thy Nakedness and thy Naughtiness be made appear and be laid open before God Angels and Men. 4. There are eternal Rewards and Punishments that in this Judgment of God shall be awarded to every soul What ever the state of your Souls shall then be found to be they shall receive a due recompence of reward and eternal recompence Therefore this Judgment as I told you before Heb. 6.2 is call'd an eternal Judgment because it appoints to every man an eternal reward To the repenting and renewed and upright hearts it appoints Eternal Blessedness for their Reward to the impenitent wicked and unrenewed Hearts it appointeth Eternal Torment for their Reward Mat. 25.48 These the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal O what a weight is there in the Crown of Glory that shall be the reward of the righteous The Apostle calls it an exceeding eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 And O what a weight is there in that Curse and that wrath that shall be the reward of the Wicked how will it break the backs and crush the bones and tear the bowels and burn the Souls of every wicked one Sinners a fire a fire is prepared for you What Torment is like the Torment of fire and what fire is like the fire of Hell But O that word Eternity Eternity that 's the scalding and scorching Word Everlasting Fire that shall never be quenched How weary are the days how long are the nights to a sick man that 's tormented in his bed but what will an eternal night be that shall never know morning Who can dwell with the devouring fire who can dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 It is fire that you must have your dwelling in It is devouring fire that will devour all your former gâ—ins and pleasures of sin as the lean kine in Pharaohs dream did eat up the fat ones This fire shall eat up all your pleasant dayes and merry nights Ye will devour your selves these Bodies and Souls it will devour it will devour by burning a tormenting burning O dreadful sinners do not your hearts yet tremble what not to think of burning devouring burning how do ye think that ye shall look upon sin when these Bodies and these Souls of yours shall be all on a light fire when those Eyes and that Tongue and those Hands and every Limb shall be all glowing fire as red hot iron in a Furnace how do ye think ye shall endure it but yet you have not all the worst is yet behind 't is Everlasting burnings fire that shall never be quenched O that word Never never never an end what a burning Dagger will it be in the Souls of those damned ones think what it hath already been to Judas who hath been burning in this fire above 1600 years think what it hath been to Cain that hath been burning there almost ever since the World began above 5000 years and yet are burning still at this day what a long and dismal time have they had of it already but all this is not so much as a minute or a moment to those Everlasting Ages of Torment that are still to run out and will never be expired Such are the Rewards of the Wicked Torment Torment in extremity and Torment to Eternity and the upright heart shall be rewarded with a weight of Glory and Joy and this shall be an exceeding and eternal Glory 5. A sense of these eternal Rewards is the very strength and sinews of Government Where I shall shew 1. What I mean by a sense of these eternal things There are three things in it 1. A believing these things That there is such an Eternal Judgment and Eternal Reward These things are certain Psal 58.11 Verity there is a reward for the righteous verily he is a God that Judgeth in the earth And as verily as there is a reward for the righteous so verily there is a reward for the Sinner These things are certain and these things must be believed Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him And as he must be believed a Rewarder of them that seek him so a Revenger of them that slight him and disobey him He that cometh to God and will obtain this Reward and escape this vengeance must believe this or he will never come The reason of the Rebellion of mens hearts against God is their unbelief believe the Judgment of God and that will bring you under his Government When you come to say verily 't is so this is no sable or delusion 't is certainly so 't is undoubtedly so such a Judgment there shall be such rewards there shall be given as verily as if I saw it done then your hearts will be govern'd and never till then 2. An understanding what these rewards shall be What great and wonderful Rewards they are Things to come must be known ere they will affect Heady sinners However they say they believe yet they little know what 't is to believe They know not what 't is to be saved they know not what 't is to be damned Psal 92.6 7. A bruitish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring up as the grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they should be destroyed for ever A brutish man understandeth not this neither that sinners shall be destroyed nor what a dreadful destruction their destruction shall be It s true these things to come cannot be perfectly known here we know but in part we understand but imperfectly 1 Cor. 13.9 1 Joh. 3 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be Now are we Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be And so of sinners now are they the children of the Devil but it doth not yet appear what they shall be Sinners that are brands prepared for the burning do little think what that burning is that is prepared for them and they shall never know it perfectly till they come there But yet such a knowledge of these great and astonishing things may be had here as may work mightily towards the governing of the heart and a knowledge there must be of them or they will never work There is a fore-knowledge that 's gotten by believing and meditating of these things Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will ponder these things and they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord and as his loving kindness so his Wrath and indignation and there is an after-knowledge or an experimental knowledge Some sinners will never know what hell is till they know it by experience till they fail into the pit and the sense of that wrath when they come to be preyed upon and wrap'd up in the devouring Flames teach them what a dreadful wrath it is Beware sinners of such an experimental knowledge of Hell wherein your flesh and your bones
which all need the utmost you can do for them Where are your Bowels to usward for our sakes awaken for our sakes arise and be doing we die if you will not give us a better example we die if you sleep on who should awaken and save us The whole Interest of God in the World calls upon you for his names sake for the Gospels sake for the Churches sake for Religions sake which sinks which decays for the sake of all these recover your Souls and your Life O friends what shall all these loud cryes do upon you shall all leave you such lumps and loyterers Christians be yet awakened call up all the Grace you have whet those dull and blunted Spirits get you a better edge upon them Why may not this word give a whet to you If you come hither sleepy Souls what a Mercy would it be if you might return home awakened if you came hither dead and dull and listless Souls what a comfort would it be if you might return home quickned and enlivened what if you should feel that this word had kindled a fire in you had made your hearts burn within you burn with holy Love and Life what a mercy would this be to you what if you might be sent hence with ready minds forward minds bent upon a more active and useful and heavenly life And what if after all this you should go away just as you came hither though the Bellows have been blowing yet your ashes are not purged away though the fire hath been kindled yet it will not burn would you like it if all this should be lost and do nothing upon you if this untoward and dull temper of Soul should be too hard for the Word and you should return from the Physician of Souls with your diseases uncured Do what you can friends every one of you to help to your own recovery to get up to this lively active frame and if you can obtain it then look to your hearts as long as you live that if it be possible this wretched distemper of a leaden unuseful lifeless listless unactive heart may never return upon you 2. How the heart must be guarded This I shall answer in these 5 particulars 1. Set a constant watch upon it 2. Keep all your Powers up in Armes 3. Keep close by your Captain and Physician 4. Carry up your Hearts where your Enemies can't come 5. Commit the keeping of them to the keeper of Israel 1. Set a constant Watch upon it That 's a word that is given to every Christian Mark 13.37 What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. And of all things we have to watch the heart is it that must chiefly be watched Our eyes must be chiefly there whether ever else we have to look we must especially look upwards and look inwards We must look upwards our eye must be upon Gods eye that all seeing eye that seeth in secret Whether our eye be or no Gods eye is ever upon our hearts I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Jer. 10 18. The eye of rhe Lord is a searching eye there is no secret of the heart but he espieth and searcheth it out and 't is a jealous eye that will not wink at nor allow nor indulge to the least heart evils The sense of that jealous eye would awe us into more watchfulness over our selves The reason of our neglect of self inspection is that we forget that the Lord looks upon us We cannot look upwards but we shall behold the very eye of God upon us If an hundred men stand looking upon us and we do not look upon them we cannot tell whether they look upon us or no but if we look stedfastly upon them we may see in their very eye that they are looking upon us Look up to God and you will plainly see that his eye is upon you And the observing of Gods eye upon you will turn your own eyes upon your selves What is it that the Lord looks thus upon me for what is it that he sees in me Is it any thing he likes that he looks upon Is it his approving eye that is upon me Is it a look of love or of kindness or is it that which he is offended at or disliketh Is there Jealousie is there Displeasure or Anger in that holy eye that is upon me is it a smiling look or a frowning and angry look that he casteth upon me Look on me I see he doth His Eye is never off me let me look upwards when I will I see that God looks downwards and his Eye is directly upon me and his Eye is a piercing Eye it pierceth to my very entrailes he beholds the very bottom of my heart I had need look carefully to mine own Soul when there is such an Eye upon it Night and Day Thus look upwards and set the Lord before your sight as the Psalmist did Psa 16.8 And then look inwards and set your hearts before your selves There is an Expression 2 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves which may be interpreted if they shall return into themselves the Eye of the Body can't see it self but the eye of the Soul may and must be chiefly upon its self You that are looking about this way and that way you had more need look homewards There are men that are of great acquaintance in the world but yet have no acquaintance with their own hearts VVhither their Souls be in safety or among Thieves VVhither their Hearts be clean or all bespotted and defiled whether they be healthful or sickly Souls whether they be alive or dead 't is more then they can tell where they be or in what case they are How is it with your Souls Friends How fares it with you in your inner Man VVho is there within with you Are there none but Friends Is Christ there Is the Spirit of Grace there Is there a good Conscience or are there not Robbers within Is not thine heart an houseful of Thieves Is not the world gotten in are not the pleasures of the Flesh within Is not the Devil within that unclean Spirit hath he not defiled and defaced the Image of God Is he not sowing his Tares in thee Is not thine heart a defiled diseased distemper'd heart Is it not a slight and frothy and vain heart Is it not a loose and licentious heart Is it not an untoward wayward listless heart Look inward Christians and look often inward and see what hearts you have and how 't is with them Psal 4.4 Commune with your own hearts Look into them and talk with them and take an Account how it fares with them If I should ask you how is it with your hearts are they alive or dead Are they clean Hearts holy Hearts tender Hearts heavenly Hearts lively and strong and working upwards Or are they hard Hearts polluted defiled hearts dull and slow and listless Hearts If I should ask you thus what account
you may be upon the getting hand whilest they are abating be you for abounding let there be an adding daily to you be not satisfied with the grace you have with the duties you do but let your eye be upon adding daily to your store whilest others add sin to sin guilt to guilt let it be in your heaâ—s to add grace to grace fruit to fruit Consider what is lacking in you and follow after a supply follow after it by your earnest desires follow after it by diligent labour and endeavours and follow after it by uncessant and importunate prayer unto the God of all grace that he would cause all grace to abound towards you and in you that having all-sufficiency in all things you may abound to every good work Brethren it will be a mercy if these words may have such fruit upon you as to set your hearts upon getting and adding daily to your grace and good fruits and then a considering how you may most effectually improve accordingly I pray receive the Exhortation in the name of the Lord I beseech you forget it not ponder your paths consider what is lacking what is lacking within to set your outward man a going what is lacking without in your goings that need a supply Consider what you would have God do more for you than yet is done consider what you would do more for God than you have done in what particulars you fail and wherein you would be especially helped forward Consider and desire desire and labour labour and pray that the Lord would fill up what ever is wanting in you and then I shall be bold to assure you in the words of the Apostle Phiâ— 4.19 My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ to whom be praise for ever Amen Doctr. The great care that lies upon every man in the World is to keep his heart There are many cares that lie daily upon us we have our Estates and our Names and our Families and our Bodies to take care of but our great care must be of our Hearts 1 What is meant by Heart This is sometimes taken for the principal part of the body of man sometimes for the soul of man so Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful and wicked that is the soul is deceitful Sometimes for the will and affections of the soul so 1 Chron. 28.9 here it is taken for the whole soul and this command keep thy heart is the same with that in Deut. 4.9 keep thy soul diligently What is the Soul Most men know not what and none of us know perfectly what a Soul is It is our inward and invisible substance which gives life to our bodies it is an essential and the most excellent part of us That hath most of the nature and image of God in it It is our immortal part that hath life in it and gives life to the body and never dies Our Reasons and Wills whereby we differ from Brutes these are the essential faculties of our souls The Soul is that in which our capacity lies of the highest blessedness and the extremity of misery The blessedness of the Soul is the highest blessedness The Body as such is capable of no greater happiness than a Beast is capable of onely the pleasures of sense the Soul is capable of spiritual and eternal pleasures the torments of the Soul are most exquisite and intolerable torments the burning of the Body is nothing in comparison of the wrath of God burning in the Soul The excellency of the Soul above the body you may guess at by considering what the Body is when the Soul is departed What a gastly thing what a stinking and rotten Carkass doth the most beautiful Body become when it is dead and the Soul is departed It was this the Soul of Man that was the great prize that Christ had in his eye when he died to redeem us he died to redeem souls especially to recover that blessed immortality that our Souls had lost the natural immortality they had not lost That is a great part of our misery that sin left us immortal Creatures such of whose misery there shall never be an end It was not our natural immortality that Christ died to recover that was not lost but our blessed immortality This invisible immortal most excellent part of Man his Soul this is it which we are to understand by Heart Keep thy heart that is keep thy soul 2. What it is to keep the heart 1. There is somewhat that is supposed to the keeping of our souls and that is the recovering them out of their lost state The Devil hath the keeping of Sinners souls whilest they are sinners and the first work they are to do in order to the keeping their souls is to get them back out of the Devils hands That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil 1 Tim. 2.26 Here I shall shew you these three things 1. The Souls of all men naturally are lost 2. Mens souls are not so lost here but that they are recoverable 3. This must be mans first care to recover their lost souls 1. The souls of all men naturally are lost souls It may be said of every sinner as the father of the prodigal said of him Luke 15.32 This my son was lost Fathers you may say of every child you have whilst they are in their natural state this my son is lost this my child is a lost child yea and you may say the same of your selves whilest in your sins mine own soul is a lost soul and whether you will say it or no we must say to every one of you fathers and children that are yet in your sins you are lost souls As Christ came himself so he hath sent us in his name to seek and to save them that are lost Luke 16.10 What is it to be lost Why it is the same as to be damned to be damned persons signifies to be lost and to be lost in this spiritual sense is to be damned So that word 2. Cor. 4.3 If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lâ—st to them that be damned that is in a state of damnation and in the way to actual and everlasting damnation O tremble sinners tremble all you that are yet in your sins what will you tremble at if not at being damned the word calls every man of you that are not in Christ Reprobates from God 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates Is Christ in thee Art thou a convert to Christ No Then thou art a reprobate from God thou art a damned lost soul live and die in this estate thou art in at present and thou art eternally lost What mean you sinners that you are so much at ease so much at rest in your state of sin Is it nothing to be damned Is it nothing to be Reprobates O think what it will be
