Prayer in the text is noted to be a stirring duty there 's none that stirreth up himself there 's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself Had they prayed and prayed as they ought this would have stirred them up or have been their stirring up them selves to take hold of God But neglecting to pray they therein neglected to stir up themselves Prayer is a stirring duty 1. 'T is to stir up the Lord to their help Ps 35.23 Stir up thy self and awaken to my judgment my God and my Lord. Ps 80.2 O Shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth stir up thy strength and come to save us The God of Israel sometimes seems to be as Elijah once said mocking of that false God Baal 1 Kings 18.27 It may be he is asleep and must be awakened Though he be the keeper of Israel and never slumbreth nor sleepeth yet he sometimes carries it towards them as if he were asleep and expects to be awakened by their cries upon him 2. Especially prayer is for the stirring up our selves There is a sort of praying dull and cold and formal praying that 's good for nothing but to lay our souls asleep When conscience begins to stir and run upon sinners and fright them for their neglect of God then they will to their prayers and blind devotions and this must serve them as a charm to allay and quiet conscience as Davids Musick did to drive away that evil spirit that vexed Saul Some sinners consciences will not let them be quiet but dog them and haunt them and fright them into something of religion they dare not live without calling upon God their consciences will not suffer them to be quiet under a total neglect and thereupon something must be done which they can call praying and then they are at ease and can go on quietly in their sins without trouble or disturbance these mens praying serves them for nothing but to lull them asleep in their sins But prayer rightly performed will stirr and awaken prayer is said to be a striving with God Rom. 15.30 a wrestling with God Gen. 32 24. and this is our most effectually striving with God and wrestling with God our striving and wrestling with and stirring up our own hearts Praying is not the saying of some good words but the calling up all our powers to come in and joyn in seeking the Lord. That you may particularly understand what a stirring duty Prayer is consider 1. That in Prayer we set our selves under the Eye of the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth It is a drawing night unto God a lifting up our Eyes to the Everlasting hills a presenting our selves before the throne of God the throne of his Grace a setting all the Attributes of God before our Eyes his Allmightiness his Allsufficiency his infinite greatness dreadfulness goodness and grace which all make up that fearful Name the Lord our God Deut 28.58 and sure Friends such a sight of the glorious and dreadful God will be a stirring sight 2. In Prayer we come to deal with God about all the wonderful and astonishing things of Eternity we are to have eternal life and death in our Eye when we pray and what will stir us if Eternity if a sense that we are now treating with the Eternal God about the eternal things will not O a sense of this that we are begging for our lives begging for our immortal Souls begging the everlasting Kingdom seeking our escape from the everlasting Fire a deep sense of this upon our hearts will awaken them 3 In Prayer there is a ripping open all the affrightning Evils that are in our Hearts Confession unbowels the Soul and fetches up all the filth and rottenness of the Heart lays open all the deadly Diseases that are in the Heart every wicked thought and filthy lust and vile affection all the falshood and Hypocrisie all the pride and malice and envy and frowardness of the Heart are in our confessions brought forth and laid open before the Lord. The Devils are rouz'd that lodged within us and were taken too little Notice of and all the hazard and danger that our Souls are in by these our wickednesses will in our confessions be made to stand before our Eyes and there cannot be such a discovering of our wicked Hearts and our danger that we are in but it will affright and awaken us 4. Prayer is the uniting of all our powers and the engaging them all in seeking the Lord. It strains every string it bends all our forces upon the duty it sets all our faculties our understandings our memories our wills our affections our consciences on work as the Psalmist Ps 103.1 Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Pray to the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me call upon his Name Prayer is not tongue-work or knee-work but Soul-work bless the Lord O my Soul and 't is not a peice of an Heart one string of the Instrument but every string must be strained and struck up understanding memory will affections all must joyn all that is within me bless his holy Name All our faculties and all our graces our faith our love our hope our desires whatever we have of God within us all must be called forth to joyn in seeking of him 5. Prayer is not only the employing and exercising our Souls with all their faculties and graces but the putting them forth to the height not only the striking every string but the straining every string to the height the word in the original which is translated Acts. 12.5 Prayer without ceasing signifies instant earnest Prayer or more properly according to the notation of the word strained Prayer prayer stretched out and this is that praying which is stirring praying the pouring forth our Soul in Prayer With my Soul have I desired thee Is 26.9 the straining and working up all within us every faculty and grace of our Hearts to the height the stirring up all our strength in the work this is that Praying instantly required Rom. 12.12 that praying fervently Jam. 5.16 that crying and crying mightily unto God unto which the Scriptures promise Audience Now when Prayer hath thus rouzed up our sleepy Souls set all our Faculties and Graces a stirring within us and so gotten an heat in the heart by the joynt and vigorous exercise of all within us in the duty when we have prayed our Souls awake and all our Graces awake and our Heart is waxen hot within us we are therein prepared and put in a readiness and disposedness to and shall feel our selves bent upon the practise of every holy duty in our whole course This therefore is my next direction put upon Praying and such stirring Praying Go set the Lord and all his Glory before your Eyes and get a sense of eternity upon your Hearts rip open and lay
