thee it is able to trouble the whole world how many can speak much to this the extremities that many awakened sinners have been brought unto have been very sad they have been struck down with Paul yea laid for dead brought into a despairing condition they have said and sigh'd yea sob'd it out also can such a wretch as I am hope for mercy did the Lord Jesus shed his precious bloud for such a vile sinner as I am Is it possible that my abominations should be pardoned that there should be any accepting grace for me for me who have been so great a sinner yea the chief of sinners a sile-leader in the black regiment of sin Oh much of this nature farre beyond what I felt or can expresse hath fallen from the lips and lain upon the Spirits of some of the Saints at their first awakening being in their own apprehensions irrecoverably undone hath this been any of your cases as sure it hath been Oh then how should your hearts be drawn out into thankfulnesse to the Lord when ye call to remembrance your fears and tears and terrours at your first conversion and then consider how welcome Consid 3 and unexpected grace mercy comfort and the good news of a Saviour were unto you in these bitter agonies O how welcome was Moses and his message of freedome from the Lord to the children of Israel when they were weary of their lives by reason of their hard bondage how welcome is a calme after a violent storm to the affrighted Mariner how pleasant is a bright morning after a black night to the wearied traveller and how doth the heart leap up to meet a message of mercy when 't is broken and even spent with misery when David said my foot slips then it follows thy mercy O Lord held me up and who can estimate the worth of succouring and supporting mercy at such a pinch the mothers eye is upon her child and her hand also to stay it from falling or to snatch it up so soon as down the child shall not cry long upon the ground in the mothers hearing and yet a mother may forget the son of her womb but God will not forget his children Isa 49. ver 15. So soon as ever Israel had cried our our bones are dried up and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Ezek. 37. ver 12. The Lord replies Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come forth of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel When the pangs of new birth are strong and violent even ad deliquium animae to the fainting of the soul then doth the comforter come in with his cordial spirits and stay 's up the sinking soul when the Jews laboured for life being stab'd to the very heart Peter presently applies the promise and brings forth the new birth in them Act. 2.38 when the Goaler was even sinking into hell Paul claps to him and stay 's him with this Gospel-assurance believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Act. 16. ver 31. And what follow 's did the plaister stick had the word any saving work upon this desparate wretch yea ver 34. he rejoyced believing in God with all his house here 's a strange and sudden change a blessed turn of things he that just now was upon the borders of hell is now brought within the suburbs of heaven in the joyful apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through Jesus Christ The out-goings of God in comforting his drooping Saints and his returns unto them after his withdrawings from them are not lesse or lesse refreshing How did the Spirit of the Church fail within her Cant. 5. ver 6. when she could not find her dear Redeemer in his wonted presence of joy and comfort yet at the end of the chapter she find's and feel's Christ in her soul and in a full sense of her interest in and her union with him breaks out into these joyful acclamations this is my beloved O ye daughters of Jerusalem and this is my friend memorable is the story of Mr. William Cooper a Scotch Divine who was early brought into Christ even when he was a School-boy and approved himself before God and good men to be a pious painful and profitable Pastour of the Lords flock his usual course being to preach sive times aweek but this could not secure him from Sachans buffettings being exercised with inward temptations and great variety of spiritual combats a short account whereof with the gracious returns of God in mercy to his soul I shall give you in his own words reported by Mr. Clark in vita patrum Once sayes he Mr. Clark in vita Patrum in great extremity of horrour and anguish of spirit when I had utterly given over and looking for nothing but confusion suddenly there did shine in the very twinkling of an eye the bright and lightsome countenance of God proclaiming peace and confirming it with invincible reasons Oh what a change was here in a moment the silly soul that was even now at the brink of the pit was instantly raised to heaven to have fellowship with God in Jesus Christ then was I touched with such a lively sense of a Divinity and power of a Godhead in mercy reconciled with man and with me in Christ as I trust my soul shall never forget Glory glory glory be to the joyful deliverer of my soul out of all her troubles forever How fully doth this president speak to the consideration proposed He that was under such an eclipse of light and comfort that his soul did almost dwell in silence now found such sweet and seasonable out-breakings of peace and joy from the presence of the Lord that were to him as life from the dead and gave him a blessed opportunity of praising God in the land of the living How many examples of the like nature may be gathered up and how many Saints now alive can bear witnesse to these things in their own experience how have the wounded in spirit found truth and healing in that passage Hos 16. ver 1 2 3. He hath torn and he will heal us he hath broken and he will bind us up after two dayes he will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord that his going forth in relieving and refreshing mercy to his distressed ones is prepared Note nay decreed as the morning First suddenly second certainly third comfortably past all possibility of disappointment Sathan and his agents may as easily hinder the day from dawning and the Sun from rising when the appointed minute for each is come both which are fixed by the unrepealable ordinance of the great Creatour Jer. 33. ver 20. as prevent the dawnings of comfort or darken the irradiations of the Son of righteousnesse when he is pleased to shine into
would observe the boundaries that the Lord himself hath set betwixt a called Ministery and a Christian Laity that in your undertaking of this great charge you would be much and earnest in your addresses unto God and be faithfull in discoursing over experienced mercies from God If you meet with sinners that are hardened in their wayes obstinate wilfull and sermon-proof tell them so it was with you I doubt not it hath been some of your cases but when the Lord came in upon you by the thorow convictions of his Spirit he awakened your consciences to such a sight of sin and sence of wrath filled your soules with such terrours from the Law and softened your hearts with such a shower of Gospel grace that you were immediately humbled broken and brought in you threw down your weapons begg'd a parly and submitted to the Lord Jesus You found such a strange and secret work upon your hearts that you cryed out with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. ver 6. and Ephraim-like Though you had been as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke yet now the Lord hath turned you and you are turned Jer. 31. ver 18. and tell them thus it will be with them if ever they have a conviction unto Conversion God will break their stomachs soften their iron sinews subdue their Gospel-enmity and give them a spirit of holy compliance with his blessed wayes and will and that God can bring forth this work in their hearts though obstinate and obdurate as well as he hath brought it forth upon yours and then they will be of another mind however at present they stand it out with that boldness and daringness of spirit against Law and Gospel If you meet with sinners whom the arrows of the Lord have wounded his Spirit hath throughly awakened and his Word hath filled with such sad apprehensions of sin and wrath that they cry out with them Acts 2. vers 37. Men and brethren what shall we do or with the Jaylour Acts 16. v. 30. Sirs what must I do to be saved tell them this was your case tell what methods of mercy the Lord used to the healing up of your wounds and to the quieting of your consciences that so they may be encouraged to the use of Gospel-means and to an hope of the same grace and goodness of the Lord towards them If you meet with as you will with many proud presumptuous Formalists that fill their sails with vain hopes of Salvation without any saving change wrought upon them without any inward principles of life light planted in them or without any lively Acts of Faith