to be found Reprobates at Judgment and then to have the sentence of reprobation pronounced upon you why sure sinners the very next misery to that is to be in a state of reprobation O take this home to you as your portion from the Lord every unconverted one take this word home to you take it into your own mouths O what shall I do I am a lost child I am a lost soul wo is me I am undone a son of perdition and an heir of damnation What is it to me that I have kept my body in good case that I am in health What is it to me that I have kept my estate and have not been such a prodigal of that that I have my house and my lands and my money what is it that I have kept my credit and my friends O my soul my poor soul is lost and what good shall my estate or my health or my credit or my friends or my life do to me 2. Mens souls are not so lost here but that they are recoverable In a little time if they look not to it they will be past recovery for ever Yet a little while and the Gospel will be a sealed Book to you never again to be opened yet a little while and the door of mercy and grace will be shut against you never again to be unlocked When death hath once sealed up sinners eyes when the grave hath shut her mouth upon them then every one of you that is found in his sins the Gospel is sealed up the door of mercy is shut up and thou wilt be lost forever irrecoverably lost But yet sinners these lost souls may be recovered There is great hazard at present that thou mayest not be recovered but yet there is hope 1. Ther 's great hazard at present that thou mayest not be recovered Do not make light of the hazard that is do not make sure say not such a word I doubt not but by the grace of God I shall have mercy and be saved Ther 's great hazard that that soul of thine which is a lost soul this day may be lost for ever and never be converted and saved How great that hazard is I have formerly told you out of the Pulpit and now you may read the same things from the Press namely in my discourse on Prov. 28.14 read that book carefully once especially from p 171. to page 198 where you may understand how great hazard there is that lost souls may not be recovered 2. Yet there is hope thou mayst be recovered For 1. Your souls are yet every one of them within the reach of the bloud of Christ You are come to that bloud of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 Which speaks better things then the blood of Abel There is not one Sinner among you but at present the bloud of Christ speaks for you and what doth it speak Father if this Sinner turn and repent let him not be rejected let him be pardoned and be saved For Believers it speaks thus Father these my Friends have believed and have repented and therefore I pray thee let them not fail of having the benefit of my bloud let them not fail of their pardon and salvation Thus for Saints and even for every unconverted Sinner it speaks conditionally ut supra if they will believe if they will yet turn let them also have the benefit of my bloud Hitherto every one of you are thus far within the reach of the bloud of Christ it pleads thus with the Father for you and if you will come in will make an attonement for and redeem and recover you from all your sins When once Death hath closed your eyes in your unconverted estate you are gone for ever out of the reach of the bloud of Christ it can now no longer profit you nor plead for you There is nor one drop of that pretious bloud shall ever fall into the Pit nothing of the bloud of Christ shall come into Hell and find you out there but only the guilt of his bloud that shall fall upon Sinners in Hell the guilt of despising his bloud the guilt of trampling on his bloud This is all that shall be said to sinners there in the Pit these are they that would none of me I would have washed them with my bloud but they would not be washed I would have saved them by my bloud but they would not be saved I called upon them to turn from their sins and come unto me but they would not turn they would not come I offered to purge them from their sins to pardon and make reconciliation for their iniquities but they would not be pardoned nor purged they loved their sins and hardened their hearts and threw back my bloud in my face they would none of me and now let the guilt of my bloud be upon them to heighten their flames and burn in their bowels for ever The guilt of his bloud shall reach to Hell but the expiation and attonement of his bloud shall never come there After Death there is nothing but Hell and out of Hell there is no recovery those Sons of Perdition are lost for ever O thank God Sinner that thou art not yet fallen in thither thank God that that soul of thine is not in Hell How many younger sinners than thou are there already roaring under the sense of their madness in neglecting Christ and his Redemption O thank God that thou art here thank God that thou art yet alive that Christ yet calls to thee to come to him that Christ yet offers thee that if thou wilt but turn and repent his bloud shall cleanse thee from all unrighteousness and save thee from coming into condemnation Sinner there is yet hope of thee that thou mayest be saved though there be hazard great hazard that thou wilt yet harden thy heart to thy destruction that thou wilt never be converted and be saved there is great hazard that though thou be yet out of Hell thou wilt be there shortly though thou art yet within the reach of the bloud of Christ thou wilt in a little time be without its reach but though there be such great hazard that thou mayest die for ever and be irrecoverably lost yet there is at present hope concerning thee that thou mayest be recovered and there is this hope concerning thee that thou art yet within the reach of the bloud of Christ O thank God for it and do not go on to harden thy heart till thou art past recovery I say again thank God that thou art here but yet I must add thank God and repent thank God and be converted or else it were even as good that thou wert in Hell this hour as to be here in thy sins nay it were better for thee that that body of thine were now rotting in the Grave and that soul of thine were now roaring in Hell this would be better for thee than to be here hearing the Gospel if after all thou shouldst
with this vain and foolish life I will go and return unto the Lord and then it will be better with me than now 2. The next step to this recovery is coming to God the first is coming to your selves and the use and exercise of your reason and understanding And who among poor sinners shall these words preach into your right senses You have been foolish sensless souls is there any of you that are yet come to your selves Do you judge it better for you to come back from your vain ways and to come about to the Lord Is this voice heard in your hearts Oh if I could break off from my sins and become a real Convert to Christ then would it be better with me than now It would be an happy change this day would be an happy day this Sermon would be to me an happy Sermon if the Lord would bless it so to me as to bring me off from my sins and bring me to God O how wonderfully better would it be for me than it is now If any of you are come so far to your selves as to judge and to say it would be better for me let me go on with you and ask you further What will you resolve upon Will you say on with the Prodigal well I will arise and go to my Father It is better for me so to do and I will do it through the help of God I will return Now for Repentance now for Religion and Righteousness now for a new heart and a new life I have done with my old heart Sathan I have done with my old life sin and vanity I have done with henceforth through the grace of God I will be for God and godliness Do you say so Are you resolved so Come on but one step further if you say the word come on and do likewise the Prodigal when he said I will go to my Father he arose and went accordingly Be not like the Son in the Parable who said I go Sir but went not but say and do come and joyn your selves to the Lord come into his house come into his ways give your selves to him for his servants and go on and serve him then were your souls recovered Then should it be said to you as concerning him These my children were dead and are alive were â—ost and are found and we should say over you as the Father did It is meet we should make merry that this day should be a glad day a joyful day it is meet that we should rejoice for this our Brother is recovered he was dead and is alive O let the Lord God thus rejoice over you O let all his Saints rejoice with you Come sinner make a joyful day of it come unto the Lord come to your Father and he will be ready to meet you and with open heart and open arms would receive and embrace you 2. What men may do to recover They cannot recover themselves of themselves it is God that must do it but they may and must do something towards it 1. Men can pray for their recovery Even carnal men may pray and though there be no full promise that God will hear yet God hath both required them to pray and hath appointed this as a means of their recovery Acts. 8.22 The Apostle bids Simon Magus pray that the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him It is an hopeful sign that God has a purpose to give grace when he sets sinners a praying for grace at least if they cannot pray themselves they can speak to others that can and desire them to pray for them This that Simon Magus did he begged the Apostles to pray for him O what a wretched case are those in that will neither pray for themselves nor so much as beg Christians to pray for them Sinner when didst thou ever do such a thing When didst thou ever go either to a Minister or a Christian with such a word in thy mouth pray for me It may be when thou hast been sick thou hast sent to the Congregation to pray for thy bodily recovery but when didst thou send or speak to them to pray for thy souls recovery Is not thy soul more precious than thy body Is it not thy soul more desperately sick than ever thy body hath been is not prayer for sick souls as needful and as much prevailing as prayer for sick bodies And yet how many bills have we sent in to pray for recovery from bodily diseases to one sent in to pray for the conversion of a soul But whether thou do it or not this thou canst not deny but thou canst do this towards thy conversion thou canst pray for it and desire others to pray for thee 2. Men can hear the Word This is another means of mâ—ns recovery Is 55.3 Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live And this means also they can use The same feet that will carry them to an Alehouse can as well carry them to Church The same ear that can hear a Song or foolish and idle talke câ—â—â—s well hear a Sermon Thou wilt say this I do and yet am not recovered Therefore 3. Men can give heed to what they hear They can mark and observe what the Word speaks Luke 8.18 Take heed how ye hear Give heed to what you hear and do not sleep under the sound of the Word or fit heedlesly or carelesly without minding what the Lord speaks And herein is the great neglect Sinners will come to a Sermon but mind as little what is preached to them as those that never come here This is a wretched neglect and the common case of many hearers Mat. 13.13 Hearing they hear and do not understand Our words could not have such poor success if people would mind more the things that we speak O sinners bethink your selves how often have you been here and not heeded one word that hath been spoken 4. Men can think What is easier than thoughts we use to say good words are cheap but good thoughts are cheaper than good words the exercising of mens thoughts is noted to be the first step to repentance 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves and repent and so Ps 119.59 I thought on my ways and turned c. Thou sayst thou canst not recover thy self I but canst thou not bethink thy self neither what a case thou art in Thou hearest sometimes from the Ministry of the Word that thou art a lost man a lost soul But when thou hearest it preacht to thee canst thou not think upon it Thou dost not think upon it it is too true no longer than the Word is a speaking nay it may be nor then neither What thoughts have you had of it since you were told that naturally you are lost and what a miserable case it is to be a lost soul Have you since thought such a though Wo is me I am a lost soul oh what a poor wretch am I while
an increase to set you a running and striving and fighting against all that hinders Oh what might be said to get those creeping souls upon the wing to quicken your motions heaven-ward O how might I help you off with those weights that hâ—ng on those weights of earth and flesh of cares and lusts and sins that you might run with patience and run with alacrity and joyfulness the race that is set before you O consider the imperfect state you are in consider and lament it lament and make on forgetâ—ing the things that are behind reach forth unto those things which are before 2. Are sinners yet recoverable Oh lose not the present season but seek your recovery as Is 55.6 Seek the Lord whilst he may be found So seek your souls whilst they may be found seek recovery while it may be had But what shall I do to recover 1. Get you to be heart-sick of the misery that is upon you If ever God recover you he will first smite you he will wound you that he may heal you Micah 6.13 I will make thee sick in smiting thee said God in another case The Devil smites with a deadly wound but Gods wounds are healing wounds Hos 6.1 Come let us return to the Lord for he hath smitten and he will heal us The Devil smites with blindness the Devil smites with hardness and insensibleness of heart What is the reason thou art such a blind and hardned and sensless soul O the Devil hath smitten thee into this blindness and hardness Gods smiting of the heart is like Moses his smiting of the rock Exod. 17.6 He smote the rock and water issued out God will so smite these rocks as to fetch a stream of tears and sighs and groans out of the hard heart he will make those stones to feel The Devils work is to put sinners past feeling and O how successful hath he been at this work Poor sinners the Devil hath been at work with you smiting you into insensibleness and what sensless souls hath he made you Though the word of the Lord which is shâ—rper than a two edged sword and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit of the j ints and marrow hath been driven home upon you yet you feel it not The Devil hath made thâ—e such a stupid sensless soul that thou canst feel nothing but God smites to recover your feeling he will make you sick in smiting you He will â—o so if ever he means to heal you O sinner do not resist bur help forward this work of God upon you Do what you can to recover your own sense do not harden your hearts against the word do not harden your hearts in your sins pray that God would make you sick at the heart under all your misery It would be some encouragment to Ministers to bring an healing word unto you if we could once find you to be sick If we could but recover your sense we should have hope to save your lives but here it is that our work sticks we cannoâ— by all that we can say recover you to sense to a sense of your lost estate Wo is me for I am undone said the Prophet in another case Is 6.5 O might we hear such a word from sinners mouths Wo is me for I am undone I am an undone soul I am a lost soul You are undone you are lost souls and before ever you be soundly recovered you will by the sense and sickness of your hearts be forced to acknowledge it Wo is me for I am undone Sinner dost thou think thy self well art thou whole and ailest nothing This is thy senslessness and this senslessness is the most deadly part of thy disease a sick man that is grown sensless is the next step to a dead man if his sense be recovered there is more hope of his life What a word of hope would it be might we hear this word running through all the company of hardned sinners here wo is me for I am undone what shall I do what will become of me I am a lost soul dead in trespasses and sins held under the power of the Devil dragging on to destruction I am well enough as to my body and my outward condition but O my poor soul my poor blind soul my poor hardned soul my poor guilty soul in what a woful case is it Could we perceive such a sense of your case could we hear such bemoanings and complainings of your misery this were hopeful we should then hope you were upon recovery if we could by any means work you to such a sense of your estates But how is it with you sinners Is there any such good token to be found upon you Sinners here be God knows enough of you but where be the smitten sinners Where be the sensible sinners the broken sinners the fearing sinners where be the men that the word of God hath made them sick in smiting As it is with some Physick for the body so it is with Gods Physick for souls it never worketh kindly but it makes men sick in the working Where be the sick sinners In one sense you are all deadly sick but were be the sinners whom Gods Physick hath made sick Whom the word hath made sick whom conscience hath made sick that is hath made them feel their sickness No no the Lord be merciful to you your Soul-physick will not work it leaves you at your ease under the hardness and senslesness of your hearts as if you were indeed sound men and needed nothing But sinners know that till you are wrought to a sense of the misery you are in there is no hope of your recovery Do but â—enture on a while longer in this stupid hardened state and you will be past recovery You are at present without feeling but if you once be past feeling you are past recovery for ever O get you broken hearts O cry unto the Lord that he would smite you and make you sick in smiting you That he would set you a trembling that he would affright you and afflict you for your sins O stir up and awaken those sleepy souls O study and consider and get a little understanding what a woful case you are in Believe God he tells sinners that they are sons of death sons of perdition under condemnation Beheve God before the Devil and your own hearts these have agreed together to tell you a lie to tell you your case is not so bad you shall do well enough you shall escape well enough believe not the Devil believe not your deceitful hearts believe God believe the scriptures read over that word and see how dreadfully it speaks of the case of sinners and know that all this it speaks to thee all the plagues and terrours of the Lord which you read or hear out of the Scriptures these words belong to you who are yet in your sins Sinners I would fain preach you to Christ and preach you to
day Am not I concerned in it Was not this word spoken to me Am not I one that committeth sin Do not I live after the flesh Was I ever regenerated or born again What then Why then think farther Is it nothing to be of the Devil Is everlasting death nothing Is it nothing to be shut out of the kingdom of God Awaken O my sleepy soul yet break and melt and tremble oh mine hardned heart awaken escape for thy Life there is but a step betwixt thee and everlasting death Consider this now whilst the day of adversity comes nor but if thou shouldst be so unwise as not to consider at present yet at least in the day of thy distress consider Then think how little the word hath done to the breaking and awakening of thee What a stock what a senseless stone hath it left thee Then think now God is using one means more to cure me of this sleepy hardned heart God hath laid this sickness upon me or this poverty upon me to humble me and awaken me And now I am come to my last remedy if affliction if distress if sickness if the sight of death and the grave do not work upon me nor cause the word which I have heard to work yet upon me what then Why then I am undone forever I am within a step of the Pit just dropping in and then this lost soul of mine will be past recovery forever O sinners how does this word sit upon your hearts Are not you greatly concerned in it Does not thy life lie at stake thy soul lie at stake upon thy considering or slighting thy warning O consider let present consideration prevent the great necessity of sickness consideration of death-bed consideration At least when any of you shall come to be in distress when pains shall come upon you or poverty come upon you or death make its approach to you then remember the warning of this day In the day of adversity consider 3. Take your physitians counsel and follow his rules Physitians besides their medicins do usually give rules to their Patients for their well ordering themselves and these rules they must observe or they are never like to recover and there are these three rules which ordinarily Physitians give which our great Physitian of souls gives also to them that will be recovered by him 1. Keep a good diet 2. Vse good exercise 3. Take heed of taking cold 1. Keep a good diet Abstain from all such things as will nourish and feed your diseases What is it that hath brought thee to this wretched pass That hath made thee this sick and miserable soul Thou hast been with the prodigal Luk. 15. Feeding upon husks Thou hast been with Israel Is 44 20. Feeding upon ashes Thou hast been with Ephraim Hos 12.1 Feeding upon wind These husks and these ashes and this wind have been all thy poor soul hath been feeding upon the vanities of this world the lust and the pleasures the carnal delights and the profits of this world these are but windy food for thy soul these are the very ashes and husks that have filled thee with such sore diseases thou hast fed thine heart so long with these carnal things thy soul hath been eating these ashes and drinking this wind so long that it is even turned into ashes and wind it is becom an earthly soul a fleshly soul a vain frothy soul and never think to be recovered to a better case till thou feed upon better food Wouldest thou be recovered and get thee a new heart and a new soul Then abstain from thy old feeding Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1. Pet. 2.11 Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13. ult Deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 My meaning plainly is this If ever you would recover allow not your fleshly appetites the liberty as formerly Come off from your carnal pleasures which have been such a band to you Come off from your carnal companions drink no more with the drunken run not with them to their excess of Riot No more such vain sportings and revellings Not in chambring and wantonness not in Riot and Drunkenness Come off from this greedy worldly life feed not your souls upon your lands or your monies or your trades Though you must have something of these for your bodies yet feed not your hearts with them Set not your hearts upon them that is the advice of the Psalmist Psal 62.10 If riches increase or whether they do increase or no set not your hearts upon them Let not your souls be drudges to your flesh to gather in provision for it nor let them feed with your flesh at the same trough You have better things for your souls to feed upon you have God to feed on you have the bloud of Christ the Covenant of grace the hope of Salvation the joys of the spirit the pleasures of Eternity the bread that comes down from Heaven the wine that makes glad the city of God Let these be the food of your souls feed your thoughts upon them Think often of God of his infinite goodness and grace of his eternal treasures and everlasting pleasures Think of Christ what he hath done for you what he hath purchased for you how he hath loved you and washed you in his bloud and saved you by his death Feed your affections on God and his Glory to come feed your desires upon him let this be your voice Js 26.8.9 The desire of my soul is to thy name Enlarge your desires here you cannot be too greedy and of too eager an appetite Delight your selves in the Lord get the savour and relish of things spiritual taste the pleasures of religion taste the sweetness of Christianity Do not onely spend now and then a sudden thought upon God and the things above but live in such frequent and serious meditation that you may get down something of the sweetness and fatness of heaven and digest holy meditations into holy affections Never count you have thought of God to any purpose till you can love and taste and get out good nourishment for your souls by which you may thrive and flourish and with which you may be so delighted as to wean you from the Love and Lusts of this world Believe it friends as loth as you are to let go your pleasant morsels the stolen waters of your own Cisterns as hard as you find it to diet your souls so as to deny your selves the pleasures and contentments of a worldly fleshly life as strongly as your hearts lust after ease and lust after the world and the contentments thereof get but once to be so inwardly acquainted with religion as to taste the pleasure thereof and you will be able to despise this carnal life and all its advantages and wonder at your selves that ever you should find out contentment in such a life as you have lived And now your souls are like