Iniquities are multiplied our Iniquities are marked before the Lord and have mark'd us out for a company of unclean and polluted souls we cannot hide it and we will not hide it we can neither hide nor lessen it 't is too true 't is too evident we must confess it and we will confess it that we are a naughty People not so bad as others Why others never pretended to any good never made that Profession that we have made never had the advantages that we have had there can be no excuse for us we should have been better and we might have been better but what ever we should have been or might have been we are very bad we are all as an unclean thing Thus did that great Apostle when he speaks of Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Of whom sayes he I am chief Friends whatever your faults are do not mince the matter do not count your errors little Errors your Sins little Sins Be sure of this that mincing is not the way to mending Shame your selves before the Lord abase your selves in his sight study the greatness of those you count your little sins rip open your hearts and find out what a nest of Wickedness is there ransack your ways and see what a course of Folly and Vanity is to be found there and do not go about to hide them He that covereth his Sins shall not prosper Prov. 28.13 Do not go about to hide them but confess them and spread them before the Lord till your soul be ashamed O that this Word might send us to our homes every one of us with an aking heart and a blushing face that it might make us all fall down before our God with Ezra's words in our mouth Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our Iniquities are increased over our head and our Trespasses are grown up unto the Heavens Let us blush at our Hypocrisie let us blush at our Luke-warmness let us blush at our Worldlines and Carnality let us blush in our Prayers let us go blushing home and weeping as we go let us acknowledge we all are as an unclean thing and our Righteousness is as filthy Rags Doct. 3. Consumption upon Professors is the high way to Confusion and Dissipation If we wither and fade as a Leaf our Iniquities as the wind will scatter and drive us away If grey hairs be upon us death and destruction is near Beloved you can hardly be ignorant what complaints there are even from all quarters of our Land what a decay there is grown even every where upon Professors of Religion and whether this consuming Disease hath not seized upon many of us here I leave it to your own Consciences to judge the consideration hereof hath engaged me to enlarge on this subject beyond what I at first intended and I beseech you every one to set your hearts upon the words I shall speak so as both to make a narrow enquiery each one into himself whether you be grown into such a decay and to endeavour for a speedy recovery I remember how it hath been with this Congregation when our Assembling together was in one place what a glorious and hopeful Morning appeared What a Spring-tide there was of Converts flowing in to the Lord and what a day-light of warm and holy affections then brake forth amongst us whether our day hath continued its brightness accordring to the spring of our Morning let us sadly consider before the Lord. Now in prosecution of the Doctrine mention'd I shall first a little open this consuming Disease to you and shew you that even Christians may be sadly surprized by it and then shew you that where it proves Epidemical and General there this Consumption is a fore-runner of confusion For the first know there is a two-fold decay or consumption in Religion Partial Total 1. Paertial or gradual a declining or consuming in some degree a growing into a worse case than sometimes we were a growing weak and cold and remiss in our Religion an abateing or loosing our former care strength life affection and vigour of soul and this may be incident to real Christians who are subject to decay Inwardly Outwardly 1. Inwardly in the case and state of their souls in the inward Man they may be Back-sliders in heart as the expression is Prov. 14.14 Particularly 1. There may be a shaking of their Faith The principles and foundations of Christianity may be shaken there may be a failing of the firmness of their belief of the truth of the Gospel and some declinings towards Infidelity and Atheism Of Himeneus and Philetus 't is said 2 Tim. 2.18 that they erred concerning the truth and overthrew the Faith of some and as they overthrew the Faith of some so probably they might shake the Faith of more 2. There may be a decay or wearing out the sense of the importance of those truths of the Gospel that they do believe Though the Gospel may still be received as an undoubted and unquestionable truth though the evidence of its truth may be so clear as that they cannot contradict or question it yet the weight of it may not be so much felt upon their hearts the truths believed may not be so much minded nor so throughly considered as to leave any powerful impressions of them upon their hearts Those great things the worth and value of a soul the dreadfulness of loosing a soul the danger that they are in of loosing their souls the excellency and necessity of Christ the eternal weight of glory the everlasting Vengeance of God against the Unrighteousness of Men though all these things be believed and acknowledged yet they may not for the time be so duly minded and meditated on they may be so much out of their eye out of their thoughts that the sense of them and the efficacy of that sense may seem even to be utterly lost Friends 't is not the being of these great things no nor the bare believing that they are but the minding and frequent considering them the having that height and depth that life and death in our eye that will affect and work upon the heart and Christians through their own carelesness and heedlesness may have even lost the sight both of Heaven and Hell Things present may have so filled and overpower'd their hearts as to put things to come quite out of mind the heart may be so bewitch'd by this present world so surrounded with a croud of carnal pleasures and delights so swallowed up of worldly cares and contrivances so intent upon our worldly business and commodity that we may hereupon drive so heavily on in the matters of Eternity as if we had forgotten that we had a Christ or a soul to be minded 3. There may be a decay as of ther Faith as before so of all other their inward Graces and vital operations Hence 't is that the Apostle prays so earnestly for them 1 Pet. 5.10
where we must eternally reap the fruit of our doings here Do we live as Men that have that Eternity in our eye and the lively sense upon our hearts of that Death and Judgment that glorious Reward and eternal Punishment that is before us Sure we do not O how few of us do thus live Do we Pray and Hear and Buy and Sell and Converse in the World as Men that see and look for so great a change Was there never a time when we felt more of the Eternal things upon our hearts than now Was there never a time when we were more serious and in good earnest in our Religion When we were more deeply engaged in laying up Treasure in Heaven and making an escape from the Wrath to come Was there never a time when such serious questions What must I do to be Saved What if I should be Damned shut out of the everlasting Kingdom shut up in everlasting darkness What may I do to please God and to walk worthy of his holy Calling and to make sure of a part in Christ Was there never a time when such Questions were more ordinarily put than now and when we were more solicitous about the having them answered 2. How is it with our particular Graces and inward vital Operations Do we retain our first Faith Do we hold out in our first Love Where are those warm and lively affections that discovered themselves in the infancy of our new Birth Time was when some of us were all in a flame of Love and Life and Zeal for God when we had melting affections mourning tender hearts when our spirits