have need of many washing dayes who have so many sinning dayes Every day should be a washing day to us Take that counsel of the Prophet Isa 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings Make you clean and keep you clean Wash ye and watch ye put away the evil of your doings if you would that your hearts should long be kept clean Wash your hands and wash your face and wash your feet or these will defile your hearts Put away the Garment spotted with the flesh keep your outward man clean keep you unspotted from the World that so you may be blameless and unreprovable in the sight of God O Christians let us study every one of us to get to such a blameless and unrebukable Conversation that not only the world may have nothing to spot us with but that our Consciences may have nothing to spot us with that our hearts may not have wherewith to reprove us as little as may be of the common and unavoidable infirmities of our flesh but however we may be overtaken as to these yet be unreproveable as to any tolerated or allowed iniquities these are the great blots wherewith the heart is defiled Brethren beloved whoever among you that fear the Lord I would fain do what I can to prepare you an holy habitation for the holy one that whereas he hath said 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell with them and walk in them you may be such in whom his Soul may delight to dwell that he may say of you all as Psal 132.14 This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it It is a strange expression the holy God speaks this to all his holy ones to thee in particular to thine heart if it be but a clean heart the Almighty God says to thee there is my rest in that heart of thine will I dwell for I have desired it the Lord God hath a desire to be thy Guest hath a desire to that poor Soul of thine to take it up for his own dwelling I would that you may be presented at last unspotted and unreproveable in his sight and to this end that you may be presented holy at last I would that you may be preserved holy and without blame at present O look to those hearts keep you pure let there be written upon you holiness to the Lord they should be a little heaven into which nothing that defileth should enter O purge your selves of whatever may offend and then guard your selves against it This is my warning to you and this is my prayer for you that the very God of Peace will sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless against the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And to him I commend you who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy to him be Gloro for ever Amen 3. Against Distempers A good temper of heart will be an advantage to us in any thing we have to do An heart out of temper is like a bone out of joint or like a Tempestuous Sea there 's no good sailing in it We cannot keep our way but shall be driven about this way and that way with every wind and wave An heart out of temper is like a door off the hinges or a Chariot off the Wheels it draggs and goes untowardly and heavily on O how often are our Souls unhinged our Chariots off the wheels or our wheels without oyl and then what pitiful work do we make at any thing we have to do when we have been in a crowd of worldly business or been foolishly merry and vain what a discomposure do we find upon our Souls and how unfit are we then for duty when we come to pray or to hear what labour doth it cost us to reconcile our hearts to our Duties or to get us into a praying or hearing frame We come to pray as a Musitian comes to play when his Instrument is out of Tune he must spend a good deal of his time in tuneing before one stroke can be strook How much work have we to tune our hearts at such times and it may be at last 't is more then we can do and so we must either let the duty alone or make such sad melody in the Ears of the Lord as a Musitian would do in ours who should play on his Instrument when every string is out of tune Get your hearts in temper and keep them so Be able to say with the Psalmist Psal 57.7 O God mine heart is fixed mine heart is fixed The good temper of the heart notes freedom and towardliness and disposedness for any thing God calls to and firmness and stability in that towardliness Let your hearts be established in Good Let there be an abiding holy temper upon your Spirits some of the distempers that we should guard our hearts against are 1. Slightness and vanity of Spirit A well tempered heart is a serious heart Seriousness of heart is as ballast to a Ship we shall go steadily whilst our hearts are serious 1 Pet. 1.13 Gird up the loyns of your minds and be sober Soberness here is the same with seriousness Christians are always engaged about serious and weighty things their Eternity is concern'd in every day they live and in every thing they do Every action of our Lives is a stroke at that work which must have an influence upon our Eternal State We have weighty work lying upon our hands every day and hour and how unsuitable is a slight and trifling Spirit to important affairs a slight heart is an empty and shallow heart and a shallow heart is unfit to meddle in the deep things of God Watch against slightness of Spirit Frothiness and Vanity becomes not a Christian at any time we may say of the frolicks and light and jovial lives of the carnal world as Solomon says of laughter Eccl. 2.2 I said of laughter it it is mad A Christian is besides himself when he indulgeth to a vain and frothy Spirit Friends 't is not for us to live in jest Eternal Life and Death are no jesting matters learn to live in good earnest those that are light and vain that are little else but froth and vapour in their ordinary Course do use to be but little better in their most serious Duties O what slight praying is there amonst us what shallow and empty Duties do our slight and trifling hearts satisfie themselves withal it may be some of us when we have spent a whole Sabbath with the Lord if we do reflect upon the temper we have been in may sometimes find that we have hardly had a serious hour in a whole day If they should be asked as Christ asked his Disciples Mat. 26.40 What could ye not watch with me one hour what could ye not be serious with me one hour what could we answer
in an Army what would an Enemy desire more than to have the Army he was to fight against to be in a Mutiny amongst themselves the Devil will not doubt his Conquest whilst he can but keep all within you in disorder Mens Damnation does frequently begin in Thoughts evil Thoughts corrupt the Affections evil Affections corrupt the Manners and practice and evil works have their end in Destruction Never again make a light thing of Thoughts how many men are there who by giving themselves leave to be thinking of their Pleasures and thinking of their Gains and thinking of their Lascivious lustful Objects do think themselves into very Beasts first and then into Devils Job 31.1 I made a Covenant with mine eyes why then should I think upon a Maid The next to looking is thinking the eyes let in Fuel for the Thoughts the next to thinking is lusting the Thoughts provide Fuel for Lust the next to Lusting is Whoring and the next to Whoring is Death and the like in other Cases For the World the next to thinking is loving the next to loving is lusting and inordinate desiring the next to lusting is seeking and progging the next to seeking is getting and heaping up and loading our selves with thick Clay and the next to this is sinking and drowning our selves in Perdition and Destruction 2. These are the Evidences of what we are in respect to our Eternal State Men may judge themselves and come to know themselves by the Thoughts and Affections Rom. 8.7 To be carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace Those that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh and those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit Where art thou Friend art thou in the way of Life or the way of Death why how may I tell that why where are your minds what are they running upon where are your Thoughts your most serious and delightful Thoughts are they in Heaven or on Earth on things Spiritual or on things Carnal where are your Affections working upwards or downwards Such as thy Thoughts and Affections are such is the State of thy Soul To be Carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace It 's true many serious Christians have too many Carnal Thoughts Vain and Wandring Thoughts but 't is their Affliction and 't is their care and endeavour to give check to such Thoughts but when the allowed Stream runs towards Earth and sin 't is a sign thou art an Earthly Fleshly Man and in the State of the Dead 3. There are Idols set up in the Heart after which if it be not well looked to it 's apt to go a Whoring It is true more or less of all men what is said of the Elders of Israel Ezek. 14.3 These men have set up their Idols in their Heart Whatsoever the Heart loves more than God whatever the Heart serves or seeks more than God yea whatever the Heart loves or serves or seeks ultimately for it self without respect to any higher end this is an Idol set up in the Heart those very men that abhor those Idols that are set up in the House or the Church that detest Saint-Worship or Image-Worship the Worshipping of Stocks or Stones or Pictures the work of mens hands yea that call that an Idol or Idolatry which God never called so that cry out Idolatry Idolatry against every thing that is not according to their own Minds even these very men may have set up their Idols in their Hearts The Heart hath multitudes of Idols set up in it there are in the Heart as the Apostle said 1 Cor. 5.8 there are in the world Gods many and Lords many The World is an Idol some men make their Lands and their Money their Gods though Job would not chap. 31.24 yet some mens Hearts will say to their Gold Thou art my God Others there are who make their Belly their God Whose God is their Belly Phil. 3.19 Others make their Honours and their Pleasures their God and these may be said to be as those 2 Tim. 3.4 Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God The Heart hath many Idols set up in it but the great Heart-Idol to which all the rest must stoop and serve is Self the World is served Honours are sought Pleasures are loved but all for the sake of Self Whatever Idol there be the great Idol is Self which is set up in the room of God Mans original Apostacy was his falling from God to Self and mans recovery to Christ is his bringing back from Self to God Therefore he tells the World that whoso will come along with him and be his disciple must deny himself Mat. 16.24 If any man Christ suffered that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 And that he cannot do unless he come back from Self he departed from God when he declined to himself and he must deny himself that will return to the Lord. God and Self divide the whole world The most are for Self and there is not a man of all these for God some few are for God and every one of these have denyed and departed from Self Mens recovery by Christ is their returning from Self unto God but this Recovery is but imperfect this Self carnal Self I mean hath a Seat higher or lower in the best hearts There is a sinful Selfishness wherewith we still remain infected and there is still a danger even after our recovery of Apostacy to this Self again The great Idoll set up in the heart is self and the great Idolatry or going a whoring after this Idol the great heart Idolatry stands in these three things 1. Self-conceit 2. Self-will 3. Self-love 1. Self-conceit The magnifying our own Opinions the Idolizing our own apprehensions the growing wise in our own eyes and the resigning up our selves to the conduct and government of our own carnal Reasons or Understandings This Solomon intimates is an encroaching upon God yea denying of God he sets these two as Opposites one to another the acknowledging of God and the leaning to our own understandings Prov. 3.5 6. Lean not to thine own understanding in all thy wayes acknowledge him Intimating that whilest we lean to our own understandings we deny and do not acknowledge God It belongs to God as God to be the Supreme Guide and Dictator to us but when men take upon them to be so wise as that their own Opinions and Conceits must be their Guide they therein deny the God that is above Take heed of being self-conceited The worst of Sinners as blind as they are yet they are wise in their own eyes they think their Way is good and their State is good they have a conceit that their own way is best they have taken up conceits against the ways of God this strictness of Religion this Preciseness of Holiness they have a conceit 't is all but Nicety and Hypocrisie and that