Repentance Self-denial Mortification c. put forth by them tell them this was your case you had the same perswasions you were such foolish Virgins and that then you thought your penny as good silver for heaven as the best deriding the precise Puritan and scoffing at the power of Godliness but when the Lord opened your eyes and shined into your soules with a beam of saving light you soon discovered your Errour how you had built upon the sand that your Infant-baptisme was but sand your outward Priviledges were but sand your Formal Profession was but sand yea all you built upon was but sand so that had death and Judgment like windes and waves forcibly beat upon your house it would certainly have fallen and you had been ruined to all eternity but now you have digged deep and laid your foundation sure upon a rock you have built upon a new foundation for heaven now you finde a new creation wrought in you now you mourn over those sins which formerly you made your selves merry with now you contest against those lusts which formerly you cherished now you are broken off from those lewd Companions with whom you were formerly bound up in wayes of sin now you act faith upon Jesus Christ for the pardon of sins rejoyce in him and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3. ver 3. Now you are convinced that grace is the onely way to glory and that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12. ver 14. you now owne Religion in all the duties of it love the Ordinances which formerly you loathed delight in the society of the Saints which formerly you derided maintain communion with God in the Spirit which formerly you mocked at and that now The God of hope hath filled you with peace and joy through believing Rom. 15. ver 13. and you find Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. ver 27. Pursue this method as the Lord puts opportunities into your hands and as you meet with new cases suit your experiences according to what you have been and now are and I doubt not you will finde encouraging success for though I honour the word I hope as much as any as having the greatest authority upon the consciences of men and as being the great instrument of new birth especially when it is faithfully dispensed by faithfull messengers Jesus Christ giving a clear proof of his speaking in them 2 Cor. 13. ver 3. yet certainly Christians as such though they do not invade the ministerial Office nor loosen one stone in that partition wall which Christ hath raised up with his own hands betwixt a called Ministery and converted Layity may be instrumental to much spiritual good among their carnal relations It was much that the Church did towards the gaining over the daughters of Jerusalem by her commendatory oration of Jesus Christ Cant. Chap. 5. For. Chap. 6. they put the question Whether is thy beloved gone Oh thou fairest among women whether is thy beloved turned that we may seek him with thee The woman of Samariah did much in ripening those fields which began to be white unto the harvest John 4. ver 28 29. compared with ver 39. Surely when the experiences of believers do run in a paralel line with the words and as counterpains do bear a full testimony to the truth of it men give a more willing entertainment unto it when they hear Christians affirm what Ministers assert men listen more after it Oh then break your pitchers that your candles may shine and give lights to the world Phil. 2 ver 15 16. holding forth the word of eternal life unto others in your several standings and capacities relative and religious And give me leave to lay down these considerations by way of inducement unto you Consider Con. 1. That the conversion of a sinner is a matter of great well-pleasingnesse unto God Isa 53. ver 10. it is termed the pleasure of the Lord ve-caphets Leigh Crit. Sacr. the will of the Lord that which he wills with greatest pleasure and delight it notes the highest content that may be to wit delight which is the intention and strength of affection hence Isa 62. ver 4. the Church is called Hephzibah that is my pleasure in her the parables of the lost sheep and lost son do fully evidence this
Luke 15. you cannot do a work that will find greater acceptation with God then acts of mercy Hos 6. ver 6. I desired mercy and not sacrifice the word in the Original is the same with that in Isaiah forementioned implying to will and desire a thing with a greatdelight and complacency Mr Eurroughs in Hos ver 6. pag. 599. so that a reverend Expositour upon the place brings in God speaking thus mercy is a thing so pleasing to me that I desire it at my heart nothing in the world is so pleasing to me as mercy shews that God had rather have it then all instituted ordinances and worships which by sacrifice are synechdochically meant and then instancing in cases of mercy His fourth case is the case of souls and that is in Christs case Mat. 9.13 Pag. 605. Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance we are ready to think that all things must give way to instituted worship but certainly immortall souls are of more worth then ordinances O surely the greatest act of mercy which we receive from God is our reconcilement to him whereby we are translated from darknesse into the kingdome of his dear son that being justified by his grace we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3. ver 7. and so the highest piece of mercy which we can shew to sinners for God is to be instrumentall in the saving of them bowels of mercy in us evidence Gods electing grace unto us Col. 3. ver 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy and sure we cannot shew more bowells in any act of mercy to man then in endeavouring his salvation Consider Consid 2. There is a great honour to the Lord Jesus Christ when sinners are savingly brought in unto him it is a jewell added to the glorious diadem of King Jesus Psal 45.3 David speaking in the spirit unto ' King Jesus bids him gird his sword upon his thigh which was the Ensign of his prowesse and regal power and adds with thy glory and thy Majesty implying that when people fall under him i. e. are converted and submit unto him it tends to advance his glorious Majesty Prov. 14. ver 28. In the multitude of people is the kings honour Zion and Babylon are the two great Empires of the world that under Christ this under Belial now one great part of Christs honour as he is King of Zion consists in the multitude of converts who being brought over from the devils quarters become his subjects it is said 1 Sam. 31. ver 12. That all the valiant men of Jabesh-Gilead went all night and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his sons from the walls of Bethshan and came and brought them to Jabesh let me allude this how is the glory of Christ advanced when all the valiant men Ministers and Christians go forth in the strength of the spirit of Christ to fetch off not the bodies onely but the souls also of men and women from Bethshan and bring them to Jabesh from sin to sanctity from Beth-aven to Bethel Converted ones are as Trophees after victory living monuments of honour to a conquering Christ Phil. 1.20 2 Thes 1.11 12. in the places where they live how then should the sence of that honour which is gained for Christ in gaining sinners from Sathan unto Christ act and spirit the Saints in this great undertaking Consid 3. Consider that the providences of God which have gone over and through these Nations in the years last past do speak the Saints duty and their hope of successe in what is now proposed how many storms of warre have been upon the land how fierce and full of rage hath the enemy been how many plots and engines of policy have been contrived how have men of popish and prophane principles and spirits struck at the very root of profession how have they designed the extirpation of the godly Being confident and insolent they bear their noses high in the air uttering loud and lofty languages as Rabshekah did 2 King 18. to which times this Psalme is referred by some Mr. Trap. in loc They that hate thee have lift up their heads I do not say nor think that all they which lifted up their heads in the late warres under the royall banner were haters of God nor of his people as such though they were lifted up very high in their mistaken zeal for Kingly interest and in conscience of the oath of God which they judged lay'd such obligations upon them yet certainly without any breach of charity we may boldly affirm that there were a company of men not inconsiderable for number who took crafty councel against the Lord's people and consulted against his hidden ones ver 3. and spake out doubtlesse their very hearts and desires come let us cut them off from being a nation or from having any place of residency in the nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance was not this attempted at least against the godly party as Schismaticks and rebells so I