were hotly working within us about God and the things of God when we could not live nor be at ease but under the influences of Heaven and the illapses and intimations of the Divine Love and good will to our souls when Communion with God and entercourses with Heaven were sweeter to us than our appointed Food was there never such a time with some of you And is it so now Or are not these matters sadly changed with you from what they once were May you not say with the Psalmist Psal 77.3.5 I remember the days of old and am troubled I remember my pleasant things my pleasant Houses the sweet and delightful entercourses I had with the Lord I remember these things and am troubled to see what a fall there is from what once I enjoyed 3. And how is it in your duties and in your lives Is the old spirit of Prayer kept up with you Hath the Lord such constant Visits such affectionate Visits from you as he was wont to have Are your Sighs are your Tears are your Souls poured out in Praying and in striving and wrestling with the Lord in Prayer as formerly they have been And is there such a vein of serious Religion running through your whole lives Do you eat and drink work together and converse together in the Spirituality and singleness of heart which the Primitive Christians did Act. 2.46 and which sometimes some of you did Is it your care to exhort and quicken and build up and provoke one another to love and to good works Is there that Watchfulness over your goings that diligence in instructing in governing and educating your Families in the fear and knowledge and worship of God as hath been Or must you not take up a Lamentation over your selves and fall to judging and condemning your selves some of you at least upon most of these accounts and cry out in bitterness O my soul how art thou fallen Friends let not these words pass as words of course let them enter into your hearts and stick in your sides and be a wound in your very souls Let me upon all this that hath been said put the question yet again to you all How is it with you How is it with your souls What do ye hold your own or are ye at a loss What Prospering or Perishing Flourishing or Withering Upon the wing and mounting upwards as the Eagles or upon the Dust with the Worms Friends pray consider who among you can say I thank the Lord my soul is upon the increasing hand through the grace of God my Soul is maintained in Life and I am reaching forward and getting a little ground Heaven-ward daily through rich mercy the Grace that hath been bestowed on me hath not been bestowed in vain I cannot deny the goodness of God to me I have good hopes that it 's something better with me than it has been Some of you I hope can speak thus to the praise of the glory of the grace of God with you But I fear too many even of you that are Professors must give a sadder Answer How is it with my soul O the Lord be merciful to me 't is but in a poor and pittiful case Lord I pine Lord I am fallen I am fallen With my outward man 't is well enough but O mine inner man withers my Religion vanisheth my poor soul languisheth my grace perisheth much of it is lost and that which remains is dying daily I took it all along to be well enough but now I think on 't O 't is a miserable decay that is grown upon me Beloved I have told you already what complaints there are of decays from other places and now consider is not the Moth come into this Congregation Is not the Worm eating at our root also Compare the present spirit and temper that is too generally upon us with what it was in our first meetings at Seimours Court sure there appeared another manner of warm lively serious affectionate spirit then than is to be found but in very few of us at this day What hath so many years Preaching and Praying and Sacraments we have had since had no better success than this Have you been hearing all this while to your loss and Praying to your loss and had Sacraments to your loss O that every one of you now would lay his hand on his own heart and faithfully enquire where be the decayed souls among us Lord is it I Lord am not I one of them Do not think now to excuse the matter do not tell me we hope 't is not so bad your fear of us is more than you have ground for O that I were mistaken in you that it were better with you then according to my Jealousies But I must tell you if you have not the same fears some of you concerning your selves I doubt 't is because you have no more observed your selves nor so throughly considered your selves how 't is with you Well let these hints humble us and lay us low before the Lord. Let these words startle us and awaken us and prepare us towards our recovery Thus much touching the partial decay 2. There is a total decay or Apostasie from the Faith If those that are real Christians do not yet many high Professors may ye and are become Apostates from Christ Such as these 1. Never brought
time to look about me 't is high time to bestir me What shall I always loyter and trifle as I have done hitherto Shall I never take more care and more pains and be more busie for God and my Soul than I have hitherto been 'T is high time 't is high time to awaken and put on I may no longer live the rest of my time in the Flesh The time past of my life may suffice me to have wrought the will of the Gentiles As the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 3. The time past may suffice me It is enough it is long enough that I have liv'd this carnal life O 't is more then enough 't is too long 't is a shame that I have lived under the profession of Christianity so long as I have and yet my soul be brought to no better pass O 't is time that I awaken and bestir my self to amend my pace Cry out thus upon your selves awaken O my soul in time 't is time 't is high time 't is more than time to look about thee come my lazy heart up and be doing And if it be time to get more Grace than ever I had sure 't is high time to set to recovering what once I had and have now lost Is my soul at a loss and shall I always sit down by the loss Much I have lost already and shall I go on losing and losing till I have lost all Friends we cry unto you remember whence you have fallen and Repent recover your first love do your first works and when you will take the cry from our mouths and cry thus upon your selves then there 's hopes ye will recover 3. In crying unto the Lord for his help If Ministers cannot stir you if Conscience cannot stir you if ye cannot awaken your selves nor recover your selves yet the Lord God can do it the helper of Isâ—ael can help you Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Isa 55.6 Before you be too far gone before your case grow desperate whilst the Lord is at hand calling upon you now seek out to him Go to the Physitian of souls He can cure every Disease and thy Disease the Consumption of the heart Behold thou art in a Consumption not of the Liver or Lungs or Reins the Consumption of the Heart is upon thee and this Consumption no other Physitian can cure but the Physitian of Souls What-ever other Physitian thou goest to with the neglect of him thou wilt find them all Physitians of no value what-ever other course thou takest with the neglect of seeking God he will say to thee as Jer. 46.11 In vain shalt thou use many