miscarrying for ever is your way cleared of all your difficulties and hazards have your souls no enemy left alive Are your lusts dead the world vanquished and the Devil troden under foot have you as much grace as you need as much faith and love and patience as you need Are you past that prayer Lord increase our Faith Are you past those counsels Hold fast that thou hast Grow in grace follow after press to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus have you hit the mark have you wonne the prize Is there not much of this work to be done which God would have first to be done yea with some of you is it not all behind hand nothing done for your Souls no knowledg no grace gotten nothing of the work of conversion nothing of the work of repentance done the first stone of the new building yet to be layd yea not so much as the old rubbish removed not a lust cast out your carnal hopes not yet thrown down the hard heart not so much as touch'd What is there nothing done for the other world by so many of you and so little done by the best of you and are you yet so busy for this world Is this as God would have it is this to seek the world as God would have you seek it Go and ask counsel of God Lord what wouldst thou have me to do how far forth for this world how far forth for the other world which shall be first minded which shall be chief and what ever the Lord doth speak let this be thy resolve I will first seek the kingdom of God and for other things I must do as I may 2. Keep and lay up no more by you then God would have you Say of all you lay up This is Gods stock this is his treasure whatever you have let God keep the purse when he saies Bring no more into the treasury stay your hand bestow it elsewhere as he shall appoint you Let no stollen goods be found with you all 's stollen stollen into your purse stollen into your house which the Lord would have otherwise disposed of Be not then laying up when God saies lay out be not then sparing when God would have you spending God saies Cast thy bread upon the waters be ready to distribute What saith he to those rich men Jam. 5. 2 3. your riches are corrupted your garments are moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered the rust of them shall be a witness against you you have heaped up treasure an evil treasure against the last days what do you treasure up for the moth and the canker and the rust no more such heaping up bring forth out of your treasure 3. Use what you have as God would have you use it bring forth but only by Gods order Be good stewards remember your account book down all your expences let nothing go any way but what you are willing should be book'd and let nothing be book'd but what you would have read in your reckoning day Let your flesh have no more then the Kings allowance feed it as a servant let it not want what 's necessary but feed it not into wantonness or idleness let it have never a meal nor a morsel more then is fit for a servant Let it not have the command of your estate or be it 's own carver but let it be at the finding of conscience let never a penny be laid out upon it either for food or raiment but what conscience allows Let your families be provided for your friends entertained so as that nothing be wanting nothing be wasted Be provident but not penurious use hospitality but hate to be prodigals give to all their due and no more and whilest your flesh hath it's due your friends and families their due let not Gods friends want theirs whomever he sends to you for an alms send them not away empty send portions to those for whom nothing is provided feed cloath harbour lend give according as God hath communicated to you and shall command from you and in giving thus to all the things that are theirs you give unto God the things that are Gods Remember carefully this last direction Lay down all you have at the feet of God and neither seek nor use any thing but according to his order and will Never let lust set you on work and leave nothing to its dispose feed not your eye or your appetite feed not your pride or your covetousness till God bids you feed them and then you shall find your lusts to starve under your hands and when worldly lusts are dead the enmity of the world is slain it's temptations vanquished and from being your Lord it 's henceforth become your servant now you may make your friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness and when these fail you shall be received into everlasting habitations For a close of all let me yet a little farther perswade you to press hard for this victory over the world and to this end let me ask you these following questions 1. Are you for the saving of your Souls 2. Is not the World an enemy to your Souls and the salvation of them 3. Is not victory over this enemy possible 4. Is not victory over this enemy desirable 5. Can this victory be bought to dear 6. What if this enemy should reign to death 7. Wil you henceforth become enemies to this enemy 1. Are you for the saving of your Souls what are you for for Heaven or Hell 't is the same question as are you for Heaven or Earth speak friends where would you that your lot should fall will you be written in the earth or amongst the living in Jerusalem will you have your good things here or will you wait for them till hereafter which do you most regard the joynt and eternal interest of your bodies and Souls or the single and temporal interest of your bodies In a word will you be saved or damned Do you so verily believe a resurrection from the dead and a judgment to come that there