limit their attempt for we had many pittifull Parliamentarians who might have gone in the throng of the most ungodly Cayaliers and in likelyhood would have found favour both for life and estate if the issue of the warre had gone for the King and hath not the Lord broken them and their plots in pieces hath he not fastened his people as a nail in a sure place Isa 22. ver 23. what think you then are not these mercies obligations upon you from the Lord to pursue his honour are they not opportunities put into your hands to advise exhort and perswade your families friends and neighbours and help them to heaven O what a pattern of Gospel-charity is good Cornelius Act. 10. ver 24. He had called together his kinsfolks and near friends to partake with him in that word of salvation which Peter from the Lord was to bring unto him how desirous was he to take them all into the Gospel-wherry that they might all be wafted over to the Lord Jesus therefore ver 33. he tell 's Peter We are all here present before the Lord to hear all things that are commanded thee of God O that such a gaining spirit such a winning carriage was in all the Saints Indeed when Religion was under the hatches in the nation and the old Puritans were underlins in every town they might have feared Lot's return from the wicked Sodomites and that dogs would have snarled at them if they had given holy things unto them but now that godlinesse is advanced to the throne that the people of the God of Abraham are as Princes among the people Psal 47. ver 9. and that the Kingdome and the Dominion in a considerable measure is given to the people of the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. ver 27. they
make such returnes to him and his people though your excellency be not upon the Throne yet you are near unto it you stand in a publick capacity both Civil and Military and are eminent in both and so have great opportunities of doing good I hope you lose none I am sure you have improved many God hath led you to the second Chariot much in Josephs way be still a Joseph to the house of your brethren let the Israel of God be dear unto you be a covering Cherub over them and an Advocate for them they are a considerable number in the Land yea the most considerable in the Census of Heaven It was Job's Honour Iob 29.25 compared with Verses 15 16. when he sate chief and dwelt as a King in the midst of the Army to comfort the mourners to be eyes to the blinde feet to the lame and a father to the poor and your Excellency knows it will be your advantage Isa 59.6 7 8. to loose the bands of wickedness to undoe the heavie burdens to let the oppressed go free to break every yoke c. for then shall your light break forth as the morning and your health shall spring up speedily And your righteousness shall go before you the glory of the Lord shall be your Rereward Freedome from Oppression is a choice mercie and owned to be such by the poor whose flesh hath been torn by that iron tooth but 't is more eminentlie such upon a spiritual account and so owned by the Lords people whose soules have mourned and whose Consciences have bled under former Impositions a light burthen weighs heavy when 't is laid on weak shoulders and a little yoke presseth hard upon tender necks Tenderness of spirit when drawn forth unto right Objects is a fruit of Electing Grace Col. 3.12 a precious Cement to strengthen Communion of Saints and past all peradventure of rare use and real necessity that Christians of known integrity and of different perswasions in lesser matters may not be imposed upon but protected The Gospel spirit is a healing spirit a spirit of love and tenderness Jesus Christ will own those persons in an honourable way who carries his lambs in their bosomes that they may not become a prey to the Foxes and gently lead those that are big with young according to the right method and not beyond the bounds of Gospel-tenderness but 't is not the minde of Christ that seducing Jesabel should be suffered and 't is gravel in the teeth yea as a sword in the bones of many gracious ones to hear men of undermining Principles as to truth and of debauched practises as to holiness make use of names honourable before God and precious with good men as a shelter to themselves and blasphemies Cities of Refuge for such offenders are not set apart by God in his Israel nor is his Temple to be a Sanctuary for such Delinquents Zech. 13.2 The Lord cause the false Prophet and the unclean Spirit to pass out of the Land and ship them away to the Land of Shinar superadde this to his many mercies that he may turn to us a pure Language that we may serve him with one consent Zeph. 3.9 and that we may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Lord make your excellency eminently instrumental to repair Zions breaches and bless you out of Zion with peace and joy in your own spirit Heb. 12.22 23. and when you shall have served out your own generation according to his will receive you up into heavenly Jerusalem amongst the spirits of just men made perfect I shall shut up this Address Dear and Honoured with this one Request that you will accept the humble tender of real Respects in this smal bundle of goats hair was it better I know no persons in the world that can lay a fuller Challenge unto it then you can nor to whom I should more readily offer it then unto your selves If in the perusal of this Treatise you shall finde one spark to encrease your warmth of spirit for heaven and holiness own the Lord in it and let me be but a poor sheard in which the coal is brought from the hearth If any passage in it takes your soules aside and gives them a review of your Dangers and Deliverances offering any hint to direct or incite you to those Duties which the Lord calls for from his ransomed ones I have my end my Exspectations terminate in Gods glory and your spiritual good and growth The Lord make you progressive in Greatness but more in Grace that Religion in the life and spirit and power may be cherished in your hearts and houses that your practises may be a Paraphrase upon Psalm 101. your families may be Ecclesia Aula Schola as was the family of George Prince of Anhalt or like Cyrus his Court where if a man chose blind-fold he could not miss of a good man or like the Family of your Noble Parents where many were Proselited to the Faith and some now alive do own that Providence as happy which planted them under their roof That your children may keep up sincere Profession in your name and race and that the Lord who hath often delivered you out of the mouth of the Lion would deliver you out of every evil work and would preserve you unto his heavenly kingdome that you may be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy is the hearty Prayer of Your Worships Honours and Excellencies humble and devoted Servant in the Lords work and for his honour NATH WHITING To the Ransomed ones of the Lord with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Dear Friends WHen with my own people I thankfully owned before the Lord an eminent Deliverance from an imminent Danger I then entred uppon this Discourse which was suited to that Providence And having often reflected upon that signall mercy duely considering the opportunities of doing and receiving good which I have had since that gracious reprieve from death I have since drawn up my Meditations which then were short suddain and confused into a more enlarged orderly and methodicall Treatise I do not covet the applause of men nor court your Acceptance with strains of wit an affected Eloquence new lights put into a dark Lanthorne or Seraphicall Notions high and sublimate but present you with a plain and practical Discourss desiring to speak from the heart to the heart The Treatise is Tripartite thereby resembling the heart which is Triangular and 't is my single designe to endeavour that upon the points or corners of your hearts may be engraven your Dangers Deliverances and Duties that so the mercies of God which are Records of greatest Import may be preserved with greatest care and you may be provoked to act with greatest Conscience for God We cannot look back upon Adam in his lapsed Estate