Medicines for thou shalt not be cured Go to God for thy languishing soul cry unto Him lift up thine heart with thy might pour forth thy very soul in thy Prayers Lord I am fallen Lord I pine my soul languisheth my Faith faileth my Beauty is withered my Spirit is wasted my Flesh and my Heart faileth but thou art the strength of mine heart and my hope is in thee help Lord or I dye I dye for ever 4. In putting a force upon your selves to do your duty It is not lying down in the Ditch and only crying God help me you must do your best to help your selves or God will not help you All the means under Heaven will never do unless we can bring you to set your hearts on work for your selves have you any of you taken a fall Are you down and would you recover Count upon it that it must cost you pains your hearts hang back and are loth to come to it that 's your Disease your loathness to spiritual action and what must you do to get your selves on Why what would you do to your Oxe or your Horse if they lag or grow lazy O they must feel the Goad and the Spur and that will quicken them O Friends put Spurs to your own sides prick your selves on to more activity suffer not your selves to jogg on in Religion so as you can with ease easie Religion will never help you You that are not for pains-taking there you must lye and pine and perish and there 's no help for you Why lyest thou thus upon thy face Get thee up says God to Joshua Josh 7.10 Why stand you bewailing and bemoaning your selves Up and be doing thou hast sinned thy self into this case thou hast idled thy self into this loss and nothing will help thee out without thine own diligence and labour Go tell your own hearts there 's no hope of recovery without industry and if they will not hear on 't chide them out of this listless temper What canst thou take pains for Bread or for Money and no pains for thy soul Canst thou take pains to please thy flesh and yet will be at no pains to please God O what a wicked wretched foolish heart have I Any labour will down but this necessary labour Well thou shalt not ' scape me so thou art no heart for me if thou art not an heart for work never stand excusing or delaying thou must come to it fall to thy duty and follow it close or thou wilt dye the Death In this manner force your selves on let not your hearts be quiet within you till you have engaged in a more active and laborious Life Thus I have shewed you by what acts you are to stir up your selves 2. To what pitch in Religion we should stir up our selves To this I shall Answer 1. In General 'T is not to amend a little to get into something a better case than you are but to come on to purpose to come on fully after the Lord. May be some of you may think if this word should have some effect upon you and make you a little better that it had done its work upon you no no you are far short of what you should be and think not that this word hath done its work though it should make you a little better than you are unless it also bring you effectually onward towards what you should be There 's no mark short of perfection that should bound or terminate your aims But I shall give you three marks on this side the Goal the better to direct your eye towards it 1. To such a pitch as is proportionable to your time You are some of you Professors of long standing and yet are come to but little O labour that your growth may be according to the time you have 2. Those that are fallen should strive to get up to that pitch to which once they had attained This is the first thing we should have in our eye to recover what we have lost to recover our first love to do our first works which the Church of Ephesus was exhorted to Rev. 2.5 That which hath been attained may be attained and must be striven after You that are fallen remember how it hath been with you in your best time remember
and Chap. 2.7 rooted and built up in him and established in the Faith In this establishment or rootedness besides a firm belief of the Gospel are these 4. things 1. A firm resolution for Christ 2. A firm trust in Christ 3. A firm adherence to Christ 4. A confirmed habit of Holiness 1. A firm resolution for Christ and the obedience of the Gospel every sincere resolution is a firm resolution but there are degrees of firmness firmness may be taken in opposition to Fickleness Feebleness 1. To fickleness Some Professors are light and unstable souls they are off and on sometimes resolved and then unresolved sometimes their faces sometimes their backs are upon Christ In this sense every sincere resolution is a firm resolution The weakest Christian is unalterably resolved for Christ though he may be shaken yet he never comes to be totally unresolved 2. To feebleness or weakness of resolution Some Christians are more strongly resolved others are unalterably but not so strongly Though they do not go back yet are they under doubts and fears that they shall and it may be sometimes in the day of temptation put it to the question Shall I go on or shall I give off Now this is the firm resolution I would press you to be reaching towards which is opposed to feebleness and weakness But having written more largely to this else-where I shall say no more of it here 2. To a settled trust in Christ Now because this will both prove us to be established Christians and also mightily conduce to our farther establishment and growth I shall therefore here a little the more inlarge and shall shew 1. What this trust is 2. That it both proves us established Christians and makes much for our further improvement and establishment 1. What this trust in Christ is It is expressed in Scripture by committing our selves to him 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him or trusted him with This committing our selves to Christ notes 1. Our laying up our selves and all our hopes and concerns with him so as to venture our selves in his custody to venture our selves upon his faithfulness to cast all our burthens upon him Psal 55.22 Cast thy burthen upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee To cast all our care upon him 1 Pet. 5.7 to leave it upon Christ to take the care of us to put it into his hands to look to it that nothing be lost and to help us on through our whole course to the end Only here lest we be damnably mistaken know that it must be only for his own part that Christ must be trusted for that which he hath undertaken to do for us for what he hath undertaken to keep for us 2. It must be only in his own way in a way of obedience to Christ in a way of well-doing As in respect to God so in respect to Christ also we must commit the keeping our selves to him in well-doing 1 Pet. 4.19 There are some things that we are to do which Christ never undertook to do for us we are to Believe we are to Repent this we must do our selves Christ hath never undertaken to Believe or Repent for us we must believe our selves and repent our selves There are some things that Christ never undertook alone to keep for us we must keep Faith and a good Conscience our selves Christ hath undertaken to help us to Repent to help us to keep a good Conscience but never undertook to save us the labour of repenting of keeping Faith and a good Conscience our selves And that which Christ hath undertook to keep