to flourish amain when you are come to this once to disrellish your old delights and to feed your thoughts and feed your affections on things above and to forbear and come off from the love and lusts and companions and pleasures of this world then you will live and thrive and flourish in the House of the Lord and grow up before him as his peculiar children whom the Lord hath saved The sum of this direction I shall give you in short in these three particulars If ever you would recover 1. Abstain from that carnal worldly life in which hitherto you have lived 2. Abstain from those carnal companions in whose converse you have delighted 3. Delight your selves in God feed your thoughts and affections upon things above 2. Vse good exercise Stir your selves out of your lazy humours and keep doing Idleness breeds diseases exercise will help to the cure Particularly exercise your selves 1. To prayer 2. To repentance 3. To the keeping a good conscience 1. Exercise your selves to prayer The prayer of the faithful shall save the sick Jam. 5.15 The sick soul as well as the sick body Prayer is a stirring exercise that if performed as it ought sets all the powers of the soul on work it is a striving with God it is a wrestling with God it is the lifting up of the heart and the pouring out the soul to God When thou settest thy self to praying it is both a sign that thy recovery is begun and an hope it will be perfected Set your selves to praying Sinners stir up your selves to prayer There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee Is 64.7 Pray and stir up your selves in prayer It is not sleepy lazy cold formal praying but stirring prayer that must do the cure Stir up your desires in prayer be passionate and affectionate seekers stir up your fears in prayer consider what if I should not prevail What if the cry of my sins should be louder than the cry of my prayers I come for the pardon of my sins I come for power against sin I am begging my life and the saving my soul from going down into the Pit my very life my soul lies at stake if God should not hear me I am lost for ever Awaken oh my soul and pour forth strong cries bow thy self with thy might before the Lord. Plead with God poor sinner for that poor miserable soul of thine plead with him upon his mercies upon his bowels upon his promises upon the bloud of Christ Take unto thee words Lord I am a miserable sinful soul I am a lost creature I am sick unto death I am bound in the chains of my sins and cannot get loose I am a blind hardned defiled creature these eyes must be opened this heart must be broken this filth and pollution must be washed away or I shall be swallowed up of the pit Where are thy bowels O Lord Art thou a God of pity and hast thou no pity for me Where is thy promise Lord Thou hast said Ask and you shall have seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you To whom hast thou spoken this word Is it not to me as well as to others Where is the bloud of Christ doth it not speak for sinners Doth it not make intercession for transgressors It doth Lord thou hast said it doth And what doth this bloud speak Lord forgive this poor sinner that comes to thee for pardon Lord purge him with thy bloud Lord heal him with thy bloud Lord give him that new heart and life which he comes for O doth this precious bloud speak thus for me and wilt thou not hear Sinners if ever you would be recovered set upon this exercise and keep you to it Go to God this night be with him again to morrow morning and again in the evening and every day as duly as the day comes go alone and retire your selves into the presence of God fall upon your knees and pour forth your souls in your requests to him Beware you neither neglect it and beware you do not trifle at it do not deceive your selves with the shadow or image of Prayer in stead of Prayer Consider thou art upon a matter of life and death when thou goest to prayer and let that awaken and stir up all thy powers in it Friends I doubt either that you do not pray or that it is but mock-praying that too many of you satisfie your selves withal O what pitiful hasty short dead praying is it that thou satisfiest thy self with Trace thy self into thy praying corners consider how seldom thou art there how quickly thou hast done how miserably thou shufflest over thy duties without life or affection what is this but mock-prayer will such praying recover thy lost soul No thou seest it will not thou art the same man of the same spirit running the same course from one week to another from one year to another without any change for the better It may be said of such praying as it was said of the false Prophets preaching Jer. 6.14 They heal the hurt of my people slightly Slight praying is attended but with slight healing something it seems to do it skins over the wound that it smart not for the time it keeps people quiet for the time but it will never work a thorough cure Your wound is deeper your disease is eaten into your flesh and your bone to your heart and your soul and your medicine must go as deep as your disease There must be deep sighs and groans and deep desires that must come up from the bottom of your hearts or they will never reach the bottom of your disease Be ashamed of your slightness be ashamed of your folly that you should ever think that God would help you the sooner for such trifling and mocking prayers Oh pray and exercise your selves in prayer Stir up all within you to this work look to your selves I am afraid that this duty which is a means of recovery may prove the loss of your souls I am afraid lest the Lord the jealous God that will not be mocked I am afraid that he may damn you for your prayers your trifling mocking prayers Dare not to trifle any longer dare not for thy life that the Lord ever again meet thee in thy closet meet thee on thy knees with nothing but the sacrifice of Fools a few heartless words upon thy lips Beloved I can hardly pass over this word thus there being so much weight lying upon it and yet there being so much hardness of heart under this soul-deceiving and soul-damning practice shuffling in prayer What say you Have I said enough yet Are you yet made sensible how much you are many of you concerned in this word Are you yet sensible how greatly guilty you are of this miserable hypocrisie Will all that I have said yet do to bring you to be serious and in good earnest in every prayer you make Are you come
things honestly in all things and at all times This exercise of keeping to conscience is a painful exercise you can never live a conscientious life unless you will be content to live a painful life to take pains with your hearts to take pains with your thoughts and affections to take pains with your tongues and all your members to hold them close to the rule of conscience this painful exercise will get you an heat will beget warmth in those cold and careless hearts The most conscientious Christians are the most warm and lively Christians and according as you get and keep your hearts warm so will your diseases waste the health of your souls return into you Remember what I have said if ever you would recover your lost souls recover conscience if ever you would recover conscience get the guilt the guile of conscience purged away by the bloud of Christ and water of repentance keep the eye of conscience open let conscience be the Supervisor of all your ways let the book of conscience be kept clear from blots and blurs and let there be a faithful record kept there of all your ways let the tongue of Conscience have leave to speak and warn you from day to day and submit to its Scepter and government be no longer govern'd by Will or by appetite or by lust or by the fashions and customs or examples of men but be govern'd by Conscience Do not give Conscience a Kiss and a Stab hearken to it in some things and wound it in other things but study to live in all good Conscience on your Sabbath-dayes on your working-dayes in the House of the Lord in your own houses in the houses of your Friends in the Field in the Market in the matters of God in the matters of the World when you are alone when in company when you are in good company when you are fallen into evil company wherever you are whatever you are a doing still have an eye upon Conscience an ear open to Conscience and let Conscience prescribe to you what you should do and how you should carry it in every affair 3. Beware of taking cold That 's a special rule Physicians use to give to the recovering Patient when Persons are upon recovery of their bodily diseases how ordinary is it that upon a little cold they relapse and sometimes die of their disease Is thy Soul upon recovery take heed of Colds Soul such there are who when they begin to be wrought upon and brought to any sence of Religion there appears a great heat and fervour of spirit upon them 't is with them as with the Prophet Jer. 20.9 Thy Word was in me like fire their love and desire and zeal for God seem all in a flame O what warm affections have they how warm in their Duties how warm in their converses they seem to be all Life and Soul and then after a time they grow stark cold and little life is left in them and some of them never recover again while they live Hath thy Spirit gotten an heat hath the Word heated thee and those Exercises of Prayer Repentance and keeping Conscience gotten thee into an heat then take heed of growing cold keep you constant to those Exercises that have begotten an heat in you Keep you in the Sun-shine all your heart-warmth is begotten and must be maintained from above live in the beholding the face of God live under the Sun-beams of the Sun of righteousness keep you close to God keep you near to Christ live in intimate communion with God Take heed of those clouds your sins that will obscure the Sun Isa 59.1 Take heed of an Eclipse see that this Earth do not interpose betwixt your Souls and Heaven take heed of the damp Influences of the dead that you live amongst We live in a cold World a cold Age that Age has overtaken us which Christ Prophesied of Mat. 24.20 Wherein the love many of should wax cold Those that are grown cold themselves will serve for nothing but to chill and damp the Spirits of others Be not unnecessarily conversant with this cold World trust not your selves in their Company have you never found how much your Souls have lost by carnal Correspondencies Professors how is it with you Do you still retain your first vigour as when you began to be recovered May not the Lord complain over some of us as of Israel Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth and the love of thine Espousals I remember it as a thing that is past that now is not or as Ephesus Rev. 2.4 Thou hast lost thy first Love and what follows from this decay Hence is it that we are become a Company of sickly Professors of Carnal Professors of Earthly Professors the World hath return'd upon us the Flesh hath gotten head again in us the things that are Eternal and the influences of them upon us are even lost and swallow'd up of things Temporal our Stocks and our Businesses and our Trades how have they even choak'd up our Religion Friends it 's matter of astonishment to consider how very few lively Christians there are to be found amongst us Thus we every one talk what a General decay of Religion there is among us has not thine own Mouth complain'd of the coldness of this Age But whilst thou complainest of the Age how is it with thee Art not thou sick of the same Disease Look homeward look inward into thine own House into thine own Heart what Spirit of Religion is there going in thine own Family Hast thou not by thy negligence let all run to decay there What Life of Religion is there maintain'd in thine own Heart Friends feel you every man his own Pulse lay your hand every Man upon his own Heart and feel how faintly it beats Heaven-wards Sure Friends if we should examine our own Cases we should find enough to set us all a Weeping over our own decays and she should hear that voice within us Weep not for others but weep for thy self and thine own Children O take heed lest such of you as are fallen back among the Sick do not also return among the Dead and make your recovery again more hopeless at last than 't was at first You that stand be warn'd by those that are fallen stand with your Loyns girded and your Lights burning and you that are fallen fallen to decay fallen to a dead and flat and lifeless State you that are fallen remember whence you are fallen remember and repent remember and recover strengthen the things that remain if there be any sparks left blow off your Ashes blow up the Coals Let the Life of God and the love of Christ and a Zeal for Holiness be again kindled in you and if ever the Lord should recover you again there 's great hazard whether he may thou mayest die of the Cold thou hast taken the Consumption that hath Eaten up so much of thy Vitals may be unto
This is your own wilfulness you have been perswaded to Christ but you will not come you have been perswaded back from your sins but ye will not come back you have been instructed in the way of Life but you will not learn you have been taught and call'd upon to become New Men to become serious Christians but you will not hearken you have been pressed to give your selves to Prayer to studying the Scriptures to studying your own Hearts to the ordering your Conversations according to the Gospel but you will not yield unto it you will walk after the flesh you will be proud you will be covetous and Carnal livers and thus you spend out your days Sinners consider who is it fit should have the Government of you The will of God or your own wills What would be best for you in the end to be subject to the Law of God or this Law of sin What is it that God would have with you This is the will of God your Salvation he would have you to Heaven he would that these poor Souls of yours whom the Devil hath made Drudges to your Flesh and Slaves to his Lust and Sacrifices to his Malice God would have you to be Vessels of Honour to bear his Image to shine forth in his Glory to live in his likeness and to rejoice in his everlasting Joy Man this is that which God would have that thou maiest live in everlasting Blessedness he would have thee to Heaven and he would have thee by an Holy Life to be fitted for that Blessed Life to be made meet to be a partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Therefore 't is that he commands you to Repent therefore 't is that he with so much importunity perswades you to Christ that he might wash you with his Blood and guide you by his Word and sanctifie you by his Spirit and present you blameless and faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding Joy as Jude 24. This is the will of God that you should be thus Governed and thus Ordered that these Earthen Vessels these dirty Souls might be made Vessels of Honour and of his everlasting praise And what is it that your own wills are for but to live so that you may be fit for nothing but to be Vessels of contempt to be Fuel for the everlasting Fire The Devil and your own Hearts are conspired so to sully and to black you with your ways that you may be fit for no other place but to live in the Smoak and the Fire of the everlasting Furnace Gods will is to bring you to that Inheritance which is reserved in Heaven he would have you to have all the Hell you shall have on this side the Grave and your Heaven in that Eternity which comes after Your sorrows all here and your troubles here and hereafter your rest from them all but your will is to have your Heaven here your good things here your Mirth and your Pleasure here and so leave nothing but your Hell for hereafter Now which of these two wills God's will or your own will is it the best for you to be Governed by If you say God's will is better for me to follow than mine own will 't will end best whatever it seems to be at present then one would think you should see so much Reason against this self-will'dness against this wilfulness and hardness and obstinacy in your own ways as to tremble to think of being left any longer under the Government of your own wills Sinners let me do you a kindness this day let me break the Yoak of Bondage the will of your Flesh from off your Necks and unhorse your Riders the Devil Rides your wills and your will rides your Souls come off from this drudgery Let me do the Lord this Honour this day to perswade you under the Government of his will what God would have me to do that will I do as God would have me to live so will I live will you say the word once God would have me be a Penitent and through his grace a Penitent I will be God would have me to be a Christian a sincere Christian and through his help a Christian I will be God would have me to walk humbly to live honestly to live a blameless Consciencious Heavenly Life and O this is the Life that I will give my self to What if you should say this word and say it heartily What if this word should prevail to fetch you off from your Wilfulness and the hardness of your hearts and lay your Souls at the Feet and under the Government of the Almighty What if such a change should now be wrought upon you that your hearts should now be brought about from Will towards God from Lust to Conscience from this thy Carnal and Sensual and vain Life to a Spiritual and Heavenly Life Would you not bless God for such a change Would you not say This is an happy Day for me a Blessed change the Lord hath wrought upon me Then hearken to the word you have heard and say the word once I will be the Lords and from henceforth he alone shall have the Government of me You that will not but will be self-will'd still will be hardned in your way still go home and chew upon this thought Whether will this wilful hardned Heart lead me at last 2. In the conversion of a Sinner the power of self-will is broken the Controversie betwixt God and the Sinner is determined The Controversie is whose will shall stand the will of God or the will of the Flesh in Conversion the Sinner yields that God's will shall be thenceforth his Law It was foretold of Christ Gen. 3. That he should break the Serpents Head the Serpents Head is his Power over Man and his Head-quarters is the will of Man this is his Strong-hold and in the Conversion of a Sinner the Devil is beaten out of and hath lost his Strong-hold 2 Cor. 10.4 The Weapons of our Warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down the Strong-holds the will of Man which is the great Fort or Strong-hold is so broken and pulled down that 1. He is heartily willing to resign up to God to his Will and Government he that before said Not God's will but mine own can now say Not my will but the will of the Lord be done He that before said I will not that this Man that Christ should Reign over me now says I will not that this Flesh shall Rule over me Psal 110.3 Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power the Day of Conversion is the Day of Gods Power wherein the Power of God's Grace is revealed upon Sinners Hearts in the Day of this Power Sinners shall be willing When the Power of Grace hath conquered the Power of Nature the Sinner shall yield and resign up to God and be heartily contented to be thenceforth under his Rule and Government This is the