is another world that this world shall vanish away and the other world shall abide for ever that there is an eternal state of blessedness and misery into one of which states your Souls must immediately enter as soon as they are loosened from this body that the future blessedness is unspeakable that the future misery is intollerable Are you Atheists or Infidels or else do you so verily believe this that it is the great aim and desire of your hearts to obtain this blessedness and to escape those torments Descend into your hearts consider the choice that 's set before you and come to a resolution what do you choose light or darkness life or death ease or anguish rejoycing or howling lifting up of the head or gnashing of teeth eternal pleasures or eternal fire With whom will you dwel with the Saints or with Serpents with Michael or the Dragon
Ballances may be said to be ballances of deceit in a double sense There are ballances where by men deceive others as those false ballances which unrighteous men use for their own advantage to buy or sell by which may be those there meant and there are false ballances whereby men deceive themselves Ungodly men as they weigh their commodities they sell in false ballances thereby to deceive others so they weigh their gains that they get to themselves in false ballances and thereby deceive themselves their bargains that they make they could never count them such good bargains unless they weighed them on their deceitful ballances If sense may be Judge the world is a good bargain when dearest bought though if faith may be Judge when the world may be had cheapest it is not over safe dealing for it Now when the worth of the world is understood the Divels market is spoiled No man will care to deal with such a pedlar whilest the Merchant stands by who will sell his inheritance for counters or his patrimony for dirt and dung who will spend his money for that which he knows is not bread or his labour for that which profiteth not the strength of the temptation is broken when once we understand of how little valew the things are we are tempted by Christians study the world more search the Scriptures and what these testifie of it believe the Scriptures which have written upon all under the Sun Vanity and vexation of spirit understand what an insignificant cypher this figure of the world is Believe your own words you can sometimes speak contemptibly of the world your selves Who of you will not say this world is but a shadow and the fashion of it passeth away do ye think as you speak do not dissemble either speak your minds plainly that this earth is your substance your treasure your portion and that its worth the venturing your Souls for it or if you go on to say this is not your rest you have here no continuing City ther 's no building on this sand here 's no contentment nor continuance here if ye go on to speak thus believe your own words and then Judg how wisely you deal for your selves in venturing your eternity for such empty perishing things 2. By Faith the soul pitches upon an eternal inheritance It s our choosing the good part Luke 10. 42. our laying hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6. 12. those believers Heb. 11. 14. are said to seek a countrey they were not mindful of this they confest themselves and were content to be strangers and pilgrims here their countrey was on the other side Jordan and thither they sent their hearts Faith descries a better countrey it sees into the invisible world Heb. 11 27. its the good spy that 's sent out to search the land of Canaan and finding it to be a good land there the Soul pitches It saies unto the Lord thou art my God thou art my portion for ever this is my rest here will I dwell If I can bear through this weary land and at last enter into that rest however matters go with me here I am not careful about that if I can but attain to the resurrection of the dead if I can but get to Heaven that 's all my desire and design Meet a believer where you will and ask him whether art thou bound Oh for the Holy Land whom seekest thou thou Jesus of Nazareth what runnest thou for what waitest thou for The incorruptible Crown Ask him again will nothing less content thee Look about through all the earth canst thou find nothing worthy thy love what is silver and gold and houses and lands and honours and pleasures are these nothing with thee may not these satisfie thee No no these are not God this is not Heaven there 's no rest here for the sole of my foot my house and my home is above my hope and my treasure is above and my Soul is above and cannot be content to dwell in the dust Ask him yet again But how wilt thou get into that good Land there are difficulties and dangers in the way thou hast a wilderness to go through a red Sea and a Jordan to pass over there are Lions in thy way there are Giants in thy way thou mayest be a prey to thine enemies torn in pieces of wild Beasts or swallowed up in the waters or at least thou mayst wander in the wilderness and loose thy way and never come into thy rest at last Well but however I must venture I am resolv'd for heaven how difficult or dangerous soever the way may prove I 'le venture all here Heaven or nothing Christ or nothing Henceforth let no man trouble me with other business for I bear in my heart the prints of the Lord Jesus he is gotten within me he is engraven upon my breast and on my soul and this heart can never be at rest till I be with him where he is Lord be thou my God and bring me into thine holy habitation lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and