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
prosper if it hath not your constant care 'T is true we are not to speak the same words in all Companies and our behaviour is not to be alike in its particular Circumstances in all Companies but in the general a serious and holy behaviour the carrying our selves so as men that are in a journey heavenwards the owning and propagating serious Religion the behaving our selves so that others may evidently see the spirit of Glory and of God resting upon us and may be both convinced that God is in us of a truth and if it be possible be gained to God or at least made ashamed of their own sinful and carnal ways Such a temper should we be in and such a carriage should we be of in what Company soever we be we are alwayes in the sight of God and we should be no where but upon business for God and we should carry our selves as such What the Apostle speaks of his Ministry should be exemplified in the practise of Christians 2 Cor. 2.17 As of sincerity as of God in the sight of God so speak we in Christ Wherever you are behave your selves in sincerity in simplicity whatever you speak speak it as in the sight of God be faithful approve your selves to God in all that you do O friends this even this steady this sincere course of life this universal approving your selves to God in all you do will be the fruit of such an abiding sense of God upon your hearts This will be the poise that will make you move swiftly this will be the Ballast that will make you sail steadily And this swift and steady motion heavenward will both make you appear to be Christians indeed and mightily improve and advance your souls in that grace of God that bringeth Salvation O beloved that this now might be the fruit of these many words that I have spoken to you that you would every one of you set your hearts to it to get and to hold such a deep sense of the eternal things upon your spirits as might have influence to the carrying you on in this even and steady course Do not every one of you need some establishment more settledness more fixedness in an heavenly frame do not you feel your selves so up and down so off and on that you can hardly fix Would it not be more comfortable for you if you could get to be more like the unchangeable God that as he is the same God so you might be the same Christians of the same Spirit of the same way so fixed and composed in your Spirits that you might not be moved from the hope nor from the holiness of the Gospel would it not be comfortable to you were it thus with you would it not be much to the honour of the Gospel and to the joy of your own Souls then once again I exhort you by the Lord Jesus get this sight of God in your eye keep this sense of God upon your hearts which will have its fruit unto this settled and even course of holiness the end whereof will be everlasting life This is that which I strive for and am reaching towards in mine own Soul and I must say with the Apostle Phil. 3.12 I press these things upon you not as though I had already obtained but I follow after if I may obtain through Christ Jesus And what I seek and wait and hope for in mine own Soul my hearts desire is that you also may follow after and be partakers of the same Grace that my Soul is in pursuit of that you and I may rejoyce together in the day of the Lord. Thus much for the keeping the heart under Government 2. Keep the Heart under Guard Keep it and all the good that 's in it in safety that it be not lost Christians must keep their Hearts as Worldlings keep their Money and their Jewels and their writings by which they hold their Estates If they have any stronger or safer place than other there they lay them up and whatever else they have to look to their special eye and their strictest Watch is upon their treasure And here I shall shew you 1. Why Christians must especially guard their hearts 2. How Christians must guard their hearts 1. Why Christians must especially guard their hearts They must set a guard upon their tongues they must watch their words and all their carriages but above all keeping they must keep their hearts So the word in the Text is rendred and interpreted by some keep the heart with diligence above all keepings Keep the heart but why so because the heart is 1. The fountain of Life 2. The spring of all vital actions 3. The record of all our sacred Transactions 4. The cabinet of our Jewels 5. Our box of evidences 6. The ark of our strength 7. A sacrifice for God 8. The temple of the Lord. 1. Because the heart is the fountain of Life It is the reason urged in the Text for out of it are the issues of Life The issues that is the streams or rivuâ—ets of life The heart is the fountain from whence all our living streams do flow Christ is our life and the seat or habitation of Christ is in the heart therefore that expression Col. 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory The hope of the Saints is a living and lively hope the life of our hope is from Christ and from Christ within us Eph. 3.17 Christ dwells in the heart by Faith The heart Natural is the fountain of Natural Life it is the primum vivens and the heart Spiritual is the fountain of Spiritual Life we begin to live from within as death begins in the heart so life Death Natural ends in the heart the heart is the last that dieth but death spiritual begins in the heart the heart is the first that dies Sinners dead works do all arise from their dead hearts the root dies first and then the branches and fruit wither and fall off the Devils great design is firstly upon the heart when he hath slain the good that is within he can with ease destroy whatever good is without the fruit will fall off of it self when the root is dead The heart is the first that dies in a spiritual sense and 't is the first that lives It is there the seed of God his immortal Seed is first received and takes its root so that there is the same reason to set a guard upon our hearts as to preserve our life if you would keep your selves alive if you would not fall down among the dead then look well to your hearts which are the fountain of life 2. It is the spring of all our vital actions and operations This is included in the former the heart is the fountain of life and life is the fountain of action A dead man cannot see nor hear nor speak nor move he must live before he can speak or move And what can the spiritually dead do The dead praise
call upon you and encourage you in the Name and the Words of the Lord Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. Let your hearts be thus kept and then come come with your prayers come with your praises and I will hear and accept you 8. It is the Temple of the Lord. 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the temple of the living God 't is the heart especially that is this Temple There are four things in the Temple of God which are so many reasons why our hearts should be carefully kept and guarded 1. The law of God is in his Temple The law was read in the Temple and kept in the Temple and as in that Temple made with hands so in that living Temple made without hands the Law of God is placed and preserved Christians have the Law of God within them their Bibles in their hearts in the heart of a Christian is the Copy of the Bible God hath not only preach'd it to their hearts but they have laid it up in their hearts Psal 119.11 I have hid thy word within mine heart that I might not sin against thee Mary kept the sayings of Christ and laid them up in her heart Luk. 2.51 God promised Jer. 31.33 I will write my Law in their hearts and he hath done what he promised he that once wrote his Law in Tables of Stone hath also written it in fleshly Tables of Hearts Therefore Psal 40.8 Thy Law is within mine heart The Law written in the heart Notes 1. All those holy Notions of God of Christ of Glory Honour Immortality of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God and of the Mistery of Christ which are written in the Scriptures are revealed in the heart 2. All those holy Principles or divine Axioms concerning Truth Righteousness Holiness Mercy Temperance Sobriety c. the nature and necessity of them to true Godliness and Blessedness 3. That Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus the new Law or Covenant of Grace by which we are freed from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 the Tenour and the Terms of the Covenant the Promises and the Conditions of the Covenant the great Charter of the Saints which gives them Title to and will give them an entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom The writing that Law is the writing the new Covenant in the heart 4. That inward living Law the holy bent inclinations dispositions begotten in the heart by the Word and Spirit of the Lord that renewed Conscience inwardly obliging and holding the heart to the Obedience of the Word A Christian hath not only something without him but something within him binding him to obedience whereby it may be said much more of him then of those Gentiles Rom. 2.14 He is a law to himself His own heart holds him in to Christ his own heart holds him on in Obedience to the Gospel If all our Bibles should be lost or burnt if all our Preachers that urge and press our Obedience were laid aside and trodden under foot a Christian hath that within him that would hold him on in his Christianity That knowledge of God and those Principles of Christianity that love of Christ and that renewed Conscience within him will keep him a Christian still Now all this treasure those holy Notions holy Principles this Law of Grace and this living law of the new Covenant being all kept in the heart the heart being the Temple of God wherein all this is preserved had need be carefully kept Would you not have all the Notions of God and the knowledge of Christ dimm'd and darkned and razed out would you not loose all your holy Principles of Righteousness and Honesty of Temperance and Sobriety would you not have the book of the Covenant stolen away on which all your Hopes and Expectations all your title to Everlasting blessedness depends would you not loose that holy bent and those holy inclinations and that renewed Consciences by all which you are disposed and inwardly bound bound in Spirit to the life of Christianity would you not that all these should be lost would you not return to be dim sighted and dark Souls would you not exchange your holy Principles for carnal Principles your renewed purged Consciences for corrupt Consciences would you not that the Temple of the Lord be robb'd would you not that your heart be robb'd of all these Treasures then set a Guard upon your hearts 2. The name of God is in his Temple Jer. 7.10 12. 't is said often he places his name there And of these living Temples the hearts of Saints 't is said Rev. 3.12 I will write the name of my God and the name of the City of my God upon them And Chap. 2.17 in this heart there is a precious stone put and upon this stone a new name written which no man knows but he that hath it A Christian hath not only the names of Christ call'd upon him he is call'd a Christian after the name of his Lord but he hath this name written upon him written upon his heart Sure that Table should be kept clean in which is written such a precious name What shall the name of God be written on a dunghil wilt thou suffer Sin and the Devil to make a very dunghil of thy heart and in that dunghil write the name of thy God If the heart be not well guarded the Devil will be not only carrying out but carrying in all the precious Treasures that are in your hearts let Satan alone a while and hee 'l carry them all away Whatever thou hast now thou shalt have nothing of God left in thee nothing of Christ lest in thee none of all thy Graces none of all thy comforts Hast thou love for Christ hast thou hope in Christ hast thou peace or joy in God hast thou either the image or the comforts of God in thee Satan stands ready if thou look not to him to carry all away thou wilt quickly be left a very miserable Soul poor and blind and naked if thou take not heed And as the Devil will be carrying out so he will be also carrying in to that heart of thine Thy Gold and thy Jewels he will carry away and he will bring in dirt and filth and trash As he unloads thee he will load thee unload thee of the treasures of light and load thee with the treasures of darkness He will fill those hearts with every unclean thing he will make those Temples to be very Stables or Sties he will make that heart a very Dunghil and Christ must either have no name within thee or that precious name written on a dunghil and will you suffer such an affront and abuse to be put upon your Lord If you do not keep your hearts so it will be 3. The Worship of God is in his Temple Mine house shall be called an house of Prayer Mat. 21.13 In this inward Temple the heart is the inward and spiritual Worship of