for us to keep our souls to keep us unto Salvation to preserve us unto his Heavenly Kingdom He will do it only in his own way whilst we are walking in Christ's way in the way of Faith and Obedience to his will in the way of Holiness and Righteousness we may boldly venture our selves in his keeping Sinners will trust Christ with their souls will commit the keeping of their souls to him but not in a way of well doing they trust him in a way of evil doing their trust in Christ they make to be their security in their evil course They trust in Christ to answer for their rejecting Christ they trust in Christ to answer for their not believing in Christ for their abusing and slighting of Christ for their total and final Impenitence and hardning themselves against Christ and from this trust they venture to go on in their sins and in the hardness and impenitence of their hearts Drunkards how dare you go on in your Drunkenness Worldlings how dare you go on in your Covetousness Ye Vain and Carnal and Careless ones how dare you go on in this carnal Life How can ye escape the Damnation of Hell O I trust in Christ for Salvation and what follows Why thereupon behold how boldly thou venturest on in thy neglect of Christ and thy Rebellion against him thou wouldst not dare to be such a drunken Beast thou wouldst not dare to go on in thy Lying or Coveteousness and Carnality but for thy trust in Christ to save thee at last Thou goest on to serve thy will and mind this World and satisfie thy Lust and hence thou takest heart and encouragement that thou trustest in Christ But Man wilt thou trust Christ for that he never undertook Wilt thou trust Christ for that which he never promised Did Christ ever promise to save thy soul whether thou wert a Believer or no Believer Whether thou comest in and be Converted or standest out and runnest on thy wicked ways Turn Sinners turn to Christ Repent and be Converted from your sins or never comfort your selves in your trust in Christ Christ hath said He will Damn thee if thou Believe not if thou Repent not but he never said he will save thee however Christians trust in Christ commit the keeping of their souls to him but 't is in Christ's way in a way of well doing and obedience to his will they lay out themselves and all their powers in the Service of Christ and then lay up their souls and all their hopes in Christ and His custody 2. Committing to Christ notes our leaning upon Christ and dependance on Him in a quiet and confident expectation of his helping us and holding us on our way according to his promise The grounds whereof are our being satisfied concerning His promise His sufficiency and fidelity Cant. 8.9 Who is this that cometh up out of the Wilderness leaning on her Beloved The weak or weary Traveller if he hath whereon to lean if it be but a Staff or a Stile or a Tree on which he may lean himself he finds ease and rest Christians lean and depend on Christ and this gives them courage for their work and ease and rest in their spirits their trust in Christ notes such a repose of their souls such a dependance on his sufficiency
and return to be faithful but hold you at the same pass look for nothing else but this that the Soul of the Lord will be utterly loosened from you and he will say concerning you Give them a Bill of Divorce and send them away let them alone let them pine away in their iniquities till they be past recovery or redemption And let me add this farther if the rest of the Professors of England which are in the same case will not see it will not confess will not speedily return and recover what can be expected but that the Lord who hath been for these many years so visibly departing from us and after many returns seems at this time again to be removing from us what can be expected if we speedily repent not but that he will never return but utterly reject us and leave us as a dark Land make us a desolation and astonishment and write his Ichabod upon the Doors of our Congregations and Habitations The Glory is departed from England But if you will yet see and and will confess and return I will say to you as Shecaniah said to Ezra concerning that revolting people when they were upon reforming Ezra 10.2 There is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing There is yet hope in England concerning these poor Souls that the Lord will return and continue to dwell in them and among them as in the former days his Covenant is your hope lay hold upon it 3. Our recovering our Communion with God Our Communion with God stands much in these things 1. In our mutual Acquaintance God with us and we with him God is acquainted with his People and he requires them to come into his Acquaintance Job 22.21 Acquaint thy self with God Acquaintance stands in our Knowledge of God We cannot be said to be acquainted with them we know not in such experimental knowledge as is gotten by converse together We cannot say we are acquainted with every one we know converse or walking together is necessary to our being acquainted The nearer and more intimate our Acquaintance with God is and of the longer continuance by so much the more hold we have of God God will not easily lose his Acquaintance and those that are acquainted with God have tasted so much of the sweetness of walking with him that they will take the more heed how they lose that Acquaintance Those that are intimately acquainted by their friendly converse together this Acquaintance knits their Hearts together as David's to Jonathan so that they will not easily be seperated Hast thou used thy self to intimate converse with God and thereby gotten into experimental Acquaintance with him O thine heart will be hereby knit to the Lord and the Lords Heart knit together with thine Acquaintance cannot bear strangness it 's grievous to us when our Acquaintants become Strangers to us and we are unwilling to be strangers from them Friends do you suffer your hearts to be estranged from the Lord can you forget God and keep at a distance from him can you lose your Intimacy in Heaven are your delightful thoughts of God restrained and is not this grievous to you 'T is a shrewd sign that God and you were never well acquainted You that are the Friends of God keep your acquaintance take heed of wandrings take heed of distances and enstrangments get the experimental delights that arise from your intimacy with him and that will hold you near him And you that have lost your Acquaintance O recover and revive your old Intimacy in Heaven 2. In mutual Acceptance This is a special part of our Communion with God our Complacency in God and his Complacency in us Acquaintants take mutual pleasure in one another their company is grateful and acceptable God is accepted of his Saints they have an hearty goodliking to him and are glad of his Presence not only all the intimations of his Love and Kindnesses to them not only such a word spoken to their Hearts I love thee mine Heart is towards thee thou art mine the dearly beloved of my Soul I am at peace with thee my delight is in thee O how acceptable O how pleasant are such gracious words but not only these but the manifestations of the Will and Counsels of God to them they accept his Commands they love that the Lord should tell them of their Duty His Statutes are my delight Ps 119.77 and they accept his Rebukes and Corrections and his Punishments of them for their Sins Levit. 