but we may see a deluge of wrath breaking in upon whole mankinde at the breach of the first Covenant we cannot read over our own Diaries but we may read our own Dangers drawn up in black Characters of our sins as provoking God unto displeasure against us nay the times that lately passed over us presented us with danger from the sword of men in the heat of warr and now are we in dayly hazards from the arrows of the Almighty in various and violent distempers Again we cannot seriously study the Gospel but our great Deliverance from wrath to come by the precious bloud of our Crucified Jesus presents it self unto our view nor can we considerately survey our own Soules but we may read the counterpane thereof transcribed by the Eternal Spirit nor own Experiences but we may meet with large Volumes of eminent Deliverances personall and Nationall wrought for us by the outstretched arme of an Almighty God Again if we turn over those holy leaves of the Scriptures of Truth if we consult the Experiences of Gods people in the Ages that are past or seriously advise with our own spirits when in a right frame we shall finde many Duties charged upon us as our returnes to God for our great Deliverances The great God will not be a loser by his mercies he exspecteth some incomes into the bank of his glory if he have it not from us he will have it out upon us If we do not give it he will take it Deliverances are a great Talent put into the hands of men to trade withal for God They that lap up this Talent in a napkin by forgetfulness or squander it away by unsuitable actings heap guilt upon their own soules and shall be sure at the reckoning day to finde this sin as the Israelites did an ounce of their golden calf in all the rebukes of God upon them The sad Consideration whereof hath been and is much upon my heart and hath been a principall inducement to thrust this Treatise into the world which is not Polemical in the main intention of it my Standard bearing this Motto Zech. 8.19 LOVE THE TRVTH AND PEACE nor is it provoking I hope to any Iames 3.17 being the product of that wisdome which is first pure then peaceable c. I have avoided all bitterness that I might not stirr up any prejudice my business is to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you and to provoke unto love and good works as the genuine improvement of grace and mercy received I have not exactly methodised this Treatise nor cast it into the mould of the Title Page but laid down all Sermon-wise handling the Saints Dangers and Deliverances in the Doctrinall and their Duties in the Applicatory part of it in which I have respect as well to Spiritual as to Temporal Dangers and Deliverances and with respect to all as they stand in a personall or Relative capacity I will not Cramben bis coctam dare by Epitomizing in the Epistle what is largely pressed in the body of the Discourse I shall therefore onely entreat you to bewail before the Lord that root which bringeth forth wormwood and gall amongst us that discontent and sullenness of spirit by means whereof God is not owned in nor honoured for those glorious vouchsafements of mercy which have been matter of envie and astonishment in all the Nations about us that land-flood of corrupt Principles and practises which like a swift and spreading Torrent hath laid a great part of the Nation under water that spirit of bitterness and enmity against Godliness in the power and Religion in the purity of it and those sad divisions about which sadly hinder the work of a thorough Gospel-Reformation c. all which are sowre grapes yea clusters of Gomorrah and not such a Vintage which the Lord might reasonably exspect from a people of such rich mercies such signal preservations and under the enjoyment of such encouraging advantages as ours have been O that your souls would mourn in secret places for these things O that you were so affected with them that you would refuse your pleasant bread O that you would so reprove a carnal and careless Generation of men by your lively acttings for God that many yea all who have experienced the goodness of the Lord in eminent preservations may glorifie the name of the Lord by an Evangelical conversation that so the presence of God may still give us rest that our English Zion may be made an Eternal Excellency a joy of many generations Isay 60.15 18. that our walls through the divine Custodiency may still be called Salvation and our gates praise But though this spiritual Lethargy be incurable in many yet be ye O ye Ransomed ones of the Lord awakened unto duty and let the sense of mercy in the eminent appearances of God to your help in the daies of your distress carry you like wind and tide full sail in your zeal for his Glory in order to which I shall humbly offer these hints unto you and I entreat the people of my own charge to take special notice of them as being mainly intended for them 1. Be frequent in your reveiws of those feared dangers and fretting distempers those painful sicknesses and perplexing sorrows from which the good Hand of God has fetcht you gather up your dangers and deliverances your pressures and preservations how the Lord has granted you life and favour life with the comforts of it to make it sweet and desireable Iob 10.12 and his visitation has preserved your spirit has secured your lives in the midst of many dangers which surely have been many from infancy to gray hairs that so you may visite him in duty who hath so often visited you in mercy there are frequent visites past betwixt friends God is your best friend account that day lost wherein you do not visit him and keep up sweet communion with him It was a gallant speech of a brave man Marquess of Vico. accursed be that man who values the wealth of the world worth one daies communion with God Psal 34.2 4. and act up unto David's pattern I will bless the Lord at all times c. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my feares which were many and lay hard upon him when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech and acted the part of a mad man which so sober a person as David would not have done had not his fears been strong and his faith weak 2. Get your Spirits tinctured with a deep sense of that darkness which was upon you when day first broke upon your souls what desperate courses you were engaged in and out of what company the Lord pluckt you with whom ye were folded as thornes before conversion own the conduct of that providence whereby you have been led from Beth-haven to Beth-El from profane places and societies into such families such fellowships and Congregations where
and run into disorder Communion is broken Prayer is hindred mutual edification neglected Brotherly admonition will not be borne the weak are offended and the mouths of the wicked are opened wide in reproaches and calumnies 6. Preserve oneness in Judgment beware of dividing opinions and dividing in opinion Labour for stability in judgement for rooting in the faith It 's a great honour to be standing Christians in falling times be much and serious in searching the Scriptures much and serious in examining your grounds of profession Look often to your foundation be true to your own experiences Cant. 1.8 and recede not from your approved principles follow the foot-steps of the flock keep close to the Sheapheard tents conforme to the purest times the most primitive and Evangelical practises do not hastily leave the good old way meddle not with those that are given to changes in fundamentals Doctrinal or Practical Errour as one saies is a whirl-pool first turns men round and then sucks them in He has no sure standing who leaves the top of the hill Islebius Agricola the first Antinomian at last turned Papist How gradual has errour been amongst us unto what a monstrous bulk is Heresy now grown both as to persons and opinions which but a few years since was hardly visible now low did some begin who now are mounted upon the highest Pinacles O then stop the first leak least the Ship be immersed quench the first sparks least the maister-timber become a flame not onely keep but contend earnestly for the faith Iude 3. which was once delivered unto the Saints we are the trustees of Jesus Christ the treasure that is committed to our trust is very pretious above the vaule of heaven and earth in the account of the great Truster and that 's an obligation to faithfulness we are not to look onely to our selves but to posterity to that Doctrine which is transmitted to them one generation teacheth another and as we leave them Laws and other National priviledges so it would be sad if we should not be as carefull to leave them the Gospel O then as the Church is terrible as an army with banners so is she beautifull when she marcheth orderly under the Standard-Royal of truth and surely if we remember how we have rejoyced in the salvation of our God and in his name have set up our banners when formidable Armies were drawn up in great fury against us we cannot but charge blame upon our selves if we should forsake his Colours and fly to the painted Pageants of the Prince of darkness 7. Let not evil root in your hearts by the love of money Lay not up your treasures upon earth lest they keep your hearts too much out of heaven seek not great things for your selves with the neglect of greater Let not friendship with the world put you into a state of enmity with God Remember what a friend God was unto you in the midst of your late straits and dangers How little a value you set upon your stocks and lands your shops and trades in the heat of the late dreadfull Warrs how they that rejoyced were as though they rejoiced not they that bought