provide for and satisfie our fleshly minds when we foster and cherish this Flesh 2. An inordinate love of our Selves Natural when we love that which is our Selves more or otherwise than we ought to love it Our Natural Selves our Bodies and our Souls are to be loved ut supra We ought to love our selves not our Souls only but our Bodies also and so to love them as to seek the good and well-being of our selves not only our Eternal but our Temporal well-being we may love our ease and our freedom from Pain we may love our Credit and our freedom from Reproach and Disgrace we may love our maintenance and freedom from want yea we may love our beauty and comeliness and freedom from Deformity and we may so love as to maintain and provide for our selves in all these respects to maintain our selves in Health to preserve our selves from temporal misery to provide for our temporal necessities but now our sinful Self-love is when we love our Selves more or otherwise than we should 1. When we love our selves more than God When we love our selves to the neglect of God as Christ said Mat. 10.37 He that loveth Father or Mother more than me he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me so may it be said he that loveth himself his own flesh his own life more than me is not worthy of me Much more when our Self-love makes an abatement of our love to God when Self is lov'd so much that God is lov'd the less when the more Self is minded or cared for by so much the less God is regarded 2. When we love Self as separated from God or otherwise than in subordination to God when our love determines in Self and rises no higher every man should love himself but it must be for the sake of God whose servant he is and whose Image he bears 3. When we love our selves to the prejudice of the love of our Neighbour The word is Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self thou shalt love thy self but so as it may not hinder thee from loving thy Neighbour When self Monopolizes our love when our Love which should be a Common is an Enclosure and is impropriated and confined to our selves when we so intensely love our selves that we love no body else or care for no body else or at least love not others so much as we should when we care not whom we displease so we may but please our selves when we care not whom we neglect so we may provide for our selves when we care not how it be with others let them be in sickness let them be in want let them starve let them die we care not how it be with them so it be but well with our selves when our Self-love is only for the advancing of Self-Interest and will invade and encroach upon and wrong the Interest of others when we can thereby advance our own Lay these things together and therein you may see what sinful Self-love is a love of mistaken Self or an inordinate love of our natural Self 2. That sinful Self-love is the great Heart-Idolatry and the root of all Rebellion and Disobedience to God 1. It is the great Heart-Idolatry Whatever we love more than God we make it a God yea when we love any thing equal with God or in separation from God and not in subordination to God If we love our Selves only for our Selves we therein deny the God which is above As he that loves Riches only for Riches sake as he that loves his meat and drink only for the Pleasure he hath in eating and drinking so he that loves himself only for selfs sake is an Idolater Whatever we make our last end we make our God Therefore as the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do so whatever ye love or regard or desire let it be all let it be only for the glory of God Rom. 11.36 To him are all things by him they were made and to him they must be directed O Beloved what an Idolatrous piece is the Heart of man become O what an Idolatrous Heart is there then in every one of us Is Self-love Idolatry then who of us can be free from this charge of Idolatry we have every one of us more or less set up this Idol Self in our Hearts Do we not love mistaken Self our sinful flesh do not our Hearts go after our Covetousness our carnal Ease our carnal Pleasures do we not love that carnal Self which should be denyed which should be Mortified and Crucified do none of us so love as to cherish our flesh and make provision for the flesh thou hast a Proud Heart and dost thou not maintain and keep up that Self-esteem thou hast a covetous Heart and dost not thou nourish and feed thy covetousness thou hast a Lust after thy carnal Pleasure and Liberty and thou Indulgest it all thou canst thou lovest to be high thou lovest to be Rich thou lovest thy Pleasure and thy Liberty these things thou lovest and dost thou not love them more than God the more thou lustest after these things and the more thou hast of them is not God so much less loved and regarded Dost thou not know that if thou hadst checked and crossed that proud mind if thou hadst denyd that covetous Heart the Lord God should have had more of thy regard more of thy Love than now he hath had do you not think you should have lov'd God better if you had lov'd the World less or your Ease or your Appetites less behold these things have broken in and encroacht upon Gods right have carried away Gods due this Self for whose sake all these are loved this Self hath stolen into the Heart and carried it away after it O what a woful thing is it that it should be said of any Professor of Religion that this should be said of them it were well for these men or at least better than 't is with them if they loved God but as well as they love their flesh if they served God as heartily as they serve their Covetousness if they were set upon the Pleasing of God but as much as they are set upon pleasing their Appetites if they were delighted in God as much as they are delighted in the World if they could find as much Pleasure in the meditation of God and Exercises of Religion as in the businesses of this life Thou knowest it is not thus with thee thou dost not Love and Delight thy Self in God as thou lovest and delightest thy Self in this earth and flesh Is Communion with God is communing with thy own Heart about the things of God is conversing with God in Prayer in holy Contemplation and Meditation is the exercising thy Faith on God thy Hope on God and thy looking into the Gospel of God and searching out and feeding upon the Blood and Bowels and unsearchable Treasures laid up in Christ is the exercising
ought to be on the Head of the most High By our seeking of God above all we thereby evidently declare that we Prize him and Honour him above all our thus seeking of God is trampling into dirt all those Idols the Vanities of the World which stood in Competition with God 2. There is a Loving and Seeking our selves in separation from God This is our loving and seeking Self natural the good of our Persons our Bodies and Souls without considering them as bearing a respect to God Our seeking our well-being as meer men our bodily well-being our Health and Strength and natural Activity the well-being or perfecting our Souls our seeking Wisdom and Knowledge and Learning c. these things are all good and worth our seeking in their place our bodily health and strength are good Wisdom and Knowledge and Learning are good Health is better than Sickness Strength than weakness Wisdom is better than Folly and Knowledge than Ignorance he hath more of the excellency of a man who is a Learned man than he that is but an Idiot but now the seeking these good things as separate from God the seeking Health and not for God the seeking Strength and not for God the seeking Wisdom and Learning and not for God this is a sinful Self-seeking As the Lord spake Jer. 9.23 24. Let not the wise man glory in his Wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his Might let not the Rich man glory in his Riches but let him that glorieth Glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me So may it be said Let not this Might be sought this Wisdom be sought but in order to the understanding knowing and serving of me Those that seek only Lawful things for themselves and in Lawful and Honest ways that seek Health and Strength that seek Estates that seek Wisdom and Knowledge and all these in Lawful and Honest ways yet if they seek these good things these Lawful things only for themselves and not with respect to God if they seek not God in seeking their Health and Estates if they do not seek God in their seeking Wisdom and Understanding this is a Sinful and Idolatrous Self-seeking It may be thou mayest not be an Epicure or a Drunkard or a Glutton in thy Eating and Drinking thou art sober and temperate and eatest only for thy Health It may be thou mayest not be Unjust or an Oppressor in seeking an Estate for thy self yet for all this thou mayest be an Idolater and an Idolater thou art if thou seekest any of these things for thy self and not God 3. There is a loving or seeking of our selves in opposition to God a seeking Self-carnal 'T is true seeking our selves in Separation is seeking our selves in Opposition to God but this seeking Self-carnal is in an higher and more direct Opposition to God Self-carnal is an Enemy to God and seeking Self thus is the maintaining and cherishing that Enmity he that inordinately seeks his Ease or the satisfaction of his Appetite and Senses does therein do what he can to feed and pamper that Enemy his flesh that it may wax wanton and head-strong and kick against God Now however every Convert hath decreed and determined to seek himself only in conjunction and subordination to God to seek himself in the Lord and for the Lord yet this sinful Self-love hath a Root remaining in him which will be putting forth in sinful self-seeking That word Phil. 2.21 All seek their own was spoken of Christians there were such declinings and such corruptions gotten into the Churches into the very Hearts of Professors as unhappily engaged them in this Self-seeking All that is the most 't was a too general Disease there were many Sick of it And not the things of Christ that is not so heartily not so zealously not so Naturally as 't was said of Timothy Phil. 2.20 He did Naturally care for the things and state of the Church and of God but says the Apostle However it was with him I have no Man like minded I find few Timothies among you whilest he is seeking the things of Christ most of you are seeking your own things and not the things of Christ How much of this self-love and self-seeking is to be found amongst Christians we have sad experiences enough to prove we need not go to Scripture for proof we find too evident Proofs in our own Hearts and Lives if we have not totally gone back from Christ to Self yet have we not suffered this Idol to divide with Christ O let us enquire a little 1. Do we seek our selves and our own Interests only in conconjunction with Christ and in subordination to Christ Do we count nothing our own things but what are the things of Christ Have we heatily espoused the Interest of Christ as our own Interest Do we seek nothing in this World so but that we can truly call it seeking of Christ Do we seek our Healths and our Estates and our safety as the Servants of Christ Can we call our labouring in our Callings our aiming at Thriving and Prosperity in our Affairs can we call this and call it truly so our Serving of Christ If we would have Health and Strength is it for Christ we would have it If we would have Estates in the World and be Rich is it for the sake of Christ that we would be Rich That we may as Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with our Substance Do we mark up all we can get and all we have do we mark it up for Christ Is there Holiness to the Lord written upon all our Houses and Possessions This House is the Lords and these Lands are the Lords 't is for him I have gotten them and for him I will use them 2. Do we not rather Seek these things in separation from God Seek them for themselves for the love we have to them for the sake of Self to whose service we devote them do we not seek these things with the neglect of Christ Is not Christ sought the less and the more grieved for that the World is sought so much Is not Christ the less minded the less loved the more seldom thought on by this means Does not our Thriftiness and good Husbandry for the World our Eating and Feeding upon our taking the Pleasure of what we have here does not this make an abatement upon our Christianity Do we not lose much of the Life and Spirit and Soul of Christianity in our Carnal things and delights Do we not so bless our selves in this Earth that we so much the less bless our selves in Christ or in the God of Truth Christians pray consider it how do ye find it Hath not this Selfishness and Earthliness spoyled you for Christians Of how many Mens Prospering in the World of how many Mens labouring for the World may it be said This is the Fruit of these Labours this is the Fruit of this Prosperity it hath even spoyled a good Christian he hath lost
in Number than the Sands of the Sea Thy Thoughts that is either Gods Thoughts towards him or his Thoughts of God and these Observe 1. The gratefulness or acceptableness of such Thoughts how precious how dear are they to me It was a pleasant thing to him to think of God 2. The Multitude of his Thoughts of God how great is the Summ of them God hath many Thoughts of his Saints and Saints have many Thoughts of God 3. A special Season of his thinking of God when I awake these are my Morning Thoughts no sooner am I awake but my Heart is in Heaven and Psal 119.97 O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation all the day where see 1. The matter of his Thoughts the Law of God or those blessed matters those wonderful things contained in this Law to be thinking of the Word of God is to be thinking of God of Christ of Holiness of Heaven of the way to Heaven and the like things that are written in the Word these are the matter of his Thoughts 2. The Seasons of his Meditations and these are every Season he is constantly thus exercised all the day his Morning thoughts are his continual Thoughts 3. The Motive or Spring of his Meditations O how I love thy Law What we love we shall easily be thinking of if we love God we shall be thinking of God if we love our Souls love Holiness love the Word and wayes of God our Thoughts will be upon them Dost thou not think on God and the Law of God 'T is a sign thou lovest them not well this is the right governing our Thoughts and which will prevent the wandrings and straglings and unruliness of them the holding them thus well exercised 3. In holding our Affections and Passions to their proper Objects and within their due Bounds so as that we love only what we should love and as much and no more than we should love it to fear what we should fear and as much and no more than we should fear it to desire what we should desire and as much and no more than we should desire it to be angry with what we should be angry and no more than we should I shall instance only in these Six Passions Our Love Our Desire Our Joy Our Grief Our Fear Our Anger 1. For our Love this is then well Ordered when we love only what we should love and as much and no more than we should love it The Object of Love is good and only good nothing can be loved but that which is good or apprehended so to be and nothing ought to be loved but that which is good God is good the chief and Supream good the Fountain of all goodness infinitely good Good is the Lord Exod. 34.6 Abundant in goodness and truth Our danger here is not of over-loving but of under-loving God is to be loved with all the Heart and with all the Might there is no danger here of erring in the excess our beings are good our Souls and Bodies we are Gods Workmanship and of all Gods works 't is said Gen. 1. he saw that they were good Our well-being and prosperity and happiness is good not only the Prosperity of our Souls our prospering in Grace and Holiness our growing rich unto God but the Prosperity of our Bodies and outward man our Health and our Estates is good Joh. 3. I wish that thou maiest prosper and be in Health even as thy Soul prospereth The Creatures are good our Bread and our Cloaths and our Houses which are for the comfort of our Bodies every Creature of God is good being sanctified by the Word and Prayer 1 Tim. 4.4 The Prosperity of our Neighbours especially those of the houshold of Faith this also is a good that we should love Touching our Souls our danger is that we do not love these according to the price and worth of a Soul which is more than all the World Mat. 16. or else that we do not love them aright so as to seek their good Touching our Bodies and the Creatures that are for the Health and prosperity of our Bodies the great danger is of over-loving them of loving them more than we should and more than they are worth This is the order that should be in well-govern'd Hearts we should love the Creatures for our Bodies we should love our Bodies for our Souls we should love them all and our Neighbours good also for God and we should love love God for himself And this ought to be the Measure of our Love we should love God with all our might we should love our Souls as far forth as serves to the Honour of God we should love our Bodies our Health and bodily Prosperity as far as they are serviceable to our Souls and we should love the Creatures our Houses our Money our Estates as far forth as they may be useful to our Bodies in the Service of our Souls and to our Bodies and Souls in the Service of God and we should love our Neighbour as our selves An Heart that is set right in its love is a well governed Heart this is the orginal of the disorder that is in our lives the disorder of our love Why is it that these Bodies and our Bodily Prosperity is sought more than our Souls why do we seek Riches and Pleasure and Ease and Money more than we seek Grace and Holiness O we love the Creature too much and we love God and our Souls too little O it were well with the sinful World better than it is if they loved God and their Souls as well as they love their Bodies and Estates but Sinner for thy part thou dost not so thou sayest thou lovest God thou sayest thou lovest thy Soul thou sayest these are the gteat things thine Heart is upon no thou dost not love God as thou lovest that Carkass of thine thou doest not love God as well as thou lovest thy Money or thy Pleasures or thy Health thy very Lusts thy Carnal Sports and Merriments thy vile Companions and thy Sins thou art such a vile Brute that thou lovest these more than thou lovest God or thy Soul thou art better pleased thou art better satisfied when the Corn and the Wine increaseth when thou Prosperest in this World than with any hopes thou hast towards God for thy Soul What is the Pleasure of thine Heart When art thou most merry and best contented When is it with thee as thou wouldst have it but when thou art in Health and Prosperest in these outward things God is dishonoured and neglected by thee God is angry with thee and yet thou art well enough contented thy Soul languisheth it is a blind and ignorant Soul it is a sinful and guilty Soul it is a stupid and hardned Soul it is a perishing and dying Soul thy Soul is in the hands of the Devil thy Soul is a dead Soul even dropping into Hell and yet for all this thou sittest there at
thine Ease and art nothing troubled at it thou art Rich and hast Money enough at least thou hast an House and hast Bread enough thou art in thy Health and thy Strength and so long thou carest not thou art not troubled about thou wilt not so much as think How is it with my Soul Is not my poor Soul ready to perish and like to be Damned for my Sins And wilt thou yet say thou lovest thy Soul 'T were well for thee better than 't is if thou lovest thy Soul as thou lovest thy Flesh nay as thou lovest thy dirty Pleasures and vile Companions thy Horses in thy Stable thy Pigs at the Trough thy very Dogs thou lovest better than thou lovest thy Soul this is the wickedness of every Sinner among you and where the Soul is less loved God himself is less loved than these vile things yet thou wilt say Thou lovest God no thou dost not love him as thou lovest the Dirt of thy Heels the Lusts of thy Flesh O wonder wonder Sinners and be astonished at your Selves that ever there should be such a vile and wretched Heart within you and yet you should sit here or go up and down the World as well pleased with your selves as well satisfied with your selves as you are Who would think that behold Sinners Faces how merry they look who would think these merry ones should have such a vile and wicked Heart within them How is it with thee Sinner What aileth thee I am well I thank God Well art thou What and have such a Devil in thy Bosome such a wicked Heart as despiseth the Lord and makes a God of thy Belly or thy Money or thy Pleasure The Lord make you deeply sensible of this wickedness for 't is certainly your cases 't were better with you than it is if you had loved God as well as you do the Beasts that perish if you loved your Souls as well as you do those rotting and perishing Carkases And for you that are Christians who do love your Souls more than your Bodies and God more than all yet it is so little that God hath the Preheminence in your Love that you are hard put to it in your Examination to prove whether the love of God hath the Preheminence in you or no whether there be not something that you love more than God It is a shame for us Friends that the love of God is no more perfected in us that there is no more sensible strength of our Love to God that we should be so often put to it to Question which we love best God or our selves God or this present World Well this should be the Order and Measure of your Love as I said before that God be first loved next our Souls then our Bodies and after that the Creatures which are for the Bodily Prosperity that the Creature be loved no farther than it is serviceable to the Health of our Bodies and our Bodies loved in order to the service of our Souls and all so much and no more than conduces to the Honour and Service of God this should be the Order and Measure of our Love and this would be one Fruit of the due Government of our Hearts That I may the more effectually perswade you to set up and keep up this Government in your Hearts let me ask you Quest 1. Can you except against this Order and Measure of your Love Order in the Heart is as necessary as Order in a Kingdom Army or Family and a due Order in our Love is necessary to the keeping up Order in the Heart 1. Consider Order in the Heart is as necessary as Order in a Kingdom c. What is a Kingdom if there be no Order in it What is an Army what is a Family where there is no order in it What is there but Confusion and Ruin All runs into confusion all runs to ruin where no Order is Jam. 3.16 Where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work where envy and strife is there is disorder good Order would prevent strife and envying and where no good Order is there is confusion and every evil work O what Tumults and Mutinies are there in our disorderly Hearts there is no good doing and there is every evil work 2. Order in our Love is necessary to the keeping our whole Hearts in Order upon the right Order and Measure of our Love will follow the right Ordering of all our Affections there 's no one of all our Affections but will be in good Order if our Love be in Order if we love what we should love we shall hate what we should hate and fear what we should fear and desire what we should desire and grieve for what we should grieve and be angry only at what we should be angry and when there is a due Measure in our Love where we love as much as we should we shall hate as much as we should and fear and grieve and rejoice as much as we should and no more the motions and workings of all our Affections do follow and flow from the working of our Love as when we love God we shall hate and fear and grieve for all that is contrary to God so when we love God as much as we should that is above all and with all our Hearts we shall desire him above all and hate and grieve for sin which is contrary to God with all our Hearts The Reason why we hate not sin as we should why we fear not sin and grieve not for sin the Reason why we desire no more after God why we desire Grace no more and Holiness no more it is because we have no more love to God and his Holiness The Reason why we love that we should not love and desire and fear what we should not the Reason of our Carnal griefs and Worldly Sorrows those Sorrows that bring Death 2 Cor. 7. is because we duly love not God more love to God would help and heal those inordinate Passions you would never be lovers of this Self of this Flesh of this World of these Pleasures did you duly love God and the things of God you complain of the unruliness of your Passions of your frettings and vexings and the unquietness of your Hearts you complain of the hardness of your Hearts you cannot hate sin as you should nor mourn for sin nor fear it as you should this you say is your Affliction and you know not how to help it why do but get more love to God more intense and ardent love to Him and his Holiness and you will find all these Distempers to fall then you will hate and fear and mourn for sin as you ought to do there will be an end of your complainings of hardness of Heart that you can't fear nor grieve nor mourn for sin there will be an end of your complainings of your over-loving the World of your unreasonable passions and frettings and anger at what