26.41 knowing that he corrects them in love and that they cannot want his Chastizements that the very Rebukes of his Countenance are sometimes as necessary for them and as beneficial to them as the Light of his Countenance 2. They are accepted with God he accepts their Persons Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved he accepts their approaches to him Ezek. 20.40 41. In mine Holy Mountain of the height of Israel there will I accept them I will accept you with your sweet Savour Offer your Offerings lift up your Voices pour forth your Prayers they shall be a sweet Savour a Savour of Rest to me Now whilst God finds rest in a People he will not depart Ps 132.14 This is my rest here will I dwell for ever Acceptance with God and rejection from God are so contrary that whilst we have the one we need not fear the other and whilst God is accepted with us to be sure we are accepted with him whilst Gods ways please us our ways will please the Lord Prov. 16.7 When a mans ways please the Lord he will make his Enemies be at peace with him and so long we may be secure that our Friend will not become our Enemy but will live in love and continue his abode with us 3. In mutual Correspondence In frequent and friendly entercourses God will be sending down to his Saints Tokens of his Love his Saints will be sending up Presents to the Lord Tokens of their Love to him There is a Jacobs Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth this Ladder is Christ by which there is constant coming and going There are Spiritual Blessings the Blessings of Grace the Blessings of Peace that are sent down from God to his Saints and there are Spiritual Duties Holy Affections Holy Desires Holy Prayers and Praises which by the hand of Christ are sent up before the Lord. 'T is the very Life of Christians to be either receiving down or sending up to Heaven they must hear often from God or they cannot live I will hearken what the Lord God will speak Ps 85.8 And whilst they live God shall hear often from them there are Messengers and Messages that pass daily betwixt God and them They are often sending up and the best Present they have is their Hearts I lift up my Soul to thee Ps 25.1 They will be sending up their Desires to the Lord and their Sighs after him if they have nothing better they will be sending up their Tears
c. and wilt continue so then look to thy self God will not stay with such a Soul what love your pleasures more than God what love this World more than God even take them for me says the Lord I 'll be no more a God to them This is the first every allowed sin provokes God to depart 2. Stirring Religion will work out sin especially every allowed sin The life of a Christian is a warfare there is a continual conflict betwixt the flesh and spirit Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth lusteth that is fighteth sin fighteth against grace and grace fighteth against sin Sin fights for the Devil to set him up and to lay the governement on his Shoulder and grace fights for God to lift the Lord up and to give him the preheminence in the Soul God will no longer stay in the heart than he may have the preheminence God will not be kept as an underling if he may not have the preheminence he 'll be gone and leave you to the Devil never talk that you hope God is within you where Sin or the World bears rule God is not there Now where the flesh is let alone in its fight against grace much more where the heart takes part with the flesh and nourisheth and cherisheth and maketh provision for it and grace is let lye asleep there sin rises and increases and abounds both in heart and life Where sin is stirring and that little grace that is is let lye and quite out of heart what can be expected how can it be otherwise but the Devil must carry it against God But when grace revives and the heart falls off from sin and takes part with grace nourishing and cherishing and abetting the better part then sin will be put to it and must away Christians your hearts would quickly be too hot for your sins if the grace that is in you be once well rouzed up when the live Coals are blown up into a Flame the Smoke is consumed and vanisheth Do not sluggishly lye down and complain that you cannot master your sins you are proud and cannot help it you are earthly and worldly and cannot help it you are froward and passionate and peevish and cannot overcome your passions Do not say you cannot overcome you cannot prevail if there be grace in your hearts and you will set to it to stir up the grace that is in you this would overcome What do you think if your love to Christ were blown up into a flame would it not quench the flame of lust Friends 't is a sign that religion is asleep grace is asleep conscience is asleep when your carnality and earthliness do thus ride in triumph over you this little David that little good thing that is within you if it gets on its Armour and go forth to the fight will not only put to flight but put to death the Champion of the Philistines Put your grace to it let it but engage heartily and lively in the fight and sin will run the field Loytering and idleness and laziness do beget and nourish evil humours and diseases exercise and activity will subdue and work them out he that lives a stirring life is usually the most strong and healthful Christians if you would be hearty and healthful and overcome those corruptions that are the diseases of your Souls and the offence of your God if you would overcome resolve upon a stirring life pray and let no praying satisfie but stirring prayer sleepy prayers will stand you in no stead let your thoughts be stirring let your affections be stirring let conscience be stirring let your conversations be stirring conversations be not the carkases of Christians that have no life shew forth the Spirit of Christianity as much as possible be all soul and life and spirit and keep you in lively action and then let your sins stand before yov if they can The quick running Rivers keep themselves pure they are the dead and standing Pools that gather most mud and dirt Certainly Friends our Skie would be clearer and more serene if our Spirits as the Wind did rise higher Our thick Mists and unwholesome Fogs that infest and annoy us would much be dispelled if Grace the rays of the Sun of Righteousness did once break forth more in us What will ye do Friends your light grows dim and your day misty your waters are mudded we are a company of dark souls polluted souls such as the Lord can take little pleasure in what must ye do to help it if you will bestir your selves you may help all get Religion to be aflote let that living stream be running let the coals be blowing and then you shall see your mud will be cleansed and your dross will be purged away Never think 't will be better by sitting still and complaining how bad 't is To work Friends to work with these lazy hearts to work with those earthly minds rouze ye up out of sleep up and be doing and see if you find not the same success against your sins as the Lord promised against the Devil Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he shall fly from you resist Sin and it shall