what returns do you think slight and triflling duties are like to have Look to it God will give you but a slight answer if you be but slight in seeking O be sober be serious and if you would be serious in your most solemn duties get this holy seriousness to be your temper Beware of a vain and frothy habit habituate your selves to Godly seriousness not but that there must be at times some little Relaxation the bow would grow weak if it should stand always bent But then 1. Relaxation or remitting the intention of our Spirits must be but short and no more than necessary 2. Never such as to be an hindrance to seriousness afterward though I must sometimes unbend yet I would never unhinge my Soul or disjoint or discompose it for its return to its work We must not be of those whose lives be in jest and only now and then a fit of seriousness 't is thy life thine ordinary course thine ordinary frame and only some little intervals for Recreation To seecure your selves against the distemper of a slight and vain Spirit get a deep and standing sense upon your hearts of the weight and importance of those great concerns that are dayly upon you look more into Eternity Remember you have an immortal God whose eye is always upon you You have an immortal Soul that must live or die for ever Your business in this World is not to please your humours and gratifie your flesh and your fancies but to serve the living God to secure this God to your selves to be your God to seek your peace and reconciliation with God and to that end to make Christ the reconciler sure to you to serve the Lord Christ and hereby to secure the Salvation of your Soul Remember that you have this great work lying upon you and this is not the work of some short inches of your time of an hour in a day or one day in a week but that this must be your every days work and your all days work Think often what if I should miscarry in this great work if I should loyter out or laugh out or trifle out so much of my time that when I shall come to die and away for the other world I should find that work I liv'd for here were not done or but half done or but slightly done if I should then find that I had been light and vain in my Conversation and but slight and shallow in my Religion and whilst I was allowing my flesh what it would have I cut my Soul short of what it should have had Death will make every one of you serious the Grave when you are stepping into it will make you all in good earnest And how would your living in jest or in pleasant idleness then look upon you remember these things daily let deep thoughts of them come daily upon you and this would put you out of your slight and merry tune the sense of these serious things would hold you in a serious temper 2. Looseness There 's a double looseness 1. Such as is opposite to fixedness that 's the same with lightness and vanity of heart a whiffling in and out unstable Soul a slippery heart that we never know where to have it 2. Such as is opposite to strictness that is the same with licentiousness and that is it which I am now to speak to A Licentious heart is a distempered heart The contrary to this Distemper is the compliance or closing of the heart with the Rule and keeping to it The new heart is made after the pattern of Christ its new Lord there 's the same Spirit in a Christian which was in Christ as he was so are we in this world 1 Joh. 4.17 His very Spirit and Image is formed upon our hearts And it is conformed to the new Law or Rule which Christ hath prescribed to it and it stands determined for strictness or exactness of walking according to this rule whereof the Apostle speaketh Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule peace be unto them That is a strict heart which is determined and disposed to live by Rule Licentiousness of heart is the hearts allowing and indulging its Liberty and Latitude in its Course Christianity in general is that which it takes up but it will not be held within the limits of it The strait Gate and the narrow way is too strait and too narrow for it That way it pretends to have chosen but it will be breaking over the hedge as the Inclinations and Interest of the Flesh lead it In some things a Christian in other things a Libertine O how much of this Licentiousness of heart is to be found amonst Christians amonst all the Christians amongst us how few exact and strict Christians are there whose hearts determine for exactness and strictness of life who impose and charge upon themselves the whole Rule and the diligent observing of every point and tittle of it such exactness in point of Practise we cannot in this imperfect state reach unto in many things we offend all Jam. 3.2 Our feet slip and our steps are turning aside every day but it is the indulging our selves a liberty for this turning aside or the hearts not charging strictness upon it that is this Licentiousness of heart There is a gradual Licentiousness of heart and there is a total Licentiousness A total Licentiousness is of such who utterly reject the Yoke of Christ and will not come under his Government but will resign up themselves to Lust and carnal Inclinations to command in Chief over them As those Ephes 2.3 Who walked in the lusts of their flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Such Licentious ones are no Christians if they have the name yet the heart of a Christian is not found in them Gradual Licentiousness is when the heart though it hath put it self under the Yoke of Christ and resigned up its self to be governed by him in opposition to the lusts of the flesh and the World yet often falls a lusting after that liberty from the exactness and severities of Christianity which in the general it hath professed to consent and yeild its self unto And though the decree of the Soul for following Christ in every thing be not made void and utterly broken yet it is so remiss and weak that it will not hold it closely in but there is a frequent breaking loose from the rule and the heart too often indulgeth its self that liberty How far forth a Christian may break loose from the Rule and how far forth he may indulge and allow himself at times and yet be a Christian still is not easie to determine but this is certain that every degree of this heart loosness is a pernicious distemper that must be watched against especially if it rise so high as that there be a dislike of strictness and such a groaning under the severities of Religion as maketh it seem
expecting and looking for such a gracious work We may say concerning this first coming of Christ into the heart as is said concerning his coming to Judgment Heb. 9.28 To them that look for him shall he appear without sin unto salvation So to those that look for him shall he appear to their sanctification Look to meet with Christ this day in his word look for Christs coming down to meet with you this day desire that he would pray that he would and expect and look for his coming down and appearing to you This is the hope wherein I would exhort you to attend on the means of grace with desires and expectations of the gracious success of them upon you And if you would thus come to hear in hope it would much encourage us to preach in hope to you and to pray in hope for you Well to conclude this let every sinner of you know that whilst the word of reconciliation is continued to be preached to you so long there is hope concerning you that you may be recovered There is hazard great hazard a great doubt whether you may be saved a great fear that many of you may never be converted and saved but though there be hazard yet there is hope 3. The great care that lies upon every sinner in the world should be that he get to be recâ—vered out of his lost state 2 Tim. 2.25.26 Instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will Here observe 1. That lost sinners are in the hands of the Devil taken captive by the Devil held in the snares of the Devil That is a lost souldier that is fallen into the hands of his enemys That is a lost sheep that is fallen into the paw of the Wolf That is a lost soul that is fallen into the snares of the Devil and in those hands are every lost soul How art thou so secure sinner how so merry how so much at ease Dost thou know where thou art Thou art in the hands of the Devil that soul of thine is taken captive by the Devil and lies bound in his snares the Devil hath taken thee and the Devil hath bound thee that thou canst not get loose O it were well if sinners understood their case and in whose hands they lye There is never a one of all the sinners among you but the Devil hath him in custody Whither ever thou goest the Devil goes with thee to watch thee that thou mayst not escape him If thou goest to read the Devil goes with thee to thy Bible to hinder it from working upon thee if thou goest to pray the Devil goes with thee to hinder thy praying and now thou comest hither to hear the Devil comes to Church with thee to harden thine heart against the Word Thou dost not see the Devil here and thou dost not think he is here but thou mayest know by the effect that he hath been here with thee every day and at every Sermon thou mayst know it by this that the Devil hath been here with thee that the Word hath prospered no more with thee to the rescuing thee from his snares and he that hath been here is now come again and he is now watching thee that thou hearken not to the recovering Word 2. That lost sinners oppose themselves against their own recovery Instructing those that oppose themselves that is that resist the word of grace that Deafen their ears and harden their hearts against it Acts 7.51 Ye have always resisted the holy ghost The word of God comes and the spirit of God comes to convert sinners but they resist their own mercy The enmity that is in their hearts opposes it self against the Word and spirit Mat. 23.37 How often would I have gathered you but you would not 3. The end of preaching the gospel to sinners is to recover their lost souls Instructing them c. that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil To open the blind eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God Acts. 26.18 We are sent as Christ was to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening the prison to them that are bound and not only so to preach