you should not when once you have gotten duely to love the Lord. Well by this you see the Order in the Heart and in special the due Order and Measure of your love that is necessary and how necessary it is Can you therefore except against this Order and Measure of your Love What should be first and chiefly loved Wilt thou not say That God should be he Which should be most in our Love our Bodies or our Souls Will you not every one say O my Soul my Soul is of more worth than my Body and more worthy of my Love Which should be more loved your Bodies or your Estates and the Creatures you enjoy Surely you would all say in this as Christ said Mat. 6.25 The Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment what would you think of such a Man that loves his Money more than his own Body that would suffer his Body to Starve and Pine rather than spend his Money upon it you would say This Man is a Monster and is not he as much a Monster who loves his Body more than his Soul or himself more than God as he who loves his Money more than his Body Christians would you not count it well with you if your Love were thus regulated What if you could now feel that which you have so often questioned and doubted whether it be so or no that you can now love God above all that the whole stream of your Love did run into the Ocean If you could feel such strong and such lively and such passionate workings of your Hearts towards God such dearness and such tenderness and such strength and ardency of Affection to the Lord if you could feel your Hearts burning within you with the Divine Love if these Hearts were all flameing Hearts and flaming upwards and that so sensibly and so strongly that there might be a resolving of that doubt and you saâ— it true beyond question and you could say Now I feel who hath mine Heart none but God none but Christ Whom have I in Heaven but thee there 's nothing in the Earth that I love in comparison of thee God is the love of my Heart and my Portion for ever what if you could now feel it thus within you What if from your own sense and experience you could heartily speak out such words Take this Heart to thee O Lord thine it is thou art mine only Love and nothing will I love or regard but in Order to thee would you not bless your selves in such an experience Would it not be Marrow and Fatness to your Souls Would you not rejoyce in the Lord and triumph in Christ and praise his Holy Name that had wrought you to that pass That God should have thus gotten to be the chief in your love and Self and Flesh and the whole World were brought to stoop and stand aside yea and to be trampled on in comparison of him Sure you that are Christians would count it happy with you if it were thus and I dare say concerning you this is it you pray for and hope for and wait and thirst and long after and would count it an infinitely greater matter of joy and praise than if the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl if all the Pomps and Pleasures and Grandeur of the World were increasing unto you and were rolling in upon you and therefore you for your parts have nothing to except against this Order and Measure of your love Qu. 2. But how is it with you If it be an excellent thing if it be a blessed thing to have our Hearts brought into such a Frame and Order what do ye find Are you made partakers of this blessedness O the Lord help me I am far short of it I can feel that I love this World I need no tryal whether I love this Flesh or no whether I love my Credit or no whether I love my Money or my Lands or mine Ease or my Pleasures I feel I love these things but whether I love my Soul as I ought whether I love God as I ought there 's my great doubt and I fear I do not Dost thou fear Dost thou doubt whether thou lovest thy Soul as thou lovest the World Whether thou lovest thy God as thou lovest thy Flesh And is there any thing but need then that thou shouldst be brought to a better pass Canst thou be quiet canst thou be comforted in any thing whilest it is thus with thee Christians would you ever be clearly satisfied concerning your eternal State that you shall hereafter dwell in the eternal Love Would you be comforted touching your present Case that God is your God That Christ is your Jesus That the Covenant and the Promises and the Mercies of God are yours that you are passed from Death to Life that your Names are written in Heaven and that you are Enrolled amongst the Saints and shall have an Inheritance with the Saints in Light Then put hard on for this blessed Frame of Heart let it henceforth be the great thing in your Eye look for it pray for it reach forth towards it down with this World tread upon this Earth and Flesh love nothing but what God would have you love love nothing but in subordination to God Dread the encroachments of the Creatures upon the Right of God despise these carnal Pleasures despise this Money and these Lands or this Credit so far forth as they stand in competition with God set your Foot upon the Necks of them all give your Hearts unto the Lord and let him be your Love and your Delight and your Portion for ever 2. For our Desires in this as in the former we must desire what we should desire and as much as and no more than we should desire it the Object of our desires is the same with the Object of our Love that which is Good Now of all the Good which may or ought to be desired 1. Something is to be desired Absolutely and Vltimately and thus God only is to be desired 2. Other good things are to be desired Absolutely but Subordinately and thus the first Grace is to be desired and the evelasting Happiness of our Souls absolutely but subordinately we are to desire our own blessedness but chiefly that therein God may be glorified 3. Other good things are to be desired in subordination and with submission And thus the higher Degrees of Grace the best and most advantageous Means of Grace Gifts the gift of Prayer gifts for Edification c. these all are to be desired with submission to the will of God the first Grace or saving Grace we are not to desire with submission so as to be content to be deny'd it no not to the will of God for there is no such will of God for us to submit to God would not have any Man to submit to it to be for ever left an Enemy or a Reprobate from God God would not have any Man content to
have little of your Hearts of so great consequence is the bounding and abating of your Worldly desires that if ever you would love or desire or seeek God more than you do you must strike Sail and drive on more moderately and more mortifiedly towards the World Love this World less and you will desire it less desire it less and you will seek it less seek the World less and you are like to be in good earnest Seekers of God Quench your thirst Friends quench your thirst after these stollen Waters drink deep Draughts of the Water of Life and you will no longer thirst so after these puddle Waters Joh. 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst that is after these Carnal Things You who have such thirsty Souls after the Waters of your own Cisterns 't is a sign that you are little at the Fountain of Living Waters Thou hast not drank of the Rock of the Wilderness who so lustest after the Rivers of Egypt Christians dwell more at the Spring-head drink of the Fountain let out your desires more after God Taste more of the sweetness of Christ let down your Pitchers into the Wells of Salvation fetch in more of that Living-Water lye more at the Breasts desire more the sincere Milk of the Word and suck in that Milk Drink more of the Wine that is prepared in the Kingdom of God my meaning is live more with God feed upon Christ delight your selves more in God solace and satisfie your selves more in Communion with God acquaint your selves more inwardly and experimentally with the sweetness of Religion and this will be the best way to quench your thirst and abate your desires after these Carnal Things Desire them still you may and you will as far forth as they are good for you and as far as your Heavenly Father sees them needful for you but there will be an end of your greedy and ravenous and insatiable desires if you desire God as much as you should you will desire the World no more than you should 3. Crush your desires after the evil and hurtful things below so as not to desire them at all The Pleasures of Sin and the Pomps and Pride of this Life and the Gains of Unrighteousness desire them not at all These can never be good for you and therefore are not to be desired It cannot be good to grow Rich by Fraud or Oppression they are cursed Gains that come in that way the Pompous Pride of the World and the sinful Sports and Pleasures of the World these are the Bane and Poyson of Souls a Cup of Poyson is not more Mortal to the Body than these Cups of Fornication or sinful Pleasures are to the Soul and therefore desires after these must not be limited or moderated but be crushed and crucified I told you before of two Instruments of Government a Spur and a Curb and the needfulness and use of these in the Government of your Desires you have seen in the two former Directions the need of a Spur to quicken our desires after God and his Grace of a Curb to restrain and limit our Desires after the good things of the World and now I shall tell you of a Third Instrument of Government and that is a Cross or a Gibbet to Execute and Crucifie our Desires after the Evils of the World what Government can be without Laws And what are Laws without Penalties And what are Penalties if there be no Execution There must be Gallows and Gibbets set up to cut off Malefactors or there 's like to be but poor Government The desires after these Evil things of the World are Malefactors that must be cut off and Crucified Gal. 6.14 I am Crucified to the World by the Cross of Christ that is my sinful Love of the World my lusting after the World those three Worldly Lusts in special the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life these are all Crucified by the Cross of Christ Moderate your Desires after these good things of the World but kill your desires after these Evil things Dost thou desire the sinful Pleasures of the World Art thou for a wanton or voluptuous Life Dost thou desire the Gain of Unrighteousness that comes in by Fraud or Oppression by shortning or detaining the Hire of thy poor Labourers Art thou for growing Rich by straitening or starving or ruining thy poor Workmen Dost thou affect a Proud or a Pompous Life O Kill and Crucifie all such Desires Nail them to the Cross hang up these Malefactors let there not be a Lust left in thee after these wickednesses but bring it forth to Execution let there be no such Desires found alive in your Hearts Leave it to the Epicures and Fornicators of the World to be Sons of Pleasure leave it to the Horse-leaches of the Earth to be Blood-Suckers to thirst after such Gain as is wrung out of the Bowels of the Poor leave it to the Butterflies and Wantons of the World to affect Mimical and Pompous Gaudry let Christians know no such Desires much less allow them and foster them where they feel them working and rising And as I hinted to you but now know that the two last Directions Curb and Crush will be easiest to be Observed if the first quicken Desires after God and Grace be diligently prosecuted And therefore here I in special exhort you to give all diligence enlarge and whet your Appetites after God and the things above Remember what I told you but now acquaint your selves with God live more in the Contemplation of God live more in Communion with God get you into the inside of Religion keep you close by God keep you near to Christ let your desire be to your Father let your desire be to your Husband be able to say with the Church Isa 26.8 9. The desire of my Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee with my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early desire the Lord till you can delight in the Lord delight your selves in the Lord and then you will despise those desires of small things that take up the Hearts of Worldlings Shall I forsake my Fatness saith the Olive-Tree Shall I forsake my sweetness saith the Fig-Tree and become King over the Trees Judges 9.9 11. Shall I forsake the Fatness of the Olive the sweetness of the Fig-Tree and feed my Soul on these Brambles and wild Vines which are the Lusts of Foolish Worldlings He that hath drank Old Wine will not desire the New for he saith the Old is better God hath better things for you to desire better Wine better Pleasures better Inheritances for you O live so with God live so upon Christ that you may get you a Taste of his better Wine a Taste of his sweeter Pleasures a Taste of the Fatness of Heaven and then you will the more despise
over much in any of the good things below we may rejoice in our outward good things James 1.9 Let the Brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted that is let the Poor rejoice when he is made Rich Poverty is an Affliction and Riches are a Mercy and such a Mercy as we may rejoice in But though we may rejoice in every outward Mercy yet we may not rejoice overmuch in them particularly for the limits of this Joy they must be such as these 1. Joy not in any of these good things as if they were your happiness they may be Means to our happiness but must not be made the Matter of our happiness to make our Estates our happiness is to make them our God and the way to make us miserable he is a miserable Rich Man who maketh his Riches his Happiness 2. Joy not so much in them as to rejoyce ever the less in God You have so much need of God in the greatest Plenty and Prosperity as you have when you have nothing and you should so much thirst after the Joy of God in your greatest Worldly Joy as in your Sorrow Take not your Worldly Joy in stead of Joy in God think not to supply your want of Joy in God by the abounding of Worldly Joy You may as well feed your Souls with Meat and Drink you may as well provide for your Souls by your Money or Estates as comfort them by that Joy that ariseth out of these Earthly things Souls must have a God the Comfort of God the Joy of God to refresh them and support them that Soul is a Carnal Soul that can feed upon Carnal Joys you nevertheless need the Joy of God for any Worldly Joy and you must look to it that your Worldly Joys be never to that height as to lessen your esteem of the Joy of the Lord. The Joy of God will quench your thirst after the World and then the Joy of the World exceedeth it's Bounds when it quencheth your thirst after God and the light of his Countenance Thou art Rich thou art full and prosperest in the World thy Bull gendreth and faileth not thy Cow calveth c. thy Oxen are strong to labour thy Sheep bring forth Thousands and ten Thousands in the Streets and now thou hast Hearts Ease and rejoycest in thy Portion but how standest thou now in respect to God Is God ever the less needed Is God ever the less loved Is the Joy of God still thy chief Joy Or dost thou not even forget that thou hast a God or a Soul and leave it to them that have nothing below to rejoyce in God that is above What thinkest thou of thy self Hath this Earth eaten up Heaven Hath the Joy of this Earth swallowed up the Joy of the Lord Sure it hath transgressed its Bounds It may be thou wilt say as the Prophet Hab. 3.17 18. and it is well if thou canst say so Although the Fig-Tree doth not Blossom c Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord and Joy in the God of my Salvation When thou art Poor and in Want and hast nothing left thee in the World to comfort thine Heart in then thou wilt look to the Lord and he shall be thy Joy and thy Comfort but how is it with thee when the Fig-Tree doth Blossom when thou livest in the abundance of all things Dost thou then feel thou hast as much need of a God dost thou then take as much Joy in God canst thou say of all here below These are miserable Comforters if God be not my Comfort these are miserable Pleasures if God be not my Joy This is something and thus it should be 3. Rejoice with Trembling That 's the Psalmist's Counsel Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with Fear and rejoice with Trembling in allusion to that let me say Seek the World with Fear and rejoice in the World with Trembling let fear be a Bridle to prevent the excess of your Worldly Joy Fear what should we fear Why fear lest you should forget God lest that which is your Joy become your Snare and turn you aside from God lest your Joy in the World should prove Worldly Joy and serve for nothing but to feed and heighten your Worldly Lusts fear lest this Joy of the World should do the same by you as sometimes the Sorrows of the World do which the Apostle says 2 Cor. 7. Worketh Death fear lest it kill your Souls there is nothing that does more corrupt and endanger the Soul than Carnal Mirth Eccle. 11.9 Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth c. but what followeth Know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment that is to Condemnation These Joys drag the Soul to the Bar of Justice and thence to Execution in the Fire There is scarce any thing that does Ripen Men faster for Ruin than the Mirth of the World Job 21.10 11. Their Bull gendreth and faileth not there 's the matter of their Joy their Children Dance they take the Timbrel and the Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ there 's the Measure and Expression of their Joy they are so lifted up that they must have the Musick and their Dancing to heighten their Mirth but what 's the end In a Moment they go down to the Grave and thence into the Bottomless Pit O the Madness of this Merry World That can see nothing in God to Joy them in and yet can rejoice in a thing of nought that undo themselves by their own Felicity their Joy and Mirth Joy is the sweetest Flower that grows in that Garden the Heart of Man and this Flower must be the Poyson to kill them and is never sweet to them but when it growes up out of a Dung-hill out of their Fleshly Lusts What Multitudes have surfeited and Died of their Carnal Mirth and yet foolish Souls will never fear it but this must be their only Heaven which leads to Hell what do these Carnal Joys serve for but to corrupt Men first and then to confound Men Worldly sorrow it 's said worketh Death but it may be said of Worldly Sorrow and Mirth as of David and Saul Saul hath slain his Thousands and David his ten Thousands Worldly Sorrow hath slain many but nothing so many as Carnal Mirth whilest that Saints wade through their Temporal Sorrows to everlasting Joy Sinners pass through their Worldly Joy to everlasting Sorrows Isa 50.11 Behold ye that kindle your Fires c. Here 1. Sinners have their Fires that is to comfort and chear and warm their Hearts these their comforting Fires are their Joy and Jollities 2. Sinners Fires are of their own kindling their comforts come not from God but they raise them up to themselves they comfort themselves and chear themselves but are not comforted of God 3. Sinners Fires are all but Sparks a Spark will not warm and will not last the Triumphing of the Wicked is short and the Joy of the Hypocrite is