shew me thy salvation this one thing I desire let this be granted me and then my heart shall be glad and my glory shall rejoyce my flesh also shall rest in hope I have enough thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And now world where art thou with all thy glory this earth is trodden to dirt when the heart is once in earnest for heaven Christians come pitch your Tents here where will you that your lot shall fall you have two worlds before you which will you chuse hang not betwixt both Will you get up to the Mountains or will you dwell in this Plain Come to a resolution you will never get clear of this world till you climb up to the other 'T is only the milk and honey of Canaan that will wean your souls from the Onions and Garlick of Egypt The flowers of the field will be beautiful till you see the Roses of the Garden The fatness of the earth will be your delight till you understand the sweetness of heaven you 'l never be content to loose from this shore till you see the banks of a better Land you will not part with your present purchases till you see where you may have a better bargain It s to no purpose to think to get off your hearts by common arguments This world is vain this world is troublesome uncertain fading a barren Land if that be all you can say 't will never do your hearts will answer A barren Land is better than none an house of Clay is better then no habitation If my soul may not dwell here where shall I be better Where mayst thou be better Come and see lift up your eyes to the hills look you towards Sion the City of the great King mark all her Bulwarks tell all her Towers behold
many projects is he ever loaden withall he never rests his hands are ever full his thoughts are ever busie whatever he hath done or gotten already yet there 's still more work coming in more load laying on tother house or tother field is in his eye tother groat or tother peny more to be gotten the Ephah is not yet full his large heart that daughter of the Horse-leech is still a crying upon him Get get Gather gather But whilest thou hast been so busie here and there what 's done for thy soul how does that work prosper what trade has been driven for Eternity O the Lord forgive me I never thought of that I had so many other things to do that I had no time to mind it But who set thee on work about these other things who hath hired thee oh my necessities have hired me my back and my belly and the necessities of my family God hath set me on work I but consider art thou not mistaken it may be 't is the Devil that hath set thee on work thy pride or thy covetousness that hath put thee upon this busie life all the while But now a Christian resolves I will hearken what the Lord God will speak when he sayes go I will go when he sayes do this I will do it I will have nothing to do but what I may answer for it this is that which the Lord would have done God sayes Look diligently to thy soul Deut. 4. 9. God sayes What will it profit a man to win the whole world and to loose his own soul Matth. 16. 26. God sayes Lay up in store for thy self a good foundation against the time to come Provide thee bags that wax not old a treasure in heaven that faileth not God sayes Mat. 6. 33. First seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto thee God never said first seek food and rayment and the Kingdome of heaven shall be added to thee Christ shall be added righteousness shall be added salvation shall be added to thee but first make sure the principal and the appurtenances shall be cast in And hereupon a Christian will do accordingly will look to the main whatever become of any thing else and will not engage further in any other affairs then will consist with the securing his great concernment whatever business he hath he must have room for duty he must have his praying times and reading times and hearing times he must have his daily seasons for special converse with God for communing with his own heart he must duly set his watch and walk the rounds through his thoughts affections conscience and all the powers of his soul and finding so much work and of so great consequence of this kind whatever wants this must have his daily attendance I must have bread I must have cloaths I must not starve I and I must have Christ I must have grace whether I have bread or no cloaths or no whether I starve or no I must not be damn'd a praying time is more necessary then an eating or drinking or sleeping time and therefore much more then a working time 'T is not the least part of a Christians Victory over the world to have the command of himself in his lawful affairs and businesses In licitis perimus omnes When he hath such power over himself that he can assign to every thing their proper places measures and seasons then he is Conquerour Christians how sadly doth this speak concerning many of you what say you Conquerours or Captives Let your care of duty speak Do not your oppressed and curtail'd duties cry out We are beaten we are beaten we are beaten out of the field we are not regarded when the world hath any work to be done Is this your care of the main Believe it Brethren when business gets the upperhand of duty the world hath gotten the upperhand of the soul Consider therefore how is it with you Do you allow duties their proper time and place Do you first seek the Kingdome of God Is the world made to give place to prayer or is prayer ordinarily made to give place to the world Do you set your times for daily duty and do you allow sufficient time do you not put the Lord