fall under you Now Friends if ye can but get your sins out if ye can subdue your iniquities so far as that not one of them be allowed and all of them have their power broken and weakned in you if those that are by a specialty your iniquities if your special sins your most beloved lusts those that have most of all taken with you and carried your hearts captive those evils that have been your special hinderances either in holiness or comfort and that your hearts have been most apt to go a whoring after if you get these to be mortified and brought under stirring Religion will do it get it to be done once let nothing be left that offends God but that it also offends you and you shall not be like to have reason to complain the Lord is departed from me that which would have driven him away is now removed 2. Stirring Religion will work up and improve and increase those good things which the Lord will delight in and will not forsake As it will work out iniquity so it will work up grace and holiness There is not the poorest and weakest of Saints but by diligence and industry will be improved Stirring Christians will be thriving Christians 't is for want of action and industry that our souls are in this poor case As they said Gen. 43.10 Except we had lingred we had returned the second time or twice by this time Friends if we had not lingered and loitered we might have had twice so much grace twice so much holiness as now we have 't is our lingering that keeps us so poor we may thank our sloth and our carelesness that there is so little of God in us by our industry we shall advance Stirring lively Christians will be thriving Christians the best of Christians can never keep their stand
or can who have nothing of Christianity in them nor profess nor pretend to any such thing He is a covetous worldling indeed who doth love the world and wish for the world and work harder for it than some of these do which profess religion It is a shame and a reproach to the Gospel that it should be so and wo be to them by whom the reproach cometh But yet 't is too true there are amongst the number of Professors some though not so many as the world say God forbid there should for they say all are such yet some such there are whose hunger and labour after the world can hardly be overmatch'd by any of those whose names are written in the earth and have no part nor portion in Christ nor name in his Churches Friends I pray deal faithfully in this matter every one of you with your selves ask your hearts How stand I affected to this world are my desires after this earth moderated and limited by my Religion or are they not so high and impetuous that they have even swallowed up my desires after God are you as impatient when you sink and grow to decay in religion as you think you should be if you were sunk and fallen to decay in your outward estates Can you truly say I am not so much athirst to grow rich in this world but I am more athirst to grow rich towards God nay can you say this I am so much athirst for God that this hath quenched my thirst and allayed my desires after this world I am become more indifferent what I have here whether more or less my heart sits loose from all below through the strength of my desires after God can you say so O that you could more of you than I doubt can Well know that 't is impossible that you should intensely desire God and this World together one of the two must fall you must strike sail as to your earthly affections or your souls will never hoise up sail heavenwards And this is the first direction for the kindling and quickning your desires heavenward suppress and allay your carnal and earthly desires 2. Be sensible of your necessity Necessity kindles desire Ps 63.1 My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Whence is this thirst and longing O 't is from his necessity I am in a dry Land where no water is I have need of thee Lord need of thy water Brooks for out of thee I have none 't is all a dry Land there 's no water below thee to quench my thirst Friends would you be quenched in your desires after more Grace be sensible of your barrenness and your want do you not want to be in better case than you are have you grace enough to supply your necessities those that are very poor outwardly whose poverty pinches them their necessity will make them beg How is it there are so many poor so many necessitous souls and yet so few begging souls even ready to starve for want of bread and yet cry no more after it Why 't is because however we are in great necessity yet we have not a due sense of our necessity our soul poverty doth not pinch us men that are extreamly poor in the world their poverty pinches them but for souls the poorer they are the less they are pinched with it O friends if you were more pinched with your spiritual poverty if those dry and lean souls did but feel how lean you are if you were touched with a feeling of your necessities if your cold wishes I would I had more grace were come to I must have more I must be more holy I must be more heavenly-minded I must be more zealous for God and more busie and active in following him a necessity lies upon me and wo is me if I continue as now I am the sense of your necessity of getting up into a better case would enlarge your desires after it 3. Be practically convinced of the excellency of a prosperous state in the grace of God All the world how eagerly are they wishing after prosperity men have such high thoughts of worldly prosperity that every one would be glad to prosper as Mal. 3.15 they count the proud happy so generally do worldly men count the rich happy the prosperous happy When we hear of men grown up to that plentiful estate described Ps 144.13 14. Whose garners are full affording all manner of store whose sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their streets whose Oxen are strong to labour and there 's no complaining in the streets who have plenty of good things and nothing ailing them how do worldlings cry out Happy are the people that are in such a case and hence 't is that their very Souls are all upon the wing making all the haste they can after this earthly prosperity And what if Christians had as great thoughts of soul prosperity O what a case are they in whose hearts are full of all manner of store full of wisdom and spiritual understanding full of faith and of power full of the hidden treasures of eternity whose mouth is full that have grace in their hearts and grace in their lips whose life is full of all the fruits of righteousness what an excellent spirit are they of what an excellent life do they live happy are the people thrice happy are the souls that are in such a case Do worldlings call the proud happy the rich happy the great ones happy ones Yea rather Happy are the Souls whose God is the Lord and those especially who have the grace of God so abounding towards them and in them What if you were practically convinced of this of the excellency of the happiness of a flourishing prosperous state in the grace of God If you did not only notionally conclude it so in the general for that every Christian will do but with a particular respect to your selves O how happy were it for me if I were one of these prospering souls if I could get my soul to be filled with God and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus O if I could love as the best of Saints love O if I could live as I see some Christians live if from creeping on the earth and having my foundation on the dust my soul might get upon the wing and have its conversation in Heaven if in stead of having fellowship with sinners I might have fellowship and live in communion with the Father and the Son if instead of serving my flesh I might spend my days in serving the living God if from being such a sluggard such a cold and lazy soul I might get up to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord O what if there should be such a change made upon me if from this dead and dry and barren case I am in I might be brought to be a living lively fruitful heavenly zealous Christian O what a blessed change would this be O how should mine heart be filled