as though they possessed not and will you now doat upon the world and put any trust in deceitfull riches What a sad presage is this of another War what a blemish upon Professours what a Reproach upon Religion There is no sin so contrary to a true Saint as earthly-mindedness whose Conversation ought to be in heaven his inheritance lying there O then roul away this reproach from you be content with food and raiment though none of the finest time was when you would have valued peace and the Gospel as choice mercies though with course dress and Diet make shift a while ere long you shall be cloathed with long white Robes clean and fine and shall drink of that wine which shall be ever new in the kingdome of your Father 8. Lastly Be most intent upon the quatuor nosissima the four last things Let your thoughts be much spent upon death these dying times by way of preparation that it may come without a sting and terrour to you of Judgment by way of preoccupation judging your selves here that you may not be judged hereafter of Hell by way of prevention waiting for and making sure your Interest in Jesus who will deliver you from wrath to come And of heaven by way of prelibation tasting the peace joy and comfort of that blessed Estate living upon the foretastes of heaven living up to the holiness of it and giving all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure that as the Lord hath given you an earnest of his mercy in temporal Preservation so the Lord may give you the full Treasures of his grace in everlasting Salvation To shut up all And indeed 't is time for according to the Rules of Architecture the two porches of it are much too big for the building my witness is in heaven that I covet not the applause of men I am not carried on by a popular spirit to make this publick nor do I designe it to that end which Absalon did his pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 The Lord I trust hath given me a name better then of sons and daughters Isa 56.5 Heb. 2.4 Zech. 1.4 but that like Abel's faith it may speak when I am dead The Prophets do they live for ever Alas we are earthen vessels soon dashed in pieces every Age hath born sad witness to this and none more then the present wherein many honourable vessels that were sanctified and made meet for the Masters use 1 Tim. 2.21 and prepared unto every good work are broken by the hand of heaven as earthen pitchers Lam. 4.2 the work of the hands of the Potter And therefore I have spared some hours from my ordinary pains and studies to prepare this Treatise That when the Lord shall silence me by death that my voice shall no more be heard from the Pulpit I may still speak to the people of God from the Press who are a people lying near my heart whose Stability in the Faith Union in Love Progress in holiness Growth in grace and further ripening for glory is the hearty desire of an unworthy Minister of the Gospel who is yours and the Churches servant in the Lords work N. Whitinge THE CONTENTS of this following TREATISE THE TEXT opened and analised Pages 1 2 3. Three Observations raised Observation 1. That the Saints of God pass through many dangers in this life page 4 1. This shews the folly of carnal men who boldly conclude from their present prosperous estate that they are in Gods favour 5 2. This meets with the mistake of those who think to sail up unto heaven upon a calme sea 6 3. This reproves those stony-ground Professours who cast off Christ when the Cross appears ib. Observation 2. That the people of God are sometimes cast upon such straits that all hopes of
this as the land-mark and boundary of your duty but make the voyce of his praise to be heard let it have an Eccho in the world by communicating and speaking over what and how deliverance came from the Lord unto you 3. He layes down the reason of this call to praise vers 9. because he holdeth our soul in life or puts our souls into life alas when a day of distress was upon us our hearts did even sinke within us life was gone joy was gone hope was gone and heart was gone too in some persons There is a strange recess and retirement of the soul under great and sudden calamities it lyes close like a poor debtor within doors the blood and spirits retire little of activity appears nay some in sudden surprizals have even dyed away into swooning through fear It was thus with Saul though a valiant Prince when he heard what evill was coming upon him 1 Sam. 28. vers 20. He fell streightway all along upon the earth and there was no strength in him And whence was this swouning fit why from fear he was fore afraid and why was he afraid because of the words of the Witches 2 Sam. 28.20 This was old Elies case when tidings were brought unto him that the Army of Israel was routed Hophni and Phinehas slain and the Ark of God taken 1 Sam. 4. vers 17 18. He fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck brake and he dyed I but here the Prophet saith God holdeth our souls in life or lives Be-chaiim and suffereth not our feet to be moved gives us a sure foot-hold and safe standing in our present peace and well-fare 4. He mentions the distress that were upon them in the nature and in the kind of them vers 10.11 Thou O God hast tryed us as silver is tryed How is that why in the fornace of affliction thou broughtest us into the net Thou layedst affliction upon our loins thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water How fully doth the carriages of former times paraphrase upon these verses How have the sufferings of many Saints ran parallel with these expressions but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place well-watered as the word implies a place of springs and rivers by which he means a prosperous estate in that full plenty and security which he with the Church then enjoyed And therefore vers 13 14. He speaks his sence of these mercies and the resolvedness of his spirit to act in thankfulness suitable to these engagements 5. I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings and will pay thee my vows which I promised with my lips and spake with my mouth when I was in trouble A good resolution of a gallant man Oh! that such a spirit in the power of it was upon us Did not I Did not others Did not Magistrates Did not Ministers protect promise covenant in the day of our distress Have we paid our vows Have we performed our promises The Lord help us to see and to humble our selves much before the Lord for our violations of promises and protestations both to God and man 6. He stands upon the mount of God and by way of proclamation calls in all the people of God that they may hear the stories of Gods mercies unto himself when he had mentioned the great things God had done for his Church he comes down to a particular narrative of what God had done for himself vers 16. Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul Le-myrheshi which word being of a doubtful signification and used for both soul and life in reference to things of a temporal and spiritual concernment we need not confine it to either 1. Ye have the holy summons Come a word of much use both in a good and in a bad sence there is in Scripture mentioned a religious come and a rebellious come the Saints have their come and the wicked have their come there 's too much of the last come in our days and too little of the first if there was more communion this come would be more used 2. The persons to whom the summon is directed exprest 1. By a particular Character they are such as fear God 2. By a note of universality they are all that fear God onely they that fear God and all they that fear God are summoned 3. Ye have the matter of the summons or the end wherefore the summons is sent forth and that is that he might in the audience of them all make a full and true report of what the great God hath done for his soul So that the words hold forth a double duty 1. To consider the mercies of God 2. To communicate the mercies of God You may see from hence That it is a duty by way of special incumbency upon the Lords people to commemmorate themselves and to communicate to others the vouchsafements of grace and mercy which they have had from the Lord as to fix the sense and remembrance of mercies received upon their own hearts so to give their hearts vent like full vessels in frequent mentioning their preservations unto others it is a commendable practice there is much of God in it It hath the seal of the best men it hath much in it that speaks men to be good and that makes good men much the better See the practice of the Lords people Psa 78.3 4. Which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children shewing to the generation to come or as some translation reads it But to the generation to come we will shew the praises of the Lord his power also and the wonderful works that he hath done parallel to this is that Isa 63.7 I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the promises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness to the house of Israel Memorare faciam Azkir I will improve my care and interest that the mercies of the Lord may be kept up in the minds and memories of his people so the Apostle 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. We would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above our strength insomuch that we dispaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us What a hystory of his personal dangers and deliverances doth he make 2 Cor. 11.23 to the end That to commemorate and communicate the mercies of God is our duty appears because it is of divine establishment it is the appointment of God himself he hath not left it Arbitrary nor is