off with short and hasty duties and then tell him Lord this is all the time I can spare thee Soul this is all the time I can allow thee Hasty duties are next to none Do you allow your souls room to make the best of their suits room for enlargement and importunity or are they not mostly forc'd to shuffle over and shut up almost as soon as they have begun Is there not too great a fault among Professors on this account do not their businesses borrow of their duties borrow but never pay Conscience I pray thee lend me this praying hour Soul I pray thee spare me this reading time I want time to dispatch my business hereafter I 'le pay it again How little of your time must ordinarily serve the turn for your attendance on God a short prayer short meditations are all you will allow and your souls ordinarily fare thereafter you are too much in hast to speed well God will be waited on and wrestled with ere he will hear We read Gen. 34. 26. when Jacob was wrestling with God he held at it so long that God said Let me go enough Jacob let me go for the day breaketh but he resolv'd I will not let thee go unless thou bless me But is it not with us the quite contrary By that we have been at it a little while Let me go Lord I must be gone Whether thou hear me or not whether thou bless me or not let me go I am in hast and must be gone give me leave quietly to depart and that shall serve for this time instead of a blessing Oh Brethren if we would trace our selves into our Closets and observe our short stay there the slight and hasty work we make before the Lord and our quick returns we make to the world sure methinks it should make us say I am afraid this world is still too hard for me I am afraid it hath me still under its dominion it will not trust me to be long alone with my God it s presently calling me off and when it calls once I must presently take my leave away I must Consider this Brethren do you allow your selves sufficient time for duty If you have appointed your set times and sufficient time do you keep your times does not the world ordinarily steal away your hours of prayer when the time draws nigh for the worship of God does not the world use to step in But I must be first serv'd my Cattle must be first serv'd my Customers must be first serv'd I have a friend that must be first waited on and when one business is dispatch'd another falls in and another and another till it be too
into thy closet and follow thee into the congregation and so fill thine head and take away thine heart that thou canst make nothing of thy religion or whatsoever transactions there have been sometimes betwixt the Lord and thy Soul doth the World still meet thee at the door and make all void and null Hath it held thee in such ignorance and Atheism that under all the means of knowledge and grace thou still livest without God in the World and canst thou yet say thou hast shaken off its yoke Stand worldling and hear this farther evidence Thy greediness thy penuriousness thy lying and defrauding thy neglected duties thy neglected sabbaths thy neglected Soul and all upon the Worlds account these will tell thee thou hast not renounc'd the World and that will convict thee that thou art not come unto Christ nor hast be lieved on him 3. Is he a believer who hath absolutely chosen this world and hath onely conditionally chosen Christ who will first seek his own things and in the second place the things of Christ who will model his christianity into a consistency with his carnal interest Is he a believer who will have both if it may be Christ and this World too but if he cannot have both will let Christ go Is he a christian that sayes I 'le serve Christ though it cost me nothing I 'le be for him when I have nothing else to do he shall have all my spare hours if that will content him is this to give Chhrist the preheminence or is he a Christian that will take in Christ to be an underling to the world What are the terms on which Christ is offered hath he given thee leave to make thine own terms or must thou not stand to his what are Christs terms but that thou take him absolutely that is purely on his own terms without putting in any of thine Dost thou understand what his conditions are Is it only that he shall be second in the kingdom that he shall be obeyed in all things provided the world do not contradict it Is this Christianity that the world should be suffered to give check to the authority and interest of Christ And is not this all thy Christianity thou saiest indeed thou hast chosen Christ absolutely God forbid that I should prefer any thing before Christ that I should mind any thing more then Christ I mind the World t is true and I ought so to do but Christ hath my heart and I had rather loose all that ever I have then at last be found out of Christ But consider thou mayst best judge of thine heart by thy life as I said before so I demand of thee again whither does the course of thy life mainly bend what art thou doing all the year round what proportion hath Christ of thy daily care and labour speak truth would not thine heart tell thee thou lyest if thou say thou art more earnestly and more constantly caring for the things of Christ then of the world Again thou mayst best Judge of thy choice by observing thy critical hours How is it ordinarily with thee when Christ and the World stand in competition when it comes to be a case that one of the two must be neglected which of the two then use to carry thee Thou knowest thou hast often neglected Christ for the world thou knowest that thy businesses or thy pleasures