of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Charity begins at home and so must all Religion Religion must begin at home in thine own heart first and then in thine house and thence thou wilt get more ability and aptness to diffuse it abroad Consider Beloved how is it with you at your homes upon this account what Religion is there going in your Families how often do your Children and your Servants hear any gracious words from you O Friends do all you can to make all yours Partakers of the Grace you have received Is the word of the Lord in thine own heart let your whole houshold hear oftner of it as you sit at your Tables as you sit at your fires or are walking in your houses 't is not now any stated way of instruction by reading the word repeating Sermons catechizing c. that I am dealing with you about but that in a way of familiar discourse you would be often dropping down some gracious words Friends have you a conscience towards God What conscience is that that will suffer you to live in the neglect of so known and necessary a duty can you with any conscience withhold bread or cloths from your own with what conscience then can you withhold counsel and instruction will you make yours partakers of all you have in the world only they shall have no benefit by the knowledge or the grace you have received Let your bowels instruct you to be kind to their souls and if you will by any arguments be perswaded to be thus kind to your own you will thereby be prepared and get such an holy habit as will make it more familiar and easie to you to live profitably amongst others Beloved Hearken to me in this thing will you hearken and try what you can do if ever you would stand up in your Generations as persons of any use or serviceableness to Christ and the interest of his Gospel if you would not stand in the companies you come into as insignificant Cyphers or as dumb Idols that have mouths and speak not be perswaded to use your tongues to better purpose at your homes 3. Next speak unto your Brethren and fellow Christians to those that fear the Lord. Mal. 3.16 Those that feared the Lord spake often one to another Ps 66.16 Come to me ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you We took sweet counsel together said the Psalmist Ps 55.14 That is we that were the Friends of the Lord or took our selves to be such we consulted together or counselled one another in the matters of God It may be you may be more abashed and afraid to speak to those that are without you know not how they will take it you doubt they may be dogs that will tear and rend you or at least that they may be swine and trample under feet and scorn and despise those holy words you speak unto them they may laugh at you and scoff at your counsels But now with your Brethren in the Lord you may be more free in confidence that they will accept and take in good part the good words you speak and will also be tender to you and bear with your infirmities if any be in speaking Labour for a more profitable converse Christians with Christians Believers with Believers this will be more easie because you may presume one another to be of the same Spirit your good words will be unto them acceptable words and the sense of that will invite you to speak Christians have mutual need one of another to help each other in the Lord and yet there is a great fault amongst us that we are not thus mutually helpful Like those foolish Quakers we have too many of our silent meetings as to our main concern scarce a serious or savoury word comes from us when we meet together Christians learn to amend this fault Let us as we have opportunity edifie and build up one another in the most holy Faith Jude 20. Let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Heb. 10.24 Friends do not tempt one another as perhaps too often you do to be vain as you are vain to be carnal as you are carnal Do not chil and damp each others spirits by your carnal and frothy and impertinent discourses but quicken one another do what you can to whet and set an edge upon each others spirits and holy affections What have you nothing to talk of when you come together but of your trades and your fields or of news or of the weather and such-like impertinences Have you not a God have you not Souls have you not a Country whether you are traveling are you not upon a Journey to that blessed Land have you not Friends and Kindred above that are worth the speaking of have you not enemies and temptations here below an evil world to travel through many corruptions and afflictions to conflict withal and have you not need of mutual counsel comfort encouragement and establishment one from another How is it that you can find room for so much idle talk when you have matters of such weight and moment to fill up your time when do you use to return with most comfort and satisfaction upon your spirits when you have been vainly merry together or when you have been edifying one another in the most holy faith 4. Then in the next place speak to those which are without to poor sinners that are yet in their sins Ps 51.13 Then will I teach transgressours thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Your special work possibly may lye amongst the houshold of faith but as you have opportunity you must do good to all Gal. 6.10 All that need you must be made partakers of your spirituals as well as of your temporal things Those that fear God it may be may sometimes hear some good words from you but have you never a word for those that fear not God O pity your poor unconverted neighbours and in your compassion do what you can to pull them out of the fire convince them of their sins warn them of their miseries perswade them back from the Devil invite and allure them in to Christ let them hear often of grace and sin of heaven and hell of death and judgment from your lips See how the compassions of the Church work towards the Heathen world Cant. 8.8 We have a little sister that hath no breasts what shall we do for our sister The poor Gentiles they have no Scriptures no Prophets no Ordinances no breasts of consolation we have a poor sister that hath no breasts what shall we do for her they pitied the poor Gentiles and in their pity they consider what they might do for them And why do not we carry it alike to unconvered sinners we have poor children poor neighbours that have no eyes no heart that have no Christ