creatures in its highest advancements and advantages yea from the multitude of mountains which Harim Metaphorically relate to the greatest persons and to thing of greatest height and excellency upon worldly accounts Mich. 6.2 Yea combined and associated they shall certainly fail in their hopes and meet with disappointments because Sheker it is in vain they lye or deal deceiptfully there 's falshood in their promises and feebleness in their power which is confidently asserted by that holy man Psal 62.9 Surely men of low degree are vanity Bem-Adam sons of Adam this being a common name to all mankind is used here for men low in the world in respect of estate or power which are as the valleys or hillocks of earth these are vanity little can be expected by way of help from them because of their emptiness who can expect water out of an empty vessel or safety from a mole-hill when a Cannon bullet flyeth at him But what shall we say to the great ones of the world Why men of high degree are a lye Beni-Ishi The sons of Ish men of highest advancements in the world are but a lye they will speak you fair no doubt David had many complements from Sauls Courtiers lift you up into great expectations by their plausible promises and pretensions but in a day of distress their words vanish into smoak and they appear to a needy petitioner as a dry lake to the thirsty traveller Oh! how sadly can thousands now alive with sad hearts bear witness to this truth And Oh that it were not a spot in Gods people What volumes may be writ upon this subject with the tears yea the blood of the oppressed The Lord humble us for this sin and so manage the spirit of our Rulers That they may loose the bands of wickedness under the heavy burdens let the oppressed go free and break every yoak then shall their light break forth as the morning and their health shall spring forth speedily their righteonsness shall go before them and the glory of the Lord shall be their Rere-ward Isa 58.6 8. Then shall the poor and oppressed say the Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice O England where Justice dwelleth See that Isa 9.10 The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones the Sicamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars They run from creature to creature and change creature for creature the weak for the strongest yea do what Art and Nature improved to the best advantage can do for safety but with what success truely very little For vers 12. The Syrians before and the Philistins behind shall devour Israel with open mouth So true is that Hos 5.13 applied to an expectancy of help from any creature disjunctively from God When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb or to the King that should plead their cause or their defender But how sped they Yet could he not heal you nor cure your wounds it is the way of carnal hearts to shift out to the creature for help in times of straights Mr. Burrogh in loc and a sad evidence of a carnal heart so to do But it is a truth handed down from father to son that creature-recumbency avileth not no healing no curing nay 't is not onely not encouraged with a blessing but thundered against with a curse Jer. 17.5 6. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord wherein doth this curse shew it self It followeth For he shall be like the Heath in the desart Heath-ground is usually barren but Heath-ground in a desart upon which nothing of cost or culture is spent addeth to the barrenness of it nay further And shall not see when good cometh the showers of mercy fall upon this place and the dews of good-will from the Lord distil upon this person in such or such comforts or enlargements I but creature-relyers shall not taste the least of all the noble mans punishment 2 King 7.2 shall be their portion They shall see it with their eyes but they shall not taste thereof no they shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited Oh apply this and let the consideration of this caution you from a creature-dependency use the means but do not trust in them there is nothing provoketh more to wrath nor rendereth the choisest means unserviceable more then this Oh! let us be humbled for this fault for sure it hath been much our fault and our folly which doubtless hath caused the Lord in displeasure to us to dash many excellent instruments in pieces like earthen pitchers and in all our creature-improvements let us wisely sail betwixt these two extreams in tempting of God and an overt rusting to means both which are very dangerous 4. Lastly Take heed of abusing providential appearances and preservations to wantonness by a neglect of those duties you owe to God for them besides the general there is a particular command and call to duty to holiness to repentance to faith to thankfulness c. in every mercy as in afflictions so in preservations the Lords voyce cryeth and the men of wisdome see his name they see and own God in this and that dispensation and hear the rod yea and hear the staffe too and take notice both who and wherefore he hath appointed it what the intendments of God are in such or such a providence otherwise the fruit yea and comforts of both are lost We must not behave our selves like children who when they perceive the hearts of their parents run out in a great deal of tenderness towards them take liberry from thence to play the wantons or Absolom like to act rebellion against them such a frame is very unsuitable to such dispensations and no wayes answering the intendments of the Father of mercies how ill the Lord resents this carriage is evident in many Scriptures See that Deut. 32. vers 10. He found him i.e. Israel in the wilderness he kept him as the apple of his eye I but vers 15. Jeshurum waxed fat and kicked as a wanton colt that is high fed and lusty turneth his heels upon his own damn so played Israel with the Lord his Maker God calleth him Jeshurum from Jashur rectitude or uprightness as expecting this from every true Israelite especially under such engaging providences but in what a cross way doth Israel walk how doth he turn the heels upon God both by murmuring Idolatry and manifold disobediences what then doth God take it well no vers 19. When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sins and daughters Oh! to be sons and daughters near and dear to the most high God under eminent discoveries of divine favour and yet kick this provokes unto great wrath read and inlarge this Scripture in your own thoughts God cannot indure to
now encouraged unto nay more you may lend that word of saving advice to a carnal neighbour which may be paid you in again by the bringing home of a Prodigal childe Your covenants for money run to you and to your heirs the Debt is not lost if your heirs receive it so your heirs may receive in a spiritual sense the Principal with the loan when you are dead happy is he who makes such provision for his children one whom you have in the way proposed brought off from vile and vicious courses may see a childe of yours when you are at rest running in the same wayes and tell him ah friend just thus it was with me I was running headlong upon mine own destruction and your Father pittied me reproved instructed advised me brought me off from my desperate wayes and put me into a good way for heaven And now I desire to shew the kindness of the Lord to you by dealing as plainly and faithfully with you as I was dealt with by your father and who knowes but the same course may through grace produce the same good effects If David remembred and requited the kindness of Jonathan in shewing love to his lame Mephibosheth after Jonathan's death why not the spirit of David stirre up bowels in those whom you have helped heaven-ward to requite that kindness in your lame Mephibosheth there is ground of hope 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort it beareth fruit unto eternity the savour of this ointment doth not spend it self in this life Apoc. 14. ver 13. Blessed are the dead that dy in the Lord their works follow them This work of mercy which you shew in converting a sinner from the errour of his way and saving a soul from death Jam. 