upon the prison doors but to perswade the prisoners to come out of prison Is 46.9 That thou mayst say to the prisoners come forth God hath sent us with this word to you that are imprisoned under Sathan come forth poor prisoners come forth out of prison Sinners give no better entertainment to us than if our word to them were come into prison come into bondage they take that word come into Christ as if it were the same with come into into prison come into bondage that christianity which we perswade sinners to they look upon it as meer bondage but what ever sinners think our business is to perswade them out of their house of bondage Come shake off your chains knock off your fetters break that yoke of the Devil which is upon your necks get you loose from those sins and those lusts wherewith the Devil hath held you and come unto Christ it is no bondage to be a Christian Christs servants are all free-men you are all bond-men already in the bond of Iniquity Acts. 8.23 But who among you would be set at liberty What do you mean sinners will ye die Bondmen We may say concerning you as Christ concerning the woman Luk. 31.16 Whom Sathan hath bound these 18 years You are the men whom Sathan hath bound not only these 18 years but some of you these 38 years nay some it may be those 60 years or more Have you been bound so long bound by the Devil and are you not willing to be loosed will you go prisoners to the Grave From this upper prison shall the Devil carry you down into the eternal prison O sinners that is our business from God to you to perswade you to make an escape and to be recovered out of the snares of the Devil 4. Sinners recovery begins in their repentance If God give them repentance that they may recover They are only the penitent that are recovered souls As long as thou art an impenitent sinner thou art a lost soul Acts. 28.27 Lest they should be converted and be healed a converted sinner is an healed a recovered sinner 5. It is God that recovers lost souls If peradventure God may give them repentance that they may be recovered It is the Devil that takes sinners captives but it is God that rescues the prey from his teeth It is the Devil that leads men to sin and holds them under sin but it is God that gives them repentance Is thine heart hardned in thy sin Is thy heart hardned against repentance Canst thou not turn Canst thou not repent Go to God poor sinner it is he that must give thee
censure those that fear God as fools and to charge Religion with folly Proud Fool get thee a little more understanding and then thou wilt see what an ignorant poor mistaken soul thou art The convert looks upon the Gospel and the goodness of God and the grace of Christ and the holiness of the Spirit as marvellous things excellent things he sees an excellency in Religion a beauty and desirableness in all the ways of God he sees the folly of Sin and the wisdom of Religion the baseness and unworthiness and the filthiness of Sin and the worth and the purity of Religion he sees himself to have been a very beast and a fool whilst he continued and went on in his sins and can never have a good thought of himself but as far forth as he is changed from his sins he looks upon that little change that is begun as a blessed change and a comfortable change Now I have something of the understanding of a man returned into me Now I thank God I begin to live and stand up from among the dead O I thank God for this little wisdom that is begotten in me I was a very fool till now I have been told I was a fool I have been told I was a beast many a time but I could never see it till now until the Lord hath thus opened mine eyes this is some degree of the sinners recovery such an opening of his eies though it is possible he may be very much recovered in this respect and yet be a sinner still 2. The man whose heart is opened Thus Lydia's conversion is expressed Acts. 16.14 Whose heart the Lord opened There is a double opening of the heart 1. An opening of the heart to the Lord so as to receive and embrace him when offered The hearts of natural men are shut against the Lord they are not only void of grace and without Christ but bolted and bar'd up against Christ and his grace they are unwilling of conversion unwilling of sanctification Jer. 13.27 O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean No they will not O sinner wilt thou not have the Lord to be thy God wilt thou not have Jesus to be thy Lord Wilt thou not that he should come into that soul of thine and wash thee with his bloud and govern thee by his spirit make thee a new soul and of another spirit than thou hast been No thou wilt not thine heart is shut against Christ To the Devil thou wilt open to the world and its lusts and its pleasures thou wilt open thine heart nay it stands open night and day to these but it is shut against Christ and his grace thou art not willing that Christ should come in Sinners if your hearts would but open Christ would come in this very hour and bring in his salvation to thee There is not one man amongst you all that shall go home this day without Christ without the sanctifying grace of Christ that is but unfeignedly willing to give entertainment to him Art thou willing of Christ willing to have grace Wilt thou so receive Christ as to resign up thy self to his guidance and government art thou really willing this is the very opening of thine heart to the Lord wherein thy conversion stands Thou art the man whose heart the Lord hath opened 2. An opening the heart to godliness or christianity The former opening notes a readiness of the heart to receive Christ in and his Grace in This opening of the heart notes the souls letting it self out after Christ and his holy ways a letting its self out in holy desires in love and holy affections in resolutions and holy purposes to serve and cleave to the Lord. When the heart is open to Christ it is open to Christianity When it hath received Christ Jesus the Lord it will be for walking in him The heart of the Hypocrite though it professeth to be open to Christ yet it is shut against Christianity Hypocrites are willing of a part in Christ in the priviledges and hopes and comforts of the Gospel and so will trust in Christ and boast of Christ and glory and rejoice in Christ Jesus but as to the exercise of Christianity especially in those harder and severer parts of it the mortifying the flesh the denying themselves the being crucified to the World the close and downright and industrious following the Lord in holiness of this they are not willing their hearts are shut against it That heart that is sincerely opened to the Lord and hath indeed taken Christ in doth freely open it self to all the ways of the Lord and hath a propension and disposiâ—ion and resolution for powerful and practical Christianity He is a resolved Disciple of Christ a resolved follower of Christ Now this is the recovered soul the man whose eyes are opened who hath the knowledge of God of the beauty and excellency and goodness of all the ways of God and the man whose heart is opened who hath both received Christ Jesus the Lord and who is resolved to walk in him this is the soul that was dead and is alive Vse Are sinners lost souls then let us take up a lamentation over them What a lamentation did the Prophet take up over the sinful Jews Jer. 9.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of my people O what a slaughter hath sin made amongst us our Houses our Streets our Congregations how full are they of the dead dead souls whom sin hath slain Behold the dead that are in every place so many sinners so many dead and lost souls Here be the dead but where are the mourners Verse 17. Consider ye and call for the mourning women that they may come and send for cunning women skilful at mourning and let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may run down with tears and our eye-lids gush out with water Women are more pityful than men and more apt to mourn Call says he for the pityful among women let them take up a wailing for us and let them set us a mourning let the women set the men a mourning that our eyes may run down with tears and v. 20. let the Mothers teach the daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation Why what is the matter v. 21. O Death is come up into our windows and is entered into our palaces our houses are houses of the dead It is not onely with us as with Egypt when their first-born were slain when there was not an house in the Land wherein was not one dead there are but few houses in our Land where there is one alive they are almost all dead dead Fathers dead Children dead Husbands dead Wives dead in trespasses and sins Death hath not onely entered in at our windows and slain here and there one but the doors have been set open to it whole
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
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
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
therefore mine Heart is glad and my Glory rejoiceth Thou wilt shew me the path of Life in thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy Right hand there are Pleasures for evermore And as it is with Divine Joy the Object whereof is God so is it in a poor and pittiful manner with Earthly Joy the Object whereof is the good things below This Joy is raised from our Contemplating of Worldly things and those Carnal Delights they will yield and thereby sucking out such Juice as they have for our Carnal hearts to feed upon by expectation and hope that these things that we may get get Money get us Estates and the comforts of them and also by our Fruition of them when we get them our loving and taking the delight and contentment of them and according to what we have of these things and the Degree of our Love to them such is the joy that ariseth to us from them 2. I shall give you some Directions for the right raising and due limiting of your Joy 1. Rejoice in the Lord and let your joy in the Lord 1. Bear some Proportion as much as those narrow Hearts can reach to to that fulness and those Everlasting Treasures of infinite Love and Goodness which are in God for you I could tell you something of that satisfaction and rest which your Souls shall one day enjoy in God from the Word of God and the Experiences of some of his Saints will tell you much more but when your Eyes shall come to see God then you will say That one half was not told me If some drops of this Joy let fall upon the Saints here on Earth have sweetned all the Waters of Marah turned their Prisons into Pallaces yea their very Stakes and Gibbets into Triumphal Chariots if a few drops of that Joy have been so sweet and so powerful what will the Rivers of his Pleasures be As the Apostle 1 Joh. 1.4 These things I write so these things I speak that your Joy may be full Rejoice in the Lord and let the Joy of the Lord be your Strength let this Joy be the Strength of your Hearts and the Strength or Top of all your Joyes 2. Let your Joy in God be raised 1. From the Evidence of your Interest in God at present from your sincerity in the grace of God and your Union with Christ You must be in Christ ' ere ever you can rejoyce in Christ Jesus what will it be to Joy in God if God be none of yours Satisfie not your selves with mistaken Joyes There is the Joy of the Hypocrite some there are who upon some light touches of the Word of God upon them and some little change it makes are all on a sudden wrapt up into Extasies of Joy though still they remain short of the grace of God yet they seem to be transported with the Joy of God such Joy often proves to be but as a Flash of Lightning which comes in on a sudden and then vanisheth into greater Darkness Job 20.5 The Joy of the Hypocrite is but for a Moment it comes on a sudden and in a great Flash and on a sudden it is gone again The Joy of the Saints is not so sudden but it is lasting it is not such a glorious Flash but is solid and substantial like a deep River that makes no great Noise when the