so wilt thou return and recover I will then add but this one word more When thou art recovered do thy best towards the recovery of thy brethren pitty thy fallen Friends and help them to arise jogg thy sleepy neighbours and call upon them to awaken who knowes what a small beginning may rise to in the end a few returned Persons may fetch in more and these more a few Souls raised from the dead may be the first Fruits of a more glorious resurrection the light and the life which is sprung up in thine Heart if it be well improved may enlighten and enliven many your zeal hath provoked very many 2 Cor. 9.2 O be solicitous first for thine own recovery and then be zealous for the recovery of more so shall there be after all our darkness an hopeful dawning towards a comfortable day so may we hope that our shining lights which now stand so thin as a Beacon on an Hill as a Cottage in a Vine-yard as a Lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers may grow so numerous that we may become a Land of Light and our Jerusalem may be made a praise in the Earth FINIS Books printed for and are to be sold by John Hancock at the Sign of the three Bibles in Popes Head Alley in Cornhil TWelve Books lately published by Mr. Tho. Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets New Fish-street 1. Precious Remedies against Satans Devices or Salve for Believers and Vnbelievers Sores being a Companion for those that are in Christ or out of Christ 2. Heaven on Earth Or a serious Discourse touching a Well-grounded assurance of Mans Everlasting Happiness 3. The Vnsearchable Riches of Christ held forth in 22 Sermons 4. Apples of Gold for Young Men and Women Or the Happiness of being good betimes 5. A String of Pearls Or the best Things reserved till last 6. The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod with Sovereign Antidotes against the most miserable Exigents 7. An Ark for all Gods Noahs in a Stormy Day 8. The Crown and Glory of Christianity in 48 Sermons on Heb. 12.14 9. The privy Key of Heaven Or a Discourse of Closet Prayer 10. An Heavenly Cordial for such as have had or escaped the Plague 11. A Cabinet of choice Jewels or a Box of precious Oyntment Containing special Maxims Rules and Directions in order to the clearing up of a Mans Interest in Corist and his Title to all the Glory of another World 12. Londons Lamentations The Godly Mans Ark in several Sermons To which is added Mrs. Moors Evidences for Heaven By Edmund Calamy B. D. at Aldermanbury Christs Communion with his Church Militant By Nicholas Lockyer Sin the Plague of Plagues By Ralph Venning A true Narrative of those two never to be forgotten Deliverances one from the Spanish Invasion in 88 the other from the Hellish Powder Plot Nov. 5. 1605. By Mr. Sam. Clark The Accurate Accountant or London Merchant Being Instructions for keeping Merchants Accounts By Tho. Brown Accomptant Short Writing the most Easie Exact Lineal and speedy Method that hath ever yet been obtained as thousands in this City and elsewhere can from their own experience testifie By Theophilus Metcalfe Also a Book called a Schoolmaster to it explaining all the Rules thereof A Word of Advice to Saints or a choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ A Copy Book of the Newest and most Vseful Hands with Directions for Spelling and Cyphering Bridges Remains Being eight choice Sermons By the late Reverend Mr. William Bridge of Yarmouth A Disswasive from Conformity to the World Also Gods Severity against Impenitent Sinners By Henry Stubbes Minister of the Gospel Vennings Remains being the substance of many Sermons By Mr. Ralph Venning prepared by himself for the Press a little before his Death The Poor Mans Family book By Richard Baxter Luthers 34 special and choice Sermons Comae Berenicis or the Hairy Comet being a Prognostick of Malignant Influences from the many Blazing Stars wandring in our Horizon Gospel Love Heart Purity and the Flourishing of the Righteous Being the last Sermons of that late Eminent Divine Mr. Joseph Caryl The Young Mans Guide to Blessedness or Seasonable Directions for Youth in their unconverted Estate By R. Matthew Minister of the Gospel Causa Dei or an Apology for God wherein the Perpetuity of Infernal Torments is evinced and his both Goodness and Justice defended Also the nature of Punishments in General and of Infernal ones in particular displayed by R. Burthogge The Legacy of a Dying Mother to her Mourning Children Being the Experiences of Mrs. Susanna Bell Published by Tho. Brooks King James his Counterblast to Tobacco To which is added a Learned Discourse touching Tobacco by Dr. Maynwaring wherein men may see whether Tobacco be good for them or no. Strength in Weakness Being a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Martha Brooks late Wife to Mr. Thomas Brooks Minister of the Gospel To which is added some Experiences of the Grace and Dealings of God observed and gathered by a near Relation of the said Mrs. Brooks An Excellent Catechism by the late Reverend Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs A Discourse of Christs Coming and the Influence which the Expectation thereof hath on all manner of Holy Conversation and Godlin ss By Theophilus Gale The Shepherds Legacy or forty years experience of the Weather The Young Mans Conflict with and Victory over the Devil by Faith Or a true and perfect Relation of the Experiences of Tho. Powel begun in the fifteeenth and continued till the seventeenth year of his Age. Theological Treatises 1. Production of Mans Soul 2. Divine Predestination 3. The True Church Regiment 4. Predictions of Messias 5. Christs two Genealogies 6. The Revelation Revealed 7. Christs Millenary Reign 8. The Worlds Dissolution By Robert Velvain Christs certain and sudden Appearance to Judgement By Samuel Malbon A brief Descreption of New York and the Places thereto adjoyning with Directions and Advice to such as shall go thither By Dan. Denton A Cry for Labourers in Gods Harvest Being a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. Ralph Venning By R. Bragge Minister of the Gospel Christian Directions shewing how to walk with God all the day long By Tho. Gouge The Young Mâ—ns Guide through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan By Tho. Gouge Conscience the best Friend upon Earth or the Happy Effects of keeping a Good Conscience By Henry Stubbes Patience and its Perfect Work under sudden and sore Trials Orthodox Paradoxes Theoretical and Experimental or a Believer clearing Truth by seeming Contradictions With an Appendix of the Triumph of Assurance over the Law Sin World Wants c. To which is added The New Command Renewed or Love one another With Ten Rules for the right understanding of Scripture By R. Venning A. M. An Awakening Call from the Eternal God to the Vnconverted with seasonable Advice to them that are under Convictions to prevent their miscarrying in Conversion By Samuel Corbyn A. M. The Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of Praise A Treatise of preventing secret and unexpected Mercies with some mixt Reflections By S. Lee. FINIS