or thy companions have often lost thee a prayer or a sabbath or a sermon thou wouldst have pray'd oftner or heard oftner but thou couldst not have leisure thou knowest it hath been too often thus and consider if it be not commonly thus How seldom is it that thou canst remember that thou hast carried thy self as a Christian to thy loss that thou hast followed Christ in any duties when thou knewest it would have been more to thy profit to have put Christ off to another time Many a time have thy gains or thy friends or thy pleasures lost thee thy conscience but how often couldst thou ever say My conscience hath lost me a friend my conscience hath lost me a good bargain Whatever Christ hath at any time call'd thee to If thou couldst say it is not for mine ease it is not for my credit it is nof for my safety to hearken hath not this been counted argument enough to hold thee back and excuse sufficient to save thee from blame And wilt thou yer say thou hast chosen Christ absolutely or canst thou think thy self a true believer who hast chosen him only conditionally Is this the Christianity on which thou wilt venture thy Soul I will be for Christ as far as the world and this flesh or which is all one as far as the Devil will give me leave I have known some poor ignorant wretches whom when I have been pressing to a serious minding of God and their eternal concernment they have answered me why I do as far as God will give me leave No no wretch thou mistakest t is onely as far as the Devil will give thee leave and this is the common case of Worldlings thou that wilt be a Christian no farther then the World will give thee leave wilt be such no farther then the Devil will give thee leave and sure thou that wilt be a Christian no farther then the Divel will give thee leave when he will give thee leave thou shalt to Heaven Wanton when wilt thou be chast when my flesh will give me leave Drunkard when wilt thou be sober when my companions will give me leave Earthworm when wilt thou to Christ when the World will give me leave how much of Christianity wilt thou take up what the world will allow me how much is that as much as please the Devil But when wilt thou to Heaven then why when the flesh and the World and the Devil are all agreed to send me thither Stand Worldling this once more stand and hear thy whole evidence Thou art a lover of the world more then a lover of God thou art not come unto Christ or if thou seem to be come thou hast accepted of him only on condition that though thou be his Disciple yet thou mayst still continue a servant to this world Surely if the God of this world who hath blinded thy mind that thou believe not had not so blinded thee that thou canst not see thine unbelief thine own heart would condemn thee and thine own hand would subscribe thy sentence and this is thy sentence That thou art yet under the dominion and therefore under the damnation of the world Thy soul abideth in death and the wrath of God abideth on thee Thou art a man of this world thou hast taken thy portion in this life and art like to have no better then thou hast chosen If thy day run out thus thy word at last will be that which was the rich mans Luke 16. Son remember thou hast received thy good things Oh what 's the meaning of that word why
heart ever bear the watchings the fastings the labours together with the distresses and afflictions of this warfare I shall surely perish one day or other by the hand of this Enemy Discourage not thy self thus what cannot God do what will not God do who hath said who hath seal'd to it I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Behold his Seal Is it not in thine hand and in thy mouth Trust in God set to thy Seal that God is true and then say Though my flesh and my heart fail God is the strength of mine heart and my portion for ever I will go in the strength of the Lord through him I shall do valiantly he shall tread down mine enemies and my difficulties 2. Our Seal engages us on Hast thou sealed to the Lord and not bound thy self to him Hast thou set thy seal to a blank hast thou engaged thy self to be the Lords and not therein to be no longer the worlds Canst thou serve these two Masters Is not thy renouncing the world necessarily included in thy Covenant Obligation Brethren that the tye may the more sensibly lie upon you I advise that as often as you come before the Lord in this Ordinance you put this expresly into your engagement Father I am sensible of the plague of this earthly heart and of the tyranny of these worldly lusts how impetuously they set upon me and how imperiously they lead me on after them how false and unfaithful have they made me to my God how ordinarily am I led away by them against my Covenant and my conscience But I here bewail it I detest it it is my grief and my shame that ever I have been so false and unworthy Behold now again in thy fear I open my mouth to the Lord I take hold of thy word I hang upon thy help let the Lord my righteousness be my strength and in his Name I again lift up mine hand to the most High solemnly protesting before the Lord that I so avouch thee to be my God and so entirely and unreservedly make over my self unto thee that through the grace of God with me I will henceforth and while I live be the avowed enemy of a worldly heart and life I will use all thy means for the overcoming of it I will study I will watch I will pray against I will rate and check and restrain and resist all the motions lustings and temptations by which I have been so often led aside and overcome I give my self my estate