5. ver 20. shall follow you to eternity it shall be had in everlasting remembrance it shall be registred in that book of Records which was writ before the Lord for those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Mal. 3. ver 16. They shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels The Prophet Daniel speaks fully to the Saints after recompence upon this accompt Dan. 12. ver 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament they that be teachingly wise of Mascil that do prudently instruct so it propperly referres to the teaching Ministery but may not unfitly be referred unto instructing Christians and I hope without any force to the Word or any violence offered to a called Ministery Now wherein doth the wisdom of the wise shew it self so as to entitle them to this firmamental brightness why the onely wise among the sonnes of men doth determine it Prov. 11. ver 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life the genuine fruit of the righteous is to bring forth life in those he converseth with Salvation wisdome is the highest wisdome and he that winneth soules is by the Holy Ghost stiled Chacam the wise man and indeed Daniel himself expoundeth it to the same sence and they that turn many unto righteousness as the starres for ever Though there be some difficulty in this Text and some difference among expositours about the sense of it yet sure I may with much safety offer these positions from it 1. That man by nature runs off from his primitive and created righteousness unto by-paths of sin and unrighteousness This is clearly supposed 2. That Conversion mainly consisteth in our turning from sin unto righteousness from the power of Sathan unto God 3. That men are instrumental in the conversion of men to wit in turning them from sin to righteousness 4. That this turning of men from sin to righteousness hath a sure promise of future honour 5. That the work of Conversion is not onely limitted to a teaching Ministery it is not so proper to them as that it is exclusive to all others to have any hand or instrumentality in it Read Mr. Baxter in his Gild. salv Page 469 470 471. It was much that the woman of Samaria did towards the gathering of those fields which our Saviour saw beginning to be white as they that read John 4. may observe an unlikely means to effect so great a matter but what 's that to the Almighty as Mr. Trap speaks and brings in Junius professing that the first thing that turned him from Atheisme was conference with a country-man of his not farre frrom Florence enquire into Acts and Monum Fol. 767. Experience doth very much confirme this many servants may bless God who brought them under godly acquaintance I hope none will think that by this I derogate ought from the office of a called Ministery if the seed be sown by others it is ripened by them If the first course of stones be laid by others the building is finished by them Eph. 4. v. 12. a called Ministery doth perfect the Saints and edifie or build up the body of Christ If others are instrumental to their spirituall birth yet the Ministery goes forth in the spirit and power of Elias to make them ready as a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. ver 17. and that though men have ten thousand Instructours yet a Godly Ministery doth in Christ Jesus beget them through the Gospel that is perfect the birth 1 Cor. 4. ver 15. the Spirit makes the seed of the Word by them prolifical and generative 6. That the honour of converting sinners unto God shall be an everlasting honour 1 Pet. 5. ver 4. ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away But I desire the Reader not to mistake me herein as though 1. I did positively assert that none can subserve to the conversion of others Aliorum salutem sedulo nunquam curabit qui suam negligit Calvin in Act. 20. ver 28. who are unconverted themselves though some think and I among the rest also that God will not honour at least very rarely doth the Ministery of an unregenerate person with the Conversion of others though the called ones may be comforted and farther built up by gifted Ministers yet I think Instances be but rare of second-birth-Christians who call them Fathers 2. Neither do I affirme that to be instrumental in the saving of others hath any thing of merit in it toward the saving of a mans self 3. Nor that it is evidence enough in it self for heaven so that he who hath the seal of his Ministry may without farther enquiry into his own estate conclude he hath the seal of the living God in his forehead and is upon that single account sure of heaven 4. Nor that we should be so wholly taken up with the saving of others as to neglect our own salvation 5. Nor that the glory of them who are subservient through grace to the conversion of sinners shall exceed the glory of all other Saints for though different degrees of glory be clear 1 Cor. 15. ver 41. yet to lay the ground of that
and shall they not be much more upon a saving account was the red sea dried up a pathway made through the wilderness Jordan made fordable and the Cananites slain even with hailstones from heaven and all this to give Israel possession of an earthly Canaan and shall not the outgoings of grace and outstretching of power be much more glorious to bring us to heavenly Canaan to that City which hath foundations and walls whose builder and maker is God Oh! reason up faith and hope to an exspectancy of after blessedness by considering the blessed presence and good will of him that dwelt in the bush in present comforts present succours and present deliverances I shall onely propose the presidency of Saint Paul under a remarkeable preservation even from the Tyrant Nero 2 Tim. 4. ver 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord will deliver me out of every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdome You may find much of this in David arguing from temporalls to eternals observe that Psal 23. ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever which sometimes is taken for heaven Domus majestatis that upper house that house of State in which Christ sayes John 14. ver 2. There are many mansions Saint Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. ver 1. an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so Psal 17. ver ult Oh in all your sinkings of spirit let the sense of mercy received be as a cordial unto you and assure your selves that if in famine sword peril nakedness c. ye have been more then conquerours through Christ that loved you get up your hearts to this perswasion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord Rom. 8. ver 37.38 39. or hinder you of heavens happiness which is the fruit of Gods Electing love and the purchase of the Redeeming love of Jesus Christ your Lord O then comfort one another with these words I am come now to the fifth and last Use Is it so that the best of Saints are often brought into suffering conditions that their afflictions are sharp and violent that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to their help in the day of their distress Is this a truth attested by the experience of Saints in all ages and cannot their enemies deny this why then here is a rod for the backs of fools a sharp reproof for the profane and carnal world in 3 Particulars 1. It reproves them for their uncharitable censuring of the suffering Saints what more usual then for wicked men to entertain hard thoughts and let fly in harsh speeches against the people of God in distress measuring their sinnes by their sufferings and if their calamities exceed others their iniquities exceed them also laying down this false position that the greatest sufferers are sinners and that when the rod is most the wrath of God is most also not considering that of the Apostle Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth laying down an exemption from the rod as a note of Bastardie or that Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten This was practised by Shimei in that great day of Davids distress when he fled from his rebellious son 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Come out come out thou bloudy man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the bloud of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the kingdome into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken to thy mischief or taken into thy wickedness because thou art a murtherer as some Translations read it and as agrees with the Hebrew This was the Interpretation that Eliphaz put upon Job's sufferings Job 4.7 8. Rememember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same thereby wounding him in his holiness and heart-sincerity yea upon the matter charging him to be a son of Belial and that because God was now writing such bitter things in the bloud of his cattel servants and children yea in black characters of sore displeasure upon his own body It was not much to be