shallow Brooks make a greater Bubling See that the Foundation of your Joy be laid in Peace and the Foundation of your Peace be laid in Grace Get an Interest in Christ soundness of Heart towards God and sincerity of Love to Christ see to it that you be his own that you be not Hypocrites and Hangby's upon Christ but his real Members and Hearty Disciples Thou rejoicest in God thou rejoicest in Christ Jesus but art thou of the Circumcision Of a Circumcised and Sanctified Heart Dost thou worship God in the Spirit as the Apostles expressions are Phil. 3.3 Is thine Heart with the Lord Dost thou love him with thine Heart and cleave to him with thine Heart and serve him in thy Spirit in thine Inwards and all the Powers of thy Soul If thou art of the Circumcision and thus worshippest God in the Spirit which are the Properties of sincere Disciples then thou mayest rejoice Beware of trusting to the most Elevated Joyes that you seem any of you to have felt in Religion and the Exercises thereof you may seem to have much of the Joy of God who have nothing of the Grace of God Thou mayest carry such Joyes with thee to the Grave and they may drop down with thee into Hell and be swallow'd up of everlasting Sorrow judge not of your Religion by your Joyes but judge of your Joyes by your soundness in Religion See then that thou art gotten beyond an Hypocrite before thou meddle with the Joy of the Saints 2. From your Hope of the Glory of God Rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 Thou that art a real Christian it may be thou hast little sense of the sweetness of Religion thou goest heavily under thy Burthens the Burthen of thy Corruption and Infirmities thou livest much in the Dark the Light of the Lord is within the vail and thou canst perceive but very small glimmerings of it thou goest heavily on thy way hungring and thirsting and fearing and fainting and mourning over thine uncomfortable condition yet lift up the Hands that hang down yea lift up your Heads you disconsolate ones though the Light and the Love and the Comforts and the Kindnesses of God be vailed from thine Eye yet let thine Hope enter into that within the vail Psal 42.11 Why art thou cast down O my Soul Why art thou disquieted within me Why how can it be otherwise wherewithal may I be cheared and comforted Why Hope in God Hope in God for I shall yet praise him who is the Light Let these two Directions go both together 1. Let the Foundation of Joy be laid in sincerity of Grace I can never bid thee rejoice till thou be perswaded to be an Hearty Christian 2. Let your supply of the want of Joy in Sense be made up from the Joy of Hope If thou art a Stranger to all present Joy yet if thou art not a Stranger from Love thou hast this Hope to chear thee that thou shalt verily see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living 3. From your Increases in the Grace of God They are ordinarily the Stronger and more grown Christians who can sincerely rejoice in God Younger Christians are often Mourners and do but go on lamenting after God It 's true there are some Young Converts or that seem to be such whose Joyes meet them at the very entry of Christianity who at the very first being wrought upon seem to be all in a Flame of Love and Joy Jer. 2.2 I remember the kindness of thy Youth and the Love of thine Epousals who have a bright Morning of
and the Torments of them shall make you know what now you will not understand 'T is a foreknowledge by observing and pondering what is written and preach'd of these great things that is necessary to your present Government 3. A feeling of these things I mean now a feeling beforehand a feeling that 's gotten by your fore-knowledge What we believe and understand if they be great things will make impressions upon our senses By the knowledge of God and of the blessedness of Heaven the Saints get some â—orâ—â—â—â—es of that Glory and Blessedness 1 Pet. 2.2 If we have taâ—â—d that the Lord is gracious And by the knowledge of the Wrath and Judgments of God some sinners get a taste of that wrath it makes their hearts to begin to burn above ground There 's an heaven begun in the hearts of Saints and an hell begun in the hearts of some Sinners And this now is that which I mean by a sense of the things to come the getting such a belief of the certainty of these things such an understanding of the greatness of these things that may deeply affect the Heart that may leave powerful impressions on the Senses that the heart may be powerfully moved and deeply affected with them Sinners hearts are as stones and senseless stocks when we have spoken to them of the deep things of God we may say of these eternal things as the Apostle of his temporal Sufferings Acts 20.24 None of these things move them or will in the least work upon them but if we could let in a little more light into their Minds if we could shew them some glimpses of the Glory to some some flashes of the Eternal fire this would make those stocks to feel 2. This sense of the eternal things is the sinews of Government There can be no Government without Rewards and Punishments and if these Rewards and Punishments be not believed known and perceived it s all one as to Government as if there were none at all 'T is the understanding and sense of these Rewards that is the strength of Government Now there is according to the two different Rewards a different sense of them 1. an alluring encouraging and obliging sense A sense of the Magnificence of the Kindness and Mercies of the Lord will encourage to Subjection and obedience to him It will draw forth our love and stir up all our Powers to active Obedience O how would the lively sense of God and the blessedness of Heaven kindle Affection enlarge our desires raise our hopes and fill us with joy What would be loved as God is loved what would be desired as God is desired what would be hoped for as heaven is hoped for what would our love or desires or hopes find too much to be done or suffered where there is a deep sense of these great things that shall be the reward of all And how would such a lively sense of God and of heaven abate our love and cool our desires after earth and the things thereof Who would regard dust and stones and trash that had Gold and Pearles before him what would this money be these Sheep and Oxen be these carnal pleasures and sports be how easily could they be wanted how little would they be loved or desired were that Glory Honour Immortality that is above more before our Eye and upon our Hearts you complain you can't get your hearts loosned and disintangled from these earthly things O 't is because heaven is so much out of sight you have so little sense of the good things to come that hence it is you fall a lusting so after the good things present Get more sense of God into your hearts and you will feel your Affections to fall and abate towards these earthly things Look on the things not seen as the Apostle did 2 Cor. 4.18 Upon the things that are eternal and you will disdain and contemn the things that are seen which are but Temporal 2. The sense of the punishments to come will be an awing sense The severities of the Lord and his dreadful wrath and vengeance would awe the heart into subjection to him O what an influence would this have upon the Governing our fears and our griefs and our anger whom should we then fear but God what would the wrath of man be what would temporal sufferings be how little would they be feared were there a due awe of God upon our hearts your awe of God would say the same to you as the Prophet Isa 2.22 Cease ye from man trust not in him and fear him not and as Christ said Rev. 2.10 Fear none of those things you shall suffer And Luk. 12.5 Fear not them that kill the body fear God who is able to cast into Hell Whom should we then fear but God and what should we then fear but sin against God which maketh so obnoxious to his wrath you that now make light of Sin can lye and defraud and be covetous and do any thing else your hearts lead you to and make nothing of it or but a small matter Get an awe of God on your hearts and your sins would make you tremble and what an influence would it have upon the suppressing your sinful Anger it would take up all our quarrels a sense of Heaven and Hell would make us all friends those great things would swallow up the lesser What do I stand vexing and fretting mv self at every one that crosseth me how stands it with my Soul to God ward how may I escape the wrath to come Is it peace betwixt the Almighty and my Soul Friends 't is a sign that you have little sense of your eternal conceraments where every little thing so excessively moves and disturbs your Spirits 3. How to get and maintain upon our hearts this sense of the eternal things There are two things I have told you are supposed to this sense a believing and an understanding these great things and to the improving of what we believe and understand of them there 's a third thing necessary Meditation and frequent thinking upon them Exercise your thoughts more upon the Eternal World spend more thoughts think oftner upon it and spend more deep thoughts of heart upon them Our thinking and meditating is the same with that looking on the things not seen mentioned before 2 Cor. 4. Look more Heavenward and look more towards hell and this will affect your hearts particularly think these three thoughts 1. Think this thought In this eternal world I must shortly be one of these two Rewards must be my Reward one of these two States Eternal Blessedness or Eternal Misery must be my State That Heaven which I now hear Preach'd of that Hell which I now am warned of I shall be in one of them in a little while As sure as I am alive and here this day so sure shall I be in Heaven or Hell a few days hence What 's become of those many that were alive a few years
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
a bondage to it to be tied up so short The more of this the higher the Disease is and the more to be doubted whether such mens Christianity be sound The strictest Christian is the most healthful and the most evidently a Christian indeed and the greater latitude the heart indulges its self to the more sickly the Soul is if it be not quite dead and no Christian at all Friends You that are Christians indeed if you know what you have done you have vowed the greatness strictness possible That is to press on towards it and to reach out after it You did not Covenant to follow Christ to such a degree and no higher to advance in Religion to such a pitch and no more you did not Covenant for thus much Obedience thus much duty thus much diligence thus much Zeal and no more if ye be Christians indeed you have covenanted to follow the Lord fully to watch to every Duty to watch against every sin to press on to the highest pitch of holiness to do to the utmost to please the Lord. If there were any reserve in your vow to Christ of any little liberty to the Flesh of any limit of your zeal and care if there were any such reserve you are false in your Covenant and but false Christians O friends have you vowed the greatest strictness then watch against the least degrees of looseness Get a settled Judgment of the excellency and necessity of strictness get an hearty love and good liking of it let your Souls be bent upon it let it be your desire and your aim and your hope and your labour to hold you close by Christ and if you would not have licentious practises abound in your life let no licentious Principles no licentious affections nest themselves in your hearts see that there be no lust after any other liberty then Christ hath allowed you Get to be heartily well pleased with all the Laws of Christ with his narrowest ways let that latitude of Religion which is the measure of carnal disciples be your fear and not your desire And if you feel any itch after it look upon it as a disease and distemper of your heart Count thy self but a weakly and sickly Christian whilst is is thus with thee Know that it is your