my strength my parts my time all that I have unto the Lord Lord take me at my word and all that I have for thy servants I am thine save me Thou that knowest all things knowest that I would not lye unto God but that I sincerely intend in thy strength to stand to this word in testimony whereof I here take this holy Sacrament from thine hands I have opened my mouth to the Lord help me and I will not go back And now O my soul look to thy self Shall I again break my Covenant shall I wickedly repent and alter the word that is gone out of my lips shall I any longer walk after the course and in the lusts of this world fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of my mind shall mine heart still go after my covetousness shall I study and project and plot and prog for this flesh at that rate as if the world were still my God shall it climb up from the footstool to the Throne shall it again give Laws to my heart and set limits to my Religion shall interest Lord it over Conscience and carnal inclination bear down devotion shall I suffer this Robber to break in again into the Sanctuary of the Lord shall it eat up my Sacrifices steal away my Sabbaths curtail my duties and enervate Ordinances shall the Lord have no more of me then the world will spare him shall business be ever again pleaded against duty or gain against godliness shall my soul take up its dwelling in my shop or in my fields and only give some short visits to heaven at its leisure But oh shall lying and promise breaking shall fraud and oppression shall unrighteousness or unmercifulness be nothing with me or but excusable failings Are these things according to the vows of God that are upon me Look to thy self O my soul be not found a lyar against God O Brethren were there this solemn and express transaction betwixt our souls and the Lord at every Sacrament and did we thus live in the conscience of this Obligation and the dread of being found false to God from Sacrament to Sacrament what might it not bring forth what a wound would be given to the head of this deadly Enemy 3. The Sacrament is the New Testament blessings exhibited The new wine broached this Conduit runs with Gospel Wine Our partaking in the Sacrament is our coming into the Garden of our Lord to eat his pleasant fruits We read Cant. 2. 3. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste I shall stay a while here and shall gather a bundle of these fruits and present them to your eye I shall in short shew 1. What the special fruits of Christ are 2. That these fruits are sweet and pleasant and then I shall add 3. That these fruits are exhibited in the Sacrament 4. The advantages we hence have against the world 1. What the special fruits of Christ are which I shall reduce to these two heads The fruits of His Bloud His Spirit 1. The fruits of his Bloud These are especially two in which all others are comprized Viz. Righseousness Peace 1. Righteousness He is therefore called the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Joh. 16. 8. He shall convince the world of righteousness that is of the righteousness of Christ he shall evidence and make manifest unto the world who all lye in wickedness that in him there is righteousness not only that he is righteous as an individual person but as a publick person that he hath in the name and on the behalf of all those that believe on him fulfilled all righteousness and hath hereby a stock and treasure of righteousness to bestow and wherewith to cloath all those that come unto God by him to whom he is made wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. Beloved are there any guilty souls among you any unrighteous ones do you know what 't is to be guilty do you know the dread and terrour of the Lord do you consider what the face of a righteous incensed God will be to an unrighteous soul do you understand how naked you lye and open before everlasting vengeance how can you endure or how can you escape the wrath to come righteousness of your own you have none and that which you seem to have is not your righteousness But behold here 's righteousness for you come to Christ put in here dip you
grace be grace high in knowledge and low in love strong in confidence and loose in conscience hot in affection and cold in practise in the solaces of the spirit and yet walking in the flesh Behold a Christian like Nebuchadnezzars Image the head of gold the feet of iron and clay desinit in piscem mulier formofa supernè 'T is strange to observe what contradictions some Professors of Christianity are they are what they are not they are not what they are whilest they would be the great reconcilers of flesh and spirit of earth and heaven and make the serving of God and their own bellies the same service behold how they are divided from themselves they love God and love him not they serve God and serve him not this they may do as well as love God and this present world Oh how different are many of us from our selves our practices from our principles our doings from our sayings and yet how little differing from others you pray as others do not you hear as others do not you swear not as others you curse not as others but do you not covet as others are you not carnal as others Consider your wayes who more intent upon their present commodity who more hot upon the chase of an earthly inheritance then some of those who profess to have laid up their treasure in heaven Are there none to be sound who pretend to the greatest confidence of Divine Love to the highest pitch of Spirituality and Divine Communion who seem to