in these Dayes remember how is it with poor Jerusalem Is our Jerusalem in Prosperity Doth the Church of Christ flourish Is Religion and sincere Christianity countenanced and encouraged Are not the Tents of Jacob smitten and fallen and do they not look Black and all torne and Weather-beaten It was said once though by an evil Tongue Numb 24.5 How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Jerusalem But where is their Goodness where is their Beauty Are not the Daughters of Zion all Sun-burnt with Affliction 'T was said once by the Church I am Black but Comely Cant. 1.5 Sun-burnt with Affliction but Beautiful through Grace but may it not now be said We are Black and Deformed not only Sun-burnt but Collied Black as a Coal by Iniquity Is there not only a Marring of our outward Beauty but a failing of the very Spirit and inward Beauty of Christianity Though it were once said Psal 45.13 The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and her Cloathing of wrought Gold must it now be said Our cloathing is in Sack-cloth and we are become Black and Pale and all Withering within Is not Christianity in most Places dead at the Heart May there not an Ichabod be Named among us The Glory the inward Glory is departed from Jerusalem It 's well for us if it be not thus with us if the Pale Horse hath not ridden into our very Inner-man if there be not Death in our Hearts if our Faith and our Love and our Holiness and our Zeal be not dead if we be not grown stark Cold many of us or at least our highest pitch be not Lukewarmness Consider how 't is with your selves but if it be better with us O that it were so O that the Lord had not a Controversie with us even with us for the loss that we are at and the fall that is to be seen among us but if it were better with us in our Particulars than it is yet forget not how it is abroad with the generality of Professors amongst us It is in every Bodies Mouth what a general and lamentable Decay there is every where of the Soul of serious Christianity And is all this nothing with you Is this a Season to rejoice and make Merry in Ezek. 21.9 10. A Sword a Sword is sharpned and is also furbished it is sharpned that it may make a sore Slaughter it is furbished that it may glitter should we than make Mirth Beloved we may Read in our Decayes and Hypocrisies that the Lord may be sharpning and furbishing an outward Sword against us to avenge and to punish an Hypocritical Nation But the Spiritual Sword of the Lord is sharpned already and what a sore Slaughter hath it made What a Slaughter of the Faith and the Hopes and of the Graces and the Comforts of the Love of the Humility of the Meekness of the Self-denial what a Slaughter hath been made of all these already How little of them is there left alive Is there such a Spiritual Sword such a Javelin smitten through the Heart such a sore Slaughter made of the very Spirit of Religion and should we yet make Mirth Is this a Season to be so Merry or so Jolly in What a Woe is there denounced Amos 6.1 6. against those Merry ones and Jolly ones upon this Account that they are not grieved for the Afflictions of Joseph and what should we be Merry and so Merry as to be without Sense of the Afflictions and also of the Sins of Joseph The inward Languishings and Consumptions of the People of God Christians I doubt we have too much forgotten all this we do not consider we do not remember or lay it to Heart how sadly it goeth with the Interest of Christianity among us sure it would change many of our Countenances and abate us our Pleasant Hours were this duly Weighed It is our Fault and our Sin that it is thus with us and 't is a sign that thou art of the Number of those sick Souls thou art one of them there is a sad Slaughter made in thine own Soul thine Heart languisheth and thy Grace is whithered 't is a Sign it is so if thou canst be so Merry and not to be Afflicted with the Whitherings of others O Friends remember these things and whatever Rejoycings you have in outward things let these things be an allay to them Rejoyce as if ye Rejoyced not Weep as if you Wept not saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.30 I cannot say the latter word to you in such a time Weep as if you Wept not but Weep as if you wept Weep in good earnest Weep heartily Weep abundandly let your Eyes run down with Tears I cannot say Weep as if you Wept not but yet rejoyce as if you rejoyced not abate and moderate all your Joy and Mirth 4. For our Fear this is well governed when we fear nothing but what â—e should fear and this we fear as much and no more than we should For the Regulating our fears First We are to keep our Hearts in a due fear of what we should fear 1. God is to be feared The Glory of his Excellent Majesty of his Holiness of his Righteousness of his Omnipotence and all his Glorious Attributes The Attributes are his Glorious and Fearful Name Deut. 28.58 That thou mayest Fear that Glorious and Fearful Name the Lord thy God this fear of God is a Fear of Reverence to Fear God is to stand in aw of his Glorious Majesty but in special there must be a fear of the Indignation of God and the Power of his Wrath. Luke 12.5 I will tell you what you should fear fear him who is able to destroy both Soul and Body the fear of God is the Ground and Reason of all other Fears 2. Sin is to be Feared 2 Sam. 1.14 How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine Hand and destroy the Lords Anointed It was thy Wickedness thy great Sin to do that Act How is it that thou wert not afraid to do it Sin is the most formidable of Evils if Men knew what it were to Sin against God 't would make them tremble not only great sins but little sins not only open but the most secret sins there 's enough in every sin to make Men afraid that Men are so vile and so wicked as they are it is because they fear not sin fear sin and you will fly from it 3. Temptations to sin are to be feared Therefore we are to pray Lead us not into Temptation It is our fear that must bring us on our Knees to make this Hearty Prayer If sin be to be feared then whatever enticeth or leadeth to sin is to be feared Some of our Temptations are to be feared and shunned evil Companions are a Temptation these must be shunned the liberty of unnecessary Sports and Recreations of sumptuous Feastings of curious and costly Apparel c. are Temptations and therefore must be shunned others of our
Temptations are to be feared and warily used Riches and outward Prosperity is a Temptation our Money and our Lands and our businesses in the World are Temptations He that will be Rich falleth into Temptation c. and therefore must so be feared as to make us the more wary and circumspect in the seeking and using of them follow your Trades with fear go into your Fields and Markets with fear Eat and Drink with fear fear your fine Houses fear you Plentiful and Prosperous Estates lest by these you be led away to sin and to forget God You are every day among Temptations throughout the whole time of your lives and therefore is the Exhortation of the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.17 Pass the time of your Sojourning here in fear 4. The punishments of sin are to be feared The wrath and the curse of God that Everlasting death which is the wages of sin as I told you before fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell He is able and he will do it if thou continue in thy sin This fear is planted in the heart as the Sword of the Angel was placed in the way of Balaam to keep him back from his wicked designs This world is a wicked world notwithstanding that God hath placed such a flaming sword in sinners ways notwithstanding all their fears how wilfully wicked are they but what world would this world be if there were no fear upon mens hearts to bridle or restrain them Secondly We are to keep the heart out of fear of what it should not fear to suppress and keep down all unreasonable and sinful fears There are two things especially which men fear but should not fear 1. The Yoke of Christ the difficulties and severities of Religion some men continue to be sinners because they are afraid to be Saints they continue under the power of the Devil because they are afraid of Christ They look on Christ as an hard Master his service as hard service his Yoke as an hard Yoke some desires they have after Religion they could wish themselves Christians but they are afraid to venture The difficulties and the severities of a Godly life keep them off they are afraid of them that they shall never bear them As God placed a flaming sword in Eden Gen. 3. so these fears are a flaming sword of the devils placing to keep the way of the tree of Life to keep sinners back from Christ they dare not come to Christ for fear of him and the heavy yoke that he would put upon their Necks 2. The Cross of Christ that is 1. The sufferings of this Life These are not to be feared Rev. 2.10 Fear none of those things which you shall suffer And this very charge not to fear them is an Evidence that even Christians are too apt to fear Sufferings 2. Death for Christs sake Luke 12.4 Fear not them that kill the body Fear not the worst that men can do You may not only be persecuted by evil men imprisoned spoiled of your Goods but you may be slain put to death by them yet fear them not and as a violent death a being put to death for Christ so neither is a natural death to be feared death is the King of terrours The Apostle tells us Heb. 2.15 That for fear of death men are all their life time subject to bondage There is a natural fear of death implanted in every man even in Christ himself and there is a sinful fear of death and then 't is sinful when 't is excessive when there is so great a fear of death as to distress and distract us in the duties of our lives When there is so great a fear of death that we cannot quietly and patiently submit to its stroke when we cannot comfort and support our selves against the fear of death by the hope we have in our death the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 As the Apostle speaks concerning sorrow for the dead 1 Thes 4.13 Sorrow not as men without hope the same may be said concerning the fear of death fear not as men without hope The righteous hath hope in his death he lies down in hope goes to his grave in hope and this hope fortifieth his heart under all its fears Now friends would you keep your hearts under Government learn these two Lessons 1. Keep your hearts in fear and particularly 1. keep you in the fear of God keep up the Aw and Reverence of God in your hearts get you trembling hearts before the Lord behold the severe and jealous eye that is upon you live under such a deep sense of the Greatness Glory and Majesty of the great God as may constantly awe you Sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and let him be your fear and your dread Those that live not under an awe of God lye open to the Devil and all his Temptations It is this the fear of God that is the bridle to keep us in due order 2 Keep you in fear of sinning against God Psal 4.4 Tremble and sin not Art thou a professor of faith in God and dost thou not yet fear to sin against God dost thou believe that God is the observer of all ungodliness that thine iniquities are all marked before him dost thou believe that God is the avenger of all ungodliness and that all thine iniquities shall be recompensed and returned upon thine own head how is it then that thou art no more afraid of iniquity Art thou an hypocritical professor and doth not thine hypocrisie make thee afraid art thou a proud Professor or a worldly Professor or a luke-warm or froward or carnal or slothful Professour how is it that thy pride thy covetousness that thy coldness or frowardness or carnality or slothfulness doth not make thee afraid are these Evils this Pride and this Hypocrisie this Coveteousness this frowardness rooted and raigning in thy heart where are thy fears all this while call up fear put on fear and let this suppress these lusts which will else be breaking forth into practical iniquity If you would fear a life of Covetousness a life of Pride fear this heart of Pride this worldly carnal heart if you would fear a froward look a froward tongue fear a froward heart crush this Cockatrice Egg before it hatch into practical wickedness 3. Fear Temptation to Sin What does use to foment or heighten the lusts of thine heart What doth use to draw them forth into practice Whatever it be fear it as you would fear the Devil Particularly 1. Fear whatever you over love in the World 1. When you have your pleasant dishes before you and varieties of them when you have your pleasant cups before you fear your being tempted to excess feed not your selves without fear especially feast not without fear put a knife to thy throat if thou be given to appetite when thou seest dainties before thee Prov. 23.2 Look not on the wine when it is red in
the cup and sparkles and moves it self aright Look besides it be afraid to look upon it lest it tempt thine appetite beyond its bounds 2. Fear your fine Clothes your Fashions and Ornaments that you delight in hast thou not pride in thine heart and is not thy pride even as tinder that will catch fire of every spark dost thou love to be fine and gallant dost thou love thy fine Fashions and Ornaments let thy love make thee afraid 3. Fear that Money that thou lovest and thy Lands and thy Fields and the increase of thy Substance when riches encrease set not your hearts upon them Psal 62.10 Do you prosper do you grow rich in this world do ye feel the world coming in and your substance increasing upon you fear this prosperity I do not say fear prosperity and shun it or flee from it but fear it and look the better to your selves be jealous of your selves in such a time lest when you prosper and be full you then forget God Have an eye to your hearts in your prosperous estate take heed that your Souls grow not poorer as your outward Man growes richer It was the joy of the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.16 That though his outward man grew to decay yet his inward man was renewed day by day but friends let it be your fear lest as your outward man flourisheth your inward man grow to decay lest your Riches eat up your Religion lest you loose your love to God lest you abate in your care for the things of Christ lest those poor souls wither and suffer loss lest the work of God be at a stand with you lest praying and praising and communing with your hearts and looking into the other World and caring and labouring for those poor immortal Souls be laid aside or but slightly shuffled over Know any of you that are in a prosperous estate that have set your hearts upon getting and find the world increasing upon you know that you are in danger your Souls are in danger your Religion is in danger of sinking and withering your Prosperity is a temptation that will endanger your neglect of God and your Souls Look upon prosperity as a temptation and fear it as a temptation be jealous of your hearts in such a time 4. Fear your vain Company your Societies and correspondencies with your carnal Friends and acquaintance Dost thou love vain company I do not speak of vile company of Drunkards and Rioters of Swearers and Scoffers at Godliness those Sons of Debauchery that are the filth and garbage of the VVorld but even vain company that are nothing but froth and folly complement and merriment the unsavoury salt of the earth that are good for nothing to whom a serious and savoury word put in is as vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes and who will thereby tempt you to turn out all religion out of doors for the time at least because 't is so unsavoury to the Company Fear to come among them go not out after them thrust not your selves unnecessarily in among them but when God brings you in among such when necessary business brings you in be with them in fear think with your selves now I must look to mine heart here be they that are like else to steal it away from God Friends settle this upon your hearts and really believe it and carry the sense of it upon you that vain acquaintance and companions are a temptation Though they do not tempt you to drunkenness or swearing or lying or riot yet they may tempt you to lukewarmness and indifferency in Religion they will chill and cool your good affections and dull and blunt the edge of your spirits heaven-ward As holy and lively society will quicken and whet our hearts towards what is good even as iron sharpneth iron Prov. 27.17 So are we like to be dulled and blunted by vain company Friends would you keep your hearts in good plight would you keep you clear of the vanities and follies of the world would you keep your selves unspotted from the world would you shine as lights in the world and be a rebuke to their sins do you in good earnest design to maintain the life of God within you then beware of these sons of Vanity and let them henceforth be your fear and not your desire or delight To this let me farther add by the way are vain company Temptations and to be feared then you that are Christians look to it that you be not of such a vain earthly frothy Conversation that we must warn others that are better to take heed of you and be afraid of coming into your company If vain company be a Temptation then take heed that you be not such that even your society should be feared Such a fault there is among professors and it is a greivous thing to consider what a vain and unsavoury and unprofitable conversation there usually is of Chistians with Christians of Professors with Professors What is your discourse how do you use to spend your time when you come together how little of God of Christ of the state of your Souls is to be heard among you you can talk of your Trades of your Business of News and sometimes that which is worse tell evil stories of others behind their backs You can laugh and be merry with carnal Mirth even as others but what do you more than others whose hearts do use to be warned or refreshed by your lips It s said Prov. 10.11 The mouth of the righteous is a well of life And ver 21. The lips of the righteous feed many Is it so with us what of the water of life is there proceeding out of those Wells of life If there be a Fountain in you is it not a Fountain enclosed a Well shut up who are there whose Souls are fed from your lips If Christians did meet with no better feeding then they have from some Professors lips they might starve and perish So jejune and unsipid our discourses usually are and withal so carnal and vain that we rather pull down then build up we rather chill and damp then quicken and enliven those that are conversant with us We have too often like the Quakers our silent meetings as to any thing of God that is going among us Friends consider look back and observe how it has been have your mouths been wells of Life doth there not sometimes come forth mudd instead of water have your lips fed many May be your hands have fed poor hungry bodies may be they have had of your bread and of your money but what have they had from your lips Not a word Their Souls may perish for all the feeding that they have had from your lips It is said Mal. 3. Those that feared God spake often one to another that is of the things of God but is it so with us what shall we say to sinners who when we charge others to take heed of their company