heeded that the Barbarians fastened the guilt of murther upon Paul because the viper fastened upon his hand Acts 28. ver 4. But that the viper should fasten upon the hearts of men and women under the same common Profession with us that the venom of the old Serpent should swell to such a degree of censuring and uncharitableness is much to be lamented and doubtless some will smart for these hard speeches when Jesus Christ shall come with ten thousands of his saints Jude ver 14 15. Then shall they know the English of that Text 1 Pet. 1.6 and the ends of God in afflicting his precious ones 2. For their unjust charge of Hypocrisie upon them who so envious as evil men who are so much the objects of their envy as the godly are and why is their malice so much against them surely it is upon the account of Religion of differencing Grace and holiness This was the seed of the first quarrel betwixt man and man this was that which made Cain a fratricide and wherefore slew he his brother because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous 1 John 3.12 and now though the laws of men and the power of God restrain wicked men from murdering the godly yet they shed the bloud of their soules and slay their sincerity by charging Hypocrisie upon them which is the highest degree of murther and that which the seed of Cain shall one day pay dearly for But what makes them so bold to call the Saints Hypocrites what colour have they for such a charge or what ground have they thus to traduce the sincere servants of the Lord why the false gloss they put upon the humbling Providences of God they expound unsoundness of body in them to an infallible Evidence of an unsound spirit rottenness in their bones to be the proper fruit of a rotten heart and that the voyce of the Lord in their present sufferings doth fully speak all their professing praying watching waiting humility and holiness to be but mere dissembling what do the arguings and deportments of Job's three friends import and in special that passage of Bildad Job 8.6 7. to the end of the Chapter If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make thy righteousness prosperous What doth this Hypothesis this uncharitable Supposition import but a secret charge of Hypocrisie may it not be sensed thus ah Job thou wantest that heart-purity and
providence of God since reformation first began in the long Parliament be much admired and the Lord be thankfully adored for it and may we not own a remnant in the Land as a blessing from the Lord who stood in the gap Nay farther it is upon the account of the Saints that the world continues that the fire of God doth not kindle upon the whole Creation which is combustible to melt the heavens and burn up the earth with the works that are therein the floud of waters was onely respited until Noah and his family were secured in the Ark which being done the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windowes of heaven were opened Gen. 7. ver 11. When Lot was entred into Zoar then the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom Gen. 19. ver 23 24. 2 Pet. 3. v. 9. The Lord is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any of his should perish but when the whole election is brought in then cometh the end when the sealing Angel Apoc. 7. ver 1 2 3. had sealed the servants of God in their foreheads then had the four Angels that stood on the four corners of the earth full commission to fall pel mel upon the earth It will be a dooms day with the world when the cloudes shall catch up the elect to meet their Lord in the air 1 Thess 4. vers 17. 5. And Lastly The Saints of God may mostly advantage their carnal neighbours in promoting their conversion herein they would shew themselves friends indeed if they would use all humble and earnest endeavours to bring them home to God The Judicial Law commanded every Israelite to bring a straying ox or ass home to his master How much more doth the Law of God and Christian love oblige every true Israelite indeed to bring a straggling Prodigal home to his Fathers house All the Saints own it as their duty to glorifie God in their generation and wherein can they bring more glory to God then in helping soules to heaven and how can they find out a readier way to effect this great business then by telling Vnless the Lord had been their help their soules had well nigh dwelt in silence by making a faithfull narrative of their own conditions by nature and by grace when and how the goodness of the Lord was made known unto them upon a saving account Some of the Saints I may boldly affirm have taken this course and prospered Oh that this might be a word from the Lord to awaken up all to this great duty my soul even bleedeth within me to observe the general neglect and great aversness of most to this great business some think their gifts too low and their parts too inconsiderable to carry on a design of this importance others have such honorable thoughts of a Gospel Ministery rightly called and qualified that they judg the anointing of the Lord to be upon them onely for that work and therefore will not take their work out of their hand least they should sin in such an attempt Others cry out let them do the work who receive the wages as though they worked onely for wages which is a very unjust and uncharitable censure Some there be that go higher yet who bid the Ministers sit still for they can do the work better then they and load them with many foul aspersions that they may the better get their work out of their hands I mean their people from under their Ministerial care and oversight indeed the distemper is very sad at this day in the Nation and not a few fall under this last classis I think in no Nation more the Lord rebuke that bold and blaspemous spirit which is gone abroad humble us for our sinnes and shew us the pattern of his house in all the in-goings out-goings and ordinances of it that men of daring spirits may be bounded I like not an invasion upon the Ministry so as to destroy the office of it nor yet an intrusion unto it by men not duly called unto it neither that any who are not in some measure of Gospel-fitness qualified for it should be thrust or thrust themselves upon a people though called by man unto it much less that any should improve their gifts to set up themselves and throw down the faithfull Ministry in the hearts and affections of people least of all that any should be suffered much more encouraged who corrupt the truths and people of God who bring in damnable heresies to draw away disciples after them by reason of whome the way of truth is evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2. vers 1 2. formerly made good in those reproaches which were cast upon Religion by the Pagans in the Primitive times and are now cast upon it amongst us by Papists and carnal Professours and both upon the account of Heresies and therefore as I owne the office of a Pastor as distinct from the people being the great bequeathment of the Lord Jesus to his Church and for the spiritual edification of his Church Eph. 4. ver 8 11 12. Bless God for those able pens who have with much learning gravitie weightiness of Arguments and evidence of divine truth propugned and asserted it in these times of great opposition and also thankfully acknowledg the integrity and faithfulness of the Civil and Supream power which hath been as a covering Cherub to the godly Ministery notwithstanding the many temptations which have been upon them to the contrary so as a suitable return both to God and good men I make it my humble proposal to my reverend brethren of the Ministery that they would strengthen the hands of the Lords people and by encouraging Arguments quicken them up to lay out themselves in their several capacities and in a wise improvement in their several advantages to win over sinners unto God If Eldad and Medad prophesie in the camp why should Joshua dislike it my Lord Moses forbid them Numb 11. ver 25 26. If the Christians of our respective Congregations should keep up private communion amongst themselves at due times and in due order or if sober and experienced Christians should minister words of advice and exhortation to their carnal neighbours provided they do it out of right principles to right ends and in a a due manner would it not hear ill if we should cry to my Lord Moses to forbid them rather let us say Would God that all the Lords people were Prophets Ver. 29. and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them that they may receive abilities from God to minister unto others That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4. ver 12. O then my dear Christian brethren rise up in the name and might of our Lord Jesus Christ seek the eternal welfare of your carnall neighbours I will not enlarge upon directions for the right management of this great duty onely entreat you that with modesty and Christian sobriety you