pant after the Lord and breath out their souls in their warm and passionate duties and yet are eaten out and swallowed up of the cares of this life It is an amazing thing to consider what a strange degree of earthliness is to be found among such what infatiable hunger what indefatigable labour after an encrease of their estates how little respect to soul or conscience where their gain is concerned how ordinarily dispensing with lying promise breaking and almost any unrighteousness when 't is for their advantage how many grains must there be allowed them e're charity it self can judge them honest And where is all bestowed that is thus gotten in how little goes out for God or any of his how many hypocritical bemoanings of the hard case of the poor to one liberal alms Some gather only that they may lay up others that they may have to spend upon their lusts to build them houses and furnish their tables to trim their carkasses to please their eye or their palats and all this either justified and allowed or at least made up with some such hypocritical complaints Woe is me this world is too hard for me O it eats up my time O it steals away mine heart how am I overcharged how is my soul even choaked within me what shall I do to help it And when the complaint is thus made the matter is mended now a good Christian now ease and joy and confidence returns and then on again the same course Brethren be serious consider your selves feel your own pulses view your own faces and ways observe your hearts see where their daily walks are may you not find them ten times walking to and fro through the earth to once or twice casting a look towards heaven What are their daily tasks what is the work you every day put them upon Instead of those higher and nobler Offices of Vessels of Honor waiting before the Throne of God standing in his Courts bearing his Name beholding his Face setting forth his Praises have not our hearts been made hewers of wood and drawers of water carriers of burthens servers of tables purveyors for the flesh caterers for the appetite servants to the back and the belly the great traders and merchants of the earth to buy in provision for lust Worthy employment for immortal Souls as if the utensils of the Temple the golden altar the golden table the candlesticks the bowls and the basons all of beaten gold should have been fetchd out and set up in a blind Inne or a dirty alehouse for the service and the pleasure of every drunken companion Have not your Souls none of you been thus dealt withall are not these your heart-works when any thing is to be done for God the body must do that the body must to the closet the tongue must pray the ear must hear the eye must read but the Soul must stay abroad when any thing is to be done for the other world that must be but bodily exercise but when this flesh must be served that 's the heart-work that 's work for the Soul If these Souls could be seen with bodily eyes a man that goes into the field or into a fair or to a feast might see an hundred Souls more there then bodies and he that went into the congregation of the Lord if there were never so great a throng may be he might see but a few hearts in the company Christians consider is this your faith is this your victory over the world is this to be mortified is this to be crucified with Christ or to have your conversation in Heaven or can you think your selves believers especially of so high a form when so earthly and carnal What think you of those Jews of whom the Lord speaks Ezek. 33. 31. They come unto thee as the people cometh they sit before thee as my people they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goes after their covetousness Are these the people of God all whose religion is to come to hear and to pray to have a mouth full of God a mouth full of love and an heart full of covetousness Give me leave to interpose a word or two to the carrying on the former conviction as to many professâ—rs of religion in order whereto let us a little consider that Scripture Philip. 3. 18. 19. Where the Apostle speaks of a sort of professours much of this earthly make and he speaks with tears in his eyes Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind erthly things In the former part of the chapter you may observe how 1. He gives an account of himself and his own Christianity and this in these particulars 1. He set such an high rate on Christ and an interest in his righteousness that in comparison hereof he counted all things else but loss and dung let this gain be loss this earth be dung troden under foot as dung cast out as dung so I may win Christ and be found in him 2. He unites interest in Christ with conformity to Christ they lye both together in the same heart and his Soul is making out after both in the same breath That I may win Christ and be found in him and that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death He would not only rejoyce in Christ he would not only live in Christ but be dead with Christ and then be raised with Christ above these earthly things he would have his interest in the death and resurrection of Christ witnessed by fellowship with him in both by the power of his death and resurrection made manifest in him he would that both the death of Jesus and the life of Jesus be made manifest in his mortal flesh 3. He sets his face and bends his whole course towards the obtaining of Christ I follow after I press towards the mark and this not in his prayers only but in his whole practice this one thing I do this one is all whatever I am doing this I am doing I have nothing else to do nothing else to do nothing else to seek but this interest and conformity to Christ 4. He turns his back upon all things else forgetting those things that are behind that is not only his pharisaical righteousness and his external priviledges to which this especially refers but much more all carnal and earthly things v. 8. Yea doubtless I count all things but loss he leaves all behind first he setts his feet upon them and treads them into dung and then he turns his back upon them and leaves them all bâ—hind and henceforth his whole conversation is heavenward v. 20. our conversation is in Heaven Lo this is the man who is bold to say of himself Galat. 