who will reply why they were even as good come amongst us as amongst some of your selves and as much they are like to get and as little harm by us as by you Friends I have more than once provoked you to be more Spiritual and more Heavenly in your Converses but what hath been the fruit Is it better then it hath been O that you could tell me it was I thank God it is a little better I have set mine heart upon it I have put my self to it to bring forth something of what I have learned for others benefit I must tell you this unprofitableness is an ill sign as to your selves as well as it may be a snare to others barren lips are a sign of barren hearts 't is to be feared there is not so much of Christ within you when there is so little coming forth that there is but little truth in your hearts when there is so little Grace in your lips O Friends that you would yet check your selves for this neglect that you would yet charge it upon your hearts to be more fruitful this way To what purpose are you preach'd unto to what purpose do I warn you if you will not amend I 'le tell you one way to help it Let your own hearts be more set upon God get more spiritual savour more life and power of holiness in your own spirits and it will find an easier vent More divine Communion will be the best help to more holy Communication But this by the way 5. For our Grief or Sorrow I shall shew here 1. That the Object of our Sorrow is evil The Evils we are to greive for are 1. Sin 2. Misery or Affliction 2. What are the due degrees and just limits of our Grief 1. Sin This is the great and special object of Sorrow and sorrow for Sin is the best and most necessary of sorrows Sin is a grievous evil and it most calls for grief of heart He loves neither God nor himself that grieves not for sin Sin is the abuse of God and the wrong of our own Souls How canst thou say thou lovest God if thou canst abuse him or see him abused without sorrow how canst thou say thou lovest thy self when thou canst wrong thy self and not be grieved what wilt thou grieve for if not for that which is so provoking to God and so distructive to thy self Sin seems good in the eyes of sinners and therefore it seldom troubles them 't is that which pleaseth them and suits with their tempers 't is that which profits them and brings them in all their gains Sinners that must hereafter die for their sins do at present live by their sins they are beholding to their sins for their livelihood Some men live by lying and stealing and defrauding by Coveteousness and oppression 't is that which brings them in their Estates they had been some of them but poor men if their sin had not gotten them Estates Others live by their Pleasures and carnal merriments 't is their mirth and their pleasure that keeps them alive Sorrow and Melancholy they think would kill their hearts Sinners live upon their sins and therefore will not be grieved at them But though thou thinkest thou livest by thy sins thou must die for thy sins thy sins are making a grave for thee and carrying thee to it thy sins are preparing an Hell for thee and leading thee down to the chambers of Death Thy sin spoils thee at present of all that is good and makes thee good for nothing but to be fuel for the fire Holiness prepares the Saints and makes them meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 and sin prepares sinners and makes them meet for the inheritance of everlasting darkness fit to serve none but the Devil fit to dwell with none but the Devil Sinners you that go on in your sins you are herein but fitting and preparing you for the Devil This Pride that you live in these Pleasures that you live in this Covetousness that you live in by all these the Devil is preparing you for Hell There is a fire prepared for you Mat. 25.41 Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels there is an Hell prepared for you and your sin is as fast as it can preparing you for that place of Torment Your going on in your sin is your ripening for wrath thou art almost ripe already and art ripening every day and as soon as thy sin hath but made thee fully ripe thou droppest as ripe fruit uses to do down thou droppest to rottenness into the grave and into the darkness of the pit Thou art grown to that height in sin that thou mayst be ripe before to morrow and as soon as thou art ripe thou wilt be rotting thy Body in the dirt thy Soul in Hell This is the fruit that sinners get and shall get at last by their sins Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death But yet because at present they live by their sins their sins make them merry their sins make them Rich they get money by them they get Estates by them therefore they are not troubled though they sin they will not sorrow Thou hast smitten them but they have not grieved Jer. 5.3 'T is said with respect to the punishment of sinners and it might be said concerning them they have smitten themselves and yet have not grieved Sin seems good in the eyes of sinners and therefore it doth not trouble them but sin seems to be sin to Saints Rom. 7. that is the greatest and worst of Evils for so sin when it appears to be sin doth appear to be the worst of Evils and therefore to them its matter of Sorrow When sin appears to be exceeding sinful as the Apostles Expression is before then the heart will be exceeding sorrowful the degrees which by the right Government of the heart this sorrow for sin is held up to and the bounds and limits it is held within are these 1. This sorrow must be so great as to answer the ends and bring forth the proper fruits of it The end of this sorrow and the fruits it must bring forth the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 7.9 is Repentance I rejoyced that ye sorrowed unto Repentance And ver 11. This self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly manner what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves c. What ever trouble for Sin what ever sorrow any of you have in your hearts if it doth not bring forth Repentance a forsaking and turning from sin if this sorrow doth not work a fear of falling back into sin if it doth not work a care of preventing your fall if it do not work to Indignation and Zeal against Sin if it leave you the Friends of sin still the followers of sin still if this be all you can say I am troubled at it but I cannot help it it 's my trouble that I am a Drunkard it
for Iniquity and that will limit and moderate your sorrow for your affliction Why dost thou take on so for losses in thine Estate for thy lost Friends and Relations Thou hast greater matters then these to trouble thy self about thy sins are the losses of thy Soul Think when thou art mourning over thy worldly crosses as sad as it is without how is it with my Soul Is there not sin upon my Soul Is there not Guilt upon my Soul and let out thy sorrows so much upon the sin of thy Soul that thou mayst have none to wast upon the sufferings of thy Body Restrain thy Tears for thy afflictions thou wilt need them all to be spent upon thine Iniquity O Friends if you were concerned for your Souls as much as you should if you were sensible of the mischiefs and miseries that sin is bringing upon your Souls this would make all the sufferings of this life to be as light and little things 6. For our anger The Government of our anger is that which especially is meant by ruling our Spirits in those two Scriptures Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit then he that taketh a City Prov. 25.28 He that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a City that is broken down and without walls The Objects of Anger is Evil the Limits of Anger are these 1. Be never angry with God Some persons are so fretful that none can please them are apt to be angry with every one that hath to deal with them There 's no scaping their anger but by shunning their Company and having nothing to do with them Men cannot please them and God cannot please them they will be angry with their Maker when his Providences towards them are any thing cross to their Humours or their Interest they are angry at God angry at his Providences So it was with Jonah when God smote his Goard that he had given him for a shade Jonah was in a pett angry with God and justified himself in his anger I do well to be angry Jon. 4.9 Some Foolish Persons if it be dry Weather when they would have it Rain if foul Weather when they would have it fair they are angry they frett their Hearts rise and murmur and repine against the Providence of God And so when the wicked are exalted and flourish and themselves are oppressed and brought low Men are apt to frett and murmur at Divine Providence that thus orders it Thence is that Caution Psal 37.7 Fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way that is fret not against God because of him that he lets such wicked ones to prosper Let God alone in his way whatever he doth in the world keep silence to the Lord and fret not murmur not against him To be angry with the Wind or the Rain or the Flouds or the Sun when we suffer prejudice by them yea or to be angry with the irrational Creatures that serve us with our horses or oxen or dogs when they do amiss this is often anger against God Some are such Fools that if their horse stumbleth or their Ox sluggeth or their dog barks or takes what he should not they are such fools as to be angry with them irrational Creatures are not the Objects of your anger you may strike your Horse or goad your Ox or beat your Dog but hee 's a fool that will be angry with them Some are such fretful fools that they 'l fret and chafe at senseless and inanimate creatures which they use how do Gamesters fret and chafe at their Cards at their Dice when they run not for them how do some Tradesmen fret at their work when it fadges not aright when their yarn breaks when their cloth shrinks when their Sythe or Knife will not cut or cut their fingers or their legs or hit upon a stone or the like some such there are that will be angry with their work will fret at their Sythe or their Knife or their Yarn c. These you may reckon amongst the first-born of Fools and the folly of such anger is not the worst that is in it there 's Prophaness in it too anger against these creatures is anger against God 2. Be not soon angry with men He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty Prov. 16.32 Some persons are so touchy that 't is hard to keep them quiet like tinder or Gunpowder that will catch fire of every spark a wry word or look nay their own jealous thoughts will set them on fire every little thing will provoke them this is an evil and sore disease that is hardly cured You whose temper this is know that it is your misery 't is a miserable temper to be of such a froppish touchy Spirit you that are such you had need to pitty the cases of those that dwell with you Look upon thy self as a Briar or a Thorn hedge and know that the fault lies not in them thou art angry with but in thine own angry heart 3. Be not angry without a cause Mat. 5.22 He that is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment The only just cause of Anger is sin Eph. 4.26 Be angry and sin not and that you may do so be only angry against sin We may be angry against wrongs or abuses against our selves but it must be upon this account that these wrongs against our selves are sins against God Be not angry without a cause and be not angry for every little cause Christians must be patient and bear much it must be a great thing that must provoke them to anger Do not pick quarrels one against another and make anger where there 's no cause of anger and do not quarrel for trifles that any wise man would rather despise then be provoked with 4. Be not long angry Eph. 4.26 Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eccl. 7.9 Anger resteth in the bosom of fools Of the several sorts of tempers that are among men some are soon angry and soon pacified This though it be an evil yet it s a more tolerable evil let it not justifie you in your touchyness that your anger is quickly gone to be soon angry is your sin though not so great because you are soon pleased Do not allow your selves in this temper little sins must be carefully avoided Others are slow to anger and swift to pacification Hard to be provoked easie to be pacified This is the best of Tempers this is that meek and quiet Spirit which is of great price in the sight of God This man is a Moses Moses could be angry and was angry to a great height when he saw Israel become Idolaters but yet this Moses was the meekest man upon earth This meek temper is the most desirable of all tempers even for our own sakes every man that is a wise-man would if it be possible be a
that gave it Man though he hath a mortal body yet he hath an immortal Soul The Spirit of a man is the Candle of the Lord and when this Candle is once lighted it shall never go out It s carried away hence but it s carried to God that gave it The Souls of all men good and bad when they die do all go to God even those that go to the Devil are first carried to God by him to receive their Sentence to their everlasting state Sinners when they die go not to God as their Reward or Blessedness but to God as their Judge Sinners will say as Christ did Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit but God will say to them who are ye away from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7.23 I am none of your Father ye are of your Father the Devil get you down to him Commend your Spirits to me what have you given up your Souls to the Devil and all your life long have they been serving of him and he been corrupting and depraving of them blinding them hardning them made them such a filthy and unclean thing and now do ye think to come off so to commend these filthy and unclean Souls to me away with them I 'le none of them If those that are sanctified by my Spirit and serve me with their Spirit come to me when they die I 'le take them to me I will acknowledge my self their Father they shall dwell with me but those that have served sin and the Devil while they lived let not them think to commend their Spirits to me when they die I 'le none of them Well but whether we must dwell with God or the Devil into the other World all Souls good and bad must pass when they go hence 2. There is an eternal Judgement So the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.2 of the Doctrine of eternal Judgment It is call'd an Eternal Judgement not as if the day of Judgment should last for ever in how long or how short a time that judgment shall be dispatched no man certainly knows the glorious God can make short work and will do so in that great and dreadful day It s called Eternal Judgment because it sentenceth men to their everlasting state and its the last judgment there shall never be another to all Eternity but the sentence of this Judgment shall stand for ever 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all stand before the Judgment Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his works to them that by patient continuance in wel-doing do seek for glory honour and immortality eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the truth indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every Soul of them that do evil 3. In the Judgment to come the secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged Men shall be judged for their words men shall be judged for their deeds but not for these only but for the secrets of their hearts Eccl. 12.14 God shall bring every work to Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil The Judgments of men are only over our Bodies and outward Acts they know not our hearts and therefore cannot be our hearts Judges But 1. God sees the heart I the Lord search the heart and try the reins Jer. 17.10 He seeth in secret and he that seeth in secret will reward openly Mat. 6.4 1. He seeth the good that is in secret the love and fear of his Name our inward desires and thirstings and breathings after him every holy thought every holy purpose the inward mournings of the heart under sin and temptation the inward strivings wrestlings of the heart against temptation and corruption our self-loathings and self abasings the integrity and uprightness of our hearts whilst men are censuring or reproaching or punishing us as hypocrites God sees the integrity that is in our Souls O Friends get an honest upright heart in the sight of God you shall never loose the benefit and blessedness of it God sees the sincerity of the upright and will certainly reward it 2. He seeth the evil that is in secret the proud heart the false and guileful heart are open before him Beware of playing the Hypocrite of satisfying your selves with Hypocritical Duties hypocritical Praying hypocritical Hearing or Professing God sees what that heart of thine is a doing while thy tongue is a praying or thine ear hearing thou mayst deceive men and thine own self but God cannot be deceived 2. The secrets of the heart shall be opened and judged in that Judgment of God 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the Counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1. The things of the heart are hidden and dark things The thoughts of the heart dark thoughts the Counsels of the Lord dark Counsels even the good things that are in the heart are to all others but dark things 2. In the day of Judgment these things of darkness shall be all brought to light the secrets shall be all made manifest What a sight will there be in that day when the hearts of all the World shall be seen as it were at one view What a blessed sight will there be when all the Beauty and inward Glory of the Saints all their Graces shall be seen What a black sight also will there be when all the filth and garbage that is in sinners hearts all the venemous brood all the Cockatrices eggs that ever have been hatch'd in those unclean hearts when all the wicked Counsels and Devices of their hearts all the Curses and Blasphemies all the Couzenage and Fraud of the heart all the wicked Plots and Contrivances of the heart against God or his Saints all the Adulteries and Filthiness of the heart all the Madness and Follies of the heart all the Malice and Spite and Rage of the heart when all these shall be presented at one view O what an odious sight will there be Sinners do not cheat your selves in your sinful ways with hopes of Secrecy for all must be brought to light If all that wickedness and hypocrisie if those filthy lusts and unclean thoughts that are in your hearts should be now seen by all this Congregation how would you be ashamed and how would you blush to look any body in the Face but because thy naughty heart and its naughty thoughts and desires cannot be seen thou mayest be a proud fellow of a froward heart of a dissembling lying heart and no body the wiser therefore thou lettest thy self alone to be as thou art as long as thou hast a secret covering for all thy ugly Conditions 't is well enough but do not cheat thy self thus all these hidden things of darkness must be brought to light thou must be turned inside outward and all the shame of
not the Lord Psal 115.17 The living the living he shall praise thee Is 38.19 That is spoken of the naturally dead and living and must we not say the same of the spiritually dead and the living Souls dead Souls can't praise the Lord they can't pray nor believe nor hope nor serve the Lord the living the living Soul it shall praise thee it shall pray unto thee and serve thee Hypocrites are all dead at heart and therefore all their services are but dead services they make a shew and keep a stir in the outward parts of Religion they can talk as Christians and walk and move but it is with these dead Souls as with those dead bodies which we call walking Ghosts they look like men and speak like men and go up and down like men but still they have no Soul in them It is the Devil that acts in them and speaks in them and carrieth them up and down none of all their actions or motions are vital actions the devil can make them speak and walk and look like living men but he cannot make them live such is the Hypocrites Religion he can pray and hear and sing and speak as Christians do but he is dead at heart and thereupon all his duties are but dead duties Friends you are as much concerned to keep your hearts as you are to be able to do any thing that will please God or save your Souls What is the intent of your Religion why do ye come together to pray and hear and partake of the Table of the Lord You will say I come to perform these duties to please the Lord I come in order to the saving of my Soul Do you so then look to your hearts better see that there be the root of Religion within you see that your praying be the praying with the heart that your hearing be not the opening your ear but the opening of your heart to the Word see that whatever you do that hath any shew of Religion in it you do it heartily watch your hearts when you come into the house of the Lord watch your hearts when you set upon any work for God lest they give you the slip and so make all your Services to be but bodily exercises which as 1 Tim. 4.8 profit little Bodily exercises that is the outward part of our Religion Ear Religion Tongue Religion Knee Religion these bodily Exercises where there is not an heart at the bottom of them profit nothing at all they will do nothing to the pleasing of God or the saving our Souls Friends beware of Hypocrisie take heed lest any of you be found hypocrites that your faith you seem to have be not the faith of hypocrites that your hope be not the Hypocrites hope that your praying and fasting and almes be not all the Sacrifices of hypocrites and such sacrifices they are if they be Sacrifices without an heart Come not before the Lord with hollow Vessels which will make a sound but have nothing in them We that look upon you can't tell what there is within you we see your faces and hear your voices but what is under God knows look you to it that it be not all hollow and empty within he that seeth the heart seeth what there is within and will accept or reject according to what he finds of the heart in all you do Friends What do ye here this day have you brought with you ever a Sacrifice for God ever a living Sacrifice the living God will regard none of you if you bring not a living Sacrifice He doth not require of you as he did of old a Bullock or a Ram for a Sacrifice No nor a Dove nor a Lamb for a Sacrifice it is a Soul for a Sacrifice a living Soul that is quickned and sanctified by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ And upon this account farther are you concerned to look to and to keep your hearts as ever you would do any thing in Religion that is acceptable with God or of any avail to your own Salvation The heart is the spring of all vital Actions and they are only our vital Actions our living and lively duties that will be accepted of the living God Would you not be rejected for hypocrites would you not compass the Lord about with lies as Ephraim did Hos 11.12 would you not come before the Lord with lies and comfort your selves with lies then see that you bring your hearts with you before him Is there any life begotten in your hearts is Christ formed upon you is the Spirit of Christ poured forth into you is there the life of God in your hearts and is this the spring of all your acceptable services then as you love your lives as you fear to serve the living God with dead service set a careful guard upon your hearts that neither these be stolen away from God nor that life which is within you be stolen out of your hearts Brethren I would not that any of you be found hypocrites therefore do I labour with you therefore do I preach to you and warn every one of you that you may be presented perfect and upright in the day of the Lord. I would not that you be found hypocrites in that day nor would I that your Religious actions be found hypocritical actions in your present day 'T is said of the limbs of Antichrist 1 Tim. 4.2 That they speak lies in hypocrisies I would have Christians not only none such as speak lies in hypocrisie no nor to speak truth in hypocrisie to do good in hypocrisie and therefore 't is that I have spent so much time among you upon this Subject of looking to your hearts that these may be right with God in all that you do I fear there are hypocrites among you I fear that much of the Religion of some of you may be but hypocritical Religion but look to your selves and as you would be loth to have no better acceptance than hypocrites as you would dread to have your portion with hypocrites so dread it to satisfie your selves with hypocritical duties serve the God of your hearts with an hearty service serve the true God with an heart and with a true heart serve the living God with living hearts see that there be the life of God in your hearts and let the life within you be the Spring of all your Performances that all that ever you do in Religion be the issues of life 3. It is the record of all the transactions which have been betwixt Christ and your Soules If ye be Christs there have been great dealings betwixt Christ and your Souls Christ hath been dealing with you dealing with you by his word dealing with you by his Spirit instructing and enlightning your Souls convincing and awakening your Hearts perswading and alluring your hearts after him Christ hath been dealing with you about your repenting and turning to the Lord about your Reconciliation and making peace with God God hath been in