greatest Excellency if Holiness be an Excellency then the more strictly holy the more Excellent Yea and you will find it your greatest Liberty the more holiness the more enlargement of your hearts to all the holy ways of God Psal 119.44 45. I will keep thy law continually c. And I will walk at liberty his meaning was not I will walk licentiously at liberty from thy Laws at liberty from Rule but I will walk freely in thy ways when thou shalt knock off my fetters that hinder me The more we can hold in and inure our selves to be punctual in our Religion the more freedom shall we find and with the more ease and delight shall we run the way of Gods Commands And know this that by how much the more loose you are from the ways of God by so much the more loose from God and what will you have to comfort you what will you have to sweeten Religion to you whilst God is at a distance from you Keep you fast to him and you shall live the more under his reviving and refreshing influences Religion hath its troubles and its harshness and you will have little else then the harshness of it longer then you keep you close to the Lord. The Waters of the Sanctuary will tast but brackish to you longer then the Sun shines upon them a little Sun-shine from above a smile from the Face of God this is the sweetness this is the Blessedness Keep close to God and you shall keep the passage clear between Heaven and your Hearts Religion will be like Ephraims Idolatry Hos 8.7 It will be but a dry stalk the Bud will yield no Meat There will be the Labours of it and the Troubles of it but no Meat for your Souls to feed upon longer then you meet with God in your Duties Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Jam. 4.8 Keep close by God and he will keep close to you May be some of you have never yet tasted how Gracious the Lord is nor will you ever be like to do if you set not in closer in his ways Loose Religion will keep you still in the dark and in a weary and uncomfortable State There 's no such way to make Christ's ways pleasant as by keeping constantly in them no such way to make Christs Yoke easie as by holding it close to your Necks it never so galls and wrings as when it hangs loosely on resolve upon strictness and you shall taste the sweetness Hold you in from running out after the Pleasures of the Flesh and the Face of God will be a pleasure to you which the Distemper of a loose and carnal Heart will certainly deprive you of and hinder you from the relish or finding delight therein 3. Listlesness A dull untoward sluggish unactive lifeless temper where the Edge of our Spirits is blunted insomuch that whatever opportunities we have or whatever calls we have to be doing for God or our Souls we have no list to them but through the way-wardness and and untowardness of our hearts we let them slip and either do nothing or nothing to purpose Opportunities are a price put into our hands but by reason of this sluggish listless untoward temper we have no heart to them but became like the Fool Prov. 17.16 In vain is there a price put into the hands of a Fool which hath no heart to it This is a wretched and pernicious Distemper 2. It proceeds from an evil cause From the carnality of our hearts and our unsuitableness to the work of God It is ungrateful and unpleasing work to us our hearts are so contrary to it we had rather be any where then with God we had rather be about any work then the work of our Souls We can be brisk and sprightful about our carnal and earthly employments but for any thing of Religion there we dragg and go heavily on we are all Soul and Life in what we have to do for our Flesh but our hearts hang backward and come but heavily and untowardly on to do any thing for God This is from the little interest that God hath in our Souls and the little affection we bear to him We are yet carnal and that 's the reason we have so little Edge or so little list to spiritual things 2. It is an ill sign What ill sign is it 'T is a sign of want of Grace either that we have no Grace at all or at least are but very low in the Grace of God that our day is yet but a day of small things Where is our Faith in Christ when we are so backward in the work of Faith As Christ sayd Mat. 14.31
Wherefore dost thou doubt so wherefore dost thou drag so O thou of little Faith Where 's our Love to Christ when our work for Christ goes so slowly on 2 Cor. 5.14 The Love of Christ constrains us The Love of Christ will quicken us the Love of Christ will put Life into us we should find our Tongues and find our Hands and find time to be more abundant in service could we feel more of the Love of Christ in us Thou makest nothing of it that thou art such a dull untoward unactive Souls but is it nothing to want Faith Is it nothing to want love to Christ Is it nothing to be without Grace in thy heart Or if thou hast any to have so very little as thou canst not tell whither 't is any or no It is an ill sign that thy Soul is in a very doubtful case at least 't is to be doubted Whether thou hast any Grace in thee Where in ordinary thou art so untoward and listless to the matters of God and the businesses of Religion 3. 'T is of ill consequence 'T is a sign our case is bad and it is an hindrance from our growing better It is the vivacious active stirring soul that 's like to be the thriving Soul Sluggards and Sleepers are never like to come to any thing We may preach to you while our hearts ake we may instruct you and tell you what is your duty while we will and you may hear us while you will but in vain shall we preach and in vain will you hear till we can fire you out of this deadness and whet and set an edge upon those blunted Souls what will it be to be told of your Duty whilst you remain to have so little heart to it what becomes of all the Sermons you hear of all the teaching you what you should do and how you should live what becomes of all the convincing awakening quickning words that are in your ears from day to day what doth all our Preaching and all your hearing bring forth upon you truly friends the little success that is to be perceived of our Preaching among you either to the converting of sinners or improving of professors the small success that does appear what there is within God knows does even make us out of heart But as little success as we have we are never like to have it much better unless we may stir your hearts and awaken you to more diligence and activity When we have done all we can we are I doubt like at last to leave the most of you either quite dead in sin or but very Dwarfes in Religion Sinners is it nothing to you that the enlivening word should leave you still among the dead Christians is it nothing to you that the nourishing and quickning Word should leave you but babes and infants Is it not a trouble to you and a discomfort to you that you get no more that you grow no faster much more that any of you should consume and languish under the hands of your Physicians I must tell you it is a discomfort to us but is it not more a discomfort to you can you continue at this pass and not be troubled at it O what a comfort is it to be a thriving lively Christian Methinks when you see any such before your eyes you should at least sigh out such a wish O that it were so with me and breath out such a groan wo is me that 't is not so methinks it should be an heaviness of heart to you to feel your own soul in Cloggs when you see others upon the wing O that I could make you sensible of your diseases that I could preach you heart sick that I could but make your hearts ake under your distempers that you might no longer be able to go up and down without trouble in this unthriving case Sure friends you whose case this is had need to be troubled and 't would be well for you if your Souls were in pain and refused to be comforted till you be cured To make you yet more sensible of the perniciousness of this untoward dull and listless temper look a little more upon the excellency of the contrary a chearful lively temper 'T is call'd 2 Cor. 8.17 A forward mind 1 Pet. 5.2 A ready mind that need not be spurred and whip'd but goes chearfully and freely on its way What is a sprightful horse to a dull and heavy jade what is a blunted rusty knife to that which is bright and keen what is a consumptive languishing body to one that 's lively and healthful what is a dark and lowring to a Sunshine day what is Winter to Summer yea what are the living to the dead what a pitiful thing is that dead and spiritless heart of thine when thou lookest on them in whom is the life of God Hear O ye sleepy and listless Souls awaken stir up your selves shake off this sloth and sleep work out this untoward spirit What do you mean to hang thus betwixt alive and dead will you hold you at this pass till you come to your Graves Is this all the care and the pains you ever mean to bestow on God and your Souls must the Lord ever find you so unready and untoward to what he calls you to shall the world find a forward mind in you shall your flesh find such a ready mind to whatever it hath for you to do and will you only be unready and unactive for God Wherefore have you Reason and Understandings wherefore have you the Scriptures before you what are Sabbaths and Ordinances and Ministers for must we come hither only to sing you asleep or to rock von in your Cradles Where is that Grace that is in you where is your Faith where is your love to Christ where is your hope if you have any Grace where is it what must all these precious talents be eaten up with rust or laid up in a napkin Remember the slothful Servants doom Mat. 25.30 What are your immortal Souls what is the holy God what is Jesus Christ what are the glorious treasures of Eternity are all these worth no more of your care and industry will none of these things move you will not these great things quicken you Hear them all calling upon you God calls upon you oh my children if you have any respect for me come along come faster after me Christ calls oh my Disciples if you have any love to me if all that I have done for you if all that I will do for you will move you arise and mend your pace Heaven calls upon you if ever you mean to come here gird up your loyns and come on Yea Hell calls look ye down hither what a place is here prepared for Sleepers and Loyterers Your poor Souls call have ye any pity for me must I perish and die for the pleasing this lazy flesh Your poor Families call your poor Children call your poor Neighbours call
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
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