6. 14. The World is crucified unto me and I unto the World 2. He proposes himself as a pattern to all beleivers v. 15. 17. Let us be thus minded I have told you my mind come let 's be all of one mind and be ye followers together of me let your heart be as my heart let your conversation be as my conversation my conversation is in Heaven come along and there let yours be also 3. He points with the finger at some among them who though they profess'd Christ with them and worshipp'd God with them and walk'd with them yet they walk'd not after them and setts this brand upon them They are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly who mind earthly things Here are the men and their censure here is their mark and their brand their mark or description whose God is their belly who mind earthly things their brand and their doom the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction Professour is thy face like the faces of these Is thy heart and thy way as the heart of these So shall the judgment be You say as the Apostle v. 3. We are the circumcision we are Christs we worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh But yet have you not fellowship with the flesh do you not walk after the flesh even whilest you pretend to rejoyce in Christ Jesus and to worship God in the Spirit Oh how many such mark'd and branded Disciples may we find among us whom while their lusts have marked for belly-gods and earthly minded the word hath branded for enemies and vessels of destruction whilst the Devil hath branded and the World hath branded the whole generation of the Saints for a proud deceitful earthly self-seeking generation Christ hath set this brand on thee earthly sensual devilish Oh brethren if we could speak of these with the the heart of the Apostle we should with his tears also we should speak weeping that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ the wounds and the sores and the scabs the shame and the reproach of the profession of the Gospel good had it been for the Gospel if never a good word of it had ever proceeded out of such mouths and better had it been for such souls if they had never known nor so much as heard of the Gospel of Christ Friends if you do not yet fall a weeping for your selves for your hypocrisie your carnality for your self-seeking and self-deceiving my soul weep thou in secret for them Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for you till either this earth be thrown out of your hearts or the name of Christ out of your mouths O for more of the Gospel or for less for more of the power or nothing of the name for more of its holiness or less of its hopes and boastings come ye and be crucified to this world or talk no more of the Cross of Christ Oh how many enemies hath the Cross of Christ made him oh how few friends have the severities of Christ left him are those the friends of Christ who are the enemies of his Cross are you the friends of Christ who are the intimates of the world will professing and praying and hearing baptize such into the name of Disciples If lying and promise breaking if serving of bellies and satiating of appetites if pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness or abundance of labour a little tip'd over with a silver tongue be the marks of Disciples we may find them walking on every side whole Towns whole Countries of them if these may be reckoned for the seed how great an herd would the little flock become if those Swine that are rooting in the earth or wallowing in the mire must go all for Lambs if these Sensualists and earth-creepers must all be thrown into the number if the wise of the world Polititians and Projectors must all pass under the same name to what a bulk would the Body of Christ swell But if all these these speckled and spotted must be set aside as none of the sheep oh what a small parcel will there then be left If of earth-worms and Epicures it must be said these are not they the next word may almost be where are they to be found But be not deceived God is not mocked as you sow so shall you also reap your sowing to the flesh even while you boast of the spirit is conviction enough whose you are and what your end will be whose end is destruction Ob. But I mean not for all this to cast away my confidence God forbid that I should think that I have professed in vain that I have heard and pray'd and believed all this while in vain I know whom I have believed I feel that I love God and I am perswaded that nothing shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord whatever corruptions I have yet the spirit witnesses with my spirit that I am the Child of God I am sealed by that holy spirit unto the day of Redemption and I will not cast away my confidence Sol. The meaning of all these good words may be no more but this you will hold your Opinion against the greatest evidence of Scripture