could you give I doubt this is the account the most of you would give I cannot tell God knows how 't is with me for my part I know not how ' t is That Heart hath been well look't to mean while hast thou carried it like a wise man the while Thou hast great acquaintance in the world thou takest upon thee to know other mens hearts and wilt judge and censure them as thou listest what man and yet hast so little acquaintance with thy self Be thou thine own judge hast thou been a wise man the while to be such a stranger to thy self that thou dost not know thine own heart Thou wilt say the word tells me Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful and who can know it how then should I know it I answer 1. The more deceitful the Heart is and the harder 't is to know it the more it had need be looked into 2. Though it cannot be perfectly known yet there may be much of it known the heart of man is a great deep 't is true and though thou canst not easily see to the bottom of it yet if thou wilt but look down into the deep thou must see a great way 3. If thou canst not see thorow thine heart with thine own Eyes yet with Gods eyes thou mayest Take the help of the Eyes of the Lord and thou mayest understand even all that is in thine heart God that sees the Heart reveals the heart and he hath given thee such discoveries of thy very heart in his word he hath made the Scriptures such a Looking-glass for thee that if thou wouldst look into that more there thou mightest see thy self and all that is in thee Heb. 4.12 The word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart Christians if you would secure your hearts from danger know them and be acquainted more throughly with them if you would know your hearts better look oftner inward commune with your hearts go down dayly into your own Bosoms take an account of your selves question with your selves how fares it with my Soul is there any real saving Grace in me If there be how fares it with that Grace I have Does it thrive doth it flourish is it kept up in Life and Activity Doth my light shine doth my Love flame do my thoughts and my affections climb and are they working upwards how is it with my Conscience Is it kept pure Doth it speak peace Doth it deal faithfully Doth it check me doth it smite me for the least Evils Doth it comfort me when 't is better Have I a good Conscience Have I the Testimony of a good Conscience Doth my Conscience witness for me that I have been faithful that my Desire and my care and endeavour is and hath been in all things to approve my self to the Eye of God and to be sincere and upright before him O Beloved What a Mercy to us would it be if we would be perswaded to be much in such heart inspection and much in such heart communing The Devil would find the harder work to get in there 's no Disease or Distemper would then grow upon your hearts but it would be espyed in the beginning and so the more easily removed Friends let me prevail with you in this thing I beseech you in the name of the Lord set more upon this Heart-study Of all the business you have to do in the world there 's nothing more necessary nothing more advantageous and yet I doubt nothing more neglected Friends if you have been strangers at home be no longer strangers never say again I cannot tell how it is with my Soul study it til you can tell and study it diligently and you shall be able to tell The Lord will help you to understand your selves if you will but more diligently commune with your own Hearts will you be perswaded to it will you resolve upon it to make this a great piece of your every days work Never look for Soul prosperity never look for Soul security without a serious and frequent discharge of this great Duty You may hear all your days and pray for a better heart as long as you live and all in vain if you will not Watch as well as Pray O that the Lord would so strike home this word upon your hearts that you might feel this charge of the Lord sensibly abiding upon you to keep your Hearts by Heart-Acquaintance and Heart-watchfulness My Soul is exceedingly concern'd about the bringing you upon this Duty and I am in great doubt that the most of us are very deficient herein either neglecting it or but slightly or seldom being conversant in it Sure Friends our Tongues would be better employed our Speech would be with Grace seasoned with Salt we should have more savoury words coming from us we should commune one with another more about the concerns of our souls were there more faithful communing with our Hearts our whole conversations would savour more of it We should be more Spiritual and Heavenly more active for God more fruitful and abounding in every good work our work for our Souls would be carried on with more Life and with more Power we should live a more self-denying a more circumspect a more heedful and a more watchful Life were there a due watchfulness over our Hearts What shall I say more in this thing Be diligent be careful be diligent to know the state of your hearts If I should say with Solomon Prov. 27.23 Be diligent to know the state of thy Flocks and look well to thine Herds would you not hearken to me If I should say be diligent to look well to your Trades and to your Money would you not hearken to me in this if I should say be diligent to take care for your Healths and look well to your Bodies would not this Counsel be accepted by you How much more then should you hearken to me in this Be diligent to know the state of your Souls O Friends be diligent to know and be diligent to get your Souls into a good state and to secure them in it be diligent to know what 't is that hurts you and what 't is that hinders you and what it is that endangers your Souls and take heed of it and then be diligent to know what 't is that will help you and further you and advance you and stablish your Souls in peace and build them up in holiness that you may take those advantages and improve those helps that are before you Such watchfulness as this what an heart reviving what an heart flourishing what an heart rejoycing would follow upon it to your selves And what abundant Praise Glory and Honour would grow up to the Name of God and our Lord Jesus Christ Then should those Hearts of yours which are now too much Dens of Thieves Shops of Vanity Fountains of folly Nests of Lusts and Houses of Merchandize become the sacrifices of the Lord and the Temples of
the Living God and he would dwell in them and walk in them and say of them these are my rest here will I abide for ever 2. Keep all your powers up in armes Our Enemies will fight for our Heaâ—ts Sin the World and the Devil are like Absalom 2 Sam. 15.6 at first he used fair and flattering Speeches and complemented and kissed them that came nigh him saying O that I were made Judge in the Land his meaning was O that I were King what a King would I be to you So he stole the hearts of the Men of Israel Afterwards he takes up Armes and fights against those whose hearts he could not steal from David Our Spiritual Enemies deal a like by us at first they attempt to steal away our Hearts from God Sin smiles upon us and fawns upon us and promiseth what it will do for us O that you would hearken to me how happy should ye be if you will follow me It doth not pretend to be King but to be our Servant if you will love this world all that is in the world will be your Servants but if this will not do our Enemies will fight for us our Fleshly Lusts will war against our Souls to take them Captives 1 Pet. 2.11 and the World and the Devil will side with Lust The Devil will buffet the world will rage and bluster against those that will still continue the Servants of Christ Hereupon Christians are said to be Souldiers 2 Tim. 2.3 their state here is a warring and warfaring state they are to fight 1 Tim. 6.12 fight the good fight of Faith they are to wrestle Eph. 6.12 against flesh and bloud against principalities and powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses or wicked Spirits in high places Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth that is fighteth against the Spirit and the Spirit must lust or fight against the Flesh and all this fighting what is it for 't is for our hearts The Devil and the World are fighting and our Souls lie at stake He that overcometh there 's a Soul gained a Soul saved he that is overcome there 's a Soul lost When Men fight for their lives when this must be the issue kill or be killed how desperately do they fight we mannage our warfare against sin and the Devil as if there were no great matter lying upon it Men count not themselves any great loosers if they be overcome and hereupon 't is that we leave our selves so open to Temptations and stand as so many naked men against our Adversaries and entertain such Truces and Treaties with them and make such weak resistance against them as if our contention were about a Flea or a dead Dog Men do not consider that it is for their precious life the Devil and the World is fighting but that 's it that sin and this world would have of you they would have your hearts they fight for your Souls Now hereupon Christians must be alwayes up in Armes and stand to their Armes As the Devil rallies up Armies against us so the Lord provides us of Armour and requires us Eph. 6.13 to put on our Armour and to stand to our Armes Take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand We may neither stand unarmed nor put on our Armour to sleep in put on your Armour and stand in your Armour especially we must keep close about us these 6 pieces of Armour 1. The Shield of Faith v. 16. wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil The Devil is shooting his Darts at us and every Dart is levelled at the heart The Devils Darts are fiery Darts burn when they hit that will burn up all the good in the Soul Darts will stick and fiery Darts will burn When you see one Man burn in Lust there 's a Dart of the Devil that burns in his Heart when you see others flame in anger and fury there 's a fiery Dart of the Devils in his Heart his Tongue is set on fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 Think on this you that are apt to be thus set on fire the next time you are in such an heat that your hearts burn with fury and your Tongue spits fire in venting furious Language then think with your selves I feel my Soul in a flame the fire comes out at my Mouth Lord whence comes all this O I had need look to my self sure there is a fiery Dart from the Devil in mine Heart these angry hot and hasty words are no other but the smoak of that Fire which the Devil hath kindled within me Such a Thought as this might be as water to quench that Fire But if such a thought won't do it then take the Shield of Faith by which you may quench these Fires We are therefore exhorted 1. Pet. 5.9 to resist the Devil stedfast in the Faith Trust upon Christ for your help stand against the Devil as David against the Philistine 1 Sam. 17.45 thou comest against me with sword and Spear saies David but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts that is I come trusting in the Lord of Hosts This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand There 's his Faith and that 's his best Weapon Resist the Devil and trust in God fight against sin and trust in Christ for the victory Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah for in him is Everlasting strength 2. The helmet of hope which is called the helmet of Salvation ver 17. Rom. 8.24 Ye are saved by hope Hope will strengthen the heart and hold up the head Christians should withstand Temptations and assaults as men of hope whatever your Tempations are whatever buffetings of Satan you may be encountred with how furiously soever the world falls on threatning you thundring against you persecuting you for your faithfulness to Christ or fawning upon you or flattering you away from your integrity how thick soever the suggestions of your hearts lusts come upon you enticing you urging and pressing you Do not undo thy self by thy Religion do not ruine thy self by thy Conscience come about after this World save thy self from its rage and accept of its kindnesses how hard soever you may be thus tempted and set upon and how apt soever thy faint heart may be to fear and doubt thou shalt never be able to stand hold fast thine helmet hope in God who will be thy helper and deliverer Psal 43. ult Why art thou cast down O my Soul Hope in God Strive against sin but strive in hope resist Temptations but resist in hope withstand this evil world withstand its flatteries withstand its furies and withstand in hope Do not say as once David did 1 Sam. 27.1 I shall one day or other perish by the hand of Saul I shall one day or other fall by Temptation I shall never hold out
company be company for you where Christ would not be pleased to find you Let no temper or frame of Spirit grow upon you but what Christ would be pleased to find you in Would Christ be pleased to find you among the vain company or vile ones of the Earth would Christ be pleased to find you in a careless senseless untoward jolly frothy or in a sower angry envious impatient temper keep you from such ways keep you from such company keep you out of such temptations have as little to do as possible with them Keep you out of vain and evil ways company and temptations and keep you on with life and vigour and power in the ways of Christ Let not your ways only please Christ but your walking in them do not be sluggs and drones and triflers in Christianity follow the Lord and follow him fully follow the Lord and let your Soul follow hard after him Be doing the Will of Christ and let your hearts stand compleat in all the Wills of Christ The most watchful diligent painful lively Christians these are they that keep nearest to the Lord. Friends be warned to keep you thus near to the Lord. The Lord calls you such Psal 148.14 A people near unto him Approve your selves to be such since the Lord hath made you near keep you near to him Live in Union and Communion with Christ in intimacy of Acquaintance with Christ and with all possible care that your whole course may be such as may be a walking worthy his great name and be well pleasing to him This is the way to keep you out of danger and whatever befalls you whilst you are thus walking in Christ you will be still near your remedy whilst you are near Christ he will not be far from you but will be ready to help and ready to comfort you You complain it may be every one of you that your hearts are out of order One cries O my heart what a proud heart it is another complains O mine heart it is a fretful peevish heart Another cries out O mine heart is an earthly worldly heart another O my heart is a sluggish slothful heart another O what shall I do mine heart is a dead and an hard heart why bring them all to the Physician Where be the diseased or distressed Souls among you what be you all well Is there no Soul disease upon you O there is never a one of you but have your Soul Distempers and sad ones too why come to your Physician for your cure If you were any of you sick of the Palsie or Dropsie Fever or Consumption and Christ stood here as of old every such diseased body would be thronging upon him come ye poor blind hardned Souls come lay your selves before the Lord and cry unto him Lord that mine eyes might be opened Lord that mine hard heart might be broken that my dead heart might be quickned Who ever of you hath a complaint to make hath a wound hath a disease or hath a weakness or discomfort come every one of you whatever ailes you come bring in all the lame and the blind and the diseased defiled and distressed hearts bring them in to the Physician come and lay them all at the feet of Christ Lord help me Lord heal me Lord wash me But be sure you come with a purpose to keep you by him when you come to him come unto Christ and he will heal you and then keep you by him and he will preserve you from Relapses into the same or a worse disease which if you wander from him again is like to come upon you 2. Keep under Christs Banner Keep to your Colours The Banner of Christ hath engraven upon it or his Colours bears upon it as his Coat of Arms the Covenant the Cross and the Crown with this Motto Pugnanti victoria vincenti Corona Victory to him that fights the Crown to the Conquerer The Covenant is for our union with Christ the Cross for our Trial the Crown for our Encouragement And here I shall give you three Directions 1. Let the Covenant be upon your hearts The Covenant is 1. For the strength of our hearts it notes our listing our selves under Christ as his Servants and Christs undertaking the conduct of us When we understand what we are engaged in what hard service we have bound our selves to what a painful active life as Christians we must count upon our hearts will be apt to fail us and cry out of the life of a Christian as the Apostle of the work of the Ministry 2 Cor. 2.16 Who is sufficient for these things I shall never be able to bear through such a life but then remember your Covenant your Baptismal Covenant I mean which doth not only engage you to the Lord but engageth the Lord to you Look to the Captain of your Salvation who hath bound himself to help you through who hath said Heb. 13.5 I will never fail you nor forsake you And then you shall be able to say with the Apostle Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Venture not on any thing in your own strength fear not nor be dismay'd at any thing whilst you have the Lord Jesus to be your strength Christians be not disheartned fear not to engage in the strictest and severest course of Christianity lean upon the Lord and he will help you through Set your hearts to the work and leave the care of Success to him that careth for you Remember this let your trust in Christ your hold on the Covenant be your strength on which you lean for the carrying you through the whole of your Christian course 2. This Covenant will be the guide of your hearts What is it that I have to do how is it that I must live why look into your Covenant what is it that you have engaged to do how is it that you have covenanted to live you have covenanted Holiness and Righteousness you have covenanted against an idle Life or doing nothing against a trifling life or doing your work by halfes against a worldly or fleshly or wicked life the World Flesh and Devil these you have all covenanted against You have covenanted the crucifying the Flesh and the World the resisting the Devil and to follow Christ against them all You have covenanted to fight against the Flesh and the World and to fight to the Victory not to be less fleshly than oth r men to be less worldly than other men but you have covenanted against a fleshly and worldly life Think not of carrying it fair with both of cutting out a middle way betwixt Christ and the World betwixt a fleshly and an heavenly life 't is a total victory over this flesh and this world over a fleshly and a worldly life which you have covenanted to pursue When ever you are at a stand and are in doubt as to any particular actions or way of life that you have before you and