and watch 3. Keep close by your Captain and Physician 1. Keep by the side of Christ You know what a stream there once ran down from that precious side a stream of Blood and Water this stream as to the vertue and influence of it is running down daily and it is for the healing of diseased and for the washing of spotted Souls There 's no balm will heal our diseases this Bloud is it Christ must do it There 's no Sope will scowre off our spots this water must cleanse us this Physick will heal every disease this water will cleanse us from every spot and will present us at last without spot or wrinkle Eph. 5.27 but what will diseased polluted Souls do when their Physician is out of the way Many sick persons die of those diseases which had they been near the Physician might have been cured Keep you ever near to Christ his Presence will be either preventing Physick and keep off your Soul Diseases that they sieze not upon you or else 't will be curing Physick that no disease shall be mortal to you We never wander from Christ but we catch that which we cannot easily claw off if the Devil can but catch a Christian wandring what sad work doth he make with him we may all say of our wandrings from Christ as Naomi Ruth 1.21 I went out full but I return empty I went out whole but I return wounded I went out fat and full but I return lean and naked What a sad plight do we see loose and wandring Souls to be in keep you home When Dinah Jacobs Daughter would be gadding abroad what a blot got she Gen. 34.1 She went out a Virgin and came home a Whore Our very departings from Christ are our playing the Harlots against him our other lovers to whom we turn aside do deflour us What harlots do many of our hearts often become We cannot stay by our Lord out we must be running after other lovers and so we are defiled O prevent your Soul Pollutions by keeping home Art thou gotten near to Christ know when thou art well and keep thee there As Naomi said to Ruth Ruth 2.22 Let not the man find thee in another field Gleaning after other Reapers gadding after other Lovers he will take that unkindly if he do and thou maist smart for it Hath Christ done by thee as Boaz by Ruth spread his Skirt over thee and charged thee keep fast by me and by my Servants dare not to be gadding after others you will smart for it if you do and if ever you return it will be by weeping Cross Whatever wounds you receive you will not say as Zach. 13.6 These are the wounds which I received in the house of my friend but these wounds I have gotten in my absence from my Friend If I had kept me in I had saved all this hurt O prevent your miseries that you sustain by departing from Christ by keeping you by him And if you have been wandring and catch'd any hurt O return to your Physician and when thou art made whole then say to thine heart as Christ to the Man Joh. 5.14 Sin no more wander no more lest a worse thing come unte thee Christians In our first coming to Christ and our union with him our deadly disease is cured we that were dead are made alive we that were sick are made sound But the same Jesus that gave us this Life and Health is he that must maintain our Souls in Life and that life and spiritual health which we received from Christ by our Union must be preserved by our Communion with him See that you be in Union with Christ that you be by Faith joyned to the Lord and then live in constant Communion with him take heed of Ruptures and breaches take heed of distances and estrangements from Christ Have you gotten Christ within you O keep him within you Let your beloved lodge between your breasts and keep his dwelling in your Souls and let there not be in you an heart of unbelief let there not be in you an heart of vanity or iniquity an heart of Pride or Guile a Carnal or Worldly heart to depart from the living God Keep your hearts true to Christ keep your hearts chast keep you pure in his sight In your Union or Espousals to Christ you Covenanted against forsaking him Hos 2.19 I will betroth you unto me for ever So you have said the same to him Lord I betroth thee unto me for ever Betrothing or espousing is both the nearest Union and the firmest Union 1. 'T is the nearest Union Our becoming Christians is our Union of hearts with the Lord. Christ hath therein given you his heart and you have therein given him your hearts and your heart and his become as one heart You that are Christians are near unto Christ as his own Soul 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to Christ is one spirit He loveth you he careth for you he tendereth you as his own Soul 2. It is the firmest union I will betroth thee forever It is written concerning Christ and his Saints as concerning Husband and Wife whom God hath joyned together let no man no nor Devil neither put asunder Now when there is such a nearness of Relation and such a dearness of Affection there must be also Cohabitation You must live together and dwell together with Christ This is not only your duty as Christians but your safety depends upon it He who is your Husband is your refuge where you may dwell safely your only rock in whom you may hide your selves from danger if you forsake your Rock take heed you be not forsaken of your Rock Take heed you neither prove runaways from Christ and forsake him utterly no nor slink away and skulk out or turn aside from him Keep constant to Christ and keep close to him Let there be intimacy and dearness maintained betwixt Christ and your Souls keep you in the memory of Christ let your beloved be ever before your eye bâ— looking dayly towards him keep you ever in the 〈◊〉 of Châ—iâ—◠〈◊〉 much in solacing your selves in the Contemplation of his love and keep your hearts in a flame of love to him Be render how you provoke him to jealousie against you Keep you close to Christ by making all your carnal things keep their distance from your hearts Keep you in the diligent exercise of all the acts of Christianity whereby your Communion with Christ is maintained let there be nearness to Christ in point of Conversation walk with Christ yea walk in Christ as the Expression is Col. 2.6 as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him Whilst others walk in the Flesh let Christians walk in the Spirit Walk in Christ both in Union with Christ living in the strength of Christ and in Conformity to Christ in all wel-pleasing before him Let no place be a place for you let no way be a way for you let no
you ascend not by Ordinances if you get not up to have Communion with God in them this flesh and this world will be thrusting in upon you and steal your hearts away Christ hath been riding down to you this day as the chariots and horses of fire once were sent down for Elijah 2 Kin. 2.11 The Chariots came down to fetch up the Prophet in them the Ordinances of God that you have been at this day was the Chariot of God that was sent down on purpose that those hearts of yours might ride up in it into Glory I hope some of your hearts got up into the Chariot and are ascended with your Lord who came down to fetch them up What Christian is thine heart yet below where was it when the Chariot came down what are your Souls yet among the Sheep and the Oxen among the grass of the Field and the dust of the Earth what yet among the wormes what yet creeping upon this Earth and feeding upon Ashes do your Soules still dwell in these Tombs and Sepulchres I hope there may be some among you can say I thank the Lord mine heart is no longer here it is risen it is ascended with my Lord who came down for it and hath carried it up with him But man how is it with thee whose heart is left behind Christ hath been here and those that were wise took the Season and got up with him into the Chariot But is thine heart still upon this Earth and must it away again to its old trading to its old feeding on this dirt and trash hast thou been tasting of that Angels Food that hidden Manna the bread of God that came down from heaven and canst thou now return to thy Quailes or thy Husks sure thou hadst not a taste of that heavenly food if thou dost not yet disgust and disrelish thine old carnal Delights But are your hearts any of you yet left below behold yet a Chariot from God is before you this Ordinance of Preaching behold the same Jesus in this Chariot is come down again for those hearts that are not yet gotten up Thy Lord is loth to leave thee here wilt thou yet ascend with him Why is there not a cry among you Lord help me up into thy Chariot Lord take my Soul up with thee Lord let not me be left behind Let Christ hear that voice from you Lord take me up with thee here this poor wretched heart of mine lies at thy feet I can't lift it up 't is too heavy for me it hath weights but no wings yet it groans after thee it would not that thou shouldst go up without it Lord lift me up Lord carry up this poor and wretched heart from Earth to Heaven What must I yet dwell in Meseâ—◠〈…〉 mine heart amongst the tents of Kedar M◠〈…〉 amongst these Theives and Robbers O where 〈…〉 that hath brought thee down again for me 〈…〉 thou me O Lord and wilt thou yet leave me at 〈◊〉 â—â—stance from thee O take pity O take me up that I may from henceforth be with thee where thou art Christians O that I could set you even every one of you a crying thus after the Lord and a bemoaning these earthly and too carnal hearts that they are not yet ascended Let Christ yet hear that voice and let it come deep even from the bottom of thy Soul Let Christ hear not that mouth crying nor those eyes crying but that Soul crying Lord take me up also with thee and he will take thee up O get you into the Psalmists Posture and Spirit Psal 42.1 Psal 84.2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for thee my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God When Lord O let this be the day take me this very hour and carry me up to the mountains of spices Christians be but unfeignedly willing that Christ should carry away those hearts from this Earth be but in good earnest with him when you say Lord take me up and he will not leave you behind Get these hearts to heaven and keep them there Get you up from Earth to Heaven and come not down again from Heaven to Earth Let that blessedness be antedated which is promised to be after the Resurrection 1 Thes 4.17 Then shall we ever be with the Lord. Say to the Lord even from henceforth as he sayes to his Church Psal 132.14 Thou shalt be my rest here will I dwell for ever Let it not be a Visit to Heaven that will satisfie you but a Conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in heaven Let it not be a few heavenly hours or a short heavenly repast but an heavenly life that you design and follow after When you get you once thus near unto the Lord live as much as possible in the constant viewes of his Glory so continually beholding and feeding upon the foretastes and forethoughts of his Goodness and Grace that you may be changed daily from Glory to Glory into the same image Know friends that if there be any security in the world from the Robbers and the Spoilers from your Lusts and Temptations from suffering such losses again in your peace the only security you have is to keep your hearts still above Hast thou gotten thine heart to heaven keep thee where thou art keep you out of harmes way If the Devil can but catch those hearts again below catch you a roving catch you a wandring after your carnal things if he can but meet you declining from an heavenly to an earthly Conversation from a spiritual to a carnal Conversation O what sad spoiles of whatever good days you have had of whatever delights and satisfactions and joyes and comforts you have had what spoiles will he make of them all Christians when ever you can get or do feel your hearts in a better frame most full of the love and life and joy of the Lord O think what pity 't is what a sad fall it will be to make an exchange of this blessed state for the barren and brackish Pleasures of this world think with your selves shall I forsake the sweetness of the Fig-tree and the fulness of the Olive and go and browze upon brambles The design friends of all this is to perswade and invite you to live in constant Communion with God You have been received and entertained this day into special communion with God and the intent and meaning of this solemne communion is that by the sweetness and refreshing you find in it you may be set into a way of ordinary communion with him That your life may be a life of Communion with God a life of faith a life of love a life of Holiness and Joy that so you might prophesie to your selves with the Psalmist Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy
rejoicing over the recovered souls Our great joy should be every man over the recovery of his own soul With what joy should this word be spoken this my soul was dead and is alive and we should rejoice over any other recovered souls It is matter of rejoicing when we can say this my Child or this my Brother or this my Neighbour was dead and is alive What joy is it to a travailing woman when she is safely delivered of a living child J h. 16.21 A wâ—man when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of thâ— chilâ— she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man child is born into the World Sinners your deliverance may cost you pain and travel but when you are once delivered and recovered you will forget all this pain then you will and then you ought to rejoice What joy is the day of victory to the triumphing Souldier What joy was the year of Jubilee to the indebted or the servants when they were to go out free from there debts and service What joy to the Mariner who hath been tossed with tempests to have gotten safe to shore Hast thou shot the gulf and gotten safe to land Hast thou gotten death and hell under thy feet Is death destroyed and is life and immortality brought to light in thy soul Art thou passed from death to life O what a day of joy what a day of praise should this be to thee Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous and again I say Rejoice Phil 4.4 Stand Christian stand and look back on that death that was lately feeding on thy soul stand and look down into the hole of the pit from whence thou art delivered Remember how it was with thee not long since when thou wert without Christ and without hope and without God in the World when thou wert a slave to every lust in thy heart to every vile companion when thou wert by led by the Destroyer and posting on to destruction When thou Wert without fear and without sense of that danger and misery which was running upon thee like a floud Remember how it was with thee when God first open'd thine eyes and thy fears came upon thee How did thy soul cry out I am lost I am undone when thou sawest what a gulf there was fixed between thy natural estate and the state of grace When thou sawest a necessity of conversion and yet wert astonished at the difficulty of obtaining it When thy proud heart would not stoop thine hard heart would not break nor yield unto the Lord When thou wert afraid that thou shouldst have perished in the birth and never have seen life remember how it hath been with thee and how it is now What hath the Lord delivered thee from thy fears conquered to thee thy difficulties Is thine heart broken and brought about to the Lord Is the day broken and the day star risen in thine heart art thou passed from death to life What s y st thou now Is it not meet thou shouldst rejoice Is not this birth day the day of thy new birth a day of joy and praise Dost thou not bless thy self that it is not with thee as it hath been Does not thine heart shake to think what if I had been let alone let to go on in the way that I was going I went with the Drunkards I was among the Lyars and Swearers and Covetous and the Scoffers I was one of them As much against a new heart and new life as any of them as true a drudge to my flesh and this world as the worst of them How is it that the Lord God singled my soul out of that wicked crowd and brought me up out of that state of the dead and brought me into the light of life and hath written me amongst the living in Jerusalem Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Magnifie the Lord O my soul and let my spirit rejoice in God my Saviour He that is mighty hath done for me great things and holy is his name 3. Let us again take up a lamentation over the imperfection of our recovery Rejoice in the Lord but rejoice with trembling Psal 2.11 Rejoice that the work is begun that thou art come to the morning of the day of redemption that the day is dawned that the Sun is risen upon thee yet lament that there are still such clouds yea so much of the darkness of the night remaining upon thee Rejoice that thou art born again but yet lament that thou art but as a new born Infant so imperfectly washed from thy pollution in thy bloud and that so much of the shame of thy nakedness is yet appearing that though thou art made a child of light yet there is so much of thine old darkness of thine old ignorance and unbelief abiding upon thee that though thou art born from above yet thine heart should be so much below that though thou art risen with Christ thy affections should be so little set on things above that though thou art born of the Spirit the Flesh should still have such power in thee Lament and bewail it that thou art no more perfectly recovered that it can yet hardly be discerned whether thou be alive or dead or if it appear thou art alive lament that thou art such a a dwarf still or such a sickly and unthriving child that thou art such a froward and unruly child Lament that thy recovery is so imperfect and be growing up towards perfection be working out those remains of thine old corrupt state be working out this carnality and this earthliness and working up thine heart to more spirituality and heavenliness and let both thine heart and thy life be as the path of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 Christians whilst I have hope of many of you that you are passed from death to life and in this hope do rejoice over you yet I have sorrow in mine heart for you that you that have life have it no more abundantly that you are yet so imperfectly recovered from among the dead and that you are not which I doubt is the case of too many among you contending and reaching forwards towards perfection How many living Christians soever there be of you yet I can see but few growing Christians among you Pray Friends look inwards what sensible improvement have any of you made of late years Yea how many of us are there that do not lay it to heart that do not lament it that they are improved no more Who of you can say that you are breathing and thirsting after an increase or if you thirst for more grace how very few are reaching forth and labouring and that in so good earnest that they are impatient in their spirits and restless till it may be better with them O what might I do to whet your appetites after
do by David who he feared would be King in his roome He did all he could to rid the Country of him He persecuted him from City to City from hold to hold and raised Forces against him to slay David Look with the same evil Eye at Lust as Saul did on him prosecute it from hold to hold seek the Life of this Flesh which is every day undermining your Souls and taking the Government out of your hands O Friends that you were deeply sensible what a mischievous and mortal Enemy this carnal mind this carnal heart these Fleshly Lusts are to you say of these not only as Rebekah of the Daughters of Heth I am weary of my life but I am in danger of my life because of the Daughters of Heth. O it were a comfort might one hear Christians more heartily groaning under their Tyranny Wo is me because of this proud heart wo is me because of this froward pettish angry impatient Spirit O this envy O this Earthliness O this sluggishness wretched man that I am who shall deliver me It would be comfortable to hear you groaning I do not say complaining complaints often come not deep but sighing and groaning and mourning in secret before him who seeth in secret this hearty mourning and affliction under your Lusts is a degree of striving against them and hearty striving is a degree of victory over them When you are once come heartily to say I can never have ease and I will never have peace with this pride or Covetousness or any of my Lusts and if they abide in me they shall never abide in peace in me if I cannot utterly conquer them through the help of God I will never give over fighting against them if they remain in me I hope they shall never again reign in me I will resist them I will pray against them I will watch against them I hope I shall never again resign up to this Pride or this Covetousness but will withstand them in the Name of the Lord will I withstand them to him I resign up the Government of my Soul in hope that he will make my Foes my Foot-stoole Friends such a resolved and effectual striving against Lust is a fair degree of conquest and when your Enemies are thus put under your Feet you may then with the more ease have the Government of your selves upon your Shoulders But O beware of a Flesh favouring Heart beware of a Lust excusing heart The good party Grace must be excited and upheld Christians must hold an hard hand and a straight hand upon Lust upon every Lust there 's no good to be done whilst these are suffered and they must quicken and cherish and encourage every little spark of the Grace of God These are the good Subjects in the Kingdom which must be countenanced and upheld 2 Tim. 1.14 That good thing which is committed to thee keep by the Holy Ghost Whatever that good thing was that's there meant it is certain that the Grace of God is the great good thing that must be kept keep it safe that it be not lost keep it alive that it grow not to decay keep it in good likeing nourish and cherish the Grace of God Kings must be nursing Fathers Queens nursing Mothers to their good Subjects So must Christians be to the good in their hearts keep Grace in good plight and keep it in good order keep it in action Let your Faith be working Faith let your Love and your Holy desires be working Love and working desires There 's no way to keep Grace in Life without you keep it in action Holy action is both the end of keeping Grace in Life and the means to maintain its life O Christians keep your Graces in constant exercise be busily working for God and Glory do not let these precious Talents rust for want of use whilst Grace lies idle or asleep then Lust Lords it in the Soul If you keep it not in constant action to the crucifying of Lust Lust will be busie a crucifying of Grace VVhat Government will there be when Governours side with and take the part of evil ones and curb and discountenance or take part against them that are good If you would govern your hearts aright take part with the Grace that is in you and take up Arms against Lust Thou hast Pride in thy heart thou hast frowardness thou hast Covetousness but wilt thou take part with these VVilt thou be on the side of thy lusts Tread upon them be glad be thankful for every word for every Friend that will speak against the Pride and Covetousness of thy Heart Be not angry when thou art checked or reproved be thankful for any thing that speaks against them But take part with the good that is in you when the Spirit lusteth against the flesh when Grace rises and resists Corruption when the interest of Christ within thee crosseth and contradicteth the interest of the Flesh take part with Christ and his Grace We are too apt to take part with our Flesh when we do not think we do When the Flesh enticeth us to what we would have this liberty or that gain or pleasure we sometimes to do our Flesh a kindness will study arguments to prove it good and right which Flesh would have Though it be naught or pernicious yet because its pleasing to our Flesh we do what we can to prove it lawful and good This is a taking part with the flesh a siding with and strengthning this Rebel On the other side when Grace calls us to Duties that are contrary to the Flesh to hard and self-denying Duties to more strictness to more Severity then our flesh can bear then we often study Objections against it Christ is not so austere but while we thus take part with the flesh the evil that is in us and thereby take part against the good that is in us what Government is there like to be all the while in those hearts where the Rebels are sided with and the good Subjects discountenanced and opposed 5. In strengthning the sinews of Government Rewards and Punishments What are laws what Government can there be if there were no Rewards and Punishments Who would obey if there were no reward to obedience who would fear to rebel if men should suffer nothing for their rebellion Rewards and Punishments are the Sanction and strength of Laws Now for the strengthning of these sinews of Government consider 1. That there is an eternal World After we have made an end in this World there is another where we must have a being Man dyeth not as a beast dyeth as a Dog or a Swine as a Wiseman dieth not as a Fool dieth so neither do Wise men or Fools die as a Beast dieth there is not an end of us when we die as there is of the Beasts that perish we pass away out of this into another World Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth and the spirit to God